Early evening summary
Suella Braverman has railed against “experts and elites” and what she called the divisive politics of identity, in a highly partisan speech that is likely to be viewed as setting out ideas for a post-election Conservative leadership bid. Braverman was speaking at a conference organised by a rightwing American thinktank which also heard a speech from Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory former business secretary, who described the photo ID voting law introduced by the government when he was in cabinet as gerrymandering. (See 11.50am.) Commenting on the conference proceedings, Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said:
The true face of the modern Tory party has revealed itself today. Rather than focus on the cost of living crisis, the state of the NHS, crime or house building, Tory MPs and cabinet ministers have instead chosen to hold a carnival of conspiracy theory and self-pity.
Keir Starmer has said it “feels wrong” not to allow EU citizens who live and pay tax in the UK not to have the right to vote in general elections. See 11.04am for a full summary of his LBC phone-in.
Updated
In the Commons MPs are debating the second reading of the victims and prisoners bill. Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, called it a wasted opportunity. He said:
It’s eight years and eight justice secretaries since the Conservatives first promised legislation to support victims.
For all that time, Labour has been telling them to act. Now, finally, we have a bill, but I am afraid it is a wasted opportunity because it fails in so many ways to rebalance the scales of justice and make a real difference for victims.
The bill lets down rape survivors. It offers no specialist legal advice or advocacy that will help them to navigate the justice system.
Peers inflict defeat on government on retained EU law bill
Peers have inflicted a defeat on the government over the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.
Last week Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, announced a big U-turn on this bill when she shelved the plan for it to include an automatic sunset clause making all retained EU regulations obsolete at the end of the year, unless ministers decide to retain or revise them. Instead she published a list of around 600 EU laws that would definitely lapse at the end of 2023.
Under an amendment tabled by the crossbencher, Lord Hope, and passed by 245 votes to 154 – a majority of 91 – this list will have to be referred to a joint committee of MPs and peers so that, if changes to the law are significant, parliament can express a view.
Govt defeat on #retainedeulawbill as peers vote 245-154 FOR XB Lord Hope - led amendt (2) requiring the schedule of retained EU law to be revoked is referred to joint committee of @UKHouseofLords & @HouseofCommons for sifting, so @UKParliament can express own view on changes
— LabourLordsUK (@LabourLordsUK) May 15, 2023
Labour should repeal photo ID voting law, says Sadiq Khan
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said that a Labour government should repeal the law requiring voters to have photo ID.
Khan was speaking at an event on housing, which took place after Keir Starmer told LBC this morning that he would review the law before deciding whether or not to keep it. (See 11.04am.)
Speaking today in east London, Khan was explicit about his opposition to the measure. He said:
We know that some seats from won and lost by a handful of votes. So literally, there are some seats that have been won or lost because of the government’s legislation on photo ID no evidence,
I think this is a deliberate Conservative tactic to suppress the vote. We don’t know by the way, how many people didn’t bother going to vote because they didn’t have photo ID. All we have are figures for people turned away at the polling stations. I think yes ... what a new Labour government should be doing is repealing that part of the act.
Khan also said there was no evidence of the sort of widespread impersonation of voters which defenders of the measures said they wanted to combat.
No 10 rejects Rees-Mogg's claim that photo ID voting law is gerrymandering
Downing Street has rejected Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claim that the law requiring voters to have photo ID amounted to gerrymandering. (See 11.50am.)
Asked about the claim, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the afternoon lobby briefing:
We’ve talked at length about the rationale for the introduction of voter ID and the importance of guarding against the possibility of election fraud.
He highlighted the requirement for voters in Northern Ireland to have to show photo ID since 2003 and said similar schemes were in place in “many other European countries”.
Asked whether he saying “no” to the question of gerrymandering being a factor in its introduction, the spokesman said: “[That is] also a shorter way of saying so.”
Braverman urges Tories to avoid Trumpism, saying 'events in US in recent years' should be warning to conservatives
Although Suella Braverman delivered a rightwing speech to a rightwing audience this afternoon, she did include a coda suggesting that it would be a mistake for the Tories to go too far in a Trumpite direction.
She was speaking at a conference run by the Edmund Burke Foundation promoting national conservatism, a brand of conservatism with a much bigger focus on nationalism and traditonal thinking than you find in Britain’s One Nation tradition. It is not explicitly Trumpite, but Trump supporters would be comfortable with much of the national conservatism agenda.
In her speech Braverman said national conservatism had “a role to play” in the conservative movement. But she went on:
Having observed events in the US in recent years, I do want to sound a note of caution.
One way that we Conservatives must distinguish ourselves from the left is by not devouring ourselves through fratricide.
Free market conservatism is not the enemy of national conservatism.
Conservatism must never abandon markets, the rule of law, or a belief in the power of capitalism to lift people out of poverty.
At the same time conservatism should never abandon people or communities to market forces.
To the extent that those two forces are in tension, it is incumbent on conservatives to find a prudent balance, not pick a side and start shooting.
Similarly, conservatism can never mean isolationism.
Freeing ourselves from a blinkered sense that the UK’s destiny is as a predominantly European-facing country - rather than a truly global one with ties to the Commonwealth, America, and elsewhere - has been one of the best political developments in recent decades.
Braverman was clearly referring to Donald Trump and his brand of national populism, even though she did not mention him by name.
Sadiq Khan says he is lobbying Labour to commit to giving London mayor power to impose rent freezes
Sadiq Khan is lobbying Labour colleagues to commit to rent freezes if they win power – a demand which has gone unheeded from the current Tory government.
London’s mayor heralded a “big bang in an affordable housing revolution” as he announced that a record number of affordable homes are being built in the city.
In a speech at a showcase new housing development, Khan said that a “record number” of 25,000 affordable homes had been started last year and that he had surpassed his 2015 promise to begin building 116,000 by 2023.
The housing crisis in London was “turbo-charging inequalities in wealth, health and happiness”, he said.
As mayor, I don’t want to see London become a playground for the rich - I’m determined to build a London for everyone.
However, the issue of rental freezes is emerging as a point of debate within Labour, which has stopped short of backing what Khan and others are pushing for. The Scottish government announced a rent freeze for public and private properties last year after a similar proposal by Scottish Labour, to freeze rents for two years until rent controls are introduced in 2024, was voted down by SNP and Scottish Green MSPs.
Speaking after his speech, Khan told reporters:
As a Labour member, and Labour mayor I am are lobbying colleagues at the national policy forum and shadow cabinet to bring in policies in the manifesto to look at look at the issue of rent freezes.
The reality is, even if we massively increase in supply of new homes in London and massively increase the supply of council homes in London and across the country, there will still be record numbers of people renting in the private sector and for those 2.7 million people in London we need to improve the protection for those renting.
Sources close to Khan said he was not asking for rent controls nationally but for powers to have a rent controls commission in London where there are “exceptional issues” with sky high rents. This was in his 2021 mayoral election manifesto.
Updated
How Suella Braverman defines conservatism - extracts from her speech
Most of the Suella Braverman speech was about conservatism, and how she defines it. She started with a long passage about how both her parents came to the UK as immigrants (the sort of family, hard work success story that is de rigueur in a speech to a US political convention), and she said they admired Britain’s values, which she said were conservative values. Then she set out to explain what conservatism (mostly she uses the small-c version) means to her.
This is why it is hard not to read the speech as putting down a marker for a leadership contest. Other than implying that immigration policy is too lax (see 12.54pm), she was not disloyal to Rishi Sunak, and he would probably agree with most of what she said about conservatism. But the very fact that she was courting the party so assiduously (Tory members will love it) makes it a leadership play.
She defined conservatism as being optimistic about the future, abhoring political correctness and radical ideology, believing in and loving your country, understanding the importance of borders and national identity, and being pro-family. Here are some of the key quotes.
Braverman, the home secretary, said conservatives should be sceptical of experts and elites. She said:
Conservatives prize experience, judgement, and wisdom.
I think William F Buckley Jr’s quip, that “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University Faculty” captures the essence of it.
We are sceptical of self-appointed gurus, experts, and elites who think they know best what is in the public’s interest, even when that public is quite certain that they need something different from what those experts are proposing.
She said focusing on conventional measures of diversity was “myopic”, and likely to foster grievance. She said:
Measuring diversity only on the basis of skin colour, sex, and sexuality is mind-bogglingly myopic.
Identity politics is the politics of grievance and division – it is illiberal and incompatible with social cohesion.
It defines people based on their external characteristics rather than on the content of their character or their natural abilities.
It then divides people into groups, and places those groups on a hierarchy of grievance, explaining any disparity of outcome through the prism of structural discrimination.
She claimed the left was obsessed with eradicating inequality, at the expense of liberty. She said:
I understand that the goal of conservatism is to protect fundamental rights, enhance the dignity and potential of human beings, and in so doing forge healthy communities that make possible extraordinary collective achievements.
The left on the other hand sees the purpose of politics as to eradicate the existence of inequality, even if that comes at the expense of individual liberty and human flourishing.
And she claimed that state intervention to ensure “equality of outcomes” was dangerous. She said:
We want to expand opportunity, passionately so, but the idea that any true equality of opportunity is structurally impossible, and so instead the state must intervene to ensure equality of outcomes, is a dangerous one.
She said that, although many people on the left loved their country, love of country was a “necessary, possibly the necessary condition, of being a conservative”. She went on:
The truth is that large parts of the contemporary left are ashamed of our history and embarrassed by the sentiments and desires expressed by the British public.
She claimed the left needed to make people ashamed of Britain’s past. She said:
I think the left can only sell its vision for the future by making people feel terrible about our past.
White people do not exist in a special state of sin or collective guilt.
Nobody should be blamed for things that happened before they were born.
The defining feature of this country’s relationship with slavery is not that we practised it, but that we led the way in abolishing it.
We should be proud of who we are.
Updated
Here is Peter Walker’s story on the Suella Braverman speech.
Truss defends her decision to visit Taiwan to give speech later this week, saying she was invited by its government
In her Q&A at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit Liz Truss insisted that her visit to Taiwan was “very much led” by the government there. She said:
The reason I’ve got I’m going to Taiwan is I have been invited by the Taiwan government.
And I believe it is they who know best, they the democratically elected government of Taiwan, know best what is best for their citizens, their future. So I’m very much led by them, and encouraged that they believe my visit will help their cause in promoting freedom and democracy.
As our Guardian colleague Kiran Stacey reported last week, the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee launched a blistering attack on the former prime minister’s planned trip, calling it “the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy”.
Alicia Kearns said she thought Truss’s trip was little more than a vanity project aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief spell as prime minister last year.
Braverman says immigrants should integrate because 'multiculturalism as end in itself' could lead to 'disaster'
Immigration turned out to be a relatively small portion of Suella Braverman’s speech to the NatCon conference, but in the passage that did cover it she made two main arguments. Here are excerpts.
Braverman, the home secretary, said legal migration numbers had to come down. She implied they were unsustainable at their current level. She said:
While illegal migration is rightly our priority given the acute challenges we face in the Channel, we must not lose sight of the importance of controlling legal migration too.
I voted and campaigned for Brexit – indeed I’m a proud Spartan - because I wanted Britain to control migration. So that we all have a say on what works for our country.
High skilled workers support economic growth. And where the labour market has acute or structural shortages, as with the NHS, it is of course right that we should have an immigration system agile enough to plug those shortages.
But we need to get overall immigration numbers down.
And we mustn’t forget how to do things for ourselves. There is no good reason why can’t train up enough truck drivers, butchers, fruit pickers, builders, and welders …
It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable in terms of housing supply, public services and community relations.
She said the immigrants should integrate, because “multiculturalism as an end in itself” could lead to “disaster”. She said:
My parents came here through legal and controlled migration.
They spoke the language. They threw themselves into the community, embraced British values.
When they arrived they signed up to be part of our shared project because the UK meant something distinct. Integration was part of the quid pro quo …
The unexamined drive towards multiculturalism as an end in itself, combined with identity politics, is a recipe for communal disaster.
We cannot have immigration without integration.
And if we lack the confidence to promote our culture, defend our values, and venerate our past, then we have nothing to integrate people into.
We have a nation, and more than that, a national character to conserve.
We are not unique in wanting to conserve it.
Other leaders in countries such as Italy, Denmark, Poland, Greece, and Austria are increasingly seeing things the same way.
Conservatism is order or it is nothing.
Most of the speech was about Braverman’s view of Conservatism. I will post on that shortly.
Updated
Liz Truss confirms she has 'no ambitions' to be PM again
Liz Truss has said she has “no ambitions” to be prime minister again and is enjoying the “freedom to achieve and do things” she wasn’t able to do in government – such as her plans to visit Taiwan this week.
Speaking two days before she makes a controversial visit to the island, which has been lambasted by one influential Tory MP as “the worst of Instagram diplomacy”, Truss called for a toughening of the west’s approach to China.
She said that she stood by her proposals, later scrapped by her Downing Street successor, Rishi Sunak, to officially redesignate China in official parlance and documents as a “threat” to the UK.
Speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, she said:
I think they’re the largest threat that we face to the free world.
I believe that we all need to wake up to the threat China presents, that we need to make sure that Taiwan is able to defend itself.
Asked directly if she had any ambitions to return as prime minister in the future, she replied:
I have no ambitions to become prime minister again. What I care about is making sure that freedom and democracy prevail across the world, and advocating for an economic Nato which I believe will help achieve that. I care about the British economy becoming successful, and our country growing.
Updated
Peter Walker has more from the Suella Braverman speech.
Braverman says her parents' conservative philosophy was "of optimism, pride, national unity, aspiration, and realism". She adds: "The left’s is a politics of pessimism, guilt, national division, resentment, and utopianism."
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Braverman: "We are sceptical of self-appointed gurus, experts, and elites who think they know best what is in the public’s interest, even when that public is quite certain that they need something different from what those experts are proposing."
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
If you haven't already got the point, this is *very* much the setting out by Braverman of a philosophical stall for a (probably) post-election leadership bid.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Braverman: "The ethnicity of grooming gang perpetrators is the sort of fact that has become unfashionable in some quarters.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Much like the fact that 100% of women do not have a penis."
Again, not a surprise, but the eventual Braverman Tory leadership bid will come v much from the culture war end of things.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
To succeed electorally, Conservatives from the Braverman culture war wing need to persuade voters that Labour are these history-hating, statue-toppling, woke types described at this NatCon conference. I would suspect that most voters might look at Keir Starmer and think: really?
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Updated
Extinction Rebellion, the direct action group trying to get governments to respond to the climate crisis, has put out a statement saying its activists disrupted Jacob Rees-Mogg and Suella Braverman at the NatCon conference. It says they wanted to call out “fascist ideologies” backed by Tory participants.
In its news release it says:
National Conservatism promotes nationalism, scapegoating, ‘traditional family values’, media control, rightwing economics, profiting from the obscene dividends of corporations while waging austerity against the vulnerable and defunding education, health and welfare provision. They ignore the immediate peril of the climate emergency to millions of humans and myriad species. NatCon sees the courts and police as the means of suppressing peaceful protest and criminalising asylum seekers and trade unionists …
Following the implementation of the controversial Public Order Act ahead of the king’s coronation, [Extinction Rebellion] is calling out concerns of increasingly fascist ideals being adopted by senior members of the Conservative party. Even the UN has criticised the new law as ‘incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations regarding people’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association’.
Updated
After Suella Braverman was interrupted by protesters, she dismissed them with a joke, saying: “It’s audition day for the shadow cabinet.”
As Lewis Goodall points out, there is a lot more truth in what she said than she probably intended. (See 8.42am.)
It was a good line but one with more meaning than she intended. So much of what she’s doing right now, so much of these conferences, are with half an eye on the heart and soul of an opposition Conservative Party.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) May 15, 2023
BBC News and Sky are not covering the Suella Braverman speech live. Apparently the conference organisers were not covering it live.
But Peter Walker is covering it on Twitter, which is the next best thing.
Braverman's speech begins with the story of her father's arrival in the UK. We are told her speech will be personal, and not primarily policy-based. You might even call it "wide ranging" - the traditional code for someone with leadership ambitions on their mind.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Braverman also outlines her mother's arrival in the UK from Mauritius. While the legal context is obviously different*, there is an undeniable paradox in someone of her policy views explaining the story of her parents as, essentially, a refugee and an economic migrant.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
And this is from Bloomberg’s Kitty Donaldson.
This feels very much like an audition speech for Tory leader. We're nine minutes in and still on her family background.
— Kitty Donaldson (@kitty_donaldson) May 15, 2023
Suella Braverman interrupted by two protesters as she begins speech to NatCon conference
Suella Braverman’s speech to the NacCon conference has been interrupted by two protesters, Peter Walker reports.
The afternoon session begins with a speech by Suella Braverman, who is immediately interrupted by two separate protestors from - I think - Extinction Rebellion. Both are led out my security people. pic.twitter.com/kOH2OEZbKy
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast has the clip.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman addressing the National Conservatism Conference in central London
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) May 15, 2023
Interrupted by two protesters who are escorted out
“Anyone else” she says
“It’s audition day for the Shadow Cabinet.” pic.twitter.com/bkZgE9UDAP
This is from Prof Jane Green, one of the heads of the British Election Study, an academic project studying general election results, on Jacob Rees-Mogg’s comment about the photo ID voting law being gerrymandering. (See 11.50am.)
If true, awful...
— Jane Green (@ProfJaneGreen) May 15, 2023
(and ignorant about electoral behaviour, photo ID holding, and laws of unintended consequences). https://t.co/NCTzDRASpE
Liz Truss, the Tory former PM, is speaking now at the Copenhagan Democracy Summit. There is a live feed here.
She says she is going to Taiwan to give a speech later this week because she has been invited by the Taiwanese government. They know best what is good for their country, she says.
She says Taiwan is at the frontline between democracy and autocracy.
Asked if she expects China to respond to her visit in the way it responded to Nancy Pelosi visiting when she was speaker of the House of Representatives (the Chinese mobilising warships and fighter jets), she said China wants to make it unacceptable for people to engage with Taiwan, or visit it. That should not be allowed, she says.
Updated
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak did not favour allowing EU nationals or 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in general elections, as Labour is considering. (See 11.04am.) The spokesperson said:
The right to vote in parliamentary elections and choose the next UK government is restricted to British citizens, citizens of those with the closest historical links to our country. That’s the position of the vast majority of nations across the world.
On allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, the spokesperson said that 18 “is recognised as the age at which one becomes an adult – full citizenship rights, drinking, smoking, voting are only gained at adulthood”.
“We have no plans to change the national voting age,” the spokesperson said.
In an article in the Financial Times Jim Pickard says Keir Starmer is actually going back on a proposal he made in 2020 for all EU nationals to be allowed to vote in general elections. Labour is now only proposing to extend the franchise to EU nationals who have been resident in the UK for some time, Pickard says.
Updated
This is from Chris Rennard, a Lib Dem peer and former chief executive of the party, on Jacob Rees-Mogg saying the photo ID law amounted to gerrymandering. (See 11.50am.)
A confession from @Jacob_Rees_Mogg that the photo ID scheme to vote in elections was deliberate “gerrymandering” by the Conservatives, what we in @LibDemLords @LibDems said all along. We must now review acceptable forms of ID to include at least those used by the Post Office https://t.co/gG9zNlTeFe pic.twitter.com/oxzx3o09z3
— Chris Rennard 🔶💙🇺🇦 (@LordRennard) May 15, 2023
No 10 plays down suggestions of rift between Sunak and Braverman on immigration
On the basis of the advance briefing, Suella Braverman’s speech to the NatCon conference today is being viewed as a challenge to Rishi Sunak and other colleagues on immigration policy.
Better quality Telegraph front page #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/PZF2jNQzs5
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) May 14, 2023
The i: Sunak under pressure to get ‘tougher’ on migrants #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/fJkgzXOBcb
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) May 14, 2023
The Guardian: Braverman rejects Tory calls to ease
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) May 14, 2023
visa rules #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/w5vES0rfmJ
But at the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson played down suggestions of a rift. He said Braverman would be speaking on behalf of the government when she delivered her speech this afternoon. Asked if Sunak agreed that more Britons should be trained to drive HGVs, work as butchers or pick fruit, the spokesperson replied:
We have said before we want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on overseas labour as part of building a high-wage and high-skilled economy and we’re supporting those industries to do that.
The spokesperson also said Sunak did want to reduce the level of net immigration. But he would not say when this would happen, or what Sunak considered to be the “baseline” level of immigration.
Asked if Sunak was confident he could cut immigration while growing the economy (because economists, including the OBR, believe immigration is necessary for growth), the spokesperson replied: “Both those things remain government commitments, to grow the economy, to reduce overall [immigration] numbers”.
The spokesperson would not say whether the commitment to reduce immigration meant the government would stop adding news jobs to the shortage occupations list (making it easier for foreign workers in those jobs to get visas to work in the UK). He said he would not get into the process for those decisons.
And when it was put to him that, if the government wants more Britons to work, for example, picking fruit, it should just tell employers to pay more, the spokesperson replied:
We are not in the business of telling private sector companies what are the right salaries to pay their staff. That is for them to decide.
Updated
This is from Gavin Barwell, the Tory peer and chief of staff to Theresa May when she was prime minister, commenting on the Times preview of speeches being given at the NatCon conference today. The Times quotes Jacob Rees-Mogg as describing Jeremy Hunt’s plans to expand free childcare as “fundamentally anti-Conservative”.
This is a good example of current intellectual confusion on the right. It starts with Braverman arguing we should get British workers to fill labour shortages then has Rees Mogg attacking help with childcare - a key way of doing that - as unconservativehttps://t.co/SfjLWgHgVT
— Gavin Barwell (@GavinBarwell) May 15, 2023
Zelenskiy says he and Sunak discussed 'jets coalition' to help Ukraine
Rishi Sunak and Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to broadcasters after their talks at Chequers. Zelenskiy said they had discussed creating a “jets coalition” to help Ukraine, and he said a decision would be announced soon. He said:
Today we spoke about the jets. Very important topic for us because we can’t control the sky …
We want to create this jets coalition and I’m very positive with it.
We spoke about it and I see that in the closest time you will hear some, I think very important decisions but we have to work a little bit more on it.
Sunak confirmed that the pair had discussed how to build up Ukraine’s fighter combat capability, and he said this involved not just providing planes, but training pilots too. The UK was playing a big part in that, he went on. He said:
One thing we will be doing starting actually relatively soon is training of Ukrainian pilots and that’s something we’ve discussed today and we’re ready to implement those plans in relatively short order.
We will open a new UK flying school giving Ukrainian pilots the training they need to handle different types of aircraft, enabling them to better defend their citizens against Russian aggression.
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 15, 2023
Sunak also said he and Zelenskiy had discussed “the security arrangements we should put in place among allied countries for Ukraine for the long term to ensure it can defend itself and provide effective deterrence against future Russian aggression”.
Updated
My colleague Peter Walker has more on Jacob Rees-Mogg’s speech at the NatCon conference.
Rees Mogg veers off script to say it was “nonsense” and “snobbish” that the House of Lords Appointments Committee turned down Paul Dacre for a peerage. This is part of a wider attack on “the quango state”.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Rees Mogg veers into contemporary Tory politics to condemn the repeal so far of EU laws as “pathetically unambitious”, and condemn Rishi Sunak for breaking a promise. But, he adds - it is vital to support Sunak “as the alternative is far worse”.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Rees Mogg seems to argue that one of the reasons for the housing crisis is that too many planners are working from home. It is possible I misunderstood that bit.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Rees-Mogg criticises photo ID voting law, calling it move to 'gerrymander' elections
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory former business secretary, has described the requirement for people to need photo ID to be allowed to vote as “gerrymandering”.
The law, which came into force following the Elections Act 2022, will apply throughout the UK at the next general election, and took effect for the first time at the English local elections earlier this month.
In his speech to the NatCon conference, Rees-Mogg (who defended the legislation when he was a minister and it was going through parliament) said:
Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.
We found the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.
Ministers insist that the legislation was not introduced for party political advantage, and the Electoral Commission originally called for people to have to show ID when they voted. But the system actually chosen by the government – compulsory photo ID, with the list of acceptable photo ID cards appearing to favour pensioners – did fuel opposition suspicions that the move was, at least in part, intended to suppress the anti-Tory vote.
At the weekend the Tory peer Lord Cruddas told the Conservative Democratic Organisation that Labour policies, including abolishing voter ID, would make it impossible for the Tories to win an outright majority again. That confirms that, even if photo ID was not intended as a gerrymandering measure by ministers, at least some Tories saw it as achieving that.
Lord Peter Cruddas, "If Labour wins they will reduce the voting age, abolish voter ID, and introduce Proportional Representation making it impossible for the Conservative party to win an outright majority in the future."
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) May 14, 2023
Conservative Democratic Organisation pic.twitter.com/eUczNQD5sW
In fact, Labour is not committed to repealing the voter ID law. See 11.04am.
Updated
Tory MP Miriam Cates claims falling birth rates are threat to western society
The Conservative MP Miriam Cates, told the NatCon conference that falling birth rates “the one overarching threat to British conservatism and indeed the whole of western society”.
First up on the actual Tory side is Miriam Cates. She begins by arguing there is one “overarching threat to Western civilisation”, even more so than climate change - not enough babies. pic.twitter.com/WXjj2QRtCF
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Arguing that economic and social policy had ceased to value having children, she said:
You cannot be socially liberal and economically conservative. If you think that government and society should have nothing to say about the conditions that promote strong families, don’t be surprised if you end up with a high tax, high spend economy, with a nation of broken people dependent on the state.
People do what others value and so, as conservatives, we must seek to restore the value of children in British society.
For children are not an economic burden. They are not a threat to personal autonomy or a lifestyle choice. Children are a joy and a blessing, they are the symptom and the cause of a society that has hope.
She also claimed “cultural Marxism” was “destroying our children’s souls”. She said:
[Hope for the future] is sadly diminishing in so many of our young people today, because liberal individualism has proven to be completely powerless to resist the cultural Marxism that is systematically destroying our children’s souls.
When culture, schools and universities openly teach that our country is racist, our heroes are villains, humanity is killing the earth, you are what you desire, diversity is theology, boundaries are tyranny and self-restraint is oppression, is it any wonder that mental health conditions, self-harm and suicide, and epidemic levels of anxiety and confusion characterise the emerging generation?
My colleague Peter Walker, who was listening, says “cultural Marxism” is a conspiracy theory.
Cates says UK children are being indoctrinated with “cultural Marxism”. Your regular reminder that this is a conspiracy theory often associated with the far right and antisemitism, eg https://t.co/c5TOHE0liQ
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
But he says in other respects the speech was intellectually coherent.
Beyond the reference to Cultural Marxism, this is quite an interesting political speech in that, agree or not, it is intellectually coherent and knows what it wants to say. For some people - as seen eg in Hungary & Italy - these ideas can be appealing.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Updated
Summary of key points from Starmer's LBC phone-in
Here are the main points from Keir Starmer’s LBC phone-in.
Starmer confirmed that Labour is considering giving EU nationals, and 16- and 17-year-olds, the vote in general elections. Referring to media coverage of these proposals, he said this not about reversing Brexit. There would be “increasingly hysterical” headlines as the election approached, he said. (See 9.09am.) He stressed that these were just options, and that there was “no settled policy here” yet. But he implied there was a good case for both measures. On EU nationals, he said they could vote in local elections anyway. He went on:
The thinking behind it is if someone has been here, say, 10, 20, 30 years, contributing to this economy, part of our community, they ought to be able to vote.
Let me bring it alive. I’ve obviously knocked a lot of doors in the last few years and you go to door sometimes in a general election election and you’re met with someone who says: ‘Look, I’m an EU citizen. I’ve been living here for 30 years. I’m married to a Brit. My kids are raised and brought up here. They’re now working in the UK. I’m working in lots of community projects, etc. But I can’t vote.’ That feels wrong, and something ought to be done about it.
And on 16- and 17-year-olds, he said people could have babies at this age, or join the army. He went on:
It’s not such an outlandish idea, In Wales it already happens, in Scotland it already happens [in local elections, and elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliament] … These are some of the ideas that are going into the mix but they’re not policy. We’re just looking at them.
But Starmer said PR was not a priority for him. Asked if that was going into the mix too, he replied:
Not really … To be fair, there is a lot of people in my party who think very strongly, there is a fierce debate. Again, in Wales and Scotland you have got versions of PR.
But I have been very clear. I think we are going to inherit a real mess if we are privileged enough to come into power. I know that means an incoming Labour government needs to be laser focused on fixing the things that need fixing and PR isn’t one of my priorities. I want to fix the economy, fix the NHS.
He said that he would not commit to immediately repealing the Public Order Act because, now it was passed, he wanted to let it “settle in”. Asked if he would repeal it, he replied:
I said as the legislation was going through that I didn’t think we needed it because we had the existing powers. Now it’s on the books I think we need to let it settle in. With public order legislation you often need a bit of time and guidance.
He also said he wanted to look at the review of the impact of the photo ID voting law before deciding whether to scrap it. (See 9.33am.)
Momentum, the leftwing Labour group, says Starmer should commit to repealing the Public Order Act and the photo ID voting law.
The Public Order Act and Voter ID Laws are repressive Tory laws designed to stifle democracy.
— Momentum 🌹 (@PeoplesMomentum) May 15, 2023
It beggars belief that the next Labour Government would not repeal them. pic.twitter.com/vFWkbz82sl
Starmer refused to rule out doing a deal with the Liberal Democrats, saying that he was going for an outright majority but that “we’re going to have to see what the situation is next year”. (See 9.14am.)
He described the government’s Rwanda policy for asylum seekers as “morally unacceptable”, as well as impractical.
He said that, instead of giving her immigration speech today, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, should be sorting out the backlog in processing asylum claims. He said:
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is today making a speech about what she thinks ought to happen on immigration. She is the home secretary.
They’ve been in power for 13 years. This is like [Mikel] Arteta … doing a speech this afternoon on what Arsenal ought to do.
This is pathetic. I’d say to the home secretary: stop the speech, cancel that, get back to the office and sort out the processing of these claims.
He defended his right to abandon his pledge to abolish tuition fees. When Nick Ferrari put it to him that this meant nobody could believe a word he said, Starmer replied:
I don’t think that’s fair.
There’s two rival arguments here. One is, if you said it, you stick to it, even when the economy is completely different. And I think you would be challenging me pretty hard to say: ‘Look, Keir, for heaven’s sake, you may have said that, you may think that, but you can’t ignore the fact that now we are in debt in a way we’ve never been since the second world war.’ So one theory of leadership is you just stick stick to your guns even when it’s pretty obvious that you can’t really deliver. I don’t actually agree with that. And I don’t think many people do.
Or you say: ‘Look, there are good things I wanted to do. Looking at the situation as it now is, there’s no doubt the damage has been done to the economy by this government. We’re going to have to look again across the board and make some difficult choices.’
I think on balance the British public wants someone who says: ‘Look, I’m going to square with you and say we can’t do some of the things I wanted to do because there isn’t the money after they’ve destroyed the economy.’
He said that he was “not a status quo person” on Scotland and that he wanted to give it more power. Asked by an SNP supporter why she should vote Labour, he replied:
I’m not a status quo person. I don’t think that it’s enough to say to you or anybody else in Scotland that we need to just keep things the way they are. And so I want more decision making in Scotland and want more power to Scotland, but I want Scotland to stay within a strong and changed United Kingdom.
Updated
Rees-Mogg interrupted by anti-fascist protester while giving speech to NatCon conference
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory former business secretary, was interrupted by a protester as he spoke at the NatCon conference, PA Media reports. PA says:
Shortly after the Tory MP began speaking, a man joined him at the lectern and told the audience: “I would like to draw your attention to a few characteristics of fascism.”
The protester was then bundled off the stage.
Updated
Sunak compares his 'friend' Zelenskiy to Churchill as he welcomes him to Chequers
Rishi Sunak has welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Chequers, the PM’s official country residence. In a clip broadcast by the BBC and Sky News, Sunak was shown inside the house saying that Zelenskiy was the first foreign leader he had hosted at Chequers. Sunak said they were standing in a room from where Winston Churchill delivered many of his famous wartime speeches.
Sunak also referred to Zelenskiy as “my friend”, in a tone that suggested he really meant it. The picture Sunak posted on Twitter of the two men embracing when Zelenskiy arrived gave the same impression.
Welcome back, @ZelenskyyUa 🇬🇧🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/ph57ZoUHpC
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) May 15, 2023
Earlier, in the tweet posted just after 7am announcing his visit, Zelenskiy also referred to Sunak as a friend.
Today – London. The UK is a leader when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air. This cooperation will continue today. I will meet my friend Rishi. We will conduct substantive negotiations face-to-face and in delegations.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 15, 2023
UPDATE: Sunak said:
You are actually the first foreign leader I have had the privilege of welcoming here as prime minister and there’s a lot of great history here.
In fact this room that we are standing in, Winston Churchill made many of his famous speeches in World War Two from this room.
And the same way today, your leadership, your country’s bravery and fortitude are an inspiration to us all.
I look forward to us discussing what more we can do to support you and your country.
Updated
My colleague Peter Walker is at the National Conservatism conference in London today. Here are some of his early tweets, which give a flavour of what it’s like.
Welcome to the National
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Conservatism conference - aka NatCon London 2023. Despite speakers including Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg, this isn’t a Tory party event. It’s a moveable annual gathering of low tax populist nationalism run by a US think tank. pic.twitter.com/sj93gyHKRw
Conservative-wise, it’s particularly appealing for those on the culture war side - Miriam Cates is an early speaker today. Not packed yet, but a big queue for delegates to get accreditation. This is definitely a thing for some Tories, and could be influential post-election.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
The man sat directly behind me in 5 mins of furious splaining to his neighbour has so far argued:
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
- the UK has been in decline since 1870.
- forget a four-day week, even five days was a mistake.
- “Of course, you won’t meet any British people in London these days.”
Crowd here is definitely on the young-ish side. To be an armchair psephologist, it’s almost as if with 70% or so of young Britons arguably on the liberal left, if you think differently this sort of Atlanticist, Reagan-tinged free-enterprise-on-steroids can be appealing.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
First speech is by James Orr from the Edmund Burke Foundation, which organises NatCon. He argues conservatism is not fulfilling basic tasks like protecting children from “indoctrination” and preserving heritage. We’re very much on immediate culture war territory here.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
In electoral terms, it’s not very clear how beneficial a shift to the culture war right would be for the Conservatives. In my preview of NatCon, Prof Tim Bale said there was a danger that in the UK it is something of a political cul de sac. https://t.co/lh4XE1RnG1
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Q: Do you support the extension of the Ulez low emissions zone to outer London?
Starmer says there is a scheme in place to help the low-paid meet the cost. He says, when he visited a cancer research institute last week, he was shown the impact of air pollution on a lung. If we don’t use schemes like Ulez to tackle air pollution, what else can we do to protect people from air pollution, he asks.
And that’s the end of the phone-in.
I will post a summary soon.
Starmer says he wants to consider review of how photo ID voting law worked before deciding whether or not to keep it
Q: Would you get rid of the photo ID law for voting?
Starmer says he wants to see what the review of how it worked says.
But the government should have publicised the new rule more effectively, he says.
Starmer says he is 'not status quo person' on union, and favours more powers for Scotland
Q: I vote for the SNP. Why should I vote Labour in the general election?
To get a better Scotland in a better UK, Starmer says.
He says he is “not a status quo person”. He wants more decision-making in Scotland and more power to Scotland.
Updated
Q: What is happening with the Labour investigation into Nick Brown, the former chief whip?
Starmer says an investigation is taking place. He says he cannot say any more.
The process is independent, and confidential, he says.
Q: What do you respond to the revelation that Boris Johnson thinks Sue Gray is a psycho?
Starmer says he and Johnson rarely agree on anything. He knows Gray, has worked with her and admires her, he says.
He dismisses Johnson’s theory that Gray was trying to help Labour with the Partygate report as nonsense.
Q: Are you committed to the triple lock for pensioners?
Yes, says Starmer. He says Labour would keep it.
He recalls meeting a pensioners in Dewsbury who spends the day under a blanket because she is concerned about her heating bills.
Q: Would Labour repeal the Public Order Act?
Starmer says Labour was opposed to it as it was going through.
But now it has passed, he says it would be best to let it bed down and see how it operates.
Q: But what are you going to change? Not the Public Order Act? Not higher corporation tax? You promised clause 4 on steroids. This is clause 4 on sleeping tablets.
Starmer does not accept that. He cites his missions, and says they do amount to a “huge, bold reform”.
Q: Would Labour reverse the rise in corporation tax?
Starmer says he does not think Labour would be able to afford that. That is why the party did not vote against the increase, he says.
Starmer defends his decision to change his position on tuition fees
A caller says he feels let down by Starmer’s U-turn on tuition fees, which at one point he was committed to abolish?
Starmer says this is a tough issue.
He does wonder whether he would have gone to university if he had had to get a loan.
But he says he no longer thinks a Labour government could afford to just get rid of them.
Q: How can we believe anything you say?
Starmer says the economy is in a different state. Leaders should change their mind when circumstances change.
Q: Do you really think you would not have gone to university if you had had to get a loan?
Starmer says he does not know.
He says his parents were working class, and were scared of accumulating debt.
Updated
Q: Do you agree with what the archbishop of Canterbury said about the government’s illegal migration bill?
Starmer says he agrees with the archbishop that the government’s policy won’t work.
Asked if he thought it was immoral too, Starmer said he thought the Rwanda policy was immoral.
Q: Do you agree that Britons have forgotten how to work (as Suella Braverman is claiming today)?
The Times: Britons will forget how to work, says
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) May 14, 2023
Braverman #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ABy7TSMWHK
Starmer says he does not think that.
But he does think the country needs a skills strategy.
Starmer refuses to rule out deal with Lib Dems, saying he wants outright majority but will 'see what situation is next year'
Q: Would you form a coalition with the Lib Dems if you failed to win an outright majority?
Starmer says he is focused on getting a majority.
Q: But would you do a deal if you did not get one?
Starmer says he would not do a deal with the SNP.
Q: What about with the Liberal Democrats?
Starmer says he is going for a majority.
Q: Can you look me in the eye and say, no deal?
Starmer says he will “have to see what the situation is next year”.
He says it is the Conservative party that has done deals with other parties, with the Lib Dems in 2010 and with the DUP in 2017
PR 'not one of my priorities', says Starmer
Q: Is PR in the mix for the Labour manifesto?
“Not really,” says Starmer.
He says some in the party are in favour of PR.
But it is “not one of my priorities”, he says.
Updated
Starmer says he can see case for allowing EU nationals to vote in general elections, but says this won't reverse Brexit
Keir Starmer is holding his LBC phone-in.
Nick Ferrari starts by asking about stories claiming that Labour proposals to give EU nationals the vote amount to a plan to reverse Brexit.
Daily Mail: Starmer to use EU citizens to ‘rig’ polls #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/jX2aRSxnMD
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) May 14, 2023
Sta
Daily Express: Outrage over Labour plan to ‘reopen brexit’ #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/hRN4BwRTCl
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) May 14, 2023
Starmer said he had no intention of reopening Brexit.
Before the election, there would be “increasingly hysterical headlines”, he said.
He said Labour was still considering plans to let EU nationals vote in general elections, and to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in election. He said he could see the case for both moves.
Updated
It is a sign of how feverish things are getting in the Conservative party that Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, found himself being asked on the Today programme this morning if Rishi Sunak might be replaced before the general election. Mason said he did not think anyone was pushing for that.
But when the rightwinger Sir John Redwood was interviewed on the programme, and asked if he supported Sunak leading the party into the general election, Redwood decline to say yes. He said he was focused on “policy not on people”.
Explaining what he wanted to change, Redwood said:
The current focus is on policy and I am an optimist. I think this government could do well. It could make changes for the better.
I and my colleagues are desperate for it to do so.
It needs to make big changes on its attitude towards Brexit, on its attitude towards economic growth and on migration.
Updated
No 10 says UK to supply Ukraine with hundreds of long-range attack drones as Zelenskiy visits Chequers for talks with Sunak
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, is making a surprise visit to the UK today. He is holding talks with Rishi Sunak at Chequers.
To coincide with his arrival, Downing Street has announced a significant increase in military support for Ukraine, including the supply of hundreds of long-range attack drones. In its news release No 10 says:
Last week the UK confirmed that we have provided Storm Shadow precision missiles to Ukraine. This is the first long-range cruise missile in Ukraine’s arsenal and will be critical in helping the country defend against the relentless bombardment of their critical national infrastructure.
Today the prime minister will confirm the further UK provision of hundreds of air defence missiles and further unmanned aerial systems including hundreds of new long-range attack drones with a range of over 200km. These will all be delivered over the coming months as Ukraine prepares to intensify its resistance to the ongoing Russian invasion.
This equipment will support Ukraine over the coming months in their anticipated military surge to counter Russian forces. During their meeting today the prime minister will discuss with President Zelenskyy what support Ukraine needs from the international community, both in terms of immediate military equipment and long-term defences.
Martin Belam has more coverage on our Ukraine live blog.
Local election results show Labour on course for outright majority when tactical voting considered, poll suggests
Good morning. “For many of those at the very top of the party an awful lot of their time and energy is devoted to the next leadership election rather than the next general election,” says Tim Bale in his new book, the Conservative Party After Brexit. It looks like we will see a good example of that today when Suella Braverman, the home secretary, addresses the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in London. Of course, she will not be pitching it like that explicitly, but that it how it will be seen by many Conservatives, who are expecting a contest after the next election, and expecting Braverman to be a favourite in that ballot.
After the local elections, the psephologists who analysed the results for the BBC and Sky News argued that the vote share suggested Labour is on course to be the largest party after a general election, but probably without an outright majority. Today Labour Together, a Starmerite thinktank, has published research suggesting the results do show the party on course for an outright majority. This conclusion is based on polling suggesting that a significant number of people who voted Lib Dem or Green in the locals would vote Labour in a general election. Here is the Labour Together summary.
Labour Together’s analysis found that:
-If replicated in a general election, Labour’s lead in the local elections would secure Labour a majority in Parliament. Labour Together asked those who voted at the locals whether they would vote differently at a general election. Accounting for this, a 9-point lead in the projected national vote share, calculated by the BBC, becomes a 13-point lead at a general election [which would be enough for an outright majority].
-The Liberal Democrat surge was largely tactical voting against the Conservatives. In the 54 councils where the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had the largest number of councillors, the Lib Dems gained 214 seats while Labour gained only 69. But in the 93 councils which were Conservative-Labour contests, Labour won 335 councillors and the Lib Dems increased their tally by only 48.
-Many Liberal Democrat voters will return to Labour. 21% of Liberal Democrat voters at the local elections said that they voted for the party that was “best placed to defeat a party I disliked, even though they were not my first choice.” Nearly a quarter (23%) of the Liberal Democrats’ local election vote plans to vote Labour at the next general election. Just 44% intend to vote Lib Dem.
-Fewer than half (44%) of Green voters would vote the same way at a general election (the same proportion as the Lib Dems). The Green party drew voters from both the Conservatives and Labour, with 40% of their vote coming from 2019 Labour voters and 23% from 2019 Conservative voters. At a general election, however, the Greens would hold onto less than half of their vote, with Labour the biggest beneficiary.
We may get to hear what Keir Starmer thinks about this shortly; he is holding his LBC phone-in shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer holds his regular ‘Call Keir’ LBC phone-in.
10am; Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory former business secretary, speaks at the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in London. At 2pm Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is speaking.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1.50pm (UK time): Liz Truss, the former PM, takes part in a live Q&A at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.
2.30pm: Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. (It is not available on the app yet.) This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
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