Badenoch appeals for Tory unity as report says Sunak might trigger election to avert leadership challenge – UK politics live | Politics

Labour has also overnight issued some details of its plans to set up a 1,000-strong unit to return people who have applied for asylum in the UK but had their applications rejected. In a news release it said:

[Labour] is now announcing details of a new 1,000-strong returns and enforcement unit to increase those removals, from failed asylum seekers through to foreign national offenders – funded through savings made from clearing the asylum backlog and ending hotel use, currently costing the British taxpayer £8m a day.

-Expedite case progression on removals of those with no right to remain and fix the processing gaps identified by the chief inspector of borders

-Include officers posted to foreign countries to negotiate more returns agreements, allowing the UK to return people back to their safe country of origin

-Work to identify, shut down and penalise workplaces that are illegally employing and exploiting asylum seekers, particularly looking at the practice of recruiting from asylum hotels, and co-operate with the police on arresting those responsible for the trafficking of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from hotels.

Sadiq Khan will launch his campaign for a record third term as mayor of London by promising the “greatest council homebuilding drive in a generation”, Daniel Boffey reports.

Here are some more lines from Kemi Badenoch’s media round this morning.

• Badenoch defended Rishi Sunak’s decision not to immediately describe the reported remarks from the Tory donor Frank Hester about Diane Abbott as racist last week. Sunak attracted widespread criticism because initially No 10 just described the comments as unacceptable. It did not issue a statement saying the comments were racist until after Badenoch had denounced them in those terms herself, giving the impression that Sunak was following a lead taken by his business secretary. Today Badenoch told BBC Breakfast that she did not accept that interpretation. She said No 10 was taking its time because “they were establishing the facts of the matter”. She went on:

I gave a personal opinion. And to be honest, I don’t want a prime minister who is just going to be lurching out, making comments every five minutes in response to the media.

What he is not doing is following the media’s lead, and I’m very pleased that he agreed with me, but I was making my comments in a personal capacity as the only black woman in the cabinet.

I’m actually quite surprised that people suggest this [that the party return the money]. This was something that happened five years ago … He’s apologised for it. I think that it is far more important that we accept the apology and [move on]. It’s taking too much attention, I think, away from what is actually meaningful to the people around the country.

He wasn’t talking to Diane Abbott. It wasn’t even really about Diane Abbott. He used her in a reference that was completely unacceptable.

Badenoch was referring to the fact that, in the comment as reported in the Guardian, Hester made his offensive comment about Abbott as he was elaborating on an offensive comment he was making about someone else. In response, a spokesperson for Hester said he accepted he was rude about Abbott, but claimed “his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.

I don’t think that there is very much to these rumours. It is almost the same thing we have been reading week after week for the last two years.

And we need to make sure that one or two MPs cannot dominate the news narrative when 350-plus MPs have different views.

Good morning. Rishi Sunak is in fightback mode this morning, seeking to reassert his authority after what might have been his worst week as Tory leader and reports of new threats to his leadership.

You may feel you have read that sentence before on a Monday. And I’m afraid it is likely, before we head towards the general election, that you will read it again. Sunak’s premiership is stuck in a spiral of despair. But there are three features of what is happening this morning that make today’s crisis Monday different from previous ones.

1) A Sunak ally has floated the prospect of the PM calling an election if necessary as a means of averting a leadership contest. In their Times splash, Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright report:

A senior ally of the prime minister said that Sunak’s critics underestimate his resolve. They said that he would be prepared to call a general election if rebels force a leadership contest.

“He’s increasingly determined to prove his point and establish his own mandate,” they said. “You don’t get to achieve the things he’s done without some steel. He’s not just going to roll over.

“People should be careful what they wish for. It’s up to them. If they don’t want an election they should stop messing about. Rishi could easily say ‘OK, if that’s the mood of the party I don’t think it’s fair to put it to another leadership contest’. He can say reasonably he might just go to the palace instead.”

This is the first time No 10 has floated this prospect. It is only one quote, but it is from serious journalists in a serious paper, and there is a risk it could backfire, provoking Sunak’s critics rather than quelling them. He may get asked about this later.

2) Sunak is betting everything on economic recovery. According to extracts from his speech briefed in advance, he will say:

There is now a real sense that the economy is turning a corner with all the economic indicators pointing in the right direction.

This year, 2024, will be the year Britain bounces back.

Inflation has more than halved, with the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) forecasting it will hit its 2% target in just a few months’ time, a full year ahead of what they were forecasting just a few months ago.

3) No 10 has deployed Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, to deliver a unity message this morning. Badenoch is seen as favourite to succeed Sunak after the next election, and she regularly makes interventions that imply she is not loyal to his policy agenda. But this morning she had a rare outing as the government spokesperson on the media round, and she used it to urge Tory plotters to support the PM. She told LBC:

I have said many times that people need to stop messing around and get behind the prime minister.

But I think at this particular time, it is really important that we remember that there are thousands of councillors all around the country who are going to be standing for election in May. We need people to focus on what they have been doing to help their local communities and not be obsessed with Westminster psychodrama …

I’m here in Coventry in the West Midlands, look at what is happening with auto, they have had so much investment under [Conservative West Midlands mayor] Andy Street. That is what I want people to know about rather than who said what in the tea room in parliament. It is just Westminster bubble gossip, it is not important.

Badenoch also used her interviews to defend Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, from claims that she is actively plotting to undermine Sunak. “I’m sure if Penny was here, she would be distancing herself from those comments,” Badenoch said. But Mordaunt is one of Badenoch’s main rivals in the contest to be next Tory leader and implicit in this comment was a suggestion that, if Mordaunt really has nothing to do with the plot against Sunak reported over the weekened, perhaps she should say so on the record herself.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Rishi Sunak is giving a speech on the economy in Warwickshire, where he is also doing a Q&A to promote government plans to reform the apprenticeship system.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

After 3.30pm: MPs debate Lords amendments to the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill.

Also, Sadiq Khan is launching his campaign today for re-election as London’s mayor.

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