UK politics live: Rosie Duffield slates Labour ‘sleaze and nepotism’ as Badenoch warns of Tory ‘stitch-up’
MP quits party, attacking Sir Keir Starmer over two-child benefit cap, winter fuel payments and freebies
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MP Rosie Duffield has resigned the Labour whip, accusing the prime minister of “hypocrisy” and pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies.
In a resignation letter, Ms Duffield attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test winter fuel payments.
In her resignation letter, she wrote: “The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale.”
Ms Duffield, who will sit as an independent, also slated Sir Keir’s acceptance of more than £100,000 of freebies including clothes.
Earlier, Kemi Badenoch warned that Tory members will be “very angry” if MPs take part in a “stitch-up” to lend votes to other candidates to keep her out of the top two in the leadership contest.
Allies of Ms Badenoch claim she is the victim of a “dirty tricks” campaign, with Robert Jenrick in effect lending votes to James Cleverly, which the former has strongly denied.
Asked whether she believed Mr Jenrick was taking this approach, she told The Times: “I think that may be happening. But what else is happening is that there is tactical voting.”
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Badenoch doubles down on claim she became working class after working in McDonald's
Kemi Badenoch has doubled down on her claim that she “became working class” when she got a job at McDonald’s.
The Tory leadership hopeful said she came to the UK “with no money, no friends, no parents”.
She told LBC at that point in her life she was working class as she “had to work to eat”.
“I grew up in a middle class family but coming here I became working class - my dad gave me his last £100, he said ‘you know this is all we have’ because all our money was gone and this is one of the things that people don’t understand,” Ms Badenoch said.
Watch her original comments below:
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Pension credit claims hit almost 75,000 since winter fuel payment slimdown
Pension credit claims have hit almost 75,000 amid Government efforts to boost benefits take-up.
Department for Work and Pensions figures released on Friday showed the Government received around 74,400 pension credit claims in the eight weeks since 29 July, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced means testing for the winter fuel payment.
This is up from 29,500 claims in the eight weeks before the announcement.
But in the seven days beginning on 16 September, the department received 11,800 claims, down from 13,400 the week before.
The vast majority (92 per cent) of claims made in the week beginning 16 September were made online.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has previously urged pensioners to check if they are eligible for the benefit, which would unlock winter fuel payments of up to £300.
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Boris Johnson has spoken of the moment he handed over Prime Ministerial responsibility to Dominic Raab
Boris Johnson has written of the moment he handed before he went to the ICU suffering with Covid-19.
Writing in Unleashed, serialised in Mail + he said: “With the oximeter on my finger, we could see that my oxygen levels started slowly to creep up again, and I began to feel sleepy. Before I folded, there was one thing I had to do.
“I rang Dominic Raab. ‘First Secretary of State,’ I said.
“‘PM,’ he said. “‘You know I said that you might have to deputise for me,’ I said.
“‘Yes, PM.’
“‘Well, that moment has come.’
“‘No problem, PM,’ he said. ‘Get well soon.’
“He didn’t sound remotely rattled – in fact, he went on to do an outstanding job.”
If Mr Johnson had died, Mr Raab would have taken over as caretaker prime minister while a successor was chosen from a leadership election.
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Boris Johnson said he paid the partygate fine because ‘he had a lot on'
Boris Johnson has insisted he didn’t see anything illegal at his Downing Street birthday party writing in his memoir Unleashed, being serialised in Mail +.
Writing about the fallout of the event he said: “I relied upon Sue Gray, who (though I did not know this) had already been approached to be the chief of staff to Ed Miliband, former Labour leader, and who was to go on to be the chief of staff to Keir Starmer, my number one political foe.
“Some of the allegations in her report – vomiting, fights and so on – turned out to be untrue, and had to be withdrawn.
“As for all the other fines that were issued – more than 120 fixed penalty notices – the answer is of course that I don’t know. I wasn’t there, or didn’t see anything that looked illegal. If the fines were like mine, they must have been a bit puzzling.
“But what could I do? I paid the fine and got on with the job. I had a lot on.”
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Defence Secretary watching Israeli ground invasion rumours ‘really carefully’
Defence Secretary John Healey is looking at a rumoured Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon “really carefully”.
Mr Healey said on Friday airstrikes and rocket fire exchanged between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah present a “risk that this escalates into something that is much wider and much more serious”.
Defence Secretary John Healey is looking at a rumoured Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon “really carefully”.
Mr Healey said on Friday airstrikes and rocket fire exchanged between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah present a “risk that this escalates into something that is much wider and much more serious”.
Asked about the rumoured ground invasion, Mr Healey replied: “We’re watching this really carefully. That will be a matter for the Israelis.
“At the moment, it’s airstrikes. At the moment, there are missiles from the Lebanese Hezbollah directed at Israel. This conflict serves no one.”
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