Stride dismisses suggestions Badenoch will be replaced next year, though he admits it might get ‘bumpy’
In his FT interview Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, also dismissed speculation that Kemi Badenoch will be replaced as Tory leader within the next year. Many of her colleagues think she will face a successful leadership challenge, most probably after poor results in the Senedd, Scottish parliament and English local elections next May.
Stride said that he thought Badenoch was similar to Margaret Thatcher, who was widely criticised when she became opposition leader in 1975 but who over time developed into an effective leader. He said:
We had all this with Margaret Thatcher back in the 1970s. Her voice wasn’t right, her hair wasn’t right, her dress wasn’t right, she wasn’t very good at prime minister’s questions. It took her some time to work her way into being the finished, formidable politician she was.
Commenting on the prospect of Badenoch being replaced next year, Stride said:
She is incredibly resilient, as cool as they come. She goes away, thinks about it and comes to a decision. I’m very confident Kemi will be fine. But it’s going to be bumpy — it’s going to be difficult.
Key events
Mel Stride declines to back Badenoch’s claim about Britain being at risk of needing IMF bailout
Last month Kemi Badenoch claimed there was a risk of the UK needing an IMF bailout because of the state of the public finances. In an interview with Newsnight, she said:
Labour does not have any plan for growth. They thought that as soon as they got into power, things would just work because they’re Labour and they believe in their own righteousness. That is not working – they need to get a plan to grow our economy, otherwise we will end up going to the IMF cap in hand.
Asked to justify this claim, she replied:
A lot of the indicators are pointing in that direction. Many very well respected commentators and economists are saying this.
That seemed to be a reference to a Telegraph story published a couple of weeks earlier.
Today the Financial Times has published an interview with Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, ahead of the Tory conference that starts on Sunday, and Stride took a rather different tone. Commenting on the likelihood of an IMF bailout, he said:
I think that’s very unlikely. That’s not to say we couldn’t be heading for some kind of bond crisis with runaway yields.
In his interview Stride said he would use the Tory conference to propose cutting the number of people working in the civil service from 517,000 to 384,000 – the level it was before Brexit and before Covid.
He also claimed: “Fiscal responsibility lies at the heart of today’s Conservative party.”
And he said the Tories were a party “with business in our DNA” (even though yesterday the CBI strongly crticised Badenoch’s latest policy announcement, getting rid of the Climate Change Act).
Keir Starmer has visited the scene of the synagogue attack in Manchester. We are covering that visit, and all the other updates related to that story, on a separate live blog. The attack is the subject of an ongoing police investigation and we are not allowing comments directly related to it BTL.
Polanski calls for patriotism debate going beyond ‘waving flags’, involving ‘complicated conversations’, not ‘angry words’
Speaking to Sky News, Zack Polanski also said Britain needed a conversation about patriotism that goes beyond “waving flags”. He said this would involve “complicated conversations”, not “angry words”.
This country right now is having a conversation about patriotism, and I think that probably needs to be a deeper conversation than just waving flags.
I think it has to be about why do some people not feel like they belong here? Why do they feel unwelcome? And how can we make sure that everyone feels love for their community and loved from their community?
Those are complex things, particularly when there are tensions in our communities.
But we know, when we get this right, this is what’s part of what makes Britain great.
Migration, multiculturalism, is all really [an] important part of being British. It also requires work, and I think far too often the work is not done. Instead, there’s just been angry words. Angry words are not going to get us anywhere. We need unity. We need complicated conversations, and we need to bring people together rather than divide.
Polanski criticises Shabana Mahmood for saying pro-Palestine marches should have been cancelled after Manchester attack
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said this morning that the pro-Palestine marches that took place last night, in London and in Manchester, should have been cancelled in the light of the synogogue attack. She said they were “dishonourable”, and disrepectful to the Jewish community that was grieving.
The campaigners were protesting against Israel’s interception of an aid flotilla heading for Gaza, and they wanted the UK government to condemn Israel’s action.
In his Sky News interview, asked if he agreed with Mahmood, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said he thought she was being “deeply irresponsible” too, like Kemi Badenoch. (See 10.15am.)
I think ultimately conflating protests against a genocide in Gaza, and ultimately weaponising that against an antisemitic attack on our streets, a terrorist attack, is deeply irresponsible.
Democratic, non-violent protest is a cornerstone of our democracy, and I think it’s worrying when government are increasingly trying to crush down dissent. And using what is a brutal attack … to point at a protest and say people don’t have a right to also speak out against a genocide is conflating issues, is incoherent, and it’s exactly the opposite of what we need from politicians.
We need statesmanship in this moment, we need responsibility, we need people to be sensitive about that language, but also recognise that there is complexity to this, and it can’t just be about finger pointing at people who are very worried about a genocide.
Polanski says migration has been UK’s ‘superpower’ and that inequality, not new arrivals, are to blame for country’s problems
Zack Polanski has set out some of the arguments he will be using in his Green party conference speech later in an article for the Guardian. In it, he defends immigration, saying it has been the UK’s “superpower”.
Here is an extract.
Labour is capitulating to the anti-migrant talking points of Reform, all while talking the language of decency and fairness. It makes my toes curl.
But I am here to do what others won’t. To tell the truth about what makes our country great and what makes it not so great. While others thrive on creating scapegoats, I am here to tell you a different story.
The tapestry of cultural life in Britain is what makes our nation strong. From the doctors, nurses and carers who staff our NHS and who look after our elderly people, to the entrepreneurs, artists and teachers who enrich our culture and economy. Migration is our DNA as a country, it is our superpower …
The truth is simple: Britain is not broken because of migration. Britain is broken because of inequality. Because of an economy that allows billionaires to hoard wealth while millions struggle to get by. Because of a political class that has lost its nerve and forgotten its purpose.
And here is the full article.
Polanski says it is mistake to conflate campaigning against genocide in Gaza with antisemitism
Yesterday Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, argued that rising antisemitism was linked to the language used by some pro-Palestinian campaigners since the 7 October Hamas attack that started the Israel-Gaza war. She said:
I think the calls to globalise the intifada have been disgraceful. We’ve seen people using those words on placards around Westminster. That’s what globalising the intifada looks like. It means killing Jewish people. And I think there’s been far too much tolerance of a lot of rhetoric at many levels.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said that he did not agree and that he thought Badenoch was being “deeply irresponsible”. He explained:
We need to not conflate the Jewish community and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and actually putting those two things together, I say, personally as a Jewish person, makes me feel more at risk.
I think you can both be absolutely clear that antisemitism and Islamophobia in our country is totally unacceptable, and you stand against the ongoing genocide, and our government’s complicity – in fact, active enabling – by sellling arms to Israel. Those are two different issues.
Polanski partially defends Green co-deputy leader over anti-Israel comments, saying it’s ‘contextual’ and he’s apologised
In an interview on the Today programme, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, was asked at length about anti-Israel comments by the co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, and other Green members. Polanski said some of the comments referenced were “totally unacceptable”, but he also said it was important to understand the context, and he said Ali deserved credit for apologising.
Justin Webb, the presenter, said that after 7 October Ali described Israelis as colonialists and defended the right of indigenous people to fight back. Ali apologised. But Ali had also targeted a Leeds-based rabbi who went to Israel after 7 October to serve as a reservist in the IDF, Webb said. He asked if Ali was the right person to be deputy leader of a political party.
Polanski said that Ali had apologised. Asked if that was enough, he went on:
Well, I want to be clear that I’m a Jewish person, and I feel this genocide incredibly deeply.
As a Muslim man, I can only imagine what it feels like to know that every single day in Palestine the equivalent of a classroom of children are dying.
Asked if that excused those views, Polanski replied:
It doesn’t excuse it, but I think it’s contextual. This rabbi went off to fight for the IDF … I absolutely defend [Ali’s] right to be annoyed and upset about what is happening.
Webb said the rabbi had to move out of his home. He asked Polanski if the “context” explained that. Polanski replied:
I think there is a context to this. I think if someone goes to fight with an army who’s committing a genocide, that there are consequences.
Now I don’t stand by what Mothin said, and neither does he. But ultimately, I do think we need to have a context on this.
Webb then asked about a Green councillor in Bristol reprimanded for sharing a Hamas video on social media. In the video Israel was described as an “animal state”.
Polanski said that he did not know about this case, but he said that as a Jewish man he was very upset about what was happening in Palestine.
Webb said the Green party had members who suggested it was not legitimate to be a Jew, and that Israel was not legitimate.
Polanski said he did not think anyone had said that, and that Webb should be asking about Israel committing genocide.
Webb then a lot of people were arguing that views like this, saying Israel is an animal state, were simply unacceptable, and people saying them should not be allowed to take part in civilised society. He suggested Polanski did not agree.
Polanski said that Webb was “conflating” various issues, but that those words were “totally unacceptable”.
Webb again said parties should take responsibility. Polanski said apologising was taking responsibility. He said Ali was a Muslim, and Islamophobia is on the rise, he said. And he said Ali issued a statement yesterday about the synagogue attack that he found very moving.
Labour are ‘handmaidens’ to Reform UK’s ‘dangerous’ politics, Polanski to tell Green conference
Good morning. The Green party starts its conference today, with its membership up to a record high (over 80,000) following the election of “eco-populist” Zack Polanski as leader. But the Greens struggle for coverage at the best of times, and these aren’t the best of times. The news today will be dominated by the repurcussions from the Manchester synagogue attack.
We are covering the synagogue terror attack on a separate live blog and that will be the place to go to updates.
The attack has triggered a fierce political debate about the causes of rising antisemitism, and I will be picking up on some of that here. But the events in Manchester are subject to an ongoing police investigation and, if we do open comments, we won’t be allowing comments relating directly to them BTL. If readers don’t comply with at, comments will get closed.
According to extracts of his speech released in advance, Polanski is going to accuse Labour of playing “handmaidens” to the the “dangerous, deceitful politics” of Reform UK. He will say:
When Farage says jump, Labour asks ‘how high’. But the Greens won’t dance to the tune of a Trump-loving, NHS-dismantling corporate stooge. Let’s say it loud and clear: migrants and refugees are not the problem; they are part of what makes Britain great. The real threat to our high streets, to our homes, to our NHS, comes from decades of austerity, privatisation and an economic system that rigs the rules for billionaires.
Polanski will also restate his party’s commitment to invest more in public services with the proceeds of a wealth tax.
At every opportunity, our message will be clear: the Green party will bring down your bills, cut the cost of living and protect our NHS … We will tax the wealthiest, end rip-off Britain, and invest in public services that work for everyone …
If Reform can rocket through the polls with a politics of despair, then it’s time for the Green party to do the same thing with a politics of hope.
According to the speech extracts released overnight, Polanski’s will also describe Reform UK’s politics as “hateful” and “divisive”. But in interviews this morning he has also been grilled over comments by Mothin Ali, the Green co-deputy party leader, that led to a former university rabbi having to flee his home. Polanski said Ali had apologised for those comments. I will post more details soon.
Polanski is addressing the conference at 1.30pm, and at 3.45pm Andrew Slaughter, the Green leader in Wales, is speaking.
Otherwise, there is not much in the diary today, but two events are happening in private today that are significant. The Office for Budget Responsibility is due to hand its latest economic forecasts to the Treasury, which will in effect tell her quite how much tax she will need to rise in the budget next month. And Kemi Badenoch is chairing a shadow cabinet meeting where they will discuss the plan to leave the European convention on human rights that Badenoch is due to announce on Sunday.
