Category Archives: Keir Starmer

Rachel Reeves to announce £15bn in transport spending amid questions over police cuts – UK politics live

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Chancellor will give speech in Greater Manchester, while police leaders have written to the PM over potential cuts in next week’s spending review

Good morning. A week today Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will unveil the outcome of the spending review, which will set spending budgets – day-to-day (“resource”) and capital – covering most of the rest of this parliament. Many departments will get resource budgets that feel like cuts, but the Treasury has a more positive story to tell on capital spending and today Reeves is giving a speech announcing a £15bn spending spree on transport projects, mostly in the north of England.

Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot have all the details in our splash story.

We are deeply concerned that the settlement for policing and the [NCA], without additional investment, risks a retrenchment to what we saw under austerity. This would have far-reaching consequences.

Policing and the NCA have seen a sustained period where income has not kept pace with demand. Often, this has been masked by attempts to defer costs in the hope of more income in future, but that now leaves policing with very limited room for manoeuvre.

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Yvette Cooper quizzed over immigration and prisons crisis – UK politics live

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Home secretary appears to accept early release proposals will put more pressure on police as she is questioned at select committee

Defence sources believe that Britain will be forced to sign up to a target of lifting defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 at this month’s Nato summit after a campaign by the alliance’s secretary general to keep Donald Trump onboard, Dan Sabbagh reports.

Later today the data (use and access) bill will return to the Commons from the Lords in the third round of “ping pong” between the two houses. It is not unusual for “ping pong” to go on for a round or two, as bills which are almost ready for royal assent shuttle between the elected and unelected chamber while they try to resolve matters of dispute. But, in this case, the Lords are digging in a bit more than usual.

The government has been accused of “supporting thieves”, as it suffered a further heavy defeat at the hands of peers pressing their demand for steps to safeguard the creative industries against artificial intelligence.

The fourth and latest setback for the Labour frontbench over the issue in the House of Lords was inflicted despite pleas by a minister for the upper chamber to end its prolonged stand-off over the data (use and access) bill.

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Keir Starmer facing scrutiny over failure to establish new ethics watchdog

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Commons inquiry to examine lack of progress in fulfilling manifesto pledge to set up ethics and integrity body

No 10 is facing scrutiny over its failure to bring in a new ethics watchdog almost a year after the election, as a new inquiry was launched to examine the seeming lack of progress.

Amid signs that the plans have been kicked into the long grass, parliament’s public administration committee said it was launching an inquiry to push the government on what has happened to its ethics commitments.

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Starmer defends not putting date on 3% defence spending target as UK to announce plans to build new submarines – politics live

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Prime minister to launch strategic defence review in Glasgow this morning

Here is the clip of Keir Starmer in his Today programme interview refusing to say when the government will raise defence spending to 3% of GDP.

In an interview with the Times published on Saturday John Healey, the defence secretary, said that he had “no doubt” that Britain would reach the 3% target by 2034 – ie, before the end of the next parliament. Yesterday he described this as an “ambition”.

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Keir Starmer refuses to set date for UK to spend 3% of GDP on defence

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PM says he will not indulge in ‘performative fantasy politics’ before launching strategic defence review

Keir Starmer has refused to give a date for the UK to spend at least 3% of GDP on defence, saying he would not indulge in “performative fantasy politics”, as he prepared to launch the government’s strategic defence review.

Speaking at a defence facility in Scotland, the prime minister said his commitment to hit 2.5% of GDP on defence spending from 2027 showed he was serious about the issue, but that he could not go further without fiscal certainty.

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UK must consider food and climate part of national security, say top ex-military figures

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Former army and navy leaders urge government to think beyond military capability in advance of key defence review

Former military leaders are urging the UK government to widen its definition of national security to include climate, food and energy measures in advance of a planned multibillion-pound boost in defence spending.

Earlier this year Keir Starmer announced the biggest increase in defence spending in the UK since the end of the cold war, with the budget rising to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – and an ambition to reach 3%.

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Keir Starmer says Nigel Farage is ‘Liz Truss all over again’ – UK politics live

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Prime minister says ‘you cannot trust Farage with your future and your jobs’ as he gives speech in north-west England

When “something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is too good to be true”, water minister Emma Hardy has said, reports the PA news agency.

Asked about the “threat” which Reform UK poses to Labour, Hardy told GB News:

I think it’s really important that any political party is held to account for the promises that they’ve made and we know – gosh, don’t we just know – what happened when [former prime minister] Liz Truss made her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts: the economy tanked, mortgages went up, rents went up, bills went up.

When something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is too good to be true. If [Farage] wants to be taken seriously as a political party, then he needs to come up with some serious policies and he needs to be held to account.

Now, had I come on your programme and said, ‘do you know what? I’m just announcing £80bn of tax promises’, the first thing you’d have said to me is ‘I don’t believe you’.

The government must urgently summon the US ambassador to clarify what this court ruling means for Starmer’s recent deal with Donald Trump.

The levels of chaos from Trump’s economic policy is putting Liz Truss to shame.

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Nigel Farage accused of ‘fantasy promises’ with expensive policy pledges

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Reform UK leader unveils plans to reverse benefit cuts and bring in tax breaks without explaining how they would be funded

Nigel Farage has been accused of leaving a multibillion-pound black hole at the heart of his party’s spending plans after unveiling a series of expensive policy pledges to be paid for by cutting nonexistent items of government spending.

The Reform UK leader laid out a series of economic promises at a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits.

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Reform pledge to lift two-child cap aims to make having children ‘a bit easier for British families’ says Farage – UK politics live

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Leader says policy ‘not aimed at those who come into the country and suddenly decide to have a lot of children’

The co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, has renewed his call for Russia to face greater sanctions. Posting to social media, the MP for Waveney Valley said “Putin has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian civilians because he thinks he’ll face no consequences. Much tougher sanctions are urgently needed to bring him into serious peace talks to end this horrific war.”

As well as appearing on the media round today, shadow chancellor Mel Stride has written for the Daily Mail, saying that the Conservatives continue to back the two-child benefit cap.

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UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers

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Exclusive: Letter to PM signed by retired supreme court justices among others says lack of action will imperil international legal system

The UK must impose sanctions on the Israeli government and its ministers and also consider suspending it from the UN to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations”, more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges, including former supreme court justices, have said.

In a letter to the prime minister, they welcome Keir Starmer’s joint statement last week with the leaders of France and Canada warning that they were prepared to take “concrete actions” against Israel. But they urge him to act without delay as “urgent and decisive action is required to avert the destruction of the Palestinian people of Gaza”.

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No 10 delays child poverty strategy with tens of thousands more facing hardship

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Exclusive: Flagship policy put back until at least autumn amid fears cost of removing two-child benefit cap will outweigh political benefit

Labour’s flagship child poverty strategy has been delayed until at least the autumn, the Guardian has learned, even though tens of thousands more children will fall into poverty as a result.

The decision to push back the strategy comes amid Treasury concerns about the cost implications of ending the two-child limit on universal credit and questions inside No 10 over the political benefits of scrapping it.

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Netanyahu accused of slander after criticising Macron, Carney and Starmer

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Israeli leader’s antisemitism claim labelled defamatory as he is warned against pursuing a war without end

Benjamin Netanyahu was accused of slander and pursuing a war without end after he claimed the leaders of France, Canada and the UK were stoking antisemitism and siding with Hamas by demanding he end the two-month blockade of food and aid into Gaza.

In what has become an extraordinary standoff with some of Israel’s closest allies, Netanyahu appeared to deliberately raise the stakes on Thursday night by accusing his western critics of abandoning Israel in a war for its very existence.

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No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – UK politics live

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Downing Street unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or when changes would come in

YouGov has published more details of its polling on the electorate’s relationship with Labour, as covered in the Sky News report mentioned earlier. (See 10.06am.)

It shows that Reform UK supporters are most likely to think that Labour is trying hard to appeal to them – but least likely to say they would respond positively. Only 4% of Reform UK supporters say they would consider voting Labour, the poll says.

I ask her if there will be any changes as demanded by MPs

She says while “we want to make sure we address all of people’s concerns, but stressed: “whatever the fiscal position that the government faces, I think the system as a whole needs to change.”

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No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – UK politics live

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Downing Street unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or when changes would come in

YouGov has published more details of its polling on the electorate’s relationship with Labour, as covered in the Sky News report mentioned earlier. (See 10.06am.)

It shows that Reform UK supporters are most likely to think that Labour is trying hard to appeal to them – but least likely to say they would respond positively. Only 4% of Reform UK supporters say they would consider voting Labour, the poll says.

I ask her if there will be any changes as demanded by MPs

She says while “we want to make sure we address all of people’s concerns, but stressed: “whatever the fiscal position that the government faces, I think the system as a whole needs to change.”

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Former prisoners and hostages urge Starmer to secure release of Jimmy Lai

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Call for UK PM to act urgently over pro-democracy campaigner who has spent 1,602 days in solitary confinement

Former prisoners and hostages wrongly held abroad have urged the UK prime minister to urgently secure the release of the pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai before he dies in a Hong Kong jail.

The 77-year-old media mogul, who is a British citizen, has been held in solitary confinement for 1,602 days and his family fears he might not survive another summer in Hong Kong, where temperatures can reach 40C (104F).

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UK suspends trade talks with Israel as Lammy calls Gaza blockade ‘morally wrong’ and ‘unjustifiable’ – as it happened

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Foreign secretary tells parliament that the Israeli government’s ‘egregious actions and rhetoric’ are isolating the country from its friends and partners. This live blog is closed

The Scottish secretary has said the new UK-EU trade deal provides “12 years of certainty and stability” for the fishing industry, amid criticism from the industry that the government has made too large a concession to the EU on fishing rights.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has described the deal as a “horror show”, but Ian Murray said: “I don’t agree with that.”

It gives 12 years of certainty and stability for the industry, it doesn’t change any of the deal that was put in place in 2019, which is 25% more quotas for UK and Scottish trawlers and it gives wide access, of course to the new markets of the EU, in terms of pushing away all that red tape that was there before.

Not one more fish will be taken out of Scottish waters by an EU trawler as part of this deal and that provides that stability and certainty.

We should never trust Keir Starmer. You know, he’s screwing things up domestically, so he gets on the international bandwagon.

He’s selling us out, not just on Brexit, but on Chagos and … we’re hearing all sorts of things about Gibraltar. We’ll hold them to account on this. Where Labour negotiates, Britain always seem to lose.

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EU reset deal puts Britain back on the world stage, says Keir Starmer

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UK prime minister heralds a ‘win-win’ but faces criticism for concessions on fishing rights

Keir Starmer has vowed his EU reset deal will deliver cheaper food and energy for British people, heralding a “win-win” as he sealed the high-stakes agreement with concessions on youth visas and fishing.

“Britain is back on the world stage,” the prime minister said after shaking hands on the deal with the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen in London. “It gives us unprecedented access to the EU market, the best of any country … all while sticking to the red lines in our manifesto.”

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Starmer’s post-Brexit reset offers clear benefits – but there is political risk too

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While getting UK-EU deal through parliament should be easy enough, cries of ‘betrayal’ may chime with some voters

There were two moments at the UK-EU summit where it felt as if a corner had truly been turned. It was not on agrifoods, nor youth mobility, defence or fishing.

When Keir Starmer said the UK had changed, the most symbolic evidence of that came in a press release from No 10 that set out the terms of the agreement brokered at Lancaster House.

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Charities step up pressure on Keir Starmer to scrap two-child benefit cap

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Exclusive: Survey commissioned by children’s charities shows UK voters want to see families prioritised

Charities and a Labour-aligned pressure group are ramping up calls on Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child limit on benefits, as polling shows support for action on youth poverty remains high, and is equally solid among Labour voters tempted by Reform.

As discussions continue in government ahead of the forthcoming child poverty strategy, a survey commissioned by a coalition of charities suggests voters want to see families prioritised.

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No 10 actively investigating winter fuel payment changes as fears grow over voter anger

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Keir Starmer did not deny a rethink of benefit cut to 10 million pensioners blamed for Labour’s electoral losses

Downing Street is actively investigating changes to the controversial winter fuel payment cut over growing concerns about the policy’s deep unpopularity among voters.

No 10 has stepped up its work on reviewing the policy by carrying out internal polling and focus groups on how voters would respond to potential modifications to it.

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