Category Archives: Politics

Starmer defends UK ceding control of Chagos Islands amid Tory criticism

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PM says deal has secured future of US-UK military base as Conservative leadership hopefuls play blame game

Keir Starmer has defended giving up UK control of the Chagos Islands, as the decision has descended into a political blame game among Conservative leadership candidates.

The prime minister said the agreement with Mauritius over the islands would secure the long-term future of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, which he deemed as the “single most important thing”.

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Cabinet set for split over support for England and Wales assisted dying bill

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Some senior ministers expected to vote against measure in free vote, while others are still undecided

MPs backing a new bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales hope to secure a Commons vote by Christmas, but cabinet ministers are set for a big split over support for the legislation.

The bill, due to be brought forward by the Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater this month, is to be a free vote but some senior cabinet ministers are expected to vote against – and several, including the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting – remain undecided.

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A year on, how the Hamas attack has profoundly affected UK political life

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From general election upsets to protests on the streets, the shockwaves from the Middle East have resonated in Britain

When Shockat Adam, the newly elected independent MP for Leicester South, addressed his supporters at the July election count, he brought his speech to an end with a dedication – not to the constituents of the East Midlands city he now represents, but to people more than 2,000 miles away.

“This is for the people of Gaza”, he said, holding a Palestinian keffiyeh aloft.

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Boris Johnson calls for referendum on leaving ECHR

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Move over European convention on human rights likely to put pressure on Tory leadership candidates to follow suit

Boris Johnson has called for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European convention on human rights, a move likely to increase pressure on those vying for the Conservative leadership to follow suit.

The former prime minister told the Daily Telegraph there was a “strong case” for a vote on the ECHR, which some Tories blame for hampering their efforts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

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Labour to commit almost £22bn to fund carbon capture and storage projects

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Investment will fund two CCS clusters – but environmental campaigners have criticised plans

Rachel Reeves is paving the way for a multibillion-pound increase in public-sector investment at the budget after the government announced plans to commit almost £22bn over 25 years to fund carbon capture and storage projects.

In what is expected to be one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament, the chancellor, prime minister and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will unveil the details on a visit to the Liverpool city region on Friday declaring a “new era” for clean energy jobs.

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Tories challenge other Labour ministers to follow Keir Starmer in paying back donations – UK politics live

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The prime minister said he’d paid back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and his wife’s rented clothing

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, Haroon Siddique reports.

Today’s homelessness figures highlight the need for the government to press on with banning no-fault evicitions, campaigners say.

It’s frankly ridiculous section 21 still exists – we’re approaching 6 years since the previous government first promised to abolish it, while every indicator on the dashboard has been going in the wrong direction. And now we discover homelessness caused by evictions is up almost 5% on the previous year. It’s clear from today’s data that that the renting crisis is driving the homelessness crisis …

Amid this escalating social crisis, the government’s renters’ rights bill is absolutely crucial. This legislation is a significant improvement on the last government’s effort. As drafted it will already make a difference for a lot of people.

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Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute

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Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony.

The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who the UK expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.

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Tesco boss says new workers’ rights laws must not hurt growth

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Bill is likely to include measures such as ending ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts and changes to sick pay

The boss of Tesco has called on the UK government to work with business to ensure new legislation to improve workers rights also increases productivity and growth as the retailer revealed better-than-expected profits.

Ken Murphy, the chief executive of the UK’s biggest supermarket, said he was keen to use a planned consultation on the wide-ranging employment rights bill, announced by the government in the king’s speech in July, to “make sure that whatever the government decides to put forward has the intended consequence of stimulating productivity and growth and protecting workers at the same time”.

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Starmer repaid freebies to restore trust in politics, minister says

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Sarah Jones suggests PM believes he should be held to higher standards now he is in government

Keir Starmer has repaid thousands of pounds in freebies to restore trust in politics, a minister has said as she ruled out accepting more hospitality.

Sarah Jones, the industry minister, said the prime minister’s motivation for repaying the money was “to do more to make people trust politicians”.

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BBC cancels Boris Johnson interview after Laura Kuenssberg message gaffe

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Briefing notes mistakenly being sent to ex-PM meant it was ‘not right for the interview to go ahead’, says presenter

The BBC has cancelled a prime-time interview with Boris Johnson after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg accidentally sent the former prime minister her briefing notes.

Kuenssberg said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team”. The former BBC political editor said it was “embarrassing and disappointing”, adding the error meant it was “not right for the interview to go ahead”.

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Why official register of MPs’ financial interests is now a must-read

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Revelations about gifts of clothes and tickets to sporting events have put MPs’ declarations in the spotlight

Revelations that Keir Starmer and his team have accepted donations of clothes, accommodation and sports tickets have focused attention on the official register of MPs’ interests, usually published every couple of weeks.

Here are some highlights from the latest version, published on Wednesday.

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Starmer vows to turn page on UK’s relationship with the EU

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PM promises ‘constructive’ relations, despite resisting talks with the bloc on a proposed youth mobility scheme

Keir Starmer has vowed to turn the page on the UK’s relationship with the EU, despite differences with Brussels over proposals for a European youth mobility scheme.

The prime minister said: “Of course, there will be challenges” in resetting relations but insisted he was “turning the page on the old way of doing these negotiations” in favour of a more “constructive” approach.

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Keir Starmer pays back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality

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Prime minister is covering cost of Taylor Swift tickets and designer clothing rental agreement after donations row

Keir Starmer has paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and rented clothing for his wife, after a row over his acceptance of freebies.

The prime minister handed back some tickets and gifts he had received since he entered No 10 in July as he vowed to overhaul the rules on what ministers are allowed to accept.

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Keir Starmer tells Brussels press conference it was ‘right’ for him to repay £6,000 worth of gifts – as it happened

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Announcement that PM is returning gifts comes after news Labour peer Lord Alli is under investigation by Lords commissioner

Richard Fuller, the Tory chair, is on the conference platform now introducing the morning session.

He starts with thanks to various people who have helped with the conference.

After a frenetic Conference for Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick the tiredness will be kicking in, but also for the teams of advisers who want, and maybe need, their principal to take another go at delivering the twenty-minute speech of their career.

It’s a four hoarse race.

The problem for the party, and for me, is that none of this gossipy chatter has taken the conference attendees much further forward – nor has any of the four taken conference by storm.

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Some civil servants so bad they should be in prison, says Kemi Badenoch

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Tory leadership contender claims at party conference that a minority leak official secrets and undermine ministers

Kemi Badenoch has said she believes up to 10% of civil servants are so bad they should be in prison, claiming they leak official secrets and “agitate” against ministers.

At a fringe event at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, the leadership contender said she did not want to criticise all civil servants but said there were a few who were obstructive. “There’s about 5-10% of them who are very, very bad. You know, should-be-in-prison bad,” Badenoch said.

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Michael Ancram, former deputy Tory leader, dies aged 79

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Ancram held role in early 2000s and also served as shadow foreign secretary before entering Lords in 2010

Tributes have been paid to the “stable voice” of the former deputy leader of the Conservative party Michael Ancram, who has died aged 79.

Ancram, known formally as the 13th Marquess of Lothian, held the role under Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard for five years in the early 2000s.

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Ex-defence secretary Grant Shapps says he has seen ‘no evidence’ for Jenrick’s claim about SAS killing terrorists – UK politics live

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Senior Tories condemn leadership hopeful’s claim UK special forces are killing terrorists over fears that European laws would free detained assailants

Popular Conservatism, or PopCon, has released the results of a survey of party members suggesting more than half of them favour a merger with Reform UK. Some 30% of the respondents said they tended to support the idea, and 23% were strongly in favour. The survey covered 470 members.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg, PopCon’s head of communications and a former Brexit party MEP, said:

Every Conservative activist and canvasser knows people who had been Tories, but voted Reform UK in July. It is no surprise our panellists understand that the next leader of the party needs to take action to bring many like-minded voters back to the Tories. Almost three-quarters want a relationship with Reform in order to unite the right.

The answer I was often given by people in government at the time was that lockdowns were very popular.

They were getting 60, 70, 80% popularity ratings in the opinion polls. But you mustn’t believe those opinion polls, they’re basically nonsense.

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Jenrick condemned for claim UK special forces ‘kill rather than capture terrorists’

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Tory leadership candidate made claim in video calling for UK to leave European convention on human rights

Robert Jenrick is facing condemnation for claiming that UK special forces are “killing rather than capturing” terrorists because of fears that European laws would free any detained assailants.

In a campaign video launched on X, the Conservative leadership candidate made the statement while listing reasons for leaving the European convention on human rights.

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Sadiq Khan fears rise in UK hate crime linked to Middle East violence

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Exclusive: London mayor boosts counter-hate funding as British Jewish group warns of danger of ‘reprisal’ attacks

Sadiq Khan has warned of a potential increase in hate crime in Britain triggered by the rise in Middle East violence, as a leading British Jewish group warned of the danger of “reprisal” attacks here.

The London mayor’s warning comes after a series of Israeli airstrikes against targets in Lebanon, which have killed Hezbollah’s top leaders as well as its followers, and it is feared, scores of civilians. Khan is pumping extra emergency funding into groups in London countering hate.

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Teachers in England vote overwhelmingly to accept pay rise offer

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NEU snap poll shows 95% of members voting for 5.5% pay rise, ending months of industrial action

Teachers in England have voted overwhelmingly to accept a 5.5% pay rise but warned ministers that without further “corrections” pay would remain uncompetitive and teacher shortages would persist.

Of those members who responded to the National Education Union’s snap poll, 95% voted to accept the 2024-25 offer, which would give schools an additional £1.2bn to cover the pay rise.

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