Jonathan Powell had no role in dropping of China spy case, senior minister says

The government’s national security adviser had no involvement in the prosecution being dropped against two British men accused of spying for China, a senior cabinet minister has said.Jonathan Powell had no connection to discussions about the “substance or the evidence” of the case, Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday, adding that Keir Starmer had full confidence in him.Powell’s role has been under intense scrutiny since it emerged that the sudden abandonment of the prosecution in September appeared to be because Starmer’s government was unwilling to say that China posed a threat to UK national security, a decision to which Powell would appear to be central.According to reports, the cases against Christopher Cash, a parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a researcher based in China, were dropped after Powell said China would not be described as an enemy in any trial – considered necessary for a successful prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.Cash and Berry deny accusations that they provided information about Westminster to China’s politburo

Green party reaches 100,000 members for first time after Polanski becomes leader

The Greens in England and Wales have more than 100,000 members for the first time, the party has announced, a near-50% rise since Zack Polanski took over as leader last month.It puts them on a potential course to overtake the Conservatives and comes little more than a week after the Greens announced they had moved past the Liberal Democrats in membership numbers, getting to 83,500.If the same momentum continues, party officials say, they could be on course to become bigger than the Conservatives. Tory party membership figures are not made public, but recent reports say the total is slightly above 120,000.Such numbers do not necessarily translate into electoral success, with Labour having had a peak of more than 500,000 members under Jeremy Corbyn, who lost two general elections

Looking for signs of life in centre-right politics in Britain | Letters

Dating as I do from the second world war, I can assure Zoe Williams that the Tory party started imploding well before Boris Johnson, David Cameron and co (Enjoying the implosion of the Tories? That’s understandable – but completely wrong, 6 October). One-nation Tories became extinct the minute Margaret Thatcher took office.The true old-school Conservatives were the Macmillan generation, and they were possibly a one-off. That generation had seen two world wars (Macmillan was wounded in the first), they’d witnessed the great slump of the 1920s and 30s, and consequently they’d had their eyes opened and had to question their often privileged upbringings.They largely continued the Keynesian social democratic policies established by Labour’s Clement Attlee (also public school educated and wounded in the first world war) and this continued until Thatcher established the wrecking ball of Friedmanism, which has now had 45 years to demonstrate its legacy of record inequality, tottering public services and our companies departing abroad in ever increasing numbers

Lucy Powell calls on Labour not to ‘write off’ May local elections

Labour should not “write off” next May’s elections as a likely moment for big losses but use the budget as a way to seize back voters’ attention, Lucy Powell has said as the battle to be the party’s deputy leadership entered its final period.With voting among party members under way, Bridget Phillipson, Powell’s rival for the post, said if she won she would set up a formal system to reflect the views of members and unions to the cabinet on a regular basis.Powell was sacked from the cabinet in last month’s reshuffle after the departure of Angela Rayner and has become the favourite to win on an outsider platform, promising to present tough truths to Keir Starmer and his team when necessary.Speaking after a series of events with members over the weekend, Powell said there was concern about the possible impact on the party of the elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and councils across England next May, with Labour predicted to see heavy losses, many to Reform UK.Powell, who was leader of the Commons until the reshuffle, said she was “not prepared to write off this hugely important set of elections” as inevitable midterm pushback, calling for a bold budget in response

Tories and Reform battle to be heirs to Thatcher’s legacy on her centenary

It is a glittering annual dinner in honour of the Conservative party’s most successful leader and, on the 100th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s birth, one that is bigger than ever.Yet as Tory grandees, celebrity backers and wealthy donors prepare to sit down at a gala dinner at London’s Guildhall on Monday evening, a battle for her legacy is under way between the party she once led and the insurgent threat to its survival, Reform UK.Boris Johnson will make a keynote speech at the event, the Guardian has been told by its backers, joined by the main speaker, Thatcher’s son, Mark, and guests including Joan Collins, Julian Fellowes and Jeffrey Archer.But a notable absentee will be Kemi Badenoch, as the current Tory leader struggles to stave off the threat of extinction looming over the party Thatcher led to three consecutive election wins.“There is a competition as to who is best to carry forward her legacy,” said the event’s main sponsor, Mohamed Amersi, who has donated £500,000 to the Tories in the past but, like other donors, has been backing Nigel Farage’s party more recently

SNP backs Swinney’s ‘clear’ strategy for new independence referendum

SNP members have overwhelmingly backed leader John Swinney’s “clear and unambiguous” independence strategy that a majority election win is the only route to another referendum.On the first day of the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen, the vast majority of members backed the leadership’s motion that next May’s Holyrood elections should be fought on a “clear platform of national independence” and that winning a majority in the Scottish parliament – by securing 65 seats or more – would be “the only uncontested way to deliver a new vote on Scotland’s future”.After a passionate – and at times highly technical – debate, the conference rejected a rebel amendment put by more than 40 local branches that set out a more fundamentalist strategy of treating next year’s election as a de facto referendum, meaning that if the SNP and other pro-independence parties win a majority of the popular vote in 2026, it should be treated as a mandate to open independence negotiations directly.This de facto idea was first promoted by the former party leader and first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who acknowledged it as a “mistake” in her recent memoir.Echoing the confidence of SNP strategists reported in the Guardian yesterday, Swinney told the packed conference hall that “we are within touching distance of the 65 seats that will make the world sit up and take notice” and urged the party to back taking a “clear, unambiguous message” to the public