'If a Tory said that, they'd be called RACIST!' Badenoch takes swipe at Starmer over 007 joke
Minister insists Starmer’s housing targets ‘not arbitrary’
GB News
Kemi Badenoch has torn into Sir Keir Starmer after he mocked her claim that working at McDonald's made her "working class".
In the PM's much-maligned "six missions" speech on Thursday at 007 filming location Pinewood Studios, he said: "You know, the leader of the Opposition thinks if you do a couple of shifts in McDonald's, you become working class.
"So by that logic, if I keep coming back here - I could yet be the next James Bond."
But later that evening, Badenoch said Starmer would "never have dared" to joke about working in McDonald's if she was a "left-wing activist" - and that if a Tory leader had said the same, they'd have been labelled "racist".
"The truth is that the left are not that interested in ethnic minorities except as a tool to fight their battles against the right," she said.
"In fact, just this morning the British Prime Minister made a joke about how I worked at McDonald's. He would never have dared to do that, if I was a left-wing activist.
"And if a Conservative Prime Minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign."
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Starmer hailed for 'rare moment of sanity' as PM takes on 'whinging, sluggish' civil service over 'managed decline'
Downing Street has indicated Starmer would not stand in the way of a deal to return the Elgin Marbles to GreecePAThe Prime Minister has been hailed for a "rare moment of sanity" in the wake of his "managed decline" jab at Britain's civil service.
Sir Keir Starmer sparked controversy by suggesting that "too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline" - and was handed a damning letter by civil servants' union chief Dave Pennan as a result.
Pennan accused the PM of being "Trumpian" and using "frankly insulting" language - prompting incredulity in response.
"Taxpayers are sick to the back teeth of whinging civil servants," William Yarwood, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance told GB News.
"In a rare moment of sanity for the Prime Minister, he rightly called out the ineffectiveness of sluggishness of Whitehall.
"If they don't want to be criticised, they should start delivering on the priorities of the British people," he added.
'If it makes you feel good, ignore it!' Reform UK's ex-comms chief's warning after shock poll puts Reform ahead of Labour
Reform UK's former comms chief Gawain Towler has called for calm following yesterday's shock opinion poll which put his ex-employers in second-place - and above Labour.
In the breakthrough survey from Find Out Now, the populist party appears to have risen in the minds of British voters - while Labour sunk to third place after five months of Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.
But Towler isn't so sure.
He told GB News: "I have a hard and fast rule about polling... If it makes you smile, ignore it. Don't believe it."
Starmer REFUSES to rule out further tax raid as Labour support slumps
Keir Starmer cannot rule out increasing levies on working Britons
PASir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out more tax raids as Labour's support continues to slump in the opinion polls.
The Prime Minister warned that "unforeseen" circumstances mean that he cannot rule out increasing levies on working Britons.
Starmer told the BBC it is not his "plan" to impose more tax rises but pointed to Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine war as examples of unexpected global events that would force him to change course.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference at the end of November that she would not be "coming back with more borrowing or more taxes."
However, Starmer refused to repeat this pledge on November 27 when he was asked to do so by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition, at Prime Minister’s Questions.
After being pushed on the issue yet again, Starmer said: "What I can’t do is say to you there are no circumstances unforeseen in the future that wouldn’t lead to any changes at all.
"Because if you just look at Covid and the Ukraine situation, everybody knows there are things that we can’t see now.
"But I can tell you our intention was to do the tough stuff in that Budget and not to keep coming back... it’s tough but fair, but at least we know now with certainty and we can plan."
Badenoch must 'act fast' to stop even MORE Tories defecting to Reform, Lord Frost says
Lord Frost has issued a grave warning to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch that she must act quickly to stop more Tories defecting to Reform UK.
It comes Ex-Tory minister Andrea Jenkyns and former deputy party chair Lee Anderson both switched to Nigel Farage's party.
Writing in the Telegraph, the former Brexit negotiator said: "No one can know what politics will be like in five years’ time. Many things now unknowable will have come to pass. One can only assess the scene today. That scene shows both the Tories and Reform ticking up in a reaction to Labour’s unpopularity, roughly 55-45 in the Conservatives’ favour.
"If that split is repeated at the next general election, then the Right will lose again. That much is certain. So far, and it is early days, the strategy of the new Conservative leadership on Reform is unclear. Robert Jenrick’s wasn’t: it was to turn the Conservative Party into a genuinely conservative party once again, the kind of party most if not all Reform voters wanted to vote for.
"That could, should, and perhaps will happen under Kemi Badenoch. Maybe we will learn more next year."
He added: "There is only room for one party of the Right in Britain. Kemi Badenoch must act fast to ensure it is the Tories."
Starmer to work ‘constructively’ on scrapping two-child benefit cap in Scotland - but ministers think there's no money
Labour has pledged to work "constructively" with SNP ministers at Holyrood as they seek to end the two-child benefit cap for families north of the border.
However, a senior minister in Westminster made clear he believes the “money for this commitment has not been set aside” by the Scottish Government.
With the Scottish Government reliant on data from the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to enable it to mitigate the policy, which means families can only claim some benefits for their first two children and not for any subsequent youngsters, First Minister John Swinney said he had secured an agreement from Starmer on the matter.
However, Labour minister Pat McFadden, a key figure in Starmer’s Government, told the press conference after the BIC meeting that while “the money for this commitment has not been set aside”, there had been a request for data made to the DWP.
He added: “The First Minister’s Government, like any government, will have to identify the money for that, that has not happened yet.”
'Reform or DIE!' Britain urged to REJOIN 'failing' EU - despite bloc 'on brink of collapse'
Former Deputy PM Nick Clegg
PA
Nick Clegg has claimed the European Union is on the brink of collapse, but the UK must rejoin the bloc.
The former deputy prime minister and ex-Liberal Democrat leader said economic growth "literally went into reverse the moment Brexit happened", adding: "Clearly the United Kingdom needs to go back."
He told the BBC: "The European Union is at a real pivotal moment. It’s going to either reform or die. If it reforms, as I hope it will, it’ll just become so flaming the obvious over the next several years that the United Kingdom belongs there.
"Not least now, at a time when we have a new administration in DC, who, as Donald Trump has said multiple times, does not have hold any instinctive affection for the Transatlantic Alliance."
'Cancelled and annulled!' Tory peer stripped of honour as rare action taken
Tory donor Lord Rami Ranger has been stripped of his CBE after being accused of harassing a journalist and making a series of derogatory comments on social media.
Lord Ranger, 76, was among six honour holders included in today's London Gazette update.
The London Gazette's notice confirmed that King Charles III had directed that the businessman's Commander of the Order of the British Empire would be "cancelled and annulled".
MPs clash over ‘sovereign grabber’ Northern Ireland claim in fresh EU 'colonisation' debate
MPs have clashed over whether the EU has acted like a "sovereign grabber" through the Windsor Framework.
Labour MP Andrew Lewin questioned whether words like "colonisation" are part of "the message we want to send" to Brussels, after TUV MP Jim Allister claimed Northern Ireland had become a “colony” of the EU after “the foundations of this United Kingdom have been disturbed and dislodged by these arrangements."
The MP for North Antrim told the Commons: “What is a colony? It is a territory governed by someone else’s laws from a foreign jurisdiction.
"When you’ve 300 areas of law, including customs, including the very definition of what is Northern Ireland’s territory in trading terms, which are governed by foreign EU laws, then you’ve created the situation where Northern Ireland in that context is a veritable colony."
Lewin, the MP for Welwyn Hatfield, intervened and said: "I believe that the European Union is our ally, 27 democracies, and I have to say I’m concerned by some of the language I’m hearing – he talks of colonisation, he talks of surrender.
"And I would just gently ask whether that is the message that we want to send to our 27 allies and friends in the European Union?"
Starmer becomes third Prime Minister to attend meeting of the British-Irish Council in just under two decades
Sir Keir Starmer alongside members of the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments
PA
Sir Keir Starmer has met with political leaders from both sides of the Irish border, in a break with tradition.
He is only the third Prime Minister to attend a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Edinburgh in 17 years.
It is attended by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste Simon Harris and Micheál Martin just a week after a general election which has most likley set up another Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition government.
Northern Ireland's First and Deputy First Ministers, Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly are also there, as well as the first ministers of Scotland and Wales, John Swinney and Eluned Morgan.
Stride lashes out at Starmer and Reeves over potential tax rises
Mel Stride has slammed Labour, accusing Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves of dropping a promise to "grow the economy."
The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: "Keir Starmer has already raised taxes to historic levels. Now he claims he wants to give business certainty but he can’t answer a very basic question - will he or won’t he raise more taxes.
"We can see clearly the impact of his and Rachel Reeves’ first budget already - yesterday the Bank of England reported that the majority of businesses planned to put up prices and reduce jobs while the CBI is cutting growth projections.
"It’s no wonder he’s been forced to drop his commitment to grow the economy."
Minister insists Starmer’s housing targets ‘not arbitrary’, but putting a number on net migration would be
Keir Starmer’s decision to set specific NHS and housing targets while not putting a figure on net migration is justified, according to a Labour minister.
The PM set out his ‘Plan for Change’ in a speech yesterday but his decision to omit immigration as a key talking point has drawn criticism.
Instead, Starmer opted to focus on six key issues which he urged the public to judge his administration on.
'Are you going to respond?!' Fiona Bruce clashes with Nigel Farage in tense migration row showdown
Fiona Bruce has clashed with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as the pair went head to head on the last night's episode of Question Time.
They were joined by No 10 spin doctor to Tony Blair Alastair Campbell, Education Minister Jacqui Smith and Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake.
When asked about border control, Farage said: "The last Labour Government deported people who came here illegally in their tens of thousands."
Bruce then pointed at him with her pen as she interrupted him. She quizzed him saying: "Are you going to respond?" He snapped back saying: "I'm going to, I'm going to!"
He continued: "The point is, if people come legally and they work - that's fine. If people come because they genuinely are refugees, we've always opened our doors than anybody in the world historically to that."
Starmer defends 'milestone missions' as PM pledges to drive living standards up 'straight away'
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gives a speech in Buckinghamshire
PA
The Prime Minister has said wants to see living standards rise "straight away" as he attempts to sell his "plan for change."
Sir Keir Starmer made improving living standards a key target as he outlined the “next phase” of his Government on Thursday, saying he wanted to see real household disposable income rise across the country by the next election.
But in an interview with the BBC, Starmer said he wanted to see improvements sooner than that, denying that things would get worse before they got better.
He said: "I want people to feel better off straight away – feel better off in the sense of more money in their pocket, feel better off because they’ve got a secure job that they know is guaranteed to give them the money they need."
Starmer is taking 'decisive first steps' but 'not resetting' premiership, top Labour MP tells GB News
'We had to make some very tough decisions.'
— GB News (@GBNEWS) December 6, 2024
Matthew Pennycook addresses Labour and Keir Starmer's poor polling amongst Britons.
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Top Labour MP Matthew Pennycook has denied claims that yesterday's speech by Sir Keir Starmer was a "reset", adding that the Prime Minister has taken "decisive first steps".
The Housing Minister told GB News: "It's not a reset. We were very clear during the General Election campaign, we had a number of missions we wanted to achieve and we have taken a number of very decisive first steps to deliver on those missions.
"What we set out yesterday was a number of specific milestones from which the Government can judge us. These are tangible milestones people can track and hold us to."
Labour MP leaves committee amid fresh concerns over his conduct
Labour MP Neil Coyle is being replaced on a Commons select committee and will take up a newly created role with the party.
It comes as the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark was suspended last year for bullying a colleague and abusing a journalist.
At present those concerns have not been put in writing and have not triggered any formal complaints process. Coyle strongly denies any link between his latest outburst and his departure from the committee, reports Politico.
Britons told to brace for higher energy bills as oil imports SOAR despite Labour's 'Net Zero madness'
Each tanker transporting oil to the UK emits approximately 1.6 million grams of CO2 - the equivalent annual carbon footprint of 160,000 British citizensGB NEWSThe UK is facing years of soaring energy bills as Britain becomes increasingly reliant on imported oil - despite a staggering 25 billion barrels remaining untapped in the North Sea.
Alarming data obtained by GB News shows that, in the last quarter alone, Britain has imported 20 million tonnes of oil, sending energy costs soaring for people across the country.
The surge in imports comes as Labour has attacked Britain’s own oil industry, increasing ‘punitive’ taxes on North Sea operators and banning new exploration.
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, said: “Ed Miliband wants to shut down the North Sea by banning new licenses and taxing industry into oblivion.
'What's the worst that could happen?!' Local Reform chairman explains 'by-election letter'
The chairman of Reform UK's Hertsmere branch Darren Selkus has explained why he sent out a letter discussing the possibility of a by-election in the Hertfordshire constituency.
Selkus claimed he heard rumours about ex-Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden stepping down as the local MP to make way for former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
He told GB News: "Reform UK Hertsmere was already gearing up for the County Council elections, so pivoting to prepare for a potential parliamentary by-election wasn’t a big leap."
Selkus added: "But what’s the worst that could happen? A bit of extra campaigning that helps our County Council candidates? Either way, Reform UK Hertsmere is ready for whatever comes next."
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