Government calls on union to accept deal and end Birmingham bin strike – UK politics live
Government calls on union to accept deal and end Birmingham bin strike
The government has reiterated its call for the Unite union to accept a deal being offered by Birmingham city council to end the strike which has left the city with masses of uncollected refuse. The union has accused the council of repeatedly “shifting the goalposts”.
Business and trade minister Sarah Jones said “Fundamentally what needs to happen now is the strike needs to be called off. Unite need to accept the offer that’s on the table. It’s a good offer and that is what we are asking them to do.”
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, national lead officer at Unite Onay Kasab said “The fact is that the council have shifted the goalposts on several occasions. I think different political decisions need to be made. Why should working people be forced to pay the price for austerity? Why should our members pay the price for cuts to local authorities?”
He accused the council of attempting to harmonise pay downwards, and in an interview on Times Radio said “The offer from the council would still lead to a sharp, cliff edge drop in pay, up to £8,000 a year, for our members. They have told us in negotiations that they’re looking to cut the pay of drivers from around £40,000 to £32,000 a year.”
Speaking to the Birmingham Live website, one local resident who wished to remain anonymous said the union “keep rejecting stuff but nobody knows what they are rejecting”, adding “It’s not like they’re doing it on purpose, they probably live around here themselves. They can see it themselves. Their streets aren’t getting cleaned either.”
Another resident, Adam Yasin, said “It has been really bad, especially where I live, there are a lot of restaurants there. Today they collected the rubbish that was on the floor, so the bags that were on the floor, but the bins are still left. It’s more to do with hygiene on the streets. It’s annoying, and when the kids are there they like to touch things as well.”
Key events
My colleague Peter Walker has just had a little to and fro with Nigel Farage at the end of this event.
In his intro, Lee Anderson specifically singled out Peter to the audience, saying “I think the Guardian’s in here somewhere. They’re probably frightened to death of him [Farage] – the Guardian’s there, look – they’re frightened to death of him.”
Peter was then given the last question of Farage’s session, and joked “I thought you’d never, never get to me”.
Farage replied “You were on the list and we never, ever … well Lee, might have a go at you in public, but I don’t … not yet anyway.”
Peter’s question boiled down to saying that during the speech Farage had promised to rescind all the revenue-raising measures of the Labour administration and raise the income tax threshold to £20,000, but had only offered measures against DEI and councils buying expensive ergonomic chairs as cost-savings. Did he have a plan, or was he not, Peter asked, running the risk of conning the public?
Farage replied:
Well, I tell you what. I tell you who’s been conned … in 15 years, we’ve gone from an accumulated national debt of nearly £1tn to one of £2.8tn. So has anybody been frank with voters about how they’re going to pay for anything?
We have deep problems. The re-industrialization of Britain, beginning with energy, with oil and gas, will, within a couple of years, produce tens of thousands of well paid, in fact, in many cases, highly paid jobs. And it depends how much time we have, but if we can get our hands on the regulators, the quangos who do so much to stifle business. Every small trader I talk to, no matter what they’re doing, their business, is being impaired by unnecessary excessive regulation.
So I’m talking about a cultural change, a cultural change and a country in which hard work becomes something that we respect, where work from home in the public sector disappears, where productivity increases, there’s some of your answers.
The PA news agency has spoken to one of the workers on strike in Birmingham. The woman, who gave her name only as Wendy, said she feared losing her home as a result of the deal being proposed.
She said she is not asking for more money but wants to keep her wages at the current level rather than see them cut.
I’m a single parent and I bought up three children. I also rent my property from Birmingham city council, so if I lose £600 potentially I could lose my home.
So the impact on it, everything’s going up, but our wages are just stopped there. They are rising everything, especially the council rents, but they want to lower your wages.
When you’re on the back of that wagon, it doesn’t matter if it’s rain, sun, hail, snow, ice – it’s a job where you can have a laugh every day with the family you have created in that yard. This is what I like doing. It’s an amazing job.
Nigel Farage has finished his speech in Durham and is taking questions from journalists. He has answered the first by saying: “I’ll make one thing very, very clear, if we win the 2029 general election, we will go to war with the National Education union and all the left wing teaching unions. People should be taught objectively, fairly, and should be taught critical thinking, where kids can make their own minds up what they believe and not be indoctrinated.”
He has called for a British equivalent of Doge – the “agency” run by Elon Musk in Donald Trump’s administration – in every county council. That was in response to a question about the Daily Express on what a Reform UK-led council would look like.
Before the Q&A began he finished his speech by taking aim at what he said was “DEI and that madness” and concluded by saying:
It’s not about left or right. It’s about values, and it’s about believing that our country is going down the tubes. It’s about understanding that Britain is broken, and that without the right leadership, without the right change of mentality, and I think most of us feel, within a decade, it frankly, won’t be a place worth living in.
And we are damn determined to turn this round. We fully intend to turn this round, and we’re actually the most optimistic political party out there, because we believe we can and we will turn this around, get that pendulum to come back in a different direction, get the attitudes of people towards work, towards success, towards life, towards their community. We believe all of that can be turned around. And that is our historic mission.
Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse has asked authorities in China and Hong Kong to release tapes of her interrogation prior to the MP being refused entry to Hong Kong. She said that the response of authorities had smeared her, by claiming she was uncopoerative.
This attempt by the authorities to smear me and cast doubt on my account is hugely upsetting but sadly not surprising. I was polite and cooperative throughout the interview, answering every question asked of me. I even volunteered personal information I wasn’t asked for, such as showing officials a picture of my baby grandson who was waiting for me on the other side.
If the Chinese or Hong Kong SAR authorities want to assert that I did not answer questions from immigration officials, they have to provide some evidence. Surely they have a tape, or a transcript of the interview. Release the tapes and let me know what I did not answer.
I just want answers. Following these damaging attempts to smear me, I hope the foreign secretary will now summon the Chinese ambassador in person to give a full and clear account of why I was refused entry to Hong Kong last week. Until that request is answered, it will have a chilling effect on all Parliamentarians who stand up for freedom and democracy.
Yesterday Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called on the foreign secretary to summon the Chinese ambassador for an explanation.
Nigel Farage has appeared to have claimed credit for the government moving to rescue British Steel. The Reform UK leader told supporters at a campaign event in Durham that “I don’t believe there would have been a Saturday sitting at parliament if Richard Tice and I had not been up to Scunthorpe and been greeted the way we were, by those workers, especially in the local [Wether]spoons afterwards. They actually felt there was someone speaking up for them. They actually felt there was somebody on their side. And that, I think, is why Labour did what they did.”
Farage claimed “we are witnessing an industrial massacre” in the UK. He said “It’s going on in chemicals, it’s going on in refining. We no longer produce aluminum in this country. We should be self sufficient in oil. We should be absolutely self sufficient in gas. We need to produce more energy and cheaper energy. 21st century living demands absolutely nothing less, and this is part of our strategy. Reform will re industrialize Britain.”
He said “We’re living through a period of net zero lunacy” and said that Ed Miliband’s ambition was to “despoil as much of our coastline as he possibly can.”
Nigel Farage had billed this Reform UK speech as a major announcement, and it appears that it is him saying “Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the “red wall”. Today is the first day I’ve said that. But I absolutely mean it, and we’re here, and we’re here to stay.”
Farage chooses the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster to pose with a giant print out of the Sun’s front page saying “Britain is broken”. He has also claimed you wouldn’t know it was Easter coming up, due to what he said was “social and cultural decline”.
His message appears to boil down to, at these council elections in May, a vote for the Conservatives in the so-called red wall areas is wasted, and that to vote against Labour people should back Reform UK candidates. He accused what he described as “the Labour lie machine” of being “in full groove”.
Nigel Farage has been introduced at a Reform UK event in Durham by Lee Anderson. In his introductory speech Anderson described Labour MPs as “a clueless bunch of people … [who’ve] never had a real job in their life”.
He claimed that in the north-east many Labour MPs could “could walk down the street and nobody would actually recognise them”.
Farage has begun his talk with a list of recent council byelection victories for Reform UK at the expense of the Labour party. I’ll bring you any key lines that emerge.
The largest education union in the country will launch a formal ballot on strike action if the government’s final pay offer for teachers “remains unacceptable”, PA Media reports.
Delegates at the annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU) have voted for districts, branches and school groups to “immediately prepare” for a formal industrial action ballot over the pay and funding offer for 2025/26.
More details soon …
The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to rule out any future Chinese involvement with British Steel.
Foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said:
Giving another Chinese firm ownership of British Steel would be like coming home to find your house ransacked and then leaving your doors unlocked.
Domestic steel production is absolutely vital to our national security and to put that at risk again would be completely unacceptable.
The government should rule out any Chinese firms’ future involvement in the ownership of British Steel – and certainly until it has completed and published its China audit. The stakes are simply too high.
Earlier today business and trade minister Sarah Jones said the government’s preference for the future of the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe was for “a private sector partner to come in”. Pressed on Sky News if that could be another Chinese firm, she said “At the moment, I’m not going to say yes or no to anything that isn’t at the moment on the table or being looked at.”
Nigel Farage is out on the campaign trail today alongside another of Reform UK’s four MPs, Lee Anderson. The pair are due to make an appearance in Durham around noon, which with his typical flair for self-aggrandising publicity, Farage is billing as a “major speech”.
Presumably it will not stray far from the themes he outlined in an op-ed granted him by The Sun newspaper this morning: Britain is the best country in the world but also in terrible decline and awful to live in, the Conservatives are finished as a political force, Starmer is out of touch and “Keir Hardie would be turning in his grave” over this government, Reform UK are the one true working people’s opposition to Labour, and so on. We will bring you the key lines that emerge from that event.
PA Media analysis showed last week that Reform UK are fielding more candidates than any other party in the local elections in May, where they are expected to make gains. National polling has Labour, Reform UK and Conservatives closely bunched together with support in the range of low 20s. At the 2024 general election Reform UK had the third-largest vote share at 14% with over four million votes. You can find our guide to May’s council elections in some parts of England here.
Lammy: ‘morally wrong’ to give up trying for peace in Sudan
Foreign secretary David Lammy has said it is “morally wrong” to give up and turn away from the violence in Sudan, and committed the UK government to £120m worth of additional support.
Opening a conference on the topic at the Foriegn Office in London, he said he personally had “refused to turn away”, saying it was wrong for people to “conclude that further conflict is effectively inevitable” because of “the country’s fraught history.”
Lammy continued
Very simply, we have got to persuade the warring parties to protect civilians, to let aid in and across the country, and to put peace first. We all want to see Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity upheld. We all want to see a united state with functioning institutions. We all want to see Sudan civilians protected, and the millions of displaced people able to return to their homes. This is a strong basis to agree the steps needed then to relieve the suffering and to end this awful war.
When I met with Sudanese refugees in Chad, I was frankly humbled by their resilience in the face of unimaginable trauma. They had not given up on their country, or the communities around them. For their sake we cannot resign ourselves to inevitable conflict. We cannot be back here one year from now having the same discussion.
Davey on UK-US trade deal prospects: Trump is ‘unreliable partner’
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has voiced his concerns about the prospect of a UK-US trade deal, which vice-president JD Vance earlier said he was hopeful of.
In a statement, Davey said:
It would be deeply undemocratic if parliament were to be sidelined on such a critical issue for the country. Conservative and Labour MPs should commit now to voting down any Trump deal that undercuts British farmers and their high food standards, sells out the NHS, or waters down protections for children online.
A good trade deal with the US could bring huge benefits, but Trump is an unreliable partner who breaks deals whenever he feels like it. He and his sidekick JD Vance must not be allowed to bully their way into a bad trade deal for the UK.
Davey is out campaigning in Cambridgeshire today. Yesterday he helped out at a barbecue and got driven around in a buggy while out visiting a farm in Oxford.
Foreign secretary David Lammy will be speaking in London soon at the opening of the Sudan conference at the Foreign Office. It is billed that he will attempt to “galvanise the international community to step up efforts to urgently end the violence” there, which has been ongoing for two years. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.
Scotland’s deputy first minister has commented on the latest unemployment data, which shows that employment and unemployment rates have both increased in the country.
Kate Forbes said there was still work to do to improve the resilience of the Scottish economy. She said:
These figures indicate that Scotland’s unemployment rate remains relatively low despite a challenging economic environment. However, difficulties persist for those who are economically inactive.
With the world changing around us, the UK Government needs to change, too, by revisiting its budget and taking action to create jobs and unleash Scotland’s economic potential.
The UK government can boost growth by pursuing closer trade ties with the EU and reversing the decision to raise employers’ national insurance contributions.
To build a more resilient economy, the first minister and I are working with business leaders to develop measures which create jobs and drive growth. These will be included in our forthcoming programme for government, which publishes on 6 May.”
Government calls on union to accept deal and end Birmingham bin strike
The government has reiterated its call for the Unite union to accept a deal being offered by Birmingham city council to end the strike which has left the city with masses of uncollected refuse. The union has accused the council of repeatedly “shifting the goalposts”.
Business and trade minister Sarah Jones said “Fundamentally what needs to happen now is the strike needs to be called off. Unite need to accept the offer that’s on the table. It’s a good offer and that is what we are asking them to do.”
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, national lead officer at Unite Onay Kasab said “The fact is that the council have shifted the goalposts on several occasions. I think different political decisions need to be made. Why should working people be forced to pay the price for austerity? Why should our members pay the price for cuts to local authorities?”
He accused the council of attempting to harmonise pay downwards, and in an interview on Times Radio said “The offer from the council would still lead to a sharp, cliff edge drop in pay, up to £8,000 a year, for our members. They have told us in negotiations that they’re looking to cut the pay of drivers from around £40,000 to £32,000 a year.”
Speaking to the Birmingham Live website, one local resident who wished to remain anonymous said the union “keep rejecting stuff but nobody knows what they are rejecting”, adding “It’s not like they’re doing it on purpose, they probably live around here themselves. They can see it themselves. Their streets aren’t getting cleaned either.”
Another resident, Adam Yasin, said “It has been really bad, especially where I live, there are a lot of restaurants there. Today they collected the rubbish that was on the floor, so the bags that were on the floor, but the bins are still left. It’s more to do with hygiene on the streets. It’s annoying, and when the kids are there they like to touch things as well.”
The byelection for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse seat left vacant after the death of SNP MSP Christina McKelvie will take place on 5 June, Holyrood’s presiding officer has announced, PA Media reports.
McKelvie was on medical leave for treatment for secondary breast cancer when she died last month. The SNP has already announced councillor Katy Loudon as its candidate.
Just back on speculation about UK-US trade deal prospects for a second, earlier on the Today programme the BBC’s economics editor Faisal Islam described the UK as being in a “paradoxical” position with regard to US trade, and being on the receiving end of “two quite different messages” from the Donald Trump administration.
He said:
You’ve got the very warm message there from the US vice-president JD Vance about the prospects of a deal with the UK. But remember that the one sector, or one of the two sectors, where there are significant tariffs that have already been applied, 25% has been on automotives, and then the next in its sights is pharmaceuticals. And in terms of the data from last year, those were the two big goods exports from the UK to the US.
He then pointed out that where it had initially looked like the UK had been spared the worst of Trump’s unilateral tariffs – you will recall some people pointed to the rate being lower than that applied to the EU being described in some quarters as a “Brexit dividend” – that is no longer the case. The rowing back and pausing on tariffs for most countries means pretty much everybody is on the same base rate of a 10% tariff.
He told listeners:
So what is actually being negotiated in any talks between the UK and US? That 10% baseline tariff that now applies across the entire world, apart from China. Is that actually up for grabs in any way?
There are reasons to think it isn’t up for grabs. Because one of the reasons why you set a universal tariff is that you don’t want different countries to become areas where you could channel and then not pay the tariff.
The other thing just to watch out for is the UK is also engaged with the EU in a negotiation over things like food standards, and if, as the mood music seems to be, we align, we have a high alignment, high ambition deal … that is precisely the sort of thing that they [the US] notice in trying to do a deal.
Green party of England and Wales co-leader Adrian Ramsay is among politicians who this morning have called for the government to act more swiftly in passing its proposed Hillsborough law, as the 36th anniversary of the disaster is commemorated.
In a post to social media, Ramsay said “Today marks 36 years since the Hillsborough disaster. The inhumanity with which the state handled it was abominable. This government must keep its promise and deliver the Hillsborough law.”
Keir Starmer had initially said the legislation would be in process before today’s anniversary. Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby Ian Byrne has also posted to social media campaigning on the topic, reproducing the front page of today’s Liverpool Echo, where families of the victims have called on the government “Don’t let us down”.
The prime minister himself posted to social media to mark the occassion, reiterating that the government still intended to go forward with legislation. Starmer said:
Thirty-six years ago, we saw one of the greatest disasters in our history. A disaster that led to 97 people tragically losing their lives. Today, I pay tribute to them. In the years since, their families and loved ones have campaigned tirelessly to get justice. Despite all the challenges they have faced, they have kept fighting.
I promised to bring a Hillsborough Law before parliament, with a legal duty of candour for public authorities and public servants, and criminal sanctions for anyone who fails to comply. I will deliver on that promise.
After decades of injustice, we must get this legislation right. We must make sure it achieves what the people of Liverpool have spent the past thirty-six years fighting for.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Margaret Aspinall, whose son James, 18, was killed at Hillsborough, said she could not “knock” the prime minister’s ambition for the legislation, even if she was “disappointed it’s not come out for the anniversary”. PA Media reports she added she did not want to see the legislation “watered down” in a rush to get it passed.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride, recently granted a knighthood in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list, has used social media this morning to criticise Rachel Reeves’ approach to government borrowing.
In a series of posts, the Central Devon MP said:
We are spending over £100bn a year on debt interest. It’s almost double what we spend on defence. That is totally unacceptable. People’s taxes are being poured down the drain on interest payments.
Before Covid debt was falling, but government had to spend huge amounts supporting the economy during the pandemic. And post-Covid, interest rates have risen due to inflation. That’s why the Conservatives left a plan in place to stop debt rising and start bringing it down.
Rachel Reeves said before the election that she would stick to that commitment to get debt falling.
He then criticised her for adjusting the definition of government “debt”, and suggested that she had put the government in a position where it was “vulnerable to even small changes in markets” which he described as “completely irresponsible”.
He finished by quoting Reeves saying “The responsible choice is to reduce our levels of debt and borrowing in the years ahead”, adding “I agree with Rachel. The problem is she doesn’t seem to agree with herself”. Stride was a government minister from 2015 until 2024.
