The Green party would abolish Ofsted because they view it as a “failed institution”, Zack Polanski, its leader, has told a teaching union conference.Polanski also said that the Greens were opposed to the academisation of schools and that they believe that Labour is not fixing the “failings” in the system by the Tories, but embedding them.In a speech to the National Education Union’s annual conference, Polanski said:double quotation markOfsted is a toxic, failed institution which is harming teachers and children – and it’s time to end it.Talking about school structures more generally, he said:double quotation markThis government’s reforms are simply tinkering around the edges.We need to end the Ofsted era entirely and move towards a genuinely collaborative model.

One that connects teachers on the frontline with local experts – specialists in pedagogy, child development and social care – we must make sure teachers have the support and guidance they need to meet the needs of their pupils.And then we need to talk about academies.Another failed model pushed on to teachers and children by previous governments’ ideological drive to marketise our children’s education.And the results have been stark: a fragmented system with poor accountability, allowing academy CEOs to be paid enormous salaries while pay and conditions for their staff worsen.Research into the impact of academisation on learning has found no positive impact on the attainment and progress of pupils in multi-academy trusts, compared to other schools.

And in fact, in larger multi-academy trusts, particularly secondary schools, the results were worse,Polanski may have been talking about research papers like this one, which has been cited by the NEU,Referring to Labour, Polanski said:double quotation markThis government came in promising to fix the failings in the system – but the new schools white paper would entrench them,Forcing every school to join a multi-academy trust when we know that this model weakens accountability to local authorities, parents and the local community,Polanski also said education needed a “serious cash injection”.

double quotation markThe UK currently invests approximately just 4.1% of GDP in education, below the OECD average of just under 5%.That puts us significantly behind top-performing countries like Iceland, investing 5.6%, and Norway at 6.2%.

He said the Greens could fund higher educational spending by taxing extreme wealth, saying that “the average wealth of a billionaire in the UK grew by more than £230m last year”,Business leaders have been urged to help address the economic impact of the Iran war as Keir Starmer admitted the government could not shoulder all the burden, the Press Association reports,PA says:double quotation markBosses from energy, shipping and banking firms were called in to Downing Street for talks as Donald Trump threatened to escalate the Middle East conflict,The Downing Street discussions focused on Iran’s ongoing blockade of the strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted a vital shipping route for the oil and gas industry along with supplies of other products such as fertiliser,The crisis has pushed up prices and caused economic uncertainty around the world.

The prime minister told the executives gathered in Downing Street it must be a “joint effort” to tackle the impact of the war, saying “the government can’t do it on its own”.The Green party would abolish Ofsted because they view it as a “failed institution”, Zack Polanski, its leader, has told a teaching union conference.Polanski also said that the Greens were opposed to the academisation of schools and that they believe that Labour is not fixing the “failings” in the system by the Tories, but embedding them.In a speech to the National Education Union’s annual conference, Polanski said:double quotation markOfsted is a toxic, failed institution which is harming teachers and children – and it’s time to end it.Talking about school structures more generally, he said:double quotation markThis government’s reforms are simply tinkering around the edges.

We need to end the Ofsted era entirely and move towards a genuinely collaborative model.One that connects teachers on the frontline with local experts – specialists in pedagogy, child development and social care – we must make sure teachers have the support and guidance they need to meet the needs of their pupils.And then we need to talk about academies.Another failed model pushed on to teachers and children by previous governments’ ideological drive to marketise our children’s education.And the results have been stark: a fragmented system with poor accountability, allowing academy CEOs to be paid enormous salaries while pay and conditions for their staff worsen.

Research into the impact of academisation on learning has found no positive impact on the attainment and progress of pupils in multi-academy trusts, compared to other schools.And in fact, in larger multi-academy trusts, particularly secondary schools, the results were worse.Polanski may have been talking about research papers like this one, which has been cited by the NEU.Referring to Labour, Polanski said:double quotation markThis government came in promising to fix the failings in the system – but the new schools white paper would entrench them.Forcing every school to join a multi-academy trust when we know that this model weakens accountability to local authorities, parents and the local community.

Polanski also said education needed a “serious cash injection”.double quotation markThe UK currently invests approximately just 4.1% of GDP in education, below the OECD average of just under 5%.That puts us significantly behind top-performing countries like Iceland, investing 5.6%, and Norway at 6.

2%.He said the Greens could fund higher educational spending by taxing extreme wealth, saying that “the average wealth of a billionaire in the UK grew by more than £230m last year”.Here are some more pictures from Kemi Badenoch’s visit to an oil rig in docked in Aberdeen.The Green party has criticised what Kemi Badenoch is calling her cheap energy plan.(see 10.

24am.) It has issued this statement from the party’s new MP, Hannah Spencer.double quotation markKemi Badenoch is not living in the same world as the rest of us – where we can see first-hand that decades of failure to properly insulate our homes and invest in renewables has left us all vulnerable to ridiculous price shocks.The Tories, Reform and rightwing media are deliberately failing to explain that UK oil and gas are priced on global markets, and new fields take years to deliver while adding only limited supply.Hundreds of licences issued between 2010 and 2024 have delivered the equivalent of just 36 days’ extra gas.

Labour’s position isn’t good enough either.A “ban” on new licences doesn’t mean much if loopholes like tiebacks still allow new drilling to go ahead.Successive governments keep failing to listen to ordinary people who’re sick of seeing bills go up, and workers like me who have experience in this industry.We’ve been saying for years that we have the leakiest homes in Europe.It would be much cheaper to invest in a proper, well-regulated national insulation scheme than to have to keep subsidising people’s bills and pouring public money into energy company profits.

The Green party is clear: stop new oil and gas, close the loopholes, and invest properly in the transition to renewable energy.The Institute for Fiscal Studies has described Welsh Labour’s pledge not to put up income tax (see 12.12pm and 1.36pm) as “risky”.It is issued an initial response to the Welsh Labour manifesto plans written by David Phillips, its head of devolved and local government finance, and he says:double quotation markIn terms of taxation, Welsh Labour’s key pledge is a promise to not do something – increase the Welsh rates of income tax (WRITs).

Since 2019–20, UK government income tax rates on income other than from savings and dividends have been reduced by 10 percentage points in Wales,The Senedd sets the WRITs on top of these UK rates and until now has set each of the rates (basic, higher and additional) at 10%,As a result, the overall income tax rates are the same as in England and Northern Ireland,Welsh Labour says that for the next four years it would continue to set income tax rates no higher than they are in England and Northern Ireland,That doesn’t mean income tax overall won’t change – the UK government is freezing income tax thresholds, dragging more people into tax and into higher rates of tax.

If the UK government were to change its tax rates, those changes would apply in Wales too unless the Welsh government made offsetting changes to the WRITs.And the manifesto leaves open the possibility of setting income tax rates in Wales lower than in England and Northern Ireland.Stability in tax policy is, in general, good – it helps businesses and individuals to plan, and avoids the administration and compliance costs that frequent or unexpected changes can incur.But cast-iron promises not to increase tax rates (above rates in England and Northern Ireland) for a whole term are risky.Circumstances can change and closing off the Welsh government’s single largest tax-raising power would limit room for manoeuvre.

Phillips also analyses the spending plans in the manifesto, which he says would “almost certainly require cuts to spending on some other services”,He concludes:double quotation markIt is difficult to avoid the conclusion that despite being in government for 27 years, Welsh Labour, like the other Welsh parties, is not fully facing up to the difficult fiscal reality facing the next Welsh government,An MP has lost a high court bid to be let back into his former constituency office after being locked out following his defection from the Conservatives to Reform, the Press Association reports,PA says:double quotation markAndrew Rosindell, who has represented the Romford constituency in east London since 2001, defected in January and was later locked out of the constituency office he had occupied for more than 20 years at Margaret Thatcher House in Romford,The MP began legal proceedings against the Romford Conservative Association (RCA), which runs the building, with his lawyers telling a hearing on Monday it had “taken the law into its own hands” and that he should be granted an injunction allowing him “full and unfettered” access.

The RCA opposed the bid, with its barristers telling the court in London that it was “blindingly obvious” that Rosindell’s licence to use the premises only applied when he was a Conservative and that he could “spy” on its activities in the run-up to the local elections.In a ruling, Mr Justice Choudhury refused the injunction bid, stating Rosindell’s case was “intrinsically weak” and that he “ought to have realised that he had surrendered his right to occupy” his office.He said: “It would have been obvious to him from the moment of defecting that continued occupation would be unsustainable.”The judge continued that the need for those using the building to “share a common cause” with the Conservative party “strikes me as not only necessary … but consistent with common sense”, and that there was no evidence that Rosindell had sought alternative accommodation.He also ordered Rosindell to pay £23,000 of RCA’s legal costs.

Adam Richardson, for the MP, told the court in written submissions that the agreement to use the building saw monthly payments of around £1,250 in return for exclusive use of an office at the site and full access for Rosindell and his staff.After the defection, the association said the agreement for him to use the building was invalid and later changed the locks without notice, with Rosindell’s staff only allowed to retrieve work items under supervision.Mr Richardson said: “The proper course would have been to seek possession through the court.Instead, the respondent has taken the law into its own hands.Such conduct is unlawful irrespective of the ultimate determination of any dispute as to the validity of the arrangements.

”The barrister continued that the lockout was “materially impairing” Rosindell’s ability to serve his constituents and deprived him of safety measures inside the building, including CCTV and a panic room.In court, Tiffany Scott KC, for the association, said there was an “implied term” in the agreement for Rosindell to use the site that meant it would “terminate automatically upon Rosindell leaving the Conservative party”.The Welsh Conservatives have posted this on social media about Welsh Labour’s tax pledge.(See 12.12pm.

)double quotation markLabour are only talking about freezing taxes because the Welsh Conservatives are leading with plans to cut them.We’ll cut income tax, scrap stamp duty, back businesses and #GetWalesWorkingLast week’s YouGov MRP poll suggests that, after the Senedd elections, the Tories will have just one seat (out of 96).In 2021 they won 16 seats (out of 60).And this is from Dan Thomas, Reform UK’s leader in Wales, commenting on the Labour plan.double quotation markA frozen tax is a stealth tax.

If your wages increase, more of your earnings will be taxed, often at a higher rate.Labour have now made fiscal drag a key pledge for the election.Reform will cut taxes to cut the cost of living.Thomas seems to be confusing a freeze in tax thresholds (which is not what Welsh Labour is promising – although thresholds have been frozen by the UK Labour government) with a freeze in tax rates (which is what it is promising).The UK has accused Russia of an “aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment” after a British diplomat was expelled from Moscow over spying allegations, the Press Association reports.

PA says:double quotation markClaims made against the unnamed diplomat are “malicious” and “baseless”, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.Espionage was uncovered by Moscow’s security and counterintelligence agency, according to Russian media, with the diplomat ordered to leave within two weeks.This is the second British diplomat this year to be removed from Russia over allegations of spying.Keir Starmer has said that he will chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee tomorrow to discuss the economic impact of the Iran war.Speaking to broadcasters this morning, he said that at today’s roundtable meeting he would be “bringing together the shipping sector, insurance and energy” to discuss the Iran war.

He went on:double quotation markA lot of discussion about the strait of Hormuz and what we can do to get the straits open, which is the single most effective way to bring energy prices down.I will have a Cobra tomorrow, another Cobra, to look at the economic impacts of the war and making sure that everything that we need to have in place, everything is monitored and audited properly.Asked about whether petrol rationing was being considered, as it has in other European nations, Starmer insisted the advice to motorists is that there was “no need to do anything other than what is normal”.Later, at the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked about possible petrol rationing, the PM’s spokesperson said:double quotation markTo be very clear, as the PM has said and as the government have said, and indeed industry have said, fuel production and imports are continuing.The UK benefits from diverse and resilient supply.

Petrol stations in the UK are well-stocked nationally and any suggestion otherwise is incorrect.Other countries are starting to introduce measures to curb fuel use in the light of the global shortage created by the Iran war.This is what the Senedd would look like after the elections in May if the YouGov MRP poll released last week (see 12.38pm) turns out to be an accurate guide to the results.And this chart from YouGov explains how a result like this would give Plaid Cymru two options for forming a majority government in coalition with a smaller party