Peter Kyle, the ‘tech bro’ minister charged with kickstarting UK growth

When Peter Kyle begins a 7,000-mile flight from Washington to Beijing this week, Britain’s new business secretary could reflect on how far he has already come.Kyle struggled at school due to dyslexia and left, in his own words, “without any usable” qualifications. He made it to university in his 20s after several failed attempts.Now, days after accepting his second ministerial brief in the reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation, Kyle is leading talks with White House officials about the US-UK technology partnership. With no time to celebrate his 55th birthday on Tuesday, the business secretary will then jet off for tentative and delicate discussions with China about deeper economic cooperation

Several senior female Labour MPs drop out of party deputy leader contention

A series of senior female Labour MPs have dropped out of contention to replace Angela Rayner as the party’s deputy leader, as a compressed timetable for nominations and worries about a potentially toxic atmosphere narrowed the field.Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is expected to enter the race, where she would be seen as a de facto Downing Street choice, potentially pitting her against Emily Thornberry, who would position herself as a voice for backbenchers.In a fast-moving process where hopefuls have until Thursday afternoon to secure nominations from at least 80 Labour MPs, four women tipped as possible frontrunners have already removed themselves from contention.Shabana Mahmood said she wanted to focus on her new job as home secretary, which began on Friday after Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister and housing secretary over the underpayment of stamp duty on a second home.“I’m the home secretary, so that is my job, and my top priority is securing our borders,” Mahmood told Sky News in a pooled interview

Labour must do more to tackle populist right as party’s support leaks to Reform, say unions

Union chiefs have warned that Labour must do more to tackle the threat of the populist right amid concerns the party is losing support among working people to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, urged the government to show working people “whose side you are on”, saying too many felt that Labour’s promise of change was just a slogan.A second union chief told the Guardian that Keir Starmer had been “too scared, too reticent” to take the fight to Farage and was not doing enough to make a vocal case for Labour values on the economy and migration.A third said that with the departure of Angela Rayner from the top of government, Labour had lost one of its most effective “attack dogs” against Reform. Unless the party “upped its game”, it would lose the next election, they said

New home secretary Shabana Mahmood says she will not run for deputy leader after Labour accused of ‘stitch-up’ over contest – UK politics live

The Labour MP Stella Creasy has urged the government to get rid of the law making it an offence to “recklessly express support for a proscribed organisation”.In a Commons urgent question, triggered by the arrest of almost 900 people in London on Saturday for protesting against the decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, she said she thought the current law was flawed.Under the Terrorism Act, once an organisation is proscribed, it is not just illegal to be a member; just expressing support for it is an offence.Creasy said she was not speaking as a supporter of Palestine Action, and she said the case to act against them was “strong” because of their use of violence.But she said the current situation, which has led to hundreds of people being arrested for holding up banners saying the support Palestine Action, was “just not sustainable”

Crisis? What crisis? Starmer has a delivery plan – so chill out | John Crace

Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic! Over the weekend the newly promoted Darren Jones, Keir Starmer’s very own Keir Starmer tribute act, was out and about on the airwaves trying to convince everyone – himself included – that the government was not in crisis.What do you mean, chaos, he said time and again as the questions kept on coming. Each time sounding slightly more chippy. He’s not a man who takes kindly to even a hint of mockery. Darren takes Darren extremely seriously

Who is in the running to be the next Labour deputy leader?

The battle to become Labour’s next deputy leader is moving fast, with hopefuls needing to amass at least 80 MP nominations by Thursday evening. With several people having already ruled themselves out, here are some possible, and probable, runners:As someone from the backbenches who is nonetheless of cabinet-level heft, and who is seen as independent but not a recreational rebel, Thornberry is one of the more likely people to reach the nomination threshold.An MP since 2005, Thornberry was shadow attorney general for nearly three years – only to be dumped from the frontbench by Keir Starmer after the general election. She has since become chair of the foreign affairs select committee.One possible barrier for Thornberry is the fact that, like her leader, she is a north London MP