PM’s plan to prevent those under 16 ever being able to buy tobacco should pass due to Labour support, but many of his own MPs could abstain or vote againstLiz Truss has blamed “unelected individuals” in the Department of Health and Social Care for the government’s planned smoking ban, in apparent attack on civil servants such as the chief medical officer for England, Sir Chris Whitty. Ben Quinn has the story here.Good morning. When David Cameron looks back on his premiership, one of the things he did that is most likely to be regarded as a positive achievement – now and in the future – was passing equal marriage legislation. But it only went through with opposition votes, because more than half of Conservative MPs opposed it. Today Rishi Sunak is asking MPs to vote for another piece of legislation which, potentially, could have a transformative effect on life in Britain. And, like Cameron, he is legislating against the grain of opinion in his party. Continue reading…

Exclusive: Rights groups denounce negotiations with Rapid Support Forces, accused of ethnic cleansing and war crimesInside South Sudan’s worsening refugee crisis – in picturesForeign Office officials are holding secret talks with the paramilitary group that has been waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Sudan for the past year.News that the British government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are engaged in clandestine negotiations has prompted warnings that such talks risk legitimising the notorious militia – which continues to commit multiple war crimes – while undermining Britain’s moral credibility in the region. Continue reading…

The former PM’s aides josh that it was good for his morale, and ours. Never mind his wifeHow have we managed without the expression “sunshine at sunset”? As in, when an older married man is granted sex with a much younger colleague and better still, keeps it quiet? So much so that his wife stays on to nurse him through Alzheimer’s disease?We owe this promising euphemism to the former Harold Wilson aide Bernard Donoughue, 89, who appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme last week. He was confirming gossip that he and the former Labour prime minister’s press secretary, Joe Haines, 96, have treasured for 50 years: Wilson, during his final term in office, had an affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, Haines’s Downing Street deputy. Continue reading…

Short-lived PM also says she anticipated mini-budget ‘turbulence’ and compares herself to Brian CloughLiz Truss ran for Conservative leader and prime minister despite her husband’s prediction that “it would all end in tears”, according to her book, Ten Years to Save the West, which will be published in the UK and US next week.She agreed with an ally that the mini-budget she planned to introduce once elected would prompt “brutal turbulence”, then resigned after just 49 days in power, seeing herself as “the Brian Clough of prime ministers”. The Guardian has obtained a copy of the book. Continue reading…

Labour is cosying up to the Sun. Getting its backing could end up looking like a political coup, or the ultimate act of selling outMore than 30 years ago, the Sun published the infamous front page that was said to swing the 1992 general election in favour of the Conservatives. Beside an image of the Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s head superimposed on a lightbulb, a headline ran: “If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.”It’s hard to imagine a similar scenario today. With cash-strapped local councils forced to turn street lights off, a beleaguered Rishi Sunak would probably be grateful for help to keep the lights on, at this point. The change in fortunes for the two main parties has not gone unnoticed by the Murdoch empire. Never one to back a loser, the Sun is “inching towards” giving Labour an endorsement at the next election, reports suggest. Continue reading…