Foreign secretary describes newspaper report of frustration with Tory party rows with as ‘nonsense’
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has described suggestions that he was considering standing down from parliament at the next general election as “nonsense”.
Cleverly declared he was “standing at the next election” after newspaper reports claimed he was considering whether to stand.
Continue reading...Tories are likely to bear the brunt of homeowning voters’ anger in marginal constituencies in next year’s election
As the former chancellor who warned presciently during last summer’s leadership contest that Liz Truss would crash the economy, Rishi Sunak’s calm competence was meant to be his key electoral selling point.
But after Thursday’s half-point rate rise by the Bank of England left thousands of voters facing eye-watering mortgage hikes, a shirt-sleeved Sunak was reduced to insisting he was “totally, 100% on it” when it comes to fighting inflation.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he knows people will be anxious about rate rise but ‘it is going to be OK’
Rishi Sunak has posted a thread on Twitter setting out what the government is doing to help people with the cost of living. It starts here.
He ends by saying “if we can hold our nerve” he is confident the plan will deliver.
Continue reading...Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says party would force banks to take a range of steps to protect borrowers
Labour has piled further pressure on Rishi Sunak to take action to help struggling mortgage holders as the Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates again to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crash.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said on Wednesday that if Labour were currently in power, it would force banks to offer a range of support to borrowers, including letting them move on to interest-only mortgages and extending their repayment period.
Continue reading...Motion to bring back legislation on puppy smuggling and live exports that was part of Tory manifesto rejected in Commons
MPs have voted down an attempt by Labour to revive the government’s animal welfare bill.
Last month ministers announced they were dropping the kept animals bill, which was part of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto. The legislation aimed to clamp down on puppy smuggling and dog theft, as well as banning the live exports of farm animals.
Continue reading...Party reportedly looking to increase share in Lords, as Tory majority ‘could make life difficult’
Labour is reportedly devising plans to appoint dozens of peers to the House of Lords to prevent a Keir Starmer government being stymied by the upper chamber.
There are 174 Labour peers, making up 22% of the Lords, compared with 263 Conservatives and 183 unaligned crossbench peers.
Continue reading...Conservative backbenchers plan to speak in favour of opposition motion to force government’s hand
Rishi Sunak is facing a potential headache as backbench Conservative MPs prepare to support a Labour plan to bring back ditched animal welfare policies.
Last month, ministers announced they were dropping the kept animals bill, which was part of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto. The legislation was intended to ban live exports of farm animals as well as clamp down on puppy smuggling and dog theft.
Continue reading...Theresa May says parliament must punish MPs who break rules as Penny Mordaunt says Johnson ‘undermined democratic process’
At the Labour event Keir Starmer is now speaking. He starts with a jibe at the SNP, saying the tide is turning in Scotland.
Turning to energy policy, he says Labour wants to promote security.
Can we still achieve great things? Can we unite and move forward? Can we still change, can we grow, can we get things done, can we build things? New industries, new technologies, new jobs; will they come to our shores, or will the future pass us by?
You can put it even more starkly. Around the world people want to know, are we still a great nation? If the question is about the British people, the answer is emphatically: yes.
Continue reading...UK home secretary says police have her full support in using tactic to prevent violence and save lives
Suella Braverman has called on police to increase the use of stop and search powers “to prevent violence and save more lives”.
In a statement aimed at all 43 forces in England and Wales, the home secretary said officers who used the powers had her “full support”.
Continue reading...Intervention by International Labour Organization ‘hugely embarrassing’ for government, says TUC
The UN’s labour standards body has told the UK government it must make changes to highly controversial new strikes laws, which critics say threaten the fundamental rights of British workers.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency, said the UK needed to “ensure that existing and prospective legislation is in conformity” with international rules on freedom of association, and added that the government must seek technical assistance from the agency’s experts.
Continue reading...Rightwingers claim Boris Johnson suspension ‘unnecessarily high and fierce’ after findings he deliberately misled parliament
Dozens of Tory rightwing MPs are preparing to abstain from voting in the Commons on Monday over the parliamentary investigation that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs, in a sign of support for the former prime minister.
Between 60 and 70 MPs with constituencies in the “red wall” were said to be feeling “incredibly warm” towards Johnson, after he urged his parliamentary supporters not to vote against the committee’s findings.
Continue reading...New Partygate video shows Tory officials at party at height of pandemic. We look at who was there
A new Partygate video that shows Conservative officials dancing, joking and drinking during lockdown has forced thousands of people across the UK to relive harrowing memories of the sacrifices they made during lockdown.
Michael Gove has apologised and said their actions were “indefensible”, but he refused to back calls for some of the attendees to lose honours they were given by Boris Johnson, who has been found guilty of misleading parliament over the Partygate scandal.
Continue reading...But levelling up secretary insists Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallet should keep their honours
Michael Gove has apologised for a new Partygate video that shows Conservative officials dancing and laughing as they broke Covid lockdown rules, deeming their actions “terrible” and “indefensible”.
The video, obtained by the Mirror, shows members of staff drinking alcohol at the gathering in London on 14 December 2020, and mocking lockdown rules the public were following at the time. At least 24 people were in attendance, including Shaun Bailey – made a peer in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list – whose campaign team organised the event. He left before the video was taken.
Continue reading...Exclusive: James Wharton is helping to forge Westminster connections for the cryptocurrency sector
A former campaign manager to Boris Johnson who was appointed to lead an education quango is facing fresh questions over his role in a cryptocurrency lobbying firm.
James Wharton, a peer and former MP who chairs the Office for Students (OfS), has launched a new public affairs company that pledges to “help clients navigate the complexities of Whitehall and Westminster” and specialises in “disruptive” highly regulated sectors.
Continue reading...Half of all Tory voters take a dim view of the former prime minister whereas the ex-president has a strong Republican support
There are two very big differences between the situation confronting Boris Johnson and that facing the man with whom he is frequently compared, Donald Trump – namely, popularity and context.
Johnson is weaker than Trump. First, because he is less popular with Conservative voters than Trump is with his Republican supporters. About half of 2019 Conservative voters disapprove of Johnson’s performance in office. And at the time he left office, 40% or more rated him as untrustworthy, dishonest and/or incompetent.
Continue reading...The midweek inflation bulletin could be the most significant piece of government data published this year
This Wednesday will mark the longest day of the year and not long after the sun comes up the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish its latest cost of living bulletin. To say the data is eagerly awaited is an understatement. There is unlikely to be a more significant piece of official data released in the current parliament.
The reason is simple. Despite raising interest rates 12 times since December 2021 in an attempt to quell upward price pressures, inflation is proving harder to shift than the Bank of England imagined.
Continue reading...Tories suspended MP in April last year amid claims over sexual harassment and drug use
The Conservative MP David Warburton has announced that he is resigning his seat.
Warburton was suspended from the party in April 2022 pending the outcome of an independent complaints and grievance scheme (ICGS) investigation into allegations of harassment and drug use.
Continue reading...Survey comes as government rhetoric on immigrants gets increasingly toxic, adopting far-right slogans
Britons have among the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, a new global poll has found, despite increased hostility from the UK government to asylum seekers.
An international survey of almost 22,000 adults across 29 countries found British people had the third-most enthusiastic outlook towards refugees, just behind Spain and New Zealand.
Continue reading...More than 2.4m deals are ending in 2024, raising fears of financial timebomb
More than a quarter of UK homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for sharp increase in monthly payments before the next election, in a financial timebomb that will rock the Conservatives just as voters prepare to choose the next government.
With the Bank of England expected to increase its key interest rate next week for the 13th time, figures shared with the Guardian by UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, show more than 2.4m fixed-rate homeowner deals will expire between now and the end of 2024.
Continue reading...Long-awaited privileges committee report finds former PM was ‘deliberately disingenuous’
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