Unite boss accuses Rayner of ‘abhorrent’ behaviour as clash with Labour escalates

The leader of Unite has described Angela Rayner’s behaviour during recent bin strikes as “totally and utterly abhorrent” as tensions ramp up between the government and Labour’s biggest union backers.

General secretary Sharon Graham hit out at the deputy prime minister after the union voted to suspend her in a row over how the Labour-run council in Birmingham treated striking bin workers.

She signalled the union could end its long affiliation with Labour after Unite members also voted to “re-examine” their relationship with the party, saying the £1.5m it pays is “hard to justify’”.

But allies of Ms Rayner hit back, accusing Ms Graham of not denying that her union had voted to suspend a membership that no longer existed.

On Friday, Ms Rayner made clear she would not be “pushed around” by the union.

Unite, one of Labour’s biggest financial backers, claims fire and rehire tactics have been deployed against striking workers, who are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and job conditions. The action left streets in Birmingham piled high with rubbish.

In a fresh attack on Saturday, Ms Graham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Angela Rayner refuses to get involved, and she is directly aiding and abetting the fire and rehire of these bin workers, it is totally and utterly abhorrent.”

The general secretary said Ms Rayner had been “a member of our union for over 10 years”. Allies of Ms Rayner have said she resigned from Unite in April.

Ms Graham said the politician may well have done a “Houdini act” in recent months by trying to leave the union, but added: “She was very clearly a member when she asked us to give her £10,000 for the election. And on our system, obviously we go by quarters, so up to the March quarter.”

She added: “Now, if she has over the last couple of weeks, because she’s seen the mood music, because this isn’t the first time that we’ve discussed that we’re not happy with what’s going on, then she may well have done that.”

Ms Graham hinted that the union may have to rethink its relationship with Labour, adding that Unite members have to see that the fee to affiliate with the party is “worth something”.

“At this present moment in time, it is hard to justify it, if I’m being honest,” she continued.

“Would that money be better spent on frontline services for my members? But the decision will be a serious decision. It’s not a rash decision.”

Such a decision would go to a rules conference of the union, she said, adding that she was facing pressure to hold an emergency conference “which would mean we would disaffiliate”.

She added: “If it was me and I had a major backer like Unite, that has everyday people in it – remember, this was a vote of members at the parliament of our union – that were saying that we don’t believe that Labour defends workers in the way that we thought they would, we believe that they’re making the wrong decisions, I would be concerned about that.”

The escalation comes days after several other unions, including the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), piled pressure on the government to avoid more cuts by bringing in a wealth tax.

Meanwhile, other unions have said they have major concerns that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, may be planning a tax raid on public sector pension funds.

Ms Rayner’s allies have hit back at the criticism, pointing out that Unite has singled out the leading cabinet minister who has pushed the government to the left on workers’ rights and, in the last fortnight, to abandon plans to slash disability benefits.

A Labour source said on Friday: “Angela’s not interested in silly stunts, she’s interested in changing workers’ lives. Unite rejected a deal in Birmingham, and their demands would have undermined equal pay, discriminating against female workers. Angela won’t be pushed around, and she quit Unite some months ago.”

The union began the strike after alleging that the council’s decision to remove waste recycling and collection officer roles would mean 170 workers would face losing up to £8,000 a year.

On Wednesday, talks to end the dispute broke down as Birmingham City Council announced it had reached the “absolute limit” of what it could offer to resolve the strike.

Badenoch accused of ‘hypocrisy’ after opposing energy project in her constituency

Kemi Badenoch has been accused of “staggering hypocrisy” after privately opposing an energy infrastructure project in her constituency, despite taking aim at the government for not doing enough to tackle nimby blockers.

In a letter to constituents last month, seen by The Independent, the Tory leader said she has “joined six other Conservative MPs from across East Anglia in writing to Ed Miliband to demand a fair and thorough assessment of alternatives to the Norwich to Tilbury pylons project”.

She said the project – which passes through her Saffron Waldon constituency – “risks permanent environmental and visual damage, would hurt house prices, disrupt farms, businesses and community spaces”.

The project will see a new 400-kilovolt electricity transmission line built between Norwich and Tilbury, spanning more than 110 miles.

Ms Badenoch said she told the energy secretary to consider laying the cables underground, even though it is estimated that such a move would cost taxpayers far more.

When the Tory leader’s office was asked about her opposition to the plans, they claimed “there is evidence it is just as cost-effective” to put the cables underground. But when asked to provide the evidence, they failed to do so.

National Grid sources said that burying the cables would not only be up to seven times more expensive, it would also not meet the requirements of the project.

Meanwhile, a report from the Institution of Engineering and Technology said underground cables are, on average, around 4.5 times more expensive than overhead lines.

Writing in The Times less than a month ago, Ms Badenoch said: “Politically, government is increasingly powerless in the face of legal challenges.

“Last week I spoke about the tangle of domestic and international rules that block us building new homes and infrastructure.”

And last year, as shadow housing secretary in the weeks after the election, she suggested that new Labour backbenchers would turn into nimbys when they face complaints from voters.

“Many of them have been thinking they’d get into government and concrete over lots of Tory constituencies,” she told the Commons.

“Three weeks ago just 15 per cent of the green belt was in Labour constituencies, now it’s 50 per cent. They aren’t Tory constituencies now, they are Labour.

“They are now your voters and you’re going to have to tell them that you’re going to do something that many of you promised locally that you would never do.”

Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, Chris Curtis, warned that Ms Badenoch’s decision to oppose the pylon line demonstrates “the same ‘one rule for us’ mindset that brought us wild parties in Downing Street while the country suffered in silence”.

“Kemi Badenoch is fast becoming the poster child for everything the British public rightly despises about politics,” he said.

“She rails against legal blockages in the media while using them at home when it suits her. Voters have had over a decade of being lectured by politicians in Westminster, only to watch them flip flop whenever they could benefit personally or politically.

“It is the same ‘one rule for us’ mindset that brought us wild parties in Downing Street while the country suffered in silence.”

He added: “But that kind of hypocrisy is not just insulting, it is holding Britain back.”

Meanwhile, David Taylor – Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead – said it was “staggering hypocrisy”, warning that Britain “can’t afford more Tory nimbyism when our country’s future is on the line”.

He said: “After her government did their best to bankrupt the country, she’s joined fellow Tory MPs to block the Tilbury pylons project in her own patch, while the country urgently needs new energy infrastructure to keep the lights on and power new homes.

“This is classic one rule for them, another for everyone else. The Conservatives were in power for 14 years and left us with the worst housebuilding record since the 1920s, a time when pylons hadn’t even been invented.

“Now Labour’s in government, we’re serious about building the infrastructure and homes Britain desperately needs.”

A spokesperson for National Grid said: “We’re committed to consulting extensively and listening to the views of communities and stakeholders as we develop and shape our plans.

“Our role is to find a way to take the home-grown, more affordable and cleaner energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed in our homes, business and public services, and we share our plans with Ofgem to ensure value for money for bill payers.

“We consider all technology options, offshore, underground, and overhead lines, and then balance a range of factors, including what’s possible from an engineering and environmental point of view and feedback from local communities.

“The secretary of state for energy security and net zero will then make the final decision, following a recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate, on whether we have got that balance right when considering granting planning permission.”

A spokesperson for Ms Badenoch said: “She’s pushing for the cables to be buried. She’s on the record calling for this and that there is evidence it is just as cost-effective.”

The Independent has contacted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment.

Fiona Phillips’ husband ‘angry’ about lack of support for his wife’s Alzheimer’s

Fiona Phillips’s husband, Martin Frizell, has opened up about the frustrations he is facing over his partner’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

The broadcaster, 64, learnt that she had the condition, which causes cognitive decline, in 2022. She went public with her diagnosis the following year in a bid to raise awareness and tackle stigma surrounding the disease.

Phillips, who married Frizell in 1997, has documented her experience in a new book titled Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer’s, written with the help of her husband as well as former Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Frizell, the former editor of This Morning, revealed that he only intended to write “a few paragraphs” for his wife’s book, but ended up writing 24,000 words when his anger about the situation began to simmer.

“I started off writing about what a great woman she is and just how horrible it is and dreadfully unlucky that she is the latest in the long line of her family to get it,” Frizell explained.

“Then I just got very angry as to what little support there is. You realise that there are about 70,000 people who have early-onset Alzheimer’s, a million or so roughly in the country who have Alzheimer’s, and you realise that there’s not a lot of help out there.”

He continued: “As a family, we just kind of get through it and at some point we will need more support, but there’s just nothing really.”

Appearing on This Morning on Friday (11 July), Frizell shared that Phillips sometimes becomes confused over who she is. Referring to a recent photo taken of the presenter, he said: “She’s looking great and she’s kinda smiling… And what you don’t know is she thought I’d kidnapped her.”

He added that she recognises him as her husband “most of the time”.

Frizell stepped down from his role as the editor of This Morning in 2024 after a decade on the show, in order to focus on “family priorities”.

The journalist recently made the heartbreaking admission that he wished his wife had been diagnosed with cancer rather than Alzheimer’s.

“It’s a shocking thing to say, but at least then she might have had a chance of a cure, and certainly would have had a treatment pathway and an array of support and care packages,” he wrote in another extract from Remember When.

“But that’s not there for Alzheimer’s. Just like there are no funny or inspiring TikTok videos or fashion shoots with smiling, healthy, in-remission survivors.”

Frizell and Phillips have two sons: Nathaniel, 26, and Mackenzie, 23.

Reform UK selects 18-year-old to run county council

Reform UK has selected a teenager to permanently run a major county council, overseeing hundreds of millions of pounds of public spending.

George Finch, 18, took over temporarily after the previous council leader, also a member of Reform, resigned just weeks after being elected.

Now the 18-year-old has been selected by Nigel Farage’s party to head Warwickshire County Council, which has £1.5bn of assets and a budget of around £500m.

The Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, Preet Gill, has criticised the decision, saying the people of Warwickshire “frankly deserve better”.

“This is not work experience,” she told the BBC. “This is not about learning on the job.”

Mr Finch, a former Tory, was installed as the full-time leader of the Reform group after a vote on Friday.

Reform is the largest party on the council but does not have an outright majority, meaning he will need the support of other parties, such as the Conservatives, when a vote is held later this month to officially appoint him council leader.

Rachel Taylor, the Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, said she was “deeply concerned” that Reform was “proposing that an eighteen-year-old with no previous work experience should be running our county council”.

She called on the Tories to “vote this down”, adding: “I would ask them to reflect on whether they are willing to blindly rubber stamp what is clearly an inappropriate appointment.”

Last month Reform’s Rob Howard said it was with “much regret” that he was quitting as council leader, citing health challenges which he said prevented him from “carrying out the role to the level and standard that I would wish”.

His resignation came in the wake of chaos that followed Reform’s surge at the local elections, when it took hundreds of seats across England.

One newly-elected councillor resigned from the party just days after being elected.

Firing a parting shot as she left, Donna Edmunds also called for ousted Reform MP Rupert Lowe to establish a challenger party on the right of Reform and said Mr Farage “must never be prime minister”.

Another councillor, Wayne Titley, elected in Staffordshire, quit the council after just two weeks, following criticism over a Facebook post about small boats arriving in Britain.

And a Reform councillor’s failure to declare he worked for the council forced a by-election to be announced in Durham just a week after the local elections.

The chaos appeared to do little to dent Reform in the polls.

But a leading pollster recently suggested that support for the party has “topped out”, and that the momentum that was leading it to soar in the polls has ground to a halt.

Conservative peer Robert Hayward told The Independent that the results of recent council by-elections which Reform lost while defending seats, coupled with a small fall in the party’s national polling figures, suggest that the march of Mr Farage to Downing Street at the next general election could be facing a setback.

It came after business leaders and senior figures in the Labour Party urged Sir Keir Starmer to “stop obsessing” about the rise of Reform.

The Office producer regrets jokes made about his disability

The Office producer Ash Atalla has admitted that in recent years, he’s questioned whether it was right for him to have had Ricky Gervais make jokes about his disability.

At the insistence of Atalla, 53, who uses a wheelchair, comedian Gervais, 64, poked fun at the producer’s disability while picking up an award at the 2001 British Comedy Awards.

Joined by Atalla and the rest of the team behind the UK version of The Office, Gervais, 64, who co-wrote and led the sitcom, took the podium to accept the honor for Best New TV Comedy.

“We still need more money. It’s a very low budget,” the comedian quipped, pointing to Atalla. “He was the runner — no, that’s the producer, he wanted me to tell you that so you didn’t think he’d won a competition.”

As laughter echoed through the audience, Gervais once again emphasized that the joke came from Atalla, not him.

In another award acceptance speech, Gervais compared Atalla with theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, saying: “You’re just the same… but without all the clever stuff.”

Asked how he felt about the jokes now, Atalla told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: “I felt good about it at the time. The joke that people remember, the first one, was a line that I gave to him, because I said to him, ‘Make sure they know I haven’t won a competition to be here.’

“Because I was suddenly concerned at the optics of… people in wheelchairs weren’t on stages back then,” he explained. “And he did that joke at the British Comedy Awards. There was this huge roar, and that kind of started the double act of that material on stage.

The Egyptian-born producer continued: “I tried to make the point a couple of times that it’s about nuance, and because I think I play fast and loose with the rules around my wheelchair, I’m really happy to use it when I want to, like, I haven’t queued at an airport in years, and then other times I get annoyed that other people might even bring it up.

“I’m a producer, and people don’t normally notice the producer, but there I was on stage, and I got a profile, a lot because of the stuff that Ricky and I used to do on stage.”

Looking back, Atalla admitted that “maybe I realize, or I feel I sold a bit of myself in that moment, I put the wheelchair front and center because I knew it was something that would set me apart in that instance. Set me apart in a good way.”

“And, just in recent years, as I’ve thought about it, it’s made me consider whether I was right to do that,” he said.

Atalla contracted polio as a child, and the disease left him unable to walk.

Elsewhere in the episode, the producer considered whether it is right to have able-bodied actors playing disabled people, acknowledging that it is “a complex issue.”

“I think it’s a very simple rule now to have… just make it a 100 percent rule, and nobody will get hurt,” he said.

“Disabled people should only play disabled people on television. It’s a complex issue,” he added. “You can make an argument to justify why an able-bodied actor should do a disabled role, like you can construct that argument.

“It’s just that, for me, it’s an argument that falls apart really quickly,” Atalla concluded. “And so I could make the case to you, I won’t, but I could make the case for you, but it’s just not one that I believe in.”

Atalla’s gone on to work as a series producer on The IT Crowd and an executive producer on Cuckoo, Stath Lets Flats, and Big Boys.

Desert Island Discs broadcasts at 10 a.m. Sunday on BBC Radio 4 and is also available on BBC Sounds.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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Trump announces 30% tariffs on imports from the EU and Mexico

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 30 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union, effective August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the key trading allies failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal.

The fresh tariffs were announced in separate letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, on Truth Social on Saturday, in a major escalation of Trump’s trade war.

The European Union and Mexico are among the largest U.S. trading partners.

Trump sent similar letters to 23 other trading partners this week, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting blanket tariff rates ranging from 20 percent up to 50 percent, alongside a 50 percent tariff on copper.

The August 1 deadline gives countries targeted by Trump’s letters time to negotiate a trade deal that could lower the threatened tariff levels.

The EU had hoped to reach a comprehensive trade agreement with the U.S. for the 27-country bloc.

Three EU officials told Reuters on Saturday that Trump’s threats represent a negotiating tactic.

Trump’s letter to the EU included a demand that Europe drop its own tariffs, an apparent condition of any future deal.

“The European Union will allow complete, open Market Access to the United States, with no Tariff being charged to us, in an attempt to reduce the large Trade Deficit,” Trump wrote.

EU President von der Leyen said the 30 percent tariffs “would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic.”

She also said while the EU will continue to work towards a trade agreement, they “will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required.”

Canada received a higher tariff rate of 35 percent compared to Mexico, with both letters citing fentanyl flows, even though government data shows the amount of the drug seized at the Mexican border was significantly higher than at the Canadian border.

“Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough. Mexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground,” Trump wrote.

Mexico sends more than 80 percent of its total exported goods to the U.S. and free trade with its northern neighbor drove Mexico to overtake China as the U.S.’s top trading partner in 2023.

The European Union had been bracing for the letter from Trump outlining his planned duties on the United States’ largest trade and investment partner after a broadening of his tariff war in recent days.

The EU initially hoped to strike a comprehensive trade agreement, including zero-for-zero tariffs on industrial goods, but months of difficult talks have led to the realization it will probably have to settle for an interim agreement and hope something better can still be negotiated.

The 27-country bloc is under conflicting pressures as powerhouse Germany urged a quick deal to safeguard its industry, while other EU members, such as France, have said EU negotiators should not cave into a one-sided deal on U.S. terms.

Trump’s cascade of tariff orders since returning to the White House has begun generating tens of billions of dollars a month in new revenue for the U.S. government. U.S. customs duties revenue shot past $100 billion in the federal fiscal year through to June, according to U.S. Treasury data on Friday.

Spokespeople for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexico’s Economy Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.