In today’s newsletter: Jeremy Corbyn’s upstart faction aims to “provide hope in a parliament of despair”. Now there are questions over whether it could be the first step to a more formal challenge• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. If you worried that there weren’t enough rival factions in Westminster at the moment, you can relax: Jeremy Corbyn has formed a new one. Pulling together under the banner of the Independent Alliance, five leftwing MPs who stood as independents in July’s election say they aim to “provide hope in a parliament of despair” – by fighting to keep the winter fuel allowance, scrap the two-child benefit cap and provide a voice for Palestinians.At a stroke, the new grouping has as many MPs as Reform UK, and more than the Greens – and even though they haven’t said so, many will be wondering whether this could be the first step towards something larger: a new party of the left, forming from the ashes of Corbynism and presenting a serious danger to Labour’s chances at the next election.Immigration and asylum | Six children and a pregnant woman are among at least 12 people who died after a boat carrying dozens of asylum seekers to the UK was “ripped open” in one of the worst Channel tragedies since the small boats crisis began.Grenfell Tower inquiry | Companies and public authorities involved in the Grenfell Tower refurbishment are braced for wide-ranging criticisms when the final public inquiry report on the 2017 disaster is released at 11am today. Read a primer on what to expect below.Ukraine war | A Russian attack on a military educational institute in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Tuesday killed at least 47 people and injured more than 206, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.Lucy Letby | Scribbled notes by the neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, including the phrase “I am evil I did this”, were written on the advice of counsellors to deal with extreme stress, the Guardian has learned. Amid questions over the safety of Letby’s conviction for murdering seven babies, a public inquiry is set to begin receiving evidence next week.Libraries | More than 180 UK council-run libraries have closed or been handed over to volunteer groups since 2016, new data shows. The most deprived communities were around four times more likely to lose a library than the richest. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/04/first-edition-jeremy-corbyn
Author : Archie Bland
Publish date : 2024-09-04 07:53:10
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