Labour MPs must gain 80 nominations by Thursday to stand for deputy leader
Labour MPs hoping to replace Angela Rayner as the party’s deputy leader have until Thursday afternoon to gather the 80 MPs’ nominations they will need to stand, with the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, ruling herself out of the race.Mahmood is the latest mooted hopeful to decide not to run, with Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy also opting out.According to a timetable from Labour’s national executive committee, MP nominations will open on Tuesday, with potential candidates having until 5pm on Thursday to gather 80 nominations, which is at least 20% of the parliamentary party.Nominations would be “updated on a daily basis on the Labour party website for the duration of the MP nominations period”, a statement said.Anyone who reaches this threshold must also receive nominations from at least 5% of constituency Labour parties, or about 30 in total, or at least three official party-affiliated bodies, of which at least two must be unions.
The process for this second stage of nominations will run from 13-27 September, with the electronic ballot of party members – who must have been in the party for at least six months from Monday – taking place from 8-23 October.The result will be announced on 25 October.While a series of names have been mentioned as possible candidates since Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary on Friday over the underpayment of stamp duty on a second home, several have since said they will not stand.Mahmood, who moved from the justice department to the Home Office on Friday as part of a wide-reaching reshuffle after Rayner’s departure, ruled herself out on Monday.“I’m the home secretary, so that is my job, and my top priority is securing our borders,” she told Sky News in a pooled interview.
“I will not be running for deputy leader of the Labour party.”Phillips, the safeguarding minister, also said she would not stand, and it is understood that Nandy, who stayed on as culture secretary in the reshuffle, has also decided not to.Emily Thornberry, who was shadow attorney general but was removed by Keir Starmer after the election and now chairs the foreign affairs select committee, is expected to stand.Other possible contenders cited include the former transport secretary Louise Haigh, Lucy Powell, who was removed as Commons leader in the reshuffle, as well as Stella Creasy, Sarah Owen, Anneliese Dodds, Dawn Butler, Meg Hillier, and figures from the left of the party including Richard Burgon and Nadia Whittome.Creasy, the Walthamstow MP who came second to Tom Watson for the same post in 2015, refused to rule herself out when asked by the BBC on Monday.
However, the number of MPs needed plus the speed of the nominations process – Burgon called the latter a “stitch-up” – means the eventual pool of candidates is likely to be small.Rayner served as deputy PM, but the party deputy leadership is separate to any government role and is voted on by members rather than decided by the PM.While deputy party leaders almost always hold senior cabinet or shadow cabinet posts, a government source confirmed there was no rule saying this had to be the case, meaning the winner of the contest would not necessarily be made a minister if not one already.
Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit
A former top cybersecurity executive at WhatsApp filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that parent company Meta disregarded internal flaws in the app’s digital defenses and exposed billions of its users. He says the company systematically violated cybersecurity regulations and retaliated against him for reporting the failures.Attaullah Baig, who served as head of security for WhatsApp from 2021 to 2025, claims that approximately 1,500 engineers had unrestricted access to user data without proper oversight, potentially violating a US government order that imposed a $5bn penalty on the company in 2020.He also claimed the company failed to remedy the hacking and takeover of more than 100,000 accounts each day, ignoring his pleas and proposed fixes and choosing instead to prioritize user growth. The lawsuit, filed in US federal court in San Francisco, alleges Facebook-owner Meta failed to implement basic cybersecurity measures, including adequate data handling and breach detection capabilities
Impact of chatbots on mental health is warning over future of AI, expert says
The unforeseen impact of chatbots on mental health should be viewed as a warning over the existential threat posed by super-intelligent artificial intelligence systems, according to a prominent voice in AI safety.Nate Soares, a co-author of a new book on highly advanced AI titled If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, said the example of Adam Raine, a US teenager who killed himself after months of conversations with the ChatGPT chatbot, underlined fundamental problems with controlling the technology.“These AIs, when they’re engaging with teenagers in this way that drives them to suicide – that is not a behaviour the creators wanted. That is not a behaviour the creators intended,” he said.He added: “Adam Raine’s case illustrates the seed of a problem that would grow catastrophic if these AIs grow smarter
Tesla offers Elon Musk a trillion-dollar pay package
Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire if he hits targets set by Tesla, under a scheme disclosed by the electric car company he runs and in which he is the largest shareholder.Tesla outlined the terms of the incentive package, unprecedented in corporate history, in a section of its latest stock market update that began: “Yes, you read that correctly.”Musk, the company said, will have to increase the value of Tesla from just over $1tn now to $8.5tn over 10 years.If he presides over growth on that scale, the 54-year-old will receive new shares that would push his stake in the company from nearly 16% to well beyond 25%, increasing the fortunes of the world’s richest man to more than $2tn
Trump hosts US tech leaders at White House dinner – minus Elon Musk
As Donald Trump hosted leaders from the biggest US tech companies at a lavish White House state dining room dinner on Thursday night, there was one notable absence. Elon Musk, once inseparable from Trump and a constant, contentious presence in the White House, was not in attendance.The dinner, which included Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, was exactly the type of event where Musk would have sat at Trump’s right hand only a few months ago. Instead, the Tesla CEO stated on his social media platform X that he had been invited but could not make it. He said he planned to send a representative and spent the day on X posting a familiar stream of attacks on immigration and trans people
Head of UK’s beleaguered Alan Turing Institute resigns
The chief executive of the UK’s leading artificial intelligence institute is stepping down after a staff revolt and government calls for a strategic overhaul.Jean Innes has led the Alan Turing Institute since 2023, but her position has come under pressure amid widespread discontent within the organisation and a demand from its biggest funder, the UK government, for a change in direction.ATI said the search was already under way for a replacement for Innes, who held senior roles in the civil service and technology industry before her appointment.Government sources pointed to a letter sent by the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to ATI’s chair in July that demanded strategic change and indicated a need for new leadership.In the letter, Kyle said the institute should switch its focus to defence and national security and urged “careful consideration” on having an appropriate executive team in place for such a move
Quantum computing firm reaches $10bn valuation as investor interest builds
A British quantum computing entrepreneur has doubled the value of his stake in the business he founded to $2bn (£1.5bn), after the company achieved a $10bn valuation in its latest fundraising.Ilyas Khan, 63, is the founder of Quantinuum, a UK-US firm that announced on Thursday it had raised $600m as investor interest builds in the cutting-edge technology.Khan set up Quantinuum’s predecessor company, Cambridge Quantum, in 2014 before it merged with the US-based Honeywell Quantum Solutions in 2021.Khan, a former owner of his home town’s football club Accrington Stanley, is now chief product officer at the business and to date has not sold any shares since founding it more than a decade ago
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Who is in the running to be the next Labour deputy leader?