Tributes from across the political divide have been paid to the former Labour minister and welfare campaigner Frank Field, who has died at the age of 81. Field, who served as Labour MP for Birkenhead, Wirral, died after an illness, his family announced earlier today. The former MP was known for his passionate campaigns on tackling poverty and championing social justice. He had been a director at the Child Poverty Action group in the 1970s. He had also served as minister for welfare reform at the start of Tony Blair’s first term in office as Prime Minister. In 2021, he revealed he had been diag ..read more

The world’s leading human rights organisation has issued a damning condemnation of the UK government’s domestic policies and failure in Gaza, accusing the UK of “deliberately destabilising” global human rights. In a truly bleak assessment, Amnesty International said Britain had breached international human rights commitments at a “perilous” time in global history, as a result of the UK government’s policies targeting asylum seekers and protesters.  Amnesty’s 2024 annual global report notes Britain’s weakening global and domestic human rights protections for the sake of the government’s ow ..read more

To the bemusement of the broadcaster and other London mayoral candidates, Susan Hall insisted she had backed free school meals before Sadiq Khan, despite arguing last week that there is “no such thing as a free meal”.  The Tory candidate was caught out once again in a live LBC debate, after her fellow candidates and the LBC broadcaster questioned Hall over her lack of clarity on the policy, while Sadiq Khan congratulated the broadcast channel for getting the Tory candidate “to “perform a U-turn live on-air”.   Hall claimed to have backed universal free school meals “all along ..read more

A coalition of groups representing renters have issued a joint statement blasting the UK Government’s concessions to landlord lobbyists warning the Renters (Reform) Bill will be ‘a failure’ in its current form. As the bill returns to the Commons today, the Renters Reform Coalition has said the bill is set to fail due to the influence of pro-landlord MPs pushing through damaging concessions that have “fundamentally weakened” the bill.  Michael Gove caved to pressure from Tory landlord backbenchers by watering down the long-promised rent reforms, including to abolish section 21 ‘no-fault’ e ..read more

Media regulator Ofcom has issued a warning to broadcasters about using politicians as presenters, ahead of the general election. The media regulator issued a statement in which it said it was putting ‘broadcasters on notice that they must maintain the highest editorial standards ahead of a General Election’ and that breaches could result in ‘statutory sanctions’. It comes after Ofcom found GB News in breach of broadcasting rules when three Conservative MPs acted as newsreaders across five different episodes of its programmes. Ofcom found that two episodes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nati ..read more

The passage of the Rwanda Bill late last night, after a parliamentary showdown ended between the Commons and the Lords, has been met with condemnation and outrage by a number of human rights groups. Some have described it as a ‘national disgrace’ while others slammed it as cruel and inhumane. Sunak had made stopping small boat crossings across the channel a major priority, with his Rwanda Bill a key part of his plans in doing so. The Prime Minister says that the first flights removing asylum seekers who arrive illegally to the UK to the east African country are due to take off in 10-12 weeks t ..read more

Over 12,000 people have now signed a petition calling on Keir Starmer to restore the whip to Diane Abbott, as this Tuesday marks one year since her whip was suspended.  Trade unions, campaigners and MPs have joined the call to reinstate her Labour whip using the anniversary of her suspension as a call for action from the Labour leader.  Diane Abbott lost the whip following an article she wrote which suggested Irish, Jewish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”, distinguishing between anti-black racism. She went on to withdraw her remarks and issued an apolo ..read more

Richard Burgon is the Labour MP for Leeds East The same oil and gas giants behind the record energy bills that have forced so many into poverty have also brought us to the cliff edge of climate catastrophe. If we are to have a fighting chance of preventing the worst of the climate crisis, then we need to rapidly cut fossil fuel use. Key to that is breaking the vast power that oil and gas companies have over our politics. That’s why this week I will present a Bill in the House of Commons to ban MPs from receiving funding or any other benefit from oil and gas companies. My Private Members Bill w ..read more

The Tory Party’s London mayoral hopeful has been accused by Labour of proposing spending plans “straight out of the Liz Truss playbook” after the opposition party identified unfunded spending plans.  The Tory Party’s waning argument of being ‘the party of sound money’ is contested once again, as Labour have warned that the party’s candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, has made pledges that amount to a £515m budget black hole.  Based on her manifesto promises including plans to scrap ULEZ in outer London, the Labour party calculated that the Tory candidate’s policies come at a large ..read more

The passage of the Rwanda Bill late last night, after a parliamentary showdown ended between the Commons and the Lords, has been met with condemnation and outrage by a number of human rights groups. Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda Bill finally passed, with the Prime Minister saying that the first flights removing asylum seekers who arrive illegally to the UK to the east African country are due to take off in 10-12 weeks time. Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill, which forms a key part of his plan to stop small boat crossings across the channel, has faced a number of legal setbacks, after the Supreme ..read more