#labour-leader

#labour-leader

1686744720 Jeremy Hunt is left crossing his fingers and hoping the Bank of England can finally tackle rising prices by the end of this year, says James Moore.Read James's full piece here: Jeremy Hunt is left crossing his fingers and hoping the Bank of England can finally tackle rising prices by the end of this year, says James Moore Matt Mathers14 June 2023 13:12 1686743610 The row between the prime minister and the Commons Speaker began after Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Sunak of being too weak to block Mr Johnson's list.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle scolded Rishi Sunak for bringing up Labour's Tom Watson during a fiery PMQs exchange about Boris Johnson's resignation honours list.The row between the prime minister and the Commons Speaker began after Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Sunak of being too weak to block Mr Johnson's list.

Nadine Dorries, Stanley Johnson and Alok Sharma have been dropped from Boris Johnson's resignation honours list, it has emerged.The two MPs have been dropped from the former prime minister's list, which could be published as soon as Friday, to avoid potentially damaging by-elections.And Mr Johnson's father Stanley - who was expected to be handed a knighthood - has been dropped from the list because it would have looked terrible, a source claimed.

Boris Johnson's referral to police over potential further lockdown breaches raises new questions, the Labour leader has said.Sir Keir Starmer, who was visiting Scotland on Friday, said the public was fed up to the back teeth with stories about the former prime minister.Mr Johnson, who believes he is the victim of a stitch-up, has ditched the Government-appointed lawyers representing him in the Covid-19 public inquiry after he was referred to police.

Jeremy Corbyn has signalled he will stand as an independent at the next general election - setting up a tense showdown between the former Labour leader and his party.The Islington North MP said he loves his job and wants to carry on doing it in a hint he will run against Labour's candidate for the constituenct, who is yet to be announced.

Keir Starmer has said it feels wrong not to allow EU citizens who live and pay tax in the UK not to have the right to vote in general elections.While the Labour leader said there was no settled policy, he confirmed in an interview on LBC radio that the party was looking at some of the voting issues.

When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.Euripides was not of course referring to Brexit in his play Orestes, but to the chaos caused by Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon and Orestes's dispatch, in turn, of Clytemnestra.The disastrous outcome for the Conservatives in the local elections may not lead to any physical violence, but all the signs are, as the recriminations begin, that the Tories are in for a metaphorical bloodbath.

Michael Gove and Sir Keir Starmer have criticised Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters amid claims the musician is sharing antisemitic views at his concerts.The Levelling Up Secretary said the rocker was falling short of an expectation that those with a significant public profile behave responsibly and do not abuse their platform.

Boris Johnson has sensationally resigned as an MP over an investigation into his conduct by the Privileges Committee.The former prime minister claims he has been anti-democratically forced out of parliament, branding the probe a hitjob.His full resignation statement is below: I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear - much to my amazement - that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.

I have received a letter from the privileges committee making it clear much to my amazement that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister.

Suella Braverman insisted there was nothing untoward about her handling of a speeding offence as Rishi Sunak considered whether to launch a formal investigation.The Home Secretary is under pressure after reports she asked officials to try to arrange a private speed awareness course for her rather than take penalty points on her driving licence.

Labour donor Dale Vince says he has not spoken to Sir Keir Starmer about the activist group Just Stop Oil.On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak accused "eco zealots" at Just Stop Oil of "writing Keir Starmer's energy policy".Mr Vince, who has given £1.4mto the party said he had never lobbied Labour, adding: "There's no link between my funding of Labour and my support for Just Stop Oil."

The GMB has reluctantly withdrawn its attempt to win formal union recognition at Amazon's Coventry warehouse, accusing the firm of drafting in more than 1,000 extra workers to skew the decision.GMB members at the site made a formal request for recognition to the independent central arbitration committee (CAC) last month after a concerted recruitment drive for members that it believed took it past the necessary threshold of support.

The North Sea oil and gas industry is in decline, a shadow business minister has said as she defended plans to block new drilling licences from 2050, a move criticised by trade unions.Seema Malhotra said the proposal was an important part of the transition to net zero, by phasing out new fields from which to extract fossil fuels and boosting Britain's sovereign capability for clean and green energy.

Tensions have flared within the Labour party as two members of Keir Starmer's shadow ministerial team were pitted against junior leftwing MPs in battles to win the nomination for new parliamentary seats.Gerald Jones, the shadow Welsh minister, won a selection contest for the new seat of Merthyr Tydfil and Upper Cynon on Wednesday against Beth Winter, an MP from the leftwing Socialist Campaign group.

The Labour leader said he would not let the oil and gas industries become a "repeat" of the coal mines, where they withered and no plans were made for the future.Answering questions at the GMB union's conference in Brighton, Sir Keir Starmer said oil and gas would be around for "decades to come", up to the 2050s.On Monday, GMB general secretary Gary Smith criticised Labour's plan to ban new oil and gas extraction licences in the North Sea.

The boss of one of Labour's biggest union donors has branded the party's plan to ban new oil and gas production in the North Sea "a huge mistake".Gary Smith, the GMB union's general secretary, said energy plans should be built around "decent jobs", not bans.Labour has pledged to block all new domestic oil and gas developments and invest in renewables if it wins power.

Keir Starmer has moved to calm a growing rift with the GMB union over Labour's energy policy, even as its leader renewed his attack on the party's plan to prohibit new North Sea oil and gas developments.The Labour leader has pledged to enact the ban if his party wins power, proposing to invest instead in renewable sources, such as wind farms, and in nuclear power.

Watch live as Rishi Sunak holds a press conference on the government's plans to stop migrants arriving on small boats.The prime minister will be speaking from Dover, Kent on Monday 5 June and address the progress made in the last six months since the Illegal Migration Bill was introduced.However, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has described the speech Mr Sunak is due to give as like Groundhog Day.

The Hollywood director of Netflix film Don't Look Up has pledged to triple donations to Just Stop Oil over the weekend, the group has said.Adam McKay, who made the satire on the climate crisis as well as Step Brothers and The Big Short, said he stands with the protesters, praising them for waking up sleeping governments.

Britain's future is outside the EU, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said, as he promised to make Brexit work.Writing in the Daily Express newspaper, Sir Keir who campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum also said he would not be seeking a return to freedom of movement.The comments are Sir Keir's latest pitch to Brexit-backing voters ahead of the next general election, with the Labour leader promising to improve on the UK-EU deal reached by Boris Johnson.

Sir Keir Starmer has declared Britain's future is outside the EU, confirming Labour will not seek to rejoin the bloc if it wins power.The Labour leader accepted it is no great secret he voted Remain in the 2016 referendum.But Sir Keir said he agreed with Leave supporters who wanted a better health service, better jobs, better wages, more security, a sense of control over their lives and their communities.

Sir Keir Starmer has been admirably straightforward about his mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.Blocking new oil and gas fields is a sine qua non to realise that ambition.The Labour leader even went to the lion's den of Davos earlier this year to give business leaders that message.But judging from the headlines over the past few days, you might be forgiven for thinking that Sir Keir had never uttered a word about his plans.

Suella Braverman's hopes of surviving as Home Secretary over the speeding ticket row suffered a fresh blow after she came under fire from a former mandarin.Sir Philip Rycroft, who has served in Whitehall under five prime ministers, accused Ms Braverman of a "real lapse of judgement."And the former senior civil servant said the home secretary's actions would have put officials in an impossible position.

Sir Keir Starmer has said it is nonsense to question Sue Gray's independence during the partygate investigation over plans for the former senior civil servant to become Labour's chief of staff.The Opposition leader also hit out at reports suggesting Boris Johnson had referred to the ex-mandarin as a psycho, saying that increasingly hysterical comments will be made ahead of general election next year.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he is in no doubt there will be a by-election in Margaret Ferrier's seat, as he urged the SNP and Conservatives to avoid dither and delay.Speaking during a visit to the former SNP MP's Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat, Sir Keir said he is confident the Commons will back the 30-day suspension from the House she faces following her conviction for breaking Covid restrictions, despite it being pulled on Thursday.

Labour is to restore the party whip to Neil Coyle after the MP was suspended for drunken abuse and making racist comments to a journalist.Coyle was suspended in February last year after a complaint by Henry Dyer, a political reporter for the Insider website who now works for the Guardian, about the behaviour of the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark in London.

Keir Starmer has accused the government of having lost control of immigration, as Labour announced a plan to change the post-Brexit migration system to boost skills and wages.In a prime minister's questions a day before new annual net migration statistics are expected to show a record number of arrivals, Starmer said Rishi Sunak had broken the Conservatives' manifesto promise to reduce immigration.

A Labour government wouldn't turn to immigration as the easy answer to plugging workforce shortages, Rachel Reeves has said.The shadow chancellor said Britons should be trained to fill vacancies in sectors such as data science and in the NHS.It comes after Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds last week indicated migration could increase in the short term if the party comes to power, but would ultimately be reduced by addressing the domestic skills shortage.

Sir Keir Starmer has renewed a pledge to ban advertising of junk food to children on both TV and social media but ruled out imposing a salt and sugar tax while the cost-of-living crisis persists.The Labour leader used a speech in Braintree, Essex to set out his mission for the NHS, which he warned will be put in the ground if the Tories are handed another five years in power.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged Labour would make the NHS fit for the future with new targets for ambulance response times, cancer diagnosis and cutting deaths from cardiovascular disease.Delivering a speech on Monday, he echoed Nye Bevan, the Labour minister who helped found the health service, in describing illness as neither an indulgence to be paid for, nor an offence to be penalised.

The Labour leader has set out how his party would change the NHS if it got in to power at the next election.After his speech in Essex, BBC political correspondent Helen Catt asked Sir Keir Starmer if more money would go into health services.He said that money was "part of the solution", but added that change and reforms were "hugely important".

Patients will be encouraged to use the NHS app for private hospital bookings in a bid to cut waiting times.According to The Times, patients will be encouraged to use the app with dozens of private diagnostic centres offering checks for cancer and other conditions to speed up care and increase the NHS' capacity.

A Labour government would reverse the rise in the number of deaths from suicide as part of a health plan to replace pain and anxiety with a hope of a renewed NHS, Keir Starmer will pledge.In a speech on Monday, the Labour leader will say his plan for reforming the NHS will focus on the biggest causes of death in the UK including suicide.

A Labour government would over time shift the focus of health spending towards primary care, the shadow health secretary has said.Wes Streeting criticised the way we underinvest in primary care, community services, mental health, diagnostics and capital, insisting we have got to shift that focus.The shadow health secretary said leaders of NHS trusts recognise that the pressure in hospitals is in part driven by the clogged front door of the NHS and by the late discharges in social care.

Housing is always centre stage in British politics, usually in the form of support for first-time buyers, like right to buy.But Keir Starmer is making housebuilding a key pre-election dividing line, attacking Rishi Sunak for scrapping the government's 300,000 homes a year target for England and, more boldly, recognising that some development on green belt land will be required.

Rishi Sunak has insisted he is not bothered by the increasingly personal attacks from Sir Keir Starmer.The Labour leader has suggested the Prime Minister is out of touch with a nation suffering a cost-of-living crisis because of his extreme wealth.Mr Sunak has also been targeted by Opposition attack ads, which have drawn criticism from within Labour, claiming he does not want to see child sex attackers jailed.

The era of massive house price rises in the UK may be about to end, according to a senior economist at the government's spending watchdog.David Miles, a member of a key committee at the Office for Budget Responsibility, said one of the main factors that would make runaway house price growth less likely was the increase in working from home.

Rishi Sunak has stood by his leadership pledge to protect the green belt in England after the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, this week said it should be built on where appropriate to make housing more affordable.The prime minister doubled down on his insistence that councils should not have to consider the green belt for development and emphasised he was moving away from housing targets, despite the crisis in affordable housing making it difficult for younger people to rent and buy.

A defiant Jeremy Corbyn has told Labour members in his Islington North branch he wants to carry on as their MP, after a motion by the local party supporting him was passed almost unanimously.The former Labour leader, who has been barred from standing for the party again at the next election and faces a choice about whether to run as an independent, gave no sign of wanting to give up his job as an MP.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has branded the Labour leader and his deputy the Phil and Holly of British politics as he clashed with Angela Rayner in the Commons.Deputy Labour leader Ms Rayner said the Conservatives were stuck in a conveyor belt of crisis after 13 years in office, as she criticised their record on child poverty and the NHS during Prime Minister's Questions.

The best outcome for the next election will not appear on the ballot paper, and is already the target of a hostile and escalating press campaign.It hardly needs to be said that a renewed mandate for Tory rule will be an obvious catastrophe for the country.No government in British democratic history can be considered such a devastating failure, whether on objective measures weak growth, an unprecedented squeeze in living standards, declining life expectancy and crisis-ridden public services or on its own terms.

Filters BETA Key events (2)UK (4)EU (4)Stellantis (3)Vauxhall (3) An economics academic has warned there is an existential threat to the UK car industry.David Bailey, professor of business economics at the Birmingham Business School, told the BBC Today programme that the stricter rules and increased tariffs set to come into force next year would put British manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage: I think there is a kind of existential threat to the UK car industry.

Councils need to have the final say on whether homes can be built on green belt land, according to Sir Keir Starmer.Ahead of addressing the British Chambers of Commerce, the Labour leader told The Times housebuilding was key to achieving the sort of growth we need in this country.He said a discussion was needed over allowing building on the green belt if it meets local needs.

A range of political stories jostle for the spotlight with little consensus on the front pages of Wednesday's newspapers.Immigration features on the front of two editions, but they take contrasting approaches.The Guardian reports on government plans to remove basic housing protections from asylum seekers which it says will see migrants moved out of hotels and into the private rented sector with landlords not required to register with local authorities.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove accused Sir Keir Starmer of planning to downgrade the ultimate privilege of British citizenship by giving EU nationals in the UK the right to vote in a general election.The Labour leader has suggested people who have spent decades living in the UK ought to be able to vote in elections to decide who runs the country.

Sir Keir Starmer has indicated it is common sense to allow EU nationals who have worked for years in the UK to vote in a general election, as Labour considers extending the franchise.The Opposition leader said it feels wrong that people who have contributed to Britain's economy and raised their children in the country are not allowed to cast a ballot.

Tax levels for working people would be as low as possible under Labour, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated.The comments came in an interview with the Daily Mirror, as the Labour leader was asked if he wanted to cut taxes for those on the lowest incomes.He said: I want to keep the burden on working people as low as we can.

Keir Starmer last night issued fresh demands for a general election and said that tax levels for working people would be as low as possible under a Labour government.The Labour leader criticised the lack of any meaningful growth for 13 years under the Tory party and said that people certainly can't afford for Rishi Sunak to cling on to power for as long as he cares to do so.

Tax levels for working people would be as low as possible under Labour, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated.The comments came in an interview with the Daily Mirror, as the Labour leader was asked if he wanted to cut taxes for those on the lowest incomes.He said: I want to keep the burden on working people as low as we can.

Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey were seated next to each other in Westminster Abbey for the coronation.For these knights of the opposition realm, it was an opportunity to exchange mutual congratulations on their successes in the local elections.For everyone else, the pairing provided a glimpse of one possible future for this country in which prime minister Starmer and deputy PM Davey have agreed to form a Lab-Lib coalition.

Vince Cable, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, has cast serious doubt on whether his party would agree to a full-blown coalition with Labour if the next general election results in a hung parliament.Cable, who was business secretary in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition formed after the 2010 election, told the Observer that the bad experience of working with the Tories for five years may have put many in his party off the idea of a formal arrangement, even with Labour.

A certain view of what a Labour leader looks like has helped prevent the party elect a woman to the role, Lisa Nandy has said.The shadow levelling up secretary, who ran for party leader in 2020, described the fact Labour has never elected a female leader as pretty existential.In an interview with Gloria De Piero on GB News, she said she believed a woman would one day lead the party.

Sir Keir Starmer has been advised to change his mobile number as he has been getting too much unsolicited advice.A senior Labour official told The Sunday Times that people are popping up from 20 years ago telling him what they think.Sir Keir is understood to receive counsel from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, though officials said the former prime ministers would be given the current Labour leader's new mobile number if he were to change it.