Top Tories are setting out their policies as the Conservative Party conference kicks off in Manchester – with levelling up, immigration and the next general election on the agenda.
A number of stories have already broken overnight, including:
• New levelling up funding for “overlooked” British towns
• Tory backbenchers hitting out over the “unsustainable” level of tax
• Pressure from a former leadership contender for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights
• Reports an election could be called when inflation falls below 3%
• Attacks by a minister on celebrities criticising government policy
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Rishi Sunak has announced that more than 50 “overlooked” British towns will be given £20m each over the next 10 years to regenerate high streets, tackle anti-social behaviour and grow their local economies.
However, figures suggest this £1bn of levelling up funding will mostly go to constituencies held by Conservative MPs – or Labour seats with small majorities.
The prime minister has claimed that politicians have always focused on cities, despite many Britons living and working in towns.
He said: “The result is the half-empty high streets, rundown shopping centres and anti-social behaviour that undermine many towns’ prosperity and hold back people’s opportunity – and without a new approach, these problems will only get worse.”
Mr Sunak is set to use his first conference as leader to focus on policies that could narrow the gap against Sir Keir Starmer, with opinion polls currently putting the government about 18 points behind Labour.
But on the fringes of the conference, backbench Tories are set to urge the PM to slash an “unsustainable” tax burden on consumers and businesses – with former prime minister Liz Truss calling for corporation tax to be lowered back to 19%.
The Tory leader is also coming under pressure to consider quitting the European Convention on Human Rights, with Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch becoming the second cabinet minister in a week to raise the issue.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Times is reporting that Jeremy Hunt was secretly recorded saying Mr Sunak will call an election once inflation falls below 3%, with the chancellor telling Tory activists that the Bank of England forecasts this will be achieved next autumn.
Two cabinet ministers have given interviews to Sunday newspapers as the four-day conference gets under way.
Sunday’s focus will be on the state of the nation, followed by the economy on Monday. Tackling Channel crossings and bringing down NHS waiting lists will follow on Tuesday, paving the way for the prime minister’s speech on Wednesday.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Suella Braverman attacked celebrities who have criticised her controversial immigration policies – dismissing them as “pampered and out of touch”.
The Conservative conference hasn’t even begun and already we’re seeing some very traditional conservative flashpoints emerge: tax, migration, the environment and Europe.
Dozens of MPs have launched a pre-emptive strike on the government by signing a pledge vowing to vote against any further tax rises.
One signatory described this as simply drawing “a line in the sand”.
There’ll also be a “rally for growth” on Monday, hosted by former prime minister Liz Truss – who this time last year was fighting her own internal critics.
But there’s also chest beating coming from within the cabinet.
Former leadership contender Kemi Badenoch has used a newspaper interview to make some not-so-subtle interventions on the hot-button topics of net zero and the European Convention on Human Rights.
That comes days after another person with ambitions for the top job, Suella Braverman, made her own somewhat freelance incursion into broader migration policy.
Rishi Sunak wants this conference to be about long-term planning and decision making.
But he can’t escape short-term challenges – and the political vibrations they are sending through his party.
BBC presenter Gary Lineker has been a vocal critic of the government’s approach, while Sir Elton John recently warned their policies risk “legitimising hate and violence”.
Ms Braverman told the newspaper they were members of a “virtue-signalling elite” who lecture Britons from villas and private jets, and suggested they were out of touch with the challenges faced by everyday people.
Watch Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips at 8.30am on Sky News – live from the Conservative Party conference. He will be joined by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, former home secretary Dame Priti Patel, and Labour’s shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray.
Ministers will this week unveil a revamp of the Whitehall investment hub that they hope will secure hundreds of billions of capital flows into the UK in the coming years.
Sky News understands that Baroness Gustafsson, the investment minister, will address a private event on Thursday designed to relaunch the Office for Investment (OfI).
Government sources said the revamp – in which Sir Keir Starmer’s top officials and the Treasury have been closely involved – would align the UK’s ‘investment resources’ under a single brand.
The new OfI has absorbed teams from other Whitehall directorates with the objective of reducing confusion among international investors in Britain, according to the sources.
Greg Jackson, the Octopus Energy chief, and Baroness Lane Fox, who chairs the British Chambers of Commerce, are expected to speak at the event in central London alongside senior government officials, according to people familiar with the agenda.
Thursday’s summit will come days before ministers launch the new industrial strategy, with the OfI charged with targeting investors in priority sectors such as clean energy, advanced manufacturing and life sciences.
A beefed-up investment hub was among the key recommendations of the former business minister Lord Harrington’s review – commissioned by then-chancellor Jeremy Hunt – in 2023.
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One insider said last year’s International Investment Summit, at which ministers claimed to have drawn £63bn of new investment for the UK, provided a solid foundation for the revamped OfI.
A further event designed to attract inward investment will be held in Birmingham later this year, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced on Wednesday.
The Department for Business and Trade declined to comment on Wednesday afternoon.
The Post Office is considering selling assets or taking on new borrowings to help deliver an ambition to boost sub-postmasters’ pay by £120m this year, its chairman has said.
Sky News has learnt that Nigel Railton, who was confirmed as the state-owned company’s long-term chair last week, told thousands of branch managers that it had ring-fenced £86m so far to increase their remuneration.
In a speech delivered in Chesterfield, Mr Railton is understood to have told sub-postmasters that the Post Office’s board was redoubling its efforts to meet the target of up to £120m for pay rises.
The company was exploring options including additional cost-savings, further asset sales, sale-and-leaseback opportunities, and borrowing options, he told them.
One source said Mr Railton had said on Wednesday morning that without actions already taken by Post Office management, sub-postmasters would be left with pay increases this year of just 2%, rather than the 20% it had now secured.
The progress towards its £120m target comes just three months after the Post Office chairman was forced to deliver a bleaker prognosis to thousands of sub-postmasters keen to have their faith restored in the scandal-hit company.
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In March, Mr Railton said he had yet to gain certainty from Whitehall about a £120m increase for this year.
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Call to sue govt over delays
“Our funding discussions are positive and ongoing, but I want to be honest that we are operating in a challenging financial environment,” he told them at the time.
The Post Office is reliant on funding from the government, and last November outlined plans for an ambitious transformation of its business, which includes a substantial number of job cuts.
It remains hopeful of making up the £34m shortfall to reach its £120m target, according to insiders, as it seeks to rebuild its public and internal reputation in the aftermath of the Horizon IT scandal.
A Post Office spokesman confirmed Mr Railton’s remarks on Wednesday.
Elon Musk has criticised US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, calling it “outrageous” and a “disgusting abomination”.
The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May, and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”.
The tech billionaire hit out at the tax cuts on his platform X, writing: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Image: Elon Musk left his ‘special government employee’ role last week. Pic: AP.
In American politics, “pork” is a political metaphor used when government spending is allocated to local projects, usually to benefit politicians’ constituencies.
The White House brushed Musk’s comments aside, claiming they did not surprise the president.
In a press conference on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill”.
She added: “This is one, big, beautiful bill.
“And he’s sticking to it.”
The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to cut back $9.4bn in already approved spending, taking money away from DOGE.
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What did Musk achieve at DOGE?
The billionaire tweeted: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
He also suggested voting out politicians who advanced the president’s tax bill.
“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Musk wrote in another X post.
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Questions have also been raised about whether the department has actually saved taxpayers as much money as suggested.
Musk initially had ambitions to slash government spending by $2trn (£1.5trn) – but this was dramatically reduced to $1trn (£750bn) and then to just $150bn (£111bn).
Image: Elon Musk brought his son X Æ A-12 to the Oval Office during a press conference earlier this year. Pic: Reuters.
He recently told The Washington Post: “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC to say the least.”
By law, status as a “special government employee” means he could only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which would have ended around 30 May.