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Reform UK on track for clear wins in Better Lincolnshire and Hull/East Yorkshire mayoral contests, ballot suggests
There are six mayoral elections subsequent week. Two of them are for single-authority mayors (Doncaster and North Tyneside), however the others are for combined-authority mayors (or regional mayors – like metro mayors, however not simply masking metropolis areas). As we speak YouGov has launched polling masking all 4 of those contests and it suggests Reform UK is on track to win two of them simply. And the Inexperienced get together is narrowly forward in a 3rd, the ballot suggests.
Listed below are the polling figures.
Better Lincolnshire – Reform UK forward by 15 factors
Andrea Jenkyns, the previous Tory MP, is the Reform UK candidate right here, and that is the place Nigel Farage’s get together was thought to have its finest likelihood of a mayoral win. Sam Freedman has a great abstract of the competition in his invaluable native elections preview on his Substack weblog.
In principle the Tories must be successful in Lincolnshire as they maintain a lot of the parliamentary seats within the space and have dominated native politics endlessly. However it’s additionally probably the most Reform-friendly a part of the nation. It accommodates Richard Tice’s constituency and quite a few seats during which they got here second. Plus their candidate is a former Tory MP – Andrea Jenkyns, well-known for her Boris Johnson obsession and making a center finger gesture at a crowd outdoors Downing Avenue. She is, by all accounts, fairly a number of sandwiches in need of a picnic however, nonetheless, is powerful favorite to win. Massive chunks of native Conservative events, together with a number of councillors, have already defected.
Hull and East Yorkshire – Reform UK forward by 14 factors

Like Better Lincolnshire, it is a new mixed authority, which means there haven’t been elections for this mayoral submit up to now. Once more it was seen as a Reform UK goal, however the polling suggests Luke Campbell, a former Olympic boxer, is on track to win simply.
West of England – Inexperienced get together forward by 4 factors

It appears the West of England mayor must be answerable for 1 / 4 of the nation, however in reality this mayoralty simply covers authorities in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North East Somerset. Labour received it final time, however the outgoing mayor has been arrested over rape and little one abuse allegations. The Greens are robust in Bristol, the place Carla Denyer, the co-leader, is an MP, and a victory within the mayoral contest can be a signficant breakthrough for the get together.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – Conservatives forward by 12 factors

When this submit was final contested, the Conservative candidate was forward after the primary poll however the Labour candidate was elected as a result of the opposite voters have been redistributed and the Lib Dem votes carried him over the road within the second spherical. The Conservatives then scrapped this voting system (the supplementary vote) for mayoral elections and changed it with first-past-the-post. There are some Labour MPs who would would love the federal government to revert to the supplementary vote. However, if these YouGov figures are proper, even the supplementary vote wouldn’t essentially safe Labour victory right here, as a result of the mixed Tory/Reform UK vote is bigger than the mixed Labour/Lib Dem/Inexperienced vote.
Key occasions
Carla Denyer, the Inexperienced get together’s co-leader, has backed NHS guidelines to be modified to make it simpler for homeless individuals to get fundamental eye care. Because the Large Problem stories, talking at an occasion hosted by the charity Imaginative and prescient Take care of Homeless Individuals, she mentioned:
Persons are being denied one thing as fundamental as a pair of glasses. It’s absurd – and utterly fixable …
If somebody is lastly capable of converse to a GP, get a watch check, or ask for glasses, they shouldn’t be turned away. These are modest asks. We all know methods to repair it. We simply want the political will.
The charity is asking for homeless individuals to be eligible totally free eye assessments and glasses.
SNPs MPs fail in bid to get Commons to vote on invoice devolving immigration coverage to Scottish parliament
SNP MPs tried, and failed, at the moment to get the Commons to vote for a invoice that will devolve management of immigration coverage to the Scottish parliament.
Proposing his devolution (immigration) (Scotland) personal member’s invoice, Stephen Gethins mentioned that migration was a “good factor”, however that “poison” had entered the nationwide debate on this.
Gethins mentioned:
This invoice at the moment is a method of offsetting a number of the injury that’s been performed by a hostile atmosphere, by Brexit – which I’m astonished day and each day that the Scottish Labour get together proceed to endorse – and let me discuss in regards to the Scottish care system, the present UK immigration system.
All of us will profit from the care system in some unspecified time in the future – all of us. And we’ll all have family members to have benefited, so I believe their voice is a very pertinent one.
The present UK immigration system is failing the social care sector in Scotland. The latest rule adjustments, notably the ban on dependents which has had a big effect on different sectors as nicely, and the incompatible improve within the minimal wage threshold, exacerbate present recruitment challenges and pose important dangers to the sustainability in supply of the care providers.
The invoice will go no additional by means of the Commons as a result of it ran out of time, with the second studying debate nonetheless carrying on at 2.30pm. An SNP bid to pressure a second studying vote was defeated by 50 votes to 12.
Starmer faces Labour revolt over plan to raid financial institution accounts of profit claimants
Keir Starmer is dealing with a rebel over his plan to make use of direct deductions from individuals’s financial institution accounts and the cancellation of driving licences as a part of a authorities crackdown on welfare fraud and over-claiming, Daniel Boffey stories.
No 10 says it needs to maneuver on from ‘arguments of the previous’ because it doesn’t deny speaking to EU about youth mobility scheme
On the Downing Avenue foyer briefing the No 10 spokesperson was additionally requested in regards to the proposals for some type of youth mobility scheme with the EU. Particularly, he was requested why Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cupboard Workplace minister, was telling MPs that there have been “no plans” for such a scheme yesterday (see 9.20am), when the German ambassador advised the As we speak programme this morning that he was optimistic about one being agreed (see 10.07am).
The spokesperson mentioned he wouldn’t give a working commentary on negotiations which might be going down. However he didn’t repeat the road in regards to the authorities having “no plans” for a youth mobility scheme.
He additionally mentioned:
Each side are discussing a variety of points, which is solely regular for any negotiation.
I don’t assume we might have been clearer that this isn’t about returning to the EU, however we is not going to be outlined by the debates and arguments of the previous.
What we might be outlined by is placing extra money within the pockets of working individuals and offering Britain with long-term stability and safety.
The road in regards to the “arguments of the previous” could possibly be learn as which means Keir Starmer doesn’t need talks in regards to the youth mobility scheme to be paralysed by considerations about whether or not or not it will quantity to “free motion” (which after all it wouldn’t).
Requested if the federal government can be completely satisfied to return to what in follow can be a youth mobility scheme, simply as long as it was known as one thing totally different, the spokesperson simply repeated the purpose about not desirous to be drawn on the main points of the discussions.
The Liberal Democrats are a bit extra enthusiastic than No 10 about endorsing what Rachel Reeves advised the BBC in regards to the UK’s buying and selling relationship with the EU. (See 2.47pm.) However they need the federal government to go additional. That is from Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy chief and Treasury spokesperson.
The chancellor is totally proper that our buying and selling relationship with Europe is extra necessary, however the authorities’s strategy thus far exhibits these are little greater than empty phrases.
This authorities has bent over backwards to appease Donald Trump however barely lifted a finger to unleash progress by boosting commerce with Europe.
It’s time for the federal government to get severe about our buying and selling relationship with Europe by ripping up the purple tape from the botched Brexit deal, agreeing a capped youth mobility scheme and negotiating a UK-EU customs union. That’s the method we are able to lastly generate the expansion wanted to rebuild our public providers and defend household funds.
No 10 restates Starmer’s declare that favouring both EU or US can be ‘false alternative’
On the Downing Avenue foyer briefing the No 10 spokesperson was requested about Rachel Reeves’s remark in regards to the UK’s buying and selling relationship with the EU being “arguably much more necessary” than its buying and selling relationship with the the US. (See 9.20am.) The Telegraph’s reside weblog is presently headlining on No 10 “refusing to again” Reeves’ declare in regards to the EU being extra necessary than the US. That’s actually one interpretation, however the PM’s spokesperson did say Reeves was simply making an announcement of reality.
He additionally restated Keir Starmer’s argument about selecting between the EU and the US being a “false alternative”.
That is how the exchanges on the briefing began. They provide some indication of why No 10 is all the time nervous of claiming something that may sound like ‘Brexit betrayal’.
Q: Does the PM agree with Rachel Reeves that Britain’s relationship with the EU is extra necessary than with the US? In response, the No 10 spokesperson mentioned that it was an announcement of incontrovertible fact that the EU was our largest buying and selling, however that the PM thought having to decide on between the EU and the US was a “false alternative”.
Q: Why would Reeves say that simply earlier than assembly the US treasury secretary? The No 10 spokesperson mentioned it was an announcement of reality. He repeated the purpose in regards to the ‘“false alternative”.
Q: So was Reeves improper to say the EU was extra necessary? The No 10 spokesperson mentioned that was not what he mentioned. The truth that the EU was the UK’s largest buying and selling associate was “a matter of public document”, he mentioned. The EU and the US have been each necessary, he mentioned.
Q: Was this expectations administration, as a result of you recognize you’ll not get what you need from the US? No, mentioned the No 10 spokesperson. He mentioned the talks with the US have been persevering with.
The Solar newspaper is presently working a “Don’t Betray Brexit” marketing campaign, and the Every day Specific, the Every day Mail and the Every day Telegraph broadly take the same view. It a courageous situation to marketing campaign on, provided that solely 11% of individuals assume Brexit has been successful, however I suppose on the Guardian we shouldn’t be lecturing anybody else on adopting retro causes.
These are from Ben Walker, a Britain Elects co-founder and knowledge journalist on the New Statesman, on social media on the YouGov polling for the Better Lincolnshire mayoral contest. (See 12.41pm.) He thinks Reform UK supporters are rather more motivated to vote than anybody else.
1) wow, 2) doubtless some spectacular differential turnout. Reform voters are psyched up. The remaining… aren’t.
On these votes that’d be management of Lincolnshire county council too.
No 10 says ‘all choices stay on desk’ amid stories PM backing off plans to ship troops to Ukraine as a part of peace deal
Keir Starmer is more likely to abandon plans to ship British troops to Ukaine as a part of a “coalition of the keen” pressure to guard the nation within the occasion of potential peace deal, the Instances says at the moment. In her story, Larissa Brown says:
Britain is more likely to abandon plans to ship 1000’s of troops to guard Ukraine as a result of the dangers are deemed “too excessive”, it may be revealed.
In an obvious softening of plans, Britain and Europe would not have a floor pressure guarding key cities, ports and nuclear energy crops to safe the peace …
A supply concerned in discussions a few “coalition of the keen” mentioned of plans for a pressure of tens of 1000’s of floor troops: “The dangers are too excessive and the forces insufficient for such a activity. This was all the time the UK’s thought. It was France who wished a extra muscular strategy.”
On the Downing Avenue foyer briefing, requested if the PM was rowing again on his pledge to place British troops on the bottom within the Ukraine, a No 10 spokesperson mentioned he didn’t “recognise” the Instances report. “All choices stay on the desk,” he mentioned.
Requested whether or not troops being deployed can be depending on the US providing a “backstop” to a peace deal, the spokesperson he mentioned he wouldn’t give a working commentary on talks. He added:
Because the prime minister has mentioned in latest days, we’re working carefully with the US. We’re all focussed on ending the bloodshed and securing a long-lasting peace for Ukraine.
Former TV govt David Kogan confirmed as chair of Unbiased Soccer Regulator
The Division for Tradition, Media and Sport has now confirmed that the TV govt David Kogan is its most popular candidate to be chair of the brand new Unbiased Soccer Regulator. As Jacob Steinberg stories, Kogan, who has had a collection of senior posts within the media and sports activities, has additionally donated to Labour candidates, and was chair of the LabourList web site.
The Conservative get together has dismissed him as a Labour “crony”. Louie French, the shadow sports activities minister, mentioned:
This deeply political appointment calls into query the regulator’s capacity to function with the impartiality followers deserve. It’s yet one more instance of a Labour authorities extra excited by rewarding its donors than serving the general public curiosity.
LabourList is on the lookout for a alternative.
Reform UK on track for clear wins in Better Lincolnshire and Hull/East Yorkshire mayoral contests, ballot suggests
There are six mayoral elections subsequent week. Two of them are for single-authority mayors (Doncaster and North Tyneside), however the others are for combined-authority mayors (or regional mayors – like metro mayors, however not simply masking metropolis areas). As we speak YouGov has launched polling masking all 4 of those contests and it suggests Reform UK is on track to win two of them simply. And the Inexperienced get together is narrowly forward in a 3rd, the ballot suggests.
Listed below are the polling figures.
Better Lincolnshire – Reform UK forward by 15 factors
Andrea Jenkyns, the previous Tory MP, is the Reform UK candidate right here, and that is the place Nigel Farage’s get together was thought to have its finest likelihood of a mayoral win. Sam Freedman has a great abstract of the competition in his invaluable native elections preview on his Substack weblog.
In principle the Tories must be successful in Lincolnshire as they maintain a lot of the parliamentary seats within the space and have dominated native politics endlessly. However it’s additionally probably the most Reform-friendly a part of the nation. It accommodates Richard Tice’s constituency and quite a few seats during which they got here second. Plus their candidate is a former Tory MP – Andrea Jenkyns, well-known for her Boris Johnson obsession and making a center finger gesture at a crowd outdoors Downing Avenue. She is, by all accounts, fairly a number of sandwiches in need of a picnic however, nonetheless, is powerful favorite to win. Massive chunks of native Conservative events, together with a number of councillors, have already defected.
Hull and East Yorkshire – Reform UK forward by 14 factors
Like Better Lincolnshire, it is a new mixed authority, which means there haven’t been elections for this mayoral submit up to now. Once more it was seen as a Reform UK goal, however the polling suggests Luke Campbell, a former Olympic boxer, is on track to win simply.
West of England – Inexperienced get together forward by 4 factors
It appears the West of England mayor must be answerable for 1 / 4 of the nation, however in reality this mayoralty simply covers authorities in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North East Somerset. Labour received it final time, however the outgoing mayor has been arrested over rape and little one abuse allegations. The Greens are robust in Bristol, the place Carla Denyer, the co-leader, is an MP, and a victory within the mayoral contest can be a signficant breakthrough for the get together.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – Conservatives forward by 12 factors
When this submit was final contested, the Conservative candidate was forward after the primary poll however the Labour candidate was elected as a result of the opposite voters have been redistributed and the Lib Dem votes carried him over the road within the second spherical. The Conservatives then scrapped this voting system (the supplementary vote) for mayoral elections and changed it with first-past-the-post. There are some Labour MPs who would would love the federal government to revert to the supplementary vote. However, if these YouGov figures are proper, even the supplementary vote wouldn’t essentially safe Labour victory right here, as a result of the mixed Tory/Reform UK vote is bigger than the mixed Labour/Lib Dem/Inexperienced vote.
Residence Workplace unveils plan to extend fines for tech bosses who fail to take away knife crime content material
Tech corporations and particular person executives face being collectively fined as much as £70,000 every time a submit referring to knife crime isn’t eliminated for his or her websites, PA Media stories. PA says:
The federal government has expanded a beforehand introduced plan to superb particular person tech bosses £10,000 when their platform fails to take away content material linked to knife crime, and can now situation extra fines of as much as £60,000 to an organization itself every time it fails to take away particular person posts.
The Residence Workplace mentioned the sanctions are a part of plans to fight content material that advertises unlawful knives and different offensive weapons to younger individuals, in addition to glorifying or inciting violence.
The legal guidelines will even make a better vary of platforms liable, together with search engines like google and yahoo, social media platforms and on-line marketplaces, with the intention of capturing all on-line suppliers which could presently be failing to take away content material.
They are going to be launched in an modification to the crime and policing invoice.
The Residence Workplace has additional particulars of the announcement in its information launch.
Council gender hole more likely to worsen if Reform UK do nicely, specialists say, as a result of greater than 75% of their candidates male
A profitable consequence for Reform UK in subsequent week’s native elections will deliver down the proportion of ladies in native authorities, an educational research suggests.
Researchers on the College of Essex says that Reform has been worse than any of the opposite essential events at choosing ladies to be council candidates and that this might lead to native authorities changing into extra male than it already is.
Hannah Bunting, who runs the the college’s elections centre, mentioned:
Reform have decrease ranges of feminine candidates (lower than 1 / 4) than the Conservatives (not fairly 30%). The Greens and Labour are at over 40% total and LibDems, Others/Indys and native events hitting the 30-33% mark.
The introduction of widespread Reform candidates, and notably in the event that they win, has widened the gender hole.
This varies by native authority, however Reform have lower than a fifth (20%) of ladies standing for them in 9 councils. In Doncaster that is 15% and in Leicester 11%. Labour are almost 50/50 in Cornwall and Doncaster, the Greens hitting that in Doncaster and really shut in Nottinghamshire.
However Bunting mentioned, on the plus facet for gender equality, there may be at the very least one lady standing in each mayoral contest subsequent week.
In accordance with the Native Authorities Info Unit, 59% of councillors in England are males.
There have been council byelections yesterday. Andrew Teale wrote an in depth information to all 4 contests on his wonderful Substack weblog. And Britain Elects has posted the outcomes on its Bluesky feed.
Listed below are the figures, as reported by Britain Elects.
Lib Dem maintain in West Berkshire
Liberal Democrat HOLD
Thatcham North East (West Berkshire) council by-election consequence:
LDEM: 41.1% (-14.8)
CON: 25.5% (+0.1)
REF: 21.9% (+21.9)
GRN: 7.6% (-11.0)
LAB: 3.9% (+3.9)
+/- 2023
Estimated turnout: ~29% (-6)
SNP maintain in Fife
SNP HOLD Glenrothes Central and Thornton (Fife) council by-election consequence:
SNP: 47.6% (-1.1)
LAB: 21.5% (-6.4)
REF: 17.9% (+17.9)
LDEM: 6.9% (+2.9)
CON: 6.1% (-5.9)
No Grn (-3.7) as prev.
+/- 2022
Labour maintain in Suffolk
Labour HOLD St John’s (Suffolk) council by-election consequence:
LAB: 28.0% (-19.7)
GRN: 21.4% (+13.6)
REF: 20.6% (+20.6)
LDEM: 15.1% (+9.8)
CON: 14.9% (-24.4)
+/- 2021
Reform UK achieve from impartial in Arun in West Sussex
Reform GAIN from Unbiased Marine (Arun) council by-election consequence:
REF: 26.0% (+26.0)
LDEM: 25.2% (-1.0)
LAB: 20.1% (+0.2)
CON: 16.3% (-0.2)
GRN: 9.8% (+9.8)
IND: 2.6% (-34.8)
+/- 2023
Estimated turnout: ~25% (-13)
Keir Starmer spoke to Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, to precise his condolences in regards to the terrorist assault in Kashmir on Tuesday, Downing Avenue mentioned. A No 10 spokesperson mentioned:
The prime minister started by saying he was horrified by the devastating terrorist assault in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, which noticed the tragic lack of 26 harmless lives.
He expressed his deep condolences on behalf of the British individuals to all these affected, their family members and the individuals of India.
Water firm bosses threat jail in the event that they cowl up unlawful sewage spills underneath legislation now in pressure, Defra says
Water firm bosses resist two years in jail in the event that they cowl up unlawful sewage spills underneath new legal guidelines coming into pressure, PA Media stories. PA says:
The Division for Surroundings, Meals and Rural Affairs (Defra) mentioned no jail sentences have been handed to water firm executives since privatisation regardless of widespread unlawful sewage discharges, and the more durable penalties have been important as a result of some companies have obstructed investigations.
Surroundings secretary Steve Reed mentioned: “Bosses should face penalties in the event that they commit crimes. There should be accountability. From at the moment, there might be no extra hiding locations.”
The transfer, a part of the Water (Particular Measures) Act 2025, comes within the face of widespread public fury over the degraded state of the nation’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters and at a scarcity of funding in water infrastructure, rising payments, excessive dividends and debt and govt pay and bonuses.
Defra argues that the brand new legal guidelines introduced in to imprison water firm executives will act as a robust deterrent.
Till now, regulators have confronted obstruction from corporations of their efforts to collect proof for prosecutions on unlawful sewage spills.
Regardless of obstruction being a felony offence, solely three water firm officers have been prosecuted by the Surroundings Company with out enchantment, and the utmost punishment was a superb – though no fines have been issued.
Defra has full particulars of how the legislation has been tightened in its information launch.
German ambassador to UK says he’s optimistic about prospects of youth mobility cope with EU
Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK, was requested on the As we speak programme this morning if he thought the EU would comply with a youth mobility scheme with the UK with numbers capped. In accordance with a Instances report, this appears to be the place the negotiations are heading. (See 9.20am.) Berger mentioned that this was a matter for the negotiations, however he added:
I’m now fairly optimistic that we’re transferring in a great course.
And he mentioned that yesterday’s assembly between Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that “very severe” preparatory work was underway forward of subsequent month’s UK-EU summit.
For Germany, a key situation was getting safety and defence settlement between the UK and the EU, Berger mentioned. He mentioned there had been a shift in pondering because the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ultimately, I believe everyone understands that that is about our safety in Europe. It requires cooperation between democracies, pals, allies, international locations with the identical values.
The geopolitical circumstances have modified in a method that there isn’t any different possibility than an in depth cooperation.
Ukraine will get nothing in Trump’s proposals for peace, says Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson has issued stern criticism of Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace proposals in considered one of his first obvious censures of the US president, saying underneath his phrases the Ukrainians would “get nothing”, Jessica Elgot stories.
UK and EU need post-Brexit reset deal to be ‘as bold as doable’, No 10 says
Good morning. Keir Starmer repeatedly says it’s pointless, and improper, for Britain to decide on between nearer hyperlinks with the US or with Europe. It’s a clumsy place for a lot of on the left who consider {that a} alternative between a rustic underneath irrational, authoritarian management, and an alliance of liberal democracies, must be a no brainer. The Conservatives need the UK to decide on the US.
However there are indicators that, behind Starmer’s boilerplate rhetoric, his administration is making a alternative. Listed below are three in a single day developments pointing in that course.
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Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has mentioned the UK’s buying and selling relationship with the EU is “arguably much more necessary” than its relationship with the US. She made this remark in a BBC interview from Washington, the place at the moment she is assembly her US counterpart, Scott Bessant. Reeves advised Faisal Islam:
I perceive why there’s a lot give attention to our buying and selling relationship with the US however truly our buying and selling relationship with Europe is arguably much more necessary, as a result of they’re our nearest neighbours and buying and selling companions.
Clearly I’ve been assembly Scott Bessent this week while I’m in Washington, however I’ve additionally this week met the French, the German, the Spanish, the Polish, the Swedish, the Finnish finance ministers – as a result of it’s so necessary that we rebuild these buying and selling relationships with our nearest neighbours in Europe, and we’re going to try this in a method that’s good for British jobs and British shoppers.
In a single respect, it is a completely mundane factor to say. The one controversial factor about it must be Reeves’s use of the phrase “arguably”, as a result of saying that commerce with the EU is extra necessary than commerce with the US is only a assertion of reality. (They aren’t even shut; on all measures, the EU commerce is far bigger.) However it’s nonetheless uncommon to listen to a Labour minister discuss like this provided that the federal government is generally very nervous about sounding remainy, and the assertion considerably undermines Starmer’s ‘false alternative’ argument.
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The UK and the EU appear more and more near agreeing some type of youth mobility scheme. Ministers don’t like utilizing the time period as a result of they fear Brexiters will affiliate it with free motion. “A youth mobility scheme isn’t a part of our plans,” Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cupboard Workplace minister answerable for post-Brexit relations with the EU, advised MPs yesterday. However a report within the Instances at the moment says “there may be rising assist amongst authorities ministers for a youth mobility scheme”. Yvette Cooper, who as residence secretary is targeted on lowering internet migration, had been seen as a blocker. However the Instances says she is now open to a scaled down youth mobility scheme, resembling a “one in a single out” model. It says:
Authorities sources insisted that Cooper was now supportive in precept of the plan so long as it was “capped” to make sure that there could possibly be no return to pre-Brexit freedom of motion.
One possibility can be to restrict numbers in order that the full variety of younger Europeans coming to reside and work within the UK didn’t exceed the variety of British individuals going to Europe. One other chance can be to set a proportionate cap with an outlined restrict annually.
-
Downing Avenue has mentioned that Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen need the UK-EU post-Brexit reset, which is because of be agreed at a summit subsequent month, to be “as bold as doable”. Starmer and von der Leyen met in No 10 yesterday, and final evening a No 10 spokesperson issued this readout.
[Starmer and von der Leyen] had an extended and productive dialogue targeted on a spread of points together with Ukraine, vitality safety, the worldwide economic system, and defence …
Discussing the continued negotiations to strengthen the UK-EU partnership, they each agreed that good progress had been made. They requested their groups to proceed their necessary work within the coming weeks, with the intention of delivering as bold a bundle as doable on the first UK-EU summit subsequent month.
The prime minister was clear that he’ll seize any alternative to enhance the lives of working individuals in the UK, drive progress and maintain individuals secure – and he believes a strengthened partnership between the UK and the EU will obtain this.
Downing Avenue readouts are usually boring to the purpose of meaninglessness and so for No 10 to say that the dialog was “lengthy and productive” virtually implies ‘get a room’ ranges of cordiality. And the road in regards to the deal being “as bold as doable” is tantalising in its implications.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK chief, might be campaigning with Luke Campbell, his get together’s candidate for mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, in Hull. Later they are going to be in Beverley.
9.30am: MPs debate personal members’ payments, beginning with Stephen Gethins’ devolution (immigration) (Scotland) invoice.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is campaigning in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire.
11.30am: Downing Avenue holds a foyer briefing.
Morning: Carla Denyer, the Inexperienced get together’s co-leader, is campaigning in Dartford in Kent.
Afternoon: North Kesteven district council is anticipated to rule on a declare that Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns can’t be a candidate for Better Lincolnshire mayor as a result of the tackle the place she is registered to vote within the constituency isn’t her essential residence.
4pm (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is assembly the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.
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