From 4h agoKey events15m agoWhy is the Tory conference happening before Labour’s this year?1h agoWhy is GB News allowed to let Suella Braverman be interviewed by Lee Anderson?1h agoSammy Wilson says new NI border checks from Sunday will mean DUP cannot resume power sharing2h agoStarmer says next week’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection ‘of monumental significance’3h agoSunak says revised growth figures show he can be trusted to halve inflation and grow economy3h agoCurbing power of councils to introduce 20mph zones would put drivers and walkers at risk, says safety charity RoSPA3h agoSunak’s plan for motorists will ’make roads worse’, say leading cycling and walking organisations4h agoDowden says UN-led multilateral system not right body to oversee international regulation of AI4h agoCurrent parliament likely to mark ‘decisive and permanent shift to higher-tax economy’, says IFS4h agoRishi Sunak says 20mph limits and Ulez ‘aren’t the values of British people’Filters BETAKey events (10)Rishi Sunak (6)Keir Starmer (4)15m ago09.08 EDTWhy is the Tory conference happening before Labour’s this year?
A reader asks:
@AndrewSparrow maybe a question for the #politicslive blog but party conferences normal play out as Lib/Lab/Con as long as I remember but this year it’s Lib/Con/Lab meaning @UKLabour gets the ‘last say’ and can react to what the others announce. Is there a reason for the change?
— Gareth Hanks (@Garethhanks) September 29, 2023
It would be nice to learn that some arcane constitutional principle was in play, and that Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, had intervened to declare that the Conservatives were no longer entitled to the final slot (often the best one, in most presentational contexts) on grounds of fairness (or perhaps as a sanction for uselessness). Sadly, the answer is a lot more boring.
The main UK parties have staged their conferences with the Liberals first, Labour next and the Conservatives last since the 1950s. It has run like this regardless of who was in government.
But several years ago Labour wanted to make a block booking for the ACC conference centre in Liverpool over multiple years. That was fine, but the week they wanted for 2023 was already booked, and so Labour asked the other parties if they would be happy to switch. And they agreed.
Sorry. It’s not much of a tale. But it does show the parties can agree on some things.
Updated at 09.12 EDT33m ago08.50 EDT
Keir Starmer has compared the SNP government in Scotland to the Conservative one at Westminster, saying they have both failed.
Speaking while campaigning in Rutherglen and Hamilton West this morning, Starmer said:
If either of those parties, either here in Scotland or in the United Kingdom, had a record they could stand on they would stand on it. They would be coming here saying ‘this is what we have delivered, this is why you should vote for us, these are the things we have done’.
But they can’t because they have delivered nothing, and the more…
2023-09-29 08:08:28
Post from www.theguardian.com
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