As the United Kingdom experiences its second day of rail disputes inside a week, the government has this morning unveiled plans to allow employment agencies to supply skilled agency workers to plug staff gaps during industrial action. Current trade union laws prohibit firms from supplying temporary agency workers to fill duties by employees engaged in…
10 years since it replaced the previous agency, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) say the Child Maintenance Service is “achieving no more” than its discredited predecessor. The replacement of the Child Support Agency left billions of pounds of unpaid child maintenance debt remaining from its schemes written off. Around half of children in separated families…
Inflation soared to 9.1 per cent in the UK across May, hitting a new four-decade high. The consumer price index climbed to 9.1 per cent, fresh data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows, up from 9 per cent in April. The retail price index used to decide train ticket prices rocketed to 11.7…
In the second opposition day debate, MPs were discussing the PM’s Advisor on ministerial interests after Lord Geidt’s resignation last week. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner started the debate by forwarding a motion to “put the prime minister into special measures” and allow the public administration and constitutional affairs committee to appoint a new independent…
MPs are debating NHS GP and dentist access and the increasing waiting lists in the UK. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting labelled health secretary Sajid Javid’s record “rubbish”, blaming “Conservative underfunding” for “patients finding it impossible to book GP appointments”. Javid focused on the rail strikes which he told the House of Commons that Streeting…
During foreign questions, secretary of state Liz Truss rejected shadow secretary David Lammy’s claim that the new protocol bill for Northern Ireland “breaks international law”. Lammy criticised the move which ”divides the UK and European Union when we should be pulling together”. Truss told MPs that nothing said by Lammy “is accurate”, and that the…
The government has been warned that an online sales tax could cost families a further £175 a year. The government has floated the idea, suggesting it could support high streets at the expense of online retailers, potentially set at 1 or 2 per cent of online sales. A paper released today by the Centre for…
Ahead of today’s landmark rail strike, transport secretary Grant Shapps has stressed that he does not usually hold meetings with trade unions. He argued that it was National Rail’s duty to negotiate in this case, slamming calls to get him to attend talks as a “stunt”. Speaking with BBC Breakfast ahead of today’s walk out…
In a statement to the House of Commons, transport secretary Grant Shapps condemned the rail strikes organised by a union “representing some of the better paid workers in the country”. Shapps shared his anger at the industrial action that will “cause misery to millions” this week. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh criticised Shapps for allowing…
Labour MP David Lammy is under investigation by Parliament’s Standards Commissioner. The probe relates to alleged breaches of the MPs’ Code of Conduct on declaring financial interests worth over £27,000. More to follow The post David Lammy under investigation over financial declaration conduct appeared first on Politics.co.uk.
