Rayner ditches ‘levelling up’ slogan as Braverman takes swipe at LGBT+ community – live

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The Labour government has ditched the phrase “levelling up” as Sir Keir Starmer met with England’s metro mayors.

Secretary of state Angela Rayner said Labour will govern in the nation’s interest, without gimmicks and slogans.

“A government of public service means fixing the fundamentals to deliver for the British people,” she said.

Senior Tories Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lord Frost are today at a Popular Conservatism, “PopCon”, post-election event, with the Tory’s election defeat at the top of the agenda.

Also among the speakers was historian David Starkey, who said it was “deranged” that a Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, cited enabling same-sex marriage as his greatest achievement.

Ahead of today’s event, Ms Braverman sparked a backlash as she criticised recent Tory governments’ records on LGBT+ issues, describing government buildings flying rainbow flags as “occupied territory”.

Former PM Tony Blair today painted a gloomy picture of the UK’s finances as he delivered a speech at the Tony Blair Institute’s Future of Britain conference.

He warned that, unless the country improves growth and productivity, and drives value and efficiency through public spending, it will become “much poorer”.

Key Points

• ‘We must not assume that we just come back automatically’ - Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg
• ‘Devastating’ election result - Suella Braverman
• Historian and TV presenter David Starkey takes to the stage
• CCHQ has become more a command and control centre - PopCon chief
• Our failure has been we have forgotten the lessons of Margaret Thatcher - David Starkey
• Braverman hits out at ‘liberal Conservatives’ after the party’s defeat at the general election

Wes Streeting ‘optimistic’ ahead of pay talks with junior doctors

The Health Secretary has said he is “optimistic” ahead of talks with junior doctors aimed at ending their long-running dispute over pay.

Wes Streeting said the talks mark an “important reset moment” in relations between the Government and junior doctors in England.

Medics from the British Medical Association (BMA) are to meet Department of Health and Social Care officials on Tuesday afternoon to start discussions with a view to ending strikes which have been causing widespread disruption across the health service.

Speaking at the Tony Blair Institute’s Future of Britain Conference 2024, Mr Streeting said: “I’m seeing the junior doctors this afternoon, they are coming into the Department of Health. I know they’re coming in not just from my diary, but from the army of cameras and journalists currently stationed outside the department.”

Asked if he was optimistic about the talks, he said: “Optimistic? Yes.

“This is an important reset moment in the relationship between junior doctors and their Government.”

‘From the ashes of the disaster grow the roses of success’ - Rees-Mogg

Sir Jacob calls on the audience to recognise there is value in conservatism, and that the party can reinvent itself and come back from the position opppostion.

He finishes by saying: “So ladies and gentlemen, I don’t say go back to your constituencies and prepare for government, I say go back to your constituences and put ashes on your roses because from the ashes of the disaster grow the roses of success.”

Tory members must hold vote in leadership content - Rees-Mogg

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg addresses speculation that Tory memebrs could lose their vote in an upcoming party leadership vote.

He says: “If any of you belong to Conservative associations, bear in mind that rule can only be changed if Conservative association chairmen agree to it.

“Do you want me to tell you how hanging, drawing and quartering takes place because that is what you should do to your association chairmen if he or she even thinks of voting to take away your vote.

“Democracy must never be rolled back and the idea that the MPs are so wise and know better than our members, well, look who they gave us and look who the members gave us. I am with the members every time.”

‘We mustn’t pretend that election wasn’t a disaster’ - Rees-Mogg

Turning to the election result, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg says it was an “alarm bell” and a “reminder” against “the arrogance of presumption that we thought we had a devine right to rule and a devine right to certain voters”.

“We didn’t,” he adds.

“We mustn’t pretend that election wasn’t a disaster,” he says.

“We thought our core vote had nowhere else to go.... they did,” he says.

“And we cannot just assume that the pendulum will swing back to us or the Reform voters will suddenly repent,” he says, before adding “we need to win them over one way or another”.

‘Deeply shameful’ - Rees-Mogg describes Tory government’s dealing of constitutional pillar

As Sir Jacob runs through the pillars fo the constitution as he assesses where the Tory government went wrong during its term ahead of the election, he turns to the right of property.

He says: “The rights of property we were trampling over at the end of the last conservative government, which was deeply shameful and I opposed every effort to trample on the rights of property and enter into free contract.”

Starmer urged to ditch his Brexit red lines and rejoin the single market by Labour voters

Away from the PopCon event this morning, we’ve just broken an exclusive on new poolling that shows the vast majority of voters who went to the polls to vote for a Keir Starmer government want Labour to drop its Brexit ‘red lines’ and reverse the Tory legacy on Europe.

Read the full story by our political editor David Maddox here:

Labour voters want Starmer to ditch his Brexit red lines and rejoin single market

Exclusive: New polling reveals that Starmer is under pressure from Labour supporters to reverse key parts of Brexit

‘There are things we can do’ - Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg quotes Margaret Thatcher, saying “the facts of life are conservative”, adding it is a line “we should always remember, it’s why the left moved to the centre and we get tempted.... and it is a mistake”.

He gets a laugh when he says the “broader conservative family” won 11 million votes, including the votes for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

“Sometimes family have their differences but we need to reunite that Tory family and recognise Conservatism is more popular than the Conservative Party.”

The former business secretary says “there are things we can do” including learning from the party’s history, mentioning the launch of the Primrose League in 1883 as an example.

Within 10 years, the Conservative body had one million members, Sir Jacob says.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg appears on stage

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who lost his Hanham and North East Somerset seat at the general election, takes to the stage and begins by stating slowly to the audience: “We have no power”.

And he takes a dig at party leader Rishi Sunak, saying his announced shadow cabinet yesterday “doesn’t matter”.

“The power, the excitement, the charisma of power has been taken from us,” he says.

“We must not assume that we just come back automatically.”

Tory Party ‘weak, squeamish’ over immigration - Braverman

Former home secretary Suella Braverman tells PopCon activists her party has been “weak, squeamish” over immigration.

She says the Conservative Party should bid to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and axe the Human Rights Act, and adds: “We’ve never been unequivocal about this pressing cause of the problem.”

Immigration spiralled out of control, Suella Braverman says.

Voters felt angry and betrayed by the Tory’s record on immigration because the party failed to deal with it, resulting in added pressure on public services, Ms Braverman says.

“We did not do what we promised to do,” she says.

The “Reform phenomenon” was predictable and “all our own fault”, she says. She calls for an end to smearing Reform supporters, saying it is a “fundamental error.

She says the Tory Party had historically benefited from having a monopoly on the right-wing vote – the left, she says has been split.

Reform is now presenting a threat to the party, she says. She adds: “We need to do everything we can to win voters back”.

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