Jas Athwal, the Ilford South MP, ‘shocked’ by allegations and ‘profoundly sorry’ for condition of his properties
A newly elected Labour MP has been accused of renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations.
Jas Athwal, the MP for Ilford South, owns 15 rental flats, according to a report by the BBC.
Continue reading...Announcement follows questions over exceptional appointments of Labour donor and former thinktank staffer
The civil service appointments watchdog has launched a review of exceptional appointments to official jobs after a row about alleged cronyism, following a Labour donor and a former thinktank staffer being given roles.
Gisela Stuart, the first civil service commissioner, has written to the heads of all government departments asking for details of any appointments since 1 July that were made without going through the normal civil service recruitment processes.
Continue reading...Finding new trade arrangements to boost growth will be hard given party has ruled out rejoining single market and customs union
Before a whistlestop European tour to Berlin and Paris, Keir Starmer promised to mend “the broken relationships left behind by the previous government” and drive forward UK economic growth.
Changing the tone with European leaders is the easy bit. Changing the substance – especially finding new arrangements to boost growth – is a much taller order.
Continue reading...PM does not rule out setting up system in future after meeting with Olaf Scholz, who stressed desire for closer ties
Keir Starmer has held the door open for some form of youth mobility exchange with EU countries after talks in Germany with Olaf Scholz, who stressed to the British prime minister his wish for closer such ties.
While Starmer said at a press conference with the German chancellor that the UK did not have plans to join the EU’s youth mobility scheme – with No 10 having previously ruled out such a move – speaking to reporters later, he pointedly did not rule out setting up some sort of system for other link-ups, for example student exchanges.
Continue reading...Past Labour PMs – Blair, Wilson, Attlee – have tended to arrive in power accentuating the positive
Sir Keir Starmer could perhaps have timed it better. On the day that Oasis, the band that symbolised the mood of sunny optimism that swept Tony Blair to power in 1997, announced their reunion, the prime minister’s message to the nation was that things would get worse before they got better.
Politically, it is quite a gamble. There haven’t been all that many Labour governments in the past 125 years, but they have tended to arrive in power accentuating the positive. That was true of Blair in 1997 and true of Harold Wilson in 1964.
Continue reading...Starmer and Reeves unlikely to reverse winter fuel and two-child benefit cap decisions, says Pat McFadden
A senior cabinet minister has warned of more economic pain to come as the government prepares to restrict public spending in ways MPs and campaigners say could exacerbate the cost of living crisis.
Pat McFadden, the cabinet office minister, said on Sunday that voters should expect the government to take further difficult decisions, as Keir Starmer prepares to give a speech accusing the Conservatives of leaving the country in “rubble and ruin”.
Continue reading...Labour leader tells working people rot left by Conservatives is so much worse than imagined and improvement won’t happen overnight
British people will have to endure even worse economic and social pressures in the months to come as the Labour government takes “unpopular decisions” to rebuild the country from “rubble and ruin” left by the Tories, Keir Starmer will warn this week.
With the prime minister under mounting pressure from within his own party to help people struggling with rising fuel payments and millions of families in poverty, Starmer will strike a defiant note against those demanding U-turns from his ministers, saying “tough choices” will have to be made before any recovery is possible.
Continue reading...As the winter fuel allowance is scrapped for many pensioners, we outline some other key benefits
• Millions facing ‘cruel winter’ without fuel payments, Labour MPs warn
Labour backbenchers are warning that millions of vulnerable people will face a “cruel winter” amid rising energy prices and a reduction in benefits, including the removal of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.
Keir Starmer’s government has promised to improve conditions for those most in need, with a commitment to “reduce and alleviate” child poverty and end the “moral scar” of food banks. And while Labour sees economic growth and creating more reliable and well-paid jobs as crucial to achieving these aims, it cannot ignore a number of pressing and often interrelated problems in the social security and benefits system.
Continue reading...Force ends investigation into bets on 4 July election date and says bar to prove misconduct in public office has not been met
Newly released figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that UK households cut their real-terms spending on food and non-alcoholic drinks in the year to March 2023.
While nominal spending on the category increased over the period, there was a 7.5% real-terms drop when accounting for inflation, making it the area where households made the biggest cutbacks, the ONS said.
Puberty blockers work by suppressing the release of hormones and are often prescribed to children questioning their gender.
In May, the Conservative government tightened rules on the drugs, introducing an emergency ban on them being prescribed by private and European prescribers.
Continue reading...Yvette Cooper also plans to increase deportations for refused asylum seekers as part of illegal migration clampdown
The home secretary has announced plans to recruit 100 investigators and intelligence officers to target people-smuggling gangs as part of measures to clampdown on illegal migration.
Yvette Cooper said that the National Crime Agency (NCA) will find specialists to dismantle and disrupt organised immigration crime networks that exploit asylum seekers.
Continue reading...Chancellor insists she still has large black hole to fill despite stronger-than-expected growth in first half of 2024
Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October’s budget amid Treasury alarm that the pickup in the economy has failed to improve the poor state of the public finances.
With the latest official set of borrowing figures out on Wednesday, the chancellor is insisting she will still have a substantial black hole to fill despite stronger than expected growth in the first half of 2024.
Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.
Continue reading...Government urges pensioners to check their eligibility for credit which will also qualify recipients for winter fuel support
Ministers have launched a pension credit publicity campaign to minimise the impact of the government’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments.
Last month the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, introduced a means test for the winter fuel payments, which have been a universal benefit available to all pensioners since 1997, so that only those on pension credit would qualify, as part of the “difficult decisions” she had to make having inherited a “dire state of public finances” from the Conservatives.
Continue reading...Most think Labour handled unrest well and agree with pursuit of those inciting racial hatred online
Voters have given broad approval to the government’s handling of the social unrest that broke out this summer, including its pursuit of those inciting racial hatred and violence online, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
However, the significant boost Keir Starmer enjoyed in his personal approval ratings immediately after his election win has dissipated, falling back to the levels he recorded during the election campaign.
Continue reading...General practices forced to ‘do more and more with less and less’, says Doctors’ Association UK
Labour’s promise to “end the 8am scramble” for medical appointments will be impossible without increasing core funding for GPs, according to a leading medical association.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, pledged during the general election campaign that Labour would “end the 8am scramble by allowing patients to easily book appointments to see the doctor they want, in the manner they choose”.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary will reportedly meet Benjamin Netanyahu amid increasing tensions with Iran
David Lammy is reportedly planning an imminent trip to Israel amid high tensions with Iran, in an attempt to help avert an escalation of war in the Middle East.
The foreign secretary will meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Israel Katz, the foreign minister, along with Stéphane Séjourné, the French foreign minister, Sky News reported.
Continue reading...Louise Haigh says she hopes three-year pay deal offered to train drivers will resolve strikes
Chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones has said the pay deal offered to train drivers was “good deal for the taxpayer”, because it was “resetting the relationship between government and public sector workers” and preventing strikes.
PA Media reports he said:
There is a direct cost to the economy if the strikes continue and we need to work together in partnership with workers and trade unions and business in order to get sustainable growth back into the economy. So this is a good deal for the taxpayer, it’s a good deal for the economy.
Making pensioners freeze, slashing services, cutting defence projects, increasing rail fares and raising tax all to fund inflation busting pay deals for trade union donors are political choices made by Labour. They are choosing to placate their union donors over everyone else.
Continue reading...Civil Service Commission was not told that Ian Corfield had given the party more than £20,000 over 10 years
A Labour donor was approved for a senior Treasury role without the civil service watchdog being informed of his donation history, it has emerged.
Ian Corfield has donated more than £20,000 to Labour politicians in the last ten years, including £5,000 to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, last summer, according to Electoral Commission data.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick says money would be better spent preventing crime
Ministers should scrap Conservative plans to build new mega-jails and pour £4bn into the prevention of crime and rehabilitation instead, the former chief inspector of prisons has said.
Nick Hardwick, who is also a former head of the Parole Board, said a huge expansion of the prison system would not solve the problem, especially when average custodial sentences are rising.
Continue reading...Clarion case among several ‘severe maladministration’ examples highlighted by housing ombudsman
The UK’s biggest housing association has been fined after a watchdog found that its failure to carry out repairs to a child’s bedroom window for four years left the home mouldy and caused serious illness in the family that lived there.
Clarion housing association showed “no urgency” to fix the window, instead leaving it boarded up, despite repeated complaints from the tenant who said the mould caused his asthma to flare up and affected his son’s mental health.
Continue reading...Landowners unwilling to sell would face compulsory purchase orders if site could host ‘quality housing scheme’
Councils and public bodies in England are to be handed powers to compulsorily buy cheap green belt land as part of the new Labour government’s drive to build 1.5m homes by 2030.
Green belt landowners who are unwilling to sell would face compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) that would force them to hand over their land if the site could host a “quality housing scheme” in the public interest.
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