Labour

Exclusive: Starmer urged to go further with exemptions if he wants to avoid widespread anger from his own MPsA number of ministers concerned about Shabana Mahmood’s immigration changes are working behind the scenes with backbenchers to secure more exemptions, the Guardian has learned.Keir Starmer is consulting on the proposed changes, which would make it harder to achieve settled status in the UK, and is under pressure from within his own party to say the measures should not apply to people who have already entered the UK. Continue reading...

Anna Turley questions Reform UK leader’s revised £25,000 figure for failed attempt to reach Chagos Islands on plane linked to billionaire donorLabour has queried Nigel Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to a billionaire donor cost as little as £25,000 as the Reform leader attempted to reach the Chagos Islands.Farage initially recorded his two-day trip to the Maldives as costing £12,500 funded by Thailand-based Reform megadonor Christopher Harborne, before upgrading this to £25,000 in the latest register of interests. Continue reading...

Former government adviser Polly Billington urges bigger steps to shield people in UK from effects of Iran warMiddle East crisis – live updatesKeir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Continue reading...

Daniel Kebede tells delegates, government’s education policies fall short as he signals growing support for Greens’ among teachersThe leader of the UK’s biggest education union has torn into the government’s record on schools, accusing Labour of letting down the nation’s children and failing to deliver on its promises for education.Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, was unsparing in his criticism of education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s policies in a speech to delegates at the NEU’s annual conference in Brighton on Thursday. Continue reading...

Government keen to avoid panic as oil price surges, but perhaps households need advice on reducing consumptionLabour ministers sent out in recent days to respond to the looming energy crisis sparked by the Iran war have essentially stuck to that reassuring wartime slogan: keep calm and carry on.“I think people should go about their lives as normal, knowing that the government is taking action to bring energy bills down,” James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday. Continue reading...

MP for Hull East had recently given interview with Jody McIntyre, campaigner who stood against Jess Phillips in 2024The MP Karl Turner has lost the Labour whip, after making a series of interventions criticising Keir Starmer and No 10, especially changes to jury trials.The decision is understood to have been prompted by an interview given by Turner, the MP for Hull East, to Jody McIntyre, a campaigner who had previously stood at the 2024 elections against Labour’s Jess Phillips. Continue reading...

UK PM to chair meeting in Downing Street on how government responds to economic consequences of Iran war later on MondayGood morning. Keir Starmer will today chair a meeting in Downing Street on how the government responds to the economic consequences of the Iran war, which has the potential to upend much of what the government is trying to do to improve living standards. And so he is probably not too happy about the fact that this morning he has to attend an event in the West Midlands launching Labour’s English local elections campaign.It is a relatively low-key launch. “The Westminster press pack wasn’t invited for a full Q&A,” Politico reports. Starmer will be back in London later for his Iran war meeting.We’re going to fight to earn every vote. Fight for our values. And fight for the country we are building together, a Britain built for all.Because, in the context of everything that is happening in the world. Those values – that fairness we stand for – it’s never been more important.We will protect our forces, our people, our allies in the region. But I made the decision that it is not in our national interest to commit British forces to a war, without a clear legal basis and a clear plan – and I stand by that.It’s a question of judgement. Do not forget that the Tories and Reform would have rushed us into this. With no thought of the consequences, including for the cost of living. Utterly reckless. Continue reading...

Liz Kendall urged by online safety figures to hand job to Jeremy Wright ahead of Labour grandee Margaret HodgeMinisters are facing pressure to appoint a former Conservative cabinet minister as the new chair of the media regulator Ofcom, as he battles for the job against a Labour peer.The job of running the regulator has become a key post in public life, as concern over online content has grown rapidly, alongside the rise of more politically partisan broadcasting. No successor has yet been named to replace Michael Grade, the former BBC chair who has just weeks left in the job. Continue reading...

Government not on course to meet its three objectives, including to shift power from Whitehall to local areas, says IFGKeir Starmer’s drive to reform public services is failing to live up to its aims of shifting power from Whitehall to local areas, a report from the Institute for Government has found.Last summer, the government set out its three guiding principles for reform aimed at making public services such as the NHS, court system and children’s social care easier to access and better at helping people. Continue reading...

Police and animal rights activists say trail hunting is frequently used as a ‘smokescreen’ for illegal foxhuntingThe government has said it will ban trail hunting, the rural sport that police and animal rights activists have long accused of being a “smokescreen” for illegal foxhunting.“We pledged to ban trail hunting in our manifesto and that is exactly what we intend to do,” said Sue Hayman, the animal welfare minister. “The nature of trail hunting makes it difficult to ensure wild and domestic animals are not put at risk of being killed or injured – that is clearly unacceptable.” Continue reading...