Catalogue of errors by government and health officials includes the deliberate winding down of PPE stockpiles
The first official report by the UK Covid inquiry is set to expose a catalogue of failures by the last Conservative government and health officials in the run-up to the pandemic.
Lady Heather Hallett, the inquiry’s chair, will issue the report on Thursday and make recommendations to ensure that the UK is better prepared for any future outbreak.
Continue reading...As the Conservatives lick their wounds, a new generation of activists fear an extended period in the political wilderness
When Jayde Tanisha Edwards saw the exit poll on 4 July, she was shocked. “I think everybody came to the conclusion that the Conservatives were going to lose, but I don’t think we realised how badly we were going to lose,” she says.
Edwards is an unlikely Tory activist. She is 25 years old, and when she got involved with the party some years ago – standing as a councillor in 2019 – she was a teenage mother living in temporary accommodation. Although everyone in her family and community supported Labour, she was attracted by the Conservative message of aspiration. “It was that fundamental belief in prosperity and being able to build yourself up, and just do whatever you want to do,” she says. Most people in her age group do not share this view: just 8% of people under 25 voted Conservative on 4 July. In 2019, it was 21%. With so few in their age group supporting the party, young Conservative members are a vanishingly small number. Even Edwards, a committed activist who is out knocking on doors in every local and general election, is uncertain. “During this campaign, that fire and that passion for young voters just wasn’t there,” she says. “So how can I convince people on the doorstep?”
Continue reading...Broadcaster suffered severe cuts under Conservatives, which reneged on inflation-linked deal
Labour will support the BBC licence fee, Keir Starmer has pledged, in stark contrast to the years of Conservative opposition to the funding model.
The levy of £159 a year on households with a television used to receive live broadcasts (or watch BBC iPlayer) raises £3.2bn annually for the BBC and the Welsh channel S4C.
Continue reading...Prime minister says family ‘very pleased’ to receive letters from former chancellor’s children about life in Downing Street
Jeremy Hunt’s three children left personal notes for Keir Starmer’s teenage son and daughter after last week’s general election, containing advice about living in Downing Street.
The prime minister said his children were “very pleased” to receive the letters from the Hunt’s children, who had lived in the flat above No 11 since their father was appointed chancellor.
Continue reading...Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has urged the party to avoid descending into ‘bitter infighting and finger pointing’
Former education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned after Boris Johnson rejected his £15bn Covid catch-up plans, is to advise the new government on driving up school standards and finding solutions to teacher shortages and high absence rates.
The Department for Education confirmed on Tuesday that Collins, a widely respected figure in the sector, has been appointed a non-executive board member at the DfE. As such his role will be to support and challenge the department in its efforts to raise standards in England’s schools.
I’m delighted to be returning to the Department for Education. There are real challenges facing our schools and I am looking forward to being part of a renewed drive to ensure that we tackle these with bold and fresh new ideas, to deliver high and rising standards in every corner of the country.
Sir Kevan has been an outstanding force for good in schools, especially his work advocating for our teachers and children during the pandemic and he will play a crucial role in advising the department.
Continue reading...Shadow home secretary calls for unity in opposition, after comments from Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch
James Cleverly has called for the Conservative party to unite in opposition, as the party heads into what is likely to be a bitter leadership campaign.
The shadow home secretary warned his party not to descend into infighting, after explosive interventions from his fellow leadership contenders Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman.
Continue reading...Opposition among senior Tories grows after ex-home secretary derides Progress Pride flag being flown over Home Office
Suella Braverman’s “divisive rightwing politics” make her unsuitable to lead the Conservative party, Ben Houchen, the Tory Tees Valley mayor, has said, amid a backlash after the former home secretary said her party had been too liberal.
A series of other Conservative figures attacked Braverman after she used a speech in the US to describe the Progress Pride flag as a “monstrous thing”, saying she was angered when it was flown over the Home Office against her will.
Continue reading...Parliament the most diverse by race and gender the country has ever seen, says Starmer, with the largest cohort of LGBT+ MPs in the world
Downing Street has released a full version of what Keir Starmer said in his opening remarks to the metro mayors at their meeting this morning. It is not on the No 10 website, so I will post it here.
Having this meeting four days after I was invited by the King to form a government is a real statement of intent on my part, on our part.
Because as we have said over and over again, economy and growth is the number one mission of this Labour government in 2024.
Continue reading...Andrew Mitchell becomes shadow foreign secretary and Kemi Badenoch moves to communities in new lineup
David Cameron has left Rishi Sunak’s frontbench as the Conservatives unveiled an interim shadow ministerial team ahead of a party leadership race.
The party said Lord Cameron, the former foreign secretary, and Richard Holden, who chaired the Tories through the disastrous election campaign, had resigned from Sunak’s top team. Andrew Mitchell, who had the largely honorary title of deputy foreign secretary in government, becomes shadow foreign secretary.
Continue reading...Darren Jones says Labour government will ‘return to service of British people’ as Keir Starmer continues his tour of the UK
Keir Starmer has met Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly in Belfast, PA Media reports. PA says:
The prime minister is visiting Belfast following his trip to Scotland on Sunday, and will also visit Wales to round off a visit to the three devolved nations.
He arrived at Stormont Castle early on Monday morning as he begins his first full week in office, ahead of travelling to the Nato summit in Washington on Tuesday.
I expect that we will be challenged in the House of Commons.
Of course the Conservatives suffered a historic loss, but that doesn’t mean there’s no opposition in the House of Commons and of course, we have the House of Lords to get any legislation through as well.
Continue reading...Labour’s election manifesto committed party to recognising Palestinian state as part of a process that results in a two-state solution with Israel
Reynolds says he is not supposed to pre-empt what will be in the king’s speech, but he says it is no secret that the government is going to prioritise its employment rights reforms.
Jonathan Reynolds is being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg now.
I do want things in exchange for money we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.
I think that’s a reasonable way to make sure public money is being well spent and I believe there are things, capacities, the steel industry needs in future that could be part of that conversation and that’s what I’ll be having in the next few days …
Continue reading...Keir Starmer ‘restless for change’ as he vows to take action on prisons on first full day as PM
Education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Munira Wilson, acknowledged the party benefited from voters wanting to turf out a Conservative government.
According to the PA news agency, the Twickenham MP told Sky News:
We were very clear that after the previous Conservative government, which was frankly full of chaos and incompetence and had broken the trust of the British people and broken our economy, time was up for them and in many of those seats where we won we made it very clear to voters that if they wanted to turf out the Tories they had to vote Liberal Democrat and they did.
So obviously in every election it’s a combination of the two, but I am also confident that our messages around cost-of-living, sewage, health and care did really resonate with voters.”
It’s really important for the British people that there are opposition MPs asking tough questions and scrutinising the legislation that Labour are going to bring forward, and I can assure you that every Liberal Democrat MP in the House of Commons will be doing that and will be focused on the job and not worried about where the party’s going.”
Continue reading...Initial Brexit success was undone by poor strategy and repeated unforced errors, say expert observers
Rishi Sunak became Britain’s prime minister quickly and unexpectedly in October 2022 after the short, financially catastrophic premiership of Liz Truss and the leadership of Boris Johnson, whose loose moral compass had allowed Downing Street to party while the rest of the UK was locked down.
The economic situation was dire – inflation at 11%, mortgages threatening to soar by £5,000 a year – and the political inheritance more desperate. But since then the 44-year-old prime minister has failed to turn around the Conservative’s fortunes. Lacking a transformative touch, he led the party to a historic defeat.
Continue reading...Forward-looking British front pages reflect the incoming government’s work ahead and the post-election-win jubilance of the Labour leader and his wife
After Labour’s seismic defeat of the Tories, the UK papers’ front pages have focused on the work ahead for Keir Starmer amid his post-election glow after the new prime minister vowed to put “country first, party second” and rebuild Britain “brick by brick”.
The Guardian ran a full-page photo of the Labour leader pointing the way forward while holding hands with his wife, Victoria Starmer, beside a quote headline from his first speech as PM: “We will fight every day until you believe again”.
Continue reading...From the surprise decision to call a snap election to the divisions inside the doomed campaign machine
When rumours were ablaze that Rishi Sunak was about to call a snap election, one Conservative cabinet minister was asked by a colleague what was happening. “No idea,” he replied. “He’s either going to call a snap election today, name a date for the autumn or tell everyone that AI is really, really important.”
The cabinet – and most officials in Tory headquarters, which was disastrously underprepared – had been kept in the dark until almost the last moment. When Sunak did announce the election in Downing Street in the pouring rain, the move went down like a lead balloon with his colleagues.
Continue reading...Labour leader said he wanted to restore service and respect in politics and ‘end the era of noisy performance’
Clive Myrie is opening the BBC’s election night coverage. He is co-presenting with Laura Kuenssberg.
No 10 has also announced knightoods for four Tories in the dissolution honours – Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM; Julian Smith, the former chief whip and Northern Ireland secretary; Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary; and Alister Jack, the outgoing Scottish secretary – and one damehood, for Thérèse Coffey, the former deputy PM.
Continue reading...Voters turned away from a deeply unpopular party but the true story of this election is more complex
The story of the 2024 general election is of voters turning away from a deeply unpopular governing party. What parties they turned to and how that interacted with the electoral system is a more complex story that may take some time to fully grasp.
Paula Surridge is a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol
Continue reading...Union for civil servants claimed Home Office staff could be open to prosecution if Strasbourg rulings on Rwanda ignored
• General election 2024: live news
Guidance drawn up by Conservative ministers which told civil servants to ignore Strasbourg rulings and remove asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful, the high court has ruled.
The FDA trade union, which represents senior civil servants, brought legal action claiming senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.
Continue reading...Polling stations opened at 7am, with voting taking place until 10pm on Thursday night
It is the King’s duty as head of state to appoint a prime minister, and he is travelling from Scotland to Windsor Castle, ready to be on stand-by after being in Edinburgh for Holyrood Week.
The role is one of the few remaining personal prerogatives of the sovereign, because Charles does not act on advice nor need to consult anyone before doing so.
But the overriding requirement is to appoint someone who can command the confidence of the House of Commons – usually the leader of the party with an overall majority of seats in the Commons – to form a government.
Final polls predict unprecedented Labour victory, with Starmer declaring Britain a ‘great nation, with boundless potential’
Keir Starmer has hailed a “new age of hope and opportunity” as millions of people prepare to vote in a general election that could deliver the biggest shake-up of British politics in a generation.
The Labour leader said he was “ready for government” and that his intended cabinet would “hit the ground running” if it wins Thursday’s election.
Continue reading...