‘It feels like gruel’: Lib Dem MPs growing frustrated by Ed Davey approach

Significant numbers of Liberal Democrat MPs are becoming frustrated by what they view as an overly cautious approach under Ed Davey and the party’s failure to spell out a national message to voters.Some estimate that as many as half of the Lib Dems’ 72-strong group of MPs feel this way. While there is no move against Davey, who led the party to its best election result in a century in 2024, MPs said this could change if there was no progress.“Morale is low,” one said. “No one is saying get rid of Ed

Leaked Jenrick defection plan calls him ‘the new sheriff in town’

Robert Jenrick was described as “the new sheriff in town” and the politician needed by Reform UK to give it experience and political “heft”, according to a leaked media plan for his defection prepared by his aides.The emergence of the document, which also describes Jenrick as “the most dynamic politician in the Conservative party”, came as Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, hailed the defection, after days of silence from one of Nigel Farage’s key aides.Allies of Jenrick said the document, obtained by Kemi Badenoch’s office and passed to newspapers, was not written by him. However, extracts of it, reported by the Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday, appear to show he had annotated it in his own handwriting.Jenrick, who was shadow justice secretary and came second to Badenoch in the battle to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, announced his defection to Reform on Thursday, after Badenoch learned of his plans and said he had been sacked and stripped of the party whip

Tech companies’ access to UK ministers dwarfs that of child safety groups

Tech companies have been meeting government ministers at a rate of more than once per working day, enjoying high-level political access that dwarfs that of child safety and copyright campaigners, who called the pattern “shocking” and “disturbing”.Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s X, whose Grok AI image generator has sparked outrage with its sexualised images of women and children, were among the US tech companies holding hundreds of meetings with people at the heart of government, a Guardian investigation has found.Google, the $4tn California company, had the greatest access, with more than 100 ministerial meetings, according to an analysis of meeting records for the two years to October 2025, which campaigners said showed the tech industry’s “capture” of government. The industry lobbying group Tech UK met ministers at the rate of more than once every eight working days.X attended 13 meetings, a small proportion of the overall number, but still more than the child safety campaign group the NSPCC or the Molly Rose Foundation, founded by the family of 14-year-old Molly Russell who killed herself after viewing harmful online content

‘I have lost a friend’: Tories in Jenrick’s constituency shocked by defection to Reform

For Sam Smith, Thursday began as an ordinary day. The Conservative councillor was preparing for a budget scrutiny meeting at the Reform-led Nottinghamshire county council hall, where he is leader of the opposition, when he received a message from long-time friend Robert Jenrick.The MP’s message to the Newark Conservative Association’s group chat queried what local pubs they could visit to oppose Labour’s hike on business rates.It was not unusual for Smith to hear from the MP. The pair have been friends for more than half a decade and the councillor said he spearheaded Jenrick’s re-election campaign in 2024, successfully helping him face off a Tory wipeout

Tories to step up attacks on Reform economic policy after Jenrick acrimony

The Conservatives plan to intensify their attacks on Reform’s economic policy as they gear up for a fight to the death between the two big parties of the right, a battle brought to new levels of acrimony by Robert Jenrick’s defection.While Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, insisted he was “uniting the right” in signing up to Reform, Kemi Badenoch portrayed her former colleague as dishonest and no loss to the Conservatives, saying: “Nigel Farage is doing my spring cleaning for me.”In a blistering TV interview of his own, Jenrick castigated Badenoch’s Conservatives, saying the “arsonists” who had tanked its reputation were still in charge.While it remains to be seen whether any other sitting Tory MPs will follow Jenrick, the open rancour makes it extremely unlikely that a Badenoch-led Conservatives would do a deal with Reform, pitting the parties against each other in a fight for votes that will start with May’s elections in Scotland and Wales and for English councils.The Conservatives remain well behind Reform in national polling but Badenoch and her team hope a gradual shift in voter attention from migration to the economy will help her party, with a recent internal Tory strategy meeting focused on the party’s economic message

Jenrick’s incredible journey – from self-centred halfwit to self-centred halfwit | John Crace

It’s come down to this. Watch any reality TV show and it won’t be long before you hear the lead presenter talking about how each contestant has been on a journey. It’s as though we can’t survive without a narrative structure. An attempt to give emotional meaning to something fundamentally meaningless.It feels as if everyone has to be on a journey now