Seven of Labour’s newest MPs look back on a ‘relentless’ first year

Labour won hundreds of new MPs in the 2024 general election. One year later, how do they think the government is doing?Labour’s first year back in power has been marked by high stakes and harsh realities.Despite ambitious promises, the party has struggled to maintain the support of voters – reflected in low poll numbers and a near defeat on its big welfare legislation.For new MPs the challenge has been to push urgent reforms while navigating Westminster’s unforgiving terrain.Seven rising Labour voices speak about the year that has tested them all

Streeting sets out digital overhaul of NHS centred on ‘doctor in your pocket’ app

Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are intended to give patients unprecedented control over their care.A dramatic expansion of the role of the NHS app will result in fewer staff than expected by 2035, with Streeting banking on digital efficiencies to reduce the number of frontline workers, a move described as a “large bet” by health experts.The digital tool will enable patients to self-refer when they need help, book appointments with clinicians, receive advice from an AI GP or see their medical records.“The NHS app will become a doctor in your pocket, bringing our health service into the 21st century,” the health secretary said as he launched the government’s much-trailed 10-year health plan.Highlighting that those who use private healthcare already get instant advice, remote consultations with a doctor and choice over their appointments, he promised that “our reforms will bring those services to every patient, regardless of their ability to pay”

The Starmtrooper rebellion: welfare bill showed Labour’s new MPs have minds of their own

As Labour officials sounded warnings to Downing Street last month about the scale of the rebellion against the government’s welfare bill, one concern was particularly stark: many of the supposedly loyal 2024 intake were among the rebels.Officials were told not to worry, however, sources have told the Guardian. Many of those MPs had been personally selected at the general election by Morgan McSweeney and other senior advisers to Keir Starmer.The “Starmtroopers”, as they had come to be known, could be talked down with a simple phone call.This week’s dramatic events in the Commons, when ministers had to gut their own bill less than two hours before a vote when confronted with a widespread and sustained rebellion, have proved the folly of making assumptions about the class of 2024

Anti-apartheid activists would have been called terrorists under logic banning Palestine Action, Peter Hain says – as it happened

The Labour peer Peter Hain, who was a leading anti-apartheid campaigner in the UK and who led the direct action protests that disrupted South African rugby and cricket tours in 1969 and 1970, told peers that he was “deeply ashamed” that his party was banning Palestine Action.If he was doing that today, he would be “stigmatised as a terrorist, rather than vilified, as indeed I then was”, he said. He went on:That militant action could have been blocked by this motion [the order banning Palestine Action] as could other anti-apartheid activity, including militant protests to stop Barclays Bank recruiting new students on university campuses, eventually forcing Barclays to withdraw from apartheid South Africa.Remember also that Nelson Mandela was labelled a “terrorist” by the apartheid government, by British prime minister Maragret Thatcher, by the United States and other Western governments during much of the Cold War.Mandela even remained on the US terrorism watchlist until 2008, many years after becoming South Africa’s first democratically elected president and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

Welfare reform bill fiasco re-empowers parliament | Letters

The one upside that the government can draw from the welfare reform bill debacle is that it demonstrates the genuine tension between the different roles of parliament and government (Keir Starmer forced into dramatic climbdown to pass welfare reform bill, 1 July). It can be presented as chiming in with the view of many voters that politics today does not work and that all governments simply do what benefits themselves.The government’s failure to forge a constructive relationship with its backbench Labour MPs lies at the heart of its need for the last-minute revisions of its proposals, but a recharging of that relationship could well resonate with the electorate.For voters, it is the way that they see their representative that has the most significance. Each MP has the difficult task of balancing their responsibilities to their constituents, their party and their consciences

SMILE, it’s just a normal day for Labour’s happy family of Keir, Rachel and Wes | John Crace

The show must go on. Less than 48 hours after the government’s welfare bill was left in tatters and a day after Rachel Reeves breaking down in tears at prime minister’s questions had caused falls in the financial markets, Keir Starmer, his chancellor and the health secretary were keen to present a clean slate.Everything was totally normal. Couldn’t be more normal. This had been just another ordinary week in Westminster