Politics

The Government's free school meals plan threatens to leave children hungry and cut jobs, according to the union that represents school catering and lunchtime supervision staff. GMB has responded to the Department for Education’s consultation on free school meal entitlement under Universal Credit, saying the plans are a “cut disguised as a kindness.” The response casts doubt on the Government’s claim that more pupils will be entitled to free school meals than under the current system. The union’s analysis reveals that: Under...

Union calls for urgent review of private sector contract awards as company collapse plunges workers and services into crisis GMB, Britain’s general union has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to act immediately to take Carillion contracts into public ownership after the company went into liquidation today. The union called for a full and transparent inquiry into the provision of public services by private sector contractors once jobs and services were secured. Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary said: “The Prime Minister...

A petition has been launched to urge the government to investigate allegations that MPs and peers raped and assaulted children throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem MPs and peers have been named in the appeal for investigation, including Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Sir Edward Leigh MP and the Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP. According to campaign group Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse there are several political figures who are widely named by child abuse survivors and contemporary witnesses...

A vet campaigning for a hard Brexit has ended up in the dog house over an anti-EU poster - which says Europe has already "raped" Britain over a deal. Trevor Dixon, 69, donned the slogan in big black lettering on the window of his veterinarian practice in Goole, East Yorks. The poster reads: “Britain has been raped by Europe! Now, she is about to be ridiculed!” Mr Dixon, who once stood for the Brigg and Goole parliamentary seat as an...

Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson has engaged in a battle of words with his predecessor over the visit of Donald Trump to the UK - calling the Labour politician a "puffed up pompous popinjay". Sadiq Khan said President Trump's decision to cancel his planned trip to the UK shows he "got the message" from Londoners who "find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city's values". Speaking shortly after Trump's announcement that he wouldn't be opening the new...

The Government of Botswana has today made public a press release condemning Donald Trump's alleged terming of African nations as "shithole countries". According to reports Trump expressed frustration behind closed doors with people coming to the US from places such as Africa and Haiti. He said: "Why do we want all these people from 'shithole countries' coming here?" A statement released by the government in Botswana has moved to ridicule the comments, calling them "highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist". It reads: "The Government of...

An EU diplomat has told the UK to "stop dicking around" following news that a second referendum may be on the cards. Nigel Farage yesterday sparked rumours that the UK may go back to the polls over the decision to leave the EU. The former UKIP leader said: "I’m reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership" on Channel 5's the Wright Stuff. But although a second vote could lead to the UK...

Donald Trump today tweeted that he has cancelled a trip to the UK because he is unhappy with the "sale" of the US embassy in Mayfair. The President was expected to cut the ribbon at the new state-of-the-art development in Nine Elms, but blamed the Obama Administration for overseeing the sale of the embassy for peanuts only to build a new one in an "off location". However, commentators have since pointed out that the announcement is littered with fake news. The...

A new report published today by Cambridge Econometrics on behalf of the Mayor of London has revealed that a hard Brexit would increase inequality between London and the rest of the UK. It says that the effects of leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union would be “noticeably more severe for the rest of the UK than for London, which implies that the rest of the UK will be much worse off than London following Brexit.” Commenting, Ben Bradshaw...