The Green party has announced that five councillors in Brent have defected to it from Labour.It describes this as the biggest block defection yet to the Green party.The defections follow seven others to the Green in London since September, when Zack Polanski took over as leader and party membership started to soar.Announcing the switches, Polanski said:The Green surge has just widened in London.What we’re witnessing in Brent mirrors what we’re hearing across the country on doorsteps and in polls.

Good Labour councillors can see Labour has abandoned any sense of progressive politics and is showing absolute cowardice in its doomed attempt to out Reform, Reform with the politics of division and scapegoating.Increasingly, people are finding the alternative they need by joining the Green party and working for a better world shaped by hope rather than fear.In the elections in May, it is the Greens who will be taking the fight to Reform and we show our intent today in Brent.This is just the start.Even with the defections, Labour will remain the governing part in Brent, where it won 45 of the 57 seats at the 2022 election, with just over 50% of the vote.

The Green party got only 4% of the vote at the time.The five councillors joining the Greens are: Harbi Farah, a former cabinet member; Iman Ahmadi-Moghaddam, a former Labour whip; Mary Mitchell; Tony Ethapemi; and Erica Gbajumo.Eugene McCarthy, chair of the London Green party federation, said:This huge defection reflects what we are hearing on the doorstep.Labour aren’t prepared for what’s coming in May’s local elections.UPDATE: A Labour party spokesperson said:For the avoidance of doubt, all but one of the individuals unveiled were not selected to stand for the Labour party at the next election, as they fell below the standards we require of those seeking to represent Labour.

The Labour party operates rigorous and transparent selection processes and maintains the highest standards for its candidates,European leaders including Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron will tonight meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday in a show of support hosted by the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, as the US pushes for a swift end to the war in Ukraine,Britain is caught in “a space between peace and war” complicated by the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies dominated by powerful individuals and corporations, according to the new head of MI6,Resident doctors in England will strike as planned this week after they voted to reject the government’s latest offer to end the long-running pay and jobs dispute,Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary, has hit out at the prime minister for his “humiliating” sacking, despite deciding to remain a minister in the government.

Rishi Sunak was concerned about the UK’s ability to fund itself in March 2020 after the government announced rescue measures costing tens of billions of pounds to prevent mass redundancies, the Covid-19 pandemic inquiry has heard,Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has claimed that support for his party is surging in London, following the announcement that five Labour councillors in Brent have defected,(See 5,16pm,)For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Ian Murray was sacked as Scottish secretary in the reshuffle in September – but returned to government just a day later as a minister of state covering creative industries and digital government, based in the culture department and the science department.You might assume he was not happy with his demotion.But, according to an interview with Holyrood magazine, the person who was really furious was his wife.Murray told the magazine:It’s fair to say that Mariam was absolutely fucking furious … She thought I was massively underappreciated, because she’s seen it from her side about how much I was balancing family life, parliament, being one of the new 37 Scottish MPs, being in government, the travelling up and down, not just in the constituency, but also around Scotland, and all the rest of it.But she was most angry about the fact that the prime minister didn’t have an explanation.

Murray said he had still not been told why he was sacked,And, if Keir Starmer planned to offer him the replacement job, he said he did not know why he was not told that at the time,My big questions about coming back into government were, why was it not offered to me at the time – and it wasn’t – why has the decision now been made and why? If I’m not good enough for the Scotland Office, why am I now number two in two major UK departments?Murray was replaced as Scottish secretary by Douglas Alexander, who did the job before as one of several cabinet jobs he held under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chair, has issued this statement about Keir Starmer’s appearance at the liaison committee,Today’s liaison committee appearance shows that Keir Starmer is once again putting party before country.

He has acknowledged that farmers are taking their own lives following the introduction of his family farm tax, yet he still refuses to change course.He claims to have taken action in the past against those who leak sensitive information but could not say when or how.It is a litany of failures from a weak prime minister.Keir Starmer needs to grow a backbone, listen to the serious concerns being raised – including by his own MPs – and start governing in the national interest rather than protecting his own position.The Green party has released statements from the five Brent councillors explaining why they have defected from Labour.

(See 5.16pm.) Here are extracts from them.From Harbi Farah, a fromer cabinet member for safer communitiesFor many years, the Labour party was my political home … Over recent years, however, an overwhelming and accumulating sense of disappointment has taken hold …My primary disillusionment stems from what feels like a consistent pattern of broken manifesto promises.We were offered a transformative agenda, a genuine shift in power dynamics, but time and again, when faced with political headwinds or internal pressures, those commitments seemed to vanish such as welfare reform, scapegoating immigrant, race to the far right, scrapping jury trials and silencing internal debate dissent.

From Tony EthapemiI left the Labour party because the party is no longer the party I joined over 25 years ago.Over time it has let me down in the values we shared – fairness, social justice, humanity and democracy.These principles guided my involvement and inspired my commitment, but I no longer feel they are upheld in the way I had hoped.The party I thought was broad and inclusive is no longer, it has lurched to the far right.From Iman Ahmadi-Moghaddam, a former Labour whipI joined Labour to build a fairer society, but Starmer’s government has abandoned any ambition to change the system.

This government has doubled down on austerity whilst the cost of living devastates families, sides with big developers instead of fixing Brent’s housing crisis, and scapegoats migrants to distract from its own failures.And whilst Israel commits genocide in Gaza, this government arms the perpetrators and criminalises peaceful protest.From Mary MitchellI’ve been a Labour party member for a decade, and a Labour councillor for four years.I have always believed that a Labour party in power was worth fighting for.Instead the Labour Pprty has left the values that I stand for, and what the party historically has stood for and achieved.

In copying far-right policy and rhetoric on migration, scrapping jury trials and the draconian policing of protest, we have seen the Labour party move to the right.From Erica GbajumoAfter nearly 20 years of membership, I have taken the difficult decision to resign from the Labour party.Over time, I have felt that the party I joined has changed in both tone and direction, moving away from the values and principles that originally inspired my involvement.I have also grown increasingly concerned about the internal culture of the party, which in my experience has become more centralised and restrictive, leaving less space for open debate and genuine representation.The Green party has announced that five councillors in Brent have defected to it from Labour.

It describes this as the biggest block defection yet to the Green party.The defections follow seven others to the Green in London since September, when Zack Polanski took over as leader and party membership started to soar.Announcing the switches, Polanski said:The Green surge has just widened in London.What we’re witnessing in Brent mirrors what we’re hearing across the country on doorsteps and in polls.Good Labour councillors can see Labour has abandoned any sense of progressive politics and is showing absolute cowardice in its doomed attempt to out Reform, Reform with the politics of division and scapegoating.

Increasingly, people are finding the alternative they need by joining the Green party and working for a better world shaped by hope rather than fear.In the elections in May, it is the Greens who will be taking the fight to Reform and we show our intent today in Brent.This is just the start.Even with the defections, Labour will remain the governing part in Brent, where it won 45 of the 57 seats at the 2022 election, with just over 50% of the vote.The Green party got only 4% of the vote at the time.

The five councillors joining the Greens are: Harbi Farah, a former cabinet member; Iman Ahmadi-Moghaddam, a former Labour whip; Mary Mitchell; Tony Ethapemi; and Erica Gbajumo,Eugene McCarthy, chair of the London Green party federation, said:This huge defection reflects what we are hearing on the doorstep,Labour aren’t prepared for what’s coming in May’s local elections,UPDATE: A Labour party spokesperson said:For the avoidance of doubt, all but one of the individuals unveiled were not selected to stand for the Labour party at the next election, as they fell below the standards we require of those seeking to represent Labour,The Labour party operates rigorous and transparent selection processes and maintains the highest standards for its candidates.

Stuart Andrew, the shadow health secretary, has said the decision by the BMA to go ahead strike action this week shows why the Conservatives are right to proposing banning doctors from going on strike,Speaking in the Commons during the urgent question on the strike, Andrew saidDelayed discharges are worsening – 19,000 more bed days have been lost this year,Still there is no winter discharge plan, no new funding and no clarity, and today, yes, resident doctors confirmed further strike action next week that will add pressure to the system already under significant strain,And that is why we would ban strike action,At the same time, this government is literally making it easier for unions through their employment rights bill.

When the NHS is under this level of pressure, families deserve the reassurance that care will be there when they need it.In response, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, described talk of banning strikes as “political nonsense”.Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged resident doctors to ignore the British Medical Association and to work though the five-day strike due to start at 7am on Wednesday.He made the appeal in the Commons, where he has been responding to an urgent question tabled by the Tories about the BMA’s decision to go ahead with the strike after resident doctors clearly voted in favour.Streeting said:Since this strike represents a different magnitude of risk to previous industrial action, I am appealing to ordinary resident doctors to ignore the BMA strike and go to work this week.

Abandoning patients in their hour of greatest need goes against everything a career in medicine is meant to be about,The entire focus of my department and the NHS team is now on getting the health service through the double whammy of flu and strikes,He said that, even where resident doctors were on strike, the NHS would recall them to work in emergency situations and would not tolerate “the dangerous attempts to block these requests that we have seen from the BMA in the past”,He also accused the BMA of pursuing a fantasy pay demand,It is clear from both the NHS and UKHSA [UK Health Security Agency] data that there is a real risk for the NHS and for patients, and it is at this moment of maximum danger that the BMA has chosen to go ahead with Christmas strikes, when it will inflict the greatest level of damage on the NHS.

The BMA said this dispute was about pay, but we gave them a 28.9% pay rise.Then they said it was also about jobs, so I offered a deal to halve the competition for jobs to less than two applicants per post.It is now clear what these strikes are really about.The BMA fantasy demand for another 26% pay rise on top of the 28.

9% they have already received.Jessica Elgot is the Guardian’s deputy political editor.Major business groups have written to the business secretary, Peter Kyle, calling on the Lords to pass the employment rights bill, saying they stood by their deal with unions.Conservative and cross-bench peers voted down the bill again last week, protesting against the lifting of the compensation cap for unfair dismissal.That measure came in exchange for the government and trade unions agreeing to remove day one rights to claim unfair dismissal – a Labour manifesto pledge.

Instead the bill will reduce the qualifying period from two years to six months.Business lobby groups said the time had now come for the bill to be passed to give certainty to businesses.In a joint letter, six business organisations said that despite their remaining concerns they wanted to move forward with the agreement, or risk losing the concession on day one rights.The letter has been signed by: the Confederation of Britsh Industry, British Chambers of Commerce, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Federation of Small Business, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Small Business Britain.In it, they say:On the bill more broadly, we believe that the best way forward is to keep working with the government and trade unions to find balanced solutions through secondary legislation.

To avoid losing the 6 months qualifying period, we therefore believe that now is the time for parliament to pass the bill.The Institute of Directors is the only major business group not to have signed.Q: Can you give an update on the situation with regard to Ukraine?Starmer says this is critical period for Ukraine, and for Europe as a whole.European history is full of peace agreements that have failed, he says.Putin will “keep coming back for more” if he has the chance, Starmer says.

He says 5,000 Russian soldiers are being killed every week.There is a text in play “that may take us forward”, he says.He says decisions on the most sensitive issues, such as territory, are for Ukraine to decide.He says there must be security guarantees.And Nato, Europe and the EU must be involved in decisions that affect them.

In the meantime, “we must keep Ukraine in the fight”, he says.He says he hopes they can make further progress in Berlin tonight.The route to peace is not a straight road,Q: Would the security guarantees means British troops on the ground?Starmer says, if necessary, this might involve a ground deployment.But the first concern is to get a just and lasting peace, he says.Hillier asks Dhesi if he has a final question on this, but Dhesi says he does not want to delay Starmer’s departure for Berlin