UK Politics

Keir Starmer has made the most inept start of any prime minister in a century, a leading historian has warned.Sir Anthony Seldon even suggested that Liz Truss, who lasted just six weeks in office before she was ousted by her own MPs, has done a better job than the Labour leader. “Not in 100 years has anyone made such an inept start coming into the (role) with so little idea about what he is doing (and) why he is doing it,” he told Sky News. Sir Keir Starmer said fixing the ‘broken’ system must be done in a ‘Labour way’ (Screengrab/Welsh Labour TV/PA) More

Serbia’s president announced Sunday more arrests of anti-government protesters following clashes with police at a massive rally demanding an early parliamentary election. Dozens have already been detained.Aleksandar Vucic, at a press conference, accused organizers of Saturday’s student-led protest in the capital, Belgrade, of inciting violence and attacks on police, urging legal prosecution. He also criticized “terrorists and those who tried to bring down the state,” singling out University of Belgrade’s head dean, Vladan Djokic, who was among the protesters. Tens of thousands of people attended the rally held after nearly eight months of persistent dissent, which has rattled Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country. Protesters also declared the current populist government “illegitimate” and laid the responsibility for any violence on the government. Clashes with riot police erupted after the official part of the rally ended. Police used pepper spray, batons and shields while protesters threw rocks, bottles and other objects. Police said on Sunday that 48 officers were injured while 22 protesters sought medical help. Out of 77 people detained, 38 remain in custody, most of whom are facing criminal charges, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic. “There will be more arrests,” Vucic said. “Identification of all individuals is underway.”The protests started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed in November, killing 16 people. Many in Serbia blamed the tragedy in the northern city of Novi Sad on corruption-fueled negligence in state infrastructure projects.Vucic has repeatedly rejected an immediate snap vote instead of the one planned for 2027.“Serbia won. You cannot destroy Serbia with violence,” Vucic said Sunday. “They consciously wanted to spur bloodshed. The time of accountability is coming.”Critics say Vucic has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power over a decade ago, stifling democratic freedoms while allowing corruption and organized crime to flourish. He has denied this.Serbia is formally seeking European Union entry, but Vucic’s government has nourished its relations with both Russia and China. More

Wes Streeting has hit out at “appalling” and “revolting” chants of “death to the IDF” at Glastonbury and said that the BBC and festival both have questions to answer.The health secretary also told the Israeli government to get its “own house in order” and take violence against Palestinians more seriously. Police are assessing videos of sets by Bob Vylan, who led crowds in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF”, and Irish rap trio Kneecap, who suggested fans “start a riot” outside one of the band’s upcoming court appearance.Bob Vylan also displayed pro-Palestinian images (Yui Mok/PA) More

Supermarkets and takeaways could be fined if they do not sell healthier food, under new government plans to tackle the obesity epidemic. All large businesses will report their sales of healthy food under the policy, part of a 10-year plan for the NHS unveiled next week. Targets will then be set to increase the amount sold, with penalties used as a last resort for companies who refuse to work with ministers to reduce the crisis. Initially developed by innovation agency Nesta, the policy introduces mandatory health targets for retailers while giving them flexibility in how to meet them, such as by tweaking recipes, running price promotions on healthier items, or redesigning store layouts.Supermarkets will be required to report sales data and those that fail to hit targets could face financial penalties, Nesta suggested.Healthy food (Alamy/PA)Cutting out just 50 calories a day could lift 340,000 children and two million adults out of obesity. Health secretary, Wes Streeting, said that when it comes to obesity “unless we curb the rising tide of cost and demand, the NHS risks becoming unsustainable. “Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice, because prevention is better than cure.” Anna Taylor, the executive director of the Food Foundation charity, said: “The introduction of mandatory reporting by all large food companies, including takeaway chains, on the healthiness of their food sales is a game changer…The data will also clearly reveal to consumers which businesses are on their side and making healthy choices easy, and which are making it actively harder for them to eat well. The faster this is introduced, the better.” Sue Davies from consumer group Which? said: “Mandatory food targets will help to incentivise retailers to use the range of tactics available to them to make small but significant changes – making it easier for people to eat a balanced diet and lead healthier lives.” Ministers argue a healthier nation will put less strain on the NHS, helping to drive down pressure on sky-high waiting lists. As part of the move, retailers including supermarkets will work to make the average shopping basket slightly healthier. Under the scheme, they will have the freedom to do this however they wish, but ideas include changing recipes, rearranging shop layouts, offering discounts on healthy foods or the use of loyalty schemes. The Department of Health said that if all those who were overweight cut down on what they ate by 216 calories, the equivalent of one fizzy drink, the UK’s obesity crisis could be halved. Richard Holden, Tory shadow paymaster general, said:“Making it harder to find crisps is not a substitute for proper reform. Labour ministers too scared to face up to the fundamental changes our NHS needs.“In government, the Conservatives made real progress on obesity, stabilising adult rates and cutting child obesity to its lowest since 2000. But we’ve always believed the best results come when people are trusted to take responsibility for their own health.“Rearranging meal deals will make little difference, this is the worst type of nanny state nonsense there is – shallow, distracting, and completely unserious.”Britain has the third highest rate of adult obesity in Europe, costing the NHS £11.4 billion a year, three times the budget for ambulance services. An upcoming report by the Chief Medical Officer will show that more than 1 in 5 children are obese by the time they leave primary school, rising to almost 1 in 3 in areas of poverty and deprivation. Colette Marshall, the chief executive at Diabetes UK, said: “The introduction of mandatory reporting and targets on healthy food sales is crucial to improving transparency within the food industry and ensuring businesses can be held to account.“Public health policies like this and the junk food marketing ban, have the power to shift the dial from sickness to prevention. The government must build on these commitments in order to stem the alarming rise in type 2 diabetes and its life-altering complications.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has admitted his focus was on matters involving Nato and the Middle East while a rebellion over welfare cuts took hold of his party at home.The prime minister has faced a growing backbench rebellion over proposed disability benefits cuts. Some 126 Labour backbenchers have signed an amendment that would halt the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill in its tracks when it faces its first Commons hurdle on 1 July.Responding to questions about what went wrong during the difficult week, Sir Keir claimed full responsibility for the welfare U-turn. “All these decisions are my decisions and I take ownership of them,” he told The Sunday Times. “My rule of leadership is, when things go well you get the plaudits; when things don’t go well you carry the can. I take responsibility for all the decisions made by this government. I do not talk about staff and I’d much prefer it if everybody else didn’t.”He continued that this was due to his heavy concentration on foreign affairs instead of domestic matters, first at the G7 meeting in Canada and then a Nato summit in the Netherlands. He also had to deal with the US’s strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.“I’m putting this as context rather than excuse: I was heavily focused on what was happening with Nato and the Middle East all weekend,” he said. “I turned my attention fully to it [the welfare bill] when I got back from Nato on Wednesday night. Obviously in the course of the early part of this week we were busy trying to make sure Nato was a success.”The prime minister had G7 and Nato summits to contend with this week, while Labour MPs were rebelling against welfare cuts More

Days before Bulgaria was expected to become the 21st member of the eurozone, opponents of the move geared up Saturday for a final battle to change the schedule.Thousands of protesters gathered on a central square in downtown Sofia to protest government plans to adopt the euro and to demand a referendum on the new currency. The European Union has given the green light for Bulgaria to adopt the euro starting Jan. 1.The protesters, led by civic groups, nationalist and pro-Russian parties known for their opposition to the euro, declared that after the rally they intended to set up a tent camp on the central square, dubbed “Town of the lev,” after the name of the national currency.On a platform for speakers hung a huge banner that read “The battle for the Bulgarian lev is the last battle for Bulgaria.”The leader of the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party Kostadin Kostadinov told the protesters that the country will be stripped of its currency.“Someone else will decide how we spend our money, the Bulgarian budget will be approved by the European Central Bank,” he said. “This is an anti-state coup, this is treason.”Kostadinov announced that lawmakers from Germany, Lithuania, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have joined the event to support the protest.Ahead of the demonstration, Vazrazhdane submitted in Parliament a motion for a vote of no confidence in the current government, accusing it of failing to undertake necessary reforms to restore stability to public finances and working for the forceful adoption of the euro.Parliament will vote on the motion next week, but the pro-EU government coalition is expected to survive.The Balkan country joined the European Union in 2007 and is now on the final stretch of its accession to the eurozone. The last institutional hurdle is the approval from both the European Parliament in Strasbourg and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council in Brussels, scheduled for July 8.These steps come after the European Council gave its clear endorsement of Bulgaria joining the eurozone on Jan. 1, 2026.During its almost two decades-long EU membership, Bulgaria has been plagued by political instability and corruption that have fueled euroscepticism among its 6.4 million citizens. Now, scores of false claims by opponents of the eurozone have been published on social networks feeding fears of economic changes that they say could bring more poverty.Economists say joining the euro will not bring massive change to Bulgaria’s economy in the short run. That’s because the government has pegged the currency to the euro by law, at a fixed rate of 1 lev for every 51 eurocents. More

Thousands of disabled women could find themselves trapped with abusers as a result of the government’s upcoming welfare cuts, campaigners have warned, despite Sir Keir Starmer offering significant concessions on the reforms late on Thursday.In the face of a growing rebellion, the prime minister announced adjustments to his welfare bill, including protecting personal independence payments (PIP) for all existing claimants – a move that is expected to ensure the legislation passes its second reading on Tuesday.But domestic violence charity Refuge and the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) have issued a stark warning over the reforms, saying that in the long term, the cuts to vital funding for daily living costs for disabled people – which will impact all new claimants – will make it difficult for those at risk to flee abusive relationships.Keir Starmer has pledged to halve violence against women and girls More

Nigel Farage is controversially attempting to woo business leaders by pledging to make some of them ministers if Reform UK wins the next general election. As it fights intense criticism of its economic plans, Mr Farage’s party is trying to win over influential figures in the city, according to the Financial Times. After the news emerged, Keir Starmer took aim at Mr Farage, calling him a “wolf in Wall Street clothing” who has “no idea what he’s talking about”. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (PA) More