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    Tanni Grey-Thompson hits out at abuse as Starmer comes under pressure over assisted dying bill

    Britain’s leading former Paralympian turned House of Lords peer has revealed she has been sent abusive emails accusing her of being “responsible for people dying in pain” amid her opposition to the assisted dying bill.Crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is among those expected to speak in a historic debate on Friday as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returns to parliament.A long-time campaigner on the rights of disabled people, she said that while it has been difficult to read some of the correspondence directed at her on what is a divisive issue, she accepts it is “part of the job”.The interview comes as Sir Keir Starmer is facing a severe warning from Labour grandees in the House of Lords who have joined a high powered cross-party group demanding more time for the assisted dying debate.Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson revealed she has been sent abusive emails accusing her of being ‘responsible for people dying in pain’ More

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    New home secretary hit with immediate crisis as small boat Channel crossings top 30,000

    Shabana Mahmood has hit out at the “utterly unacceptable” number of migrants arriving in the UK in small boats after the number of Channel crossings this year passed 30,000 in record time.The newly appointed home secretary has been hit immediately with the scale of the crisis she has inherited just 48 hours after taking over from Yvette Cooper.The worst ever figures recorded in a single year to this point have underlined why Sir Keir Starmer felt he needed a clearout of ministers from the Home Office and a new team put in place, with Labour trailing Reform UK by 10 points in the polls.The news that the 30,000 mark has been hit earlier in a single year under the Labour government’s watch will only add fuel to Nigel Farage’s push for power as he completed a exuberant party conference in Birmingham over the weekend.Shabana Mahmood will host her Five Eyes counterparts More

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    Contest to replace Rayner will be ‘Labour’s referendum’ on Starmer’s government, PM warned

    The contest to replace Angela Rayner as deputy leader is expected to become a “referendum” for Labour members on Sir Keir Starmer’s government, senior party figures have told The Independent.With anger about the attempted welfare cuts and Middle East policy in particular, as well as the added threat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party emerging, Sir Keir appears set to be faced with a serious internal challenge as a result of Ms Rayner’s enforced departure.One senior figure to hint at the difficulty for the party leadership of the contest ahead was Andy Burnham, who said Sir Keir’s government needs “a reset”, and urged the PM to use Labour’s deputy leadership contest as a discussion on the future of the party. The Greater Manchester mayor said the prime minister must listen to and respect Labour MPs more and called on his Downing Street operation to be “less factional and more pluralistic”. Starmer and Rayner led Labour into the 2024 general election More

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    Starmer’s reshuffle continues after minister says asylum seekers could be moved to barracks: UK politics live

    Labour government ‘moving forward with strongest team’ following Cabinet reshuffle after Rayner resignationThe new home secretary is expected to unveil plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks as Sir Keir Starmer seeks to harden his immigration policy amid rising numbers of crossings in the Channel.Shabana Mahmood is reportedly set to announce the use of Ministry of Defence sites to house people after a wave of protests outside migrant accommodation over the summer.The defence secretary John Healey confirmed to Sky News that he has placed military planners into the Home Office to scout out military facilities, after an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK by small boat over the course of Saturday. It comes after the prime minister continued his major reshuffle of his top team and junior ministers. The prime minister sacked Rachel Reeves’s sister from the Cabinet and farming minister Daniel Zeichner, while Jason Stockwood, who had a senior role at dating site Match.com, has been appointed to the Department of Business and Trade. It comes as his chief secretary Darren Jones denied that Labour were in crisis, and rebuffed Nigel Farage’s prediction that there would be a general election in 2027. Starmer moved quickly to appoint David Lammy deputy prime minister while Yvette Cooper has been moved from home secretary to take up a new role as foreign secretary, with justice secretary Shabana Mahmood replacing her at the Home Office.Asylum seekers could be “temporarily” moved to military sitesAsylum seekers could be temporarily moved to military sites after Sir Keir Starmer told his new-look Cabinet to “go up a gear” amid rising numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel.“I think you’ll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs of the whole of Government, not just the Home Office,” the Defence Secretary, John Healey, told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show.He said part of this would involve looking at moving asylum seekers into “temporary” accommodation on military sites, but did not confirm a date for when such transfers might take place.John Healey said asylum seekers could be temporarily moved to military sites More

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    Nigel Farage says Boris Johnson is not welcome in Reform UK

    Boris Johnson would not be welcomed into Reform UK, Nigel Farage has said, warning that his failures in government will not be forgiven. The Reform leader said the ex-prime minister joining his insurgent right-wing party “would not really work”, despite some of Mr Johnson’s most ardent supporters switching allegiance.“The Boris wave, millions of people being allowed into Britain, most of whom don’t even work and are costing us a fortune, that is something for which this audience will never, ever forgive him,” Mr Farage told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Nigel Farage said Boris Johnson joining Reform would not work More

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    Starmer warned deputy leadership race is make-or-break moment for Labour government

    Sir Keir Starmer has been warned Labour’s deputy leadership contest is a make or break moment for the government, with the party facing “the fight of its life” amid the rise of Reform. With Nigel Farage comfortably leading in the polls, Dame Emily Thornberry and Andy Burnham said the PM must listen more to his backbenchers to stop Reform UK from winning the next general election. Dame Emily said she was considering running for the deputy leadership after Angela Rayner was forced to resign over her failure to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on the purchase of a flat in Hove. Dame Emily Thornberry said she is considering standing for the deputy leadership More

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    Brian Cox slams ‘bully’ Nigel Farage in scathing rant on ‘misinformed’ Reform UK leader

    Brian Cox has slammed Nigel Farage as a “bully” who is “misinformed” in a scathing assessment of the Reform UK leader.Appearing on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Scottish actor said that he is “dazzled by the way a lot of people have been seduced by him”. Mr Farage’s party is currently 10 points ahead in the polls, according to Techne UK.He said that Mr Farage, who was interviewed by Kuenessberg earlier in the episode, was a “bit of a bully”. He said: “You can tell by the way he conducted that interview with you thought a lot of it was badgering. I just don’t trust the man.”Slamming Brexit, Mr Cox also said that he believes there has “never been a more positive time to be in Europe” due to the ongoing Ukraine war. More

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    Reform called ‘irresponsible’ after doctor links King’s cancer with Covid vaccine in speech

    Reform UK has been criticised for allowing a vaccine sceptic cardiologist to address its conference, where he claimed Covid vaccines may have caused the King and Princess of Wales’s cancer.Health secretary Wes Streeting said it was “irresponsible” of the party to allow Dr Assem Malhotra to speak from the stage in Birmingham, where he made a series of claims about the pharmaceutical industry, politicians and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday.Dr Malhotra, who described himself as a friend of controversial US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, said hundreds of studies showed the harms of mRNA vaccines and that they were interfering with genes.Dr Assem Malhotra made a series of claims about the pharmaceutical industry, politicians and the World Health Organisation at the Reform conference More