Britain’s Conservative Party elected outspoken MP Kemi Badenoch as its new leader on Saturday, making her the first woman of color to lead a major British political party.

She has promised to give the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by advocating for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics.

The new leader faces a daunting challenge in restoring the party’s reputation after years of division, scandal, and economic turbulence, hammering Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues such as the economy and immigration and returning the Conservatives to power in the 2029 election.

“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” Kemi Badenoch said in a victory address to a room full of Conservative legislators, staff, and journalists in London. She stated that the party’s role was to hold the Labour administration accountable while developing commitments and a government strategy.

Addressing the party’s electoral defeat, she stated, “We have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.”

“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve,” according to Badenoch.

Kemi Badenoch was Born in London

Kemi Badenoch, a business secretary in Sunak’s cabinet, was born in London to Nigerian parents and grew up in West Africa.

The former software engineer positions herself as a disruptor, advocating for a low-tax, free-market economy and promising to “rewire, reboot, and reprogram” the British state. Like her adversary Jenrick, she has opposed multiculturalism and advocated for decreased immigration, but unlike him, she has not asked that Britain abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.

Kemi Badenoch, a self-proclaimed hater of wokeness, opposes identity politics, gender-neutral toilets, and government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions in the United Kingdom. During the leadership race, she was chastised for claiming that “not all cultures are equally valid” and implying that maternity pay was excessive.

Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, predicted that under Badenoch, the Conservative Party would “swing to the right both in terms of its economic and social policies.”

He foretold that Badenoch will follow “what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy …. focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.”

Conservative Party Becoming More Diverse

While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole, with a decreasing membership of 132,000 mostly affluent, elderly white men, its higher echelons have become significantly more diverse.

Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, following Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss, who became prime ministers.

She is the second Conservative leader of color, following Sunak, and the first with African heritage. The center-left Labour Party has a more diversified membership, but its leaders have always been white men.

In a more than three-month leadership contest, Conservative MPs narrowed the field from six to two in a series of votes before presenting the last two to a vote of the party’s membership.

Both finalists were from the party’s right-wing and claimed they could reclaim votes from Reform U.K., the hard-right, anti-immigrant group led by populist leader Nigel Farage that has eroded Conservative support.

However, the party lost many votes to the winning party, Labour, and the centrist Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives are concerned that tacking right may move the party away from popular sentiment.

Kier Starmer’s Labor government has had a difficult first few months in power, plagued by unfavorable headlines, fiscal woes, and a sinking approval rating.

However, Bale stated that the historical record implies Badenoch’s chances of leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029 are slim.

“It’s quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manage to lead it to election victory,” according to him. “However, Keir Starmer did just that after 2019. So there are records to break.”

Source: AP

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(VOR News) – Following last month’s drop in inflation to 1.7%, the Bank of England now has all the data needed to decide whether to reduce interest rates next month.

From 2.2% in August, the rate of price growth has sharply declined and is now much below the 2% objective set by the central bank. We have returned to the state we were in at the beginning of 2021, just before Russia invaded Ukraine and increased energy prices.

Low interest rates and inflation will soon boost Labour, which relieves Rachel Reeves.

This will help her finance the investments in this month’s budget by allowing her to borrow money without scaring the financial markets.

A decline in departmental spending may be predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in conjunction with a decline in inflation. For example, the September inflation rate will decide the working-age benefit increase in April of the following year, saving billions on the welfare tab.

The OBR projects that the cost of servicing government debt will go down. It came to more than £100 billion in the fiscal year 2023–2024, or around 10% of all spending. This is because the Bank currently anticipates a quicker decline in borrowing costs.

In her budget for October 30, Reeves has the chance to raise long-term infrastructure expenditures while keeping actual spending on daily expenses same. This depends on the Treasury’s capacity to borrow money at a cheaper cost and the ability of Whitehall departments to set lower inflation-aware budgets.

This illustrates the significant influence that lowering inflation can have. Of course, the chancellor will still need to enact some big tax rises, but this might potentially be a part of a larger story that is far more positive about the UK than most analysts—including the Treasury—had previously thought.

A lot will depend on how the OBR evaluates the ensuing five years, as its March estimate cannot have altered significantly. It is therefore anticipated that significant revisions to the projected borrowing costs and inflation will be needed.

A forecast of borrowing costs needs to take the Bank of England’s response into consideration. Prior to the latest numbers being released, eighty percent of investors were certain that interest rates would be decreased by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.75% when policymakers met the following month.

Consequently, those odds have dropped to 90%, and as Bank governor Andrew Bailey told the Guardian earlier this month, there is an increasing possibility that rates may be further lowered in the coming year if inflation declines faster than expected.

The financial markets behaved as anticipated after the September inflation estimate was released. Because of sterling’s ongoing depreciation in currency markets.

The pound has fallen from $1.34 at the inflation end of last month to less than $1.30.

It is anticipated that a sizable portion of the nine members of the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC), which determines interest rates, will continue to harbor doubts regarding the likelihood of long-term price stability.

They will stress how the recent decline in inflation is a direct result of the recent decline in energy costs and their effects on sectors like transportation. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the average cost of gasoline decreased by 5.5 pence per liter to 136.8p in September of 2024.

MPC members, who are frequently impacted by the falling cost of transportation, will be concerned about the continuous, notable increase in food expenses. The main measure of longer-term inflationary trends, the core inflation number, was revealed at a significantly higher rate of 3.2%. Food and energy are not included in this figure due to their considerable volatility.

However, sluggish wage growth indicates that borrowing costs need to be lowered as the economy is about to collapse. These days, Beijing’s economic policies have a greater influence on oil prices than wars in the Middle East.

Additionally, China, the biggest consumer of oil in the world, is currently going through a major slowdown as a result of the stunning collapse of the real estate bubble.

The US economy is expected to expand on the other side of the Atlantic. The situation in Ukraine and the waning demand from its primary export markets, China and the US, are adding to the already heavy load that the rest of Europe is already carrying.

Interest rates will probably decrease more quickly than first predicted since the MPC will evaluate changes in interest rates in light of the state of the world economy.

Reeves will voice his disapproval of the way the world economy is going. Her goal is to restore public finances while making up for more than a decade of improper public spending allocations during the Conservative administration.

SOURCE: TGN

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Public leaders from Scotland and the United Kingdom have paid tribute to former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who died on Saturday at the age of 69.

Salmond, a key member of the Scottish independence movement, became unwell in North Macedonia on Saturday after delivering a speech, according to British media reports.

Salmond was presumed to have died of a heart attack, according to the British Press Association, but a post-mortem examination will be conducted to determine the cause.

Alex Salmond, Leading Figure In Scottish Independence Movement, Dies At Age 69

Tributes to Salmond, who was Scotland’s First Minister from 2007 to 2014 and led the Scottish National Party twice – from 1990 to 2000 and 2004 to 2014 – came from all sides of the political spectrum, led by King Charles.

“My wife and I are greatly saddened to hear of the sudden death of Alex Salmond,” the monarch told reporters. “His devotion to Scotland drove his decades of public service.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated, “For more than 30 years, Alex Salmond was a monumental presence in Scottish and UK politics. He leaves a lasting legacy. As First Minister of Scotland, he was strongly committed to Scotland’s tradition, history, and culture, as well as the communities he represented as MP (member of parliament) and MSP (member of the Scottish parliament) over many years. My sympathies are with all who knew him, including his family and loved ones. Today, on behalf of the UK government, I extend our sympathies.

Salmond had spent decades championing the cause of Scottish independence and came close to achieving it, receiving 45% of the vote when the matter was put to a referendum in September 2014.

Following the defeat, he resigned as first minister and SNP leader and was succeeded by Nicola Sturgeon, although he continued to work for Scottish independence through the newly established Alba Party, which he founded in 2021.

“I will never be able to thank Alex enough for all of his lessons, counsel, guidance, mentorship, love, and friendship, as well as everything he has done for Scotland. For many years, he was the nation’s father, and he has long been a father figure to me. Chris McEleny, General Secretary of the Alba Party, said on Saturday that his sympathies are with everyone in the family and everyone in Scotland who is mourning.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said he was “deeply shocked and saddened by the untimely death” and sent his condolences to Salmond’s wife Moira and family.

“Over many years, Alex made an enormous contribution to political life – not just in Scotland, but throughout the UK and beyond,” Swinney stated.

“Alex worked tirelessly and battled valiantly for his beloved country and its independence. He brought the Scottish National Party from the edges of Scottish politics into government and led Scotland so close to independence,” he said.

After losing his seat in parliament, Salmond maintained a prominent role in Scottish and British politics, serving as a commentator and hosting the Alex Salmond Show on Russian state broadcaster RT.

Alex Salmond, Leading Figure In Scottish Independence Movement, Dies At Age 69

In 2018, he sued the country’s government over allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him. Salmond said that the Scottish government denied him the opportunity to adequately defend himself against the allegations, which stemmed from his alleged behavior toward a member of staff at the official Bute House house, according to the Daily Record of Scotland.

A jury eventually cleared Salmond of all charges in a March 2020 trial.

“The terrible news of Alex Salmond’s death today will come as a shock to everybody who knew him in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this sad time, and on behalf of Scottish Labour, I extend our heartfelt condolences to everyone who will be mourning his loss,” said Anas Sarwar, leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

“Alex was a central figure in politics for over three decades and his contribution to the Scottish political landscape cannot be overstated.”

SOURCE | CNN

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