James Cleverly urges British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan
The final UK evacuation flight is expected to take off from Sudan on Wednesday, the foreign secretary has announced.
James Cleverly urged British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan.
Continue reading...Head of civil service Simon Case faces fresh questions after ministers fail to publish outcome of inquiry
Sue Gray is refusing to cooperate with a government inquiry into her departure from Whitehall amid concerns that the investigation is politically motivated and not based on any official process.
Simon Case, the head of the civil service, faced fresh questions over his handling of the controversy after ministers failed to publish the outcome of the inquiry despite widespread briefing that it would find she had broken the civil service code.
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James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has also been giving interviews this morning. He told Sky News that Keir Starmer would have “some serious questions to answer” if today’s Cabinet Office report says she started talks about taking a job with Labour while still working with the civil service team giving advice to the privileges committee in relation to its inquiry into Boris Johnson and Partygate.
Labour sources have told the Telegraph that Gray was not involved in the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team’s (PET’s) work with the privileges committee while she was in contact with Labour.
Continue reading...Labour leader says he is confident Gray, offered the role of his chief of staff, has not broken any rules
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has denied having recruitment discussions with the senior civil servant Sue Gray while she was investigating the former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Starmer said he was confident Gray, who was offered the role of his chief of staff, to lead Labour’s potential transition into government, had not broken any rules.
Continue reading...RCN leader urges health secretary to resolve ongoing pay dispute as one-day strike affects cancer and emergency care for first time
Parliamentary security guards confiscated reports and leaflets about Hong Kong from attenders of an event in Westminster in case they caused political upset, Kiran Stacey and Tom Burgis write, in a move condemned by a senior Conservative MP as “completely daft”.
Officers on the parliamentary estate forced people attending a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on Hong Kong last Monday to hand over copies of a report by the group about press freedom there, as well as leaflets campaigning for the release of the media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
This is a culmination of our pay not reflecting the hours we are working. The last decade has made things considerably worse. Our colleagues are out in force because things have got so bad that we cannot pay our rent or our bills, we are relying on food banks.
We have spent the last few years fighting the pandemic. It matters to us and the care we provide matters to us. The fact the government are not looking at our pay has caused us to do this.
It’s a profession that I love, I love caring for people, and when I started the job it was not like this. The money was small, but it was sufficient, and we were proud of being a nurse.
The definition of nursing is about caring for people and making them comfortable if they are at the end of their lives, but how is that possible when there is one nurse having to look after 10 patients at a time because we’re short-staffed?
How am I supposed to live? If I don’t pay my council tax, they take me to court, or if I don’t pay my rent, I lose my home. At 70, I’m still working; what life is that?
They are clapping for us but refuse to pay us properly. If they (politicians) were here, I would tell them to their faces.
Continue reading...Sir Charles Trevelyan was Treasury official during great famine in 19th century when potato crops failed
The former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan has said her family would consider paying compensation to Ireland because of an ancestor’s role in the Great Famine of the 19th century.
Her great-great-great-grandfather Sir Charles Trevelyan, a senior British government official, was among those who “failed their people” during the humanitarian catastrophe in the 1840s, she said.
Continue reading...Unclear whether all British evacuees will be able to reach Port Sudan, more than 500 miles from Khartoum
British forces will oversee an additional evacuation flight out of Sudan as fighting continues to rage in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
British passport holders, as well as doctors with leave to remain in the UK and their dependents, were told to arrive at Port Sudan international airport on the Red Sea coast before midday local time (11am BST).
Continue reading...Officials claim material on Jimmy Lai constituted political slogans but David Davis calls heavy-handed approach ‘completely daft’
Parliamentary security guards confiscated reports and leaflets about Hong Kong from attenders of an event in Westminster in case they caused political upset, the Guardian has learned, in a move condemned by a senior Conservative MP as “completely daft”.
Officers on the parliamentary estate forced people attending a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on Hong Kong last Monday to hand over copies of a report by the group about press freedom there, as well as leaflets campaigning for the release of the media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Continue reading...Nurses union head clashes with Steve Barclay over plans to protect patients and RMT rows with Mark Harper about striking on eve of Eurovision final
The Royal College of Nursing has clashed with the government over whether sufficient exemptions have been made to protect patient safety during the nurses’ strike in England that started on Sunday evening.
The clash came as a row erupted between the leader of the train drivers’ union and the transport secretary, who had criticised a planned strike on the eve of the Eurovision song contest final for its impact on Ukraine.
Continue reading...Opposition leader says party would change current system, in which PM has final say on who gets job
Keir Starmer has said Labour would make sure the BBC chair is independently appointed after Richard Sharp’s resignation following his failure to declare that he had helped Boris Johnson get a loan.
The Labour leader suggested the party would reform the system, in which the prime minister currently has the final say on who gets the job.
Continue reading...Mark Harper and Labour MP back ‘homage of the people’, but republicans say it ‘holds people in contempt’
A cabinet minister has said he “hopes people do” swear the proposed oath to the king on the day of his coronation, as republicans described it as “an offensive and tone-deaf gesture that holds the people in contempt”.
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said he would be swearing the oath, to be known as a “homage of the people” and pointed out that MPs already “pledge allegiance to his majesty” on taking their seats.
Continue reading...Invoice for ex-PM’s time at Kent mansion when foreign secretary is thought to include sums for missing bathrobes and party business
Liz Truss is disputing part of a £12,000 bill sent to her by the Cabinet Office relating to her use of the grace-and-favour Chevening house while she was foreign secretary.
The bill mostly covered hospitality but also included missing items, such as some bathrobes, and dates back to last summer when she was fighting the Conservative leadership campaign against Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Republican expected to run for nomination supports UK business secretary’s attempt to stop the left ‘corrupting British society’
Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, has backed UK business secretary Kemi Badenoch in taking on what he calls “the woke”.
DeSantis, who is expected to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, met Badenoch and foreign secretary James Cleverly on a visit to London this week.
Continue reading...Leader pledges a radical, reforming Labour government with aid to first-time buyers and a revamp of tuition fees among the party’s targets
• Read more: ‘I want Labour to be the party of home ownership,’ says Starmer
Keir Starmer today pledges to lead a radical, reforming Labour government that is bolder than Tony Blair’s on public service reform, as he announces plans to accelerate housing building and get more young people on to the property ladder.
In an interview with the Observer before Thursday’s local elections, the Labour leader insists he will more than match Blair for radical ideas on overhauling public services including the NHS. “This will be a bold and reforming Labour government bringing about real change that I hope will be felt through the generations,” Starmer said.
Continue reading...With local polls on Thursday, the Labour leader must convince voters his party can fix the Tories’ mistakes – and make bold, eye-catching pledges
• Read more: ‘I’ll be bolder than Blair on public service reform,’ says Starmer
Keir Starmer is being shown around the Royal Crown Derby factory in the east Midlands city, and the reasons for choosing the venue are clear. We are days away from crucial local elections on Thursday and the coronation of King Charles III will take place two days later.
The visit has been carefully choreographed to convey messages about respect for tradition, and how Labour has changed. A big party media team is up from London and their attention to detail is impressive – reminiscent of New Labour before the 1997 general election.
Continue reading...MP questions police response that troll who tried to have her children removed was ‘entitled’ to call her an ‘extremist’
The Labour MP Stella Creasy believes police have given online trolls “the green light to target the children of politicians” after she was subject to a baseless complaint to social services.
Creasy was investigated by her local council after it received a report from a troll who was trying to have her children taken away from her.
Continue reading...Opinium poll shows slump in personal ratings of Rishi Sunak, with 26% approving of his performance and 44% disapproving
Labour’s lead over the Conservatives stands at a commanding 18 points, according to the last Opinium poll for the Observer before a huge set of local elections.
With more than 8,000 council seats across 230 authorities in England up for election on Thursday, the Tories had been hoping that polls would tighten as they attempt to avoid heavy losses in both the red wall of old Labour seats and the blue all – south-eastern seats where, traditionally, they have been strong.
Continue reading...Investigation reveals that at least 440 people appear to have been abandoned in the weeks before the worst Channel disaster in 30 years
• Read more: ‘Horror beyond words’: how Channel distress calls were ‘ignored’
Hundreds of vulnerable migrants were abandoned to their fates after the UK coastguard “effectively ignored” reports of small boats in distress during the days leading up to the worst Channel disaster in 30 years when at least 27 people died, an Observer investigation suggests.
Around 440 people appear to have been left adrift after the coastguard sent no rescue vessels to 19 reported boats carrying migrants in UK waters, according to an analysis of internal records and marine data seen by the Observer and Liberty Investigates.
Experts said the failure to act appears to breach international law.
Continue reading...Investigation reveals that understaffed Dover control room was overwhelmed by calls from people in trouble before 27 died at sea
• Read more: UK coastguard ‘left Channel migrants adrift’
On the afternoon of 3 November 2021, a woman called Hampshire police. Her brother was crossing the Channel in a small boat that day, she said via a translator. But something awful had just happened. Twenty minutes earlier he’d texted to say that smugglers had begun shoving passengers overboard. “Loads had been kicked off and were in the water”, fighting for their lives in the treacherous currents of the world’s busiest shipping lane.
Police passed the details to HM Coastguard and at 4.57pm an operator flagged the incident, according to internal logs obtained by the Observer and Liberty Investigates.
Continue reading...Move is apparently designed to isolate the Royal College of Nursing, which is due to begin another strike
Ministers plan to impose a pay deal on NHS workers even as nurses continue to reject it, the Observer understands, as health service unions prepare to hold crunch talks on the package this week.
Both the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Unite unions continue to oppose the deal offered to NHS workers, after protracted negotiations that have led to strikes and hampered attempts to shorten waiting lists. All 12 unions involved in the talks will gather on Tuesday to vote on whether to accept an improved deal covering the last two years.
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