77 m. ago Starmer says welfare concessions are ‘common sense’ but dodges funding question – UK politics live

No 10 has offered significant concessions to the rebels amid fears over Tuesday’s voteNo 10 climbs down over welfare billStephen Kinnock, the care minister, was the government voice on the airwaves this morning. Here are the main points he made about the welfare bill U-turn.Kinnock rejected claims that the U-turn was a sign of weakness. When it was put to him on the Today programme that this move, coming after the U-turns on winter fuel payments and a national inquiry into grooming gangs, showed that if Keir Starmer was pushed, he would give in, Kinnock replied:I think if you talk to people out there in the country, they respond very positively to politicians listening, engaging, recognising that you don’t get everything right from day one every time, and making the adjustments and the changes that are needed.And this prime minister will always put the country first. He puts country before party, and he does the right thing for the country.He defended having a “staggered” approach t...

Politics

2 h. ago Reeves 'set to raise taxes' to fund Starmer benefits surrender: PM says he is 'pleased' after Labour revolt forces guarantee that NO

Keir Starmer claimed he had 'listened' in making major concessions to rebels threatening to kill flagship legislation on health and disability benefits.

Economics

2 h. ago Scots charity says Labour welfare cuts will 'rip gaping holes' in support for vulnerable

Citizens Advice Scotland has criticised the welfare reforms as well as the last minute changes to the bill

Politics

2 h. ago Reeves expected to freeze income tax thresholds to raise fresh funds

Government’s U-turn on welfare cuts leaves chancellor with a growing hole in her budgetBusiness live – latest updatesRachel Reeves is expected to extend a freeze on income tax thresholds to raise fresh funds after the government’s U-turn on welfare cuts left her with a growing budget hole.The chancellor was already facing pressure to backtrack on pledges not to increase taxes further as she attempted to fix public services and grow the economy while meeting her fiscal rules. Continue reading...

Economics

2 h. ago Suspend UK from oil oversight body over protests crackdown, say campaign groups

Groups question UK membership of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative after actions of successive governmentsA coalition of civil society groups is calling for the UK government to be suspended from a key global body that oversees how oil and gas companies are run.The campaigners say Keir Starmer’s Labour party has overseen a “fossil-fuel sponsored crackdown” on peaceful protest and direct action in the UK since it came to power last year. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Starmer’s ‘cruel’ welfare cuts must be voted down despite concessions, say charities

‘We urge MPs to stand firm against a bill that continues to discriminate, harm, and marginalise’, said Amnesty International

Politics

3 h. ago I'm NOT a huge lefty! Attorney General Lord Hermer dismisses claims he 'defends those who hate Britain' and hits out at 'two

Lord Hermer, who was hand-picked to be the Government's chief legal adviser by Sir Keir Starmer, defended himself from Tory attacks over his past client list.

Events

3 h. ago Keir Starmer admits he 'deeply regrets' his 'island of strangers' immigration remark

Keir Starmer said he and his advisors were unaware of similarities between his words and Enoch Powell's vile Rivers of Blood speech - saying he said it hours after his family home was targeted by arsonists

Politics

3 h. ago Labour in ‘good place now’ on welfare, Kendall insists after Government U

Number 10 offered concessions in a late-night climbdown to head off Sir Keir Starmer’s first Commons defeat.

Politics

4 h. ago Voices: Starmer’s welfare humiliation is a turning point for his government

The prime minister had no choice but to give in to Labour rebels on disability benefits – but this rebellion has been handled particularly badly, and I doubt he will see out this parliament, says John Rentoul

Politics

4 h. ago Keir Starmer says he 'deeply regrets' his 'island of strangers' warning about risks of uncontrolled immigration

Keir Starmer made the jibe in a speech last month, seen as marking a tough new approach to combat the political threat posed by Reform.

Events

5 h. ago All PIP and Universal Credit cuts being scrapped as Keir Starmer makes huge U

The government has made an offer to rebel Labour Party MPs over its controversial welfare reforms - and these are the likely changes that are expected to be made

Politics

5 h. ago Starmer says he ‘deeply regrets’ using ‘island of strangers’ phrase

The Prime Minister said he had been ‘really shaken up’ after an alleged arson attack on his family home hours before the speech.

Politics

5 h. ago Putin warns Keir Starmer 'I majored in law' as he claims UK has 'robbed' Russia

Russia President Vladimir Putin is seemingly playing a game of 'I'm a bigger lawyer than you' with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, despite not actually doing anything law-related for decades

Events

6 h. ago All the Labour MPs who forced PIP change as PM warned welfare fight isn't over

Keir Starmer has been warned he still faces a showdown to push through controversial welfare changes as critics warned a string of concessions are 'nowhere near enough'

Events

7 h. ago If Britain is broken, what is to blame – big money and big tech, or graffiti on your train? | Tom Whyman

A new cadre of agit-prop campaigners has been cleaning the London underground, but there is more to the political stunt than meets the eyeBritain, let’s face it, is crap. Crap, I mean, in quite a specific sense: we might not be teetering on the brink of civilisational destruction, as the post-Brexit right can often seem to think. But there nonetheless remains a vast, ambient sense of rubbishness. Everything is expensive but nothing works. Our streets are full of potholes; our houses are full of mould. All the shops are shut, except for a Tesco Express, where there are security tags on the eggs. It takes about a million years to build a railway line.Up to now, the response to Britain’s enshittification has, by and large, seemed remarkably fatalistic: Keir Starmer spent the first year in government repeatedly insisting that there just wasn’t any money, and so really nothing could be done. Thank God then, one might think, for Looking for Growth, a new campaign group led by young (well,...

Politics

8 h. ago Reeves 'set to raise taxes' to fund Starmer benefits surrender that will not strip ANYONE of their handouts and blows another hole in UK finances

Keir Starmer has handed major concessions to rebels in a desperate bid to salvage flagship legislation on health and disability benefits.

Economics

9 h. ago No 10 climbs down over welfare bill in move to win over Labour rebels

Compromises include exempting those currently receiving disability benefits and increasing health element of universal credit in line with inflationDowning Street has announced major changes to the welfare bill in an attempt to win the support of more than Labour 120 rebels who had threatened to vote against it next week and hand Keir Starmer a damaging first defeat as prime minister.Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, wrote to Labour MPs on Thursday night to lay out the concessions, which were thrashed out over 24 hours of negotiations between senior rebels and government officials. Continue reading...

Economics

10 h. ago Keir Starmer caves in to Labour rebels with huge welfare cuts climbdown to avert humiliating Commons vote defeat

In a letter to MPs, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall revealed personal independence payments will be protected

Politics

11 h. ago Another tragic fact about this disastrous welfare bill: it proves Labour hasn’t learned and doesn’t listen | Polly Toynbee

From cabinet members to the British public, there is an outcry about these benefits cuts. Why is the government always so poor at reading the room?This disaster bill won’t pass on Tuesday. The dangerous obduracy of the prime minister and chancellor confirms precisely what Labour MPs say: they haven’t listened, they aren’t listening and the fear is they won’t learn to listen. Even if the bill squeezed through with some softening, it will be a pyrrhic victory. Why take such a risk for so little? U-turns are better than crashes, but best not left to the last nanosecond.Senior ministers, some of whom have already spoken up in cabinet, will put their feet down firmly to insist on radical alteration, or better still that it’s withdrawn and rethought to avoid what they call “this catastrophe”. If niceties of parliamentary practice escape some, understand how extraordinary this rebellion is. Read their “reasoned amendment” with its crushing reasons why.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist ...

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