Labour Together reportedly canvassing party members on leadership candidates
Good morning. The most significant event of the day will probably be the meeting that Keir Starmer is hosting in Downing Street for the E3 (the leaders of Britain, France and Germany), and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
There will be some mention of that here, but Jakub Krupa will be leading the coverage of that on his Europe live blog.
Before that meeting starts, Starmer will be on a visit to promote a government announcement about 50,000 new apprenticeships being offered. In a news release, the Department for Work and Pension says:
50,000 young people across the country will be better equipped for jobs of the future through a major investment to create more apprenticeships and training courses.
The £725m package of reforms to the apprenticeship system will help to tackle youth unemployment and drive economic growth, with thousands more young people expected to benefit over the next three years.
The latest funding includes a £140m for a pilot where mayors will be able to connect young people – especially those not in education, employment or training (NEET) with thousands of apprenticeship opportunities at local employers.
But Starmer is likely to face questions about a story in the Times by Patrick Maguire saying that Labour Together, the Labour thinktank that used to be run by Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, and that played a role in helping Starmer win the Labour leadership, is surveying Labour party members to find out if they think any of potentially eight other candidates might make a better leader for the party at the next election. Maguire says:
A survey sent to local Labour parties, seen by The Times, prompted members to name the politicians who stood “the best chance of leading Labour to electoral victory at the next general election” compared with Starmer and to rank those they would be likely to vote for in a leadership election.
Eight senior Labour politicians were named alongside Starmer. The five cabinet ministers in the survey are Wes Streeting, the health secretary; Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary; Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary; Ed Miliband, the energy secretary; and Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister.
Labour Together also listed Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister; Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester; and Lucy Powell, who was elected deputy leader of the Labour Party in October.
The thinktank is also asking party members if they prefer “Labour politicians who have principles but are prepared to compromise to get the best outcome possible” or “Labour politicians who stand by their principles no matter what”.
Labour Together, which is now run by Alison Phillips, the former editor of the Daily Mirror, has not commented on the story. There have been suggestions that it wants the data so that it can benchmark the accuracy of its own membership polling against the results of polling conducted by other organisations. (Getting accurate polling data about members of political parties is notoriously hard, because the samples are small.)
But the fact that it is even asking these questions will confirm suspicions that party insiders are gearing up for a leadership challenge at some point within the next year. Although sometimes described as a Starmerite thinktank (because of the McSweeney link), Labour Together was not set up to support Starmer’s bid for the leadership. The founders were primarily concerned with opposing Corbynism, and in the period before the 2019 election it spent a lot of money on internal party polling that showed that, while a majority of members supported Jeremy Corbyn and his values, there were enough of them who cared about winning the next election to make it possible for a non-leftwinger to succeed him.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting a McLaren facility to promote government plans to make available 50,000 new apprenticeships.
10am: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on independence.
10.30am: Kemi Badenoch holds a press conference about the proposed Tory terms for reference for the national inquiry into grooming gangs.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, are due to arrive at Downing Street for talks with Starmer.
2pm: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, gives a speech on measures to stop the UK being used as a base for money laundering.
2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is expected to give a statement to MPs about the child poverty reduction strategy.
3pm: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, gives evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee on the Cop30 conference.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
Starmer says any peace in Ukraine has to be just and lastinng ahead of E3 meeting with Zelenskyy
Keir Starmer has said that any peace in Ukraine would have to be just and lasting. Speaking to PA Media this morning ahead of the E3 meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy later, he said:
I’m looking forward to seeing President Zelenskyy in Downing Street, where we will have time for a private discussion about the peace plan in Ukraine.
We’ve got Chancellor Merz and President Macron coming as well, so the four of us will have the opportunity to go through the various issues, to do it privately, and to make progress.
“It is important that we bear in mind that this conflict is nearly four years old, that Russia is the aggressor, and therefore, if there is to be a ceasefire, it needs to be just – because Ukraine has taken heavy, heavy losses and paid a very heavy price for a war which was not of their making – but it’s also got to be lasting, because we know Putin does not respect agreements that don’t have hard-edged security guarantees behind them, so that’s what we’ll be focusing on.
Jakub Krupa has more on his on his Europe live blog.
Q: (From LBC) Reform UK are going through a tricky patch. Would you take back any of the Tories who have defected to Reform UK?
Badenoch says people in her party are doing things because they believe them to be right. They are not doing it just because they want to win. She links that with the courage of the survivors on the platform alongside her, saying that they are speaking out because it is the right thing to do.
Q: (From Max Kendix at the Times) The government says having a judge-led inquiry hold things up, because criminal investigations would have to include first.
Badenoch says she does not accept that. It could be a retired judge. And the inquiry could run concurrent with any criminal inquiries.
Q: (From Charles Hymas from the Telegraph) Would you strip people with dual citizenship of British citizenship if convicted of grooming gang abuse? What would you do if you countries like Pakistan would not take them back?
Badenoch says people should not be allowed to exploit dual nationality status. That is why the party set out its citizenship plans at the party conference.
Chris Philp says people with dual nationality should lose their British citizenship if convicted of these offences, and should be removed.
And, if a country like Pakistan does not take back its citizenship, the government should look at visa sanctions or aid cuts to put pressure on them.
Q: (From the Sun) Should mosques have to cooperate with this inquiry?
Badenoch says having a statutory inquiry means organisations should have to provide evidence if that is where the evidence leads.
Q: (From the BBC) Why don’t you work behind closed doors to try to get a party political consensus on this?
“Because we are the opposition,” Badenoch says.
She says Tories are working with Rupert Lowe on his inquiry.
But, from the other parties, she has just heard “sneering”, she says.
She says Labour only agreed to an inquiry because the Tories raised the issue in this way.
Q: (From GB News) One of the potential chairs of the inquiry criticised party political point scoring on this issue. Have you reached out to other parties on this?
Badenoch says the Lib Dem have just made disparaging comments. Labour and other parties are not interested, she says. She says she is doing her job.
She says she does not want this to be about party political point scoring. She wants this to be about justice for victims.
Q: (From ITV’s Romilly Weeks) You say you are acting on behalf of survivors. But don’t different survivors want different things?
Badenoch says she is responding to what survivors are calling for.
Q: And what should happen about the Nigel Farage election expense claims?
Badenoch says the Electoral Commission should investigate.
Badenoch is now taking questions.
Q: (From Sky News) You said you did not want to leave any stones unturned. That is what Sajid Javid said when he ordered an inquiry into this in 2018. The found that most perpetrators were white. Are you saying that was a whitewash?
Badenoch says she is saying there is still a lot of work to be done. The last government set up an inquiry. But its scope was so wide it did not look at this issue in detail.
She says, when she was in government, she did not know what is known now.
Survivors are fed up, she says.
The last government did what it did. But she cannot build a time machine and go backwards.
Badenoch publishes proposed terms of reference for grooming gangs inquiry she says should finish in two years
Kemi Badenoch is holding a press conference now. She is with Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, and some survivors of grooming gangs abuse.
There is a live feed here.
The Conservatives have published some proposed terms of reference for the national grooming gangs inquiry promised by the government. Badenoch said the inquiry should be about giving a voice to people who have been voiceless, and said it was important for the government to highlight the way allegations were not investigated because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani origin, and officials and local politicians were worried about being viewed as racist.
Under the Tory plan, the inquiry would have to report within two years.
Here is the Conservative party’s summary of its terms of reference. The inquiry would have to:
-Investigate the prevalence and nature of organised grooming networks, with a focus on extra-familial abuse.
-Consider whether offenders display shared religious, ethnic, national, family, or clan characteristics.
-Examine whether State institutions failed to act due to concerns about the characteristics of suspects or victims.
-Investigate whether any individuals in public bodies ignored, concealed, or facilitated abuse.
-Hear detailed survivor testimony to identify failures in reporting, policing, CPS decisions, court processes, sentencing, and post-release management.
-Assess the harms suffered by survivors and their families as a result of both abuse and institutional responses.
-Forward evidence to police and prosecutors where criminality is indicated.
-Make recommendations to prevent future abuse and improve redress for victims.
These are from Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, on the leadership issue.
Keir Starmer wants Angela Rayner to return to cabinet: “Yes. She’s hugely talented”.
He told @RSylvester1: “Yes, of course I do. I was really sad we lost her. As I said to her at the time, she’s going to be a major voice in the Labour movement.”
But PM is bullish about prospect of standing aside from leadership, saying he has “defied” his detractors before: “And that’s what I intend to do.”
It’s clear to me that while planning is definitely underway in several camps, nobody (yet) wants to be one to wield the knife.
Labour Together has not issued a formal response to the Times story. (See 9.12am.) But sources briefed on what the thinktank has been doing insist the leadership survey is “a bit of a non-story”.
The thinktank wants better data on what members think and it is developing a panel that will provide insight into this, it is said. Other polling companies have asked members who they would prefer most as leader, and Labour Together wants its own data on this so it can benchmark its findings against the results from other surveys. It views this questionnaire as an experiment.
But it also says it wants to know what members think on a range of issues. The results will be shared with No 10.
Keir Starmer is now doing a Q&A with apprentices as the McLaren facility.
He tells them about his decision to say apprenticeships should have equal status with university degrees, which was a theme of his speech to the Labour conference.
And he says this an issue he is having to discuss now with his son, who is 17. He is having to choose between university and an apprenticeship, he says.
Skills minister says she feels ‘frustration’ about Labour thinktank’s decision to poll members on party’s leadership
Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, told the Today programme this morning that she felt “a certain element of frustration” about Labour Together surveying party members about the leadership. But the questions were part of “a very wide-ranging survey”, she said.
She said that, if anyone asked her, she would say she was supporting Keir Starmer because he was doing “a good job” and she said the government should focus on “the things that actually will make a difference for people”, like the new apprenticeships being announced today. (See 9.33am.)
Starmer announces. 50,000 new apprenticeships as part of skills reform programme
Keir Starmer is today announcing a £725m investement to deliver 50,000 new apprenticeships. As the Department for Work and Pensions announces in its news release, this will include the government covering the full cost of apprenticeships for people under the age of 25 at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mayors have more control over apprenticeship funding. The DWP says:
The £725m package of reforms to the apprenticeship system will help to tackle youth unemployment and drive economic growth, with thousands more young people expected to benefit over the next three years.
The latest funding includes a £140m for a pilot where mayors will be able to connect young people – especially those not in education, employment or training (NEET) with thousands of apprenticeship opportunities at local employers.
By partnering with regional leaders who best understand their local economies, these pilots will ensure young people can access training that meets the needs of employers in their area.
As part of the package, the government will also cover the full cost of apprenticeships for eligible young people under 25 at small and medium-sized businesses.
Removing the 5% co-investment rate for SME’s means that the training costs for all eligible under 25 apprentices are fully funded opening up thousands of opportunities for young people. This will make it easier for young people to find opportunities and remove the burden from businesses, making it easier for them to take on young talent.
This follows an announcement yesterday about 350,000 new training or workplace opportunities being offered to young people.
Farage urged to ‘come clean’ over alleged election spending breaches in Clacton
The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has been urged to “come clean” over his election campaign in Clacton after a former aide claimed his party breached spending rules, Kevin Rawlinson reports.
Labour Together reportedly canvassing party members on leadership candidates
Good morning. The most significant event of the day will probably be the meeting that Keir Starmer is hosting in Downing Street for the E3 (the leaders of Britain, France and Germany), and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
There will be some mention of that here, but Jakub Krupa will be leading the coverage of that on his Europe live blog.
Before that meeting starts, Starmer will be on a visit to promote a government announcement about 50,000 new apprenticeships being offered. In a news release, the Department for Work and Pension says:
50,000 young people across the country will be better equipped for jobs of the future through a major investment to create more apprenticeships and training courses.
The £725m package of reforms to the apprenticeship system will help to tackle youth unemployment and drive economic growth, with thousands more young people expected to benefit over the next three years.
The latest funding includes a £140m for a pilot where mayors will be able to connect young people – especially those not in education, employment or training (NEET) with thousands of apprenticeship opportunities at local employers.
But Starmer is likely to face questions about a story in the Times by Patrick Maguire saying that Labour Together, the Labour thinktank that used to be run by Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, and that played a role in helping Starmer win the Labour leadership, is surveying Labour party members to find out if they think any of potentially eight other candidates might make a better leader for the party at the next election. Maguire says:
A survey sent to local Labour parties, seen by The Times, prompted members to name the politicians who stood “the best chance of leading Labour to electoral victory at the next general election” compared with Starmer and to rank those they would be likely to vote for in a leadership election.
Eight senior Labour politicians were named alongside Starmer. The five cabinet ministers in the survey are Wes Streeting, the health secretary; Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary; Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary; Ed Miliband, the energy secretary; and Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister.
Labour Together also listed Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister; Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester; and Lucy Powell, who was elected deputy leader of the Labour Party in October.
The thinktank is also asking party members if they prefer “Labour politicians who have principles but are prepared to compromise to get the best outcome possible” or “Labour politicians who stand by their principles no matter what”.
Labour Together, which is now run by Alison Phillips, the former editor of the Daily Mirror, has not commented on the story. There have been suggestions that it wants the data so that it can benchmark the accuracy of its own membership polling against the results of polling conducted by other organisations. (Getting accurate polling data about members of political parties is notoriously hard, because the samples are small.)
But the fact that it is even asking these questions will confirm suspicions that party insiders are gearing up for a leadership challenge at some point within the next year. Although sometimes described as a Starmerite thinktank (because of the McSweeney link), Labour Together was not set up to support Starmer’s bid for the leadership. The founders were primarily concerned with opposing Corbynism, and in the period before the 2019 election it spent a lot of money on internal party polling that showed that, while a majority of members supported Jeremy Corbyn and his values, there were enough of them who cared about winning the next election to make it possible for a non-leftwinger to succeed him.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting a McLaren facility to promote government plans to make available 50,000 new apprenticeships.
10am: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on independence.
10.30am: Kemi Badenoch holds a press conference about the proposed Tory terms for reference for the national inquiry into grooming gangs.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, are due to arrive at Downing Street for talks with Starmer.
2pm: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, gives a speech on measures to stop the UK being used as a base for money laundering.
2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is expected to give a statement to MPs about the child poverty reduction strategy.
3pm: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, gives evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee on the Cop30 conference.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
