Mel Stride has become the fourth Conservative MP to announce he is joining the race for the party’s leadership.
The former work and pensions secretary said he has been “fully nominated” as a candidate, joining Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.
Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel are also expected to put themselves forward before nominations close at 2.30pm on Monday.
But Ms Braverman is struggling to get the 10 MPs needed to put her on the ballot paper, The Independent understands.
Labour‘s Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil a black hole in the public finances of around £20 billion, signalling that tax rises could be on the way.
The chancellor will on Monday set out the results of the spending audit she ordered Treasury officials to produce which show “the true scale of the damage the Conservatives have done to the public finances”.
Wes Streeting has also slammed the Tory legacy claiming that England’s health and social care watchdog is “not fit for purpose” after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report unveiled a “stunning failure”.
Key Points
- Fourth candidate enters Tory leadership race to replace Sunak
- Braverman ‘struggling’ to get on Tory leadership ballot
- Streeting warns health watchdog not fit for purpose after damning report
- Chancellor set to unveil £20bn black hole in public finances
- IFS: Labour’s surprise over state of public finances not ‘very credible at all’
What is happening in Westminster today?
09:37
Salma Ouaguira
MPs in the House of Commons will today debate a bill on clean energy superpower and provide a statement on the infected blood inquiry. Here’s today’s business:
9.30am: A statement on the Infected Blood Inquiry
10.30am: A general debate on making Britain a clean energy superpower
2.30pm: An adjournment debate on Government support for pharmacy provision in Hampton
In the House of Lords, peers are focusing discussions on education and crime.
10am: A debate on the Education for 11 to 16-year olds Committee report, Requires improvement: urgent change for 11–16 education
A debate on the Justice and Home Affairs Committee report, Cutting crime: better community sentences
Streeting tells voters to take CQC report with ‘a pinch of salt'
09:30
Salma Ouaguira
People should take what the Care Quality Commission (CQC) says “with a pinch of salt”, Wes Streeting has said.
The Health Secretary said he was “brutally honest” with the public before the election that problems with the NHS would “take time to fix”, but he had not anticipated that the regulator would have “failed to such an extent”.
Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I don’t think we need to manage the public’s expectations because to be fair to the public, whether it’s on the economy or the NHS or the other big challenges we’ve inherited, people know that they’re going to take time to fix. We were honest with people ahead of the election.”
He added: “I was brutally honest with people as the shadow health and social care secretary.”
On the problems faced by the NHS, he said: “It’s not going to be easy things are worst than we expected.”
Asked whether he was saying that people should “not believe a word” of information they read on the CQC website, he said: “I’d say take it with a pinch of salt.”
Politics explained: Is public ownership back in fashion under Labour?
09:26
Salma Ouaguira
The new government’s plans for a state energy company and renationalised rail operators are an adjustment, not a revolution, writes John Rentoul:
Labour warns of ‘difficult decisions’ ahead of budget announcement
09:23
Salma Ouaguira
The Labour Government will not “duck difficult decisions” in its budget, Wes Streeting said amid concerns over a black hole in the public finances of around £20 billion.
The health secretary said “tough choices” were required ahead of an expected update from Chancellor Rachel Reeves on a spending audit she ordered Treasury officials to produce.
Speaking to broadcasters on Friday morning, Mr Streeting said Labour had discovered the state of the public finances was “shocking” since entering Government.
He told Times Radio: “We knew that the economic inheritance would be the worst since the Second World War. That’s why ahead of the general election we were so disciplined about our manifesto to make sure the promises we made would be promises we would keep and the country could afford.
“What I think we have found shocking is the state of the public finances in the year that we’ve inherited and that means tough choices as the chancellor will continue to show iron discipline and she will have the full support of the entire cabinet.
“Because these aren’t just tough choices for the chancellor, these are tough choices for all of us and we’re determined to meet that challenge, to be honest with people, to not duck the difficult decisions and to make sure that we make the right choices now that set Britain up for the longer-term success that we need.”
Streeting warns of ‘enormous risks’ of legalising assisted dying
09:16
Salma Ouaguira
Wes Streeting said that it is important to talk about the “enormous risks” of legalising assisted dying as parliament is due to debate the issue on Friday.
Former Labour justice secretary Lord Falconer of Thoroton will introduce a private members’ Bill in the House of Lords which would allow terminally ill adults with six months or fewer left to live to end their lives.
Sir Keir Starmer previously doubled down on a pre-election commitment to allow a free vote on changes to assisted dying laws, but declined to put a timetable on it.
The health secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think this will end up being both an ethical debate – is this right in principle? And it will also go to being a practical debate – can this work in practice?”
He said he had watched some of his grandparents die “slowly and painfully” and that looking back: “I wish that choice had been available to them in their terminal illness but tempering that is a reflection that there are enormous risks.
“Could someone be coerced and not just directly coerced, would someone feel that inner pressure, that inner voice that says, ‘I’m a burden to my family?’.
“I would never want someone to choose to end their life through assisted dying feeling like they’re a burden on someone else.
“Is palliative care in this country good enough so that that choice would be a real choice, or would people end their lives sooner than they wish because palliative care, end of life care, isn’t as good as it could be.”
Tory leadership candidate denies being in ’weak position’ after nearly losing seat
09:13
Salma Ouaguira
Mel Stride has denied being in a weak position in the Tory leadership contest after securing his seat by just 61 votes at the general election.
He told Sky News: “I won my seat against the odds and I won it because I fought, and fought and fought really hard to preserve that.
“We’ve got to be focused on winning back the seats we lost.
“We’ve got to have much bigger aspirations than worrying about my seat and my small majority.”
Health secretary ‘reflecting on the best way forward’ on social care
09:10
Salma Ouaguira
Wes Streeting said he was “reflecting on the best way forward” on social care but indicated he was open to reaching “across the divide” and working with other parties on the issue.
Asked whether he would agree to Liberal Democrat suggestions to establish a cross-party commission on care, the health secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It has been striking, during and since the general election, that we now have the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Reform all saying they want to work cross-party on social care.
“There have been various options floated in the media and in parliament. I’m reflecting on the best way forward.
“I do want to work cross-party and one of the things that Keir Starmer and I both said actually is regardless of the size of Labour’s majority, we do want to reach across the divide.”
Pictured: David Lammy meets China’s foreign minister Wang Yi at Laos summit
09:03
Salma Ouaguira
Who will be the next Conservative leader? The Tory frontrunners
08:57
Salma Ouaguira
The Conservatives have kicked off a leadership contest after Rishi Sunak led the party to its worst election defeat in history.
A string of senior figures have thrown their hats in the ring to succeed the former PM and lead the party through the next five years in opposition.
Possible candidates must win the support of 10 Conservative MPs before the Monday deadline in order to make it onto the ballot paper.
With the shortlist to be whittled down gradually until a final four are paraded in front of the party faithful at October’s Tory conference, The Independent looks at the runners and riders to take the reins from Mr Sunak.
Labour urged to back ICC’s Netanyahu arrest warrant
08:47
Salma Ouaguira
The UK director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Sir Keir Starmer to drop Rishi Sunak’s legal challenge to the international criminal court’s jurisdiction over war crimes committed by Israel in Palestine.
Yasmine Ahmed called the government to back the arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant who have been accused of crimes against humanity.
Ms Ahmed said: “Will the UK government be principled and mature enough and adhere to its own statements of complying with and acting consistently with international law and supporting the rules-based order by withdrawing its application to intervene in the case of the ICC?
“It will be now for us to see where the rubber will hit the road.”
It comes Downing Street said Labour is “looking at” the previous Tory government’s objection but did not confirm or deny reports that the prime minister is expected to drop any legal challenge to the ICC’s arrest warrant by the end of the week.
North Korea-backed cyber group sought to steal nuclear secrets, NCSC says
08:36
Salma Ouaguira
A North Korea-backed cyber group has been accused by the UK, US and South Korea of carrying out an online espionage campaign to steal military and nuclear secrets.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the Andariel group has been compromising organisations around the world to steal sensitive and classified technical information and intellectual property data.
NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said: “The global cyber espionage operation that we have exposed today shows the lengths that DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) state-sponsored actors are willing to go to pursue their military and nuclear programmes.”
Stride declares Tories have ‘huge job’ ahead
08:30
Salma Ouaguira
Tory leader wannabe Mel Stride has said he is “putting himself forward” because he thinks “we’ve got a huge job to do”.
The candidate added: “I think I am the right person to put myself forward to do that.”
The shadow work and pensions minister said the Conservatives have a “huge amount of ground to make up” to restore “trust and competence” with the British public.
He declared: “I am going to be a driver of chance.”
IFS: Labour’s surprise over state of public finances not ‘very credible at all’
08:18
Salma Ouaguira
The director of Fiscal Studies has said it is not “very credible at all” for Labour to show surprise over the state of public finances and services.
IFS chief Paul Johnson said there “shouldn’t really be any sense of surprise” given th amount of of warnings on the subject during the general election campaign.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer said that public finances were in an even worse state that feared after the Labour government unveiled the dossiers left by the Tories.
Mr Johnson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t think it is really very credible at all. In terms of the scale of the problems facing public services, lots of individuals and organisations have pointed out that most public services are performing considerably worse than they were pre-covid, they are performing worse than they were in 2010.”
He added: “There shouldn’t really be any sense of surprise that there is a big issue here.”
Streeting warns UK is a ‘long way’ from fixing the NHS
08:12
Salma Ouaguira
Wes Streeting has warned the UK is a “long way” from fixing the NHS with GPs “really struggling”.
The health secretary told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve got unemployed GPs in our country at the moment, at the same time as people are struggling to access a GP.”
“GPs are really struggling. They are struggling and patients are struggling to find and access GPs.”
He added: “It’s about making sure we fix the front door of the NHS so that people can see a GP when they need one and they get the right care in the right place at the right time.
“And we’re a long way from that situation today.”
Former Tory chairman backs Tom Tugendhat
08:04
Salma Ouaguira
The former chairman of the Conservative Party has endorsed Tom Tugnedhat to be the next party leader.
Sir Jake Berry said the shadow security minister is a “low tax, proper Conservative” as he slammed the records of the other contenders.
He told GB News: “I’m backing Tom, just to put my cards on the table. I got to know Tom when we campaigned together to oppose Boris Johnson’s crazy increase in National Insurance, and he campaigned with me to oppose that against our own government.
“So all of these people who say, ‘look, I’m a Right-winger, I’m a sort of low tax Tory’, I judge people by what they do. And when Tom and I were campaigning against working people’s taxes going up, as Conservatives, none of the rest of them were with us.
“That’s why I’m backing Tom, because I think he is a low tax, proper Conservative. There’s nothing wrong with the rest of them. He’s just the best.”
Stride accuses Tory MPs of ‘looking the other way’ during election campaign
07:52
Salma Ouaguira
Tory leadership hopeful Mel Stride has accused some Tory MPs of “looking the other way” during the election campaign.
The shadow work and pensions secretary consistently appeared during the broadcast morning rounds during the campaign.
Mr Stride told GB News: “I’m a team player, and when my team’s under fire, when my colleagues are on the brink of losing their seats, I go out from the front. I lead, and I lead the charge, and that’s what I did.”
He added: “Not everybody did that. Others look the other way. I stood up and did about 25 per cent of our morning rounds because I care about my party and I cared about doing the very best that we possibly could.”
Streeting: Care Quality Commission review shows ‘stunning failure’ in NHS
07:44
Salma Ouaguira
Health secretary Wes Streeting has declared England’s health and social care watchdog is “not fit for purpose” and pledged immediate action to fix the service.
Wes Streeting said the review into the Care Quality Commission (CQC) “represents a stunning failure” in the body and it was “meant to be able to give us a true and accurate reflection of care and patient safety”.
The cabinet minister told Sky News: “That’s how serious this is and the reason I have chosen to publish the interim report today is because this is urgent. I want to be honest with people as quickly as possible.”
Mr Streeting said to ensure the right future for the commission the government needs to find the right leadership, adding: “We are going to be honest about the scale of the challenge.”
He said: “When I said the NHS was broken but not beaten there was a sight of relief throughout the NHS.
“A lot of them have been living in these intolerable conditions and are relieved someone is being honest about the scale of the challenge.
“If you get the diagnosis right you are more likely to get the right prescription.”
Rachel Reeves set to unveil £20bn black hole in public finances
07:33
Salma Ouaguira
Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil a black hole in the public finances of around £20 billion, signalling that tax rises could be on the way.
The chancellor will on Monday set out the results of the spending audit she ordered Treasury officials to produce.
The findings appear to confirm concerns raised during the election campaign by theinfluential Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) who accused the main parties of a “conspiracy of silence” in not addressing the reality of public finances.
Ms Reeves and Labour spent much of the election denying claims by the Tories that they would increase taxes by around £2,000 per household but now there could be a series of hikes to try to plug the gap.
Our political editor David Maddox has the full story:
Suella Braverman ‘struggling’ to get on Tory leadership ballot as rightwingers turn to Jenrick
07:32
Salma Ouaguira
Rightwing Tory MP Suella Braverman’s bid to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader may come to an end before it even begins despite growing supprt among ordinary party members.
The Independent understands that the former home secretary is struggling to get the 10 MPs needed to put her on the ballot paper to become the next Conservative leader as rightwing Brexiteers look at Robert Jenrick as an alternative candidate.
Ms Braverman has attracted negative headlines with her support for the Rwanda deportation scheme as “her dream”, description of pro-Gaza supporters as “hate marchers”, call to takeaway homeless people’s tents, claim LGBTQ+ flag “represented child mutilation which left her physically repulsed” and claiming imigrants arriving on small boats was “an invasion”.
Our political editor David Maddox has the full story:
Chancellor to ‘bang drum for British business’ at G20 meeting in Brazil
07:20
Salma Ouaguira
Rachel Reeves has vowed to “bang the drum for British business” at the G20 in Brazil during her first international trip as Chancellor.
She will arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday to attend the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.
She will press business leaders to “take another look at Britain” and talk about the Government’s plans to boost international investment.
Ms Reeves said: “Over the coming days my message to international leaders is simple: after years of uncertainty and instability, Britain is open for business once again.
“This new Government’s number one mission is to boost economic growth so we can make every part of the country better off. That can only happen by working alongside business from around the world to encourage them to invest in the jobs and industries of the future.
“That is why over the coming two days I will be banging the drum for British business and urging leaders to take another look at us.
“I’m ready to take my seat at the table alongside fellow finance ministers, steering the world economy and representing our national interests on the major issues of our time, including grasping the growth opportunities of the net-zero transition and putting pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.”
Stride: Tories ‘lost trust of British people'
07:15
Salma Ouaguira
Mr Stride said the Conservative Party has “substantially lost the trust of the British people” as well as its “reputation for competence”.
He told BBC Breakfast: “What we know from the general election is that we’re in a very, very difficult place as a party, and I worry about that because I care about my party and I care about my country.
“We’ve substantially lost the trust of the British people and we’ve lost our reputation for competence, and I believe that I’m in a very good position to address those issues going forward.
“In terms of trust, I think (the party) needs somebody who is going to be able to unite the party.
“People are not going to vote for a party that’s at each other’s throats all the time.
“I am respected, I think, right across the parliamentary party, I was chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the leader of the House of Commons, all of those things are roles about bringing people together.”
Mel Stride enters Tory leadership race
07:10
Salma Ouaguira
Mel Stride has announced he is running on the Tory leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak.
The shadow work and pensions secretary said he has managed to secure the endorsement of the 10 MPs he needed to make it onto the ballot paper.
The MP for Central Devon told BBC Breakfast this morning: “I’m fully nominated. I was nominated yesterday morning and my candidacy has gone forward.”
Rwanda plan flight used to deport migrants to Vietnam and Timor-Leste
07:00
Salma Ouaguira
The Labour government has used flights scheduled to deport migrants under the Tories’ scrapped Rwanda scheme to return failed asylum seekers to Vietnam and Timor-Leste.
The Home Office has announced that a charter flight took 46 migrants to the Asian countries on Wednesday.
Sir Lenny Henry supports letter calling Voter ID laws ‘attack on rights’
06:30
Salma Ouaguira
Sir Lenny Henry is among the celebrities who have called on the new Government to reverse laws that require voters to bring photo identification to polling stations.
The actor and comedian, 65, backed an open letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying that the legislation, which was introduced by the last government, is “an attack on the democratic rights of people of colour”.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the department responsible for voting rules, says that there will be a “thorough evaluation of voter ID rules”.
The letter to Sir Keir, organised by campaigning group Operation Black Vote and the equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust and posted online on Thursday, was also backed by other famous faces.
Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh, artist Anish Kapoor, Homeland actor David Harewood, Star Wars star Hugh Quarshie, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody actress Naomi Ackie and Hotel Rwanda actress Sophie Okonedo were among the more than 50 signatories.
They urge Sir Keir to “repeal the unfair Voter ID laws brought in under the last government”, citing more than 400,000 people being turned away during the 2024 General Election.
PM: Reaping benefits of clean power will ‘take time’ but bills will fall by £300
06:00
Salma Ouaguira
Sir Keir Starmer has warned it will “take time” to reap the benefits of clean power initiatives but stood by a claim that Labour’s plans will eventually drive down household bills by £300 a year amid confusion over the commitment.
The Prime Minister said the Government is “moving at pace” with the development of the publicly-owned GB Energy company but said “problems that have been left to fester for years” cannot be fixed “overnight”.
Hitting out at the Conservative record, he said chances to boost energy security had been missed by the previous government, leaving a “rot of short-sightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up.
In a speech in Runcorn, Cheshire, Sir Keir said “every day” his administration is finding “more mess” that the Tories left behind.
“The hard graft of rebuilding this country has well and truly started, and it is vital that we begin immediately because the last government dropped the ball,” he said.
“They left us the worst inheritance since the Second World War, and every day – every day – we’re finding more mess that they’ve left for us to clear up, the rot of short-sightedness and self-service that has weakened the foundations of our country.”
Sir Keir’s speech was aimed at setting out new plans to team up with the Crown Estate, which owns the vast majority of Britain’s seabed, to boost the building of offshore wind farms.
It comes after the Tories cast doubt on a previous Labour pledge to help cut household bills by £300 a year, in part through GB Energy, its flagship green initiative.
Threats to UK ‘alive and well’ in war-torn Ukraine, says defence review chief
05:30
Salma Ouaguira
Threats faced by Britain are no longer theoretical or a distant possibility but are “alive and well” in Ukraine after Russia’s brutal invasion, the head of the UK’s defence review has said.
Former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, who served as defence secretary under Tony Blair, highlighted the “depraved conduct” of Vladimir Putin’s occupying forces to highlight what was at stake.
The Labour peer said it was imperative the UK military was able to deter any threat to the nation.
Lord Robertson also made clear the problems facing Britain’s overstretched armed forces were known and what he was inviting through the review was solutions “and the trade-offs that will be involved”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently reaffirmed his commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP (gross domestic product) at the Nato summit in Washington.
But he is under pressure over the timescale on funding given the present threats to national security.
Speaking during the defence debate on the King’s Speech, Lord Robertson said: “This will be my second strategic defence review but probably the more difficult.
“The world has changed dramatically since the last one in 1998 and in the intervening period the range of challenges, threats, complications, instabilities and fragilities has multiplied.
“The sheer volatility of events today in the world combined with the velocity of dynamic change have both combined to produce new vulnerabilities in our society.
“And we must all face that new global turbulence with serious intent.
“Therefore, our armed forces must be agile, lethal, survivable and robust enough to deter any threat to our country and that is the imperative.”
Who will be the next Tory leader?
05:00
Salma Ouaguira
Tom Tugendhat has joined James Cleverly in publicly declaring his candidacy in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader.
There will potentially be a crowded field in the contest as Mr Cleverly acknowledged he was not the only one giving it “serious thought” ahead of nominations opening on Wednesday evening.
Mr Sunak, who led the Tories to their worst general election result, will remain as leader until a successor is appointed.
The winner will be announced on November 2. Here are the key contenders to watch:
- James Cleverly
- James Cleverly
- Kemi Badenoch
- Suella Braverman
- Priti Patel
- Robert Jenrick
- Mel Stride
Tugendhat: Truss demonstrated a recklessness that surprised all of us
04:30
Salma Ouaguira
Tom Tugendhat said he had been surprised by Liz Truss’s recklessness as he was quizzed about previously backing her.
“I stood against every other leadership contender at the last time and then I was left with the choice of two,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
He added: “Liz demonstrated a recklessness that surprised all of us.”
The contender for the Conservative leadership dodged questions of whether backing Ms Truss and her economic plan showed a lack of judgment on his part.
He said: “What we need to be doing is focusing on the challenges that are facing us in the future. Over the last three, four years – you’re absolutely right. We have failed to deliver. That’s exactly why I’m standing because I think we need to unite this country. We need to rebuild that trust, and we need to deliver.”
Violence, self-harm and drugs: Shock new figures lay bare crisis facing Britain’s prisons
04:00
Salma Ouaguira
Violence and self-harm in Britain’s prisons is soaring while drugs are readily available with almost a quarter of jails overcrowded, grim new data has revealed.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures on Thursday laid bare the scale of the chaos in UK prisons, days after the justice secretary announced emergency measures to ease the crisis.
The figures showed self-harm rates in UK prisons are at their highest on record, with 73,804 incidents of self-harm in the past year, the equivalent of one prisoner hurting themselves every seven minutes. Assaults hit a post-pandemic high in the last year, with 28,292 violent assaults across the estate.
Postcode lottery for care ‘reflects perfect storm on costs, demand and staffing’
03:30
Salma Ouaguira
A “startling” postcode lottery for social care showing a higher rate of rejected requests for support depending on where someone lives has been branded “unacceptable” by campaigners.
The Care and Support Alliance (CSA), which represents over 60 of Britain’s leading charities, said it had analysed the latest NHS England data on the numbers of requests for care made by older and disabled people to their local authorities and the proportion that each local authority accepts or rejects.
The research found the North East to be the region with the highest average rate of accepted requests for care at 64% and the West Midlands to be the lowest with an average rate of accepted requests at 32%.
Within each region there were large variations in the rates of accepted requests, with the the biggest in London, where there was a difference of 64 percentage points between the local authority with the highest rate of accepted requests in the capital and the one with the lowest, the CSA said.
Even though the East Midlands had the least wide-ranging variation between accepted requests by its different local authorities, the gap was still 31 percentage points, the alliance said.
Across England, the coalition said the lowest rate of refused requests in a local authority was 12%, while the highest was 85%.
A person’s request for social care from a local authority can be rejected for various reasons, including that they do not meet the criteria for care due to their needs not being deemed sufficiently pronounced or that they have too much money to qualify for state-funded help.
But the CSA said the statutory duty local authorities have to provide care has, in recent years, been increasingly interpreted in ways that mean some people who would have qualified for state-funded help in the past are now being screened out.
Tory leadership candidate’s campaign slogan changed after it spelt out ‘TURD’
03:00
Salma Ouaguira
Tom Tugendhat’s campaign has had to change its slogan after it spelt out a rather unfortunate word.
The original slogan read: “Together we can, Unite the party. Rebuild trust. Defeat Labour” but it was soon pointed out that the first letter of the first word of each sentence read as ‘turd’.
It was quietly changed on Thursday, with the final line being replaced with the words: “Win back the country”.
Tom Tugendhat changes his slogan for the Conservative leadership contest after realising it spelt out “turd” (2024) pic.twitter.com/Vo09V1TICT
— insane moments in british politics (@PoliticsMoments) July 25, 2024
Politics explained: Is Labour as desperate as the Tories were to sign trade deals?
02:30
Salma Ouaguira
With David Lammy in India, Keir Starmer is keen to achieve a deal in order to show that he can ‘make Brexit work’, writes John Rentoul:
Urgent Government action needed to mitigate risk of university closures – report
02:00
Salma Ouaguira
The Government must take urgent action to mitigate the increasing possibility of a “disorderly exit” by one or more universities from the higher education sector, a report has suggested.
The absence of a plan for handling a sudden closure of a university which is no longer financially viable is causing an “unsustainable level of uncertainty” for students, according to the consultancy Public First and University of Warwick paper.
A £2.5 billion transformation fund should be created to help provide state-backed loans to universities which make a “compelling case” for restructuring to pre-empt an exit or forced closure, the report said.
If restructuring is not possible or effective, a special administration regime could be introduced for the university sector to allow for a “more orderly form of exit” so students are protected, it added.
There is a “contagion” risk to other universities if one institution collapses as it will lead to uncertainty and it could dissuade would-be international students from choosing the UK to study, the report warned.
It comes after the University and College Union (UCU) called on the Government to introduce an “emergency rescue package” to stave off “catastrophe” in the higher education sector.
University leaders have warned that the financial position for institutions across the country has deteriorated rapidly as a result of a drop in overseas students and tuition fees paid by domestic students.
Watch: Baby of the House Sam Carling delivers first speech aged 22
01:30
Salma Ouaguira
Warning over ‘worryingly hot’ classrooms as climate change worsens heatwaves
01:00
Salma Ouaguira
Campaigners are warning of “worryingly hot” temperatures affecting children and teachers in classrooms as climate change drives more heatwaves.
The warning comes after research showed classrooms breached a recommended maximum temperature of 26C during the recent heatwave in late June.
A study by climate campaign group Round Our Way worked with teachers in seven schools across England to put sensors in classrooms that recorded the temperature automatically every hour over a period of four weeks.
The period included the late June heatwave, when the UK’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued a yellow heat health alert for most of England as temperatures climbed to 30C.
The data found that, while there is no legal maximum temperature for schools or workplaces, temperatures in six of the seven schools exceeded the 26C maximum which is advised by the National Education Union (NEU).
The highest peak indoor temperature recorded was in Cambridgeshire, with 29.6C in the classroom by the end of the school day, while schools in West Sussex and Suffolk recorded peaks of 28.3C and 28.2C respectively.
Roger Harding, director of Round Our Way, which describes itself as a not-for-profit supporting people impacted by climate change in the UK, said: “This data reveals the worryingly hot temperatures our children are starting to face in the classroom thanks to climate change.”
Comment: Ouch! John McDonnell feels the sting of firm government
Friday 26 July 2024 00:40
Salma Ouaguira
Keir
