Category Archives: Politics

Junior doctors want 35% pay increase over time, not immediately, says BMA leader – UK politics live

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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.

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Labour’s poll lead could still collapse, shadow ministers warned

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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.

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Family of man found dead on Bibby Stockholm turn to crowdfunding to repatriate his body

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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

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No 10 refuses to follow Cleverly in setting end of 2024 as target date for ending all small boat crossings – as it happened

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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.

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‘Perilous and chaotic’: why officials are nervy before a likely UK election in 2024

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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.

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Why Labour needs to decide whether to break the consensus on Israel

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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.

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Labour pledges ‘new deal for farmers’ to boost UK agriculture

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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.

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Labour should make UK leader in wellbeing-informed policy, says peer

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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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Dominic Cummings ‘held secret election talks with Rishi Sunak’

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Tories express alarm over claim, with some saying it showed prime minister’s lack of judgment

Conservative MPs have expressed anger and alarm at the claim that Rishi Sunak offered Dominic Cummings a secret deal to help him win the election, with one saying Boris Johnson’s former chief aide should have “no place in political life”.

Other Tory MPs have commented in WhatsApp groups to express opposition to the idea, first revealed in the Sunday Times, with some saying it showed a lack of judgment by Sunak.

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Civil servant at MoD alleges sexual assaults by three male colleagues

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Woman came forward to Prospect trade union after feeling allegations were not sufficiently dealt with

A Ministry of Defence civil servant has told of being subjected to three separate incidents of sexual assault by male colleagues, after allegations emerged of a “hostile” and “toxic” culture at the department.

The woman came forward to Prospect, the trade union, after feeling that her allegations were not sufficiently investigated and dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.

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UK has failed to act to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah from jail in Egypt, family says

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Rishi Sunak told activist’s sister in 2022 that government was ‘totally committed’ to resolving the case

The family of the imprisoned British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah have said the British government has failed to act to free him, a year after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told his sister the government was “totally committed to resolving your brother’s case”.

A figurehead in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, which overthrew Hosni Mubarak as president, Abd el-Fattah spent most of the past decade behind bars for his activism. He was rearrested in 2019 following a brief period out of prison but under police surveillance, and was sentenced in December 2021 to a further five years in detention for spreading “false news undermining national security”, after resharing a social media post about torture.

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Labour pledges to ‘clean up politics’ after outrage over Liz Truss honours list

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Shadow front bencher says Keir Starmer would not have resignation honours after ‘appalling spectacle’ of ex-prime minister ‘rewarding cronies’

Labour last night promised there would be no resignation honour’s list issued by Keir Starmer if he were to become prime minister, as outrage grew over the list of peerages, knighthoods and other rewards showered by Liz Truss on those associated with her disastrous 49 days in office.

Shadow leader of the House, Lucy Powell, told the Observer: “The appalling spectacle of Truss rewarding her cronies for helping her crash the economy and cause mortgage misery for millions demeans politics.

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Keir Starmer ‘lacks clear sense of purpose’ claims Labour ex-policy chief

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Party historian MP Jon Cruddas questions readiness for power of leader with few ties to movement’s roots or ideology

A key centre-left Labour MP says Keir Starmer appears to lack a clear sense of purpose due to his detachment from his party’s traditions, and casts doubt on whether he can become one of its more successful prime ministers.

In A Century of Labour, a book published to mark 100 years since the formation of the first Labour government on 22 January 1924 under Ramsay MacDonald, Jon Cruddas says that Starmer – while clearly a “decent” and “principled” man – “remains an elusive leader, difficult to find”.

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Brexit has completely failed for UK, say clear majority of Britons – poll

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Only one in 10 feel leaving the EU has helped their finances, while just 9% say it has benefited the NHS, despite £350m a week pledge according to new poll

A clear majority of the British public now believes Brexit has been bad for the UK economy, has driven up prices in shops, and has hampered government attempts to control immigration, according to a poll by Opinium to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union.

The survey of more than 2,000 UK voters also finds strikingly low numbers of people who believe that Brexit has benefited them or the country.

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Tory MP says most struggling children in his area are ‘products of crap parents’

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Bury North MP James Daly makes remark while outlining what New Conservatives group stands for

A Conservative MP has claimed most children who struggle in his constituency are the “products of crap parents”.

James Daly, the MP for Bury North, was outlining what the New Conservatives group of MPs stood for when he presented his perspective on how important a family unit is in giving children “stability”.

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‘I didn’t know who to talk to’: MPs on the hidden toll on their mental health

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While a handful of politicians have openly discussed the stresses of their job, the scale of the problem appears far greater

It was a year after they were made a minister when the MP had the second breakdown of their political career, and realised they simply had no idea what to do next: “I was so terrified. I didn’t know who to talk to. There didn’t seem to be anybody I could trust.

“A family member told me to take time off. But as a minister if you were to say you needed time off sick, the whips would go, ‘Yeah, fine. We’ll get someone else to do your job.’ It’s often easier to keep your head down and pretend.”

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Thatcher ‘utterly shattered’ by MI5 revelations in Spycatcher, files reveal

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National Archives papers show prime minister tried in vain to avoid inquiry over Peter Wright’s memoirs

Margaret Thatcher was “utterly shattered” by the revelations in Spycatcher, the memoirs of the retired MI5 officer Peter Wright, files released publicly for the first time reveal.

The files also reveal the dilemmas faced by Thatcher’s government in its futile battle to suppress the book, including whether to agree to the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer mediating an out of court “solution”.

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Blair considered loan of Parthenon marbles to help London Olympics bid

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Then PM was advised to ‘encourage’ British Museum to agree long-term loan in return for Greek support

Tony Blair considered a “long-term loan” of the Parthenon marbles to Greece in the hope of support for a London 2012 Olympic Games bid, newly released documents reveal.

Twenty years before Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over the ownership question of the sculptures, Greece was lobbying Blair, the then prime minister, for a long-term loan, bypassing the issue of ownership.

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National archives: Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo

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Former prime minister had concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army

Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo, some of whom have subsequently been put on trial for war crimes, despite reportedly believing they were “not much better than the Serbs” whose own crimes against humanity he was seeking to end, it has been revealed.

Blair, then the UK prime minister, had grave concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was fighting against the Serbian nationalist forces led by Slobodan Milošević.

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Kerry Packer was proposed as mediator in Thatcher’s fight to stop Spycatcher memoir

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Counsel for ex-MI5 officer Peter Wright suggested role for Australian media tycoon but idea was swiftly rejected

The Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer was suggested as a mediator in the fight by Margaret Thatcher’s government to prevent the publication of Spycatcher, the memoirs of former MI5 officer Peter Wright, according to newly released official papers.

The offer was made by Wright’s Australian counsel – and future Australian prime minister – Malcolm Turnbull as part of a proposed out-of-court settlement, files released by the National Archives show.

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