Page 2 - Conservative Party

UK PM Rishi Sunak sacks Suella Braverman as Home Secretary: Reports

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday morning and began by sacking his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, after days of speculation over her job since it emerged a controversial newspaper article attacking the Metropolitan Police was published without clearance from her boss, according to reports coming out from Downing Street. The 43-year-old Goan-origin Cabinet minister has repeatedly courted controversy in her senior UK Cabinet role, most recently by accusing the Met Police of playing favourites when tackling aggressive Israel-Gaza protests in an article in The Times. Sunak had been under pressure from sections of his Conservative Party as well as faced attacks from the Opposition for allowing her to continue in her job after she went ahead with the article in a perceived breach of the ministerial code. Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from proteste

Sunak under pressure over taxes ahead of first Tory conference as UK PM

Rishi Sunak will be leading his first Conservative Party conference as British Prime Minister this weekend and goes into the annual event starting on Sunday amid pressure from his backbenches over cutting taxes as the governing party prepares for a general election, expected in 2024. His predecessor, Liz Truss, who had a historically brief run at 10 Downing Street last year after her attempt at slashing taxes in a controversial mini-budget and former Indian-origin home secretary Priti Patel are among the Tory MPs openly voicing their discontent. It came after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank issued a forecast this week that tax levels in the UK are at their highest since records began 70 years ago. This unprecedentedly high tax burden is one of the reasons our economy is stagnating and why we need to cut taxes to help make Britain grow again, tweeted Truss. We should always seek to reduce the tax burden, especially when there's so much pressure on family budgets, s

UK Conservatives suffer big defeats but avoid wipeout in special elections

Britain's governing Conservative Party avoided a drubbing Friday in a trio of special elections, managing to hold onto former premier Boris Johnson's seat in suburban London. Though the main opposition Labour Party and the smaller centrist Liberal Democrats overturned massive Conservative majorities to win a seat apiece, the Conservatives found some crumbs of comfort in their narrow success in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London. Labour won the seat of Selby and Ainsty in northern England while the Liberal Democrats took Somerton and Frome in southwest England, with voters from both parties clearly backing the party most likely to beat the Conservative candidate. Facing this level of tactical voting by voters, the defeats will leave many Conservative lawmakers rattled ahead of the likely national vote next year. The defeats don't mean a change of government, since the Conservatives still have a big majority in the House of Commons. Opinion polls have been giving Labour a ...

BJP natural ally for Conservative Party, need to build on friendship: UK MP

Noting that BJP is a natural ally of the Conservative Party, UK MP Bob Blackman has said that there is a need to build on the friendship between the two countries.In an interview with ANI, Blackman said that the PM Narendra Modi government has transformed the Indian economy which is on track to becoming the leading economy in the world.Blackman, a ruling-Conservative Member of Parliament for Harrow East, also spoke about the potential of the Free Trade Agreement being negotiated by India and the United Kingdom."As far as I am concerned I have been a supporter of Overseas Friends of BJP for a very long time. I regard the BJP as the natural ally for the Conservative Party in the UK. The Conservative party in the United Kingdom and BJP over here, it is that friendship, that support we value," he said.He said Narendra Modi as Chief Minister turned Gujarat into the powerhouse of economy of India, and now he has transformed India as Prime Minister."He has done a remarkably good job. What .

UK PM Rishi Sunak sacks Conservative Party chief over tax penalty row

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday fired one of his Cabinet ministers and Conservative Party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, after he was found to have been in "serious breach" of the Ministerial Code on how he handled his personal tax affairs. Zahawi, who was a minister without portfolio as the chief of the governing Tory party, had faced fierce pressure in recent days to quit over questions about his finances after it emerged that he had agreed a 4.8 million pounds penalty settlement with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) department. Sunak had ordered an independent investigation into the 55-year-old Iraq-born former Chancellor's tax affairs amid growing Opposition demands for him to sack Zahawi. His independent ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, submitted his assessment on whether the HMRC settlement amounted to a breach of the ministerial code. When I became Prime Minister last year, I pledged that the government I lead would have integrity, professionalism and ...

'New dawn' for UK, 'Death of Democracy': British media welcomes new PM

He was leading the front page of every major newspaper in the UK, which in the past had colonised most of the world

Sunak's promises to keep: Ex-chancellor's likely agenda when he becomes PM

Managing welfare spending while promoting business will be among his top tasks if he wins leadership contest

Rishi Sunak to be UK's first Indian-origin PM as his rivals quit the race

Youngest to the post in 200 years + Warns UK faces 'profound economic challenge' + FTSE 100 rises .6%

Explained: Why Liz Truss' tenure was so short as UK PM

How the UK's Conservative Party planning to replace outgoing Liz Truss

Britain's governing Conservative Party is electing a new leader for the second time this year. The winner will replace Liz Truss, who stepped down Thursday after 45 days in office, as party leader and will automatically become prime minister. Unlike the two-month contest held over the summer to replace Boris Johnson, party officials have designed a condensed election process that aims to have a new prime minister in place within a week. Here is how the contest will unfold: Friday, Oct 21 Nominations open for the contest, in which any of the 357 Conservative lawmakers can run. To get on the ballot, candidates need signatures from 100 of their fellow Tory legislators much higher than the threshold of 20 names set for the last leadership contest. This time, the field is limited to a maximum of three. During the summer, eight lawmakers made the first round of voting. Monday, Oct 24 Nominations close at 2 pm (1300 GMT). If there are three contenders, Conservative lawmakers will vote

British PM Liz Truss vows to carry on as her party support dwindles

After weeks of blaming 'global headwinds', Truss on Monday said she was sorry for going 'too far and too fast' with her radical economic plan to snap Britain out of years of tepid growth

Bookie odds favour Rishi Sunak comeback amid turbulence for UK PM Liz Truss

British Prime Minister Liz Truss, just over a month into the job, is already seen as increasingly unlikely to ride out the turbulence within her own Conservative Party and the financial markets, with her former leadership rival Rishi Sunak the odds-on favourite to make a comeback for 10 Downing Street. At the end of a tumultuous week in British politics which saw Truss sack her close friend and trusted aide Kwasi Kwarteng who was enforcing her own economic policies as Chancellor, the mutinous voices within the governing Conservatives continue to flag how Sunak had warned against much of the financial meltdown that would follow his rival's unfunded tax-cutting policies. The former British Indian Chancellor adopted a silent approach as he hosted two pre-scheduled parties at a central London hotel this week to thank his Ready for Rishi leadership campaign team and officials at the UK Treasury. His approach is one part I told you so' but rather more a sense of sadness. He just says: It

Rebels plot to replace PM Liz Truss with Rishi Sunak amid UK crisis

Rebels on the backbenches of the UK's governing Conservative Party are on Friday said to be plotting to replace Liz Truss as party leader and prime minister with a so-called unity joint ticket team involving former leadership rival Rishi Sunak. It comes as a YouGov poll for the The Times' found that almost half of Tory party supporters believe the party chose the wrong candidate in the leadership election. The YouGov poll found that among those who voted for the Conservatives at the last election, 62 per cent said that party members had made the wrong choice when the race was shortlisted between Truss and Sunak, compared with 15 per cent who said they had got it right. It has led panicked Tory members of Parliament to start considering alternatives in the candidates who secured the most votes within the parliamentary party the British Indian former Chancellor, who was the frontrunner with his colleagues, and Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, who came in third. The government, .

Canada's Conservative party elects populist Pierre Poilievre as new leader

Canada's opposition Conservative Party has elected its go-to attack dog as its new party leader. Pierre Poilievre is a firebrand populist who opposes vaccine mandates and blames Canada's inflation on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He won the party leadership on the first ballot on Saturday, defeating a moderate, centrist candidate with 68% of the votes cast by the party's members. The 43-year-old Poilievre is a career politician and was a Cabinet minister in then Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. He embraced Canadians who were against vaccine mandates and supported the freedom truck convoy that paralysed Canada's capital and blockaded the border with the US. Tonight begins the journey to replace an old government that costs you more and delivers you less with a new government that puts you first, Poilievre said. By tackling Liberal inflation we will put you back in control of your life and your money. Poilievre won the party base, attracted large crowds and signed

Liz Truss allots $150 billion to keep energy bills below $2,300

Truss is also finalising plans for a £40 billion ($46 billion) support package to lower energy bills for businesses.

UK PM race: Liz Truss rules out new taxes, energy rationing in last pitch

Truss made the commitments at the last Conservative Party leadership hustings in London on Wednesday, ahead of the victor being announced Sept 5

Rishi Sunak pledges to work 'night and day' as UK PM race enters finale

Rishi Sunak pledged to work "night and day" for the best country in the world as the election campaign to take over from Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party leader and the new British Prime Minister entered its final stage on Wednesday, with the very last hustings event set for London. Sunak reiterated his vision statement as the first British Indian to run for the top job at 10 Downing Street ahead of the final campaign event scheduled at a popular concert venue in Wembley on Wednesday evening. The former Chancellor will go head-to-head with his rival Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for one last time as they fight it out for any remaining Tory members yet to cast their ballots before voting closes on Friday evening. The 42-year-old former finance minister, who has focussed his campaign message on the urgency of getting a grip on inflation and countered 47-year-old Truss' claims that tax cuts are the answer to address the cost-of-living crisis crippling the UK economy, made a ...

UK takes stock of Johnson's legacy as Conservatives prepare to evict PM

The moving vans have already started arriving at Downing Street as Britain's Conservative Party prepares to evict Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The debate over what mark he left on his party, his country and the world will linger long after he departs in September if, indeed, he really is gone for good. Johnson led Britain out of the European Union and won a landslide election victory before his government collapsed in a heap of ethics scandals. During his final appearance in Parliament as prime minister in July, he summed up his three years in office as: Mission largely accomplished. Many political historians take a harsher view. Winston Churchill said that History will be kind to me for I intend to write it,' said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. I'm pretty sure Johnson does too, but I doubt he'll find it's as kind to him as it was to his hero. Johnson cultivated a buffoonish public image, but he has had a serious impact on his country. He bea

Underdogs don't give up, says Rishi Sunak's new campaign video for UK PM

Two weeks before the UK's Conservative Party leadership election is set to draw to a close, finalist Rishi Sunak's team are promoting a new campaign video cashing in on his "underdog" status with rival Liz Truss' firm lead in the race to succeed Boris Johnson. The video, first used to introduce Sunak at a hustings event in Manchester on Friday night, shows the former Chancellor at a series of campaign events since the race began last month and addressing Tory members who are voting for a new party leader to take charge as British Prime Minister on September 5. "I'll keep fighting for every vote until the final day," Sunak tweeted with the video, which counts down 100 events in 30 days to reach 16,000 party members on the campaign trail. The video shows the 42-year-old British Indian former minister interacting with voters and is also seen catching a quick power nap on a bench as a voiceover praises his efforts to "fight for every inch". "They say beware the underdog, because an ...

Rishi Sunak pledges major civil service overhaul if elected UK PM

Rishi Sunak, the British Indian former Chancellor in the race to be elected the British Prime Minister, on Tuesday pledged a major overhaul of the country's civil service to create a sharper, leaner bureaucracy if he takes charge at 10 Downing Street on September 5. Sunak, who is up against Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the Conservative Party leadership election to succeed Boris Johnson, wants civil servants to spend at least a year of their career outside government roles in industry to widen their experience. Under a Sunak-led government, they will no longer receive pay rewards based on the longevity of their service but performance instead. As Chancellor, I saw parts of the British Civil Service at its best, delivering world class COVID support schemes in record time. But the bloated post-COVID state is in need of a shake up so I will create a sharper, leaner civil service, said Sunak. I'll press ahead with cuts to back office Civil Service headcount, recruiting and retaining t