Early evening summary
Two frontrunners to be Conservative party leader have criticised their rivals’ promises to leave the European court of human rights (ECHR) as the contest turns combative with days to go until the first MP is eliminated. As Peter Walker reports, Kemi Badenoch, the former business secretary, and James Cleverly, the former home secretary, both rejected the idea of leaving the ECHR on Monday despite calls from some of their colleagues to do so. Badenoch is generally seen by bookmakers as the favourite, and her launch was praised by commentators. (See 3.12pm.)
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has criticised Cleverly for his comments in parliament this afternoon on the racist rioting that took place last month. Responding to a Commons statement by Cooper about the disorder, Cleverly asked her to accept that the sight of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner taking the knee at the time of the Black Lives Matter protests, “when violent protesters attacked police officers”, made it look as if some forms of violence were less serious than others. Cooper suggested it was foolish to blame something that happened four years ago for the rioting this summer, and she argued that Cleverly was just making these claims to boost his chances in the Tory leadership contest.
Some Tory MPs are more critical of David Lammy’s announcement about some arms sales to Israel being suspended than Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, was. (See 5.34pm.) This is from Oliver Dowden, the former deputy PM.
Very concerned by Labour government decision to suspend some arms export licences to Israel just days after six hostages murdered by Hamas. As MP for Hertsmere I will always support Israel’s right to self defence.
— Oliver Dowden (@OliverDowden) September 2, 2024
Very concerned by Labour government decision to suspend some arms export licences to Israel just days after six hostages murdered by Hamas. As MP for Hertsmere I will always support Israel’s right to self defence.
Updated
The suspension of some UK arms sales to Israel will have little practical impact, but might affect relations between the two countries, the Economist’s Anshel Pfeffer reports on social media.
Senior Israeli official: “Israel doesn’t buy arms in the UK and the defence-related purchases are of minor components that are easily obtained elsewhere. Suspending the export licenses will have no impact on Israeli military but it’s a damaging symbolic event with implications”
Worth also mentioning in context of Israel-UK defence ties that the tiny amount of security-related purchases in the UK some now suspended, far less important than intelligence-sharing, military cooperation and UK purchases (in billions) of Israeli arms. All of which continuing
The Liberal Democrats have said that the government’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel has come too late. In a response to David Lammy’s statement, Layla Moran, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson, said:
This action should have been taken long ago by the previous government, who failed to take any leadership on the matter. Liberal Democrats welcome this announcement as a step forward from the government.
Liberal Democrat MPs will now carefully scrutinise the details of the foreign secretary’s announcement, including those export licences which the government has not suspended. We are concerned that the decision is made solely on risk of use in Gaza and not the West Bank.
Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, told MPs the Conservatives would “look carefully” at the government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel. Without criticising the UK government over the move, he said that Hamas was to blame for the suffering endured by Israelis and Palestinians and that his party’s support for Israel was “rock solid in the face of threats from those who wish it serious harm”.
Reform UK has announced that Carol Wood, who was the leader of the Conservative group on Bolsover district council, has defected to Reform UK. In a statement she said she “didn’t take kindly to the Conservative back stabbing and Brexit betrayal after folks had lent Boris [Johnson] their votes”.
Wood was one of only three Tories on the council, which is Labour-controlled and where most of the 37 councillors are Labour.
Updated
Lammy says his restrictions on arms sales to Israel not as far-reaching as Thatcher's – key points from his statement to MPs
Here are more extracts from David Lammy’s statement to MPs about the government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel.
Lammy, the foreign secretary, said that his decision told should not be seen as the UK determining whether Israel has or has not committed war crimes. He said:
Throughout my life, I have been a friend of Israel. A liberal, progressive Zionist who believes in Israel as a democratic state and a homeland for the Jewish people, which has both the right to exist and defend itself.
But I believe also that Israel will only exist in safety and security if there is a two-state solution that guarantees the rights of all Israeli citizens and their Palestinian neighbours, who have their own inalienable right to self determination and security.
As concern that the horrifying scenes in Gaza has risen, many in this House, as well as esteemed lawyers and international organisations have raised British arms export licensing to Israel.
After raising my own concerns from opposition, on taking office, I immediately sought to update the review, and on my first appearance as foreign secretary in this House, I committed to sharing the review’s conclusions.
We have rigorously followed every stage of the process which the previous Conservative government established, and let me first be clear on the review’s scope, this government is not an international court.
We have not and could not arbitrate on whether or not Israel has breached international humanitarian law. This is a forward looking evaluation, not a determination of innocence or guilt, and it does not prejudge any future determinations by the competent courts.
He explained why the government was suspending about 30 arms export licences to Israel. He said:
Facing a conflict such as this, it is this government’s legal duty to review export licences. Criteria 2C of the strategic export licensing criteria states that the Government will not issue export licences if there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law.
It is with regret that I inform the house today the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
I have informed [Jonathan Reynolds] the business and trade secretary from a total of approximately 350 to Israel, as required under the export controls act. These include equipment that we assess is for use in the current conflict in Gaza.
He said that Israel could be doing more to avoid civilian deaths in Israel, and that the UK government was “deeply concerned” about the allegations of detainees being mistreated by the Israelis. He said:
Israel’s actions in Gaza continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure, and immense suffering.
In many cases, it’s not impossible to reach determinative conclusion on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of facilities, in part because there is insufficient information, either from Israel or other reliable sources to verify such claims.
Nevertheless, it is the assessment of His Majesty’s Government that Israel could recently do more to ensure life-saving food and medical supplies reach civilians in Gaza, in light of the appalling humanitarian situation.
And this government is also deeply concerned by credible claims of mistreatment of detainees, which the International Committee of the Red Cross cannot investigate after being denied access to places of detention.
Both my predecessor and all our major allies have repeatedly and forcefully raised these concerns with the Israeli government. Regrettably, they have not been addressed satisfactorily.
He said there was “no equivalence” between the Hamas terrorists and Israel’s democratic government. He said:
There can be no doubt that Hamas pays not the slightest heed to international humanitarian law. It endangers civilians by embedding itself in a tightly concentrated civilian population and in civilian infrastructure.
He said what he was announcing was “not a blanket ban” on arms sales to Israel and “not an arms embargo”.
He said the government was not suspending licences for the F-35 fighter jet programe. Suspending those licences would underming the global F-35 supply chain “that is vital for the security of the UK, our allies and Nato”, he said. So F-35 licences are exempt from this decision. (This article by Patrick Wintour last week explains why banning F-35 licences would be so damaging to relations with the US.)
He said that Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat ministers had all suspended arms sales to Israel in the past. “In 1982 Margaret Thatcher imposed a full arms embargo, and oil embargo, on Israel as they fought in Lebanon,” he said. He said Gordon Brown had suspended some licences in 2009, and Vince Cable has chosen not to issue new licences in 2014. Later, in response to a question, Lammy made the point that his restrictions on arms sales to Israel did not go as far as Thatcher’s.
He said the UK government continued to support Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law.
He said the government was imposing new sanctions on four targets from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He said:
We’re announcing new sanctions on four IRGC force targets who have a role in supporting Iranian proxy actions in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, through the UK’s dedicated Iran sanctions regime.
We’ve sanctioned over 400 Iranian individuals and entities and through our work with partners, we are exposing and containing Iran’s destabilising weapons development, where soon we’ll be introducing further regulations to bolster existing bans on the export of goods and technology significant to Iran’s production of drones and missiles.
So let me be clear, we will continue to work with Israel and our partners to tackle the threat from Iran across the region. This government will continue to stand for Israel’s security, and we will always do in a manner which is consistent with our obligations to domestic and international law.
Updated
As Pippa Crerar reports, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, told MPs the decision to suspend some arms export licences to Israel did not amount to an arms embargo.
Lammy: “Facing a conflict such as this, it is this government’s legal duty to review Britain’s export licences. This is not a blanket ban. This is not an arms embargo”.
Here is Patrick Wintour’s story about David Lammy’s announcement.
Lammy tells MPs UK suspending some arms exports to Israel because of risk they could be used in breach of international law
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has just told MPs that the government is suspending certain arms sales to Israel because of concerns that they could be used in breach of international human rights law.
He said that, with regret, the government has concluded that these items could be used “in serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
He said that around 30 arms exports licences are being suspended, out of around 350.
He said these were items that could have been used in Gaza, such as components for aircraft.
Cleverly says he is not calling for ECHR withdrawal, saying voters do not trust 'shorthand answers and quick fixes'
During the Q&A after his speech this morning James Cleverly, the Tory leadership candidate, said that he was not calling for the UK to leave the European convention on human rights as a means of tackling irregular migration.
Asked about the topic, he said:
The simple fact is that if we try to grab shorthand answers and quick fixes, the British people will look at us and say ‘we’ve heard that before’.
We need to be honest and open. We need to show where things are difficult and how they can be achieved.
This is why those small number of voluntary asylum seekers went to Rwanda, because the supreme court’s argument was that Rwanda was inherently dangerous for asylum seekers. I was building an evidence base with asylum seekers in Rwanda to prove that was not the case.
That is how we would have defeated the supreme court. That’s how we would have got the flights off the ground. Not by soundbites or quick fixes but by graft, but by delivery and focus. This is what we have to do to regain credibility and get back into government.
This is similar to the line adopted by Kemi Badenoch (see 11.36am) this morning (although it was more surprising coming from Badenoch, who is generally more rightwing than Cleverly). Badenoch and Cleverly were not giving a commitment to remain in the ECHR in all circumstances; they were just declining to back withdrawal.
Their two main rivals, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat, are backing withdrawal – with Jenrick enthusiastically in favour, and Tugendhat not ruling it out.
Mel Stride has also refused to rule out leaving the ECHR. Priti Patel has said she is not backing withdrawal because it would be divisive and impractical.
This is not necessarily what people would have expected before the contest started. Generally, Tory rightwingers have been in favour of ECHR withdrawal, and “centrists” or “leftwingers” (neither label is ideal) have been opposed.
But we now have two rightwingers (Badenoch and Patel) backing away from the idea, and two on the other side (Tugendhat and Stride) leaning into it.
This may be a sign of candidates identified with one wing of the party trying to reach out to the other side. And it may also be a sign of candidates not being sure what Tory members will regard as the “right” answer. According to a recent report by Gordon Rayner for the Telegraph, a private poll of Tory members carried out by one of the campaigns found that 33% of members were in favour of withdrawal, 22% in favour of remaining, and 29% in favour of reforming the terms of membership.
At her Tory leadership campaign launch this morning Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, rejected claims that she was obsessed with culture war issues. (See 11.37am.) But during housing questions in the Commons this afternoon, she devoted her first two questions to “Islamist sectarianism”.
She started by asking if Angela Rayner, the housing secretary and deputy PM, had read Sara Khan’s review into social cohesion. When Rayner gave a slighly evasive answer, Badenoch used her follow up to say the report covered the Batley Grammar School controversy, which led to a teacher going into hiding after Muslim parents objected to satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad being shown to pupils. Badenoch said this episode demonstrated the problem posed by “Islamist sectraianism in communities like West Yorkshire”. In response, Rayner accused the last government of “stoking division” and said she hoped the Tories would now support Labour’s efforts to bring communities together.
Badenoch used a subsequent question to ask Rayner if she would rule out increasing council tax. Rayner replied with a single word: “Yes.”
As Lorin Bell-Cross reports for the Jewish Chronicle, at her campaign event this morning Badenoch said she was "far more worried about the five new MPs elected on the back of sectarian Islamist politics” than about the five MPs elected for Reform UK. She claimed they represented “alien ideas that have no place here”.
Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership campaign event made a good impression on some of the journalists and commentators who were watching. Here are some of their responses on social media.
From Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor
Strong campaign launch fr Kemi Badenoch that will appeal to Tory members with focus on renewing party but tacking right with complaint that previous govt “talked right but governed left”. But her forceful approach still makes many Tory MPs nervous.
From Robert Shrimsley, the Financial Times’s chief political commentator
Thought Kemi Badenoch absolutely nailed it.
A clear appeal to her party, forceful, charismatic, forward looking, but also prepared not to offer cheap initiatives (arbitrary immigration caps, leaving ECHR).
(PS for avoidance of doubt - that’s an appraisal not an endorsement!)
From Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast
A quietly impressive launch form Badenoch. She’s clearly thoughtful about her politics and has a clear sighted view of conservative principles. That said, there’s some fuzzy thinking (still talking about Blair inheritance as explanation as to why Conservative govt failed). Moreover danger for her is she overestimates salience of conservative battles to wider public. That ultimately she could be her own worst enemy.
Here is Peter Walker’s story about the Badenoch launch.
There is less praise for the James Cleverly event from the online commentariat, but journalists did like his willingness to take many questions. This is from my colleague Kiran Stacey.
James Cleverly is taking questions from every journalist who has attended his launch speech. Says “You can’t communicate your policies or your values if you hide from the media.”
Jeremy Corbyn to form alliance with four independent pro-Gaza MPs
Jeremy Corbyn is to form an official parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Gaza platforms – issuing a call for more MPs to join, Jessica Elgot reports.
Voters don't know who most of Tory leadership candidates even are, poll suggests
Tory supporters marginally favour James Cleverly as the next Conservative party leader, but mostly they don’t see any of the six candidates as obviously qualified to be the best replacement for Rishi Sunak, according to research published today.
The findings are in a report from More in Common, which uses polling and findings from focus groups with former Tory voters and current party members to explore who might do best in the leadership contest.
Amongst the public at large, 70% of people replied ‘don’t know’ (36%) or ‘none of them’ (34%) when asked which of the six candidates would make the Tories most likely to win the next election. Cleverly was on 8%, making him the best-performing of the six candidates.
People who voted Conservative at the last election are more inclined to express a view (with Cleverly again coming top), but even with this cohort, almost half of respondents were not inspired by any candidate.
None of the six candidates are very well known and Priti Patel, the former home secretary, is the only one of them with a recognition rating of higher than 50% in a survey asking people if they could identify the six candidates from their photographs.
Of course, the final decision will be taken by Conservative party members, who are likely to know more about the candidates than ordinary voters, or Tory supporters. But the report will support claims that no candidate has a decisive lead. These are from Luke Tryl, the More in Common director, summing up how the candidates were seen in focus groups.
Given name recognition is so low, focus groups are a good way to test how people reacted to each of the candidates ‘at first glance’ all six had different strengths and weaknesses and would bring something different to the table/have things they’d have to address.
If I did a word, summarising what the focus groups saw as the strength of each candidate they’d be
Badenoch: Refreshing
Cleverly: Relatable
Jenrick: Substance
Tugendhat: Prime-Ministerial
Patel: Strong
Stride: New
If I did a word, summarising what the focus groups saw as the weakness of each candidate, they’d be
Badenoch: Experience
Cleverly: Seriousness
Jenrick: Likability
Tugendhat: Posh
Patel: Divisive
Stride: Unexciting
The government is still facing strong criticism over its decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance for pensioners, and this is a row that may yet escalate. When he was asked about this in his pooled TV clip this morning, Keir Starmer restated the line about this being a necessary tough choice. He said:
We have found a £22bn black hole in the economy. We’ve got to fix it.
What we’re not going to do is pretend it isn’t there or paper over it. That’s what the last government did and it made it worse.
That means we’ve got to make tough choices.
I don’t want to cut the winter fuel allowance … but we’ve got to fix the foundations of our economy.
There will be one urgent question in the Commons today, at 3.30pm, followed by three government statements. The UQ is on Ukraine, and the statements are: David Lammy the foreign secretary, on the Middle East; Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, on the riots; and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, on compensation for victims of the infected blood scandal.
Q: You are promising higher public spending (see 12.38pm) but lower taxes (see 12.44pm). Isn’t that the approach that got the last government into trouble in the first place?
Cleverly defends the case for higher defence spending. But he says he accepts there are trade-offs, and he says he would “relentlessly push down public spending”. He would explain how before an election, he says.
Cleverly is now taking questions.
Q: What is your diagnosis of what went wrong for the party at the last election?
Cleverly does not engage fully with the question. Instead, he says every candidate will have to defend what they did. He has a record of delivery, he says.
Cleverly says the Tories achieved a lot in government. But “our divisions and our behavior obscured our victories and amplified our mistakes”, he says.
He says he is the person best placed to lead the party back into government. He says he is the most experienced candidate in the contest and the most effective communicator the party has got. “You cannot communicate your policies or our values if you hide from the media,” he says.
Cleverly says the third major challenge is to address the crisis facing capitalism.
He says the Tories should prioritise economic growth and home ownership. They should aspire to abolish all stamp duty on homes, he says. And they should relax planning laws to allow more building.
We need to build lots more homes, and we will, but we should be building upwards in our cities, rather than outwards, if our Georgian forebears could see the beauty in three and four storey houses, then why on earth can’t we?
So adding an extra story to a building should enjoy a presumption of planning consent, because it would support small local businesses.
Cleverly says he would revive Rwanda deportation plan
Cleverly says the second major challenge facing the UK is global migration. As home secretary he acted, introducing visa restrictions which have cut legal migration, he says. And, to deal with illegal migration, he would revive the Rwanda deportation plans, he says.
Cleverly says he would raise defence spending to 3% of GDP
Cleverly says there are three major challenges facing the UK.
The first of these is the threat posed by having a “deeply unstable world”.
He says he supported Rishi Sunak’s commitment to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, and accuses Keir Starmer of scrapping that pledge in “an act of vandalism”.
(Starmer says he does want to raise defence spending by 2.5% of GDP, but he has not set a timetable for achieving this, which is why this is not seen as a proper pledge.)
Cleverly says he would go further; as prime minister, he would raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, he says.
Updated
James Cleverly stresses need for unity as he makes his pitch for Tory leadership
James Cleverly is now giving his speech at his leadership campaign event.
He starts by stressing the need for the Conservative party to unite.
People don’t vote for divided parties. They don’t trust divided parties, they don’t even listen to divided parties. So we must unite if we want the British people to listen to us again. So when they are fed up, as they inevitably will be with Starmer’s inept, high tax, red tape-loving, big state, crony-filled government, they will look to us again to be the change that they want to see in this country.
Cleverly says he has served in government under four prime ministers. He has defended other people’s policies and decisions. But now he wants to be the person taking the key decisions, he says.
James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary and home secretary, is about to deliver a speech about his campaign for the Tory leadership. Grant Shapps, the former defence secretary, is introducing him. Shapps praises Cleverly as someone who has a record of delivery.
Grant Shapps announces his support for James Cleverly.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) September 2, 2024
Ex-defence sec says Cleverly is “a real do-er” and gets the most out of his team. pic.twitter.com/lvsYEgWmZu
Updated
Starmer says conditions in flats leased by Labour MP were 'unacceptable'
Keir Starmer has condemned as “unacceptable” conditions for tenants in flats owned by a Labour MP.
Asked about tenants living in the some of the 15 rental flats owned by Jas Athwal, the the new MP for Ilford South, who are having to put up with black mould and ant infestations, and whether this was good enough when housing is supposed to be a priority for Labour, Starmer replied:
No, it’s not good enough. It’s unacceptable for any landlord, and I’ll be really clear about that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Labour MP or anybody else, it’s unacceptable
What’s happened in this case is this MP has now recognised that, is taking the necessary measures to put it right.
The sooner that’s done, the better, but I’m not going to pretend to you or anybody else that this is in any way acceptable.
Asked if Athwal would lose the Labour whip if he did not deal with these problems swiftly, Starmer replied:
It has to be put right. He’s taking action to put it right, we need to do that as quickly as possible.
In posts on social media yesterday, Athwal said that he did not know about the conditions his tenants were facing until he was alerted by the media and that he had sacked the managing agent. He apologised to his tenants, said that he wanted their homes to be comfortable and promised to reimburse them for any costs they had incurred.
Starmer says rejects Badenoch's claim Labour government 'clueless', and urges her to apologise for 'mess' Tories left
In a pooled clip for broadcasters, Keir Starmer rejected Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the Labour government is “clueless, irresponsible and dishonest”. (See 11.16am.)
On a visit to Orpington primary school, asked about her comment, he replied:
I say I’m not going to take lectures from anyone from the previous government who left the worst possible inheritance.
The country is in a real state, the economy has been badly damaged, nobody really argues in relation to that.
There’s a £22bn black hole unaccounted for, not on the books, the OBR didn’t know about it.
So, I think that what the Conservatives could do was to apologise for the mess that they made.
What we’re doing is cleaning it up. We’re going to strip it out, make sure that we rebuild the foundation so we can bring about the change that we were elected to bring about in this country.
In response to the final question, Badenoch said she did not accept that the Conservatives cannot win the next election.
Badenoch rejects claim she is too focused on culture wars
Badenoch rejects suggestions that she is only interested in fighting culture wars. She says the critics who say this ignore the fact that, when she raised these issues in the last parliament, she was doing her job as equalities minister.
UPDATE: Badenoch said:
I got on the dispatch box against Angela Rayner, that video has gone viral.
That’s me in opposition. That is how I will be taking the fight to Keir Starmer.
But people who say that all I did was culture wars were not paying attention. I was doing my job.
I was the equalities minister, I had to look after very, very tricky issues like race and gender – things that everybody ran away from.
I didn’t run away. And not only did I not run away, I defended people who needed help, and I dragged Labour onto our turf.
Updated
Badenoch says she is not proposing leaving ECHR to cut illegal migration, dismissing that as 'easy' answer
Q: What would you do to cut legal and illegal migration?
Badenoch says David Cameron said he wanted to cap net migation at 100,000 per year. That target was not achieved. She says they need to work out why.
She says people who just say the UK should leave the European convention on human rights are giving “easy answers”.
She has thought about these things. She says the whole system needs rewiring. She goes on:
Yes, some people think we should leave the ECHR. But why is it that other countries that are in the ECHR are deporting 70, 80% of the people who come into their countries, and we’re not able to, because clearly leaving the ECHR will not be enough.
That’s why I don’t want to throw that promise out there. It’s another thing that we would end up doing that doesn’t actually solve the problem. We’ve got to look at the whole system.
Badenoch dismisses claim she is too combative to be effective party leader
Q: Everyone says you are combative. What do you say to people who argue that would make it hard for you to unite your party?
Badenoch says she is combative on behalf of her party, not with her party.
Q: Your campaign slogan is Renwal 2030. Have you written of the next election, which has to be held by 2029?
No, says Badenoch. She says she is thinking about what a next Conservative government would do. Engineers plan ahead, she says.
Badenoch says Tories 'talked right by governed left'
Badenoch is now taking questions.
Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] You talked about the last government talking right, but governing left. Can you give examples?
Badenoch says the net zero targets were an example. The government was trusting regulation, not innovation, she says.
UPDATE: Here is the quote from Badenoch about the Tories talking right by governing left. She said:
This was one of our mistakes.
We talked right but governed left, sounding like Conservatives but acting like Labour.
Government should do fewer things, but what it does, it should do with brilliance.
Updated
Badenoch is speaking at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and she talks about her pre-politics training and career as an engineer. She says:
Getting my engineering degree was much harder than running for the leadership of the Conservative party, but it gave me a whole new way of looking at the world.
Engineers are realists. We see the world as it truly is, but we can also dream, and we can plot a pathfrom idea to reality.
We don’t make things better just by using words. There is little room for error in what we do … If engineers build a plane badly it crashes, a bridge built to the wrong spec comes tumbling down. So we know how to build systems that work.
It is because we understand trade offs. We don’t try to do everything. We understand how to manage limitations and expectations. Every engineer has had to explain the magic triangle of quality, cost and time. Things can be good, they can be fast, they can be cheaper, but they can’t be all three.
Updated
Badenoch is now setting out that she says are her guiding principles.
First, she says she believes in responsibility. Her father taught her that, although 20% of what happens to someone might be down to someone else, 80% of it is down to what a person does themselves.
Second, she believes in citizenship, she says. People should not be made to feel guilty about questioning high levels of immigration, legal or illegal, she says.
Third, she says she believes in equality under the law. She says identity politics are “malign and destructive” because they are used by the left to protect certain groups over others.
Fourth, she believes in family, she says. “We need to celebrate families. We need to place them at the center of our politics and our actions,” she says.
And, fifth, she says she believes in truth. She goes on:
I believe in truth. Truth is not relative. Those who know me best know that I don’t do spin – I do do charm, sometimes. But I think life is better when people say what they think. I think politics is better when we tell it like it is. Spin can only get you so far. It is better to deal with hard truths today than big problems tomorrow.
Kemi Badenoch is speaking now. She says she wants to talk about the future.
She was born in the UK, but “grew up under socialism”, she says (referring to her childhood in Nigeria).
She says the future is not bright, because Labour has lost control.
The last government faced profound challenges. But it ended up “mired in scandal” and unable to deliver on its promises.
She says the British people are yearning for something better. But this Labour government is not it, she says. She goes on:
Labour have no ideas. At best, they are announcing things we have already done, and at their worst, they are clueless, irresponsible and dishonest.
They are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public about the state of Britain’s finances, placing political donors into civil service jobs, pretending that they have no plans to cut pensioner benefits before the election and then doing exactly that to cover the cost of pay rises for the unions with no promise of reform, But their model of spend, spend, spend is broken, and they don’t know what to do, and this will only lead to even more cynicism in politics.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, is speaking at the launch now.
She says the party needs to create “a new conservative consensus based on our values”.
She says Kemi Badenoch has shown she is prepared to defend causes she knows to be right. She says she first saw this when Badenoch defended Tony Sewell, after he produced a report dismissing the significance of institutional racism.
Updated
Kemi Badenoch speaks at official launch of leadership campaign, as Francis Maude says she has 'real star quality'
Francis Maude, who served as a minister under Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron, has just given a speech introducing Kemi Badenoch at the official launch of her leadership campaign. He said she had “real star quality” and that “leaders like her, if we’re lucky, they come along once in a generation”.
Badenoch is about to speak now. There is a live feed here.
Join me at 11am as I launch my @Renewal2030 campaign to become the next leader of our great Conservative Party. https://t.co/hDwprbj5mJ
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) September 2, 2024
Claire Hanna set to become new leader of SDLP
Claire Hanna, the MP for South Belfast and Mid Down, is set to become the new leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) after Colum Eastwood MP announced last week that he was stepping down from the post next month.
For decades the party was viewed as the moderate voice of Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland but it has seen Sinn Féin massively overtake it in recent years.
The SDLP has also seen some of its support seep to Alliance, a moderate party that seeks support from both nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland and which is neutral on whether there should be a united Ireland or whether the union should continue.
Her leadership bid has been endorsed by both Eastwood and the leader of the SDLP in the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly, Mathew O’Toole, a former Downing Street press officer.
No other candidate is expected to stand against her.
In a statement she thanked Colum Eastwood “in friendship and respect” for his leadership of the party.
She said she was motivated to find practical solutions to the challenges being faced by communities in Northern Ireland.
“People are losing faith that Stormont and politics, more generally, will deliver for them,” she added, “They live with falling public services and a politics driven by division, dysfunction and pettiness.”
Hanna, whose parents were also leading figures in the SDLP, said the party must have the “humility” to recognise that it has to work harder to earn voter support.
We have to listen more, organise better and offer a fresh compelling message of optimism and clarity of purpose. We must engage voters, including those who didn’t grow up in the nationalist tradition [but] who share our social democratic and anti-sectarian principles.
I’ll be putting my name forward as leader of the SDLP. Statement here : pic.twitter.com/uGDTYQTIhM
— Claire Hanna (@ClaireHanna) September 1, 2024
Kemi Badenoch, the former business secretary who is generally seen as the favourite in the Tory leadership contest, is formally launching her campaign at an event in London starting at 11am. Yesterday she posted a preview on X highlighting her feud earlier this year with the actor David Tennant, who criticised her at an award ceremony because of her lack of support for the trans community.
Badenoch’s enthusiasm for culture wars with what she sees as the leftwing establishment on issues like gender is one of the factors that makes her popular with Tory activists. But what the public at large make of this is another matter.
Tomorrow, I launch my @renewal2030 campaign to be the next leader of our great Conservative Party.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) September 1, 2024
Join me at 11.00am, here on X! pic.twitter.com/yAalIDVM9M
Jack Chambers, the Irish finance minister, is meeting Rachel Reeves today as part of the bid to reset relations with Ireland and the wider EU after the years of strain caused by Brexit.
They will discuss Brexit barriers impact on trade – Ireland now ranks as the UK’s fourth biggest export partner – along with issues concerning Northern Ireland.
Chambers said:
Chancellor Reeves and I share a common determination to play our full part in the reset of Irish-British relations which is now well underway. These relations are of deep consequence and of course there are many strands to them – human, cultural, sporting and business.
The meeting comes weeks after the taoiseach Simon Harris instructed ministers to increase their engagement with London in the wake of the change of government in the UK.
Two-way trade between the two countries is worth more than £100bn a year but Brexit has caused exporters to return to customs documentation and other declarations.
Trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland has also been impacted with traders forced to continue to observe some EU laws relating to standards of goods in the event that they cross the border into the Republic of Ireland.
Chambers and Reeves spoke on the phone soon after the UK general election and are meeting in London today. The Irish government said:
The meeting should offer an excellent opportunity to discuss issues of common bilateral interest with a view to cooperative and collaborative relationships at both political and official levels.
The government is fully committed to a strong Irish-British relationship in all its various dimensions. This relationship has seen significant challenges in the years since Brexit, but there is now positive momentum.
Yesterday Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said she would review “surge pricing” that allows websites to inflate prices for shows where demand is very high. She said she would act after people queuing for Oasis tickets online found prices soaring while they were waiting in the queue. Harry Taylor has the details.
In an article in the Sunday Times yesterday Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said she wanted to reduce persistent absences from schools. She mentioned parents taking children out of school so they can go away when holidays and flights are cheaper, although that was not the main focus of her argument, and on the Today programme Mishal Husain, the presenter, pointed out that cheaper term-time flights are also a consequence of a version of dynamic pricing. She asked if the government was planning to review this too.
Asked if the government might be willing “to act on travel companies and airlines in the same way you seem to be prepared to do on ticket touts and ticket websites”, Phillipson said she agreed this as “an area that requires further consideration”.
Asked again whether she would like action to stop firms selling holidays more cheaply during term time, Phillipson again said this was “an area that I would like to consider”, but she argued that this was not the main reason for so many children missing school. She said there were many other reasons why parents were keeping pupils out of class.
Phillipson did not seem to be expecting the question about dynamic pricing and the cost of flights during school holidays, and her response sounded more of a holding answer than a statement of intent to take on the travel industry. It is hard to imagine the government doing anything that would lead to non-parents having to pay a lot more for flights during term time.
Bridget Phillipson says failing schools could still be forced to become academies despite Ofsted giving up single-word ratings
Here is the news release from the Department for Education about the removal of single-word verdicts on schools in England from Ofsted.
In interviews this morning, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, explained that Ofsted reports issued during the new academic year will still use the current single or two-word verdicts (outstanding, good, requires improvement, and inadequate) across the four categories covered by its inspections: quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management. But schools won’t get a single-word verdict applying to performance overall.
And from September 2025 a new report card system for schools will be introduced.
Phillipson said the change announced today will not stop her intervening if schools are failing, and she said she would retain the power to turn a failing school into an academy. She told the Today programme:
I want to make sure that we drive up standards, that we make sure schools are getting the support that they need to make improvement.
I won’t hesitate to take action if schools are not making that improvement because our children only get one chance when they’re at school, one chance, and we have to get that right.
Asked whether an inadequate judgment in the sub-categories could lead to a school being forced to become an academy, Phillipson replied:
It can do, or it could involve support being put in place. I retain the power to issue an order to convert that school into an academy.
In her Today programme interview Amanda Spielman, the former Ofsted chief inspector, said she thought today’s announcement about the end of single-word verdicts for schools in England implied short Ofsted inspections will end. She explained:
The other thing that I think is implied by this announcement is that the short, ungraded inspections that were all government would fund Ofsted to do for most schools will be scrapped so that it can do a full set of judgments in every inspection.
Here is a clip from the interview.
Former Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman says scrapping the one-word rating 'is not about changing the wording of judgements' and shouldn't be about 'putting the interests of schools and their staff ahead of children'.#R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) September 2, 2024
Former Ofsted chief welcomes abolition of single-word school ratings, saying old system ‘more of problem than help’
Good morning. The summer recess is over, parliament is back, the newish Labour government is still in its hyperactive ‘early days’ stage (although no one is using the word honeymoon any more) and Keir Starmer is celebrating his 62nd birthday by making a visit to publicise the government’s announcement about the abolition of single-word Ofsted verdicts for schools in England.
This is a policy proposed in Labour’s manifesto, and it has been warmly welcomed by teaching unions who have long complained that single-word judgments were too crude. Pressure for their removal intensified after Ruth Perry, a primary school head, killed herself after learning that her school was going to be downgraded from outstanding (the best of four grades) to inadequate (the worst), even though Ofsted said it was giving pupils a good education, because of safeguarding errors.
Pippa Crerar’s overnight story about the announcement is here.
This morning Amanda Spielman, who was appointed to run Ofsted when the Conservatives were in office and who served for seven years until December last year, welcomed the change. In an interview with the Today programme, she said that although parents liked the simplicity of one-word Ofsted judgments, the system was flawed because the overall one-word assessments were too powerful. For example, schools rated inadequate had to become academies if they weren’t acadamies already. Spielman told the Today programme:
[The previous government] wouldn’t acknowledge that fear of inspection overwhelmingly related to the fear of consequences. I listened a lot to the sector. I knew that. So this a very interesting switch … I think this is beneficial for inspection, I think it’s beneficial for schools. I think it’s beneficial for parents and children …
When you survey parents, generally, they like the simplicity and clarity [of one-word judgments]. Various surveys have showed stronger support from parents for models with overall effectiveness judgments. But, nevertheless, because of the weight of consequences that government had hung on them, they had become more of a problem than a help.
I will post more from Spielman’s interview, and from the interviews the education secretary Bridget Phillipson has been giving, shortly.
The Conservative leadership contest is warming up this week. Kemi Badenoch, who is generally seen as the favourite, is giving a speech this morning and, as Harry Taylor reports, she has also given up one-word assessments. She has got a three-word verdict on the Labour government – “clueless, irresponsible and dishonest”.
Guardian readers can probably think of another recent government which might deserve this label much more.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting a school in London, where he will do a pooled TV interview.
10.30am: Kemi Badenoch formally launches her campaign for the Conservative leadership.
11am: The campaign group More in Common holds a briefing on research into what people who voted Tory in 2019 think about the current leadership candidates.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12.10pm: James Cleverly, another Tory leadership candidate, gives a speech.
2.30pm: Angela Rayner, the housing secretary and deputy prime minister, takes questions in the Commons.
We will probably get various statements and/or urgent questions at 3.30pm too, but they have not been announced yet.
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