Labour MPs should realise welfare system ‘wants reform’, says Reeves – UK politics reside | Politics
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Labour MPs should realise welfare system ‘wants reform’, says Reeves
Labour MPs should realise the welfare system wants reform, Rachel Reeves has mentioned, as greater than 40 MPs have written to the prime minister urging him to pause and reassess deliberate cuts to incapacity advantages (see 10.33am BST).
Requested what her message to Labour MPs frightened in regards to the welfare cuts was, the chancellor informed broadcasters:
I don’t assume anyone, together with Labour MPs and members, assume that the present welfare system created by the Conservative celebration is working at the moment. They know that the system wants reform. We do must reform how the welfare system works if we’re going to develop our financial system.
However crucially, if we’re going to elevate folks out of poverty and provides extra folks the possibility to fulfil their potential, the main target has acquired to be on supporting folks into work.
In fact, in case you can’t work the welfare state should all the time be there for you, and with this authorities will probably be. However there are lots of folks which can be trapped on advantages which can be determined to work, which were minimize out of alternative for too lengthy. That may change below this authorities.
Key occasions
US-UK commerce deal has saved jobs at Jaguar Land Rover, says Mandelson
Lisa O’Carroll
The UK’s restricted commerce take care of the US has instantly prevented job losses at Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) plant within the West Midlands, Britain’s ambassador to the US has mentioned.
“This deal has saved these jobs,” Peter Mandelson mentioned in an interview on CNN. “That’s a reasonably large achievement, in my opinion, and I’m very happy that the president has signed it.”
Authorities sources mentioned JLR had plans for imminent cuts amongst its 30,000 employees in Solihull however had not knowledgeable unions within the hope {that a} take care of the US might be struck to remove the 25% tariffs on exports of vehicles to the US.
Donald Trump’s import taxes had threatened to cripple British high-end carmakers earlier than they have been diminished from 27.5% to 10% in a deal introduced on Thursday by Trump and Keir Starmer, with JLR solely final week resuming exports to the US after a 30-day pause after the US president’s announcement of tariffs final month.
Authorities insiders confirmed the choice to go for a fast deal whereas they may, saying what they mentioned was a breakthrough settlement to remove tariffs on automobile and metal exports.
“It was essential to us to have the ability to financial institution the progress that we had made at this stage,” mentioned an insider.
The UK enterprise secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, informed the BBC’s Newsnight programme on Thursday that the UK was liable to hundreds of individuals shedding their jobs within the automotive sector inside days, with one senior authorities insider indicating the job losses would have been at JLR.
AESC to construct second Sunderland gigafactory after securing £1bn funding
Lauren Almeida
Japan’s AESC has introduced it is going to construct a second gigafactory in Sunderland to provide electrical automobile batteries, after it secured a £1bn debt funding deal backed by a £680m assure from the UK authorities.
The Nationwide Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance, each state our bodies, will present monetary ensures that unlock the £680m in financing for the battery maker. An additional £320m in debt funding will come from non-public financing in addition to new fairness from the enterprise.
The £1bn funding will fund constructing and working of the brand new plant in Sunderland, which is predicted to make use of greater than 1,000 folks and energy as much as 100,000 electrical automobiles a yr.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who was in Sunderland for the announcement, mentioned the deal would increase British industries’ resilience and encourage development. “This funding in Sunderland is not going to solely additional innovation and speed up our transfer to extra sustainable transport, however it is going to additionally ship much-needed top quality, well-paid jobs to the north-east, placing extra money in folks’s pockets,” she mentioned.
The enterprise secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, described the funding as “yet one more vote of confidence within the north-east’s thriving auto manufacturing hub”.
The information got here only a day after the UK and the US agreed a commerce deal that dramatically diminished Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports of vehicles, aluminium and metal.
The “absolute focus” of leaders of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Pressure (JEF) is supporting Ukraine and defending values that have been laborious received through the second world struggle, Keir Starmer mentioned.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a part of the JEF summit just about on Friday morning, the prime minister confirmed.
Chatting with broadcasters throughout a go to to HMS St Albans navy frigate in Oslo port, Norway, Starmer was requested what the message from leaders was to Russia and China as Chinese language president Xi Jinping attended Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.
Based on the PA information company, Starmer mentioned:
The message of leaders right here may be very, very clear, and that’s that we’re targeted on Ukraine. We’ve been with Nato allies right here in Norway.
[President] Zelenskyy got here in just about to a part of that assembly. So our focus is on Ukraine with our European allies. In fact, at the moment we additionally introduced our greatest ever sanctions package deal in opposition to the Russian shadow fleet.
Actually essential work, once more, mentioned with our allies this afternoon.
And in order that’s the place our absolute focus is – with Ukraine, defending the values that yesterday at VE Day, we have been remembering and commemorating, that have been hard-won within the second world struggle.
The prime minister has declined to rule out adjustments to the digital providers tax as a part of a future commerce take care of the US.
Chatting with broadcasters on board HMS St Albans throughout a go to to Norway, Keir Starmer mentioned:
The deal that we signed off yesterday doesn’t cowl that.
That’s predominantly targeted on metal and aluminium and lowering these tariffs on automobile manufacturing and lowering the tariffs there, after which future proofing for prescribed drugs, three actually essential sectors, and that, as I say, can be measured in hundreds and hundreds of jobs that can be protected, saved, and can thrive on account of this.
On digital providers, there are ongoing discussions, clearly, on different points of the deal, however the essential factor to deal with yesterday is the sectors that are actually protected that the day earlier than yesterday have been very uncovered.
Plaid Cymru would deal with “deep issues throughout the NHS in Wales”, in addition to schooling, financial stagnation and poverty, ought to it’s the celebration that leads the following Welsh authorities, Rhun ap Iorwerth mentioned.
The subsequent Senedd election will see Welsh voters use a brand new proportional system to decide on their representatives. Fourty 9 seats can be required for an outright majority, with the Senedd being expanded to 96 members.
The earlier system had an “in-built bias in the direction of Labour”, the Plaid Cymru chief mentioned.
Ap Iorwerth added:
That adjustments with the brand new electoral system that we’ve in Wales, and it’s a real case that wherever persons are in Wales, the votes that they forged will contribute in the direction of who may be main that authorities subsequent yr, Plaid Cymru is placing itself ahead because the celebration to steer that authorities.
And if folks need that, they’ll have it with me as first minister, the primary non-Labour first minister, setting a unique route for governments in Wales.
Events in Wales are prone to should cooperate after the YouGov ballot revealed on Tuesday (see 2.08pm BST), the Plaid Cymru chief mentioned, however he continued to rule out a “formal relationship” with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Ap Iorwerth added:
We now have two conservative events in Wales now: the Conservative celebration, and the Tories on steroids that Reform are: the pro-Thatcher, the pro-Liz Truss, the pro-Trump political celebration that works in opposition to the pursuits of staff, that works in opposition to the pursuits of companies in Wales.
I simply don’t assume that’s the politics that’s within the pursuits of Wales.
Welsh IndyRef ‘completely may occur in our lifetime’, says Plaid Cymru chief
A referendum on Welsh independence may “completely” be held inside “our lifetime”, Plaid Cymru’s chief has mentioned, reviews the PA information company.
Rhun ap Iorwerth didn’t draw back from suggesting his celebration would be the main political power in Wales aftera ballot which predicts Plaid Cymru can have the most important vote share within the 2026 Senedd elections.
Plaid Cymru is projected to be the most important celebration within the Senedd after the result of the election, with about 30% of votes and 35 seats within the Siambr, in line with a YouGov ballot revealed on Tuesday. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK can be the second largest celebration, with 25% of votes, in line with the ballot.
The Plaid Cymru chief dominated out holding a referendum on Wales leaving the UK within the first time period of a Plaid Cymru-led Welsh authorities, when chatting with the BBC’s Walescast this week. He has beforehand declined to place a timeline on a referendum, after Plaid’s final chief Adam Worth promised such a vote inside 5 years.
However ap Iorwerth informed the PA information company a referendum may kind a part of a Plaid Cymru authorities’s platform for the longer term, as soon as it has constructed belief with the Welsh voters.
“The important thing factor is it’s as much as the folks of Wales. And I’ve many instances mentioned that I’d have independence tomorrow, however it’s not what I believe that issues,” ap Iorwerth informed PA. He added:
It’s what the folks of Wales imagine, and I completely assume we will have that referendum and set us off on a unique route as a rustic inside our lifetime.
Ought to Plaid Cymru pursue such a referendum in future, it will be prone to want help from different events in Cardiff Bay and at Westminster, which is unlikely to be forthcoming.
Libby Brooks
The thinktank Reform Scotland is holding a captivating occasion this lunchtime on the rise of Reform UK north of the border.
Pollster Mark Diffley identified that Reform UK continues to ballot round half of what it does in the remainder of the UK, however this received’t essentially undermine the affect they may have at subsequent Might’s Holyrood elections.
He estimates Reform UK may win about 10% of MSPs subsequent yr and emphasises “full change in tradition and context” this may carry to the Scottish parliament.
Ailsa Henderson, the Edinburgh Uni professor who runs the Scottish Election research, underlines how deeply unpopular Nigel Farage himself is in Scotland – solely Trump is much less widespread with Scots – but additionally that there’s area for a rightwing celebration amongst an voters that’s each small ‘c’ conservative however hate the Conservative celebration.
She provides that the SNP have completed lots of Reform UK’s groundwork for them, with their fixed messaging in regards to the failure of the Westminster establishment.
There was some query of whether or not lack of Scottish figurehead mattered, given how profitable the celebration has been in tapping into anger and disillusion.
The panel additionally mentioned the probability of Reform UK’s success in English native elections bringing the celebration extra into the mainstream in time for Holyrood and Senedd elections subsequent yr.
Labour ‘throwing trans folks below the bus’ says transgender councillor
Libby Brooks
Considered one of Labour’s solely transgender councillors has resigned from the celebration, accusing it of “throwing trans folks below the bus”.
In a put up on X on Friday morning, Dylan Tippetts, who has represented Compton ward on Plymouth metropolis council since 2022, wrote: “I can’t proceed to symbolize a celebration that doesn’t help my elementary rights. I can’t as a trans individual proceed to help the Labour celebration.”
Tippetts, who was the primary Labour councillor to symbolize the world, will now sit as an impartial and confirmed he wouldn’t search re-election.
He mentioned: “The Labour celebration nationally has thrown transgender folks below the bus and has taken us backwards many years. Everybody deserves the fitting to reside peacefully, and the Labour celebration continues to disclaim transgender people who fundamental proper.”
Tippett’s resignation comes after senior authorities figures, together with Keir Starmer, welcomed the “readability” offered by the supreme court docket’s ruling on organic intercourse.
Britain’s most senior statistician has stepped down citing “ongoing well being points”, amid criticism over flaws in latest financial knowledge.
Sir Ian Diamond confirmed he has resigned as head of the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) with rapid impact.
He mentioned: “It has been an honour and a privilege to steer the ONS over the previous five-and-a-half years and I’ve been immensely pleased with the outstanding position that impartial statistics and knowledge have performed in informing the crucial choices of the day.
“Sadly I’ve made the choice that, resulting from ongoing well being points, I’m unable to offer the dedication to the position of nationwide statistician that I want to and really feel that it’s the proper time for someone else to choose up the baton.”
It comes amid criticism from politicians and Financial institution of England officers over potential inaccuracies in a few of the ONS’s financial knowledge, significantly its labour market survey knowledge.
Downing Road has declined to rule out adjustments to the digital providers tax as a part of a future settlement with the US, reviews the PA information company.
Requested whether or not adjustments to the tax can be on the desk in future negotiations, a Quantity 10 spokesperson mentioned:
The place on the digital providers tax stays unchanged.
Clearly, there are persevering with discussions and, as I say, that is the start of the method.
This deal marks solely the start. We’re persevering with talks on that wider financial deal which can have a look at rising digital commerce, which is an amazing alternative.
And that type of work on a digital commerce deal will strip again paperwork for British companies attempting to export to the US, opening up the UK to an enormous market that may measurably increase the UK financial system.
That deal additionally opens the best way to a future UK-US know-how partnership by which our science-rich nations will collaborate in key areas of superior know-how, for instance biotech, life sciences, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, aerospace and area.
Conservationists name for brand spanking new legal guidelines to make sure essential timber are ‘listed’ for defense
Conservationists are calling for brand spanking new legal guidelines to make sure essential timber are “listed” for defense, like historic buildings, after the Sycamore Hole trial.
The decision by the Woodland Belief to enhance safety for hundreds of timber which have essential ecological, cultural and historic worth comes after high-profile felling of landmark timber prompted public fury.
Two males have been discovered responsible of felling the “totemic” Sycamore Hole tree beside Hadrian’s Wall in September 2023, and the Forestry Fee is assessing the felling of a 400-year-old oak in Whitewebbs Park, north London, in April, certainly one of solely about 100 oaks of that measurement in Better London.
Based on the PA information company, the Woodland Belief mentioned that current protections equivalent to tree preservation orders and necessities for felling licences had limitations and exemptions, equivalent to the sort and site of timber protected, and referred to as for higher safeguards for the nation’s most valuable timber.
The charity needs the federal government to again a proposed regulation that might “record” heritage timber with distinctive historic, panorama, cultural or ecological significance, just like the best way historic buildings and monuments are listed or scheduled.
Below the heritage timber invoice, put ahead by Barbara Younger within the Home of Lords as a personal member’s invoice, a listing of such timber can be created and maintained by a statutory company. Timber on the record would have provisions making certain their safety, requiring landowners and occupiers to promote the tree’s standing and take steps to keep up and preserve it, and there can be extra or greater penalties for breaching new “heritage tree preservation orders”.
Adam Cormack, head of campaigns on the Woodland Belief, mentioned the proposed regulation would supply “a constant degree of safety, conservation and energetic stewardship for a listed group of timber”.
A number of thousand of crucial timber throughout England might be protected with the scheme, he mentioned, whereas completely different laws would should be handed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Eire. He highlighted work in Poland, the place a “inexperienced monuments” system preserves tens of hundreds of timber, and the same scheme in Romania.
Cormack additionally pointed to a survey after the felling of the Sycamore Hole tree, which discovered 88% of individuals supported laws to guard essentially the most priceless timber. He mentioned:
Particular timber present a dwelling backdrop to our nationwide historical past and tradition, in addition to the tales and lives of our native communities, however they’ve few authorized protections within the UK.
Different European nations have recognised this with laws in place to guard very outdated and essential timber for his or her immense ecological, cultural and historic worth.
His colleague, Jack Taylor, mission lead for woods below menace, added:
There’s a robust nationwide id behind historic and veteran timber.
We’re not one of the crucial wooded nations throughout Europe, however we do have a very sturdy inhabitants of historic and veteran timber, and that resonates with folks. While you see timber just like the Whitewebbs oak, it stops most individuals of their tracks.
Labour MPs should realise welfare system ‘wants reform’, says Reeves
Labour MPs should realise the welfare system wants reform, Rachel Reeves has mentioned, as greater than 40 MPs have written to the prime minister urging him to pause and reassess deliberate cuts to incapacity advantages (see 10.33am BST).
Requested what her message to Labour MPs frightened in regards to the welfare cuts was, the chancellor informed broadcasters:
I don’t assume anyone, together with Labour MPs and members, assume that the present welfare system created by the Conservative celebration is working at the moment. They know that the system wants reform. We do must reform how the welfare system works if we’re going to develop our financial system.
However crucially, if we’re going to elevate folks out of poverty and provides extra folks the possibility to fulfil their potential, the main target has acquired to be on supporting folks into work.
In fact, in case you can’t work the welfare state should all the time be there for you, and with this authorities will probably be. However there are lots of folks which can be trapped on advantages which can be determined to work, which were minimize out of alternative for too lengthy. That may change below this authorities.
On unacceptable care, Jim Mackey mentioned the service should “attempt to get past issues which have turn into a bit normalised over latest years that we’d by no means have accepted”.
He added:
Ten years in the past, we’d have by no means accepted outdated girls being on corridors subsequent to an [emergency] division for hours on finish and so they have turn into regular within the NHS.
We’ve acquired to get ourselves out of that, and everyone needs to get out of it.
He mentioned that even in locations “delivering excellence” there are “nonetheless issues occurring there which can be utterly unacceptable” as he mentioned that driving down variation would assist to enhance care.
Mackey continued:
There’s plenty of examples like that the place I believe we simply kind of regularly moved to a degree the place we’ve accepted issues that we should always probably not have accepted, and we have to cease accepting.
The laborious bit is what we do about it, most individuals know that, the concern is once they’re desensitised to it … it’s really not their drawback, they’ve discovered a means of strolling round it. Colleagues used to explain it as ‘studying stroll with a limp’.
Requested about independence from politicians, chief govt of NHS England mentioned:
I’ll don’t have any drawback telling anyone what I believe – if I’ve a view, I’m going to precise it, and if I believe one thing’s mistaken, I’m going to say it.
However I’m very assured in the best way that I’ve seen Wes work his political staff and the prime minister, that they really don’t need someone to only sit, simply go together with every little thing, and simply roll over and never say if they’ve a they’ve a view, and I’ll take that significantly.
Talking in regards to the demise of NHS England, Mackey additionally mentioned that it was “naive” to imagine an organisation which “is the most important client of public useful resource within the nation” might be politically impartial.
“I understood the logic on the time, I believe it was most likely, in hindsight, a bit naive to assume that we may make one thing politically impartial and fewer immediately managed by the political system for one thing that’s the greatest client of public useful resource within the nation,” he mentioned.
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