At least 12 councils may request postponement of May elections amid government devolution plans
Half of the county councils due to have elections in England this spring could ask to have them postponed.
Local elections are due to take place in 21 county council areas in England in May, but at least 12 of them are poised to ask ministers for a delay, the BBC and the Times reported.
Continue reading...Seeking business partners post-Brexit is sound policy, but even in these darker geopolitical times the UK will ultimately side with the US
Rachel Reeves will fly with a delegation of City grandees to China this week as Labour seeks closer economic links with Beijing as part of its quest for growth.
With the outlook increasingly rocky at home after a run of soft economic data, the chancellor is sorely in need of a positive story to tell.
Continue reading...Cross-party Senedd report finds Wales is third from bottom in spending on culture and sports, with Iceland biggest spender
It is known as the land of song and as one of the world’s most passionate sporting nations.
But a report has concluded that despite its proud heritage, Wales is languishing behind almost all other European countries in terms of spending on recreational, sporting and cultural services.
Continue reading...Sebastian Gorka says letting people in prison camps return to Britain would benefit the ‘special relationship’ with US
British nationals being held in Syrian prison camps for fighting on behalf of Islamic State should be allowed to return to the UK, Donald Trump’s incoming counter-terrorism chief has said.
Any country that wants to be a “serious ally” to the United States should commit to the international fight against the extremist group by repatriating its citizens, according to Sebastian Gorka.
Continue reading...Prime minister told Commons any new inquiry into child abuse would delay progress however spokesperson says he has not ruled one out
Reform UK has also tabled a reasoned amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill motion tonight. It says:
That this house declines to give a second reading to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill because the secretary of state for the Home Department has not launched a UK-wide public inquiry into grooming gangs and has not committed to updating Members of this House every quarter on the progress of the inquiry.
The Conservatives are using the victims of this scandal as a political football.
The Conservatives alongside Reform, goaded along by Elon Musk will be voting for a motion which will not secure a national inquiry for victims of child sexual abuse, but instead it would kill these crucial child protection measures completely.
Continue reading...Government plans to limit branded student kit to three articles, plus a tie, from September 2026 in England
Plans to cap the number of branded uniform items schools in England can require to three, plus a tie, could save families more than £50 a child, with additional annual savings of £450 from free breakfast clubs in all primaries, the government has said.
The cost-saving measures are laid out in the government’s children’s wellbeing and schools bill which is due to be debated on Wednesday when it gets its second reading in parliament.
Continue reading...Inquiry hears elite forces had a ‘kill all males on target whether they posed a threat or not’ policy in Afghanistan
Afghans who were killed by members of the SAS in Afghanistan were described dismissively as having been “flat packed” according to revealing testimony given by a former member of the elite force’s sister unit to a public inquiry.
The soldier, known only as N1799, said he had been party to a conversation with a member of the SAS in 2011 who had served in Afghanistan, in which he had been “shocked by the age and methods” used to kill Afghans.
Continue reading...Illegal use in UK seems to reflect growth of unregulated market in US, where its high-profile users include Elon Musk
Ketamine, the anaesthetic taken by Elon Musk to control his moods, could be reclassified as a class A drug by the Home Office after illegal use reached record levels last year.
Currently controlled as a class B substance, ministers are seeking “expert advice” on reclassification after an estimated 299,000 people reported use of the drug last year.
Continue reading...Palestinians trapped in a ‘doom loop of hell’, MPs told
At the end of last week Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and runner-up in last year’s Tory leadership contest, said the child abuse grooming scandal started with “mass migration” and “importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women”. In response Samuel Kasumu, a former Tory adviser on race issues, said that comments like that could lead to people being killed, while Kemi Badenoch defended her colleague.
In an inteview on the Today programme this morning, asked if Kasumu’s comments made him reconsider his views, Jenrick replied:
That’s complete nonsense. MPs have been killed in this country in recent times by a jihadist and by a neo-Nazi. They were killed because of the views of those individuals, not what anything an MP has said. We have to fight extremism in this country, wherever we find it, and you fight that by standing up to the extremists, you don’t fight it by shying away, by turning a blind eye, by looking the other way.
I’m not going to tiptoe around this issue. Millions of people in our country are listening to your programme this morning, and they are appalled by what is happening to young girls, and they are shocked that there might be girls in that situation today. We have to stop this.
I think some people who come from that country do. I’m not saying everybody.
NR: Did Sajid Javid’s family [the former Tory chancellor] come with a medieval culture to this county?
RJ: I’m saying some people do.
Robert Jenrick’s attempt to exploit this appalling scandal for his own political gain is completely shameless. He didn’t lift a finger to help the victims when a minister, now he’s jumping on the bandwagon and acting like a pound shop Farage.
Kemi Badenoch should sack him as shadow justice secretary and condemn his divisive comments, instead of letting him run a leadership campaign under her nose.
Continue reading...Shadow justice minister backs up previous remarks on immigration by telling BBC ‘not all cultures are equal’
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, should sack Robert Jenrick for “divisive comments,” the Lib Dems have said, after the shadow justice minister doubled down on his comments about immigrants with “alien cultures”.
Jenrick was challenged repeatedly on Tuesday morning for having failed to act on the outcome of an inquiry into grooming gangs while he was in the Home Office, despite now demanding one, and for rarely mentioning the issue in the House of Commons until this year.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing says Labour has a duty to fix health ‘double whammy’ by raising aid and funding for UK nursing
The UK cut health aid to some of the world’s vulnerable countries at the same time as recruiting thousands of their nurses, in a “double whammy” for fragile health systems, new analysis has found.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which carried out the research, said Labour had a “duty to fix” aid cuts imposed by the previous government, and to work on increasing the UK’s domestic supply of nurses.
Continue reading...Child poverty plan must address the 70% of families with at least one parent in work, Resolution Foundation says
Labour must offer extra support to working parents, including with childcare and commuting, if it is to fulfil its promise of cutting child poverty, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has argued.
The government’s manifesto promised an “ambitious strategy” on child poverty, and ministers have said they will publish a 10-year plan in the spring.
Continue reading...Scottish Labour, Greens and Lib Dem MSPs accuse first minister of ‘creating false narrative’
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, will warn opposition parties that they will fuel populist forces if they prevent his budget from being passed this month.
In a keynote speech in Edinburgh on Monday to mark the new year, Swinney will say Scottish voters would be astonished and public services damaged if MSPs fail to allow the budget to go through.
Continue reading...The Multibank, founded by Gordon Brown, receives boost with Amazon-led drive for 250,000 items this month
A charity founded by the former prime minister Gordon Brown is to increase its campaign efforts against child hygiene poverty this year.
The Multibank, which was founded by the former Labour leader, is working with a number of sports clubs across Britain and the Hygiene Bank charity. Over the Christmas and new year period it collected thousands of hygiene products at sporting fixtures.
Continue reading...Proposals to be outlined by Keir Starmer will offer patients 500,000 more appointments a year, as health secretary says without reforms NHS could collapse ‘like Woolworths’
Patients in England will be offered 500,000 more appointments a year via seven-day health hubs under plans to tackle lengthy waiting times, as ministers warned the NHS could collapse like Woolworths without major reform.
Millions of people will be able to access checks, tests and scans closer to home as the health service expands the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) opening 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Continue reading...Experts say measures announced so far are not enough to turn the tide
Labour must reverse years of political failure on extremism to stop it fuelling more disorder, violence and terrorism in Britain, leading figures have said.
Neil Basu, the former head of counter-terrorism policing, and Dame Sara Khan, previously the government’s counter-extremism tsar, warned that proposals unveiled last month would not be enough to address a toxic pool of hatred, conspiracy theories and “dangerous rhetoric” from high-profile figures including Elon Musk.
Continue reading...Marcus Fakana from north London was convicted of having sex with British girl, now 18, when they were on holiday
Protesters have marched through central London calling for the release of a teenager in prison in Dubai for having sex with a 17-year-old British girl.
Marcus Fakana, from Tottenham in north London, was jailed last month after being convicted of having sex with the girl, who has now turned 18, when they were on holiday in September.
Continue reading...Election manifesto promise to set up specialist tribunals to deal with huge backlog of cases has been put on hold
The government appears to have stalled on plans to set up dozens of specialist rape courts to deal with a huge backlog of cases, amid warnings there are not enough lawyers to make the proposals work.
Labour pledged during the election campaign to use vacant rooms and buildings on crown court sites to fast-track rape cases and reduce the numbers awaiting trial.
Continue reading...Speaking at party conference, its leader calls reports of tech mogul’s potential $100m donation ‘somewhat overexaggerated’
Nigel Farage has hailed Elon Musk as a “hero” and said he was “very pleased he’s backing our party”, but he called reports that the tech mogul was preparing to donate $100m (£80m) to Reform UK “somewhat overexaggerated”.
Speaking at Reform’s East Midlands conference on Friday night, the party leader said Musk’s efficiency plan for Donald Trump’s government was the “blueprint we need” as he called for a “complete change of culture in Britain”.
Continue reading...Those close to PM worry voters are running out of patience and want reforms to directly help public
Keir Starmer has at last managed a family holiday, but by next week the Madeira sun may already feel a distant memory as he embarks on a policy blitz that could be crucial in deciding his government’s fortunes over this parliament.
A speech on Monday detailing what No 10 is billing as a “radical” approach to cut NHS waiting lists is expected to be followed by an announcement on crime, as the prime minister faces pressure to make changes that directly and rapidly benefit voters, rather than just promising they are on the way.
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