Jamie Raskin says Farage is ‘a Trump sycophant’ before UK politician addresses the House judiciary committee in Washington
Kemi Badenoch is probably hastily redrafting her PMQs script in the light of Angela Rayner’s statement about underpaying her stamp duty. She has got less than half an hour to craft the right questions. And she will probably want to ask about the economy, and hate speech laws, too.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Continue reading...Prime minister has a track record of firing errant ministers – but will her power within the party protect his beleaguered deputy?
Keir Starmer has a hard-won reputation for ruthlessness when it comes to dispensing with ministers who cause the government embarrassment. But the future of his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, is the toughest call of its kind.
Every time Starmer has been confronted with this kind of decision since the very early days of his leadership, his instinct has been to cut loose.
Continue reading...A new survey finds less than half of British people now carry a wallet – even though 80% own one
Name: The wallet.
Age: The word originates from the late 14th century, meaning something like knapsack. That’s how Shakespeare uses it in Troilus and Cressida, when Ulysses says: “Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back.”
Continue reading...Experiences of booking for big London gigs underscore the opaque practices of some online platforms
When Danny bought tickets to see Deftones in Crystal Palace Park he was not expecting to be initiated into an apparent subterfuge.
Yet shortly before the south London gig, Viagogo, the resale platform that sold him the tickets, sent him a scanned copy of a passport ID page belonging to a Dutch man he had never met.
Continue reading...Gift comes 8o years after Welsh guards first left replica uniform for Belgian statue to commemorate end of Nazi occupation
When British forces commemorated the liberation of Brussels for the first time in 1945, they left a unique gift – a replica Welsh guards uniform for the Belgian city’s emblematic “peeing boy” statue, the Manneken Pis.
Now 81 years after the Welsh guards freed Brussels from Nazi occupation, the gift has been renewed: the Manneken Pis has a new regimental uniform, including scarlet jacket embroidered with gold lace, gleaming white belt and authentic bearskin hat.
Continue reading...Watchdog’s report says government is unable to calculate exact cost of response to data breach, raising doubt over £850m estimate
More than 7,300 Afghans are expected to be resettled in the UK as a result of a major government data breach, according to a National Audit Office report that raises doubts over officials’ claims of a £850m cost.
The accidental leak by an MoD official in 2022 of 18,700 Afghans’ details who had worked with or for the British government led to the opening of a new route by which those endangered could seek relocation to the UK from their home country.
Continue reading...Government to ban sale of energy drinks with more than 150mg of caffeine, citing concerns over obesity and lack of concentration
Under-16s in England will be banned from buying energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster because they fuel obesity, cause sleep problems and leave them unable to concentrate.
Health experts, teaching unions and dentists welcomed the ban and said it would boost children and young people’s health. It fulfils a pledge Labour included in its manifesto for last year’s general election.
Continue reading...Yvette Cooper has announced several tough policies after a summer dominated by Farage and Reform UK
After a summer recess dominated by headlines about Reform UK’s hardline immigration proposals and protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, the home secretary returned to parliament seeking to wrest back control of the narrative.
Yvette Cooper has announced a flurry of tough asylum measures including suspending refugee family reunion applications, and even floated the idea that refugees could be moved out of hotels and into warehouses instead.
Continue reading...Chancellor will face more limited fiscal headroom at budget after yield on 30-year bond increases to 5.723%
Britain’s long-term borrowing costs have hit their highest level in 27 years, intensifying the pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, before the autumn budget.
The yield, or interest rate, on 30-year UK government debt hit 5.723% on Tuesday. That is its highest level since 1998, indicating that it will cost the UK more to borrow from the markets, above the previous 27-year high of 5.649% set in April.
Continue reading...Home secretary earlier suggested warehouses could be used instead of hotels, while PM will urge ministers to go ‘further and faster’ on immigration in Tuesday meeting
Lamb says the Greens are “the antidote to Reform”.
That gets a big round of applause.
We’re a home for all those people across the country holding their heads in their hands as the Labour government lets them down again and again and again, whether it is switching from the aid budget or from people with disabilities and not bringing in taxes … we need.
And that is why, in reaction, a new Green wave is sweeping the country as people turn to us.
It’s already become a bit of a cliche, but we are really moving into a multi-party system, with the Greens poised to help create the next government.
And, like all the best cliches, it has the distinct advantage of also being for true.
Continue reading...Defend Our Juries confirms event will go ahead as 1,000 people pledge to take part in defiance of counter-terrorism laws
More than 1,000 people have pledged to risk arrest this Saturday at a fresh protest against a ban on the group Palestine Action, as police detained five spokespeople for the event’s organisers.
Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer who is one of the co-founders of the Defend Our Juries group, was among those arrested hours before he was due to address a press conference on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Comedy writer intercepted by five armed officers at Heathrow after flying in from Arizona
The writer of TV’s Father Ted has been arrested at Heathrow over three social media posts expressing his views on transgender issues.
Graham Linehan, who also created the IT Crowd and Black Books, said he was intercepted by five armed officers after flying in from Arizona and told he was under arrest over the messages.
Continue reading...Unprecedented average temperature made about 70 times more likely by human-induced climate change, says agency
The UK has had its hottest summer on record, the Met Office has said, after the country faced four heatwaves in a single season.
The mean temperature for meteorological summer, which encompasses the months of June, July and August, was 16.1C (60.98F), which is significantly above the current record of 15.76C set in 2018.
Continue reading...Yvette Cooper says rules were designed years ago to help families separated by war but are being used in a different way now
And while we are talking about Blair-era Labour aides, Peter Hyman, who wrote speeches for Tony Blair and later worked for Keir Starmer in the run-up to the general election, has launched a new Substack blog. It is called Changing the Story, which tells you quite a lot about what he thinks is going wrong with No 10. Here is an extract from his first post.
Starmer is an ‘opportunity’ prime minister forced to become a ‘security’ one. And that’s why the government’s narrative is seen by some to be elusive.
Let me explain.
I remember well Tim Allan’s leaving drinks at Number 10 in the earlyish Blair era. In his fulsome farewell speech Tony Blair noted only half jokingly “Tim’s even more right wing than me..”
The same Tim Allan who as head of Portland had a contract to polish Vladimir Putin’s reputation?
Continue reading...Yvonne Hayward and 46 others, including a senior NHS doctor, charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act
An 81-year-old woman is among 47 more people charged for allegedly showing support for the proscribed group Palestine Action during protests this summer.
More than half are over 60, according to details released by the Metropolitan police. The overall number of people charged now stands at 114.
Continue reading...Objects including three-metre spears were collected in late 19th and early 20th centuries and donated to city’s museum
For decades, they have languished in storage in the basement of a museum in the English West Country. Finally, an extraordinary collection of weapons and ceremonial objects taken from the Larrakia people more than a century ago is beginning a winding journey home to the saltwater landscapes of the Northern Territory in Australia.
During an emotionally charged ceremony, Bristol city council formally handed over 33 objects including spears that would have been used to hunt creatures from fish to buffalo, some still gleaming with the red ochre used to decorate them.
Continue reading...About 74,150 patients waited at least 12 hours on trolleys in June and July, a situation almost nonexistent 10 years ago
Corridor care in the NHS is now a year-round crisis, experts have warned, as analysis showed nearly 3 million patients attended A&E over the first two months of the summer.
The latest NHS figures in England, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, show that since 2015 the number of people going to A&E in June and July has increased 15% to 2.9 million – the highest level recorded over the past decade.
Continue reading...East Midlands passengers to test digital tickets that will automatically charge best fares at end of day
Train passengers in the East Midlands are to test technology that will let them tap in and out for journeys and be charged the best fare for their trip at the end of the day.
Trials of digital rail tickets based on GPS tracking will begin on Monday as part of the government’s plan to improve the rail network’s complex fare system.
Continue reading...CPS hails ‘major step forward’ in crime prevention with potential for companies to receive unlimited fines
Companies could be prosecuted and face unlimited fines if they fail to prevent fraud that their firm profits from under a corporate offence coming into force on Monday.
Under the new “failure to prevent fraud” law, large companies can be held criminally liable where an “employee, agent, subsidiary or other ‘associated person’” commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation.
Continue reading...Education secretary targets 800 schools as she attempts to turn around post-Covid trends with enhanced support
Parents and caregivers “need to do more” to reverse post-Covid trends of poor attendance and behaviour in schools, the education secretary has said, announcing new measures to support schools in England before the start of the new school year.
Bridget Phillipson unveiled a UK government programme on Sunday targeting 800 schools attended by about 600,000 pupils, beginning with an initial wave of 21 schools that will serve as attendance and behaviour hubs.
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