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Business minister Jonathon Reynolds defended his party after it was revealed Sue Gray earns more than the Prime Minister. The Labour Party was branded “embarrassing” and of showing “stunning arrogance”, as Mr Reynolds was grilled about Ms Gray’s salary during an interview with Kay Burley on Sky News today (19 September).“Explain to me the stunning arrogance of a member of staff who thinks they should earn more than the boss,” Ms Burley said.Mr Reynolds said: “This is clearly an important job.”Ms Burley challenged the minister again, asking why Ms Gray reportedly earns £170,000 a year, compared to Keir Starmer’s £100,000. More

Kemi Badenoch has claimed she grew up in a middle-class family but “became working class” after getting a job at McDonald’s aged 16.The Tory MP, who is currently in the race to become the party’s next leader, made the comments during an appearance on Chopper’s Political Podcast with Christopher Hope.“I grew up in a middle-class family, but I became working class when I was 16 working in McDonald’s,” Ms Badenoch said.Her claim soon went viral on social media, and has drawn criticism, including from Labour MP Chris Bryant.“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” he wrote, responding to the clip. More

Sir Ed Davey’s speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton on Tuesday, 17 September, touched on the need to fix Britain’s broken relationship with Europe – but the party leader did not go as far as many of the party’s Europhile activists would like.Sir Ed called for measures such as a return to the single market and a free movement scheme for young people but stopped short of promising to campaign to reverse Brexit, as his predecessor did in the 2019 election.Here, The Independent political correspondent Archie Mitchell delivers his analysis of Sir Ed’s keynote speech. More

Sir Ed Davey belted out Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” to close out the Liberal Democrats conference in Brighton on Tuesday, 17 September.The party leader, all 72 Lib Dem MPs, and the crowd were on their feet singing and clapping along to the hit as confetti poured down from the ceiling.Sir Ed used his conference speech to urge Sir Keir Starmer to “make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS”.His party also announced it would campaign for a new Winterproof NHS Taskforce, which would manage a £1.5bn budget to build resilience across hospital wards, accident and emergency departments, ambulance services and patient discharging. More

Diane Abbott has accused Sir Keir Starmer of treating her like a “non-person” during a race row over comments made by a major Tory donor.In March, The Guardian reported that Frank Hester had told colleagues that looking at Ms Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women”.Ms Abbott, a veteran Labour MP, said she expected more support from the prime minister and her party, having been left feeling in danger by Frank Hester’s comments.She went on to claim that Sir Keir “never reached out to me personally and did treat me as a non-person”. More

Labour minister Dame Angela Eagle has defended the Prime Minister following reports he accepted at least £76,000 of gifts, including football away games and concert tickets.The Home Office minister was quizzed about the donations by Sky News presenter Kay Burley on Tuesday’s breakfast show (17 September).Burley said: “The freebies include the Royal Box at Wimbledon, hospitality at a Coldplay concert, Arsenal away games. “How does that align with the son of a toolmaker, man of the people image?”Dame Angela replied: “I think he’s an Arsenal fan, it takes all things I suppose.” More

Sky News presenter Sir Trevor Phillips labelled the Labour government a pretty miserable bunch” during an interview with the Foreign Secretary.The broadcaster challenged David Lammy over current pledges the new government has made since coming to power in July.Speaking on his Sunday breakfast show today (15 September), Sir Trevor said: “You’re proposing a ban on advertising fast food, you’re banning smartphones for kids, you are promising 10 years of slog to repair the NHS.“You personally are a cheerful chap but as a government, you are a pretty miserable bunch aren’t you?”Mr Lammy smiled and replied: “You do this to get to the sunny uplands.” More