Labour MP Natalie Elphicke with ex-husband Charles Elphicke (PA) Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email New Labour MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised for defending her ex-husband after he was found guilty of sexual assault. Ms Elphicke’s former husband and […] More
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA righ twing British think tank which supports Donald Trump has praised David Lammy for his US diplomacy.The Legatum Institute has told Rishi Sunak and the Tories to learn lessons from Labour’s shadow foreign secretary after he made another successful trip to Washington DC ahead of what many think will be a Labour general election victory.The controversial think tank, funded by hedge fund billionaire Christopher Chandler, has recently opened a UK-US Special Relationship Unit at its offices in Mayfair which is pushing to promote UK/ US diplomatic relationship.The thinktank has been impressed by the way that Mr Lammy has reached out to both sides of the aisle in the US and even made attempts to connect with the Trump camp.Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy (Jonathan Brady/PA) More
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailChris Webb, one of Labour’s newest MPs, has taken his seat in the Commons after winning the Blackpool South by-election.Mr Webb won the Lancashire seat after securing nearly 60 per cent of the vote and the third-biggest swing from the Tories to Labour (26.3 per cent) in a by-election since the Second World War.He beat Conservative candidate David Jones in the contest to replace ex-Tory MP Scott Benton, who was forced to quit after becoming embroiled in a lobbying scandal.“The people of Blackpool have spoken for Britain,” Mr Webb said following his victory. “They have had enough of this failed government, people no longer trust the Conservatives.”Labour’s Chris Webb has taken his seat in the House of Commons (Peter Byrne/PA) More
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour MPs erupted in fury as a rightwing Tory told the Commons that he has instructed his constituency staff to refuse any cases brought to him by asylum seekers.Calls of “resign!” could be heard across the chamber as Dudley North MP Marco Longhi got up to speak.His intervention was another shot across the bows for Rishi Sunak with the right of his party making their views clear on his failure to stop the small boats with asylum seekers on them.Mr Longhi said: “I have stopped the large number of so-called asylum seekers from attending my surgey and I have instructed my office to not deal with asylum seekers for two reasons.”Marco Longhi is the Conservative MP for Dudley North (Richard Townshend/UK Parliament/PA) More
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has been accused of paying “lip service” to victims of violence against women and girls after welcoming Natalie Elphicke into the Labour Party.The Labour leader unveiled the Dover MP at PMQs after her shock defection on Wednesday, sparking a furious reaction among his MPs and charities in the sector.As well as a backlash over Ms Elphicke’s right wing views, the defection raised questions about Sir Keir’s commitment to tackling violence against women and girls, which he has made a central part of his pitch as Labour leader.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with former Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA defiant Lord Cameron has defended UK arms sales to Israel hours after Joe Biden threatened to withhold weapons if there is a ground offensive into Rafah.In highly unsual step, the US president publicly vowed to cut supplies if the heavily populated southern Gaza city is attacked.Rishi Sunak is facing mounting pressure, including from within his own party, to immediately suspend arms to Israel amid a growing outcry at the number of civilians killed in its war on Hamas.Those calls intensified on Wednesday, after the US said it had paused a shipload of bombs bound for Israel amid fears over the country’s plans. But Mr Biden went further overnight, saying in an interview: “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons.”Asked if the UK would follow the US’s lead, the foreign secretary insisted arms exports from Britain were very different, in part because they were much smaller in scale and policed by strict rules.He said: “There’s a very fundamental difference between the US situation and the UK situation.””The US is a massive state supplier of weapons to Israel … we do not have a UK government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licences, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than 1 per cent of their total.”Smoke billows from Israeli strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip More
Tory minister Claire Coutinho has defended Rishi Sunak’s recent poor party election results as she insisted the Conservatives have got a “very positive agenda”.The Conservative Party suffered its worst electoral defeat in years last week, losing more than half of its councillors who stood for re-election across England.The energy secretary defended the Conservative Party’s results when she appeared on ITV’s Peston show on Wednesday night (8 May) and was asked if the prime minister should change his plans. More
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNadhim Zahawi has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he will step down at the next election.With the party expected to face heavy losses in the general election, the former chancellor said the time is right for “a new, energetic Conservative” to take over.The Stratford-on-Avon MP becomes the 64th Conservative to announce he is standing down at the end of this parliament, with the country expected to go to the polls in October or November. Mr Zahawi, who served as chancellor in 2022, was facing a tough re-election, with polls suggesting he was on course to lose the seat, which has only elected Conservatives since 1950.Nadhim Zahawi is the 64th Conservative MP to announce he will step down at the election More
