Afternoon summary
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has told MPs that she wants to legislate to introduce a fast-track process for asylum applications from people from predominantly safe countries, with people removed “really quickly” if they are refused. (See 4.53pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered here today, scroll through the key events timeline at the top of the blog.
MPs vote down latest Lords bid to insert AI copyright protections for creative artists into data bill
MPs have for the fourth time voted down an attempt by peers to insert protections for creative artists worried about their work being exploited by AI (artificial intelligence) into the data (use and access) bill.
The bill started its passage through parliament in the Lords, and peers originally defeated the government on this issue in January. MPs removed the relevant provisions when they debated the bill.
But since then peers have voted three times to reinstate measures that will offer creative artists some protection, most recently last night. (See 12.08pm.) Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, was one of the seven Labour peers who joined those voting against the government.
And this afternoon MPs voted again to reject what the Lords was proposing. The government won by 317 votes to 185 – a majority of 132.
As PA Media reports, the Commons rejected an amendment from Lady Kidron which would compel the government to put forward a draft bill covering AI and copyright infringement. The amendment said that ministers should bring it forward within three months of the publication of a report into the use of copyrighted works in the development of AI systems.
Chris Bryant, the culture minister, claimed this amendment would be unprecedented. He told MPs:
I cannot think of any bill in our history that has included such a clause, for very good reason. A central plank of parliamentary sovereignty is no parliament can bind its successor. That doesn’t just mean from one parliament to another, but it means one session can’t bind a future session.
But his argument was dismissed by Caroline Dinenage, the Tory chair of the culture committee, who accused him of “dancing on the head of a pin” and said: “The fact is that all legislation somehow binds those that are coming down the track.”
Cooper says she wants asylum applications from mostly safe countries to be fast tracked so returns can happen 'quickly'
Paul Kohler (Lib Dem) goes next.
Q: When are you expecting to clear the backlog of asylum applications?
Cooper says the government has made good progress on initial asylum decisions.
The rate at which decisions are taken has more than doubled from what it was before the election, she says.
Q: What is the target?
Cooper says she expects a “very substantial drop” in the backlog for initial decision making within the next six months.
And the government is setting a timetable for appeals, she says.
Q: Why won’t you set a timetable for clearing the backlog?
Cooper says there will be further reforms to the asylum system.
She wants a system for fast-track decisions. When people arrive from predominantly safe countries, decisions should be taken very quickly – and people returned ‘really quickly” if they are refused.
She says that will require legislation.
And that is the end of the session.
Updated
Q: Should we consider disapplying the European convention on human rights for asylum cases?
Cooper says the UK’s compliance with international law has been a factor in helping the government to get France and Germany to cooperate on this issue.
But the government does need to look at how the law is interpreted, she says. She says that is why they immigration white paper says parliament will issue new guidance to the courts. Currently they are treating about 30% of cases as exceptional.
Cooper is now being asked about small boat crossings.
She says over the last decade an entire international people smuggling network has evolved.
She says nobody should be making these crossings.
The government has got France to agree to change their rules relating to the interception of boats in the water. (Currently, when a boat is in the water, the French police won’t intervene anymore.) She says the French are reviewing the rules, and she says she urging them to change them as soon as possible.
Shaun Davies (Lab) goes next.
Q: Isn’t there a danger that the temporary shortage list (for visas) will become semi-permanent?
Cooper says the number of occupations on the list will be “significantly lower” than it was for the previous version of the list.
Q: And how temporary will temporary be?
Cooper says it will vary from occupation to occupation, depending on how long training takes in that field.
Q: What if business says to you we simply can’t get British workers? Will the temporary list become permanent?
Cooper says there will be some areas where there are shortages, but where the government will not put those jobs on the temporary shortage list because it believes employers can adapt. For example, she says, there are some jobs were people do not apply because they do not like the shift patterns. But employers can change shift patterns, she says.
She says up to 180 job categories that were on the old version of the temporary shortage list which will not go on the new version.
Chris Murray (Lab) asks why the immigration white paper did not cover growth. Does Yvette Cooper think immigration is good for growth?
Cooper says the recent very high levels of immigration coincided with employers investing less in training. Immigration will always be an important for the UK, she says. That will continue. But it has to be “controlled and managed”. She says that approach will be good for growth.
Q: How confident are you that you will be able to manage any skills gap, particularly in construction?
Cooper says construction will continue to be on the temporary shortage list (allowing foreign workers to get visas).
But the new temporary shortage list will be genuinely temporary, she says. And it will have to go alongside a skills and training strategy to fill the gaps in particular workforce groups, she says.
Back at the home affairs committee, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is being asked about immigration.
She defends the decision not to set a target for net migration, saying that the failure of previous governments to meet their targets has undermined trust.
Nato setting 3.5% defence spending target would not make SDR out of date, says its lead author, Lord Robertson
As Dan Sabbagh reports, Nato is expected to call for the UK to raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. Only yesterday, when the government published its strategic defence review (SDR), it said its ambition was to get defence spending up to 3% of GDP by 2034, but that this was not a commitment.
In an interview with the News Agents podcast, Lord Robertson, the Labour peer and former Nato secretary general who led the strategic defence review, was asked if the UK adopting a 3.5% target made his review out of date. He replied:
No, it doesn’t. What we’ve done can be accelerated or amplified, depending on what the circumstances are, either the external circumstances or the financial circumstances.
So, what the prime minister was saying was that we had to operate within 2.5%, but 3% in the next parliament up to 2035 and with that trajectory, we believe that what we were proposing was affordable.
But, remember, it is a strategic defence review. We are trying to look out to 2035, 2040, and to build armed forces and war fighting readiness and therefore deterrence for future threats, and not simply what we’re facing today.
Cooper told the committee the Home Office was working on a new guidance for police forces relating to how they can use face recognition technology. She said they wanted to use it, but wanted more certainty about what was legal. She said the Home Office is producing a new framework covering this.
Cooper suggests she accepts claim plans to reduce prison population will increase pressure on police
Q: Do you share the concerns of the Met police about offenders being released from jail early?
Cooper says the government inherited an “appalling” crisis in prisons.
It set up the sentencing review to look at how the prison overcrowding situation could be eased, she says.
But she stresses that some of David Gauke’s recommendations have not been accepted.
Q: Are you asking for extra resources for the police as part of the spending review to deal with the consequences of this?
Cooper says she won’t be tempted into talking about the spending review. But she will always be pressing for more resources for policing for the challenges they face, she says, including for “challenges from the sentencing review”.
That is a signal she does accept the police argument that the sentencing review proposals will put more pressure on the police, because more offenders will be out of jail early.
Cooper says Law Commission has been asked to 'speed up' review covering social media and contempt of court law
Karen Bradley, the chair of the committee, started by asking about the incident in Liverpool FC parade on Monday last week, and in particular about the decision of the police to reveal early on that the accused was a white man.
Yvette Cooper said she wanted to see as much transparency as possible. But these were decisions for the police, she said.
Q: Are you concerned that the current CPS rules relating to what is said about suspects are not suited to the age of social media?
Cooper said the Law Commission is reviewing the law on contempt of court, which limits what can be said about people facing trial.
But the police are not just dealing with traditional media now, she said. They have to respond to social media.
She said, in the light of this, she has urged the Law Commission to “speed up” this aspect of their review.
Updated
Yvette Cooper questioned by Commons home affairs committee
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
There is a live feed here.
The Commons home affairs committee hearing with Yvette Cooper should start soon. It was meant to begin at 2.30pm, but at that point a division was taking place in the chamber.
At some point Cooper, the home secretary, is likely to be asked about Tory claims that she is blaming the weather for the rise in small boat arrivals. (See 11.03am.) Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “Blaming the weather for the highest ever crossing numbers so far this year is the border security equivalent of a lazy student claiming “the dog ate my homework”.
Cooper may want to point out that Tory ministers also used argue that calm conditions in the Channel led to small boat numbers increasing, including one Home Office minister in 2020 who said: “The shadow home secretary asks why numbers are so high … The situation has been compounded by unusually benign weather conditions in the English channel over the summer.”
It was, of course, Chris Philp.
Dame Vera Baird has said she wants to restore trust in the Criminal Cases Review Commission in her new role as its interim chair. (See 1.08pm.)
In a statement she said:
It is vital the public can have confidence in an organisation whose constitutional importance is so central to a fair and just system.
I look forward to working alongside the many hardworking and dedicated members of staff to restore that confidence, ensuring recommendations stemming from multiple reviews over the last decade are being effectively implemented, as well as identifying further areas for improvement.
UK interest rates more uncertain due to Trump policies, says Bank governor
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has MPs that the future path of interest rates in the UK has become more uncertain because of Donald Trump’s chaotic trade policy. Heather Stewart has the story.
'No-show Nigel' - Scottish press turns on Farage after he dodged scheduled event with media yesterday
Rachel Keenan is a Guardian reporter.
Scottish newspapers have published highly critical accounts of the chaotic scenes during Nigel Farage campaign visit to Hamilton for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection, which is being held on Thursday.
At least 25 reporters and photographers had gathered in Hamilton on Monday afternoon as instructed by Reform for a scheduled press event at the town’s Premier Inn.
An hour went by, and it quickly became clear the Reform UK leader would not turn up, having claimed earlier the Herald newspaper had conspired with protestors in Aberdeen by leaking the location of his press conference there.
Instead, Farage went to a pub in the nearby town of Larkhall and Reform’s campaign HQ in Hamilton - visits all posted to his social media accounts after he had left.
Those posts led to a frenzied rush by journalists and photographers to Reform’s offices, only for them to find he was already on his way back to London.
The Record story was headlined: “Nigel Farage ‘bottles’ press event in Hamilton as left wing protestors blast Reform UK leader”, adding:
Reform flagged up a Farage ‘walkabout’ in the town today, but journalists were left waiting and no more details were provided.
The Scotsman story was headlined: “‘No-show Nigel’ as Farage dodged media and protesters during a whirlwind farce in Hamilton - on the ground with the rest of Scotland’s journalists.”
The Scotsman reported one reporter shouting: “He’s even cancelled on Sky News”, and added that later “one senior Labour insider said he would have ‘bitten off my hand’ for how the day had unfolded.”
In the Herald story, “Behind the scenes of Nigel Farage’s ‘no show’ in Hamilton”, its reporter raised fears this could be the new model for Farage events:
It’s clear there was a stronger effort to keep Mr Farage away from the public. In doing so though, is he setting a precedent for future visits – where a man who is predicted to be a future prime minister dodges the press and public?
That was the concern of journalists on the ground.
Prison officers to be made to wear body armour in high security jails, MPs told
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has announced that prison officers will be told to wear body armour in some parts of high security prisons.
Speaking in the Commons, she said this was an initial response to a review triggered by the Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi attacking three prison officers with boiling cooking oil at HMP Frankland in April.
The review is being carried out by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation.
Mahmood told MPs:
Today, I can announce I will mandate its use in close supervision centres, separation centres and segregation units in the high security estate.
This is my initial response to the review, but I will set out further action on body armour in due course.
When Jonathan Hall’s independent review into the Frankland attack reports, I will take any further steps necessary to protect our brave staff.
Why Farage was wrong to describe protesters outside his press conference in Scotland yesterday as 'thugs'
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has mischaracterised protests outside his press event in Aberdeen on Monday, claiming in an LBC interview the small group of demonstrators were Antifa “thugs” intent on violence.
The 20 or so protesters outside the Silver Darling fish restaurant overlooking the entrance to Aberdeen harbour were noisy, using loudhailers, but their most vigorous act came from a short, elderly Quaker in a pink coat who offered the media a short song and dance, as she carried an umbrella.
The demonstrators were largely young refugee and disability rights activists; lined up along the seawall, they made no attempt to rush the venue or prevent any of the media or Reform supporters entering the building.
Linking the protests to Antifa, the label for hard left and anarchist US activists, who sometimes use violence in clashes with the far right, was a wild mischaracterisation. There was no police intervention at any stage in Aberdeen on Monday: several police officers came and spoke to the demonstrators, and then stepped back.
Farage has encountered aggressive protests once in Scotland, when a large crowd of pro-independence and left-wing protestors shouting “scum” prevented him from holding a press conference in central Edinburgh in 2013. The Aberdeen demonstration was small, peaceful and disciplined.
Vera Baird appointed interim chair of Criminal Cases Review Commission
Dame Vera Baird KC, a former Labour solicitor general, police and crime commissioner and victims commissioner for England and Wales, has been announced as the new interim chairwoman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, announced the appointment during justice questions in the Commons.
Baird will replace Helen Pitcher, who resigned as chair claiming she was being scapegoated over the CCRC’s failures in the Andrew Malkinson miscarriage of justice case.
Mahmood told MPs:
In recent years, the commission has lost the trust of the public.
It must now win it back, so today I have appointed Dame Vera Baird, a former victims’ commissioner, to be its interim chair.
She will review the commission, its governance and leadership and ensure it delivers once more for those who have been victims of injustice.
No 10 won't say if Trump's 50% tariffs on steel will affect UK when they come into force tomorrow
Downing Street has declined to say whether the UK will be hit by the 50% steel tariffs that Donald Trump has announced will apply to US imports from tomorrow.
The UK is supposed to be exempt from steel tariffs under the trade deal announced last month. But that deal has not been implemented yet, and it has been unclear whether the surprise 50% tariffs will include Britain when they start to take effect.
At the morning lobby briefing, asked if the government thought the UK would be affected, the PM’s spokesperson replied:
It’s up to the United States to make their own policy announcements.
The business secretary [Jonathan Reynolds] will be attending a meeting of trade ministers in Paris today and is expected to meet with the US trade representative Jamieson Greer to discuss implementation of the agreement that we reached with the United States.
You will remember that that agreement is committed to removing tariffs on steel and aluminium to save jobs and help the UK industry. That would mean that once that deal has been implemented, the steel industry will not pay tariffs for the majority of steel products that they’re exporting to the US.
Asked whether it was “embarrassing” that steelmakers could face a worse situation despite the announcement of the deal last month, he said:
I’m not going to get ahead of announcements for the United States.
But what you’ve seen so far is the US and the UK agree a landmark deal across sectors to protect British industries – cars, steel, aluminium – and you’ve seen the welcoming statements the industries have made in support of the agreement.
When it comes to implementation of the agreement, that work is ongoing.
The former Labour prime minister Tony Blair has for years been an evangelist for technology, and how it might contribute to the improvement of public services. As the Times reports in a front page story, yesterday he said he could see AI helping with the work of doctors and nurses. Speaking at the SXSW London festival, Blair said:
Government’s all about process, so you could use AI to speed up the process of the government, making sure that we do, for example, all the routine jobs of government much more efficiently. You could be responding to people in a much more sensitive, faster, better, more efficient way.
If, for example, you’re able to merge data sets across departments, you’re going to save money. You’re going to analyse, based on health data, in a way that allows you to make better health policy. And then, when you look in public services, you should be able to personalise education in the future …
You could have AI tutors, you should have AI nurses, AI doctors. We are already doing a lot of imaging much, much better through using artificial intelligence. It will make [government] much smaller, more efficient, cost less and give a better service to the customer.
Blair also described the civil service as a “conspiracy for inertia”. He said:
When I was growing up, people said the civil service was a Tory conspiracy. And when I got in there, I realised it wasn’t a conspiracy for the Tories or for Labour. It’s a conspiracy for inertia, it has got a genius for absorbing the impetus for change and suffocating it.
Ministers to create new offence aimed at gang leaders who force vulnerable children or adults to hide drugs in their bodies
Gang leaders who force vulnerable people to hide drugs and cash in their bodies could face up to 10 years in prison under a change in the law, the Home Office has announced.
As PA Media reports, ministers will create the new criminal offence to crack down on the action known as “plugging” typically used by organised criminals to move goods from one place to another in county lines drug running. PA says:
Children and vulnerable adults are forced to ingest or conceal the items in their bodies, which can cause significant harm and can be fatal if drug packages break open inside them, leading to an overdose.
The move will be included as an amendment to the crime and policing bill currently going through parliament.
Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said: “There is something truly evil about the gang leaders who degrade young girls, young boys and vulnerable adults in this way, forcing them to put their lives at risk.”
Nato to force UK to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP to appease Trump, say sources
Defence sources believe that Britain will be forced to sign up to a target of lifting defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 at this month’s Nato summit after a campaign by the alliance’s secretary general to keep Donald Trump onboard, Dan Sabbagh reports.
Data bill returns to Commons, after peers defy ministers for 4th time over AI copyright protections for creative artists
Later today the data (use and access) bill will return to the Commons from the Lords in the third round of “ping pong” between the two houses. It is not unusual for “ping pong” to go on for a round or two, as bills which are almost ready for royal assent shuttle between the elected and unelected chamber while they try to resolve matters of dispute. But, in this case, the Lords are digging in a bit more than usual.
The dispute is about copyright law, and whether AI companies should be able to use creative work without writers, musicians and the other creators responsible for the original material knowing about it.
The bill started its progression through the parliament in the Lords, where peers inserted protections for creators. They were removed when the bill went to the Commons. Since then the bill has gone back to the Lords three times, where peers have repeatedly voted to reinsert protections.
The most recent vote came last night. Here is the PA Media report on the debate.
The government has been accused of “supporting thieves”, as it suffered a further heavy defeat at the hands of peers pressing their demand for steps to safeguard the creative industries against artificial intelligence.
The fourth and latest setback for the Labour frontbench over the issue in the House of Lords was inflicted despite pleas by a minister for the upper chamber to end its prolonged stand-off over the data (use and access) bill.
It comes after artists and musicians, including Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, have spoken out over AI companies using copyrighted work without permission.
Defiant peers again backed by 242 votes to 116 – a majority 126 – a change to the legislation that would introduce transparency requirements, aimed at ensuring copyright holders are able to see when their work has been used and by whom.
This is despite similar measures being repeatedly rejected by MPs in the Commons, where the government has a majority.
It means a continuation of the battle at Westminster, known as parliamentary ping-pong, where legislation is batted between the two bouses until agreement is reached.
Pressing her amendment, filmmaker Lady Kidron, who directed the second film in the Bridget Jones series, said people were “baffled as to why the government is deliberately standing in the way of UK citizens and companies who are trying to control and protect their own property”.
She added: “It is extraordinary that the government’s decided, immovable and strongly held position is that enforcing the law to prevent the theft of UK citizens’ property is unfair to the sector doing the stealing.
“In what other industrial context does being fair require a national government to support thieves to continue their plunder while simultaneously removing tools of protection from the victim.
“Balancing and being fair sounds reasonable, but it is neither fair nor balanced, nor indeed reasonable to stand by while one sector steals from another in full sight.”
Liberal Democrats call for Thames Water to be put in special administration after preferred bidder pulls out of rescue deal
There will be an urgent question in the Commons at 12.30pm on Thames Water. As Julia Kollewe and Jasper Jolly report, its future is in doubt because the US private equity group KKR has pulled out of a deal to support it.
Commenting on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, Charlie Maynard said:
The government needs to bite the bullet, and put Thames Water into special administration, so its unsustainable debt can be written down and the interests of Thames Waters 16 million customers can be protected.
While Thames Water is being allowed to keep piling up more and more debt, customers are paying the price in massive interest payments. This is totally unfair. The creditors who have heaped billions in debt onto the company should now pay to sort this mess out. This can only be achieved through a well planned administration process, followed by a swift exit - after which the company should go forward being mutually owned by its 16 million customers.
Tories dismiss Home Office report suggesting good weather partly to blame for rise in small boat arrivals
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has issued a response to the Home Office report about the link between weather conditions and small boat crossing numbers. (See 10.10am.) He is accusing the government of “blaming the weather” for numbers rising. He says:
Labour seems to think praying for bad weather is a good border security strategy. This is a weak government, with no plan to end illegal immigrants crossing the channel.
They should never have cancelled the Rwanda removals deterrent before it even started. That’s why 2025 is the worst year in history for illegal crossings - not the weather.
Blaming the weather for the highest ever crossing numbers so far this year is the border security equivalent of a lazy student claiming “the dog ate my homework”.
Updated
Starmer accuses SNP of 'years of failure' as he defends Labour's record in Scotland
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Keir Starmer has artfully sidestepped accepting blame for Scottish Labour’s disastrous collapse in the polls and its anticipated defeat in the Hamilton byelection, by focusing instead on his government’s long-term strategy.
The latest Holyrood poll puts Scottish Labour at 19%, only one point ahead of Reform, and well behind the Scottish National party on 33%, with the party battling to avoid losing to the SNP and Reform in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection on Thursday.
That suggests Labour faces a fifth successive defeat in next May’s Holyrood elections. Blame for that is seen to lie squarely with Starmer’s decisions to cut winter fuel payments, his refusal to refund the Waspi pensioners, the increase in national insurance, and the sleaze row over a privileged donor giving him suits and glasses.
In a short interview with BBC Radio Scotland aired this morning, Starmer was pressed to accept that he was to blame for Scottish Labour’s steep slump since its triumph in last year’s general election.
That question bounced off him. Starmer faithfully repeated lines from Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar that only Labour can beat the SNP next May. He said:
Anas Sarwar has turned Scottish Labour around and produced incredible results with us at the general election in 2024.
[I] always said that we would stay focused, and we’ll do that into 2026, but in the end the question at that election is, do we want another term of the SNP after all these years of failure? And that’s the central question next year.
That “stay focused” line belies the fact Starmer is already changing course after Reform’s surge in the English council elections by accepting the case to expand eligibility for the winter fuel payments. There have also been hints the two-child benefit cap will be lifted. Starmer also made a point of launching the UK’s strategic defence review yesterday at a famous military shipyard on the Clyde in Glasgow.
He was asked why the UK government could find money for defence but not to keep pensioners warm in winter, and said:
That’s why I want to ensure more pensioners are eligible, but in terms of defence and security, obviously there is a huge defence spend. I acknowledge that, but we’re living in very dangerous times, and it is really important just to keep absolutely focused on the security and safety of Scotland.
And if - which is what we’re doing everything to avoid - we were drawn into a conflict of any sort, the impact on pensioners, on children, on everybody across Scotland would be profound. And I believe that to deter conflict, you have to prepare for it.
Good weather over past year has made small boat arrivals more likely, Home Office report claims
The Home Office has published a report claiming that over the past year weather conditions have made small boat crossings more likely.
The Met Office provides the government with a daily assessment of the weather conditions in the Channel, taking into account factors like wind and wave height, and every day is assessed as either red, amber or green. Red days are best for crossings (where the Met Office puts the chances of small boat activity at more than 55%) and green days are the worst (with probability at less than 35%).
The Home Office report says the number of red days has risen in the past year, and that this coincides with small boat arrivals going up too. It says:
The year ending April 2025 had a greater number of red days (190) compared to the previous year (106), and 81% more red days than the average number of days in the years ending April 2022 to 2024. Additionally, January to April 2025 had more than double the number of red days (60) compared to the same period in 2024 (27). This coincides with small boat arrivals being 46% higher in January to April 2025 with 11,074 people arriving to the UK by small boat, compared to 7,567 arrivals during these months in 2024.
This chart shows month by month red day figures, and arrival figures, going back four years.
Weather is not the only factor that affects daily crossing numbers and the Home Office report, which has been published without an accompanying news release, does not claim that weather is the only, or even the main, reason for the rise in arrival numbers this year.
The report also points out that number of arrivals per boat is going up. It says:
The average number of people per boat has increased in each year, rising to 54 people per boat in the year ending March 2025, compared with 50 people per boat in the previous year and 29 in the same period ending March 2022.
Yesterday, commenting on the news that the Home Office was about to publish a report making a link between weather and small boat arrival numbers, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, told the Sun this was a “pathetic attempt to blame the weather for their total loss of border control”.
Updated
Government says vital routes will be protected under bus services bill
Vital bus services will be protected from sudden cuts under new legislation, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced. As PA Media reports, councils in England will put strict requirements in place before “socially necessary” routes can be changed or cancelled, the department said. PA says:
This is aimed at services to locations such as hospitals and schools.
The measure is part of the government’s bus services bill, which passed its second reading in the Commons last night.
This will lead to an overhaul of buses, such as by giving all local transport authorities new powers to run their own services.
The government will also reduce some of the red tape involved in bus franchising, including reducing the minimum period between local areas taking control of services and being allowed to start operations.
UK water industry needs ‘fundamental reset’, review finds
The “deep-rooted, systemic” problems in the UK water industry are the fault of companies, the government and industry regulators, according to a much-anticipated review, which was immediately criticised for failing to recommend bold action by sewage pollution campaigners. Sandra Laville has the story here.
Minister rejects Badenoch’s claim that fine for man who set fire to Qur’an revives blasphemy laws
Good morning. Public spending is still the dominant issue at Westminster, with the spending review taking place a week tomorrow, and debate still raging about how the government will fund its defence and welfare plans (although the debate is now not so much whether there will be tax rises, rather how big they will be). But the Conservatives are now trying to revive a culture war issue, accusing Labour of in effect using blasphemy legislation to protect Islam.
Kemi Badenoch has been responding to the case of Hamit Coskun, who was found guilty and fined £240 yesterday for a religiously aggravated public order offence after he set fire to a Qur’an outside the Turkish consulate in London. Sammy Gescoyler has the story here.
As Sammy reports, the judge, John McGarva, said that Coskun’s actions were “highly provocative” and said he was “motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims”.
But, in comments written up supportively by the Daily Mail in their splash, Badenoch said the case should go to appeal. She said:
De facto blasphemy laws will set this country on the road to ruin. This case should go to appeal.
Freedom of belief, and freedom not to believe, are inalienable rights in Britain. I’ll defend those rights to my dying day.
Not for the first time, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has pushed this even further, telling the Daily Telegraph:
This decision is wrong. It revives a blasphemy law that parliament repealed.
Free speech is under threat. I have no confidence in Two-Tier Keir to defend the rights of the public to criticise all religions.
John Healey, the defence secretary, was on media round duty for the government this morning. Asked about the Tory claims by Sky News, Healey did not want to talk about the case itself, saying this was a matter for the courts. But he rejected the claim that blasphemy laws were coming back, telling Sky:
We don’t have blasphemy laws. We don’t have any plans to reintroduce blasphemy laws.
The National Secular Society is backing Coskun, and Humanists UK have also said they are concerned about yesterday’s verdict.
But, in his ruling, the judge said that burning a religious book and making criticism of Islam or the Qur’an are “not necessarily disorderly”. McGarva went on: “What made [Coskun’s] conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
10.15am: Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, gives evidence to the Treasury committee.
11.30am: Shabana Mahmood, justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, home secretary, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
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If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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