The Labour leader, Keir Starmer held a phone-in on LBC this morning. Here are the main points.
Starmer said he put his head in his hands when he heard Boris Johnson wanted to return as PM. He said:
When [Johnson] first said that he was going to run, and everybody was sort of rallying around, I did put my head in my hands and think, so, really, we’re going to go from the prime minister who’s just crashed the economy … back to the guy that only … months ago, most of us were saying was unfit for office. It was never going to work, I don’t think.
Starmer said that there was “not a great deal” between Labour and the Tories in their support for a points-based immigration policy. Labour would scrap the Rwanda scheme, under which people arriving in the UK seeking asylum can be sent to Rwanda, Starmer said. But on immigration generally he said:
Now we don’t have free movement any more, then you either have a pure numbers game or you have a points-based system that says ‘well, for certain types of jobs, certain types of roles here, you would get a number of points’. I think that makes sense.
So, in that sense, not a great deal between the major parties on immigration.
We would have a slightly different approach and I would particularly want to welcome really good students. I feel that over the years we’ve put good students off coming here and many of them have ended up going to Australia and Canada and the US. I would want to see the best possible students coming to this country to study.
He said Labour would not grant new oil and gas licences. “We accept there’s got to be a transition, so where there is oil and gas already being yielded that needs to continue as part of the transition, but no new sites, no new fields to be opened,” he said.
He said Labour would not rejoin the EU under his leadership. “We’re not going back into the EU,” he said. “That isn’t a position of my party, that isn’t what an incoming Labour government would do.”
He said he and other Labour figures will not attend the World Cup in Qatar because of its human rights record.
Keir Starmer on LBC this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PAKemi Badenoch, the international trade secretary, and Sir Gavin Williamson, the former education secretary, were among senior Tories who visited Rishi Sunak’s campaign HQ this morning, PA Media reports.
Kemi Badenoch outside Rishi Sunak’s campaign HQ this morning. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Severin Carrell
Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, has backed Rishi Sunak in the latest Tory leadership race, arguing that “a return to moderate, grown up, honest, stable government cannot come soon enough.”
Davidson, now a Conservative peer and a prominent critic of Boris Johnson, was the most successful Scottish Tory leader in the devolution era, leading the party to second place at Holyrood in 2016 and its best post-devolution performance in council elections in 2017.
In an implicit attack on the Liz Truss era and on those in the party who backed Truss’s leadership bid in August, Davidson said:
I backed Rishi in the summer and continue to believe he’s the best person for the job.
The challenges facing the country are significant, but the government has a duty to meet those challenges head on – to level with the country as to why and to what end decisions are being taken. There are so many people struggling and worried out there. Frankly, a return to moderate, grown up, honest, stable government cannot come soon enough.
The Scottish party is now in disarray following the repeated crises at Westminster under Johnson’s and Truss’s leadership; Davidson’s successor Douglas Ross flip-flopped about Johnson’s future as PM several times and then appeared to endorse Truss in August. He now faces potential leadership challenges, and has yet to state any preference in the current contest.
Levelling up secretary Simon Clarke backs Sunak for PM, despite criticsing his ‘Labour-lite economic policy’ over summerSimon Clarke, the levelling up secretary, has become the latest person who was supporting Boris Johnson to endorse Rishi Sunak for the Tory leadership.
Today @Conservatives need to unite. Really extremely serious events are unfolding and our country needs leadership. @RishiSunak is the right person to assume the immense responsibility of being Prime Minister and he will have my full support.
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) October 24, 2022 Everyone knows my loyalty to @BorisJohnson. Twitter is full of people who will never understand why so many people like him, even love him. They do so because he reflects the optimism and pride in community and country that they feel, and because he gave them a voice.
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) October 24, 2022 That notwithstanding, unity now matters. It matters for my party, but it also matters for the country. Putin has unleashed great evil, and yesterday’s events warn of potentially worse to come. Rishi is an outstandingly capable minister and we should all want him to succeed.
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) October 24, 2022 Clarke is one of the most significant of the Johnsonite switchers. He was one of the leading figures in the Liz Truss campaign during the summer and, in that capacity, he often criticised Sunak aggressively in public. For example, after one debate he accused Sunak of being “extremely aggressive” towards Truss. And he co-authored a Telegraph article accusing Sunak of policy U-turns, resisting attempts to cut EU red tape and favouring “a Labour-lite economic policy”.
From LBC’s Theo Usherwood
Senior Sunak supporter tells me those around Penny Mordaunt knows the game is up.
But:
“She’s not up for it. She thinks she can win. It’s ego. The longer she holds out, the more she thinks Rishi will give her something big. But it’s the other way round and she can’t see it.”
— Theo Usherwood (@theousherwood) October 24, 2022 UK stocks up and cost of government borrowing falls as Sunak poised to become PMThe stock market is up this morning, and government borrowing costs are down, following the news that Boris Johnson is not contesting the Tory leadership contest, and Rishi Sunak is now the overwhelming favourite to become the next PM. My colleague Kalyeena Makortoff has more on the business live blog.
Mordaunt’s campaign claims she is ‘getting the numbers’ to be on ballot for Tory leadershipThe Penny Mordaunt campaign says the leader of the Commons is “getting the numbers” to be able to be on the ballot for the Tory leadership. She needs to be nominated by 100 Tories. So far only around 30 of them have publicly backed her. But a campaign spokesperson told journalists this morning;
Penny is speaking to colleagues from across the party. She’s getting the numbers and she’s in it to win it.
Penny has always been a campaigner – she took her seat from Labour and she’s fought for it ever since. The party needs a fresh start to ensure it wins the next general election and holds the seats it gained in 2019.
“Getting the numbers” is not the same has ‘“has got the numbers”, suggesting that the briefing to Paul Brand earlier (see 9.33am) may have gone too far.
Rishi Sunak leaving his campaign HQ this morning. Photograph: Aberto Pezzali/APJeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has used an article in the Daily Telegraph to explain why he is backing Rishi Sunak for PM. Hunt says:
Our public finances, market credibility and international reputation have taken a serious blow. To restore stability and confidence, we need a leader who can be trusted to make difficult choices. We also need someone who can explain those choices to members of the public who are worried about jobs, mortgages and public services.
We have a leader who can do just that in Rishi Sunak.
Sunak is expected to keep Hunt at the Treasury if he becomes PM.
The Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson has joined the flow of Boris Johnson supporters switching to Rishi Sunak.
Now @BorisJohnson has ruled himself out it is essential that all @Conservatives unite around a new leader & help them tackle the challenges we face
It’s clear the best person to unite the Party is @RishiSunak. He can count on my full support as our PM & I will be voting for him
— Rt Hon Andrew Stephenson MP (@Andrew4Pendle) October 24, 2022 There is little evidence of Johnson supporters backing Penny Mordaunt, although ITV’s Paul Brand says Penny Mordaunt’s team are privately claiming to have 100 MP endorsements – the number needed to get her on the ballot paper.
Penny Mordaunt’s team are briefing that they have the numbers this morning. I asked why we can’t see 100 names but they say a lot of the endorsements are remaining private. We’ll find out shortly I guess.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) October 24, 2022 According to the Guido Fawkes spreadsheet, Mordaunt has just 31 declared supporters.
Readers have pointed out that Benjamin Disraeli, who was Jewish, was the first minority ethnic prime minister. I’ve corrected the post at 8.02am to say Rishi Sunak would be the first person of colour to be PM.
UPDATE: It would be more accurate to say Disraeli was of Jewish heritage, using today’s terminology. His family was Jewish, but he was baptised into the Church of England.
Grant Shapps, the home secretary and leading Rishi Sunak supporter, was doing interviews this morning on behalf of the former chancellor and runaway favourite for next PM. Here are some of the points he made.
Shapps said Sunak did not consider victory “in the bag”. He said:
Rishi doesn’t think that it’s in the bag. He’s speaking to colleagues this morning, he’s working very hard to attract those supporters who were perhaps with Boris Johnson previously.
Shapps declined to say that Penny Mordaunt should withdraw from the contest. Asked if she should, he said:
That’s up to Penny Mordaunt and her supporters. What I do know is that Rishi enjoys the support of a large number of Conservative MPs, and there’s a very high nomination threshold of 100.
He claimed that Sunak would have a mandate from the 2019 general election. He said:
We elect a party and we elect individuals as members of that party, and the 2019 manifesto is actually the thing – the document, if you like – that Rishi is standing on.
He rejected suggestions that Suella Braverman is backing Sunak because Sunak has promised her she can return to her old job as home secretary, which Shapps now has. When this was put to Shapps half-jokingly, he said he was “pretty sure” Sunak had not made that promise to Braverman. Sunak wanted a “free hand” to “build a team of the best people”, Shapps said.
Rishi Sunak leaving his home in London this morning. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images