Former lobbyist and Labour insider reinvented himself as a therapist after twice withdrawing from politics
By his own admission Derek Draper could be a “cocky know-it-all”. His self-confidence was, on occasions, his undoing.
Yet even those who had some reason to be embarrassed by his behaviour recognised he had a rare ebullience. Two former prime ministers led the political tributes, with Tony Blair saying Draper was “someone you always wanted on your side”.
Continue reading...Former minister also resigns as an MP, which will trigger byelection in his Kingswood constituency
A former Conservative minister has announced he is resigning as an MP in protest at the party’s dash for oil and gas, setting up an awkward vote for the prime minister on the issue on Monday and an even more difficult byelection within weeks.
Chris Skidmore, a leading voice within the Tory party on green issues, said on Friday he would resign from parliament as soon as it returns next week over Rishi Sunak’s bill to allow new oil and gas licences to be issued.
Continue reading...Climate thinktank says Britain could be left trailing in global race to develop low-carbon energy
Labour’s independent energy advisers have warned the party against watering down its £28bn green spending plans in advance of its promise to create a zero carbon electricity system by 2030.
Experts at the climate thinktank Ember, which provided the independent analysis underpinning Labour’s green targets, said growing international competition for low-carbon investment from the US and EU could leave the UK lagging in the global race for low-carbon energy.
Continue reading...Latest attempt to tackle pupil absences criticised as failing to tackle the magnitude of the problem
The government is to make a new effort to repair sagging school attendance figures in England, with the education secretary to announce funding for “attendance mentors” in some of the worst-affected areas.
Pupil absences remain stubbornly higher than before the Covid pandemic, and during a visit to Liverpool on Monday Gillian Keegan is expected to announce plans for caseworkers to offer one-to-one support for pupils in 10 areas including Blackpool and Walsall, where rates of unauthorised absences remain far above national levels.
Continue reading...Independent French auditors say UK information on people crossing Channel is ‘very patchy’
The UK is not coordinating sufficiently with France to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats or providing enough detailed information, French state auditors have said.
The cour des comptes, an independent French body that examines the use of public funds, has published a report on the efficiency of French policy on illegal migration, in which it said France was “struggling to develop operational cooperation arrangements” with its neighbours, including the UK.
Continue reading...PM appears to rule out spring election after recent speculation it could be held in May
Starmer says being in opposition is frustrating, and he accuses the Tories of treating it as performance art.
He is now on the passage about his career in public service that was posted earlier. See 9.12am.
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Continue reading...Statement is clearest sign yet party is willing to drop one of its flagship policies in face of Conservative attacks
Keir Starmer has ruled out breaking Labour’s fiscal rules to meet its green investment targets if it wins the election this year, in the clearest sign yet that the party is willing to scale back one of its flagship policies in the face of Conservative attacks.
The Labour leader told an audience in Bristol on Thursday that he would not borrow £28bn to spend on green projects if it meant breaking a separate promise to reduce government debt as a proportion of economic output.
Continue reading...PM says it is his ‘working assumption’ vote will be called in latter part of year, puncturing Labour hopes of earlier poll
Rishi Sunak has given his strongest indication yet that he will not call a general election until the second half of 2024, puncturing Labour hopes that it could come as early as the spring.
The prime minister told broadcasters on Thursday it was his “working assumption” the vote would be called in the latter part of the year, giving him more time to try to reverse the Conservatives’ deficit in the polls. The date of the election is solely in his hands after the repeal of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act in 2022.
Continue reading...In a speech in the west of England, Labour leader will say he wants British people to believe in politics again
A Labour win at this year’s election will improve the mood of “a downtrodden country”, Keir Starmer will say, as he hopes to inject a note of optimism into what is set to be one of the most bitterly fought campaigns in recent history.
The Labour leader will set out his pitch to voters at a speech in the west of England on Thursday marking the beginning of what Labour believes will be a five-month lead-up to the election.
Continue reading...Row breaks out on first day of NHS’s longest ever stoppage as requests to return to work rejected
Junior doctors’ leaders have said they are prepared to stage yet more strikes after the longest stoppage in NHS history, as health leaders warned that this week’s action alone could cripple the health service until spring.
The dire warnings came as Rishi Sunak faced fresh pressure over his pledge to reduce waiting times. Since he made his vow exactly a year ago, the list has gone up, not down – and by 500,000, official figures reveal.
Continue reading...Lib Dem leader says he regrets not doing more while postal affairs minister to help victims wrongly accused of stealing
The Liberal Democrat leader has accused Post Office bosses of misleading him over the Horizon IT scandal in which hundreds of branch owner-operators were wrongly prosecuted.
Sir Ed Davey, who was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012 when the software issues started coming to light, said he regretted not doing more to help victims who were wrongly accused of stealing but claimed that executives had blocked him from meeting campaigners.
Continue reading...Some UK applicants forced to quit Turing scheme when places not confirmed or they failed to receive funds in time
Students taking part in the government’s post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme were forced to drop out because places were confirmed too late, while others failed to receive funding until after their return, according to analysis.
The first official analysis of the Turing scheme, which was announced by the then prime minister Boris Johnson and launched in 2021, found that four out of five universities (79%) had difficulties with the application process, which was overly complex, repetitive and “tedious”.
Continue reading...Co-chair says members ‘very happy to look over deals that would span a number of years’
Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, has restated her call for the BMA to call off the junior doctors’ strike in England. Speaking to Sky News she said:
We’re very concerned about the consequences [the strike] will have, not just for this week of industrial action, but also in the weeks following, because consultants and other clinicians who are picking up the slack as junior doctors, doctors in training, are not at their work – that will be reflected in the weeks coming up with people trying to catch up with the lost time.
So it’s going to have a huge impact on our health system. My ask of the junior doctors committee is to call off these strikes and get back round the negotiating table.
Six days of Junior Doctor strikes in England, all because of a UK Government that chooses tax cuts for the wealthy over paying NHS staff fairly.
We have taken different choices in Scotland and avoided a single day of NHS strikes. Our budget gives the NHS a real-terms increase.
Chief strategist uses examples from around world to urge against complacency, warning ‘polls do not predict the future’
Labour’s poll lead could collapse in the weeks before the general election, the party’s chief campaign strategist has told shadow ministers, as he warned them not to be complacent going into the election year.
Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s director of campaigns, recently gave a presentation to the shadow cabinet in which he showed MPs what happened in the months before eight different elections from around the world. In each case, the clear favourite lost after their poll lead disappeared in the weeks leading up to the vote.
Continue reading...Leonard Farruku’s family ‘facing a double tragedy with not being able to have his body back home’ in Albania
The family of a man believed to have killed himself on the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, say they have had to turn to crowdfunding to bring him back to Albania for burial.
Leonard Farruku, 27, was found unresponsive onboard the vessel commissioned by the Home Office to accommodate up to 500 asylum seekers at Portland Port, Dorset, on 12 December.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Downing Street refuses to endorse home secretary as he says his aim is to reduce number of people crossing Channel on small boats to ‘zero’. This live blog is closed
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson claimed the government had “gone further” than promised in tackling the asylum application backlog. In response to comments from Labour and others saying the legacy backlog has not been fully cleared, the spokesperson said:
We committed to clearing the backlog. That is what the government has done.
We are being very transparent about what that entails.
I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023.
That’s exactly what we’ve done.
Paper ballots may act as barrier to cyber attacks, but introduction of voter ID could lead to a host of complications
While the date of the next UK general election itself remains in the hands of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, one thing is certain: when the campaign begins it has the potential to be one of the most perilous and chaotic in the country’s history, for a variety of reasons.
One point is worth noting immediately: although the UK is often lumped in with the long list of countries holding elections in 2024, Sunak could theoretically hold it as late as January 2025, maximising the Conservatives’ full five-year term.
Continue reading...Airstrikes against Houthi rebels and the prospect of a year-long Gaza conflict will test cross-party thinking at Westminster
Two developments in the past 48 hours could test the cross-party consensus in Westminster on the conflict between Israel and Hamas: the signal sent by the Ministry of Defence that it is prepared to join the US in launching airstrikes against Houthi sites in Yemen, and statements by the Israeli political and military leadership that the war may take months or even a whole year to complete.
Labour has so far largely concurred with UK government policy, which in turn has largely shadowed thinking inside the White House.
Continue reading...Measures include target for British food in public institutions and seeking veterinary deal with EU
Labour has pledged to improve food security and boost the UK’s agriculture sector with a “new deal for farmers”, including a target that at least half of the food used in hospitals, schools and prisons is British.
Condemning what the party called an abandonment of farmers under the Conservatives, the plan also includes a reiteration of Labour’s proposal to seek to sign a new veterinary agreement with the EU.
Continue reading...Call by economics of happiness expert Richard Layard comes as research agency set up under David Cameron is to be axed in Whitehall cuts
A Labour government should make the UK the world’s first country to make policy based on its impact on wellbeing as well as the economy, one of the world’s leading experts on the economics of happiness has said.
With Keir Starmer in No 10, Downing Street should require Whitehall departments to appraise the potential impact on citizens’ wellbeing when they make funding bids, Richard Layard said. The next chancellor should announce measures of happiness and misery alongside GDP in their annual budget statements, he added.
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