Category Archives: Politics

Tony Blair sought to avoid reports of ‘snuggling up’ to Berlusconi, files show

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Envoy urged No 10 to exploit opportunities presented by tycoon’s premiership while ‘holding our noses’, archives reveal

Tony Blair sought to avoid unwelcome headlines suggesting he was “snuggling up” to Silvio Berlusconi by not inviting media lobby correspondents to a UK-Italy summit in Rome, newly released documents reveal.

Before the February 2002 bilateral, Britain’s ambassador to Rome, John Shepherd, told the government it had a “real opportunity” to exploit the Italian prime minister’s “orientations in Europe in support of UK interests, holding our noses and staying alert to the risks as we do”.

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Jeremy Corbyn says Labour MPs are ‘seething with anger’ about Keir Starmer’s stance on the two-child benefit cap – UK politics live

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Former Labour leader says ‘even the Blair government’ helped lift children out of poverty

Labour MPs are “seething with anger” about Keir Starmer’s decision to say the party would not get rid of the two-child benefit cap, Jeremy Corbyn said this morning.

Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor as leader, told LBC that he had spoken to “quite a lot of Labour MPs” about this issue. He went on:

They are seething with anger, particularly as commitments have been made regularly by the party that we would take children out of poverty. Even the Blair government, which Keir Starmer often quotes, did do a great deal to lift children out of poverty by not having a two-child policy …

Even in areas like mine, there are high levels of child poverty – probably 40% of the children in my constituency. All across the north-east, which Jamie [Driscoll] represents – a third of all children across the whole of the region are living in poverty. That has got to go and got to change.

This is not a shock – it is what I and my team expected.

None of my fellow Bernie Grant leadership programme alumni have been selected.

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Asylum barge docks after Lords passes ‘shameful’ UK illegal migration bill

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Rishi Sunak’s legislation faced challenges from peers including the archbishop of Canterbury

A barge that will be used to house 500 asylum seekers has belatedly arrived in a port on England’s southern coast after voting in the House of Lords paved the way for the government’s small boats and migration bill to become law.

The arrival of the Bibby Stockholm, which was pulled by a tug into Portland port in Dorset on Tuesday morning, coincided with condemnation of the previous night’s drama in which the Conservative frontbench saw off five further changes to the bill peers were seeking, including modern slavery protections and child detention limits.

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Labour may not be able to afford to ditch ‘bad policies’– shadow minister

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Lucy Powell defends Starmer over resistance to scrapping two-child benefit cap amid growing discontent

Labour may not be able to afford to reverse “lots of bad policies”, a member of the shadow frontbench has said as she defended Keir Starmer’s resistance to scrapping the two-child benefit cap amid growing discontent from party MPs and others.

The Conservatives were “waiting” for Labour to commit to uncosted spending commitments, the shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, said, as Starmer faced potential opposition at a meeting of his shadow cabinet on Tuesday morning.

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Tory MPs condemn delay to ban on LGBTQ+ conversion practices

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Letter from cross-party MPs and campaigners says slow progress on legislation is a ‘moral failing’

Senior Conservative MPs have accused the government of a “moral failing” for delaying the long-promised ban on conversion practices that they say damage the lives of LGBT+ people.

In a letter to Rishi Sunak, a cross-party group of politicians and campaigners criticised the slow progress in bringing forward new legislation since the pledge was made five years ago.

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Grant Shapps appears to row back on supermarket petrol prices law

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Energy secretary backs voluntary price comparison scheme in meeting with supermarket bosses rather than new law

The energy secretary, Grant Shapps, appears to have rowed back on plans for a law to force supermarkets to make fuel prices more transparent, instead backing a voluntary price comparison scheme in a meeting with supermarket bosses.

Shapps on Monday endorsed the non-mandatory scheme, which had been suggested by the competition regulator, after a summit with retailers that he had promised would involve him holding “rip-off retailers” to account.

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Welsh government and Cornwall council sign collaboration deal

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Celtic authorities to work together on areas such as holiday homes crisis, offshore wind and language conservation

They are separated by choppy waters – and different political ideologies.

But the leaders of Wales and Cornwall have come together to sign an agreement vowing to work together on shared issues, ranging from the crisis of holiday homes to the prospect of cooperating on offshore wind power projects in the Celtic Sea.

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Labour plans new taskforce to target contractors linked to hostile nations

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Exclusive: Yvette Cooper to tell RUSI thinktank that economic security and national security go hand in hand

Contractors linked to hostile foreign powers such as China will be targeted by a new security taskforce if Labour wins the next general election.

In a joint initiative from the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the new body will aim to anticipate risks to Britain’s national security.

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Labour would keep two-child benefit cap, says Keir Starmer

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Leader says party in power will stick with Tory policy seen as driving low-income families into deeper poverty

Keir Starmer has confirmed that a Labour government would keep the Conservatives’ controversial two-child benefits cap, despite unease among his top team and leading academics over the policy, which has been blamed for pushing families into poverty.

Starmer said on Sunday that he was “not changing that policy”, when asked if he would scrap it if Labour wins the next election. His shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, had condemned it as “heinous” just last month.

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RMT leader says government has not contacted him since January

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Mick Lynch downplays prospects of a resolution to dispute over pay, jobs and conditions

The RMT leader, Mick Lynch, has claimed he has not met a government minister since January as he downplayed prospects of a resolution to the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

The next strike by members of the of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union takes place on Thursday, with strikes also scheduled for Saturday and 29 July.

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Keir Starmer: ‘We can’t win power by spending. We need to reform and create wealth’

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Exclusive: Labour leader urges left to ‘care more about growth’ and rules out spending ‘vast sums of money’

Labour will only succeed in winning power and rebuilding Britain if it prioritises economic growth, wealth creation and radical reform of public services over reckless spending promises, says Keir Starmer.

With four days to go before a crucial set of parliamentary byelections, the Labour leader delivers the most robust defence to date of his strategy for returning his party to power after 13 years, in an exclusive article for the Observer. Starmer takes on, directly, those who say his agenda is dull and uninspiring, insisting that the hard grind of rebuilding economic credibility must come first, as opposed to Labour retreating to its normal “comfort zone” of promising “vast sums of money”.

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Ben Wallace to quit as defence secretary and stand down as MP at next reshuffle

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Defence secretary rows back comments about Ukraine needing to show ‘gratitude’ and says he will not contest next general election

Ben Wallace is to leave government at the next cabinet reshuffle after four years as defence secretary and will not stand in the general election.

Wallace, who has played a key role in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was a close ally of Boris Johnson, told the Sunday Times he was “not standing next time” but he ruled out leaving parliament “prematurely” and forcing another byelection on Rishi Sunak, of whom he remains supportive.

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Labour must ‘give people something to vote for’, says Unite head

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Sharon Graham, of UK’s second largest union, says party lacks ambition and is not showing itself as distinct alternative to Tories

Labour should “talk about what they can do to change Britain”, the leader of the UK’s second largest trade union has said.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said the union could reduce the amount of money it gave to Labour if the party’s leadership did not back more of its policy priorities, saying “people want something to vote for”.

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Foreign Office cannot say how many climate officials it has

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Exclusive: Former envoy raises concerns over possible ‘deliberate defunding of climate diplomacy under Sunak government’

The UK Foreign Office has said it does not know how many of its officials and diplomats are working on climate change and energy issues, in response to freedom of information requests.

The government has frequently described itself as a world leader on climate issues and the Foreign Office recently stated that “climate change remains an area of utmost importance and is a central focus of our diplomatic relations on a daily basis”.

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Councils in England and Wales join calls for ban on disposable vapes

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LGA says single-use e-cigarettes are a litter blight and cause problems in bin lorries and recycling centres

Councils are joining paediatricians in calling for a ban on disposable vapes owing to the environmental damage they cause and the soaring number of young people taking up the addictive products.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, said urgent action was needed to save taxpayers’ money – as single-use e-cigarettes are costly to recycle without going through special treatment – protect the planet and keep children safe.

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David Cameron’s appointment to investment fund ‘part engineered by China’

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The hiring of former PM and Treasury chief was to lend credibility to broader Beijing brand, intelligence watchdog told

David Cameron’s appointment as vice-chair of the £1bn China-UK investment fund and Sir Danny Alexander’s appointment as vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank were in part engineered by the Chinese state, parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) found.

Their appointment was to lend credibility to Chinese investment as well as the broader Chinese brand, according to confidential evidence given to the intelligence watchdog.

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Sunak to force English universities to cap numbers of students on ‘low-value’ degrees

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Exclusive: Move penalises courses with a high proportion of working-class or minority ethnic students, critics say

Rishi Sunak will force universities to limit the number of students taking “low-value” degrees in England, a measure which is most likely to hit working class and black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants.

Courses will be capped that do not have a high proportion of graduates getting a professional job, going into postgraduate study or starting a business, the prime minister will announce on Monday.

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Boris Johnson criticises ‘mealy-mouthed’ Nato over Ukraine membership

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Former prime minister condemns ‘procrastination’ and says no country is in greater need of accession

Boris Johnson has criticised Nato’s “mealy mouthed procrastination” and called for a timetable to be drawn up for Ukraine to join the alliance, after this week’s difficult summit in Lithuania.

Writing in his weekly column in the Daily Mail, the former prime minister said it was “no wonder” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “found it hard” to conceal his frustration at the joint declaration released on Tuesday that stopped short of outlining a roadmap to Nato membership.

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‘Laser-focused on winning’: Labour gathers top prospective MPs for campaign training

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Party hopes election candidates will all be singing from the same hymn sheet after event in Stratford-on-Avon

Keir Starmer is whisking his top 100 prospective parliamentary candidates to Stratford-on-Avon this weekend for a crash course in message discipline, media training and the art of campaigning.

The Labour leader will be hoping they gain communications inspiration in the birthplace of William Shakespeare as the party trains them in its election strategy.

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UK invites Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit

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Saudi heir’s official visit would be first since he was accused of being behind killing of Jamal Khashoggi

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been invited to the UK on an official visit in late autumn, the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident.

Numerous UK ministers have been to Saudi Arabia in the interim, and senior Saudi ministers have also come to the UK, including the foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

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