Top story: ‘They’ve voted for hope’
Good morning, I’m Graham Russell and welcome to Friday and the stories making the news so far today.
Kim Leadbeater has been hailed as “brilliant and brave” by Labour leader Keir Starmer this morning after she defied glum predictions and won the Batley and Spen byelection. Labour beat the Tories by just over 300 votes, losing nearly all of its already-slender majority of 3,525 in the West Yorkshire seat that it has held since 1997.
Leadbeater said she was “absolutely delighted that the people of Batley and Spen have rejected division and they’ve voted for hope”. Brendan Cox, the widower of Leadbeater’s sister Jo Cox, who was murdered in 2016, tweeted: “We are all incredibly proud of Kim Leadbeater today and Jo would have been too.”
George Galloway, who came third, said he would apply to have the result set aside by the courts. Turnout was 47.6%, Kirklees council said. You can follow the latest on our liveblog here.
The victory, coming after a painful loss to the Conservatives in Hartlepool in May, is a boost for Starmer, whose tenure as leader was expected to be questioned in the event of another loss.
The campaign for the West Yorkshire seat had been mired in accusations of dirty tricks and intimidatory tactics. In a pointed statement released shortly after polls closed at 10pm on Thursday, Leadbeater said the “acts of intimidation and violence by some who have come with the sole aim of sowing division have been deeply upsetting to witness”.
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Hancock scandal – Labour has asked the attorney general, Michael Ellis, to explain why there has been no investigation into whether Matt Hancock broke distancing rules during his relationship with an aide, Gina Coladangelo. One thinktank argued his behaviour highlighted the need for the ministerial code to be underpinned by law and suggested this and the Greensill scandal meant Boris Johnson had allowed standards of ministerial behaviour to weaken.
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Levelling nup – The government’s new education funding formula has sent more money to schools in wealthier areas and left those in cities with high levels of deprivation worse off, the National Audit Office has found. Average per pupil funding in the most deprived fifth of schools fell in real terms by 1.2% between 2017 and 2021, while it increased by 2.9% in the least deprived fifth, the report out today says. The finding challenges the government levelling-up narrative of a huge injection of extra cash into England’s schools.
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Freedom-ish Day – Several NHS trust chief executives have said they are “nervous” about the likelihood of greater social mixing after 19 July, when ministers plan to remove England’s mandatory mask and social distancing restrictions. NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said vaccines were breaking the link between infection and serious illness or death but that even a small post-19 July surge could affect its ability to deliver non-Covid services “in a context where many staff are exhausted”. After 19 July, caution may still be encouraged in high-risk areas such as public transport but would be a guideline rather than regulation, one Whitehall source said. Chief medical officer Chris Whitty is said to have had positive discussions with the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, who is “data driven” and not ideologically opposed to some caution.
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Virgin races Shepard to heaven – Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is trying to beat Jeff Bezos’s New Shepard rocket into space, hoping to steal the thunder of the fellow billionaire by just nine days. Branson said the next test flight would take place on 11 July and carry himself and five others on board. Hours earlier, Bezos’s Blue Origin said Bezos would be accompanied into space on 20 July. However, extra points go to the Amazon founder for inviting aboard the excellently named trailblazing female pilot Wally Funk, who was denied a chance to become an astronaut in the 1960s because of her gender.
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Victoria toppled – A statue of Queen Victoria has been toppled in Manitoba on Canada Day as anger grows at the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves containing Indigenous children sent to the country’s notorious residential schools. In protest against the country’s painful colonial legacy, a group wearing orange shirts to honour the dead also pulled down a smaller statue of Queen Elizabeth II. At least 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families to attend the schools over a century as part of the campaign by the government to forcefully assimilate the children into Canadian society.
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Harib-oh no – Parents may soon need to explain to their children how the intersection of an international lorry driver shortage with Brexit and Covid has meant they don’t have any sweets to eat. German firm Haribo has said it is struggling to get the packets of jelly babies, gummy bears and mini-fried eggs on to shop shelves, and has already reportedly cancelled promotions on its share bags in order to maintain availability.
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Today in Focus podcast: Britney Spears’ battle to take back control
A legal arrangement set up in the wake of a mental health crisis has left Britney Spears with little say over her personal or professional affairs. Laura Snapes and Sam Levin describe how she’s challenging the situation in court.
Lunchtime read: ‘Since this mobile thing happened, my life has changed’
Noor Mohammad Shah sits on the ground, leaning against a car wheel and begins to sing, in his raw and soft voice, a traditional Sufi song of lost love and cups of wine. A group of young men filmed it and uploaded it to YouTube. Now the street performer is one of Kashmir’s most famous modern rabab musicians. It’s quite hypnotic, you can have a listen to the song that launched his career here.
Sport
Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray is still feeling his way back from injury and the 10th seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov poses a serious obstacle when the pair meet in the third round today. It is 44 years since a British woman won Wimbledon but in Emma Raducanu the next home-grown star might just have been uncovered, writes Simon Cambers. Cameron Norrie showed the consistency that has typified his season to beat Alex Bolt and set up a third-round tie with Roger Federer while the top seeded woman, Ash Barty, made 33 unforced errors against Anna Blinkova but still remains on course to meet Coco Gauff in the semi-finals.
The Euro 2020 quarter-finals get under way today, with Switzerland playing Spain before heavyweights Belgium and Italy clash. An irrepressible Mark Cavendish made it a hat-trick of wins in Châteauroux, blasting past his sprint rivals once more to claim his 32nd stage win in the Tour de France. Norway’s Karsten Warholm has finally taken down one of the oldest world records in athletics by beating Kevin Young’s 29-year-old 400m hurdles best in front of his home crowd in Oslo. Half-centuries from Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan and Joe Root powered England to another one-sided success against Sri Lanka, their eight-wicket win a fifth successive white-ball canter. Marcus Smith, who is hoping to play for England against the USA, can “get bums off seats”, according to his Harlequins teammate Joe Marchant. Lewis Hamilton, who has been comprehensively beaten by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in recent races, is determined not to enter “a negative bubble” brought on by worrying about his Formula One world title hopes. And one of the most enduring chess records, Sergey Karjakin as the youngest grandmaster ever at 12 years seven months, has finally been broken by Abhimanyu Mishra.
Business
The former head of the consumer competition watchdog has said the opportunities for shoppers to get “ripped off” are growing in today’s huge online marketplaces. Part of the problem is that many have never heard of the Competition and Markets Authority, so it’s not much of a deterrent, said Andrew Tyrie. In Paris, 130 countries and jurisdictions have agreed to plans for a global minimum corporate tax rate to make multinationals pay a faire share. Holdouts include Ireland, Hungary and Estonia.
The pound is buying €1.162 and $1.376.
The papers
The unveiling of Diana’s statue takes up plenty of space on today’s front pages – you can read Jonathan Jones’s take on its artistic merits (or otherwise) here. The Mail injects division into the event, between princes Harry and William (“Together … but still so far apart”), while the Mirror opts for a moment of unity “We miss mum every day”. The Sun has its fun with an upbeat tone, choosing a picture of the brothers smiling and the headline “Princess and the peace”. Metro has simply: “Reunited … for Diana.”
The Guardian leads with the extraordinary heatwave in North America underneath a picture of a blaze in California. “Nowhere is safe: warning on escalating climate crisis” is the headline.
The Express gives most of the page to an image of the Diana statue but the splash is on Covid, and whether some restrictions will last past 19 July. “PM’s warning on ‘final furlong’” is the head. The i notes that too, but also the hope of more travel for those fully vaccinated. The Telegraph keeps the pressure up on its campaign to ease Covid restrictions at schools, saying Boris Johnson is awaiting the results of a pilot scheme first. “PM asks for patience as crisis in schools grows” is the headline.
The FT splashes on the historic talks in Paris where 130 countries sign up to a global minimum corporate tax rate. Our report on that here.
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