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The Partygate scandal was “overblown” and the government should not have fined people for “everyday activities” during lockdown, Kemi Badenoch has argued.
In her first media appearance since winning the Conservative leadership, Ms Badenoch was challenged by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg over what went wrong under her predecessors after promising to be “honest” about where her party had made mistakes.
Meanwhile, in another admission on Sunday morning, the chancellor acknowledged that she was “wrong” to promise no tax rises, blaming the previous Conservative government for hiding a “huge black hole” in the country’s finances.
Rachel Reeves was shown a clip on Sunday morning in which she pledges no tax hikes during the general election campaign – days after she announced an overall increase to the tax burden of £40bn in Wednesday’s Budget.
Speaking to Sky News’s Trevor Phillips, she admitted: “I was wrong on 11 June, I didn’t know everything.”
It comes as Ms Badenoch is preparing her shadow cabinet.
In a resounding victory announced on Saturday, the right-wing culture warrior won 53,806 votes over Robert Jenrick’s 41,000, out of a total electorate of 131,680.
Ms Badenoch’s predecessor Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were among those who congratulated her following the four-month-long race.
Trade union threatens legal action over winter fuel cut
Britain’s largest trade union has threatened legal action over the government’s decision to means-test winter fuel payments.
Around 10 million pensioners will no longer receive the benefit from this winter after the Government decided to restrict payments to people on pension credit in a bid to save money.
Ministers said the move was necessary to help fill a £22 billion “black hole” they claim the previous government left in this year’s spending plans.
But the trade union Unite said it believed the cut to winter fuel payments would have a “terrible effect” on millions of pensioners and demanded the government reverse its decision or face a judicial review.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “People do not understand, I do not understand how a Labour government has taken away the fuel allowance of millions of pensioners just as winter approaches.
“Given the failure to rectify this in the budget, Unite has now commenced judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of the policy.
“It is not too late for Labour to register the hurt that this cruel policy has caused, step back from picking the pockets of pensioners and do the right thing.”
Watch: Rachel Reeves admits she was wrong about public finances during election
Chancellor: I was ‘wrong’ on taxes during election
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she was “wrong” when she said during the election campaign that she would not need to raise taxes, but insisted further increases will not be needed.
During a campaign event on June 11, Ms Reeves said she would not need to raise taxes beyond the increases already set out in the Labour Party’s manifesto.
But delivering her first Budget on Wednesday, she announced £40 billion of tax rises, including increases to employers’ national insurance contributions and changes to inheritance tax and capital gains tax, as she sought to pay for investment in public services such as schools and the NHS.
Read the full report here:
New Tory leader Badenoch promises ‘hard truths’ for country and party
Kemi Badenoch said she will tell “hard truths” to both the country and her party as she began her first full day as Conservative leader.
In her first media appearance since winning the Tory leadership election, Ms Badenoch said the UK is getting poorer and older and being “outcompeted” by other countries.
She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “We need to look at how we can reorganise our economy to be fit for the future, not just doing what we always used to.
Read the full report here:
Police receive ‘non-recent’ allegation of sexual assault against Alex Salmond
Police have received a “non-recent” allegation of sexual assault made against Alex Salmond, who was leader of the Alba Party up until his sudden death last month.
Mr Salmond died of a heart attack on October 12 during a political visit to North Macedonia. His funeral was held on October 29 in Strichen, Aberdeenshire.
Mr Salmond was first minister of Scotland from 2007-2014 under the Scottish National Party (SNP) government.
He resigned in 2018 after a number of allegations of sexual misconduct came to light.
He was later cleared of all 14 charges in 2020 – being found not guilty of 12, while prosecutors withdrew another charge and one was found not proven.
Police Scotland has now said a separate report of misconduct has been filed against Mr Salmond.
A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have received a report of a non-recent sexual assault.
“The information is being assessed.”
Responding to coverage of the allegations reported by the media, Alba Party general secretary Chris McEleny said the claims are “smears” and urged for Mr Salmond to be allowed to “rest in peace”.
Worst of Britain’s Brexit pain is still to come, warns Treasury minister
The Treasury economic secretary cited Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that the economy would shrink by 4 per cent in the long run due to Brexit. And Ms Siddiq said that Britain’s imports and exports would end up 15 per cent lower than they would be had the UK stayed in the EU.
Political Correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:
Labour Party chairwoman criticises Badenoch’s Partygate comments
Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves has criticised Kemi Badenoch’s comments on the Partygate scandal in her interview on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
She said: “Listening to Kemi Badenoch dismiss partygate as ‘overblown’ will add insult to injury for families across Britain who followed the rules, missing loved ones’ deaths and family funerals, while her colleagues partied in Downing Street.
Ms Reeves also questioned Ms Badenoch’s pledge to scrap Labour’s controversial independent schools VAT policy as she accused the Conservative Party of not listening or learning.
She said: “Kemi Badenoch must explain where the cuts to state schools will bite after promising unfunded tax breaks for private schools – no wonder she refused to condemn Liz Truss whose mini budget crashed the economy.
“The leader may have changed but on her first day in the job Kemi Badenoch has proved three times that the Tories haven’t listened and they haven’t learnt.”
Is the backlash against Reeves’s national insurance hike justified?
It should probably come as no surprise that what the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, once described as “a tax on jobs” has turned out to be… a tax on jobs. Her decision in the Budget to raise up to £25bn from an increase in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) has obviously proved controversial.
A heated but largely inconclusive debate has surrounded the question of whether the move violates Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise taxes for “working people”. But now the change is coming under sustained attack from a number of sectors with tight profit margins, where the employment of lower-paid and/or part-time workers means an immediately higher tax bill for the employers.
In particular, the “secondary threshold” – the level at which employers become liable to pay national insurance on each employee’s salary – will come down from £9,100 per year to £5,000 per year.
This is presenting notable difficulties in the health sector…
Read more here:
Kemi Badenoch’s first duty must be to provide an effective opposition
The election of Kemi Badenoch as leader of the Conservative Party is an intriguing moment. Not only have the members of the party finally disposed of the calumny that they would never elect a non-white candidate, but – given the options available to them – they have to some extent made up for their folly in electing Liz Truss the last time they were asked to vote.
Robert Jenrick’s rather unconvincing reinvention as a hardline anti-immigration candidate required him to adopt an unrealistic position on the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). While recognising that the European Court is an imperfect organisation, The Independent will have no truck with any politician who seeks to renounce a document drawn up by British lawyers after the trauma of world war that underpins the protection of fundamental rights across the continent.
Not only would withdrawal from the ECHR have been wrong in principle, it would not be the magic solution to the problem of irregular immigration – a point made with some courage by Ms Badenoch – and the policy would have plunged the Tory party into a prolonged civil war, because a large share, probably a majority, of its reduced contingent of MPs remain rightly committed to the ECHR.
Read more here:
Labour MP says she faces racist abuse almost every day
A Labour MP has said she faces “extreme” abuse including racism almost every day.
Satvir Kaur has been in public office since 2011 and said the abuse has escalated since she was elected MP for Southampton Test in July.
She was the first female Sikh leader of a local authority in Britain when she headed Southampton City Council from 2022 to 2023.
It was put to Ms Kaur on BBC Radio Solent that women in politics receive a lot of abuse, and she said: “It’s been extreme, it’s kind of more than I thought.
“You always get it when you’re kind of in the public eye and being a politician – suddenly somehow you become sub-human when all you’re really trying to do is make a positive difference to people’s lives.
“So I got it to a certain extent when I was a councillor and leader of the council, but I feel as though, since I’ve become an MP – especially online – I feel as though I’ve attracted all of the misogynists, all of the racists, and all of the haters out there.”
She added that she receives racist abuse “constantly, almost on an daily basis”.
“Actually it just encourages me more to do what I’m doing, because I want other people from areas of deprivation, and brown girls, to feel that, if I can do it, they can do it,” she said.
The MP said she tries to ignore the vitriol and blocks abusive comments on her social media, but she does occasionally “bite”.
“I don’t want to spread hate, and there’s enough hate out there,” she told BBC Radio Solent presenter Louisa Hannan.
