Ex-work and pensions secretary becomes second casualty of contest, leaving four MPs vying to succeed Rishi Sunak
Mel Stride has been knocked out of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader after Robert Jenrick topped the poll of MPs for the second time.
The former work and pensions secretary on Tuesday became the second casualty in the extended leadership contest, which is due to culminate in early November.
Continue reading...Former home secretary finishes behind Mel Stride after only securing 14 votes
PMQs is starting soon. Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Kemi Badenoch is the clear favourite of Conservative members for next leader, and will be very hard to beat if she makes it into the final ballot of two, according to a survey by ConservativeHome.
Continue reading...Former home secretary got two fewer votes than Mel Stride, while Robert Jenrick leads race to succeed Rishi Sunak
Priti Patel has been knocked out of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader in the first round of voting by Tory MPs.
The former home secretary received 14 votes from her colleagues, leaving her two behind the fifth-placed candidate, Mel Stride.
Continue reading...Badenoch and Jenrick are the bookies’ favourites but the party’s reduced ranks make the numbers extremely tight
When the Conservative MPs who remain return to Westminster, they will briefly seem like some of the most popular people in SW1. With the party so reduced in numbers, over the next few days there will be a furious wooing of those who have not yet declared for one of the six leadership candidates.
“The race is wide open,” one senior Tory said. “There are barely any public endorsements so no one can tell who is the favourite. The public polling has been all over the place. Often they seem to be just based on who has paid for it.”
Continue reading...Tory MPs will vote next week in a series of ballots to narrow the field down to four candidates
Conservative MPs will start whittling down the leadership candidates to four next week, the first stage in a long contest from which a winner will not emerge until 2 November. Here are the six candidates in the running to replace Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Veteran Conservatives on the party’s liberal wing have criticised the rightwards shift by some senior figures
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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Tory leadership candidate says Reform leader’s comments are deeply misleading as she urges parliament recall
The Conservative leadership candidate Priti Patel has criticised Nigel Farage’s response to the far-right riots, saying it was wrong to compare the violence to Black Lives Matter protests.
The former home secretary has also written to the prime minister and home secretary, urging them to recall parliament, drawing parallels with the 2011 riots when MPs returned for a government statement on civil disorder and to condemn the violence.
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...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...Ministers said to have dropped opposition to inquiry into alleged assaults and mistreatment of people at Manston centre
The Home Office is to concede to demands for a statutory inquiry into alleged assaults and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.
The move comes after the government spent a year fighting off demands in the courts for an independent figure to investigate chaos, which led to claims of violence, drug dealing and filthy conditions at the Kent camp.
Continue reading...Prime minister says ‘the best tax cut we can give is to cut inflation’ after Michael Gove says taxes should be cut before general election
The BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is starting. As well as Rishi Sunak, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is also being interviewed.
Q: Do you still think we’ve had enough of experts?
Economic forecasting was invented to make astrology look respectable.
Continue reading...Theresa May and Tim Loughton among more than a dozen backbench Tories criticising bill
Rishi Sunak’s immigration bill was heavily criticised by senior Conservative MPs as the government overturned amendments made by the House of Lords.
Theresa May and Tim Loughton were among more than a dozen backbench Tories seeking further changes to the illegal migration bill, which the prime minister says is crucial to stopping small boats from crossing the Channel.
Continue reading...Ex-PM also awards knighthood to Jacob Rees-Mogg and OBE to head of parliament’s hair salon
Priti Patel, who was home secretary in Johnson’s cabinet and widely seen as a fierce ally of the former prime minister, has been made a dame commander.
Keen Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg has received a knighthood alongside Michael Fabricant who often went on the airwaves to defend Johnson during Partygate.
Continue reading...Familiar faces on the Tory right met in Bournemouth to pour scorn on the government. And they can certainly make the PM’s life harder
• Read more: Tory anarchy breaks out as revolt looms on Brexit laws
It was billed as the launch of a campaign to hand more power to Tory members. It was not, its organisers repeatedly insisted, a group aiming to reinstall Boris Johnson as party leader – or cause trouble for Rishi Sunak. It was about “taking back control” of the Conservative party for the grassroots.
Yet as the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) met for its inaugural gathering in a sunny Bournemouth on Saturday, it was less than 15 minutes after Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns had belted out the national anthem that Johnson’s name was first uttered on stage.
Continue reading...Witham MP expected to attack ‘those in power’ for sidelining party’s grassroots at conference of pro-Boris Johnson group
Priti Patel will attack the Conservative party leadership, blaming heavy local election losses on “those in power and control”, in a speech on Saturday.
The former home secretary is expected to accuse the Tory leadership of having “done a better job at damaging our party” over the past year than Keir Starmer’s Labour party or leftwing campaign groups.
Continue reading...Experience in eastern Mediterranean proves deterrence and harsh conditions do little to discourage refugees
Prominent Conservatives openly view Greece’s self-described “strict but fair” migration policies as a model to emulate. The former home secretary Priti Patel told MPs last week that “we would not be in this current situation” had she been allowed to replicate “Greek-style reception centres”.
British interest in the Greek model dates back to May 2021, when the former immigration minister Chris Philp made an “urgent” – as internal documents seen by the Guardian called it – trip to Greece. This was followed by an official visit by Patel in August 2021, who toured a newly constructed Greek camp, went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard and spoke of working “closely with Greek partners” on migration.
Continue reading...Senior Tories condemn ‘sickening’ plans which would allow unaccompanied minors to be held, in U-turn on past legislation
Rishi Sunak’s plan to reduce small boat crossings will effectively reverse a ban on child detention implemented under David Cameron and open the door to an expansion of the practice, the Observer understands.
With a potential Tory rebellion already brewing over the proposals, it has emerged that the Illegal Migration bill will allow the detention of families with children and even allows the deportation of unaccompanied children if it is deemed to be safe in their country of origin.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak to meet monarch after Liz Truss chairs her final cabinet meeting at 9am
I’m Helen Sullivan, with for the next while. If you have questions or see news we may have missed, you can get in touch on Twitter here.
We’re expected to hear from Nadhim Zahawi, who made a dizzying U-turn from supporting Johnson to supporting Sunak yesterday, on Sky News at 07.05 this morning.
Continue reading...Letter undermines Priti Patel’s claim that Albanians arriving with ‘spurious’ claims could be removed quickly
The Home Office has conceded that it does not have the right to fast-track the deportation of Albanian asylum seekers after their arrival in the UK, in an abrupt policy U-turn.
Priti Patel, the former home secretary, signed a deal with the Albanian government in August to return those who arrive illegally. She claimed it meant the UK could quickly return asylum seekers who arrived in the UK and made “spurious” claims.
Continue reading...