Private faith schools in UK lobby for VAT exemption on fees under £7,690

Group says government policy would force many to close and leave deeply religious families with no alternatives

Independent faith schools have held talks with ministers over a proposal to exempt small private establishments from VAT if their fees are far below those charged by elite schools such as Eton.

The group, representing more than 270 Jewish, Muslim and Christian independent faith schools that often rely on donations and volunteers to survive, say the government’s policy of adding 20% VAT to fees from this January would force many to close and leave deeply religious families with no alternatives.

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Jenrick denies privately telling Tory MPs he would pivot back to centre if he became leader – as it happened

Tory leadership also suggests it was a mistake for him to order murals at a children’s asylum centre to be painted over

Keir Starmer was “appalled” by reports that Israel deliberately fired on peacekeepers in Lebanon, Downing Street said this morning.

Asked about the prime minister’s reaction to the story, a Downing Street spokesperson said:

We were appalled to hear those reports and it is vital that peacekeepers and civilians are protected.

As you know, we continue to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to suffering and bloodshed. This is a reminder of the importance of us all renewing our diplomatic efforts.

All parties must always do everything possible to protect civilians and comply with international law. But we continue to reiterate that and call for an immediate ceasefire.

The very hard Brexit forced through by Boris Johnson means that we are for now driving with the economic handbrake on – we can’t let that handbrake off. It is what is, It is difficult to see this being reversed within the next decade.

The truth is it could be a conversation that starts in 10 years’ time. It could be longer, but the beginning of a conversation is not the end of that; it’s not the resolution of our relationship to the European Union.

I think it’ll be very hard to persuade people in the European Union to revisit, to reengage and start getting into another negotiation about Britain’s membership of the European Union, for a long time to come. I’m sorry to say that but they have had up to here with us.

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Jenrick denies he would drop hard-right policies if he became Tory leader

Conservative MP says his tack to the right has rattled Nigel Farage and confirms he would like the UK to exit the ECHR

Robert Jenrick has denied that he would drop his hard-right policies and return to the Conservative middle ground if he become leader, arguing that his ideas for the party have left Nigel Farage “rattled”.

Jenrick, who faces Kemi Badenoch in a ballot of Tory members for the post, confirmed that he would expect his shadow frontbench to sign up to the plan of immediately quitting the European convention on human rights (ECHR), a red line for some centrists.

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Poacher turned gamekeeper: the gambler who turned tables on bookies and lobbies for UK tax rise

Multimillionaire Derek Webb, a Labour donor, goes all-in with support for levy on online casinos and bookmakers

As a former professional poker player, Derek Webb is used to rising from the table holding more chips than he started with.

Vanquished opponents are left scratching their heads, wondering how they have been bested by a softly spoken, bespectacled septuagenarian with a Derby accent.

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Labour considers up to £3bn tax raid on gambling firms

Treasury weighing proposals as chancellor attempts to plug £22bn hole in public finances

Ministers are considering a tax raid of up to £3bn on the gambling sector as Rachel Reeves casts around for funds to shore up the public finances.

Treasury officials are understood to be weighing up proposals, put forward by two influential thinktanks and backed by one of the party’s top five individual donors, to double some of the taxes levied on online casinos and bookmakers.

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Talks on UK rejoining EU could start in 10 years’ time, says Peter Mandelson

Labour peer says in meantime it is essential to try to reduce damage of Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson

Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.

Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.

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Councillor who oversaw Grenfell works donated to Badenoch’s Tory leadership bid

Survivor of blaze which killed 72 ‘disgusted’ Quentin Marshall gave £5,000 to candidate promoting deregulation

One of Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership campaign funders is a councillor who had oversight of Grenfell Tower and dismissed some residents’ complaints about the pre-fire refurbishment as “grossly exaggerated”.

One survivor of the blaze that killed 72 people said he was “disgusted” that Quentin Marshall, a senior politician at the Conservative-controlled Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) which owned the block, has given £5,000 to the current shadow housing secretary to help her become the leader of the opposition.

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Children being traumatised at Gatwick deportation centre, finds watchdog

Assessment finds detention unit is subjecting families to ‘unnecessary suffering’ amid lengthy Home Office delays

Young children are being traumatised while held at a Gatwick airport deportation centre that should be closed down, a watchdog has found.

The independent monitoring board (IMB) also said the children’s parents were being subjected to “callous treatment and unnecessary suffering” because of the Home Office’s lengthy decision-making process over removals.

Children are witnessing or overhearing their parents’ “considerable distress” at their expected deportation, despite staff efforts to shield them.

Children are being asked by staff to translate for their distraught parents, despite having been taken from their homes and facing removal to a country they may know very little about.

The use of the Family PDA may prolong or add to trauma already experienced, particularly for children.

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Green energy firms promise more than £24bn of new investment in Britain

Industry bosses to meet prime minister before government’s international investment summit next week

The leaders of the world’s biggest green energy companies have promised more than £24bn of new private investment across Great Britain ahead of a meeting with the prime minister on Friday.

Keir Starmer is expected to meet the green energy bosses on the sidelines of the first Council of Nations and Regions in Edinburgh to discuss the multibillion-pound projects just days before the government’s international investment summit next week.

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Employers must protect workers from sexual harassment in new employment bill

Bill will give new rights to millions of workers including protection from third-party harassment

Employers must protect their workers from sexual harassment – including from customers and clients – under the government’s sweeping new employment rights bill.

The new obligation is part of a series of measures published in Thursday’s landmark employment bill, which Labour had promised to lay before parliament within 100 days.

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Labour whips warn their MPs not to try to amend bills or disagree in public

Exclusive: private message from whips aims to crackdown on discipline, telling MPs to speak with ‘one voice’

Labour MPs have been warned that they must not put down any amendments on government bills and must resolve disagreements privately with ministers, in a crackdown on discipline in parliament.

In a private message, seen by the Guardian, Labour whips told MPs that they could no longer act as if they were in opposition and said amendments suggested a lack of trust in the government. The message said MPs should be speaking with “one voice” in public.

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UK has not agreed to long-range missile use after Zelenskyy meeting, No 10 says

Downing Street indicates no change in position on Ukraine’s request to fire Storm Shadow weapons into Russia

The UK has not lifted restrictions on Ukraine using long-range missiles after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit, Downing Street has said.

The Ukrainian president met Keir Starmer in No 10 on Thursday and reiterated his request to fire Storm Shadow missiles and other western-supplied weapons deep inside Russian territory.

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One Nation Tory group refuses to back Badenoch or Jenrick in party leadership race – UK politics live

TRG says both candidates have ‘used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from … the values we cherish and uphold’

Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.

Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:

The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.

Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.

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Donald Trump will need Nato if elected as president, says new alliance chief

Mark Rutte says US would risk isolation if Republican candidate decided to withdraw from military alliance

Mark Rutte, the new head of Nato, has brushed off anxieties about the possible election of Donald Trump, arguing that the US would risk isolation in “a harsh, uncompromising world” if he sought to withdraw from the military alliance.

Speaking in London on Thursday, after meeting the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Rutte said he believed both Trump and his presidential rival, Kamala Harris, recognised the value of continuing military aid to Ukraine.

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Will Rachel Reeves’s rules on debt and spending survive the budget?

The chancellor desperately needs more money to finance growth and public spending so expect a bit of tweaking to supposedly strict constraints

Change*. If Labour’s one-word campaign slogan had an asterisk, it would have directed voters to Rachel Reeves’s budget.

Later this month the chancellor will attempt to walk the line between repairing Britain’s battered public realm, while sticking to a manifesto promise to balance the books without raising taxes on working people.

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New enforcement agency will protect workers’ rights as part of ‘watershed’ bill

Employment rights legislation has been widely heralded by trade unions despite some commitments being watered down

Rogue employers will be targeted by a beefed-up new enforcement agency to protect sweeping changes to rights at work for millions of Britons, set to be outlined in a “watershed” bill published on Friday.

The Fair Work Agency will be created as part of the government’s employment rights legislation, which will include stronger protections against unfair dismissal and exploitative contracts.

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Labour’s employment rights bill: what key changes will it bring?

Improvements to workers’ rights to include day-one universal sick pay and an end to zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire

Labour’s employment rights bill is the biggest step towards enacting one of its key election offers: to make sweeping changes to rights at work and improve pay. Here are the main details of the legislation, though much of it will take more than two years to consult on and implement.

Guidance – but not legislation – on the right to switch off, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances.

Legislation to end pay discrimination, which is expected to come separately in a draft bill that will include measures to make it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap.

A consultation on a move towards a single status of worker – one of the most important changes that has been left out of the bill, which Labour sources have said needs a much longer consultation period.

Reviews into the parental leave and carers’ leave systems.

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Labour needs £25bn a year in tax rises to rebuild public services, warns IFS

Thinktank says tax increases in budget will be necessary even if Rachel Reeves changes fiscal rules

Keir Starmer’s promise to end austerity and rebuild public services will require tax increases of £25bn a year in the coming budget even if debt rules are changed to provide scope for extra investment spending, a leading thinktank has said.

In its preview of the first Labour budget in 14 years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said Rachel Reeves would need to raise taxes to fresh record levels to meet the government’s policy goals. The chancellor was also warned of the risk of a Liz Truss-style meltdown if the City responded badly to substantially higher borrowing.

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Ministers facing questions over Met’s VIP protection for Taylor Swift

James Cleverly asks Yvette Cooper if she intervened to ensure popstar’s London concerts went ahead

Ministers are facing questions over whether they intervened to grant Taylor Swift VIP police protection in order to stop her cancelling her London concerts.

James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, wrote to his opposite number, Yvette Cooper, on Wednesday to ask whether she had personally made representations.

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New UK laws to stop repeat of P&O mass sackings scandal go before parliament

Labour clamps down on poor working conditions at sea with laws on collective dismissal and minimum wage on cross-Channel ferries

Laws to ensure that the P&O Ferries mass sackings scandal can never recur will be laid before parliament this week as Labour clamps downs on poor working conditions at sea, with cruise and cargo ships also in its sights.

The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said the new laws would close the loopholes exploited by P&O when it fired 800 crew without warning in 2022, and any company would now face unlimited fines for acting in such a way.

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