Phillipson praises international college students however says Labour gained’t take away Tory cap on numbers – UK politics reside

The federal government has mentioned that its youngster poverty taskforce met yesterday to begin the work on its technique, which it expects to publish in spring.

Co-chaired by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall and training secretary Bridget Phillipson, the federal government mentioned it is going to “hear directly from struggling families and children, frontline staff and leading campaigners, charities and organisations across the UK to shape the strategy.”

Kendall mentioned “Child poverty is a scar on our society. It harms children’s life chances and our country as a whole. We will take action in every department, with a comprehensive strategy to drive down poverty and drive up opportunity.”

Phillipson mentioned “this taskforce, working across government, is essential to ensure all departments are supporting this ambition and delivering on our mission of breaking down the barriers to opportunity for every child.”

The taskforce will probably be supported by a brand new youngster poverty unit within the Cupboard Workplace, the assertion mentioned.

Martin Kettle has written for us this morning that Keir Starmer made a mistake by cancelling his vacation, partly due to the precedent he has now set for the remainder of his time in workplace. Kettle argues:

Everyone wants a vacation. A correct vacation. A break from routine. An opportunity to chill out, and deal with different folks and different issues. Prime ministers unquestionably want such moments, too – maybe greater than most. But by first suspending and now, it seems, by cancelling his household summer season vacation in Europe, Starmer has made holidays a reputational subject. Starmer the human being has misplaced out to Starmer the politician.

You possibly can learn extra right here: Martin Kettle – In cancelling his household summer season vacation, Keir Starmer has made his first critical mistake

PA Media report that police investigating a disturbance final month at Manchester airport have handed a “comprehensive” file to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Video broadly circulated on social media confirmed an officer kick and seem to stamp on the pinnacle of 1 man, then additional footage emerged exhibiting how the incident, wherein law enforcement officials had been additionally injured, developed.

One officer is beneath felony investigation for assault in connection, whereas one other has been suggested they’re additionally beneath felony investigation for assault. 4 males arrested on suspicion of affray and assault stay on bail.

The preliminary footage led to protests in Rochdale and Manchester metropolis centre.

Reform UK’s Richard Tice, MP for Boston and Skegness, has repeatedly on social media demanded to know why costs are but to be purchased for the boys arrested, implying it’s an instance of what he kinds “two-tier policing” in comparison with the fast-track justice processing of far-right rioters and a few counter-protestors who took half in violent dysfunction throughout England and Northern Eire in latest weeks.

An extra three folks have been charged at this time after dysfunction in Bristol earlier this month, Avon and Somerset police mentioned, and two extra males have been charged in Merseyside.

Conservative politicians have seized on the most recent GDP figures to recommend that Labour have inherited a well-functioning financial system, and that the occasion is exaggerating the depths of economic mismanagement it’s accusing the final administration of.

Shadow well being and social care secretary Victoria Atkins has responded to chancellor Rachel Reeves’ earlier remark “We are under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge we have inherited from the Conservatives after more than a decade of low growth” by saying “You inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7 in the first six months of 2024.”

Chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, has had no truck with this line of argument. PA Media report he instructed broadcasters in a clip:

The final Conservative authorities left this new Labour authorities with the very best tax burden because the Forties, the very best debt burden for over 60 years and an enormous value for simply paying the curiosity on that debt each single month.

And because the Chancellor and I set out in parliament just a few weeks in the past, they left us with over £20bn of payments coming by way of the door right here on the Treasury with no cash to pay for it. That doesn’t sound like an excellent inheritance to me.

Challenged as as to if Labour had been making an attempt to place a damaging spin on some optimistic financial information, he mentioned “What we inherited from the Conservatives was the worst fiscal inheritance since the second world war. We’ve got much, much more work to do to recover from the mess that we are left with.”

Chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones has mentioned the pay deal supplied to coach drivers was “good deal for the taxpayer”, as a result of it was “resetting the relationship between government and public sector workers” and stopping strikes.

PA Media studies he mentioned:

There’s a direct value to the financial system if the strikes proceed and we have to work collectively in partnership with employees and commerce unions and enterprise to be able to get sustainable progress again into the financial system. So this can be a whole lot for the taxpayer, it’s an excellent deal for the financial system.

Andrew Bowie, the Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and shadow minister for veterans affairs is much less impressed, posting on social media:

Making pensioners freeze, slashing providers, slicing defence initiatives, rising rail fares and elevating tax all to fund inflation busting pay offers for commerce union donors are political decisions made by Labour. They’re selecting to placate their union donors over everybody else.

As Mick Whelan, secretary-general of Aslef has identified, the headline determine of the pay deal could also be above the current degree of inflation, however practice drivers will not be getting an increase on the degree inflation was working throughout the years-long dispute with the earlier Tory administration, which, he mentioned, repeatedly refused to satisfy to barter a settlement.

Aslef secretary-general Mick Whelan has mentioned that he believes members of the union will settle for the pay deal being put to them by the brand new authorities.

He instructed Nick Ferrari on LBC that it was as much as the members however “from the feedback I’ve had so far when talking to my representatives, I believe this will go through.”

He instructed listeners:

The [last] authorities wouldn’t give us a pay rise in a political dispute created by the earlier occasion. They didn’t discuss to us for 2 years, and we had been principally in a standoff place. Labour has come to the desk, spoke to us very in a short time, needs to make the railways higher for the touring public, the taxpayer and the individuals who truly work throughout the business, and we’ve been capable of do a deal to resolve it.

Put to Whelan that the deal was inflation-busting and nicely above the present price, Whelan defended the determine, saying that it covers a interval when the determine was a lot larger. He mentioned:

When inflation was 13.8% three years in the past, we’re not getting that. When inflation was 8.9% for the second 12 months, we’re not getting that … [the deal is] considerably beneath the inflation of the aggregated interval.”

The interview finish on a barely jocular observe, with Ferrari asking when the practice drivers can be again on the desk “for more cash”. Whelan, as you’d anticipate when pay is settled yearly, mentioned it could be at the very least “six to eight months” earlier than the subsequent spherical of talks started.

“Six months!” exclaimed Ferrari. “We’re not going through this again just after Christmas, are we? I haven’t got the strength man!”

“Neither have I,” Whelan replied.

Schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has mentioned that “private schools are businesses that can make choices about how they manage their budgets” and that Labour’s nicely publicised plans to take away VAT exemption from colleges charges had been about driving up requirements within the state sector.

Challenged on Sky Information about bulletins of personal faculty closures forward of the change of their tax exempt standing, Phillipson mentioned “I think what we’ve seen with some of the examples that have been discussed are schools that were already experiencing big budget shortfalls, weren’t attracting the numbers of students that they might like to attract, and that’s what’s driving what we see.”

She mentioned:

Non-public colleges are companies that may make decisions about how they handle their budgets, the extent of charges that they cost, and finally, it’s about how engaging they’re to households by way of the numbers of scholars which can be despatched there. We’ve seen personal colleges lately whack up their charges 12 months on 12 months, manner past inflation, and that has priced out plenty of folks.

Our plans to impose VAT on personal faculty charges are about driving excessive requirements in our state colleges. We’ve obtained a giant problem in the mean time by way of recruiting and retaining sensible lecturers. I’m decided that we are going to crack that, that we are going to make it possible for instructing is a good place for folks to come back and work.

We’ve already made progress by way of the instructing pay award, that we had been capable of ship, however we have to do extra, and we do want to lift cash to spend money on our public providers and to spend money on our colleges. And that’s my focus as secretary of state, ensuring that we’ve obtained sensible lecturers supporting our younger folks.

The training secretary was additionally at pains to level out the small variety of folks affected in comparison with the state training sector. She instructed viewers:

I would like personal colleges to be an possibility for these mother and father who select to ship their kids there, in fact, they may be capable to proceed to take action. I do know the mother and father wish to do what’s proper by their kids, and that’s completely accurately.

However I might simply gently level out that 93% of youngsters in our nation go to state colleges. That’s the place I’m decided to focus my efforts as secretary of state.

To deal with a few of these massive gaps that we see opening up the place it involves outcomes for our younger folks, ensuring that the background that you just’re from, the city that you just’re born, doesn’t decide what you’ll be able to go on to realize.

And that does contain making political decisions about how we increase cash, how we spend cash, and that’s what imposing VAT on personal colleges is all about, driving up requirements in our state sector, the place nearly all of your viewers will ship their kids to highschool.

Talking on Sky Information, Schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has refused to commit the federal government to both lifting or freezing the coed charges cap in England and Wales. She mentioned she was “looking at what the options around that will be”, however recommended that elevating the cap can be “unpalatable”.

Requested “will you at any point in the five years ahead cut the tuition fees caps for domestic students?” she mentioned:

I do wish to be sure that we reform the system total. I’ve been what the choices round that will probably be, and I hope at a later stage to have the ability to say extra about that.

It had been identified to her that there had solely been a £250 enhance within the most home scholar tuition charge within the final 12 years, which had seen intervals of rampant inflation and which was making use of monetary strain to establishments.

Phillipson, who throughout the interview additionally identified that foriegn college students paying larger uncapped charges had been cross-subsidising college students from the UK, mentioned:

I do recognise the problem, and I hear that message from establishments as nicely, however I feel [raising fees is] a extremely unpalatable factor to be contemplating, not least as a result of I do know that plenty of college students throughout the nation are already dealing with massive challenges round the price of dwelling, housing prices. Plenty of college students I communicate to are already working plenty of jobs, further hours, to be able to pay for his or her research.

Labour’s training secretary Bridget Phillipson has criticised the earlier authorities for being “too focused on picking fights” over training moderately than helping the troubled college sector.

She instructed viewers:

[Universities] face plenty of challenges in the mean time, that’s completely crystal clear, and that’s why I took pressing motion, rapid motion on changing into secretary of state, to refocus the work of the regulator, the Workplace for College students, on monetary sustainability.

As a result of I feel the final authorities had been far too centered on selecting fights and on suggesting in some way that college wasn’t for some folks, moderately than truly appearing within the nationwide curiosity to make it possible for our sensible universities, who’re a beacon world wide and are so nicely revered, are capable of succeed into the longer term.

Rishi Sunak’s authorities had been appearing to chop down the variety of what it known as “low-value” levels in England. Programs that didn’t have a excessive proportion of graduates getting an expert job, going into postgraduate research or beginning a enterprise had been to be capped.

On the time the plans had been introduced vice-chancellors mentioned the measures would act as a “red flag to students”, who can be turned off the thought of getting into a capped course, whereas critics mentioned the plan successfully penalised universities and programs with a excessive proportion of working-class college students, who’ve fewer monetary assets or household help and so usually tend to drop out.

Schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has mentioned that A-level outcomes are anticipated to be “broadly in line with last year”. The outcomes for England, Wales and Northern Eire are printed at 9.30am, and you may observe that reside with my colleague Rachel Corridor …

The chancellor, reacting to these GDP figures, echoed the messaging of her colleague Darren Jones yesterday about inflation, saying the federal government is “under no illusion” concerning the scenario.

Rachel Reeves mentioned:

The brand new authorities is beneath no phantasm as to the size of the problem now we have inherited after greater than a decade of low financial progress and a £22bn black gap within the public funds.

That’s the reason now we have made financial progress our nationwide mission and we’re taking the powerful selections now to repair the foundations, so we are able to rebuild Britain and make each a part of the nation higher off.

Britain’s financial system has prolonged the restoration from recession final 12 months after recording progress of 0.6% within the three months to June.

Figures from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) present gross home product continued to develop within the second quarter, after progress of 0.7% within the first three months of 2024. Metropolis economists had forecast progress of 0.6%.

The UK has grown at a quicker tempo this 12 months than many forecasters predicted. Nonetheless, it comes after a lacklustre efficiency over the previous decade, whereas excessive dwelling prices, elevated rates of interest, and faltering productiveness features preserve a lid on momentum.

Learn extra right here: UK financial system continues restoration from recession with GDP progress of 0.6%

Schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has defened the variety of worldwide college students at universities, saying that they “have got an important contribution to make in our towns and cities” and “will be cross-subsidising the studies of students from the UK”, however mentioned the federal government had no plans to take away the latest cap on numbers set by the outgoing Conservative authorities.

She instructed viewers of Sky Information:

I do assume worldwide college students have gotten an necessary contribution to make in our cities and cities. They’re a part of the expansion and the alternatives that will probably be out there for the entire group. And our universities are an incredible engine of progress in so a lot of these locations, and I wish to assist them to succeed.

In financial phrases, the place it involves the communities the place they may reside – Sunderland, the place I’m the member for parliament – now we have plenty of college students that come from world wide, typically as put up graduate college students, that research and make a contribution.

Nevertheless it’s additionally a giant a part of our attain world wide, the influence that we are able to have as a rustic, the enterprise hyperlinks, the buying and selling hyperlinks, the alternatives and the bridges that we construct between nations. And I feel training is only a drive for good throughout our world, and we should always recognise that and work collectively as nations.

Requested particularly “the visa restrictions for foreign students that the last government imposed right at the end of their government, we haven’t really seen the full effects of it yet. Should those be reversed?”, she mentioned “We don’t intend to change that.”

Welcome to our rolling protection of UK politics for Thursday. Listed below are your headlines …

• Schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has mentioned international college students make an enormous contribution to the UK’s city and cities, however she has no plans to alter latest Tory visa restrictions

• Phillipson mentioned personal colleges are companies free to decide on their very own budgets and set their very own charge ranges after VAT adjustments take impact

• Britain’s financial system has prolonged the restoration from recession final 12 months after recording progress of 0.6% within the three months to June. Chancellor Rachel Reeves mentioned the federal government was prioritising progress as a nationwide mission

• The Metropolitan police is offering an insufficient or failing service in seven of eight key crime-fighting areas, and there are “serious concerns” about its administration of harmful offenders

• Prepare drivers and the Labour authorities have reached a deal that might finish greater than two years of battle between rail operators and unions. Aslef’s Mick Whelan has mentioned it believes it will likely be accepted by members

• Uncertainty over the way forward for Tata Metal in south Wales is already inflicting job losses within the broader business, the Welsh secretary has warned

• Labour donor Ian Corfield was accepted for a senior Treasury position with out the civil service watchdog being knowledgeable of his donation historical past

• A-level, T-level and BTec ends in England, Wales and Northern Eire are printed at this time.

It’s Martin Belam right here once more at this time. I discover it useful when you e mail me when you spot typos, errors or omissions – martin.belam@theguardian.com.