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

Immigrants who see Israel as enemy ‘not welcome’ in UK says Kemi Badenoch

Robert Jenrick has drawn closer to 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 is beginning to reverse his fate as the annual Conservative Party conference enters its penultimate day.

Some 52 per cent of Tory members preferred Ms Badenoch as Tory leader while 48 per cent backed Mr Jenrick, the poll found.

It comes as fellow Conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat declined to commit to reversing Labour’s cuts to winter fuel payments if he becomes 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.”

The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

Key Points

• Cleverly and Jenrick face Tory members on penultimate conference day
• Civil service chief Simon Case to stand down at end of year on health grounds
• Badenoch compares herself to Thatcher over misrepresented maternity claim
• Liz Truss repeats ‘it wasn’t me’ defence for mini-budget
• Truss describes Tory leadership contenders as useless

[1 October 2024 07:00 · Holly Evans]

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:

[1 October 2024 06:00 · Holly Evans]

Robert Jenrick says Star of David should be displayed at every point of entry to the UK

Robert Jenrick has said the Star of David should be displayed at every point of entry to the UK to show “we stand with Israel”.

The Tory leadership frontrunner told a Conservative Friends of Israel event he wanted Britain to be “the most welcoming country in the world for Israelis and the Jewish community”.

He said that, while immigration minister, he had pushed for Israelis travelling to Britain to be able to use e-gates. He said this would mean that at “every airport and point of entry to our great country”, there was a Star of David, as a “symbol that we support Israel”.

Read the full article here:

[1 October 2024 05:00 · Holly Evans]

Liz Truss tried to play the (‘anyone but me’) blame game – but (guess what!) she blew that, too

I don’t know which would be worse: if it turned out that Liz Truss didn’t actually believe a word she says and was just trying to kowtow to the lowest common denominator – or if she really is just... like that.

At a fringe event held by the Telegraph on day two of the Tory conference, the former prime minister faced questions from journalist and historian Tim Stanley, in a format he jokingly compared to the infamous Frost/Nixon interviews.

While the event itself didn’t make any clearer the true depths of her political convictions, what it did make clear is that Truss is on a one-woman mission to “save the Western world” – although, based on the content of her answers, it seems like “the Western world” is just a fun nickname for “her own reputation”. Actually, maybe it wasn’t so clear after all.

Read the full article here:

[1 October 2024 04:00 · Holly Evans]

Who should be the next leader of the Tory party? Join The Independent Debate

[1 October 2024 03:00 · Holly Evans]

Fake tan, friendship beads and Bobby J hats handed out to win over Tories

Attendees of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham have seen the four leadership hopefuls wanting to replace Rishi Sunak handing out all manner of merchandise - from lollipops to beauty products.

Although freebies and gifts have left Sir Keir Starmer and his government under increased scrutiny recently, the potential future leaders of the opposition have not been able to give merch away quickly enough to draw in Tory support.

While the usual fare of pens, badges and stickers are all available, each one - Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly - has tried to beat the competition with eye-catching gimmicks.

Read the full article here:

[1 October 2024 02:00 · Holly Evans]

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:

[1 October 2024 01:00 · Holly Evans]

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:

[1 October 2024 00:00 · Holly Evans]

Which Conservative candidate’s merchandise is most popular at Tory party conference?

[30 September 2024 23:00 · Holly Evans]

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:

[30 September 2024 22:00 · Holly Evans]

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: