
Sir James Cleverly set to return to Tory front bench as shadow housing secretary
Sir James served in the foreign office and as home secretary when the Conservatives were in power.
He stood as a candidate in last year's Conservative leadership election, but lost out on the Tory top job ahead of the final heat between Mrs Badenoch and her now shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.
Since the leadership contest, he had returned to the Tory back benches as the MP for Braintree.
As well as Sir James's appointment, it is understood Kevin Hollinrake will move to the role of party chairman, replacing Nigel Huddleston, who will become shadow culture secretary.
Mr Hollinrake was previously in the shadow MHCLG job, which will be filled by Sir James.
Stuart Andrew will become shadow health secretary, replacing Edward Argar, who resigned citing health reasons.
Further changes are expected to be confirmed later on Tuesday, and a Conservative source said earlier that they will 'reflect the next stage of the party's policy renewal programme and underline the unity of the party under new leadership'.
As he prepares for his last parliamentary oral questions from the front bench, I want to put on record my sincere thanks to Ed Argar for serving in my Shadow Cabinet.
I wish him the very best for a speedy recovery and return to full health, and so I will be making a few changes… pic.twitter.com/FWoC7L19nd
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) July 22, 2025
Allies of shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride believe he will remain in his post, while attention will be focused on whether Mrs Badenoch keeps Mr Jenrick in his current role.
The former leadership contender has strayed well beyond his justice brief, building a prominent social media presence with campaigns on a range of issues from tackling fare dodgers on the London Underground to the impact of immigration on housing.
Since moving to the backbenches, Sir James has used his influential position as a former minister to warn against pursuing populist agenda akin to Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
Appearing at the Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank last week, the senior Tory hit out at calls to 'smash the system' and 'start again from scratch', branding them 'complete nonsense'.
He also appeared to take a different position on net zero from party leader Mrs Badenoch in a recent speech, urging the Conservatives to reject climate change 'luddites' on the right who believe 'the way things are now is just fine'.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch said she was 'saddened' that Mr Argar feels 'unable to continue' in his position, but agreed 'that you must put your health first'.
In a letter to the party leader dated July 9 and shared by Mrs Badenoch on X on Tuesday, Mr Argar said: 'I had a health scare earlier this summer and remain grateful to the doctors and hospital staff who looked after me.'
He added: 'I have been well looked after, but have also listened to what the doctors said to me, and have listened to my family, and have concluded that lightening my front-bench workload over the coming months, in order to complete my recovery and fully restore my health in that period, is the sensible approach.'
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Telegraph
21 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How Denmark raised its retirement age without sparking protests
Planning an early retirement? You're out of luck if you live in Denmark. The Nordic country recently raised the state pension age to 70, a change that will kick in by 2040. The new legislation means that Danes are on track to become the oldest workers in Europe. It is just the latest in a series of increases after the Scandinavian country linked its retirement age to life expectancy in 2006 and legislated that it should be reviewed every five years. The welfare agreement of 2006 attempted to protect the country's finances and set pensions spending on a sustainable path. Without action, there were concerns that the cost of the state pension could spiral out of control as Danes lived longer but paid the same amount of lifetime taxes. It could be a glimpse into Britain's future. Here, the state pension age is currently 66 and scheduled to gradually rise to 68 by 2046. But calls are growing louder for the retirement aged to be raised further and faster. Without action, the cost of the expensive triple lock on pensions will balloon and force either higher taxes or cut backs elsewhere. 'I don't think we can really afford to [wait to the 2040s], to be frank,' Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, told The Telegraph last week. 'If there is a sudden economic miracle, then it might change that. But it does not look to be happening any time soon.' Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, announced a review into the state pension age last week in an effort to address the problem. 'There's kind of cross party consensus that ... we need to increase the state pension age to deal with the rising cost of the state pension system,' says Heidi Karjalainen, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Such changes are controversial. In 2023, Jeremy Hunt, the then chancellor, shelved plans to lift the state pension age after a slump in life expectancy left ministers struggling to justify the change. In France, attempts to raise the retirement age have bought people out onto the streets in the thousands. Raising the retirement age to 70 has not led to fiery demonstrations on the streets of Copenhagen, however. The increase 'hasn't come as a surprise to anyone' given the 2006 legislation, says Damoun Ashournia, the chief economist at the Danish Trade Union Confederation. Denmark is one of nine OECD countries that currently links the retirement age to average life expectancy, effectively maintaining a fiscal brake on pension spending. The Nordic nation legislates that an average of 14.5 years should be spent in retirement. For every year increase in life expectancy in Denmark, the retirement age also rises by one year. Wouter De Tavernier, a pensions economist at the OECD, says the link prevents governments having to rerun difficult political debates every five or 10 years and helps countries maintain financial stability with their pensions system. 'It avoids having to restart the same discussions over and over again, and therefore making long term financial sustainability dependent on political decisions and political calculations about what might or might not be popular in the elections.' Yet even in Demark, there are limits. 'When we ask workers, the vast majority, 75pc, are against this increase,' says Ashournia. 'They worry that they won't be able to work until the retirement age, when we increase it by such an amount.' Karjalainen says asking people to retire at 70 is as much a psychological challenge as it is an actual problem. It is a new decade and one that feels far older to most people. 'I think the higher the state pension age goes, just kind of psychologically, people think of someone aged 65 and someone aged 70 as kind of very different types of people,' she says. However, it is not just about what voters will bear. There are physiological differences between 65 and 70. For instance, in the UK the rate of dementia stands at 1.7pc for those aged 65 to 69 years old but climbs to 3pc for 70 to 74-year-olds. 'We can't just keep increasing the retirement age forever, because it becomes unrealistic for workers to work for so long,' says Ashournia. The Danish Trade Union Confederation now wants the 2006 agreement to be softened, with the retirement age only rising by nine or 10 months for every year the life expectancy increases. Mette Frederiksen, Denmark's prime minister, has conceded that the policy may be at its limit. 'We no longer believe that the retirement age should be increased automatically,' she said in August last year. 'You can't just keep saying that people have to work a year longer.' Britain's costly dilemma In the UK, the bigger concern in policy circles is whether the Government can afford not to make people retire at 70. Spending on the state pension is only forecast to grow as a result of the costly triple lock, which guarantees annual increases by the highest of either average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5pc, whichever is highest. The UK is estimated to have spent 4.9pc of its GDP on the state pension for the 2024/25 financial year. On the current trajectory, the cost is forecast to reach 6.3pc of GDP by 2054/55. A 2023 independent report into the state pension age carried out by Baroness Rolfe recommended that the government should cap pension spending at 6pc of GDP to prevent overspending. It recommended raising the state pension age to 69 to ensure financial sustainability. However, a later retirement age raises questions about fairness. While the average life expectancy in the UK stands at 78.8 years for men and 82.8 years for women, there is significant variation across the country. Men in Blackpool and Glasgow city have some of the lowest rates of life expectancy in the UK, at 73.1 years and 73.6 years respectively. Any move to bring the state pension age in line with Denmark is likely to be met with significant pushback in the UK. Yet De Tavernier believes retirement at 70 will eventually reach Britain if life expectancy continues to rise. 'I think the discussion is more about in which time frame this will happen, and how do you get there? Do you get there by politics deciding on a time frame? Do you get there by linking a retirement age to life expectancy?' he says. The nation's pensions are heading towards a 'big fiscal challenge' that needs to be addressed, says David Sinclair, the chief executive of the International Longevity Centre. 'The fact that our politicians are too scared to talk about what retirement is like, and how we might need to be supporting work longer, and how we might need to be healthier, just feels like an utter failure of our entire political classes.' Ashournia says 'the vast majority' of Danish Trade Union Confederation members 'want to be working until the retirement age [and] even longer, if possible.' 'But today, two thirds retire prior to the retirement age because they cannot continue, or they choose to retire because they have saved sufficient funds. So the challenge for us is: how do we ensure that workers are able to continue to work until the retirement age – that's under the current retirement age, which is 67 today. 'When we increase the retirement age in the future, this problem is just going to be become bigger.'


Sky News
3 hours ago
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How is Starmer's government doing? Here's what 'end-of-term' report from voters says
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Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The lawless London tourist hotspot in the shadow of Parliament: How Westminster Bridge has become a magnet for violent street scammers, illegal traders and pickpocket gangs
Sickening footage of scammers spitting at a man when he filmed them fleecing tourists on Westminster Bridge is the latest proof of the crime-wave gripping one of London's most iconic landmarks. Swindlers tricking visitors into betting on impossible-to-win 'cup and ball' games have become a common sight on the bridge, which sits in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament. Keen to expose the predators, a social media user filmed them - only to be shoved, abused and spat on. Westminster Bridge has become notorious as a hotbed for lawbreakers of all forms, from pickpockets, bag thieves and unlicensed pedicab riders to illegal traders hawking hot nuts, ice cream and hotdogs. Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly, told MailOnline: 'This is happening right under the nose of New Scotland Yard - which overlooks the bridge. You must ask yourself why the hell this is allowed to carry on.' One recent victim of the bridge's growing lawlessness was volunteer policeman Ned Donavan - a grandson of Roald Dahl - who was punched, kicked and choked by a mob when he tried to stop one of their accomplices pickpocketing a female tourist. Britain's 'revolving door' borders are one factor hindering police, with Romanian career criminal Ionut Stoica arrested on the bridge last year for illegal gambling and deported from the UK - only to be caught at almost the same spot just weeks later. The scammers themselves are highly organised, with spotters recruited to look out for police and council inspectors. This prompted a pair of enterprising officers to snare two of them by dressing up as Batman and Robin. The TikTok video, entitled 'five minutes of unedited scammers', was shared online earlier this month. Cup and ball games involve betting on where a ball is concealed under one of three cups. Tourists are lured in by accomplices who loudly celebrate to make it seem like they have just won money. But in reality, the game is impossible to win. The scam is a Europe-wide problem, with groups of criminals travelling between different cities to carry out the con. Members of the public who confront the gangs are often met with violence, as shown by the experience of TikToker @londonscammers. As he films several groups of scammers, the criminals - some of whom are dressed in designer gear - shout abuse and demand he delete the footage, before spitting at him when he bravely refuses. Susan Hall, who previously stood as Tory candidate for London Mayor, worries about the damage such scenes cause to the capital's reputation. 'The people who are getting scammed are tourists, so that doesn't send a good signal about London,' she said. 'I was recently driving a black cab along the bridge and watching it going on. These people are putting two fingers up to the police and saying ''we can do what we want'', which it seems they can.' Spotters employed by the scammers wait by the side of the bridge and send a text if they see inspectors approaching. To get around this problem, two Met Police officers recently went undercover dressed as Batman and Robin before grabbing two men they caught scamming tourists. Following the operation, Costica Barbu was remanded by police and fined £925. Eugen Stoica fled the country and was convicted at Croydon Magistrates Court in his absence. Ms Hall described the operation as 'fantastic' but questioned why they could not happen more regularly. London has a well documented problem with street thefts, with numerous incidents reported on Westminster Bridge. Ned Donovan, who volunteers as a special constable, intervened to try and stop a pick pocketer last August, only to be attacked by other members of his gang. 'Walking across Westminster Bridge, I saw a man in the act of pickpocketing a female tourist,' he previously said. 'I grabbed him and stopped him before he could disappear. 'Unfortunately, several of his accomplices appeared and began to punch me, kick me and choke me to get me to release their friend, which I wasn't going to let happen.' The Met Police appealed for witnesses at the time. Illegal street traders are another major issue on Westminster Bridge, alongside ice cream vans who block traffic to serve customers - despite the road being a red route. Westminster Council recently handed out £20,000 in fines to illegal traders and pedicabs following a much needed crackdown. The street traders had been selling peanuts, balloons and hot dogs on the bridge without having a licence or paying any tax on their earnings. One of the vendors was convicted for the second time in two months for previously selling hotdogs. Nine pedicabs operators - several of them repeat offenders - were handed fines totalling £9,075 following concerns rogue operators are ripping off tourists and operating unsafe vehicles. Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children and Public Protection Cllr Aicha Less said: 'This is Westminster, not the Wild West. These fines send a clear message: if you break the rules in our city you will end up out of pocket and out of excuses.' 'Whilst we work with TfL to finalise a structured the licencing scheme is being finalised, our City Inspectors continue to prosecute pedicab drivers and partner with our neighbours in Lambeth and in the Metropolitan Police to ensure unsuspecting tourists are not ripped off.' Westminster Council recently fined illegal traders flogging goods such as peanuts, balloons and hot dogs A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: 'Our officers conduct regular patrols on Westminster Bridge as part of our work to tackle criminal behaviour and protect Londoners and tourists. 'This is seeing results, with two repeat offenders convicted in April for illegal gambling. 'We are going further this summer, with an enhanced police and local authority presence in London's town centres and high streets to tackle anti-social behaviour, theft and street crime.'