UK Politics

Penny Mordaunt has continued her remarkable surge in the race to be next Tory leader and prime minister, gaining 83 votes in the second ballot.As expected, Rishi Sunak remains on top with 101 backers – as Suella Braverman was eliminated from the contest – but Ms Mordaunt continues to breathe down the former chancellor’s neck.The foreign secretary Liz Truss remains in deep trouble after a campaign that has failed to catch alight. She gathered just 64 votes.Kemi Badenoch remains a rival to be the candidate for the right of the party, with 49 votes – while the centrist Tom Tugendhat has slipped back, from 37 to just 32 votes.Mr Tugendhat will now come under pressure to pull out of the contest, but has suggested he will fight on in the hope of impressing in the weekend live TV debates.RecommendedMs Braverman scored just 27 votes, which the Truss camp will be desperate to grab over the next few days before the third ballot on Monday.The first stage of the contest will not end until next Wednesday – unless someone drops out – after which Tory party members will choose between the two surviving candidates, over August.A bombshell poll on Wednesday gave the little-known Ms Mordaunt a huge lead among the grassroots – who appear to favour a clean break with cabinet ministers tainted by Boris Johnson’s reign.Mr Sunak’s camp claimed it was “pleased” with the result and argued rivals are shifting their positions, a source saying: “Some of the other candidates are now starting to back off what they said before.”The former chancellor would not be engaging in “those funny games some people have suggested”, the source insisted – amid suggestions that votes could be “lent” to Ms Truss, to knock out Ms Mordaunt.That looks highly unlikely anyway, given Mr Sunak would have hoped to have secured many more than 101 supporters by this stage.The Truss camp played down expectations that she is struggling, arguing she was never likely to gain from Wednesday’s elimination of Jeremy Hunt from the race.Simon Clarke, the Treasury chief secretary and a Truss supporter, insisted: “I think we are in a very good position in this race, relative to where we expected to be at this pointHe pointed to Ms Braverman’s supporters as a group likely to switch to the foreign secretary, because they “share her views on European questions”.RecommendedMr Sunak, who is just 19 votes short of a guaranteed slot in the run-off, tweeted: “I am incredibly grateful for the continued support from my colleagues and the wider public.“I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation. Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.” More

Conservative MPs have voted in the second round of their leadership contest, eliminating right-winger Suella Braverman from the race.Former chancellor Rishi Sunak topped the ballot again with the backing of 101 MPs, while Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt beat Liz Truss for second place with 83 votes to Truss’s 64.Moderate favourite Tom Tugendhat survived elimination apparently by picking up MPs who had voted for Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi, who were eliminated in the first round.The table after the second round looks like this:Rishi Sunak – 101RecommendedPenny Mordaunt – 83Liz Truss – 64Kemi Badenoch – 49Tom Tugendhat – 32The candidate eliminated is:Suella Braverman – 27The results from the first round, which took place on Wednesday, were:Rishi Sunak – 88Penny Mordaunt – 67Liz Truss – 50Kemi Badenoch – 40Suella Braverman – 32Tom Tugendhat – 37The two candidates eliminated were:Jeremy Hunt – 18RecommendedNadhim Zahawi – 25MPs are set to vote against and will continue to eliminate more candidates, until two just two remain. The final two will be put to the wider rank-and-file Tory membership, who will elect the new leader – who will become Britain’s new prime minister. More

A Conservative party leadership candidate has said she would “eliminate” human rights law protecting people from torture and inhuman treatment.Suella Braverman, who has made it into the second round of the contest to replace Boris Johnson, said Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights was tying the government’s hands.She argued that the government’s policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda could be found illegal under the protections Britain committed to in 1953, and they would have to go. Article 3 stipulates: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”Ms Braverman told Sky News: “I’ve seen first hand, I’ve been in court fighting these cases for several years and I’ve seen what’s happened with the Rwanda flight and the Rwanda policy.Recommended”The reality is that the policy is vulnerable to claims based on the Human Rights Act or the European Convention [on human rights], namely article 3 claims and article 8 rights. “We will simply not be able to remove in significant numbers those people coming across the Channel illegally in risky circumstances unless we eliminate those kinds of claims against our actions. “That’s why we do need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.”Article 8, which was also cited by Ms Braverman, says people have a right to “private and family life, his home and his correspondence”.Her proposal comes as Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, failed to turn up to a human rights committee hearing to hear about the government’s proposed British Bill of Rights.That plan has been criticised by civil liberties campaigners for providing inadequate protection for certain rights, including freedom of speech.The government is pushing ahead with its plan to deport asylum seekers arriving on British shores to Rwanda and telling them to claim asylum there.RecommendedBut the first flight was stopped by an intervention in the court, which will rule on the legality of the policy in September when a new prime minister is in place.Ms Braverman is one of six MPs to make it into the second round of the Tory leadership race. She was backed by 32 MPs, beating moderate favourite Tom Tugendhat and coming in behind Kemi Badenoch on 40 and Liz Truss on 50 votes. She is currently the government’s attorney general. More

Foreign secretary Liz Truss formally launched her bid to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister and Tory leader on Thursday morning, pledging to set the economy on an “upward trajectory” by the time of the next general election in 2024.”We have to level with the British public that our economy will not get back on track overnight,” she said frankly. “Times are going to be tough, but I know that I can get us on an upward trajectory by 2024.”Positioning herself as an economic libertarian, she outlined plans to cancel ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s rises in corporation tax and National Insurance, pledged to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade and endorsed home secretary Priti Patel’s widely loathed Rwanda deportation scheme for asylum seekers.Interestingly, she explained away her refusal to join the mass resignations in protest at Mr Johnson’s premiership by saying she was “a loyal person”, a clear dig at Mr Sunak, whose decision to quit alongside health secretary Sajid Javid triggered the deluge of resignations that ultimately led to his downfall.She has certainly been a prominent backer of Mr Johnson in the past and her campaign has already attracted the support of dogged Johnsonites Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg.RecommendedThat said, Ms Truss has previously made no secret of her ambitions, holding “fizz with Liz” socials for her colleagues and Monday surgeries in the House of Commons tea room open to MPs with grievances to air, making it clear she sees herself as leadership material.While Mr Sunak faces awkward questions about precisely when he set up his campaign website and comes under fire for propping up Mr Johnson throughout the Partygate furore only to then turn on him, he nevertheless still leads the race ahead of both junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt and Ms Truss, who clearly has her work cut out if she hopes to beat them to Downing Street.Mary Elizabeth Truss was born in Oxford on 26 July 1975, her left-wing father John Kenneth Truss a professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds and her mother Priscilla Mary a nurse, teacher and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.The family moved to Scotland when Ms Truss was four years old and she attended West Primary School in Paisley, Renfrewshire, and then Roundhay School, a comprehensive in Leeds.At 18, she studied politics, philosophy and economics at Merton College, Oxford, where she was, surprisingly, president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats.She switched sides and joined the Conservative Party in 1996, the same year she graduated and became a commercial manager at Shell, later serving as economic director of Cable & Wireless and becoming a qualified management accountant.Ms Truss married another accountant, Hugh O’Leary, in 2000 and the couple has two daughters.She entered politics professionally when she ran as the Tory candidate for South West Norfolk in the 2010 general election, winning the seat and holding it ever since.In Westminster, she has held a string of jobs: parliamentary under-secretary of state for childcare and education; secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs; secretary of state for justice; lord chancellor; chief secretary to the treasury (in which she was succeeded by Mr Sunak); secretary of state for international trade and president of the board of trade. More

A councillor in south London is among those facing being made homeless under England’s laissez faire private renting rules, following a surge eviction notices.Chloe Tomlinson, who represents the Rye Lane ward in the south London borough of Southwark, has been served a so-called “section 21” notice as part a dispute between her landlord and letting agent. The government promised to scrap such “no fault” evictions over a year ago but has still not taken action, with landlord groups lobbying against the change.Ms Tomlinson, who has lived in eight different private rented homes since she moved to London as a teacher in 2014, said the “precarity and instability” of renting was making it difficult for her to put down roots and participate in her local area.Landlords do not have to give a reason to issue a section 21 eviction notice and can serve one to tenants with just two months’ notice.RecommendedIn the councillor’s case, her home’s landlord wants to change letting agent because of alleged poor service, but the agent, Foxtons, has told them that bringing any of the tenants over to a new agent would incur a £7,488 fee under their contract. As a result, the tenants are facing eviction.Renters’ groups said the case showed the importance of Boris Johnson’s replacement as prime minister sticking to plans to bring forward the government’s promised Renters Reform Bill – which which would scrap Section 21 evictions.“Cases like councillor Tomlinson’s highlight how devastating Section 21 can be in the hands of unscrupulous operators, and underlines the importance of the Renters Reform Bill, which will stop evictions where the landlord has no legitimate ground,” said Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director of the campaigning organisation Generation Rent.”Renters cannot put down roots and contribute to their community if they can be kicked out by a letting agent out of sheer spite. We hope Foxtons sees sense and waives its extortionate fee to let Cllr Tomlinson and her housemates stay put.”There are no officials records of how many Section 21 evictions are served to tenants each year, as most people issued with a notice comply before it gets to court.However, between January and March 2022 5,890 landlords in England started court proceedings against tenants to enforce re-possession, up 41 per cent compared to the same period in 2020 before the pandemic.Ms Tomlinson, who was elected as a Labour councillor in May over 1,000 votes ahead of the next candidate, now faces the prospect of finding a new flat in or near the ward she represents.“Facing eviction is extremely distressing. Nobody wants to be forced out of their home,” she said.”We are collateral damage in a dispute which doesn’t involve us. Foxtons could choose to waive the fee and we could remain in our home. Instead they are trying to profit from our situation and they don’t care if we get made homeless as a result. It’s heartlessness and greed from one of London’s largest letting agents.”All this brings home the precarity and instability of life as a private renter. I’ve lived in over 8 private-rented homes since I first moved to London as a teacher in 2014. There is never any stability or security. “How are young people and private renters like me supposed to plan our lives, work in our communities, and participate in our local democracies, when we can so easily be forced out of our homes and boroughs? We need an immediate end to no-fault, section 21 evictions.” The councillor and her housemates had already accepted proposed 13 per cent increase in their rent just three weeks before the Section 21 notice was served. England has no restrictions on the level of rent landlords can ask for.RecommendedPolly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said: “For too long private renters have been stuck in cold, mouldy, and dangerous homes powerless for fear of being made homeless by their landlords. A woeful lack of regulation, including Section 21 no fault eviction notices and the lack of a landlord register, leaves tenants unable to hold bad landlords and their unlawful behaviour to account. “The government’s promised Renters’ Reform Bill will do away with these unfair evictions and empower tenants to stand up to bad behaviour and challenge nightmare conditions. So, whoever becomes the next Prime Minister must make the Bill a reality as quickly as possible.” More

Liz Truss has been forced to defend her campaign after her allies turned their fire on her rival Penny Mordaunt, who has surged into second place in the Conservative leadership contest.Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister who is expected to endorse Ms Truss within days, claimed that as his deputy Ms Mordaunt was missing in action and that he had asked that she be moved on after 6 months.At her official campaign launch, Mr Truss was also challenged that her allies had been publicly critical of the frontrunner Rishi Sunak as well as claiming that Ms Mordaunt, who has less cabinet experience than her rivals, requires “stabilisers”.The Foreign Secretary insisted that she was “putting forward a positive agenda” and that she would not make any “disparaging comments” about her rivals. Trade minister Ms Mordaunt surprised many when she came second in the first round of voting, pushing Ms Truss into third.RecommendedMs Mordaunt’s campaign has also gained momentum from opinion polling which shows she is the bookmakers’ favourite to become the next prime minister.Supporters of Ms Truss highlighted a scathing attack on Ms Mordaunt from former Brexit minister Lord Frost.He told TalkTV: “I am quite surprised at where she is in this leadership race. She was my deputy – notionally, more than really – in the Brexit talks last year.”I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year. She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary.”She wasn’t fully accountable, she wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was. This became such a problem that, after six months, I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her on and find somebody else to support me.”Ms Truss also stressed her loyalty to Boris Johnson as she defended her decision not to resign from his cabinet.Ms Truss, who has picked up support from Mr Johnson’s remaining allies, rejected the suggestion that her decision not to turn on the prime minister would hurt her campaign.She said: “I am a loyal person. I am loyal to Boris Johnson. I supported our Prime Minister’s aspirations and I want to deliver the promise of the 2019 manifesto.” She also suggested she was the best candidate to win a future general election.”There isn’t a great groundswell of support in the country for (Labour leader) Sir Keir Starmer or (Liberal Democrat leader) Sir Ed Davey,” she said. Recommended”What the British people are crying out for is a modern and united Conservative Party, ready with the courage of its convictions to deliver on the promises that we have made.” More

‘I have grave reservations’: Lord Frost questions Penny Mordaunt’s leadership abilitySuella Braverman has been knocked out of the Tory leadership race in the second round of voting, as Rishi Sunak topped the ballot with more than 100 backers.Penny Mordaunt increased her lead over Liz Truss, with 83 votes to the foreign secretary’s 64 – while Tom Tugendhat vowed to fight on despite receiving the backing of just 32 Conservative MPs.Lord Frost earlier launched a brutal attack on Ms Mordaunt after polling placed her as the favourite among the Tory faithful to succeed Boris Johnson, with the former Brexit minister claiming he had asked for her to be removed as his deputy during talks with the EU.Alleging that the former defence secretary “did not master the detail that was necessary” during negotiations and “wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the EU” when the situation merited it, the Conservative peer said he was now “gravely concerned”.Ms Truss will now be hoping to hoover up Ms Braverman’s support – with the results likely to amplify calls from her allies who earlier urged those supporting Kemi Badenoch to “join Liz” instead.RecommendedShow latest update

1657810161Truss ‘faces narrow path’ to final two, as Tory MPs ‘want a fresh face’Here is some reaction from journalists to the results, and what they could mean for the next stages of the race.Liz Truss faces a narrow path to make it into the last two, The Times’ political editor believes.Tom Newton-Dunn of TalkTV suggests that the dispersion of the results in today’s vote indicates that “the majority of MPs still want a fresh face”.And Stephen Bush of the Financial Times argues that “the only candidates you can say had an unalloyed good result” are Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt.Andy Gregory14 July 2022 15:491657809343Penny Mordaunt slightly increases lead over Liz Truss and picks up most new votesThe margin between Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss has seen a slight increase – with the foreign secretary coming 19 votes behind her rival in the second round.Ms Truss will be hoping to hoover up votes belonging to newly-eliminated Suella Braverman as she seeks to close the gap – which has grown from 67-50 in the first round, to 83-64 in the second.Picking up 16 new votes, Ms Mordaunt increased her vote share in the second round by more than any other candidate:Andy Gregory14 July 2022 15:351657808593Watch: Suella Braverman eliminated from raceHere is the moment that Suella Braverman was knocked out of the race:Tory leadership: Suella Braverman eliminated from race as Sunak leads in second ballotAndy Gregory14 July 2022 15:231657808525Tugendhat vows to fight on after receiving just 32 votesTom Tugendhat has insisted that his “campaign for a clean start” continues – despite him receiving just 32 votes in the second round of the leadership race.“We need trust back in our politics. I will be putting my vision for Britain forward to the public at the TV debates next week,” the foreign affairs committee chair said.Andy Gregory14 July 2022 15:221657807993Liz Truss campaign claims she is attracting support from across Tory PartyLiz Truss’s leadership election team claimed she is attracting a wide range of support from across the Tory party, as they indicted Suella Braverman’s supporters should now back the foreign secretary.“Suella Braverman ran a campaign that she can rightly be proud of,” a spokeswoman for Ms Truss said.“As Liz set out in her speech now is the time for MPs to unite behind the candidate who will cut taxes, deliver the real economic change we need, continue to deliver the benefits of Brexit and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine.“Liz Truss has the experience to deliver from day one, grow our economy and support working families and then beat Labour.”Andy Gregory14 July 2022 15:131657807529Sunak receives more than 100 votes in second round of votingOur deputy political correspondent Rob Merrick has this breaking report on the results of the second Tory leadership vote: More