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 She goes on:Each one of these cases is a travesty enabled by our outdated abortion law.Although abortion is available in England and Wales under conditions set by the 1967 Abortion Act, the law underpinning it dating back to 1861,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

Ed Miliband says Labour will ‘win fight’ against UK net zero critics

Ed Miliband has said the government will “win this fight” against critics of Britain’s net zero plan, in part by creating more offshore wind jobs in the country’s former industrial heartlands.The energy secretary appeared to take aim at his political opponents in the Conservative and Reform UK parties as he launched a £1bn investment scheme to bolster job opportunities in the offshore wind supply chain.He told an energy industry conference on Tuesday that the investment would usher in a “green industrial revolution” for workers in manufacturing heartlands such as Teesside, Scotland, south Wales and East Anglia.Britain’s former industrial towns have shown growing support for the Reform party, which has promised to scrap Britain’s net zero agenda if it comes to power in the next election in 2029.The Conservative party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, has also vowed to drop her party’s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050 after describing the legally binding climate target as “impossible”

Starmer says he picked up Trump’s dropped papers to avoid security scare

Keir Starmer said he rushed to pick up papers dropped by Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Canada mainly to avoid anyone else stepping forward to do so and being tackled by the US president’s security team.Speaking to reporters in Kananaskis a day after Trump fumbled some of the documents about a UK-US trade deal, letting a sheaf of papers tumble to the ground, Starmer said he had little choice but to bend down and help out.The UK prime minister said: “I mean, look, there weren’t many choices with the documents and picking it up, because … as you probably know there were quite strict rules about who can get close to the president.“I mean, seriously, I think if any of you [the media] had stepped forward other than me – I was just deeply conscious that in a situation like it would not have been good for anybody else to have stepped forward, not that any of you rushed to. There’s a very tightly guarded security zone around the president, as you would expect