Badenoch says ‘rush' to meet net zero pushing up holiday costs
She slammed Labour's 'ideological' plans to reach net zero by 2050, a target she previously dismissed as impossible to meet, and said they would hit holidaymakers.
'Labour's ideological rush to Net Zero 2050 is not only bankrupting our country and leaving us dangerously reliant on China, it's also making holidays more expensive, just as the cost-of-living crisis for working people gets worse.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch meeting staff during a visit to Stansted Airport in Essex (Chris Radburn/PA)
'Under my leadership the Conservative Party are going to make things easier for the makers, the people who work hard to provide for their families, and not force up the cost of their summer holidays,' she said.
The Tory leader pointed to plans to raise air passenger duty and the Climate Change Committee's call for the cost of decarbonising aviation to be reflected in the cost of flights.
Speaking to airport staff during the visit, Mrs Badenoch told them how the pandemic showed how 'critical' Stansted was for the local economy.
'But I always tell the story of how when Covid hit and so many people lost their jobs, all of those people turned up in my surgeries.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch meeting staff during a visit to Stansted Airport (Chris Radburn/PA)
'It really showed just how critical the airport was, how important it was for the local community and well beyond.'
The new arrivals building was part of a £1.1 billion transformation at Stansted, the UK's fourth largest airport.
The work, expected to continue over the next three to four years, will also include a £600 million extension to the main terminal, increasing its size by 40%.
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Daily Mirror
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
First Farage, now Jenrick, the BBC pandering to the extremists does nothing to dial down the temperature
What message does it send when the man maligning millions of people, about whom he knows nothing, comes out as the good guy? Robert Jenrick has some brass neck contending with the widely-held belief that the latest of his poisonous remarks, consistently demonising migrants, is xenophobic. The BBC this week issued an apology after the Shadow Justice Secretary complained that a critic had been handed airtime to push back. And when the state broadcaster caves in to men like Jenrick, we are all in trouble. It was theologian and author Dr Krish Kandiah, speaking on the BBC's Thought for the Day who spoke for many - including the ordinary people across the country at risk from the increasingly inflammatory language and people platformed by broadcasters who should know better. Kandian used the word 'xenophobia' in relation to an article in which Jenrick said: "I certainly don't want my children to share a neighbourhood with men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally and about whom we know next to nothing.' Kandian said: "These words echo a fear many have absorbed – fear of the stranger. The technical name for this is xenophobia. All phobias are, by definition, irrational. Nevertheless, they have a huge impact.' Jenrick posted online in response: "On BBC Radio 4 this morning listeners were told that if you're concerned about the threat of illegal migrants to your kids, you're racist. Wrong. You're a good parent.' The BBC's position was that it was apologising to Jenrick for the inclusion of an opinion in a place where it was inappropriate, not passing judgement on the rights or wrongs of the opinion. But when is pushing back against hate ever inappropriate? What message does it send when the man maligning millions of people about whom he knows nothing, comes out as the good guy? And what world are we living in when we cannot use the words (Kandian let him off lightly in my opinion) that accurately sum up yet another of Jenrick's attempts to stir up division. Here's a glimpse at his recent body of work. There was the time in January he used the sexual exploitation of young girls to blanket-condemn 'hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures who possess medieval attitudes towards women'. Describe one of your colleagues' countries at work as medieval with an alien culture and see how far you get before you are disciplined. Twelve months ago Jenrick was vilified for saying police should 'immediately arrest' any protesters shouting 'Allahu Akbar', the Arabic phrase meaning God is great. In response, Conservative party chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said: "This language from Jenrick is more of his usual nasty divisive rhetoric.' Labour MPs Naz Shah, the MP for Bradford West, called Mr Jenrick's comments "textbook Islamophobia'. His comments "literally equate every Muslim in the world with extremism" she argued. In a social media post she said: 'Imagine in this climate, either being that ignorant or deliberately trying to stigmatise all Muslims. He should apologise and speak to Muslim communities and learn more about our faith.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: 'People like Robert Jenrick have been stirring up some of the problems that we've seen in our communities.' Then there was the time last October the Shadow Chancellor insisted Britain's former colonies should be thankful for the legacy of the empire. Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, lawyer and activist posted on X: 'The ingratitude of this political illiterate @RobertJenrick. Britain would be nothing without colonised African & Asian nations. Its Industrial Revolution & Capitalist Wealth were built on the blood, sweat, forced labour & lives of our forebears. 'The 'inheritance' it left were the resources it stole, lands it pillaged, genocides committed, division of nations, systemic rape & collective punishment committed in the name of its racist British empire – a genocidal & thieving empire that still profits off former colonies to date.' Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on African reparations, said: 'Enslavement and colonialism were not 'gifts' but imposed systems that brutally exploited people, extracted wealth, and dismantled societies, all for the benefit of Britain.' So for the BBC to apologise to Jenrick, even on a technicality, sums up how detached from reality the broadcaster finds itself. In any case, what does Jenrick have to be upset about? Firstly the context. As we know there is precedent for politicians using language like him to insult, vilify entire groups of people and stir up hatred. In 1964, former Tory MP Peter Griffiths was elected to Smethwick, north west Birmingham, on the slogan 'If you want a n***** for a neighbour, vote Labour.' Griffiths refused to disown it, claiming he regarded it as 'a manifestation of popular feeling.' Second, the framing. Jenrick's Tory party closed off all the legal routes into this country in order to deliberately frame those arriving as illegals. To suggest everyone arriving - including families - as a threat is a throwback to the days of Griffiths. Third, the BBC is the channel that ordered one of its non-white presenters to, humiliatingly, apologise for stating that Nigel Farage had been using, in a Reform UK speech, his 'customary inflammatory language' - even though he actually had been using his customary inflammatory language. The Beeb is also the channel which had its own staff publicly rebel after Breakfast show presenter Naga Munchetty was found to have breached the corporation's editorial guidelines in criticising US President Donald Trump for telling black politicians to 'go home'. Munchetty was ruled to have overstepped by accusing the US president of racism. Angry colleagues at the time pointed out that the complaints unit is dominated by older white men with no real grasp of the way in which Trump's words impact ordinary people. It looks very much as though that unit is still crammed to bursting with privileged middle-class high earners with their heads in the sand. Because if Jenrick's remarks don't qualify as xenophobic then what does? The Beeb needs to pick a side, because if you are non-white there have been a number of decisions from the broadcasters which do not help the fight against those who wish to divide us. Remember the time when it broadcast live, in its entirety, that repugnant, 2022 party conference speech by then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, packed with lies and 'hurricane of migrants' rhetoric. The criticism of the Beeb's decision to hand a season ticket to Farage for its flagship political debate show Question Time, long before he was ever elected to Clacton, is well documented. And there remains a feeling that the broadcaster is happier to chase controversy than play its part in calming tensions. It needs to answer that charge urgently. Because to pander to extremists is simply not good enough. Ends
Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Ash Sarkar — I underestimated Nigel Farage, he's outflanking Labour
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Powys County Times
12 minutes ago
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No-fault evictions by bailiffs up 8% in Labour's first year in Government
No-fault evictions by bailiffs in England have risen by 8% in the 12 months since Labour came into Government, new data shows. The party has pledged to end no-fault evictions under its Renters' Rights Bill, which is in the final stages of going through Parliament. Shelter branded it 'unconscionable' that renters 'continue to be marched out of their homes by bailiffs' a year after Labour came to power. There were 11,402 repossessions by county court bailiffs following a Section 21 notice – known as a no-fault eviction – between July last year and June, according to data published by the Ministry of Justice. This was up 8% from 10,576 for the previous 12-month period. There were 2,679 in the three months to June, which was down from 2,931 the previous quarter and down from 2,915 for the same April to June period last year. The latest Government data also showed 30,729 claims had been issued to households under the accelerated procedure in the year to June. Landlords can apply for an accelerated possession order if the tenants have not left by the date specified in a Section 21 notice. The current figure was down 4% from 32,103 for the previous 12-month period. Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter, said: 'It is unconscionable that more than a year after the Government came to power, thousands of renters continue to be marched out of their homes by bailiffs because of an unfair policy that the Government said would be scrapped immediately. 'For far too long, tenants' lives have been thrown into turmoil by the rank injustice of no-fault evictions. At the whim of private landlords, thousands of tenants are being left with just two months to find a new home, plunging them into a ruthless rental market and leaving many exposed to the riptide of homelessness. 'The Renters' Rights Bill will overhaul a broken system and usher in a long-overdue era of stability and security for tenants. To curb record homelessness and ensure renters can live free from the threat of no-fault eviction, the Government must deliver on this commitment, pass the Bill, and name an implementation date when Section 21 will finally be scrapped.' Shelter described no-fault evictions as one of the leading causes of homelessness, giving landlords the power to evict tenants without any reason given. The charity said its analysis of the latest figures suggested that for every month a ban on no-fault evictions is delayed, around 950 households could be removed from their homes by bailiffs. Echoing the call for an urgent ban, homelessness charity Crisis said many are at risk of homelessness if faced with eviction. The charity's chief executive, Matt Downie, said: 'Despite good intentions from the Westminster Government, thousands of people are still being unjustly evicted from their homes and threatened with – or even forced into – homelessness. 'We know the UK Government has had a packed agenda, but we now need ministers to rebuff efforts to weaken the Renters' Rights Bill and get this new legislation onto the statute book as soon as possible when Parliament returns. Unfreezing housing benefit in the autumn would also ensure that more people in England can afford a safe and stable home.' The Renters' Reform Coalition, said the year-on-year fall in accelerated procedure claims 'blows apart the myth of a 'landlord exodus' and eviction surge caused by the Renters' Rights Bill' and urged the Government to 'press on and abolish section 21 immediately once the Bill is passed'. The new data comes a week after Rushanara Ali resigned her role as homelessness minister following a report that she gave tenants at a property she owned in east London four months' notice to leave before relisting the property with a £700 rent increase within weeks. Ms Ali's house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and it was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to the i newspaper. Such a move would likely be prohibited under the Renters' Rights Bill, which is set to introduce new protections for tenants including banning landlords who evict tenants in order to sell their property from relisting it for rent for six months. In her resignation letter Ms Ali insisted she had 'at all times' followed 'all legal requirements' and taken her responsibilities 'seriously', but added that continuing in her role would be 'a distraction from the ambitious work of the Government' and therefore was stepping down. Responding to Thursday's figures, a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: 'No one should live in fear of a Section 21 eviction and these new figures show exactly why we will abolish them through our Renters' Rights Bill, which is a manifesto commitment and legislative priority for this Government. 'We're determined to level the playing field by providing tenants with greater security, rights and protections in their homes and our landmark reforms will be implemented swiftly after the Bill becomes law.'
