Resignation

The former health secretary will give resignation speech after prime minister’s questions Good morning. PMQs is back, and there are at least two obvious issues for Kemi Badenoch to raise when she faces Keir Starmer.What Tories calls Starmer’s “Soviet-style” plan to curb supermarket pricesThis is more nuts than a squirrel convention!I warned Rachel Reeves prices would go up if she raised taxes and drowned employers in red tape. She didn’t listen and now she’s proposing Soviet style measures!After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences.We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support.They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down.There was a G7 announcement on the 19 May which said that they, the G7, had an unwavering commitment to put pressure on Russia including sanctions on the energy sector and actions against entities in third countries that materially support Russia’s war effort but we’re still saying that we’re going to take sanctioned oil but so long as it goes to Turkey first and then it’s refined, we will use it. Continue reading...

Several frontbenchers told the Guardian they agreed the prime minister’s time in office should not go beyond the end of the year2026 elections mapped: how Labour lost ground in different directionsIn the wake of the local election results, Keir Starmer faced calls to stand down after voters handed a damning verdict on the Labour party.Starmer took responsibility after Labour lost hundreds of councillors in England and suffered humiliation in Wales, but he made clear that he would not quit, saying “tough days like this don’t weaken my resolve”. Continue reading...

Russian pavilion to stay closed as outcry over Israel’s inclusion also grows – but nesting seagull provides some light reliefThe 61st Venice Biennale vernissage began on Tuesday under grey clouds and rain showers, as political tension, parties and protest dominated proceedings at one of the art world’s biggest events.Lubaina Himid, the British entrant, who has spent a career creating work that picks at her country’s colonial past, took over the UK’s pavilion with her large-scale paintings and sound collage that recalls a “perfect British summer’s day”. Continue reading...

Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid allegations of an affair and steering grants to politically connected figuresThe secretary of the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, resigned this week after several controversies surrounding her brief tenure at the helm of the agency. But labor officials say even though her troubled reign is over, the US labor authority remains in a state of “constant turbulence”.Chavez-DeRemer was under investigation over claims she had an affair with a subordinate and allegedly misused travel funds, and that her aides allegedly steered grants to politically connected figures. Her husband was banned from the agency’s headquarters over allegations of sexual assault by at least two staffers. Continue reading...