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England's most senior judge says she is "deeply troubled" by Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch's exchange about a Gazan family coming to the UK under the Ukraine scheme. The Lady Chief Justice voiced her concern after the prime minister said a judge had made the "wrong decision" by letting a family of six from Gaza settle in the UK under a Ukrainian refugee scheme. The prime minister pledged to close the "loophole"... Baroness Carr said on Tuesday: "Both question and the answer were unacceptable. "It is for the government visibly to respect and protect the independence of the judiciary....

Immigrants should only be able to apply for British citizenship after being in the UK for 15 years rather than the current six, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said. Making one of her first policy announcements since becoming leader, Badenoch also said indefinite leave to remain - which paves the way for citizenship - should not be granted to those who have criminal records or who had claimed benefits or social housing. Speaking to the BBC, she said citizenship was a privilege, not just a right and should be for those with a "meaningful connection to the UK". Labour minister...

Never frightened to ruffle feathers, Kemi Badenoch's willingness to say what others may regard as unsayable has made her the darling of the Tory grassroots. Her task now will be to convince voters to agree with her views as much as the Conservative Party members who have made her leader today.

Conservative party announces Badenoch has beaten rival Robert Jenrick in ballot of party members Five things to know about Kemi Badenoch Kemi Badenoch is the new Conservative party leader after defeating Robert Jenrick in a members’ vote, becoming the first Black leader of a major UK party and the fourth woman to lead the Tories. Badenoch took just over 56% of the 95,000 votes, in a poll that had a 73% turnout of eligible members. This amounts to the narrowest win of the four since the party changed its rules to allow party members the final say in contested leadership...

...Recently, Roll Call highlighted the lobbying organization connected to Congressman Jack Murtha, D-Pa.—the PMA Group—and its efforts to sue its former clients for unpaid debts. They noted that a company called Badenoch LLC was countersuing PMA, claiming that the PMA had cheated it out of a $3 million earmark. Badenoch LLC is a small defense contractor, which is developing an alternative to the military humvee, which it believes will be safer and more roadworthy. A little digging into public records reveals an interesting financial relationship between the president of Badenoch LLC and the Congressman who sponsored his company’s previous earmark...

During the third and final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama said, “Earmarks account for 0.5 percent of the total federal budget.” Earmark reform alone would not result in a significant decrease in federal spending, he noted. The President may be right, but using this statistic to refrain from seriously addressing the issue of pork barrel spending is simply dishonest. Pork barrel spending is nothing more than institutionalized corruption and the fact that the practice still exists is a serious blight on our democratic system. Earmarks funnel money into Members’ districts, helping them win reelection bids by ostensibly...