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Ukraine peace talks crumble

Ukraine peace talks crumble

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After the purported 'Easter truce' fighting has resumed in Ukraine and Russia, meanwhile peace talks in the West have broken down with the US speaking to Russia separately.
Hannah Barnes is joined by Andrew Marr to discuss this week in UK politics, and later in the episode by Rachel Cunliffe and George Eaton to look at Reform UK's surging popularity ahead of the local elections.
Read: Can Reform grow up?, Steve Reed: 'Reform is a symptom of broken trust'
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Unions warn Labour must convince Brits of green jobs boost to counter Reform
Unions warn Labour must convince Brits of green jobs boost to counter Reform

Daily Mirror

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mirror

Unions warn Labour must convince Brits of green jobs boost to counter Reform

Polling conducted by YouGov for the Prospect and GMB unions reveals just a fifth (20%) of Brits believe the clean energy transition will have a positive impact on jobs locally Labour must show how shifting to green energy will boost jobs to face down the threat from Reform, two major unions have warned. ‌ Polling conducted by YouGov for Prospect and GMB reveals just a fifth (20%) of Brits believe the energy transition will have a positive impact on jobs locally. Under a third (31%) think the energy transition will have a positive impact on jobs anywhere in the UK. ‌ GMB General Secretary Gary Smith warned Brits need to see the benefits of transition to clean energy to counter climate sceptics on the right as Nigel Farage wages war on Net Zero. ‌ It comes after Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice vowed to scrap contracts with energy firms and reverse the expansion of renewable energy. Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Reform's Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, has said she doesn't think climate change exists. Labour recently warned that 950,000 jobs in clean energy could be threatened by Reform. According to Confederation of British Industry data, the net zero economy supports 951,000 full-time jobs, in areas like offshore wind, electric vehicles, heat pumps and hydrogen. ‌ This includes 100,700 in Scotland, 70,500 in Yorkshire and the Humber and 96,800 in the North West. Mr Smith told the Mirror: 'At the moment, the transition feels like something being done to workers – that can't continue. People need to see real jobs created where they live, and their local economy boosted, or we're going to see more and more tempted by the siren calls of those who deny the reality of climate change.' The survey of more than 2,000 adults shows more than half (55%) agree a transition focused on jobs and the economy should be prioritised over one focused on speed. Only 17% prefer a focus on speed. ‌ Prospect and GMB – who between them represent tens of thousands of energy workers - have launched a campaign group, Climate Jobs UK, which aims to put energy workers and jobs at the centre of the UK's debate on decarbonisation. Around 5.5million people - 8% of the population - either work in the energy sector or know someone who does. Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy said: 'We are going to need tens of thousands of workers to deliver this huge shift in the way we produce and use energy. Building on the clean energy industrial strategy, the opportunity is to deliver good, clean energy jobs for the people and places that most need them 'But this research shows that people aren't yet seeing those jobs materialise, and if this continues then it will undermine support for the transition and drive people towards parties who oppose it and would put the future of the industry at risk. 'The government have raised the ambition on energy policy, which is welcome, now they need to be bigger and bolder when it comes to energy jobs and put energy workers at the heart of this agenda.'

The Guardian view on Kemi Badenoch's reshuffle: a glimmer of hope for One Nation Tories
The Guardian view on Kemi Badenoch's reshuffle: a glimmer of hope for One Nation Tories

The Guardian

time2 hours ago

  • The Guardian

The Guardian view on Kemi Badenoch's reshuffle: a glimmer of hope for One Nation Tories

In January, only two months after becoming Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch let it be known that she would not be reshuffling her shadow cabinet team before the next election. This implausible hostage to fortune was doubtless intended to convey Mrs Badenoch's determination that, as she rebuilt the Tory brand after a catastrophic defeat, she would not be buffeted around by passing events. Modern British politics don't work like that. A year ago, the Conservative share of the vote was 24%, a desperate general election nadir. Now support for the party languishes at about 17%. In May's local elections the Tories lost close to 700 councillors and control of 16 councils, many of them to Reform UK, which leads in the polls and is viewed by Labour as its chief electoral threat. A recent survey found that only 10% of the public think Mrs Badenoch looks like a prime minister in waiting. On Tuesday, as the House of Commons went into summer recess, she duly launched a reshuffle. For the most part it was a modest affair involving middle-ranking shadow ministers and changes to backroom staff. Mrs Badenoch's growing number of internal critics will have hoped for something more radical. But Sir James Cleverly's appointment as shadow to the housing secretary, Angela Rayner, will have lifted the morale of Conservatives who fear their party has embarked on a doomed march to the Faragian right. During last autumn's leadership contest – which he might well have won, had it not been for some ill-advised tactical voting by supporters – Sir James positioned himself as a One Nation alternative to Mrs Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. On culture war issues such as Britain's potential withdrawal from the European court of human rights and net zero, he is likely to be a moderating force. As Nigel Farage actively seeks to stoke a summer of discontent on Britain's streets, a revival of centre-right influence within the Conservative party would be good news for the country as a whole. For the Tories it would also signal a more viable route to relevance than becoming a Jenrick-inspired tribute act to Reform. In a fragmented and polarised landscape, the Conservatives are haemorrhaging support both to the authoritarian right and the liberal centre. Mrs Badenoch has yet to find a way to successfully fight on two fronts, and has hitherto shown little interest in addressing the political wounds on her party's left flank. Whether Sir James's appointment is intended to redress that imbalance, or is simply an attempt to shore up party unity behind her, remains to be seen. In the meantime, Mrs Badenoch's prospects continue to look bleak. A relatively cautious reshuffle – the promotion of the Johnson-era levelling up minister Neil O'Brien being the only other intriguing move – will not in itself solve the party's underlying dilemmas over direction. It is also unlikely to spark a feelgood upturn in the polls. As speculation swirls around her leadership, Tory commentators have begun to talk ominously of November, the earliest point at which a challenge can be launched. It seems extremely unlikely that she could survive another disastrous round of local elections next year, when heavy losses are on the cards in Wales and Scotland. Having taken over intending to take her time, Mrs Badenoch's annus horribilis means she now has little time left to make an impact.

Tory modernisation has failed
Tory modernisation has failed

New Statesman​

time2 hours ago

  • New Statesman​

Tory modernisation has failed

We at the New Statesman are not neutral observers of the politics of this country. We may be critical of this Labour government when we think it deserves criticism. But we also do not want to see the country move to the populist right, under a Tory government or one led by Reform. This should be obvious: we are a magazine of the left, which wants to see progressive reform. And yet what happens in the Conservative Party and Reform matters because it often affects the political direction we are all forced to travel. One of the most important developments in British politics today, therefore, is the extraordinary implosion of the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch. Its scale is remarkable in its own right, but it also has profound implications for how Britain is governed. Think about how Labour behaves as it shifts its focus from the Conservatives to Reform ahead of the next general election. Without the collapse in support for the Tories – and the corresponding rise in the polls for Nigel Farage – would Starmer ever have uttered the words 'island of strangers'? The Prime Minister's mistake reveals a deeper truth: he and his government have yet to develop a strategy for how to deal with Farage The rub of Will Lloyd's cover story this week is simple: Kemi isn't working. For those who may (understandably) take some joy from this, Will's piece offers pause for thought. While it is absolutely the case that one of the reasons Badenoch is failing is her own limitations, there is no getting away from a deeper truth: she is also struggling because of nastier currents in society. Badenoch is not struggling because she is too right wing. Quite the opposite, in fact. For many of those agitating against her leadership, she represents the failed project of modernisation (as they would see it) of the David Cameron years. Today, the 'New Right' wants a far more Trump- (or Farage-) inflected conservatism than the one Badenoch is offering. Another reason the mood has soured is that a growing segment of the New Right has become dangerously fixated on questions of race, ethnicity and demographics. For some young Tories, it seems, Badenoch will never be British enough. This is a grim trend that we at the New Statesman feel a duty to expose. One final lesson from Will's piece is the continued failure of our political class to meet the challenges before it. As a friend put it to me recently, the problems the country now faces are at least as acute as any we have faced for decades, while the quality of our leaders seems to deteriorate from one parliament to the next. As our problems become bigger, our politicians get smaller. And so we enter a doom loop of hopelessness and despair, as one government after the next fails to rise to the challenge before it. Badenoch, in other words, may simply be a symptom of a deeper structural problem in Britain (and the West) today. Of course, Badenoch is not the only party leader in Westminster struggling in the polls. Andrew Marr delves into the disquiet bubbling just below the surface in Labour. As ever, his column is a must-read for those who want to understand the inner workings of the government. Meanwhile, Oliver Eagleton examines the lasting legacy of the war in Afghanistan, which continues to cast its shadow over British politics. Will Dunn looks at the extraordinary inertia of our governing class and Pippa Bailey casts her eye over Labour's (sensible) changes to sex education in schools – some good news at last! We have expanded Correspondence to reflect the huge number of letters we have received following last week's cover story about war crimes in Gaza. In the New Society, we have compiled our list of the best summer reads (including Don't Forget We're Here Forever by the New Statesman columnist Lamorna Ash), Finn McRedmond decamps to Chianti, and Michael Prodger reviews a book by the artist David Gentleman (he of those beautiful murals at London's Charing Cross Underground station). Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Before I sign off, I'd like to draw the reader's attention to one final piece in this week's magazine. Hannah Barnes reflects on the devastating death of her brother in a motorcycle crash. Life is precious and fragile. Perhaps it is so precious because it is so fragile. I hope that we at the New Statesman try to live it with vim and vigour while we can, bringing you life in all its pain and joy, glory and tragedy: a magazine reporting on our world as it is, while always having an eye on how we want it to be. Related This article appears in the 23 Jul 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Kemi Isn't Working

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