I’m not writing my usual blog today but here, as an alternative, is the Politics Live readers’ edition. It is a place for you to discuss today’s politics, and to share links to breaking news and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web.
Feel free to express your views robustly, but please treat others with respect and don’t resort to abuse. Guardian comment pages are supposed to be a haven from the Twitter/social media rant-orama, not an extension of it.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
And here are some of the main ones on our site this morning.
- Jeremy Corbyn has sacked three Labour frontbenchers who voted against the party in favour of a Queen’s speech amendment calling for Britain to remain within the customs union and single market.
- A decades-long struggle to give Northern Irish women access to terminations on the NHS in mainland Britain was unexpectedly won in the space of 24 hours on Thursday, as the UK government dramatically changed its policy in an attempt to head off a damaging Tory rebellion on the Queen’s speech.
- The Scottish government has promised to unilaterally lift the cap on public sector pay in the face of threats by nurses to go on strike. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said the devolved Holyrood government would abandon the UK-wide pay deal that has restricted annual pay rises for about 500,000 staff, including nurses and firefighters, to 1%.
- A judge has ordered a London council to lift a ban on the media reporting on the first meeting of councillors to discuss the Grenfell Tower disaster, after a legal challenge by the Guardian and other media groups.
- George Osborne came within weeks of announcing plans to take 1p and 2p pieces out of circulation but was stopped by David Cameron who feared the symbolism of the Conservative party scrapping the penny, the Guardian has been told.
On Thursday nights local council byelections normally take place. There were four last night. Britain Elects has three of the results.
Four council by-elections today: two Labour defences, one Conservative and one Lib Dem. @AndrewTeale's previews: https://t.co/sB47GgLt27 pic.twitter.com/oJECfONqkD
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 29, 2017
Labour HOLD William Morris (Waltham Forest).
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 29, 2017
William Morris (Waltham Forest) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 29, 2017
LAB 68.4% (+11.5)
GRN 18.6% (+1.8)
CON 13.0% (+6.2)
LDEM NA (-7.4)
TUSC NA (-4.3)
UKIP NA (-7.8)
Hedge End Grange Park (Eastleigh):
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 29, 2017
LDEM 56.5% (+15.5)
CON 26.7% (-10.9)
LAB 12.2% (+0.9)
GRN 3.5% (+3.5)
UKIP 1.2% (-9.0)
+/- corrected
Council by-elections update:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 30, 2017
Labour HOLD Dawdon (Durham).
Our West Lancashire GAIN Derby ward (West Lancashire) from Conservative
(Our West Lancashire is a party, not a typo.)
