Writing the summary…
Ella Baron on Kemi Badenoch and Britain’s Neets – cartoon

Original reporting
The Guardian: read the full reportFollow this story
Earlier reports and follow-ups on the same developing story.
Related stories

Green Party members back 'Zionism is racism' motion
The vote has caused divisions among figures at the top of the party at its conference in Brighton.

Nearly all women arriving on small boats have been raped, says Shabana Mahmood
Home secretary warns people traffickers will exploit asylum seekers because they decide who comes to the UK Nearly all women who try to reach the UK in small boats from northern France have been raped on their journey, Shabana Mahmood has claimed. In an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast, the home secretary said far-right, balaclava-wearing activists would “kill” or “kick me out of my own country” if they took power. Continue reading...

Green party votes to adopt policy that equates Zionism with racism
Motion calling for single Palestinian state, which is opposed by most Green MPs and expected to be challenged, passes by 1,022 votes to 813 The Greens have formally adopted a policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state, a move opposed by the bulk of the party’s MPs and which is expected to face legal challenge. Zack Polanski, who heads the Greens in England and Wales and missed the vote at the party’s conference in Brighton to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, has faced criticism for a perceived lack of leadership on a hugely divisive issue. Continue reading...

For Kemi, being the Nasty party is not toxic but a badge of honour | John Crace
The Tory leader says the party’s plans to cut people’s benefits are no more than ‘common sense’ It’s a thought. A bold one. Possibly a career-ending one. But a thought nonetheless. When Theresa May told the Tory conference in 2002 that under Iain Duncan Smith the Conservatives had become “the Nasty party”, many members took that to mean they had become undesirable. Within a few years, David Cameron had moved the Tories closer to the “hug a husky” centre and by 2010 he was prime minister. Kemi Badenoch takes a rather different view. For her, being the Nasty party is a badge of honour. An aspiration. People had had it far too good with austerity, Brexit, Covid and the Liz Truss mini-budget. The country needed a reality check; a return to old-fashioned unpleasantness. A taste of genuine hardship. People had got far too used to getting something for nothing. Especially the physically and men

As it happened: Israel condemns Green party passing ‘Zionism is racism’ as a ‘stain on history of UK’
Party formally adopts policy which equates Zionism with racism, as all Green party votes to adopt policy that equates Zionism with racism On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam , the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul. Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied: Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system. I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about h

The Guardian view on nurseries: some things are going right for under-fives | Editorial
England’s strong results in an early learning study are a Sure Start legacy that ministers must build on Recognition of the importance of babyhood and early childhood continues to grow. It is widely understood by many ordinary people, as well as experts, that what happens to us when we are very small, and our brains are at their most malleable , has lasting effects. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put it in a study of early years education , “the first five years of a child’s life represent a window of opportunity, but also of vulnerability”. New Labour’s grasp of this underpinned its pioneering Sure Start programme. Much of this was dismantled under the Tory-Liberal Democrat austerity programme. But despite that loss, England’s results in this year’s OECD Early Learning and Child Well‑being Study were strong. This study does not have the high profile