Category Archives: Politics

Metropolitan police end probe into election gambling scandal with no charges made – as it happened

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Force ends investigation into bets on 4 July election date and says bar to prove misconduct in public office has not been met

Newly released figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that UK households cut their real-terms spending on food and non-alcoholic drinks in the year to March 2023.

While nominal spending on the category increased over the period, there was a 7.5% real-terms drop when accounting for inflation, making it the area where households made the biggest cutbacks, the ONS said.

Puberty blockers work by suppressing the release of hormones and are often prescribed to children questioning their gender.

In May, the Conservative government tightened rules on the drugs, introducing an emergency ban on them being prescribed by private and European prescribers.

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Sunak’s decision to call early election one of ‘most stupid political misjudgments’ in history of politics, says Tory – UK politics live

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Former Tory party chairman Jake Berry says former prime minister ‘must have taken leave of his senses’ when he called election

The former home secretary James Cleverly has defended his record as he reacted to the latest Home Office figures which showed the outgoing Conservative government granted 286,382 work visas in the year to June 2024, 11% down on the previous year (see more details in post at 10.41)

Home Office data also showed the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats fell by almost a third in Rishi Sunak’s last year as prime minister.

When I said I was going to cut migration, I meant it. Visas down, small boat arrivals down, cut the backlog & cut the asylum grant rate. It’s not about words, it’s about delivery.

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Reports to NSPCC helpline of physical punishment of children triple in year

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Charity says rise ‘hugely concerning’ and calls for change in law in England and Northern Ireland in line with rest of UK

Concerns raised to the NSPCC helpline about children being physically punished have more than tripled in a year, the charity has said.

Helpline staff heard about children being hit, slapped and shaken, with 45% of the concerns raised requiring a referral to social services, the police or other agencies.

The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000.

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Labour ‘promoting age-old message of fear and hostility’ over migrants, says charity – UK politics live

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Amnesty International UK says Labour is ‘reheating’ the previous government’s rhetoric as Yvette Cooper vows to increase removals

Clean water campaigner Feargal Sharkey has written an opinion piece for the Guardian about the ways in which privatised water firms have polluted English rivers and beaches with sewage, causing significant damage to public health.

You can read it in full here:

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Social housing rents to rise as part of UK push to build affordable homes

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Rachel Reeves works on plan for 10-year formula to give councils and housing associations certainty

Social housing rents will rise by more than inflation over the next decade as part of UK government plans to boost affordable housebuilding and shore up the finances of struggling landlords.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is working on plans to introduce a 10-year formula to calculate social rent on homes that will result in rents increasing every year by the rate of the consumer prices index – which is now 2.2% – plus 1%, removing an existing cap on rises.

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Home secretary to recruit 100 specialists to target people-smuggling gangs

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Yvette Cooper also plans to increase deportations for refused asylum seekers as part of illegal migration clampdown

The home secretary has announced plans to recruit 100 investigators and intelligence officers to target people-smuggling gangs as part of measures to clampdown on illegal migration.

Yvette Cooper said that the National Crime Agency (NCA) will find specialists to dismantle and disrupt organised immigration crime networks that exploit asylum seekers.

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Rachel Reeves planning to raise taxes and cut spending in October budget

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Chancellor insists she still has large black hole to fill despite stronger-than-expected growth in first half of 2024

Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October’s budget amid Treasury alarm that the pickup in the economy has failed to improve the poor state of the public finances.

With the latest official set of borrowing figures out on Wednesday, the chancellor is insisting she will still have a substantial black hole to fill despite stronger than expected growth in the first half of 2024.

Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.

Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.

Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

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Ministers launch pension credit campaign after restricting winter fuel payments

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Government urges pensioners to check their eligibility for credit which will also qualify recipients for winter fuel support

Ministers have launched a pension credit publicity campaign to minimise the impact of the government’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments.

Last month the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, introduced a means test for the winter fuel payments, which have been a universal benefit available to all pensioners since 1997, so that only those on pension credit would qualify, as part of the “difficult decisions” she had to make having inherited a “dire state of public finances” from the Conservatives.

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Ex-rail minister says he understands Labour deal with unions

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Huw Merriman called for end to ‘demonisation’ of train drivers and apologised for failing to bring reforms

A former Conservative minister has called for an end to the demonisation of train drivers and said he understood why the new Labour government had “decided to cut a deal” with unions.

Huw Merriman, who served as the rail minister for the entirety of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, apologised for failing to bring in workplace reforms and his inability to reach an agreement to end the strikes.

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London City airport expansion given green light by ministers

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Climate campaigners criticise decision to allow capacity to increase from 6.5m to 9m passengers a year

Ministers have approved London City airport’s application to expand, in a decision that has disappointed climate campaigners.

The airport submitted a proposal to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights. Local campaigners and Newham council opposed the move, arguing the air and noise pollution would affect people living nearby and that it could potentially increase carbon emissions.

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Israel perpetrating war crimes in plain sight in Gaza, says ex-UK diplomat

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Mark Smith, who quit Dublin embassy role, says he raised his concerns over weapons sales with foreign secretary

Israel is “flagrantly and regularly” committing war crimes in Gaza, according to a former British diplomat who recently resigned over ministers’ failure to ban arms sales to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Mark Smith, who resigned as a counter-terrorism official at the British embassy in Dublin after raising complaints about the sale of British weapons to Israel, told the BBC on Monday that he believed Israel to be in breach of international law.

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Lawyers seeking arms export ban submit claims of Israeli war crimes to UK court

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Case brought by NGOs is attempt to prevent the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences

Claims of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment have been submitted to the high court in London by lawyers seeking an order preventing the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences to British companies selling arms to Israel.

The 14 witness statements covering more than 100 pages come from Palestinian and western medical doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals, as well as from ambulance drivers, civil defence department workers and aid workers.

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Foreign Office official quits over UK refusal to ban arms exports to Israel

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Mark Smith says evidence of Gaza war crimes is clear, but that his complaints were brushed aside

A Foreign Office official has resigned over the UK’s refusal to ban arms exports to Israel because of alleged breaches of international law.

Mark Smith, a counter-terrorism official based at the British embassy in Dublin, said he had resigned after making numerous internal complaints, including through an official whistleblowing mechanism, but receiving nothing but pro-forma responses.

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‘Share government data to boost economy’, says UK statistics watchdog chief

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The UK Statistics Authority’s chair says linking data sets from departments could aid growth and improve services

• We need to make data sharing across government the rule

Ministers could find ways to boost the economy and improve public services by combining data from separate government departments, according to the head of the UK’s statistics watchdog.

Sir Robert Chote, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said that too often government data was “siloed” because departments and other bodies were worried that people may uncover weaknesses in the data or even reach inconvenient conclusions.

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Rachel Reeves’ pension plan could damage the north, says ex-minister

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Lord Jim O’Neill says small businesses could lose out from merger of local government schemes to create large fund

Government plans to create one of the largest pension schemes in the world from a merger of 87 local authority retirement funds could undermine investment in groundbreaking businesses across the north of England, according to former Treasury adviser Lord Jim O’Neill.

Innovative startup businesses, many of them spun out of universities in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, could lose out if the Treasury creates a big fund interested only in backing large companies, he said.

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David Lammy warns of rising risk of full-scale regional war in Middle East

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The UK foreign secretary and his French counterpart write in the Observer about their fears over Israel’s escalating tensions with Iran

• It’s never too late for peace in the Middle East – we must break the cycle of violence

There is a rising risk of “full-scale regional war” in the Middle East, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned, amid frantic international efforts to calm tensions with Iran and reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

With the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, flying into Israel this weekend to push for a deal, Lammy has joined forces with his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, to warn that now is a “perilous moment” for the region in the midst of widespread fears of escalation involving Tehran and allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

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Former Sunak adviser urges Labour to introduce wealth tax on housing

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The economist behind the Covid furlough scheme has called for ‘unfair’ council tax and stamp duty to be axed

Council tax and stamp duty are “unfair and unpopular” taxes that should be abolished, says the economist who devised the Covid furlough scheme.

Tim Leunig, who has advised a series of cabinet ministers, including Rishi Sunak during his prime ministership, said it was time for a new and radical approach that would axe the two taxes and replace them with proportional levies.

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Labour must raise GP funding to end ‘8am scramble’, says doctors’ group

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General practices forced to ‘do more and more with less and less’, says Doctors’ Association UK

Labour’s promise to “end the 8am scramble” for medical appointments will be impossible without increasing core funding for GPs, according to a leading medical association.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, pledged during the general election campaign that Labour would “end the 8am scramble by allowing patients to easily book appointments to see the doctor they want, in the manner they choose”.

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Nigel Farage revealed to be UK’s highest-earning MP

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Reform UK leader banked £1.2m from role as presenter on GB News and payments from social media

Nigel Farage appears to have become the highest-earning MP, having made almost £1.2m a year from GB News.

In the first register of interests of the new parliament, the Reform UK MP declared that he was earning £97,900 a month as a presenter for GB News, the channel co-owned by the hedge fund billionaire Paul Marshall.

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Scottish Tory deputy leader quits over ‘deeply troubling’ Douglas Ross claims

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Meghan Gallacher says allegations about Ross’s actions in leadership contest pose risk to party’s reputation

One of the candidates standing to replace Douglas Ross as leader of the Scottish Conservatives has resigned as the party’s deputy because of “deeply troubling” allegations about Ross’s conduct over the leadership contest.

The Telegraph on Thursday reported that senior party figures alleged Ross had planned to quit as leader a year ago and install as his successor the current favourite to replace him, Russell Findlay.

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