Home secretary, who is due to meet US tech bosses, says states such as Russia and Iran could target other countries as well
Criminals and “malign actors” working on behalf of malicious states could use AI-generated “deepfakes” to hijack the general election, the home secretary has said.
James Cleverly was speaking before meetings with social media bosses and said the rapid advancement of technology could pose a serious threat to elections across the globe.
Continue reading...Former shadow chancellor is one of the authors of a new academic paper on how to bridge the regional divide
Britain needs a 20-year cross-party consensus to level up the economy and unleash the untapped potential of regions outside London and the south-east, the former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.
Balls, one of five co-authors of an academic paper on bridging the UK’s regional divide, said it was vital that Labour and Conservative politicians put aside their differences in order to embed necessary funding and governance reforms.
Continue reading...Demonstration against Welsh Labour policy included No Farmers No Food campaign calling for end to climate measures, and Welsh Tory leader
Rishi Sunak attended a protest alongside a group which has posted conspiracy theories about climate change, and which campaigns against net zero, the Observer can reveal.
The prime minister has been accused of “pandering to extremists” by farmers and wildlife groups, who have asked him to “listen to reason and logic” rather than conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...Fears for impact on NHS workforce as leaked letter reveals ministers stall on aim to increase trainee doctors to 15,000 by 2031
Ministers have dramatically stalled plans to double the number of doctors being trained in England by 2031 in a move that has caused dismay across the NHS, as well in medical schools and universities, the Observer can reveal.
In June last year, ministers backed a long-term plan to expand the NHS workforce and pledged, amid great fanfare, to “double medical school places by 2031 from 7,500 today to 15,000, with more medical school places in areas with the greatest shortages to level up training and help address geographic inequity”. Labour is also committed to raising the number of doctors to 15,000 by 2031.
Continue reading...Politicians from Conservative and Labour parties get close protection and chauffeur-driven vehicles
Three female MPs have been given bodyguards and chauffeur-driven cars after concerns about their safety, it was reported. Representatives of the Conservative and Labour parties had their security upgraded after a risk assessment, according to the Sunday Times.
The MPs, who have not been named, have been given close protection by private companies and chauffeur-driven vehicles. “Many MPs are petrified by the abuse they are facing,” a senior security source told the newspaper.
Continue reading...In Doncaster, at the insurgent rightwing party’s ‘biggest ever’ gathering, one absence is on everybody’ lips
On a sunny day at Doncaster racecourse, those gathered for Reform UK’s “biggest ever party conference” were presented with a dizzying array of pledges to cut tax and freeze “non-essential” immigration as its leading lights published a programme to “save Britain”. Yet even as the sun beamed down, the shadow of one absent figure seemed to hang over proceedings.
There was a jubilant mood at the South Yorkshire gathering as they cheered leader Richard Tice’s demands for an inquiry into vaccine harms, to break with the World Health Organization and to fire headteachers who refused to drop “critical race theory”.
Continue reading...A new biography has revealed how the Labour leader and his allies planned his challenge in advance of the election
Keir Starmer had assembled a leadership team about six months before the Ddecember 2019 general election that led to Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation as Labour leader.
The team, codenamed the “Arlington Group”, began planning in earnest how Starmer could capture the leadership from June of that year – including a detailed breakdown of how Labour’s membership could be convinced to support him.
Continue reading...Government refused to publish review of system that allowed Russians now sanctioned due to Ukraine war to live in Britain
The government has been accused of a cover-up for refusing to publish a review of the so-called golden visa scheme that allowed wealthy investors, including at least 10 sanctioned Russian oligarchs, to take up residency in the UK.
The Tier 1 visa scheme, whereby super-rich individuals could buy the right to live in the UK by investing in British-registered companies, was closed in February 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amid concerns that the system was being abused.
Continue reading...Media appearances by ex-PM and former deputy Tory chair attract ire of Labour frontbench and within Tory ranks
Liz Truss and Lee Anderson should both lose the Conservative whip over controversial media appearances that have caused unrest and anger within Tory ranks, campaigners and opposition politicians have said.
In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Friday, the shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, said “egregious” remarks made by the pair “cannot go unchecked or unchallenged”.
Continue reading...Campaigners say Ibrahima Bah should be treated as a victim of trafficking after he was forced to steer a boat. Instead he faces at least six years in jail
Ibrahima Bah will spend at least the next six years and three months in custody. He will do so for manslaughter, and for smuggling dozens of people into the UK on a perilous small-boat journey across the Channel during which at least four died.
In the words of the migration minister Michael Tomlinson, it was “right that he has been brought to justice” because Bah “put dozens of lives in extreme danger by taking charge of a perilous and illegal small boat crossing”.
Continue reading...Ex-deputy party chair says on GB News Islamists control London as well as its mayor, prompting calls for him to lose the whip
The Conservative MP Lee Anderson has claimed that “Islamists” have “got control of London” and its mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Speaking on GB News, Anderson said of Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London: “He’s given our capital city away to his mates.
Continue reading...Britain joins France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands in withdrawing from charter it says ‘penalises’ shift to net zero
The UK is pulling out of a treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over their climate policies.
The government said the UK was withdrawing from the energy charter treaty after efforts to modernise it ended in stalemate.
Continue reading...Former Conservative PM, whose tenure lasted 50 days, tells CPAC she fell victim to UK’s ‘establishment … its bureaucrats and lawyers’
Liz Truss, the former British prime minister, spoke at a far-right conference in America on Wednesday, styling herself as a populist who took on America’s equivalent of the “deep state” in her own country.
Truss was among the headline speakers at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference at the National Harbor in Maryland. CPAC is billed as the biggest annual gathering of conservatives in the US but has in recent years embraced Donald Trump’s brand of nativist-populism.
Continue reading...As situation in Gaza worsens, diplomatic pressure is mounting on UK to follow other countries and suspend arms sales to Israel
The UK government will consider suspending arms export licences to Israel if Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with a potentially devastating ground offensive on the Palestinian city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
As the humanitarian situation in Gaza has worsened, diplomatic pressure has been mounting on the UK to follow other countries and suspend arms exports to Israel.
Continue reading...Move will help Keir Starmer head off threatened rebellion from his MPs
New 20mph limits are helping cut speeds and will save lives, the Welsh government has insisted. PA Media says:
Drivers are travelling on average 4mph slower on main roads in Wales since the rollout of a new lower speed limit for built-up areas, data collected by Transport for Wales (TfW) shows.
The Welsh Labour government, which implemented the change in September last year, insists the lower speeds will lead to fewer collisions and people injured.
Continue reading...Attorney general’s attempt to end climate protesters’ use of consent defence is slippery slope, says KC
A UK government attempt to remove one of the last remaining defences for climate protesters would be a slippery slope to the erosion of the constitutional right to trial by jury, the court of appeal was told on Wednesday.
The attorney general, Victoria Prentis KC, is arguing that one of the last available defences being used by environmental protesters should be removed. Prentis is making the appeal in the case of a defendant known as C, after a string of acquittals by juries of defendants for acts of criminal damage involving daubing paint on buildings.
Continue reading...Lindsay Hoyle gives Labour leader greater chance of avoiding rebellion over calls for ceasefire by allowing amendment
The Commons speaker has given Keir Starmer’s hopes of avoiding a major rebellion over Gaza a big boost by allowing the Labour leader to hold a vote on his preferred solution to the Middle East crisis.
Dozens of Labour MPs were preparing to vote on Wednesday for a Scottish National party motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the second time in three months.
Continue reading...Johnny Mercer tells inquiry defence secretary did not say he knew of allegations before Commons told they were untrue
A minister has told an inquiry that he was angry with the former defence secretary Ben Wallace after discovering that UK special forces officers knew about Afghanistan death squad allegations before he described them as untrue in the House of Commons.
Johnny Mercer wrote to Wallace in August 2020 shortly after emails surfaced in the Sunday Times that showed senior special forces officers expressed serious concerns about the killings of 33 people in 11 night raids in the war-torn nation in 2011.
Continue reading...Kemi Badenoch to make final decision on protections amid British industry fears of possible flood of imports
Whitehall officials have recommended extending post-Brexit steel quotas – a development that will come as a relief to the British steel industry, which had feared a rise in imports.
The “steel safeguards”, which were due to expire at the end of June, were first brought in by the EU in 2018, which feared that countries such as China would dump excess steel on the market after sales to the US were blocked by Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Speculation that William’s ‘too many have been killed’ statement was encouraged to increase pressure on Israel
The timing of Prince William’s unprecedented intervention relating to the war in Gaza has raised questions about the involvement of the UK Foreign Office, and whether the royal statement was encouraged or even engineered to increase pressure on Israel.
On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales issued a statement saying “too many have been killed” in the conflict, and “I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible”.
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