Ed Miliband urges Labour to move on after Starmer apologises to Streeting for hostile briefings from No 10 – UK politics live | Politics
Ed Miliband urges Labour to move on after Starmer apologises to Streeting for hostile briefings from No 10
Good morning. In an interview around this time yesterday morning, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said that if Keir Starmer were to ring him about the anti-Streeting briefing by Starmer allies reported by the Guardian and others on Tuesday, Streeting would reply: “Why are you bothering with this?” It was an attempt to play down a new episode of Labour turmoil that has turned out to counter-productive for Starmer, though helpful for Streeting.
But, by the time the two men did speak last night, the conversation took a different turn.
Starmer apologised to Streeting, journalists have been told. The conversation was short, and they did not discuss Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, whom Starmer is now under pressure to sack. The pair also agreed they would speak again soon – which doesn’t mean much (they both attend cabinet, and have to speak to each other), but is the sort of thing No 10 briefers say about a meeting to make it sound cordial.
Here is our analysis by Eleni Courea, Jessical Elgot and Pippa Crerar as to what is going on.
And there is a good overview in Karen McVeigh’s First Edition breifing.
Quoting Jess Elgot, she says:
Two months ago, Andy Burnham, the Manchester mayor, launched his own leadership manoeuvrings, and since then, there’s been continuing conversation around replacing Starmer, as if it’s inevitable that he won’t be in position to fight at the next election. This, Jess says, has led to a “paranoia” in No 10.
“People close to No 10 will say to me: ‘I actually don’t think they intended to put the spotlight on Wes. What they wanted to do was make it really clear that Keir is not going anywhere, that he will fight any attempt to dislodge him, that he is not the sort of person who will go meekly away, that he will fight.’”
But the briefing backfired, because it ended up looking like a hit-job on Streeting, who is the cabinet minister whose leadership ambitions are most blatant.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has been doing interviews this morning, and he is urging the Labour party to calm down. This is what he told Sky News:
Look, I think the briefing has been bad, no question.
But my message to the Labour party, though, is quite simple today, which is we need to focus on the country, not ourselves.
We were given a historic mandate last July, a historic opportunity to change our country. And we have a historic responsibility.
I’ve been at this a long time. Governments going through days of turbulence. I was there during the Blair/Brown years. What gets you through, what sustains you, is your sense of mission, your values, what you believe in, who you stand up for. And that is what really, really matters.
I know that Keir will hate all this nonsense and we’re going to focus on the country and that’s what we need to do.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.
Morning: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is on a visit in Liverpool.
Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is on a visit where she is due to speak to the media.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit to promote the news that the government is going ahead with the construction of the UK’s first small modular nuclear reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions at Holyrood.
2pm: Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, are questioned by the London assembly.
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
Waiting list figures for England fall slightly, after rising for past 3 months
Waiting lists in England have fallen slightly, after previously rising for three months in a row, NHS figures show.
An estimated 7.39m treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of September, relating to 6.24m patients, down from 7.41m treatments and 6.25m patients at the end of August, PA Media reports.
The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77m treatments and 6.50m patients.
NHS England says:
The NHS waiting list is 230,000 lower than July last year, even as the health service ‘approaches its limit’ with A&E and ambulances facing record demand ahead of winter.
The overall waiting list for September was 7.39m (an estimated 6.24m patients) down 15,845 compared to the previous month and 230,000 fewer than July 2024.
And Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said:
Thanks to the investment and modernisation this government has made, waiting lists are falling and patients are being treated sooner …
The past year is the first time in 15 years that waiting lists have fallen. There’s a long way to go, but the NHS is now on the road to recovery.
UN experts criticise Palestine Action ban, saying calling groups terrorist ‘that are not genuinely so’ is authoritarian tactic
Haroon Siddique
Haroon Siddique is the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent.
Five UN experts have written to ministers criticising the ban on Palestine Action as something that would be expected in an authoritarian regime rather than a liberal democracy.
The authors state that “mere property damage is not sufficient to constitute terrorism according to international standards”, adding:
In the work of UN experts in monitoring counter-terrorism laws globally, abuse of laws to proscribe organisations as terrorist that are not genuinely so has more commonly occurred in states that are authoritarian and lack legal and political cultures of respect for human rights, legality, due process and independent judicial safeguards, in order to target civil society organisations, human rights defenders, political dissidents and minorities.
It is deeply concerning that such practices appear to have spread to a number of liberal democracies. Organisations must never be listed as terrorist for engaging in protected speech or legitimate activities in defence of human rights.
In July, Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be banned under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same category as the likes of Islamic State and Boko Haram. Announcing her intention to ban the group, Yvette Cooper, the then home secretary, cited its “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”. She has also alleged violence during Palestine Action protests.
The experts, led by Ben Saul, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, say in the letter that “proscription of the whole of Palestine Action is not justified based on the isolated [alleged] acts of a few associated individuals”. They say:
We are concerned that proscription and its consequences result in unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the rights to take part in public affairs and to liberty.
A legal challenge to the ban will take place at the high court in London on 25 November. It is expected to last three days.
Scotland’s auditor general warns of multi-billion tax performance gap
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Scotland’s auditor general has warned that the Scottish government can spend far less tax than it raises because Scotland’s earnings and employment growth has been much more sluggish than in the rest of the UK.
Stephen Boyd said in a report today that Scottish ministers had not been transparent enough about what is happening, even though they know this is a built-in feature of the financing agreement which John Swinney struck with the UK government when he was finance secretary.
After income tax powers were largely devolved in 2015/16, Scotland’s budget has been boosted by £4.1bn in extra revenue.
Yet, during that time, far more income tax than that was raised but that money was folded into Scotland’s grant from the Treasury rather than fund extra spending.
When the Scottish ministers signed the fiscal framework agreement with the Treasury to devolve income tax powers they accepted that UK taxpayers should not be expected to subsidise Scotland if its economy under-performed.
Boyd said Scotland’s lower relative wages, fewer high earners, weaker employment growth and the make-up of the wider economy “acts as a drag” on how much extra money it has for public spending.
Boyd said this year’s Scotland’s higher income tax payments would produce £1.7bn extra overall but the budget pot would increase by only £616m thanks to that underperformance.
His disclosures will add to an increasingly febrile debate at Holyrood over Scotland’s finances in the run-up to next May’s elections.
Boyd has already warned the Scottish government has so far failed to deal with a spending gap which will grow from £1bn next year to £2.6bn by 2030 because its spending pledges outpace its income.
Scottish ministers also fear they will lose up to £1bn in Treasury funding if the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, raises income tax rates in England and Northern Ireland and cuts NI rates in her budget later this month (Wales’s income tax rates are also devolved).
A Scottish government spokesperson did not deal directly with Boyd’s criticisms about the lack of transparency or the spending gap, but said:
The Scottish government’s tax decisions enable us to deliver higher investment in the NHS and policies like free tuition not available anywhere else in the UK.
Miliband defends small modular nuclear reactor choice for Wylfa in face of protests from US
Keir Starmer has announced that the UK’s first small modular nuclear reactors will be built at Wylfa in north Wales – but immediately faced a backlash from Donald Trump’s administration after it pushed for a US manufacturer to be chosen. Jasper Jolly has the story.
In his interview with the Today programme, Ed Mililband, the energy secretary, said that it was not surprising that the American ambassador wanted an American company to win the bid. But, instead of going for a large reactor proposal from the US firm Westinghouse Electric Company, the government has opted for three three small modular reactors (SMRs) built by Rolls-Royce, a British company.
Miliband said SMRs could be built mostly off sit, which would bring the costs down. And he said they were also easier to replicate, which also made the project cheaper. He said Britain was “in the lead in Europe” on this technology. And Rolls-Royce won the competition “fair and square”, he said.
Alastair Campbell, director of communications for Tony Blair in No 10, told the Today programme that the latest Labour briefing turmoil is making this government look like the last one. He said:
The worst thing about recent days is it’s made a relatively new government look like the last lot. There are bigger, worse enemies – like Nigel Farage. Get a grip.
Miliband says Starmer will sack No 10 person who briefed against Streeting if they’re identified
Ed Miliband has said he is certain Keir Starmer will sack whoever was responsible for the briefing against Wes Streeting if they are identifed, Jessica Elgot reports.
Miliband rules out standing to be next Labour leader, saying having done it before ‘best inoculation’ against wanting it
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, sometimes gets included in lists of cabinet ministers who might want to replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister.
In his interview with Sky News, Miliband firmly ruled this out. He joked:
I had the best inoculation technique against wanting to be leader of the Labour party because I was leader of the Labour Party between 2010 and 2015. I’ve got the T-shirt, that chapter’s closed.
UK economy grew by just 0.1% in third quarter amid hit from JLR cyber-attack
The UK economy expanded by just 0.1% in the quarter from July to September as the crippling cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover hit manufacturing, Heather Stewart reports.
Graeme Wearden has more on his on his business live blog.
Ed Miliband urges Labour to move on after Starmer apologises to Streeting for hostile briefings from No 10
Good morning. In an interview around this time yesterday morning, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said that if Keir Starmer were to ring him about the anti-Streeting briefing by Starmer allies reported by the Guardian and others on Tuesday, Streeting would reply: “Why are you bothering with this?” It was an attempt to play down a new episode of Labour turmoil that has turned out to counter-productive for Starmer, though helpful for Streeting.
But, by the time the two men did speak last night, the conversation took a different turn.
Starmer apologised to Streeting, journalists have been told. The conversation was short, and they did not discuss Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, whom Starmer is now under pressure to sack. The pair also agreed they would speak again soon – which doesn’t mean much (they both attend cabinet, and have to speak to each other), but is the sort of thing No 10 briefers say about a meeting to make it sound cordial.
Here is our analysis by Eleni Courea, Jessical Elgot and Pippa Crerar as to what is going on.
And there is a good overview in Karen McVeigh’s First Edition breifing.
Quoting Jess Elgot, she says:
Two months ago, Andy Burnham, the Manchester mayor, launched his own leadership manoeuvrings, and since then, there’s been continuing conversation around replacing Starmer, as if it’s inevitable that he won’t be in position to fight at the next election. This, Jess says, has led to a “paranoia” in No 10.
“People close to No 10 will say to me: ‘I actually don’t think they intended to put the spotlight on Wes. What they wanted to do was make it really clear that Keir is not going anywhere, that he will fight any attempt to dislodge him, that he is not the sort of person who will go meekly away, that he will fight.’”
But the briefing backfired, because it ended up looking like a hit-job on Streeting, who is the cabinet minister whose leadership ambitions are most blatant.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has been doing interviews this morning, and he is urging the Labour party to calm down. This is what he told Sky News:
Look, I think the briefing has been bad, no question.
But my message to the Labour party, though, is quite simple today, which is we need to focus on the country, not ourselves.
We were given a historic mandate last July, a historic opportunity to change our country. And we have a historic responsibility.
I’ve been at this a long time. Governments going through days of turbulence. I was there during the Blair/Brown years. What gets you through, what sustains you, is your sense of mission, your values, what you believe in, who you stand up for. And that is what really, really matters.
I know that Keir will hate all this nonsense and we’re going to focus on the country and that’s what we need to do.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.
Morning: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is on a visit in Liverpool.
Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is on a visit where she is due to speak to the media.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit to promote the news that the government is going ahead with the construction of the UK’s first small modular nuclear reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions at Holyrood.
2pm: Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, are questioned by the London assembly.
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.
