Conservatives claim ‘major victory’ as Tory conference begins after Labour scraps plans to curb jury trials
Good morning. Anthony Seldon recently published the latest in his long and invaluable series of inside stories of premierships, Sunak at 10, and he gave it the subtitle “The last Conservative prime minister?” When the book was being planned in the early days of Kemi Badenoch’s leadership of the Conservative party, it did look as though the Tories might be finished as a party of government. But now Seldon, and his co-author Tom Egerton, aren’t so sure. Their book concludes: “At the time of writing in July 2026 … the Tory party still needs to engage in a process of deep self-reflection to understand why it failed in government, and tore itself so destructively apart, if it is ever to regain power. But at this point in time we believe it is unlikely that Sunak will have been the last Tory prime minister.”
That is a victory, of sorts, for Badenoch. For most of last year there were doubts that she would still be leader by the time of the next election. But she gave a successful party conference speech, her response to the budget was much admired, and her personal approval ratings with Tory members and right-leaning voters shot up. After two years as opposition leader, Iain Duncan Smith was booted out. Two years in, Badenoch’s position as leader is safe and it is even conceivable that she could stay on if the Conservatives were to lose the next election (in part because any Tories who favour a radically different policy approach are being purged from the candidates list).
But that does not mean Badenoch’s leadership is going well. At the last election the Conservatives won 24.4% of the GB vote. According to the Politico poll of polls, they have been consistently polling below that since the end of 2024 and they are currently on 19%.
The Conservative conference starts today and, explaining her strategy in an interview in the Times, Badenoch said: “Last year was about telling the party who I was. Now the party is going to be showing the country who we are: a strong team of people who actually like each other.” The Tories have already announced quite a lot of conference-related policy.
But she has not got the news space all to herself. It is the final day of the Green party’s conference in Brighton and this morning activists are expected to debate their ‘Zionism is racism’ motion. The proposal has split the party, and critics claim that it is antisemitic. Whatever happens, it will affect how the Green party is seen.
And this morning Labour has announced a major U-turn – abandoning most of the Keir Starmer/David Lammy plans to restrict access to jury trials. Haroon Siddique has the story here.
In the past, there was an unofficial ‘gentleman’s agreement’ that the government did not make big news announcements during the opposition party’s conference. But that era (like two-party politics) is over, and Alex Norris, the justice secretary, has successfully kept Badenoch off the top of this morning’s news cycle.
Still, the Tories can claim this as a victory. This is from Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary.
double quotation markThis is a major victory for everyone who fought to defend trial by jury, and Conservatives led that fight from day one. Labour has been forced to abandon its central attack on jury trials in the crown court.
But Timothy also claimed the U-turn did not go far enough.
double quotation markLabour are restricting juries by the back door, scrapping the right to elect one and dumping those cases on magistrates whose backlog is at a record high.
Nearly 81,000 cases are stuck in the crown court, yet there is no commitment to get courts sitting more often, but Labour did find the time to write into law a review of how its reforms treat people of different backgrounds.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Alex Norris, the justice secretary, is interviewed on Sky’s Sunday with Helen Lewis.
9am: Kemi Badenoch is interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. (The interview has been pre-recorded.) Norris is being interviewed too.
Morning: The Green party debates the controversial ‘Zionism is racism’ motion on the final day of its conference this morning.
2pm: John Belsley, president of the National Conservative Convention, opens the proceedings at the Tory conference in Birmingham. The session is on the theme of “resisting separatism” and the speakers include Alex Burghart, the deputy leader and shadow Northern Ireland secretary; Mims Davies, shadow Welsh secretary; Harriet Cross, shadow Scottish secretary; Darren Millar, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd; and Russell Findlay, the Scottish leader.
Mid afternoon: Badenoch delivers her opening speech to the conference.
4pm: James Cleverly, who wants to be the Tory candidate for London mayor in 2028, is speaking at a fringe event.
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Updated at 03.29 EDT
