Labour must win voters’ hearts – or Reform UK will | Letters

Kirsty Major’s article on Labour’s struggle to connect with voters in traditionally “safe seat” areas highlights a wider challenge facing centrist and left parties – winning hearts as well as minds (I went home, to one of Labour’s safest seats, and it felt like a newly minted Reform constituency, 16 September). While Reform UK and other populist movements use simple, more direct and emotionally charged messaging that thrives on social media, Labour continues to rely on complex, policy-driven narratives.The sense of hope or change that animated Labour’s general election campaign quickly evaporated in the face of cuts to the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits. Meanwhile, rising inequality, stagnant wages, job insecurity and the lasting effects of successive financial and public health crises have eroded trust in parties seen as failing to deliver economic stability, growth and meaningful job creation. The labour market is also shifting rapidly, leaving many workers without the upskilling needed to adapt

Apparent Your party implosion leaves big political vacancy on the left

A repeated question for Zack Polanski since becoming Green leader has been about cooperating with Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn, and his answer has been consistent: it’s hard to know when their party doesn’t properly exist and can’t even agree on a name. Thursday’s events show such caution was merited.It seems increasingly likely that Your party, as it was tentatively known, will not survive as originally billed, a joint enterprise between Corbyn, the former Labour leader, and Sultana, the leftwing Coventry MP, both of whom sit in the Commons as independents.Creating a new party is always difficult, particularly under the UK’s first-past-the-post system. Even Nigel Farage, one of the most naturally gifted politicians the country has produced in recent history, took 30 years and three parties to even get into parliament

Taxpayers lose £400m as result of investment fund set up by Rishi Sunak

UK taxpayers have lost £400m following the collapse of hundreds of startups backed by a heavily criticised Covid-era investment fund launched by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor.The Future Fund spent £1.14bn backing 1,190 companies, some of them of types not usually associated with government portfolios such as the sex party organiser Killing Kittens and the now defunct festival tickets business Pollen.The fund also invested nearly £2m in companies linked to Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty.The Department for Business and Trade’s latest annual report shows that 334 companies backed by the Future Fund have since gone under, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds

UK anti-slavery commissioner condemns Shabana Mahmood’s asylum comments

The anti-slavery commissioner has criticised the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, for accusing asylum seekers of making “vexatious last-minute claims” relating to modern slavery.The commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, said the comments were “deeply concerning” and would have “a real-life impact” on trafficking victims.The home secretary is to lodge an appeal against a high court injunction that prevented a 25-year-old Eritrean man from being forcibly removed to France on Wednesday as part of the government’s “one in, one out” deal to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats.After the injunction gave the man 14 days to gather evidence to support his claim to be a victim of trafficking, Mahmood accused asylum seekers of making “vexatious, last-minute” applications to avoid removal to France as the Home Office said it would review modern slavery laws. The appeal is asking for the man to be given less time to gather evidence

Privatisation of UK industries is driving cost of living crisis, says Greens leader

The privatisation of the UK’s key industries is driving the cost of living crisis, damaging critical public services and making life harder for millions of people, the leader of the Green party, Zack Polanski, has said.Speaking after the Guardian revealed the British public have been paying a “privatisation premium” of £250 per household per year since 2010, he described the mass privatisation of UK industry as a “failed experiment”.“This report shows that privatisation has been one of the key drivers of the cost-of-living crisis and growing inequality … the Conservatives were the architects of this failed experiment, but the Labour government has done virtually nothing to change course.”In his successful campaign to become Labour leader in 2020, Keir Starmer vowed to support “common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water” but has backtracked since coming into power, ruling out nationalisation of the big six energy companies, water or mail.Labour has made some moves towards nationalisation, bringing some train operators back into public ownership, establishing the publicly owned GB Energy and completing the re-nationalisation of the national energy system operator

Starmer to recognise Palestinian state ‘after Trump state visit’

Keir Starmer will reportedly recognise a Palestinian state over the weekend after Donald Trump concludes his state visit to the UK.The prime minister has previously said he plans to recognise Palestinian statehood before the UN general assembly in New York this month if Israel does not meet a series of conditions to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.High-level meetings at the UN summit involving world leaders begin on 23 September. According to the Times, Starmer has held off on formally announcing the UK will recognise a Palestinian state until after Trump leaves for fear it could dominate a Thursday news conference the two men plan to hold at Chequers.The prime minister has found himself at odds with the US administration over the move, which is opposed to giving official recognition to the state