Category Archives: Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch flying to Switzerland to discuss post-Brexit trade deal

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Business and trade secretary to meet Swiss counterpart on Monday to boost trade between two ‘services superpowers’

Kemi Badenoch will fly to Switzerland on Monday for talks with her Swiss counterpart on a new post-Brexit trade deal, describing the two countries as “natural trading partners”.

The business and trade secretary is meeting Guy Parmelin in Berne to discuss a “modern” UK-Switzerland free trade agreement (FTA) that would boost trade between two “services superpowers”, she said.

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Kemi Badenoch criticised by ERG chief and other Tories over ‘massive climbdown’ on retained EU law – UK politics live

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Business and trade secretary answers urgent question in Commons on retained EU law

Sir William Cash, chair of the European scrutiny committee, used his follow-up to his urgent question to say that Kemi Badenoch has declined three times to appear before this committee to discuss this issue.

He said the new amendments to the bill announced yesterday have not been scrutinised by the Commons.

The amendments published today, apart from her very short written ministerial statement yesterday and her article in the press today, are not accompanied by any explanation to this house despite the utter reversal in vital respects to the bill as passed by this elected house, why not?

The amendments have not been subjected to any analysis or questioning by this house, which is now essential given the fundamental change in government policy. This house is being treated in a manner which is clearly inconsistent with clear promises already made.

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Archbishop of Canterbury’s attack on illegal migration bill ‘wrong on both counts’, says minister – as it happened

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Justin Welby says bill is ‘morally unacceptable’ and rules on protection of refugees are not ‘inconvenient obstructions’. This live blog is closed

In the House of Lords peers are just starting to debate the second reading of the illegal migration bill.

Simon Murray, aka Lord Murray of Blidworth, is opening the debate. He is a lawyer who was made a Home Office minister, and a peer, when Liz Truss was PM.

We now face a perfect storm of factors driving more people into homelessness while giving us fewer good options to help them when they do. These factors include soaring private rents (above the benefit cap), private landlords leaving the sector, a national shortage of affordable housing, and a backlog of court cases after Covid-relating housing support was removed. At the same time, we have a cost-of-living crisis which is reducing real-term incomes and putting further strain on relationships.

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Florida’s rightwing governor Ron DeSantis backs Kemi Badenoch’s ‘war on woke’

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Republican expected to run for nomination supports UK business secretary’s attempt to stop the left ‘corrupting British society’

Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, has backed UK business secretary Kemi Badenoch in taking on what he calls “the woke”.

DeSantis, who is expected to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, met Badenoch and foreign secretary James Cleverly on a visit to London this week.

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Pacific trade deal is more useful to Joe Biden than it is to the UK’s economy

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Hailed by Tory MPs as a Brexit benefit, CPTPP membership actually turns the UK into a willing pawn in Washington’s geopolitical game

Tory MPs hailed the UK’s entry last week into the Indo-Pacific trading bloc as a major step on the road to re-establishing Britain as a pioneer of free trade.

It was a coup for Rishi Sunak, said David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Eurosceptics, who was excited to be aligned with “some of the most dynamic economies in the world”.

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Kemi Badenoch casts doubt on growth projections for Asia-Pacific trade deal

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Comments threaten to worsen already tense relationship between senior ministers and civil servants

Kemi Badenoch has cast doubt on her department’s projections for how much the Asia-Pacific trade deal the UK government has signed will help economic growth.

The government announced overnight it had joined the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), which includes Australia and Japan, after two years of negotiations.

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Kemi Badenoch dismisses idea of trialling menopause leave because it was proposed ‘from a leftwing perspective’ – as it happened

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Minister for women and equalities dismisses suggestion government should pilot menopause leave for women

PMQs is about to start.

Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s chief whip, has said that he thinks the Stormont brake – the mechanism at the heart of Rishi Sunak’s deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol – will turn out to be “fairly ineffective”.

Let’s not underestimate the fact that when the EU introduces new laws in the future, it will have an impact on Northern Ireland. And the point of the brake was meant to be to give a means for unionists to oppose that. I think it will have to be used on lots of occasions, though I suspect to be fairly ineffective.

As long as it takes us to get, first of all, the analysis, and secondly, the answers from the government, before we make that decision, that’s the time we’ll take.

But the one thing I’ll say to you is that we will not have a knee-jerk reaction to this deal. It means too much to us. And we have got to give it real consideration.

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PMQs live: Sunak faces Starmer as minister says rail strikes have cost more than settling pay dispute

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Prime minister facing questions from leader of the Labour party and other MPs

Huw Merriman, the rail minister, told MPs this morning that the government has lost more money due to the impact of rail strikes than it would have cost to settle the disputes months ago, PA Media reports. PA says:

Merriman told MPs the row has “ended up costing more” but insisted the “overall impact” on all public sector pay deals must be considered.

Ben Bradshaw, a Labour member of the committee, put it to Merriman that “we’re talking of a cost to the government of over a billion (pounds) so far” from the impact of strikes, which have repeatedly decimated services for several months.

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Jeremy Hunt fails to quash claims Treasury vetoed pay offer that may have averted rail strikes – UK politics live

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Chancellor did not contest claim when asked whether his department blocked a pay rise of around 10% for rail workers

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has refused to quash claims that the Treasury vetoed a pay offer that may have led to a resolution of the rail strike.

Last month the Daily Telegraph claimed that the Department for Transport wanted to offer rail workers a rise worth between 8% and 9% over two year, but that it was prevented from doing so by the Treasury.

There is unanimity across the government in that it wants high inflation to be temporary, and I think there is understanding that that is essential for the very people who are feeling most angry about their situation.

We have to be really careful not to agree to pay demands that have the opposite of the intended effect because they lock in high inflation.

So if we make the wrong choices now, we won’t have that 3.7% of inflation in January or February of 2024 and this will change from being a one-off problem, to being a permanent problem, which will be the worst possible thing for people working in public services. That is why it’s generally a very difficult issue.

I would urge everyone to boycott Netflix and make sure that we actually focus on the things that matter.

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Huge margin of support gives Rishi Sunak a free hand in choosing cabinet

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New prime minister likely to prioritise unity in offering ministerial jobs, although leading Trussites can expect the chop

Rishi Sunak has pledged to build a cabinet of all the talents but, given the swiftness of the leadership competition, relatively little has been briefed about his potential cabinet.

His team say no roles have been promised to any backers and Sunak was in the enviable position as the frontrunner of not needing to promise roles to anyone.

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Liz Truss quits: candidates to be prime minister must have at least 100 nominations from Tory MPs – live

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Nominations for next Tory leader will close at 2pm on Monday before next prime minister is confirmed on 28 October

• Liz Truss to quit as prime minister – full story

Attempting to steady the ship is Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, who has told PA news agency that the chaos over the fracking vote had been a “storm in a teacup”, and that the appointment of Shapps could strengthen Truss’s position.

“The [Suella] Braverman issue is rather more fundamental, but I think on balance it’s possible the prime minister might come out of it actually stronger rather than weaker,” he is quoted as saying. “We need people in the government who are grown-up and experienced and understand real politics.”

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‘Arghhhhhhhhh’: the 10 angriest Tories at Conservative conference

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Never have so many angry things been said by so many Tories about each other in a single day as on Monday. We rank the 10 most irate MPs

This piece is extracted from our First Edition newsletter. To sign up, click here.


The Tories assembled in Birmingham are fighting over lots of things. They’re fighting over the 45p tax U-turn, and the prospect of a swingeing benefit cut, and whether or not it’s OK for the Home Secretary to accuse backbenchers of mounting a coup. But above all, deep down, they’re mostly fighting about whether Liz Truss has got what it takes. There may never have been so many angry things said by so many Tories about each other in a single day as there were on Monday. It’s not the ideal introduction for the most important speech of Liz Truss’ life.

Some of them are angrily making headlines by saying exactly what they bloody well think; others are angrily making headlines by telling the first lot to put a sock in it. The mood is a little delirious. An amazing video appeared on Tuesday of at least three people appearing to sleep soundly through health secretary Thérèse Coffey’s speech in the main hall, but on Wednesday morning I find myself wondering if they weren’t obscure backbenchers who somebody had poisoned.

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Liz Truss cabinet predictions: who could be in and who would lose out?

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Analysis: Kwasi Kwarteng and Thérèse Coffey could be among the big winners if Truss becomes PM

Liz Truss has three weeks before she is likely to walk through No 10’s black door as prime minister, facing a difficult in-tray. Here we take a look at how senior roles could shape up.

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Sunak accuses Truss of major U-turn after she says she will do ‘all I can to help struggling households’ with fuel bills – UK politics live

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Tory leadership contender says rival had previously dismissed direct support as ‘handouts’

Suella Braverman, the attorney general, is giving a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on equalities and rights. There is a live feed here.

In a preview of the speech published in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman says she wants to clarify the law on trans rights as it applies in schools. She says:

When it comes to gender-questioning children, we should always have compassion. At the same time, our compassion should never blind us to the harm it is possible to do to children by misplaced affirmation. Many schools and teachers believe – incorrectly – that they are under an absolute legal obligation to treat children who are gender questioning according to the preference of the child. Many are scared of the consequences of not doing so.

I want to make it clear that it is possible, within the law, for schools to refuse to use the preferred opposite-sex pronouns of a child.

The UK and partners have condemned in the strongest terms China’s escalation in the region around Taiwan, as seen through our recent G7 statement.

I instructed officials to summon the Chinese ambassador to explain his country’s actions.

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Righter than right: Tories’ hardline drift may lose the public

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Polls suggest leadership race may be going further than even Conservatives might want on immigration, economy and climate

It is a thread running through the Conservative leadership campaign, as shown through the apparent desire to be toughest on asylum seekers, the biggest advocate of tax cuts, sceptical about net zero measures: this is a party that feels like it has shifted decisively to the right.

Some argue the arms race of populist policies from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak exemplifies a new Conservatism, one fundamentally altered by Brexit and Boris Johnson, which has gradually absorbed the priorities of those who used to support Ukip.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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’

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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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