Newslinks for Thursday 11th December 2025 | Conservative Home

Reeves admits pre-Budget damaging leaks but denies sanctioning them as Tories take her to task

“Chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted “no, no, no” in a furious House of Commons row with another MP over her tax-raising Budget. The Chancellor had been summoned to answer questions from the House of Commons Treasury Committee about leaks in the run-up to her Budget on November 26. But she became angry when Conservative Dame Harriet Baldwin criticised Ms Reeves’s claim that tax rises were the fault of the Tories. Ms Reeves insisted she had inherited a £22 billion “black hole” from the last Conservative government. But Dame Harriet said that claim “has been discredited by the Office for Budget Responsibility”, the official Treasury watchdog.” – Daily Express

• Found another black hole, Chancellor? Reeves says she ‘reserves the right’ to hammer Britain with more taxes as she is grilled by MPs over Budget lies scandal – Daily Mail
• Budget leaks were damaging and unacceptable, Rachel Reeves admits – The Times
• PM’s approval. Sir Keir Starmer gave green light for punishing Budget tax raid, reveals Chancellor Rachel Reeves – The Sun
• Rachel Reeves: There were too many Budget leaks – Spectator

Comment

• Reeves cries fake news during leaky Budget grilling – Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
• Reeves’ attack dog berated me for saying she lied about the Budget. But even Larry the Downing Street cat knows I’m right – Dan Hodges, Daily Mail
• Precious few answers from Reeves in our quest to find budget Gollums – Tom Peck, The Times

Jenrick predicts Government plans to reform ECHR are ‘doomed to fail’

“Attempts to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to make it easier to deport foreign criminals and agree offshore migrant deals are “doomed to fail”, Robert Jenrick has claimed. In an article for The Telegraph, the shadow justice secretary said the demands for change, agreed by 27 of the 46 members on Wednesday, were no more likely to succeed than David Cameron’s failed attempts to reform the EU. A joint statement by the 27 governments, including Britain, called for curbs on how the treaty is applied to migrants and foreign criminals. It recommended that the ECHR must not stop countries from striking Rwanda-style deals for offshore migrant processing centres. The European Court of Human Rights, the ultimate arbiter of the convention, granted a last-minute injunction to suspend the UK’s Rwanda deportation scheme in 2022. The statement said the ECHR should not stop nations deporting foreign criminals even if they had established a family in that state and should introduce constraints on foreign offenders blocking their removals on the grounds that it would lead to inhuman or degrading treatment in their home countries.” – Daily Telegraph

• ECHR ‘must change’ to tackle illegal immigration, Starmer urges – The i
• Could tweaks to the ECHR help deport foreign criminals? – The Times
• Starmer and hardline governments risk creating ‘hierarchy of people’ by constraining human rights – The Guardian
• ‘Doomed’ plan to reform ECHR slammed as criminals wriggle out of deportation – Daily Express
• Grooming shame. Fewer than 1 in 4 grooming gang suspects arrested in early stages of police probes last year – The Sun
• Revealed: How people traffickers are using videos of innocent young British women to entice asylum seekers to the UK – Daily Mail
• Police warn ethnicity data on child abuse suspects can’t be 100% – The Times
• Police chief warns they’ll never be able to record 100% of offenders’ ethnicities – Daily Mail

Editorial

• Starmer’s ECHR reform bid risks repeat of Brexit mistakes – James Crisp, Daily Telegraph
• How many women and girls must be raped or put in fear by illegal immigrants before PM finally grasps public outrage – The Sun

Comment

• Lammy’s plan to reform the ECHR won’t work – Robert Jenrick, Daily Telegraph
• The ECHR will never allow us to control migration – Joseph Dinnage, CapX
• Jordan Bardella: Farage may mentor Le Pen’s successor – Geraldine Scott, The Times
• Will weakening human rights really stop the far right? – Analysis, Guardian
• The celebrity ECHR letter is pious posturing – Tom Slater, Spectator

Today

Meanwhile ….Lammy’s plans to wipe criminal records of children criticised

“Childhood criminal records for thousands of people will be wiped under plans being considered by David Lammy. The Justice Secretary is to review the current system in order to prevent people’s childhood convictions from blighting their future job prospects. Mr Lammy is considering “simplifying” the system to ensure that checks are “proportionate” to their crime after evidence that people in their 50s, 60s and even 70s found that childhood offences such as stealing a bicycle or fighting in the street were still being disclosed to potential employers… Mr Lammy is facing a potential backlash over the definition of “serious offences”, such as whether a child caught dealing drugs or racially harassing a bus driver should be entitled to have their current lifelong criminal record erased at some point.” – Daily Telegraph

• Justice Secretary David Lammy considers plans to wipe childhood criminal records – Daily Mail

Coutinho calls for puberty blocker trial to stop branding it ‘chemical castration’ of kids

“Campaigners last night began legal action to halt a trial of puberty-blocking drugs on more than 200 children. The NHS-backed experiment was branded ‘grotesque’ by the Tories, who likened it to ‘state-sanctioned chemical castration’. The legal fight is led by concerned parents and a woman who regretted her own gender treatment. The campaigners say the testing of the controversial drugs on gender-questioning youngsters is unlawful and unethical. They have sent a 40-page ‘letter before claim’ to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Health Research Authority, which last month gave the green light for King’s College London to carry out the trial. Writing in today’s Daily Mail, Conservative equalities spokesman Claire Coutinho warns: ‘This is nothing less than the state-sanctioned chemical castration of children. And in years to come, it will be seen as one of the darkest acts of this Labour government.’” – Daily Mail

Comment

• The puberty blocker trial is nothing less than the state sanctioned chemical castration of children – Claire Coutinho, Daily Mail

Sharron Davies made Tory peer after campaign to ban biological men from women’s sport

“Sharron Davies, the former Olympic swimmer, will be made a Conservative peer after leading a campaign to ban biological men from women’s sport. Davies won two gold medals in the 1978 Commonwealth Games and a silver medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She began campaigning for female sports to be restricted to biological women in 2019 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the requirement for athletes who identify as women to have had sex reassignment surgery. She went on to write a letter to the IOC, signed by more than 60 world-class athletes, urging it to ban biological men from taking part in female-only events. She will take her seat in the House of Lords after being nominated by Kemi Badenoch.” – Daily Telegraph

• Starmer names 25 new peers to force bills through Lords – The Times
• Keir Starmer’s ex-spin chief and Rachel Reeves’ former top aide get peerages as PM again swells Labour’s ranks in the House of Lords – while Tories hand seat to Sharron Davies – Daily Mail
• Gongs for pals. Starmer parachutes 25 more cronies into Lords as he looks to beef up allies but snubs Nigel Farage’s plea for just one – The Sun

Comment

• Labour is about to prove that Britain is ungovernable – Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph
• Kemi’s lipstick glistened with merriment as the oblong potato in front of her honked and hummed: Badenoch grills Starmer at PMQs – Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
• Keir Starmer is not waving but drowning at PMQs – Madeline Grant, Spectator
• Kemi Badenoch has the task of a lifetime – Bruce Anderson, CapX
• Badenoch still has a Herculean task ahead of her – Isabel Hardman, Spectator

Wes Streeting makes last ditch plea for Doctors not to strike during super-flu epidemic

“Wes Streeting has urged striking doctors to stop “playing games with patients’ lives” as he offered the BMA a last-ditch chance to save Christmas and call off next week’s cruel walkout. The Health Secretary has made a “substantial” jobs offer to the British Medical Association in a bid to finally end the row. He refused to budge on mad pay demands but promised priority access to doctor jobs for UK graduates and an extra 3,000 special training posts, plus the Government will pay all mandatory exam costs and fees. He said: “I am going over the head of the BMA and appealing directly to resident doctors to urge them to vote for this deal. This is a good deal for doctors and offers the chance to end the strikes before Christmas and start the new year on a new page.” He said it will make it easier for doctors to get good jobs straight out of university and save them cash on membership fees.” – The Sun

• Streeting offers to pay doctor exam fees and up training places to avert strikes – The i
• Doctors could still strike during ‘superflu’ outbreak despite Wes Streeting’s last-ditch offer to triple speciality roles – Daily Mail
• Streeting ‘the grandma’s favourite’ in unofficial Labour leadership race – The i
• Doctors to vote on calling off strike after new Streeting offer – The Times

News in Brief

• The tragedy of Keir Starmer’s Substack. It yearns for an illusory world – Mary Harrington, Unherd
• We must not be the Tory party 2.0′: Nigel Farage on his plans for power – Tim Shipman, Spectator
• The perils of affordability politics – Ryan Bourne, CapX
• Taking down the past – Alex Story, The Critic