Politics LIVE: Starmer under pressure over 'Covid lockdown breach' as Labour sources admit voice coach was NOT key worker

Streeting takes aim at 'daft' NHS diversity schemes in blistering anti-DEI attack - 'The ideological hobby horses need to go!'

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has warned that "really daft things are being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion" in the NHS in the highest-profile Labour attack on DEI yet.

He told a Macmillan Cancer Support event that said "daft things" were "undermining the cause" - and pointed to real-world disparities like black men suffering with prostate cancer at at twice as high a risk as white men, and black women being much more likely to die in childbirth than white women.

"For example, there was one member of NHS staff who was merrily tweeting a job ad online and saying part of her practice was anti-whiteness," he said.

"And I just thought: 'What the hell does that say to the bloke up in Wigan who's more likely to die earlier than his more affluent white counterpart down in London?'

"We've got real issues of inequality that affect working-class people. The ideological hobby horses need to go."

"What’s been lost, I think, with some well-meaning but misguided approaches to equality, diversity, inclusion, the clue is in the name, is equality. It should be applicable to everyone."

Labour doubles down on denying Chagos figures as Starmer faces Government rebellion over strategic surrender

Labour has doubled down on its denial of the rumoured £18billion total fee to give away the Chagos Islands this morning.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News the figure was "not correct" and urged Britons to "wait and see" - while the Foreign Office has called the figures "incorrect, entirely inaccurate and misleading".

"There has been no change to the terms of extension in the treaty," the department said yesterday. "The UK will only sign a deal that is in our national interest."

It also emerged on Wednesday that senior Government figures had called the surrender "terrible", "mad" and "impossible to understand".

"At a time when there is no money, how can we spend billions of pounds to give something away?", one senior Government source said.

This morning, Reed said: "We have to secure the future of that military base. It's in a very important strategic location globally.

"It's not just the UK, of course, that has an interest here. So does the US, and the Government is making sure that we hear the views of the US before we take a final decision.

"We need to wait and see what the final outcome of those negotiations are... but I can confirm those rather extraordinary figures we heard being banded around yesterday are not correct."

Labour to confirm 'election cancellations' TODAY after Reform UK's 'threat to democracy' warnings

Labour is set to confirm which local authorities will have their elections delayed in the Commons today amid a series of "threat to democracy" warnings from Reform UK.

The Government will be pressing ahead with plans to merge district and county councils - but Nigel Farage's party has long decried the move on the grounds that Tory councils under threat from Reform will choose to postpone potential electoral defeats.

"Labour and the Tories are so terrified of Reform's rise that they are colluding to rob the British people of their democratic rights," the party has warned.

Some 21 county councils were due to hold elections in May, but of those, 16 have asked to delay them for "major restructuring".

Rayner's Islamophobia council slapped down AGAIN in further blowback for Deputy PM - 'Look into the real issues!'

Angela Rayner's controversial Islamophobia council plans have been met with further fury today in the latest blowback for the Deputy Prime Minister.

Khalid Mahmood, a Muslim former Labour MP who sat in the Commons for two decades, has warned that the council will be set up "simply to wave it through" - and has told the Government to "look into the real issues that British Muslims face instead".

"I don't agree with the 2018 APPG definition of Islamophobia and with Dominic Grieve as chair, this council seems to be set up simply to wave it through," Mahmood said.

"If the Government really wants to tackle discrimination, the council must look into the real issues that British Muslims face instead of just blindly accepting the 2018 APPG report."

While anti-Islamophobia campaigner Fiyaz Mughal called the council - plans for which were revealed by The Telegraph on Tuesday - "classic Labour interventionism".

"This is classic Labour interventionism - and if the Government does this, then why are they not finding a definition for anti-Sikh hate or Sikhophobia, which I know is of real concern to the British Sikh community.

"Is this a pick and mix approach, or does that community not matter to Labour politically?"

Yesterday, Robert Jenrick had warned that the group would pave the way for "blasphemy laws" - which Rayner's Communities Ministry has slapped down.

A spokesman said: "No blasphemy laws will be introduced by this Government.

"We are firmly committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division, including the unacceptable rise in anti-Muslim hatred. We will provide further updates on this in due course."

'International law activist' Hermer called Trump a 'brazen liar' - as Chagos showdown looms with US

Attorney General Lord Hermer - representing the UK in the Chagos surrender - called Donald Trump the "most brazen liar" in political history, according to a Telegraph report this morning.

Speaking on a podcast, Hermer said politicians had "always lied" - but the President's lying was "on a different scale".

"He's also perhaps the most brazen liar that one has ever kind of come across in a political position," the AG said.

"And he's obviously done it throughout his time in the administration from day one when he was talking about the crowds at the inauguration. And it certainly for me, I find it challenging."

Last week Downing Street was forced to put out a statement claiming the Prime Minister had "absolute confidence" in Lord Hermer after a selection of Ministers warned his "activist" preference for international law was "freezing" proper government.

And in light of his position on Chagos - just as strategic for the US as it is for the UK - Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: "At such a key moment for the UK-US relationship, Lord Hermer has jeopardised it with outrageous comments.

"When is Starmer going to stop defending his mate and donor and put the national interest first?

"This podcast reveals Hermer for what he really is: a politician using the law to advance his far-left political obsessions."

READ THE FULL STORY ON BRITAIN'S BALLOONING CHAGOS BILL HERE

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