Category Archives: Conservatives

Rishi Sunak under fire after week of devastating flooding across England

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PM insists government is responding, as some residents are told to expect five more days of misery and colder weather

Large swathes of England ended the week devastated by flood water as rivers reached record highs, provoking a bitter political row over funding for the country’s most vulnerable areas.

Labour accused Rishi Sunak of being “asleep at the wheel” over flood warnings at the end of a week in which at least 1,000 properties were flooded and some villages were totally cut off, with parts of Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire worst affected.

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Chris Skidmore resigns Conservative whip over Sunak’s oil and gas licence plan

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Former minister also resigns as an MP, which will trigger byelection in his Kingswood constituency

A former Conservative minister has announced he is resigning as an MP in protest at the party’s dash for oil and gas, setting up an awkward vote for the prime minister on the issue on Monday and an even more difficult byelection within weeks.

Chris Skidmore, a leading voice within the Tory party on green issues, said on Friday he would resign from parliament as soon as it returns next week over Rishi Sunak’s bill to allow new oil and gas licences to be issued.

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Rishi Sunak says his ‘working assumption’ is that general election will take place in second half of 2024 – UK politics live

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PM appears to rule out spring election after recent speculation it could be held in May

Starmer says being in opposition is frustrating, and he accuses the Tories of treating it as performance art.

He is now on the passage about his career in public service that was posted earlier. See 9.12am.

If you’ve been breaking your back to keep trading, steering your business through the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the challenge of Brexit and the chaos of Westminster.

If you’ve been serving our country, whether in scrubs or the uniform of your regiment and what you want now is a politics that serves you, then make no mistake - this is your year.

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Rishi Sunak indicates he will not call election until second half of 2024

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PM says it is his ‘working assumption’ vote will be called in latter part of year, puncturing Labour hopes of earlier poll

Rishi Sunak has given his strongest indication yet that he will not call a general election until the second half of 2024, puncturing Labour hopes that it could come as early as the spring.

The prime minister told broadcasters on Thursday it was his “working assumption” the vote would be called in the latter part of the year, giving him more time to try to reverse the Conservatives’ deficit in the polls. The date of the election is solely in his hands after the repeal of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act in 2022.

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No 10 refuses to follow Cleverly in setting end of 2024 as target date for ending all small boat crossings – as it happened

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Downing Street refuses to endorse home secretary as he says his aim is to reduce number of people crossing Channel on small boats to ‘zero’. This live blog is closed

At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson claimed the government had “gone further” than promised in tackling the asylum application backlog. In response to comments from Labour and others saying the legacy backlog has not been fully cleared, the spokesperson said:

We committed to clearing the backlog. That is what the government has done.

We are being very transparent about what that entails.

I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023.

That’s exactly what we’ve done.

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Dominic Cummings ‘held secret election talks with Rishi Sunak’

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Tories express alarm over claim, with some saying it showed prime minister’s lack of judgment

Conservative MPs have expressed anger and alarm at the claim that Rishi Sunak offered Dominic Cummings a secret deal to help him win the election, with one saying Boris Johnson’s former chief aide should have “no place in political life”.

Other Tory MPs have commented in WhatsApp groups to express opposition to the idea, first revealed in the Sunday Times, with some saying it showed a lack of judgment by Sunak.

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Labour pledges to ‘clean up politics’ after outrage over Liz Truss honours list

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Shadow front bencher says Keir Starmer would not have resignation honours after ‘appalling spectacle’ of ex-prime minister ‘rewarding cronies’

Labour last night promised there would be no resignation honour’s list issued by Keir Starmer if he were to become prime minister, as outrage grew over the list of peerages, knighthoods and other rewards showered by Liz Truss on those associated with her disastrous 49 days in office.

Shadow leader of the House, Lucy Powell, told the Observer: “The appalling spectacle of Truss rewarding her cronies for helping her crash the economy and cause mortgage misery for millions demeans politics.

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Tory MP says most struggling children in his area are ‘products of crap parents’

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Bury North MP James Daly makes remark while outlining what New Conservatives group stands for

A Conservative MP has claimed most children who struggle in his constituency are the “products of crap parents”.

James Daly, the MP for Bury North, was outlining what the New Conservatives group of MPs stood for when he presented his perspective on how important a family unit is in giving children “stability”.

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‘I didn’t know who to talk to’: MPs on the hidden toll on their mental health

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While a handful of politicians have openly discussed the stresses of their job, the scale of the problem appears far greater

It was a year after they were made a minister when the MP had the second breakdown of their political career, and realised they simply had no idea what to do next: “I was so terrified. I didn’t know who to talk to. There didn’t seem to be anybody I could trust.

“A family member told me to take time off. But as a minister if you were to say you needed time off sick, the whips would go, ‘Yeah, fine. We’ll get someone else to do your job.’ It’s often easier to keep your head down and pretend.”

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Heavy election defeat could lead to Tory lurch to right, analysis shows

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With another two-point slip from current polling, about 40% of Tory MPs would come from populist right

A catastrophic election defeat could lead to the parliamentary Conservative party tilting towards the populist right, Guardian analysis has indicated.

A projection of the seats the Conservatives would retain if there was a further two percentage point swing to Labour before election day, using data from Electoral Calculus, shows that about 40% of the remaining MPs would come from this wing of the party.

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May election is ‘worst kept secret in Westminster’, says senior Labour MP

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Emily Thornberry says country is desperate, and Labour is ready, for general election

Labour is talking up the prospect of a May 2024 general election, with the shadow cabinet minister Emily Thornberry saying it was “the worst kept secret in Westminster” that a contest would be called then.

Thornberry told Sky News on Thursday that the government’s decision to announce a budget in early March – the earliest date in 13 years apart from during the pandemic – “seems to confirm” that May is the most likely date.

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Jeremy Hunt fuels election speculation as 6 March spring budget announced

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Chancellor has asked the OBR to prepare forecasts for the economy and public finances to be presented to parliament

Jeremy Hunt has announced that a spring budget expected to feature a host of tax cuts will be held on 6 March, fuelling speculation over an early general election.

While government sources insisted nothing should be read into the date, it is the earliest the set-piece fiscal event has been held in 13 years of Conservative government – apart from 2021 when the Treasury was trying to kickstart the economy after Covid.

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How a spring UK budget could fire the starting gun for an early election

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UK economic prospects are bleak but an agenda-setting fiscal event such as sweeping tax cuts in March offers another roll of the dice

To grasp the nettle, or wait in the hope that things somehow miraculously improve. This is the choice Rishi Sunak will be weighing for the next general election, as the Conservatives limp towards the finishing line of another challenging year.

After Jeremy Hunt announced the government would hold an earlier than anticipated budget, with a date set for 6 March, the possibility of a poll in May, in the afterglow of some electioneering tax cuts, is clearly being given considerable thought.

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Tories to promise help for first-time buyers in effort to lure voters, say reports

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Conservatives also reportedly planning to cut inheritance tax in three months’ time, as party struggles badly in polls

The Conservatives could introduce a series of pre-election giveaways with measures to support first-time buyers and scrap inheritance tax, according to reports.

With the Tories struggling badly in the polls and an election almost certain next year, the Times said the government is to promise to cut the upfront cost of a home for first-time buyers.

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Rwanda bill will ‘get the job done’ and stop small boat crossings, says David Cameron

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Foreign secretary also said Iran was a ‘thoroughly malign’ geopolitical influence

A failure to tackle the issue of small boat crossings in the English Channel would be destructive to people’s faith in politicians and government, David Cameron has claimed.

In comments aimed at rebellious Tory backbenchers unhappy with Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda legislation, Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, said it was the “best bill to get the job done”.

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Reform UK leader gives ‘guarantee’ that it won’t step aside for Tories at election

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Richard Tice assures senior members of his party in writing that he will not revive Brexit party’s 2019 deal with Conservatives

The leader of Reform UK has given “cast-iron guarantees” to senior members of his rightwing populist party that it will not step aside for the Conservatives at the forthcoming general election.

The Tories were able to win a majority in 2019 after Reform’s previous incarnation, the Brexit party, did not field any candidates against them in return for Boris Johnson’s commitment to leave the EU by 2020 before pursuing a Canada-style trade deal.

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Two former health secretaries join calls for new law on assisted dying

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Senior Conservative and Labour figures said they would back changes to legislation on the issue in England and Wales

Two former health secretaries on Saturday night became the latest senior figures to join the growing demands for a new attempt to legalise assisted dying, as a prominent Tory said he is willing to champion the legislation in parliament.

With both former Conservative minister Stephen Dorrell and Labour’s Alan Milburn stating they back changing the law in England and Wales, the Observer understands that a Labour government would make time and expert advice available for an assisted dying bill should MPs back it in a free House of Commons vote.

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Sunak adds to family visas confusion, saying rise to £38,700 comes in 2025

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PM announces different timetable for rise in earnings threshold people must cross to bring family to UK

Rishi Sunak has said the minimum salary levels needed for British nationals to bring foreign relatives to the UK will rise to £38,700 in 2025, adding yet more confusion to the rapidly changing rules.

The prime minister’s comments come just a day after an initially unnoticed parliamentary answer said the much-criticised plan to more than double the threshold from £18,600 a year to £38,700 was being shelved.

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Rightwing Tory MPs criticise Rishi Sunak’s ‘weakness’ over family visas U-turn – UK politics live

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The government says it is still planning to increase salary threshold to £38,700 but Tory backbenchers have called the move ‘deeply disappointing’

Regulated rail fares in England will rise by nearly 5% in March, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Department for Transport has set a cap of 4.9% for increases to most fares regulated by the government, which include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.

July’s RPI measure of inflation, which is traditionally used to determine annual fare rises, was 9.0%.

Having met our target of halving inflation across the economy, this is a significant intervention by the government to cap the increase in rail fares below last year’s rise.

Changed working patterns after the pandemic mean that our railways are still losing money and require significant subsidies, so this rise strikes a balance to keep our railways running, while not overburdening passengers.

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‘Sign of weakness’: Home Office U-turn on visa salary threshold divides Tories

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Rightwing factions criticise decision to raise minimum salary to £29,000 in spring, rather than £38,700

Rightwing Conservatives have expressed concern at the decision to U-turn on more than doubling the minimum salary needed for British nationals bringing foreign relatives to the UK, in yet another sign of the party’s continued splits on migration.

In a surprise and low-key announcement on Thursday evening, the Home Office said the threshold would still rise significantly from the current £18,600, but to £29,000 instead of the £38,700 initially announced earlier this month.

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