3 h. ago Theresa May criticises Tory policy on net zero, judges and human rights

The former prime minister’s government committed the UK to reaching net zero by 2050.

Events

9 h. ago Scottish Labour MP confident 'minging' asylum hotels will close as she blasts 'disastrous' Tory policy

Joani Reid, a member of the Home Affairs committee at Westminster, said asylum hotels were the Conservative Party's "biggest policy failure" of their fourteen years in government.

Events

3 d. ago China ‘enemy’ reference was removed from spy case evidence ‘to fit Tory policy’

National security adviser Jonathan Powell said Counter Terror Police and the Crown Prosecution Service were aware of the change.

Events

5 d. ago Deporting legally settled people is ‘broadly in line’ with Tory policy, says Badenoch’s office

Conservative leader’s spokesperson sets out plan to strip the right of indefinite leave to remain from people claiming benefitsThe Conservative MP Katie Lam was “broadly in line” with party policy when she called for very large numbers of legally settled people to be deported from the UK, Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson has said.Setting out Tory plans to retrospectively strip the right of indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from people who claim benefits, the spokesperson said this would not be the case for people getting the state pension, but was unable to say whether someone could be deported if they received statutory maternity pay or shared parental leave. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Badenoch’s stamp duty rabbit sets the cat amongst the pigeons

The Tory leader’s surprise policy pledge demands a response nationally and in Scotland, writes David J Alexander

Politics

2 w. ago I saw desperation at the Tory conference – but all traditional parties may be in this position soon | Andy Beckett

The feeling of crisis in Manchester also afflicts Labour and the Lib Dems. It leaves voters facing a dangerously unstable political orderMuch of democratic politics is about getting people’s attention. That’s a particular problem for struggling, less-than-compelling leaders. The further your party falls in the polls, the larger the temptation to launch dramatic, supposedly transformational policies. It’s like speaking more and more loudly to someone who has stopped listening.Thus this week’s Conservative conference in Manchester, with the party at historic lows in the polls, featured a frenzy of policy announcements, on once-successful Tory themes such as tax cuts, law and order, welfare and immigration, that were often made to half-empty rooms. Expanses of blue carpet had been installed in the huge, barn-like convention centre – as if to reassure delegates that the party still had an identity – yet much of the time they were eerily deserted. The Conservatives, famed and feared for ...

Politics

3 w. ago Top Farage aide hints Conservatives could merge with Reform UK post

Gawain Towler also hinted Reform will have an open-door policy to Tory defectors

Politics

3 w. ago Badenoch says Tories could quit more treaties to increase deportations

Party leader outlines proposal for UK to quit ECHR as part of wider bonfire of protections at conferenceA future Conservative government would be open to dismantling more treaties as a means to deport people from the UK, Kemi Badenoch has said at the start of a Tory conference focused almost exclusively on immigration policy.Making the first of two addresses to the gathering in Manchester, the Tory leader formally set out her proposal for the UK to quit the European convention on human rights (ECHR) as part of a wider bonfire of protections including an end to legal aid for migrants and the right to take migration decisions to tribunals or judicial review. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Judge says prosecution against Kilmar Ábrego García for human smuggling may be illegal retaliation

Salvadorian national successfully sued White House over his deportation before charges were filedA federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice’s prosecution of Kilmar Ábrego García on human-smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador.The case of Ábrego, a Salvadorian national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Kemi Badenoch vows to set UK free of European Convention on Human Rights 'straitjacket' in bid to regain control of Britain's borders

In what she admits is a 'big change' in party policy, the Tory leader says the move is necessary to regain control of Britain's borders and make Parliament sovereign once more.

Politics

3 w. ago Conservatives to take UK out of ECHR if it wins election, Badenoch announces

Shadow attorney general Baron Wolfson of Tredegar KC tells Tory leader ECHR restricts Government policy but warns withdrawal is not a ‘panacea’.

Politics

3 w. ago Kemi Badenoch is just ‘a Reform tribute act’, claims Ed Miliband as he lashes out at Tory climate policy

The energy secretary has written for The Independent condemning the Tory leader’s decision to ditch net zero policies

Events