Category Archives: Keir Starmer

Almost 90% of voters – including 65% of Tories – say Britain needs fresh team of leaders, poll suggests – UK politics live

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Rishi Sunak’s government seen as less competent that Boris Johnson’s administration

The UK economy is set to witness the highest inflation rate of the world’s G7 advanced economies this year, according to new forecasts, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also increased its predicted average UK inflation rate for 2023 compared with its previous estimate.

Economists at the globally recognised organisation also reduced their UK growth forecast slightly for next year amid pressure from higher interest rates.

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Starmer wraps up foreign mini-tour with visit to Macron in Paris

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Talks between Labour leader and French president at Élysée described as ‘warm and engaging’

Keir Starmer has completed his international mini-tour by meeting Emmanuel Macron in Paris for symbolically significant if low-key talks that skirted around specifics of Brexit or migration policy.

After discussions in The Hague with EU law enforcement officials, and weekend meetings with Justin Trudeau and others in Montreal, the Labour leader held 45 minutes of one-to-one talks with the French president at the Élysée Palace.

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Rishi Sunak is less trusted on the UK economy than recent Tory PMs, poll finds

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Prime minister can find comfort in ranking above Liz Truss, however

Rishi Sunak is seen as less competent on economic affairs than most recent Conservative prime ministers, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

The prime minister has made reducing inflation one of his key priorities, as well as reducing debt and avoiding a recession. Much of his pitch has been on his economic management skills as a former chancellor.

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Labour wants new EU links in a reset of British foreign policy

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Ties with Europe are a top priority, says shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, as he calls for Britain to play a lead role in world affairs

The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has proposed regular meetings between UK and European Union ministers, as part of a major reset of British foreign policy under a Labour government.

Lammy, who was attending a gathering of centre-left leaders in Montreal, Canada, with the Labour leader Keir Starmer, told the Observer it was high time the UK took up its place again, after Brexit, as a lead player in world affairs. “A UK that is isolated and missing is felt across the world. It is definitely the case that the international community want Britain back,” he said.

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Keir Starmer arrives in Canada to set out stall on immigration policy

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Diplomatic and media blitz for Labour leader will include appearances on Sunday morning political shows

Keir Starmer has arrived in Canada to set out his doctrine for tackling international threats at a gathering of world leaders, the latest step in the Labour leader’s move to flesh out policy in politically turbulent areas such as immigration.

Amid continued efforts by Starmer and his team to push back against the “nonsense” that closer cooperation with the EU would involve the UK having to accept 100,000 asylum-seekers a year, the Labour leader was in Montreal for the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left politicians.

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Starmer attacked from left and right after setting out plan to stop Channel crossings

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Labour leader accused of pandering to anti-migrant sentiments by those on the left while Tories seize on proposal for deal with EU

Keir Starmer was under attack from left and right on Thursday after he set out plans to stop small boat Channel crossings in Labour’s first big intervention on the issue.

Fleshing out his party’s proposals, the Labour leader promised to ditch the use of barges, hotels and military sites to house asylum seekers. He also promised to recruit 1,000 caseworkers to end the asylum backlog.

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Starmer to seek EU-wide returns deal for asylum seekers

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Labour leader working on ‘quid pro quo’ deal of migrant quotas from bloc in return for sending back those who arrive illegally

Keir Starmer has revealed that he would seek an EU-wide returns agreement for asylum seekers who come to Britain, as he vowed to “smash the gangs” behind small boat crossings.

Labour believes that any agreement with Brussels would have to be “quid pro quo”, meaning accepting quotas of migrants from the bloc in return for sending back people who arrive illegally. The system would reportedly work via applications in UK embassies on the continent, and prioritise people with family already in the UK.

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Sunak branded ‘inaction man’ at PMQs as Starmer attacks record on schools, prisons and China – UK politics live

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Labour leader accuses government of failing to heed warnings which has led to series of crises this week

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.

Yesterday it emerged that ministers are mulling over a plan to tweak the triple lock for pensions so that what might be a bumper 8.5% increase in its value next year ends up being marginally less generous, at 7.8%.

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Rishi Sunak says he told China actions to undermine British democracy are ‘completely unacceptable’

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Prime minister says he told Li Qiang, the Chinese prime minister, at G20 that Chinese interference with the work of parliament will ‘never be tolerated’

Simon Clarke, who was the levelling up secretary during the Liz Truss premiership, has defended the government’s decision not to explicitly label China as a threat. In posts on X, or Twitter as many of us still call it, he said:

There are legitimate reasons why it is difficult for ministers to say China is a threat – that’s the nature of international relations. What matters more than words is that our policy choices change to reflect the undoubted danger of China’s actions.

Here I think the Government’s record stands up pretty well. You have the soft power of our new Pacific trade bloc membership in the CPTPP (which notably does not include China) and you have the hard power of the new AUKUS alliance - itself a response to Chinese aggression.

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PMQs: Rishi Sunak denies cutting budgets for school repairs as list of concrete-risk schools revealed

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Keir Starmer likens the Tories to ‘cowboy builders’ as the PM insists the government acted decisively in response to the problem

The DfE list shows pupils at 24 schools across England will receive some remote learning because of the concrete crisis, with four schools switching to fully remote learning, PA Media reports.

And the list shows 19 schools where the start of term has had to be delayed as a result of collapse-prone concrete.

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Keir Starmer likens government to ‘cowboy builders’ over concrete crisis

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Labour leader accuses prime minister of neglecting pupils at state schools during combative PMQs

Keir Starmer has likened Rishi Sunak’s government to a group of “cowboy builders” during a prime minister’s questions in which the Labour leader sought to portray the prime minister as out of touch over the concrete crisis.

Starmer also contrasted the chaos faced in the state system with the private education enjoyed by the PM and his children, saying Sunak neglected the problem because he saw it as a problem affecting “other people’s children”.

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Pat McFadden: the most powerful Labour politician most have never heard of

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Role preparing for election will see McFadden shape party’s direction, but it will likely be done quietly

Pat McFadden is the most powerful Labour politician most people have never heard of. As Rachel Reeves’ No 2 in the shadow Treasury team, with responsibility for Labour’s public spending plans, he could derail the dreams of shadow cabinet colleagues with just a raised eyebrow.

In his new role preparing for the election campaign and – should Labour win it – running the Cabinet Office, he assumes even greater responsibility for the direction of Keir Starmer’s party. Yet much of it is likely to be done quietly, and efficiently, behind the scenes.

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Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis – UK politics live

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PM dismissed claims that he failed to properly fund school rebuilding plans when he was chancellor

Lisa Nandy has been made shadow cabinet minister for international development. She was shadow levelling up secretary.

Lisa Nandy MP @LisaNandy has been appointed Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development.

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Angela Rayner named shadow levelling up secretary in Labour reshuffle

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Deputy leader to take over brief from Lisa Nandy as Keir Starmer makes long-awaited changes to top team

Angela Rayner will become deputy prime minister if Labour wins the next election and will take on the levelling up brief, as Keir Starmer’s long-awaited shadow cabinet reshuffle proved more widespread than some had predicted.

Lisa Nandy, the former shadow levelling up secretary, is taking on the international development brief, a big demotion, as Starmer gets his top team in place before the next general election.

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Rishi Sunak’s approval rating slips as big summer push fails to spark revival

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Prime minister drops further in opinion polls after populist policies on migrants backfire

Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have failed to improve over the summer political break – despite several weeks of Tory policy blitzes intended to win back voters.

The latest Opinium survey for the Observer shows the Conservative have failed to shift the dial in Sunak’s favour, with the prime minister dropping two points in the past two weeks to a net score of -25% (24% approve, 49% disapprove).

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Starmer challenges Sunak to force Nadine Dorries out of Commons as Tory website explains how it could happen – as it happened

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Article says Commons could bypass the parliamentary standards machinery after Labour leader says MP should be forced out. This live blog is closed

Starmer says there is a massive mismatch between what the government is saying about how things are going well with the economy, and the lived experience of people.

O’Brien suggests the two teenagers Starmer met today would have been happier if Starmer was still committed to getting rid of tuition fees.

I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.

I am not going to pretend that there isn’t huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want in the way that we would want.

We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them.

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Labour says extra 900 beds for NHS just a ‘sticking plaster’ amid record waiting times – UK politics live

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Wes Streeting says announcement of £250m to provide 900 extra beds ‘comes nowhere near the 12,000 beds’ cut in the last 13 years

Back on the PSNI data leak for a second, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has questioned how the details of PSNI officers and staff were all kept in one system.

“What’s happened, why it’s happened, I don’t know, I don’t get it – how 10,000 people were all in one system, particularly intelligence people – but I’m sure that will all come out in the wash,” PA Media reports he told Newstalk.

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Keir Starmer urged to defend lawyers after Tories’ ‘targeted campaign’

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Exclusive: Martin Forde KC says fellow professionals are ‘bewildered’ at silence over case of Jacqueline McKenzie

Keir Starmer is facing calls to defend the legal profession against government attacks on “lefty lawyers”, amid further concerns for the safety of an immigration solicitor subjected to a “targeted campaign” by the Conservative party.

Martin Forde KC, the senior lawyer commissioned by Starmer to investigate the Labour party’s culture, said legal professionals from across the political spectrum had expressed their bewilderment that the Labour leader had not said anything after such personal attacks, even after former Conservative law officers criticised the political rhetoric aimed at “lefty lawyers” on Friday.

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Starmer says Sunak’s lack of investment in wind power is ‘gift to Putin’

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Labour leader claims Conservatives’ onshore turbine ban costs families £180 each and makes UK reliant on gas imports

Keir Starmer has condemned the prime minister’s climate policies, declaring the failure to invest in renewables such as wind turbines a “gift to Putin”.

The Labour leader also described the Conservatives’ onshore wind ban as “ludicrous” and said it now means every family in the country is paying £180 more on their energy bills.

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Labour: recruit police from fields such as business fraud to solve crimes

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Party says recruits with relevant skills could help tackle government’s ‘abysmal’ record on unsolved crimes

Directly recruiting new police detectives from parallel fields such as business fraud investigation could help tackle the government’s “abysmal” record on unsolved crimes, according to a proposal from Labour.

Analysis by the party found that 90% of recorded crimes do not get solved and there has been a 60% reduction in the proportion of offences that result in a criminal charge since 2015.

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