🚨 Wes Streeting gave speech outlining his performance on NHS & plans for future. Unofficial leadership pitch? @kiranstacey.bsky.social & I sat down with health secrto find out.
Plus patient (dis)satisfaction, Palantir & those Mandelson messages. Latest pod👇
www.theguardian.com/politics/aud...
Confusion at the heart of govt over its immigration reforms in the wake of Angela Rayner's criticism.
No 10 says it is out to consultation and can still be changed.
But the consultation is actually into just one bit - the changes to settled status.
EXC: Reform UK may have broken data privacy laws with its energy bills lottery, lawyers say.
To enter, you are asked how you voted at the last election and how you will vote at the next one.
But this has nothing to do with entering a competition…
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
'You don't need to meet your team, you're the PM' - Trump slams Starmer for being over-reliant on his advisers - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Too long. Leadmill Line?
Disappointed that my suggestion of the Root Route was ignored.
BREAKING: UK and EU negotiators are in a standoff over a push from Brussels to reduce university tuition fees for European students.
The row could derail the proposed Youth Mobility Scheme - and with it the PM's entire EU reset.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
BREAKING: Peter Mandelson has now been released from his bail conditions, after the Met decided he was no longer a flight risk.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
I, and my team, will continue to serve my constituents in the normal way as their Member of Parliament.
Following discussions with the Chief Whip, I am voluntarily suspending myself from the whip this evening and will not sit as a Labour MP until internal investigations are concluded. I will welcome and cooperate with any questions and worries the party may have.
I also do not want my children - who have nothing to answer for and who deserve privacy and compassion - to find themselves subject to intrusion.
I understand that speculation and gossip is fevered at a time like this. I do not want the circumstances that I and my family find ourselves in to be a distraction for this government, of which I am proud and in whom I believe.
I love my country. To serve the people of East Kilbride and Strathaven as their MP and the Labour Party has been - and continues to be - the privilege of my life.
This week has been the worst of my life. The shock of recent days has been difficult for me and my family.
I want to reiterate something very important: I am not under investigation by the police and no accusations have been against me. I have done nothing wrong.
NEW: MP Joani Reid resigns the Labour whip after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
She suggests “internal investigations” are now under way, but denies doing anything wrong.
FULL STATEMENT:
This big question now on Shabana Mahmood's migration plans is what she can do without needing the support of the Commons.
For her part, this is what the home secretary said on Thursday morning:
"If we don’t resolve these problems, others with none of our values will be given the chance to do so instead."
Stella Creasy: "I look forward to reading the NAO [National Audit Office] report and the inevitable Windrush-style scandal coming."
Sarah Owen: "The idea of deporting children mimics Trump’s ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention of children... This is the wrong direction politically and morally – as a party and as a country.”
Tony Vaughan: “You don’t win back public confidence in the asylum system by threatening to forcibly remove refugees who have lived here lawfully for 15 or 20 years. That just breeds insecurity and fractured communities.”
Shabana Mahmood has kicked off quite the internal Labour row with her proposals this morning to change the immigration system.
Here are a selection of quotes from Labour MPs:
Absolutely fascinating story by @chriscook.news and others about suspected insider trading just before the strikes on Iran.
Who knew war was coming? And did they try and profit from it?
www.ft.com/content/2883...
NEW: Mainstream, the Labour group which is supportive of Andy Burnham, has put out this statement:
“Our leader and sections of the NEC blocked the one candidate who could have won it for us. That decision now looks like a catastrophic error.
"We need an immediate and fundamental reset now."
Why this election result is the one those close to Keir Starmer feared the most:
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
41% no?
I've been waiting all week to talk to @johnharris1969.bsky.social about what he thinks of the govt's Send reforms, given he is a bona fide expert.
He surprised me in a number of ways with what he said. Well worth a listen:
www.theguardian.com/politics/aud...
Great story by Will Hazell at the i on ministers looking again at student loan repayments.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Struck by this paragraph in particular - how much of govt policy is dictated by the desire to stop people shouting at them?
And those who are not diagnosed are not simply "not at all autistic". That was the point I was trying to make.
I'm talking about cases where children have certain behavioural issues they need help with but don't meet the threshold for a diagnosis.
I think the whole point of our understanding of autism as a spectrum is that it is not a binary "you have it or you don't".
There are a number of factors that add up to a diagnosis, and lots of people display some of them but not enough to clear the threshold for a diagnosis.
