Don't write off Kemi Badenoch
In the great game of musical chairs that is British politics, it's impossible to foresee which contestant will be left with nowhere to sit when the music stops. Keir Starmer won a landslide victory last July, but has since behaved like a child who has allowed the excitement to go to his head. He agreed immediately to cut the universal winter fuel payment, which made the government look ready to risk short-term unpopularity in pursuit of serious long-term goals. Yet when the unpopularity arrived, he abandoned the measure and with it any claim to long-term thought. As a contributor to one of Lord Ashcroft's focus groups said this week: 'He made himself look bad doing it, but he's made himself look even worse going back on it.' Who now believes Rachel Reeves has what it takes to get a grip on public spending? But Starmer, who assures us he will always do what is in the national interest, has left Reeves in place.
Kemi Badenoch has been Tory leader only since November, yet already there are elements in the press that say she should go. The parliamentary lobby knows how to cover a Tory leadership crisis. It has had plenty of practice in recent years, but this exhilarating sport goes back through the fall of Thatcher in 1990, the collapse of Macmillan in 1963, the overthrow of Chamberlain in 1940 and the abandonment of Lloyd George in 1922 to the destruction of Peel in 1846.
In the midst of life a Tory leader is in death, but it would be absurd to defenestrate Badenoch after seven months.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Jeremy Corbyn criticises Starmer's ‘island of strangers' speech at festival
Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for using the phrase 'island of strangers' in a major immigration announcement. The former Labour leader, now an independent MP after he lost the party whip, publicly challenged the Prime Minister's language on Friday. Speaking at the Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, Mr Corbyn said: 'Let's hear no more of this nonsense spoken by some about this being a country of strangers. 'Let's hear no more of the repetition of what the wretched Enoch Powell said when I was a young person in the 1960s. 'Our community, our strength, our joy, our lives, our hope is our diversity, is our different backgrounds.' He added: 'That's what makes London a very special place.' Sir Keir, Mr Corbyn's successor as Labour leader, suggested the UK risked becoming an 'island of strangers' if efforts to tackle migration and integration were not stepped up. Critics compared the language with that of the Conservative politician Enoch Powell, who in an inflammatory address in 1968 known as the 'rivers of blood' speech, claimed that white British people would become 'strangers in their own country' in the future. Elsewhere in his speech on the stage, Mr Corbyn called for an end to all British arms sales to Israel, and urged those attending the festival to join anti-war rallies. He said: 'This country, Britain, has supplied weapons and parts for the F-35 jets that are used to bomb Gaza. 'So when we have the demonstrations in support of the Palestine people – please be there, raise your voice. It matters by giving inspiration to those people going through the most ghastly times of their lives.' In what appeared to be a further broadside at his former colleagues in the Labour Government, Mr Corbyn suggested ministers should hike taxes on the very rich. 'You can't achieve equality and justice if you extol the virtues of billionaires and do nothing about taking money off them to pay for the decent services for the many,' he said. Elsewhere at the festival, Irish rap trio Kneecap performed just days after one of their members was charged with a terror offence. Liam O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday. The Wide Awake Festival is one of several taking place in Brockwell Park over the next few weeks. Some local residents are unhappy with the damage the events cause to the park, and the large area of the green open space they take up over the course of a month. They successfully brought legal action against Lambeth Council over the use of parts of the park for the festivals, in a challenge which claimed the authority had bypassed the full planning process. The High Court ruled the council had acted 'irrationally', but the events have continued despite this, after Lambeth received fresh a planning application.
North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Thousands gather for anti-austerity demonstration in London
Campaign group The People's Assembly said it expected trade unionists, campaigners and activists to attend the event in central London on Saturday. MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott are among those expected to give speeches at a rally in Whitehall. The organisers accused the Government of making spending cuts that target the poorest in society. Representatives from the National Education Union, Revolutionary Communist Party, Green Party and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union could all be seen at the march's start point in Portland Place. The large crowd then set off towards Whitehall shortly before 1pm. Many of the protesters were holding placards that read 'Tax the rich, stop the cuts – welfare not warfare'. Other signs being held aloft said 'Nurses not nukes' and 'Cut war, not welfare'. A People's Assembly spokesperson said: 'The adherence to 'fiscal rules' traps us in a public service funding crisis, increasing poverty, worsening mental health and freezing public sector pay. 'Scrapping winter fuel payments, keeping the Tory two-child benefit cap, abandoning Waspi women, cutting £5 billion of welfare by limiting Pip and universal credit eligibility, and slashing UK foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP, while increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, are presented as 'tough choices'. 'Real tough choices would be for a Labour government to tax the rich and their hidden wealth, to fund public services, fair pay, investment in communities and the NHS.' The People's Assembly said it is bringing together trade unionists, health, disability, housing, and welfare campaigners with community organisations under the slogan: No to Austerity2.0. There will be also be speeches from trade union leaders, disability rights activists, anti-poverty campaigners and groups calling for more investment in the NHS and other public services. The spokesperson added: 'We face a growing threat from the far right, fuelled by racism, division and failed politics. We need to see people's lives improve, we need to see the vulnerable cared for and an end to child poverty. 'On June 7, we march for education, for our NHS, for welfare, for refugees, against hate, and for a society in which our children can flourish.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
NHS set for boost of up to £30bn as other budgets feel squeeze
The NHS is expected to receive a funding boost of up to £30 billion in the spending review next week at the expense of other public services. The Department of Health is set to be handed a 2.8% annual increase in its day-to-day budget over a three-year period. The cash injection, which amounts to a rise of about £30 billion by 2028, or £17 billion in real terms, will see other areas including police and councils squeezed, The Times newspaper reported. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to ensure that by the next election 92% of patients in England waiting for planned treatment are seen within 18 weeks of being referred. Latest NHS data suggests around 60% of people are currently seen in this time and figures released last month showed the overall number of patients on waiting lists had risen slightly from 6.24 million to 6.25 million. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has acknowledged that she had been forced to turn down requests for funding in a sign of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over her spending review. She insisted the blame for the tight economic situation lay with the Conservatives rather than her rigid rules on borrowing and spending. The Chancellor said despite a £190 billion increase in funding over the spending review period 'not every department will get everything that they want next week and I have had to say no to things that I want to do too'. On top of the increase in day-to-day spending, funded in part by the tax hikes Ms Reeves set out in her budget, looser borrowing rules will help support a £113 billion investment package. Economists have warned the Chancellor faces 'unavoidably' tough choices when she sets out departmental spending plans on June 11. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank said defence and the NHS will dominate the review, raising the prospect of cuts to other unprotected departments.
