Sadiq Khan urges Labour to campaign on rejoining EU at next election

Labour should go into the next general election promising to rejoin the EU, Sadiq Khan has said.The mayor of London has repeatedly made the case for joining the customs union and single market, but went much further on Wednesday night by suggesting the party should promise full membership at next ballot.“We should, as a Labour party, fight the next general election with a clear manifesto commitment, a vote for Labour means we would rejoin the European Union. I think it’s inevitable,” he told the Italian publication La Repubblica.Khan cited the time that had passed since the referendum and the economic instability caused by Donald Trump since Labour was elected in July 2024 as reasons why it would be desirable

Angela Rayner’s allies say HMRC inquiry set to be resolved before May elections

For months there has been an apparently insurmountable obstacle to Angela Rayner going for the Labour leadership, should Keir Starmer find himself facing a contest.The investigation by HMRC into the former deputy prime minister’s tax affairs has hung heavily over her since she was forced to resign last September over underpayment of stamp duty on her seaside flat.But now Rayner’s allies are increasingly confident that the inquiry will be resolved before the May local elections – a moment of high peril for the prime minister – paving her way for a full return to frontline politics.The Guardian understands that outstanding legal issues over the tax investigation are being ironed out by lawyers and the HMRC process is now approaching its conclusion.Rayner is also on course to make about £100,000 from speaking engagements since she left government and her memoir, meaning she has earned enough to pay off her outstanding tax bill

Starmer plans to ease impact of immigration policy changes after backlash from Labour MPs

Keir Starmer is hoping to soften the impact of his government’s changes to the immigration system after a backlash from Labour MPs and a dramatic intervention from his former deputy Angela Rayner.The prime minister is considering exempting large numbers of people from the proposed changes, which would make it harder to achieve settled status in the UK, as he attempts to keep his restive party onboard.Under the plans, most people would have to wait 10 years to qualify for settled status, rather than the existing five-year period. But proposals included in a government consultation could involve migrants working in the public sector excluded from the changes, as well as those who are on the verge of being settled.Ministers are now debating how far they want to extend those exemptions but Downing Street said on Wednesday they would not cover everyone who had already arrived in the country, as demanded by Rayner and others

Gerry Adams tells high court he was stunned by 1996 Docklands bombing

Gerry Adams has told the high court he was stunned by the 1996 Docklands bombing as he denied being at the nerve centre of the IRA’s operations.The former Sinn Féin leader also denied having any prior knowledge of the bombing of the commercial district of east London, which shattered a 17-month-old ceasefire.Adams, 77, is accused in the civil trial of being a member of the IRA, having sat on its army council and being culpable for the Docklands bombing, the Manchester bombing in the same year and the 1973 bombing of the Old Bailey in central London.On Adams’s second day on the witness stand, Max Hill KC, acting for men who were injured in the three bombings, suggested to the defendant that he had been behind the Docklands bombing as a way to bolster Sinn Féin’s political strategy.“You shared the frustrations you described others holding and the need, in light of those frustrations, to perpetuate the armed struggle to bring the British government to the table,” he said

Reeves speech had a giant hole: the sky-high cost of energy for industry | Nils Pratley

We’ll have closer trade relations with the EU, be the fastest adopters of AI in the G7, shift some tax revenues to the regions and squash the nimbys if they stand in the way of growth “corridors”. It’s a plan. Or, at least, it’s a sketch of a plan since the EU will surely have its own ideas on what it wants from trade renegotiations. Still, Rachel Reeves’ big resetting speech this week set a direction.But then one comes to the elephant in the room: the sky-high cost of energy for UK industry

Memory loss strikes down Starmer and Badenoch at an infuriating PMQs | John Crace

There’s something weird going on in Westminster. A mutant pathogen in the water maybe. Whatever it is, Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch appear to have been struck down by it.Both have had parts of their memory wiped. At times they now sound like the living dead