Category Archives: Politics

NHS disruption warning as ambulance staff strike in south-east England

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Hospitals chief says action ‘will pile even more pressure’ on already overstretched services and calls for talks

Ambulance staff in the south-east of England are to strike over pay for the second time on Tuesday, prompting warnings from hospital bosses of further pressure on overstretched emergency services.

Members of the Unite trade union employed by two ambulance trusts are striking after rejecting the government’s pay offer of a lump sum cash payment for 2022-23 and a below inflation increase of 5% for 2023-24.

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Unlicensed ‘bank’ CEO’s Commons invite stokes access concerns

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Vulnerability of MPs’ groups to influence of private firms highlighted by appearance at blockchain inquiry

Fresh questions have been raised about private firms gaining prestige and access to MPs through all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) after an unregulated “bank” with no UK licence gave evidence to an inquiry in the House of Commons.

The chief executive of Bandenia Challenger Bank spoke at an APPG inquiry into regulation in December, chaired by a Scottish National party MP, which was promoted using parliament’s official portcullis logo.

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EU leaders set out hopes for post-Brexit relations with Britain

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Representatives of 27 member states mark Europe Day by calling for further strengthening of trust rebuilt by Windsor framework

EU leaders have signalled their desire to reset relations with the UK, seven turbulent years on from the seismic Brexit vote.

Representatives from all 27 member states said on Monday that they wanted to “develop further ties between the EU and the UK” after a deal sealed on Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.

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Royal Mail chief expected to step down within weeks

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Simon Thompson has had a turbulent two-year stint at the helm

Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson is expected to step down within weeks, after a turbulent two-year stint at the helm.

The chief executive has been accused by unions of inflaming the bitter industrial dispute, and his credibility was put in question after a Commons select committee appearance.

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Former minister urges UK to back international anti-corruption court

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Lord Hain is seeking amendments to economic crime bill requiring ministers to back establishment of new court

The UK government should back the establishment of an international anti-corruption court to prosecute corrupt leaders of countries unwilling or unable to enforce their own anti-kleptocracy laws, according to Lord Hain, the former Foreign Office minister.

With cross-party support, Hain will propose that the time has come for Britain to throw its weight behind the growing global momentum for an international court, analogous to the international criminal court in The Hague.

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Labour criticised for giving global banks access to parliament

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Exclusive: HSBC and NatWest staffers seconded to shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds’s team

Labour has been criticised for giving global banks access to parliament after taking an HSBC staffer into its shadow business team, despite the financial giant coming under fire over its links with China.

One senior policy manager from HSBC has been seconded to the team of Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, and has been given a parliamentary pass since February.

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Home Office accused of being ‘unashamedly racist’ towards Sudanese

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Experts believe the UK has adopted a segregated immigration policy which favours those fleeing Ukraine

The Home Office has been accused of operating an “unashamedly racist” refugee system after refusing to offer people fleeing fighting in Sudan a safe and legal route to the UK, in stark contrast to the schemes offered to those escaping the war in Ukraine.

With the final evacuation flight from Khartoum to the UK having left last week, a lack of options from the UK government has crystallised concern that it has adopted a segregated immigration policy. No safe and legal routes have been made available to help Sudanese refugees flee and there is no sign of an announcement outlining a new scheme to deal with the fallout of the conflict.

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Labour will not need to forge coalition after general election, senior MP says

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Peter Kyle rejects predictions Labour will not win enough seats for outright majority in Commons

A senior Labour MP has predicted the party will not need to go into coalition after the next general election, despite results from this week’s local elections showing they could be short of an overall majority.

Labour gained 536 seats and took control of another 22 councils as it became the largest party in local government for the first time since 2002.

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Tax firm run by SNP’s auditors accused of potentially running avoidance scheme

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Company challenged over advice that one expert says will enable families to avoid paying tax on private school fees

A boutique tax advisory firm run by the Scottish National party’s new auditors has been accused of potentially running a tax avoidance scheme to help parents who are paying private school fees.

Signature Tax, an offshoot of AMS Accountants Group, offers clients “tailored tax solutions” on its website, including advice on paying fees in a “tax efficient manner”.

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Local elections 2023 live: Labour becomes largest party in local government – as it happened

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Conservatives continue to suffer heavy defeats as Labour, Lib Dems and Greens make gains

Prof Rob Ford, an elections specialist, has written an article for the Guardian trying to assess what would be a good result and a bad result for the political parties in the local election. You can read it here:

Results from more than 60 councils are expected overnight with the remainder expected to trickle in throughout the day on Friday.

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Local elections 2023: live council results for England

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Find out the scale of Conservative losses and the gains made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green party

• Latest reporting and analysis

• About these elections

On 4 May, 230 English councils are holding elections with more than 8,000 seats being contested. Some are for metropolitan boroughs such as Liverpool city council and others for unitary authorities such as Herefordshire or North Somerset. Both structures are single-tier authorities with responsibility for the whole range of council services, including education, social care, rubbish collection and parks.

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Keir Starmer: Labour on track to win general election after local results

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Opposition leader hails ‘very, very good’ outcome of local elections after his party takes control of key councils

Keir Starmer has said the Labour party is on track to win the next general election, after taking control of key councils in the English local elections, including Medway, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent.

Based on results counted early on Friday morning, the Labour leader said the party was heading for a result that if repeated across the country at a general election would give it an eight-point lead over the Conservatives.

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End ‘megaphone diplomacy’ between UK and Hong Kong, says British diplomat

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Consul general calls for ‘constructive engagement’ with territory as Chinese vice-president says he will attend king’s coronation

Britain’s most senior diplomat for Hong Kong has called for an end to “megaphone diplomacy” between the UK and the Chinese territory, saying British and Hong Kong diplomats would make more progress with closed-door discussions.

Brian Davidson, the consul general to Hong Kong and Macau, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that the UK-Hong Kong relationship had weathered “some difficult headwinds” over the past four or five years, but that “we are looking to lean back into a constructive engagement to see where we can collaborate”.

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Local elections 2023 live: voter ID required for first time as people in England head to the polls

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With polls closing at 10pm, more than 8,000 council seats in England are up for grabs

Here is a comment from a reader.

Just been to the polling station: tellers outside were turning people without ID away instead of sending them in to be recorded for the so called evaluation. Numbers will be meaningless if this is widespread.

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Belize likely to become republic, says PM, as he criticises Rishi Sunak

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Exclusive: Johnny Briceño attacks his UK counterpart’s refusal to apologise for atrocities of slavery

The prime minister of Belize, Johnny Briceño, has sharply criticised Rishi Sunak’s refusal to apologise for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and said it was “quite likely” Belize would be the next member of the Commonwealth realm to become a republic.

Speaking to the Guardian in the country’s capital, Belmopan, Briceño argued the British government had a moral responsibility to apologise for the atrocities of slavery and added to the calls throughout the English-speaking Caribbean for financial reparations from the UK.

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England local elections going smoothly under new voter ID rules, say officials

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‘No major issues’ reported so far, as most voters in Leicester say they were made well aware of change

Despite warnings that the introduction of new voter ID requirements might lead to disruption at polling stations across England on Thursday, by lunchtime there were few reports of problems.

In Leicester, the city council said things were “so far, running smoothly”.

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‘I’m in intense pain’: Vahid Beheshti passes 70 days on UK hunger strike

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Camped outside Foreign Office, Beheshti is demanding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards be proscribed

Vahid Beheshti’s hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office took a surreal turn on Wednesday – its 70th day – when he attended a royal coronation tea party at Buckingham Palace, arriving by wheelchair and wearing a suit and red tie.

He has lost more than 17kg (37lb), or a quarter of his body weight, and he told the Guardian that “my body and joints are now racked in intense pain”. As he left his tent, draped in the Iranian flag and surrounded by flowers, he clutched an envelope containing a letter for the king. After carefully smartening himself up, he was wheeled to a taxi by his wife, Mattie Heaven, a Conservative councillor.

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Sue Gray will take up Labour role no matter how long the delay, says party

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Labour leader’s spokesperson says Gray will become chief of staff even if watchdog recommends long delay to start date

The former senior civil servant Sue Gray will take up her new role as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff even if the government’s appointments watchdog recommends a long delay to her start date, Labour has said.

Labour insiders believe the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) will suggest that Gray should wait for a significantly shorter period than the maximum two years it could recommend for senior officials taking up a job outside government.

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Tory MP lobbied minister on behalf of casino over gambling laws

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Philip Davies lobbied culture minister to include measure after being entertained at Mayfair casino

The Conservative MP Philip Davies lobbied the government on behalf of a casino to introduce a measure that was then included in last week’s gambling white paper, it has emerged.

The MP for Shipley, in West Yorkshire, wrote in February to the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, after being entertained at Les Ambassadeurs luxury casino in Mayfair, central London.

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Government defeats move to tighten UK foreign donations law

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Campaigners say defeat of amendment to close loopholes on party funding leaves UK open to ‘malign influences’

UK elections remain at risk from interference by hostile states after the government voted down a move to close loopholes on foreign donations to parties, campaigners have warned.

The chair of parliament’s security committee was among those who backed an amendment to the national security bill that would have obliged political parties to carry out due diligence on the true source of donations from companies and individuals.

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