“Liz Truss has attempted to unite her party around a common enemy of the “anti-growth coalition” of unions, remainers and green campaigners after a turbulent Tory conference that left her party downbeat and divided, and her leadership in peril. After a fractious four-day gathering in Birmingham, the prime minister pledged to get the country “through the tempest” of the economic crisis this winter by pressing on with her economic plan for growth despite the “disruption” it risks unleashing. Amid dire polling, Conservative MPs have put her on notice, with warnings that if she radically diverges from the party’s electoral mandate in the coming months she risks being ousted in spring’s local elections, the first electoral test of her premiership.” – The Guardian
Editorials:
Comment:
>Today:
>Yesterday:
“The Conservative Party faces a landslide defeat at the next election unless Liz Truss changes course, a former cabinet minister and close ally of Boris Johnson has warned. Nadine Dorries, who was a prominent supporter of Truss during the Tory leadership contest, said the prime minister had made some “big mistakes” in her first weeks in office and did not have a mandate for her radical agenda. The former culture secretary accused Truss of abandoning some of Johnson’s most prominent policies and said that plans to curb benefit increases were “cruel” and unconservative at a time when people were struggling to cope with the cost of living. Dorries added that the government was “lurching to the right” and abandoning the centre ground to Labour.” – The Times
“Liz Truss and Emmanuel Macron will…hold their first talks on how to tackle the cross-Channel migration crisis on the fringes of the French president’s inaugural European Political Community gathering. The Prime Minister faced criticism after failing to broach the issue when she met her French counterpart at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month. She will tell Mr Macron that Europe needs to better collaborate to tackle migration as the EU’s 27 member states meet with 16 other leaders, including those from Ukraine, Norway, Turkey, the Western Balkans and Switzerland. Ahead of the meeting in Prague on Thursday, Tory MPs warned the Prime Minister not to engage in any attempt to bring Britain back into the EU’s fold via the backdoor.” – The Daily Telegraph
>Today:
“Security, energy and migration are three of the most urgent priorities for the British people, so they are top of my agenda too. That’s why I am travelling to Prague for today’s European leaders’ meeting. These vital issues affect the whole of our continent, so it is right that we find common cause with our European friends and allies. It’s also why we want to see a strong voice for non-EU countries like Ukraine, Norway and Switzerland. Today’s meeting is not an EU construct or an EU alternative…It brings together governments from across Europe, around a third of whom are outside the EU. A post-Brexit Britain…should be involved in discussions that affect the entire continent…We are taking part as an independent sovereign nation, and we will act as one.” – The Times
“Suella Braverman has revived a previous Conservative pledge to reduce net migration to tens of thousands of people, despite the failure of successive governments to hit the same target… The home secretary said she would aspire to cut the overall migration figure from the current level of 239,000 amid a growing clamour from party activists for the government to take control of immigration levels. She was also forced to admit that the Conservative plan to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda will not happen “for a long time”. In an appearance at a Tory party conference fringe meeting, she said her “ultimate aspiration” is to get net migration down into the tens of thousands, but refused to set an exact target to be achieved before the next election.– The Guardian
“Britain and the European Union are to restart Brexit negotiations and try to resolve the long-running dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol. James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, and Maros Sefcovic, his counterpart in the European Commission, are expected to meet in the next fortnight to begin intensive talks to bridge the gaps between Brussels and London. Sources on both sides said there was a renewed willingness to compromise to avoid a trade war that would be triggered if the UK went ahead with its threat to unilaterally override the protocol. Although no formal deadline has been set a senior government source said ministers were keen to “accelerate” negotiations to see if a politically acceptable solution could be found.” – The Times
“The NHS will recruit more than 1,000 ‘GP assistants’ to give family doctors more time to treat patients. They will free up thousands of appointments by performing admin tasks and basic health checks usually done by GPs. Surgeries can now claim additional funding to take on the extra staff, who are not required to have a medical degree and will earn around £24,000 a year. They will receive on-the-job training that allows them to take blood, administer jabs and measure the blood pressure and heart rates of patients. Their help is expected to reduce by more than half the amount of time doctors spend writing and processing letters… Therese Coffey has made improving access to GPs one of her priorities as Health Secretary.” – The Daily Mail
“Isaac Levido, the political strategist who ran Boris Johnson’s successful election campaign in 2019, has been dropped from his role at Conservative headquarters, party insiders have confirmed. The Tory aide, who was a protege of the controversial Australian strategist Lynton Crosby, is understood to have lost his contract, prompting incredulity from Tories… Levido, along with his business partner, the pollster Michael Brooks, have been credited by Tory MPs for spearheading the biggest majority for the party since the 1980s by persuading Labour voters in the so-called red wall to switch allegiance. His departure smooths the way for Liz Truss’s chief of staff, Mark Fullbrook, to move to Tory headquarters to run the next election campaign.” – The Guardian
“The Tories face being wiped out in Scotland as voters desert them in the wake of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget, according to two opinion polls… A Sevanta survey for The Scotsman put support for the Conservatives at only 15 per cent, half the 30 per cent enjoyed by Labour. The SNP remained on 46 per cent… The Conservatives were predicted to retain barely half – 54 per cent – of their support from the 2019 general election…According to an analysis of the results, the drop in Tory support would mean losing all six of their Scottish seats at the next general election – including the Moray constituency of Douglas Ross, the party’s leader in Scotland, and Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary who represents Dumfries and Galloway.” – The Daily Telegraph