Latest news with #LizTruss
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
A unique chance for Lord Hermer to get on Trump's good side
Sir Keir Starmer is looking forward to welcoming Donald Trump to Scotland next weekend when he visits his golf courses. The only problem for No 10 is that Sir Keir Starmer does not know an iron from a driver. The Prime Minister 'is not a keen golfer', says a senior No 10 source. But I can reveal that one of his team is! Step forward Richard Hermer, the PM's under-fire Attorney General who is, I am told, comfortably the best golfer in the Cabinet. Perhaps Hermer should offer to play a round of golf with the US president? They can discuss the wisdom of Starmer's surrender of the Chagos Islands. Liz tees off Talking of golf, former prime minister Liz Truss has just joined Sundridge Park Golf Club in Bromley, I can confirm. The course has long political links – it was opened by Conservative PM AJ Balfour in 1903. Truss is a beginner golfer. My man on the fairway tells me: 'She's always trying to get out of a bunker.' Fore, Liz! Tory wild horses The Conservative Party is now asking for candidates to represent the party at the next general election. Former MPs and candidates will get bespoke letters inviting them to stand, and reapply for vetting. 'They won't like it,' says one Tory. If they apply, that is. One former Conservative MP who stood down at the election last July told me: 'I feel younger. I have lost weight. I don't have dark dreams. Wild horses would not drag me back.' Idle's obituary Monty Python star Eric Idle tells a podcast: 'I was in Soho a long time ago and someone came out of the Groucho Club and they said 'Eric Idle! I've just been writing your obituary for The Daily Telegraph.' I said 'Really? How nice. Well, I can tell you what my last words are going to be. He said 'What?' I said 'Say no more.'' Nudge nudge, wink wink, Eric! Van's home coming Veteran music journalist David Hepworth has been recalling Van Morrison's homecoming concert in his native Belfast, which was staged in Cyprus Avenue, the name of the star's famous 1968 song. 'They cleared it, put a stage there,' Hepworth told this week's Oldie Literary Lunch. 'Van Morrison takes to the stage, plays a whole set. And what's the one song he doesn't play?' You've guessed it. Gary and Marilyn Actor Sir Gary Oldman says he has to pinch himself when he considers who he has met. 'I found myself at dinner one night in New York next to Arthur Miller. I had enough vodka in me by then and I said 'I just have to ask you a question: did you ever walk down the street and suddenly stop and pinch yourself and go 'f---, I was married to Marilyn Monroe!'' He looked at me and he went 'Yeah!'' Well he would, wouldn't he? Kensington's farmer Jamie Borwick – Lord Borwick of Hawkshead – says he has the second biggest agricultural holding in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 'I have got 10 hens,' he tells me, adding that he gives out the eggs to fellow peers in the House of Lords. So who has the biggest agricultural holding, I ask him. 'That will be the cannabis farms,' he tells me. Should they be subject to Labour's family farm tax? Poirot's eight jags Poirot actor Sir David Suchet, 79, tells September's issue of Jaguar World magazine that he has owned eight Jags over the past 40 years. 'British cars – and particularly Jaguars – have a place in my heart,' he says. 'I enjoy the recognition from other people who enjoy the same sort of cars as me. I will always wave at other examples – always flash my lights to say hello. Even on the motorway, people will give you a thumbs-up out of the window.' He currently drives an ice blue Jaguar XJS Celebration. 'There will come a time when I let my XJS go, but I will be very sad to do so.' Hunt's clanger Former Conservative Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt has been reflecting on when he rang a handbell to mark the beginning of the 2012 Olympics in London. 'There was a group of Brownies on the deck of HMS Belfast, and I was asked to ring this bell,' he told me on GB News' Chopper's Political Podcast this week. But he was a little too vigorous. 'The end of the bell went flying into this group of small girls. If one of them had had to go to A&E on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony because the guy in charge of the Olympics wounded her or worse... It would have been...'. Well, quite, Jeremy.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Conservative ex-ministers at war as Afghan data leak sparks furious blame game
FORMER Tory ministers have turned on each other as a blame game erupted over the Afghan data leak. Former PM Liz Truss accused ex-Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace of a ' huge betrayal of public trust '. 4 4 She said she was 'shocked by the secrecy' of Operation Rubific, which brought 4,500 Afghans to Britain after their details were leaked. And she demanded those responsible in governments and the bureaucracy needed to be held to account. But Sir Ben hit back by claiming Ms Truss — Foreign Secretary under Boris Johnson in February 2022 — approved the plan in office. He replied to her X post: 'Oh dear Liz. Not quite. You were part of the Cabinet that approved the relocation of Afghans and the wider Home Office refugee scheme.' He also defended his actions, writing: 'I make no apology for applying to the court for an injunction at the time. "Imagine if the Taliban had been alerted to the existence of this list.' Sir Keir Starmer said both former ministers had 'serious questions to answer' about the airlift that may ultimately cost an estimated £7billion. Ex-Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees Mogg also called on Sir Grant Shapps, who was Defence Secretary when the injunction became a superinjunction, to speak out on the revelations. And Reform UK's Zia Yusuf has called for a judge-led inquiry into the operation. 4
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Tory ex-ministers defend record after PM demands ‘answers' over Afghan data leak
Tory ex-ministers have sought to defend their record after the Prime Minister said members of the previous government had 'serious questions to answer' about the Afghan data leak that resulted in an unprecedented superinjunction. Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he first learned of the data breach, which saw a defence official release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan, after a legal gagging order had been imposed. Ex-veterans minister Johnny Mercer claimed he had 'receipts' regarding the former Conservative administration's actions in relation to Kabul but said it was 'absurd' to accuse him of failing grasp the scale of crisis. 'I know who is covering their tracks, and who has the courage to be honest,' he said. 'I would caution those who might attempt to rewrite history.' Thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of an £850 million scheme set up after the leak, which was kept secret as the result of a superinjunction imposed in 2023 which was only lifted on Tuesday. At Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir insisted there would be scrutiny, which the Conservatives should welcome. 'Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen,' he told MPs. Former prime minister Liz Truss, who was foreign secretary at the time of the breach in February 2022, but a backbencher when the superinjunction was sought, said she was 'shocked' by the 'cover-up'. She said the revelations pointed to a 'huge betrayal of public trust' and 'those responsible in both governments and the bureaucracy need to be held to account'. Mr Mercer said: 'I've spilt my own blood fighting for a better Afghanistan, lost friends, fought to get operators out of the country and away from the Taliban, and visited hundreds of resettled families and hotels in the UK under direct commission from the previous prime minister after the schemes were dangerously failing. 'Others were with me in this process and we have all the receipts.' Shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick said he had 'strongly opposed plans the plans to bring over 24,000 Afghan nationals' during 'internal government discussions in the short period before my resignation' in December 2023. 'I first learned of the data leak and plan to resettle people after the superinjunction was in place,' he said. 'Parliamentary privilege is not unlimited; I was bound by the Official Secrets Act.' Mr Jenrick said the secret scheme had been 'a complete disaster' and that the previous government 'made serious mistakes' but that 'thousands more (Afghan people) have come since Labour came to power.' 'Contrary to what some have suggested, the Afghan individuals I helped came on the Arap (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) scheme and had nothing to do with the subsequent ARR scheme caused by the data leak,' he added. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said the 'episode' raises 'significant constitutional issues'. Earlier on Wednesday, Downing Street declined to say what questions former ministers should face but said Sir Keir was 'angry' about the breach. Sir Keir's press secretary said: 'The Prime Minister is angry at such a terrible breach that had such grave consequences being allowed to happen. 'Which is why it's clear that there are questions that need to be answered by Conservative ministers who, in their own words, have talked about the ineptitude of the Conservative government at the time.' She also pointed to comments from Mr Mercer, who described the handling of the breach as 'farcical' and 'the most hapless display of incompetence by successive ministers and officials that I saw in my time in government'. The Commons Defence Committee will be setting out plans for an inquiry straight after the parliamentary recess in September. Committee chairman Tan Dhesi said: 'These shocking events now deserve proper, thorough parliamentary scrutiny to ensure that lessons are learned. 'I have consulted my cross-party colleagues on the Defence Committee and we all agree that this is work we intend to lead.' Tory former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace said he makes 'no apology' for applying for the initial injunction and insisted it was 'not a cover-up' but was motivated by the need to protect people in Afghanistan whose safety was at risk. A dataset of 18,714 who applied for Arap was released in February 2022 by a defence official who emailed a file outside authorised government systems. The Ministry of Defence only became aware of the blunder when excerpts from the dataset were posted anonymously on a Facebook group in August 2023, and a superinjunction was granted at the High Court in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from finding out about the leak. Then defence secretary Sir Ben said he had applied for a four-month standard injunction shortly before leaving office but, on September 1 2023, when Grant Shapps took the role, the government was given a superinjunction. Sir Ben said he did now know why the superinjunction was granted 'but nevertheless, I think the point here is I took a decision that the most important priority was to protect those people who could have been or were exposed by this data leak in Afghanistan, living amongst the Taliban who had no regard for their safety, or indeed potentially could torture them or murder them', he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He also defended his actions in an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. 'I make no apology for applying to the court for an injunction at the time. It was not, as some are childishly trying to claim, a cover-up,' he said. The leak led to the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024. The scheme is understood to have cost about £400 million so far, with a projected final cost of about £850 million. A total of about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the end of the scheme. The official responsible for the email error was moved to a new role but not sacked. Defence Secretary John Healey said he was not going to 'lead a witch hunt after a defence official'. 'This is much bigger than the mistake of an individual,' he told the BBC. The superinjunction was in place for almost two years, covering Labour and Conservative governments. Kemi Badenoch has apologised on behalf of the Conservatives for the leak. 'On behalf of the government and on behalf of the British people, yes, because somebody made a terrible mistake and names were put out there … and we are sorry for that,' she told LBC. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people, including the estimated number of family members of the Arap applicants, were affected by the breach and could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data, judges said in June 2024. However, an independent review, commissioned by the Government in January 2025, concluded last month that the dataset is 'unlikely to significantly shift Taliban understanding of individuals who may be of interest to them'.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The elephant in the room during PMQs
This session of Parliament drew to a close today not with a bang but with a whimper. It is unclear whether the relatively low-key nature of the final Prime Minister's Questions before the summer recess should be welcomed as a desperately needed sign of maturity or a further sign that MPs do not share the electorate's grievous pessimism about where the country is heading. Despite the criticism that has been aimed at Kemi Badenoch from some in her party, she can take the credit for maintaining an adult level of discourse when so many of her predecessors have succumbed to the temptation to screech their condemnation across the opposing front benches. She was controlled, relaxed and moderate in her tone, although she again wasted at least one of her six questions by asking Keir Starmer if he would spend his summer break considering how to reduce public borrowing – this does not reflect most people's chief political concerns at the moment. The problem with the Prime Minister's responses – I will avoid, for reasons of accuracy, referring to them as answers – is that he is still behaving exactly as he did while he was in Ms Badenoch's place: campaigning, seeking to win votes and banging on at length about the Conservatives' record in office. As is now traditional, even Liz Truss got a name-check in Starmer's tired recitation of the opposition's sins. Given the recent revelations about data leaks from the Ministry of Defence, and the super-injunction put in place by the Conservative Government in 2023 to hide ministers' embarrassment at having to offer political asylum to 24,000 Afghans, it is surprising that, aside from an opening reference to the scandal by the Prime Minister, the subject barely figured during the half hour. It was studiously avoided by Ms Badenoch. Gaza and the Middle East still play a much larger role in the Commons than it does in the lives and conversations of the vast majority of those whom MPs actually represent. Today it was left to Sir Ed Davey to raise the matter, carefully and tactfully using his first question to express his disapproval of anti-Semitism. And even as he did so, the viewer just knew that this was no more than a careful preparation for question number 2: this week's inevitable condemnation of Israel. Let's face it: after a year in opposition, the Conservatives are still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following their shellacking at the general election and their continued third place in the polls thanks to the emergence of Reform UK as the party's nemesis. And Labour are still trying to come to terms with just how difficult and unpopular governing actually is. On both sides of the House, the summer recess cannot come quickly enough. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats still can't believe that after their own defenestration in the first three elections after the end of the Conservative-LibDem coalition, they have more MPs than ever. Reform still can't believe their poll lead has been sustained for almost a year. And a collection of independents and Gaza-obsessives are excitedly planning an unpredictable future under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn: Magic Grandpa 2.0, anyone? The final PMQs before the summer recess was, if anything, an accurate snapshot of British politics in mid-2025: the main parties nervous about what comes next, the smaller parties looking forward to it. And we're only half way through the year.
Sky News
4 days ago
- Business
- Sky News
Yet another fiscal 'black hole'? Here's why this one matters
Why you can trust Sky News You're probably tired by now of hearing all about "black holes". It's one of those phrases trotted out by journalists in an effort to make economic policy sound a little more interesting. And in some senses it's a massively misleading image. After all, when people talk about fiscal holes, what they're really talking about is something rather prosaic: the amount of money it would take for the chancellor not to break her fiscal rules. Those fiscal rules are not god-given, after all. They were confected by the chancellor herself. Missing them will not really result in Britain sliding into infinite nothingness. Even so, whatever you choose to call the dilemma she's faced with right now, it's certainly quite a big deal. And understanding this helps provide a little context for the extraordinary events of the past few days, with markets sliding in the wake of Ms Reeves' teary appearance at Prime Minister's Questions. Following that moment, the yield on UK government debt - the rate of interest we're being charged by international investors - suddenly leapt higher. Granted, the jump was nothing like what we saw in the wake of Liz Truss's mini-budget. And those yields dropped down after the prime minister backed the chancellor. Even so, they underline one very important bit of context. The UK has become something of an outlier in global debt markets. For years, the yield on our benchmark government bonds was more or less middle of the industrialised-world pack. But since 2022's drama, it has hovered unnervingly high, above every other G7 nation. That speaks to a broader issue. Britain might not have the biggest deficit in the G7, or for that matter, the highest national debt. Others (most notably France, and to some extent, too, the US) face even more desperate fiscal dilemmas in the coming years. But markets do still seem nervous about Britain. Perhaps that's because of what they (and we) all endured in 2022 - when British gilt markets stepped briefly over the precipice, causing malfunctions all around the financial system (most notably in obscure parts of the pensions investment sector). But it also owes something to the fact that the chancellor's own fiscal plans are sailing worryingly close to the wind. Reeves made f iscal rules matter The main piece of evidence here is the amount of leeway she has left herself against her fiscal rules. As I said at the start, there's nothing gospel about these rules. But having created them and banged on about them for a long time, even those of us who are a little sceptical about fiscal rules would concede that breaking them is, as they say, not a good look. Back in spring, the Office for Budget Responsibility thought the chancellor had about £9.9bn in leeway against these rules. But since then, she has u-turned on both the cuts in winter fuel payments and on personal independence payments. That reduces the £9.9bn down to barely more than £3bn. But the real issue isn't just these U-turns. It's something else. The stronger the economy is, the more tax revenues come in and the more her potential headroom against the fiscal rules would be. By the same token, if the economy grows less rapidly than the OBR expected, that would mean less tax revenues and an even bigger deficit. And if you compare the OBR's latest forecasts with the current average of forecasts among independent forecasters, or for that matter, the Bank of England, they do look decidedly optimistic. If the OBR is right and everyone else is wrong, then the chancellor "only" has to fill in the hole left by those U-turns. But if the OBR is wrong and everyone else is right, things get considerably more grisly. Even a small downgrade in the OBR's expectations for productivity growth - say a 0.1 percentage point drop - would obliterate the remaining headroom and leave the chancellor with a £6bn shortfall against her rule. Anything more than that (and bear in mind, most economists think the OBR is out by more than that) and she could be £10bn or more underwater. Now, there are plenty of very reasonable points one could make about how silly this all is. It's silly that so many people treat fiscal rules as tablets of stone. It's silly that government tax policy from one year to the next seems to hinge on how right or wrong the OBR's economic forecasts are. Yet all this stuff, silly as it might all seem, is taken quite seriously by markets right now. They look at the UK, see an outlier, and tend to focus more than usual on black holes. So I'm afraid we're going to be talking about "black holes" for quite some time to come.
