‘I strongly disagree’: Home secretary refutes Zarah Sultana claim that Labour is failing to improve lives
Zarah Sultana has “always taken a very different view” from the government, the home secretary has said.
Responding to the former Labour MP’s announcement that she was co-founding a new party with Jeremy Corbyn, Yvette Cooper told Sky News:
I think she has always taken a very different view to most people in the government on a lot of different things, and that’s for her to do so.
Cooper also rejected the Coventry South MP’s accusation that Labour was failing to improve people’s lives, saying:
I just strongly disagree with her.
The home secretary pointed to falling waiting times in the NHS, the announcement of additional neighbourhood police officers, extending free school meals and strengthening renters’ rights as areas where the government was acting. She said:
These are real changes [that] have a real impact on people’s lives.
As well as Cooper, co-chair of the Conservative party Nigel Huddleston is also on the media rounds this morning.
There’s sure to be more reaction today to the news that Sultana has resigned from the Labour party to join Corbyn’s Independent Alliance. But there’s more coming up today:
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A bid to temporarily block the banning of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is set to be heard at the high court on Friday, ahead of a potential legal challenge against the move.
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Councils will have to agree targets to improve the number of children ready for school, under new plans to be announced by the education secretary.
In other recently reported developments:
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Critics of the UK’s role in the Gaza war are considering setting up an independent tribunal if, as expected, Labour blocks a bill tabled by Jeremy Corbyn backing an official inquiry. Government whips are expected to object to the former Labour party leader’s bill in the Commons on Friday, leaving him with few practical options for his legislation to pass.
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Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are intended to give patients unprecedented control over their care.
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Some farms in England could be taken entirely out of food production under plans to make more space for nature, the environment secretary has said. Speaking at the Groundswell farming festival in Hertfordshire, Steve Reed said a revamp of post-Brexit farming subsidies and a new land use plan would be aimed at increasing food production in the most productive areas and decreasing or completely removing it in the least productive.
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Ministers are closely watching a court case in which Vodafone is alleged to have “unjustly enriched” itself at the expense of franchise operators, and have raised the prospect of a regulatory crackdown on the sector. The small business minister, Gareth Thomas, has said he will “track very carefully” a £120m legal claim brought against Vodafone last year by a group of 62 of about 150 franchise operators.
Key events
Downing Street say new French tactics to tackle small boat crossings are ‘significant moment’
Downing Street has welcomed new French tactics to tackle small boat crossings, saying it is a “significant moment”.
A No 10 spokesperson said:
What we saw this morning was a significant moment.
We welcome action from French law enforcement to take action in shallow waters, and what you have seen in recent weeks is a toughening of their approach.
We are seeing new tactics being used to disrupt these boats before they begin their journey and, together with every other lever that the government is pulling, we think this can have a major impact on shutting down the tactics these gangs use.
Earlier, Yvette Cooper welcomed reports that French police had intervened in French waters to stop a small boat setting off across the Channel.
Responding to a report from the BBC’s Today programme that officers had slashed at a boat with a knife while it was in shallow waters off the French coast, the home secretary said:
That is a different strategy, and that is welcome that it’s taking action in the shallow waters, but we want broader action.
Downing Street also said on Friday that Keir Starmer’s efforts to “reset” relations with Europe have helped bring about a change in French tactics in the Channel.
The No 10 spokesperson said:
No government has been able to get this level of cooperation with the French.
That is important. We are looking to see France change its maritime tactics, and that is down to the prime minister’s efforts to reset our relationships across Europe.
This is down to a serious government recognising this is a complex problem, a serious challenge, and pulling all levers in order to take action on this.
Liberal Democrat MP Danny Chambers’ private member’s bill has passed through the House of Commons today, with the government backing the bill.
Chambers, who is also a veterinary surgeon, said the animal welfare (import of dogs, cats and ferrets) bill will help improve the UK’s “biosecurity”.
He told the Commons:
As a vet, I’ve seen the devastating consequences of puppy smuggling. It’s unimaginably cruel to separate puppies and kittens from their mothers at a very young age, and then bring them across borders in substandard conditions where they’re then sold for maximum profit by unscrupulous traders who prioritise profit over welfare.
Turning to “biosecurity”, he added that:
There are a lot of diseases that we do not see in the UK that can affect humans as well … one of those is rabies, another’s brucella canis.
Chambers said:
The bill will close the loopholes in our pet travel rules, which are currently exploited. It does this by reducing the number of animals permitted per non-commercial movement from five per person to five per vehicle, including vehicles on board a train or a ferry, and three per person for foot or air passengers.
Careful consideration has been given to setting these limits, balancing the need to disrupt illegal trade with minimising impact on genuine pet owners. To underpin this, only an owner, not an authorised person, will be permitted to sign and declare that the movement of a dog or cat is non-commercial.
Crucially, the bill places a duty on the government to use these regulation-making powers to first deliver three key measures – a ban on the import of puppies and kittens under six months old, a ban on the import of heavily pregnant dogs and cats that are more than 42 days pregnant, and a ban on the import of dogs and cats who’ve been mutilated.
The bill will now move to the House of Lords for final approval with government backing.
Lib Dems take seat from Reform in Durham county council byelection
Aneesa Ahmed
Liberal Democrat candidate Terry Rooney won the Benfieldside ward byelection on Thursday to unseat Reform UK’s Andrew Kilburn – who was elected during the county-wide elections on 1 May but stepped down after it was discovered he already worked for the council.
This meant Kilburn was found to be ineligible for office, as employees are disqualified from standing as councillors at the same time under national law. He resigned after just nine days.
The Lib Dems won with a total of 824 votes, as Reform slipped to third in the byelection, getting 747 votes, behind Labour, who got 800.
Benfieldside by-election result: Earley, Kevin (Lab) 800, Harrison, Stephen (Ref) 747, Lowes, David (Con) 76, Robinson, Stephen (Ind) 459, Rooney, Terry (Lib Dem) 824, Simpson, Richard Edwin (Green) 40. #LE2025 pic.twitter.com/e4OgoolQtk
— Durham County Council (@DurhamCouncil) July 3, 2025
Rooney will now join the 14 other Lib Dem representatives on Durham county council, taking their total to 15.
After the win, Rooney told the Northern Echo:
I’m humbled to serve the community where I live and where I grew up.
This result confirms that it is only the Liberal Democrats who can beat the Reform Party across County Durham, as both the official opposition group and the strongest electoral force challenging the Reform Party’s broken promises.
The byelection caused by the Reform error cost the taxpayer £23,000, according to Rooney – who said he has campaigned for the Reform’s “millionaire backers” to pay for the taxpayer money “wasted on this byelection due to their own incompetence nominating an ineligible candidate”.
Councillor Amanda Hopgood, Lib Dem leader of the opposition in County Durham, and chair of the party’s Reform Watch board said:
The Liberal Democrats are holding Reform to account, fighting to protect local services and stop Nigel Farage doing to our communities what his idol Donald Trump is doing to America.
We will continue to stand up to Reform and take on their divisive politics, here in County Durham and across the country.
Denis Campbell
Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are intended to give patients unprecedented control over their care.
A dramatic expansion of the role of the NHS app will result in fewer staff than expected by 2035, with Streeting banking on digital efficiencies to reduce the number of frontline workers, a move described as a “large bet” by health experts.
The digital tool will enable patients to self-refer when they need help, book appointments with clinicians, receive advice from an AI GP or see their medical records.
“The NHS app will become a doctor in your pocket, bringing our health service into the 21st century,” the health secretary said as he launched the government’s much-trailed 10-year health plan.
Highlighting that those who use private healthcare already get instant advice, remote consultations with a doctor and choice over their appointments, he promised that “our reforms will bring those services to every patient, regardless of their ability to pay”.
The plan is intended to transform the NHS in England into a more patient-focused service that keeps people healthier and out of hospital by providing care faster, digitally and close to their homes.
However, while experts welcomed the plan’s ambitions, they warned that staff shortages, the NHS’s fragile finances and failure to set out how delivery of its many goals would be achieved raised serious doubts over how soon changes would be implemented.
Aletha Adu
Labour’s first year back in power has been marked by high stakes and harsh realities.
Despite ambitious promises, the party has struggled to maintain the support of voters – reflected in low poll numbers and a near defeat on its big welfare legislation.
For new MPs the challenge has been to push urgent reforms while navigating Westminster’s unforgiving terrain.
Seven rising Labour voices speak about the year that has tested them all:
Technology secretary demands overhaul of UK’s leading AI institute
Dan Milmo
The technology secretary has demanded an overhaul of the UK’s leading artificial intelligence institute in a wide-ranging letter that calls for a switch in focus to defence and national security, as well as leadership changes.
Peter Kyle said it was clear further action was needed to ensure the government-backed Alan Turing Institute met its full potential.
In a letter to ATI’s chair, seen by the Guardian, Kyle said the institute should be changed to prioritise defence, national security and “sovereign capabilities” – a reference to nation states being able to control their own AI technology.
The call for new priorities implies a downgrading of ATI’s focus on health and the environment, which are two of three core subjects for the institute, alongside defence and security, under its “Turing 2.0” strategy.
“Moving forward, defence and national security projects should form a core of ATI’s activities, and relationships with the UK’s security, defence, and intelligence communities should be strengthened accordingly,” Kyle wrote.
Making clear that the Turing 2.0 strategy did not meet government requirements, Kyle indicated that he expected leadership changes at ATI.
“To realise this vision, it is imperative that the ATI’s leadership reflects the institute’s reformed focus,” he wrote. “While we acknowledge the success of the current leadership in delivering reform at the institute during a difficult period, careful consideration should be given to the importance of an executive team who possesses a relevant background and sector knowledge to lead this transition.”
ATI is chaired by Doug Gurr, the former head of Amazon’s UK operations and interim chair of the UK’s competition watchdog.
In the third in the Rise of the right series, the Guardian hears how Reform UK is targeting voters over green policies – which business says are bringing new jobs to the area.
You can read the full piece by senior economics correspondent Richard Partington here:
A hearing to decide whether the move to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation should be temporarily blocked has begun in London, reports the PA news agency.
Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action, is asking the high court to temporarily block the government from proscribing it under the Terrorism Act 2000, pending a potential legal challenge against the decision to ban the direct action group.
The ban, to become law over the weekend after being approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords earlier this week, would make membership and support for the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It comes after an estimated £7m worth of damage was caused to two Voyager planes at RAF Brize Norton on 20 June, in an action claimed by Palestine Action.
The Home Office is opposing both the bid to delay the ban from becoming law, and the potential attempt to launch a legal challenge against the decision.
The hearing before Mr Justice Chamberlain at the Royal Courts of Justice is expected to conclude later on Friday.
Housing minister vows to crack down on property management ‘wild west’
Kiran Stacey
The housing minister has promised to crack down on unfair service charges and what he called the “wild west” of property managing agents as he launched the next stage of the government’s reforms of the leasehold system.
Matthew Pennycook told the Guardian he wanted to stop a number of unfair practices undertaken by some companies, including overcharging and imposing large, unexpected repair fees.
He was speaking as the government launched a consultation into measures such as making property managers provide more transparent information on their fees and forcing them to qualify as professional practitioners for the first time.
The consultation is the latest step towards what the government promises will be an eventual end to the “feudal” leasehold system, which applies to 5m homes in England.
Pennycook said:
Managing agents play a key role in multiple-occupancy buildings, and will play an even bigger role in the future, but it is a bit of a wild west at the minute.
Speaking about the new qualification system, he said:
It is very easy to set yourself up as a managing agent. A group of us could do it just by renting an office on top of a newsagent in the high street … we know there are really bad practices out there.
Talking about the changes to service charges, he added:
We are setting out plans to protect millions of leaseholders across the country from opaque and unfair service charges and other fees which they incur.
Leaseholders are suffering and they need urgent relief – that’s why we are doing what we are.
Lauren Almeida
My colleague Lauren Almeida, who is running the Guardian’s business live blog, has shared the following:
Rachel Reeves has not given herself enough fiscal headroom to manage public finances, Charlie Bean, the former deputy of the Bank of England has said, and has to “neurotically fine tune taxes”.
Bean, who is also a former member of the OBR’s budget responsibility committee, told Radio 4’s Today programme the chancellor had chosen fiscal rules that give her a “very small margin” of headroom.
About £10bn – that’s a very small number in the context of overall public spending. Government spending is about one and a quarter trillion so £10bn is a small number … and it is a small number in the context of typical forecasting errors.
You can’t forecast the future perfectly both because you can’t forecast the economy and you can’t forecast all the elements of public finances …. The forecasts are imprecise and there is no way you can avoid that. That is a fact of life.
She should aim to operate with a larger margin of headroom, so previous chancellors have typically operated with headroom of the order of £30bn.
Because she has chosen about a third of that … it is very easy for numbers to go in the wrong direction and she finds she has to neurotically fine tune taxes to control the OBR forecast that is several years ahead.
The original sin is that she should not have chosen to operate with such a tight margin of error.
Reeves has been under intense public pressure, after the government’s concessions to Labour MPs over plans to change welfare payments have wiped out plans for £5bn savings a year.
Critics of UK role in Gaza war consider setting up independent tribunal
Patrick Wintour
Critics of the UK’s role in the Gaza war are considering setting up an independent tribunal if, as expected, Labour blocks a bill tabled by Jeremy Corbyn backing an official inquiry.
Government whips are expected to object to the former Labour party leader’s bill in the Commons on Friday, leaving him with few practical options for his legislation to pass.
The Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, said the government saw no need for an inquiry, but 22 NGOs working on issues in the region are supporting Corbyn’s call.
The Islington North MP is arguing that a host of issues regarding the UK’s involvement in what he regards as a genocide by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not been properly aired in Westminster, except through brief replies by ministers in written or oral questions.
The NGOs led by Action Aid said:
In light of reports of atrocities committed by the Israeli government in Gaza and reports of the UK’s collaboration with Israeli military operations, it is increasingly urgent to confirm whether the UK has contributed to any violations of international humanitarian law through economic or political cooperation with the Israeli government since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases.
They said establishing an independent public inquiry would provide an evidence-based determination of whether the UK’s actions upheld international law. The possible inquiry comes in the week that the UK courts threw out a 20-month legal battle to force the government to end indirect sales of F-35 parts to Israel for use in Gaza.
John McDonnell: ‘Labour needs to ask themselves’ why someone like Sultana would leave
Aneesa Ahmed
John McDonnell, independent MP for Hayes and Harlington and former shadow chancellor for Labour from 2015 to 2020, said Labour needs to “ask themselves” why someone like Zarah Sultana would choose to leave.
This comes after Sultana, MP for Coventry South, announced she is resigning from the party to join Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance.
“I am dreadfully sorry to lose Zarah from the Labour party,” he wrote in a post on X, adding:
The people running Labour at the moment need to ask themselves why a young, articulate, talented, extremely dedicated socialist feels she now has no home in the Labour party and has to leave.
McDonnell was one of seven MPs to be suspended by the Labour party, alongside Sultana, in July 2024 – after they rebelled by voting against the government on the two-child benefit cap.
In February, the whip was restored to suspended MPs Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Rebecca Long-Bailey, after they spent just over six months as independents. However, McDonnell, Sultana and MP Apsana Begum remained suspended.
In May, McDonnell called for a grassroots leadership challenge to the Labour government, and accused Keir Starmer’s government of “callousness and political incompetence”.
Alastair Campbell said he would not “underestimate” how much the government’s handling of the situation in Gaza has led people to question “what is Labour about?”.
He was speaking after former Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced she was resigning from Keir Starmer’s party and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with the ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The Coventry South MP also accused the government of being an “active participant in genocide” in Gaza, in her statement posted on X.
Campbell, the former Downing Street director of communications under Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
There feels to me to be a gap between the scale of the challenges facing the country as the public feel them, and the sorts of policy responses coming forward.
According to the PA news agency, he added:
Politics isn’t just about the economy, it isn’t just about public services … I wouldn’t underestimate how much the government’s handling of Gaza has really played into this sense of ‘what is Labour about? What is Labour for’?
And it’s not that people think the Labour government can solve every problem in the world, but when I talk about a national narrative, it’s about every situation that you’re in, feeling that there’s a project that is rooted in your values, and that is what’s being communicated over the medium and the long term.
He added:
The reason why the welfare rebellion, I think, happened in the way that it did, was because a lot of the Labour MPs came in and thought, well, yeah, I get the government’s got to fix the economy, but I really didn’t come here to make poor people poorer … that messaging has got to be completely fixed in year two.
Addressing recent political turmoil, Keir Starmer said he will always “carry the can” as leader after coming under fire over a climbdown on welfare reforms and that he would “always take responsibility” when asked questions. The prime minister told the BBC Radio 4 podcast Political Thinking With Nick Robinson:
When things go well … the leader gets the plaudits, but when things don’t go well, it is really important that the leader carries the can – and that’s what I will always do.
Starmer also backed Rachel Reeves and said she would be chancellor “for a very long time to come”, after the politician was visibly tearful in the House of Commons on Wednesday after a U-turn to welfare reform plans that put an almost £5bn hole in her plans. Reeves said it was a “personal matter” which had upset her ahead of prime minister’s questions.
The government had seen off the threat of a major Commons defeat over the legislation on Tuesday after shelving plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (pip).
Starmer said he cannot “pretend … that wasn’t a tough day”, and stressed the welfare system “isn’t working for the people that matter to me”.
“In the world that isn’t politics, it is commonplace for people to look again at a situation and judge it by the circumstances as they now are and make a decision accordingly,” he said of the changes. Starmer added:
And that is common sense, it’s pragmatic, and it’s a reflection of who I am. It was important that we took our party with us, that we got it right. And Labour politicians come into public life because they care deeply about these issues.
Starmer says he has a good relationship with Trump because they both ‘care about family’
Keir Starmer said he has a good relationship with US president Donald Trump because they both “care about family”, reports the PA news agency.
The prime minister told the BBC Radio 4 podcast Political Thinking With Nick Robinson it was “in the national interest” for the two men to connect. He said:
We are different people and we’ve got different political backgrounds and leanings, but we do have a good relationship and that comes from a numbers of places.
I think I do understand what anchors the president, what he really cares about. For both of us, we really care about family and there’s a point of connection there.
Starmer said in the interview to mark a year in office he has a “good personal relationship” with Trump, and revealed the first time they spoke was after the then-presidential candidate was shot at a campaign rally in July last year.
He said Trump had returned the phone call a few days after the prime minister’s brother Nick had died on Boxing Day.
Starmer said he visited his 60-year-old brother before and after the general election during his cancer treatment. He said:
It’s really hard to lose your brother to cancer. I wanted fiercely to protect him. And that’s why both before the election and after the election, I went secretly to see him at home, secretly to see him in hospital. He was in intensive care for a long time.
Yvette Cooper welcomed reports that French police had intervened in French waters to stop a small boat setting off across the Channel.
Responding to a report from the BBC’s Today programme that officers had slashed at a boat with a knife while it was in shallow waters off the French coast, the home secretary said:
That is a different strategy, and that is welcome that it’s taking action in the shallow waters, but we want broader action.
But this is something that will take time to implement, but is on its way going through the French system at the moment.
I want to see this happen as urgently as possible, and I think the French interior minister does as well.
Migrants arriving on small boats where a child has died should face prosecution, says Cooper
Every migrant who arrives on a small boat where a child has died should face prosecution, the home secretary has said, according to the PA news agency.
Yvette Cooper told the BBC’s Today programme that increased overcrowding of boats was part of the reason that the number of arrivals had increased this year.
She said:
I think it’s just totally appalling that you see boats where children are being crushed to death on these overcrowded boats, and yet the boat still continues to the UK.
So we want to strengthen the law to have endangerment of life at sea be part of our laws, so we can prosecute.
Frankly, I want to see everybody who is arriving on a boat where a child’s life has been lost, frankly, should be facing prosecution, either in the UK or in France.
She added:
If you’ve got a boat where we’ve seen all of those people all climb on board that boat, they are putting everybody else’s lives at risk.
If you get on to a boat which is so crowded that a child is crushed to death in the middle of that boat, and if you then refuse rescue from the French authorities who come to the rescue, who end up taking a child’s body and small family members off that boat, and you refuse rescue, I think, frankly, you should face some responsibility and accountability for that.
Ministers are “looking at a range of different issues” for cutting small boat crossings, the home secretary said as she declined to confirm reports the government was considering a “one in, one out” policy for asylum seekers, reports the PA news agency.
Asked whether the government was looking at such a scheme with European nations, Yvette Cooper told Sky News:
We’ve been looking at a range of different issues, different ways of working – not just with France but with other European countries, other countries like Iraq, countries where we’ve seen these networks of criminal gangs operating.
She added that the government was “looking at different ways of doing returns”.
Cooper also said she hoped France would change its own rules “as swiftly as possible” to allow French police officers to intervene in French waters.
She said:
We’ve seen these just appalling scenes of people just standing in the water, climbing into the boats, French police unable to do anything about it.
So [that is] one of the things I’ve been working very closely with the French interior minister on, and he and I agree those French rules need to change.
‘I strongly disagree’: Home secretary refutes Zarah Sultana claim that Labour is failing to improve lives
Zarah Sultana has “always taken a very different view” from the government, the home secretary has said.
Responding to the former Labour MP’s announcement that she was co-founding a new party with Jeremy Corbyn, Yvette Cooper told Sky News:
I think she has always taken a very different view to most people in the government on a lot of different things, and that’s for her to do so.
Cooper also rejected the Coventry South MP’s accusation that Labour was failing to improve people’s lives, saying:
I just strongly disagree with her.
The home secretary pointed to falling waiting times in the NHS, the announcement of additional neighbourhood police officers, extending free school meals and strengthening renters’ rights as areas where the government was acting. She said:
These are real changes [that] have a real impact on people’s lives.
As well as Cooper, co-chair of the Conservative party Nigel Huddleston is also on the media rounds this morning.
There’s sure to be more reaction today to the news that Sultana has resigned from the Labour party to join Corbyn’s Independent Alliance. But there’s more coming up today:
-
A bid to temporarily block the banning of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is set to be heard at the high court on Friday, ahead of a potential legal challenge against the move.
-
Councils will have to agree targets to improve the number of children ready for school, under new plans to be announced by the education secretary.
In other recently reported developments:
-
Critics of the UK’s role in the Gaza war are considering setting up an independent tribunal if, as expected, Labour blocks a bill tabled by Jeremy Corbyn backing an official inquiry. Government whips are expected to object to the former Labour party leader’s bill in the Commons on Friday, leaving him with few practical options for his legislation to pass.
-
Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are intended to give patients unprecedented control over their care.
-
Some farms in England could be taken entirely out of food production under plans to make more space for nature, the environment secretary has said. Speaking at the Groundswell farming festival in Hertfordshire, Steve Reed said a revamp of post-Brexit farming subsidies and a new land use plan would be aimed at increasing food production in the most productive areas and decreasing or completely removing it in the least productive.
-
Ministers are closely watching a court case in which Vodafone is alleged to have “unjustly enriched” itself at the expense of franchise operators, and have raised the prospect of a regulatory crackdown on the sector. The small business minister, Gareth Thomas, has said he will “track very carefully” a £120m legal claim brought against Vodafone last year by a group of 62 of about 150 franchise operators.