Politics

Watch the moment a GB News star furiously slapped down a Labour MP after she insisted Sir Keir Starmer’s integrity was still intact – despite boiling backlash over the Lord Mandelson scandal.Joining GB News this morning, the MP for Hyndburn discussed the impact of the blazing fiasco dividing up her party between staunch defendants of the PM and those calling for a new leader.On the People’s Channel, Ms Smith insisted Sir Keir should not resign, breaking from the ranks of many of her fellow MPs who have demanded the resignation of either their party boss or his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney.But earlier this week, a Welsh Labour MP told the BBC: “Starmer has to go – do the decent thing. Angela Rayner is probably leading a revolt but she is not the solution.” TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say So far, John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Nadia Whittome and Neil Duncan-Jordan are leading the charge, explicitly calling for Sir Keir to step down.The former Deputy Prime Minister is rumoured to be ramping up a leadership bid while many accuse Sir Keir and his top team of circling the drain in Downing Street.The MP added: “I think other stories that are circulating are incredibly unhelpful. We’ve got to be really, really clear in terms of care and his leadership and what led him to take this decision.”But fundamentally, what’s important here is that Keir has apologised. I don’t think there’ll be many people more angry than him with how Manderson has conducted himself.”She further said journalists were “desperate” to find those looking to oppose Sir Keir, saying: “That’s just not what I’ve heard.”On GB News, the Hyndburn MP hit out at Lord Mandelson’s “fundamental betrayal of the party and country” adding his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “abhorrent beyond words”. But when the MP tried to shift the focus onto other matters of the day because she no longer wanted to discussed the scandal swallowing up her party, Anne Diamond unleashed a furious rant before Ms Smith.The GB News presenter interjected: “But it’s your leader. Excuse me.LABOUR LATEST:Keir Starmer told to ramp up attacks on Reform rather than ‘collaborative’ rival as PM left on brinkLabour’s petrol and diesel ban ‘out of step with reality’ as electric car market shows strainAngela Rayner told Keir Starmer ‘not to appoint Lord Mandelson’, allies claim”It is your leader and the Prime Minister who created this crisis by appointing Peter Mandelson, when everybody else seemed to know he was a dodgy character and shouldn’t have been appointed.”You can’t blame journalists. You can’t blame the press. You can’t blame people wanting to talk about this now because we want to know why Lord Mandelson was appointed.Ms Smith pointed out: “But I think what’s really interesting is that you weren’t pushing this degree of the story when he was appointed.”The information that was available was far more limited at that time. And the Tories, the Conservatives, the Opposition are exactly the same in their sort of propositions now.”Where were they shouting so loudly about the clarity of this case when the appointment was made? The truth is, everybody makes an error of judgement.”She continued: “What I know at this point and what I know of Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, is that he took on this job of turning our country around when everything we looked at was in dire, dire straits, whether it was the NHS, the state of our roads.”That is not what I hear time and time again when I’m speaking to my constituency. I’ve had people write to me in support of Keir in recent days who also feel that what the country really needs is stability.”We got into this habit of new Prime Minister after new Prime Minister because we had utter chaos.”Ms Smith then pivoted to share sympathy for MPs who became politicians because they care for their communities.She told Stephen and Anne: “We want to make a difference to our country, and we believe that we can make things better.”Then we get tarnished by this same brush, by these types of stories, because our political system and the challenges of the current context far too often drive the wrong type of people to seek that leadership.”But do I think Keir Starmer is aligned with the likes of Boris Johnson or Liz Truss or Nigel Farage? No, I do not.”And I do not think many people doubt his integrity, the type of leadership he offers and why he came into this job.”Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter

London and the South-East now shoulder 45 per cent of Britain’s total income tax burden, contributing £240.7billion of receipts nationally, it has been revealed.One of the most notable findings shows the London borough of Wandsworth alone paid £4.26billion in income tax during the 2022-2023 tax year.This single borough contributed more than the combined total of Leeds and Birmingham – two of Britain’s largest cities – which together paid £4.23billion.Accountancy firm HY Hacker Young ’s research highlights major regional differences in how income tax contributions are distributed across the UK. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say London on its own now accounts for 26.5 per cent of all income tax collected across the UK, according to the research findings.All of the top 20 areas ranked by highest tax paid per person are located in either London or the South-East.Income tax receipts generated in London have increased significantly over the past decade, rising 80.7 per cent from £35.3billion to £63.8billion.Across the rest of the UK, income tax receipts increased by 48.4 per cent over the same period.Several tax policy changes have contributed to the widening gap between London, the South-East and other regions.In April 2023, the Government lowered the additional rate tax threshold from £150,000 to £125,140, moving more taxpayers into the 45 per cent band.At the same time, personal allowances and higher rate thresholds have remained frozen for several years.This process, often referred to as fiscal drag, increases the number of taxpayers paying higher rates of tax as wages rise over time.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSRachel Reeves’s record 7.9% public sector wages rises led to flat productivity growthState pensioners born in these years can cut their TV licence bill to £0Households issued £300 to spend on food shop in latest cost of living support packageThe South-East has remained one of the largest contributors to Treasury income tax revenues throughout the past 10 years.Neela Chauhan, partner at UHY Hacker Young, said: “London and the South-East now account for almost half of the UK’s entire income tax take.”She added: “Obviously, that reflects the sheer concentration of high earners in the South-East but it also reflects years of tax policy geared towards shifting more of the tax burden onto higher earners.”The regional differences extend beyond central London and the capital’s highest earning areas.Hackney contributed £1.54billion in income tax, according to the research.This total exceeded the City of Glasgow’s total income tax contribution of £1.35billion.Ms Chauhan said: “Freezing allowances and reducing the additional rate threshold has pulled ever more taxpayers into higher bands, driving a sharp rise in revenues from London in particular up more than 80 per cent over the past decade.”While this underlines how dependent the Exchequer has become on London and the South-East, it also raises concerns about the long term competitiveness of the UK tax system and the risk that persistently higher tax burdens could push some high earners to relocate abroad or reduce their economic activity.”Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is happening and that the shift of taxes onto the higher earners has got to the point that it is detrimental for the UK economy.” Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter

Keir Starmer was “too slow” to address the Lord Mandelson scandal and Labour “must clean up or pay a heavy price”, Gordon Brown has warned. The former Prime Minister’s rare intervention comes as the peer was placed under investigation for his links to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Among the accusations are that Lord Mandelson leaked market-sensitive No10 documents to Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis, while serving as Buisness Secretary in Mr Brown’s cabinet. On Friday night, police raided Lord Mandelson’s homes in Camden and Wiltshire as part of an inquiry into alleged misconduct in public office. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say Mr Brown admitted he regretted appointing Lord Mandelson in 2008, describing the alleged leaking of commercially sensitive material as “a betrayal of everything we stand for as a country” and “a financial crime”. He said: “I have to take personal responsibility for appointing Mandelson to his ministerial role in 2008. I greatly regret this appointment.”While insisting Sir Keir is “a man of integrity” who “wants to do the right things”, Mr Brown suggested he had acted too slowly in the matter.“Perhaps he’s been too slow to do the right thing. But he must do the right things now,” he said, urging the Prime Minister to act decisively. Mr Brown did provide some comfort for the embattled Sir Keir, defending his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.“Keir Starmer was misled, and he was betrayed. “There is a systematic failure to do proper vetting,” he wrote in The Guardian, demanding sweeping reforms. The former Prime Minister called for an anti-corruption tsar and a ban on most second jobs for MPs, warning: “There has been a system failure and we’ve got to rectify it.”LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:Britain sends fighter jets to RAF bases in Cyprus amid fears of US attack on IranFormer Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman dies aged 72 following cancer battleKeir Starmer told to ramp up attacks on Reform rather than ‘collaborative’ rival as PM left on brinkThe Metropolitan Police formally launched its criminal investigation into allegations about Lord Mandelson on February 3.On Friday, officers were spotted outside his £7.6million Regent’s Park property. A second search took place at another property connected to Lord Mandelson in Wiltshire.On Saturday morning, Scotland Yard confirmed its investigation into Lord Mandelson will be “complex” and require “a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis” following the raids.Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team have carried out searches at two addresses, one in the Wiltshire area, and another in the Camden area. “The searches were related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man.“He has not been arrested, and enquiries are ongoing. This will be a complex investigation requiring a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis. “It will take some time to do this work comprehensively, and we will not be providing a running commentary.”Sir Keir, who accused his one-time ally of being a “liar” and accusing him of “betrayal” earlier this week, is under increasing pressure after appointing Lord Mandelson as the UK’s Ambassador to the US.He was forced to sack the peer from the role in September last year following fresh revelations about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein.Speaking in Hastings on Thursday, the Prime Minister said: “The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us could barely comprehend, and they have to relive it again and again. “They have seen accountability delayed and too often denied to them.“I want to say this. I am sorry–sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed, sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him, and sorry that even now you’re forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.”Lord Mandelson has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.He stated: “I was never culpable or complicit in his crime. Like everyone else, I learned the actual truth about him after his death.”The peer said he had “relied on assurances of his innocence that turned out later to be horrendously false”. Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter

Peter Mandelson committed a “betrayal of his country” by allegedly leaking government secrets to Jeffrey Epstein and putting Britain “at risk”, former prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

“You made a sex tape?!”Susannah turned to her husband, Ron, mouth agape. He looked down, his cheeks reddening. “It was right after college. I was experimenting,” he mumbled, twisting in his seat. “No big deal.”As a couples therapist, I am always looking for how to mend the frayed edges of a relationship, but Susannah and Ron were different: they had come to my office to end their marriage. I practice what I call breakup therapy — a short-term treatment I developed for couples who want to end their relationships without bitterness. The premise is counterintuitive: instead of looking forward toward separate futures, we look backward at the relationship itself. It’s structured to look at the beginning, middle and end of their time together with exercises that focus on both their gratitude as well as their resentment. The work culminates with the couple crafting a shared narrative about their union and literally writing it down – a story of what worked and ultimately what did not. Then, I ask them to sign it. In this way, they resolve the many unanswered, and often unasked, questions that can trap couples in recriminations and keep them from moving on. The idea was born from my own bitter divorce. After my split, I was plagued by questions that repeated on an endless loop in my brain: “What was I thinking?”; “Why didn’t I see that red flag?”; “What is wrong with me – I’m a therapist and I should have seen what was happening.” Then, one day, my therapist asked me a different question: who was I when I decided to marry? Suddenly, my internal feedback loop stopped.  “You’re asking me who I was, not why I married him?” I said, skeptically. “Yes, I am,” she answered. “Marriages can be as much about identity as they are about a union. What were you trying to solve — or avoid — by marrying him?”The question unlocked something for me. I’d been full of anger at myself, but I hadn’t really taken responsibility for my own actions. With her help, I crafted a story that I could hold onto about what function the marriage had served for me. Truly owning my choices helped me have more compassion for myself and less anger. The most startling realisation? When I had created a story that hung together, the nagging questions ended for good.I have seen this same process unfold for many couples. But often, in the course of these sessions, new things surface.“Susannah?” I said, surprised to hear the hurt in her voice. “This feels like a big deal for you. Why is that?”Ron and Susannah had not been the most willing subjects for breakup therapy. During our first session, Ron blurted out: “You’re like a medical examiner doing autopsies on dead relationships! Your scalpel hurts. I don’t think you know what it feels like to be humiliated.” “I wouldn’t be so sure,” I answered softly. “I have a teenager.”Ron was not mollified.  “This feels stupid,” he said on another occasion. “She’s done, I accept that. What is there to say? This feels like horseshit.”“See what I’m working with here?” Susannah said, throwing up her hands and shifting away from Ron on the couch. “I knew he wouldn’t take this seriously.”“No, he’s right,” I said. “If it’s really true that you fully accept and understand her decision, Ron, then this is horseshit. But is that true?”His silence was all the answer I needed. Over the next few sessions, we went over how they’d fallen in love (“It just made sense, we fit”); the birth of their three children (“The unit held us together”); the unraveling of their connection (“We were ships in the night for as long as I can remember, but then one day I woke up and just wanted more from life”). We mapped the patterns their marriage had fallen into over the course of three houses, two cross-country moves and their children’s exodus from home. It was a saga spanning decades. Then, in our fourth session, Ron mentioned the sex tape.“Something about this is landing hard on you,” I said to Susannah, her mouth still ajar. “Why?”“Yeah, why?” Ron echoed. Susannah paused and looked out the window. “It’s that you … you tried something that – I don’t know – was out there … bold and different.” A tear welled in a corner of her eye.  “It’s not you. You’re not brave! Or, at least you haven’t been with me, not in all these years together.” Then she began to cry. Ron and I looked at one another.“Susannah?” Instantly, I regretted breaking the silence. “All this time, I decided you just couldn’t try new things,” she managed after a while. “I gave up.”Ron put up his palms. “What is happening?” he said, exasperated. “But if you can do that …” she continued. “What was it? Did I just not ask? Did I build my life around a lie?” She looked lost. “Was it that you never really loved me enough?” She turned back to Ron and banged her fist on the couch.  “I did ask! I asked you to look at porn together when we stopped having sex, to take classes with me, to go on that whale-watching tour. … You just ignored me!”This time, I held my tongue. “Is that a thing?” she went on, turning to me. “That you can reach the end of a relationship and not even have known what was possible?”“I made that tape 30 years ago,” Ron blurted out. “She’s upset over something I did when I was a totally different person!”This was the impasse that I had expected, that arrives in most of my breakup therapy work – the moment when two people realise that as well as they think they know each other, there are things they don’t know or have lost track of. It’s my job to help them hold that bitter realisation. Then it’s my job to help them arrive at forgiveness or some kind of reconciliation – if not with each other, then with what happened to them.“It was 30 years ago, Ron,” I said. “But you aren’t a different person. You’re the same person, and she’s wondering why you couldn’t have been that with her.”I turned to Susannah and said, “You have a right to be hurt, but were you truly honest with him? Did you give him the space and the safety and the encouragement to be that person? Do you think you both can forgive each other for what you weren’t?”It was three weeks before they appeared again in my office, having canceled two sessions in between appointments.“I was stirred and moved by what happened here last time,” Susannah began. “When we left, I thought: Maybe there’s enough left between us?”Ron’s eyes were downcast. “But I realised I can’t,” she said. “I just can’t open up that part of me with him anymore. I want … I need this divorce.”I nodded. “Ron? How do you feel?”“I can see where we are … I’m not fighting it.” His voice broke. “I’m just really sad.”Often it requires some kind of shock to break through the built-up layers of anger, resentment and disappointment in a couple in order to illuminate the cracks in their relationship – something true that has been avoided or left unsaid. In this case, it was the surprise of an ancient transgressive act that lay bare how little they knew each other and how misaligned they’d become. Susannah moved closer to Ron on the couch and laced her fingers with his. “You guys seem calmer – closer. Tell me what you are feeling,” I said.I knew something about that calm after the storm. After my own divorce, we had maintained an uneasy truce for years, until one long car ride after dropping our daughter at camp. As we rode in silence, I suddenly remembered my therapist’s question: Who was I when I decided to get married? For the next two hours, we talked over that question and everything else, and together realised how lonely we had been — two Israelis who, instead of understanding why we had both chosen to leave, had clung to each other and to a shared language. Before long, we were laughing as we had not laughed since the early days of our marriage.   “So, where do we go from here?” Ron asked me in their last session.“Well, in my experience, when a marriage ends, a different relationship can sometimes be created,” I said. “That’s up to you guys. All endings are sad, but not all endings have to leave you broken. There’s an opportunity here to get to know each other in a different way. And …” I leaned forward to make eye contact with each of them “… to know yourselves better.”After they left, I sat quietly in my chair for a while. I allowed myself to remember that moment in my therapist’s office when I realised that I had been using my marriage to escape a question I had been avoiding and what a relief it had been to finally face it. When a sex tape from decades ago unlocks two people’s grief, it’s not so much about the end of the road as it is about the roads never taken – the versions of a marriage they never tried. It is a sad moment, but also a generative one. They’d come to me to bury their marriage. What they found instead was a way to know each other – maybe for the first time in years – even as they said goodbye.Note: Names and some details have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals appearing in this essay.Sarah Gundle, Psy.D., is a psychologist in private practice and an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center. She is currently writing a book about breakups. You can find her on Instagram @dear_dr_sarah.Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@huffpost.com.Related…AI Wedding Vows Have Already Made A Marriage InvalidI Never Thought I’d Marry Someone 28 Years Older Than Me. Here’s Why It’s My Best Relationship Ever.Family Law Expert Explains The Rise In ‘Curveball Divorces’