String of UK peers accepted free trips to authoritarian Azerbaijan

In years gone by, the two members of the House of Lords had been political enemies, running the headquarters of rival parties during hotly contested general election battles. In October, however, they stood side by side to pay their respects to the former president of Azerbaijan.A wreath laid at Heydar Aliyev’s grave in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, bore three names: Iain McNicol, Labour’s former general secretary, Darren Mott, the former chief executive of the Conservatives, and Tahir Gözel, a prominent local businessman who had paid for the peers’ visit.Lord McNicol and Lord Mott are identified in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as the most recent in a line of peers to have taken free trips to Azerbaijan, giving support to the government of President Ilham Aliyev.Aliyev has held power since 2003, having taken over from his father who governed the country under the Soviets and was first elected in 1993 after a military coup

High profile, high risk: could Mandelson help tame Donald Trump?

For some months, Lord Mandelson had been going round London suggesting he had no desire to be appointed to the role of Washington ambassador, saying he would rather not become a hotel manager so late in his career.His feigned lack of interest in shepherding a succession of middle-rank ministers through the British embassy, a 96-year-old recently restored Lutyens building, is typical of the smoke and mirrors that has surrounded his potential appointment.At another point, it was suggested that the appointment of Mandelson was being blocked by the foreign secretary, David Lammy, who feared one of the key roles in his job – guiding the special relationship through a second Trump term – would effectively be snatched from him by the publicity-attracting former minister.Lammy had already lost responsibility for EU negotiations and had to swallow the appointment of one Blairite, Jonathan Powell, as national security adviser, so tolerating a third reduction to his portfolio might be too much.In the end, if Lammy ever harboured such doubts – and the evidence is thin – he was big enough to see the virtue in the appointment of the first political ambassador to Washington in 50 years

Warning of no early reform of special educational needs in England amid new inquiry

Parents frustrated by the multiple failings of England’s special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system have been warned it is not realistic to expect reform to happen quickly, as MPs announced another inquiry into the crisis.MPs on the cross-party education committee in Westminster say the latest inquiry will seek to find practical solutions rather than just point out problems. The report from the previous one, which went on for 18 months, was published in 2019.Labour MP Helen Hayes, who chairs the latest iteration of the committee, said they were aware this was “probably the deepest crisis” in the whole of the education and children’s services sector.“We know that there has been a great deal of analysis of the issue,” she said

Peter Mandelson to be announced as UK’s next US ambassador

Peter Mandelson is set to become Britain’s next ambassador to the US, the first time a politician has been appointed to the role for almost half a century.Keir Starmer is about to announce that Lord Mandelson, a former Labour minister and European commissioner for trade, has been given the role. The Guardian understands he will take over as Donald Trump begins his second term as president.The news comes as the UK prepares for challenging changes in trade relations with the US under the president-elect. The prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeeny, travelled to Washington for talks with Trump’s incoming White House team earlier this month

Liaison committee day. This was Keir Time. He’d dreamed of it for most of his life | John Crace

An appearance before the liaison committee – the supergroup of select committee chairs – is usually something that strikes fear into any prime minister. Sleepless nights. Panic attacks. Boris Johnson was so phobic that he frequently binned his invitations to show up. Not that it did much good

Starmer claims he cannot think of anything he should have done differently in first months as PM – as it happened

In his final answer to Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the liasion committee, Keir Starmer claimed that he could not think of anything he should have done differently in his first months as PM.Hillier asked him about lessons he had learned since he had become PM, and if he would have done anything differently. Starmer devoted his answer to criticising the inheritance he was left. (See 4.19pm