Summary of the day …
The first minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, is facing fresh turmoil after Plaid Cymru ended its cooperation agreement with the Labour-led government in Wales. Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid leader, said he was deeply concerned that Gething had refused to hand back a £200,000 donation for his successful leadership campaign from a company whose owner was convicted of environmental crimes. The cooperation agreement was due to conclude at the end of the year. The decision will make it harder for the government to operate as it does not have an overall majority in the Senedd.
Jeremy Hunt has said further tax cuts are on the way in the autumn as he attempted to draw the battle lines for the next election by painting the Conservatives as tax-cutters and Labour as intending to raise tax. Rishi Sunak has repeatedly attacked Labour for not having “a plan” but the Conservatives today released a dossier saying Labour had a £38bn black hole in its costings and would have to raise tax to fund its policies.
In response, a Labour spokesperson said it was a “desperate attempt by the Tories to deflect from their £46bn unfunded tax plan” to abolish national insurance which Labour claims “could lead to higher borrowing, higher taxes on pensioners or the end of the state pension as we know it”. Hunt said it was “disgusting” and “fake news” that Labour were trying to scare pensioners by misrepresenting the policy which, he said, “we will only deliver it when it can be afforded.”
The chancellor also said the UK will look at the national security implications of a bid for Royal Mail by the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, but indicated ministers were not opposed to the takeover in principle.
David Lammy has said the next election is a chance to “turn the page on the post-Brexit rancour” in the UK’s relationship with the EU after a “messy divorce”. He said an incoming Labour government would “approach those conversations in a positive manner”.
James Cleverly has again defended Rishi Sunak’s policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying it is “robust” despite what the home secretary declared was a “concerted effort” to prevent the policy going into operation.
The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry has confirmed that Jane MacLeod, who was general counsel at the Post Office from 2015 to 2019 at a time when the Bates v Post Office Ltd case was ongoing is not cooperating with the inquiry and will not appear as a witness.
A private member’s bill from Labour’s Emma Lewell-Buck that would make it easier for pubs to open for extended hours to celebrate national or local events is closer to becoming law, after it received an unopposed third reading in the Commons today.
Conservative peer Lord Kulveer Ranger, who was ennobled in Boris Johnson resignation honours list, is set to be banned from House of Lords bars for a year and from the chamber for three weeks after he was found to have bullied and harassed two people while drunk.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has said more than 500 of its members will walk out on strike from their Border Force officer posts at Heathrow airport on 31 May-2 June.
The personal fortune of Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, has increased by £120m in the run-up to the next general election, figures have revealed
The Paternity leave (bereavement) bill, which has already cleared the Commons and has support from both government and opposition benches, has passed its second reading in the House of Lords. It would grant paternity leave to fathers who lose their partner in childbirth.
It would close a loophole in law where an employee could find themselves denied paternity leave if their partner died in childbirth, despite the fact they would have a new baby and possibly other children to care for.
PA Media reports Labour peer Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent, who has sponsored the Bill in the Lords said:
You know that your only responsibility is now to the baby that you are holding as you try to keep going, just for them. But there are funerals to arrange, grief to try and manage, if that is even possible, paperwork to tackle and some form of plan to build about how you’re going to raise your new child without the love and support of your partner.
Everything takes time and work is the last thing on your mind – until you realise that, because you started a new job in the last four months, you have no rights to enhanced paternity leave.
So rather than up to a year to try and get yourself straight, you have a matter of days, and those are at the discretion of your boss.
This is not a time when someone needs their employer’s discretion, it is not a time when you want to think about anything other than getting through the day. This is a time when you need to fall back on a legal safety net, to know that you can take the time to focus on rebuilding your shattered life.
