UK Politics

Sir Mel Stride has issued a warning to any Conservative colleagues plotting leadership challenges, urging them not to risk derailing the party just as he says it is starting to get back on track.On the eve of the party conference, the shadow chancellor has told The Independent that voters “will never forgive” the Tories if they return to “self indulgent” leadership contests again – less than a year after Kemi Badenoch was elected leader.It comes after a dismal first year out of power for the party, which has continued to slip in the polls – despite Labour’s woes – while Nigel Farage and Reform UK have surged ahead and now sit as the most likely challengers to the government at the next election.The Conservatives’ downfall has promoted speculation that Ms Badenoch could face a serious leadership challenge, with shadow cabinet colleagues Robert Jenrick and Sir James Cleverly tipped as the main contenders to replace her, but Sir Mel has insisted a change at the top now would be counterproductive.“I think we’ve got to hold our nerve,” he said. “Look, nobody finds it comfortable to be where we are in the polls. “Nobody finds it comfortable to have lost the last election as decisively as we did and the difficulties we had in the more recent local elections. So I understand totally why people are uncomfortable with that, but what we’ve got to do is hold our nerve. Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride (Jeff Moore/ PA credit) More

Kemi Badenoch is an unknown politician who the public do not trust, Britain’s top polling guru has said. The Tory leader has been unable to halt the decline in support for her party, which collapsed over Partygate and Liz Truss’s premiership and has been falling ever since, Professor Sir John Curtice said. In a damning assessment ahead of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Sir John said: “The Tories are now barely more popular with those that voted Brexit than they are with the people who voted Remain, despite being the party that delivered Brexit.” Even Conservative supporters do not believe the party is ready for government More

A majority of Conservative Party members support Britain’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, despite Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to scrap landmark climate legislation if the Tories win the next election. In a survey of Tory members, by Professor Tim Bale at Queen Mary University of London, 51 per cent said they back the UK’s net zero plans, while 45 per cent said they were opposed. Among the general public, 69 per cent said they support the net zero target, while just 20 per cent said they were opposed to it.A row over net zero could overshadow the Tory conference in Manchester More

In a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, the new president of Japan’s long-governing Liberal Democrats, and likely next prime minister, is an ultra-conservative star of a male-dominated party that critics call an obstacle to women’s advancement.Sanae Takaichi, 64. admires former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is a proponent of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative vision for Japan. Takaichi is the first female president of Japan’s predominantly male ruling party that has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost without interruption. First elected to parliament from her hometown of Nara in 1993, she has served in key party and government posts, including minister of economic security, internal affairs and gender equality. Female lawmakers in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party who were given limited ministerial posts have often been shunned as soon as they spoke up about diversity and gender equality. Takaichi has stuck with old-fashioned views favored by male party heavyweights.Women comprise only about 15% of Japan’s lower house, the more powerful of the two parliamentary chambers. Only two of Japan’s 47 prefectural governors are women.A drummer in a heavy-metal band and a motorbike rider as a student, Takaichi has called for a stronger military, more fiscal spending for growth, promotion of nuclear fusion, cybersecurity and tougher policies on immigration. She vowed to drastically increase female ministers in her government. But experts say she might actually set back women’s advancement because as leader she would have to show loyalty to influential male heavyweights. If not she risks a short-lived leadership. Takaichi has backed the LDP policy of having women serve in their traditional roles of being good mothers and wives. But she also recently acknowledged her struggles with menopausal symptoms and stressed the need to educate men about female health to help women at school and work.Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, opposes same-sex marriage and a revision to the 19th century civil law that would allow separate surnames for married couples so that women don’t get pressured into abandoning theirs.She is a wartime history revisionist and China hawk. She regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, which Japan’s neighbors consider a symbol of militarism, though she has declined to say what she would do as prime minister. Political watchers say her revisionist views of Japan’s wartime history may complicate ties with Beijing and Seoul.Her hawkish stance is also a worry for the LDP’s longtime partnership with Komeito, a Buddhist-backed moderate party. While she has said the current coalition is crucial for her party, she says she is open to working with far-right groups. More

More than 180 constituencies are threatened by Reform UK’s controversial pro-fracking agenda, new research has revealed.The analysis by Friends of the Earth this week identifies the parliamentary areas that could be vulnerable to development for fracking if Nigel Farage’s party were to get into government.A total of 187 constituencies are partially or totally within areas the British Geological Society has labelled ‘Shale Prospective Areas’ – locales where specific geologic conditions exist that could make fracking viable – according to the environmental justice organisation.Of these constituencies, it found that 141 are existing Labour seats, 25 are Conservative, 15 are held by the Liberal Democrats and 2 by Reform, with swathes of Scotland, the North of England, the Midlands and the South potentially at risk. MPs, including former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Reform’s Lee Anderson and energy secretary Ed Miliband, are among those whose constituencies could be affected.The Independent has now mapped out the research, showing the proportion of shale areas in each constituency, as well as the political party of the local MP.Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas from shale rock by pumping liquids deep underground at high pressures to release the gas trapped inside.There is a de facto ban on fracking in the UK, originally brought in six years ago. The government ended its support for fracking in 2019 after an Oil and Gas Authority report found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability of tremors associated with the practice.But Reform has called for more extraction of oil and gas, pledging to “unlock Britain’s vast energy treasure of oil and gas to slash energy bills, beat the cost-of-living crisis and unleash real economic growth”.Last month, YouGov polling revealed the unpopularity of fracking with the public, with twice as many people opposing the practice as supporting it. This runs parallel to the consistent local opposition that communities facing the threat of fracking have mounted against developments over many years, which – along with tremors at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site – eventually led to the moratorium in 2019.The analysis by Friends of the Earth this week identifies the parliamentary areas that could be vulnerable to development for fracking if Nigel Farage’s party were to get into government More

Baroness Michelle Mone has hit out at Kemi Badenoch and said she has no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer after a company linked to her was ordered to repay millions of pounds for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract.On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to pay back the government nearly £122 million. In response, several high-profile politicians have called for Lady Mone to relinquish her seat in the Lords, with Tory leader Ms Badenoch saying she had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party”, and should have the “book thrown at her”.Entrepreneur Michelle Mone (Archive/PA) More

Zack Polanski has vowed to defend Britain from a descent into authoritarianism under Sir Keir Starmer, warning the prime minister that “our rights and our liberties are not negotiable”. In his first conference speech as Green Party leader, the left-wing firebrand attacked Sir Keir over digital IDs, the proscription of the Palestine Action protest group and Labour’s decision to ban a handful of journalists from its own conference in Liverpool.“This country has a proud tradition of protecting civil liberties – but once again a Labour government is cracking down on our rights,” he warned.Mr Polanski said: “From terrorist proscription against protesters, to banning journalists from their conference, to diving into a rushed, evidence-free plan for digital IDs that are likely to discriminate against minorities.“The alarm bells of authoritarianism are now ringing.” And he said: “It’s down to us, the Green Party, to take a stand and say that our rights and our liberties are not negotiable, and we will do everything in our power to protect both our privacy and defend our juries.” Mr Polanski said the proscription of Palestine Action, which is planning another protest in London on Saturday despite the threat of arrest against those who support it, “must be withdrawn”. It comes after the home secretary called for pro-Gaza demonstrations to be cancelled in the wake of Thursday’s terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester.Shabana Mahmood urged those considering attending protests in the wake of the tragedy to “show some humanity”. Polanski giving his first conference speech as leader of the Green Party on Friday More