Tories urged not to ‘panic’ into uniting with Reform or removing Badenoch
Senior Conservatives have warned colleagues against “bloody panic”, urging them not to consider doing deals with Reform or removing Kemi Badenoch as leader, as the party braces for a disastrous set of local election results.Two former cabinet ministers warned against changing direction regardless of the result next Friday, with Andrew Mitchell saying “talk of deals with Reform is misplaced” and John Glen arguing Badenoch must not be “pushed off course”.Badenoch’s party is already divided ahead of the election in which it is expected to lose hundreds of council seats, after Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, suggested a pact with Reform would be necessary.Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, also said he wanted to bring together a coalition of the right, though he insisted he was talking about bringing back voters, not a deal with Farage’s party.Many Tories believe Jenrick has already embarked on a thinly disguised leadership campaign, which he denies.
Houchen is also thought of as a possible future leadership contender, with some of his rivals believing he could give up his peerage and seek to enter parliament through a byelection.Conservative MPs said privately that there were constant whispers and rumours in the tea rooms about “regicide” of Badenoch by submitting letters of no confidence if the results next week are a wipeout, although the majority view was that it would not be possible after giving her such a short time in charge.Jenrick on Friday said he was on “exactly the same page” as Badenoch, and wanted to “put Reform out of business”.He also said he thought Badenoch was doing a “bloody good job” and called for people to “give her a break”.Jenrick weighed in behind his leader in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain about his campaign against stolen tools, which sources said had been set up initially without the knowledge of Conservative HQ – although he approached Badenoch for permission to make the media appearance on Thursday and was given approval to go ahead.
Both their teams insisted it was fully sanctioned and there was nothing unusual about the process.In her own remarks to reporters on Friday, Badenoch confirmed: “We are not doing a deal with Reform, there’s not going to be a pact.What we need to do right now is focus on ensuring that voters have a credible Conservative offer.”Mitchell, an ex-chief whip and development secretary, said his colleagues should heed the historic words of Rear Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles who told the 1922 Committee in 1971: “Pro bono publico, no bloody panico”.“Reform is trying to destroy the Conservative party and at the last election Reform may have taken five seats off us but the Lib Dems took nearly 60,” Mitchell said.
“The right way to deal with Reform is not to talk about deals, which is a sign of weakness, but spend time developing the right policies,“Leading the Conservative party now is an extremely difficult job and I don’t believe the archangel Gabriel would be doing a better job,”His position was echoed by Simon Hoare, a former housing minister, who said: “Without sounding too much like Corporal Jones, this is ‘don’t panic’,“It’s an early staging post after the general election,A parliament is a marathon not a sprint.
We are not even a year since the general election, and it will be a five year parliament.We’ve got to take our fences slowly and steadily and our key challenge as a parliamentary party is to prove ourselves steady under fire, [and be] calm, rational and mature.”Another senior Conservative said the “prevailing mood is headless chicken” in relation to Reform, but MPs need to “stop panicking about Reform and think how bad it would look” to depose another leader.Glen, who attended cabinet as chief secretary to the Treasury, said Badenoch had been elected after “an exhaustive process” and that she has been in post for less than six months.“The next general election is over four years away and all Conservative MPs know we have a lot of hard work ahead to rebuild trust,” he said.
“There are no short cuts to this process but Kemi has set out the pathway to recovery based on thorough policy work and honesty with the electorate.Next week’s elections are likely to be tough but I have every confidence Kemi has a clear plan and she should not be pushed off course by any outcome we face next week.”Some moderate Conservative MPs, however, said they wanted to see less aping of Reform and a “much more honest” case for why the Conservatives should be the answer.A former minister said the message should be that those voting Reform have “legitimate grievances” especially on economics, and a clear offer with serious policymaking to address how Britain’s low wage economy and open welfare state is “sucking in migrants”.On the prospect of a deal with Reform, one centrist MP said: “I can see why some people would welcome this as a sort of instant hit, something which might give a quick boost, but in the longer term it would make it much harder for us to win elections, and it would really risk splitting the party.
“Views are mixed, but there would be a significant number of people who would just not be comfortable campaigning under a Reform banner,And if you think about the areas where we lost so many seats to the Lib Dems, it would make things even worse,As a statement of intent it’s pretty big: as a party we have decided to effectively abandon one wing of opinion,”Another sceptical Tory MP said uniting the Conservatives and Reform would be an “unbelievably poisonous marriage” that would not be sustainable,
M&S betting on customer patience as cyber-attack threatens to ruin 2025’s strong start
Marks & Spencer was enjoying a strong start to 2025 thanks to a fashion revival and the warm spring weather. That has now been seriously undermined as the retailer scrambles to deal with disruption caused by a massive cyber-attack it first revealed a week ago.At a time when M&S – alongside most big retailers – are pushing more automation on its customers and workers, industry insiders say the retailer’s staff have been forced to return to pens, paper and clipboards to check stock in stores as internal systems have been put on hold.Every second counts now, for M&S’s bottom line and for its reputation. Shoppers report problems with the use of gift cards in stores while thousands of orders made on or after 23 April have been cancelled
M&S pauses deliveries of some food items to Ocado after cyber-attack
Marks & Spencer has been forced to pause deliveries of some packaged food items to the online grocery site Ocado as the high street stalwart continues to battle the consequences of a cyber-attack that began a week ago.The latest issue is understood to affect a small number of items listed on Ocado, which is co-owned by M&S, which halted all orders through its M&S.com website and apps on Friday. M&S did not confirm the number of items affected but said it had worked with Ocado and its suppliers “to minimise any disruption to the small proportion of the range delivered through our network to Ocado”.The disruption caused by the hack – and uncertainty over when it will end – has wiped more than £500m off the stock market value of M&S in the past week as experts said it had clearly suffered a cyber-attack on a huge scale
Elon Musk’s Doge conflicts of interest worth $2.37bn, Senate report says
Elon Musk and his companies face at least $2.37bn in legal exposure from federal investigations, litigation and regulatory oversight, according to a new report from Senate Democrats. The report attempts to put a number to Musk’s many conflicts of interest through his work with his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), warning that he may seek to use his influence to avoid legal liability.The report, which was published on Monday by Democratic members of the Senate homeland security committee’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, looked at 65 actual or potential actions against Musk across 11 separate agencies. Investigators calculated the financial liabilities Musk and his companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, may face in 45 of those actions
Self-service tills: a bleeping pain or brilliant? | Letters
Thank you, Hilary Freeman, for catching and coining the central movement which is sickening us all: “the slow erosion of human contact that heralds the dehumanisation of yet another society” (Hell is not other people – it’s being stuck in the ninth circle of an automated telephone service, 22 April).We need it, we will die without it. For Freeman, it comes with the introduction of ATMs to Tuvalu; for me, it’s the self-checkout tills of the Co-op around the corner. I used to chat to Brenda. I can’t do it now, and something dies inside me
Peter Bosustow: a mercurial talent and flamboyant showman who dazzled footy fans | Brendan Foster
The first time I saw two-time Carlton premiership player Peter Bosustow was on a grainy VHS tape of the 1978 WAFL grand final where he kicked one of the greatest goals ever seen.He intercepted a kick in and then danced around his opponents with all the grace and grit of Rudolf Nureyev, before booting a goal from the boundary line with a waterlogged ball that had gained a couple of pounds from the torrential rain. It was hypnotic, mesmerising and electrifying.The flamboyant showman, affectionately known as the Buzz, punched his fist towards the 50,000-strong crowd, huddled under raincoats and umbrellas. No one loved the big stage more than Bosustow
Welcome to country ceremonies to go ahead at Women’s State of Origin and NRL’s Magic Round
Welcome to country ceremonies will be held as planned before both Thursday’s Women’s State of Origin clash and the men’s Magic Round, which gets under way on Friday, as the NRL remains committed to its Reconciliation Action Plan despite the politicisation of the practice.Coalition leader Peter Dutton said the ceremonies were “overdone” in a televised debate on Sunday with prime minister Anthony Albanese, who said deciding whether to include a welcome to country was up to individual organisations but that the practice was a “matter of respect”.The federal election will be held on Saturday, and Dutton trails Albanese in the latest polls.The NRL confirmed on Tuesday morning their existing policy to include a welcome to country at major events would continue, including the two occasions already scheduled for this week.“We will continue with our usual practices which includes a welcome to country for Women’s State of Origin and the beginning of Magic Round,” the league said
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