Category Archives: Conservative conference

Rishi Sunak shrugs off concerns that U-turns might make UK a ‘laughing stock’

Posted on by

Prime minister says investors are excited about Britain and that he instinctively understands what the public wants

Rishi Sunak has rejected criticism that recent U-turns mean the UK cannot be taken seriously, as he fought to maintain order before a Conservative conference set to be dominated by questions about tax cuts and rivals jostling to succeed him.

In the traditional pre-conference TV interview, the prime minister again refused to say whether HS2 would extend as far as Manchester, the host city for the conference, which begins on Sunday afternoon.

Continue reading...

Mel B challenges sacked Tory minister over ‘what you said to me in lift’

Posted on by

Former Spice Girl, who attended Tory conference, makes apparent online criticism of Conor Burns

Mel B has made an apparent criticism of sacked Tory minister Conor Burns’s behaviour during a conversation with her at the Conservative party conference.

Burns was asked to step down from his role as a minister of state in the trade department and had the Conservative whip withdrawn pending an investigation into an allegation of “serious misconduct” on Friday, Downing Street said. He later denied having ever met the former Spice Girl singer.

Continue reading...

Liz Truss refuses to rule out real-terms benefits cuts

Posted on by

PM facing fresh battle with MPs as she declines to commit to raising benefits in line with inflation

Liz Truss has refused to commit to raising benefits in line with inflation, amid a fresh battle with MPs over cuts to spending including concern from among her cabinet.

The prime minister said pensions would rise in line with inflation, having committed to the pensions “triple lock” during the leadership campaign. But she said people on welfare benefits were in a “different situation” and said they were more able to look for more work.

Continue reading...

Kwasi Kwarteng set to address Tory conference with authority on the line after 45% tax rate U-turn – UK politics live

Posted on by

Chancellor expected to give changed address after confirming plan to axe top rate of income tax has been scrapped

Q: Where does this leave your credibility?

Kwarteng says he has been in parliament for 12 years. He says ministers do sometimes change their minds.

I decided, along with the the prime minister, not to proceed [with the policy].

Continue reading...

US pollster urges Tories to ditch culture wars

Posted on by

Frank Luntz tells Tory conference meeting weaponising such issues is likely to ‘win an election but lose the country’

A US pollster who advised Boris Johnson has delivered an impassioned plea for Tories to stop weaponising culture war issues, warning them they would “win an election but lose the country”.

“It guarantees divisions for generations and it can get you elected but you will hate the result,” Frank Luntz told a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference, which was packed out with Tory activists and elected officials eager to hear his advice on language and campaigning.

Continue reading...

Truss picked ‘cronies off backbenches’ for cabinet, says Heseltine

Posted on by

Former Tory ‘big beast’ says PM needs to ‘appoint ministers who know what the heck they’re doing’

Liz Truss packed her cabinet with “cronies off the backbenches” rather than competent ministers with a range of views, and appeared to have no coherent plan behind her mini-budget, Michael Heseltine has said.

The ex-deputy prime minister and former senior Conservative, who sits in the Lords as an unaffiliated peer after being suspended from the party in 2019, also predicted that Truss’s chances of winning the next election were “looking pretty bleak”.

Continue reading...

Tory MPs threaten rebellion against Liz Truss over mini-budget

Posted on by

Party conference overshadowed by fears that refusing to do a U-turn on tax and spending cuts will kill off election chances

Liz Truss is struggling to persuade Conservative MPs to back her controversial mini-budget, with some even threatening all-out rebellion amid fears that they will once again become known as the “nasty party”.

The prime minister faces with a rising drumbeat of discontent that is overshadowing the Tory conference after she insisted she would “stand by” her plans to cut the top rate of income tax and ram through public spending cuts.

Continue reading...

Ex-Spice Girl Mel B tells Tory conference of need for domestic abuse reforms

Posted on by

Singer tells event societal change is required if the lives of women are to be freed from threat of abuse

The former Spice Girl Melanie Brown has told an event at the Conservative party conference of her fears that the “massive issue of domestic abuse” will slip down the agenda during “these times of absolute economic chaos”.

The singer, known to millions as Mel B or “Scary Spice”, was speaking at a meeting organised by the Sun and Women’s Aid, which she became a patron of in 2018 after leaving what she described as an abusive relationship.

Continue reading...

Michael Gove says Liz Truss’s tax cut plans ‘not Conservative’

Posted on by

Influential former minister hints he will not vote for mini-budget measures, in blow to PM

Michael Gove said Liz Truss’s programme of tax cuts was deeply concerning and “not Conservative”, and hinted he would not vote for them, in a major blow to the prime minister’s authority.

Gove, who was removed as levelling up secretary before Boris Johnson left No 10 but remains a hugely influential Tory MP, said he could not back Truss’s abolition of the top 45p rate of tax, or the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses.

Continue reading...

Liz Truss admits she should have ‘laid ground better’ before mini-budget and says cabinet not consulted about 45% top rate tax cut – live

Posted on by

Latest updates: PM vows to press ahead with mini-budget plans and dismisses objections to top rate of tax being axed

Q: Are you absolutely committed to getting rid of the 45% rate of tax?

Yes, says Truss.

Continue reading...

Liz Truss refuses to rule out spending cuts to pay for reduced tax rates

Posted on by

PM says she accepts ‘we should have laid ground better’ after mini-budget sparked economic turmoil

Liz Truss has refused to rule out public spending cuts and a real-terms drop in benefits to help pay for the mini-budget, as she sought to quell fury over her handling of the economy by admitting she should have “laid the ground better”.

The prime minister offered a sliver of remorse for the way last Friday’s mini-budget was received. There was a temporary collapse in the value of sterling against the dollar, a rebuke from the International Monetary Fund and warnings that interest rates could be hiked again.

Continue reading...

Birmingham broods over Tory treachery as Conservative party conference looms

Posted on by

Tax cuts for the rich have not gone down well in Ladywood, the city constituency due to host the Conservatives’ annual gathering

Only the most bullish Conservative party strategist would have dared forecast the centre of Britain’s second-biggest city turning Tory anytime soon.

Yet as the real-life implications of the government’s mini-budget continued to crystallise on Saturday, anyone even contemplating a Conservative victory in central Birmingham should now be judged beyond delusional.

Continue reading...

Tories offer access to new chancellor for £3,000

Posted on by

Business day at party’s autumn conference will give lobbyists and CEOs access to senior ministers, raising ethics concerns

The Tories are selling access to the new chancellor and senior ministers ​at almost £3,000 a ticket for corporate leaders and lobbyists at their autumn conference, saying it will help firms “take your business to the next level”.

The party is advertising spaces for its “prestigious” annual business day at £2,990 a head, saying it will give attenders the chance to interact with “key decision makers in the party”.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson laughs off the Pandora papers as the super-rich’s cash rolls in

Posted on by

Western politicians seem complacent about or complicit in the iniquity of hidden wealth

It was a classic TV doorstep. After doing the morning media round, Boris Johnson emerged from a booth and set off with his minders across the main hall of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. What was his reaction to the Pandora papers?

And would the Tories be giving back the money they had taken from certain donors?

Continue reading...

‘Economically illiterate’: PM’s Tory conference speech gets frosty reception

Posted on by

Next boss, thinktanks and unions criticise Boris Johnson, saying ‘shortages cannot be blustered away’

Boris Johnson’s vision for the UK has had a frosty reception with business and union leaders, with one thinktank condemning the prime minister’s speech to Conservative conference as “economically illiterate”.

The Adam Smith Institute’s head of research, Matthew Lesh, also called Johnson’s address “bombastic but vacuous”, while the travel industry union chief, Manuel Cortes, said it was “nothing but hot air”.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson: petrol crisis and pig cull part of necessary post-Brexit transition

Posted on by

PM’s remarks come as Liz Truss insists it’s the role of business, not ministers, to resolve such problems

Queues for petrol and mass culls of pigs at farms because of a lack of abattoir workers are part of a necessary transition for Britain to emerge from a broken economic model based on low wages, Boris Johnson has argued.

His comments, on the first day of the Conservative conference, came as Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, insisted it was the role of business, not ministers, to sort out such problems.

Continue reading...

Covid can change UK like ‘new Jerusalem’ of 1940s, Johnson claims

Posted on by

Prime minister tells virtual Tory conference that country must not return to status quo

Boris Johnson claimed the “ructions” of the Covid pandemic can pave the way for a transformation akin to the “new Jerusalem” pledged by the postwar cabinet as he sought to restore Tory morale with an upbeat party conference speech.

With Keir Starmer’s Labour party gaining in the polls, and mounting disquiet among colleagues over Johnson’s handling of the pandemic, the prime minister used his set-piece speech to set out an optimistic vision of change.

Continue reading...

No kicks, coughs or slip-ups as party conferences go online

Posted on by

Attendees of this year’s virtual gatherings may be spared any gaffes, but at what cost?

Utter the phrase “conference season” to a Westminster veteran and don’t be surprised if their initial reaction is a shudder. For regular attendees of the annual party gatherings, which kick off next weekend, they raise the prospect of lengthy policy sermons and curled cheese sandwiches by day, followed by sweaty bars and third-hand gossip by night.

Related: Keir Starmer's conference challenge is to avoid the shadow of past leaders | Zoe Williams

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson speech gives EU hope he will rethink Irish plan

Posted on by

Brussels takes heart from PM stopping short of ‘take it or leave it’ Brexit statement

The absence of a “take it or leave it” demand in Boris Johnson’s conference speech has offered some hope in Brussels of a prime ministerial U-turn on what EU officials have described as unworkable proposals for the Irish border.

Downing Street had briefed before the address in Manchester that Johnson would use his platform to make a “final offer” to Brussels, but the rhetoric appeared in the end far more conciliatory than billed.

Continue reading...

PM strikes secret deal with DUP as he draws up ‘final Brexit offer’

Posted on by

Boris Johnson agrees pact with Northern Irish party as details emerge of ‘two borders’ plan

Boris Johnson has struck a secret deal with the Democratic Unionist party involving radical proposals for a Belfast-Dublin “bilateral lock” on post-Brexit arrangements on the island of Ireland.

Details have emerged of the prime minister’s final Brexit offer that he will lay out on Wednesday, with Northern Ireland staying under EU single market regulations for agri-food and manufactured goods until at least 2025, at which point its assembly in Stormont will decide whether to continue alignment with EU or UK standards.

Continue reading...