Kemi Badenoch’s allies have claimed she is the victim of a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign by other Tory leadership hopefuls (PA Wire)
Holly Evans28 September 2024 11:28
1727517614Russell Findlay picks Rachael Hamilton as Scottish Tories deputy leader
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has said his new deputy leader will “play a key role” in changing the party.
Mr Findlay, who comfortably won the contest to succeed Douglas Ross as the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, appointed MSP Rachael Hamilton to the post.
She takes over from Meghan Gallacher, who had stood against Mr Findlay for the party leadership and resigned as deputy partway through the campaign.
Ms Hamilton, the MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, said she was “privileged” to become deputy and “excited” to be part of the party’s new leadership team.
It is Mr Findlay’s first appointment since becoming party leader on Friday, and he said he was “delighted” Ms Hamilton would be deputy leader.
Holly Evans28 September 2024 11:00
1727515745Boris Johnson says he ‘struggled’ to keep straight face during trans debate
In his new memoir, Boris Johnson has recalled his amusement during Penny Mordaunt’s speech that gender recognition for trans people was the “most important issue of our times”.
In an excerpt published in the Daily Mail, he said: “I didn’t catch all the details, but it seemed fairly harrowing stuff, and at one point I heard Penny claim: ‘This is the most important issue of our times.’
“I didn’t always agree with Phil Hammond, but I happened at that moment to catch his eye and to see that he – like me – was struggling to contain his amusement.
“I mean: I could see that this was an issue of huge importance to some people (though surely not that many?) and I could see that it needed to be handled with tact and sensitivity.
“But ‘the most important issue of our times’? Really?”
In his book Unleashed, he wrote that Theresa May had announced “in breathy vicar’s-daughter tones” that Ms Mordaunt had “something very important to talk about”, which led him to question whether Lady May was really Right-wing.
Holly Evans28 September 2024 10:29
1727513805Starmer’s pragmatic approach to government is proving to be what’s best for the country
Almost three months into his administration, Sir Keir Starmer’s self-styled “British pragmatism” has made a refreshing – indeed invigorating – change from the ideological obsession and grinding search for new culture wars that disfigured politics under the Conservatives.
Such controversies as there have been – notably about the cuts to the winter fuel allowance and policy in the Middle East – have been fact-based and verging on the empirical. The same is true about his efforts to build a personal rapport with Donald Trump, and the apparent willingness to rethink taxing the super-rich non-doms, given reports that the Treasury fears little if any new revenue may be raised by attacking these extremely mobile people.
There is nothing to be gained from taxation that yields no return, and there is even less to be said for failing to get on terms with a man who has a roughly even chance of being the president of the United States of America in about six weeks. The prime minister, in both cases, is placing country firmly before party, even if it means dining on some of his own words as well as Mr Trump’s no doubt excellent banquet.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans28 September 2024 09:56
1727512000Starmer responds after Musk tells people to avoid UK following summit snub
Sir Keir Starmer has responded to Elon Musk after the tech tycoon said people should not go to the UK.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss lashed out at the UK after it was reported he had not been invited to a major investment summit because of his social media posts during the summer riots.
Mr Musk said: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted paedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts.”
Sir Keir, who held a gathering for US business chiefs set to attend the summit while he was in New York, told reporters that Mr Musk’s views were in “stark contrast” to those of the executives he had met.
“There’s a really strong window of opportunity now with the UK, given the changes we’ve brought about, our number one mission on economic growth, and to talk them through the wealth fund, the industrial strategy, what we’re doing in terms of planning, grids, etc,” Sir Keir said.
“So I’m listening good and hard to what they have to say, because they will be attending the summit, and many of them are already investing in the UK.
“On Tesla. Obviously, I encourage investment from anywhere, and so I don’t want to be misunderstood on this. So good investment into the UK is what I’m very, very keen to promote.”
It is understood SpaceX has been invited to send a representative to the summit in October.
Holly Evans28 September 2024 09:26
1727510502The Tories are adrift in the political wilderness – can they ever recover?
True, it’s good news for the Tories if voters think the parties are “all the same” – one likely result of the recent controversy. It will be harder for Labour to play the sleaze card against the Tories at the next election.
All politicians struggle to resist schadenfreude. Yet the biggest mistake the Tories could make would be to assume Labour is doomed to be a one-term government. I recall such Tory complacency in 1997 after Labour’s previous landslide; the Tories lost the following two elections.
Read the full analysis here:
Holly Evans28 September 2024 09:01
1727509377Boris Johnson considered ‘nuts’ plan to raid Dutch warehouse over vaccines row
Former prime minister Boris Johnson considered launching an “aquatic raid” on a warehouse in the Netherlands to retrieve Covid vaccine doses amid a row with Europe, according to an extract from his memoir.
Mr Johnson convened a meeting of senior military officials in March 2021 to discuss the plans, which he admitted were “nuts”, according to an extract from his Unleashed book published in the Daily Mail.
At the time, the AstraZeneca vaccine was at the heart of a cross-Channel row over exports, with the EU lagging behind the pace of the rollout in the UK.
The extract says the deputy chief of the defence staff (military strategy and operations), Lieutenant General Doug Chalmers, told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible”, using rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.
But the senior officer said it would not be possible to do this undetected, with lockdowns meaning the authorities might observe the raid, meaning the UK would “have to explain why we are effectively invading a long-standing Nato ally”.
The former PM admitted: “Of course, I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they all thought but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts.”
Holly Evans28 September 2024 08:42
1727508566SNP calls for investigation into donations from Labour peer
The SNP has asked for an investigation into donations to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Labour MPs by Lord Waheed Alli.
In a letter to the standards commissioners in the House of Commons and House of Lords, SNP MP Brendan O’Hara said the revelations have “become Sir Keir Starmer’s version of the expenses scandal”, and he also wants Lord Alli’s Downing Street pass – that he held for a time after the election – looked into.
Donations from Lord Alli, such as money that was spent on clothing, have been under scrutiny.
Mr O’Hara said that unless the matter is “comprehensively investigated” then it is “inevitable that the damaging drip, drip of revelations will continue to erode public trust”.
He later added: “I believe there now exists a clear and immediate public interest in launching a full and independent investigation into all of Lord Alli’s donations and gifts to the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and Labour Party MPs.
“There must also be an investigation into the decision to give Lord Alli a security pass to Downing Street, and into how – and why – it was used.”
On Friday evening The Guardian reported there were further clothing donations worth a total of £16,000 to Sir Keir by Lord Alli in October 2023 and February 2024. According to the paper, the donations were described as “for the private office of the leader of the opposition”.
Holly Evans28 September 2024 08:29
1727506800What to expect from Tory conference
The 2024 Conservative Party Conference will be a drastically different affair from last year’s gathering in Manchester, when Rishi Sunak’s government was in its dying days.
Back then, ministers announced a slew of eye-catching policies that would reshape the future of the country in a desperate last few roles of the dice – Alex Chalk promising to offshore prisoners, Jeremy Hunt planning to slash the number of civil servants and Rishi Sunak scrapping HS2.
This year, Mr Sunak is a lame duck Tory leader and all eyes will be far from the diminished former prime minister. Instead it will be a four-day battle for the future leadership of the party, with the four remaining contenders thrashing it out to try to win over Tory members.
James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat will be put to the test in a series of hustings and speeches, as well as taking part in intense lobbying and networking behind the scenes in Birmingham with MPs and the party rank and file.
On offer elsewhere will be former Tory MPs, ousted by the public in July’s general election, setting out where they think the party went wrong and what it needs to do next.
High profile names expected to appear are ex-PM Liz Truss, former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and incoming Spectator Editor Michael Gove.
The Independent will be bringing the latest updates and analysis from the conference.
Archie Mitchell, Political Correspondent28 September 2024 08:00
1727506085Boris Johnson Unleashed: No Narcissus ever stared more intently into the limpid waters of self-love
Some have said that these were the nation’s worst years since the Napoleonic wars, and there is one politician who has blazed a meteoric trail across almost every page of this teeming history: Boris Johnson. But only now is he telling his story, for no less than a reported half a million pounds and counting.
At that price, never mind setting the record straight, he’ll have to deliver. But what is in the offing from such a maverick pen? As he might put it, a macédoine of regret, maybe mortification, and dismay? As the first parts of Unleashed are serialised, we finally get a hint of what might be to come.
Read the full review here:
Holly Evans28 September 2024 07:48
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Publish date : 2024-09-27 23:02:00
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