UK Politics

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorKemi Badenoch has been forced to stress that she does believe in maternity pay after she sparked fury by saying it was “excessive”.The Tory leadership contender on Sunday said the government was doing “too much” on statutory maternity pay, before quickly backtracking on the remarks.Describing statutory maternity pay as “a function of tax”, she told Times Radio: “Tax comes from people who are working, we’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.”Arguing that businesses are closing because “the burden of regulation is too high”, she added: “We need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions.The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said the former business secretary was “out of touch” over the claim.General secretary Paul Nowak said: “The Conservative Party leadership candidates are hopelessly out of touch and seem to be competing with one another to be the most unkind and nasty.“Maternity pay in the UK is lower than in many other economies – forcing too many mums back from leave early.”Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, condemned Ms Badenoch’s comments More

Immigrants who see Israel as enemy ‘not welcome’ in UK says Kemi BadenochYour support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseMy recent work focusing on Latino voters in Arizona has shown me how crucial independent journalism is in giving voice to underrepresented communities.Your support is what allows us to tell these stories, bringing attention to the issues that are often overlooked. Without your contributions, these voices might not be heard.Every dollar you give helps us continue to shine a light on these critical issues in the run up to the election and beyondEric GarciaWashington Bureau ChiefKemi Badenoch has sparked controversy after describing maternity pay as “excessive” and calling for greater personal responsibility. In an interview with Times Radio, the Tory leadership hopeful argued that government intervention on issues like the maternity benefit had gone “too far”, placing a burden on businesses. Ms Badenoch’s remarks have drawn fierce criticism, with union bosses and campaigners condemning them as “out of touch” and “another example of dog-whistle politics”. Reacting to the comments, rival candidate Tom Tugendhat said he did not know the context of Ms Badenoch’s claims but that it is important for women to have the ability to choose, while Robert Jenrick said the party should be “firmly on the side of parents and working mums”.It comes after the shadow secretary defended her claim that there has been a recent rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.She said in a newspaper op-ed on Sunday that migrants’ “feet may be in the UK, but their heads and hearts are still back in their country of origin.” But when she was asked on Sky News if she was referring to Muslim immigrants, Ms Badenoch disagreed.The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.Show latest update 1727621404Pictured: Tugendhat with Tees Valley Mayor Ben HouchenTom Tugendhat with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen during the Conservative Party Conference at International Convention Centre in Birmingham More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorA bit like the little boy in the old fairytale The Emperor’s New Clothes, who points out that the ruler is naked, sometimes someone says what everyone else is thinking but is too scared to express. Rosie Duffield’s castigating letter to Keir Starmer certainly falls into this category, as she surgically dismembered what have been a dreadful first 10 weeks for the new Labour government with almost brutal glee.Critics of the Canterbury MP – and there are many – will point out that she has been an outlier in the party for several years now, sitting on its fringes after her attacks on trans rights and her support for figures like JK Rowling made her a hero to some and a bigoted villain to others. Starmer was always in the latter camp in that debate.There were constant rumours that Duffield might switch to the Tories. Certainly she was wooed, but she never crossed the floor, and the suggestion was always dismissed as another attempt to poison her reputation. In her resignation letter, she emphasises her union roots and her belief in social democracy, and questions whether the position of Starmer himself is more akin to Tory thinking.MP Rosie Duffield has resigned the Labour whip More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorSir Keir Starmer has launched a fightback against accusations his government is mired in “sleaze, nepotism and avarice” with an announcement that the rules on declaring donations and gifts will be changed.The prime minister and a succession of cabinet ministers have been pilloried for accepting thousands of pounds in freebies from corporate sponsors and millionaire donors with the scandal hitting the party in the polls.In a bid to stave off criticism and put the government back on track, Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who runs the Cabinet Office “engine room” of Whitehall, has announced that an exception which meant ministers did not have to declare tickets for events while all other MPs did will be stopped.Mr McFadden claimed the current rules were a “Tory loophole” to protect Conservative ministers.The move came after Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield quit Labour, accusing Sir Keir of presiding over “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice”. Pat McFadden said the Government will overhaul the rules (Lucy North/PA) More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorRobert Jenrick squirmed as he was challenged over his past support for Donald Trump, saying it is “natural” for a Conservative to lean towards Republican candidates.The Tory leadership contest frontrunner was noticeably uncomfortable when the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg challenged him over his past support for the bombastic ex-US president.He avoided using Trump’s name when repeatedly asked the question, instead reverting to historic links between the Tories and Republicans in the US.Asked if he backs Trump on Sunday, Mr Jenrick said: “The Conservative Party has strong and historic links to the Republican Party, so it is natural that we would lean towards Republican candidates.Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorOne of Rishi Sunak’s most influential critics has admitted that, had the party listened to the then prime minister, it could have avoided the calamitous defeat it suffered at the general election.Ben Houchen, the mayor of Teesside and the only leading Tory left in power, insists that his party “absolutely can win in five years” but warns that the Conservatives should not try to become a version of Reform UK in an attempt to achieve this.Lord Houchen, who has yet to come out publicly in support of any of the leadership contenders, spoke exclusively to The Independent ahead of the party’s conference this week in Birmingham, and after an election at which the Tories returned a historically low 121 MPs.Having backed Boris Johnson to return as prime minister when Liz Truss resigned, and then disowned Mr Sunak before the local and regional elections in May – not even wearing a blue rosette when his result was announced – Lord Houchen now believes that the former prime minister’s analysis was right, but that “people had stopped listening”.He warned that while Labour is struggling with questions about freebies, the influence of wealthy donors like Waheed Alli, and anger over the new government’s policies – particularly that of cancelling winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners – the Tories “still have a long, hard road to recovery”.Sunak visited Teesside in May following Houchen’s re-election as Tees Valley mayor More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorCuts to pensioner winter fuel payments will save hundreds of millions less than anticipated, Rachel Reeves has been warned.The chancellor announced the controversial cuts in a bid to attempt to improve Britain’s finances, with the Labour government claiming that they had inherited a £22bn “blackhole”.The move is expected to remove payments from millions of pensioners across England and Wales, with only those receiving pension credit entitled to the payment.New analysis from the Observer however has thrown her projected £1.4bn savings in doubt, given that there had been a 152 per cent surge in claims for pension credit over the last eight weeks.Official government data suggests there has already been an additional 45,000 extra claims, which means that any savings could be significantly lower than the Treasury expected.Tens of thousands of additional claims have been made for pension credit More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorBenjamin Netanyahu should be “congratulated” for assassinating the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Kemi Badenoch has said, as the region teeters on the brink of all-out war.The Tory leadership hopeful said the killing of the militant group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah would “create more peace in the Middle East” and that what Israel did “was extraordinary”.But, with Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon continuing, the assassination marks a major escalation in the conflict and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed it “will not go unavenged”.On the opening day of the Conservative Party conference, Ms Badenoch was asked what she would be saying to the UK’s allies, including Israel, if she was the party’s leader.She told Sky News: “I would be congratulating prime minister Netanyahu, I think what they did was extraordinary. Israel is showing that it has moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West as well.Kemi Badenoch said Israel’s killing of the Hezbollah chief was ‘extraordinary’ More