Afternoon summary
Keir Starmer has declined to comment on reports a £1bn investment in the UK has been jeopardised by ministers’ criticism of the company behind it. As PA Media says, Dubai-based DP World is reported to have been planning to announce a major investment in the UK at the government’s International Investment Summit next Monday. But, according to Sky News, that investment is now under review after deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and transport secretary Louise Haigh repeated criticism of P&O Ferries, which is owned by DP World. P&O Ferries was criticised by politicians from both main parties in March 2022 when it suddenly sacked 800 British seafarers and replaced them with cheaper, mainly overseas, staff, saying it was necessary to stave off bankruptcy. On Wednesday, Rayner and Haigh introduced legislation to prevent similar actions, with Haigh describing P&O Ferries as “cowboy operators” and Rayner saying the incident had been “an outrageous example of manipulation by an employer”. Today Sky News reported DP World chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, ordered Monday’s announcement to be cancelled and the planned investment in the company’s London Gateway port to be reviewed. Asked about the row on Friday, Starmer declined to answer directly, saying there had been “five or six huge investments in the UK” announced in the past four weeks. He said:
We’ve got a massive investment summit coming up on Monday where leading investors from across the globe are all coming to the UK. This is very, very good for the country, very, very good for the future of jobs, it’s just the sort of change that we need to see.
Starmer has claimed that today’s inaugural council of nations and regions meeting will help bring investment to the UK. After the meeting in Edinburgh, asked about the non-attendance of Sue Gray, his new envoy for nations and regions, Starmer replied:
For everybody listening and watching this, who’s concerned to know, is there going to be investment in my region? Are there going to be jobs where I live? The answer is, today, we’ve got a long way down the road of collaborating to that end.
Rhuan ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, has told his party’s conference in Cardiff that Wales cannot afford another 25 years of Labour. In his keynote speech, he said:
Labour’s letting down its own traditional supporters, so many of whom are already embracing Plaid Cymru’s vision.
Labour’s failing them, failing Wales and failing to understand what it takes to turn things around.
We can win by demonstrating we are better than this, we’re bolder and not the bystanders that this government have become.
Be in no doubt – we can win at the ballot box and that must be our goal. This isn’t about winning for us – it’s about winning for Wales.
Robert Jenrick, one of the two Tory leadership candidates left in the contest, has denied telling Tory MPs in private that, if he wins, he will drop his shift to the right and pivot back to the centre. (See 9.52am.)
John Swinney says he expects to see 'concrete, substantive actions' flow from council of nations and regions
John Swinney has warned he and other devolved leaders expect to see “concrete, substantive actions” flow from Keir Starmer’s new council of nations and regions following Friday’s inaugural meeting in Edinburgh.
Briefing reporters after the summit ended, the Scottish first minister said he felt he had “a serious conservation” with the prime minister, who had chaired three rounds of bilateral and round table talks with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish first ministers, and England’s metro mayors. He said:
I feel I’ve had a serious conversation today, and I’ve been around the blocks of intergovernmental relations for many years, And I’ve had other occasions in the past [where] I’ve had serious conversations. I couldn’t say there were many serious conversations after 2019.
Swinney said that he did not know what Sue Gray’s role would be as Starmer’s new putative envoy on the nations and regions.
I don’t know what the nature of that role is, and it’s not been explained to me. What I expect is that I will have a direct relationship with the prime minister, and that’s what I will pursue.
What has been promised to me by the prime minister is a direct relationship between me and him, and that is that’s been fulfilled. The prime minister made it clear to me again today that if there are issues about which I am concerned, I am to approach him directly, and I have been doing so, and I will do so.
Swinney said he had set out “the critical nature” of increased public spending, particularly on anti-poverty measures, and on infrastructure investment, in his bilateral with Starmer.
He had also pressed the prime minister to prioritise investment in Grangemouth oil refinery, which closes next year, and to support Scotland’s Acorn carbon capture and storage scheme which lost out in the first round of UK funding.
In a clear indication Swinney is currently shy of fuelling political conflicts with Starmer, given the UK government’s efforts to reset relations with Holyrood, the first minister said he would not second guess the UK government’s spending decision in this month’s budget or brief the media every detail of their discussions.
He urged Starmer to scrap the Internal Markets Act, a Conservative piece of post-Brexit legislation which allows UK ministers to sidestep Holyrood and also control Scottish legislation deemed to have UK-wide effects.
I can’t, in all honesty, ask the prime minister to set out his response to my budget challenge on 11 October, when the budget is on 30 October.
[So] I suppose the only answer I can give you is I don’t know what his reaction will be, we’ll see that in due course. I do think, to be fair to the prime minister, he understands the significance of the point that I am making to him about public investment.
Keir Starmer has spoken to Stormont’s leaders about city and growth deals during the first meeting of the council of nations and regions in Scotland, PA Media reports. PA says:
Northern Ireland’s first minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly attended the summit in Edinburgh.
The devolved leaders have previously expressed concern after the Westminster government announced last month that four city and growth deals in the region would be paused.
It later emerged that the Belfast and the Londonderry and Strabane deals would not be affected because those deals were at a later stage.
However two other deals, which cover Causeway Coast and Glens and the Mid South West region, are awaiting the conclusion of Labour’s spending review to hear whether the funding pause will be lifted.
The deals, which advance investment and infrastructure projects in specific areas, involve bespoke funding arrangements between the Treasury, the Stormont executive and local partners.
Asked about the issue today, Starme said he talked about city deals, and other matters, with O’Neill and Little-Pengelly. “That’s the sort of collaboration, sleeves rolled up, working together across Northern Ireland people want to see more of,” he said.
Britain Elects has more information about the four Tory council byelection gains mentioned earlier. (See 2.06pm.)
❗ Conservative GAIN from Independent
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 10, 2024
The Havens (Pembrokeshire) council by-election result:
CON: 49.1% (+7.8)
IND (Griffiths): 27.0% (+27.0)
LDEM: 18.1% (+18.1)
IND (Harris): 5.8% (+5.8)
No other Ind (-58.8) as prev.
+/- 2022https://t.co/iZrZArlkdb
❗ Conservative GAIN from Labour
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 10, 2024
Heene (Worthing) council by-election result:
CON: 42.1% (+6.6)
LAB: 39.9% (-13.6)
GRN: 10.5% (-0.5)
LDEM: 7.5% (+7.5)
+/- 2022
Estimated turnout: ~26% (-11)https://t.co/SkjiIJhQPn
❗ Conservative GAIN from Labour
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 10, 2024
Clay Cross North (North East Derbyshire) council by-election result:
CON: 51.0% (+10.1)
LAB: 29.1% (-21.2)
LDEM: 14.3% (+5.5)
GRN: 5.6% (+5.6)
+/- 2023
Estimated turnout: ~25% (-9)https://t.co/iZrZArlkdb
❗ Conservative GAIN from Liberal Democrat
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 10, 2024
Hersham Village (Elmbridge) council by-election result:
CON: 55.4% (+11.0)
LDEM: 39.6% (-5.5)
LAB: 5.1% (-5.5)
+/- 2022
Estimated turnout: ~30% (-10)https://t.co/SkjiIJhQPn
The National has some pictures from the council of nations and regions meeting.
NEW: The first meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions has taken place in Edinburgh
— The National (@ScotNational) October 11, 2024
First Minister John Swinney attended alongside Keir Starmer, the 11 English regional mayors, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the first ministers of other devolved nations pic.twitter.com/MmtkBudJp9
At this stage in the electoral cycle voting intention polling figures don’t count for much, but for people who are interested, here is some polling from Techne. The changes are from a week ago.
Some Conservatives have also been encouraged by the fact they gained four seats in council byelections last night. Election Maps UK has posted the results on social media.
Final Result of this Week’s 21 Council By-Elections:
🌳 CON: 9 (+4)
🌹 LAB: 7 (-4)
🔶 LDM: 2 (+1)
🌍 GRN: 2 (+1)
🌼 PLC: 1 (+1)
🙋 INDs: 0 (-3)
Plaid Cymru accuses Labour of neglecting preventative health measures in Wales
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, is going to present himself as a future first minister of Wales when he addresses his party conference this afternoon. (See 3.30pm.) According to extracts released in advance, in his speech he will talk about how his government would focus more on preventative health, accusing Labour of neglecting this. He will say:
My government will break the cycle of short term thinking which shortchanges Wales.
Unlike Eluned Morgan, I will acknowledge that some things are broken but more importantly I’ll be determined that nothing is beyond repair.
My government will not consider issues in isolation. Silo working helps no one when one decision so often affects another.
Unlocking our economic potential will need major improvements in education attainment, but another bedrock of a healthy economy is a well Wales – its people active in body and mind.
This year, as waiting lists grew – Labour for some inexplicable reason cut the amount it spends on preventative health policies.
Friends, this is short-term thinking with long term pain guaranteed. It feeds the problem as opposed to solving it, putting further pressure on frontline staff, filling our hospitals with ever sicker patients.
Plaid Cymru will reverse the thinking, it’s something I’m determined to do, ensuring the NHS is fit for its centenary celebrations and beyond.
Starmer says he wants council of nations and regions to 'rewire' way Westminster interacts with devolved areas
Keir Starmer told political leaders from the UK today that he wanted more collaboration between the different arms of government they were representing.
Speaking at the start of the inaugural meeting of his council of nations and regions – which will allow the PM to meet with the devolved government leaders and metro mayors from England – Starmer said he wanted to “rewire” the way the UK government interacts with devolved areas.
He said:
This council is a statement of intent on my behalf and on behalf of the government about the way in which we want to work with all of you.
I think that is, as important as the substance of what we discuss, is how we collaborate, how we work together.
Because the UK is really strong, we’ve got so much to offer, particularly when it comes to growth and investment, but we are a bit complicated.
Those around the table would be “equal voices”, he added, with a view to “solving problems”.
Updated
Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, is starting its annual conference in Cardiff today. Since devolution the Welsh government has always been led by Labour, but Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, told the Guardian in an interview this week that Labour dominance was not inevitable. He said:
There has been a sense of inevitability that however well other parties do, essentially it’s going to be a Labour-led government, because we’ve been Labour in Wales for a hundred years. It’s not inevitable, and it will change.
There is evidence out today suggesting that ap Iorwerth is at least partly right, in the sense that Labour is being pushed back. The next elections to the Senedd are taking place in 2026 and the electoral system is changing; there will be more MSs (members of the Senedd), elected on a PR basis. In a post for the Journal, a Substack news account run by WalesOnline, David James has got an analysis of what might happen in those elections. The projection is based on how Wales voted at the general election, adjusted for the fact that voting patterns are different in Senedd elections from general elections (Plaid does a lot better), and then taking into account the new electoral system.
It suggests Labour would still be the largest party, but well short of the majority, Reform UK would have more seats than the Conservatives, and Plaid Cymru would be the second largest party – but outnumbered by a Tory/Reform UK rightwing bloc.
In his analysis James says:
The standout point is that Labour would be significantly weakened. First Minister Eluned Morgan is going to have a huge headache. Labour currently has exactly half of the seats in the Senedd but would only have 40%, 39 of 96 seats, under this projection. That’s the lowest share of the seats it has ever had. Even at its previously weakest point at the tail end of the Blair and Brown years, Labour in Wales was in a stronger position after the election in 2007. Then Rhodri Morgan’s party won 26 seats (43.3% of then the 60-seat assembly). That year he went into a formal coalition with Plaid Cymru.
In one sense, this gives Plaid’s Rhun ap Iorwerth great power thanks to his 26 seats and status as the official opposition. But he also will have few other options. A coalition of Plaid, Reform and Tories might have enough seats to govern. But it’s hard to believe any of those parties would think it was in their political interests to join such a coalition – or that they would be able to agree on a programme of government. So Plaid would have a choice of chaos under a minority Labour administration or supporting their great rival, yet again.
At the general election the Conservatives had 18% of the vote in Wales, only narrowly ahead of Reform UK on 17%. Losing to Nigel Farage in the Welsh Senedd elections would be quite a blow to the party nationally.
Keir Starmer was “appalled” by reports that Israel deliberately fired on peacekeepers in Lebanon, Downing Street said this morning.
Asked about the prime minister’s reaction to the story, a Downing Street spokesperson said:
We were appalled to hear those reports and it is vital that peacekeepers and civilians are protected.
As you know, we continue to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to suffering and bloodshed. This is a reminder of the importance of us all renewing our diplomatic efforts.
Asked if the PM agreed with Irish leaders that this was a breach of international law, the spokesperson replied:
All parties must always do everything possible to protect civilians and comply with international law. But we continue to reiterate that and call for an immediate ceasefire.
Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.
Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh yesterday the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.
He said that in the meantime it was essential for the UK’s productivity and growth to reduce the damaging impact of the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson “as best we possibly can”.
Mandelson’s remarks, at a lecture for the thinktank Reform Scotland, are in contrast to the prime minister’s prediction before the general election that the UK would not rejoin the EU, or the single market or customs union, in his lifetime.
In his lecture Mandelson said:
The very hard Brexit forced through by Boris Johnson means that we are for now driving with the economic handbrake on – we can’t let that handbrake off. It is what is, It is difficult to see this being reversed within the next decade.
Asked by the Guardian whether he was suggesting talks on rejoining the EU could start in 10 years, Mandelson insisted he was not speculating, but proceeded to sketch out scenarios where that was possible.
The truth is it could be a conversation that starts in 10 years’ time. It could be longer, but the beginning of a conversation is not the end of that; it’s not the resolution of our relationship to the European Union.
I think it’ll be very hard to persuade people in the European Union to revisit, to reengage and start getting into another negotiation about Britain’s membership of the European Union, for a long time to come. I’m sorry to say that but they have had up to here with us.
Now does that mean to say we can and should do nothing, of course not. We’ve got to build trust, mutual respect, we’ve got to identified areas where we can cooperate and collaborate. Defense and security is an example; we’ve got to find ways to mitigate the trade costs that we’re incurring.
[It] depends on how successfully we rebuild the foundations. It also depends what’s going on in the rest of the world; what’s going on in the rest of the Europe that might actually make us converge a bit more; what happens in the United States that might bring Europe further together, quicker than we think.
Government disapproval up sharply since election, with only 9% saying Britain already better under Labour, polls suggest
This weekend Labour will mark having been in office for 100 days. YouGov and Ipsos have both published polling reports today exploring what voters think of the government’s record so far. They make sobering reading for Keir Starmer and his team.
The YouGov report is here, and the Ipsos report is here.
Here are four of the main findings.
1) Disapproval of the government has shot up since it has been in power. Here are the figures from YouGov.
The Ipsos figures tell a similar story, although these Ipsos figures are about perceptions of the Labour party, not the government.
2) Only 9% of Britons think Britain has already got better under Labour. Voters are not daft, and mostly they know that it is hard for governments to change things overnight, but YouGov figures show that even people who voted Labour at the election are not inclined to view things as getting better. This is from Dylan Difford’s YouGov write-up.
Perhaps most alarmingly for the government, nearly half of those who voted Labour in the election (47%) say they had positive expectations of Starmer’s government but feel let down so far, with only three in ten (30%) feeling Labour has done as well as they had hoped.
Few Britons (9%) believe the country is in a better state for Labour having taken the reins of power, including only a quarter of Labour voters (24%). The public are predominantly split between those who see no real change so far (44%) and those who believe things have become worse (39%).
3) The most popular decisions taken by the government are (not suprisingly) giving junior doctors a pay rise and lifting the ban on onshore windfarms, but also (perhaps more surprisingly) keeping the two-child benefit cap and suspending some arms sales to Israel. Releasing prisoners early is the least popular decision, according to YouGov.
4) A majority of people are at least willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt, the YouGov poll suggests.
Updated
Paul Scully, a Tory former minister who was himself unexpected excluded from the shortlist for a senior party position (London mayoral candidate) has joined those saying members will not get a real choice because James Cleverly was excluded from the final leadership ballot. Scully, who in Tory terms is a centrist like Cleverly, not a righwinger, posted these on social media last night.
Time Conservatives realised they lost the GE because of perceived lack of competence & direction. For 97 days an absence of activity from the Tories & amateur Labour performance has led to a 1% difference in the polls. But... 1/5
Yesterday’s leadership ballot will have woken people up to the fact the Tories haven’t passed the second stage of rebuilding - denial. (I’m ahead of them; stage 3, anger!)... 2/5
Our London mayoral selection process wasn’t supposed to be a dry run for a bigger stage. Cleverly & Tugenhadt were fishing in one pool, Badenoch & Jenrick in another. To cut out one philosophical choice denies members a real choice about how to rebuild... 3/5
Denied by MPs considering this to be a game, however it transpired with vote lending or individuals trying to second guess the result. The members will be all the poorer for that and the party’s fortune hangs in the balance... 4/5
We’ll see how Kemi & Rob frame this and deal with the situation but 100% of the people outside the party I’ve spoken to since, have taken a particular view /END
We'll see how Kemi & Rob frame this and deal with the situation but 100% of the people outside the party I've spoken to since, have taken a particular view /END pic.twitter.com/atzCr8HkUL
— Paul Scully (@scullyp) October 10, 2024
Sue Gray not at nations/regions summit because she's 'been through quite a lot' and 'taking break', says McFadden
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has said that Sue Gray is not attending the inaugral council of nations and regions meeting because she has “been through quite a lot” and is “taking a break”.
Gray was Keir Starmer’s chief of staff until she was abruptly replaced on Sunday, and she had been expected to attend the Edinburgh summit because she has been given a new job as the PM’s envoy for nations and regions.
But yesterday it emerged she would not be present.
In an interview on Sky News, asked why she was not attending, McFadden said:
Sue has been through quite a lot in the last few weeks.
I worked with her, she is a great colleague. She is taking a short break now and I think we should allow her the time in privacy to do that.
McFadden, who is at the meeting himself, later told LBC:
I know that [Gray] has not enjoyed being a figure in the public eye unlike me, who can come on your programme and speak for myself and answer any of your questions.
As an official, she can’t do that. Given what she has been through in the last few weeks, she has decided to take a bit of downtime, take a bit of a break, and I quite understand why.
Asked how long Gray’s break would be, McFadden replied:
I don’t think it will be long, but let’s give her a bit of space and privacy after somebody who, as I said, can’t speak up for themselves, finding themselves on the front pages of the newspapers in a way that she has not wanted to be.
Jenrick suggests it was a mistake for him as minister to get cartoon murals covered up at asylum centre for children
Robert Jenrick has suggests it was a mistake for him to order murals of cartoon characters at a children’s asylum centre to be painted over when he was immigration minister.
Only last week, at Tory conference, Jenrick was defending the decision, which at the time led to him accused of being heartless.
But in an interview with LBC this morning he said he would not do the same thing again.
Asked about the incident, Jenrick said he wanted the murals covered up because he was “very worried at the time and continue to be about those people who are adults, coming into our country illegally and posing as children”.
He went on:
So I did feel that it was important that at the initial point of arrival we treat these places as law enforcement environments with a view to trying to weed out those people who are actually just posing as children.
I think that was the right decision, but of course there are lessons to be learned from it, and I probably would have done things differently if I had my time again.
Asked if that meant he would not do it again, he replied:
No I wouldn’t, but what I did want to do then and I feel just as passionately about today, is that we have got to weed out those people who are posing as children when they first arrive.
Updated
UK economy returns to growth in boost to Rachel Reeves before budget
The UK economy returned to growth in August after flatlining for two months, in a boost for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, before the autumn budget, Richard Partington reports.
The main announcement from No 10 this morning is “thousands of jobs in green industries announced as the UK government welcomes more than £24bn of private investment for pioneering energy projects ahead of the International Investment Summit on 14 October”.
In his London Playbook briefing for Politico, Stefan Boscia says a lot of this is not strictly new.
The government’s big announcement going into this morning was the news that private sector firms have poured £24 billion in new investment into green energy projects. This includes a £12 billion investment from Spanish firm Iberdrola and £8 billion from Denmark’s Ørsted.
Not so fast: However, Politico’s Senior UK energy correspondent Charlie Cooper texts in to say most of the money involved is not actually new. He points out that the Iberdrola and Ørsted investments were publicly announced more than a month ago and came through Britain’s contracts for difference scheme. Nice try, though!
To be fair, ‘strictly new’ is a high hurdle. If newspapers, and news websites, refused to report things that have been written about somewhere already, they would all be a lot more empty.
Jenrick rejects claim he has privately told Tory MPs he will pivot back to centre if he becomes leader
In his interview on the Today programme this morning Robert Jenrick, who has been running on a rightwing in the Tory leadership contest, denied telling MPs in private that, if elected leader, he would flip back to the centre. But he also refused to accept the premise of the question, and rejected suggestions he was being hardline.
Justin Webb, the presenter, asked him about a report in the i suggesting that Jenrick’s rightwing stance is just tactical. The story says “senior Tories have cast major doubts over the chances of Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick leading the Conservatives into the next election amid growing fears over party unity” and it includes this quote.
Some moderates hope the candidates will tack back to the centre ground, should they succeed in convincing the Tory party membership to elect them.
One member of the Shadow Cabinet said they had assurances Jenrick would rein in his right-wing polemic if elected party leader. “He has promised me he will turn to the centre,” they said. “I suspect he has told other people the same.”
After reading out the bit about turning to the centre, and telling other MPs the same, Webb said: “Have you?”
Jenrick replied:
I don’t know where that quote comes from, and I wouldn’t believe everything that you read in the papers.
When Webb tried again, and asked if Jenrick had promised anyone that he would return to the centre, Jenrick replied:
I haven’t said that, no.
But it is interesting that it took a second go to get a firm negative, and his first reponse was a classic non-denial. If it were true that he had said the same thing to various MPs, he genuinely would not know who spoke to the i. And ‘don’t believe everything you read in the papers’ is just a statement of fact.
Jenrick went on to say that that he did not accept the charge that he was lurching to the right in the first place. He said:
But let me just address the broader point that it raises. Because there are those who say that the Conservative party, were I to lead it, is going to shift to the right.
I actually don’t see these labels as at all relevant. What I want to see is the Conservative party occupy what I describe as the common ground of British politics.
Those are the things that millions of our fellow citizens care about. Most people do not consider themselves left or right.
When Webb put it to him that leaving the European convention on human rights was not a “common ground” position, because only around 20% of the public are in favour, he argued that he was being practical, not ideological. Jenrick said:
The reason that I believe we should leave the European convention on human rights is not an ideological one. I came to this view through the practical experience I had as a minister, in particular at the Home Office, where I saw that we as a country were not able to do the most basic duty of the state, which is to secure our borders.
We weren’t able to remove dangerous criminals from the country. We weren’t able to remove terror suspects from the country, and we certainly weren’t able to set up a robust but important and credible deterrent, such as the Rwanda one, because of our continued membership with the ECHR.
Now millions of people across our country – most people, I would argue – want us to do those things. My point is we will never be able to achieve their objectives unless we leave the ECHR.
Updated
Tories would have to support ECHR withdrawal ‘to serve in my shadow cabinet’, says Jenrick
Good morning. Keir Starmer is in Edinburgh this morning for the first meeting of the council of nations and regions. To publicise it, the government is flagging up an announcement about “more than £24bn of private investment for pioneering energy projects”, although it has been pointed out that some of this is not strictly new. As for the meeting itself, the main story to emerge so far is that Sue Gray has not turned up, despite being appointed as the PM’s new envoy for nations and regions.
Meanwhile, the Conservative party is still generating news. Robert Jenrick, one of the two candidates left in the leadership contest, gave an interview to the Today programme this morning with various interesting lines.
Jenrick confirmed that, if he is elected leader, he will expect members of the shadow cabinet to sign up to his plan for Britain to leave the European convention on human rights. This is significant because it could lead to many senior people in the parliamentry party refusing to serve on the frontbench. There are Tories who were happy to go along with Rishi Sunak’s position (not ruling out ECHR withdrawal as an option) who would draw the line at Jenrick’s position. It is also quite possible that some of them would swallow their principles, and go along with a Jenrick policy they regard as unwise just for the sake of a good shadow cabinet job, but it is hard to know at this point how pervasive this shameless opportunism would be.
When asked if all shadow cabinet ministers would have to agree to ECHR withdrawal if he were leader, Jenrick said:
It would be one of the stable of Conservative policies, so yes, we would go into the next election with it in our manifesto.
Asked if that meant James Cleverly, the former home secretary and former foreign secretary who was seen as the leadership candidate who did best at party conference, but who was unexpectedly voted out of the contest on Wednesday, would be out of his shadow cabinet, Jenrick replied:
I believe it’s very important that we do this … I’ve already said to James, who is a friend, someone I respect enormously, that I would be delighted for him to serve in the shadow cabinet should he want to do so.
Jenrick also claimed that the party was not as divided on this issue as people claimed.
I don’t think the point of difference is as big as perhaps you suggest it is. There is now a consensus within the Conservative party that the ECHR is not working in the interests of the British people, for all the reasons that I’ve just described.
Most people now are saying that, at a bare minimum, we need to reform the ECHR.
My position is simply one stage further, which is to say that – perhaps unlike others, because I’ve given this a great deal of thought, and that’s no disrespect to other colleagues, they haven’t always seen the things I’ve seen by virtue of having served as a minister where I have – I’ve come to the conclusion that we can’t reform it.
Reform requires the unanimous agreement of 46 member states from Iceland to Andorra. It’s not going to happen.
What I’m proposing is simply that we leave and that we replace it with a British bill of rights.
In the interview Jenrick also denied telling Tory MPs in private that, if he wins the leadership, he will stop being rightwing and tack back to the centre. But he also rejected the suggestion that he had lurched to the right in the first place, and so there is some ambiguity in what he meant. I will do another post on that soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer is meeting the Scottish and Welsh first ministers, and Northern Ireland’s first minister and deputy first minister, at the first meeting of the council of nations and regions. He will start with bilateral meetings, then there will be a collective meeting with first ministers, and then, at noon, a full meeting with metro mayors. In the afternoon Starmer is giving media interviews.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
3.10pm: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leaders, speaks at his party’s conference in Cardiff.
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Updated
