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      Tory donor’s knighthood is sign Sunak ‘believes he’s on way out’, Labour says

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 09:20

    Anneliese Dodds says the honour for Mohamed Mansour appears clearly tied to his £5m donation to the Tories

    Rishi Sunak’s decision to hand a knighthood to a businessman and former Egyptian government minister who donated £5m to the Conservative party is the sign of a prime minister who “simply believes he’s on the way out”, Labour has said.

    Mohamed Mansour, a senior treasurer of the Tory party for just over a year, was among surprise recipients of honours unexpectedly announced late on Thursday , who also included a series of Conservative MPs.

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      Businessman who donated £5m to Tories gets knighthood

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 19:26

    Mohamed Mansour, a Conservative senior treasurer, is one of several surprise recipients of honours

    A businessman and former Egyptian government minister who donated £5m to the Conservative party last year has unexpectedly been given a knighthood on the recommendation of Rishi Sunak.

    Mohamed Mansour, a senior treasurer of the Conservative party for just over a year, was one of several surprise recipients of honours on Thursday, with the citation saying it was given for business, charity and political service.

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      Sunak and Gove accused of caving in to lobbying in favour of landlords

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 17:10

    Opposition MPs criticise changes to renters’ reform bill, which cast doubt on removal of no-fault evictions

    Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove have been accused of caving in to Tory MPs lobbying in favour of landlords’ interests after it emerged that significant aspects of the renters’ reform bill are to be watered down.

    Changes will include an amendment to prevent tenants ending contracts in a tenancy’s first six months, and another casting doubt on the removal of no-fault evictions, a minister told MPs in a leaked letter.

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      Starmer praises ambition behind Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda and blames Sunak for blocking it – politics live

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 09:28 · 1 minute

    Labour leader and deputy Angela Rayner hail parts of former prime minister’s flagship domestic policy priority and say Sunak ‘killed it at birth’ while chancellor

    Official figures have confirmed that the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year, after the latest estimate found it contracted in the last two quarters of 2023, Phillip Inman reports.

    Good morning. Keir Starmer is launching Labour’s local elections campaign this morning, and to mark the event he has discovered his inner Boris Johnson. He has written a joint article with Angela Rayner , Labour’s deputy leader, praising the ambition behind levelling up, Johnson’s flagship domestic policy priority.

    Where you are born often dictates where you end up. That people from Blackpool have a life expectancy of ten years fewer than those in Westminster is a travesty. Instead of pitting areas against one another and relying on the square mile of the City of London to keep the UK economy afloat, we’ll tackle Britain’s regional divide and match the ambition people have for their community. It will be at the heart of our mission-led government.

    It’s understandable that working people might have become disillusioned or cynical, because one of the biggest tragedies of the past 14 years is the sense that things can’t change. But they can and they will.

    Whitehall under the Tories has become too passive and overly centralised. We will turn that on its head, delivering a far more active central government willing to give local leaders the levers needed to turbocharge their areas. We will change the relationship. Partnership in pursuit of common national missions, not buck-passing and division.

    Our Take Back Control Act will entrust power to local leaders, who know their area best and have skin in the game. We will widen English devolution so that every community is taking advantage of the opportunities it brings. We will deepen devolution so combined authorities have a path to gaining powers over transport, skills, housing and planning, employment support, energy and can get a long-term integrated funding settlement in return for exemplary frameworks for managing public money. This will enable local leaders to develop powerful local growth plans that attract specialist industries and enhance their local strengths.

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      Blow for Sunak as revised figures confirm UK did go into recession last year

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 07:02

    Latest estimate from ONS says GDP declined by 0.3% in final quarter of 2023

    Official figures have confirmed the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year, after the latest estimate found it had contracted in the last two quarters of 2023.

    In a blow to the government’s economic standing, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy, measured by gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of the year, unrevised from an earlier estimate.

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      Exit of two more Tory ministers forces Sunak into mini-reshuffle

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 17:27


    Robert Halfon and James Heappey join exodus of Tory MPs from Commons as party languishes in polls

    Two Tory ministers have quit the government in a double blow to Rishi Sunak, who will now be forced to carry out a mini-reshuffle of the junior ranks.

    Veteran MP Robert Halfon unexpectedly announced he would step down as education minister and would be leaving the Commons at the next general election.

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      Sunak denies ‘crisis’ in local government funding despite bankruptcy warnings

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 17:09

    Prime minister tells MPs the priority is to get inflation down even though English councils need another £4bn to maintain services

    Rishi Sunak has denied there is a “crisis” in local government funding despite warnings that well-run councils are on the brink of bankruptcy and local services at risk without more support.

    The prime minister admitted that councils faced “challenges”, in particular with inflation, which has significantly outpaced recent cash injections, at the cross-party liaison committee.

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      Party leaders to be asked to supply more information on proposed peers

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 15:30

    House of Lords Appointment Commission head says new forms for potential peers to be published

    Rishi Sunak ad Keir Starmer will be asked to supply more due diligence about the peers they are proposing for the House of Lords, the appointments commission chief has said.

    Ruth Deech, the head of the House of Lords Appointment Commission (Holac), said party leaders currently only provide “sketchy” information about the potential lords and ladies they put forward to her watchdog for vetting.

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