#george-freeman

#george-freeman

He was a dedicated member of the British-Irish Assembly, including its co-chair. Dave was also a long-standing member of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

The consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson has collapsed into administration, after a number of clients cut ties with the company over the former ambassador's relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010, said on Friday that it had stopped trading and its staff in the UK were being made redundant. The London-based company employs about 100 people, the vast majority of whom are based in the UK.

I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I'm heading to Parliament. And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine, we will finally get a seat at the table.

The Conservatives are calling for a proposed renovation of the Houses of Parliament to be paused and "refocused" over concerns about costs potentially running into the tens of billions. MPs have been presented with proposals to refurbish the ailing Palace of Westminster, including a plan that could cost almost 40bn and take 61 years to complete. The project team has warned delaying the restoration of the historic building, which costs 1.5m a week to maintain, would lead to "an expensive managed decline of the Palace".

Lord Mandelson started working for Labour in the 1980s and has been a central figure in the party for decades. He played a key role in the New Labour movement, which saw Sir Tony Blair win a landslide election victory in 1997. The MP for Hartlepool held a number of ministerial roles but was twice forced to resign in scandal.

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said the Tories were "irreparably bound to the mistakes of previous governments" and not willing to take "meaningful accountability" for poor decisions.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted Britain is not broken after her former minister Robert Jenrick criticised the party for failing to campaign on that line. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, she said: "Ours is still one of the most successful, resilient and influential countries on Earth," adding that telling voters their "country is finished" only "drags them down". She also insisted that the Conservatives were stronger after Jenrick was sacked, ahead of his defection to Reform.

The reason for that is simple: the British state is big and getting bigger but as an agent of change it is not up to the job. This is true at both central and local levels. Over the years, the capacity of government to intervene has been pared back and professional expertise has been lost as council services have been outsourced.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the all-party House of Commons Treasury committee, said the chancellor should make clear her long-term plans for the 6bn-a-year Send bill as uncertainty grows over how it will be accounted for at the end of the decade. Reeves, who is due to appear before the committee next month, said in a letterto MPs that she plans to delay a decision until next year.

An idiot's guide to running a byelection campaign. First, know your constituency boundaries. Sometimes easier said than done. On Tuesday morning, Lee Anderson was to be found doing a photo op for the Gorton and Denton byelection by posing outside the Stanley hotel. Which just happens to be in Angela Rayner's constituency. Shame that someone pointed out Anderson's mistake. He could happily have spent the next four weeks knocking on the wrong doors.

He said performance indicators for senior officials would be set by ministers and those civil servants not meeting expectations would be shown the door. Instead of the sideways shimmy to another team or department if you fail to perform, I'm afraid you will be sacked, he said, adding that the doers, not the talkers would be in line for promotion.