Downing Street confirms first batch of junior ministers
Downing Street has now confirmed the first swathe of junior ministers appointed in the reshuffle.
The list is as follows:
Jason Stockwood has been appointed investment minister jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury
Dan Jarvis joins the Cabinet Office as a minister, while remaining security minister in the Home Office
Lady Jacqui Smith has taken up the role of skills minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. She will remain as both the skills and women and equalities minister in the Department for Education
Lord Patrick Vallance as a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. He will remain minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Michael Shanks as a minister jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Alison McGovern has been appointed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Dame Angela Eagle will join the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Dame Diana Johnson has moved to the Department for Work and Pensions
Sarah Jones MP has been appointed to the Home Office
Lady Poppy Gustafsson, Jim McMahon and Daniel Zeichner have left the government.
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A summary of today’s developments
Downing Street has confirmed the first swathe of junior ministers appointed in the reshuffle. Jason Stockwood has been appointed investment minister jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury, while Dan Jarvis joins the Cabinet Office as a minister, while remaining security minister in the Home Office.
Lady Jacqui Smith has taken up the role of skills minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. She will remain as both the skills and women and equalities minister in the Department for Education, while Lord Patrick Vallance is a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Dame Angela Eagle will join the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Dame Diana Johnson has moved to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Lady Poppy Gustafsson, Jim McMahon and Daniel Zeichner have left the government.
Justin Madders was the first junior minister to be sacked in Saturday’s further reshuffle. The minister for employment rights, who worked under former business secretary, now chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds at the Department for Business and Trade, said he had been dismissed.
Ellie Reeves is solicitor general, while Anna Turley will succeed Reeves as Labour Party chair who will attend cabinet.
Lucy Rigby has been moved from solicitor general to economic secretary to the Treasury, while Luke Pollard has received a promotion from under-secretary of state to minister of state.
Nigel Farage said he misspoke when he said he bought a house in Clacton before the last election. The Reform leader said last year he had bought a home in his Clacton constituency, but it was later reported that his partner had actually made the purchase.He told Sky News: “I should have said ‘we’. All right? My partner bought it, so what?” He said it was “her money” and “her asset”. “I own none of it. But I just happen to spend some time there.”
Labour’s most powerful union backer has warned that Keir Starmer is in danger of bolstering support for Nigel Farage, arguing that the government has failed to support oil and gas workers and watered down plans to boost employment rights. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said voters could be left feeling “duped” by Labour after the government scaled back planned changes to ban zero-hours contracts and exploitative “fire-and-rehire” practices.
Newly appointed business secretary Peter Kyle has confirmed to business chiefs that he will meet the Trump administration in Washington next week ahead of travelling to China for trade talks. On a video call of around 100 CEOs, entrepreneurs and trade unions, he highlighted the importance of technology to boost the economy and said the UK must “double down” on growth as he sought to set the tone for his future in the role.
The UK cannot take its “special relationship” with the US for granted, Britain’s ambassador to Washington has warned.
In a wide-ranging speech, Lord Peter Mandelson, a key architect of New Labour, said the country cannot afford to show any “complacency” over Donald Trump’s “instinctive warmth”.
The former minister, who was a staunch Remainer during the EU referendum, also painted Brexit as a liberating force that has allowed Britain to pursue closer ties with America.
Speaking at the Ditchley Foundation, a charity focused on transatlantic relations, he said: “Like it or not, our US partnership has become indispensable to the functioning of our nation.
“Beyond President Trump’s instinctive warmth towards Britain – and it’s real – we cannot simply take it for granted that the breadth of this, and of future US administrations, will see the value of the special relationship in the way that we do.
“There can be no complacency on our part.
“It is vital that we demonstrate to the next tier of US political leadership and to the next Republican and Democrat generations, exactly how UK partnerships in economics, technology and security deliver tangible value for Americans and Brits alike.”
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Ben Quinn
A controversial doctor given top billing at the Reform party conference has used his main-stage speech to air a claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family.
The speech by Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who was appointed as a senior adviser to the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy, drew sharp intakes of breath in the Birmingham auditorium where he was handed a prime speaking slot.
After setting out what he said were findings showing that vaccines “created havoc” in the human body, Malhotra said he had been asked to share something by a doctor who he described as one of Britain’s most eminent oncologists.
“He thinks it’s highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a factor, a significant factor in the cancer of members of the royal family,” said Malhotra, who had previously said: “This isn’t just his opinion many other doctors feel the same way.”
The remarks drew immediate condemnation from the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and others.
“When we are seeing falling numbers of parents getting their children vaccinated, and a resurgence of disease we had previously eradicated, it is shockingly irresponsible for Nigel Farage to give a platform to these poisonous lies,” said Streeting.
“Farage should apologise and sever all ties with this dangerous extremism.”
A spokesperson for Cancer Research UK said: “There is no good evidence of a link between the Covid-19 vaccine and cancer risk. The vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect against the infection and prevent serious symptoms.”
Sarah Jones’ new role in the Home Office is as policing minister, the PA news agency understands.
Newly appointed business secretary Peter Kyle has confirmed to business chiefs that he will meet the Trump administration in Washington next week ahead of travelling to China for trade talks.
On a video call of around 100 CEOs, entrepreneurs and trade unions, he highlighted the importance of technology to boost the economy and said the UK must “double down” on growth as he sought to set the tone for his future in the role.
He said: “I want Government to be seen as an active partner that delivers success, supports new business and backs wealth creation.
“This Government’s number one mission is economic growth. We need to crack on and do it. We must double down, while being creative and unrelenting in pursuit of our goal.
“I want this to be the greatest place to start a business, or scale up. We haven’t maximised the potential in this country, and I’m ambitious in wanting to see the first trillion-dollar company to emerge from the UK.”
Kyle also confirmed he would be in Washington early next week to engage with the White House ahead of the US president’s state visit, before travelling to Beijing for trade talks.
Labour’s most powerful union backer has warned that Keir Starmer is in danger of bolstering support for Nigel Farage, arguing that the government has failed to support oil and gas workers and watered down plans to boost employment rights.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said voters could be left feeling “duped” by Labour after the government scaled back planned changes to ban zero-hours contracts and exploitative “fire-and-rehire” practices.
As polls show Reform UK on course to become the largest party in the next parliament, the leader of the UK’s largest private sector union said Labour had not adopted its proposals to create new jobs for workers in fossil fuel industries.
Speaking to the Guardian before the start of the annual TUC conference on Sunday, Graham said Labour had a short time to turn things around or see support from union members leach away to other parties.
“They have one year to get this right because Nigel Farage is on their tail.
“And don’t get me wrong, Farage is not the answer, but he is a good communicator. And whether we like it or not, when he is talking about net zero, and about what’s happened to communities and workers, people are hearing what Labour used to say.”
She said that, with high inflation already taking a toll on household budgets, mooted tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget would be the final straw for many Labour voters.
Graham said Labour needed to avoid taxing workers to fill the gap in the public finances and start drawing up plans for a wealth tax.
“If this keeps happening, the feeling that workers always pay, but they’re leaving the super-rich totally untouched – I think they won’t recover from it,” she said.
Downing Street has announced the latest batch of ministerial appointments.
Ellie Reeves is solicitor general, while Anna Turley will succeed Reeves as Labour Party chair who will attend cabinet.
Lucy Rigby has been moved from solicitor general to economic secretary to the Treasury, while Luke Pollard has received a promotion from under-secretary of state to minister of state.
Here is the full list:
Anna Turley MP as Minister of State in the Cabinet Office (Minister without Portfolio).
Alex Norris MP as Minister of State in the Home Department.
Sir Chris Bryant MP as Minister of State in the Department for Business and Trade.
Luke Pollard MP as Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence.
Georgia Gould MP as Minister of State in the Department for Education.
Rt Hon Ellie Reeves MP as Solicitor General.
Lucy Rigby MP as Parliamentary Secretary (Economic Secretary to the Treasury) in HM Treasury.
Nigel Farage has urged Reform UK members to keep their disputes private as he returned to the stage to close the party’s annual conference.
“My sort of big message at the end of this conference as we head towards those massive elections in Wales, in Scotland, in London, in the Midlands and elsewhere next year, is that you are the people’s army,” he said.
“And to succeed it needs one thing: discipline. Can we please exercise discipline?
“And air our disagreements between each other in private and not in public. And if we do that, we will succeed.”
He brought MP Lee Anderson to the stage and said he would be the party’s welfare spokesman.
Farage ended the Reform UK conference by bringing fellow elected party politicians onstage to sing the national anthem.
He handed the microphone to Greater Lincolnshire mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns to sing.
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Phillip Inman
Rachel Reeves could stop giving money away if she wants to close the UK’s looming spending gap. And baby boomers could be her first target.
At the moment the chancellor gives away more than £50bn in tax relief for pension saving, most of which goes to wealthier boomers and better-paid gen Xers who do not need the money and would save anyway if state support was more limited.
A remodelling of pension subsidies – cutting the 40p higher rate to a flat rate of 25p for all savers – could claw back £10bn to £20bn in extra income tax and national insurance payments, depending on how the new regime is constructed.
In a separate but related move, Reeves could reduce or scrap the tax-free allowance, a privilege that allows for a quarter of retirement savings to be taken as a tax-free lump sum.
Richard Tice also joked about using weight loss jabs to slim down the government.
He said: “There’s a jab flying around, a jab that sort of helps reduce the size of our waste.
“So, I thought, ‘well, maybe should we apply a bit of the old Wegovy to slim down the civil service, a touch of the old Mounjaro to reduce the size of the quangos and … last but not least, a bit of the Ozempic to reduce the bloated welfare state’.”