UK to adopt tougher stance on Israel with illegal settlements trade ban

Ed Miliband to reassert support for Palestinian rights and a two-state solution in move likely to draw fierce criticism from US and Israel

Ed Miliband will announce what he has described as a broad reset of the UK’s relations with Israel on Tuesday, promising the government will take a more active approach in supporting the Palestinian cause.

In an intervention that is expected to draw fierce criticism from the US and Israel, the foreign secretary will impose a UK ban on the trade in goods and some services from illegal Israeli settlements.

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Plans for local government overhaul on hold after legal advice

Angela Rayner to announce review into local government shake-up as decisions on four areas withdrawn and 16 paused

Plans for a major reorganisation of local government have been put on hold after the government received new legal advice that suggested they might not comply with the law.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the review is to ensure the process is robust and aligns with the new government’s aim to “rewire the state”, and follows “updated and privileged legal advice”.

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Camden Green councillor says he will fight Polanski to run in Starmer’s seat – UK politics live

Hamza Chowdhury says he will challenge party leader and has received nominations from other Green councillors

Healey says Andy Burnham set out in his statement to MPs last week what he thought had gone wrong

The fundamentals of our economy [were] hollowed out through a series of past policy decisions, political power was centralised, weakening the relationships between the people, the businesses and the institutions who can make things happen beyond Whitehall. The economic enablers were privatised and outsourced, leaving accountability to a thicket of arm’s length bodies and regulators, too often without the predictability or the pace that underpins a thriving market economy. And our country was deindustrialised as the cost to make anything, to build anything here soared, and our dependence on unreliable sources grew, including in areas critical to our national security and sovereignty.

Let me be clear, I recognise that the costs of business, its energy bills, regulation, burdens, planning constraints, labour costs, have grown since Covid and I want to draw the line.

And whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.

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Zia Yusuf’s post about Camden council leader is ‘straightforward racism’, says minister

Senior Reform UK figure has faced criticism within party after post about Sagal Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee

Labour has accused Reform’s Zia Yusuf of “straightforward racism” after he suggested the party’s frontrunner to replace Keir Starmer in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection was not British.

Sagal Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee from Somalia and the leader of Camden council, has been tipped as an early favourite to contest the London seat for Labour after the former prime minister’s resignation.

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Labour condemns Reform’s plan for £100bn in cuts as ‘half-baked’ and ‘incredibly reckless’ – UK politics live

Labour chair says uch cuts ‘could mean vital public services like hospitals, schools and law enforcement are put at risk’

The Electoral Commission has released political donation figures for the second quarter of 2026. They show that Reform UK continues to rake in far more than other parties. Nigel Farage’’s party had declared donations worth £5.3m. Labour got £3.6m, and the Conservatives £2.8m.

Most of Reform UK’s money came from Ben Delo, who gave £4m. As Rowena Mason reported earlier this year, Delo is a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business.

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Fund defence spending from tax rise on middle earners, thinktank tells Healey

Resolution Foundation argues that UK’s internationally low ‘tax wedge’ must rise to pay for defence ambitions

The chancellor, John Healey, must be prepared to raise taxes for middle earners if he wants to fund significantly higher defence spending, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has said.

Healey resigned from Keir Starmer’s government in June, protesting against what he argued was the then prime minister’s failure to adequately fund defence.

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Burnham promises to bring ‘substantial change’ as he gives first Commons address as prime minister – UK politics live

PM says he has a ‘clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong’ with UK, and pays tribute to Keir Starmer after his predecessor quit parliament

My colleague Richard Partington, the Guardian’s senior economics correspondent, grew up, like Andy Burnham, in the Warrington suburb of Culcheth. He has been home to find out what people there are saying about the new PM.

Yesterday, Kemi Badenoch announced a reshuffle, replacing Mel Stride with Andrew Griffith as shadow chancellor and Priti Patel with Tom Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary.

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More public control is the way to grow UK economy, Burnham to tell MPs

Exclusive: Prime minister wants to ‘bring back hope’ by tackling cost of living as MPs call for electoral reform

Andy Burnham will drive home his pledge to bring more essential services back into public control, telling MPs in the Commons on Tuesday that it will be the only way to improve growth across the country.

Burnham will address the house for the first time in 16 years from the frontbench, and six weeks since he became prime minister, after spending the summer recess announcing a slew of policies that will now be put before MPs.

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Labour MPs will push Burnham to back voting reform in first 100 days

Exclusive: Nearly 100 Labour MPs support commission on changing the system used for Westminster election

Andy Burnham will face an immediate test of his backing for electoral reform in his first week in parliament as prime minister, with almost 100 Labour MPs supporting a bid for a new national commission.

Burnham, a longtime advocate of electoral reform, will be asked to support the new commission into ditching first past the post in his first 100 days as prime minister.

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Labour MPs will push Burnham to back voting reform in first 100 days

Exclusive: Nearly 100 Labour MPs support commission on changing the system used for Westminster election

Andy Burnham will face an immediate test of his backing for electoral reform in his first week in parliament as prime minister, with almost 100 Labour MPs supporting a bid for a new national commission.

Burnham, a longtime advocate of electoral reform, will be asked to support the new commission into ditching first past the post in his first 100 days as prime minister.

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UK productivity growing faster than official figures suggest, thinktank finds

Resolution Foundation suggests economy may finally be emerging from shadow of 2008 financial crisis

Productivity in the UK – a vital measure of economic health – is growing more strongly than official figures suggest, according to analysis from the Resolution Foundation.

The thinktank suggests the chancellor, John Healey, may have inherited an economy finally starting to emerge from the long shadow of the 2008 global financial crisis.

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Burnham to face pressure at Labour conference to recognise Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide

Grassroots groups to urge PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on Israel

Grassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham over Gaza, as the party’s members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel’s actions as a genocide and impose a full arms embargo.

Momentum, Labour & Palestine, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) plan to ramp up pressure on Burnham before his first Labour conference as prime minister next month.

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Burnham to chair growth meeting call at No 10 North – UK politics live

The PM will be working alongside chancellor John Healey, Lou Haigh, Angela Rayner and Sally Jameson with regional mayors expected to be involved

The UK government ran a larger than expected £1.8bn deficit in July, underlining the challenges facing the chancellor, John Healey, as he draws up his first budget.

City economists had expected a shortfall of zero for July, a month when Treasury receipts tend to be swollen by self-assessment income tax payments.

Burnham said yesterday that fly-tippers will be forced to pay for the clean-up when they dump waste illegally. The prime minister laid out his plans to crackdown on waste crimes as he visited an illegal dump in West Yorkshire.

Racism and sexism have become normalised in Britain, the equalities minister has said, as she warned that young men were being sucked into violent misogyny by the “cesspit” of social media. Bridget Phillipson said she was increasingly worried about how commonplace misogyny and racism had become, fuelled by online interactions and statements by politicians she said would not have been acceptable a few years ago.

Phillipson suggested her sweeping reforms to special educational needs provision could be adapted to give parents greater protections if they are unhappy about the service being provided for their children. The former education secretary told the Guardian ministers were open to making changes to the plans, which were announced earlier this year but which have since been subject to consultation.

Education Lucy Powell on Thursday addressed the GCSE gender gap, which shrank to its narrowest point this century. Almost one in four boys in England received top grades in maths while results in English improved across the board. “The white working-class review that was recently done, that was one things it found, that more boys need to see the purpose of education, they need to see the line of sight into work,” Powell told the Press Association.

Meanwhile, Burnham told reporters that funding for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s security arrangements on their return to the UK was a “private matter”, the Press Association reports. Harry and Meghan are expected to return to live in Britain later this month. After six years in the US, they will be moving with their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to a non-royal residence outside London.

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Labour ‘could lose up to 50 seats’ to Greens if new drilling in North Sea approved

Greens say analysis shows government failure to take bold climate action could lead to big gains for party at election

Labour could lose dozens of seats to the Green party if the government allows new drilling in the North Sea, according to internal research shared with the Guardian.

Green party analysis suggests up to 50 Labour MPs, including Andy Burnham’s key ally Louise Haigh, could lose their seats at the next election if the government fails to make urgent climate action a priority or allows new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.

The Guardian’s climate forum 2026: On Tuesday 20 October, join Damian Carrington and our panel of experts, including Prof Andy Haines, Katie White, Asad Rehman, Shruti Suresh, Gareth Thomas and Amy Fairman, for a hopeful and solutions-focused evening. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

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Labour urges Gambling Commission to investigate firms linked to Reform UK donors

Bridget Phillipson writes to watchdog asking it to look into claims Tether.bet and Fispay operated without a licence

The Gambling Commission has been urged to investigate claims that companies linked to Reform UK donors and allies of Nigel Farage have been operating without a licence.

The Labour party’s chair, Bridget Phillipson, has written to the watchdog asking it to look into Tether.bet, a Montenegro-based gambling company, and Fispay, a UK company owned by Reform’s data protection officer, Mowbray Jackson.

Whether Tether.bet, and its operators, provided or advertised remote gambling facilities to consumers in UK without the required licence

Whether Fispay Ltd, or any other UK company, provided or supported gambling facilities or services to consumers in the UK without the required licence.”

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Burnham scraps restrictions on disabled people’s bus passes in England

Move means holders will be able to travel free on local services at any time of day or night from April next year

Disabled people across England will be able to use their free bus passes at any time of day from next April, as Andy Burnham expands a policy he introduced as mayor of Greater Manchester.

The prime minister has said the current weekday restrictions on when disabled people can use their bus passes will be removed from 1 April 2027. Their passes are valid only between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, although some councils pay to allow people free travel outside those hours.

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Burnham scraps restrictions on disabled people’s bus passes in England

Move means holders will be able to travel free on local services at any time of day or night from April next year

Disabled people across England will be able to use their free bus passes at any time of day from next April, as Andy Burnham expands a policy he introduced as mayor of Greater Manchester.

The prime minister has said the current weekday restrictions on when disabled people can use their bus passes will be removed from 1 April 2027. Their passes are valid only between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, although some councils pay to allow people free travel outside those hours.

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Monday briefing: What can Andy Burnham learn from Spain’s Pedro Sànchez?

In today’s newsletter: The Spanish prime minister has remade himself as Europe’s leading leftwing standard-bearer. Could his success offer the UK’s PM a route forward?

Good morning. To international onlookers, Pedro Sànchez appears to have achieved the impossible. Where other European leftist and left-ish premiers have flopped and flailed, the Spanish PM has endured.

Since June 2018, Sánchez has ruled from Madrid, implementing a raft of progressive policies. More recently, he has emerged as a leading, and often lone, left-wing European voice on the global stage, striking a defiant tone on everything from the Trump administration’s war in Iran (“the smokescreen of war to hide their failure”) to Israel’s actions in Gaza (“exterminating a defenceless people”). The fact that the international press has nicknamed him El Guapo (the handsome one) can’t hurt.

UK economy | The UK should expect to see a new cost of living crisis, with official figures released this week by the ONS expected to show how soaring energy bills drove up inflation close to 3% in July.

Ceuta | Moroccan police arrested 111 people this weekend, who were trying to enter Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta, amid tightened security on both sides after social media posts called for another mass crossing.

Jason Arday | The University of Cambridge has defended its mental health support for the academic Jason Arday.

UK politics | Andy Burnham is being urged to protect 4 million gig economy workers, who thinktanks warn miss out on key statutory rights including: parental leave, redundancy pay and protection against unfair dismissal.

Indonesia | Rescue crews dug through collapsed buildings and landslide debris in eastern Indonesia on Sunday, searching for bodies after a powerful earthquake killed at least 51 people, and injured more than 100.

Sànchez understands that anchoring his party to the left … is where he can govern.

Monday | Nominations close for candidates seeking to replace Anas Sarwar as Scottish Labour leader.

Tuesday | Opening arguments expected to begin in a lawsuit brought by multiple US states against Meta about social media addiction.

Thursday | Students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland will receive their GCSE results.

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Loosening of planning rules in England to allow more new homes near stations

Angela Rayner to launch guidance for ‘default yes’ on developments near transport hubs, including on green belt sites

Thousands more homes could be built within 10 minutes of transport hubs, including on green belt sites, under a loosening of planning policy announced by Angela Rayner on Monday.

The housing secretary will set out changes to national planning guidance for England that will include an order for councils to have a “default yes” approach to housing developments that are within a reasonable walking distance of well-connected train and tram stations.

Stronger support in principle for development, meaning a more explicit presumption in favour of building in sustainable locations.

Pubs will get protection from being turned into housing or offices with developers having to prove there is no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub as a going concern, including evidence that it was marketed for sale for at least a year.

A requirement for at least 40% of homes to be accessible on bigger developments and stronger protections for community facilities.

Stronger support for growth and infrastructure including support for AI growth zones and datacentres.

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Burnham announces £65m for drought-hit farmers after Labour pressure

PM steps up climate response with measures including better water access and support for building farm reservoirs

Farmers must not carry the risks of the climate crisis alone, Andy Burnham has said, as he announced £65m of funding to help them manage the devastating drought.

The prime minister is stepping up his response to the immediate climate crisis after facing a backlash from his own MPs and Labour’s grassroots for not addressing the climate crisis despite wildfires tearing through Britain and a drought affecting food producers. Labour MPs argued Burnham had taken too long to talk about the climate crisis and had not made it a priority.

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