Liz Truss reveals she's spoken with former PM since taking office
Liz Truss will admit that her economic plans, which she claims will boost Britain’s growth, will cause “disruption”.
On Wednesday, in her first Conservative Party conference speech as leader of the party, the prime minister will insist that there can be no more “drift and delay” in her attempt to “break us out of this high-tax, low-growth cycle”.
She will defend her “new approach” by saying it will “grow the pie so that everyone gets a bigger slice” and “unleash the full potential of our great country”.
It will be seen as her attempt to boost the Tories’ ailing morale, after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was forced to make a U-turn on axing the 45p rate of tax for the highest earners – a key policy in his mini-Budget that spooked the markets.
The fall-out over the tax plans has caused a split within the party, and more infighting could erupt over whether to increase benefits in line with inflation.
Ms Truss’ speech will follow former minister Nadine Dorries’s warning that the Tories could “absolutely lose” an early general election after a new poll shows Labour with a 38-point lead in “red wall” constituencies.
Tory conference on Wednesday newspapers' front pages
The Sun and Daily Mail were the only two national papers to not feature news stories about the Conservative Party conference on their front pages.
Independent: PM fights to keep party line as splits deepen
Financial Times: Truss strives to rally MPs after Tories renew infighting over benefits threat
Daily Telegraph: Disruption is the price of success, PM insists
Guardian: Tory turmoil amid claims of ‘coup’ to oust Truss
Times: Brace for more change, says Truss the disruptor
Morning Star: Tories in chaos over threat to cut benefits
Mirror: NOW Tories blame Queen’s death for the budget fiasco
Daily Star: Kwasi: It’s All The Queen’s Fault!
Daily Express: PM: My Changes Will Disrupt… But Build Better Future
Sun: Married BBC star's secret love child with stripper
Daily Mail: Official: Police To Attend EVERY Burglary
ICYMI: Labour support in ‘red wall’ seats soars to 61%
Support for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party has soared to 61 per cent in the north of England and Midlands constituencies, while Liz Truss’s Conservatives have slumped to just 23 per cent.
You can read the full details here by Adam Forrest
Remarkable 23-point swing to Keir Starmer’s party in heartlands since mini-Budget mess
Donald Trump: ‘Liz Truss will do very well as prime minister'
Liz Truss has been given a glowing endorsement by Donald Trump.
The former Republican president of the US praised the recently-appointed Tory leader for her tax-cutting agenda.
Mr Trump said he believes that she will do “very well” as prime minister.
Donald Trump praised Liz Truss for her plans to cut tax
(AP)
In an interview with GB News, he said: “I cut taxes very substantially and we did much more business and she’s done that.
“And I know she’s taken some hits for it, which surprises me actually, but it could be at the end of the day you do bigger revenues, it’s going to be very interesting.
“What she did is very inverse to what some people thought. But that doesn’t mean they were right. I have a feeling she might be right.”
Braverman berated for saying she wants UK to leave ECHR
A senior government source has criticised home secretary Suella Braverman for saying she wanted the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, contrary to the government’s policy.
When Ms Braverman stood against prime minister Liz Truss for Tory leadership, she campaigned in favour of such a move.
She returned to the topic today at a fringe event hosted by Spectator magazine at the Tory conference in Birmingham.
Suella Braverman gives a thumbs-up after her speech on immigration
(Jacob King/PA)
Ms Braverman said: “I was pretty blunt about this issue in my leadership campaign.
“My position personally is that ultimately we do need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
“That is not government policy, I should say, government policy is to do everything we can within the convention, within the boundaries of the convention.
“But if that doesn’t work, then we will have to consider all options.”
But a senior government told the PA news agency: “As Suella acknowledged, her personal views are contrary to government policy and if she wishes to make those views known within government she should do so in a more appropriate setting.”
Dorries: ‘Removing Boris and his policies recipe for disaster’
Removing Boris Johnson and his policies “is a recipe for disaster,” former culture secretary Nadine Dorries has said.
Speaking to LBC Radio’s Iain Dale, she said: “I think what Liz (Truss) needs to do is stop right now and take stock of where she is, to learn from the mistakes of the past few weeks, to look at the manifesto that people elected us on.”
She added: “Because for me removing Boris and removing the policies is a recipe for disaster.”
Flip-flopping Dorries: Tories would ‘absolutely lose’ election
Nadine Dorries appears to be flip-flopping over whether the Tory government should call an early general election.
The former culture secretary has – at least two times – said that PM Liz Truss should trigger an election before 2024.
But now she’s saying that she’s not calling for a general election, as polls show that Labour would win by a landslide.
Ms Dorries, a loyalist of Ms Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson, told LBC Radio’s Iain Dale: “There are a number of issues, but I just want to make clear I’m not calling for a general election, because the poll ratings at the moment, we’d absolutely lose it.”
She added: “I back Liz but what I want Liz to do is to – I’d just like everyone to calm down slightly and to not just throw the baby out with the bath water, which is what’s happening now and to think a bit more carefully about what it was people voted for in 2019.
“How they voted about our manifesto, about the deal that we have with the British public and the promises we made to them, and to think a little bit more about that before we go too gung-ho with policies that people are not going to vote for and not going to like in the future.”
‘Altercation’ as security guard ‘stops journalist asking question’
A journalist attending the Conservative conference said there was an “altercation” when the BBC’s Nick Robinson attempted to ask home secretary Suella Braverman a question.
Adam Bienkov, the political editor of Byline Times, said: “Altercation just now at Conservative conference between the BBC’s Nick Robinson and a security guard who was very heavy-handedly trying to physically prevent him from politely asking a question of the Home Secretary Suella Braverman.”
Badenoch slams Braverman’s ‘inflammatory’ attack on rebels
In another Cabinet row, Kemi Badenoch has criticised Suella Braverman for her “inflammatory” suggestion that rebel Tory MPs including Michael Gove had staged a “coup” over the top rate of income tax.
She told a ConservativeHome event: “I don’t think we should be talking about coups. I think that sort of language is just too inflammatory. People should be able to change their minds without the world coming to an end.”
But Ms Badenoch said she has been shouting at Mr Gove over his rebellion on the axing of the 45p top tax rate, which helped force the U-turn. “I’ve been shouting at him a lot since Sunday morning.”
MPs call for inquiry amid claims of mini-Budget insider trading
Dozens of MPs have called for a parliamentary inquiry into claims of insider trading around Kwasi Kwarteng’s budget.
In a letter to Mel Stride, the chair of the Treasury select committee, 31 MPs say the chancellor’s contact with financial traders in the run-up to the policy change should be scrutinised “without delay”.
Mr Kwarteng was reported to have privately met with at least one trader who profited from the fall in the value of the Pound sterling in the weeks ahead of his mini-Budget.
You can read the full story here by Jon Stone
Treasury Select Committee urged to probe Chancellor’s contact with City traders
Braverman: Police need to ‘stop pandering to identity politics’
Police need to stop spending time “pandering to identity politics”, home secretary Suella Braverman said in her wide-ranging speech about immigration and law and order.
At the Conservative conference, she accused the left of wanting to replace “profound, elemental values” with “the poison of identity politics” that she said “distracts our public servants from doing their real job”.
Ms Braverman also warned that protesters using “guerilla tactics” and engaging in vandalism during demos could be jailed – namechecking Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion.
Extinction Rebellion protesters blocking Lambeth Bridge in June
(Yui Mok/PA)
She also said: “It is not just that pandering to identity politics is a huge waste of time. [Police] need to stick to catching the bad guys ... More Pcs, less PC.”
Recently, she took aim at Sussex Police for “playing identity politics and denying biology”, after it said it would not tolerate critical comments about the identity of a transgender woman who sexually abused children years before transitioning.
The police force had said: “This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated.”