The Spectator

Sir David Amess has died at the age of 69 after being attacked with a knife at a constituency surgery meeting. He spent 38 years in the House of Commons, serving first for the constituency of Basildon between 1983 and 1997 and subsequently for the Southend West seat. Tributes have been pouring in for him ever since. Below is a round-up of some of the messages posted by fellow MPs, politicians and long-time friends of Sir David. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister: 'The reason people are so shocked and sad is above all he was one of the kindest, nicest, most gentle people in politics. He also had an outstanding record of passing laws to help the most vulnerable.' David Cameron, former Prime Minister: 'This is the most devastating, horrific and tragic news.

It’s a strange reflection of our times that with so much else at stake, the leaders of both main parties have been asked, at their party conferences, whether they think that only women have cervixes. Both men prevaricated. Sir Keir Starmer declared this is ‘something that shouldn’t be said’. Boris Johnson avoided the question altogether. It is a straightforward biological fact that only women have cervixes, but simply stating it was more than the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition were prepared to do. Rosie Duffield, a Labour MP, faced such a ferocious backlash after making this statement that she felt she could not safely go to the Labour party conference.

It’s a strange reflection of our times that with so much else at stake, the leaders of both main parties have been asked, at their party conferences, whether they think that only women have cervixes. Both men prevaricated. Sir Keir Starmer declared this is ‘something that shouldn’t be said’. Boris Johnson avoided the question altogether. It is a straightforward biological fact that only women have cervixes, but simply stating it was more than the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition were prepared to do. Rosie Duffield, a Labour MP, faced such a ferocious backlash after making this statement that she felt she could not safely go to the Labour party conference.

It's day three of four here in Manchester at the Conservative party conference. Expected highlights of the day include the recently demoted Dominic Raab making his first speech as Justice Secretary while Priti Patel and Sajid Javid will be well worth watching too. Elsewhere Raab's axed predecessor Robert Buckland appears at Policy Exchange while The Spectator again has a full day of fringes events.

It's day two of the Conservative party conference here in Manchester and sore heads are collecting their thoughts as to which events they will be seeing today. Highlights of today include Rishi Sunak making his first in-person conference speech as Chancellor and Michael Gove telling the Tory faithful what 'Levelling Up' actually means. Elsewhere, there's a range of interesting evening receptions and The Spectator hosts its first four conference events.

It's the first day of the annual Conservative party conference here in Manchester. The first events will be held from 11 a.m onwards with Liz Truss expected to make her first major speech since her promotion to Foreign Secretary, less than three weeks ago.