UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe chief executive of Boots has endorsed Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in a major blow to Rishi Sunak.Sebastian James, an Old Etonian friend of Boris Johnson and David Cameron, praised Sir Keir’s focus on economic growth and Britain’s high streets.And he welcomed Labour’s plans to “put more money in people’s pockets” to help address the cost of living crisis, which he said Boots customers still complain about daily.The Boots chief is the latest business leader to get behind Labour ahead of the looming general election, four years after industry shunned the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.But his endorsement is especially significant due to his close relationship to foreign secretary Lord Cameron. Mr James is pictured alongside Lord Cameron and former PM Mr Johnson in the infamous black and white 1987 Bullingdon Club photo.In 2011 it was reported that Lord Cameron and Mr James stayed together in the businessman’s £10,000 a week 15-bedroom luxury Italian villa before having to return early and deal with the London riots. Lord Cameron as PM also appointed Mr James to a panel to decide how money was spent on new schools in 2012. Sebastian James, the Boots chief executive and Old Etonian friend of David Cameron, has endorsed Labour More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMortgage possession claims have hit a five year high in the aftermath of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget. New figures show they soared by more than a quarter in just three months and are now at their highest level since 2019. Experts warn millions of households across the country are struggling with huge mortgage bills after the average two-year fixed rate jumped to more than 6 per cent, although it has since fallen.Ms Truss has refused to take the blame for the higher rates that hit homeowners following her October 2022 mini-Budget. The subsequent fallout saw her ousted from office by her own MPs after less than six weeks as prime minister. High mortgage rates are hitting cash-strapped households across the UK (Peter Byrne/PA) More

Gillian Keegan failed to give specific, non-anecdotal evidence that she has seen “inappropriate material” being taught in classrooms as she was grilled on the government’s approach to sex education.The education secretary told BBC Breakfast: “There have been materials which I’ve seen … things like choosing lots of different genders and identities, and saying which ones of these are gender identities, gender spectrum, it can be a spectrum, it’s fluid, you can have different genders on different days.”It came after reports that age limits are set to be imposed for the first time on when children can be taught about sex education. More

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planetGet our free Climate emailMore than 50 cross-party MPs and peers have urged prime minister Rishi Sunak to end the current approach to “max out” North Sea oil and gas.The members of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on climate wrote to the Prime Minister on Wednesday with a list of demands to enact ahead of the UN Cop16 biodiversity and Cop29 climate summits in October and November.In the letter on Wednesday, the parliamentarians listed five measures to “accelerate action to cut emissions, protect nature and rebuild the UK’s unique political consensus”.This included living up to promises made at Cop28 in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels, and ending the government’s plans to “max out” North Seaoil and gas.During the 2023 conference last December, all countries agreed to move away from oil and gas.However, Mr Sunak has continued to support the licensing of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea after arguing that using every last drop of oil is “absolutely the right thing to do”.Green MP Caroline Lucas, who signed the letter, said: “When the Prime Minister entered Downing Street he promised to protect the environment.“But instead he has U-turned on once leading climate policies, approved the largest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea and weaponised green policies.“If the government is to secure any success at future critical international negotiations then the Prime Minister must heed the demands of cross-party parliamentarians.”Another signatory, Labour MP Afzal Khan, said: “Instead of chasing after the last drop of North Sea oil and retreating from responsibility, the Prime Minister must honour our domestic and global climate goals to send a clear message to world leaders this year.”The group of parliamentarians, which also includes former Tory environment minister Zac Goldsmith and Conservative MPs Pauline Latham and Tracey Crouch, called on the Prime Minister to secure UK membership of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance ahead of Cop29.The alliance – started by Costa Rica and Denmark – aims to elevate the issue of oil and gas production phase-out in international climate dialogues.Members include France, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Costa Rica and Sweden with Wales as a sub-national government member.Robbie MacPherson, senior political adviser at Uplift and secretariat lead for the Climate APPG, said: “The UK has a big job on its hands to restore its green credentials on the world stage.“Joining the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance ahead of Cop29, alongside ending new North Sea oil and gas projects, would send a clear signal that the UK is ready to lead the transition away from fossil fuels, and work with other nations to do so too.”Mr Sunak is also being urged to support the setting of an ambitious new Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) at Cop29 – a new annual financial target that developed countries must meet from 2025 onward to provide climate finance to developing countries – as well as meet current climate finance commitments.Finally, the MPs called for the appointment of a Secretary of State-level Climate Envoy before Cop29 and the release of the long-awaited UK National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP).A government spokesperson said: “The UK leads the world in net zero, having halved emissions before any other major economy and set into law one of the most ambitious emissions targets in the world.“Tackling climate change, however, is a global challenge, and with the UK accounting for less than 1 per cent of annual worldwide emissions we need to work with other countries in tackling this vital issue head-on.“At Cop28, we were pivotal in delivering an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels and are committed to continued collaboration with all international partners in tackling emissions.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailGordon Brown has warned that the West may never be forgiven for not offering African countries urgent relief during the worst debt crisis in a generation. The former prime minister’s rallying call comes as a poll shows nearly half of Britons think the UK should wipe the debts of lower income countries so the money can be used to fund hospitals, schools and tackle the climate crisis. It follows a report which shows many African countries spent more on debt payments than on health or education last year. Mr Brown said the findings showed the urgent need for action. “The scale of this inequality between Africans and the rest of the world is so great that I am not sure the world will ever forgive us for failing to deliver urgent debt restructuring,” he writes in a foreword to the Christian Aid report. The study found that 34 African countries spent more on external debt payments than they did on health or education last year. In Sudan, where millions are facing hunger, more than 10 times more is spent on external debt than on healthcare, according to the charity. The former PM says ‘debt restructuring is a matter of life and death’ More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer is set to make a presidential pitch to become prime minister, drawing inspiration from Tony Blair in what is being billed as Labour’s general election campaign launch.In a strategy that deliberately echoes the winning New Labour battle plan from 1997, Sir Keir is betting on himself to front Labour’s push to return to power after 14 years in the wilderness. On Thursday, the party will unveil its most expensive advertising campaign since the last general election alongside a modern version of Blair’s “pledge card”, which will feature Sir Keir’s face and his personal six first steps for an incoming Labour government.After Rishi Sunak said in his own keynote speech earlier this week that the election should not be fought on the basis of “Starmer versus Sunak”, Sir Keir has made it clear that he wants it to be a personal battle between the two men, centred on which of them is better able to run the country.While Mr Sunak made his pitch around defence and security, highlighting the threat of nuclear war, Sir Keir hopes to strike a more personal tone. At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, he lampooned his opponent as “a jumped-up milk monitor” for his party’s efforts to ban civil servants from wearing rainbow lanyards.Labour Party leader Keir Starmer lampooned his opposite number at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA cutting-edge new weapon which uses radio waves to blast drones out of the sky is under development for the UK’s armed forces.The Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) beams radio waves to disrupt or damage the critical electronic components of vehicles and drones used by enemy combatants, which can cause them to stop in their tracks or fall out of the sky.It can be used across land, air and sea and has a range of up to 1km, which could be extended in the future.Release of information about the new weapon comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to hike UK defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.With an estimated cost of 10p per radio wave shot, the technology is also being billed as a cost-effective alternative to traditional missiles, and could be used to take down dangerous drone swarms.The technology can be mounted on to a variety of military vehicles, and uses a mobile power source to produce pulses of a radio frequency energy in a beam that can fire sequenced shots at a single target or be broadened to hit a series of targets.Minister for defence procurement James Cartlidge said: “We are already a force to be reckoned with on science and technology, and developments like RFDEW not only make our personnel more lethal and better protected on the battlefield, but also keep the UK a world leader on innovative military kit.“The war in Ukraine has shown us the importance of deploying uncrewed systems, but we must be able to defend against them too. As we ramp up our defence spending in the coming years, our Defence Drone Strategy will ensure we are at the forefront of this warfighting evolution.”The new weapons system will undergo extensive testing with British soldiers over the summer.It is being developed by a joint team from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), working with UK industry under Project Hersa.DSTL chief executive Paul Hollinshead said: “These game-changing systems will deliver decisive operational advantage to the UK armed forces, saving lives and defeating deadly threats.“World-class capabilities such as this are only possible because of decades of research, expertise and investment in science and technology at DSTL and our partners in UK industry.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailUnemployed Brits have “ample opportunities for people to get on and get ahead in the world of work”, claim Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride – but is this an accurate picture? In the latest push to tackle unemployment rates, the Tories’ £2.5billion Back to Work plan targets those who claim benefits without work for reasons such as long-term sickness or disability, and increases minimum working hours for Universal Credit claimants.In a joint op-ed today for the Times, the work and pensions secretary and the Chancellor write: “We’ve been clear that unemployment benefits should only be there as a safety net, not a lifestyle choice.”The chancellor and work and pensions secretary wrote that while “times have undeniably been tough”, they suggested that “the economic picture is far better than many would have you believe”, pointing to the 900,000 job vacancies across the UK as a sign.Despite the chancellor’s optimism, the latest ONS data shows that work availability has continued to fall for the past two years, with current vacancies estimated to be 31.1 per cent lower than the March-May 2022 peak of 1.3m. The figure has plummeted by 17.1 per cent in the past year alone, from 1,086,000 to 898,000, with 13 out of 18 sectors seeing fewer openings in the past year. If you’re looking for a job in the food industry, IT and comms, or the arts, you’ll find opportunities disappearing faster than in other sectors.Arts, entertainment and recreation have taken the hardest blow, at -34.5 per cent fewer vacancies now than the same period last year (February to April 2023). Jobs in accommodation and food services, in addition to retail, are down by a fifth. These sectors are typically more active when people have more disposable income and are likely continuing to feel the squeeze from the cost-of-living crisis. But some other sectors which require a level of qualification also have fewer and fewer opportunities. Information and communication vacancies, which range from IT positions to PR, are down by a quarter (-25.2 per cent) from this time last year, and have been broadly falling since mid-2022. Professional vacancies in science and technical fields are also down by a fifth in this period (-19.6 per cent), despite the Prime Minister’s push for the UK to become a ”science superpower”.Real estate is the only sector to see a substantial boost in available jobs, with 30 per cent new vacancies compared to this time last year.Young people struggling to find workWhile unemployment overall has risen to 4.3 per cent, younger groups are facing some of the fastest-rising rates.Over-18s actively seeking employment are facing hurdles, with unemployment at 11.2 per cent among 18-24 year olds in January to March this year. The ONS estimates that 326,000 young professionals (25-34 year olds) are currently unemployed in the UK, up by 21.1 per cent in the same period in 2023, with the unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent. While some young people are “sick of working hard for no money” and have missed out on key office life due to the pandemic, some studies have suggested that millennials are “the hardest working generation”. So why might these generations be struggling to get into work?Lack of clarity on pay, hours and job securityThough the ministers’ claim that there are nearly 900,000 (898,000) job vacancies is correct, it lacks key information about the jobs themselves: salaries, hours, or whether the contracts are permanent/temporary.With 1.49m people in unemployment across the UK – and 166,000 of those becoming unemployed in the last quarter alone – the available vacancies could only meet 60 per cent of the workforce. But even then, is this accurate?Since it is unclear whether the vacancies are for full-time contracts, or what salary they offer, it is not reasonable to argue that the shrinking pool of vacancies will solve the problem of unemployment, since it is not possible to say whether the roles would enable people to support themselves and their dependents full-time.More than a million people across the UK are currently on zero-hours contracts, where a worker does not have guaranteed hours or income, and which have faced controversy due to the lack of financial security and stability for employees. The latest ONS data in May shows that a quarter of zero-hours workers are ‘underemployed’, meaning they want to work more hours than they currently have.Labour previously said that it will abolish zero-hours contracts, later changing its position to say it would retain an opt-in option.A further 1.45m people are on temporary contracts, with 21.2 per cent saying they took the job because they could not find a permanent position. The job vacancy shortfall is likely to be greater than the raw numbers suggest as a proportion of the 898,000 job vacancies will be temporary, part-time or for zero-hours contracts. More