UK Politics

The British government on Monday reversed its unpopular plan to end winter home heating subsidies for millions of retirees.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had signaled the u-turn last month after a loud outcry from the public and some members of his Labour Party who thought the relatively modest 1.5 billion-pound ($2 billion) savings were too politically costly.Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, who canceled the payment for home heating on all but the poorest retirees after Labour came to power last summer, said the benefit would be restored to 9 million people, or three-quarters of pensioners, in England and Wales whose incomes are below 35,000 pounds ($47,500). Reeves said the move was necessary last year because the previous Conservative government had left public finances in a dire state.“Targeting winter fuel payments was a tough decision, but the right decision because of the inheritance we had been left by the previous government,” Reeves said. “It is also right that we continue to means-test this payment so that it is targeted and fair, rather than restoring eligibility to everyone including the wealthiest.”The payments are worth between 200 and 300 pounds ($271 and $406) a year. The reversal will cost the government 1.25 billion, Reeve said.Canceling the payments for most people last winter was blamed for contributing to Starmer’s swift decline in popularity after his party came to power in a landslide. He was blamed for punishing elderly people on limited incomes who struggled to make ends meet during a cost-of-living crisis. Labour fared poorly in local elections in England last month, with many party representatives blaming the removal of the winter fuel payment. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, quickly pounced on Starmer’s about-face.“Keir Starmer has scrambled to clear up a mess of his own making,” she said. “This humiliating u-turn will come as scant comfort to the pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating last winter. The prime minister should now apologize for his terrible judgment.” More

More than £1 billion has been paid in financial redress to subpostmasters wronged by the Horizon IT scandal, the Government has said.The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said money has now been paid out to more than 7,300 subpostmasters across all Horizon-related redress schemes.The announcement comes just weeks after lead campaigner and former subpostmaster Sir Alan Bates said the schemes had “turned into quasi-kangaroo courts”.Sir Alan told the Sunday Times last month that DBT “sits in judgement of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses”.Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.Many are still awaiting compensation.In figures published on Monday, DBT said £559 million has been paid out to 6,337 claimants from the Horizon shortfall scheme.The data also says that of the 492 subpostmasters who joined Sir Alan Bates in taking the Post Office to court between 2017 and 2019 that have not been convicted, also known as the Group Litigation Order Scheme (GLO), 488 have received £167 million between them.Elsewhere, £245 million has been paid out to 463 subpostmasters who had their convictions quashed by legislation put in place last summer, and £68 million has been paid to those who have had their convictions quashed in the courts, DBT said.Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said: “Since entering Government, it has been our priority to speed up the delivery of compensation to victims of the Horizon scandal and today’s milestone shows how much progress has been made.“We are settling cases every day and getting compensation out more quickly for the most complex cases, but the job isn’t done until every postmaster has received fair and just redress.”Post Office chief executive Neil Brocklehurst said: “I welcome the news that over £1 billion has been paid to victims of the Horizon IT Scandal.“Each week we are seeing more people receive their final settlements so they can begin to look beyond this painful chapter of their lives.“However, I am also aware that more work remains to be done so that all victims receive full redress as quickly as possible and this is an absolute priority for the Post Office.“And finally, to anyone else who thinks they may have been affected, I encourage you to come forward and apply for redress.” More

More than 1,000 doctors have urged MPs to vote against the assisted dying bill when it returns to the Commons, claiming it is a “real threat to both patients and the medical workforce”. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would allow terminally ill patients with six months left to live to end their lives, is due to be voted on for a final time on 20 June. Ahead of the vote, in a letter to MPs, doctors from the NHS expressed “serious concerns”, arguing that “this bill is not the answer”.While they acknowledged that there must be a debate on end of life care, they argued too little evidence has been heard from doctors, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups.Kim Leadbeater speaking during the debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill More

TV doctor Hilary Jones has said he would help a terminally ill patient to end their life if the law was changed, describing the practice as “kind and compassionate”. The GP, often seen on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and the Lorraine show, said medicine will go “back to the Dark Ages” if proposed legislation being considered at Westminster is voted down.The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will return to the House of Commons for debate on Friday, with MPs expected to consider further amendments.In its current form the Bill, which applies only to England and Wales, would mean terminally ill adults with only six months left to live could apply for assistance to end their lives, with approval needed from two doctors and the expert panel.Last month, MPs approved a change in the Bill to ensure no medics would be obliged to take part in assisted dying.Morning sickness breakthrough as Doctor Hilary Jones explains more about possible cure. More

The impacts of the government’s welfare cuts are likely to push tens of thousands more people into poverty than previously predicted, a major foodbank charity has warned.Trussell said 340,000 more people in disabled households could face hunger and hardship by the end of the decade.It comes as more than 150 Labour MPs expressed concern over the plans last month, which include a tightening of the eligibility criteria for personal independence payment (Pip) – the main disability benefit in England – and cutting the sickness-related element of universal credit (UC).The proposals also include delaying access to the health element of UC to those aged 22 and over, with the aim of reinvesting savings to support young people into work or training.The package of measures is aimed at reducing the number of working-age people on sickness benefits, and the government hopes they can save £5bn a year by the end of the decade.Sir Keir Starmer More

Kim Leadbeater has been warned by a Labour colleague that an article she promoted on assisted dying has only served to sway undecided MPs against her end of life legislation.The shot across the bows from former political journalist-turned Labour Rochdale Paul Waugh has come just days ahead of the final stages in the Commons of Ms Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.Ms Leadbeater had tweeted and quoted an article by Sharnee Rawson in The Guardian highlighting how her grandparents in Australia ended their lives together not long after their 70th wedding anniversary.Kim Leadbeater led the debate on her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill More

Secondary school pupils will be taught skills in artificial intelligence (AI) as part of a drive to put the technological power “into the hands of the next generation”, Sir Keir Starmer will announce.Some on million students will be given access to learning resources to start equipping them for “the tech careers of the future” as part of the Government’s £187 million “TechFirst” scheme, Downing Street said.Meanwhile, staff at firms across the country will be trained to “use and interact” with chatbots and large language models as part of a plan backed by Google and Microsoft to train 7.5 million workers in AI skills by 2030.The TechFirst programme will be split into four strands, with TechYouth – the £24 million “flagship” arm – aimed at giving students across every secondary school in the UK the chance to gain new AI skills training over three years.The other strands are:– TechGrad, backed by £96.8 million in funding and designed to support 1,000 domestic students a year with undergraduate scholarships in areas such as AI and computer science.– A £48.4 million TechExpert scheme aiming to give up to £10,000 in additional funding to 500 domestic PhD students carrying out research in tech.– TechLocal, backed by £18 million, will offer seed funding to small businesses developing new tech products and adopting AI.The Prime Minister is also launching a new Government partnership with industry to train 7.5 million UK workers in essential skills to use AI by 2030.Tech giants including Google, Microsoft, IBM, Nvidia, BT and Amazon have signed up to make “high-quality” training materials widely available to workers free of charge over the next five years, Number 10 said.It comes as research commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) showed that by 2035, AI will play a part in the roles and responsibilities of around 10 million workers.The Prime Minister said: “We are putting the power of AI into the hands of the next generation – so they can shape the future, not be shaped by it.“This training programme will unlock opportunity in every classroom – and lays the foundations for a new era of growth.“Too many children from working families like the one I grew up in are written off. I am determined to end that.”Sir Keir hosted a private reception at Chequers on Sunday with leading technology bosses and investors, including former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, Faculty AI co-founder Angie Ma, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis and Scale boss Alex Wang.On Tuesday, he will invite industry figures to Downing Street, including 16-year-old AI entrepreneur Toby Brown, who recently secured 1 million dollars in Silicon Valley funding for his startup, Beem. More

Employers should be able to ban burqas in the workplace, Kemi Badenoch has argued, further inflaming the row over the issue ignited by Reform UK last week. The Conservative leader also claimed she wouldn’t let people into her constituency surgeries if they wore face veils, saying she has “strong views about face coverings”. However, she argued there were bigger issues around integration in Britain that should be addressed before legislating on face coverings. ( More