Party representatives asked how they would fix a health service that is ‘on its knees’
In more disappointing news for the Tories, the Times is publishing an opinion poll that says that Reform have now overtaken them. Its political editor, Steven Swinford, has recently tweeted the story.
According to Savanta, the Labour manifesto featured 34 pictures of Keir Starmer while the Conservative manifesto had no pictures of Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...PM, who left to attend an ITV interview, says ‘the last thing I wanted was for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics’
I think it would be fair to say that children’s minister David Johnston is not having a vintage media round today.
First he was ambushed by Rishi Sunak issuing his D-day absence apology while the minister was literally out defending Sunak by repeatedly pointing out that he had been in France earlier in the day and in Portsmouth the day before [See 8.18 BST].
Continue reading...Angela Rayner to promise party will build homes on sites by end of its first term and support private developers
A Labour government would aim to announce the sites for a series of new towns within a year of taking office, with the promise that homes would be built in them by the end of a first term, Angela Rayner is to say in a speech.
Giving more detail to a plan first outlined in Keir Starmer’s party conference speech in October, Rayner will tell a housing conference that Labour will strongly support private developers who create high-quality and affordable housing.
Continue reading...Stephen Watson says process will be carried out ‘fairly and impartially’ in his most extensive public comments on the claims
The chief constable of the police force examining claims against Angela Rayner has defended the decision to investigate the Labour party deputy leader, vowing it would be done “fairly and impartially” and would establish whether “culpability is proven or otherwise”.
Stephen Watson, who leads Greater Manchester police (GMP), gave his most extensive public comments so far on the investigation, which was triggered by a complaint from a senior Conservative.
Continue reading...Alarm over Natalie Elphicke’s defection also expected to be raised in meeting with Labour leader
Union leaders are to meet Keir Starmer for a showdown over the party’s plans to overhaul workers’ rights, with some also expected to express concerns over the defection of Natalie Elphicke.
The meeting at the party’s Southwark HQ on Tuesday afternoon comes amid divisions over whether the proposals have been watered down since they were first proposed by Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner.
Continue reading...Runner-up in the SNP leadership contest last time around says she is still weighing decision on whether to stand
When Hilary Cass published her review of gender identity services for children, saying medical evidence did not generally justify giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children, she said the “toxity of the debate” around trans children was exceptional, and she said she would like to see the issue discussed in a less polarised way.
But that has not stopped her report becoming a political football. The UK government responded to it with a ministerial statement treating it as a landmark victory in a culture war. In Scotland the Cass report arguably contributed to the downfall of Humza Yousaf, because it was the Rainbow Greens who launched the process to end the SNP/Scottish Greens pact, and they were partly motivated by the SNP government’s stance on puberty blockers.
The landmark Cass review is hugely significant for Wales. Regretfully, despite the weight of the findings, we are still yet to see a Labour minister come to the Senedd and give a statement in response.
In the Senedd tomorrow, I look forward to bringing forward a Welsh Conservative debate on the Cass review, and will call on the Labour government to adopt the recommendations of the Cass review.
The Cass review aims to ensure children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria, and require support from the NHS, receive a high standard of care that meets their needs and is safe, holistic and effective.
We are committed to improving the gender identity development pathway and the support available for young people in Wales, in line with the commitments in our LGBTQ+ plan.
I’m the first chairman of the ‘22 who has had to operate it while we’ve been in government … And so my view is that that was a mistake to introduce that rule.
I think it’s fine to have the party members voting on the leader when you’re in opposition. But in a parliamentary system where essentially you could only remain prime minister if you enjoyed the confidence of your party in parliament, it seems to me crazy that we now have different mechanisms … The Conservative members of parliament can get rid of the leader by voting no confidence, but then the leader is supplied by the party members.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Deputy Labour leader also criticises watering-down of leasehold reform plans while facing Oliver Dowden at deputy PMQs
Angela Rayner has accused ministers of “obsessing” over her living arrangements and urged them to focus on implementing long-promised housing reforms instead.
The deputy Labour leader came out fighting at deputy prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, weeks after police opened an investigation into the sale of her council house in 2015.
Continue reading...Move follows vote in Commons where MPs voted down four amendments inserted by Lords yesterday
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
PMQs is starting soon.
Continue reading...Labour deputy leader being investigated over whether she gave false information a decade ago
Angela Rayner has handled the controversy over her living arrangements “in the right way”, Yvette Cooper has insisted after a former aide contradicted Rayner’s account.
The shadow home secretary said Rayner was “very keen to be able to provide the facts to the relevant authorities”.
Continue reading...Tories accused of deserting those without financial support, as proportion relying on help with deposits rises from 27% to 37% in a year
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “locking the door on home ownership” and entrenching inequality, amid evidence that tens of thousands more young house buyers have been forced to turn to the “bank of mum and dad” to secure a new home.
A crisis in housing affordability is again set to be a major election flashpoint, with the prime minister already admitting in recent months that the Conservatives needed to do more to address falling home ownership rates among the young. The party has failed in its manifesto pledge to build 300,000 houses a year.
Continue reading...Deputy Labour leader says party must follow procedures but says she would personally like MP to have Labour whip restored. This live blog is closed
In his speech Keir Starmer has just confirmed that Labour would stop ticket touts buying up tickets for events and re-selling them at rip-off prices.
This is what Labour said about the plan in a news release this morning.
Reselling tickets for profit has already been banned in many countries, but under the Tories, fans have been let down.
Too often, genuine fans are missing out on getting tickets only to see those same tickets on secondary ticketing websites at far higher prices, making them unaffordable and putting them out of reach.
My first ever trip abroad was to Malta with the Croydon youth Philharmonic Orchestra. You will know that excitement you feel when you have an encounter with the arts that changes your life. Everyone in the room will know that the sense, I suppose, of being drawn into something that seems bigger than ourselves, of being truly moved by a piece of music, or painting, or a play …
Even now even now, listening to Beethoven or Brahms as I read the Sunday papers, takes the edge off some of the more uncomfortable stories.
Continue reading...Workers party leader says there are many places where it can win or ‘make sure that Keir Starmer doesn’t’
George Galloway has said he will target more seats in the next general election including the deputy Labour leader’s after his swearing-in at Westminster following last week’s Rochdale byelection victory.
Speaking outside parliament, Galloway singled out Angela Rayner’s constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, where she is defending a majority of 4,263, as an example of where his Workers Party of Britain, or a candidate backed by it, could cause havoc for her chances of re-election.
Continue reading...Critics say Labour leader missed chance to sound more sympathetic to Palestinian suffering and accept that a Gaza ceasefire call was implied
For the last few weeks, Keir Starmer has been trying to avoid a confrontation with his party over Gaza. With dozens of MPs preparing to rebel and vote for the Scottish National party’s amendment calling for a ceasefire in the region, the Labour leader and his top team held a series of difficult meetings as they tried to thrash out a compromise.
The rebels suggested Labour submitted an amendment of their own, which Starmer agreed to. But they were also desperate for him to use the word “ceasefire”, and on that point he refused to budge.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner says party’s housing recovery plan will enact reforms delayed by Tories since 2019 manifesto commitments
Labour will deliver more action on housing in the first six months of office than the Conservatives have delivered in the past six years, Angela Rayner has pledged.
Downing Street has confirmed the renters reform bill will be in the king’s speech, allowing it to continue its passage through parliament when the next session opens on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Shadow health secretary questioned by Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner
Q: You oppose the Rwanda policy because you don’t think it will work. If the supreme court rules it is legal, and deportations start and it is seen to be working, would you still reverse it.
Yes, says Starmer. He says it is the wrong policy. It is very expensive, and it only affect only a small number of people. And the policy does not deal with the problem at source.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Deputy leader and shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner says party would get tough on developers
The next Labour government will oversee the biggest boost in affordable housing in a generation by getting tough on developers and reforming planning rules, the party’s deputy leader has said.
Angela Rayner, also the shadow housing secretary, said she wanted to “increase, not decrease” the number of affordable new homes built every year, after it fell 12% last year.
Continue reading...Lord Frost, Brexit negotiator for former PM, tells House of Lords that government never wanted ‘unsatisfactory’ protocol to work
Rayner says Labour will update trade union laws to make them fit for the 21st century.
The laws affecting union reps and officials do not take into account technological advancements, she says.
First, we will update regulations to outlaw the use of predictive technologies for blacklisting and safeguard against singling out workers for mistreatment or the sack without any evidence of human interaction.
Second, we will act to end the loophole that allows employers to pass the dirty work down to third party contractors, so that any third party found to be carrying out blacklisting can legally be held to account.
The Tories pushed through the 2016 Trade Union Act, preventing fair bargaining and holding back living standards.
And this year they gave us the minimum service levels bill [the Strikes Act] …
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...The Lib Dems criticise the PM after he suggested some people did not realise the government was still providing bill support
John McTernan writes for the Guardian today, calling for Labour to stop being so cautious and make the election a referendum on net zero:
Or nearly everything. Labour currently lacks one vital quality: confidence. While heading for a victory bigger than Tony Blair’s landslide of 1997, the party appears to be too frightened to fight. Whenever the Tories do something profoundly amoral or un-British – such as telling refugees to “fuck off”, as their vice-chair, Lee Anderson, recently did – Labour seems scared of going on the attack.
Continue reading...