Tories must ‘get moving’ on new policies or face crisis, says Robert Jenrick

The Conservative party needs to “get moving” with new policies or risk being cut adrift in a social media-informed world where people make up their minds quickly, Robert Jenrick has said.While the shadow justice secretary did not directly criticise Kemi Badenoch for the time she is taking to formulate policies, and said he accepted there was a need for reflection after a bad election defeat, he warned that without rapid action the Tories faced an “existential crisis”.Badenoch, who defeated Jenrick in the party leadership race last year, has attracted some criticism within the party for her insistence that the Conservatives should not rush into policies but instead spend the next couple of years working to rebuild voters’ trust.Asked about generating new polices at an event in London on Wednesday evening, Jenrick said: “I do think you’ve got to get moving. That’s not a criticism

Talks to start on recognition of state of Palestine by western states

Talks will start on Friday at an official level about the possibility of recognising the state of Palestine.A senior Arab diplomat in London said:“If you asked me a fortnight ago if there will be wider recognition [of Palestine] by western states I would have said no, but now I am not so sure.”The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, suspended trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and described its refusal to lift a blockade of aid into Gaza as “abominable”.Lammy spoke to the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, on Wednesday about the barriers blocking aid. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said this week: “We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred

Labour could review other benefit cuts after winter fuel U-turn, sources say

Keir Starmer has announced a partial U-turn that would make more pensioners eligible for winter fuel payments as government figures opened the door to more tweaks to controversial policies.After a major backlash against one of the most unpopular measures announced by the Labour government, the prime minister indicated he would look again at the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.Downing Street said the change was a result of an improved economic landscape, with sources saying ministers could revisit policies including the two-child benefit cap or health and disability cuts if the economy continued to improve.“We’re open to adapting policy as the circumstances allow. So when there’s an opportunity to make people better off, which is our central purpose, then we’re going to take it,” a government source said

Lammy’s rebuke of Israel marks turning point after weeks of growing frustration

The anger inside the Foreign Office over Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza had been slowly building until – like an exploding pressure cooker – the foreign secretary, David Lammy, let loose his most damning criticism of Israeli since the Gaza conflict started in 2023.Lammy’s innate ability to put the rhetorical burners on issues has had to be restrained as the UK’s leading diplomat, but once he entered the Commons chamber to condemn Israel’s blockade of aid, this was Lammy unleashed.One UK diplomat formerly based in the Middle East said: “The language was carefully chosen and it was quite simply unprecedented. It marks a turning point.” Even if Lammy’s rhetoric and his actions did not match, sometimes language matters in diplomacy

UK politics: No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – as it happened

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing Downing Street was unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or whether the reforms would be in place this winter.Asked if the changes would be in place this coming winter, the PM’s spokesman said:We obviously want to deliver this as quickly as possible, but the prime minister was very clear in the house that this has to be done in an affordable way, in a funded way, and that’s why those decisions will be taken at a future fiscal event.Officials insisted the pledge to change course was based on the government’s stewardship of the economy and the public finances, PA Media reports. Asked how markets could have confidence in the government if it performed a U-turn whenever Labour suffered an electoral setback, the PM’s press secretary said:We will only make decisions when we can say where the money is coming from, how we’re going to pay for it and that it’s affordable. And that’s what you’ve heard from the prime minister today

Labour does a major U-turn but does Clueless Kemi even notice? | John Crace

Never change, Kemi, never change. We love you just the way you are. Look on the bright side: it could have been worse. KemiKaze could have used all six of her questions at prime minister’s questions to have re-examined the Tories’ very own rubbish Brexit deal. Just as she had for the previous two days