National grooming gangs inquiry stalls over remit wrangles and lack of chair

Keir Starmer’s national grooming gangs inquiry has stalled amid wrangles over its remit and difficulties in finding a senior legal figure willing to become its chair, the Guardian has been told.Terms of the statutory investigation are still being discussed by a panel of stakeholders including survivors of abuse rings, four months after the prime minister bowed to pressure and set it up.The search for a chair of the panel is still to be completed, the Home Office has confirmed. Judges and lawyers appear to be reluctant to head the inquiry, a source said.Officials are said to be working to appoint a chair who will then play a central role in shaping the terms and scope of the inquiry and identify a first area for review

Vote for a party’s policies and actions, not its name or history | Letters

Polly Hudson (Some people have a choice about whether or not to vote Labour. I wish I did too, 5 October) seems to be confusing her father’s devotion to his political and ethical principles with devotion to a party. He sounds like a dedicated and hard-working MP who sacrificed a lot for his principles and to serve his country and community.But it’s only in dictatorships that devotion to “the party” starts to supersede commitment to moral and ethical principles. As citizens of a democratic country, it is imperative that we vote according to our principles and our ideas of what we want this country to be

Former lord speaker faces suspension for ‘improper influence’ over speeding offence

Former lord speaker Frances D’Souza is facing suspension from the Lords after writing to the Metropolitan police commissioner to try to “influence a police investigation into alleged speeding offences”.Lady D’Souza wrote to Mark Rowley saying she feared she would have to give up attending parliament if she were banned from driving for exceeding the limit in a 20mph zone.The Met police said it had considered launching a criminal investigation into the apparent attempt to influence the commissioner but decided against it. It then passed the letter to the House of Lords conduct committee to investigate whether it breached the code of conduct.D’Souza did not dispute the case but appealed against the sanction – a recommended eight-week ban from the Lords for seeking “to influence a live police investigation”

Academic axed from Labour conference panel for criticising energy policy

A prominent sustainability professor had events cancelled at Labour and Conservative conferences after hosts of a panel he was on said they did not want his views on oil and gas aired in front of MPs.Prof Matthew Agarwala spoke on the fringe at Lib Dem conference for the panel organised by Total Politics but was then pulled from similar panels at subsequent Labour and Conservative conferences.Agarwala has said he was told directly by both Total Politics and the panel’s sponsor Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) that they did not want a dissenting view on the panel about the importance of North Sea oil and gas to the UK economy.“I used to think cancellation was for culture wars and comedians, not economists. But point out that North Sea oil doesn’t cut UK energy bills, and suddenly you’re censored,” he said

Rachel Reeves to confirm changes to ‘outdated’ planning system

Ministers are making it easier to build windfarms, reservoirs and large housing developments as part of a series of changes to the government’s planning and infrastructure bill designed to bolster the confidence of developers.The changes, which were first revealed by the Guardian, will be confirmed on Tuesday by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as part of a pre-budget push to underline the government’s commitment to economic growth.They include reducing the role of Natural England in helping decide on relatively minor applications and freeing up developers to build turbines near seismic sensors in southern Scotland.Officials say the amendments to the bill were required in part because the government damaged investor confidence by watering down the bill earlier in the summer.Reeves is hoping the bill will pass the Lords in time to be factored into the growth forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which could give her about £3bn extra breathing room against her own debt rules

Labour MPs call on Rachel Reeves to scrap council tax

More than a dozen Labour MPs have written to Rachel Reeves calling on her to scrap council tax, as the chancellor faces mounting pressure to overhaul Great Britain’s property taxes in next month’s budget.Thirteen MPs, mainly from seats in northern England, wrote to Reeves last month asking her to abolish the tax and replace it with another system that better accounts for the steep rise in house prices in London and the south-east over the last 35 years.The chancellor is looking for ways to close what could be a £30bn shortfall in the public finances, with experts warning that doing so could require a shake-up of the entire tax system.The Labour MPs wrote: “If we are to succeed in our mission to transform Britain and fight back against Reform, we must be bold and embrace new ideas that put more money back into the pockets of working people.“One place we can start is by looking at ways we can abolish the outdated, deeply regressive, and increasingly indefensible council tax system