UK politics live: Cleverly knocked out in huge Tory leadership shock to set up Badenoch and Jenrick clash
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick locked in final battle to replace Rishi Sunak as new leader
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In a shocking turn of events, James Cleverly has been eliminated of the Tory leadership race, leaving Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch to face a vote of the party membership.
The ex-home secretary was in a leading position to make it through the latest stage after leapfrogging former frontrunner Mr Jenrick to first place on Tuesday.
But Tory MPs decided to knock him out after Tom Tugendhat, a former security minister and favourite of the One Nation caucus of Tory MPs, also lost the race on Tuesday.
Ms Badenoch emerged as the frontrunner in the final vote, securing 42 votes from MPs and positioning herself as strong contender to succeed Rishi Sunak.
Mr Jenrick closely trailed behind with 41 votes, while Mr Cleverly’s campaign took a dramatic downturn result with just 37 votes.
The final two MPs will now face an online ballot of Tory members from 10 to 31 October, with the winner of the contest announced on 2 November.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer faced a grilling from Rishi Sunak in his first PMQs since reshuffling his Downing Street leadership team, after Sue Gray’s shock exit as his chief of staff.
UK falls further behind the US in educating world leaders, study shows
The UK has fallen further behind the United States in a league table of the countries that educate the most serving world leaders who studied abroad.
Of the current serving presidents, prime ministers and monarchs educated at a university outside their own home country, 70 received higher education in the US compared to 58 in the UK.
The gap between the US and the UK is the largest it has been since the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank first launched the annual “soft-power index” in 2017.
Nick Hillman, director of Hepi, has warned that the gap between these two countries could widen further in future years because of the former UK Government’s immigration policies affecting international students.
He told the PA news agency: “We have sowed the seeds for our own further relative decline and we have done it knowingly.”
UK-Mauritius deal ‘second great betrayal of the Chagossian people’
The UK’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been described as the “second great betrayal of the Chagossian people”.
The Chagos Islands have been in British hands for more than 200 years, but after Mauritius gained independence from France in the late 1960s, the inhabitants of the islands were forcibly expelled to make way for a UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
Many Chagossians now live in the UK, Mauritius or the Seychelles, but the new deal will make way for them to be able to return to the islands, except Diego Garcia itself.
Shadow Foreign Office minister Lord Callanan said: “The transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius is a shameful day for our country.
“This is the second great betrayal of the Chagossian people under a Labour Government.
“In 1967, Harold Wilson’s Government forcibly evicted the Chagossian people from their homes.
“Now, in 2024, the Chagossians, who have no say in these negotiations, have been handed over to a foreign power that is in many ways different from their culture and lifestyles.”
Chicken manure has turned river into ‘sewage dump’, Parliament told
A British waterway has been turned into a sewage dump by “chicken shit”, Parliament has been told.
The stark assessment of pollution in the River Wye and its main cause was highlighted at Westminster by long-time resident Lord Lipsey. The Labour peer said he had lived with his wife in the Wye Valley in Wales for nearly 30 years and went wild swimming in the river, but told how it was a “deteriorating experience”.
The Wye, which runs for 130 miles from central Wales to the Severn Estuary in south-west England, was downgraded by Natural England to “unfavourable” for wildlife in 2023 after years of exposure to agricultural pollution and phosphates.
Lord Lipsey raised his concerns as peers debated reforms aimed at cracking down on the discharge of sewage into Britain’s rivers and coastal waters.
He said: “Why has this happened? There are various causes, but overwhelmingly the most important is – I use the word, whatever the risk of offending – chicken shit.
“Something like 80% of the pollution in the Wye is caused by chicken shit that is not moved off the farms, lies on the fields and is driven by water into the stream, where it does untold harm.”
Watch: Starmer says Falklands are British and will remain British
Landlords selling up could force renters into temporary accommodation, MP warns
Unfit homes could be “the least of the problems” if landlords sell up, a Conservative MP has warned during a Renters’ Rights Bill debate.
Rebecca Smith told MPs she had heard from a constituent with 89 properties who planned to sell his homes, which she feared could land renters in the temporary accommodation system.
The Government-backed Bill proposes an end to no-fault evictions and a ban on bidding wars, along with new requirements for landlords to address hazards such as damp and mould.
Ms Smith, the MP for South West Devon, told the Commons on Wednesday: “The fact that the homes are not necessarily always fit to live in is almost the least of the problems because … if there are are no homes to live in, the people do not have anywhere to be.”
MPs suggest rental reform tweak to offer security for tenants with pets
Rental reforms should be strengthened to remove the risk of pets being forced out midway through a tenancy agreement, MPs have heard.
The Renters’ Rights Bill’s second reading, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told the Commons: “Pets aren’t just animals, but family too and that is why this Bill will also make it easier for tenants to request to have a pet in their home.
“It will also allow landlords to require insurance covering pet damage, so that everyone is covered and no-one is left unfairly out of pocket.”
Ms Rayner said “there is a balance”, joking: “I think there is a reasonableness, as long as it’s not a parrot that speaks all night and has antisocial behaviour, I think everyone will agree that that will be a good thing.”
Labour MP Chris Vince (Harlow), who owns a dog, later told the debate: “I would really emphasise how important a pet is to a family and the emotional bond that they create.
“Being pushed to choose between a roof over your head and your family is not a choice anyone should have to make.”
How will tribunals assess market rate rents? Asks Labour backbencher
A Labour backbencher has urged ministers to say how tribunals set up to assess if rent rises are fair will calculate what the “market rate” is.
Antonia Bance, who previously worked as head of campaigns for housing and homelessness charity Shelter, said she welcomed the Bill and was “proud” to support it, but wanted more information from the Government.
The Bill was getting its second reading in the Commons, with a vote due to take place on Wednesday evening.
The MP for Tipton and Wednesbury said: “I say to renters today, ‘we’ve got your backs, you will be able to stay in your homes, this will be law inside the year. Take heart’.
“If the landlord tries to raise the rent so high as to amount to a de facto eviction, renters will finally have recourse. They can go to a tribunal and stop a rent rise above market rates.
“I will gently say to the minister that it will be good to understand how the tribunal will find out what market rates are, because we all know that looking at Rightmove won’t help. That’s only new lets, not all lets in an area.”
Carla Denyer says councils beed more money to enforce new renting laws
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer has said that councils need to be given money to enforce new measures that will be introduced in the Renters’ Rights Bill.
According to the Bill, which is getting its second reading in parliament on Wednesday, local authorities will be able to fine landlords if they break the proposed laws.
This includes landlords reletting or marketing their property within three months of a no-fault eviction or encouraging a bidding war between tenants for properties that would drive rents up.
Ms Denyer said: “We must properly fund our local councils who are the ones who will enforce these new rights, because councils on the brink of bankruptcy after 14 years of swingeing cuts are obviously going to struggle to deliver this part of the policy.”
Rayner pledges ‘justice and fairness for all’ as part of reforms for renters
Angela Rayner has promised to do everything she can to fix the “scandalous” issue of renters living in unsafe homes and provide “social justice and fairness for all”, as she set out the Government’s plans to improve protections for tenants.
The Deputy Prime Minister said every renter should have a secure home and promised to end no-fault evictions as part of the Renters’ Rights Bill.
The Bill also aims to put tenants in a stronger position to challenge unreasonable rent increases and place restrictions on landlords to ensure they can only raise rent once a year at the market rate.
Opening the second reading debate, Ms Rayner told the Commons: “I hope the entire House will agree that everyone should live in a decent, safe and affordable home. Everyone should, but not everyone can.
“This is why I have put decency at the heart of my plans for housing and taken the steps to ensure that all homes are warm and safe, and nowhere is that more needed than in the private rented sector.”
Focusing on ECHR ‘shuts down conversations’, says Badenoch
Focusing on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) “shuts down the conversation we need to have with the entire country”, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Tory leadership hopeful told broadcasters: “What I talked about in my conference speech and when I launched my campaign is we need to talk about everything.
“We need to talk about the system, which I think is broken. I think Labour are having problems because they are working with a broken system.”
She added: “It can’t just be about one little part of immigration policy.
“We need to lower immigration, that’s part of the story, but just talking about the ECHR is going to shut down the conversation that we need to have with the entire country.”
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