Closing summary
The UK’s largest teaching union has called Reform UK “far-right and racist”, and its leader has dismissed Nigel Farage as “a poundshop Donald Trump,” as the union pledged funds to oppose the party’s candidates in elections. Delegates to the National Education Union’s annual conference backed a motion stating that “far-right and racist organisations, including Reform, seek to build on the despair, poverty and alienation in our society by scapegoating refugees, asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and others who do not fit their beliefs”.
Nigel Farage has said Reform UK’s are “parking their tanks on the lawns of the ‘red wall’” in a speech ahead of May’s local elections in England. He claimed that Labour had become a middle-class party and abandoned the roots it was founded for, saying “our support is coming directly from people who have been, in many cases, lifelong Labour voters. “Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the ‘red wall’”, he said. “Today’s the first day I’ve said that but I absolutely mean it, and we’re here, and we’re here to stay. And the evidence is that people who are switching to us, this is not a short term protest. They actually believe in us.”
The business secretary has refused to rule out redundancies at the Scunthorpe steelworks, despite calls from trade unions to end the programme of job losses started by its former owners. Jonathan Reynolds said on Tuesday the plant might need to have a “different employment footprint” after the government’s takeover, even as he promised to try to save the plant’s two blast furnaces.
Foreign secretary David Lammy has said it is “morally wrong” to give up and turn away from the violence in Sudan, and committed the UK government to £120m worth of additional support. Opening a conference on the topic at the Foriegn Office in London, he said he personally had “refused to turn away”, saying it was wrong for people to “conclude that further conflict is effectively inevitable” because of “the country’s fraught history.”
Business and trade minister Sarah Jones has insisted that funds to rescue the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe has already been budgeted for, and is “within the existing fiscal envelope”. Speaking on Tuesday morning on Times Radio, the Labour MP for Croydon West said: “We have been really clear on steel that securing the future of the site in Scunthorpe is not just important for the 2,700 people who work there, but also because we know that demand for steel in the UK is growing. We know there’s a market there.”
Ed Davey has called on China to release the tapes of the interrogation of a Liberal Democrat MP who was denied entry to Hong Kong to visit her family. The party leader also urged foreign secretary David Lammy to summon the country’s ambassador to Britain to demand an explanation for Wera Hobhouse’s deportation, saying the UK should not be “kowtowing” to Beijing.
Ministers have announced an overhaul of the way carer’s allowance overpayments are checked in an attempt to fix the failing system which has left thousands with life-changing debts,fines and criminal records. In a significant policy change, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been ordered to hire extra staff to investigate 100% of the carer’s allowance earnings breach alerts it receives and swiftly notify carers if they are at risk of falling into debt.
Keir Starmer’s Labour party faces a very difficult electoral test in the bellwether Scottish parliament seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in June, after Reform UK confirmed Nigel Farage will make a rare campaigning visit to Scotland. It emerged today a byelection will be held there on 5 June after the unexpected death last month of its widely respected MSP, Christina McKelvie, who had held the seat for the Scottish National party for 14 years. McKelvie, who had been fighting secondary breast cancer, had already announced she would stand down before the Holyrood elections next year.
UK government refuses to rule out redundancies at Scunthorpe steelworks
The business secretary has refused to rule out redundancies at the Scunthorpe steelworks, despite calls from trade unions to end the programme of job losses started by its former owners.
Jonathan Reynolds said on Tuesday the plant might need to have a “different employment footprint” after the government’s takeover, even as he promised to try to save the plant’s two blast furnaces.
Reynolds was speaking during a visit to Immingham docks to oversee coal and iron ore being unloaded on its way to the Scunthorpe plant. The government took control of the plant after finding out its Chinese owner, Jingye, was attempting to sell the supplies and hasten the closure of the furnaces.
“What we need for the long-term future of British Steel is that private sector partner to work with us as a government on a transformation programme,” Reynolds said.
