General Press Comments

[Daniel North CBE]

John Baker is, frankly, a political non-entity. I can’t off the top of my head credit him with a single original thought or substantive achievement in all the time he has served in the Shadow Cabinet. His attempted insurrection against William Croft will be extinguished with a faint fizzle rather than a bang; and he will, I’m quite confident, be confined to the footnotes of the history book as the minor player in British politics that he was always destined to be.

William Croft is a bold, courageous and effective leader who has been faced at every turn with disloyalty and disingenuousness. It is time for his opponents within the Conservative Party to put up or shut up. I fully expect that Mr Baker’s attempts to launch a vote of no confidence will fail miserably; and when he fails, I expect the party to fall into line and support its leader.

[Sir Jack Anderson]

It's rather interesting that the Conservative Party have confirmed that the signing of an EDM was considered 'not mandatory' in Shadow Cabinet, and Shadow Cabinet members could pick and choose whether to sign an EDM that fundamentally relates to our borders.

The effective maintenance and regulation of our borders, of course, is not a matter of morality or a matter where collective responsibility should be suspended. It is crucial in the name of good governance a cabinet can collectively unite behind decisions relating to such matters in order to provide order to the United Kingdom. That the Shadow Cabinet has decided it can't collectively decide how borders in the United Kingdom are regulated continues to show incredible weakness from William Croft, and incredible chaos from across the Shadow Cabinet. They aren't fit to run a bath.

[Andy Edwards]

I'm not sure if the newly-proposed EDM to impose a language test on immigrants and refugees- as well as impose a retroactive test on those immigrants that have already been welcomed into this country- is an effort from Mr. Croft to stave off this recent unpleasantness or it is a true indicator of where Conservative interests lie.

The comments we had heard from Conservatives earlier about "good immigrants" and the importance to our community and our prosperity are clearly laid out as bunk to the likes of the Shadow Chancellor. Whether this is a smokescreen or a real position of the Tories as a whole, this stunt with their "English-only" immigration proposal is demonisation of an "other" in our society. It would ensure the UK is an international pariah instead of a welcoming member of the international community. It would block those who come seeking protection from countries... and it would even block those that are coming from our allies. And now we don't even know why they're proposing this- whether it's a real party position or just an attempt by Croft to deal with yet more instability and chaos in the Conservative Party.

[Rebecca Flair]

The Conservative Party's slide towards quasi National Front status is now complete. What started with Cosette Beauvais-Becker, a fallen leadership candidate, calling for voluntary exile for our nation's immigrants has morphed into compulsory language tests for anyone not born in this country no matter how long they have been here. At every step Mr Croft has ceded more and more ground to the radical, racist, right of his party culminating in this illegal motion that breaches both the Human Rights Act and International Law. Mr Croft danced with the devil when he let the Monday Club hold influence in his party and his Shadow Cabinet, now the party is reaping what he sowed.

[Rebecca Flair]

On the right we are seeing the rise of an altogether more authoritarian and borderline racist Conservative Party, on the left we are seeing the re-emergence of the radical left. After 43% of the Labour Party's membership voted for a hard left member of the Socialist Campaign Group to lead them and the Prime Minister appointed another member of that same group to lead our nation's domestic and security policy the left have become emboldened. Under no other leader of the Labour Party would an MP, a man with a platform in our nation and a former Deputy Leadership candidate at that, be allowed to welcome and express "solidarity" with terrorists who conscript children and retain his whip without a formal repudiation of his previous comments. The hard left have not gone away after the Blair Years, and what's worse this Government relies upon them for the majority they so enjoy.

[Kayla Gray]

In my question to the Foreign Secretary today, I asked him to condemn the history of imperialism and violence by the United States in their Foreign Policy. I welcomed part of the Downing Street spokesperson’s statement in which it was said that ‘violence must never be the way to achieve political outcomes’ and the government opposes those who seek to achieve change through ‘Bullet or Bomb’.

However, I hope this opposition isn’t exempted from the United States, a rogue superpower which lacks accountability to most of the International Community. The US rides roughshod over international law and decency in the name of pushing Free Market Capitalism and the interests of large corporations who themselves pretty much run the US government through their expensive lobbying schemes.

The Special Relationship between the US and the UK cannot be one sided, and we need a government who is willing to be strong and stand up when required to against the United States. We cannot afford to cower away from criticism of the US for their disgraceful Foreign Policy across the globe, much of which I outlined in my question in the House.

[Andy Edwards]

I'm sorry that the Liberal Democrats, whose strong stance included a "abstain" when it came to banning fox hunting, seem to think there's an issue when a Socialist Campaign Group MP and Home Secretary proposes legislation that has... cross-party support protecting the rights of victims of crime. And yet again we see the Liberal Democrats taking a strong stand on that legislation- the same strong "abstention" stance they've taken before.

Between this Liberal Democrats trying to make demons everywhere and the clear chaos in the Conservative Party, where it seems the far right might be taking hold based on some of their press comments and motions, this Government stands tall, a beacon of competent leadership when Britain needs it most. Our Government has continued to support a Britain that is good for workers, that is expanding education, and that is promoting fairness. And we'll continue to deliver while the Tories and Lib Dems try to figure out where they stand.

[Sir Nicholas Mountstuart]

Today we have seen the political equivalent of a one man kamikaze mission at work, John Baker was sacked by William Croft for feeding his Fleet Street friends with brazen slander about Conservative Members of Parliament, gross incompetence as Party Chairman; having failed to deliver on his one job of radical reform to the party's internal democracy - that he has now sent letters in to Sir Michael Spicer is indicative of this vote of no confidence's being nothing more than a vessel for one dishonourable man's grudge against the Leader who trusted him with a top Shadow Cabinet job.

William Croft retains my full confidence as Leader of the Conservative Party, it is a view which is shared by the overwhelming majority of Conservative MPs, MEPs, Peers and party activists. I should imagine that Mr Baker has earned the enmity today of everyone in this country who wants to see Labour kicked out at the next General Election.

[Sir Jack Anderson]

William Croft having no economic direction is no surprise to anyone, hence the headache he has caused himself by making promises to every wing of his party. But it will be British businesses, public services and workers who will lose out as a result of such recklessness.

The British people can rest assured that Labour will continue to maintain a policy of fair taxation, sustainable investment and fiscal prudence.

[Andy Edwards]

The Conservative budget proposal, as published in the Financial Times, is not only rudderless, but where there ARE concrete proposals, they're an affront to working families throughout the United Kingdom. In cutting taxes for business owners, they are making sure that they raise the fuel duty. They're increasing VAT which bites into working incomes more than those of the wealthy, and they're proposing a double-digit percentage increase in the council tax which hits renters just as much as it does those who have finally been able to afford their own homes.

I understand in one sense, the Conservative mindset. They've suffered at their own hands these last two months, so they wanted to make something splashy- like sending a fortune to businesses or be able to say they're increasing spending on X, Y, or Z. What they lack in moderation for their splashy budget, they also lack in compassion, as it's working families that are going to have pay even more for fuel, more for rent, and more for their daily expenses to make it work. The Conservatives will no doubt shoot the messenger and say this shouldn't have been leaked, but what they need to do is go after those who thought this was a serious proposal and that it would be good for Britain. It's not, full stop.