New Green MP calls for tolerance and inclusivity in first Commons speech
Hannah Spencer, the Green MP who won last month’s Gorton and Denton byelection, has used her first speech in the Commons to call for tolerance and inclusivity, and to argue for more people from manual working backgrounds to be elected to parliament,Saying she wanted to “make hope normal again”, Spencer used a speech in a debate about International Women’s Day to say she had found out that some children had dressed up for events marking the day at their schools as “Hannah the plumber”, wearing overalls and copying her distinctive hairstyle,Spencer overturned a 13,000 Labour majority in the byelection, defeating the Reform candidate, Matthew Goodwin, and pushing Keir Starmer’s party to third,“Four weeks ago today I was in college, a plumber learning how to plaster,” she began on Thursday,“And today I’m in parliament, as an MP.
And being here is the honour of my life.But I don’t want this to be unusual or exceptional.I truly believe that anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these benches.”Echoing a theme of her byelection victory speech, in which she promised to try to unite the various communities of her constituency, Spencer listed a series of local people and groups, saying she would stand up for them all.“To the girls who I saw photos of who went to school on International Women’s Day dressed as ‘Hannah the plumber’ in their overalls, spanners, and trademark hair.
To the women in my life who’ve had my back, who’ve fought for equality alongside me,” she said.“And to the men that I work with – especially the lads on my plastering course who dealt with my newfound spotlight in the middle of our training very well – but those men who will suffer the effects of this unequal society through their mental health.“To the veterans I know who were willing to risk everything and come home and find that society was turning its back on them.To the white working classes, who are always lumped into one group and never appreciated.“To everyone who will have nowhere to sleep tonight, or will barely exist in a cold, damp and insecure home.
To my trans siblings who get blamed for everything.To the Muslims everywhere who are constantly and often violently scapegoated.“To the disabled people who can’t access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable.To the people of colour, who have to work harder at everything.“I don’t always get it, I won’t say I always understand it.
But what I do know is what it feels like to be looked down on,To be let down and left behind,To be less worthy because of something about me,”Saying her constituency had “suffered decades of neglect and broken promises”, Spencer paid tribute to the work of her predecessor, Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, on tackling health inequalities, pledging to continue this,In a speech that paid tribute to everyone from the suffragette Elsie Plant, after whom Spencer named one of her greyhounds, to the workers of her constituency, as well as some of its cafes and pubs, the new MP said the lesson of International Women’s Day was that “our struggles may be different, but our humanity is the same”.
She ended: “I want to put Gorton and Denton on the map by championing the positives about our community – the spirit, the warmth, the grit, and the way that we help each other out, every single day,“Together, we can make hope normal again,And we will look after each other, whoever we are,Because where I’m from, that is just what we do,”
Microsoft backs AI firm Anthropic in legal battle against Pentagon
Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic’s legal challenge against the Pentagon, filing a court brief in support of the AI company’s effort to overturn an aggressive designation that effectively bars it from government work.In an amicus brief submitted to a federal court in San Francisco this week, Microsoft, which integrates Anthropic’s AI tools into systems it provides to the US military, argued that a temporary restraining order was necessary to prevent serious disruption to suppliers whose products rely on the AI company’s technology. Google, Amazon, Apple and OpenAI have also signed on to a brief in support of Anthropic.In a statement to the Guardian, Microsoft said: “The Department of War needs reliable access to the country’s best technology. And everyone wants to ensure AI is not used for mass domestic surveillance or to start a war without human control
‘Exploit every vulnerability’: rogue AI agents published passwords and overrode anti-virus software
Rogue artificial intelligence agents have worked together to smuggle sensitive information out of supposedly secure systems, in the latest sign cyber-defences may be overwhelmed by unforeseen scheming by AIs.With companies increasingly asking AI agents to carry out complex tasks in internal systems, the behaviour has sparked concerns that supposedly helpful technology could pose a serious inside threat.Under tests carried out by Irregular, an AI security lab that works with OpenAI and Anthropic, AIs given a simple task to create LinkedIn posts from material in a company’s database dodged conventional anti-hack systems to publish sensitive password information in public without being asked to do so.Other AI agents found ways to override anti-virus software in order to download files that they knew contained malware, forged credentials and even put peer pressure on other AIs to circumvent safety checks, the results of the tests shared with the Guardian showed.The autonomous engagement in offensive cyber-operations against host systems was unearthed in laboratory tests of agents based on AI systems publicly available from Google, X, OpenAI and Anthropic and deployed within a model of a private company’s IT system
Elon Musk’s Tesla given go-ahead to supply electricity in Great Britain
Elon Musk’s Tesla has won approval to supply electricity to households and businesses across Great Britain, as the tech billionaire expands his energy ambitions.The energy regulator, Ofgem, has formally granted Tesla an electricity supply licence, enabling it to provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales.The company is expected to replicate its supply business in Texas, where it is branded as Tesla Electric and offers to help customers power “your home, electric vehicle and community with low-cost sustainable electricity”.However, Tesla’s electricity licence means it cannot offer a dual fuel contract to households. It could supply a customer’s electricity if they had a separate tariff agreement for their gas supply
Palantir’s NHS England contract ‘opens door to government abuse of power’, health bosses told
Palantir’s NHS contract opens the door to the Big Brother-style data-sharing that Reform UK would use for a version of US immigration raids, health bosses have been told.Palantir Technologies – the data analytics company founded by Peter Thiel and Alex Karp – won a £330m NHS England contract to deliver the Federated Data Platform in 2023.The UK government is urging health bodies to adopt FDP, which the health secretary, Wes Streeting, says will ensure the NHS is “brought into the digital age”.But there are concerns about Palantir, whose AI tools are used in global conflicts, becoming embedded in the UK public sector.A briefing by the health justice charity Medact said the “highly interoperable nature” of Palantir’s software could enable “data-driven state abuses of power”, including US-style ICE raids
‘Devastating blow’: Atlassian lays off 1,600 workers ahead of AI push
Software giant Atlassian has announced it is laying off about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, and replacing its chief technology officer as it restructures to invest further in artificial intelligence.More than 900 affected positions were involved in software research and development, a spokesperson said. Most of Atlassian’s employees work in software engineering and design, accounting for over 50% of its 13,813 full-time workforce in June 2025.About 640 affected employees are in North America, 480 in Australia and 250 in India, with the remainder spread across Japan, the Philippines, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to the spokesperson.The company’s co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, told employees the move was “the right decision for Atlassian” in a note circulated late Wednesday, US time
Binance sues Wall Street Journal over reporting on Iranian sanctions
The US government is investigating Binance over allegations that Iran used the crypto exchange to evade sanctions and illegally move funds, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday.Binance has denied these claims and even sued the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday for defamation.The Journal reported in late February that Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, shut down an internal investigation into more than $1bn in transactions with a network funding Iran-backed terror groups; Binance fired employees for looking into the matter and allowed the network to remain active, according to both the Journal and the New York Times.A Binance spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “Binance categorically did not dismantle any compliance investigation. The WSJ continues to report the same falsities
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