Starmer jokes Farage was ‘first through e-gates in France' after skipping Brexit deal debate for holiday abroad
Mr Farage missed a parliamentary debate on a Brexit reset yesterday, where the prime minister presented his new UK-EU deal, with access to e-gates being a crucial part of the agreement.
Speaking to Reform UK MP Lee Anderson in the House of Commons, Sir Keir said it was 'very good' to see him standing in for the Clacton MP.
Sir Keir's joke on e-gates was met with cheers from the Commons, and he followed the jab with the pun: 'Nice work if you can get it.'
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The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Council recognising their town's link with Gaza is ‘important' says Jewish group
A Jewish group has called a UK council recognising 'friendship links' with an area of Gaza, 'an important act of solidarity' after local councillors voted for an immediate ceasefire. Last week, Hastings Borough Council, in east Sussex, passed a motion to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all arms sales to Israel and to support the town's friendship links with the people of Al-Mawasi – a section of the Gaza strip. The decision comes after multiple attempts over the past 21 months to bring a ceasefire motion prior to the recent local elections, which changed the make-up of the council. The motion was carried by a majority of 14 Green and Hastings Independent Group MPs, with three voting against and 11 abstentions, mostly from Labour councillors. Hastings Jews for Justice have welcomed the decision, they said: 'We stand with the Palestinians in Gaza who are being slaughtered and starved right now and we demand immediate action of our politicians. 'We applaud all the councillors who chose to stand on the right side of history and used their voice and their vote to fight these crimes against humanity. 'And we reject the idea, shared by several Labour councillors during the debate, that standing up for a people facing genocide is an attack on Jewish people in our community or 'divisive'.' Proposing the motion, Green Party councillor Yunis Smith said: 'We must ask ourselves, when the dust settles, will we have done enough? Will we be able to say that we stood up even when it was difficult? 'Or will we, like generations before us, say that we saw the signs and still we did nothing?' In December 2023, Al-Mawasi was designated a safe zone by the IDF and Palestinians were urged repeatedly to relocate to the area. Since then, the area has been repeatedly attacked, one of the most deadly was July 13 2024, where Israeli jets bombed Al-Mawasi, killing 90 people and injuring 300 displaced Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi group has been building a friendship and language exchange with the Palestinian area over the past few years. Mr Smith said: 'From one coastal town to another, we've shown that solidarity, dignity and human connection shine brighter than cruelty, 'Al-Mawasi, like Hastings, is defined not just by its land but by the resilience of its people. They survive, endure and beckon us to witness their struggle and their strength.' Hastings has become the most recent in a line of UK councils to pass a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Hastings Jews for Justice added: 'This is an important act of solidarity with a people who are being made to suffer in the most horrific ways imaginable and we are determined to show that as British Jews it is not in our names.' The Green leader of the council, Councillor Glen Haffenden, has reportedly received more emails on this subject from his residents than on any other subject since becoming a councillor. Hastings campaign group Friends of Al-Mawasi says there has been a 'marked escalation of threatening and abusive behaviour' towards anyone in the town showing sympathy or support for Palestine over the past few weeks. Sussex Police have confirmed that an investigation is ongoing after a woman was allegedly assaulted while wearing a Keffiyah at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.
Reuters
14 minutes ago
- Reuters
English doctors to strike in face-off with government over pay
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - Resident doctors in England will begin a five-day strike on Friday over pay, challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party government that promised to end industrial unrest when taking office a year ago. The government is refusing to meet demands for higher pay from the British Medical Association, which says the 5.4% rise awarded to resident doctors - qualified physicians who make up nearly half of the medical workforce - does little to undo years of pay erosion. The result is a return to picket lines outside hospitals from 0600 GMT Friday - a throwback to 2023 when high inflation and stagnant pay brought doctors, nurses and other staff from the publicly-funded National Health Service (NHS) out on strike. "We don't want to strike, but we have to," said Bishoy Yassa, a 24-year-old recently qualified resident doctor. "Even after fair negotiations ... we were completely ignored." "There's a misconception that doctors are being greedy," he added. "This isn't just about pay. This is about getting the government to listen to the state of the NHS." After winning an election last year, Labour quickly reached a settlement with doctors for a 22% pay rise, but this year, as it grapples with increasingly strained public finances, it has refused to move beyond a 5.4% increase. Health minister Wes Streeting has called the decision to strike "reckless and needless." "All I asked of the them (BMA's leadership) was the postponement of strikes for a few weeks so we could work together on a detailed package that could form an offer to you to end this dispute," Streeting said in a letter addressed to resident doctors posted on X on Thursday. Public backing for the strikes is limited, with 52% now opposing them and 34% in favour, according to a YouGov survey of 4,954 adults conducted on Monday. That represents a shift from May, when 48% opposed and 39% supported the action. Views among doctors also differ. Adam Boggon, a 33-year-old resident doctor and a BMA member, told Reuters he voted against the strike action, fearing it would harm patients. "I would like for a settlement to be achieved very soon and in the absence of strike action which doesn't help anybody and which nobody wants," he said.
The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ex-UK Labour leader Corbyn says he's starting a new left-wing party
Former British Labour Party leader Jermy Corbyn said Thursday he is forming a new left-leaning political party to advocate "mass redistribution of wealth and power' and take on his former colleagues at the ballot box. The new formation has a website — — but does not yet have a name. 'It's your party,' Corbyn said. 'We're going to decide (a name) when we've had all the responses, and so far the response rate has been massive.' Corbyn said he hoped the new party would have its inaugural conference in the fall. Corbyn, 76, led Labour to election defeats in 2017 and 2019, but the veteran socialist campaigner remains popular with many grassroots supporters. and the new party has the potential to further fragment British politics. The long-dominant Labour and Conservative parties now have challengers on both left and right, including the environmentalist Green Party and hard-right Reform UK. Plans for a new party emerged earlier this month when lawmaker Zarah Sultana, who has been suspended from Labour for voting against the government, said she would 'co-lead the founding of a new party' with Corbyn. At the time, Corbyn did not confirm the news. On Thursday he denied the party launch had been messy, saying the process was "democratic, it's grassroots and it's open." A longtime supporter of the Palestinians and critic of Israel, Corbyn was suspended from Labour in 2020 after Britain's equalities watchdog found anti-Jewish prejudice had been allowed to spread within Labour while he was leader. He was suspended after failing to fully accept the findings¸ claiming opponents had exaggerated the scale of antisemitism in Labour for 'political reasons.' Corbyn was reelected to Parliament last year as an independent. Prime Minister Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn as Labour leader in 2020 and dragged the party back toward the political center ground. He dropped Corbyn's opposition to Britain's nuclear weapons, strongly backed sending weapons to Ukraine and stressed the party's commitment to balancing the books. Starmer won a landslide election victory a year ago, but has struggled to maintain unity among Labour lawmakers as the government struggles to get a sluggish economy growing and invest in overstretched public services. He has been forced into a series of U-turns by his own lawmakers, including one on welfare reform that left his authority severely dented.
