13 Labour MPs rebel against Brexit stance as EU customs union vote passes

By Olivia O’Sullivan, director of Chatham Home’s UK within the World programme:

The international secretary, Yvette Cooper, mentioned: “In the end, Ukraine’s future needs to be for Ukraine, and the issues that we now have mentioned, that Secretary Rubio has set out as properly, is the significance of getting a simply and lasting peace, in order that Russia is deterred and can’t merely come once more, but additionally so we help the power and sovereignty of Ukraine.

“That’s why all the discussions are happening.

“However in the end it’s once more, as I mentioned within the speech, two presidents are working for peace, and one president – President Putin – has to this point merely sought to escalate the battle with additional drone and missile assaults.”

Authorities motion to herald short-term fixes to the asylum system has led to backlogs elsewhere and delays which have wasted taxpayers’ cash, the general public spending watchdog has discovered.

A report by the Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO) mentioned the present price of supporting folks in search of asylum is “disproportionately excessive” and totalled round £4.9bn for 2024-25, pushed by lengthy delays and backlogs.

A pattern of 5,000 individuals who started their asylum claims practically three years in the past confirmed greater than half the circumstances remained unresolved.

The circumstances could cause uncertainty and hardship for asylum-seekers, and erode public confidence within the system, report authors warned, whereas the watchdog known as for higher knowledge and a whole-system strategy throughout authorities departments.

The Authorities introduced plans to overtake the asylum system final month.

However the watchdog mentioned the complicated plans wanted a sustainable strategy – in any other case there’s a danger of “unintended penalties for already stretched programs”.

Sir Keir Starmer warned of a “misplaced decade of younger youngsters left as collateral harm” because the Authorities launches a 10-year youth plan.

Labour’s nationwide youth technique, printed at the moment, will purpose to make sure 500,000 extra younger folks throughout England have entry to a trusted grownup exterior their house, in addition to assets on the right way to keep protected on-line.

Some £500m will go on reviving youth providers, with a pledge to construct or refurbish 250 youth services over 4 years, the Division for Tradition, Media and Sport mentioned.

– Launch a community of fifty “younger futures” hubs by 2029 as a part of a £70m programme to supply entry to youth staff, with the primary eight operational by March 2026 in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Co Durham, Nottingham, Bristol, Tower Hamlets, and Brighton and Hove.

– Help organisations in “underserved” areas to ship high-quality youth work and actions by way of a £60m fund.

– Enhance younger folks’s wellbeing, private improvement and “life abilities” by way of a brand new £22.5m programme of help across the college day in as much as 400 faculties.

– Recruit and prepare youth staff, volunteers and different “trusted adults” with £15m of funding.

Excessive authorities borrowing prices since Labour gained the election have price the taxpayer as much as £7 billion, in keeping with a brand new report.

The Institute for Public Coverage Analysis (IPPR) discovered the UK had seen “uniquely excessive” borrowing prices when in comparison with different superior international locations, with yields on authorities bonds – also called gilts – having risen steadily since Labour got here into energy in the summertime of 2024.

The Customs Union (Obligation to Negotiate) Invoice, was tabled by the Liberal Democrats’ Europe spokesman Al Pinkerton on Tuesday. The vote led to a shock tie of 100 to 100, giving the deputy speaker the casting vote.

The vast majority of Labour MPs had no vote recorded. Nevertheless three voted towards and 13 who voted in favour of the invoice.

4 Reform UK MPs voted towards the Invoice and their social gathering chief Nigel Farage didn’t vote, in keeping with Parliament’s voting data.

Former kids’s commissioner Anne Longfield will chair the inquiry into grooming gangs after months of delays.

The Impartial’s Residence Affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft stories:

Rachel Reeves ought to apologise for “deceptive the nation” in regards to the public funds within the run-up to the Funds, the Commons will hear.

The Conservative Occasion can even name on MPs to affix them in criticising the Chancellor for introducing £26bn value of tax rises within the Funds, which they are saying breaks a manifesto promise.

In a Tory-led debate on Wednesday afternoon, the social gathering will use a censure movement to name on Ms Reeves to apologise.

The Chancellor has confronted questions on whether or not she misled the general public after a letter from the Workplace for Funds Duty (OBR) contested her narrative that she wanted to boost taxes to fill a monetary “black gap”.

Critics say she largely raised taxes after she scrapped the two-child profit cap.

The Conservative Occasion is predicted to ask “that this Home calls on the Chancellor to apologise for deceptive the nation in regards to the state of the general public funds, rolling the pitch for elevating taxes, breaking her guarantees and growing welfare spending”.

The movement additionally mentioned Ms Reeves ought to apologise for “deceptive briefings and leaks” that “induced uncertainty for households, companies and traders”, in addition to for “breaking her promise after the final Funds that the Authorities was not going to boost taxes once more, and as a substitute elevating taxes on the Funds by £26bn”.

A UK armed forces member was killed in Ukraine as he watched the testing of a brand new defensive functionality, the Ministry of Defence has reported.

Defence Secretary John Healey mentioned he was “devastated” by the person’s dying in an announcement on X.

The Ministry of Defence assertion mentioned: “It’s with deep remorse that we should announce {that a} member of the UK armed forces died in Ukraine this morning, Tuesday December 9.

“He was injured in a tragic accident while observing Ukrainian forces check a brand new defensive functionality away from the entrance traces.

“The household has been notified and our ideas are with them at this unhappy and troublesome time.”

4 Reform UK MPs voted towards the Invoice selling a brand new UK-EU customs union, and social gathering chief Nigel Farage didn’t vote, in keeping with Parliament’s voting data.