Chairs of home affairs, foreign affairs and justice committees to be among those involved in inquiry
Ward says that “no minister or special adviser played any role in the provision of evidence” under this government. He says he cannot say if that was the case under the last government.
There is a lot of jeering at this. The Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, reprimands Tom Tugendhat for his interruption.
Continue reading...Lobbyists attended 48% more meetings than Tories, as Labour accused of giving them ‘backstage pass’
Government ministers met representatives from the fossil fuel industry more than 500 times during their first year in power – equivalent to twice every working day, according to new research.
The analysis found that fossil fuel lobbyists were present at 48% more ministerial meetings during Labour’s first year in power than under the Conservatives in 2023.
Ministers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) met fossil fuel lobbyists 274 times, with industry figures present at almost a quarter of meetings.
Ed Miliband, the secretary for energy and climate change, met fossil fuel lobbyists 250 times – with a third of all his meetings attended by industry figures.
During the same period DESNZ ministers met trade union representatives 61 times
Three fossil fuel companies: BP, Shell and Equinor , met ministers 100 times between them.
Fossil fuel lobbyists attended almost every government meeting about the energy profits levy, a temporary windfall tax on the “extraordinary profits” of North Sea oil and gas companies.
Continue reading...Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya
The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power.
On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Chancellor hints at rises and calls out past ‘scaremongering’ over VAT on private schools and changes to non-doms
Rachel Reeves has said higher taxes on the UK’s wealthy will form part of next month’s budget, as she shrugged off the “scaremongering” and “bleating” of her critics, and stressed her determination to repair the public finances.
Speaking in Washington, where she is attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the chancellor told the Guardian there “won’t be a return to austerity” and hinted at tax increases for the most well-off.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
Lindsay Hoyle starts by telling MPs that speakers from the parliaments in Fiji and Ukraine are in the gallery. And he says it is four years to the day since David Amess was murdered.
It’s PMQs. Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Continue reading...Legislative change comes five years after treaty suspended in response to city’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists
Exiled Hong Kong dissidents say they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the city could put them in greater danger, saying Hong Kong authorities will use any pretext to pursue them.
An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to the government crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, and its imposition of a Beijing-designed national security law.
Continue reading...Citizens have enrolled with little opposition, albeit with some concerns over security and privacy, as UK plans system
For Danish teenagers, getting enrolled for MitID (my ID) has become somewhat of a rite of passage.
From the age of 13, Danes can enrol for the national digital ID system, which can be used for everything from logging into online banking to signing documents electronically and booking a doctor’s appointment.
Continue reading...Home secretary to tell meeting of interior ministers that international cooperation is way to curb irregular migration
The failure to bring order to European borders is eroding trust in politicians and the concept of nation states, Shabana Mahmood will warn.
As she hosts a meeting of fellow interior ministers to discuss migration routes through the western Balkans on Tuesday, the home secretary will say that international cooperation is the way to curb irregular migration.
Continue reading...PM hails Trump’s part in Middle East peace deal but says what matters now is implementation
Europe’s most senior human rights official has called on Shabana Mahmood to review UK protest laws after mass arrests over the ban on Palestine Action, Rajeev Syal reports.
The Commons authorities have confirmed that there will be two statements in the chamber after 12.30pm: first, Keir Starmer on the Middle East peace summit, and then Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, on the Northern Ireland Troubles bill being published today.
Continue reading...Academic told panel did not want dissenting view about value of North Sea oil and gas to UK economy
A prominent sustainability professor had events cancelled at Labour and Conservative conferences after hosts of a panel he was on said they did not want his views on oil and gas aired in front of MPs.
Prof Matthew Agarwala spoke on the fringe at Lib Dem conference for the panel organised by Total Politics but was then pulled from similar panels at subsequent Labour and Conservative conferences.
Continue reading...Fayaz Khan, 26, was also sentenced at Southwark crown court for entering the UK illegally on a small boat
A man who threatened on TikTok to kill the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has been jailed for five years.
Fayaz Khan, an Afghan national whose real name is believed to be Fayaz Husseini, made the threat last October in a video that Farage and a high court judge described as “pretty chilling”.
Continue reading...Counter-terror laws must not place unnecessary limits on ‘fundamental rights’, Michael O’Flaherty tells Shabana Mahmood
Europe’s most senior human rights official has called on Shabana Mahmood to review UK protest laws after mass arrests over the ban on Palestine Action.
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said that the current legal framework allows UK authorities to “impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk overpolicing” in a letter sent to the home secretary.
Continue reading...Labour says Tory government at time failed to classify China as a threat, but plenty of evidence suggests the contrary
There is a baffling contradiction at the heart of the efforts of Dan Jarvis, the security minister, to explain why the prosecution of two Britons accused of spying for China collapsed last month. The problem, he insisted in front of MPs on Monday, was that “it was not the policy of a Conservative government to classify China as a threat to national security”.
Except there is plenty of evidence to suggest that China was recognised as a threat by the previous governments in documents and public statements by ministers and officials. All this makes the failure of the government witness – Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser – to set this out in three separate witness statements given to the prosecution even more surprising.
Continue reading...Dan Jarvis accuses Tories of suggesting case was deliberately abandoned ‘without a shred of evidence’
The government made “every effort” to support the trial of two men accused of spying for China, a minister has said, as he accused the Tories of claiming the case was deliberately abandoned “without a shred of evidence”.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister, issued a robust defence of Jonathan Powell in the Commons after reports that Keir Starmer’s national security adviser played a role in the collapse of the case.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Acoba’s functions split between two regulators and new Ethics and Integrity Commission to oversee others
The much-criticised watchdog that scrutinises the jobs UK ministers can take after leaving office will be formally scrapped on Monday as part of a wider shake-up of the ethics structure in government.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), described by critics as fundamentally toothless, has been closed, a Cabinet Office announcement said, with its functions taken over by two existing regulators.
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson says national security adviser was not involved in discussions before CPS abandoned its prosecution
The government’s national security adviser had no involvement in the prosecution being dropped against two British men accused of spying for China, a senior cabinet minister has said.
Jonathan Powell had no connection to discussions about the “substance or the evidence” of the case, Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday, adding that Keir Starmer had full confidence in him.
Continue reading...Green party in England and Wales has had near-50% rise in membership since Zack Polanski took over last month
The Greens in England and Wales have more than 100,000 members for the first time, the party has announced, a near-50% rise since Zack Polanski took over as leader last month.
It puts them on a potential course to overtake the Conservatives and comes little more than a week after the Greens announced they had moved past the Liberal Democrats in membership numbers, getting to 83,500.
Continue reading...A message of neighbourly solidarity is thriving in Birmingham against a backdrop of racist intimidation
When Mus unfurled the leaflet lying on her driveway, she was left shocked, angry and upset. “White Britons are already a minority in London … it is clear that if these trends continue white people will become a minority in Britain,” it read.
The leaflet, written by a far-right group, was distributed along her street three years ago in Moseley, a leafy suburb of Birmingham. It went on to blame NHS waiting lists, a shortage of social housing and even traffic on “the rising population”.
Continue reading...Members overwhelmingly endorse leadership motion that majority at next Holyrood election is only route to second vote
SNP members have overwhelmingly backed leader John Swinney’s “clear and unambiguous” independence strategy that a majority election win is the only route to another referendum.
On the first day of the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen, the vast majority of members backed the leadership’s motion that next May’s Holyrood elections should be fought on a “clear platform of national independence” and that winning a majority in the Scottish parliament – by securing 65 seats or more – would be “the only uncontested way to deliver a new vote on Scotland’s future”.
Continue reading...National Archives papers show how then MP pushed for 2002 meeting between PM and ‘young and vibrant’ financier
Sir Tony Blair met Jeffrey Epstein in Downing Street while he was prime minister after a recommendation by Peter Mandelson, newly released papers from the National Archives show.
Epstein visited Blair on 14 May 2002, after the suggestion by Lord Mandelson to the prime minister’s then chief of staff, Jonathan Powell.
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