Boris Johnson newest information: Hunt pledges help for Rishi Sunak in Tory management bid

Penny Mordaunt has vowed to make defence the “first responsibility” of presidency ought to she emerge victorious within the Conservative management race.

The commerce minister and former defence secretary surged forward of international secretary Liz Truss after the primary spherical of voting by Tory MPs, regardless of being seen as a relative outlier earlier than the race started.

Writing for the Each day Mail, Ms Mordaunt promised to honour the UK’s Nato dedication of spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030, as she stated Britain must “maintain quick” to the nation’s shared values of “energy, equity and decency, (and) a willingness to face up for what is correct”.

The common hire being requested throughout Britain, excluding London, has hit a file £1,126 per calendar month, in line with a property web site.

The common month-to-month hire being requested is 11.8 per cent greater than a yr earlier, Rightmove stated, including that the common hire is now 19 per cent or £177 per thirty days greater than when the Covid pandemic began.

Asking rents in London have surged by 15.8 per cent over the previous yr, pushing the common asking hire there to a file £2,257 per thirty days, in line with Rightmove, whose newest figures coated the second quarter of 2022.

Rising rents proceed to be pushed by a scarcity of accessible rental inventory, though there have been some current indicators of enchancment, the web site added.

This comes, because the Tory management candidates are confronted with the query of tackling financial challenges and price of residing disaster:

Learn the small print on this report:

Nicola Sturgeon is to publish the second paper in her prospectus for Scottish independence.

The Scottish first minister will on Thursday set out the following a part of her “detailed prospectus” with a paper titled Renewing Democracy Via Independence.

The primary of those stories was described as a “scene setter” doc that was revealed at Bute Home in Edinburgh final month.

The Scottish authorities paper highlighted financial areas the place the UK is outperformed by a gaggle of different European nations.

Since then, Ms Sturgeon has stated she needs a second independence referendum to happen on 19 October 2023, although the Supreme Court docket has been requested to rule on the legality of the Scottish authorities’s plans.

If it guidelines in opposition to the primary minister, she says she is going to think about the following common election to be a “de facto referendum”.

Penny Mordaunt is the runaway favorite for chief and subsequent prime minister amongst Conservative members, in line with a brand new YouGov ballot.

A survey of 879 members put Ms Mordaunt on 27 per cent – virtually twice as a lot as second-placed Kemi Badenoch, on 15 per cent.

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak and international secretary Liz Truss have been every backed by 13 per cent of these questioned.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the international affairs committee, had the help of 8 per cent, whereas attorney-general Suella Braverman was on 5 per cent.

Former well being secretary Jeremy Hunt had the backing of 4 per cent, whereas simply 1 per cent wished chancellor Nadhim Zahawi as the following prime minister.

My colleague Jane Dalton stories:

Somewhat like being a primary minister, being a house secretary is a binary matter- you both are within the job with all of the powers and obligations it entails or you aren’t.

So it’s odd that Priti Patel selected on the final second to duck out of one in all her most essential obligations, the responsibility of accountability by way of the house affairs choose committee.

Ms Patel pleads: “The committee will concentrate on the current adjustments in authorities, and specifically to the ministerial workforce in my division … Regrettably, because of this and the broader unprecedented adjustments since I agreed to provide proof, I’ll now not be capable of meet with the committee. I might nonetheless like to make sure that the session goes forward on the subsequent applicable level, and recommend that we postpone till a mutually agreed date in September.”

The chair of the committee, Diana Johnson, referred to as the refusal to attend the proof session “wholly unacceptable”.

Our affiliate editor Sean O’Brady argues that the instability within the authorities, unsure future coverage and the management contest is inflicting a way of stasis.

A Conservative management candidate has stated the On-line Security Invoice in its present type shouldn’t grow to be regulation after it emerged the invoice’s ultimate phases have been delayed till the autumn.

Former minister Kemi Badenoch stated the postponement was the “proper transfer”, including that if she is elected as chief of the Tories she is going to “make sure the Invoice doesn’t overreach”.

In response to stories it was being deferred, Ms Badenoch tweeted: “This might be the suitable transfer. The Invoice is in no match state to grow to be regulation.

“If I’m elected prime minister I’ll make sure the Invoice doesn’t overreach. We shouldn’t be legislating for harm emotions.”

My colleague Isobel Frodsham has extra:

A Tory MP tipped to be the following prime minister as soon as delivered a speech on poultry welfare to parliament for the only real goal of claiming “c**ok” a number of occasions on a guess with Royal Navy colleagues.

Penny Mordaunt, the bookmakers’ favorite to win the Tory management, used the phrase six occasions and “lay” or “laid” 5 occasions throughout the course of a 2013 speech after being introduced with a forfeit for a “misdemeanour” throughout coaching for the Navy reserves.

She admitted her guilt to a roomful of journalists as she picked up the award for speech of the yr at The Spectator journal’s Parliamentarian of the Yr Awards in 2014.

Learn the small print on this report from Liam James:

The Tory management contest is in full swing and can determine who turns into the following prime minister, changing Boris Johnson.

Underneath the system used to elect the Conservative Social gathering’s chief, MPs vote for his or her most popular candidates over successive rounds of votes with the individual with the least help eradicated every time.

When solely two are left, the finalists are introduced to your entire membership for a ultimate poll, after which a winner will emerge. As such, who MPs are backing within the race is extraordinarily essential.

Our coverage correspondent Jon Stone has the most recent on who’s supporting which declared candidate together with the most recent bookmakers’ odds on victory:

Overseas secretary Liz Truss will set out her pitch to be Britain’s subsequent prime minister in an more and more bitter race to interchange Boris Johnson, with a pledge to take the powerful selections and get financial development going.

She got here third within the first spherical of voting amongst Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday, behind former chancellor Rishi Sunak and junior commerce minister Penny Mordaunt.

“I’m able to be prime minister on day one. I can lead, make powerful selections and rise to the second,” Ms Truss will say as she launches her official marketing campaign, in line with excerpts launched by her workforce upfront.

“I’ve a plan to make Britain a high-growth financial system by way of daring supply-side reform,” she is going to say.

Half a world away from the political drama in London, many Indians are carefully following the twists and turns of who replaces Boris Johnson as British prime minister, curious to see the best way to candidates with Indian descent fare.

Rishi Sunak, the bookmakers’ favorite to prevail, and Suella Braverman are campaigning for the Conservative occasion management and have made reference to the alternatives Britain gave members of minorities like them.

If both have been to win the race for the premiership, they might be the primary prime minister of Indian origin in the UK.

In each circumstances, their Indian households migrated to Britain within the Nineteen Sixties searching for higher lives. Britain dominated India for about 200 years earlier than the South Asian nation gained independence in 1947 after a protracted freedom battle.