Summary of the day
Labour has partially rowed back from its policy on boosting rights for those working in the gig economy as it seeks to head off Conservative attacks on its approach to business in the run-up to the general election.
Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, whose portfolio covers workers’ rights, said on Friday morning that Labour still intended to ban zero-hours contracts, tackle bogus self-employment and end qualifying periods for rights, in the “biggest levelling up of workers’ rights in decades. “Far from watering it down, we will now set out in detail how we will implement it and tackle the Tories’ scaremongering,” she added.
However, the party’s policy forum in July changed the wording of the pledges on workers’ rights to suggest there may be more flexibility in its approach. Labour had been planning to create a single “worker” status for all but the genuinely self-employed, ensuring the same rights for everyone regardless of sector, wage or type of contract. The forum agreed last month to consult on this policy after entering government to create “a simpler framework” that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed in a way that would “properly capture the breadth of employment relationships in the UK” as well as ensuring workers can still “benefit from flexible working where they choose to do so”.
The number of UK-based students in clearing who are trying to find higher education courses a day after exam results were released has jumped to its highest level for at least a decade – though plenty of places are still available, figures show.
A leading forecaster has predicted the typical gas and electricity bill will move to an average of £1,823 a year from October after the regulator, Ofgem, announces its energy price cap next week.
Train drivers in England are to stage a fresh strike in their attempt to secure a pay rise. Members of Aslef will walk out on 1 September and will ban overtime on 2 September, the same day as a strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT). Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said the union have had no contact with employers since 26 April or with the government since 6 January. Train routes running to and from Scotland and Wales will also be affected.
The Northern Ireland policing board is to hold an additional meeting over last week’s major PSNI data leak. A spokesperson for the board, which oversees policing in the region, said members will receive an update from the PSNI chief constable, Simon Byrne, and consider any further actions necessary. A man has been arrested in County Derry investigating criminality linked to the leak.
The oligarch Eugene Shvidler, who had sanctions imposed on him after the invasion of Ukraine, has lost a high court challenge against the UK government’s decision to freeze his assets.
Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, has accused the body that investigates miscarriages of justice of having an “attitude problem” and said it has still not contacted him since he was cleared by the court of appeal last month.
The former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has said her stance on independence has moved and she can no longer argue for staying in the UK with the same strength she did in the run-up to the 2014 referendum.
High street banks will have to ensure customers can find access to cash within 3 miles of their communities, and those falling below the minimum service level will face a fine, the government has confirmed. It will be seen as a victory for campaigners against digital currencies and a move to a cashless economy.
Transport for London (TfL) has vowed that vandalism of ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) cameras “will not stop” the scheme’s expansion, due to start at the end of August. The transport body issued the statement after the Metropolitan police said they had recorded 288 crimes relating to the cameras as of 1 August.
A leading architect of the Freedom of Information Act has called for a parliamentary review into the system after there were serious data breaches by police forces in responses to FoI requests.
Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has pledged to do “all we can” to ensure a ban on trophy hunting imports becomes law amid fears pro-hunting peers could “wreck” the reforms.
The British Beer and Pub Association has said it hopes other councils follow Cornwall in permitting pubs to serve drinks from 10am before the England-Spain Women’s World Cup final on Sunday. Michael Gove had written to councils across England asking them to do everything they can to help venues seeking to extend their hours. The Liberal Democrats are still trying to push for a recall of parliament to get licensing laws changed for the weekend. Foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will be able to get a beer, as he has decided he is attending the match in Sydney in person.
That is it from me, Martin Belam. Thank you for reading and putting up with me this week, and thank you for all your comments, which I always find interesting and useful. I will see you somewhere around the Guardian website again soon.
One more thing from that Angela Rayner podcast recording today – she claimed “the landscape has changed towards Labour” in the last couple of years in Scotland.
PA Media reports she said:
We’ve been working really hard to earn back that respect because I think we lost it in Scotland, people were very emotionally charged because Scotland has always been traditionally quite a Labour area. I think they felt quite betrayed by Labour for a long time.
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