Badenoch’s comments ‘offensive’ and far removed from experience of families, says autism charity
The Autism Centre of Excellence at Cambridge, a charity that works with Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre, has put out a post on social media strongly criticising Kemi Badenoch for the comments about autism released earlier this month in an essay put out under her name. (See 9.40am.) The centre says:
We fully agree with @iburrell in @theipaper that @KemiBadenoch’s comments are ‘an offensive claim far removed from the grim reality of many despairing citizens and families struggling for support.’
We need leaders who take the time to understand the complexity of the issues they are commenting on – and who bring workable solutions to the table. The best way to do both is to talk to people with lived experience.
We believe that #autistic people and parents would agree that the Government has failed to provide a good education, employment opportunities and the right care. Anyone with an interest in running our country would ask themselves why this is.
The centre is referring to this article by Ian Birrell, the journalist and former Independent deputy editor who at one point wrote speeches for David Cameron. In his article for the i, Birrell says:
Another key issue is the low status of carers in society. And this was demonstrated by his rival Kemi Badenoch during the conference hustings, when she talked about focusing on the future “not just who’s going to wipe bottoms for us today.”
No wonder social care never gets fixed and carers are left badly paid when a prominent politician sneers so dismissively at workers performing a public service. And now Badenoch, in a report called “Conservatism in Crisis” released this month, argues that autism diagnosis can give children “better treatment at school” and “offers economic advantages and protection” – an offensive claim far removed from the grim reality of many despairing citizens and families struggling for support.
Such is the tragic state of today’s Conservative party. Arrogant, blustering, heartless and out of touch with concerns of ordinary people. There is hollow talk of renewal, but we see again why this historically formidable election fighting machine crashed and burned.
Key events
UK imposes sanctions on Iranian military figures and organisations after missile attack against Israel
Britain has imposed sanctions against senior Iranian military figures and organisations following the country’s 1 October attack on Israel, PA Media reports. PA says:
Members of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, Iran’s air force and the IRGC Intelligence Organisation have been targeted with travel bans and asset freezes, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Farzanegan Propulsion Systems Design Bureau (FPSDB), which designs and manufactures parts that can be used in cruise missiles, has also been designated as part of the package of measures.
The Iranian Space Agency, which develops technologies that have applications in ballistic missile development, will be subject to an asset freeze.
Iran launched around 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel on 1 October. Most were intercepted but a number hit central and southern Israel, the country’s military said.
Here is a clip of Keir Starmer speaking at the investment summit this morning.
Turning back to the Conservatives, in an article for the Independent Prof Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading psephologist, says there is no evidence to show that either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick has the ability to take the Tories back to power. The main problem, he says, is that they do not realise why their party lost.
Both candidates appear to believe the fault lies in a failure of the last government to be true to Conservative values. Rather than seeking to limit the size of the state, it presided over the biggest expansion since 1945 – thanks, of course, to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Rather than curbing immigration and challenging wokery, it presided over record levels of immigration and accepted too much of the equality and diversity agenda.
However, an examination of the timeline of the Conservatives’ standing in the polls during the last parliament reveals that the party’s precipitous fall from grace was not occasioned by a failure to be truly Conservative.
The first key event that cost the party support was Partygate, which cast doubt on the honesty and ethics of those who had been leading the party. The second was the Liz Truss fiscal event, which severely damaged the party’s reputation for economic competence.
No reversion to “true” Conservative values is going to erase these stains on the party’s copybook.
Curtice also says, although Conservative members want to see a smaller state, voters at large seem to want the opposite. He says that, although Badenoch and Jenrick are “largely unknown quantities”, to win the next election they would both have to “reveal a wider range of political talents than they have so far”.
To coincide with today’s international investment summit, the government has published Invest 2035, its industrial strategy green paper.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said that the budget she is delivering at the end of the month will take the most from the richest. As the Telegraph reports, speaking on the New Statesman’s podcast, Reeves said:
I said during the election campaign we’re not going to be introducing a wealth tax.
But I think people will be in no doubt when we do the budget that those with the broadest shoulders will be bearing the largest burden.
You saw that in our manifesto campaign. You know, non-doms, private equity, the windfall tax on the big profits the energy companies are making and putting VAT and business rates on private schools.
At the start of business in the Commons Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, pays tribute to Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, who died suddenly at the weekend. Hoyle says Salmond served the people of Scotland for more than 30 years as an MP, MSP and as first minister. He says there will be a short period set aside for tributes after defence questions, at 3.30pm.
Later there are also two urgent questions, on “the reporting and acceptance of Ministerial gifts and hospitality” and on recent events at the Spanish border with Gibraltar, and a statement on the relocation of refugees from Afghanistan.
No 10 praises Louise Haigh’s record as transport secretary, drawing line under P&O Ferries row
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesperson insisted Keir Starmer has full confidence in Louise Haigh, the transport secretary. The question was prompted by Starmer says on Friday that Haigh was not setting out government policy when she suggested that customers should boycott P&O Ferries.
Asked if Haigh had Starmer’s full confidence, the spokesperson replied:
Yes, absolutely. The transport secretary in the run-up to the summit delivered significant investment in electric buses. She’s put an end to industrial disruption seen for the past two-and-a-half years that has cost the economy and commuters dearly, and she’s been driving forward reform and bringing rail services back into public ownership.
No 10 always says the PM has full confidence in ministers – until the point where they get sacked. But this sounded like a genuine, sincere endorsement. Starmer is reported to have made up with Haigh after having to disown part of what she said last week.
‘Less poverty, more opportunity, more meals out’ – Starmer explains why growth so important to his government
And here are some more lines from Keir Starmer’s speech to the investment summit.
Growth is higher wages.
Growth is more vibrant high streets.
Growth is public services back on their feet.
It’s less poverty, more opportunity, more meals out, more holidays, more precious moments with your family, more cash in your pocket.
And of course, for any business …
It means a bigger market.
Higher demand.
The stability that comes with a large majority in our system …
That is a unique advantage.
Well, we’re not in the business of individual picking winners.
But we are in the business of building on our strengths.
Mowing the grass on the pitch …
Making sure the changing rooms are clean and comfortable …
That the training ground is good.
So that when our businesses compete …
They are match fit …
That, to put it simply …
We give the businesses of this country the best conditions to succeed.
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He said people were less willing to trust Britain as a “stable, trusted, rule-abiding partner” after “the whole circus that followed Brexit”. Labour has “turned the page on that – decisively”, he said.
Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters
Starmer says key test for regulation is growth, and vows to ‘rip out’ planning laws blocking investment
Graeme Wearden covered Keir Starmer’s speech at the investment conference this morning in the business live blog. No 10 has now sent out the full text. Much of it would have fitted quite happily into a speech by a mainstream Conservative PM (apart from the bit about how the Tories turned government into a “circus” after Brexit) and the most interesting passage was the bit dealing with regulation. Here are the key quotes.
(This is the text as released by No 10, and including ellipses, which I use to indicate missing text, but No 10 uses to indicate a pause in the speech as it was delivered. Normally I would tidy up the text, but that would involve quite a lot of rejigging, which would start to change the emphasis, and so I have left it in the version provided by Downing Street.)
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Starmer said that, for him, the most important test for regulation was whether or not it helped growth. He said:
Now, I don’t see regulation as good or bad.
That seems simplistic to me.
Some regulation is life-saving …
We have seen that in recent weeks here, with the report on the tragedy of Grenfell Tower.
But across our public sector …
I would say the previous government hid behind regulators.
Deferred decisions to them because it was either too weak or indecisive …
Or simply not committed enough to growth.
Planning is a very real example of that …
Or – for our friends from across the pond …
‘Permitting’ is a really clear example of that …
The global language …
But anyway – the key test for me on regulation …
Is of course – growth.
Is this going to make our economy more dynamic?
Is this going to inhibit or unlock investment?
Is it something that enables the builders not the blockers?
Now – I know some people may be wondering about our labour market policies introduced last week.
Let me be clear – they are pro-growth.
Workers with more security at work …
With higher wages …
That is a better growth model for this country.
It will lead to more dynamism in our labour market.
Graeme summarises this as Starmer telling bosses: “Don’t worry about the workers’ rights bill.”
A nation’s position in the world is changing all the time …
As must its growth model.
So while I know this is a room full of businesses who take investing in their human capital seriously …
When I look at the British economy as a whole…
It does seem as if sometimes, we are more comfortable hiring people to work in low paid, insecure contracts…
Than we are investing in the new technology that delivers for workers, for productivity and for our country.
And so we’ve got to break out of that trap.
But we’ve also got to look at regulation – across the piece.
And where it is needlessly holding back the investment we need to take our country forward …
Where it is stopping us building the homes …
The data centres, the warehouses, grid connectors, roads, trainlines, you name it …
Then mark my words – we will get rid of it.
Take the East Anglia 2 wind farm.
A £4bn investment.
One Gigawatt of clean energy.
An important project – absolutely.
But also the sort of thing a country as committed to clean energy as we are …
Needs to replicate again and again.
Now regulators demanded over 4,000 planning documents for that project…
Not 4,000 pages – 4,000 documents.
And then six weeks after finally receiving planning consent …
It was held up for a further two years by judicial review.
I mean – as an investor …
When you see this inertia …
You just don’t bother do you?
And that – in a nutshell …
Is the biggest supply-side problem we have in our country.
So it’s time to upgrade the regulatory regime …
Make it fit for the modern age..
Harness every opportunity available to Britain.
We will rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment …
We will march through the institutions …
And we will make sure that every regulator in this country …
Especially our economic and competition regulators …
Takes growth as seriously as this room does.
Starmer also invited the business leaders in the room to contact him, or his ministers, if regulations were holding up their investments.
What is interesting about this passage is that it implies reforms to planning laws that would go far beyond what has been announced by Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, or what was outlined in Labour’s manifesto. The plans, set out by Rayner in July, were mostly about streamlining processes, not ripping out laws.
Alba party will carry on despite Alex Salmond’s death, says its acting leader Kenny MacAskill
The Alba party will seek to continue Alex Salmond’s legacy, its acting leader and a lifelong friend of the former first minister has said.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, Kenny MacAskill – who served in Salmond’s cabinet and defected with him to his new party in 2021 – said Alba would continue despite Salmond’s surprise death at the weekend. He said:
Of course, the party continues, we owe it to Alex.
It was never the Alex Salmond party, it was Alex Salmond’s inspiration and Alex Salmond’s driving force, but the party is made up of thousands more and, as I say, that legacy will continue.
Writing to Alba party members on Monday, MacAskill paraphrased Salmond’s resignation speech, saying: “The dream he cherished so closely and came so close to delivering will never die. We will honour him.”
