Britain has always prided itself on its strong record on animal welfare. Across parliament, there is a shared understanding that compassion and science are not opposing values, but partners in progress. However, these statistics highlight how much work still lies ahead to reduce and ultimately replace the use of animals in scientific research.

As an animal lover, I have been encouraged by the advances in human-specific research methods that are already transforming medical science. Techniques such as organ-on-chip models, 3D human tissue cultures and AI-assisted simulations are generating results that are not only more humane but also more relevant to patients. The future of British life sciences lies in these technologies and our job in parliament is to help drag that future closer to the present.

That is why I joined over 60 cross-party parliamentarians and public figures earlier this year in signing a letter calling for a defined timeline to phase out animal experiments, in line with the vision set out in Herbie’s Law.

This proposal, set out by charity Animal Free Research UK, would commit the government to a structured transition that would support scientists and see a phase out of animal experiments over the next decade.

This kind of ambition is what we need to see to ensure our regulatory systems reflect today’s scientific realities.

Currently, the scrutiny of animal experiment licenses remains far too limited. Between 1 January 2021 and 1 January 2025, only one license application to use animals was denied. And more than 3.8 million animals have been licensed for use in experiments since the start of 2025. If we are serious about ending animal experiments, the current licence approval process must be completely overhauled.

Moving away from animal experiments is about making scientific research work for everyone – for scientists, for animals and, crucially, for the British public. The United States has already begun to update its regulatory frameworks to reflect modern, non-animal technologies. The UK must prioritise doing the same and ensure we’re not left behind while other nations choose to progress with more humane science.

I firmly believe that this is an issue on which all parties can and should work together. We share the same goal: a more humane, effective, and world-leading research system. With compassion, collaboration and a clear timeline, we can achieve it.

If we get this right, Britain can once again set the global standard and prove that great science and the welfare of animals are not mutually exclusive. It’s time for all parties to work together to make that vision a reality; for people, for progress, and for the millions of animals who cannot speak for themselves.

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For this, Kemi Badenoch likely has the Greater Manchester mayor to thank. Burnham landed in Liverpool last week with a transparent agenda to destabilise the Labour leadership; every fringe event marked another symbolic incursion on the Starmer premiership. The prime minister broke the siege with a well-received keynote speech that targeted Reform UK and featured some precise swipes at Burnham’s pretensions.

Jenrick, a strategic mind, chose not to risk comparisons with the Greater Manchester mayor’s botched putsch.

Burnham and Jenrick perform corresponding roles in the internal dramas of their parties. Both are possessed by a palpable ambition, and aren’t afraid to flaunt it; wear the scars of a leadership campaign (two in Burnham’s case); have been on ideological journeys, cementing their popularity among party activists (several in Burnham’s case); once sat around the cabinet table; and articulate analyses of their party’s position that resonate with the activist soul. 

Jenrick and Burnham represent parallel phenomena: independent but dynamically aligned. The Conservative pretender showed uncharacteristic restraint this conference season – having witnessed his Labour counterpart flaunt his way into obscurity. The result is the same: Starmer and Badenoch both saw their authority enhanced at the expense of their rival claimants. 

It’s been a poor conference season, then, for those who would be king. 

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The art of pretending is in its timing. Leadership aspirants face a lethal paradox. Hesitate, and you risk missing an opportunity to sack the throne. But forcing the question can prove politically fatal. You risk exposing your designs. 

The conspirator must maintain a fine balance. Constructive ambiguity sustains the mythology of a saviour-in-waiting. Theirs is a state of permanent preparation. 

Burnham and Jenrick’s challenge extends beyond convincing activists they’d be an improvement on the incumbent leader. (Polling suggests they have already succeeded in that regard.) They must persuade the party’s kingmakers that the realisation of their tantalising potential is worth the trauma of regicide. 

The shrewdest pretenders manoeuvre and cajole their party into taking a path it would refuse were the destination – regicide – ever spelt out explicitly. They engineer the circumstances whereby their elevation is not condemned as a treacherous plot, but received as a welcome inevitability. That is how a pretender defies the famous maxim, bloodying the knife and claiming the crown. 

Andy Burnham, suffice it to say, did not display the requisite subtlety in his conference contributions. Whatever his intent, his public posturing belied his strained protestations of innocence. Ambition was read into his every action, but still, he persisted in delivering his damning appraisal. 

The ‘King of the North’ arrived at the scene of his first conference intervention shadowed by a royal court comprising photographers, a security detail and his political counsel. In an address ostensibly about electoral reform, Burnham took aim at what he termed a “climate of fear” within the party. He never directly walked back his comments, but the days that followed were marked by a broader strategic retreat.

Having recommitted himself to the Greater Manchester mayoralty and backed Starmer to remain prime minister, Burnham cut an isolated figure in his conference exit. The King of the North departed just minutes before the PM’s keynote speech, flanked by two anonymous aides. 

The narrative arc of his conference was encapsulated by these contrasting images: his regal entrance, with the eyes of conference upon him, and his humble, defeated departure. 

In politics, it is so easy to learn the wrong lessons from teachable moments. Jenrick would have taken note of Burnham’s spectacular overreach, and it surely informed his obsequious manner at Conservative conference. 

Jenrick either overplayed his hand in the preceding months, or underplayed it in Manchester. Whatever the case, the lack of continuity was immediately conspicuous. “There was a leadership election and the party made its choice”, Jenrick told one fringe event. “Kemi is our leader. I am in her shadow cabinet. I would not have chosen to serve in the shadow cabinet if I didn’t believe in Kemi, if I didn’t want her to succeed, if I were not rooting for her and trying to support her in every way that I can.”

The stance presented a clear path for Badenoch to outperform expectations with her conference address. Indeed, Jenrick’s own podium contribution was seriously underpowered – echoing his sermon at the Conservative Party’s 2024 fête. (The shadow justice secretary’s rise has been powered by a canny social media strategy; it’s noteworthy that he has not risen to the set-piece opportunities afforded to him).

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Conference season provided a genuine pivot in the political narrative: Burnham and Jenrick’s leadership tilts are – temporarily at least – on hold. Starmer and Badenoch have secured a welcome period of silence, albeit only partially of their own accord. 

Both return to Westminster next week sporting something of a post-conference glow. Starmer hinted suggestively at a symbolic purpose for his government. Badenoch proved her party still has a pulse. These are considered wins for parties polling a collective 37%.

The PM and LOTO have been afforded space to define their own agendas, free from damaging questions about their fragile authority. The same could not be said heading into conference season. Starmer can continue to tell his story. Badenoch will begin to draw the dividing lines implied by her policy blitz. 

Yet the political solace is in its own way deceptive. Burnham’s insurgency was a convenient smokescreen; it allowed the Labour leadership to style its critics as irredeemably disloyal. It distracted from the more subtle but no less instructive manoeuvring of Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting. And Burnham’s challenge obscured the party contest that is actually playing out within Labour.

Lucy Powell’s likely election as deputy Labour leader will not, as her rival apparently expects, plunge the party into a fresh civil war. (Bridget Phillipson’s contention that Powell has no “clout” and would single-handedly foster division is contradictory, of course.) But the deputy leadership result, Powell’s all-but-inevitable elevation, will be interpreted as a rebuke. And Starmer’s prospective deputy has said she would use her perch to act as “bridge” between the Labour leadership and party activists – thinly veiled code for championing a leftward tilt.

The stage is set for future flashpoints. Starmer’s focus will now turn to internal discontent ahead of the autumn budget and the fraught path to digital ID – before pivoting to the local elections in May. 

The local elections will beg ever more existential questions of the Conservative Party’s standing in this radically reformed political landscape. Badenoch succeeded in securing a temporary reprieve at conference, no more: a stay of execution snatched from the jaws of regicide. Any ephemeral narrative of resurgence will not survive contact with the local elections in May.

The post-conference glow is something of a smokescreen, therefore. For both Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, the uncomfortable truth is that their moments of maximum danger are still to come.

Josh Self is editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here and X here.

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But it’s not a done deal — key hurdles still need to be overcome to deliver what we promised at the last election. Not least the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats who have been working together in the House of Lords to try to weaken the bill.

Labour went into the last election promising change, and a key part of that change was the Employment Rights Bill. Through protection from unfair dismissal, ending exploitative zero-hours contracts, strengthening redundancy rights and sick pay, and making a raft of rights apply from day one, this change will deliver stability and security for working people.

But in the commons these measures faced opposition from the Conservatives and Reform, and in the Lords this opposition continued, with an alliance of Conservative and Lib Dem peers weakening the crucial measures around guaranteed hours.

Currently, flexibility in our labour market is far too one-sided, overwhelmingly favouring employers. Workers on zero and short hours contracts are left vulnerable to sudden changes in income and are expected to be available for work at very short notice, without any guarantee that any work will actually be available.

The proliferation of one-sided flexibility has had a profound impact on workers’ lives and is undoubtedly one of the most damaging labour market developments of the past 14 years.

A survey from my trade union Usdaw heard from staff who regularly worked far beyond their contracted hours, being turned down for a full-time contract. Members spoke of living with the anxiety of not knowing how much money they will have at the end of every week, struggling to arrange childcare and being forced to disrupt their children’s education, being turned down for mortgages because their contract doesn’t reflect the hours they work, and having to rely on foodbanks to get bridge the gaps where they don’t have work – despite having two zero-hours contract jobs.

And we need to be clear, not everyone on a zero-hours contracts is casually picking up a bit of extra cash here and there. The latest Labour Force Survey showed that over a million people in the UK are on a zero-hours contract, with further analysis from the TUC finding that nearly half those had been in their current job for over two years.

It’s about time this exploitative practice was brought to an end – and that’s what Labour’s Employment Rights Bill sets out to do.

The bill will make sure that everyone has the right to have a guaranteed hours contract – a contract that reflects the hours you actually work.

This means that if you want to remain on a zero-hours contract, if that works better for you, then you can. But if you want the security of those guaranteed hours, hours that you are already working and the consistent income that comes from them, then they’re yours.

These new protections could transform the lives of millions of workers, providing them with a stable foundation on which to build their lives around. But there are two big hurdles still to overcome.

First, when the Employment Rights Bill returns to the commons from the Lords today, we need to make sure the Conservative and Liberal Democrat amendments are voted down.

In a move that will dismay working people, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have got the old coalition band back together, amending the bill in the House of Lords so that those on zero and short hours contracts now just have a “right to request” guaranteed hours.

This is not a minor change. It leaves the door open for unscrupulous employers to use pressure or coercion to deter requests, and for many, will completely undermine the new right. It will also put this crucial measure out of reach of those who simply aren’t aware of their rights.

Secondly, with so much of the detail yet to be decided in secondary legislation, we need to make sure we get this right. We cannot allow any loopholes and must ensure everyone is entitled to a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work.

This evening, workers across the country are counting on MPs to do the right thing and protect the new right to a guaranteed hours contract.

This was a major manifesto pledge for Labour. Delivering job and financial security must be a key aim of this government. There’s still work to do to make sure we get this right, but if we can end exploitative short and zero-hours contracts, the impact on the economy and the lives of workers up and down the country will be transformative.

This debate is not business versus workers as the Conservatives would have us believe, and it’s not about empty rhetoric and false promises that are all Reform have contributed to the debate. It’s about an economy that delivers for everyone through productivity and security.

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The Liberal Democrats described Berry, who like Truss lost his seat at the 2024 general election, as an “architect of economic disaster” — a reference to the September 2022 mini-budget. 

In a fresh blow to Kemi Badenoch, the embattled Tory leader, Berry said his former party had “abandoned the British people” in a statement last night. 

In an article for the Sun newspaper, Berry said he was leaving the Conservative Party after 25 years as a member and 14 as an MP. He added that Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s party, was the “last chance to pull Britain back from terminal decline”.

Sir Jake, who once led the Northern Research Group of “red wall” Tory MPs, accused the Conservative Party of “abandoning the British people” but insisted he was not “giving up”.

He added: “If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule.”

Berry served as the MP Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire between 2010 and 2024. He held several ministerial posts including in the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Energy and Climate Change and the Cabinet Office. 

Most notably, he was chairman of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022, during Truss’ brief and chaotic tenure as prime minister. 

Berry is the latest former Tory MP to join Reform UK, just days after Farage celebrated the defection of David Jones. Jones, like Berry, is an ex-cabinet minister. 

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Former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones joins Reform UK

The Lib Dems have now accused Reform UK of turning into a “Truss tribute act.” Responding to Berry’s defection, the party’s deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, issued a direct challenge to Farage.

She said: “Nigel Farage needs to immediately rule out Liz Truss joining Reform following the defection of yet another one of her mini-budget buddies.

“Reform is looking more like a Truss tribute act every day that goes by. Far from just praising her disastrous mini budget as the best thing since sliced bread, Farage is actively recruiting the architects of the economic disaster that left struggling households reeling.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory Party chairman into his ranks. It’s clear Farage wants Liz Truss’s reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform’s blueprint for Britain. It’s a recipe for disaster and working people would be left paying the price.

“Only our Labour government is putting more money in people’s pockets, boosting British jobs, and delivering the renewal our country needs through our plan for change.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Reform support increasing the benefits bill by removing the two-child cap, and nationalising British industry. By contrast the Conservatives, under new leadership, will keep making the case for sound money, lower taxes and bringing the welfare bill under control.

“We wish Jake well in his new high spend, high tax party.”

Josh Self is editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here and X here.

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Baroness Maclean, one of Kemi Badenoch’s closest political allies, told supporters that the Conservatives had “done the mea culpas” in a leaked speech.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Baroness Maclean said the previous government had a “tendency to make announcements without thinking through how they would be delivered”.

Baroness (Rachel) Maclean lost her seat as a Conservative MP at the last election, having served as a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Transport and Home Office.

An MP from 2017-2024, she was appointed director of strategy to the leader of the opposition in December last year. Maclean commented at the time: “Our job is to renew our party, unite the right, and save our country from socialism.”

She was also appointed to the House of Lords as part of the 2024 political peerages, nominated by Badenoch. 

Addressing activists in a speech to the Conservative Women’s Organisation on June 18, Maclean said her party was now ready to move forward with a new policy platform.

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According to the Telegraph report, she said: “We’ve done the mea culpas, we’ve done the apologies, we’ve done all that.”

“Now we want to look to the future and have something to give people hope, because we do strongly believe that we are the only party with a coherent set of plans, and we want to rebuild our reputation for competence and trust, and we think that comes from doing this very difficult work now.”

She added: “Kemi’s leadership has been very much about making sure that we have a plan to deliver the things that voters want, because we all know that disenchantment and disillusionment sets in, and it has set in.

“We see that now with the electorate, because we were not able to deliver so many of our promises.”

In recent times, senior Conservative frontbenchers Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, and Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, have declined to apologise for some Conservative policies, notably Liz Truss’ mini-budget.

While Stride was a contemporary critic of the fiscal package, Philp served in Truss’ government as chief secretary to the Treasury. The shadow home secretary did admit that “mistakes were made” in an interview with the BBC last month. 

However, shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake has sought to directly apologise for the September 2022 mini-budget. He told the BBC after Philp’s comments: “I’m happy to say sorry, I was against Liz Truss taking over in the first place.”

Ellie Reeves, chair of the Labour Party, said Maclean’s comments showed “just how out of touch the Tories are”.

She commented: “It shows just how out of touch the Tories are that they believe they have said sorry for their 14 years of failure in government.

“The Conservatives crashed the economy and left working people picking up the tab with sky-high mortgages and rocketing bills. Yet they haven’t apologised even once for their dismal record.

“The Tories’ attitude to the mess they made is completely tone deaf. It’s the same old Tories – they haven’t learned a thing.”

Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “The Conservatives are completely deluded if they think the public have forgiven or forgotten the mess they’ve left behind. 

“This is a slap in the face for families still paying out more for their mortgage because Liz Truss tanked the economy.

“Kemi Badenoch should urgently confirm whether she agrees with her own senior official on this, or if she will properly apologise to all those who suffered due to years of Conservative chaos under the government in which she served.”

Josh Self is editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here and X here.

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In an address Friday, the Tory leader will stop short of a firm commitment to withdraw, but will set out five “common-sense tests” that will guide the party’s final decision. 

That decision will be announced at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in the autumn, Badenoch is set to say. 

“I have always been clear, that if our national interest means that we need to leave the ECHR we will leave”, Badenoch is expected to say. “The more we build our policy programme, the clearer it seems that to achieve our objectives we will need to leave the ECHR in its current form.”

She will add: “I have thought long and hard about this, and I am increasingly of the view that we will need to leave, because I am yet to see a clear and coherent route to change within our current legal structures.”

Badenoch will argue that past attempts at reform of the convention and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that interprets and enforces it have failed. 

Badenoch will say the ECtHR, also known as the Strasbourg Court, has “shown no real interest in fundamental change.”

The Conservative leader will add: “It has rebuffed those European states calling for a new approach, and in its recent decisions — above on all climate change — it has shown ever greater willingness to invent new rights and directly overrule popular mandates.”

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But Badenoch will insist that before setting out a full commitment to leave, her party should have a “clear plan” in place to avoid the “years of wrangling and endless arguments” that characterised the Brexit process. 

Badenoch will say: “I won’t commit my party to leaving the ECHR or other treaties without a clear plan to do so and without a full understanding of all the consequences for all parts of our United Kingdom. 

“Because we saw that holding a referendum without a plan to get Brexit done, led to years of wrangling and endless arguments until it got sorted in 2019. We cannot go through that again.”

The Conservative leader will make specific reference to illegal migration and the need to fix our “broken asylum system”.

Badenoch will say: “We must fix our broken asylum system, so that the British government, not people traffickers control it. That means a total end to asylum claims in this country by illegal immigrants and removing immediately all those who arrive illegally and try to claim asylum.

“We need a new, sustainable system to admit strictly controlled numbers of those in genuine and actual need — with parliament having the final say on, not just the rules, but the exact numbers coming in.”

To this end, the Conservative leader has asked Lord Wolfson KC, the shadow attorney general, to lead a commission tasked with assessing the UK’s legal framework.

The work of Lord Wolfson will be guided by “five simple tests”, Badenoch is to say. 

In full, those tests are: 

1. The deportation test: Can parliament, not international courts, decide who comes to and stays in the UK, and lawfully remove foreign criminals and illegal migrants?
2. The veterans test: Can the UK stop “vexatious legal attacks” on military veterans and ensure the armed forces can fight without “one hand tied behind their backs”?
3. The fairness test: Can British citizens be lawfully prioritised for social housing and other scarce public services?
4. The justice test: Can the UK ensure prison sentences reflect parliament’s intentions and stop disruptive protests without legal challenge?
5. The prosperity test: Can the courts be prevented from “pretending climate change is a human right” and can endless legal challenges to infrastructure projects be stopped?

The Tory leader will frame these as “basic tests of whether we are still a sovereign nation” and issue an ultimatum. 

She will declare: “If the commission makes clear that these tests cannot be passed under the current system, then the system must change. 

“If international treaties, including the European convention, block us and there is no realistic prospect of changing them then, we leave them. No hesitation. No apology.”

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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The address, delivered by Mel Stride, marks the clearest repudiation yet of the failed former prime minister, by the party that elected her leader in 2022. “For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected”, the shadow chancellor conceded.

“Mistakes were recognised and stability restored within weeks, with the full backing of our party. But the damage to our credibility is not so easily undone. That will take time. And it also requires contrition. So let me be clear: never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford…

“The mini-budget of September 2022 undermined those stable foundations we had built, and we will never allow that to happen again.”

The spectre of Liz Truss has haunted the Conservative Party for years since her stunning defenestration in the autumn of 2022. Her defeat at the hands of a bewigged leaf vegetable features centrally in Westminster folklore — and the broader narrative of Conservative decline.

Indeed, Keir Starmer repeatedly referenced Truss at PMQs on Wednesday. In response to a question from backbencher Lincoln Jopp, the prime minister noted the member had succeeded former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as the Tory MP for Spelthorne. “Now he stands there to give lectures on economic prudence”, Starmer added. “You couldn’t script it!”

Rishi Sunak spent the vast majority of his premiership refusing to directly rebuke the actions of his predecessor (and adversary during the first Tory leadership election of 2022). Contemporary commentators condemned Sunak’s conscious silence as a strategic misstep. It meant the former prime minister faced no resistance as she attempted to rehabilitate her image — via a series of stinging commons interventions, “alternative budgets” and even a manifesto-cum-memoir titled Ten Years to Save the West.

But Truss’ publicity blitz could not save her political career, and she was booted from parliament at the 2024 general election.

At the same time, the political and economic legacy of her mini-budget exacted an immense electoral toll on the Conservative Party nationally. In seat after seat, mortgage holders took revenge against whatever Tory incumbent stood before them.

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Mel Stride’s intervention today is somewhat belated, then. The Conservative leadership has finally decided to distance the party from the disaster it oversaw over two years ago.

That said, of all the 121 Tory MPs currently in parliament, Stride is surely best-placed to exorcise the spectre of Trussonomics — and not only on account of his role as shadow chancellor.

Stride served as the chair of the influential Treasury select committee during Truss’ brief tenure in Downing Street. Throughout that period, he emerged as a prominent and pretty relentless critic of her fiscal policies.

In his capacity of Treasury committee chair, a post he held from 2019-2022, Stride was one of the first Tory MPs to call for Truss to U-turn on her mini-budget measures. He was a regular media performer across this period, and his competent criticism will have motivated fellow Tories to follow in his stead. (He was also a close ally of Rishi Sunak, it should be noted).

The big problem for Kemi Badenoch is that Stride’s criticism of Truss was not echoed by many of those MPs who now serve on the Conservative frontbench.

Rather, several senior shadow ministers were themselves complicit in the Trussonomics experiment.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 October 2022, Stride insisted on a further “rowing back on the tax announcements” announced at the mini-budget. He asked the minister on duty to “confirm that that possibility is still on the table.”

Answering for the government was the chief secretary to the Treasury. “There are no plans to reverse any of the tax measures announced in the growth plan”, Chris Philp responded. (The minister was demoted two days later to make way for further reversals).

Philp now serves, alongside Stride, as the shadow home secretary. In fact, he is one of Badenoch’s most prominent frontbenchers, reflecting his brief and media presence.

And Philp is far from the only senior Tory implicated in the Truss experiment.

Wendy Morton, a shadow Foreign Office minister, served as chief whip under Truss — in which capacity she famously resigned and un-resigned.

Andrew Griffith, the shadow business and trade secretary, served as the financial secretary to the Treasury no less — placing him on the fiscal frontline with Philp.

Alongside Philp and Griffith, Richard Fuller, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, served as economic secretary to the Treasury under Truss.

And then there’s Kemi Badenoch, who served in the Truss ministry as trade secretary.

These facts have not been lost on Labour. As a party press release released this morning notes, Badenoch described Truss as a “maverick who gets things done” during the 2022 Tory leadership contest. In November 2022, some weeks after Truss’ downfall, Badenoch told the Washington Post that “what went wrong” with the mini-budget “was not necessarily with the package but in how it was sold.”

She added: “We didn’t bring people along with us. What Liz was trying to do was stimulate growth very quickly, to try and sort of re-boost the economy, but what people heard, unfortunately, wasn’t that. What they heard was tax cuts, money for the rich. And that wasn’t what she was trying to do, but unfortunately, that’s how it came across.”

Philp, the second most senior minister at Treasury under Truss (after Kwarteng), rated the mini-budget as a “9.5 out of 10”.

The Labour Party notes curtly: “Kemi has appointed every member of Truss’ Treasury team, who did not lose their seat in the general election, to her shadow cabinet”.

By this, the party is referring to Philp, Griffith, Fuller — and also to Edward Argar (the shadow health secretary), who replaced Philp as chief secretary to the Treasury once Truss began her hopeless U-turn era.

Labour is trying to make a simple point: Liz Truss, and the damage she wreaked, was not an accident.

In the 2000s, Truss was placed on David Cameron’s “A-list” of Conservative candidates; she was propelled through the Tory ranks as a “rising star”; she served under all PMs across the 2010-2024 period except Rishi Sunak; she was endorsed by several senior colleagues during the 2022 leadership contest; she won the all-important membership vote; her administration, as we have established, was bustling with Tory “big beasts”; and she was endorsed as a Tory candidate at the 2024 election.

As former Conservative MP Charles Walker put it in an interview with the BBC on 19 October 2022: “This whole affair… is a pitiful reflection on the Conservative parliamentary party at every level and it reflects really badly obviously on the government of the day…

“And do you know, I really shouldn’t say this but I hope all those people that put Liz Truss in No 10, I hope it was worth it, I hope it was worth it for the ministerial red box, I hope it was worth it to sit around the cabinet table because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.”

Himself a former “A-lister”, Mel Stride may well be the man to lead the Conservative Party’s belated pivot against Truss. But his position of political credibility, born of his principled criticism of the mini-budget, is almost certainly undermined by his colleagues’ incredibility.

If Badenoch is creeping tentatively to some form of “Clause IV moment” she will need to go further.

At the very least, the requisite apology cannot only come from the man who was right all along.

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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The lively broadside was the logical extension of the shadow justice secretary’s activism this parliament. Jenrick returned to the House of Commons in July last year with a singular vision: securing the mantle of Conservative leader. He was bested by Kemi Badenoch. But while the campaign has long since ceased, Jenrick’s campaigning has not. 

Like any ambitious also-ran, the setback served as a catalyst. In recent months, Jenrick has honed his political style and evinced a capacity to “cut-through” well beyond the next spikiest Tory. 

The role of shadow justice secretary, assigned to him by Badenoch in November, does not confer upon Jenrick any right to such salience. His colleagues across similar middle-ranking posts are a testament to how opposition figures can dissolve into irrelevance. From Gareth Bacon at transport to Edward Argar at health, the shadow cabinet is a veritable who’s who of “who’s that?”.

In part, Jenrick has vaulted the low bar set by his fellow frontbenchers by stepping beyond the strictures of his brief — a fact that in and of itself reflects his enduring ambition. His portfolio of pieces for the Telegraph newspaper is an extensive, and growing, case in point. The shadow justice secretary’s comprehensive output surpasses most regular columnists. 

But less considered is the way Jenrick has seized on those issues that, aided by a sometimes expansive interpretation, do justify attention from the shadow lord chancellor. He won headlines earlier this year for his criticism of new sentencing council guidelines as “two-tier”; this week, his call for prison officers to have access to firearms secured wide coverage. 

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Consider Jenrick’s “fare dodgers” video in these terms. There is no stipulation in the shadow justice role that compels its incumbent to rampage around some unsuspecting tube station. Critics have duly hounded Jenrick for the stunt, which they decry as performative and callous. But his extended tour of the broadcast studios since suggests Jenrick is confident in the counter-argument: why shouldn’t a senior politician concerned with crime and justice concern himself with widely perceived rule-flouting? 

Critics reject the message and abhor the messenger. But the means by which the message was delivered — politically, strategically — is sound. Jenrick’s opponents misunderstand the raw potency of his strategy at their own peril. 

In the success of his “fare dodgers” video, Jenrick has established a model: a tried and tested formula for securing social media kudos and cut-through beyond. That brings us to his latest contribution. This time, the shadow justice secretary’s targets are not blurry-faced “fare dodgers” and still fuzzier nods to societal ills, but the government’s chief legal adviser, attorney general Lord Hermer.

Like Jenrick, Hermer is a conspicuous presence in our political discourse. Unlike Jenrick, his prominence does not reflect a canny, long-term strategy — but his profile, which seems almost uniquely designed to rile Westminster’s right-wing ecosystem.

The attorney general’s record of clients reads as a Tory rogues’ gallery. In his latest video, Jenrick lists those most likely to wound the Telegraph-reading conscience: “Gerry Adams; not one, not two, not three, not four, but five terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda, including two of Osama Bin Laden’s lieutenants, one linked to 9/11 and one to 21/7; the mother of an ISIS Beatle; Shamima Begum; Caribbean nations demanding reparations; and a 26-year-old Eritrean man in Britain illegally who was claiming to be 16.”

The shadow justice secretary adds: “If someone wants to spend their life defending Britain’s enemies, that’s on them and their conscience. But that someone shouldn’t be chosen to be our attorney general.”

Whatever your view of the rights and wrongs of Robert Jenrick’s arguments, his recent activism points to an inescapable conclusion. The shadow justice secretary gets opposition, and what it demands. He understands the structural predicament the Conservative Party faces, and how to challenge it. 

The Conservative Party has no right to coverage, no right to be heard — no right to exist in a political landscape that is reconstituting against it. Indeed, with their interventions, Tory politicians need to implicitly reeducate those who conceive of Reform vs Labour as the defining fault line this parliament. 

Badenoch’s strategic silence is having the opposite effect. When the Tory leader does decide to chime in — once the relevant policy boards have reported and their recommendations are signed off — it will be too late. 

Briefings emanating from camp Badenoch insist she is focused on the long-term. Does the Tory leadership not realise? In the long run, the Conservative Party is dead.

Jenrick is succeeding because he has made himself impossible to ignore. Badenoch is failing because she has consciously seconded herself to the periphery of politics. The craft of opposition cannot be mastered from the sidelines. It is significant that Jenrick, through his social media shenanigans, is improving as a communicator; Badenoch is showing no such signs. 

Crucially, the shadow justice secretary’s in-your-face tactics secure wins. The government’s decision to legislate to keep the sentencing council in line was interpreted as a boost for Jenrick. Why? Because Jenrick established himself as the loudest critic of its supposedly “two-tier” guidelines. He pursued every cultural and institutional avenue — legislative, parliamentary, broadcast, print, social media — to ensure as much. If/when Lord Hermer is shuffled out of government, it will be seen as a win for Jenrick. That is the windfall his latest video sets up. Whatever the reality, that is the politics. 

Compare these cases to Badenoch’s role (or lack thereof) in the winter fuel payments U-turn. The Tory leader was a critic of the cuts to the winter fuel allowance, announced last July; but her attacks were unfocused, unobtrusive and sporadic. Badenoch’s largely passive participation in the debate did not display the requisite grit. As such, she has received no credit for Starmer’s about-face. 

The bottom line is this: Robert Jenrick is excelling where Kemi Badenoch is floundering.

Intriguingly, the totemic issue that split Jenrick and Badenoch during the 2024 leadership contest — the UK’s status as a signatory to the ECHR — has barely featured since November. The shadow justice secretary’s revolt is notable because it isn’t explicitly ideological or born of irreconcilable policy differences. It is mostly about style and proficiency. 

Of course, in an ailing party, to appear alive is a condition of profound irreverence. A memorable stance will inevitably be interpreted as a challenge in a party that does not take memorable stances.

Badenoch seems indifferent to the dying of the light. Jenrick’s rage is his rebellion.

In 2024, a “stop Jenrick” campaign orchestrated by influential one nation Tories and spurned Rishi Sunak loyalists helped scupper his leadership chances. That was then; before Badenoch’s electoral setbacks and the self-inflicted errors. Conservative MPs have been known to countenance an ideologically imperfect candidate when the moment becomes critical. That moment is fast approaching.

Tory MPs will be wondering whether the shadow justice secretary can do for their party what he has done for his own profile this parliament.

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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Post-election, the party has gone through a period of reflection. The pressure from Reform on the right and the Liberal Democrats in the centre has squeezed political space, underscoring the need to reassert Conservative principles with clarity. However, our recent approach to scrutinising Labour risks further alienating the voters we need to return to power.

Framing the EU deal as a “betrayal” exemplifies our disconnection from today’s political reality. Like the US trade deal, the EU reset is a series of small, technical adjustments – on fishing rights, e-gates, youth mobility, and defence cooperation. It was never about sovereignty or revisiting Brexit, and language such as “surrender” risks switching people further off.

Likewise, attacking Labour’s recent immigration proposals in an attempt to outflank Reform is badly timed. Regardless of one’s view on immigration, voters clearly know that successive Conservative governments failed to “take back control” of borders several years after Brexit. David Cameron set the arbitrary target of 100,000 a year – shaping the public’s view of what a normal level of migration would be – and put an albatross around the neck of successive governments.

If there are signs the public have stopped listening to us, it might be prudent to not focus on a policy where we have no credibility. Bringing up issues where we have a poor track record is like the Lib Dems complaining about higher student loans.

Farage and Reform now dominate the immigration debate, shamelessly conflating legal and illegal migration via Channel crossings for political gain.

That debate often misses the point. Whether it’s 750,000, 500,000 or 200,000 people – building consensus on the right number is futile. Some will never be happy with it. Yet polling shows Britain is not an anti-immigration country – but it is pro-control. That is how politicians can peel away the broader mass of public concern from the hardliners.

Sir Keir Starmer is responding to what the public has been saying – mostly to Conservative governments – for a very long time. Accusing him of his pro-immigration instincts is unfairly reductive, and reckless when anti-establishment rhetoric is on the rise which should require any Prime Minister to be seen to address the issue. The danger is Starmer fails to deliver. We should prepare for when that time comes.

Opposition without a sense of a credible, alternative direction won’t restore trust. We must get back to basics and refocus on areas where we still have credibility: the economy and living standards.

The cost-of-living crisis remains the defining issue for most people. From high personal and business taxes to stifling regulation, workers and employers alike feel squeezed. Several shadow ministers have used their time on the airwaves wisely to raise these issues – it’s now time to bring it all together under a clear, central narrative and ensure we can land these punches properly.

Our economic record, despite its blemishes, is worth defending: sustained GDP growth, deficit reduction, rising real wages, lower personal taxes, the pandemic response through furlough, business incentives for job creation. These achievements resonate with people’s everyday experiences.

Yes, the Truss budget damaged our economic reputation – especially among mortgage holders – but over 14 years, our stewardship of the economy has largely been strong. It remains the one area where voters may still give us a hearing.

Rachel Reeves’s next Budget and the 2026 local elections are key opportunities to present a practical, credible economic vision. So far, that vision is absent – leaving Reform to define the opposition narrative.

Reclaiming the economy as a core issue also gives us a platform to re-engage on topics where our credibility has eroded. Economic policy underpins concerns about immigration, public services, and social cohesion. We should be using every comms opportunity to reiterate the wedge between Labour’s high-tax, anti-business instincts and our pro-growth vision – and expose Reform’s lack of fiscal credibility.

Reform’s manifesto for the last general election was a wish list of uncosted promises, disconnected from the realities of governance. This gives us the opportunity to challenge them, like Labour, where they’re weakest – on economic competence.

We won’t beat Reform by copying their positions on immigration. But we can defeat them on substance. Elections are won on trust, and trust is built through credible plans that address people’s concerns.

As the public feel the gloomy economy, squabbling over the fine print of Starmer’s announcements only helps him spin them as victories. Our best chance of rebuilding trust is to focus on the core issues and show we have a serious plan to address them. It’s still the economy, stupid.

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The Liberal Democrats have seized on a report that Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and onetime Tory leadership candidate, held a meeting with Lowe at a private members club in Mayfair last week.

Following the meeting, Lowe, who now sits as an independent, told PoliticsHome he is “open” to joining the Conservatives.

Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, has warned that Lowe joining the Conservatives would see the party move “even further to the extremes.”

The Lib Dems have also interpreted Jenrick’s role as a challenge to Badenoch’s authority, and reiterated their call for the Tory leader to sack her erstwhile rival. 

“This surely also has to be the last straw for Robert Jenrick’s underhand leadership campaign”, Cooper said. “Badenoch needs to sack him or accept that she is too weak to control her own front bench.”

Sources close to Jenrick told PoliticsHome that the shadow justice secretary was not trying to negotiate a defection.

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Lowe was first elected as the Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in the 2024 general election but was suspended from the party and reported to police in March 2025 after facing allegations of making threats. 

His suspension also came after he issued a strongly worded critique of Farage’s leadership in an interview with the Daily Mail. Lowe, who was touted as a replacement Reform leader by Elon Musk in January, said his then-party needed a “proper plan”, more policy and suggested he could leave unless it shifted away from Farage’s “messianic” leadership.

Earlier this month, the Crown Prosecution Service said that after considering several witness statements, they had concluded that there is “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.

In a lengthy statement following the CPS decision, Lowe said he was referred to the police “all because I dared to raise constructive criticisms of [Reform leader] Nigel Farage, stood firm on deporting illegal migrants, and pushed for Reform to be run democratically — not as a vehicle to stroke one man’s ego”.

Lowe said Reform responded “with a brutal smear campaign” and accused figures in the party of briefing journalists he had dementia.

He added: “[Reform] are not fit to lead. They are not fit to be MPs.”

The MP for Great Yarmouth also reiterated his belief that Farage “must never be prime minister”, calling him a “coward and a viper.”

Lowe went on to suggest he would soon mount a national challenge to Reform, promising an “alternative” to the party’s “rotten leadership.”

Alex Burghart, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a prominent figure in Badenoch’s inner circle, recently commented that the Tory leader would “closely and carefully” consider whether to accept any application from Lowe to join the party. 

Speaking to GB News earlier this month, Burghart said: “I greatly respect Rupert Lowe and he was given a very, very hard time by Reform.

“We consider everyone’s application to the Conservative Party but as far as I’m aware I don’t know if Rupert would want to join.”

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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According to the YouGov poll for Sky News/The Times, Nigel Farage‘s Reform are up to 29 per cent, with Labour trailing on 22 per cent after dropping a point.

The Lib Dems are third on 17 per cent, with the Conservatives down to 16 per cent after slumping another two points.

The survey looks set to increase pressure on Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, after her party’s historically poor performance at the local elections. 

However, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel has said the new poll is not “surprising” as rebuilding a political party “doesn’t happen overnight”.

Asked about the survey on Times Radio, Patel said: “I don’t think that’s at all surprising, because we did lose the general election last year. Rebuilding a political party doesn’t happen overnight…

“I recall this in 1997, it took us a while to come back. With that, rebuilding the party isn’t just in Westminster, it’s at the grassroots and in the country, and that’s what we’re focused on doing.”

Tory-Lib Dem crossover poll: Reform UK – 29%(+1) Labour – 22%(-1) Lib Dem – 17%(+1), Tory – 16%(-2) Green – 10%(+1)18/19 May via YouGov / Sky News / Times

— Josh Self (@josh.politics.co.uk) 2025-05-20T06:43:52.778Z

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At the local elections, the Conservatives lost overall control of all 18 councils they were defending, with 23 councils in the race in total.

Badenoch said her party would “learn lessons” after it lost a total of 674 council seats.

The Reform and Liberal Democrat parties both made significant gains at the Conservative Party’s expense, winning another 677 and 163 seats respectively since elections were held in 2021.

The elections saw the Lib Dems take control of Shropshire from the Conservatives and take overall control of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, while it became the largest party in Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Devon.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives finished a distant third in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election with 2,341 votes, or 7 per cent. Reform won the seat by a margin of six votes, besting Labour by the finest by-election margin since World War Two.

Speaking after the local elections, Ed Davey declared the Liberal Democrats as “the new party of Middle England”.

The Lib Dem leader said: “We have overtaken the Conservatives at these local elections, putting us on track to overtake them at the next general election too.

“From Wiltshire to Oxfordshire, from Shropshire to Devon, the Liberal Democrats have replaced the Conservatives as the party of middle England.”

The Lib Dem leader credited his party’s success to former Tory voters “appalled by the Conservatives lurching to the extremes and cosying up to Nigel Farage”.

He added: “Today voters across the country have chosen our community politics over the Conservative Party’s neglect and disdain.”

The YouGov poll comes after a ConservativeHome survey of the Tory grassroots found Badenoch’s popularity had plummeted again since last month. The Conservative leader now records a new satisfaction rating of 0 points, down from +9 last month and taking her to 14th place. 

Overall, the average satisfaction rating for shadow cabinet members dropped from +12.62 last month to just +4 this month, something ConservativeHome, the Tory grassroots site, says “speaks to a general dissatisfaction with Kemi Badenoch’s top team.”

Asked this morning if the Conservative Party can come back from this latest nadir, Priti Patel told Times Radio: “Well of course we can. We’ve absolutely done it before. We’re working, I can tell you now, flat out to ensure that we can absolutely do that, but it takes time. 

“Winning back the trust and confidence of the British people takes time.”

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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The Tory leader addressed the International Democracy Union (IDU) conference in Brussels, as part of an in-conversation event with Stephen Harper, the organisation’s chair and former prime minister of Canada. 

Badenoch was asked for her general take on the political landscape in the UK and the challenges posed to her party.

Speaking implicitly about Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Badenoch insisted it is unsurprising that former Conservative voters are not “rushing back” to the party.

The Conservative leader, elected to her post on 2 November 2024, said: “My job is to pick all the pieces of the party and rebuild but because the public have just rejected us from government, they’re not rushing back immediately, instead, they’re looking at protest parties and challenger parties.” 

She told Harper: “And what we need to do now is remind people that we are the only credible alternative to a Labour government. We are the serious party. We have the experience. Acknowledge that we made a lot of mistakes in government.”

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Harper was first elected to the Canadian parliament in 1993 as a representative of the right-wing populist Reform Party of Canada. The rise of the party was motivated by profound discontent with the mainstream Progressive Conservative Party (PCP), which had ruled Canada from 1984 to 1993. The 1993 general election saw the Canadian “Tories” reduced to just two MPs. 

In 2003, Harper negotiated the merger of Reform and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected as the party’s first leader in March 2004, and subsequently prime minister.

Since 2018, Harper has served as the chair of the IDU, an international alliance of centre-right parties. 

Addressing Harper and the IDU conference, Badenoch argued her party needs to “redefine” what modern conservatism looks like, styling herself as an “insurgent’ and an “underdog”.

She said: “We need to redefine what modern conservatism looks like in this landscape. I’m the new kid on the block. I’m the insurgent now. I’m the underdog, and I need to remind people that the Conservative Party which disappointed them is not me, and we are the ones who are the ones who can channel the anger and the frustration. 

“Why is it that roads are full of potholes? Why is it that things just don’t look like they’re working? Why is it that they don’t have enough money anymore? Where’s the disposable income gone? Why are we wasting it on all sorts of things that the government has no business whatsoever getting involved in?”

In comments recorded by the official IDU Instagram account, Badenoch added: “We’re going to have to work for every single vote. It’s going to be hand-to-hand combat, we are never letting this go, we’re not just going to allow the Conservative Party, or I am not going to let the Conservative Party disappear.”

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But in 2024, over half of the public said they lacked confidence in the police to tackle crime in their area. Try reporting a burglary, vehicle theft, or robbery and it will fail to receive the resource, time, and attention it rightfully deserves. And whilst minor in comparison to more violent, complex crimes, these crimes slowly chip away at the trust we hold in our communities.

You might have seen the stories. A nine-year-old at school calls a classmate a “retard”. Two teenage girls tell another pupil she “smells like fish”. Unkind? Yes. Playground cruelty? Of course. But instead of a quiet word with a teacher or a call home, the police are brought in. The incident is logged, official records are made, a permanent digital footprint for name-calling. That’s what Britain has become in 2025. A country where officers are tied up documenting playground spats, treating childish jibes like national security threats, as real crimes are pushed to the back of the queue.

What we’ve got now is a different beast — the so-called “non-crime hate incident”. You didn’t quite break the law, you just said something daft and got yourself logged like you’d robbed a bank. 

Non-crime hate incidents are being misused. Their purpose has strayed far from the original intent following the 1999 Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which was to highlight imminent risks of crime — not to record a wide array of minor insults.

In recent years, police forces have logged an average of 13,000 of these. That’s 13,000 cases where no law was broken, but time, attention, and public confidence were stolen. If we want the public to trust the police, we need to untie the hands of officers and free them to focus on real crime – the crime that matters. Theft, violence, gangs, anti-social behaviour. These are the things that ruin lives, wreck neighbourhoods, and keep decent people up at night.

And that’s exactly why the Conservative Party are taking action. This week, we put forward an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to bring an end to these surreal “non-crime hate incidents”. Labour had the opportunity to put this right and back our amendment, but they blocked it and let this madness continue. The Conservatives will continue to speak out for the freedom to speak, joke, think, and live without fear of a knock at the door. Because free speech is the foundation of a free society. And if you lose that, you lose everything else with it.

Let the police be the police. Let them get back to what they’re here to do and not trawling social media. And let’s rebuild the trust that keeps a free society standing tall.

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The former chancellor said that the Tories “could be on to something” if they pursued this approach.

Osborne, who served as chancellor during David Cameron’s tenure as prime minister, also commented that Kemi Badenoch has “got a better chance than anyone else” of being leader of the Conservatives at the next general election.

Speaking to LBC on Monday evening, he warned that “chasing Nigel Farage’s tail” will not work for the Conservative Party, noting “if you want Nigel Farage, why not have Nigel Farage?”.

Asked about the latest YouGov/Sky News polling that has the Tories on 17 per cent, Osborne responded that he does not believe the “hype” that Britain has seen the end of the old Labour-Conservative two-party system. 

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He said: “The task facing Kemi Badenoch and the shadow cabinet is historically huge, even though this Labour government has not made such a strong start, and so I have some sympathy with the position they’re in. 

“I don’t personally think chasing Nigel Farage’s tail is going to work, and if you want Nigel Farage, why not have Nigel Farage? I think the ten-year trend inside the Conservative movement of trying to copy the Brexit Party or the UKIP Party or now the Reform party has not really worked.”

Osborne added: “There’s a big space at the moment in British politics for someone who’s got a plan to grow the British economy, which strikes me as the main concern for most of the public. 

“So, if we spoke a little bit less about transgender toilets and a bit more about taxes, then we might be on to something. No Conservative opposition in my lifetime has got back without winning back credibility on the economy and making that the central offer at the election.”

Osborne was asked if the Conservative Party is making a mistake in seizing so forcefully on “culture war” talking points. 

He commented: “I think it’s certainly the case that Kemi Badenoch made a reputation for herself and speaks very effectively and with passion on culture war issues, transgender rights and the like. But that’s what helps you when you are the rising star. I don’t think it sustains you as a risen star. 

“I think to be the leader of the opposition, you have to be someone who offers the country a credible economic plan, and there is a bit of a gap in the market. No one at the moment has got a plan that certainly has convinced the public is going to grow the British economy.”

Asked whether he believes Badenoch will be leader of the Conservatives at the next general election, Osborne replied “‘I think she’s got a better chance than anyone else, not least because she’s in the post, and I don’t think anyone really thinks switching leader is the solution to the problem.”

On his reservations about a Farage-Conservative alliance, the former chancellor added: “I would have quite a lot of reservations… I’m verging on no. But I certainly would not vote for Reform. 

“My politics is on the centre right, but the centre bit is as important as the right.”

Responding to the former chancellor’s comments, a Labour spokesperson said: “George Osborne says out loud what other Tories are thinking: Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party has no plan for our country. She is more concerned about fighting with Nigel Farage than fighting for working people.

“Labour is delivering our plan for change. The Tories haven’t listened and they haven’t learned.”

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Collectively, Badenoch and Starmer speak for 39 per cent of the public. That is the principal finding of the latest YouGov/Sky News poll. Labour is placed second on 22 per cent and the Conservatives on 17 per cent; for the latter, as Reform UK rides high on 29 per cent, that is terminal territory.

The Conservative Party last polled at 17 per cent in June 2019, just before Theresa May was ousted as prime minister.

In the commons chamber, Badenoch’s six questions damn her: they are a reminder of the Conservative Party’s enduring institutional relevance, and simultaneously of her inability to cut through at Westminster — let alone with the electorate beyond. Even after the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, Badenoch begs more questions of the PM on a weekly basis than Reform has MPs. 

The Conservative leader’s PMQs performances sum up the party’s malaise. The Tories go through the motions of mattering: spokespeople tour the media studios, press releases are pinged into inboxes, government ministers are scrutinised on the floor of the commons. But the Conservative Party’s ostensible busyness belies it. The political energy is elsewhere. 

This position is made worse by the fact that Badenoch, every so often, shows signs of pressuring the prime minister. Taking to the despatch box this afternoon, the Conservative leader successfully chose the topic that is most likely to highlight Labour divisions: the winter fuel payment cut. 

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Her first question was well-composed: “Does the prime minister now admit that he was wrong to remove the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners?”

Badenoch rightly judged that her attack did not need additional context. Labour’s local elections drubbing and the fallout since has heightened focus on Starmer’s “original sin”. Backbenchers of all factional stripes — Blue Labour, Socialist Campaign Group, the “soft left” — have pointed to the winter fuel payment as an electorally toxic policy.

The prime minister responded: “The number one job of this government was to put our finances back in order after the last government lost control and to deal with the £22 billion black hole that they left.

“Because of our action we have stabilised the economy, we have invested record amounts in the NHS… and of course we are committed to the triple lock which improved pensions by £470 last year.”

It is not the line many of Starmer’s backbenchers want him to take. The clamour for a symbolic U-turn on the winter fuel payment is growing louder. The Red Wall caucus of Labour MPs this morning issued a statement suggesting an about-face could, contrary to No 10’s apparent calculation, see Labour assume a “position of strength”.

Badenoch continued along the right lines: “His mayor in Doncaster [Ros Jones] says it’s wrong, his first minister in Wales [Eluned Morgan] says it’s wrong, even his own MPs are saying it’s wrong.”

But no sooner had Badenoch delivered her best line of the session — “Pensioners are poorer and colder because of his decisions” — than she changed course. 

Rather than drill down on Labour criticism of the winter fuel cut — forcing Starmer to deliver on-the-record defences of this uniquely unpopular policy, Badenoch turned to net zero. It was a screeching pivot.

First, the Conservative leader accused Starmer of reneging on a Labour manifesto pledge to reduce household energy bills. The prime minister predicted Badenoch’s line of inquiry. “The way to bring energy bills down for good is to deliver cheap, clean, home-grown energy”, Starmer responded. 

Later in the exchange, the prime minister revealed his preparation. He commented: “I’ve got the shadow chancellor [Mel Stride] here, his previous words: ‘Net zero — the shift must happen now as a matter of urgency’. His words. ‘It’s no longer an environmental issue. Energy independence should be reviewed as part of our national security.’ He must have our lines.

“What about the leader of the opposition herself? She said: ‘We believe that green trade and investment will be the future-proofing force that will help us create a better tomorrow.’ And then she went on to say this. ‘It’s long term investment in nuclear and renewables that will reduce our dependencies on fossil fuels and keep down consumer [costs]’.

“She’s got a reputation, apparently, for straight talking. She was right, though, wasn’t she?”

It was an effective and symbolic put-down. The prime minister, despite speculation to the contrary, shows no sign of abandoning on his government’s net zero platform.

“Net zero is an opportunity to be seized”, he insisted on one occasion. He later accused Badenoch of being a “climate defeatist” and dismissed the Conservative position as “anti-growth, anti-jobs and anti-working people.”

Badenoch closed by accusing the PM of travelling “further and faster in the wrong direction”. She noted Tony Blair’s recent comments on net zero — which sent Westminster into a frenzy last week. 

Intriguingly, Badenoch’s questioning often comes across as a conscious response to criticism levelled at her most recent performance. Ahead of the local elections last week, Westminster widely expected the Conservative leader to weaponise Blair’s apparent attack on net zero. The primary reason the former PM’s comments were notable was that they played into Conservative attack lines. And yet Badenoch ignored them.

There is something uniquely baffling about a decision-making process — pursued as part of Badenoch’s PMQs preparation — that ignores Blair’s remarks when they were relevant, but seizes on them when the moment has passed. 

Badenoch has been offered a great deal of PMQs advice in her six months as leader. Last month, she disclosed the details of discussions with David Cameron, once a doughty PMQs performer, and Iain Duncan Smith, once a, well, PMQs performer. 

Cameron and IDS’ advice, Badenoch relayed to Times Radio, made plain that the public should be able to “follow” the opposition chief’s argument. Ground-breaking stuff. Overtime, by making reasonable and consistent criticisms of the government, a leader can build credibility. 

Across separate topics, Badenoch failed on these counts this afternoon. Viewed together, her recurrent lacklustre performances are beginning to exact a political toll.

The prevailing discourse suggests Badenoch, already, is on borrowed time. Every PMQs session is styled as a fightback. And every week Starmer appears exposed. But Badenoch’s performances never fail to fall short of Westminster’s steadily deteriorating expectations. Sometimes there is a sign of a breakthrough. It is soon squandered. She pursues a meandering line of inquiry. An open goal is missed. The prime minister emerges relatively unscathed — even strengthened. 

Politicos are left scratching their heads. 

All the while, the pressure builds. Farage chortles. Jenrick manoeuvres. It is an escalating doom spiral that Badenoch shows no sign of stemming — let alone reversing.

Strong performances at PMQs are not, in and of themselves, a vote winner. But on a week-by-week basis, they are a means by which an opposition leader can manage their party. Combative showings will keep backbenchers on side, even when the party is travelling backwards by other measures.

Badenoch’s poor performance this week comes at an especially inopportune moment. In the wake of the local elections, Conservative doubts as to their leader’s ability will now harden. Expect the party’s quiet panic, still playing out in the background via anonymous briefings, to intensify. 

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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The so-called Deportation Bill is described by the Conservatives as “serious, detailed and uncompromising alternative” to the government’s immigration plan. It marks the first time since the general election last July that the Conservative Party has outlined a full bill. 

Its publication coincides with the return of the government’s Border Security, Immigration and Asylum Bill to the House of Commons for its report stage. 

Commenting on the Conservative Party’s new bill, shadow home secretary Chris Philp condemned both Labour and Reform UK’s “empty slogans and hollow promises” on migration. 

The Deportation Bill, Philp said, would “restore public confidence in our immigration system.”

The Conservative plan proposes automatic deportation for anyone arriving in the UK illegally, the disapplication of the Human Rights Act from all immigration-related matters, and the introduction of a legally binding cap on annual migration figures voted on by parliament.

To the effect of this latter point, the bill reads: “Within six months of the passing of this Act, the secretary of state must make regulations specifying the total maximum number of persons who may enter the United Kingdom annually across all non-visitor visa routes, with such regulations subject to approval by both Houses [of Parliament].”

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The party also wants to double the residency requirement for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from five to ten years, and introduce powers to revoke it from individuals deemed to be a “burden” on the state.

Other provisions include mandatory scientific age testing for asylum seekers, visa sanctions against countries that refuse to take back their nationals, and tighter restrictions on spousal and civil partner visas, including a proposed ban on visas for first-cousin marriages.

The bill also seeks to remove certain data protections for foreign nationals, including illegal migrants and convicted criminals, to facilitate deportations.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has described the bill as a “pragmatic and deliverable” alternative to the government’s approach, accusing ministers of failing to tackle rising small boat crossings.

“For months this Labour government has turned a blind eye to the crisis at our borders”, he said. “The Conservatives are today introducing the Deportation Bill – a bold, pragmatic and deliverable plan to take back control of our borders and restore public confidence in our immigration system.

“If Labour can’t or won’t act, we will an introduce a bill and Labour MPs can vote against it.”

Philp added: “Labour and Reform are both complicit in the trade of empty slogans and hollow promises. Our plan can be enacted now to get immigration back under control.”

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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Tory MPs are said to be holding meetings this week to discuss how to remove Badenoch, as panic grows over the future of the party following Reform UK’s success in the local elections.

According to a report in The Independent, at least two senior backbenchers are calling meetings with fellow parliamentarians to discuss ousting the Conservative Party leader.

The report comes after the Conservatives lost 15 councils and 674 seats in the local elections last week. In response, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage declared that his party has established its position as the “real opposition” to Labour. 

Reform won 676 seats, overall control of 10 councils, two mayoralties and the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby.

Sir Iain, who was himself ousted as Tory leader in 2003, has now appeared to call for calm in his party. 

In a post on social media, IDS said: “To those few Conservatives now briefing journalists that another leadership election is the answer I say, if after four leadership elections and utter disarray amongst MPs over the last five years, another leadership election is what they believe the public voted for, then they are deluded.”

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Commenting specifically on the local election results, historically harrowing for his party, the senior MP added: “This election result was frankly the second [significant] tremor after the first devastating political earthquake last year. It underscored the level of anger too many Conservative voters still had for our mistakes and failures. 

“Not to mention the terrible behaviour of too many Conservative MPs at times appearing to care more for their careers than the lives of those they were sent to serve. Conservative voters haven’t forgotten.”

Late last year, upon Badenoch’s elevation as Conservative leader, Duncan Smith addressed the newly formed shadow cabinet to explain what life in opposition “is like” at its inaugural meeting. 

Sir Iain, leader of the opposition from 2001 to 2003, commented at the time (November 2024) that he urged Badenoch’s shadow cabinet to adopt the tactics of guerrilla warfare.

In remarks last week, Badenoch also revealed IDS had given her advice on how to approach prime minister’s questions. 

The Conservative leader said: “The best [PMQs] advice came from the two people [former Tory leaders Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Cameron] who did it, and what they said was that it’s not about winning the session. 

“Lots of people will encourage you to do things just to win in the moment, but it is about long-term credibility, and that’s one of the things that I think is actually very important.”

Speaking to Times Radio, she added: “Iain Duncan Smith also gave excellent advice as well. He said it was also about people being able to follow the argument which is quite interesting.”

IDS supported Badenoch’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative leadership contest. 

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

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The post Conservative MPs looking to oust Badenoch are ‘deluded’, says Iain Duncan Smith appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

Labour is preparing for a difficult set of results — but it is Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party that is most exposed today. Of the 1,641 council seats up for grabs across 23 local authorities, trembling Tory incumbents are defending 954.

The majority of these council seats were last contested in May 2021, during a period of heightened popularity for the then-ruling Conservative Party and prime minister Boris Johnson. Badenoch is expecting a “correction” this time around, as the electoral landscape adjusts to the Conservatives’ current malaise.

In political terms, Johnson’s period of reinvigorated popularity — informed by Brexit goodwill and the Covid vaccine “bounce” — is ancient history.

The Liberal Democrats and Reform UK are expected to make considerable gains at the Conservative Party’s expense. A briefing to the Telegraph this morning suggests CCHQ predicts a total wipeout: a “confidential” memo projects that the Conservatives will lose control of all the councils they are defending — up to 770 seats — as well as all the mayoral elections taking place.

It’s possible that the Tories could win one mayoralty — perhaps Cambridgeshire and Peterborough — and suddenly declare that the results are not nearly as bad as the doomsayers foretold. (Think back to Ben Houchen’s victory in Tees Valley in 2024 and the subsequent spin). That is the nature of expectation management — and the stories pressured parties tell themselves, voters and the media, to artificially boost morale/spur positive coverage.

But such myths, as Rishi Sunak discovered in 2024, can only suspend reality for so long.

***This content first appeared in a special edition of Politics.co.uk’s Politics@Lunch newsletter, centring on the local elections. Sign-up for free and never miss our daily briefing.***

As far as Labour is concerned, dismal results will prompt questions about the direction of the party, the leadership’s chosen political narrative and its vulnerability — if borne out — across several flanks.

As alluded to, six mayoralties are also in play today, in the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North Tyneside, Doncaster, Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire. But perhaps the most symbolic test will be the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, triggered by former MP Mike Amesbury’s resignation after his conviction for punching a man.

Together, these contests have attracted (arguably outsized) national interest because of the potential for a major Reform breakthrough: a turquoise wave. Nigel Farage’s party is contesting more council seats than any of its opponents. Meanwhile, expectations are leaning towards a Reform victory in Runcorn, once a safe Labour seat. And Farage’s party fancies its chances in at least a couple of mayoral contests — namely Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire.

As the results roll in, commentators and analysts alike will look to decipher a “message” in the data — one directed at Westminster from a disillusioned electorate. But the prevalent picture is likely to be fractious, as challengers to the left and right of the main parties secure marked gains at their expense. “Electoral chaos theory”, as political scientist Rob Ford has termed it, will be put into practice.

Of course, an electoral tapestry — weaved of turquoise, orange, green, blue and red threads — will require some unpicking on Friday. But two possible trends piquing my interest pertain to the extent and depth of enthusiasm for Reform. In other words: will Reform voters turn out to vote?

More in Common polling notes that Reform voters do not typically participate in these kinds of contests — and yet they are uniquely motivated to express their discontent in this contest. Will Farage’s voters turn out for him on the day? Can he capitalise on his momentum and spur further coverage for his insurgent party?

Underperformance could see Westminster question some of Farage’s more braggadocious rhetoric. But consider the headlines if Reform meets expectations, or over-performs.

Another set of questions: will anti-Farage voters turn out for Reform’s opponents on the day? To what extent is there a tactical “stop Reform” vote across the country — a constituency willing to lend their support to a second, even third, preference to thwart Farage? To what extent can the major parties, Labour in particular, weaponise such a voter group at future elections?

I hope to feature answers to at least some of these questions in Saturday’s Week-in-Review newsletter.

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Lunchtime briefing

Tony Blair’s net zero stance ‘absolutely aligned’ with government policy, Starmer says

Lunchtime soundbite

‘All of those things have not happened, and you cannot just plough on regardless and throw all of these workers on the scrapheap’

—  Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, tells Times Radio workers cannot be thrown “on the scrapheap” in the pursuit of net zero.

Now try this…

‘Blair’s net zero intervention invites scrutiny of his institute’s donors’
Labour insider rebukes ‘tech bros’ within Tony Blair Institute as critics question past work with petrostates, the Guardian’s Kiran Stacey writes.

‘UK local elections 2025: How to watch like a pro’
Via Politico.

‘Keir Starmer would harm Labour’s chances in Runcorn by-election, say Labour MPs’
PoliticsHome reports.

On this day in 2024:

Kemi Badenoch insists PM not ‘under threat’ regardless of local elections outcome

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The post What’s at stake in​ England​’s local ​elections​? appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

The future of the state pension triple lock has been a recurring debate during Badenoch’s tenure as Conservative leader.

Speaking on LBC Radio in January, the Tory leader said that “serious thinking” was required to address the financial impact of more government spending “on later life”.

Asked whether this included the “triple lock” policy – under which state pension payments go up every year by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent – she replied: “That’s exactly the sort of thing that the policy work we are going to be doing will look at”.

These remarks have featured at the forefront of Labour’s criticisms of the Conservative leader, with the party arguing they hint at a forthcoming policy change. 

In a new interview with GB News, Badenoch was further drawn on her position on the triple lock.

She said: “The Conservative policy has always been to maintain the triple lock. It’s our policy, but we’re not in government now.

“And we need to make sure that while we have all the commitments to maintain the triple lock, that we also look at what is happening to the economy. So people don’t need to worry. This is people, other people setting hares running, not me.”

Pressed on whether maintaining the triple lock will feature in the next Conservative manifesto, Badenoch added: “We have always said that we are committed to the triple lock.

“At the next election, we’re going to come out with all of the policies that we’ve worked out. Who knows? We might change everything.

“Make things better, you know, improve things. We don’t know where that will be until our policy commission’s report.”

Responding to the Conservative leader’s comments, a Labour spokesperson said: “Once again Kemi Badenoch refuses to rule out scrapping the pensions triple lock. Scrapping the triple lock seems to be one of the very few policies she actually has.

“It’s only Labour that will protect the triple lock, which we’ve done by stabilising our economy as part of our Plan for Change. This means that millions of pensioners will be £470 better off this year.”

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.

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