Three more Reform UK councillors expelled from party over ‘dishonest’ behaviour after leaked video meeting – UK politics live
Footage of online meeting showed Kent county council leader remonstrating with councillors
Theresa May, the former Conservative PM, gave a lecture in the House of Lords last night which she used to criticise several – perhaps even most – of Kemi Badenoch’s flagship policies. Here are some highlights, from the PA Media report.
On getting rid of the Climate Change Act
This announcement only reinforces climate policy as a dividing line in our politics, rather than being the unifying issue it once was.
And, for the Conservative party, it risks chasing votes from Reform at the expense of the wider electorate.
By undermining the judiciary we further erode public trust in the institutions of our democracy and therefore in democracy itself.
So I say to those seeking to villainise a judiciary that cannot easily answer back, who wilfully discredit our legal system for their own expediency – it’s time to show responsible leadership.
This is not just about short-term decisions to make it easier to deal with public concerns about immigration.
Our support for human rights has its origin in Magna Carta. How we deal with issues of human rights is fundamental to our ability to deal with autocracies and dictatorships.
In the world of power where the club of strong men want to carve the world up in their own interests, populism and polarisation are enablers.
And those politicians in the Western world who use populism and polarisation for their own short-term political ends risk handing a victory to our enemies.
If senior party representatives from the Labour party and the Tory party had questions about every single councillor that did something that they didn’t like, these [press conferences] would go on all day.