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Shadow health secretary says party will not accept just any MP after Natalie Elphicke’s move to Labour• UK politics live – latest updatesLabour’s Wes Streeting has said he has spoken to more Conservative MPs considering a defection to the opposition, similar to that of Natalie Elphicke, but insisted the party would not accept just any politician.The shadow health secretary said Elphicke, who is due...

Anneliese Dodds says she believes Elphicke is a good fit for Labour after criticism from across the political spectrumBen Houchen, who was the Conservative to win a metro mayor electoral contest last week (he was re-elected as Tees Valley mayor), has said that the route to Tory electoral recovery is “getting narrower by the day”.In an interview with BBC Radio Tees, he said:Things don’t...

Anneliese Dodds backs move to accept Conservative defector Natalie Elphicke as backlash growsThe chair of the Labour party has defended the decision to admit a staunchly rightwing MP while Diane Abbott remains suspended and has been under investigation for more than a year.Anneliese Dodds said she believed Elphicke was a good fit for Labour because her remarks on border security and housing were “absolutely...

MP for Stratford-on-Avon, former chancellor and Conservative party chair will not seek re-electionNadhim Zahawi, a former chancellor under Boris Johnson, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he will not be standing again at the general election.First elected in 2010, Zahawi said on Thursday he “had come to feel that the time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to represent Stratford-on-Avon”. Continue...

Shadow chancellor also says it would cause a ‘tax bombshell aimed squarely at Britain’s pensioners’Reeves says Labour has a vision for the country. Stability will be change, she argues.I know – warm words are not enough. I do not underestimate the challenges we face. But I am so ambitious for our country. I know the huge potential found all across Britain and the constraints...

In today’s newsletter: Rishi Sunak’s party were expecting a difficult contest – but the results were even more dire than predicted, as political correspondent Kiran Stacey explains• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.A fraught situation is intensifying in Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million displaced people have been sheltering. Israel’s armed forces have this morning...

Full results likely to point to drubbing for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives at the general electionLocal and mayoral election results – live updatesIt was a grim night for the Conservatives and the pain seems likely to extend over the weekend, even if there may be moments of consolation from some mayoral elections.The Blackpool South byelection was not a routine mid-term setback for the party of...

Business secretary defends move, saying it ‘puts to bed myth that Rwanda is not a safe place’Kemi Badenoch, who is minister for women and equalities as well as business and trade secretary, is launching a move to root out “bad guidance” on access to single-sex spaces. The initiative seems intended to restrict the extent to which trans women use these facilities.She said:Single-sex spaces are...

Polling puts Ben Houchen on course to win in Tees Valley with Andy Street just ahead of Labour’s Richard Parker in West MidlandsKeir Starmer said his views on gender issues “start with biology” as he backed blocking trans women from female-only hospital wards and prisons in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, PA Media reports. PA says:The Labour leader was speaking as the...

Scotland’s first minister set to resign after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this weekHumza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but he’s cancelled. Continue reading...

Mel Stride says therapy or respite could be offered instead of Pip payments to those with ‘milder’ mental health issuesUK politics – latest updatesPeople with depression or anxiety could lose access to sickness benefits, the work and pensions secretary has said, as part of major welfare changes that have been described as a “full-on assault on disabled people”.On Monday morning, Mel Stride announced the...

Rumours of an early election, despite Labour’s lead in opinion polls, being used to keep unruly Conservative MPs in checkSenior Tories believe the threat of a summer general election is being used by Downing Street to deter a rebellion against Rishi Sunak’s leadership, before a perilous set of local elections this week.Westminster has been abuzz with rumours of an early election, despite the persistent...

First minister cancels event as Strathclyde University as he faces no confidence voteStephen Flynn is viewed by some people as the most talented politician in the SNP and, in his interview on the Today programme, he was asked if he would stand for the leadership if Humza Yousaf were to resign. He replied:I have been asked this question previously the last time there was...

Chris Philp gets confused over neighbouring countries when discussing government’s Rwanda deportation policyUK politics – latest updatesThe policing minister, Chris Philp, appeared to confuse the countries of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on BBC Question Time on Thursday.When discussing the government policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, the MP for Croydon South responded to an audience member’s question during the...

Co-leader of party says Humza Yousaf can ‘no longer be trusted’ as first minister reportedly plans to run minority administrationHumza Yousaf, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, is holding a press conference now.He says he has been in the post for little more than a year.We are investing record [sums in the NHS], ensuring it can employ record numbers of staff delivering the...

Tributes paid to former Labour minister and welfare campaigner Frank Field, who has died at the age of 81Keir Starmer has said the death of Frank Field is “a profound loss to politics and to our nation”. In a tribute to the former minister, Starmer went on:Frank dedicated his life to being a voice for the most vulnerable and marginalised people in the country.Frank...

Claire O’Neill, a former climate minister, says PM’s move was to ‘try and create political division and dividing lines’The UK government’s decision to weaken some of its climate commitments was a “retrograde step” that will set back vital cross-party action to cut carbon emissions, Claire O’Neill, a former Conservative climate minister has said.O’Neill, who was known as Claire Perry when she served as a...

International concern over new law increases as UN high commissioner for refugees says it marks ‘step away from UK’s tradition of providing refuge’Three men, a woman and a child were killed attempting to cross the Channel in the early hours of this morning, according to a French coastguard statement.Enver Solomon, the Refugee Council’s chief executive, said this was “another devastating human tragedy” that should...

Lawyers prepare for legal battles on behalf of individual asylum seekers challenging removal to east AfricaHow the UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan was fought in courtRishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill will become law after peers eventually backed down on amending it, opening the way for legal battles over the potential removal of dozens of people seeking asylum.After a marathon battle of “ping pong” over...

PM to publicly warn peers to back down but treatment of Afghans remains a concern for the LordsSky News has broadcast a clip of Rishi Sunak addressing a meeting of the government’s illegal migration operations committee in the cabinet room at No 10 this morning. It is almost certainly a preview of what he will say at the press conference, which is due to...

There are signs Labour’s polling lead is a bit soft. But with the Tories trailing in leadership and economy, experts aren’t sure it will matterUK general election opinion polls tracker: Labour leading as election loomsUK politics – latest updatesAs 2014 came to a close, it seemed Ed Miliband would be the next prime minister, with the Labour party leading David Cameron’s Conservatives as the...

Sixty four Tories and four independent MPs who lost party whip plan to stand down from the Commons amid dire polling for ConservativesA cohort of Conservative MPs standing down before the next election have netted jobs worth millions of pounds and have taken dozens of all-expenses-paid trips funded by foreign governments and lobbyists, the Observer can reveal.Sixty-four serving Tory MPs and four independent MPs...

Caribbean historians want Richard Drax to pay reparations – but now Barbados plans to buy his land for homesThe Conservative MP under fire for his ancestors’ role in Caribbean slavery is in line for a multimillion-pound payout from the Barbados government.Despite threats to make Richard Drax pay reparations and seize his family’s plantation – described by one historian as a “killing field” of enslaved...

Labour also turns down European Commission’s proposal, which would have allowed young Britons to live, study and work in EURishi Sunak has rejected an EU offer to strike a post-Brexit deal to allow young Britons to live, study or work in the bloc for up to four years.The prime minister declined the European Commission’s surprise proposal of a youth mobility scheme for people aged...