Early evening summary
Two criminals including a foreign sex offender have been mistakenly freed days after the UK justice secretary, David Lammy, brought in stronger checks for jails. The Tories criticised Lammy after he repeatedly refused to acknowledge that a foreign offender had been released in error when the Tories raised the issue at PMQs. But the Conservatives wrongly claimed that the foreign prisoner released by mistake from Wandsworth prison had been an asylum seeker, which turned out to be untrue.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said that Labour could learn lessons from Zohran Mamdani victory in the New York mayoral election. In an interview with the News Agents podcast, Streeting said:
There are a few things that struck me following Mandani’s campaign all the way through.
The first is that authenticity is the most powerful currency in politics at the moment. I think there’s such a lack of trust in politics and politicians that that authenticity that he showed throughout the campaign, really, really matters.
The second is that hope is a more powerful force than fear. So, throughout the campaign, he had to contend with lots of attacks on his character, his faith, as a Muslim in public life - there is no shortage of that challenge here in Britain, I’m afraid, too. And he withstood those attacks, and actually, in some ways, hung a lantern on the issues that he was going to be attacked on …
And the third one, because I think this is absolutely applicable to the UK right now, a ruthless message discipline on cost of living, a constant focus on it. It was a part of every single bit of digital output I saw, and was at the heart of his policy offer. And that is a really big issue for us here in the UK at the moment as well.
So, I think those are the sorts of things that we ought to be looking at, and progressives internationally will be looking at.
But Zarah Sultana, the MP who was elected Labour but who is now setting up a leftwing party with Jeremy Corbyn, posted this in response to a tweet from Streeting welcoming Mamdani’s victory.
Your Labour Party would have already expelled him lol
Sultana and her colleagues, who are closer to Mamdani’s politics, were elated by his win. (See 9.56am.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Updated
MPs vote to restore day one protection from unfair dismissal in employment rights bill following Lords defeat
MPs have voted to restore protection from unfair dismissal from day one of a worker’s employment in the employment rights bill.
The Lords passed an amendment to remove day one rights when peers debated the bill last week, but today MPs voted to take the Lords amendment – and four other anti-government clauses inserted by peers.
It was the latest stage in the “ping pong” process where a bill that has almost finished its passage through parliament shuttles between the Commons and the Lords until the final disagreements are resolved. This ritual normally ends with peers giving way to the Commons, after they feel they have made their point.
In the Commons Angela Rayner, who introduced the bill when she was deputy PM and housing secretary, defended the principle of day one rights. She said:
Day one protection from unfair dismissal will not remove the right of businesses to dismiss people who cannot do their job or pass a probation, but it will tackle cases of unfair dismissal, where hard-working employees are sacked without a good reason.
A six-month qualifying period threshold still leaves employees exposed to dismissal without good reason in the early months of a new job.
I cannot believe the party opposite thinks in this day and age we should dismiss people unfairly. I don’t understand it.
On this side of the house, we believe workers deserve fairness, dignity and respect at work, and they deserve it from day one on the job.
All five Lords defeats were overturned with majorities of around 150.
