Category Archives: Politics

UK rail strikes: what would a deal mean for passengers, unions and operators?

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We look at who might be the winners in the industry’s biggest industrial dispute in decades

After 23 days of national strikes, two years of talking and hundreds of thousands of cancelled trains, rail workers are contemplating a pay rise that barely catches the coat tails of inflation. The rail industry’s biggest industrial dispute in decades may be approaching its final chapter – but with little chance of a happy ending for anyone involved.

The pain for passengers is not yet over – four more 24-hour strikes across 14 operators by train and station staff in the biggest rail union, the RMT, start next Thursday, 16 March.

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Labour pledges to overhaul England’s school ratings with ‘report card’

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Shadow education secretary to announce policy aimed at giving parents more information than Ofsted’s current system

School ratings such as outstanding and inadequate would be scrapped in England under a Labour government and replaced with a “report card” aimed at helping parents, the shadow education secretary is to announce.

Bridget Phillipson will tell a headteachers’ conference in Birmingham on Saturday that Ofsted’s current system of ratings “is high stakes for staff but low information for parents” because it fails to convey important details about a school’s strengths and weaknesses.

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Matt Hancock’s leaked messages being ‘used to rewrite history’, say civil servants

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Some advisers and civil servants speaking to the Guardian say an ‘anti-lockdown filter’ has been placed on events

The mass leaking of thousands of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages have laid bare in the starkest terms the extent of the divisions inside the cabinet and among advisers and civil servants handling the deadliest pandemic in modern times.

But some who worked in Number 10 and across Whitehall, as well as bereaved families, have been angered by what they see as a rewriting of history by some cabinet ministers and by the framing of some of Hancock’s texts.

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Rishi Sunak offers soft rebuke to claims Boris Johnson abused honours list

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PM said Father’s Day card would be his ‘limit’ in response to Johnson nominating his father for knighthood

Rishi Sunak has said his father would be lucky to get a card on Father’s Day, let alone a knighthood, after accusations that Boris Johnson’s honours list had discredited the system.

Sunak has come under pressure to reject Johnson’s list, in which he nominated his father, Stanley Johnson, for a knighthood, given previous allegations about his behaviour.

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BBC apologises for failure to scrutinise Nadine Dorries’ claims about Sue Gray

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Former culture secretary called into question neutrality of civil servant after her appointment as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff

The BBC has apologised for the failure to properly scrutinise claims made by Nadine Dorries on a radio show, capping a day of controversies for the corporation.

The broadcaster said in a statement on Friday that “there should have been more challenge” when the former culture secretary and Boris Johnson loyalist made allegations about Sue Gray on Radio 4’s World at One.

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BBC will not broadcast Attenborough episode over fear of ‘rightwing backlash’

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Exclusive: Decision to make episode about natural destruction available only on iPlayer angers programme-makers

The BBC has decided not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife because of fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press, the Guardian has been told.

The decision has angered the programme-makers and some insiders at the BBC, who fear the corporation has bowed to pressure from lobbying groups with “dinosaurian ways”.

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UK to help fund immigration detention centre in France, says Rishi Sunak

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PM announces £500m package to stop people trying to cross Channel, after meeting Emmanuel Macron in Paris

Britain will help fund a detention centre in northern France as part of a £500m package to stop refugees trying to cross the Channel, Rishi Sunak has said, amid continuing criticism of his plans to lock up and deport those arriving in small boats.

After a meeting in Paris, Sunak and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said they had agreed joint funding for more French border patrols, including 500 additional officers and new drones.

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Gary Lineker stands by his immigration policy remarks

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Match of the Day host says he does not fear BBC suspension for comparing government language to that of 1930s Germany

Gary Lineker has said he will stand his ground after a day of attacks from ministers over tweets he posted earlier this week criticising the government’s asylum policy, and dismissed suggestions he could face suspension from his £1.35m-a-year job at the BBC.

Pressure continues to mount on Lineker, with the culture secretary, the home secretary and two former BBC directors adding to the criticism of the Match of the Day presenter’s comments on social media, in which he likened the language used to set out the government’s immigration plans to “that used by Germany in the 30s”.

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Europe’s far right praise UK’s illegal migration bill

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Alternative für Deutschland leaders were among those lauding Sunak’s bill, while other EU figures raised doubts about its legality

European far-right leaders have praised Rishi Sunak’s illegal immigration bill, after a senior EU official repeated her doubts about the legality of the plans.

“Bravo,” wrote the Alternative für Deutschland party on social media. “Way to go! The current [British] government plans now to deny asylum to illegal immigrants and fly them out to Rwanda,” the party wrote on Facebook, saying Germany should follow this approach. “When will we finally have it?”

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UK ministers head to Paris to discuss Channel migrant crossings

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Paris gathering is first such UK-France summit in five years

Rishi Sunak and a series of his ministers are heading to Paris for a summit at which he will push Emmanuel Macron to assist him over Channel migrant crossings – but with little apparent chance of securing an immediate deal on returning people.

The gathering in Paris, the first such UK-France summit in five years, is also based around wider bilateral issues such as defence and Ukraine. However, for Sunak’s domestic focus, it seems set to be dominated by the issue of small boats.

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Boris Johnson nominates Daily Mail chief Paul Dacre for peerage for second time

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Placing of media boss on resignation honours list despite previous rejection puts Rishi Sunak in difficult position

Boris Johnson has once again nominated Paul Dacre for a peerage as part of a pared-back resignation honours list despite the Daily Mail chief having previously been rejected by the appointments watchdog, the Guardian has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the list have said that Johnson has put forward Dacre’s name for a second time. He had been knocked back last autumn after reported doubts raised by the House of Lords appointments commission.

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SNP leadership hopefuls take part in second televised debate – as it happened

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Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf take part in debate hosted by Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Lucy Frazer won’t be happy. (See 10.40am.) Interviewed by reporters leaving home this morning, Gary Lineker said that he had had a conversation with the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie. He would not reveal what was said. “We chat often,” was all Lineker said.

But Lineker did not look chastened. In fact, he was smiling like a Cheshire cat. Asked if he regretted sending his tweet, he replied “No,” and, asked if he stood by what he said, he replied, “Of course.”

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North Sea’s biggest energy producer claims UK windfall tax ‘wiped out’ surge in profit

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Harbour Energy says it had to cut jobs and investment at same time as announcing new shareholder payouts taking total to $1bn

The North Sea’s biggest producer has complained that the windfall tax on oil and gas companies “all but wiped out” its profits last year, at the same time announcing new shareholder payouts which take the total to $1bn since the end of 2021.

Harbour Energy said on Thursday its pre-tax profits rose by nearly 700% in 2022 to $2.5bn (£2.1bn) on higher production and bigger margins making it the latest oil and gas company to report a huge increase in underlying profits, after the war in Ukraine pushed up wholesale gas prices and sent household bills soaring.

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Sturgeon issues warning to candidates vying to be next SNP leader

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First minister’s comments come after one contender, Kate Forbes, was accused of ‘trashing’ her own government’s record

Nicola Sturgeon has urged the three candidates vying to replace her as first minster not to lose the trust she has built with Scottish voters, as she clashed with opposition leaders after one contender, Kate Forbes, was accused of “trashing” her own government’s record.

Forbes’ description of the Scottish government – in which she serves as finance secretary – as “mediocre” during the campaign’s first televised debate on Tuesday evening resulted in a furious backlash from SNP activists and politicians.

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A welcome return to normality: how France sees the Macron-Sunak summit

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Élysée sees moment as a turning of the page after a nightmare chapter in cross-Channel relations

As Emmanuel Macron prepares to welcomes Rishi Sunak to Paris’s Franco-British summit on Friday, the Élysée sees it as a “turning of the page” – the end of a nightmare chapter in cross-Channel relations.

The mood between France and the UK had in recent years plummeted to its worst state in decades with bitter rows over submarine contracts, fishing rights and who was to blame for the catastrophic deaths of people trying to reach the UK coast on small boats.

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Aukus submarine deal: Australia expected to choose UK design, sources say

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Rishi Sunak said to have been ‘buzzing’ about result of 18-month negotiations, part of Aukus defence pact with US

An enthusiastic Rishi Sunak has told ministers to expect a positive outcome next week when he travels to San Diego to unveil a deal to supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia as part of the Aukus pact with the US.

Multiple sources said they believed the UK had succeeded in its bid to sell British-designed nuclear submarines to Australia, a deal that will safeguard the long-term future of the shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness.

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Cabinet Office ‘told Matt Hancock to tone down lab leak claims’

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Former health secretary was asked to make clear in Pandemic Diaries that he was not reflecting government’s view

Matt Hancock was instructed by the Cabinet Office to tone down claims in his memoir that the Covid-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory leak in China, according to leaked correspondence.

Officials warned it would “cause problems” if Hancock repeated the claim in his Pandemic Diaries and insisted he must make clear he was not reflecting the government’s view, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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Parents in England spending up to 80% of pay on childcare

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Two other studies also show there are insufficient places in half of the country’s councils

The scale of the childcare crisis in England has been exposed by new data showing some parents face spending as much as 80% of their take-home pay on childcare while others struggle to find a provider because of supply gaps in large parts of the country.

A study by the thinktank Nesta, seen by the Guardian, shows how hard it is for families in different parts of England to afford to pay for someone to look after their children while they work. Meanwhile, two other studies – one by the children’s charity Coram and one by the Labour party – show there are insufficient places in half of the country’s local authorities, with demand now more than double the country’s supply.

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Rishi Sunak faces clash with EU on ‘unlawful’ asylum plans

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EU commissioner Ylva Johansson warns new migration bill breaches international law, potentially reigniting hostilities

Rishi Sunak faces a fresh clash with the EU after a senior comissioner warned that his contentious new migration bill will be in breach of human rights laws.

The intervention comes as the prime minister prepares to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, where he is expected to be asked to guarantee regular payments to stop boats carrying asylum seekers from crossing the Channel.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, was accused by Sunak at prime minister’s question time of being “another lefty lawyer” trying to block efforts to curb migration.

MPs accused the prime minister of forsaking women smuggled for sex on International Women’s Day by pushing forward a bill that undermines trafficking laws.

The BBC was dragged into another political row over impartiality after Gary Lineker, the Match of the Day host, refused to backdown after comparing the government’s rhetoric to 1930s Germany.

The United Nations’ refugee agency warned it cannot step in as a “substitute for the right to seek asylum” after the government said it would expand its partnership with the organisation after outlawing small boat crossings.

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Clive Lewis calls for UK to negotiate Caribbean slavery reparations

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Labour MP says Rishi Sunak should talk to region’s leaders after Trevelyan family announcements

The Labour MP Clive Lewis has called on Rishi Sunak to enter negotiations with Caribbean leaders on paying reparations for Britain’s role in slavery, following the historic announcements by the Trevelyan family.

Speaking at a parliamentary debate on promoting financial security in the Caribbean, Lewis said the issue of reparations could not be dismissed as an obsession among a small group of “so-called woke extremists”.

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