Liz Truss leaves stage over ‘I crashed the economy’ lettuce banner

Former PM says ‘that’s not funny’ when remote-controlled banner is unfurled behind her at event in Suffolk

Liz Truss left the stage abruptly at an event to promote her own book after campaigners unfurled a banner behind her that was emblazoned with the phrase: “I crashed the economy” below a picture of a lettuce.

The former prime minister, who lasted 45 days in office, was in Suffolk on Tuesday discussing the US presidential election when the campaign group Led By Donkeys lowered its remote-controlled banner with a huge picture of a lettuce.

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Farage ‘irresponsible and dangerous’ during riots, says Tory leader contender

Tom Tugendhat accuses Reform leader of ‘amplifying false information’ about Southport killings

Nigel Farage was “irresponsible and dangerous” to suggest the police were withholding the truth about the Southport attack, Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has said.

The Conservative hopeful, a former security minister, said Farage had been “amplifying false information” by spreading a theory first suggested by influencers like Andrew Tate, and then failed wholly to condemn the riots.

Universities “indulge in ideologies of grievance instead of transmitting knowledge” and “schools, museums and galleries apologise for our country’s history” instead of “celebrating it”.

That “equality of opportunity” had given way to “critical race theory” and the UK has seen the “politicisation of race” in recent years, which he claimed Labour would do nothing to reverse.

A new “national security police force” is needed to deal with counter-terrorism and to replace Scotland Yard’s “confused mix of national and local responsibilities and its reporting to the mayor and the home secretary, with each blaming the other”.

That defining Islamophobia in law was a bad idea, as it was blasphemy laws for one religion only.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, made “delusional” and simply false comments about the UK riots when stating that civil war was inevitable.

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Top Tories fuelled riots with ‘divisive language’ on immigration, say party grandees

Veteran Conservatives on the party’s liberal wing have criticised the rightwards shift by some senior figures

Tim Kirkhope: The Conservative party has shifted too far to the right. We must fight for the centre ground

Tory grandees have accused senior figures in their own party of using divisive language that inflamed anger over immigration before the recent rioting, amid warnings that too many Conservatives have “turned a blind eye” to a shift to the right.

The criticisms come as fears grow on the party’s liberal wing that the leadership election risks pulling the party further into populist polices designed to take on Reform UK.

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Priti Patel’s ‘laughable’ claims of two-tier policing putting officers at risks

Neil Basu, ex-head of counter-terrorism, says former home secretary’s remarks are divisive and untrue

The former head of UK counter-terrorism has accused Priti Patel of putting officers at risk after the Tory leadership hopeful made “divisive” comments about two-tier policing.

Since far-right riots erupted across England and Northern Ireland last week, there have been false claims on social media that police are treating white people taking part in the disorder more harshly than minority groups.

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Reform UK chair was member of Conservatives until last week

Exclusive: Zia Yusuf’s membership remained active until last week, when it was revoked after being pointed out by the Guardian

The chair of Reform UK, Zia Yusuf, was a member of the Conservatives until last week when party officials were approached by the Guardian.

Richard Fuller, the Conservative party chair, emailed Yusuf to tell him his membership had been revoked last Friday afternoon, after the Guardian asked the party whether it was still active.

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Robert Jenrick criticised for saying people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ should be arrested

Critics call Tory leadership candidate’s comments around far-right protests ‘nasty divisive rhetoric’

Robert Jenrick has been criticised by a rival for the Conservative leadership and Muslim parliamentarians for saying police should “immediately arrest” any protesters shouting “Allahu Akbar”, the Arabic phrase that means God is great.

The former immigration minister was speaking on Sky News about the accusations that police have been treating far-right marches and violence more harshly than other protests.

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Conservatives left UK wide open to far-right violence, says former adviser

Exclusive: Dame Sara Khan, who advised May, Johnson and Sunak, says recent administrations failed the country

The Conservative government left the UK wide open to the far-right violence erupting across parts of the country by ignoring red flags and stoking fires with a culture war agenda, a senior adviser on extremism to Tory prime ministers has said.

Dame Sara Khan, who was Rishi Sunak’s independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience until May this year and acted as counter-extremism commissioner under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, said the recent administrations had failed the British people.

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‘I worry about populist politics’: Mel Stride says even progressive voters should want a strong Tory party

Leadership contender says the Conservatives need to recover to ensure Britain does not lurch into ‘negativity and division’

Progressive voters who oppose the Conservatives should still want the party to recover to ensure British politics does not lurch towards populism based on “negativity and division”, a Tory leadership contender has said.

Mel Stride, the former cabinet minister who emerged as a surprise candidate to replace Rishi Sunak, warned that attempting to jump to a “magical ideological square” after the party’s disastrous general election result would fail to solve its problems.

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Robert Jenrick focuses Tory leadership bid on promises to cut immigration

Former Home Office minister says he is open to capping immigration and wants to reimpose Rwanda scheme

Robert Jenrick has said he would hope to detain and deport people who arrive in the UK on small boats “within days” if he wins the Conservative leadership race and the next general election.

The former immigration minister said he was “open” to a cap restricting immigration to fewer than 10,000 people a year and shared his hopes of reimposing the Rwanda scheme.

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Greens say Labour should focus more on building council homes and that new housing plan is flawed – UK politics live

Rayner says housing target system will raise number of homes planned to 370,000 and confirmed targets will be mandatory

Balls, who, of course, is a former Labour cabinet minister, and a former shadow chancellor, questions whether Reeves is right to suggest that Jeremy Hunt is wholly to blame for the black hole. He says that other cabinet ministers and departments drew up the spending plans that she says were unfunded.

Reeves repeats the point she has been making all morning about how the public were misled. (See 8.06am.)

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Winter fuel payments to be restricted as Reeves says there is £22bn spending shortfall – UK politics live

Chancellor suggests budget, on 30 October, will involve tax rises and cuts to spending and benefits

Downing Street has refused to comment on a report saying junior doctors are being offered a pay rise worth about 20% over two years.

In a story for the Times, Steven Swinford reports:

The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee has recommended an offer that includes a backdated pay rise of 4.05 per cent for 2023-24, on top of an existing increase of between 8.8 per cent and 10.3 per cent.

Junior doctors will be given a further pay rise of 6 per cent for 2024-25, which will be topped up by a consolidated £1,000 payment. This is equivalent to a pay rise of between 7 per cent and 9 per cent.

As we’ve said before, we’re committed to working to find a solution, resolving this dispute, but I can’t get into detailed running commentary on negotiations.

We’ve been honest with the public and the sector about the economic circumstances we face. But the government is determined to do the hard work necessary to finally bring these strikes to an end.

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Hospital and road projects face cuts to plug £22bn fiscal hole, Reeves says

Social care and winter fuel payments also targeted as chancellor accuses Tories of covering up scale of fiscal shortfall

Rachel Reeves has scrapped the social care cap and curbed winter fuel payments, as well as announcing big cuts to hospital and road projects, as she seeks to plug what she called a £22bn hole in public spending that was “covered up” by the Conservative government.

In a statement to the Commons that mixed detailed economics and partisan politics, the chancellor justified the cuts with the repeated mantra: “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it.”

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Tories ‘deliberately covered up’ true state of public finances, says minister

Steve Reed hits out at Conservatives’ handling of public services as chancellor prepares to detail ‘£20bn black hole’

The last Conservative government “deliberately covered up” the true state of public finances, a cabinet minister has said, as the chancellor prepares to detail a “£20bn black hole” in the public finances.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said his cabinet colleagues “always knew” the inheritance from the Tories was “going to be bad”, but that since coming to office they had found “additional pressures” that had not been disclosed by the Tories.

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Mel Stride becomes fourth Tory MP to announce leadership bid – UK politics live

Former work and pensions secretary joins James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick in announcing he will stand

The cost of England’s four biggest killer diseases could rise to £86bn a year by 2050, prompting calls for a crackdown on alcohol, junk food and smoking.

The ageing population means the annual cost of cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke combined will go from the £51.9bn recorded in 2018 to £85.6bn in 2050 – a rise of 61%.

More importantly, you must now come clean on where the axe will fall under your plans and whether you intend to cut public services, raise taxes or both – having previously denied you would do either.”

The excuses currently being lined-up will set alarm bells ringing that the Labour government plans to continue Tory cuts and public services will be starved of the cash they need – just as we have seen with the failure to scrap the two-child benefit cap this week.

The SNP is ready and willing to work in cooperation with the Labour government to deliver the change voters in Scotland were promised – but we also have a duty to stand up for Scotland’s interests and hold the Labour government to account where real change isn’t forthcoming.”

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NatWest takes £24m hit from abandoned ‘Tell Sid’-style campaign

Bank left with costs from Sir Trevor McDonald-fronted campaign after early election halted rollout

NatWest was forced to spend £24m on the former Conservative government’s aborted “Tell Sid”-style campaign featuring Sir Trevor McDonald, which would have resulted in a chunk of the bank’s state-owned shares being sold to the general public in a highly anticipated privatisation drive.

The price tag emerged when the bank released its second-quarter results and announced it was snapping up a number of mortgages from the smaller rival Metro Bank for £2.4bn.

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Robert Jenrick enters race to become next Tory leader

Former minister becomes third MP to formally join race after James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat threw hats into the ring

Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who quit Rishi Sunak’s cabinet over the prime minister’s failure to take a tougher approach to immigration, has entered the race to become Conservative leader.

The Tory MP’s campaign manager, Danny Kruger, said he was best placed to win back voters who deserted the party for Reform at the general election. He is the third MP, after James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, to join the contest.

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Keir Starmer dodges questions on two-child benefit cap in first PMQs as prime minister – UK politics live

Labour leader quizzed by SNP on benefit cap after suspending seven Labour MPs over their stance on the issue

Cabinet secretary, Simon Case, is reportedly being advised to step down permanently from his role for health reasons at the end of this year, writes Politico.

The outlet reports:

According to people familiar with the matter, Case is likely to need to step down in the new year on the advice of doctors, who are continuing to treat him for a neurological condition diagnosed more than a year ago.

Case is currently working at full capacity, but the condition is affecting his mobility and he now walks with the aid of a stick.”

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James Cleverly first to declare run for Conservative leadership

Shadow home secretary says he is ‘best placed’ to unite party and that he aims to become prime minister

James Cleverly has become the first candidate to throw his hat into the ring for the leadership for the Conservative party.

The shadow home secretary said he was “best placed” to unite the Tories and overturn Keir Starmer’s “loveless landslide” to re-enter government.

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James Cleverly hints he will join Conservative leadership contest – UK politics live

Shadow home secretary says he has ‘thought about personal contribution’ to the Tories and the UK as nominations open on Wednesday

James Cleverly has warned Tory leadership rivals not to “divide up and factionalise”, responding to Suella Braverman words that the Tories must not become “a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks”.

Cleverly told Sky News: “Trying to carve up and divide up and factionalise … is the wrong way of thinking.”

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No 10 denies government has changed position on two-child benefit cap – UK politics live

Spokesperson cites ‘fiscal inheritance’ after apparent softening of position by Starmer and Phillipson

Keir Starmer was asked about his relationship with US vice-president Kamala Harris.

“Obviously in the first instance, it’s for the Democratic Party to decide who they want to put forward. It is then for the American people to decide who they want as their president.

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