Category Archives: Politics

Most new cars sold in UK will have to be fully electric by 2030, government confirms

Posted on by

Green campaigners relieved after last week’s decision to delay ban on petrol and diesel cars

The government has confirmed the majority of new cars sold in Britain will have to be electric by 2030 despite Rishi Sunak’s decision last week to delay a ban on petrol and diesel cars by five years.

Under the long-awaited zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, 80% of sales must be fully electric, or another alternative, within seven years. Carmakers would have to pay £15,000 for each petrol or diesel engine above that threshold, the Department for Transport said on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Veteran MSP Fergus Ewing suspended from SNP over rebellions

Posted on by

Former minister had voted with the opposition in a motion of no-confidence against Green co-leader Lorna Slater

The veteran MSP Fergus Ewing has been suspended from the Scottish National party for a week.

The Inverness and Nairn MSP – the son of the late SNP trailblazer Winnie Ewing – has been an outspoken critic of the party’s leadership in the past year.

Continue reading...

Tory peer cleared for second time of breaking lobbying rules over PPE contracts

Posted on by

Watchdog says there is insufficient evidence Lord Chadlington breached rules over £50m in contracts

A Conservative peer has been cleared of breaking lobbying rules for a second time by the House of Lords watchdog over introducing a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £50m.

The watchdog had been asked to reopen his investigation into Lord Chadlington after it emerged that there was an exchange with the government that had not been fully provided to his first inquiry.

Continue reading...

Scrapping inheritance tax would cost £15bn a year by 2032, says IFS

Posted on by

Thinktank carried out analysis as calls mount among Tory MPs for the tax to be abolished

Scrapping inheritance tax would cost the government almost £15bn a year in lost revenue by 2032, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that follows calls from Tory MPs for the main tax on inherited wealth to be abolished.

The thinktank said the latest figures from HMRC showed fewer than 4% of estates paid inheritance tax (IHT) in 2020–21, but the rapid growth in wealth among older individuals meant this number was set to rise to more than 7% over the next decade.

Continue reading...

Suella Braverman criticised by Labour over ‘deeply divisive’ migration speech – as it happened

Posted on by

Home secretary argued that ‘uncontrolled’ migration poses ‘existential challenge for institutions of the west’

The Sun is carrying a story today saying Rishi Sunak’s “decision to stall the net zero ban on selling new petrol cars has seen him catch up eight points in the polls”. It is based on the results of this Deltapoll poll.

For a more considered view, it is worth reading this article in the i by Prof Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading psephologist. He says the impact of the net zero speech on the polls has been much more modest. Here is his conclusion.

Whatever the popularity of the measures, if, as has been alleged, Mr Sunak’s motivation was to try to reduce Labour’s lead, it looks as though he has so far reaped little reward. Four polls of voting intention conducted after last Wednesday’s announcement have so far been published. Between them they put Labour’s lead on 17 points – just a point below the polling average shortly before last week’s drama.

Moving the polls is, it seems, just as difficult as dealing with climate change.

Continue reading...

Johnny Mercer received £8,000 in taxpayers’ cash after being sacked by Liz Truss

Posted on by

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...

Tories urged to condemn Braverman for gay persecution comments on refugees

Posted on by

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...

HS2 may end up as ‘total waste of money’, warns IFS thinktank – UK politics live

Posted on by

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...

1m NHS appointments and operations cancelled in England since strikes began

Posted on by

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...

Sheffield council faces mass equal pay claim over ‘scandalous’ pay grades

Posted on by

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...

Historic Welsh pub loved by Dylan Thomas awarded £300,000 grant

Posted on by

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...

Shapps says ‘outside reality’ not to reconsider HS2 as Labour says it cannot make decision without more information – UK politics live

Posted on by

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...

Why Tories are using cars as a political dividing line in the UK

Posted on by

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...

Coogan and Vorderman back tactical voting calls at Lib Dem conference

Posted on by

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...

Keir Starmer to call for UK clean energy action in New York City address

Posted on by

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...

Lib Dems would double shared parental pay and increase leave

Posted on by

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...

UK ministers scrap energy efficiency taskforce after six months

Posted on by

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...

Paramedics not sent to a third of 999 ambulance calls in parts of England

Posted on by

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...

Only 22% of Britons trust Sunak on climate, finds Guardian poll

Posted on by

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...

Dividing lines: where do Sunak and Starmer stand on key UK issues?

Posted on by

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...