Category Archives: Politics

Liz Truss announces full asset freeze against Russia’s biggest bank

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Eight more oligarchs will also face sanctions and UK oil and coal imports will stop by end of year, says foreign secretary

The UK will impose a full asset freeze on Russia’s largest bank and end all imports of oil and coal by the end of the year, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

Eight more oligarchs will also be sanctioned, including Moshe Kantor, the largest shareholder of the fertiliser company Acron and Andrey Guryev, the founder of another key fertiliser company, whom the UK described as a close associate of Vladimir Putin.

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UK politics live: Boris Johnson defends national insurance increase amid cost of living crisis

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Latest updates: PM admits households are facing ‘unquestionably tough times’, but says NI increase is right thing for the NHS

Keir Starmer says the national insurance rise is “the wrong tax at the wrong time”.

The Labour leader said:

People are really, really struggling to pay their bills. And this is just going to impact on them very, very hard.

There are lots of landlords who’ve got many, many properties and they are not going to be paying a penny more in tax. Their tenants, who are going out to work, are going to be paying more in tax.

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Johnson says trans athletes should not compete in events that do not match biological sex

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PM also says women should have ‘dedicated’ spaces, amid fallout over decision to exclude trans conversion practices from ban

Boris Johnson has suggested athletes who are transgender should not be allowed to compete in sports competitions that do not match their biological sex, amid the fallout from his decision not to ban conversion practices for people questioning their gender.

The prime minister said the issue “wasn’t something I thought that I would have to consider in great detail”. Johnson also said that women should have spaces in hospitals, prisons and changing rooms which were “dedicated to women”.

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National Grid to be partly nationalised to help reach net zero targets

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Electricity System Operator, the division that keeps the lights on in Great Britain, will form part of a new public body

The job of keeping the UK’s electricity and gas flowing will be returned to public control by 2024, under government plans for the effective nationalisation of a division of National Grid.

A new public body, the “Future System Operator”, will have responsibility for planning and managing energy distribution, with a focus on the challenges posed by decarbonisation.

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Ex-P&O Ferries chef sues for unfair dismissal and racial discrimination

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John Lansdown seeking up to £76m, which he will use to set up trust to help fellow seafarers

A former P&O Ferries chef is suing the company for £76m over its decision to sack almost 800 staff without notice last month.

John Lansdown, the only seafarer to launch a legal action, has filed a tribunal claim against the company and its chief executive for unfair dismissal, racial discrimination and harassment.

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Partygate: ministers refuse to disclose pictures taken by No 10 photographers

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Cabinet Office won’t confirm or deny existence of taxpayer-funded pictures of illegal gatherings after freedom of information request

Ministers are refusing to disclose any pictures taken by official No 10 photographers of illegal gatherings held inside Downing Street, prompting Labour to call on Boris Johnson to “come clean and release these photos”.

The Cabinet Office refused to confirm or deny the existence of any photographs of events in the cabinet room, leaving parties, and a party in the prime minister’s Downing Street flat, after official pictures of the gatherings were requested under freedom of information laws.

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LGBTQ+ conference cancelled over conversion practices furore

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Organisations pulled out of Safe to Be Me after government failure to ban conversion practices for transgender people

The government’s flagship LGBTQ+ conference is to be cancelled after it fell into disarray with more organisations pulling out and a key government adviser accusing ministers of waging a “woke war”.

With Downing Street under fire for watering down its commitment to ban conversion practices, the Safe to Be Me event due to be hosted in June has now been scrapped.

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Tory ’revenge’ against Channel 4 could turn into bruising battle

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Analysis: why ministers are risking political capital pushing ahead now with privatisation plan is unclear

According to one key individual involved in the battle for Channel 4’s future, the broadcaster is a “wonderful company doing a fantastic job”, it is performing well financially and plays a crucial role in supporting the British television ecosystem.

Curiously, that individual is Stephen Parkinson, a government minister arguing that the only solution to secure Channel 4’s future is to rapidly privatise it and sell it off to a commercial owner, possibly one based overseas.

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Ministers launch fracking study, paving way to end moratorium in England

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Conservatives seek to examine latest techniques, citing rising energy costs

Ministers have paved the way for a reconsideration of the moratorium on fracking in England by commissioning a new study to examine safety concerns about the controversial practice.

In an effort to decrease Britain’s reliance on imported energy given spiralling costs, the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said it was “absolutely right that we explore all possible domestic energy sources”.

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Channel 4 privatisation plans face Tory backlash – UK politics as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest stories on Channel 4 below:

DCMS select committee chair Julian Knight has questioned if the government’s plans to forge forward with the privatisation of Channel 4 are “revenge”, adding that many Tories believe the move is “payback time” for “biased coverage”.

Knight said Channel 4 could succeed if it was privatised and managed well, but it’s “a big risk” and “must be done as part of a thorough overhaul of all public service broadcasting”.

It is certainly true that Channel 4 will have greater freedom to compete once privatised and if managed well it should be able to continue to innovate and crucially appeal to young audiences - a real USP in today’s broadcast landscape.

However, this is a big risk. The question has to be, do you think a restricted but brilliant small state broadcaster will part compete with the likes of Apple and Amazon or does it need to be able to borrow and grow in a way only privatisation can unlock?

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UK politicians request visa scheme for Ukrainian students and academics

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In a letter to Priti Patel, the cross-party group calls for temporary places where those displaced can study and carry out research

A cross-party group of MPs and peers has joined forces with UK universities in calling for the visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees to be extended to temporary placements for students and academics.

In a letter to Priti Patel, the home secretary, the parliamentarians and Universities UK, the advocacy organisation for universities, said the scheme should provide visas and temporary places for displaced students and academics to study and carry out research.

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Priti Patel’s immigration bill suffers multiple defeats in Lords

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Peers find fault with many aspects of nationality and borders bill, in particular proposal to divide refugees into classes

Priti Patel’s nationality and borders bill has been ripped apart for a second time by the House of Lords as the government suffered more than 10 defeats over controversial proposals to tighten immigration rules.

Peers supported proposals to ensure that the bill complied with the 1951 Refugee Convention and challenged the government’s plan to redefine refugees into two classes based on how they arrived in the UK.

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What you need to know about the privatisation of Channel 4

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As the government presses ahead with the sale, what is the broadcaster worth and who would buy it?

The industry player most likely to buy Channel 4, with the least regulatory hurdles, is Discovery. The big US pay-TV company, which is merging with WarnerMedia, the parent company of CNN, HBO and the Hollywood studio behind the Batman and Harry Potter franchises, expressed interest the last time the broadcaster faced privatisation in 2016.

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Nadine Dorries presses ahead with plan to privatise Channel 4

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Ministers hope to raise £1bn from sell-off ending broadcaster’s 40 years in public ownership

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, is pushing ahead with controversial plans to privatise Channel 4, with the government backing proposals to sell off the broadcaster after 40 years in public ownership.

The government hopes to raise around £1bn from the sell-off, making it one of the biggest privatisations since Royal Mail went public a decade ago. Ministers have suggested they could spend the proceeds to boost creative training and independent production companies, essentially funding their levelling up agenda.

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Unions call for Westminster ban for MPs accused of sexual misconduct

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Move, after accusations against David Warburton, would help ‘bring parliament into the 21st century’

Unions representing parliamentary staff have called for MPs accused of sexual misconduct to be excluded from the Westminster estate while investigations take place, after allegations against the Conservative backbencher David Warburton.

The joint call by unions representing parliamentary workers – Prospect, the FDA, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the GMB – comes after Warburton was accused of sexual harassment as well as alleged cocaine use and potentially failing to declare a loan.

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Sanctions on Russia must stay till all troops leave Ukraine, says Liz Truss

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Foreign secretary in discussions with Ukrainian foreign minister about intensifying sanctions after atrocities in Bucha

The West must not lift sanctions against Russia until all its troops have left Ukraine and Vladimir Putin is unable to mount such an offensive again, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

She was speaking alongside the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Warsaw, where the two discussed how to step up sanctions against Russia to the maximum in the wake of the alleged war crimes revealed in Bucha.

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UK public do not believe government will tackle crime, documents show

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Government polling finds a high fear of crime and little confidence anything will be done about it

The public do not believe ministers’ promises to tackle crime, official documents seen by the Guardian show.

The Home Office documents reveals polling carried out for the government found a high fear of crime, and low confidence much will be done about it.

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Labour women urge party not to use NDAs for sexual harassment allegations

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Exclusive: Senior figures say signing confidentiality agreements that cover up unacceptable behaviour violates Labour policy

A dozen senior Labour women have called on the party to end its use of confidentiality agreements to “cover up” allegations of sexual harassment, saying the treatment of two former staffers was appalling.

Laura Murray, Labour’s ex-head of complaints, and Georgie Robertson, who worked in the party’s press office, said they refused to sign the agreements after reporting an official for “inappropriate” and “possessive” behaviour.

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BBC advertises political editor’s job after dissatisfaction with shortlist

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Bosses said to have been unhappy with choice of candidates after all-female shortlist was produced

BBC bosses have readvertised the job of political editor after being unhappy with the choice of candidates to replace Laura Kuenssberg in one of the most influential roles in British journalism.

Following weeks of interviews and an extensive recruitment process, the corporation had produced an all-female shortlist for the role, with ITV News’s Anushka Asthana and Sky News’s Sophy Ridge believed to be the final two candidates. An announcement on which of them would get the job had been expected to coincide with Kuenssberg stepping down last week.

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High energy-using industries fear lack of support from UK ministers

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Firms say they need the kind of help that EU competitors get as gas and electricity prices soar

Britain’s strategic heavy industries have warned they risk being left high and dry by a lack of support in the government’s upcoming energy strategy, warning that failure to follow European countries’ measures to reduce gas and electricity costs will put UK businesses at risk.

The government is expected to outline long-awaited proposals this week for a once-in-a-generation drive to invest in nuclear power and possibly more onshore wind and solar power, as well as approving continued North Sea oil and gas exploration.

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