Markus Andrews

A Labour government would “fix” Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, a member of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet has said – raising the prospect of more talks with the EU.The announcement, which came hours before Sir Keir’s speech to Labour conference in Brighton, represents a change in approach from the party and is the first time the new leadership has suggested there could be more negotiations.Sir Keir said emphatically in January that there was “no case” for renegotiating the accord struck between Mr Johnson and the EU – in an effort to put the Brexit issue to bed.But speaking to the BBC on Wednesday morning, shadow justice secretary David Lammy blamed the agreement for economic problems hitting the UK and said Labour would have to “fix” it in government.”There are challenges for hauliers, of course, right across Europe. But let’s be clear: there are no queues in Spain, in Germany or France. “So what’s the difference? The difference is that we exited the European Union on Boris’s deal we’re out of a customs union, the cabotage system that were set up that allowed drivers to come here and go back with goods and the tariffs that we now have mean the drivers aren’t coming.”Pressed on what a Labour government would do to to change the agreement, which would require renegotiation with the EU, Mr Lammy said: “This is his deal. When we come to government, we’ll have to look at how we fix his deal.”He added: “Let’s be clear, shortages right across the country, shortages of fruit pickers, shortages of builders, shortages in terms of lorry drivers: all of that is down to Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and the promises they made to the British people.”In January Sir Keir said an incoming Labour government would have to make the existing treaty “work”.But the U-turn comes after he last night told broadcasters that he was ready to break policy pledges if he thought it would help his electoral chances.“The most important pledge I made was that I would turn [Labour] into a party that would be fit for government, capable of winning a general election, I’m not going to be deflected from that,” he said. Boris Johnson’s government has been pushing hard for changes to the EU withdrawal agreement but the EU has said it is not open for renegotiation. The bloc has however in the past been more open to closer economic integration through membership of the customs union or single market, though the issue of Brexit is largely considered settled in European capitals. It comes as amid a separate post-Brexit row over fishing licences which could see the vast majority of French boats locked out of UK waters.The French government reacted with fury after just 12 fishing licences for small boats to operate in UK waters were granted out of 47 applications.The UK was accused of taking French fishing “hostage” and warned of “retaliatory action” following the decision.The prospect of a new cross-channel fishing war came after the UK issued licences based on evidence of a boat’s track record of fishing in its territorial waters, in line with the Brexit deal.Some 47 applications were received from boats under 12 metres in length to be able to operate in the UK’s territorial sea. More

A Labour frontbencher has criticised the BBC for focusing on “identity issues” and effectively stoking a row over trans rights in the party.In an interview on Wednesday morning shadow justice secretary David Lammy said Today programme presenter Nick Robinson was “deliberately asking me about an issue that you know does not come up on the doorstep.”Mr Robinson had asked a number of questions about trans rights in the set-piece interview, which came hours ahead of Keir Starmer’s keynote conference speech.The presenter had claimed Labour’s stance would be an issue with voters in the so-called “red wall” of seats won by the Tories.But Mr Lammy said: “You, the BBC, are choosing to land on this subject – that most British people aren’t talking about in a fuel crisis – and spend minutes on this because it keeps Labour talking about identity issues and not about the substantive policies that Keir will set out.”He suggested it would be more appropriate to talk about the fuel and supply chain crisis engulfing the country.Sir Keir was asked about the issue during another BBC issue on Sunday ahead of the party’s conference, and responded by admonishing a Labour MP for saying that only women have a cervix.The Labour leader said it was “not right” to make the claim and called for a “mature, respectful debate” around the issue. He added that the trans community was “amongst the most marginalised and abused communities”. Some transgender men – people who have transitioned from woman to man – have cervixes and the medical profession advises that they undergo screening for cervical cancer.Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who had made the claim about cervixes, had told the Sunday Times last week that she would not attend the party’s conference in Brighton on security advice.But on Tuesday evening she was was pictured at a fringe event on the outskirts of the conference, where she criticised Sir Keir’s stance and said she would not quit the party.She said she wanted “a pledge that the single-sex exemptions will be kept in the 2010 Equality Act” and added: “We are absolutely okay with the path to self ID being made easier and trans rights being made easier, but we have to have single sex spaces protected and that is all we want really.”Mr Lammy last night said there were “some dinosaurs on the right” and “in our own party” on the issue of trans rights. More

The public still does not trust Labour to run the economy, more than a decade after the financial crash, the shadow Chancellor has admitted.The party has yet to “break that narrative” that it caused the 2008 implosion, Rachel Reeves said – summed up by the notorious “there is no money” note left by Liam Byrne, a Treasury minister.Ms Reeves has used Labour’s conference to announce new spending rules, including that a Keir Starmer government would not borrow for day-to-day spending.But, asked why Labour still lagged behind the Tories for economic trust, she told a fringe meeting: “I don’t think we’ve broken this narrative that, as Liam Byrne said, there is no money left. That has stuck.”The shadow Chancellor repeated that it had been a global financial crisis, but acknowledged: “It doesn’t really matter, because that is the conclusion people came to.“And, in the 11-and-a-half years since we left office, we still have not found a way to break that narrative.”The admission came at a Resolution Foundation event, which highlighted how the last decade was the worst in living memory for living standards.Household incomes grew by just 9 per cent, way behind the first decade of the century (22 per cent), the 1990s (21 per cent), the 1980s (30 per cent), the 1970s (18 per cent) and the 1960s (19 per cent).“That is not normal for the British economy,” said Torsten Bell, the think-tank’s chief executive. “So, the question is, why, when it’s a complete catastrophe, is Labour still behind the Conservatives on economic competence?”George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, successfully rammed home the message that Labour overspending caused the crash, although he later acknowledged the claim was false.A recent Opinium poll found that – despite low growth even before Covid struck – the Conservatives lead Labour as the best party to run the economy by 41 per cent to 27 per cent.Internal focus groups have confirmed that voters still fear that Labour would be unable to resist spending money it did not have.In her conference speech, Ms Reeves carved out a divide with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, by pledging to spend £28bn-a-year on green jobs to fight the climate emergency.But a key fiscal rule, to reduce debt as a share of national income, mimics the 2019 Tory manifesto – and Ms Reeves told the fringe meeting she “worried” about debt standing at 100 per cent of GDP.Mr Bell said the tradition tax-and-spend election battle was over because the huge tax hikes announced by Boris Johnson and Mr Sunak meant “the death of low tax Conservatism”.But Ms Reeves said that was “too simplistic”, because the key question is tax fairness – as Labour prepares to make the wealthy pay more, rather than workers through the National Insurance increase. More

The government has announced rule changes to make it easier to research and develop “gene-edited” food crops that could help make food more nutritious or reduce the need for harmful chemical pesticides.The alteration in regulations means that gene editing of plants could also help breed crops that are resistant to pests and disease and could potentially boost yields for farmers.Gene editing makes changes to the traits within a species of plant or animal much more quickly and precisely than traditional selective breeding which has been used for centuries to create stronger, healthier crops and livestock.It could see the development of crops such as sugar beet that are resistant to viruses that hit yields without the use of pesticides.This comes despite a number of concerns raised during the government consultation. Of the individual responses, 87 per cent said that the risk of gene editing was greater than for traditional breeding and it should continue to be regulated as genetically modified (GM) organisms.However responses by academic institutes and public bodies reflected a view there was no greater risk.The rule changes will allow field trials of gene edited crops without having to go through a licensing process that takes a couple of months and costs researchers £5,000 to £10,000, although scientists will still have to inform the Environment Department (Defra) of their work.The move is the first stage of an approach that could see gene edited foods sold on UK supermarket shelves in the future.Officials and scientists draw a distinction between gene editing, which involves the manipulation of genes within a single species or genus, and GM, in which DNA from one species is introduced to a different one.But following an EU ruling in 2018, it is regulated in the same stringent way as GM organisms, a situation which Environment Secretary George Eustice said could be changed now the UK has left the bloc.Mr Eustice said: “Gene editing has the ability to harness the genetic resources that nature has provided.“It is a tool that could help us in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face – around food security, climate change and biodiversity loss.“Outside the EU, we are able to foster innovation to help grow plants that are stronger and more resilient to climate change.“We will be working closely with farming and environmental groups to ensure that the right rules are in place.”Following the rule change on field trials, the next step planned is primary legislation to change the regulatory definitions of a genetically modified organism, to exclude gene edited crops or livestock that could have been created – more slowly – by traditional breeding methods.That would allow commercial marketing of gene edited products without requiring GM regulation, although they would still be subject to other rules about selling foods.The government is also planning a broader review of GM regulation in the longer term.It said foods will only be permitted to be marketed if it is judged they do not present a risk to health, do not mislead consumers and do not have lower nutritional value than non-genetically modified counterparts.It could take several years for gene edited products to arrive on supermarket shelves, and decisions would have to be made about how they would be labelled.Prof Robin May, the Food Standards Agency’s chief scientific adviser, said: “There are significant benefits to changing the way we regulate genetic technologies, to make sure the system is as up to date as possible and properly takes into account new technologies and scientific discoveries.“We support giving consumers choice and recognise the potential benefits that gene edited plants and animals may bring to the food system.”Any gene edited products traded with the EU would have to undergo full GM approval – although the bloc is also looking at its approach to gene editing – but could be sold in countries where gene editing is permitted.Additional reporting by PA More

Sir Keir Starmer should go back to the Labour membership and seek a new “mandate” if he fails to honour pledges made during the leadership contest, a former shadow cabinet minister has said.The message from Andy McDonald, who quit the frontbench on Monday, came as a series of MPs from the party’s left bloc stood up at a rally on Wednesday evening to criticise the leadership, with one accusing Sir Keir of “waging war on the left”.On the evening before the Labour leader’s first major in-person address to party delegates, another left-wing MP described the conference as “goddam awful” while a third claimed the leadership was “missing in action” as the country faced a series of crises.The rally — hosted by The World Transformed on the fringes of the conference — included John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burgon, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Zarah Sultana alongside other MPs from the parliamentary Socialist Campaign Group.The event underscored the widening divisions between the left and Sir Keir’s leadership, with rows erupting at Labour’s annual conference over the party’s rulebook, concerns the leader is backtracking on key pledges he set out before succeeding Mr Corbyn in 2020, and the resignation of a shadow minister with a withering attack on Sir Keir.On the penultimate day of the conference, the left-wing bakers’ union also disaffiliated from Labour — a move described by Ms Long-Bailey at the rally on Wednesday as a “very dark day” for the party.In a message read out to activists, Mr McDonald, who quit the frontbench on Monday over a campaign to introduce a £15-per-hour national minimum wage, reiterated his criticisms, but also suggested Sir Keir should face the membership again.“My message to Keir is that he must return to the 10 pledges on which he was elected to the leadership by Labour members. Comrades, if he fails to do so, he should go back to the membership to seek another democratic mandate,” he said.“If the leader has any respect for democracy and for our members, I call on him to honour to the decision conference took this afternoon for a £15 an hour national minimum wage.”In remarks that received a rapturous applause from activists, Richard Burgon, a key member of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, also said the Labour leadership was “missing in action” — despite the country facing a crisis on multiple fronts.Referring to the changes to the rules on future leadership contests, he went on: “The best the Labour leadership could come up with was bloody rule changes. It ended in the grotesque chaos of a Labour leader — a Labour leader — scurrying around Brighton trying to draft the terms of his own redundancy.”The MP added: “The rumours of the death of the Labour left are somewhat exaggerated. The Labour left will again one day win a leadership election.”In his own speech on Wednesday evening at The World Transformed, Mr Corbyn said he was “so depressed” time had been set aside at conference to discuss a rule change “that nobody wanted, nobody asked for, and nobody demanded”.In scathing remarks, Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP said: “It has been a goddamn awful conference with a goddamn awful leadership. “The problem is he [Sir Keir] might a very nice man, but he is not a politician for the Labour Party,” he added.“No politician worth their salt would wench the whole of conference to try and introduce rule changes like they did. No politician worth their salt would wage an internal war on a party when we have one of the worst governments in history.”And in a message directly aimed at the leadership, Zarah Sultana, a member of Labour’s 2019 intake, said: “Instead of waging war on the left, instead of purging members, provide real opposition to the Tories – do your job.”A second member of the 2019 intake, Nadia Whittome, said some delegates will be leaving conference “demoralised” with the left “facing huge attacks” and democracy in the party being “undermined”.But she added: “To those of you who feel like leaving the party, I urge please you to stay. This the long game. The right of the party want you to leave, don’t play into their hands.” More

Boris Johnson has rejected pleas to give health and care workers priority access to fuel, despite warnings that leaving them stuck in queues at forecourts will put lives at risk.Breaking his silence on the crisis after five days of pumps running dry, the prime minister insisted the situation was improving and called on motorists to stop panic-buying petrol.But retailers said more than one-third of independent petrol stations remained empty, and Mr Johnson indicated that emergency measures will be needed until Christmas and beyond to keep supply chains running not only for fuel but other essential supplies too.Up to 300 troops are now on standby in Operation Escalin after the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, signed off the request for military assistance.It came after the government announced on Monday that the armed forces may be called on to drive tankers as a “precautionary step” if fuel supply problems persisted.Industry figures have warned that petrol stations could see disruption last for up to a month even if people stop panic-buying petrol and diesel, The Times reported.Transport secretary Grant Shapps became the first government minister to admit that Brexit was a factor in creating the fuel crisis, which the PM has tried to blame on a surge in demand globally as the world emerges from the Covid pandemic.After speaking with haulage industry representatives on Tuesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said they were “beyond frustrated” at the government’s “half-baked” response to the crisis.He called for immediate action to give key workers – including health and care staff – priority when filling up on fuel.Sir Keir also said temporary visas offered by ministers to overseas HGV drivers should be extended from three to six months, after a lukewarm response from European truckers, who one EU union leader said “will not go to the UK for a short-term visa to help the UK get out of the s*** they created for themselves”.Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “If doctors and nurses and midwives and care assistants can’t get to the bedsides of their patients, then people will be left stranded, people will be left in the most desperate of circumstances, some people could end up losing their lives.”As ministers met to monitor the ongoing shortages, government sources said data indicated the situation was improving. They pointed to figures showing that 16 per cent of petrol stations were fully supplied on Tuesday, compared to 10 per cent the previous day.The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents nearly 5,500 of the UK’s 8,000 stations, said there were “early signs that the crisis at pumps is ending”, with around 37 per cent of sites running out of fuel, compared to two-thirds on Sunday.Executive director Gordon Balmer said: “With regular restocks taking place, this percentage is likely to improve further over the next 24 hours.”And Mr Johnson said: “We’re now starting to see the situation improve, we’re hearing from industry that supplies are coming back onto the forecourts in the normal way.“I would just really urge everybody to just go about their business in the normal way and fill up in the normal way when you really need it and things will start to improve.”But asked if he would introduce a priority scheme for key workers, he said only: “I understand why people say that but with the situation now stabilising and things getting better on the forecourts the best thing is … we stabilise it in the normal way.”Mr Johnson has been criticised for failing to speak out about the huge queues on forecourts – in the way that Tony Blair led the fightback against a similar crisis two decades ago.He offered sympathy to drivers “worried about their journeys” and unable “to see their loved ones”, saying: “I know how frustrating and infuriating it must have been.”The Queen’s Nursing Institute added its voice to calls for priority to be given to health and care workers.In a letter to Mr Johnson, it said: “Patient visits are being cancelled and patients are at risk of being left without the care they need, at the time they need it. This is unacceptable.”Dr David Wrigley of the British Medical Association said: “I know many of my health and social care working colleagues will be getting into the car this morning, nervously looking at the fuel dial and wondering if they’ve got enough fuel to do their day-to-day work,” he said.“We can’t be waiting two or three hours in a queue for fuel when we have patients to see.”Homecare Association CEO Jane Townson said she had been appealing for assistance from the Department for Health since Friday, but had been told only that the situation was being considered.“We want essential workers, including home care workers, to have access to fuel. We need that now. We need the government to acknowledge that there are risks to the health and well-being of older and disabled people,” Ms Townson said.Speaking at Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, Sir Keir said it was time for the PM to act.“The government has reduced the country to chaos as we track from crisis to crisis and the government is not gripping this,” he told the BBC.“I spoke to the haulage sector this morning to the businesses that are absolutely in the middle of this, and they are beyond frustrated – and these are their words.“They said it’s a government that is denying there’s a problem, then blaming somebody else, and then coming up with a half-baked plan.”Demanding action on key worker prioritisation and visas, Sir Keir said: “This problem was predictable and predicted and the government has absolutely failed to plan.”Mr Johnson repeated government claims that panic-buying had been triggered by hauliers’ representatives leaking “misleading” details of a private meeting on supply problems caused by a 100,000 shortfall in HGV driver numbers.He insisted that the answer was not a return to “low-wage, low-skill immigration”, but should involve higher pay to help fill vacancies.“What we want to do is make sure that we have all the preparations to get through to Christmas and beyond not just in supplying the petrol stations but all parts of our supply chain,” said the prime minister.“You’re seeing the global economy really sucking in a huge amount of demand at the moment for gas, for lorry drivers. There are shortages across the world, it’s affecting countries across the world but we’ve got to make sure that we have everything in place as the recovery continues and that’s what we’re doing.”Frontline workers revealed the disruption forecourt queues are causing to their ability to do their jobs.Beatrice Hamujuni-Smith, who runs a home care service, told The Independent that carers were “busy looking for fuel” over the weekend instead of working.The director of IRC Care Services in Surrey said she was in the office until 9pm on Monday trying to organise my troops to see if we can still cover the most vulnerable people”.And Shaleeza Hasham, of CHD Care at Home, said there had been an “enormous” impact on care workers.“Many of our carers are unable to get enough fuel to make their rounds as most petrol stations are limiting them to £30,” she said. “Carers can do up to 100 miles per day so these restrictions mean that they are having to fuel up more often as they cannot fill their tanks.“We look after extremely vulnerable individuals, some of whom cannot even get out of bed without support or assistance, and the situation is proving extremely difficult and stressful. Being unable to get to clients who depend on us just isn’t an option.” More

Keir Starmer has signalled he is ready to see Labour’s far-left split from the party, declaring that winning the next general election is more important to him than maintaining internal unity.Speaking ahead of the high-stakes speech, Sir Keir said he would ditch earlier pledges to hold onto key policies inherited from Jeremy Corbyn if it was needed to make Labour electable.His keynote conference speech in Brighton on Wednesday will draw a firm line under the Corbyn era, with a promise to voters that Labour will never again go into a general election without a serious plan for government.He will also launch an assault on the smallness and triviality of Boris Johnson’s approach to government, whose incompetence he argues has been exposed by the current fuel shortages and cost of living crisis.A senior shadow cabinet minister told The Independent that Labour’s high command believe that the optimism and confidence that attracted voters to Boris Johnson will seem increasingly brittle in the economically difficult years ahead of an election expected in 2023 or 2024.“There’s an ever-growing chasm between the optimism and the delivery,” said the shadow minister.“Boris has set himself up to fail with the ‘levelling up’ stuff. When people are told their lives are going to be levelled up, they don’t think it means a government grant to do up a couple of shops on the high street, they are expecting something transformative. It’s a very high bar to reach and a very short period of time to achieve it in.”In comments that infuriated Labour’s left, Sir Keir made clear he does not regard himself as bound by the list of 10 pledges from last year’s leadership election, which committed him to maintain key elements of Corbyn’s platform, including common ownership for industries like energy, rail and mail.Speaking to BBC News, Sir Keir said he stood by “the principles and values behind the pledges” but added: “The most important pledge I made was that I would turn it into a party that would be fit for government, capable of winning a general election. I’m not going to be deflected from that.”Asked whether party unity or winning elections was more important to him, he replied: “Winning. Winning a general election.”Despite the resignation of the final Corbynist member of his shadow cabinet, Andy McDonald, on the third day of the Brighton gathering, Sr Keir and his team believe they have used the conference to create a launching pad for significant advances at the next election. Rulebook changes approved by delegates will protect MPs from deselection by radical activists and reassure voters that a hard-left takeover will no longer be possible.The Labour leader wants to use his first in-person address to the annual conference – forced online by Covid in 2020 – to make a strong impression on voters of who he is and the principles that underpin his politics.In what was billed as the most personal speech of his political life, he will set out how his background and his values inform the politician he has become.Following criticism that his first 18 months as leader have been dominated by internal party battles, he will focus on his plans for Britain and his appeal to voters – with eye-catching policy announcements expected to counter accusations that he has failed to be clear about how Labour would govern.“Keir’s speech will be noticeably different from what you’ve heard from Labour in recent years,” said one party source.“It will be more optimistic, more focused on the future, more outward-looking.”Sir Keir will say that shortcomings in Johnson’s government, which were masked during the Covid pandemic by ministers’ reliance on expert scientific and medical advice, are now coming to the fore in the current crisis.Problems with the disruption of supply chains and soaring prices were driven not only by short-term failures of government decision making but also by long-term neglect during 11 years of Conservative-led governments, he will say.“I see the government lost in the woods with two paths beckoning,” the Labour leader will say. “One path leads back where we came from. None of the lessons of Covid are heeded. The divisions and flaws that were brutally exposed by the pandemic all worsen.“But there is another path down which we address the chronic problems revealed by Covid with the kindness and the togetherness that got us through. That path leads to a future in which a smart government enlists the brilliance of scientific invention to create an economy in which people are healthy and well-educated. A contribution society in which everyone has their role to play.”Setting out his determination to regain public trust after the Corbyn years, he will add: “Too often in the history of this party our dream of the good society falls foul of the belief that we will not run a strong economy. But you don’t get one without the other. And under my leadership we are committed to both. I can promise you that under my leadership Labour will be back in business.Speaking to The Independent, a shadow cabinet minister said that Sir Keir’s route to No 10 lay in stressing the contrasts between his personality and Mr Johnson’s, rather than simply attacking the prime minister’s flaws.“If you look at history, it’s very rare for one prime minister to be followed by another with a similar character,” said the shadow minister. “Voters decide it’s time for a change.”And they added: “Boris is a very difficult opponent to beat, and you don’t do it by telling everyone what a terrible personality he has.“People have repeatedly shown at the ballot box that they like his personality, and you don’t win them over by just telling them they are wrong.“But no politician stays popular forever. He’s been through a whole list of scandals which would have killed any other politician’s career and I think a tipping point will come when people look at him and decide they don’t like what they see.” More

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has admitted he and his deputy Angela Rayner have “huge disagreements” and said they had spoken about her comments describing senior Conservatives as “scum”.Starmer acknowledged he and Rayner have “different approaches and different styles” of leadership, as he further distanced himself from her controversial remarks.“It’s not language I would have used,” he told Sky News at the Brighton conference. “Angela and I talk every day. Of course we have huge agreements and disagreements.”Starmer said the term “scum” was “not language I have ever used in relation to either Conservative ministers or anybody else.”Asked by Channel 5 News if he had spoken to Rayner about the “scum” insult, Starmer said: “I talked to Angela, yes. I’m not going to disclose to you our private conversation.”Rayner sparked the row after she called senior Tories “homophobic, racist, misogynistic … scum” at a fringe conference event in Brighton – before defending her use of everyday “street language” from the north of England.The party’s deputy leader also challenged Boris Johnson to sit down with her and apologise for his own “racist, homophobic and sexist” comments before she says sorry for her verbal attack on the Conservatives.She tweeted that people “seem to be far more concerned with my choice of language” than the prime minister’s own “racist, homophobic and sexist” comments.“I’m very happy to sit down with Boris. If he withdraws his comments and apologises, I’ll be very happy to apologise to him,” the MP added.Attempting to diffuse the row, Starmer told Sky News: “Look, Angela and I are working together with one central aim and that is to get the Labour Party in a position to win an election and then to win an election.”Ahead of his big conference speech on Wednesday, the Labour leader did not deny he wanted to move the party to the centre, saying: “I want to move the party so we can focus on issues that matter.”Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg whether party unity or winning election was more important to him, Starmer replied: “Winning. Winning a general election. I didn’t come into politics to vote over and over again in parliament and lose and then tweet about it.”Starmer insisted that Labour remained a “broad church” despite left-winger Andy McDonald’s resignation from the shadow cabinet, saying he had been asked by the leader’s office to argue against introducing a £15 minimum wage.The Labour leader said McDonald was “wrong” to allege the divide has widened within the party since he took over from Jeremy Corbyn in the wake of the general election defeat in 2019.Starmer defended the “tough decisions to change our party” – which included changing the rules to mean any future leadership contender would need greater support from Labour MPs, in a move seen as an attempt to shut out radical challengers.The Labour leader said he accepted “there will be some people who don’t agree with those changes” but urged critics to get behind them. More