Starmer forced to water down Labour reforms as Brighton conference opens amid internal party battle

Published

4 years ago

September 25, 2021

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Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to water down his planned overhaul of Labour rules at the opening of the party’s conference in Brighton, as he was accused of an “almost pathological fear of democracy” in pushing for change.

The Labour leader had sought to use the Brighton gathering to alter the rules on how the party elects future leaders, including an abandonment of the system that saw Jeremy Corbyn twice elected to the party’s leadership.

However, amid opposition from trade unions and deep unhappiness from Labour’s left wing, Sir Keir watered down his package of reforms as his first in-person conference as Labour leader was threatened with being overshadowed by more internal party battles.

Sir Keir’s retreat on party rule changes included abandoning his proposal to return to an “electoral college” – made up of unions, affiliate organisations, MPs, and party members – for electing leaders and their deputies.

But Sir Keir did manage to get some reforms accepted by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) at the start of the Brighton conference on Saturday.

These included:

• Increasing the threshold of support (from 10% to 20% of MPs) a leadership hopeful must secure before becoming an official candidate in a leadership contest

• Scrapping the “registered supporters” scheme which allowed people to pay £25 to vote in a Labour leadership election

• Making it harder for current MPs to be de-selected by raising the threshold for triggering a selection contest

Those rule changes approved by the NEC are set to be voted on Labour members in Brighton on Sunday.

And parts of Labour’s left wing have already vowed to continue their opposition to Sir Keir’s proposed reforms.

Mish Rahman, a senior figure from the Momentum group who sits on the NEC, said: “Changing the threshold like this will destroy the right of ordinary people to shape the future of the party.

“If this rule change passes, Labour will be well on its way to becoming the party of the Westminster elite.

“If the 20% threshold applied to the 2020 leadership election it would have been a contest between Sir Keir Starmer QC and Sir Keir Starmer QC.”

And Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a long-time ally of Mr Corbyn, said: “These desperate attempts to restrict the influence of party members demonstrate an almost pathological fear of democracy amongst the Labour leadership and bureaucracy.

“Defeated on their main attack on democracy they now pick away wherever they can.”

As Labour’s factions continued their battle over the party’s rulebook in Brighton, the party’s national campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmood told Mr McDonnell he “ought to know better”.

“Because actually a leader should be able to command the respect of at least one fifth of their colleagues in order to be a functioning political party in parliament, in order to try and become the government of this country,” Ms Mahmood told Sky News.

“If you can’t even persuade your colleagues who you would one day hope to be your ministers, your supporters in your own government, then how can you possibly say to the county ‘make me prime minister’?

“Keir is sending a clear message to the country that we are a serious political party, we are committed to being a functioning force in parliament, we are committed to trying to be the government of this country.

“And I’m afraid to say those who don’t like this package of measures perhaps had other reasons for what they expect a political party to be.

“We are not any one man or one woman’s fan club, we’re a serious political party and under Keir’s leadership we’re going to try and be the government of this country.”

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Sir Keir himself said he was “very pleased” that his revised package of reforms had been backed by the NEC.

“These proposals put us in a better position to win the next general election and I hope constituency and trade union delegates will support them when they come to conference floor,” the Labour leader said.

Are Starmer and Rayner a new Labour odd couple?

By Jon Craig, chief political correspondent, in Brighton

Sir Keir Starmer looked a little embarrassed when his deputy, Angela Rayner, paid him a tribute during her barnstorming speech at the start of Labour’s conference.

“What a contrast our leader is to the current prime minister,” she said. “Ours has a lifetime of public service. Theirs a lifetime of self-service.”

Sitting a few feet away, the Labour leader smiled awkwardly. And their hug at the end of her speech looked even more awkward and was rather half-hearted.

The relationship between Labour’s top two is awkward, too. Labour’s odd couple? Maybe. But the party is used to those: Blair-Prescott, Corbyn-Watson.

But has Ms Rayner forgiven Sir Keir for attempting to strip her of many of her responsibilities after Labour’s humiliating by-election defeat in Hartlepool in May? Almost certainly not.

And her support for her leader in the run-up to Labour’s conference and here in Brighton as he attempted to re-write Labour’s rulebook was at best lukewarm and at worst non-existent.

She either had little enthusiasm for his proposed changes or didn’t see why she should lift a finger to help after his treatment of her in May.

The Starmer inner circle will have been annoyed, too, by her glossy photo-shoot and interview in The Times’ Saturday magazine in which she said she’d like a tilt at the Labour leadership one day.

The end result of the turbulent past few days is that without his deputy’s strong and vocal backing for his reforms, Sir Keir was forced into a humiliating retreat and major concessions and has been left looking seriously weakened.

Sir Keir’s first in-person conference is widely viewed as hugely important to the Labour leader’s hopes of shaking off his critics and offering hope that he can lead them to victory at the next general election.

But there were signs some at the conference were unwilling to move on from Sir Keir’s predecessor.

Labour general secretary David Evans faced heckles of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn!” as he asked members from the conference stage why they joined the party.

Yet Mr Evans later won a vote he called himself on his position, suggesting both he and Sir Keir retain the support of a majority of members in Brighton over their efforts to reform Labour’s structures.

Among those who have been touted as a possible replacement for Sir Keir, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner used a pre-conference newspaper interview to confirm she would be willing to stand as a leadership candidate in the future.

“I think a lot of the time, especially when women get asked this question, we say ‘oh no, no, that’s not what we want’,” she told Sky News.

“And it makes us look like we’re not ambitious. I want every woman in this country to be ambitious.”

In her conference speech on Saturday, Ms Rayner spoke of her ambition to be deputy prime minister in a future Labour government as she unveiled Labour’s plans to boost employment rights.

And she compared the current post-COVID pandemic situation to the post-Second World War choices facing British voters.

“In 1945, the country faced a choice between a Tory government who sought the credit for our shared achievement but longed for the status quo that preceded it, where the state would step back and the market would rule again, where people knew their place and took what they were given,” she said.

“Or a Labour government that would harness the values that saved a nation, and make a country fit for those who had fought for it.

“Our country chose to face that future. Now conference, let us face the future again.”

Politics

Refugee status set to become temporary in radical asylum reforms

Published

15 hours ago

November 15, 2025

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Refugee status set to become temporary in radical asylum reforms

People granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, in sweeping reforms expected to be announced on Monday.

Modelled on the Danish system, the aim is to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants and make it easier to deport them.

Planned changes mean that refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review, with refugees removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.

Under current UK rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.

In a social media video trailing her announcement, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “We will always be a country that gives sanctuary to people who are fleeing danger, but we must restore order and control.”

She called it “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times”.

An ally of the home secretary said: “Today, becoming a refugee equals a lifetime of protection in Britain.

“Mahmood will change that, making refugee status temporary and subject to regular review. The moment your home country is safe to return to, you will be removed.

“While this might seem like a small technical shift, this new settlement marks the most significant shift in the treatment of refugees since the Second World War.”

Time and money ‘wasted’ on Rwanda scheme

While the number of asylum claims across Europe has fallen, numbers in Britain have risen.

Ms Mahmood said the previous government had had “years to tackle this problem” but had “wasted” time and money on the £700m Rwanda scheme.

Some 39,075 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey across the Channel so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.

That is an increase of 19% on the same point in 2024 and up 43% on 2023, but remains 5% lower than at the equivalent point in 2022, which remains the peak year for crossings.

Other changes expected to be announced on Monday include requiring judges to prioritise public safety over migrants’ rights to a family life, or the risk that they will face “inhuman” treatment if returned to their home country, the Telegraph has reported.

Denmark’s tighter rules on family reunions are also being looked at.

What are Denmark’s migration rules?

Denmark has adopted increasingly restrictive rules in order to deal with migration over the last few years.

In Denmark, most asylum or refugee statuses are temporary. Residency can be revoked once a country is deemed safe.

In order to achieve settlement, asylum seekers are required to be in full-time employment, and the length of time it takes to acquire those rights has been extended.

Denmark also has tougher rules on family reunification – both the sponsor and their partner are required to be at least 24 years old, which the Danish government says is designed to prevent forced marriages.

The sponsor must also not have claimed welfare for three years and must provide a financial guarantee for their partner. Both must also pass a Danish language test.

In 2018, Denmark introduced what it called a ghetto package, a controversial plan to radically alter some residential areas, including by demolishing social housing. Areas with over 1,000 residents were defined as ghettos if more than 50% were “immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries”.

In 2021, the left of centre government passed a law that allowed refugees arriving on Danish soil to be moved to asylum centres in a partner country – and subsequently agreed with Rwanda to explore setting up a program, although that has been put on hold.

Changes will prevent refugees from ‘integrating into British life’

While some research has suggested that deterrence policies have little impact on asylum seekers’ choice of destination, but a 2017 study said Denmark’s “negative nation branding” had proved effective in limiting asylum applications.

The number of successful asylum claims has fallen to a 40-year low in Denmark, with 95% of failed asylum seekers deported from the country.

But some believe the changes could damage future generations seeking a haven from war, persecution and violence.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said: “These sweeping changes will not deter people from making dangerous crossings, but they will unfairly prevent men, women and children from putting down roots and integrating into British life.

“Refugee status represents safety from the conflict and persecution that people have fled.

“When refugees are not stuck in limbo, they feel a greater sense of belonging, as full members of their new communities with a stable future for themselves, their children and generations to come.

“We urge the government to rethink these highly impractical plans, which will also add to the backlog and chaos that the Home Office is tackling.

“Instead, they should ensure that refugees who work hard and contribute to Britain can build secure, settled lives and give back to their communities.”

Shabana Mahmood will be appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am tomorrow.

Politics

Bitcoin falls to 6-month low as ETF demand collapses: Finance Redefined

Published

1 day ago

November 14, 2025

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Bitcoin falls to 6-month low as ETF demand collapses: Finance Redefined

Cryptocurrency markets have extended their decline despite much-awaited political developments taking place in the US.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a funding bill to end the record 43-day US government shutdown, after the bill passed through the Senate on Monday and was approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

The bill provides funding to the government until Jan. 30, 2026, and gives Democrats and Republicans more time to strike a deal on broader funding plans for the year ahead.

The end of the shutdown failed to lift demand among Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) buyers. Spot BTC ETFs saw a brief resurgence on Tuesday, attracting $524 million in inflows, but outflows quickly resumed, with a whopping $866 million in daily net outflows on Thursday, according to Farside Investors.

Bitcoin fell to a six-month low of $95,900 on Friday, a level last seen in May as its biggest demand drivers continued to lack momentum.

Investments from ETFs and Michael Saylor’s Strategy were the two main vehicles driving demand for Bitcoin’s price this year, according to Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant.

*BTC/USD, one-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph*

Bitcoin ETF demand stalls as US shutdown optimism fails to lift sentiment

The lack of demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs is raising concerns about Bitcoin’s prospects for the rest of the year.

On Monday, the US Senate approved the funding bill and brought Congress a step closer to ending the shutdown. The legislation headed for a full vote in the House of Representatives, which occurred on Wednesday.

Despite optimistic news from the US, spot Bitcoin ETF investments remained flat on Monday, with just $1.2 million of inflows, according to data from Farside Investors.

*Bitcoin ETF Flows, US dollars (in millions). Source: Farside Investors*

“Despite the US shutdown seemingly ending, and the S&P and Gold bouncing hard, Bitcoin ETFs saw NO bid yesterday,” said Capriole Investments founder, Charles Edwards, adding that this is not a dynamic we want to see continue.

“Risk assets usually see a strong bid in the weeks out of the Shutdown. Still time to turn this ship around, but it needs to turn,” Edwards wrote in a Tuesday X post.

Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows were the primary driver of Bitcoin’s momentum in 2025, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, told Cointelegraph recently.

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Bitwise exec says 2026 will be crypto’s real bull year; here’s why

Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan is more confident that crypto markets will boom in 2026, particularly as there hasn’t been a late 2025 rally.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at The Bridge conference in New York City on Wednesday, Hougan said a crypto market rally at the end of 2025 would have fit the four-year cycle thesis, meaning 2026 would mark the start of a bear market, similar to 2022 and 2018.

When asked to revise his prediction about whether the crypto market will boom in 2026, Hougan said: “I’m actually more confident in that quote. The biggest risk was [if] we ripped into the end of 2025 and then we got a pullback.”

Hougan said interest in the Bitcoin debasement trade, stablecoins and tokenization would continue to accelerate, while arguing that Uniswap’s fee switch proposal introduced on Monday would reinvigorate interest in decentralized finance protocols in the coming year.

“I think the underlying fundamentals are just so sound,” Hougan said. “I think these earlier forces, institutional investment, regulatory progress, stablecoins, tokenization, I just think those are too big to keep down. So I think 2026 will be a good year.”

*Matt Hougan at The Bridge conference in New York City. Source: Cointelegraph*

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Arthur Hayes tells Zcash holders to withdraw from CEXs and “shield” assets

The privacy coin sector returned to the spotlight after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes urged Zcash holders to withdraw their assets from centralized exchanges (CEXs).

On Wednesday, Hayes told holders to “shield” their assets, a feature that enables private transactions within the Zcash network. “If you hold $ZEC on a CEX, withdraw it to a self-custodial wallet and shield it,” Hayes wrote on X.

The comments came as Zcash (ZEC) saw sharp price swings in the last few days. The token rallied to $723 on Saturday before dropping to $504 on Sunday. It then surged to a high of $677 on Monday, only to see another sharp decline. At the time of writing, ZEC was trading at about $450, marking a 37% decline from its Saturday high.

Analysts had warned that ZEC might undergo a sharp correction due to its relative strength index (RSI) reaching its highest reading after continuing to rally above its overbought zone.

*Zcash’s seven-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko*

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Vitalik Buterin champions decentralization in “Trustless Manifesto”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has authored and signed the new “Trustless Manifesto,” which seeks to uphold core values of decentralization and censorship resistance and push builders to refrain from adding intermediaries and checkpoints for the sake of adoption.

The Trustless Manifesto, also authored by Ethereum Foundation researchers Yoav Weiss and Marissa Posner, said crypto platforms sacrifice trustlessness from the first moment that they integrate a hosted node or centralized relayer, explaining that while it feels harmless, it becomes a habit, and with each passing checkpoint, the protocol becomes less and less permissionless.

“Trustlessness is not a feature to add after the fact. It is the thing itself,” the Ethereum Foundation members said in the manifesto published Wednesday. “Without it, everything else — efficiency, UX, scalability — is decoration on a fragile core.”

“When complexity tempts us to centralize, we must remember: every line of convenience code can become a choke point.”

*Extract from The Trustless Manifesto. Source:* *Trustlessness.eth*

While the manifesto wasn’t aimed at any particular person or company, some Ethereum layer 2s have been criticized for sacrificing decentralization to focus on scalability to speed up adoption.

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Sonic Labs pivots from speed to survival with business-first strategy

Sonic Labs, the organization behind the Sonic layer-1 blockchain, announced a major strategic shift as it pivots from emphasizing transaction speed to building long-term business value and token sustainability.

After claiming industry-leading performance last year, Sonic Labs said its next chapter will focus on upgrades that deliver measurable financial outcomes, including new Ethereum and Sonic Improvement Proposals (EIPs and SIPs), token supply reductions and revamped rewards for network participants.

“Every decision we make moving forward will be guided by the principles of building real value, with price, growth, and sustainability always in focus,” said Mitchell Demeter, the new CEO of Sonic Labs.

The focus aims to bring “measurable, lasting value” for builders, validators and tokenholders, wrote Demeter in a Tuesday X post. “Our mission at Sonic is to move beyond hype and build a sustainable business model for a layer one, that creates, captures, and returns real value to tokenholders.”

The new fee monetization upgrade will include a tiered reward system for builders and fixed rewards for validators.

Sonic Labs will also increase the rate of programmatic Sonic (S) token burns, which means permanently removing tokens from circulation to tighten the supply.

Sonic claims to be the world’s fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, with a “true” finality of 720 milliseconds (ms) — the assurance that a transaction is irreversible, which occurs after it is added to a block on the blockchain ledger.

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DeFi market overview

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the red.

The privacy-preserving Dash (DASH) token fell 45% to stage the biggest decline in the top 100, followed by the Internet Computer (ICP) token, down over 27% on the weekly chart.

*Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama*

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.