The original Tron, released in 1982, has gone on to become a veritable cult classic of the sci-fi genre.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for its most recent iteration, Tron: Ares, if critics’ reviews are anything to go by.
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Starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters and Gillian Anderson, the new sequel has been heavily panned in early reviews, with some going as far as describing it as one of 2025’s worst big-screen offerings.
Here’s a selection of what the critics have had to say about Tron: Ares…
“The worst film of the year and a new low for Disney. The music’s great, but this Jared Leto vehicle is otherwise an ethically dubious, horribly written nadir in franchise slop.”
“The matrix of pointlessness is reloaded in this mind-bendingly dull sci-fi, more a screensaver than an actual film […] Tron: Ares (almost) comes to life just once – when Evan Peters gets a smack in the face from Gillian Anderson playing his mum, in an old-fashioned bit of analogue reality. That’s a bit of firm parenting you might feel like handing out to every producer involved in this film, and it’s sad to see the estimable Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith being made to look so lifeless.”
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“So bad it makes you wish AI would hurry up and destroy Hollywood. [Tron: Ares is] a shambolic film populated by some of the most aggressively charmless characters ever seen in a blockbuster.”
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Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, Jared Leto, Emma Ludbrook and Steven Lisberger are the producers, with Russell Allen serving as executive producer.\n\nGrammy®-award winning rock band Nine Inch Nails composed the score for “Tron: Ares,” and today, the band dropped \"As Alive As You Need Me To Be\" —the soundtrack album’s first single and the first official music from the band in five years. Listen to \"As Alive As You Need Me To Be” and view the visualizer: https://nineinchnails.lnk.to/AAAYNMTB. The track is featured in the new trailer for “Tron: Ares.”\n \n“Tron: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack),” featuring all original music by Nine Inch Nails, will be released on September 19 via Interscope Records. The release marks the first-ever film score by the pioneering band, although bandmates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have composed 20 scores under their own names, winning two Oscars®, three Golden Globes®, a GRAMMY® and an Emmy® in the process.\n \nALBUM: https://NineInchNails.lnk.to/TRONAres\nSINGLE: https://NineInchNails.lnk.to/AAAYNMTB\nLYRIC VIDEO: https://youtu.be/-Sj-FmI5JfA\n\n► SUBSCRIBE to the channel to get notified when new Disney videos are posted: https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneysShows?sub_confirmation=1\n\n► SUBSCRIBE to Disney+ to stream all of your favorite Disney shows and movies: https://www.disneyplus.com/\n\nFollow on social media to get the latest news and announcements from Disney:\n\nTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@disney\nInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/disney/\nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Disney/\nX: https://x.com/disney\nWebsite: https://www.disney.com/\n\nExperience more stories by subscribing: \n\n/ @marvel\n/ @StarWars\n/ @pixar\n/ 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“Tron: Ares will make you want to log off. Gillian Anderson should have known better than to appear in this uninspired sequel. [The film’s title character, Ares is] a dead-eyed digital super-soldier played by the bearded charisma vacuum and scene-wrecking super-plank Jared Leto (and you thought he was bad in Morbius).”
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“Tron: Ares is not a film. It’s an absolutely brilliant soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails with some visual elements getting in the way. The music is loud, aggressive, adventurous, soaring, gritty and emotive, everything the actual movie is not.”
“Like lead actor Jared Leto’s high-def cheekbones, it looks great, but the movie is saddled with callbacks to the earlier film (and the 1980s at large) that suggest it’s aimed more at Gen X than the Alpha kids who could launch the property into the future.”
Not all of the reviews for Tron: Ares have been negative – but the more forgiving ones are few and far between
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“Without giving too much away, there is room for a Jeff Bridges appearance, and also a nostalgia-driven sequence that fans of the original Tron will love. What a pity the script itself flounders, hampered by the fact Hollywood has churned out numerous AI stories of late. Certainly, this lacks the cheekiness of, say, M3GAN. With the exception of an amusing riff about Depeche Mode (better than Mozart, according to Ares), it requires a much-needed humour injection.”
“Tron: Ares [is] a franchise entry that honours its roots while taking significant steps forward. It’s no sci-fi insta-classic, but there are worse things to be than a surprisingly entertaining post-summer popcorn bucket.
Tron: Ares arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 10 October.
In her closing speech at the annual Tory conference in Manchester, the party leader insisted that she had a plan to fix Britain’s “broken model” – including the housing market.
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“Young people trapped in the pain of working,” she said.
“Pensioners wanting to downsize. Stamp duty is a bad tax. We must go further. We must free up our housing market’I have looked at the stamp duty thresholds to see where we can change them. I have decided that we can’t. That simply will not be enough.
“Conference, the next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty on your home. It will be gone.”
Stamp duty is a tax property or land buyers have to buy if purchasing a property over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.
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Badenoch claimed she would be able to afford to do this by introducing a “golden economic rule” where “every pound we save will go to work, at least half will go towards cutting the deficit, because living within our means is our first priority.”
She continued: “And with the rest, we will get Britain growing and bring down the taxes which are stifling our economy.”
Although the Tories have consistently polled at less than 20% in recent months, Badenoch also listed all of the tax hikes Labour has already implemented and called them “shameful”.
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“The tax burden is so high it is making Britain poorer because business is giving up, business is leaving,” the MP for North West Essex said.
“Britain is being held back by a broken model,” Badenoch claimed. “To fix our country, we must reverse Labour’s broken measures.
“So, we will cancel their vindictive tax on education,” she said, alluding to Labour’s decision to drop the VAT exemption on private schools.
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“We will scrap their tax on family farms,” she added, pointing to the government’s decision to tax inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m at 20%.
“We will scrap their tax on family businesses,” Badenoch noted, after Labour introduced a cap on business property relief.
“We will reverse the terrible measures in Angela Rayner’s Unemployment bill, written by the unions, for the unions,” she claimed, attacking the Employment Rights Bill meant to update workers’ rights.
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She also announced that “together we would build something better.”
In her speech, Badenoch insisted that “only the Tory Party can deliver the stronger economy and stronger borders that will give people a more prosperous future,” while claiming Starmer is “utterly useless and weak”.
Her remarks come after her shadow chancellor Mel Stride alarmed fellow Tories by admitting he would raise income tax if he were Rachel Reeves and facing a huge fiscal black hole in the government’s finances.
He said this would be “the cleanest thing to do”, because hiking VAT would be inflationary.
His comments sparked immediate backlash from fellow Tories – including from Tory peer David Frost and shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, who could not hide his astonishment at Stride’s comments yesterday.
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Stride also pledged to save £47bn a year, by cutting welfare, civil service and foreign aid.
This policy blitz comes after a quiet period from the Tories, who – ever since Badenoch was appointed as leader last November – have refrained from unveiling any substantial plans for government, until now.
Over the last week, Badenoch has also vowed to cut the civil service to 2016 numbers, promised to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, deport 150,000 illegal migrants each year, and repeal the Climate Change Act.
In his keynote speech at the Tory conference in Manchester, Jenrick joked about her ongoing unpopularity with voters.
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Truss lasted just 49 days in Downing Street after her mini-Budget crashed the economy and sent mortgage rates soaring.
Jenrick drew a comparison between his party’s former leader and two Tories who were quickly booted out of the Big Brother house.
He said: ”[Former Conservative MP] Sir Michael Fabricant went on the Big Brother house. He lasted four days.
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“Last week, one of our party’s most energetic campaigners, Emily Hewertson, entered the Big Brother house. She lasted 11 hours. She didn’t even get to spend the night.
“And now I’ve heard that a third Tory blonde is in negotiations to enter the Big Brother house – Liz Truss. But the negotiations have broken down. She’s asking to be paid by the minute.”
As the audience laughed at their former leader’s expense, Jenrick said: “Too soon, perhaps. Too soon.”
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His jibe came after he told the conference earlier this week that the mini-Budget had been “cack-handed and un-conservative”.
“There were big mistakes from that period,” Jenrick said. “We have to be honest about that, and in doing so, we can begin to rebuild the public’s trust.”
Truss hit back on X: “Rob is a self-styled critic of the Blairite establishment but has completely failed to take on their false narrative about 2022 or mention the role of the Bank of England.
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“Until the Conservative Party is honest about what happened in 2022, they are destined to remain at 16 per cent in the polls.”
Though you might think extreme fatigue, regular headaches, and even unintentional weight loss are nothing out of the ordinary, both a GP and a cancer doctor have previously told HuffPost UK they could signal deeper health issues.
They can reveal everything from anaemia to more serious conditions. The key is to get them checked out to be on the safe side, the experts advised.
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And now, cardiologist and scientist Dr Ernst von Schwarz has shared the four signs he’d always see a doctor about, no matter how innocuous you might believe them to be.
These are:
1) Pressure in your chest
“Chest pressure or pain is always suspicious of a lack of oxygen in the heart,” the doctor told us.
Per the NHS, sudden pressure, “squeezing”, or even burning sensations in your chest are worth calling 999 over as they could be a sign of a heart attack.
Even if the pressure or pain comes and goes rather than arriving suddenly, you should still speak to your GP.
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2) Shortness of breath when you’re not being active
It’s normal for your breathing to get a little heavy after a jog or in your spin class. But if your breath is laboured when you’re sitting down or doing minimal movement, Dr von Schwartz said that could be a red flag.
“Shortness of breath can have a multitude of causes, from heart failure to ischemia to pulmonary issues such as asthma, COPD or pneumonia, vascular issues such as pulmonary emboli, [or] intoxication, anxiety, and panic attacks, among others,” he shared.
3) Fainting
This is always worth getting checked out, the cardiologist told us.
It can also be “a result of orthostatic dysregulation [low blood pressure after going from sitting or lying down to standing], as in POTS, or [a] lack of oxygen in the brain caused by very low or very high heart rates”.
The NHS said that though it’s likely not serious, you should always see a GP if you’ve fainted.
Per the NHS, these can last seconds or minutes. But Dr von Schwartz said he’d see a GP if they pass the five-second mark.
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That’s because “palpitations can be caused by harmless extra beats or short atrial runs, but also by potential life-threatening ventricular tachycardia,” he said.
Definitely see your doctor if palpitations keep coming back, if they last longer than a few minutes, or if you have a heart condition or a family history of heart conditions.
Several countries have now said they will pull out of Eurovision unless Israel is banned, but during a new interview, chancellor Friedrich Merz made it clear he supports the opposite view.
Asked by German broadcaster ARD if he’d back calls to boycott Eurovision in the event that Israel is not allowed to return, Merz responded: “I would support this. I think it’s a scandal that this is even being discussed. Israel has a place there.”
It’s worth pointing out that Germany is one of Eurovision’s “Big Five” countries, meaning they contribute the most financially, and are therefore allowed to pass straight through to the final each year without taking part in earlier stages of the contest.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
via Associated Press
The other countries in the “Big Five” are the UK, France, Italy and Spain, the latter of which has already said it will not return to Eurovision in 2026 if Israel is allowed to compete again.
Official discussions among competing Eurovision broadcasters about Israel’s involvement were first held over the summer, though no consensus was reached at that time.
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Around this period, it was reported by Israel’s N12 News that the national broadcasters for Germany and Italy had threatened to pull out of Eurovision if Israel is not permitted to return to the event in 2026.
Responding to these rumours, a spokesperson from Germany’s Südwestrundfunk (SWR) told HuffPost UK in July: “The Eurovision Song Contest is a major musical event that has brought people across Europe and beyond together for decades – diverse and respectful, regardless of origin, religion, or belief.
“The ESC is a music competition organised by EBU broadcasters, not governments. The Israeli broadcaster KAN adheres to applicable regulations and has been an integral part of the music competition for more than 60 years. We affirm their membership and the core values of the ESC.”
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Germany’s culture minister Wolfram Weimer previously issued a statement of his own condemning calls to boycott the event next year should Israel remain part of it.
“Eurovision was founded to bring nations together through music. Excluding Israel today goes against this fundamental idea and turns a celebration of understanding between peoples into a tribunal,” he said in a statement.
“It’s precisely because Eurovision was born on the ruins of war that it should not become a scene of exclusion. Eurovision is based on the principle that artists are judged on their art and not on their nationality. The culture of cancellation is not the solution — the solution is diversity and cohesion.”
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Austrian singer JJ is the reigning Eurovision Song Contest champion, with next year’s event due to take place in Vienna following his win
via Associated Press
A Eurovision spokesperson previously told HuffPost UK: “We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. We are still consulting with all EBU Members to gather views on how we manage participation and geopolitical tensions around the Song Contest.
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“Broadcasters have until mid-December to confirm if they wish to take part in next year’s event in Vienna. It is up to each Member to decide if they want to take part in the Contest and we would respect any decision broadcasters make.”
So you’d best believe I’m a regular peruser of Reddit’s r/todayilearned (TIL), where netizens share the mildly interesting scraps of trivia they, well… learned, today.
This species, Agaricus bisporum, increases in flavour and deepens in colour as it ages. Button is the mildest and palest variety: its very subtle taste may have made it the most popular kind on our shelves.
People were as surprised as I was to learn the info
Replying to the original post, Redditor u/diabloman8890 joked that the pale, creamy version we’re all used to counts as “Teenage mutant inbred mushrooms”.
“One mutation in 192[6] and now it’s the default, nature’s marketing win,” u/bebleich marvelled.
But u/Preeng was a little less impressed, commenting: “And nothing new since then? Not a blue one or a red one? Lame.”
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Ultimately, though, as u/DConstructed pointed out, ”[Once] you cook them, they’re all brown anyway.”
Dutch comedian Eline Van der Velden, the head of AI production studio Particle6, which developed Tilly, said she wants the AI character to be the next Scarlett Johansson.
But not if the rest of Hollywood has its way.
After Van der Velden announced what she calls “the world’s first artificial intelligence talent studio” at a film festival and said Tilly had talent agents hoping to sign her, this news of potential representation sparked widespread Hollywood backlash.
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Multiple actors’ unions havereleased statements condemning Tilly. Actors have also accused Tilly’s makers of stealing real people’s images to make the AI-generated character.
“And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her?” actor Mara Wilson posted on social media. One Nashville-based musician even claims that Tilly is her doppelganger.
The company behind Tilly denies that the character was created with stolen images.
“Tilly was developed entirely from scratch using original creative design,” Particle6 said in a statement to HuffPost. “We do not and will not use any person or performer’s likeness without explicit consent and fair compensation.”
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After outcry, Van der Velden said Tilly was “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art” in a social media statement.
But no matter how original or creative you believe Tilly to be, she is definitely drawing from tired old tropes about women and raising unsettling implications for real working people, AI experts caution. Here’s what you need to know.
Tilly reinforces more of the same tired beauty standards for women
Tilly Norwood is not real, but the AI character is causing a real debate over how women’s images get used. Above are images from Tilly’s Instagram account.
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For one, Tilly replicates a narrow idea of what generative AI thinks a woman should look like.
In a Washington Post investigation of three of the leading AI image tools, the Post found that generative AI thinks beautiful women should look thin, young and white – which is exactly how Tilly looks.
Particle6 did not answer HuffPost’s questions about Tilly’s appearance.
What we see on social media – including the accounts set up for Tilly on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram – might have long-term effects on how people view their own real bodies.
Safiya Noble, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of the book Algorithms of Oppression, said Tilly is a continuation of the kind of distortions that social media photo filters cause people.
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“Those distortions, even though they are seemingly unreal, they circulate so much in our culture that then are celebrated and … liked and hearted,” Noble said. “And that certainly has a psychological and emotional toll on us.“
A 2022 study on Instagram found that browsing how other people looked on the popular social media platform was linked to “detrimental outcomes” around body dissatisfaction in young women.
Tilly’s obedience might be the most unsettling part about “her”
Above all, Tilly reveals a lot about how corporations value women’s work.
Alexandra Mateescu, a researcher with Data & Society’s Labor Futures program, said what she found most interesting and unsettling about Tilly’s existence came from a line in a Particle6 video where she appears in her first role.
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In an AI-generated comedy sketch from Particle6, Tilly gets cast to be in a TV show. A man then states, “She’ll do anything I say; I’m already in love.”
That line suggests “this vision of this feminine, docile, cute, young actress who won’t talk back or complain about working conditions or anything,” Mateescu said.
That’s why, for Mateescu, her biggest worry with Tilly is “more about these kinds of marketing exercises being used as a cudgel, particularly for actors at the bottom of film industry hierarchies, to discourage them from demanding better working conditions under this threat of potentially being replaced”.
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Mateescu said she has seen this power dynamic in other creative industries, like modelling. She recently co-authored a paper on how generative AI is making it easier for companies to use a model’s image and measurements and alter them without a model’s knowledge or compensation.
In her research, “people at the top of the industry, both photographers and top models, they could view AI as this creative tool in their arsenal to be able to enhance their creative practices,” Mateescu said. But struggling models doing profit-driven e-commerce catalogs were more negatively impacted. “And I think that’s sort of the same pattern we see across industries.”
In this sense, Tilly might represent a bigger existential threat to vulnerable, newer actors who do not have the same power and networks as A-list stars.
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In Noble’s view, Tilly’s existence normalises “controlling women’s images” and the idea that it’s OK to “make women do what we want them to do. That culture is prevalent all around us”.
Avoiding “AI personhood” might be the best way to deal with Tilly
Tilly is not real, but it’s normal if you’re confused over what to call her. That might be by design.
Noble pointed to the character saying, “I may be AI generated, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now” in a post appearing on her Facebook page as an example of the kind of misrepresentation this AI-generated actor perpetuates.
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“The more kind of anthropomorphised they are, the more misleading and deceptive they are to the public,” Noble said. “This is why these technologies are so incredibly dangerous.”
One way to resist is to be more careful about how you talk about AI-generated projects like Tilly.
Instead of seeing Tilly as an “actor,” as her profile describes her, or as the next Scarlett Johansson, as her creator hopes her to be, experts suggest you should see her for what she really is – a marketing product.
That’s why Noble suggests against calling Tilly art and instead categorising Tilly as the latest example of low-quality, spam-like “AI slop”.
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And try to avoid referring to Tilly as an actor. “We should call it ‘it,’” Noble said. “We should talk about it like a machine learning model.”
“The notion of AI personhood is a marketing exercise and a legal manoeuvre that I don’t think we should buy into,” Matreescu said. “Tilly is not an actress any more than, like, Sid the sloth from the ‘Ice Age’ movies is an actor. It’s just a digital likeness.”
The number of delegates attending key events at the Conservative Party conference seems to be depressingly low, judging by photos of the main hall.
It’s the party’s first annual gathering since Kemi Badenoch won the leadership contest last November and the atmosphere appears to be particularly flat.
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While it’s not too surprising – considering the Tories’ historic loss at the 2024 general election and how they are currently polling at just 16% according to YouGov – it’s a bleak reminder of just how much has changed for the party who were in government only 15 months ago.
Sky News’ Amanda Akass noted that it was “not exactly a packed hall” for the shadow chancellor Mel Stride’s speech today – and attached a photo of a room which appeared to be about two-thirds empty.
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GB News also said it was the “quietest” Tory conference seen in the last nine years in an interview with Stride – although he tried to pass this year’s gathering off as a “turning point” for the party.
Ellie Costello asks the Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride, whether the poor attendance at the Conservative Party conference is a sign that the Tories are ‘dying’.
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Ellie Costello asks the Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride, whether the poor attendance at the Conservative Party conference is a sign that the Tories are ‘dying’.
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Naturally, Labour took a pop too, comparing Stride’s claim that the Tories are the “party of hope” and “the party of the future” to the small audience size…
The Home Office announced on Sunday that it would be granting police forces new powers to put conditions on repeat demonstrations.
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That means if a protest has taken place at the same site for weeks on end and caused “repeated disorder”, officers could force organisers to hold the event elsewhere.
The Home Office said anyone who breaches these conditions risk arrest and prosecution.
It comes after the Met Police arrested nearly 500 people at protest against the proscription of the Palestine Action group in London on Saturday.
The march went ahead despite calls from the government and the police for the protests to be postponed out of respect for Thursday’s deadly synagogue attack in Manchester where two people were killed.
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Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said current legislation is also being reviewed to make sure it is being applied fully.
Mahmood said: “The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear.”
She added: “Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes.
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“This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days.”
Speaking on LBC, the home secretary defended the new measures and insisted it was a good use of police time.
She said: “I have no truck with this argument that suggest that police resources are better deployed elsewhere, enabling mass criminality by people who have a political point to make.”
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LBC presenter Lewis Goodall said that human rights organisations are starting to accuse Britain of “showing authoritarian tendency” by arresting people for doing nothing more than “holding up placard”.
She replied: “What Britain is doing is making sure the law of our land is maintained.
“It is not ‘holding up a placard’, and I really must pick you up on that, Lewis, in holding up a placard, you are breaking the law because you are supporting a proscribed organisation.”
Shabana Mahmood denies that the government is showing signs of ‘authoritarianism’ as they continue to clamp down on peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/FzByKvbPVb
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Shabana Mahmood denies that the government is showing signs of ‘authoritarianism’ as they continue to clamp down on peaceful protest. pic.twitter.com/FzByKvbPVb
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, who used to be Labour leader, described the crackdown as a “disgraceful assault on the right to protest”.
Many other critics compared it to the Conservatives’ enhancement of police powers during their time in office, and claimed Labour were “giving the incoming Reform government everything they could wish for”.
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I can’t possibly see this being misused! Zero chance that people who don’t like pro Palestine protests will see their own causes affected! There’s no chance whatsoever that the government could seek to clamp down on protests on domestic issues! https://t.co/23w7Eh1T48
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I can’t possibly see this being misused! Zero chance that people who don’t like pro Palestine protests will see their own causes affected! There’s no chance whatsoever that the government could seek to clamp down on protests on domestic issues! https://t.co/23w7Eh1T48
Remember – the restrictions on free speech that you support for those who you disagree with, will one day be used to restrict your free speech. https://t.co/fZS41KCCd3
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Remember – the restrictions on free speech that you support for those who you disagree with, will one day be used to restrict your free speech. https://t.co/fZS41KCCd3
The right to protest is what defines us as a democratic society. Protests, though sometimes inconvenient or disruptive, are a fundamental right of British citizens. There will be times when we disagree with a cause or how it is expressed, but enforcing laws that restrict protest… https://t.co/Lc2Y40F700
","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Rebecca Ferguson MBE","author_url":"https://twitter.com/RebeccaFMusic","cache_age":86400,"description":"The right to protest is what defines us as a democratic society. Protests, though sometimes inconvenient or disruptive, are a fundamental right of British citizens. There will be times when we disagree with a cause or how it is expressed, but enforcing laws that restrict protest… https://t.co/Lc2Y40F700— Rebecca Ferguson MBE (@RebeccaFMusic) October 5, 2025\n\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Rebecca Ferguson MBE on Twitter / X","type":"rich","url":"https://twitter.com/RebeccaFMusic/status/1974787468005195953","version":"1.0"},"flags":[],"enhancements":{},"fullBleed":false,"options":{"theme":"news","device":"desktop","editionInfo":{"id":"uk","name":"U.K.","link":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk","locale":"en_GB"},"originalEdition":"uk","isMapi":false,"isAmp":false,"isMobile":false,"isAdsFree":false,"isVideoEntry":false,"isEntry":true,"isMt":false,"entryId":"68e243d9e4b0d3ae4b89ff22","entryPermalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-accused-of-being-worse-than-tories-amid-new-protest-clampdown_uk_68e243d9e4b0d3ae4b89ff22","entryTagsList":"lbc,shabana-mahmood","sectionSlug":"politics","deptSlug":null,"sectionRedirectUrl":null,"subcategories":"","isWide":false,"isShopping":false,"headerOverride":null,"noVideoAds":false,"disableFloat":false,"isNative":false,"commercialVideo":{"provider":"custom","site_and_category":"uk.politics","package":null},"isHighline":false,"vidibleConfigValues":{"cid":"60afc140cf94592c45d7390c","disabledWithMapiEntries":false,"overrides":{"all":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4"},"whitelisted":["56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439","56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529","570278d2e4b070ff77b98217","57027b4be4b070ff77b98d5c","56fe95c4e4b0041c4242016b","570279cfe4b06d08e3629954","5ba9e8821c2e65639162ccf1","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e","5b35266b158f855373e28256","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2","60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","60b64354b171b7444beaff4d","60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","60d0de02b627221e9d819408"],"playlists":{"default":"57bc306888d2ff1a7f6b5579","news":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","politics":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","entertainment":"56c6e7f2e4b0983aa64c60fc","tech":"56c6f70ae4b043c5bdcaebf9","parents":"56cc65c2e4b0239099455b42","lifestyle":"56cc66a9e4b01f81ef94e98c"},"playerUpdates":{"56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439":"60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b":"60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529":"60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced":"60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e":"60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2":"60d0de02b627221e9d819408"}},"connatixConfigValues":{"defaultPlayer":"16b0ecc6-802c-4120-845f-e90629812c4d","clickToPlayPlayer":"823ac03a-0f7e-4bcb-8521-a5b091ae948d","videoPagePlayer":"05041ada-93f7-4e86-9208-e03a5b19311b","defaultPlaylist":"2e062669-71b4-41df-b17a-df6b1616bc8f"},"topConnatixThumnbailSrc":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mNkYAAAAAYAAjCB0C8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","customAmpComponents":[],"ampAssetsUrl":"https://amp.assets.huffpost.com","videoTraits":null,"positionInUnitCounts":{"buzz_head":{"count":0},"buzz_body":{"count":0},"buzz_bottom":{"count":0}},"positionInSubUnitCounts":{"article_body":{"count":9},"blog_summary":{"count":0},"before_you_go_content":{"count":0}},"connatixCountsHelper":{"count":0},"buzzfeedTracking":{"context_page_id":"68e243d9e4b0d3ae4b89ff22","context_page_type":"buzz","destination":"huffpost","mode":"desktop","page_edition":"en-uk"},"tags":[{"name":"LBC","slug":"lbc","links":{"relativeLink":"news/lbc","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/lbc","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/lbc"},"relegenceId":3547103,"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/lbc/"},{"name":"shabana mahmood","slug":"shabana-mahmood","links":{"relativeLink":"news/shabana-mahmood","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/shabana-mahmood","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/shabana-mahmood"},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/shabana-mahmood/"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"backfillRelatedArticles":[],"cetUnit":"buzz_body","enableIncontentPlayer":false,"bodyAds":["
The right to protest is what defines us as a democratic society. Protests, though sometimes inconvenient or disruptive, are a fundamental right of British citizens. There will be times when we disagree with a cause or how it is expressed, but enforcing laws that restrict protest… https://t.co/Lc2Y40F700
But, speaking on the first day of the Conservatives’ annual conference in Manchester, Badenoch tried to downplay criticism that she needed to do more to help her party.
The BBC’s Kuenssberg tried to bring up the topic by saying: “While you have been working out exactly what you wanted to do, the Conservative Party’s position – which was already dreadful – has got worse –”
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But Badenoch cut in: “Laura. Polls are not elections.
“If I had rushed out and said all those things right at the beginning, people would have said, ‘Why should we believe you? Why have you suddenly changed?’
“Simply saying something doesn’t mean you’re going to be fine in the polls.
“What you’re saying is a counterfactual. You don’t know that if I had rushed out all of those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well. You have no idea.
“What I’m doing is being very consistent. I’m saying, vote for me, we will get through this, we’re going to have very clear credible plans, they’re not going to fall apart the minute someone asks a question like you get with Reform.”
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During the same interview, Badenoch did actually refuse to many detailed questions about her new plan to control the country’s borders by removing 150,000 people with “no right” to be in the UK per year.
When Kuenssberg asked where these so-called illegal migrants would be deported, the Tory leader said: “I am tired of answering these irrelevant questions about where they should go. They will go back to where they should be or another country, but they should not be here!”
The MP for North West Essex also used her time on air to lay into Labour, claiming: “We’re not going to waste our time in opposition – like Labour did, they had 14 years in opposition, and they’ve got nothing.”
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But the Tory leader has been heavily criticised herself for taking such a long time to come up with many firm policies, despite winning the leadership contest last November.
Kuenssberg concluded their interview by asking Badenoch: “What if the problem is you?”
She replied: “I was elected to do exactly what I am doing now. And I think Conservative Party members are going to keep their faith in me.”
She refused to say she would resign if the Tories performed poorly in the May local elections.
🚨🎥 WATCH: Kemi Badenoch hits back at claims her slow policy rollout hurt the Tories’ polling
\"What you’re saying is counterfactual. You don’t know that if I had rushed out all those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well, you have no idea\" pic.twitter.com/pBt6Wr1vpy
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You don’t know that if I had rushed out all those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well, you have no idea\" pic.twitter.com/pBt6Wr1vpy— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) October 5, 2025\n\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":614,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1974761474930212864/img/SzAX8EQuHwWKDK9Y.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":1108,"title":"Politics UK on Twitter / 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🚨🎥 WATCH: Kemi Badenoch hits back at claims her slow policy rollout hurt the Tories’ polling
“What you’re saying is counterfactual. You don’t know that if I had rushed out all those things right at the beginning that we would be doing well, you have no idea” pic.twitter.com/pBt6Wr1vpy
