UK Politics

Reform’s UK only member of the Senedd has been suspended from the Welsh Parliament for using a racial slur in a Whatsapp group.Laura Anne Jones choked back tears after the Senedd’s standards committee recommended she be banned for 14 days over her remarks.Ms Jones, who defected from the Conservatives earlier this year, made the offensive remark about Chinese people in a group during a discussion about the Chinese-owned app TikTok in August 2023.She wrote: “No ***** spies for me.”While Ms Jones has previously issued an apology for the comment, the Senedd standards committee concluded that her actions “fell far below the standards expected” of a member of the Senedd.Ms Jones, who defected from the Conservatives earlier this year, made the offensive remark about Chinese people in a group during a discussion about the Chinese-owned app TikTok in August 2023. More

Labour MP Clive Lewis has suggested he would be willing to give up his parliamentary seat to allow Andy Burnham to mount a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer.Mr Lewis suggested he would be willing to give up his Norwich South constituency for the Greater Manchester mayor to return to the Commons, months after Mr Burnham was touted as a possible successor to the prime minister.Speculation that Mr Burnham, who quit the Commons in 2017, wanted to challenge the PM for the party leadership dominated Labour’s autumn conference after he dropped repeated hints he was eyeing a Westminster comeback.Speaking to the BBC’s Politics Live on Wednesday, Mr Lewis said: “It’s a question I’ve asked myself, and I’d have to obviously consult with my wife as well, and family, but do you know what? If I’m going to sit here and say country before party, party before personal ambition, then yes, I have to say yes, don’t I?”Mr Lewis last week called for the Greater Manchester mayor’s return to Parliament as he said Sir Keir’s position was “not tenable” and that he should “put country before party” and quit as leader.It comes after civil war erupted at the top of the Labour Party last week, with suggestions of potential leadership candidates eyeing up challenges. Clive Lewis said he would give up his Norwich South seat for Andy Burnham More

A Reform UK councillor has been suspended from Nigel Farage’s party over a WhatsApp group where a member allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide”.Tom Pickup, one of Reform’s lead councillors in Lancashire, is now facing an investigation.The group, thought to have been set up by a right-wing activist, saw one member message that Sir Keir Starmer “needs a f***ing bullet”, to which another replied: “He’s a DICKtator.”Mr Pickup responded by calling the prime minister a “dicktaker”, according to The Guardian. Reform UK has suspended the councillor and he is now facing an investigation More

Wes Streeting has suggested that he would not feel “comfortable” with the idea of deporting families with children from the UK under Labour’s latest crackdown on migrants.The health secretary said that “the number of forced removals should be low” as part of Shabana Mahmood’s controversial asylum reforms unveiled earlier this week. The home secretary set out a raft of changes to the asylum system on Monday, including plans to remove families with children with no right to be in the UK by force if necessary. The party’s toughened stance aimed at cutting the number of people entering the UK via irregular routes, such as small boats, faced a backlash within the party, including from Labour peer and refugee from the Nazis Lord Alf Dubs, who accused Ms Mahmood of using “children as a weapon”.Asked about the prospect of removing families with children, Mr Streeting told LBC that the number of forced removals “should be low”. Pushed later on whether he was comfortable with the prospect, he added: “Honestly? Comfortable? No. But is it the right thing to do for the country? Yes.” The plans will also apply to children born in the UK to parents who have no right to be in the country. Officials said children would be required to leave the country with their parents if their refugee status is revoked, The Times reported.Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said attention has been diverted away from neighbourhood policing More

The government has been accused of “fuelling an arms race of dangerous interceptions” that could “turn the Channel into a graveyard” after it emerged that French police will use large nets to stop small boat crossings – despite warnings that such tactics could put lives at risk.France has been under mounting pressure from the UK to reduce the number of small boats Channel crossings, with Labour ramping up its efforts to deter people from making the crossings in a fresh crackdown this week. In July, the French government said it intended to revise its maritime laws to allow for vessel interceptions, but the proposal was postponed over fears that it might endanger lives.It has now come to light, however, that since the spring several French law-enforcement officers have been issued “arresting nets” that, according to a source familiar with the development, can be deployed both in efforts to curb illegal immigration and in operations targeting drug trafficking.MPs and campaign groups have condemned the action, with Amnesty describing the revelations as “profoundly disturbing” and Refugee Action saying the plans are “violent, reckless and will undoubtedly increase the risk of people dying”. Labour MP Nadia Whittome said the use of nets is an “extreme, inhumane policy that will put lives at risk”, and Rachael Maskell said she is “deeply troubled” by the reports. People thought to be migrants on board a small boat in Gravelines, France More

Sir Keir Starmer refused to rule out freezing income tax thresholds at next week’s Budget, which could result in people paying more tax by “stealth”.At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir declined to answer a number of questions from opposition leader Kemi Badenoch on the issue of threshold freezes. His refusal to answer came after chancellor Rachel Reeves had been expected to breach Labour’s manifesto promises and increase income tax as part of her plans to plug the gap in the public finances. The chancellor is instead widely expected to raise other taxes on 26 November.Additionally, frozen tax thresholds could be used to raise more money for the Treasury, in effect rising taxes by stealth. Even if income tax rates are not increased, people could end up paying more tax as a result of the freezes.The tax-free personal allowance was frozen at £12,570 until 2028 by the previous Conservative government. Freezing tax thresholds can create what economists call “fiscal drag” – more people are pulled into higher tax brackets as average earnings increase, but the thresholds stay the same.Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget next week More