Menopausal women could be offered paid time off as part of efforts to support wellbeing of women
Menopausal women could be offered paid time off and working environments with temperature-controlled areas under Labour plans to support the wellbeing of women in the workplace.
About one in 10 women aged 45-55 left their jobs last year due to their symptoms and ultimately the lack of workplace support, according to research supported by the Fawcett Society.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen say ‘Windsor framework’ has been reached after four months of negotiations. This blog is now closed
Q: Why do you say you will back the PM’s deal when you have not seen the detail? And would you like to see Northern Ireland within the scope of the European court of justice, or outside it?
Starmer says he knows Northern Ireland well and knows the detail. Any deal will be an improvement on the status quo. That is why he is saying he would back it. He says the deal will not come as a surprise.
Continue reading...First female speaker of the House of Commons was ‘one of a kind’, says Sir Lindsay Hoyle
Betty Boothroyd, the first female speaker of the House of Commons, has died, aged 93.
Lady Boothroyd, a former Labour MP, was speaker from 1992 until her retirement in 2000, and was the first person to be elected to the role after the Commons debates started being permanently televised in 1989. She was later made a life peer in the House of Lords.
Continue reading...Jewish MP left party four years ago over its handling of the issue under Jeremy Corbyn
Luciana Berger has returned to the Labour party after an invitation and apology from Keir Starmer, four years after leaving the party over its handling of antisemitism cases.
“The Labour party has turned a significant corner under Keir’s leadership,” Berger said in a tweet on Saturday. “I’m pleased to be returning to my political home.”
Continue reading...The former chair of the supermarket chain was a big donor to Blair and Brown but cut off his support under Corbyn
Keir Starmer’s election war chest has been given an extraordinary boost after one of the biggest New Labour-era donors returned to the party fold with a £2m donation, the Observer can reveal.
David Sainsbury, who was consistently one of the largest donors under the last Labour government before withdrawing his support, has now renewed his backing with his first multimillion-pound donation since 2016.
Continue reading...The Labour leader will set out his party’s five ‘missions’ for government in a speech later
In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning Keir Starmer defended the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) decision yesterday to refuse Shamima Begum’s appeal against the decision to remove her British citizenship. Starmer said “national security has to come first”.
Yesterday, after the Siac decision was announced, the Conservative party was tweeting a clip from an interview that Starmer gave to Sophy Ridge on Sky News in March 2019 saying that the decision by the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, to deprive Begum of her citizenship was “wrong”.
Continue reading...Shadow development secretary urged those calling Sikh temples unsafe to submit written apologies
Grassroots Labour supporters have complained about the behaviour of Preet Gill, the shadow international development secretary, whom they accuse of undermining Sikh victims of sexual violence.
Sikh members have made a complaint to the party after Gill sent a series of messages on a WhatsApp group that appeared to cast doubt on allegations of sexual abuse within gurdwaras.
Continue reading...Ministers say they have raised New Delhi and Mumbai raids with their Indian counterparts
Labour has condemned raids by Indian tax authorities on BBC offices in Mumbai and New Delhi as “deeply worrying”, as ministers say they have raised the issue with their Indian counterparts.
In the first significant intervention by a main British party since last week’s raids, the shadow foreign minister Fabian Hamilton criticised the Indian authorities and expressed concern that BBC staff had been held overnight for questioning.
Continue reading...Latest updates: government warning comes as former NI secretary says Good Friday agreement needs reform
Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union addressed the annual farming conference in Birmingham this morning with a grave tone. Pointing out that farmers across the country are going out of business, with the fastest reductions in some sectors such as salad since records began, she said that farmers are facing a huge squeeze and lack of support from government.
She said the Conservatives were “running out of time to walk the walk” and that food security was under severe threat as farmers face rising input costs, inflation, avian influenza and the climate crisis.
As a member of parliament for a farming constituency. I’ve worked with farmers and the NFU for years. I’ve even rolled up my sleeves and done the early morning milking at Wensleydale.
Now I know how important your work is. And I know that it’s more than just work. It’s a way of life that is passed down through the generations.
Continue reading...Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says negotiations should be led by ‘getting it right and not timelines’ as Sinn Féin president says indications are ‘heartening’
Labour will offer Rishi Sunak the additional votes he needs to get a Northern Ireland protocol deal through parliament, the shadow justice secretary has said.
Steve Reed told reporters:
We’ll wait and see what the government is coming forward with. It’s very important for everybody in the United Kingdom that this problem is resolved. It’s a problem that is of this government’s own making, of course.
He added:
We have got the prime minister today in Northern Ireland, we hope with a deal to resolve the issues around the Northern Ireland protocol.
What we do not want to happen is that that self-same prime minister then rips up the Human Rights Act, which underpins the Good Friday agreement, because if he puts peace in Northern Ireland in peril in that way, that is an act of unforgivable irresponsibility for which you would never be forgiven.
Continue reading...Corbyn ally says suggestions Starmer challenged handling of issue while in shadow cabinet are ‘nonsense’
A senior ally of Jeremy Corbyn has dismissed as “nonsense” suggestions Keir Starmer privately fought against the former leader’s handling of antisemitism while in his shadow cabinet.
Diane Abbott, who at the time was shadow home secretary, disputed the defence levied by Starmer supporters that he had spoken up about the issue at the time, given the criticism he has faced for serving in Corbyn’s top team as shadow Brexit secretary.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Scotland’s first minister says she has ‘wrestled’ with decision for weeks
SNP MP Stewart McDonald described Nicola Sturgeon as “the finest public servant of the devolution age” amid reports of her expected departure as Scottish first minister.
“Nicola Sturgeon is the finest public servant of the devolution age,” the MP for Glasgow South tweeted, sharing a photograph of himself with Sturgeon.
Absolutely gutted about this. Nicola has been an incredible leader.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer says party heading in right direction but there is still work to do, 18 months after watchdog’s report
Labour has been taken out of special measures by the equalities watchdog, with Keir Starmer hailing progress in tackling antisemitism as a watershed moment for the party.
In a speech on Wednesday, Starmer will herald the party’s progress while saying there is still significant work to be done.
Continue reading...Latest updates: amid concerns over suspected spy balloons and as part of review of global security, PM urged to deliver hawkish view
A former British ambassador to the US and national security adviser has questioned whether the UK has a “watertight capability” to deal with suspected Chinese spy balloons.
Asked if prime minister Rishi Sunak is right to suggest the UK has a “watertight rapid response to intercept these kind of things”, Lord Kim Darroch told Times Radio he is not totally confident this is the case.
I’m not, to be honest, but I wouldn’t want listeners to get very worried about that.
I’m not because I think we have under-invested in defence for the last couple of decades – one might argue ever since the end of the cold war – and we don’t have all the kit and equipment that we really need and there are gaps around in the technology our armed forces have.
It’s still, I think, unless we discover something new, it’s still well-known technology and it’s still basically surveillance, still basically spying, and the reality is an awful lot of that goes on everywhere.
Continue reading...Analysis of civil service spending includes Rishi Sunak’s Treasury department spending £3,000 on Tate photographs
Spending on government-issued “credit cards” has risen 70% since 2010, when the Conservatives first warned they were generating “hideous waste”, according to a Labour analysis of civil service spending.
Civil servants at 14 of the 15 main government departments spent nearly £150m on government procurement cards (GPCs) in 2021, the figures show, a steep rise since 2010-11, when David Cameron warned about the lax rules and oversight governing their use.
Continue reading...Labour analysis shows use of GPCs has risen under Tory government despite David Cameron decrying ‘hideous’ spending levels in 2010
Nestled inside a shaded courtyard, Plataran in south Jakarta offers diners the promise of authentic Indonesian food “with the atmosphere of Javanese royalty”. Five miles to the north, Kaum gives guests a taste of tribal Indonesian cooking with modern inflections.
Together, these are two of the city’s finest restaurants, and they are where Liz Truss and her team decamped, first for lunch and then for dinner, during a whistle-stop trip to the Indonesian capital in 2021. The two meals cost the taxpayer £1,443 – all paid for conveniently by handing over one of the thousands of government procurement cards (GPCs) that officials can use to pay for anything under £20,000.
Continue reading...Ashley Dalton retains constituency for Labour after resignation of Rosie Cooper last autumn
Labour has retained the West Lancashire constituency in a byelection called after its MP, Rosie Cooper, resigned last autumn.
Ashley Dalton, a part-time charity worker, won with 14,068 votes. Her comfortable win, securing a 10.2% swing from the Tories, marks Labour’s third byelection victory since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.
Continue reading...Labour candidate Ashley Dalton odds-on favourite to hold seat after resignation of Rosie Cooper
Polls have closed in the West Lancashire byelection, with Labour confident of retaining the seat it has held since 1992.
The bookies have the party at 1/25 to keep hold of the seat where it had a majority of 8,336 in the last election. A result is expected between 2am and 4am.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Children as young as three in emergency departments for mental health problems, data obtained by Labour reveals
‘We are letting young people down’: the secret psychiatrist on NHS delays
Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal.
Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate.
Continue reading...Party wants to shift MoD procurement to ‘urgent operational footing’ with stockpiles depleted by gifts of military aid to Ukraine
Labour will seek to shift defence procurement to an “urgent operational footing” to help buy fresh arms for Ukraine and replenish stockpiles depleted by previous gifts of military aid if it wins the next election.
The opposition party believes it has taken too long for the Ministry of Defence to buy fresh munitions, citing a near year-long wait to agree a contract to replace the 4,000-plus Nlaw anti-tank bazookas sent to Kyiv before and in the early stages of the war.
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