Category Archives: conservative party

Grant Shapps Fails To Float Anyone’s Boat With Bewildering New Pledge: ‘None The Wiser’

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Grant Shapps’s latest efforts to promote his government have turned into a bit of a shipwreck, judging from the online reaction.

The defence secretary was on the broadcast round this morning to discuss the “new golden age of British shipbuilding”.

He announced that the UK would be building 28 new ships and submarines for the Royal Navy, including “up to six new warships”.

But eagle-eyed critics on X (formerly Twitter) were quick to notice that Shapps was curiously inconsistent around the details.

For instance, the pledge sounded quite similar to another, relatively recent promise from the Conservatives – Boris Johnson’s famous vow to build up to 40 new hospitals.

Just last year, a review from parliament’s Public Accounts Committee concluded that it had “no confidence” the government would ever deliver on this promise.

People were also completely mystified over exactly how many ships were included in this promise.

Shapps said the government was looking to build 28 ships – but then changed it to “up to 28”.

Many critics also picked up on Shapps’s confusing conflation of the six ships the government promised to build two years ago and his current pledge.

He told journalists that the Tories had the “desire to” build these boats two years ago – but did not have the “means”.

He claimed that now the UK’s defence spending has increased, the government does have the means – and so will finally be following through on this two-year-old pledge.

So…how many is the government actually building? Social media seemed to decide it was anybody’s guess.

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Mishal Husain Slams Tories’ ‘Economic Competence’ In Spat With Jeremy Hunt

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Mishal Husain did not let Jeremy Hunt boast about the UK’s economic growth today and reminded him of the disasters the country has faced under the Tories.

While the chancellor was celebrating the news from the ONS that the UK is officially out of recession, the Today programme host kicked off the interview by saying: “It’s not a strong recovery is it?

“Some people would call it anaemic. You’re not calling it strong are you?

“That’s not what it is. The economy has barely grown over the last two years.”

Hunt claimed over the last quarter, the UK had the joint-highest growth in the G7– and then blamed slow growth on the Bank of England’s high interest rates.

Husain hit back: “You’re portraying yourself as the people in whose hands the economy is safe, and yet many voters, particularly those who are perhaps finding themselves re-mortgaging this month on higher rates and seeing the facts that fixed rate mortgage deals have been edging up – and others – will be remembering what happened under Liz Truss and that mini-budget.

“And they’ll say: ‘How can you possibly, after the events of the last two and half years, portray yourself as the party of economy competence?’”

Sunak’s predecessor unveiled £45bn of unfunded tax cuts in her mini-budget in 2022, causing the pound to plummet.

“Well, there were some mistakes that were made in that mini-budget and we corrected them within weeks,” the chancellor said.

He also pointed to the energy shock triggered by the Ukraine war and said it was “just wrong” to attribute all price rises to the mini-budget.

“But, it wasn’t economically competent, was it, to do that?” Husain pushed. “And do you accept that it’s fair for voters to go into the next election, remembering that happened under the Conservatives?”

Hunt said the “overall picture” shows that the UK has grown faster than France, Germany, Italy and Japan since the Conservatives took over in 2010.

He also pointed to the IMF’s predictions that the UK would continue to grow faster over the next six years.

He failed to mention that the think tank OECD predicted last week the UK would be the second slowest-growing economy in 2024, and the slowest in 2025.

Hunt maintained that voters support the Conservative Party because “they trust us to take tough and difficult decisions in the long-term interest of the economy”.

“You’re asking us to ignore Liz Truss, aren’t you? To say Liz Truss never happened,” Husain said – which Hunt denied.

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Sophy Ridge Skewers Minister With 1 Gut-Punching Point About Ex-Tory MP’s Defection To Labour

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Sky News’ Sophy Ridge made a very good point when asking a government minister about Natalie Elphicke’s recent defection to Labour.

The ex-Tory MP dramatically crossed the floor yesterday and released a statement accusing Rishi Sunak of “failing to keep our borders safe”.

Elphicke was seen to be on the right of the Conservative Party and has repeatedly shared her hardline views about illegal immigration – while regularly criticising Labour’s own policies on immigration.

Last night, science secretary Michelle Donelan said her defection to Labour over immigration was therefore “completely and utterly nonsensical”.

“That’s the thing though isn’t it,” Ridge replied. “How bad does she think your plan is? She must think it’s really bad.”

“I don’t think that’s about our plan at all,” Donelan said.

Ridge replied: “Well it is, that’s what she said it’s about – that she doesn’t trust Rishi [Sunak] to deliver on illegal immigration.

“She doesn’t think Labour’s plan is great, but she thinks yours is even worse.”

The miniter said it was more about Elphicke’s judgement and that government’s plan was already getting illegal immigration down by a third.

The Sky News host said: “Sorry, illegal immigration is down by a third? What stats are those?”

When the minister explained she was talking about the boat crossings, Ridge cut across and said: “Currently, it’s at record levels.”

“Yeah but we haven’t finished the year – I meant annually,” Donelan replied.

“At this point in the year, it’s at record levels of small boat crossings. It’s not down by a third,” Ridge said.

The minister then blamed the figures on the delay in passing the Rwanda bill through parliament.

She also said the new act was already working as a deterrent as Ireland have been complaining that more refugees are arriving from the UK.

But Ridge replied: “I’m happy to say it’s a deterrent when we have evidence it’s a deterrent. Right now, it’s a deterrent for people already in the UK. Which I’m guessing, is not what you’re aiming for.”

Donelan continually tried to say the government has a “multi-prong strategy” but the Sky News host repeatedly reminded her: “It hasn’t worked!”

“Just having a plan isn’t enough,” Ridge reminded her.

Explaining how she empathises with Britons’ frustration over the issue, Donelan said: “I always view it as one of our values, fairness.

“It’s inherent in our values – we literally invented the queue.

“It’s downright unfair that illegal immigrants think they can bypass our systems and come here after having been in a safe country, and that’s what we are determined to stop.”

Actually, academics previously told The Times that is a “mistaken idea” that Brits invented the queue.

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Rishi Sunak’s ‘Hung Parliament’ Prediction In Tatters As Labour Takes 30-Point Poll Lead

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Labour has taken a 30-point opinion poll lead over the Tories – just days after Rishi Sunak said the UK was heading for a hung parliament.

YouGov put support for Keir Starmer’s party on 48%, with the Conservatives on just 18%.

Reform UK are just five points behind the Tories on 13%, with the Lib Dems on 9% and the Greens on 7%.

It is the biggest lead Labour has enjoyed since Liz Truss’s disastrous time as prime minister.

The poll is yet another hammer blow for Sunak, who is still reeling from Natalie Elphicke’s shock defection to Labour yesterday.

Earlier this week, the PM said last week’s local elections – in which the Tories lost nearly 500 council seats – “suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party”.

But according to the Electoral Calculus website, Labour would have a 452-seat majority if the YouGov poll was replicated at the general election, with the Tories left with just 13 seats.

Announcing his decision on X (formerly Twitter) he said: “The time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to fight for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon.”

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Susanna Reid Skewers Calls For Boris Johnson’s Return To Government With 1 Stark Reminder

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Susanna Reid effortlessly demolished calls for Boris Johnson to return to frontline politics on Tuesday by reminding his supporters about nothing other than partygate.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, former Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman said he would install Johnson as party chairman with a seat in cabinet, and make sure he got elected to parliament at the next general election.

He claimed: “He’s a great campaigner and we really are missing that now – we’ve seen that at these disastrous local elections.”

“You remember partygate?” Reid interjected.

Johnson actually stepped down as an MP days before the Commons privileges committee was set to announce he deliberately misled parliament over partygate when prime minister.

But, Campbell Bannerman said the ex-PM was “set up” on that, as Johnson’s keen ally Nadine Dorries claims in her book, The Plot.

Reid said: “Sorry, he was set up? Set up by whom?”

When the ex-MEP said it was Johnson’s own staff who were setting him up, Reid reminded him: “Boris Johnson was in charge during lockdown, [there was] legislation he introduced and [he] then proceeded to have a whole load of social events and breach of rules in No.10 Downing Street.

“In what way was that a set-up?”

Campbell Bannerman claimed Johnson “doesn’t like partying” to which Reid said: “I just saw him with a wine glass in his hand!”

When the ex-MEP just claimed the reality is very complex, Reid recalled how Johnson was fined for breaching lockdown rules.

Campbell Bannerman then claimed that “it was the media”, and said that Johnson was only a few percentage points behind in the polls – and that he does not understand why he resigned as an MP.

“I think he will be back,” Campbell Bannerman said.

Apparently not deterred by Reid’s reminders, the ex-MEP later added: “I say to Conservative MPs, for heaven’s sake, step up, get rid of Sunak, let’s have a new leader, which can bring Boris back as part of a team – it has to be Suella [Braverman] or Kemi [Badenoch].”

He added that he “would not be averse” to having Nigel Farage back into the Conservative fold, too.

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Rishi Sunak Has Admitted Labour Are On Course To Win The General Election

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Labour are on course to win the general election, Rishi Sunak has admitted.

In extraordinary remarks, the prime minister said they will be “the largest party” after the country goes to the polls.

However, he insisted an analysis of last week’s local elections, in which the Tories lost nearly 500 seats, showed Keir Starmer will not win a majority and will need to be “propped up by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens”.

That was a reference to a projection by the polling expert Michael Thrasher, who said the local elections suggest Labour’s lead over the Conservatives is just seven points, well short of what opinion polls have been saying for months.

If that was repeated at the general election, it would leave Starmer short of an overall majority, Thrasher said.

Speaking to The Times, Sunak said: “These results suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party.

“Keir Starmer propped up in Downing Street by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Greens would be a disaster for Britain.

“The country doesn’t need more political horse trading, but action. We are the only party that has a plan to deliver on the priorities of the people.”

However, other polling experts pointed out that Thrasher’s forecast was based on the assumption that Scotland – where there were no local elections last week – would vote the same way it did in 2019, when Labour won just one seat.

A senior Labour source told HuffPost UK: “That Sunak has put his name to this bollocks is utterly demeaning. He really is a totally empty vessel.”

A former Tory minister said: “It’s a stupid line because he’s essentially telling people to vote Labour to kick us out.”

Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips yesterday accused transport secretary Mark Harper of “grabbing at straws” after he also claimed the local election results showed the opinion polls “are not correct”.

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‘Grabbing At Straws!’ Trevor Phillips Calls Out Minister For Spin On Local Elections Disaster

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Trevor Phillips called out transport secretary Mark Harper for his bizarrely optimistic take on the Tories’ terrible performance in the local elections.

The Conservatives lost almost 500 councillors, along with 10 police and crime commissioners.

The governing party also has just one metro mayor now after voters in England and Wales went to the ballot box on Thursday.

But, overlooking these devastating losses, Harper seemed to focus on just one piece of analysis in his interview – Sky News’ forecast that the next general election will result in a hung parliament.

He told the broadcaster: “That means Keir Starmer is not on course to win a majority, and that is before an election campaign where Labour’s lack of policy will come under scrutiny.

“So what that shows me is very clear: the polls are not correct, there is everything to fight for, and the Conservative Party under the prime minister’s leadership is absolutely up for that fight.”

That same projection from Sky still shows the Tories losing 130 seats.

Sky News host Phillips said: “This is grabbing at straws a bit – you actually took a whacking.”

“I was very clear – these are disappointing results,” Harper replied. “The point is, what they demonstrate from that scenario is that Labour’s not on course for that majority, Keir Starmer hasn’t sealed the deal with the public.

“So that means there is a fight to be had, the prime minister is up for that fight, I’m up for that fight and I know the Conservatives are up for it.”

“I’m wondering if you’ve really got to grips with the scale of this,” Phillips said. “On Thursday, you won fewer council seats than Labour. And more importantly, you won fewer council seats than the Liberal Democrats.”

Labour now have 1,140 councillors in England, the Liberal Democrats 521 and the Conservatives 513.

The presenter said: “I know these are local elections so you can’t translate completely, but is it morally right that what is now the third most popular party is now squatting in Downing Street?”

“I don’t accept that analysis at all,” the cabinet minister replied.

“The Liberal Democrats beat you,” Phillips reminded him.

“No they didn’t,” Harper insisted. “If you look at the national equivalent vote share, that’s not correct.”

He said local elections are “always difficult” for the party in government, and that the results of the next general election “are not pre-determined”.

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Kwasi Kwarteng Lashes Out At Liz Truss Over His ‘Trumpian’ Sacking

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Liz Truss’s spurned former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has taken aim at the ex-PM for sacking him in a “kind of Trumpian” manner.

Truss appointed Kwarteng as her chancellor as soon as she was elected – but she gave him the boot just 43 days later, blaming him for the chaos of their mini-budget of £45m of unfunded tax cuts.

Not that this decision saved the ex-PM’s skin. Six days after that, Truss was forced to resign herself and had to to hand the reins over to her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak.

Still, more than a year later, Kwarteng has said his rapid departure from government was “one of the things that I feel bad about” because Truss reacted so quickly to the pressure to remove him.

Speaking to the One Decision podcast, Kwarteng compared his sacking to the way ex-US president Donald Trump famously fired his own members of staff while in the White House.

He explained that he was returning from a meeting in Washington with the International Monetary Fund when he scrolled through social media – and saw messages about his own future in politics.

He said: “I was sacked, essentially on Twitter. So, kind of Trumpian.”

Kwarteng continued: “I was due back on the Saturday morning, and I came back on the Friday morning and I was driven to Downing Street and I was essentially sacked.

“But on the way to Downing Street, I could see on Twitter, I think it was Steve Swinford of the Times had said… ‘The chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, sacked’ [or] ‘was sacked’ or ‘has been sacked’ – I don’t know what tense it was but the message was clear.”

The ex-chancellor said his meeting with the then prime minister after that was “definitive”.

While Truss did not actually tweet that she was going to fire Kwarteng before she announced it to him (like Trump), the ex-chancellor did still find out via social media.

The two were close allies, having both entered parliament as new Tory MPs in 2010 and rising through the ranks of government together.

It seems they were destined to leave government together, too – as Kwarteng told the podcast, “it was obvious to me that once I’d been sacked it was over for her”.

The ex-chancellor has mostly avoided the spotlight since then, and has announced he will be stepping down as an MP at the next general election.

Truss, meanwhile, has been focused on appealing to a more right-wing audience, reforming her image and promoting her new book Ten Years To Save The West.

She has also endorsed Trump to be the next US president.

Both have refused to take responsibility for the chaos of their mini-budget, suggesting it was more the speed at which they introduced the reforms rather than the reforms themselves.

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How Tory Mayors Are Pretending Not To Be Tories In A Desperate Bid To Avoid Defeat

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Tory mayors have distanced themselves from their party and Rishi Sunak in a desperate attempt to get re-elected.

Ben Houchen and Andy Street face major fights to hang onto their jobs when voters go to the polls in Tees Valley and the West Midlands.

With the Conservatives trailing well behind Labour in the national opinion polls, both men have gone out of their way to avoid admitting they are actually Tories.

Street’s website has no Tory branding and is mainly coloured green rather than the traditional Conservative blue.

Meanwhile, his 300-word biography contains no mention at all of the party he represents.

Andy Street's website has no Tory bradfing.
Andy Street’s website has no Tory bradfing.

Andy Street

Houchen’s website does describe him as “the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley”, but during his election campaign he has at times gone out of his way to play down his party affiliation.

In a video posted on Facebook, he said: “I’m less interested in national politics, I am the mayor of Tees Valley. My priority is always the people of Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.”

And campaign leaflets put through doors in his area also fail to mention the party he represents.

A Ben Houchen campaign leaflet.
A Ben Houchen campaign leaflet.

Ben Houchen

In a further snub for Sunak, both Street and Houchen were happy to receive the endorsement of Boris Johnson rather than the PM yesterday.

Johnson sent a letter to voters in the West Midlands urging them to vote for Street, while he also recorded a video for Houchen.

A Labour source told HuffPost UK: “Rishi Sunak chickened out of calling a general election and now his mayoral candidates are too scared to even acknowledge him.

“It seems they’ve concluded the only way they can win is to distance themselves from the failed Tory Party and pretend they’ve never heard of their beleaguered prime minister.”

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Fresh Headache For Sunak As Polls Predict A Labour Mayor Will Be Elected On His Doorstep

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New polling suggests there could soon be a Labour mayor elected to the combined authority which Rishi Sunak’s own constituency sits in.

According to research from left-leaning Labour Together think tank, those who have already decided how they will be voting in Thursday’s York and North Yorkshire mayoral election are backing Keir Starmer’s party.

Labour’s David Skaith is on 41 points in the polls compared to the Tories’ Keane Duncan, who lags behind on 27 points.

The poll, conducted between April 26 and 30, also found 23% of the local electorate did not intend to vote, while 22% remain undecided.

This is the first time a mayor will be elected for the combined authority, which encompasses Sunak’s Richmond constituency.

It is one of the many eagerly anticipated local elections taking place this week.

Although a relatively small proportion of the population will be casting votes for their local authorities, it is a good way to measure the public’s attitudes towards Westminster parties ahead of the general election.

And it’s already looking pretty bleak for the Tories.

Of the eight constituencies in York and North Yorkshire, Labour only holds two right now including former Tory safe seat Selby, which was secured in a by-election last year.

The area is still seen as a Conservative stronghold, but it seems this could all start to shift with this week’s local elections.

Director of research at Labour Together, Christabel Cooper, said: “After a 21% swing toward the party in Selby and Ainsty last summer, our polling shows that Labour is competitive everywhere, including in Rishi Sunak’s backyard in North Yorkshire.

“A win here would indicate a terrible night for Prime Minister.”

Labour are on course to secure a further three seats in the area from the Tories, according to projections.

Sunak has held the seat comfortably since being elected in 2015, winning a majority of 19,550 in 2019.

But, a mega-poll conducted by Survation MRP for Best for Britain concluded in March that the PM’s lead in his seat will drop to be less than 2.5% over Labour – and that’s including the expected margin of error seen in most polls.

The same research suggested the Tories will win fewer than 100 seats in the next general election, if the Conservative share of the vote is translated into MPs.

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