Chris Whiteside for the North

  What is it with Labour governments? The first thing they always do  - is  slam pensioners in the kidneys With Gordon Brown and Tony Blair it was a £5 billion a year raid on pension funds which, as was accurately described by the late Frank Field, one of the few Labour MPs I ever had any time for, transformed Britain from having some of the best-funded peNsions in Europe to one of the worst. With Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, it was adopting a policy on pensions which Labour themselves had argued in opposition would lead to 3,850 pensioner deaths each winter.   The second thing they always do  -  is  bash the countryside With Tony Blair it was crippling policies on small farms combined with the ideological application of a rigid approach to country spots which showed a grave lack of understanding of the countryside. With Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, it's a tax and inheritance policy which appears guaranteed to result in the break-up or closure of hundreds of family-ru

 

David Williams is political editor of the Sunday Express. Here are some extracts from his article today on the election of the new Conservative leader. "Britain’s most enthusiastic Tories this morning crowded into the elegant basement of a grand events venue around the corner from Trafalgar Square for the announcement of their new party leader. The venue – 8 Northumberland Avenue – says on its website that it strives to deliver “‘wow’ moments”. And the election of Kemi Badenoch as the new leader of the Conservative party counts as one. Her fans jumped to their feet and whooped when she was named as the winner by Bob Blackman, the chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench MPs. The Tories have their fourth woman leader. And they will take delight in pointing out that Labour has yet to have one. As someone who spent much of her childhood in Nigeria, she delights in making the argument that Britain is a unique country that should be proud of its past and excited about its future. To

I was pleased to see that Kemi Badenoch, for whom I voted, has been elected Conservative leader. On a turnout of 72.% of eligible Conservative members she won by 53,806 votes to 43,801. Here is an extract from the statement by the returning officer:

"I don't want to repeat a budget like this ever again" Chancellor Rachel Reeves , quoted in the "i" newspaper Funnily enough, ten million pensioners and millions of taxpayers,  especially farmers and those running other businesses large or small,  don't want her to ever repeat a budget like this again either.

 A BMG Research survey for i shows that just a quarter of the public feel positive about the Government’s first Budget this week, with 40 per cent disapproving of the package set out by Rachel Reeves. You can read the i report by clicking on the link just below:   Tories lead in polls for first time in three years after Budget . The poll also found that  "Voters are much more likely to say that the measures announced by the Chancellor will leave them worse off, than say that they will benefit from the higher spending funded by tax rises and borrowing." Other findings included: Sir Keir Starmer’s personal ratings have suffered, reaching a new low of net -26, with only 23 per cent of the public approving of his performance in office compared with 49 per cent dissatisfied. This was also the first voting intention poll for three years to show a Conservative lead, although only by 1% which is within the statistical margin of error. Robert Struthers of BMG said:  “Our post-Budget p