Surprise candidate emerges as frontrunner to replace Sunak as Tory leader

Starmer challenged to 'listen to the voice of unionism' in Northern Ireland

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been challenged to “listen to the voice of unionism” as Twelfth of July parades take place across Northern Ireland.

Orange Order Grand Secretary Rev Mervyn Gibson made the plea as tens of thousands of loyal order members and 600 marching bands took part in the annual festivities.

The largest parades were in Belfast, as well as the Co Antrim coastal town of Carrickfergus, which boasts historic links to King William of Orange, who triumphed over King James II at the Boyne in 1690.

CATCH UP ON THE COVERAGE OF THE TWELFTH PARADES ON GB NEWS HERE

Nigel Farage 'excited' to return to his GB News show

Commenting on his return to GB News, Nigel said: "I’m very much looking forward to coming back to GBNews, and to a job I have thoroughly enjoyed over the last three years."

His return also follows his victory at this year’s TRIC Awards , where he was named Presenter of the Year for the second year running.

Accepting the award last month, he said: "GB News is now here to stay as a mainstream broadcaster in this country. Thank goodness for that.”

Government sets out action to tackle prison 'time bomb'

Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood has set out a plan to tackle the prisons crisis, saying they are "on the point of collapse".

She explained that if prisons were to run out of places, courts would be forced to delay sending offenders to jail and police unable to arrest dangerous criminals – a crisis which would leave the public at risk from unchecked criminality.

The Government has said it will temporarily reduce the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.

It said it will put in place safeguards and exemptions to "keep the public safe and clear release plans to manage them safely in the community".

In a speech at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood said: "When prisons are full, violence rises – putting prison officers on the front line at risk. When no cells are available, suspects cannot be held in custody. This means vanloads of dangerous people circling the country, with nowhere to go.

"The police would have to use their cells as a prison overflow, keeping officers off the streets. Soon, the courts would grind to a halt, unable to hold trials.

"With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence. We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight.

"In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order."

US Senator takes brutal swipe at Keir Starmer: ‘Never heard of him!’

US Republican Senator Ron Johnson has hit out at the UK's new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as he admitted he had "never heard" of the Labour leader.

Sir Keir was elected into power last week in a landslide victory for the Labour Party, wiping out 14 years of Conservative reign.

In his first week as Britain's new premier, Starmer has already scrapped the Rwanda plan to tackle illegal migration, met with President Joe Biden and other world leaders at the Nato Summit, and declared to end doctor strikes by negotiating a pay deal.

When asked for his thoughts from a US perspective on Starmer taking to power, Johnson admitted the new Prime Minister is "relentless", but had "not heard of him" until recently.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

'Clapping for British job losses!' Lineker sparks fury with gushing support of Miliband drill ban

Gary Lineker has been accused of "clapping for massive job losses" after the BBC sports presenter publicly endorsed Ed Miliband's plans to ban new drilling in the North Sea.

Energy Secretary Miliband reportedly defied the wishes of officials to push forward with the ban, risking a wave of legal action from companies who've funneled millions of pounds into prepping their bids for licences.

The applications from companies seeking to exploit up to 35 new areas in the North Sea had been submitted last autumn under the Conservative government with 76 oil and gas companies submitting 115 bids.

According to Lineker, the ban was cause for celebration as he took to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday morning with a series of applause emojis in response to news of Miliband's actions.

Before long, the BBC's highest-paid presenter - who rakes in a £1.35m salary - was slammed by several X users who took issue with the endorsement.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

James Cleverly emerges as frontrunner to replace Sunak as Tory party 

Former home secretary James Cleverly has emerged as a surprising frontrunner to replace Rishi Sunak as the leader of the Conservatives, new polling suggests.

A survey conducted by YouGov saw 19 per cent of respondents say Cleverly would make a good or very good leader.

Some 28 per cent said he would be a bad leader - but even with a net negative rating, he was still the most popular.

Among Tory voters at the 2024 General Election, 39 per cent said he would be a good leader against 16 per cent who said he would be bad.
Just 15 per cent said Suella Braverman would be a good leader, while 54 per cent said she would be bad.

Among Tory voters 29 per cent said she would be good and 40 per cent said she would be bad.

Another likely candidate, Priti Patel had just 14 per cent saying she would be a good leader. A massive 60 per cent said she would be bad.

The polling was conducted by YouGov for the Times.

Green Party tells Government to focus on 'prevention, rehabilitation and restorative justice'

Carla Denyer has urged the Government to focus more on “prevention, rehabilitation and restorative justice”, ahead of the Justice Secretary’s announcement on plans to reduce prison overcrowding.

In a statement, the Green Party co-leader said: “The Labour Government’s welcome appointment of James Timpson as prisons minister is a chance to set a new tone on criminal justice.

“Now they need to work to reduce the number of people being sent to prison in the first place, starting by immediately publishing the expert drug policy advice sent to the Home Secretary in 2016, and heeding its advice to decriminalise possession.

“Prison is demonstrably an ineffective way of reducing reoffending. We know that short prison sentences have devasting effects on people’s lives by losing jobs, homes and even relationships. And ultimately, we know it leads to higher rates of reoffending.

“James Timpson previously said that ‘we’re addicted to punishment’. He is right. Now is the time for the Government to take the bold action necessary to place a much bigger emphasis on prevention, rehabilitation and restorative justice.

“But this means resourcing the frontline services that have been decimated under 14 years of Conservative rule. It means restoring funding to youth services, rebuilding people’s lives through investment in probation and prison services, and diverting people away from the criminal justice system that drags their lives into an endless downward spiral and towards support services instead.”

George Osborne tells Tories NOT to chase Reform UK voters

George Osborne has urged the Conservative Party not to go after Reform UK voters in its attempt to rebuild after the election defeat.

He warned that a move to the right would risk the party losing even more of their moderate supporters - something he said would work to Labour's advantage.

Speaking to the Political Currency podcast, the former Tory chancellor said: "It is a very hard tactical choice, for the new leader.

"Which is the obvious thing to do if you look at the maths is to say ‘let’s go and get the 14 or 15 per cent who voted Reform, add it to the 24 per cent who voted Conservative and we’re ahead of Labour, it is easy, job done’ without noticing really what I think is the central challenge which is the Conservative Party over a number of years vacated the central ground of British politics and allowed the Labour Party to move from the Corbynista position it was in to the centre ground."

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Suella Braverman has been told to "bugger off to Reform" in a scathing attack on her rumoured plans to run for leadership of the Tory party.

This came after the former home secretary attacked the LGBTQ+ movement.

One Tory MP told the i she had ruined her chances of running for leader, instead suggesting she should defect to Reform UK.

They said: "She’s lost all her mates and pissed off the gays (who are a large proportion of the party whatever anyone says) so I think she will bugger off to Reform.

"She has no chance of being leader and she thinks she is bigger than she is so what is there left for her?"

'Of course' Labour understands calls to scrap two-child benefit cap, Steve Reed says

Environment Secretary Steve Reed said “of course” the party understands the calls to scrap the two-child benefit cap, but maintained the Government must keep “strict spending controls” to stabilise the economy.

Reed was asked about pleas from charities and campaigners to ditch the policy after new figures on how many children have been affected were published.

He told reporters: “Of course we understand the pressure for that, of course we understand the difficulties families face because of the wider cost of living crisis.

“It is absolutely essential that this Labour government maintains strict spending controls because we have to stabilise the economy after 14 years of Conservative chaos.

“It is that chaos and the way they crashed the economy that has left families hurting so much. As we grow the economy, we will be able to spend the additional income on other things that we want to achieve for this country.”

Labour should not be 'sending mixed messages about punishment', former justice secretary warns

Sir Robert Buckland, a former Conservative justice secretary, said the Government should not be “sending mixed messages about punishment”.

He said the Labour administration needs to make its “commitment to protect the public” clear.

Buckland, who lost his seat in last week’s election, told Sky: “My advice to the new Justice Secretary – and I wish her well, she’s just come into post – is to make sure that we aren’t releasing people who could pose a risk, particularly domestic abusers, stalkers, those types of offenders. I think it would be wholly inappropriate to release them.”

He continued: “I think we do need to be absolutely iron on our commitment to protect the public. And the new Government would be best advised to make that clear from the outset.

“Because sending mixed messages about punishment is not a good way, frankly, to start a penal policy when you’ve just taken office.”

Buckland also admitted that the prison building programme “which I started with Rishi Sunak is coming forward, but not at a pace that is quick enough I think to meet demand”.

He agreed that only 6,000 of the 20,000 new places the Tories promised by the end of this year have been created.

Starmer blasts 'unforgivable' prisons crisis 

Sir Keir Starmer has blasted the previous government for the "unforgivable" prisons crisis, saying it showed “gross irresponsibility”.

Responding to a question at the Nato summit, Starmer said: “The crux of the problem we face at the moment, and it is a terrible problem, is that we’ve got far too many prisoners for the prison places that we’ve got and we soon will have.

“That is gross irresponsibility of the outgoing government. It is a basic function of government that you should have enough places for your prisoners that judges are sending to prison.

“And for that to have failed I think tells you something material about the last government – that we have to pick this up and we have to fix it.

“I can’t build a prison in the first seven days of a Labour government.”

The PM added: “We knew there was going to be a problem, but the scale of the problem was worse than we thought.

“And the nature of the problem is pretty unforgivable in my book, having worked in criminal justice, to have allowed your criminal justice system to get to a state where you simply haven’t got the prison places for prisoners.

“This is a predictable problem – it’s shocking. And I think that when further details are released of this, you’ll have plenty of extra questions for those that came before us.”

Starmer hints he will recognise state of Palestine before Israel or US

Sir Keir Starmer indicated he would be willing to recognise the state of Palestine even if the United States or Israel did not do so.

He told journalists at the Nato summit that a ceasefire “needs to be a foot in the door for a process towards a two-state solution, a viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel”.

He said: “We don’t have either of those at the moment. That is the process that we all should work on, we’ve been discussing it with colleagues here in bilaterals and recognising Palestine is part of that process.

“And part of that process is important, rather than the end of the process, because this is a right the Palestinian people have, it’s not in the gift of anyone.

“And so far as our policy is concerned, I’ll determine our policy, not follow anyone else.”

Starmer braced for major rebellion from left-wing MPs just one week into job 

Sir Keir Starmer is braced for a rebellion just one week into the job as concern continues to grow over Labour's plan to keep the two child benefit cap in place.

Labour MP Kim Johnson revealed she plans to lay an amendment to the King’s Speech that would force the Government to abolish the two child cap on benefits.

She described the policy as "cruel, punitive and is pushing struggling families into further poverty", adding: "I am laying an amendment to the King's Speech calling for the cap to scrapped - immediately lifting 250,000 children out of poverty.”

Labour's former shadow chancellor John McDonnell predicted that there could be significant numbers in favour of the amendment, which could force the Government into a U-turn.