UK politics live: Wes Streeting hints budget cuts will go further than axing winter fuel payment
The Tory leadership contender has drawn criticism for her comments
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Your support makes all the difference.Health secretary Wes Streeting has suggested pensioners will not be the only group negatively affected by cuts in the October budget.
Mr Streeting said he can understand why pensioners may feel they are being targeted by the government following cuts to winter fuel payments. However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said there will be moves to reduce the size of the welfare bill, as well as public spending cuts and tax rises.
In an interview with The New Statesman, the health secretary said: “I can understand why there will be some pensioners sat there thinking, ‘Why us? And what about others?
“Well, there are other choices to come and these aren’t just Rachel’s [Reeves] choices to face up to, these are the choices of the whole government.”
He added: “It would be quite jarring if we were all skipping around Whitehall singing Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come or D:Ream’s Things Can Only Better at the same as we’re dealing with a £22 billion black hole and making some tough choices which are really sticking in the throats of people, particularly on the winter fuel allowance.”
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Lammy to talk security ties and Russian threats in trip to Norway
The foreign secretary will discuss deepening defence, security ties with Norway and tackling threats from Russia when he meets his Norwegian counterpart on Wednesday.
David Lammy called Norway “our eyes and ears in the High North” and “a key ally in the defence of Nato’s northern flank” ahead of a trip to the country.
He will visit Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the country’s military command centre, with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
The UK and Norway will agree to further intelligence sharing and cooperation to counter Russian disinformation networks in Europe and beyond, the Foreign Office said.
Watch: Badenoch says she 'went from middle class to working class' after working at McDonald's
Tory leadership contender Tugendhat calls for review of Huw Edwards sentence
Conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has written a letter to the Attorney General calling for a review of Huw Edward’s sentence.
Disgraced former BBC presenter Mr Edwards was spared jail after admitting accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.
“As the Shadow Security Minister, it is my duty to ensure that justice is served in a manner that reflects the severity of the crimes committed, particularly those involving the possession of indecent images of children,” he wrote in the letter.
My colleague Tara Cobham looked at some of the reasons why Mr Edwards was spared jail, including his mental health, low risk of reoffending and no previous convictions.
You can read the full article here.
Emily Thornberry says she is ‘really concerned’ about deadly Lebanon pager attack
Chair elect of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Emily Thornberry said she is “really concerned” about an attack in Lebanon that killed at least nine people, including members of the militant group Hezbollah, and injured more than 2,000.
Speaking on Sky News’ breakfast programme, she said: “We are really concerned about what is happening now in Lebanon. I think the big question is: why? Why is this happening now? And what will the result of that be?
“It seems to be yet another escalation of the conflict which is happening in the Middle East which will affect all of us. And it is very worrying indeed, of course it is, and what the response will be. And is this the first step, and what will Israel do next? Is it part of a larger plan?
“It is very worrying and I would certainly be expecting Israel’s friends to be speaking very seriously to them, and saying: ‘What on earth are you doing? Why is this happening now?”
Football regulator plans will not risk England’s place in UEFA, Keir Starmer insists
The Independent’s Archie Mitchell reports:
Football regulator plans will not risk England’s place in UEFA, Keir Starmer insists
The prime minister said he was ‘sure’ ministers could ‘find a way through’ in talks with governing body UEFA
Watch: No more cuddly Lib Dems as Ed Davey vows to ‘consign Tories to history books’
The Independent political correspondent Archie Mitchell delivers his analysis of Sir Ed's keynote speech
No more cuddly Lib Dems as Ed Davey vows to ‘consign Tories to history books’
Sir Ed Davey's speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton on Tuesday, 17 September, touched on the need to fix Britain's broken relationship with Europe - but the party leader did not go as far as many of the party’s Europhile activists would like. Sir Ed called for measures such as a return to the single market and a free movement scheme for young people but stopped short of promising to campaign to reverse Brexit, as his predecessor did in the 2019 election. Here, The Independent political correspondent Archie Mitchell delivers his analysis of Sir Ed's keynote speech.
Jenrick repeats call for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed
Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has urged the government to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, describing it as the “world’s chief sponsor of terror”.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: “David Lammy told how Labour’s government would ban the IRGC, again and again. Now, he tells us climate change is a bigger threat.”
Mr Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced sanctions against more than 400 IRGC-affiliated people and entities earlier this month, and said he will soon introduce further regulations to “bolster existing bans on the export of goods and technology significant to Iran’s production of drones and missiles”.
Mr Jenrick was among Conservatives who called for the organisation to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, but then-foreign secretary Lord Cameron said in April that such a move “would effectively end diplomatic relations” with Iran and would in many way weaken Britain’s hand.
“When it comes to delivering a very direct message to the Iranians... I want to have that conversation myself, I don’t want to ring up my French counterpart and say ‘could you message the Iranians with this message?’,” Lord Cameron said at the time.
Lady Starmer ‘accepted gift of Taylor Swift tickets'
The row over Sir Keir Starmer’s acceptance of tens of thousands of pounds-worth of gifts has continued this morning, as The Telegraph reported that his wife Lady Victoria accepted free Taylor Swift concert tickets.
While the pair were photographed attending the singer’s Eras tour at Wembley Stadium in June, it is alleged that Lady Victoria – and several cabinet members – also acceped free tickets to another of the star’s concerts in August.
Wes Streeting, Darren Jones and Bridget Phillipson also declared their tickets and they have appeared on their register of member’s interests.
Although it is within the rules for MPs to accept gifts and tickets, Sir Keir has been facing questions over the numerous gifts he has accepted after initially failing to declare a £5,000 donation from ex-Asos chair Lord Waheed Alli to pay for dresses for his wife.
His register of interests shows the PM accepted some £65,000 in tickets in the nine months to May. He has previously said that he requires hospitality tickets to watch Arsenal play football as he is now unable to sit in the stands without security.
Rwanda plan was worse than transporting convicts to Australia, says John Major
Former Tory prime minister Sir John Major has lambasted the scheme pursued by Rishi Sunak’s government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as “un-Conservative, un-British ... and unconscionable”.
Sir John told the BBC he had not made any public pronouncements for some time because he found little to like about the last Tory government, describing the plans first set in motion by Boris Johnson to fly asylum-seekers to East Africa as worse than the 18th century deportations of convicts to Australia.
And, in a devastating assessment of Brexit, he agreed with former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair that far from reducing immigration as promised by Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and others, it had in fact increased immigration and replaced Europeans with more people from other parts of the world.
Our political editor David Maddox has more in this report:
Tory Rwanda plan was worse than transporting convicts to Australia, says John Major
Migrants Scheme Proposed by Boris Johnson was ‘unConservative and unBritish’ says former PM. ‘At least felons sent to Australia in 1800s had a trial,’ he adds. Major also attacks ‘reckless’ Tories who want party to merge with Reform UK and says Nigel Farage should be banned from joining the Conservatives.
Ed Davey says he would like to see Kamala Harris defeat Trump
Sir Ed Davey said he would like to see Kamala Harris defeat Donald Trump at the US election in November.
People who are “decent, kind, united” are “the true patriots in our country”, the Liberal Democrat leader told delegates and activists at the Lib Dem conference Brighton.
Sir Ed added: “Conference, we will never stop applauding our patriots in our country. Conference, these are the values our politics needs now, more than ever to resist the rise of the extremists - not just at home but around the world too.
“With Vladimir Putin waging his brutal war in Ukraine, with the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on October 7, hostages still held captive, the continuing illegal occupations, and the threat of regional escalation, with the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency.
“How I hope and pray to see Kamala Harris defeat him this November. At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail: decency, compassion, community, respect for the rule of law.”
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