Starmer criticised over action against Labour rebels
Rachael Maskell, who spearheaded plans to halt the Government's welfare reforms, had the whip suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff.
Responding to Sir Keir's attempt to assert his authority over the party, York Central MP Ms Maskell said: 'On this occasion, I don't think he's got it right.'
She told the BBC: 'I really hope from this process there will be reflection over the summer, but also learning.
'There needs to be a better reach-out to backbenchers to ensure that we are the safeguards of our Government.'
The four MPs all voted against the Government over the welfare reform legislation, but party sources said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion.
Government minister Jess Phillips said the four should not be surprised by the action against them.
The Home Office minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There has to be an element of discipline otherwise you end up not being able to govern.'
She added: 'I think that constantly taking to the airwaves and slagging off your own Government, I have to say, what did you think was going to happen?'
On Sky News she said: 'We were elected as a team under a banner and under a manifesto, and we have to seek to work together, and if you are acting in a manner that is to undermine the ability of the Government to deliver those things, I don't know what you expect.'
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Glasgow Times
13 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
MSP hits out at plans for new solar wind farm in Eaglesham
An application for the project at Bonnyton Golf Club has been lodged with East Renfrewshire Council. Contractors Advance Grid Solutions has proposed the installation of 41,000 Solar Photovoltaics, aiming for an anticipated export capacity of up to 28 megawatts (MW). Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, has voiced strong opposition to the planned development, arguing that it would significantly erode greenbelt land in Eaglesham. The bid follows East Renfrewshire Council's decision in April to grant planning permission for a 40MW battery energy storage facility located just over two miles from the golf club on the east side of Glasgow Road. Carlaw said: 'There is a serious risk that large swathes of greenbelt land in Eaglesham could now be lost to development. 'The solar farm proposal suggests that the unacceptable decision of Labour and Independent councillors to grant planning permission for the battery plant may lead to a stream of applications for energy infrastructure projects on our local greenfield sites. 'There is no evidence in the planning support statement that the applicant has fulfilled a key requirement of Scotland's National Planning Framework 4 to identify and explore if the development can be on land that is not part of the greenbelt.' Carlaw said that while planning powers are devolved to Scotland, the position of the previous UK Conservative Government was that brownfield areas should be prioritised for solar development. He added: 'It is vital that the case continues to be made for protecting Eaglesham's green belt and I urge local residents to object to the solar farm planning application.' A statement accompanying the planning application for the solar wind farm states: 'The 28 MW array will supply ~29 GWh/yr of zero-carbon electricity, advancing national and Local Development Plan 2 goals. 'LVIA (Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment) confirms no significant landscape or visual effects from the well-screened site; LEMP (Landscape and Ecological Management Plan) secures native planting and a measurable biodiversity net-gain with no impact on designated habitats. 'Cultural-heritage, glint-and-glare and aviation assessments record no significant residual effects.' An East Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: 'The application will be considered in due course.' Advance Grid Solutions has been approached for comment. Comments supporting or objecting to the proposal can be made by typing in the reference number – 2025/0405/TP – on the planning applications search page of East Renfrewshire Council's website.
The Herald Scotland
39 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
'I hated how Sandie Peggie's daughter was used against her'
Jackie Baillie has sized up the situation too and moves across to exchange greetings with him. This jocund character is a constituent and he recognises her immediately, delighted that his MSP, the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, is giving him the time of day. I've been trying all morning to bring out the 'designated b****** in Ms Baillie, this being the locution Anas Sarwar once coined for her. He'd said it with a twinkle in his eye, but several Labour politicians and party retainers might have experienced a chill. Almost everyone involved in Scottish politics has, at some point, asked the question I'm about to raise with her: why did you never want to be leader of Labour in Scotland? It would have been there for the taking if she'd really wanted it. The party had turned to her twice to steady the ship when the leader's chair was temporarily vacant. She's possessed of a formidable political intellect which puts her in the Champions League bracket of UK politicians, so she could have done the job no danger. 'People should know their own limitations,' she says. 'I've never really been comfortable about some of the public-facing stuff. I'm not delusional about what I can and can't do.' I'm not buying that, though. 'Come on, Jackie: look at some of the clowns who currently hold down cabinet positions in Scotland.' She'll say only that there are a lot of people on the SNP's backbenches who 'have struggled to make a contribution'. 'You mean they're as thick as sauce,' is how I'm putting it. 'I'm not saying that,' she laughs in mock outrage. She pledges her support for Anas Sarwar as leader and, to be fair, they work well together when I've seen them out and about. 'Anas is probably one of the best leaders we've had. He is our real opportunity to do something this time round. He does a lot of front-facing stuff because he's good with people, both in the party and beyond. 'I love my constituents, I want to spend most of my time here with them. I'm rooted here. I'd much rather be behind the scenes getting things done: it suits me and I'm good at it.' Read more by Kevin McKenna: If you were being unkind though, you might suggest that this is just code for knowing where the bodies are buried, principally because most of them are buried in her back garden. 'I know I have a reputation for being as hard as nails and that Anas called me his 'designated b******', which I thought was very mean.' But she says 'very mean' in the manner of one of the Bennet sisters taking bashfully about that nice Mr Bingley. 'You just need a long memory,' she says. Now we're talking. I'm meeting Ms Baillie the day after the end of Sandie Peggie's employment tribunal versus NHS Fife in what's become Scotland's Dreyfus moment. I can't not ask her about it and she knows it too. Ms Baillie is currently in the process of selecting candidates for next year's Holyrood elections and has noted that more men are coming forward than women. She's putting twinning arrangements in place to ensure equality. This isn't surprising. When women see what happens to other women in public life or in the public eye – Sandie Peggie, Kate Forbes, Joanna Cherry, JK Rowling – it must make them less inclined to volunteer for the same treatment. And so we begin exchanging our most vivid recollections of the tribunal. I tell her that Sandra Peggie being questioned over her claim that she'd been having a heavy period when she'd asked Dr Upton to leave the female nurses' changing-room was just about the most sinister and malevolent statement I'd ever seen uttered in Scottish public life. Sandie Peggie brought the case against NHS Fife. (Image: PA) Jackie Baillie says: 'What I hated the most was how Sandie Peggie's daughter was used against her and forced to say twice that her mum was her best friend. I was utterly horrified by that. 'Let me be clear, though. If I was Health Secretary my position would be to improve waiting times at gender identity clinics. I've seen people who are experiencing gender dysphoria and all the physical and emotional torment that comes with that. Do I have a responsibility to do reduce waiting times in these cases? Absolutely. 'The Gender Recognition Certification process requires reform, but I wouldn't go as far as self-ID, because you then remove the kind of protections that I think are still needed.' From the evidence she's heard in Ms Peggie's employment tribunal, does she think there's enough alleged malfeasance to merit a public inquiry into the customs and practices of NHS Fife? 'I'm loathe to call for public inquiries,' she says, 'partly because they take so long; they're expensive and I've never been convinced that their recommendations are always followed. Do I think though, that there needs to be some kind of independent investigation into what's happened [at NHS Fife]: absolutely. 'I can't help but think of the 800,000 people on waiting lists across Scotland, many of whom are from Fife: the delayed discharges; the cancer waiting lists. All of them exert real pressures on the NHS and yet so much time of NHS Fife's senior management team has been devoted to this case. 'I note that Dr Upton doesn't have a gender recognition certificate and so why can't we – and I get the desire to be inclusive – be inclusive of all staff while respecting individual rights?' Read more Kevin McKenna: I ask Ms Baillie if it's as simple as building a third toilet and changing facility. 'The corporate body of the Scottish Parliament got it right,' she says, 'when they designated some spaces across the estate as women-only; some as men-only and some as unisex. This made sense. 'Sandra Peggie is a nurse and we should value our nurses. NHS Fife's primary responsibility is healthcare and dealing with patients, so why are they pitting staff groups against each other? I also question the sense of NHS Fife being joint defenders in this action and I question the amount of money that's been spent on this and every day. NHS Fife are not covering themselves in glory.' Does she have a view about the SNP repeatedly expressing confidence in NHS Fife throughout the tribunal? 'I know, having been around for so long, that there is no way on earth that Scottish ministers – and particularly the Health Minister – knew nothing about what was going to happen. I don't understand why we are still here. Some people believe it should play out, but to be frank, if I was the Scottish Government I would have ended this. 'The issue now is that Sandie Peggie won't be the only person. There will be other health boards and other public bodies. The government needs to move fast on this. It can't wait until after the election. 'Practically, we need to see where there has been institutional capture and fix that. That's what the Scottish Government should do without waiting. I'm now in a place that says we should be inclusive of everybody in society but that there's a way of doing it that safeguards the rights of others.' Yet, wasn't [[Scottish Labour]] party complicit in bringing us to this employment tribunal in Dundee by voting with the Government on the GRA? 'You all saw what was happening. Were you just listening to the wrong people or was it a case of not wanting to upset some activists,' I ask. 'None of the above,' she says forcefully. 'I was brought in late after Stage 2 of the GRA had passed to try and negotiate with the Scottish Government. We were particularly keen to place amendments in the bill that would protect single-sex spaces. 'I spent a lot of time trying to negotiate with [then Health Secretary] Shona Robison. 'What would happen though, is that having agreed something with me, she would then go to the Scottish Greens and Maggie Chapman and it would unravel.' 'Yet, you all – with a few noble exceptions – still voted for it,' I tell her. 'I had assurances on the record that they would discuss all of the detail with the UK Government (for Equality Act purposes),' says Ms Baillie. 'Nor did we impose a whip from the centre. We had group meetings where every single member was invited to speak and the group as a whole decided to take particular concessions. Some of them I didn't share, but I respected the process we went through which was the most inclusive route there had been about any piece of legislation. Well, perhaps. In mitigation, there was support for Michelle Thompson's amendment aimed at pausing applications for GRCs from men 'charged with a sexual offence but not yet convicted and placed on the sexual offenders' register'. The MSP, who is a survivor of sexual assault, had warned that allowing these risked traumatising and harming their female victims. Ms Baillie had also tabled her own amendment. 'If you look at what we tried to do with the amendment, we were trying to get to a position where there were more safeguards in the Bill. We were very clear about protecting single-sex spaces. 'I think then that reality hit them with the Isla Bryson case and the extent to which it could be manipulative was just laid bare.' 'Our fault was to believe the reassurances we'd been given that there were negotiations going on with the UK Parliament. I'm not really buying this either. In the world of Scottish politics, you'd trust rattlesnakes more than any assurances given by the [[SNP]] in the Nicola Sturgeon era. PART TWO ON MONDAY: The relationship between Holyrood Labour and Westminster Labour; seeking candidates with life experience and how the SNP have betrayed their own supporters.
The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
Heathrow's third runway plan is wrong – and not just because of noise and pollution
Here we go again. To say there is a deja vu aspect to the latest proposal to build Heathrow's third runway is an understatement. For reasons that are not clear, Sir Keir Starmer has determined the airport's expansion to be a key plank in the government's economic growth strategy. Seemingly, he did not take into account the issues that grounded the plans in the past, as far back as 1968 – namely, Heathrow's unfortunate and unavoidable proximity to the M25, the rivers and their valleys that cross that part of west London, the additional noise pollution, and the need for improved and costly transport links to and from the centre of the capital that will result from the vast uplift in passengers. On the constant sound from the increased number of planes landing and taking off, the prime minister will insist that great technological strides have been made in curbing the din. It is true that new aircraft are less noisy. However, they are still extremely audible, there will be more of them, and they will be flying over a heavily residential area. As for the rest, nothing has altered fundamentally, environmentally and logistically, since Heathrow last submitted a scheme, pre-Covid. Inflation means the bill is now an eye-watering £49bn. The bill, ultimately, will be borne by the air passenger, and Heathrow is already the most expensive airport in the world. Will the airlines and their customers stomach at least a doubling in charges? There is the thorny problem, too, of public transport to and from London. The London mayor will be expected to find a way to enable an extra 60 million people a year to use Heathrow. Transport for London is strapped for cash, struggling to upgrade the Tube network. How the additional demand will be met is not clear. What has shifted as well is the nature of air travel. Post-pandemic, business travel is down and looks unlikely to recover – that, certainly, is what the industry is saying. During the outbreak, holding meetings remotely came into its own and employers took a hard look at their budgets – Zoom or Teams often represent a better alternative in executive time and expense. That therefore raises a major doubt about one of the main claims made for Heathrow's extension. It is said to be necessary to enhance London and the UK's standing in the business world, but how, if the commercial users are not there? There has been movement too, and not of the positive kind, in attitude towards Heathrow the operator. The power outage that shut down the plum in Starmer's vision for resurgence and global acclaim was a shocking episode; it not only highlighted a neglected infrastructure but also a failure of management. Thomas Woldbye, who is seeking permission to build this national project, is the same boss who slept through the night as Britain's busiest airport ceased to function. Heathrow's reputation in the sector was already poor, but this took it to a new low. Woldbye has an idea that is different from the one previously suggested, which is to build the third runway over the M25, taking the motorway underneath – and all without any disruption to road users. This is fanciful even without a track record that hardly inspires confidence. Which raises another question. Why? Why should Heathrow as a company get to preside over the airport's improvement and reap the benefits? If we're all agreed that it is a vital national asset, holding a pivotal place in the economy, then why should the incumbent be in charge, not to mention entrusted, with its development? Those who wax lyrical about Heathrow's importance like to reminisce about how Britain led the transformation of international aviation. Boosting the airport is seen as completing that journey. It is the case that we once did. That was in the Margaret Thatcher era, when British Airways was freed from the shackles of state ownership. Thatcher did more than that, though. She enabled and encouraged competition, giving a steer to the challengers and disruptors, notably to Richard Branson at Virgin and Michael Bishop at British Midland. The newly privatised BA was forced to raise its game, and together, these three set new standards. There appears to be an assumption that Woldbye's company must be given the job. But there is another option. Surinder Arora, the self-made billionaire who has masterminded the building of leading hotels at Heathrow and other airports and is a substantial Heathrow landowner, has his own remedy. His is much cheaper, envisaging a shorter runway that does not affect the M25. It is easy to dismiss Arora. But he is popular with the airlines, he rails rightly against Heathrow's pricing, and he knows a thing or two about customer service. He also possesses heavyweight advisers in the shape of Bechtel, the US engineering, construction and project management giant. He deserves to be taken seriously. Heathrow needs a competitor. Likewise, if neither the airport operator nor Arora is selected and the third runway is again kiboshed, then surely serious thought must be given to expanding rival airports. Heathrow has been resting on its laurels for too long. As for Starmer, he perhaps should ask himself how it is that someone who professes to be forensic legally is so capable of displaying rushes of blood to the head politically. Giving Heathrow such prominence smacks of impetuousness. He's done it and has been left with an almighty headache.
