Liz Truss latest: Sunak to lose Tory leadership race but not by expected margin,
Boris Johnson tell public to buy £20 kettle to save £10 a year on energy bills
Liz Truss will win the Tory leadership contest but not by as wide a margin as expected, a Conservative pollster has said.
Lord Hayward, a former MP, said the current foreign secretary should pick her cabinet from all sides of the Tory party if his prediction was accurate.
His comments came shortly after Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, a Sunak ally, said Ms Truss’s victory was “not cut and dried”.
After conducting a private poll of the 700 Tory members in his constituency, he claimed Mr Sunak had an 8-point lead over his rival.
“I’ve seen some of the polls and national polls. I think it’s quite hard for pollsters to determine who is a Conservative member and who is not because there’s not an open database,” he said.
His comments came hours before the end of Tory leadership race, with voting closing at 5pm on Friday.
Meanwhile, in a move branded “very odd” by critics, Boris Johnson will attempt to clear his name over Partygate by publishing government legal advice.
XR says 50 activist involved in ‘non-violent’ action at parliament
Extinction Rebellion has confirmed that 50 of its supporters are involved in “non-violent” action at the Palace of Westminster, including three people who have superglued themselves to the speaker’s chair.
The environmental group said “new, fairer politics” could only be achieved through civil disobedience.
Alanna Byrne, of Extinction Rebellion, said: “It is possible to change things and update politics so it really represents ordinary people.”
“But to create a new, fairer politics will require first thousands, then millions of us. It will require sustained culture-shifting civil disobedience, until we become impossible to ignore,” she added.
“Then, when there’s enough of us, positive change will become inevitable.”
Joe Short, an XR protester from Bristol, chained himself to the entrance gates at the Palace of Westminster on Friday.
“I have locked myself to the railings outside the Houses of Parliament,” he said.
“It is part of a bigger protest which is about climate inaction but it is also about a citizens’ assembly which is an alternative form of democracy which could be much more effective at dealing with problems like climate change.”
Rory Sullivan2 September 2022 14:20
Boris Johnson ‘wit and wisdom’ book author handed plum job overseeing peerages
Boris Johnson has been accused of cronyism after giving a plum job to the author of a book praising him.
Harry Mount, who wrote a book about the “wit and wisdom of Boris Johnson”, will now help oversee peerages as part of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Labour said the prime minister was using his final hours in office to “hand out more jobs for the boys”.
Rory Sullivan2 September 2022 14:00
Boris Johnson lying probe would be ruled ‘unlawful’ by courts, claims Lord Pannick
As expected, Lord Pannick’s legal advise to the PM about an Commons investigation into Partygate has today been made public.
Lord Pannick said an inquiry into whether Boris…
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