Nigel Farage says ‘the Conservative brand is broken’ as the final four Tory leadership hopefuls make their last pitches to conference
Nigel Farage said the ‘Conservative brand is broken’ as the final four Tory leadership hopefuls will make their last pitches to conference today.
The Reform UK leader branded the remaining 121 Tory MPs delusional for thinking the Conservative Party could be back in power in the next five years, claiming a lack of trust among voters is a big issue.
It comes as Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat will all have an opportunity to address and answer questions at the final day of conference in Birmingham today before parliamentarians narrow the leadership race down to two.
The final two candidates will be put to a ballot of party members, the result of which will be declared on November 2.
Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Farage wrote: ‘Having gone through five leaders since 2016 and indulged in endless internal squabbling, the Tory party is perceived by most voters as being a bunch of careerists more interested in themselves than the country at large.
Nigel Farage (pictured) said the ‘Conservative brand is broken’ as the final four Tory leadership hopefuls will make their last pitches to conference today
Robert Jenrick waves to cameras as he arrives in Birmingham with his wife Michelle Berkner
Conservative leadership contender James Cleverly and his wife Susannah arriving at their hotel in Birmingham
Leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch arriving for the conference, which is the party’s first since its crushing election defeat in July
‘A far bigger headache for them is that they are no longer trusted.’
The politician added: ‘The truth is that the Conservative brand is broken. It might recover, but I believe it will be many years before that day comes.’
A senior party source previously told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the hopefuls’ campaigns has so far been ‘lacklustre and ponderous’.
Another source said that the race to lead the party was still ‘wide open’.
Each of the candidates will have a 20-minute slot on Wednesday for a speech to impress members.
All four will also attend 20 events during the course of the conference, including Q&As, press interviews and panel discussions.
As well as appearing on the main conference stage, the rivals have been trying to woo party members at a variety of fringe events and conference drinks receptions.
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Labour’s failing plan to end small boats crisis to cost taxpayers billions – warning
Labour’s failing plan to end the Channel migrant crisis will cost taxpayers billions over the coming years, critics have declared.
Sir Keir Starmer was accused of planning to reopen hotels – with asylum seekers set to be housed in taxpayer-funded rooms for up to three years.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (Image: Getty)
There are nearly 30,000 asylum seekers living in more than 250 hotels at a cost of £4.2 million per day – £1.53 billion per year.
By contrast, the universal winter fuel payments for pensioners costs around £1.5 billion each year.
Labour had hoped to “end asylum hotels” within a year, but sources have warned the backlog of cases is “much worse than we thought”.
They added: “It’s going to take a lot longer to clear than we anticipated. It certainly won’t be cleared in a year.”
But a Conservative source who worked in the Home Office accused Labour of “lying”, adding: “The stats are published quarterly.
“What they didn’t anticipate was that their lack of plan to actually do anything to stop the people smugglers would actually make things worse, and that’s on them.”
The revelation angered the Tories and Reform UK, with former Home Secretary James Cleverly warning Labour is “preparing to reopen asylum hotels”.
He added: “Why? Because they scrapped Rwanda, have no plan and over 11,000 illegal migrants have crossed the Channel since Labour took office”.
Former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel added: “Without the deterrent and use of third country asylum processing, pressure continues to grow on our asylum system.
“This Labour government has no plan to deal with this issue and continues to fail by exposing taxpayers to higher costs, more hotel use and cause more strain on housing as they push asylum seekers onto local councils.
“Despite all their facile rhetoric, this Government has failed to grip this issue.
“All the options to reform the asylum system were outlined in the New Plan for Immigration from processing cases to removing failed asylums seekers to a third country.”
Tory leadership frontrunner Robert Jenrick added: “Starmer pledged to ‘end asylum hotels’.
“But he scrapped rather than strengthened the Rwanda plan. And in the 88 days he’s been PM, 11,000 illegal migrants have come.
“It’s no surprise then that, under Starmer, we’ll be spending billions on these hotels for years to come.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “The migrant hotels will stay open for years.
“I have no doubt even more will be needed. Starmer has no real plan and the boats will keep coming.”
Some 29,585 migrants were in hotels, as of June. An additional 61,778 were in dispersal accommodation – small rented homes and former student accommodation.
This was down from a peak of 56,042 in 398 hotels in September last year, which was costing more than £8 million per day.”
Ms Cooper had hoped to clear the backlog of 87,217 claims awaiting initial decision within a year to 18 months.
But an additional 137,525 claims are awaiting the outcome of appeals or involve pending removals from the UK.
This is preventing the government from clearing the overall asylum backlog of 224,742 claims.
Mr Jenrick said net migration in recent years “has put immense pressure on housing, it’s undercut the wages of British workers and it has made our country less united”.
A Labour source said: “We have inherited a completely failed immigration system from the Tories. Including them spending over £700 million on Rwanda, and gimmicks that didn’t work. We’re working on clearing down the backlog they left behind, they clearly did nothing at all in the months before the election. The numbers speak for themselves.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will use a two-day G7 summit to press for more action to tackle people smugglers.
She said: “The perpetrators of the vile trade of migrant smuggling have no concern about the security of national borders or the safety of the people they exploit.
“This is a global challenge and working in collaboration with our closest partners is critical.
“We have taken decisive action in the UK already – through the formation of our Border Security Command, backed by a recent investment of £75m, and the appointment of its Commander. This meeting will be an invaluable opportunity to work internationally to crackdown on this cross border network of dangerous criminality.”
