Newslinks for Monday 18th March 2024 | Conservative Home

Sunak 1) The Prime Minister urges Tories to ‘stick with the plan’ as leadership talk grows

“Rishi Sunak has urged Tory MPs to stick with him and see his economic plan through amid speculation about a challenge to his leadership. On Sunday, the Prime Minister told backbenchers that “the economy is turning a corner” and urged them to hold their nerve despite the Conservative Party’s dire poll ratings. Mr Sunak was forced to speak out following days of speculation that Right-wing Conservatives were lining up Penny Mordaunt to replace him. On Sunday night, Number 10 issued his comments in a sign of growing concern amongst his aides about leadership plotting by Tory MPs. The Prime Minister told his party: “There is now a real sense that the economy is turning a corner, with all the economic indicators pointing in the right direction.” – The Daily Telegraph

• He tells critics: ‘This is our bounce back year’ – The Times
• Hester row and Anderson defection have ‘left Sunak weaker than ever’ – The Guardian
• He pins his hopes on a big fall in inflation this week to show that living standards are improving – The I
• Mordaunt ‘insists she isn’t trying to topple Sunak’ – The Times
• Strife and division won’t win the election – Editorial, The Daily Mail
• The notion that the Conservatives would benefit from toppling the Prime Minister is fanciful – Editorial, The Times
• Tory MPs must rally behind the Prime Minister. No one will vote a party of disunity, plots, and self-obsession – Editorial, The Sun
• Our clients don’t want to hear from Tories anymore – Rutherford Hall, The Financial Times
• Blame for dismal legacy of Tory rule cannot be laid solely at Sunak’s feet – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
• Everyone must get behind the Prime Minister’s plan – James Daly, Daily Express

>Yesterday:

Sunak 2) He is to promise help for Britain’s small businesses in ‘effort to woo voters’

“Rishi Sunak will announce reforms to help small businesses on Monday as he tries to shake off growing doubts about his struggling administration ahead of the general election expected this year. The prime minister, speaking at the government’s Business Connect conference in the Midlands, will announce new help for apprentices, cuts to red tape and a new task force for female entrepreneurs. The announcement is part of a policy blitz by Sunak as he tries to close a yawning gap in the opinion polls between his ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour party with just months until an election. The Tory party has been convulsed with speculation about Sunak’s leadership after a series of political mis-steps, with some MPs discussing the merits of ousting him…” – The Financial Times

Badenoch ‘slashes red tape’ for medium-sized businesses in ‘post-Brexit boost’

“Costly red tape including climate risk reporting will be axed for up to 40,000 businesses under post-Brexit reforms planned by Kemi Badenoch. The Business Secretary is on Monday set to announce reforms expected to save medium-sized firms £150 million a year as the government looks to kick-start growth and improve productivity. Under the proposals, medium-sized companies would no longer have to spend time and money compiling an annual “strategic report” for shareholders, as had been required under European Union rules. Ms Badenoch will also announce that the number of people a company can employ before it is legally classed as large will rise from 250 to 375. The move will see 5,000 companies reclassified as medium-sized…” – The Daily Telegraph

• She issues a ‘furious warning’ to MPs ‘plotting to oust’ the Prime Minister – Daily Express

Rwanda ‘wants two-month pause’ after first migrant flight arrivals

“Rwanda has insisted on a staggered start to migrant deportations with the first flights not taking off until mid-May at the earliest even if Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill becomes law this week, The Times can disclose. Government officials have said it will take a minimum of six weeks to get flights off the ground from the point at which the Safety of Rwanda Bill receives royal assent. The Home Office hopes it will be able to issue about 150 migrants with removal notification letters by the end of this week but it will depend on the outcome of votes on Wednesday in the House of Lords…Another source familiar with the plans confirmed that Rwanda will accept migrants from the UK in “stages”. “It has to be quite slowly staggered,” they added.” – The Times

• Ministers have accepted that number of migrants to be initially deported will be ‘small’ as Kigali wants time for scheme to bed in – The Daily Telegraph
• ‘Majority of Tory voters’ want Rwanda bill scrapped or watered down – The I
• True cost of UK sending migrants to Rwanda could be billions of pounds, says IPPR think-tank – The Financial Times
• Labour pledges ‘1,000 strong returns unit for asylum seekers’ if it wins power – The I
• A historic defeat for the Tories looms if the Rwanda plan is grounded – Matthew Goodwin, Daily Express

Putin is a modern-day Stalin, says Shapps, after Russian leader wins ‘sham election’

“Vladimir Putin is behaving like “a modern-day Stalin”, Grant Shapps has said after the Russian president won a fifth term in office. Writing for The Telegraph…the Defence Secretary accused Putin of having stolen the Russian election after having opponents such as Alexei Navalny “imprisoned or murdered”. Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s widow, joined a queue of voters outside the Russian embassy in Berlin at midday on Sunday in a protest against Putin’s rule. An exit poll published on Sunday night showed that Putin had won 88 per cent of the vote on a turnout of 73.3 per cent…Thousands of people turned up at polling stations in Russia and cities across the world on Sunday to participate in the Noon Against Putin protest over his re-election.” – The Daily Telegraph

• What will Putin do next as president of Russia? – The Times
• He strolls to victory – but his opponents ‘humiliate and outfox him’ – The Daily Telegraph
• We’re still stunningly complacent about the grave threat Putin presents to our way of life and democratic values – Ian Birrell, The Daily Mail

Harper announces residents will ‘get a say’ on LTNs as guidance updated

“Councils will be obliged to consider residents’ views before creating new low-traffic neighbourhoods under updated government guidance. The Department for Transport has published draft statutory guidance for councils on LTNs, insisting that they must get buy-in from local residents, businesses and emergency services when designing schemes. It will come into force in the summer. LTNs restrict vehicles from using certain roads and prioritise cyclists and pedestrians. The move comes after a review uncovered concerns over LTNs, including emergency service delays, the impact on disabled residents and the high number of penalty charge notices the schemes generated…A review showed that only 13 per cent of residents responded to councils’ planning consultations on LTNs.” – The Times

>Yesterday:

Nick Timothy: The Islamist threat is all too real – Gove understands that it needs tackling

“British politicians and those with responsibility in wider society urgently need to understand who these extremists are, which organisations speak for them, and where their ideas come from. If they fail to do so, not only violence but political subjugation awaits us. Extremists insist, and sincerely believe, that they act in the name of Islam…This is why it is vital that the Government defines extremism, identifies extremist organisations and shuns, punishes and proscribes them accordingly. Whatever the concerns about Gove’s definition – and complaints are mostly worries about its misuse by a civil service and public sector in dire need of reform – he is the one minister who has sought to understand the threat we face. Now, others must follow his lead.” – The Daily Telegraph

Cates: Egg freezing is a ‘false promise’

“Women are being “exploited” into freezing their eggs under the “false promise” that it will likely result in them having a baby, a Tory MP has said. Miriam Cates criticised large companies who pay for female employees to freeze their eggs and urged women to put having a family before their career. Cates told the Mail on Sunday: “Egg freezing doesn’t work. A tiny percentage of people who freeze their eggs will ever become pregnant. “By the time women think about doing this, for obvious reasons they are thinking, ‘my biological clock is ticking, I’ve not met the right guy, I’m not ready to settle down’. Freezing eggs at about the age of 35 would likely not result in pregnancy because the eggs were not good enough quality, she said…” – The Times

Labour’s private school tax raid ‘could cost taxpayer £1.6 billion a year’

“Labour’s private school tax raid could cost the taxpayer £1.6 billion a year as it forces a quarter of pupils into the state sector, a new report has found. Sir Keir Starmer’s party has made introducing VAT on independent school fees a flagship policy, claiming it would generate £1.7 billion to spend on state education. But an analysis by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), a free market think tank, warned that the policy was based on flawed assumptions and could cost the public purse billions across a single parliament. Sir Keir has already unveiled seven policies that would be funded by his tax raid to the tune of £1.3 billion, the amount the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that it would raise annually.” – The Daily Telegraph

• Labour landslide will be ‘much harder to achieve than in 1997’, analysis shows – The Guardian
• Khan presides over ‘surge in fatcats’ at City Hall with over 1,000 pen-pushers on £100,000 plus salaries – The Sun
• Starmer will not pull off what Blair did in 1997 – Ian Birrell, The I
• Labour is bound to have its own Hester moment – Will Lloyd, The Times

>Today:

>Yesterday:

Matheson should not resign as an MSP, Yousaf says

“Michael Matheson should not resign as an MSP after being found to have broken rules by claiming an £11,000 roaming charges bill from the taxpayer, Humza Yousaf has insisted. Mr Yousaf said his former health secretary was a “decent person” who had made a “mistake” after running up the charges while on a family holiday…The First Minister argued that Mr Matheson had already been suitably punished by losing his Scottish Cabinet job and paying back the money to the public purse. But the Tories said it was not enough for Mr Matheson to resign as a minister…and called for a bill that would allow his Falkirk West constituents to sack him. Their demand came after…an investigation by the Scottish Parliament…found he had breached two sections of the MSP code of conduct.” – The Daily Telegraph

• Warning that new hate crime law may lead to police being swamped – The Times
• SNP demand police return campervan at centre of finances investigation – The Daily Telegraph
• His internal critics round on Yousaf’s ‘Tory-free Scotland’ pledge – The Times
• Wishart said he would not use his leader’s controversial language – The Daily Telegraph
• This protracted police investigation is a disaster for the SNP – Iain Macwhirter, The Times

Davey ‘vows to get UK back in single market’

“Sir Ed Davey has pledged to put the UK “on the path back to the single market” and “restore Britain’s place at the heart of Europe”. The Liberal Democrat leader told his party’s spring conference in York that Europe “is where we belong” and that he wanted to “repair the damage the Conservatives have done”. He said the prime minister “sounds like he’s already given up” and that setting the general election date is “pretty much the only thing left that Rishi Sunak controls any more”. The Tories, he said, “no longer represent British values of decency, tolerance and the rule of law”, and he challenged members to “smash the blue wall” at the election…The Lib Dems are using the gathering to prepare for a further push into traditional Conservative strongholds…” – The Times

News in Brief:

• How was the puberty-blocking scandal ever allowed to happen? – Brendan O’Neill, The Spectator 
• Wales’s new First Minister already plagued by scandal – Henry Hill, UnHerd 
• A 30p vision for Britain – Joseph Dinnage, CapX 
• The ongoing reality of Russian imperialism – Dmitri Levitin, The Critic 
• We need a 21st-century Thatcherism not more Heseltine or Brown – Simon Cooke, The View from Culllingworth