Afternoon summary
Chris Parry, the Reform UK mayoral candidate who suggested David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean, has apologised for his “clumsily worded” remark. (See 2.49pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Courts should make the decision on whether to grant an assisted death, a top barrister has told parliament, as peers continued their line-by-line scrutiny of the controversial legislation. In its reports on today’s Lords debate on the assisted dying bill, PA Media says:
A previous draft of the bill included a high court judge safeguard, but this was dropped in favour of a three-member panel featuring a social worker, psychiatrist and a legal professional.
Lord Carlile of Berriew argued a court-based process would “provide confidence-inspiring judgment in this important and difficult new area of the law”.
But another leading KC, Lord Pannick, said the court backlog means this would “build in delays” for people who have less than six months to live and the decision-making panel set out in the Bill is preferable, due to the “range of expertise” it provides.
Labour former minister Lord Falconer, who is shepherding the bill through the Lords, said a multi-disciplinary panel was “safer” than the proposed change.
Ofcom must take action to deal with X's Grok AI sexualised deepfake imagery 'in days, not week', Liz Kendall says
Liz Kendall, the science secretary, has said that Ofcom needs to take action to deal with X’s Grok AI sexualised deepfake imagery problem “in days, not weeks”.
Reinforcing the line taken by No 10 earlier (see 12.06pm), she said that Ofcom had the government’s full support to take action that could include multi-million pound fines. She told broadcasters:
There are also powers in the Online Safety Act which enable Ofcom to block those services being made available to people in the UK.
And as I said, we would want to ensure Ofcom uses the full range of powers that it has.
But we as a government are taking additional action because we are determined to ensure women and girls are as safe online as we want them to be safe in the real world. No ifs, no buts.
Kendall said the government and the public “will expect to see next steps from Ofcom in days, not weeks”.
There will be “more progress” soon on separate government plans to criminalise the creation of intimate images without consent and ban nudification apps, she added.
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Lib Dems urge National Crime Agency to investigate X over Grok AI's sexualised deepfake images
The Liberal Democrats have written to the National Crime Agency urging it to investigate X over the production of sexualised deepfake images by its Grok AI tool.
The letter has been sent by Victoria Collins, the Lib Dems’ science spokesperson. In it, she says:
While Ofcom has expressed serious concerns and is examining the platform’s compliance with the Online Safety Act, this situation is not being treated with anything like the seriousness it demands. This goes well beyond a regulatory failure: harmful criminal offences are being committed by British individuals, and a corporate entity appears to be facilitating them while refusing to take effective steps to prevent them. These matters fall squarely within the remit of the National Crime Agency.
The safety of women and children online must be treated with the utmost seriousness. The continued availability of AI tools that can be used to generate sexual abuse imagery represents a clear and present risk to the public. I therefore urge the NCA to investigate X and its UK operations, assess whether criminal offences have been committed, and take appropriate enforcement action, including against individuals responsible for generating and sharing illegal content.
The Internet Watch Foundation, which works to remove child sex abuse imagery online, has joined No 10 in saying that X’s response to the sexualised deepfake scandal is inadquate. (See 12.06pm.)
Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the IWF, said:
This move [by X] does not undo the harm which has been done.
We do not believe it is good enough to simply limit access to a tool which should never have had the capacity to create the kind of imagery we have seen in recent days.
Companies must make sure the products they build and make available to the global public are safe by design.
Here is our latest story on this by Peter Walker, Alexandra Topping and Kiran Stacey.
Lib Dems call on Reform MPs to donate income from X to charity amid Grok row
The Liberal Democrats have urged Reform UK MPs who receive payment from X for their posts to donate the money to charities working to combat sexual exploitation, after the site was flooded with AI-generated sexualised images of women and children. Peter Walker has the story.
Reform UK mayoral candidate apologises for Lammy 'go home' tweet, saying it was 'clumsily worded'
Jamie Grierson is a senior Guardian reporter.
A Reform UK mayoral candidate who suggested David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean has apologised for his “clumsily worded” remark.
Chris Parry suggested that is where the deputy prime minister’s “loyalty lies” in a tweet which came to light at the end of last year.
The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, said this week that the retired naval officer should apologise for the “over the top” comments.
Parry said in a statement that his “ironic comment” related to Lammy’s “vehement advocacy for reparations” from the UK.
He later defended his original post, from February 2025, saying: “Well, home is where the heart is. That’s the point.”
Parry, from Portsmouth, is the Reform candidate for the Hampshire and the Solent mayoralty.
Lammy, who is also the Justice Secretary, was born in London to Guyanese parents.
Parry said:
Recalling Mr Lammy’s longstanding self-identification as a Caribbean person, I tweeted ironically and probably too casually, that he should therefore ‘go home to the Caribbean where loyalty lies’.
It reflected that I believed that it was inappropriate and unpatriotic for the British-born foreign secretary of the United Kingdom to be promoting the interests of countries other than the one in which he held one of the great offices of state.
The tweet’s timing and wording also related to the fact that he had recently been to Guyana and the Caribbean on official business.
Although I might not agree with his political beliefs, I recognise Mr Lammy’s long career in public service, currently as deputy prime minister.
It is unfortunate that much more was read into a clumsily worded, nine-month-old tweet than was intended, and I apologise for any distress or offence that it caused.
The Labour party said the mayoral candidate should still be removed from the party.
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Starmer discusses boosting anti-Russia Nato defences around Greenland in call with Macron and Merz
Although Keir Starmer, and other European leaders, have pushed back with modest firmness against Donald Trump’s talk of annexing Greenland, the US president’s sabre-rattling has clearly had some impact on Nato allies. Yesterday Starmer spoke by phone to his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen (“Both leaders agreed on the importance of deterring Russian aggression in the High North and that Nato should step up in the area to protect Euro-Atlantic interests,” No 10 said), to the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte (“They agreed that more needed to be done to deter Russia in the High North and welcomed discussions on how allies could further protect the region from increasing Russian threats”), and to Donald Trump (“The leaders discussed Euro-Atlantic security and agreed on the need to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia in the High North”).
And today there has been a further call covering this topic. Starmer has held a joint call with his two most important European allies, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, and the talk about beefing up Nato security around Greenland has continued. In its readout, No 10 said:
The leaders began by reflecting on the strong unity in support of Ukraine at Tuesday’s meeting, and the good progress made on next steps. They welcomed the ongoing close coordination with the US to secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.
Russia’s ongoing attacks in Ukraine, including of the use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine this morning, were escalatory and unacceptable, the leaders agreed.
It was clear Russia was using fabricated allegations to justify the attack, the prime minister added.The leaders then turned to security in the high north. The prime minister said the Nato alliance needed to step up in the region to deter adversaries such as Russia.
Turning to the situation in Iran, the leaders agreed on the need for close coordination as events evolved and the prime minister reiterated his support for those who exercised their right to peaceful protest.
The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon.
High north may sound like something from Game of Thrones, but it is a term used a lot in military circles to describe the Arctic region. Here is an MoD policy paper about it.
What is not clear, though, is whether Trump’s obsession with Greenland is really related to security (in which case extra Nato measures might assuage his concerns), or whether it is really about mineral resources and territory. Anne Applebaum, the historian, journalist and dictator expert, recently said the Danes think that, for Trump, it is just about making the US bigger.
A year ago, I went to Copenhagen to write about the political crisis Trump had created over Greenland. Danes told me that because the US can already do whatever it wants on the island, they had come to a conclusion: Trump just wants the US to look bigger on a map
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Asked to respond to what No 10 said about the company this morning (see 12.06pm), a spokesperson for X said they had nothing to add to this statement released earlier this week.
We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.
Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.
For more information on our policies, please refer to our help pages for our full X Rules and range of enforcement options.
Sinn Féin has joined those saying X should stop its Grok AI tool allowing the creation of sexualised content.
In a statement, Emma Sheerin, a Sinn Féin member of the Northern Ireland assembly, said:
The use of artificial intelligence on X to create and distribute sexual content, including deep fakes and nudification is deeply concerning … This functionality must be disabled on all accounts and all content removed from the platform urgently.
Sinn Féin will be engaging with the [Northern Irish] department of justice on legislation within the justice bill to criminalise the creation of sexually explicit non-consensual deepfakes. It is important this legislation is fit for purpose, sanctions perpetrators, and protects people from falling victim to deepfakes.
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At the lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson did not deny the reports saying Keir Starmer has been told there is a £28bn shortfall in defence spending plans. (See 9.42am.) Asked about the stories, the PM’s spokesperson said that he “wouldn’t get into specific meetings” but he said the government had ordered the biggest increase in defence spending since the cold war because of the threats facing the UK.
Asked again about the report saying Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, told the PM last year that the defence budget faced a £28bn shortfall by 2030, the spokesperson did not not confirm the figure. But he said it was Knighton’s job “to provide military advice to the defence secretary and to the prime minister, which he does on a regular basis”.
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No 10 says pubs to get special help with business rates because they are 'at heart of our communities'
Downing Street has defended its decision to single out pubs for special help with the problems created by rising business rate costs.
At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning, the PM’s spokesperson confirmed that a package of measures to help pubs will be unveiled in the coming days. But he did not give any further details.
Asked why pubs were getting special treatment, he said:
We recognise that pubs are at the heart of our communities. We want them to thrive. We recognise that since the pandemic they’ve faced tough conditions and that isn’t about one issue.
Asked why other parts of the hospitality sector were not getting extra help too, the spokesperson said that the chancellor had already allocated £4.3bn in the budget to help the hospitality sector generally. He said:
Most business properties will benefit from the £4.3bn of support over the next three years, increases are capped at 15%, and just £800 for smallest properties. And that is ahead of permanently lowering rates for retail, hospitality, leisure from April.
The announcement coming shortly will focus on pubs, but the spokesperson did not rule out help for other businesses affected by rising business rate costs at some point in the future.
Yesterday, UKHospitality, the trade body for the sector, said: “The entire hospitality sector is affected by these business rates hikes - from pubs and hotels to restaurants and cafes. We need a hospitality-wide solution, which is why the government should implement the maximum possible 20p discount to the multiplier for all hospitality properties.”
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In the US, Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican congresswoman, has said that, if the UK bans X, she will try to legislate to sanction not just Keir Starmer, but Britain as a whole.
In a post on social media, she said:
There are always technical bugs during the early phases of new technology, especially AI, and those issues are typically addressed quickly. X treats these matters seriously and acts promptly. Let’s be clear: this is not about technical compliance. This is a political war against @elonmusk and free speech—nothing more.
Asked about this threat at the lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson just said the government was concentrating on trying to stop “these unlawful images being created on Grok”.
Here is an explainer by Dan Milmo and Amelia Gentleman that sets out what the law says, and what the options are for Ofcom, in relation to the creation of sexualised deepfake images online.
Downing Street says X's limited response to Grok AI sexualised deepfake images scandal 'insulting to victims of misogyny'
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has responded to the sexualised deepfake controversy by turning off the Grok AI image creation function for the vast majority of users. Helena Horton, Dan Milmo and Amelia Gentleman have the story here.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing today, the PM’s spokesperson described this as insulting to victims of misogyny because it was so weak.
He said:
[Today’s move] simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service. It’s not a solution. In fact, it’s insulting to victims of misogyny and sexual violence.
What it does prove is the X can move swiftly when it wants to do so.
You heard the prime minister yesterday. He was abundantly clear that X needs to act now.
If another media company had billboards in town centres showing unlawful images, it would act immediately to take them down or face public backlash.
The spokesperson said that “all options” were on the table for the government as potential responses to this problem, and he said that Ofcom had the government’s “full support to take any action it sees fit”.
He went on:
The point here is we must stop these abhorrent images being made on Grok, and we will prioritise action that puts an end to this. As the prime minister said yesterday, it’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s not be be tolerated.
Asked if the government would stop using X, the spokesperson said the priority at the moment was to stop “abhorrent, unlawful images” being produced by Grok.
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Disabled people could be pushed into poverty by DWP taking too long to process their Pip claims, MPs say
Some disabled people could be pushed into poverty because the Department for Work and Pensions is taking too long to process their benefit claims, a Commons committee says today.
A year ago the public accounts committee published a report saying disability benefit claimants are receiving “unacceptably poor service” from the government.
In today’s update, it says the situation has not really improved. It refers to people claiming the personal independence payment (Pip), a disability benefit, and it says that the amount of time some people have to wait for their claims to be processed is unacceptable.
The report says:
It is unacceptable how long some Pip claimants are having to wait for their claims to be processed, which can cause them to get into debt and push them into poverty …
Our January 2025 report on DWP customer service and accounts 2023–24 highlighted that claimants of disability benefits were receiving a particularly poor service. This continues to be the case, with only 51% of new personal independence payment (Pip) claims processed within 75 working days in 2024–25, against the department’s target of 75%.
Some people are waiting over a year to have their claims processed and the department does not seem to have a plan for reducing processing times in the short term.
The report also says that a plan to speed the process up by putting claims online has been delayed.
In 2023, the department told the previous committee that it intended to process up to 20% of Pip claims using the new online service by 2026. We are concerned, however, that this timetable may not be achieved as the department now says only that it believes it can reach the 20% target by 2029 when the programme is due to be completed.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Tory MP who chairs the committee, said disability benefit claimants were now getting a “reliably poor service” from the DWP.
Our committee received reassurances three years ago that improvements would have manifested by now; we are now told that they are a further three years off. This is simply not good enough for our constituents, who we know risk being pushed into debt or poverty by a department unresponsive to their needs.
A DWP spokesperson said:
We always aim to make Pip award decisions as quickly as possible, and the Timms review is looking at Pip as a whole to make sure it is fit and fair for the future.
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Reform UK's London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham denies report claiming she broke companies law
Laila Cunningham, Reform UK’s candidate for London mayor, has rejected claims that she broke the law by failing to provide accounts to Companies House on time.
She was responding to a report published by the Times which covers her record in business. On Wednesday Nigel Farage named Cunningham, a former CPS prosecutor and a former Tory councillor, as his party’s London mayoral candidate, meaning she is now set to be one of Reform’s leading national figures.
In his Times report, Mario Ledwith says:
Records show that three companies, either owned by Cunningham or in which she served as a director, were struck off by Companies House for apparently failing to file required documents.
Failing to file company accounts is a criminal offence under UK law and while directors can be prosecuted this action is rarely taken.
Cunningham was not fined or prosecuted but the companies were all dissolved by the registrar via compulsory strike-off action.
The businesses include a female co-working app started by Cunningham in 2017 and a business selling magnesium and menthol-infused roll-on lotion.
In his report, Ledwith points out that Cunningham put being tough on crime at the heart of her mayoral pitch when she spoke at a press conference on Wednesday.
In an interview with Times Radio this morning, Cunningham rejected the claim that she has broken companies law; she said the businesses cited in the Times report were not operating, and so filing accounts was not necessary.
She explained:
Like many entrepreneurs, I’ve set up small companies over the years … I tried out different business ideas. Some became inactive. And that happens to thousands. They were all dormant, by the way. Every year. There was never any wrongdoing. No one was defrauded. And I passed all CPS vetting right after that.
When it was put to her that not filing company accounts was a breach of the law, she replied:
Companies House routinely strikes off inactive or non-filing companies. It’s a paperwork sanction. The system is designed to clear dead companies out of the register. That’s hundreds of thousands of UK companies that are struck off every year. Overwhelmingly, because they’re dormant and admin has lapsed. It’s not wrongdoing. It’s just a way to get rid of dead companies. Lots of people do it.
And you know what? We should reward that because I was taking risk. All my money went into that. Sadly, it didn’t work out because of Covid. And that’s what happened.
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Kent, Reform UK's flagship council, accused of breaking tax-cutting pledges after agreeing council tax rise of almost 4%
Reform UK’s “flagship” local authority has raised council tax by almost 4% despite pledges to cut taxes before last year’s local elections, PA Media reports. PA says:
Kent county council (KCC) produced its draft budget for 2026-27 on Thursday evening, revealing a 3.99% council tax hike.
Reform UK took control of KCC after the local elections in May where it overturned a 30-year Tory majority, winning 57 out of 81 seats.
In the run-up to the election, election material from Reform candidates often included statements of intent like: “Reduce waste and cut your taxes.”
The hike is slightly more than 1% below the government cap, which has led to opposition councillors to warn of further impacts on key services and overall funding from central Government.
In real terms, an average Band D household will see council tax increase by an estimated £67.47 per year.
In a leaked video of a heated virtual meeting last year, KCC leader Linden Kemkaran told her Reform colleagues they needed to keep the council tax increase below 5%, because they were a “shop window” for what the party could do in government.
Last night Kemkaran issued a statement saying:
These proposals reflect the real priorities of Kent residents. People took the time to share their views, and we listened …
Through sound financial management and efficiencies, the council has been able to keep the proposed [council tax] increase below the level previously expected.
But Antony Hook, leader of the Lib Dem opposition on the council, said:
Reform stood for election promising to make savings and lower the burden on taxpayers. Today, that promise has been utterly broken. They are boasting about a nearly 4% increase instead of 5%, a difference of just 33p per week for the average Kent family.
It’s a poor outcome given the hype and promises made at the election and for the last nine months.
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Peers urged to avoid long-winded speeches as they resume debate on assisted dying bill
Peers are this morning resuming their debate on the assisted dying bill, after last night approving a motion saying the Lords should devote “further time” for the bill so that it can return to the Commons “in reasonable time before the end of the current parliamentary session”.
Lord Falconer, the former Labour lord chancellor who is charge of the private member’s bill in the Lords, took the unusual step of tabling the motion yesterday because, at the current rate of progress, there seems very little chance of the Lords debating all the amendments to the bill in time for it return to the Commons and become law before this session of parliament ends in the spring.
Supporters of the bill believe that a small number of peers opposed to assisted dying are filibustering so that the bill fails due to lack of time. In the Lords, unlike in the Commons, the government cannot guillotine debates on legislation so they have to wrap up within a deadline, and this means timetabling arrangements in effect rely on cross-party consensus.
Today is the fifth committee stage debate in the Lords. In the debate last night, Falconer said:
Over 1,000 amendments in committee have been tabled, arranged into approximately 84 groups. So far, we have spent in total some 32 hours in this house scrutinising the bill, and we have another 50 hours scheduled.
However, in four days of committee – about 17 hours – we have considered only 10 groups. If we continue at the rate we are going, this house will fail to complete the process of scrutiny.
Falconer’s motion was approved without a vote. But it is not binding, it is not clear yet what practical impact it will have, and some Tory peers in the debate rejected claims that that the bill was being given too much time.
Michael Gove, the former Tory cabinet minister, said:
This house is more respected, not less, for giving extensive scrutiny to this bill. I think it would be a sad day if those of us who believe in exhaustive scrutiny and extensive debate were to be told that that was not in our best traditions.
And Lord Shinkwin, another Tory, ended his speech saying:
I am reminded of a wonderfully wise Scottish saying from the 16th century, which I believe this bill shows has stood the test of time: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” Our procedures are being followed appropriately and reasonably. If any bill is so poorly drafted and so unsafe, surely the question is not so much whether the bill deserves more time, but whether yet more time could transform it.
Friday debates on the bill have started at 10am and finished at around 3pm. That is the plan again for today, but, in the light of the motion agreed last night, some future committee stage debates could be extended.
At the start of proceedings this morning Lord Kennedy of Southwark, the government chief whip, urged peers not to make “long, second reading speeches going way beyond the substance of the amendments under debate”. He also said he said he hoped “substantial progress” on the bill would be made today.
There is a live feed of the Lords debate here.
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Starmer warned of £28bn defence funding shortfall
Keir Starmer has been warned by the UK’s top military chief that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) could face a £28bn funding shortfall in the next four years, PA Media reports. PA says:
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton reportedly told the prime minister that an MoD assessment made last year showed a £28bn shortfall between now and 2030.
The chancellor and defence secretary were also at the meeting in the run up to Christmas, as first reported by the Times and the Sun newspapers.
The news is thought to have prompted Starmer to order an overhaul of the defence investment plan (Dip), which has been delayed after first being expected in the autumn.
The Dip will set out how the strategic defence review is to be delivered.
A government source said the UK is “on track” to fulfil the commitments outlined in the review.
Knighton took over as chief of the defence staff in September and is responsible for the delivery of the strategic defence review published in June, as the UK has pledged to boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.
The review also set out a goal to raise spending to 3% in the next parliament “when fiscal and economic conditions allow”.
An MoD spokesperson said: “The UK defence budget is rising to record levels as this government delivers the biggest boost to defence spending since the Cold War, totalling £270bn this parliament alone.
“Demands on defence are rising, with growing Russian aggression, increasing operational requirements and preparations for a Ukraine deployment.
“We are working flat out on the defence investment plan, which will fix the outdated, overcommitted, and underfunded defence programme we inherited.”
Labour chair claims pub business rates rethink not a U-turn, but ‘sign of confident government’ that is listening
Good morning. Yesterday it emerged the government is going to significantly revise some of its budget plans with a financial support package to help the pub industry. Pubs say that, without extra help, they will be hammered by extra business rates costs contained in her budget. In her speech to MPs in November, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, implied she was cutting business rate costs for this sector. She told the Commons:
For business rates, I will introduce permanently lower tax rates for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties – the lowest tax rates since 1991 … paid for through higher rates on properties worth £500,000 or more, like the warehouses used by online giants.
But the gains for pubs from the reduction in headlines rates were more than wiped out by the reduction in Covid-era reliefs, and the impact of a three-yearly revaluation, coming into effect in April 2026, which has led to big increases in the rateable value of many pubs. As Kiran Stacey, Peter Walker and Rob Davies report, Reeves is responding to weeks of protest from the pub sector by revising her business rate plans.
The details have not been announced, but government sources have confirmed that a significant rescue package is coming soon.
Almost all media outlets have described this as a U-turn, and that is consistent with the usual meaning of the word. While Reeves is not implementing a 180-degree reversal of what she announced on business rates in November, this seems to be more than a minor tweak, and it sounds like a significant change from the policy she announced in her keynote annual announcement only six weeks ago.
But ministers don’t like this word, partly because it is pejorative, and partly because the government has now established a reputation for U-turning regularly on big, headline policy issues, like cutting winter fuel payments, cutting disability benefits, and subjecting farms to inheritance tax. Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, has been doing an interview round this morning and she has been claiming this isn’t a U-turn. She told Sky News:
I don’t buy this is a U-turn. This is actually about listening. I think it’s a sign of a government that is actually in touch with people, that is listening to people, and that is responding.
I think listening to constituents isn’t being bullied or lobbied – that’s what we’re here to do.
We’re here to represent the people that we live amongst and, if a policy isn’t right, I think it’s a sign of a confident government that says, ‘do you know what? we’ll step in, we’ll sort it out, we’ll make sure it works’.
This is a perfectly reasonable argument, although it might have made more sense for Turley to argue that, because responding to public concerns is a good thing, U-turns can be positive, and this is a good example, not that this isn’t one. All governments perform U-turns, and normally the pain from the short-term political embarrassment is offset by the gain from the long-term removal of a political problem.
But Keir Starmer is vulnerable to the charge that he is U-turning so often he looks weak.
There is not much on the agenda today. The Commons is not sitting. But peers are debating the assisted dying bill again (more on that soon), and Downing Street has a lobby briefing at 11.30am.
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