Like Clement Attlee, Keir Starmer must rise to the occasion | Letters

Martin Kettle rightly says Aneurin Bevan is the one politician other than Clement Attlee whom Labour leaders regularly invoke (Critics say Starmer is no Attlee – and they’re right. Labour must look to the future, not the past, 31 July). Keir Starmer has drawn on Harold Wilson for inspiration, but more pertinent to Kettle’s argument is David Lammy claiming a role model in Ernest Bevin. Made minister of labour in 1940 and foreign secretary in 1945, Ernie Bevin dominated the decade. Bevin sought a continued US military presence in Europe but had no illusions about the “special relationship”

Journey times up, deaths down: Welsh 20mph speed limit still divisive two years on

A few weeks ago, two groups of protesters gathered on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. One demonstration was against the war in Gaza; the other, against the Welsh government’s two-year-old default 20mph speed limit in urban areas.The change from 30mph was brought in by the Welsh Labour government across about 35% of the country’s roads in September 2023, at a cost of £34m. The reduced speed limit applied to any built-up area, defined as roads where lamp-posts were no more than about 180 metres apart.Last week a small study by GoSafe, which monitors road cameras, found the policy had added an average of two minutes to journey times of differing lengths, aggravating an already bitter culture war over legislation designed to save lives

UK to evacuate ill and injured children from Gaza to receive NHS care

The UK government will evacuate seriously ill and injured children from Gaza to the UK for NHS treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.Ministers will enable children in severe need to receive taxpayer-funded care. Three children were brought to the UK this year through a private scheme by the charity Project Pure Hope.A government spokesperson said: “We are taking forward plans to evacuate more children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care.“We are working at pace to do so as quickly as possible, with further details to be set out in due course

Chris Bryant MP says he was abused at 16 by head of National Youth Theatre

The MP Chris Bryant has said he was sexually abused as a teenager by the former head of the National Youth Theatre, Michael Croft.The Labour MP, who is an arts and telecoms minister, said he was 16 when he was abused by Croft, who was around 40 years his senior and died in 1986.In an interview with the Sunday Times before the publication of his memoir, Bryant said Croft invited him to dinner every evening while he was attending company rehearsals in London during the summer of 1978, and that they would go to his house afterwards.He recalled coming back from the toilet one evening at Croft’s house to find his host naked except for a silk robe. He said Croft then asked him for oral sex, which he felt he had no option but to go through with, leaving him feeling as if he was “a 16-year-old whore”

UK has got ‘fat’ on decades of free labour by women, says MP Jess Phillips

Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got “fat” from the free labour of women for decades.The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls said the country has relied on women providing charity, adding it was a “fundamentally sexist” practice that meant the government was less willing to provide the service itself.She said she “hated” the title of her role and added that safeguarding against gender-based violence should be “business as usual in every single government department”.The Birmingham Yardley MP also suggested there was an issue in Whitehall where government departments viewed violence against women and girls as solely a Home Office issue.Phillips said she had to push for the safety of women and girls to be a “mainstream concern”, which she said had not always made her “popular as a government minister”

Labour does not deserve to win next election without change, Reeves says

Labour does not “deserve” to win the next election if it does not change the country, Rachel Reeves has said, as she acknowledged some voters were disappointed with the party’s record since entering government.The chancellor said she understood the unhappiness felt by some voters towards a government that has U-turned on winter fuel allowance and welfare policies in recent months.Reeves claims she has had to grapple with financial challenges inherited from the Conservatives, while increasing spending to repair public services.Speaking to broadcaster Iain Dale at the Edinburgh festival fringe, she said: “The reason people voted Labour at the last election is they want to change and they were unhappy with the way that the country was being governed.“They know that we inherited a mess