Latest news with #Rossendale
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Jake Berry — Kemi Badenoch is toast, Nigel Farage should be PM
He is just the latest in a growing number of disaffected Tories turning to Nigel Farage's party. Former Conservative chairman Sir Jake Berry tells The Daily T why, after 25 years of Conservative Party membership and 14 years as the Tory MP for Rossendale and Darwen, he has joined Reform. As well as acknowledging his role as a senior Tory in the failure of 'broken Britain', Berry attacks the Labour Government, accusing Starmer of gross incompetence: 'the Conservative Party failed to sort it out over 14 years. I think the Labour Party 's done a worse job in 14 months.' Berry also explains why it took him losing his seat to realise that Nigel Farage is the only man who can fix Britain and why Kemi Badenoch is 'toast'. The former MP also weighs in on Essex police controversially escorting protesters to a migrant hotel in Epping, as the county's police chief refuse to resign.
BBC News
11-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Haslingden cemetery could be extended for more Muslim burials
A Lancashire cemetery could have an extended Muslim burial area and other changes, if councillors approve a range of work potentially costing up to £600, new elements at Haslingden Cemetery in Rossendale could include extra car parking and a garden of remembrance for Cemetery could also be extended in the future, according to a new report for borough councillors. The need for burial space in the short term has been addressed at both sites, according to a council report, but Haslingden will require extra Muslim burial space later this year while Rawtenstall has space until late 2026. All councillors at Rossendale Council's next full meeting on 16 July will need to vote on the Haslingden idea because it is not included in the current budget for big projects this financial year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting to consider include the council providing a burial service for the Muslim community, council relationships with the community, sources of finance for the work and the need for outside expertise on cemetery extensions, according to a council the initial costs faced by Rossendale Council, a failure to develop Haslingden Cemetery would mean a lack of burial provision for the Muslim community and the council missing out on potential future income associated with cemetery services. Farmland to be used About 20 plot sales are expected each year and the Haslingden extension would last about 11 years. A second phase could be looked at in the current cost for a grave space, vault and internment is just over £4,000. The report estimates the council's costs would be repaid in seven or eight years through burials, with remaining income from the extension's 11-year lifespan supporting cemetery staff and currently has six acres of land in use and a small chapel. If an extension went ahead, land that has been leased for farming would be used and a full planning application for a cemetery extension would be next step is to get the full council's approval of funding to progress the scheme through planning. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
Telegraph
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Berry's defection to Reform is the latest sign it is a joke party
What shall we make of Sir Jake Berry's defection from the Tories to Reform UK? It is an interesting culmination of a political career that has taken Berry – in no short amount of time – from serving in David Cameron's Number 10 Policy Unit, to performative Boris Johnson loyalism, to a blissful seven weeks as Liz Truss's Party Chairman. Not to mention losing his seat after two years of backbench mildewing, backing Tom Tugendhat for the party's leadership, and then plonking himself in that natural berth for the politically exhausted and terminally irrelevant: TalkTV. Apropos of nothing, online swingometers now have Berry's former seat going to Reform by quite a healthy margin. In fairness to the voters of Rossendale and Darwen, they have obvious reasons to want to put a plague on the houses of both major parties – reasons that Berry sharply identified in his article announcing his defection. He was blunt: 'If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule'. Our streets are lawless, migration is out of control, and taxes are going through the roof. Britain is broken, it needs reform, and Nigel Farage is the man to deliver it – just as, erm, one assumes Tugendhat was last summer. With Berry's defection, Reform gain a former MP with several years of ex-ministerial experience at a junior level – as Minister of State for the Northern Powerhouse (remember that?) – and over a decade in the Commons. They get someone with considerable organisational experience, brio, and a suitably firm line on the culture wars. But it is hard to get too excited about Berry's switch. He is not a political heavyweight. His loss from the Commons was not mourned by many. And his post-parliamentary career has suggested little more than a desperate desire to remain relevant. In Berry's defence, he has never been anything less than enthusiastic. He set up the party's Northern Research Group to support MPs in the North and Midlands – areas that deserted the party at the last election. He was vocal in trying to bridge the gap between the party leadership and its members, and in trying to reclaim a reputation for being the party of lower taxes that we never should have lost. He swung back and forth on Rishi Sunak, depending on how much attention the former Prime Minister paid to him. But like so many, he will be forever devalued by his association with Truss. Let me be plain. Berry's career has been a combination of shameless careerism with an unfortunate tendency to throw his toys out of the pram. Berry is one of those ex-Tory MPs – like fellow defector Andrea Jenkyns – who never got over the fact that the leaders they put so much stock in – Johnson, the 49-Day Queen, or both – were hopeless at the job. He rated his political nous rather more than quite a few of his colleagues did; his knighthood was the latest depressing sign that the honours system is becoming a joke. His defection will generate a little heat, and no light. I am far from being Kemi Badenoch's biggest fan. But the Tory leader and myself would both agree that Berry's defection is no great loss. If the choice was between having Berry sniping from the sidelines and descending into ever-greater irrelevance while still nominally a Conservative, or sniping from the sidelines and descending into ever-greater irrelevance as a Farage fanboy, the latter is much easier to handle. When Reform have been taking Tory defectors, they have not been taking our best. Berry's defection is the latest sign that they are a joke party, populated by loudmouths and attention-seekers. That they are leading in the polls is no accident. Berry is right to suggest that Britain is broken, that the public are fed up, and that radical change is needed. But someone so associated with the last fourteen years – and so tarnished by his indelible association with our worst ever Prime Minister – is hardly the man to deliver it. Until you have current and former Tory MPs of genuine stature going teal – and I won't embarrass them here by naming names – it is hard to take Farage's motley crew seriously as a vehicle for fixing the country. Like Farage himself, Berry is yesterday's man.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Conservative chairman and Lancashire MP Sir Jake Berry joins Reform UK
Former Conservative chairman Sir Jake Berry has announced that he has defected to Reform UK. The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen, who served as Northern Powerhouse minister under Boris Johnson, said he had instead joined Nigel Farage's party because the Tories had 'lost their way'. The move from Sir Jake, who also served as Tory chairman in Liz Truss' short-lived government, comes just days after former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones also joined Reform. READ MORE: Married couple were defrauding DWP for 36 months, then brought about their own downfall READ MORE: Man who donated clothes to charity floored by where he saw them 45 minutes later Speaking to the Sun newspaper, the new Reform member said: 'Our streets are completely lawless. "Migration is out of control. Taxes are going through the roof. 'Old Westminster politics has failed. Millions of people, just like me, want a country they can be proud of again. The only way we get that is with Reform in government. 'Some people are giving up. Not me. I'm staying. And I'm fighting." Other ex-Tories who have joined Reform include Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aiden Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire. The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen lost his seat in the 2024 general election to Labour's Andy MacNae, who had a majority of 6,000 over Sir Jake. Mr MacNae won with 18,246 votes to Sir Jake's 12,619. Reform's candidate Daniel Matchett followed in a close third with 9,695 votes. Since his loss, Sir Jake has worked in broadcasting, hosting a show on Talk TV. Before serving in Ms Truss's government, he was a minister during both Boris Johnson and Theresa May's premierships, with responsibilities focused on the Northern Powerhouse and levelling up. In a video published alongside the Sun's reporting, Sir Jake spoke of his time in government. After claiming that 'Britain is broken', he added: 'I know who broke it because I was there. 'For 30 years I supported the Conservative Party, for 14 years I was one of their MPs, sitting at that Cabinet table twice. 'I want to tell you today my friends that I have come to a decision. The old parties do not have what it takes to transform our country, to build a Britain we can believe in again, and that's why I've decided to join the Reform Party.' Sir Jake, who opposed Brexit ahead of the 2016 referendum, commended his new party leader Mr Farage for having 'always stuck by his principles, even when it was unpopular'. A Labour Party spokesperson, said: 'Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory party chairman into his ranks. 'It's clear Farage wants Liz Truss's reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform's blueprint for Britain. It's a recipe for disaster and working people would be left paying the price. 'Only our Labour Government is putting more money in people's pockets, boosting British jobs, and delivering the renewal our country needs through our Plan for Change.'
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ex-Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry defects to Reform
Former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry has defected to Reform, in the latest blow to the Conservatives. The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen, who served as Northern Powerhouse minister under Boris Johnson, said he had defected to Nigel Farage's party because the Tories had "lost their way".Reform UK confirmed the defection to Sky News, which was first broken by The Sun. Speaking to The Sun, Sir Jake said Mr Farage's party was "last chance to pull Britain back from terminal decline". "Our streets are completely lawless," he said. "Migration is out of control. Taxes are going through the roof. "And day after day, I hear from people in my community and beyond who say the same thing: 'This isn't the Britain I grew up in'." Sir Jake accused his former party of "abandoning the British people" but said he was not "giving up". "I'm staying. And I'm fighting. "Fighting for the Britain I want my kids, and one day, my grandkids, to grow up in." Mr Farage welcomed what he said was "a very brave decision" by Sir Jake. "His admission that the Conservative government he was part of broke the country is unprecedented and principled," he added. Sir Jake's defection to Reform comes just days after former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones joined Reform UK, which continues to lead in the polls. Mr Jones, who was MP for Clwyd West from 2005 until standing down in 2024, said he had quit the Tories after "more than 50 years of continuous membership". Sir Jake was the MP Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire between 2010 and 2024, when he was defeated by Labour's Andy MacNae. He held several ministerial posts including in the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Energy and Climate Change and the Cabinet Office. He was also chairman of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022, under Liz Truss. Announcing his defection - which comes a year after the Tories suffered their worst ever election defeat - Sir Jake said "Britain was broken" and "the Conservative governments I was part of share the blame". "We now have a tax system that punishes hard work and ambition.," he said. "Just this week, we saw record numbers of our brightest and best people leaving Britain because they can't see a future here. At the same time, our benefits system is pulling in the world's poor with no plan for integration and no control over who comes in. "If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard-pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule. Read more: "Millions of people, just like me, want a country they can be proud of again. The only way we get that is with Reform in government. That's why I've resigned from the Conservative Party. I'm now backing Reform UK and working to make them the next party of government. He added: "And with Nigel Farage leading Reform, we've got someone the country can actually trust. He doesn't change his views to fit the mood of the day. And people respect that. So do I. That's why I believe he should be our next prime minister." A Labour Party spokesperson said: "Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory Party chairman into his ranks. "It's clear Farage wants Liz Truss's reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform's blueprint for Britain. It's a recipe for disaster and working people would be left paying the price."
