A former Labour MP has said that she will set up a new party with Jeremy Corbyn in another unwelcome problem for Sir Keir Starmer. But the former Labour leader has not confirmed this. Meanwhile, today marks a year since the 2024 general election.
Friday 4 July 2025 08:29, UK
Conservative Party co-chair Nigel Huddleston is speaking to Sky News this morning for the opposition.
He is asked about Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP, setting up her own party with Jeremy Corbyn.
Huddleston is, unsurprisingly, incredibly critical of Sultana – although he does caveat that there’s a “space” for her views.
The Conservative says he’s not shocked by Sultana’s move, saying: “very much on the hard left of British politics – there used to be a space in the Labour Party for that – but she’s clearly decided she wants to go elsewhere.”
He reckons there’s “not too many people in the Labour Party too worried about her leaving”.
Huddleston says he doesn’t think Sultana is “in tune with the vast majority of the sensible, moderate British public”.
“She’s one of the people who believes that, governments are that to spend other people’s money.
“She’s got absolutely no idea how the economy works, how hard-working people generate taxes, how businesses are essential to good public services.
“So she just believes in traditional hard left politics.”
Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, spoke to Sky News about the risks of the new party set up by left wing MPs.
She appears to play down the risk to her outfit – saying they’ve had “fantastic local results” and the “best ever general election in the history of the party”.
Cooper says the new party “had a bit of chaotic start” – with it being unclear if Jeremy Corbyn was even involved in the project which claimed his involvement.
She says her party is still “feeling pretty chipper and pretty confident” about the coming months and years.
Cooper adds: “What’s interesting is we are now entering a new era of multi-party politics, I think.
“But we still have a first past the post voting system where every single vote doesn’t always count.
“And what we have managed to demonstrate is that we do have broad appeal in many places around the country.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is asked about Sky News about the ongoing proscription of Palestine Action.
She is asked if the banning of the group limits protests, as the likes of former Labour MP Zarah Sultana have claimed.
Cooper says: “We go through a serious statutory process, based on security assessments and advice in these processes, and what you have here is a group that has been repeatedly violent.
This includes what happened at Brize Norton, which Cooper says she can’t comment on in too much detail due to the terrorism charges levelled against a series of people.
The home secretary went on: “But there have been a series of violent incidents and that do end up affecting our national security.
“We have to make clear this is very separate from the right to protest – people can raise protest.
“And also from the issue that people are very concerned about, about the really intolerable events in Gaza and in the West Bank where people want to express strong concern.
“But that is different from the actions of a group that affect our national security.”
Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP who yesterday announced she was setting up her own party, had already been suspended from the parliamentary Labour grouping due to rebelling against the government.
Asked about her permanently leaving the Labour movement, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says Sultana has “always taken a very different view to most people in the government on a lot of different things, and that’s for her to do so”.
Criticisms levelled by Sultana at the government include failing to help people in poverty.
Cooper says she “strongly disagrees” with her former partymate.
“We’re one year on from the Labour government being elected and as the prime minister said a year ago that change doesn’t happen at the flick of a switch, but it starts straightaway,” the home secretary says.
On the recent welfare rebellion within the Labour Party – in which the rebels were mostly from the left of the party – Cooper says governing isn’t always “smooth”.
Reeves ‘strong and determined’
She won’t rule out tax rises to find the billions of pounds now needed, saying that’s a matter for the chancellor.
On the topic of Rachel Reeves, Cooper defends her colleague after the chancellor was seen crying in the House of Commons.
She says that things are “different” for politicians, because when they have a bad day “they end up on the telly”.
” All of us have days when there are different things going on,” the home secretary says.
“And it’s just it is slightly different when you’re under such media scrutiny.
“But the thing about Rachel is I think she is one of the strongest and most determined people I know.”
By Liz Bates, political correspondent
Leaseholders will be able to more easily challenge extortionate service charges, the government has said.
For those who are trapped in the midst of the leasehold scandal, the reforms cannot come soon enough.
They have been promised change for many years by successive governments and by Labour in opposition, so any progress will be welcome, but is it enough for those suffering financially?
It’s a complex problem but at the heart of it are service charges that go higher and higher in a way that is often inexplicable, unpredictable and opaque.
These are fees for building services and maintenance that are on top of the homeowner’s mortgage.
They often run into thousands of pounds, go way over the initial estimate and it is not clear why they are so high.
By forcing companies to be transparent about the fees they are charging, the government is hoping to tackle this.
The reforms, which the government has said it will push through after a consultation, will receive standardised service charge documentation which spell out clear and detailed information about how their service charges are calculated and spent.
July 5 2024, 1pm: I remember the moment so clearly.
Keir Starmer stepped out of his sleek black car, grasped the hand of his wife Vic, dressed in Labour red, and walked towards a jubilant crowd of Labour staffers, activists and MPs waving union jacks and cheering a Labour prime minister into Downing Street for the first time in 14 years.
Starmer and his wife took an age to get to the big black door, as they embraced those who had helped them win this election – their children hidden in the crowd to watch their dad walk into Number 10.
Keir Starmer, not the easiest public speaker, came to the podium and told the millions watching this moment the “country has voted decisively for change, for national renewal”.
He spoke for the “weariness at the heat of the nation” and “the lack of trust” in our politicians as a “wound” that “can only be healed by actions not words”. He added: “This will take a while but the work of change begins immediately.”
That was a day in which this prime minister made history. His was a victory on a scale that comes around but one every few decades.
He won the largest majority in a quarter of a century and with it a massive opportunity to become one of the most consequential prime ministers of modern Britain – alongside the likes of Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair.
But within the win was a real challenge too.
Starmer’s was a loveless landslide, won on a lower share of the vote than Blair in all of his three victories and 6 percentage points lower than the 40% Jeremy Corbyn secured in the 2017 general election. It was the lowest vote share secured for a single party in over 70 years. Support for Labour was as shallow as it was wide.
Welcome back to the Politics Hub.
Today marks a year since the 2024 general election, where Sir Keir Starmer won a huge majority and the Conservatives were ejected from government.
It’s been a busy 12 months, with ups and downs for the new regime.
What’s happening today?
On the agenda today, things are a looking a bit quieter than they have in recent days.
However, one major development last night was Labour MP Zarah Sultana defecting from the party to kick off a new political grouping with Jeremy Corbyn.
However, there is a suggestion the former Labour leader did not know this was going to happen and wasn’t particularly happy about the development.
While the Commons is sitting, it’s considering private members’ bills – proposals from backbenchers – so nothing major will be coming out of Westminster.
The government is wanting to talk about a “summer blitz” against crime in town centres, with an increase in patrols to tackle things like anti-social behaviour.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is speaking to us just after 7am.
Daisy Cooper from the Liberal Democrats will be talking to us after that, and Nigel Huddleston from the Conservatives is on just after 8am.
That’s it from the Politics Hub.
It’s been a day that began with Sir Keir Starmer launching the 10-year health plan and ended with independent MP Zarah Sultana launching a new party.
We’ve also seen Downing Street present a united front as Rachel Reeves appeared alongside Starmer, following the chancellor’s visible upset at PMQs on Wednesday.
Scroll down to see how the day unfolded.
We’ll be back tomorrow. Thanks for joining us today. Good night!
Baroness Harman has been addressing the government’s handling of Rachel Reeves over the past couple of days.
The former chair of the Labour Party told the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that it was right for the chancellor to attend PMQs – despite images of her seemingly crying causing the markets to wobble.
Harriet Harman explained: “If she’d have not been in PMQs, the bond markets would have been even more spooked than they actually were.
“It was inevitable that Kemi Badenoch was going to ask about the chancellor. She had to be there. It would have been even more difficult to handle if she hadn’t had been there.
“But there is also a question about what actually set her off.”
Speaking about how the chancellor must feel following the debacle, Harman said that “Rachel will just feel mortified” as she’s “not somebody who wears her heart on her sleeve”.
She added: “Some people are all completely out there with all their emotions. Rachel is a very dignified, reserved person. So she will be absolutely mortified by finding herself, in this situation.”
You can listen to the full podcast from tomorrow here.
Nigel Farage has said NHS services should be bid on by private insurance companies to deliver better value for money.
The Reform UK leader was taking questions from callers on LBC, and was asked if he wanted the NHS funded by general taxation.
He replied: “Yes. But look, we all pay into the NHS if we’re paying tax.
“The way the Labour Party set it up in 1948 was with something called national insurance. And I just feel, if the money we pay into this, if that money was being competed by different insurance companies who would say, ‘I’ll do 10,000 hip operations at this, or at this’ – I just think we might better bang for buck.
“So I’ve been, to some extent, wilfully misinterpreted on this, by a Labour Party that’s in real trouble.”
He added that the French pay “about the same as us” but that patients there are “doing much better than us”.
Challenged if he was advocating for the NHS to be privatised, Farage argued that Labour privatised “huge chunks of it” under Tony Blair.
“Let’s face it, everyone knows it isn’t working, it isn’t delivering what it used to deliver.
“I don’t know the answer yet, but I am thinking about all the options”, he told LBC.
Reform would look to charge patients for healthcare, says minister
In response, the care minister has accused Reform of wanting to make healthcare available “on the basis of [people’s] ability to pay”.
Stephen Kinnock said: “On the same day that Labour introduced a 10-year plan to fix the NHS, Nigel Farage has confirmed that Reform would look to charge patients for their healthcare.
“The contrast is now clear for all to see. Nigel Farage wants the public to be treated on the basis of their ability to pay.
“This Labour government will always ensure that people receive the care they need, not just the care they can afford.”
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
