Category Archives: Politics

Labour must fulfil promise to introduce clean air act, charities urge

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Party held out prospect of act while in opposition but plan did not make it into election manifesto

Ministers should bring forward a new clean air act that would ban wood burning, clear diesel vehicles from the roads and force councils to cut pollution, a group of more than 60 charities have urged before the king’s speech on Wednesday.

Labour held out the prospect of a clean air act while in opposition in 2023, but this was dropped from the final election manifesto, and the government has made no move to reinstate it.

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Burnham allies warn against quick ‘coronation’ of Streeting if Starmer quits

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Assurances being sought that Greater Manchester mayor could stand for byelection, though MP Marie Rimmer says she will not stand aside

Allies of Andy Burnham have warned against a “coronation” for Wes Streeting as the next prime minister and called on Labour’s ruling body to allow the mayor to stand for the leadership.

As Keir Starmer attempted to face down mounting calls for his resignation on Tuesday, sources close to Burnham demanded immediate assurances from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) that he would not be blocked from contesting a parliamentary byelection.

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Keir Starmer tells cabinet he is not resigning amid growing pressure to stand down – UK politics live

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Cabinet ministers rally around PM after critical meeting where he said he would not quit without a leadership challenge

Here are some pictures from No 10 this morning.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, is now being interviewed on the Today programme. Nick Robinson, the presenter, is asking him if he knows whether Keir Starmer has decided how to respond to the pressure on him to resign. Jones is avoiding the question, as he did on Sky News earlier. (See 7.43am.)

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Starmer tells cabinet he will not quit without leadership challenge

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Ministers rally around embattled leader, who says he will ‘get on with governing’ unless process for challenge is triggered

Keir Starmer has told his cabinet he will fight on as prime minister, saying the threshold for a leadership challenge has not been met, as ministers began to rally around the embattled leader.

The Guardian understands Starmer did not give cabinet critics time to respond, before moving the conversation on to the Middle East, and none called directly on him to resign during Tuesday’s meeting.

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Senior cabinet ministers join 70 Labour MPs in urging Starmer to step down

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Exclusive: Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood believed to be among those telling PM to oversee orderly departure hours after he said he would fight any challenge

Keir Starmer’s grip on power appeared to be slipping away on Monday as cabinet ministers urged him to set out a timetable for his departure and more than 70 Labour MPs publicly called for him to stand down.

The prime minister warned the country would “never forgive” Labour for plunging into the chaos of a leadership election – and that he intended to prove his doubters inside and outside the party wrong.

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Starmer began the day damaged and then things got worse

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A growing number of Labour MPs are in no mood to heed calls from the PM’s allies to keep faith with their leader

“Has Keir done enough to survive?” was the question anxious Labour MPs were asking each other throughout Monday, after the speech regarded by many as crucial to Starmer’s chances of political survival.

But the anxiety for many of them, badly bruised by Thursday’s election crushing, did not stem from concern the prime minister might be ousted. But that he would not.

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Newly elected Reform councillor resigns after social media claims

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Stuart Prior quits as scrutiny grows of new councillors accused of racist, antisemitic or anti-Muslim remarks

A Reform UK councillor has resigned days after being elected, after he allegedly celebrated on social media the rape of a Sikh woman in the Midlands, declared white people the “master race” and called Muslim people “rats”.

Stuart Prior was elected as a councillor for Essex county council last Thursday, winning 2,404 votes, the highest total of any candidate in the ward.

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Starmer faces fight to survive as Streeting and Rayner eye leadership bids

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Chances of Starmer remaining in No 10 appear to be diminishing as about 40 Labour MPs call on him to quit

Keir Starmer faces a fight for his political life in the next 24 hours as potential Labour leadership rivals from Wes Streeting to Angela Rayner began to position themselves for a contest.

Starmer is hoping to save his job on Monday with a speech promising to “face up to the big challenges” for the country on growth, energy, defence and Europe.

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Labour MP challenges ministers to trigger leadership contest as Starmer vows to fight on – UK politics live

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Catherine West issues ultimatum for the PM as ex-minister Josh Simons joins calls for prime minister to quit

At the start of her programme Laura Kuenssberg addressed Catherine West and Bridget Phillipson who were sitting waiting for the main interviews.

Kuenssberg told West she wanted a cabinet minister to challenge Keir Starmer. She said she was sitting next to one of them. What was her message to her?

Well, there’s nothing stopping Bridget from standing. Why are all the men better than the women? We do need some senior women to step forward and to challenge for what is going to be a really difficult two and a half years between now and the general election, and also to take us into that second term.

I love you dearly, Catherine, but I just disagree on this one.

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Farage trying to avoid scrutiny over £5m gift from crypto billionaire, Labour says

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Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, seeks to present issue as irrelevant in interview with Laura Kuenssberg

Labour has accused Nigel Farage of attempting to dodge scrutiny as the Reform leader continued to face questions over the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire shortly before the last general election.

Asked about the gift from Christopher Harborne on Sunday, the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, sought to present it as an irrelevance to voters and said it had complied with all the rules.

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GPs and hospitals in England to be required to share data to create single patient records

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Wes Streeting says legislation will save lives, but GPs are concerned about liability for errors introduced by other providers

GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king’s speech on Wednesday.

Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a £10bn digitisation of the health service.

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Plaid Cymru leader says he hopes to be made first minister as early as Tuesday

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Rhun ap Iowerth says he hopes his party’s programme for government will get backing from across the Senedd

The leader of Plaid Cymru is hoping to become Welsh first minister as early as Tuesday after his party won a historic victory in the Senedd elections, soundly beating Labour and holding off Reform UK.

Plaid fell short of winning a majority in the Welsh parliament but Rhun ap Iorwerth said on Sunday he hoped other parties would work with him and told UK Labour not to punish Wales over the result.

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MPs from Labour’s left to urge Ed Miliband to consider leadership bid

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Keir Starmer set to face challenge as former minister says she will trigger race if no cabinet minister comes forward

MPs from Labour’s left are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days, as Keir Starmer faced the prospect of a definite challenge from his MPs next week.

Following grim results for Labour in elections on Thursday, former minister Catherine West said that if no cabinet ministers went public by Monday, she would launch a bid to end the impasse.

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‘I’ll talk to work on Monday’: what happens when a ‘paper candidate’ actually wins?

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Tyrone Scott, who didn’t think he had a hope in the election, wants to help the Greens rebuild ‘community cohesion’ in Hackney

You would expect most political candidates who pull off a shock win to celebrate their victory, maybe with a glass of bubbly and excitement for the challenges of elected office ahead. But on Friday, as thousands of new councillors celebrated their triumphs, some surprise victors were less than pleased.

Green party handlers apologised to one newly elected councillor in Finsbury Park, north London, put down as a “paper candidate”, who pulled off an unexpected win. “You’re going to be great, we’ll support you,” they said, according to the Islington Tribune.

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Most Labour members think Starmer cannot revive party fortunes, poll finds

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Exclusive: Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is preferred choice of new leader for 42% of those surveyed

The majority of Labour members say they do not believe Keir Starmer can turn around the party’s fortunes, while 45% say the prime minister should step down.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, was the first preference for 42% of members, who were asked to rank their preferred successor.

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John Swinney urges Starmer to show Scotland ‘greater respect’ after SNP victory

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Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, concedes his party was comprehensively beaten in election as count puts his party on 17 seats, a tie with Reform

John Swinney, the Scottish National party leader, has challenged Keir Starmer to show “greater respect” to the Scottish government after winning the Holyrood elections by a comfortable margin.

The Scottish National party secured a record fifth term in office on Friday after securing 58 of Holyrood’s 129 seats.

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Nigel Farage hails ‘historic shift in politics’ after Reform UK election gains

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Party has success in Labour and Tory heartland areas but one pollster says results suggest Reform may have peaked

Nigel Farage hailed sweeping election wins for Reform UK as a “historic shift in British politics” on a day when the populist party made gains at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives.

Reform made advances in heartland areas of both parties, clocking up substantial early results in the English local elections by taking control of Essex county council, Havering – its first London local authority – and Sunderland city council.

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Labour’s better than expected thrashing may allow Starmer to cling on in No 10

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Results are undoubtedly bad but expectations had been set even lower, and any potential challengers are quiet for now

As the local elections results rolled in, a trickle of voices were calling for Keir Starmer to quit – a couple of MPs, a trade union leader, and a Labour peer.

The numbers are undoubtedly bad for Labour, with Reform making sweeping gains across pro-Brexit heartlands in the north and Midlands. These could even be the party’s worst losses for 50 years, with more than 1,000 councillors gone and the potential loss of control of the Welsh parliament.

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Future of UK lies in the EU after Brexit ‘failure’, say European Greens

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Exclusive: Co-chair Vula Tsetsi says it is time to trigger debate, as statement is agreed at annual leadership meeting in Brussels

The European Green party has urged the UK to consider rejoining the EU and draw a line under the “political and economic failure” of Brexit.

A text declaring that “the United Kingdom’s future lies in the European Union” was adopted by a large majority of European green parties at the movement’s annual leadership meeting on Friday, the day before Europe Day.

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Airline emissions in Europe top pre-Covid levels despite pledge to decarbonise

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Promises to cut emissions and use more fuel-efficient planes fail to stop rise, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% up on 2019

Emissions from flying in Europe have now passed pre-pandemic levels, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% higher than in 2019, research has shown.

Total aviation emissions continue to increase despite industry pledges to decarbonise and the introduction of more fuel-efficient planes, driven by the massive expansion of low-cost carriers.

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