Exclusive: victims commissioner and domestic abuse commissioner call for pause on planned releases

A failure to put in place safeguards in advance of a change to the law that will result in offenders being released early will put abuse victims at risk, ministers have been told.

In a rare coordinated intervention, the victims commissioner and the domestic abuse commissioner have written separately to ministers urging them immediately to pause planned early releases of offenders convicted of crimes against women and girls in England and Wales.

Deputy Labour leader says No 10 must become more meritocratic as party’s female MPs press Burnham on gender balance

Andy Burnham will change a “boys club” culture of factional briefings at No 10 which silenced critics, according to the deputy leader of the Labour party.

Lucy Powell said she had experienced “unpleasant” briefings in Downing Street, which left people afraid to speak out or challenge Downing Street’s position.

Socialists marginalised under current PM are anxious about whether his replacement will again disappoint them

On 10 September 2024, Jon Trickett, a veteran leftwing MP, was preparing to vote against one of his own government’s most incendiary plans: to remove the winter fuel allowance from some retired people, a benefit long seen by many UK households as essential. Senior figures told Trickett he would be the only Labour member of parliament to do so. He said this week: “I said: ‘I don’t give a fuck. I’m going to do what I believe is the right thing.’ And I was right.”

That has since seen as a policy misstep from which Keir Starmer’s government never recovered. Trickett could, perhaps, be forgiven for indulging in a little schadenfreude after Starmer’s resignation this week, just two years after he won a landslide general election victory.

Where did it go wrong for the outgoing PM? And how much – if at all – did it threaten to go right?

Keir Starmer pitched himself as a leader for “stability and moderation” who would rebuild Britain, after Labour’s landslide victory in the 2024 general election.

But after two years which have seen unforced errors, economic headwinds, scandals and, most recently, a disastrous set of devolved, mayoral and local election results the UK is set to have its sixth prime minister in seven years.

Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor predicted to beat Reform but Keir Starmer is unlikely to easily step aside

• Makerfield byelection – latest updates

Polls have closed in Makerfield, Aberdeen South, and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, with the result in the north-west of England constituency byelection poised to decide the future of UK politics.

The population of Makerfield, a constituency sitting just outside Wigan, has found itself at the centre of the British political world in recent weeks after Andy Burnham quit as mayor of Greater Manchester to contest the seat that he hoped would lead him not only to Westminster, but to the front door of 10 Downing Street.

Call for ‘clear and truthful account’ comes amid questions about the Reform leader’s property spending

The Labour party has written to Nigel Farage urging him to stop “evading reasonable scrutiny” over the £5m personal gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The letter coincides with approval of a planning application that reveals the Reform leader’s plans to transform a dilapidated Kent property into a luxury beachfront residence.

Deputy PM says he spoke to US vice-president about post that blamed ‘mass invasion of migrants’ for teenager’s death

David Lammy has said he told the US vice-president, JD Vance, he was wrong to blame the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration.

The deputy prime minister said he spoke to Vance by phone on Saturday to tell him “our democratic process is working well” and that he was wrong in his commentary about the murder.

Documents released by government also show late queen was ‘very keen’ for her son to have prominent role

• UK politics live – latest updates

Formal security vetting and due diligence appears not to have been carried out before the appointment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a trade envoy, the government has said, as it emerged that the late queen was “very keen” for her son to take up a prominent role in promoting Britain’s interests.

The first batch of documents relating to the appointment of the former prince as trade envoy by Tony Blair in 2001 includes a memo dated 25 February 2000 and addressed to Robin Cook, then the foreign secretary, in which the then chief executive of British Trade International, David Wright, said Queen Elizabeth II’s “wish” had been for Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York, to take on the role.

MP says current system is unfair and his idea would result in a ‘wealth tax that works’

• UK politics live – latest updates

The former health secretary Wes Streeting has set out plans for a “wealth tax that works”, by equalising tax on assets and income.

Streeting said the current system – in which capital gains tax is generally much lower than income tax – was not fair and penalised work.

Keir Starmer set out bills to abolish NHS England, overhaul Send provision, limit jury trials and forge ties with EU

Keir Starmer has laid out long-promised changes to education, health and the courts in the king’s speech, which maps out the government’s agenda for the next year.

The speech delivered by King Charles cited bills to abolish NHS England, overhaul the provision of special educational needs teaching, limit trials by jury, introduce digital ID and end the leasehold system in England and Wales. It also included vehicles for closer alignment with the EU, and measures to boost the economy through the nationalisation of British Steel and pilot schemes to boost innovation in areas such as defence technology and AI-controlled ships.

Local, mayoral and parliamentary contests could upend political landscape as Reform, Greens and Lib Dems surge

Polling has opened across England, Scotland and Wales in a series of local, mayoral and parliamentary contests – the biggest electoral test Keir Starmer and the Labour government have faced since the 2024 general election.

As millions of people across Great Britain go to the polls on Thursday, party leaders are poised for a set of results that could fundamentally change the political landscape nationally in Scotland and Wales, and across local authorities in England.

Exclusive: Investigation into campaigning materials for local polls in May challenges tactical voting claims

Election leaflets are providing “grotesque” information about how to vote tactically in the May elections, using national polling data, “dodgy” bar charts and doorstep surveys to support claims about parties’ chances of winning.

Leaflets distributed by local politicians across England are claiming that only their party can win, or that another party “can’t win here”, when there is no good evidence to show this is true, a Full Fact investigation for the Guardian has revealed.

Starmer’s former chief of staff says he does not recognise media’s portrayal of him before evidence hearing with MPs

• UK politics live – latest updates

Morgan McSweeney has denied claims he bullied civil servants into appointing Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the UK, before an evidence hearing with MPs next week.

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff resigned in February over his role in the hiring of Mandelson, but the move failed to end the crisis over the peer’s appointment. On Thursday, McSweeney told a security forum in Kyiv that he did not recognise his “character” as it was portrayed in the media.

Exclusive: Victims’ commissioner makes formal complaint after committee session left one attender ‘shocked, upset and extremely distressed’

Victims of rape and sexual violence have told parliamentarians they felt anxious and distressed during a Westminster evidence session, with one stating that witnessing “pugnacious” questioning had resulted in her “breaking down, sobbing and struggling to breathe”.

The victims’ commissioner has made a formal complaint to the chair of an influential group of MPs after a highly charged evidence session carried out by the public bill committee for the courts and tribunals bill about controversial changes to jury trials.

Vulnerable children placed in caravans, Airbnbs and holiday camps, with children’s commissioner saying practice must stop

Ministers must get to grips with the “national scandal” of England’s shadow child social care system, the children’s commissioner has warned, as a shocking new report reveals the number of children in unregulated settings has increased by more than 370% in five years.

Some of the most vulnerable children in England are being temporarily placed in unregulated caravans, Airbnbs and holiday camps, which risk the “accumulation of increasing levels of harm for children who have already faced enough distress for several lifetimes”, according to a new report.

Exclusive: Health secretary warns of dangers of protest vote as he pitches NHS as key elections battleground

Voters in May’s local and devolved elections risk putting the NHS in jeopardy if they vote for populist parties, Wes Streeting has said, as he sought to make the health service a key battleground.

“The founding principles of the NHS are at greater threat than at any time since the NHS was founded in 1948,” the health secretary said.

Mauritian foreign minister pledges to ‘spare no effort’ to regain control of islands, as US fails to give approval of deal

A senior official in Mauritius’ government has vowed that the Chagos Islands will be “decolonised” after Keir Starmer was forced to shelve legislation to hand the islands back to Mauritius.

On Friday, UK government officials acknowledged that they had run out of time to pass legislation within the current parliamentary session, which ends in the coming weeks, after a lack of support from Donald Trump.

UK’s willingness to consider role in removing mines from strait is seen as distinct from Trump’s blockade proposal

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The UK will not be involved in any blockade of the strait of Hormuz, the Guardian understands, after claims by Donald Trump on Sunday that the US would be blockading the waterway with the assistance of Nato allies.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said “it won’t take long to clean out the strait” and claimed “numerous countries are going to be helping us”, adding that the UK and other nations were sending minesweepers.

Olivia Bailey says she wants Sure Start-style hubs that will be rolled out in England on Monday to be inclusive for all

Reform UK’s “pro-family” policies are a sham and exclude non-traditional families, the government’s early years minister has said before the rollout of hundreds of new Sure Start-style family centres across England on Monday.

Olivia Bailey said she wanted the hubs to be inclusive for all families and transform communities, after what she called the “criminal” dismantling of Sure Start under the last Conservative government.

Concerns that exchanges about US ambassador appointment may have been lost after theft of McSweeney’s phone

• UK politics live – latest updates

Peter Mandelson will be asked to supply messages from his personal phone as part of the investigation into his appointment as Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US.

In February, MPs forced the government to commit to publishing tens of thousands of documents after a controversy erupted over the prime minister’s awareness of the former peer’s links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before he was given the prestigious posting.