Politics

Future pandemics as bad as Covid are ‘a certainty’, says Sir Chris Whitty. He is right in one sense. So many people gained so much money, power or fame out of the pandemic that they will be all too willing to declare another one soon. The WHO is trying to vastly increase its budget and its powers on the back of Covid. But if he means that we face more outbreaks of new infectious diseases that go global, then no, Whitty is wrong. The chances of another new virus spreading through the human race at a terrifying rate, burning through every barrier we erect – lockdowns, school closures, social distancing, vaccines

At the Conservative party conference in Birmingham this morning, the Tory leadership candidates set out their stalls. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Badenoch said it was essential that there was a ‘shared culture and a shared identity’ in the UK, and that it was important to choose ‘who comes into the country’. Asked which cultures in particular were less valid, Badenoch said: ‘lots… cultures that believe in child marriage.. or that women don’t have equal rights’. Pressed to be more specific, Badenoch told Kuenssberg: ‘I know what you’re trying to do. You want me to say Muslims. But it isn’t all Muslims.’ Badenoch argued that we need to emphasise ‘the thing

Conservative party conference is underway. The conference centre in Birmingham is covered in photos of the four remaining leadership hopefuls and each campaign team is handing out stash – including Tugend-Tats (temporary tattoos). Already there are signs of friction. I understand some of the candidates were surprised on check-in at the conference hotel to discover that they had been put on the same corridor as their rivals. Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick were all put in rooms along from one another. ‘The walls are paper thin so it’s a nightmare for speech prep,’ says one campaign member. Since then, I hear some of the candidates have been moved