Category Archives: Conservatives

Jenrick denies he would drop hard-right policies if he became Tory leader

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Conservative MP says his tack to the right has rattled Nigel Farage and confirms he would like the UK to exit the ECHR

Robert Jenrick has denied that he would drop his hard-right policies and return to the Conservative middle ground if he become leader, arguing that his ideas for the party have left Nigel Farage “rattled”.

Jenrick, who faces Kemi Badenoch in a ballot of Tory members for the post, confirmed that he would expect his shadow frontbench to sign up to the plan of immediately quitting the European convention on human rights (ECHR), a red line for some centrists.

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Councillor who oversaw Grenfell works donated to Badenoch’s Tory leadership bid

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Survivor of blaze which killed 72 ‘disgusted’ Quentin Marshall gave £5,000 to candidate promoting deregulation

One of Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership campaign funders is a councillor who had oversight of Grenfell Tower and dismissed some residents’ complaints about the pre-fire refurbishment as “grossly exaggerated”.

One survivor of the blaze that killed 72 people said he was “disgusted” that Quentin Marshall, a senior politician at the Conservative-controlled Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) which owned the block, has given £5,000 to the current shadow housing secretary to help her become the leader of the opposition.

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One Nation Tory group refuses to back Badenoch or Jenrick in party leadership race – UK politics live

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TRG says both candidates have ‘used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from … the values we cherish and uphold’

Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.

Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:

The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.

Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.

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Cleverly, Badenoch and Jenrick stay in Tory leadership race as Tugendhat knocked out – UK politics live

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Trio face one more round of voting by MPs before party members have their say on final two

The prison system in England and Wales was “teetering on disaster” when Labour came to power, James Timpson, the prisons minister said today.

Speaking at his first Prison Governors’ Association conference in Nottingham since he took on the role, Timpson said:

It has not been easy to rehabilitate offenders in a system teetering on disaster.

We have to take the tough decisions bringing changes to release to ease the pressure on our prisons. It was quite frankly a rescue effort. If we had not acted our justice system would have grinded to a halt – we would have faced a total breakdown of law and order.

Unison said it has given notice to Perth and Kinross Council for strike action by members in schools and early years centres.

The union, which is the largest local government trade union in Scotland, hopes targeting the action in Swinney’s constituency will “bring home to him the importance of finding a fair settlement” to the council pay dispute.

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Trump took ‘British naval secrets’ to Mar-a-Lago, says Christopher Steele

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Former UK spy says in new book Trump ‘apparently unauthorizedly’ took secrets with him

Donald Trump took “British naval secrets” to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, the former UK spy Christopher Steele says in a new book.

“I was reliably informed by impeccable sources that among the classified documents which Trump, apparently unauthorizedly, took with him to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his presidency were British naval secrets, some of the most sensitive ones in our governmental system,” Steele writes.

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Cleverly emerges as Tory leadership frontrunner after third round of voting

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Tom Tugendhat knocked out of contest as Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch remain in running for final MPs’ ballot

James Cleverly has topped the latest MPs’ vote in the Conservative leadership contest, in a surprise set of results that makes him the new favourite to replace Rishi Sunak.

In the third round of voting, Cleverly took 39 of the 120 votes, above Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch. Tom Tugendhat came fourth, becoming the latest candidate to be eliminated.

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Lammy defends Chagos deal, saying it saves important UK-US military base

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Foreign secretary says status quo not sustainable as Tory MPs accuse Labour of giving away key asset

David Lammy has hailed the decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as a deal to save a strategically important UK-US military base, after accusations from opposition MPs that a key asset was being given away.

The government announced last week that it was going to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, but the military base on Diego Garcia will remain under UK control.

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Delaying budget was ‘miscalculation’, Blairites say as Starmer begins reset following Sue Gray’s departure – UK politics live

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Government needs to get better at communicating what it stands for, veterans from New Labour era argue

Sophie Linden, London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, is stepping down after eight years working with Sadiq Khan to take a job as an adviser to Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, Khan has announced. In a statement Linden claimed that policing in the capital was “far more diverse, transparent and accountable” than when she started.

Matt Chorley from Radio 5 Live posted this on social media yesterday to provide some context about the departure of Sue Gray.

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Wealthy, white and rightwing: the Tory members holding the party’s future in their hands

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The electorate for the Conservative leadership contest likes a winner, but lately has had trouble picking one

The Conservative party is more than just 121 MPs. It’s also tens of thousands of ordinary members. The £39 a year they pay to belong might not entitle them to any real say on the party’s policies, but it does give them the right to help select its candidates and, even better, its leader.

Quite how many individual blades make up the Tory grassroots these days, we won’t know until we learn the result of the membership ballot, which starts on 31 October. In 2019, when Johnson was elected leader, it came in at 159,000. And in 2022, when Liz Truss got the nod, it had actually risen to 172,000. But that was considerably down on the 254,000 who got to choose between Davids Cameron and Davis back in 2005 and way off the 2.8 million members that the party claimed to have at its postwar peak in the mid-1950s.

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Starmer defends UK ceding control of Chagos Islands amid Tory criticism

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PM says deal has secured future of US-UK military base as Conservative leadership hopefuls play blame game

Keir Starmer has defended giving up UK control of the Chagos Islands, as the decision has descended into a political blame game among Conservative leadership candidates.

The prime minister said the agreement with Mauritius over the islands would secure the long-term future of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, which he deemed as the “single most important thing”.

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Boris Johnson calls for referendum on leaving ECHR

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Move over European convention on human rights likely to put pressure on Tory leadership candidates to follow suit

Boris Johnson has called for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European convention on human rights, a move likely to increase pressure on those vying for the Conservative leadership to follow suit.

The former prime minister told the Daily Telegraph there was a “strong case” for a vote on the ECHR, which some Tories blame for hampering their efforts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

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Tories challenge other Labour ministers to follow Keir Starmer in paying back donations – UK politics live

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The prime minister said he’d paid back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and his wife’s rented clothing

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, Haroon Siddique reports.

Today’s homelessness figures highlight the need for the government to press on with banning no-fault evicitions, campaigners say.

It’s frankly ridiculous section 21 still exists – we’re approaching 6 years since the previous government first promised to abolish it, while every indicator on the dashboard has been going in the wrong direction. And now we discover homelessness caused by evictions is up almost 5% on the previous year. It’s clear from today’s data that that the renting crisis is driving the homelessness crisis …

Amid this escalating social crisis, the government’s renters’ rights bill is absolutely crucial. This legislation is a significant improvement on the last government’s effort. As drafted it will already make a difference for a lot of people.

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Why official register of MPs’ financial interests is now a must-read

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Revelations about gifts of clothes and tickets to sporting events have put MPs’ declarations in the spotlight

Revelations that Keir Starmer and his team have accepted donations of clothes, accommodation and sports tickets have focused attention on the official register of MPs’ interests, usually published every couple of weeks.

Here are some highlights from the latest version, published on Wednesday.

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Keir Starmer tells Brussels press conference it was ‘right’ for him to repay £6,000 worth of gifts – as it happened

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Announcement that PM is returning gifts comes after news Labour peer Lord Alli is under investigation by Lords commissioner

Richard Fuller, the Tory chair, is on the conference platform now introducing the morning session.

He starts with thanks to various people who have helped with the conference.

After a frenetic Conference for Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick the tiredness will be kicking in, but also for the teams of advisers who want, and maybe need, their principal to take another go at delivering the twenty-minute speech of their career.

It’s a four hoarse race.

The problem for the party, and for me, is that none of this gossipy chatter has taken the conference attendees much further forward – nor has any of the four taken conference by storm.

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Some civil servants so bad they should be in prison, says Kemi Badenoch

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Tory leadership contender claims at party conference that a minority leak official secrets and undermine ministers

Kemi Badenoch has said she believes up to 10% of civil servants are so bad they should be in prison, claiming they leak official secrets and “agitate” against ministers.

At a fringe event at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, the leadership contender said she did not want to criticise all civil servants but said there were a few who were obstructive. “There’s about 5-10% of them who are very, very bad. You know, should-be-in-prison bad,” Badenoch said.

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Michael Ancram, former deputy Tory leader, dies aged 79

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Ancram held role in early 2000s and also served as shadow foreign secretary before entering Lords in 2010

Tributes have been paid to the “stable voice” of the former deputy leader of the Conservative party Michael Ancram, who has died aged 79.

Ancram, known formally as the 13th Marquess of Lothian, held the role under Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard for five years in the early 2000s.

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Ex-defence secretary Grant Shapps says he has seen ‘no evidence’ for Jenrick’s claim about SAS killing terrorists – UK politics live

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Senior Tories condemn leadership hopeful’s claim UK special forces are killing terrorists over fears that European laws would free detained assailants

Popular Conservatism, or PopCon, has released the results of a survey of party members suggesting more than half of them favour a merger with Reform UK. Some 30% of the respondents said they tended to support the idea, and 23% were strongly in favour. The survey covered 470 members.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg, PopCon’s head of communications and a former Brexit party MEP, said:

Every Conservative activist and canvasser knows people who had been Tories, but voted Reform UK in July. It is no surprise our panellists understand that the next leader of the party needs to take action to bring many like-minded voters back to the Tories. Almost three-quarters want a relationship with Reform in order to unite the right.

The answer I was often given by people in government at the time was that lockdowns were very popular.

They were getting 60, 70, 80% popularity ratings in the opinion polls. But you mustn’t believe those opinion polls, they’re basically nonsense.

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Jenrick condemned for claim UK special forces ‘kill rather than capture terrorists’

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Tory leadership candidate made claim in video calling for UK to leave European convention on human rights

Robert Jenrick is facing condemnation for claiming that UK special forces are “killing rather than capturing” terrorists because of fears that European laws would free any detained assailants.

In a campaign video launched on X, the Conservative leadership candidate made the statement while listing reasons for leaving the European convention on human rights.

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Streeting considers reviving dedicated cancer strategy after Tories axed it

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Health secretary is examining case for a comprehensive plan for England to tackle UK’s second-biggest killer

Wes Streeting may revive the use of a dedicated cancer strategy to tackle the UK’s second biggest killer after experts warned the Conservatives’ scrapping of it was “a disaster” for patients.

The health secretary is considering publishing a new comprehensive plan for England, amid record numbers of people being diagnosed with the disease and NHS cancer services struggling to meet demand.

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Reeves’ economy inheritance claim one of Labour’s ‘biggest lies’, Hunt tells Tory conference – UK politics live

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The shadow chancellor said he ‘would have died’ to have had the legacy Rachel Reeves had when he took over

Robert Jenrick has used a campaign rally just outside the Conservative conference to paint the issue of migration in highly stark terms, saying his party will “die” if it does not commit to quitting the European convention on human rights. (See 8.23am.)

Speaking to supporters in a studio theatre at Birmingham Rep, Jenrick repeated his styling of the issue in Brexit terms, saying the choice was between the “leave” of leaving the ECHR or “remain” of staying in it, and that this was a chance to “get migration done”.

This is more than just, ‘leave or amend’ – frankly, our party doesn’t have a future unless we take a stand and fix this problem. It’s leave or die for our party – I’m for leave.

Foreign national offenders in our country,who we have struggled to deport because of our membership of the European Convention on Human Rights – that’s the issue I was raising.

What is the biggest challenge we face as a party?

Our biggest strategic challenge is the fact that the average age above which you are more likely to vote Conservative than Labour is now over 60.

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