Greenpeace urges Labour to ‘fulfil international obligations’ as critics question accuracy of official data
The UK’s worst methane hotspots include the last coalmine, livestock farm clusters, landfills, power plants and North Sea oil and gas wells, according to an analysis.
The process has also thrown up serious doubts over the UK’s ability to calculate its methane emissions.
Continue reading...Foreign Office says review found ‘clear risk’ UK arms may be used in violation of humanitarian law
The UK has broken with the Biden administration on a significant part of their tightly coordinated policy towards Israel by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
The Foreign Office said a two-month internal review had raised concerns about the way Israel had conducted itself in the conflict in Gaza and that the decision specifically related to concerns around the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.
Continue reading...PM says ‘it’s unacceptable’ when asked about Jas Athwal allegations but adds MP is ‘taking action to put it right’
Keir Starmer has criticised a Labour MP who has been accused of renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations, calling the conditions “unacceptable”.
The prime minister addressed the accusations against Jas Athwal, the MP for Ilford South, on Monday after a report by the BBC quoted several of his tenants complaining about the conditions in the properties they rented from him. One said there were ants “everywhere”, adding: “They are on my kid’s body and on their clothes.”
Continue reading...PM says he will not take lectures from previous government as Kemi Badenoch launches Tory leadership campaign
Kemi Badenoch is speaking now. She says she wants to talk about the future.
She was born in the UK, but “grew up under socialism”, she says (referring to her childhood in Nigeria).
Labour have no ideas. At best, they are announcing things we have already done, and at their worst, they are clueless, irresponsible and dishonest.
They are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public about the state of Britain’s finances, placing political donors into civil service jobs, pretending that they have no plans to cut pensioner benefits before the election and then doing exactly that to cover the cost of pay rises for the unions with no promise of reform, But their model of spend, spend, spend is broken, and they don’t know what to do, and this will only lead to even more cynicism in politics.
Continue reading...Stella Creasy says she wants to put school and hospital debts and impact of trade deals ‘on nation’s books’
A senior Labour backbencher is seeking to have liabilities from schools and hospitals built under private finance initiative (PFI) deals scrutinised under a new budget responsibility bill.
Stella Creasy, who has tabled two amendments to the bill, said this would help highlight the scale of debt incurred. She also wants trade deals such as the post-Brexit arrangement with the EU to fall under its remit, arguing these can have an even greater fiscal impact.
Continue reading...Former UK prime minister praises Labour leader’s handling of riots and advises him not to put off the ‘hard decisions’
Tony Blair has urged Keir Starmer to ignore “vicious” social media platforms during his time as prime minister, saying that poring over the inevitable criticism that will rain down on him will trigger psychological problems.
“You know, you start scrolling through social media that’s written about you, it’s going to do your head in,” Blair says in an interview with the Observer’s chief political commentator, Andrew Rawnsley, about his new book, On Leadership, Lessons for the 21st century.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer struggling to sell his remedies for the problems facing Britain after Tory mess
The prime minister is struggling to communicate how his government will address the significant problems facing the UK. While the public readily accepts that the last government left a mess, selling Labour’s remedies as necessary or fair is proving more challenging.
The incoming government’s first job was to assign blame for the country’s current woes. This proved relatively easy, given the last government’s unpopularity and the Conservatives’ poor campaign.
Continue reading...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.
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