Ministers will also press ahead with plan for retirement age of 80 after bill abolishing remaining hereditary peers goes through
Labour plans to remove peers who do not contribute enough to the House of Lords and to press ahead with plans for a retirement age of 80 from the upper house.
Writing for the Telegraph, the leader of the House of Lords, Angela Smith, said a select committee would consider the next stage of Lords reform after the abolition of hereditary peers.
Continue reading...Prime minister defends government’s handling of economy but will not give assurances over not raising income tax, employee NI or VAT
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has urged Keir Starmer to call Donald Trump to encourage him to use his influence to block Israel’s plans for a “full occupation” of Gaza.
In a statement, Davey said:
[Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu’s latest proposals for the occupation of all of Gaza are utterly horrifying.
If realised, they will only wreak yet more destruction on Gazans - while gravely endangering the lives of the hostages still held in Hamas’ captivity.
I see NIESR is talking today about a £41.2bn hole in the UK public finances
Two things are newsworthy:
Continue reading...Council says cost running into tens of millions, as homeless refugees granted asylum across UK come to city for support
The asylum system risks “damaging social cohesion” with homeless refugees putting “unprecedented pressure” on Glasgow services, the city council has warned.
Glasgow city council, the largest asylum dispersal area outside London, had welcomed asylum seekers for decades, said the city convener for homelessness, Allan Casey.
Continue reading...Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group
Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.
Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.
Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.
Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.
Continue reading...Migrant workers accuse Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from them
Migrant workers living in a caravan encampment raided by immigration enforcement officers have accused the Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from the hidden economy.
The Observer reported in August that about 30 mainly Brazilian delivery riders working for large companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats were living in dilapidated caravans in the centre of Bristol. Many claimed they were, in effect, earning below the minimum wage and could not afford to rent in the city.
Continue reading...Cross-party Treasury committee says its private hearings suggest there has been no improvement in 20 years
MPs on the cross-party Treasury committee have been “shocked and alarmed” to hear about the scale of bullying and sexual harassment against women in the City of London, which suggests there has been “no improvement whatsoever” over the past 20 years.
The Labour MP and committee member Angela Eagle said private hearings held as part of the committee’s sexism in the City inquiry had raised significant concerns about the conditions women were forced to endure in the UK’s financial services sector.
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