Labour must raise GP funding to end ‘8am scramble’, says doctors’ group

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...

David Lammy said to be planning Israel trip to help prevent wider war

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...

Labour ‘putting rail passengers first’, says minister as she blames Tories for prolonging strikes – UK politics live

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...

Treasury failed to inform watchdog of top official’s Labour donations – report

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...

Labour urged to scrap £4bn Tory mega-jails plan and fund rehabilitation

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...

UK’s biggest housing association fined over four-year failure to fix window

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...

English councils to gain new powers to buy cheap green belt land

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.

Continue reading...

Home secretary calls out ‘shameful behaviour’ of politicians seeking to undermine police – UK politics live

Yvette Cooper says government will work with police rather than ‘blaming them from afar’

Phillip Inman and Graeme Wearden report:

The UK should not be “seduced” into thinking the battle to calm inflation is over despite price rises easing to the Bank of England’s target, according to an interest rate setter at the central bank.

Continue reading...

Jess Phillips calls X a ‘place of misery’ as she vows to scale back use

Labour minister says she removed social media platform’s app from her mobile phone when Elon Musk took over

A government minister said she has scaled back her use of social media platform X, arguing it had become “a bit despotic” and was “a place of misery now”.

Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said although she had previously been “massively addicted to Twitter”, referencing the former name of X, she had removed the app from her phone after Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022.

Continue reading...

Lammy plans China visit for September to kick-start high-level engagement

Exclusive: Move highlights ambition to reconnect with Beijing but minister will face pressure over human rights

David Lammy is planning a visit to China in September that would fall within the first 100 days of him taking office.

The foreign secretary is in talks over a trip to Beijing next month that would signal the UK wants to resume high-level engagement with the country.

Continue reading...

King Charles sends ‘heartfelt thanks’ to police for restoring order after riots

The monarch held calls with Keir Starmer and senior officers and paid tribute to the emergency services

King Charles has sent his “heartfelt thanks” to the police for restoring order after speaking to Keir Starmer and senior officers following the week of unrest across the UK.

The king and the prime minister held a phone call on Friday evening, Buckingham Palace said. Gavin Stephens, a chief constable and chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and the UK gold commander Ben Harrington, chief constable of Essex police, held a separate joint call with the king.

Continue reading...

Labour needs X to get its message out however much it may wish it didn’t

The Elon Musk-owned platform remains a vital tool for politicians despite misinformation about disorder in Britain

When Keir Starmer was running to be Labour leader in 2020, his aides seriously considered whether they should leave Twitter for good.

A number of those who remain close to Starmer as prime minister were then enthusiastic about moving off the platform. The party was still feeling wounded by the brutal election campaign and by the bitterness of the way it had been conducted on social media.

Continue reading...

Ditching two-child benefit cap would cut deaths and A&E admissions, study says

England research shows huge benefits with resulting savings for NHS and councils

Curbing child poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap would save hundreds of lives a year and avoid thousands of admissions to hospital, the largest study of its kind suggests.

Keir Starmer has faced repeated demands from within Labour ranks and opposition leaders to abolish the policy, which was announced in 2015 by George Osborne, then chancellor. Almost half of all children in some towns and cities now live below the breadline.

Continue reading...

Unions welcome scrapping of Tories’ ‘spiteful’ minimum service law

Senior figures praise repeal of law but privately some want full workers’ rights overhaul implemented without delay

Unions have welcomed the government’s move to formally scrap a “draconian” anti-strike law that would have ensured a minimum level of service during industrial action as the legislation had restricted workers’ rights.

The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, have written to government departments with sectors that were most affected by the strikes to give a “clear message” the measures will be repealed and have urged all metro mayors to start engaging with local employers on the change.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer decisive on mob violence but faces dilemma over Reform

Some within Labour worry that PM is failing to challenge Nigel Farage’s anti-migrant insinuations head-on

Keir Starmer sounded uncharacteristically angry as he appeared in front of a podium in Downing Street on Sunday to condemn the violent mobs causing damage and spreading fear.

Just a few weeks into government, the prime minister has been confronted with an appalling triple murder of three young girls, followed by days of rioting whipped up by online disinformation that a migrant was responsible.

Continue reading...

Labour axes ‘gimmick’ anti-strike law as it plans major reset for workers’ rights

Memo tells ministers to disregard minimum service levels rules, as part of reforms to reorder industrial relations

The government will begin the task of rolling back years of anti-trade union laws within days, the Observer can reveal, as ministers are ordered to ignore a key measure passed by the Tories as part of a wider “reset” of industrial relations in Britain.

As a first step, departments will be told effectively to ignore a law passed last year designed to force workers across a series of industries to provide a minimum level of service during strikes. The legislation – described as a “pointless gimmick” by ministers – paved the way to severely curtail the rights of border security, ambulance services, fire and rescue, teachers and rail services to take industrial action.

Continue reading...

Far-right riots: Starmer to announce setting up of new violent disorder unit

PM and police chiefs agree plans for unit that aims to boost intelligence gathering on ‘extremist troublemakers’

A new national violent disorder unit is to be set up to clamp down on rioters, the Guardian has learned, after far-right riots this week.

Keir Starmer is expected to make the official announcement as soon as Thursday, having agreed it with police chiefs at a crisis meeting.

Continue reading...

Benefit cap traps families in crowded, rat-infested homes, report finds

Limit on welfare support, introduced in 2013, leaves some with just £4 a day for each family member

Low-income families affected by the benefit cap are living on as little as £4 for each person a day, often in overcrowded, rat-infested and damp homes with little prospect of escape, according to a new study.

The cap puts a ceiling on the amount a working-age family can receive in welfare support if no one in the household is working or they are on very low wages. Families affected by it in many parts of the country are, in effect, trapped in poor quality, private rented properties they cannot afford, even though these are often already the cheapest homes available in their local area, the London School of Economics study said.

Continue reading...

Goals to stop decline of nature in England ‘off track’, report warns

Audit of Environmental Improvement Plan finds it inadequate as government announces overhaul of goals

Goals to stop the decline of nature and clean up the air and water in England are slipping out of reach, a new report has warned.

An audit of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), which is the mechanism by which the government’s legally binding targets for improving nature should be met, has found that plans for thriving plants and wildlife and clean air are deteriorating. This plan was supposed to replace the EU-derived environmental regulations the UK used until the Environment Act was passed in 2021 after Brexit.

Continue reading...

Greens say Labour should focus more on building council homes and that new housing plan is flawed – UK politics live

Rayner says housing target system will raise number of homes planned to 370,000 and confirmed targets will be mandatory

Balls, who, of course, is a former Labour cabinet minister, and a former shadow chancellor, questions whether Reeves is right to suggest that Jeremy Hunt is wholly to blame for the black hole. He says that other cabinet ministers and departments drew up the spending plans that she says were unfunded.

Reeves repeats the point she has been making all morning about how the public were misled. (See 8.06am.)

Continue reading...