UK ex-Middle East minister accused of transparency rule breach over Bahrain advisory role

A former UK Middle East minister has been accused of breaching transparency rules over a paid advisory role with an influential Bahraini centre that has links to the Gulf state’s government.The Conservative peer Tariq Ahmad, who denies wrongdoing, was cleared by a watchdog to take up his role as a paid adviser to the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence (KHC).The centre is supervised by Bahrain’s ministry of foreign affairs, but the UK’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said Lord Ahmad was free to undertake the role – for which the salary has not been disclosed – because he said he “did not have official dealings/contact with the KHC during [his] time in office.”Documents unearthed by human rights activists appear to show that Ahmad, who served between 2017 and 2025, had official contact with the centre while in office, visiting it at least twice and holding meetings on official trips in 2022 and 2023.The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) said that Acoba should now review its advice and it has submitted a formal complaint

What is a wealth tax and would it work in the UK?

A wealth tax is an annual levy on an individual’s total net assets – property, investments, cash, even antiques or art – above a given threshold. The idea is to directly target accumulated wealth, not just income. In the UK there are already some taxes on wealth – inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and council tax – that could be tightened up before a new tax is introduced.A modest wealth tax aimed at the ultra-rich, for example those with assets over £10m, could generate significant funds. One study suggests a global levy on the top 0

Is Reform UK a radical party or a home for ‘disgruntled former Conservatives’, asks James Cleverly

Reform UK might have to choose between presenting itself as a new and radical political party or as a home for “disgruntled former Conservatives” who lost their seats at the election, James Cleverly has said.Cleverly, the former home and foreign secretary, who stood to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, also argued that Nigel Farage’s party could suffer if the councils it now runs struggle to properly manage key everyday services such as bin collections and social care.Speaking at an event in Westminster organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, Cleverly discounted the idea that he hoped to replace Kemi Badenoch, saying his party had to “get out of this habit of cycling through leaders in the hope that ditching this one and picking a new one will make life easy for us”.Answering questions following a speech about how mainstream rightwing parties can take on the threat from populism, Cleverly noted the way that Reform had absorbed a series of former Tory MPs, most recently Jake Berry, the former party chair, who whose defection was announced last week.“If their sales pitch is, ‘We’re not like the old political parties,’ but they are mainly populated with people from my political party, it’s going to be really hard for them to reconcile that sales pitch,” he said

Tory benches almost deserted as Philp cops a lesson on small boats | John Crace

It was all a bit of a mystery. Just where were the Tories? Had they just got their dates confused? Thought that recess started this week rather than next? Or had they all bunked off to Lord’s to see England beat India in a tight finish? Or maybe some – caught up in the entente amicale aftermath of Emmanuel Macron’s state visit – had taken the Eurostar to Paris to enjoy steak frites on Bastille Day?You’d have thought the Conservative backbenchers would have wanted to be out in force to hear Yvette Cooper’s statement on the new arrangements for dealing with small boats. After all, this is the stuff that Kemi Badenoch and Chris Philp live and breathe. The reason they get up in the morning. To wage a two-person war on those making the Channel crossing

Resident doctors’ strikes would be gift to Nigel Farage, warns Wes Streeting

Wes Streeting has said resident doctors’ strikes would be “a gift to Nigel Farage” before a meeting with the British Medical Association this week where he will seek to avert industrial action.The health secretary told a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday that ministers were “in the fight for the survival of the NHS” and if Labour failed, Farage would argue for it to be replaced by an insurance-style system.Streeting will meet BMA officials later this week in an attempt to prevent five days of strikes by resident doctors in England, which are due to begin on 25 July.Speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, he said: “The BMA’s threats are unnecessary, unreasonable, and unfair. More than that, these strikes would be a gift to Nigel Farage, just as we are beginning to cut waiting lists and get the NHS moving in the right direction

UK politics: Tories’ energy policy shows they are ‘anti-science, anti-jobs, anti-future’ Miliband tells MPs – as it happened

Andrew Bowie, a shadow energy minster, responded for the Conseratives – not Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary.He said it was “ridiculous” for Miliband to suggest in his Guardian interview that opponents of net zero were unpatriotic. He went onWe need to bring back a sense of rationality, of proportion to this debate, because … language like this is alienating more and more people from the important cause of ensuring that the planet we pass on to our children.Bowie suggested Miliband was not telling the truth about the impact of net zero policies.Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, intervened, to object, saying MPs should not accuse each other of being dishonest