Category Archives: Politics

Calls for UK response after protester attacked at Chinese consulate

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Foreign secretary urged to take action after Hong Kong demonstrator punched and kicked in Manchester

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is facing demands to act against the Chinese government as police confirmed that a man was assaulted after being dragged into the grounds of the country’s consulate in Manchester.

Labour and senior Tories have called for the Chinese ambassador to explain what happened after footage appeared to show a pro-democracy demonstrator being beaten and kicked by several men. Police said the assailants had emerged from the consular building.

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Jamie Wallis accuses fellow Tory MPs of exploiting trans issues during contest for PM

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Trans MP says senior Tories sought ‘cheap political points’ and tells Liz Truss to resign for bringing them into government

Jamie Wallis, a Conservative MP who came out as transgender earlier this year, has accused fellow Tory MPs of exploiting and weaponising trans issues “in order to score cheap political points” during the recent leadership contest.

The MP for Bridgend in Wales, who has written a letter to Liz Truss calling on her to resign as prime minister, described the tactics used during the battle to succeed Boris Johnson as “extremely unpleasant”.

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Liz Truss fights for survival as even allies say she could have only days left

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Prime minister to meet mutinous Tory MPs this week in effort to shore up her position after U-turns on tax

Liz Truss is fighting for her political survival, with Conservative MPs threatening to oust her and even allies warning she has just days to turn around her premiership despite ripping up her economic strategy and appointing Jeremy Hunt as chancellor.

The beleaguered prime minister will attempt to shore up her crumbling support by gathering her cabinet ministers at No 10 on Monday and then embarking on a series of meetings with mutinous Tory MPs before the next budget in a fortnight’s time.

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No 10 chief of staff’s position untenable amid lobbying claims, says Labour

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Mark Fullbrook accused of trying to change UK policy by arranging for ministers to meet Libyan politician

Labour has claimed Mark Fullbrook’s position as Downing Street chief of staff is no longer tenable after it was revealed that before his appointment he tried to change UK foreign policy by arranging for two cabinet ministers to meet Fathi Bashagha, a Libyan politician with links to the Russian Wagner Group.

The Guardian had previously reported that Fullbrook, as chief executive of Fullbrook Strategies, had lobbied on behalf of Bashagha, but the Sunday Times alleged he arranged for Bashagha to come to London in June, where he met the then business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the education secretary at the time, Nadhim Zahawi.

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Liz Truss may be safe until Halloween but nightmare is far from over

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PM will gather her cabinet for a rare Monday meeting to try to convince them she still holds levers of power

When Liz Truss gathers her cabinet in Downing Street for a rare Monday meeting to shore up support and talk them through her radically changed plans for the Halloween budget, she will be trying to convince them she still has a grip on power.

Sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and bringing in Jeremy Hunt – who quickly buried key elements of her economic strategy, with tax rises and public spending cuts to come – was a necessary political sacrifice if she was to survive in No 10.

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John Major dismisses The Crown as a ‘barrel load of nonsense’

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Former PM angered by fictitious storyline in which Charles seeks his help in getting the Queen to abdicate

As Netflix prepares to release its fifth season of big budget royal drama The Crown it has rejected criticism of the latest season after former prime minster Sir John Major described it as a “barrel load of nonsense”.

Major’s comments were made after concerns arose that a storyline in the hit programme could damage King Charles’s reputation.

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Royal Society of Arts accused of ‘spite’ by staff member who spoke out on unions

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Staff member who spoke to the Observer about drive to get workers to join IWGB union claims she was ‘punished’ by arts charity

The Royal Society of Arts has been accused of punishing staff who spoke out about their campaign to unionise the 270-year-old charity.

The Observer reported last week that almost half the charity’s workforce below senior manager level had joined the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), with a petition indicating most staff backed unionisation. The RSA senior management team led by Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England, has rebuffed three requests to voluntarily recognise the union.

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UK food banks at breaking point urge Liz Truss to boost aid to poorest

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As cost of living crisis bites, 3,000 volunteers across several organisations sign letter of warning to the prime minister

Thousands of food bank volunteers will warn Liz Truss on Monday that they are having to ration provisions, as their services have become “overstretched and exhausted” because of an influx of people needing their help.

In a sign of a continuing cost of living crisis that was building even before the economic crisis that followed the government’s mini-budget, a letter signed by more than 3,000 food bank workers will be delivered to Downing Street.

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The unravelling: the full story of how Liz Truss lost her way – and her authority in the Tory party

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The prime minister ditched her close ally Kwasi Kwarteng to save her own job – but now Conservative MPs are openly plotting to replace her

After an astonishing eight-minute press conference, in which Liz Truss attempted to salvage her imploding leadership by firing her closest political ally and ditching a totemic policy that won her the job, the most telling reaction was that of officials who had served in Boris Johnson’s chaotic Downing Street.

Just a few short months ago, they had been forced to endure months of scandal, followed by the resignations of dozens of ministers. They had even awkwardly brushed shoulders with cabinet members gathered in Downing Street to tell Johnson that his time was up. But after watching Truss’s hunted demeanour on Friday afternoon, their suffering suddenly seemed trifling.

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‘Send off the clowns’: Labour ads tear into Tories amid Truss crisis

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Scathing posters ridicule Conservatives for damaging Britain’s reputation, lifting mortgages and crashing the economy

The UK’s Labour party is looking to capitalise on the government crisis with a series of new adverts as it gears up for the next general election.

The scathing posters, seen by the PA news agency, attack the Conservatives for damaging Britain’s standing on the world stage, hiking mortgages and crashing the economy.

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Joe Biden: Liz Truss tax cuts a ‘mistake’ and ‘I wasn’t the only one’ who thought so

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US president rejects ‘cutting taxes on the super-wealthy’ and says he is worried by ‘lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries’

Joe Biden has called Liz Truss’s abandoned UK tax cut plan a “mistake” and said he is worried that other nations’ fiscal policies may hurt the US amid “worldwide inflation”.

Biden said it was “predictable” that the new British prime minister was forced on Friday to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes without identifying cost savings, after Truss’s proposal caused turmoil in global financial markets.

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Jeremy Hunt says mistakes made and taxes set to rise as Bank warns of ‘strong response’ to inflation – UK politics live

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Chancellor says ‘difficult decisions’ ahead with some departments needing to find savings and some taxes set to rise

Hunt says the UK has a “massive amount going for us”, but the reason it remains a top economy is because the country has been prepared to make “tough decisions” – and this moment is one of them.

The new chancellor says he is “very sensitive” to people at the bottom of the income scale but will not commit to not cutting benefits. “I’ve only been in the job for a matter of hours,” he says, adding that he will be sitting down with the Treasury team later today.

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Jeremy Hunt says difficult decisions ahead after Truss ‘mistakes’

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New chancellor vows to be ‘completely honest with country’ amid rumours PM has only weeks left in role

The new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has spoken of “mistakes” made by the Liz Truss administration and predicted “difficult decisions ahead”.

Appearing on Sky News on Saturday, in his first interview since replacing Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, the former health secretary signalled he would have a “clean slate” when it came to the budget, and vowed to be “completely honest with the country” amid rumours that Truss has only weeks left as prime minister.

Hunt, who was parachuted into No 11 in an attempt to restore order to Truss’s ailing government, also suggested that some taxes could rise, as he promised to bring stability to the UK in the wake of the disastrous mini-budget.

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Keir Starmer criticises ‘grotesque chaos’ under Liz Truss government

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Labour leader says UK is ‘crying out for clear leadership’ and his party ‘must provide it’

Keir Starmer has criticised the “grotesque chaos” of recent weeks and said the government “no longer has a mandate from the British people”.

The Labour leader said there were no historical precedents for the ongoing economic turmoil and that the prime minister, Liz Truss, would not be able to “fix the mess she has created”.

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Tobias Ellwood has Tory whip restored after being suspended in July

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Chair of Commons defence committee had whip withdrawn for failing to turn up for a confidence vote

A senior Conservative MP has had the whip restored after being suspended from the party for missing a confidence vote in the summer.

Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Commons defence select committee, had the whip withdrawn after failing to vote for Boris Johnson’s government in a confidence vote in July.

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How Brexit nearly scuppered the ‘festival of Brexit’

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Project hit by fall in labour supply and rise in costs, and investigation launched over low visitor numbers

For some, the whole project was supposed to be a celebration of Britain’s departure from the EU. Which means there is more than a little irony in the fact a main concern of the “festival of Brexit” organisers was the impact of leaving itself.

Disruption to the supply of workers and materials, as well as increased costs, emerged as one of the risks overshadowing the project, according to records.

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Five million UK families ‘face mortgage rising by £5,100 a year by end of 2024’

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Increase adds up to a £26bn rise for homeowners, says Resolution Foundation thinktank

More than five million families could see their annual mortgage payments rise by an average of £5,100 between now and the end of 2024, heaping fresh pain on households already struggling with higher food and energy bills.

The increase adds up to a £26bn mortgage rise for homeowners, according to the analysis by the Resolution Foundation thinktank which said nearly a fifth of British households would have to spend more on their housing costs by the end of 2024.

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Truss premiership ‘hanging by thread’ after Kwarteng sacking and latest U-turn

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PM’s move to replace chancellor and commit to raising corporation tax fails to placate markets or Tory MPs

Liz Truss is desperately clinging to her premiership after she sacked her chancellor and ripped up the mini-budget but failed to calm the financial markets or furious Conservative MPs.

In a humiliating reversal, the prime minister backed down on plans to scrap an £18bn rise in corporation tax and replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor with Jeremy Hunt.

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UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

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Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

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Kwasi Kwarteng reportedly believes Liz Truss ‘only has a few weeks’ – as it happened

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Source close to sacked chancellor briefs Times that ‘wagons are still going to circle’ around embattled prime minsiter

The Conservative peer, Ed Vaizey, said he disagreed with the international trade secretary, Greg Hands, who earlier said Kwasi Kwarteng’s early return is not unusual. “It is quite unusual for this to happen,” he said.

Speaking to Sky News, Vaizey said the chancellor cutting his trip to the US short is “not a good sign”. He said:

I’m afraid the chancellor coming back a day early doesn’t fill one with confidence.

The fact that people were speculating about the prime minister’s leadership this early in her premiership is not ideal, but I think he’s just got to bite the bullet. He’s got to try to give the markets confidence in the British economy.

If he can do that then perhaps he can say: ‘Well, I had to do some difficult choices, slightly humiliating choices, but the result is stabilisation and I can move forward.’

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