Category Archives: POLITICS

New Labour Attack Ad Accuses Rishi Sunak Of Not Thinking Schools Should Be Safe

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Labour has risked stoking fresh controversy by accusing Rishi Sunak of not thinking that schools should be safe.

The party’s latest attack ad comes amid the mounting scandal over schools being forced to close because of crumbling concrete.

It has echoes of the infamous poster from earlier this year which accused the prime minister of not wanting sex offenders to be jailed.

That sparked a furious row, with Labour being accused of “gutter politics”.

Like that one, the new ad also has a picture of the prime minister alongside his signature.

It states: “Do you think your child’s schools should be safe? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”

The ad goes on to claim that when he was chancellor, Sunak cut spending on school rebuilding by almost half, and says the Tory/Lib Dem coalition ditched Labour’s schools for the future programme in 2010.

The advert adds: “The Tories ignored Labour’s warnings time and again – now our children are paying the price with crumbling schools.”

The latest Labour attack ad
The latest Labour attack ad

Labour Party

A Labour source told HuffPost UK: “It’s a timely reminder as parliament returns that the Tories can talk all they want – they can’t hide from the fact their disastrous running of the country over 13 years is hurting families across Britain.”

It emerged on Thursday – days before the end of the summer holidays – that more than 150 schools had been ordered to either partially or completely close because the “RAAC” concrete used to build them is at risk of collapse.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan said the government was taking a “cautious approach” to protect pupils and staff.

She said: “Children should attend school as normal in September, unless families hear differerently.”

But her Labour shadow, Bridget Phillipson, said: “This is an absolutely staggering display of Tory incompetence as they start a fresh term by failing our children again.

Ministers now fear that other public buildings, such as hospitals, could also be affected by the scandal.

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Russia Trying To Recruit Troops From Neighbouring Countries As Casualties Mount, says UK

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Russia is trying to recruit troops from neighbouring countries in an attempt to replace those injured or killed on the front line in Ukraine, according to UK officials.

Online adverts offering thousands of pounds to those who sign up to fight have been published in Armenia and Kazakhstan.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said there had also been “recruitment efforts” among the ethnic Russian population in Kazakhstan’s northern Qostanai region.

That is in addition to attempts to persuade central Asian migrants to fight for Russia in Ukraine by offering them fast-track citizenship and salaries of up to £3,300.

“There are at least six million migrants from central Asia in Russia, which the Kremlin likely sees as potential recruits,” the MoD said in its latest update posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“Russia likely wishes to avoid further unpopular domestic mobilisation measures in the run up to the 2024 Presidential elections.

“Exploiting foreign nationals allows the Kremlin to acquire additional personnel for its war effort in the face of mounting casualties.”

It emerged last week that thousands of Russian troops are being prosecuted for refusing to return to fight in Ukraine amid plummeting morale.

Nearly 100 Russian soldiers a week after being convicted for refusing to go into battle as the war drags on.

“If this trend continues, there will be approximately 5,200 convictions a year for refusing to fight,” the MoD said.

Russia is also failing to hit its army recruitment targets despite a massive rise in forces’ pay.

The country is estimated to have suffered more than 200,000 casualties so far in the Ukraine war.

The MoD revealed last month that up to half of Russian fatalities in the war could also have been prevented “with proper first aid”, while crude battlefield medical treatment is causing a huge number of preventable fatalities and amputations.

Meanwhile, at least half of the elite 30,000 Russian paratroopers deployed to Ukraine have probably been killed or wounded.

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Tory Gloom Deepens After Rishi Sunak’s Summer Of Discontent

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It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Rishi Sunak.

At the start of the year and after just two months in the job, he was still enjoying life as prime minister.

At a drinks reception for journalists shortly before Christmas, he had joked about already outlasting Liz Truss in No.10, while poking fun at his own diminutive stature.

“We’ve gone from the shortest-serving prime minister to the shortest prime minister,” he quipped.

When parliament returned at the start of January, he felt emboldened to make five promises on which he said voters should judge his government.

“No tricks, no ambiguity – we’re either delivering for you or we’re not,” Sunak declared.

“We will rebuild trust in politics through action, or not at all. So, I ask you to judge us on the effort we put in and the results we achieve.”

As MPs return to Westminster on Monday, the optimism of those early days has given way to cynicism and a growing sense of resignation among many Tory MPs that the party is heading for inevitable defeat at the next election.

This is despite a summer of frenetic government activity which was aimed at getting the Tories back on the front foot and eating into Labour’s huge poll lead.

Whole weeks were given over to specific topics, such as the NHS and crime, with a series of announcements rolled out in an attempt to seize the news agenda.

However, the failure of this strategy was typified by “small boats week”, which was overshadowed by Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson telling migrants to “fuck off”, the number of asylum seekers crossing the channel hitting 100,000 and the Bibby Stockholm barge being evacuated after legionella was found in the water.

The end result has been, if anything, a hardening of Labour’s poll lead.

In a further blow to the prime minister, his communications director, Amber de Botton, surprisingly quit yesterday after less than a year in the job.

“We’re just going to have a very tough year,” one former cabinet minister told HuffPost UK.

“A lot of our MPs, the ones who were elected after 2010, are just not accustomed to it. We’ve been 20 points behind for a long time and the reality is that at least 100 of them are going at the next election, and possibly 200. We could be down to just 150 MPs.”

A veteran Tory backbencher said many of his colleagues are in for a rude awakening when they start properly engaging with the electorate.

“Judging by the MPs’ WhatsApp groups, a lot of them have spent the summer not campaigning at all,” he said.

“When they wake up and go to people’s doors and they say they’re not going to vote for them, that’ll be a reality check. That’s when things will get quite turbulent for the PM.”

Also looming on the horizon is the Mid-Bedfordshire by-election, which could take place the day after the Tories’ annual conference closes in Manchester.

Although the Conservatives hold the seat with a majority of nearly 25,000, the controversy surrounding the departure of its former MP Nadine Dorries, allied to the unpopularity of the government, means it is vulnerable.

Labour and the Lib Dems both fancy their chances, raising Tory hopes that they could split the vote and let their candidate, Festus Akinbusoye, come through the middle to win.

One senior party figure who visited the seat last week said: “Labour and the Lib Dems are knocking hell out of each other.

“The reception on the doorsteps was strikingly positive for Festus, just because they all recognised him. But it will get more difficult for him once the by-election campaign properly starts.”

Sunak’s decision to delay his long-anticipated cabinet reshuffle until later in the year has also dismayed many Tories, who believe it is a sign of the PM’s weakness.

He was forced into a mini shake-up on Thursday by the resignation of defence secretary Ben Wallace, but the decision to replace him with Grant Shapps just added to the sense of gloom in the Tory ranks.

“It’s completely lacking any inspiration – or maybe Grant was simply the only one who answered his phone,” said one unhappy aide.

“It just feels a bit like we’ve given up. The crime week announcement that we expect the police to solve crime cemented it for me. It’s a bit like telling teachers to teach kids – no shit Sherlock.”

Sunak’s malaise was summed up by polling by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for the Politico website which showed that two-thirds of voters believe Sunak has achieved either “nothing at all” or only “a slight amount”.

One veteran Tory told HuffPost UK: “My view is that because inflation hasn’t come down enough and because the NHS strikes are continuing, there is a sense among voters that there is a lack of progress.

“The good news is that inflation has actually fallen down the list of voters’ priorities recently, but the bad news is that the NHS and climate change have moved up, which doesn’t help us help at all.”

As the first anniversary of Sunak’s time in No.10 approaches, there is little to suggest he will turn around the Tories fortunes in time for next year’s general election.

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‘It’s A Simple Yes Or No’: Naga Munchetty Skewers Tory Minister Over Crumbling Schools

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A Tory minister was skewered by Naga Munchetty as he struggled to defend the government over the closure of unsafe schools just days before the end of the summer holidays.

More than 100 will have either partially or completely shut their doors to pupils because the concrete used to build them – known as RAAC – is at risk of collapse.

Schools minister Nick Gibb this morning admitted that some of the affected schools have yet to be contacted by the government, and that it is still not known how many will have to close completely.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Gibb was grilled on the government’s response to the crisis, which will see thousands of pupils forced to learn from home when the new term starts next week.

The minister insisted the government had been “very proactive in assessing the school estate” and had taken action as soon as the extent of the problem became apparent.

He said RACC was used between the 1950s and 1990s, and that surveys were sent to every school in England in 2022 asking whether it was present in their buildings.

But Munchetty told him: “I’m sorry, please let me interrupt. You’ve given me the history of RACC and the dangers known.

“In 2018 when there was a national audit report saying that it was in 572 schools, why did it take until 2022 until surveys were sent to schools?”

Gibb said “warning notices” had been sent to all schools after that report, but that further evidence had emerged since then about the dangers posed by the crumbling concrete.

He added: “You seem to be criticising us for being more proactive than other governments around the world.”

The minister said that prior to yesterday, the government had already taken action in 52 schools where RACC was identified.

Munchetty said: “Is it fair to say that they were unsafe up until that point – that children were attending schools with buildings unsafe?”

Gibb replied: “This evidence was emerging over time …”

The presenter then interrupted to say: “It’s a simple yes or no, isn’t it? They were either safe or unsafe.”

The minister said: “Well we felt, having had that evidence, that parts of the school that had RACC that was in a criticial condition were not safe.”

“So they could have potentially collapsed?” Munchetty replied.

Gibb said: “Yes and that’s why we took action.”

Labour has accused the government of “staggering incompetence” in not taking action until just before schools return from the summer break.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Ministers have been content to let this chaos continue for far too long.”

Mike Short, head of education at the UNISON union, said the situation was “nothing short of a scandal”.

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Ben Wallace Has Resigned As Defence Secretary

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Ben Wallace has formally resigned as defence secretary ahead of a mini-reshuffle of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.

In a letter to the prime minister this morning, he said he had “taken the decision to ask that I be allowed to step down” after four years in the job.

Wallace announced last month that he planned to quit the Ministry of Defence and would also not be standing at the the next election.

He told the Sunday Times he would stay in his post until the next reshuffle.

Among those tipped to replace him are Grant Shapps, Treasury minister John Glen and Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin.

Sunak is expected to carry out a limited shake-up of his top time this morning, with a wider reshuffle later in the year.

Wallace became an MP in 2005, but his constituency of Wyre and Preston North is being abolished in a review of boundaries and he will not seek a new seat.

Since 2015 he has also been minister for Northern Ireland and a security minister.

Wallace had hoped to be chosen as the next secretary general of Nato, but his chances were scuppered after the United States decided not to support his bid.

In his letter to the PM, Wallace said: “After much reflection, I have taken the decision to ask that I be allowed to step down.

“I won my seat in 2005 and after so many years it is time for me to invest
in the parts of life that I have neglected, and to explore new opportunities.

“Thank you for the support and your friendship. You and the Government will
have my continued support.”

He also called on the government to boost defence spending as the world becomes “more insecure and more unstable”.

In his reply, Sunak said Wallace had “served our country with distinction”.

He said: “I fully understand your desire to step down after eight years of exacting ministerial duties.

“As you say, the jobs you have done have required you to be available on a continuous basis.

“But I know you have more to offer public life both here and internationally. You leave office with my thanks and respect.”

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Chris Christie Taunts Trump With The ‘One Thing He Cannot Stand’

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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie boasted that he’s living “rent-free” inside Donald Trump’s head after the former president launched another attack on him.

Trump on Tuesday fired off a rant on his Truth Social website saying Christie “SHOULD DROP OUT OF THE RACE.”

Christie, one of a number of candidates running against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, said that won’t happen.

“He only wishes I was going away,” Christie said, saying Trump was “obviously” watching as he criticised the former president on TV when he posted that message.

“I was laying out the truth about him,” Christie said, saying the “one thing he cannot stand” is when someone credible calls him out.

“He knows I’m not just some politician talking about his problems. I’m someone who’s done it, and done it well,” Christie said, noting his 130 wins and zero losses in prosecuting political corruption cases when he was a U.S. attorney.

“I know how deep his problems are, and how much they’re damaging both the Republican Party and the country,” Christie said. “I’m not getting out this race. Maybe he should think about getting out of the race since he’ll be spending most of March and half of April in a courtroom in Washington, DC.”

That’s a reference to the March 4 start of Trump’s election interference trial, one of four criminal cases against the former president.

Christie is polling in the low-to-mid single digits, far behind Trump and behind a number of other candidates such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy and former United States Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Yet the former president seems to devote outsized attention to Christie, frequently responding to his TV appearances by attacking him on social media despite the fact that the two were once close allies.

In 2016, Christie became one of the first prominent Republicans to endorse Trump, and remained a loyal insider for the duration of Trump’s presidency, but turned into a critic afterward.

See his full conversation with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins below:

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Thousands Of Russian Soldiers Refusing To Fight In Ukraine As Morale Plummets, Says UK

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Thousands of Russian troops are refusing to return to the frontline in Ukraine as their morale plummets, according to the UK.

Two soldiers were last week sentenced to serve at least two years in a penal colony after being convicted of disobeying orders to fight.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was reported last month that nearly 100 Russian soldiers a week after being convicted for refusing to go into battle as the war drags on.

“If this trend continues, there will be approximately 5,200 convictions a year for refusing to fight,” the MoD’s latest intelligence update said.

“The high rate of convictions demonstrates the poor state of morale in the Russian Army and the reluctance of some elements to fight.”

The MoD said that was a result of a “lack of training, motivation and high stress situations” faced by Russian forces in the war.

They added: “Although some soldiers have refused to fight and attrition rates remain high, Russia highly likely mitigates their loss by committing a mass of poorly trained soldiers to the frontline.”

It emerged yesterday that Russia is failing to hit its army recruitment targets despite a massive rise in forces’ pay.

Russia is estimated to have suffered more than 200,000 casualties so far in the Ukraine war.

The MoD revealed last month that up to half of Russian fatalities in the war could also have been prevented “with proper first aid”, while crude battlefield medical treatment is causing a huge number of preventable fatalities and amputations.

Meanwhile, at least half of the elite 30,000 Russian paratroopers deployed to Ukraine have probably been killed or wounded.

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Russia Failing To Hit Army Recruitment Targets Despite Huge Boost In Soldiers’ Pay, Says UK

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Vladimir Putin is unlikely to hit his target for recruiting volunteers to the Russian army despite massively increasing their wages, according to UK intelligence.

On the eve of the invasion of Ukraine in February last year, a Russian lieutenant earned 81,200 rubles – around £672 – per month.

According to the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), by October last year, even those ranked as privates were being paid 195,000 rubles – around £1,615 – a month as Putin tried to boost the numbers signing up to serve.

In their latest intelligence update on X, formerly Twitter, the MoD said some in the junior ranks of the Russian army are now on more than 200,000 rubles – £1,650 – a month

“This is over 2.7 times the Russian national average salary of 72,851 rubles,” they said. “By way of comparison, 2.7 times the average UK salary would equate to over £90,000 a year.

“It is highly likely that the salary and additional benefits are a strong incentive for personnel to join up, especially to those from the poorer areas of Russia.”

However, the MoD said Russia was still “unlikely to meet its targets for recruiting volunteers to the ranks” despite the massive boost in soldiers’ pay.

Russia is estimated to have suffered more than 200,000 casualties so far in the Ukraine war.

The MoD revealed last month that up to half of Russian fatalities in the war could also have been prevented “with proper first aid”, while crude battlefield medical treatment is causing a huge number of preventable fatalities and amputations.

At least half of the elite 30,000 Russian paratroopers deployed to Ukraine have probably been killed or wounded.

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‘This Was A Conservative Policy’: BBC Presenter Skewers Minister Over Tory ULEZ Hypocrisy

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A Conservative minister was left squirming after a BBC presenter highlighted the Tories’ hypocrisy over London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

Transport secretary Mark Harper was skewered by John Kay on the day the controversial scheme is expanded across the whole of the capital.

The decision by Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has been criticised by the Tories.

But on BBC Breakfast this morning, it was pointed out to Harper that ULEZ was originally the brainchild of Boris Johnson when he had Khan’s job in 2015.

Kay told him: “There are millions of people waking up this morning inside the ULEZ charging zone in London.

“I just want to read you a quote from the mayor of London: ‘The world’s first ULEZ zone is an essential measure to help improve air quality in our city and protect the health of Londoners’.

“That was former mayor of London, Conservative Boris Johnson. This was a Conservative policy originally, however critical you are of it now.”

Harper replied: “No, the expansion of the ULEZ zone to cover the whole of Greater London is a decision by the Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, supported by the Labour leader.

“If you look at the mayor’s own impact assessment, it will have a minor to negligible effect on air quality. So it’s very clear, despite what the mayor says, this isn;t about improving air quality in Greater London, it’s about raising from Londoners for him.”

Kay then went on to point out that expanding ULEZ from central London was backed during the pandemic by Harper’s predecessor as transport secretary, Grant Shapps.

He said: “It wasn’t just Boris Johnson though, was it? Former Conservative transport secretary Grant Shapps, your predecessor in your job, he wanted the congestion charge in London expanded three years ago.”

But Harper hit back: “No he didn’t, this has been put around by the Labour Party. This was about the expansion of the ULEZ to the north and south London circular area, which was something that was a manifesto commitment by the mayor.

“The government does not support the rollout of the ULEZ to the whole of Greater London – we’ve been very clear about that.”

Under ULEZ, drivers of polluting vehicles are charged £12.50 per day.

Khan has insisted that its expansion is necessary to improve air quality across the whole of London.

However, the move was blamed for Labour’s failure to win the recent Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, which prompted Keir Starmer to urge the mayor to re-think the policy.

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‘Just Another Gimmick’: Government Slammed Over Plan To Put Electronic Tags Immigrants

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Government plans to put electronic tags on immigrants to prevent them from absconding have been slammed as “just another gimmick” by Labour.

Home secretary Suella Braverman this morning refused to rule out the move, which was reported by The Times and the Daily Telegraph.

Asked about the plan on Sky News, Braverman said the government “needed to exercise a level of control” of migrants.

She added: “We are exploring all options to ensure that we have that level of control over people so that they can flow through our system swiftly to enable us to thereafter remove them from the United Kingdom.”

But shadow employment minister Justin Madders accused the Home Office of planning to treat asylum seekers like “criminals”.

He said: “The only people you tag are criminals, so my understanding is that people who are coming into this country seeking asylum are not criminals, they’re usually people fleeing persecution.

“If there’s a problem absconding this is the first I’ve heard about it and clearly the solution to that is to get on and process the asylum applications a lot quicker than is happening and this is just another gimmick that is not dealing with the root of the problem at all.”

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, told The Times: “It’s treating people as objects rather than vulnerable men, women and children in search of safety, who should be treated with compassion and humanity.”

The plan was even called into question by right-wing Tory MP John Redwood.

He told Times Radio: “I would need to be persuaded about the role of the electronic tag.

“I’m grateful for the clarification that it’s only going to apply to those who have been found to be illegal migrants. I think the bigger problem is to work out how many people in the system are illegal migrants and therefore need a safe place to return them to, and how many are asylum seekers.”

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