Keir Starmer averts row with union leaders as Labour reiterates ‘full commitment’ to new deal for working people – as it happened

Keir Starmer has averted a row with union leaders about Labour’s plans to strengthen employment rights after they were satisfied by assurances they were given at a meeting that the party is not going back on pledges set out in its new deal for working people policy document last summer.

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has said the Belfast high court ruling yesterday saying the Rwanda deportation policy cannot apply in Northern Ireland because of the Good Friday agreement shows that Rishi Sunak’s Windsor framework deal has “failed upon its first contact with reality”.

The key part of this is “AS AGREED IN JULY” - the bone of contention ahead of this meeting for the majority of trade unions was they felt the party’s language and commitments on things like fire and rehire and zero hours had changed SINCE it was signed off by them last year.

I want a very simple but visible change to occur too – the lanyards worn to carry security passes shouldn’t be a random pick and mix, they should be a standard design reflecting that we are all members of the government delivering for the citizens of the UK.

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, was accused of being “hypocritcal” at the Covid inquiry hearing today because she criticised Boris Johnson for breaking lockdown rules while she seemed to ignore them herself when she attended an IRA funeral.

I am profoundly sceptical of the World Health Organisation’s ability to manage a global pandemic in light of serious errors of judgment, poor leadership and, I’m afraid, well-chronicled conflicts of interests which have subsequently emerged.