Tory plan to scrap green energy measures called ‘contradictory nonsense’ by environment groups – UK politics live

James Cleverly has condemned the plans by an Israeli minister to host the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

Related: UK Jewish groups condemn Israeli minister’s invite to Tommy Robinson

As PA Media reports, Israel’s diaspora and combating antisemitism minister Amichai Chikli has described Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as a “courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam”. Chikli also said he was “proud to host” Robinson in Israel later this month, in mid-October.

Asked about the invitation, Cleverly, a former foreign secretary, told a fringe meeting organised by Politico:

I have no doubt that a number of other people in the Israeli government are as uncomfortable with that as I am. I think it’s a foolish move on behalf of the individual that did that.

Tommy Robinson and others of his ilk are now wrapping themselves up in a pro-Jewish, pro-Israeli posture, because basically it’s an opportunity to do what they really want to do, which is to be anti-Muslim. So I think it’s an error.

Business groups have welcomed the Conservative party’s promise to scrap business rates for high street shops and pubs – but urged the party to go further.

Responding to the announcement, Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:

The BCC has long argued for fundamental reform of business rates to create a system that is fair and affordable. While reviving our high streets is important, any changes to the rates system must go further and benefit businesses of all sizes.

And Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief executive, said:

While plans to abolish business rates for hospitality, leisure and retail businesses could give high streets a boost, it’s more fundamental reform of a broken business rates system that is needed if we’re to incentivise the investment our country needs. Going further by shifting from a slab to a slice-based system would make a huge difference to increasing investment for businesses of all sizes and sectors, while also simplifying the system and removing the need for additional reliefs altogether.

The CBI is calling for a “sliced-based” rates system because the current system means a small increase in the value of a property can mean a huge increase in the rates bill. In a report last year it explained:

The existing business rates system is an ‘all or nothing’ or ‘slab’ tax – meaning the relevant multiplier applies to all of the rateable value of a building once a rateable value threshold is reached. This creates a series of cliff edges in the system which discourage businesses from expanding to more or larger premises.

The Conservative party is proposing 100% business rates relief on the retail, leisure and hospitality sector. It says 250,000 firms will benefit.

Environmental groups have condemned the Tory proposal announced by Claire Coutinho to scrap two green energy measures. (See 11.27am.)

Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said:

The Conservatives’ promise of cheaper energy while opposing wind and solar is contradictory nonsense. Renewable energy is far cheaper than building more fossil fuel plants … They say they want to protect the environment, but increasing fossil fuel reliance only makes things worse.

Angharad Hopkinson, a political campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said:

The shadow energy secretary is right to push the government to fulfil its promise to cut energy bills, but she is dead wrong to suggest that shifting away from clean power is the way to deliver it. Britain’s electricity prices are overwhelmingly set by expensive gas, not renewable energy.

And David Walsh, head of public affairs at WWF, said:

The green economy grew by 10% last year, responding to the clear and consistent signals from governments over the last 17 years thanks to the Climate Change Act. In a volatile world, investing in clean British energy and insulating homes is the way to cut bills and boost the economy to support jobs, families and the environment. Stepping back from climate action would be a devastating blow for nature and a reckless gamble families can’t afford.

Katie Lam, a shadow Home Office minister, has said that she thinks the welfare cuts announced by the party (see 8.09am and 12.36pm) do not go far enough. Although Mel Stride has said EU nationals with settled status would not be covered by the proposed rule saying non-Britons should no longer be eligible for benefits, Lam told a fringe meeting organised by Politico that her personal view was that they should be. “My view is that all state support should only be for citizens,” she said.

She also suggested that a Tory government should reopen talks with the EU to address this. This would be necessary because settled status was part of the Brexit treaty. As Politico reports, she said:

The whole point of having a status like EU SS [Settled Status] or indefinite leave to remain is that that is still a live conversation … If somebody is entitled to everything that comes with being a British citizen, then they should make the choice to become a British citizen.

A source said that Lam’s view was not party policy, and they weren’t looking to start “some big fight with the EU” over this,.

Lam is seen as a rising star in the party. Peter Walker explains why in this profile.

Related: Next Tory leader? Rise of Katie Lam reflects rightward shift on migration

Here are the main points from the briefing by Tory officials at the conference about the fiscal plans announced today.

Overall saving and spending plans

The Tories say they would cut spending by £47bn a year by the end of the next parliament (ie, by 2034-35).

They would use some of that money (£9bn) for tax cuts:

-£4bn cutting business rates for high street shops and pubs

-£2.8bn for the first jobs bonus

-£2.2bn on tax cuts already announced – reversing the imposition of VAT on school fees (£1.7bn), and reversing the extension of inheritance tax to cover fams (about £500m)

The rest of the money – around £38bn a year – would be used for deficit reduction

Where the savings would come from

The Tories released figures in their overnight press release. (See 7.59am.) At the briefing, they went into slightly more detail, and offered these figures. These are savings from 2029-30.

-£23bn saved by welfare cuts

-£8bn by cuts to civil service

-£6.9bn by cuts to the aid budget

-£3.9bn by cuts to social housing

-£3.5bn by cuts to spending on asylum

-£1.6bn by cuts to net zero

Spending cuts – details

Aid

-The Tories see the reduction of aid spending to 0.1% of national income as permanent.

Civil service

-The Tories expect cuts across all departments. They think getting the civil service down to the size it was before Brexit is reasonable.

Welfare cuts

-Around £7bn of the £23bn cuts will come from people who are not British being denied access to benefits. People with indefinite leave to remain or limited leave to remain will not qualify.

-The Tories also plan to tighten access to health-related benefits. Where people do receive benefits like Pip (the personal independence payment), they want them to be based on the extra costs people incur, they want payments to be related more to medical diagnosis, and they want all assessements to be done face to face

-EU nationals with settled status will still qualify for benefits.

Social housing

-The Tories expect to save money here as a consequence of their plans to cut immigration.

Tax cuts – detail

Business rates

Councils would be fully compensated by central government for the loss of revenue, Tories say.

First jobs bonus

See 12.06pm for more detail on this

Other points

-The Tories indicated that they are keeping the triple lock, described as Conservative policy, and will commit to that at the next election.

-The officials did not say anything critical of the Office for Budget Responsibility, saying it is Labour criticising the OBR now, not them.

Conservative officials have given a briefing at the conference that about the main proposals announced today for spending cuts (see 7.59am), and the tax cuts the party would implement with some of the savings (see 10.25am and 11.27am).

This is what they said about the first jobs bonus.

It will cost £2.8bn.

Everyone can claim it, and people will start getting the “payments” (what they would have paid in national insurance) when they have a job that means they would liable for national insurance. The money will go into a nominated savings account, like an ISA, or a stocks and shares accounts.

People will be able to use the discount to accumulate up to £5,000 from the national insurance exemption and, if they give up work for a period before they have hit the £5,000 limit, the money saved accumulates interest.

People can draw down the money at any time to spend on a home. After five years people will be free to take the money to spend on something else if they are not buying a home. The Tories argue that, for people not buying property, this will encourage savings.

Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, used her speech to the Tory conference to propose what she called a “cheap energy plan” that she said would save £165 a yaer from the average household energy bill. They would fund this by getting rid of the renewables obligation subsidy and the carbon tax.

In a new release, the Conservative party says:

The carbon tax currently makes up around a third of wholesale electricity prices, artificially inflating the price of electricity and forcing up everyone’s energy bills in the process.

The carbon tax also increases the price paid to other non-gas electricity sources like wind and solar, pushing up profits of wind and solar generators at the expense of consumers.

This is all added to people’s bills and that leaves everyone worse off. Especially when compounded with the fact that Labour’s decision to align with the EU carbon tax has increased the UK’s carbon tax by 70% since January 2025.

Our plan to axe the carbon tax, which does nothing to help improve our environment or reduce emissions, will save the average household £75 on their electricity bills.

The Conservatives will also scrap Ed Miliband’s rip off renewable subsidies, the renewable obligation certificate scheme (ROC).

Launched by Labour in 2002, and doubled by Ed Miliband in 2008, the subsidies mean renewable energy producers receive significantly above market payments for their electricity – up to three times more than the market price of electricity.

Consumers are then forced to pay for these extortionate prices through their energy bills.

That is why the next Conservative government will use primary legislation to repeal this subsidy scheme, which will reduce the average household’s electricity bills by £90.

Together, axing the carbon tax and scrapping Ed Miliband’s old wind subsidies will cut the average household electricity bill – currently just over £850 - by £165, and also help to reduce emissions by maximising consumer choice. Decarbonisation will progress by innovation driving electrification (for instance in transport), but those products need to be cheaper to run to encourage people to adopt them – so it makes no sense to keep the price of electricity artificially high.

Stride says the high streets are being “hollowed out”, partly because of Labour’s taxes. He goes on:

We need to get business rates down. In fact, we need to go further, much, much further.

So today, I can announce that as a direct result of getting public spending under control, a future Conservative government will completely abolish business rates for shops and pubs on our high streets. End of.

Stride sets out the plans to cut spending announced overnight. (See 7.59am.)

And he says the Tories will use the savings to fund “tax cuts that are laser focused on aspiring young people”. He goes on:

So we will introduce something called the first job bonus.

When someone takes their first job, the first £5,000 pounds they pay in national insurance won’t go to the taxman.

It will go towards a deposit on their first home, or it will go towards savings for their later life.

For a working couple, that means £10,000 pounds, helping them buy a home, build a family, save for the future.

That is the Conservative dream, a dream that built my life.

Stride turns to Reform UK, and claims they are “just as bad” as Labour.

Reform’s manifesto promised tens of billions in unfunded commitments. They want to scrap the two-child benefit cap, spending billions more on welfare, and they want you to pay for it.

We say that if you want to fund a large family, then that’s great, but you should look to yourself to pay, not the state.

Reform want to get back to the days of nationalisation and state control. They are marching to the left. Be in no doubt. They are the party of more spending and more debt.

(Reform claim they want to cut welfare spending. The Tories say they won’t, because Nigel Farage said Reform would get rid of the two-child benefit cap that the Tories want to keep. But subsequently Farage claimed his party was committed to other welfare cuts – a pledge that was important in persuading Danny Kruger, a Tory worried about high welfare spending, to defect.)

At the Tory conference Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, is delivering his speech.

He starts by saying he has recently been on a trip to Silicon Valley, where you could “almost reach out and touch the future”.

He says it did not make him depressed, returning to future. Instead it raised his spirits, because it showed him what could be achieved in the UK.

He says the UK needs wealth creation. It should be a country “that once again understands that wealth is created not by government, striking unions and a bloated public sector, but by entrepreneurs, businesses and the hard-working millions”.

He goes on:

To business today, I say loud and clear – Labour may have given up on you, but this Conservative party never, ever will.

Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, was doing an interview round for the Conservatives this morning, and Miatta Fahnbulleh, the faith and communities minister, was on the air on behalf of the government. They were both asked about the latest development in the flag phenomenon – the former footballer turned property developer Gary Neville saying that he took down a union flag flying at one of his building sites because he felt it was being used in a “negative fashion”.

Related: Gary Neville says he took down union flag being ‘used in a negative fashion’

Asked if Neville (a Labour supporter) had a point, Fahnbulleh told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

I think he’s really right, that there are people who are trying to divide us at the moment …

I spent a lot of time going around our communities, talking to people. People are ground down. We’ve had a decade-and-a-half in which living standards haven’t budged and people have seen their communities held down. And you will get people trying to stoke division, trying to blame others, trying to stoke tension.

But when Stride was asked about Neville’s intervention, which included criticism of “angry, middle-aged white men … who know exactly what they’re doing”, Stride said he didn’t agree. He told Times Radio:

I think people that put up flags, the vast majority of people that do, do so for perfectly reasonable patriotic reasons. And I think reclaiming our flag as a flag of unity and decency and tolerance, which is the way most people see our flag, is a very positive thing.

So I’m afraid I really cannot agree with the comments that he’s made.

In his interview with GB News Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, was asked about claims that the Conservative party is “dying”. (See 9.01am.) Clearly, he could not say yes. Instead he replied:

No. I think this conference will be part of a turning point.

I think we had a superb speech from Kemi yesterday, the hall was packed. Standing ovations. Real buzz.

And I think what that is about is that a lot of people, for some time now, have been saying we don’t know what the Conservative Party stands for. We don’t hear enough about policies. Well, at this conference, that is a turning point, because we are talking about how we will control our borders … And I’m making big announcements about big, serious, grown-up spending cuts to the size of government in order that we can live within our means.

And in his interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Stride was asked about reports that Robert Jenrick’s supporters are actively preparing for a leadership challenge. In a report for the i, Kitty Donaldson wrote.

Allies of Robert Jenrick are collecting no-confidence letters from Conservative MPs calling for party leader Kemi Badenoch to quit, The i Paper has been told.

Up to a dozen supporters of the shadow justice secretary are said to have penned letters, being held back for deployment after 3 November to use in a “show of strength” to urge Badenoch to step down “when the time is right” …

Jenrick’s team denied he was involved or had any knowledge of the plans. “This is bollocks,” a spokesman said, adding no friend of the senior Tory would make these claims.

Asked if he had had a conversation with Jenrick about the leadership, Stride said: “Absolutely not.” He went on:

If anybody thinks that changing leaders, which is something that the Conservative party has done many times in the recent period, is the answer to the challenge of getting back into office, then they’re deeply deluded.

The last thing the public wants to see between now and the general election is yet another upheaval within the Conservative party, in which we search for another leader.

The things that are holding us back are that we ended up in a difficult position. We’ve got to show that through our principles, our policies and sticking and holding our nerve, that we can come through. And Kemi is leading us in that way.

Overseas nationals denied benefits under a Conservative plan to limit social security to UK citizens would have the option to return to their own countries, the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride has said in interviews this morning. Peter Walker has the story.

Related: Tories say people denied benefits in UK can return to home countries

Over the weekend at least two news organisations – the Financial Times, here, and the Independent, here – suggested the Conservatives are heading of “oblivion”. The FT hedged its bets a bit, but in the Independent John Rentoul described the Tories as “a Potemkin party that will cease to exist within four years”.

In his First Edition briefing for the Guardian, Archie Bland has done the same exercise, but he has managed to find an alternative word. He asks if Kemi Badenoch is leading the Tories toward extinction. And his answer is, very probably.

Here is an extract from Archie’s briefing, which includes an interview with the political commentator Sam Freedman.

The Conservatives are not alone among traditionally centre-right parties in Europe in being outstripped by their more radical rivals: versions of the same thing are happening in Italy, France, Germany and plenty of other countries besides. But that’s not much consolation for the self-styled “natural party of government” – and it doesn’t help with a solution to their basic bind: they are leaking voters on both sides of their coalition, with no obvious route to winning one set back without alienating the other.

“They’re still trapped in the same place – too vulgar for the home counties, not populist enough for Reform voters,” Sam Freedman said. “Kemi Badenoch is trying to hold the middle position. But that’s impossible, because it’s contradictory.”

And here is the full article.

Related: Monday briefing: Is Kemi Badenoch leading a Tory party on the brink of extinction?

Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, has defended plans to slash spending on overseas aid to 0.1% of national income – the lowest level on record.

In an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the presenter Ed Balls (who himself was a Labour shadow chancellor more than 10 years ago) pointed out that the overseas aid cuts proposed today (see 7.59am) would take aid spending to 0.1% of overall national income. When David Cameron was Tory leader, he got it up to 0.7%, the UN target. Balls said this would be the lowest level for UK aid spending since records began in the 1960s, and the lowest level for any European country other than Cyprus. Russia would be the only developed country spending less, Balls claimed. He asked Stride what this said about the Tory party.

Stride replied:

What it speaks to is the position that we are in as an economy. We are living on borrowed time. And unless we have a government that recognises that, and takes these tough decisions … then we will end up in a very, very difficult position.

Stride said the debt to GDP ratio was “spiralling ever upwards and needs to be arrested”. He went on:

There is a point on that journey at which the wheels of this economy will completely come off. And that will not help anybody around the world if Britain becomes impoverished, bankrupt and unable to further its values across the globe.

So yes, these are tough decisions, I accept that. But they are the right ones.

And this is what the Conservative party says about how it would cut welfare spending by £23bn over the course of the next parliament. (See 7.59am.) In its news release on this it says:

We will deliver £23 billion in savings by reforming non-pensioner welfare through:

-Restricting welfare to UK citizens

-Reforming sickness and disability benefits by ending access for lower-level mental health conditions and making greater use of face-to-face assessment

-Reforming housing benefit

-Reviewing the rates and exemptions from the Household Benefit Cap

-Limiting the VAT subsidy for Motability

-Reforming job-seeking obligations

-Retaining the two-child benefit cap

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 shadow 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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