Tony Blair’s former chief of staff appointed PM’s national security adviser

Jonathan Powell led talks on Chagos Islands in September and played key role in Good Friday agreement

Jonathan Powell, the former chief of staff to Tony Blair, has been appointed as Keir Starmer’s national security adviser in a further sign that leading figures from the New Labour era are returning to the government.

The veteran former diplomat, who played a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace deal struck in 1998 and served Blair for a decade, will be responsible for advising on the UK’s approach to the war in Ukraine and the international implications of Donald Trump’s presidency.

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British voters do not like Trump ‘because they don’t really know him’, Farage claims – as it happened

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Keir Starmer has hosted veterans and charities at Downing Street with defence secretary John Healey in the lead-up to Remembrance Day, PA Media reports. PA says:

The informal reception was held after Starmer pledged £3.5m in support for veterans facing homelessness.

Peter Kent, 99, the oldest veteran at the event, said he was pleased by the increase in funding and described Starmer as a “good guy”.

State visits take a while to organise. So in the next year, I’ve got to tell you, I think that would be a bit of a tall order. But [Trump] was genuine in his respect and his affection for the royal family.

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Alan Milburn to be given lead role in Labour’s health ministry

Move reignites row over Labour figures with private interests having access to government

Wes Streeting is to hand Alan Milburn a lead role in the running of his health ministry, in a move that has reignited the row over Labour figures with private interests having access to government.

The health secretary is preparing to appoint Milburn, who was a radical reformer of the NHS in his time in that post under Tony Blair, as the lead non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

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Tony Blair told to ‘take responsibility’ after Grenfell criticism

Campaigners call for apology after inquiry report makes several criticisms of decisions made during Blair’s tenure

Grenfell campaigners have called on Tony Blair to apologise and take responsibility for decisions made by his government that contributed to the fire that killed 72 people.

The former prime minister said on Thursday that tragedies such as the west London fire, which came after years of missed opportunities to regulate combustible cladding, were a result of unavoidable mistakes.

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Ignore ‘vicious’ social media criticism, Blair tells Starmer

Former UK prime minister praises Labour leader’s handling of riots and advises him not to put off the ‘hard decisions’

Tony Blair has urged Keir Starmer to ignore “vicious” social media platforms during his time as prime minister, saying that poring over the inevitable criticism that will rain down on him will trigger psychological problems.

“You know, you start scrolling through social media that’s written about you, it’s going to do your head in,” Blair says in an interview with the Observer’s chief political commentator, Andrew Rawnsley, about his new book, On Leadership, Lessons for the 21st century.

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Blair government accused IDF of acting like Russian army in West Bank

Tensions over Palestinian death toll have eerie parallels to western concerns about current Israeli operations

Tony Blair’s government accused Israeli forces of acting more like the “Russian army than that of a civilised country” during a major military incursion into the occupied West Bank, newly released official files show.

The tensions, which have eerie parallels to western concerns over current Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip, are laid bare in papers released by the National Archives.

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Starmer praises Abbott and hails diverse Commons in first speech to parliament as PM – as it happened

Parliament the most diverse by race and gender the country has ever seen, says Starmer, with the largest cohort of LGBT+ MPs in the world

Downing Street has released a full version of what Keir Starmer said in his opening remarks to the metro mayors at their meeting this morning. It is not on the No 10 website, so I will post it here.

Having this meeting four days after I was invited by the King to form a government is a real statement of intent on my part, on our part.

Because as we have said over and over again, economy and growth is the number one mission of this Labour government in 2024.

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Tony Blair’s new dawn of 1997 offers landslide lessons for Keir Starmer

The Guardian’s political editor in 1997 recalls the optimism then and what went wrong in Labour’s last transition from opposition to power

Veterans of Labour’s 1997 victory party at the Royal Festival Hall – by the end, the dancefloor looked like a war zone strewn with dozing bodies – will remember the sense of disbelief and excitement as the scale of the landslide started to materialise.

David Hill, the less self-publicity-prone of the hugely effective Labour press team, gave out a deep-throated “what?!” as he reeled away in disbelief at the sight of a startled Stephen Twigg defeating Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate. That night, unexpected seat after unexpected seat fell into Labour hands.

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Keir Starmer says Palestinian state is an ‘undeniable right’ as part of Gaza peace process – UK politics live

Labour’s election manifesto committed party to recognising Palestinian state as part of a process that results in a two-state solution with Israel

Reynolds says he is not supposed to pre-empt what will be in the king’s speech, but he says it is no secret that the government is going to prioritise its employment rights reforms.

Jonathan Reynolds is being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg now.

I do want things in exchange for money we’ll co-invest with the private sector around jobs and technology.

I think that’s a reasonable way to make sure public money is being well spent and I believe there are things, capacities, the steel industry needs in future that could be part of that conversation and that’s what I’ll be having in the next few days …

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Things Can Only Get Better group ban Labour from using song

D:Ream members regret association with Tony Blair and do not want song played at July general election

The pop group that sing Things Can Only Get Better – which became an anthem for Labour at the 1997 general election victory – will deny any request from Keir Starmer to use the track at this year’s election.

D:Ream’s founding members Peter Cunnah and Alan Mackenzie said they were dismayed to hear their song play through a loudspeaker as the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, called a 4 July general election on a wet afternoon in Downing Street.

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Sunak claims defence spending plan won’t affect government’s ability to cut taxes – UK politics live

Prime minister gives joint press conference with Olaf Scholz and denies misleading people over spending plans

With Rishi Sunak in Berlin, it is deputies’ day at PMQs, and Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, will be facing questions from Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader. It will be her first time at the despatch box since it was announced that Greater Manchester is fully investigating various allegations relating to the council house she bought and sold before she became an MP, and where she was living during that period. It has been reported that at least a dozen officers are on the case.

Rayner does not have to firm up her position with Labour MPs. She insists that she has done nothing wrong, and most people in the party believe that that the allegtions being made against her are little more than a smear (as Keir Starmer put it at PMQs last week).

Frank was a steadfast, highly successful and diligent campaigner against child poverty. It is largely down to Frank that we have child benefit today, a truly towering achievement.

He gained support and respect from across the political spectrum and defined the concept of the ‘poverty trap’, now commonly used to describe the difficulties for working people of getting better off while claiming means-tested benefits because of the high rate at which benefits are withdrawn as earnings rise.

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Tony Blair was warned about ‘flawed’ Horizon system, memo shows

Documents released by inquiry into Post Office scandal show ex-PM and adviser discussing concerns

Sir Tony Blair was warned the IT system at the centre of the Post Office scandal was “flawed” before it was rolled out, a document shows.

The warning appears in a memo written to the former prime minister by special adviser Geoff Mulgan in 1998, which has been released by the public inquiry into the scandal.

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Blair considered loan of Parthenon marbles to help London Olympics bid

Then PM was advised to ‘encourage’ British Museum to agree long-term loan in return for Greek support

Tony Blair considered a “long-term loan” of the Parthenon marbles to Greece in the hope of support for a London 2012 Olympic Games bid, newly released documents reveal.

Twenty years before Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over the ownership question of the sculptures, Greece was lobbying Blair, the then prime minister, for a long-term loan, bypassing the issue of ownership.

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National archives: Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo

Former prime minister had concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army

Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo, some of whom have subsequently been put on trial for war crimes, despite reportedly believing they were “not much better than the Serbs” whose own crimes against humanity he was seeking to end, it has been revealed.

Blair, then the UK prime minister, had grave concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was fighting against the Serbian nationalist forces led by Slobodan Milošević.

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Businessman in passports scandal asked if he should avoid UK until after 2001 election

Srichand P Hinduja spoke to diplomat over fears of embroiling Labour party in row, National Archives files show

The man at the centre of the “cash-for-passports” scandal two decades ago asked the government if he should delay returning to the UK until after the 2001 general election, newly released official files show.

Srichand P Hinduja was embroiled in a row that ultimately led to the second resignation of Peter Mandelson from the cabinet over his actions when the businessman, who made a £1m donation to the Millennium Dome, was applying for a British passport.

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Blair was keen to relocate Wimbledon FC to Belfast in late 1990s, papers show

Then PM thought move ‘would be excellent’ but Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam was sceptical

Newly released state papers show that the former prime minister Tony Blair backed proposals for Wimbledon FC to move to Belfast but his Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam was more sceptical.

Previously confidential state papers include a note from 1997 described as “following up earlier informal discussions about the possibility of an English Premier League football club relocating to Belfast”.

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David Trimble was ‘extraordinarily rude’ to Tony Blair at Good Friday talks

Newly released 1999 briefing by Irish civil servant reveals lack of trust during tense peace negotiations

David Trimble was “extraordinarily rude” to Tony Blair during tense negotiations about the implementation of the Good Friday agreement, accusing the then prime minister of laying a “crude trap” for unionists, one Irish official wrote of the encounter in 1999.

The meeting between Blair and Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, took place in Belfast as the British prime minister and Ireland’s taoiseach Bertie Ahern met all the Northern Ireland parties to discuss the steps that needed to be taken to implement the peace accord.

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Former PM Sanna Marin quits Finnish politics to join Tony Blair Institute

Marin, who stepped down as leader of the Social Democrats after finishing third in April’s election, to resign as MP

Sanna Marin, the former Finnish prime minister, has announced she will work as an adviser for the Tony Blair Institute after stepping down as head of her party.

Marin, who became one of Europe’s youngest leaders when she took office as prime minister in 2019 and oversaw Finland’s successful application to join Nato, formally stepped down as head of the Social Democrats earlier this month. She plans to resign as an MP.

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

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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Tony Blair Institute continued taking money from Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi murder

Blair defends continuing partnership with kingdom despite ‘anxieties’ after 2018 assassination of journalist

Tony Blair’s institute has continued to advise and receive money from the government of Saudi Arabia since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it has emerged.

The Sunday Times reported the former prime minister’s organisation is involved in a multimillion-pound partnership helping with a modernisation drive in the country led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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