Category Archives: Labour

British peers attended Russian ambassador’s party in London

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Lords Balfe and Skidelsky were at event in June where ambassador sought to justify Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine

Two British peers were among 50 people who attended a party organised by the Russian ambassador to the UK at his opulent residence in west London last month, to mark the creation of a Russia independent of the Soviet Union.

Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador, spoke at the event where he sought to justify his country’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, while those attending included the Conservative Lord Balfe and cross-bencher Lord Skidelsky.

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‘Rightwing, illiberal’: Labour MP Jon Cruddas condemns Keir Starmer’s ‘witch-hunt’

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MP says moves to discipline Neal Lawson, who heads pressure group Compass, are a ‘disgrace’

A senior Labour MP claims today that Keir Starmer’s party has fallen under the control of a “rightwing, illiberal” faction that is embarking on a “witch-hunt” not only against the Corbynite left but also anyone with an independent voice.

In an extraordinary intervention, Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, says that moves by the party to discipline and possibly expel Neal Lawson, a former speechwriter for Gordon Brown who now heads the pressure group Compass, are a “disgrace” in a party built on pluralist values and traditions.

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Watchdog rejects Johnson’s suggestion Sue Gray’s Labour job meant she was not impartial investigating Partygate– UK politics live

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Advisory committee on business appointments says it has seen ‘no evidence’ that Gray’s decision-making was affected despite ex-PM’s claim

NHS England has just published its 150-page long-term workforce plan. It’s here.

The government is keen to present it as an NHS plan, not a government plan, and at the moment you cannot find it prominently on the No 10 or Department of Health and Social Care websites.

This is our longer-term, strategic approach to workforce planning. In a nutshell we will:

1. Train more staff

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Sue Gray given six-month waiting period for Keir Starmer job

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Former senior civil servant will start work as Labour leader’s chief of staff in autumn after watchdog recommendation

Sue Gray will start work as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff by the autumn after a ruling by the watchdog on post-government jobs but is facing a rap on the knuckles from the Cabinet Office alleging she broke the civil service code.

Starmer said he was delighted that Gray would be starting her job in his office before the next election, after the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said she needed to wait six months after leaving her role in the Cabinet Office last March.

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‘We’re frenemies’: George Osborne and Ed Balls to launch economics podcast

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Former chancellor and ex-shadow chancellor will discuss and analyse the state of the British economy

George Osborne is launching an economics podcast with his “frenemy” Ed Balls in an attempt to capitalise on the success of shows such as The Rest is Politics.

Osborne, the architect of the Conservatives’ austerity policies which imposed deep cuts on British public services, spent four years opposite Balls in the House of Commons. But since leaving frontline politics the pair have become a marketable media double act, appearing together on political shows to debate the state of the economy.

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PMQs: Rishi Sunak faces questions from Keir Starmer over house building targets and mortgage support – UK politics live

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Labour leader presses prime minister to admit his party will not meet promised targets over house building

PMQs is coming up soon.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

We remain seriously concerned about the potential implications of the illegal migration bill on human rights and the safety of individuals.

Careful consideration should continue to be given to the impact of the bill on different groups with protected characteristics – including children, pregnant women, disabled people, torture survivors, and victims of trafficking.

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Keir Starmer considers ditching Labour pledge to reinstate DfID

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Exclusive: Dropping promise to restore Department for International Development would follow series of U-turns

Keir Starmer is considering dropping a promise to reinstate the Department for International Development (DfID), prompting anger from senior Labour figures and high-profile names in the international development world.

The Labour leader promised last year to restore the department, which was scrapped in 2020 by Boris Johnson, who called it a “giant cashpoint in the sky”.

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No 10 groping allegation suggests complaints are still badly handled

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The lack of response to TV producer Daisy Goodwin’s allegation about a mayoral candidate casts doubt on complaints processes

Two years after the Pestminster scandal about sexual harassment by politicians swept through parliament in 2017, a downbeat speech in the House of Commons summed up how many female MPs and aides felt about its consequences.

The verdict was delivered by Jess Phillips, the Labour MP and women’s rights campaigner. “Nothing has changed since we started the whole Pestminster thing or even the broader #MeToo movement; it feels as if a moment of blood-letting led to no significant material change in the actual working lives of the people we are here to try to protect.”

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Labour puts pressure on government over frozen Russian assets plan

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Party to use opposition debate to call for workable proposals, saying Moscow must pay for destruction in Ukraine

Labour has made a partial break from the government over its Ukraine policy by demanding ministers come up with a plan to freeze Russian assets within 90 days. It is also demanding a deadline is set after which it will be a criminal offence to fail to disclose information about the whereabouts of Russian assets.

Labour, which has been reluctant to make public any differences with the government over the Ukraine war, has decided to put pressure on ministers, believing other countries are ahead of the UK with plans to seize Russian assets.

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Keir Starmer promises to ease tensions between Labour and India

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Party leader seeks to win back British Indian voters after anger over party’s perceived support for Pakistan in Kashmir dispute

Keir Starmer has promised to reset relations between the Labour party and India after years of tension between the two.

The Labour leader said on Monday that his party had made mistakes in its approach to relations with the world’s most populous country, and that it would seek closer ties if elected to power next year.

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Rishi Sunak admits NHS faces ‘long-term challenges’ after damning report – UK politics live

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PM likely to be questioned during Nottingham visit on King’s Fund report that says NHS is ‘more a laggard than a leader’

Lord Bethell, the former health minister, has welcomed the announcement from the government today about targeted lung cancer screening. But he thinks the government should go further.

The review by Javed Khan, published last summer, recommended raising the age at which people can buy cigarettes “by one year every year until no one can buy a tobacco product in this country”. Many Tories strongly oppose measures like this on libertarian grounds, and the government has not adopted the plan.

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‘A tour de force’: tributes pour in for Margaret McDonagh, linchpin of Tony Blair’s New Labour

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Party’s first female general secretary, who has died aged 61, was essential part of team behind party’s 1997 landslide victory

Margaret McDonagh, Labour’s first female general secretary, has been hailed as a “tour de force” and an essential part of the team that secured the 1997 landslide election victory for the party, after it was announced that she had died at the age of 61.

Baroness McDonagh, who was elevated to the House of Lords in 2004, was, in effect, Peter Mandelson’s deputy during the 1997 election and went on to oversee a second dominant campaign in 2001. She became the party’s general secretary in 1998. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021.

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Rishi Sunak says he is ‘totally, 100% on it’ in battle against inflation – UK politics live

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Prime minister says he knows people will be anxious about rate rise but ‘it is going to be OK’

Rishi Sunak has posted a thread on Twitter setting out what the government is doing to help people with the cost of living. It starts here.

He ends by saying “if we can hold our nerve” he is confident the plan will deliver.

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Labour piles pressure on Sunak with plan to prevent ‘mortgage catastrophe’

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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says party would force banks to take a range of steps to protect borrowers

Labour has piled further pressure on Rishi Sunak to take action to help struggling mortgage holders as the Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates again to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crash.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said on Wednesday that if Labour were currently in power, it would force banks to offer a range of support to borrowers, including letting them move on to interest-only mortgages and extending their repayment period.

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MPs vote down Labour attempt to revive animal welfare bill

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Motion to bring back legislation on puppy smuggling and live exports that was part of Tory manifesto rejected in Commons

MPs have voted down an attempt by Labour to revive the government’s animal welfare bill.

Last month ministers announced they were dropping the kept animals bill, which was part of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto. The legislation aimed to clamp down on puppy smuggling and dog theft, as well as banning the live exports of farm animals.

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Keir Starmer ‘eyes dozens of new peers to aid Labour government’

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Party reportedly looking to increase share in Lords, as Tory majority ‘could make life difficult’

Labour is reportedly devising plans to appoint dozens of peers to the House of Lords to prevent a Keir Starmer government being stymied by the upper chamber.

There are 174 Labour peers, making up 22% of the Lords, compared with 263 Conservatives and 183 unaligned crossbench peers.

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Starmer reassures North Sea workers as Labour lays out energy and climate plan

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Speech in Scotland shows willingness to face energy dilemma head-on, but green groups say fossil fuel end date must come soon

Scotland was a brave choice as the venue for the launch of Keir Starmer’s new energy and climate policy. Back in March, Rishi Sunak was planning to hold his “energy day” in Aberdeen, the UK’s oil and gas capital, but after criticism he switched to the much safer Oxfordshire.

Starmer knows that Labour needs to win back lost seats in Scotland, so visiting the Scottish capital for an important speech was a canny move. More than that, though, taking the launch to Edinburgh showed a willingness to face head-on Labour’s energy dilemma: how to shift the UK economy to a low-carbon footing, as net zero demands, without destroying high-quality jobs in carbon-intensive industries.

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MPs voting on report that found Boris Johnson misled parliament – UK politics live

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Theresa May says parliament must punish MPs who break rules as Penny Mordaunt says Johnson ‘undermined democratic process’

At the Labour event Keir Starmer is now speaking. He starts with a jibe at the SNP, saying the tide is turning in Scotland.

Turning to energy policy, he says Labour wants to promote security.

Can we still achieve great things? Can we unite and move forward? Can we still change, can we grow, can we get things done, can we build things? New industries, new technologies, new jobs; will they come to our shores, or will the future pass us by?

You can put it even more starkly. Around the world people want to know, are we still a great nation? If the question is about the British people, the answer is emphatically: yes.

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Labour shadow minister meets CBI boss, suggesting boycott may be ending

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Jonathan Reynolds and new DG Rain Newton-Smith hold ‘warm’ meeting after party cut ties due to sexual misconduct scandal

The Labour party has moved closer to ending its boycott of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in an early sign that steps to rehabilitate the crisis-hit UK lobby group may be working.

Labour on Sunday confirmed its shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had met the new CBI director general, Rain Newton-Smith, last week.

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Labour says ‘Tory mortgage penalty’ costs homeowners extra £7,000 a year

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Opposition finds fallout of Liz Truss mini-budget has raised average mortgage interest payments by £150 a week in two years

Homeowners are being hit with a “Tory mortgage penalty” of £7,000 a year with interest rates triple what they were two years ago, according to Labour.

Pat McFadden, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, blamed what he called the “reckless economic gamble” taken by the Conservatives during September’s mini-budget when Liz Truss was prime minister.

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