A BBC Question Time audience member has let rip at Britain’s political class – claiming it is so “incompetent” the two main parties “couldn’t run a whelk stall”.
This week’s show, which came from King’s Lynn in Norfolk, came against the backdrop of more partygate revelations, a backlash to Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list and tensions over the Covid-19 public inquiry.
One question – what could the Tories could do to turn around their fortunes and win at the general election next year – prompted a diatribe from one member of the audience, who appeared dissatisfied with the way the country is being run regardless of who is charge.
He said: “We’ve heard it all before from both of you, from both parties. You’re absolutely incompetent. Those that are not incompetent and corrupt.
“I have no idea why any of us bothered to vote for any of you. You couldn’t run a whelk stall, let alone the country. Either of you.
“And all you can do is bat off each other and not make any sense whatsoever. Stay behind afterwards. Both of you. Have a word from me, I’ll give you some home truths.“
He added: “I’m sick to death of you. The only person who went in parliament with good intentions was Guy Fawkes.”
Both Conservative Lee Rowley and Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth – on the panel – agreed to meet the man afterwards to discuss his concerns. He claimed the recent local elections was the first time he has not voted.
The Conservative Party has to undergo “another period of modernisation if it’s going to survive”, the frontrunner in the race to be its candidate for London mayor has warned.
Samuel Kasumu, a former aide to Boris Johnson, said he was the only Tory in the contest who was able to reach out to a city as cosmopolitan as the capital.
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In an interview with HuffPost UK, the 35-year-old also called on the party to have a “much more nuanced conversation about immigration”.
His comments will be viewed as a swipe at home secretary Suella Braverman, who has been criticised for saying the UK faces an “invasion” of immigrants.
Labour’s Sadiq Khan is hoping to win a third term as London’s mayor in May next year.
His Conservative rival will be chosen by party members from a shortlist of three on July 19.
Kasumu is up against technology minister Paul Scully, veteran London Assembly member Andrew Boff and David Cameron’s former deputy head of policy, Daniel Korski.
Kasumu – currently a councillor in Welwyn Hatfield – quit Downing Street in April 2021 amid a row over the government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, which was branded a “whitewash” by some anti-racism campaigners.
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He said the party had to “appeal to folks you might not even be ideologically aligned with” if it wanted to win.
“The first thing you have to say is, London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world,” he said.
“How do you reach all these groups? I think I am best place to do that. There are probably only two or three people in the whole Conservative movement who are able to do that.
“I’m the only one who is going to make the shortlist who can do that job.”
He added: “The Conservative Party is going to have to undergo another period of modernisation if it’s going to survive.
“Even if you shut the borders today, there are an increasing number of people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and in London specifically, nearly half the population were born outside the country.”
Rishi Sunak has made stopping asylum seekers crossing the Channel one of his five pledges to voters amid concerns that the government has lost control of the immigration system.
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Braverman has also come in for severe criticism over the language she has used when talking about the issue.
“I can’t tell the home secretary what to say or how to articulate that,” Kasumu said. “But I think we need to have a much more honest conversation about immigration… a much more nuanced conversation about the subject.
“Most people are quite sensible about immigration. They recognise that immigrants can and will continue to play a role in allowing us to function as a society.”
Sadiq Khan is hoping to win a third term as mayor.
Aaron Chown – PA Images via Getty Images
Kasumu also warned Sunak that time was running out for him to set out his vision of the kind of country he wants to build.
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The prime minister set out his five pledges to voters in January – stopping the boats, halving inflation, cutting waiting lists, growing the economy and reducing the national debt.
But Kasumu said: “If I’m advising the prime minister – which I’m not anymore – I would say, I get it, five pledges, you need to demonstrate competence, you need to earn the right to be heard again.
“It’s a bit like what I’m saying in London, you’ve got he earn the right to be heard and then at some point, sooner rather than later, we need to have a very clear vision about what the next iteration of a Rishi Sunak premiership could look like.”
“They don’t have a lot of time,” he added. “We have got party conference after the summer. Maybe that’s the time to start to articulate what a Rishi Sunak vision looks like.”
Just as the national polls show Labour ahead, the Conservatives are fighting an even stepper uphill battle in London, with a YouGov poll in April suggesting Labour holds a 40-point lead in the capital.
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But Kasumu said: “If we win in London then all bets are off.”
Ann Widdecombe has told poor families they shouldn’t expect to be able to have a cheese sandwich if they don’t have the money.
The former Tory MP said hard-pressed families should not “do the cheese sandwich” on a BBC politics show discussing the cost-of-living crisis.
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Widdecombe is a former Strictly Come Dancing contestant who has also represented the Brexit Party in the European parliament, and now backs the Reform Party.
The cost of a homemade cheese sandwich rose by one-third to 40p last year, BBC research suggests.
Politics Live presenter Jo Coburn asked: “What do you say to consumers who literally can’t afford to pay for even some of the basics if they have gone up the way that cheese sandwich has, with all its ingredients?”
She replied: “Well then you don’t do the cheese sandwich … because we have been decades without inflation we have come to regard it as some sort of given right that our food doesn’t go up.”
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In response, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said: “How out of touch can you get? Anne Widdecombe joins a long line of right-wing politicians who pin the blame on hard-working families for this government’s failures.”
The latest inflation figures from Which? show the cost of British food staples such as cheddar cheese, white bread and porridge oats have soared on a year ago.
Overall inflation on food and drink at supermarkets continued to rise in March to 17.2%, up from 16.5% the month before, the watchdog found.
Cheddar cheese prices increased by an average 28.3% across eight major supermarkets compared to a year ago.
UK inflation remained above 10% in March – far higher than in the US and Europe – with food prices pushing the benchmark up.
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Her comment echo the sentiments of Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who attracted criticism for suggesting that people in the UK use food banks because they “cannot cook properly” and “cannot budget”.
Conservatives brought a jumble of ideas to a three-day gathering in London – with one MP warning of the perils of “Marxism, narcissism and paganism” during a bizarre few hours.
As Labour leader Keir Starmer mocked the Tories for “holding a series of mad hatters’ tea parties” in the aftermath of their local elections drubbing, the National Conservatism conference opened in London – with high-profile Conservative Party figures in attendance.
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The meeting brought together right-wing politicians, journalists and thinkers to discuss the potential of “national conservatism” to provide a path towards renewal for the party.
The conference is a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation, a “public affairs institute” based in Washington DC which has held conferences across Europe and America since 2019 to promote the ideas of national conservatism.
“The unexamined drive towards multiculturalism” is a “recipe for communal disaster”.
Home secretary Suella Braverman was arguably the “star” turn. Despite being in charge of the UK’s immigration policy, she took a number of swings at the UK’s immigration policy.
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She deployed her own background as the daughter of migrants to argue it’s “not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders”.
The cabinet minister also argued that “you cannot have immigration without integration” and “the unexamined drive towards multiculturalism” is a “recipe for communal disaster”.
Braverman said that people who come to the UK “must not commit crimes”, “need to learn English and understand British social norms” and “cannot simply turn up and say: ‘I live here now, you have to look after me’”.
Young radicalised by “Marxism, narcissism and paganism”
Tory backbencher Danny Kruger blamed the country’s problems on the “new religion” of “progressive liberalism” – which is a mix of “Marxism, narcissism and paganism” and is causing a “radicalisation of a generation”. He even hit out at the “dystopian fantasy of John Lennon”.
Tory MP Danny Kruger tells NatCon that Western civilisation is threatened by a “new religion”, a mix of “Marxism, narcissism and paganism”, conforming to the “dystopian fantasy of John Lennon”
Multiple speakers decried the impact of “wokeism” on British society, particularly Katharine Birbalsingh, who was once dubbed “Britain’s strictest headteacher”.
She urged conservative parents to take their children out of schools that were “too woke”, and criticised private schools for being even more “woke” than their state-funded counterparts.
In a speech that included lines from the film Gladiator, Birbalsingh bemoaned children “leading” schools, attacked private schools for being more “woke” than state providers, and claimed children at some schools are allowed to wear ears and tails because they “identify as cats”.
Katharine Birbalsingh tells NatCon that Whitney Houston was right to sing the children are our future — but wrong about them leading the way
“The celebration of ‘me’ in 1986 was the precursor to the ‘me, me, me’ culture in 2023”
“Woke” teaching is “destroying our children’s souls”
Tory MP Miriam Cates identified falling birth rates as the “overarching threat” to UK and western society.
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She also said society had ceased to value children and parenthood properly: “You cannot be socially liberal and economically conservative. If you think that government and society should have nothing to say about the conditions that promote strong families, don’t be surprised if you end up with a high-tax, high-spend economy, with a nation of broken people dependent on the state.”
The Conservative MP faced criticism for hitting out at “cultural Marxism”. John Mann, the government’s antisemitism tsar, said the term has its origins in a “conspiracy theory with anti-Semitism at its core”.
Keir Starmer has declared that “the NHS trumps woke” as he slammed the Tories for focusing on culture wars rather than public services.
The Labour leader will on Tuesday address his shadow cabinet for the first time since last week’s local elections, in which they gained more than 500 councillors and take control of 22 more local authorities.
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At the same time, the Tories lost more than 1,000 seats and 48 councils on a disastrous night for Rishi Sunak.
However, polling experts said that if the results were replicated across the country at a general election, Labour would fall short of winning an overall majority.
Starmer will tell his frontbench colleagues that while the party has “started to earn back voters’ trust” after Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, it still has more to do to convince the public that it deserves to be in government.
He will say: “The local elections showed that the country was desperate for change.
“The fact that Labour won in all parts of the country was a sign of the strides we have made. People who turned away from us during the Corbyn years and the Brexit years are coming back.
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“But there is understandably a lot of scepticism about politics out there and now we need to go from reassurance to hope. We need to show that we will be a big reforming government bringing hope of a better life for working people.”
Starmer believes the Tories made a strategic blunder in believing that so-called “woke” issues like the trans debate were more important to voters than the cost of living crisis and the state of the NHS.
He will say: “Labour’s plan to rebuild the NHS will be at the heart of our offer to the British people. The Tories are doing too little, too late to repair the damage they have done to the NHS.
“The NHS trumps ‘woke’ every day of the week.”
His comments echo the views of many Tories, who have criticised the “non-existent” campaign by the party’s HQ.
One told HuffPost UK: “Nobody cares about all of the culture war stuff – what they really want is the potholes to be fixed.”
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One local Conservative association chair also wrote to colleagues saying the local election results were “not a reflection on us, it was part of the national picture”.
The Metropolitan Police Service has faced criticism after more than 50 people were arrested for alleged affray, public nuisance and breach-of-the-peace offences.
The arrests were described by human rights organisations as a “dangerous precedent” for a democratic nation.
In a statement following his release, Smith said: “Yesterday, as we prepared for a peaceful and lawful protest, a number of Republic’s team were arrested and detained for the rest of the day.
“These arrests are a direct attack on our democracy and the fundamental rights of every person in the country.
A policeman is seen carrying a banner taken away from protesters during an Anti-monarchist protest during King Charles III’s Coronation.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
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“Each and every police officer involved on the ground should hang their heads in shame. They showed no judgement, no common sense and no basic decency.
“This was a heavy handed action which had the appearance of a pre-determined arrest that would have occurred regardless of the evidence or our actions.
“The right to protest peacefully in the UK no longer exists. Instead we have a freedom to protest that is contingent on political decisions made by ministers and senior police officers.”
Smith said the arrests had “destroyed” whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Met Police.
He questioned what was the point in the protesters being “open and candid with the police, working with their liaison officers and meeting senior commanders” if this is what happens.
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A protester holds a placard which states ‘This country is ours’ during the demonstration.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
The campaigner insisted they would not be deterred from further protest, adding: “We will continue to protest with one simple message: Charles is not our king, it is time to abolish the monarchy.”
However, culture secretary Lucy Frazer insisted the police got the “balance right” and denied that officers had gone too far.
She told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge: “I think, overall, they managed to get that balance right.”
Home secretary Suella Braverman also praised the police for their actions, tweeting: “I’m incredibly grateful to the police for all their hard work at today’s coronation celebration to ensure it was safe and passed without incident.”
Met Police commander Karen Findlay acknowledged concerns about the arrest of protesters but defended Scotland Yard’s actions, saying: “Our duty is to do so in a proportionate manner”.
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Protestors from the group Republic gather in their hundreds in Trafalgar square to say ‘Not My King’ in central London.
Andrew Aitchison via Getty Images
She said: “We absolutely understand public concern following the arrests we made [on Saturday morning].
“Protest is lawful and it can be disruptive. We have policed numerous protests without intervention in the build-up to the coronation, and during it.
“Our duty is to do so in a proportionate manner in line with relevant legislation. We also have a duty to intervene when protest becomes criminal and may cause serious disruption.
“This depends on the context. The coronation is a once in a generation event and that is a key consideration in our assessment.
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“A protest involving large numbers has gone ahead today with police knowledge and no intervention.”
The Met said it received information that protesters were “determined to disrupt” the coronation – including defacing public monuments with paint, breaching barriers and disrupting official movements.
They confirmed 52 people were arrested for affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance around the coronation.
Under the controversial new Public Order Act, protesters who have an object with the intention of using it to “lock on” are liable to a fine, with those who block roads facing 12 months in prison.
Twitter users were quick to point out the irony of the hardline MP’s comments given he has previously railed against “cancel culture”.
One person commented: “Telling people who don’t agree with you to leave the country is about as ‘cancel culture’ as it gets.”
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Jonathan Harris, a Lib Dem councillor in West Northamptonshire, tweeted: “30 p Lee – Idiot on display. You took the rights away for British people to live and work across the EU, and forget that great democracies are built on and absolutely allow the right to peaceful protest.”
Another described him as being a “liability” when being “this ludicrous” while one drily commented: “If you are leaving your country because you oppose its political system, Mr Anderson will, I’m sure, follow that logic and be the first to welcome you when you arrive at Dover.”
One pointed out: “Deputy chair of the Conservative party rejects freedom of speech.”
Meanwhile, one Twitter user told him: “I think you’re forgetting that the people protesting are the people of this country, they deserve to be able to freely express what they want for their country without being arrested.”
Ah. So once again you show that free speech is only speech you agree with?
— ((Paul Goldsmith)) (@PaulGoldsmith73) May 6, 2023
However, some did back Anderson’s view including fellow Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake who wrote: “Quite right Lee Anderson – time and a place for everything. Wrong time, wrong place.”
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The Metropolitan Police Service has faced criticism after more than 50 people were arrested for alleged affray, public nuisance and breach-of-the-peace offences.
The arrests were described by human rights organisations as a “dangerous precedent” for a democratic nation.
It is not the first time Anderson has proved controversial, having previously called for the return of the death penalty and claiming people on Universal Credit were not in poverty.
Anderson is a former coal miner who was a Labour councillor in Ashfield before he defected to the Conservative Party in 2018 and went on to serve as a Tory councillor in Mansfield.
He has been dubbed “30p Lee” for claiming that meals could be prepared for that sum and suggesting people using food banks could not budget.
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He recently clashed with Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley over the force’s handling of protests, telling him to “leave his ivory tower” to deal with demonstrators in Westminster.
Under the controversial new Public Order Act, protesters who have an object with the intention of using it to “lock on” are liable to a fine, with those who block roads facing 12 months in prison.
Labour’s Wes Streeting has insisted they are “not entertaining” the prospect of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
The shadow health secretary said he did not think it is the “scenario” the country will be in at the next general election.
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However, he did not rule out a coalition with the Lib Dems when repeatedly pressed on the possibility in an interview with Sky’s Sophy Ridge.
In separate interview Lib Dem leader Ed Davey explicitly ruled out working with the Tories but did not rule out a coalition with Labour.
Last week’s council results point to a hung parliament at the next general election. They suggest Labour would be the largest party, but short of a majority.
Former prime minister David Cameron and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg outside 10 Downing Street in London, on May 12, 2010.
AFP via Getty Images
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It could be similar to the situation the Tories found themselves in in 2010 when they formed a coalition government with the Lib Dems.
Asked whether Labour would be prepared to go into coalition with the Lib Dems, Streeting said: “We’re not even entertaining that prospect…
“I just don’t think that is the scenario that we are going to be in after the next general election.”
Asked a third time about local election results pointing towards a hung parliament, he said: “This is a process, not an event. We’re not at the final destination yet in terms of the general election.”
Put to him that he was not ruling it out, he gave examples of why “we shouldn’t read the local elections right across”.
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He said: “Take Hull, where I saw through gritted teeth the Liberal Democrats did rather well.
“I heard the Lib Dem leader of Hull council the other night saying ‘well, look, locally, people have voted Lib Dem but at the general election people in this city vote Labour’.”
He added: “We’re not complacent about this and there’s so much more still to come.”
When leader Lib Dem leader Davey was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show about a coalition with Labour, he said: “That is a hypothetical question because we don’t know what’s going to happen after the next election.”
Put to him that he was ruling out working with the Tories but not Labour, said: “The focus is on getting rid of Conservative MPs. I make no apology for that.”
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His deputy leader Daisy Cooper similarly did not rule out a coalition with Labour when challenged.
She told Sky they had “ruled out” working with the Conservatives because of the “damage they are doing to the country”.
But pressed on a coalition with Labour, she replied: “Everything we do between now and the general election will be about focusing on getting Liberal Democrat MPs elected.”
Thursday’s results were disastrous for the Tories who lost some 1,050 seats and control of nearly 50 councils.
It means Labour is now the largest party of local government – overtaking the Conservatives for the first time since 2002.
Labour is defying its critics by continuing to publish advertisements attacking the Tories despite a backlash even from one of its own MPs.
On Friday, a fresh post on Twitter suggested the Conservative Party is weak on firearms offences.
Using the same format as the heavily-criticised first poster, it asks: “Do you think an adult convicted of possessing a gun with intent to harm should go to prison?”
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Before answering, “Rishi Sunak doesn’t”, and adding Sunak’s signature.
It includes the statistic: “Under the Tories 937 adults convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to harm served no prison time. Labour will lock up dangerous gunmen.”
Judges and magistrates, rather than the prime minister of the day, are responsible for handing out sentences and the figures Labour highlighted cover the period since 2010 – Sunak only entered parliament in 2015 and did not become prime minister until October last year.
The first poster – which was variously described as “gutter politics”, “idiotic” and “a new low in British political attack ads” – suggested Sunak did not support the jailing of child sex offenders.
The tweet has come in for a wave of criticism from across the political spectrum, including from former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who said: “We are better than this.”
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In an excruciating interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell repeatedly refused to say she personally supported the tweet.
HuffPost UK has reported the party was planning to step up its attacks – despite the furore – after holding talks with political allies in America and Australia over how to take the fight to the Conservatives in the run-up to the next election.
Labour was accused of a “vile and desperate” campaign strategy by Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson and “cheapened and debased” politics by SNP MP John Nicolson after posting the advert on Twitter.
A senior MP has accused the Tories of conducting a “witch hunt” against him after his appeal to have the party whip restored was turned down.
Julian Knight said he should be welcomed back into the Conservative fold after being cleared by police of a sexual assault allegation.
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But government chief whip Simon Hart rejected his appeal after “further complaints” were made against him.
“These complaints, if appropriate, will be referred to the relevant police force, or appropriate bodies,” Hart said.
Knight, who has been MP for Solihull since 2015, hit back: “This statement from the chief whip smacks of [a] desperate attempt to cover up the identities and motives of those in parliament who colluded for many months to bring the false allegation against me to the police.
“The police have confirmed today that there is no evidence to support that allegation and closed their investigation. They did not even need to interview me to do so.
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“Yet the whips office now seems intent on continuing a witch hunt against me in an attempt to prevent my naming names.”
Knight, who is chairman of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, recused himself from parliament last December.
Earlier this afternoon he hit out at the Tory whips for publicly naming him when the first allegation against him was made.
He said: “Their actions meant my name was dragged through the mud and my good reputation immeasurably damaged.
“The conduct of one person in the whips office, and the language used towards me, was particularly egregious.”
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Knight also took aim at the police for the way they handled their investigation into him.
“Had the police taken the simple step at outset of interviewing me under caution, they would have seen that the allegation was false and scandalous,” he said.
“Instead, they waited four months, without ever talking to me, before deciding there was nothing for them to investigate.
“I have been left effectively to prove my innocence through my public statements and letters to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the chief whip. That cannot be right.
“It is now my intention to use every legal route available to pursue those inside and outside parliament involved in having this allegation brought against me.”
