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Keir Starmer visits the Evelyn Community Centre in Lewisham with Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Tuesday briefing: I will end Tory sleaze, vows Starmer

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Keir Starmer visits the Evelyn Community Centre in Lewisham with Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Labour leader pledges to clean up politics … Gateses go their separate ways … and a spectacular Cornish cycling route

Top story: Local elections campaigning heats up

Hello, I’m Warren Murray back with Tuesday’s news.

The UK still has a system that allows power to be abused, Keir Starmer has said, pledging that the Labour party will “clean up our politics”. In the final days before polls close for local, mayoral, Welsh and Scottish elections, the Labour leader will attempt to draw a close connection between the stories of Tory sleaze and their effect on ordinary people. Labour sources said Starmer would link the row over Boris Johnson’s lavish Downing St refurbishments to the early days of the pandemic and question whether the prime minister was distracted as he apparently sought donors to sponsor the decorations, which he has now funded himself.

On Monday, Johnson again dismissed stories that he had sought donors to pay for his personal life – including a nanny – as “trivia” and said the election would be about bigger issues affecting people’s lives. In an open letter, Starmer writes: “I get angry when I hear how the friend and neighbour of a Tory minister gets £30m of taxpayers’ money, while towns and communities across the country see their local services cut. Or when I see the British people’s money wasted on government contracts that don’t deliver. If I were prime minister, I would stop the abuse of taxpayers’ money, stop the wasteful approach to outsourcing contracts and clean up our politics.”


Gateses part – Bill and Melinda Gates have announced they are to divorce after 27 years of marriage, saying they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple”. The Microsoft co-founder and his wife have built up a combined $124bn (£89bn) fortune, making them among the top five richest couples in the world. “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the pair said in a joint statement. The couple – who jointly run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a huge funder of global health and disease prevention initiatives including the fight against coronavirus – said they would continue to run the foundation together. Melinda, 56, has in the past said their marriage has been “incredibly hard” as Bill, 65, regularly worked 16-hour days and found it hard to make time for the family.


Wait for traffic lights – The EU has confirmed vaccinated travellers from Britain will be able to fly to Europe from June, though it is understood the UK could give the green light for travel to fewer than 10 countries. A traffic light system is due to be announced this week. Portugal, Malta and Gibraltar are likely to be green list countries involving no quarantine on return if a passenger tests negative. Spain and France are expected initially to be amber, with home quarantine required. Red list countries are likely to include Brazil, UAE and South Africa, requiring official hotel quarantine on return. In global Covid news, India has now recorded more than 20m cases – more developments at our live blog.


Local elections lack women – Just one-third of candidates in this week’s English council elections are women, research by the Fawcett Society charity and the Democracy Club has found. “We need to see more women encouraged to get into politics. For many this begins at the local level,” said Felicia Willow, the Fawcett Society CEO. Women make up 42% of the Green party’s candidates, 39% of Labour’s, 30% of the Liberal Democrats’ and 25% of the Conservatives’, the report says. The Reform party has the lowest proportion of female candidates, at 11%, and Ukip has 20%. Researchers also found one in four mayoral candidates are women.


Threat to nursery schools – England’s remaining state nursery schools are being driven towards extinction by budget pressures and uncertainty over future government funding, according to a survey. They provide state-funded childcare up to the age of five, and often provide for special needs or disabilities not covered by the private sector. Only 389 maintained nursery schools remain in England, with many based in deprived areas, looking after 40,000 children. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “If we are to avoid widespread nursery closures, the government must urgently come forward with a long-term solution.”


Ride or walk – A Cornish cycling route that takes in some of the UK’s most spectacular coastal scenery as well as atmospheric old industrial works and bronze age monuments is due to open in the autumn. The West Kernow Way covers 150 miles beginning and ending in Penzance. Cycling UK has plotted the route along bridleways, byways and quiet country roads, taking in Land’s End, the most westerly place in mainland England, the Lizard Point, the most southerly spot of mainland Britain, and St Michael’s Mount.

St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. Photograph: ianwool/Getty Images/iStockphoto

In London, the Ramblers charity is calling for the mayor’s help to create a network of walks tracing forgotten London waterways. The ridge of Hampstead Heath contains the headwaters of four rivers – the Brent, the Westbourne, the Tyburn and the Fleet. As London’s population expanded, rivers became heavily polluted and foul-smelling. By the 1820s, most had been covered over and by the 1860s, following the “Great Stink of 1858”, most were incorporated into Joseph Bazalgette’s sewer system.

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Lunchtime read: Amazon’s profits delivered free in Europe

Amazon’s latest corporate filings in Luxembourg reveal that the company collected record sales income of €44bn (£38bn) in Europe last year – but did not have to pay any corporation tax to the Grand Duchy. In fact, Amazon EU Sarl was granted €56m in tax credits it can use to offset any future tax bills should it turn a profit. The company has €2.7bn worth of carried forward losses stored up, which can be used against any tax payable on future profits.

Photograph: David Burton/Alamy

Paul Monaghan, the chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation, said: “These figures are mind-blowing, even for Amazon. We are seeing exponentially accelerated market domination across the globe on the back of income that continues to be largely untaxed – allowing it to unfairly undercut local businesses that take a more responsible approach.” An Amazon spokesperson said: “Amazon pays all the taxes required in every country where we operate. Corporate tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given our heavy investments and the fact that retail is a highly competitive, low margin business.”

Sport

Mark Selby kept Shaun Murphy at bay on day two of the World Snooker Championship final at the Crucible to win a fourth title and solidify his place alongside the sport’s all-time great players. The Glazers have no plans to sell Manchester United, with the owners’ long-term vision being to grow the club’s value from its current £3.05bn to $10bn (£7bn). Michail Antonio scored twice in a 2-1 win at Burnley to keep West Ham hot on Chelsea’s heels in the race for a Champions League place. Mbaye Diagne’s equaliser gained West Brom a 1-1 draw against Wolves at the Hawthorns but results elsewhere could now relegate them. Chelsea manager Emma Hayes promised club chairman Bruce Buck her side would reach a Champions League final eight years before they did, with victory over Bayern Munich at the weekend.

Marcus Smith has emerged as a shock potential “bolter” for the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa, the Guardian understands. Sadiq Khan is pledging to look at bringing the Olympics back to London within 20 years if he is re-elected as mayor on Thursday. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have both saluted the hard but fair racing that has characterised their close rivalry so far in a highly competitive Formula One season. And a federal judge has ordered the Puerto Rican boxer Felix Verdejo be held without bail after he was charged in the death of a 27-year-old woman believed to be pregnant with his child.

Business

Asian shares have been mixed after strong corporate earnings and economic data lifted stocks on Wall Street. Hong Kong and Sydney advanced while Seoul declined. Tokyo and Shanghai were closed for holidays. At time of writing the FTSE looks like it will open fairly flat, while a pound gets $1.387 or € 1.152.

The papers

EU to open up to vaccinated Britons as UK urges caution” – the top story in the Guardian print edition today. Also on the front: Labour says non-NHS healthcare providers have been given £96bn over the course of a decade. Dr John Lister, the secretary of Keep Our NHS Public, said: “The reliance on private providers fragments and weakens the NHS, most notably in mental health where the extent of private provision is greatest, but also in elective surgery and many community health services.”

Guardian front page, Tuesday 4 May 2021.

On to the others – and oh dear, these headlines … “Wish EU’d come here”, says the Metro, while the Mirror has “Wish EU were here” – both referring to the EU reopening to vaccinated holidaymakers or those from countries with low Covid figures. “Europe to welcome tourists for summer” – thank you Telegraph, which also has Boris Johnson striking a British trade deal with India. “Reopening of holiday hotspots weeks away” – but by “weeks away” does the Times mean a long time or a short time? The incredulous Mail clearly thinks the former: “Why wait seven more weeks?” as it jubilates in “Just ONE Covid death in latest daily figures”, though the bereaved might feel differently. (The Times also has “New scan finds heart disease in 20 minutes” and we can safely assume it means that’s a short time.)

The Express, a bit like the Mail, announces “50m vaccines milestone … and one life lost”. The i has “Green light for England to unlock on 17 May” saying things are proceeding according to schedule. The Financial Times zooms in on another country: “Germany to lift restrictions for people vaccinated against Covid” as Angela Merkel’s government confirms it will let people off from curfews and social restrictions if they have been inoculated against coronavirus or already had it.

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