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Irish PM praises Burnham for ‘standing up for justice’ with sanctions against illegal Israel settlements in West Bank
Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM), thanked Andy Burnham for his stance on Israel as the two men met at No 10 North today.
Support for the Palestinian cause is particularly strong in Ireland because of its historical experience of colonialism, and, in a reference to the sanctions on West Bank settlements imposed by Burnham’s government, Martin said:
I think for the United Kingdom under your leadership to take the stance that it’s taken, I think, is important for … standing up for humanitarian values and justice and fulfilling the rights of all in the Middle East to security, to peace and to some decent future for their children and generations to come.
Before their talks, Martin also said he was looking forward to discussing with Burnham “even stronger and closer relationships between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which will be of benefit to the European Union and indeed to Ireland, quite frankly”.
Ireland currently holds the presidency of the EU and Burnham said he wanted “further steps to deepen the relationship with Europe”. He also said he was looking forward to a UK-EU summit later this year – even though no date for the summit has yet been agreed, and it keeps getting put back.
Burnham also told Martin he was particularly welcome in the north-west of England “where so many people have Irish connections”.
And Martin acknowledged that it had been a “very challenging and difficult week” for the PM because of the death of his father. He told the PM: “I think your sense of duty shines through.”
Key events
Downing Street has issued its readout of Andy Burnham’s meeting with his Irish counterpart, Micheál Martin, this morning. A No 10 spokesperson said:
The two leaders began by reaffirming the close partnership between the UK and Ireland, as well as their shared commitment to upholding the Good Friday agreement.
They next discussed the importance of their joint commitments to addressing the legacy of the Troubles and working towards lasting reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
The prime minister then underlined the UK’s desire to work closely with Ireland during its presidency of the European Union as the UK seeks a closer relationship with Europe.
On Ukraine, the two leaders were clear in their united support for Ukraine against Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion and their determination to continue working to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.
They also looked ahead to the UK’s hosting of the next UK-Ireland summit in the first half of next year and agreed its importance in working together across priorities including security and trade.
Reform UK says it would intensify immigration checks on coaches and trains travelling from Ireland into Northern Ireland
Tonight the DUP is starting its annual conference in Belfast. One speaker will be Danny Kruger, the Reform UK MP in charge of the party’s plans for government. He has announced that Reform UK would intensify immigration checks on coaches, buses and trains travelling from Ireland into Northern Ireland.
In his speech, Kruger is expected to say:
Illegal and unvetted dangerous criminals, who cross into Northern Ireland, are abusing the soft Irish border, using it as a backdoor route into the UK. The absence of checkpoints at the border does not remove the requirement to have a right to enter.
Almost all illegal movement from the Republic into Northern Ireland is by scheduled coach or train, arriving at a handful of terminals. We will impose a civil penalty of £10,000 per passenger on any bus or rail operator for each illegal immigrant transported into Northern Ireland.
Reform UK says the checks would be carried by immigration enforcement officers and they would happen at terminals, not at the border crossing. Under the common travel area rules, there are no checks on people at the point they cross the Ireland/Northern Ireland border and, when Brexit took the UK out of the EU, both sides went to enormous efforts to ensure that border posts would not start having to go up.
In his speech, Kruger will insist that what he is proposing is “not a border check”. Reform UK says the Irish government already carries out immigration checks on vehicles on north-south transit routes but it claims these are “grossly insufficient”.
Disabled people in UK need right to travel abroad, say MPs, after ‘ridiculous’ restrictions
Disabled people must have a guaranteed right to travel abroad, MPs and peers have said, as further cases emerged of individuals barred from taking holidays as a result of “ridiculous” rules imposed by local NHS care boards and local councils, Frances Ryan and Patrick Butler report.
Why is council tax in Wandsworth going up 94%
Kemi Badenoch says the Tories might take the government to court to stop council tax in Wandsworth having to almost double. (See 10.16am.)
But why is it going up so much?
In part, it is because it has always been so low for a long time. Wandsworth currently has the lowest council tax in England, at £509.84 for a band D home, plus a £510.51 precept set by the Greater London Authority.
In a blog about its funding situation this week, Wandsworth Conservatives say “a major factor behind the financial pressure is the Labour government’s decision to cut Wandsworth’s government funding by 40%”. Other factors are relevant too. They illustrated them with this chart.
The cut in government funding came about as a result of the Fair Funding Review 2.0 announced last year. In a briefing paper, the Commons library sums up the impact of it like this (key point highlighted in bold):
The review updated and replaced the formulas that are used to assess each local authority’s level of relative need for funding, and which had last been updated in 2012/13. The new formulas take into account various socio-economic indicators such as deprivation, numbers of benefits claimants, and population (both resident and daytime).
The level of need, as assessed by these formulas, was then adjusted to take account of two things:
-the cost of delivering services in each area (using things like the costs of labour and of property, and travel times) – this was called the area costs adjustment;
-the resources that local authorities had available in the form of council tax; councils which charged less than the average level of council tax had their assessed level of need adjusted downwards, on the theory that they could raise their council tax to compensate for reduced central government funding. This was called the resource adjustment.
Tories argue that this means Wandsworth is now being penalised for the fact that it has been fiscally prudent in the past. Labour argues that this is just a matter of the system becoming fairer.
In a story in the Financial Times on this, Chris Smyth and Mari Novik report:
One government figure pointed to Wandsworth’s £194m of reserves. “For too long, an outdated council funding system, based on decades-old data, has entrenched inequality, leaving councils on a cliff edge and communities in deprived areas facing service cuts and rising bills, while some councils in less deprived areas have benefited disproportionately, building up their reserves.”
Labour has long argued that Wandsworth’s low rates were enabled by the decision of John Major’s Conservative government to bake in higher central government grants when it created council tax in 1993 to allow them to continue to hold it up as an exemplar.
They also quote Kate Ogden of the Institute for Fiscal Studies as saying the previous council funding formula was “arbitrary and quite hard to defend”. Residents in areas like Wandsworth would now have to accept that lower council tax “comes with consequences for public services”, she said.
Although Badenoch has described the cuts to funding in Wandsworth as “outrageous”, she seems to have glossed over the fact that, even with council tax going up 94%, residents will still be paying less then their counterparts in other London boroughs.
The Wandsworth Conservatives admit this. In their blog post, they say:
Under the proposals, the average band D council tax charge would increase by £958, taking the average total bill, including the amount paid to the Mayor of London, to £1,978. This represents an increase of 94% on today’s total bill …
Wandsworth currently has the lowest council tax in the country, with a band D property paying £1,020. Even with the proposed increase, Wandsworth would remain significantly cheaper than neighbouring boroughs including Lambeth and Merton, where current Band D charges are £2,047.11 and £2,146.76 respectively.
Irish PM praises Burnham for ‘standing up for justice’ with sanctions against illegal Israel settlements in West Bank
Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM), thanked Andy Burnham for his stance on Israel as the two men met at No 10 North today.
Support for the Palestinian cause is particularly strong in Ireland because of its historical experience of colonialism, and, in a reference to the sanctions on West Bank settlements imposed by Burnham’s government, Martin said:
I think for the United Kingdom under your leadership to take the stance that it’s taken, I think, is important for … standing up for humanitarian values and justice and fulfilling the rights of all in the Middle East to security, to peace and to some decent future for their children and generations to come.
Before their talks, Martin also said he was looking forward to discussing with Burnham “even stronger and closer relationships between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which will be of benefit to the European Union and indeed to Ireland, quite frankly”.
Ireland currently holds the presidency of the EU and Burnham said he wanted “further steps to deepen the relationship with Europe”. He also said he was looking forward to a UK-EU summit later this year – even though no date for the summit has yet been agreed, and it keeps getting put back.
Burnham also told Martin he was particularly welcome in the north-west of England “where so many people have Irish connections”.
And Martin acknowledged that it had been a “very challenging and difficult week” for the PM because of the death of his father. He told the PM: “I think your sense of duty shines through.”
Youth Parliament at risk of being scrapped
The UK Youth Parliament is at risk of being scrapped as its funding has not been confirmed beyond March 2027, the Press Assocation reports. PA says:
Formed in 1999, the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) sees more than 300 children aged 11 to 18 democratically elected by their peers to represent young people in their area, who then debate and campaign on a variety of issues.
Once a year, they hold a debate in the House of Commons chamber.
While UKYP has been funded up to March, it is understood that the government has not committed to continuing the programme in its current form.
A government review into the UKYP, published in October last year, which found that while the parliament was delivering on its intended goals, only a quarter of young people knew about it, and some schools felt “excluded from the process”.
Peers urge government to drop plan to include duty to ‘drive economic growth’ in BBC’s charter
When the government published its proposals for BBC charter renewal last year, it suggested the revised charter should include “a new obligation on the BBC to drive economic growth, build skills and support the creative economy across the UK”.
Today peers are urging the government to drop this idea.
In a letter to Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, the Lords communications and digital committee says:
We believe there is a case for articulating the BBC’s vital support for the creative economy more explicitly in its public purposes. However, giving the broadcaster a broad new objective to drive economic growth across the UK has few obvious benefits and clear associated risks.
And Barbara Keeley, the Labour peer who chairs the committee, said:
The government should use the BBC charter review white paper to set out a coherent and ambitious strategy for public service media over the next decade. It must also be realistic about what can be asked of the BBC as it grapples with significant financial pressures.
We can see no obvious benefit in a specific requirement for the BBC to drive economic growth across the UK. It already makes a massive contribution to the UK’s creative economy. Including an explicit economic growth public purpose in the new charter risks both mission drift and skewing commissioning towards more generic, more exportable content.
The proposal for the BBC to have an “economic growth” obligation in its charter came when Keir Starmer’s administration was trying to ensure every aspect of government policy contributed to the drive to accelerate growth.
Retail sales bounce back in Great Britain amid brighter signs for economy
Retail sales across Great Britain unexpectedly rose last month, the latest economic indicator to defy gloomy forecasts as the chancellor, John Healey, prepares to present next month’s budget. Mark Sweney has the story.
Polanski accuses Burnham of being ‘copy and paste Starmer’ after Sky News leak reveals policy overlap
Last night Sam Coates at Sky News released details of a 50-page policy memo produced by Keir Starmer’s aides earlier this year as they were struggling to find policies that would help him stay in office. The document, dated 23 April, says it contains “bold ideas that meet the moment”. Coates says it shows how much overlap there is between what Andy Burnham is doing now and what Starmer was doing anyway.
This is awkward for Burnham because he is keen to show that he represents “change” – the word at the heart of his byelection campaign in Makerfield.
Coates says in his report:
Sky News has analysed this document and concluded that of the 50 ideas we studied, 20 were announced by Starmer before his departure in July; six have already been announced by Burnham, a further eight are expected to be announced in weeks.
Then there are 16 more ideas worked up by Whitehall but not announced by either PM …
One slide says: “We will make changes. Need to move from the politics of faction to the politics of project. Need to move from a politics of avoiding risk to a politics of ambitious optimism. Politics fit for the scale of the challenges.”
Much of this tone is similar to that used by Burnham.
Commenting on the report, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said:
This is one of the reasons why I am standing in Holborn and St Pancras.
Only a Green win will put the pressure on the prime minister for real change, and not copy and paste from Keir Starmer.
Micheál Martin arrives at No 10 North for meeting with Burnham
Badenoch says Tories could mount legal challenge against cuts being imposed on Wandsworth council
Kemi Badenoch says the Conservative party has “instructed lawyers” to challenge government cuts to a Tory-run London council, which they say amounts to 40%.
These cuts are forcing Wandsworth to increase its council tax by 94%, the Tory leader says.
In an interview with Matt Chorley for the BBC’s Newsnight, which is being shown tonight, Badenoch accuses the government of deliberately taking money away from areas that do not vote Labour and giving them to places that do.
Badenoch says:
I think it is outrageous that Wandsworth council is having to put up council tax. But they’re not doing it because they want to.
It is because the government has taken away 40% of their funding. So we have actually instructed lawyers, as the Conservative party, to see if we can challenge the government on this decision.
Because what it looks like Labour is doing is taking money from areas that don’t vote Labour and giving it to places that do vote Labour.
And I think that’s completely wrong. I think it is outrageous. So we’re talking to lawyers.
Andy Burnham has not found 40% of anything to cut, but he’s asking Wandsworth to do that. I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think that’s right.”
Wandsworth is one of a handful of councils that have been granted two-year “funding realignment powers”, which enables them to increase council tax beyond the 5% threshold. This is because the government recognises that changes to the way local government is funded mean the council needs a big rise in council tax.
The council was Tory-controlled for more than 40 years and became famous for having very low council tax. In 2022 Labour took power. At the elections in May the Conservatives regained control as the largest party, but without a clear majority.
Watson says Palantir ‘can transform public services’ as he explains joining firm
Here is the statement Tom Watson issued about his decision to take a job with Palantir.
I’m terrifically excited to be joining the young Palantir team who make the tools that public service workers need to transform how they serve the British people.
Whether that means reducing the time it takes to be diagnosed, treated and discharged from hospital, helping our military personnel keep us safe and secure, or enabling our police to crack crimes and root out corruption, Palantir software can transform the country’s public services.
Through our partnerships across the UK, we will demonstrate Palantir’s enduring commitment to Britain, not only through the services we help deliver, but through the skills, jobs and opportunities we help create.
Watson has been on leave of absence from the House of Lords since March and he says that will continue while he is working for Palantir. According to Palantir, he has given up his parliamentary pass and the access privileges normally retained by members on leave.
Greens condemn Tom Watson taking job with Palantir, saying it shows ‘corrosive revolving door’ between politics and business
As Robert Booth reports, the former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has taken a job with the controversial US AI company Palantir.
The Green party says this is an example of the “corrosive revolving door” between politics and business.
In a statement, Siân Berry, the Green MP, said:
Palantir, with its work for ICE in the US and the IDF, has no business at all in our NHS and public services. Tom Watson has been employed to lobby his friends in the Labour government.
This is yet another example of the corrosive revolving door between politics and big business lobbying that has no place in public life.
Burnham to meet Irish PM at No 10 North as UK bids to get exemptions from EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ plan
Good morning. On Monday, at her summit in Cardiff with the leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru, Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin president, joked about Liverpool being the 33rd county of Ireland. Andy Burnham is basically a Scouser; he was born in Liverpool and supports a Liverpool football team, despite being brought up in Culcheth, a village mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester, which made him enough of a Manc to be the city’s mayor. He also has Irish ancestry, and so the mood should be very cordial today when he hosts Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM) at No 10 North in Manchester this morning.
It is the first time that Burnham has used No 10 North to host an overseas visit, which should help a bit his efforts to establish that No 10 North is a proper government power base, and not just a branch office.
And, in its overnight release about the visit, No 10 says it is part of a deliberate attempt by Burnham to use meetings with overseas leaders to highlight parts of the UK outside London. No 10 says:
The historic visit to No 10 North comes as the prime minister shines a spotlight on towns up and down the country, days after he hosted Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in Liverpool and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in Oxford.
No 10 also points out that, when Burnham met Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, they were at Portsmouth.
It should be a friendly meeting. When Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester, he had several meetings with Martin, including in Ireland, and when Burnham became PM Martin issued a statement praising him as someone who was “a great champion of deeper links between Ireland and Britain”. No 10 says the talks will focus on “shared objectives including boosting trade, supporting Ukraine, and working with the European Union as Ireland continues its presidency of the EU”. After the formal meetings, the two leaders will visit an Irish community centre.
While Burnham and Martin are meeting in Manchester, John Healey, the chancellor, will be in Dublin where he has been invited to an informal meeting of Ecofin, the meeting of EU finance ministers. And it is not just a social meeting. The UK is desperate to get some sort of exemption from the EU’s “Made in Europe” procurement laws and Healey will be making the case for this to his European counterparts.
According to Treasury sources briefing overnight, Healey will be urging the EU to implement the “Made in Europe” rules in a way that “lands a good deal for all” instead of “erecting new barriers”.
Burnham is due to meet Martin at 10am.
Otherwise, the political diary is fairly empty.
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