“David Cameron today warns EU leaders to ‘fix it’ for Britain or he will lead us to the exit door. … The PM reveals for the first time he would be prepared to head the out campaign in a referendum if he fails to win us a better deal. … In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, he admits he has ‘a job to do’ to convince our army of readers that we should stay in. … But asked if he could see himself leading the out campaign, he replied: ‘If we don’t get what I want, I’ve said I’ll rule nothing out. And by that I mean I’ll rule nothing out.'” – Sun on Sunday (£)
And comment:
> Yesterday: ToryDiary – Should Britain leave the EU? Come and hear Steve Baker at ConHome’s Conservative Conference fringe meeting
“David Cameron is facing a showdown with EU judges and his party on Europe this week, amid claims he has privately pledged not to pull Britain out of the EU. … a new biography reveals Cameron has repeatedly said privately that he has no intention of leading Britain out of the EU. … The book, by Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott, details how the prime minister has watered down the demands he is making in his renegotiation with Brussels.” – Sunday Times (£)
Read Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott’s revelations about Cameron and Europe (£)
“Britain is to buy a new fleet of super-drones to spearhead an all-out blitz on IS. … David Cameron wants jihadists in Syria and Iraq targeted as part of a £600million offensive. … The PM decided to invest further after drones killed two Brit jihadists in Syria last month. And he says he will not hesitate to order further strikes. … He told The Sun on Sunday: ‘We need to address the threat of terrorism from every angle.'” – Sun on Sunday (£)
And comment:
“The last Briton held in Guantanamo Bay – now hoping to be freed within weeks – has given a searing account of his 14-year ordeal to The Mail on Sunday. … Last night senior Conservative MP David Davis said this newspaper’s revelations ‘massively strengthened’ the case for an independent inquiry into Britain’s alleged involvement in the systematic torture of terror suspects. … He said: ‘Only by dealing with it can we restore our nation’s honour and integrity.'” – Mail on Sunday
“Chancellor George Osborne has given his most revealing interview yet… in which he talks about how his son almost drowned, how he wooed his wife from under a close friend’s nose – and his own personal ambitions. … He ruled out a path to power now, saying he deserved to be sacked if he showed disloyalty to David Cameron. But he conceded that when the time comes for Cameron to leave No 10, he would ‘see how it flies’. … Osborne said Britain could ‘walk tall’ and had ‘got its mojo back’ thanks to the economic revival.” – Mail on Sunday
Read the Mail on Sunday’s interview with George Osborne in full
(Plus: he lists the Angel of the North, pictured right, as one of his favourite works of art.)
“David Cameron is facing a cabinet revolt over attempts to ensure a ‘coronation’ for George Osborne as Tory leader when the prime minister quits. … Amid fury that the Tory conference will be arranged to further Osborne’s interests, at least 18 ministers and former ministers are now actively discussing standing against the chancellor. … One cabinet minister, however, told The Sunday Times they would not stand for a ‘cosy stitch-up’ and another condemned the briefing as an example of ‘George’s ambition getting the better of him’.” – Sunday Times (£)
“Millions of grandparents could be paid by the State to look after their grandchildren under radical reforms to be introduced by Chancellor George Osborne. … For the first time, they will be able to claim paid ‘granny leave’ or ‘grandpa leave’ – at £140 a week – to look after new grandchildren for up to a year. … The Chancellor is to announce that new parents will be able to transfer their parental leave allowance to their newborn’s grandparents, allowing them to get back to work quicker, if they wish.” – Mail on Sunday
“The Conservative Party can offer people from working-class backgrounds the ‘British Dream’ where there is no bar to social mobility, International Development Secretary Justine Greening will say. … In a sign that David Cameron will make an audacious bid for Labour voters when he addresses his party conference in Manchester this week, Ms Greening sets out her vision for ‘levelled-up Britain’, a version of the American Dream where anyone can achieve what they want through hard work and where ‘rough diamonds’ are given opportunities.” – Independent on Sunday
> Yesterday: Stephen Crabb and Ruth Davidson on Comment – Our upbringing, strong women, hard work – and the One Nation vision that inspires us
“The Conservatives are to spend £250,000 to help more working-class Tories become MPs at the next election in five years’ time. … Lord Feldman, the party’s chairman, will announce the new means-tested bursary scheme to support Conservative parliamentary candidates at the opening of the Tory conference in Manchester. … The programme is intended to give more opportunities to Tory supporting candidates who would otherwise be unable to afford to give the time to campaigning to win a seat in 2020.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Ministers are on a collision course with universities over plans to slash the number of foreign students coming to Britain by at least 25,000 a year by setting tougher English language tests. … Home Office officials last week held a workshop with representatives of the universities to spell out plans to ditch the existing system and replace it with the more rigorous international English language testing system.” – Sunday Times (£)
“Government ministers have buried NHS statistics that show the service hurtling towards an unprecedented £2bn deficit to avoid overshadowing the Tory party conference, say top NHS officials. … One senior figure at the health service regulator Monitor said his organisation had been ‘leaned on’ by Whitehall to delay its report, which shows that NHS finances are worsening. … Neither Monitor’s quarterly report on how the NHS is faring, nor equivalent data from the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA), have been published, as they usually are around the time of the organisations’ board meetings last month.” – The Observer
And comment:
“David Willetts, then in the Downing Street Policy Unit and later a government minister, recalled that when working for Mrs Thatcher during the miners’ strike the comparison with a civil war was apposite. … ‘You would be in a meeting with Mrs T on some other subject and messengers would come in with reports like “Kent is solid . . . Nottingham is with us . . . Yorkshire is in rebellion.” It did feel like a scene from one of Shakespeare’s history plays.'” – Charles Moore, Sunday Telegraph
Further extracts:
And comment:
“Councils and local authorities are to be blocked from boycotting Israeli products or pursuing other foreign policy goals that conflict with the government. … Conservative aides said the measure was a response to growing concern about the ‘militant actions of leftwing councils’ that they claimed was spurred on by the Labour leadership. … The Cabinet Office minister, Matthew Hancock, said the action was intended to prevent ‘playground politics’ from councils.” – The Observer
“Jeremy Corbyn today faced a post-conference barrage of friendly fire as Labour backers lined up to condemn his leadership. … Labour MP Simon Danczuk openly criticised Corbyn for failing to seize his chance to speak to the nation. … And actress Maureen Lipman tore into Corbyn for allegedly consorting with anti-Semitic figures, while also challenging him to publicly back the state of Israel. … In a final setback for Corbyn, a company now headed by the Labour leader’s new housing adviser was linked with tax avoidance.” – Mail on Sunday
> Yesterday:
“Thanks to his working tax credit changes, Osborne has unknowingly put depth-charges under his 2020 election strategy and timed the first explosions to occur in every constituency next April. This is the date when mega-cuts in the living standards of strivers will come into force. … Here again Labour can get on to the front foot. By throwing the party into the defence of the strivers, Corbyn will begin to change Labour’s image while doing nothing to undermine our protection of families who are on benefit.” – Frank Field, The Observer
More Corbyn-related comment:
“Denis Healey, one of the most towering figures of the post-war Labour Party, died yesterday aged 98. … The pugnacious former Chancellor fought long-running battles against Labour’s militant Left-wingers – including current leader Jeremy Corbyn – and was frequently described as the best Prime Minister the party never had. … But the peer was also renowned for his cultural ‘hinterland’ – he was a pianist who enjoyed opera, history, painting and photography – and for his long and happy marriage to his wife Edna, who died in 2010 aged 92.” – Mail on Sunday
“Former MP George Galloway has been questioned by police over allegations that he broke the law by publicly lying about a rival candidate during May’s Election campaign, The Mail on Sunday has learned. … Mr Galloway, the leader of Respect who is now standing for Mayor of London, was questioned after the Labour MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah, made a complaint to police.” – Mail on Sunday
“As leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond tried to boldly go where none of his predecessors had gone before and win independence for Scotland. … But the former First Minister overreached himself when he booked on to a British Airways flight as Star Trek’s James T. Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise.” – Mail on Sunday
“He is a red leftie with a white beard who likes nothing better than a handout. … But Jeremy Corbyn once surprised his family by dressing up as Santa. … Our exclusive photo shows the Labour leader, 66, dishing out gifts two years ago.” – Sun on Sunday (£)
“Granthan, Margaret Thatcher’s home town, has been revealed as England’s Viagra and Cialis ‘capital’, with the most prescriptions by doctors per patient, according to NHS data. … At Christchurch Methodist chapel, where Thatcher worshipped in the 1930s with her family, the Rev Jane Campbell said: ‘Grantham was once voted the most boring town in England. You could say this is just another form of recognition.'” – Sunday Times (£)