NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
Rayner’s political future uncertain as ministerial rules breach verdict expected on Friday
Angela Rayner’s political future appeared increasingly uncertain ahead of the expected Friday verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs. It comes as lawyers she said she used for her flat purchase denied having given her tax advice.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if his independent ethics watchdog rules against her. The prime minister said he would “of course” act on the findings of Sir Laurie Magnus’s probe after Rayner’s acknowledgment that she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
The advice she received is likely to form a key plank of Magnus’s investigation, after Rayner said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.
The independent ethics adviser will ***ess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”, “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.
Starmer told the BBC he would “act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me”. The Labour leader said it was for the independent adviser to establish the facts around the controversy, “then of course it does fall to me – I completely accept that – to make the decision based on what I see in that report”.
Also today, the Reform UK party conference begins in Marston Green, West Midlands. Nigel Farage is scheduled to address the conference at 4.10pm. Elsewhere, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch will visit north-west Es*** later this morning.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander is on the morning round for government and deputy Conservative party chair Matt Vickers is on for the Tories. Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, is also on the morning media round today.
In other developments:
The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general ***embly.
Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”. The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.
The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned. The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.
Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
Key events
Jamie Grierson
An investigation has been launched after a mobile phone found hidden in the House of Commons was reportedly believed to have been planted there to play *** noises during prime minister’s questions.
The device was found during a routine sweep of the chamber on Wednesday.
The Metropolitan police said they believed it was placed there on purpose to disrupt proceedings in the house.
The phone had been hidden near the frontbench to broadcast block in the middle of Keir Starmer’s weekly noon showdown with Kemi Badenoch, the Times reported.
The Met said:
On Wednesday 3 September, a mobile phone was found during a routine search of the House of Commons chamber by Met officers. Inquiries have led officers to believe that the phone was purposely placed in a location with the aim of causing disruption to business in the house.
An investigation has been launched and inquiries are ongoing. We have updated the speaker and clerk of the house.
A parliament spokesperson said:
Parliament is a public building and we facilitate the visits of thousands of people to the estate each week.
The safety and security of everyone who works or visits here remains our top priority, and we have robust and proactive security measures in place. This includes ensuring that visitors and their belongings are security screened, along with monitoring and routine searches of areas that are open to the public.
While we cannot comment on the detail of our processes, we can confirm that a mobile phone was removed from the Commons chamber on 3 September, demonstrating the effectiveness of the security measures we have in operation.
Kemi Badenoch has called on Keir Starmer’s independent ethics adviser to examine what Angela Rayner’s department has said to the Treasury about the prospect of property tax rises in the budget.
The Tory leader said correspondence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) should be included within the scope of the probe to avoid “accusations of a whitewash”.
According to the PA news agnency, Badenoch said the public needed to know “whether the deputy prime minister chose to sell her property ahead of the forthcoming budget because she knew taxes were about to go up”.
Badenoch said:
We already know that Angela Rayner was lobbying to increase stamp duty in the upcoming budget. What we don’t know is what other discussions she was having with the Treasury about hiking taxes on the family home.
To avoid any accusations of a whitewash, the ethics adviser must examine all the material that Rayner’s housing department sent the Treasury about any proposed property taxes.
Only the Conservatives under my leadership are committed to ensuring we live within our means – that means cutting spending on welfare so we can reduce the burden of taxation.
Rayner says she sold her 25% stake in her Greater Manchester family home to a trust, set up for her disabled son to look after his interests, in January 2025. She then bought a flat in Hove on which she later admitted she had underpaid stamp duty in error based on tax advice she says she received at the time.
Call for urgent Windrush payouts as survivors say Home Office ‘waiting for us to die’
The Windrush commissioner has demanded “urgent reform” of the compensation scheme after being told by survivors that “the Home Office is waiting for us to die off”.
In a letter seen by the Guardian addressed to migration and equalities minister, Seema Malhotra, and shared with home secretary Yvette Cooper, Rev Clive Foster says it is “deeply concerning” that 66 people have died while waiting for compensation for the Windrush scandal.
The scheme, launched in 2019, has been criticised for delays and knockbacks, with the Labour government repeatedly committing to ensure survivors are paid quickly.
Foster, who became Windrush commissioner in June, told Malhotra he had “positive feedback” about her personal commitment and that there had been recent improvements, but survivors “continue to tell me about long waits, unclear outcomes, and the emotional toll of navigating a process that feels opaque and unjust”.
Making a series of recommendations to government on delivery, Foster added:
Given the age and health of many people affected by the scandal, reform is a matter of urgency. Justice must be delivered in their lifetimes.
A phrase I’ve heard repeatedly from community members is that ‘the Home Office is waiting for us to die off’. While I don’t share this view, I believe it’s important that you hear it directly as it reflects the challenge you face in building trust.
Calling for better support for survivors, Foster recommends that the application process is reformed to make it “trauma-informed” and accessible and says compensation should be made for pension and future earnings losses.
He suggests the risk that people die before being compensated could be reduced by making partial payments to people awaiting a review, with cases prioritised by age and health.
He also calls for performance indicators for the scheme, including average processing times and satisfaction levels, to be published.
The government set up a £1.5m “advocacy” fund in April to support survivors, but campaigners are calling for legal aid.
A government source said “immediate work” was being commissioned on points raised by Foster, while a Home Office spokesperson said Foster’s appointment was intended to “drive lasting change across government”, with the department “determined” to right the wrongs of the scandal.
They added:
We thank Rev Foster for his initial recommendations, many of which we are already implementing, and ministers will meet with him shortly to discuss further improvements to our schemes.
Starmer must not meet Israeli president during UK visit, say Labour MPs
Jessica Elgot
Labour MPs have called on the government to avoid meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog, saying any talks would send an ambiguous message about the UK’s position on the Gaza war.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, posted on X that she hoped it was inaccurate that ministers would meet the Israeli leader:
The UK has recognised the ‘real risk’ of genocide perpetuated by Israel, so unless this meeting is about peace, what message are we sending?
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, said Herzog should not be permitted entry to the UK. He said:
I am appalled at the decision to allow this representative of a government that is systematically killing Palestinian children on a daily basis to visit our country.
The prime minister is proving to be absolutely tone deaf to the desperate plight of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming feelings of revulsion of the British people at the brutality of the government Herzog represents.
The Labour MP Clive Lewis suggested Keir Starmer should exercise extreme caution. He said:
Dialogue is one thing, but there are times when the act of meeting itself becomes a political statement.
Clearly Herzog is not Netanyahu, their politics on many issues are at variance. But that said, the president’s own words have helped legitimise the collective punishment of Palestinians, language that international jurists have warned could fall foul of the genocide convention.
However, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, who has been a strong critic of Israel, said “efforts should be made to engage” with Herzog, who had often been at odds with Israel’s hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over domestic issues.
She told the Guardian:
The question must be asked: how do you see Israel in 10 years? What is the future for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If you have no reasonable alternative plan, Mr President, then there must be a Palestinian state.
But the only solution to this is through politics, through discussion. Herzog is easier to talk to than many in the extreme rightwing government in Israel. But we mustn’t pull our punches.
Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, said Starmer should “seize this chance to state unequivocally to President Herzog that there must be an end to the suffering in Gaza through an immediate ceasefire”.
Douglas Alexander’s comments (see 9.53am BST) come as foreign secretary David Lammy said the UK is “working intensely” towards the foundations of a two-state solution ahead of holding talks with officials from Gulf states over the Israel-Gaza conflict on Friday.
The senior Cabinet minister is meeting figures from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to “build consensus around a framework for lasting peace in the region”, the Foreign Office said.
He will “highlight that the Israeli government’s refusal to allow sufficient aid in to Gaza is indefensible” as well as accepting that Hamas can “play no role in the governance of Gaza”, the department said.
According to the PA news agency, Lammy said:
The situation in Gaza is utterly bleak. Each day the humanitarian crisis worsens with famine threatening to spiral across the territory while the hostages remain cruelly held captive.
The UK is working in lockstep with our Gulf partners to establish a framework for peace.
Ending the war in Gaza means not just reaching a ceasefire but turning it into a durable peace.
Today’s schedule
Here is the agenda for the day:
Friday: Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) strike action on the tube expected to begin. London Underground workers are to stage a series of strikes in a dispute over pay and conditions. The RMT said its members on the tube will take industrial action at different times from 5 September, for seven days.
Friday: Verdict on whether Angela Rayner broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs expected but no timings have been confirmed as to when it will be published yet.
Morning: Public accounts committee publishes its report on the Ministry of Defence’s oversight of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs).
7am: ONS retail sales for July published. Postponed from original date of 22 August.
9.10am: Transport secretary Fiona Hyslop will travel by train from Haymarket to North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland where she will provide an update on rail electrification.
10am: Jeremy Corbyn co-chairs the Gaza tribunal to examine ‘British complicity in Israeli war crimes’. The second day of the event begins at 10am with a panel on “What has Britain’s role been in Gaza?” featuring Mark Smith, a Foreign Office official who resigned in protest over continued arms sales to Israel. The final part at 1.15pm looks at “Has Britain fulfilled its legal obligations?”.
Midday: Reform UK conference begins at the National Exhibition Centre, Marston Green, in the West Midlands. Speakers include welcoming remarks by chair David Bull at 12pm, mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns at 12.30pm, MP Lee Anderson at 2pm, MS Laura Anne Jones at 2.20pm, MSP Graham Simpson at 2.30pm, head of department of government efficiency Zia Yusuf at 3pm and a special guest speaker at 4pm.
12:15pm: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will be campaigning in Glasgow Pollok and Cathcart with local MP Gordon McKee.
4.10pm: Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage will address the conference in Marston Green.
Parliamentary schedule:
House of Lords: 10am – Absent voting (elections in Scotland and Wales) bill – second reading.
Animal welfare (import of dogs, cats and ferrets) bill – second reading.
Dogs (protection of livestock) (amendment) bill – second reading.
Space industry (indemnities) bill – second reading.
The House of Commons will not be sitting.
Minister defends prospect of government meeting Israeli president in UK
A minister has defended the prospect of UK government figures meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog on his visit to Britain next week amid criticism from within Labour ranks.
The PA news agency reports that Douglas Alexander said the UK must engage with Israeli as well as Palestinian authorities as part of its diplomatic push to end the Gaza war.
Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, trade minister Alexander said diplomacy would involve “meeting people with whom you disagree”. He told Sky News:
I’m genuinely not sure in terms of what the schedule is. But I’d make a pretty basic point, first of all, diplomacy involves meeting people with whom you disagree and the British government has very strong views in terms of the present conduct of the government of Israel.
It is right that we are engaging with politicians from across the region, because the suffering is incalculable and it needs to stop.
Alexander said that “in order to get to a path to that two-stage solution, of course you’re going to have to be talking not just to the Palestinians but also to the Israelis”.
The visit comes after prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the “terrible situation” in Gaza this week, and before the UK intends to recognise a Palestinian state later this month.
According to the PA news agency, Downing Street declined to comment when asked about the Israeli president’s trip, saying it would set out any visits “in the normal way”.
Adapting gender ruling into practical steps ‘difficult’ for firms, says watchdog chair
The chair of the watchdog which has provided guidance to the government on transgender people’s use of certain spaces has said it will be “difficult” for service providers to adapt to a ruling “which is quite black and white into practical steps”.
Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that businesses such as gyms and shopping centres should have been following new rules after a supreme court ruling in April which said the words “woman” and “***” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological ***.
Lady Falkner added:
I think it’s going to be difficult for duty bearers, service providers, to adapt a ruling which is quite black and white into practical steps according to their own cir***stances and their own organisation. Which is why we’ve always emphasised they should take their own advice as well as adhering to our code.
The EHRC said it presented its final guidance, a new code of practice, to women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson on Friday after it was delayed from July.
The guidance will now be considered by ministers and, once approved, the UK government must lay the draft code before parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.
Falkner said:
Everybody I speak to, every institution I speak to, says: ‘Can you tell us what we’re supposed to do? That’s wrong … they should have been doing it anyway.
The EHRC said it received more than 50,000 responses to its code of practice consultation.
According to a draft code which was published before the consultation, a birth certificate could be requested by a sports club or hospital if there is “genuine concern” about what biological *** a person is. Elsewhere, the draft code said trans people can be excluded from competitive sport “when necessary for reasons of safety or fair competition”, and gave an example of how some services might be able to adapt to “offer toilets in individual lockable rooms to be used by both ***es”.
Away from the Rayner story for a moment. Former Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf has said the party is actively “preparing for government”.
According to the PA news agency, he told BBC Breakfast:
Nigel [Farage] is preparing for government. We are taking seriously the important work of getting ready for government.
We’re not going to be like Labour, if the British people see fit to elect a Reform government, we will come into power with a plan.
Trade minister says Angela Rayner in politics ‘for the right reasons’
Trade minister Douglas Alexander has indicated that he trusted Angela Rayner and said she was in politics “for the right reasons”.
Asked whether he trusted the deputy prime minister, Alexander told Times Radio:
Listen, I really want to live in a country in which someone with Angela Rayner’s cir***stances and background can rise to one of the highest offices in the country.
I have to say I should declare an interest – I really like Angela Rayner. We’re a rather improbable group of friends. We come from very different cir***stances … if you look at the challenges that Angela Rayner has overcome, not only do I like and respect her but, yes, I think she’s in politics for the right reasons.
Alexander also reiterated that a “rigorous testing process” would be followed in the investigation into Rayner’s tax affairs as he declined to answer questions about her future.
Alexander told Times Radio:
I think most of your listeners, as they think about it, they think about their own workplace or their own cir***stances, they would want due process to be followed. That will be a rigorous testing process.
He added:
The expectation is [Sir Laurie Magnus] works in a very comprehensive but also a pretty expeditious way … it will be for the prime minister, as always, to make judgments in relation to his ministers.
He said he did not know “who said what to whom” but the “right person” to ask those questions and have them answered was Sir Laurie Magnus.
A minister conceded there was “frustration” as the investigation into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs continues and said it would be a “good thing” for the government if the probe concluded quickly.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander told BBC Breakfast:
The real test is not do these issues arise, but how does the government deal with them? We have this strengthened, independent office of ministerial standards. He’s conducting the inquiry. Once that’s concluded, it will go to the prime minister’s desk.
I would just ask your viewers to think, what would they want, in their cir***stances, in their workplace, of course, there need to be procedures. There’s frustration while that process is under way, but I think everyone is entitled to due process, and that’s the process that’s under way, but, listen, I get it.
I’m not pretending these are headlines that any of us would choose, least of all Angela Rayner, and that’s why, if the reports are true that this is going to be dealt with relatively quickly, of course, I think that’s basically a good thing, not just for Angela, but for the government as well.
Alexander said Keir Starmer was being “very careful” in an interview in which he refused to say whether he would sack Rayner if she is found to have broken the ministerial code.
Asked about the prime minister’s answers to the BBC on Thursday, Alexander told BBC Breakfast:
I thought if you look at how that interview has been reported in the papers this morning, you get radically different accounts as to what the prime minister was actually saying.
My sense is the prime minister was just being very careful.
He is, of course, a trained lawyer, as well as the prime minister, in not wanting to pre-judge a process that is now under way, but he was equally clear that he is ready to act on the basis of the information that he receives from Sir Laurie Magnus.
Rayner’s political future uncertain as ministerial rules breach verdict expected on Friday
Angela Rayner’s political future appeared increasingly uncertain ahead of the expected Friday verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs. It comes as lawyers she said she used for her flat purchase denied having given her tax advice.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if his independent ethics watchdog rules against her. The prime minister said he would “of course” act on the findings of Sir Laurie Magnus’s probe after Rayner’s acknowledgment that she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.
The advice she received is likely to form a key plank of Magnus’s investigation, after Rayner said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.
The independent ethics adviser will ***ess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”, “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.
Starmer told the BBC he would “act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me”. The Labour leader said it was for the independent adviser to establish the facts around the controversy, “then of course it does fall to me – I completely accept that – to make the decision based on what I see in that report”.
Also today, the Reform UK party conference begins in Marston Green, West Midlands. Nigel Farage is scheduled to address the conference at 4.10pm. Elsewhere, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch will visit north-west Es*** later this morning.
Trade minister Douglas Alexander is on the morning round for government and deputy Conservative party chair Matt Vickers is on for the Tories. Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, is also on the morning media round today.
In other developments:
The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general ***embly.
Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”. The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.
The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned. The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.
Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.
