Conservative Party Leadership Contest 2022

Controversial: Politics & Govt Politics & Govt: In The News
, , ,
1

I know there is already a few threads on specific aspects of the Tory Leadership Contest and individual MPs but it is difficult to keep them on topic with so much media coverage and comments and updates coming in.

Now that the Conservative Party Leadership Contest is beginning to get underway, with a few MPs already declaring their wish to stand for election as Party Leader and other MPs being tipped to be considering it, I thought it may be good to have one general thread to post any news, views, opinions and comments on the Tory Leadership Contest, instead of having to post on separate new threads for each new Candidate that throws their hat into the ring or separate threads for other updates or snippets of news related to the Leadership Contest.

We could start off by updating this thread with the MPs who have already declared, the ones who confirmed they won’t be standing and any other comments related to the Contest.
What do you think?

2 Likes
2

Give it a go … :+1:

… but be prepared for derailments … :wink:

3

Well, provided the posts relate to news or opinions about the Leadership Contest or the Candidates, what could possibly go wrong?! :kissing_heart:

1 Like
4

Some, many or all posts won’t relate to news or opinions about the Leadership Contest or the Candidates … :slightly_smiling_face:

5

Well, let’s start by adding the MPs who have said they intend to stand and take it from there …

The ones I know about:

Tom Tugendhat (he was first off the blocks - lacks ministerial experience, military reservist and gave a good speech in the Commons about Afghan withdrawal and drew cross party applause across the House - that’s all I know about him)

Rishi Sunak - I guess we all know his record - supported Johnson’s line in public for ages but quickly jumped into the race after he resigned

Kemi Badenoch - Equalities Minister - she said she doesn’t like “identity politics” which is maybe why I’ve never heard of her before

Who else has declared an intention to stand?

1 Like
6

Attorney General Suella Braverman - promised “rapid and large tax cuts” to ease inflation … :roll_eyes:

1 Like
7

Hi

If this carries on, why can’t everyone stand for PM?

My promises.

Free fishing for all over 50s and all ladies can buy as many shoes as they want at no more than ÂŁ5 a pair, which will be the new legal maximum price for shoes.

All men will have to do the odd jobs and redecoration within 7 days of it first being mentioned.

All men will be prohibited from moaning about their partners mother being invited to stay the weekend.

Absolute bliss.

3 Likes
8

I think you’d have to be an MP and secure a certain number of MPs to back you - though with shoes @ £5 a pair, I can think of a few MPs who may prick up their ears!

Just watching the news and I think it was reported that Grant Shapps has declared his intention to put his name forward for the Leadership Contest - though the interview is being conducted with someone else who appears to be supporting Shapps, so I’m not certain.

9

Shapps is, indeed, in the running:

Zahawi has said he will lower taxes, boost defence spending, and continue with the reforms he began while education secretary.

Shapps pledged to produce an emergency budget, instruct his chancellor to cut personal tax for the poorest people and give state support to businesses with high levels of energy consumption.

1 Like
10
1 Like
11

Thanks for the full list from the Conservative Home Site @wendeey

It will be interesting to see how this list changes over the next few days.

Have you any particular favourite candidates? Or are you waiting to see the full list when everyone has declared?

12

My MP is supporting Rishi. I’ll wait until the hustings to see how they come across before I decide.

I’m worried by this though:

1 Like
13

When Rishi was first given our constituency, he was “parachuted” in to one of the safest Tory seats in UK, for his very first entry into standing for a Parliamentary seat, I thought then he must be on a fast track to power - either because he had friends in high places or the Tory Party had spotted he had a lot of potential as a high flyer and groomed him.

I thought then that he was probably on track to be the next Tory Party Leader - but after all the losses re Covid furlough and the flak he has had regarding his family’s personal wealth this year, I thought maybe his rising star had fallen and he had missed his chance for the foreseeable future.

I’m not a Tory voter but I have been impressed by Sunak’s abilities and was disappointed to see him turning into what seemed to me a “Yes Man” and going along with Boris Johnson in everything, even though it seemed to me he was not really agreeing with it.

Party loyalty and supporting the Leader is all very well but an MP should be working for their constituents and exercising their own conscience on what is right and wrong,
It wouldn’t surprise me if he had been preparing his website for a while and planning for a future Leadership bid, should Boris end up cooking his own goose, with a bit of help from those who wanted him out - Sunak does like to plan ahead and it’s obvious now from what he wrote in his resignation letter that they did have serious differences of opinion on some major issues.

14

You just lost my vote!

1 Like
15

It makes no difference who becomes the next pm, none of them know about the ordinary person nor their struggles with todays cost of living crisis, multi millionaires don’t have to worry about heating, petrol prices or low wages, they have no plan to help, they only help themselves and their like.

4 Likes
16

As expected, Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid have both declared they plan to stand.

From Sky News:

Jeremy Hunt joins race for Tory leadership

Jeremy Hunt has announced his intention to run to be the next prime minister in an article in The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Hunt is positioning himself as the only candidate who can win back trust with voters.

He has also pledged to cut business taxes to the lowest rate in the Western world.

Mr Hunt, a former health secretary and foreign secretary, is the chairman of the Commons health and social care committee.

He also ran for the party leadership in 2019, losing in the final round to Boris Johnson.

His backers believe his strength as a candidate would come from not being tainted by being part of Mr Johnson’s cabinet.

Sajid Javid launches bid for Tory leadership

Like Jeremy Hunt, Mr Javid has also been talking to The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Javid, who resigned as health secretary on Tuesday, destabilising Boris Johnson’s government, said he would scrap the rise in National Insurance.

In a possible attack on Rishi Sunak, who also resigned on Tuesday, Mr Javid said: “I’m not sure I would have done it if I had been chancellor, but I was focused on my job and I’m not trying to do other people’s jobs for them.”

Mr Javid said he would bring forward a planned 1p cut in income tax to next year.

He would cut corporation tax by 1p per year to eventually reach 15p.

Mr Javid said the “tax rate now is already almost a 70-year high - and that’s happened under the Conservatives”.

He went on: "I think that troubles a lot of people. And so I think a prerequisite for growth is tax cuts.

"There are some that say that you can’t have tax cuts until you’ve got growth.

"I think that’s wrong. I think that is fundamentally flawed analysis.

“I think you can’t have growth until you’ve got the tax cuts.”

17

20 June 2019

Jeremy Hunt:

BSkyB takeover

Earlier in 2012, Hunt’s career was hanging in the balance. During the Leveson Inquiry into the culture and practices of the press, his contact with the Murdoch family came under scrutiny.

Mr Hunt was responsible for overseeing the proposed takeover of BSkyB by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

He was criticised for failing to supervise his adviser’s contact with News Corp, and for messages he exchanged with James Murdoch on the bid. His special adviser, Adam Smith, was forced to quit.

The inquiry released texts sent from Mr Hunt to News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel when it was bidding for BSkyB. The culture secretary addressed him as “Daddy” and “mon ami” - their wives had given birth in the same hospital in May 2010. Separately, in December 2010, he told Mr Michel there was “nothing u won’t like” in a forthcoming speech.

Mr Hunt insisted he acted with “total integrity” during the bid process.

NHS funding

But Mr Hunt held office during the slowest period of investment in the NHS since its foundation - which created big problems.

Since the NHS was established, health spending has risen by about 4% above inflation each year on average. Post-2010, as the coalition budget tried to reduce the deficit, this fell to about 1% a year.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility said funding for the NHS needed to rise by 4.3% a year just to keep up with rising demand, without actively improving standards.

Financial difficulties led to more hospitals going into the red, as well as targets being missed in three main areas: cancer care, hospital appointments and A&E waiting times.

NHS England has not met any of these targets since 2015.

Junior doctors battle

As well as a series of austerity measures - which included extending a cap on pay increases for NHS staff - he was also criticised for his handling of the junior doctor contract row.

Mr Hunt said that changes to contracts were essential to deliver a seven-day NHS in England by 2020 - a pledge in the Conservatives’ 2010 election manifesto.

To achieve this, the proposed contracts would mean evenings and Saturdays would be considered “normal” rather than “unsocial” hours and would no longer attract overtime pay.

Contract negotiations with junior doctors stopped and started and the British Medical Association eventually decided on industrial action.

Junior doctors took part in a series of walkouts in 2016. On two strike days, between 08:00 and 17:00 even emergency care wasn’t covered - the first time that had ever happened in the history of the NHS.

Public support for the strike was high, and even after doctors withdrew emergency care, the majority of the public (57%) still supported the strike and believed the government was more at fault (54%).

A new contract for junior doctors was later imposed, after BMA members rejected a deal agreed by the government and union negotiators.

Hunt became foreign secretary in July 2018, after his predecessor and now leadership rival, Boris Johnson, quit over Theresa May’s Brexit strategy.

He has faced criticism for allowing the UK to sell arms to the Saudi regime, which is involved in a controversial military campaign in Yemen. But he has previously defended UK-Saudi ties, saying Saudi Arabia is a “very, very important military ally to the UK”.

His time as foreign secretary has not been gaffe-free. During a meeting on an official visit to China, he called his wife Lucia Guo “Japanese” - although she was born in Xian in central China.

A Remain campaigner in the 2016 EU referendum, Mr Hunt has since said he would vote Leave in a second vote. He said this was because of the “arrogance of the European Commission” in Brexit negotiations.

IMO, Slimeball … :icon_rolleyes:

18

https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2022-07-06/rishi-sunak-lies-low-as-wife-makes-round-of-tea-for-media-in-38-mugs

Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty makes round of tea for journalists as ex-chancellor lies low

The Richmond MP has not been seen since he left Number 11 Downing Street on Tuesday, a decision – along with the resignation of the health secretary Sajid Javid – which hastened calls for the Prime Minister to go.

But, while photographers gathered outside his London flat waiting for Mr Sunak to emerge, his wife did show her face, and took the opportunity to show the media pack some hospitality.

Akshata Murty, 42, brought out a tray of tea and biscuits which she placed on a hastily-constructed table, before disappearing back inside.

Eagle-eyed observers spotted that the heiress, whose father is a billionaire, provided drinks in suitably high-class containers. The designer Emma Lacey mugs are said to retail at ÂŁ38 each.

A nice gesture but one which illustrates that the Sunaks live in a different world to the rest of us … :man_shrugging:

19

Pfft! What ingrates these reporters and press photographers are!

They hang about outside these politicians’ homes, hoping to grab a bit of gossip or a photo, harrying them to make a statement every time they come outside - then when someone is kind enough to make them a cuppa, they rudely examine the mug it comes in, assess its value and use the info as a bit of gossip against the folk who’ve given them refreshments! - Harumphh!

If they did that to me, that’s the last lot of tea and biccies they’d get!

PS
I bet if they’d been given tea in tatty old cracked “greasy spoon” type mugs, they’d have reported that too and changed the angle to - they have all that money and look how tight they are! :roll_eyes:

1 Like
20

Hi

Things are getting dirty already

1 Like