A note to say I'm now on maternity leave until the end of the year 🐣
No doubt politics will have calmed down by then!
In the meantime, follow the ace @lexytopping.bsky.social who has joined the Guardian lobby team while I'm off
Exc: The UK-US pharma deal announced this month still has no underlying text beyond some headline terms
Ministers warn that our deals with Donald Trump are "built on sand"
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
EXC: Keir Starmer is poised to choose a new US ambassador from a shortlist of three as relations with Donald Trump are tested
Varun Chandra, the No10 business adviser, Christian Turner, due to be ambo to UN, and Nigel Casey, ambo to Russia, were interviewed by the PM this week
As we reported last week - Keir Starmer is appointing 25 Labour peers in a bid to strengthen his hand in the Lords
His former director of comms Matthew Doyle and Rachel Reeves's outgoing chief of staff Katie Martin are among them
EXCL: The UK is hoping to secure an agreement within weeks to rejoin the EU’s flagship student mobility programme, as part of a drive to pursue closer relations with Brussels after a setback on defence @ecourea.bsky.social & @kiranstacey.bsky.social report www.theguardian.com/education/20...
💥 NEW: ‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school
“He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right,’ or ‘Gas them,’ sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers".
Read on for more...
www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...
Some Labour insiders think Team Starmer were following the Brownite playbook… but the outcome was significantly different. Great piece by @ecourea.bsky.social & co
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Come for the intro from Damian McBride's Power Trip:
Our read on the relationship between Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and Wes Streeting after this week's extraordinary briefing war 👇
Why did it all kick off? How did it go wrong? And what longer-running rifts has it exposed?
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Would there be a lease? They bought the site in 2018 so they own it outright
Exclusive: Boris Johnson approved China’s super-embassy proposal in 2018 — and welcomed the fact it was “China’s largest overseas diplomatic investment” anywhere in the world
He made a commitment it would be built alongside the new British embassy in Beijing
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
EXC: Conservative MPs have complained to party whips over Katie Lam's remarks that many legal immigrants should be deported to make the UK “culturally coherent”
“It’s either dog-whistle or it’s so vague it’s meaningless,” one Tory MP said
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
EXC: Lucy Powell urged ministers to reconsider legal action against a developer in her seat founded by a Labour donor
Powell wrote to Rayner on behalf of Urban Splash after bumping into Tom Bloxham at a fundraiser
She said she was acting as a constituency MP
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
There is an organised group of residents - the Royal Mint Court Residents' Association - that has been very vocally against the project from the start and has led opposition to it in submissions to the local planning inquiry. I do recognise this doesn't apply to all residents
EXC: China threatened to retaliate against the UK govt if ministers targeted parts of its state under foreign influence rules
Chinese officials warned the FCDO the move would have negative consequences for relations after we reported it was being considered
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
My read on the 7-year-long Chinese embassy saga at Royal Mint Court
— How Chinese officials sought to overturn the council's refusal behind the scenes before ministers intervened
— Residents are preparing to seek a judicial review if the government approves it
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
EXCL: Rachel Reeves is set to lift the two-child benefit limit in the budget with officials exploring options of a new tapered system.
The Treasury is exploring if it might instead be limited to three or four children – or whether there could be a tapered rate.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
"OUTRAGE AS FARAGE THREATENS MASS DEPORTATION OF LEGAL IMMIGRANTS"
Full Story: t.ly/IBk_I
@ecourea.bsky.social for @theguardian.com
#NigelFarage faces condemnation after threatening thousands of #LegalImmigrants with #deportation.
#TheGuardian
#TomorrowsPapersToday
#IBPAPERS
Migration minister Mike Tapp shudders as Peter Mandelson's emails to Epstein are read out to him on BBC Breakfast
He says they are "disturbing" but that we should consider Mandelson's statement expressing regret
He says the PM retains confidence in him "as far as I know"
Shabana Mahmood's promotion to home secretary is at the centre of this reshuffle
Read my profile of her from this summer👇
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
How a shrug from Donald Trump moved the UK's position on Palestine:
— Trump comments on Monday gave Starmer the green light
— Policy inc. conditions on Israel drafted largely by Jonathan Powell
— Senior govt figures privately say all roads lead to recognition
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
EXC: Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers to move faster on recognising Palestine
Angela Rayner and Yvette Cooper are understood to be among ministers who believe the UK should take the lead on Palestinian statehood
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Back in action from today after three gorgeous weeks in Puglia and Sicily
EXC: China is considering lifting the sanctions it imposed on UK parliamentarians in 2021 in the latest sign of warming relations between London and Beijing
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
He sent it anyway while driving to Stalybridge with his wife. Lutnick rang him straight away and said: "Johnny, I got your message. I don't know what it means"
The signal was so bad Reynolds was missing every 5th word and was worried he would accidentally agree to sell the NHS
Great anecdote from trade sec Jonathan Reynolds over lunch with lobby journalists
His first WhatsApp message to US commerce sec Howard Lutnick was drafted through a cross-Whitehall process and the result was "something no human being would send or be able to understand"
UK and Gibraltar close to post-Brexit agreement on border with Spain
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
EXC: UK officials are hopeful the US will begin implementing the deal to reduce tariffs this week
The aim is to secure a proclamation from Donald Trump in the coming days. Officials expect tariffs on cars to be reduced first, before steel/aluminium
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
