UK politics live: Top Tories turn on Jenrick after ‘astonishing’ claims SAS are ‘killing terrorists’
Leadership rival Tom Tugendhat says he is “extremely concerned” at Mr Jenrick’s remarks, while fellow contender James Cleverly urged him to justify his statement
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Robert Jenrick has drawn criticism for his own colleagues for doubling-down on a claim that UK special forces are “killing rather than capturing terrorists”.
The frontrunner to replace Rishi Sunak defended his assertion that the military is taking lethal action because of fears that European laws would free any detained assailants as “absolutely correct”.
Leadership rival Tom Tugendhat said he was “extremely concerned” at Mr Jenrick’s remarks, while fellow contender James Cleverly urged him to justify his statement.
It was put to the former immigration minister that he is unable to back up his claim, to which he replied BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Of course I’m not going to elaborate on particular cases because these things, these cases are not things that any minister or foreign minister can speak about.”
Former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve described the clip as “one of the most astonishing videos I have ever seen posted by a Conservative MP, let alone a candidate for the leadership”.
A Labour source said: “Robert Jenrick’s ludicrous attempt to politicise our special forces shows you how far the Tories have fallen. He should apologise. Our brave servicemen and women deserve better than this.”
The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the <em>Conservative Party conference</em> in Birmingham.
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VOICES | Unleashed? No, it’s more like Boris: Unashamed
Johnson doesn’t even seem prepared to meet the truth halfway, writes Sean O’Grady. Instead, the former PM’s so-called ‘explosive’ memoir seems to have pre-detonated in the hands of the author:
Unleashed? No, it’s more like Boris: Unashamed (as well as smug and lazy)
Johnson doesn’t even seem prepared to meet the truth halfway, writes Sean O’Grady. Instead, the former PM’s so-called ‘explosive’ memoir seems to have pre-detonated in the hands of the author
Cleverly says ‘stop the boats’ messaging was an error
James Cleverly has said the “stop the boats” messaging was an error as it set an “unachievable target” to completely eliminate small boat crossings.
The former home secretary was asked at a Tory conference fringe event why he failed to stop small boats of migrants crossing the channel, and how effective his communication about the policy had been.
He said: “I think the phrase stop the boats was an error.
“It distilled a very, very complicated and challenging problem into a soundbite.
“The implication – not the implication, I suppose the self-imposed yardstick – was even one boat was a failure, and that was an unachievable target.”
He added: “One of my frustrations was that we failed to communicate our successes in the home office portfolio and, unsurprisingly therefore, everyone believed we had succeeded in nothing.”
Mr Cleverly was home secretary from November 2023 until the Tories’ election defeat in July this year.
‘Sorry millionaires,’ Badenoch not bringing back winter fuel payment for all
Asked if she would bring back the winter fuel payment, Kemi Badenoch said: “Certainly to a lot of them. Not millionaires, sorry, millionaires.”
“The real issue with winter fuel is that we are making energy more expensive, Government makes energy more expensive. So if it’s doing that then it needs to look after those who don’t earn enough or can’t increase their earnings.”
Young Tory explains what Conservatives need to do to make political comeback
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