Lammy’s rebuke of Israel marks turning point after weeks of growing frustration

The anger inside the Foreign Office over Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza had been slowly building until – like an exploding pressure cooker – the foreign secretary, David Lammy, let loose his most damning criticism of Israeli since the Gaza conflict started in 2023.Lammy’s innate ability to put the rhetorical burners on issues has had to be restrained as the UK’s leading diplomat, but once he entered the Commons chamber to condemn Israel’s blockade of aid, this was Lammy unleashed.One UK diplomat formerly based in the Middle East said: “The language was carefully chosen and it was quite simply unprecedented. It marks a turning point.” Even if Lammy’s rhetoric and his actions did not match, sometimes language matters in diplomacy

UK politics: No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – as it happened

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing Downing Street was unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or whether the reforms would be in place this winter.Asked if the changes would be in place this coming winter, the PM’s spokesman said:We obviously want to deliver this as quickly as possible, but the prime minister was very clear in the house that this has to be done in an affordable way, in a funded way, and that’s why those decisions will be taken at a future fiscal event.Officials insisted the pledge to change course was based on the government’s stewardship of the economy and the public finances, PA Media reports. Asked how markets could have confidence in the government if it performed a U-turn whenever Labour suffered an electoral setback, the PM’s press secretary said:We will only make decisions when we can say where the money is coming from, how we’re going to pay for it and that it’s affordable. And that’s what you’ve heard from the prime minister today

Labour does a major U-turn but does Clueless Kemi even notice? | John Crace

Never change, Kemi, never change. We love you just the way you are. Look on the bright side: it could have been worse. KemiKaze could have used all six of her questions at prime minister’s questions to have re-examined the Tories’ very own rubbish Brexit deal. Just as she had for the previous two days

Reform councils pledge to scrap LTNs – despite there being none in their areas

Reform UK’s pledge to remove all low-traffic neighbourhoods from the council areas it controls looks to be achieved in record time after the 10 local authorities said they do not actually have any in place.Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s chair, said last week there would be a “large-scale reversal” of existing LTNs in the 10 areas across England where the party won control of the councils in local elections on 1 May.“We view these schemes with the same suspicion as mass immigration and net zero,” Yusuf told the Telegraph, adding: “You can expect, if you live in a Reform council, for there to be a much higher bar for any proposals for LTNs and for the large-scale reversal of these existing LTNs.”The Guardian contacted the councils now run by Reform – Derbyshire, Doncaster, Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire – and they all said they had no such schemes.LTNs are traffic interventions that filter smaller, residential roads using either physical barriers like bollards and planters or numberplate-recognition cameras to prevent motor vehicles using them as through routes

Rupert Lowe recorded making antisemitic remark at parliament

Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, made an antisemitic comment during a meeting in parliament earlier this year, the Guardian can reveal.Lowe, who was suspended from Reform UK earlier this year after a fallout with Nigel Farage, made the remark at a meeting where staff were present.In a leaked recording, Lowe can be heard remarking on the size of the camera being prepared to take footage of him. “In days gone by you’d call it a Jewish camera, but that would be politically incorrect. Because it’s so small,” Lowe said

Rayner urged Reeves to consider wealth tax rises before spring statement

Angela Rayner urged Rachel Reeves to consider a series of wealth tax rises, it has been revealed, in a move that underscores growing unease within the government over the chancellor’s tight spending plans.A memo sent by the deputy prime minister to the chancellor before March’s spring statement proposed eight tax measures worth an estimated £3bn to £4bn a year, including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and increasing the corporation tax rate for banks.The proposals were not adopted, with Reeves opting instead to announce cuts to public spending in March, in line with her self-imposed fiscal rules.While the memo, obtained by the Daily Telegraph, was framed as a discussion document, it is likely to be seen as Rayner staking out ground for Labour’s left wing within a cabinet increasingly shaped by Starmer-aligned centrists.The document, called “alternative proposals for raising revenue”, argued the measures would not breach Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledge not to raise taxes “on working people”