Revenge of the centrists: Carney wins in Canada
Trump's rhetoric against Canada – engaging in a trade war and calling for the country to become the 51st state – is credited as turning around the fortunes of the Liberals. Are there lessons for conservatives across the anglosphere, including Kemi Badenoch?
Patrick Gibbons speaks to James Heale and Michael Martins.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Spectator
3 hours ago
- Spectator
Nigel Farage is banking on a political sea change
Nigel Farage is adept at riding the currents of British politics. When he named Reform after the Canadian party in 2020, it was a statement of intent. Like Preston Manning in the 1990s, he aimed to displace this country's main centre-right party and refashion it in his image. But where Manning fell short, handing over the reins to Stephen Harper, Farage aims to go one better by becoming prime minister himself. A keen angler, Farage has spent his few moments of downtime this summer fishing. On one such trip, he took an assembled group of journalists to the English Channel to highlight the small boat crossings. Amid rising discontent, with protests outside asylum seeker hotels, Farage has netted a tidy haul of Tory defectors, including the Welsh MS Laura Ann Jones and London councillor Laila Cunningham. More are expected shortly. As well as new faces joining Reform, there are old ones too. Jack Duffin, a longtime loyalist, is the party's new director of campaigns. In a fortnight's time, Reform will head to Birmingham for its annual conference. 'The next step' is this year's slogan. Aside from the usual pyrotechnics, the event aims to show how much the party has grown in the past year. Reform are trying to form their own quasi–shadow cabinet, with key figures focusing on specific areas. Andrea Jenkyns and Lee Anderson will speak on a broader mix of themes and topics than last year. The party's long-awaited deportation strategy is expected to be unveiled next week. The party is currently bolstering its policy team but will adopt an à la carte approach to ideas taken from elsewhere. The influential Prosperity Institute, formerly Legatum, has extensive cross-party contacts and is credited by Farage with 'bringing fresh, young talent into current affairs'. The Cambridge academic James Orr, who helped to organise J.D. Vance's Cotswolds trip, sits on its advisory board alongside Lord Ridley and recently attended a Reform press conference. What Orr calls the 'politics of national preference' fits well with Farage's embrace of steel subsidies and water renationalisation. A handful of newer thinktanks are well placed to flourish, too. Some are run by onetime Farage allies. There is Fix Britain, led by Matthew Patten, a former Brexit party MEP, and the Centre for Migration Control, set up by former aide Rob Bates. The Centre for a Better Britain launches next month under the direction of Jonathan Brown, the party's previous COO. With Reform boasting a ten-point average polling lead, senior aides believe it's time for influential figures to start nailing their colours to the mast. 'The revolution will be kind to those that came early,' says one. 'But the clock is ticking for people to make up their minds.' Farage's 'Broken Britain' thesis fits well with the shifting tides on the broader right. Leading Tories such as Robert Jenrick and Nick Timothy are among those discovering a renewed interest in the writings of Charles de Gaulle and Roger Scruton, who dwelt on the theme of institutions that become corrupted or infiltrated. Conservative MPs increasingly express similar sentiments when they talk of the courts and the Church. 'To save the village we have to burn it,' says one MP of the post-Blair settlement. Kemi Badenoch has handed policy renewal to Neil O'Brien, a staunch critic of the ECHR. His journey from a sunnier form of Cameroon-style conservatism is seen by some colleagues as emblematic of many Tories' direction of travel. Incrementalism is out; radicalism is in. New groups which reflect the mounting public frustration at Britain's direction have formed to offer fresh ways to channel these objections. Toby Young's Free Speech Union has seen its membership jump from 14,000 to 32,000 in a year under Keir Starmer's government. 'Looking for Growth', founded by Dr Lawrence Newport, is trying to create a cross-party consensus to foster pro-growth policies. It has 19 chapters, and that is set to double to 39. At one meeting in Bristol, an attendee told the room: 'I am 25 years old. All I have ever known is decline.' Such comments reflect a broader sense of pessimism among the young. Ipsos polling suggests that Gen Z seem to be starting from a lower base of trust in their peers and institutions than previous generations. The government, meanwhile, is trying to ride out the storm. At the Design Museum last month, Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told digital innovators to 'forget chainsaws and wrecking balls, that's not what we are about'. He preferred to flag up 'the turnaround of the passport service' as a 'great example' of 'when the state has done really well'. Rather than kicking down the barn, Labour believes it can build on what is already there by modernising Whitehall. Plans will be set out this autumn to expand existing civil service access schemes for those joining from working–class backgrounds. In recent weeks, Labour has stepped up its attacks on Farage – a sign, Reform insiders say – of increasing desperation. Ministers have reportedly been authorised to accuse him of being on the side of sex offenders like Jimmy Savile in opposing the Online Safety Act, while backbenchers are encouraged to direct their fire at him in parliament. Following an article in The Spectator last week about 'Labour's 'dark arts' strategy', lawyers for George Cottrell, a longtime unpaid adviser to Farage, have written to Morgan McSweeney, Starmer's chief of staff, and the Labour party to demand an explanation. Cottrell believes he is the victim of 'defamation at industrial scale'. After the article was published, a Substack dedicated to attacking Cottrell disappeared, along with its associated X account. A subject access request has been filed to Labour, requesting any data the party has on Cottrell. Downing Street sources categorically deny the existence of any new 'attack team' in No. 10 with the remit of challenging Reform. The going is sure to get tougher for Reform but Farage is prepared. It was Jim Callaghan who said: 'Perhaps once every 30 years, there is a sea change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of.' Much of the right is betting on such a sea change in 2029, with Farage – for now – most likely to be the captain at the helm.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Badenoch urges Tory councils to challenge asylum hotels in court
Kemi Badenoch has called for more Conservative councils to launch legal challenges over asylum hotels as the Government faces a potential revolt from its own local authorities. In a letter to Tory councils, Mrs Badenoch said she was 'encouraging' them to 'take the same steps' as Epping Council 'if your legal advice supports it'. Labour dismissed her letter as 'desperate and hypocritical nonsense', but several of its own local authorities have already suggested they too could mount legal action against asylum hotels in their areas. Epping secured a temporary injunction from the High Court on Tuesday, blocking the use of the Essex town's Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds. The decision has prompted councils controlled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK to investigate whether they could pursue a similar course of action. These include Labour-run Tamworth and Wirral councils, Tory-run Broxbourne and East Lindsey councils and Reform's Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire councils. But Labour's Newcastle City Council and Brighton and Hove City Council have both ruled out legal action. Tuesday's High Court decision has also caused a potential headache for the Home Office, which has a legal duty to house destitute asylum seekers while their claims are being dealt with. If planning laws prevent the Government from using hotels, ministers will face a scramble to find alternative accommodation, potentially in the private rented sector. In her letter, Mrs Badenoch praised Epping Council's legal challenge and told Tory councils she would 'back you to take similar action to protect your community'. But she added that the situation would 'depend on individual circumstances of the case' and suggested Tory councils could pursue 'other planning enforcement options'. She also accused Labour of 'trying to ram through such asylum hotels without consultation and without proper process', saying the Government had reopened the Bell Hotel as asylum accommodation after the Conservatives had closed it. The hotel had previously been used as asylum accommodation briefly in 2020 and then between 2022 and 2024 under the previous Conservative government. A Labour spokesperson said Mrs Badenoch's letter was a 'pathetic stunt' and 'desperate and hypocritical nonsense from the architects of the broken asylum system', saying there were now '20,000 fewer asylum seekers in hotels than at their peak under the Tories'. The letter comes ahead of the publication on Thursday of figures showing how many asylum seekers were being temporarily housed in hotels at the end of June this year. Home Office figures from the previous quarter show there were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March. This was down 15% from the end of December, when the total was 38,079, and 6% lower than the 34,530 at the same point a year earlier. Figures on those staying in hotels date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023, when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels. Data is not released on the number of hotels in use, but it is thought there were more than 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023. Labour has said this has since been reduced to fewer than 210.
Glasgow Times
5 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Voters to go to polls in Barrhead – what you need to know
Six candidates are in the running to represent the Barrhead, Liboside and Uplawmoor ward on East Renfrewshire Council. Polls will open at 7am on Thursday (August 21) and close at 10pm, with the count then taking place at Barrhead Foundry leisure centre on Friday morning. Labour has picked Julie Ann Costello McHale to contest the seat, David McDonald will represent the SNP and Farooq Choudhry is the Scottish Conservative candidate. READ MORE: Tributes paid to 'one of a kind' long-serving Barrhead councillor Reform UK has selected Andy MacGibbon, the Scottish Greens representative is Karen Sharkey and Gus Ferguson is standing for the Abolish Scottish Parliament Party. The council is currently led by a minority Labour-independent administration, which includes independent councillor Danny Devlin. There are now four Labour councillors, three independents, five SNP and five Conservatives. At the last election in 2022, Cllr Devlin picked up the most first preference votes in the ward (1,753), followed by the SNP's Angela Convery (1,639). Cllr Cunningham and Cllr Chris Lunday, SNP, were also elected. Cllr Cunningham passed away in May at the age of 79 after a period of ill health. Following her death, council leader Owen O'Donnell, Labour, said: 'Social justice and the sense of what is right and wrong was ingrained in Betty's DNA. READ MORE: 'It's horrifying': Neo-Nazi presence in Barrhead condemned 'She had the biggest heart but was also great fun and someone you wanted to spend time with.' Cllr Cunningham was first elected in 1999 and served as Provost from 2003 to 2007. She received an OBE from the Queen in the New Year's Honours List of 2011 for services to East Renfrewshire and Malawi, where her charity, the Betty Cunningham International Trust, built a health clinic and nursery schools. The candidates in the Barrhead, Liboside and Uplawmoor by-election are:
