There’s no question that Kemi Badenoch’s on the ropes after a low-energy first year as leader that has seen the Conservative Party slide backwards by pretty much every metric.

But on Wednesday, the embattled leader came out swinging with a show-stopping pledge to scrap stamp duty, which left the hall delirious. “I thought you’d like that one,” she said with a laugh as party members cheered her on.

A genuine surprise announcement – many in the shadow cabinet weren’t even told – it gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.

Politics latest: Stamp duty to be axed under Tories

Ms Badenoch tried to answer that criticism this week with a policy blitz, headlined by her promise on stamp duty.

This is a leader giving her party some red meat to try to help her party at least get a hearing from the public, with pledges on welfare, immigration, tax cuts and policing.

In all of it, a tacit admission from Ms Badenoch and her team that as politics speeds up, they have not kept pace, letting Reform UK and Nigel Farage run ahead of them and grab the microphone by getting ahead of the Conservatives on scrapping net zero targets or leaving the ECHR in order to deport illegal migrants more easily.

Ms Badenoch is now trying to answer those criticisms and act.

At the heart of her offer is £47bn of spending cuts in order to pay down the nation’s debt pile and fund tax cuts such as stamp duty.

All of it is designed to try to restore the party’s reputation for economic competence, against a Labour Party of tax rises and a growing debt burden and a Reform party peddling “fantasy economics”.

She needs to do something, and fast. A YouGov poll released on the eve of her speech put the Conservatives joint third in the polls with the Lib Dems on 17%.

That’s 10 percentage points lower than when Ms Badenoch took power just under a year ago. The crisis, mutter her colleagues, is existential. One shadow cabinet minister lamented to me this week that they thought it was “50-50” as to whether the party can survive.

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Ms Badenoch had to do two things in her speech on Wednesday: the first was to try to reassert her authority over her party. The second was to get a bit of attention from the public with a set of policies that might encourage disaffected Tories to look at her party again.

On the first point, even her critics would have to agree that she had a successful conference and has given herself a bit of space from the constant chatter about her leadership with a headline-grabbing policy that could give her party some much-needed momentum.

On the second, the promise of spending control coupled with a retail offer of tax cuts does carve out a space against the Labour government and Reform.

But the memory of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, the chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and the failure of Sunak to cut NHS waiting lists or tackle immigration still weigh on the Conservative brand.

Ms Badenoch might have revived the room with her speech, but whether that translates into a wider revival around the country is very hard to read.

Ms Badenoch leaves Manchester knowing she pulled off her first conference speech as party leader: what she will be less sure about is whether it will be her last.

I thought she tacitly admitted that to me when she pointedly avoided answering the question of whether she would resign if the party goes backwards further in the English council, Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections next year.

“Let’s see what the election result is about,” was her reply.

That is what many in her party are saying too, because if Ms Badenoch cannot show progress after 18 months in office, she might see her party turn to someone else.

Suspected online hate crimes referred to police have quadrupled already this season in English football, Sky News can reveal.

And we have learned that the football policing unit has urged the government to form a new unit to address racism in the sport.

We have also uncovered new details about the police investigation into the hate received by England star Jess Carter, who revealed to me after the Euros final win that the abuse nearly forced her to stop playing at the tournament.

But the scale of racism facing footballers is highlighted by the abuse received by Kira Rai – a British Sikh Punjabi – after signing for Peterborough United last month.

They play in the fourth tier, far from the spotlight of the Women’s Super League, but that does not limit the venom targeted at Rai on social media.

She told Sky News: “There were some racial slurs about my heritage, where I come from, that I don’t belong in this country, that I should go back to X country and just sorts of things along those lines.

“I think that’s probably quite difficult to read about yourself at the end of the day.

“It should be a moment for me to celebrate, I’ve just joined a new club.”

What an impact she has made at her new club, scoring an incredible five-minute hat-trick in the FA Cup on Sunday on her home debut.

But the joy is tinged with sadness when we meet the next day.

‘A reflection of society’

“I’ve been in football since I was six, so for people to question whether I belong in football purely based on the colour of my skin, I think is something that’s really difficult to get your head round,” she said.

“It’s probably a reflection of what’s going on in society right now and how prevalent racism has become, and I think football is quite clearly a reflection on society.

“In society, over the last weeks, months, I think there’s almost an underlying tension that’s perhaps not been there in recent years.”

‘Depressing’ rise in racism

This is felt by the police unit that has overseen football issues for the last two decades, with racism in stadiums and online rising.

Social media is a growing concern, with 170 referrals already this season of online racism compared to 54 in the first three months of the 2022-23 season and 41 in 2023-24.

“We’re seeing more reports, which is depressing,” Chief Constable Mark Roberts said in an exclusive interview.

“I think we’re also seeing that the number of those reports that actually meet the criminal threshold has increased.”

It’s up to 154 already this season.

Incidents ‘creeping back’ into stadiums

“There’s an awful lot in the political sphere that people are saying that probably a few years ago just wouldn’t have been thought of, so I think it taps into that broader societal piece which makes it challenging,” the National Police Chiefs Council’s football lead added.

“Sadly that seems to have gone backwards a bit. The lower league grounds now, we are seeing incidents creep back into the games which obviously we’ve got to be really keen to clamp down on and make sure that people face consequences.

“Now whether that’s been driven by people being able to say things or feel that they can say things online and that’s now leaking into the actual stadiums, there is a definite trend to see more of it.”

One of the unit’s most high-profile investigations has been into the racism that led Carter to speak out during England’s run to Euro 2025 and stepping away for a time from social media.

While two arrests have been announced, Sky News can reveal a third person has been arrested. A fourth suspect has also been identified, and six people overseas are under suspicion.

Carter previously told Sky News: “I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to come back on the pitch and be me.”

No one has been charged.

‘Slippage’ with Musk’s X

Three cases are pending with Elon Musk’s X.

And whether it’s X or Meta-owned Instagram, there is no agreement on the “grossly offensive legal threshold” with policies more tolerable than British law.

Mr Roberts said: “There has been some slippage recently with X that we’re working with them to try to get back to those standards. And I think one of the factual issues we sometimes struggle with is our perception of what is clearly a criminal offence.

“They can sometimes suggest that it doesn’t meet the threshold for their community guidelines, which I find difficult to reconcile really because surely if it meets the criminal prosecution threshold, surely it should breach [their guidelines], and we sometimes have a wrangle about securing information from them.”

A challenge is dealing with international police forces with two-thirds of referrals of racism generated overseas, beyond the jurisdiction of the football policing unit.

While not naming particular countries, Mr Roberts said abuse posted from Eastern Europe and Asia is the main problem.

“The level of interest from some countries varies,” he said. “Some just aren’t interested. We won’t get a response. Others will try and take positive action.”

The approach of English football can seem somewhat disjointed if different campaigns and anti-racism investigations are run by different parts of the game.

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For Mr Roberts, that could ideally be enhanced.

“I would like a joint function to tackle online hate with ourselves, the football bodies, Kick It Out and others, ideally supported by government, so that we can do it in a really coherent, joined-up way,” he said in our interview at Cheshire Police HQ.

“I think that would make a massive difference, whether it’s education, whether in-stadium hate, whether it’s online hate.

“The way we’re going to tackle this most effectively is by doing it in a joined-up way where we’re mutually supportive. So I think that’s something we’d be keen to pursue.”

So would those who have been the target of abuse just for doing what they love – playing football.

‘No one wants to talk about this’

Kira Rai, a role model for British South Asians in football, said: “Perhaps there needs to be an overhaul, everyone needs to come together and actually deal with these uncomfortable conversations because they’re not necessarily fun conversations that we have.

“No one really wants to talk about this, and I can understand why. For real change, for genuine change to actually occur, you have to have these difficult conversations.

“You have to listen to player stories, to fan stories, to anyone’s stories in football, in society, to actually get to the bottom of it.”

And as some players showed last weekend in the Women’s Super League, change does not come by taking a knee, but taking a stand.

Stephen Lawrence’s mother has branded one of his killers a “coward” and a “liar” after he admitted his role in her son’s murder – but refused to reveal who else was involved.

David Norris, 49, spoke publicly at a parole board hearing for the first time on Tuesday about the racist attack on the 18-year-old, who was stabbed to death by a group of up to six youths in Eltham, southeast London, on 22 April 1993.

He said he was “deeply sorry” after he punched Stephen on the back of his head while he was crouched on the ground on his knees.

Norris, who was 16 at the time, said he could name the rest of the gang, including the member he saw holding a 22cm-long knife after the murder, but feared for his family’s safety.

He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years and three months in January 2012, more than 18 years later, after he was found guilty of murder alongside Gary Dobson at the Old Bailey.

The other suspects in the case – brothers Jamie and Neil Acourt, who were later jailed for unrelated drug offences, Luke Knight, and Matthew White, who died in 2021, have never been convicted.

The Acourt brothers and Knight have denied being involved in the attack on Stephen Lawrence, while White was named as a suspect after his death.

Norris is making his first bid for freedom at a parole board hearing live-streamed from his prison to the Royal Courts of Justice, where he can only be seen on camera from behind.

Speaking outside court after watching two days of evidence, Stephen’s mother Baroness Doreen Lawrence, 72, said the “police now have no excuse not to act”.

“He says he’s sorry for the pain he caused me and my family. I don’t believe him,” she said.

“The only person he is sorry for is himself. As far as I’m concerned, he is a coward.

“He refused to show his face. He needs to look me in the eye and tell me exactly what he did and why he did it.”

Norris, a Category B prisoner, said he was no longer the “16-year-old horrible violent racist” and told Stephen’s family “I’m so sorry and please forgive me”.

But the hearing was told Norris has used racist language, including calling a female prison officer the N-word in October 2022, and was involved in “grooming” a vulnerable young prisoner to join the English Defence League the following year.

Baroness Lawrence said it had been “painful” to listen to Norris’s application for release and it is “crystal clear he is not safe to be released”.

“He is a danger to the public and a danger to people like me. He was a violent racist and is still a violent racist. He has not changed,” she said.

She said it was “numbing and incredibly frustrating” to hear Norris describe her son’s murder “but he is not telling the truth” and “trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes”.

“He was and remains a liar. Only if he tells the truth can anyone, including me, start to think he is truly sorry,” she said.

“The parole board should not fall for his lies and deception”.

Baroness Lawrence said it was “deeply shocking” the police and authorities have known for years Norris admitted his involvement in her son’s murder after he said he first confessed to a Catholic priest in 2018.

The Metropolitan Police closed its investigation in 2020 but the College of Policing has since launched a review.

“The police stopped investigating Stephen’s murder five years ago and have done nothing since, despite everything that has been revealed in that time,” she said.

“The police must now urgently investigate. This person can name the other killers and says he would love to do so. The police must do everything in their power to obtain that evidence and bring all of Stephen’s murderers to justice.

“The man owes me the truth and the Met owe me justice.”

Norris’s parole board hearing will continue on Friday in private, with a decision on whether he should be kept in prison, released, or moved to an open prison expected 14 days later.

Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Ward said: “Officers have been closely monitoring David Norris’ parole hearing and we remain committed to achieving the arrest, prosecution and conviction of all of those responsible for Stephen’s murder. We have commissioned the College of Policing to conduct a review of the investigations since October 2013 into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

“The review is being conducted independently of the Metropolitan Police and we give it our full backing and support. The review is being led by an experienced investigator working for the College and will focus on identifying any outstanding lines of enquiry which could reasonably lead to a suspect being brought to justice.”