Steve Coogan accuses Labour of paving way for Reform UK
Steve Coogan has accused Keir Starmer’s Labour government of a “derogation of all the principles they were supposed to represent” and said they were paving the way for the “racist clowns” of Reform UK.The actor, comedian and producer said the party he had long supported was now for people “inside the M25” and described the prime minister’s first year in power as underwhelming.“I knew before the election he was going to be disappointing.He hasn’t disappointed me in how disappointing he’s been,” he said.Coogan spoke to the Guardian ahead of an address to the annual Co-op Congress in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where he called for locally led grassroots movements to assemble across Britain and take back control from “multinational institutions and billionaires”.
The Bafta-winning actor, best known for his Alan Partridge persona, has backed Labour in several recent general elections but switched his support last year to the Green party.Coogan, 59, said he “agreed wholeheartedly” with the statement released by former Labour MP Zarah Sultana on Thursday night, when she announced she was quitting the party to co-lead a left-wing alternative with Jeremy Corbyn.Sultana said Britain’s two-party system “offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises” and that Labour had “completely failed to improve people’s lives”.Coogan said: “Everything she said in her statement I agree wholeheartedly.I wish I’d said it myself.
” However, he added that he was “reserving judgment” as to whether to support the new party at future elections if they field candidates,The Philomena star said he did not blame working people for voting for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK,“The success of Reform, I lay squarely at the feet of the neoliberal consensus, which has let down working people for the last 40 years and they’re fed up,” he said,“It doesn’t matter who they vote for, nothing changes for them,“Keir Starmer and the Labour government have leant into supporting a broken system.
Their modus operandi is to mitigate the worst excesses of a broken system and all that is is managed decline.What they’re doing is putting Band-Aids on the gash in the side of the Titanic.”In his most strongly worded attack on Labour yet, Coogan described the party’s priorities in the last year as “a derogation of all the principles they were supposed to represent”.“We have a Labour government and it’s no different from a Conservative government in neglecting ordinary people,” he added.“I think Labour governs for people inside the M25 – that’s who they’re preoccupied with, and gesture politics.
Every decision that comes from central government these days to me looks political and strategic and nothing to do with sincerity or any kind of firmly held ideological belief.”Without meaningful action to improve the lives of ordinary people, Coogan said, both Labour and the Conservatives would face electoral oblivion.“They’ll pave the way for the only alternative, which is a racist clown.Reform couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery but if there’s no alternative you understand why working people will make that choice,” he said.Coogan spoke in Rochdale’s Grade I-listed town hall, which this weekend is hosting a congress of co-operative movements from across the world to mark this year’s UN-designated International Year of Co-operatives.
The actor is a supporter of Middleton Co-operating, a community-led initiative based in his home town, just outside Manchester, which aims to provide locally run energy, banking, social care, housing and other schemes.He said the government’s focus on attracting investment to major cities had created a “doughnut of neglect” with poorer communities “ethnically cleansed”.“You look at Manchester, you look at Liverpool, and you go: ‘Wow, look at these shiny new buildings’ and everything looks clean, there’s no crisp bags flying about in the street,” he said.“The disenfranchised people who lived there before are not there any more.They’ve been ethnically cleansed.
They’ve been booted out to the next poor area.So who’s benefiting?”Coogan urged Labour to breathe life back into towns by empowering grassroots groups to take over neglected buildings, using compulsory purchase orders for example.“It’s not just the fact that people are disempowered and feel like they have no autonomy.It’s compounded by the fact that these people, these multinationals, are enabled and supported by the government to keep their foot on the neck of working people,” he said.It was “perfectly understandable” for working people to vote for Farage’s Reform in large parts of England, where many voters feel disenfranchised, Coogan said.
“But if any government wants to address that extremism, what they have to do is tackle the root cause,” he added.“The root cause is poverty and economic decline in the post-industrial landscape, especially in the north.If Labour addressed that problem, Reform would go away – all their support would dissipate.”
Bank of England rolls out looser mortgage rules to help first-time buyers
The Bank of England has rolled out looser mortgage rules that policymakers hope will help 36,000 more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder each year.New guidelines announced by the UK’s central bank mean that individual banks and building societies can offer more high loan-to-income (LTI) mortgages, which are equal to, or worth more than, 4.5 times a borrower’s annual earnings.While high LTI loans are usually considered more risky, the Bank said most banks were not taking advantage of their individual caps, meaning there were fewer available to borrowers than hoped.Sam Woods, the chief executive of the Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, said the changes should benefit tens of thousands of first-time buyers
Prax Lindsey oil refinery owners urged to ‘do decent thing’ for workers
The UK government has written to the husband-and-wife team behind the insolvent Prax Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire urging them to “do the decent thing” and support affected workers financially, amid mounting concern that finding a buyer for the plant will be difficult.In a letter to the Prax Group owners, Arani and Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai, seen by the Guardian, the junior energy minister Michael Shanks said the government was “urgently exploring what support can be offered to the workforce at this difficult time”.He added: “However, we strongly encourage you to do the decent thing and publicly commit to make a voluntary financial contribution to support workers at [Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery].“This could be through direct financial support to them or funding for retraining schemes to ensure that they can pursue new job opportunities if the refinery cannot be sold.”More than 100 fuel tanker drivers were told on Monday they had lost their jobs
Seven UK housebuilders to pay £100m to fund affordable homes after CMA investigation
Seven housebuilders have agreed to pay £100m to affordable housing schemes after the UK competition watchdog found evidence that they may be sharing commercially sensitive details that affect the price of homes.The developers – Barratt Redrow, Bellway, Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry – have not admitted any wrongdoing but have agreed to make the combined payment, which will be split between affordable housing programmes across the four UK nations.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened its investigation into the housebuilders last year after it found evidence of information sharing that “prevented and distorted” competition, including on pricing levels, the number of property viewings, and incentives offered to buyers such as upgraded kitchens or stamp duty contributions.The housebuilders have told the CMA they will refrain from sharing certain types of information with other housebuilders, including prices that homes have been sold for, except in limited circumstances.If the watchdog accepts the commitments, they will become legally binding and mean it will not have to decide whether the housebuilders broke competition law
Looser bonus rules and tax breaks needed to save London stock market, says CBI
The London stock market risks “drifting into irrelevance” without government and regulatory reforms, ranging from tax breaks for stock market listings to looser bonus rules for directors, a lobbying group has said.The 20 recommendation put forward by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which lobbies on behalf of UK businesses, suggest financial incentives, marketing campaigns and boardroom pay are central to guaranteeing the future success of the London Stock Exchange, which has been losing stock market listings and floats to foreign rivals.“With domestic capital shifting away from UK equities, new listings having slowed … and high-growth firms often looking overseas to raise capital, the UK stands at a pivotal moment for the future of its public equity markets,” the CBI said.The lobbying group claims that tax breaks could persuade more companies to list their shares. By making the costs of a flotation or initial public offering (IPO) tax deductible, the government would be ensuring more cash is available for reinvestment and growth, the CBI’s Revitalising UK Public Markets report said
London’s stock exchange needs a shot in the arm from the Treasury | Nils Pratley
A marketing campaign to promote the joys of investing in the London stock market? The idea may sound slightly desperate, and will fall flat if proponents think they are rehashing the one-off “Tell Sid” privatisation campaign for British Gas from 40 years ago. But, actually, yes, give it a go.As the CBI puts it in a report out on Wednesday, a “new narrative” is needed to stop the London Stock Exchange drifting into irrelevance. Since 2016, 143 UK-listed companies have exited to private equity takeovers. That tally is depressing if one agrees that corporate transparency and accountability are better in the public arena and that a healthy economy needs a buzzy exchange
ASA cracks down on online pharmacies advertising weight loss injections
Online pharmacies are no longer allowed to run adverts for weight loss injections, the advertising watchdog has ruled, as part of a crackdown on what has been described as a “wild west” culture of online selling.In the UK, advertising prescription-only medications (POMs) – which includes all weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – to the public is illegal. However, a Guardian investigation previously found some online pharmacies either breaking these rules outright, or exploiting grey areas to peddle the medications to the public.Now the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has released nine new rulings that, it says, will set clear precedents for advertisers.The ASA said the new rulings meant that while pharmacies could continue to mention weight loss injections on their websites, provided they were not shown on homepages or landing pages from other links, adverts were banned from using the phrases “weight loss injections” and “weight loss pen”, and the treatments must instead be marketed as part of a wider service, including a consultation and prescription
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