Category Archives: Keir Starmer

Senior backbench MP joins Scottish Tory leader in calling for Johnson to resign over No 10 lockdown party – live

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William Wragg says Boris Johnson is damaging reputation of party as Douglas Ross calls for him to stand down after prime minister admits attending party

Another journalist who is very well plugged in to the thinking of Tory MPs is the Conservative Home editor Paul Goodman, a former MP himself. In what might be a rather ominous development for Johnson, Goodman devotes his main ConHome article this morning to discussing the process by which the Conservative party might go about replacing him (although he does not describe Johnson’s resignation as inevitable).

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said Boris Johnson should resign. He told BBC Breakfast:

Boris Johnson is now incapable of leading our country through this public health crisis - I actually think he is a threat to the health of the nation, because no-one will do anything he says because he has now shown to have been deceitful, so Boris Johnson must now resign ...

He said to parliament and to the country before Christmas when he was apologising that he didn’t know about the parties, and now we know he was at at least one of those parties.

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‘The party’s over’: Keir Starmer derides Boris Johnson’s apology at PMQs – video

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The Labour leader has said the prime minister's apology for attending what he claimed he thought was a 'work event' in the garden at No 10 in May 2020, when the country was in full lockdown, was 'offensive to the British public'. Keir Starmer called for Boris Johnson to 'do the decent thing' and resign before either his party or the public drove him out of office

UK politics: latest updates

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Lockdown party inquiry could expand to cover No 10 garden event

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Cabinet Office can investigate ‘credible allegations’ on other gatherings, but PM says photo of staff shows work meeting

Bereaved families have accused Boris Johnson of showing “flagrant disregard” for the public as ministers struggled to explain the justification for a wine and cheese event in Downing Street at the height of lockdown.

A Cabinet Office inquiry into other alleged government parties in breach of Covid rules could be expanded after the Guardian published an image showing the prime minister alongside his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.

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‘It’s a stretch’: Starmer on No 10’s wine and cheese work meeting – video

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The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said it was 'a bit of a stretch' to suggest a photograph in which the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his staff are seen sharing wine and cheese platters in the gardens of Downing Street in May 2020 was a work meeting. No 10 has denied anything social took place and the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, said no Covid rules had been broken

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UK Covid live: Met police will not investigate No 10 Christmas party allegations

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Latest updates: Scotland Yard cites ‘absence of evidence’, as PM triggers plan B Covid restrictions

Downing Street sources are saying this morning that “no decisions have been made” on a move to plan B. But, frankly, an FT story carries more credibility in the Westminster media village.

Ben Riley-Smith, the Telegraph political editor, thinks the timing of such a move would be suspicious.

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‘We are sick of double speak’: French government intensifies attack on Johnson over Channel tragedy – live

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Latest updates: Macron slams Boris Johnson for trying to negotiate with him via Twitter as it cancels talks with UK officials over Channel crossings

The French government has accused Boris Johnson of “double speak”. In a briefing, the French government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, said that the proposal in Johnson’s letter to Emmanuel Macron for France to take back people who successfully cross the Channel on small boats was “clearly not what we need to solve this problem”.

According to PA Media, Attal also said that the letter doesn’t correspond at all” with the discussions Johnson and Macron had when they spoke on Wednesday. Atta went on: “We are sick of double speak.”

What would be completely unacceptable, a stain on our country and a scandal would be to see in future those whose parents have died being placed in inappropriate institutions, in elderly care homes or mental health institutions.

That would be something that I think would bring shame to our country as well as an utterly inappropriate lifestyle for those to whom we should be giving the best possible care.

This is not a bill about a condition, it is not about dealing with Down’s syndrome, it is about people who deserve the same ability to demand the best health, education and care as the rest of our society.

It is not on our part an act of charity, it is an act of empowerment and the recognition that all members of our society must have a right to respect, independence and dignity. That is why I brought this bill forward.

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Labour records first poll lead over Tories since January

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Starmer’s party is 1 point ahead in new poll, following Tory sleaze and second-job rows

Labour has recorded its first poll lead over the Conservatives for almost a year in the wake of the row over Tory sleaze and second jobs, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

Keir Starmer’s party recorded 37% support, a single point ahead of the Tories. It is the first Labour lead with Opinium since January, when the UK was in the grips of a covid peak and the government had imposed emergency restrictions over Christmas. The Lib Dems are on 9%, Greens 7% and SNP 5%.

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MPs could be barred from consultancy roles in sleaze clampdown

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Watchdog considers tightening restrictions on MPs’ second jobs which could affect 30 parliamentarians

MPs could be banned from having consultancy jobs like Owen Paterson’s under plans for a clampdown on sleaze being considered by the Commons standards committee.

The prospect of tightened restrictions on MPs’ second jobs is to be decided within weeks and could affect more than 30 parliamentarians earning between £180,000 and hundreds of pounds a year on top of their £82,000 salary.

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Emergency visa scheme extended in major U-turn by Boris Johnson

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Threat of Christmas being ruined by driver shortages forces ministers to expand range and duration of visas

Boris Johnson’s government has made a dramatic U-turn in an attempt to save Christmas – with a raft of extended emergency visas to help abate labour shortages that have led to empty shelves and petrol station queues.

New immigration measures will allow 300 fuel drivers to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March, while 100 army drivers will take to the roads from Monday, the government announced late on Friday.

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Keir Starmer promises ‘serious plan for government’ in conference speech

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Labour leader attacks Boris Johnson as ‘a showman with nothing left to show’ in keynote address

Keir Starmer has used a 90-minute conference speech to urge former Labour voters to return to the party, promising he will never “go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government”.

In his first in-person address to a Labour conference since becoming leader, Starmer sought to present himself as a serious, focused contrast to the “trivial” approach of Boris Johnson, recounting his background, his “two rocks” of family and work, and his career as a lawyer and director of public prosecutions.

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Starmer faces wave of anger over Labour conference chaos

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Labour leader bids to stem damage after defeat on rules as deputy Rayner furious over unnecessary conflict

Keir Starmer is battling to restore authority over the Labour party after a bruising defeat at the hands of unions and the left sparked a storm of criticism over his performance as leader.

Ahead of a conference billed as the moment when Starmer would introduce himself as a future prime minister to the British people, the Labour leader on Saturday was forced to withdraw plans to limit the role of party members, and increase that of MPs, in selecting future party leaders, after the unions united in opposition to block the move.

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The Guardian view on Europe’s centre-left: new grounds for optimism | Editorial

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There are signs that previously struggling social democratic parties are drawing the right lessons from the pandemic

In the wake of the financial crash in 2008, hopes were high on the left that a bona fide crisis of capitalism would significantly shift the political dial in its favour. Isolated victories and movements aside, it didn’t really happen. Instead, in the early 2010s, the bailout of the bankers was followed by the imposition of austerity across Europe and in America as governments sought to balance the books.

Premature predictions on the nature of post-Covid politics in the west are therefore to be avoided. But certain themes do seem to be emerging. Sketching out broadly communitarian territory, they chime with many people’s experience of how the pandemic played out and what it exposed; and there is some evidence that, in northern Europe, they might inform a revival and renewal of centre-left parties and movements.

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‘I wouldn’t stay on holiday whilst Kabul was falling’: Starmer slams Johnson in Commons – video

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Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has castigated the government over its reaction to events unfolding in Afghanistan, saying the prime minister's response to the Taliban 'arriving at the gates of Kabul' was 'to go on holiday', and that the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, could not 'coordinate international response from the beach'. 

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Director Ken Loach says he has been expelled from Labour

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Leftwing film-maker claims move by party is because he would ‘not disown those already expelled’

The veteran leftwing film-maker Ken Loach has said he has been expelled from the Labour party.

Loach, whose films are regarded as landmarks of social realism, claimed the move by the party was because he would “not disown those already expelled”, and he hit out at an alleged “witch-hunt”.

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Boris Johnson’s approval rating slips to lowest level since he became prime minister

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Bad news for the Tories does not necessarily lead to good news for Labour: backing for Keir Starmer is also down

Boris Johnson’s personal approval rating has slipped to its lowest level since he became prime minister, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

His overall approval rating has fallen to -16, down from the -13 he recorded two weeks ago and -8 a fortnight before that. It is even lower than the -15 he recorded back in January, when Britain was in the grip of a Covid peak, lockdown measures were in place and the NHS was under severe pressure.

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Angela Rayner: ‘We don’t want to be an opposition, we want to be a government’

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Labour’s deputy leader opens up about being a carer, byelections, and achieving a ‘cultural shift’ in the workplace

Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has said her own experience as a care worker helped to convince her more flexible working could be a “win-win” for staff and employers.

Speaking to the Guardian after announcing new policies last week on employment rights and flexible conditions, Rayner said she had helped negotiate family-friendly working when she was a trade union representative.

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Northern Ireland’s deputy leader urges calm before loyalist parades

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Michelle O’Neill concerned about site of unionist bonfire, as tensions rise over post-Brexit trading rules

Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister has urged people to celebrate peacefully before the start of the loyalist parade season, as tensions increase over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill – who is deputy to the new first minister, Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), in the power-sharing administration – called particularly for calm over a bonfire set up in a contentious site in north Belfast.

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Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater wins narrow victory in Batley and Spen byelection

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Sister of murdered MP Jo Cox holds West Yorkshire seat for party, easing pressure on leader Keir Starmer

Labour has narrowly won the Batley and Spen byelection, holding on to the West Yorkshire seat after a hotly contested campaign.

Labour won 13,296 votes with the Tories recording 12,973, according to official results. Kim Leadbeater defeated Ryan Stephenson, the Conservative candidate, by 323 votes. George Galloway, representing the Workers Party of Britain, came third with 8,264 votes.

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Labour leader Keir Starmer axes chief aide Jenny Chapman

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Removal of political secretary in face of MPs’ criticism is latest step in reshuffle of Labour’s top team

Keir Starmer’s closest aide, Jenny Chapman, is to be removed from her role as political secretary after significant criticism from MPs, but will move into the shadow cabinet taking responsibility for Brexit.

Chapman’s departure is another major change to Starmer’s top team and follows a sideways move for Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and the departure of his two most senior communications staff, Ben Nunn and Paul Ovenden.

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John Bercow defects to Labour with withering attack on Johnson

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Former Speaker says party has become reactionary and xenophobic under its current leadership

• The blue wall: what next for the Tories after shock defeat?

John Bercow, the former Tory MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, has delivered an extraordinary broadside against Boris Johnson and the Conservative party as he announces he has switched his political allegiance to Labour.

In an explosive interview with the Observer, Bercow says he regards today’s Conservative party as “reactionary, populist, nationalistic and sometimes even xenophobic”.

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