Closing summary
Sadiq Khan said Labour supporters would be “delusional” if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024, as he admitted its first year in office has been difficult. The London mayor told an audience at the Edinburgh festival fringe that Labour needs to “really pick things up”.
Keir Starmer has been urged to recall parliament to “impose immediate sanctions” on Israel in a joint letter signed by politicians in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The letter urges the prime minister to “act now” to exert pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza and for an end to arms sales to Israel.
Downing Street has suggested that Keir Starmer would back a Ukraine peace deal without a ceasefire as a precondition as the UK’s prime minister and other European leaders join Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for Ukraine talks with Donald Trump.
The watchdog that monitors government ministers’ professional appointments after leaving office has been criticised for clearing Grant Shapps, a former Conservative defence secretary, to join Cambridge Aerospace as long as he promises not to work on defence matters.
Alex Salmond’s niece has accused Nicola Sturgeon of tarnishing her uncle’s reputation when he is no longer able to defend himself in order to promote her memoir.
More than £300m given to English councils to help Ukrainian refugees into accommodation has not been spent, while thousands of them face homelessness.
Patients in England now have greater access to important tests such as MRI scans and endoscopies in the evenings and weekends, the government has said, after increasing the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offering out of hours services.
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Watchdog criticised for clearing ex-defence secretary to join missile maker
The watchdog that monitors government ministers’ professional appointments after leaving office has been criticised for clearing Grant Shapps, a former Conservative defence secretary, to join Cambridge Aerospace as long as he promises not to work on defence matters.
In a ruling that drew scorn from political ethics experts, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which monitors and advises on the revolving door between Westminster and the business sector, gave Shapps the green light to become the chair of defence company Cambridge Aerospace.
Shapps told Acoba that the company, founded three months after the Conservatives’ general election defeat last year, planned to “develop technologies to reduce risks to aviation”. Disclosures show he cited examples such as airport delays caused by drones.
You can read the full story by my colleagues, Rob Davies and Jasper Jolly, here:
