Category Archives: Politics

The far right has moved online, where its voice is more dangerous than ever

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Social media such as X are fuelling the growth of extremism by allowing its figureheads a platform to direct violence

The resurgence of far-right violence in the UK is in part due to Elon Musk’s decision to allow figures such as Tommy Robinson back on to the social media platform X, researchers say.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and those of his ilk are not leaders in the traditional sense and the far right has no central organisation capable of directing the disorder and violence that has been seen, experts say.

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Labour axes ‘gimmick’ anti-strike law as it plans major reset for workers’ rights

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Memo tells ministers to disregard minimum service levels rules, as part of reforms to reorder industrial relations

The government will begin the task of rolling back years of anti-trade union laws within days, the Observer can reveal, as ministers are ordered to ignore a key measure passed by the Tories as part of a wider “reset” of industrial relations in Britain.

As a first step, departments will be told effectively to ignore a law passed last year designed to force workers across a series of industries to provide a minimum level of service during strikes. The legislation – described as a “pointless gimmick” by ministers – paved the way to severely curtail the rights of border security, ambulance services, fire and rescue, teachers and rail services to take industrial action.

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Starmer’s live facial recognition plan would usher in national ID, campaigners say

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PM accused of ignoring civil rights and aping autocracies as he proposes new powers after far-right unrest

Civil liberties campaigners have said that a proposal made by Keir Starmer on Thursday to expand the use of live facial recognition technology would amount to the effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said it was ironic the new prime minister was suggesting a greater use of facial matching on the same day that an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force.

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Robert Jenrick focuses Tory leadership bid on promises to cut immigration

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Former Home Office minister says he is open to capping immigration and wants to reimpose Rwanda scheme

Robert Jenrick has said he would hope to detain and deport people who arrive in the UK on small boats “within days” if he wins the Conservative leadership race and the next general election.

The former immigration minister said he was “open” to a cap restricting immigration to fewer than 10,000 people a year and shared his hopes of reimposing the Rwanda scheme.

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Keir Starmer confirms new violent disorder unit after ‘thugs’ rioted in wake of Southport attack – live

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As exclusively revealed by the Guardian, the PM has announced a new unit to deal with violent disorder in the wake of the Southport rioting

The British Medication Association (BMA) said action by GPs in England will be a “slow burn” rather than a “big bang”.

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA’s GP committee for England (GPCE), said:

This will not be a ‘big bang’. It will be a slow burn. It’s likely that impact may not be felt for some time. We hope this will give the new government time to consider our proposed solutions including fixing our contract once and for all.

General practice should be the front door of the NHS, not the doormat. We don’t want to have to take this next step, but must if we’re to stop our services from collapsing completely.”

We had a huge response to this ballot, and the results are clear – GPs are at the end of their tether. This is an act of desperation. For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to.

We are witnessing general practice being broken. The era of the family doctor has been wiped out by recent consecutive governments and our patients are suffering as a result.”

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Relief for borrowers as UK interest rates cut but little sign big reductions to come

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Incremental cuts likely over two to three years with rates expected to stay well above pre-Covid levels of 0.75%

Borrowers will breathe a collective sigh of relief. The Bank of England has cut interest rates by a quarter point to 5% and major lenders are shaving their best-buy mortgage offers in response.

Those wanting to get on the housing ladder should find property slightly more affordable after the cut, which ends a year of ultra-high borrowing costs and is the first rate cut in more than four years.

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Far-right riots: Starmer to announce setting up of new violent disorder unit

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PM and police chiefs agree plans for unit that aims to boost intelligence gathering on ‘extremist troublemakers’

A new national violent disorder unit is to be set up to clamp down on rioters, the Guardian has learned, after far-right riots this week.

Keir Starmer is expected to make the official announcement as soon as Thursday, having agreed it with police chiefs at a crisis meeting.

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Labour tries to attract clean energy contracts with record £1.5bn for auction

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The new budget comes after the previous government failed to award a single new offshore wind contract in 2023

The Labour government will make record amounts of funding available to clean energy developers after it increased the value of its summer subsidy auction by 50%, to £1.5bn.

The addition, compared with figures previously announced, means the total budget is seven times the amount available at last year’s auction, the government said.

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Benefit cap traps families in crowded, rat-infested homes, report finds

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Limit on welfare support, introduced in 2013, leaves some with just £4 a day for each family member

Low-income families affected by the benefit cap are living on as little as £4 for each person a day, often in overcrowded, rat-infested and damp homes with little prospect of escape, according to a new study.

The cap puts a ceiling on the amount a working-age family can receive in welfare support if no one in the household is working or they are on very low wages. Families affected by it in many parts of the country are, in effect, trapped in poor quality, private rented properties they cannot afford, even though these are often already the cheapest homes available in their local area, the London School of Economics study said.

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Goals to stop decline of nature in England ‘off track’, report warns

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Audit of Environmental Improvement Plan finds it inadequate as government announces overhaul of goals

Goals to stop the decline of nature and clean up the air and water in England are slipping out of reach, a new report has warned.

An audit of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), which is the mechanism by which the government’s legally binding targets for improving nature should be met, has found that plans for thriving plants and wildlife and clean air are deteriorating. This plan was supposed to replace the EU-derived environmental regulations the UK used until the Environment Act was passed in 2021 after Brexit.

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Greens say Labour should focus more on building council homes and that new housing plan is flawed – UK politics live

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Rayner says housing target system will raise number of homes planned to 370,000 and confirmed targets will be mandatory

Balls, who, of course, is a former Labour cabinet minister, and a former shadow chancellor, questions whether Reeves is right to suggest that Jeremy Hunt is wholly to blame for the black hole. He says that other cabinet ministers and departments drew up the spending plans that she says were unfunded.

Reeves repeats the point she has been making all morning about how the public were misled. (See 8.06am.)

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French audit cautions Élysée over €475k cost of King Charles dinner

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Versailles banquet among lavish spending in 2023 that has plunged president’s office €8m into red

The French president’s office spent nearly €475,000 (£400,100) on a dinner for King Charles last year, the country’s top audit court said in a report cautioning about high spending.

In September 2023, King Charles attended a lavish state banquet at the Palace of Versailles attended by more than 150 people, part of a “soft power” visit aimed at improving ties between London and Paris.

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‘Axis of upheaval’ adds urgency to review of UK defence spending

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Deepening military and trade links between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are making western powers uneasy

Gen Roly Walker, the head of the British army, has described it as the “axis of upheaval”. George Robertson, the new head of the UK’s defence review, has called the countries the “deadly quartet”. Either way, less than a month into a Labour government, an emerging geopolitical alignment is being highlighted as a threat.

The concerns centre on the growing military and trade links between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Though the four are some way from a cold war-style bloc acting in concert, they have enhanced bilateral ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in a manner that has fuelled anxiety among defence officials and policymakers.

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Winter fuel payments to be restricted as Reeves says there is £22bn spending shortfall – UK politics live

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Chancellor suggests budget, on 30 October, will involve tax rises and cuts to spending and benefits

Downing Street has refused to comment on a report saying junior doctors are being offered a pay rise worth about 20% over two years.

In a story for the Times, Steven Swinford reports:

The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee has recommended an offer that includes a backdated pay rise of 4.05 per cent for 2023-24, on top of an existing increase of between 8.8 per cent and 10.3 per cent.

Junior doctors will be given a further pay rise of 6 per cent for 2024-25, which will be topped up by a consolidated £1,000 payment. This is equivalent to a pay rise of between 7 per cent and 9 per cent.

As we’ve said before, we’re committed to working to find a solution, resolving this dispute, but I can’t get into detailed running commentary on negotiations.

We’ve been honest with the public and the sector about the economic circumstances we face. But the government is determined to do the hard work necessary to finally bring these strikes to an end.

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Hospital and road projects face cuts to plug £22bn fiscal hole, Reeves says

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Social care and winter fuel payments also targeted as chancellor accuses Tories of covering up scale of fiscal shortfall

Rachel Reeves has scrapped the social care cap and curbed winter fuel payments, as well as announcing big cuts to hospital and road projects, as she seeks to plug what she called a £22bn hole in public spending that was “covered up” by the Conservative government.

In a statement to the Commons that mixed detailed economics and partisan politics, the chancellor justified the cuts with the repeated mantra: “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it.”

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UK should stop arming Israel after ICJ advisory ruling, top lawyer says

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Exclusive: Philippe Sands KC says non-binding opinion will nevertheless be seen as ‘authoritative statement of law’

The UK should stop arming Israel in order to comply with the historic advisory opinion by the UN’s top court that member states should not “render aid or assistance” to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, a lawyer who represented Palestine has said.

In a broad and damning ruling published this month, the international court of justice (ICJ), found that Israel’s settlement policies and occupation of the territories were in breach of international law. It also said UN member states were under an obligation to neither recognise the occupation as lawful nor abet it.

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Rachel Reeves paves way for cuts and tax rises to fill shortfall left by Tories

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Chancellor will announce pause in work on a number of infrastructure projects, saying Conservatives ‘covered up’ true state of finances

Rachel Reeves will lay the ground for cuts to public spending, tax rises and delays to some major infrastructure projects on Monday as she sets out the toxic inheritance the Labour government inherited from the Tories.

She is expected to pause work on a string of infrastructure projects, including Boris Johnson’s flagship plan to build 40 new hospitals and the proposed two-mile road tunnel bypassing Stonehenge.

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Tories ‘deliberately covered up’ true state of public finances, says minister

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Steve Reed hits out at Conservatives’ handling of public services as chancellor prepares to detail ‘£20bn black hole’

The last Conservative government “deliberately covered up” the true state of public finances, a cabinet minister has said, as the chancellor prepares to detail a “£20bn black hole” in the public finances.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said his cabinet colleagues “always knew” the inheritance from the Tories was “going to be bad”, but that since coming to office they had found “additional pressures” that had not been disclosed by the Tories.

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‘Will the kids eat or not?’ In Keir Starmer’s constituency, families struggle with poverty

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Alongside prosperity in Holborn and St Pancras are thousands of households for whom lifting the two-child benefit cap could mean an end to hunger

• The two-child benefit cap: what is it, does it work and how much would it cost to scrap it?

It’s been one of Cat Onyac’s better days. Her two children are concentrating on their crochet project, sitting in the sunshine at HvH Arts in north London. And they’ve eaten. “All the children get a hot meal,” she says.

The family is at a summer scheme for children in Camden on the edge of Keir Starmer’s constituency, and food is just as important as learning photography, painting or music.

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Wealth taxes could raise £10bn to help plug Tory budget hole, say economists

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Reforms to inheritance and capital gains taxes could reduce £20bn shortfall and combat UK’s widening wealth gap

Rachel Reeves could quickly find around £10bn a year to plug half of the fiscal hole left by the Conservatives if she were to raise taxes on soaring levels of unearned wealth, according to leading economists.

New research by the independent Resolution Foundation published today finds that Britain is a country of “booming wealth” but “busted wealth taxes”, leaving ample potential for the chancellor of the exchequer to raise desperately needed funds by raising taxes on the richest.

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