MP offers ‘sincerest apologies’ for social media post and pays compensation into BMA strike fund
The Conservative deputy chair, Lee Anderson, has apologised to a doctor after he made a “misleading” social media post about him.
The MP for Ashfield said he wanted to offer his “sincerest apologies” to Dr Tom Dolphin for “any distress caused” by his post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner says party’s housing recovery plan will enact reforms delayed by Tories since 2019 manifesto commitments
Labour will deliver more action on housing in the first six months of office than the Conservatives have delivered in the past six years, Angela Rayner has pledged.
Downing Street has confirmed the renters reform bill will be in the king’s speech, allowing it to continue its passage through parliament when the next session opens on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Conservatives furious at PM’s ‘naive’ meeting with Musk ahead of last Westminster session before election
Tory MPs have accused Rishi Sunak of “offering the electorate dystopia” after an appearance with Elon Musk in which the billionaire warned that artificial intelligence could take everyone’s jobs and leave them searching for meaning in their lives.
Many MPs were left baffled by the prime minister’s decision to conduct an interview with the Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) owner at the end of the AI safety summit at Bletchley Park. However, some are furious about the event, which painted a bleak picture of the future.
Continue reading...Senior Conservative says home secretary should not discuss complex issue in such terms and advised her to use ‘wiser’ language
Suella Braverman has been rebuked by a senior Tory campaigner on homelessness after the home secretary provoked outrage by describing rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice.”
Bob Blackman MP, head of the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness, said Braverman was wrong to discuss a complex and serious issue in such terms and advised her to use “wiser” language.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Measure in planned bill stopping sale of new properties under leasehold in England and Wales likely to only cover houses
Tory MPs are preparing to force the government to toughen up its planned leasehold reforms in England and Wales, with Downing Street expected to launch a bill that falls short of campaigners’ demands.
Conservative backbenchers say they are ready to bring amendments to the long-awaited leasehold reform bill, which will be one of the centrepieces of next week’s king’s speech but will not end leasehold on the majority of properties.
Continue reading...Labour leader says he thinks most practical way to get aid into Gaza is to have a humanitarian pause
Keir Starmer is delivering his speech to the North East Chamber of Commerce now.
He starts by saying they are near the A1, where there is a stretch of road that Rishi Sunak recently promised to upgrade.
It’s a story you see right across Britain. Infrastructure projects, some with billions already committed, businesses planning around the structures developed in rooms like this.
But the projects and investment get blocked by objections, consultations, legal challenges, ballooning costs delays, delays, delays – until it’s easier just to give up and move on.
Continue reading...Equalities minister says LGBTQ+ charity ‘overreached’ and ‘more extreme ideas’ about trans rights have been defeated
Kemi Badenoch has launched an attack on the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, describing it as an example of an organisation taken over by “leftist” ideas.
Speaking on stage at an international gathering of conservatives, the business secretary and minister for women and equalities, agreed with the suggestion that the “more extreme ideas” about the rights of trans people had been defeated.
Continue reading...Paul Bristow is first frontbencher to lose job over calling for an end to hostilities in Israel-Hamas war
A Conservative MP has been sacked from his government job after breaking ranks to publicly urge Rishi Sunak to back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Paul Bristow was dismissed as a ministerial aide at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on Monday after writing to the prime minister to call for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas to save lives.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson’s former principal private secretary is first of ex-prime minister’s inner circle to give evidence to inquiry
Keith shows a WhatsApp message from Simon Case, the cabinet secretary. It is date 20 December 2021 and in it Case says:
PM is mad if he doesn’t think his WhatsApps will become public via Covid inquiry – but he was clearly not in the mood for that discussion tonight! We’ll have that battle in the new year.
Continue reading...Tom Pursglove, minister in DWP, photographed with Bone two days after suspension over bullying and sexual misconduct
A minister has been photographed campaigning with the former Conservative MP Peter Bone, who was suspended from parliament last week after an investigation found he had engaged in bullying and sexual misconduct.
Tom Pursglove, a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, was photographed by The Sunday Mirror canvassing in Northamptonshire with Bone two days after his sanction was ratified by MPs.
Continue reading...People with families in Gaza call on British government to help get them out and to join calls for ceasefire
On Friday evening, as Israeli air and ground forces ramped up their operations in the Gaza Strip and a communications blackout fell across the embattled territory, Salim Hammad received a text from the UK Foreign Office notifying him of a possible increase in attacks and violence.
“What are we supposed to do with that information?” said Salim, a 34-year-old doctor in Oxford whose father, Abdel, is stuck at the Rafah border crossing.
Continue reading...Constrained on multiple fronts by finances and resistance from both wings of his party, the PM still has a few vote-winning options
Exhausted by scandals, deflated by byelection defeats and uninspired by their leader at Conservative party conference, many of Rishi Sunak’s MPs are not looking forward to the next year in politics. “It’s hard to muster the enthusiasm to come out fighting given everything that has happened,” said one Tory adviser.
But Sunak appears still to be energised by the prospect of governing for at least another 12 months – and has explicitly said he wants to get things done in the next year. “What can a country achieve in 52 weeks? Watch this space,” his new promotional video said this week.
Continue reading...Gillian Keegan says to trust in due process as eighth Conservative loses whip over sexual misconduct allegations since 2019
A cabinet minister has said there is no “cultural issue” with Tory MPs after Crispin Blunt became the eighth Conservative during this parliament to lose the whip over allegations of sexual misconduct.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said all the individual incidents were separate and that the prime minister expected due process in the investigation into Blunt.
Continue reading...Labour leader will also meet MPs today to discuss party’s position on Israel and Gaza
Rishi Sunak will be taking PMQs shortly. It will be his first prime minister’s questions with Keir Starmer since his visit to Israel and the Middle East.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
When Rishi Sunak became prime minister a year ago today, he took immediate action to support families with the cost of living, paying half their energy bills. Since then we have made good progress towards halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists, and stopping the boats.
But for the last 30 years, the prime minister recognises that there has been too much short-term political decision making, politicians taking the easy way out, ducking the hard choices, rather than fixing the underlying problems.
The prime minister has proven he is the only person who is determined to change that.
Continue reading...Party to encourage Wellingborough voters to sign petition if Commons votes to suspend Bone on Wednesday
Labour is ramping up plans to force another byelection ahead of a vote on Wednesday to suspend Peter Bone from parliament for six weeks.
Bone was stripped of the Conservative whip after being found by a watchdog to have bullied and harassed a member of staff and exposed his genitals near their face.
Continue reading...The PM, just back in the Commons after meeting Netanyahu, had only vain hopes to offer in the search for peace between Israel and Hamas
Call it war fatigue. So soon. Last week it was standing room only on both sides of the house for Rishi Sunak’s statement on Israel and Gaza. For the update on Monday there were plenty of gaps on the green benches. Especially on the Tory side. Already the Middle East has been filed under something too difficult, too unbearable and too far away. Most Conservatives no longer have the bandwidth for the conflict. They are too busy contemplating their own more immediate eternity. Losing the next general election.
Many of Sunak’s opening remarks were more or less a reprise of what he had said last week. Horror at the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas. A commitment to stand with Israel and a reaffirmation of its right to defend itself and to retrieve its hostages. An acknowledgment that the Palestinians are also victims of Hamas. Their need for humanitarian aid and for Israel to respond within international law. Hard to argue with any of that.
Continue reading...Communities secretary calls for safe return of Israeli hostages during Trafalgar Square event
The communities secretary, Michael Gove, has told a rally in central London that the UK must stand with Israel in its fight against Hamas, as hundreds gathered to call for the safe return of hostages.
The “solidarity rally” in Trafalgar Square on Sunday afternoon was organised by a number of groups, including the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Many in the crowd chanted “Bring them home” and held signs saying “Release the hostages” as they queued to get in.
Continue reading...Exclusive: HMRC investigation into peer Anthony Bamford and his brother focuses on offshore trusts that own business empire
The influential Tory donors behind the JCB digger empire could be hit with a bill for more than £500m to settle a longrunning investigation by HM Revenue and Customs, the Guardian can reveal.
The investigation into Anthony Bamford, a Tory peer, and his brother Mark, the director of a subsidiary of the Conservative party, is understood to span a complex network of offshore tax havens and companies.
Continue reading...PM under pressure from Tory right for more tax cuts and from moderates for policies to tackle cost of living crisis
Rishi Sunak is facing discontent among his backbenchers as he heads into the one-year anniversary of his time in No 10, with Jacob Rees-Mogg calling for the government to wake up from a “torpor”.
The prime minister is under pressure from rightwingers for tax cuts and more Conservative policies, while moderates are pushing for more centre-ground plans that deal with the cost of living to stop votes being lost to Labour.
Continue reading...Tories may also reduce stamp duty in bid to win back voters and reduce pressure on PM, reports say
Rishi Sunak is considering a tax cut for the 5 million highest earners and reducing stamp duty in an attempt to ease the pressure on his leadership after two historic byelection defeats, it has been reported.
The Conservatives may raise the 40% income tax threshold after Labour’s victory in Mid Bedfordshire, Nadine Dorries’ former seat. It was the largest majority to be overturned at a byelection.
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