Ken Burley obituary

My friend Ken Burley, who has died aged 80, was a town planner with a public service ethos. A member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, he worked professionally in local authorities and voluntarily in numerous capacities.From 1974 to 2004 he worked for Doncaster metropolitan borough council, progressing from assistant chief planner for development plans and research to retire as head of planning services and acting head of strategic development. His work helped steer the borough through significant land use and social changes as the local economy pivoted from coal mining towards alternatives.Ken led the team that wrote the borough’s unitary development plan, creating strategic and local planning policies

Ministers scramble to avoid Labour rebellion on disability benefit cuts

Ministers are scrambling to avoid a damaging rebellion this summer when MPs vote on controversial cuts to disability benefit payments, even offering potential rebels the chance to miss the vote altogether.The government is due to hold a vote in June and dozens of Labour MPs are worried it will hurt their constituents and could cost them their seats.Possible solutions include allowing backbenchers to abstain – a major climbdown from earlier votes, when rebels were disciplined or suspended from the party. Ministers are also looking for ways to mitigate the cuts with extra spending on measures to tackle child poverty, including extra benefits payments for poorer parents of children under five.One Labour MP said: “When people abstained on the winter fuel vote, they were warned that it had been taken by the leadership as voting against the government

UK politics: Badenoch calls for broader review of equality and gender recognition laws – as it happened

Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has said she would support a broader review into equality and gender recognition laws in the wake of yesterday’s supreme court ruling.Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Cambridgeshire, PA Media report Badenoch said:Biological sex is real. A gender recognition certificate is there to show that someone is now transgender, but that doesn’t change their biology.So we need to make sure that the law is clear and the public bodies follow the law, not guidance from organisations that don’t understand it.Asked if she thought gender recognition law should be rewritten, Badenoch, who was minister with women and equalities as her portfolio from October 2022 to July 2024, said:I think that a review of equality acts, and the Gender Recognition Act is a good idea

Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe to sue Nigel Farage for defamation

Rupert Lowe, the former Reform MP who lost the whip in March, has announced he will be suing Nigel Farage and two other senior party figures for defamation after they accused him of bullying staff and making verbal threats.Lowe, who now sits as an independent, said he was suing Farage, the Reform leader, along with Lee Anderson, its chief whip, and Zia Yusuf, the party chair, for comments he said had “caused serious harm to my reputation”.The Great Yarmouth MP was suspended after Anderson and Yusuf issued a joint statement saying the party had “received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying” in Lowe’s offices, and had at least twice made threats of violence against Yusuf.Lowe has vehemently rejected all the allegations, arguing that he was targeted after he used a media interview to call for changes to Reform so it was centred less around Farage’s “messianic” leadership.Later in March the Metropolitan police said they were investigating the alleged threats, which the force said took place between December 2024 and February 2025

UK officials label trade documents ‘secret’ to shield from US eyes amid Trump tariff war

UK officials are tightening security when handling sensitive trade documents to prevent them from falling into US hands amid Donald Trump’s tariff war, the Guardian can reveal.In an indication of the strains on the “special relationship”, British civil servants have changed document-handling guidance, adding higher classifications to some trade negotiation documents in order to better shield them from American eyes, sources told the Guardian.The White House has upended global financial markets and torn up key relationships, with unpredictable and rapidly changing taxes on trading partners including China, the EU and the UK.Officials were told that the change in protocols was specifically related to tensions over important issues on trade and foreign policy between Washington and London, sources said.Keir Starmer has prioritised striking a trade deal with Washington, opting not to retaliate over Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on goods exported to the US, and 25% tariffs on UK car and steel exports, instead offering concessions on areas including digital taxes and agriculture

Labour select committee chairs call for parliament to vote on trade deal with US

The Labour chairs of the foreign and trade committees have called for parliament to have a vote on any UK trade deal with the United States.Emily Thornberry, who chairs the foreign affairs committee, and Liam Byrne, who chairs the business and trade committee, said MPs should have a say on the deal ministers are hoping to strike with Donald Trump.The government is hopeful of finalising an agreement that would exempt the UK from some of Trump’s most punishing tariffs, including on cars and pharmaceuticals, after positive signals from Washington.Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Wednesday said the US would be announcing its first deals “very soon” and the vice-president, JD Vance, said this week there was a “good chance” of the US agreeing one with the UK.But ministers have offered controversial concessions, including slashing the digital services tax on US tech giants and reviewing the enforcement of online safety laws, as part of their negotiations