Early evening summary
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has given a speech denouncing liberalism, support for immigration and opposition to Brexit as “luxury beliefs”. (See 3.51pm.) She was heckled by Andrew Boff, a Conservative member of the London assembly, who was thrown out of the conference in response. He said her speech was homophobic and ridiculous. (See 5.11pm.)
Rishi Sunak has hinted that Nigel Farage could potentially be welcomed back into the “broad church” of the Conservative party – only for the former Ukip leader to say he was not interested. Asked if he would like to see Farage back in the party, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, replied:
A resounding yes. Actually he should be in the House of Lords. The problem is if he became an MP I think any leader of the party might be looking quite nervously behind his back.
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, has announced the government is considering plans to rent prison spaces from foreign countries as a solution to overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales. (See 5.39pm.) In response, his Labour shadow, Shabana Mahmood, said:
There’s no greater symbol of the way in which the Tories have run our criminal justice system into the ground, than the fact they are ‘exploring’ putting prisoners in foreign jails because they are incapable of building the prisons places this country needs to keep our people safe.
Updated
The Conservative MP Peter Aldous has voiced his disdain for rhetoric used by Suella Braverman and Claire Coutinho about net zero targets. The home secretary referred to environmentalists as holding “luxury beliefs”, while the secretary for energy security and net zero referred to eco campaigners as “zealots”.
Aldous, who represents Waveney in Suffolk, said:
My constituents in the east of England are a coastal community at the forefront of climate change and also actually see net zero in a positive light, as an opportunity to bring great jobs to the area and to have sustainable economic development. I wouldn’t describe them as holding luxury beliefs, or as zealots.
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It seems like I was wrong to suggest that Nigel Farage would be comfortable with a Tory party led by Suella Braverman. (See 4.32pm.) He told GB News:
We will do whatever it takes to stop the small boats, and then when it comes to solutions do you know what she offered? Nothing.
She didn’t even mention the ECHR [European convention on human rights]. We all expected this to be the big policy announcement and what is one of the top two or three policies in the country? We got to stop small boats, the public want it, 70% want small boats stopped, think the crossings are wrong. She’s offered no solutions.
It is the most disappointing speech from a so-called hardline Home Office minister we can ever have expected.
In fact, Braverman clearly referred to the ECHR when she complained about the “dense net of international rules that were designed for another era”. And she did not need to say any more, because Tory activists know full well (she has said it enough times before) that she favours withdrawal. It is Rishi Sunak who is preventing the government adopting that as policy, not Braverman.
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Nusrat Ghani, the industry minister, has criticised Susan Hall in a fringe meeting for “demonising” Sadiq Khan. This is from Sunder Katwala, from the British Future thinktank, which organised the event.
Ghani said the Conservatives should not stoop to the language of fear and demonisation. “Have we learnt nothing from Zac Goldsmith’s campaign” asked @Nus_Ghani who are spoke of her strong relationship with @BoardofDeputies
Ghani said the Conservatives should not stoop to the language of fear and demonisation. "Have we learnt nothing from Zac Goldsmith's campaign" asked @Nus_Ghani who are spoke of her strong relationship with @BoardofDeputies pic.twitter.com/GbITPWLvyb
— Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) October 3, 2023
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Alex Chalk says government considering renting jail space from other countries to deal with overcrowding problem
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, has announced plans to rent prison spaces from foreign countries as a solution to overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales. In his speech to the conference he said:
This government is doing more than any since the Victorian era to expand prison capacity.
Alongside our extra 20,000 prison places programme, refurbishment of old prisons and rapid deployment cells, renting prison places in other countries will ensure that we always have the space to keep the public safe from the most dangerous offenders.
In a news release explaining the policy, the Ministry of Justice says:
The justice secretary unveiled the government will now also enter exploratory discussions with potential partner countries in Europe to rent prison space abroad.
Agreements would mean that prisoners in the UK could be moved to another country’s prison estate provided the facilities, regime and rehabilitation provided meets British standards. This is similar to steps taken by Belgium and Norway which have used foreign prison places in the Netherlands in the last decade.
The government will legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows to enable any future arrangements and will require that conditions are to the same standard as prisons in England and Wales.
PA Media says the UK’s prison population has grown substantially since 2020 and according to the latest figures, there are now 87,793 prisoners. As of 29 September, capacity across the whole prison estate stood at 88,561.
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Suella Braverman, the home secretary, says she does not want to see Andrew Boff, the Conservative member of the London assembly who was thrown out of the conference for heckling her during her speech (see 5.11pm), banned from the conference for good.
Andrew Boff’s heckles were silly but I think he should be forgiven and let back into conference
Andrew Boff’s heckles were silly but I think he should be forgiven and let back into conference
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 3, 2023
Labour says Suella Braverman’s conference speech was “divorced from reality”. This is from Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary.
Suella Braverman’s speech was devoid of practical policies and divorced from the reality of Tory failure over the last 13 years. She had nothing to say about the knife crime killing our children, the epidemic of town centre crime undermining our communities, or the collapse in prosecutions under the Tories which means more criminals are getting off. Nor did she mention the 1,000 people who have arrived on small boats since Tory conference started, all because she has totally lost control of border security.
Her promise to only “begin” closing hotels sometime “soon” is a massive watering down of the prime minister’s pledge to end hotel use [to house asylum seekers] last year, all while hotel use is still going up not down, and is now costing the taxpayer an astronomical £8m a day because they have simply failed to get a grip.
Suella Braverman and helicopter-riding Rishi Sunak may have the luxury of ignoring the blight of town centre crime or the serious problems our country faces but the British people don’t.
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Tory London assembly member ejected from conference hall after heckling Braverman's 'ridiculous' speech
Suella Braverman was heckled during her party conference speech by a London assembly Tory member, who accused her of “vilifying” LGBTQ+ people, PA Media reports. PA says:
London Assembly member Andrew Boff was escorted from the premises after heckling the home secretary during her speech.
A member of the capital’s assembly since 2008, he was approached by officials and police when he heckled Braverman after she said ministers must challenge the “poison” of talk of subjects such as white privilege and gender ideology.
He said: “There’s no such thing as gender ideology.”
Boff, who has repeatedly vied to become a Conservative candidate for mayor in the capital, is known for his socially liberal views.
Speaking to the PA Media news agency after he was removed from his party’s conference, he criticised Braverman’s “ridiculous” language.
He said: “This home secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology. It is fictitious, it is ridiculous. It is a signal to people who don’t like people who are LGBT+ people. Words like that in the forum of the party that I love need to be challenged.”
Asked if he had planned the protest in advance, he said he attended the speech to “hear from her own mouth what her views were”.
As he was removed, he complained about the “trash” language Braverman had used in her address.
“It is making our Conservative party look transphobic and homophobic,” he told reporters.
This is from Sky’s Josh Gafson:
BREAKING: the person ejected from the Home Sec’s speech was London Assembly member @AndrewBoff.
— Josh Gafson (@JoshGafson1) October 3, 2023
Here’s what he had to say 👇 pic.twitter.com/sWLH1O7vI5
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Braverman's speech - snap verdict
Last month, in a news story to mark the launch of the Guardian’s new Europe edition, Jon Henley wrote about research showing that “almost one-third of Europeans now vote for populist, far-right or far-left parties”. The Dutch academic who led the research, Matthijs Rooduijn, said his team had considered whether the Conservative party should be considered a far right party. “In the end we didn’t because nativism was not their core focus,” he said. “But we may in future.”
On the basis of that speech, if Suella Braverman becomes party leader, that moment will come. That was a classic populist speech, presenting politics in simplistic terms as a contest between the people and a sinister elite. It is telling that she in effect quoted Jeremy Corbyn, a leftwing populist, by quoting Shelley. (See 4.03pm.) But Corbyn himself would be horrified by her message, which focused relentlessly on the threat posed by immigrants.
What put this into far right territory was Braverman’s contempt for liberal and legal norms. It is one thing to criticise the Human Rights Act. But to describe it as a “criminal rights act” goes further, implying the entire basis of human rights law is suspect. Nigel Farage said earlier that he would not want to join today’s Conservative party, but with someone like Braverman in charge, he would feel very much at home.
The conventional wisdom is that a home secretary can never give a speech too rightwing for a Tory conference. But will they all go for the diatribe about “luxury beliefs”. (See 3.51pm.) The Conservatives used to approve of luxury, and many of them think of themselves as liberal. That wing of the party will be horrified by this.
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Braverman says Tories are 'trade union of British people'
Braverman ended her speech by describing the Conservative party as the “trade union of the British people”.
And she even went Corbynite – quoting a passage from Shelley’s Mask of Anarchy that Jeremy Corbyn used to quote at the end of his speeches.
Braverman said:
We are the trade union of the British people.
And I think we should adopt as our motto these lines from Shelley …
… Which I’m taking back from Labour:
“rise like lions after slumber
in unvanquishable number.
Shake your chains to earth like dew: Which in sleep had fallen on you.
You are many, they are few!”
We stand with the many …
The law-abiding …
Hard working …
Common sense majority.
Against the few …
the privileged woke minority …
… with their luxury beliefs …
… who wield influence out of all proportion to their numbers.
Updated
Braverman said Keir Starmer would be the Tories’ “secret weapon” at the election.
The British people have no enthusiasm for Keir Starmer.
They know that he believes in nothing …
That he will say anything to anyone … And then change his mind at the first sign of trouble.
Keir Starmer lacks the force of personality to lead this country effectively.
Imagine what would happen if he became prime minister.
Luxury beliefs would reign supreme.
Britain would go properly woke.
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Braverman suggests liberalism and support for immigration are 'luxury beliefs'
Braverman suggests liberalism and support of immigration are “luxury beliefs”. She says:
I know there are some who think that emphasising the importance of law and order or secure borders, is unedifying.
They look down on those of us who care about such things.
Of course, they are entitled to their beliefs.
But let’s be honest.
These are luxury beliefs.
What do I mean by that?
Our politically correct critics have money. They have status. And they have loud voices.
They have the luxury of promoting seductive but irresponsible ideas safe in the knowledge that their privilege will insulate them from any collateral damage.
The luxury beliefs brigade sit in their ivory towers telling ordinary people that they are morally deficient because they dare to get upset about the impact of illegal migration, net zero, or habitual criminals.
And you can be sure of one thing.
People with luxury beliefs will flock to Labour at the next election because that’s the way to get the kind of society they want.
They like open borders. The migrants coming in won’t be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes.
They love soft sentences. The criminals who benefit from such ostentatious compassion won’t be terrorising their streets or grooming their children.
They are desperate to reverse Brexit. They think patriotism is embarrassing and have no use for a British passport if it doesn’t entitle them to live in their second homes in Tuscany, Dordogne or Barcelona.
For these people, I have a simple message … You are entitled to your luxury beliefs, but the British people will no longer pay for them.
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Braverman defends Susan Hall, claiming she is victim of 'character assassination'
And Braverman defends Susan Hall, the London Tory mayoral candidate (but without mentioning the controversy about her remark implying Sadiq Khan is antisemitic). Braverman says:
And to those who ask whether Labour can be trusted to fight crime. I have a two-word answer: Sadiq Khan.
If there’s any justice, Susan Hall is going to wipe the floor with him next May.
They’ve already started the character assassination against Sue.
The distortions. The insults. The lies.
That’s what the Labour party does:
It prefers smears to debate.
Personally, I take their abuse as a compliment.
I know they have tried to make me into a hate figure because I tell the truth.
The blunt, unvarnished truth about what is happening in our country.
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Braverman offers her support to the firearms officers in the Met who have been handing in their weapons because they believe they do not get enough support if a weapon is used and an officer is investigated.
You are the thin blue line. You have our support. We are grateful for the vital work that you do, day in, day out.
That is why I announced a review, to report to me by the end of the year, to ensure the legal and operational frameworks in which they operate are robust and command the confidence of both officers and the public.
Braverman turns to law and order.
The next election will also be fought on law and order.
Between a Conservative government that wants the police to focus on criminal justice …
… And a Labour party that thinks the police should prioritise social justice.
Updated
And Braverman accuses Labour of attacking attempts to control immigration as racist.
Each time I have gone to parliament to improve the law on immigration, Labour has tried to block us.
Always aided by their allies in the third sector.
Some of whom openly declare that they oppose national borders on principle.
And all of them bleating the same incessant accusation:
Racist. Racist. Racist.
They’ve always used that smear.
They tried it against Margaret Thatcher … It didn’t work.
They tried it against David Cameron … It didn’t work.
A couple of years ago they even tried it against Winston Churchill … Our greatest ever leader … And it didn’t work then either.
And I can promise you this … it won’t work against Rishi Sunak … and it won’t work against me.
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Braverman dismisses Human Rights Act as 'Criminal Rights Act'
Braverman says Labour would open the UK’s borders. It does not believe in keeping people out, she says.
And she criticises Labour for introducing the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European convention on human rights into UK law.
Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era.
And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.
I am surprised they didn’t call it the Criminal Rights Act.
Braverman explains the measures introduced by Rishi Sunak’s government, including the Illegal Migration Act.
And she goes on:
And be under no illusion, we will do whaever it takes to stop the boats and deter bogus asylum seekers.
Braverman says Tories were 'too squeamish' in past to deal with immigration properly from fear of being called racist
Braverman says in the past politicians have not dealt with immigration properly.
We were too slow to recognise the scale of the problem.
Too unwilling to accept that our legal framework needed to be updated.
And, let’s be honest, far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos.
But that is now changing, she says.
Braverman says 'hurricane' of illegal immigration coming
Braverman says the trend that brought her immigrant parents to the UK was just a gust compared to the hurricane coming.
One of the most powerful forces reshaping our world is unprecedented mass migration.
The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.
She says the UK has been good at taking in refugees. “The decency of the British people cannot be questioned,” she says.
But she says the views of the people are clear. They think immigration is too high.
And they know that the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores …
… uncontrolled and unmanageable, unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.
We are the only party that will take effective action.
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Braverman tells conference Tories are more likely to give voters change they want than Labour
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is addressing the conference today.
She is the main platform speaker today, and she starts by saying she receives “a modicum of criticism” in her job.
She is willing to wade through the abuse, she says, because she thinks we should all strive for improvement.
She says the people should be willing to admit mistakes.
The Tories are raising their game, she says. Who do people trust to deliver the changes the country needs?
She claims the voters will realise that they are more likely to get the change they want from Rishi Sunak than from the opposition.
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, delivered a speech to the conference this morning that did not contain anything remotely qualifying as news, but which was better crafted, and better delivered than almost any of the others heard on the conference platform.
As well as having a go at the Guardian, Gove also included a passage with a diatribe against Keir Starmer that was more original than the usual Tory conference fare.
[Starmer] is the jellyfish of British politics …
…. he’s transparent, spineless and swept along by the tide.
There was no policy in the Gove speech, but it was highly political, and the passage about Labour was probably a good preview of the attack lines the Tories will be using in an election campaign.
Under Sir Keir, Labour is the party of equivocation, procrastination, prevarication …
… but never prepared to stand up for our nation.
It is the party of high unemployment … higher taxes … … and always ….
… the highest debt and deficits.
The party of low ambition …
…. lower standards in our schools…
… and - always - the line of least resistance…
… in the face of left-wing pressure groups at home and threats abroad.
Gove also attempted to answer one of the most difficult questions the Tories are likely to face in an election campaign: after more than 13 years in office, what have they actually achieved? This is his answer.
We have delivered.
We have delivered better state schools than ever before.
With our children the most literate in the western world and there are more students from state schools at our best universities.
More students securing top grades in maths, physics and chemistry.
Our universities the best in Europe and they are growing.
We have record numbers in employment.
We have created one million more new jobs while in government.
Welfare is simpler, fairer and better targeted.
We have taken hundreds of thousands completely out of income tax.
Families have many more hours of free childcare,
Since Covid, our economy has grown faster than France’s or Germany’s.
We have also delivered:
The first national living wage …
…. same-sex marriage and the most diverse government ever.
Stronger defence with two new aircraft carriers …
… new nuclear submarines and a strengthened Nato.
We have delivered the fastest decarbonisation of any major economy.
And we are world leaders in offshore wind.
World leaders in reforming farming.
And we have shown world leadership in protecting our oceans,
Brexit has been delivered …
… and membership of the world’s fastest growing trade bloc secured.
Updated
The Conservative party should stop debating whether it “wants” tax cuts, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has said, in an apparent riposte to pressure from Liz Truss and other Tory backbenchers for the government to commit to cuts.
At a packed fringe meeting during the Conservative party conference yesterday, the former prime minister and her supporters held a rally where they pushed for the chancellor to cut corporation tax, build 500,000 new homes and resume fracking to cut energy bills.
But Hunt told a fringe meeting organised by the Centre for Policy Studies today:
I think in the Conservative party, we should stop debating whether or not we want tax cuts. We all want tax cuts. That’s what we believe in. The debate we should be having is how you get tax cuts, and every good Conservative knows there is no shortcuts.
He added that answers to this included higher growth or productive spending of tax payer’s money.
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Sunak says he is cooperating with Covid inquiry 'expansively' - but does not deny it has not seen his Treasury WhatApp messages
Rishi Sunak has refused to deny a Guardian report saying he has not disclosed WhatsApp messages from his time as chancellor to the Covid inquiry because he has changed his phone several times and no longer has access to them. Here is Pippa Crerar’s story.
But Sunak has claimed that he is cooperating with the inquiry “very, very expansively”.
In an interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason, when asked if it was true that he told the inquiry he no longer had access to the messages, Sunak replied:
What I can tell you because obviously this is a legal process which is going on, is that I’m helping the Covid inquiry fully and very, very expansively with everything …
I think as people will know that this is the legal inquiry, there’s a full process, I submit a lot of different evidence and documentation. I will be interviewed, all of that will be transparent and public.
And of course I’m helping with all of that, as people would expect. We want to learn the lessons from Covid.
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Farage rules out rejoining Tory party after Sunak suggests he might be allowed in
Rishi Sunak has suggested he would allow Nigel Farage to rejoin the Conservative party.
Farage was a member until he left over the Maastricht Treaty. He subsequently was a founder member of Ukip, which he went on to lead, before he left that to lead the Brexit party.
Asked if he would let Farage rejoin, Sunak would not rule it out. He told GB News in an interview:
Look, the Tory party is a broad church.
I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values.
Asked if that would extend to Farage, Sunak avoided the question and just said he cared about “delivering for the country”.
When told what Sunak had said, Farage said he would not want to join the party anyway. He told GB News:
Would I want to join a party that’s put the tax rate up to the highest in over 70 years, that has allowed net migration to run at over half a million a year, that has not used Brexit to deregulate to help small businesses? No, no and no.
I achieved a lot more outside of the Tory party than I ever could have done from within it.
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Farming minister Mark Spencer defends Claire Coutinho over false claim about Labour favouring meat tax
Mark Spencer, the farming minister, has defended Claire Coutinho over her much-criticised comment about Labour favouring a beef tax.
In her speech yesterday, Coutinho, the energy security and net zero secretary, said:
It’s no wonder Labour seems so relaxed about taxing meat.
Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t eat it.
And Ed Miliband is clearly scarred by his encounter with a bacon sandwich.
But Labour has not proposed taxing meat, and yesterday Coutinho had a dismal time in an interview when she repeatedly failed to justify what she had told the conference.
Sky's Sophy Ridge reads out part of the Energy Secretary's speech where she says, 'there's no wonder Labour seem so relaxed about taxing meat...' - and asks: "You didn't write that, did you? They're not proposing a meat tax?"#PoliticsHub 👉 https://t.co/GlTNastFii
— Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) October 2, 2023
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/u1uMX0kUPd
Today Spencer defended Coutinho – arguing not that Labour does favour a meat tax, but that it is the sort of thing it might do. He said:
I think there’s been a lot of discussion, particularly on the left of politics, about a meat tax. Lefties love regulation, and they love to regulate, they love to put in extra rules and I just – I rub against that sort of stuff.
I believe in my constituents and their ability to make informed decisions and logical decisions. And I don’t like to over regulate, I’d rather over educate.
Priti Patel, the former home secretary, praised GB News lavishly at its party last night (see 10.37am), but not all Tory MPs are in favour, Peter Walker reports.
I’m at a strikingly different Tory fringe event, hosted by the Antisemitism Policy Trust, about antisemitic conspiracy theories. Tory MP Nicola Richards has castigated GB News for indulging/alluding to such theories. Fair to say it’s something you don’t hear often here.
I'm at a strikingly different Tory fringe event, hosted by the Antisemitism Policy Trust, about antisemitic conspiracy theories. Tory MP Nicola Richards has castigated GB News for indulging/alluding to such theories. Fair to say it's something you don't hear often here.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 3, 2023
Duncan Smith accuses Treasury of undermining universal credit system
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has criticised the Treasury for blocking welfare reforms he designed when he was work and pensions minister in the coalition government.
Duncan Smith said the Treasury was denying the DWP the funds needed to transfer households that claim tax credits to the more generously funded universal credit, arguing that this move would help thousands of people back into work at a time when job vacancies remained high.
Speaking at a fringe event with Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, Duncan Smith said:
There are two things I blame the Treasury for.
Not all the tax credit group are in universal credit (UC). What is the point of having an all encompassing benefit system when you still leave a group of people outside. And that is only down to Treasury money. They should be moved across immediately into UC, because UC gives you an adviser the whole time. Tax credits: you never see anybody at all.
The second group that was supposed to be in UC is on employment support allowance (ESA). Again, nobody sees you unless you are on UC. So the point of UC is being [undermined].
Duncan Smith said there should also be support for people who are signed off on sickness benefits, who need access to mental health treatment or an occupational therapist to overcome problems that prevent them going back into the labour market. He said:
The Treasury has got to understand that if you invest in this and get people back to work, the savings are way more than the initial costs.
Stride said he has £3.5bn of extra funds from the Treasury and £2bn to fund the introduction of greater support for jobseekers.
Stride added:
If you cannot work and you are sick and you are disabled, we are here to support you. And that is why we are compassionate Conservatives. But at the end of the day, if you are not prepared to engage. If you are not prepared to put in that kind of effort [to find a job] then sanctions are an acceptable approach, subject to the usual appeals processes.
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Susan Hall refuses to apologise for saying Jewish people in particular don't feel safe with Khan as mayor
Susan Hall, the Tory candidate for London mayor, has refused to apologise for saying that Jewish people in particular were not safe with Sadiq Khan (who is a Muslim) as mayor. (See 10.57am.) In an interview with GB News, she defended what she said and claimed that figures for attacks on Jewish people in London justified it.
Asked what she meant when she said some in the Jewish community were frightened because of the divisive attitude of Khan, she replied:
Going back to policing, the way the policing is in London, so many Jewish people do not feel safe. That’s wrong, and I will never apologise for defending the Jewish community.
I’ve got so many friends that are literally talking of leaving the country because they don’t feel safe. That is unacceptable in London …
She also claimed that attacks on Jewish people in London have “doubled, literally doubled” since Khan became mayor. There had been 1,000 this year, she said.
Data from the Community Safety Trust, which records information about antisemitic attacks incidents, suggests this is wrong. According to the CST’s report on antisemitic incidents in 2022, the number of antisemitic incidents in Greater London last year was 920, down 27% on the number for the previous year (1,259).
The CST’s report for 2017 (the first full year Khan was mayor) says that 773 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Greater London that year.
And the CST report for the first six months of 2023 says there were 447 antisemitic incidents in London during the first half of the year, down 4% for the total over the same period last year.
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Sunak refuses to deny HS2 decision to be announced tomorrow, but says he is considering it 'thoughtfully' and 'carefully'
Rishi Sunak has refused to say whether or not he will include an announcement about HS2 in his conference speech tomorrow. No 10 sources say he will (see 8.32am). In an interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason, he would not confirm that – but would not deny it either. He just said:
I know there’s a lot of speculation on this. But what I can say is I’m going to approach this the same way I approach everything: thoughtfully, carefully, across the detail and making what I believe is the right decision in the long term for our country.
Hunt claims no 'formal decision' has yet been taken about future of HS2
No “formal decision” has yet been taken on HS2, according to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who said that it was “unacceptable” that it cost so much to build high-speed rail in Britain in comparison with other countries.
Hunt was asked at a fringe event at the Conservative conference about concerns voiced by the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, and others that the delay in providing clarity on whether the project would be partially axed was creating uncertainty.
After paying tribute to Street, Hunt added:
But he is speculating on what he thinks a decision might be rather than talking about what the actual decision is. No formal decision has been made.
Hunt went on to say:
If we are going to be solving the big problems the country faces we have to have an answer as to why it costs ten time more to build high speed rail in this country than in France. That is unacceptable.
In a different environment where you have lots of money sloshing around maybe you can absorb that.
But went on to tell the event, organised by the Centre for Policy Studies, that the practical impact was that spending on other elements of rail infrastructure suffered.
Updated
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, included two other health policy announcements in his conference speech – both of which have been publicised in a bit more detail by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Barclay announced a £30m investment “to speed up the adoption of tech in the NHS”.
He announced that additional medical school places are being made available (but only an extra 205).
When ministers make announcements at party conference, the Conservative party press releases details with a political spin. But, if government policy is changing, the relevant government department always issues its own press release, in neutral language with the party politics taken out.
Normally they say much the same thing, but sometimes there is a marked difference in tone. For example, the Department of Health and Social Care has just put out its version of female-only hospital ward announcement (see 12.14pm) and it does not have the anti-trans undertones of the political announcement. It also implies any change might be modest.
It says:
The government has today announced it will consult on proposed updates to the NHS constitution to ensure the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients is respected.
Proposed changes will be brought forward later this year, ahead of the next routine update to the NHS constitution and its handbook in summer 2024. As part of this exercise, we the government will closely consider the latest advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on delicate issues of balancing the rights of different protected characteristics of patients in certain settings.
Susan Hall, the Tory London mayoral candidate who has been widely criticised this morning for implying Sadid Khan is antisemitic (see 10.57am), has pulled out a fringe event, Peter Walker reports.
London Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall was due to be on a conference fringe right now - but is mysteriously not. I wonder if it’s linked to her much-criticised comments last night that London’s Jewish communities are “frightened” about “divisive” Sadiq Khan.
London Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall was due to be on a conference fringe right now - but is mysteriously not. I wonder if it’s linked to her much-criticised comments last night that London’s Jewish communities are “frightened” about “divisive” Sadiq Khan.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 3, 2023
Steve Barclay announces consultation intended to stop trans women being allowed in female-only hospital wards
The Conservative party has now released more details of what Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said in his speech this morning about new guidance intended to stop trans women being allowed on female-only wards in English hospitals. The party says it is “responding to concerns raised by patients and staff about biological men being allowed onto women’s hospital wards”.
In a news release it says:
Today, the health secretary announced a consultation will be launched this year to change the NHS Constitution for England to address growing concerns raised by both patients and staff about biological men being allowed onto women’s hospital wards.
The move will look to ensure that female- or male-only wards, are protected and that requests to have intimate care provided by someone of the same sex are respected.
The proposals will seek to enshrine rights and responsibilities in the key documents to better protect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients, making clear that women’s concerns about where they receive care, and from who, must be respected.
In a further move to address patient concerns, the health secretary today confirmed sex-specific language has now been fully restored to online NHS advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.
The Telegraph reported this initiative this morning as meaning trans women will definitely be banned from female-only wards. But Barclay was not as explicit as that in his speech, and he has just announced a consultation.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg denounced as 'morally bankrupt' by NFU after backing hormone-injected beef imports
Mark Spencer, the farming minister, has denounced Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg as an attention seeker whose views on imported beef are wrong.
Yesterday Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, said he wanted to see hormone-injected beef imported from Australia.
Speaking at a Countryside Alliance event today, Spencer said:
So it helps Jacob’s profile doesn’t it. Jacob is the master of grabbing the headlines. But it doesn’t really add much to the debate and I think, it’s probably my job as a minister to explain to Jacob why that is wrong.
And actually backing UK farmers is better for the planet. It’s better for our economy. It’s actually better for our consumers as well, because we’re producing the top quality products here and we’re not going to allow the imports of hormone-fed beef from anywhere in the world.
Minette Batters, the president of the NFU, denounced the comments yesterday, saying Rees-Mogg was “morally bankrupt” because his policies would destroy British farming.
Unbelievable from @Jacob_Rees_Mogg - an absolute desire to annihilate British Ag - totally & utterly morally bankrupt. One thing’s for certain the Aussies would have deported him if he were representing them. https://t.co/WFG2L5DvbR
— minette batters (@Minette_Batters) October 2, 2023
UPDATE: In response, Rees-Mogg described the NFU as a “pure protectionist organisation”.
“She doesn’t represent farmers well”
Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg says “the NFU is a pure protectionist organisation” in response to criticism from its president Minette Batters
"She doesn't represent farmers well"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 3, 2023
Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg says "the NFU is a pure protectionist organisation" in response to criticism from its president Minette Batters#PoliticsLive https://t.co/Y3zGwpAQeG pic.twitter.com/h89bLyKX7M
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Braverman claims her speech saying multiculturalism has failed was 'mischaracterised'
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has said that comments from her in a speech last week criticising multiculturalism were “mischaracterised”.
Many Tories, including Rishi Sunak, have strongly defended multiculturalism since Braverman delivered her speech last week, and implicitly rejected her claim that it has failed.
But on a visit this morning Braverman said she was not claiming it had gone wrong everywhere. She was making a point about the need for integration, and explaining that in some places it was not happening, she said.
She said:
It’s my job, first and foremost, to be honest and speak for the majority of the British people.
And my comments have been somewhat mischaracterised.
We have so much to be proud of. We have a great multi-ethnic society and in many parts of our country integration has worked.
But there are also many towns and cities around the United Kingdom where it hasn’t and communities are living parallel lives.
They are coming from abroad, they are not learning the language. They’re not embracing British values, and they’re not taking part in British life. And that needs to be identified, we must be fearless in calling that out and that’s my job.
In her speech last week, which was interpreted in part as a move to boost her standing in a possible future leadership contest, Braverman did not include any of these qualifications, and instead described multiculturalism as “misguided” and “failed”. She said:
Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the last few decades.
I’m not the first to point this out. In 2010 Angela Merkel gave a speech in which she acknowledged that multi-culturalism “had utterly failed”.
The then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and British prime minister, David Cameron, echoed similar sentiments shortly thereafter.
Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate. It has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it. They could be in the society but not of the society.
And in extreme cases they could pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of society.
This is not the first time Braverman has made far-reaching comments on race issues which have subsequently had to be qualified. After Braverman wrote an article for the Mail on Sunday claiming that child grooming gangs in the UK were “almost all British-Pakistani”, the paper was ordered by the press regulator, Ipso, to publish a correction saying that was not true.
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Miriam Cates, the backbench MP who has become a favourite of her party’s social conservative wing, has been serving up what many of the grassroots seem to want to hear. Speaking at a fringe event called “Restoring Prosperity, Restoring Conservatism” organised by the Legatum Institute, she said:
I’ve mentioned the F word, family, and now to ensure I get coverage in the Guardian I’m going to mention the M word, marriage.
Cates also hit out at some favourite targets, earning laughs when she said that the Church of England should “stop interfering in politics” and adding:
Perhaps we could ask the Church of England to return to their day job and marry people for free.
The MP, who has amassed a tight-knit group of supporters and found a new spotlight when she delivered a keynote address at the National Conservatism conference, said that the family should be restored “as a building block of conservatism” if the party wanted to cut taxes and shrink the size of the state and create a new generation of young people with “skills and virtues to be economically productive”.
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The proceeedings in the main hall at the Conservative conference opened this morning with a speech from a member praising the party’s record on gay rights. Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is speaking now, and he will be announcing plans to ban trans women from female hospital wards. The Daily Telegraph has splashed on the story.
Daily Telegraph: Transgender women to be banned from female wards #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/DbsCH85Cdr
— George Mann (@sgfmann) October 2, 2023
On a visit this morning Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said she backed the idea. She said:
Trans women have no place in women’s wards or indeed any safe space relating to biological women.
And the health secretary is absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatments in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women.
This is about protecting women’s dignity, and women’s safety and women’s privacy. And that’s why I’m incredibly supportive and I welcome the announcement today by the health secretary.
Nigel Farage says Tory party becoming like Ukip, and GB News will help decide its next leader
Nigel Farage has said that parts of the Conservative party are now like Ukip.
The former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party is attending the conference partly in his capacity as a GB News presenter. But he is also a popular figure with some Tories, and yesterday he was a prominent supporter in the audience as Liz Truss called for tax cuts at a rally.
In an interview with the Today programme broadcast this morning, Farage said the Conservative party was increasingly aligned with his views.
I’ve been very consistent with the things that I’ve said over quite a long time. I’ve never really shifted from those views, whether it’s regards borders, increasing population, attitudes below small business, net zero, taxes. What’s interesting is there’s now a wing of the Conservative party that has woken up to these things and they’re now saying them.
Asked if he could see himself joining the Conservative party, Farage replied:
Well, if you asked the delegates here, you might be surprised by the answer.
Farage also said he thought GB News would be influential in determining who gets to be the next leader of the Conservative party. Asked if the rightwing, populist channel might shape the next leadership contest, he replied: “I think that’s already beginning to happen.”
Last night Priti Patel, the former home secretary, paid lavish tribute to GB News at a party it was hosting. She said the country “needed a new disruptor when it came to the broadcast media, to take on the establishment, the Tory-hating, Brexit-bashing, free speech deniers at the BBC and the so-called mainstream media”.
Patel and Farage were later filmed dancing at the party to the tune of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (probably not a sentiment Guardian readers will feel as they ponder the footage).
Tory London mayoral candidate Susan Hall accused of 'disgusting' dog whistle politics after slur against Sadiq Khan
Rishi Sunak is recording further interviews with broadcasters today. At some point he is bound to be asked to disown the Conservative candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, who yesterday claimed that Jews in London were particularly afraid of Sadiq Khan, who is Muslim.
As Rachel Wearmouth reports for the New Statesman, Hall, a rightwinger who has supported Donald Trump in the past, said:
I live in north London and I know the wealth and joy of the [Jewish] community. But I tell you something else, I know how frightened some of the community is because of the divisive attitudes of Sadiq Khan.
One of the most important things we can do when I become mayor of London is make it safer for everybody, but particularly for our Jewish community, so I will ask for as much help as I can in London because we need to defeat him, particularly for our Jewish community.
Josh Gafson from Sky News has the clip.
Here’s Susan Hall speaking at CFI event suggesting that Jewish people in London are ‘frightened’ by @SadiqKhan.
— Josh Gafson (@JoshGafson1) October 2, 2023
‘One of the most important things that we can do when I become Mayor is make [London] safer for everyone, but particularly for Jewish communities.’
Video by @dhaim 👇 pic.twitter.com/RSv0MiTqXB
The Board of Deputies of British Jews says this is a slur against Khan.
Throughout his tenure as Mayor,@SadiqKhan has treated our community with friendship & respect.
We hope to co-host the key Mayoral candidates at a 2024 Jewish hustings, where it will be clear that while London Jews may have varying political views, there is no fear present at all
Throughout his tenure as Mayor,@SadiqKhan has treated our community with friendship & respect.
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) October 2, 2023
We hope to co-host the key Mayoral candidates at a 2024 Jewish hustings, where it will be clear that while London Jews may have varying political views, there is no fear present at all https://t.co/m7kWH0D4vb
And Labour politicians have strongly condemned the implicit Islamophobia in what Hall said. This is from David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary.
This is an ugly dog whistle, from a Tory politician who’s only strategy is to spread fear.
Sadiq Khan stands for all Londoners and has repeatedly fought antisemitism. Susan Hall should withdraw her statement immediately and apologise unreservedly
This is an ugly dog whistle, from a Tory politician who’s only strategy is to spread fear.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) October 3, 2023
Sadiq Khan stands for all Londoners and has repeatedly fought antisemitism. Susan Hall should withdraw her statement immediately and apologise unreservedly.https://t.co/brOFzyDGdw
This is from Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.
This is divisive and disgusting.
Sadiq Khan has repeatedly stood by London’s Jewish communities in the fight against antisemitism.
Susan Hall’s dog whistle politics have no place in London.
Will decent Conservatives ever call this out?
This is divisive and disgusting.
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) October 2, 2023
Sadiq Khan has repeatedly stood by London’s Jewish communities in the fight against antisemitism.
Susan Hall’s dog whistle politics have no place in London.
Will decent Conservatives ever call this out? https://t.co/mgiQkIDeEe
And this is from Margaret Hodge.
This dog-whistle politics is beneath us all.
Sadiq has been a loyal friend to the Jewish community, Jewish Labour MPs & @JewishLabour. He has always called out antisemitism, wherever it has reared.
If she had any integrity, Susan Hall would immediately retract her remarks
This dog-whistle politics is beneath us all.
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) October 2, 2023
Sadiq has been a loyal friend to the Jewish community, Jewish Labour MPs & @JewishLabour. He has always called out antisemitism, wherever it has reared.
If she had any integrity, Susan Hall would immediately retract her remarks. https://t.co/bDSi2U4k7K
The Conservative peer and newspaper columnist Daniel Finkelstein has also criticised Hall.
I think Sunder is right. This claim about the Mayor is unfounded and a flatly wrong thing to say.
I think Sunder is right. This claim about the Mayor is unfounded and a flatly wrong thing to say. https://t.co/tzAOO4C1sJ
— Daniel Finkelstein (@Dannythefink) October 3, 2023
Updated
Nigel Farage says parts of Tory party becoming like Ukip, and GB News will help decide its next leader
Nigel Farage has said that parts of the Conservative party are now like Ukip.
The former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party is attending the conference partly in his capacity as a GB News presenter. But he is also a popular figure with some Tories, and yesterday he was a prominent supporter in the audience as Liz Truss called for tax cuts at a rally.
In an interview with the Today programme broadcast this morning, Farage said the Conservative party was increasingly aligned with his views.
I’ve been very consistent with the things that I’ve said over quite a long time. I’ve never really shifted from those views, whether it’s regards borders, increasing population, attitudes towards below small business, net zero, taxes. What’s interesting is there’s now a wing of the Conservative party that has woken up to these things and they’re now saying them.
Asked if he could see himself joining the Conservative party, Farage replied:
Well, if you asked the delegates here, you might be surprised by the answer.
Farage also said he thought GB News would be influential in determining who gets to be the next leader of the Conservative party. Asked if the rightwing, populist channel might shape the next leadership contest, he replied: “I think that’s already beginning to happen.”
Last night Priti Patel, the former home secretary, paid lavish tribute to GB News at a party it was hosting. She said the country “needed a new disruptor when it came to the broadcast media, to take on the establishment, the Tory-hating, Brexit-bashing, free speech deniers at the BBC and the so-called mainstream media”.
Patel and Farage were later filmed dancing at the party to the tune of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (probably not a sentiment Guardian readers will feel as they ponder the footage).
When it comes to summing up what’s going on at the Conservative Party conference, phone footage of Priti Patel and Nigel Farage dancing and singing along to ‘Can't Take My Eyes Off You’ could hardly be more on point.pic.twitter.com/mSDiau2gGt
— Nicholas Pegg (@NicholasPegg) October 3, 2023
Updated
Sunak claims voters are interested in what decisions he takes, not his personal wealth
Rishi Sunak is not particularly good at doing the personal stuff in interviews. On Sunday Laura Kuenssberg invited him to say something he admired about Keir Starmer, which was an invitation to him to say something generous (people like it when politicians are nice about their opponents), but instead Sunak just reverted to talking about himself and his leadership.
And this morning, in his Times Radio morning, Sunak was invited to say something about himself that people might not know but that might help people relate to him. Sunak could have talked about his dog, or playing cricket, but instead he assumed it was a question about being rich, and claimed that did not matter. He replied:
I think what people want from their prime ministers and their leaders is to do things that are going to make a difference to their lives.
I don’t think people are as interested in how much money is in my bank account. They’re interested in what I’m doing for them.
Sunak claims he is not worried Truss has enough MPs backing her call for tax cuts to threaten his majority
Yesterday Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak’s predecessor, staged a packed rally at the Tory conference, where she and three colleagues – Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Dame Priti Patel and Ranil Jayawardena – made the case for immediate tax cuts.
At the event the host, the GB News presenter Liam Halligan, pointed out that there are now 60 Conservative MPs who back these ideas because they are members of her Conservative Growth Group. That was about the size of Rishi Sunak’s majority, he pointed out (the Commons says Sunak currently has a working majority of 60), and it meant that potentially they could vote down budget measures if they allied with the opposition. Aubrey Allegretti writes about that here.
In an interview with Times Radio this morning, Sunak was asked if he was worried about Truss having so much support. He replied:
No, not at all. Lots of Conservatives here. I think the mood is great. People are excited about the things we’re doing.
And then he claimed people were excited about announcements like his net zero changes, the new money for towns, the living wage increase and Jade’s law.
Updated
Sunak says he had to reconsider HS2 because costs have 'escalated far beyond what anyone thought at beginning'
In an interview with Times Radio, in which he also refused to say what he would do about HS2, Rishi Sunak said that he had to reconsider the project because the costs had escalated “far beyond what anyone thought at the beginning”.
He said:
It’s clear that the costs of this programme has escalated far beyond what anyone thought at the beginning.
I know there’s lots of speculation on it, but what I would say is I’ll approach this in the same way I approach everything in this job, I will take the time to look at it properly, get across the detail and then decide what’s right for the country.
The sums involved are enormous and it’s right that the Prime Minister takes proper care over it.
It’s obviously not my money – it’s taxpayers’ money and we should make the right decisions on these things.
Sunak rejects claim HS2 dithering has been distraction at Tory conference
In his interview with BBC Breakfast this morning Rishi Sunak rejected claims that his handling of the HS2 decision had been poor. When it was put to him that delaying the decision meant this had been a “huge distraction” at conference, Sunak replied:
No, I don’t think that. Actually we’re having a great conference. The mood here is great.
And when it was put to him, again, that the HS2 story was overshadowing everything else at conference, and that this was a “mess” because all people were talking about at Manchester was the HS2 dithering, he replied:
I can tell you, because I’m at the conference, talking to all my MPs and everyone else, that’s not what they’re talking about.
What they’re talking about is our approach to net zero, which is saving their constituents £5,000, £10,000, £15,000 – an example of me making a long-term decision for the country, even when it’s not easy, even when I’m getting criticism, but because I believe it’s the right thing to do.
They’re talking about our backing of 55 towns across the country with long-term funding to help them change the destination of what’s happening around them.
They’re talking about what we’re doing today on Jade’s law. These are the things that people are talking about.
Updated
Sunak set to announce HS2 decision in conference speech tomorrow, reports say
The Times this morning reports that Rishi Sunak is likely to announce his decision about HS2 in his conference speech tomorrow. The paper says that the Birmingham to Manchester leg will be axed, but that Sunak will go ahead with the six-mile link from Old Oak Common to Euston, in central London. At one point he was reportedly planning to axe this spur too, which would have resulted in HS2 terminating in north-west London, and the Birmingham to central London journey time being just as long as it is now.
Mhari Aurora from Sky News says No 10 sources have confirmed that the HS2 announcement will come in the speech tomorrow.
NEW: As revealed in The Times, Downing St sources confirm to me there will be no HS2 announcement from the PM today - it will come tomorrow and the speech will be “worth waiting for”
— Mhari Aurora (@MhariAurora) October 3, 2023
Sunak: I won't be rushed into decision on HS2
Good morning. Rishi Sunak has been doing a mini-interview round this morning, and not for the first time it has been dominated by him dodging questions about the future of HS2. For years to come this conference will serve as a case study for students of political spin who will try to work out why Sunak and his team went into this conference with this issue still lingering over it – neither resolved, nor decisively shelved until the autumn statement. No one in the press centre has a particularly good answer. Maybe some counter-intuitive, genius PR strategy is in play, but it feels more like old-fashioned cock-up.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, Sunak said he did not want to be “rushed” into a decision. Asked about HS2, he replied:
I know you want to keep asking, I know there’s lots of speculation, but all I can say is I’m not going to be forced into a premature decision because it’s good for someone’s TV programme. What I want to do is make the right decision for the country.
This is an enormous amount of people’s money, taxpayers’ money, billions and billions of pounds. We shouldn’t be rushed into things like that.
What people would expect from me is to take the time, go into it properly and make sure we make the right long term decision for the country. That’s what I’m interested in doing.
I think that’s what politicians should be doing. I think that’s what the country wants to see – people who make the right long-term decision, don’t take the easy way out, don’t chase the headlines. And that’s what I did with net zero.
The problem with Sunak saying that he should not be rushed is that all the reporting says the decision to scrap the link from Birmingham to Manchester has, in effect, already been taken.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is our overnight story on HS2.
And here is the agenda for the day.
11am: Steve Barclay, the health secretary, opens conference proceedings in the main hall. Other ministers speaking are Michelle Donelan, the science secretary, at 11.15am and Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, at 11.30am.
12.30pm: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, speaks at a Centre for Policy Studies fringe event.
2pm: Theresa May, the former prime minister, speaks at a fringe event.
3pm: Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, opens afternoon proceedings in the hall. He is followed by Suella Braverman, the home secretary, at 3.15pm.
4.15pm: Gove and Lord Frost speak at a fringe event on the future of Conservatism.
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 laptop or a desktop. 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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