Minister resigns from Starmer government with call for PM to quit
Miatta Fahnbulleh has become the first minister to resign from Keir Starmer’s government, calling on the prime minister to quit.The communities minister’s resignation came as one of Starmer’s closest aides declined to say whether he would lead Labour into the next election amid mounting calls for him to resign.Darren Jones, a close ally of Starmer, said the prime minister was “listening to colleagues” who were asking him to set out a timetable for departure but would make his own decisions about the way forward, the prime minister’s chief secretary said on Tuesday.He warned the prime minister’s rivals that it was a “gruelling” job.“Anybody who thinks that they can just walk into the job of prime minister and, like the second coming of the messiah, fix all of our problems probably hasn’t really thought carefully enough about how difficult it is,” he said.
Fahnbulleh, who is close to the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said she would “urge the prime minister to do the right thing for the country and the party and set a timetable for an orderly transition”.The MP for Peckham said the message on the doorsteps at local elections was that the prime minister had “lost the trust and the confidence of the public”.More than 70 Labour MPs have publicly called for Starmer to stand down after dire election results across England, Wales and Scotland last week.Asked if Starmer would be leading Labour into the next election, Jones said: “I’m not going to get ahead of any decision that the prime minister may or may not take.“He was very clear yesterday that he will not be walking away, as some of my colleagues have asked him to do.
We’ve got over 400 Labour MPs in the House of Commons.I think there are now 70 who have raised concerns publicly.”The Guardian understands that four senior cabinet ministers – Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, John Healey, the defence secretary, and the deputy prime minister, David Lammy – were among those who spoke to Starmer on Monday.Some told the prime minister he should oversee an orderly transition of power after crushing election defeats risked ringing the death knell on his premiership.Others discussed with Starmer how they should take a “responsible, dignified, orderly” approach to what may follow.
Several others, including Richard Hermer and Steve Reed, urged him to fight on,Jones told Times Radio that most MPs wanted to focus on using the time in government to deliver Labour’s policies,“We have to work together then as a party in this new political era of five-party politics, of the rise of populist parties in our country, to be able to set the course for winning that next election,”Asked if the king’s speech would still happen on Wednesday, he told Sky News: “Yes, as far as I’m aware, the king’s speech is going ahead tomorrow,“We’ve been working very hard to bring together a programme of bills for the next session that meet the challenges that we face as a country and it’s important that we get on with that work.
”The cabinet would meet later on Tuesday morning, Jones said.“[Starmer] obviously will be in conversations with colleagues because of the issues that they have raised, but he was very clear with himself and with all of us that this morning we would be getting on with the job, and I think that’s the right thing to be doing.”He continued: “Obviously, colleagues are asking the prime minister to consider different options in the future.And, as I say, he rightfully is listening to them.It would be wrong if he wasn’t listening to them.
”In a speech on Monday, Starmer said he would not resign and would prove his doubters wrong, and that he would fight any leadership challenge.“I take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did time and again, chaos that did lasting damage to this country.A Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again,” he said.Overnight, some Labour MPs began to voice public support for the prime minister.One, Neil Coyle, said he was “horrified at the elephant trap colleagues are falling into.
Those who claimed council elections were about Keir had nothing to offer local communities.”Another, Nick Smith, said.“A global security crisis and its economic impact on our country means we need political stability.Unity is strength.”
Lotus boss calls for UK government support as it commits to Norfolk plant
The boss of the luxury sports carmaker Lotus has called for government support for its UK factory as the Chinese-owned company insisted it will not abandon its British roots.Lotus said it had extended the lifespan of the £80,000 Emira petrol-engined sports car, made by 900 employees in its factory in Norfolk, in order for the brand to continue to serve the US market.Lotus last year prompted concerns for the future of its British factory, after sources said its Chinese parent company, Geely, was considering its closure. Lotus then cut 550 jobs in August.However, Lotus on Tuesday said it wanted to increase sales in the lucrative US market, meaning it will have to rely on sports car sales from its UK factory rather than electric SUVs from its newer, larger facility in Wuhan, China, which faces prohibitive tariffs
The budget in seven graphs: no big surprises but this may be one of the most ambitious moves to fix Australia’s finances | Greg Jericho
This year’s budget is an odd affair. So much had been leaked and dropped to the media that there are barely any surprises. But that does not mean it does not live up to the billing of being ambitious – basically killing off the capital gains tax 50% discount is a huge deal.The lack of changes on gas tax, an absence of increased assistance for the unemployed and renters, and cuts to the NDIS, however, show that this is still a government where ambition is not in surplus.Jim Chalmers really should send Donald Trump a big exploding cake as an up-yours present for what the US president is doing to the global economy
Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright
Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat)
Mistaking AI behaviour for conscious being | Letter
Richard Dawkins’ reflections on AI consciousness are striking – not because they show that machines have crossed some hidden threshold into inner life, but because they reveal how readily we can be persuaded that they have (Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn’t know it, 5 May).Many will recognise the experience: a system that responds with fluency, humour and apparent understanding. At some point, simulation starts to feel like presence. But that shift tells us more about human cognition than machine consciousness. The error is a category one
Multiple Olympic and world champion cyclist Katie Archibald retires to become nurse
Endurance specialist won Olympic gold in Rio and Tokyo‘I don’t know where I’ll get these feelings again’Katie Archibald, the Scottish track cyclist who won gold medals at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, has announced her retirement with immediate effect.The decision means the 32-year-old, who also won multiple world, European and Commonwealth titles, will not compete in July’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.Archibald said: “The draw of the real world has been pulling me for a while, but I’ve been too scared to leave the world I know and love and, ultimately, to let go of something I’m good at.”She is now retraining to be a nurse. “I’ve fallen completely in love with the whole thing,” Archibald said
Too many of us were traumatised by sport at school – but it’s never too late to change | Cath Bishop
There is a disconnect between the proliferation of reports recommending we should be more active and actual levels of activity, that are scarcely budging. Sports councils, health bodies, charities and thinktanks are piling up the evidence that sport and physical activity help us live healthier, happier lives, improve academic attainment at school and productivity at work, connect our communities and help prevent crime and reoffending. Why can’t we turn this into reality?Reports often call for better coordination, including the recent House of Commons inquiry Game On: Community and School Sport. But sport and physical activity remains poorly linked among schools, sports clubs, community organisations, parks and playgrounds. In an era of superintelligence and rockets flying around the moon, surely we could do better?Structural change and innovation is needed
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