Braverman and Buckland were appointed to their roles because Cummings thinks they will just do as they are told. No AG worth a brass farthing would remain in post when the Government has determined to break the law. Buckland should have gone as well, and his recent last minute policy change on re-opening the courts to possession claims shows he is not up to the job either.

Landlords can't claim to have been taken by surprise about this because the Conservative Party has had the private rental market in its sights for some time. In coalition with the Lib Dems the poorly written Labour legislation on protection of tenancy deposits was tightened up (largely because lawyers worked out that a coach and horses could be driven through it). Next, retaliatory evictions were banned and the use of no-fault claims was withheld from landlords who did not ensure that gas safety checks were carried out. So far, so largely uncontroversial. However, George Osborne then changed the tax treatment of mortgage payments for buy-to-let landlords unless those landlords were limited companies. That meant that they would first have to pay corporation tax on any profit and then the shareholders would be taxed a second time when dividends were taken. And now this. If the intention is to drive down property prices by persuading landlords to sell up (as previous commentators have suggested) then it makes logical sense. However, the Government has not made it clear whether its proposed new grounds for possession where the landlord can prove he wants to sell the property or move into it himself will be mandatory or discretionary. Nor is there any good reason to have confidence in the assurances given that the current possession procedure will be speeded up. Landlords routinely wait for 2 months between issuing a claim and a first hearing. The ongoing county court closure process and inadequate judicial recruitment leads to cases being block-listed at 10am and often not heard until late in the afternoon leading to delay and increased legal costs. Many landlords will I suspect decide the game is no longer worth the candle and will sell.
But this proposal will not really help renters – those who either cannot afford to buy or who prefer the flexibility of renting at that stage of their lives. They will find that shortage of properties leads to increased private rents, and that the social housing sector will simply be unable to cope with the increased demand placed on it.

20 odd years ago, when we last had a conference in Brighton, the mayor who was supposed to welcome us let off a tirade of abuse about Conservative policies. It was obvious we were not welcome there and we have never been back. Three years ago in Manchester our conference was besieged by hard-left activists who spat at attendees and threw eggs. There was little police protection. Last year was slightly better but the atmosphere was still hostile, the hall is awful and acoustics poor. Why we have booked to go back there twice over the next three years escapes me. It's not as if our loyalty has persuaded the people of Manchester to vote Conservative yet. We should alternate Birmingham with a seaside town. And yes, apart from Dom Raab and Theresa May the conference was pretty dull. All the good stuff was happening on the fringe, as has been the case for many years now.

Excellent article. Anyone reading my Facebook feed or my blog page would immediately realise that I'm a committed Conservative but, during the election campaign, my Facebook feed was swamped with suggested posts from left wing websites, none of them obviously connected to the Labour party. By contrast the pro-Conservative suggested posts which came my way originated (with only 1 honourable exception) from CCHQ and were the typical tired slogans of the failed central campaign.
When the next election campaign comes we have to vastly improve our social media offering. We need clever and funny posts that even neutrals would be prepared to share. We have to remember that, to have any memory of life under a properly left-wing Labour government such as that offered by Corbyn, you need to be nearly 50. And it is the voters under 50 who take their political messages from social media and their willingness to go out and vote is increasing as they age.

Have we nothing better to talk about than speculation about the leadership? Are we determined to head back to the horror years under IDS, and argue amongst ourselves about who should be leader rather than addressing firstly how to achieve Brexit and secondly, how to appeal to those voters attracted to Corbyn? Give Theresa May time to negotiate our exit from the EU. That is what we have been elected to do. If we waste our time and our mandate by endless arguments amongst ourselves we will finish up by watching three of the most dangerous politicians in the UK actually taking power.

Give her two years to March 2019 when we leave the EU. No other possible PM has any sort of mandate. Then get a new leader in place for 2022 (or earlier). Let us not forget that Theresa May won this election. Had she achieved this result in 2015 it would have been a big achievement. It is only because the polls seemed so favourable in April that people are talking as if we lost. And doing so plays into Corbyn's hands. He is over 50 seats short of the Consrvatives, after all.

Thanks for that. I wonder if one of the original three pulled out then.

Can anyone tell me what's going on in Grimsby? The local association have tweeted that a lady called Jo Gideon has won the selection, and Mark Wallace has re-tweeted it. She wasn't on the shortlist published on Con Home and doesn't seem to have a local connection, unlike all the candidates listed on this site. This is a seat we could win this time round - we haven't had a Conservative MP since 1945 - but I would have thought (and I grew up there) that a Lincolnshire candidate would have an advantage.

Kelly came 2nd in Louth & Horncastle and is a good bloke who will do well in Grimsby if he gets the nomination. It's good to see a strong local list as Grimsby is winnable if the successful candidate can pick up the UKIP votes from last time. The split between the two in 2015 let Melanie Onn through.

I have spent the last 20 years dealing with claims for possession under the s.21 procedure as part of my professional career. I act for both landlords and tenants. I must have appeared at thousands of county court possession hearings. There is a small number of tenants who will fabricate claims of disrepair to frustrate a landlord's right to possession, and there is also a small number of landlords who will serve s.21 notices by way of retaliation where the tenant complains of disrepair.
The section 21 procedure is absolutely vital to maintaining a healthy private rental sector, and therefore curbs on the right to use the procedure need to be scrutinised carefully. Before the 1988 legislation was enacted the private rental market was tiny because landlords found that it was almost impossible under the preceding Rent Acts to recover their properties.
There is a flaw in the present Bill in that it does not require the tenant's complaint to have been made in writing. If the bill is not amended, an unscrupulous tenant could object to a possession claim by claiming, falsely, that he had made a complaint of disrepair to his landlord orally before the s.21 notice was served. By s.1(4) (and contrary to Alex Chilton's claim that any retaliatory eviction claim must be backed by an assessment from the local council) the tenant does not need to have such an assessment in order to run a defence to the landlord's possession claim - he can simply say "The council has not yet decided whether to inspect my home". He does not even need to prove that he has made a complaint to the council. A judge faced with this situation would be obliged to adjourn the possession claim, leading to delay and increased cost to the landlord.
This could easily be avoided if the bill were to require the tenant to demonstrate, at the first hearing, that he had made his complaint to the landlord and to the council in writing.
The aim of the bill is to be welcomed - but it should not be passed in its present form.