Category Archives: Politics

Senior Tories say Boris Johnson’s return as PM would risk party’s death

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Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak hold talks as deadline for nominations approaches on Monday

Senior Tories are engaged in a frantic campaign to stop Boris Johnson staging a dramatic return to Downing Street, with claims he would cause further economic damage and risk “the end of the Conservative party”.

Johnson’s team was claiming on Saturday night that he had privately secured the support of the 100 MPs necessary for entering the race, despite only 55 backing him in public. The assertion was immediately disputed by MPs and rival leadership campaign sources. Johnson released a photo of himself lobbying an MP on the phone, but his allies on Saturday night could not confirm he would officially enter the contest to win back the leadership he was deposed from just months ago.

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Micheál Martin urges DUP to restore powersharing at Stormont

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Ireland’s taoiseach says party should honour mandate of people of Northern Ireland ahead of election deadline

Ireland’s taoiseach has called on the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to “honour” the mandate of the people of Northern Ireland by contributing to the restoration of the Stormont institutions as the election deadline looms.

Micheál Martin said it does not appear that devolved government at Stormont will be restored by Friday’s deadline. He added that it is “not satisfactory” that the powersharing institutions are not functioning.

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Thousands of London protesters call for UK to rejoin EU

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Anti-Brexit rally sees crowds from across UK waving EU flags and blaming Britain’s crises on departure from union

Thousands of protesters have marched through central London calling for the UK to rejoin the EU.

The national rejoin march on Saturday saw large crowds of people walk from Park Lane to Parliament Square. Marchers from across the UK travelled for hours to attend.

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UK headteachers in tears at stark choice: cut staff or feed hungry pupils

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School leaders’ mood turns to despair at funding crisis amid growing poverty

Jonny Uttley, CEO of the Education Alliance academy trust, which runs seven schools in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, was shouting and swearing at the television news on Wednesday evening. The fracking vote in the Commons had descended into noisy chaos, with allegations that Tory backbenchers were being manhandled into voting with Liz Truss’s ailing government.

The contrast between the Westminster circus and what was happening in his primary and secondary schools couldn’t have been starker. Earlier, Uttley had met his headteachers to make an impossible choice: should they cut vital teaching staff or feed hungry children who weren’t entitled to free school meals.

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Exclusive: 90% of UK schools will run out of money next year, heads warn

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Heads say they will be in deficit next academic year, even without cuts Jeremy Hunt is planning

Nine out of 10 schools will have run out of money by the next school year as the enormous burden of increased energy and salary bills takes its toll, the Observer can reveal.

Early data from the National Association of Head Teachers – results of a survey of its members are due later this month – shows that 50% of heads say their school will be in deficit this year, with almost all expecting to be in the red by next September,when their reserve run out. This comes as Jeremy Hunt has made clear that all departments, including education, will be expected to make cuts as part of the government’s debt reduction plan, to be announced on 31 October.

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Tory leadership live: Rishi Sunak passes threshold of 100 supporters as Kemi Badenoch gives her backing – as it happened

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Boris Johnson arrives back in UK from Dominican Republic but Penny Mordaunt so far only confirmed runner to succeed Liz Truss

The Conservative former deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said he was “confident” Rishi Sunak would run and was the “standout candidate” in the field.

He said Sunak had been “consistently right” on the economy in the face of the “fundamental” economic challenges the country faces as well as the “crisis of confidence and trust” in the government. Raab told Sky News:

I think again he is the best-placed candidate to restore that trust, get a government of all the talents across the Conservative party and get the government focused relentlessly on going forward on the priorities of the British people.

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UK economic outlook downgraded to ‘negative’ by rating agency

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Moody’s say downgrade from ‘stable’ was driven by political instability and high inflation

The UK’s economic outlook has been downgraded from “stable” to “negative” by the rating agency Moody’s because of political instability and high inflation.

Moody’s said the change in outlook was driven by “heightened unpredictability in policymaking amid weaker growth prospects and high inflation” and “risks to the UK’s debt affordability from likely higher borrowing and risk of a sustained weakening in policy credibility”.

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‘Surely … not again’: what the papers say about Johnson and the Tory leadership race

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Former PM Johnson and ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak dominate front pages as the contest for the Conservative party’s top job intensifies

The Conservative party leadership race fills newspaper front pages with a focus on the possible return of Boris Johnson to the top job.

Rishi Sunak, whose backers claim he has passed the threshold of 100 MPs needed to get on the ballot paper, also featured prominently as the contest intensified.

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Javid backs Rishi Sunak, Sharma supports Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt is first to declare Tory leadership run – UK politics live

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Former health secretary backs former chancellor for PM; Cop26 president backs ex-PM; leader of the Commons announces candidacy

Meanwhile, two out of five maternity units in England are providing substandard care to mothers and babies, the NHS watchdog has warned.

“The quality of maternity care is not good enough,” the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said in its annual assessment of how health and social care services are performing.

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Johnson, Mordaunt or Sunak: who is backing whom as next Tory leader

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Number of publicly declared MPs is growing as three candidates emerge as favourites in the race

The number of publicly declared MPs who are backing potential candidates for the Conservative leadership is growing, with three key figures emerging: the former chancellor Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister Boris Johnson, and Penny Mordaunt, the current leader of the House of Commons. Each candidate will need at least 100 signatures to make it to the first round of voting on Monday.

As of 2:10pm on Sunday, Sunak was leading the field having received 135 public nominations.

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‘Like being in a cult’: MPs on the seven days that brought down Liz Truss

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The mood among backbench Conservatives after PM’s resignation seems to be overwhelmingly one of relief

There are countless indignities in becoming the briefest-serving UK prime minister of all time, and a new one arrived on Friday morning when a No 10 official was able to confirm that Liz Truss had moved into the Downing Street flat – but not whether she had had enough time to fully unpack.

Truss is spending the weekend at another prime ministerial residence, the country retreat of Chequers, where she will presumably reflect on the month and a half of chaos she visited on herself and the nation, a headily compressed incumbency that ended with Thursday’s 89-second resignation speech.

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UK energy suppliers ask Rees-Mogg to reverse part of bill granting new powers

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Companies including EDF, Centrica and Octopus express ‘alarm’ over bill allowing ministers to overrule Ofgem

The UK’s big energy suppliers have urged the government to reverse part of its energy prices bill, saying it grants “extensive” new powers to ministers and puts billions of pounds worth of investment in jeopardy.

The bill, which is making its way through parliament, was introduced as part of efforts to reduce household costs and address the broader energy crisis.

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Airline hired for UK’s Rwanda deportations pulls out of scheme

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Exclusive: Privilege Style causes problem for Home Office as it bows to pressure from campaigners

A charter airline hired to remove people seeking refuge in the UK to Rwanda has pulled out of the scheme after pressure from campaigners.

A plane operated by Privilege Style first attempted to fly asylum seekers to the east African country in June but was grounded by an 11th hour ruling by the European court of human rights.

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Liz Truss kickstarts leadership race after ending chaotic 45 days as PM

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As Starmer calls for general election, candidates scrabble to win nominations from at least 100 MPs to join race

Liz Truss announced on Thursday she was quitting No 10 after a calamitous 45 days in office, triggering a Tory leadership contest, with Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson battling it out to become Britain’s next prime minister.

At a lectern outside Downing Street during another tumultuous day, Truss admitted that she could not deliver the radical economic mandate on which she was elected by Conservative members.

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All in a day’s debacle: 24 hours that undid Liz Truss

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Despite the departure of her home secretary, the PM could probably have clung on, but then came the extraordinary unforced errors


The final moments of a convoluted and chaotic 24 hours of political drama that culminated in Liz Truss’s downfall began at about 11.40am on Thursday, when Sir Graham Brady slipped into Downing Street via a back entrance.

The official No 10 narrative was that Truss had instigated the meeting with Brady, the shop steward for backbench Conservative MPs. Few believe that, and even if it was the case, the power balance was much like a bankrupt calling in the administrator as the inevitable loomed.

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Italy slams Economist ‘Welcome to Britaly’ cover for rehashing stereotypes

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Weekly newspaper describes Britaly as ‘country of political instability, low growth and subordination to markets’

Italy’s ambassador to the UK has criticised the Economist for rehashing old stereotypes after featuring Liz Truss dressed as a centurion and holding a fork of spaghetti under the headline “Welcome to Britaly” on the cover of its latest edition, which focuses on Britain’s political mayhem.

Truss, who resigned as prime minister on Thursday after just 45 days in office, is also holding a pizza-shaped shield, with a union jack design and one slice eaten.

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Boris Johnson considering running again to be PM, say allies

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Threshold to reach ballot is support of 100 Tory MPs, however, and there are doubts he has sufficient backing

Boris Johnson is considering running again to be UK prime minister after Liz Truss’s dramatic resignation, with rightwing Conservative MPs and party donors already backing his nascent campaign.

The former PM, who quit in disgrace in July following a series of scandals that left his personal integrity in tatters, was expected to fly back from the Caribbean where he has been on holiday with his family.

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Rightwing papers backpedal after helping Liz Truss reach No 10

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Outgoing PM won Tory leadership after weeks of supportive stories in the Daily Mail and other outlets

Liz Truss’s hopes of becoming prime minister looked thin in early July. The then-foreign secretary was running a distant third in the Conservative leadership election, with Rishi Sunak and a surging Penny Mordaunt on track to make the final ballot that would be sent to Tory party members.

Supporters of Boris Johnson were not happy. They believed this outcome would pave the way for the coronation of Sunak, the same man who had dethroned Johnson by resigning as chancellor. Interested parties included Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor who had been promised a peerage by Johnson, which he is still hoping to secure.

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Ministers urged to expel China diplomat over Manchester protest violence

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UK government facing growing criticism for ‘weak’ response to attack on democracy campaigner

British ministers have been urged immediately to expel a senior Chinese diplomat who admitted being involved in violence against protesters in Manchester, as the government faced growing criticism over its “weak and supine” response.

Zheng Xiyuan, the Chinese consul general, said it was his “duty” to grab the hair of a pro-democracy campaigner who was badly injured after being dragged inside the consulate grounds on Sunday.

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Liz Truss quits: candidates to be prime minister must have at least 100 nominations from Tory MPs – live

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Nominations for next Tory leader will close at 2pm on Monday before next prime minister is confirmed on 28 October

• Liz Truss to quit as prime minister – full story

Attempting to steady the ship is Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, who has told PA news agency that the chaos over the fracking vote had been a “storm in a teacup”, and that the appointment of Shapps could strengthen Truss’s position.

“The [Suella] Braverman issue is rather more fundamental, but I think on balance it’s possible the prime minister might come out of it actually stronger rather than weaker,” he is quoted as saying. “We need people in the government who are grown-up and experienced and understand real politics.”

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