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    Keir Starmer’s wife went to two Taylor Swift concerts for free in Labour donation controversy

    Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer’s wife accepted two free tickets worth hundreds of pounds each to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, it has emerged.It was previously known that Lady Starmer attended the popstar’s Wembley concert with the prime minister in June.But it has now been revealed that she went to a second concert at Wembley Stadium without Sir Keir in August.Lady Starmer attended one show with Sir Keir Starmer and one without him More

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    Football regulator plans will not risk England’s place in UEFA, Keir Starmer insists

    Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer has said plans for an independent football regulator will not see England banned from Euro 2028, despite the body warning it could breach rules on government interference in the game. The prime minister said he was sure ministers would “find a way through” in talks with the governing body after it voiced concerns that the proposals could threaten the autonomy of sport.It follows a warning from UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis that the plans, set out in` the Football Governance Bill, could lead to England’s exclusion from the union.Sir Keir Starmer said the Government’s plans are ‘consistent’ with the rules (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

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    Tory Rwanda plan was worse than transporting convicts to Australia, says John Major

    Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentFormer Tory prime minister Sir John Major has described Rishi Sunak’s government as “unconservative” and “un-British” in the way it tried to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.Speaking to the BBC’s Amol Rajan, Sir John admitted that he had not made any public pronouncements for some time because he found little to like about the last Tory government under Rishi Sunak.He said the Sunak government’s plans to fly asylum seekers to east Africa was worse than the 18th century deportations of convcts fo Australia.And, in a devastating assessment of Brexit, he agreed with former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair that far from reducing immigration as promised by Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and others, it had in fact increased immigration and replaced Europeans with more people from other parts of the world.Former prime minister John Major More

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    Ed Davey calls for taskforce to ‘winterproof the NHS’ in conference closing speech

    Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Ed Davey has set out plans to “winterproof the NHS”, calling for a taskforce to be established to end the annual winter crises facing the health service.The Liberal Democrat leader used his conference speech to urge Sir Keir Starmer to “make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS”.After opening the speech by singing “Take a Chance on Me” by ABBA, Sir Ed pointed to the £376m which is spent on average each year tackling the winter crisis in the NHS, calling instead for the cash to be invested in shoring up the service.His proposed taskforce would spend £1.5bn in the next four years to build resilience in hospital wards, A&E departments, ambulance services and patient discharging.Addressing activists and MPs gathered in Brighton, Sir Ed said: “Practically every year I can remember, governments have ended up announcing hundreds of millions of pounds of emergency funding to help the NHS through another winter crisis. To paper over the cracks.Lib Dem leader Ed Davey kicked off proceedings by singing ABBA’s ‘Take a Chance on Me’ More

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    No more cuddly Lib Dems as Ed Davey vows to ‘consign Tories to history books’

    Sir Ed Davey’s speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton on Tuesday, 17 September, touched on the need to fix Britain’s broken relationship with Europe – but the party leader did not go as far as many of the party’s Europhile activists would like.Sir Ed called for measures such as a return to the single market and a free movement scheme for young people but stopped short of promising to campaign to reverse Brexit, as his predecessor did in the 2019 election.Here, The Independent political correspondent Archie Mitchell delivers his analysis of Sir Ed’s keynote speech. More

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    Dire Brexit EU trade figures could get even worse, warns expert

    Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentOne of Britain’s leading trade experts has warned that the new border checks system for goods traded between the UK and the EU could make already dire trade figures even worse.Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade, has welcomed plans to delay bringing in those checks for fruit and vegetables at the border which could have had a devastating effect on UK supply chains.But he has said that if the implementation of the the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) for checks is badly handled then there could be serious problems.His warning comes as new research released by Aston University shows that Brexit is having a profoundly detrimental impact on UK trade.Sir Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held a joint press conference on Monday (Phil Noble/PA) More

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    Ed Davey belts out ‘Sweet Caroline’ to finish Lib Dem conference

    Sir Ed Davey belted out Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” to close out the Liberal Democrats conference in Brighton on Tuesday, 17 September.The party leader, all 72 Lib Dem MPs, and the crowd were on their feet singing and clapping along to the hit as confetti poured down from the ceiling.Sir Ed used his conference speech to urge Sir Keir Starmer to “make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS”.His party also announced it would campaign for a new Winterproof NHS Taskforce, which would manage a £1.5bn budget to build resilience across hospital wards, accident and emergency departments, ambulance services and patient discharging. More

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    David Lammy says climate change is more urgent threat than terrorism or Putin

    Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentDavid Lammy has warned that climate change is a more urgent threat than terrorism or Vladimir Putin in a major speech in which he pledged to put the emergency at the centre of British foreign policy.Tackling the crisis, which is “accelerating towards us”, will also boost growth in the UK, the foreign secretary said. “The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. Pervasive. And accelerating towards us,” he warned.Mr Lammy blasted Russia’s “fascism” and “imperialism” last week on a visit to war-torn Ukraine. He made the vow after the death toll in central Europe rose to at least 15 in the wake of a series of devastating floods.Foreign secretary David Lammy making a speech on the climate crisis More