Ok, so Labour will tell you that inflation is falling because their policies are working. They will say things are moving in the right direction, that the plan is on track, that families will start to feel the benefit. None of this survives contact with the evidence.
The disinflation has three principal drivers, and Labour controls none of them.
1. Wholesale gas prices have eased on global markets.
2. Bank of England rate hikes from 2022-2023, made under the (ahem, Conservative) previous government, are still doing their work.
3. Base effects are flushing last year's big regulated price rises out of the twelve-month comparison.
What Labour DOES control, it has pushed in the opposite direction (surprise, anyone?).
1. The April 2025 employer National Insurance hike added 2% to payroll costs, and the Bank of England has explicitly attributed sticky services inflation to it.
2. The 6.7% minimum wage rise, the 22% pay deal for junior doctors, the 14.25% for train drivers, the broad 5.5-6% public sector settlement - all of it locked in the wage pressure the Bank is now fighting at 4% rates.
3. The flagship £150 energy bill cut is an accounting reshuffle. Green levies have been moved off bills and onto general taxation, and a home insulation scheme has been scrapped. The cost has not vanished. It has migrated from your energy bill to your tax bill, where CPI does not see it.
Nothing structural has changed. No supply-side reform, no energy market liberalisation, no productivity agenda, no wage moderation. The government has imposed inflationary measures with one hand and is now claiming credit for partially offsetting them with the other.
The Bank of England, global gas markets, and a levy reshuffle are doing the work. Labour is trying to take the credit while the structural drivers of British inflation remain entirely unaddressed.
But, obviously, Labour will never address the structural drivers of inflation because they'd have to convert themselves to @Conservatives in order to do that.
We will take no lectures from Reform that ate not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Community Notes yesterday for lying about @conservatives.
But we (Conservatives) must be honest even if you lot aren't. And on that account, both @JamesCleverly and you are partially correct in your claims.
The student visa fall-off is, indeed, your accomplishment.
The announcement and implementation of the skilled-worker salary threshold, the ban on care workers bringing dependents, the scrap of the 20% shortage-occupation pay discount, and the increase in the family visa income requirement to £29k - that's James.
It is also true that both you and Rob Jenrick pushed for similar measures to those James implemented.
Now do the honours and get the rest of your clown show to delete the lies you lot posted yesterday if you want to have a slither of credibility in the "fudging the truth" department.
It’s been wall-to-wall Labour, Greens and Reform on the radio in the last few days.
All for the wrong reasons.
The Green leader’s lies, Farage’s dodgy money and Labour wasting taxpayer funds on unnecessary by-elections to save their bacon.
All while Kemi cracks on with her job as Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, building a range of policies that will take us into the next election with answers to the country’s problems - not just ideas, but Bills which are ready to roll out, costed plans and a plan for a stronger economy.
Kemi Badenoch's latest net favourability rating is the highest recorded by YouGov of any Conservative leader since June 2021.
Kemi leaps and bounds ahead of Starmer and Farage. She just keeps improving.
Politics is not a game. We are working hard to build a serious, united Conservative Party people can trust - built on honesty and responsibility.
These values have to mean something and that is why we have taken the decision to suspend Councillor Adam Kent.
The Party's position was clear from the start. I was very clear we did not approve of the arrangement with the Greens at Worcestershire Council and it did not have our support. Councillor Kent agreed.
That should have been communicated clearly and unambiguously to his colleagues.
He told the national Party that he would not do a deal with the Greens. Then he went ahead and put together a rainbow coalition involving Green councillors anyway.
Worse, his group was told something that was not true. Fellow Conservative councillors were given the impression that this deal had Party support when it did not.
This was dishonest.
People are tired of politicians treating public office as a game of manoeuvres and tactics, saying one thing while doing another.
We can see the chaos this is bringing to the Labour Party nationally. That is exactly the sort of behaviour that has damaged trust in politics for too long and the party leadership under Kemi Badenoch is bringing an end to this nonsense.
We are a team and we are honest with each other.
And as a party we want people to know what we stand for, what we will do and that those representing our Party are honest with their colleagues and with the public.
As soon as we became aware of this, we acted immediately because unlike parties like Reform, we take responsibility for those who represent our Party.
We do not want people in politics who think this sort of conduct is acceptable. Our values are standards, not slogans.
As Party Chairman, I have received a full and firm account of what happened at Worcestershire County Council. Given I was clear that this arrangement was not approved and did not have our support the deal will not now go ahead. That position has been agreed by other Conservative councillors locally.
We are one Party and one team. When someone representing us falls short of our values, we do not hide behind process like Keir Starmer or pretend it has nothing to do with us like Nigel Farage. We act.
That is the truth of why the Conservative Group Leader has been suspended pending investigation.
We are a new Conservative Party under new leadership, built on honesty, responsibility and trust.
The public are tired of politicians saying one thing and doing another. So are we.
The Prime Minister in waiting!
If you haven’t noticed, you haven’t been paying attention.
I would rather be part of the real Tories uniting behind @KemiBadenoch vision of renewing the party, than being part of the disgruntled Tories led by @Nigel_Farage.
It’s not a sprint.
Croydon’s mayoral election is yet another example - like Bexley before it - where Reform threw everything and the kitchen sink at trying to secure a win.
They picked the borough to launch their entire London campaign, brought in Nigel Farage for a high-profile rally with all the fireworks and fanfare, and directed serious national resources and attention to the seat.
Right up to polling day, pollsters showed Reform surging hard in the final weeks, with some forecasts putting them right in the mix or even on track for victory.
Yet the @Conservatives defied all the predictions and held on.
Once again, the Tory vote proved far more resilient than the hype suggested. Honestly, this is fast becoming a familiar story for Reform’s big local pushes.
🚨CONSERVATIVE GAIN FROM LABOUR in Keighley East
AMAZING! A huge congratulations to local small business owner Angela Fish, who joins our fantastic Conservative team
More updates to come…
Absolutely
🚨ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE news for Steeton,Silsden and Eastburn
George, Raph, and Peter have done it - sweeping the board and GAINING all three seats from the Green Party.
Steeton, Silsden and Easburn couldn’t have chosen a more hardworking team.
Extremely proud of all of them.
Reform wanted today to be the day they killed the Conservatives.
But from Harlow to Fareham, Swindon to the Scottish Borders, and all across London, the Conservatives fought back.
A clear second in national vote share. The most popular leader. We will fight on, recover and win again.
This is the best and most deserved result of these elections
@JasonForCroydon has done a great job and deserves to be re-elected as Croydon’s Mayor
Commiserations to the other candidates & thanks to all the activists and voters who participated in Croydon’s democratic process
Bexley tells you everything you need to know about anyone claiming the @Conservatives is dead.
Reform threw the kitchen sink at it. @Nigel_Farage made Bexley his first campaign stop - a rally in Crayford - called it "where the real battle begins," and predicted they'd take the council. They fielded candidates in all 45 seats, the first third party to do so since the @LibDems in 1994. Fifty volunteers on the ground, targeted leafleting aimed at Brexit voters, a formal London campaign launch on 29th March that explicitly named Bexley as the target. Andrew Rosindell came to campaign there too.
The Conservatives held it.
Reform's national gains are real - 388 council seats across England at the time of writing - and they deserve acknowledgement. But those gains have nothing to do with campaigning strength or anyone endorsing the record of their existing councils. It's Brexit anger. Immigration anger. The same establishment resentment that has been driving protest votes since 2024, pulling working-class areas toward Reform just as it once pulled them toward Leave. Bexley is an outer London suburban borough that mirrors the Red Wall and Kent coastal areas where that anger runs deepest. Reform had no elected councillors there beforehand. It was their marquee target in London, and they failed to take it.
Conservatives won Westminster too, and outperformed the polls nationally. Someone described the results as watching the party sit up from the coffin. That is the right image - but the direction of travel is further than that.
This is a reincarnation back to authentic, true blue roots. @KemiBadenoch is cutting through as her profile grows and her renewal agenda takes hold inside the party. The road back from 2024 is long, and rebuilding voter trust will be hard. But a party that holds its flagship stronghold against a fully mobilised campaign from its main challenger is not a party in retreat.
Vote Conservative tomorrow. Here's why.
Local councils aren't going to fix immigration, reverse the productivity collapse, or sort out the Islamism problem. Everyone knows that. Councillors run bins, social care, and planning. Unglamorous work. Important work.
What matters at council level is bias. Conservative councillors are biased toward value for money. Labour and Green councillors are biased toward virtue signalling - throwing your money at nonsense initiatives and managing bin strikes with breathtaking incompetence. Birmingham showed you exactly what Labour does with a council budget.
Conservative-run councils - @CityWestminster, @wandsworth - consistently deliver the lowest council tax increases without gutting essential services. That's the record. Reform, by contrast, went into their councils promising to slash council tax, found nothing to cut, then either hiked taxes anyway or stripped services. Then Farage stood up and claimed not raising taxes as much counts as cutting them. A complete clown show. Conservative candidates this cycle didn't overpromise. They told you the truth about what councils can and can't do. That matters.
Now put on the other hat.
If you want to send a message to Westminster - send a message of approval. Because what is happening inside the @Conservatives right now is genuinely significant. Under @KemiBadenoch, you already have the most authentically right-wing policy platform in decades. Every scrap of woke drift from the Cameron and May years is gone. When Prosper UK tried to drag the party back toward liberal mush - Andy Street, Ruth Davidson piping up on television - Kemi publicly slapped them down. The wets are not back in charge. Not even close.
Every sitting Conservative MP will have to re-interview for their seat ahead of 2029. Every candidate will sign up to the manifesto in full. In blood. The parliamentary party is being rebuilt. By 2029 you will have the most conviction-driven Conservative MP cohort arguably since Thatcher was pushed out.
And Kemi herself. Watch the viral clip from earlier this week (I’m linking to it in replies) where she states that she is unapologetically on the right of British politics, calling out Islamism and antisemitism directly, without caveat. That is genuine conviction. Electric.
Starmer is a robot. Farage is a clown. Davey is a clown. Polanski is a boob-whispering clown (a special model).
Kemi is the only credible, conviction-driven mature leader in British politics right now.
If you like what you're seeing - say so. Vote Conservative tomorrow. Send that message. Even if you’re still unsure if you would vote Conservative in the next general election. Let them know you approve of the progress so far.
And if you won't vote Conservative, then don't vote at all. Seriously. Voting Reform means handing your council to people who will either drain your wallet or gut your services - and then lie about it. That is a very costly way to take your country back.
Vote Conservative. Do the sensible thing.
Kemi Badenoch gets shouted down, called “far right” and just states it plainly: she’s on the right.
No apology. No backtracking. Just clarity.
That’s exactly what’s been missing from British politics.
The country isn’t crying out for more vague, watered down positioning, it wants conviction.
If the Conservatives are serious about rebuilding, this is the direction.