A defence of Labour was overdue, but Keir Starmer needs to listen to his opponents | Letters

Yes, Polly Toynbee, the Labour government has managed some worthwhile achievements, but its route to those achievements has been convoluted to the point of obtuseness (Let me tell you the good things the government has done in 2025 – because it certainly won’t, 22 December). Keir Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin has noted that Starmer is an iterative problem solver who gets the right solution, eventually.There are three problems with this approach; most importantly, when his starting point is too distant from the right solution he wastes time that could be better put to increase the number of successful achievements; second, he ends up looking weak to parliamentary opposition and the electorate because he’s reversed his position so often; and lastly, he causes anger, frustration and resentment within his own party.In short, Starmer should listen seriously to his opponents in his own party. When his initial instinct is to instead suppress opposition, it is no wonder that it takes him so long to work out when he is in the wrong

Trade unions leader calls on Labour to forge closer relationship with Europe

Keir Starmer should seek out a far closer relationship with Europe, including a possible customs union, the head of the TUC has said.Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, said the British public recognised the need for a vastly improved trading arrangement and said it had become more urgent than ever because of the fickle nature of the relationship with Donald Trump’s United States.In an interview with the Guardian, Nowak said Starmer must relentlessly focus on the cost of living to improve Labour’s standing in the polls, saying it was little surprise there was leadership chatter when the party was doing so badly.But he warned would-be challengers they would “not be thanked” by the public for distracting the government from its core focus on the economy.He also cautioned Starmer and the home secretary Shabana Mahmood not to be “Nigel Farage-lite” when it came to the migration crackdown, saying trade unions were worried about reforms to indefinite leave to remain

UK ministers urged to cap political donations to ‘rebuild voter confidence’

Ministers should legislate to cap political donations to “rebuild voter confidence” in democracy, campaigners have said before the introduction of a landmark elections bill.The government is being urged to show more ambition as it prepares to publish legislation early next year that will extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds.In a letter sent this week to Steve Reed, the communities secretary, and Samantha Dixon, the democracy minister, 19 civil organisations said “a donations cap is the best way to protect our democracy and to rebuild voter confidence in the system”.Its signatories include the Electoral Reform Society, Transparency International UK, Hope not Hate and the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition.The call comes weeks after Nigel Farage’s Reform UK declared it had received £9m from the Thailand-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, the largest donation made by a living person to a British political party

Outdated furniture fire safety rules putting people at risk, MP warns

The UK is still using extremely outdated furniture fire safety rules, putting people at risk from toxic materials, an MP has warned.Bob Blackman, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on fire safety, said the government has failed to update rules that date back to 1988, leaving millions of households exposed to materials that exacerbate the release of dangerous fumes when they burn.“We have been lobbying ministers for years, yet there is still no clear plan to modernise these standards,” Blackman said.A number of chemical groups are used in upholstered furniture – mostly as flame retardants applied to foams, fabrics and backing materials to help furniture meet the UK’s stringent ignition tests. Many of these substances have been linked to toxicity, persistence in the environment and health concerns, with the use of several restricted over time

Farage criticised for £400,000 job promoting physical gold as pension investment

Nigel Farage has been criticised over his £400,000-a-year second job promoting the idea that people should buy physical gold and put it into their pension pots.Farage is paid more than four times his MPs’ salary for the four-hour-a-month job at Direct Bullion, where he has featured in Facebook and YouTube videos.These include reels where Farage explains “how you can protect and grow your wealth with tax-efficient gold” by putting it into self-invested personal pensions.However, not all of the Reform UK leader’s videos include disclaimers that the value of gold can go down as well as up, or that his comments should not be considered investment advice. He also does not mention storage costs or flag that gold does not bring in a regular income in interest or dividends

UK politics: Government says it is ‘fully committed to free speech’ after campaigners’ US visa ban – as it happened

Good morning. Christmas is the time of peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. But there is not much sign of that in US/UK relations this morning, where the Trump administration has just sanctioned two Britons, among others, for supposedly trying to suppress free speech in the US, and that has led to the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey engaging in a Twitter spat with a senior figure in the US state department.Let’s start with the sanctions. Yesterday Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued this statement saying:The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose