Tag Archives: conservative party

Police Have Dropped Their Investigation Into The Tory Election Date Betting Row

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The Metropolitan Police have dropped their investigation into the Tory election date betting scandal.

No charges will be brought against anyone linked to the controversy, which erupted shortly after Rishi Sunak announced that he was going to the country on July 4.

It emerged that several senior Tory officials, as well as a close aide to the then prime minister, had put money on the date before the announcement was made.

Betting watchdog the Gambling Commission launched an investigation into whether this broke the Gambling Act.

Meanwhile, the Met began its own probe into whether any of those allegedly involved were guilty of misconduct in a public office.

In a statement on Friday, Detective Superintendent Katherine Goodwin said the “high bar” for that offence had not been met.

“These allegations caused a significant dent in public confidence during the election campaign and it was right that they were investigated to explore all possible offences,” she said.

“While our involvement in the criminal investigation now ceases, it’s important that is not misinterpreted as an all-clear for those whose cases were looked at.

“There are still Gambling Act offences to consider and it is appropriate that they are taken forward by investigators from the Gambling Commission who have particular expertise in this field.”

Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes said: “We clearly appreciate the level of public interest there is in this investigation but in order to protect the integrity of the investigation and to ensure a fair and just outcome, we are unable to comment further at this time, including the name of any person who may be under suspicion, or the total number of suspects.”

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Nigel No Mates: How The Tory Leadership Hopefuls Are Running A Mile From Farage

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It was all so different less than a year ago.

At the Conservative party conference in Manchester last year, Nigel Farage was in attendance, albeit in his capacity as a GB News presenter.

Nevertheless, he looked very much at home as he danced with Priti Patel at a late-night party, the pair of them bellowing out Frank Sinatra’s ‘I Love You, Baby’.

Ten months later, however, the mood has changed. Since then, Farage has made his political comeback as leader of Reform UK, and even managed to become an MP at the eighth attempt.

He heads up a five-strong Reform contingent on the opposition benches, alongside the 121 Tories who survived Labour’s landslide general election victory.

There is a school of thought in some right-wing Tory circles that the party needs to reach an accommodation with Farage – who has spoken of mounting a “takeover” of the Conservatives – in order to take on Keir Starmer.

But this week it became clear that whoever succeeds Rishi Sunak, that will not happen.

Even Farage’s former dance partner Patel, who is never confused for a Tory wet, has made it clear that the former Ukip boss is persona non grata.

An ally said in June: “Priti has dedicated over 20 years to the Conservative Party. No one with such a record would welcome someone to the party who has repeatedly stood against Conservatives.”

James Cleverly – described to HuffPost UK by a source in a rival camp as “underpriced” in the leadership stakes – also made it clear to the Daily T podcast that he saw no place in his party for Farage.

“The difference between Boris [Johnson], for example, and Nigel is Boris has never said that he holds an ambition to destroy the Conservative Party,” the former home secretary said.

“I think that is a very significant difference to my open offer to Conservatives who might want to come back into frontline Conservative politics and someone who’s basically said that he wants to destroy my party.”

Robert Jenrick, seen as Kemi Badenoch’s main challenger to be the standard bearer for the Tory right in the contest, has also ruled out allowing Farage into the party, despite previously saying he was “not opposed” to such a move.

Polling by Savanta and seen by HuffPost UK shows why, for now at least, the leadership hopefuls are right to distance themselves from the Reform UK leader.

Farage’s net favourability rating with the public is a derisory minus 19 – lower than every Tory candidate bar Patel, who languishes on minus 30.

Among Tory voters his rating is zero, while among Lib Dems – millions of whom the Conservatives need to win back in 2029 – it is minus 52.

Chris Hopkins, Savanta’s political research director, said: “Conservative leadership candidates must first endear themselves to the current Conservative voter base which, while considerably smaller in number now than they would’ve expected two years ago, isn’t all that enamoured with Nigel Farage, according to our research.

“Courting Farage, therefore, is counterintuitive for Conservative leadership candidates at the moment, and risks letting a fox into the henhouse for no obvious gain.

“But I also think there has also been a wider acceptance that winning back Reform UK voters is neither particularly easy, nor enough. Even if everyone who voted Reform in 2024 and Conservative in 2019 hadn’t switched, the Conservatives still would’ve got a pasting at the election.

“Any new leader needs to expand the Conservative coalition to include former Lib Dem and Labour voters, and younger voters as well. The best way to do that will be by appearing competent and not in it for themselves – no mean feat from the opposition benches.”

One Tory aide said: “Farage has made it his business to ‘destroy’ the Tory party at every opportunity. Why on earth would you want someone who hates you to join the party in the hope it would succeed?

“You wouldn’t let vegans run the BBQ and hog roast, would you?”

A source on one campaign team told HuffPost UK: “The way to beat Farage is to eat his lunch. We need to come up with a firm, realistic offer to the country on how we will bring down immigration.

“That will push him further to the extremes, which is where he makes mistakes.”

A Reform UK spokesman, however, was sanguine at the Tory opposition to their leader.

He said: “It’s like six lepers telling a healthy man that he cannot join their colony. Why on earth would he want to?”

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Most Brits Do Not Care Who The Next Tory Leader Is, Brutal New Poll Finds

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Most Brits do not actually care who the next Conservative leader is, according to a new poll.

In yet another humiliating twist for the Tories – just a month after their worst ever electoral defeat, Ipsos UK has found 62% of Brits surveyed were not interested in following who would replace Rishi Sunak.

To make matters worse, that includes 36% of Conservative voters.

The pollsters found none of the candidates are very well known among the British public, despite all of them holding ministerial roles at some point.

Just 45% of the 1,091 adults surveyed said they know a great deal or a fair amount about former home secretary Priti Patel, followed by 26% for shadow home secretary James Cleverly, and 24% for shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch.

The polling, which took place between August 2 and 5, also found 34% of the public said they do not favour any of the current candidates.

There was a narrow preference for Cleverly among those surveyed, with 18% suggesting he would do a good job, followed by Patel (17%) and shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat (17%).

Badenoch is slightly behind on 14%, putting her on par with former migration minister Robert Jenrick.

Meanwhile, 9% thought shadow pensions secretary Mel Stride would do a good job leading the opposition – which, unfortunately, is the same percentage of respondents who backed a candidate called “Stuart Lewis”, a fake politician added to the poll by Ipsos.

But, it’s not all doom and gloom for Stride.

While a whopping 44% of respondents said they thought Patel would do a bad job, (and 22% thought the same of Badenoch, 20% of Cleverly, 15% of Jenrick, 11% of Tugendhat), just 9% said thought Stride would also perform poorly.

Trinh Tu, UK managing director, public affairs, said: “This new poll suggests high level of public apathy about the Conservative leadership race.”

She added that Patel seems to be most divisive figure at the moment, but for the most part, “Britons are unfamiliar with the main candidates and say they do not care very much about who will emerge at the winner”.

Meanwhile, 65% said a backing from ex-PM Liz Truss would give that candidate the worst chance of winning.

Far fewer (46%) said Reform leader and MP Nigel Farage would have a negative effect on a candidate’s hopes of victory, and 44% said the same for ex-PM Boris Johnson.

Only former PM and Rishi Sunak’s foreign secretary David Cameron was seen as the one who could have a positive impact overall – 31% said it would worsen a candidate’s chances with an endorsement, compared to 32% who said it would improve.

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Ruth Davidson Has Backed James Cleverly To Be The Next Conservative Leader

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Ruth Davidson has endorsed James Cleverly’s campaign to be the next Conservative leader.

The former Scottish Tory boss said the shadow home secretary had the “pragmatism, optimism and confidence” needed to succeed Rishi Sunak.

Her comments are a major boost for Cleverly, who is one of six candidates vying to become the next Tory leader in the wake of the party’s shattering general election defeat.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Davidson said his experience as a former foreign secretary, home secretary and Tory chairman made him the ideal person for the job.

She said: “We need to pick a leader who can demonstrate and communicate the unity, pragmatism, optimism and confidence we must have to start winning again… for me the standout choice to take us forward is James Cleverly.

“A military man who understands duty and service. A business man who knows how to run organisations. A big hitter, holding two of the great offices of state at the Home Office and Foreign Office. A pragmatist who can unite all sections of the party.”

Davidson said Cleverly had “both rallied world leaders to Ukraine’s cause as foreign secretary and rallied local constituency activists during his time as party chairman”.

She added: ” He knows that we must look outward to rebuild, not turn in on ourselves.

“As leader, he will keep the Conservative Party a broad church, knowing that’s where success lies. And his appeal has breadth, too, enabling us to win back voters that we lost to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform.”

The other candidates for Tory leader are Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Mel Stride.

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Liz Truss Says She Is A ‘Victim’ Of An Attempt ‘To Sabotage My Administration’

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Liz Truss has described herself as a “victim” of “sabotage” almost two years after her party kicked her out of 10 Downing Street.

The former prime minister lost her job after just 49 days in office once she unveiled £45bn of unfunded tax cuts in her mini-Budget, a move which sent the markets into turmoil.

She also lost her seat in the general election last month.

But speaking to The Daily Telegraph’s podcast, the Daily T earlier this week, Truss once again refused to accept responsibility for her fiscal policies.

Explaining why her radical plans to reduce taxes had to be dropped so suddenly in 2022, she said: “I knew, and I was directly threatened with this, that there could potentially be a meltdown in terms of the government not being able to fund its own debt.”

“And I couldn’t risk that,” she said, saying that was “more important to me than me keeping my job”.

She said “powerful people” including the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey and members of the Tory Party “undermined me”.

Truss continued: “For the good of the country, I had to remove myself from office.

“That doesn’t mean I think they were right to do that.

“I was the victim, frankly, of an attempt to sabotage my administration by people who didn’t agree with my policies.

“That was the issue, and what I am saying – and why I am speaking out now – is unless we fix that accountability problem we have in Britain, is we are not going to be able to get proper conservative policies, like lower taxes, supply-side reform, and cutting the size of government.

“Because we have institutions that do not believe in those policies and are prepared to sabotage a government that tries to implement them.”

Truss then said, “I am not responsible for people’s mortgages going up,” – and blamed the Bank of England instead, as the independent institution is responsible for the country’s monetary policies.

It’s worth noting the Bank actually had to intervene to stabilise the pensions market after the mini-Budget.

Truss has tried to repeatedly to redeem her reputation in recent months.

She even slammed the current government after civil servants named her in the official briefing notes for the King’s Speech last month.

Her name was subsequently removed from the notes on the gov.uk website – but that has not stopped Labour politicians from criticising her.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves blamed the economic struggles of the UK on Truss’s premiership on Thursday.

Speaking after the Bank of England finally lowered interest rates for the first time in four years, she maintained that the British economy’s foundations are still unsteady.

Reeves said: “Millions of people are still paying higher mortgage rates after the Conservatives’ mini-Budget less than two years ago that sent interest rates and mortgage rates soaring.”

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Rachel Reeves, \"Homeowners will welcome this cut in interest rate\"

\"But millions of people are still paying higher mortgage rates after the Conservative Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng budget less than two years ago that sent interest rate and mortgage rates soaring\"

\"I have been… pic.twitter.com/DOSB2wnB4c

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) August 1, 2024

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Rachel Reeves, “Homeowners will welcome this cut in interest rate”

“But millions of people are still paying higher mortgage rates after the Conservative Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng budget less than two years ago that sent interest rate and mortgage rates soaring”

“I have been… pic.twitter.com/DOSB2wnB4c

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) August 1, 2024

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