Starmer

Spokesperson says function is in line with official guidance as scrutiny of papers relating to Peter Mandelson continuesUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer’s WhatsApp messages automatically delete from his smartphone, Downing Street has confirmed, calling into question how full a picture emerged of his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson from a recently released tranche of government documents.Asked at a briefing whether Starmer uses the function on his WhatsApp messages, the prime minister’s spokesperson said he “does use disappearing messages”, adding that this was in line with official guidance on the use of so-called non-corporate communications. Continue reading...

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart says it ‘beggars belief’ there were not more exchanges between Mandelson and the PMGood morning. Keir Starmer is chairing cabinet today as Labour MPs mull over the coverage of the Peter Mandelson files. In terms of revelations relating to Mandelson himself, the impact is probably not as bad as many MPs feared; Politico quotes one official as saying the mood last night was at the “top end” of expectations. Here is our main story about the data release, by Henry Dyer and Pippa Crear.There will be more coverage today.There’s a lot of stuff that’s missing. Anybody who’s looked at these 1,500 pages will see acres and acres of white space, these constellations of asterisks, huge amounts of redactions.Now, some of that is fine because it’s national security issues, our relationship with the Americans.It beggars belief that there were so few exchanges between Mandelson and the prime minister. There’s almost nothing in the record.So either this stuff is being deliberately withheld or it’s been deleted. Continue reading...

Criticisms revealed in major release of files relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to USUK politics live – latest updatesPeter Mandelson exchanged WhatsApp messages with a senior cabinet minister criticising Keir Starmer’s lack of “verve” and tendency to buckle under pressure, suggesting the prime minister should behave in a more “Trumpian” fashion.The former US ambassador said Number 10 was “beleaguered and bereft” and that the public were “crying out for leadership”. Continue reading...

PM says predecessor misunderstands government’s successes and ‘very different’ situation compared with 1997Keir Starmer has dismissed Tony’s Blair’s argument that his government is on the wrong track, saying he is implementing the policies needed for today, not the very different situation faced by Blair in 1997.“You won’t be surprised to know that I don’t agree with much that Tony says about what the government is doing,” Starmer said during a visit to an apprentice training centre in west London. Continue reading...

Former deputy Labour leader says Nigel Farage could say Manchester mayor is a ‘usurper’ and he may seek his own mandateUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK may find itself “tipped into a general election” if Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as prime minister, Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman said on Tuesday.If Burnham replaces Starmer as prime minister in the coming months, he may feel he needs to secure his own mandate, partly because Nigel Farage would accuse him of being a “usurper”, she told an audience at the Hay literary festival. Continue reading...

Former health secretary says he unsuccessfully argued for tougher action when in cabinetGood morning. The government has been consulting on whether to follow Australia and impose a ban on social media for under-16s, or whether to opt for other restrictions, and the consultation ends at 11.59pm tonight. Keir Starmer is expected to announce the government’s response soon afterwards. He has already said that there will be action of some sort. Last year ministers were sceptical about following the Australian example, but this is an issue where opinion – both in government, and in society more broadly – has been shifting very quickly.This morning Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who is running what is in effect a leadership campaign, has intervened. As the Guardian reports, he has said that a social media ban for under-16s “must be the start, not the end” and he has compared the sector to the tobacco industry.Streeting restated his claim that social media is like the tobacco industry and suggested that, just as tobacco bosses did in the mid-20th century, social media executives have been suppressing evidence about the full extent of the harm caused by their products. He said:What we’ve seen from Big Tech is behaviour akin to Big Tobacco … We know from whistleblowers that in the tech industry, among those who are responsible for designing technology, including social media platforms, that are changing every aspect of our lives, they know that the product they’re designing is addictive, they know that it is harmful, and the business model is orientated towards getting kids while they’re young, addicting them with the design features that are designed for addiction, to grab your attention and keep you on their platform for as long as possible.He said there was a “growing body of evidence” about the ways in which social media is harmful.And then we see the consequences beginning to emerge through the growing body of evidence about the impact of this technology on childhood, whether that is sleep, concentration, learning, health, wellbeing, including mental health.The harms are evident.He claimed governmments around the world had been “asleep at the wheel” on this issue. “Frankly, legislators, regulators, have been asleep at the wheel on this,” he said.He suggested that Keir Starmer had been “behind the curve” on this issue. While he was not overly criticial of the PM on this issue, suggesting that governments around the world have been slow to confront social media companies on this issue, he made it clear that he thought the Starmer government could have acted more quickly. He said that he was speaking out now because he was “liberated from the obligations of collective responsibility”. He said the arguments he was making in public today were the ones he was making privately in government, “in a number of cabinet committees and meetings”, and that he “pushed as hard as I could”. He said the government was now moving to a “better position”, but he suggested Starmer could have acted more quickly.To be fair to Liz Kendall, the science and technology secretary, she came into office [in September last year], she’s gripped this, she’s chosen to run a rapid consultation with the principle of how to implement restrictions, rather than whether. That’s all positive. And I trust Liz Kendall to act quickly following the closure of the consultation today.And we must, because, as I say, we’re behind the curve. Continue reading...

Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy ruleFour senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence.Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him in a court in Punjab. The court found the prosecutors had ‘miserably failed’ to present any reliable evidence, despite having had seven years to do so. Continue reading...