Latest news with #PrimeMinistersQuestions
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Kemi Badenoch: I'm going to get better as Tory leader
Kemi Badenoch has insisted she is "going to get better" as Conservative leader, saying she is not "shy about self-criticism".It comes after shadow chancellor Mel Stride defended his boss earlier this week following criticism of her performances at Prime Minister's Questions, saying she would told the BBC: "You don't want people to be the very best they're going to be on day one."The interview followed a speech by Badenoch where she launched a commission to examine whether the UK should withdraw from a series of international agreements in order to tackle illegal migration and allow foreign criminals to be deported more easily. Since last summer's general election, when the Conservatives suffered their worst defeat in the party's parliamentary history, support for the party has slumped further and they have been overtaken by Reform UK in the polls. The Tories also suffered a disastrous set of local election results last month, losing hundreds of council seats to Nigel Farage's party. Meanwhile, there has been criticism of Badenoch's performance against Sir Keir Starmer in Prime Minister's Questions and her decision to take time to work out policy positions on key issues. Asked about Stride's comment that she would get better, Badenoch told the BBC: "The people who have done this job before have all told me that the first day is not what the last day is going to be like."That every week is different, every week you're learning. "And that's what you want, you want people who are going to get better."Badenoch, who became Tory leader in November, admitted her party had "made some mistakes" and had "hit rock bottom" at the last general said she was changing the party but "it's not going to happen overnight" - and she insisted she would definitely lead it into the next general election in four years time. Earlier this week, Stride distanced the party from former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget, saying in a speech that it had damaged their economic £45bn package of tax cuts funded by borrowing sparked turmoil on financial markets and led to Truss resigning after just 45 days in office. Asked why she did not make a decisive break with Truss by throwing her out of the party, a smiling Badenoch said she did not know whether the former PM was still a member."Is she still in the party?" she asked, insisting that she was not interested in "any particular individual" but about how to get the country "back on track".A spokesman for Truss, who lost her seat in last year's general election, confirmed she was still a Conservative Party member. In a speech earlier, Badenoch sought to flesh out her party's approach to tackling illegal launched a commission, which will be led by Tory peer and former justice minister Lord Wolfson, to look at the potential consequences of leaving international treaties including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and whether this could help the government take back control of the asylum system. The ECHR, which was established in 1950, sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in the 46 signatory countries and is a central part of UK human rights law. However, Badenoch said it had become a "sword used to attack democratic decisions" and to halt attempts to deport illegal migrants and foreign criminals. The Tory leader said she now believed the UK "will likely need to leave" the ECHR "because I am yet to see a clear and coherent way to fix this within our current legal structures".But she said she would not commit to this without "a clear plan" and "a full understanding of all the consequences". The commission is due to report back at the Conservative Party's annual conference in the autumn. If the commission concludes that it would not be practical to leave the ECHR, she said she would abide by that, stressing that her aim was to control immigration and remove foreign criminals from the UK. "If there is a way to fix that without leaving the ECHR ... then that's great because my objection is not about the ECHR so much as it is the problems we're trying to solve," she to leave the ECHR has been a divisive issue for the Conservative Party. During last year's leadership contest Badenoch argued leaving the treaty would not be a "silver bullet" for tackling immigration, while her rival Robert Jenrick, now shadow justice secretary, said the party would "die" unless it left. However, since becoming Tory leader, Badenoch has hardened her month, the government said it would bring forward legislation to make clear Parliament needs to be able to control the UK's borders and to clarify how aspects of the ECHR should apply in immigration cases. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Telegraph
Reform splits over burka ban
Reform UK's newest MP calling for a ban on the burka was 'dumb', the party's chairman has said. In a sign of a party split on the policy, Zia Yusuf said he had 'no idea' that Sarah Pochin's first question at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday would be demanding a burka ban. Mr Yusuf wrote on X: 'I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do.' He added: 'Nothing to do with me. Had no idea about the question nor that it wasn't policy. Busy with other stuff.' Mrs Pochin, who was elected last month as the Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, stood to ask Sir Keir Starmer her first question at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday. The former Tory councillor said: 'Given the Prime Minister's desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burka?' The question prompted a rippling of audible disquiet among some fellow MPs. Sir Keir responded: 'Can I welcome her to her place [in the House of Commons]? But I am not going to follow her down that line. 'Now she is here, and safely in her place, perhaps she could tell her new party leader [Nigel Farage] that his latest plan to bet £80 billion of unfunded tax cuts, [with] no idea how he is going to pay for it, is Liz Truss all over again. 'Although considering I think she was a Conservative member when Liz Truss was leader she probably won't.' France banned wearing the burka and any other full-face veils in public places in 2010. Denmark passed a similar ban in 2018. Mrs Pochin, a former Tory councillor, later said that the question was something that 'a number of people had raised' with her. 'Face coverings in public don't make sense' Despite the party confirming that it was not policy, Lee Anderson, the Reform party whip, said on social media: 'Ban the burka? Yes we should. 'No one should be allowed to hide their identity in public.' Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, later told GB News that he believed that 'face coverings in public don't make sense and I think we deserve a debate about that, of which I see the burka being part.'
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Lindsay Hoyle snaps at disruptive MPs in heated winter fuel payments debate: ‘Are you going to behave?'
Sir Lindsey Hoyle lashed out at unruly MPs during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (21 May), asking them to behave or leave the Commons. During a heated debate on Labour 's winter fuel payment cuts, where Sir Keir Starmer announced a U-turn on the controversial policy, the Speaker stood up to tell a group of disruptive whips he 'expects better from them'. 'The boys at the back, I've got my eye on you', he said, which prompted further jeers. Calling for 'order' in the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay addressed the rowdy MPs and asked 'which one wants to leave first?' before pointing to one particularly loud offender as the 'first volunteer'.
Telegraph
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
When Starmer professes his love for pubs, you know nuclear annihilation must be nigh
Prime Minister's Questions began in the context of looming nuclear-level annihilation for two once-great powers – the legacy of past British governance in part to blame. The local elections, however, played second fiddle in the Prime Minister's opening statement to some trouble on the Indian subcontinent. Unsurprisingly, Kemi Badenoch wasn't keen to directly mention the local elections either, her party having faced a gale-force pounding at the hands of Reform. Instead, she led on the issue of the winter fuel allowance and mistakenly put two pence in the Oink-o-meter. 'Twenty-two billion black hole, fixing the foundations' ... out came all the old familiar not-favourites. Annihilation by a mal-constructed Pakistani nuke would be bliss compared to another four years of this. It might not be four years though: in between Sir Oinky and a still un-sacked Lucy Powell sat Big Ange, glowering into the middle distance. George Eliot observed that 'there are glances of hatred that stab but raise no cry of murder'. Give her time, George. Mrs Badenoch continued with a bizarre meander through the finer points of energy policy. Not a word about the Government's deranged pass on National Insurance gifted to India, not a whisper about the rape gangs or Paraffin Powell's odious remarks, let alone an allusion to the issue that prompted last week's great turquoise tidal wave: immigration. It was like watching two plesiosaurs tear into each other during the last few minutes of the Early Jurassic. Still it was better than Ed Davey's contribution, which was its own sort of atom bomb of twee hideousness. He asked Oinky to tell the president of the United States that if 'he picks a fight with James Bond, Bridget Jones and Paddington Bear, he will lose'. This party was once led by Gladstone. All credit to the Prime Minister, he gave this piece of Twee Britannia the enormous eye roll it deserved. The Lib Dems further embarrassed themselves in the form of Tessa Munt. Ms Munt is a sort of Ur-form liberal boomer: it was she who hectored Katie Lam for daring to mention the grooming gangs during a debate on child sexual abuse. Like some of her generation, technology clearly bemuses Ms Munt, and during her long and very boring question about wartime photography, her phone began to go off. Cue a scrabble by an elite squad of Lib Dem MPs to silence the offending device from within her handbag. Think SAS Rogue Heroes but with the cast of The Good Life. A lighter moment came from Matt Vickers, the Tory MP who told the House he'd heard a rumour about the Prime Minister in a pub. 'No, not that one,' he joked, as Oinky turned puce. Rather it was that there was some reason, presumably hidden deep in the PM's piglet-hood, that he hated pubs enough to tax them into oblivion. 'Nobody likes pubs more than me,' the PM replied, which is the sort of thing a psychotic HR manager would say before announcing that any employee seen in the public house opposite the office will be sacked on sight. All in all, another sorry showing. Come friendly bombs – we can't take another four years of this.
BBC News
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Netflix drama Adolescence shines light on 'growing problem'
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has there was a need to tackle the "emerging and growing problem" raised by new TV drama four-part series co-written and starring actor Stephen Graham, from Kirkby, Merseyside, follows a family whose lives are blown apart when their teenage son is arrested for killing a female drama released last week shines a light on the corrosive impact of social media and misogynist influencers on some teenage boys. It was the most-watched show on Netflix around the world over the said he and his family had been watching the serial after Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley raised the issue at Prime Ministers Questions earlier. Sir Keir's comments came after writer of Adolescence, Jack Thorne, said he and co-writer Graham wanted the programme to be a piece of work that "causes discussion and makes change".Thorne said: "I want it to be shown in schools, I want it to be shown in Parliament. It's crucial because this is only going to get worse."It's something that people need to be talking about, hopefully that's what drama can do," he added. 'Toxic misogyny' Midgley told the Commons "everyone" was talking about the series, whose stars Graham and Christine Tremarco, were both born in her Labour MP said it "highlights online male radicalisation and violence against girls" and that "the creators of the show are calling for screenings in Parliament and in schools to spark change".She asked the Prime Minister to back the campaign "to counter toxic misogyny early" and "give young men the role models they deserve".Starmer responded his household had also been glued to the said: "At home we are watching Adolescence with our children. "I've got a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl and it's a really good drama to watch." He said the violence carried out by young men influenced by what they see online was "abhorrent" and "we have to tackle it." He added the government was taking steps such as putting in specialist rape and sexual offences teams in police forces across the country dealing with 999 he said the issues raised in Adolescence were "a matter of culture" which he said "it's important across the whole house that we tackle this emerging and growing problem".It comes as the former England manager Gareth Southgate spoke out about masculinity and the "manosphere".In a wide-ranging talk for the BBC's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Southgate said he feared young men were spending too much time gaming, gambling and watching pornography - and that they needed better role models beyond online influencers. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
