‘Don’t pay any attention to what Trump says about medicine’, Wes Streeting tells Britons – UK politics live | Politics

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According to a report by Max Kendix in the Times, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, will be writing to than two million people who voted Conservative last year urging them to join his party instead.

But Kendix says Sir John Curtice, the leading psephologist, has argued that targeting Tory voters would be a mistake for the Lib Dems because they might do better focusing on disenchanted Labour supporters instead. Curtice told the Times:

You do not have to win votes from your principal opponent in order to defeat them. The Lib Dems picked up quite a lot of tactical support at the general election because people were so desperate to get rid of the Tories that they were willing to switch from Labour and the Greens. The one thing the Lib Dems were not particularly reliant on was winning votes from the Tories.

At the weekend More in Common UK, the campaign group that works to make society more united and inclusive, published a report based on polling looking at support for the Lib Dems, and the options they have.

More in Common identified three potential ways forward for Davey’s party.

In his speech this afternoon Davey is also expected to argue that his party is better placed than Labour or the Tories to offer voters a change – and better placed than Reform UK to offer a change that would benefit the country. He has been making this argument in interviews.

But More in Common also found that 55% of people want “fast, radical change” – and only 11% of people think that is what the Lib Dems are offering.

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Trump’s comments offensive to women and reveal ‘blatant prejudice towards autism’, says Alliance MP

Sorcha Eastwood, the Alliance MP from Northern Ireland, says President Trump’s comments were not just completely wrong; they were offensive to women, and to people with autism.

The statement from President Trump about Paracetemol and autism is completely unfounded.

Not just that, but it is wrapped in blame towards women and shaming women. I’m sure Trump has never been pregnant or tried to prepare his body for pregnancy and it’s already a highly stressful time when you query every single thing you put in your body.

To hear from the most powerful Office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women. To hear that if you take paracetamol during pregnancy that you will give your child autism is completely unfounded and untrue.

Further, the language and attitude displayed by Trump and RFK his Health Secretary is showing their blatant prejudice towards autism.

People with autism do not need cured, and folic acid is not the “cure”.

It was bad enough when Trump encouraged people to drink bleach and take horse wormer to fight covid, but this is on a different level.

Absolute nonsense and designed to create fear and shame in women and to send a signal that autism is a “disease “ to be “cured”. Utterly, utterly shameful.

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Davey accuses Trump of peddling ‘dangerous nonsense’ about autism and paracetamol

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, criticised Donald Trump for “the cruelty and stupidity” of his approach to medical research in comments distributed yesterday before Trump made bogus claims about autism in the Oval Office. (See 8.41am.) Now Davey has described the president’s latest comments as “dangerous nonsense”.

First Trump slashed funding for vaccines research now he’s peddling dangerous nonsense about paracetamol.

The UK should take on Trump’s anti-science agenda and open our doors to US researchers.

And this is from Danny Chambers, the Lib Dem mental health spokesperson.

The US government is ignoring science and deliberately spreading misinformation. It will get people killed. And we have a Reform party that seems quite keen to import their health advice from these people.

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Updated at 07.24 EDT

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Labour thinktank suggests asylum seekers should be encouraged to find job, not banned from working as now

According to a story by Patrick Maguire in the Times, a key Labour thinktank is also floating the idea – backed by the Liberal Democrats (see 11.24am) – that asylum seekers should be allowed to work while their claims are being processed.

Maguire says a paper from Labour Together (the Morgan McSweeney outfit – see 9.45am) is circulating a paper in government called The Case of Contribution. Keir Starmer has always had difficulty setting out a personal, political philosophy, and many of his critics argue that this is a problem because, they say, his non-ideological managerialism has not been very inspiring.

Maguire says the notion of contribution – re-establishing the link between what people get out of the state, and what they put in – could provide an answer.

The Labour Together paper makes its case by giving individual examples and this is what it says about asylum seekers. Maguire reports:

Boldest of the lot are the proposals on migration, which, if taken up even in part, would represent the biggest paradigm shift of all. Reform UK has set the agenda with proposals to deny benefits to even legal migrants. By the standards of the centre-left, Labour Together’s suggestion is just as radical.

Rather than leave Isak, an Eritrean with post-traumatic stress disorder, languishing in an asylum hotel, their paper proposes he be granted time-limited refugee status for six months. He signs a contract that obliges him to learn English, find work and private accommodation; his access to any income support via universal credit is strictly conditional on him fulfilling its terms. Of all the changes suggested, this one – given that asylum seekers cannot currently work legally – would have the most profound consequences for British politics and the economy.

In an interview on the Today programme this morning Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, said that allowing asylum seekers to work in the UK would increase the pull factor, encouraging migrants to cross the channel in small boats.

But experts dispute this. Here is an extract from an Economist article this week saying the case for allowing asylum seekers to work is “compelling”. It says:

Why an asylum-seeker is drawn to Britain over, say, France is not obvious. A 2016 report from Warwick University, based on findings from 29 separate studies into asylum-seeker motives, concluded that social networks and shared languages were crucial. The report could not find a single study showing a significant correlation between work rights and destination choice. If asylum-seekers in Calais were motivated by working rights those who had yet to apply would stay in France, where they could work sooner.

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Lib Dems call for asylum seekers to be allowed to work after 3 months waiting for decision

At the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this morning members have passed two emergency motions.

On digital rights, the Lib Dems are calling for an urgent parliamentary review on “whether the Online Safety Act is meeting its stated aims of keeping children and other vulnerable groups safe online, whether it is fit for purpose, and what further legislation may be required to ensure that the aims of keeping children and other vulnerable groups safe online”.

And, on the asylum system, members voted for a motion with five proposals. They say the government should:

End the use of asylum hotels by speeding up application processing so thousands aren’t stuck in limbo and those with valid claims can work, integrate and contribute, while those without a right to remain can be returned swiftly.

Lift the ban on employment for asylum seekers who’ve waited over three months for a decision.

Immediately restore family reunification pathways for refugees.

Increase cross-border cooperation, including through a leadership role for the UK in Europol, to tackle criminal gangs and stop dangerous Channel crossings at their source.

Publicly and unequivocally reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the ECHR – and reject any attempt to undermine the legal protections it provides.

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UK to suffer highest inflation in G7 this year, says OECD

The UK is set to suffer the highest inflation among G7 nations this year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned. Heather Stewart has the story.

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Minister rules out plan for 2p cut in NI, and 2p rise in income tax in thinktank report proposing tax rises worth £30bn

Rachel Reeves has been urged to take 2p off the rate of employee national insurance and add it to income tax in her autumn budget, to raise billions of pounds while protecting workers’ pay packets, Richard Partington reports.

The proposal is in a report from the Resolution Foundation thinktank that suggests tax changes that could raise more than £30bn in the budget. The list is here.

The Resolution Foundation is sometimes described as the most powerful thinktank in the UK because many of its alumni now have key roles in government. The Economist’s Bagehot summed this up in a recent column.

Torsten Bell, the boyish pensions minister, now has the unenviable task of helping pull together a painful budget. Before entering Parliament, Mr Bell spent nine years as the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation (RF), a centre-left think-tank. Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, is now Downing Street’s economic adviser. She was the co-chair of rf’s The Economy 2030 Inquiry. Dan Tomlinson, an even more boyish mp and a former economist at RF, is now a Treasury minister. Overseeing this reshuffle? Vidhya Alakeson, the deputy chief of staff in Downing Street and formerly rf’s deputy chief executive.

If the fate of Labour’s spending plans is now in the hands of RF veterans, its supply-side agenda always was. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister and another former RF researcher, oversees the party’s planning reforms—the keystone of its growth strategy.

But it would be a mistake to assume that the Resolution Foundation and the government agree on everything. Ruth Curtice, who replaced Bell as its chief executive, was on the Today programme this morning and she was asked if she was floating the ideas in today’s report on behalf of Bell. Not at all, she said. “These ideas are mine, I’m now in charge of the Resolution Foundation, and we’re not particularly close.”

And Pennycook himself was doing interviews this morning. Asked if the government would adopt the RF plan to cut national insurance by 2p, and add 2p to income tax instead, he replied:

We’re going to honour our commitments not to increase the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT on the pay packets of working people.

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Updated at 05.54 EDT

Wes Streeting tells Britons ‘don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Trump says about medicine’

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged pregnant women to ignore Donald Trump’s bogus claims about a link between taking paracetamol and autism.

Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, Streeting said:

I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this.

Streeting explained:

I’ve just got to be really clear about this: there is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.

In fact, a major study was done back in 2024 in Sweden, involving 2.4 million children, and it did not uphold those claims.

So I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine. In fact, don’t even take my word for it, as a politician – listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS.

It’s really important that a time when you know there is scepticism – and I don’t think scepticism itself, asking questions is in itself a bad thing, by all means, ask questions – but we’ve got to follow medical science.

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Updated at 07.15 EDT

Labour rejects Tory claims Starmer broke rules by not declaring Labour Together donations during leadership campaign

The Conservatives have written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards calling for an investigation into allegations that Keir Starmer may have failed to declare “potentially thousands of pounds’ worth” of support from campaign group Labour Together when he ran for the Labour leadership in 2020.

This is the third investigation that the Tories have demanded within 48 hours in relation to a controversy about Labour Together, a group originally run by Morgan McSweeney, who is now Starmer’s chief of staff. Labour Together was set up to fight Corbynism in the party when Jeremy Corbyn was in charge and it eventually played a crucial, though largely behind-the-scenes, role in helping Starmer to become leader in 2020.

The group failed to declare donations worth £730,000 to the Electoral Commission and was investigated in 2021 and fined. These facts have been known for years. But interest in the story has been revived by publication of a new book, The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy, by Paul Holden.

On Sunday the Tories demanded a police investgation into claims that McSweeney deliberately did not disclose the donations. McSweeney has said the non-disclosure was inadvertent, the result of an administrative error.

Last night Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, wrote to the Electoral Commission demanding an inquiry.

And this morning Hollinrake has released the text of a letter to Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In the letter he says:

Between January and April 2020, Labour held a leadership contest. Evidence from that period suggests that the prime minister accepted potentially thousands of pounds’ worth of advice and polling via the members’ association Labour Together. A review of his register of members’ interests for that time reveals no record of these donations. The parliamentary rules are clear that “support in kind” from Labour Together should have been declared, but it was not.

In 2021, the Electoral Commission fined Labour Together for failing to report donations covering the period 2017 to 2020. New evidence has since come to light which raises questions as to whether this failure was deliberate, in an attempt to mislead the Electoral Commission. At the time, the prime minister’s now Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, was a director at Labour Together and responsible for legal compliance.

This new information prompts a re-evaluation of Labour Together’s activities between 2017 and 2020. Labour Together itself has claimed that it “helped to rally the party membership behind Keir Starmer” and that it “united the party behind Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign”.

Reports indicate that Labour Together, under Morgan McSweeney, spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on polling, which was then used in Starmer’s leadership campaign. This support was not declared.

Labour Together also provided written materials and strategic support. The organisation was involved in preparing Sir Keir’s first speech as Labour leader, yet this assistance does not appear in the Register. Notably, at this time the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, did register donations for the “provision of research and writing services”, yet the prime minister did not.

Hollinrake suggests Starmer broke the rules saying MPs must declare support worth more than £1,500, including “support in kind”.

In response, a Labour source said:

Neither Keir, nor his leadership campaign accepted monetary or in kind donations from Labour Together during the leadership election.

Commenting on the Tory approach to the Electoral Commission, a commission spokesperson said the issue had been “thoroughly investigated” in 2021 and had been “satisfied that the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that failures by the association occurred without reasonable excuse”. She added: “Offences were determined and they were sanctioned accordingly.”

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Updated at 05.08 EDT

Business secretary Peter Kyle to visit Jaguar Land Rover as shutdown extended by a week

Peter Kyle, the business secretary, will visit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to meet companies in the supply chain as the carmaker extended its shutdown into October after a cyber-attack, PA Media reports.

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Ed Davey to attack ‘cruelty and stupidity’ of Trump administration in speech to Lib Dem conference

Good morning. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, will deliver his keynote speech to his party’s conference today and he is going to use it to attack “the cruelty and stupidity” of the Trump administration in the US. He will be referring in particular to its attitude to medical research, according to extracts from the speech briefed in advance. Davey is expected to say:

The United States is by far the world’s biggest funder of cancer research – mostly through its National Cancer Institute. But since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has cancelled hundreds of grants for cancer research projects.

He’s slashing billions of dollars from the National Cancer Institute’s budget. He’s even ordered a review of all grants for research involving supposedly ‘woke’ keywords – including the word ‘women’.

And last month, Trump’s health secretary – Robert Kennedy Jr – cancelled half a billion dollars’ worth of research into mRNA vaccines. He did it based on totally false conspiracy theories about these life-saving vaccines. The same type of vaccines that protected us from Covid just a few years ago …

It is hard to express the cruelty and stupidity of cutting off research into medicine that has the power to save so many lives. A decision – by the way – that was enthusiastically applauded by Farage’s party at their conference. I don’t think we should let the Trump Administration hold back progress on tackling cancer like this.

Davey’s embargoed comments were briefed to the media before Trump used a White House press conference to make bogus claims about the causes of autism, and so the Davey speech could not be more topical. A day after Nigel Farage outlined plans to deport hundreds of thousands of foreigners, Davey will be speaking up for immigration. Specifically, he will say the government should set up a dedicated fellowship scheme to lure US cancer researchers, who are appalled by the Trump policies, to the UK.

Peter Walker has a full preview here.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Liberal Democrats start the final day of their conference with emergency debates on digital rights and the asylum system.

10am: The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development publishes its latest interim economic outlook, with its latest forecasts for the UK economy.

2.20pm: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, closes his party conference with his keynote speech.

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Updated at 04.12 EDT