to give a speech synonym

Politics latest: 'Irresponsible' Tory leadership contender criticised for remarks about Met Police officer cleared of murder

Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have called on the entire country to help shape the government's "10 Year Health Plan" with a "national conversation" on the future of the NHS.

Monday 21 October 2024 22:48, UK

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• Countdown to the budget is on - nine days to go
• Britons asked to help 'fix our NHS' in 'national conversation'
• No.10 says the UK will not pay reparations to former colonies
• Music fans could be guaranteed ticket prices under proposed law
• Labour's employment rights law facing vote today
• Politics at Jack and Sam's : Budget goes pop
• Live reporting by Jess Sharp and (earlier)  Faith Ridler

The Employments Rights Bill will be given a second reading after MPs voted 386 to 105 in favour of the move.  

It means the bill will undergo further scrutiny at a later date.

The legislation includes plans to improve employees' rights from day one of employment, including in areas such as parental and bereavement leave and protection from unfair dismissal.

You can read more about the bill here ...

In the House of Commons, a Tory amendment to the Employment Rights Bill has been defeated. 

The amendment states: "That this house noted the balanced reforms made by previous Conservative governments to improve workers' rights... and declines to give a second reading to the Employment Rights Bill because it has been rushed into parliament without full consultation to meet an arbitrary 100-day deadline and has not been accompanied by an impact assessment considering the impact on the employment tribunal." 

Put simply, the amendment was to decline giving the Employment Rights Bill a second reading. 

It was rejected by 386 votes to 105, majority 281.

Another vote is now taking place to decide if the bill will get a second reading. 

Sky News' deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Jack Blanchard share their daily guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes.    

With just nine days to go until Rachel Reeves’s first budget, how much money is the chancellor planning to spend on public services? Which taxes will have to rise to pay for any spending increases? And how nervous are cabinet ministers feeling about it? 

Plus, the government is asking the public for ideas about how to improve the NHS.

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You can send a WhatsApp to Jack and Sam on 07511 867 633 or email them: [email protected]

Prison officers could be given the right to strike, according to an amendment that will be put to the Employment Rights Bill.

At the moment, prison workers in England and Wales are banned from taking strike action. 

Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he believes the ban should be lifted, days after the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association urged the government to include the measure in the bill.

"Prison officers have been denied the right to strike since 1994, even Tony Blair said we'd restore that," he said.

"I'd want to see that within this legislation, and I shall move an amendment accordingly."

Mr McDonnell, who had the whip suspended in July after he voted against the government on scrapping the two-child benefit cap, said he otherwise supported the bill.

"Since 1979, successive Conservative governments have understood the distribution of power and as a result of that they've used legislation to undermine trade union rights, to reduce the power of workers to defend themselves and improve their working conditions.

"All this does, this bill itself, which I welcome wholeheartedly, is it takes a small step in rebalancing that power." 

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has defended armed police officers after one was cleared of murdering Chris Kaba. 

James Cleverly said officers, like Martyn Blake, "play a vital role in keeping us all safe against some of the most serious threats".

"These highly trained police officers must do their jobs with confidence, knowing that they will be held to high standards of professionalism, but also knowing they will be treated fairly, and in a timely manner. 

"This is how we maintain the confidence of the British public." 

Mr Blake fired a single bullet through the windscreen of the Audi Q8 Mr Kaba was driving as armed officers surrounded the car in Streatham, south London, while he tried to escape in 2022. 

Mr Kaba, who was not armed and had no weapons in the car, had both hands on the steering wheel when he was shot in the head and he died in hospital in the early hours of the next day.

The jury deliberated for about three hours today to clear Mr Blake, who appeared to be briefly overcome with emotion as the verdict was returned.

Small businesses could be hit with higher costs under new employment rights plans, according to Whitehall's own assessment of the legislation.

The Employment Rights Bill is getting its second reading in Parliament at the moment, giving MPs their first chance to debate the main points of the plans in the Commons. 

Within the bill are a series of reforms  branded the biggest overhaul in a generation , including granting workers protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of their employment, the right to statutory sick pay from the first day of illness and the right to flexible working.

An economic analysis published by the Department for Business and Trade has claimed the bill will "strengthen working conditions for the lowest-paid and most vulnerable in the labour market". 

But, it also found that "delivering those benefits will place a direct cost on employers".

The document predicts that the costs to businesses will be in the "low billions of pounds per year" but those that rely on low-paid workers or employees on flexible contracts could see the changes "be more disruptive".

Costs will be "proportionately higher" for small and micro businesses because of the "fixed costs of admin and compliance burdens", the document states. 

Asked about the economic analysis, which suggested the draft law would cost businesses a maximum £4.5bn, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the assessment also makes clear that it would benefit more than 10 million workers. 

"And the money in their pockets will go back into the economy and will support businesses, in particular, those on the high street," she added. 

"It will be the Labour Government that delivers for the working people of this country."

The next topic up for debate is Donald Trump's recent stint as a McDonald's worker. 

The former US president served up fries at one of the fast food chain's restaurants in Pennsylvania yesterday. 

While there, he repeated unsubstantiated claims that his competitor Kamala Harris is lying about having worked at the fast food restaurant as a way to improve her working-class credibility.

You can watch a clip of him working at the fry station and in the drive through below... 

So is this a good way to secure votes in the upcoming election? 

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Emily Thornberry says Mr Trump just "makes stuff up" in his campaigning. 

"This is like a form a therapy for him," she says, pointing out that  the rhetoric that he is a "golden boy who's never had to work at anything" has "really got to him". 

"I hope the journalists report the most important thing he was asked, which was do you think minimum wage should be increased? And he didn't answer." 

You can read all the latest on the US election in our dedicated blog here ... 

Health minister Karin Smyth is next up on the Politics Hub and has been speaking about the NHS consultation that has been launched by the government today. 

She says the website where people can submit their suggestions has been visited at least 21,000 times, and there is an "appetite in the country for understanding the difficult choices" facing the NHS. 

"We think it's broken, but not beaten, and we think the expertise is there," she says. 

"People want to know that they're getting good value for money, that they [the government] can fix it for the future, and that's what the conversation is about," she adds. 

She calls on the public to share what they are "really frustrated" with when it comes to the health service. 

Now, the big story on the government communications grid today was the NHS. 

It has launched what has been called the biggest ever national conversation about how to fix it. 

Members of the public have been invited to submit their suggestions for how to improve the national health service until the start of next year. 

Our deputy political editor Sam Coates has spoken to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who said the improvements the government wants to make in the NHS, such as cutting waiting times, are "big changes" so will take time.

He said they will have a "reform mindset that says we're not just going to throw money at the problem, we're going to reform ways of working".

"I suppose you could say, well, you should just come in and impose your view of change," he added. 

"I'd just say to people, be careful what you wish for.

"The last time a new health secretary came in after a general election where their party won power, that was Andrew Lansley.

"The Conservatives after 2010, who came down with a massive top-down reorganisation that nobody voted for, nobody wanted, cost billions and set the NHS up to fail."

Mr Streeting added he did not want to just pour money "into a black hole".

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Emily Thornberry is part of the Politics Hub panel tonight, and is talking about the comments made by Robert Jenrick about the police officer who has been cleared of Chris Kaba's murder. 

Ms Thornberry says the Conservative Party leadership contender's comments were "irresponsible". 

Mr Jenrick said Martyn Blake was a "hero who found himself fearing for his life" and that his prosecution was "wrong" - you can read more about this in our previous post. 

"I'm really disappointed that someone who is going for the leadership of the Conservative Party has decided to use this as a platform to try to divide us even further," Ms Thornberry says. 

"I just think it's irresponsible and I think if you're going to be the leader of the Conservative Party, you ought to be a bit more of a statesman than that." 

She adds that Mr Jenrick has implied that police officers are above the law, and "nobody should be above the law". 

"We have to nevertheless accept that we put these police officers in very difficult circumstances, and they are expected to be make split-second decisions," she says. 

"We do expect them to be on the right side, and if there is a possibility that they're not, then it's right that they should be prosecuted." 

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Synonyms for Giving speech

18 other terms for giving speech - words and phrases with similar meaning.