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Rayner unveils Labour crackdown on harassment of interns and volunteers – LabourList

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Rayner unveils Labour crackdown on harassment of interns and volunteers – LabourList


Angela Rayner is unveiling Labour’s new plans today to crack down on abuse of interns and volunteers in the workplace, pledging to give women “the best start at working life”.

In a keynote speech at the Chartered Management Institute’s women’s conference, Labour’s deputy leader is outlining plans to make employers liable if they are made aware of an incident impacting contracted interns and volunteers and fail to take action.

It comes at a difficult time for the party as it both pushes back on claims its flagship workers’ rights reform package has been watered down, and defends admitting defecting Tory MP Natalie Elphicke given her controversial past comments on sexual assault.

In part of the speech released in advance, Rayner said:  “Sexual harassment remains rife in workplaces across Britain. For any employee, but especially interns and volunteers, experiencing sexual harassment can destroy confidence and ruin early careers.

“Women leaders in business are already leading the way to stamp out sexual harassment from their workplaces, with organisations like the CMI creating positive workplace cultures where women thrive.

“The next Labour government will strengthen the legal duty requiring employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment at work and will ensure this duty applies to contracted interns and volunteers as well as employees.

“My message to working women is clear: with our New Deal for Working People, a Labour government will have your back.”

Last September, Labour also committed to strengthening the legal duty for employers to prevent sexual harassment before it starts. A Labour government would require employers take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment within their organisations.

It comes just after the Unite union claimed a new document on Labour’s New Deal was a “betrayal” of plans, with leader Sharon Graham claiming plans had been watered down to the point that they were “unrecognisable”.

But a party spokesperson told LabourList: “Labour’s New Deal for Working People is a core part of our mission to grow Britain’s economy and raise living standards across the country.

“A Labour government will need to hit the ground running and that is why we have been strengthening the proposals to implement our commitments. If elected, we will bring forward legislation within 100 days off entering government.”

Labour has faced repeated questions recently about whether the New Deal has been watered down. Sources have confirmed some new materials will be published soon about the proposals, though suggested this was about consolidation and repackaging rather than any substantive changes.

A spokesperson told journalists last week nothing had changed since the National Policy Forum last year – but multiple changes were made then. Some are only now attracting significant attention, such as Labour’s acceptance of some zero-hour contracts where workers agree to them.

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Premiere: Ann Annie – Silver Creek

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Premiere: Ann Annie – Silver Creek


Ann Annie is the moniker and ongoing project of Portland composer and multi-instrumentalist Eli Goldberg. His ambient sounds and textures have a film score quality, which often finds his music placed in the ever-evolving ambient country genre alongside the likes of New York-based Suss. Ann Annie’s 2022 album By Morning was described in a Bandcamp Daily as having a transcendental approach, a vibe that feels very present on their new single Silver Creek below, taken from the forthcoming album The Wind, due June 7th via Nettwerk.

While the banjo is given prominence in the opening of Silver Creek, providing it with a sparse alt-folk vibe, in just under two and a half minutes, the tune goes through several transformations without ever feeling forced or rushed. Despite evolving over a short space of time, it has a stretched and seamless quality, like the detailed time-lapse of an unravelling bloom. Sparse banjo notes are soon joined by keening pedal steel that introduces warm stretched swathes of sound before synths slowly emerge, dotting the soundscape with raindrop-like spatters, cymbal washes and dense drones before fluttering away into the ether. For such a short song, its ever-evolving nature is both captivating and remarkable.

Eli recalls: “This was the only banjo song I was able to record before the head mysteriously split in half. The banjo was supposedly from the 1850s with the original deerskin head.”

Silver Creek is released as a single tomorrow, 10th May, pre-save here: https://annannie.ffm.to/silvercreek

The press for The Wind describes the album as a convergence of Goldberg’s ambient leanings, his lifelong love of classical music, and the radiant tones of cosmic instrumental folk music like James Blackshaw and William Tyler. It was recorded in his Portland home (“I love to weave in house sounds”) and the creative process was inspired by time off from making music, which allowed him to rethink what Ann Annie represented to him as a project. “I started to expand my idea of what it could be, which was an exciting experience,” he explains. “It gave me time to think about how things change and how to move through change—what that looks like for me. I wrote a lot of these songs in an attempt to let go of a lot of things while being OK with doing so.”

“Silver Creek” joins recent singles like “Lamb’s Ear,” “Willows,” “The Wind,” “Sweet Coast,” and “Three Chords,” which will all appear on his forthcoming album The Wind, due out June 7th via Nettwerk. Pre-Order here: https://annannie.ffm.to/thewind_album



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Ben Houchen says responsibility for Conservative Party’s position ‘lies with’ Rishi Sunak – Politics.co.uk

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Ben Houchen says responsibility for Conservative Party’s position ‘lies with’ Rishi Sunak – Politics.co.uk


Ben Houchen has suggested “chaos” in the Conservative Party is the responsibility of Rishi Sunak as he urged his party’s MPs in Westminster to cease infighting. 

Lord Houchen, who was re-elected as the Conservative mayor for Tees Valley at the local elections last week, said responsibility for his party’s current predicament “ultimately lies with Rishi”.

Asked if the prime minister is to blame for the Conservative Party’s position, Houchen said: “Ultimately it always rests on the shoulders of the leader. All responsibility goes back to the top, it is the same in my job as well. Ultimately you are the one responsible for it”.

***Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.***

He told BBC Radio Tees: “But there are lots of people who are involved in the problems with the Conservative Party.

“It is a bit of chaos at the minute, isn’t it? There’s lots of people fighting with each other in the Conservative Party, there are defections going on and ultimately the public do not vote for parties who are not united and are not presenting a united front and also aren’t talking to the public.

“If they are fighting with each other like rats in a sack instead of saying to the public ‘this is what we are going to do for you’, that doesn’t win elections.

“Obviously, it ultimately lies with Rishi but there are lots of people who need to get their act together, stop messing about and start talking to the public about what they can offer them, rather than just fighting with each other.”

At the local elections last week, Lord Houchen was re-elected for a third term in a rare success for the party which suffered a series of defeats elsewhere in the country.

After the final votes cast at the local elections were counted on Sunday, the Conservatives had lost control of 10 councils and more than 470 council seats.

The party also lost 10 Police and Crime Commissioners to Labour and 10 mayoral races — including for the West Midlands mayoralty, a post previously held by Andy Street

Houchen’s comments also come after former Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke defected to Labour on Wednesday, citing the government’s “broken promises”.

The challenge facing the prime minister was underlined on Thursday morning by a new YouGov poll for The Times which showed Labour on 48 per cent and the Tories on 18 per cent — the largest polling gap between the parties since Liz Truss was in office in October 2022.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our free daily newsletter here.





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Rishi Sunak’s disappearing majority: where have so many Conservative MPs gone? – Politics.co.uk

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Rishi Sunak’s disappearing majority: where have so many Conservative MPs gone? – Politics.co.uk


At the 2019 general election, Boris Johnson delivered for the Conservative Party its largest election victory since 1987 and Margaret Thatcher’s time in office — a genuine landslide after years of coalitions, slim majorities and hung parliaments. 

Johnson’s 80-seat majority spoke to the stranglehold the then-PM exercised over British politics in his first year or so in office: Jeremy Corbyn had been vanquished, the “Red Wall” had collapsed, soon Brexit would be “done” and then Britain changed forever by an untrammelled Conservative administration. In 2020, the Labour Party elected remainer-in-chief Sir Keir Starmer as its leader. What could possibly go wrong for the Conservative Party and its buccaneering premier?

Of course, the big-picture story from the last five years of British politics is that things did not play out how Boris Johnson hoped or expected. And as the Conservative Party has declined politically, so too has its majority at Westminster tumbled in turn: having once towered at a nominal 80, Natalie Elphicke’s defection yesterday means the number now stands at a relatively mere 38. 

***Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.***

To put this decline into historical perspective, a drop of 42 figures well above John Major’s net MP loss from 1992-97; the then-PM’s 21-seat majority was eventually whittled down to -7. Comparatively, throughout his first term in 1997-2001, Tony Blair’s majority of 177 seats held firm. One key takeaway here, then, is that a shrinking majority is not an indication of a party in strong health.

The below analysis by Politics.co.uk means you can relive the gradual decay of the Johnson 2019 majority, sleaze scandal by sleaze scandal, defection by defection, by-election routing by by-election routing…

Where have so many Conservative MPs gone?
  • Whip lost/resigned over sleaze related matter: 12
  • Defection: 3
  • Resigned over loyalty to Boris Johnson (incl. Boris Johnson): 3 
  • Whip lost over public comments: 3
  • Death: 1
  • Resigned over policy disagreement: 1
  • Other (Hancock’s I’m a Celeb stint): 1
A chronology of Conservative chaos

6 May 2021 – Hartlepool by-election 

After the resignation of Labour MP Mike Hill under the cloud of scandal on 16 March 2021, politics prepared for a by-election in one of the few “Red Wall” seats Labour retained at the 2019 general election. 

The result was victory for Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer, who became Boris Johnson’s newest MP on 6 May 2021. 

  • Labour MPs: -1
  • Conservative MPs: +1
  • Conservative Majority: 82

25 May 2021 – Rob Roberts has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 25 May 2021, an independent panel found that Rob Roberts had acted inappropriately after he sought to engage in a relationship with a member of his staff. 

No 10’s official spokesman later confirmed that Roberts had had the Conservative whip suspended.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative Majority: 80

17 June 2021 – Chesham and Amersham by-election (death)

On 17 June 2021, a by-election was held in the constituency of Chesham and Amersham, following the death of Dame Cheryl Gillan on 4 April 2021.

The Liberal Democrat candidate, Sarah Green, won the by-election with 56.7 per cent of the vote and a swing from the Conservatives of 25.2 per cent.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Liberal Democrat MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 78

18 June 2021 – Imran Ahmad Khan has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 18 June 2021, Imran Ahmad Khan had the party whip withdrawn; he was subsequently expelled from the party following his criminal conviction for child sexual assault in 2022. He resigned as an MP on 3 May 2022, triggering a by-election. 

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 76

5 November 2021 – Owen Paterson resigns (sleaze related) 

On 5 November 2021, Owen Paterson resigned as MP for the constituency. A few weeks prior, the parliamentary commissioner for standards found that he had breached paid advocacy rules in relation to two companies which employed him as a paid consultant.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Conservative majority: 75

16 December 2021 – North Shropshire by-election

On 16 December 2021, a by-election for the constituency of North Shropshire was held — triggered by the resignation of Owen Paterson. 

The by-election was won by Helen Morgan, with a 34 per cent swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.

  • Liberal Democrat MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 74

19 January 2022 – Christian Wakeford defects (defection)

On 19 January 2022, Christian Wakeford confirmed that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Johnson following the “Partygate” scandal. Later that day, it was announced that Wakeford had joined the Labour Party. 

He became the first sitting Conservative MP to defect to Labour since Quentin Davies in 2007.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 72

2 April 2022 – David Warburton has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 2 April 2022, David Warburton, the MP for Somerton and Frome, was suspended from the parliamentary party pending the outcome of an investigation by parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme into allegations relating to sexual harassment, which were later withdrawn.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 70

29 April 2022 – Neil Parish has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, had the whip suspended on 29 April 2022 after he was reported as opening a pornographic video in the House of Commons.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 68

23 June 2022 – Tiverton and Honiton by-election 

On 23 June 2022, a by-election for the constituency of Tiverton and Honiton was held — caused by the resignation of Neil Parish.

The election was won by Richard Foord of the Liberal Democrats. The Conservative majority of 24,239 in the 2019 general election was reported at the time to have been the largest majority ever overturned in a by-election. 

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Liberal Democrat MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 68

23 June 2022 – Wakefield by-election 

On 23 June 2022, a by-election for the constituency of Wakefield was held — triggered by the resignation of Imran Khan. 

The election was won by Simon Lightwood of the Labour Party, and was the first by-election gain made by Labour since 2012.

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 68

1 July 2022 – Chris Pincher has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 1 July 2022, Chris Pincher was suspended as a Conservative MP following news he would be investigated by parliament’s complaints watchdog after allegations he drunkenly groped two men.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 66

1 November 2022 – Matt Hancock has Conservative whip withdrawn (other/to eat kangaroo penis)

On 1 November 2022, Matt Hancock had the Conservative whip suspended after it emerged he was entering the Australian jungle for I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 64

7 December 2022 – Julian Knight has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 7 December 2022, Julian Knight had the Conservative whip removed following a complaint about him to the Metropolitan police.

The MP for Solihull in the West Midlands, who chaired the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee at the time, said he had been targeted by unfounded rumours, and potentially blackmail. 

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 62

11 January 2023 – Andrew Bridgen has Conservative whip withdrawn (public comments)

On 11 January 2023, Andrew Bridgen lost the Conservative Party whip after he provoked widespread fury among colleagues and elsewhere by referencing the Holocaust in a tweet about the use of Covid vaccine.

He sat as an MP for the Reclaim Party from 10 May 2023 until 20 December 2023

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs (before joining Reclaim): +1
  • Conservative majority: 60

5 April 2023 – Scott Benton has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 5 April 2023, Scott Benton, the MP for Blackpool South, lost the Conservative Party whip after he was caught in a lobbying sting by The Times newspaper. 

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 58

9 June 2023 – Boris Johnson resigns (loyalty to Boris Johnson)

On 9 June 2023, Boris Johnson announced he would be standing down immediately as a Conservative MP after an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament and recommended a lengthy suspension from the House of Commons.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Conservative majority: 57

10 June 2023 – Nigel Adams resigns (loyalty to Boris Johnson)

On 10 June 2023, Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty, announced he would immediately stand down. Adams was a long-standing ally of Boris Johnson.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Conservative majority: 56

20 July 2023 – Somerton and Frome by-election 

On 20 July 2023, a by-election for the constituency of Somerton and Frome took place, following the resignation of David Warburton.

The seat was won by the Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Dyke.

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Liberal Democrat MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 56

20 July 2023 – Selby and Ainsty by-election

On July 2023, a by-election was held in the constituency of Selby and Ainsty, following the resignation of Nigel Adams.

Keir Mather of the Labour Party won the seat, setting a record for the largest majority ever overturned by the party in a by-election.

  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 55

20 July 2023 – Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election

On July 2023, a by-election for the constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip was held, following the resignation of Boris Johnson as its MP. 

The Conservative Party’s candidate, Steve Tuckwell, held the seat with a reduced majority of 495 votes.

  • Conservative MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 56

26 August 2023 – Nadine Dorries resigns (loyalty to Boris Johnson)

On 26 August 2023, Nadine Dorries resigned from the House of Commons, more than two months after pledging to go “with immediate effect”.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Conservative majority: 55

12 October 2023 – Lisa Cameron defects 

On 12 October 2023, SNP MP Lisa Cameron announced she had defected to the Conservatives.

  • SNP MPs: -1
  • Conservative MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 57

17 October 2023 – Peter Bone has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 17 October 2023, Peter Bone was stripped of the Conservative whip after he was found by the commons Independent Expert Panel to have bullied and harassed a member of staff.

Bone denied the claims against him and said the investigation was “flawed” and “procedurally unfair”.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 55

19 October 2023 – Tamworth by-election

On 19 October 2023, a by-election was held for the constituency of Tamworth, following the resignation of Chris Pincher.

Sarah Edwards, the Labour candidate, won the Tamworth seat with a 23.9 per cent swing, the second-biggest from Conservative to Labour since the 1945 national election.

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 55

19 October 2023 – Mid Bedfordshire by-election

On 19 October 2023, a by-election took place in the constituency of Mid Bedfordshire, following the resignation of Nadine Dorries. 

The election was won by Alistair Strathern of the Labour Party — the first Labour victory in the seat since its creation in 1918.

  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 54

26 October 2023 – Crispin Blunt has Conservative whip withdrawn (sleaze related)

On 26 October 2023, Crispin Blunt had the Conservative whip withdrawn following his arrest on suspicion of rape and possession of drugs. 

It came as Blunt issued a statement on Twitter/X vowing to clear his name.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 52

4 November 2023 – Bob Stewart resigns Conservative whip (public comments)

On 4 November 2023, Bob Stewart surrendered the Conservative whip while he considered appealing against his conviction for a racially aggravated public order offence.

On 23 February 2024, Stewart successfully appealed his conviction.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 50

5 January 2024 – Chris Skidmore resigns Conservative whip (policy disagreement)

On 5 January 2024, Chris Skidmore announced he would be resigning as an MP in protest at the government’s plan for further oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. 

In a resignation statement, he said: “I can also no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm. To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my party whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance.”

He officially resigned as an MP on 8 January 2024. 

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs (prior to Skidmore’s prompt resignation): +1
  • Conservative majority: 48

15 February 2023 – Kingswood by-election

On 15 February 2024, a by-election took place in the constituency of Kingswood in South Gloucestershire, following the resignation of Chris Skidmore.

The election was won by Damien Egan of the Labour Party with a 16 per cent swing.

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 48

15 February 2024 – Wellingborough by-election

On 15 February 2024, a by-election took place in the constituency of Wellingborough, following a recall petition held in late 2023 that removed the incumbent MP Peter Bone.

The by-election was won by Gen Kitchen of the Labour Party. It was the biggest swing from the Conservatives to Labour since the 1994 Dudley West by-election.

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 48

24 February 2024 – Lee Anderson has Conservative whip withdrawn (public comments)

On 24 February 2024, Lee Anderson was stripped of the Conservative whip after he refused to apologise for remarks about Sadiq Khan on GB News that the London mayor described as “Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist”.

He has sat as an MP for Reform UK since 11 March 2024.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs (before joining Reform): +1
  • Conservative majority: 46

9 April 2024 – William Wragg resigns Conservative whip (sleaze related)

On 9 April 2024, William Wragg resigned the Conservative party whip days after admitting to giving out colleagues’ personal phone numbers to someone he had met on a dating app.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 44

17 April 2024 – Mark Menzies resigns Conservative whip (sleaze related)

On 17 April 2024, Mark Menzies agreed to relinquish the Conservative Party whip over allegations he misused campaign funds and demanded thousands of pounds from an aide to pay off “bad people” in the middle of the night.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Independent MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 42

27 April 2024 – Dan Poulter defects (defection)

On 27 April 2024, former health minister Dr Dan Poulter defected to Labour in frustration at the worsening NHS crisis.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 40

2 May 2024 – Blackpool South by-election 

On 2 May 2024, a by-election took place in the constituency of Blackpool South, following the resignation of incumbent MP Scott Benton.

The by-election was won by Chris Webb of the Labour Party with a 26% swing.

  • Independent MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 40

8 May 2024 – Natalie Elphicke defects (defection)

On 8 May 2024, Natalie Elphicke defected to the Labour Party, saying the Conservatives “have become a byword for incompetence and division”.

  • Conservative MPs: -1
  • Labour MPs: +1
  • Conservative majority: 38

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our free daily newsletter here.





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Labour says it's 'strengthening' New Deal despite Unite slamming policy 'retreat' – LabourList

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Labour says it's 'strengthening' New Deal despite Unite slamming policy 'retreat' – LabourList


Labour has said it is “strengthening” its New Deal for Working People, just as its leading union backer Unite claimed its workers’ rights reform package had been watered down so much it was “unrecognisable”.

Trade union Unite claims a new Labour document on its New Deal for Working People is a “betrayal’, suggesting the workers’ rights reforms presented are “unrecognisable” from plans originally produced with unions.

Labour has continually denied any recent rowback on its reforms, but Unite leader Sharon Graham claimed on Wednesday the New Deal had now become a “charter for bad bosses”.

The union accused Labour of rowing back on elements of the package, and hit out at a document allegedly issued to trade unions on Monday before they meet leader Keir Starmer next week.

Graham said: “Workers will see through this and mark this retreat after retreat as a betrayal. This new document is turning what was a real new deal for workers into a charter for bad bosses.

“Labour don’t want a law against fire and rehire and they are effectively ripping up the promise of legislation on a new deal for workers in its first 100 days.

“Instead, we have codes of conduct and pledges of consultation with big business. Likewise, the proposal to legislate against zero hours contracts is watered down to almost nothing.

“In truth, this new document is not worthy of discussion. All unions must now demand that Labour changes course and puts the original deal for workers back on the table.”

But a party spokesperson told LabourList on Thursday: “Labour’s New Deal for Working People is a core part of our mission to grow Britain’s economy and raise living standards across the country.

“A Labour government will need to hit the ground running and that is why we have been strengthening the proposals to implement our commitments. If elected we will bring forward legislation within 100 days of entering government.”

Deputy leader Angela Rayner is due to give a speech on the plans on Thursday.

Labour has faced repeated questions recently about whether the New Deal has been watered down. Sources have confirmed some new materials will be published soon about the proposals, though suggested this was about consolidation and repackaging rather than any substantive changes.

A spokesperson told journalists last week nothing had changed since the National Policy Forum last year – but multiple changes were made then. Some are only now attracting significant attention, such as Labour’s acceptance of some zero-hour contracts where workers agree to them.

Labour figures have said recently that they will “bring forward” legislation within 100 days on the New Deal, but not complete legislation on all measures within 100 days.

It is not clear what prompted Graham’s claim that the party does not want to outlaw fire and rehire. One insider told LabourList: “This hasn’t been handled well, but the substance of what was agreed last year is still there and we have gone further on some of the collective stuff. We are definitely still legislating on fire and rehire.”

The party’s final NPF platform pledged to end fire and rehire. It made no mention however of specific plans included in the initial New Deal green paper to legislate to prevent workers being dismissed for failing to agree worse contracts, and ensure union regulations don’t stop unions protecting workers subjected to fire and rehire tactics. But the insider said the tweak did not mean it had been dropped.

It came as Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that businesses have “nothing to fear” from the party’s plans for workers’ rights in a question-and-answer session with journalists following a speech in the City of London yesterday.

However, she stressed that Labour is “absolutely committed” to delivering the New Deal for Working People “in full”.

Reeves said: “Businesses have got nothing to fear from Labour’s New Deal for Working People. And, of course, we will consult on how to implement these things so that there aren’t any unforeseen, adverse consequences from it.

“But we’re committed to the New Deal for Working People. It’s an important part of our economic offer, both to build a stronger and more resilient economy and to ensure that working people benefit from a growing economy.”

If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this or any other topic involving Labour, on record or strictly anonymously, contact us at [email protected]. 

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Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members Creighton and McErlean battle it out in Portugal

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Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members Creighton and McErlean battle it out in Portugal


Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members Creighton and McErlean battle it out in Portugal

May 09, 2024

Two Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members are set to go head-to-head in WRC2  machinery for the first time this year on Vodafone Rally de Portugal which gets underway on Thursday.

William Creighton, the current Junior World Rally Champion, will start this third World Rally Championship event of year on board a M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. He will be joined on the gravel event by Josh McErlean who will get his 2024 WRC campaign  underway as he will pilot a Topsport World Rally Team Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 with returning co-driver James Fulton alongside.

The difficult gravel event will mark a new era in McErlean’s career, as he starts his third season in the World Rally Championship, but his first behind the wheel of a Škoda and his first in a new team. The event marks Creighton’s third event of year and while both drivers have gone head-to-head in past – most notably in the 2023 Rallye Monte Carlo when they both drove PCRS Rallysport-prepared Hyundai i20 Rally2 cars, this will be the first time they will race each other on opposing teams. The two drivers are backed by the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and the fact that both are driving for two of the most respected teams in the WRC service park shows what opportunities are available to young Irish talent under the academy’s development programme.

“I am super excited to start our WRC season and I feel comfortable in the relationship with Toksport and Škoda Motorsport which has started really well. It’s all so professionally run and a very positive environment,” said McErlean who will be navigated by James Fulton, another graduate of the programme. “It’s now full speed ahead into WRC Portugal and it’s great to have James back by my side. We know Portugal can turn into a game of survival at times, so we have to use our heads as always and manage any situations presented to us. But it feels like a long time coming and I can’t wait to get stuck into the thick of it at the  weekend.”

 Creighton is dovetailing his WRC2 programme with an assault on the British Rally Championship. He said: “This is my first WRC event on gravel in the Rally2 car, we did the Severn Valley [British Rally Championship round] a couple of weeks ago which was  fantastic. I have done Portugal twice before; it is an event I always look forward to. The weather looks good for the rally week so it is going to be warm which is  another factor to consider inside the car. I am looking forward to another rally with M Sport and  continuing to build on our WRC 2 campaign. We have good speed on tarmac so  we just need to work on trying to translate that speed on to  the gravel.”

 Vodafone Rally de Portugal offers over 337 kilometres of special stages, spread across four days. Thursday [9 May] houses the opening super special stage, before Friday’seight tests, separated by just one tyre fitting zone. Saturday is the longest of the rally at 145 kilometres, before Sunday’s four tests, including the world-famous Fafe stage, to round out the weekend.

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At the general election, politicians must rally around a ‘next generation NHS' – Politics.co.uk

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At the general election, politicians must rally around a ‘next generation NHS' – Politics.co.uk


We don’t know yet when a general election will take place but one thing is certain – the National Health Service will feature large in the political battle of ideas.

We need a frank and honest debate about the future of the NHS.

More than one in three people (35 per cent) are concerned about the NHS according to a recent Ipsos poll, almost neck-and-neck with the economy as a top concern. Public satisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time low, hit by people’s experience of the relentless pressure on GPs, hospitals, ambulances and mental health and community health services. The NHS is facing some of the toughest conditions yet as it seeks to manage rising demand and complexity.

But public support for the fundamental principles of the NHS remains rock-solid.

In A picture of health: delivering the next generation NHS trust leaders set out a vision of how government and health services can work together to maximise the social and economic value of the NHS.

The NHS is the keystone in the health of our nation. A healthy economy relies on a healthy population, and NHS spending is good for growth. Every £1 spent on healthcare returns £4 in increased productivity and employment.

To help realise those benefits and to navigate the years ahead, leaders of trusts across England have set out a pre-election prescription for the ‘next generation’ NHS.

This is designed to champion and protect the NHS while reflecting the challenges it faces, highlighting five shared commitments for politicians and health service leaders. We can create a national picture of health by working together. We need to: reaffirm commitment to the core values of the NHS to improve health and care for all and reduce inequalities; build a new infrastructure programme for the NHS; nurture a thriving health and care workforce; champion a culture of openness, improvement and innovation; and provide care in the right place at the right time.

Demand for health and social care services is increasing and becoming more complex as providers and staff work tirelessly to give patients safe, effective care in challenging circumstances.

The plan shows how joined-up action with government can create a healthy, equitable and productive society for years to come. Politicians must take responsibility not just for treating sick people but commit to supporting the overall health of an ageing population, with cross-government action and accountability.

People are the backbone of the NHS. Today there are more than 110,000 jobs across the NHS in England unfilled. We must ensure that the NHS recruits and retains people with the right skills and in the right places, equipped with the modern facilities and technologies that they need to deliver high-quality, safe care. NHS staff need support and positive workplace cultures to provide the best possible experiences and outcomes for patients.

Current capital allocations aren’t enough to cover the cost of safety-critical repairs to NHS estates and equipment with an £11bn-plus backlog of essential work waiting to be done. We need to widen access to strategic capital investment and enable trusts to use the money they already have by increasing national capital departmental expenditure limits (CDELs).

Actions which government and the NHS must take together include also prioritising an open, learning culture across the healthcare system to improve safety and quality of care and investing in the skills needed for continuous improvement. Trusts working with Integrated Care Systems are well placed to play a strategic convening role, supporting development and provision of services right for the communities they serve.

We must rally around our ‘next generation’ NHS, one which serves the population as it is now and will be rather than as it was when founded in 1948. An NHS which is agile in deploying its people, its resources, its partnerships, its technology. An NHS which is responsive to health needs but which is not solely responsible for them. An NHS which wins the trust of the people it serves, which helps drive national productivity and excellence, and which government and parliament can robustly hold to account and endorse.

While we wait for the general election starting gun to be fired, then after the drama of election night is done and the TV crews have packed up and gone, we urge politicians to work hand in hand with us, with patients and communities at the heart of the conversation, to create the picture of health we all want to see.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.





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Abigail Lapell – Anniversary

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Abigail Lapell – Anniversary


Following last year’s Lullabies album, Toronto songstress Abigail Lapell returns to her own material for Anniversary, an album of love songs variously inspired by turning 40, the fifteenth anniversary of her father’s passing and several family weddings and births. She addresses the romantic ideal of growing old together, tracking the revolving days, seasons and years in reflecting the notion of eternal love and the attendant dichotomies of light and dark, love and loss, such as the wedding vows ‘in sickness and health and for richer or poorer’.

Recorded in a 200-year-old Ontario church adjoining a cemetery (and using the in-house harpsichord on the opener) with Great Lake Swimmers frontman Tony Dekker as co-producer as well as featuring on three tracks, a mix of folksy and orchestral country-jazz arrangements, it begins, her vocals double-tracked, with the sort of title track, Anniversary Song and lyrics celebrating the symbolism of commitment as, playing on the idea of chemistry,  they overlay traditional anniversary gifts with the periodic table of elements (“Will it be cotton or leather?/Mercury and iron, carbon, silver/bind us together”).

Lapell on piano, augmented by double bass, pipe organs and viola, the slowly building Bronte-esque Footsteps was inspired by her mother’s recurring dreams of her late husband coming back to the house  (“I hear the echo of your footsteps on the floor/I feel a shiver in my bones/How can I tell you you don’t live here anymore”) and the power of love to simultaneously haunt and console (“I hear you calling out my name/I light a candle in the darkness/I’m just the keeper of the flame/Keeping time as you fade to silence”).

Featuring Michael Davidson on marimba and vibraphone, echoey drums introduce the rumbling folksy Americana of Count On Me, a duetted vow of constancy with  Dekker (“Walk in sunshine walk in shadow/Where you go you know I will follow/Fortune I can only guess/A change of heart or just a change of address/I will be there”) and the brevity but sweetness of time shared (“Our joys are countless though the years are few/And all my days/I will always count on you”).

The traditional flavoured foot stomping Rattlesnake, with its distorted finger-style electric guitar, handclap percussion, and wordless wailings, is an ode to love and the superstition of omens and herbalist incantations (“Sew a penny in your shoe/Blessings on the journey/I’ll cut a lock of hair for you / And keep the fire burning…If you find a rattlesnake/Put it in your fiddle/Play it at the funeral wake/To keep away the devil”).

Lapell on harmonica and Tania Gill on barroom piano with Joe Lapinski playing pedal steel, the lovelorn Blue Blaze (“I woke up in an indigo cloud/You were long gone [my love was gone], with the faded dawn/Left me lying there, crying out loud”) has an old school prairie cowboy country slow sway that draws its lyrical inspiration from Plaisir d’amour, the line “A sad song lasts a whole life long/When the pleasure of love is so brief” expressing how music can memorialise the joy and pain of love.

Chiming guitar carries the slow-walking folk pop Someone Like You, which picks up that idea (“I’ll sing you a song that never ends/When it’s done begin again”) and comes with undercurrent themes of insecurity and endings (“When you’re gone there’s no replacement”), Lapell’s warbling evocative of a fusion of Sandy Denny and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

 Rebecca Hennessy brings trumpet to the insomnia-haunted piano hymnal 3am with its  lost love ache (“I wanna turn my life around/Maybe then we’ll meet again/Move to a different town/Or maybe you’ll call me up/You used to call me up/Just to try to calm me down/Gonna get back on my feet, gotta get back/On solid ground …I guess I’ve lived alone too long/To live any other way”)

 In musical and lyrical contrast,  again featuring Dekker, and recorded live-off-the-floor with claps and stomps Flowers In My Hair is an a capella singalong in the tradition of children’s playground songs (“I don’t need a diamond ring/Don’t need much of anything/I don’t have a thing to wear/I got flowers in my hair”), Dekker then contributing saw to the strum-along Blue Electric Skies, a haunting ballad of ambivalence and infatuation that veers between love song and breakup (“Love is impatient/Love is so unkind/The only consolation/I could ever find/It’s all I could ever find/All that could ever bind us together”) and suggests she may have a few Neil Young records in the collection. It’s also quite probably the only song to ever have the word ‘cyanotic’ in the lyrics.

After the generally acoustic and laid-back nature of the preceding tracks, she gets gnarly for Wait  Up with throaty electric guitar and Hennessy’s on trumpet for a love story that’s both dysfunctional and irresistible as she declares “I was a cold hearted bastard/With a gunmetal grin/You were a natural disaster/Rattling the door till I let you in… I was a hard-headed hypocrite/You a two-faced/two-faced layabout/I don’t know how I can live with it/I don’t know how I can live without it”.

It ends with one more round for Dekker on vocals, with the again hymnal Stars, a stripped back guitar and piano companion to I Can’t Believe on 2022’s Stolen Time, a dreamily romantic image of staring up at the night sky stars (“One for every song I wish I’d sung/Every love I’ve never known”) with the one you love (“I know you’re here now beside me dear/And I’ll never sing alone… there is no place I’d rather be, nothing I would rather do/Than to hold you tight on an August night and count the stars with you”).

With music and songs such as these, let’s hope that albums by Abigail Lapell will continue to be an annual event.

Anniversary – 10th May 2024 on Outside Music – https://ffm.to/anniversary



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Josienne Clarke – Parenthesis, I

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Josienne Clarke – Parenthesis, I


Parenthesis, I, Josienne Clarke’s latest album, follows on from last year’s Onliness, with the musicians involved in that release lending their support once again on this collection of new material: Alec Bowman-Clarke on bass, Dave Hamblett on drums, and Matt Robinson on keyboards. Josienne plays guitar, clarinet, recorder, and saxophone.

The songs are often deeply confessional, albeit couched in oblique and metaphorical imagery, a case in point being the airy, shuffling opener Friendly Teeth, a song about needing people to be honest with her (“there’s nothing more ugly than lies upon lies upon lies… I’ve been everyone’s fool/And lies are the harshest cruelty”), about making her own decisions (“An ounce of trepidation in my step/With a slight discomfort in my zone/To leap, carefully, into the unknown”) and calling for a “truth so strong/That it comes right up and bites you on the shoulder with its friendly teeth”.

Geometry has its place in her store of images, the carousel rhythm of Spherical exploring getting back to herself (“I’ve been drawing a circle/Back to myself/So slowly it looked like a line/That I went way off/Faraway from the place/That I started”), picking up the notion that in my end is my beginning, but also drawing on magical ideas of protection (“I’ve been drawing a circle/Around myself/To keep from the dangerous/Dark eclipsing/Circling round the doubt/A ring/To never let in or give out”, capturing the sense of both being safe but also trapped within such defences.

Just voice and watery fingerpicked guitar, while influences such as  Nick Drake, Sandy Denny and Anaïs Mitchell are often cited, Fear Of Falling also casts her as a pastoral folk prototype for newcomers such as Katherine Priddy and Flo Perlin, though it also filters the Americana colours of Courtney Marie Andrews in a song about leaving the past behind and embracing the future (not flying for fear of falling), the lyrics peppered with imagery drawn from her new home on the Isle of Bute (“The birds are singing brightly in the tall trees of Skeoch wood/And scarcely I believed that peace of mind in life could be as good”).

Of a jazzier persuasion, Do You Know Now?, with its nervy, neurotic keyboard pulse, is an exorcism of sorts as she sings, “There’s no blood and no bone/To connect me to you/No familiar, no friend/Every contact cut or ended… do you know now/That no part of me/Is a part of you”, whether that’s disconnecting from a person or a mental state. Coloured with sax, Looking Glass sustains that cool, jazzy vibe to a song that conjures a composed detachment (“Poised and precise/Glass and ice/Always be nice/Just a slice, a sliver/Fine on the eye/I can reliably refine/What you like”) while the plucked electric guitar figure and glacial Forbearing wrings the heart with lyrics that touch on the despair of her miscarriages (“It broke my heart/‘Til I, willing to die/Could see no light/In my fruitless life”) and the way it made her feel about herself (“If damaged fruit/Is all I can give to you/That‘ll have to do… I can’t bear/Bring myself to blame myself again/It isn’t fair/We’re all taught to tear ourselves apart”).  

There’s more soul-baring on the compact, stripped-back lo-fi autobiographical Most of All, a number, the original haunted demo she describes as “a licking of wounds and counting of blessings, taking stock and setting straight in my head”, with lines like “There’s a room where everyone hangs on my every word/But in our haunted house my daddy rarely heard a word I said …My mother praised me for being truthful all my days/But I needed things that I did not say/I did not ask, did not complain/I let my wants wash away… I let the heartless make a host of me/And they plundered me for melody/Left me not a note to sing”, again exposing the raw nerve of her miscarriages (“Maybe I won’t be no one’s mother in the end/I took the pills, the potions and the vitamins/But I could not keep my darlings in”), though for all that, it’s ultimately a song of defiance (“I will not live my life in pain/If I can’t see the way on any given day/I’ll take a breath and look again”) and finding peace (“My lover loves me most of all/He can write a beautiful love song but he can barely sing at all”).

Though just under two minutes, Double-Edged Sword, with its repeated rippling guitar pattern, is one of the album’s most complex tracks with its double-tracked vocals, keyboard drone and full band on another defiant note and refusal to surrender (“Bring me a double edged sword, and I’ll show you an iron will …My ability to stay alive’s my only power”). Featuring jazzy piano, things turn to a soulful folk persuasion on the upfront love song that is Firecracker (“You’re a loose cannon baby and I’m a firecracker/What a beautiful mess we make/Leaving dust in our wake/Laying waste to it all”) that echoes Neil Young’s better to burn out than fade away credo  (“Like moths to a flame/Drowning in shame/We’re losing every game/Cos we’d rather find out/Excluding all doubt/And go brightly burning out …As we spoil for a fight/And triumph overall”).

The longest track, opening with simple distant piano notes and scuffed drums before the repeated sparse guitar motif, A Dead Woman’s Bones is also the closest she lyrically gets to a traditional folk number (“He plays a song/On a lute he made/Its pure tone/Made of dead woman’s bones/The tune he plays/Are the notes he stole/And those words/Such lovely words/Such poetry/A dead woman’s poems”) though you’re unlikely to find anything like “His literal hand on her metaphorical throat” in the Cecil Sharp library.

It hits the last lap with piano and fingerpicked The Calm with its whisperingly sung sense of having survived the vicissitudes (“When all’s said and done/Under the sun/You can’t kill me/I won/So getting stronger/Has begun… Growing the sweetest of roses from the thorns/Going the closest to breaking, being reborn”) as it quietly builds and soars before ebbing away.

Accompanied by keyboard drone, the slow walking rhythm title track provides the penultimate number with its theme of recovery, living life outside the imprisoning brackets (“Parenthesis, I (think I) am done with you…put cessation in its place and face down the demon/Now darkness is only an absence of light in its space/To keep staring into the void/Re-wounding indefinitely is a choice/I choose not to make/A path it didn’t take/Undestroyed”), where “There are windows to open/A curtain to draw/To let hope out the building/Let the winds roar through the halls”.

It ends, then, with the brushed drums, piano,  circling guitar and soaring background choral vocals of  Magic, Somehow, a reaffirmation of what the power of a song can do for those who hear it (“Sing us one of your sad songs/The one about love/Make it make us give in and never give up… Sing us one of your sad songs/The one about time/Make us die on the inside/And feel so alive/Tell us the world is illusion/But you know the truth/Say it’s beautiful, show us proof”). The album an affirmation that out of the deepest darkness sometimes comes the brightest light, to paraphrase her lyric, Clarke spins her alchemy, she gives us hope.

Parenthesis, I is released on 9th May 2024 on Corduroy Punk.
https://josienneclarke.bandcamp.com/album/parenthesis-i



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Selling off the summer? Why Hundred plans should matter to all cricket lovers | Barney Ronay

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Selling off the summer? Why Hundred plans should matter to all cricket lovers | Barney Ronay


Why should anyone be worried about the England and Wales Cricket Board’s plan to sell its stake in the eight Hundred franchise teams to private investors? A deadline for counties to agree to a “direction of travel” on this issue has been set for Friday. The governing body’s preferred direction appears clear enough. The intention seems to be to sell English cricket’s chief domestic revenue levers as quickly as possible. Most likely this will be to the existing owners of Indian Premier League franchises. IPL owners already have teams in the US, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. So why not here?

To date nobody with any kind of platform in the game seems overly concerned about this prospect. We have seen no breaking of ranks among administrators, no big‑ticket media names pointing to the potential pitfalls, no European Super League-style protests on the streets.

So maybe it’s just fine. County cricket is broke. Private equity is rich. It sounds like a natural fit, like hammers and nails, predator and prey, greed and hubris. This is “money coming into the game”, to use the generically evasive phrase. And who doesn’t like money? So why does it feel like what is happening here is the first step in outsourcing the English cricket summer, in privatising the month of August? Welcome to Selling England By The Pound, Part 74: Domestic Cricket. At the very least, we need to talk about this.

It is a complex process, but one that involves a pretty simple first step. Under the current proposals the ECB would sell its 49% stake in all eight Hundred teams. This was initially advertised as just 30%. Two weeks before Friday’s meeting the ECB upped this to the full stake. It seems potential buyers will want the lot. Investment without control is a much less interesting deal. This is an important detail. Under this arrangement the eight host counties will retain a 51% stake in their in-house franchise. Anti‑alarmists will point to this, rightly, as evidence that control is not being ceded. The counties still have the majority share. It’s all fine.

On the other hand, it is also hard to imagine how this will remain the case. Private equity is rich. County cricket clubs are poor. Venture capitalists don’t really want a 49% share in anything. They want to control the direction of their investment, and to do so without interference from Sir Bufton Ballsack, who may well be a stalwart of the county board but knows very little about harvesting eyeballs. How many counties, outside of Surrey, are in a position to resist the lure of free money in return for conceding the casting vote?

Never mind, though. The ECB still owns the actual competition! At least, in so much as the competition exists outside the teams that play in it. Like the UK government, it still owns the track and points. It’s just the trains that other people get to run. And look how well that’s worked out. Bring on the Avanti West Coast Invincibles.

The Hundred has divided English cricket, requiring every other format to be subjugated and run down. Photograph: Alex Davidson/ECB/Getty Images

The ECB is not a public body, but privatisation is still a useful model here. The ECB is the keeper of our shared sporting heritage. It also receives public funding. As such it should be open to public scrutiny. When the veteran Labour MP John Spellar says the government should call the ECB in to review this process, he may not be speaking as a cricket man, but he does know where the sale of assets to private equity can lead. The football governance bill will regulate the sale and ownership of football clubs. Cricket has no equivalent oversight. Why not?

It is unsurprising there is already a fracture in consensus among the counties over all this. The word is there may be no agreement by Friday. The non-host counties, also known as first turkeys on the Christmas meat hook, have begun to question the deal being offered. There are windfalls and annual stipends to be divvied up. Money is being grubbed over. The heirs are gathered around the casket, arguing over the silver.

What about future investment, scheduling, facilities, conflicts of interest between national game, pathways, inclusion and the pure profit motives of a private company? Is the ECB not obliged by its basic constitution to provide protection against the takeover of the cricket calendar by franchises with an eye on global dominance? As opposed to acting as a paid facilitator? Who, right now, knows the answer to any of these things (answer: nobody)?

One problem is the obvious impediments to holding any kind of objective discussion. First the Hundred itself is an endlessly divisive entity. The good bits are clear enough. The Hundred was designed to expand the game’s reach and source newer, younger consumers. These are logical aims. Given the ECB’s own record of failure in growing the game, something had to be done. The Hundred offered the chance of a reset, for women’s teams to be given status, visibility and investment, for the junking of some old restrictive habits.

The problem is the collateral damage to all the other bits. The Hundred is unavoidably parasitic. It requires every other format to be subjugated and run down, although part of this is a deliberate managed decline to ensure its own success. People who have supported the game and kept it alive like the other formats. Test cricket is still the greatest cash cow. It is currently being asked to subsidise the thing that will cut its legs off, a Hundred that provides no players, no pathway, no midsummer stage in return.

The other problem is the ECB itself, a governing body run for so many years like a mercurial get-rich scheme, which relies on public wealth, the shared game, to produce its only assets, but still seems intent on chasing growth, eyeballs, fire sales and the most buzzword-laden version of sports capitalism. Is the sale of the Hundred franchises even with the spirit of the ECB’s remit? Its governing articles state that the ECB’s aims are to act as the governing body for cricket, to do so for the benefit of all stakeholders, to balance short‑term consequences with long-term benefit, and to promote “the commercialisation, marketing and promotion of cricket”.

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Well, one of these (clue: it’s the last one) is definitely the preferred option. But there are still questions to be asked. What do investors want, and why are they interested in your product? The ECB’s chosen buyer-locator is the Raine Group, whose last job in English football was introducing Chelsea to Todd Boehly. These people are not always benevolent actors. It is also worth considering why English cricket is broke when it has also never been so rich, when it can afford to pay a star player half a million pounds for playing four games a year. Where will the new money actually go, other than into debt, and the servicing of more debt?

Hence the need for basic scrutiny. One Labour MP has already suggested this process should take place in daylight. Here are some very obvious questions the ECB would do well to address before speeding ahead. The sale of Hundred franchises has been presented as an obvious net positive for English cricket. Does the ECB accept that this is also a profound existential change for domestic game? Where is the feasibility study on exactly how this could look in 10 years? What indication is there that Hundred host counties won’t instantly sell their controlling vote to the new minority investor? What is the view on the potential effects?

Labour MP John Spellar has called for the government to scrutinise the ECB’s plans to sell its stake in the Hundred teams. Photograph: Johnny Armstead/Alamy

If this asset is worth so much money, why is the ECB selling it? Outside investors may have more instant cash. Why isn’t the ECB able to monetise this while retaining control? What study has been made into the medium-term effects on non-host counties? What will be the role of, say Kent CCC, in 10 years’ time? English cricket has a lot of money and a lot of debt. Where will this new money go? Where is the evidence of how it will be spent?

Has the self interest of players, agents, broadcasters and all interested parties with a platform been excluded from consideration of the merits or otherwise of this course of action? What due diligence will be done on prospective new owners? Will you consider the motives of your buyer? Is this a material factor in the sale, or is it just the highest price?

These are all questions the ECB will, it is to be hoped, already be asking itself. A great deal more than the ever-embattled present is at stake.

  • Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.



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