Category Archives: Politics

Foreign Office ‘quiet diplomacy’ futile in overseas arrest cases, says expert

Posted on by

Academic tortured in UAE tells families of Britons arrested in controversial circumstances abroad to go public promptly

Families of Britons arrested in controversial circumstances abroad should raise concerns promptly in public because Foreign Office “quiet diplomacy” is not effective, an expert has warned after the arrest of a former British Royal Marine in Dubai.

Matthew Hedges, a British academic who was detained and tortured in the United Arab Emirates in 2018, said the case of Matt Croucher, a military veteran held in the country for seven months, also showed how far the “international influence of the UK had disappeared” in the Gulf region.

Continue reading...

Starmer says Sunak ‘revealed character’ by lying about Labour’s tax plans – UK politics live

Posted on by

Labour leader says PM’s tactics in Tuesday night TV debate show he is dishonest when put under pressure

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has been fined for speeding after being caught doing 73mph in a 60mph zone on the M1, PA Media reports. PA says:

Details of the case, dealt with under an administrative system called the single justice procedure, were revealed by the Evening Standard newspaper.

Davey wrote a letter of explanation in which he said he had tried to pay a speeding ticket issued by Bedfordshire police after he was caught speeding on the M1 near Caddington.

Continue reading...

Starmer says Sunak ‘breached ministerial code’ over £2,000 Labour tax-rise claim

Posted on by

Labour leader accuses PM of ‘resorting to lies’ in TV debate, saying he ‘knew very well what he was doing’

Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of deliberately lying when he claimed Labour spending plans would increase taxes by £2,000, saying the prime minister’s tactics in Tuesday night’s TV debate showed he was dishonest when put under pressure.

Amid an increasingly bitter and personal war of words over the standout dispute in the debate between the prime minister and Labour leader, Starmer said be believed Sunak should be investigated for breaching the ministerial code.

Continue reading...

UK clothing sales to EU plummet as Brexit red tape deters exporters

Posted on by

Small and medium-sized firms badly hit as huge drop in apparel sales helps fuel 18% slide in all-non food exports

UK exports of clothing and footwear to the EU have dived since Brexit, according to a new study that shows the extent to which complex regulations and red tape at the border have deterred firms from sending goods across the Channel.

Exports of clothing and footwear sold to EU countries have fallen from £7.4bn in 2019 to £2.7bn in 2023, helping fuel an 18% slump in sales of all non-food goods exports to countries covered by the EU single market, according to the consultancy Retail Economics and online marketplace Tradebyte.

Continue reading...

General election: Starmer and Sunak clash over taxes, the NHS and immigration in head-to-head TV debate – as it happened

Posted on by

Labour leader says prime minister’s claim he would raise people’s taxes by £2,000 is ‘nonsense’

The Guardian’s visuals team has produced an interactive boundary map for the UK general election which shows you if your constituency has been altered because of boundary changes. You can check it out here:

Ed Davey has been speaking about his party’s plan to provide free personal care for adults. The Liberal Democrats leader said he wants carers to have a special, higher minimum wage.

Continue reading...

Darren Rodwell withdraws as Labour candidate in general election

Posted on by

Leader of Barking and Dagenham council says he does not want allegations about his behaviour to be a ‘distraction’

Darren Rodwell, the controversial leader of Barking and Dagenham council, has withdrawn as a Labour candidate, saying he did not want allegations about his behaviour to be a “distraction”.

Rodwell’s candidacy was in doubt after it was not confirmed by Labour on Tuesday along with other names of people running to be MPs.

Continue reading...

Sunak and Starmer scrap over tax and immigration in heated first TV debate

Posted on by

Labour leader tried to focus on the Tories’ record while the prime minister accused opponent of planning tax rises

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer tore into each other’s election promises on tax and immigration in a fiery first TV debate of the campaign.

The pair exchanged barbs in an ill-tempered session before an ITV studio audience in Salford, where Starmer accused Sunak of being “the most liberal prime minister we’ve ever had on immigration” and pledged to keep the UK in the European convention on human rights.

Continue reading...

Owner of UK national lottery operator to sever ties with Gazprom

Posted on by

Allwyn parent company says deal to buy 3% stake in Czech gas facility will cut final link with Kremlin-controlled energy firm

The billionaire owner of Allwyn, the company that runs the national lottery, will sever his last remaining ties with Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom by the end of June, more than two years after winning the UK’s largest public sector contract.

The Czech tycoon Karel Komárek, who owns Allwyn via his Switzerland-based holding company KKCG, has faced scrutiny over his links to Russia since wresting control of the 10-year licence to operate the lottery from Camelot in 2022.

Continue reading...

Labour pledges to investigate treatment of migrant workers in care sector

Posted on by

Exclusive: Yvette Cooper says a Labour government would instruct new enforcement body to act over alleged exploitation of workers

Labour will launch an investigation into the treatment of migrant workers in the British social care sector if it wins the election, the party has announced, after dozens of cases of alleged exploitation were uncovered.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, called the allegations revealed by the Guardian “a disgrace”, accusing the government of turning a blind eye to the problem.

Continue reading...

English pupil funding at same level as when Tories took power, study finds

Posted on by

Real-terms funding per pupil at 2010 levels, teacher pay at 2001 levels, and building investment 25% below mid-2000s

Spending on each schoolchild’s education in England has suffered an unprecedented 14-year-freeze since the Conservatives came to power, according to Britain’s leading economics thinktank.

Funding per pupil is now at 2010 levels in real terms, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in its latest analysis of school spending, while teacher pay was at about the same real-terms level as in 2001.

Continue reading...

SNP says Scottish Labour is rewriting party’s spending plans in TV debate

Posted on by

John Swinney claims Anas Sarwar not keeping to Rachel Reeves’s constraints on NHS, schools and renewables funding as leaders clash

The SNP has accused Scottish Labour of “completely rewriting” Rachel Reeves’s spending plans, as the party leaders took part in the first televised debate of the election campaign.

The clash between the the SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats was screened by STV, without a studio audience, and involved intensive cross-examination of each leader by his political rivals.

Continue reading...

General election: Keir Starmer says ‘new age of insecurity has begun’ in speech on defence and security – UK politics live

Posted on by

Labour leader says ‘postwar era is over’ as he never expected to see ‘the rumble of war’ in Europe and adds that cybersecurity warfare is a threat

Keir Starmer will be speaking shortly on defence and security. The Labour leader is expected to reaffirm his commitment to a “triple lock” for the UK’s nuclear deterrent, and his aim to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product “as soon as resources allow”.

Labour’s nuclear deterrent triple lock includes a commitment to construct four new nuclear submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, maintaining Britain’s continuous at-sea deterrent, and the delivery of all future upgrades needed for the submarines to patrol the waters.

It’s certainly true that since the botched Brexit deal was put in place, many of our businesses – exporters of food, fish, agricultural products in particular – have really struggled with the additional paperwork.

What Labour has set out is our ambition to have a veterinary agreement with the EU. That’s an agreement that New Zealand has with the EU, that removes the paperwork on food and drink exports. That would make a substantial difference to fishers and farmers right across the UK

Continue reading...

What constituency am I in?: new boundary map for UK general election – and how changes may affect you

Posted on by

Boundary changes mean the 2024 British general election will be fought in altered seats. Enter your postcode to see a map of your constituency and how these seats would have voted in 2019

The general election on 4 July will be fought across 650 new constituencies after boundary changes were approved by parliament.

With only 77 constituencies remaining unchanged, the boundary review changes which seat many people will be voting in. Not only does it mean that seats may have a new name, but geographical changes to seat boundaries many also mean that historical knowledge of voting patterns may be irrelevant, having implications for those hoping to vote tactically.

Continue reading...

John Swinney says SNP facing its biggest challenge for years

Posted on by

Leader launches party’s election campaign as polling suggests it will pay high price for recent woes

John Swinney has described July’s general election as “the biggest challenge the SNP has had for years” as he used his party’s official campaign launch to repeatedly attack Labour, which is threatening the nationalists in dozens of seats across Scotland.

Swinney, who told the rally of more than 200 activists and former MPs in Glasgow that it was a “surprise” to be leading the SNP into an election campaign, added that “voters are right to remind us never to take anything for granted”.

Continue reading...

Tories will allow bars on trans women, says Kemi Badenoch

Posted on by

Conservatives would change law so trans people could be excluded from single-sex spaces, if party wins election

Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives will change the Equality Act to rewrite the definition of sex and allow organisations to bar transgender women from single-sex spaces, including hospital wards and sports events.

The party will make clear that the protected characteristic of sex means biological sex, enabling those who wish to bar male-bodied people from organisations or activities to do so.

Continue reading...

With policy battle lines set, Sunak and Starmer prepare for TV combat

Posted on by

With PM as underdog hoping to use TV debates for comeback, Labour leader is also preparing for election to turn personal

When the history of Keir Starmer’s resurrection of the Labour party comes to be written, one of the most important turning points will be the decision to start playing the man, not the ball, when it came to Boris Johnson and Partygate.

Rishi Sunak’s key weak spot in the leader debates this election is his career as a hedge fund partner at the time of the financial crisis. Labour believes the prime minister’s account of his past will be a fundamental test, given he has built his reputation on his economic competence.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer to declare Labour as ‘party of national security’

Posted on by

Leader says he is committed to triple lock for UK’s nuclear deterrent and will raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP

Keir Starmer will declare Labour is the “party of national security” as he seeks to switch the focus of the general election campaign to issues of defence.

The Labour leader will reaffirm his commitment to a “triple lock” for the UK’s nuclear deterrent, and his aim to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product “as soon as resources allow”.

Continue reading...

More than 100 artists tell Starmer to halt arms sales to Israel if he becomes PM

Posted on by

Letter signatories from Steve Coogan to Paloma Faith urge Keir Starmer to ‘take stand’ for human rights and international law

Actors including Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes and Juliet Stevenson have joined forces with musicians, writers and directors in calling on Keir Starmer to halt arm sales to Israel if elected prime minister.

The singer Paloma Faith, the film-maker Mike Leigh and the author Michael Rosen are among the more than 100 celebrities who have signed a joint letter, coordinated by Artists for Palestine UK, that urges the Labour leader to “take a stand against the ongoing atrocities committed by Israel” in Gaza.

Continue reading...

For Labour, the Gaza crisis is a foreign policy tightrope in waiting

Posted on by

Starmer’s belief in international law and the rise of Labour Friends of Israel offer clues to potential stance on Palestinian statehood

A snap election, and the certainty that the Gaza crisis will not be resolved by polling day, means Keir Starmer already knows the first foreign policy challenge of his expected premiership.

Even if the peace proposal announced by Joe Biden on Friday is accepted by both Israel and Hamas, something a Labour-run Foreign Office would encourage, vast issues remain concerning the future role of Hamas and Iran in Middle Eastern politics, as well as Israel’s conduct in the conflict, and restoration of faith in the universality of international law.

Continue reading...

Julia Gillard says progress on gender equality is ‘really glacial’

Posted on by

Former Australian prime minister issues warning that young men’s thinking on the issue is going backward

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has said global progress on gender equality is “really glacial and slow” as she warned that it is going backwards among young people.

Gillard cited recent polling by King’s College London’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, which showed that 51% of respondents believe that men are doing too much to support gender equality, while 46% think that men are now discriminated against.

Continue reading...