Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has today announced that South Western Rail will be the first train operator to be nationalised in the UK. Two other operators will also come under public ownership next year.
Wednesday 4 December 2024 07:44, UK
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Heidi Alexander, the new transport secretary, is now joining Kay Burley on the Sky News Breakfast show.
She is asked about Louise Haigh’s departure from the role she has taken up, which followed news of a previous guilty plea.
Ms Alexander insists that Ms Haigh “made the decision to resign.
She describes this as “admirable”.
“She did say that she didn’t want to become a distraction, and I think that’s a very admirable thing to do,” she says.
“To step away for the good of the team.”
Ms Alexander says there must be a “reset of relationships” with rail unions in order to avoid strikes, which have been prevalent in the UK.
She also revealed that 10 further train operating companies will come under public ownership, in addition to the four that already are.
But why now?
“We’ve got South Western which is coming in next May, and then we’ve got C2C in July and Greater Anglia in the autumn,” she says.
“So the contract expires, it comes to an end, for South Western and C2C.”
For Greater Anglia, Ms Alexander says its contract has reached a minimum term.
“It makes logical sense to do those three given we don’t have to pay any compensation to the train operating companies if we proceed in this way.”
Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs could hit UK trade with the US as badly as Brexit affected trade with the EU, a leading thinktank has said.
In a report published today, the Resolution Foundation said British trade since Brexit had been “a tale of two sectors”, with service exports growing strongly but goods exports stagnating.
But authors Emily Fry and Sophie Hale warned that British firms faced another major trade shock if the incoming US president implemented his threat to impose tariffs on all imports.
Ms Fry said: “Brexit has driven a trade divide between Britain’s struggling goods sectors and its powerhouse services industries.
“Firms working in areas like advertising, IT and consultancies have found it easier to work around Brexit than goods exporters who can’t avoid transport costs and border checks.
“And with the dust still settling on how Brexit has changed how firms trade, the threat of universal tariffs on goods by President-elect Trump risks widening this trade divide further.”
The report found that physical trade barriers such as the customs border had meant goods exports have grown by only 0.3% per year since 2019, well below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 4.2%.
But services, which are less affected by physical barriers, have grown by 7.5%, above the OECD average of 6.1%.
Mr Trump has vowed to introduce a range of tariffs during his second term in the White House, including a 10-20% levy on all goods imports, with higher tariffs on goods from China, Mexico, Canada and nations that retaliate with protective measures of their own.
Jeremy Corbyn will give a speech in Jamaica in which he will accuse the UK of “dragging its feet” over slavery reparations.
The former Labour leader believes it is “bizarre” for the prime minister and David Lammy, the foreign secretary, to brand reparations as an issue “of the past”, arguing it is in fact “about the present, about the future”.
Mr Corbyn, who now sits as the independent MP for Islington North, gave his speech in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, on Tuesday evening.
He said: “It is deeply ironic that one of the reasons why reparations are a so-called historic issue is precisely because the West has dithered and delayed for so long.
“The longer Britain continues to drag its feet, the more the case for reparations grows.
“Decades of colonialism have created a profoundly unequal world that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of the global few. Reparations are about building something new.
“They are about investing resources…that could now be invested in healthcare, housing and education.”
Young men are ditching the mainstream politics of Labour and the Conservatives for Nigel Farage and Reform UK, much more so than young women.
Our political correspondent Serena Barker-Singh has been speaking to those voices to unpack what’s fuelling this gendered political divide and why mainstream parties are struggling to connect.
Niall Paterson is joined by Serena and producer Isobel Losseff, and Dr Jilly Kay, a senior lecturer in communications and media at Loughborough University, to discuss the rising influence of TikTok and the so-called “bro vote”, exploring why Gen Z men are rallying behind divisive figures like Farage.
By Anjum Peerbacos, education reporter
As many as 300,000 children aged five to 15 were missing from education in England last year, a report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found.
The figures – which compare GP registrations with school enrolment data – mark a 40% increase in unaccounted absences since 2017.
According to the EPI, an estimated 400,000 children are not in school, a 50% increase in seven years. Of these, nearly 95,000 are registered for home education – double the number from 2017.
More than 50,000 students were also found to have left the state education system by Year 11, with no clear records explaining their exits.
Associate director at EPI Whitney Crenna-Jennings said: “Many thousands of children are missing or go missing from education in England – this is a critical issue that demands our attention.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has today announced that South Western Rail will be the first train operator to be nationalised in the UK.
Shortly afterwards, in July 2025, c2c will also come under public ownership, before Greater Anglia is nationalised in the autumn.
Labour says this move will put “passengers back at the heart of services after 30 years of privatisation”.
It comes just days after the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 received Royal Assent, paving the way for a “major shake up” of Britain’s railways.
Ms Alexander said: “For too long, the British public have had to put up with rail services which simply don’t work. A complex system of private train operators has too often failed its users.
“Starting with journeys on South Western Railway, we’re switching tracks by bringing services back under public control to create a reliable rail network that puts customers first.
“Our broken railways are finally on the fast track to repair and rebuilding a system that the British public can trust and be proud of again.”
Good morning!
Welcome back to the Politics Hub on Wednesday, 4 December.
The brand new Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has today announced that South Western Rail will be the first train operator to be nationalised in the UK.
Shortly afterwards, in July 2025, c2c will also come under public ownership, before Greater Anglia is nationalised in the autumn.
Sir Keir Starmer will face off with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in Prime Minister’s Questions at noon. We’ll have rolling updates in the Politics Hub as ever.
And today is the second day of the Emir of Qatar’s state visit, after a ceremonial welcome to London took place yesterday.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will visit the prime minister at Downing Street today, ahead of a dinner at Mansion House where he is due to give a speech.
And a new report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found that as many as 300,000 children aged five to 15 were missing from education in England last year.
We’ll be discussing all this and more with:
Stick with us for all the latest throughout today.
Thank you for joining us in the Politics Hub for live coverage of today’s events in Westminster.
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We’ll be back from 6am with the very latest political news – and full coverage of PMQs at 12pm.
By Alexandra Rogers, political reporter
The chancellor has admitted it will not be “easy” for businesses to “absorb” the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions that was announced in the budget.
Rachel Reeves also acknowledged that the change – which will see employers’ contributions rise to 15% from April 2025 – would also hit charities and local councils.
Speaking at The Yorkshire Post’s great northern conference in Hull, the chancellor said: “I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy for businesses, or indeed for charities or local authorities, to absorb, especially, the national insurance increase.
“But we made a commitment during the general election…that we wouldn’t increase taxes on working people, because over the last few years it has been working people that have had to bear the brunt of tax increases.”
Ms Reeves cited Labour’s election campaign promise not to increase income tax, VAT or national insurance on employees, saying the party had “managed to stick to that manifesto commitment”.
However, the Conservatives have argued that Labour did breach its manifesto pledge because it did not specify between employee and employer contributions.
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