UK politics live: Badenoch arrives at Tory HQ to unveil shadow cabinet amid anger over Partygate comments
Kemi Badenoch has arrived at the Conservative Party headquarters to unveil her new shadow cabinet after winning the Tory leadership contest.
In her first media appearance as Tory leader, Ms Badenoch claimed to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the Partygate row was “overblown”, prompting swift condemnation from her political opponents and people whose loved ones died during the Covid pandemic.
Lobby Akinnola, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice who lost his father during the pandemic, described Ms Badenoch’s remarks as “cruel” and showing “just how detached politicians can be from the people they represent”.
With Ms Badenoch set to name her shadow cabinet ahead of its first meeting on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer is setting his sights on small boats, announcing a move to double the funding for his new Border Security Command at an Interpol conference in Glasgow, taking its total funding to £150m over two years.
Key Points
Badenoch arrives at Tory HQ to unveil shadow cabinet
Kemi Badenoch has arrived at the Conservative Party headquarters to unveil her new shadow cabinet after winning the Tory leadership contest, ahead of its first meeting on Tuesday.
Ruth Davidson gives just 40 per cent chance of Kemi Badenoch leading Tories into next election
Ex-Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has said she believes there is a 35 to 40 per cent chance that Kemi Badenoch will lead the Conservative Party into the next General election.
Speaking on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Ms Davidson said: “We don’t hang around with this sort of thing. We want the leader to be a net plus any time we go to the polls. And if they’re not, we don’t mess about.
“I would say, to put a figure on it, 35 per cent, 40 per cent? She’s got every opportunity to start the rebuilding. But there are things you really have to do when you’re in opposition, and part of that is you’ve got to put in the legwork, you’ve got to be humble. You’ve got to ask people for their vote, listen to them about what they need.
“You’ve got to show that the party’s changed. You don’t just stand up there and try and scold them into submission and become Conservatives. And I am yet to see any evidence that that is going to be her approach.”
Yvette Cooper says new Border Security Command funding is from Budget
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has said that the additional £75m announced today for Labour’s new Border Security Command is new funding from the Budget.
She told BBC Breakfast: “It’s in addition to the £75m we’d already talked about, which is only just starting to be invested now.”
Yvette Cooper refuses to commit to targets on reducing Channel crossings
The home secretary has avoided committing to specific targets on bringing down Channel crossings.
Pressed on when a drop in the number of migrant crossings could be expected, Yvette Cooper told BBC Breakfast: “We obviously want to make progress as far and as fast as possible. The prime minister has said we need to see significant progress being made.
“We know, of course, it does take time to get the investigators in place, to make sure that we can get the new technology in place. So we’re going to try and make progress as rapidly as possible.
“What I’m not going to do is what Rishi Sunak did … [and] just, you know, set out slogans and say everything was going to be solved in 12 months, and all on the basis of a slogan, because I don’t think people will take that seriously anymore.”
She said high numbers of crossings in October were “linked to the weather” but that “we’ve actually got to go after the criminal gangs at the heart of this, rather than it simply being dependent on the weather”.
Politics Explained | Who will fill new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet?
One of the main reasons the Tories suffered so heavily in July was division. Divided parties do not win elections, and since Brexit Tory politics has been a soap opera, with the Conservative ranks riddled with infighting.
In a piece setting out what Kemi Badenoch needs to do to get the party back on track, pollster Luke Tryl tells The Independent that ending the infighting and picking a united top team will be one of her most important tasks.
On Sunday her first shadow cabinet appointment was revealed when interim chief whip Stuart Andrew tweeted that he was being replaced by Rebecca Harris, the MP for Castle Point in Essex. Dame Rebecca has been an MP since 2010 and a Conservative whip since 2018.
But Ms Badenoch is picking from a depleted pool, with the Tories having returned just 121 MPs in July. And a slew of Tory heavyweights including Rishi Sunak, James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt and Oliver Dowden have said they will not serve in Ms Badenoch’s shadow cabinet, opting for stints on the backbenches instead.
Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has more analysis in this latest Politics Explained piece:
James Dyson condemns Rachel Reeves’s first Budget as ‘spiteful’
Sir James Dyson has condemned Labour’s Budget as “spiteful”, warning her so-called tractor tax will be the “death of entrepreneurship”.
The leading British businessman – who employs more than 2,000 people in the UK – claimed that the new government will “kill off home-grown family businesses”, dubbing the changes an “ignorant swipe at aspiration”.
Yvette Cooper condemns ‘appalling’ tweet shared by Labour MP
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has said she strongly disagrees with a tweet that a backbench MP appeared to have reposted saying Kemi Badenoch represents “white supremacy in blackface”.
Ms Cooper told LBC she did not see the post that Dawn Butler appeared to have shared, saying: “I didn’t see the post, I clearly strongly disagree with that.”
Pressed on why no action had been taken against Ms Butler, she said: “As I said, I haven’t seen the post and I think those sorts of issues around party issues, those are always ones for the Whip.”
Asked whether the words in the post had a “racist sentiment”, Ms Cooper said: “The words that you have read out are clearly appalling and I would strongly disagree with them. So, I haven’t seen the post. I don’t know the circumstances around it but I think we should congratulate Kemi Badenoch on her election.
“I will continue to disagree with her on all sorts of issues, but, nevertheless, I congratulate her on her election.”
Badenoch appoints new chairs of Tory party
Kemi Badenoch has appointed Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson as joint chairs of the Conservative Party.
They will reportedly join the new Tory leader at party headquarters on Monday morning to meet staff.
Full appointments are set to be announced in time for the first meeting of Ms Badenoch’s shadow cabinet on Tuesday.
Badenoch’s Partygate claim labelled ‘insulting’ by Covid bereaved
Lobby Akinnola, a spokesman for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice who lost his father during the pandemic, told The Independent Ms Badenoch’s comment was “cruel and highlights just how detached politicians can be from the people they represent”.
Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor whose older brother Umar died of Covid while self-isolating, told TheGuardian: “Ms Badenoch needs to remember that people were dying and being stored in industrial fridges while those in government partied in breach of the rules that they created for the rest of us.
“It was a question of trust and integrity and such a failure cannot ever be overblown.”
Naomi Fulop, whose mother Christina died in January 2021 told the outlet that Badenoch’s comments were “insulting and extremely painful”.
Ms Fulop, who is a member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “It is not possible to overblow the impact of those in government partying while my mother died alone. We then had to have a very restricted funeral, as did thousands and thousands of other people.”
She added: “Badenoch said the Tory party needs to have an honest conversation about what’s gone wrong and one of the big things that went wrong was Partygate so I’m quite mystified that she doesn’t realise the impact that’s had on families like mine and the wider public.”
Starmer to double funding for new Border Security Command
Sir Keir Starmer is set to double the funding Labour’s Border Security Command as he fixes his sights on ending small boat crossings.
The prime minister is expected to use a speech to the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow on Monday to kick off a week-long blitz on the issue that will see him travel to Hungary for talks on tackling people smuggling.
Monday’s speech will see Sir Keir pledge another £75m for his new border command, taking its total funding to £150m over two years, with the new money to be used to fund high-tech surveillance equipment and 100 specialist investigators.
The PM will say: “The world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge. I was elected to deliver security for the British people. And strong borders are a part of that. But security doesn’t stop at our borders. There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel.”
