How parties have come under fire over complaints against MPs

Scandals involving MPs are no rarity. They seem to come along in batches every few years. There were the sleaze allegations that rocked John Major’s government in the 1990s, the #MeToo reckoning in 2017 and the succession of them that helped bring down Boris Johnson’s government in 2022.As part of Labour’s drive to modernise parliament, the responsibility for handling some of the more serious misconduct complaints against MPs is to be handed over to the independent parliamentary process. This would mean that rather than investigating them internally, parties would refer complaints of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System (ICGS)

Political parties to hand role of investigating misconduct by MPs to independent body

Political parties are on course to hand over responsibility for examining allegations of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct by MPs to parliament’s independent investigator.A parliamentary committee is preparing to endorse proposals to refer complaints about MPs’ misconduct to the Independent Complaints and Grievance System (ICGS), instead of letting political parties deal with them.Sources on the modernisation committee, which is considering reforms to parliamentary procedures and standards, told the Guardian it was supportive of the change. Unlike select committees, MPs on the modernisation committee are appointed by their party whips.Under the proposal, political parties would defer any complaints of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct against MPs to the ICGS, which was set up in 2019 after Westminster was rocked by the #MeToo movement

UK must be less dependent on China for critical minerals, says thinktank

The UK must become less dependent on China for critical minerals, an influential thinktank has concluded before a government strategy decision in the spring.In a report on rare earth minerals, which are essential components for hi-tech products from mobile phones to missiles, Labour Together said ministers should “de-risk” supply chains and reduce reliance on China by building partnerships with other countries.The report said China’s dominance in critical mineral supply chains created “vulnerability” and the UK was at greater risk of being singled out after Brexit.Amid escalating trade tensions with the US before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, China banned shipments of antimony, gallium and germanium to the country earlier this month.The UK government has said it will produce a new strategy on critical minerals in the spring

UK has no credible plan to mobilise volunteers in event of war, ex-defence minister admits – as it happened

James Heappey, who was a defence minister for the whole of the last parliament, told Times Radio in an interview this morning that that figures about 10,000 members of the armed forces not being medically fit were “very arresting” and a matter of concern. But he also played down the significance of the findings, saying that the figures would include many people deemed unfit just because they had missed dental checks, and that other people with injuries could be deployed in a war. He explained:Firstly, I’ll bet you that a big chunk of the non-deployable, medically downgraded people are downgraded for dental reasons. And what that tends to mean is that they’ve not had a dental check-up in the last six months, and so they are automatically declared dentally unfit, and therefore not fully deployable.Secondly, there is a reality about the nature of some of these injuries that mean that they couldn’t deploy to go on a discretionary operation today in peacetime, but if war was to come, then they would be absolutely able to go and fight because the needs of the nation would rather trump that rather discretionary take on their medical capacity

UK politics: Welsh Tories criticise Of Mice and Men’s removal from GCSE course over racism concerns – as it happened

The Welsh Conservatives have criticised a decision to remove John Steinbeck’s 1930s novel Of Mice and Men from the GCSE curriculum because class discussions about the book, and the racial slurs it contains, have been distressing for some black pupils.As the BBC reports, Wales’ children’s commissioner Rocio Cifuentes said many black children “specifically mentioned this text and the harm that it caused them” when she spoke to them as part of research on racism in secondary schools.Referring to the decision by the WJEC exam board to take it off the GCSE curriculum from next September, she said:It’s not censorship. This is safeguarding the wellbeing of children who have told us how awful those discussions have made them feel in those classrooms.They’ve very often been the only black child in that classroom when discussions all around them are focusing on very derogatory, negative depictions of black people

Starmer and family to go abroad ‘for a few days’ over new year, says No 10

Keir Starmer and his family are to take a short overseas holiday over the new year, Downing Street has said.While the prime minister has the use of Chequers, his official country retreat, this will be his first overseas family holiday since the general election, with a planned break in Europe during August cancelled due to a spate of riots.Starmer would spend Christmas with his family at Chequers before heading abroad “for a few days” over the new year, his official spokesperson said. He did not say where they would be going.Asked if Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, would be officially in charge for this period, the spokesperson said Starmer would remain at the helm