Michael Lambert: Are They Plotting to Dump Sunak?

May 20, 2023 | On Newsnight last week, Nigel #farage the man who brought us #brexit admitted that it had failed. He blamed British politicians for the failure.

The #conservatives held two conferences, one in Brighton which seemed to favour the return of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and a second in London where various extremely right-wing politicians spoke. Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted that the introduction of voter ID by the Conservatives in the local elections had been an attempt at #gerrymandering which is illegal.

#rishisunak tried and failed to persuade other European leaders to support his Rwanda policy.

On a flight to Japan for a G7 meeting Sunak was asked what the benefits of Brexit were. He replied that sanitary products (tampons) were now cheaper because VAT is no longer applied and that beer would be a bit cheaper because of a reduction in duty.

Whilst the US are investing £42 billion and the EU £37 billion in the development and manufacture of semiconductors the UK government has proudly announced a budget of £1 billion over ten years.

Now Brexit Brings a Bitter Tory Reckoning at the Polls

THE GUARDIAN: The Conservatives have much to be ashamed of after 13 years. But the surge in Lib Dem support shows Europe still matters

‘When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” Euripides was not of course referring to Brexit in his play Orestes, but to the chaos caused by Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon and Orestes’s dispatch, in turn, of Clytemnestra.

The disastrous outcome for the Conservatives in the local elections may not lead to any physical violence, but all the signs are, as the recriminations begin, that the Tories are in for a metaphorical bloodbath.

Let us face it: the Brexiters, led by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, conducted their referendum campaign with honeyed words; their minds may not have been intentionally evil, but you could have fooled me. Brexit has proved to be an unmitigated disaster. » | William Keegan | Sunday, May 14, 2023

Tory Anarchy Breaks Out as Revolt Looms on Brexit Laws

THE GUARDIAN: Ex-ministers attack Rishi Sunak’s leadership as pro-Johnson wing calls for lower taxes

Rishi Sunak is likely to face a Commons mutiny over the retained EU law bill reminiscent of the rows over the Maastricht treaty. Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA
Rishi Sunak was losing control of an increasingly anarchic Tory party on Saturday as former cabinet ministers openly criticised the direction of policy under his leadership and dozens of backbench MPs plotted a new rebellion over Brexit.

Amid recriminations over the heavy Conservative losses in recent council elections, and with pro-Brexit MPs incensed that Sunak’s government is dropping plans to shred more than 4,000 EU laws within months, discipline was at risk of completely disintegrating on the right of the party.

Speaking at the inaugural conference of the pro-Boris Johnson Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) in Bournemouth on Saturday, former home secretary Priti Patel suggested the party’s high command under Sunak was responsible for the losses.

In a clear swipe at those now in charge, she said some senior figures at Westminster had “done a better job at damaging our party” over the past year than Labour. She also criticised MPs for removing Johnson, saying they had overseen the “ousting of our most electorally successful prime minister since Margaret Thatcher”. » | Toby Helm and Michael Savage | Saturday, May 13, 2023

Sunak under Pressure after Dire Tory Losses and Leadership Gripes

THE GUARDIAN: PM calls results ‘disappointing’, while Labour says it’s on track to win power at next general election

One of Rishi Sunak’s Tory MPs described the losses to the Lib Dems and Greens in the south as ‘a bloodbath’. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Rishi Sunak has faced devastating losses of more than 1,000 Tory seats in the local elections, while Labour has said the party is on track to win power at the next general election.

The prime minister conceded on Friday the English council results were “disappointing”, but faced a scathing verdict from some of his MPs and the first rumblings of a threat to his leadership from allies of Boris Johnson.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, was buoyed up by winning more than 500 seats, with the party believing its projected vote share puts it on course to take power in 2024 for the first time in 14 years. » | Rowena Mason and Peter Walker | Friday, May 5, 2023

Recent Conservative prime ministers: A succession of duds, one dud after the other! First came Cameron, an unmitigated disaster because of Brexit, then came May, slightly better, but still a disaster, then came Boris Johnson, a total and utter disaster, then Liz Truss, an unspeakable disaster, a cipher, and now Sunak, yet another disaster – a catastrophe, a calamity waiting to happen! (or has it already happened?) – © Mark Alexander

Gove and Hunt, Beware: True-blue Surrey Is Ready to Turf Out the Tories – and You’re Next

THE GUARDIAN: An avalanche is coming. The voters I met are abandoning the Conservatives over lying, cheating and Brexit

“Were you still awake for Raab? Or Hunt? Or Gove?” On the morning after next year’s election we may be asking each other that, remembering the magic early-hours moment in 1997 when Michael Portillo lost his seat in Enfield Southgate, north London, symbolising the earthquake that brought down the Tories after 18 long years. Imagine the shock of Tory A-listers’ seats tumbling in the forever Tory fiefdoms of Surrey.

I had never imagined it, so what I discovered while canvassing with the Liberal Democrats last weekend in Michael Gove’s Surrey Heath constituency was terra incognita to me. Before, there was no point in following the fortunes of forlorn opposition candidates trying to knock down impenetrable home-county blue walls. There is now. » | Polly Toynbee | Tuesday, May 2, 2023

They Wrecked Britain, and They’re Not Going Anywhere

OPINION : GUEST ESSAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — As Britain prepares for the coronation of its new king, an end-of-days feeling is sweeping the nation. In an atmosphere of social unrest, economic dysfunction and government corruption, deep political disillusionment has set in. The Conservative Party is polling 15 points behind the opposition, and the popularity of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives’ fifth leader in seven years, remains obstinately low. After years of Tory misrule, the opinion of the British public seems clear: We’ve had enough.

And with good reason. For over a decade, the Conservatives have ransacked the country they claim to love, unmooring it from its foundations and enriching their chums. While the wealth of the very richest rocketed, the party’s program of austerity, begun by David Cameron in 2010 and continued by each Conservative prime minister since, starved public services, created one of the most miserly welfare states in the developed world and contributed to the longest period of wage stagnation — for many, wage regression — since the Napoleonic Wars. Life expectancy is down, child poverty is up, and there are few signs of a reprieve on the horizon. Life under the Tories has become poorer, nastier, more brutish and shorter. » | Samuel Earle | Thursday, April 27, 2023

Sajid Javid Calls for Patients to Pay for GP and A&E Visits

THE GUARDIAN: Radical reforms needed to tackle waiting times, says former health secretary

Sajid Javid cited schemes in Ireland, Norway and Sweden as possible charging models. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
Patients should be charged for GP appointments and A&E visits, Sajid Javid has said, as he called the present model of the NHS “unsustainable”.

The former health secretary said “extending the contributory principle” should be part of radical reforms to tackle growing waiting times.

In an opinion piece for the Times, he called for a “grown-up, hard-headed conversation” about revamping the health service, noting that “too often the appreciation for the NHS has become a religious fervour and a barrier to reform”.

The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is not “currently” considering the proposals, Downing Street told the newspaper. » | PA Media | Friday, January 20, 2023

It should be crystal clear to one and all by now that the Conservatives are in the process of dismantling the National Health Service. They will achieve their goal by stealth, dismantling the service one step at a time. First, they will ask patients to pay for GP appointments and A&E. In a short while, they will be demanding that patients make partial payments for operations and hospital stays. Then later, it will be full payments, and so on. This government is shameless. Give all to the 1% and take all from the 99%. What a shower! What a shameless shower! Be sure: The NHS is NOT safe in the hands of the Tories.

If savings need to be made on the NHS, there are plenty of ways that savings could be made. To start with, there are far too many highly-paid management staff. That was caused by Thatcher and her misguided ideas of making a business out of everything.

We need a change of government. This administration is stale. It is bereft of any good ideas. It is also too ideological. Kick the Tories out as soon as possible. – © Mark Alexander

The Incredible Shrinking Man: Rishi Sunak’s Gut Reaction Is Always Wrong

THE GUARDIAN: The prime minister has chosen to pick a fight with the nurses – a battle he’s never going to win

Week after week, Sunak gets dismantled by Keir Starmer. Photograph: House of Commons/PA
Rishi Sunak is the incredible shrinking man. The more you see of him, the less there appears to be. When he became prime minister, he had the appearance of a moderately successful – if rather over-eager – tech bro, brought in to save the Conservative party from itself. But that was a chimera. Because Rish! isn’t even that successful. He’s a politician with the fatal flaw of not being very good at politics. A man unable to convince others that he inhabits their world. Now he’s just a ball of need. Desperate to be liked, but unable to make an emotional connection with voters.

To be fair, Sunak has the odds stacked against him. It’s not entirely his fault the Tories voted for Liz Truss rather than him. Though imagine how useless the Conservative membership must think him to be if they went full on Trussterfuck. It’s not his fault that Putin invaded Ukraine. But he has to take the blame for the Tories’ record of 13 years in government when it’s hard to think of anything that works better now than it did in 2010.

And it’s a unique talent to make every bad situation worse. His gut reaction is almost always the wrong one. Take the strikes. Everyone knows the endgame. The unions and the government get around a table and agree a compromise. Everyone except Rish!. He has chosen to pick a fight with the nurses and paramedics. A battle he’s never going to win, because almost the entire country has already picked a side. And it’s not with the government. When nurses pay has been eroded over such a long period – some are using food banks to get by – and their union calls for strike action for the first time in its history, then a stand has to be taken. » | John Crace | Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Rishi Sunak is like an overgrown 6th former! In actual fact, he’s a tw*t (supply your vowel of choice), to boot. After the pandemic, knowing how important nurses and other medical staff were to us, nobody in his right mind would pick a fight with essential workers such as these. Especially when the prime minister is so liberal with funds for CEOs of energy companies, and their henchmen, refusing to tax them to the full extent. Are CEOs of energy companies more essential to the economy than nurses? I repeat: What a tw*t!

FFS, pay the nurses and other medical staff a decent living wage/salary! You, Sir, are a disgrace! Anybody who has any decency is on the side of the nurses. Decent people are NOT, and cannot be, on your side. Redistribute the wealth of the nation fairly and equitably. Stop favouring those who have robbed the nation blind! – © Mark Alexander

Autumn Statement: Jeremy Hunt Plans Billions in Spending Cuts

GETTY IMAGES
BBC: Spending cuts of about £35bn and plans to raise some £20bn in tax in the coming years are expected to be set out in Thursday's Autumn Statement.

None of Jeremy Hunt's decisions have been officially confirmed, but I understand most of the extra revenue will come from freezing tax thresholds.

The levy on energy firms is also set to rise and last for another six years. Independent forecasts are understood to have identified a gap of around £55bn in the public finances.

While the government won't confirm any of the decisions they have made so far, the shape of the building blocks are clear.

We've already heard the chancellor say that in his view filling that hole between tax revenue and government spending is absolutely imperative after the chaos of early autumn.

There is an economic debate about the urgency and necessity for doing so but the position this government takes, that we'll no doubt hear from Mr Hunt when he's on our show this Sunday, is that they have no choice.

And from the moment he became chancellor he has said in sombre tones that means tax rises and squeezing spending. » | Laura Kuenssberg, Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg | Saturday, November 12, 2022

The Tories are not called "The Nasty Party” for nothing! They truly are "The Nasty Party”. How much more austerity are these bastards going to inflict on the country? We’ve had austerity ever since that twerp Cameron was in power. Cameron and Osborne inflicted austerity 1.0 on us. Now we must live with—or try to live with—austerity 1.1! They f****d up the last time; and they’ll f*** up this time too. The rich will get ever richer and the poor and middle class will get ever poorer. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer looks to me as though he relishes inflicting pain. Just take a look at his facial expression! A visage which tells you all you need to know about him! – © Mark Alexander

George Monbiot: No One Voted for This

George Monbiot on the "fake patriots" choosing Britain's Next Prime Minister

Full 29min Interview with George Monbiot here [Patrons only.]

The Ruination of Britain

Henry Nicholls/Reuters
OPINION : GUEST ESSAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — Until very recently the British Conservative Party was able to claim, with a great deal of credibility, that it was the most successful political party in the Western world.

The party of Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher has governed Britain for most of the last 200 years. Through much of that time the Conservatives have been synonymous with good sense, financial sobriety and cautious pragmatism. Despised by progressive elites, allergic to ideology, provincial rather than metropolitan, the Conservative Party rejoiced in being the stolid party of the boring middle ground.

Not anymore. Today, the Conservatives are synonymous with chaos.

Liz Truss, the latest Tory prime minister to crash and burn, must bear her share of the blame. There are sound reasons for why she was forced to resign after just 44 days, the shortest term in history. It was a foolish notion to suppose that she could sack the most senior Treasury official, reinvent the laws of economic management and defy the collective wisdom of the financial markets. There was going to be only one result.

But the bigger truth is that the hapless Ms. Truss is a symptom rather than the cause of Britain’s chronic crisis of governance, which has reduced the country — once respected around the world — to a global laughingstock. The Conservative Party chose her, remember, even though she was obviously not up to the job. You didn’t need the foresight of Nostradamus to know she would fail. For the fiasco of her premiership and the disastrous state of the country, the Conservative Party must collectively take responsibility. » | Peter Oborne * | Friday, October 21, 3022

Mr. Oborne is a British journalist, broadcaster and former political commentator for The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail.

"We Are a Democracy in Name Only": George Monbiot on Truss Resignation & Who Will Be Next British PM

British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday after just 45 days in office, the shortest term in the nation's history. Her low-tax, low-regulation financial policies were widely criticized after they sent the pound plummeting, causing several senior ministers to quit. We speak to George Monbiot, British journalist at The Guardian, about her short-lived time in office, what this says about the Conservative Party, and who her likely successor will be. "You'd think we'd have a general election after all this chaos, … but that's not how it works in this country, because we are a democracy in name only," says Monbiot.

Sir Ed Davey: Johnson Return Would Be 'Disaster'

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey MP says that allowing Boris Johnson to stand for the Conservative party leadership would create "more political instability".

Sir Ed said that Johnson had "lied on an industrial scale, he broke the law, he failed to handle a sex abuse case within his own ranks" and was "an absolute disaster".


In my humble opinion, Sir Ed Davey is the man who should be prime minister. He is a very sensible, thoroughly decent politician – a rarity in political life these days. The LibDems are also pro-EU, so that's a huge plus. – © Mark Alexander

Send in the Clowns!

A friend has just sent me this. It’s brilliant!

European Press Blames Brexit for UK Political ‘Insanity’

THE GUARDIAN: Columnists suggest Liz Truss’s failure could spell end of ‘wishful thinking’ of a sovereign UK going its own way

Liz Truss’s situation is ‘totally unsustainable’, one Spanish newspaper reported. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
ANALYSIS
Six years on from the Brexit referendum, continental commentators have become used to Westminster meltdowns, but many see in the latest cataclysm the finale of a project that was always divorced from reality.

For the French newspaper Libération, there is “decidedly something rancid in the Tories’ tea”. The paper’s former London correspondent Sonia Delesalle-Stolper said Westminster, a “temple of democracy and ancient traditions”, had witnessed “bewildering” scenes.

“Blows, shoves, insults, resignations, tears … After some implausible incidents in both the Commons and Downing Street, the British government and the Conservative party seem to be on a path to total self-destruction,” she said.

Like most European papers, Libération looked past the spectacle to what it saw as the root cause of the chaos. “In four months, the country will have had four chancellors, two interior ministers, and no doubt soon two prime ministers,” it said.

“Who will be Liz Truss’s successor, since her imminent departure is no longer in doubt? That’s the question. For Brexit – and its chief artisan, Boris Johnson – has successfully drained the Conservative party of all substance and competence.” » | Jon Henley, Europe correspondent | Thursday, October 20, 2022

Senior Tories Hold Talks to Discuss Ousting Liz Truss to ‘Rescue’ Party

THE OBSERVER: As new chancellor Jeremy Hunt rips up prime minister’s economic plans, Conservatives plot route to replace her

Liz Truss, the prime minister, at a news conference in London on Friday. Photograph: Reuters
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. » | Toby Helm , Political Editor, and Michael Savage | Saturday, October 15, 2022

Tories doing what they know best: ousting their leader when their leader is no longer any use to them. They did the same thing with Margaret Thatcher, even though she had won so many elections for the Party, Once they felt she might not any longer be able to win any more elections, she was thrown to the wolves.

This is another good reason why this ruthless Party, the "Nasty Party", needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history. – © Mark Alexander

Conor Burns Sacked after Being Seen ‘Touching Young Man’s Thigh’, Witness Says

THE OBSERVER: Tory minister, who denies any wrongdoing, reported for incident in hotel bar during party’s conference

Conor Burns has vowed to clear his name following the allegation. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
The trade minister Conor Burns was sacked from the government and suspended as a Conservative MP after he was seen touching a young man’s thigh in a Tory conference hotel bar, it has been claimed.

According to the BBC on Saturday, an eyewitness said the former minister was seen with the man in the early hours of Tuesday in the Hyatt Regency hotel bar in Birmingham, which was a popular venue for conference attenders. Burns has denied any wrongdoing.

However, the individual concerned has not spoken about what happened and Downing Street has not commented on the exact circumstances of the sacking. The BBC said that an eyewitness claimed to have seen Burns with his hand on the young man’s thigh, adding that others had also seen it. The eyewitness said Burns was told to stop what he was doing – a claim disputed by friends of Burns. » | Michael Savage and Miranda Bryant | Saturday, October 8, 2022

Times Radio: We've Lost the Next Election, Says Conservative MP Charles Walker

"It's hard to construct an argument now that the Conservatives can win that general election. I suspect conversation is, yeah, how much do we lose it by."

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Business Partner Given Senior Minister Role

THE GUARDIAN: City financier who co-founded investment firm with business secretary is made trade minister

Jacob Rees-Mogg and other senior cabinet members face questions about being too close to the City. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
The City business partner of Jacob Rees-Mogg has been handed a peerage and job as a senior minister by Liz Truss’s government in a move likely to trigger accusations of cronyism.

Dominic Johnson, a financier who co-founded Somerset Capital Management with Rees-Mogg, was appointed as a minister in the Cabinet Office and the Department for International Trade.

The announcement was slipped out on the government’s website, which said he had been appointed as of Sunday.

…

The appointment is likely to be controversial at a time when Truss, her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and Rees-Mogg face questions about being too close to the City, after the mini-budget handed substantial tax cuts to financiers and the wealthy. » | Rowena Mason, Whitehall editor | Sunday, October 2, 2022

WTF! This administration is as corrupt as corrupt can be! Talk about jobs for the boys … this is it! This country’s government behaves in a way one would expect a banana republic’s government to behave. Kick these corrupt Tories out of office forthwith!

It would appear that they have already lost the next election. Now, Parliament has to find a way of bringing the date of the election forward. – © Mark Alexander

Voters Abandon Tories as Faith in Economic Competence Dives

THE OBSERVER: Conservative MPs urge Liz Truss’s removal from No 10 after poll reveals British public’s fury over tax plans

Liz Truss on Saturday: she showed no sign of backing down over £45bn in unfunded tax cuts.Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP
Three-quarters of UK voters, including a staggering 71% of those who backed the Conservatives at the last general election, believe the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have “lost control” of the economy, according to a devastating poll for the Observer on the eve of the Tory conference.

The survey by Opinium – which also reveals that Labour has extended its lead by a massive 14 percentage points in the last week alone, from 5 points to 19 points, and that Truss’s ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson’s at the height of the Partygate scandal – comes as some Tory MPs are beginning to demand the new prime minister’s removal from No 10 after less than a month in office.
Other senior party figures are warning that the damage to the party’s reputation for economic management resulting from Kwarteng’s tax-cutting budget, is so serious that it will take many years to repair. » | Toby Helm & Michael Savage | Saturday, October 1, 2022