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Shadow cabinet talk with Whitehall officials after Keir Starmer meets head of civil service All members of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet are to meet top civil servants in Whitehall departments before Easter as Labour steps up preparations to form the next government, according to senior party sources.The Observer has been told that Starmer recently held a first round of so-called “access talks” with the...

The investment to improve parliamentarians’ security will include a dedicated police contact to liaise with over safety concernsSir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, has welcomed today’s announcement about extra security for MPs. (See 9.13am.) He said:I warmly welcome the government’s announcement of additional funding to protect our elected representatives and our democracy. It will enable us to build on the improvements we have made...

Despite victory in two Conservative safe seats, a Labour government is not a foregone conclusion, say party hawksFor the past few months, with Labour enjoying a stubbornly large double-digit lead in the polls, close allies of Keir Starmer remained obsessed with the notion that complacency will slip into the mindsets of MPs, advisers and activists.In a breathless week that saw Labour veer from having...

Keir Starmer says ‘people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government’, as wins in Wellingborough and Kingswood put further pressure on Rishi SunakLabour overturns 18,000 majority to win WellingboroughLabour win byelection in KingswoodSpeaking from the Kingswood election count, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg congratulated Damien Egan on winning.“Does it tell you anything about the general election? Almost certainly not,” he said.Conservative party...

Swing of 28.5% in Wellingborough and 16.4% in Kingswood would give Labour secure majority if repeated in general electionUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has hailed Labour’s “fantastic” results in the Kingswood and Wellingborough byelections after the party secured two victories which suggest the party is on course for a majority at the general election this year.The Labour leader said the gain of...

Labour seeking to take two seats from Tories on Thursday amid fraught week of candidate suspensionsMy colleague Phillip Inman has this analysis on this morning’s inflation figures:Good news came from the food industry, where inflation fell from December to January, but the annual rate remains high at 7% and food and non-alcoholic beverage prices are about 25% higher than they were two years ago,...

Party criticised for delay in acting over comments in which Azhar Ali suggested Israel had allowed 7 October attack to happenHousing minister Lee Rowley was on the media round for the government this morning, hoping to push their new housebuilding plans. He refused, however, to say how many more homes the government hopes will be built, telling the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he...

Candidate Azhar Ali issues apology after comments emerge in which he suggested Israel allowed Hamas attack to happenA quick scoot around the newspaper front pages. For the Daily Mail, the Labour Rochdale story leads, with the paper asking “So has Labour really changed?”That story also made the front of the Times, with the bonus ban at water companies being the lead item. Our Helena...

Shadow chancellor says Labour will receive a ‘bleak inheritance’ from Tories and has had to make changes as a resultRachel Reeves has defended Labour’s U-turn on its pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green projects.The shadow chancellor blamed the Tories and the economic impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, as she told BBC Breakfast she would not “make any apologies” for fiscal responsibility.I’ll...

Health secretary defends Conservative NHS dental recovery plan after scathing response from the British Dental Association Good morning. Labour has been campaigning hard recently on the dire state of NHS dentistry, which is near-impossible to access to many places, and today the government is responding by publicising its own NHS dental recovery plan. The British Dental Association has been scathing about it. It is...

PM says he is ‘not a betting person’ after making £1,000 bet during an interview with Piers MorganGood morning. Rishi Sunak gave an interview to Rachel Burden on Radio 5 Live this morning and he was asked about £1,000 bet he appeared to accept from Piers Morgan about the success of his Rwanda policy. The move has been widely condemned as distasteful. Sunak did...

Former PM is fomenting revolt describing proposal as ‘absurd’ as government set to go ahead with plans to ban disposable vapesGood morning. Two weeks ago Rishi Sunak saw off the Tory rebels wanting him to toughen up the Rwanda bill, last week former cabinet minister Simon Clarke was shouted down by colleagues when he called for a new leader, but the turmoil in the...

Chris Philp says manufacturers found ploy to get around previous ban on previous ban on zombie knives Good morning. Labour and the Conservatives are in a bidding war over knife crime today, with Keir Starmer announcing or re-announcing various plans to deal with the problem on the day when the Home Office is laying legislation before parliament to ban zombie-style knives. Pippa Crerar has...

Clarke, a Truss ally, says Tory party should ditch PM ahead of general electionAs Eleni Courea reports, in private Conservatives have been even more critical of Simon Clarke than the former ministers who have been criticising him on X. She says:Speaking privately, other Tory MPs were even more forthright. “Not sure we should be taking top tips on leadership from Liz Truss’s right hand,”...

Wes Streeting says he is shocked by the extent to which the health and wellbeing of the nation’s children has declinedGood morning. Keir Starmer will today start a series of fortnightly visits around Britain intended to promote Labour’s “missions”, and today he is in the north-west of England launching the party’s child health action plan. He has written about the proposals for the Guardian...

Labour leader says investing up to £28bn a year subject to fiscal rules but it is a ‘confident ambition’Starmer says junior doctors have a “good case” when they say they deserve a pay rise.But he says Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, should be negotiating with them now. Continue reading...

Labour leader will say Tories have governed so badly people no longer believe a change of party will make a differenceIn his speech this morning Keir Starmer will also promise that Labour will clean up politics. He will say:To change Britain, we must change ourselves. We need to clean up politics. No more VIP fast lanes, no more kickbacks for colleague, no more revolving...