Category Archives: Politics

RAF shot down Iranian drones heading for Israel, Sunak confirms

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Prime minister says UK was involved to save lives in Israel and neighbouring countries

Rishi Sunak has confirmed that RAF Typhoons shot down a number of Iranian drones overnight and said the UK’s involvement helped save lives in Israel and neighbouring Arab countries.

The prime minister did not provide the number of drones hit, although the UK’s contribution is likely to have been significantly less than the 70 claimed by the US and dozens reported knocked out by Jordan over its airspace.

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UK swapped to fatal US blood products to save money, minutes suggest

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Exclusive: contaminated blood campaigners say internal 1976 Immuno AG document proves British government negligence

The British government was willing to risk infecting NHS patients to get “lower-priced” blood products, according to a document that campaigners claim proves state and corporate guilt in one of the country’s worst ever scandals.

A public inquiry into the deaths of an estimated 2,900 people infected with conditions such as HIV and hepatitis will publish its final report in May, four decades after the NHS started prescribing blood and blood products – including from drug users, prisoners and sex workers – sourced from the US.

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Angela Rayner handling house sale controversy ‘in right way’, says Yvette Cooper

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Labour deputy leader being investigated over whether she gave false information a decade ago

Angela Rayner has handled the controversy over her living arrangements “in the right way”, Yvette Cooper has insisted after a former aide contradicted Rayner’s account.

The shadow home secretary said Rayner was “very keen to be able to provide the facts to the relevant authorities”.

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Schools in England and Wales using ‘gender toolkit’ risk being sued by parents

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Leading barrister warns that the kit – used to support gender-questioning children – is likely to be in breach of equality laws and could violate pupils’ rights

Schools in England and Wales have been warned by one of the country’s leading equality and human rights barristers that the “toolkit” many of them use to support gender-questioning children is unlawful.

The toolkit, introduced by Brighton and Hove council in 2021 and subsequently replicated by a number of other local authorities, says schools should “respect” a child’s request to change their name and pronoun as a “pivotal” part of supporting their identity, as well as other changes such as switching to wearing trousers or a skirt.

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New Brexit checks will cause food shortages in UK, importers warn

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Rules due to come in this month will impose new handling fees – and experts say small suppliers are already being driven away

Ministers’ decision to impose Brexit import checks on 30 April will lead to shortages of some foods, flowers and herbs, industry leaders have warned.

In the week after the government was accused of blindsiding the British food industry by giving 27 days’ notice that every consignment of items such as camembert, steak, tulips and chives would be subject to fees of up to £145, small retailers such as delis and farm shops have been scrambling to make sure they still have products to sell.

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Top Labour figures met financial services firms after £150k donation

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OpenDemocracy investigation names attenders, including Keir Starmer, at Edinburgh meeting to discuss party’s banking policies

Senior members of the shadow cabinet have held a private meeting with a group of financial services companies to discuss the party’s banking policies just weeks after one of the companies donated £150,000 to the party.

Six senior Labour figures – including the leader, Keir Starmer, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds – attended the meeting in Edinburgh last December, according to an investigation by the website OpenDemocracy.

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Sunak urged to stop Braverman speaking alongside far right at Brussels convention

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Former home secretary will rub shoulders with populist right from across the globe, including Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán

Rishi Sunak is being urged to stop his former home secretary from attending a rightwing convention featuring figures who have been under investigation for extremism, in the latest sign of his waning control of his party.

Suella Braverman, who has been a central plotter against the prime minister since she left the cabinet, is set to be one of the keynote speakers at the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Brussels this week.

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Ex-ministers press Sunak on ‘persecution’ of carers who broke earnings rules

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David Blunkett and Alan Johnson join Iain Duncan Smith in dismay at DWP’s treatment of benefit recipients’ minor mistakes

The “scandalous” prosecution of unpaid carers uncovered by the Guardian must end now and an inquiry must be launched immediately, Rishi Sunak has been told.

The pressure on the prime minister grew as three former work and pension secretaries and Labour demanded to know why thousands of people who care for their loved ones have been hounded for thousands of pounds – and in some cases convicted – after unwittingly breaching earnings rules by just a few pounds a week.

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Bambos Charalambous readmitted to Labour party after investigation

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Exclusive: MP for Enfield Southgate also has whip restored as internal process does not uphold complaint about his conduct

A former shadow minister has been readmitted to the Labour party after a 10-month-long investigation into a complaint about his conduct.

Bambos Charalambous, the MP for Enfield Southgate who lost the Labour whip last June, said he was “delighted” his suspension had been lifted.

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Wes Streeting defends Labour plan to use private sector to cut NHS backlog

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Exclusive: Failure to do so would betray working-class people, shadow health secretary says

Wes Streeting has defended Labour’s plans to use the private sector to help cut the NHS care backlog, arguing that a failure to do so would result in a “betrayal” of working-class people who cannot afford to pay for care.

The shadow health secretary said his approach was a “pragmatic but principled one” as he doubled down on his remarks this week about “middle-class lefties” whom he said risked putting ideological purity ahead of patient care.

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UK and EU ‘within kissing distance’ of post-Brexit Gibraltar border deal

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Gibraltar’s chief minister says progress made in talks about free movement across border with Spain

The UK and the EU are within “kissing distance” of a post-Brexit deal to guarantee free movement over the border between Gibraltar and Spain, Gibraltar’s chief minister has said.

After a meeting between the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, agreement was reached on issues that have dogged negotiations for the past five years.

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Use TikTok to combat misinformation, MPs tell government

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Cross-party committee urges creation of strategy engage with new platforms that appeal to young

The government needs a TikTok strategy to help combat misinformation directed at young people, MPs have said.

Members of the cross-party culture, media and sport committee said the government needed to adapt to new apps and platforms that appeal to young people who are increasingly turning away from traditional sources of news.

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Tory candidate for London mayor has Trumpian attitude to climate, says Khan

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London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching panels on school roofs

Sadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.

Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday but insist that he still intends to “go further”.

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NHS England waiting list figures fall slightly but remain near record high – UK politics live

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Estimated 7.54m treatments waiting to be carried out at end of February in slight fall for fifth month in a row but list remains high

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen for the fifth month in a row, figures show.

An estimated 7.54 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of February, relating to 6.29 million patients, down slightly from 7.58 million treatments and 6.29 million patients at the end of January, NHS England said.

At the end of last year, we promised to change the migration system to deliver the biggest ever cut to migration numbers. And today, we’ve enacted the final part of that plan.

Taken together, the measures we’ve introduced will radically reduce legal migration. 300,000 people who arrived in the UK last year, would no longer be eligible to do so under these new rules.

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Boris Johnson calls Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban ‘absolutely nuts’

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Former PM laments state of Tory party saying it is ‘mad’ that party of Winston Churchill is ‘banning cigars’

Boris Johnson has attacked Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, calling it “absolutely nuts” in a lament about the state of the Conservative party in Britain.

Speaking at an event in Canada on Wednesday night, Johnson said it was “mad” that the party of Winston Churchill was “banning cigars”.

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Harold Wilson confessed to secret ‘love match’ while PM, former aide reveals

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Joe Haines tells the Times of relationship with Janet Hewlett-Davies before Labour leader resigned from No 10

Harold Wilson confessed to an affair during his final year in Downing Street, one of his closest surviving aides has revealed for the first time.

The former Labour prime minister had a secret affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, his former deputy press secretary who was 22 years his junior, towards the end of his time in No 10.

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Heathrow urges government to scrap £10 fee for transit passengers

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London hub says charge for overseas travellers using UK airports puts country at competitive disadvantage

Heathrow has called on the government to scrap a new £10 charge for overseas travellers using UK airports to connect to other flights, warning that it puts UK airports at a competitive disadvantage compared with other European rivals.

The government introduced the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in November for non-UK residents travelling to the UK from Qatar, with a wider rollout for other countries throughout 2024.

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Number of asylum seekers left homeless after Home Office eviction soars

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Exclusive: Data reveals 239% rise among those evicted from assigned accommodation, including hotels, in two years

There has been a 239% increase in homelessness among asylum seekers evicted from Home Office accommodation including hotels in two years, according to a report.

Data analysed by the Refugee Council found that 12,630 households in England faced homelessness after eviction from asylum accommodation in the two years to the end of September 2023.

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Labour candidate in Scotland suspended over ‘racist’ social media activity

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Constituent reported tweets liked and shared by Wilma Brown, who was to stand in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath

Labour has suspended a parliamentary candidate pending an investigation after she was found to have liked and shared a number of “racist” and controversial social media posts.

Wilma Brown, who was running in the target seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, once held by the former prime minister Gordon Brown, has since deleted her account on X after a string of tweets were reported to the party.

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Cameron’s Mar-a-Lago lobbying may not be enough to reach the new Republican party

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The UK foreign secretary’s Trump dinner appeared to fail to bring support for Ukraine, and his Washington meetings don’t look any more promising

Whatever happened at Mar-a-Lago between David Cameron and Donald Trump on Monday night, was clearly going to stay in Mar-a-Lago.

Dinner at the Trump Florida residence was always going to be a stiff test of the UK foreign secretary’s influence over the former president, presidential candidate, and the man he had previously referred to variously as protectionist, xenophobic, and misogynistic.

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