“The prime minister appears to concede that all is not going to plan. But he insists: “I think we can pull this round.” This weekend his party will meet in Liverpool for their annual conference and at the heart of his speech will be a call for unity as he makes clear that the poll-topping Reform — not the ongoing criticism of his leadership — should be where the party is focusing all its energy. He sees Nigel Farage’s party and the rise of the populist right across the world as an existential threat, something he was discussing at the summit with five centre-left political leaders, including Australia’s Anthony Albanese and Canada’s Mark Carney…He claims Britain will face a “fork in the road” at the next election, with a stark choice between Labour and Reform. The Tories, he believes, are “dead”. “We need to be much clearer about what patriotism is. It’s a love for your country and what your country is: our values, our history, our heritage and who we are as a people,” Starmer said.” – Interview with Sir Keir Starmer, Sunday Times
“Sir Keir Starmer is the least popular prime minister on record, a poll has shown. Rachel Reeves is now also the least popular chancellor since records began, it found. The finding will be a blow to Sir Keir on the eve of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Sunday. He will be aiming to convince his party that he is the right man to lead them into the next general election in the face of a potential challenge from Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester. The Ipsos poll gives Reform UK a 12-point lead over Labour in Westminster voting intention, with Nigel Farage’s party on 34 per cent and Labour down three points on the same time last month to 22 per cent.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Reform UK is on course to win a majority at the next general election, according to a poll that predicts Labour is heading for its worst electoral defeat since 1931 and will win fewer than 100 seats. A survey of almost 20,000 people, the biggest seat-by-seat poll carried out in this parliament, says Nigel Farage would become prime minister with 373 MPs if an election were held tomorrow. This would hand Reform a majority of 96, slightly larger than the Conservatives’ 2019 majority of 80 under Boris Johnson. Conducted by the think tank More in Common between August 8 and September 15, the poll of 19,520 voters is believed to be the first to predict an outright majority for Reform, which at present has only five MPs.” – Sunday Times
“Kemi Badenoch will next week commit the Conservatives to quitting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), using the Tory party conference to settle an immigration policy issue that has divided the party for years. The Tory leader will publish the findings of a review headed by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, the shadow attorney-general, which is said to provide the justification for leaving the convention. According to senior party sources, Badenoch will use the findings of Wolfson’s review to announce that she has decided that a Conservative government would leave the ECHR.” – Sunday Times
>Today: ToryDiary: The Tory Party’s vanishing act
“The construction of three new towns will begin before the next general election, Labour has pledged. A taskforce has recommended 12 locations in England for development, with three areas – Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank, and Crews Hill in north London – identified as the most promising sites. Housing Secretary Steve Reed is expected to announce the plans in a speech on the opening day of Labour’s annual party conference. Labour has put housebuilding at the centre of its vision of how to get the economy growing, promising to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029.” – BBC
“Employers should do more to encourage their workers to join the reserves, John Healey has said. The Defence Secretary issued the call on the eve of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, when ministers will attempt to “reclaim the Union flag” from Right-wing groups and present themselves as the party of patriotism. Mr Healey told The Telegraph that the public could help Britain’s national security by being more “vigilant” to threats, including cyber attacks, and by joining reserve units and the cadets.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Shabana Mahmood today vows to “reset” laws so migrants must prove their social worth before being allowed to settle in Britain. In her first big interview since being made Home Secretary, she pledged to curb migration and cut visas to countries that refuse to take back their national offenders. She also branded migrant hotels a “total disaster for the country” and promised to shut them down before the next election. Signalling a massive change of policy, Ms Mahmood said she wants to tighten rules around claiming Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK. Under her plan, migrants must show they are integrated and “contribute” to the UK through things like volunteering for charities or local projects.” – The Sun on Sunday
“Labour will overrule its independent advisers on the definition of Islamophobia if they suggest “blasphemy laws by the back door”, Steve Reed has said. Ministers have commissioned advice on the definition of anti-Muslim hatred following a surge in incidents after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7. A working group, chaired by Dominic Grieve, the former Tory minister, will suggest how the Government should classify discrimination. But campaigners have raised concerns that a stricter definition could harm free speech by effectively banning criticism of Islam, and exacerbate community tensions by creating a “two-tier” enforcement of discrimination.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Rachel Reeves is facing a revolt from ministers who are demanding she tear up her fiscal rules to allow more public spending. Ministers are “begging” the Chancellor for additional funding to fulfil manifesto commitments in their departments, warning “austerity-lite” politics will drive voters into the arms of Nigel Farage, The Telegraph understands. Ms Reeves needs to fill a £30bn black hole in the public finances at her Budget in November, when she is expected to announce tax rises and spending cuts to satisfy Britain’s creditors.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Sir Keir Starmer is facing the growing threat of a Commons sleaze investigation after leaked text messages suggested a secret slush fund used to propel him to the Labour leadership was concealed from Parliament. The WhatsApp messages, which were exchanged between senior Labour MPs and workers on the 2019/20 leadership campaigns, appear to directly contradict the party’s denials last week that embattled Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, used his Labour Together think tank to back Sir Keir. One message, from a Starmer campaign aide to Labour MPs, read: ‘Labour together [sic] are busy finding funders for Keir’s campaign.’ Tonight, the leaks to The Mail on Sunday prompted the Tories to demand a full investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into whether Sir Keir had misled Parliament by failing to declare the help of the think tank in official records.” – Mail on Sunday
“Burnham did announce, in May 2024, that he was going to build 10,000 council houses by 2028. But over the following year the region started construction on just ten. No, that’s not a typo. More broadly, during his mayoralty Greater Manchester has gone from building 5 per cent of England’s new houses to 3 per cent. Private housebuilding starts are a third of what they were when he took office in 2017. When he first won election, there was a 20-year plan for the region’s development ready to go. But Burnham faffed around so much that it took seven years to be adopted. By then local consensus had broken down: one of the ten councils involved (Stockport) had pulled out and another (Oldham) voted to do so but was blocked by central government…Burnham promised to make homelessness one of his priorities, donating 15 per cent of his salary to the cause. But after initial successes the tent villages are back.” – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times
“Every day we read stories of law-abiding citizens whose lives have been turned upside down by the bungling of some state agency. I used to take up such cases when I was an MEP and, as often as not, the first instinct of the bureaucracy that had made the error was to double down, deny everything and accuse the victim. In China, ID cards have been combined with face recognition technology and geolocation to create a terrifying panopticon state. In the name of combatting fraud, the Chinese regime has abolished privacy altogether, building a state that is not so much Orwellian as Huxleian, where it is difficult even to think anti-social thoughts. True, Britain is not China. But our readiness even to countenance placing such powers in the hands of our rulers would have horrified our ancestors. The only ray of sunshine in all this is that Sir Keir is now so unpopular that his advocacy is enough to kill any cause.” – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph