Closing summary
Downing Street said Keir Starmer still had confidence in his “top team” follow questions over his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who was reported to have lobbied for Peter Mandelson’s initial appointment.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson, and the ousted cabinet minister Lucy Powell, are set to be the two candidates for Labour’s deputy leadership as other candidates struggled to get the minimum number of nominations. On Wednesday evening, Phillipson had the backing of 116 MPs and Powell had 77 nominations, three short of the required 80.
The chairwoman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has written to the foreign secretary demanding answers on the vetting process for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US. Emily Thornberry wrote to Yvette Cooper, who took over as foreign secretary after the cabinet reshuffle, asking for clarification on what security concerns were raised during the process and how the Foreign Office responded to those concerns.
Senior Labour MPs and the UK’s largest anti-fascist charity have called on Keir Starmer to mount a more heartfelt defence of diversity and anti-racism. They say they fear that Labour is not yet putting its “heart and soul” into the battle against Nigel Farage and the far right. Hope Not Hate’s chief executive has written a letter to Starmer in the lead up to a planned far-right demonstration in London on Saturday, demanding the prime minister speak up more against hate and racism.
The taoiseach Micheál Martin has said “very good progress” has been made on finding a replacement to the controversial British legislation for dealing with historic murders in Northern Ireland following a meeting with Keir Starmer in Chequers this morning. A new package of measures that would see Ireland drop its interstate lawsuit against the UK is expected to be announced within the coming weeks.
A week of mass actions protesting against the ban on Palestine Action has been announced, beginning at the Labour party conference in Liverpool and culminating in a national mobilisation in Parliament Square in London on 4 October. The plans were announced by Defend Our Juries on Friday, a week after 857 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act at a demonstration outside parliament opposing proscription.
Transport for London has invited the RMT to resume talks as the union’s week of strikes came to a close, with tube train services restored after early disruption on Friday. Services on all London Underground lines restarted on Friday morning after the morning rush hour, but delays continued due to the after-effects of a series of strikes by 10,000 RMT members that concluded on Thursday night.
Hundreds of foreign prison officers will lose their jobs and could be forced to return to their home countries at short notice because of a change in visa rules introduced by Labour, governors and a union have warned. More than 1,000 staff, mainly from African countries, have been sponsored by prisons across England and Wales allowing them to come to the UK on skilled worker visas.
The chief executive of Barclays has said the UK government needs to limit pay rises for public sector workers and resist a further “squeeze” on banks with tax increases. CS Venkatakrishnan said the government needed to look at its own spending levels as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seeks ways to address a fiscal hole when she announces her budget in November.
A coalition of civil society groups is warning of the dangers of cutting safety regulations as the government pushes to “rip up the rules” to accelerate the construction of new nuclear power stations. The 25 groups from communities neighbouring nuclear sites have submitted a joint response to a consultation by the nuclear regulatory taskforce, saying its proposals lack “both credibility and rigour”.
The newly appointed Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander has told off Scotland’s first minister for “playing politics” over Scotch whisky tariffs. Earlier this week, Swinney briefed the media on his “very substantial” meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, saying that he had succeeded in pushing Scotch tariffs up the US president’s agenda where the UK government had failed.
Keir Starmer has spoken to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi amid reports the Egyptian president has directed his officials to study an internal request to grant a pardon to release the British-Egyptian human rights activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah. Abd el-Fattah’s British-based family are not commenting on developments save to say they are praying for his release.
The chairwoman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has written to the foreign secretary demanding answers on the vetting process for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.
Emily Thornberry wrote to Yvette Cooper, who took over as foreign secretary after the cabinet reshuffle, asking for clarification on what security concerns were raised during the process and how the Foreign Office responded to those concerns.
She also asked whether the Foreign Office felt the concerns represented a “potential barrier” to Mandelson’s appointment and whether any conditions were imposed on his remit as ambassador.
“It has been suggested by a number of media outlets that security concerns were overlooked during the appointments process, and that such decisions may have been taken by actors outside of the Foreign Office, perhaps senior people in No 10.
“These allegations are potentially very serious... as chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, it is my responsibility to ensure that the House of Commons receives a thorough response to a number of important unanswered questions.”
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