UK News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

I was waiting for when Rees-Smugg would get voted out and here it is, it's icing on the cake.

[Time_Traveller]

Home secretary launches new border security squad after scrapping Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan

7 hours ago

The home secretary has launched a new border security command after Labour scrapped Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda policy.

Yvette Cooper has also ordered a probe into the latest routes and tactics used by people smugglers as her party comes under pressure to deliver on its pledge to “smash the gangs”.

Early legislation is being prepared to introduce new counter-terror style powers against those who bring tens of thousands of people to the UK in small boats every year.

But the new body is still currently without a boss as a recruitment drive gets underway.

On Saturday Sir Keir Starmer declared that the Rwanda deportation plan “was dead and buried before it started”, confirming Labour had dumped the scheme less than 24 hours after he entered Downing Street.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 75612.html

[Time_Traveller]

New chancellor Rachel Reeves announces mandatory housing targets 'to get Britain building again' - and lifts onshore wind ban

Monday 8 July 2024 13:01, UK

Rachel Reeves has announced mandatory housing targets and an end to the onshore wind ban to get "Britain building again".

The UK's first ever female chancellor said Labour will create a new taskforce "to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country".

She promised her government would build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, as pledged in Labour's election manifesto.

"We're not in the business of reneging on our manifesto commitments," she said in her first speech as chancellor after Labour won the general election last Thursday.

"We've received that strong mandate. We're going to deliver on that mandate."

https://news.sky.com/story/new-chancell ... n-13175005

[Time_Traveller]

Conservative shadow Cabinet in full as Lord Cameron steps down

July 8, 2024 7:22 pm



Lord Cameron and ex-Tory chairman Richard Holden have quit the Conservative party’s frontbench as Rishi Sunak appointed his shadow Cabinet.

Lord Cameron quit after being elevated to the House of Lords to return to frontline politics as foreign secretary, but i understands he viewed the role of shadowing David Lammy as impossible to do from the Upper House.

Mr Holden quit after controversially switching constituencies from a seat in Durham to Basildon and Billericay, in Essex, and hanging on as an MP with a majority of 20 votes as the Tories lost more than 200 seats in last week’s general election.

Andrew Mitchell, who deputised for Lord Cameron, becomes the Shadow Foreign Secretary, while Richard Fuller was appointed interim Tory chair.

Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly moved into opposition versions of their Cabinet roles, as Shadow Chancellor and Shadow Home Secretary, alongside several others.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/conse ... wn-3159155

[Time_Traveller]

Thames Water has 11 months until cash runs out

9 July 2024, 07:44 BST



Debt-laden Thames Water has said it has enough cash to fund its operations until the end of May next year but that efforts to raise new money are continuing.

The UK's largest water company, which is facing questions over whether it can survive, said its debts had risen to £15.2bn in the year to March.

Thames has also faced fierce criticism for its environmental record, and the company said the number of sewage discharges more than doubled last year.

Later this week, the water regulator Ofwat is due to publish its draft ruling on how much water companies can charge their customers for the next five years.

There has been speculation that Thames, which serves 16 million customers in London and the Thames Valley region, might have to be taken over by the government if it runs out of money.

The company says it has funding of £1.8bn, which is enough for it to keep going until May 2025.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51ypwj0214o

[Time_Traveller]

Sue Gray axes Sunak’s US ambassador choice, with Mandelson or Miliband in frame

July 9, 2024 3:21 pm



National Security Adviser Sir Tim Barrow has been told he will not become the UK’s next ambassador to the US, as Downing Street gears up to make a political appointee.

Barrow had been appointed at the tail end of Rishi Sunak’s administration to the frustration of Labour officials who argued the incoming government should make the appointment to the most senior British posting.

i understands Barrow was told of the decision by Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, on Friday as one of her first acts in government. Barrow has worked in the civil service for nearly 40 years and was previously the UK’s ambassador to Moscow and the EU.

The current ambassador to the US, Dame Karen Pierce, is expected to leave her post around the end of the year, handing over ahead of the new president’s inauguration in January.

Starmer is set to make his debut on the world stage as prime minister in Washington this week at a three-day gathering marking the 75th anniversary of NATO’s foundation.

https://inews.co.uk/news/sue-gray-axes- ... nd-3160271

[Time_Traveller]

'Levelling up' phrase to be erased, says minister

9 July 2024, 08:51 BST



The new Labour government is replacing the words "levelling up" with "local government" in the department's name and ministerial titles, minister Jim McMahon has said.

Levelling up - a promise to reduce geographical inequality - was a key part of Boris Johnson's successful 2019 general election campaign.

When he came into power he changed the name of the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, replacing "local government" with "levelling up".

However, Mr McMahon told BBC Breakfast the phrase was "only ever a slogan" and was now being "firmly Tippex-ed out of the department".

"We are now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government," he said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0veqgr7lw4o

[Time_Traveller]

Move to reduce Lords retirement age to 80 is not about Joe Biden, says Keir Starmer

Wed 10 Jul 2024 12.00 BST

Keir Starmer has denied that his decision to bring in a retirement age of 80 for the House of Lords means he believes Joe Biden should stand down as US president.

Ahead of his first bilateral talks with Biden at the White House, the UK prime minister said the “primary driver” for bringing in a retirement age for peers was the size of the second chamber.

“The simple fact is that our House of Lords is massive. It is the second biggest political chamber in the world. I think it’s only the Chinese who have a bigger political chamber than our House of Lords. We have to reduce it.

“That is the primary driver of the retirement at 80. You can see why that needs to be done. We’ve got 800-plus members of the Lords, it’s simply too big. We need to reduce it.

“So it doesn’t reflect on how other elected representatives are chosen in other countries, it’s to do with the size of the House of Lords.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... ir-starmer

[firestar464]

Lord Prescott removed from House of Lords

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/lo ... r-BB1pL85a

[Time_Traveller]

Great piece by James Murray, which totally and utterly demolishes the case for Woodhouse Colliery going ahead –

The incomplete list of costs that will result from this decision reads: higher carbon emissions at a time when the UK is already not on track to meet its legally binding climate targets; a signal to investors the government is not interested in the transition to a modern green steel industry; an increased global carbon capture and storage requirement; a stranded asset risk for investors; the undermining of the very concept of net zero emissions; and huge damage to the UK's international reputation and moral authority at future climate talks.


It is this last point that is arguably the worst. The UK has rightly been regarded as something of a leader in global climate circles. It has helped many other countries develop their own climate laws and net zero strategies based on the UK's pioneering model. British diplomats have invested countless hours in trying to convince governments with far more severe energy security and development challenges than the UK to eschew coal in favour of clean alternatives. And now this. As Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama asked this morning: "Is this the future we fought for under the Glasgow Pact? Fossil fuels should be phased OUT - not up."


In the face of this litany, what then are the benefits? The list is short. Given there is no obvious shortage of coking coal that needs rectifying and several UK steel firms have said they are unlikely to use the fuel, the main benefit is provided in the form of around 500 jobs in west Cumbria and exports that could lead to some short to medium term returns for Australian private equity investors. And it is in these jobs and exports that we find the main benefit for the government: the ability to paint the Opposition and other critics of the project as 'anti-growth'. The UK's credibility on the international stage and its economic competitiveness in the industries of the future is being sacrificed on the altar of short-term electoral triangulation in the service of the high priests of culture war polarisation.


The government could have provided Cumbria with a large-scale hydrogen hub, energy efficiency upgrades, and a revived nuclear industry. It could have provided the north of England with a functioning rail network, world leading zero carbon industrial hubs and green steelworks, and low-cost wind farms. It could have provided the UK with a clean tech blitz, energy security, and a green industrial revolution. Instead, having failed to deliver any of that, it served up 500 jobs digging up a fuel the world has to stop burning to avert catastrophe. It provided flat-lining wages and soaring energy bills. It provided international hypocrisy and an uncontestable sense that nothing works as well as it did a decade ago. It could have provided a beacon to the world, instead it torched its reputation.

UK coal mine approval: Is this the worst ever climate policy decision?

James Murray

08 December 2022

https://www.businessgreen.com/blog-post ... y-decision

More on this: -

Cumbria coalmine was unlawfully approved, government says

Thu 11 Jul 2024 17.07 BST



The government has admitted that a proposed coalmine in Cumbria was approved unlawfully, as the carbon emissions of coal from the mine should have been taken into account in the planning decision.

This follows a precedent set by a supreme court judgment last month, when Surrey county council’s decision to extend planning permission for an oil drilling well at Horse Hill, on the Weald, was quashed.

Campaigners argued it should have accounted for greenhouse gas emissions from using the oil when assessing the environmental impacts of the project, not only the drilling site itself. These are known as “scope 3” or downstream emissions.

On Thursday, another oil drilling project – this time in the Lincolnshire Wolds area of outstanding natural beauty – was quashed after a concession from Angela Rayner, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.

Hours later, lawyers acting for Rayner’s department said there was an “error in law” in the decision to grant planning permission for the Cumbrian mine in December 2022. The government will now not be defending two legal challenges by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (Slacc) next week, and has instead informed the court that the decision to grant planning permission should be quashed.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... nment-says

[Time_Traveller]

Starmer promises to send fewer people to prison as he prepares to unveil plans to ease overcrowding crisis

24 minutes ago

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to send fewer people to jail in the long term while he prepares to oversee the mass early release of prisoners to ease the overcrowding crisis facing the UK’s jails.

The prime minister has hit out at the inheritance left for him by the Conservatives and branded Britain’s prison system “broken”, speaking of his shock at discovering the scale of the crisis.

And Sir Keir warned he cannot build new prisons in just seven days.

It has led to widespread expectations that the new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will use a major speech on Friday to unveil measures aimed at easing the crisis.

The spate of emergency measures is set to include automatically releasing prisoners on standard determinate sentences after they have served just 40 per cent of their time. The current threshold is 50 per cent, and exemptions for serious violent and sexual offenders are expected.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 78188.html

[Time_Traveller]

Home secretary to make decision on change to crossbow laws 'in the near future'

Thursday 11 July 2024 11:25, UK



The home secretary will make a decision soon on whether to change the laws around crossbow following the deaths of a mother and her two daughters.

Carol Hunt, 61, the wife of racing commentator John Hunt, and two of their daughters, Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28, were killed on Monday in an apparent crossbow attack.

Kyle Clifford, 26, who is believed to be known to the victims, was found injured by police and has been arrested following a manhunt.

Police said the killings involved the use of a crossbow and possibly other weapons.

Their deaths have led to calls for stricter laws on crossbows, possibly in line with stringent shotgun licence requirements.

https://news.sky.com/story/home-secreta ... e-13176472

[Time_Traveller]

Starmer promises to send fewer people to prison as he prepares to unveil plans to ease overcrowding crisis

24 minutes ago

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to send fewer people to jail in the long term while he prepares to oversee the mass early release of prisoners to ease the overcrowding crisis facing the UK’s jails.

The prime minister has hit out at the inheritance left for him by the Conservatives and branded Britain’s prison system “broken”, speaking of his shock at discovering the scale of the crisis.

And Sir Keir warned he cannot build new prisons in just seven days.

It has led to widespread expectations that the new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will use a major speech on Friday to unveil measures aimed at easing the crisis.

The spate of emergency measures is set to include automatically releasing prisoners on standard determinate sentences after they have served just 40 per cent of their time. The current threshold is 50 per cent, and exemptions for serious violent and sexual offenders are expected.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 78188.html

More on this:-

Prisoners to serve shorter sentences until 2026 to avert ‘total breakdown of law and order’

5 minutes ago

Emergency plans to cut prisoner sentence lengths to ease the overcrowding crisis and avert “a total breakdown in law and order” will last until 2026 at least, the justice secretary has announced.

In a furious speech at HMP Five Wells, Shabana Mahmood lambasted the decision by Rishi Sunak’s government to delay the new measures announced by Labour on Friday to release many prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentences – as opposed to halfway through – until after the election.

And it was also revealed the emergency early release scheme brought in by the previous government in October had seen 10,000 inmates freed early, but had barely put a dent in the prison population.

Announcing a review into how the crisis was allowed to unfold, Ms Mahmood accused Tory ministers of putting “their political careers ahead of the safety and security of our country” in the “most disgraceful dereliction of duty I have ever known”.

The new justice secretary painted a bleak picture as she warned the current situation threatened “the collapse of the criminal justice system and a total breakdown of law and order” – with “looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/h ... 78762.html

[Time_Traveller]

Border Force returns small boat Channel migrants to France for first time

7 hours ago

The UK took migrants saved in the Channel back to France for the first time in a sign of increased Anglo-French cooperation on small boats.

A Border Force Ranger catamaran and an RNLI lifeboat were dispatched from Dover after France called for help on Wednesday.

French ship PSP Cormoran picked up 59 people in the operation, and the British vessel rescued another 13.

One migrant died when their small boat deflated near Calais and they could not be resuscitated, but the other 71 people were taken back to France in both ships.

It was the first time a British vessel picked up migrants in French waters and returned them to France.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 82449.html

[Time_Traveller]

Ofcom to ban inflation-linked mid-contract price rises on phones, pay-TV and broadband

Fri 19 Jul 2024 09.35 BST

Phone, broadband and pay-TV companies are to be banned from imposing mid-contract price increases linked to inflation, in a crackdown by the regulator after a Guardian investigation exposed “greedflation” in the sector last year.

Under plans being introduced in January 2025, Ofcom will force providers to tell customers upfront, in “pounds and pence”, about any expected rises throughout the duration of their deals in a victory for campaigners during the cost of living crisis.

The UK’s biggest telecoms providers had inserted terms into contracts imposing annual price increases linked to the consumer prices index (CPI) plus 3.9 percentage points.

Most consumers were unaware of the practice, the regulator said. Some operators have been using the retail prices index (RPI), which is typically higher than CPI, plus the same inflation-busting 3.9 percentage point supplement.

After inflation soared to the highest level in four decades, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this led to some consumers facing price increases of up to 17.3%. This was significantly higher than the 11.1% peak in the government’s preferred measure of inflation in October 2022.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/artic ... -broadband

[Time_Traveller]

Millions of public sector workers should get 5.5% pay rise, ministers reportedly told

Saturday 20 July 2024 15:11, UK

Independent pay review bodies have reportedly told ministers millions of public sector workers should be given a 5.5% increase in pay.

The proposed above-inflation increase for teachers and around 1.3 million NHS staff, reported by The Times, is well above the figure the government is thought to have been preparing for.

Sir Keir Starmer's government could need up to £10bn to cover such a pay increase if all public sector workers were given the 5.5% rise, an economist has warned.

There are more than 500,000 teachers in the UK.

At present, the government is believed to have budgeted for an increase of somewhere between 1% and 3%, with inflation currently at 2%.

https://news.sky.com/story/millions-of- ... d-13181805

[Time_Traveller]

Bibby Stockholm barge to be closed

23 July 2024, 13:30 BST

The contract for a barge which houses asylum seekers will not be renewed past January 2025, according to the Home Office.

Extending the use of the Bibby Stockholm, which is moored on Portland in Dorset, would have cost over £20 million next year.

The three-storey barge has capacity for up to 500 men, aged 18-65.

Now run under a Labour government, the Home Office said the move was part of a commitment to “clear the backlog and fix the asylum system”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg640n3372qo

[Time_Traveller]

Sunak’s scrapping of HS2 will cost £100m and take up to three years, National Audit Office warns

3 hours ago

Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the second phase of HS2 will cost up to £100m and it could take three years to shut down sites where work has begun, an official report has revealed.

The former prime minister’s plans also mean the government has £592m worth of land and property on the route from Birmingham to Manchester it needs to flog, which the government spending watchdog has warned could take years and distort local housing markets.

The National Audit Office (NAO) laid bare the cost of Mr Sunak’s decision to scrap phase 2 of the high-speed rail plan, first revealed by The Independent last September.

The former PM used his conference speech that October to confirm plans to scrap HS2’s northern leg, sparking fury among local leaders, business chiefs and senior Tories including David Cameron.

He said the decision would save £36bn, which Mr Sunak promised to redirect towards transport projects including fixing potholes and upgrading motorways.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 84390.html

[Time_Traveller]

Labour suspends seven rebel MPs over two-child benefit cap

23 July 2024, 13:46 BST

Seven Labour MPs have been suspended from the parliamentary party for voting against the government on an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap, the BBC understands.

Ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell was among the Labour MPs who voted for an SNP motion calling for an end to the policy, which prevents almost all parents from claiming Universal Credit or child tax credit for more than two children.

The BBC understands the MPs are being removed from the party in parliament for a “period of time”.

MPs rejected the SNP amendment by 363 votes to 103, in the first major test of the new Labour government’s power.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c978m6z3egno

[Time_Traveller]

Who is the woman set to be Wales' next first minister?

22 July 2024



Eluned Morgan is poised to become Wales' next first minister, making her the first woman to lead the nation.

She was confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour on Wednesday, following Vaughan Gething's resignation.

She won the support of almost all of Labour's politicians in the Welsh Parliament.

Mr Gething will remain as first minister until Ms Morgan is confirmed in a vote of the Senedd, on a date yet to be determined.

Ms Morgan's journey to become first minister is the culmination of a political career that started young and has taken her to three parliaments.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl7yzy0kzldo