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Sir Keir Starmer is expected to unveil 35 new bills into the King’s Speech next week.
The new laws will hand greater powers to local leaders and to economic watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), with growth a key part of the prime minister’s agenda, the government has said.
The PM described the measures, to be announced on Wednesday, as the “down payment” on the change his government is seeking to deliver.
But the SNP has joined Labour frontbenchers in pressuring Sir Keir to scrap the two-child benefit cap as part of the new legislation.
Mr Flynn has written to Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, urging him to instruct his party’s MPs in Scotland to abolish the cap.
It comes as Reform’s former deputy leader Ben Habib has criticised Nigel Farage’s party and said it should be made more democratic after being ousted.
Mr Habib was fired and replaced last week by Richard Tice in Nigel Farage’s shake-up he had “long held concerns about the control of the party and the decision making processes”.
There’s one crucial thing that unites the PM and Gareth Southgate
Both the England leader and the prime minister place a premium on respect, writes Andrew Grice. But is that enough to win us the Euros – or to fix the country?
Donations to Labour more than twice as much as donations to Tories during campaign
Labour raised £465,600 in private donations in the last week before polling day, bringing its total raised for the whole election to £9.5m, new figures from the Electoral Commission show.
The Conservatives raised just £225,587 in private donations over the same period, bringing their total for the whole election to £1.8m.
Figures released today show former professional poker player Derek Webb donated £250,000 to Labour in the final week while trade unions GMB and the Fire Brigades Union each gave £100,000.
The largest donation to the Conservatives was £50,000 from Westminster Development Services, a property company set up by a consortium led by the Hinduja family.
Dover MP claims Labour will be small boats gangs’ ‘worst nightmare’
Newly elected Labour’s MP for Dover and Deal has said the government will be people smuggling gangs’ “worst nightmare’.
Mike Tapp claimed Sir Keir Starmer’s proposed new Border Security Command will manage to stop small boat Channel crossings.
He told the BBC: “It is a serious policy for a serious issue. We have seen from the Conservatives essentially pretty much open borders because they have relied on gimmicks and cons, they have tried to trick the electorate into thinking they have got a serious approach to this.
“We have seen the failure with record crossings. The Border Security Command will essentially hunt down the smuggling gangs and we will be their worst nightmare.
“We will bring in MI5, those extra powers and tools, to smash the criminal gangs, to stop people even getting onto the boats in the first place.”
Labour MP speaks up after protesting against monarchy during Commons oath
Clive Lewis, who represents Norwich South, has criticised the “hysteria” media headlines after protesting against the monarchy doing his affirmation at the Commons on Wednesday 10 July.
At the time, the Labour MP said prior to his affirmation: “I take this oath under protest and in the hope that one day my fellow citizens will democratically decide to live in a republic.”
In the aftermath of the statement, he slammed the reaction to his remarks claiming headlines prove we live in a “reactionary democracy”.
In his response to said “meltdown”, he said in a video: “So I made the mistake of looking underneath my timeline on my statement in the oath about the republic.
“What this shows me is two things. Firstly, it was no big deal what I said. What I said was that I, as a democratically elected representative, would like to live in a democratically-decided republic.
“The actual hysteria from the media headlines like I’m ‘taking a swipe at the monarchy’ tell us all we need to know about the fact that we live in a reactionary democracy.”
Biggest population increase in 75 years in England and Wales, figures suggest
The population of England and Wales saw the biggest annual increase in 75 years because of growth driven by immigration, new estimates suggest.
In the year to mid-2023, the population grew by almost 610,000 to 60.9 million, according to the estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published on Monday.
This growth was primarily made up by the 1,084,000 people who were estimated to have migrated to England and Wales from outside the UK during that period.
An estimated 462,000 people emigrated from England and Wales, meaning net migration – the difference between the number of people legally arriving in the UK and leaving – totalled 622,000.
By comparison, the “natural change” in the population – the difference between births and deaths – was only 400 in the year to mid-2023 – the lowest figure since the year to mid-1978.
Wes Streeting ‘treading cautiously’ in pressing ahead with puberty blocker ban
Victoria Atkins, Mr Streeting’s predecessor in the former Conservative government, used Medicines Act 1968 powers to stop private or European organisations from prescribing puberty blockers to young people aged under 18, if the drugs were intended to aid with gender incongruence or gender-affirming healthcare.
Campaign group TransActual and a young person who cannot be named have launched a High Court bid to challenge the Government’s order.
Their barrister Jason Coppel KC had said the former minister “proceeded without taking clinical or other scientific advice on those views and overruled officials who had wanted wider consultation and had warned her of serious impacts, including self-harm and suicide, on highly vulnerable children and young persons who had already embarked upon treatment”.
Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:
What legislation is expected to feature in the King’s Speech?
Ahead of the King’s Speech on Wednesday, the Government said it will put economic growth at the heart of its legislative agenda.
More than 35 bills are expected to be announced as Labour seeks to maintain momentum and define its first 100 days in office as a period of positive progress.
Here is a summary of the expected legislation:
- Fiscal discipline
- Further devolution
- National wealth fund
- Clean energy boost
- Planning and infrastructure
- Revitalising Rail
- Skills push to focus on big business
- Border security
- Reform for renters
- Crime and policing
- Workers’ rights
- Help for mental health
- Eradicating smoking
- Martyn’s Law
- Constitutional reform
- Football governance
- Acting on AI
Watch: Labour will be more ‘Gareth Southgate, less Michael Gove’, culture secretary pledges
Children risk becoming ‘forgotten generation’ due to NHS waits
Children and young people risk becoming a forgotten generation owing to crippling waits for NHS care, health leaders have warned.
A report from NHS Providers said 82% of trusts it surveyed are unable to meet the current demand for children and young people’s services.
NHS trusts provide a variety of help for children and young people at home, in the community and in hospitals, such as health visiting, speech and language therapy, audiology, neurodevelopmental services, mental health services and autism assessment.
The report found that rising demand and long waits for services are the biggest challenges for trusts, with more and more children needing help.
For example, 5.3 million children and young people were in contact with mental health services in 2023/24 – up 8.1% on 2022/23 and 25.7% on 2021/22.
In the report, which included 134 responses from leaders at 95 trusts, almost all (97%) said the current level of demand they were experiencing for children and young people’s services had increased compared with before the Covid pandemic.
