A summary of today's developments
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Here is a summary of today’s key developments:
Keir Starmer has pledged to take on Labour MPs and councils that try to block pylon networks delivering a planned new generation of clean electricity, as he promised the government’s plans would lower people’s bills in this parliament. Formally launching GB Energy, the state-run green energy generation company, one of his flagship policies, the prime minister said there was a need to move rapidly on new onshore and offshore wind because of what he called the last government’s inaction and short-termism.
Speaking on Thursday at a wind turbine factory on the edge of Widnes, Cheshire, Starmer set out the plan to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, part of a tie-up with the crown estate. In his speech, Starmer said he stands by the figure from Labour’s manifesto suggesting that the party’s net zero energy plans would bring down household bills by £300 a year.
Starmer said the “hard graft of rebuilding this country has truly started” as he accused the previous government of leaving a “rot of shortsightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up. Giving a speech on Thursday, the prime minister said “every day” his administration is finding “more mess” that the Tories left behind.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has said “it’s going to take time” for GB Energy to start making money. Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the House of Commons, and the government has set aside £8.3bn to invest in new windfarms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return, he told BBC Breakfast.“Within the lifetime of this parliament it will start generating returns,” he said. Miliband also pledged that Britain will “never again” face an energy bills crisis as he tries to wean the country off fossil fuels.
Robert Jenrick will run for the Conservative party leadership. Jenrick will become the third Tory MP to formally declare their candidacy, after James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat previously announced their bids.
Further emergency measures could be introduced to respond to the prison capacity “crisis”, the justice secretary said as MPs approved moves to release thousands of prisoners early. Shabana Mahmood told MPs that the prison population remains “within a few hundred places of collapse” and the government will continue to monitor it closely in the coming weeks.
The justice secretary’s remarks came as the House of Commons backed legislation to reduce the amount of time prisoners must spend in jail before they are automatically released, from 50% of their sentence to 40%. The move – which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences – is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October.
Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street team rejected advice a year ago that they should consider the early release of prisoners who had served less than half of their sentences to relieve prison overcrowding, the Guardian has been told by multiple sources. Discussions took place inside No 10 in June 2023 over the proposals, a version of which was adopted two weeks ago by Keir Starmer’s government.
A £5bn debt crisis caused by out-of-control overspending on special educational needs could explode in less than two years, bankrupting scores of England’s local authorities, the UK government has been warned. The crisis stems from the failure to properly fund a huge increase in demand for Special Education Needs and Disability (Send) services over the past decade, triggering an “existential” crisis for councils which have “no obvious means of paying off the debt”.
Conservative leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has denied that his suggestion that he would be prepared to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR) is political opportunism. “No, I’ve been very, very clear I am prepared to make any decision that will keep the British people safe,” he told GB News when questioned about his change of tone on the issue.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is meeting the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, to discuss a video appearing to show a police officer kicking a prone man, said the prime minister. Keir Starmer said he understands the “concern” over the footage.
The new first minister of Wales won’t be installed for almost two weeks. Eluned Morgan, the current health secretary in Wales, was confirmed as Welsh Labour leader on Wednesday. Vaughan Gething, who announced his resignation as Welsh Labour leader after the donations scandal, has now said he had written to the llywydd (the presiding officer) to recall the Senedd, the Welsh parliament on 6 August.
Nigel Farage has been handed a bill for more than £8,000 that a former Reform UK candidate says he is owed for running a general election campaign in Clacton before he was elbowed aside when the party leader chose to stand. Tony Mack, who was to be the party’s candidate in the Essex constituency until June, said Farage had assured him in a telephone call that the party would “pay back every fucking penny” and made a series of other commitments.
Labour will be pushed to act on abolishing the “indefensible” two-child benefit limit, the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has claimed, after Keir Starmer suspended him and six others for the first rebellion of the new government.
Labour’s Ian Lavery has claimed that MPs who have time for a second job are not doing their job as an elected representative properly. Speaking in the Commons, he said that “being an MP is not a hobby” before adding: “This is like a full-time job plus, and if it’s not a full-time job plus, I’m afraid my view is: you’re not doing your job.”
Labour has delayed proposals to tackle spurious lawsuits brought by oligarchs and others aimed at intimidating journalists, academics and campaigners. Frederick Ponsonby, a Labour justice minister in the House of Lords, said he could not commit to bringing forward standalone legislation on strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as Slapps, or set out a timetable for tackling the issue.
Commons leader Lucy Powell said she “won’t be taking” advice from shadow leader Chris Philp, as the Tories had “left the country in a worse state than even our worst fears”. Earlier on Thursday in the House of Commons, Philp said the government suffered a “significant backbench rebellion” on the two-child benefit cap and their majority would be “gone by Easter”.
Government legislation designed to help nationalise the UK’s railways will be fast-tracked through the House of Commons. Lucy Powell said the passenger railway services public ownership bill will undergo its committee stage and remaining stages on 3 September. The Great British Energy bill will receive its second reading on 5 September, Ms Powell said in the weekly business statement.
“The days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over,” chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, has said. Responding on Thursday to a question on civil service pay awards, he said: “Yesterday I met the civil service unions together with my colleague, the new minister [Georgia Gould]. We had a very positive discussion covering a whole range of issues.”
Fewer borrowers are likely to default on their loans and mortgages, Lloyds has said, as the banking group upped its forecasts for the UK economy. In fresh estimates released as part of its second-quarter results, Lloyds said it expected the economy to grow 0.8% in 2024 – double the rate of growth forecasted in April, when it predicted a 0.4% rise.
Labour’s Ian Lavery has claimed that MPs who have time for a second job are not doing their job as an elected representative properly.
Speaking in the Commons, he said that “being an MP is not a hobby” before adding:
This is like a full-time job plus, and if it’s not a full-time job plus, I’m afraid my view is: you’re not doing your job. If you’re elected as a member of parliament, with 70,000-odd constituents, then that’s a full-time job.
I cannot for the life of me understand how other people have had and have been able to take up other jobs, other occupations, and see this as basically something that tops up their massive salary elsewhere, that’s what’s happened, and it continues to happen.”
Lavery, the MP for Blyth and Ashington, said he was called a “liar” during the election campaign but that he believes most MPs are “genuinely decent people” who are “there to make life better”.
He went on to say:
That’s the perception of the general public, that MPs are greedy, they’re liars, are all the same, they want to make as much money as they can and not bothered about the people they represent, and that’s what I think we’ve got to try and clean up.”
Lavery also said that MPs make “an absolute fortune” while their constituents are on benefits and using food banks.
Speaking in the Commons, Lavery said:
I never thought in a million years when I was working at the pit that I would be on a salary of £91,346, it’s a fortune you know, it’s an absolute fortune, and you’ve got to work for it, you’ve got to work for your constituents.
That £91,346, when you look at the average UK salary, which is £35,828, in the north-east where I live it’s under £30,000 - we’re paid fortunes, man, we’re nearly millionaires, I know that’s not true, however I make a point.”
Lavery added:
Sky News reported that MPs earned £17m from second incomes last year, that’s a lot of money, mind, a lot of money when a lot of people who we represent are actually using food banks, are actually claiming benefits in work, and they’re suffering greatly as a consequence of the cost-of-living crisis caused by 14 years of disruption of the Conservative government.”
