Starmer says Labour finding ‘more mess’ from Tories every day as he launches Great British Energy plan – as it happened

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Here is a summary of today’s key developments:

• Keir Starmer has pledged to take on Labour MPs and councils that try to block pylon networks delivering a planned new generation of clean electricity, as he promised the government’s plans would lower people’s bills in this parliament. Formally launching GB Energy, the state-run green energy generation company, one of his flagship policies, the prime minister said there was a need to move rapidly on new onshore and offshore wind because of what he called the last government’s inaction and short-termism.

• Speaking on Thursday at a wind turbine factory on the edge of Widnes, Cheshire, Starmer set out the plan to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, part of a tie-up with the crown estate. In his speech, Starmer said he stands by the figure from Labour’s manifesto suggesting that the party’s net zero energy plans would bring down household bills by £300 a year.

• Starmer said the “hard graft of rebuilding this country has truly started” as he accused the previous government of leaving a “rot of shortsightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up. Giving a speech on Thursday, the prime minister said “every day” his administration is finding “more mess” that the Tories left behind.

• Energy secretary Ed Miliband has said “it’s going to take time” for GB Energy to start making money. Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the House of Commons, and the government has set aside £8.3bn to invest in new windfarms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return, he told BBC Breakfast.“Within the lifetime of this parliament it will start generating returns,” he said. Miliband also pledged that Britain will “never again” face an energy bills crisis as he tries to wean the country off fossil fuels.

• Robert Jenrick will run for the Conservative party leadership. Jenrick will become the third Tory MP to formally declare their candidacy, after James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat previously announced their bids.

• Further emergency measures could be introduced to respond to the prison capacity “crisis”, the justice secretary said as MPs approved moves to release thousands of prisoners early. Shabana Mahmood told MPs that the prison population remains “within a few hundred places of collapse” and the government will continue to monitor it closely in the coming weeks.

• The justice secretary’s remarks came as the House of Commons backed legislation to reduce the amount of time prisoners must spend in jail before they are automatically released, from 50% of their sentence to 40%. The move – which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences – is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October.

• Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street team rejected advice a year ago that they should consider the early release of prisoners who had served less than half of their sentences to relieve prison overcrowding, the Guardian has been told by multiple sources. Discussions took place inside No 10 in June 2023 over the proposals, a version of which was adopted two weeks ago by Keir Starmer’s government.

• A £5bn debt crisis caused by out-of-control overspending on special educational needs could explode in less than two years, bankrupting scores of England’s local authorities, the UK government has been warned. The crisis stems from the failure to properly fund a huge increase in demand for Special Education Needs and Disability (Send) services over the past decade, triggering an “existential” crisis for councils which have “no obvious means of paying off the debt”.

• Conservative leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has denied that his suggestion that he would be prepared to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR) is political opportunism. “No, I’ve been very, very clear I am prepared to make any decision that will keep the British people safe,” he told GB News when questioned about his change of tone on the issue.

• The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is meeting the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, to discuss a video appearing to show a police officer kicking a prone man, said the prime minister. Keir Starmer said he understands the “concern” over the footage.

• The new first minister of Wales won’t be installed for almost two weeks. Eluned Morgan, the current health secretary in Wales, was confirmed as Welsh Labour leader on Wednesday. Vaughan Gething, who announced his resignation as Welsh Labour leader after the donations scandal, has now said he had written to the llywydd (the presiding officer) to recall the Senedd, the Welsh parliament on 6 August.

• Nigel Farage has been handed a bill for more than £8,000 that a former Reform UK candidate says he is owed for running a general election campaign in Clacton before he was elbowed aside when the party leader chose to stand. Tony Mack, who was to be the party’s candidate in the Essex constituency until June, said Farage had assured him in a telephone call that the party would “pay back every fucking penny” and made a series of other commitments.

• Labour will be pushed to act on abolishing the “indefensible” two-child benefit limit, the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has claimed, after Keir Starmer suspended him and six others for the first rebellion of the new government.

• Labour’s Ian Lavery has claimed that MPs who have time for a second job are not doing their job as an elected representative properly. Speaking in the Commons, he said that “being an MP is not a hobby” before adding: “This is like a full-time job plus, and if it’s not a full-time job plus, I’m afraid my view is: you’re not doing your job.”

• Labour has delayed proposals to tackle spurious lawsuits brought by oligarchs and others aimed at intimidating journalists, academics and campaigners. Frederick Ponsonby, a Labour justice minister in the House of Lords, said he could not commit to bringing forward standalone legislation on strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as Slapps, or set out a timetable for tackling the issue.

• Commons leader Lucy Powell said she “won’t be taking” advice from shadow leader Chris Philp, as the Tories had “left the country in a worse state than even our worst fears”. Earlier on Thursday in the House of Commons, Philp said the government suffered a “significant backbench rebellion” on the two-child benefit cap and their majority would be “gone by Easter”.

• Government legislation designed to help nationalise the UK’s railways will be fast-tracked through the House of Commons. Lucy Powell said the passenger railway services public ownership bill will undergo its committee stage and remaining stages on 3 September. The Great British Energy bill will receive its second reading on 5 September, Ms Powell said in the weekly business statement.

• “The days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over,” chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, has said. Responding on Thursday to a question on civil service pay awards, he said: “Yesterday I met the civil service unions together with my colleague, the new minister [Georgia Gould]. We had a very positive discussion covering a whole range of issues.”

• Fewer borrowers are likely to default on their loans and mortgages, Lloyds has said, as the banking group upped its forecasts for the UK economy. In fresh estimates released as part of its second-quarter results, Lloyds said it expected the economy to grow 0.8% in 2024 – double the rate of growth forecasted in April, when it predicted a 0.4% rise.

Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street team rejected advice a year ago that they should consider the early release of prisoners who had served less than half of their sentences to relieve prison overcrowding, the Guardian has been told by multiple sources.

Discussions took place inside No 10 in June 2023 over the proposals, a version of which was adopted two weeks ago by Keir Starmer’s government.

In July 2023, No 10 was asked again, this time in writing, by Ministry of Justice officials to formally consider the move, sources said. However, it was rejected because of concerns from Sunak’s aides that it would be rejected by Tory backbenchers.

The disclosure indicates that Sunak and his team were aware of the controversial proposals at least eight months earlier than previously thought.

It comes as government figures released on Monday show that self-harm rates have soared in English and Welsh prisons to 73,804 incidents in the 12 months to the end of March 2024, at a rate of one every seven minutes.

Over the same period, prisons recorded 28,292 assaults – a 19% rise on the figures for the previous 12 months.

The Guardian has previously disclosed that Sunak was advised in May to vary the minimum sentencing period, a week before the election, or face “a critical failure” of the criminal justice system.

A source close to the proceedings said: “Officials were adamant that standard determinate sentences were the best way to ease pressure on the system, but Sunak’s advisers overruled it again and again.”

You can read the full story here:

Further emergency measures could be introduced to respond to the prison capacity “crisis”, the justice secretary said as MPs approved moves to release thousands of prisoners early.

The PA news agency reports that Shabana Mahmood told MPs that the prison population remains “within a few hundred places of collapse” and the government will continue to monitor it closely in the coming weeks.

Mahmood said Operation Safeguard, in which police cells are used to house offenders, and Operation Early Dawn, which seeks to manage the flow of prisoners from police cells to the courts, are among the options available to her if required.

Her remarks came as the House of Commons backed legislation to reduce the amount of time prisoners must spend in jail before they are automatically released, from 50% of their sentence to 40%.

The move – which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences – is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October.

They will serve the rest of their sentence under “strict” licensing conditions in the community, MPs heard.

For the opposition, shadow crime minister Matt Vickers raised concerns over the lack of a cut-off date for the legislation and labelled it a “blank cheque”.

Speaking in the Commons, Mahmood said:

The crisis in our prisons is not over. The prison population remains within a few hundred places of collapse. Last week we temporarily closed HMP Dartmoor, taking around 200 places out of the prison estate.

While we’re able to withstand that loss of capacity, any further changes – be that a further loss of supply or an unexpected increase in demand – could tip us into crisis. The measures I have set out will take effect in September, giving probation officers the precious time they need to prepare.

During this time we will continue to monitor the prison population closely and we will be ready to introduce further emergency measures, like Operation Early Dawn or Operation Safeguard, if required.

We are not yet out of the woods.”

Mahmood earlier said the legislation was not introducing a permanent change on early release. She said:

We will review this measure within 18 months of implementation, at the very latest in March 2026.

At this point we believe the situation in our prisons will have stabilised and we will be able to reverse this measure, returning to the automatic point of release to 50% of a sentence.”

She added:

Given the scale of the crisis we have inherited, placing an artificial time limit on this measure would be nothing more than an irresponsible gimmick. We have taken the very deliberate decision not to reverse this measure until we are certain that prison capacity has stabilised.”

Mahmood also accused the previous Conservative government of running the prison estate to “within days of disaster”, saying:

They even came close to triggering Operation Brinker, which is effectively a one in, one out measure into our prisons and it is the very last desperate act available to forestall by a matter of days the total collapse of law and order in this country.”

Starmer will take on Labour councils that block pylons delivering clean electricity

Peter Walker

Keir Starmer has pledged to take on Labour MPs and councils that try to block pylon networks delivering a planned new generation of clean electricity, as he promised the government’s plans would lower people’s bills in this parliament.

Formally launching GB Energy, the state-run green energy generation company, one of his flagship policies, the prime minister said there was a need to move rapidly on new onshore and offshore wind because of what he called the last government’s inaction and short-termism.

Speaking at a wind turbine factory on the edge of Widnes, Cheshire, Starmer set out the plan to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, part of a tie-up with the crown estate.

Answering media questions after his speech, watched by Juergen Maier, the former Siemens UK boss who has been announced as the chair of GB Energy, Starmer was asked if he could guarantee ministers would push for power to be distributed using overground lines, rather than underground or undersea cables, which are much more expensive and take considerably longer to build.

There are already planning battles against overground lines in places including East Anglia and Lincolnshire, with some Labour candidates at the general election saying they opposed pylon schemes.

“We will take the tough decisions to make this work,” Starmer replied. “Because it’s the failure to take the tough decisions, the running away from tough decisions, that has caused over a decade of lost opportunity.

You can read the full piece here:

MPs voted 323 to 81, majority 242, in favour of approving legislation designed to allow thousands of prisoners to be released earlier than planned.

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs that the prison population remains “within a few hundred places of collapse” and the government will continue to monitor it closely in the coming weeks.

The legislation reduces the amount of time prisoners must spend in jail before they are automatically released from half of their sentence to 40%.

The move, which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences, is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October, reports the PA news agency.

Kalyeena Makortoff

Fewer borrowers are likely to default on their loans and mortgages, Lloyds has said, as the banking group upped its forecasts for the UK economy.

In fresh estimates released as part of its second-quarter results, Lloyds said it expected the economy to grow 0.8% in 2024 – double the rate of growth forecasted in April, when it predicted a 0.4% rise.

Improving economic conditions are good news for Lloyds customers, who the bank says are less likely to fall behind on costly loan and mortgage payments.

Lloyds, which is the UK’s largest mortgage lender and owns the Halifax brand, set aside just £44m for bad debts and defaults in the second quarter. That is down 89% from the £419m put aside during the same period last year when there were serious concerns over whether mortgage borrowers, already squeezed by the cost of living crisis, could afford higher interest rates.

“We’ve seen both across individuals and small businesses, positive economic developments,” the chief executive, Charlie Nunn, said on Thursday. “There is a real resilience we’re seeing in the first half [of the year] and it’s linked to now three-quarters … of real wage growth. Many businesses’ cashflows are also strengthening.”

The smaller provision for defaults helped offset a 9% drop in Lloyds’ net interest income, which is an important measure of profitability, and accounts for the difference between what a bank makes on loan charges versus what is paid out to savers.

You can read the full story here:

Steven Morris

Meanwhile, it looks as if the new first minister of Wales won’t be installed for almost two weeks.

Eluned Morgan, the current health secretary in Wales, was confirmed as Welsh Labour leader on Wednesday.

Vaughan Gething, who announced his resignation as Welsh Labour leader after the donations scandal, has now said he had written to the llywydd (the presiding officer) to recall the Senedd, the Welsh parliament on 6 August.

Morgan is expected to be confirmed as Welsh first minister then. Gething remains first minister for the moment.

Keir Starmer said he understands the “concern” over footage appearing to show a police officer kicking a prone man and home secretary Yvette Cooper is meeting the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, to discuss the video.

Keir Starmer said the “hard graft of rebuilding this country has truly started” as he accused the previous government of leaving a “rot of shortsightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up.

Giving a speech in Runcorn, Cheshire, the prime minister said “every day” his administration is finding “more mess” that the Tories left behind.

“The hard graft of rebuilding this country has well and truly started, and it is vital that we begin immediately because the last government dropped the ball,” he said.

He added:

They left us the worst inheritance since the second world war, and every day – every day – we’re finding more mess that they’ve left for us to clear up.

The rot of shortsightedness and self-service that has weakened the foundations of our country.”