Closing summary
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Here is a round-up of all the main news stories from throughout the day:
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is calling for a review of the law which has seen Palestine Action supporters arrested at demonstrations across Britain in recent weeks. He said that, while Palestine Action have committed criminal acts and “are a very worrying organisation”, people are being arrested “en masse”.
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney could be arrested under the Terrorism Act after saying she intends to use proceeds from her work to support Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK last month, a legal expert has warned. Meanwhile, No 10 said that supporting the group was an offence under the act, after Rooney had made her pledge.
Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, has told the Big Issue his party is “burning political capital” with policies that are “suicidal on the doorstep”.
An estate agent has criticised the chancellor’s plans for for a new property tax on homes worth over £500,000 as a “tax on ordinary Londoners”. In a Guardian exclusive yesterday, we revealed how the Treasury is considering a new tax on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000 as a step towards a radical overhaul of stamp duty and council tax. But Simon Gerrard, an estate agent who has long campaigned to reform stamp duty, warned it would amount to a “London tax”.
The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, analysis has found. Experts have said ministers are choosing to use Brexit to “actively go backwards” in some cases, though there are also areas where the UK has improved nature laws such as by banning sand eel fishing.
Keir Starmer is a “patriot” who supports the public displaying of the England flag, his official spokesperson claimed amid an apparent row over councils removing flags from lamp-posts. Downing Street said that the prime minister sees national pride as “an important thing,” in response to controversy over recent decisions by two councils to remove English and British flags, The Telegraph reported.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has told the UK boss of car manufacturer Stellantis she has “serious concerns” about the impact on drivers from its recall of cars. The company announced an immediate and rare “stop-drive” order for certain models on 20 June because of a potentially fatal airbag safety fault.
The prime minister has “done a good job” to help keep Europe united in its support for Ukraine, according to the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Davey praised Keir Starmer’s approach along with fellow European leaders but said the UK needs to do more to strengthen Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s negotiating position, ahead of a potential one-to-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Keir Starmer has returned to Scotland after his family holiday was interrupted by crunch talks on Ukraine in Washington DC. The prime minister’s plane flew from the US to Glasgow overnight following the White House discussions, landing on Tuesday morning, PA reported.
Keir Starmer will co-chair a call of the so-called “coalition of the willing” on Tuesday morning. The prime minister and French president Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine.
The head of the UK armed forces will travel to the US today for talks about American involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine. Keir Starmer has sent his chief of the defence staff Tony Radakin to work out details of measures to protect Ukraine after a peace deal is agreed.
The UK has climbed down from its controversial demand that Apple provide access to encrypted customer data, following pressure from the Trump administration, according to US officials. The reversal ends a diplomatic standoff between London and Washington, after it was reported last month that the former was likely to withdraw its request following pressure from US vice-president JD Vance.
Environment secretary Steve Reed has ordered direct oversight of major transport, energy and housing schemes, enabling the government to intervene early to prevent projects being set back by environmental concerns. Ministers plan to step in earlier on developments, such as the expansion of Heathrow airport in London, to resolve issues earlier and avoid spiralling costs, according to a report this morning in The Times.
Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist. Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”
It is “absolutely essential” for the US to be part of European security guarantees for a potential Ukrainian peace deal, but there is “lots more work to be done” on what they will entail, a minister has said. “The really important progress yesterday was on the security guarantees, these issues that the prime minister and president Macron have been leading on within Europe, with 30 countries involved in planning with a coalition of the willing to make sure we can provide those guarantees,” pensions minister Torsten Bell told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The number of companies going bust across England and Wales remained elevated last month, new data shows, as pressures intensify for firms grappling with higher costs. Official data from the Insolvency Service showed there were 2,081 company insolvencies in July, edging up by 1% compared with June.
David Cameron’s “bonfire of the quangos” decision to abolish England’s council spending watchdog has left a broken system that is costing taxpayers more money than it was promised to save. In a highly critical report, academics at the University of Sheffield said the coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had promised savings of £100m a year by abolishing the Audit Commission.
Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey. Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.
Exposure to pornography has increased since the introduction of UK rules to protect the public online, with children as young as six seeing it by accident, research by the children’s commissioner for England has found. Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act became law.
UK falling behind EU on environmental rules amid post-Brexit rollback
The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, analysis has found.
Experts have said ministers are choosing to use Brexit to “actively go backwards” in some cases, though there are also areas where the UK has improved nature laws such as by banning sand eel fishing.
Despite having promised a “reset” with the EU, Keir Starmer’s government has failed to even start closing loopholes in environmental law that have widened since Brexit, and is in some cases choosing to delete EU environmental rules from the statute book.
Analysis by the Guardian and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has found the UK is falling behind the EU in terms of protecting rare creatures such as red squirrels, cleaning up the air and water, removing dangerous chemicals from products, and making consumer products more recyclable and energy efficient.
Since Brexit, the analysis has found the EU has brought forward 28 new, revised or upgraded pieces of environmental legislation that the UK has not adopted, and the UK has actively chosen to regress by changing four different pieces of legislation including on protected habitats, pesticides and fisheries.
Earlier on, we reported that environment secretary Steve Reed has ordered direct oversight of major transport, energy and housing schemes, enabling the government to intervene early to prevent projects being set back by environmental concerns (see post 8.52am).
Reed told The Times that “complex planning rules” had blocked the development of new homes and businesses, while direct ministerial oversight would “cut through the delays and get development moving faster”.
Well, BBC News is reporting that the Lower Thames Crossing – more than 14 miles of roads including the 2.6-mile crossing near Thurrock, Essex – will be the first major building project where a new scheme to cut environmental red tape will be put to the test.
National Highways, the arm’s length government body that runs England’s motorways and main roads, will be responsible for building the crossing. Construction could start as early as 2026, with the main works expected to take six to eight years.
The body’s latest financial statement said the long-delayed crossing would cost at least £9.2bn, of which £1.2bn has already been spent on design and planning work. The public-private option under consideration would cost £9.4bn, including £6.3bn of private investment.
It has disputed campaigners’ claims that tolls could triple if it is built using private finance.
Reed said:
Under the government’s Plan for Change, a new approach will see a lead environmental regulator appointed to smooth the system and keep projects firmly on track.
This means faster transport, energy and housing developments nationwide that will be better for the economy and properly protect the environment.
However, Sienna Somers, a nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:
Real planning reforms will only succeed if nature is embedded at the heart of the process – not treated as a problem to overcome or a ‘nice to have’.
When wildlife and habitats are reduced to box-ticking exercises, it leads to avoidable conflict, delays and higher costs.
Updated
An estate agent has criticised the chancellor’s plans for for a new property tax on homes worth over £500,000 as a “tax on ordinary Londoners”.
In a Guardian exclusive yesterday, we revealed how the Treasury is considering a new tax on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000 as a step towards a radical overhaul of stamp duty and council tax.
But Simon Gerrard, an estate agent who has long campaigned to reform stamp duty, warned it would amount to a “London tax”.
Speaking to The Independent, Gerrard, chairman of Martyn Gerrard Estate Agents, said:
Rightmove’s latest figures for August show that the average price of a property in London is now £666,983. Upping taxes for properties over £500K is not making the wealthy pay their fair share, it’s a tax on ordinary Londoners.
It’s already nearly impossible for normal people to start a family in London as it is. This London tax will only make it harder.
Officials are initially examining a potential national property tax, which would replace stamp duty on owner-occupied homes, sources said.
They are also studying whether, after the national tax, a local property tax could then replace council tax in the medium term in an effort to repair battered local authority finances.
No final decisions have been made. A national tax could be implemented during this parliament, while it is understood an overhaul of council tax would take longer, at least requiring Labour to win a second term in office.
Thanks Matthew. Tom Ambrose here, back from lunch and ready to take you through the next couple of hours of UK politics news.
Our political correspondent Aletha Adu has her own take on that Leicestershire county council piece that PA Media brought us earlier this afternoon…
She writes:
A Reform UK-led county council has served its residents a “plate of chaos” from the start of its leadership, according to its Conservative opposition, after its 22-year-old deputy leader was removed three months into the job.
Joseph Boam, elected in May as a Reform councillor for Leicestershire county council, had also been stripped of his cabinet brief for adult social care and communities, said the leader of the Leicestershire Conservatives, Deborah Taylor.
The Guardian understands that Boam was removed because of a clash with the council’s Reform leader, Dan Harrison, stemming from differences of opinion.
Despite this, Boam said “nothing’s changed” and vowed to keep fighting for his constituents and for Nigel Farage to become prime minister.
Taylor said the Reform administration had “lacked leadership and direction from the very start” and accused it of delivering instability, poor judgment and “revolving-door appointments”.
To read Aletha’s full report on the Reform “plate of chaos”, see here:
Updated
Ian Byrne Labour MP forLiverpool West Derby, has told the Big Issue his party is “burning political capital” with policies that are “suicidal on the doorstep”.
The MP, who was suspended for six months earlier this year for voting against the two-child benefit cap, said: “I told them to scrap the winter fuel payment because it was going to be a political disaster. I was ignored and they’ve had to do a U-turn on that. You’re burning political capital all the time on things that aren’t necessary.”
Looking ahead to the next general election, the MP said Labour needed to show tangible improvements: “I think there’s going to be an almighty squeeze on the Labour party vote.
“We’re not even getting the opportunity to talk about the good things because that’s outweighed in people’s minds by what’s being done. When you think about the winter fuel payments cut, what has it actually got you back in revenue compared to what it cost you in political capital? It’s just markedly bad politics. We were told that the grownups were back in charge and it’s the left that were the issue.”
• This post was corrected on Tuesday 19 August. The original post attributed the comments to Liam Byrne, not Ian Byrne.
Updated
Lunchtime summary
I’m just going to grab some lunch but I will be leaving you in the more than capable hands of my colleague, Matthew Pearce.
Here is a quick round-up of the day’s headlines so far:
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is calling for a review of the law which has seen Palestine Action supporters arrested at demonstrations across Britain in recent weeks. He said that, while Palestine Action have committed criminal acts and “are a very worrying organisation”, people are being arrested “en masse”.
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney could be arrested under the Terrorism Act after saying she intends to use proceeds from her work to support Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK last month, a legal expert has warned. Meanwhile, No 10 said that supporting the group was an offence under the act, after Rooney had made her pledge.
Keir Starmer is a “patriot” who supports the public displaying of the England flag, his official spokesperson claimed amid an apparent row over councils removing flags from lamp-posts. Downing Street said that the prime minister sees national pride as “an important thing,” in response to controversy over recent decisions by two councils to remove English and British flags, The Telegraph reported.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has told the UK boss of car manufacturer Stellantis she has “serious concerns” about the impact on drivers from its recall of cars. The company announced an immediate and rare “stop-drive” order for certain models on 20 June because of a potentially fatal airbag safety fault.
The prime minister has “done a good job” to help keep Europe united in its support for Ukraine, according to the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Davey praised Keir Starmer’s approach along with fellow European leaders but said the UK needs to do more to strengthen Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s negotiating position, ahead of a potential one-to-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Keir Starmer has returned to Scotland after his family holiday was interrupted by crunch talks on Ukraine in Washington DC. The prime minister’s plane flew from the US to Glasgow overnight following the White House discussions, landing on Tuesday morning, PA reported.
Keir Starmer will co-chair a call of the so-called “coalition of the willing” on Tuesday morning. The prime minister and French president Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine.
The head of the UK armed forces will travel to the US today for talks about American involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine. Keir Starmer has sent his chief of the defence staff Tony Radakin to work out details of measures to protect Ukraine after a peace deal is agreed.
The UK has climbed down from its controversial demand that Apple provide access to encrypted customer data, following pressure from the Trump administration, according to US officials. The reversal ends a diplomatic standoff between London and Washington, after it was reported last month that the former was likely to withdraw its request following pressure from US vice-president JD Vance.
Environment secretary Steve Reed has ordered direct oversight of major transport, energy and housing schemes, enabling the government to intervene early to prevent projects being set back by environmental concerns. Ministers plan to step in earlier on developments, such as the expansion of Heathrow airport in London, to resolve issues earlier and avoid spiralling costs, according to a report this morning in The Times.
Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist. Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”
It is “absolutely essential” for the US to be part of European security guarantees for a potential Ukrainian peace deal, but there is “lots more work to be done” on what they will entail, a minister has said. “The really important progress yesterday was on the security guarantees, these issues that the prime minister and president Macron have been leading on within Europe, with 30 countries involved in planning with a coalition of the willing to make sure we can provide those guarantees,” pensions minister Torsten Bell told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The number of companies going bust across England and Wales remained elevated last month, new data shows, as pressures intensify for firms grappling with higher costs. Official data from the Insolvency Service showed there were 2,081 company insolvencies in July, edging up by 1% compared with June.
David Cameron’s “bonfire of the quangos” decision to abolish England’s council spending watchdog has left a broken system that is costing taxpayers more money than it was promised to save. In a highly critical report, academics at the University of Sheffield said the coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had promised savings of £100m a year by abolishing the Audit Commission.
Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey. Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.
Exposure to pornography has increased since the introduction of UK rules to protect the public online, with children as young as six seeing it by accident, research by the children’s commissioner for England has found. Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act became law.
A Reform UK-led county council is serving a “plate of chaos” as its 22-year-old deputy leader has been removed after three months in the position, the leader of the opposition has said.
PA Media has an interesting account of the soap opera that appears to be Leicestershire county council right now.
It reports that Joseph Boam, who was elected as a Reform councillor for Leicestershire County Council in May, is also no longer cabinet lead member for adult social care and communities, the leader of the Leicestershire Conservatives Deborah Taylor said in a social media post.
Boam, who is councillor for Whitwick in North West Leicestershire, said in a statement on social media:
Despite the recent news, nothing’s changed, I’ll keep fighting for Whitwick at County Hall and doing everything I can to help get a Reform UK government and Nigel Farage as our next prime minister.
The leader of the main opposition to the authority, Taylor, said in a statement released on social media that the Reform-led council is delivering a “shambles”.
She said:
The Reform Administration at Leicestershire County Council has lacked leadership and direction from the very start.
So it comes as no surprise to us that Cllr Joseph Boam has been shown the door after just three months as Deputy Leader of Leicestershire County Council and Cabinet Lead Member for Adults.
Frankly, he was wholly unqualified for such a critical role and lacked the experience or judgment to bring anything of value to the position. Adult Social Care and Communities is one of the most important and challenging portfolios in local government.
It requires steady hands, long-term commitment and a depth of understanding. What it has been given instead is instability, poor judgment, and revolving-door appointments.
At a time when Leicestershire needs stability, vision, and experienced leadership more than ever, residents are being served a plate of chaos. Reform promised change, what they’re delivering is a shambles.
A Reform UK source told PA Media:
Joseph deserves thanks for his role in helping to establish the Reform Group at Leicestershire County Council and we wish him well as he moves into a new role where he will continue to support the group’s efforts at County Hall.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has told the UK boss of car manufacturer Stellantis she has “serious concerns” about the impact on drivers from its recall of cars.
The company announced an immediate and rare “stop-drive” order for certain models on 20 June because of a potentially fatal airbag safety fault.
In the UK, this is affecting owners of its Citroen and DS Automobiles-branded cars, with many facing several weeks off the road because of difficulties having the issue rectified.
In a letter seen by the PA news agency, Alexander wrote to Eurig Druce, UK group managing director of Stellantis, calling for “immediate steps” to improve the recall process.
This included ensuring all affected owners are “provided with viable alternatives” - whether through courtesy cars, financial compensation or at-home repairs - as existing arrangements are “not meeting expectations”.
She wrote:
I am writing to you to express serious concerns about the customer impact of the stop-drive recall currently affecting Citroen and DS Automobiles cars in the United Kingdom.
While I acknowledge and commend the pace at which Stellantis has initiated and progressed the recall programme, I must make clear that the level of disruption experienced by UK motorists - particularly the most vulnerable - is unacceptable.
I have received numerous reports from Members of Parliament and their constituents detailing distressing experiences, lack of clear guidance, and inadequate support for alternative transport arrangements.
Updated
The head of the UK armed forces will travel to the US today for talks about American involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine.
Keir Starmer has sent his chief of the defence staff Tony Radakin to work out details of measures to protect Ukraine after a peace deal is agreed.
The number of companies going bust across England and Wales remained elevated last month, new data shows, as pressures intensify for firms grappling with higher costs.
Official data from the Insolvency Service showed there were 2,081 company insolvencies in July, edging up by 1% compared with June.
The number of compulsory liquidations was slightly higher than in June and up 11% compared with the same month in 2024, PA reported.
Compulsory liquidations happen when a company is forced to close when it cannot pay money owed to creditors.
July’s figure was also a quarter higher than the monthly average across 2024, the data showed.
This summer, as Nosheen Iqbal observes, politicians seem to have started saying things about refugees and migrants that would have been unsayable a decade ago.
Whether it is the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, writing that he would not want his daughters living near ‘men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally’, or Reform MPs claiming women in the UK are at risk of being assaulted by men from ‘predominantly Muslim countries’, something seems to have shifted in the way politicians talk about asylum and migration.
Dr Maya Goodfellow analyses this worrying trend in British politics that goes all the way up to the government, with politicians frequently adopting the language of the far right, and identifying asylum seekers as criminal and a threat to young women and girls.
Listen to the Today in Focus podcast here:
Exposure to pornography has increased since the introduction of UK rules to protect the public online, with children as young as six seeing it by accident, research by the children’s commissioner for England has found.
Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act became law.
More than a quarter (27%) now said they had seen porn online by 11, with some saying they were “aged six or younger” when asked about their first exposure.
The findings follow on from a similar survey carried out by the children’s commissioner in 2023, and de Souza said they showed that little had improved despite the new law and promises from ministers and tech firms.
Virtual private networks (VPNs) can allow users to disguise their location online and de Souza has said the government must ensure children are not able to use these tools to avoid the age-check process.
The government has previously said that while VPNs are legal in the UK for adults, under the Online Safety Act, platforms have a “clear responsibility to prevent children from bypassing safety protections”.
de Souza told BBC Newsnight:
Of course, we need age verification on VPNs - it’s absolutely a loophole that needs closing and that’s one of my major recommendations.
A government spokesperson said:
Let’s be clear: VPNs are legal tools for adults and there are no plans to ban them. But if platforms deliberately push workarounds like VPNs to children, they face tough enforcement and heavy fines. We will not allow corporate interests to come before child safety.
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney could be arrested under the Terrorism Act after saying she intends to use proceeds from her work to support Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK last month, a legal expert has warned.
Meanwhile, No 10 said that supporting the group was an offence under the act, after Rooney had made her pledge. It comes as Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called for a review of terrorism legislation following hundreds of arrests in relation to the proscribed group (see post at 9.06am).
Royalties from Rooney’s books, including Normal People and Conversations with Friends, along with BBC adaptations of them, would be used to support Palestine Action, she wrote in the Irish Times over the weekend.
The legal expert also said that the bestselling writer could face prosecution if she were to express her views at, for example, a UK book festival, underscoring the proscription’s “gross disproportionality”.
While the prime minister’s spokesperson would not respond to the author’s comments specifically, they said that there was “a difference between showing support for a proscribed organisation, which is an offence under the Terrorism Act, and legitimate protest in support of a cause”, according to the Press Association.
Asked what message No 10 would give to people considering donating money to Palestine Action, the spokesperson said: “Support for a proscribed organisation is an offence under the Terrorism Act and obviously the police will, as they have set out, implement the law as you’d expect.”
More than 700 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act in relation to the group since it was proscribed in early July, many of whom were detained at a peaceful protest on 9 August in Parliament Square, London.
Keir Starmer has returned to Scotland after his family holiday was interrupted by crunch talks on Ukraine in Washington DC.
The prime minister’s plane flew from the US to Glasgow overnight following the White House discussions, landing on Tuesday morning, PA reported.
The bloke just can’t catch a break when it comes to getting away for a bit of sun – or “light cloud”, as per today’s forecast for Scotland.
This is the second summer in a row that his holiday plans have been disrupted after he cancelled a European trip last August when rioting broke out in the UK and tensions escalated in the Middle East.
The prime minister also delayed his departure for a trip last Christmas following the death of his brother aged 60 who had been suffering from cancer.
Keir Starmer is a “patriot” who supports the public displaying of the England flag, his official spokesperson claimed amid an apparent row over councils removing flags from lamp-posts.
Downing Street said that the prime minister sees national pride as “an important thing,” in response to controversy over recent decisions by two councils to remove English and British flags, The Telegraph reported.
In the past two weeks, local authorities in Tower Hamlets, east London, and Birmingham have announced plans to take down Union and St George’s flags from lamp-posts. Meanwhile, Worcestershire county council – notably led by (checks notes) Reform UK – claimed on Monday that hanging such flags from lamp-posts could pose a risk to life.
The No 10 spokesman said:
I haven’t asked him about specific cases of specific councils. But what the prime minister has always talked about is pride in being British, his patriotism in that – not least with the Lionesses in the Euros – and patriotism will always be an important thing to him.
Asked whether Starmer thought people should put up English and British flags, he said:
Absolutely. Patriotism, putting up English flags … we put up English flags all around Downing Street every time the English football team, the women’s and men’s, are around.
Worcestershire became the third council to express opposition to the flags when a spokesman said St George and Union flags hung from lamp-posts in Wythall risked endangering pedestrians and motorists.
Karl Perks, Worcestershire’s Reform UK cabinet member for highways, said the flags could be “dangerous”, adding: “Climbing up lamp-posts and attaching flags to them may not be the best thing to do, mostly because it’s dangerous and could cause damage. There are no specific plans to remove the flags.”
He advised that people would be better off displaying their flags “in your own front and back gardens, on your cars, in your windows and on community buildings where agreed by the whole community”.
Parents in England skipping meals to afford school uniforms, survey finds
Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey.
Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.
The survey by the parenting charity Parentkind showed struggling parents being forced into debt. Nearly half (45%) of those polled planned to use credit cards to pay for their children’s school uniform and a third (34%) said they would rely on Klarna-style delayed payment services.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, urged schools to help struggling parents by reducing the number of branded items of uniform that pupils are required to wear as a matter of urgency, before a forthcoming change in the law.
A limit of three branded items, plus a branded tie for secondary and middle schools, will be enforced from September 2026 after the government’s children’s wellbeing and schools bill becomes law, but Phillipson wants schools to act sooner on a voluntary basis.
“School uniform matters but it shouldn’t break the bank. No family should have to choose between putting food on the table and buying a new blazer,” she said. “Parents have told us they want fewer costly branded items – and that’s exactly what we’re delivering. Schools can help ease the pressure on families right now by reducing the number of branded items they require.”
Currently, schools can require parents to buy multiple items branded with a school logo, often from specialist suppliers, with many asking for more than five and in some cases 10 items, pushing total uniform costs up to £400 including PE kit.
Under the new legislation, parents will be able to buy cheaper uniform staples such as shirts or trousers from general retailers including Aldi and Marks & Spencer.
David Cameron’s “bonfire of the quangos” decision to abolish England’s council spending watchdog has left a broken system that is costing taxpayers more money than it was promised to save.
In a highly critical report, academics at the University of Sheffield said the coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had promised savings of £100m a year by abolishing the Audit Commission.
However, replacing the public body with a private-sector model had resulted in “chaos” and soaring costs to audit councils amid the financial crisis hitting England’s town halls.
Several councils have declared effective bankruptcy linked to years of austerity, soaring costs amid pressure on services, as well as local missteps. They include Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking.
The Audit Reform Lab at Sheffield said the average cost of external auditors checking a local authority’s finances was now at least £50,000 higher in cash terms than when the Audit Commission was disbanded in 2015.
Private-sector accountancy firms took over the job of auditing local government accounts in England after the agency was abolished, in an austerity-driven push by Tory and Lib Dem ministers to find savings and efficiencies.
“Ten years on, however, it now seems clear that these reform ambitions have failed,” the authors of the report wrote.
“Only 1% of audits were delivered on time in 2022-23, with many audits delayed by several years. Audit costs have risen dramatically in response. An unwieldy, but ultimately operational centralised bureaucracy was replaced by market chaos. The £100m per annum savings heralded by the UK government in 2014 are now a distant memory.”
Keir Starmer will co-chair a call of the so-called “coalition of the willing” on Tuesday morning.
The prime minister and French president Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine.
Starmer and several European leaders travelled to Washington for talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump on Monday.
Updated
UK backs down on demand for backdoor access to Apple users’ encrypted data - FT
The UK has climbed down from its controversial demand that Apple provide access to encrypted customer data, following pressure from the Trump administration, according to US officials.
The reversal ends a diplomatic standoff between London and Washington, after it was reported last month that the former was likely to withdraw its request following pressure from US vice-president JD Vance.
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence under President Trump, told the Financial Times that the UK had “agreed to drop” its request for Apple to unlock encrypted data belonging to American citizens – an action Trump had previously compared to surveillance practices in China.
She said:
I’m happy to share that the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a ‘back door’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.
Although the UK has agreed to rescind the request, it has not yet been officially withdrawn, according to a source familiar with the situation, the FT reported.
“Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside president Trump and vice-president Vance, to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” Gabbard added.
Updated
Labour condemns Robert Jenrick’s visit to rally attended by far-right activist
Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist.
Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”
Eddy Butler, a well-known figure in far-right circles who was a key strategist in the rise of the British National party, can be seen wearing sunglasses in the background of one of the photos Jenrick shared after the visit.
It is not clear whether Jenrick met Butler, but the photo was seized on by far-right figures eager to exploit the protest, which they have heavily promoted.
Butler boasted to friends about Jenrick’s appearance in a post on his Facebook account: “At the Bell Hotel, riding shotgun for Robert Jenrick, pretender to the Tory leadership.”
A Labour party spokesperson described Jenrick as “a disgrace” for attending a protest “organised by a far-right party”, which was also attended by someone with “a long history of involvement with neo-Nazi groups”.
“Jenrick once proudly boasted about ramping up the procurement of asylum hotels when he was immigration minister. It shows, at best, a staggering lack of judgment,” the spokesperson said.
“Kemi Badenoch must show some leadership, explain what action she’s going to take against her shadow justice secretary, and demonstrate that she is strong enough to stand up against this challenge to her authority and to basic decency.”
A source close to Jenrick insisted that the MP had “no idea” who the former BNP strategist was and did not speak to him at the protest rally.
Here’s some reaction to our scoop yesterday that the UK Treasury is considering a new tax on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000 as a step towards a radical overhaul of stamp duty and council tax.
Read the full story here:
Meanwhile, David Fell from Hamptons told the Times:
Who is better off will come down to how closely the government chooses to follow any recommendations. But I think in response to the general principle, the shift would probably cut the cost of buying the most expensive homes, but add to the annual cost of ownership, particularly given the artificially low levels of council tax charged by many places that have the most expensive house prices.
The impact of a change to the system would probably depend on the level at which the rates were set, and the length of time it takes for the higher ownership charges to outweigh existing stamp duty and council tax bills.
Head over to my colleague Julia Kollewe’s business live blog for more reaction on this story throughout the day:
'Absolutely essential' for US to be part of Ukraine security guarantee, says minister
It is “absolutely essential” for the US to be part of European security guarantees for a potential Ukrainian peace deal, but there is “lots more work to be done” on what they will entail, a minister has said.
“The really important progress yesterday was on the security guarantees, these issues that the prime minister and president Macron have been leading on within Europe, with 30 countries involved in planning with a coalition of the willing to make sure we can provide those guarantees.
“And the important news yesterday is that the United States will be part of those guarantees. That’s absolutely essential, because the people of Ukraine can’t be expected to rely on the word of president Putin,” pensions minister Torsten Bell told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
He added:
Those guarantees are really important. You’re right to say that there’s now lots more work to be done on the nature of those guarantees. That’s what is now under way.
You’ve seen that happening immediately. It was already under way, as I say, across 30 countries, and now the United States is going to be involved in that.
He said it was “premature” to talk about whether British troops could be on the ground as part of a Nato force to guarantee security.
Ed Davey calls for review of terrorism legislation after Palestine Action arrests
Davey is also calling for a review of the law which has seen Palestine Action supporters arrested at demonstrations across Britain in recent weeks.
He said that, while Palestine Action have committed criminal acts and “are a very worrying organisation”, people are being arrested “en masse”.
The Lib Dems have written to the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation “to try to see if there are changes that can be made … so that it doesn’t happen again”.
He told BBC Breakfast:
In the House of Commons, we abstained [from the decision to make Palestine Action a proscribed organisation] because we didn’t think the government had made that case.
We absolutely accept that criminal acts have happened against British military assets and that is deeply worrying.
Updated
The prime minister has “done a good job” to help keep Europe united in its support for Ukraine, according to the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Davey praised Keir Starmer’s approach along with fellow European leaders but said the UK needs to do more to strengthen Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s negotiating position, ahead of a potential one-to-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
He said:
We need to make sure that European alliance is holding and, to be fair to the prime minister, he has done a good job in keeping that coalition of the willing together with European allies.
But … we are not doing enough to help Ukraine and strengthen its negotiating hand.
Further support would be providing British Typhoon jet fighters and for frozen Russian assets to be seized and used to “support the Ukrainian defence effort”. He also said US president Donald Trump’s reversal on calling for a ceasefire is a major concession to the Kremlin.
Asked whether last night’s White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy could be considered a success, he said:
We have this idea of some sort of security guarantee with American involvement, it’s a little bit vague but I fear with what they are talking about with land deal is a price that we cannot let Ukraine pay. Ukraine won’t want to pay it.
I think if you appease an aggressor like Vladimir Putin, we know in history that it ends in a bad way.
I just hope the media, here in the UK and internationally, don’t fall for any of the spin coming out of the Trump White House and really analyse what actually has been achieved or not achieved.
Readers will recall that this is not the first time Davey has pleaded for better media scrutiny of right-wing politicians on the BBC.
Last month, he told the same show: “The BBC needs to do a better job, needs to hold Nigel Farage to account and if I have to come on your programme to do that, I’ll do just that … you cover the tittle tattle around Reform, you don’t cover their policies.”
Updated
Environment secretary to intervene earlier on environmental challenges to major schemes
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news from Westminster (and beyond) throughout the day.
We start with news that environment secretary Steve Reed has ordered direct oversight of major transport, energy and housing schemes, enabling the government to intervene early to prevent projects being set back by environmental concerns.
Ministers plan to step in earlier on developments, such as the expansion of Heathrow airport in London, to resolve issues earlier and avoid spiralling costs, according to a report this morning in The Times.
Reed will set up a new board to track more than 50 major infrastructure projects, “covering roads, railways, airports and power stations”, a nod to the fact that the likes of Hinkley Point C and the Lower Thames Crossing are two schemes which have been blighted by years of delay.
The move is likely to concern environmental campaigners, with the board aiming to spot potential challenges such as the £100m HS2 ‘bat tunnel’, developed to protect wildlife and nature, but criticised by senior government figures including the prime minister and chancellor Rachel Reeves as an example of over-regulation.
Senior Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) officials will meet with civil servant colleagues from the transport and energy departments on a monthly basis to discuss various infrastructure projects, flagging potential roadblocks to ministers at an earlier stage.
Reed told The Times that “complex planning rules” had blocked the development of new homes and businesses, while direct ministerial oversight would “cut through the delays and get development moving faster”.
In other developments:
Sadiq Khan said Labour supporters would be “delusional” if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024, as he admitted its first year in office has been difficult. The London mayor told an audience at the Edinburgh festival fringe that Labour needs to “really pick things up”.
Keir Starmer has been urged to recall parliament to “impose immediate sanctions” on Israel in a joint letter signed by politicians in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The letter urges the prime minister to “act now” to exert pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza and for an end to arms sales to Israel.
Downing Street has suggested that Keir Starmer would back a Ukraine peace deal without a ceasefire as a precondition as the UK’s prime minister and other European leaders join Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for Ukraine talks with Donald Trump.
The watchdog that monitors government ministers’ professional appointments after leaving office has been criticised for clearing Grant Shapps, a former Conservative defence secretary, to join Cambridge Aerospace as long as he promises not to work on defence matters.
Alex Salmond’s niece has accused Nicola Sturgeon of tarnishing her uncle’s reputation when he is no longer able to defend himself in order to promote her memoir.
More than £300m given to English councils to help Ukrainian refugees into accommodation has not been spent, while thousands of them face homelessness.
Patients in England now have greater access to important tests such as MRI scans and endoscopies in the evenings and weekends, the government has said, after increasing the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offering out of hours services.
