Starmer 2.0: could a more authentic PM revive Labour’s appeal?

Two days after Keir Starmer had been disowned by the Scottish Labour leader last week, and as a row raged over another controversial peerage, the prime minister decided to pick a fight with a billionaire.It was a dark week for the prime minister, with the departure of his longtime chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who had become a deeply divisive figure and who took the hit for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite his links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.But last Thursday morning had – for a change – been dominated by a different story. Top of the bulletins were comments from Jim Ratcliffe, the Monaco-based Manchester United owner, who said the UK had been “colonised by immigrants”, citing wildly inaccurate figures.The previous afternoon, when the comments were first broadcast, Starmer tweeted to proactively condemn them as “offensive and wrong”

UK ‘working with US’ to analyse impact of supreme court’s ruling against tariffs

Britain and the EU said they were assessing the implications of the US supreme court ruling against Donald Trump’s global tariffs, while business groups reacted to the court’s announcement with caution.A spokesperson for Downing Street said: “The UK government is working with the US to understand how the overturning of Donald Trump’s tariffs by the supreme court will affect the UK but expects our privileged trading position with the US to continue.”The UK was the first to strike a tariff deal with the US, with 10% tariffs on all imports from Britain, compared with a blanket 15% rate for the EU.The EU said it was analysing the ruling while continuing its drive to work towards reducing the tariffs the US imposed on European exports.The EU agreed the 15% tariff rate with the US at Trump’s Scottish golf course last July but 50% tariffs are still imposed on steel

Letter: Nigel de Gruchy obituary

The trade union leader Nigel de Gruchy may have exhibited “self-opinionated vanity”, but as a parent campaigner in the 1990s, I found him to be a principled man who was supportive of the Campaign for State Education (Case), which I represented with others.I once went to see him in the Covent Garden office to ask for money for Case to campaign against the 11-plus. He himself supported selection, I think, but he said it was union policy to oppose it, and we got the money.Another time, on a train journey he apologised for making a press call but said his members needed to know he was working in return for their membership fees. I also enjoyed his acerbic wit and being invited to enjoy the Sancerre at the NASUWT Christmas drinks

Consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson falls into administration

The consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson has collapsed into administration, after a number of clients cut ties with the company over the former ambassador’s relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010, said on Friday that it had stopped trading and its staff in the UK were being made redundant.The London-based company employs about 100 people, the vast majority of whom are based in the UK. It also has employees in Berlin, Brussels, Doha and Singapore.Administrators at Interpath said Global Counsel had “no option” but to enter administration after a number of its clients cut ties with the business, despite its attempts to distance itself from Mandelson and its other co-founder, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser

Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin faced GB News complaint over colleague’s claim of ‘inappropriate comments’

Matt Goodwin, Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, was accused by a young woman working at GB News of making inappropriate comments which she viewed as sexually harassing, the Guardian can reveal.The junior staffer complained to HR last year alleging Goodwin had made inappropriate comments, one regarding her appearance, sources say. Goodwin, 44, volunteered an apology after the complaint had been raised.The woman is understood to have complained to the network’s HR department in 2025. She later left the network for unrelated reasons

Labour minister falsely linked journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network in emails to GCHQ

A Labour minister who claimed to be “surprised” and “furious” at a PR agency’s work to investigate journalists on his behalf had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda, the Guardian can reveal.Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was “living with” the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons’ team that the former adviser was “suspected of links to Russian intelligence”.The extraordinary disclosures are contained in emails that Simons and his chief of staff at Labour Together sent to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of the spy agency GCHQ, in 2024. A spokesperson for Simons, a Cabinet Office minister, said: “These claims are untrue