UK Politics

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorPublic concern about the NHS is at its highest level since the Covid crisis, according to a new poll.Nearly half, 47 per cent, name the health service as the most important issue – the highest since December 2019, just before the pandemic hit. Immigration is also a growing issue, at the highest level since January 2017 and cited by 31 per cent of those asked. It comes as Keir Starmer faces pressure from his own backbenchers over a number of issues – including benefits, Brexit and Gaza. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure from MPs over the two-child benefit cap (Jonathan Brady/PA) More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditor Britain’s defeated Conservatives will spend more than three months picking a new leader to replace former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the party has announced. Sunak will remain acting leader until his successor is announced on Nov. 2.The right-of-center party was kicked out by voters in a July 4 election that brought a Labour landslide, ending 14 years in power under five prime ministers. The Conservatives were reduced to 121 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, their worst-ever result.The party said nominations will open Wednesday and close five days later. Any Conservative lawmaker can run if they get the support of 10 colleagues.Conservative lawmakers will narrow the field down through a series of votes to four contenders, who will make pitches to members at the party’s annual conference in early October.Lawmakers will then choose two final candidates, who will be put to an online vote of Conservative members across the country.“It’s in the national interest for us to have a smooth and orderly transition to a new Leader of the Opposition so I will stay in post until Nov. 2 and the result of our leadership election,” Sunak said.“This will allow our party to fulfil its role as the official opposition professionally and effectively. I believe this is what is best for the Conservative Party and, most importantly, our country.”The party’s last contested leadership selection, in mid-2022, saw members choose Liz Truss over Sunak. Truss resigned after just 49 days in office when her tax-cutting plans rocked the financial markets and battered the value of the pound. The party then chose Sunak to replace her.In the wake of its devastating election defeat, which saw it lose votes to parties on both right and left, the party is divided between moderates who want to cleave to the political center and hard-liners who want an even tougher stance on migration and law and order.Several Tory lawmakers have already suggested they will run, including former Home Secretary James Cleverly and lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, both considered moderates, and former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and ex-Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch from the right of the party. More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorRachel Reeves has suggested that substantial pay increases for public sector workers could be on the horizon to address the costs of ongoing industrial action and recruitment challenges. The chancellor has assured that “people won’t have to wait long” for a decision, following recommendations for a 5.5% pay rise for teachers and 1.3 million NHS staff.Reeves emphasized the need for a well-planned approach to funding these raises, with an announcement expected by the end of July alongside a Treasury review. However, schools and hospitals might struggle to cover these increases from their current budgets. Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the pay rises could add at least £3 billion to costs for schools and the NHS.A higher-than-expected pay rise could pose a significant challenge for Reeves’s first budget, likely coming in the autumn, especially after promising to control borrowing and ruling out a string of tax rises during the election campaign. On the other hand, failing to meet the pay review bodies’ recommendations, expected to be published this month, could lead to clashes with trade unions representing the six million public sector workers. Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, has warned that ignoring these recommendations could result in strike action.Now, we want to know what you think: should public sector workers get a 5.5% pay rise, or should Reeves keep the purse strings tight?Share your thoughts by adding them in the comments — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.All you have to do is sign up and register your details — then you can take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here.Join the conversation with other Independent readers below. More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorThe next Conservative leader will be announced on 2 November, the party has said. The person chosen to replace Rishi Sunak will be named just days before the US presidential election, which is on 5 November.The 1922 Committee has drawn up a timetable for the contest after the party suffered the worst general election result in its parliamentary history.Mr Sunak will remain as acting leader until 2 November.Shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch poised to be frontrunner in race to replace Sunak More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorDavid Lammy is due to land in India this week after his cabinet colleague Jonathan Reynolds ordered officials in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to reopen trade talks.The foreign secretary is due to meet his Indian counterpart Vikram Misri as Keir Starmer’s new government tries to complete the major trade deal which eluded the Tories.But the resumption of relations with India after both countries had elections is also set to spark controversy after Narendra Modi embraced Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a summit earlier this month. The meeting in Moscow saw the Indian prime minister awarded Russia’s highest honour.India had been seeking the release of its citizens who were in prison in Russia but the talks also concluded with the two sides setting out nine key areas for closer co-operation, including nuclear energy and medicine at a time when the international community is trying to heap pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.There will also be concerns among muslim groups concerned about the Hindu nationalism of Narendra Modi’s government. Sir Keir Starmer already has suffered some losses at the election from pro-Gaza independents over his stance in supporting Israel which has harmed Labour’s relations with muslim communities.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin embrace during an informal meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo residence, outside Moscow, Russia More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorNew Labour MPs joined parliamentarians from the Opposition benches in starting to build pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to reverse the harms of Brexit.The new prime minister gave his first statement to the Commons today since taking office reporting back on the Nato summit in Washington DC and the European Political Community (EPC) summit he hosted at Blenheim Palace last week.But while, Sir Keir again reiterated his promise to renegotiate the UK’s deal with the European Union and to create a new security pact, it was clear the mood in the House was for him to go further.A number of new and veteran Labour MPs got to their feet to press the prime minister to go further on undoing Brexit with others calling for the UK to consider rejoining the single market and customs union.Starmer gave his first statement as PM to the Commons More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorDisruption caused by a global IT outage is expected to continue for “a couple of days” but the majority of sectors have “mostly recovered”, according to the Government.Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves said the UK transport system is “running normally” and systems are back online for GPs, although NHS England and pharmacies have warned of “delays” and services being “slower than usual”.Ms Reeves added “minor disruption will continue in some areas” while systems recover although officials believe this will be resolved this week.A flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many services offline around the world on Friday, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.A fix was deployed for a bug in the update, which affected equipment running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said it would take “some time” for systems to be fully restored.The cybersecurity firm said in a statement on Sunday night that a “significant number” of the around 8.5 million affected Windows devices were now back online and operational.The company said it was also working on a new “opt-in technique” to speed up the fix process.Making a statement to the House of Commons, Ms Reeves said “large parts” of the local UK healthcare system lost access to test results and appointment information, which affected mostly GP services.She told MPs: “Tried and tested NHS contingency plans were enacted and services are expected to be operating at full capacity within the next few days.“Small businesses without dedicated IT support systems were heavily impacted due to disruption to card-only payment systems and ATMs, with many resorting to operate with cash only while firms worked to fix their systems.“Many firms were able to get back online quickly and the remaining are expected to restore operations this week.”Ms Reeves said the Government would “monitor” the situation and the possible long-term impacts.We can expect that minor disruption will continue in some areas while systems continue to recover, but my officials expect these to be resolved in the next couple of daysEllie ReevesShe added: “The majority of the sectors that were impacted have now mostly recovered. The UK transport system – aviation, rail, road, maritime – is running normally.“NHS staff worked hard over the course of Friday and the weekend to quickly apply the fixes required and my colleagues in the Department for Health and Social Care have confirmed that systems are now back online, including for GPs.“Their advice is that patients should continue to attend their appointments unless told not to. There may still be some delays and GPs will need to rebook appointments that could not be made during the IT outage.“The public should continue to contact their GPs in the normal way.“However, as IT systems are complex, we can expect that minor disruption will continue in some areas while systems continue to recover, but my officials expect these to be resolved in the next couple of days.”Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sir Oliver Dowden asked if the Government will consider “mandatory cyber security targets” for the UK public sector, adding: “Is the Government considering obligations to ensure that infrastructure is designed to be resilient against common cause problems, such as this one?”Nick Kaye, chairman of the association which represents independent community pharmacies in the UK, said: “As pharmacists recover from last week’s IT outage and catch up on the backlog of prescriptions, we expect service in some community pharmacies to be slower than usual today.“Please be patient with your local pharmacy team if you are visiting them, as they may still be prioritising emergency prescriptions from their local GP surgeries as well as experiencing increased demand as services return to normal.“As ever, community pharmacies have worked hard to provide support for those who need them during this period.”It comes after the British Medical Association (BMA) warned on Sunday that normal GP service “cannot be resumed immediately” after the outage caused a “considerable backlog”.The trade union for doctors said GPs will “need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend”, adding that NHS England should “make clear to patients” this is the case.The BMA said its GP committee will continue to talk to NHS England and patient record system supplier EMIS to secure a “better system of IT back-up” to ensure the “disaster” is not repeated. More

Keir Starmer accidentally calls Rishi Sunak ‘prime minister’Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorSir Keir Starmer said there is “no silver bullet” to end child poverty but that “it’s good that we’re having a debate about it” as he faces growing pressure for the two-child benefit cap to be dropped.It comes as education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the government could consider removing the two-child benefit cap “as one of a number of ways” of lifting children out of poverty.As Labour backbenchers push Sir Keir to lift the ban, which prevents parents from claiming benefits for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017, Downing Street denied the government has changed position on the cap. The prime minister launched a new plan to curb legal migration levels and Britain’s reliance on foreign workers by improving skills training.Speaking from Hampshire, the PM set out a new organisation, Skills England, in a bid to address the “fragmented and broken” training system.He said the body will work with the Migration Advisory Committee to identify where there are currently skills gaps and where these might appear in future, and introduce plans to tackle any shortages.Show latest update 1721659504Home secretary claims Tories ‘planned to spend £10bn’ on Rwanda schemeYvette Cooper has revealed the Conservative government “had planned to spend over £10 billion” on the Rwanda scheme.The Home Secretary told the Commons: “I can report it has already cost the British taxpayer £700 million in order to send just four volunteers. Those costs include £290 million payments to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off, detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them and paying for more than 1000 civil servants to work on the scheme.“A scheme to send four people. It is the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I have ever seen.”She added: “Looking forward, the costs are set to get worse. Even if the scheme had ever got going, it’s clear it would only cover a minority of arrivals, yet a substantial proportion of future costs were fixed costs.“And most shocking of all, over the six years of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership forecast, the previous government had planned to spend over £10 billion of taxpayers’ money on the scheme.”Salma Ouaguira22 July 2024 15:451721659452Yvette Cooper: Home Office decision making has droppedHome secretary Yvette Cooper is now on her feet delivering a statement to the House of Commons on illegal migration.She told the Commons: “Criminal gangs have been allowed to take hold, along our border, and they are making huge profit from undermining our border security, and putting lives at risk, they should not be able to get away with it.”She added: “Crossings in the first half of 2024 are up by 10 per cent on last year. Numbers going up instead of coming down and at the same time, the asylum backlog is getting worse as decision making in the Home Office has dropped, and Home Office spending on asylum support has increased sevenfold in the space of just three years.”( More