UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Labour candidate for Rochdale, Azhar Ali, has apologised after he reportedly said Israel had been warned about the 7 October attack and allowed it to happen.The Labour Party has issued a statement on behalf of the candidate after the Mail on Sunday published comments from a recording of him telling the Lancashire Labour Party that Israel had been warned of the attack before it happened, but they “deliberately took the security off”.Mr Ali is alleged to have said: “The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel 10 days earlier… Americans warned them a day before [that] there’s something happening… They deliberately took the security off, they allowed… that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.”The Labour councillor is also alleged to have said that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has “lost the confidence of the parliamentary party”. He said: “A lot of the MPs I’ve spoken to, non-Muslim MPs, feel that on this issue, he’s lost the confidence of the parliamentary party.”In the statement issued on Sunday morning, Mr Ali said: “I apologise unreservedly to the Jewish community for my comments which were deeply offensive, ignorant, and false.“Hamas’ horrific terror attack was the responsibility of Hamas alone, and they are still holding hostages who must be released. October 7th was the greatest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, and Jews in the UK and across the world are living in fear of rising antisemitism. I will urgently apologise to Jewish leaders for my inexcusable comments.”He added: “The Labour Party has changed unrecognisably under Keir Starmer’s leadership, he has my full support in delivering the change Britain needs.”With the by-election just over two weeks away, it is too late for Labour to replace Mr Ali as a candidate. Labour MP Pat McFadden also told Sky News that Azhar Ali will remain as Labour’s candidate in Rochdale.The comments are likely to ignite a major row in the Labour party as Sir Keir has come under intense pressure over his handling of the Gaza crisis. In November, 56 Labour MPs rebelled and backed calls for a ceasefire. A recent Survation poll conducted for the Labour Muslim Network found that British Muslims are losing trust in Labour over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is now calling for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’ following pressure in his own party to respond to the conflict in Palestine On Sky News this morning, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden, said Mr Ali’s comments were “completely wrong”.The shadow frontbencher said: “He’s issued a complete apology and retraction and I hope he learns a good lesson from it because he should never have said something like that in the first place.”The Board of Deputies of British Jews have called Mr Ali’s comments “disgraceful and unforgivable”.In a statement released on X, formerly Twitter, they said: “Were it not too late to do so, we would have called on Labour to replace Mr Ali as a candidate. It is clear to us that Mr Ali is not apologising out of a genuine sense of remorse.“Despite what he says in his apology, we do not see how we could possibly engage with him at this time and we believe other leading Jewish communal groups will feel similarly.”The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region have also released a public statement condemning the comments.In a post on X, they called Mr Ali’s comments “deeply troubling” and said the “conspiratorial narrative is highly offensive, completely fictitious and at a time of record antisemitism, has the potential to exacerbate the conflict playing out across Greater Manchester and beyond.”Labour currently have a majority of more than 9,000 votes in Rochdale and 51.6 per cent of the vote. Mr Ali was selected as the candidate to represent Labour in the upcoming by-election following the death of Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd last month. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Pakistan on Saturday hit back at criticism over the conduct of its parliamentary elections, which were held amid sporadic militant attacks and an unprecedented stoppage of all mobile phone services. The strongly worded reaction from the Foreign Ministry insisted the vote was peaceful and successful. The U.S. State Department said that Thursday’s vote was held under undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The European Union has also said it regrets the lack of a level playing field due to the inability of some political actors to contest the elections. The ministry said it was surprised by “the negative tone of some of these statements, which neither take into account the complexity of the electoral process, nor acknowledge the free and enthusiastic exercise of the right to vote by tens of millions of Pakistanis”. It said such statements “ignore the undeniable fact that Pakistan has held general elections, peacefully and successfully, while dealing with serious security threats resulting primarily from foreign sponsored terrorism.” It said there was no nationwide internet shutdown and “only mobile services were suspended for the day to avoid terrorist incidents on polling day.” In Thursday’s vote, no political party gained a simple majority and independent candidates backed by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan took a lead in the vote count. It forced Khan’s main rival, three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, to announce plans to try to form a coalition government. Khan was disqualified from running because of criminal convictions. Candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party won 100 out of the 266 seats up for grabs in the National Assembly. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party captured 71 seats. Also Saturday, the leader of a political party was wounded and two police officers killed in a clash in the country’s northwest. The violence broke out in North Waziristan when Mohsin Dawar and his supporters tried to march toward an army facility while protesting delays in announcing the election result, police official Zahid Khan said. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak’s income topped £2m last year as UK voters struggled with the cost of living crisis. The prime minister also paid more than half a million pounds in UK tax.Mr Sunak’s financial affairs have come under intense scrutiny since The Independent revealed his wife Akshata Murty held “non-dom” tax status to avoid UK tax on foreign income.She later renounced the controversial status, but it subsequently emerged that Mr Sunak had also held a US green card and filed tax returns in America while he was chancellor.A summary of his tax affairs shows he paid £508,308 in tax in the financial year 2022-23.He made nearly £1.8m through capital gains – up from £1.6m in 2021-22 – as well as £293,407 in other interest and dividends.All his investment income and capital gains came from a US-based investment fund listed as a blind trust, which he benefits form but does not manage.He also earned his £139,477 salary, a figure that pales in comparison with his investment income.Sunak has revealed his tax returnsRather than a full tax return, No 10 published “a summary” of Mr Sunak’s UK taxable income, capital gains and tax paid over the last tax year as reported to HM Revenue & Customs, prepared by accountancy service Evelyn Partners.The figures were revealed at the end of a difficult week for the prime minister, with more potential misery set to come with two crunch by-elections next week. Mr Sunak was criticised for betting £1,000 on Monday that he would deport asylum seekers to Rwanda and has come under fire in recent days for making a trans jibe while the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey was in parliament. Last year Downing Street revealed the prime minister had raked in more than £4.7m and paid more than £1m in tax, giving him an effective tax rate of 22 per cent. He paid a further $51,648 in US taxes over the same period, as the US charges non-residents for tax due on dividends.The publication came months after he first pledged to publish his tax return. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailKeir Starmer’s wife asked “who the f**k does he think he is?” after their first meeting, the Labour leader has revealed. A former solicitor, Vic, as he calls her, did not take lightly to her future husband grilling her on the accuracy of some documents. When they had finished speaking, over the phone, he overheard her say to a colleague: “Who the f**k does he think he is?”“You might think, ‘Not the best of starts,’ but it was absolutely classic Vic,” he told Vogue magazine. “Very sassy, very down to earth, no nonsense from anyone, including from me.”In a wide-ranging interview the man who would be the UK’s next prime minister said his experience working on death row cases had made him tough enough to be do the top job. “My answer to that is: ‘Look, if you’ve sat in a cell with someone and had to make the decision about their case which could result in them living or dying, then you’ve had to take some tough decisions,’” he said. He also said he and wife “share” the housework, although he admitted: “Vic would say she does the majority of it.” When it comes to childcare, they had “the usual juggling as a family, particularly when our kids were very young”, he said, adding: “This is a massive issue for many families. Childcare is very expensive.” The interview was carried out before this week’s U-turn on plans to spend £28 billion on green investments. Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour is being “straight” with voters amid criticism over the decision to ditch the key pledge. MPs on the left of the party, as well as environmental groups, trade union allies and energy industry figures have expressed disappointment at the move. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBusiness secretary Kemi Badenoch has spoken of her frustration at reports she is pitching for Rishi Sunak’s job – in a 4,000 word interview. Ms Badenoch told plotters working to oust the prime minister from office to stop “stirring” last month, before reports that she was in a Tory Whatsapp group called ‘Evil Plotters’. She also refused to rule out another tilt at the top job, after standing to lead the party in wake of Boris Johnson’s departure. In a new interview with the Times, she praised Mr Sunak’s “stability” as a leader, before complaining that “if I’m abroad making a trade deal, they say I’m on manoeuvres because I’m distancing myself from the government. But if I’m here making a speech, somehow I’m on manoeuvres too.”In the wide-ranging interview she also said “snotty, middle-class north Londoners” she met at university were one reason she was a Tory. “One of the things that drove me insane was how they talked about Africa. So high-minded: ‘We need to help Africans’… These stupid lefty white kids didn’t know what they were talking about. And that instinctively made me think, ‘These are not my people.’ ” She also revealed she almost died in a flash flood in her constituency last year. She said: “I always used to think, ‘How do people die in flash floods?’ “ But at the time “the water came from nowhere. And there was just a slight dip in the road and suddenly, all the electrics went off. We got out of the car. The water was thick and strong and fast. We were wading, waist deep, and it was pitch-black. I had heels on! The car got written off.” “There could have been a by-election,” she added. She also hit out at portrayals of her as a puppet of Michael Gove “as if I have no thoughts and no opinions of my own.” She said their relationship was “not what it used to be, but he’s somebody I have to work with” following reports he had a relationship with a friend of hers. Business secretary Kemi Badenoch She also said death threats towards her had intensified since Nadine Dorries’s book The Plot, on Mr Johnson’s downfall. “If you get the unhelpful coalition of mental health issues and propensity to violence, then you read the Nadine Dorries conspiracy theory and decide you want to kill someone, it’s very, very nasty,” she said. Last month Ms Badenoch warned the Tory party it could not keep treating prime ministers as “disposable”, as she said she was “extremely” frustrated at the speculation over her future.At the time Johnson ally Ms Dorries accused her of pursuing her leadership ambitions, despite the denials.On Ms Badenoch’s call for the plotters to shut up, Ms Dorries said: “She should take her own advice.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe government has been warned the UK risks becoming a “back door” to cyber and other national security threats as foreign companies snap up British firms. Checks are “not keeping pace” with growing threats from countries like Russia, a powerful group of MPs says. They call for ministers to be notified of proposed investments which would affect media freedom, access to the sensitive data of individual, cybersecurity and critical supply chains. MPs have attacked the proposed UAE-backed takeover of the Telegraph newspaper group, expressing concerns about foreign state ownership and warning that it is impossible to “separate sheikh and state”. Liam Byrne, the chair of the Commons Business and Trade sub-committee, said it was “vital that we do not let our country become a “back door” through which our adversaries acquire capabilities that imperil the collective security of either us or our NATO Allies.”The report is published as Rishi Sunak branded “clearly ridiculous” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that his invasion of Ukraine was a result of Nato expansion.The warning comes in the committee’s submission to the government ahead of reforms to the UK’s investment-screening regime.Under the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, this allows ministers to block purchases of or investment in firms in strategic industries on national security grounds.The submission warns the UK is facing a “surge” of investment from countries classed as dictatorships as well as new threats from China and Russia. With so many transactions ministers risk “losing sight of the wood for the trees” and missing key transactions with security implications, they say.Both the US and the EU have recently announced tougher investment checks. MPs also warned the lack of an explicit definition of “national security” was creating confusion. MPs also condemn part of the Act as a “fundamental roadblock to scrutiny” because it prohibits telling Parliament how government decisions are made. Mr Byrne said: “It is vital that Parliament is given proper oversight of the decisions made by ministers, so we can assure the House of Commons that the decisions made on investment screening are sound decisions. “Right now, the truth is we cannot give that assurance, because ministers do not have the legal power to share the information we need to check decisions. That risks making a nonsense of parliamentary oversight of our economic security. That is something we simply cannot afford to go on.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRachel Reeves has come under fire over Labour’s £28bn green spending u-turn, with a BBC presenter asking: “Don’t you want to think big any more?”The shadow chancellor was taken to task after she and Sir Keir Starmer finally confirmed the spending pledge had been “stood down”.Instead, Ms Reeves and the Labour leader unveiled a much less ambitious set of measures, which will cost £23.7bn over the party’s first five years in power if it wins the next election.After weeks of flip-flopping, with Sir Keir backing the original £28bn a year figure as recently as Tuesday, the party blamed the Conservatives for “crashing the economy” as it downsized its plans.Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer have scaled back their original green spending plans BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter Mishal Husain grilled Ms Reeves on Friday morning, asking her: “Don’t you want to think big any more?“Imagine if Labour in 1945 had thought about health and rolled back from founding the NHS in the way that you have diluted your single biggest policy pledge.”But Ms Reeves insisted that, despite scaling back the funding, Labour’s so-called green prosperity plan will be “transformational for our economy, for jobs and for bills”.And she insisted that Labour is “determined” to deliver the plan.Ms Reeves said: “People can see that since the Conservatives crashed the economy, things have changed. That means we’ve had to update our plans.“What we’ve got now is an ambitious plan for decarbonizing the economy which are all affordable within our fiscal rules.”But her clash with Ms Husain came just moments after she was grilled by BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt over the policy.“Why should anyone believe the things you say about your plans, when you are prepared, if the circumstances require it, to just do other things?” he asked.He added: “It is very hard to know what we can believe.”The exchanges followed a Thursday press conference in which Labour drastically scaled back its flagship economic policy ahead of this year’s election.The Conservatives had seized on the original £28bn a year figure as a key attack line, claiming Labour would ultimately have to raise taxes to meet the “unfunded spending spree”.The party’s Warm Homes Plan, a £6bn package of measures to improve energy efficiency, is set to be one of the casualties of the climbdown with Labour confirming that it will now take longer than originally estimated, with five million homes now set to be upgraded during the first five years.But it comes alongside plans to extend the windfall tax on oil and gas companies to the end of the next parliament, with the energy profits levy rising to 78%.The Labour leader insisted the party in power would still retain its mission to achieve clean power by 2030, stressing that it could still be achieved.Ms Reeves denied she had bullied her party leader into the climbdown and reiterated her vow to become the UK’s first “green” chancellor.She again denied a behind-the-scenes rift with Sir Keir on Friday, saying they “work together every single day” and she has “a strong relationship with Keir”.The scaling back of the pledge has drawn condemnation from unions, environmental groups, Labour grandees and MPs.Former Labour minister Lord Blunkett said “the PR, the timing” of the U-turn “couldn’t have been worse” and he hoped “lessons have been learned”.And ex-shadow minister Barry Gardiner warned Labour now risked “being so bland that you stand for nothing”.Rishi Sunak said Labour’s flagship economic policy was now ‘in tatters’ Science minister Andrew Griffith said Labour has “got a lot of explaining to do” for u-turning on the £28bn a year green investment pledge, but added that the plan would have been “foolish”.He told Times Radio: “Rachel Reeves ran off to the US, was impressed by the idea of spending lots of public money, taxpayers’ money, on plans that they hadn’t costed, hadn’t put together properly.“And the fact that those plans are now unravelling, just shows how foolish it would be and how expensive for taxpayers, were they to get into power.”Rishi Sunak attacked the party as well, with the prime minister saying Labour’s flagship economic policy was now “in tatters”. More