Category Archives: Politics

Lack of data makes government claims about English childcare ‘meaningless’

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Only 15% of local councils collect data on proportion of parents who are able to access sufficient childcare

The government’s claims that there are enough childcare places in England are “meaningless” as councils collect little to no information on whether provision meets local demand, experts have said.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area under section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006.

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Starmer challenged on promise of ‘zero-tolerance’ on antisemitism and racism

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Senior lawyer who carried out inquiry into Labour party’s culture says transparent systems needed to tackle issues

Keir Starmer has faced criticism for vowing to adopt a “zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism and racism” without having the transparent systems in place to tackle such issues.

Martin Forde KC, the senior lawyer who carried out an inquiry into the party’s culture, said he has become “irritated” by the phrase, which the Labour leader used last month after the ECHR lifted the party out of two years of special measures over its past failings on antisemitism.

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Experts cast doubt on Braverman’s hopes of ECHR rule change on Rwanda

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Home secretary’s claims of ‘constructive’ talks regarding Strasbourg’s injunctions disputed by legal scholars

Legal experts have cast doubt on the UK’s claims of “possible reforms” to European court of human rights procedures that stopped an asylum seeker from being deported to Rwanda last year.

During a two-day visit to the country’s capital, Kigali, Suella Braverman told a selected group of government-friendly papers that she was “encouraged” by the government’s “constructive” talks with Strasbourg to overhaul court injunctions. An ECHR injunction last June prevented an Iraqi national from being deported from the UK to the east African country.

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Boris Johnson set to submit Partygate dossier, saying he didn’t deliberately mislead MPs – UK politics live

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Former PM expected to attack privileges committee inquiry as unfair before appearing before it on Wednesday

Downing Street has rejected a claim that government announcements are being held back this week because of all the media attention that the Boris Johnson privileges hearing will get. Asked about the claim (see 11.36am), the PM’s spokesperson said:

There is a large number of announcements being made this week, whether that’s on support for low-income households on energy, and obviously the vote on the Stormont brake on Wednesday so it is a significant week for government.

It’s wrong to suggest government business changes as a result of this committee hearing.

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Brexit: DUP to vote against government over Windsor framework

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Jeffrey Donaldson confirms unionist party will oppose Sunak plan for Northern Ireland in this week’s vote

The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is to vote against the government in this week’s first parliamentary vote on the new Windsor framework Brexit deal.

Party officers met on Monday and made a unanimous decision to reject Rishi Sunak’s revised plan for post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland, the DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, said in a statement.

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Rail strikes: RMT votes to accept Network Rail pay offer

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Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the offer, worth 9% over two years, in deal that should bring worst of disruption to end

Members of the RMT union have voted to accept a pay offer from Network Rail.

Thousands of rail workers including signalling staff voted by three to one in favour to accept the offer, a 9% pay increase over two years, in a referendum that closed on Monday.

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Sturgeon’s successor will inherit ‘mess’ of SNP at war with itself

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Key resignations, ideological conflicts and drop in membership numbers have left the SNP close to collapse

They are phrases the Scottish National party once happily used as attack lines against the Conservatives and Labour: “tremendous mess”, “unedifying” and “spectacularly wrong”.

Yet they came from the SNP’s new acting chief executive and its president, Mike Russell, and he was talking about his own party. “I think it is fair to say there is a tremendous mess and we have to clear it up,” he told the BBC on Sunday.

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Doubts grow over number of NHS doctors helped by pension giveaway

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New figures reveal only 100 hospital doctors left NHS in 2022 due to voluntary early retirement, despite claims by Jeremy Hunt

The number of hospital doctors that could be helped by Jeremy Hunt’s pensions giveaway has been cast into doubt, after new figures revealed that only 100 of them left the NHS last year due to voluntary early retirement.

Criticism has mounted about the measure announced in the budget, which would scrap the up to 55% tax levied on lifetime pension pots worth just over £1m and raise the annual allowance threshold from £40,000 to £60,000.

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Several Tory MPs may join DUP in voting against Brexit ‘Stormont brake’

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Anger among European Research Group over vote on key part of Windsor framework for Northern Ireland

Rishi Sunak faces a reckoning from hardline Brexiters on his backbenches who are prepared to follow the Democratic Unionist party in voting against a key element of his “Windsor framework” that overhauls the Northern Ireland protocol.

Anger is rising among those in the European Research Group at ministers using a vote on a statutory instrument to implement the “Stormont brake” on Wednesday, as a proxy for MPs to have their say on the whole deal.

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Kwasi Kwarteng: I would ‘never rule out’ Boris Johnson leading Tories again

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Prediction comes as former PM set to be grilled by privileges committee as part of Partygate inquiry

Boris Johnson may emerge from a televised grilling next week over claims he misled parliament about Partygate unscathed and go on to lead the Conservative party again, a former cabinet minister has said.

Kwasi Kwarteng, who was made business secretary by Johnson before a short-lived stint as chancellor under Liz Truss – which ended after his notorious mini-budget – said he would “never rule out” a return by Johnson to frontline politics.

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UK ambassador to Yemen took part in opening of Jordanian cigarette factory

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Michael Aron praised facility part-owned by British American Tobacco at ribbon-cutting event in 2019

A UK ambassador took part in the opening ceremony of a Jordanian cigarette factory part-owned by British American Tobacco (BAT) and praised the new facility in a televised interview, in the latest example of British diplomats breaching strict guidelines against mixing with the tobacco industry overseas.

The envoy stood at the ribbon as it was cut and later appeared in promotional material on the tobacco company’s website, but no record of his presence at the event was kept by the British embassy in Amman because the event was not considered a “formal meeting”.

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Boris Johnson makes last-ditch bid to discredit Partygate inquiry

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Ex-prime minister due at televised Commons committee hearing, with legal team about to publish new evidence backing his claims

A defiant Boris Johnson is preparing an extraordinary televised defence of his actions during the Partygate scandal, as his allies this weekend accused the parliamentary inquiry into the affair of relying on weak evidence compiled by a former civil servant recruited by the Labour party.

With a potentially explosive appearance at the Commons privileges committee due on Wednesday, the Observer can reveal that the former PM’s legal team intends to publish written evidence, including new witness statements, supporting Johnson’s claim that he did not knowingly mislead MPs over lockdown parties – as well as examples of the advice he was given at the time.

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Jeremy Hunt backed Labour plan last year for tax break on NHS pensions

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Labour says chancellor had time to draw up more targeted changes rather than including wealthiest savers

Jeremy Hunt previously backed Labour’s idea of giving a pensions tax break only to NHS staff, despite ruling out such a move in this week’s budget because it would not come into force quickly enough.

The chancellor was chair of the health select committee last year when members wrote a report calling for the NHS pension scheme to be overhauled to encourage senior doctors to stay in their jobs.

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Boris Johnson may be only witness called in Partygate investigation

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Privileges committee rebuffs lawyer’s request to give evidence alongside former prime minister

Boris Johnson may be the only witness called by the privileges committee for its investigation into whether he misled parliament over Partygate, as the inquiry has rebuffed his lawyer’s request to give evidence alongside him.

The former prime minister is preparing to appear at a televised hearing on Wednesday. The length of the grilling will depend on how much he says.

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SNP head of communications resigns after denying fall in membership figures

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Murray Foote had described the reports, later revealed to be fact, as ‘drivel’ but opposition parties say he is ‘fall guy’ for hierarchy

The head of communications for the Scottish National party has resigned amid an escalating row over membership figures, as opposition parties described him as “a fall guy for the SNP hierarchy”.

Murray Foote announced on Friday evening that he had resigned after he denied reports about falling party membership figures that were in fact accurate.

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No 10 refuses to give details of how £4bn pay deal for health workers will be funded – as it happened

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Downing Street reveals cost of improved pay offer for nurses and paramedics but will not say where the money will come from

Downing Street says the improve pay offer for health workers in England announced yesterday will cost around £4bn.

At the morning lobby briefing, a No 10 spokesperson said the “non-consolidated element for 2022-23” – the one-off payments worth up to 8.2% – would cost an extra £2.7bn.

Analysis showed that in two years’ time - by which point Labour could have won a general election - two million people could face paying taxes of up to 55 per cent on their pots as a result of [Rachel] Reeves’ policy.

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Croydon and Thurrock councils put into special measures

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Government-appointed managers will take over day-to-day running after authorities fell into effective bankruptcy

Two local authorities have been put into special measures after struggling to recover from the bad investments and governance failings that pushed them into effective bankruptcy.

The London borough of Croydon and Thurrock borough council in Essex have been told that government-appointed managers will take over the day-to-day running of operations, including overseeing all major financial and senior staffing decisions.

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Dominic Raab to push for tougher minimum sentence in domestic homicides

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Move follows pressure from campaigners such as Julie Devey and Carole Gould whose daughters were murdered

Domestic abusers in England and Wales who kill their partners or ex-partners are to face tougher sentences under government plans after a campaign by bereaved families.

The justice secretary and lord chancellor, Dominic Raab, will push for a change in the law after pressure from campaigners such as Julie Devey and Carole Gould, who have been calling since 2020 for a change to the minimum sentence for domestic homicide.

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Boris Johnson reselected as Tory candidate in Uxbridge

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Former PM chosen to run again in constituency he currently holds, quashing speculation that he might seek safer seat

Boris Johnson has been reselected as the Conservative candidate in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.

It comes after speculation that the former prime minister might seek out a safer seat before the next general election.

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MPs and peers ask information commissioner to investigate TikTok

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Letter argues that Chinese-owned video-sharing app could be in breach of UK law

A cross-party group of MPs and peers have asked the information commissioner to investigate whether the Chinese-owned TikTok’s handling of personal information is in breach of UK law.

The letter from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) argues that TikTok cannot be compliant with data protection rules – and comes just hours after the UK announced a ban on the popular video-sharing app appearing on ministers’ and officials’ government-owned phones.

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