13 h. ago Scotland 'should consider' following Australia and ban social media ban for under

EXCLUSIVE: A Scottish Labour MP said "we shouldn’t waste time arguing about whether to follow suit" if the Australian social media ban is proven to work.

Politics

33 h. ago Angela Rayner fuels Labour leadership frenzy as she forces Starmer to speed up workers' rights overhaul with swipe at 'wasted time'

Ministers have agreed that the Employment Rights Bill will be implemented from January 2027 instead of October that year.

Politics

6 d. ago Keir Starmer visits Scotland with six months to save his leadership amid Scottish Labour unrest

Scottish Labour failing to snatch power at May’s Holyrood election could spark the end of the Prime Minister’s leadership.

Politics

6 d. ago Keir Starmer visits Scotland with five months to save his leadership amid Scottish Labour unrest

Scottish Labour failing to snatch power at May’s Holyrood election could spark the end of the Prime Minister’s leadership.

Politics

8 d. ago It’s under fire from left and right – but Labour’s workers' rights bill is a huge achievement | Polly Toynbee

It makes no sense for union leaders to cry betrayal when it will be their members who benefit from these sorely needed reformsThe wall of sound shouting “liar” at the chancellor is a bizarre Westminster frenzy. Stand back from the hysteria and ask this question: how can Rachel Reeves be accused of raising more money than necessary when there is still pitifully little to go round in every department at her cabinet table? It’s a weird Tory ramp that she lied about a black hole when we can see it everywhere in the real world. She could have raised more.As the prime minister, Keir Starmer, pleads the case for all that was Labour-flavoured in the budget, the week also brought a breakthrough for Labour’s flagship employment rights bill. Shamelessly stymied by the Lords’ Tory majority, the government watered down a clause on so-called day-one rights that would have given workers protection from unfair dismissal from the day they walked into a job. That legal right will now kick in at six m...

Economics

1 week ago Budget has preserved Starmer’s job until at least May elections, say Labour MPs

While some call budget ‘tactical victory’, few MPs believe it is enough for Labour to beat ReformUK politics live – latest updatesLabour MPs have said they believe Keir Starmer’s leadership is safe until at least the May elections, after a budget that avoided any major damaging measures but which few MPs believe will revive the party’s fortunes.More than a dozen previously loyal MPs told the Guardian they did not believe the budget would shift the fundamentals required for the party to beat Reform. “It only delays what is inevitable,” one minister said. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago I'm 24 and last year, full of hope, I voted Labour for the first time. Now I feel so betrayed... and sure as hell won't back Starmer again: CHARLOTTE AMBROSE

Last summer, I walked into the rugby club of my hometown in the Cotswolds - not to watch a game or enjoy a pint, but to vote in the General Election.

Politics

2 w. ago Has Rachel Reeves made the right calls in this budget? Our panel responds | Polly Toynbee and others

After a tumultuous run-up to a make-or-break moment for the government, has the chancellor struck the right balance? Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago The shameful attacks on the Covid inquiry prove it: the right is lost in anti

There is nothing wrong with questioning the mighty cost of the lockdowns, but we can’t let hardline libertarians rewrite Britain’s pandemic historyThat number will stay fixed for ever in public memory: 23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time. As Covid swept in, and with horrific images of Italian temporary morgues in tents, he went on holiday and took no calls. With the NHS bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus, he rode his new motorbike, walked his dog and hosted friends at Chevening.Nothing is surprising about that: he was ejected from Downing Street and later stepped down as an MP largely for partying and lying to parliament about it. Everyone knew he was a self-aggrandising fantasist with a “toxic and chaotic culture” around him. But this is not just about one narcissistic politician. It’s about his entire rightwing coterie of libertarians and their lethally dominant creed in the UK media.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continu...

Events

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves urges Labour MPs to back her Budget as she vows not to let critics ‘beat me’

The chancellor looked to rally the Labour troops, vowing she’ll still be chancellor in two years’ time if they back her plans for the economy

Politics

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves vows to be Chancellor in two years time as she pleads for Labour unity head of Budget

Chancellor calls for unity as she speaks in front of restive backbenchers ahead of the Budget

Politics

2 w. ago The minimum wage is not a cure all — we’re asking too much of business

Politicians spend too much time uttering cheap rhetoric about cheap labour

Politics

2 w. ago Labour MPs face a serious dilemma on asylum seekers – but this is not the way out of it | Polly Toynbee

The party sees its harsh policies as politically necessary. But what happened to talking up the value of migrants for a thriving economy and society?This is how Labour MPs see it. They face brutal dilemmas and miserable choices. How to manage our asylum system is one of the worst. Through their constituency work, they will have met refugees with tragic stories of war and fear, of terrifying journeys across the world, of gangsters on night-time beaches. But MPs’ experience of hearing those heart-rending stories clash head-on with what they see as political necessity, demanding they block their ears and harden their hearts. A life in politics is not for the squeamish.Wes Streeting, a practising Christian, yesterday writhed while answering questions on LBC radio about the home secretary’s tough plans for deterring small boat arrivals. The flavour of his reply reflected how many on Labour’s benches feel. Confronted with the government’s intention to deport more families with children – ...

Events

2 w. ago Labour's Bridget Phillipson insists she's 'taking the time to get this right' after ministers are accused of delaying publication of new trans guidance due to fears of a backlash

The women and equalities minister said she is considering 'thoroughly and carefully' a draft code of practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR).

Politics

3 w. ago Now is not the time for a Labour leadership election | Polly Toynbee

The focus should be on talking up this government’s achievements so far – and preventing a Reform victoryThe dominant political force sweeping across Europe is the “throw the bastards out” party, whoever happens to be in power. Discontent and distrust spread as global democracy declines. Only 6.6% of the world’s people live in a full democracy, according to the Economist’s global index, down from 12.5% 10 years ago. Europe is still the most democratic place, but it’s turbulent.Britain is an insular country that needs reminding it is not alone in its political turmoil after an omnishambles week for Keir Starmer’s government. The rumbling earthquakes beneath No 10 also shake the ground under the Élysée Palace and other official residences. A number of European countries have thrown out old governments in the past three years, including Finland, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK (Starmer is Britain’s sixth prime minister in less than a decade)...

Politics

3 w. ago Keir Starmer vows he'll lead Labour into next election as he slams 'wasted' time on rows

The Prime Minister hit out at time-wasting rows over party leadership and said bearing down on cost of living pressures clobbering families was his top priority

Politics

3 w. ago British schools to get polling stations as kids set to vote during lessons

British teens could soon vote for the first time as Labour plans to modernise elections with mobile polling booths in schools, extended voting days, and new “hubs” in busy spots

Politics

3 w. ago Scottish Labour source calls for Keir Starmer and "puppet master" Morgan McSweeney to leave No. 10

Senior party figures fear defeat in the Holyrood election unless there is a change of leadership.

Politics

3 w. ago Future Boy by Michael J Fox review – secrets from the set of a definitive 80s movie

The actor’s account of his big Hollywood break – and how it almost never happenedMichael J Fox has already eked out four books of Hollywood memoir, so the justification for a fifth – written with longtime collaborator Nelle Fortenberry – ought to be good. It is: the subject of these 176 pages is a three-month period in 1985 when Fox was simultaneously shooting his breakout sitcom role in Family Ties and the career-defining American classic, Back to the Future.That’s two more-than-full-time jobs for one little guy, necessitating that the then 23-year-old actor work 20-hour days, six days a week. This schedule was only possible because the mid-1980s was a time before showbiz labour laws caught up with basic human decency. These days, we’re told, a standard contract “demands two weeks of buffer time on either side of a job”, while Fox didn’t even get an hour. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Starmer was never meant to be Labour’s prime minister – his leadership was doomed from the start | Neal Lawson

His alliance with the party’s anti-Corbyn faction was a shotgun marriage that totally lacked vision. Now Labour is paying the priceWes Streeting was always meant to be their Labour prime minister. The plan, hatched by a tiny clique of rightwing faction fighters, was this: find a candidate on whom they could fake a continuation Corbynism project to win the leadership. Then kick the ladder away from the people who backed them and the promises they made. At the next general election, given the scale of the Tory majority after 2019, get Labour back in the ring with more MPs and then hand over to Streeting. The real grownups would then be in charge and the subsequent election would be secured.But no one reckoned with Covid, Tory turmoil and the collapse of the SNP. Suddenly Keir Starmer wasn’t going to just lead Labour to a better defeat and a springboard for victory next time. Against the odds, he was going to win. Just as Jeremy Corbyn was Labour’s accidental leader in 2015, Starmer wa...

Politics