What are the Tory renegade conferences and how much of a threat do they pose to Rishi Sunak’s leadership?
On Monday evening, Rishi Sunak attempted to settle the nerves of restless Tory MPs following the party’s drubbing at the local elections.
A garden party – complete with pork pies from his Yorkshire constituency – might not cut the mustard, though.
The loss of more than 1,000 council seats would be enough cause for concern for any Conservative leader and prime minister.
But Mr Sunak has also had to contend with a number of Tory conferences that have been interpreted by some as an undermining of his leadership.
The first, the grassroots Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), took place in Bournemouth and can be described as a gathering of those loyal to Mr Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson.
Set up by backers of the former leader, the new group wants to give party members more power and has been critical of the way Mr Sunak was elected last autumn – describing it as “undemocratic” and a “coronation”.
The second, which began on Monday and is continuing into Wednesday, is the National Conservatism forum, which espouses right-wing, Christian family values and has been inspired by movements in the United States.
Both conferences have lamented the current direction of the Conservative party while emphasising their own remedy for its woes.
But what are these renegade splinter groups and how much of a threat do they pose to Mr Sunak’s leadership? Sky News explains.
Patel says Sunak risks ‘managed decline’
The CDO was set up last December – just months after Mr Sunak assumed the leadership – with a call for Tory members to “take back control” of the party after he was elected without a members’ vote following the chaos of Liz Truss’s resignation.
Key figures include billionaire Conservative donor Lord Cruddas, the party’s former treasurer, who is spearheading the campaign with key Johnson ally and former home secretary Priti Patel.
The group’s aim is to “empower party members and steer its political direction back to the centre-right” following the ousting of Mr Johnson – although even his most enthusiastic supporters have suggested a return for the former prime minister would be highly unlikely.
The group has also expressed anger at Mr Sunak’s “left of centre” position around taxes – who has refused their calls to cut them immediately.
At its meeting at the weekend, the conference heard from the likes of Ms Patel, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.
In words that may unnerve Mr Sunak, Ms Patel blamed the “centre of the party” for the Conservatives’ heavy losses in the local elections and said the party “would not have seen over 1,000 of our friends and colleagues lose their seats” if centrists had “spent more time with us, listening, engaging”.
She also told CDO members on Saturday that Mr Sunak needed to offer more “hope and optimism” for Conservatism or he risked being responsible for the “managed decline” of the party and defeat at next year’s general election.
One Tory MP who spoke to Sky News said the CDO was created out of “frustration that members didn’t have a say” on the leadership of the Conservative party.
“Because the PM never won an election of the membership, a lot of the parliamentary party think we need to shape it and will form these groups,” they said.
But asked whether Mr Sunak’s position was under threat, they said: “I don’t think there is any chance of changing prime minister before the next election.”
Read more:
Sunak tries to bring MPs together at garden party
Braverman reignites leadership ambitions with pitch to Tory right
Braverman emerges as main advocate for ‘traditional values’
Perhaps the more controversial of the conferences is the National Conservatism forum – a global, right-wing movement which claims that traditional values are being “undermined and overthrown”.
Its website says that national conservatism is the “best path forward for a democratic world confronted by a rising China abroad and a powerful new Marxism at home”.
US speakers who will feature at the London conference include JD Vance, a right-wing senator who was backed by Donald Trump, and Rod Dreher, an American writer who sympathises with Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s speech was interrupted by protesters
The conference has already attracted criticism for some of the values its supporters have promoted – including that family is defined as being between a man and a woman only – prompting Downing Street to distance itself from the gathering this morning.
Tory MP Miriam Cates opened the three-day conference in London on Monday with a speech in which she claimed that falling birth rates are “the one overarching threat to British conservatism and indeed the whole of Western society” and that “cultural Marxism” was “destroying our children’s souls”.
If Mr Johnson was centre stage at the CDO conference in Bournemouth, then the star of the show at the National Conservatism forum was Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Ms Braverman made immigration the central plank of her speech, arguing “it’s not racist” to want control of the UK’s borders.
Her speech has been interpreted as jockeying for the Tory leadership in the event the Conservatives lose the next election, with former cabinet minister Robert Buckland suggesting to Sky News that Ms Braverman should “concentrate on the job” of being the home secretary.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
MPs were asked if Suella Braverman is launching a leadership bid
One Tory watcher told Sky News that the two conferences were not a “serious threat” to Mr Sunak, describing the CDO gathering as a “confused rabble” and the National Conservatism forum as a “flat-pack US conference where Braverman is auditioning for a 2024 bid”.
This in itself is unlikely to trouble Mr Sunak given Ms Braverman’s reputation for openly expressing her views and the fact that, having run for the leadership herself, her ambitions are not a secret.
“The battle is about managed succession not regicide,” they explained.
Until the local elections, Mr Sunak had been praised for steadying the Tory ship – a ship that has now witnessed its first signs of mutiny.
For Mr Sunak, these conferences might serve as a reminder that should he fail to set out an attractive course for the Conservative party, there are plenty of people waiting in the wings who are willing to do it for him.
Spain is to legalise about 300,000 undocumented migrants a year – at a time that many European countries are seeking to limit or deter migration.
The policy, approved on Tuesday by Spain’s left-wing minority coalition government, aims to tackle the country’s ageing workforce and low birthrate.
Around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year are needed to maintain the country’s welfare state, according to migration minister Elma Saiz.
The scheme, due to run from May next year until 2027, will allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency.
The exact number of foreigners living in Spain without documentation is unclear.
However, around 54,000 undocumented migrants reached Spain so far this year by sea or land, according to government figures.
Many arrive via the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago located off the coast of northwestern Africa.
Spain’s minister of inclusion, social security and migration, Elma Saiz. Pic: AP
Read more from Sky News:
Anger in the Spanish town smashed by floods
Spain seizes 13 tonnes of cocaine worth £659m
The figure compares to the 30,000 people who have arrived in the UK via small boats across the Channel so far in 2024.
The UK, as well as other European nations, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, have in recent years taken tougher stances on migration.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
However, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has often described his government’s migration policies as a way to combat the country’s low birthrate.
The government’s new policy simplifies the administrative processes for short and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional workplace protections.
It also extends a visa offered previously to job-seekers for three months to one year.
Many migrants make a living in Spain’s underground economy as fruit pickers, caretakers, delivery drivers, or other low-paid jobs.
Migration minister Ms Saiz said the government’s new policy would help prevent abuse and “serve to combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights”.
World
Alec Baldwin’s Rust premieres three years after fatal shooting – but cinematographer’s mother refuses to attend
Alec Baldwin’s Western film Rust has premiered at a festival in Poland, three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set.
The movie debuted at the Camerimage Festival in Poland, an event focusing on achievements in cinematography, to an audience of a few hundred – a more low-key affair than the typical fanfare of Hollywood releases.
Director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, said he hoped the completed film would now be a tribute to Ms Hutchins – who died after a prop gun held by Baldwin went off during filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.
Rust director Joel Souza attended the film’s premiere in Poland. Pic: Reuters
Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and went on trial in July – but the case was dismissed in dramatic fashion during the hearing after the prosecution was accused of concealing ammunition evidence.
The star did not attend the premiere in Poland.
Speaking beforehand, Souza said it “wasn’t an easy decision by any means” to continue the film after Hutchins’s death, “but it became important to me and important to her husband that people see her final work”.
The church scene they were working on when Hutchins was shot has gone from the film, he said.
“It doesn’t exist anymore. We were never going to finish that… I changed the script and so I wiped that out of it.”
Cinematographer’s mother criticises Baldwin
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Pic: Swen Studios/Handout via Reuters
Bianca Cline, the cinematographer who completed the film, also attended the event.
Ms Hutchins’s mother Olga Solovey, who has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin, did not attend and criticised the star for allegedly “unjustly” profiting from the tragedy.
In a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, she said she had always hoped to watch her daughter’s “work come alive on screen” alongside her.
However, this opportunity was “ripped away”, she said.
Ms Solovey said Baldwin had not apologised to her and that her pain was increased by his “refusal to take responsibility”. She said there had been “no justice” for her daughter.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Watch: Alec Baldwin’s case dismissed
Read more:
Fans warned not to sing along to Wicked
Dictionary’s word of the year revealed
Rust’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez, who was in charge of weapons on the set, was jailed for 18 months earlier this year, after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter during a trial separate to Baldwin’s. She is appealing the sentence.
Rust is billed as the story of a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after being sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.
The Polish festival’s ticketing website reportedly crashed on Tuesday morning due to high demand for tickets to the world premiere.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway