Two British MPs ‘denied entry’ into Israel during official West Bank visit

Two British MPs travelling as part of a parliamentary delegation to the occupied West Bank have said they were denied entry into Israel.Labour politicians Simon Opher and Peter Prinsley were travelling as part of a group that was due to meet British diplomats in Jerusalem this week, in addition to Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations.Opher’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that the purpose of the visit, organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding, was to “enable members of parliament to witness the vital medical and humanitarian work of a range of organisations including Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in the occupied West Bank.” It added: “It is deeply regrettable that Israeli authorities prevented them from seeing first-hand the grave challenges facing medical facilities in the region and from hearing the British government’s assessment of the situation on the ground.” Opher, the MP for Stroud and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for health, has returned to the UK from Jordan

New headache for Rachel Reeves as OBR expected to lower productivity forecast

The Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to downgrade its key productivity forecast, the Guardian understands, setting Rachel Reeves on course to break her fiscal rules without significant action in the budget.The government’s independent watchdog has carried out a “stocktake” of its forecast models over the summer, and Treasury officials privately acknowledge the result will inevitably be a weaker growth outlook.One Treasury source said they expected the OBR to “kitchen sink it” – making a significant downward revision to productivity forecasts in one go rather than taking a more piecemeal approach.Reeves will respond by pointing to the long-term weakness of productivity in the UK economy and promising to tackle it with a programme of investment.The consultancy Oxford Economics, however, estimates that moving the OBR’s productivity forecast back in line with the less optimistic independent average projection would knock 1

MPs give Foreign Office fall guy a mauling over Mandelson | John Crace

Just what has Stephen Doughty done to upset Keir Starmer? Are there no limits to the prime minister’s contempt and hatred? Not that Steve is a total nobody. He’s not a run-of-the-mill backbencher. But he has risen as high as he is likely to go as a junior minister in the Foreign Office. Probably higher than Steve ever expected. Certainly higher than his mates expected

Mandelson not given in-depth vetting before appointment, says Foreign Office

Peter Mandelson was not subject to in-depth security vetting prior to his appointment as ambassador to Washington, the government has said.The Cabinet Office conducted a due diligence process on Mandelson before he was chosen for the role but this was not a security check, the Foreign Office said in a letter to MPs.Mandelson went through the ambassadorial appointment process, including in-depth national security vetting, only after his appointment had been announced to the public.The disclosure, made by the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the department’s top official, Oliver Robbins, raises further questions about the lack of rigour involved in Mandelson’s appointment to the top diplomatic post earlier this year.Cooper and Robbins were responding to a set of written questions from the foreign affairs select committee

Starmer urged to apologise to Epstein victims over Mandelson appointment — as it happened

Davey says MPs should consider the victims of Epstein.He asks what they would have felt about Donald Trump, a close friend of Epstein, becoming president of the US.Referring to his decision to boycott the Trump state banquet, he says even if he had gone he would not have had a chance to speak to Trump about this.But Keir Starmer will get the chance. Davey says Starmer should ask Trump about his relationship with Epstein

We must tackle rising tide of racism and homophobia claiming to be free speech, says Streeting

Wes Streeting has called it “laughable” that rising racism and homophobia is a sign of free speech in a strongly worded intervention suggesting Labour needed to step up its defence of minorities.The health secretary told the LGBT foundation on Monday he wanted to address “the elephant in the room” and said he understood why some were questioning “whether this government is really on our side”.He said the scenes of far-right protests over the weekend were “not the kind of country any of us want to live in”.He told an audience of healthcare workers: “Black and Asian members of our community have the added fear of an undercurrent, increasingly visible tide of racism in our country that cloaks itself in our country’s flag and laughably claims to be a champion of ‘free speech’.“Free speech, that is, unless that freedom includes the right to worship a different God, or the right to march through central London protesting atrocities in Gaza or the right just to walk down Oxford Street without being called the p-word, the n-word, or having your hijab ripped, ripped off