Politics LIVE: GB News' Christopher Hope grills Tugendhat and Badenoch as leadership race hots up

'Give an example!' Badenoch rejects thin-skin claims as Tory leadership hopeful slams 'Stop Kemi' campaign

Shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch has demanded an example after facing accusations of having thin-skin and losing her temper easily.

She told GB News' political editor Christopher Hope: “Of course people are telling you stuff, people who don’t want me to win the leadership are telling you these things. This is politics.

“There will be a Stop Rob campaign, a Stop Tom campaign, a Stop James campaign and of course a Stop Kemi campaign. But as you can see, they are not stopping me.”

Addressing the Tory Party's election defeat on July 4, Badenoch added: “We were all over the place in terms of what we were doing. On top of that, we looked like we were squabbling constantly, and nobody’s going to vote for that. We need to do what the country needs, and that is be real Conservatives.”

Badenoch concedes Reform poses 'existential' threat to Tories

Shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch has conceded Nigel Farage's Reform UK have left the Tory Party at an "existential point".

Speaking to GB News' political editor Christopher Hope, the Tory leadership hopeful said: “I want to be leader of our party because it means something very special to me and I don’t want to see it die.

“And I think the result we had at the last election shows we are at an existential point.

"There is a party to the right that is challenging us, people across the political spectrum don’t know what we stand for.

"I think I can help sell conservatism again, confident conservatism, I get cut through, I start from third principles.”

Badenoch explains maternity pay row 

Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has explained her maternity pay row.

The Shadow Housing Secretary joined GB News' political editor Christopher Hope to discuss her agenda as the leadership race continues.

She said: “I think maternity pay is quite important and this was actually a long discussion we were having about the role of the state in deciding what businesses should do.

“But let’s take a step back. Who remembers the phrase ‘there is no such thing as society?’ Mrs Thatcher gave an interview to Woman’s Own magazine where she was asked the question, and said there is no such thing as a society, that there are only individual people and families.

“And that very good explanation got cut down into a soundbite that was used to attack her. When you are a leader, when you are a Conservative, when you are making the opposite for conservative principles, your opponents are going to turn it into something else. We need to decide who is going to be the leader of the Conservative Party. Not the Left, not the Guardian, not the BBC, just Conservatives.”

Tugendhat opens door to Boris' return - 'Over to you!'

Tom Tugendhat has opened the door to Boris Johnson's return, declaring it is up to Tory members.

He said: “I want to thank Boris publicly for two things that I’m just immensely proud of as a Conservative.

“The first is he stepped up when nobody else would to stand with Ukraine. That’s heroism. He didn’t do it alone, Ben Wallace was absolutely with him, and the two of them...

“And the second thing Boris did that really impressed me, in the chaos of the first few weeks of Covid when many people were running round like headless chickens, Boris got together a task force, led by someone from the private sector, putting them in charge of civil servants, and delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in the world. That’s deeply impressive.

“If Boris wants to stand and you want to select him, over to you.”

Tugendhat apologises to Tories and name drops Reform UK - 'They didn't vote for Farage!'

Tory leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has apologised to Tory activists and name dropped Reform UK's leader Nigel Farage as he faces a grilling from GB News' political editor Christopher Hope.

Speaking in the ICC, Tugendhat said: “Because let’s be honest, people didn’t vote for that paddleboarder to become prime minister, they didn’t vote for Nigel to become Prime Minister, they voted against us."

When asked about doing a deal with Farage, Tugendhat added: “My job is to reform the Conservative Party, not to become Reform.

“My job is to champion our values, to champion conservative voices across the United Kingdom.

“Too often we’ve become a Westminster club. The conversations are all about Westminster - conservatism isn’t just about Westminster. For me, conservatism is all about unionism, it’s about England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Irleand and all parts of the UK.”

Reform UK received 4.1 million votes, returning five MPs to the House of Commons.

'I've always been on the side of the British people,' Tugendhat claims

Tory leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has said he has always been on the side of the British people after serving in Afghanistan.

Speaking to GB News' political editor Christopher Hope at the ICC, the Shadow Security Minister said: “Many people learn a lot of things in Westminster.

"I learnt what I know about leadership, about combat, in Afghanistan... That sense of duty, that sense of protecting Britain from all threats is at the core of who I am.”

He added: “I’ve always been on the side of the British people.”

Jenrick claims Churchill would 'turn in his grave' at state of 'bent' ECHR

Robert Jenrick has claimed wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill would be "turning in his grave" if he knew how his European Convention on Human Rights had been twisted to protect terrorists, murderers, rapists and paedophiles.

Speaking at a rally in Birmingham, the Tory leadership hopeful repeated his pledge to take the UK out of the ECHR if he was elected Prime Minister “as soon as possible".

He said the ECHR, which was created by Churchill and European partners in the aftermath of the Second World War, was once a “noble document".

However, Jenrick claimed it had been “twisted and bent out of all shape by activist judges, by charities and NGOs who sought to misuse it from the 1970s onwards".

He added: “That is absurd, but is also shameful. I am not prepared to put our citizens at risk any longer.

"And then there are dozens of terrorists in our prisons on our streets because of our continued membership of the ECHR.”

Jenrick provided the example of a Ugandan murderer who clubbed a man to death in the back of a London ambulance.

The man, who has also been granted anonymity, was able to stay in the UK as ECHR rules as Uganda has not got the required facilities to treat his mental illness.

‘That's going to hurt Britain!’ Oil expert gives verdict on Labour’s North Sea tax plan

Labour’s plans for a North Sea tax raid will ‘hurt Britain’, a top US oil and gas expert has told GB News.

Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto pledged to rapidly build up Britain's renewable power by increasing taxes on its oil and gas sector and vowing to end issuing new licences in the North Sea basin.

Labour said it will increase a windfall tax by 3 percentage points on energy producers first imposed in 2022.

The current 35 per cent windfall tax, which will run until 2029, brings the total tax burden on producers to 75 per cent, among the highest in the world and to 78 per cent including Labour’s planned 3 per cent rise.

The plans would also scrap an investment allowance, which exempts most profits that are re-invested in oil and gas production.

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'I'm not giving up!' Liz Truss teases return to Parliament as ex-PM inspired by 'fight of our lifetimes'

Liz Truss has teased at potentially returning to the House of Commons in the future after warning the West faces an existential threat.

Speaking at a fringe sit-down event inside the ICC, the former Prime Minister refused to rule out a return and received cheers from supportive attendees.

Truss, who remains the most unpopular politician in the UK, said: "I've only been out of Parliament for a few months, so I am currently thinking about what to do.

"What is certainly true is that I am not going to give up on this fight.

"I think this is the fight of our lifetimes, saving Western civilisation, and that is what I am focused on.

When asked if she missed the House of Commons, Truss added: "I do enjoy politics, I do enjoy debate. I think Parliament has become a shadow of its former self because so much power has been taken away from Parliament.

"There's far too much show-boating and emoting in Parliament rather than serious debate about what our country needs. That was what was frustrating me about Parliament."

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Reform UK risks Tory wipe out - Lord Frost issues warning party could 'disappear' and be engulfed by Farage insurgence

Lord David Frost has warned the Conservative Party could "easily disappear" as voters shift towards Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

The Conservative peer and former Cabinet minister said that the previous "psychological loyalty" to the party had been broken, with traditional Tory voters now considering their options at the ballot box.

He pointed to a failure to deliver on promises in Government such as reducing immigration and reducing taxes as reasons for voters deserting the party.

In July the Tories won just 121 seats in the House of Commons, with les than a 25 per cent share of the vote.

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'Pathetic!' Truss rejects Labour's mini-budget blame-game as ex-PM suggests she could see off Reform UK

Liz Truss has rejected the Labour Party's "pathetic" attacks over her mini-budget and suggested she was better-placed than Rishi Sunak to see off Reform UK.

The former Prime Minister, who sat down for a packed fringe event at the ICC, accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of "going along with the Treasury orthodoxy" as Labour ramps up criticisms of Truss' brief stint in No10.

Truss claimed it was "economic illiteracy" to blame her for her disastrous mini-budget, instead blaming the Bank of England.

During her 49-days in Downing Street, the former Prime Minister sparked market turmoil after introducing a tranche of unfunded tax cuts worth £45billion.

Speaking to The Telegraph's Tim Stanley, Truss said: “There was a real lack of interest amongst policymakers, politicians and the media in reporting what actually happened in 2022. I think that’s bad for the country and I think it’s fundamentally dishonest.

“But what happened was successive Conservative governments went along with the economic orthodoxy, loose monetary policy, giving control to the Bank of England, accepting the judgments of the OBR.

“They essentially outsourced economic policy so it wasn’t being decided by the Chancellor ... I explicitly, back in 2022, had a mandate to take that on.

"What I found was those people and institutions were very powerful, they sought to undermine me and at the same time people in the Conservative Party wanted to undermine me. But they are fundamentally wrong.”

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Farage beats Tory rivals in damning PM poll - 'Reform looms large!'

Nigel Farage has seen off all four remaining Tory leadership contenders in a damning new poll asking Britons whether each candidate would make a "good Prime Minister".

Almost a quarter of adults, 24 per cent, believe the Reform UK leader would do well in No10.

The figure compares to 15 per cent for former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, 12 per cent for ex-Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, 11 per cent for Shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch and 10 per cent for former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick.

Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was also included in the survey, also saw off the runners and riders to replace Rishi Sunak on 21 per cent.

Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics at Ipsos, said: “These findings reflect other Ipsos research that shows none of the Conservative leadership candidates cut through in a positive way with the public but also that many have no particular opinion on them at all.

“There is an upside to this as whoever wins will have a chance to make their case to the public without being written off immediately.

“However, Nigel Farage looms large over the contest too. With Reform doing such damage to the Conservative Party in July – and Farage himself popular with 2019 Conservative voters – the new leader will face a challenge winning back some of the voters the party lost this summer.”

Jeremy Clarkson fumes 'it's got to stop' as he unleashes blistering rant on Reeves and Labour amid tax chaos

Jeremy Clarkson, 64, has taken aim at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves as the UK braces for Labour's budget next month.

Clarkson is no stranger to publicly criticising Labour ever since Starmer emerged victorious at this year's election and in recent weeks, the former Top Gear star and many others have been vocal in their opposition to more tax measures coming from Reeves's desk.

Referring to the mishaps in his latest column, Clarkson first took aim at Starmer as he ridiculed the "sausages" blunder that has hit headlines across the globe.

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Rachel Reeves issued warning over 'catastrophic mistakes' in Budget

Jeremy Hunt warned Chancellor Rachel Reeves risks making "catastrophic" mistakes in the upcoming Budget as he lashed out at Labour's claims of a £22billion black hole.

The former man in the Treasury said he was concerned that the new Government risked harming UK growth by talking down the state of Britain's economy.

He highlighted that despite the negative messaging from Labour, the UK was due to be the fastest-growing economy in the G7.

He told the Conservative Party's annual conference in Birmingham: “They will get worse if Labour makes catastrophic mistakes in the budget and hikes up tax in a way that destroys growth.

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Hunt warns Tories to avoid 'trap' ahead of next election

Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has urged the Tory Party to avoid failing into a "trap" by assuming voters will automatically come back in 2029.

Speaking to members at the ICC, Hunt said: “The trap to fall into, and it is a trap, is to think that as people get fed up with the Labour Government, and judging by the last 12 weeks that’s starting to hapen far more quickly than people were expecting, is to assume that people were automatically come back to us.

“We were trounced at the election. We got ourselves into a position where people looked at the problems the country faced, the problems in the NHS, the cost of living crisis, immigration, and they began to think we were part of the problem, not part of the solution.

“That is very uncomfortable. I know, everyone in the room knows, we faced the most enormous global challenges... We took tough and difficult decisions to get the country back on track. But it doesn’t work just to tell that to the electorate, we tried that at the election.

“We now have to earn their trust and show we have listened... If we follow a narrow political strategy, people will think we’re thinking about ourselves rather than about the country.”

Hunt exposes Labour 'lies' as Reeves blames Tories ahead of tax raid

Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has sought to expose Labour's "biggest lies" on the economy after Rachel Reeves accused the Tories of economic mismanagement ahead of her tax-raiding Budget.

Speaking at the ICC this morning, Hunt said: “They will get worse if Labour makes catastrophic mistakes in the Budget and hikes up tax in a way that destroys growth.

“And I think one of the biggest lies we’ve had since Labour came to office is this nonsense about having the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War.

“I note not a single independent economist has been prepared to come forward and back up Rachel Reeves in that claim. And the reason is very straightforward. I mean inflation, two per cent, jobs, a succession of Conservative governments that created 800 jobs for every single day that they were in office.

“And growth, it wasn’t just the fastest growth in the G7 when Labour took over, but the International Monetary Fund said over the next six years we are projected to grow faster than France, Italy, Germany or Japan. That is a legacy I would have died to have when I became chancellor.

“I think the economy has got very solid foundations. My worry is that Labour believes its own propaganda and starts taking a whole series of decisions, particularly on things like capital gains tax, which have a massive impact in deterring investment in the economy which we really need.”

Tories 'won't change' leadership timetable as major showdown with Labour looms

The Conservative Party will not accelerate its leadership timetable to prepare for a major showdown with Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her maiden Budget, the Tories intermin chairman has claimed.

Richard Fuller confirmed the contest will end on November 2, saying: “We had this debate some months ago."

He added: “The 1922 Committee wanted a longer campaign, they wanted to have four candidates here at conference. And the logistics of that mean that when we whittle it down two, and it goes to the members, there’s a period of time.

“It’s my job to make sure that members have enough time to get their ballot papers and return that ballot papers, and that’s why we ended up at the time frame again.”

Tom Tugendhat releases video for Tory members as race hots up

The truth is we stopped listening to our members.

That has to change. pic.twitter.com/nqzeX5dEkR

— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) September 30, 2024

Jenrick warns Reform UK will 'condemn Tories to obscurity' in ECHR warning

Robert Jenrick will use his speech at the ICC today to argue that Reform UK will “grow and grow and condemn us to obscurity” unless the Tories somehow regain trust on bringing down numbers.

He will add: “Our party’s survival rests on restoring our credibility on immigration. If we continue to duck and dance around this question our party has no future.

“Despite what others might falsely claim, we’ve never had a legal cap on legal migration. Unless we introduce one – where no visas will be issued unless net migration is in the tens of thousands or lower – we will be powerless to end the cycle of broken promises. Anyone who is not prepared to commit to a specific cap just doesn’t understand the depth of public anger.

"I am not prepared to gamble the house on some five-year review process that may or may not see us doing what is obviously necessary. I have a plan ready now: leave the ECHR and introduce a legally binding cap on legal migration.

“The choice is clear, it’s leave or remain. In fact it’s more than that – it is leave or die. If we don’t do this now, we’ll never restore the public’s trust and there’s every chance that Reform will grow and grow and condemn us to obscurity.”

'Dream on!' Badenoch slaps down Cleverly at late night leadership hustings

Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has slapped down rival James Cleverly after the pair attended a late night leadership hustings yesterday.

The Shadow Housing Secretary's intervention came after Cleverly said: “I would be the best leader of the party."

Responding to the former Home Secretary, Badenoch said: “Nice speeches, boys, but I think you all know I’m the one everyone’s been waiting for.”

She added: “We are going to get Angela Rayner, we’re going to get Rachel Reeves and we’re going to get Keir Starmer and to do that we need someone who’s going to cut through, somebody who is going to stand up to them and also face down Farage.

“Somebody who will resonate with the public. James thinks he’s the best – dream on, James. If you want change, vote for renewal, vote for Kemi.”