The race to become the new Conservative leader is heating up, with two contenders making their pitches to Conservative MPs ahead of the first round of voting on Wednesday. Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly are among the six candidates hoping to secure fellow Tory MPs’ support to make it to the final round of voting by party members in November. Other contenders include Dame Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride. The new Parliamentary term has also brought with it a packed legislative programme, which includes votes on bills to bring rail operators into public ownership and support the creation of a new publicly owned energy company.
The House of Commons has also reconvened, with ministers potentially making statements on issues such as the infected blood scandal and the situation in the Middle East. One bill returning to the Commons is the “budget responsibility” legislation, which requires the government’s economic forecasters to assess every financial announcement in the future. The government has described the plans as “a fiscal lock” to avoid the kind of economic instability that followed Liz Truss’s mini-budget in September 2022. The Office for Budget Responsibility was sidelined during this period, leading to concern among ministers about economic stability.
Outside Parliament, Kemi Badenoch argued that the Conservative party needs to focus on “renewal” rather than simply criticizing the Labour party. Meanwhile, James Cleverly called for the Conservatives to “think and act like Conservatives again” and abolish stamp duty on all homes, saying that it is stopping too many people getting on the housing ladder. However, the tax is currently paid on purchases of homes for more than £250,000, or £425,000 for a first-time buyer.
The new Parliamentary term comes after the Labour government spent the summer painting a gloomy picture of the public finances, laying the ground for potential tax rises and spending cuts in October’s Budget. However, some Labour MPs believe that the government has been too negative in its messaging over the summer. There has also been a backlash from opposition parties and charities over the decision to remove Winter Fuel Payments for millions of pensioners not on pension credit. However, ministers are expected to focus on delivering positive changes on areas such as housing, energy, and the railways in the coming weeks
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