Rishi Sunak\u2019s authority suffers blow as several Conservatives vote against bill, which clears first Commons hurdle with 383 votes to 67<\/p>
At 12.30pm a transport minister will respond to an urgent question in the Commons tabled by Labour on job losses in the rail industry. That means the debate on the smoking ban will will not start until about 1.15pm.<\/p>
Suella Braverman<\/strong>, the former home secretary, is one of the Britons speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels starting today. The conference, which features hardline rightwingers from around the world committed to the NatCons\u2019 \u2018faith, flag and family\u2019 brand of conservatism, is going ahead despite two venues refusing to host them<\/a> at relatively short notice.<\/p> The current UK government doesn\u2019t have the political will to take on the ECHR and hasn\u2019t laid the ground work for doing so.<\/p> And so it\u2019s no surprise that recent noises in this direction are easily dismissed as inauthentic.<\/p> Any attempt to include a plan for ECHR withdrawal in a losing Conservative election manifesto risks setting the cause back a generation.<\/p> Continue reading...<\/a>\n