front page of the observer what‘s keir starmer saying?y agree with what keir starmer is saying. he saying that the chaos that is and develop the government in the past two weeks over the eight levels in the gcs ease has set them back to weeks in preparation time for schools to reopen in september. i remember there was a phrase used to describe one of george osborne budgets a few yea rs one of george osborne budgets a few years ago and it was on the shambles. i think that very well sums up the way williamson has handled this crisis. if i were to mark him as a teacher i give him enough. i think it‘s been highly destructive, it‘s just damage the life chances of a whole generation of youngsters for them i‘m very angry about it. i know they did learn and they went with the teacher‘s predictions instead but the universities are overwhelmed with applicants and it is a complete fiasco. whether they can turn things around quickly enough to get the kids ready for school in less than a week, in some cases, i don‘t know. i really hope that they do bu

the observer, and the labour leader keir starmer says the chaos around exam results has put plans to serious risk. meanwhile the telegraph says the prime minister has told allies that failing to reopen schools is not an option — it also includes a photo of borisjohnson and carrie symonds on holiday in scotland with their son wilfred. the return to school also dominates the mail on sunday's front page and that the uk's chief medical officers have ruled that it is safe for children to go back to school next month. the independent reports that care homes were put under pressure to accept patients with coronavirus during the peak of the pandemic. it also has a photo of emergency services in california, who are battling to keep dozens of wildfires under control. 0n the front page of the sunday times, reports that the education secretary gavin williamson was on holiday the week before the a—level exams fiasco — with sources saying he cancelled a crucial meeting to go. and in the sunday mirror, "harry's £90k get out ofjail card" — the paper reports that the manchester united captain can buy

but sir keir starmer was unhappy so he raised the figures again.ast week i asked about two claims about child poverty. he said absolute child poverty and relative child poverty both declined under this government. on monday, the office of the children's commissioner ruled that the prime minister's answer was mostly false. he has been found out. he either dodges the question or he gives dodgy answers. 500,000 children falling below thresholds of low income and material deprivation, this government, as he knows, is increasing universal credit. £7 billion more to help the poor and neediest families in our country. boris johnson reckoned it was the labour leader who kept changing his mind. away from westminster after a three—year deadlock, the devolved government was finally restored to northern ireland. stormont‘s power—sharing coalition led by the dup and sinn fein collapsed in january 2017, initially over a green energy i’ow. a deal was brokered byjulian smith and the irish foreign minister. it was a short lived victory and five weeks later he was f

sir keir starmer, a senior lawyer in a past life, had been elected leader of the opposition. time each week you challenge the prime minister over his handling of the pandemic, here over plans to track and trace those with the virus. the prime minister wrist making mistakes he made at the beginning of the pandemic, brushing aside challenge, dashing forward, not estimating properly the risks. if two—thirds of those with covid—19 are not being contacted, that is a big problem. yesterday the right honourable gentleman was kind enough, actually, to say that he supported our policy and supported our programme. i seem to remember him saying that loud and clear, yesterday. today, as i say, i understand the constraints of the profession in which he used to work, i know how it works, today he appears to be your going back into a position of opposition. which is it? is he supporting what we're doing or is he against it? i do support the next stage of the operation, but the prime minister is wrong to reject challenge. 65,000 people have lost their lives because of covid—19. the prime min

, said keir starmer, has just tweeted about the incident.fer our support. all allegations of racial profiling must be taken seriously by the metropolitan police. it is imperative the black community has confidence and trust in our police. this must be condemned. the continuing fallout to that incident. the mp said institutional racism is not about saying every single police officer is racist. when you see black people ina carand is racist. when you see black people in a car and you automatically assume they are criminals, there is assume they are criminals, there is a problem. that is why you have to address the system that is currently biased against black people. boris johnson has said the police should treat people with fairness and equality. two more ministers have resigned equality. following the explosion in beirut which killed more than 200 people and injured more than 7,000 last week. thejustice minister marie—claude najm and the finance minister ghazi wazni are the third and fourth government ministers to resign. the announcement ca

by the time borisjohnson returned to work, he had a new opponent — sir keir starmer, a senior lawyerleader of the opposition. at question time each week, he challenged the prime minister over his handling of the pandemic, here over plans to track and trace those with the virus. the prime minister risks making mistakes he made at the beginning of the pandemic, brushing aside challenge, dashing forward, not estimating properly the risks. if two thirds of those with covid—i9 are not being contacted, that is a big problem. yesterday, the right honourable gentleman was kind enough, actually, to say that he supported our policy and supported our programme. i seem to remember him saying that loud and clear yesterday. today — today, as i say — i understand the constraints of the profession in which he used to work — i know how it works — today, he appears to be going back into a position of opposition. which is it? is he supporting what we're doing, or is he against it? i do support the next stage of the operation but the prime minister is wrong to reject challenge. 65,000 people have lost t

but the newspaper's lead story is a warning from the uk labour leader, sir keir starmer, about a "long unless virus testing is improved. the daily mail leads with a warning from doctors, who say the lockdown has taken a huge toll on britain's wider health. the daily mirror reports that three teenagers jailed for killing a police officer, pc andrew harper, in berkshire will have their sentences reviewed after claims they are too lenient. they were found guilty of manslaughter. the children's commissioner says pubs and shops should be shut, to reopen schools, if a trade—off is required. that's according to the telegraph. following up on chris whitty‘s comments a few days ago. and, the times says the bbc is facing a growing revolt over the end of free tv licences for most over—75s. so, let's begin. should be kicked off this time with the daily mail, olivia? the real cost of the lockdown, familiar story, picking on another survey of senior doctors. any new startling statistics? i don't think we have heard that much yet about how people with heart problems have been affected. we have heard

stay with the observer, ros, johnson faces tory ruff as party slumps in shock poll, is this the keir starmer labour making some gains? i guess it is about time that there was some reaction. usually in there was some reaction. usually in the polls during the early stage of any government and also, you know, there has been such an enormous lead for the tories for so long, and we have had this major, major crisis, i think that the shock, really, was that it took so long for the polls to register and for labour to re cover to register and for labour to recover from what was the most dreadful election outcome. but clearly a number of tories are extraordinarily concerned about an apparent loss of directional loss of control at the top levels of government and decisions that seem to be made one day and then unmade the next day, and no clear directional longer term strategy, or even the idea of how we are going to be moving forward. now, it has been the summer, there has been a pandemic, the prime minister himself has been severely unwell and in hospital, sol has been severely unwell and in hospital

sir keir starmer has called on ministers to reverse plans to end the furlough scheme and to incorporate furlough or support to go on for everyjob forever, what we say one size fits all does not work. different sectors are getting back to normality at different paces, some areas such as hospitality need more support, we cannot let good businesses and jobs go under for want of a bit of flexibility. the pub chain wetherspoons says almost a third of the jobs at its head offices could be cut as it deals with the downturn in the hospitality sector. around a quarter of the 417 people employed in head office roles are at risk, but the chief executive said he is trying to avoid compulsory redundancies and that pub workers will not be affected. aberdeen is back under lockdown restrictions after a spike in coronavirus cases. pu bs, cafes a nd restau ra nts are to remain closed for a week and residents have been told they can't visit each other‘s homes or travel more than five miles from where they live — unless it's for work or education. there are now 79 cases in the area, with more expected in t

of the keir starmer as i did paddling the labor party without the feeling of not this but use of the center ground the politics which decreases the the openings that the liberal democrats would have if the labor party were positioned much further to the left is that a key strategic difficulty in the house should either of the leadership candidates seek to tackle that now i see it as an opportunity rather than as a defeat as i as i explained earlier i think one of the reasons a lot of our putative supporters backed off was because of fear of a hard left labor government and i think if you have a labor leadership which is your let's have a look around you know care sit down there i think 70 comes internet cafe agree that there are parts of the of the country park service of england and of states in scotland where. you know people will go to the lib dems and want to go and where labor are not serious competitors around thinking my own seat you know right now a big jurisich but there are lots of other places around in the south of making and you know the guilt for the winter stirs which

so keir starmer sad is a bare minimum student should be able to appeal themselves rather than througherting to predicted grades that teachers gave should be on the table. i don‘t get the sense the government is ready to do that at all. sources close to gavin williamson pointing out that predicted grades are often very different to the grades of students end up getting in their actual exams and the standardisation model used to adjust grades across england and other nations has now been published, and is therefore all to see. so will the government‘s approach hold up to criticism and pressure? 0r approach hold up to criticism and pressure? or will they be forced to rethink? it‘s just too soon to say the moment. jonathan blake, thank you. what are the questions you‘d like answered about exam grades, appeals, university places or going into the world of work? send them to us. 0n the bbc news channel this afternoon at 2:30pm, we‘ll be putting your questions to the ucas chief executive, clare marchant. use the hashtag bbcyourquestions on social media, or visit bbc.co.uk/news or the bbc new

the labour leader, sir keir starmer, says ministers should follow scotland's lead, and allow teacher'se government maintains that would risk "grade inflation" and insists disadvantaged pupils haven't been disproportionately affected. 0ur education editor, branwenjeffreys, has been speaking to students in the west midlands. at solihull sixth form college, some of the a—level class of 2020 — each with grades lower than expected. aziz fears he's lost his scholarship. scholarship would've helped a lot more, it would've taken quite a lot of stress off. i wouldn't have had to pay out of my own pocket for university, books, resources. victor has lost the uni place he wants. because the two bs that i attained — in my mock exams, i got as both of them. so the college will appeal on my behalf and hopefully change those into as. connie has been accepted by oxford — but with lower grades. i don't feel like teachers have been listened to, and i don't feel like students have been listened to. fundamentally it's not fair because if someone gets downgraded, there's no way to know by statistics that wa

labour eader, sir keir starmer, said the government's response "smacks of incompetence. " this is a completeis was going to be difficult, but it's been weeks or months in the coming, to have an 11th hour decision that's caused widespread chaos amongst teachers i've been speaking to, families and young people, it smacks of incompetence. you just touched on it there, is it something that has come far too late in the day? it is shambolic. it's hours to go before the results. the problem is obvious and it's been sitting there for weeks or months. we now face possibly a0% of young people having their grades change and downgraded possibly and this risks robbing them of theirfuture. should the government now be under pressure to do what's happened in scotland? do they need to back down on this? they need to go much further than they have gone. there has to be a basis for individual young people to be able to appeal against the grading and the idea of using mock results is deeply flawed. talking to teachers today, it's obvious that they expect across the piece that young people will do better in the

there is no doubt the government is feeling the heat, sir keir starmer, opposition leader, said it ise fiasco, backbenchers say the system will not be able to cope with the sheer number of appeals expected to flood in. gcse results have been calculated also using a standardised system so there could be further heartache for teenagers this thursday. but ministers continue to stress, though, is the importance of avoiding grade inflation stop it can't be unfair to this year ‘s stu d e nts can't be unfair to this year ‘s students who may end up with a better set of results compared to next year ‘s a—level and gcse students. another area of public concern is the handling of the pandemic. suggestions the government may be about to change the organisation that in england, at least, is a responsible for it? public health england, the government not denying some newspaper reports this morning a public health england set up in 2013 has quite a large brief, ultimately a nswera ble to has quite a large brief, ultimately answerable to the health secretary. as you say, it has come in for some criti

labour leader keir starmer. and who goes to clearing and so on. and this change will mean universities have to rethink completely. there is one thing missing from, i listen to the 0fqual announcement, i think we must expect from the government very soon and announcement that the cap on recruitment for universities should be lifted. because many of them have filled their places, quite rightly, based on the grades that were published last week. and now they are being asked to take in potentially tens of thousand more stu d e nts potentially tens of thousand more students who have moved back to their centre assessed grades. universities, they are really keen to try to help students and be as accommodating as possible but u nfortu nately accommodating as possible but unfortunately there will be some courses that are just physically full and may have to offer deferrals. i really hope also the government might think about what it can put in place for students who have been forced to defer even though their grades are

no different from your leader, keir starmer?weeks that could have been spent preparing for how things will work. because it won‘t be school as normal and there isa won‘t be school as normal and there is a lot of things that teachers need to put in place. to be fair, i think most schools would have already prepared their return to school prior to the results coming out, in my case, my children are at school in this area and i had that information before the results came out, i‘m not sure how much of a set back that would have been. it is down to these individual schools isn‘t it as to how they manage this. we have to trust schools that they are getting things right for their particular circumstances? yes, schools have done an amazing job. they have done an amazing job in providing online learning and teaching key workers‘ children. they can put the policies in place and like you i have three kids heading back to school, they can put the policies in place, but there is a lot of teacher training and run throughs and planning that s

sir keir starmer warning that boris johnson from labour.told bbc brea kfast secretary kate green has told bbc breakfast they don't go far enough. we need a much more robust appeals process, so individual students can actually appeal if they think their work has been wrongly assessed. we need to understand exactly which students are affected. we haven't even seen the model that has been applied to doing this standardisation yet. what we do know from scotland is that there is a risk that it could be students from more disadvantaged communities who are disproportionately affected. also speaking on the programme this morning, the schools ministerfor england, nick gave, he admitted that the government tracker had seen what had happened in scotland and wanted to make this change. he denied the system to make this change. he denied the syste m ha d to make this change. he denied the system had been fundamentally changed and described it as a safety net for a small number of pupils. our concern was to make sure that, with the best model in the worl

the labour leader, sir keir starmer, says ministers should follow scotland's lead, and allow teacher'sd risk "grade inflation" and insist disadvantaged pupils haven't been disproportionately affected. 0ur education editor, branwenjeffreys, has been speaking to students in the west midlands. at solihull sixth form college, some of the a—level class of 2020 — each with grades lower than expected. aziz fears he's lost his scholarship. scholarship would've helped a lot more, it would've taken quite a lot of stress off. i wouldn't have had to pay out of my own pocket for university, books, resources. victor has lost the uni place he wants. because the two bs that i maintained — in my mock exams, i got as both of them. so the college will appeal on my behalf and hopefully change those into as. connie has been accepted by oxford — but with lower grades. i don't feel like teachers have been listened to, and i don't feel like students have been listened to. fundamentally it's not fair because if someone gets downgraded, there's no way to know by statistics that was the right person — and it mea

leadership would, if necessary, do a pa ct leadership would, if necessary, do a pact with labour under keir starmerld ask you that question and that is the answer you would get me. of course it is your first day, but these are things that people want to know. first of all, i want them to know. first of all, i want them to know what the liberal democrats stand for and what the general election showed in a very clear way is that too many people do not know what we stand for at the moment. so both the listening exercise and making democrats a stronger voice, we can build a party up and that is the first step i want to focus on. i am not thinking about the next general election, i am thinking about making sure people understand who we are and what we are about. the way to do that is first of all to re—engage with the voters and thatis to re—engage with the voters and that is what i will focus on and i will not be distracted. with an 80 seat majority for the conservatives, is that something in the future? what you have done thatjob of listening to the people and building up listening to the people and b

what's here now from the labour leader keir starmer.m has been there for months and the government has not sorted it out. came to the wrong decision last week, refuse to change his mind until today and now there's a huge motive unraveling that must be done. but do not underestimate the stress and anger at this has caused thousands of young people who have seen their futures all over the place over the last few days. let's hear from the mayor of greater manchester — andy burnham — who was former education secretary for labour and was considering mounting a legal challenge to the situation. thanks so much forjoining us here on bbc news. what is your reaction to the news we have heard and the last hour or so about this change?” was once the shadow education secretary, better not to over promote my! we promoted yourself there! it is relief that we finally got justice there! it is relief that we finally gotjustice for there! it is relief that we finally got justice for hundreds there! it is relief that we finally gotjustice for hundreds of t

the labour leader keir starmer, warning last night that boris johnson leader keir starmer, warning lastuture of a whole generation, unless the system was changed. in response to allowing mock exam grades to be taken into consideration for students, labour's shadow education secretary kate green said this morning that the change doesn't go far enough. what we have now got is a system which clearly is not looking fit for purpose. the government itself is clearly acknowledging that by announcing more and more changes to it. that they are now proposing really isn't strong enough. that is why we think that students absolutely need to have a proper, robust appeals process. you do get the feeling that there may be more changes to come, as the comet tries to head off more stu d e nts comet tries to head off more students being dissatisfied with their grades, appealing against them, or worse than that, having to rethink the entire system. gavin williamson admitted no system is perfect, and without students taking exams this year, there will always be those that are dissatisfied with their grades

but keir starmer also said they shouldn't rule out any option, they shouldn't rule out any option, theyd did last week which is to scrap it wholesale and return to teachers grades. labour said nothing should be taken of the table here. kevin williamson of the education secretary said that is not something he is prepared to do and sources close to the education secretary have said this idea of standardisation was put out to consultation, the unions were on board with it at the time and they have also published this algorithm, so have also published this algorithm, so they have shown how they got to these results. they also point to these results. they also point to the fact that a lot of students don't get the results they are often predicted to get but the difference is that for many students, if they got results that were disappointing and they sat the exam, it is easier to a cce pt and they sat the exam, it is easier to accept something didn't go right for you on the day that it was generated by an algorithm. the government said they wanted to make things as right as they possibly cou

the leader of the labor party sir keir starmer said it was critical for the government to get the testingse other things to keep schools open for example pubs and restaurants? the government cannot rule these options out. the chief medical officer said we are at the limits of what can be eased. the government approach is to try do this on a localised basis which we understand because this is not an either or. i understand why the government wants to try a localised approach but fundamentally, our number one priority has to be getting children back into schools safely and if that means taking decisions then we would support the government in those tough decisions. as health secretary, if you were, you would be happy to close pubs and restau ra nts a nd you would be happy to close pubs and restaurants and other businesses in order to have schools open?” restaurants and other businesses in order to have schools open? i would, if that is what was needed. at the moment, we do not know if that is what we need but we do know that the infection rate is rising, the testing and tracing system is no

but if keir starmer comes in and says will actually the government is not competent here and keep thatrip. as i say, that advice is changing. peter cardwell, thank you very much for joining us. schools have started going back across the uk with nearly all due to return within the next couple of weeks. but will it mean a big return to work? research by the bbc shows that out of 50 of the uk's largest companies — from banks to retailers — not a single one plans to have all its staff back full time to the office in the near future. let's get more on this and cross to our business presenter ben thompson in west london. i , ben. a fascinating bit of research this that sane of the businesses that were surveyed by the bbc that they simply do not have plans in place in the near future to get all of those staff back. primarily because they are concerned about how you can do social distancing in an office setting. we know that many offices rely on people gathering together, whether that is meetings or owing to the canteen of the photocopier, although sort of things are much more difficult in thi

keir starmer has made very clear how he feels about what the government has done in terms of the systemcrap it, what do you do instead? well, we believe the only option the government have got now is to go back to the teacher awarded grades because it made such a fiasco. if you look at what has happened in the last 24 hours, a lot of children who have worked incredibly hard have been devastated by a system that's been devastated by a system that's been completely floored and has taken into been completely floored and has ta ken into account been completely floored and has taken into account the school plus my previous history rather than what the child has been able to achieve this year. i think that is devastating. the government have to act quickly. there are a lot of young people out there whose life chances are determined by whether or not they are able to get on and get into the university or onto the course or the apprenticeship scheme they want based on these greats. the government have made an absolute mess of it. they have known for months this was coming down the track. the on