Starmer and Merz sign UK-Germany friendship and cooperation treaty
Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, have signed what is being described as the first bilateral agreement between the UK and Germany since the second world war. As they signed what it being described as a friendship and cooperation treaty at a ceremony in the V&A museum in London, Starmer told the chancellor:
It’s a privilege to have you here today, particularly to sign this Kensington Treaty, which is a very special treaty, because it’s the first of its kind ever, if you can believe it, between our two countries.
Key events
At the 2024 general election the Conservatives suggested that a Labour government would allow EU nationals to vote in general elections. That was because in the past Keir Starmer backed the idea. As the election got closer, worried about the reaction from Brexiters, Starmer ruled it out.
In the Commons earlier the Conservative MP Nick Timothy asked Rushanara Ali, the democracy minister, if the government could “rule out ever extending the franchise to foreign nationals beyond existing rules”. Ali ducked the question, and just said: “The focus of this strategy is on eligible voters in this in this country.”
Although Labour committed to votes at 16 in its election manifesto, campaigners were not always 100% confident that the government would go ahead and legislate for this. In a post on social media, the polling firm Ipsos points out why. It says research it carried out last summer found that votes at 16 was the least popular of all the Labour manifesto policies it tested.
No 10 rejects claims rules on foreign donations being tightened to stop Elon Musk giving to Reform UK
At the start of the year there was speculation in some papers that Elon Musk might donate a multi-millon sum to Reform UK. The figure of $100m quoted in reports, although both sides dismissed that. As a foreigner, Musk could not donate as an individual, but some of his companies operate in the the UK and it was claimed a legitimate donation could be made via that route.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the No 10 spokesperson denied suggestion that the government was tightening the rules on foreign donations to stop Refom getting Musk’s money. He said:
It’s not about specific individuals or parties. The current status quo means that a new company registered today, owned by anyone and funded from anywhere, can donate and have influence in British politics.
That leaves our democracy vulnerable, it undermines trust in our politics, and that’s why we’re placing strict new requirements on donations from organisations.
Labour taking Diane Abbott’s latest comments on racism ‘incredibly seriously’
The Labour party has said it is looking “incredibly seriously” at an interview in which Diane Abbott said she had no regrets about comments on racism that led to her year-long suspension from the party, Eleni Courea reports.
Starmer and Merz sign UK-Germany friendship and cooperation treaty
Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, have signed what is being described as the first bilateral agreement between the UK and Germany since the second world war. As they signed what it being described as a friendship and cooperation treaty at a ceremony in the V&A museum in London, Starmer told the chancellor:
It’s a privilege to have you here today, particularly to sign this Kensington Treaty, which is a very special treaty, because it’s the first of its kind ever, if you can believe it, between our two countries.
SNP welcomes votes at 16, saying it’s ‘good to see’ UK government following Scottish government’s lead
The SNP and the Green party have both welcomed the move to allow votes at 16 in UK parliamentary elections.
Pete Wishart, the SNP deputy leader at Westminster, said:
We welcome this long-overdue change to the UK voting age, which comes more than a decade after the SNP lowered the voting age to 16 in Scotland – and follows years of campaigning by SNP MPs, activists and younger people.
Thousands of 16 and 17 year olds have voted in Scottish elections since the SNP changed the law in 2015. It is good to see the UK government finally following the SNP government’s lead – so that younger people can have their say at the next UK election.
And the Green MP Ellie Chowns said:
On this one, Labour have got it right. Giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote is a long-overdue step towards a stronger, more inclusive democracy. Young people have powerful voices and a vital stake in decisions about their future — it’s only right that they have a say at the ballot box.
Liberal Democrats welcome election reform plans, but urge Labour to go further and introduce PR
In the Commons Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson, welcomed the plans set out in the modern elections strategy document. The Lib Dems had been in favour of votes at 16 “for many years”, she said. But she went on:
I am concerned that this strategy shows nowhere near the kind of ambition that we need to fix a system of elections which has left large swathes of the public feeling like their vote simply doesn’t count.
Last year’s general election turned out the most disproportionate result in history, with nearly 60% of people who voted not represented in parliament by the candidate that they voted for.
Olney urged the government to go further and introduce proportional representation.
In response, Rushanara Ali said the government had no plans to change the voting system for UK parliamentary and local elections. She said, when they Lib Dems were in coalition, they had the chance to push for electoral reform. (There was a referendum on switching to the alternative vote, but that was defeated by more than 2:1.)
Minister accuses Tories of doing ‘nothing’ to close loopholes allowing foreign donations to influence UK elections
In Britain political parties are not allowed to accept donations from abroad. But if individuals or companies own a business based in Britain, the UK-based company can donate – even if it does not generate enough money in profits here to cover those costs.
The government is going to close this loophole. In its modern elections strategy document, it says:
A new company could be registered today, owned by anyone and funded from anywhere and, without even a single day of trade, it could still [the test for political donations to be allowable]. These companies are commonly called ‘shell companies’. This is an unacceptably low threshold and a vulnerability in our system highlighted by many independent experts, including the Electoral Commission, the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the National Crime Agency.
We will therefore be bringing forward measures to ensure that in future, ‘shell companies’ will not be permitted to make political donations to UK political parties. To achieve this, we will require companies to have made sufficient UK (or Ireland) generated income in order to donate. This check will close loopholes to prevent foreign interference by ensuring that only companies carrying out genuine commercial activity in the UK or Ireland can donate to political parties.
In her response to Paul Holmes in the Commons, Rushanara Ali, the democracy minister, accused the Conservatives of doing “nothing” to close the loopholes allowing foreign donations to influence British elections. She told her Tory shadow:
It was his party that sat in government for 14 years and did nothing to close the gaping loopholes allowing foreign interference and foreign money to enter our system. This is despite independent experts calling for change. The Intelligence and Security Committee’s Russia report exposed malign efforts to channel foreign money into UK politics. Both the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Electoral Commission have called for strengthened regulations and greater transparency in political donations, alongside modernised enforcement.
We make no apologies for finally taking the tough choices and to protect Britain’s democracy from malign foreign interference.
The real question for [Holmes] is, will his party finally end their addiction to donations from shell companies?
Under these new laws, they might not have a choice. And we won’t stop there. They will finally have to update their weak due diligence checks and conduct enhanced checks.
Starmer says 16-year-olds should be able to vote because they’re ‘old enough to pay taxes’
Keir Starmer has defended giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote in UK parliamentary election on the grounds that teenagers pay tax. He told ITV News:
I think it’s really important that 16- and 17-year-olds have the vote, because they are old enough to go out to work, they are old enough to pay taxes, so pay in.
And I think if you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on, which way the government should go.
So I’m really pleased we are able to bring more young people into our democracy and give them a chance to have a say over how their taxes are paid and what they are going to be used for.
Two thinktanks have issued statements warmly welcoming the plans for votes at 16 and more automatic voter registration.
This is from Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society.
Bringing in votes at 16 will end the absurd and unfair situation where teenagers can already vote in Wales and Scotland but not in England and Northern Ireland purely by dint of where they live.
Voting at 16 will also help more young people to cast that all-important, habit-forming vote at a point when they can be supported with civic education.
Moving to automatic voter registration (AVR) will make life simpler for everyone, it is common sense, and it helps strengthen our democracy. It will make the process of voting more straightforward and is one less thing on the to-do list for voters.
Crucially, it will also help enfranchise the 8.2m people missing from the electoral register and bring the UK’s registration system in line with the many countries that already have AVR, such as Sweden, Germany and South Korea.
And this is from Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director at the IPPR, a progressive thinktank.
Barely half of people voted in last year’s general election. Our democracy is in crisis, and we risk reaching a tipping point where politics loses its legitimacy. The government has clearly heard these alarm bells. The policies announced today represent the biggest reform to our electoral system since 1969, more than 50 years.
“Lowering the voting age to 16 and introducing first steps towards automatic voter registration could eventually bring up to 9.5 million new people into the democratic process. Meanwhile, new controls on political donations will help shield our elections from foreign interference.
Up to 8m more people could vote in elections under move towards automated voter registration, government says
Although the headline story out of the modern elections strategy is about votes at 16, another proposal that is as significant, or even more, is the move towards automated voter registration.
The public debate about the state of democracy tends to focus on turnout – the percentage of registered voters who turn out in general elections. It has been declining seriously over the past 30 years, and at the last election turnout was just 59.7%, which was the lowest level since 2001 (which in turn was the lowest level since 1918).
But there are many potential voters who are not even registered. In 2023 an Electoral Commission report said as many as 8 million people might not be registered.
In its document today the government says:
Everyone who is entitled to vote should be able, supported and encouraged to do so. However, the Electoral Commission estimates that as many as 7-8 million otherwise eligible citizens are either incorrectly registered or not registered at all. Addressing this registration gap must be a priority in order to increase participation in our elections.
Our ambition is to transform our registration practices, harnessing data and moving towards an automated system so voters can easily and simply be registered to vote. This requires a multifaceted approach through both immediate improvements in data sharing and integration of digital services, and, for the longer-term, testing innovative approaches before permanently implementing those changes that prove successful.
The Electoral Commission has welcomed this plan. In a comment on all the reforms announced today, Vijay Rangarajan, its chief executive said:
These reforms will improve the resilience and integrity of our electoral system, tackling many of the threats it faces and should improve the experience for voters, campaigners, parties and administrators.
Registration reform would open the door for millions more to get involved in elections, and the proposed changes to the political finance rules would strengthen the checks on money coming into UK politics and ensure a more proportionate and effective enforcement regime.
Here is the full text of the government’s “strategy for modern and secure elections”.
And here is the text of a letter from Rushanara Ali, the democracy minister, to officials about what the plans involve.
This is how the government describes the “civil society covenant” that Keir Starmer is talking about in its news release.
At its core, the covenant is about delivering real change for working people – strengthening public services, creating safe communities, and providing new opportunities for communities to thrive. It gives civil society a home at the heart of government and recognises that national renewal can’t be delivered from Westminster alone.
Starmer said this approach was about “rebalancing power and responsibility”. He said:
Not the top-down approach of the state working alone. Not the transactional approach of markets left to their own devices. But a new way forward – where government and civil society work side by side to deliver real change.
Starmer did not mention votes at 16 in his speech.
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