Category Archives: Politics

The Ego has Landed: George Galloway basks in his swearing in as MP

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Only he can save the UK in its hour of need, and he’ll start by taking out Angela Rayner at the general election

It’s a grubby job, but someone has to do it. There’s a House of Commons resolution dating back to 1688 that requires a new MP to be introduced by two current MPs at their swearing in. So all eyes were on who had drawn the short straw to stand with George Galloway.

One early contender had been the Tory MP David Davis, who takes his libertarian principles seriously. He may not like what you say, but he believes in your right to say it. But even he melted away after the prime minister’s deranged rant outside Downing Street on Friday evening. These days you can be found guilty of crimes against humanity in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party for even thinking of observing parliamentary convention by coming to someone like Galloway’s aid. Davis has now been sent to the gulags for 20 years re-education.

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George Galloway targets Angela Rayner’s seat after he is sworn in as MP

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Workers party leader says there are many places where it can win or ‘make sure that Keir Starmer doesn’t’

George Galloway has said he will target more seats in the next general election including the deputy Labour leader’s after his swearing-in at Westminster following last week’s Rochdale byelection victory.

Speaking outside parliament, Galloway singled out Angela Rayner’s constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, where she is defending a majority of 4,263, as an example of where his Workers Party of Britain, or a candidate backed by it, could cause havoc for her chances of re-election.

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Sunak suffers defeats in House of Lords over Rwanda bill – as it happened

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Prime minister suffers defeats in House of Lords over Rwanda bill. This live blog is closed

There will be one urgent question in the Commons today at 3.30pm, on the Home Office’s decision to publish 13 reports from the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration last week on Thursday afternoon.

The former minister Paul Scully has announced he will stand down at the next election in a statement suggesting the Conservative party has “lost its way” and is heading down “an ideological cul-de-sac”.

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UK ministers consider ban on MPs engaging with pro-Palestine and climate protesters

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Plans call for ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to groups such as Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Just Stop Oil

Ministers are considering proposals to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

The plans, put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence, John Woodcock, say mainstream political leaders should tell their representatives to employ a “zero-tolerance approach” to groups that use disruptive tactics or fail to stop “hate” on marches.

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UK general election opinion polls tracker: Labour leading as election looms

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Find out who’s up and who’s down in the latest polls – and how many seats each party is likely to win in the next general election

The next UK general election is looming, with most analysts expecting it to be called late this year.

After 13 years of Conservative rule, Keir Starmer’s Labour has been consistently ahead in the polls since the start of 2022.

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Labour rattled by Galloway win as Sadiq Khan slams PM over racist ‘poison’

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London mayor says Sunak must be tougher on his party, while Gaza ceasefire fracas piles pressure on many sitting Labour MPs

Sadiq Khan has condemned Rishi Sunak for failing to call out “racist, anti-Muslim and Islamophobic” remarks by a senior Tory MP, following the prime minister’s Downing Street address in which he criticised political extremists.

In a blunt response to Sunak’s unusual intervention, the London mayor said the prime minister had still not fully addressed the nature of the remarks made by former Tory vice-chair Lee Anderson, who said Islamists had “got control” of Khan and London. Khan, one of the most powerful Muslims in public life, warned that the past few weeks had seen “a concerted and growing attempt by some to degrade and humiliate minorities for political and electoral gain”.

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Gaza airdrops might not be necessary if Israel faced more pressure on aid

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Delivering by parachute is risky and inefficient – and other options could open up if the west were to expend more diplomatic capital

Half an hour before Rishi Sunak launched his assault on British extremism, the foreign secretary, David Cameron issued his own strong statement.

Cameron said the killings of more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza as crowds gathered around aid trucks on Thursday were horrific and required an investigation and accountability. He said the halving of the number of aid trucks entering Gaza in the past month was “completely unacceptable” and that Israel had an “obligation” to ensure significantly more humanitarian aid reached the territory.

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Pro-Palestine marches to continue after Sunak ‘extremists’ speech

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Organiser suggests PM consider own MPs’ behaviour after speech about rise in ‘extremist disruption’

Pro-Palestine protests are to continue across the UK on Saturday after Rishi Sunak’s warning that democracy was being targeted by “extremists”.

In an address to the nation on Friday, the prime minister spoke about “forces here at home trying to tear us apart”, in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks by Hamas against Israel.

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Extremists trying to tear us apart, says Rishi Sunak in impromptu No 10 speech

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PM condemns ‘shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in wake of Gaza war, in sometimes rambling address

Rishi Sunak has claimed extremist groups in the UK are “trying to tear us apart”, in a hastily arranged Downing Street statement that came hours after George Galloway won a byelection in Rochdale.

Standing outside No 10 late on Friday, the prime minister condemned what he called “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” after the 7 October massacre by Hamas and the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

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Extremist groups are a growing threat to British democracy, says Rishi Sunak in Downing Street speech – as it happened

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PM gives speech saying extremist groups are a growing threat to British democracy

The SNP MP Alison Thewliss has accused the Tory party of stoking up the culture war that has led to the extremism Rishi Sunak says he wants to stamp out.

“The Tories are the architects of the culture war in the UK - and Rishi Sunak has spent his whole time in office promoting it,” she said. “The prime minister has repeatedly, and very deliberately, sought to stoke up divisions, pander to the far-right and pit communities against each other for electoral gain.

“Whether it’s attacking refugees, insulting LGBT people, or failing to call out Lee Anderson’s Islamophobia for what it is - this is an attempt to rewrite history and people in Scotland see through it.

“If the Tory government now wants to bring people together, it must start by changing its own record of divisive language and policies. For people in Scotland, the best way to end these culture wars is to make Scotland Tory-free by voting SNP.”

The Liberal Democrat leader has, in effect, accused Rishi Sunak of hypocrisy, saying the prime minister’s promotion of some Conservative MPs who have made controversial remarks has “sowed the seeds of division for years”.

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Sunak hints at further national insurance cuts in spring budget

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Government wants to make life easier for working people, he says at Scottish Tory conference

Rishi Sunak has issued a strong hint that there could be further cuts in national insurance rates in next week’s budget.

The prime minister told reporters gathered at the Scottish Tory conference in Aberdeen on Friday that he wanted to make life easier for working people across the UK, particularly at a time when the Scottish National party government was raising income taxes from April for anyone in Scotland earning above £28,850.

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Rochdale byelection live: Labour ‘apologises to the people of Rochdale’ after George Galloway victory

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Losing party says ‘Galloway only won because Labour did not stand’ and calls him ‘a damaging force in our public life’

Labour says George Galloway is “only interested in stoking fear and division”.

In a statement issued about the byelection result, the party apologised to the people of Rochdale for the fact that it did not have a proper candidate. (Azhar Ali, who was selected as Labour’s candidate, was disowned by the party after nominations closed because it was revealed that he had made antisemitic comments after the Hamas attack on Gaza. But it was too late to change nominations, and so he was listed as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper.) A Labour spokesperson said:

We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this byelection and apologise to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.

Rochdale deserved the chance to vote for an MP that would bring communities together and deliver for working people. George Galloway is only interested in stoking fear and division. As an MP he will be a damaging force in our communities and public life.

I think Mr Tice has rather lost his balance, and Mr [Nigel] Farage too, and I remind Mr Tice that I have on my telephone a text from him inviting me to be the Reform UK candidate in a by-election not that long ago.

I’d prefer not to publish it, but if he keeps telling lies about me I will have to tell the truth about him.

Absolutely none. Ask the police, ask the police if a single one of our supporters has been arrested or spoken to by them.

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Friday briefing: Labour suffers a huge loss as Galloway takes Rochdale

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In today’s newsletter: what victory for a veteran political disruptor means after a toxic byelection in Rochdale

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Good morning.

A dramatic night has come to an end. George Galloway, the leader of the Workers’ party of Britain, is back in Westminster after a decisive landslide win in the Rochdale byelection. At 12,335 votes, Galloway came away with a historic 41% swing against the Labour party, which abandoned its candidate Azhar Ali after he became embroiled in an anti-semitism scandal, though Ali appeared on the ballot as a Labour candidate.

Police | The official inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard has found that her killer, Wayne Couzens, never should have been employed by the Metropolitan police. Lady Elish Angiolini’s report detailed missed opportunities to identify Couzens’ threats to women, including allegations of indecent exposure and sexual assault, leading to calls for urgent reforms of the police to restore trust.

Israel-Hamas war | More than a hundred Palestinians were killed in the early hours of Thursday morning, Gaza health officials said, when desperate crowds gathered around aid trucks and Israeli troops opened fire, in an incident that the US president, Joe Biden, warned was likely to complicate ceasefire talks.

UK news | Eleven people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at a converted terraced house in the upmarket London neighbourhood of South Kensington.

Protest | The government has been accused of exaggerated rhetoric to justify a crackdown on protest rights, amid a pushback by civil liberties groups, which accused Rishi Sunak of exaggerating the threat of “mob rule”.

Iran | A majority of Iran’s angry and disillusioned electorate are predicted to stay away from parliamentary elections today, viewing the process as a masquerade of democracy intended to give legitimacy to a regime that has failed to deliver on living standards, the environment and personal freedom.

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Wales warns Jeremy Hunt’s budget could force redraw of its own

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Cardiff’s finance minister says her 2023 budget could be redundant if the chancellor makes radical tax changes

The Welsh government has warned it could be forced to redraw its budget only one day after it is approved by the assembly should Jeremy Hunt make tax and spending policy changes that affect Wales in his budget in March.

Cardiff’s finance minister, Rebecca Evans, said she was concerned that her budget, which was published as a draft in 2023 for discussion and will be completed on 5 March, could become redundant if Hunt adopts radical measures in his budget the following day.

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Tories accused of hypocrisy for supporting farmers’ protests

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Campaigners and human rights experts point to crackdown on climate and Gaza protests

The Conservatives have been accused by human rights experts of hypocrisy after cracking down on climate and Gaza protests while celebrating and endorsing farmers’ protests in Wales.

Rishi Sunak joined a protest of farmers in Wales last Friday, after they had obstructed a road while campaigning against the Labour government’s new farming subsidies scheme. But this week he vowed to crack down on protests, referring to them as “mob rule”. On Wednesday, the Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew Davies, along with many of his colleagues greeted and posed for photographs with farmers who formed a large group outside the Senedd and blocked a main road with tractors.

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Rwanda plan to cost UK £1.8m for each asylum seeker, figures show

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Disclosure, calculated on basis of 300 deportations, called ‘staggering’ by chair of home affairs committee

Rishi Sunak’s flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost taxpayers £1.8m for each of the first 300 people the government deports to Kigali, Whitehall’s official spending watchdog has disclosed.

The overall cost of the scheme stands at more than half a billion pounds, according to the figures released to the National Audit Office. Even if the UK sends nobody to the central African state, Sunak has signed up to pay £370m from the public purse over the five-year deal.

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Food trade bodies consider legal action over post-Brexit ‘not for EU’ labelling

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Producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation

Food industry trade bodies are discussing whether to take legal action against the government over post-Brexit plans that will require all meat and dairy products sold in the UK to be labelled as “not for EU”.

Food producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation, and they are discussing a legal challenge as a viable option if a solution with the government is not found.

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Clare Lombardelli named deputy governor of Bank of England

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Ex-Treasury official and adviser to David Cameron will replace Ben Broadbent, making MPC majority female for first time

The Bank of England’s interest-rate-setting committee is set to become majority female for the first time, after the appointment of a former key adviser to David Cameron and George Osborne as one of its deputy governors.

Clare Lombardelli, the chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will sit on the nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) when she joins as the Bank’s next deputy governor for monetary policy.

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Hunt scrambles to raise revenue as OBR slashes scope for tax cuts in budget

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Chancellor considers unexpected tax rises such as abolishing non-dom status after latest forecast

Jeremy Hunt’s scope to make tax cuts in next week’s budget has been reduced further this week, according to Treasury insiders, leaving the chancellor considering emergency measures to raise revenue.

Recent forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) are said to have given the chancellor less fiscal headroom than hoped, pushing him to consider unexpected tax rises such as abolishing the non-dom tax status.

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Jeremy Hunt ‘could adopt Labour tax-raising plans’ – as it happened

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Chancellor reportedly considering energy windfall levy as well as scrapping the non-dom status

The Conservative peer and former MP Stewart Jackson has also made the point about Rishi Sunak’s comments yesterday echoing what Suella Braverman has been saying. (See 9.25am.) He suggests Sunak is a weathercock, “buffeted by events”.

Rishi Sunak is now saying what #SuellaBraverman rightly said four months ago, and for which she was sacked. Tony Benn astutely divided politicians as between signposts and weathercocks. One can think ahead, the other is buffeted by events. We know which one is which, don’t we?

We commend the prime minister on his powerful speech at the CST dinner last night, pledging more funding to protect the Jewish community, outlining a new protocol to safeguard our elected representatives and effectively police protests, and drawing a clear line between democratic dissent and mob intimidation.

The last few months have seen an extreme rise in antisemitic hate in the UK, which has had a significant effect on British Jews. The prime minister’s announcement has made it clear - those bringing chaos to our streets and academic institutions will no longer be allowed to act with impunity.

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