Bridget Phillipson ‘ready to take on unions’ over year 8 reading tests

Bridget Phillipson has said she is ready to take on the unions in a battle over compulsory reading tests for 13-year-olds and more extracurricular activities for all children to prevent them becoming “stuck in a doom loop of detachment” from school.The education secretary said that teaching unions, who have argued the tests were “unnecessary and distracting”, should “really think carefully” about whether they could justify standing in the way of tackling the “shocking outcomes” that exist for many working-class children.In an interview with the Guardian, in which she said her deputy leadership campaign was “just the beginning” of her efforts to help secure Labour a second term, Phillipson warned that one in four children overall, and one in three disadvantaged children, don’t meet required literacy standards.In response to the curriculum and assessment review published next week, there will be a new mandatory reading test for year 8 pupils in an attempt to tackle underachievement by working-class children. Schools will also be expected to informally assess writing and maths

UK politics: Worries about immigration are ‘manufactured panic’ says charity as poll shows issue not a local concern – as it happened

Concern about immigration is a “manufactured panic”, a campaign group has said after polling suggested only a quarter of people think it is an important issue locally.As PA Media reports, a YouGov poll found only 26% of people said immigration and asylum was one of the three most important issues facing their community. This was half the 52% who said it was one of the biggest issues facing the country as a whole.These figures have been set out in a report published by the Best of Britain campaign group. It also shows that, while immigration comes second in the list of issues that people say matter nationally, it is only seventh in the list when people are asked about what matters in the places where they live

Keir Starmer keeps Trumps’ silver necklace gift – for a price

Keir Starmer has paid to keep a personalised silver necklace given to him by Donald and Melania Trump, transparency records show.The necklace was the only gift Starmer chose to keep after he hosted the US president for a historic second state visit in September.The Trumps also gave the prime minister a golf club and a set of silver cufflinks, both personalised, but these were retained by the Cabinet Office. A pair of cowboy boots, given to Starmer’s wife, Victoria, by the Trumps has also been held by the department.Under government rules, ministers cannot keep official gifts worth more than £140 unless they pay the difference between £140 and the gift’s value

‘Young Tories are fed up’: the students switching to Reform in big numbers

Last year’s freshers’ fair was a dismal time for Newcastle University’s Conservative society, with just six new students showing any interest in joining at the start of the autumn term.But this year’s event brought dozens of students showing up with renewed enthusiasm – after the Tory students merged with the Reform UK students, shrugging off a rebuke from Conservative party headquarters to do so.“Interest increased tenfold. I think we Conservatives were just becoming a bit irrelevant,” said Henry Bateson, a one-time Conservative student who switched to Reform UK and is now president of Newcastle’s merged Conservative and Reform UK society.Recent opinion polls suggest nearly half of Tory members would support a merger with Reform into a single party

Zarah Sultana sets sights on replacing Labour and gaining power

The MP Zarah Sultana has said she hopes her new political party will ultimately replace Labour as she revealed she was committed to winning power.Sultana left the Labour party in July to form the new group, operating under the temporary name Your Party.Asked by Nick Robinson on his BBC podcast Political Thinking if she aimed with her new party to replace Labour, she said: “That’s the vision. We are the party of the left, and we have to build. And we’re starting from very humble beginnings

UK launches search for ‘town of culture’ among places ‘written out of national story’

Too many places have been “written out of the national story”, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said as she launched a search for the UK’s first “town of culture”.The town of culture designation comes after the success of the cities of culture programme, which has put Derry, Hull, Coventry and, this year, Bradford in the limelight for a year, boosting the local economy, tourism, civic pride and access to the arts, according to its supporters.The government said the first winning town would get £3.5m to help it develop a cultural programme in the summer of 2028.The competition for the 2029 UK city of culture has also opened, with the winner being promised £10m, the first time the government has put an upfront figure on its contribution