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Bush: Stay away Howard By TREVOR KAVANAGH Political Editor TORY leader Michael Howard has been barred from the White House and told he will never meet President George Bush, it emerged last night. The bombshell ban was slapped on Mr Howard after he called for Tony Blair to quit over the Iraq War. And it was reinforced last month when he said he would have vetoed military action if he had known the full facts about Iraq’s WMD arsenal. Last night, a spokesman for Mr Howard did not even try to deny the Tory leader had been banned from meeting...

[SNIP] Michael Howard’s less important piece of luck concerns the UK Independence party. At the time of its European election triumph in June it looked as if Ukip — which holds a poignant appeal to the most atavistic and, sadly for Michael Howard, by no means least numerous section of the Conservative party activist base — could cause desperate problems at the general election. The worry is not that Ukip could win parliamentary seats on its own account, rather that it would shave thousands of voters in marginal constituencies, costing the Tories dozens of seats. This disconcerting prospect has become...

Howard finds nowhere to hide from polished Prime Minister JAMES KIRKUP THE last gladiatorial clash of the parliamentary session yesterday saw Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, escape unscathed and left Conservatives downcast at the faltering performance of their leader, Michael Howard. Mr Blair conducted himself masterfully, repeatedly allowing MPs to interrupt his opening statement in a show of confidence about his ability to absorb and overcome any of their arguments. Mr Howard, by contrast, became snared in a web of his own making, entangled in his legalistic argument that although he still fully supports the war, he now wishes he...

Tories Back Fathers' RightsJuly 12, 2004 MND NEWSWIRE British Tory leader Michael Howard is to call for a change in the law which would give parents equal access to their children when relationships break down, according to the BBC. At a summit on custody battles today, Howard is expected to say that "the best parent is both parents," a familiar phrase coined as the title of a book by Children's Rights Council President David Levy. It is thought that ministers are considering changes in law that would give divorced fathers a better deal on custody and access. The Tory...

Howard pledges 'grammars for all'By John Clare and Liz Lightfoot (Filed: 18/06/2004) A grammar school place for every parent who wants one and whose child is qualified for it was the prospect held out yesterday by Michael Howard, the Tory leader. He said a Conservative government would encourage grammar schools to take over failing comprehensives and make them academically selective if there was sufficient parental demand in the area. Similarly, grammar schools that were over-subscribed, as most are, would receive as much money from the Government as they needed to expand as they saw fit. Mr Howard was speaking to...

Howard faces plot by Tory Eurosceptics Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent Sunday June 13, 2004 The Observer Michael Howard is facing a plot by right-wing Tories to force him into a harder line on Europe if tonight's election results show voters deserting in droves to the UK Independence party. Eurosceptic MPs will take informal soundings among their colleagues tomorrow if, as expected, the far-right party - which favours withdrawal from the EU - makes a breakthrough in elections to the European Parliament. Privately, Howard is resigned to getting a lower share of the vote than William Hague in the 1999...

Europe is not working properly. I am quite clear about that. The European Union pumps out too many rules and regulations, and is too centralised and inflexible. It has a poor track record on waste and fraud, and is a prime example of the failed "big government knows best" approach to life. For almost a decade, auditors have refused to sign off the EU's accounts because of the level of fraud and corruption in the organisation. Every year, £3 billion goes missing. Red tape is strangling European business. It has a serious impact on jobs and growth. Productivity in the...

For months, the Conservatives have been rather like the contestants on those grotesque Japanese endurance television shows, who sit in the scorching sun for hours and hours in front of a mouth-watering glass of ice-cold orange juice, desperately trying not to drink it. In the Tories' case, the glass has been labelled with the words: "Attack Labour over Iraq and Bush - go on, you know you want to!" Iain Duncan Smith, to his credit, though not to his benefit, resisted the temptation. Last week, however, Michael Howard finally yielded and tore into the Prime Minister, demanding that Mr Blair...

Relations between Labour and the Conservatives over Iraq reached a new low yesterday after Michael Howard was accused by ministers of endangering the lives of British forces. Tony Blair led a concerted attack by ministers and Labour MPs on the Tory leader, who had said it was time for Mr Blair to be more open about his disagreements with President George W Bush. Although Mr Howard made clear that he still supported the deployment of British troops in Iraq, he complained of a "serious lack of candour" about Mr Blair's discussions with Mr Bush. He said the new "doctrine of...

"Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you today. The War on Terror "We meet today under a dark shadow, cast by last week's appalling atrocity in Madrid – the worst terrorist attack on European soil since Lockerbie. It was carried out with apocalyptic symmetry, 911 days after 9/11, on the 11th March – 3/11. "Like those who attacked the Twin Towers, the people who carried out this barbarity showed that there is no limit to the suffering they are prepared to inflict. After the attacks on New York and Washington, the bombs in Iraq, Turkey, Bali...

Howard urges US economy for UK Tory leader Michael Howard has said Britain needs a US-style economy, in a speech to a conference of Rupert Murdoch's journalists in Mexico. "Our economy needs to become more like America's again," he said, as he called for fewer regulations and lower taxes. He also told British, US and Australian bosses of News International he backed Tony Blair in the war on terror. His speech was the first by a British politician to News Corporation since Tony Blair addressed them in 1995. 'Wrong path' Mr Howard evoked the memory of ex-Conservative premier Margaret Thatcher,...

Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative party, has announced his party has withdrawn from the Butler inquiry into intelligence failures in the assessment of Iraq’s WMD capability. Mr Howard said his party withdrew their support because of the limited nature of the inquiry. Lord Butler’s committee will focus on structures and systems rather than individuals. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Howard expressed his dissatisfaction on what he regards as a narrower interpretation of the inquiry’s terms of references than the two leaders had agreed to. "Lord Butler has chosen to interpret his terms of reference in...

Tories disown cockler joke MP Tory leader Michael Howard has expelled an MP from the parliamentary party for failing to apologise for a joke about the deaths of 20 Chinese cocklers. Ann Winterton, 63, the MP for Congleton in Cheshire, had the party whip withdrawn over remarks made during an after-dinner speech. Mr Howard called them and her refusal to say sorry "completely unacceptable". Twenty migrants died after being caught by a rising tide at Morecambe Bay in Lancashire earlier this month. 'Completely unacceptable' Two years ago Mrs Winterton was sacked as shadow cabinet spokeswoman for agriculture for making a...

Thatcherite principles of enterprise, competition, low taxation and free markets will be championed by Michael Howard to regain policy ground the Tories believe they have surrendered to Labour. Dr Liam Fox, the party chairman, will tonight set out to reclaim the political philosophy that led to limits on the power of trade unions, greater home-ownership and privatisations. Dr Liam Fox: wants the party to use 'language of conservatism'. He will use a speech to entrepreneurs to flesh out the principles announced by Mr Howard, the Conservative leader, in his "I believe" declaration this month. Dr Fox will call on the...

Tories back in the lead with Howard By George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 28/11/2003) Michael Howard has put the Conservatives back on the map three weeks after taking over as leader from Iain Duncan Smith. A YouGov poll for The Telegraph today gives them a two-point lead over Labour, with the Liberal Democrats running a poor third. They enter what is expected to be the last full session of Parliament before a general election in 2005 in a stronger position than at any time since Tony Blair became the Labour leader nine years ago.

MICHAEL HOWARD attended a secret lunch with Richard Desmond, owner of the Express group and favourite to buy the troubled Daily Telegraph, to try to secure a promise that the newspaper will continue to support the Tories. The meeting took place only hours after it was announced that Lord Black of Crossharbour was stepping down as chief executive of Hollinger International, the Telegraph’s parent group, over allegations of millions of pounds of unauthorised payments. Monday’s lunch took place at the Westminster home of Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory treasurer, and the party’s wealthiest supporter, who is a long-standing friend of...

<p>Britain's Conservative Party, adrift in a wilderness dark and drear, has elected a Jew as its leader. It figures. Only a Moses could lead them out of the wilderness, down the valley of doubt and through the pond of despair into the promised land.</p>

LONDON, Nov. 6 (JTA) — A former hard-line government minister has become the first Jew ever to lead a major British political party. Michael Howard, 62, was declared the leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party on Thursday. No one came forward to challenge him after the party dumped its previous leader, Iain Duncan Smith, last week. Geoffrey Alderman, a historian of British Jewry, said Howard’s candidacy carried symbolic importance for Britain’s Jews but probably would not bear tangible benefits. Actually, Alderman said, having a Jewish prime minister could be detrimental to the Jewish community, expressing a concern not unlike those...

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's struggling opposition Conservative Party united Thursday after more than a decade of feuding to make Michael Howard, a witty and articulate former Cabinet minister, its new leader. Howard, 62, who stood unopposed to succeed Iain Duncan Smith at the helm of the once-mighty party, promised to "lead from the center" to challenge Prime Minister Tony Blair's government. "If we are to win we must work together as a team. We must rediscover the virtues of mutual support and friendship," Howard said in his acceptance speech. "Our challenge is to build up ourselves as a credible and...

BBC have it in for Howard THE BBC is cross. How dare the bedraggled, contemptible Tory Party rally round a viable leader without first indulging in a self-destructive bloodbath? And what nerve to choose a man who upset Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman seven years ago. The Beeb’s sneering anti-Tory machine went into overdrive the moment Michael Howard emerged as Iain Duncan Smith’s as-yet undisputed successor. On Thursday, Radio 4’s The World Tonight carried a disgraceful 90-second clip which amounted to outright character assassination. The Labour Party could not have scripted this undiluted bile more skilfully. It rehashed the "something of the...