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Far left to blame for Labour defeats, suggests Tony Blair
Boris Johnson has come under fire for failing to set out a detailed plan to reform social care in yesterday’s “thin” Queen’s speech.
Despite vowing to “fix the crisis once and for all” on the steps of Downing Street in 2019, the prime minister dedicated just nine words to resolving social care funding issues in his government’s priorities for the months ahead.
Charities said it was “questionable as to how much longer the sector can be expected to limp on” in the absence of a bill to put its funding on a secure footing.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the failure to act on social care amid the Covid-19 pandemic was “nothing short of an insult to the whole nation”.
Elsewhere, former prime minister Tony Blair has launched a scathing attack on Labour’s “woke left” following the party’s disastrous defeat in last Thursday’s Hartlepool by-election.
Writing in the NewStatesman, Mr Blair said that Labour’s cultural message is being defined by that section of the party, whose ideology he said the majority of the public finds “alien and extreme.”
PM should be focusing on social care and work insecurity – not ‘dangerous’ voter ID plan, Miliband says
Boris Johnson should be focusing on reforming social care and ending work insecurity instead of introducing “dangerous” plans for mandatory voter ID.
He told LBC: “What this shows is that we have got a voter ID plan which the Conservative Party think will benefit them by putting people off from voting and absolutely shouldn’t be in the Queen’s speech.
“We have got desperately needed measures like dealing with the insecurity at work and dealing with social care which are not in this Queen’s Speech.
“I think it suggests the wrong priorities.”
Matt Mathers12 May 2021 10:00
ICYMI: Voters don’t know what Stamer stands for, says Angela Rayner
Keir’s Starmer’s deputy has said voters did not know what the Labour leader stood for in the recent election campaign.
Angela Rayner also admitted she had “frank” and “robust” conversations with Sir Keir, days after she emerged from a reshuffle with a clutch of new roles.
Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:
Matt Mathers12 May 2021 09:45
Labour Party needs ‘total deconstruction and reconstruction’ to revive, Tony Blair says
Labour needs “total deconstruction and reconstruction” in order to revive as a party amid the “major setback” of last week’s poor electoral performance, former leader Tony Blair has warned.
Our politics correspondent Ashley Cowburn reports:
Matt Mathers12 May 2021 09:24
Johnson’s voter ID ‘nothing to do with party interests, minister claims
Boris Johnson’s plan to make ID mandatory for people voting in elections has “nothing to do with party interests”, a Cabinet minister has claimed.
The prime minister set out plans in yesterday’s Queen’s speech to reform electoral laws, which campaigners argue will disenfranchise the young and those in ethnic minority and working-class communities.
Critics say the measures are a cynical attempt by the Conservative Party to suppress voting. Appearing on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, George Eustice, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, denied the government was using the power of the state for political purposes:
Matt Mathers12 May 2021 09:02
‘Thin’ government agenda lacks bills on protection of workers and social care funding
Boris Johnson sparked anger with a Queen’s Speech which lacked promised legislation on workers’ rights, reform of care funding and protection for veterans of the Northern Ireland Troubles.
Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports:
Matt Mathers12 May 2021 08:46
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of UK politics
Matt Mathers12 May 2021 08:21
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