UK Politics

Conservative leadership contender Jeremy Hunt said he would back an expansion of the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda.His Tory rivals Sajid Javid and Tom Tugendhat also vowed to push on with the plan to use the central African country to “offshore” migrants arriving by small boats.Viewed as a Tory moderate, Mr Hunt is keen to build support from people in the right of the party keen to see further crackdowns on small boat crossing in the English Channel.“I think we have to stop the small boats. I support the current policy,” the former cabinet minister told BBC’s Sunday Morning programme.But he also went a step further than those who have made their support of home secretary Priti Patel’s scheme by stating he would be keen to expand the scheme to other countries.“I hope we could find some other countries as well as Rwanda,” Mr Hunt told the Sunday Telegraph.Recommended“If we want to be a humane country that offers a safe haven for people who genuinely need asylum, then we need to find legal, safe routes for people to come here – not a mad dash for people to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers and try to get across the channel,” Mr Hunt added on Sky News.Mr Tugendhat – hoping to win the support of the One Nation wing of Tory moderates – also said he would keep the “Rwanda solution” policy put forward by Boris Johnson’s government.“The Rwanda solution is not one anyone would have initially chosen, but the reality is you cannot have rewards for criminality and illegal action,” he told the Sunday Times.Mr Javid also backed the Rwanda plan on the BBC. “I agreed with that policy.”Plans for the first Rwanda flight were halted at the last-minute last week by rulings from the European Court of Human Rights and the UK’s Appeal Court.Further attempts to fly migrants out are not likely to be made until after a judicial review begins next week, though No 10 has not ruled it out, despite Mr Johnson’s status as caretaker PM.Mr Hunt and Mr Tugendhat have vowed to press ahead with Boris Johnson’s controversial legislation to unilaterally ditch Brexit checks in defiance of the EU.The Remain-backing candidates both promised to press ahead with the Northern Ireland Protocol bill, despite warnings it will break international law. Mr Tugendhat said it was good “negotiating leverage” to push the EU further on easing checks.All the candidates to have entered the race in the past 24 hours have vowed to cut taxes. Mr Hunt and Mr Javid both suggested they would block another Scottish independence referendum for at least a decade.Mr Tugendhat said the naughtiest thing he had ever done is “invade a country” – referring to his time in the military during the invasion of Iraq.RecommendedMeanwhile, Tory leadership campaign teams are reportedly drawing up dossiers full of compromising allegations against rival candidates and their aides.At least two rival campaign teams are claimed to have handed Labour digital dossiers packed with allegations against potential opponents, according to the Sunday Times – with even candidates’ staffers supposedly targeted.Labour MP Chris Bryant tweeted: “The stories circulating about the various leadership candidates are so lurid they’re difficult to credit, but even more bizarre is the fact Tory MPs are circulating them.” More

Tory leadership campaign teams are reportedly drawing up dossiers full of compromising allegations against rival candidates and their aides.With Boris Johnson forced from office by a seemingly endless saga of incidents casting doubt over his personal integrity, one senior Tory MP has warned “scandal now has a currency in the forthcoming leadership elections”.As a result, at least two rival campaign teams are claimed to have handed the Labour Party digital dossiers packed with allegations against their potential opponents, according to the Sunday Times – with even candidates’ staffers supposedly targeted.RecommendedThe dossiers are claimed to include allegations about extramarital affairs and the use of tax dodges, illicit drugs and prostitutes, with at least one private investigator reportedly hired to probe some candidates’ financial arrangements.“There are rumours being widely circulated about candidates getting involved in bondage, domination and sadomasochism, claims of inappropriate relationships and compromising explicit photographs that could be used as kompromat,” a senior Tory Party source told the paper.“It has even been claimed that one of the contenders requests that staff deliver their government papers to them while they are in the bath.” More

Boris Johnson reportedly tried to get a young woman a job at City Hall while they were having a sexual relationship. The woman has claimed that Mr Johnson abused his power when he was London mayor to have a relationship with her.The prime minister allegedly secured an interview for the young Tory activist in 2008 just weeks after meeting her and bringing her back to his parliamentary office, The Sunday Times has reported.RecommendedHowever, Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse turned her down for the role because he felt that she and Mr Johnson had become too close, the paper said.It is said the woman wanted a meeting with Mr Johnson nine years later at the height of the #MeToo movement. She reportedly told him in the meeting that she felt uncomfortable about the relationship they had. More

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has launched his Conservative Party leadership bid with a swipe at his political rivals over their disloyalty to Boris Johnson. Mr Shapps said his main aim was to rebuild the economy so it was the biggest in Europe by 2050 and tackle the country’s cost of living crisis. He ruled out a general election and said he would produce an emergency budget, instructing his chancellor to cut personal tax for the most vulnerable and giving state support to firms with high levels of energy consumption, as reported by The Sunday Times.The 53-year-old, who is the MP for Welwyn Hatfield, also fired a broadside at his leadership rivals and suggested he has always been loyal to Boris Johnson.He said: “I have not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister. I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back. I tell you this: for all his flaws – and who is not flawed? – I like Boris Johnson. I have never, for a moment, doubted his love of this country.”RecommendedMr Shapps has been a keen supporter of the prime minister and helped him win the leadership contest in 2019, as well as publicly backing him on multiple ocassions.He added: “It is easy to criticise Boris after keeping one’s head down for years while being happy to benefit from his patronage. I am glad that I did not do that.“Even as the skies darkened over his premiership, often because of errors committed by him, I hoped he could pull it back. Because in losing him, we would lose a man who makes a unique connection with people.”Despite his support for Mr Johnson, the transport secretary signalled that if he won the leadership contest it would be a return to more traditional Tory values around lower taxation and a smaller state.He said: “I do think we have lost sight of what we should be about as a Conservative government. We should trust people and allow them to spend their money as they wish. “We must map a clear path to lower taxes, not just expressing good intentions. Covid witnessed a necessary and extraordinary expansion of state spending and a quite unprecedented level of state interference in people’s private lives. As Conservatives, we should tolerate the unnecessary continuation of neither.”His declaration comes after defence secretary Ben Wallace ruled himself out of the Conservative Party leadership contest despite his status as favourite among the Tory grassroots. Brexiteer Steve Baker also said he would not stand.RecommendedIn addition to Mr Shapps, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman, ex-minister Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat have launched their own bids.Foreign secretary Liz Truss, trade minister Penny Mordaunt, chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt are also expected to launch their own bids imminently. More

Boris Johnson is thought to be considering a peerage for his most loyal cabinet minister Nadine Dorries as part of his resignation honours list.The prime minister is reportedly planning to put his culture secretary into the House of Lords as part of a tradition allowing him to recommend certain appointments before leaving No 10.According to the Sunday Times, Ms Dorries is “expected” to go to the upper chamber and depart frontline politics for novel writing after Mr Johnson’s downfall.Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, and billionaire Tory donor Michael Hintze are also said to be in line to be ennobled in the next couple of months.The newspaper reported that a No 10 official contacted a veteran Tory to ask whether it was possible to give Stanley Johnson a knighthood on the basis he was “once an MEP”, but the senior party figure advised against it.RecommendedAllegra Stratton – who quit as Mr Johnson’s spokeswoman after she was captured joking about at Christmas gathering at the start of the Partygate scandal – is said to be “tipped” for a peerage as part of the PM’s resignation list.The former BBC and ITV journalist briefly acted as the prime minister’s spokesperson for the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.Further details of Mr Johnson desperate final hours clinging onto power on Wednesday evening. Preparing to meet a delegation cabinet ministers advising him to go, Ms Dorries is said to have told the PM: “You send them packing.”Mr Johnson shared his fears Rishi Sunak had been engaged in a plot lasting months to remove him in cahoots with old ally turned bitter enemy Dominic Cummings, according to the Sunday Times.But an ally of Mr Cummings said claims that he was collaborating with the ex-chancellor were “b******s”The culture secretary – who considered her own bid to keep the flame of Mr Johnson’s premiership alive – is said to have claimed that the contest would now be a “bloodbath” and the revolt had unleashed the “hounds of hell”.RecommendedSir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the 1922 Committee, criticised Ms Dorries’ comments about the leadership race.He told Times Radio: “I think it’s not helpful … We do want to unite the Conservative Party behind a candidate.”The Independent has contacted No 10 for comment on plans for the resignation honours list. More

Newly-appointed chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has entered the race for the Tory leadership to replace Boris Johnson.He is the second Cabinet minister to declare their ambition in the space of an hour after transport Grant Shapps said he intended to stand on a platform of improving the economy and tackling the cost of living crisis.Mr Zahawi, who was brought in to replace Rishi Sunak after he resigned on Tuesday, said his focus will be on lower taxes for for individuals, families and business.He also pledged to increased defence spending and continue with education reforms that he started in his previous role.In addition to Mr Zahawi, Mr Shapps, Mr Sunak, and Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat have launched their own bids, with Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt expected to launch imminent campaigns in th the coming days.RecommendedIn his bid for leader, Mr Zahawi said: “My aim is a simple one: to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from. To steady the ship and to stabilise the economy.“Thanks to Brexit, we are now a free nation. Let’s not just talk about the opportunities that follow, let’s take them.“If a young boy, who came here aged 11 without a word of English, can serve at the highest levels of Her Majesty’s Government and run to be the next prime minister, anything is possible.”He added that he wants to “focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists”.Mr Zahawi was given massive plaudits for the swift roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK and was quickly promoted to education secretary by Boris Johnson.He is one of the Cabinet ministers who did not resign last week and was instead promoted to chancellor by Mr Johnson after Mr Sunak stepped down.However Mr Zahawi’s bid for the leadership comes as The Independent can exclusively reveal that his tax affairs are being investigated by HMRC.RecommendedMichelle Donelan, who resigned from the role of education secretary on Thursday – less than 36 hours after accepting it, said she was backing Nadhim Zahawi to be the next Tory leader.In a tweet, she said: “I’ve worked with Nadhim Zahawi in the Department for Education, and around the cabinet table over the last 10 months. I’m backing him to be our next prime minister because he gets things done and delivers just like he did as Vaccines Minister.” More

A British Cabinet minister tipped to be a frontrunner in the Conservative Party’s leadership race ruled himself out of the contest Saturday.Defense Minister Ben Wallace said after “careful consideration” and discussion with colleagues and family, he will not be running to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and the country’s next prime minister.Wallace was seen by some as the favorite choice among Conservative party members in what’s set to be a wide open leadership race following Johnson’s resignation announcement on Thursday. Johnson quit as party leader after months of insisting he would stay in the job despite mounting ethics scandals. He said he would stay on as prime minister until the party chooses his successor. Former chancellor Rishi Sunak, the best-known of the leadership contenders and regarded as the bookmakers’ favorite to win, launched his bid on Friday. Sunak resigned on Tuesday, kicking off a mass exodus of government officials that toppled Johnson. RecommendedAttorney General Suella Braverman, lawmaker Tom Tugendhat and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch have also thrown their hat into the ring, and more announcements are expected over the coming days. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi and trade minister Penny Mordaunt are widely expected to run, as are former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt.Wallace said his decision wasn’t “an easy choice to make, but my focus is on my current job and keeping this great country safe.”Conservative party officials on Monday are expected to set out the timetable for a leadership contest, with the aim of having a winner by the end of the summer. The two-step process involves Tory lawmakers voting to reduce the field of candidates to two, who will go to a ballot of all party members.Johnson’s resignation marked the end of three tumultuous years that saw the divisive leader fend off numerous scandals and a Conservative leadership challenge. For months, he managed to cling on to power despite allegations that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament about government office parties that broke COVID-19 lockdown rules.But his handling of allegations about a senior politician who had been accused of sexual misconduct proved the last straw for many Conservatives, who this week openly revolted and forced him out of office.Johnson remains in office to head a caretaker administration, but many Conservatives don’t want a lame-duck leader — especially amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis triggered by soaring food and energy prices.Recommended___Follow all AP stories on British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson. More