Portrait of the week: Welfare rebellions, Glastonbury chants and Lucy Letby arrests
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in the face of a rebellion by 120 backbenchers over the welfare bill, undertook to limit to new claimants restrictions on personal independence payments (Pip). Modelling by the Department for Work and Pensions predicted that 150,000 people might be pushed into 'relative poverty' by the revised welfare cuts, compared with 250,000 before. Still fearing defeat, the government made more last-minute concessions, postponing changes to Pip rules until after a review by Sir Stephen Timms, the disability minister. The government then won the second reading by 335 to 260, with 49 Labour MPs voting against. It was not clear that the eviscerated bill would reduce spending. At a cabinet meeting, Sir Keir told ministers to stop briefing against his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. At Glastonbury, the band Bob Vylan led chants of 'Death, death to the IDF' (the Israel Defence Forces) and these were broadcast by the BBC. Avon and Somerset Police said it was investigating whether comments by Bob Vylan or Kneecap amounted to a criminal offence. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, drew a curious parallel: 'If I think about the war in Ukraine, no doubt I want Ukraine to win but that doesn't mean I'm going to be cheering on the deaths of Russians.' Sandy Gall, the newsreader and foreign correspondent who reported on the mujahideen's fight against the Russians in Afghanistan, died aged 97.
Chris Coghlan, the Liberal Democrat MP, was told by his Catholic parish priest that he would not be admitted to Communion as a consequence of voting for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Andrew John announced his retirement as Archbishop of Wales after reports mentioned 'a culture in which sexual boundaries seemed blurred' at the cathedral, though there is no suggestion the archbishop had misbehaved. On suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, police arrested three former senior staff at the hospital where the nurse Lucy Letby worked before being convicted of murdering seven babies. The TSB's Spanish owner Sabadell announced it was selling the bank to Santander. The cost of a 'bat mitigation structure' on the HS2 railway line was estimated to have risen to £125 million. The royal train is to be taken out of service to save money.
Wes Streeting announced a plan to chivvy supermarkets into selling more 'healthy' food. Problems at an electrical substation that caused a fire which closed Heathrow airport were detected seven years ago and were known to the National Grid but not mended, an investigation found. In the seven days to 30 June, 1,582 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats, bringing to 19,982 the number for the first half of 2025, 48 per cent more than a year earlier. Temperatures reached 34.7˚C at St James's Park, London.
Abroad
The Nato summit reaffirmed its guarantee of collective defence but did not directly mention Ukraine. Ukrainian drones attacked a factory in the Russian city of Izhevsk, around 600 miles from the border. America halted some weapons shipments to Ukraine. The US Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship to go into effect in a month's time; the court also limited the power of federal judges in lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions. Mr Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' passed in the Senate thanks to Vice-President J.D. Vance's tie-breaking vote. Danish women were entered into a lottery for national service. Scores of Norwegians were erroneously told they had won millions in the Eurojackpot.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a report quoting unnamed IDF soldiers who said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians near aid distribution sites, to disperse them; the IDF denied that. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said more than 500 Palestinians had been killed on their way to get aid since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over aid distribution in late May. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, accused Haaretz of publishing a 'blood libel'. Israel ordered people to evacuate parts of northern Gaza ahead of increased military action.
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement in Washington to end decades of conflict. Japan executed Takahiro Shiraishi, who had murdered nine people in his flat after contacting suicidal women on Twitter. At least 34 people were killed in an explosion at a pharmaceuticals factory in the southern Indian state of Telangana. The Dalai Lama confirmed that he would have a successor after his death. CSH
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