Starmer suggests welfare invoice revolt simply ‘noises off’ as he rejects declare row exhibits he’s dangerous at politicsQ: Why have you ever did not learn the temper of Labour MPs on welfare reform. Is that as a result of you don’t have any political nous, as critics declare?Starmer says Labour MPs are “fairly united” in agreeing that welfare reform is required.The query is how. The invoice will modernise welfare, and make it fairer and extra environment friendly, he says. That’s what the goverment was elected to do, he says.He goes on:
If I could say so, many individuals predicted earlier than the election that we couldn’t learn the room, we hadn’t obtained the politics proper, and we wouldn’t win an election after 2019 as a result of we misplaced so badly.
That was the fixed cost of me at press conferences like this, and we obtained a landslide victory.
So I’m comfy with studying the room and delivering the change the nation wants.
We’ve obtained a robust Labour authorities with an enormous majority to ship on our manifesto commitments. And that’s the work that we did over a few years to win the election. Now we begin the work over a few years to vary the nation. Having modified the occasion, we now change the nation.
And is it powerful going? Are there loads of individuals and noises off? Sure, after all, there all the time are, there all the time have been, there all the time might be.
However the essential factor is to give attention to the change that we need to result in.
Starmer has all the time been delicate to the cost that he has poor political instincts. It was a declare usually made when he was in opposition, and it nonetheless surfaces now, regardless of his landslide election win. In actual fact, simply right this moment the New Statesman has been selling a canopy essay by Andrew Marr making this declare. That is from Will Lloyd, the journal’s deputy editor.However Starmer’s reply implied the inner Labour row about welfare was little greater than “noises off”. If that’s what he meant, that may be a mistake, as a result of the riot is way more severe about that. Maybe he was wound up by the aggressive query (from a Mail reporter), which may have prompted him to say greater than he meant.UPDATE: ITV Information has a video clip of Starmer’s reply.’Is it powerful going? Are there loads of noises off? Sure, after all – there all the time are’The PM insists Labour is a ‘united entrance’ on the proposed welfare reforms, regardless of over 120 backbenchers backing a transfer to dam the plansStarmer says he is ‘comfy studying the room’ pic.twitter.com/WOglajo1os— ITVPolitics (@ITVNewsPolitics) June 25, 2025ShareUpdated at 11.01 EDTKey eventsShow key occasions onlyPlease activate JavaScript to make use of this featureAfternoon summaryKeir Starmer has additionally been attending the Nato summit in The Hague, which Jakub Krupa is masking on his Europe reside weblog (nonetheless going sturdy).Keir Starmer and Donald Trump on the Nato summit {Photograph}: Hollandse Hoogte/ShutterstockSharePeople who voted Labour in 2024 however who now say they might not assist the occasion are disproportionately working class, or leave-supporting, or feminine, in response to researach revealed by YouGov. In his YouGov write-up, Dylan Difford says:
In comparison with these 2024 Labour voters who’ve caught with the occasion over the past yr, Labour defectors are much less prone to have been educated to diploma stage (41% vs 51%), extra prone to be classed as dwelling in working class households (41% vs 28%) and usually tend to have voted to go away the EU (24% vs 13%).
Whereas simply 41% of those that are nonetheless supporting Labour are girls, 57% of those that’ve deserted the occasion are.
However there are key variations between the completely different teams of Labour defectors. Those that’ve switched to the Greens are the youngest, with 70% being below the age of fifty, whereas losses to Reform UK are noticeably older than common, with lower than half (46%) having reached their half-century milestone.
ShareSNP welcomes evaluation exhibiting Scotland’s little one poverty report a lot better than England’s since MSPs handed landmark billThe SNP has welcomed a Huge Problem report saying because the Scottish Parliament handed its personal Youngster Poverty Act in 2017 Scotland’s report on this concern has been a lot better than England’s. The Huge Problem says:
In keeping with [the Big Issue analysis] of kid poverty knowledge, Scotland has seen a 12% drop in relative little one poverty since 2018, whereas England and Wales has seen a 15% rise – a 27-percentage level hole in progress. The place 21,000 Scottish kids noticed their poverty lifted, 320,000 extra English and Welsh kids have fallen into poverty.
The Scottish authorities’s landmark act, which obtained royal assent in December 2017, sparked a major divergence in little one poverty ranges between the house nations. Earlier than 2018, Scotland had seen related rises in relative little one poverty to England and Wales. Youngster poverty in Scotland rose by 19% between 2015 and 2018, solely marginally slower than England and Wales at 23%.
The act included setting bold statutory targets for the Scottish authorities to cut back relative little one poverty to 10% of Scottish kids by 2030. Whereas consultants say Holyrood nonetheless faces appreciable challenges in assembly this goal, it has enshrined tackling little one poverty as a prime coverage precedence for subsequent Scottish governments.
In a press release issued by the SNP, Collette Stevenson MSP mentioned:
The SNP authorities in Scotland has taken a radically completely different method to tackling little one poverty, and that method is working.
Whereas the Labour occasion implements cuts and maintains the disgraceful two-child cap, this SNP authorities is reworking lives with the Scottish little one fee and lifting 20,000 kids out of poverty by scrapping Labour’s two-child cap.
ShareUpdated at 11.47 EDTChagos Islands deal ‘not good’, however UK’s management of Diego Garcia can be at ‘better threat’ with out it, friends sayThe Home of Lords worldwide agreements committee has revealed a report backing the federal government’s take care of Mauritius handing over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. It says:
Like all treaties, the settlement displays a compromise between the views of the 2 events. It’s not good. The associated fee to the UK taxpayer is excessive. The settlement doesn’t assure that Chagossians can return to the islands. There are some uncertainties round the way forward for the marine protected space. There isn’t a assure of an extension to the settlement after the preliminary 99-year interval and questions have been raised in regards to the enforceability of the fitting of first refusal.
Nonetheless, it’s clear that if the settlement will not be ratified, and if a future authorities tried to go on resisting worldwide strain to switch sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius is prone to resume its marketing campaign by means of worldwide courts with a view to acquiring a legally binding judgment on sovereignty towards the UK. We heard that there are methods during which Mauritius may convey that concern earlier than a world court docket. We additionally heard that any worldwide court docket this concern can be unlikely to seek out in favour of the UK. In that circumstance, the way forward for the bottom on Diego Garcia can be at better threat.
The committee is chaired by Lord Goldsmith, the previous Labour lawyer common.ShareTUC common secretary Paul Nowak requires welfare invoice to be pausedPaul Nowak, common secretary of the TUC, has added his title to these saying the federal government ought to pause the welfare invoice. He posted these on social media this morning.
The Tories left behind a poisonous financial & social legacy.
Everybody agrees our welfare system must work higher, partic in the case of assist to get individuals into first rate jobs. However modifications that might push disabled individuals & their households into poverty are usually not the reply. 1/2..
In gentle of the the broad-based assist for the reasoned modification, the govt. ought to pause and rethink their welfare reforms.
Let’s get this proper – fairly than rush by means of reform – & construct a welfare system that’s match for function.
ShareJustice secretary Shabana Mahmood says guidelines being modified to hurry up deportation of overseas prisonersShabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is altering the foundations to permit overseas prisoners to turn out to be eligible for deportation extra shortly, the Ministry of Justice has introduced. In a information launch it says:
Adjustments to the Early Removing Scheme will imply prisoners with no proper to be within the nation will face deportation 30% into their jail time period fairly than the present 50%.
Mixed with upcoming sentencing reforms, this might see many serving fixed-term sentences eligible for deportation after serving 10 %, down from 20 or 25 % at present.
The MoJ says foreigners make up round 12% of the jail inhabitants and that this transfer will liberate round 500 jail locations a yr.ShareAngela Rayner taking PMQs right this moment {Photograph}: HoCShareHow severe is the Labour revolt over welfare invoice? What commentators are sayingHere is extra touch upon the welfare invoice disaster going through Keir Starmer.From Andrew Marr’s cowl article within the New Statesman
One thing severe has gone unsuitable in relations between Downing Road and the Labour Get together in parliament. Welfare reform is crucial and but the Liz Kendall invoice might even be misplaced – such is the size of the unhappiness on the Labour benches. On 19 June, Richard Burgon, on the left of the occasion, in contrast it to the winter gasoline fee error however on a a lot bigger scale. He informed me the federal government simply hadn’t made sufficient concessions: the invoice, regardless of determined pleading by Labour MPs, “confirms our worst fears that it’s going to be… plunging a whole bunch of hundreds of extra disabled individuals into poverty”. MPs who voted for it could discover, again of their constituencies, that it was “hanging spherical their necks like a millstone”. New Statesman readers know very nicely the counter-argument in regards to the enormous variety of individuals transferring on to illness advantages, and the huge price of that. However loads of MPs who are usually not Burgon’s pure bedfellows agree with him.
There comes some extent when becoming a member of a riot is the safer factor to do, each for holding your seat and aligning with a majority of your colleagues; 1 July, when the welfare reform invoice vote is scheduled, could also be that second.
From Tom Belger at LabourList
Some 59 of the 108 first signatories of the reasoned modification opposing welfare cuts are new Labour MPs. Weren’t the newbies within the class of ’24 speculated to be ultra-loyal “Starmtroopers”?
A yr in the past, the concept so most of the new consumption can be publicly rebelling on such a high-profile concern throughout the new authorities’s first yr would have felt laughable …
The management appears to have underestimated the truth that for 2024 consumption MPs of just about all factions and none, “one in every of their commonest causes for getting concerned within the Labour Get together was opposition to Conservative austerity and welfare cuts,” because the BBC’s Henry Zeffman famous in February.
As one Labour insider wryly famous to LabourList this week: “Whoever ‘hand-picked’ this new consumption might be going to have a tricky quarterly evaluation.”
From Stephen Bush’s Inside Politics column within the Monetary Occasions
The underlying downside for Labour is that the coverage is dangerous. The cuts run opposite to the logic of the federal government’s broader reforms to welfare, to the extent that they’ve any coverage logic to them. That’s one purpose why the makes an attempt to include the riot are usually not working — ministers have been deployed to win spherical rebels. However, as one insurgent put it to me, the issue is “they don’t actually have something to say”.
The typical Labour insurgent is fairly near public opinion on this concern — they agree with the massive image intention of what the federal government is making an attempt to do and concur that our welfare system wants reform, however they take a look at the arbitrary modifications that the federal government is making they usually say: “What on Earth does this must do with reform?”
The introduction of common credit score was a reform as a result of it modified how the advantages system operated …
However this proposed change by the Labour authorities, the place Pip will proceed to be assessed and operated in the identical approach as earlier than however below a brand new collection of circumstances, will not be a “reform”. It’s only a approach to economize.
From Kevin Schofield at Huffpost UK
Makes an attempt by Cupboard ministers to influence the rebels to again down have to this point failed.
A senior authorities supply mentioned: “The rebels are dug in.
“There are two choices, neither good – pull the vote or make main modifications to the invoice.
“Each will go away main questions on Keir’s authority and the monetary prices.”
A Labour supply mentioned pulling the vote or making additional concessions was “the most definitely state of affairs”.
However he added: “I wouldn’t completely rule out pushing by means of. The rebels ought to stroll by means of the lobbies with the Tories to take care of the Tory welfare system that’s spiralling uncontrolled and protecting individuals locked out of labor.”
ShareHundreds of individuals come to parliament for mass foyer to clarify to MPs case for trans rightsPeter WalkerPeter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.Many a whole bunch of transgender individuals and supporters are arriving in parliament for a mass “foyer”, a barely old school and really direct tactic during which individuals arrive on the property and demand to talk to their MPs a couple of topic.Wednesday’s foyer, which the organisers predict will contain round 1,400 members of the general public talking to 130 MPs, is billed as an opportunity for trans individuals to instantly describe how they see the supreme court docket ruling on gender, and the best way it has to this point been interpreted by the official equalities watchdog, as affecting their on a regular basis lives.The Equality and Human Rights Fee (EHRC) has confronted criticism over what some time period a very literal response to the court docket resolution that “girl” within the Equality Act refers solely to a organic girl in setting out how organisations ought to reply.
Its interim recommendation set out amongst different issues that transgender individuals shouldn’t be allowed to make use of bathrooms of the gender they reside as, and that in some instances in addition they can not use bathrooms of their delivery intercourse.Usually such lobbies happen within the central foyer between the Commons and Lords, however as a result of dimension of Wednesday’s occasion it was moved to Westminster Corridor, with desks arrange for individuals to say which MP they wished to see, and a PA system for parliamentary employees to announce MPs’ arrivals.Jess O’Thompson from Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, which has led the foyer, mentioned:
It’s not a protest within the conventional sense. Individuals are coming into parliament to talk to their MPs about trans rights as a result of proper now, issues are actually, actually scary for trans individuals. The EHRC steerage, which appears set to turn out to be regulation, would successfully impose a trans rest room ban on this nation. It might make us a world outlier by way of our method to trans individuals’s human rights.
Some MPs who’ve been contacted by transgender constituents have beforehand raised worries corresponding to individuals who have lived as their recognized gender for many years and concern being compelled to declare their standing to co-workers or others. O’Thompson mentioned one transgender girl in her 70s collaborating on Wednesday was fearful about being now not capable of attend her girls’s gardening membership.One of many MPs ready in Westminster Corridor to see constituents, the Lib Dem Roz Savage, organised a debate in Could in regards to the repercussions of the court docket ruling. She mentioned:
I’ve to say it was eye opening. I believe most individuals simply aren’t conscious of the day by day challenges confronted by members of the trans group. I actually simply need to see everyone handled with the respect and the dignity that they deserve.
On the EHRC steerage she mentioned:
It’s very arduous to see the way it may work on a sensible stage. I believe you solely must think about a couple of eventualities to see how impractical it’s, and would most likely truly trigger extra consternation than the alternative, than the best way issues had been earlier than.
So I believe simply on a typical sense stage, in addition to a ethical and moral and humanitarian stage, this actually must be checked out once more.
ShareAt his press convention Keir Starmer mentioned the vote on the welfare invoice would go forward, however didn’t specify in his reply that it could go forward on Tuesday subsequent week, as deliberate. (See 1.51pm.)Typically an omission like that may be important. However Geri Scott from the Occasions says on this case it wasn’t.
Keir Starmer dedicated once more to a vote on welfare in his press convention at NATO however didn’t particularly say on Tuesday – some immediately taking this as an indication it might be pushed again however I’m informed this isn’t the case and can be “over-reading” his reply. Vote at present nonetheless on.
ShareStarmer claims welfare reform is ‘progressive’ trigger, and Labour greatest occasion to hold it outQ: In London your spokesperson mentioned there was an ethical argument for welfare reform. Does that imply opponents of reform are immoral?Starmer mentioned that Labour was the perfect occasion to reform welfare.
The argument I’d make is that it’s a Labour authorities that ought to reform welfare.
If the welfare system isn’t working for people who want it, and isn’t, it’s a Labour authorities that ought to make it work for the long run.
Simply because it was a Labour authorities that created the welfare system, it falls to this Labour authorities to ensure we’ve obtained a welfare system that’s sustainable for the long run to come back.
We created the well being service, and now we have now to make sure that it’s match for the long run. Identical with welfare.
That may be a progressive argument, that may be a Labour argument, and it’s the fitting argument to make.
Keir Starmer talking at his press convention. {Photograph}: Ben Stansall/APShareQ: The nationwide safety technique revealed yesterday mentioned Britons ought to put together for conflict on residence soil. Ought to individuals be considering critically about chilly war-style prepartions?Starmer mentioned it was mistake to suppose the UK doesn’t face threats at residence. Cyber assaults are occurring each day, he mentioned. Russia and Iran had been finishing up cyber assaults towards the UK frequently, he mentioned.Keir Starmer at his press convention on the Nato summit. {Photograph}: Kin Cheung/PAShareQ: Do you suppose President Trump desires to get powerful on Russia now over Ukraine?Starmer mentioned on the Nato summit there was a view that Russia must be pushed more durable.
I believe it’s honest to say the temper of fairly nicely all members within the session in Nato that we’ve simply had within the second summit was, on the one hand, of positivity and resolve and function in relation to the dedication we’ve made … however on the identical time recognising that we have to now push more durable on Ukraine. And I believe that displays the temper within the room, and that it’s time for Putin to come back to the desk.
That’s been the topic not solely of the discussions on the summit, however truly of most of the discussions over dinner final evening and within the margins.
Starmer didn’t explicitly focus on Trump’s views on this.ShareStarmer suggests welfare invoice revolt simply ‘noises off’ as he rejects declare row exhibits he’s dangerous at politicsQ: Why have you ever did not learn the temper of Labour MPs on welfare reform. Is that as a result of you don’t have any political nous, as critics declare?Starmer says Labour MPs are “fairly united” in agreeing that welfare reform is required.The query is how. The invoice will modernise welfare, and make it fairer and extra environment friendly, he says. That’s what the goverment was elected to do, he says.He goes on:
If I could say so, many individuals predicted earlier than the election that we couldn’t learn the room, we hadn’t obtained the politics proper, and we wouldn’t win an election after 2019 as a result of we misplaced so badly.
That was the fixed cost of me at press conferences like this, and we obtained a landslide victory.
So I’m comfy with studying the room and delivering the change the nation wants.
We’ve obtained a robust Labour authorities with an enormous majority to ship on our manifesto commitments. And that’s the work that we did over a few years to win the election. Now we begin the work over a few years to vary the nation. Having modified the occasion, we now change the nation.
And is it powerful going? Are there loads of individuals and noises off? Sure, after all, there all the time are, there all the time have been, there all the time might be.
However the essential factor is to give attention to the change that we need to result in.
Starmer has all the time been delicate to the cost that he has poor political instincts. It was a declare usually made when he was in opposition, and it nonetheless surfaces now, regardless of his landslide election win. In actual fact, simply right this moment the New Statesman has been selling a canopy essay by Andrew Marr making this declare. That is from Will Lloyd, the journal’s deputy editor.However Starmer’s reply implied the inner Labour row about welfare was little greater than “noises off”. If that’s what he meant, that may be a mistake, as a result of the riot is way more severe about that. Maybe he was wound up by the aggressive query (from a Mail reporter), which may have prompted him to say greater than he meant.UPDATE: ITV Information has a video clip of Starmer’s reply.’Is it powerful going? Are there loads of noises off? Sure, after all – there all the time are’The PM insists Labour is a ‘united entrance’ on the proposed welfare reforms, regardless of over 120 backbenchers backing a transfer to dam the plansStarmer says he is ‘comfy studying the room’ pic.twitter.com/WOglajo1os— ITVPolitics (@ITVNewsPolitics) June 25, 2025ShareUpdated at 11.01 EDTStarmer claims he does view Trump as dependable allyQ: President Trump gave you hardly any discover of his assault on Iran after which he expressed doubts about Nato’s article 5. Is he actually a dependable ally?Sure, says Starmer. He says the UK works very carefully with the US.Share
