Kemi Badenoch says ‘western civilisation will be lost’ if Tory party fails

Kemi Badenoch has said “our country and all of western civilisation will be lost” if efforts to renew the Conservative party and drive forward rightwing ideas globally fail.Likening her own leadership to Donald Trump’s second term, she used a gathering of fellow conservatives to attack Keir Starmer for taking the knee in a nod to Black Lives Matter and described “pronouns, diversity policies and climate activism” as a “poison”.Badenoch was speaking on the first day of a global gathering in London of conservative thinkers, politicians and businesspeople. The event is organised by the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), whose backers include Paul Marshall, one of the owners of GB News, and Legatum, a private investment company.The Conservative leader sought to position her party as the true torchbearer in Britain of a new wave of conservatism

Lib Dems say Badenoch is echoing Trump’s ‘dangerous rhetoric’ as she claims ‘some cultures better than others’ – as it happened

In a reaction to Kemi Badenoch’s speech in London at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, the Liberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper has accused the Tory leader of “competing with Farage to fawn over Donald Trump” and choosing to “parrot Trump’s dangerous rhetoric”.During a passage of her speech, Badenoch drew warm applause in the room when she said:The Conservative party in Britain has just lost an election. We have a crisis. People ask me what difference new leadership will make? Well, take a look at president Trump. He’s shown that sometimes you need that first stint in government to spot the problems, but it’s the second time around when you really know how to fix them

More than 900 Labour figures decry party’s migration and asylum policy

A group of more than 900 Labour members and trade unionists, including MPs and peers, have accused the government of copying the “performative cruelty” of the Conservatives in its migration and asylum policy.In a joint statement, they singled out the Home Office’s decision, revealed last week, to refuse citizenship to anyone who arrives in the UK via “a dangerous journey” such as a small boat over the Channel.The statement also criticised ministers for highlighting the number of people being deported from the UK, with a Home Office publicity blitz last week using footage and images showing people being removed on planes.The statement, coordinated by the Labour Campaign for Free Movement and the left-leaning Labour group Momentum, has been signed by seven MPs – Nadia Whittome, Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Clive Lewis, Jon Trickett, Brian Leishman and Steve Witherden – as well as four ex-Labour MPs who now sit as independents, and four of the party’s peers.It read: “Last week the government has published videos of deportations, restated its intention to criminalise people arriving irregularly, and banned them from ever becoming British citizens

Badenoch and Farage to vie for attention of Trump allies at London summit

Influential rightwingers from around the world are to gather in London from Monday at a major conference to network and build connections with senior US Republicans linked to the Trump administration.The UK opposition leader, the Conservatives’ Kemi Badenoch, and Nigel Farage of the Reform UK party, her hard-right anti-immigration rival, will compete to present themselves as the torchbearer of British conservatism.Conservatives from Britain, continental Europe and Australia attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference will seize on the opportunity to meet and hear counterparts from the US, including those with links to the new Trump administration. The House speaker, the Republican Mike Johnson, had been due to attend in person but will now give a keynote address remotely on Monday.Other Republicans due to speak include the US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Vivek Ramaswamy – who has worked with Elon Musk on moves to radically reshape the US government – and Kevin Roberts, the president of the US Heritage Foundation, the thinktank behind the controversial “Project 2025” blueprint for Trump’s second term

Weekend voting among changes needed to overhaul UK elections system, officials say

The UK’s elections system needs a fundamental overhaul including weekend voting and a cut in the number of polling stations, the group representing electoral officials has said.Years of changes in everything from postal voting to mandatory ID, with more reforms planned, has involved “bolting 21st century voter expectations on to 19th century infrastructure”, the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) said.In a report on how to modernise the system, called New Blueprint for a Modern Electoral Landscape, the group makes dozens of recommendations on everything from postal votes to election timetables, saying the system as it currently exists is increasingly unsustainable.A particular issue is the difficulty in finding enough staff for the 38,000-plus polling stations used in a general election, which are open for 15 hours, especially given new complexities such as the need to check ID.Currently, every polling district has to have its own polling station

Trump’s return means UK must swiftly find a way to increase defence spending | Peter Walker

It has been one of the few political constants in a turbulent period for British politics: an agreement that defence spending really should increase. But in the second era of Donald Trump, what was a consensual background hum has suddenly become an ear-splitting alarm.European Nato members, the UK among them, have long been used to US presidents urging them to spend 2% of GDP at a bare minimum, something only a minority of them manage.Now, with Trump seemingly more intent on deciding Ukraine’s future with Russia than with European allies, and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, warning that “Uncle Sucker” can no longer be fully relied on to defend Europe, this is beginning to look like complacency.The UK currently spends fractionally more than 2