Category Archives: Politics

Tory donor accused of using bullying legal threats to suppress a report

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David Davis said Mohamed Amersi ‘silenced’ Margaret Hodge, chair of parliamentary anti-corruption group

A major Conservative donor has been accused of using bullying legal threats to suppress a report by the veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge, which alleged he was “mired in an international corruption scandal”.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, the former Tory cabinet minister David Davis accused Mohamed Amersi of having “effectively silenced” Hodge, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on anti-corruption and responsible tax.

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MPs and peers urge UK government to do more to free jailed activist in Egypt

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More than 100 signatories express concern in letter to foreign secretary over lack of progress in case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah

More than 100 MPs and peers have written to the foreign secretary to express concern over the lack of progress to free a jailed British-Egyptian activist.

It comes seven months after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, shook hands with Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, while Alaa Abd el-Fattah was close to death due to a hunger strike.

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Tory MPs threaten to rebel against UK bill banning boycotts of Israeli goods

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Rebel group of 50 have voiced objections to the bill designed to stop public bodies boycotting Israel

As many as 50 Conservative MPs are threatening to rebel against a government measure due to be debated on Monday that would impose fines on public bodies, including local councils, that seek to mount boycotts against Israel.

The proposal – piloted by the communities secretary, Michael Gove – is a Conservative manifesto commitment, and has caused divisions in both main parties, highlighting the controversy surrounding the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

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British peers attended Russian ambassador’s party in London

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Lords Balfe and Skidelsky were at event in June where ambassador sought to justify Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine

Two British peers were among 50 people who attended a party organised by the Russian ambassador to the UK at his opulent residence in west London last month, to mark the creation of a Russia independent of the Soviet Union.

Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador, spoke at the event where he sought to justify his country’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, while those attending included the Conservative Lord Balfe and cross-bencher Lord Skidelsky.

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UK to breach Iran nuclear deal with refusal to lift sanctions

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Decision by UK and other European powers comes amid uncertainty over future of 2015 agreement

The UK and other European powers are expected to announce plans to breach the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for the first time when they confirm they are not going to lift sanctions on Tehran’s use of missiles this October as required in the agreement.

Donald Trump took the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, but Germany, France and the UK remained inside the deal, even though Iran responded to the US walkout by breaching the agreed limits on the quality and quantity of enriched uranium. Iran is closer to producing weapons-grade uranium than ever before.

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Revealed: record 170,000 staff leave NHS in England as stress and workload take toll

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Health service shown to be under some of worst pressure in its history in week Rishi Sunak launched plan to retain and recruit workforce

• ‘You start thinking you will crack’: former NHS tell their stories

Nearly 170,000 workers left their jobs in the NHS in England last year, in a record exodus of staff struggling to cope with some of the worst pressures ever seen in the country’s health system, the Observer can reveal.

More than 41,000 nurses were among those who left their jobs in NHS hospitals and community health services, with the highest leaving rate for at least a decade. The number of staff leaving overall rose by more than a quarter in 2022, compared to 2019.

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‘Rightwing, illiberal’: Labour MP Jon Cruddas condemns Keir Starmer’s ‘witch-hunt’

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MP says moves to discipline Neal Lawson, who heads pressure group Compass, are a ‘disgrace’

A senior Labour MP claims today that Keir Starmer’s party has fallen under the control of a “rightwing, illiberal” faction that is embarking on a “witch-hunt” not only against the Corbynite left but also anyone with an independent voice.

In an extraordinary intervention, Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, says that moves by the party to discipline and possibly expel Neal Lawson, a former speechwriter for Gordon Brown who now heads the pressure group Compass, are a “disgrace” in a party built on pluralist values and traditions.

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Councils in England hit by ‘unsustainable’ £450m bill for free bus passes

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LGA says services being put at risk by huge cost and calls way Whitehall funds scheme not fit for purpose

Councils in England are being hit by a “completely unsustainable” annual bill of more than £450m to prop up the free bus pass scheme, according to an analysis.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which calculated the figure, said the enormous cost was putting services at risk.

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NHS plan: the numbers are impressive, but where are the new ideas?

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Health bosses will welcome tens of thousands of new recruits, but the plan has little to say on how to change the culture to keep them

It was on 8 November 2017 that Jeremy Hunt, the then health secretary, first promised that the government would bring forward a long-term, comprehensive plan to end the NHS’s lack of staff.

It would, he said, be the “first proper NHS workforce plan that we have had since 2000”. And the plan would emerge quickly, he added, reflecting the urgency of tackling what has become the most debilitating of the NHS’s many problems – shortages of staff, everywhere.

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Plans to shorten medical training put quality of NHS care at risk, doctors say

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Unions say government proposals to cut training by a year and introduce apprenticeships could dilute skills

Plans to shorten medical training could dilute the calibre of doctors entering the NHS in England and damage the quality of care patients receive, doctors’ leaders have warned.

Government proposals to cut doctors’ time in medical school from five to four years, and to introduce medical apprenticeships, could “water down” training for health service staff, they said.

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Watchdog rejects Johnson’s suggestion Sue Gray’s Labour job meant she was not impartial investigating Partygate– UK politics live

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Advisory committee on business appointments says it has seen ‘no evidence’ that Gray’s decision-making was affected despite ex-PM’s claim

NHS England has just published its 150-page long-term workforce plan. It’s here.

The government is keen to present it as an NHS plan, not a government plan, and at the moment you cannot find it prominently on the No 10 or Department of Health and Social Care websites.

This is our longer-term, strategic approach to workforce planning. In a nutshell we will:

1. Train more staff

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Sue Gray given six-month waiting period for Keir Starmer job

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Former senior civil servant will start work as Labour leader’s chief of staff in autumn after watchdog recommendation

Sue Gray will start work as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff by the autumn after a ruling by the watchdog on post-government jobs but is facing a rap on the knuckles from the Cabinet Office alleging she broke the civil service code.

Starmer said he was delighted that Gray would be starting her job in his office before the next election, after the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said she needed to wait six months after leaving her role in the Cabinet Office last March.

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NHS radiographers in England vote to strike over pay

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Society of Radiographers members reject offer, pushing for deal they say could help cut waiting lists

Thousands of radiographers in England have voted to go on strike for the first time in the increasingly bitter healthcare pay dispute.

The Society of Radiographers (SoR) secured sufficient turnout and votes in 43 NHS trusts to go on strike in a ballot that closed on 28 June. More than 150 trusts had a majority in favour of action but not all met the turnout threshold.

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Over 24,000 UK asylum seekers could be sent to Rwanda despite court ruling

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Home Office sent 24,083 letters of intent warning refugees they were being considered for forcible removal

More than 24,000 asylum seekers from about one-third of the world’s countries could face removal to Rwanda by the UK Home Office in the future, even though the scheme was found to be unlawful in the court of appeal on Thursday.

Home Office data obtained under a freedom of information request shows that, between January 2021 and March 2023, 24,083 asylum seekers were issued with letters warning them that they were being considered for forcible removal to Rwanda.

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Oligarch hit by Ukrainian sanctions has UK residency and was given ‘golden visa’

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Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian who made a fortune in Russia and is under investigation for fraud, was granted special visa for the rich in 2012

An oligarch who made a fortune in Russia and is under Ukrainian sanctions has UK residency after being granted a special visa for the rich.

Pavel Fuks, a Ukrainian national who had sanctions imposed in 2021, is also under criminal investigation for fraud and tax evasion in his home country. But the Guardian has established that Fuks, known as a regular at an exclusive Mayfair restaurant, was granted a so-called golden visa in 2012, followed by indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2017. “It’s effective as of today,” his spokesperson said.

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Cabinet Office will not investigate groping allegations against Daniel Korski

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Daisy Goodwin expresses disappointment with government response to formal complaint against Tory ex-mayoral hopeful

The Cabinet Office will not investigate allegations that the former Conservative mayoral hopeful Daniel Korski groped a woman when he worked in Downing Street 10 years ago.

Daisy Goodwin, the novelist and TV producer who made the claim, said she was disappointed, and questioned why there was no dedicated body that investigated serious allegations against MPs and advisers.

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Government aims to boost NHS with thousands more doctors and nurses

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NHS England could have 12,500 extra doctors and nurses by 2028 under the service’s first long-term workforce plan

Thousands more doctors and nurses will be trained in England every year as part of a government push to plug the huge workforce gaps that plague almost all NHS services.

The number of places in medical schools will rise from 7,500 to 10,000 by 2028 and could reach 15,000 by 2031 as a result of the NHS’s first long-term workforce plan.

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MP Lee Anderson faces rebuke over GB News promotional film

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Tory party’s deputy chair used parliamentary rooftop setting to publicise TV show, in apparent contravention of rules

The Conservative MP Lee Anderson faces a telling off for using a parliamentary rooftop to film a promotion video for his GB News TV show, with unauthorised photography or filming not permitted on the parliamentary estate.

The serjeant at arms, who is responsible for upholding order in the Commons, will contact Anderson, the Conservative party deputy chairman, over the Twitter footage.

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Head of British army could quit in row over further cuts

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Gen Sir Patrick Sanders is said to have told defence secretary that the army cannot take more reductions

The head of the British army could resign, allies say, amid a fierce row over further proposed cuts to land forces in the run-up to a special defence review responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Interviews have already begun to replace Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, who has served only a year as chief of the general staff, and friends of the military leader say he may quit even sooner if the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, imposes further cuts.

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Millions in UK are being left behind as world moves online, say peers

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Committee says ministers do not have credible strategy to tackle digital exclusion

The government is failing millions of digitally excluded citizens who do not have the means, money or ability to go online, a House of Lords committee has said.

Ministers do not have a credible strategy to tackle digital exclusion and are allowing “millions of citizens to fall behind”, according to a report by the Lords communications and digital committee.

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