General view of the Job Centre Plus on Benalder St in Glasgow
UNIONS hit out at an “epidemic of insecure work” as the economic fallout from the Iran war was revealed for the first time today.
Youth unemployment has risen to its highest rate in more than a decade with one in seven (14.7 per cent) 16 to 24-year-olds looking for work.
Zero-hours contracts have hit a record high of 1.23 million — up 65,000 on the year.
The first official statistics since the war broke out in late February also showed job vacancies down to their lowest level for 11 years outside of the pandemic. They fell by 28,000 to 705,000 in the three months ending in March.
Youngsters looking for their first job face a fiercely competitive jobs market with 22.7 per cent now out of work for more than a year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found.
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TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “The ongoing economic fallout from Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran risks dashing hopes of a stabilising jobs market.
“There is an epidemic of insecure work in this country.
“That’s why the government needs to deliver on its promise to give all workers a right to a contract which reflects their regular hours and end the scourge of insecure work for good.”
The main driver for the increase in the forecast energy price cap is rising wholesale gas and electricity prices. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
Cornwall Insight predicts rise in price cap of nearly 13% in Great Britain as Iran war pushes up gas costs
Energy bills for households in Great Britain could increase by more than £200 a year to almost £1,900 from this summer in “a kick in the teeth” for millions struggling with the cost of living crisis.
A typical gas and electricity bill is forecast to rise to the equivalent of £1,850 a year from July under the industry regulator Ofgem’s quarterly price cap, according to analysis by the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight.
The expected level is nearly 13% higher than the £1,641 cap on energy bills set for April to June, adding £209 to a typical annual bill, after the Iran war caused the UK’s gas market price to double earlier this year.
The main driver for the increase is rising wholesale energy prices, according to Cornwall. Prices climbed sharply in February and March after Tehran effectively cut off Gulf energy supplies to the global market by shutting the strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
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Cornwall said that, even if the Iran war ended tomorrow, “the physical damage to infrastructure, and lingering effect of disrupted supply, means a fall back to April’s price cap levels in the autumn looks unlikely”.
Its principal consultant, Craig Lowrey, said: “If the cap stays at a similar level as July, that is when the government will need to think seriously about targeted support for the most vulnerable.
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MPs voted earlier this year to force the government to publish all documents related to the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
PM’s chief secretary Darren Jones defends decision and says next release will not be until next month
Ministers have been accused of a cover-up after admitting they have withheld information relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Washington ambassador from a parliamentary committee.
MPs from both sides of the Commons criticised Darren Jones, the prime minister’s chief secretary, on Tuesday after he said the government had not disclosed certain information to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC).
Jones said ministers would now not publish the next tranche of documents on Mandelson until next month, prompting accusations that the government was trying to avoid doing so before the crucial Makerfield byelection, which is expected on 18 June.
Neil O’Brien, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, told the Commons: “To say that the government have applied redactions to documents sent to the ISC, beyond the scope agreed by the house, and have also withheld documents entirely from the ISC, is an extremely serious matter that completely undermines what the house agreed.
“This house, and the people of this country, deserve better than yet another cover-up.”
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On Friday the ISC published an unusually critical statement revealing that the government had withheld information from the committee including personal data and Mandelson’s detailed vetting files.
Jones defended that decision on Tuesday, insisting that the government had the right to redact such information, as it would do if making disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act.
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Yvette Cooper proscribed Palestine Action last June (Photo: Alamy)
Exclusive: Former home secretary was told proscribing Palestine Action within six months of key Filton hearing could prejudice the case but went ahead anyway.
Britain’s former home secretary Yvette Cooper was warned that proscribing Palestine Action could prejudice the trial of six activists but went ahead anyway, it can be revealed.
Internal documents seen by Declassified show the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advised Cooper not to proscribe Palestine Action within six months of any Filton hearings.
The Filton 24 are pro-Palestine activists accused of breaking into a factory owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms firm, in Bristol in August 2024.
The CPS was concerned that proscribing Palestine Action within six months of the hearings would prejudice their right to a fair trial.
Yet Cooper went against this advice and announced the proscription of Palestine Action less than five months before the first of those trials began in November last year.
Last week, the Guardian also revealed that Cooper risked being in contempt of court by justifying the proscription of Palestine Action in a column published in the Observer.
In that article, Cooper said the charges against the defendants involved a “terrorism connection” and accused the group of “intimidation, violence, weapons, and serious injuries to individuals”.
Defence lawyers sought to argue in court that Cooper had committed an “abuse of process” by discussing details of the case that were under reporting restrictions.
Mr Justice Johnson dismissed that application despite acknowledging that Cooper was “specifically advised that going ahead with the article might prejudice these proceedings”.
Taken together, the revelations suggest Cooper prioritised securing and justifying the proscription of Palestine Action over respecting due process.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer says that he’s banning words and phrases now as well as placards.Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich takes part in the Jerusalem Day parade at the Damascus Gate in the old city of Jerusalem on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Erik Marmor/Getty Images)
The far-right finance minister announced that he’d respond to an arrest warrant request for his forced expulsion of Palestinians by ordering the evacuation of another West Bank village.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday that the International Criminal Court prosecutor had requested an arrest warrant against him, reportedly in response to his illegal forced expulsion of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank.
He said he planned to “fight back” by issuing an order to forcibly evict hundreds more Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank.
During a news conference, Smotrich said he’d been informed Monday evening that the ICC prosecutor had secretly requested a warrant for his arrest in April. A formal warrant has not been announced by the court, and the official charges have not yet been publicized.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the prosecutor had been considering seeking an arrest warrant against Smotrich for his role in expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in July 2024 was a violation of the Geneva Conventions because it entailed the forced removal of residents in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ICC prosecutor was also preparing to issue an arrest warrant against fellow far-right settler politician, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, though there is not yet any reporting to suggest that this warrant has been issued.
In response to the reported warrant request for what the ICC considers a war crime, Smotrich celebrated the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the West Bank. He boasted of creating “over 100 new settlements” in the occupied territory and “160 farming outposts,” which he said helped Israel to control 247,000 acres of land in the territory.
The United Nationsreported in March that over the previous year, more than 36,000 Palestinians in the West Bank had been forcibly displaced by settlement expansion and by violence committed by Israeli settlers.
Smotrich said the court’s issuing of arrest warrants against him and other Israeli leaders was a “declaration of war” and said that “we will respond with war.”
“From today, every economic or other target within my authority to strike—whether as Finance Minister or as a minister in the Defense Ministry—will be attacked. Not with words or gimmicks, but with actions,” he said.
“I announce here and now the first target that will be attacked: immediately after my remarks, we will sign an order for the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar,” he added.
He was referring to a Palestinian Bedouin village of about 200 people on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem, which has fought a yearslong legal battle against the Israeli government following orders by Ben-Gvir for it to be demolished to make room for a settlement.
The territory is especially significant because it would link two major settlements in East Jerusalem with the Jordan Valley as part of Israel’s ongoing E1 settlement project, which is aimed at constructing settlements so that they cut the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank in two.
Smotrich, who has led the E1 project, declared last year that the proposal “buries the idea of a Palestinian state because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”
On Tuesday, Smotrich said his order for Palestinians to leave Khan al-Ahmar would be “only the beginning” of his response to the reported warrant request.
Jasper Nathaniel, an American journalist who reports from the West Bank, explained that “Smotrich just announced the official ethnic cleansing of a Palestinian village in response to the ICC warrant for his arrest.”
Observers pointed out the brazenness of Smotrich’s declaration in the face of an international tribunal.
Adil Haque, a professor of law at Rutgers University and the executive editor of Just Security, noted the remarkable irony: “The ICC office of the prosecutor reportedly requested an arrest warrant for his war crimes, so he announces a new one.”
Along with Ben-Gvir, Smotrich was sanctioned last year by five countries—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom—which subjected them to travel bans and asset freezes.
Ori Goldberg, an Israeli expert on Middle Eastern studies, said international punishments against Smotrich needed to be even stronger after he announced “as stark a violation of international law as possible.”
“Make the warrants public. Sanction this man and everybody else who foots the bill. EU Leadership—stop making fools of yourselves as the world is torn asunder,” he said. “Show Israelis… the jig is up.”
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General view of the Job Centre Plus on Benalder St in Glasgow
