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Pressure groups - find the group online!

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Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan

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The government has now said it will lift the intended threshold from £1m to £2.5m.

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Influence of Pressure Groups

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Fabian Society - The Fabian Society is Britain’s oldest political think tank. Founded in 1884, the Society is at the forefront of developing political ideas and public policy on the left.

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Minor party with influence

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The Green surge is about to break Labour

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Zack Polanski’s increasing popularity has huge implications for the future of British politics

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Good recent example for Rights

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2 party system (or not)

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At a fringe meeting on Monday, former Brexit minister Lord Frost gave a brutal assessment of the Conservatives' prospects under its current leader.

"I think the mood of this conference so far is far too positive. And I think we have to be honest about the situation we find ourselves in," he told a tent packed with Tory activists.

The party had lost 10 million votes between the 2019 general election and 2024 and its dire opinion poll ratings appeared to be in free fall, he told them.

"Everything is getting worse and it has done so consistently since November last year.

"We were on 25% of the vote then, we are on 16% of the vote now.

"So no prescription for the party works unless we accept that the situation is really bad and we are on the edge of ceasing to exist as a mainstream party."

He did not mention Badenoch by name but criticised the "torpor" of the party over the past year, since she became leader, which he said had made it more difficult to "recreate a proper, strong Conservative Party".

"We need to stop rubbishing Reform or at least stop rubbishing people who vote for Reform," he said to cheers from Tory activists.

"We look to the country like we've got some sort of right to votes. We look entitled."

Frost said the answer was a shift to the right on policy and a clearer definition of what the Tory party stands for, with no place in it for those who did not agree.

Frost's gloomy prognosis is not shared by other senior Tory figures, in public at least.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis joked this week that Nigel Farage asks him to defect to Reform UK every time he sees him.

"Oh, every time I see him and Lee Anderson. I mean, 'the doors always open, David', and because it's a daytime programme I won't say what I said," he told BBC Radio 5's Matt Chorley.

At a fringe meeting on Monday, Davis said he believed Kemi Badenoch was "on the right lines" and the party could win the next election.

He argued that the UK was on the brink of a financial crisis "because there is no way out of the current financial circumstance that is available to the Labour Party".

And this, he argued, will present "enormous opportunities" for the Conservatives, who he said are prepared to make the "tough decisions" needed to get the country's finances back on track.

Just as the run up to the 1979 general election was overshadowed by economic turmoil and decline, so it will be in 2029, claimed the veteran Tory MP.

"As the only person here who actually served under Margaret Thatcher," he told the packed fringe meeting.

"I can tell you that in the late 70s, she was being talked down too.

"For precisely the same reasons. A bit too tough, a bit too hard edged, a bit too dangerous... but then we had a crisis and, suddenly, Thatcher was the right answer.

"If we have another crisis, then Badenoch will be the right answer too."

It's not a message the Tory leader is likely to repeat in her conference speech on Wednesday - but how she calibrates her response to the threat of Farage and Reform will have a major bearing on whether she will survive long enough to test the theory out.

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Friend or foe? Tories grapple with rise of Reform

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Tories fear they face an existential threat from Reform UK but opinion is divided on how to fight back.

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Tory main ideas

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Conservatives would scrap stamp duty, Badenoch announces

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Kemi Badenoch unveils major new policy in her first conference speech as Conservative leader.

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Police to get broader powers to crack down on repeated protests

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The move is not a ban on protests but “about restrictions and conditions”, Shabana Mahmood tells the BBC.

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Tories open to pact with Reform

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Good morning. In May, when Reform UK took control of 10 councils in England after successful election results, Nigel Farage, the party leader, promised that the new Reform councillors would slash wasteful spending, not least by purging funding for anything "woke". Those with more experience of local government finances were sceptical, and today the Financial Times has a good story that shows why they were right not to take the Reform claims at face value. In her story, Anna Gross says:

Kent's local authority is likely to raise council tax rates next year as Reform UK has struggled to find big savings under an Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting drive.

Kent was one of 10 English councils that Nigel Farage's rightwing populist party seized in a swath of victories at local elections in May this year. He vowed to save "a lot of money" by abolishing "wasteful" spending.

But Diane Morton, Reform's cabinet member for adult social care on Kent county council, told the Financial Times that services in Kent were already "down to the bare bones".

"We've got more demand than ever before and it's growing," she said, stressing she did not believe access to those services should be limited. "We just want more money."

Gross quotes Morton as saying Kent is likely to raise council tax by 5%, the maximum allowed.

Why is this relevant? Because at the Conservative party conference today Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, is also promising colossal savings - worth £47bn over the course of the next parliament. Half that money will come from welfare cuts.

In a news release, the party says:

On welfare we will replace the broken system of sickness benefits with one that properly targets help to those who need it most.

That will include stopping claims for people with low level mental health problems because what is really needed is treatment and support, not cash.

We will also ensure that only British citizens can access welfare - ensuring that citizenship of this country means something.

The Conservative party are also committing to reversing any lifting of the two-child benefit cap.

Our measures will bring the welfare bill down by £23bn.

We will also take significant steps to reform the Civil Service.

There were 384,000 civil servants in 2016, but today that number has risen to a staggering 517,000.

This is unsustainable, so the Conservative party will bring those numbers back down to 2016 level: a measure that will save one pound in every four spent.

This will represent a saving of £8bn.

The Conservatives will also deliver serious cuts to the overseas aid budget because we cannot justify taxing people in this country to pay for billions of spending abroad. This will save nearly £7bn.

Additionally, the Conservatives will deliver significant savings through its Borders plan, which will end the asylum hotel scandal by removing all those who arrive illegally and save at least £3.5bn. By ensuring that benefits and social housing are for UK nationals we will free up nearly £4bn of council housing subsidy.

Finally, the Conservatives will scrap the costly and ineffective green subsidies being pushed by Ed Miliband, freeing the taxpayer and the public finances from his eco-experimentation and Net Zero by 2050 zealotry.

The Tories are also announcing that they would use part of the savings to fund a £5,000 national insurance bonus for young people, to be used towards the cost of a first home.

Stride has been doing interviews this morning, ahead of his speech to the conference. I will post the highlights soon.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, opens the morning session of the conference. Other speakers on the platform are Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, at 10.30am; Julia Lopez, the shadow technology secretary, at 10.55am: and Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, at 11.30am.

10am: Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secreary, and Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, take part in a fringe meeting on aid.

10.30am: Stride speaks at a fringe event organised by Next Gen Tories.

11.40am: James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, takes part in a Q&A at an Onward fringe.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

1pm: Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, speaks at a fringe meeting on winning back young voters. At the same time Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, is speaking at an event on lessons to be learned from Germany, and Katie Lam is speaking at a fringe meeting on crime.

1.30pm: Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, takes part in a Q&A at a Spectator fringe.

2pm: Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, opens the afternoon session of the conferences. Other speakers on the platform are Helen Whateley, the shadow work and pensions secretary, at 2.25pm; Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, at 2.50pm; Nigel Huddleston, the shadow culture secretary, at 3.15pm; and Cleverly at 3.40pm.

2.30pm: Patel takes part in a fringe Q&A organised by the Coalition for Global Prosperity.

3.15pm: Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, speaks at a fringe meeting on migration.

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Tories claim they could save £47bn by slashing welfare, overseas aid and civil service - UK politics live

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Shadow chancellor Mel Stride sets out cost-cutting plans as Tory party conference continues in Manchester

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2 party system?

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There is broad and deep reflection from plenty here - from the cabinet to councillors - that the pitch right now from Labour to the country isn't good enough.

This is why we are seeing a sharpening in the language and the policies being presented now.

No fewer than 10 cabinet ministers are addressing this conference from the main stage on Monday.

The centrepiece address will be from Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who will argue that Reform presents a threat to the British economy with the potential, she will argue, for more borrowing and rising barriers to international trade.

But perhaps more striking is the speech from the new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

She has been dubbed 'the Terminator' by the tabloids.

She gives every impression she might regard that nickname as a bit wishy-washy, a bit namby-pamby.

"You won't always like what I'll do," she will say, addressing Labour activists in front of her directly.

In other words, her instincts and approach in the Home Office might make some within the party squeamish.

But she sees it as absolutely essential - and the clue is in the candid observations she has already shared here at an event on the conference fringe.

"We can reclaim the mantle that was once ours and can be again: we will be the party of the working class," she said - an acknowledgement that, right now at least, they are not.

It is a reflection, in a sentence, of how this party perceives its predicament and what it is trying to do about it.

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Labour grapples with threat from Reform UK at party conference

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The Labour gathering in Liverpool is awash with talk of the rise of Nigel Farage's party as well as the ambitions of Andy Burnham.

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Inside The Founding Of Jeremy Corbyn’s New Party: ‘End This Horrible Power Struggle’

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The trials and tribulations of founding a new party on the left. Can they unite? What challenges lie ahead? Sienna Rodgers reports

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Keir Starmer calls Reform migrant policy ‘racist’ and ‘immoral’

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The prime minister said he needed “space” to make good on the promises he made at last year’s general election.

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Chris Mason: Starmer unflinching as he seeks to take on Reform

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The prime minister has stepped up his framing of the “open fight” between Labour and Reform UK.

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Civil Liberties

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Digital ID cards will make it tougher to work in UK illegally, says Keir Starmer

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The prime minister says Labour has shied away from illegal immigration concerns, but says the new ID will make “our borders more secure”.

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Among the other plans set out by the government are expanding the list of accepted ID to vote in Great Britain to UK-issued bank cards, which display the voter's name.

Labour opposed the introduction of voter ID under the Conservatives in 2023 but in its election manifesto the party only promised to "address inconsistencies" in the rules "that prevent legitimate voters from voting", rather than scrapping the policy entirely.

Some 4% of people who did not vote at last year's general election said this was because of voter ID rules, according to the Electoral Commission.

Pressed over whether the security checks of digital banks were robust enough to allow bank cards to be used as a legitimate form of voter ID, Ali said: "We're going to make sure we take the time to introduce the appropriate changes, and that those changes are done gradually, to make sure that there aren't any risks of abuses or things going wrong."

The government said it would also work towards creating an automated voter registration scheme over the coming years, with safeguards so that people are aware of their registration status and can opt-out if they wish.

Currently people in the UK need to register in order to vote, which can be done online or using a paper form.

The Electoral Commission estimates that around seven million people are incorrectly registered or missing from the electoral register entirely, with the issue disproportionately affecting private renters and young people.

In a 2023 report it suggested an automated system could involve organisations like the Passport Office providing Electoral Registration Officers with the names and addresses of people eligible to vote so they can be registered.

The government said its plans would mean individuals would not necessarily need to register to vote and instead those eligible could be directly added to the electoral register through better sharing of data between government agencies.

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Voting age to be lowered to 16 by next general election

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Other planned changes include expanding voter ID to include bank cards and moving to automatic registration.