UK Politics

Rishi Sunak has entered the Tory leadership race vowing to “restore trust” after Boris Johnson’s multiple scandals, but with a warning that the country cannot afford early tax cuts.The former chancellor – the favourite with the public – also hinted that he would end the “culture wars” the current prime minister has relished fighting, promising: “We’ve had enough of division.”Stealing a march on his rivals, with Liz Truss, Jeremy Hunt and Ben Wallace expected to launch their campaigns this weekend, Mr Sunak cast himself as the fiscally responsible candidate, resisting the clamour for tax cuts.Mr Sunak also launched a website, ready4rishi.com, which – as The Independent exclusively revealed in January – set hares running at No 10 when it first appeared in September 2020. At the time sources close to Mr Sunak described the claims, along with those relating to the chancellor having prepared a leadership campaign, as “totally false”.“Do we confront this moment with honesty, seriousness and determination, or do we tell ourselves comforting fairytales that might make us feel better in the moment but will leave our children worse off tomorrow?” asked a slick video that was tweeted just after 4pm on Friday.RecommendedAnd he suggested that the culture wars Mr Johnson has waged over refugees, trans rights, statues and taking the knee would be wound down if he were to become prime minister.“We’ve had enough of division. Politics at its best is a unifying endeavour, and I have spent my career bringing people together. Because that is the only way to succeed,” the video said.The launch made Mr Sunak the third declared candidate, alongside Tom Tugendhat, the inexperienced chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, and Brexiteer attorney general Suella Braverman.Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch became the fourth to launch a bid for the Tory leadership on Friday.Ms Badenoch, who resigned from her post on Wednesday, wrote in The Times that she would lower taxes alongside “tight spending” and that she wanted to run a “limited government focused on the essentials”.The Independent understands that Mr Hunt, who lost to Mr Johnson in 2019, will launch his campaign on Sunday, when the foreign secretary Liz Truss is also expected to enter the race.Mr Wallace is still mulling over a bid in discussions with friends and family, but is expected to make his pitch and is thought to have the backing of around 30 supporters of Mr Johnson from three years ago.The party’s 1922 Committee will decide the timetable for the first stage of the election on Monday, which will see Conservative MPs whittle down the candidates to a shortlist of just two.Voting could take place on almost every Commons sitting day to complete the process by the time MPs leave for their summer recess on 21 July.Conservative members will then make the final choice, after hustings across the country, with the aim of declaring the winner in late August – although there is pressure to move faster.Mr Sunak’s chances of replacing Mr Johnson appeared to have been sunk when The Independent revealed his wife’s tax-reducing non-dom status and he admitted holding a US green card while he was chancellor.His standing has been revived, not least by his resignation this week over the Chris Pincher scandal, but Tory members might resent his caution over immediate tax cuts favoured by other candidates.The former chancellor won the immediate endorsement of several senior Tories, including Commons leader Mark Spencer and former ministers Mark Harper and Bob Neill.The Independent has revealed how a whistleblower says a focus group he authorised under a £500,000 taxpayer-funded deal was an attempt to “improve the Tories’ image” – despite official denials.In Mr Sunak’s three-minute video, he spoke of his immigrant grandmother arriving in the UK “armed with hope for a better life”, saving enough money to bring over her family.“One of those children was my mother, aged 15. My mum studied hard and got the qualifications to become a pharmacist. She met my dad, an NHS GP, and they settled in Southampton,” he related.The video added: “Their story didn’t end there, but that is where my story began” – a story Mr Sunak now hopes will take him to 10 Downing Street.Nadhim Zahawi, the current chancellor, the trade minister Penny Mordaunt, the former health secretary Sajid Javid, the ex-Brexit minister Steve Baker and the Northern Research Group chair Jake Berry are also expected to be candidates.RecommendedComparisons to the Grand National race grew after a little-known backbencher astonished colleagues by saying he might “throw my hat in the ring”.John Baron said: “I am going to take soundings over the weekend, so I’m keeping my powder dry. I will be talking to a few people over the weekend and we will see what happens.” More

A Brexit-backing MP who gave Boris Johnson protesters the middle finger after he resigned has been given a job as an education minister.Andrea Jenkyns, a Johnson loyalist, shouted “wait and see” to crowds who went to watch his resignation.Raising a finger in the air for emphasis, Ms Jenkyns appeared to defy the hecklers, calling: “Those who laugh last, laugh loudest”.The member of the European Research Group gave the middle finger as she walked away.Now, just over 24 hours later, Ms Jenkyns has been given the role of education minister.Recommended More

Cabinet minister Dominic Raab would have been caretaker prime minister in an “ideal world” the treasurer of the Conservatives’ 1922 committee has said, but conceded: “That ship has sailed”.The comments from Sir Geoffrey Clinton-Brown came after Boris Johnson filled vacant cabinet roles, pledging not to “implement new policies or make major changes of direction” during his remaining time in office.But amid anger over the prime minister’s conduct, a series of Conservative backbenchers called for Mr Johnson to resign immediately — rather than acting as a caretaker PM until a new Tory leader is elected. More

Boris Johnson’s resignation has sparked questions as to where his career will go next as he awaits the election of a new Tory leader to replace him as prime minister.While the Uxbridge MP was mayor of London, he was paid about £250,000 a year for his second job writing columns for The Telegraph newspaper. In a 2009 interview, he dismissed the sum as “chicken feed” and said his comment was just him being “frivolous”. Now forced to give up his main job, it’s likely that he will consider turning his hand back to journalism because he could get paid higher rates that even he could take seriously. More

Nadine Dorries is reportedly considering entering the race to become the next leader of the Tory party.The culture secretary is a known die-hard Boris Johnson loyalist and thinks she can be a “continuation” candidate that will carry the prime minister’s policies and ideas forward after he leaves the post later this year.A source close to Ms Dorries told Mail+: “Nadine is seriously considering throwing her hat in the ring, as she is passionate about Boris’s levelling up agenda, defending Brexit and fighting woke culture. She wants to keep Boris’s flame alive.”It comes as the former chancellor Rishi Sunak – who quit on Tuesday prompting the wave of resignations against Mr Johnson – launched his leadership bid.In a video posted on social media, Mr Sunak promised to “restore trust” after the prime minister’s scandal-ridden tenure and also hinted he would end the culture wars which were so keenly stoked by Mr Johnson.RecommendedHe is the third candidate to declare his intention to run, alongside Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, and attorney general Suella Braverman.Liz Truss, Ben Wallace and Jeremy Hunt are expected to launch their own bids imminently, alongside further rumoured entrants such as transport minister Grant Shapps.A number of surprising names have also emerged among Tory backbenchers who could also consider a crack at the leadership.Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti and Basildon and Billericay MP John Baron, both relatively inexperienced, are also understood to be mulling over putting their names in the hat.The ever-lengthening list of MPs considering a leadership bid is making Tory party chiefs jittery as they fear a prolonged contest and ever-increasing ‘Blue on Blue’ attacks.Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and ex-cabinet minister Michael Gove, who was sacked earlier this week, have ruled themselves out of the contest, The Independent understands.RecommendedThe first phase of the leadership contest begins with a series of secret ballots by MPs. This list is then whittled down to a final two and is expected to be concluded by July 21 when the Commons breaks for the summer.It will then go to a final postal ballot of party members in the country. It is thought likely that it will be concluded by the time Parliament returns in early September. More

A Conservative backbencher has accidentally revealed instructions apparently sent by Rishi Sunak’s team to Tory MPs on how to post on social media to support the former chancellor in the party leadership race.The prepared Twitter post, which came just two hours after Mr Sunak revealed he was standing for Tory leader, included a quote purporting to be from the MP posting it, pasted across that MP’s own photograph.The instructions said: “If you’re happy, can you tweet and include the hashtag Ready4Rishi, and crucially the website Ready4rishi.com, and then your infographic below,” the suggestion read.The identical quote that all posters were to use said: “I’m backing Rishi as he will tackle inflation, grow the economy and cut taxes.“Rishi is why we have record low unemployment today. And that’s why he’s the best man to lead the country.”RecommendedBackbencher Paul Maynard accidentally tweeted a post that included the instructions – but quickly deleted the tweet and replaced it with a post as it was supposed to look.Users mocked him, saying his first post, prepared by public-relations people, was better.Earlier, just before Mr Sunak’s announcement, Mr Maynard invited Facebook followers in his Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency to complete a survey on who they thought should be the next prime minister.RecommendedStealing a march on rivals Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss and Ben Wallace in throwing his hat into the ring, Mr Sunak cast himself as the fiscally responsible candidate, resisting the clamour for tax cuts.He vowed to “restore trust” after Boris Johnson’s multiple scandals, hinting he would end “culture wars” if he became prime minister. More

A whistleblower says a focus group authorised by Rishi Sunak under a £500,000 taxpayer-funded deal was an attempt to argue the Tory party should not be blamed for the cost of living crisis.The participant has told The Independent of his “disgust” over what he described as an attempt to frame an argument that the government could not have done more to prevent the crisis.On Friday Rishi Sunak entered the Tory leadership race, vowing to “restore trust” and “reunite the country” after Boris Johnson’s scandal-tainted reign.“I’m standing to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and your prime minister. Let’s restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country,” Mr Sunak tweeted.The Treasury has defended the focus groups against criticism of the vast cost by arguing they “measure the understanding of policies” – but the man said he was never asked about any policies.RecommendedInstead, the group was told its purpose was to “determine whether the Conservative party can be held accountable for the cost of living problems you have experienced”, he alleged.The seven participants, at the 90-minute session held in the West Midlands in late April, were then asked if they agreed that “no government could have acted to prevent the cost of living crisis”.“I was shocked and disgusted by what happened, which seemed to be an attempt to indoctrinate the group,” said the whistleblower, who was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.“It left me feeling very dirty, that – although I don’t know exactly what they were looking for from me in terms of soundbites – I had helped feed their machine.”The disclosures will fuel criticism that the £500,000 deal – for two focus groups and one national online poll each week until next February – is for the benefit of the Tory party, yet funded by the taxpayer.It follows a report, after the Budget in March, that Mr Sunak “polled voters for months to decide how to sell his tax rises” – quoting a Treasury official saying: “When you mention the word honesty the polls go up by 10-20 per cent.”Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “The eye-witness account of these sessions appears to bear no resemblance to the embarrassment of excuses the Treasury has given to defend the indefensible.“There are now serious questions for ministers to answer as to why public money has apparently been misappropriated for party political propaganda.”Ms Rayner added: “Why should the public have to stump for Rishi Sunak’s vanity projects during a cost of living crisis?”The Independent was contacted by the whistleblower after the £500,000 contract was revealed. He has provided his name, but it cannot be disclosed because of the agreement he signed.We have seen proof of his participation in the form of an email sent by a market research company called Podengo, on behalf of “our client Deltapoll” – the firm with which the Treasury has its contract.The confirmation of his acceptance onto the focus group gives no clue about the questions to be asked, describing it only as “Project Vox”. Participants were each paid £50.The man, a charity worker in his thirties who has taken part in several dozen focus groups, added: “The purpose appeared to be the Conservative party and how to improve its image.“It was very, very different to other market research groups I have taken part in, which were more neutral. I had never come across this before.”At one point, the group was asked if it “believed” the official inflation rate figure of, at the time, 8 per cent, although the man said it was not clear why.It was also asked about the general idea of a windfall tax on energy firms, but not about Mr Sunak’s policy – a U-turn which was only announced one month later.The man said he disputed the implication that ministers could not have acted differently over the cost of living crisis, but was given the impression that such interventions were not welcome.The Treasury acknowledged that it did run the focus group he attended, in the West Midlands in late April, but insisted it complied with procurement regulations.RecommendedA spokesperson said: “The Treasury conducts regular polling to help develop and measure the impact and understanding of its policies.“This polling is run by the civil service and is politically neutral with no reference to any political parties.” More

A day after Boris Johnson succumbed to the inevitable and resigned following a deluge of resignations, popular Tory MP Tom Tugendhat wasted little time in declaring his intention to enter the race to become his successor.Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Tugendhat, 49, said: “I am putting together a broad coalition of colleagues that will bring new energy and ideas to government and, finally, to bridge the Brexit divide that has dominated our recent history.“I have served before – in the military, and now in parliament. Now I hope to answer the call once again as prime minister. It’s time for a clean start. It’s time for renewal.”Attorney general Suella Braverman had already signalled her own intention to run during a Wednesday night interview with ITV’s Robert Peston before Mr Johnson had even gone, downfall-instigator Rishi Sunak has since followed suit.Campaigns are likewise expected from other party big beasts including new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, foreign secretary Liz Truss, ex-health secretary Sajid Javid, defence secretary Ben Wallace and perhaps Steve Baker, Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt.Recommended More