Braverman denies she will defect to Reform as IT outage forces Labour Cobra meeting – live
Source in Nigel Farage’s party says ex-home secretary expected to switch, possibly in autumn
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Tory party leadership hopeful Suella Braverman has denied she will defect to Reform UK if she loses the contest.
“There’s now so much antagonism towards Suella Braverman among MPs that there is now a generally held view that she will defect,” a senior Tory source told the i newspaper.
But a spokesperson for the ex-home secretary denied this, saying: “Suella has only recently been elected as a Conservative MP and has been a Conservative Party member for three decades.”
A Reform source told the i the party expects her to defect after losing the Tory leadership race, perhaps in the autumn, around conference time.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government is set to resume funding to UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA for Palestinians escaping the war in Gaza.
The Conservative government stopped the money alongside the US in January following accusations from Israel that staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks.
Following the major IT outage hitting airlines, train companies and banks, government officials held a Cobra emergency meeting to address the chaos for train and GP services and television channels.
What can Keir Starmer achieve in his meeting with European leaders?
Starmer’s ‘generational’ plan to rebuild UK and forge closer ties with EU
In his response to the King’s Speech, Rishi Sunak laid three clever bear traps for the Starmer government
Key policies from King’s Speech as Labour unveils promises for new Parliament
Poll reveals popularity of Keir Starmer after first week as PM
Sir Keir Starmer ended his first week as Prime Minister as popular as Boris Johnson was at the height of the vaccine rollout, a poll has found.
Some 36% of the public told pollster Ipsos they thought Sir Keir was doing a good job as Prime Minister, the highest rating for a premier since February 2021 when 37% said the same about Mr Johnson.
But conversely, just 14% of the public think the new Prime Minister is doing a bad job, well below the 41% that thought negatively of Mr Johnson in February 2021 – and the 57% that thought badly of Rishi Sunak just before he called the election.
Keiran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos, said: “Looking at Keir Starmer’s poll ratings there are increasing signs of the new Prime Minister enjoying something of a honeymoon period during his first few days in office.”
Poll reveals popularity of Keir Starmer after first week as PM
Starmer ended his first week as popular as Boris Johnson was at the height of the vaccine rollout
Leader of Belarus marks 30 years in power after crushing all dissent and cozying up to Moscow
For three decades, European leaders have come and gone by the dozens, but Alexander Lukashenko remains in absolute control of Belarus.
His longevity is due to a mixture of harshly silencing all dissent, reverting to Soviet-style economic controls and methods, and cozying up to Russia, even as he sometimes flirted with the West.
Lukashenko, 69, was dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” early in his tenure, and he has lived up to that nickname.
On Saturday, he marks 30 years in power — one of the world’s longest-serving and most ruthless leaders.
Leader of Belarus marks 30 years in power after crushing all dissent and cozying up to Moscow
For three decades, European leaders have come and gone, but Alexander Lukashenko remains in absolute control of Belarus
Anneliese Dodds says UNRWA funding ‘will save lives' in Gaza
The international development minister has met UNRWA commissioner general Phillippe Lazzarini following the government’s decision to allow aid funding to the UN Palestine relief agency.
Posting on social media, Ms Dodds said the body will deliver aid in a scale “desperately needed in Gaza”.
She wrote: “Only UNRWA can deliver aid at the scale desperately needed in Gaza. That’s why the UK is lifting the pause on UNRWA funding with immediate effect.
“Today I met @UNLazzarini to discuss this lifesaving decision and offer condolences for the 197 UNRWA staff who have been killed.”
Education charity boss to lead Government’s curriculum and assessment review
The Government has appointed an education charity boss to lead its curriculum and assessment review – aimed at ensuring a child’s background does not prevent them from receiving a high standard of education.
Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), will be seconded from her role at the charity to lead the review as it is launched on Friday.
It will listen to the views of parents, teachers and school leaders once a call for evidence is launched in September and will undertake a national roadshow to meet and hear from frontline staff, according to the Department for Education (DfE).
It comes after Labour said in its manifesto that it would “modernise” the school curriculum and reform assessment if the party won the General Election.
The independent review will comprise five key stages and look closely at the challenges young people face to achieve their goals and the barriers which hold children back from opportunities they deserve – in particular, children who are socio-economically disadvantaged or who have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).
The Government set out plans in the King’s Speech to legally require all state schools – including academies – to teach the national curriculum up to age 16 to give every child a “broad and rounded education”.
It confirmed that the duty will start after its curriculum and assessment review has concluded.
Labour peer to introduce bill to allow assisted dying
A fresh bid to legalise assisted dying for people with six or fewer months left to live will be laid before Parliament next week.
The private member’s bill seeking to allow terminally ill adults to end their life will be introduced by Labour former justice secretary Lord Falconer of Thoroton to the upper chamber next Friday.
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer doubled down on a pre-election commitment to allow a free vote on changes to assisted dying laws, but declined to put a timetable on it.
Lord Falconer was chosen second in the ballot to introduce the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill.
It is likely to be debated over the coming year and if it receives sufficient support, it could become law.
Assisting someone to end their life is currently a criminal offence in England and Wales.
More than 5,000 early-career nursing staff quit profession in one year
A fifth of the nursing and midwifery professionals who left the register in the last year did so within 10 years of joining, figures show.
Nursing leaders described the statistic as “deeply alarming” and called on ministers to “grasp the nettle and make nursing an attractive career”.
The latest Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) annual report on its register of nurses, midwives and nursing associates in the UK shows 27,168 staff left the profession between April 2023 and March 2024, a slight decrease on the previous 12 months.
However, 20.3% of the total – or 5,508 – did so within the first 10 years.
This is compared to 18.8% in 2020/2021 and “reflects a rise over the last three years”, according to the report.
The figures come after health secretary Wes Streeting was under pressure to launch an inquiry following a damning review into the UK’s nursing and midwifery watchdog.
A review into the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), prompted by The Independent’s reporting of whistleblower concerns, found the safety of the public, nurses and midwives was at risk.
Mr Streeting is also expected to enter formal talks with junior doctors in a bid to end the 20-month row over pay and confitions leading to strikes.
Can Keir Starmer take the brakes off Britain’s railways?
Renationalising the railway fulfils Labour’s election promise. Sean O’Grady takes a closer look at how the new government plans to do it:
Can Keir Starmer take the brakes off Britain’s railways?
Renationalising the railway fulfils Labour’s election promise. Sean O’Grady takes a closer look at how the new government plans to do it
Starmer open to process asylum seekers offshore in return deal with the EU
Sir Keir Starmer is considering plans to process asylum seekers outside the UK territory in a bid to bring a new immigration policy.
During the European Politcal Community summit on Thursday, the prime minister said he was open to the idea after holding bylateral meetings with Emmanual Macron, Edi Rama and Giorgia Meloni.
Sir Keir said: “In relation to the agreement between Albania and Italy, obviously there’s interest in how that might work, but that wasn’t actually the central discussion in the taskforce in the roundtable. That was about the practical measures that we want to discuss, which is about how we deal with taking the gangs down in the first place.
“But look, I’m a practical person. I’m a pragmatist. And I’ve always said we’ll look at what works and where cases can be processed closer to origin, then that is something which of course ought to be looked at.”
Council’s ‘spreadsheet’ blunder sees 6,500 election votes missed
More than 6,000 votes cast in a London constituency for the general election were missed off due to a “spreadsheet issue”.
Wandsworth Council has apologised after revealing it had mistakenly failed to include 6,558 votes in the declaration of the election result in Putney.
The first published result had shown Labour’s Fleur Anderson held onto the seat with 20,952 votes, beating Conservative Lee Roberts who received 10,011.
However, almost two weeks after the 4 July general election, the council revealed it had made a mistake and published a revised list of the results on its website.
Council’s ‘spreadsheet’ blunder sees more than 6,500 general election votes missed
Wandsworth Council has apologised over the issue which thankfully had no impact on the result in the Putney count
Farage defends visting ‘friend’ Trump weeks after being elected as MP
Nigel Farage says it was right he travelled to the US to support Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention and hit back at the suggestion the trip was a disservice to his new constituents.
After he was elected as Clacton’s MP two weeks ago, the UK Reform party leader attended the King’s Speech on Wednesday morning before quickly flying out to Milwaukee in Wisconsin for the event.
Mr Trump is set to give his acceptance speech at the convention on Thursday evening, five days after surviving an attempted assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania at the weekend.
Farage defends jetting to see ‘friend’ Trump in US weeks after being elected as MP
Newly-elected MP was quizzed over his attendance at the Republican National Convention thousands of miles away from his Essex constituency
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