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Key events
Badenoch says Tories could mount legal challenge against cuts being imposed on Wandsworth council
Kemi Badenoch says the Conservative party has “instructed lawyers” to challenge government cuts to a Tory-run London council, which they say amounts to 40%.
These cuts are forcing Wandsworth to increase its council tax by 94%, the Tory leader says.
In an interview with Matt Chorley for the BBC’s Newsnight, which is being shown tonight, Badenoch accuses the government of deliberately taking money away from areas that do not vote Labour and giving them to places that do.
Badenoch says:
I think it is outrageous that Wandsworth council is having to put up council tax. But they’re not doing it because they want to.
It is because the government has taken away 40% of their funding. So we have actually instructed lawyers, as the Conservative party, to see if we can challenge the government on this decision.
Because what it looks like Labour is doing is taking money from areas that don’t vote Labour and giving it to places that do vote Labour.
And I think that’s completely wrong. I think it is outrageous. So we’re talking to lawyers.
Andy Burnham has not found 40% of anything to cut, but he’s asking Wandsworth to do that. I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think that’s right.”
Wandsworth is one of a handful of councils that have been granted two-year “funding realignment powers”, which enables them to increase council tax beyond the 5% threshold. This is because the government recognises that changes to the way local government is funded mean the council needs a big rise in council tax.
The council was Tory-controlled for more than 40 years and became famous for having very low council tax. In 2022 Labour took power. At the elections in May the Conservatives regained control as the largest party, but without a clear majority.
Watson says Palantir 'can transform public services' as he explains joining firm
Here is the statement Tom Watson issued about his decision to take a job with Palantir.
I’m terrifically excited to be joining the young Palantir team who make the tools that public service workers need to transform how they serve the British people.
Whether that means reducing the time it takes to be diagnosed, treated and discharged from hospital, helping our military personnel keep us safe and secure, or enabling our police to crack crimes and root out corruption, Palantir software can transform the country’s public services.
Through our partnerships across the UK, we will demonstrate Palantir’s enduring commitment to Britain, not only through the services we help deliver, but through the skills, jobs and opportunities we help create.
Watson has been on leave of absence from the House of Lords since March and he says that will continue while he is working for Palantir. According to Palantir, he has given up his parliamentary pass and the access privileges normally retained by members on leave.
Greens condemn Tom Watson taking job with Palantir, saying it shows 'corrosive revolving door' between politics and business
As Robert Booth reports, the former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has taken a job with the controversial US AI company Palantir.
The Green party says this is an example of the “corrosive revolving door” between politics and business.
In a statement, Siân Berry, the Green MP, said:
Palantir, with its work for ICE in the US and the IDF, has no business at all in our NHS and public services. Tom Watson has been employed to lobby his friends in the Labour government.
This is yet another example of the corrosive revolving door between politics and big business lobbying that has no place in public life.
Burnham to meet Irish PM at No 10 North as UK bids to get exemptions from EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ plan
Good morning. On Monday, at her summit in Cardiff with the leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru, Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin president, joked about Liverpool being the 33rd county of Ireland. Andy Burnham is basically a Scouser; he was born in Liverpool and supports a Liverpool football team, despite being brought up in Culcheth, a village mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester, which made him enough of a Manc to be the city’s mayor. He also has Irish ancestry, and so the mood should be very cordial today when he hosts Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM) at No 10 North in Manchester this morning.
It is the first time that Burnham has used No 10 North to host an overseas visit, which should help a bit his efforts to establish that No 10 North is a proper government power base, and not just a branch office.
And, in its overnight release about the visit, No 10 says it is part of a deliberate attempt by Burnham to use meetings with overseas leaders to highlight parts of the UK outside London. No 10 says:
The historic visit to No 10 North comes as the prime minister shines a spotlight on towns up and down the country, days after he hosted Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in Liverpool and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in Oxford.
No 10 also points out that, when Burnham met Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, they were at Portsmouth.
It should be a friendly meeting. When Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester, he had several meetings with Martin, including in Ireland, and when Burnham became PM Martin issued a statement praising him as someone who was “a great champion of deeper links between Ireland and Britain”. No 10 says the talks will focus on “shared objectives including boosting trade, supporting Ukraine, and working with the European Union as Ireland continues its presidency of the EU”. After the formal meetings, the two leaders will visit an Irish community centre.
While Burnham and Martin are meeting in Manchester, John Healey, the chancellor, will be in Dublin where he has been invited to an informal meeting of Ecofin, the meeting of EU finance ministers. And it is not just a social meeting. The UK is desperate to get some sort of exemption from the EU’s “Made in Europe” procurement laws and Healey will be making the case for this to his European counterparts.
According to Treasury sources briefing overnight, Healey will be urging the EU to implement the “Made in Europe” rules in a way that “lands a good deal for all” instead of “erecting new barriers”.
Burnham is due to meet Martin at 10am.
Otherwise, the political diary is fairly empty.
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