As Liz Truss’s plan to save £8.8bn by paying civil servants less outside London and the south east provoked a furious Tory backlash, her team pressed the panic button.
In the preamble to the inevitable screeching U-turn, a spokesperson for Truss told journalists: “Over the last few hours there has been a wilful misrepresentation of our campaign.”
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This was, alas, copper-bottomed nonsense.
The press release issued yesterday by the Truss campaign announcing the policy makes it crystal clear that replacing national pay bargaining with “regional pay boards” would mean smaller salaries for those in less-affluent areas.
It said: “This will make it easier to adjust officials’ pay, ensuring it accurately reflects where they work and stops the crowding out of local businesses that can not compete with public sector pay.”
And in case anyone was in any doubt that this new policy would apply to the likes of nurses, teachers and the police as well, the release explained: “This could save up to £8.8 billion per year. This is the potential savings if the system were to be adopted for all public sector workers in the long term.”
Unsurprisingly, this went down badly with Red Wall Tories like Ben Houchen, the party’s mayor in Tees Valley, who said: “There is simply no way you can do this without a massive pay cut for 5.5m people including nurses, police officers and our armed forces outside London.”
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Experiencing the first serious mis-step of her leadership campaign, Truss later recorded a TV clip insisting that while her policy had been “misrepresented”, she was going to abandon it completely.
She said: “I never had any intention of changing the terms and conditions of teachers and nurses.
“But what I want to be clear about is I will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards. That is no longer my policy.”
Rishi Sunak’s campaign, who have been on the back foot throughout the contest, wasted no time in taking advantage of their rival’s humiliation.
Pointing out that Truss had supported regional pay boards four years ago when she was chief secretary to the Treasury (CST), a source on Team Rishi said: “This wasn’t a mistake, Liz wanted this in 2018 as CST. The lady is for turning.”
That last sentence, echoing a famous line in one of Margaret Thatcher’s party conference speeches, was designed to twist the knife.
It’s far too early to say Truss’s mistake means the outcome of the leadership contest is back in the balance. She remains the clear favourite to succeed Boris Johnson.
But she’ll know better than anyone that any further slip-ups could be fatal to her hopes of entering Number 10.
TalkTV’s Piers Morgan and BBC presenter Huw Edwards are among the latest UK politicians and journalists to be banned from Russia.
The Russian foreign ministry issued a list of 39 newly sanctioned individuals it said are no longer allowed to enter the Russian Federation.
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It said the action was in response to UK sanctions issued against Russian ministers, officials and members of influential families linked to the Kremlin following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian foreign ministry claimed those individuals sanctioned have contributed to “London’s hostile course aimed at the demonisation of our country and its international isolation”.
Other than Morgan and Edwards, journalists including ITV’s Robert Peston and head of Sky News, John Ryley, are also listed alongside reporters at various outlets.
Morgan, writing on Twitter, said: “It wasn’t on my immediate vacation to-do list.”
Edwards tweeted: “Huw’ve been banned! I made the Kremlin cut (39/39).”
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Former prime minister David Cameron is the first name on the list, followed by Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former Nato secretary-general, while Labour leader Keir Starmer and shadow cabinet ministers Lisa Nandy, David Lammy and Nick Thomas-Symonds also feature.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Scottish government economy secretary Kate Forbes and transport minister Wendy Morton, previously in the foreign office, are also among those included.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement: “As has been noted more than once, the pernicious actions of the UK in planting Russophobia, spreading false information about our country and supporting the Kyiv neo-Nazi regime will receive an adequate and decisive response from the Russian side.
“The choice in favour of confrontation is a conscious decision of the British political establishment, which bears all responsibility for the consequences.”
The statement also said it will continue work to expand the list.
Earlier this year, Russia said it was taking action against 287 MPs in retaliation for sanctions against Russian politicians.
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But the list included several former MPs.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said in April that MPs should regard their inclusion on the list as a “badge of honour”.
Nadine Dorries is not running to be Tory leader. But her presence on the campaign trail has been arguably more attention-grabbing than either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.
The culture secretary and uber Boris Johnson loyalist, who is backing Truss in the race to succeed him, has deployed something of a scorched earth policy when it comes to taking revenge on Sunak.
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Here are some of the highlights of her involvement in race so far.
1. Admits poor Covid planning
In June, Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in Johnson’s leadership of the party. The PM won, but the writing was on the wall as 41 per cent of the paerliamentary party voted to boot him from office.
Jeremy Hunt, who Johnson beat to the leadership in 2019, revealed he would vote against the PM in the first vote.
3/4 Your pandemic preparation during six years as health secretary was found wanting and inadequate.Your duplicity right now in destabilising the party and country to serve your own personal ambition, more so.
On July 6, cabinet ministers gathered in No.10 to tell Johnson the game was up and he had to resign. Nadhim Zahawi, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel and Brandon Lewis were among the delegation.
The prime minister learned what was waiting while giving evidence to a committee of senior MPs live on TV.
Dorries was also spotted heading into Downing Street. But she told reporters she was “definitely” not there to tell Johnson to quit. Instead she headed in to argue against the delegation’s demands.
3. Gets Zahawi’s job wrong
As cabinet ministers resigned from Johnson’s government, Dorries stood firm. But it took her three attempts to congratulate Nadhim Zahawi who had just been appointed as the new chancellor.
She tweeted support for Zahawi when he was appointed chancellor – but congratulated him on being made health secretary. Praising his ability to “achieve against the odds”, she noted: “He will deliver for health in the same way he delivered for vaccines and education.”
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This message was quickly deleted and replaced. This time, she attached the same photo of Zahawi alongside two photos of Steve Barclay, who really had been appointed as health secretary. This message was then deleted too.
She eventually gave up uploading the photos herself, and instead retweeted the official No.10 account, praising both Barclay and Zahawi for their new appointments.
4. ‘FFS Nadine’
Dorries, who owns £6,000 diamond earrings, launched an attack on Sunak for having expensive shoes and suits compared to Truss’ £4.50 earrings.
.@trussliz will be travelling the country wearing her earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire Accessories. Meanwhile…
Rishi visits Teeside in Prada shoes worth £450 and sported £3,500 bespoke suit as he prepared for crunch leadership vote. https://t.co/1VO4xLwQ66
Tory colleague Angela Richardson MP respond: “FFS Nadine! Muted.” The row led veterans minister Johnny Mercer, who attends cabinet, to despair that the contest was “embarrassing”.
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5. Tweets stabbing picture
Dorries later said she “may have gone over the top” with the attack on Sunak’s clothes.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Dorries described Sunak as an “assassin” for helping to bring down Johnson, and a “dog in the manger” for not supporting the PM enough.
Business minister Greg Hands condemned Dorries’ actions as “distasteful” and “dangerous” in the wake of the killing of Southend West Tory MP Sir David Amess at a constituency surgery in Essex last October.
Ministers have called on Liz Truss to “disown” attacks on Rishi Sunak by Nadine Dorries.
The culture secretary, a supporter of Truss’s leadership bid, mounted a fresh attack as she made a half-hearted apology for previous comments about his expensive clothes.
She also shared a doctored image on Twitter showing Rishi Sunak stabbing Boris Johnson in the back.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she described Sunak as an “assassin” for helping to bring down Boris Johnson, and a “dog in the manger” for not supporting the prime minister enough when he was chancellor.
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She said she “may have gone over the top” when she criticised Sunak for wearing £450 Prada shoes and a £3,500 bespoke suit.
“I wanted to highlight Rishi’s misguided sartorial style in order to alert Tory members not to be taken in by appearances in the way that happened to many of us who served with the chancellor in cabinet,” she said.
“The assassin’s gleaming smile, his gentle voice and even his diminutive stature had many of us well and truly fooled.”
She later retweeted an image showing Sunak as Brutus stabbing Johnson as Julius Caesar in the back.
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Business minister Greg Hands condemned Dorries’ actions as “distasteful” and “dangerous” in the wake of the killing of Southend West Tory MP Sir David Amess at a constituency surgery in Essex last October.
The MP, who is supporting Sunak’s campaign, told Sky News: “I’m sure Liz Truss would disown this kind of behaviour.
“I think this is appalling.
“Look, it’s not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David Amess at his Southend constituency surgery, so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even”.
Welsh secretary Sir Robert Buckland, another Sunak supporter, also denounced Dorries’ behaviour.
“I think that sort of imagery and narrative is not just incendiary, it’s wrong,” he told BBC Radio Wales.
“I think it’s time for those who think that an argument about Prada shoes or earrings is more important, for instance, should wind their neck in and let people talk about the issues rather than the personality”.
He added: “Nadine is well known as having strong views on things. Nadine speaks for herself, she’s very much an individual on that. But that is not a position that Liz would take”.
Liz Truss’s campaign have been contacted for comment.
Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie have celebrated the first anniversary of their wedding with a lavish party in the grounds of a multi-millionaire Tory donor.
A giant white marquee was erected at 18th-century Daylesford House in the Cotswolds, which is owned by Lord Bamford, to host the celebrations.
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The outgoing prime minister’s supporters, including Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, were rewarded for their loyalty with invitations to the big-money bash.
Johnson’s 81-year-old father Stanley and his sister Rachel were also in attendance, as was Australian actor Holly Valance.
Other political allies joining the festivities included Tory peer Lord Goldsmith and former cabinet minister John Whittingdale.
Liz Truss, who is favourite to succeed Johnson as PM, was unable to attend due to the Tory leadership campaign.
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Speaking in Bromley, Kent, she defended his decision to hold the party at a time when so many people in the country are struggling with the cost of living crisis.
She said: “I think he’s entitled to enjoy his wedding day, and I wish the best to him and Carrie and all the family.”
Stanley Johnson arrives at Daylesford House.
Beresford Hodge – PA Images via Getty Images
Guests were able to relax on hay bales and benches placed outside the marquee and eat and drink at casks and small tables as they enjoyed views across vast meadows and orchards.
The Johnsons had originally been planning to throw their wedding party at the Prime Minister’s official country residence, Chequers, in Buckinghamshire.
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But that plan was ditched following a huge political backlash.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and wife Carrie arriving for the official welcome ceremony during the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, in the Bavarian Alps, Germany. Picture date: Sunday June 26, 2022.
Stefan Rousseau via PA Wire/PA Images
The couple married in a low-key private ceremony at Westminster Cathedral last year, organised in secret, in front of a small group of family and friends.
This was followed by a reception in the gardens of 10 Downing Street with a limited number of guests due to coronavirus restrictions.
It is understood that billionaire Lord Bamford, chairman of construction equipment manufacturer JCB, is covering at least some of the cost of the party.
It is not the first time Johnson has benefited from his generosity.
The Tory peer supported his 2019 leadership bid, with the PM knocking down a wall with a JCB digger at the firm’s Staffordshire factory in a stunt to demonstrate he could “get Brexit done”.
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Lord Bamford’s wife, Lady Carole Bamford, set up the upmarket Daylesford Organic Farm, with a chain of shops selling its produce across London.
Johnson reportedly received food from the Daylesford farm shop worth an estimated £12,500 during the pandemic, though Downing Street said he paid for the cost of all food for “personal consumption”.
When asked about the wedding celebrations, No 10 declined to comment on the “private matter”.
A Scottish union leader has quit the Labour party in protest at the sacking of shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Kevin Lindsay, an organiser for the Aslef train drivers’ union in Scotland, said Tarry’s sacking was “a step too far” and a sign the party is “moving to the right and is becoming unrecognisable”.
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Tarry, a shadow minister in the transport team, was sacked on Wednesday evening for a joining striking rail workers on the picket line.
The Labour Party said it had no choice but to sack Tarry because he had also done a round of broadcast interviews without permission of party HQ and had also “made up policy on the hoof”.
In response, Tarry told LBC Radio his sacking was a “catastrophic mistake” and warned that other colleagues could quit in protest.
“I think it’s wrong to state that any Labour politician — whether it be a councillor, whether it be an MP, whether it be a shadow minister — shouldn’t be showing solidarity,” he said.
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“If it isn’t tackled properly, there’s going to be a real danger that it won’t just be me that’s sacked, I think you’ll see dozens and dozens of shadow ministers sacked across the whole country.” Speaking to Times Radio, he called Starmer’s decision to ban his team from joining the picket line a “catastrophic mistake.”
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, described the sacking as “another insult to the trade union movement” while Mick Lynch, the head of the RMT union, accused Starmer of “playing up to the agenda of Liz Truss and the right wing press”.
In a letter to the party confirming his resignation, Lindsay wrote: “The Labour Party was and is meant to be the political wing of the trade union movement but now it’s more interested in trying woo Tory voters in the shires of England than representing working people.
“As a democrat, I respect that Keir Starmer has been elected the leader but I truly believe his performance and policies are making it impossible for the Labour Party to return to power and that he should be removed from his position immediately.
“There needs to be a change in leadership and political direction but I sadly can’t see this happening and we will end up with PM Truss for several years.
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“Therefore I have made the decision not only to resign from the Labour Party but now also support the proposal for Aslef to disaffiliate from the party.”
Grant Shapps has insisted he will never sit down with the RMT to end the rail strikes.
The transport secretary said it was a “red herring” to suggest he should get involved in the negotiations.
Around 40,000 RMT members have staged another walkout today in a dispute over proposed changes to working conditions, job cuts and pay.
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The union and Labour have called on ministers to get round the table to thrash out a deal to end the industrial action bringing misery to millions of commuters.
But speaking to Sky News, Shapps said: “They don’t need to speak to ministers because their employers are the people who have the mandate to negotiate this, they are the people who they can resolve this with, so this is just them trying to distract attention.”
He added: “It’s not a question of washing my hands, it’s just that I’m not the right person to be in the room negotiating.
“I’m not the right person to discuss, for example, the maintenance schedules of individual groups of workers in situations where they have to send out an entire roster to do a job that may just require one or two people.
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“There simply is no reason for the unions to be speaking to anybody other than the employers.”
Asked if he would get involved at any stage, Shapps said: “It’s a no. This is a game by the unions – it’s a complete red herring as well and it’s simply not how strikes are resolved. It can only ever be the employer – in this case Network Rail and the train operating companies – and the union.”
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “Grant Shapps has the power to settle this dispute, so it is utterly shameful he is refusing to do his job and enter talks to end this disruption.
“The Transport secretary has spent more time on his own doomed leadership bid, than he has resolving these strikes.
“This hapless Conservative government is so mired in scandal and chaos, they refuse to do the job they’re paid for and sort this dispute out.”
Labour today said the bitter Tory leadership race was providing them with a “wealth of material” ahead of the next election.
Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, said they would “fulsomely” take advantage of the Tories “trashing their own record”.
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She described both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss as “continuity Johnson” and said she was “happy” to face either at the next general election.
The MP for Birmingham Ladywood said she will be able to tell voters on the doorstep to just listen to the Tories criticising their own record.
In an exclusive interview with HuffPost UK, Mahmood said: “They are giving us a wealth of material, we are obviously using some now and we’ll have plans for more later as the contest progresses and as we gear up for the next general election – whenever that might be.
“We would prefer an earlier election because Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are proving every day that they are just more of the same.
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“Neither has the answers that the country needs to move forward post-pandemic, neither has the answers on the economy.
“They are just brutally exposing – not just each other – but 12 years of Tory government that has led us to this moment.
“As far as we’re concerned bring on an early general election. As soon as this contest is done they should seek a fresh mandate.”
The vicious battle for No.10 has even prompted Tory grandees to warn the Conservatives they risk being called the “nasty party” again and losing the next election.
“I’ll be able to say to people on the doorstep ‘you don’t have to take my word for it anymore folks just listen to them’. The trashing of their own record, I think that you’d expect us to take advantage of that which we will be doing so fulsomely.”
– Shabana Mahmood
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Earlier in the contest Truss and Sunak pulled out of a Sky News debate amid concerns about the damage they were doing to the party’s reputation, forcing the other candidates to follow suit.
But, despite warnings, the unedifying public slanging match has continued between the final candidates and their campaign teams.
Asked if she thought Tory infighting would help Labour win the next election, Mahmood said: “We’re going to be ready for that election whenever it comes.”
However, she said it was on the Labour Party to persuade the public to switch their votes and that they had to show the public they had “changed” and had the answers on the economy and cost of living crisis.
“The Tories are doing an even better job of trashing their own record than we could do or get a hearing on,” she added.
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“They’re taking primetime broadcast slots to tear lumps out of each other.”
Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner, leader Keir Starmer and national campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmood.
JUSTIN TALLIS via Getty Images
Mahmood said the “vicious infighting” brought back memories of some of Labour’s rowing in recent years.
But she added: “The public never appreciates it and they never reward it at the polls either.
“The Labour Party learnt that lesson in the hardest of ways in 2019, we don’t propose to go there again.”
Mahmood said just pointing to the Tories would not be enough and they did not take the electorate for fools: “We know we’ve got to win their trust back.”
She said Labour was earning the right to be heard again, adding: “It’s on us to seal the deal with the electorate.”
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All your bills going up and up and up.
Taxes rising to the highest level in 70 years.
The worst economic crisis for a generation.
Not our words.
The words of those running to be the next Tory leader.
Lord Fowler, who served under Margaret Thatcher and is now a crossbench peer, described Monday night’s BBC debate as “a bad night for the Conservatives”.
He told Times Radio the only people who might have been happy with the outcome would have been the Labour Party, adding: “They’ve got enough clips from that programme to last them through to the next election.”
Yesterday culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who is backing Truss, criticised Sunak for wearing a £3,500 suit and £450 Prada shoes.
Dorries said Truss “will be travelling the country wearing her earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire’s Accessories”.
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The comments prompted veterans minister Johnny Mercer to warn that the party was putting success at the next election in jeopardy.
“The puerile nature of this leadership contest is embarrassing,” he said. “Time to raise the standards.”
The Labour party is already weaponising quotes, viral clips and images from the Tory leadership debates on their social media accounts.
They include a “Tory leadership bingo” card that cites “shaking the magic money tree” and “Thatcherite cosplay”.
They also created an advert in which they spliced together clips of Tory leadership candidates tearing strips off of each other over their record in government.
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“All your bills, every week, every month, they’re going up and up and up,” Sunak says in one part of the video.
“Under your plans, we are predicted to have a recession,” Truss tells Sunak in another clip.
Labour leader Keir Starmer even quoted leadership candidates at Boris Johnson during their final prime minister’s questions.
He said: “She [Liz Truss] also said the former chancellor’s 15 tax rises are leading the country into recession and [Penny Mordaunt] was even more scathing.
“She said ‘our public services are in a desperate state, we can’t continue with what we’ve been doing because it clearly isn’t working’.
“Has the prime minister told her who’s been running our public services for the last 12 years?”
Sunak claimed there is “nothing Conservative” about Truss’s approach to cutting taxes and pumping up borrowing, arguing it would give the party “absolutely no chance” of winning the next election.
Foreign secretary Truss, in turn, suggested her rival would lead the country into a recession and criticised him for increasing taxes to the “highest rate in 70 years”.
During the debate a spokesman for Truss told The Times that Sunak was not fit for office, adding: “His aggressive mansplaining and shouty private school behaviour is desperate, unbecoming and is a gift to Labour.”
Boris Johnson has defended meeting a former KGB agent at an Italian villa without any government officials present.
The prime minister said no official business was discussed “as far as I am aware” when he met Alexander Lebedev in 2018, when he was foreign secretary.
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Johnson admitted the meeting took place while appearing in front of the liaison committee earlier this month.
In a letter to Sir Bernard Jenkin, the committee’s chairman, giving more details on the visit, he said he had been attending a “social event” organised by Evgeny Lebedev at his home in Italy.
At the time, the Lebedevs owned the Evening Standard and the Independent newspapers.
The PM said: “At this social event, I also met Evgeny Lebedev’s father. This was not a formal meeting, nor something that was pre-arranged.”
He said his officials were “aware in advance” about the event and it was not unusual for them not to accompany him.
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He said: “Contrary to some reports, my visit was in line with established security protocols under successive foreign secretaries.
“It would not have been normal practice for civil servants or security staff to have accompanied me to such a private, social occasion. I did not take ministerial papers with me.”
Johnson said if ministers discuss official business with an external organisation or individual without any officials present, they would be expected to inform them afterwards.
“This was not necessary in this case,” he said. “As far as I am aware, no government business was discussed.”
Asked about the allegations in March, he said: “That is simply incorrect. But what I can tell you is, it suits Putin’s agenda to try to characterise this as a struggle between the West and Russia.
“It suits his agenda to say that the UK, that we in Nato countries, are anti-Russia, European countries are now anti-Russian.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Keeping the British people safe should be a priority of government, but this web of murky relationships shows the Conservatives cannot be trusted with our national security.”
Keir Starmer has said he is “pragmatic” about the question of public ownership of rail, energy and water companies, amid confusion over Labour’s stance.
The Labour leader used a speech in Liverpool on Monday to say the priority for the next Labour government would be to “reboot” the economy with a focus on “growth, growth, growth”.
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He was challenged about his view on nationalising utilities after shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves earlier said mass nationalisation was not compatible with the party’s new “fiscal rules” to control public spending.
“I take a pragmatic approach rather than an ideological one, I agree with what Rachel Reeves said this morning,” Starmer said.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Monday, Reeves was asked if the party had abandoned previous plans to nationalise water, energy and train companies if it wins power.
“They were a commitment in a manifesto that secured our worst results since 1935,” she said.
“To be spending billions of pounds on nationalising things, that just doesn’t stack up against our fiscal rules.”
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Reeves added: “We have scrapped the 2019 manifesto. That is not the starting point.”
But a Labour spokesperson later said Reeves’ comments had been misinterpreted.
“We are pragmatic about public ownership as long as it sits within our fiscal rules – a point Rachel was underlining in the interview by referencing this framework,” they said.
“For example, we know there is a positive role for rail in public ownership.”
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh tweeted: “Labour is committed to public ownership of rail and putting the public back in control of our bus network to drive down prices, improve services and meet net zero.”
And shadow transport minister Sam Tarry added: “Just to be absolutely 100% crystal clear – this is the Labour Party position on the public ownership of rail.”
Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 general election manifesto promised to “bring rail, mail, water and energy” and “the broadband-relevant parts of BT” into public ownership.
Starmer has faced accusations from his opponents on the left of the party that he campaigned for the leadership by promising to introduce leftwing policies before shifting to the right after he won.
