Andrew Gimson
The Tory leader showed that a deal with Farage is out of the question as long as she is leader, and set out to establish the Conservatives as the party for all those who believe in hard work, lower taxes and the right to leave the family home to one’s children.
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Oliver Dean
I came into this conference hopeful about the gathering, and now I feel as though we have succumbed to mediocrity. In an effort to make myself feel better, perhaps I’ll sit in Spoons with a pink gin and Pepsi Max. That should do it.
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Giles Dilnot
Kemi Badenoch has emphasised looking to the future, building the party up higher and cementing her own popularity with the public. From these results there is clearly enough belief that that can be done, and yet a certain scepticism, that shouldn’t be ignored, at how hard that might be to do, and the chances of success.
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There are better ways to save money in Whitehall than Kruger’s crude and costly cuts
Arthur Reynolds
No matter how much Kruger and I wish it were not so, this fact remains: voters will never reward politicians for delivering Civil Service reform at the expense of other policies. The muted reaction to his FT interview ought to tell him as much.
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Burnham offered hope. Kemi, please bury the past and then thrill us with the future
Matthew Jeffery
My plea to our leader at this Conference is this: Don’t discover radicalism when it’s too late. Be bold. Take risks. Pick fights. Give us something worth fighting for. For God’s sake, don’t play safe. Seize the moment and set this Conference, and this party afire to go out and win.
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Kemi must tell the public what they don’t want to hear
Peter Franklin
It’s impossible for a party leader to just make something like that happen (except, that is, by their own extreme incompetence). What Badenoch can do, however, is prepare for the next upheaval if — or, rather, when — it happens.
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The people are sovereign – any suggestion of rejoining the EU will need their say so
John Redwood
Although there is no binding Act of Parliament to say so, most of us think that if Parliament wants to give away its powers to govern and to manage parts of the government to a superior power for a period longer than a UK Parliament, there should be a referendum.
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John Oxley
The party that does so and speaks for the data analyst in Leeds as readily as the welder in Sheffield will have found the ground Labour has left behind. In doing so, we could speak for the jobs which most people do, and which contribute most to our economy.
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Council by-election results from yesterday and forthcoming contests
Harry Phibbs
Labour gained two seats from Reform UK in Northumberland. The Lib Dems gained a seat from an independent in the Highlands.
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Farage is a populist. He has no ideology
Henry Dumont
Yet, as I see it, to gamble on a one-man band who plans to disband institutional and ideological checks in favour of his own personal will is dangerous. We need more serious politicians, not some silly little character, pint of bitter in one hand and a cigarette in the other, offering promises of a land of milk and honey.