Latest news with #NigelHuddleston
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
If Kemi and Nigel want to stop clueless Keir destroying Britain, they need to do a deal
'Tories won't work with Reform despite election drubbing', read The Telegraph headline, in a predictably Conservative reaction to yet another electoral bloodbath. Asked about the prospect of local or national co-operation between the Tories and Reform following their disastrous local election results, which saw Nigel Farage's party make huge gains, Nigel Huddleston, the Tory co-chairman, declared: 'I can't see why we'd do that ... Reform's golden strategy is the destruction of the Conservative Party and they don't share many of the values and principles that we hold.' He added: 'We've done deals in the past on a council level where it's to implement Conservative policies and Conservative principles. 'We are under new leadership now. We're using our time in opposition wisely, we're developing a whole new set of principles and policies because we need to present ourselves as an alternative government. 'Not a protest party, not a populist party that will go around saying that we've got simple, straight answers to really complex questions. That's not a credible long-term proposition.' It might not be a 'credible long term position' but it's working for Reform, and the Conservative Party pretending otherwise is an insult to its own electorate. A 17.4 point swing to Reform in Runcorn and Helsby, one of the safest Labour seats, isn't a protest. It's a revolution. Moreover, who are the Tories kidding when they say Reform 'don't share many of the core principles and values that we hold'? They're a low-tax, low-immigration, anti-woke party that wants to slash government waste. If those aren't Conservative values then the Tories truly are finished. Quite a few Conservatives would rather nationalise steel than import it from China, too. Similarly, Farage calling the idea of a pact with the Tories 'revolting' also lacks credibility, for precisely the same reason: he is a former Conservative being propelled to power largely by former Conservatives. I can think of far more revolting things: a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition with a side order of Greens being chief among them. Both parties can pretend they have nothing in common until the cows come home – but voters on the Right will never forgive them if they allow their differences to bring about more of the same come 2029. Yes, Reform are more Right-wing than the Tories, as evidenced by the socialists protesting outside polling stations on Thursday shouting 'racists' and accusing the party of 'demonising' migrants. Yet the reason for Reform's success also threatens to be its failure. This is why a pact has to happen, if not before the next election, then immediately afterwards. Yes, the Tories may be on their knees right now. Voters certainly haven't woken up to the party being 'under new leadership'; according to YouGov, one in five British adults have never even heard of Kemi Badenoch. But the local election results, while horrific, are not the extinction level event Reform claims them to be. They've lost a great many seats from the high watermark of 2021, and they've been pushed into second place by Reform even in places like leafy Goffs Oak in Hertfordshire. But they've not been wiped out completely. They've even won the mayoralty in Cambridgeshire. Sure, there's an Electoral Calculus poll doing the rounds suggesting that if the swing in Runcorn was applied nationally, it would see Reform gain 427 seats, Labour lose 255 seats and the Conservatives wiped out to just four. But we are talking about a working-class constituency where the sitting Labour MP, Mike Amesbury, punched a constituent in the face. The same rules don't apply to seats in the South West and the Home Counties. On this, the mayoral votes are telling. The combined Reform and Tory vote would have been enough to obliterate the combined Labour/Liberal Democrat/Green vote in Doncaster (58 to 37 per cent), Greater Lincolnshire (68 to 24 per cent) and North Tyneside (50 to 44 per cent). But in the West of England, the Left massively outgunned the Right with a 59 per cent vote share compared to 39 per cent for Reform and the Tories. Unlike Boris Johnson, who could reach parts that other politicians couldn't, huge swathes of the Blue Wall still elude Farage. And this isn't simply because they are inhabited by 'wet' Tories. Just as there are plenty of Thatcherites out there who no longer support the Tories, there are plenty of others who still can't bring themselves to support Farage, considering him to be a political spiv. Their worst fears about 'untried and untested' Reform are immediately confirmed by Andrea Jenkyns celebrating victory in the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race with the suggestion that migrants should be 'housed in tents instead of hotels'. Amid growing resentment towards Labour – and with Sir Ed Davey hobby horsing around – the Tories could well mount a comeback in these constituencies in three years' time with a bit of hard work. Farage lacks Blue Wall appeal and Badenoch lacks Red Wall appeal but together they appeal to both. Righties currently finding the idea of voting for either unpalatable would strangely be more comfortable with a mash-up of Farage keeping the Tories honest, and the Tories keeping Reform from going off the reservation. This is a huge electoral strength that must be capitalised upon. The facts of life, as Margaret Thatcher once put it, remain conservative. Additionally, Labour could not be more unpopular now, even among the 33 per cent of a 60 per cent turnout who voted for them last year. Sir Keir Starmer is on the ropes, but conservatives, both small and big C, must box clever. What's truly astonishing about these two Right-wing parties is their comparative lack of electoral nous compared to the Left. Sure, the Conservatives are alleged to have played some dubious games. Jenkyns, who defected from the Tories to Reform last November, claimed to have been 'smeared' by her old party, which she said 'called the police on me and implied I slept with political friends'. At one point, her opponents tried to remove her from the ballot. But similar dirty tricks have been used by the parties of the Left for years. I don't condone it, but rather than getting mad with each other, the Right should get even on its real enemy: the so-called progressives hell-bent on destroying Britain. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
If Kemi and Nigel want to stop clueless Keir destroying Britain, they need to do a deal
'Tories won't work with Reform despite election drubbing', read The Telegraph headline, in a predictably Conservative reaction to yet another electoral bloodbath. Asked about the prospect of local or national co-operation between the Tories and Reform following their disastrous local election results, which saw Nigel Farage's party make huge gains, Nigel Huddleston, the Tory co-chairman, declared: 'I can't see why we'd do that ... Reform's golden strategy is the destruction of the Conservative Party and they don't share many of the values and principles that we hold.' He added: 'We've done deals in the past on a council level where it's to implement Conservative policies and Conservative principles. 'We are under new leadership now. We're using our time in opposition wisely, we're developing a whole new set of principles and policies because we need to present ourselves as an alternative government. 'Not a protest party, not a populist party that will go around saying that we've got simple, straight answers to really complex questions. That's not a credible long-term proposition.' It might not be a 'credible long term position' but it's working for Reform, and the Conservative Party pretending otherwise is an insult to its own electorate. A 17.4 point swing to Reform in Runcorn and Helsby, one of the safest Labour seats, isn't a protest. It's a revolution. Moreover, who are the Tories kidding when they say Reform 'don't share many of the core principles and values that we hold'? They're a low-tax, low-immigration, anti-woke party that wants to slash government waste. If those aren't Conservative values then the Tories truly are finished. Quite a few Conservatives would rather nationalise steel than import it from China, too. Similarly, Farage calling the idea of a pact with the Tories 'revolting' also lacks credibility, for precisely the same reason: he is a former Conservative being propelled to power largely by former Conservatives. I can think of far more revolting things: a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition with a side order of Greens being chief among them. Both parties can pretend they have nothing in common until the cows come home – but voters on the Right will never forgive them if they allow their differences to bring about more of the same come 2029. Yes, Reform are more Right-wing than the Tories, as evidenced by the socialists protesting outside polling stations on Thursday shouting 'racists' and accusing the party of 'demonising' migrants. Yet the reason for Reform's success also threatens to be its failure. This is why a pact has to happen, if not before the next election, then immediately afterwards. Yes, the Tories may be on their knees right now. Voters certainly haven't woken up to the party being 'under new leadership'; according to YouGov, one in five British adults have never even heard of Kemi Badenoch. But the local election results, while horrific, are not the extinction level event Reform claims them to be. They've lost a great many seats from the high watermark of 2021, and they've been pushed into second place by Reform even in places like leafy Goffs Oak in Hertfordshire. But they've not been wiped out completely. They've even won the mayoralty in Cambridgeshire. Sure, there's an Electoral Calculus poll doing the rounds suggesting that if the swing in Runcorn was applied nationally, it would see Reform gain 427 seats, Labour lose 255 seats and the Conservatives wiped out to just four. But we are talking about a working-class constituency where the sitting Labour MP, Mike Amesbury, punched a constituent in the face. The same rules don't apply to seats in the South West and the Home Counties. On this, the mayoral votes are telling. The combined Reform and Tory vote would have been enough to obliterate the combined Labour/Liberal Democrat/Green vote in Doncaster (58 to 37 per cent), Greater Lincolnshire (68 to 24 per cent) and North Tyneside (50 to 44 per cent). But in the West of England, the Left massively outgunned the Right with a 59 per cent vote share compared to 39 per cent for Reform and the Tories. Unlike Boris Johnson, who could reach parts that other politicians couldn't, huge swathes of the Blue Wall still elude Farage. And this isn't simply because they are inhabited by 'wet' Tories. Just as there are plenty of Thatcherites out there who no longer support the Tories, there are plenty of others who still can't bring themselves to support Farage, considering him to be a political spiv. Their worst fears about 'untried and untested' Reform are immediately confirmed by Andrea Jenkyns celebrating victory in the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race with the suggestion that migrants should be 'housed in tents instead of hotels'. Amid growing resentment towards Labour – and with Sir Ed Davey hobby horsing around – the Tories could well mount a comeback in these constituencies in three years' time with a bit of hard work. Farage lacks Blue Wall appeal and Badenoch lacks Red Wall appeal but together they appeal to both. Righties currently finding the idea of voting for either unpalatable would strangely be more comfortable with a mash-up of Farage keeping the Tories honest, and the Tories keeping Reform from going off the reservation. This is a huge electoral strength that must be capitalised upon. The facts of life, as Margaret Thatcher once put it, remain conservative. Additionally, Labour could not be more unpopular now, even among the 33 per cent of a 60 per cent turnout who voted for them last year. Sir Keir Starmer is on the ropes, but conservatives, both small and big C, must box clever. What's truly astonishing about these two Right-wing parties is their comparative lack of electoral nous compared to the Left. Sure, the Conservatives are alleged to have played some dubious games. Jenkyns, who defected from the Tories to Reform last November, claimed to have been 'smeared' by her old party, which she said 'called the police on me and implied I slept with political friends'. At one point, her opponents tried to remove her from the ballot. But similar dirty tricks have been used by the parties of the Left for years. I don't condone it, but rather than getting mad with each other, the Right should get even on its real enemy: the so-called progressives hell-bent on destroying Britain.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is Winston Churchill the father of Maga?
The entire board of the Conservative Party is off to Oxford University on Monday to inspect the party's archive at the Bodleian Library. Nigel Huddleston, its co-chairman, is planning to dust down some old party slogans to see if they can be repurposed for Tory battles with Labour in the 2020s. They range from the wordy 'Life's Better With the Conservatives, Don't Let Labour Ruin It' from the 1959 campaign to the now legendary 'Labour Isn't Working' from 1979, to the forgettable 'Strong and Stable' from 2017. Or there's 'Prosperity With a Purpose' from 1964 and 1992's 'The Best Future for Britain'. I thought the slogan from Winston Churchill's 1950 election campaign – 'Make Britain Great Again' – has a certain ring to it. It's amazing no one else has had a similar idea. Earl Attlee, the grandson of the Labour prime minister Clement Attlee, has been lamenting a collapse in standards. 'Like it or not, we live in a much less deferential society,' he told peers this week. 'It always depresses me when I read of senior military officers or junior ratings or NCOs in the regular Army being referred to as 'Mr', even in a military context. Many years ago, when I was just a full corporal in the Reserves, I was proud of the rank that I held and what it indicated. However, I am not sure now that being a peer is an attractive rank or honour any more.' Hereditary peer Attlee, 68, is planning to retire from the Lords this spring before Labour abolishes his role there in part because he is worried he is 'out of date with modern society'. He explained: 'I do not use social media; I have not got the foggiest clue how to use it.' He will be missed. It is the culmination of the Six Nations rugby tournament today and former England rugby star Mike Tindall has recalled winding up his mother-in-law, Princess Anne, patron of Scottish Rugby Union. 'Most fellows want to get something over on their mother-in-law,' he told a charity lunch in the City. 'It's quite niche if you are playing for England, captain for England and you play Scotland at Twickenham and you win and you are receiving the trophy from your mother-in-law. I don't like the majority of the RFU but I shook every one of their hands and I kept her waiting. I was like, 'Debrief over lunch tomorrow?' and she says, 'Move on Michael'.' Lily Allen, 39, thinks today's young people cannot party like she used to. She told an audience at London's Hackney Empire last week: 'I don't think it has got anything to do with their health and well-being. I think they are vain. All this health and wellness stuff is bulls--t. Young people seem to be obsessed with being in control of their self-image. Not that I advocate getting out of your tree.' Former Conservative party chairman Sir Jake Berry wants ministers to target golf courses rather than farmland for new homes. 'Fields are left empty in the winter because you don't put livestock in a field in winter, because they destroy the grass,' he explained to GB News viewers.'But if you want to take useless bits of land away from people to build houses on, why not start with golf courses? In fact, there are more golf courses in this country than there is land used for houses.' Eighties pop band The Housemartins will never reunite like Oasis, says ex-band member Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim. 'There are so many people reuniting right now and people ask if we will do it and I say 'no'. The party line when we split up was if we saw another member of the band playing a Housemartins version then we were allowed to kill them. The other thing was we would never get back together unless The Smiths do. They have said they won't do it unless the Royal family abdicates so don't hold your breath.' Former Labour MP Stephen Pound thinks he knows why the Sentencing Council decided to develop new judges' guidelines – which could see white people treated with less consideration than minorities – to come into effect on April Fool's Day. 'How fitting that one of the members of the widely derided Sentencing Council is named Jo King,' he tells me. 'Many of us think they must have been.' They weren't. Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope. You can reach him at peterborough@ Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Is Winston Churchill the father of Maga?
The entire board of the Conservative Party is off to Oxford University on Monday to inspect the party's archive at the Bodleian Library. Nigel Huddleston, its co-chairman, is planning to dust down some old party slogans to see if they can be repurposed for Tory battles with Labour in the 2020s. They range from the wordy 'Life's Better With the Conservatives, Don't Let Labour Ruin It' from the 1959 campaign to the now legendary 'Labour Isn't Working' from 1979, to the forgettable 'Strong and Stable' from 2017. Or there's 'Prosperity With a Purpose' from 1964 and 1992's 'The Best Future for Britain'. I thought the slogan from Winston Churchill's 1950 election campaign – 'Make Britain Great Again' – has a certain ring to it. It's amazing no one else has had a similar idea. Peer review Earl Attlee, the grandson of the Labour prime minister Clement Attlee, has been lamenting a collapse in standards. 'Like it or not, we live in a much less deferential society,' he told peers this week. 'It always depresses me when I read of senior military officers or junior ratings or NCOs in the regular Army being referred to as 'Mr', even in a military context. Many years ago, when I was just a full corporal in the Reserves, I was proud of the rank that I held and what it indicated. However, I am not sure now that being a peer is an attractive rank or honour any more.' Hereditary peer Attlee, 68, is planning to retire from the Lords this spring before Labour abolishes his role there in part because he is worried he is 'out of date with modern society'. He explained: 'I do not use social media; I have not got the foggiest clue how to use it.' He will be missed. Royal in-laws It is the culmination of the Six Nations rugby tournament today and former England rugby star Mike Tindall has recalled winding up his mother-in-law, Princess Anne, patron of Scottish Rugby Union. 'Most fellows want to get something over on their mother-in-law,' he told a charity lunch in the City. 'It's quite niche if you are playing for England, captain for England and you play Scotland at Twickenham and you win and you are receiving the trophy from your mother-in-law. I don't like the majority of the RFU but I shook every one of their hands and I kept her waiting. I was like, 'Debrief over lunch tomorrow?' and she says, 'Move on Michael'.' Young people today Lily Allen, 39, thinks today's young people cannot party like she used to. She told an audience at London's Hackney Empire last week: 'I don't think it has got anything to do with their health and well-being. I think they are vain. All this health and wellness stuff is bulls--t. Young people seem to be obsessed with being in control of their self-image. Not that I advocate getting out of your tree.' Berry's hole in one Former Conservative party chairman Sir Jake Berry wants ministers to target golf courses rather than farmland for new homes. 'Fields are left empty in the winter because you don't put livestock in a field in winter, because they destroy the grass,' he explained to GB News viewers. 'But if you want to take useless bits of land away from people to build houses on, why not start with golf courses? In fact, there are more golf courses in this country than there is land used for houses.' Slim chance Eighties pop band The Housemartins will never reunite like Oasis, says ex-band member Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim. 'There are so many people reuniting right now and people ask if we will do it and I say 'no'. The party line when we split up was if we saw another member of the band playing a Housemartins version then we were allowed to kill them. The other thing was we would never get back together unless The Smiths do. They have said they won't do it unless the Royal family abdicates so don't hold your breath.' Bad joke Former Labour MP Stephen Pound thinks he knows why the Sentencing Council decided to develop new judges' guidelines – which could see white people treated with less consideration than minorities – to come into effect on April Fool's Day. 'How fitting that one of the members of the widely derided Sentencing Council is named Jo King,' he tells me. 'Many of us think they must have been.' They weren't.
