Would a new leader be the answer to Labour’s woes? | Letters

Zoe Williams’s conjecture that pragmatism might be the solution to Labour’s polling woes is surely a triumph of hope over experience. (There is no denying Labour is in crisis – but in a strange way, Keir Starmer is equipped to save it, 12 March). Disavowal of ideology in favour of pragmatism is the precise cause of the apparent aimlessness and inability to convey Labour’s mission that she describes, compounded by unforced policy errors, U-turns and poor judgment. Labour members may well be discussing whether Keir Starmer should be tacking more to the left, but the underlying question remains whether he is the right person to lead a party that needs, as she says, a complete step change in orientation in the new multiparty environment.Unlike Andy Burnham, for example, he has shown no interest in either proportional representation or cross-party collaboration to defeat the far right

Labour MPs have no reason to oppose new welfare reforms, says minister

Labour MPs have no reason to oppose a fresh government attempt to overhaul the welfare system, the work and pensions secretary has said, as he unveiled a £1bn youth employment scheme.The announcement by Pat McFadden, who said the public wanted the system to promote work and “value for money”, is regarded as a prelude to a renewed effort to change the welfare system after plans by his predecessor, Liz Kendall, were blocked by a Labour backbench rebellion last year.Companies will get a £3,000 grant for each hire of a person aged 18 to 24 who is on benefits and has been looking for a job for at least six months, under a new policy designed to tackle the rising rate of youth unemployment.The funding, which is aimed at creating 200,000 jobs, is part of what was described by McFadden as a “new deal for young people”.It was announced alongside a new apprenticeship incentive, under which small and medium-sized businesses will be paid £2,000 for every new employee aged between 16 and 24 they take on

UK not obliged to support every demand of ‘transactional’ US president, minister says

Donald Trump is a “very transactional” president, whose repeated demands on Iran must be seen in this context, one of Keir Starmer’s most senior ministers has said in an unusually blunt UK assessment of relations between the countries.Asked about the US president’s threats of some sort of retaliation against allies who do not supply ships to try to free up the strait of Hormuz, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, said the UK was not obliged to agree to every US request.After Trump again criticised the UK for a perceived lack of enthusiasm in helping the US-Israeli war against Iran, McFadden said it was important to separate the US president’s “rhetoric” from the more important issues.In an overnight interview with the Financial Times, Trump reiterated his frustration at the UK for not sending ships to the strait of Hormuz, the vital sea freight passage that has been all but closed by Iranian retaliatory attacks.“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said

UK complicit in desecration of international law in Gaza, says Corbyn-led tribunal

The Labour government has been complicit in crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and in the desecration of international law, according to an unoffical tribunal on Gaza chaired by the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn and two specialists in international law.The tribunal’s findings to be published on Monday are likely to be cited in May’s local elections, in which Labour faces a rearguard action to beat off challenges from the Greens and Your Party, in part driven by anger that the government has not done enough to back the Palestinian cause.The tribunal took evidence from lawyers, medical professionals, former Foreign Office officials and Palestinians, and focused largely on whether the UK should have done more to end its cooperation with Israel to avoid being accused of failing to meet its duty to prevent a genocide.It finds that the government should have ended all arms exports to Israel, stopped sharing intelligence and reviewed its trade relations with the country, especially after the international court of justice (ICJ) said in a July 2024 advisory opinion that Israel was occupying Palestine unlawfully.The tribunal’s report reads: “Britain’s failure to meet its legal obligations has contributed to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians and the wholesale destruction of civilian objects, the desecration of international law and the further erosion of Britain’s status as a nation committed to the rule of law in the international arena

Phil Woolas obituary

The former Labour minister Phil Woolas, who has died aged 66 of brain cancer, was a clever and committed politician. He dedicated his working life to Labour politics in an attempt to secure the sort of changes in society that would be of widespread and universal benefit. To this end he believed his best achievement during his 13 years in parliament, which coincided exactly with the lifetime of the last Labour period of government, was as a member of the team that introduced a national minimum wage in the UK.He was not an idealist, but a tough-talking, hard-headed pragmatist who wanted to smash the idea that politicians were out of touch with the reality of most people’s everyday lives. As someone who was raised in Burnley and became the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth – both areas of Lancashire that have seen considerable levels of postwar immigration – he regarded the need for what he called a “mature debate” about immigration policy, in particular, as his lifelong purpose

Row over university fees shows UK’s ‘reset’ with EU may not be so simple

This week is “Brexit reset” week for the British government, as ministers engage in a flurry of activity intended to highlight their determination to forge closer ties with Brussels almost 10 years after the country first voted to leave the EU.On Monday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of negotiating the government’s reset with the EU, will arrive in Brussels for a meeting of the joint EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly. He travels mob-handed, to be joined by the Europe minister, Stephen Doughty, and the trade minister, Chris Bryant.A day later, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will give her second Mais lecture to the finance industry, during which she will argue that closer alignment with the EU forms a central part of the government’s growth agenda.But even as ministers put the finishing touches to their pro-European messages, a fresh row is breaking out over Brussels’s demand for lower university tuition fees for European students