Rape investigation into Crispin Blunt dropped
An 18-month investigation into allegations of rape against former Justice Minister Crispin Blunt has now been dropped. In October 2023, the-then Tory MP was arrested by Surrey Police, prompting the removal of the party whip. He confirmed he was the subject of the probe at the time following reports of a Conservative parliamentarian being arrested. Blunt was subsequently bailed and stood down from parliament at the July 2024 election, with the investigation still ongoing.
However, in a statement, Surrey Police today told The Spectator that:
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Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Tories try to bury the Liz Truss ghost as Mel Stride hammers ex-PM's mini-Budget and hits out at Reform's 'magic money tree' economics
The Tories attempted to emerge from the long shadow of Liz Truss 's time in office today as Mel Stride hammered her 2022 mini-Budget for shredding the party's 'credibility'. In a major economic speech the shadow chancellor Mel Stride laid into the former Conservative PM's 49-day tenure, saying it had 'put at risk the very stability which [we] had always said must be carefully protected'. Mr Stride said that the public want to know that their government will act responsibly with their money and delivery a prosperous future for their families, adding: 'On much of that the Conservative Party was seen to have failed.' His remarks triggered a spat with Ms Truss, who accused Mr Stride online of having 'kowtowed to the failed Treasury orthodoxy' and being 'set on undermining my plan for growth'. His address to the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce is the first attempt by a senior figure of Kemi Badenoch 's shadow Cabinet to distance the party from a difficult time in its 14 years in power. He warned that it would take time for the Conservatives to regain their reputation for 'stability and fiscal security' and called for 'responsible radicalism'. Taking aim at both Labour and Reform UK, he also accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of 'fiddling the figures' by changing her definition of national debt. He also fired a broadside at Nigel Farage, saying his support for measures such as lifting the two-child benefit cap 'doubles down on the ''magic money tree'' we thought had been banished with Jeremy Corbyn '. Addressing the legacy of the 2022 mini-budget under Ms Truss's premiership, which spooked the financial markets and led to a spike in mortgage rates, Mr Stride said say: 'For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected. 'The credibility of the UK's economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for. 'As a Conservative, of course I want taxes to be as low as possible. But that must be achieved responsibly through fiscal discipline. 'Back then mistakes were recognised and stability restored within weeks, with the full backing of my party. But the damage to our credibility is not so easily undone. 'That will take time. And it also requires contrition. So let me be clear: never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford.' Ms Reeves has two self-imposed 'fiscal rules' – funding day-to-day spending through taxation and for debt, measured by the benchmark of 'public sector net financial liabilities' (PSNFL), to be falling as a share of GDP. She has insisted these constraints are 'non-negotiable' amid wrangles with Cabinet colleagues over departmental budgets ahead of next week's announcement. But Mr Stride said: 'At the spending review next week, we can expect her to trumpet all of the additional projects and programmes she is funding – without mentioning the fact it is all being paid for from borrowing.' Attacking Nigel Farage's Reform party after its gains in the local elections last month, the shadow chancellor said: 'Take Reform. Their economic prescription is pure populism. It doubles down on the 'magic money tree' we thought had been banished with Jeremy Corbyn.' Since being ejected from Number 10 after just 49 days in office, Ms Truss has conceded her plan to quickly abolish the 45p top rate of tax went too far, but otherwise defended her failed bid to boost growth. Responding to the Tory announcement she said: 'Mel Stride was one of the Conservative MPs who kowtowed to the failed Treasury orthodoxy and was set on undermining my Plan for Growth from the moment I beat his chosen candidate for the party leadership. 'Even when judged by the OBR's flawed calculations, my plans were chalked up as costing less than the spending spree Rishi Sunak pursued as Chancellor during the pandemic – yet Mel Stride never took him to task over any of that. 'And why has he singularly failed to examine the role played by the Bank of England in causing the LDI crisis that sent gilt rates spiralling? Why has he never asked the pertinent questions of the Governor, despite the Bank since admitting that two-thirds of the gilt spike was down to them? 'My plan to turbocharge the economy and get Britain growing again provided the only pathway for the Conservatives to avoid a catastrophic defeat at the election.' She added: 'Until Mel Stride admits the economic failings of the last Conservative Government, the British public will not trust the party with the reins of power again.' Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice said: 'We'll take no lectures on economics from a party that more than doubled the national debt, raised taxes and government spending to 70-year highs and shrank economic growth to 70-year lows. 'Meanwhile, we unearth Tory-run councils wasting £30 million on a bridge to nowhere. They can never be trusted again.'
New Statesman
30 minutes ago
- New Statesman
Labour's muddled message
Photo by Peter Byrne -. Rachel Reeves is not where she wanted to be. When the Chancellor announced winter fuel payment cuts almost a year ago they were designed to advertise her strength. In order to restore economic stability, ran the narrative, Reeves would venture where previous governments feared to tread (David Cameron repeatedly rejected Tory demands to means-test pensioner benefits). Wonks applauded her taboo-busting. Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, whose book, Follow the Money, Reeves is fond of, praised the move as 'sensible'. The aim, No 11 said at the time, was to display discipline not just to the bond market but to voters (who often doubt Labour's economic competence). Yet now, as Reeves' slow-motion U-turn continues, she is advertising her weakness. A government that has held office for less than a year and that has a majority of 165 seats has proved incapable of making a cut worth just 0.05 per cent of GDP (£1.4bn). The new assertion from No 10 is that an improving economy – growth of 0.7 per cent in the first quarter – has made such munificence possible. Keir Starmer doesn't quite channel Ronald Reagan by declaring that it is 'morning again in Britain' but the suggestion is that the country is turning a corner – with four interest rate cuts and three trade deals. The problem is how grim the situation remains. Debt, as Treasury aides continually point out, stands at 95.5 per cent of GDP (0.7 per cent higher than a year ago). Here is why Reeves is imposing real-terms spending cuts on unprotected departments (Angela Rayner and Yvette Cooper, defending housing and the police respectively, have yet to settle with the Chancellor). During a press conference yesterday, Reeves conceded that there were 'good things I've had to say no to'. But as a consequence, Labour critics complain, the government's message is muddled. After entering office it promised short-term pain for long-term gain. 'Things will get worse before they get better,' warned Starmer. 'If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it,' declared Reeves (an inversion of JM Keynes' 'anything we can actually do, we can afford'). Some, including cabinet ministers, were sceptical of this strategy from the start, fearing that it would fail to resonate with an austerity-weary electorate that craved hope, not despair. But it was at least coherent. It pointed towards several tax-raising Budgets and fiscal restraint before a midterm or pre-election loosening. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Yet now the government finds itself in a political no-man's land. It can find the money to U-turn on winter fuel payment cuts, to (most likely) abolish the two-child benefit limit and to keep its election tax pledges. But it cannot find the money to prevent renewed departmental cuts and to commit to spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence (even as Starmer speaks of the UK moving to 'war-fighting readiness'). Voters could be forgiven for being confused, and almost certainly are. Reeves will have to use this autumn's Budget to raise taxes – the only question is by how much. One former aide to Gordon Brown notes the 'madness of spending lots at the start and less at the end of a parliament'. Some in Labour believe Reeves' defining error will prove to be her refusal to increase income tax, VAT or National Insurance on employees ('that's the original sin as far as I'm concerned,' says one source). This has left the government reliant on small but often fraught revenue raisers (such as higher inheritance tax on farmers). But there's a bigger challenge for Reeves: what kind of Chancellor does she ultimately want to be? She could have been the 'Iron Chancellor' – refusing to yield on her tough choices (such as winter fuel cuts). Or she could have been the 'anti-austerity Chancellor' – raising taxes to prevent renewed cuts. Or she could have been the 'growth Chancellor' – taking big risks for big rewards. In practice, Reeves has been all of these at various points without ever settling on an identity. The Chancellor herself defines her approach as 'balanced'. But the risk is that voters simply see it as incoherent. This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here [See also: Can John Healey really afford to go to war?] Related
Sky News
34 minutes ago
- Sky News
Kemi Badenoch to launch review into ECHR exit
Kemi Badenoch is to launch a review into whether the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - and set out plans to revive a Rwanda-style deportation scheme. In a speech on Friday, the Conservative leader will announce a commission into how lawyers could be prevented from using international legislation to block government decisions on immigration. She will also announce plans to prevent people who arrive by small boat from claiming asylum and deport them to a third country. It is unclear if this would be Rwanda or another location. One of Labour's first acts in government was to scrap the Tories' Rwanda scheme, which would have deported illegal immigrations to the African nation for them to claim asylum there. The plan was held up by a series of legal challenges and ultimately failed to get off the ground before the election, despite around £700m being spent on it, according to the Home Office. The saga sparked a debate within the Tory party about whether the UK would need to leave the ECHR, which was established after the Second World War and sets out the rights and freedoms of people in the 46 countries signed up to it. During the Conservative leadership race, Ms Badenoch said leaving the ECHR wasn't a "silver bullet" and "not even the most radical thing that we probably will have to do" to control immigration. It put her at odds with her rival Robert Jenrick, now the shadow justice secretary, who claimed the Tories would "die" if they did not back exiting the ECHR. 19:32 Ms Badenoch's commission will be chaired by Tory peer and former justice minister Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, the shadow attorney general. A Conservative Party aide close to the detail said: "Kemi has worked hard to bring the shadow cabinet together on this very difficult issue. "She has always said she will take her time to build a proper, workable plan to tackle the issue of the courts subverting parliamentary democracy. This commission, led by the brilliant lawyer Lord Wolfson, will make sure we're ready to take the tough decisions." Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls since the general election, has also said he would leave the ECHR. Labour's policy is to remain in it, but to bring forward legislation to "ensure it is the government and parliament that decides who should have the right to remain in the UK". According to the immigration white paper unveiled last month, this would address cases where Article 8 right to family life legal arguments have been used to frustrate deportation, often in the case of foreign criminals. Article 8 was also used in the case of a Palestinian family fleeing Gaza after they applied to enter the UK through a Ukrainian refugee scheme. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday that family migration has become "so complex" that courts are applying "exceptional" human rights guarantees to about a third of cases. She said: "The proportion of decisions being taken as exceptional - often under interpretations around Article 8 - end up being about 30 percent of the cases. That is not exceptional, that is a much broader proportion." However, she rejected calls to disapply the ECHR, saying compliance with international law has helped the government strike deals with France and Germany to help crack down on criminal gangs. She said the government will draw up a "clear framework" that will be "much easier for the courts to interpret and will reflect what the public want to see".
