Category Archives: Labour

The Moscow moves: how Mandelson’s firm helped Uber reach Russian elite

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Leak shows how the former Labour minister used his access to pro-Kremlin oligarchs, including some now under sanctions

Even before Uber’s top executives arrived in Davos in January 2016, its bosses were trying to secure invitations to the exclusive party hosted by the billionaire Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska. Famous for its free-flowing vodka, the event was an invitation-only, after-hours fixture of the world economic forum, the annual gathering of corporate leaders and politicians in the Swiss Alps.

Fortunately for Uber, it had hired someone who could pull strings. “Put them on list at door,” ordered Peter Mandelson, according to messages in the Uber files data leak.

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Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid become latest Tories to declare leadership bids – UK politics live

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String of candidates announced on Saturday including Kemi Badenoch, Liz Truss, Grant Shapps and Nadhim Zahawi

Tory MP Rehman Chishti has confirmed he is “actively considering” running for leader.

The newly appointed Foreign Office minister retweeted quotes attributed to him by the BBC, stating: “We need leaders who best reflect modern Britain and can provide solutions to the challenges our nation is facing now.”

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Rishi Sunak launches bid to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader – live

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Former chancellor says it it time to restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country

More now from the 1922 Committee’s Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who says that while in an “ideal world” deputy PM Dominic Raab would have been made caretaker prime minister after Johnson’s speech yesterday, “that ship has sailed”.

I think in an ideal world, Dominic Raab, as deputy prime minister, should have been the caretaker prime minister, but that ship I think has sailed and we must we must now live with the fact that Boris Johnson will be prime minister until a successor can be voted on.

[Johnson] has said very clearly that he won’t be making any major changes during that period. And I think that is a good thing.

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Starmer ends Labour silence on Brexit as he rules out rejoining single market

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Labour leader says he will rebuild trust with EU and get ‘a better deal for the British people’

Keir Starmer has thrown Labour back into the Brexit debate by ruling out any return to the single market or customs union, but arguing he could remove trade and travel barriers as prime minister because the EU would trust him.

In a speech on Monday evening that ended Labour’s habitual silence on the subject since the referendum, Starmer pledged to tackle what he called a “fatberg of red tape and bureaucracy” caused by Johnson’s Brexit deal.

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Jess Phillips says allegations about MPs should be investigated without formal complaint

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Labour MP wants inquiries into potential sexual misconduct to be possible before a specific victim comes forward

Sexual misconduct allegations about MPs should be investigated without always needing a victim to formally come forward, Jess Phillips, the Labour MP and victims advocate, has said.

Phillips, a shadow Home Office minister, said it was not right that Boris Johnson used the lack of a formal complaint against Chris Pincher as an “excuse” for the Conservative party not to have looked into widespread rumours about his conduct.

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Labour to aim to launch national care service inspired by creation of NHS

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Exclusive: shadow health secretary says service in England would be brought in over several parliaments

Labour will aim to bring in a national care service in England with just as much ambition as the 1945 government that brought in the NHS, the shadow health secretary has said, launching a review of how it would work.

In an interview with the Guardian, Wes Streeting said he had asked the Fabian Society to look at how the service would be funded and structured, with a view to bringing it in over the course of several parliaments.

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Labour accused of ‘silencing’ women in row over sex-based rights group

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Party denies ‘gender-critical’ group’s claims that refusal of a conference stand was a ‘political judgment’

A Labour frontbencher is among a group of MPs and peers calling on the party to reconsider its decision not to hand a presence at its conference to a group campaigning for sex-based rights.

A debate continues to rage within Labour over what approach the party should take on gender issues. Boris Johnson also sought to inflame the issue by suggesting that Labour leader Keir Starmer “struggled to define what a woman was”.

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Starmer allies reject claims leftwingers blocked from standing for Labour

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Party figures understood to have urged leader to rein in acolytes after candidates from left excluded from longlists

Keir Starmer’s allies have rejected claims he is acting to block “anyone to the left of Tony Blair” from standing for the party at the next general election, as his project of reshaping Labour moves to its next stage: parliamentary selections.

Since the swing of more than 12% to Labour in last week’s Wakefield byelection raised the possibility of an outright majority for Starmer at the next general election, the focus on the party’s next wave of MPs has intensified.

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Standards watchdog urges Boris Johnson to appoint new ethics adviser

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Letter from Lord Evans to Angela Rayner says PM must act now to avoid undermining public confidence

The chair of the committee on standards in public life has urged Boris Johnson to appoint a new ethics adviser immediately or risk undermining public confidence in the rules.

Christopher Geidt resigned as the prime minister’s ethics adviser earlier this month, saying he had been put in an “impossible and odious” position by being asked to rubber stamp a plan to maintain steel tariffs.

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Labour must not side with Heathrow staff in pay dispute, says David Lammy

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Shadow foreign secretary says party needs to show it is fit for government by seeking negotiated outcomes over strikes

Labour should categorically refuse to back demands from airline workers for a pay rise of about 10% in order to show it is serious about seeking negotiated outcomes to disputes, David Lammy has said.

The shadow foreign secretary said Labour had to act like a party of government and that responsible governments believed in negotiation and compromise.

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Double defeat points to unwinding of Conservative Brexit coalition

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Defeat for the Tories in two key byelections shows that tactical voting could put safe seats in play if replicated at a general election

Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton are at opposite ends of the country geographically, socially and politically. But they have two features in common: both voted Leave heavily in 2016, and both turned against the Conservatives last week. Defeats on the same day in a northern “red wall” seat and a southern rural stronghold suggest that, six years on from the EU referendum, the Conservative majority Boris Johnson stitched together with a promise to “get Brexit done” is beginning to unravel.

For both opposition parties, the byelections have a distinctly 1990s flavour, with the return of a pattern from the Major years that has been largely absent in the past decade of Conservative government – voters in both seats seemed determined to eject Tory incumbents and flocked to the local opposition candidate seen as best placed to do so. Tactical coordination among Labour and Liberal Democrats voters is back, and if replicated at a general election, it could put a lot of seemingly safe Conservative seats in play.

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Boris Johnson admits byelection defeats ‘not brilliant’ as ex-Tory leader calls for resignation – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest UK political coverage here

This is from James Johnson, a Tory pollster (who worked for Theresa May in No 10) whose firm JL Partners carried out polling in Wakefield, on who ought to be taking the blame for the byelection defeats.

PM Media has just snapped this.

Boris Johnson has said he will “listen” to voters but will “keep going” after the Tories suffered a double by-election defeat.

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Tories lose two key byelections on same night in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton

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Labour takes Wakefield and Lib Dems snatch Tiverton and Honiton, piling pressure on Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has faced a double hammer blow to his authority after the Conservatives lost the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton byelections on the same night, prompting the party co-chair Oliver Dowden to resign.

Labour took Wakefield, while the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-plus majority to snatch Tiverton and Honiton.

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Simon Case admits discussing work ‘opportunities’ for Carrie Johnson

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Cabinet secretary says he had ‘informal’ conversations with the Earthshot prize about available roles for the PM’s wife

Cabinet secretary Simon Case has admitted discussing “opportunities” for the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Earthshot prize, but denied recommending her for any paid role.

Case’s account followed reports that he had sought to secure a job for Carrie Johnson at their charity, the Royal Foundation, which offers the prize for environmental innovation.

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Boris Johnson’s future in the frame as polls close in byelections

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Loss of Wakefield, and Tiverton and Honiton could push backbench Tories towards restarting efforts to oust PM

Voting has closed for two crucial byelections, in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton, the results of which could play a pivotal role in Boris Johnson’s political future.

Defeat in both of what were previously Tory-held seats could reignite a challenge to the prime minister from disgruntled Conservative MPs, particularly if the Liberal Democrats overturn a 24,000-plus majority in Tiverton and Honiton.

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Labour unveils plans to seek limited changes to Brexit deal

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David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, confirms party won’t seek to rejoin single market or EU bloc

Labour has broken its long silence on Brexit, laying out detailed plans to improve, not scrap, the deal Boris Johnson struck with the EU, in a move it concedes will enrage remain supporters.

On the sixth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, confirmed the party would seek only limited changes and would not seek to rejoin the single market which would bring the return of free trade and free movement of people.

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Labour frontbenchers likely to be disciplined for joining rail pickets

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At least five MPs defy Keir Starmer’s orders and tweet pictures of themselves with RMT strikers

Keir Starmer is expected to discipline at least five Labour frontbenchers who defied his orders and appeared on RMT picket lines on Tuesday in solidarity with striking railworkers.

On the first of three days of industrial action, the Labour leader had instructed his team not to appear alongside striking workers, in order to show “leadership”, amid fears of Labour being portrayed by the Tories as responsible for the RMT’s walkout.

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Boris Johnson suggests he is digging in on rail strikes, telling cabinet they must ‘stay the course’ – live

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Prime minister signals he will not give in to RMT demands and says rail reforms must be pushed through to cut costs for commuters

In interviews this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, reaffirmed the government’s intention to change the legislation to allow firms to use agency workers to fill in for staff who are on strike. (See 11.14am.) As we report in our overnight lead on the strike, Whitehall sources say No 10 and the Cabinet Office are pushing for this, rather than the business department.

Yesterday the TUC and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) put out a joint statement opposing the idea “in the strongest possible terms”. They said it was unworkable.

I don’t know how bringing in untrained, non-safety critical, inexperienced workers into a dangerous environment like the railway - with high speed trains, there are high voltage distribution systems, there are rules and regulations that have the power of statute - how that will help anyone, whether they are a passenger or a worker or manager or whatever?

I don’t see how the use, the deployment of students or people who have got no work experience that are working for an agency will help anyone to resolve this situation, so as usual [Grant Shapps is] just spouting nonsense given to him from some policy unit which doesn’t help to resolve the situations which are in front of us.

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Shadow ministers urge Starmer to start picking new candidate for Corbyn’s seat

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At least two frontbenchers have said Labour should not support former leader’s candidacy at next election

Shadow cabinet ministers have privately urged Keir Starmer to draw a line under Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension from Labour and allow the party to begin the process of selecting a new candidate in Islington North.

The Guardian has learned of at least two Labour frontbenchers who say they have counselled for the party to inform Corbyn the party would no longer be prepared to support his candidacy at the next election.

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Keir Starmer tells Labour frontbench they should not join rail strike pickets

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Unions critical of leader’s instruction to senior MPs to ‘show leadership’ by not publicly siding with workers

Labour’s frontbenchers have been warned to stay away from picket lines on the eve of the biggest rail strike since 1989.

As staff get ready to take part in the RMT strike on Tuesday, Keir Starmer’s office told shadow cabinet members that to “show leadership” frontbenchers “should not be on picket lines”.

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