UK politics - live: Reform level with Labour in new poll as Treasury responds to gloomy economy update
New poll by FindOutNowUK marks a fresh political blow for Sir Keir Starmer who has overseen a rocky start to his leadership of the country
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir Keir Starmer has been dealt a further blow with a new poll predicting Labour would lose its overall majority if an election was held now.
The poll by FindOutNowUK has put Reform level pegging with Labour on 25 per cent and the Tories five points behind on 20 per cent. According to the calculations, if the result was repeated in a general election Labour would lose 173 seats but remain the largest party on 238.
Reform would leap into second place from the five MPs to 170, taking deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel’s seats. The Tories would be left with just 89 seats and a viable government could only be formed with a deal between Labour and the Lib Dems on 70 seats and SNP on 42.
The poll, which comes after a survey by think tank More in Common that also found Labour would lose its majority, marks a fresh political blow for Sir Keir who has overseen a rocky start to his leadership of the country.
There are also fears over the economy with the pound plunging to its lowest level for over a year after a rout in the bond markets. And with government borrowing costs also increasing, Treasury minister Darren Jones has warned that “public services will have to live within their means”.
Journalist who uncovered grooming scandal hits out at claims story was neglected by media
Andrew Norfolk, a journalist who helped uncover the grooming gangs scandal has voiced his frustration with claims that the media previously turned a blind eye to it.
“When we took the decision, The Times, in the summer of 2010 to look – genuinely look – and try and reveal what was happening and why, and to call for an inquiry – and this was 15 years ago, remember – that turned into four and a half years solidly of me working only on that story and nothing else,” he told Times Radio.
“Because the editor at the time, James Harding, decided that we were going to carry on writing about this story until he felt that every institution in this country that had a responsibility to protect children or to prosecute offenders had the understanding and systems and training in place to make sure that what was terribly wrong in this country would change for the better.”
He added: “What has happened this week has come entirely, it seems to me, because one rich man effectively playing with a train set who doesn’t give any great heed to the truth has decided to shoot his mouth off, scattergun attacks left, right and centre, and to my astonishment the British establishment, political media has just jumped to attention.”
Asked about claims that the scandal was neglected by the media, he said: “It no longer surprises me, I’m afraid – the easy, cheap, throwaway insults thrown in the direction of a mainstream media have obviously been going for years now. It is a tool the far right uses.”
Noting that the scandal is the far right’s “dream story”, Mr Norfolk said: “The narrative doesn’t work if it’s acknowledged that about the most mainstream media organisation you can get – the Times newspaper – was the organisation that actually carried on revealing what was happening.”
Jess Phillips faced ‘deluge of hate’ after Elon Musk attack
Jess Phillips has described the “deluge of hate” she faced after X boss Elon Musk used his huge platform to launch an attack on her.
Mr Musk labelled the safeguarding minister a “rape genocide apologist” after she denied a request for a government led inquiry into child sexual abuse in Oldham.
Speaking to Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Ms Phillips said: “On Friday, it was just a deluge of hate,”
She added that despite the “bullying” she had received support from young women and constituents.
“It became the deluge of ‘we know this isn’t true’, and I think that the vast majority of people in the country can see exactly what is happening,” she said.
Jeremy Corbyn: Keir Starmer needs reminding that the NHS is not for sale
In a piece for Independent Voices, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes:
Many of us warned the last Labour government about the dangers of PFIs. Under such initiatives, private funding was used to pay the upfront costs of new hospital infrastructure, leaving NHS trusts to foot the bill. Last year, NHS trusts spent almost half a billion pounds on interest charges alone; that’s the equivalent of 15,000 newly qualified nurses.
Then came the Conservative Party, which spent 14 years indulging in an ideological experiment of its own: combining privatisation with austerity. This was no coincidence. By starving the NHS of resources, the government tested what Noam Chomsky has described as the “standard technique” of privatisation: “Defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”
Jeremy Corbyn: Keir Starmer needs reminding that the NHS is not for sale
As the government unveils its plans for NHS patients to be treated privately in a bid to cut the waiting list backlog, former Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn says this administration is repeating the mistakes of the last
Watch: Shouts of ‘shame' as Badenoch claims grooming scandal one of worst in history
Political party funding rules may be reformed amid Musk interest, Starmer says
The government will look at potential reforms to political party funding, Sir Keir Starmer said, as the leader of the Liberal Democrats raised the “spectre” of Elon Musk’s possible donation to Reform UK.
Harry Taylor reports:
Political party funding rules may be reformed amid Musk interest, Starmer says
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called for changes amid the US businessman’s continued interest in British politics and support for Reform UK.
Need for social care reform ‘bleedin’ obvious’ but must get Starmer’s backing, MPs told
Sir Keir Starmer’s backing for reform of social care will be “absolutely critical” if much-needed change is to be made, a key figure has said.
Sir Andrew Dilnot described it as “blindingly… bleedin’ obvious” that something should be done in an area which remains “pretty invisible”.
The economist, who was the architect of plans for a care costs cap more than a decade ago, welcomed the fact that a newly announced commission would be “another chance to try to raise this set of issues up the agenda”.
But he insisted it should not take three years to produce a final report and recommendations, suggesting it is “perfectly feasible” for the Government to set out by the end of this year what it is going to do.
Dilnot: Need for social care reform ‘bleedin’ obvious’ but must get PM’s backing
The economist said three years is an ‘inappropriate length of time’ for a final report from the new commission into social care.
Former Tory schools minister backs Robert Jenrick in race row
Former Tory schools minister Jonathan Gullis – who lost his seat in July’s election – has backed Robert Jenrick over his controversial remarks about grooming gangs and immigration.
Mr Gullis said on X: “It’s completely accurate for [Mr Jenrick] to say some immigrants (legally and illegally) coming to the UK have medieval attitudes to women. Any Conservative MPs anonymously moaning about Robert speaking out about grooming gangs need to give their heads a wobble.”
Kemi Badenoch was urged on Tuesday to sack Mr Jenrick after he suggested the Tories could cap immigration from “alien cultures with medieval attitudes towards women”:
Badenoch urged to sack Jenrick over ‘immigrants with alien cultures’ comments
Robert Jenrick stood by his claim that Britain has failed at integrating immigrants from some countries, pointing to the grooming gangs scandal as apparent evidence
British state has become a ‘greedy master of the people’, Reform MP claims
The British state has become a “self-serving, greedy master of the people”, a Reform UK MP said on Wednesday as he called for quantitative easing to be prohibited.
Rupert Lowe argued that MPs should be given the right to block the introduction of new money into the supply by the Bank of England, under his Quantitative Easing (Prohibition) Bill.
As he walked to present the Bill in the Commons, Mr Lowe was jokingly dubbed “future leader” by another MP in the chamber who could be heard shouting out. It came after US billionaire Elon Musk appeared to endorse Mr Lowe as a replacement for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
The Great Yarmouth MP was also heckled on Wednesday by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who said “absolute shambles” after Mr Lowe stumbled through the list of MPs supporting the Bill before having to repeat the names.
In Focus | The child abuse cover-ups that Musk is conveniently not getting outraged about
Journalist and author Rowan Pelling writes:
It’s a bit astonishing to wake up and find that – hallelujah! – the sexual abuse of young women is the number one story in the UK. And that the government has finally acted to make the reporting of child sex abuse mandatory. God knows, enough campaigners, like inquiry head Professor Alexis Jay, veteran journalist Julie Bindel, and Lucy Duckworth from the Survivors’ Trust, have strived for years to propel their life’s work to the top of the political agenda.
It’s just a shame that so many zealous new converts to the cause (yes, Elon Musk and his X-bro army) appear to believe that the rape perpetrated by men of Pakistani origin was a unique evil unparalleled in the annals of history.
No one denies that what happened in Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford is a huge, gutwrenching scandal; that some officials hesitated to investigate in the name of “race relations” and that much of the police force who are paid to protect us dismissed the abuse of white working-class girls – often in and out of care – who they regarded as unreliable witnesses.
In fact, there’s now a race to proclaim these oft-reported tidings loudest, by many who didn’t seem to give a monkey’s as recently as last week. But if you’ve ever looked into the sheer scale of sexual abuse against innocent young people in this country and the scandals that were covered up within living memory (not just Jimmy Savile), then you’ll be left reeling.
The child abuse cover-ups that Musk is conveniently not getting outraged about
As Musk and others clamour for an inquiry over grooming gangs in the north of England, where is the call for a closer look at what is going on elsewhere from the Church of England to our top private schools, asks Rowan Pelling, who says institutional cover-ups are rife across all levels of society
Tory MP warns education bill will make it ‘as if Blair had never been PM'
During the debate on the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, Tory former education secretary Damian Hinds warned the legislation will make it “as if Tony Blair had never been prime minister”.
He told the Commons: “I’m sure Labour MPs today will cheer what they will see as the final demise of the Gove/Gibb reforms, but what we have before us today reverses far further back than that.
“If this Bill passes anything close to its current form, it will be as if Lord Adonis was never the schools minister, as if Lord Blunkett had never sat in the secretary of state’s chair, it will be as if Tony Blair had never been prime minister and had never made central to his pledge and contract to the British people in 1997 those famous three words, ‘education, education, education’.”
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