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Immigration, deprivation and time spent online having 'profound impact on society', Rayner says
Angela Rayner has urged the government to acknowledge people’s “real concerns” and flagged high levels of deprivation where the worst riots erupted last summer nearly a year on from the disorder.
The deputy prime minister told Cabinet colleagues that immigration and increasing time spent online are having a “profound impact on society”.
She also cited economic insecurity, the rapid pace of deindustrialisation and declining trust in institutions as she gave an update on her work on social cohesion and a coming plan for neighbourhoods.
Keir Starmer recalled the “horrific attacks” in Southport and said the country will never forget the “unimaginable tragedy” as he closed his last Cabinet meeting before the summer recess.
“[Rayner] said it was incumbent on the government to acknowledge the real concerns people have and to deliver improvements to people’s lives and their communities,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.
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We mentioned in an earlier post that Angela Rayner has urged the government to acknowledge people’s “real concerns” and flagged high levels of deprivation where the worst riots erupted last summer nearly a year on from the disorder.
During the last minute of the cabinet before the summer recess, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary updated fellow ministers on the state of social cohesion across the country and how the government is trying to improve it. A statement from the cabinet meeting, read:
The deputy prime minister said that economic insecurity, the rapid pace of deindustrialisation, immigration and the impacts on local communities and public services, technological change and the amount of time people were spending alone online, and declining trust in institutions was having a profound impact on society.
She said it was incumbent on the government to acknowledge the real concerns people have and to deliver improvements to people’s lives in their communities.
She said seventeen of the eighteen places that saw the worst of the disorder last summer ranked at the top of the most deprived, and while Britain was a successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith country, the government had to show it had a plan to address people’s concerns and provide opportunities for everyone to flourish.
She said as part of this the upcoming plan for neighbourhoods would deliver billions of pounds of investment over ten years in hundreds of the most deprived places, to restore pride in people’s local areas and improve people’s lives.
Policing in Scotland will not be “put in a detrimental position” because of the cost of Donald Trump’s visit, John Swinney has said.
The US president is due to arrive in Scotland later this week and visit both his golf courses in the country, but concerns have been raised about the policing operation required.
The last time Trump visited Scotland - while he was no longer in office - substantial protests sprang up.
He is expected to meet both prime minister Keir Starmer and first minister Swinney during his time in Scotland.
Immigration, deprivation and time spent online having 'profound impact on society', Rayner says
Angela Rayner has urged the government to acknowledge people’s “real concerns” and flagged high levels of deprivation where the worst riots erupted last summer nearly a year on from the disorder.
The deputy prime minister told Cabinet colleagues that immigration and increasing time spent online are having a “profound impact on society”.
She also cited economic insecurity, the rapid pace of deindustrialisation and declining trust in institutions as she gave an update on her work on social cohesion and a coming plan for neighbourhoods.
Keir Starmer recalled the “horrific attacks” in Southport and said the country will never forget the “unimaginable tragedy” as he closed his last Cabinet meeting before the summer recess.
“[Rayner] said it was incumbent on the government to acknowledge the real concerns people have and to deliver improvements to people’s lives and their communities,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.
The chancellor Rachel Reeves is currently appearing before the economic affairs committee and taking questions.
She is asked to set out her “diagnosis for the ills of the UK economy” and what the problems are “that continue to plague the UK at the moment”.
Reeves replies that they key problem facing Britain is productivity and says that “investment is the answer”.
The chancellor adds:
I think we’ve got the lowest private investment and lowest total investment as a share of GDP of any country in the G7.
The result of that is our productivity performance has not kept pace with our competitors and similar countries around the world.
That’s why the fiscal rules that I’ve set out do treat investment spending differently.
The BBC is reporting that Kemi Badenoch may not be done with the reshuffle of her top team. The outlet is reporting that, in total, half a dozen changes are expected this afternoon, when a full list of appointments should be published at some point.
Here is an extract of a story filed by my colleagues, Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker, about Kemi Badenoch’s reshuffle, which mentions how James Cleverly has positioned himself ideologically:
In a speech last week, Cleverly warned the Conservatives against pursuing a populist agenda that would try to ape Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
He also discounted the idea that he hoped to replace Badenoch, saying his party had to “get out of this habit of cycling through leaders in the hope that ditching this one and picking a new one will make life easy for us”.
Cleverly had been touted to run as the Tory candidate for mayor of London – and would not be drawn on his future ambitions when he gave the speech last week. He received a knighthood in April last year as part of Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has wished Ed Argar well after his decision to stand down as shadow health secretary.
Argar rose to speak for his “last despatch box appearance for the foreseeable future” on Tuesday and said:
Can I take the opportunity, after seven years almost continuously on the frontbench in government and opposition, to thank you, to say it has been a privilege?
And to the secretary of state – it has been a pleasure to shadow him, and I think he knows it, but I genuinely wish him well.
Argar had earlier raised the case of the St Mary’s Birth Centre in his Melton and Syston constituency, which is temporarily closed, and asked for a meeting with Streeting if it appeared “that ‘temporary’ could risk becoming ‘permanent’” over the summer.
Streeting replied:
Can I absolutely give him that assurance that I’d be happy to meet with him about his constituency issue, or indeed anything else?
Because, for all of the exchanges that we have across these dispatch boxes on issues of disagreement, it is not always readily understood beyond this House the extent to which both sides work extremely constructively together on the enormous number of issues that we have in common in pursuit of the national interest, and that virtues of wisdom and kindness and selfless dedication to public service are not the preserve of one side of the House.
[Argar] has those qualities in abundance and we wish him very well personally and professionally.
Kemi Badenoch reshuffles shadow cabinet, with Cleverly taking housing brief
We have some news regarding Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet reshuffle.
James Cleverly will take on the housing, communities and local government post, replacing Kevin Hollinrake, who has been the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton since 2015 and is reportedly being moved to be Tory chair. Cleverly’s opposite number is now Angela Rayner, who is Labour’s deputy prime minister and housing secretary.
Stuart Andrew, the MP for Daventry who held the shadow culture secretary brief up until the reshuffle, will be the new shadow health secretary after Edward Argar resigned from the post on health grounds.
As a reminder, Argar stepped down as shadow health secretary after what he described as a health scare earlier this summer (you can see Badenoch’s response to his resignation letter in this post on X). Wes Streeting is the health secretary.
Nigel Huddleston, the MP for Droitwich and Evesham who had been the party co-chair up until now, will be the new shadow culture secretary. Lisa Nandy is his opposite number.
Defecting Welsh Tory says she could no longer justify Conservative policies on doorsteps
Here are some fuller quotes from Senedd politician Laura Anne Jones’s defection speech. She was flanked by Nigel Farage and former Welsh secretary David Jones as she addressed the audience at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells.
After 31 years in the Conservative party I have just suddenly felt that the Conservative party was unrecognisable to me.
It was not the party I joined over three decades ago. I could no longer justify on the doorsteps Conservative policies that were happening and I could no longer deal with the membership and face the membership and justify what the party were doing.
It is a tough decision obviously to be here today. Like any break up, there are some good bits and there are some really good people that I will miss in Westminster, in Wales, colleagues and members.
I always hold them in high regard. But this isn’t about them. This is bigger than that.
This is what is right for the people of Wales, the people of Britain. And I truly believe that I have joined a party today in Reform UK that listens to people, that is listening to the people of Great Britain … and speaks to me and I know speaks to many people in terms of the values that it offers and what it wants to see done.
Wales is a complete mess as you know. We have the worst educational outcomes, we have the health statistics that are the worst in the UK.
Farmers are getting battered, pensioners are getting battered, vulnerable people are getting battered and we can’t have this go on.
Laura Anne Jones said the Conservatives were a party she “no longer recognised” and she could “no longer justify” its policies.
She said her defection was “about the people of Wales” – and that Reform “speaks to me” and “is listening to the people of Great Britain”.
Speaking at the Royal Welsh Show, Jones said:
I’ve just suddenly felt that the Conservative party was unrecognisable to me. It wasn’t the party that I joined over three decades ago.
Reform gets first Senedd member as Welsh Tory Laura Anne Jones defects
Conservative Senedd member Laura Anne Jones, who represents South Wales East, has defected to Reform UK, becoming the party’s first representative in Wales.
The announcement was made a short while ago at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, Powys.
Jones’s defection means the Conservatives are down to 14 politicians in the Welsh parliament.
Some recent polls have put Reform as the largest party at next May’s Senedd election, when Welsh voters will elect 96 members to the Welsh parliament for the first time – a rise of more than 50%.
Labour has led every Welsh government since devolution in 1999, but the new proportional election system makes it easier for Reform to gain a bigger number of seats in Wales than it did in Westminster at the general election.
As we reported in the opening post, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch is set to reshuffle her shadow cabinet this afternoon.
James Cleverly, the former Conservative home and foreign secretary, is expected to return to the frontbench in a prominent role.
We don’t know who will be replaced but my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker are reporting that the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, will stay in his place.
The BBC is reporting that no one from the 2024 intake of Tory MPs will get a promotion to the shadow cabinet. The bulk of the shadow cabinet reshuffles are expected in the afternoon.
Record number of children homeless in temporary accommodation in England
Matthew Pearce
Matthew Pearce is a reporter for the Guardian
Government statutory homelessness figures released today reveal another record high number of homeless children living in temporary accommodation in England.
Figures for January to March 2025 lay bare how England’s housing crisis is still accelerating. The record 169,050 children living in temporary accommodation is a 12% rise in a year and the ninth consecutive record since December 2022.
Overall, there are now 131,140 households homeless in temporary accommodation in England.
A third of households are housed in temporary accommodation outside of their home area – up 14% from last year.
Nearly half of London households homeless in temporary accommodation are placed outside their local authority. In Manchester, this figure is over a third.
Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at homelessness charity Shelter, said of the figures:
As an immediate relief for struggling families, the government must unfreeze local housing allowance in the Autumn Budget, so it covers at least the bottom third of local rents.
But there’s only one way to ensure everyone has access to a safe and secure home in the long run, and that’s social rent homes. The government must now get on and deliver the new social rent homes it’s committed to and ramp up to 90,000 a year for ten years.
The governor of the Bank of England has said it “would not be sensible” for the government to scrap the bank ring-fencing regime, after Rachel Reeves announced plans to reform the system last week.
Andrew Bailey also stressed that the UK cannot “compromise” on financial stability amid the Treasury’s plans to rip up red tape across the sector, PA reported.
“I do think the ring-fencing regime is an important part of the structure of the banking system,” he told MPs on the Treasury committee.
“It makes the resolution of banks if they’re in trouble much easier, and it benefits, particularly in terms of the UK, consumers, business and households.
“I’m sure there are things that can be improved and we will work constructively to get through that process.”
“I think it has established itself as part of the system and to me it would not be sensible to take it away at this point,” he clarified.
