Latest news with #Westminster
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kim Leadbeater speaks at memorial Get Together for late Jo Cox
Political figures, including the MP for Batley and Spen, have gathered to remember the legacy of the late Jo Cox MP. The Great Parliamentary Get Together recently took place at Speaker's House in Westminster. Get Togethers are held annually across the country to remember Ms Cox and the 'more in common' values she championed. Kim Leadbeater, Ms Cox's sister and the MP for Batley and Spen, said: "It is heartwarming to see so many familiar faces here - and many new friends too - and on behalf of Jo's family I want to thank you all for coming. "It means a lot to us all that colleagues have taken the time out of their busy schedules to join us to get together to remember Jo. "There is much more work still to do to channel Jo's message of finding common ground." The event was attended by former prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Theresa May; Rachel Reeves; Yvette Cooper; and Lindsay Hoyle, among others. Ms Cox's parents, Gordon and Jean Leadbeater, and Ms Cox's children, Cuillin and Lejla, were special guests. The annual Run for Jo will take place at Oakwell Hall in Birstall this Sunday (June 22), which is also Ms Cox's birthday.
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Rayner ‘wants council tax rise in the south to fund the north'
Council tax bills will rise in the south to fund investment in the north, it has been reported. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, is to announce plans for a 'progressive' funneling of Government grants to authorities in deprived areas. According to The Times, Ms Rayner will set out a new formula which will see the grants redistributed depending on local needs. The changes are expected to reduce the grant funding received by wealthier local authorities in London and the south east, which experts said would likely prompt council tax hikes to make up for any shortfalls. Approximately half of council incomes currently come from Government grants. Ms Rayner will reportedly cite discrepancies in council tax levies between richer and poorer areas. A three-bedroom semi-detached house in Hartlepool, Co Durham, comes with a higher levy than an £80 million mansion in Westminster. David Phillips, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the newspaper that reform was overdue. 'It's been 20 years since we've had an effective system to allocate funding between councils so it is out of whack and the changes are going to be big,' he said. 'We would expect urban areas in the Midlands and north to benefit, and maybe some of the east London boroughs. But the Westminsters and Wandsworths of this world, which set very low council tax, will lose.
The Independent
21 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
MP offered private ambulance to attend assisted dying vote
Northern Irish MP Sorcha Eastwood, a vocal opponent of the assisted dying bill, was initially unable to attend a critical Westminster vote due to a Covid -19 infection. An entrepreneur offered to transport Eastwood via private ambulance if she tested negative, and she later indicated she would travel if her tests allowed. The assisted dying bill faces a very close vote, with four Labour MPs announcing a switch from supporting to opposing the legislation shortly before the vote. Over 60 disability organizations and public polling raised significant concerns about the bill's impact on people with learning disabilities, citing fears of coercion and issues with informed consent. The prime minister rejected calls for a delay to the vote, and the bill's proponent warned that rejection could mean a decade-long wait for the issue to be debated again.
The Independent
21 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
MP offered private ambulance to parliament amid fears assisted dying bill could come down to one vote
An MP has been offered the use of a private ambulance to bring her to parliament amid fears the hugely controversial assisted dying bill could come down to just a single vote. Sorcha Eastwood, a Northern Irish MP, announced earlier this week that she was unable to travel to Westminster for the crunch vote because she has Covid. She has spoken out passionately against the proposed bill, but said she did not want to put others at risk of contracting the illness. In response, the entrepreneur Declan Ganley contacted her on social media to offer to arrange transport in a private ambulance. Earlier, the MP had posted on social media: 'My heart is genuinely breaking that I can't vote tomorrow'. She said she did not believe the bill was 'competent - either in law or the societal ramifications'. Since the offer, she has posted photographs of her most recent Covid tests and said that if she tests negative on Thursday night, she will travel to Parliament for the vote. The bill is on a knife-edge, with campaigners on both sides making their final pitches to wavering MPs. MPs are sometimes 'paired' on key votes, in a system that allows two MPs with opposing positions to both miss the vote, without affecting the outcome. However, this only applies to government bills - which the assisted dying bill is not. On Thursday night, four Labour MPs Markus Campbell-Savours, Kanishka Narayan, Paul Foster and Jonathan Hinder announced they were switching their votes from yes to no. More than 60 disability organisations also wrote to MPs highlighting concerns over the potential impact of the legislation on those with learning disabilities. They cited polling commissioned by the Down's Syndrome Research Foundation, which found major fears about how people with learning disabilities could express informed consent when applying for assisted suicide. Three-quarters of the public raised concerns about the prospect of disabled people being able to consent, the polling found. It also found that nearly seven in 10 people fear those with learning disabilities may be particularly vulnerable to the risk of coercion or manipulation into an assisted suicide if the bill passes. The MP who brought the bill, Kim Leadbeater, made her own last-minute plea to MPs to support her assisted dying bill, warning that if it is rejected on Friday, terminally ill adults could face a 10-year wait before the issue is debated again. Campaigners against the legislation made a last-ditch call for a delay to the crunch final vote, with 52 Labour backbenchers asking Sir Keir Starmer to step in and give MPs more time to scrutinise the bill. But the prime minister rejected the call, saying there 'has been a lot of time discussing it, both in parliament and beyond parliament'. If the bill passes its final stage on Friday, it will then go to the House of Lords, where peers have warned that they intend to heavily scrutinise the legislation.
The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
Back my assisted dying bill or face another decade of death without dignity, Kim Leadbeater warns MPs
Kim Leadbeater has made a last-minute plea to MPs to support her assisted dying bill, warning that if it is rejected on Friday, terminally ill adults could face a ten-year wait before the issue is debated again. In an emotional plea ahead of Friday's final Commons vote on the Terminally Ill Adults bill, the Labour MP asked how many more would suffer dying without dignity if MPs reject her plans. ' If we don't pass this law tomorrow, it could be another decade before this issue was brought back to parliament,' she told a press conference in Westminster. Flanked by MPs from across party lines, as well as a group of assisted dying campaigners, Ms Leadbeater added: 'It's 10 years since we last had a vote. If we leave it now, I worry it could be a heck of a long time. 'And in that time, how many more stories will we hear like Katie, Pamela, Anil and Sophie.' The four campaigners had shared stories of their own experiences with terminal illness or of the anguish around the deaths of loved ones who could have benefitted from assisted dying. One of the campaigners at the press conference, Sophie Blake, who has been living with stage four secondary breast cancer for three years, said: 'I have come to terms with the fact my life has been shortened and I do not fear death. But I do fear how I will die.' She is allergic to most opioids, and said: 'The thought of not being able to control my pain and suffering hangs over me'. 'I want my daughter and my family's last memories of me to be happy and wonderful times, not being left traumatized by seeing me in agony,' she added. The assisted dying vote is on a knife-edge, with expectations there could be decided by just 10 to 15 votes. Campaigners against the legislation called at the last minute for a delay to the crunch final vote, with 52 Labour backbenchers asking Sir Keir Starmer to step in and give MPs more time to scrutinise the bill. But the prime minister rejected the call, saying there 'has been a lot of time discussing it, both in parliament and beyond parliament'. Asked whether she is confident the bill will pass, Ms Leadbeater said she expects MPs to back it comfortably. She said: 'We had a good majority of 55 at second reading, there may be some small movement in the middle, some people may change their mind one way, others may change their minds the other way. 'But fundamentally, I do not anticipate that the majority will be heavily eroded. I feel confident we can get through tomorrow successfully.' It came after the last minute letter from 52 MPs warned: 'This is not a normal Bill. It alters the foundations of our NHS, the relationship between doctor and patient, and it strips power away from Parliament, concentrating it in the hands of future Health Secretaries. 'MPs will be arriving at Westminster on Friday morning without sight of the final version of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.' If, as expected, the Bill passes its final stage on Friday it will then go to the Lords where peers have warned that they intend to heavily scrutinise the legislation. Among the issues still facing questions is the problem of potential impacts on those with disabilities and coercion to end lives early among the vulnerable. The Whitestone polling was commissioned by the disability group Not Dead Yet UK and also found that six in ten agree that some disabled people could be coerced into assisted suicide by others who do not have their best interests at heart. This rises to 64 per cent for people polled who are disabled. It also found 57 per cent agree that disabled people who struggle to access the support they need, given the current state of the NHS and social care funding, may be more likely to seek assisted suicide instead while only 17 per cent disagree.
