UK politics live: Jenrick cuts Badenoch Tory poll lead as Tugendhat won’t guarantee winter fuel reversal
Former PM Liz Truss dismissed claims that her mini-budget was to blame for the disastrous state of the economy
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Robert Jenrick has overtaken Kemi Badenoch by four points in a head-to-head poll of Conservative members.
Mr Jenrick was almost 20 points behind the former business secretary six weeks ago. However, a new YouGov poll has shown the former immigration minister has reversed his fate as the annual Conservative Party Conference enters its penultimate day.
Some 52 per cent of Tory members preferred Mrs Badenoch as Tory leader while 48 per cent backed Mr Jenrick, the YouGov poll found.
It comes as fellow conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat declined to commit to reverse Labour’s cuts to the winter fuel payments, if leader of the party.
He said he would not “undermine” his promise to restore trust in politics by writing a budget “four years’ out.”
The shadow security minister told LBC: “I’m not going to write a budget for four years’ time. You know that it wouldn’t be honest for me to do so.
“I’m not going to promise to restore trust and immediately undermine it by making promises that are four years’ out… there’s no way that anyone can write it at this stage.”
The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
Watch: Tory leadership hopefuls Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat address party conference
Tom Tugendhat says he does not accept the term ‘climate emergency’ in attack on Labour policies
Tory Party conference: John Rentoul answers your questions – from the next leader to winning back voters
The UK is in desperate need of an effective opposition
Jonathan Gullis complains he can’t get a job as a teacher because he’s a Tory
Unemployed ex-Tory MP blames ‘woke agenda’ for being unable to find job
A former Tory MP has complained he has not been able to get a teaching job because of the “woke agenda entrenching the education sector”.
Jonathan Gullis said he has been unemployed since losing his Stoke-on-Trent North and claimed his political views have stopped him from getting interviews.
The outspoken ex-deputy chairman of the Tories said being a conservative is “treated with disdain” among teachers.
Read the full article here:
Unemployed ex-Tory MP blames ‘woke agenda’ for being unable to find job
Jonathan Gullis said he had applied for dozens of teaching jobs since losing his Stoke-on-Trent North seat
Kemi Badenoch praises Israel’s ‘amazing’ defence tactics
Kemi Badenoch has praised Israel’s defence tactics, saying that they did an “amazing thing with the pagers”.
Earlier this month, Hezbollah suffered an attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies that killed dozens of people and wounded around 3,000 – including many fighters but also many civilians.
Israel has appeared to deny involvement with the fatal incident, with its president Isaac Herzog saying he “rejects out of hand any connection” to the operation.
Read the full article here:
Kemi Badenoch praises Israel’s ‘amazing’ defence tactics
Speaking at the Tory party conference, Ms Badenoch said she is ‘very sympathetic to the Israeli argument’ because they are ‘always criticised’.
Which Conservative candidate’s merchandise is most popular at Tory party conference?
Liz Truss claims she would have secured better Tory result at general election than Rishi Sunak
Liz Truss has claimed that the Tories would have performed better at July’s general election if she had clung on as prime minister.
The ex-PM, who sensationally lost her seat in the party’s landslide defeat, said that if she had not been forced out of Downing Street in the wake of her disastrous September 2022 mini-Budget, she would have secured a better result for the Conservatives than Rishi Sunak.
In a packed event on the sidelines of the Tory conference, Ms Truss admitted that winning the general election would have been “a tall order”.
Read the full article here:
Liz Truss claims she would have done better than Rishi Sunak at general election
Former PM claims she could have delivered better result for Tories if she had clung on to power
New mums like me should be grateful to Kemi Badenoch – but not because she’s talking sense
I didn’t expect to feel grateful to Kemi Badenoch this morning.
The Conservative leadership candidate’s comments – in which she suggested statutory maternity pay had “gone too far”, and that people should take “more personal responsibility” before having children – initially evoked a violent fury made worse by my four-month-old having only allowed me four hours of broken sleep.
After a bit more kip, however, I’ve decided I actually feel oddly thankful to Badenoch – for inadvertently highlighting an issue that’s the bane of many women’s lives: that statutory maternity leave is not just insufficient but insulting, too.
Read the full article here:
New mums should be grateful to Kemi Badenoch – but not because she’s talking sense
With her comments about ‘excessive’ statutory maternity pay, the Conservative leadership candidate has kickstarted a national debate about how little we value mothers, says Chloe Hamilton
Chancellor ‘sees more black holes than Mr Spock’, says Tom Tugendhat
Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves “sees more black holes than Mr Spock”, a Conservative leadership hopeful has claimed.
Tom Tugendhat said October’s Budget could “destroy growth” in the UK and he branded VAT on private schools a “vindictive and nasty policy”.
The shadow security minister faces Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in his party’s leadership contest, with Rishi Sunak’s successor due to be announced on November 2.
Taking questions on the Conservative Party conference main stage in Birmingham on Monday, Mr Tugendhat said: “This is going to be one of the most consequential budgets in our lifetime. This is going to be a Budget that takes us back to the 1970s not forward to the future.
“This is a Budget that is going to destroy growth, destroy opportunity and destroy hope for people, and don’t just take my word for it, look at what’s happening right now.”
The UK is in desperate need of an effective opposition
If the atmosphere at the Labour conference was a good deal less euphoric than might have been expected for a party just returning to government on the back of a landslide majority after 14 years in the wilderness, the mood among Conservatives as they assembled in Birmingham was a little more upbeat than might have been predicted, given the scale of the party’s election defeat.
This slight uplift, however, largely reflected the missteps of the new government in its first weeks, rather than any achievement of the Conservatives over the same time.
Read the full editorial here:
The UK is in desperate need of an effective opposition
Editorial: The country needs not just a strong government with the integrity and service ethic that the prime minister initially promised, but a Conservative front bench capable of holding them to account
Starmer thanks Simon Case for his ‘years of service to our country'
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has thanked the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case for his “support” and “years of service to our country” after it was announced he will step down at the end of the year.
In a statement on Monday evening, Sir Keir said: “I have been very fortunate to be able to draw on Simon’s advice in my first weeks and months as Prime Minister and so I know that we are losing a public servant of the highest calibre. I want to take this opportunity to thank him personally for his support – and more fundamentally for his many years of service to our country.
“It is right that Simon takes time now to focus on his health, and he should know that he does so with the well wishes of this Government and all those who he has served during a truly remarkable career.
“In addition to supporting the government of the day, he has played a vital role in the accession of His Majesty King Charles, helped to modernise the civil service during a period of great political and technological change, and overseen the first transition of power between parties in over a decade.
“By any measure, he has made a distinguished contribution to our nation, and for that he has our sincere gratitude”.
Tories have problem when recruiting young women, says shadow minister
The Conservatives have a “fundamental problem” when it comes to recruiting young women to the party, the shadow minister for women and equalities has said.
Mims Davies said the number of women wanting to work for and with the party is “diminishing”, and called for pride in being a Conservative woman to be boosted.
At the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Ms Davies also argued that it’s “much harder to come out as a Tory than anything else”, whilst suggesting that Tory members could meet the love of their life at the annual event.
Speaking at a Women 2 Win fringe event, Ms Davies said: “I think we’ve got an existential crisis when it comes to the women vote, I don’t think women know what we stand for and how we support women, and therefore the candidates pool and the people who want to work with us is diminishing.
“Whoever gets into number 10 is decided by the women’s vote, that is the reality.
“So if we do not capture that turnout, we cannot win, and that’s why we often find ourselves languishing in terms of those majorities.”
Tom Tugendhat says he does not accept the term ‘climate emergency’ in attack on Labour policies
Tom Tugendhat said he doesn’t accept the term “climate emergency”, dubbing Ed Miliband’s plan for state-backed energy company “completely insane”.
Great British Energy will provide £8.3m of funding for renewable power projects across the UK and shield consumers from international market shocks. the new Labour government has said.
But speaking on the main stage at Monday’s Conservative Party conference, Mr Tugendhat claimed Mr Miliband’s policies were going to “destroy Britain”, adding: “Every single project he’s got is designed to make electricity and power more expensive, harder to get and to make us more vulnerable to foreign dictators.”
Read the full article here now:
Tom Tugendhat says he does not accept the term ‘climate emergency’
The leadership contender claimed Ed Miliband’s policies are going to ‘destroy Britain’ as he criticised the plans for a state-owned energy company
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