Downing Street “plays down” speculation of summer election
“Tory rebels have warned Rishi Sunak off holding a June general election, claiming they would launch a fresh move to oust him as leader if that month was picked. Downing Street sources have moved to play down speculation that a summer election could be on the cards, stressing that going to the ballot box in the autumn remains the aim. Central to that argument is the improving economic picture, with inflation and possibly interest rates likely to be lower and economic growth higher at the end of the year than now.” – Daily Telegraph
- End the agony and call an election now – Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail
- Tories are still in denial about the true Labour threat – David Frost, Daily Telegraph
>Today: Malcolm Gooderham on Comment: Presenting a small target may win Labour the election, but it makes a poor foundation for government
>Yesterday: Mark Brolin on Comment: Politicians must stop complaining and offer voters the authentic moderation that they want
Rent reforms “watered down” after landlords raise concerns
“The government has set out a series of changes to planned protections for renters in England, after some Conservative MPs raised concerns they would be too burdensome for landlords. The proposals include making tenants commit to a minimum six-month period when renting a property. Campaign groups representing renters accused ministers of watering down the legislation to appease landlords. But landlord groups said the changes were fair and balanced.” – BBC
Honours for Conservative MPs
“A major Conservative Party donor and four Tory MPs have been awarded honours. Businessman Mohamed Mansour, who is a senior treasurer for the party, has been given a knighthood, along with Farming Minister Mark Spencer and Shipley MP Philip Davies. Meanwhile, former ministers Tracey Crouch and Harriett Baldwin have been given damehoods. The Reform UK party accused the Tories of cronyism. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recommended the honours to the King. Typically lists of people who have received honours are published at New Year and on the King’s official birthday in June.” – BBC
Rayner refuses to make tax advice public
“Angela Rayner has again denied any wrongdoing as police say they are reassessing a decision not to investigate claims she gave false information on official documents. The deputy Labour leader is also facing questions about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her council house. She said she had received legal advice that no rules were broken. And she said she would not be making the tax advice public. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “personal” information. But she added that she would hand it over to the police or HM Revenue and Customs if required.” – BBC
- Instead of gushing on about her birthday, Nick Robinson should have asked Angela Rayner: Did you break electoral law? – Stephen Pollard, Daily Mail
- Why won’t Rayner come clean on tax? – Leader, Daily Mail
- UK cannot install Angela Rayner as Deputy PM with unanswered tax-dodging allegations hanging over her – Leader, The Sun
- Labour rejects Thatcher’s politics of aspiration, even when its own frontbenchers benefited from them – Leader, Daily Telegraph
- Cringe for ‘Ange’ as the boss lets Rayner out of the bunker – Madeline Grant, Daily Telegraph
Starmer warns councils there is “no magic money tree”
“Sir Keir Starmer has told councils that they will not be getting extra cash for his levelling-up plans because there is no “magic money tree”. The Labour leader argued that he could fulfil Boris Johnson’s vision by working better with local authorities and mayors, despite acknowledging that “there isn’t enough money” for councils currently. Council leaders privately said this was “not credible’ and predicted that Labour would be forced to find more money to deal with a situation where one in five local authorities say they are at risk of bankruptcy.” – The Times
- Labour plans a huge transfer of responsibilities to the regions and will empower local leaders to revive their economies – Patrick Maguire, The Times
- Rules that favour spending on physical infrastructure over the public sector workforce should be overhauled – Leader, The Guardian
- Labour’s latest political play might win over voters but it will do nothing to solve regional inequality – Patrick O’Flynn, Daily Telegraph
>Today: BookReview: Dreams from Starmer’s father: Baldwin traces the Labour leader’s anti-establishment outlook
Gove denounces Thames Water
“Britain’s biggest water supplier must not “hit consumers” to prop up its finances and avoid nationalisation, the government has said after the company asked to increase bills by 40 per cent. Thames Water wants to raise bills from an average of £436 to £609 a year by the end of the decade and be spared fines for polluting, after investors refused to put in an extra £500 million. The company is now at the centre of a battle over who pays for upgrades to the system that covers 15 million households. Investors refused to put in more money unless bills rose dramatically. Michael Gove, the communities secretary, called Thames Water’s leadership “a disgrace”. He said: “For years we have seen customers of Thames Water taken advantage of by successive management teams that have been taking out profits and not investing as they should have been.” – The Times
- How shareholders sucked billions of pounds out of Thames Water – Daily Telegraph
- Thames Water is not just an unscrupulous serial polluter. It is also financial basket case – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail
- Taxpayers may be forced to provide a bailout – The i
Kruger says Reform UK claims “mostly valid”
“The leader of a Right-wing Tory faction has admitted that the criticisms of his party from Reform are “mostly valid”. Danny Kruger, co-chairman of the New Conservatives group of Right-leaning MPs, told party members that the Tories were “not a very conservative party in lots of ways”. In recordings heard by The Telegraph, Mr Kruger said Reform, the party of Richard Tice and Nigel Farage, has been “absolutely killing” the Tories and that he was “very, very worried” about its increasing support.” – Daily Telegraph
- Reform UK beating Tories among working-class voters, poll shows – The Times
- Farage drops his strongest hint yet he will return to frontline politics – Daily Mail
Call for tougher policy on human rights
“In a significant intervention, a leading member of the One nation group of moderate Tories said the time had come to tackle the European Convention on Human Rights. The group’s deputy leader Matt Warman MP told the show “proper changes” are required to our relationship with the Strasbourg court. It comes as the number of migrants who have arrived in the UK so far in 2023 has hit the highest level ever recorded for the first three months of a year.” – The Sun
Bailey: The Mayor is failing to keep Londoners safe
“To showcase just one example of the Mayor’s mismanagement, the number of staff receiving over £100,000 in his office for policing and crime has increased from 80 to 301. Would it not be an improvement if such funds were redirected to funding more bobbies on the beat? Nor can it be right that he has focused so much attention on criticising the Met, urging its commissioner to accept its “institutional bias”. Such games are a distraction, while knives linger on our streets. It is absolutely clear that Sadiq Khan has failed to keep Londoners safe, and that we need a tougher new approach on knife crime and preventing gang violence with a new mayor. Failing to do so will only fuel crime further and normalise the kind of shocking incident we saw two days ago.” – Shaun Bailey, Daily Telegraph
- Islamophobic tweets just ‘hurty words’, says mayoral candidate – The Times
- The candidates standing for Mayor of London – BBC
- Laurence Fox’s London mayor hopes end after errors filling in forms – The Guardian
- Prolific criminals should be in prison, not free to offend again – Robert Jenrick, Daily Telegraph
>Today: Tony Devenish on Local Government: With a month to go – here’s how my campaigning in London is going so far
Nelson: Christianity could ease children’s mobile phone addiction
“An explosive new book by Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, argues that children are being damaged after being left to play with digital tools which are too sharp for young minds. …A University of Michigan study found secular girls are worst affected, but religious boys the least. So when assessing the mystery of the mental health collapse, Haidt admits that there is another factor: “The rapid decline in religious life that has happened to various degrees across Europe”. Girls are not so protected by faith, he says, because the smartphone effect – Instagram especially – is so acute. Why should faith matter at all? The studies don’t really say. Churchgoers (like me) would like to think that Christian teaching has always emphasized the danger of judging oneself by the verdicts of others. All religions emphasize that the right thing is seldom the popular thing: it’s a perennial theme. The Easter story is, after all, about someone who did not end up with very many “likes”. So often these ancient stories, and the morals therein, take on new relevance in a new age.” – Fraser Nelson, Daily Telegraph
- Westminster council scrambles to celebrate Easter after only putting up Ramadan display – Daily Telegraph
>Today:
- ToryDiary: Is the Church of England still the Tory Party at prayer? If not, why not?
- Columnist Sarah Ingham: The Church of England’s bureaucracy has forgotten its mission
Other political news
- Post Office knew court defence was false, draft report shows – The Times
- Army allows beards as it ends 100-year ban – Daily Telegraph
- Mortgage lenders cut rates as house prices bounce back for Easter – Daily Telegraph
- Anti-vaxxer MP Andrew Bridgen is told to pay Matt Hancock £40,000 for legal fee costs in libel war – Daily Mail
- Tory MP faces lobbying questions over Treasury committee role – The Guardian
- Tory MP attacks Wallace for standing down – The Sun
- The taxpayer-funded Teesside regeneration body chaired by Lord Houchen faces a potential legal bill of more than £4 million – Financial Times
News in brief
- A Christian revival is under way in Britain – Justin Brierley, The Spectator
- Margaret Thatcher can teach today’s Tories how to win – Harry Phibbs, CapX
- Immigration enthusiasts and problematic polling – James Johnson, The Critic
- Brexit could give a Labour government a stronger hand in global peace-making – Jonathan Powell, The House
- Civil service union demands “shorter week for the same pay” – Guido Fawkes
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