Jeremy Hunt is now an all-powerful back seat driver, MPs believe

Published

3 years ago

October 17, 2022

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After his crisis talks with Liz Truss at Chequers, Jeremy Hunt was photographed being driven from the PM’s country retreat sitting in the back of a government car.

Earlier, when the new chancellor was asked in a TV interview who was in charge, him or the PM, he insisted it was her. But MPs believe Mr Hunt is now an all-powerful back seat driver.

Mr Hunt wasn’t even being driven from Chequers in a top-of-the-range Range Rover as befits his new status as a senior cabinet minister, but a humble and less conspicuous people carrier.

And the embattled PM will be hoping her new chancellor can carry the British people with him, as he embarks on more U-turns designed to steady the nerves of markets, Tory MPs and voters.

The latest verdict of the markets will come early on Monday morning, hours before MPs return to Westminster after taking soundings in their constituencies over the weekend. Those soundings are likely to have been brutal.

The voters’ latest verdict will come in the next snap opinion polls. And while jittery Tory MPs will hope the polls can’t get any worse for their party, it’s possible they will.

A poll of polls analysed by Sky News confirms the findings of recent surveys suggesting Labour’s average lead is nudging 30 points, the biggest since Tony Blair’s honeymoon period after his 1997 landslide.

After the turmoil and chaos of the past week, the mood of Conservative MPs is mutinous. One senior backbencher, Sir Crispin Blunt, was first to declare publicly that the game is up.

Truss loyalists will claim, with some justification, that Sir Crispin is not the most reliable witness. He defended former Tory MP Imran Khan, who was convicted of sexual assault, though he later apologised.

But the Reigate MP, who is now quitting at the next election, was only saying publicly what many Conservative MPs are saying privately.

He was closely followed by serial rebel Andrew Bridgen, who claimed the PM has run out of friends. He expects “fireworks” this week and predicts a general election if the situation is not resolved quickly.

In issuing his call, Mr Bridgen has set some kind of record. Ms Truss is the fourth leader he has called to go since he was elected in 2010, after David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. At least he’s consistent.

Next came Jamie Wallis, a 2019-er, who declared “enough is enough” and announced he’s written to the prime minister, asking her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of the country.

There was much talk over the weekend of Tory MPs rallying behind a “unity candidate” to replace Ms Truss. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, defeated leadership candidate Rishi Sunak and Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt have been touted to succeed the PM.

But a senior defence source told Sky News: “The defence secretary is focused on our support for Ukraine and the security of Britain and our allies. Our future as a government and as a Conservative Party lies in demonstrating and providing stability.

“Anything other than that will lead to a deserved spell in opposition.”

In other words, Mr Wallace is telling his more excitable backbenchers to calm down and the veteran plotters – a group of embittered ex-ministers who have been both king-makers and assassins of Tory leaders over the years – to back off.

For now.

Mr Wallace didn’t entirely rule out putting himself forward at some point in the future. And he remains the favourite among party activists, regularly topping polls of party members in highly unscientific popularity contests.

It’s likely Mr Hunt will have to face MPs in the Commons on Monday afternoon to explain the U-turns so far, either in a statement or by answering an urgent question from Labour’s Rachel Reeves, which Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle would be certain to grant.

But as he proved in his weekend interviews, Mr Hunt is an experienced and accomplished public performer who has already displayed a reassuring tone in his first few days in his new job.

The same cannot be said of Ms Truss, whose brief news conference in Downing Street on Friday afternoon was a public relations disaster that left even many of her most loyal supporters in despair.

Not surprisingly, Labour want the PM and not Mr Hunt to come to the Commons. Good luck, as they say, with that.

Mr Hunt is now on a rescue mission to save Ms Truss’s premiership. He’s also suddenly back in the running to become the next prime minister, along with Mr Wallace, Mr Sunak, Ms Mordaunt and – his diehard supporters hope – Boris Johnson.

To be fair, he did say in his latest interview: “Having run two leadership campaigns, and by the way failed in both of them, the desire to be leader has been clinically excised from me.”

He went on to say: “I want to be a good chancellor. It’s going to be very, very difficult. But that’s what I’m focusing on.”

Difficult indeed. Many MPs would see his appointment as chancellor as a poisoned chalice. And there have been suggestions that he wasn’t the PM’s first choice and she sounded out Sajid Javid first.

That’s strongly denied by Number 10 insiders, one of whom took the opportunity to denigrate Mr Javid to Sunday newspapers in most unpleasant terms, provoking understandable protests from Tory MPs.

Mr Hunt is now undeniably the man of the moment. How long he remains in that position will depend on how long Ms Truss survives.

Given the extremely brief tenure of his two immediate predecessors, Kwasi Kwarteng and Nadhim Zahawi, he’ll have to weigh up whether it’s worth moving his wife and three young children into the Downing Street flat.

But he could be forgiven for hoping he gets to be driven around in a better government car than the rather down-market people carrier that sped him away from Chequers.

Given the PM’s vulnerability and weakness, the back seat driver tag will be difficult for Mr Hunt to shake off.

World

Trump applying ‘heavy pressure’ on Netanyahu to end war in Gaza

Published

51 mins ago

July 9, 2025

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Trump applying 'heavy pressure' on Netanyahu to end war in Gaza

US President Donald Trump is putting “heavy” pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, two sources close to the ceasefire negotiations have told Sky News.

One US source said: “The US pressure on Israel has begun, and tonight it will be heavy.”

The source, who is not authorised to speak publicly, was referring to the White House dinner on Monday night between Trump and Netanyahu.

A second Middle Eastern diplomatic source agreed that the American pressure on Israel would be intense.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC in the early hours of Monday morning and held meetings on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.

The Israeli prime minister plans to be in Washington until Thursday with meetings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Trump has made clear his desire to bring the Gaza conflict to an end.

However, he has never articulated how a lasting peace, which would satisfy both the Israelis and Palestinians, could be achieved.

His varying comments about ownership of Gaza, moving Palestinians out of the territory and permanent resettlement, have presented a confusing policy.

Situation for Palestinians worse than ever

Over the coming days, we will see the extent to which Trump demands that Netanyahu accepts the current Gaza ceasefire deal, even if it falls short of Israel’s war aims – the elimination of Hamas.

The strategic objective to permanently remove Hamas seems always to have been impossible. Hamas as an entity was the extreme consequence of the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinians’ challenge has not gone away, and the situation for Palestinians now is worse than it has ever been in Gaza and also the West Bank. It is not clear how Trump plans to square that circle.

Trump’s oft-repeated desire to “stop the killing” is sincere. Those close to him often emphasise this. He is also looking to cement his legacy as a peacemaker. He genuinely craves the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this context, the complexities of conflicts – in Ukraine or Gaza – are often of secondary importance to the president.

If Netanyahu can be persuaded to end the war, what would he need?

The hostages back – for sure. That would require agreement from Hamas. They would only agree to this if they have guarantees on Gaza’s future and their own future. More circles to square.

Was White House dinner a key moment?

The Monday night dinner could have been a key moment for the Middle East. Two powerful men in the Blue Room of the White House, deciding the direction of the region.

Will it be seen as the moment the region was remoulded? But to whose benefit?

Trump is a dealmaker with an eye on the prize. But Netanyahu is a political master; they don’t call him “the magician” for nothing.

Trump makes decisions instinctively. He can shift position quickly and often listens to the last person in the room. Right now – that person is Netanyahu.

Gaza is one part of a jigsaw of challenges, which could become opportunities.

Diplomatic normalisation between Israel and the Arab world is a prize for Trump and could genuinely secure him the Nobel Peace Prize.

But without the Gaza piece, the jigsaw is incomplete.

World

IDF presence in Gaza ‘only issue’ still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Published

51 mins ago

July 9, 2025

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IDF presence in Gaza 'only issue' still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Only one issue remains unresolved in the push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, according to Sky sources.

Intense negotiations are taking place in Qatar in parallel with key talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told Sky News that disagreement between Israel and Hamas remains on the status and presence of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza.

The two sides have bridged significant differences on several other issues, including the process of delivering humanitarian aid and Hamas’s demand that the US guarantees to ensure Israel doesn’t unilaterally resume the war when the ceasefire expires in 60 days.

On the issue of humanitarian aid, Sky News understands that a third party that neither Hamas nor Israel has control over will be used in areas from which the IDF withdraws.

This means that the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – jointly run by an American organisation and Israel – will not be able to operate anywhere where the IDF is not deployed. It will limit GHF expansion plans.

It is believed the United Nations or other recognised humanitarian organisations will adopt a greater role.

On the issue of a US guarantee to prevent Israel restarting the war, Sky News understands that a message was passed to Hamas by Dr Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American who has emerged as a key back channel in the negotiations.

The message appears to have been enough to convince Hamas that President Trump will prevent Israel from restarting the conflict.

However, there is no sense from any of the developments over the course of the past day about what the future of Gaza looks like longer-term.

Final challenge is huge

The last remaining disagreement is, predictably, the trickiest to bridge.

Israel’s central war aim, beyond the return of the hostages, is the total elimination of Hamas as a military and political organisation. The withdrawal of the IDF, partial or total, could allow Hamas to regroup.

One way to overcome this would be to provide wider guarantees of clear deliverable pathways to a viable future for Palestinians.

But there is no sense from the negotiations of any longer-term commitments on this issue.

Two key blocks have been resolved over the past 24 hours but the final challenge is huge.

The conflict in Gaza erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Some 20 hostages are believed to remain alive in Gaza.

Israel has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

World

‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says

Published

10 hours ago

July 8, 2025

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'Widespread sexual violence' took place during Hamas's 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says

A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence

The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.

The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.

According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.

Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.

One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.

At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.

The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.

Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.

The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.

This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.

Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.