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Kemi Badenoch has warned that Tory members will be “very angry” if MPs take part in a “stitch-up” to lend votes to other candidates to keep her out of the top two in the leadership contest.
Allies of Ms Badenoch claim she is the victim of a “dirty tricks” campaign, with Robert Jenrick in effect lending votes to James Cleverly, which the former has strongly denied.
Asked whether she believed Mr Jenrick was taking this approach, she told The Times: “I think that may be happening. But what else is happening is that there is tactical voting. We’re also operating in an environment where people have friends — people who they’ve worked with, people they owe favours to.”
Meanwhile, the Labour Party was shocked as Rosie Duffield quit as one of its MPs, launching an attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s “cruel and unnecessary policies” and the freebies row.
Ms Duffield, who will sit as an independent, slated Sir Keir’s acceptance of more than £100,000 of clothes, glasses and accommodation from Labour peer Waheed Alli.
In her resignation letter, she wrote: “The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale.”
Rosie Duffield quits Labour with damning attack on Starmer
James Cleverly says no taxpayer should pay over half their earnings
James Cleverly has said that no taxpayer should have to hand over more than half their earnings to the state, and warned against Labour’s tax-raising plans which could see people leave the UK.
The shadow home secretary is one of the four final contenders for the Tory leadership, is set to lay out his vision for the party during their annual conference in Birmingham this week. In an article with The Telegraph, he said the party had to restore its reputation for tax-cutting and deregulation.
“Instead of putting people off we should be attracting them, with a low, fair, and simple tax rate. We should send the signal that Britain is open for work, not that you work for Britain.
“Ensuring that no one pays more than half of any pound that they earn to the government should be a common Conservative aspiration.”
Tory Party conference: John Rentoul answers your questions
With a leadership contest looming and the Conservatives facing tough decisions on the party’s strategy, join John Rentoul, The Independent’s chief political commentator, for a live Q&A.
For more information, read this article:
Is this the moment that Rachel Reeves put ‘what works’ before dogma?
This could be the moment that the Labour government started to find its feet. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is “ready to water down” her tax raid on non-doms because the Treasury fears that it may “fail to raise any money”, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The timing of this realisation is interesting, the day after the end of the Labour conference at which the news might have been greeted with howls of “betrayal” from the marginalised, but still vocal, usual suspects.
But what is important about this U-turn is that it means the cold light of realism has been allowed to penetrate the pie-in-the-sky slogans of Labour’s pre-election economics.
Read the full article here now:
Revealed: Starmer’s ‘three pillar’ blueprint to rebuild EU ties with youth mobility a negotiating chip
Read the full article here:
Security ramps up ahead of Tory conference in Birmingham
Security measures have been ramped up around Birmingham city centre as the Conservative Party Conference gets under way.
The annual conference is an opportunity for the four candidates in the Tory leadership race to convince members to pledge their support. Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat are all hoping to take over from Rishi Sunak, with MPs due to vote for the final two after they return to parliament.
Armed police and high-visibility patrols are visible around the International Convention Centre (ICC), with access to roads around the centre blocked until Friday, 4 October.
Access to Broad Street, Great Charles Street, Street, Sandpits, Parade, Clement Street, St Vincent Street, Sheepcote Street and Oozells Way will be restricted so those travelling in via bus or tram are being encouraged to allow more time for journeys.
Bus services affected include 9, 12, 12A, 13, 13A, 126, X8, X10, 23 and 24.
Resetting UK-EU relationship will ‘not be easy’, Starmer says
Securing a closer trading relationship with the European Union will not be easy but it is possible, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Prime Minister will head to Brussels next week for talks with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen as he pushes for a “reset” in the UK’s relationship with the EU.
Sir Keir also believes more can be done on defence and security and tackling the migrant crisis.
“I want to ensure that we’ve got a closer trading relationship if we can,” the Prime Minister said.
“I think it’s possible. I’m not going to pretend it’s easy, but I think it’s possible.”
Is the Tory conference worth paying attention to this year?
Dazed, confused, but with more than a hint of defiance (foolish or otherwise), the Conservatives meet for their party conference in Birmingham with some important business to transact.
The official theme is “Review and Rebuild”, which sounds about right. Given their fratricidal tendencies, however, and the spectral presence of Boris Johnson through the medium of his memoir Unleashed, it could easily descend into acrimony. The Tories may not be too relevant right now, but it will be entertaining…
Read the full article here:
Boris Johnson thought he ‘might have carked it’ in intensive care
Former prime minister Boris Johnson believed he “might have carked it” when he was in intensive care with Covid without the “skills and experience” of his nurses, according to an extract of his memoir.
Mr Johnson spent several days in intensive care with Covid in April 2020. In the extract of his Unleashed book published in the Daily Mail, he described not wanting to fall asleep on his first night in intensive care “partly in case I never woke up”.
He also recalled feeling “rotten” with “guilt” and “political embarrassment” in the days before he was admitted to hospital.
The nurses caring for Mr Johnson on his first night in intensive care were “Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal,” he recalled.
Following his release from hospital, the then prime minister spent some time at Chequers with his now-wife Carrie, and he recalled joining in with the clap for the NHS on a Thursday evening.
Robert Jenrick says he wants to ‘put Nigel Farage out of business’
Immigration has so far featured heavily in the leadership campaign, with frontrunner Mr Jenrick making it a centrepiece of his campaign and arguing the party’s defeat was because it broke its promises on immigration.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, he said he wanted to “put Nigel Farage out of business” and described Reform as “a symptom not a cause”.
He said: “It exists in its current state because my party failed. We made promises on issues that millions of people…small ‘c’ conservatives like me, care passionately about, like controlled and reduced immigration, like securing our borders, and we didn’t deliver on those promises.”
Source: independent.co.uk
