“The Conservative Party has a brand, which is ‘grown up and competent’, and that is what we need to recover.”
Fifty-three Conservatives opposed the tiering plan last December, the largest Covid-related rebellion to date.
That’s the biggest Tory revolt so far on a virus-related division, and enough potentially to defeat the Government in future.
From calling the measures “dystopian”, to criticising Whitty and Vallance’s latest graph, there were some scathing speeches.
Onwards to Anglia, where the Liberal Democrats and Tories will be fighting hard over a small clutch of possible gains.
So no more dropouts after Sam Gyimah’s departure earlier this afternoon. The first ballot will be held on Thursday.
Several Ministers helped to see off the Government’s best hope of avoiding a full-on crisis in the Party – and perhaps of saving Brexit too.
“There’s a lot of focus on women in boardrooms…But this is not the place where business is being re-imagined.”
It is hard to appoint more women to Cabinet when there are few senior women to promote. We count only four at Minister of State level.
Continuing our ConservativeHome series on the key contests in each region or nation.
Plus: The SNP take over a bar, a rumpus at Women to Win, no booze at Steve Hilton’s book launch…and from Russia with Love to Soames.
It was perfectly possible to foresee where undecided voters were likely to go when at last they got round to making up their minds.
Within the autism community, almost eight in ten will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life. The NHS must provide better support.