Damian Green and Steve Baker endorse shadow security minister as they seek to ‘transcend old divisions’
Two senior Tories have thrown their weight behind Tom Tugendhat to be the new Conservative party leader.
Damian Green and Steve Baker lost their seats in the election earlier this month but are influential figures in the party. They have endorsed Tugendhat, who is the shadow security minister, in a joint article for the Telegraph.
Continue reading...Official document updated after ex-PM writes to head of civil service Simon Case calling for investigation
The government has removed a reference to Liz Truss’s mini-budget as having been “disastrous” in an official king’s speech document after the former prime minister complained that this was incorrect and a “flagrant breach” of the civil service code.
Truss wrote to Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, calling on him to investigate the matter and for the wording to be removed.
Continue reading...Former home secretary expected to be competing against candidates including Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat
Priti Patel has decided to enter the Conservative leadership race to succeed Rishi Sunak, sources have told the Guardian.
The former home secretary, who retained her seat of Witham in Essex earlier this month with a reduced majority of 5,145, has formed a campaign team funded by Tory donors who include former advisers and Conservative campaign headquarters staff.
Continue reading...Home secretary to host meeting of government’s Defending Democracy taskforce after reported rise in harassment during election campaign
More in Common, the group that campaigns to reduce polarisation in politics, published a good slideshow presentation last week, based on polling it carried out, giving an analysis of the general election results. It has followed that up today with the publication of a 129-page report on the election, based on the same polling and on what it learned from focus groups.
One of the main interesting points it makes is that the government will be judged, above all, on whether it can bring down NHS waiting lists and the cost of living, polling suggests. The report says:
How does the public plan to judge the government on its delivery of change and what benchmarks will they use to evaluate progress?
First and foremost, the public will look to NHS waiting lists and the cost of living to judge Labour’s success or failure. These are top performance indicators for every segment, with the elderly tending to be more concerned than average about waiting lists and younger generations more so about the cost of living. As inflation falls and interest rates seem set for a summer cut, waiting lists are arguably the new government’s key challenge in maintaining public support.
Continue reading...Houchen says party must avoid seeming self-indulgent as other Conservatives attack Liz Truss over new intervention
The Conservatives should not have a protracted leadership debate as it would be a “waste of time” and could risk appearing self-indulgent, the Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has said.
His comments came as former Conservative parliamentary candidates rounded on the former prime minister Liz Truss, who has attacked the leadership of Rishi Sunak in the failed general election campaign by saying he had trashed her legacy in office.
Continue reading...Catalogue of errors by government and health officials includes the deliberate winding down of PPE stockpiles
The first official report by the UK Covid inquiry is set to expose a catalogue of failures by the last Conservative government and health officials in the run-up to the pandemic.
Lady Heather Hallett, the inquiry’s chair, will issue the report on Thursday and make recommendations to ensure that the UK is better prepared for any future outbreak.
Continue reading...As the Conservatives lick their wounds, a new generation of activists fear an extended period in the political wilderness
When Jayde Tanisha Edwards saw the exit poll on 4 July, she was shocked. “I think everybody came to the conclusion that the Conservatives were going to lose, but I don’t think we realised how badly we were going to lose,” she says.
Edwards is an unlikely Tory activist. She is 25 years old, and when she got involved with the party some years ago – standing as a councillor in 2019 – she was a teenage mother living in temporary accommodation. Although everyone in her family and community supported Labour, she was attracted by the Conservative message of aspiration. “It was that fundamental belief in prosperity and being able to build yourself up, and just do whatever you want to do,” she says. Most people in her age group do not share this view: just 8% of people under 25 voted Conservative on 4 July. In 2019, it was 21%. With so few in their age group supporting the party, young Conservative members are a vanishingly small number. Even Edwards, a committed activist who is out knocking on doors in every local and general election, is uncertain. “During this campaign, that fire and that passion for young voters just wasn’t there,” she says. “So how can I convince people on the doorstep?”
Continue reading...Broadcaster suffered severe cuts under Conservatives, which reneged on inflation-linked deal
Labour will support the BBC licence fee, Keir Starmer has pledged, in stark contrast to the years of Conservative opposition to the funding model.
The levy of £159 a year on households with a television used to receive live broadcasts (or watch BBC iPlayer) raises £3.2bn annually for the BBC and the Welsh channel S4C.
Continue reading...Prime minister says family ‘very pleased’ to receive letters from former chancellor’s children about life in Downing Street
Jeremy Hunt’s three children left personal notes for Keir Starmer’s teenage son and daughter after last week’s general election, containing advice about living in Downing Street.
The prime minister said his children were “very pleased” to receive the letters from the Hunt’s children, who had lived in the flat above No 11 since their father was appointed chancellor.
Continue reading...Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has urged the party to avoid descending into ‘bitter infighting and finger pointing’
Former education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned after Boris Johnson rejected his £15bn Covid catch-up plans, is to advise the new government on driving up school standards and finding solutions to teacher shortages and high absence rates.
The Department for Education confirmed on Tuesday that Collins, a widely respected figure in the sector, has been appointed a non-executive board member at the DfE. As such his role will be to support and challenge the department in its efforts to raise standards in England’s schools.
I’m delighted to be returning to the Department for Education. There are real challenges facing our schools and I am looking forward to being part of a renewed drive to ensure that we tackle these with bold and fresh new ideas, to deliver high and rising standards in every corner of the country.
Sir Kevan has been an outstanding force for good in schools, especially his work advocating for our teachers and children during the pandemic and he will play a crucial role in advising the department.
Continue reading...Shadow home secretary calls for unity in opposition, after comments from Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch
James Cleverly has called for the Conservative party to unite in opposition, as the party heads into what is likely to be a bitter leadership campaign.
The shadow home secretary warned his party not to descend into infighting, after explosive interventions from his fellow leadership contenders Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman.
Continue reading...Opposition among senior Tories grows after ex-home secretary derides Progress Pride flag being flown over Home Office
Suella Braverman’s “divisive rightwing politics” make her unsuitable to lead the Conservative party, Ben Houchen, the Tory Tees Valley mayor, has said, amid a backlash after the former home secretary said her party had been too liberal.
A series of other Conservative figures attacked Braverman after she used a speech in the US to describe the Progress Pride flag as a “monstrous thing”, saying she was angered when it was flown over the Home Office against her will.
Continue reading...Parliament the most diverse by race and gender the country has ever seen, says Starmer, with the largest cohort of LGBT+ MPs in the world
Downing Street has released a full version of what Keir Starmer said in his opening remarks to the metro mayors at their meeting this morning. It is not on the No 10 website, so I will post it here.
Having this meeting four days after I was invited by the King to form a government is a real statement of intent on my part, on our part.
Because as we have said over and over again, economy and growth is the number one mission of this Labour government in 2024.
Continue reading...Andrew Mitchell becomes shadow foreign secretary and Kemi Badenoch moves to communities in new lineup
David Cameron has left Rishi Sunak’s frontbench as the Conservatives unveiled an interim shadow ministerial team ahead of a party leadership race.
The party said Lord Cameron, the former foreign secretary, and Richard Holden, who chaired the Tories through the disastrous election campaign, had resigned from Sunak’s top team. Andrew Mitchell, who had the largely honorary title of deputy foreign secretary in government, becomes shadow foreign secretary.
Continue reading...Darren Jones says Labour government will ‘return to service of British people’ as Keir Starmer continues his tour of the UK
Keir Starmer has met Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly in Belfast, PA Media reports. PA says:
The prime minister is visiting Belfast following his trip to Scotland on Sunday, and will also visit Wales to round off a visit to the three devolved nations.
He arrived at Stormont Castle early on Monday morning as he begins his first full week in office, ahead of travelling to the Nato summit in Washington on Tuesday.
I expect that we will be challenged in the House of Commons.
Of course the Conservatives suffered a historic loss, but that doesn’t mean there’s no opposition in the House of Commons and of course, we have the House of Lords to get any legislation through as well.
Continue reading...Labour’s election manifesto committed party to recognising Palestinian state as part of a process that results in a two-state solution with Israel
Reynolds says he is not supposed to pre-empt what will be in the king’s speech, but he says it is no secret that the government is going to prioritise its employment rights reforms.
Jonathan Reynolds is being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg now.
I do want things in exchange for money we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.
I think that’s a reasonable way to make sure public money is being well spent and I believe there are things, capacities, the steel industry needs in future that could be part of that conversation and that’s what I’ll be having in the next few days …
Continue reading...Keir Starmer ‘restless for change’ as he vows to take action on prisons on first full day as PM
Education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Munira Wilson, acknowledged the party benefited from voters wanting to turf out a Conservative government.
According to the PA news agency, the Twickenham MP told Sky News:
We were very clear that after the previous Conservative government, which was frankly full of chaos and incompetence and had broken the trust of the British people and broken our economy, time was up for them and in many of those seats where we won we made it very clear to voters that if they wanted to turf out the Tories they had to vote Liberal Democrat and they did.
So obviously in every election it’s a combination of the two, but I am also confident that our messages around cost-of-living, sewage, health and care did really resonate with voters.”
It’s really important for the British people that there are opposition MPs asking tough questions and scrutinising the legislation that Labour are going to bring forward, and I can assure you that every Liberal Democrat MP in the House of Commons will be doing that and will be focused on the job and not worried about where the party’s going.”
Continue reading...Initial Brexit success was undone by poor strategy and repeated unforced errors, say expert observers
Rishi Sunak became Britain’s prime minister quickly and unexpectedly in October 2022 after the short, financially catastrophic premiership of Liz Truss and the leadership of Boris Johnson, whose loose moral compass had allowed Downing Street to party while the rest of the UK was locked down.
The economic situation was dire – inflation at 11%, mortgages threatening to soar by £5,000 a year – and the political inheritance more desperate. But since then the 44-year-old prime minister has failed to turn around the Conservative’s fortunes. Lacking a transformative touch, he led the party to a historic defeat.
Continue reading...Forward-looking British front pages reflect the incoming government’s work ahead and the post-election-win jubilance of the Labour leader and his wife
After Labour’s seismic defeat of the Tories, the UK papers’ front pages have focused on the work ahead for Keir Starmer amid his post-election glow after the new prime minister vowed to put “country first, party second” and rebuild Britain “brick by brick”.
The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.
Continue reading...From the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine
When rumours were ablaze that Rishi Sunak was about to call a snap election, one Conservative cabinet minister was asked by a colleague what was happening. “No idea,” he replied. “He’s either going to call a snap election today, name a date for the autumn or tell everyone that AI is really, really important.”
The cabinet – and most officials in Tory headquarters, which was disastrously underprepared – had been kept in the dark until almost the last moment. When Sunak did announce the election in Downing Street in the pouring rain, the move went down like a lead balloon with his colleagues.
Continue reading...