Claire Reynolds, the director of Labour Women’s Network, will take on task of liaison between No 10, party and MPs
Keir Starmer has appointed a former aide to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as his new political director in Downing Street.
The prime minister has given the senior role to Claire Reynolds, the director of Labour Women’s Network, who was credited with helping get 100 new female MPs elected this summer.
Continue reading...Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt says decision to publish findings of review on Wednesday is ‘significant concern’
Britain’s fiscal watchdog is to publish a detailed breakdown of the £22bn “black hole” that Labour says it inherited after Rachel Reeves presents the budget on Wednesday.
The Office for Budget Responsibility will release the conclusion of its review of how the forecast for departmental spending for its last economic and fiscal outlook, published for the March budget, was prepared.
Continue reading...Hamish Falconer says legislation under consideration by Knesset is ‘neither in Israel’s interest nor realistic’
Israel’s reputation as a democracy would be “deeply harmed” if the Knesset pressed ahead with bills this week that would end all Israeli government cooperation with the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, the UK’s Middle East minister has said.
Hamish Falconer said such a move at a time when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was catastrophic and worsening would “neither be in Israel’s interest or realistic”.
Continue reading...Trade body for France’s travel industry reportedly writes to UK home secretary over concerns for programme’s future
A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK.
New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the then UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Forty-year-old has cardiac arrest after boat carrying 50 people deflates shortly after leaving France
A 40-year-old man died on Sunday trying to cross the Channel from northern France to the UK.
According to the prefecture in Calais, the man was of Indian heritage and had a cardiac arrest after the boat he was in with about 50 other men, women and children deflated minutes after leaving the French shore.
Continue reading...Hundreds of health workers sign letter to General Medical Council calling for halt to suspensions as GP faces jail for activism
Hundreds of health workers have called on the General Medical Council to stop suspending doctors imprisoned for peaceful climate activism ahead of a trial which could see the first jailing of a working GP for a non-violent climate protest in the UK.
Two retired GPs have been suspended by GMC-convened tribunals this year after receiving short sentences for non-violent offences during Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain protests in 2021 and 2022. The medical regulator did not express concerns about the doctors’ clinical capabilities but said their actions undermined public confidence in the profession.
Continue reading...Experts call for consumption rooms and wider testing of substances, as number of people dying hits new high
Experts in drug addiction have warned the government must take a different approach towards illegal substance use, or risk an increasing number of deaths from drug poisonings.
Data published by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that the number of people dying as a result of drug poisoning had reached the highest level on record.
Continue reading...Waits of more than a year for hearings into councils’ failure to meet growing needs of Send children
Parents are having to wait more than a year for tribunal hearings into inadequate provision for children with special educational needs after new cases surged by more than 50% in a year.
The National Audit Office last week highlighted the worsening crisis in the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system, with cash-strapped councils unable to meet rising need amid a lack of suitable school and college places.
Continue reading...Heir to the throne responds to criticism about his Homewards programme in two-part ITV documentary
Prince William has said criticism about his privileged lifestyle and many residences drives him to try to end homelessness in Britain.
The heir to the throne was challenged to respond to jibes about his three homes and 135,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate for a two-part ITV documentary airing this week.
Continue reading...Royal visits to resume in spring subject to doctors’ approval, official says as trip to Australia and Samoa concludes
King Charles will return to regular overseas trips next year after the hiatus from official foreign duties he has taken since his cancer diagnosis, a palace official said.
Charles will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official overseas royal visits, provided that doctors approve the travel.
Continue reading...British capital may be second only to New York in the number of at-risk languages spoken, says Ross Perlin
Life in London has been mapped according to its health, wealth, land ownership, politics and transport at key points in its long history. But it is now hoped it can be charted in a way that tells a different story: the story of language itself.
Ross Perlin, an academic who claimed a prestigious £25,000 book prize last week, now hopes to start work on a mapping project with British researchers that would reveal the whereabouts of the speakers of the capital’s most at-risk languages. The map, they believe, would be a first step to saving them.
Continue reading...The chancellor says she will invest to reverse Tory decline, but stands accused of breaking party manifesto promises
Labour will launch a new era of public and private investment in hospitals, schools, transport and energy as momentous as any in the party’s history in this week’s budget, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.
In an interview with the Observer before the first budget by a female chancellor, Reeves draws comparisons with Labour’s historic reform programmes begun in 1945 by Clement Attlee, in 1964 under Harold Wilson and in 1997 under Tony Blair.
Continue reading...Chancellor said to be planning measures including raising employer NI contributions and capital gains tax rates. We consider the likelihood of each and the potential for a row
During the general election campaign, Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal studies repeatedly accused both main parties of indulging in a “conspiracy of silence” over their economic policies. Neither Labour nor the Tories would admit, he complained, that if they won they would have to announce huge tax rises or spending cuts to restore the public finances to anything resembling good health.
On Wednesday, 118 days after Labour won the election, Rachel Reeves will prove Johnson right. In her first budget she will spell out plans to raise an eye-watering sum of about £40bn from tax rises and spending reductions to wipe the slate clean and to pump funds into public services. She will also confirm changes to debt rules that will release up to £50bn more to borrow for long-term investment in new national infrastructure.
Continue reading...Exclusive: WE to vote after leaders conclude model no longer works although its ‘mission is as urgent as ever’
• Why we’ve made the difficult decision to back a motion to close WE
The leader and co-founders of the Women’s Equality party (WE) will recommend that members vote to close it down at a special meeting called for next month.
Financial challenges and a changed political and media landscape mean that, after a decade of activism, the party is no longer the most effective way to campaign for women’s rights, said its leader, Mandu Reid.
Continue reading...Labour’s Mike Amesbury says he felt ‘threatened’ after footage appears to show him berating man lying on road
The MP Mike Amesbury said he will “cooperate with any inquiries” police have as officers investigate reports of an alleged assault involving the Labour backbencher in Cheshire.
Amesbury, 55, said an incident on Saturday had left him feeling “threatened” after footage circulated online appearing to show him berating a man who was lying on the road before a bystander pushed him away.
Continue reading...London’s Neal’s Yard Dairy swindled out of 950 wheels of award-winning cheddars delivered to alleged fraudster
The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has encouraged cheese lovers to help police catch scammers who defrauded a London dairy out of more than £300,000 worth of English and Welsh cheddar.
Neal’s Yard Dairy, a distributor and retailer of British artisan cheese, delivered 22 tonnes of award-winning clothbound cheddar to the alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a large French retailer before realising it had been duped.
Continue reading...Local safety chief’s stark advice as visitors return to Grindavík – with more activity expected
Why do people want to see Grindavík? Gunnar Schram, the police chief for Suðurnes, the region of Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula that has erupted six times since last December, laughs at the question.
The allure of getting close to an active volcano is so strong that even the person tasked with ensuring people behave around the eruption site at Grindavík, which opened up to the public on Monday for the first time since the town started cracking open on 10 November last year, cannot deny its majesty.
Continue reading...The government is facing calls to cease trading with DP World because of its partnership with Putin’s northern sea route
Ministers are facing calls to review the UK’s financial ties to the multinational logistics company DP World over its business deals in Russia.
The business announced a £1bn expansion of the London Gateway port earlier this month, despite a row over the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, calling its ferry subsidiary, P&O Ferries, a “rogue operator”.
Continue reading...US and European states urge Tehran not to respond, while Middle Eastern countries condemn Israeli operation
World leaders have called for restraint after the first open Israeli airstrikes on Iran, after Tehran reiterated that it was “entitled and obligated to defend itself”.
The Israeli air force struck about 20 military bases across Iran, including missile and drone manufacturing sites and air defence systems, in the early hours of Saturday.
Continue reading...UK government stresses it does not pay reparations and said before Chogm summit that issue was not on agenda
Commonwealth leaders have resolved that “the time has come” for a conversation on reparatory justice despite the UK’s insistence that the issue was not on their agenda.
The language, agreed at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) on Saturday, is a blow to the UK, which wanted to avoid reparatory justice being mentioned.
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