Opening summaryGood morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of UK politics. My name is Tom Ambrose.Keir Starmer visits Wales to highlight Labour’s plans to make Britain an “energy superpower” and to address what he termed the “incoherent energy policy” his party inherited from the Tories. The prime minister and new first minister, Eluned Morgan, will travel to a site in West Wales today as part of their first official visit together.The pair, who held talks on Monday in Cardiff, are expected to pledge to work closely on realising the benefits of a publicly owned energy company. The Welsh government previously launched Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru while the UK government is developing Great British Energy with £8.3bn of funding over the next five years.Starmer said before the visit:
We have inherited an incoherent energy policy that has left homes up and down the country vulnerable to rocketing energy bills.
Last month, he said it will “take time” to reap the benefits of clean power initiatives but stood by a claim that the UK government’s plans will eventually drive down household bills by £300-a-year.Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho previously said the public have been “sold a lie” by Labour that their energy bills will drop by that amount.In other news:
The Labour government will invest “unprecedented levels of funding” in cycling and walking as a critical part of plans to improve health and inequality, the new secretary for transport has said. A national network of safe cycle routes could cut GP appointments “by hundreds of thousands, if not millions a year”, Louise Haigh said.
Ministers have launched a pension credit publicity campaign to minimise the impact of the government’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments. The government hopes its pension credit awareness drive will help identify households not claiming the benefit and encourage pensioners to apply by 21 December, which is the last date this year for people to make a backdated claim for pension credit in order to receive the winter fuel payment.
A former Conservative minister has called for an end to the demonisation of train drivers and said he understood why the new Labour government had “decided to cut a deal” with unions. Huw Merriman, who served as the rail minister for the entirety of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, apologised for failing to bring in workplace reforms and his inability to reach an agreement to end the strikes.
Ministers have approved London City airport’s application to expand, in a decision that has disappointed climate campaigners. The airport submitted a proposal to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights. Local campaigners and Newham council opposed the move, arguing the air and noise pollution would affect people living nearby and that it could potentially increase carbon emissions.
ShareKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureScotland’s external affairs secretary said he has not considered resigning his position after significant criticism over his meeting with an Israeli diplomat, PA reported.Angus Robertson told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland (GMS) programme that he believed it was “right” to communicate the Scottish government’s opposition to the conflict in Gaza.The senior minister apologised on Monday for meeting with Israel’s deputy ambassador Daniela Grudsky two weeks ago, with Robertson admitting the meeting should have been limited to calling for an immediate ceasefire. However, he said issues which did not relate to the war were raised by Grudsky, including energy, tourism and economic cooperation.
He told the radio programme: That meeting was not an appropriate space or time for that meeting to take place.
Robertson has faced criticism from within his own Holyrood party, with veteran MSP Christine Grahame describing his position as a “liability”.Meanwhile, SNP MP Ruth Maguire told the Herald on Monday she shared the “anger” felt by party members in relation to the meeting.Robertson was asked if he had considered his position in the cabinet after the backlash. He told GMS:
No, I haven’t because I think it was right to communicate the message that we did. But I have reflected very strongly on the impact that it has created and the impression that was created, which is why I issued the apology yesterday.
I most certainly did not want to create an impression that there was a normalisation of relations between the Scottish government and the Israeli government when there is not.
The Scottish government has suspended any further meetings with the Israeli government until peace progress has been made in the conflict with Hamas.ShareThe Liberal Democrats have been fined a total of £3,600 by election authorities for 22 offences linked to the late reporting of donations.The Electoral Commission said the five fines were paid by 2 August.Meanwhile, the Richmond Park Constituency Labour party in south-west London was fined £1,000, which it paid on 26 July.The Electoral Commission probed the local party’s “failure to deliver its 2022 statement of accounts by the deadline”, and found one offence.Jackie Killeen, electoral administration and regulation director at the watchdog, said in a statement: “The laws we enforce are there to ensure there is transparency over the money spent and received by political parties, and to increase public confidence in our system.“It’s important that parties comply with the requirements, and report to us in a timely fashion.”ShareWelsh secretary Jo Stevens said Keir Starmer’s visit to an onshore windfarm in Carmarthenshire on Tuesday is an example of an energy project that will save local residents money on their bills.She told GB News:
We haven’t had a ban on onshore wind in Wales, where there had been in England under the previous Conservative government.
We have lifted the ban in England, and today’s visit is about showing how two Labour governments – one in Wales, one in Westminster – can work together to deliver that energy security, to bring down bills and to create new jobs through green energy.
She said the government will focus on “all types of renewable energy” and projects like those in Wales where local communities that host infrastructure are directly rewarded, adding:
So they will get an additional discount on their bills as a result of hosting the infrastructure that is helping to deliver renewable energy, clean power by 2030 across the United Kingdom.
What the project that the prime minister and the first minister are seeing today in Carmarthenshire is exactly one of those projects where the local community are benefiting through discounts to their bills.
ShareOpening summaryGood morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of UK politics. My name is Tom Ambrose.Keir Starmer visits Wales to highlight Labour’s plans to make Britain an “energy superpower” and to address what he termed the “incoherent energy policy” his party inherited from the Tories. The prime minister and new first minister, Eluned Morgan, will travel to a site in West Wales today as part of their first official visit together.The pair, who held talks on Monday in Cardiff, are expected to pledge to work closely on realising the benefits of a publicly owned energy company. The Welsh government previously launched Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru while the UK government is developing Great British Energy with £8.3bn of funding over the next five years.Starmer said before the visit:
We have inherited an incoherent energy policy that has left homes up and down the country vulnerable to rocketing energy bills.
Last month, he said it will “take time” to reap the benefits of clean power initiatives but stood by a claim that the UK government’s plans will eventually drive down household bills by £300-a-year.Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho previously said the public have been “sold a lie” by Labour that their energy bills will drop by that amount.In other news:
The Labour government will invest “unprecedented levels of funding” in cycling and walking as a critical part of plans to improve health and inequality, the new secretary for transport has said. A national network of safe cycle routes could cut GP appointments “by hundreds of thousands, if not millions a year”, Louise Haigh said.
Ministers have launched a pension credit publicity campaign to minimise the impact of the government’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments. The government hopes its pension credit awareness drive will help identify households not claiming the benefit and encourage pensioners to apply by 21 December, which is the last date this year for people to make a backdated claim for pension credit in order to receive the winter fuel payment.
A former Conservative minister has called for an end to the demonisation of train drivers and said he understood why the new Labour government had “decided to cut a deal” with unions. Huw Merriman, who served as the rail minister for the entirety of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, apologised for failing to bring in workplace reforms and his inability to reach an agreement to end the strikes.
Ministers have approved London City airport’s application to expand, in a decision that has disappointed climate campaigners. The airport submitted a proposal to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights. Local campaigners and Newham council opposed the move, arguing the air and noise pollution would affect people living nearby and that it could potentially increase carbon emissions.
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/aug/20/keir-starmer-wales-visit-great-british-energy-uk-politics-live
