Priti Patel knocked out of Tory management race with Robert Jenrick securing most votes in first spherical – UK politics dwell

John Swinney has pledged “significant reform” of public companies to supply “whole family support” in an effort to eradicate youngster poverty, PA Media stories. PA says:

Scotland’s first minister delivered his first programme for presidency this afternoon, simply 24 hours after his finance secretary introduced about £500m of cuts.

The announcement, which was clearly hamstrung by the fraught monetary scenario in Scotland, included little when it comes to concrete new motion.

However Swinney did pledge to revamp how poverty is tackled.

The SNP chief has already made clear that tackling youngster poverty is “first and foremost” in his priorities.

“Our goal is to lift every child in Scotland who is in poverty out of it, so, we must do more,” he mentioned.

Right here, the primary minister careworn the necessity to guarantee a “system of whole-family support” is offered – including this have to be “easy to access, well-connected and responsive to families’ needs”.

He added: “Over the coming year, we will work with partners to enable greater local flexibility, so that services can be more easily tailored to the needs of the families they support.”

He mentioned the Scottish authorities would “consider where greater investment is needed”.

However he said: “The key objective of the approach we will take forward will be to deliver significant reform of the work of public services to deliver whole-family support extensively across the country.”

Together with modifications to public companies, the primary minister additionally pledged to introduce hire controls in new laws, make investments £1bn in “affordable, high-quality and funded early learning and childcare” and supply funding for Artistic Scotland to restart its open fund, which gives grants to artistic artists.

Swinney additionally pledged to overtake the principles which govern the conduct of ministers.

The ministerial code, which shall be printed by the tip of the yr, will enable impartial advisers to provoke investigations into the conduct of ministers, versus requiring the primary minister to name for a probe.

And right here is a few extra on the implications of the ends in the primary spherical of the Tory management contest from journalists and commentators.

From Robert Shrimsley, the FT’s chief political commentator

That feels prefer it for Tom Tugendhat – count on Jenrick, Badenoch and Cleverly to drag away – TT now battling Stride simply to remain in contest

From Chris Smyth from the Instances

Tory votes far more extensively unfold than many thought

Mel Stride outperforming expectations and significantly difficult Tom Tugendhat for One Nation vote

Badenoch the large loser as Jenrick comes prime, and presumably picks up a good variety of Patel’s backers

Badenoch’s allies now pitching her as everybody’ second alternative with the “broadest base of support across the party” However as typically with Tory elections, it might come down who who MPs dislike most – Kemi, Cleverly or Tugendhat

From the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar

Patel’s ejection reveals how far her standing amongst MPs has slipped since she was house sec underneath Boris Johnson.

Jenrick properly forward given small pool of voters. Badenoch could also be disillusioned, whereas Cleverly possible relieved to come back shut third.

From Adam Payne from PoliticsHome

Some takeaways:

– Jenrick v Cleverly wanting a good guess at this stage *however* there’s so much to play for

– With that in thoughts, how they carry out at convention may very well be v vital

– A a lot smaller parliamentary Tory celebration means how only one or two MP vote can simply be essential

From Ben Riley-Smith from the Day by day Telegraph

What jumps out

– Chatter Patel was struggling to get the numbers proves true

– Jenrick considerably forward. 28 votes, six forward of Badenoch –

Mel Stride’s repeated confidence he had the backing proved true

– Tugendhat solely simply scrapes into fourth spot.

Battle to make final4 now

From Sam Freedman, author, Substacker and Prospect columnist

The principle takeaway from that first poll is MPs should not notably enthused about anybody, don’t know who will win, however do know all of the candidates have apparent weaknesses.

From Sunder Katwala, head of the British Future thinktank

Nb, 25 votes for the ultimate 4 and 41 votes ensures the highest two. There’s now as a lot likelihood as Jenrick-Cleverly or Badenoch-Cleverly as there may be of Jenrick-Badenoch in my opinion

You may’t draw many agency conclusions from these numbers. (See 3.32pm.) There are 14 Priti Patel votes now up for grabs, and also you would possibly assume that they might go to a rightwinger. However a) it’s not at all times clear who the rightwingers are (see 3.58pm), and b) MPs vote as a lot or extra on character and persona as on ideology. And what occurs after that? We are able to’t inform for positive who shall be within the remaining 4, not to mention the place the votes of the one that comes final on Tuesday will go.

However listed below are three conclusions that do arise, and that weren’t apparent till the outcomes got here in (or at the least as apparent as they’re now).

1) Kemi Badenoch is considerably extra well-liked with celebration members than along with her colleagues. And that would find yourself being essential, within the remaining spherical of voting by MPs, once they need to resolve the 2 candidates to placed on the poll for members. She is seen as divisive and abrasive, and if there are sufficient MPs voting intentionally to maintain her off the poll, she shall be in hassle. The important thing quantity is 41, as a result of any MP with at the least 41 votes will make it onto the ultimate poll. (That appears very low, however there are solely 121 Tory MPs and so it’s mathematically unimaginable for greater than two of them to have at the least 41 votes.) Can Badenoch get to 41? In all probability, however it doesn’t appear sure.

2) Robert Jenrick has gained the summer time section of the competition. A yr in the past hardly anybody would have guess on him to be the following Tory chief, however he has obtained the momentum, and as we speak’s ConservativeHome survey (see 11.50am) suggests Badenoch is the one one who would beat him in a head-to-head of members. And if he has a transparent lead going into the ultimate poll for MPs, his marketing campaign might attempt “lending” votes to another person to maintain Badenoch out. The Boris Johnson camp did this in 2019, once they reassigned some votes to make sure Jeremy Hunt made the ultimate two as a result of Johnson thought Hunt could be simpler to beat than Michael Gove.

3) Mel Stride deserves the unlikely survivor award. Commentators have by no means taken him significantly as a candidate, and it was assumed by many who he could be knocked out of the competition as we speak. However now it doesn’t appear unimaginable that he might beat Tom Tugendhat to get by means of to the ultimate 4 (though it nonetheless appears unlikely.)

My colleague Kiran Stacey has posted this on social media concerning the Tory management contest.

Curiously, supporters of each Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are portray their candidate because the extra centrist one. They clearly really feel that’s the place the parliamentary votes lie.

The federal government will take into account “all options” to place college funding on a safe footing, Jacqui Smith, the minister for abilities, informed a convention as we speak.

However, in a speech as we speak on the annual convention of Universities UK, Smith didn’t set out any particular proposals for the reform of upper training funding. And he or she additionally hinted that the federal government would possibly take fairly a very long time earlier than it does put agency concepts on the desk.

She informed the convention:

Larger training suppliers are rightly impartial from authorities and have a duty to plan prudently to make sure their long-term sustainability.

Nonetheless, I’m properly conscious that suppliers are underneath monetary pressure, and that’s why we took rapid motion.

Sir David Behan, who carried out the latest impartial overview of The Workplace for College students, has now been appointed as its interim chair, and Sir David will oversee the necessary work of refocusing the Workplace for College students’ function to focus on various key priorities, together with prioritising the sector’s monetary stability. And I shall be working carefully with the OfS to grasp the sector’s altering monetary panorama.

And I’m dedicated to creating positive that there are sturdy plans in place to mitigate dangers so far as is feasible. And we’re decided in authorities that the upper training funding system ought to ship for our financial system, for universities and for college kids, and we’re rigorously contemplating all choices to ship a extra sturdy increased training sector, engaged on it now, however this isn’t one thing that’s going to occur in a single day. It should take time to get it proper, and we’re doing it – as I began by outlining – in an period of enormously tough and hard fiscal decisions that we have to make.

This consequence appears a tad disappointing for Kemi Badenoch, given her clear lead over different candidates within the membership polling. (See 11.50am.) She has posted this on social media.

Thanks to each one in all my colleagues who voted for me. This, coupled with all of the impartial members polls, present that there’s large help for @renewal2030.

It’s time to take care of laborious truths as we speak, quite than massive issues tomorrow. I stay up for making the case for renewal across the nation, with colleagues and members.

Blackman is studying out the outcomes now

Robert Jenrick: 28

Kemi Badenoch: 22

James Cleverly: 21

Tom Tugendhat: 17

Mel Stride: 16

Priti Patel: 14

Which means Patel is out of the competition.

The following spherical of voting will happen on Tuesday subsequent week, when one other candidate shall be eradicated.

Bob Blackman, the chair of the Conservative 1922 Committee, is about to announce the outcomes of voting within the first spherical of the Tory management contest.

Aubrey Allegretti from the Instances has posted this on social media about voting within the Tory management contest.

Tory management camps are in search of to downplay expectations forward of the primary vote.

Allies of Badenoch say there’s an excellent likelihood she gained’t come prime – and that Robert Jenrick has a greater likelihood, on account of extra consolidated help on the best. However they argue it’s a marathon not a dash, and about who has the broadest help throughout the celebration, so she’s going to nonetheless win.

Jenrick’s staff are hopeful they’ll get round two dozen votes within the first spherical, and consider they’ve extra MPs’ second desire pledges for later rounds. His supporters additionally assume Badenoch is divisive and can wrestle to get extra second preferences.

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, is making a press release at Holyrood presenting his programme for presidency for the following yr. He begins by saying that it’s 25 years because the parliament opened, that he has witnessed each different programme for presidency, however that that is the primary time he’s presenting his personal.

There’s a dwell feed on the Scottish parliament’s web site.

Based on the Solar’s Harry Cole, Rishi Sunak gained’t be voting within the Tory management contest. Which may be one much less vote for Mel Stride.

We’re lower than an hour away from the declaration of the ends in the primary spherical of voting within the Tory management contest. Nobody is pretending that Westminster is on tenterhooks. However there may be numerous uncertainty as to what the outcomes shall be as a result of solely round half of Conservative MPs have publicly declared who they’re supporting. The Spectator has an excellent tally. It has Robert Jenrick on 17 endorsements, Kemi Badenoch on 14, Mel Stride on 7, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly each on 6 and Priti Patel on 5.

As for what different Tory MPs will do, it is vitally laborious to see. Typically it’s attainable to work out who an MP will vote for in a management contest due to aligned political values. However simply as typically voting behaviour is motivated by friendship, the promise of a job, a long-forgotten grievance, or another obscure issue unknown to outsiders.

And that is solely the primary spherical; not so much hangs on the consequence. Some MPs will vote for a candidate they know has no likelihood of profitable, simply as a favour.

Patrick Flynn, a knowledge specialist with the polling firm Focaldata, has bravely produced a forecast for what the outcomes would possibly. Right here it’s. If he’s proper, Mel Stride will come third, and Priti Patel will drop out.

Keir Starmer repeatedly referred to as Rishi Sunak prime minister at PMQs accidentally, Instances Radio stories.

Requested concerning the slip on the post-PMQs foyer briefing, a No 10 aide mentioned: “Old habits die hard.”

That is from Lewis Goodall from the Information Brokers podcast on PMQs.

Good encapsulation of the true fissures of British politics in 2024 at PMQs as we speak. Labour (the non-pensioner celebration) arguing for means testing of a profit (uncommon). The Conservatives (because the pensioner celebration) arguing for universality (uncommon), as a result of it includes pensioners (bulk of their voter base).

Right here is the PA Media report from PMQs.

Keir Starmer confronted shouts of “shame” within the Home of Commons as he defended strikes to chop winter gasoline funds for thousands and thousands of pensioners.

Conservative celebration chief Rishi Sunak requested why the prime minister had determined to spice up the pay of prepare drivers incomes £65,000 a yr whereas a pensioner residing on £13,000 yearly would lose their winter gasoline fee.

Starmer mentioned “no prime minister wants to do what we have to do” as he argued the “tough decision” was required to “stabilise our economy”.

Tory MPs heckled Starmer with shouts of “shame” all through his solutions to the Commons throughout Prime Minister’s Questions.

Individuals in England and Wales not in receipt of pension credit score or different means-tested advantages will lose out underneath the coverage, which MPs are anticipated to vote on subsequent week.

It’s anticipated to scale back the variety of pensioners in receipt of the as much as £300 fee by 10m, from 11.4m to 1.5m, saving round £1.4bn this yr.

Sunak informed PMQs: “Government is about making choices, and the new prime minister has made a choice. [Starmer] has chosen to take the winter fuel allowance away from low-income pensioners and give that money to certain unionised workforces in inflation-busting pay rises. So can I just ask the prime minister, why did he choose train drivers over Britain’s vulnerable pensioners?”

Starmer replied: “This authorities was elected to clear up the mess left by the celebration reverse, to deliver concerning the change that the nation desperately wants. Our first job was to audit the books, and what we discovered was a £22bn black gap.

“So we’ve had to take tough decisions to stabilise the economy and repair the damage, including targeting winter fuel payments whilst protecting pensioners – 800,000 pensioners are not taking up pension credit. We intend to turn that around. We’re going to align housing benefit and pension credit, something the previous government deferred year after year after year.”

Sunak defended his document in authorities earlier than including that the prime minister has to “start taking responsibility for his own decisions”.

He mentioned: “If, as he says, the public finances are a priority, it was his decision and his decision alone to award a train driver on £65,000 a pay rise of almost £10,000, and it was also his decision that a pensioner living on just £13,000 will have their winter fuel allowance removed. So can the prime minister explain to Britain’s low-income pensioners why he has taken money away from them whilst at the same time given more money to highly paid train drivers?”

Starmer mentioned Labour has a “massive mandate to change the country”, including to Sunak: “If he carries on pretending everything is fine for ordinary people across the country, they’re going to be there [on the opposition benches] for a very, very long time.”

He defended the federal government’s pay provides to finish strike motion as he mentioned: “You cannot fix the economy if the trains don’t work and you can’t fix the economy if the NHS isn’t working.”

Keir Starmer is delivering his Grenfell Tower assertion as I write this, and his tone appears to be spot-on: severe, respectful, sombre, and above all centered on what the report says concerning the duty that authorities (and the individuals who serve in authorities) have for the welfare of the residents who rely on them. Starmer is dedicated to authorities as service, and Grenfell illustrates why that’s an necessary ideally suited.

Consequently what occurred earlier, at PMQs, will get over-looked. It didn’t actually generate any information. However some factors are value noting.

First, the Tories didn’t trigger Starmer any hassle in any respect. Rishi Sunak requested concerning the winter gasoline allowance, and arms gross sales to Israel, however he didn’t sound like somebody whose coronary heart was in it, and Starmer rebutted what he was saying fairly simply. Tory backbenchers have extra to show, however none of them mentioned something that made Starmer look uncomfortable both.

And that’s partly as a result of, second, Starmer already appears like somebody who has been within the job for years. He will not be blessed with nice reputation, however he’s obtained authority, which on this job issues virtually as a lot – or maybe extra.

Third, it’s attention-grabbing to notice how the dynamics have modified within the chamber, in contrast with the final parliament. When Sunak was PM, virtually all of the opposition events had been competing with one another to be probably the most anti-Tory. However now the Liberal Democrats are the third celebration, and the government-Lib Dem exchanges (right here, and in different periods within the new parliament) are much more cordial than the equal Tory-Lib Dem ones. Even the DUP had been being fairly well mannered (see 12.24pm), though that in all probability gained’t final.

And, fourth, when Starmer did face a correct, aggressive rhetorical assault, he fended it off very simply. It got here from the SNP’s Pete Wishart, who requested him:

After 14 depressing years of the worst Tory authorities in trendy occasions, one of the best this prime minister can provide the British folks is ‘Things can only get worse’. Nicely, for him and his calamitous opinion rankings, that’s in all probability true. However why does he assume he has had such an unprecedented fall in his reputation? Is it his assaults on the pensioners? Is it leaving youngsters in poverty? Is it the re-emergence of Labour cronyism? Or is it as a result of his austerity is even worse than the Conservative selection?

Starmer replied:

I bear in mind once I used to sit down right here. It’s a great distance up, and there’s only a few of them. So I don’t assume we’d like lectures on reputation from the SNP.

That didn’t reply any of Wishart’s coverage factors in any respect, however it it put him down decisively. Within the chamber, that’s all you want. Starmer doesn’t appear to love the yah-boo yobbery of PMQs, however he can do it when he has to.

Keir Starmer is now making a press release concerning the Grenfell Tower inquiry report. He says:

I need to communicate on to the bereaved households, the survivors and people within the rapid Grenfell neighborhood, a few of whom are with us within the gallery as we speak. Sir Martin [Moore-Bick] concluded this morning … the straightforward reality is that the deaths that occurred had been all avoidable. Those that lived within the tower had been badly failed over various years and in various other ways …

So I need to begin with an apology on behalf of the British state, to every one in all you, and certainly to all the households affected by this tragedy. It ought to by no means have occurred. The nation didn’t discharge its most elementary responsibility to guard you and your family members, the folks that we’re right here to serve. And I’m deeply sorry.

There’s far more protection on our Grenfell dwell weblog, the place Martin Belam is doing the primary report from this assertion.

Karen Bradley (Con) asks for an assurance that Staffordshire Moorlands gained’t be pressured right into a devolution deal towards its will.

Starmer says native folks must be thought-about. However he implies reform is required, saying he needs to make sure areas have ‘“skin in the game” when choices are taken.