‘New dawn’: first train service renationalised under Starmer begins
Ministers have hailed a “new dawn” for Britain’s railways as the first train services renationalised under the Labour government started operating on Sunday,The 6,14 from London Waterloo to Shepperton was due to be the first rebranded train out on Sunday, its carriages adorned with a union jack and the logo “Great British Railways: coming soon” as part of a publicly owned South Western Railway (SWR),However, the very first renationalised SWR service was in fact set to involve a rail replacement bus: the 5,36 from Woking to Waterloo having to terminate at Surbiton because of bank holiday weekend engineering works.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said there would be a “cultural reset” for the railway, with further legislation expected this year to overhaul the industry and integrate track and train operations as Great British Railways (GBR), rather than under Network Rail and separate train firms.SWR was the first planned nationalisation under the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024, which was passed soon after the general election.Speaking before the departure of the first branded train, Alexander said: “I really do feel that this is a new dawn for our railways.We’re going to wave goodbye to 30 years’ worth of inefficiency, waste, passenger frustration, and we’re going to step really confidently towards a new future for the railways.”Alexander added: “Of course, change isn’t going to happen overnight.
We’ve always been clear that public ownership isn’t a silver bullet, but we are really firing this starting gun in that race for a truly 21st-century railway, and that does mean refocusing away from private profit and towards the public good.”SWR will be run by the government-owned train operator, DfTO, which already runs a number of services – such as LNER, Northern, TPE and Southeastern – that were taken back into public control because of financial or contractual failures.The remaining nine privately run rail franchises will be renationalised by the end of 2027 as contracts expire.The government claims that the changes will save £150m a year in fees alone.Alexander said bigger changes would become evident with the formation of GBR, the new body overseeing all aspects of the railway, which is now expected to be established in early 2027.
Once running, passengers would start to notice the difference, she said.“Not just fewer cancellations and simpler tickets, but a real, fundamental cultural reset with one railway team working as one team.“Regional services earning the right to wear the Great British Railways badge, and that will be a new organisation that will be completely dedicated to public service.”FirstGroup, the private firm that had run SWR since 2017 and stands to lose more lucrative franchises, said it had made “hundreds of millions of pounds of improvements” to trains and customer service during its tenure.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionSteve Montgomery, the managing director of First Rail, said: “Right up until the final weeks we have continued to innovate, with a new fast wifi service being rolled out.
We are supporting DfTO to ensure a smooth transition,”The Conservatives said running rail services through private companies had kept costs down,The shadow transport secretary, Gareth Bacon, said: “Labour have talked up the benefits of renationalisation for years and they will now have to deliver on their promises of lower ticket prices, an end to all disruption and strikes and better onboard services,”Unions said the majority of people supported renationalisation, and urged the government to go further,Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said: “Everyone in the rail industry knows that privatisation – which even that arch-privateer Margaret Thatcher described as a privatisation too far – didn’t, and doesn’t, work.
”Eddie Dempsey, the RMT general secretary, said public ownership was “a major step forward” but added: “The job is incomplete when our contracted-out members remain outsourced and not reaping the benefits of nationalisation,”“If ministers are serious about delivering a fair and efficient railway, they must bring all rail workers, including cleaners, security and gateline staff, back in-house without delay,” he added,
Nigel Farage said he’d ‘bought a house’ in Clacton – it’s actually owned by his girlfriend
Nigel Farage claimed with great fanfare last year to have “bought a house” in Clacton – but it turns out the substantial detached property is owned in the name of his girlfriend.The Reform UK leader said he had “exchanged contracts” to buy the house in Essex last November, saying it should deal with criticism that he does not spend enough time in the constituency.However, the detached property in an upmarket part of Clacton-on-Sea was actually solely bought by Laure Ferrari, his partner of some years.Farage was asked by the Guardian why he had claimed to be the buyer, and whether the property had been bought in Ferrari’s name in a way that allowed him legally to avoid higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional residential house – given that he already owns other properties.He was also asked whether he was the ultimate source of funds for the transaction either by gift or loan and whether it was Ferrari’s sole property in the UK, which could make her eligible for standard rate stamp duty
David Cameron in talks to join London law firm to advise on geopolitical risks
David Cameron is in talks to join the law firm DLA Piper as a consultant – five years after the Greensill scandal that showed he intensively lobbied officials on behalf of his failing employer.The former prime minister, who also served as foreign secretary last year, is said to be having discussions about taking on an advisory position to help the firm with geopolitical risks.The job would be in addition to Cameron’s existing portfolio of roles, with his current register of interests listing that he works as an adviser to Finback Investment Partners, a private equity firm, and Caxton Associates, a hedge fund. He also chairs the advisory board of a payments firm called PayCargo LLP.It is understood Cameron’s role at DLA Piper, first reported by the Financial Times, would not involve lobbying on behalf of the company, which is the world’s third biggest law firm
Scottish Labour accused of trying to hide candidate’s link to scandal-hit firm
Labour is facing questions over transparency after it failed to disclose that a byelection candidate worked for a company previously embroiled in a data falsification scandal.The party has not told voters in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection that its candidate, Davy Russell, worked as a consultant to a subsidiary of Mears Group in the neighbouring area of North Lanarkshire.Scottish Labour is facing defeat in the byelection, which was called after Christina McKelvie, the area’s popular Scottish National party MSP, died suddenly in March.Labour fears it may come in third behind Reform UK, which would send shock waves through the party. It would mark a significant reversal of fortunes for Labour since it won the adjacent Westminster seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton West by a landslide in October 2023
Is Angela Rayner positioning herself for a Starmer succession race?
What is Angela Rayner up to? To every Labour MP reading the leaked memo in the Daily Telegraph setting out the deputy prime minister’s alternative tax-raising measures, it felt like firing the starting gun on a race to succeed Keir Starmer as leader.It has infuriated Starmer loyalists because of long memories of the breakdown in relations after Labour lost the Hartlepool byelection just a year into Starmer’s leadership, when he considered quitting and allies of Rayner encouraged her to stand against him. Starmer then attempted to demote her, leading to a fierce standoff and Rayner emerging with a clutch of new job titles.Relations have somewhat healed since then, but there is a feeling now that the deputy prime minister is once again seeming to try to capitalise on the party’s misfortunes – an allegation considered deeply unfair by those close to her.There is no doubt this memo setting out new ways of raising taxes on wealthy people as well as a proposal to clamp down on benefits for migrants is a way of trying to show her broader appeal
Wildlife charities urge Labour to scrap ‘licence to kill nature’ in planning bill
Leading wildlife charities are calling on Labour to scrap a significant section of the planning bill that they say is a “licence to kill nature”, as new data reveals bats and newts are not the main reason planning is delayed in England.The RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, whose membership is more than 2 million, said Labour had broken its promises on nature. They called for part three of the bill, which allows developers to avoid environmental laws at a site by paying into a national nature recovery fund to pay for environmental improvements elsewhere, to be ditched.Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB, said: “It’s now clear that the bill in its current form will rip the heart out of environmental protections and risks sending nature further into freefall.“The fate of our most important places for nature and the laws that protect them are all in the firing line
UK politics: Starmer accused of being ‘beneath contempt’ for attack on Chagos deal critics – as it happened
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, is responding to Healey.He starts by saying that what Keir Starmer said at his press conference about opponents of the deal being on the side of Russia and China was “beneath contempt”.He says by opposing the Chagos Islands deal, the Tories would not be traitors, they would be patriots.The UK has signed a £3.4bn agreement to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after an 11th-hour legal challenge failed
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