UK Politics

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 CorrespondentA senior Jewish peer and supporter of Israel in the Lords has backed Sir Keir Starmer’s partial suspension of the UK’s arms deal with Israel and hit out at those who condemned the move. In a major intervention, Lord Carlile has written a devastating critique of the chief rabbi, Boris Johnson and others who attacked the prime minister’s decision after it was announced last week.In an article for The Independent, the crossbench peer – who was the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation between 2001 and 2011 – describes how the Labour leader’s decision showed “courage and conviction… however difficult it is”.Supporting Sir Keir’s decision to suspend 30 of the 350 arms exports licences to Israel, he bitterly lashes out at Benjamin Netanyahu for underminging attempts at reaching a peaceful solution.The intervention comes amid reports that Israel has bombed targets in central Syria killing five people.Lord Carlile, who and sits on the all party committee for Israel, is also scathing about the previous government’s handling of the same legal advice used to justify the decision.Lord Carlile has supported Starmer’s action More

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 CorrespondentWatch live as the Covid inquiry begins public hearings for its third investigation on Monday 9 September, which focusses on the effects of the pandemic on healthcare systems across the UK.The first public hearings of module three of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry will see leaders from the Health and Safety Executive and Unison give evidence this week.This part of the inquiry is looking at the governmental and societal response to Covid-19 by assessing the impact of the pandemic on how NHS services were delivered.It will include how managers led the pandemic response, the role of primary care and GPs, NHS backlogs, and how the vaccine programme was integrated.The diagnosis of long Covid and the support offered to those affected will also be examined.Nicola Brook, solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, which represents more than 7,000 families from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, said: “This module of the inquiry is one of the most important in understanding the true horrors of the pandemic.“It will reveal some of the most shocking details, distressing stories and outrageous scandals that took place.”In July, the inquiry’s first report into preparedness for a pandemic found the UK government and the civil service “failed” the public due to “significant flaws”. More

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 CorrespondentThousands of pensioners could die if the government proceeds with its plan to cut winter fuel payments for those not on benefits, Labour’s own research suggested.Analysis published in 2017, when Sir Keir Starmer was in the Shadow Cabinet, warned that Conservative plans to cut the fuel allowance for ten million pensioners would increase excess deaths by 3,850 that winter.The proposal, put forward by Theresa May’s government, was dubbed the “single biggest attack on pensioners in a generation in our country”.For use in UK, Ireland or Benelux countries only BBC handout photo of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (BBC/PA) More

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 CorrespondentDiane Abbott has recalled her first meeting with Jeremy Corbyn in her new book, describing how the two young Labour activists were “drawn to one another” from the moment they met.The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington described the man who would go on to lead the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 as “funny and kind”, saying she was “impressed by his political commitment”.In her book, A Woman Like Me, Ms Abbott describes meeting Mr Corbyn for the first time at the 1978 Labour Party conference in Blackpool nine years before she was first elected to Parliament.Diane Abbott has recalled her first meeting with Jeremy Corbyn in her new book More

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 CorrespondentThe Green Party will pile pressure on Labour to pursue closer ties with the European Union after members backed a motion calling for the party to fight to rejoin.Party members used the second day of the Greens’ conference in Manchester to vote for a change that will see it fight for “much closer relations with the EU”.The change means that the party’s official position is now that Britain should seek full membership of the bloc “as soon as the political will is present”.Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green Party, opened their conference yesterday on his own More

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 CorrespondentTory former housing secretary Michael Gove has claimed that the Treasury impeded his efforts to punish firms responsible for the flammable cladding on Grenfell Tower.The damning final report of the seven-year inquiry into the blaze which killed 72 people on 14 June 2017 this week accused the three firms – Arconic, Celotex and Kingspan – whose cladding products were installed at Grenfell of “systematic dishonesty”.The firms “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the [fire safety] testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market”, the 1,600-page report by Sir Martin Moore-Bick found.In the wake of the report’s publication, the bereaved relatives of those who died in what was the worst residential fire since the Second World War are demanding manslaughter charges for those responsible after seven years without justice.With pressure growing on government figures over the lack of accountability for Grenfell, Mr Gove – who served as housing secretary for more than two years prior to the July election – claimed in an article forThe Sunday Times that his own efforts to punish the cladding firms were stymied.“The task now falls to others to secure the justice I sought but failed to bring,” Mr Gove wrote. “I hope the Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police will do all they can to bring criminal prosecutions quickly. “But pursuing a few of the most guilty individuals is not enough when these companies are still making vast profits without acknowledging their full responsibility.”Accusing the three firms of having “willingly, knowingly, recklessly put greed ahead of decency”, Mr Gove alleged that his own attempts to restrict imports of their products ran up against the “commercial purism of Treasury Mandarin Brain”. The Treasury was approached for comment.Former housing secretary Michael Gove apologised to the relatives and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire More

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 CorrespondentProgress tackling cardiovascular diseases stalled under the Conservatives and is now in decline, a damning review into the NHS will find this week.A “warts and all” probe into the health service ordered by health secretary Wes Streeting is to say cardiovascular health has been going in the wrong direction, with the British Heart Foundation describing the picture as “extremely concerning”.Former health minister Ara Darzi, who has carried out the review, is expected to say: “Once adjusted for age, the cardiovascular disease mortality rate for people aged under 75 dropped significantly between 2001 and 2010.“But improvements have stalled since then and the mortality rate started rising again during the Covid-19 pandemic.”Health Secretary Wes Streeting (Tejas Sandhu/PA) More