Keeping that man out of sight, out of mind | Brief letters

In his high-profile, national newspaper opinion column, Andy Beckett wonders why Nigel Farage and his tiny Westminster party receive such huge coverage (Why does Nigel Farage get to play British politics on easy mode?, 13 June). It’s like a driver bemoaning the amount of traffic on the road when he is the traffic. Just stop typing, mate.Paul MastermanShifnal, Shropshire Nothing new under the sun, Arwa Mahdawi (Strangers on the street: please stop asking me if my wife is my twin sister, 11 June). My husband is nine years younger than I am and people have been asking for decades if he was my son

Rayner refuses to rule out punishing Labour MPs who rebel over welfare cuts

Angela Rayner has refused to rule out punishing Labour MPs who vote against the government’s plans to cut disability benefits in the coming weeks, as ministers prepare to publish the full details of their proposals for the first time.The deputy prime minister defended the plans in the Commons on Wednesday during a session of prime minister’s questions in which she was deputising for Keir Starmer. She told MPs the party was pursuing the plan – which is predicted to result in 1.2 million people with disabilities losing thousands of pounds a year – in the interests of both fairness and getting people back into work.But with dozens of Labour MPs preparing to vote against the measures, Rayner failed to deny recent reports that party bosses would remove the whip from those who rebel

Report finds £2m of surplus UK general election funds ‘essentially disappeared’

Almost £2m given to candidates in the 2024 general election has “essentially disappeared” from the public’s view of British political campaign finance, a report claims.It notes that 170 candidates received in total almost £2m more than they were legally allowed to spend locally during the election, raising questions about where the surplus funds went after the campaign. The donors who funded them are also tricky to identify, especially if the candidate was unsuccessful.The effect is a lack of transparency around who is funding constituency campaigns and what subsequently happens to excess funds.If a candidate received more money than they could spend, they might transfer the surplus to the central party

MPs back bill to end criminal penalties for abortion in key vote – as it happened

Antoniazzi cites other examples of women prosecuted for abortion offences. She goes on:Each one of these cases is a travesty enabled by our outdated abortion law.Although abortion is available in England and Wales under conditions set by the 1967 Abortion Act, the law underpinning it dating back to 1861, the Offences against the Person Act, means that outside those conditions, it remains a criminal offence carrying a maximum life sentence.Originally passed by an all-male parliament elected by men alone, this Victorian law is increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls.Since 2020 more than 100 women have been criminally investigated …Women affected are often acutely vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, girls under the age of 18 and women who have suffered miscarriage

Government officials brace for up to 50 Labour MPs rebelling against welfare bill

Government officials have admitted they made a mistake by making the financial case for cutting benefits as they steel themselves for as many as 50 Labour MPs rebelling against the welfare bill that is being published on Wednesday.Sources told the Guardian that they now believed the party should have focused on the moral case for reforming the welfare system, arguing that it was letting down millions of people who could be supported into work.Labour insiders believe they could have kept more MPs on side if they had not highlighted the £5bn savings the Treasury would make as a result of the cuts to health and disability benefits that have so angered the party.At the time of the spring statement, ministers said there were two justifications for the move: one was to get people off benefits in the long term, but the justification for the immediate cut to incapacity benefit was to make sure the system remained financially sustainable.Rachel Reeves told MPs: “These plans mean that welfare spending as a share of GDP will fall between 2026-27 and the end of the forecast period

Kemi’s experiment in kindness is a sorry sight to behold | John Crace

This was meant to be Kemi putting her best foot forward. Nice Kemi. Kind Kemi. Collaborative Kemi. All the Kemis that don’t usually see the light of day