Women who are bullied and sexually harassed in the workplace will be given new protections as whistleblowers under a Labour government.

In a major coup for Labour, eminent barrister Marina Wheeler KC, Boris Johnson’s former wife, is to be appointed Labour’s “whistleblowing tsar” to advise on their reforms.

Kate Devlin www.independent.co.uk 

In another landmark change, common-law wives who live with their partners will also get the same rights, including over property, as married women should their relationship end.

In a major coup for Labour, eminent barrister Marina Wheeler KC, Boris Johnson’s former wife, is to be appointed Labour’s “whistleblowing tsar” to advise on their reforms.

Ms Wheeler is the second high-profile woman to take a key job with Keir Starmer’s team.

Last month, Sue Gray, the Whitehall mandarin who wrote the Partygate report on drinks parties in No 10 which contributed to Mr Johnson’s downfall, started work as Starmer’s chief of staff.

In a speech to the Labour conference on Tuesday, shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry will say the whistleblowing and common-law wife reforms will mean women do not have to “live in fear… suffer in silence and … hope for the best when it comes to keeping a roof over her head”.

She will declare: “That is the difference between a Tory government that pretends to care about women’s rights, and a Labour Party that delivers them.”

Ms Wheeler said it was a “privilege” to help Labour protect women from abusive colleagues.

Women in the workplace “too often suffer sexual harassment and assault and they pay a heavy price for speaking out. Knowing this, and to keep their jobs, they suffer in silence,” Ms Wheeler told The Independent.

She highlighted the revelation earlier this year that one in three female surgeons had reported sexual harassment or assault at the hands of colleagues over the last five years.

Ms Wheeler, an expert in employment law, said she was “delighted to be working with Emily Thornberry to help formulate solutions – including law reform where necessary – to encourage women to come forward, trusting that they will not be penalised for having done so. It will be a privilege to help deliver this.”

In recent years, several MPs have been accused of using their power to sexually harass and bully members of staff and others.

The Labour move also follows allegations of rape and sexual scandal against comedian Russell Brand. The claims came to light after a number of women broke years of silence over the matter. Mr Brand denies the allegations.

In her speech, Ms Thornberry will say victims of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination in the workplace are entitled to the same protection as whisteleblowers.

“No woman should be forced to stay quiet for fear of being sacked,” she will add.

Whistleblowers are entitled to protection against losing their job or otherwise suffering as a result of speaking out.

But the law currently applies to only a small number of areas, such as health and safety and potential miscarriages of justice.

The government’s current guidelines on whistleblowers warn that “personal grievances”, including bullying and harassment, are not covered by whistleblowing laws unless the case “is in the public interest”.

Female surgeons recently lifted the lid on harassment, which they said was rife in their profession, but many said they feared speaking out because of the damage it could do to their careers.

Ms Thornberry will also pledge to reform the law for couples who live together. She will say that, for too long, women “have been left with no rights when those relationships come to an end”.

“No woman should be forced to get married or stay in an unhappy relationship just to avoid being put out on the street.”

Countries including New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland have changed laws to offer extra protections to cohabiting couples.

Surveys show many people still believe the ‘‘common law’’ myth that if a couple have lived together for long enough they are effectively treated as married under the law.

Tory MP Caroline Nokes, chair of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, recently called on the government to give greater protections to the growing number of cohabitating partners.

Details of Labour’s latest announcement came a day after deputy leader Angela Rayner unveiled plans to clamp down on sexual harassment in the workplace.

Her proposals include a statutory code of practice for employers, clear processes on how to deal with sexual harassment at work and training to help assess “foreseeable risks”.

Ms Rayner told The Independent sexual harassment was “rife” as she warned such behaviour is “destroying careers and ruining women’s lives”.

She said recent high-profile cases which have hit the headlines “are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the experiences of millions of women in workplaces the length and breadth of Britain”.

Dramatic findings point to Conservatives losing every red wall seat that they secured at the last election

Michael Savage Policy Editor Guardian

Labour is currently on course to win a landslide victory on the scale of 1997, according to dramatic new modelling that points to the Conservatives losing every red wall seat secured at the last election.

The Tories could also lose more than 20 constituencies in its southern blue wall strongholds and achieve a record-low number of seats, according to a constituency-by-constituency model seen by the Observer. Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leadership contender Penny Mordaunt are among those facing defeat. Some 12 cabinet ministers face being unseated unless Rishi Sunak can close Labour’s poll lead.

According to the model’s central projection, which takes into account the new boundaries that the next election will be fought on, Labour would win 420 seats – equating to a landslide 190-seat majority. The Tories would take just 149 seats and the Lib Dems 23. The results mirror the 1997 landslide, when Tony Blair’s party secured a majority of 179 with 418 seats. The new analysis also suggests that the cost of living and the state of the NHS continue to be the clear priorities for voters.

The huge study, commissioned by the 38 Degrees campaign group, has been carried out by the Survation polling company using a mega poll made up of more than 11,000 voters. A modelling technique called multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) has then been applied to reach constituency-level findings. Pollsters using the method successfully detected the swings ahead of the 2017 election.

While a 190-seat Labour majority is its average estimate, the modelling – based on polling carried out shortly before the Tory conference last week – suggests Labour could have between 402 and 437 seats. The Tories could have between 132 and 169 seats. The results suggest a Labour majority between 154 and 224 seats.

Every one of the 44 red wall seats that the Tories won at the last election would return to the Labour party, the analysis found. A further 22 so-called blue wall seats – defined as those held by the Tories in 2019, have a majority of Remain voters and a higher than average number of graduates – are also lost by the Conservatives.

The findings will be controversial among both parties’ members. Many Labour insiders are expecting the polls to close over the coming months as the election approaches. Senior figures in Sunak’s team also believe they can target Labour leader Keir Starmer, whom they don’t believe has been embraced by the public.

Despite Sunak’s attempts to switch focus to his plans to ban smoking, overhaul A-levels and ditch the northern leg of HS2, the analysis suggests that voters remain overwhelmingly focused on the cost of living and the state of the NHS.

In every single constituency, these two issues were most important to voters. Across the country, a third said they are “getting by, but making cutbacks” and 8% described themselves as “financially desperate”. More than two fifths (42%) said they had struggled to get a GP appointment in the past six months.

In a major blow for Sunak, Labour has some significant leads in red wall seats. In Blyth Valley, the first red wall seat to be declared for the Tories in 2019, large Labour majorities are predicted. In Blyth and Ashington, Labour are ahead 49% to 22%. In Hartlepool, whose predecessor seat was won by the Conservatives for the first time in a 2021 byelection, Labour have a 38-point lead. In both constituencies, a quarter of voters said they were “worried about their financial future”.

Bassetlaw, whose predecessor seat saw the country’s largest swing from Labour to the Tories in 2019, is predicted to return to Labour. The model suggests a 23-point lead with 12% of residents reporting they are “financially desperate”. Meanwhile, North Dorset – whose predecessor seat last elected a non-Conservative MP in 1945 – is predicted to fall to the Liberal Democrats. At 64% the NHS was a top issue for the highest proportion of this constituency.

Matthew McGregor, chief executive of 38 Degrees, said the findings suggested voters were “crying out for change” and warned Labour against being overly cautious. “With the spotlight this week on the Labour party’s conference pledges, it’s clear what voters will be looking for: real guarantees of action to help those most in need and bring the dual cost of living and NHS crises under control for all of us,” he said. “If they can’t deliver that, there’s no promise these polling results will hold.

“These are the issues which will dominate at the next election. Parties who are unconvincing, out of touch or distracted on these issues will rightly suffer at the polls.”

The results make it even less likely that Sunak and his team will opt for a spring election. Figures close to the PM are said to be opposed to a May vote, despite many MPs believing it may be in the party’s interests to go for an earlier vote. Meanwhile many figures in the Labour party accept that a lack of clarity over Starmer’s vision for power remains a vulnerability.

Damian Lyons Lowe, chief executive of Survation, said: “Red wall seats, which were crucial to the Conservative’s Brexit coalition, are all predicted to return to Labour. Furthermore, it is in seats with the highest proportion of Leave voters that the swing back to Labour is largest. Even traditional Conservative strongholds in the south-east and south-west are under threat from the Liberal Democrats and Labour.”

Survation polled 11,793 people between 11-25 September

More than 100 leading companies urge PM to reinstate net zero measures to avoid hardship for many.

“Our industry has been working hard to gear up for that acceleration [of effort needed to meet net zero], but your announcement signalled less not more action needed,”

 “In order to bring forward big financial investments, to recruit and train hundreds of thousands of people and to bring the public along with us in this journey we need confidence in long-term active policy support from government. Your announcement has set that back.”

“Long-term decisions for a brighter future” – Ha Ha Ha! – Owl

Fiona Harvey Guardian

Some of the UK’s biggest construction companies, property developers and estate agencies have written to Rishi Sunak to warn that his weakening and postponement of green policies will harm investment in housing and cause hardship for many people.

More than 100 companies, including some of the UK’s biggest construction specialists, have urged the prime minister to reinstate the net zero policies, or find alternatives that “make upgrading Britain’s homes affordable”.

The Guardian revealed earlier this week that housebuilders and property developers have benefited by billions of pounds from delays to low-carbon building regulations in the past eight years of Conservative government, while the sector became one of the biggest sources of donations to the Tory party – almost £40m since 2010, according to a Guardian analysis.

In the last fortnight alone, Sunak has dismayed businesses and investors by rolling back several key low-carbon measures, including scrapping the proposed requirements for landlords to insulate and upgrade their properties to be more energy-efficient. He also announced a delay to the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars, from 2030 to 2035, softened measures to phase out gas boilers, and is pressing ahead with plans to scrap rules on sewage from new housing.

These delays are only the latest example of a number of low-carbon measures that have been held up or ditched over years of Conservative government, with the result that homeowners and taxpayers will have to pay tens of billions of pounds to bring newly built homes up to low-carbon standards.

The delays have resulted in years of unnecessarily high greenhouse gas emissions, and higher energy bills for residents.

There is some division on the subject within the construction and development sector; while some developers may welcome any delay to low-carbon measures, others are looking more to the future.

The letter to Sunak, seen by the Guardian, notes that many construction and property companies were planning to make substantial investments in net zero, which are now in doubt. The 114 signatories include Arup, Laing O’Rourke Construction, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Landsec, BAM, Buro Happold, Grosvenor, Avison Young, Great Portland Estates, Knight Frank, AECOM, Clarion Housing Group, and CBRE Group.

“Our industry has been working hard to gear up for that acceleration [of effort needed to meet net zero], but your announcement signalled less not more action needed,” the letter says. “In order to bring forward big financial investments, to recruit and train hundreds of thousands of people and to bring the public along with us in this journey we need confidence in long-term active policy support from government. Your announcement has set that back.”

The signatories also take issue with Sunak’s insistence that his delays would save money for households. “The longer we delay and the more we see stop-start piecemeal policy-making, the harder and more expensive the task becomes,” they say.

The signatories urge Sunak to “bring forward a comprehensive national strategy to retrofit our homes and buildings including much higher sustained government investment and market drivers to stimulate private investment as well as regulation. This would pay dividends to the treasury in tax returns.”

They also call for a new “future homes and building standard”. This was supposed to be in consultation by now, but a government spokesperson told the Guardian the aim was now to publish a consultation by the end of this year.

Simon McWhirter, the deputy chief executive at the UK Green Building Council, which organised the letter, said: “It’s beyond disappointing and simply reckless to see this false narrative from government that delaying climate action would reduce costs to households.

“Decisions now – whether around retrofit or the quality of our new buildings – will dictate the quality and legacy of what we’re able to achieve for generations. Delaying policies just means they’ll have to be implemented much faster, later, pushing up the cost for everyone – householders and businesses alike.”

Tor Burrows, the group sustainability director at the property company Grosvenor, said: “Diluting the UK’s commitment to net zero is not the way to build our economy, create jobs or address climate change. Businesses desperately need clarity and stability to help them plan how they will invest in green practices, tech and skills. Without this we risk losing out on crucial investment which will ease the cost of living and increase the country’s global reputation and competitiveness.”

Jonathan Gibson, the principal and global director for environmental, social and corporate governance at Avison Young estate agents, said: “While we understand the challenges posed by the cost of living crisis and approaching elections, we must not compromise our long-term sustainability goals for short-term political gains. I urge the incoming government, especially in the context of the forthcoming general elections, to reconsider this regressive stance on net zero policies and demonstrate a genuine commitment to tackling climate change.”

Majority of Express, Telegraph, and Sun readers plan to vote for Labour

Tom Head www.thelondoneconomic.com 

Jeez, no wonder Rishi Sunak is running scared of a General Election. The PM has so far failed to rescue to Tories from their self-inflicted woes, and looking at these numbers, it would appear that the Conservative Party is in more trouble than previously thought.

Right-wing press sees readers turn to Labour

The Survation poll, commissioned by Unherd, features answers from more than 20,000 respondents. It questioned the readership of eight flagship newspapers in the UK, ranging from the left-leaning Guardian and Mirror, to the traditionally right-leaning Express and Daily Mail.

Incredibly, a majority of readers for seven of those eight titles now plan to vote LABOUR at the next election, all by a rather comfortable margin, too. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail’s audience is the only one which has a majority behind the Tories – albeit, a slim one.

Only Daily Mail readers remain behind Tories

Despite the Daily Express’ thinly-veiled support for the right-wing government – and fervent cheerleading of Brexit – around 40% of its readership are willing to back Labour next year, as opposed to the 31% who are sticking by the Tories.

Incredibly, the most pro-Labour paper after The Guardian and The Mirror is The Sun. The Murdoch-owned tabloid is often maligned by Labour supporters, but almost 50% of those surveyed say they will be backing Keir Starmer at the next election.

Labour looking ahead to possible 2024 landslide?

The Times also has a similar number of those committing to the official opposition. Meanwhile, broadsheet press audiences are also swinging towards a change in government, with Labour-leaning Financial Times and The Telegraph readers outnumbering Tory counterparts.

This data spits in the face of claims Mr. Sunak made at the Conservative Party Conference this week, arguing that nobody in the UK wants a General Election. Unfortunately for him, a petition to force through an immediate vote has gained 200,000 signatures over the past few days.

As Margaret Thatcher would often ask: “Is he one of us?”

Rishi Sunak has been accused of a “breathtaking lack of self-awareness” after posting a picture of himself on board his private jet days after axing the HS2 line to Manchester.

Kevin Schofield www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

The prime minister is shown working on board his plane in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

He said he had taken “long-term decisions” to, among other things, “boost our transport”.

In his speech to last week’s Tory conference, Sunak announced that he was scrapping the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester and using the £36 billion saved to boost transport links around the country.

The decision has been widely criticised, including by former Tory prime ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

Reacting to his private plane post, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “A perfect image to accompany the announcement you’re scrapping High Speed rail, flying home on your private jet.

“A breathtaking lack of self-awareness. And utter contempt for the millions who never voted for you or this.”

Other users of the social media platform also criticised the PM’s choice of picture.

HuffPost UK revealed last month that Sunak was switching to the same private plane used by Manchester City.

The PM swapped his Airbus 321 for a slightly older model operated by private jet specialists Titan Airways.

The new plane, flying under the call sign G-POWT, will also be used by members of the Royal Family.

It was most recently used last month to fly Man City’s stars to Greece to play in the Uefa Super Cup Final, where they beat Sevilla on penalties.

Will the Tories now be able to fund a bigger pre-election tax give away? – Owl

Families who sold their homes along the cancelled HS2 northern leg could have to pay hundreds of thousands more if they want their properties back, i can reveal.

David Parsley inews.co.uk 

The Government is working on plans to sell-off almost £600m of properties that were bought along the now axed northern section of the line and, under law, must offer the original owners the right to buy their homes back before putting them on the open market.

However, the former owners will be charged at today’s market value meaning they could now be unaffordable to many “desperate” to return to the homes.

Tim Broomhead, a partner at agents Knight Frank, “Many HS2 sellers were desperate not to leave, and many who want to return may well find they can no longer afford to buy back their cherished homes.”

While property prices have fallen over the past year, the vast majority of homes that were acquired by the government have risen significantly in value.

Homes were sold to the Department for Transport along the HS2 route since 2015, either via Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) or Statutory Blight process, which means property owners along could sell their homes to the government if they were on land impacted by the railway.

If a family sold their home to HS2 when Statutory Blight sales began in 2015 at the then average price in England of around £203,000 they would have to pay £306,000 to buy it back today.

Many more valuable homes along the line were sold significantly above the average price in England, meaning a household that sold their home for £500,000 in 2015 would have to pay £750,000 to buy it back now.

Even an owner that sold up in 2021, when the average house price in England was around £250,000, would have to pay 22 per cent more to buy back at today’s market value.

The policy to force households to pay the current market value to buy their homes back is set out in a government document referring to the sale of unwanted properties along the HS2 (a) line between Birmingham and Crewe.

The High Speed Two Phase 2a Information Paper sets out the Disposal of Surplus Land policy from the Department for Transport (DfT) and refers to the Crichel Down Rules.

The rules, which came about following a property dispute between a landowner and the government following the Second World War, state: “In accordance with the Crichel Down Rules, and subject to key guiding principles set out in this paper, landowners may be offered the opportunity to buy back land, at market value.”

The right to buy back homes also applies to those who sold through the Statutory Blight process.

Mr Broomhead said the process had taken a mental health toll on many of his clients. “For years many families I have represented have suffered constant stress due to the threat that HS2 has posed over their lives,” he said.

“It’s the stress and the effects on their mental health that has been quite hard to witness actually. And it doesn’t matter whether that’s somebody in the smallest cottage or the largest farm. It’s their home and it is going to be taken from them.

“It has been unbelievably stressful for every single one of them.”

On Friday i revealed that the Government is still buying homes via CPOs even though the northern leg of HS2 was cancelled by Rishi Sunak on Wednesday.

In one example taxpayers’ money was used to pay more than £1.5m for a country estate in Staffordshire.

The DfT will also still have to pay tens of millions of pounds in CPOs that were already in negotiation before Mr Sunak axed HS2’s northern leg.

The latest figures from HS2 show the government has spent a total of £3.3bn on acquiring 1,422 properties along both the southern and northern legs of HS2.

Of this amount, £562m was spent on 824 homes along the axed line between Birmingham and Manchester, although agents representing sellers along the route believe this figure could rise to as much as £700m due to sales already at an advanced stage of negotiation.

A spokeswoman for HS2 said on Friday that the Government has still not ordered managers of the property purchase to cease CPOs.

A spokeswoman for DfT said: “Any property that is no longer required for HS2 will be sold and a programme is being developed to do this.”

What are Crichel Down Rules?

The Crichel Down Rules originated from a 1954 political scandal, after which the laws around Compulsory Purchase Orders were drawn up.

The case centred on 725 acres of agricultural land at Crichel Down, near Long Crichel in Dorset, which was owned by Captain Napier George Henry Sturt, the 3rd Baron Alington.

The land was requisitioned by the air ministry for £12,006 in 1938 to be used for bombing practice by the Royal Air Force. 

In 1940, the owner died on active service in the RAF, and the Crichel Estate passed in trust to his only child, Mary Anna Sturt.

In 1941, war time prime minister Winston Churchill pledged in parliament that land would be returned to its owners after the Second World War, when it was no longer required by the RAF, but this promise was not kept.

Instead the land, which was then valued at £21,000, was handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture which then offered it back to the family for £32,000. The family could not afford it and the land was then leased.

In 1949, Toby and Mary Marten – the daughter of the third Lord Alington – began a campaign to get their family estate back. 

They gained a public inquiry, which in 1954 was damning about actions of the government and led to the resignation of the agriculture minister Sir Thomas Dugdale. Following the inquiry, the government established the Crichel Down Rules, which still apply to CPOs today.