Kemi Badenoch will need to go beyond ‘diehard Tories’ to rebuild party, peer says
Kemi Badenoch will have to rebuild the Tory party if she becomes leader and will need to “pivot” by talking to those who are not “diehard Tories”, Conservative peer Ruth Davidson has said.
Baroness Davidson told Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast Ms Badenoch, who is in the final two of the Conservative leadership contest, will have to look outside core Tory voters to rebuild the party.
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She said the fact that Ms Badenoch chooses to appear in media “that is very much considered to have a high proportion of people that are already Conservative members and voters” – such as The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and GB News – betrays “certainly a lack of confidence”.
“This is somebody that is going to have to rebuild the Tory party and they’re going to have to do it by talking beyond people that are already diehard Tories,” Baroness Davidson said.
“If she wins, she needs to pivot. She needs to pivot fast.”
Kemi Badenoch is up against Robert Jenrick for leader of the Conservative Party. Pic: AP
The Conservative peer and former leader of the Scottish Tories said Ms Badenoch, the former business secretary, “clearly thinks she is winning and she doesn’t have to chase it”.
Ms Badenoch has made few appearances during the campaign compared with her competition, Robert Jenrick, who has been holding rallies, doing TV and newspaper interviews and has made sure he is highly visible on social media.
“Robert Jenrick clearly thinks that he’s got work to do, and that the more people see of him, the more they will like him,” Baroness Davidson said.
“I think the assessment that’s been made by Kemi’s camp is that there is merit, and there’s often merit in being slightly blank, a slightly blanker page that people can project what they want onto – so that people think that she is their type of Tory and one that they would be comfortable voting for.”
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The Tory peer added “it’s a sign of both confidence and not confidence” she is not doing much media.
“Confidence that she’s already in the lead, not confidence, and she thinks that if people see more of her, she might lose that lead,” she said.
Baroness Davidson previously revealed she voted for James Cleverly, the former home secretary and foreign secretary who was knocked out of the race last week amid accusations of vote lending.
Baroness Davidson said she thought it was likely that Mr Cleverly would receive a job in the shadow cabinet.
The third floor room at the Casa Sur hotel where Liam Payne was staying is now sealed off with police tape.
Hotel guests walk up and down the corridor but a police officer is on guard to ensure nobody interferes with what is still the scene of an active investigation.
How and why did the One Direction star plummet to his death from the balcony of this room and was there any third-party involvement?
A 911 emergency call has already been leaked in which a hotel worker expresses concern for a guest who he believes to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
It is part of a stark picture emerging of the 31-year-old’s final hours.
Fans of Payne mourn his death in Argentina. Pic: AP
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Sky News has seen police images from inside the room which authorities say was completely trashed.
The pictures show a TV screen smashed, unknown white substances and aluminium foil strewn across surfaces.
Other guests at the hotel in the upmarket Palermo district of Buenos Aires include a party of at least 20 people from the United States, in town for a friend’s wedding.
For Doug Jones, it is his first time out of the US and he did not know what to expect.
He’s staying in the room opposite where Payne was. The day before the singer died, Doug says he saw hotel staff coming in and out of the room carrying furniture.
“I assumed they were doing renovations because they had tool kits and drills,” he said.
On the day that Payne died, Doug said he heard lots of commotion coming from the room.
“A lot of crashing and banging and shouting,” he said. It culminated around 5pm, Doug says, when he heard a “violent, manly scream”.
Forensics at the hotel.
Pic: Reuters
He came outside and on to the tree-lined street outside, with its smart restaurants, bars and high-end shops.
It was suddenly filled with police cars. It was then he realised something tragic had unfolded.
“I’d heard of One Direction but I wouldn’t recognise Liam Payne, but some of the women who are part of the wedding had seen him in the elevator,” he said. “Now there’s a police woman sitting outside my room watching his room. I’m not sure how long she’ll be there.”
Other guests say they had seen Payne engaged in a heated discussion with a woman in the hotel lobby just hours before he died.
Pictures from Payne’s hotel room in Buenos Aires. Pic: Buenos Aires Police
A 15-minute drive across town is the judicial morgue, where forensic experts assess that Payne had suffered 25 separate injuries in the fall, including massive internal and external bleeding. His injuries were incompatible with life, they said.
Baleria Linares, a 21-year-old college student who lives just a few streets from the Casa Sur hotel, has returned to join other fans who gathered to weep and sing One Direction songs. “We are together in our grief,” she said.
“Liam means so much to me,” she added between sobs, “he helped me through a hard time in my life. When I was happy I listened to them, when I was sad I listened to them. I love them with all my heart. But I know that he’s resting now.”
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‘They saved my life at some point’
Some fans clutch bouquets, others pin notes to a nearby tree which is decorated with images of Payne.
“You’ll be always in our hearts,” one reads.
Morena Farias Gomez is sobbing as her friend tries to comfort her. “It is devastating news,” she said, “I’ve been a fan of One Direction for 10 years. I think they saved my life at some point, they were my teenage years, I grew up with them.”
The grief is real, here, but even more acute thousands of miles away with Payne’s family in the UK as they wait to bring his body home.
A baby has died after a boat carrying migrants ran into difficulties in the Channel, French authorities have said.
A total of 65 people were rescued following the incident off the coast of Wissant in northern France on Thursday evening.
The boat was found to be heavily loaded with people and some were in the water when the rescue team arrived, the French maritime team for the Channel and the North Sea said.
A French Navy patrol boat and a helicopter were used in the recovery operation.
During the rescue operation, an unconscious baby was retrieved from the water and transferred to the Abeille Normandie – an assistance and rescue intervention boat.
The baby was later declared dead by a doctor.
The Minck vessel, chartered by the French government, was involved in the rescue operation
The 65 migrants and the deceased baby were taken to a port in the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
According to the maritime department, weather conditions are often difficult in the area where the boat ran into difficulties and it is a “particularly dangerous sector” even when the “sea seems beautiful”.
Searches are ongoing.
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Meanwhile, an investigation has been launched by the public prosecutor’s office in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
It comes after four people died, including a two-year-old boy, while attempting to cross the Channel earlier this month.
More than 26,000 migrants have successfully made the crossing to the UK in small boats this year.
A total of 973 migrants made the crossing on Saturday 6 October – the highest daily figure in 2024.
UK
Gary Stevens: Man, 54, jailed after admitting being in charge of dog that killed his brother in Derby
A man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after he admitted being in charge of a dangerously out-of-control dog that killed his younger brother.
Gary Stevens, 54, pleaded guilty to a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act after his brother Wayne Stevens, 51, was attacked at a house in Cameron Road, Derby, during the early hours of 22 April.
The dog was “destroyed at the scene” due to “presenting a risk to officers and the public”, Derbyshire Police said at the time of the incident.
The breed of the dog that attacked Mr Stevens is a cane corso cross.
Tony Stanford, on behalf of Stevens, previously told the court it was “an extremely upsetting incident for [Gary Stevens] to witness and be a part of”.
“He tried to pull the dog off his brother, to save his brother,” he said.
“He bears considerable psychological guilt.”
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