Mahmood guidelines out being candidate for deputy Labour chief
Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, has instructed Sky Information she “won’t be operating for deputy chief of the Labour celebration”.
That’s no nice shock, on condition that she has simply taken on arguably essentially the most demanding job within the cupboard, however it does imply journalists and take away her identify from the runners and riders lists.
Mahmood was talking in a brief interview about small posts. I’ll publish these feedback shortly.
Key occasions
Mahmood says nations which do not assist with small boat returns may face lower in variety of visas issued
In a pooled interview with Sam Coates from Sky Information, Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, provided some clues to her method to coping with the small boats drawback. Listed here are the details.
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She praised the “very sturdy” coverage basis left by her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, however she mentioned that she needed to go “additional and sooner” and that she would would do “no matter it takes” to safe the borders. She mentioned:
I shall be seeking to go additional and sooner as a result of I’m very clear I’ve one prime precedence on this job and that’s to safe the borders. I’ll do no matter it takes.
Mahmood additionally mentioned that individuals who had already labored along with her in authorities knew she was “not the kind of person who hangs round”. (That could be a clue as to why Mahmood bought the job; No 10 reportedly felt Cooper was too sluggish at taking and implementing selections.)
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Mahmood advised that nations that refuse to take again refused asylum seekers from the UK may face a lower within the variety of visas issued to their residents. And she or he mentioned on the 5 Eyes assembly at present (see 9.35am) she had been discussing how the UK may coordinate motion on this entrance with its companions (the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). She mentioned:
I’ve been speaking to our 5 Eyes companions about what extra we are able to do to work collectively to guarantee that our borders are safe and that our residents really feel secure.
We expect that there’s fascinating house for collaboration, significantly on how we cope with nations who don’t take their residents again, ensuring that we’re in a position to return out of our nations individuals who don’t have any proper to be in our nations and ship them again to their dwelling nations.
So, for nations that don’t play ball, we’ve been speaking about how we are able to take rather more coordinated motion between the 5 Eyes nations. For us, which means together with presumably the reducing of visas sooner or later.
Mahmood guidelines out being candidate for deputy Labour chief
Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, has instructed Sky Information she “won’t be operating for deputy chief of the Labour celebration”.
That’s no nice shock, on condition that she has simply taken on arguably essentially the most demanding job within the cupboard, however it does imply journalists and take away her identify from the runners and riders lists.
Mahmood was talking in a brief interview about small posts. I’ll publish these feedback shortly.
TUC chief Paul Nowak says Labour has not but made ‘change’ it promised a ‘lived actuality’ for folks
Paul Nowak, the TUC common secretary, additionally used his speech to the convention to induce the federal government to be bolder. Folks didn’t really feel it was delivering change, he mentioned.
Final July the federal government was elected on a manifesto that promised change. However we have now to be trustworthy; for too many individuals, change nonetheless looks like a slogan – not a lived actuality. That can’t proceed.
Nowak urged the federal government to point out that it was on the facet of working folks.
My message to the federal government is solely this – ship the manifesto on which you gained an enormous majority final July. Ship good jobs, respectable public companies and higher residing requirements in each nook of the nation. Ship the change folks voted for and present working-class communities whose facet you might be on.
He additionally known as for the two-child profit cap to be lifted, in addition to a windfall tax on financial institution earnings and playing firms and new taxes on wealth.
If billionaires can afford fleets of personal yachts, day journeys into house, weddings that shut down Venice, they will pay a bit extra tax.
And make it clear – a Labour authorities won’t ever stand apart and watch a baby’s potential be wasted due to poverty. Elevate the two-child cap and provides our children the longer term they deserve.
TUC chief describes Reform UK as ‘rightwing conmen’, and condemns ‘interior ugliness’ of ‘xenophobe’ Robert Jenrick
Paul Nowak, the TUC common secretary, used his speech to convention this morning to say that the TUC anticipated the federal government to ship its staff’ rights invoice “in full”. He mentioned employment rights have been “overwhelmingly in style with voters throughout the political spectrum”.
And he condemned Reform UK for its stance on employment rights. After saying that Nigel Farage claimed to characterize working class folks, he went on:
Right here’s the reality – there’s a world of distinction between what Nigel says and what Nigel does.
Each single Reform MP, together with Mr Farage, voted towards outlawing fireplace and rehire, towards banning zero hours contracts and towards day one rights for thousands and thousands of staff.
So right here’s my problem to Nigel Farage. Say you arise for working folks? Then ignore your rich backers and vote for that employment rights invoice.
Say you’re standing up for British business? Then cease supporting Donald Trump and his harmful tariffs.
And say you imagine within the NHS? Then look the British public within the eye and inform them why you assist a US-style non-public healthcare system.
Nigel Farage, it’s about time you got here clear about whose facet you’re actually on, as a result of right here’s the reality – you aren’t representing working folks, you might be promoting them out.
Addressing these contemplating voting Reform, Nowak mentioned he understood why they have been annoyed with mainstream politics. However he went on:
Ask your self this basic query. Do you imagine in your intestine that that Nigel Farage actually cares in regards to the folks of Clacton when he’s off accumulating his speaker’s charges in the US?
Do you imagine that Richard Tice actually worries in regards to the folks of Skegness whereas he’s residing it up at dwelling in Dubai, or are they only rightwing conmen lining their very own pockets?
(Tice doesn’t reside in Dubai, however his associate, the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, does, and he says he visits her there each few weeks.)
Nowak devoted rather more time in his speech to attacking Reform UK than he did to criticising the Conservatives. He mentioned that the Tory celebration “loses credibility with each single day” and he didn’t point out Kemi Badenoch, the celebration chief. However he did launch a robust assault on Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, who’s broadly seen as a probable substitute to Badenoch and who’s now advocating policies that are even more extreme than Farage’s. Nowak mentioned:
I simply need to say this. No quantity of TikToks, or ozempic, or costly haircuts, will ever cover the keen interior ugliness of Robert Jenrick.
The person who ordered murals painted over in a reception centre for youngsters looking for asylum is certainly a xenophobe, an opportunistic xenophobe hoping to create a political local weather that finally ends up with far proper of us laying siege to resorts and black and Asian folks being threatened and harassed on our streets.
Migration knowledgeable says there’s ‘rising proof of Brexit impact’ resulting in small boat arrival numbers going up
Other than the necessity to change Angela Rayner, it appears the important thing purpose of final week’s cupboard reshuffe was Keir Starmer’s want to interchange Yvette Cooper as dwelling secretary with Shabana Mahmood. Starmer reportedly thinks she is going to undertake a extra muscular method to addressing the small boats drawback.
With this in thoughts, the In the present day programme broadcast an interview early this morning with Peter Walsh, a senior researcher on the Migration Observatory, an Oxford College migration thinktank. When requested to elucidate why the small boat arrival numbers are at a file degree, Walsh mentioned Brexit was one issue. He defined:
If we have a look at the highly effective geopolitical push components, they’re issues like regime change. We expect Afghanistan, conflict, civil battle. And after we have a look at folks crossing in small boats, the place do they arrive from? Properly, the highest nationalities: Afghan, Eritrea, Iranian, Syrian, Sudanese – simply these 5 nationalities account for nearly two thirds of all small boat arrivals, and these people are from a few of the most chaotic components of the world.
However there are additionally some pull components, and the query is, why not declare asylum in France, why come to the UK? A lot of causes recur there after we converse with asylum seekers. It’s the presence of members of the family, the English language.
However there’s additionally rising proof of a Brexit impact. We converse with asylum seekers now, and infrequently they’ve claimed asylum within the EU nation, generally been refused, however they perceive that as a result of the UK is not part of the EU, and not celebration to the EU’s fingerprint database for asylum seekers, if they will get to the UK, they’ve one other chew of the cherry and one other probability to safe asylum standing and stay in Europe.
Walsh mentioned, that for folks like this, if the UK was nonetheless within the EU their possibilities of being granted asylum right here could be “a lot diminished”. He mentioned:
In these circumstances, usually, flagged upon the system, the UK authorities would have the ability to subject a speedy refuse refusal and attempt to impact elimination.
As it’s, folks arrive, we don’t have that file, so we don’t know who they’re.
And likewise, even when we have been [in that database], we wouldn’t have the ability to return them, as a result of we’re not celebration to that Dublin system that allowed for the switch of asylum seekers again to nations of first entry.
Daybreak Butler, who like Richard Burgon (see 8.52am) was additionally a candidate within the 2020 deputy management contest, has posted this on social media hinting she continues to be .
This is a crucial time for MPs to get collectively to debate who our subsequent Deputy Chief shall be. Sadly, there is a tube strike, and it is a very very brief deadline. We mustn’t ever be afraid of a good course of.
Pic – only a teaser 😉 pic.twitter.com/O5BoRUsCAh
— Daybreak Butler ✊🏾💙 (@DawnButlerBrent) September 8, 2025
Haigh assaults ‘unaccountable orthodoxy’ of OBR, as she says Labour not giving UK ‘full transformation’ it wants
Here’s a abstract of the details in Louise Haigh’s New Statesman article printed at present underneath the heading “The fiscal straighjacket dealing with Labour have to be damaged”. (See 8.52am.) Though Haigh features a line saying Labour must be “shouting from the rooftops” about its achievements, the article is usually a critique of Rachel Reeves’s fiscal orthodoxy, mixed with a common name for extra radicalism from the federal government.
Labour was elected in 2024 to rebuild Britain – to not regular the ship, however to remake it utterly.
That is an implicit criticism not simply of Keir Starmer’s file, however of his election technique too. Starmer promised “change”, however he additionally outlined change by way of financial stability, which he described as an enchancment on Tory chaos.
One 12 months on, our mission of renewal is underneath menace. Financial circumstances and extreme deference to unbiased establishments are irritating the democratic demand for change …
But the injury wasn’t simply monetary. It was institutional. The Conservatives embedded a mannequin of governance the place opaque watchdogs outrank democratic selection. Labour now runs the danger of exacerbating these points.
Many Labour members would agree. However this additionally echoes arguments deployed by Reform UK.
Initially created to offer an unbiased examine on financial forecasts and assist policymaking, [the OBR] has morphed right into a gatekeeper of orthodoxy. Its fashions usually underestimate the long-term returns of public funding and ignore the broader advantages of progressive taxation or public possession.
We now know that Positive Begin centres, for instance, delivered £2 of financial savings for each pound spent – but their closure underneath Osborne was by no means flagged as a fiscal danger. Nor does the OBR’s sustainability report warn that childhood poverty at present will imply increased prices tomorrow.
Worse, its forecasting cycle entrenches short-termism: two fiscal occasions a 12 months, judged towards a five-year horizon. We plan defence, housing, and local weather funding in a long time, but the watchdog seems solely 5 years forward. In my opinion, the OBR ought to publish supplementary long-term assessments so markets can see the true financial savings from social funding. With out that, governments are compelled into short-term fixes although the bond market itself takes an extended view.
Haigh advised a part of the explanation for the failure of the federal government’s Pip reforms was the lack of the OBR to make allowance for the proposed insurance policies producing financial savings over the long run. And she or he additionally criticised the accuracy of OBR forecasts (a grievance additionally made recurrently by the Tories).
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Haigh mentioned the OBR ought to revise its development forecasts solely every year, not twice a 12 months as it’s required to do now underneath regulation handed by the Tories. She mentioned this might “give ministers the house to design critical, long-term reforms – not scramble for short-term fixes to satisfy arbitrary fiscal targets”. It’s thought that Starmer thinks this too. However the authorities has been nervous about altering the best way the OBR operates in case that will get interpreted as a weakening of fiscal self-discipline.
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Haigh criticised the “quantitive tightening” coverage being adopted by the Financial institution of England. She mentioned this was a results of the best way George Osborne launched quantitive easing when he was chancellor. The IPPR, a leftwing thinktank, has made the same argument.
It’s past comprehension that we have now not already reformed our method to the cost of curiosity on reserves held within the Financial institution of England reserves. Business banks are incomes near-Financial institution Fee on a whole bunch of billions in deposits costing the taxpayer roughly £40bn a 12 months.
It is a view shared by numerous economists, and Reform UK has been making this argument for no less than a 12 months. Richard Tice, the celebration’s deputy chief, is because of focus on the problem with the Financial institution’s governor, Andrew Bailey, at a meeting soon.
Zack Polanski, the brand new, leftwing chief of the Inexperienced celebration, shall be talking on the TUC convention, later at present, Sky Information studies.
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Ian Murray, the previous Scotland secretary unceremoniously sacked by Keir Starmer on Friday, is again in authorities after an obvious revolt by his Scottish Labour allies and backbench MPs.
Murray, mentioned to be “livid” about his sacking, was unexpectedly made a junior minister in each the Division for Tradition, Media and Sport and the Division for Science, Innovation and Know-how on Saturday evening, as Starmer’s reshuffle continued.
On Sunday, Douglas Alexander, his substitute within the Scotland Workplace, spoke to Murray’s reputation in an interview with BBC Scotland when he was requested about his colleague’s sacking.
He nodded at Murray’s survival because the Labour’s solely Scottish MP following the rout within the 2015 common election by the hands of the Scottish Nationwide celebration – when Alexander misplaced his earlier seat of Paisley and Renfrewshire South. He mentioned:
I’m considerably biased. He’s each a buddy in addition to a colleague. I’ve campaigned with him, for him, and we owe him, because the Labour motion in Scotland, an immense debt of gratitude. In 2015, within the fast aftermath after the referendum, he actually saved the flag flying for Scottish Labour within the actually powerful instances. He confirmed extraordinary resilience in addition to talents, and in that sense I’m delighted that he’s again in authorities.
Alexander confirmed he could be taking part in a senior function in Scottish Labour’s marketing campaign to oust the SNP from energy in subsequent Might’s Holyrood election as a deputy marketing campaign chair alongside Jackie Baillie, the Scottish celebration’s deputy chief.
It’s broadly thought Alexander was introduced in to assist rescue the celebration: current opinion polls present its assist is plummeting, with Reform UK almost degree, very largely as a consequence of Labour’s unpopularity at UK degree.
Alexander instructed the Sunday Present on BBC Scotland his job was to assist defeat the SNP.
Our accountability within the coming months is to do what we did simply a few weeks in the past in Barrhead [winning a council byelection], do what we did a few months in the past in Hamilton [winning a Holyrood byelection], which is to take our case to the Scottish public after which disprove the critics and the cynics.
Challenged in regards to the polls suggesting the SNP only some seats in need of profitable an total majority at Holyrood in Might, which the SNP argues could be a mandate for a second referendum, Alexander mentioned:
To proceed the sooner soccer analogy, I’m probably not going to have interaction in post-match evaluation when the sport hasn’t even begun, by no means thoughts completed.
I’m probably not thinking about anticipating our defeat as Scottish Labour. I’m far more thinking about contributing to Scottish Labour’s victory. And that’s what each one among my colleagues as Scottish representatives at Westminster for the Labour celebration, and certainly my buddies and colleagues in Holyrood are decided to ship between now and Might.
New dwelling secretary Shabana Mahmood chairs assembly of 5 Eyes safety alliance
Shabana Mahmood has met counterparts from the 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance for talks on worldwide efforts to sort out smuggling gangs, PA Media studies. PA says:
In her first main engagement as dwelling secretary,Mahmood hosted counterparts from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand in London after the variety of small boat crossings reached greater than 30,000 in 2025.
Ministers are inspecting utilizing army bases to deal with asylum seekers in “momentary however enough” lodging as Sir Keir Starmer tries to get a grip on the migrants disaster.
Some 1,097 folks arrived within the UK in 17 boats on Saturday, bringing the full in 2025 thus far to 30,100 – a file for this level in a 12 months.
The determine is 37% up on this level final 12 months (22,028) and likewise 37% increased than at this stage in 2023 (21,918), in response to PA information company evaluation.
Mahmood mentioned the numbers have been “totally unacceptable” and that she anticipated migrant returns underneath a deal agreed final month with France to start “imminently”.
Forward of Monday’s assembly, she mentioned the 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing pact would “agree new measures to guard our border, hitting folks smugglers onerous”.
She was joined on the talks by US secretary of homeland safety Kristi Noem, Canadian public security minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australian dwelling affairs minister Tony Burke and New Zealand minister Judith Collins.
The group was additionally discussing new measures to sort out baby sexual abuse on-line and the unfold of lethal artificial opioids.
{Photograph}: Kin Cheung/AP
Labour should enhance staff’ rights to fulfil promise to voters, says Unite’s Sharon Graham
Unite’s common secretary, Sharon Graham, has issued a warning to the federal government, saying it ought to enact full reforms of staff’ rights with the intention to fulfil a “promise to the British folks”, Jessica Elgot studies.
Labour’s new deputy chief must be a lady, not from London, and never ‘oppositional’, Harriet Harman says
Harriet Harman, who served as deputy Labour chief underneath Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband (though Brown by no means made her deputy PM), has mentioned the celebration shouldn’t let the deputy management contest grow to be a debate in regards to the case for a “new route”. She was talking in an interview on the In the present day programme. Listed here are are details.
An election for the deputy management when Labour is in authorities, simply shortly after our first 12 months of presidency, could be very completely different than a deputy management election once you’re attempting to set out a brand new route for the celebration, rebuild the celebration after an election defeat.
And what I feel we want is … any individual who will not be a counterpoint to the chief, however is complementary to the chief, will broaden the attain of the chief and galvanise the celebration …
The function of the deputy chief is to not present an alternate, oppositional voice. It’s to be a part of a group. The clue is within the identify.
I feel that, by way of extending the breadth of the management, it in all probability must be any individual from outdoors London, and it positively must be a lady. However there are 185 Labour girls MPs, many very proficient …
With a first-rate minister and a deputy prime minister representing London constituencies, the celebration may properly suppose that the extending of the attain that the deputy gives must be any individual from outdoors London, however positively a lady. I don’t suppose we are able to have a male prime minister, a person as deputy prime minister and a male deputy chief of the celebration.
If Labour MPs agree with Harman, they usually desire a deputy chief loyal to Keir Starmer, then Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, Bridget Phillipson, the schooling secretary, and Lisa Nandy, the tradition secretary, would all match the invoice. However they’ve all bought fairly vital jobs already, and so is probably not .
Non-cabinet ministers who would meet the Harmen standards embody Jess Phillips and Alison McGovern.
Labour accused of ‘stitch-up’ over deputy management contest, as Louise Haigh joins debate with name for ‘financial reset’
Good morning. The Labour celebration has had 18 deputy leaders in its history, however solely two of them have additionally served as deputy PM and a type of, Angela Rayner, resigned final week. Within the reshuffle that began on Friday, Keir Starmer in impact decoupled these posts, appointing David Lammy as deputy PM (in addition to justice secretary). Labour mentioned there could be an election for a brand new deputy chief to interchange Rayner and at present the timetable for that election shall be set. There isn’t any assure that the winner will also have a job in authorities.
Elections are, by definition, divisive, and the simplest possibility for Keir Starmer could be for Labour MPs to coalesce behind one consensus candidate. Below the foundations, an MP wants the assist of 20% of the PLP (80 MPs) to be nominated and so it’s doable that this might occur. Anybody perceived as a “insurgent” candidate may battle to succeed in this threshold. Ministers, and cupboard ministers, are free to enter the competition. If Lammy have been to face, and win, he may re-unite the deputy PM and deputy chief jobs, however there’s a sturdy sense within the celebration that the deputy chief must be a lady, and may characterize a seat outdoors London, and Lammy doesn’t appear anyway. At this level there is no such thing as a apparent favorite, however Annabelle Dickson and Bethany Dawson have a very good information to potential candidates in their London Playbook for Politico.
Already, there’s a row about course of. Listed here are the important thing developments this morning.
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Deputy management candidates will solely have 4 days to gather the 80 MP nominations they want, it is being reported. Labour’s nationwide government committee will reportedly set 5pm on Thursday because the deadline for nominations, with the poll happening between 8 and 23 October – with the election over properly earlier than the funds, which is happening on 26 November.
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Richard Burgon, one of many main figures within the leftwing Socialist Marketing campaign group in parliament, and a candidate for deputy chief in 2020, has accused the celebration of a stitch-up. In a post on social media final evening, he mentioned:
I’ve been warning about makes an attempt to repair the deputy management election – and what I’ve heard is now being proposed is the mom of all stitch-ups. Simply a few days to safe MPs’ nominations!
It is a determined transfer to maintain Labour members’ voices out of this race and to dodge critical dialogue on what’s gone mistaken during the last 12 months – from the positions on incapacity advantages cuts, on winter gasoline funds, on Gaza and extra. This outrageous timetable exhibits a management that’s unwilling to pay attention and to study the teachings wanted if we’re to rebuild assist and cease Nigel Farage.
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Louise Haigh, the previous transport secretary and a possible candidate for the deputy management, has printed on the New Statesman’s website what quantities to a pitch for the job, demanding “an financial reset” and “a decisive break with the fiscal guidelines and institutional constraints that maintain again renewal”. It’s a critical intervention, and, by implication, a damning critique of Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. Right here is an extract.
There’s a democratic argument on the coronary heart of this as properly. A Labour authorities with a landslide majority in parliament can not – and shouldn’t – be stopped from delivering the change we clearly set out in our manifesto merely due to assumptions made by the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility]. If we let unelected establishments dictate the bounds of change, we betray the folks and communities who put their belief in us.
And if mainstream politics can’t ship correct renewal, populists like Nigel Farage will fill the void. Britain’s financial system is damaged not simply in outcomes however in structure. Until we rewrite the foundations, we danger managed decline dressed up as moderation.
I’m devastated by the departure of Angela Rayner final week, who persistently provided a problem to the institution orthodoxy. Her absence is an actual loss to these of us who need to see daring, radical pondering on the coronary heart of presidency. The reshuffle has been billed as a political reset, but when we’re critical about delivering on our priorities, it should provide greater than a change of personnel across the Cupboard desk. What the nation wants now could be an financial reset: a decisive break with the fiscal guidelines and institutional constraints that maintain again renewal. Solely then can Labour flip its democratic mandate into the transformation Britain so urgently wants.
Haigh would have issue profitable a deputy management contest, due to her resignation last year over a 10-year-old conviction referring to cell phone fraud, however a number of Labour members will in all probability agree with the argument in her New Statesman article. I’ll publish extra from it quickly.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Paul Nowak, TUC common secretary, speaks on the TUC convention in Brighton. The delegates are debating motions referring to the financial system and public companies within the morning, and staff’ rights within the afternoon.
11.30am: Downing Avenue holds a foyer briefing.
Midday: Labour’s nationwide government committee meets to determine the timetable for the deputy management election.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
3pm: Bridget Phillipson, the schooling secretary, speaks at an occasion to launch the youngsters’s plan.
6pm: Starmer speaks to Labour MPs at a non-public assembly of the parliamentary Labour celebration (PLP).
And sooner or later at present Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, is chairing a meeting the Five Eyes security alliance.
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