UK Politics

The next round of voting in the Conservative Party leadership contest takes place on Thursday, with the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister heating up nicely.Former chancellor Rishi Sunak appears to be the clear front-runner, securing 88 votes in the first round and picking up the support of Jeremy Hunt after he dropped out of the running on Wednesday, joining the likes of Sir Gavin Williamson, Oliver Dowden, Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps and Steve Barclay in endorsing the candidate.However, Mr Sunak endured a torrid time on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning as anchor Justin Webb pressed him on his wealth and whether it disqualified him from being able to empathise with the very real concerns of low-income families facing hard choices because of the cost of living crisis.He was also reluctant to be drawn on precisely when he lost faith in Mr Johnson’s premiership, having served him for two and a half years before his dramatic resignation on 5 July amid accusations that he first set up a draft campaign website at the height of the Partygate scandal back in January, presumably in anticipation of the PM’s demise.Junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt appears to be the second favourite, having secured 67 votes on Wednesday, ahead of foreign secretary Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and attorney general Suella Braverman.RecommendedBut Ms Mordaunt has also found herself under siege this morning, with former Brexit minister Lord Frost telling TalkTV he has “grave reservations” about her candidacy after working with her.“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.”With the contest increasingly resembling Netflix’s brutal death sport thriller Squid Game, its second round of voting opens at 11.30am on Thursday morning and closes at 1.30pm.We can then expect to see the results published at around 3pm. More

Tory leadership candidates are “ignoring” the winter fuel crisis and should set out how they would help families and businesses, leading charities have said.Martin Lewis, founder of MoneysavingExpert.com, warned the energy crisis was “potentially more dangerous to lives than the pandemic” and the country could face “cataclysmic” problems this winter as he received his CBE at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.The consumer expert condemned the MPs running in the Tory leadership contest for their “deafening silence” on how they would tackle the energy crisis on becoming prime minister in the autumn.Many of the candidates in the race to replace Boris Johnson in Number 10 have promised to cut fuel duty if elected, however, they are yet to set out a detailed plan of how they would tackle the cost of living crisis.Now, more than 40 charities and campaign groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Fuel Poverty Action have written to each candidate calling on them to detail how they would “keep people safe and warm this winter”.RecommendedThey are concerned key decisions on the cost of living crisis will be delayed until the new leader is elected in the autumn after the prime minister said any new policies must wait until his successor is in place.The groups are calling for the leadership hopefuls to draw up detailed policies as soon as possible so they can be implemented once they are elected.In their letter, they warned the country is “headed into a potentially catastrophic winter”.They wrote: “In eleven weeks’ time, more than a third of households – many millions of British families –  may not be able to afford to heat their homes. “Meanwhile, earlier this year, 2.3 million families on low income were going without enough food and were unable to keep their homes warm.“In the words of Martin Lewis last week: ’millions of households will be forced into poverty unless we act. This is a genuine, urgent emergency’.”Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, told The Times: “The candidates to be our next prime minister are ignoring the single most pressing issue facing families across the country.“Unless they take bold and decisive action now, the next prime minister’s first act as leader will be to preside over the worst winter for millions of people in living memory.”It recently emerged councils are planning to offer “warm spaces” for residents to go to during winter if they cannot afford heating with soaring energy bills.Mr Lewis asked on social media whether “warm banks” – similar to food banks but for people in need of heating – would be needed this year. Some responded saying the wheels were already in motion to set up free public warm spaces as rocketing energy prices cripple budgets further in the cost of living crisis.RecommendedBristol mayor Marvin Rees replied saying it was “completely true” that a heating equivalent of food banks would be needed this year.Another reply shared a letter from Gateshead Council that called on local partners to help set up a Warm Spaces scheme. More

Nadine Dorries has accused fellow Tory MPs of staging a “coup” against Boris Johnson.The culture secretary has been one of the outgoing prime minister’s most ardent supporters, sticking by him even as support for his leadership collapsed at Westminster.Ms Dorries told BBC Panorama: “I was quite stunned that there were people who thought that removing the prime minister who won the biggest majority that we’ve had since Margaret Thatcher in less than three years.“Just the the anti-democratic nature of what they’re doing alone was enough to alarm me.“And for me it was a coup”.RecommendedMs Dorries made the same claim on Monday, when she also criticised those who moved against Mr Johnson.“14 million people voted for the prime minister and a group of MPs, ministers, the chancellor, his sitting chancellor, via what is effectively a coup, removed him,” she told GB News.Ms Dorries has thrown her weight behind foreign secretary Liz Truss in the Tory leadership contest that will select Mr Johnson’s successor at No 10.She has led an attack on Ms Truss’ rival, Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as chancellor last week is seen by Johnson allies as key in ending the prime minister’s grip on No 10.Ms Dorries accused Mr Sunak’s campaign team of using the “dark arts” following claims they tried to “syphon off” votes to ensure Jeremy Hunt cleared the threshold to enter the contest because they believed Mr Sunak would beat him in a run-off vote of party members. More

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has clashed with colleague Kemi Badenoch over the government’s Online Safety Bill, after the Tory leadership candidate attacked the proposed legislation.After it emerged that the bill’s final stages have been delayed until the autumn, Ms Badenoch said the postponement was the “right move”, adding: “We should not be legislating for hurt feelings.”The “anti-woke” right-winger contender tweeted: “The bill is in no fit state to become law. If I’m elected prime minister I will ensure the bill doesn’t overreach.”But Ms Dorries, who has been spearheading the bill aimed at cracking down on harmful content, fired back: “Which part of the bill legislates for hurt feelings, Kemi?”Labour’s shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell also lashed out at Ms Badenoch, saying her comments showed why she “shouldn’t be let loose on protecting our children”.RecommendedThe Labour MP tweeted: “You obviously have no idea how the bill will work nor why it’s needed. You’ve clearly fully sniffed up some dodgy briefing from an ill-informed colleague. Educate yourself before you preach if you want to be PM.”The legislation was provisionally due to go before parliament next week, but The Independent understands that it has been delayed to allow for a confidence vote in the government and the next stage of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to take place.However, the bill is expected to be tabled in the autumn once the new prime minister has taken office.Campaigners have warned that any delay could be detrimental in the fight to keep children safe online.Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said the bill was “a crucial piece of legislation that is fundamentally about protecting children from harm and abuse that is taking place on an industrial scale on social media”.He added: “Any delay will mean families continue to pay the price for the failure and inaction of tech firms who have allowed harm to fester rather than get their house in order.”Ms Dorries has vowed that the legislation would hold tech giants to account when “harm, abuse and criminal behaviour have run riot on their platforms”.The bill will give the regulator Ofcom the power to fine companies that fail to comply with the laws up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover.But some view the bill as an attack on freedom of speech, given its attempt to crack down on legal but “harmful” expression.Tim Cairns, senior policy officer at charity Care, said his organisation “understands the free speech concerns associated with certain provisions … However, other aspects of this legislation are unquestionably laudable”.He argued that safeguarding online has not kept pace with safeguarding in the real world. Care is particularly concerned about the array of disturbing and harmful content children encounter online.“Age verification is one measure that would reduce child exposure to pornography – something the vast majority of Brits support,” said Mr Cairns. “Age checks were already legislated for in 2017 but never actually brought into force. The Online Safety Bill was supposed to correct this mistake.”Mr Cairns added: “Failing to deliver this change would amount to a second betrayal of children, who deserve help and protection from those in power.”RecommendedMeanwhile, work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey – who called her candidate Liz Truss a “fantastic lady” – said it was time for supporters of Ms Badenoch and Suella Braverman to fall in behind the foreign secretary.Ms Badenoch, who has strong support from anti-woke MPs, picked up a more impressive 40 votes and is not expected to back out at the second round of voting today. More

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has clashed with colleague Kemi Badenoch over the government’s Online Safety Bill, after the Tory leadership candidate attacked the proposed legislation.After it emerged that the bill’s final stages have been delayed until the autumn, Ms Badenoch said the postponement was the “right move”, adding: “We should not be legislating for hurt feelings.”The “anti-woke” right-winger contender tweeted: “The bill is in no fit state to become law. If I’m elected prime minister I will ensure the bill doesn’t overreach.”But Ms Dorries, who has been spearheading the bill aimed at cracking down on harmful content, fired back: “Which part of the bill legislates for hurt feelings, Kemi?”Labour’s shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell also lashed out at Ms Badenoch, saying her comments showed why she “shouldn’t be let loose on protecting our children”.RecommendedThe Labour MP tweeted: “You obviously have no idea how the bill will work nor why it’s needed. You’ve clearly fully sniffed up some dodgy briefing from an ill-informed colleague. Educate yourself before you preach if you want to be PM.”The legislation was provisionally due to go before parliament next week, but The Independent understands that it has been delayed to allow for a confidence vote in the government and the next stage of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to take place.However, the bill is expected to be tabled in the autumn once the new prime minister has taken office.Campaigners have warned that any delay could be detrimental in the fight to keep children safe online.Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said the bill was “a crucial piece of legislation that is fundamentally about protecting children from harm and abuse that is taking place on an industrial scale on social media”.He added: “Any delay will mean families continue to pay the price for the failure and inaction of tech firms who have allowed harm to fester rather than get their house in order.”Ms Dorries has vowed that the legislation would hold tech giants to account when “harm, abuse and criminal behaviour have run riot on their platforms”.The bill will give the regulator Ofcom the power to fine companies that fail to comply with the laws up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover.But some view the bill as an attack on freedom of speech, given its attempt to crack down on legal but “harmful” expression.Tim Cairns, senior policy officer at charity Care, said his organisation “understands the free speech concerns associated with certain provisions … However, other aspects of this legislation are unquestionably laudable”.He argued that safeguarding online has not kept pace with safeguarding in the real world. Care is particularly concerned about the array of disturbing and harmful content children encounter online.“Age verification is one measure that would reduce child exposure to pornography – something the vast majority of Brits support,” said Mr Cairns. “Age checks were already legislated for in 2017 but never actually brought into force. The Online Safety Bill was supposed to correct this mistake.”Mr Cairns added: “Failing to deliver this change would amount to a second betrayal of children, who deserve help and protection from those in power.”RecommendedMeanwhile, work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey – who called her candidate Liz Truss a “fantastic lady” – said it was time for supporters of Ms Badenoch and Suella Braverman to fall in behind the foreign secretary.Ms Badenoch, who has strong support from anti-woke MPs, picked up a more impressive 40 votes and is not expected to back out at the second round of voting today. More

Former British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak worked to stave off momentum from challenger Penny Mordaunt in the race to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with Conservative Party lawmakers set to knock one of the six remaining contenders out of the contest on Thursday.Sunak, who quit as Britain’s Treasury chief last week, got the most votes in a first-round ballot on Wednesday, with junior trade minister Mordaunt a strong second. Bookmaker Ladbrokes said Mordaunt was now the favorite to win the leadership election, followed by Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.Whoever wins, the contest will replace the flamboyant, flawed Johnson with a new and much lesser-known prime minister. Only Conservative lawmakers and party members are participating in the vote and choosing Johnson’s successor. Truss placed third on Wednesday and is trying consolidate support from lawmakers on the party’s right, who mistrust Sunak’s high spending on support to people and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, and the tax increases he brought in as COVID-19 hammered Britain’s economy.Sunak argues that the immediate tax cuts promised by his rivals are reckless amid economic shockwaves from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.RecommendedHe also has faced allegations he is out of touch with ordinary people’s struggles because of his wealth. He is a former investment banker, and his wife is the daughter of the billionaire founder of Indian tech company Infosys.“I don’t judge people by their bank accounts, I judge them by their characters,” Sunak told the BBC. “And I think people can judge me by my actions over the past couple of years.”Three other candidates remain in the race. Lawmakers will vote again Thursday, and the lowest-placed contender will drop out.Further rounds of voting are due to take place next week until just two candidates remain.The final two contenders will face a runoff vote by about 180,000 Conservative Party members across the country. The winner is scheduled to be announced Sept. 5 and will automatically become prime minister, without the need for a national election.The contest was triggered when Johnson resigned as Tory leader last week when his party revolted after months of ethics scandals and government ministers began resigning en masse. He will remain in office as a caretaker prime minister until his replacement as party chief is chosen.Truss had been seen as a front-runner, but gained fewer votes Wednesday than Mordaunt, who scores highly in polls of party members.Unlike Sunak and Truss, Mordaunt didn’t hold a senior post in Johnson’s government, though she was a junior minister. An affable politician from a military family, she is widely seen as a breath of fresh air and has been scoring highly in polls of party members.Recommended___Follow all of AP’s coverage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson More

Former Brexit minister David Frost has shared his “grave reservations” about Tory leadership contest favourite Penny Mordaunt becoming prime minister in a brutal attack on her credibility.The Brexit hardliner said the trade minister went missing during negotiations with the EU last year and became such a “problem” that he was forced to ask Boris Johnson to dismiss her from talks.“I’m sorry to say this, I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary when we were in negotiations,” Lord Frost told TalkTV, attacking her credentials as a Brexiteer. “She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the EU when that was necessary.”The right-wing Tory peer added: “She wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was. It became such a problem that after six months I had to ask the prime minister to move her on.”Saying he was “surprised” at her emergence as a top contender, Lord Frost said: “On the basis of what I saw I would have grave reservations about [her becoming PM].”The former Brexit negotiator, who quit at the end of last year, even suggested that Brexit would not be safe in Ms Mordaunt’s hands if she makes it to No 10.Recommended“If Brexit is going to be safe it’s going to need a few things,” he said. “One of them is the ability to be tough, be clear, deliver tough messages … And I would worry, on the basis on what I’ve seen, that we wouldn’t necessarily get that from Penny.”Leading Brexit analysist Mujtaba Rahman said Lord Frost’s view on Ms Mordaunt “is widely shared in Brussels – with one important qualification. One senior EU official tells me she ‘was even less qualified than Frost’.”A source from Ms Mordant’s camp told The Independent: “Penny has nothing but respect for Lord Frost. He did a huge amount to assist our negotiations until he resigned from government. Penny will always fight for Brexit and always has.”Lord Frost, admired by the hardliners in the European Research Group (ERG), suggested he would soon throw his weight behind Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch or Suella Braverman.“All three of those candidates … are saying very interesting things, things that the country needs to hear. I’ll says something soon on that subject,” he said on the contest.The rival camps of Ms Truss and Ms Mordaunt engaged in a furious briefing war last night, after the outsider shook up the race by running a close second to Mr Sunak – gaining 67 to his 88.One of Ms Truss’s allies said it was not a time for someone who needs “stabilisers”. But a shock YouGov survey showed that Ms Mordaunt would defeat Mr Sunak by 67 per cent to 28 per cent among party members – a huge margin.Ms Truss has appealed to Brexiteers by claiming she was a “reluctant Remainer” at the 2016 Brexit referendum. “If I could vote now, I would vote to leave the European Union,” she told The Spectator.She added: “I was a reluctant Remainer. I was loyal to the prime minister at the time, David Cameron.”Conservative MPs in the ERG are split over which candidate will best champion the Brexit cause. ERG chair Mark Francois is backing Ms Truss, while several other leading figures in the group opt for Ms Braverman.RecommendedTheresa Villiers, one of the 28 Tory “Spartans” who voted against Theresa May’s Brexit deal three times, stunned her allies by backing Rishi Sunak in the first round.The second round of voting by Tory MPs takes place between 11.30am and 1.30pm on Thursday, with a result announced at 3pm. More

The right-wing of the Conservative Party should unite behind Liz Truss, senior backer Therese Coffey has said as the foreign secretary struggles to keep pace with the frontrunners.Ms Truss only nabbed 50 votes in the first ballot of the Tory race, falling behind rivals Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, as she prepares to set out her pitch as a tax-cutter on Thursday morning.The work and pensions secretary – who called Ms Truss a “fantastic lady” – said it was time for supporters of Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman to fall in behind the foreign secretary.In a plea to unite those on the right, Ms Coffey claimed “emotions” were still raw and said it may “take a little bit of time” for rival camps to acknowledge Ms Truss had the best chance of making it into the final two.The cabinet minister told Sky News: “The reason why I think supporters of Kemi and Suella should come and join Liz is because a lot of their policies are in a very similar direction.”RecommendedSome Brexiteers MPs were understood to be trying to persuade ardent Brexiteer Ms Braverman – who only squeaked through with 32 votes – to withdraw.Ms Badenoch, who has strong support from anti-woke MPs, picked up a more impressive 40 votes and is not expected to back out at the second round of voting today.The rival camps of Ms Truss and Ms Mordaunt engaged in a furious briefing war last night, after the outsider shook up the race by running a close second to Mr Sunak – gaining 67 to his 88.And a shock YouGov survey showed that Ms Mordaunt would defeat Sunak by 67 per cent to 28 per cent among party members – a huge margin. A Ms Mordaunt versus Ms Truss match-up is closer, at 55 per cent versus 37 per cent.An ally of Ms Truss told The Times it was not the time for a prime minister who required “stabilisers”, while an ally of Ms Mordaunt accused Ms Truss of pursuing a “dog-whistle, anti-woke Faragist campaign”.The foreign secretary’s backers have been accused of running a campaign to damage Mr Sunak’s chances in the contest – criticising the former chancellor’s “economically damaging” policies.In a campaign speech on Thursday, Ms Truss will detail her economic plan, which includes reversing April’s National Insurance rate rise, lowering corporation tax and enacting supply-side reforms.Despite being a Johnson loyalist, Ms Truss kept her powder dry as the Tory top brass turned on the mortally wounded PM last week, though she did cut short a foreign trip to Indonesia to head back to Westminster as he announced his resignation.The 46-year-old has made little secret of her leadership ambitions, with a series of high-profile interventions and photo opportunities in which she appeared to be channelling late Margaret Thatcher.The former-Remainer-turned-ardent-Brexiteer’s threats to tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU play well with sections of the party.Ms Truss has appealed to Brexiteers by claiming she was a “reluctant Remainer” at the 2016 Brexit referendum. “If I could vote now, I would vote to leave the European Union,” she told The Spectator.She added: “I was a reluctant Remainer. I was loyal to the prime minister at the time, David Cameron.”Conservative MPs in the European Research Group (ERG) are split over which candidate will best champion the Brexit cause, with ERG chair Mark Francois backing Ms Truss.RecommendedContrasting her experience with that of relative newcomer Ms Mordaunt, Ms Truss is expected to say: “I am ready to be prime minister on day one. I can lead, make tough decisions and rise to the moment.”The second round of voting by Tory MPs takes place between 11.30am and 1.30pm, with a result announced at 3pm. More