No 10 spokesperson says UK ‘certainly’ wants to support Ukraine on the pathway to joining Nato after reports of rift
Joe Biden has arrived at Downing Street for his first time as president ahead of tomorrow’s Nato summit in Lithuania.
After stepping out of US presidential vehicle “the Beast”, he shared a warm handshake with Rishi Sunak on the doorstep and smiled to press before disappearing behind the door to Number 10.
Continue reading...Fearing defeats, government expected to limit plans to detain children and pregnant women arriving on small boats
Ministers are offering rebel Conservative MPs concessions on key anti-asylum legislation amid growing concern it could face defeats in the Commons.
The government is expected to limit plans to detain children and pregnant women who arrive in the UK by small boats and drop some of the retrospective applications of the illegal migration bill’s measures, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...General secretary of union says party should not treat outcome as ‘blank cheque’ as rift remains with leadership
Keir Starmer has been put “on notice” by the leader of Britain’s biggest trade union, who said that its support should not be treated as a “blank cheque”.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, signalled a rift remained with the Labour leadership despite delegates voting to remain affiliated with the party.
Continue reading...Scheme aims to raise standard of insulation in 19m of the UK’s leakiest homes
Labour has said that job opportunities for almost 4 million workers would be created under its plan to bring 19m of the UK’s leakiest homes up to an acceptable standard of insulation.
While it has previously said that the plan would reduce annual household energy bills by up to £500, the party has set out details of what it said would be a major expansion of the retrofitting workforce.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary to accuse Conservatives of treating international law with cavalier disrespect
Labour will restore the UK’s tarnished global reputation by backing a global anti-corruption court and by reinstating a requirement to follow international law in the ministerial code, the shadow foreign secretary will say in a speech on Monday.
David Lammy says the measures will restore the country’s reputation for keeping its word, as well as going some way to undo the damage caused by Conservative party scandals in recent years.
Continue reading...Meeting between US president and UK PM carries more significance than previous visits in light of recent disagreements
Joe Biden’s meeting in Downing Street on Monday with Rishi Sunak – their fifth in the past five months and the sixth since Sunak become prime minister – probably carries more significance than any other.
Never mind that it is essentially a stopover on the way to the Nato summit in Vilnius and being squeezed between tea with King Charles at Windsor Castle and a speech on climate finance.
Continue reading...Meeting partially overshadowed by US president’s decision to send to Ukraine cluster munitions banned in Britain
Joe Biden will meet King Charles for the first time since the coronation, in a fleeting UK visit that will be used by Rishi Sunak and the US president as a “pre-meeting” ahead of joint efforts at this week’s Nato summit.
However, what will be the sixth meeting between Biden and Sunak since Sunak took office in October has been partly overshadowed by the US president’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, weapons that are prohibited by 100 countries including the UK, which currently holds the presidency of a convention banning them.
Continue reading...Former ministers could have their pensions docked, Angela Rayner will say in speech on ‘broken’ standards system
Former government ministers will be fined or have their pensions docked if they breach tough new rules on lobbying, to be proposed by Labour this week.
In a major speech on cleaning up politics, Labour’s deputy leader and shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Angela Rayner, will spell out plans to end the “revolving door” culture that currently allows ministers to switch from government posts into lucrative lobbying roles related to their former ministerial responsibilities.
Continue reading...Action could be directed at Rishi Sunak’s keynote speech, seen as vital in run-up to general election campaign
Teachers are preparing to target Rishi Sunak’s make-or-break Tory conference speech with strike action this autumn, amid growing cabinet support for a compromise to end months of public sector walkouts.
Should ministers fail to support a deal that would hand teachers a 6.5% increase this year, all major teaching unions in England are increasingly confident that their members will back more strikes when the new school year begins.
Continue reading...Energy security secretary Grant Shapps will this week outline plans for Britain’s atomic power’s renaissance and 2050 emissions commitment
In London’s Science Museum sit full-size turbine engines that tell the story of 300 years of steam power. This week, the museum will play host to the government’s dreams for a new industrial renaissance – this time for nuclear energy.
The secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Grant Shapps, has chosen the venue to set out his ambitions for the UK’s nuclear programme. He is expected to illuminate the path towards the government’s existing commitment to build 24 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity – the equivalent of a quarter of Britain’s total generating capacity – by 2050.
Continue reading...Prime minister rules out following controversial US move but says he will urge allies to increase other aid
Rishi Sunak has ruled out supplying Ukraine with cluster bombs, saying the UK will not follow the Biden administration’s controversial move and will instead press countries to boost their aid to Kyiv “in other ways”.
On Friday, Joe Biden defended what he said was a “difficult decision” to send widely banned cluster munitions to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government. Human rights groups criticised the White House and there was unease among some Democrats, with one calling it “unnecessary and a terrible mistake”.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer’s party believes it can topple Conservative rural strongholds as it competes with the Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire
Labour is “throwing the kitchen sink” at claiming the Conservative stronghold of Selby and Ainsty, amid growing optimism that it can pull off a shock win that would show its progress in Tory-held rural seats.
The North Yorkshire constituency, which was recently vacated by Boris Johnson ally Nigel Adams, returned a majority of more than 20,000 for the Tories at the last election. Labour had been targeting a strong second place in the seat, to fend off claims that only the Liberal Democrats can take on the Tories in their heartlands.
Continue reading...Chancellor calls on firms to tackle high prices as government remains far from pledge of halving inflation to 5%
Jeremy Hunt has said he must “double down” on high prices after admitting a package of pre-election tax cuts this autumn was looking unlikely.
The government would not make moves to “pump billions of additional demand” into the economy, the chancellor added.
Continue reading...‘Expected’ return could help retain scientists and researchers lost after grants were cancelled in Brexit row
British scientists and academic researchers will be able to reapply to the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) for grants if, as expected, the UK rejoins the flagship Horizon European programme, it has been confirmed.
The re-entry comes almost a year after 115 grants approved for British candidates were terminated by the council because of the delay in ratifying the UK’s associate membership of the £85bn Horizon funding scheme.
Continue reading...Frontbenchers fear they have become ‘zombie government’ with polls indicating PM’s priorities remain unclear to public
Progress on meeting Rishi Sunak’s “five pledges” has privately come under fire from Conservative MPs this week, six months on from his urge to be judged on delivering what he called the “people’s priorities”.
Jitters have extended all the way into Downing Street, with the prime minister’s senior aides traipsing across Whitehall to raise concerns about how the pledges are landing with the public.
Continue reading...Robert Halfon says government cannot promise to accept pay review body recommendation, as NEU members strike again
Q: My fear is that sewage in water could lead to a typhoid problem?
Ferrari asks if Labour favours water nationalisation.
Continue reading...Government plans to abolish section 40 law under which news publishers are liable for libel trial legal costs
Labour is heading for a potentially bruising clash with UK news publishers over a controversial piece of post-Leveson press regulation.
Shadow ministers are set to incur the wrath of some of Britain’s most powerful press bosses, including Rupert Murdoch, by opposing the repeal of a rule designed to force news publishers to sign up to the government-backed regulator.
Continue reading...Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK’s decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU’s flagship programme
Scientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.
Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit.
Continue reading...National Audit Office criticises Department for Work and Pensions over its ‘material fraud and error’
Thousands of people in the UK could receive a payout after official figures revealed that benefit claimants were underpaid by £3.3bn last year, the highest level on record.
The Department for Work and Pensions also admitted that as many as 330,000 people, some of whom have since died, may have missed out on as much as £1.5bn of valuable state pension entitlement – a disclosure that prompted some commentators to warn of a new scandal. Steve Webb, the former pensions minister, said: “The scale of these errors is huge.”
Continue reading...Latest updates: group complains about Labour’s lack of commitment to green new deal as leader speaks about extending opportunity
Starmer is now being heckled by someone complaining about his lack of commitment to a green new deal.
He says he has already given a speech on this. He offers to speak to the protesters later.
Keir Starmer asked two protesters holding a banner saying “Green New Deal now” to “let me finish” as they interrupted his speech.
The Labour leader told the pair he would “speak to you after” as they accused of him of U-turning on his £28bn green prosperity plan before being led off stage by security.
I promise you this, wherever there are obstacles to opportunity, wherever there are the barriers to hope, my Labour government will tear them down.
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