Nigel de Gruchy obituary

The trade union leader Nigel de Gruchy, who has died aged 82, always insisted on putting the interests of the teachers he was elected to represent ahead of those of the pupils in the classrooms where they taught. While this approach was both logical and defensible for a trade unionist, it was also one that inevitably provoked controversy.Such an outcome did not normally deter De Gruchy, who relished the prospect of a public ding-dong, recognising that the resultant publicity might quite possibly enhance his chances of success in whatever cause he was then pursuing. It did not make him popular in Westminster or Whitehall, but he won some important political and legal battles that would significantly improve the lives of school teachers.These included, shortly after De Gruchy became general secretary in 1990 of the amalgamated National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), helping to persuade John Major’s government to establish a teachers’ pay review body

From Send to single-sex spaces: key tests facing Keir Starmer in 2026

Keir Starmer will begin his second full year in Downing Street as one of the least popular ever prime ministers – a spectacularly rapid reversal from his landslide election win of just 18 months ago.Yet Starmer believes this will be the year things start to improve for his beleaguered premiership and fractious Labour party.His chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, recently told special advisers gathered in Downing Street that 2026 would be “the year of proof” when Labour begins to show voters that the change they voted for in 2024 is being delivered.Starmer will start the year with a speech on the cost of living, flagging recent interest rate cuts and the abolition of levies from energy bills as signs that life is becoming more affordable.But he faces a number of potential pitfalls in the year ahead that could end up defining his premiership

Badenoch under fire as Tory shadow attorney general acts for Roman Abramovich

Kemi Badenoch is under pressure to act on the revelations that her shadow attorney general is representing the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, despite UK sanctions against him.David Wolfson, a Tory peer, is part of the legal team representing Abramovich as he attempts to recover billions in frozen assets he owns in the Channel islands.Abramovich is caught up in a legal battle with the government of Jersey after it launched an investigation into the source of more than £5.3bn of assets linked to him and held there.Ministers have said that the case in Jersey is delaying the release of £2

‘We have to go’: longest-serving lord reflects on looming Labour eviction

At the age of 84, David Trefgarne is not the oldest active peer in the House of Lords. But now well into his 64th year in the upper house, he is very much the longest serving. And in the next few months, it will all end.The 2nd Baron Trefgarne, to use his formal title, is one of the few hereditary peers still helping to make UK law, the tail end of a legislative chain dating back to the 13th century and Magna Carta. When one of these laws, the House of Lords (hereditary peers) bill, receives royal assent some time in the spring, that will be that

Unite leader tells Labour to ‘stop being embarrassed’ to be voice of workers

Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has told the government it must do more for workers in 2026 or risk sowing the seeds of its own destruction.Graham accused Labour of being preoccupied with its “failing leadership” and described the debate about who might replace Keir Starmer as inevitable.Writing in the Times, she said: “For too long it has been everyday people, workers and communities who have paid the price for crisis after crisis not of their making. In 2026 this must stop. The government needs to decide what it stands for and who it stands for

‘Zack is a phenomenal leader’: Siân Berry on the Green party’s next steps as membership doubles

“Someone has to be out there making the narrative for social security. Someone has to fight the corrosive attitudes to people on benefits,” says Siân Berry, who has just finished her first year as a Green MP in the House of Commons.She is speaking to the Guardian in her Brighton constituency office, formerly occupied by the legendary Caroline Lucas who flew a lone flag as the only member of parliament for the Green party for 14 years.Now, however, there are four MPs including Berry, battling together, she says, to hold the space for the left at a moment when it feels the far right has hypnotised the entire political body. “Often Adrian [Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley] is the only one bringing up animal welfare in Defra questions, or Carla [Denyer, MP for Bristol Central] will be the only person arguing for a refugee’s right to work to the Home Office