Exclusive: MPs say in letter Gaza is being ethnically cleansed as Israeli defence minister plans ‘forcible transfer’
Nearly 60 Labour MPs have demanded the UK immediately recognises Palestine as a state, after Israel’s defence minister announced plans to force all residents of Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.
The MPs, who include centrist and leftwing backbenchers, sent a letter to David Lammy on Thursday warning they believed Gaza was being ethnically cleansed.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Young people deterred from politics, Rushanara Ali warns, as government plans stricter punishments
MPs and political candidates are facing “industrial” levels of intimidation and harassment, a minister has warned, as the government outlines plans for stricter punishments for those found guilty of abuse.
Rushanara Ali, the minister for democracy, said her colleagues were suffering worse harassment than ever before and warned this was deterring many young people from becoming politically active.
Continue reading...Former chancellor says employees’ contributions should rise to help address a £6bn shortfall caused by recent U-turns
The Unite union has voted to re-examine its relationship with the Labour party in the light of the government’s failure to support its members in the Birmingham bin strike.
It has also said it was suspending Angela Rayner’s membership, given her role as minister in charge of the department that oversees local government. The union is in dispute with Birmingham city council over proposals to reorganise waste disposal services in the city, and Unite has repeatedly said the government should step in and force the Labour-led council to settle.
Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette. Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tom Dolphin says rise needed to redress real-terms earnings loss since 2008 and strikes could last years
Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.
Strikes to ensure resident – formerly junior – doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association’s new council chair.
Continue reading...Starmer and Macron expected to announce migration deal that will involve the UK accepting some cross-Channel asylum seekers
The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen for the second month in a row and is now at its lowest level for more than two years, PA Media reports. PA says:
An estimated 7.36 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of May, relating to just under 6.23 million patients – down from 7.39 million treatments and just over 6.23 million patients at the end of April.
These are the lowest figures since March 2023 for treatments and April 2023 for patients.
Monthly NHS data shows the overall waiting list dropped by nearly 30,000 in May to 7.36 million – the lowest total since March 2023 – with 60.9% waiting 18 weeks or less for planned care (the highest proportion since July 2022).
Staff carried out an average of 75,009 planned treatments each working day in May – the highest number on record – with a total of 1.5 million treatments across the month, which is up on 1.45 million in April and higher than 1,437,914 pre-pandemic (May 2019).
Continue reading...UK prime minister will have talks with Emmanuel Macron later today
The BMA strike decision must be a tempting topic for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, which is starting very soon. The Conservatives have repeatedly criticised the government for the way they swiftly settled public sector pay disputes when they took office; they argue that Labour was too generous to the unions, thereby encouraging them to threaten further strikes.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Streeting says he is “disappointed” by the proposed strike, and he insists resident doctors have had a relatively good outcome on pay. He says:
I remain disappointed that despite all that we have been able to achieve in this last year, and that the majority of resident doctors in the BMA did not vote to strike, the BMA is continuing to threaten strike action.
I accepted the DDRB’s recommendation for resident doctors, awarding an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest across the public sector. Accepting this above inflation recommendation, which was significantly higher than affordability, required reprioritisation of NHS budgets. Because of this government’s commitment to recognising the value of the medical workforce, we made back-office efficiency savings to invest in the frontline. That was not inevitable, it was an active political choice this government made. Taken with the previous deal I made with the BMA last year, this means resident doctors will receive an average pay rise of 28.9% over the last 3 years.
He says the NHS is “finally moving in the right direction” and that a strike will “put that recovery at risk”.
He offers to hold meet the BMA to hold talks to avert the strike. He says:
I stand ready to meet with you again at your earliest convenience to resolve this dispute without the need for strike action. I would like to once again extend my offer to meet with your entire committee to discuss this.
As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.
Continue reading...Watchdog releases nine new rulings setting clear precedents for online selling
Online pharmacies are no longer allowed to run adverts for weight loss injections, the advertising watchdog has ruled, as part of a crackdown on what has been described as a “wild west” culture of online selling.
In the UK, advertising prescription-only medications (POMs) – which includes all weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – to the public is illegal. However, a Guardian investigation previously found some online pharmacies either breaking these rules outright, or exploiting grey areas to peddle the medications to the public.
Continue reading...The Royal College of Nursing and Unison are undertaking indicative ballots to assess members’ willingness to strike
A looming fresh wave of strikes by resident doctors could encourage other NHS staff including nurses to take industrial action over pay, health service bosses fear.
Resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, in England are threatening to stage stoppages until January in pursuit of their demand for a 29% pay rise, after 90% voted in favour in a ballot on a 55% turnout.
Continue reading...Energy minister decides against ‘zonal pricing’ backed by Octopus founder but opposed by many other energy firms
Ed Miliband has abandoned plans to charge southern electricity users more than those in Scotland, after senior officials warned it could put off investors and make it more difficult to build renewables.
Sources have told the Guardian that the government has decided not to proceed with the scheme, known as “zonal pricing”, and that the decision will be announced once it has been signed off by the cabinet.
Continue reading...Staff at former UK PM’s institute took part in calls as proposal led by US consulting firm and Israeli business people evolved
Tony Blair’s thinktank worked with a project developing a postwar Gaza plan that included the creation of a “Trump Riviera” and a manufacturing zone named after Elon Musk.
The project, led by Israeli business people and using financial models developed by the US consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), was developed against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s vision of taking over the Palestinian territory and transforming it into a resort.
Continue reading...Stephen Morgan, the early education minister, would not confirm every child who has an EHCP would continue to keep the same provisions
The Conservatives will try to change the government’s welfare Bill to tighten up access to personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit, PA Media reports. PA says:
Kemi Badenoch will pledge that the Tories are “now the only party committed to serious welfare reform” after Keir Starmer shelved plans to restrict eligibility for Pip in the face of a backbench revolt this week.
The Tories will look to lay amendments to the legislation – set to be renamed the universal credit bill – and party leader Badenoch is due to deliver a speech on welfare on Thursday.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer and Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh join survivors and emergency workers at St Paul’s Cathedral
The prime minister and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh joined survivors and emergency workers at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 20th anniversary of the 7 July London bombings.
Four coordinated attacks on three tube trains and a double-decker bus killed 52 people and left several hundred injured in the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil.
Continue reading...Mothers and partners will gain the legal right if they lose a baby before 24 weeks, in Labour workers’ rights reform
Parents in Britain will be granted the right to bereavement leave after suffering a miscarriage as part of Labour’s changes to workers’ rights, it has been confirmed.
In a change to the law made via amendments to the employment rights bill, mothers and their partners will be given the legal right to at least one week’s bereavement leave if they have suffered a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks’ gestation.
Continue reading...Home secretary says working with French is vital to stop boats crossing, as UK prepares for Emmanuel Macron visit
Yvette Cooper has lauded new tactics used by the French to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats, before Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the UK this week, during which new initiatives are likely to be announced.
It is understood that a French review of how police could intervene to block boats that are already in the water has been completed, and French and British officials were continuing talks this weekend about what more could be done.
Continue reading...Steve Reed says changes to living standards are happening and will make a big difference to trust in government
It was probably easier for Steve Reed to feel more cheerful about Labour’s most torrid week in government while sitting on bales of hay in the blazing sunshine about 40 miles from Westminster.
The environment secretary might have sympathised with Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall – he has experience of bearing the flak for some of the government’s most controversial decisions on family farm taxes – but at Hertfordshire’s Groundswell festival, named the Glastonbury for farms, he may simply have been happy not to be pelted with manure by unhappy farmers.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says government needs a better narrative and risks being bogged down by ‘imposed limitations’
Keir Starmer’s government is suffering from a “lack of narrative” about what it is trying to achieve and should be more fiscally bold and consider a tax on wealth, Neil Kinnock has said.
The former Labour leader said too many of the government’s achievements were being overshadowed. A year after a landslide election win, the party is struggling in the polls and has U-turned on policies including cuts to winter fuel payments and welfare.
Continue reading...Party’s supporters tell of dissatisfaction, but many feel the Starmer government’s good points have been overlooked
Labour supporters have told the Guardian of their dissatisfaction with the party’s first year in government, as Keir Starmer marks 12 months since becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown.
Members and voters said initial optimism had given away to unhappiness about the government’s record, although many were keen to state the positives they felt had been forgotten under the weight of recent events.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says it is in UK’s ‘interests to support new government’ in first visit by British minister for 14 years
Britain is re-establishing diplomatic relations with Syria after the country’s years-long civil war, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has announced during a visit to the capital, Damascus.
“There is renewed hope for the Syrian people,” Lammy said in a statement. “It is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians.”
Continue reading...Government under pressure on issue after stories of asylum seekers working illegally as takeaway delivery riders
The Home Office has announced what it is calling a “nationwide blitz” on asylum seekers who take jobs, after recent political controversy about people in asylum hotels working as food takeaway delivery riders.
In a statement, which gave few specifics, the Home Office pledged to begin “a major operation to disrupt this type of criminality” based around enforcement teams focusing on the gig economy, particularly on delivery riders.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
My colleague Lauren Almeida, who is running the Guardian’s business live blog, has shared the following:
Rachel Reeves has not given herself enough fiscal headroom to manage public finances, Charlie Bean, the former deputy of the Bank of England has said, and has to “neurotically fine tune taxes”.
About £10bn – that’s a very small number in the context of overall public spending. Government spending is about one and a quarter trillion so £10bn is a small number … and it is a small number in the context of typical forecasting errors.
You can’t forecast the future perfectly both because you can’t forecast the economy and you can’t forecast all the elements of public finances …. The forecasts are imprecise and there is no way you can avoid that. That is a fact of life.
In light of reports of atrocities committed by the Israeli government in Gaza and reports of the UK’s collaboration with Israeli military operations, it is increasingly urgent to confirm whether the UK has contributed to any violations of international humanitarian law through economic or political cooperation with the Israeli government since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases.
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