UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSpeculation is mounting that Labour is paving the way to open UK/US trade talks with a Donald Trump administration if he wins back the White House just as Sir Keir Starmer enters Downing Street.The Independent has learnt that senior Labour MPs, including shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock and shadow exports minister Tan Dhesi, were guests at the right-wing Heritage Foundation in Washington DC this week.The Heritage Foundation has earned a reputation for being at the heart of a shift to the right in the Republican Party. It has led Project 2025, the preparations for the next Republican administration in the White House including policy documents and staffing.The shadow ministers were joined by Tory Crewe MP Kieran Mullan and pro-Trump British think tank the Legatum Institute at the discussions in Washington.David Lammy has said Labour would seek to work with whoever is in the White House More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Politically motivated crime in Germany last year reached its highest level since the government started tracking it more than 20 years ago, with the greatest threat coming from people with far-right motivations, the country’s top security official said Tuesday.Overall, Germany registered 60,028 politically motivated crimes in 2023. The government considers numerous acts as political including intent to hinder democracy and crimes aimed at members of certain ethnic, religious or other groups.Right-wing politically motivated crimes increased by 23% in 2023 to 28,945 cases, of which 1,270 were violent. Left-wing crimes increased by 11% to 7,777, of which 916 were violent.“Politically motivated criminality has almost doubled within the last 10 years and continues to increase,” said Holger Münch, the president of the Federal Criminal Police Office. “Parts of the population are tending towards radicalization. These tendencies include attempts to delegitimize the state and its monopoly on violence.”Earlier this month, a candidate from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ center-left Social Democrats was beaten up and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament. Authorities believe that the four men arrested were motivated by right-wing beliefs. A few days later, a 74-year-old man with a history of mental illness assaulted Berlin’s top economic official, who sustained minor injuries.“We are a strong democracy, but our democracy is under pressure,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters in Berlin.The threat of political violence in the European Union was clear last week when the prime minister of Slovakia was shot in what the government called an assassination attempt. Many politicians in Slovakia blamed the heated political division there for creating the environment that led to the shooting.Police in Germany also have recorded a drastic increase in crimes designated as antisemitic to the highest level since tracking began. They nearly doubled last year to 5,164. Münch said the increase is related to reactions to the Israel-Hamas war.Faeser and Münch also said hate crimes increased by about 48% last year to 17,000, and crimes against asylum seekers increased by 75%.Also on Tuesday, the trial of a right-wing group accused of planning to overthrow the German government in 2022 began in Frankfurt. The group includes a former lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany party who allegedly planned to help members of the group gain access to the parliament building.Left-wing violence has also been prominent. In March, arsonists set fire to an electrical line to a Tesla plant outside Berlin to protest its expansion. A far-left entity called Volcano Group claimed responsibility.Germany’s government started tracking politically motivated crimes in 2001. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour and the Lib Dems have been warned by the Electoral Commission that they need to comply with electoral law after being fined for multiple offences.Four investigations carried out by the democratic watchdog concluded that Labour was guilty of five offences and one contravention of the rules and handed a fine of £400. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems were found guilty of four offences of late reporting of donations and fined £350.Labour was reprimanded for a failure to notify a change in accounting unit treasurer, and four late reported donations; and clate reporting of its Ipswich constituency party accounts.Starmer and Davey lead Labour and the Lib Dems respectively More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe increased international co-operation on AI safety sparked by UK-created AI safety summits will help the formation of domestic legislation, Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan has said.The UK is currently co-hosting the AI Seoul Summit with South Korea, where more than a dozen AI firms have agreed to create new safety standards, while 10 nations and the EU have agreed to form an international network of publicly backed safety institutes to further AI safety research and testing globally.The summit comes six months after the UK held the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, where world leaders and AI firms agreed to focus on the safe and responsible development of AI, and carry out further research on the potential risks around the technology.Ms Donelan said these regular gatherings and discussions were helping to place AI safety “at the top” of national agendas around the world, as many countries consider how to best legislate on the subject of the emerging technology.I think what we have done in the UK by setting up this long-term process of summits … is to create a long-term process to convene the world on the very topic of AI safety and innovation and inclusivityMichelle Donelan“What we’ve said is that legislation needs to be at the right time, but the legislation can’t be out of date by the time you actually publish it, and we have to know exactly what is going into that legislation – we have to have a grip on the risks – and that’s another thing that this summit process helps us to achieve,” she told the PA news agency.“I think what we have done in the UK by setting up this long-term process of summits – starting with Bletchley and now here in Seoul and then there’ll be the one in France – is to create a long-term process to convene the world on the very topic of AI safety and innovation and inclusivity, which are all intertwined together, so that we can really focus on and keep this at the top of other countries’ and nations’ agendas.”The Technology Secretary added that “AI doesn’t respect geographical boundaries” and it “isn’t enough” to work only on AI safety domestically, with the “interoperability” of the new network of international safety institutes and resulting shared knowledge helping the governments to be “much more strategic” at managing the risks of AI.“That said, of course we have a domestic track in this area, which revolves around adding to the resources and the skills and support of our existing regulators, as well as making sure that when the time comes we do actually legislate,” she said.The Technology Secretary added that the next step in discussions at the summit in Seoul, where she will co-chair a discussion with other technology ministers from around the world on Wednesday, would be on how to further embed safety into AI development.“How I see it is that phase one was basically Bletchley until Seoul, and what we managed to achieve there was the ‘Bletchley effect’ so that rocketed AI up the agenda in many different countries,” she said.“It also demonstrated the UK’s global leadership in this area, and we set up the framework as to how we can do (AI model) evaluations via the institutes.“Now in phase two – Seoul and beyond, to France – we need to also look at not just how can we make AI safe but how can we make safety embedded throughout our society, what I call systemic safety.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailTen nations and the European Union have agreed to establish an international network of publicly backed AI Safety Institutes to advance global research and testing of AI.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the agreement would mean “international progress” could be made on AI safety, after it was announced at the end of the first day of the AI Seoul Summit.The UK announced it would create the world’s first AI Safety Institute during the AI Safety Summit held at Bletchley Park in November last year, to carry out research and voluntary evaluation and testing of AI models, with a number of other countries since announcing their own domestic institutes.The newly signed “Seoul Statement of Intent toward International Cooperation on AI Safety Science” will see the network of institutes share research, including details about models they have studied, with the aim of advancing global understanding of the science around artificial intelligence.Alongside the UK, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the EU signed the agreement, but one global AI powerhouse – China – was notably absent, and was not represented during the virtual meeting hosted by Mr Sunak and South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol.However, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has said the Chinese government is taking part in the wider summit, and a Chinese firm – Zhipu.ai – did sign a new safety agreement alongside other tech firms earlier in the day.“AI is a hugely exciting technology – and the UK has led global efforts to deal with its potential, hosting the world’s first AI Safety Summit last year,” Mr Sunak said.“But to get the upside we must ensure it’s safe. That’s why I’m delighted we have got agreement today for a network of AI Safety Institutes.“Six months ago at Bletchley we launched the UK’s AI Safety Institute. The first of its kind. Numerous countries followed suit and now with this news of a network we can continue to make international progress on AI safety.”As part of the talks, world leaders also signed the Seoul Declaration, which declared the importance of enhanced international cooperation to develop AI safely and used to solve major global challenges and bridge divides.In addition to world leaders, the virtual meeting was also attended by a number of key figures from leading tech and AI firms, including Elon Musk, former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and DeepMind founder Sir Demis Hassabis.Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, who is in Seoul and will co-host the second day of talks on Wednesday, said: “AI presents immense opportunities to transform our economy and solve our greatest challenges – but I have always been clear that this full potential can only be unlocked if we are able to grip the risks posed by this rapidly evolving, complex technology.“Ever since we convened the world at Bletchley last year, the UK has spearheaded the global movement on AI safety and when I announced the world’s first AI Safety Institute, other nations followed this call to arms by establishing their own.“Capitalising on this leadership, collaboration with our overseas counterparts through a global network will be fundamental to making sure innovation in AI can continue with safety, security and trust at its core.”The new agreements from world leaders comes after 16 major AI firms committed to a set of safety procedures and to publish frameworks on how they will measure the risks of their AI models and thresholds for when they cease development or deployment of a model announced earlier in the summit.Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI are among the companies which have signed up to the Frontier AI Safety Commitments. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe first victims of the infected blood scandal will receive their final compensation payment before the end of the year, the government has said.Announcing the details of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, cabinet office minister John Glen promised all those affected by the scandal will be eligible to claim compensation under the scheme.And, to cheers from campaigners watching in the Commons’ public gallery, Mr Glen announced Sir Robert Francis as the interim chairman of the body that will administer the compensation scheme.Watch live: Government expected to announce £10bn infected blood scandal compensation. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailTen nations and the European Union have agreed to establish an international network of publicly backed AI Safety Institutes to advance global research and testing of AI.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the agreement would mean “international progress” could be made on AI safety, after it was announced at the end of the first day of the AI Seoul Summit.The UK announced it would create the world’s first AI Safety Institute during the AI Safety Summit held at Bletchley Park in November last year, to carry out research and voluntary evaluation and testing of AI models, with a number of other countries since announcing their own domestic institutes.The newly signed “Seoul Statement of Intent toward International Cooperation on AI Safety Science” will see the network of institutes share research, including details about models they have studied, with the aim of advancing global understanding of the science around artificial intelligence.Alongside the UK, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the EU signed the agreement, but one global AI powerhouse – China – was notably absent, and was not represented during the virtual meeting hosted by Mr Sunak and South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol.“AI is a hugely exciting technology – and the UK has led global efforts to deal with its potential, hosting the world’s first AI Safety Summit last year,” Mr Sunak said.“But to get the upside we must ensure it’s safe. That’s why I’m delighted we have got agreement today for a network of AI Safety Institutes.“Six months ago at Bletchley we launched the UK’s AI Safety Institute. The first of its kind. Numerous countries followed suit and now with this news of a network we can continue to make international progress on AI safety.”As part of the talks, world leaders also signed the Seoul Declaration, which declared the importance of enhanced international cooperation to develop AI safely and used to solve major global challenges and bridge divides.In addition to world leaders, the virtual meeting was also attended by a number of key figures from leading tech and AI firms, including Elon Musk, former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and DeepMind founder Sir Demis Hassabis.Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, who is in Seoul and will co-host the second day of talks on Wednesday, said: “AI presents immense opportunities to transform our economy and solve our greatest challenges – but I have always been clear that this full potential can only be unlocked if we are able to grip the risks posed by this rapidly evolving, complex technology.“Ever since we convened the world at Bletchley last year, the UK has spearheaded the global movement on AI safety and when I announced the world’s first AI Safety Institute, other nations followed this call to arms by establishing their own.“Capitalising on this leadership, collaboration with our overseas counterparts through a global network will be fundamental to making sure innovation in AI can continue with safety, security and trust at its core.”The new agreements from world leaders comes after 16 major AI firms committed to a set of safety procedures and to publish frameworks on how they will measure the risks of their AI models and thresholds for when they cease development or deployment of a model announced earlier in the summit.Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI are among the companies which have signed up to the Frontier AI Safety Commitments. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMichael Gove has revealed plans to “make marchers pay” for the massive weekly pro-Palestinian protests dominating the centre of London at weekends.In a hard hitting speech this morning Mr Gove warned of a huge rise in antisemitism in the UK, pointing out that the number of incidents were up 147 percent last year.He pointed to evidence from the Community Security Trust (CST) stating that two-thirds of the 4,103 antisemitic incidents occurred on or after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza last yearThe communities secretary announced a number of measures to tackle extremism from Islamists, the far right and the extreme left.His speech came ahead of the publication of the Lord Walney review into political violence. The review recommended that government tighten laws to ban Gaza protests taking place on certain days as well as calling for powers to help businesses claim damages from protest organisers. Michael Gove speaks on antisemitism after Jewish hate crimes triple in London More