The headlines
The Conservatives whittled it down to four leadership hopefuls, Labour battled sleaze allegations, the Scottish Parliament turned 25 while debating £500 million in cuts, and five independent MPs banded together to support Palestine.
The Conservative leadership election
Kemi Badenoch launched her ‘Renewal 2030’ bid for leader and ‘moderate’ Tom Tugendhat pledged to leave the ECHR if reforms weren’t feasible.
Meanwhile, Conservative MPs eliminated Priti Patel and Mel Stride in the first fortnight of September.
Baroness Saeeda Warsi, ex-Conservative party chairwoman, and Britain’s first Muslim cabinet member, also resigned the Conservative whip in the House of Lords just before Conference. She accused the party of ‘hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities’ and has been a longstanding critic of the party’s response to allegations of Islamophobia.
As the Conservative conference kicked off at the end of the month, Badenoch came under scrutiny for suggesting that maternity pay had “gone too far”. She later said that the press misrepresented her comments and that she was talking about broader regulations on businesses.
Later in the conference, Leader of the Opposition Rishi Sunak gave his farewell speech as Conservative leader, urging the party to stop “squabbling” and unite behind the new leader.
Since September, Cleverley and Tugendhat have been eliminated. Conservative party members will vote for either Badenoch or Jenrick on an online ballot through mid-to-late October, with the victor announced on November 2.
Labour’s sleaze allegations
At the start of the month, new Labour MP and the Commons’ biggest landlord, Jas Athwal, sacked his letting agents after a BBC investigation exposed the mould and ant-infested conditions his tenants were living with.
But Labour’s main scandal of the month came as countless donations to PM Keir Starmer, his wife Victoria Starmer, Deputy PM Angela Rayner, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The Prime Minister received more than £16,000 worth of clothing and £2,000 worth of glasses from Labour peer and media entrepreneur Waheed Alli. The PM also failed to declare a further £5,000 of clothes from Lord Alli for his wife, Victoria.
Meanwhile, Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves declared over £10,000 of clothing donations from wealthy donors as generic support for their work.
Starmer, Rayner, and Reeves have since committed to refuse future clothing donations, and the PM returned £6,000 worth of gifts to various donors.
This came after critiques from all persuasions rolled in, with the Conservatives highlighting the move to scrap the winter fuel payment while accepting free clothes, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage saying it was a ‘political mess’, and the SNP drawing parallels between Conservative and Labour ‘sleaze, austerity cuts, and cronyism’.
Holyrood turns 25 and the SNP cuts £500 million in spending
Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robinson revealed £500 million in cuts to the Scottish Parliament, a fortnight before King Charles III travelled up to celebrate Holyrood’s 25th anniversary.
The Scottish Government announced they would directly cut transport and net zero/energy spending by £23 million apiece, mental health services by almost £19 million, and social justice spending by over £15 million.
£188 million in departmental cuts was announced, with £116 million from the health budget alone.
This did not include already-announced measures, including peak rail fares and means-tested winter fuel payments.
The Scottish Government blamed Westminster austerity and the impacts of Brexit and Ukraine for this wave of cuts, with First Minister John Swinney denying that the SNP were themselves enacting austerity.
During Holyrood’s 25th anniversary celebrations, the King praised Scotland and its ‘extraordinary diversity’, but suggested that more work was needed to handle climate change. This came just two weeks after the Scottish Government reallocated some of the £460 million raised in offshore wind auctions.
The Independent Alliance
Former Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn and four other independent MPs formed a parliamentary faction called the Independent Alliance in early September.
Their main policy aims are a total end of arms sales to Israel, the reversal of policies that they consider as austerity, and the recognition of the Palestinian state.
The group has the same number of MPs as Reform UK and the DUP and was formed so that each member could have more time to speak in the Commons.
The group has also worked informally with the Green Party and reached out to the seven Labour MPs suspended for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Honourable mentions
The UK Government set out its plan to abolish hereditary peers.
The chief of MI6 and director of the CIA published a joint article in the Financial Times warning that the world is ‘under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War’ due to risks posed by the Ukraine war.
Former Conservative Minister Michael Gove was appointed as the next editor of the Spectator and started in early October.
Feature Image Credit: Edward Jewsbury
Politics Editor
Journalism and Politics 4th Year
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