Category Archives: Politics

Striking union members should ‘get back to work’, says Liz Truss

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PM maintains pledge to bring in measures limiting industrial action but denies planning to rip up EU rules on workers’ rights

Liz Truss has told striking workers to “get back to work” as she doubled down on her pledge to bring in measures to limit industrial action within weeks of coming to power.

The prime minister suggested that a planned wave of strikes by workers ranging from train drivers to barristers, risked holding the country back during the toughest economic climate in a generation.

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No one should wait more than two weeks to see GP, Coffey to say

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New health secretary’s demand to improve patient access to GP care in England is immediately criticised by family doctors

No patient should have to wait more than two weeks to see a GP, the new health secretary will demand , in a move that has already been criticised by family doctors.

Thérèse Coffey will on Thursday set out a new “expectation” that everyone seeking an appointment with a GP should get one within 14 days while outlining a major plan to tackle the NHS’s growing crisis.

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Liz Truss dismisses Putin’s nuclear threats as ‘statement of weakness’

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UK PM spurns Russian president’s ‘sabre-rattling’ as she prepares call for democratic renewal in UN address

Liz Truss has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia will use “all the means at our disposal” to protect itself as “sabre-rattling” in advance of her UN speech, where she will warn him: “This will not work.”

The Russian president’s threats in a televised address to the nation appeared to suggest the conflict in Ukraine could spiral into a nuclear crisis, prompting a furious response from world leaders, led by the US president, Joe Biden.

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Scandals dent trust in Danish leadership contender Søren Pape Poulsen

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Conservative People’s Party leader takes poll hit after undisclosed meetings and accusations about husband

One of the leading contenders to become Denmark’s next prime minister has stumbled in the polls after revelations of undisclosed meetings and accusations that his husband had made up family links to a former president of the Dominican Republic.

Søren Pape Poulsen, the leader of Denmark’s Conservative People’s Party, announced last week that his marriage was over after it emerged that his husband, Josue Medina Vásquez Poulsen, had no biological relationship to a former president of the Dominican Republic whom he had claimed as an uncle.

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Bring back eviction ban or face ‘catastrophic’ homelessness crisis, ministers told

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Sir Bob Kerslake calls on government to protect at-risk tenants as it did during pandemic

The former head of the civil service has warned of a looming “catastrophic” homelessness crisis caused by the cost of living unless the government reintroduces the eviction ban that protected tenants during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sir Bob Kerslake, who chairs the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, said a failure to act “could see this become a homelessness as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic; with all the good achieved in reducing street homelessness since the pandemic lost, and any hope of the government meeting its manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024 gone”.

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Adult social care in England is in crisis, say Tory council leaders

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Warning of £3.7bn funding shortfall over next 18 months piles pressure on Liz Truss after campaign pledges

Adult social care in England is in serious crisis, Tory council leaders have warned the government, as it faces a £3.7bn funding gap and a growing staffing shortage that has brought many local care providers to the brink of collapse.

The intervention by the County Councils Network, which represents 36 mainly Tory-run authorities, comes amid widespread local government concern over the increasing fragile state of social care. Care costs have accelerated recently, fuelled by unexpected wage and energy inflation.

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Economists call for radical shakeup of Bank’s interest rate committee

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MPC is dominated by people with little ‘real world’ knowledge and prone to groupthink, says ex-committee member

Members of the Bank of England’s interest-rate setting body should be appointed by the devolved administrations and by English MPs in order to counter groupthink, a former member of Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee has said.

David Blanchflower said the committee was dominated by people with little knowledge of the “real world”, and greater diversity of thought was needed to ensure the interests of ordinary people were reflected.

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Liz Truss may face Lords rebellion over Northern Ireland bill

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Exclusive: about 50 peers due to meet on Wednesday morning to discuss how to amend or halt proposed legislation

Liz Truss is facing a potential House of Lords rebellion over proposed legislation to rip up part of the Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland amid concerns that it gives ministers “dictatorial” powers to pen and pass laws without scrutiny.

About 50 Conservative, Labour and cross party peers are due to meet on Wednesday morning to discuss how they can amend or halt the Northern Ireland bill which has already passed through the House of Commons.

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‘Not every measure will be popular’: Truss says voters may not like all her pro-growth measures – UK politics live

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Latest updates: prime minister says she is willing to implement unpopular policies to try to boost growth in the UK

Rosie Cooper has indicated that she intends to stand down as Labour MP for West Lancashire to take up a new job as chair of the Mersey Care NHS foundation trust. In her statement announcing the move Cooper says that events in recent years have “undoubtedly taken their toll” – a reference to Cooper being targeted by a neo-Nazi who was jailed for life in 2019 for plotting to kill her.

Cooper’s statement implies she will resign and trigger a byelection. At the last election she had a majority of more than 8,000 over the Conservatives, and in a byelection Labour would be expected to hold the seat very easily.

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Kwasi Kwarteng urged to allow release of OBR forecasts with mini-budget

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Tory chair of Treasury committee says independent forecasts vital to provide reassurance to markets

The Tory chair of the Treasury select committee has urged Kwasi Kwarteng to allow independent forecasts for the public finances to be published alongside his mini-budget on Friday.

Mel Stride released a strongly worded statement urging more clarity around the effects of the new chancellor’s fiscal interventions.

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UK unions seek legal review of government’s strike-breaking laws

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TUC leads legal action over ministers’ plans to allow agency workers to replace striking staff

Trade unions have launched legal proceedings against the UK government, arguing that new laws allowing companies to use agency workers to break strikes are a “broad daylight” attack on the right to take industrial action.

Eleven trade unions, led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), have sought permission for a judicial review of new regulations making the change.

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UK under pressure to increase aid to Global Fund after US pledge

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Initiative to fight malaria, TB and Aids has asked for 30% increase after Covid crisis, but UK yet to announce pledge

Britain’s new government is facing the first test of its commitment to the global south as it decides whether to follow Joe Biden’s lead and pledge an extra £1.8bn to the Global Fund, the highly successful 20-year-old initiative that fights malaria, tuberculosis and Aids.

A replenishment event to cover funding for the next three years is taking place in New York, and Liz Truss’s administration has been delaying an announcement, partly owing to the death of the Queen.

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Liz Truss meeting with Irish PM raises hopes Brexit talks with EU will resume

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British prime minister and Micheál Martin understood to have agreed there is opportunity for reset of relations

Hopes that talks between the UK and the EU will resume over a protracted dispute about the Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland have risen after a 45-minute meeting between Liz Truss and the Irish prime minister in Downing Street on Sunday morning.

The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was one of five world leaders to have “leaders’ meetings” with the British prime minister before the Queen’s funeral on Monday, in what was seen by some as a mark of the UK’s determination to reset soured relations with its neighbour.

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Beijing-backed Chinese language schools in UK to be replaced with teachers from Taiwan

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MPs in talks with Taiwan to help phase out Confucius Institutes as relations between the countries worsen

A group of cross-party MPs is in talks with Taiwan to provide Mandarin teachers to the UK as the government seeks to phase out Chinese state-linked Confucius Institutes, the Observer has learned.

There are currently 30 branches of the Confucius Institute operating across the UK. Although controversies have existed for many years, they have continued to teach Britons Chinese language, culture and business etiquette. These schools are effectively joint ventures between a host university in Britain, a partner university in China, and the Chinese International Education Foundation (CIEF), a Beijing-based organisation.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg’s imperial measurements consultation ‘biased’ after no option given to say no

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‘It’s a nonsense’: government facing claims of manipulating questions to get desired result from survey on ‘Brexit bonus’

It was meant to be one of the sure-fire wins for Brexit, but plans to bring back imperial measurements face criticism over claims of a biased government review.

Ministers were keen to launch a review to revive imperial measurements – such as pounds and ounces – and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), now overseen by Jacob Rees-Mogg, conducted a government consultation over the summer. However, the questions appeared to have something missing.

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Liz Truss’s first big diplomatic meeting with Biden postponed

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Meeting rearranged for Wednesday in New York as Bidens travel to UK for Queen’s funeral

Liz Truss’s planned meeting with Joe Biden in Downing Street, which was to be her first major diplomatic event as prime minister, has been rescheduled for Wednesday at the UN.

Officials from both countries said that a meeting in the margins of the UN general assembly would allow “fuller” bilateral discussion and was not the result of friction. But, whenever the two leaders meet, they face disagreements over Northern Ireland.

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Schools urge parents to help plug funding gaps as costs soar

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Some parent bodies helping with core costs, raising fears of growing gap between rich and poor areas

Days into the new academic year, headteachers have raised the alarm about a looming funding crisis in schools, with some parents urged to make donations and parent-teacher associations on standby to plug funding gaps for classroom essentials.

As energy bills and wage costs rise, school leaders say money from PTA fundraising efforts will be needed to cover core costs rather than “nice to have” extras. In affluent areas where PTAs are able to raise huge sums, it could even be used to save jobs and help pay bills.

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Companies declared insolvent in England and Wales jump by 43%

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Businesses may struggle as consumers cut back spending amid high inflation and rising fuel costs, economists warn

The number of companies in England and Wales declared insolvent jumped by 43% in August, according to government data, which adds to concerns for the health of the UK economy.

There were 1,933 insolvencies in August, compared with 1,348 in the same month last year, the Insolvency Service said. It was 42% above the level in August 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

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Kwarteng plan to lift cap on bankers’ bonuses infuriates unions

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Unite leader deplores prospect of post-Brexit deregulation drive ‘when millions are struggling’

Unions have reacted with fury to the prospect of the government scrapping a cap on bankers’ bonuses, as ministers geared up for a return to near-normal politics next week, topped by an emergency mini-budget on Friday.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor, who will set out plans for tax cuts and give more details about the government’s plans to limit rising energy bills, is also considering whether to shed the legacy of an EU-wide cap on bonuses of twice an employee’s salary, imposed after the 2008 financial crash.

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Kwasi Kwarteng planning to scrap caps on bankers’ bonuses

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Critics question chancellor’s idea of abolishing rules imposed after 2008 financial crash during cost of living crisis

The UK chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is reportedly planning to scrap caps on bankers’ bonuses in a controversially timed move to attract more talent to the City of London.

A source close to Kwarteng confirmed the chancellor was considering lifting the cap but emphasised that no decision had been taken.

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