Tories nearly ran out of money as donors deserted them after election defeat, says Badenoch

The Conservative Party nearly went bankrupt after their worst-ever election defeat as donors considered pulling their funding, Kemi Badenoch has admitted.

The Tory leader said she spent her first few months in office “working furiously behind the scenes”, which she said led some to think she was “not doing anything”.

Speaking to BBC Newscast after one year as Conservative Party leader, Mrs Badenoch said keeping donors on side “actually took quite a lot of quite a lot of my time”, saying she wished she had spent more time “out there a bit more”.

But she added: “Without money, a party can’t survive.”

Asked if there was risk that the Conservatives could have gone bankrupt, the Tory leader said: “Yes, there was.”

Mrs Badenoch came to the helm of the party after a leadership contest triggered by Rishi Sunak’s resignation in the wake of the 2024 general election drubbing, which saw the party lose 250 seats.

Over the last year, the Tory leader has slowly started to craft a new policy platform for the party, insisting she will rebuild the Conservatives’ vision for Britain – but there is growing talk of a leadership challenge amid poor approval ratings.

Senior Tory sources told The Independent that she will have to go if the party is hit by another terrible set of results in the May elections in Wales, Scotland and English local councils – with Robert Jenrick the favourite to succeed her.

But Mrs Badenoch said: “This first year of my leadership has been about rebuilding. Rebuilding our party, our principles and our plan for Britain.

“After defeat in 2024, we faced a choice: retreat into slogans, or rebuild around values. We chose to rebuild.

“The Conservative Party now stands once again for what made Britain strong in the first place – responsibility, fairness, competence and pride in our nation.”

She also pointed to the large number of donations the party had received over the last year, an area where it has outperformed its political rivals.

“At the same time as we rebuild, we have stayed united, raised more money than the other parties combined and exposed the hypocrisy of Labour’s behaviour and the weakness of their policies, forcing U-turns on winter fuel payments, grooming gangs and welfare cuts,” Mrs Badenoch said.

She added: “I’ve spent this year giving the country a serious alternative to Labour’s weakness: a plan for a stronger economy and stronger borders.

“The Conservatives have set out detailed, costed policies to cut waste, lower taxes, control immigration and reward work. We’ve shown how to fix welfare, stop the boats, cut energy bills and make work pay again.”

Despite her insistence the party is providing a credible alternative to the Labour government, the latest polling from YouGov suggested voters are yet to be convinced by Mrs Badenoch: 12 per cent believe she is a prime minister in waiting, while 62 per cent do not.

A majority of Conservative members, 54 per cent, do however believe she is doing a good job as party leader, while 24 per cent say she has done a bad job, according to the survey of 2,136 British adults carried out between October 28 and 29.

Pregnant British teenager Bella Culley freed from Georgia prison after ‘drugs mule’ ordeal

Bella Culley, a pregnant British teenager held in Georgia over drug smuggling charges, has been freed.

The 19-year-old, from Billingham in Teesside, was awaiting sentencing after she was accused of smuggling 12kg (26lb) of marijuana and 2kg (4.4lb) of hashish in her hold luggage at Tbilisi international airport in May.

She had been held in the former Soviet prison for over five months, and said she had been forced to boil pasta in a kettle to eat and dig a hole in the ground to use the toilet. She is 35 weeks pregnant and was transferred to a mother and baby unit over the weekend, but has now been freed.

Footage from outside the court shows the teenager appearing shocked, overwhelmed and grateful as she left the building with her lawyer.

Speaking to media upon her release, Ms Culley said: “I’m feeling relieved.” She said she had not expected to be freed and felt happy upon hearing the news. Asked about the conditions in prison, she looked to her mother, Lyanne Kennedy, who shook her head and said: “Bella, no”.

Ms Culley then asked: “Can we go now?” and left the premises.

Shortly before her final hearing, Ms Culley’s lawyer said a plea bargain had been reached at the last minute. Learning of the news, Ms Culley was seen giving her lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, a hug.

Last week, her family made a payment of £137,000 to reduce her sentence after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors at Tbilisi City Court. She had faced up to 20 years in prison when she was first arrested.

Ms Culley had initially pleaded not guilty at a hearing in July to possession and trafficking illegal drugs, and said she had been tortured into transporting them by a gang.

She is due to give birth before Christmas and became pregnant while travelling in Southeast Asia. She had been reported missing in Thailand and was arrested shortly after in Georgia.

Ms Culley told the Tbilisi court: “I did not want to do this. I was forced to do this through torture. I just wanted to travel. I am a good person. I am a student at university. I am a clean person. I don’t do drugs.”

Her lawyer told the court at a pre-trial hearing that she had been threatened with a hot iron to travel with the suitcase filled with drugs. The teenager stood in front of the judge in the courtroom and showed her scarred right wrist.

Trump weighs in on ‘tragic situation’ as more Andrew revelations emerge

US President Donald Trump said he feels “badly” for the royal family amid the continuing fallout over Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes as reports claim that Andrew “refused to sign off” on royal statements that supported the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex abuse.

A source close to the King and Queen said the former prince would veto references to abuse victims in all statements since his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, blocking the Palace from acknowledging them, according to The Times.

But in the King’s latest statement, in which he stripped Andrew of his royal titles, he made clear his support for survivors in the line: “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

When questioned about the King’s decision to remove Andrew’s prince title, the US president said: “It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the (royal) family.”

On Thursday, the King took the dramatic decision to officially remove Andrew’s Prince and Duke of York titles and HRH style, following pressure over his ties with Epstein.

The food Gen X is addicted to – and why it could be killing them

Joe Wicks and Dr Chris Van Tulleken, creating the world’s most harmful protein bar in Channel 4’s Licensed to Kill last month, made headlines. The sweeteners, goo, flavouring and other industrially produced edible substances they poured into an innocent-looking and apparently extremely tasty fake chocolate bar, have been linked to diarrhoea, other gut issues, an increased risk of stroke, cancer, and what Van Tulleken describes with alarming confidence as “early death”.

A nation trembled. But who should have been trembling in a very specific way? Generation X. Snagged silently between the gobby social media hoggers of baby boomers and millennials, those of us who’d been paying attention to US medical journals (a very specific subset, admittedly) would have seen, just one week previously, a paper from the University of Michigan, which discovered that this has all affected Gen X’s health in a very unique way.

It’s only the second piece of research in the US looking at the intersection between older age groups and ultra-processed food (UPF), and it points out that Generation X were the first generation to have UPF feature heavily in their diets from an early age. The results are clear. Twenty-one per cent of women and 10 per cent of men in Generation X meet criteria for addiction to UPFs, outweighing other addictions like alcoholism (1.5 per cent) and smoking (4 per cent ).

The term “ultra-processed foods”, just in case you’ve not come across it, was defined by the Nova food classification system, developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. It defines food in four categories depending on what’s been done to it during its production.

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods include fruit, vegetables, milk, fish, eggs and other foods with no added ingredients. Processed ingredients include salt, sugar and oils used to cook with. Processed foods combining groups one and two in a way you could do at home, like jam, pickles, tinned fruit and vegetables. Ultra-processed foods, however, have more than one ingredient that you’d never find in a kitchen, such as chemical-based preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, artificial colours and flavours.

But that’s only half the story. It doesn’t explain why those Gen Xers got addicted, showing strong cravings, repeated unsuccessful attempts to cut down and withdrawal symptoms. It also doesn’t explain why some of this cohort say they even sometimes avoid social situations because of fear of overeating. Or why they over-index as UPF addicts who are overweight, are isolated and have poor mental health.

Boomers, by the way, not so much. Just 12 per cent of women and 4 per cent of men from the golden generation count as UPF addicts. In case the cheap housing, large pensions and jobs for life weren’t enough of a reward for being born in the 1950s and early 60s, they’d also been taught to cook from scratch – a habit many of them never abandoned.

“Generation X was the first to grow up surrounded by ultra-processed foods,” Dr Karen Mann, medical director for the digital health app Noom. “If you were a child in the 1970s or 1980s like I was, you probably remember being bombarded with ads for brightly packaged snacks, fast food, and ‘convenience’ meals.

“Those foods weren’t just available, they were marketed as normal, fun, and family-friendly. In a sense, Gen X was the first test case for how a diet dominated by engineered, hyperpalatable products affects long-term eating behaviour. And being young when UPF arrived shaped Generation X’s tastes and habits early on, making those foods more difficult to resist later in life.”

This was also a generation when both parents started to work too and a more educated population meant many moved away from extended family as they sought out new work opportunities.

“It created a latchkey generation, with parents leaving us food things like French bread pizzas, Findus Crispy Pancakes and Pop-Tarts to snack on when we got home from school,” adds Rob Hobson, nutritionist and author of Unprocess Your Family Life. “Our teeth have suffered, we have a mouthful of fillings, our diets suffered and now we’re reaching midlife, we have high rates of metabolic issues – weight gain, cardiovascular risk, all that kind of stuff.”

As a card-carrying member of Gen X, I look back on Findus Crispy Pancakes, Vesta Curries, Alphabetti Spaghetti, Mr Kipling Cakes, Dalepak Steaks and Birds Eye Potato Waffles with genuine affection. There were no health warnings for us. We were just told that Mr Kipling baked exceedingly good cakes, Birds Eye Potato Waffles were waffley versatile and Angel Delight was not only delicious, it was also delovely, right?

Ironically, UPF’s high calorie content and semi-industrial structure – which makes it faster to eat and faster to digest – is thanks to the American biologist Paul Ehrlich who, in 1968, predicted that the US would face widespread famines in the 1980s, with millions dying of starvation.

He wrote the then-seminal work The Population Bomb, a grim but entirely incorrect book that saw the post-war surge in the population as unsustainable. There were so many of you, they thought we’d all starve. Instead, between 1980 and 1998, we saw the emergence of Big Food to feed us all, and obesity rates trebled.

“That famine fear gave huge financial incentives for greater food energy creation and technological advances that lead to nutrient-poor industrial food products dense in calories per bite, high in too much saturated fat, high in too much added sugar, high in too much salt, far too low in fibre but very cheap,” explains Sam Dicken, research fellow at the Centre for Obesity Research at UCL

“There were tobacco companies getting into food production, using their marketing tricks and product innovations. It was really hard to avoid. We didn’t even have nutritional standards for food until the 1990s. It was an unregulated market.”

Which, of course, was tragic for a generation of kids being brought up on this stuff in the Seventies and Eighties, and then came a cunning switcheroo, which would make things even worse. Having pumped us full of calories, UPF food companies then sold us diet foods like Diet Coke, low-fat or fat-free versions of cereals, yogurts and non-butter spreads – with sugar replaced by aspartame, which can create sugar cravings and fat replaced with sugar.

This, the University of Michigan research suggests, may account for women’s higher addiction to UPF. “One explanation may be the aggressive marketing of ‘diet’ ultra-processed food to women in the 1980s,” according to Ashley Gearhardt, professor of psychology at the university.

“Low-fat cookies, microwaveable meals and other carbohydrate-heavy products were sold as health foods, which can be especially problematic for those trying to reduce the number of calories they consume. Their engineered nutrient profiles may reinforce addictive eating patterns. This especially affects women, because of the societal pressure around weight.”

And to add a cultural smack in the face to the UPF injury, as poor old Gen X staggered uncertainly into the 1990s, they faced a wave of insane fad diets like the detox diet (consume only water or juice); the cabbage soup diet (seven days on just low calorie cabbage soup); the food combining diet (don’t eat certain foods in the same meal because they digest at different rates) and the Atkins diet (eat as much protein and fat as you like but no carbs).

My friends tried most of these. “I nearly attacked my flatmate for eating toast while I was detoxing, it smelt so good,” one recalls. “While on the cabbage soup diet, I actually passed out using the treadmill at the gym.” Another says; “Honestly, I think I tried everything that came along. They made me angry and so hungry I’d break and just stuff my face. It was the 1990s, so I had unhealthy relationships with everything – pills, coke, food, diets and booze. Weirdly, I look back on it as a fun decade. I guess that’s because the Cold War was over and the war on terror hadn’t arrived. The only person working hard to kill me was me.”

Caroline Buck, a health psychologist, and Dr Abigail Fisher, professor of physical activity and health, work at the Centre for Obesity Research with Sam Dicken. They’re trying to wean healthcare workers off UPF, telling me: “They’re at high risk down to shift work and lots of UPF available in hospitals,” Buck explains. “But we found that the whole diet culture is an older age thing that we just didn’t see with younger participants in our study. They had a very different mentality.”

For all age groups, they found that a combination of regular one-to-one online video calls, monthly support groups, setting goals, having them self-monitor, providing booklets and a website with information… It was a lot, all based on something called a behaviour change wheel, which is way more complicated than cabbage soup. And it’s taken six months so far. This is the power of UPF – it’s addictive, but it’s everywhere, and it still makes up 60 per cent of the average UK diet despite people being more aware of it than ever.

No wonder Mounjaro and Ozempic are so popular among Gen Xers in the UK. Private-market data for Mounjaro indicate that people aged 40-59 make up over half of Mounjaro users, and the average user age was reported as 50.2 years. And older users are also more likely to use it for chronic conditions (diabetes, heart disease) rather than solely for slimming, too.

It makes me feel a little bad about how little we noticed back in the 1980s. There’s plenty of work done on adolescents, but only now are we really understanding how the early diets of those in their fifties today have impacted their health. Gen X came home from school alone, put the UPF into the microwave and chowed down alone, and then were left to wrestle with the twisted diet culture, which came for them as they hit their twenties.

No wonder they call us the forgotten generation. Perhaps it’s time to remind people we’re here, because, if we don’t, the cost of ignoring the mounting health crisis coming down the track will.

Gareth Southgate responds to Man United rumours

Sir Gareth Southgate has revealed his stance on potentially becoming Manchester United manager and addressed what his next job in football could be.

It is around 16 months since Southgate ended his successful eight-year stint as England boss following their Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain in Berlin.

The former defender led the Three Lions to back-to-back European Championship finals, as well as runs to the World Cup semi-finals and quarter-finals, after stepping up from the under-21s role in 2016.

The 55-year-old hasn’t had a management job in football since, although has been consistently linked with high-profile roles in the game, despite suggesting his next job could be outside the sport.

In a round of interviews on Monday morning to promote his new book Dear England: Lessons in Leadership, which is published on Thursday, Southgate reiterated that stance and insisted he was being patient before diving into a new role.

“I’m reflecting a lot on what I might do next, and it’s not certain in my head that I stay in football,” he said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

When asked what job he’d re-enter football for, Southgate replied “I haven’t seen it yet” and when pressed on whether the Man United job could be the one, the ex-England boss said with a big smile: “Well, I think they’ve got a manager and he seems to be doing pretty well at the moment.”

He then responded to the suggestion that his answer “wasn’t an outright no”, by saying “well, it’s not an outright yes that’s for certain.”

Southgate was heavily linked with the Old Trafford job when Ruben Amorim was under real pressure and looked on the brink of the sack, although the Portuguese has turned things round in recent weeks.

His good relationship with fellow knight of the realm Sir Dave Brailsford, who is head of Ineos Sport and was tasked with overseeing operations at Man United by owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was cited as a key factor behind the links, although Brailsford has since scaled back his involvement at United to focus on his wider Ineos role.

Southgate said he is perfectly happy not currently being in football and admitted that finding something within the game to follow being England manager will not be easy.

“With the national team, we had a greater purpose,” he explained. “I went to the Football Association initially to improve youth football, to improve how English players were viewed around the world and to try to improve the scope for English coaches.

“I end up in the [England] manager’s job, which wasn’t the intention and so I stumble into that, we have a good few years and people assume you want to stay in football. But I’m very passionate about this work around young men.

“I’m not desperate to stay in football. I’ve had 37 years in football, which is amazing.”

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Southgate did concede that the possibility of an eventual return to football shouldn’t be ruled out.

“Well, you can never say never because I’ve just seen Martin O’Neill at his age [73 years old] go to Celtic,” he added. “But it’s not something that’s high on my agenda at the moment, I’m enjoying the work around leadership, I’m enjoying my work with young people, very determined to try and make a difference there.

“And so no, I’m very relaxed about not being in football at the moment.”

He also smilingly dismissed the idea of going into politics.

“That’s looks like it’s really tough,” laughed Southgate. “Haven’t I had enough of that sort of stuff, really?”

Enriching escapes: find your perfect luxury break

Nine-month-old baby dies after dog attack in Wales

A nine-month-old baby has died after a dog attack in Wales.

Gwent Police and paramedics from the Welsh Ambulance Service attended the property on Crossway in Rogiet, Monmouthshire, at about 6pm on Sunday.

The baby was pronounced dead at the scene, and the dog was seized and removed from the property.

Chief superintendent John Davies said: “We understand that there will be concerns around this incident, but officers are on scene and will be making further enquiries as the investigation progresses.

“If you have concerns or information then please do stop and talk with us.”

The Welsh Ambulance Service said: “We were called today at 6.02pm to reports of a medical emergency in Rogiet, Caldicot.

“We sent one Cymru high acuity response unit, an advanced paramedic practitioner, a duty operations manager and one emergency ambulance. Crews were supported by our hazardous area response team.”

‘More than a hundred tax and spending plans’ considered by Reeves ahead of Budget

The chancellor is reportedly considering more than one hundred different tax and spending measures in the upcoming Budget, amid concerns the fiscal watchdog could be about to downgrade the UK’s productivity performance.

Rachel Reeves is thought to be looking at hitting the top third of earners as part of an attempt to fill a black hole in the public finances of up to £50bn.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – which handed the chancellor its latest set of projections for the economy last week – is expected to downgrade the UK’s performance on productivity at the Budget, with fears that it could represent a further £20bn gap in the public finances.

Sources told The Times that around a hundred tax and spending measures are on the table for the Budget, including an increase in income tax, which would be a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto promise not to increase three key taxes on working people.

However, they said there is still “considerable uncertainty” over the level of tax increases that are required to fill the looming black hole.

“Nothing is decided and can’t be decided until we know exactly what the forecasts are,” the source said.

Meanwhile, Sky News reported that Treasury officials are looking to protect the incomes of the lower two-thirds of earners – those earning less than £45,000.

The latest reports come after the prime minister on Wednesday declined to say he would stand by Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise VAT, income tax or national insurance in next month’s Budget – fuelling expectations that the Budget will involve further major tax rises as she seeks to close a multi-billion pound gap in her plans.

Sir Keir Starmer has previously said the commitment Labour made to voters before the 2024 general election “stands”, but failed to repeat that assurance in the Commons, and his press secretary also avoided using the phrase.

The PM also refused to rule out extending the freeze on the personal tax allowance threshold, which drags more earners into paying income tax.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, defence secretary John Healey warned there will be “consequences” from recent weaker economic forecasts at this month’s Budget – and declined to repeat Labour’s promises on tax.

He said the OBR now saw much worse “scarring” on the economy than previously thought and the chancellor would make “announcements to deal with those challenges”.

Asked whether the government would stick to its manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT, Mr Healey declined to repeat the promise.

He told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme: “That’s for the Budget and that’s for the chancellor to announce at the end of the month.”

Pressed further on Labour’s tax commitment, he added: “No decisions have been taken about the Budget, even the Office of Budget Responsibility hasn’t produced its final figures.

“But what we do know is that they now see the deep damage and scarring to be much more serious than previously thought, a combination of years of cuts, Covid and really slow economic growth over 14 years.

“So there are consequences. Things do change, and we’ll have the announcements that are needed to deal with those challenges in the Budget.”