Starmer’s ministers look at new economic blueprint to quell voter anger

Cabinet ministers have been studying a blueprint for Labour to radically overhaul its economic offer and messaging, including devolving tax powers, abolishing national insurance, and major property tax changes.Passed around dozens of MPs, the paper argues that without a major rethink, the failure to tackle the discontent on the cost of living will hand the next election to a hard-right government. There is also increasing concern that the war with Iran – pushing up prices of fuel, energy, food and mortgages – will fuel further mass public anger.The report, which has the draft title of the Beveridge Report for the Economy, will say the British economy rewards grifters and exploitation rather than hard work, and that voter anger is fuelled by the belief that hard work and “doing the right thing” leaves many feeling cheated.Several potential Labour leadership candidates are understood to have requested to see the report, which was prepared as part of a partnership between the Labour Growth Group of MPs once considered loyal to Keir Starmer and the Good Growth Foundation thinktank

Attorney general asks if Kemi Badenoch would object to Jewish public prayer

Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public, after the Conservative leader backed one of her shadow ministers who said an Islamic prayer event was intimidating and un-British.Hermer, one of the UK’s most prominent Jewish politicians, said Badenoch’s decision to support the views of Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, put her on a par with Reform UK and Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist.After an event to mark Ramadan took place on Monday evening in London’s Trafalgar Square, Timothy posted images of mass prayers taking place, saying such an action in a public space was “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.Asked about her support for Timothy on Thursday, Badenoch said any public expressions of religion should “fit within the norms of a British culture”, and criticised the way men and women were separated for the Ramadan prayers, with men nearer the stage and women farther behind.Hermer told the Guardian Badenoch needed to clarify her view

Nigel Farage condemned over call to ban public prayer for Muslims in the UK

Muslim leaders have condemned Nigel Farage’s call to ban public prayer by Muslims in the UK as bigoted and warned of a “growing tide of hate” after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, questioned whether the events fitted “within the norms of British culture”.Farage was speaking at the launch of Reform UK’s manifesto for the forthcoming Scottish parliament elections when he made the remarks.He described as “a wake up call and a warning to everybody” an event in Trafalgar Square earlier this week where hundreds of Muslims and people of other faiths prayed together, before the celebration of Eid.He said the event, organised by the Ramadan Tent Project and attended by Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, was “an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”.The event has happened in the historic square in central London five times before without incident or previous controversy

Here’s what a reformed House of Lords could look like | Letters

A reformed Lords could give us the best of all worlds: a chamber that connects and legitimises the disparate parts of our higgledy-piggledy devolved constitution without challenging the primacy of the directly elected Commons (So long, hereditary peers – but the Lords is still full of absurd anachronisms, 13 March).Three-quarters of its members could be indirectly elected by local councillors, with temporary seats reserved for the heads of the national governments and regional mayors. Party leaders not yet in the Commons – such as Zack Polanski – could also sit there. The remaining seats could be time‑limited appointments for experts such as retired civil servants and former ministers, perhaps with different voting rights. An independent commission could oversee appointments, vet eligibility and weed out dodgy donors

Harry Barnes obituary

It was probably inevitable that the former Labour MP Harry Barnes, who has died aged 89 of cancer, would have very well delineated political views when he arrived in the House of Commons. He was already middle-aged, and had spent much of the previous three decades studying politics, first as a mature student and then working as an extramural lecturer on the subject, teaching others who were likewise seeking a second chance at education later in life.Barnes, who represented North East Derbyshire from 1987 until 2005, was a serious politician, a man of principle and conviction, but also someone who recognised the need for political flexibility in evolving circumstances.He was never constrained by ideology and was constantly in pursuit of what could be a possible new route to resolve existing problems, notably in Ireland. Always on the left of the Labour party, he was a serial rebel against his own frontbench, while simultaneously writing polite notes to the chief whip to explain his latest defiance

Peers vote to back clause pardoning women convicted over illegal abortions

Women who have been convicted, and in some cases jailed, over illegal abortions are set to be pardoned after a historic vote in the House of Lords.Last June, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside of the legal framework, while keeping the existing framework in place. Doctors and others who act outside of the law could still face the threat of prosecution.The change, by way of an amendment to the crime and policing bill put forward by the Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi, came after a reported increase in prosecutions and a number of high-profile court cases that saw women in the dock.There had been an attempt in the Lords to strike out Antoniazzi’s clause in the bill, but this was defeated, and an attempt to ban the use of telemedicine, where abortion medicine is able to be dispatched by post for pregnancies under 10 weeks, also failed