Beijing urges British politicians not to ‘hype the China threat’

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson asks for restraint after Rishi Sunak labels country UK’s ‘biggest long-term threat’

Beijing has urged British politicians to exercise restraint in their comments on China, saying “hyping the China threat” would not help solve the UK’s own problems.

Asked about Rishi Sunak’s comments, where he labelled China as Britain’s biggest long-term threat and pledged to close all UK-based Confucius Institutes, Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, declined to offer specific comments, saying the election of the next Tory leader is the UK’s internal affair.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss accused of cruelty over Rwanda-style deal promises

Amnesty International leads criticism of immigration plans announced by Tory leadership candidates

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have been accused of “cruelty and immorality” for promising more Rwanda-style deals to remove asylum seekers from the UK, as charities claimed the pair were pandering to party members’ hardline views.

Amnesty International led criticism of immigration plans announced over the weekend by the Tory leadership candidates, saying the “dreadful” pledges would come at “great human and financial cost”.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss serve up ‘red meat’ policies to tempt Tory members

Analysis: Leadership contenders compete on hardline approach to Rwanda immigration policy in appeal to the right of the party

It’s not just barbecues that red meat is being tossed on to in the sweltering summer temperatures.

As the Tory leadership contest hots up, a platter of hardline policies is being offered to party members by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, in a bid to whet appetites and boost support in the race to become Britain’s prime minister.

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Rishi Sunak says as PM he would cap number of refugees UK accepts

Tory leadership candidate’s pledge follows favourite Liz Truss’s claim she would extend Rwanda scheme

Rishi Sunak, who is battling with Liz Truss to win the backing of the Conservative grassroots in his attempt to replace Boris Johnson, has announced plans for an annual cap on the number of refugees the UK accepts.

The former chancellor, who trails Truss by 24%, according to a YouGov poll of Conservative members earlier this week, will on Sunday promise to tackle illegal migration and regain control of the UK’s borders if he becomes the next Conservative leader and prime minister.

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Rishi Sunak says he is underdog in PM race as ‘forces that be’ want Truss

Former chancellor suggests Tory party powers hope leadership contest will be ‘a coronation’ for his rival

Rishi Sunak has positioned himself as the underdog in the Conservative leadership race, claiming the “forces that be” want Liz Truss to be the next prime minister.

Addressing a crowd in Grantham on Saturday, the Lincolnshire home town of Margaret Thatcher, Sunak declared “have no doubt, I am the underdog” and suggested that Conservative party powers want the race to be “a coronation” for Truss.

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Rishi Sunak camp says debates against Truss will change Tory members’ minds

‘Truss is mental and will be found out,’ says supporter of former chancellor as he launches fightback in Grantham

Rishi Sunak will launch his fightback in the Conservative leadership race from Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace this weekend, with his supporters urging party members to delay voting until they have seen him take on Liz Truss in more debates.

Sunak’s campaign team is drawing up plans to try to reverse what one called a “worrying trend” after Truss pulled ahead by 24 percentage points in polling of party members.

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EU launches new legal proceedings against UK over Northern Ireland protocol – UK politics live

European Commission criticises ‘UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion’ with regard to joint solutions

The European Union has launched fresh legal action against the UK for failing to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.

In a statement, the European Commission says it is launching four new infringement procedures because the UK is ignoring obligations it has to the EU under the protocol, which imposes customs rules for goods going between Britain and Northern Ireland to avoid the need for checks at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

In a spirit of constructive cooperation, the commission refrained from launching certain infringement procedures for over a year to create the space to look for joint solutions with the UK. However, the UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion since last February and the continued passage of the Northern Ireland protocol bill through the UK parliament go directly against this spirit.

The aim of these infringement procedures is to secure compliance with the protocol in a number of key areas. This compliance is essential for Northern Ireland to continue to benefit from its privileged access to the European single market, and is necessary to protect the health, security and safety of EU citizens as well as the integrity of the single market.

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Tory leadership race: Rishi Sunak calls himself ‘common sense’ Thatcherite – as it happened

Former chancellor says UK ‘needs to control borders’ and again references Margaret Thatcher

In an interview with GB News, Liz Truss was asked if she would keep the expensive wallpaper in the Downing Street flat, installed as part of Boris Johnson’s controversial refurbishment, if she became PM. In what is being seen by some as a dig at Johnson, she replied:

I’m not going to have the time to be thinking about the wallpaper in No 10, because we’ve only got two years until the general election – we need to hit the ground running.

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Rishi Sunak steps up attack on Truss tax cuts as poll puts his rival well ahead

Former chancellor says opponent’s economic policies risk stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates

Rishi Sunak has launched his strongest attack yet on his rival Liz Truss’s economic policies, claiming her £30bn plans for unfunded tax cuts risk stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates.

His attack came as a new poll of Tory party members gave Truss a commanding lead in the race to become prime minister.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss reach final two of Tory leadership race – as it happened

The final two will face each other in a TV debate on Monday before weeks of hustings with Conservative members

In an analysis of the yesterday’s public sector pay awards published this morning, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says the new prime minister will have to decide whether to increase departmental spending budgets, to fund the higher-than-expected pay awards, or to require the awards to be funded from existing budgets, requiring cuts elsewhere. It says:

One option is to top up spending plans to at least partially fund the costs of higher-than-expected pay awards, shoring up departments’ ability to deliver on the government’s public service objectives (such as clearing the NHS backlog). This would come at the cost of higher borrowing and reduced fiscal room for the tax cuts seemingly desired by the entire field of would-be prime ministers.

The other option is to stick to existing spending plans, instead requiring public services to make some painful cuts: to other budgets, to headcount, or to the range and quality of service provision. Reducing the government’s public services ‘offer’ is a coherent response to a series of global economic shocks that make us poorer as a nation. But the government should be honest about what that implies for the NHS, local government, and other public services.

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Tory leadership race live: Kemi Badenoch eliminated as Rishi Sunak tops poll of MPs

Candidates for next prime minister reduced to three ahead of final MPs’ vote on Wednesday

Penny Mordaunt’s supporters do believe that No 10 has removed the whip from Tobias Ellwood to stop him voting for her in the leadership ballot (contrary to what Nadine Dorries claims - see 11.21am), Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt reports.

Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary and Boris Johnson loyalist, has dismissed as “ridiculous” claims that Tobias Ellwood has had the Tory whip removed to stop him voting against the Johnson candidate in the leadership contest. (See 10.08am and 10.45am.)

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Kemi Badenoch knocked out of Tory leadership race

Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss now look to be fighting each other to take on Rishi Sunak in membership vote

Kemi Badenoch has been eliminated from the Conservative leadership race, setting up a battle between Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss to join Rishi Sunak in the last round.

Sunak, the former chancellor and the frontrunner, won 118 MPs’ votes, just short of the 120 needed to guarantee a spot in the next stage of the process.

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Tom Tugendhat out of Tory leadership race as Sunak still leads field – as it happened

Graham Brady announces outcome of third round of race to replace PM, who faced Labour anger during vote of no confidence debate

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says the refusal of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to attend a TV leadership contest debate tomorrow shows they are treating the public with contempt. In a statement he says:

The Conservatives say they want to lead but they won’t even turn up to debate the issues that matter to our country.

Each of them are treating the nation with utter contempt and they’ve been taking people for granted for long enough.

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Truss camp says Mordaunt has ‘topped out’ with Tugendhat latest to fall

Pressure still on foreign secretary in leadership race as she gains just seven new backers in latest round

Supporters of Liz Truss have said her key rival, Penny Mordaunt, has “topped out” of backers, as the foreign secretary gained ground in the fight for second place in the Conservative leadership contest.

Mordaunt lost a vote in the latest ballot of Tory MPs – a key sign her campaign had stalled after a weekend of bruising attacks – but remained behind frontrunner Rishi Sunak.

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Conservative leadership race live: Rishi Sunak says he will ‘scrap or reform all EU law, red tape and bureaucracy’

Latest updates: Tory leadership candidates prepare for second TV debate as Monday’s round of voting looms

The expectation of record temperatures will be dominating headlines in the UK over the next couple of days. The chief executive of the College of Paramedics warned on Sky News this morning that the “ferocious heat” could result in people dying.

Tracy Nicholls said: “This isn’t like a lovely hot day where we can put a bit of sunscreen on, go out and enjoy a swim and a meal outside. This is serious heat that could actually, ultimately, end in people’s deaths because it is so ferocious. We’re just not set up for that sort of heat in this country.”

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Tory leadership debate: rivals discuss tax, energy, NHS, the green economy and trust in first televised head-to-head – as it happened

The five candidates face off in a televised Channel 4 debate

Penny Mordaunt also rejected the idea that attacks on her for being too “woke” on issues such as trans rights could be the issue that ends her bid to replace Boris Johnson.

She told Sky News this morning:

Look at how we’re doing in the polls in the country, in London, in Scotland, with young people, with women, with Red Wall, with Blue Wall.

It’s not having an impact on my campaign, and it’s not having an impact on my parliamentary campaign. And I think the reason for that is that people recognise it for what it is.

I think it is important we don’t trash our record, because actually we have done an awful lot of good things.

I care about my colleagues. I have great colleagues and we have to, at the end of this contest, come together as a party.

You can see from my campaign, I’m not engaging in any of that.

I have just been getting on with my job, but I have thought long and hard about what this country needs. I feel really compelled to do this. It would be a huge honour to be prime minister.

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Tory leadership rivals clash over trust and ‘fairytale’ economic plans

Head-to-head sees open arguments over tax and identity politics, with no candidate willing to say Boris Johnson is honest

The Conservative leadership race has exploded into acrimony and recrimination after the first televised debate saw open arguments over tax and identity politics with also none of the five candidates willing to say Boris Johnson is honest.

Coming hours after Liz Truss sought to reinvigorate her faltering campaign with a sudden announcement of new tax cuts costing more than £20bn a year, Rishi Sunak the ex-chancellor, openly ridiculed his former colleague’s plans during the Channel 4 broadcast on Friday evening.

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Liz Truss bids to save Tory leadership campaign with new tax cut pledges

Foreign secretary announces tax cut proposals worth billions of pounds during online leadership debate

Liz Truss has sought to breathe new life into her faltering Conservative leadership campaign with a flurry of uncosted tax cut promises worth billions of pounds, as the five remaining candidates took part in their first mass debate.

Truss, who has the third highest number of Tory MPs’ votes – behind Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, promised to scrap a planned rise in corporation tax and suspend green energy levies, costing more than £20bn a year overall.

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Suella Braverman out of Tory leadership race as Rishi Sunak leads with 101 votes – live

Latest updates: 1922 committee announce latest vote tally

Q: Lord Frost says Penny Mordaunt is not up to the job. You have worked with her. Do you agree with him?

Truss says she will not be making any disparaging comments about her opponents. The contest shows a broad range of talent. And the party did not get there through identity politics.

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Braverman out of Tory leadership race as Mordaunt pulls away from Truss

Field narrows to five candidates as Sunak wins highest number of votes with Mordaunt consolidating second place

Penny Mordaunt was handed another key boost in the race to make the final two of the Conservative leadership race, with votes putting her in pole position to take on frontrunner Rishi Sunak, at the latest voting round which eliminated Suella Braverman.

Sunak, the former chancellor, is still the frontrunner and added 13 new supporters but Mordaunt pulled away from the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who added fewer MPs to her tally despite a high-profile launch on Thursday.

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