David Cameron urges Israeli authorities to clear barriers to aid deliveries amid risk of ‘widespread hunger’
The British government has accepted that Israel as an occupying power had a duty under international humanitarian law to provide basic supplies to the people of Gaza.
The admission came when David Cameron, the foreign secretary, urged Israel to remove barriers on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory that were risking “real, widespread hunger”.
Continue reading...While a handful of politicians have openly discussed the stresses of their job, the scale of the problem appears far greater
It was a year after they were made a minister when the MP had the second breakdown of their political career, and realised they simply had no idea what to do next: “I was so terrified. I didn’t know who to talk to. There didn’t seem to be anybody I could trust.
“A family member told me to take time off. But as a minister if you were to say you needed time off sick, the whips would go, ‘Yeah, fine. We’ll get someone else to do your job.’ It’s often easier to keep your head down and pretend.”
Continue reading...With another two-point slip from current polling, about 40% of Tory MPs would come from populist right
A catastrophic election defeat could lead to the parliamentary Conservative party tilting towards the populist right, Guardian analysis has indicated.
A projection of the seats the Conservatives would retain if there was a further two percentage point swing to Labour before election day, using data from Electoral Calculus, shows that about 40% of the remaining MPs would come from this wing of the party.
Continue reading...Senior Conservative and Labour figures said they would back changes to legislation on the issue in England and Wales
Two former health secretaries on Saturday night became the latest senior figures to join the growing demands for a new attempt to legalise assisted dying, as a prominent Tory said he is willing to champion the legislation in parliament.
With both former Conservative minister Stephen Dorrell and Labour’s Alan Milburn stating they back changing the law in England and Wales, the Observer understands that a Labour government would make time and expert advice available for an assisted dying bill should MPs back it in a free House of Commons vote.
Continue reading...Unions welcome new proposals that lower threshold for risk assessment being triggered
Trade unions have welcomed the publication of new proposals by parliamentary authorities for the exclusion of MPs who are arrested for a violent or sexual offences.
There had been mounting concern about delays to the long-awaited plans. But ministers have now also been urged to bring forward a vote on the issue as soon as the House of Commons returns in the new year after its Christmas recess.
Continue reading...The prime minister faced PMQs for the final time before the Christmas recess
Rishi Sunak is about to take PMQs. It will be the last of 2023.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Continue reading...Defeat for flagship immigration plan in the Commons would present serious legal and political problems for the PM
A revolt by 29 Conservative MPs could be enough to defeat the government’s Rwanda bill at its first Commons hurdle – something that has not happened to a piece of government legislation since 1986.
The legislation was designed to overcome concerns raised by the supreme court, which ruled last month that the previous policy for deporting people to Rwanda violated domestic and international law.
Continue reading...Voter turnout gap between top and bottom earners growing since 60s, says IPPR thinktank
The next election is set to be the most unequal in 60 years thanks to a rising gap in voter turnout based on age, income, class, home ownership and ethnicity, a new study has found.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a centre-left thinktank, found that the turnout gap was negligible between social groups in the 1960s, but that it had grown by 2010 to 18 percentage points between the top set of earners – who are more likely to vote – and the bottom set.
Continue reading...PM’s press conference follows criticism from Braverman and the resignation of Robert Jenrick
Rishi Sunak says he is holding this press conference to explain why the government is publishing its Rwanda bill.
He says he is the child of immigrants. He understands why people want to come to the UK.
Continue reading...Former prime minister also admits he should have worked more closely with devolved administrations
Hugo Keith KC is questioning Johnson.
He asks if Johnson’s approach has been to give all relevant material to the inquiry.
I understand the feelings of these victims and their families and I am deeply sorry for the pain and the loss and suffering of those victims and their families.
Continue reading...Home secretary under pressure over abusive comments in Commons, with Tory mayor among those condemning them
James Cleverly is coming under pressure over abusive comments he made in the Commons after his explanation that he was insulting the local MP, not calling a Labour-held constituency a “shit-hole”, was met with scepticism.
After Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor for Tees Valley, condemned what he called Cleverly’s “childish and unprofessional language”, the Labour MP concerned, Alex Cunningham, said he simply did not believe the home secretary.
Continue reading...Chancellor cuts employee national insurance to 10% while abolishing class 2 national insurance
Keir Starmer has said that a pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas must be used to tackle the “urgent and unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Welcoming the deal, which is expected to involve the release of 50 hostages being held by Hamas and a number of women and teenagers from Israeli jails, the Labour leader said his party had been calling for “a substantial humanitarian pause”. He said:
There must be immediate access to aid, food, water, fuel and medicine to ensure hospitals function and lives are saved. Aid and fuel need to not just get in but be distributed widely and safely.
We must also use the space this pause creates to take more steps on a path towards a full cessation of hostilities rather than an escalation of violence.
The real function of the projected spending squeeze is as a trap for Labour. If the opposition rejects the Tory trajectory, it will be accused of planning a profligate spree with public money. And if it pledges adherence to impossible targets, it will enter government with its hands bound too tight to deliver prompt satisfaction to the people who voted for it.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have so far operated a sensible policy of not walking into traps of this kind. That approach restored swing voters’ trust in Labour as stewards of the economy. But it tests the patience of an activist base that sees reversal of austerity as a moral imperative and can smell the incipient disappointment in promises of fiscal discipline.
Continue reading...Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, claims James Cleverly made comment during Wednesday’s PMQs
A Labour MP has claimed that his constituency was described as a “shithole” by the home secretary, James Cleverly, during prime minister’s questions.
Alex Cunningham said Cleverly had uttered the phrase when the Labour MP for Stockton North asked: “Why are 34% of children in my constituency living in poverty?”
Continue reading...Downing Street says legislation will make clear ‘Rwanda is safe’ and will address court’s concerns after policy ruled unlawful. This live blog is closed
At his Institute for Government Q&A Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, refused to say what he felt about Lee Anderson, the Conservative party deputy chair, declaring yesterday that ministers should just ignore the supreme court judgment saying the Rwanda police was unlawful. Asked to respond, Rowley just said:
Politicians hold me to account, I don’t hold them to account.
Starmer travelled north of the border just hours after a revolt within his party over a ceasefire in Gaza resulted in the resignation of eight of his frontbenchers.
The Labour leader highlighted what he described as the “failure” of the UK government to negotiate a trade deal with India, a key exporter for Scotch whisky.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he is prepared to ‘revisit legal frameworks’ to stop the boats as supreme court says policy is unlawful
Reed says the court has had to decide whether the Rwanda policy breaches the non-refoulement rule.
The policy is in the Home Office’s immigration rules, he says.
Continue reading...Labour party leader criticises speech as ‘admission that government has no faith in Britain’s ability to avert decline’
Here is Ben Quinn’s guide to what will be in the king’s speech.
In a statement about the king’s speech issued overnight, Keir Starmer said:
Britain is crying out for the long-term change that harnesses the ambition of our young people, the innovative drive of our businesses, and the ordinary hope and optimism that exists around every kitchen table.
A government acting in the national interest would deliver a big build programme to kickstart growth in every region and begin to turn around 13 years of decline with a plan for a decade of national renewal.
Continue reading...The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, claims he’s making a difference in the Middle East but barely has a walk-on part
It’s all very confusing. On Monday, during his statement to the Commons, I could have sworn I heard Rishi Sunak say – with great modesty – he had been vitally important in international efforts to limit the violence in the Middle East. Only his personal interventions with Benjamin Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi had prevented an even worse humanitarian catastrophe. Some were even proclaiming him to be a global peacemaker. A saviour among men.
So it was a surprise on Tuesday to hear James Cleverly making pretty much the same claims for himself during Foreign Office questions. Time and again, the foreign secretary would preface an answer with a reference to his own diplomatic missions to the Middle East. He alone had a full grasp of what was at stake as politicians from Israel, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar had begged him for advice. Sure, the prime minister had done his bit, but that had been largely cosmetic. The real donkey work had been done by him. The Great Jimmy Dimly.
Continue reading...Letter from Labour leader stresses his concern for international law and sympathy with the plight of the Palestinian people
Rishi Sunak will be taking PMQs shortly. It will be his first exchange with Keir Starmer since the party conferences.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
We were the victims of an inside job by someone, we believe, who over a long period of time was stealing from the museum and the museum put trust in.
There are lots of lessons to be learnt as a result of that, the member of staff has been dismissed by us. The objects have started to be recovered … We have changed our whistleblowing code, changed our policy on thefts … tightened up security on thefts.
If someone is entrusted by an organisation to look after something and they are the person removing those objects, that is hard for any organisation, and it was hard for the museum, where there is a trusting culture.
If that trust is completely abused and as I think will become clear in the coming months quite a lot of steps were taken to conceal that, it wasn’t just that things were taken, records were altered and the like, it’s hard to spot.
We are intending to put on display the objects we have recovered, there is a lot of public interest in these objects.
350 have now been recovered and titles have been transferred to us so we have the makings of a good exhibition that was not previously planned.
Continue reading...Independent panel finds Bone bullied and harassed staff member over a three-month period in late 2012
The Conservative MP Peter Bone repeatedly hit and verbally abused a member of his staff, often asked him for massages and on one occasion put his bare genitals in the other man’s face, according to a damning report by a Commons regulator.
Bone, one of the most prominent members of the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, was found by the independent expert panel to have bullied and harassed his staff member over a three-month period in late 2012.
Continue reading...MP since 2001, nicknamed ‘Failing Grayling’ for fraught record as transport secretary, says time for a change after cancer treatment
Chris Grayling, the former transport secretary, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he is standing down at the next general election.
Grayling said he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer this year and the diagnosis had led him to decide it was “time for a change”.
Continue reading...