Category Archives: Politics

Thérèse Coffey ‘complacent’ in dealing with water companies, peers say

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Underinvestment in infrastructure will have serious consequences for environment and security of water supplies, committee says

Thérèse Coffey has been “complacent” in dealing with water companies, risking water shortages as well as extreme environmental consequences, a House of Lords committee has said.

In a letter to the environment secretary, the peers criticised her department’s “dismissive brevity and complacent tone” in response to their report published earlier this year, which found water companies had been too focused on maximising financial returns at the expense of the environment.

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UK manufacturers cut hiring plans amid ‘sharp slowdown’, survey finds

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Firms preparing for difficult year as ‘potent cocktail’ of difficulties takes hold, says industry lobby group

UK manufacturers are cutting their recruitment plans after being hit by a slowdown in orders as a downturn looms, a new survey shows.

Britain’s manufacturers are “battening down the hatches” amid a sharp drop in activity, according to the latest quarterly data from Make UK, which represents manufacturers, and the business advisory firm BDO.

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UK government launches campaign to tackle loneliness at universities

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Campaigners criticise ‘tokenistic’ initiative started after polling showed almost all students experience bouts of loneliness

Millions of teenagers across Britain will arrive at university for the first time on Monday as freshers’ week begins.

Almost all will experience bouts of loneliness with nearly half being worried they will be judged if they admit to it, according to a sample of 1,000 students, collected by YouGov for the government.

Spend time helping other people, such as volunteering with student groups or by offering a regular conversation to someone feeling isolated

Keep in touch with friends and family over the phone

Arrange something fun to do with your current friends

Join a club or society at university to connect with others who have similar interests

Do things you enjoy, such as playing sport, reading or listening to music

Be open to everyone, as university is a great place to meet people from all different backgrounds

Remember some people only share the good things happening to them on social media so try and avoid comparison

Talk to someone you trust about how you feel

Get in touch with the university’s student services about the welfare and support it can provide

Remember that others may be feeling similar, so you are not alone

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Labour will not say how many migrants it would accept in EU returns deal

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Keir Starmer dismisses Tory claims of plan to oversee 100,000 extra arrivals as ‘complete garbage’

Labour will not say how many more migrants it would accept under a returns deal with the EU if it comes to power, as senior party figures insist that they do not want to be bound by quotas.

Keir Starmer said this week that if he became prime minister, he would seek a deal with the EU to return some new arrivals to mainland Europe while allowing others to enter Britain.

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Key ‘Bidenomics’ architect calls for spending ‘race to the top’ on green tech

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Biden adviser Heather Boushey urges UK and Europe to increase climate friendly investment to reboot growth

Governments around the world must drastically increase public investment in green technologies to combat global heating and drive sustainable economic growth, a top adviser to President Joe Biden has said.

Heather Boushey, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, said countries including the UK needed to ramp up green investment to reboot economic growth, boost energy security, and protect against future inflation shocks.

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Eleven peers have not sat in Lords for at least a year after failing to take oath to king

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Ex-supreme court president among those whose failure to take oath means they cannot sit or vote in second chamber

Lady Hale, the former president of the supreme court, is among 11 peers who appear to have neglected their duties in the House of Lords after failing to take an oath to King Charles – a requirement for them to perform any part of their constitutional role.

Among the other peers is Harry Carter (Lord Carter of Haslemere), a top lawyer working in Downing Street, who was appointed a peer by Theresa May nearly four years ago but has never taken part in the House of Lords.

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Liz Truss to claim her economic plan would have saved government £35bn

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Former PM set to give speech defending her time in charge and explaining spending decisions

Liz Truss will claim that Rishi Sunak’s government has spent £35bn more than she would have as prime minister, in a speech on Monday.

The short-lived prime minister will use a speech at the Institute for Government to defend and explain her time in charge, nearly a year on from the ill-fated mini-budget that helped end her premiership.

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Rishi Sunak is less trusted on the UK economy than recent Tory PMs, poll finds

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Prime minister can find comfort in ranking above Liz Truss, however

Rishi Sunak is seen as less competent on economic affairs than most recent Conservative prime ministers, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

The prime minister has made reducing inflation one of his key priorities, as well as reducing debt and avoiding a recession. Much of his pitch has been on his economic management skills as a former chancellor.

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Labour wants new EU links in a reset of British foreign policy

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Ties with Europe are a top priority, says shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, as he calls for Britain to play a lead role in world affairs

The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has proposed regular meetings between UK and European Union ministers, as part of a major reset of British foreign policy under a Labour government.

Lammy, who was attending a gathering of centre-left leaders in Montreal, Canada, with the Labour leader Keir Starmer, told the Observer it was high time the UK took up its place again, after Brexit, as a lead player in world affairs. “A UK that is isolated and missing is felt across the world. It is definitely the case that the international community want Britain back,” he said.

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Labour and Tories neck and neck in byelection race for Mid Beds, poll says

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Survey reveals Labour more likely than Lib Dems to overturn Conservatives’ 25,000 majority in Nadine Dorries’s former seat

• Read more: byelection duel could gift Mid Beds to Tories

Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck in the battle for the previously safe Tory seat of Mid Bedfordshire, according to a poll that suggests a split “progressive” vote could allow Rishi Sunak’s party to retain the constituency.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats are making a full-tilt effort to win the seat from the Conservatives after the resignation of Nadine Dorries, a close ally of Boris Johnson, who eventually quit after being denied a place on the former prime minister’s resignation honours list.

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How anti-Ulez campaigners misused air pollution finding in Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah death

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Three years after unprecedented inquest ruling, absence of other cases has left a gap for pollution sceptics to exploit

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah reserves a withering eye roll for people who question the impact that air pollution has on the health of children living in London. It helps her to shrug off the increasingly politicised debate over what needs to be done to improve the capital’s air quality.

Adoo-Kissi-Debrah fought a calm and determined campaign for seven years to make sure air pollution was included on her daughter Ella’s death certificate, and in December 2020 a second inquest ruled that air pollution contributed to Ella’s death from asthma in 2013.

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Keir Starmer arrives in Canada to set out stall on immigration policy

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Diplomatic and media blitz for Labour leader will include appearances on Sunday morning political shows

Keir Starmer has arrived in Canada to set out his doctrine for tackling international threats at a gathering of world leaders, the latest step in the Labour leader’s move to flesh out policy in politically turbulent areas such as immigration.

Amid continued efforts by Starmer and his team to push back against the “nonsense” that closer cooperation with the EU would involve the UK having to accept 100,000 asylum-seekers a year, the Labour leader was in Montreal for the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left politicians.

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Animal welfare groups criticise American XL bullies ban, saying they’re ‘deeply concerned’ about lack of evidence – UK politics live

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PM says breed, responsible for series of attacks, will be banned once it has been properly defined

Here is the full text of what Rishi Sunak said in his video statement about banning American XL bully dogs. (See 11.50am.)

The American XL bully dog is a danger to our communities, particularly our children.

I share the nation’s horror at the recent videos we’ve all seen. Yesterday we saw another suspected XL bully dog attack, which has tragically led to a fatality.

It’s clear the American XL Bully dog is a danger to our communities.

I’ve ordered urgent work to define and ban this breed so we can end these violent attacks and keep people safe.

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Starmer attacked from left and right after setting out plan to stop Channel crossings

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Labour leader accused of pandering to anti-migrant sentiments by those on the left while Tories seize on proposal for deal with EU

Keir Starmer was under attack from left and right on Thursday after he set out plans to stop small boat Channel crossings in Labour’s first big intervention on the issue.

Fleshing out his party’s proposals, the Labour leader promised to ditch the use of barges, hotels and military sites to house asylum seekers. He also promised to recruit 1,000 caseworkers to end the asylum backlog.

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HS2 at risk of further cuts to route north of Birmingham amid budget squeeze

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Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leak suggests Sunak and Hunt have discussed cost implications of Manchester phase

The HS2 high-speed rail line is at risk of further cuts to its route north of Birmingham as the government considers whether it can afford high-cost projects in advance of the autumn budget.

The project has been mired in fresh uncertainty after the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to guarantee on Thursday it would run to Manchester, after publication of a photographed document suggesting further cuts were under discussion.

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New £1bn government upgrade to plug Great Britain’s draughtiest homes

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Households could save £400 a year on energy bills via means-tested insulation scheme

Households could save up to £400 a year on energy bills under a new means-tested scheme to insulate more than 300,000 of Great Britain’s draughtiest homes.

The government is spending £1bn on grants for homes that have low energy efficiency ratings and are in lower council tax bands.

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Starmer to seek EU-wide returns deal for asylum seekers

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Labour leader working on ‘quid pro quo’ deal of migrant quotas from bloc in return for sending back those who arrive illegally

Keir Starmer has revealed that he would seek an EU-wide returns agreement for asylum seekers who come to Britain, as he vowed to “smash the gangs” behind small boat crossings.

Labour believes that any agreement with Brussels would have to be “quid pro quo”, meaning accepting quotas of migrants from the bloc in return for sending back people who arrive illegally. The system would reportedly work via applications in UK embassies on the continent, and prioritise people with family already in the UK.

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Rishi Sunak blocked rebuild of hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete

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Exclusive: Delay to work on five buildings in 2020 led to warnings of ‘catastrophic’ safety risk

Rishi Sunak blocked plans to rebuild five hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete three years ago, prompting warnings of a “catastrophic” risk to patient safety, the Guardian has learned.

Just two of the seven hospital rebuilding projects requested by the Department for Health were signed off by the Treasury at the 2020 spending review when Sunak was chancellor and Steve Barclay, now the health secretary, was his chief secretary.

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Sunak branded ‘inaction man’ at PMQs as Starmer attacks record on schools, prisons and China – UK politics live

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Labour leader accuses government of failing to heed warnings which has led to series of crises this week

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.

Yesterday it emerged that ministers are mulling over a plan to tweak the triple lock for pensions so that what might be a bumper 8.5% increase in its value next year ends up being marginally less generous, at 7.8%.

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Boris Johnson made to ‘look like a chump’ as ex-aide shuns Tories in Lords

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Dan Rosenfield decides to sit as independent after being nominated by former PM in resignation honours list

Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff Dan Rosenfield has decided not to sit on the Conservative benches following his elevation to the Lords in a move that has outraged some Tories, with one saying it made the former prime minister “look like a chump”.

Rosenfield, a former Treasury official, was one of several ex-aides nominated in June for peerages in Johnson’s resignation honours list.

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