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Rishi Sunak faces his first Prime Minister’s Questions since his party suffered heavy losses at last week’s local and mayoral elections.
The prime minister is up against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer after losing nearly 500 councillors and the key West Midlands mayor contest.
PMQs come as senior Tories issue pleas for unity and warn against a shift to hardline-line policies following the poor results.
Last night Penny Mordaunt insisted the Tories could still win the general election if MPs united behind Mr Sunak.
The House of Commons leader denied that she was positioning herself to replace the PM should he be ousted from office and claimed that Labour’s lead was due to her own party’s internal divisions.
“There is a reason I’m not a member of any caucus - because I recognise the strength of our party is that it is a broad church,” she told a Westminster Conservative Association funding event.
It was her 86th fundraiser event for the party since Mr Sunak became prime minister.
ICYMI: Mel Stride dodges question over NHS waiting lists as he’s grilled on benefits crackdown
Mel Stride dodges NHS waiting list question as he’s grilled on benefits crackdown
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride was put on the spot about NHS waiting lists as he was grilled on changes to benefits in the UK. The Tory minister was grilled on the government’s WorkWell scheme, which includes a review of payments to people with mental health conditions, when he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday (7 May). Presenter Susana grilled Mr Stride after a woman was forced to pay for her own hip replacement as she could not wait 18 months for surgery and could not work because of the pain. Mr Stride replied: “I can’t comment on the specific example.”
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick urges Rishi to win back ‘on strike’ voters
Rishi Sunak needs to win back Tory voters who have gone “on strike” because of the failure to curb immigration and tackle extremism, former minister Robert Jenrick said.
The Prime Minister needs to ensure Conservatives who stayed at home rather than vote in the local elections came back to the ballot box at the national contest later this year.
The Newark MP, who has produced a paper on measures to curb net migration, said: “What I’ve tried to set out are a series of policies that could be implemented before the general election, such as what I’m saying today on legal migration, which would convince some of those Conservative voters – who are essentially on strike – to come back and support the party at the general election.
“And also to persuade some of those voters who are considering voting Reform that we do care about the issues that they do, which are principally immigration, but also on crime, on extremism and on lower taxes.
“But that will require honesty, it requires levelling with the public about the mistakes of the past and using every last minute we have in office before the general election to actually deliver positive change for the public.”
‘United fans, look away now'
Rishi Sunak teased Manchester United fans yesterday while on a visit to Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace defeated United 4-0 on Monday.
“United fans, look away now,” the prime minister wrote on X.
“Football changes lives and it’s great to see initiatives like this bringing communities together.”
ICYMI: Pollsters tell Sunak he is wrong over ‘hung parliament’ prediction
Pollsters have dismissed Rishi Sunak’s claims that his party still has a fighting chance with a general election likely to produce “a hung parliament.”
The prime minister is set to try to persuade MPs tomorrow that the result will be closer than many people predict at the first of two briefing sessions on the local elections alongside his party chairman Richard Holden and head of election strategy Isaac Levido.
Full report:
Gove invokes Kate Moss as he warns Tories against ‘comfort eating’ on hard-line policies
Michael Gove told his colleagues “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” as he invoked supermodel Kate Moss to warn against “comfort eating” on hard-line policies.
The secretary of state for housing and communities comments came during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting - the first since the Tories lost nearly 500 councillors in last week’s local elections drubbing.
He urged cabinet ministers not to pursue policies that “make us feel good,” The Times reported. But not everyone agreed, with Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary and Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, raising concerns about the direction of their party.
“I disagree with you. We shouldn’t be apologists for what we believe in,” the latter said.
We’re alingned with voters, minister insists after Tories' local election drubbing
The Conservatives are aligned with the priorities of the British public, a cabinet minister has insisted despite the party’s drubbing in last week’s local elections.
Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, conceded the results were “disappointing” but said the Tories have a “positive message” they want to outline to the public.
Asked if the party needed to shift to the right after losing hundreds of councillors last week, Ms Coutinho told Times Radio: “I think what we need to do is to go where the country is.”
She added: “They want us to be tough on immigration. They want us to be cognisant of the fact that they’ve had a difficult time when it comes to public finances, which is why we’re putting forward £900 of tax cuts.
“They want us to make sure that we’re protecting their security, which we are when it comes to defence, when it comes to energy as well.
“I would just have contrast with some of Labour’s positions, when it comes to their mad energy plans which will hike up people’s bills and heap costs on people, with the 75 new business regulations which will deter investment at a time when we need investment coming into this country and on things like immigration where they don’t have a plan at all.”
Penny Mordaunt claims Tory election win ‘not impossible’ if civil war ends
Penny Mordaunt gave a speech in central London last night warning the Tory MPs that their factionalism is the main reason Labour is expected to win the general election.
The leader of the House of Commons recently dismissed claims that she is positioning herself as a unity candidate to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.
Full report:
Potential Tory contender steps up pressure on Sunak to curb ‘disastrous’ immigration
The former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has called on the government to “undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations” that “betrayed” the public’s wish for lower immigration before the general election.
He had put forward more than 30 recommendations to curb migration in a Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) report he co-authored.
The proposals include capping health and care visas at 30,000, scrapping the graduate route for international students, and indexing salary thresholds for visa routes in line with inflation.
It argues that net migration needs to be wound back to “the tens of thousands”.
Mr Jenrick, who is seen as a potential Tory leadership contender, argue that large-scale migration has failed to deliver significant fiscal benefits while putting pressure on housing, public services and infrastructure.
Mr Jenrick said: “It would be unforgivable if the Government did not use the time before the general election to undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations that betrayed the express wishes of the British public for lower immigration.
“The changes we propose today would finally return numbers to the historical norm and deliver the highly-selective, highly-skilled immigration system voters were promised. These policies could be implemented immediately and would consign low-skilled mass migration to the past.
“Immigration is consistently one of the top concerns of voters and they deserve a department whose sole mission is controlling immigration and securing our borders. For far too long, the Home Office has proven incapable of doing that.”
Top EU politician who survived Iran assassination plot delivers ‘end appeasement’ plea to Cameron
A senior EU politician who survived a shocking assassination attempt last year has asked parliamentarians to tell foreign secretary Lord Cameron to end Britain’s “appeasement of Iran”.
Spanish politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras, the former first vice president of the European Parliament, was in London today to talk to MPs and peers about the need to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
But attempts for him to meet a minister fell on deaf ears.
Read more here:
Jim Wallace says Halyrood needs ‘significantly more’ MSPs
Former Scottish deputy first minister Jim Wallace has said the number of MSPs at Holyrood “needs to be looked at again”.
The former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader played a key role in determining the number of MSPs who would sit in the Scottish Parliament when it was established back in 1999, being involved in negotiations with Labour’s George Robertson on the matter.
But with Holyrood now having increased responsibilities - including powers over income tax in Scotland and social security - Lord Wallace, who was Scotland’s first deputy first minister, now believes “significantly more” MSPs are needed.
The Liberal Democrat, who served as an MP before joining the Scottish Parliament when it was established, told how during his time at Westminster he had been involved in discussions about how the new parliament would operate.
“I think now the Parliament requires significantly more, it has more responsibilities, not least for tax and social security.
“I think 129 needs to be looked at again.”
He said Labour had acted “unilaterally” to hold a referendum on whether the devolved parliament should be established - with Liberal Democrats at the time opposed to such a ballot.
However, Lord Wallace said: “In retrospect, it was probably the right thing to do. Because I think it gave the Parliament a political grounding which once done you can never roll back.”
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2024-05-08 10:31:38Z
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