Tory leadership
Mail
Liz Truss is facing a torrid week in Westminster as her party plots its next moves.
There is little consensus among her restive backbenchers about what to do next – but everyone is certain something must be done.
Tory MPs are likely to focus on several options: changing party rules to remove her, sending a delegation to beg her to go, selecting a successor – or giving her another chance.
Senior figures, including 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, were on holiday this week as Parliament was not supposed to sit.
He is due to return from his Athens break tomorrow, when he will face calls to decide the Prime Minister’s fate. He is responsible for collating the letters that prompted confidence votes in the two previous prime ministers.
Ms Truss is protected from a challenge for 12 months as new leader, but there is widespread speculation that the rules could be changed if a significant number of letters is submitted.
Many MPs will return to Parliament tomorrow after a weekend speaking to their constituencies and voters, which is likely to have focused their minds.
Sun
TORY rebels last night launched a coordinated blitz on party bosses to “send in the men in grey suits” to oust Liz Truss from No 10.
Rishi Sunak supporters bombarded Sir Graham Brady — shop steward for Tory MPs — with phone calls pleading with him to intervene.
They want former Chancellor Mr Sunak and Penny Mordaunt to take over the Government on a joint ticket in a coronation by Tory MPs.
One of the plotters told The Sun on Sunday: “We want Graham to grey suit her.”
They struck after an astonishing week which saw Ms Truss tear up her Budget and sack Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in a desperate bid to stay in No 10.
On another blistering day of high political drama:
No 10 hit back at Tory mutineers — accusing them of toppling Boris Johnson as PM and now “trying to get rid of another”.
Guardian
Senior Conservatives will this week hold talks on a “rescue mission” that would see the swift removal of Liz Truss as leader, after the new chancellor Jeremy Hunt dramatically tore up her economic package and signalled a new era of austerity.
A group of senior MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the prime minister’s future, with some wanting her to resign within days and others saying she is now “in office but not in control”. Some are threatening to publicly call on Truss to stand down after the implosion of her tax-cutting programme.
In a rearguard action to prop up the prime minister, her cabinet allies tonight warned MPs they would precipitate an election and ensure the Tories were “finished as a party” if they toppled a second leader in just a few months.
However, support for Truss is also evaporating inside the cabinet, with members keeping in close touch with her critics. “She is in the departure lounge now and she knows that,” said a former minister. “It is a case now of whether she takes part in the process and goes to some extent on her own terms, or whether she tries to resist and is forced out.”
ITV News
Liz Truss’s economic vision appeared doomed on Sunday, as she sought to stay in power despite an increasingly shaky-looking premiership.
New chancellor Jeremy Hunt, brought in to replace the sacked Kwasi Kwarteng and to restore credibility to Downing Street, spent Saturday effectively trashing the mini-budget and the set of policies that brought Ms Truss to power.
Amid warnings of “difficult decisions” to come over the next two weeks, Mr Hunt and Ms Truss will meet in her Chequers residence on Sunday as tax rises and spending cuts loom on the horizon.
The chancellor, who spent Saturday also meeting with Treasury officials, insisted that he and the prime minister were a “team” as he said that his priority was “growth underpinned by stability”.
“The drive on growing the economy is right – it means more people can get good jobs, new businesses can thrive and we can secure world class public services. But we went too far, too fast,” he said.
Mail
When Ben Wallace pulled out of the Conservative leadership contest in July, he had already built a campaign team and secured the support of more than 25 MPs. But strains in his domestic life led him to conclude that the pressures of the job would have too great an impact on his family.
But friends say the Defence Secretary has now become much less categoric’ about not running, after being approached by colleagues to stand in any possible contest.~
Mr Wallace, who regularly tops the rankings among Tory party members, is ‘rethinking’ his position because he believes that Rishi Sunak, the favourite to succeed Liz Truss, ‘cannot unite the party’.~
‘Most of us now favour a coronation for Ben. He’s the best we’ve got,’ one plotter told the Sunday Mirror.
‘But he might need some persuading to take the job. And getting Rishi back would calm the bond markets and strengthen the pound.’
Mr Wallace’s potential change of heart comes as leaders of mutinous backbenchers told The Mail on Sunday that more than 100 Tory MPs are prepared to write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, submitting a motion of no confidence in Ms Truss.
Express
Rebel Tories are plotting to topple Liz Truss and replace her with a “unity team” within weeks, the Sunday Express can reveal.
Several ex-ministers have hatched a plan to by-pass the party rulebook and stage a “clean and swift” coup against the PM and her Cabinet.
Ringleaders claim about 100 MPs have backed their blueprint to bring her “catastrophic” stint in Number 10 to an end and appoint her successor without a contest. One mutineer said last night: “We want to do what is right for the party and the country, and we aren’t hanging around.”
It also emerged that sacked chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng had actually argued against Ms Truss’s plan to cut taxes for the wealthiest in the mini-Budget. His allies claim it was forced on him by the PM after he suggested delaying it to avoid “doing too much at once”. But she is said to have told him: “No, let’s go for it.”
With Ms Truss left isolated, the rebels plan to deliver letters from up to half of all MPs telling her the game is up – with their “chosen one” waiting in the wings.
Independent
Conservative donors and business leaders are turning on Liz Truss even after the new chancellor ditched many of her key policies in a bid to save the government.
In his first full day in post, Jeremy Hunt admited there would be tax rises and spending cuts ahead as he urged Tory MPs not to oust her.
He also refused to say if he would keep Ms Truss’s flagship pledges to cut the basic rate of income tax and increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP.
Despite his bid to calm nerves, one of the Conservative Party’s most generous donors, John Griffin, said the prime minister was “out of her depth” and called for her to be replaced.
Lord Rose, the Tory peer and chairman of the Asda supermarket chain, described her as a “busted flush” and said the current situation was unsustainable.
Times
Jeremy Hunt is to delay the penny cut to income tax — the flagship announcement in the disastrous mini-budget — as cabinet ministers warn that the prime minister’s time is up and backbenchers plot to oust her.
In the latest in a series of government U-turns, the new chancellor is expected to announce that plans to reduce the basic rate of income tax next April will be pushed back by a year.
The 19 per cent rate will now take effect at the time previously proposed by Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss’s leadership rival.
Telegraph
Senior Conservative MPs have warned that voters could desert the party “in droves” if Liz Truss drops her plans for post-Brexit reforms.
Eurosceptic backbenchers rallied behind Ms Truss in the leadership election after she promised to pursue wider deregulation and turbocharge trade with Commonwealth countries.
But figures on the Tory Right have insisted the Prime Minister must not be forced into any further U-turns as she seeks to break further from Brussels and pursue a free-trading agenda.
Nigel Farage, former Ukip and Brexit Party leader, this week railed against Ms Truss’s decision to break a leadership election promise by raising corporation tax.
“[This] will make us completely uncompetitive and completely unconservative,” he said. “Twelve years of Tory misrule. We need a realignment of British politics under a new electoral system – this lot have betrayed us, let us down completely and utterly.”
In a further hint he is planning to return to frontline politics, Mr Farage told the Telegraph: “The Conservative Party as we know it is dead and needs to be replaced.”
Express
Nigel Farage, former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, this week railed against Liz Truss’s decision to break a leadership election promise by raising corporation tax.
Liz Truss could “risk voter desertion” if she drops her plans for post-Brexit reforms, senior Conservative MPs have warned. A news report by The Telegraph explained how Eurosceptic backbenchers rallied behind Ms Truss in the leadership election after she promised to pursue wider deregulation and turbocharge trade with Commonwealth countries.
One of the Conservative MPs told The Telegraph: “The polling suggests that, at least temporarily, we’ve lost a lot of people already.
“Liz will lose a lot of the others if she doesn’t deliver a lot of these things we’ve been talking about [during the leadership contest].
“Obviously if they succeeded in getting a more Remain leader, people would leave in droves.”
NHS
Mail
The NHS is spending £40million per year on diversity roles as it pays more than 800 staff per year, many of whom earn at least £47,000 each, new data has revealed.
Diversity and Inclusion Officers are employed to promote equality within health care settings, and implement strategies to reduce inequality in health settings, both in treatments and medical expertise.
Many of the roles are in administration or HR, but current roles being advertised by the NHS include positions in midwifery and other health specialisms too.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has accused the NHS of ‘picking the pockets’ of working people – but the NHS responded saying it is currently reducing the number of roles.
Mirror
NHS bosses have spent £4.3billion in the last five years to plug staff gaps with costly agency nurses.
Despite Tory pledges to cut spending on outside staff, private firms are still making fortunes.
The figure was uncovered by Labour ’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, who said: “Taxpayers are paying the price for the Conservatives’ failure to train enough nurses.”
NHS data shows that in June, there were 46,828 nursing vacancies – the highest number on record. There were 38,814 unfilled posts last June.
Agency nurses cost more because of agency commissions and wages that are around 50% higher. Rachel Harrison, of the GMB union said: “NHS employers must make direct employment the best paid option.”
Mail
The parents of sick children and the disabled could lose free hospital parking under controversial new savings plans.
The Mail on Sunday understands Health Secretary Therese Coffey‘s department is looking at the cuts to save tens of millions of pounds.
But the move, which would also affect doctors and nurses working overnight, has provoked a furious response from nurses’ leaders.
Critics also pointed out it would fly in the face of the 2019 Tory manifesto, which vowed to ‘end unfair hospital car parking charges for those in greatest need’.
Under current arrangements in England, hospital trusts must provide free parking for four groups – the disabled, outpatients with at least three hospital appointments in a month, hospital staff working night shifts and the parents of sick children staying overnight.
But a source told The Mail on Sunday that the free parking was now under threat. One said: ‘They have got their eyes on this even though in terms of the overall NHS budget, it won’t save that much money.’
Climate activists
ITV News
Suella Braverman has unveiled plans for a major crackdown on the kinds of protests favoured by climate activists – as she pledged to stop demonstrators holding the public “to ransom”.
The home secretary said she will give the police new powers to take a more “proactive” approach to some protests, with some of the measures specifically targeted at the tactics used by some environmental groups.
Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion activists have staged various protests and demonstrations in recent months, causing disruption to commuters and traffic in central London.
Ms Braverman had already voiced her opposition to the type of protest favoured by some environmental activists, telling the Tory conference earlier this month there is “not a human right to vandalise property”.
Accusing protesters of draining police resources, Ms Braverman will use the government’s Public Order Bill to allow secretaries of state to apply for injunctions in the “public interest” where protests are causing or threatening “serious disruption or a serious adverse impact on public safety”.
BBC News
The home secretary has unveiled plans for a major crackdown on disruptive protests carried out by environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion.
Suella Braverman says the new Public Order Bill will stop demonstrators holding the public “to ransom”.
Ministers will be empowered to block protests causing “serious disruption” to key infrastructure and goods.
Activists said they would not be intimidated by law changes aimed at “silencing non-violent people”.
Environmental groups including Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have staged various protests and demonstrations in recent months, causing disruption to commuters and traffic in central London.
More than 350 Just Stop Oil protesters – demanding halts to all new oil and gas licences and consents – have been arrested in London since the start of October, according to Home Office figures.
Evening Standard
Just Stop Oil activists have blocked traffic in east London in what is the fifteenth day of action in the capital.
Shortly after midday, approximately 29 protesters established a roadblock on Shoreditch High Street at the junction of Great Eastern Street, with some gluing themselves to the tarmac. Police later said 26 people were arrested for wilful obstruction of the highway.
Seperately, Anna Holland, 20, of Westgate Road in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Phoebe Plummer, 21, of Elms Road in Clapham have been charged with criminal damage after they threw tomato soup over the famous Vincent Van Gogh painting at the National Gallery on Friday.
Lora Johnson, 38, of Keens Lane, Reydon, Southwold in Suffolk has also been charged with criminal damage after spraying the Metropolitan Police’s New Scotland Yard sign with orange paint – over 400 people have so far been arrested since the group began its protests this month including 28 people on Friday.
Paddington
Mail
He is the mild-mannered bear who became such a reassuring symbol of comfort after the Queen‘s death that more than a thousand stuffed toys were left in tribute in Royal Parks and at Palace gates.
Now – just like the ‘real’ Paddington – the mementos left by mourners are to find a very good home.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the teddies are to be donated to vulnerable children supported by the Barnardo’s charity. Given that Paddington was an orphan himself, the choice could not be more apt.
The Queen Consort is patron of Barnardo’s and posed with just some of the collection on Thursday, before meeting young carers from the charity at Clarence House the following day.
Paddington became a totem for the Queen in the days following her death because one of her last public appearances was in the delightful sketch she filmed with him for her Platinum Jubilee.
BBC News
More than a thousand Paddington bears and other teddies left by the public in memory of the late Queen are to be sent to charity, Buckingham Palace says.
The toys were left at royal residences such as the palace and Windsor Castle after her death in September.
The bears have been professionally cleaned and will be delivered to the children’s charity Barnardos.
An image of the Queen Consort and the bears has been released to mark the donation.
In the photo, Camilla is seen sitting on a low sofa in the Morning Room at Clarence House, surrounded by soft toys.
Telegraph
More than 1,000 Paddington Bear toys left in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II outside royal residences have been donated to charity.
The bears will be given to Barnardo’s children’s services, of which Her Majesty was patron until 2016 when it was passed to the then Duchess of Cornwall.
To mark the announcement, Buckingham Palace has released a new photograph of The Queen Consort with some of the bears at Clarence House.
The photograph was taken on Thursday October 13, the 64th anniversary of the publication of the first Paddington bear book.
War
Express
Ukrainian authorities recently said that Russia carried out three successful strikes to the west of Kyiv overnight using Iranian-made drones, damaging parts of critical infrastructure.
Vladimir Putin is reportedly stepping up his drone blitz in Ukraine with the help of “elite Iranian troops” that are training Russian forces on how to operate kamikaze drones, a news report has claimed. Recently, Ukrainian authorities said that Russia carried out three successful strikes to the west of Kyiv overnight using Iranian-made drones, damaging parts of critical infrastructure.
It has been revealed that elite Iranian troops have secretly entered Ukraine to help Putin’s horror blitz and have been training Russian forces how to operate kamikaze drones – known as Shahed-136.
The Daily Mirror reported that up to 50 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specialists have joined Russian forces on the southern and eastern front, with hundreds of killer drones.
Star
NATO is set to launch military drills which will involve practising the use of Europe’s nukes next week.
The drills are set to start on Monday (October 17), as part of the annual nuclear exercise called Steadfast Noon and will finish on October 30.
As part of the intense practice, up to 60 aircrafts will train flights above Belgium, the North Sea and Britain.
It has been revealed that the aircrafts involved will include high-tech fighter jets and U.S. B-52 long-range bombers.
Despite recent tensions, the routine exercise is not “linked to current world events”, according to NATO.
Raising corporation tax certainly is the worst move Truss could possibly make.
We never know what, if anything we can believe of the so called news in the media.
But thanks Debbie for bringin it to us.
One can be sure that whatever decisions are made by those in Parliament or Government they will not be to our benefit.
I wonder if the recent Truss/Macron/EU meeting was about the UK’s nuclear weapons. It’s only us and the frogs have them in Europe.
In any war, it’d be the side that’s losing that would use them.
All the same factors as during the 1930s are in place.
Are we indeed headed for WW3?
HFA- my history books don’t mention the major and constant threats by uSA about nuclear strikes.
As to your second point (always you make two), with money, specialist foreign forces, and arms pouring into The Ukraine from foreign parts, one could argue it has already started.
I wonder how many off-shore bank accounts Zelensky has now?
Harryagain……some things never change, and I am not talking about the Russia-Ukraine war or the current state of the Conservative Party. No, I am talking about your ludicrous daily pronouncements. Like ‘all the same factors as during the 1930s are in place. Are we headed for WW3? The likelihood of Putin using a Nuclear missile in the Ukraine I would have thought is highly unlikely, especially since that country’s nearest neighbour is Russia and its ally Belorussia. The radiation released from Nuclear armaments are likely to affect Russia as much as Ukraine were they to be used. Radiation and major explosions do not respect borders. No doubt you get your news from Daily Express online which is full of utter garbage. You are like a broken record. Time to give it a rest please…..