Munira Wilson told party’s conference many men could not afford to spend time with their babies
The Liberal Democrats have said they would double statutory shared parental pay (ShPP) and extend the amount of leave new parents can take if the party form the next government.
Speaking at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth, education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, said not enough men were taking leave, while many “simply can’t afford” to spend time with their babies.
Continue reading...YouGov finds 77% in favour of proposal to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives
A large majority of Scottish voters support proposals to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives, according to a poll released by campaigners for assisted dying laws.
A new bill to legalise assisted dying in Scotland is due to be published by the Scottish parliament later this year, in a fresh attempt by its supporters to get the measure enacted for the first time in the UK.
Continue reading...Survey reveals Labour more likely than Lib Dems to overturn Conservatives’ 25,000 majority in Nadine Dorries’s former seat
• Read more: byelection duel could gift Mid Beds to Tories
Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck in the battle for the previously safe Tory seat of Mid Bedfordshire, according to a poll that suggests a split “progressive” vote could allow Rishi Sunak’s party to retain the constituency.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats are making a full-tilt effort to win the seat from the Conservatives after the resignation of Nadine Dorries, a close ally of Boris Johnson, who eventually quit after being denied a place on the former prime minister’s resignation honours list.
Continue reading...PM shown evidence of ‘critical risk to life’ when chancellor, says former top civil servant at Department for Education
Rishi Sunak refused to properly fund a school rebuilding programme when he was chancellor, despite officials presenting evidence that there was “a critical risk to life” from crumbling concrete panels, the Department for Education’s former head civil servant has said.
After the department told Sunak’s Treasury that there was a need to rebuild 300 to 400 schools a year in England, he gave funding for only 100, which was then halved to 50, said Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary of the department from 2016 to 2020.
Continue reading...Home secretary calls the court ‘politicised’ and refuses to rule out mass tagging of asylum seekers
Suella Braverman has reiterated her wish to leave what she called the “politicised” European court of human rights (ECHR) and refused to rule out the mass tagging of asylum seekers, a move one refugee charity said would treat people as “mere objects”.
Marking a return to the political fray after a summer recess in which a series of Home Office policy hiccups prompted speculation she could be replaced as home secretary, Braverman said the government would “do whatever it takes” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer’s approval ratings suffer but his party remains far ahead of Conservatives as Westminster summer recess begins
Labour goes into the Westminster summer break with a commanding 17-point lead over the Conservatives, despite a fall in approval ratings for party leader Keir Starmer.
The latest Opinium poll for the Observer puts Labour on 42%, down one point since a fortnight ago, while the Tories are down three points to 25%, their poorest showing since the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss.
Continue reading...With a local dispute swaying voters, the result in Boris Johnson’s old seat did not accurately reflect the national mood
• Read more: Starmer under pressure after Uxbridge as Tories tackle mission impossible
One out of three ain’t bad? A surprise win in Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge gave Conservatives something to cheer on Friday morning as Rishi Sunak narrowly avoided being the first prime minister since Harold Wilson to suffer three byelection defeats on the same day. But with a local dispute swaying Uxbridge voters, the contests in Selby and Somerton may provide a clearer indication of the national mood. The picture they paint is bleak: two heavy defeats for the government to different opponents at opposite ends of England.
In the week when Labour leader Keir Starmer took to the stage for the first time with his predecessor Tony Blair, Labour achieved a byelection breakthrough in North Yorkshire worthy of Blair’s mid-1990s prime. Selby and Ainsty’s 20,000-vote Conservative majority is the largest ever overturned by Labour in a byelection, and the swing to Labour was the second largest recorded. Labour comfortably outperformed its current polling with a swing which would decimate the Conservative benches if replicated in a general election. This was the performance of an opposition on its way back into government.
Continue reading...Starmer hails results as ‘cry for change’ as Sunak’s party loses Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome, but clings on in Uxbridge
Rishi Sunak’s chances of guiding the Conservatives to victory at the next general election looked increasingly slim on Friday after his party suffered two shattering byelection defeats.
Labour gained its second biggest swing from the Tories since 1945, overturning a 20,000-vote Tory majority in Selby and Ainsty, with the Liberal Democrats also toppling the Conservatives in the previously safe West Country seat of Somerton and Frome.
Continue reading...All the leaders concluded that things had panned out just as they had hoped, if not better
And the winner is … Absolutely everyone. It was the morning after the night before and – slowly, slowly – the leaders of all political parties began to emerge from their bunkers to face the media. And what a tale they had to tell. They had had time to reflect on the results of the three byelections and – amazingly – had all concluded that things had panned out just as they had hoped. Better even. Everyone was on course to win the next general election in 2024 and everyone else was facing an electoral wipeout.
Rishi Sunak was first to show his face in a cafe. “This is an historic day for the Conservatives,” he said. “And also for me. By holding – where am I? This part of London all looks the same to me – Oh, yes, Uxbridge and South Ruislip, I have avoided becoming the first prime minister since Harold Wilson to lose three byelections on the same night. So by only losing two safe seats, I have shown I am on course to win a general election.
Continue reading...Byelection results come in for the constituencies of Somerton and Frome, Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and Selby and Ainsty
Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said her party was “quietly confident” about victory in Somerton and Frome.
The party is tipped for victory in the byelection and Jardine told BBC Newsnight that success would be “huge”.
Continue reading...Keir Mather, 25, is Selby’s next MP, as Labour narrowly fails to take Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Liberal Democrats romp to victory in Somerton and Frome
The Labour party has won its biggest ever byelection victory by overturning a 20,000-vote Conservative majority in Selby and Ainsty, sending a 25-year-old to parliament.
But Keir Starmer’s party failed to win Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Boris Johnson’s old constituency. The Conservatives held on to the outer London seat with a majority of 495, the only bit of good news in an otherwise miserable night for Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Voters are picking new MPs in the constituencies of Somerton and Frome, Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and Selby and Ainsty
A senior Conservative MP has apologised and deleted a video in which he praised the Taliban and credited them with improving safety in Afghanistan.
Tobias Ellwood said he was “sorry for my poor communication” after his actions outraged fellow Tory MPs and military veterans, and an attempt was launched to challenge his role as chair of the Commons defence select committee.
The last couple of days have probably been the most miserable as a member of parliament. I got it wrong.
It’s not just our members, we’d like him to show that he supports the trade unions, that he supports working people who are struggling, and we think some of the stuff that we’re hearing is a dilution of traditional Labour positions and even the positions that he himself adopted when he was elected as leader.
So the stuff about the two-child cap is not really good enough; it’s taking the side of the Conservatives, it’s taking the side of austerity.
I’m hoping that we’ll get a new deal for workers, the repeal of many of these anti-trade union laws that restrict our rights and our freedoms and that he shows that in terms of funding public services like education, health, care for our elders and addressing the housing crisis that we’ve got in this country that he can do something positive in favour of working people.
If he does that then more people will support him, if he doesn’t then some people might conclude... they may as well have the Tories because there’s not much difference between them.
Continue reading...Opposition parties hope to overturn government majorities in three constituencies vacated by Tory MPs amid controversy
Polls have opened in three parliamentary seats where byelections are being held, with Rishi Sunak braced for an electoral test of his premiership.
The Conservative-held constituencies are being targeted by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who hope to overturn large majorities and send Tory MPs off into the summer recess nervous about their own political futures come the general election.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer’s party believes it can topple Conservative rural strongholds as it competes with the Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire
Labour is “throwing the kitchen sink” at claiming the Conservative stronghold of Selby and Ainsty, amid growing optimism that it can pull off a shock win that would show its progress in Tory-held rural seats.
The North Yorkshire constituency, which was recently vacated by Boris Johnson ally Nigel Adams, returned a majority of more than 20,000 for the Tories at the last election. Labour had been targeting a strong second place in the seat, to fend off claims that only the Liberal Democrats can take on the Tories in their heartlands.
Continue reading...Leader Ed Davey says party will fight for both seats after resignations of Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries
Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has ruled out a formal pact with Labour to encourage tactical voting in order to beat the Conservatives in the byelections triggered by Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries’ shock resignations.
Dorries, one of Johnson’s fiercest cheerleaders, quit parliament on Friday after being told she would not be elevated to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list. Johnson followed suit hours later, ditching his outer-London seat with a bitter resignation statement accusing Rishi Sunak of leading a government that is “not properly Conservative” and attacking the Partygate investigation.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner tables question about criteria for launching investigation into potential breach of ministerial code
And here are some of the lines from what Rishi Sunak has been saying at the London defence conference.
Sunak said the challenge posed by China should not lead to a “blanket descent into protectionism”. He said that China’s rise represented an “epoch-defining challenge”. He explained:
It is a country that has both the means and the intent to reshape the global order.
Its behaviour is increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad and in light of that we do need to take the steps to protect ourselves.
There are a limited number of very sensitive sectors of our economy, or types of technology, where we want to take a particularly robust approach: semiconductors, for example, dual-use technologies, quantum, etc.
But this is not an excuse for a blanket descent into protectionism.
He said that G7 countries should not be engaged in subsidy competition. Asked whether the UK needed an industrial strategy, he replied:
That means different things to different people. If that means we should just be focusing on who can subsidise industries the most, then my answer is no.
We discussed that at the G7 and actually you will see in the G7 communique very specific language acknowledging that subsidy races that essentially just shift industrial capacity between allies in some kind of zero-sum competition are not appropriate.
Continue reading...Focus group of blue wall residents believes Sunak is ‘out of his depth’ and that Britain needs change now
Blue wall Conservative voters in Surrey are far from impressed with the government’s obsession with culture wars, and remain unrepentant for tactically backing the Liberal Democrats at last week’s local elections.
The prime minister still looks “out of his depth”, uninspiring and unable to set out a straightforward vision six months in the job, according to a panel of Surrey residents who backed the Conservatives at the 2019 election. They believe “the country needs change now”, and the Tories need some time in opposition to sort themselves out.
Continue reading...Conservatives continue to suffer heavy defeats as Labour, Lib Dems and Greens make gains
Prof Rob Ford, an elections specialist, has written an article for the Guardian trying to assess what would be a good result and a bad result for the political parties in the local election. You can read it here:
Results from more than 60 councils are expected overnight with the remainder expected to trickle in throughout the day on Friday.
Continue reading...Opposition leader hails ‘very, very good’ outcome of local elections after his party takes control of key councils
Keir Starmer has said the Labour party is on track to win the next general election, after taking control of key councils in the English local elections, including Medway, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent.
Based on results counted early on Friday morning, the Labour leader said the party was heading for a result that if repeated across the country at a general election would give it an eight-point lead over the Conservatives.
Continue reading...With polls closing at 10pm, more than 8,000 council seats in England are up for grabs
Here is a comment from a reader.
Just been to the polling station: tellers outside were turning people without ID away instead of sending them in to be recorded for the so called evaluation. Numbers will be meaningless if this is widespread.
Continue reading...