Category Archives: Politics

Starmer is facing a cocktail of dissent that is growing ever more potent

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After the Greens’ byelection win, PM’s failure to make a progressive offer has angered Labour’s soft-left majority

But for the Iran crisis, Labour’s first major policy announcement since the party’s calamitous defeat in the Gorton and Denton byelection would have been arguably the biggest political story of the week.

Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, pressed ahead with what is intended to be the party’s full-throated answer to the competition it faces from Reform UK as she declared an end to permanent refugee status and the removal of state support from some asylum seekers.

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Lobbyists send legal threats to councils over anti-wood burner campaigns

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At least eight councils receive legal threats alleging flyers criticising wood burners are in breach of advertising codes

Lobbyists for the UK wood-burning stove industry have threatened councils with legal action over public information campaigns warning of the harms of air pollution.

At least eight councils have received legal threats, according to research by the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The Stove Industry Association (SIA), which represents the UK’s expanding industry around the burning of wood in domestic settings, wrote to the councils, all London boroughs, in late 2023 complaining that flyers stating wood burners were “careless, not cosy” were in breach of UK advertising codes.

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Starmer’s slow start in the war against Iran could leave UK playing catch-up

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Prime minister’s initial refusal to help US could constrain Britain’s ability to protect its nationals in the Gulf and reassure allies

Britain knew that the US was considering attacking Iran from the moment Donald Trump told protesters that “help is coming” in the middle of January. It was obvious to the world that the White House was serious when the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group was sent to the Arabian Sea in late January.

But as Trump gradually built up his “massive armada”, reinforcing it with a second carrier strike group in mid-February, UK deployments were constrained and limited even though there was a recognition that it was likely allies and bases with British soldiers would be attacked in an Iranian retaliation.

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Labour MP says she had no reason to suspect her husband may have broken law after his arrest on suspicion of spying for China – as it happened

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Joani Reid asks for privacy after it was revealed her husband David Taylor was one of the three men arrested

Starmer begins PMQs by telling the Commons that his thoughts are with Sarah Everard “on this very painful anniversary” of her death.

He says the government is working hard to prevent boys and men from becoming abusers.

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Head of carer’s allowance inquiry blames DWP ‘resistance’ for failure to fix crisis

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Liz Sayce tells MPs some civil servants tried to minimise extent of problems and deflect blame

The head of an official inquiry into carer’s allowance has criticised “forces of resistance” inside the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that undermined ministerial attempts to fix longstanding problems with the much-criticised benefit.

Liz Sayce, whose review of carer’s allowance was published in November, said rather than owning the problems, some at the DWP had tried to “minimise” the extent of the department’s failures and sought to deflect blame for the crisis.

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Britain not ruling out future strikes on Iran missile sites, officials indicate

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‘We just don’t know what will happen,’ western officials say, as UK bases prepare for arrival of US heavy bombers

Britain has not ruled out participating in future strikes against Iranian ballistic missile launch sites, officials have indicated.

US heavy bombers are expected to reach UK bases at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and Fairford in Gloucestershire in the next few days, from where they are expected to attack Iran’s underground “missile cities”.

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Most Reform members believe non-white UK citizens born abroad should be forced or encouraged to leave, poll finds

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Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate

More than half of Reform UK members believe non-white British citizens born abroad should be deported or encouraged to leave, according to the first publicly available poll of those in Nigel Farage’s party.

The findings come as the Reform leader attempts to court centre-ground voters while facing pressure from his right flank, including a hardline new party launched by Rupert Lowe, who left Reform after falling out with Farage.

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UK parliament to debate whether all suicides linked to domestic abuse to be investigated as homicide

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Lib Dems table amendment to crime and policing bill, saying system ‘simply not doing enough to protect women’

Parliament is to debate whether all suicides in cases involving victims of domestic abuse should be investigated as homicide.

The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the crime and policing bill saying that if “there is reasonable suspicion that a death by suicide has been preceded by a history of domestic abuse committed against the person by another person, the relevant police force must investigate that suicide as if it were a potential homicide”.

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Trump rebukes Starmer again for not letting US attack Iran from UK bases

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US president criticises prime minister for third time 24 hours, describing him as ‘not Churchill’ over initial refusal

Donald Trump has launched a deeply personal attack on Keir Starmer over his refusal to let the US launch initial strikes on Iran from British bases, telling reporters: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

In his latest extraordinary salvo, the US president said he was not happy with the UK even though the prime minister eventually agreed the US could use Diego Garcia for strikes on Iranian missile facilities.

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Mahmood’s move to make asylum temporary ‘may undermine refugee convention’

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Law Society says home secretary’s review of refugee status after 30 months is in tension with UK’s legal obligations

Shabana Mahmood’s decision to tell every person applying for asylum from Monday that their status is temporary could undermine the refugee convention, the Law Society has said.

The body representing solicitors in England and Wales said the home secretary’s move to review every refugee’s status after 30 months was “in tension” with the UK’s legal obligations.

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Starmer vows to avoid ‘mistakes of Iraq’ that have haunted Labour for decades

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Prime minister does not believe US has a plan beyond ‘shock and awe’ stage, as some MPs dread what lies ahead

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

• What we know so far on day three of the Iran war

• A visual guide to strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response

Tony Blair’s support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 has long loomed like a spectre over the Labour party.

It was present in 2013 when Ed Miliband as opposition leader voted to block UK military action against the Syrian regime.

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RAF airbase in Cyprus hit, two more drones shot down as Cooper defends decision to allow US to use UK bases for Iran strikes – UK politics live

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Foreign secretary confirms strike on Akrotiri base but says it ‘simply not true’ the UK is being dragged into an Iraq-style conflict

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge went on Sky News to criticise Keir Starmer and his handling of the conflict.

“I’ve been very clear for weeks that if we were in government and the US had asked for our permission, we would have given them permission…but what they got with the prime minister as we saw last summer with the other bombing of nuclear facilities is the worst of both worlds: sitting on the fence, not showing strong leadership, very unclear.

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UK house prices rise in February as chancellor avoids ‘negative speculation’

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Rachel Reeves’ upcoming spring forecast has not led to slowdown, as property tax rumours did in November

House prices in the UK increased in February as Rachel Reeves avoided a repeat of the pre-budget “negative speculation” that depressed the market, as she prepares to present the spring forecast on Tuesday.

The average price of a home rose to £273,176 last month, up by 0.3% from the month before, Nationwide said. It matched January’s monthly increase, and was above analysts’ forecasts of a 0.2% gain. The annual growth rate remained steady at 1%, the country’s biggest building society said.

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Hezbollah said to have launched drone that struck UK RAF airbase in Cyprus

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Two more drones intercepted on Monday, authorities say, in what appears to be sustained targeting of base

A one-way attack drone – said to have been launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah – struck the UK’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus at about midnight on Sunday, prompting a partial evacuation of the military facility.

Two more drones were successfully intercepted on Monday morning, the Cypriot authorities said, as part of what appears to be a sustained targeting of the base on the third day of the war in the Middle East.

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Labour council accuses minister of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over social care dispute

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Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care

The housing, communities and local government secretary has been accused by a Labour council of showing “arrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy” towards children in social care.

In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were “furious and appalled” at Steve Reed after a meeting with him last week. A cross-party delegation had asked the secretary of state for £3m to help alleviate the growing cost of social care.

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‘Simply not true’ UK is being dragged into Iraq-style conflict, says foreign secretary

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Yvette Cooper says plans under consideration to evacuate about 300,000 Britons from Middle East amid Iran war

It is “simply not true” that the UK is being dragged into another Iraq-style conflict in the Middle East, Yvette Cooper has said, after an RAF base in Cyprus was struck by an Iranian drone.

The attack was part of a barrage of strikes by Tehran around the Middle East after a US-Israeli attack on Saturday that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The UK foreign secretary confirmed ministers were considering possible plans to evacuate about 300,000 Britons from the region.

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Most senior council officers in England say building work hit by delays

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Funding uncertainty is main concern, despite Labour’s pledge to revitalise construction, survey shows

Almost two-thirds of senior council officers have said they are seeing construction projects delayed, despite the key role of local authorities in creating the wave of new housing and infrastructure promised by Labour.

Before Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast on Tuesday, a survey of senior council officers showed that 40% do not think the local authority they work for is well placed to follow through on its construction plans.

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UK to allow US to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iran

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Keir Starmer says decision was taken amid increasingly reckless Iranian actions, as Liberal Democrats demand parliamentary vote

The UK has agreed to let the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, Keir Starmer has said.

The UK has so far not been involved in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, but in a recorded statement on Sunday evening, the prime minister said that Iran’s approach was becoming more reckless and putting British lives at risk, leading to the decision to allow the US to use two of its military bases.

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Starmer faces greater quandary over ‘special relationship’ after Iran attack

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PM is in diplomatically precarious position of declining to endorse US strikes while also refusing to condemn them

It was perhaps naive of No 10 ever to position Keir Starmer as a “Donald Trump whisperer” capable of persuading the unpredictable US president to step back from reckless decisions.

The “special relationship” has been under severe strain in recent months over the UK’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and the refusal of European countries to back Trump’s play for Greenland.

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Foreign Office starts planning evacuation of thousands of Britons in Middle East

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About 200,000 nationals thought to be in the region as tensions rise after US-Israeli attacks on Iranian regime

The Foreign Office is drawing up plans to evacuate tens of thousands of British citizens if war in the Middle East escalates, with many travellers currently stranded in Dubai.

Keir Starmer said on Sunday that about 200,000 British people are in the region, on holiday or otherwise travelling across the Gulf. He urged everyone in areas targeted by Iranian strikes to register with the Foreign Office to receive advice, with about 94,000 doing that so far.

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