MPs debate Labour motion that would set aside parliamentary time to pass Labour’s water quality (sewage discharge) bill
Rishi Sunak is seeking to capitalise on his improved relations with the EU with hopes of an agreement to allow British passport holders to use e-gates when travelling in the bloc, Lisa O’Carroll reports.
On small boats, Starmer told This Morning that he wanted to stop the boats. Labour would focus on two policies in particular, he said.
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Hugo Swire, a Tory peer, said he thought Dominic Raab was “too big a talent” not to be back “in some capacity” following his resignation over bullying accusations.
Lord Swire told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think to lose somebody who has been a justice secretary, a lord chancellor, deputy prime minister and foreign secretary at this stage is very unwise.
I think this is a career which has been brought prematurely to a temporary halt because I fundamentally believe that a talent such as Dominic will reappear in some place at some time.
It is the government’s loss. I think he will be back in some capacity.
Continue reading...Raab resigns as deputy prime minister and justice secretary after report finds he displayed ‘persistently aggressive conduct’
There is quite a contrast between the overnight briefing on behalf of Dominic Raab (see 9.06am and 9.24am). That could be explained by his allies talking complete rubbish to journalists. But a much more likely explanation is that last night Raab thought he could stay in office, but that by this morning – presumably after direct, or indirect, contact with Rishi Sunak – he realised that if he did not resign, he was going to sacked.
This is not so much a resignation letter as a “resignation” letter. It reads as if it was written by someone pushed out.
Mr Tolley concluded that I had not once, in four and a half years, sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone.
In setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent. It will encourage spurious complaints against Ministers, and have a chilling effect on those driving changen on behalf of your government – and ultimately the British people.
I am genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice.
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PMQs is starting in five minutes.
The Cabinet Office has just published the revised list of ministers’ interests. This is the document that is supposed get updated every six months, but which has not been updated for around a year – partly because it’s the job of the No 10 independent adviser on ministes’ interests (aka, the ethics adviser), and for months the post was empty because two of Boris Johnson’s resigned, and then he gave up trying to find a replacement.
The prime minister’s wife is a venture capital investor. She owns a venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Limited, and a number of direct shareholdings.
As the prime minister set out in his letter to the chair of the liaison committee on 4 April 2023, this includes the minority shareholding that his wife has in relation to the company, Koru Kids. The guide to the categories of interest (section 7, pages 4-6) sets out the independent adviser’s approach to the inclusion of interests declared in relation to spouses, partners and close family members within the list. The prime minister’s letter of 4 April is available at https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/38992/documents/191876/default/
Continue reading...Research by Labour shows 4.5 million in England went to A&E last year due to lack of GP appointments
Keir Starmer has said the NHS is “broken” and he believes the future of the health service is in jeopardy under the Conservatives.
The Labour leader accused the Tories of presiding over a “cycle of decline” as new research by his party shows that nearly a fifth of patients in England, which equates to 4.5 million people, went to A&E last year because they were unable to get a GP appointment.
Continue reading...Posters attacking Rishi Sunak on crime made Britons feel less favourable about both main parties, Opinium finds
Labour’s controversial “attack ad” accusing Rishi Sunak of failing to put paedophiles in prison has caused more voters to think negatively of Keir Starmer’s party than a Conservative poster that accused the Labour leader of being soft on crime, according to an Opinium poll for the Observer.
The striking result, when people were asked to react to the two posters, comes after 10 days of internal Labour ructions over its sudden switch to hyper-aggressive and personalised online campaigning.
Continue reading...US president praises emerging relationship with Ireland to taoiseach Leo Varadkar
Chris Philp, the policing minister, has published an article in the Telegraph today explaining the changes being introduced to the way that police record crimes in England and Wales. The changes are being introduced following recommendations from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Philp says:
Firstly, we are dropping the requirement for police to record some crimes twice or more, reintroducing the previous “principal offence” rule. This will remove multiple entries on the database which effectively re-record the same incident many times.
Accurate crime recording is vital, and these changes will better reflect victims’ experience. Recording crime does not equate to investigating crime and the police will continue to pursue all offences involved in the incident.
Accurate records of crime must be kept, and crimes will be recorded. These changes to the crime-recording rules will enable police to target and focus investigations and provide victims the service they deserve.
Ambulance response times for all types of emergencies have got longer, including for life-threatening illnesses and injuries, but remain below record levels.
Meanwhile around one in 10 people arriving at major A&E departments are having to wait more than 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged – the first time data of this kind has been published.
Continue reading...The party’s latest ad campaign launches personal attacks on Rishi Sunak. What’s behind its new ruthless approach?
Labour’s new attack ad campaign came as a shock, even to some senior members of the party. Its social media strategy ahead of next month’s local elections started with a highly personal attack on Rishi Sunak, suggesting he somehow does not think adults who sexually assault children should go to prison. It was followed by another ad focusing on the Sunak family’s taxes.
It’s a marked change from Keir Starmer’s previous approach of emphasising his personal integrity and insisting he wants to bring honesty back into politics. So what’s changed? The Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, explains what it says about the party’s confidence, unity – and the threat posed by Sunak. And she tells Hannah Moore whether it could mean the next general election will be be the most ruthlessly fought yet.
Continue reading...Party will continue to single out PM, after campaign ad last week that led to accusations of ‘dog-whistle’ politics
Keir Starmer will shift his aim this week on to Rishi Sunak’s role in presiding over the cost of living crisis after days of anger over Labour’s crime campaign.
The party will continue to single out the prime minister in the minds of voters, claiming “his fingerprints are all over their struggling household budgets”, as part of an attempt to hold Sunak – still seen by some as a change of the Tory old guard – personally accountable for 13 years of Conservative failures.
Continue reading...Messaging on law and order has racist undertones, say critics, and could scupper the party’s efforts to appear to offer a ‘fresh start’
The controversy surrounding Labour’s attack advert suggesting Rishi Sunak does not support jailing child abusers dominated the headlines over the Easter break, drawing furious criticism from both the left of the party and the Conservatives.
Labour officials have insisted that the shock tactic was helping their message to cut through, putting the Tories’ poor record on crime under the spotlight. But that was not the experience of candidates doing canvassing ahead of the local elections.
Continue reading...Party leader says he will ‘make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt’ after facing widespread criticism over advert
Keir Starmer has said he will “make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt” in an article published after a row over a widely criticised Labour attack advert on child sexual assaults.
In a veiled message to critics within his own party, the Labour leader said he will “stand by every word Labour has said on this subject” and would continue to use the Conservatives’ record on crime as a legitimate criticism “no matter how squeamish it might make some feel”.
Continue reading...Shadow ministers privately say they feel ‘uncomfortable’ over ‘distasteful’ ad amid calls for Keir Starmer to apologise
Labour frontbenchers have been left uneasy by a “spectacularly misjudged” advert claiming that Rishi Sunak does not support jailing child abusers, but party strategists are preparing to double down on the aggressive campaign.
Keir Starmer faced calls to personally apologise and order the retraction of the ad, which, a campaign group warned, “poisons the water that we all must drink from”.
Continue reading...Three years after Jeremy Corbyn left a sleeping bag behind, the leader of the opposition’s office is full of ‘bright, energetic, hungry people’
Keir Starmer’s team had a few moments to reminisce about the past three years at their regular morning meeting on Tuesday, with one senior aide recalling when their winning leadership team first walked into the leader of the opposition’s office.
It had only just been vacated by Jeremy Corbyn’s team and in one room, there were assorted revolutionary flags including one from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the next room there was a large bin full to the brim with shredded documents spilling on to the floor. In Corbyn’s office was a sleeping bag. “You could not have pictured a more symbolic scene,” they said.
Continue reading...Prime minister says offenders have been protected by ‘political correctness’ as he announces ‘grooming gangs taskforce’
Starmer says he has not talked to Jeremy Corbyn for two and a half years.
Q: Is he a friend?
Continue reading...Latest updates: Labour leader to launch campaign for local elections with tax pledge that Conservatives have criticised as worthless
The Commons standards committee says Margaret Ferrier should be suspended for 30 days for breaches of Commons rules related to the incident where she travelled by train from London to Scotland after testing positive for Covid in 2020.
Last year a court sentenced her to 270 hours of unpaid work in relation to the offence, but the standards commmittee says a further sanction by the Commons is required.
The threshold for a breach of paragraph 17 of the code [which says MPs should “never undertake any action which would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole”] is necessarily high. However, any finding that a member’s actions have brought the house into disrepute must be considered to be a serious breach. The 2019 Code states that “members have a duty to uphold the law”; something the public rightly expect. If Ms Ferrier had been a public sector employee in a position of trust or leadership, she could have faced severe disciplinary consequences, potentially including dismissal, for these or similar actions.
We therefore recommend that Ms Ferrier is suspended from the service of the house for 30 days.
Labour’s announcement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. They have no plan to introduce this if elected. They’re taking the British people for fools.
If Labour were serious about cutting council tax Labour councils would be doing it now.
Continue reading...Labour’s plan would include dedicated rape courts and domestic violence experts taking 999 calls, says party leader
Keir Starmer has vowed to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, with measures including dedicated “rape courts” and domestic violence experts taking 999 calls.
Setting out one of Labour’s core missions on crime, Starmer said it was the “unfinished business in my life’s work to deliver justice” and said Tory attacks on him for being a human rights lawyer “only shows how far they’ve fallen, and how little they understand working people”.
Restore public confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest level.
Halve knife crime incidents, including with an enhanced police presence outside schools.
Drastically improve statistics for the proportion of crimes solved by the police.
Drive down violence against women and improve conviction rates.
Continue reading...Labour leader earned little outside his parliamentary income apart from windfall after sister sold home he helped her buy
Keir Starmer has released his tax returns for the last two years, showing that he earned little outside his parliamentary income except for a windfall when his sister sold the family home that he helped her buy.
The Labour leader released a summary of his past two years of tax payments on Thursday, a day after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, released three years of his.
Continue reading...Former PM suggests ‘unsocially distanced farewell gatherings’ were allowed at work and that he didn’t think following guidance meant following it perfectly
Turning back to the Northern Ireland protocol deal vote for a moment, Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland minister, has said that Boris Johnson risks being remembered as a “pound shop Nigel Farage” for his stance on the Windsor framework.
Baker said that reviving the Northern Ireland protocol bill, Johnson’s declared alternative to Rishi Sunak’s deal (see 9.40am), would “wreck our relations with the European Union and damage our standing internationally”. Sky’s Sam Coates has posted the full quote on Twitter.
Continue reading...Former prime minister says he believes evidence shows he did not recklessly mislead parliament over Partygate
Boris Johnson claims there is no document showing that he was given “any warning or advice” than any No 10 event may have broken Covid rules. He says:
It is clear from that investigation that there is no evidence at all that supports an allegation that I intentionally or recklessly misled the house. The only exception is the assertions of the discredited Dominic Cummings, which are not supported by any documentation.
There is not a single document that indicates that I received any warning or advice that any event broke or may have broken the rules or guidance. In fact, the evidence before the committee demonstrates that those working at No 10 at the time shared my honest belief that the rules and guidance were being followed.
I accept that the House of Commons was misled by my statements that the rules and guidance had been followed completely at No 10. But when the statements were made, they were made in good faith and on the basis of what I honestly knew and believed at the time.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s attitude ‘much more responsible’ than that of Boris Johnson, says former EU negotiator
The EU’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has praised the agreement on Northern Ireland between the union and the British government as a positive step that turns a page in relations between the two sides.
In an interview with the Guardian, the veteran French politician said the Windsor framework agreement signed by Rishi Sunak and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, last month, “operationalised” the Northern Ireland protocol he had negotiated with the British government in 2019. “There was a spirit of goodwill for the first time in three years, to find solutions that are concrete, operational and realistic.”
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