All posts tagged: Yvette Cooper

4 times Starmer’s top team distanced themselves from the PM … just this week – POLITICO

4 times Starmer’s top team distanced themselves from the PM … just this week – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Yvette Cooper  The U.K.’s current foreign secretary was keen to remind MPs she wasn’t running the Foreign Office when the seeds of the Mandelson saga were sown. Asked about the Doyle revelation in the House of Commons Tuesday, Cooper said: “Obviously, I was the home secretary at the time that I understand that took place, so I was not involved and do not know the circumstances.” Robbins told MPs earlier Tuesday that he was “under strict instruction” from No. 10 not to discuss the possibility of Doyle’s posting with Lammy, something Cooper said she was “extremely concerned” about. For good measure, she added Doyle would “not have been an appropriate appointment.”  Darren Jones  There are few ministers closer to Starmer than Jones, but it appears even the PM’s chief secretary has his limits. During an interview with POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy, Jones pleaded ignorance when quizzed over accusations from Robbins that there had been a culture of fear inside Downing Street around Mandelson’s appointment.  “I wasn’t in the building at the time, so I can’t speak …

Reform candidate calls for mass deportation of Muslims

Reform candidate calls for mass deportation of Muslims

Published by Sam Flores

Nigel Farage has been urged to drop a Reform UK candidate who called for “every Muslim” to be deported from Britain because the public cannot tell them apart from terrorists. Kate Michaela, who is standing in Adur district council, in West Sussex, on May 7, shared several offensive posts, including one that said “every Muslim must leave the UK by 2030”. The Reform candidate also shared a post by Tommy Robinson, the far-Right activist, describing Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, as a “dumb b—-” who was allowing Islam to “take over Britain”. Ms Michaela, a beauty salon owner, also reposted a Kremlin conspiracy theory that linked Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted paedophile. Social media post The Labour Party and the Conservatives have both demanded that Mr Farage remove Ms Michaela from his candidate list and stop any funding or resources for her campaign. Anna Turley, the chairman of the Labour Party, said: “The comments made by this Reform UK candidate are racist, simple as that. “For Nigel Farage and Reform …

Starmer defies calls to resign as he sacks Foreign Office chief after Mandelson vetting scandal explodes

Starmer defies calls to resign as he sacks Foreign Office chief after Mandelson vetting scandal explodes

Published by Sam Flores

He told LBC: “None of this adds up, the idea they weren’t told about the vetting. Remember, in the House of Commons, Starmer actually said that the vetting had told him about the ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, then outside of the House, in Hastings, he gave a speech in which he said that Mandelson had cleared security vetting. Source link

Starmer ‘furious’ over Mandelson vetting failures as Labour critics pounce – POLITICO

Starmer ‘furious’ over Mandelson vetting failures as Labour critics pounce – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Starmer is facing intense scrutiny over what he and his team knew about Mandelson’s clearance for the top diplomatic post when he was appointed in December 2024. Olly Robbins was dismissed as head of the Foreign Office Thursday evening after losing the confidence of Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper over the row. Mandelson became U.S. ambassador in February 2025 before being sacked in September over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Guardian first reported Thursday afternoon Mandelson did not pass his security vetting clearance, but that the Foreign Office overruled the decision. Starmer ally Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told the BBC on Friday morning that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had ignored the advice of United Kingdom Security Vetting, the government’s screening agency. “I find this whole situation astonishing,” Jones said in his BBC remarks, adding that he had last night suspended the Foreign Office’s right to ignore security vetting going forward. “That is a failure of state process that was in line with the rules, …

Starmer sacks Foreign Office chief ‘to save himself’

Starmer sacks Foreign Office chief ‘to save himself’

Published by Sam Flores

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of sacking the top civil servant in the Foreign Office to save his own position. The Prime Minister fired Sir Olly Robbins, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, over the Mandelson vetting fiasco on Thursday night after he and Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, withdrew their confidence in him. Sir Olly’s departure came hours after news broke that Lord Mandelson had failed the enhanced vetting process for his appointment as ambassador to the US, but was given the post anyway after civil servants dismissed the findings. Sir Keir is now facing calls to resign from all three of Britain’s main opposition leaders, who have accused him of dismissing Sir Olly to prolong his own political survival. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said: “[The Government is] all over the place on this – it is totally unbelievable and Robbins, he’s the sacrificial lamb in an attempt to try and save the Prime Minister, and it just isn’t good enough.” Kemi Badenoch, the head of the Tories, said: “Keir Starmer …

Labour Cabinet Members Set To Lose Seats In Election Wipeout, Poll Suggests

Labour Cabinet Members Set To Lose Seats In Election Wipeout, Poll Suggests

Published by Sam Flores

Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves could all lose their seats. via Associated Press A host of Labour cabinet members are set to lose their seats to both Reform UK and the Greens at the next election, according to a new mega poll. The More in Common study suggests Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Yvette Cooper are among those who could be kicked out by voters at the next election. Labour leadership hopeful and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner would also lose her seat, as would the likes of John Healey, Ed Miliband, Hilary Benn, Lisa Nandy, Pat McFadden, Jonathan Reynolds and Darren Jones. Although Keir Starmer would be re-elected in the traditionally safe Labour seat of Holborn and St Pancras, his majority would be slashed. Reform would win a staggering 324 seats – just short of an overall Commons majority – while the Greens would see their number of MPs quadruple to 21, the poll said. However, Labour would plummet from 411 seats to just 102, with the Tories also …

Cooper Slams Trump’s Threat To Wipe Out Iranian Civilisation

Cooper Slams Trump’s Threat To Wipe Out Iranian Civilisation

Published by Sam Flores

Yvette Cooper has hit out at Donald Trump after the US president threatened to wipe out Iranian civilisation. Having already warned Iran must agree to end the war earlier this week or risk attacks on civilian infrastructure, the president claimed on Tuesday that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Tehran did not agree to US demands. Those genocidal remarks sparked widespread horror. The government did not respond to the shocking remarks at the time and a subsequent ceasefire deal luckily meant Trump did not escalate any further tensions with Iran. But on Thursday, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper suggested Trump had gone too far. She told Sky News: “We take a different view from the US on issues, and it is possible for us to be strong, close partners on a whole range of issues, but also to take different decisions on issues. “I think that the rhetoric that we’ve seen used, I think, has been completely wrong. I think that sort of escalatory rhetoric can have escalatory consequences.” She also called for a clear …