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    Starmer says Diane Abbott is ‘free’ to stand for Labour in next election, in u-turn

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailDiane Abbott is “free” to stand as a Labour candidate in the general election, Sir Keir Starmer has said.After days of back and forth about whether the veteran MP would be blocked, the Labour leader confirmed she will be able to contest the election as a Labour candidate. Sir Keir told reporters: “The whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.”Diane Abbott is ‘free’ to stand as a candidate in the election, Sir Keir Starmer has said (Jonathan Brady/PA) More

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    Keir Starmer distances himself from Angela Rayner in row over Diane Abbott

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has distanced himself from Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and refused to say if he would like Diane Abbott to stand in the general election as tensions in the party about a “leftwing purge” mount.The Labour leader broke with Ms Rayner and declined to give a view on whether the veteran left-winger should be allowed to run as a Labour candidate.A day earlier, the Labour deputy said “as the deputy leader of the Labour Party… I don’t see any reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand as a Labour MP going forward”.Sir Keir Starmer refused to say if he would like to see Diane Abbott stand More

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    Keir Starmer promises to work with Donald Trump if both men are elected

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has said he will work with Donald Trump if both men are in power later this year after the former president’s hush money conviction.The Labour leader described Mr Trump’s guilty verdict as an “unprecedented situation”, but promised to “work with whoever is elected president”. “That’s what you’d expect,” he added.A New York jury found Mr Trump guilty of 34 charges relating to the falsification of business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex. Mr Trump intends to appeal the convictions.Former US president Donald Trump on the 15th hole at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Co. Clare, during his visit to Ireland (Brian Lawless/PA) More

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    Starmer’s £20k glow up: Labour peer pledges thousands for Keir’s ‘work clothing’

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailJust days after Sir Keir Starmer was spotted wearing a £500 hoodie from luxury French fashion house Sandro, it has emerged that a peer donated nearly £20,000 to help the Labour leader with a pre-election glow-up.Former ASOS chairman Waheed Alli, who sits in the House of Lords, gave stylish Starmer £16,200 for “work clothing” and a further £2,485 for “multiple pairs of glasses”, according to the latest update to his register of interests. The Labour leader appears to have put that donation to good use after he donned a chic Sandro Orion jacket – which currently retails at £519 at Harrods – while meeting voters in Brighton and pledging to tackle the cost of living crisis. The donations were received on 17 April and 29 April and pledged by Lord Alli, the former boss of Chorion, fashion retailer Koovs, and was the chairman of online clothing giant ASOS. Lord Alli is also the director of multiple companies including SGIF 2 investments, Silver Star Productions and SGIK 3 Investments. Earlier this year, Sir Keir was spotted wearing a pair of £500 glasses by Danish luxury brand Lindberg, according to Guido Fawkes. The Labour leader has now reportedly switched out his glasses on the campaign trail to a humbler pair – a snip at £220. The Sandro Orion jacket has a detachable hood and currently retails at £519 on high-end retailer Harrods More

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    Brexit has reduced Britain to tears, Emmanuel Macron’s protege claims

    Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insightBrexit has reduced Britain to tears, France’s prime minister has said in a bid to quell support for French populists in next month’s European elections.Gabriel Attal, who was appointed prime minister by president Emmanuel Macron in January, said: “Don’t let’s be like the British, who cried after Brexit.”Speaking in a radio interview, the 35-year-old was seeking to drum up support for Mr Macron’s centrist candidate list for the European Parliament elections in June.Gabriel Attal is seen as a protege of Emmanuel Macron More

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    AI voice cloning tools imitating political leaders threaten elections – report

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAI-powered voice cloning tools can be used to create disinformation using the voices of prominent political figures, an online safety group has warned.The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said researchers used six different AI voice cloning tools and attempted to create false statements using the voices of a range of well-known political leaders, with around 80% of their attempts producing what they called a convincing piece of content.The CCDH said all but one of the tools it tested claim to have built-in safeguards to prevent misuse for the production of disinformation, but that its report found these measures to be “ineffective” and easy to circumnavigate.The online safety organisation said its testing included using the voices of both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, and said AI and social media companies needed to do more to protect the integrity of the upcoming General Election from such content.The group said its researchers were also able to create audio-based disinformation of other global figures including former US president Donald Trump, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.The examples included various political figures warning people not to vote because of bomb threats, declaring election results had been manipulated and “confessing” to the misuse of campaign funds.The organisation said AI companies need to introduce specific safeguards to prevent users from generating and sharing false or misleading content about geopolitical events and elections, backed up by more work from social media firms to detect and stop such content from spreading.The CCDH said existing election laws should be updated to take into account AI-generated content.Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the CCDH, said: “AI tools radically reduce the skill, money and time needed to produce disinformation in the voices of the world’s most recognisable and influential political leaders.“This could prove devastating to our democracy and elections.Disinformation this convincing unleashed on social media platforms – whose track record of protecting democracy is abysmal – is a recipe for disasterImran Ahmed, Centre for Countering Digital Hate“By making these tools freely available with the flimsiest guardrails imaginable, irresponsible AI companies threaten to undermine the integrity of elections across the world at a stroke – all so they can steal a march in the race to profit from these new technologies.”Mr Ahmed added that it was vital that social media platforms do more to stop the spread of AI-powered disinformation, particularly during such a busy year of elections around the world.He said: “Disinformation this convincing unleashed on social media platforms – whose track record of protecting democracy is abysmal – is a recipe for disaster.“This voice cloning technology can and inevitably will be weaponised by bad actors to mislead voters and subvert the democratic process.“It is simply a matter of time before Russian, Chinese, Iranian and domestic anti-democratic forces sow chaos in our elections.“Hyperbolic AI companies often claim to be creating and guarding the future, but they can’t see past their own greed.“It is vital that in the crucial months ahead they address the threat of AI election disinformation and institute standardised guardrails before the worst happens.” More

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    Readers blast Rishi Sunak’s plans for national service as ‘ill-conceived, headline-grabbing’ and ‘half-baked’

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak’s pledge to enforce national service for 18-year-olds has marked a controversial beginning in the Conservative Party’s general election campaign.Independent readers were broadly critical of reintroducing national service in the UK when we asked for your opinions this week.Critics argued that conscripts and national servicemen would make ineffective soldiers, suggesting they would be unmotivated and poorly trained, leading to inflated but hollow army numbers. Overall, the idea was dismissed as misguided and detrimental, with calls for more substantial investment in the youth and systemic reforms of the military instead of coercive measures like national service.Here’s what you had to say:‘Conscripts and national servicemen simply don’t make for good soldiers’Ignoring the moral issues aside, the idea of national service is motivated by a very selective memory to ignore it was scrapped because it’s pragmatically, just not a very good system.While it inflates numbers on paper to make armies look bigger than they are, conscripts and national servicemen simply don’t make for good soldiers composed of young people often less devoted to their government and absolutely no desire to be there.The only times where procedures like this should be looked at is in a need to fill out numbers in a defensive war, but all it does outside of that is devote countless amounts of time and resources in creating poorly trained soldiers with no motivation and the skills it teaches often proven to be imaginary during a real conflict, as can be observed by current conflicts today.The only purpose of it otherwise is simply to claim a larger army than exists for propaganda purposes and is not the mark of someone taking security issues of the country seriously but sees it as a frivolous thing to be played with for politics as needed. As Sunak also touts the strength of missiles and nuclear submarines, there’s little difference in his approach to security issues beyond many of the states he claims to be defending the UK against, mirroring the same distraction notes to downplay the rot of the larger forces as a whole.It would make more sense to commit to actually modernizing the forces and to delivering reforms to military culture to remove the negative light on it than obligate them into it mostly unwillingly. But that would require admitting those problems exist. Something neither Sunak, Farage, nor Starmer, has any willingness to admit to.AliYis‘Hypocrisy’So far it isn’t much more than a headline.A Royal Commission is to be set up to design it. Therefore the budget of £2.5 billion is meaningless.Underlying this idea is a poor view of the youth of today – the old codger view of the youth of every generation. So of course this is something aimed at old codgers.Strange the idea coming from Sunak. As chancellor, he spent his time wrecking something similar set up by Cameron. Indeed he has spent most of his time running down the armed forces. But then he and his gang aren’t troubled by their own hypocrisy.JRiley‘Unwilling conscripts’No, I don’t agree with Sunak that national service should be brought back.First, I see no reason why our professional armed forces should be burdened with a huge group of unwilling conscripts.Second, what does he suggest we do with those who refuse to serve? While they’ve ruled out criminal charges, they’ve implied, pretty heavily, that future employers will take refusal to serve into consideration in their selection criteria. So refusal to be coerced may make youngsters unemployable.And what of the ones who accept being conscripted? Are we going to make them fight in our next war in the Middle East? Maybe get a few killed? That would NOT be all right. When people volunteer to join the military, it’s a risk they take, although I think we’ve been asking too much even of them in the past 15 years, sending them to fight in conflicts like Iraq that are hard to justify even in legal terms. But sending conscripts to fight and die in peacetime? How would the government explain that to their parents?Finally, Sunak seems to assume that these kids have no plans for their lives. Starting a medical or nursing degree perhaps. Or learning a trade?Or perhaps it’s only the uneducated children of the poor that he’s proposing to deprive of their liberty and lives.No, it is NOT a good idea and if the prime minister has any more ideas like this, perhaps he’ll keep them to himself.Zandeman‘Shortage of labour’Good idea, but it will cause a shortage of labour in society and increased wages.Relatex‘There never was a plan’I’m not aware that Sunak actually has a plan.To come up with the “idea” of reintroducing national service and the very next day announce it, is one thing. But to do so without discussing it in cabinet and especially without discussing it with the Chiefs of Defence Staff, shows there isn’t, and never was a “plan”. It was just another monumentally unclever idea by a monumentally incompetent supposedly politician.DesPear‘National service would end up costing billions’It’s about as good an idea as the farcical smoking ban to be phased in. Do these politicians not learn from history? How well is the ban on various drugs working?A scheme that will cost billions in wasted police time, more black-market trading and less tax revenue.National service would end up costing billions, would be run by the same parasites that Conservative AND Labour governments have been using for decades the likes of Capita, Fujitsu, G4 etc etc. and who just can not get anything right except wasting taxpayers’ money.All to train a bunch of yobs to be fitter and better with weapons but no good in an actual conflict that requires high levels of training, expertise and discipline.Why not spend the money on improved NVQ training and apprenticeships which are not a scam?papurnewyddion‘Half-baked’If you want kids to become patriotic, you don’t remove the benefits that the previous generations have enjoyed. Free school meals, cheaper housing, free education, better wages, an NHS that is world-beating, free movement… the list goes on.If you want a better military, letting experienced talent leave in droves because pay and conditions, housing etc are terrible and replacing them with green kids is not the answer. See the NHS for how that approach is going.Instead of coming up with half-baked ideas to plaster over the cracks you’ve made, fundamental remedies are needed.m00plank‘Broken social contract’How about our kids (Britain’s future) getting a real leg up in society, with proper funded training in the skills that are desperately needed. End prohibitive loans or heavily subsidize college, university and accommodation support for our youngsters.At the moment national service would imply and warrant a better and clearer stake in society as 14 years of Tory austerity has broken the social contract with our youth. But there is no talk of that, are you going to give them a home? Not likely under the current circumstances! Why should they want to protect an uncaring, miserable and deeply corrupt elite? Why should they be made to comply with your current elites folly and bad decisions? What have the Tories done for our youth? You have to invest in our kids if you want the best from them!Stanostromo‘Ill-conceived, headline-grabbing idea’If it were a carefully reasoned plan you could volunteer for with tangible and certifiable benefits then I would be in favour.However, this is not. It is purely another ill-conceived, headline-grabbing idea designed to appeal to the apathetic Daily Thickness readers in the hope it will get them out of ‘spoons and vote.Hughdathunkit‘Wrong methodology’I’ve spoken to a few young people — not claiming they were representative, this was a few years ago. They were pretty fed up with their lack of prospects, hadn’t voted, distinctly unpatriotic and when I asked if they would fight for their country if it faced invasion, the answer was a very firm and, rather shocking, no. Good luck Sunak with your national service, I understand the unifying intention behind it but the wrong methodology.Galileo666‘Mobilise the young’Hopefully this will mobilise the young (normally apathetic about voting and who can blame them) to register and vote to get this sorry excuse for a Government, OUT!Chezza1959‘Dying throes of the government’This is merely a bid to distract the electorate from the crucial issues and problems in need of addressing and the failure of the Tories to do so in the dying throes of the government.JanPSome of the comments have been edited for this article. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article.All you have to do is sign up, submit your question and register your details – then you can then 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. More

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    Election blow for Sunak as IFS says Tories oversaw ‘worst income growth for generations’

    Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has suffered another general election blow after a top economic think tank said income growth under the Conservatives has been the worst in generations.The prime minister had enjoyed a period of respite this week following an uptick in the polls for his party after infighting engulfed the Labour Party over the future of Diane Abbott MP and the academic Faiza Shaheen, who has not been selected to stand as an election candidate over social media activity in 2014.But a damning new report has laid bare 15 years of languishing living standards under successive Conservative governments.Rishi Sunak had been enjoying a much-needed period of respite More