That is from Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, on the potholes bulletins. (See 9.53am.)
NEW: Transport secretary has introduced £1.6bn for councils to restore roads and repair an additional 7 million potholes subsequent 12 months.
That is the Morgan McSweeney type of presidency: ship small materials modifications that public will discover. Similar tactic he deployed in Barking to tackle BNP.
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Starmer urges councils to ‘get on with job’ of fixing potholes as DfT boosts their price range for repairs by virtually 50%
Keir Starmer has urged councils to “get on with the job” of fixing pothole-plagued roads. The prime minister made the assertion as a part of a authorities announcement about councils in England getting virtually £1.6m subsequent 12 months to restore potholes – sufficient to fill in 7m additional ones, it claims.
In its information launch the Division for Transport mentioned:
In a Christmas enhance for drivers, the landmark funding – a rise of almost 50% on native street upkeep funding from final 12 months – goes nicely past the federal government’s manifesto pledge and is sufficient to repair the equal of over 7 million additional potholes in 2025 to 2026 …
The federal government is at this time saying how a lot every native authority is being allotted. Every native authority can use its share of the £1.6 billion for 2025 to 2026 to establish which of their roads are in most want of restore and to ship instant fixes for communities and lift residing requirements throughout each space of the nation.
And Starmer mentioned:
By way of our Plan for Change we’re decided to place extra money again into the pockets of hardworking individuals and enhance residing requirements. That’s why we’re giving councils funding to restore our roads and get Britain transferring once more – with a transparent expectation that they get on with the job.
Simon Williams, head of coverage on the RAC, mentioned:
That is the largest one-off street upkeep funding settlement councils in England have ever been given. So we’ve got excessive hopes it’s the turning level that ends the degradation of our roads and eventually delivers fit-for-purpose, clean surfaces for drivers and all different street customers.
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Diplomats welcome Peter Mandelson’s anticipated appointment as subsequent ambassador to US
Good morning. “I’m reliably informed that I will not be brought back,” Peter Mandelson instructed a podcast in June, when requested whether or not he would possibly get a job in a Keir Starmer administration after the election which was then solely a few week away. “That has been made absolutely clear. They don’t want any big beasts coming back to mark anyone’s homework.”
Let’s hope that in his new job the intelligence he gathers about what’s going on in Donald Trump’s administration seems to slightly bit extra correct.
The information has not been formally confirmed but, however the story that Mandelson would be the subsequent ambassador to the US has been green-lighted by the federal government spin machine and right here is our in a single day model, by Donna Ferguson.
Prime ministers who need to take care of a US president they don’t notably like have two choices: “hug ‘em close”, or “long spoon”. Harold Wilson was within the lengthy spoon class, however extra just lately “hug ‘em close” has been the choice most well-liked by Tory and Labour leaders and and we’ve got already seen Keir Starmer adopting this method with some gusto. The Mandelson appointment is simply an escalation of this. Steven Swinford from the Occasions broke the information about Mandelson final evening and in his story he studies:
One supply mentioned that Starmer’s resolution to make a political appointment mirrored how critically he takes the UK’s relationship with the US, including that Mandelson is a “significant figure in his own right”.
So that’s one motive for the appointment. One other is that he would possibly develop into excellent at it; even his opponents admit that he’s expert political operator, and as a former EU commerce commissioner he’s an skilled within the one problem that can dominate UK-EU relations within the Trump period. And if anybody in Labour politics is prone to set up good private relationships with the Trump staff, it is perhaps him; he’s snug round rightwingers and plutocrats – though when he made his well-known remark in 1998 about being “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”, offered they paid their taxes, he most likely by no means imagined a world during which anybody may very well be value $400bn – the quantity Trump’s pal Elon Musk has gathered.
However opinion is split concerning the appointment. Sir Simon Fraser, a former everlasting secretary on the International Workplace, labored with Mandelson on the enterprise division, the place he was everlasting secretary and Mandelson was enterprise secretary, and earlier than that on the European fee. On the At present programme this morning Fraser mentioned Mandelson was the appropriate man for the job. He defined:
He’s an enormous political hitter, nicely linked in our authorities, and I feel that’s what we want with the Trump administration.
He’s very taken with worldwide affairs and international coverage. And by the way in which, he’s nicely linked in America.
And he has carried out actually troublesome commerce negotiations with the Individuals, once we had been working collectively on the EU, in order that’s all crucial.
However there are two different issues. He additionally is aware of the China coverage agenda very nicely. That’s going to be actually essential for the Trump administration.
And, lastly, Peter Mandelson is, after all, pro-European. He helps a greater relationship between the UK and the EU. And balancing the EU relationship the US relationship goes to be the largest strategic international coverage problem.
So, should you put all that collectively, he’s fairly nicely positioned for the job.
One other former diplomat who has welcomed the appointment is Lord Darroch, who was himself ambassador to Washington throughout the first Trump administration. In an interview on Newsnight final evening, he mentioned, with some Trump allies pondering Starmer runs a leftwing authorities, Mandelson was “exactly the man to persuade them that this is completely wrong”.
“There is something of an issue with the government’s reputation… I think Peter Mandelson is exactly the man to persuade them that this is completely wrong.”
Former US ambassador Lord Darroch says Peter Mandelson may enhance Britain’s picture in Washington.
#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/mXgmQmUicw
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) December 19, 2024
However Mandelson’s previous enemies on the Labour left could also be much less complimentary. John McDonnell, shadow chancellor beneath Jeremy Corbyn, posted a message on social media saying this was a nasty appointment. (McDonnell is at present suspended from the parliamentary Labour occasion over a insurgent vote.)
For a lot of causes related to Peter Mandelson’s historical past out and in of political workplace many will really feel KeIr has misplaced all sense of political judgement on this resolution.
We predict the appointment to be confirmed later at this time. And we’re additionally anticipating a big batch of recent friends to be introduced. However in any other case it appears to be like quiet; the Christmas parliamentary recess has began, and there’s just about nothing within the diary.
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Up to date at 09.53 GMT
