UK Politics

At least three times now, Angela Rayner has given a major TV interview where she has insisted she does not want to be prime minister.The problem for the deputy prime minister, however, is that her rejections of the crown are not very convincing.And if there is a reason why nobody in Westminster really believes the deputy prime minister in regards to her own ambitions, the intervention on Tuesday during the final cabinet meeting before the summer recess underlined it.Her warning about a summer of riots, linking them to economic woes and failures on controlling migration appeared to be a masterclass of political timing and messaging. At the same time, though, there is surprise among her allies that the normally dull cabinet briefing used her “spicier language” in a way which has drawn criticism of her.But whether Ms Rayner was happy with the reporting of it or not, there was no doubt that the intervention revealed a politician who has now emerged as one of the most powerful figures in government. There is widespread speculation among Labour MPs that the deputy prime minister is now positioning herself as the lead option to replace Sir Keir should he fall – and at the same time offer a different type of Labour government to the Starmerite project.In terms of political timing, Ms Rayner’s intervention worked because it put a full stop to the end of a deeply troubled first year for Sir Keir.Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner England (Lucy North/PA) More

Children could face a limit on using social media apps to help youngsters “take control of their online lives”, the Technology Secretary said.Peter Kyle said he wanted to tackle “compulsive behaviour” and ministers are reportedly considering a two-hour limit, with curfews also under discussion.The Cabinet minister said he would be making an announcement about his plans for under-16s “in the near future”.He told Sky News: “I am looking very carefully about the overall time kids spend on these apps.“I think some parents feel a bit disempowered about how to actually make their kids healthier online.“I think some kids feel that sometimes there is so much compulsive behaviour with interaction with the apps they need some help just to take control of their online lives and those are things I’m looking at really carefully.”Sky reported that a two-hour cap per platform is being considered, while night-time or school-time curfews have also been discussed.Mr Kyle said: “We talk a lot about a healthy childhood offline. We need to do the same online.“I think sleep is very important, to be able to focus on studying is very important.”He said he wanted to “tip the balance” in favour of parents so they were “not always being the ones who are just ripping phones out of the kids’ hands”.Mr Kyle also said it was “total madness” that some adults were able to use apps or gaming platforms to contact children online.He said “many of the apps or the companies have taken action to restrict contacts that adults, particularly strangers, have with children, but we need to go further”.“At the moment, I think the balance is tipped slightly in the wrong direction.“Parents don’t feel they have the skills, the tools or the ability to really have a grip on the childhood experience online, how much time, what they’re seeing, they don’t feel that kids are protected from unhealthy activity or content when they are online.”In a separate interview with parenting site Mumsnet, Mr Kyle said he was “deeply concerned” about addictive apps being used by children.Speaking to Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts on Monday, the Technology Secretary said he would be “nailing down harder on age verification”.He said: “I think we can have a national conversation about what healthy childhood looks like online.“We do it offline all the time. Parents set curfews and diet and exercise as part of a language and a vocabulary within families.“We haven’t had that national debate about what health looks like and a healthy childhood looks like online yet.”Schools in England were given non-statutory Government guidance in February last year, intended to stop the use of phones during the school day.But the Conservatives have been calling on the Labour Government to bring in a statutory ban on smartphones in schools.Mr Kyle said: “Smartphones should not be used routinely in schools.“Now, there might be some classes where they are brought in because of a specific purpose in the class, but that has to be determined and it should be the exception not the norm.”He added: “If we need to nail down hard on it, we will nail down hard on it.“But please think very carefully about asking politicians to pass a law which criminalises by definition.“Because if you pass a law that doesn’t criminalise it’s not a law that means anything”.A series of already-announced measures to protect children will come into effect from Friday.The codes of practice set out by Ofcom include requiring firms to ensure that any algorithms used to recommend content on their platforms must be configured to filter out harmful content from children’s feeds.In addition, the riskiest platforms, such as those hosting pornography, must have effective age checks to identify which users are children.The checks could be done using facial age estimation technology, asking users to provide photo-ID for verification or a credit card check. More

Michael Gove has branded concerns made by Angela Rayner about a repeat of last year’s summer of violence as “a big mistake”, claiming it could “tacitly encourage” riots.The former Tory cabinet minister, who was Ms Rayner’s predecessor as the secretary of state responsible for communities, added that history showed warning violence could break out made it inevitable. His comments follow a no holds barred briefing the deputy prime minister gave to cabinet colleagues on Tuesday, where she linked economic woes and immigration to community tensions and said the government needed to acknowledge the public’s “real concerns” about societal changes, as well as falling living standards.She was speaking following violent scenes in Epping, Essex where protesters have clashed near the Bell Hotel which is believed to contain asylum seekers.Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (PA) More

The UK faces a “very significant” volume of cyber attacks every year, the security minister has warned as new laws aim to deter hackers from “extorting” businesses amid a spate of recent incidents.Dan Jarvis said new measures send a signal to cyber criminals that ransom demands will not be tolerated.Proposals from the Home Office would ban public sector bodies and operators of critical national infrastructure from paying hackers.It would also mean private sector companies not covered by the ban would be required to notify the Government if they intended to pay a ransom.“The UK is not alone in this regard, along with our international allies, we are subjected to a very significant number of cyber attacks every year,” Mr Jarvis told the PA news agency.“But from a UK Government perspective we are crystal clear that these attacks are completely unacceptable.“There’s more that we need to do to guard against them and that’s why we’re introducing these measures.”Mr Jarvis said the measures mean cyber criminals will be “less incentivised” to target UK institutions because of the clarity the ban on ransom payments brings.“We think these proposals will provide a powerful deterrent, and what we’re wanting to do is break the business model of the cyber criminals who think that they can get away with extorting money from UK-based institutions,” he told PA.He stressed the Government would ensure “cyber criminals, whether they’re in Russia or wherever they might be, face the full weight of the UK law”.Ransomware refers to software used by cyber criminals to access the computer systems of its victims, which can then be encrypted or data stolen until a ransom is paid.It comes after four young people were arrested for their suspected involvement in damaging cyber attacks against Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods in recent months.Microsoft also said on Tuesday night that Chinese hackers had breached its SharePoint document software servers in a bid to target major corporations and government agencies.Furthermore, under the proposals, a mandatory reporting regime would mean companies and institutions that are targeted by ransomware attacks are required to report it.Mr Jarvis said the Government was going to “look very carefully at the precise details” of the regime but that it would provide more clarity and intelligence to government agencies.M&S chairman Archie Norman told MPs earlier this month that UK businesses should be legally required to report major cyber attacks as he claimed two recent hacks involving “large British companies” had gone unreported.Mr Norman said the retailer believed an Asia-based ransomware operation, DragonForce, had been involved in the attack – but refused to say whether or not a ransom was paid. More

Children could face two-hour limits on social media like TikTok and Snapchat as part of a government plan to crack down on “compulsive” phone use, the science and technology secretary has said.Peter Kyle, who is due to make an announcement in the autumn, warned of the effects on young people’s sleep and their ability to focus on studying for exams, saying he was concerned about “the overall amount of time kids spend on these apps” as well as their content. Among the ideas being seriously considered are a two-hour cap per platform, while a night-time or school-time curfew has also been discussed, according to reports. Last year Australia passed a law to ban all under 16s from social media, although the UK is not expected to go that far. It comes as a new survey showed one in five children spend at least seven hours a day using phones and tablets.Mr Kyle said he was “looking very carefully about the overall time kids spend on these apps”.”I think some parents feel a bit disempowered about how to actually make their kids healthier online,” he told Sky News.”I think some kids feel that sometimes there is so much compulsive behaviour with interaction with the apps they need some help just to take control of their online lives and those are things I’m looking at really carefully.”We talk a lot about a healthy childhood offline. We need to do the same online. I think sleep is very important, to be able to focus on studying is very important,” he added.He added that he wanted to stop children spending hours viewing content which “isn’t criminal, but it’s unhealthy, the overuse of some of these apps”.”I think we can incentivise the companies and we can set a slightly different threshold that will just tip the balance in favour of parents not always being the ones who are just ripping phones out of the kids’ hands and having a really awkward, difficult conversation around it,” he added.Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

London’s status as a global financial hub has been left “fragile” by Brexit, the boss of Goldman Sachs has warned. David Solomon, chairman and chief executive of the bank, said it is diverting staff away from London to rival cities such as Paris, Frankfurt and Munich.Speaking to Sky’s The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he said: “The financial industry is still driven by talent and capital formation, and those things are much more mobile than they were 25 years ago.”London continues to be an important financial centre. But because of Brexit, because of the way the world’s evolving, the talent that was more centred here is more mobile.Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon said Brexit has put London’s status at risk More

Reform UK councillors have come under fire over plans to spend £150,000 on political advisers despite vowing to cut costs. George Finch, the 19-year-old leader of Warwickshire county council, put forward the plans, which were narrowly approved, on Tuesday.The money would pay for publicly funded political advisers for Reform and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the two next largest parties on the council.Despite losing a vote over climate change, Reform pushed through the £150,000 spending plans. George Finch pushed the spending plan through on Tuesday More