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”.
Winter flu figures to be revealed as ‘hospitals bursting'
This week’s report into the winter flu situation in the UK hospitals is set to be released at 9:30am.
The report will reveal figures including how many patients are in hospital with flu, norovirus or Covid-19. It comes after top NHS doctors warned the peak of the flu season is yet to come as hospitals wards across England are “full to bursting”.
This week, several NHS trusts declared critical incidents because of sustained pressure in A&E departments, with people being treated in corridors and a patient at one hospital forced to wait 50 hours to be admitted to a ward.
Truss sends cease and desist to Starmer demanding he stop saying she crashed the economy
Liz Truss has issued Sir Keir Starmer with a cease and desist letter, warning him to stop saying she “crashed the economy”.
The former prime minister’s lawyers have said the remarks - made since the lead up to the general election - are likely to “cause serious harm to her reputation”, claiming they are “false and defamatory”.
They also suggest that assertions made by the Labour leader before the July general election contributed to Ms Truss losing her South West Norfolk seat.
Sir Keir has repeatedly claimed Ms Truss crashed the economy, referring to the weeks after her 2022 mini-budget, which sparked gilt market freefall and a run on sterling after she introduced unfunded tax cuts.
Read the full story by The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke:
Truss sends Starmer cease and desist letter over claim she crashed the economy
The former prime minister’s lawyers claim the frequently-made criticism is “false and defamatory”
Trump’s intense rhetoric ‘destabilising’, says Lammy
The “intensity” of the “rhetoric” from US President-elect Donald Trump can be “destabilising”, the Foreign Secretary has suggested.
David Lammy told the BBC that he believed Mr Trump’s words on Greenland this week come from his concerns about US economic security.
Asked whether the US should be allowed to buy Greenland, Mr Lammy told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that we know from Donald Trump’s first term that the intensity of his rhetoric and the unpredictability sometimes of what he said can be destabilising.
“He did it with Nato. But in fact, in practice, he sent more troops to Europe under his administration. He sent the first javelins and weapons to Ukraine under his administration.
“Here, I suspect on Greenland what he’s targeting is his concerns about Russia and China in the Arctic, is his concerns about national economic security.
“He recognises I’m sure that in the end Greenland today is a kingdom of Denmark. There is a debate in Greenland about their own self-determination. But behind it I think are his concerns about the Arctic.”
Jess Phillips says grooming gang national inquiry not ‘off the table'
Jess Phillips has said “nothing is off the table” as she pledges to listen to what victims of the grooming gang scandal want in regards to a national inquiry.
On Wednesday night, a Conservative Party amendment calling for a national inquiry on grooming gangs was rejected in the Commons.
However, government figures have hinted Labour could U-turn on the decision, if a new victims panel called for an inquiry.
“Nothing is off the table,” Ms Phillips said. “If victims come forward to me in this victims panel and they say, ‘actually, we think there needs to be a national inquiry into this’, I’ll listen.
“I don’t need to wait for a national inquiry to tell me there are people who should have lost their jobs, people who should probably go to prison.”
New plans to tackle people smugglers outlined
The manufacturers of engines used on small boats to cross the Channel could be among those in line for financial sanctions under a new regime, the Foreign Secretary has suggested.
Speaking to Times Radio on Thursday morning, David Lammy said: “What I’m announcing this this morning and today is a new sanctions regime.”
He added: “Let’s go after the manufacturers of those engines, many of whom are in China. Let’s deal with the organised criminals who are not just trafficking people, but they traffic guns and other things.
“Let’s go after them and their bank accounts, freeze their bank accounts, freeze their assets, as we’ve been able to do with oligarchs, kleptocrats and others seeking, particularly to pursue this war in Ukraine.
“So this is a new tool that I am using, and it’s to cripple people smuggling people across our country.”
He said that is is the “first time in history” that this has been done, and believes that others could follow the example in the future.
“So that we can target the bank accounts, freeze the assets, and deal with the supply chains that equip those individuals who are smuggling, people across our borders, and across the Channel.”
Lammy defends Starmer’s record on tackling grooming gangs
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has defended the records of the Prime Minister and Jess Phillips as he said that the Government is “moving forward” on dealing with the issue of grooming.
He was asked about the interventions of Elon Musk in the debate, and speaking to BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning, he said: “I’ve known Keir Starmer for a very long time, he led on this issue as chief prosecutor when he first brought the cases against those in Rochdale and reformed the CPS.
“Jess Phillips has done a considerable job standing up for women.
“We’ve had this debate. We’re moving forward and we’re dealing with the horrendous, horrific crimes of paedophilia against young people, young children – vulnerable young children often – and going after those who commit it, I’ve no doubt about that”.
Mistruths online unfair to grooming victims, says Lammy
David Lammy has responded to Elon Musk’s role in the debate on the response to child sex abuse gangs in the UK.
The foreign secretary said that while the X boss is at “one end” of the free speech debate, much of what has been published online is “peddling mistruth”.
“I insist that we focus on the truth, we focus on the facts. I recognise that there is a heated debate about free speech and Elon Musk is at one end of that debate,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“But to have free speech it must be based on facts and truth and some of what we’ve seen online is peddling mistruth is creating bad faith and is very unfair to those victims.”
Lammy dubs US Greenland ambitions as ‘classic Donald Trump’
The foreign secretary has taken a calm approach to Donald Trump’s recent comments that the US should acquire Greenland.
The president-elect siad he would not rule out using military or economic action to acquire the overseas Danish territory after he takes office on January 20.
But David Lammy would not condemn the comments and said they were “classic Donald Trump”.
He told Sky News: “I’m not in the business of condemning our closest ally. I am in the business of interpreting what sits behind this and there are some very serious national security issues and that is the basis in which Donald Trump has won his election.”
Lammy speaks on plans to tackle people smuggling gangs
David Lammy has spoken about his plans to tackle people smuggling gangs to reduce Channel crossings.
Outlining the plans, he told Sky News: “I want to use sanctions now to go after particularly supply chains and the routes people are doing.”
When asked if he could sanction states who are inadvertently or intentionally harbouring criminals he said: “There may well be sadly leaders in countries who are behind this. Those who traffic don’t just traffic people they traffic drugs and they traffic guns and equipment as well.”
In Parliament today
Here is what we are expecting to hear in Parliament today:
House of Commons:
09:30am: Transport questions
10:30am: Business questions to Commons Leader Lucy Powell
11:30am: A general debate on tackling violence against women and girls
House of Lords:
11am: Oral questions
11:45am: A debate on the Science and Technology Committee report titled “Long-duration energy storage: get on with it”
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