MPs back smoking ban for those born after 2009
“MPs have backed a plan to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes, effectively ensuring it will become law. The measures, championed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, survived despite opposition from several leading Tory figures – including two ex-PMs. Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told MPs “there is no liberty in addiction” as she defended the plans. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill passed by 383 votes to 67. If they become law, the UK’s smoking laws will be among the strictest in the world.” – BBC
- Britain was once proud to be a free country. Now millions cling to nanny – Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph
- Another liberty disappears in a puff of smoke as the state takes control – Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
- Leadership hopefuls snub Sunak’s smoking ban – Daily Telegraph
- Free choice does not exist when addiction drives desire – Leader, The Times
>Yesterday: Andrew Gimson’s Commons sketch: Truss is not amused by the Tobacco Bill, which “infantilises people”
Michaela 1) School defeats prayer ban challenge
“Katharine Birbalsingh has questioned the level of legal aid awarded to a Muslim pupil who lost a court battle over her school’s prayer ban. Ms Birbalsingh, known as Britain’s strictest head teacher, won a legal challenge brought by the pupil, who claimed the prayer restrictions at Michaela Community School in Brent, north-west London, were discriminatory. The High Court ruled that the prayer ban was lawful and justified as “a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aims” of the school. Commenting on the judgment, Ms Birbalsingh said: “Can it be right for a family to receive £150,000 of taxpayer-funded legal aid to bring a case like this?” – Daily Telegraph
Michael 2) Birbalsingh: I’ll carry on fighting to defend our way of life. If parents don’t like it, their children can go elsewhere.
“Ever since the idea of Michaela began in 2011, our detractors have railed against our strict rules and traditional values. Their patronising thinking goes like this: ‘Ethnic minority families cannot possibly know what they want for their children. Those choices must be made for them.’ Last year, we watched our Muslim pupils put under pressure by a tiny number of others to fast, to pray, to drop out of the choir, to wear a hijab. I watched one of my black teachers be racially abused and intimidated, another teacher had her home nearly broken into, and yet another had a brick thrown through her window. In 2014, 30 per cent of our intake was Muslim. It is now 50 per cent. We are over-subscribed. If our families did not like the school, they would not repeatedly choose to send their children to Michaela.” – Katharine Birbalsingh, Daily Mail
Other comment
- Birbalsingh has won a victory for authority over segregation – Tony Sewell, Daily Telegraph
- Michaela’s court win is a victory for all – Leader, Daily Telegraph
- Why did taxpayers foot the £500,000 bill to fund stressful, damaging court case against Britain’s finest school? – Leader, The Sun
- No pupil has right to impose their views on a school – prayer ban ruling was win for Brit values over identity politics – Mercy Muroki, The Sun
- This vindicates the ideal of secular education – Leader, The Times
- I applaud Michaela School’s strong ethos and the High Court’s common sense – Esther McVey – Daily Express
Socialist Mayor orders cancellation of Conservative conference in Belgium
“Downing Street has said attempts by police in Belgium to shut down a conservative conference featuring Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman on Tuesday were “extremely disturbing”. Mr Farage was on stage at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels when officers entered the venue to serve a court order demanding its closure with “immediate effect”. Legal papers, seen by The Telegraph, suggested speeches at the event could cause public disorder, be homophobic or offend minorities. The conference organisers had been forced to relocate to the venue on Monday night after a conference hall and a hotel cancelled their bookings following claims of “political pressure” from the local Left-wing mayor.” – Daily Telegraph
- Sunak and Belgian PM criticise the ban – The Guardian
- Outrage at smug Labour frontbenchers giggling at attack on free speech – Daily Express
- Nasty Brussels police have just proven Brexit right – Nigel Farage, Daily Telegraph
- In the heart of the EU, a tactic straight out of the Soviet playbook – Matthew Goodwin, Daily Mail
- Brussels censorship – Leader, Daily Telegraph
- A chilling assault on freedom of speech – Leader, Daily Mail
- Sunak must trigger ECHR withdrawal now – it’s choking us, Braverman says – The Sun
- Meddling Euro judges risk planting seeds of own destruction by overreaching in domestic politics, warns Lord Cameron – The Sun
Police investigation of Rayner is covering multiple allegations
“The police investigation into Angela Rayner is examining multiple allegations and is not limited to potential electoral law offences. At least a dozen officers at Greater Manchester police are investigating the Labour deputy leader over where she lived in the 2010s and the sale of her former council house in Stockport. They are examining tax matters and other issues on top of the question of whether Rayner gave false information for the electoral register when she lived between two former council houses in Stockport in the 2010s.” – The Times
Government suffers fresh defeats in Lords over Rwanda Bill
“The government’s flagship Rwanda Bill has suffered a fresh set of defeats in the House of Lords. Despite MPs overturning previous changes, peers backed Labour plans to carve out exceptions to the scheme for children and ensure it sticks to international law. The much-debated bill will now return to the House of Commons for a vote on Wednesday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he aims for the bill to pass this week.” – BBC
- Leased RAF Voyagers set for Rwanda asylum seeker flights – The Times
Inflation falls to 3.2 per cent
“Inflation continued its descent in March, but did not fall as far as economists had expected, as the Bank of England considers its next move in interest rates. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), inflation fell to 3.2 per cent last month, down from a previous reading of 3.4 per cent. Economists had expected it to fall to 3.1 per cent. Core inflation, which strips out volatile components such as food and inflation, fell to 4.2 down from a previous reading of 4.5 per cent.” – City AM
Cameron says G7 leaders close to agreeing to using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine
“The leaders of the G7 countries are close to agreeing a plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort, Lord Cameron has said. The Foreign Secretary said an “emerging consensus” existed between Western countries on how to take advantage of more than £220 billion in Russian assets that have been frozen since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The United States has been pushing a plan to borrow billions to send to Ukraine in loans, secured against the future interest on the Russian money – most of which is in Brussels.” – Daily Telegraph
- Labour’s foreign policy will be realistic about us as a nation, not nostalgic about what we used to be – David Lammy, The Guardian
Hunt hopes for tax cuts before the election
“Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has raised the possibility of further tax cuts before the next general election as he counts on recent reductions to national insurance and the prospect of lower interest rates to improve the Conservative party’s fortunes. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hunt said the government would like to cut taxes in an autumn fiscal event “if we can” — while insisting it was too soon to know if it would happen and stressing the need to act in a fiscally responsible way.” – Financial Times
>Today: Columnist John Redwood: Time and again, nationalisation and excess regulation hold Britain back – yet we demand more of it
Other political news
- Post Office bosses ‘plotted a raid on the pensions of wrongly accused sub-postmasters’ – Daily Mail
- Modi hopes Elon Musk’s India visit will supercharge election prospects – The Times
- Labour to seek regular UK access to EU foreign affairs council – Financial Times
- Creating sexually explicit deepfakes to become a criminal offence – BBC
- Nearly 1m UK pensioners living in deprivation, official figures show – The Guardian
- MPs hit out at BBC for cutting local radio to fund regional online services – Financial Times
- The National Portrait Gallery wrongly said that an art dealer built his career using money from slavery – The Times
- Campaign to fund a statue honouring Dame Vera Lynn wins support from 100 MPs – Daily Mail
- Clustering of AI firms in south and east of England will foil levelling up claims report – The Guardian
Truss: Blair trashed the constitution. Now we’re paying the enormous price
“In removing the power of the executive to appoint senior judges, the Blair government created a new judicial appointments quango, and a Supreme Court in place of the Law Lords. The Lord Chancellor would still have to swear an oath to protect the independence of the judiciary, but all the associated powers were handed to the administrative bureaucracy. The net impact was to make the judiciary more of a self-appointing oligarchy and reduce levels of accountability. As we have seen in everything from welfare policy to immigration to legal aid, this has made it harder for governments to deliver policies the public had voted for. The legacy legislation from the Blair and Brown administrations that we have failed to repeal – including the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act – have tied up the government in yet more red tape and given more powers to the courts and lawyers.” – Liz Truss, Daily Telegraph
- Truss backs Donald Trump to win US presidential election – BBC
- Truss’s excuse sounds like Labour in 1976 – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
Duffield: Where was Starmer when I was bullied by the transgender lobby?
“In interviews, Keir Starmer has ranged from saying how it ‘wasn’t right’ (for me to say only women can have a cervix) on the Andrew Marr show in September 2021 to, in more recent years, how much he ‘respects’ me. Yet have I heard a word from him? Or from senior colleagues? No! When asked on political panel shows, one or two have lied about having spoken to me ‘behind the scenes’. Not one of them wants to discuss with me policies to ensure Dr Cass’s recommendations are implemented. Earlier this week when we had the debate in the Commons on Cass, we heard new lines from the Labour front bench, who now appear willing to accept the report’s recommendations. But not one senior Shadow Cabinet member has yet approached me. I believe the Labour Party thinks ‘the gender issue’ doesn’t matter to the voting public. For them it’s a ‘culture war’. At the heart of this attitude is, I believe, a deep-seated misogyny within the party.” – Rosie Duffield, Daily Mail
- JK Rowling blasts Humza Yousaf’s ‘absolute contempt for women’ as fresh row erupts – Daily Express
News in brief
- Why the centrists changed their transgender tune: Truth was sacrificed for status – Mary Harrington, Unherd
- Judicial overreach is throttling our democracy – Harry Phibbs, CapX
- Liberty is dying under the Tories – Kate Andrews, The Spectator
- Is the SNP prepared to oust Humza Yousaf? – Chris Deerin, New Statesman
- Will Tanner “seen snooping around Tory safe seats” – Guido Fawkes
The post Newslinks for Wednesday 17th April 2024 appeared first on Conservative Home.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: ConservativeHome
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://www.conservativehome.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.