Category Archives: Politics

Rishi Sunak will lead Tories into election, Mark Harper says

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Cabinet minister urges backbenchers to have confidence in party leadership amid reports of plot to remove PM

Rishi Sunak will lead the Conservative party into an election at the end of the year despite reports of rebellious MPs plotting to oust him to avoid wipeout at the polls, a senior cabinet minister has said.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, told his fellow MPs to “have some confidence” in the party leadership, insisting Sunak was focused on “making the right decisions” for the country.

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Young carers in England and Wales ‘forced out of education’ by benefit rules

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Charities and education providers say young carers should be eligible for welfare when they study more than 21 hours a week

Young carers in England and Wales are being blocked from staying in education and going to college or university by benefit rules that unfairly penalise them, according to a coalition of charities and education providers.

The group of more than 200 organisations and representatives is lobbying ministers to exempt young carers – those aged 16 to 24 who often look after relatives – from the rule that makes them ineligible for the government’s carer’s allowance if they study for more than 21 hours a week.

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Over a third of first time buyers relying on ‘bank of mum and dad’

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Tories accused of deserting those without financial support, as proportion relying on help with deposits rises from 27% to 37% in a year

Rishi Sunak has been accused of “locking the door on home ownership” and entrenching inequality, amid evidence that tens of thousands more young house buyers have been forced to turn to the “bank of mum and dad” to secure a new home.

A crisis in housing affordability is again set to be a major election flashpoint, with the prime minister already admitting in recent months that the Conservatives needed to do more to address falling home ownership rates among the young. The party has failed in its manifesto pledge to build 300,000 houses a year.

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Home Office condemns ‘cruel’ Rwanda phone scam targeting asylum seekers

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Scammers claim they can help people go to Rwanda in exchange for £3,000 government payment

The Home Office has condemned scammers who “cruelly attempt” to trick people by pretending they can help them go to Rwanda in exchange for a £3,000 government payment.

The reported scam is the latest blow to government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

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Billie Piper says she dislikes discussing ex-husband Laurence Fox’s comments

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Actor also says dealing with press headlines about Fox’s remarks has made her ‘stronger’

Billie Piper has said she dislikes being told or asked about her ex-husband Laurence Fox’s incendiary comments.

However, Piper, 41, who was married to the actor turned political campaigner from 2007 until 2016, believes dealing with press headlines over his remarks had made her “feel stronger in many ways”.

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Labour MP Foy says she has breast cancer and urges others to get checked

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Mary Kelly Foy, the MP for Durham, is recuperating from surgery and is expected to make a full recovery

A Labour MP has urged women to attend breast cancer screenings as she revealed her own diagnosis.

Mary Kelly Foy, the City of Durham MP, said she was recuperating from surgery and was expected to make a full recovery thanks to an early diagnosis.

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UK and India put free trade deal talks on ice until later this year

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Latest round of negotiations end without breakthrough and talks will not resume until after India’s election campaign

The UK and India have closed their 14th round of trade negotiations without reaching a deal and will put the discussions on ice until later this year.

The UK government ended the latest round of talks on Friday night after two weeks of intensive negotiations with Indian officials failed to bear fruit.

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Abbott claims Labour leadership’s ‘real agenda’ is to prevent her getting the whip back – UK politics live

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Hackney MP endorsed a post saying it was unlikely she would be allowed to rejoin Labour despite the support of senior figures

A reader asks:

Is there anything other than convention which says elections must be on a Thursday?

The reason for choosing Thursday, it is said, was as follows. On Fridays the voters were paid their wages and if they went for a drink in a public house they would be subject to pressure from the Conservative brewing interests, while on Sundays they would be subject to influence by Free Church ministers who were generally Liberal in persuasion. Therefore choose the day furthest from influence by either publicans or Free Church clergymen, namely Thursday. Although these influences are much less significant today, the trend towards Thursday becoming a universal polling day has continued, because Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils all polled on a Saturday until they were abolished under the 1972 Local Government Act. Their successor District Councils poll on a Thursday and the Parish Council polling day was changed from Saturday to Thursday at the same time.

If it ends up being an autumn election as Sunak has indicated, how does that impact the conference season - do they still go ahead? - and does the summer recess have any affect on when a government can call an election?

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Frank Hester racism row: how key figures reacted to Diane Abbott remarks

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Tory donor has been widely condemned over racist and misogynistic comments about prominent black MP

It has been four days since the Guardian reported on the extraordinary remarks by the Tory donor Frank Hester about Diane Abott. They elicited widespread condemnation for being racist and misogynistic. Here are some of the key voices – and what they have said:

Diane Abbott MP

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M25 five-mile closure: drivers warned to steer clear over weekend

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Roadworks mean stretch between junctions 10 and 11 will be closed for first time, from 9pm on Friday to 6am on Monday

Drivers have been warned to steer well clear, turn off the satnav and stick to the official diversions as some of the biggest roadworks since the Romans results in part of the M25 motorway fully closed for the first time in its history this weekend.

Epic traffic jams are anticipated, with a five-mile stretch of Britain’s busiest motorway, the London orbital motorway, closed for engineering from 9pm on Friday.

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Russia suspected of jamming GPS signal on aircraft carrying Grant Shapps

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RAF jet was taking defence secretary back to UK from Poland, and flying near Russian exclave of Kaliningrad

Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an RAF aircraft carrying Grant Shapps back from Poland, according to government sources.

Defence sources said there was no danger to Shapps, who was travelling back to the UK, though they called it a “wildly irresponsible” act of electronic warfare.

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Angela Rayner says she wants to see Diane Abbott get Labour whip restored – as it happened

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Deputy Labour leader says party must follow procedures but says she would personally like MP to have Labour whip restored. This live blog is closed

In his speech Keir Starmer has just confirmed that Labour would stop ticket touts buying up tickets for events and re-selling them at rip-off prices.

This is what Labour said about the plan in a news release this morning.

Reselling tickets for profit has already been banned in many countries, but under the Tories, fans have been let down.

Too often, genuine fans are missing out on getting tickets only to see those same tickets on secondary ticketing websites at far higher prices, making them unaffordable and putting them out of reach.

My first ever trip abroad was to Malta with the Croydon youth Philharmonic Orchestra. You will know that excitement you feel when you have an encounter with the arts that changes your life. Everyone in the room will know that the sense, I suppose, of being drawn into something that seems bigger than ourselves, of being truly moved by a piece of music, or painting, or a play …

Even now even now, listening to Beethoven or Brahms as I read the Sunday papers, takes the edge off some of the more uncomfortable stories.

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Michael Matheson faces suspension as MSP after £11,000 iPad data bill claim

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Holyrood standards committee to examine findings of inquiry that upheld three complaints against ex-minister

The former Scottish health secretary Michael Matheson faces being suspended from Holyrood after wrongly claiming nearly £11,000 in expenses for an iPad roaming bill run up on holiday.

An official inquiry by the Scottish parliament found Matheson breached two parts of its code of conduct by failing to abide by parliamentary policies and by making “improper use” of its expenses.

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From left to far right, which groups could end up on the UK extremism list?

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Michael Gove has named five groups to be examined but some fear many more will ultimately be included

Far-right and Islamist groups are among those expected to be included in a list the government will publish in the coming weeks as part of a new definition of extremism.

The communities minister, Michael Gove, named five groups to MPs on Thursday – three Muslim-led and two far-right – which he said would be examined under the new legislation.

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Scottish lairds may be forced to break up estates during land sales

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Bill proposes dividing large estates into smaller lots to spread land ownership and boost rural populations

Scottish lairds will be ordered to break up their estates into smaller parcels during sales under plans to reverse the country’s heavily concentrated patterns of land ownership.

A land reform bill proposes introducing rules that could force someone selling an estate larger than 1,000 hectares (2,740 acres) to divide it into smaller lots, if it is was needed to increase the number of people owning land or living in the area.

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Tories urged to return further £5m donation made by Frank Hester

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Scottish Tory leader says all of Hester’s donations should be reviewed after racist and misogynistic comments

The Conservative party has been urged to decline or return a reported further £5m donation made by Frank Hester, whose remarks about Diane Abbott have been widely condemned as racist and misogynistic.

Rishi Sunak faces increasing pressure over the £10m previously given by the millionaire businessman, with Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, saying on Thursday that the donations should be looked at by the party.

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Ministers and officials to be banned from contact with groups labelled extremist

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New extremism definition to be published by Michael Gove is already being challenged by Muslim groups and experts

Ministers and civil servants will be banned from talking to or funding organisations that undermine “the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy”, under a new definition of extremism criticised by the government’s terror watchdog and Muslim community groups.

Michael Gove, the communities secretary, will tell MPs on Thursday that officials should consider whether a group maintains “public confidence in government” before working with it.

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‘Restless, angry’ voters vulnerable to far-right extremism, warns Hope Not Hate

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Group’s annual report notes rise in anti-migrant activism and asks if Tory voters are ‘falling out of love with democracy’

British voters are restless, angry and demoralised and more than half of them are pessimistic about the future, according to polling that a counter-extremism organisation has said shows warning signs of future unrest.

More than one in four respondents (43%) described the UK as “declining”, just 6% agreed that the political system was working well and 79% said politicians “don’t listen to people like me”.

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UK home care workers cannot work as visa regime tightened, says employer

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Grosvenor says it is prevented from making 3,000 visits a week as it pays migrant workers to sit at home because permits not renewed

One of the UK’s biggest home care providers says it is paying dozens of migrant workers to sit at home and do nothing because the Home Office has not renewed key immigration permits.

Thousands of workers, mostly from Africa, were welcomed into the UK to help fill the one in 10 care worker jobs vacant after the Covid crisis. But after scammers abused the system, leading to allegations of modern slavery, the government appears to have tightened the application of the rules.

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Ministers to quash convictions of hundreds of post office operators

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Legislation will overturn convictions of theft, fraud and false accounting during Horizon scandal

Ministers will publish legislation to quash the convictions of hundreds of post office operators who were prosecuted during the Horizon scandal, marking a significant victory for victims after decades of campaigning.

The legislation on Wednesday will automatically overturn convictions of theft, fraud and false accounting that were handed down in connection with Post Office business during that period. It will cover prosecutions brought by the Post Office and the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales between 1996 and 2018.

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