Labour says veterans minister inferred he did not receive money
Johnny Mercer received almost £8,000 in taxpayers’ cash after he was sacked by Liz Truss, it has emerged.
The veterans minister was dismissed from his ministerial role as soon as Truss obtained the keys to No 10 last September. He appeared angry about Truss’s move saying he was “disappointed” but accepted that the prime minister is “entitled to reward her supporters”.
Continue reading...UK home secretary in US to call for rewriting of UN asylum rules so they are ‘fit for the modern age’
A Labour MP has urged LGBTQ+ Conservatives to condemn Suella Braverman’s speech, in which she will say that Britain should not grant asylum to people who simply express a fear of persecution for being gay.
Ben Bradshaw, a former minister, made the call before a speech the home secretary is due to make in the US, where she will make her case for the rewriting of key international refugee rules so they are “fit for the modern age”.
Continue reading...Comments from Paul Johnson of Institute of Fiscal Studies come as Downing Street hints at delay to work on second phase of rail link
Around 20,000 university workers are out on strike this week at more than 50 universities across the UK, despite a dramatic last-minute scaling back of industrial action.
Strikes had been set to go ahead at 142 UK universities this week as part of a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, but it emerged last week that two thirds of branches of the University and College Union (UCU) had declined to take part.
Davey said the Lib Dem commitment – dating back to 1992 – to raise income tax by 1p to improve public services is unsustainable in the current economic climate. Originally the money raised was earmarked for education, but at the last election the party said it would use it to fund the NHS.
Speaking from Bournemouth to broadcast studios, Davey suggested the burden should instead fall on companies making “huge profits” while people struggle with the cost of living.
Continue reading...Latest figures show 1,015,067 ‘episodes of care’ have been postponed since end of last year
More than 1m outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled since strikes began in December across the NHS in England, figures reveal.
Last week’s four-day stoppage by consultants and junior doctors forced hospitals to reschedule 129,913 more “episodes of care”, taking the total to just over 1m, NHS England said.
Continue reading...Thousands of women who have been underpaid by up to £11,000 a year set to launch claim, GMB union says
Sheffield city council is to become the latest local authority to face a mass equal pay claim from women who have been underpaid by up to £11,000 a year, the GMB union has said.
Thousands of women will launch claims against the council on Monday over a “scandalous” job evaluation scheme that discriminates against female-dominated roles, the union claimed.
Continue reading...Co-operative enterprise Vale of Aeron is one of 45 projects to receive money in Community Ownership Fund’s latest round
When Iwan Thomas received the news that he had won a £300,000 grant for the Vale of Aeron, a pub adored by the poet Dylan Thomas when he lived nearby in the 1940s, he was working a shift but had to hold his tongue.
Thomas, the 53-year-old chair of the Menter Tafarn y Vale co-operative group that runs the pub, could not tell any of the regulars until the news embargo lifted. “There was certainly a wry smile, where you know you’ve got something you’re keeping a secret, but it’s a good secret,” he said. “We’re delighted.”
Continue reading...Grant Shapps says Rishi Sunak ‘prepared to take difficult long-term decision’ when asked about future of HS2 rail project
In Manchester, the first buses to be brought back into public control in England since deregulation in the 1980s have begun their first services.
Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the Labour party “would love to see HS2 being built in full” but that it was “not going to make decisions about national interest projects that involve tens of billions of pounds without all of the information being available”.
Continue reading...Attempt to show Labour as ‘anti-motorist’ at forefront of Conservative pre-election campaign
After a week in which Rishi Sunak rowed back on the UK’s climate commitments and delayed a ban on petrol cars, it seems he is making a pitch to drivers a key part of his pre-election campaign. Here are the wedge issues the Tories are expected to deploy against Labour to paint them as “anti-motorist”:
Continue reading...Celebrities lend their voices to ‘kick the Tories out’ as the party gathers in Bournemouth for the first time in three years
The Liberal Democrats have kicked off their annual conference with a call for people to vote tactically in the general election to remove Conservative MPs, until proportional representation makes this unnecessary.
Gathering in Bournemouth for their first autumn get-together since 2019, a conference rally heard video addresses from Carol Vorderman and Steve Coogan. Neither are party members but they said people should vote in a way to ensure Tory candidates lost.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour leader pledges party would stand ‘strong on the UK’s climate commitments’ in contrast to Sunak’s net zero reversal
The UK Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, is calling for action to transform the nation into a clean energy superpower after the British Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement earlier this week of new reversals and delays to net zero commitments.
In a video address that organisers of the Global Citizen Festival (GCF) plan to play on Saturday afternoon at an event in New York City, Starmer said: “The world is facing serious threats from extreme poverty to criminal gangs to climate change. Only progressive internationalist politics can rise to these challenges and deliver a secure future.
Continue reading...Munira Wilson told party’s conference many men could not afford to spend time with their babies
The Liberal Democrats have said they would double statutory shared parental pay (ShPP) and extend the amount of leave new parents can take if the party form the next government.
Speaking at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth, education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, said not enough men were taking leave, while many “simply can’t afford” to spend time with their babies.
Continue reading...Group tasked with overseeing initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers was only set up in March
The government’s energy efficiency taskforce, charged with reducing the UK’s energy use by 15% by 2030, has been scrapped months after it was established.
The group, which was overseeing an initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers, was announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in his autumn statement last year as part of plans to boost investment in energy efficiency.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Concerns over patient safety after NHS figures show less-qualified staff attending urgent calls
One in three life-or-death 999 ambulance calls in some parts of England are not attended by a paramedic, NHS figures obtained by the Guardian reveal.
The disclosure has prompted fears that seriously unwell or badly injured patients may receive inadequate care from a less-qualified member of ambulance staff lacking a paramedic’s skills.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Poll finds fewer than a quarter of people trust PM to tackle climate crisis after policy U-turn
Only 22% of people trust Rishi Sunak to tackle the climate crisis after his announcement that he will weaken the UK’s net zero policies.
An exclusive poll for the Guardian found that fewer than a quarter of people trust the prime minister to take on the challenge. A total of 53% said they did not trust him, while 19% said they did not know.
Continue reading...Party leaders start to reveal clearer positions on policy areas ranging from net zero to transgender rights
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have faced off against each other for the past 11 months as leaders of their parties, but the time has been marked by frustration within their own ranks that they are failing to create clear dividing lines with their opponents.
That situation has begun to change. The Conservative leader suddenly seems more eager to lay out his own ideological credentials – even if recent net zero announcements were quickly rushed out in response to leaks.
Continue reading...Deputy prime minister to urge UN general assembly to create international regulatory system
Artificial intelligence is developing too fast for regulators to keep up, the UK’s deputy prime minister is to announce as he aims to galvanise other countries to take the threat seriously in advance of the UK’s AI safety summit in November.
Oliver Dowden will use a speech at the UN general assembly on Friday to sound the alarm over the lack of regulation of AI, which he says is developing faster than many policymakers thought possible.
Continue reading...British ex-politician, a cult figure in the US, will reportedly appear alongside Love Island’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu
Former House of Commons speaker John Bercow is reportedly starring in the upcoming series of TV show The Traitors US, alongside Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu.
The former MP will feature alongside reality TV stars from Big Brother, Dancing With The Stars and RuPaul’s Drag Race, according to media reports.
Continue reading...UK climate watchdog said policy change would make it more difficult to meet legal commitments
Rishi Sunak is likely to face a series of legal challenges aimed at thwarting his plans to U-turn on net zero policies amid further international condemnation of the proposals.
Though the prime minister sought to shrug off criticism on Thursday, the UK’s independent climate watchdog joined the voices of concern, saying it was disappointed with changes that would make it more difficult for Britain to meet its legal commitments.
Continue reading...PM wants pupils in England to study a wider range of subjects including maths and English until they are 18
The A-level system in England could be reformed with a new style of British baccalaureate in which children would study more subjects after the age of 16, according to reports.
The proposals include English and maths becoming compulsory up until the age of 18, the Times said. Students would also be required to study a wider range of subjects in post-16 education.
Continue reading...Party leader says he would not bring in lower environmental and food standards than in Europe or reduce workers’ rights
Keir Starmer has gone further than before in outlining his vision of a future UK relationship with the EU, saying Labour didn’t “want to diverge” – in comments that were immediately seized on by the Conservatives.
The Labour leader was speaking at an event in Canada bringing together liberal and centre-left politicians, where he said that “most of the conflict” since Brexit had arisen because the UK “wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners”.
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