While getting UK-EU deal through parliament should be easy enough, cries of ‘betrayal’ may chime with some voters
There were two moments at the UK-EU summit where it felt as if a corner had truly been turned. It was not on agrifoods, nor youth mobility, defence or fishing.
When Keir Starmer said the UK had changed, the most symbolic evidence of that came in a press release from No 10 that set out the terms of the agreement brokered at Lancaster House.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Survey commissioned by children’s charities shows UK voters want to see families prioritised
Charities and a Labour-aligned pressure group are ramping up calls on Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child limit on benefits, as polling shows support for action on youth poverty remains high, and is equally solid among Labour voters tempted by Reform.
As discussions continue in government ahead of the forthcoming child poverty strategy, a survey commissioned by a coalition of charities suggests voters want to see families prioritised.
Continue reading...Songwriter says he thinks it is a ‘criminal offence’ to let tech firms use protected work without permission
Sir Elton John has called the UK government “absolute losers” over proposals to let tech firms use copyright-protected work without permission.
The singer and songwriter said it was a “criminal offence” to change copyright law in favour of artificial intelligence companies.
Continue reading...Policy review of intelligence-sharing with foreign countries risks leaving ‘very serious flaws’, say NGOs and MPs
Labour has been accused of rubber-stamping torture policy it criticised while in opposition for enabling UK complicity in serious human rights abuses overseas.
The policies regulating British support for foreign security and intelligence services were blamed for facilitating injustices in cases such as those of Jagtar Singh Johal and Ali Kololo, and it was hoped Labour would strengthen them in government.
Continue reading...Palliative care consultant says insufficient consideration given to how disadvantaged communities may be affected
Ministers have not adequately considered how assisted dying would affect disadvantaged communities, a palliative care doctor and clinical academic has said.
Bradford-based Jamilla Hussain said the equality impact assessment for the assisted dying bill was “lightweight”, and her own research had highlighted concerns that had not been reflected in the document.
Continue reading...Lib Dem MP says UK’s recent tone is tougher but ‘in terms of concrete actions, not much has changed’
Layla Moran has told the UK government to match its tougher tone on Israel with action as she warned that people in Gaza face “unbearably cruel levels of destitution”.
The Lib Dem MP called for further action, including recognition of a Palestinian state, in a renewed appeal for the family of Mohammad, an NHS doctor who operated on her last year, whose elderly parents remain stuck in northern Gaza.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals guidance for retailers in England changed after campaign by global food firms
Government legal guidance urging retailers in England to offer millions of consumers deals and discounts on minimally processed and nutritious food was dropped after a lobbying campaign by the world’s biggest ultra-processed food firms, the Guardian can reveal.
Ahead of new regulations banning junk food promotions from October, the Department of Health and Social Care issued advice to thousands of shops, supermarkets, online retailers and other businesses to help them comply with the law.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer says Britons have moved on but many in Thurrock think they were lied to in debate about leaving EU
When Keir Starmer was asked last week whether he thought Britons had finally moved on from the issue of Brexit, his answer was a definitive yes.
It’s not difficult to see why the prime minister would hope to settle the question, before a week in which he hopes to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU, clearing a way for easier access to a marketplace that could help increase the economic growth he badly needs.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer did not deny a rethink of benefit cut to 10 million pensioners blamed for Labour’s electoral losses
Downing Street is actively investigating changes to the controversial winter fuel payment cut over growing concerns about the policy’s deep unpopularity among voters.
No 10 has stepped up its work on reviewing the policy by carrying out internal polling and focus groups on how voters would respond to potential modifications to it.
Continue reading...Objections raised to Rantzen’s accusation of ‘undeclared religious beliefs’ in five-hour Commons debate
MPs opposed to assisted dying have criticised “distasteful” claims from the prominent campaigner Esther Rantzen, who argued many are fighting against the changes to the law because of secret religious views.
Rantzen made the remarks in a letter urging MPs to back the “strong, safe, carefully considered bill” to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Path to peace looks as unclear as it was before European leaders’ meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv
This week began with four European leaders, standing defiantly in Kyiv alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, issuing an ultimatum to Vladimir Putin: sign a ceasefire now, or together with Donald Trump we will force you to do so, with sanctions and other tough measures.
Over the subsequent days, there followed a series of offers, counter-offers, ultimatums and deflections, in a dizzying week of high-stakes diplomacy that often seemed to resemble a geopolitical poker game.
Continue reading...About 150 changes have been made to the bill since MPs voted on it last year
One of the amendments to the bill being debated today has been tabled by the Labour MP Naz Shah, who voted against the bill at second reading. Her amendment 14 would tighten the bill so that anyone not terminally ill cannot qualify as terminally ill (meaning they can use assisted dying) “by voluntarily stopping eating or drinking or both”.
In her speech Leadbeater said that she could understand the concerns behind Shah’s amendment, but that she thought the risk of anyone being able to qualify for assisted dying as a result of anorexia was “negligible”. She said:
Not only would someone with severe anorexia be highly unlikely to be assessed to have capacity to make a decision about assisted dying, the other tragic reality is that if a patient was so ill as a result of not eating and drinking for whatever reason, they would die before the process of assisted dying would be able to take place.
I know that some people have expressed concerns that the severe physical consequences of a decision to stop eating or drinking could still enable someone to claim eligibility for assisted dying when otherwise they would not be able to do so, and I believe that is the motivation behind this amendment … As I’ve set out, I think that risk is negligible.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists have stated that they do not feel at the moment in time there are sufficient psychiatrists who would be able to deliver that position on such a panel. What response does the member have to that?
Continue reading...PM on trip to announce increased cooperation against people smugglers alongside Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama
All Commons Speakers, at least for the past 30 years, have complained about the government making major announcements to the media first, and not to parliament first. But rarely have any of them sounded quite as furious about this as Lindsay Hoyle, who this morning delivered an extended reprimand to the government about this at the start of an urgent question.
The UQ was about plans to limit the use of prison recall – something announced by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, at a press conference yesterday, while the Commons was still sitting. After pointing this out, and reminding MPs that details of the immigration white paper were given to the media extensively, long before the ministerial statement about it was delivered in the Commons on Monday, Hoyle went on to imply that, as well as regularly breaking the ministerial code, ministers were also guilty of hypocrisy. He said:
I note that those who now occupy senior ministerial roles were not slow to complain when the previous government made major policy announcements outside this house.
I will continue to uphold and defend the rights of this house, the rights of backbenchers, to be here, and hear it first, the most important announcements of government policy, and the right of honourable members to question ministers on those announcements in person.
When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.
If the government is not going to take the ministerial code seriously, who will?
I’ve got to say, I don’t like this. I believe I am here to represent all backbenchers and backbenchers have the right to ask questions. I’m not interested in Sky News or the BBC or political programmes. I’m here to defend all of you. I will continue to defend. Please do not take MPs for granted. It is not acceptable.
Continue reading...Source says ‘many but not all’ abusers and sexual offenders will be excluded from measure in England and Wales
Ministers have admitted that some domestic abusers and sexual abusers will be released under new plans to free up spaces in prisons in England and Wales, despite a denial from another government minister.
Under emergency measures announced by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, some criminals serving sentences of between one and four years who breach their licence conditions will be returned to custody for only a fixed 28-day period.
Continue reading...Kanbar Hossein-Bor, who says his mother once feared he ‘might not be British enough’, lands Fiji post
“In her mind this was a bastion of the establishment, she was a little worried of rejection,” Kanbar Hossein-Bor said of his mother’s reaction, two decades ago, to the news he was applying to work in the UK Foreign Office.
This week, the fear that “he might not be British enough” was proved wrong, when Hossein-Bor was appointed as the UK’s high commissioner to Fiji – the first refugee to achieve the rank.
Continue reading...Commons committee recommends independent scrutiny of failures and legal duty to safeguard those at most risk
A cross-party committee of MPs has called for greater protections for vulnerable benefit claimants after hundreds of cases of deaths and serious harms linked to safeguarding failures by welfare officials.
The work and pensions select committee said many of these cases, which include instances where claimants took their own lives, could have been prevented had the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discharged its responsibilities effectively.
Continue reading...Sutton Trust ‘opportunity index’ measured factors such as children on free school meals passing key GCSEs
The top 20 constituencies with the best social mobility in England are all in London, according to research from a leading education charity that underscores the stark regional divide in children’s life chances.
In a report published on Thursday, the Sutton Trust has put together an “opportunity index” by analysing six measures of mobility. These include the share of children on free school meals who achieve passes in GCSE maths and English; who complete a degree by age 22; and who make it into the top 20% of earners by age 28.
Continue reading...Mark Carney says Canadians ‘not very impressed’ after Keir Starmer delivered invitation to US president in February
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has criticised Britain’s invitation to Donald Trump for a second state visit, saying it undermined his government’s effort to project a united front against the US president’s talk of annexing Canada.
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the 51st US state, a suggestion that has angered Canadians and left Britain trying to tread a fine line between the two North American countries.
Continue reading...MP accuses ex-colleagues of sinister attempt to silence him as CPS says it will not bring charges over allegations of verbal threats
The former Reform MP Rupert Lowe has accused his ex-colleagues of a “sinister” attempt to use the police to silence him, as he launched a furious attack on Nigel Farage who he said “must never be prime minister”.
Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth who now sits as an independent, made the remarks after the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed it would not bring criminal charges over allegations that Lowe made verbal threats in parliament last December.
Continue reading...Reform leader asks PM to declare a national emergency at the borders
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs, which starts at noon.
In March Reform UK reported Rupert Lowe (at the time one of their five MPs) to the police, claiming he had threatened the party chair, Zia Yusuf, with violence. Reform UK announced the news shortly after Lowe gave a newspaper interview criticising Nigel Farage, the party leader,
Following a thorough and detailed review of the evidence in relation to an allegation of threats, we have decided that no criminal charges should be brought against a sitting MP.
Having considered a number of witness statements, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.
If Farage were ever to control the vast power of the British state, I believe he would not hesitate to do to his adversaries what they have tried to do to me. With real power, I fear he would wield that immense responsibility to crush dissent - as he has done time and again over the years …
Please listen when I say this: For the good of our country, Nigel Farage must never be prime minister.
Continue reading...