Controversial pro-assisted suicide pressure group Dignity in Dying has admitted it is applying heavy pressure on MPs successful in yesterday’s Private Members Bill ballot to bring back assisted suicide legislation in this session. A fundraising pitch says “we must do everything we can to make sure one of them chooses the assisted dying Bill” and “our team is working urgently… to convince the selected MPs”…
A spokesperson for a small charity who lobbied MPs to bring a PMB on an unrelated issue in the past told Guido:
“MPs near the top of the ballot have a choice: give in to the pressure of a controversial but powerful multi-million pound lobbying machine and hand over their Bill to them, or allow a small, perhaps local, cause who have no voice and who’d normally have no chance to change the law to bring forward a proposal that everyone can get behind.”
Labour MPs Lauren Edwards & Lib Dem MP Andrew George are the names rumoured to be coming under most pressure to bring back Kim Leadbeater’s Bill. Tories selected in the ballot have already set their face against another crack at it, will Labour and Lib Dems cave to wealthy lobbyists?
Last month Guido related how yet another Foreign Office mission to Mauritius – seeking to revive the dead Starmer giveaway – was forced on the British taxpayer. Officials lived it up in sunny Port Louis, lovely work if you can get it…
Now exactly four weeks on from the beginning of those in-person negotiations Guido is told by well-placed sources that the process remains in a “total stalemate” – and crucially, the White House remains resolute in its opposition. The Mauritius government is furious that the deal was frustrated, the Deputy Prime Minister since resigned, and the bilateral dialogue has become nothing more than a “talking shop”…
With the Diego Garcia Bill left out of the King’s Speech there is no prospect of a concerted effort to revive the deal in this session, as it stands. The summer we saved Chagos is finally here…
Per senior US sources, the Americans see no benefit in reopening their own position while the Labour leadership is in flux at the very least. Starmer positioned himself as a master international dealmaker, Guido had other plans…
Every month, we’ll publish the power rankings of all the leading lights in the party based on our readers’ responses. Click here to fill in the survey, and the results will be published at the end of the month. Dan Thomas and Malcolm Offord have been added to the roster. Here’s how last month played out…
We’re offering £10 off your Guido membership once you complete it. If you’re not a Guido member yet, that’s a whole month as a Co-Conspirator for free. You’ll get instant access to all our exclusive content, including Labour Wars and The Right Angle…
The UK’s private security regulator has filled barely a quarter of the staff it needs to enforce new a anti-terror security law, even as its existing licensing operation buckles under rising backlogs, longer processing times, and a complaint uphold rate approaching 50%.
Martyn’s Law will require premises and events to assess terrorism risks and put protective measures in place, with the SIA acting as regulator for the new regime. The government has not yet confirmed a commencement date but has said there will be an implementation period of at least 24 months, from 3 April 2025, before the Act comes into force. Significant extra work will have to be done by businesses according to how many people they host…
Documents uncovered by Guido’s FOI Unit show that the Security Industry Authority has created 183 posts for it’s Martyn’s Law function but has so far only filled 45. Only three positions are currently advertised, and three more are at sift/interview stage. 132 roles haven’t even been posted yet…
The two biggest operational teams are also mostly empty. Inspections and Enforcement has 44 planned posts but has hired one person. Notifications and Assessment Casework – the team that will actually process cases under the new regime – has 43 posts and has also hired one. Total recruitment spend to date has been £85,000…
The SIA insists there is no risk to delivery and recruitment is staggered over five years. Its own performance data shows that average application processing times hit 19 working days in Q1 2026-27 which is the highest since records in this dataset began in 2022. Monthly complaints about processing delays, which had fallen to around 10 per month in mid-2025, jumped back to 20 in January and February 2026. The backlog of applications in progress climbed to 16,725 in March 2026, up from around 12,950 three months earlier…
The SIA’s own annual complaints board paper shows the complaint uphold rate rose from 40% in 2023-24 to 49% in 2024-25, meaning the regulator was at fault in almost half of all complaints. Upheld complaints against several internal teams have also surged year-on-year which the SIA says “warrants further investigation.” The regulator has been trying to procure quality monitoring software to help identify the causes of errors. This was first flagged in 2023-24 and is still not operational. The latest report says they are “looking at our options”…
A quango that is struggling to process its current workload without rising delays and a near-50% error rate is gearing up to process a huge number of applications from businesses in a year with three-quarters of the requisite posts not even advertised. What could go wrong?
Guido hears advisers of Andy Burnham are recommending the mayor calls a pretty immediate general election if he enters office later this year. The country could go to the polls before Christmas…
A source with knowledge of the discussions said: “It’s an active conversation.” In case people thought it was all Makerfield…
Guido speculated on the possibility last week. The Burnham Bounce won’t last for long – is the country ready for the LibDems to enter government again?
Burnham will likely feel the need to shed the 2024 manifesto at some point during any premiership. Some advising him are saying – the earlier the better…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”
