Latest news with #DianeAbbott
Sky News
8 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
This has been Starmer's most damaging U-turn yet - but the bigger cost is the political one
Why you can trust Sky News It has been a painful week to watch. A U-turn in slow motion, culminating in a midnight climbdown as Number 10 agreed to concede to defiant MPs on Thursday night. The concessions are considerable. They mean, among other compromises, that existing claimants of personal independence payments (PIP) and the health aspect of Universal Credit will be protected from welfare reforms. Some MPs, like Diane Abbott and Nadia Whittome, remain unconvinced, but they were never high on the list of rebels the government expected to persuade. Ministers now hope that with the backing of MPs like Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the bill will pass the Commons. Their problems won't end there, though. Firstly, there is the question of money. The Resolution Foundation estimates the concessions will cost £3bn of the £5bn the chancellor hoped to save from the welfare reforms. The prime minister 's spokesperson says the changes will be fully funded in the budget and there will be no permanent increase in borrowing. They won't comment on any potential tax rises to plug the gap in Rachel Reeves's finances. The bigger cost, though, is the political one. A year ago, when Sir Keir Starmer strode into Downing Street with a thumping majority, few could have imagined how the last few days would play out. More than 120 MPs, nearly a third of the parliamentary Labour party and more than the total number of Tory MPs, publicly prepared to rebel on a flagship policy. How did it come to this? How did the prime minister, and the people around him, not see a rebellion coming when there had been signs MPs weren't happy for weeks? Those are the questions being asked by senior Labour figures behind the scenes. Sir Keir's spokesperson says the prime minister consistently engages with colleagues, and parliamentary engagement takes many forms. But a lack of engagement with backbenchers has led to the prime minister's most damaging U-turn yet, and this week will haunt the prime minister beyond Tuesday's crunch vote.
Sky News
9 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
This week will haunt the prime minister after his most damaging U-turn yet
Why you can trust Sky News It has been a painful week to watch. A U-turn in slow motion, culminating in a midnight climbdown as Number 10 agreed to concede to defiant MPs on Thursday night. The concessions are considerable. They mean, among other compromises, that existing claimants of personal independence payments (PIP) and the health aspect of Universal Credit will be protected from welfare reforms. Some MPs, like Diane Abbott and Nadia Whittome, remain unconvinced, but they were never high on the list of rebels the government expected to persuade. Ministers now hope that with the backing of MPs like Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the bill will pass the Commons. Their problems won't end there, though. Firstly, there is the question of money. The Resolution Foundation estimates the concessions will cost £3bn of the £5bn the chancellor hoped to save from the welfare reforms. The prime minister 's spokesperson says the changes will be fully funded in the budget and there will be no permanent increase in borrowing. They won't comment on any potential tax rises to plug the gap in Rachel Reeves' finances. The bigger cost, though, is the political one. A year ago, when Sir Keir Starmer strode into Downing Street with a thumping majority, few could have imagined how the last few days would play out. More than 120 MPs, nearly a third of the parliamentary Labour party and more than the total number of Tory MPs, publicly prepared to rebel on a flagship policy. How did it come to this? How did the prime minister, and the people around him, not see a rebellion coming when there had been signs MPs weren't happy for weeks? Those are the questions being asked by senior Labour figures behind the scenes. Sir Keir's spokesperson says the prime minister consistently engages with colleagues, and parliamentary engagement takes many forms. But a lack of engagement with backbenchers has led to the prime minister's most damaging U-turn yet, and this week will haunt the prime minister beyond Tuesday's crunch vote.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Immigration resulted in great bonds born of adversity, wit and steely resolve
Diane Abbott's reflections on the experiences of the Windrush generation are poignant, in that they testify to a sense of solidarity among immigrant populations that tends to receive too little consideration (The Windrush generations were proudly British. Yet immigrants are still fighting to be seen that way, 22 June). The contribution of Caribbean nurses to the NHS is now, thankfully, acknowledged. My Jamaican mother was among that early cohort, but so too were a great many Irish nurses, whom she numbered among her close work colleagues and personal friends. Their shared acknowledgment of the petty prejudices of everyday racism that 'othered' workers from the Caribbean and Ireland was mutually supportive both in and outside work, at a time when such things received no recognition more generally. There are many more nuanced stories of postwar migration to be told. The moments of fraternity – born of adversity, wit and steely resolve – between Caribbean and Irish nurses in the NHS is just one of them. Paul McGilchrist Cromer, Norfolk Thank you, Diane, for your article. I remember clearly when these people arrived and felt sorry for them being forced to leave their country in order to make a living. At the time, I was a pupil at an excellent convent school in a poor, rundown part of north‑west London. Several girls were welcomed as pupils. Later, when a patient in hospital, there was a chronic shortage of nurses and West Indian women saved the day. I am sorry to hear that there was so much prejudice and sad to know that this still exists, and that Nigel Farage has such a following. Veronica Edwards Malvern, Worcestershire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The 11 MPs still supporting Palestine Action
Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott are among 11 MPs who have voiced support of Palestine Action despite the organisation set to be proscribed by the Government as a terrorist group. Days after Palestine Action protestors clashed with police in central London, the former Labour leader, who sits as an independent MP, said banning the group was 'an outrageous and authoritarian crackdown on the right to oppose genocide'. Ms Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, accused the Government of being confused between protest and terrorism. She tweeted: 'To clarify, what Israel is doing is terrorism. What Palestine Action is doing is protesting it.' On Wednesday, she compared banning the group to prosecuting the suffragettes as terrorists. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary announced plans to ban Palestine Action this week, putting it on a par with terrorist groups such as Hamas, Al Qaeda and Islamic State. The move came just three days after Palestine Action broke into Brize Norton RAF base and vandalised two military planes at a potential cost of millions of pounds. Ms Cooper said the 'disgraceful' act was only the latest in a 'long history of unacceptable criminal damage' that has targeted defence firms, universities and charities. It means that anyone who is a member of the group or who supports it could face up to 14 years in jail. The order proscribing the group will be laid next Monday and could become law by next Friday, putting MPs at risk of prosecution if they continue to back the organisation. Among others who have spoken out in support of Palestine Action are two Green Party MPs, the Westminster leader of Plaid Cymru and Zarah Sultana, a Labour MP who is currently suspended. In a tweet on X, Ms Sultana said 'We are all Palestine Action', a statement which if posted after their official designation as a terror group would be a criminal offence. Ex-Labour MP Lord Walney, the former Government adviser on political violence, said that any MP expressing defiant support for an organisation about to be proscribed as terrorists in the UK is incredibly serious. He urged Labour to expel Ms Sultana. He said: 'Ms Sultana is still bound by the Labour Party's code of conduct, even while she is suspended, so it is about time the party formally expels her, particularly given Palestine Action's record of violence and intimidation of workers.' She is, however, not the only Labour MP to support the group. Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: 'Palestine Action targets property, not lives. This is a dangerous attack on civil liberties. We must defend the right to protest.' Richard Burgon, also an expelled Labour MP, claimed there is 'a long tradition in our country of people using non-violent direct action to oppose war – like the women at the Greenham Common base'. However, Palestine Action has been accused of using violent action. He added: 'Even those opposed to such tactics should see that proscribing Palestine Action – treating them as terrorists – is a dangerous step.' Green Party MP Sian Berry said: 'Proscribing Palestine Action sets a dangerous and worrying precedent.' Green MP Ellie Chowns said the move to add Palestine Action to the terror organisation list is 'a shocking overreaction to a couple of protestors using paint'. Apsana Begum, who lost the Labour whip after voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, said: 'Proscribing Palestine Action as 'terrorists' while continuing to send arms to a state that is committing the gravest of crimes against humanity in Gaza is not just unjustifiable, it is chilling. 'The ongoing crackdown on the right to protest is a threat to us all.' Other MPs who said similar include Liz Saville Roberts, Nadia Whittome, and John McDonnell. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'Palestine Action uses violence, intimidation and criminal damage to try to achieve their political aims.' 'That is not how we do things in this country. We debate issues and we vote in elections to decide issues – we don't use violence. 'These MPs who support PA's violent methods are advocating mob rule and should hang their heads in shame. Just because you disagree with someone doesn't give you the right to smash up their property. Mob rule has no place in a civilised country.'
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Diane Abbott is both an old Leftie and a true Tory
Whenever MPs legislate some monstrosity, we are often assured that the debate reflected 'the House of Commons at its best', as though an odious bill is rendered less odious by everyone having observed parliamentary niceties. Anyone seeking such solace after the approval of Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will have a search on their hands. Friday's debate only confirmed what a wretched, incurious and insubstantial Parliament we have, with few exceptions. One of them is Diane Abbott, the Mother of the House. She used her allotted time to make one final plea to her colleagues not to take the NHS into the killing business. It was a speech both practical and humanist but marked above all by scepticism. Abbott lodged no religious objection. She is not, she pointed out, implacably opposed to assisted suicide; she simply could not vote for such a dangerously flawed piece of legislation. Abbott spoke a language Leadbeater displays no fluency in: doubt. She told MPs she 'would not put my life, or the life of anyone dear to me, in the hands of a panel of officials'. As for those who asserted that assisted suicide would always be voluntary, she accused the Bill's supporters of failing to consider people primed to defer to authority, who would 'think that, because their doctor raises it with them at all, they are being guided in that direction'. Pro-suicide MPs might not 'take seriously' such concerns but 'anyone who knows how institutions work should be watchful of it'. Here was a socialist warning against excessive deference to public sector bureaucrats and sainted NHS doctors. She showed an up-close understanding of the state's flaws that could only come from someone who has spent a career advocating state intervention. There is no conservative like an old Leftie. The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington says she came into politics with hopes of being 'a voice for the voiceless'. Who, she asked her colleagues to imagine, 'could be more voiceless than somebody who is in their sick bed and believes that they are dying?' We all probably know someone who doesn't want to make a fuss or be a burden on their loved ones. 'Within the family,' Abbott said, 'the most powerful coercion is silence: it is the failure to answer when a question is put'. How many people will fall silent and go along with what they imagine to be in the best interests of the people around them? We are about to find out. What we can take a guess at is the demographic profile of those who will respond in this way. It will be older women, socialised to put their husband and children first. Women from minority religious and ethnic backgrounds, communities where it is traditional for men to do the talking and the decision-making and for women to be talked to and have final decisions presented to them. Such people exist beyond the ken of a House of Commons populated by privileged graduate professionals, those who, in Abbott's words, 'have for the entirety of their adult life been confident in dealing with authority and institutions'. What about those who don't share that confidence? When you legislate with only Esther Rantzen in mind, you're going to overlook a lot of people. Diane Abbott didn't just give a good speech. MPs give good speeches all the time. She took a stand at an hour of great moral failing and made the case for social conscience at a time of personal vanity. When a future Parliament comes to reckon with what this Parliament has done, it will look back with contempt upon a fit of callousness posing as compassion.
