Afternoon summary
Keir Starmer has described the Conservative party at PMQs as sliding into “brain-dead oblivion”. (See 12.08pm.)
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has claimed that Keir Starmer’s immigration speech on Monday shows he seems to be “learning a very great deal from us”. (See 12.25pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered here today, scroll through the key events timeline at the top of the blog.
Updated
'Clear risk to public safety' - MoJ chief explains how prison overcrowding could lead to breakdown of justice system
Here are more extracts from the speech by Amy Rees, the interim permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, at the start of her MoJ press conference with Shabana Mahmood.
On how the prison population has grown over time
In 1993, the population was less than half its current level – at around 40,000 prisoners.
When I first joined the Service, in 2001, it was 65,000.
In recent years, it has accelerated rapidly to its current levels, and is forecast to be more than 100,000 by 2029.
The primary cause of this is clear.
Sentence lengths have increased considerably.
In 2005, the average custodial sentence was 13 months.
By 2023, it was 21 months – a 66 percent increase.
We now have a larger population of sentenced prisoners in our prisons – serving longer sentences than they used to.
On how recall numbers have increased (which is why Mahmood announced measures to day to reduce these figures – see 4.16pm)
The number of offenders brought back to prison after being released – known as recall – is a significant, though lesser, contributing factor [to rising prison numbers]
In 1993, this ‘recalled’ population in prison was virtually non-existent at just 100 prisoners.
By 2018, it was 6,000.
And since then, levels have soared – more than doubling to 13,600 in March this year.
On how successive governments have responded to prison overcrowding
Until now, successive governments have attempted to manage prison capacity primarily by carrying out early releases.
In late 2023, the prison system was running at around 99 percent of its capacity.
Faced with the prospect of running out of prison places altogether, the End of Custody Supervised Licence Scheme was introduced in October 2023.
This meant eligible prisoners were automatically released up to 18 days before their scheduled released date, later increased to 35 days and then up to 70 days in May 2024.
This measure prevented prisons from running out of places entirely, but it only bought the service time.
By July last year, prisons were again operating close to maximum capacity.
Ministers announced plans for some prisoners serving standard determinate sentences to be released automatically at the 40 percent point of their sentence, rather than 50 percent.
A surge of these releases took place over two tranches in the autumn and again prevented prisons from filling up entirely.
In parallel, we have brought in other smaller-scale measures to manage capacity.
This includes moving some risk-assessed offenders out of prison and onto Home Detention – tagged and curfewed for a longer period.
On what would happen if the government does not take further action
If Operation Early Dawn [see 3.52pm] is unable to manage the flow of prisoners, the situation becomes intolerable.
We would, at this stage, see the managed breakdown of the criminal justice system.
Police holding cells would be full, and the police would be faced with being unable to make arrests.
Courts would need to consider bail for offenders they would normally consider dangerous enough to remand to prison.
If the system reaches that point, there would be a clear risk to public safety and the only solution would be rapid emergency releases.
This would mean offenders being let out of prison without time for probation officers and other services to put in place release plans designed to protect the public.
And even this would only buy us time.
The prison population will keep rising.
Without a long-term plan, sooner or later we would run out of places once more.
That is the situation in the prison service as it stands today.
Updated
The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded to Shabana Mahmood’s press conference by tweeting a link to a briefing paper it produced on prison overcrowding, and why it thinks building more jails is not the answer.
Here are texts of the speeches given by Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, and her interim permanent secretary, Amy Rees, at their press conference.
Here is a recent Guardian video on the prison overcrowding crisis.
Mahmood backs PM over dangers of high immigration, saying there's risk of people being 'estranged from one another'
Q: As a West Midlands MP (just as Enoch Powell was a West Midlands MP), are you happy to use the words of the PM about the risk of Britain becoming an island of strangers?
Mahmood replied:
I agree with the prime minister that without curbs on migration, without making sure that we have strong rules that everyone follows, and that we have a pace of immigration that allows for integration into our country, we do risk becoming a nation of people estranged from one another. And what he has described is something that I absolutely believe in, which are the values of the Labour party, which is a desire to see this country as a nation of neighbours.
Asked again if she would use the term “island of strangers”, Mahmood again said there was a risk of Britain coming a country where people were “more estranged from one another”.
Mahmood says new sentencing rules should be in place from April next year
Q: Will you need to legislate for the new sentencing rules?
Mahmood said the government would have to legislate. But it would legislate “at pace”.
She said she expected changes from a sentencing bill to come into force from April next year.
Q: If you make more use of community sentences, how can you be sure that tags will work? In the past it has not worked?
Mahmood said the tech does work.
But she admitted there was a problem last year with Serco, the company overseeing the tagging programme.
But the tech definitely works, she said. She said a study published last week showed it can cut reoffending by 20%.
Updated
Q: Will domestic abuse offenders benefit from the changes to recall rules? And will prolific offenders benefit too?
Mahmood said people committing a serious further offence will be excluded.
Q: Under your plans for community sentences, if somone is just at home watching Neflix, is that really a punishment?
Mahmood said jail, and being on a tag, were both a curtailment of liberty. And that is a punishment, she said.
Q: This government has buckled before undre pressure from people like Nigel Farage. Are you willing to be unpopular?
Mahmood said she was “prepared to do whatever it takes to keep this country safe, to make sure that we never run out of prison, places, and that we never see the collapse of either the prison system, or our wider law and order system in this country”.
Prison recall changes will create equivalent of 1,400 jail spaces, Mahmood says
Mahmood took questions at the briefing.
Q: How many people will affected by the recall changes?
Mahmood said this would create around 1,400 prison places.
She said this would tied the system over from November until the spring, when the impact of new sentencing rules would start to take effect.
Mahmood says use of prison recall to be limited to reduce overcrowding
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, went on to say she was announcing another measure today to curb the rise in the jail population.
Today, I am announcing a measure that will target the recall population, which has more than doubled in seven years. We will bring legislation in the coming weeks that means those serving sentences of between one and four years can only be returned to prison for a fixed 28-day period.
Under the recall rules, prisoners who are let out before they have served their full sentence (which is most prisoners) can be recalled to jail if they re-offend, or if they break the conditions attached to their release. As this chart from a Prison Reform Trust briefing shows, the recall numbers have been rising sharply.
Mahmood went on:
Some offenders will be excluded from this measure, including any offender who has been recalled for committing a serious further offence.
We also will exclude those who are subject to higher levels of risk management by multiple agencies where the police, prisons and probation services work together.
This measure builds on previous legislation introduced by the last government who mandated 14-day recalls for those serving sentences of under one year.
And crucially, it buys us the time we need to introduce the sentencing reforms that, alongside our record prison building plans will end the crisis in our prisons for good.
Mahmood says Gauke review will lead to reduction in length of some sentences
Shabana Mahmood went on to say that building new prisons alone would not deal with the problem.
She confirmed that a review of prisons sentences, being conducted by the former Tory justice secretary David Gauke, will lead to sentences for some offenders being reduced.
She said:
I cannot and will not get ahead of [the Gauke review’s] recommendations, but let me be clear about the task that they have been set. The sentencing review must ensure there is always space in prison for dangerous offenders.
To achieve this, the panel will have to recommend a reduction in the length of some custodial sentences and an expansion of prison outside a prison for those offenders who can be managed in the community.
At the same time, I have set David a clear condition. We must protect the public in whatever measures we pursue.
Mahmood said she and Gauke visited Texas earlier this year where they saw how a system offering early release for good behaviour is working. And technology can transform community punishment, she said.
We are entering the world where Tech has the potential to impose a digital prison outside a prison, surveilling offenders even more closely than they can be watched in jail.
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood says government has agreed funding for three new prisons
At the MoJ briefing Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, spoke after the presentation from Amy Rees. (See 3.52pm.)
She started by saying she could make a political point that Rees could not.
It is shameful that this country in 2025 finds itself in this cycle of crisis. It is shameful that for so long the last Conservative governmen failed to reckon with the reality of a rising prison population.
When Labour was lost in government, we increased prison capacity by 28,000 places. In their 14 years in power, the Conservatives added just 500 additional places, leaving our prisons on the brink of collapse.
Mahmood said the government has committed to creating more prison space.
Last December we published a long-term building strategy setting out our aim to open up 14,000 prison places by 2031. This is the largest expansion of the prison estate since the Victorians.
We have already committed £2.3bn pounds to prison expansion, and since taking office, we have delivered 2,400 new places.
We will now go further. While the spending review is ongoing, I can announce today that the Treasury will fund our prison expansion plans in full across the spending review period. This is a total capital investment of £4.7bn. It allows us to start building three new prisons.
MoJ warns of risk of 'managed breakdown of criminal justice system' because jails will run out of space in November
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is holding a press conference about the prison overcrowding crisis. It opened with a briefing from Amy Rees, the interim permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice.
Rees said the prison service would run out of space for adult male prisoners in November. She said:
The total prison population is 88,087 and the adult male estate is operating at approximately 99% of its capacity every year.
On our current trajectory, the prison population rises by 3,000, and now we expect to hit zero capacity, to entirely run out of prison places for adult men, in November of this year.
She said the early release measures announced by the government last year “only bought the [prison] service time”. And she said that recently the government has come close to reactivating Operation Early Dawn, an emergency system involving prisoners being held in police stations and court hearings being held up to relieve the pressure on prisons.
Rees said:
If capacity gets even tighter, as an exceptional measure, we would activate Operation Early Dawn. This means we convene a team at 5.30am every day to track each individual potentially coming into custody so that we can make sure there will be an available space for them.
Early dawn was activated between August 19 to September 9 last year prior to the implementation of early releases.
It was also previously activated in October 2023, March 2024 and May 2024.
In recent weeks, we have come close to activating Early Dawn once again.
Rees also said, if this did not work, the government would face “the managed breakdown of the criminal justice system”.
If Operation Early Dawn is unable to manage the flow of prisoners, the situation becomes intolerable. We would at this stage, see the managed breakdown of the criminal justice system.
Updated
A reader asks:
I would have expected that given their tiny presence in the Commons, Reform would have struggled to secure many of the hotly-contested question slots in PMQs.
But they seem to get a question every week. Is Lindsay Hoyle correct to so regularly include them? Isn’t he required to select according to parties’ size in the house?
There is a lottery for questions, and Reform UK seem to do quite well, proportionately. It may be the case that Tory MPs are not assiduous about all putting their names down for a question. But to be sure, you would have to check the data, and I’m not aware of anyone having gone to the bother of doing that
With the leaders from the smaller parties (SNP, Greens, Reform), the Speaker also tends to grant them a question every few weeks in recognition of their status. Farage got one of these questions two weeks ago.
But those party leaders can also enter the ballot for a question, and today Farage was called because he put his name down and did well in the shuffle.
UK could be buying more wood pellets from US for Drax biomass power station, Trump's agriculture secretary signals
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
The UK could buy more wood pellets from the US for the Drax biomass power station in north Yorkshire, Brooke Rollins, US agriculture secretary, has suggested.
Speaking to reporters in London, Rollins said she had convinced energy Secretary Ed Miliband to take more of the
These are used to power the Drax power station – even though environmental experts have claimed is unsustainable because burning wood emits carbon and the pellets used to power it are shipped across the ocean.
The Drax plant accounts for around 6% of the UK’s electricity supply but it had its subsidies halved last year, and it was directed by government to only use sustainable wood. Last year, Drax was forced to pay £25m to the energy regulator Ofgem after it was found to have submitted inaccurate data on the sourcing of its wood pellets. There have been reports some of the pellets used in the power station have been from rare forests.
Rollins said:
We are 100% confident that [the wood pellets] does meet your sustainability requirements here in this country yesterday. That was one of the key things that I spoke to [Miliband and energy minister Michael Shanks] about. And they agreed.
I don’t want to get ahead of them, but in that meeting they felt fully assured that what we are doing in America does meet your sustainability requirements. In fact, we could potentially be opening up more markets for our wood pellets into the UK, as other countries that you’re importing here into this country are clearly not meeting those marks.
The government is expected to announced that it will allow foreign state investors to own up to a 15% state in British newspapers, Sky News reports. In his story, Mark Kleinman says this would allow the sale of the Daily Telegraph to go through.
Labour peer apologises for writing to Treasury to promote crypto firm he advised
Iain McNicol, a Labour peer and trade envoy for Keir Starmer, has apologised for breaking the House of Lords code of conduct by writing to the Treasury to promote a cryptocurrency firm that was paying him, Rowena Mason reports.
Minister faces anger from Labour MPs over Gaza as he sidesteps question about whether genocide taking place
Hamish Falconer, a Foreign Office minister, has been criticised in the Commons by Labour MPs who believe the government is being too tolerant of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
In response to a Commons urgent question on “the UK’s assessment of the likelihood of genocide in Gaza”, Falconer said: “Israel’s denial of aid is appalling.”
But Labour MPs shouted “or what” as Falconer said the UK was calling on the Israeli government to allow humanitarian organisations to save lives.
The UQ was tabled by the Green MP Adrian Ramsay, who asked if the government agreed with Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator (and a former No 10 adviser) that genocide in Gaza is possible. Ramsay said Israel’s aid blockade was to blame for people starving.
In his reponse, on the issue of whether Israel was committing genocide, Falconer said this was a matter still being determined by the international court of justice. But he said Fletcher’s testimony was “incredibly important”.
On aid, he said:
Tonnes of food are currently sitting rotting at the Gaza-Israel border blocked from reaching people who are starving.
Israeli ministers have said Israel’s decision to block this aid is a pressure lever. This is cruel and it is indefensible. Overnight, yet more Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes. This must end. The message yesterday was clear. The world demands Israel stop and change course immediately.
With our allies, we are telling the government of Israel – lift the block on aid entering Gaza now, enable the UN and all humanitarians to save lives now, we need an immediate ceasefire now.
This prompted shouting from Labour MPs who wanted to know what the government would do if Israel took no notice.
In a subsequent question, the Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan said:
Almost a million children at risk of famine and death in Gaza. Those who have stood by and allowed this to happen should hold their heads in shame. I call on this government to sanction Israeli officials until the blockade is lifted because if we do not act now this will be on us.
And the Labour MP Andy McDonald said:
The minister has repeatedly said that we do everything to observe international law. Will he please accept that there is a growing body of opinion that says the UK is not doing that: we’re not complying with our obligations and we are not doing so if we continue to supply parts to the F-35 programme, these are the weapons that are dropping on children in Gaza?
We cannot say we’re observing the genocide and Geneva conventions and Rome statute if we continue to supply those goods.
Falconer told McDonald he did not accept the premise of his questions.
On the F-35 programme, he said that the UK was not selling the jets directly to Israel, that it was supplying spare parts in accordance with legal advice and that the F-35 programme was of “critical importance to European security”.
The Tory MP Edward Leigh asked Falconer to accept that “many friends of Israel worldwide, notwithstanding narrow legal depositions, are asking this moral question – when is genocide not genocide?”
Falconer said the government “will not move towards making determinations from despatch boxes on questions of legal determination”.
This is what Wes Streeting, the health secretary, told the comedian and podcaster Matt Forde at an event on Monday about Reform UK being the main threat to Labour. As HuffPost UK reports, Streeting said:
I think there’s a genuine question if people are less cynical about [Nigel] Farage than they used to be.
Let’s not forget that – for whatever I might think of him and his politics and what he has done to our country – he is objectively one of the most formidable campaigners in British politics.
So we should not underestimate him and we should not underestimate Reform.
I genuinely think that Reform is now Labour’s main opposition in the country, and there is a realignment on the right of British politics, of a type we haven’t seen since about a century ago since Labour supplanted the Liberals as the challengers on the centre left. And I think something similar is happening on the right.
PMQs - snap verdict
Today felt like one of those PMQs where we actually learned something substantial and important: Keir Starmer has given up on the Tories as the prime threat to Labour, and is more focused on Reform UK.
To be fair, this is something he has started saying explicity. In an interview with the Sun on Sunday at the weekend, Starmer said that even before the local elections he was “planning on the basis we were likely to be facing Reform at the next election in any event”. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said much the same in an interview with Matt Forde, as HuffPost reports today. Given what the opinion polls are recording, it would be surprising if Starmer were not thinking this way.
But just talking about the Conservative party no longer being the principal strategic opponent is one thing; acting as if you believe it is another, and that is what we saw from Starmer today. In his responses to Badenoch, there was a level of weariness and disdain that felt new. Here is one of his replies:
She must be the only person left in the country who thinks the economy was booming after the last government. We’ve created new jobs, record investment, trade deals that they tried, the India deal, I think they tried for eight years and failed. We did that deal. They talked about a US deal. We did that deal.
She says she is against the India deal, even though it has got the same provision she put on the table. She is against the US deal, even though it saves thousands of jobs in car manufacturing. Most absurdly she says she’s going to rip up the EU deal when she hasn’t even seen what’s on the page.
A once great political party is sliding into braindead oblivion.
Here is another.
I think she just said a tiny tariff deal. Can I suggest she gets the train to Solihull, two hours, go to speak to the workforce at JLR, their families, their communities, to tell them she would rip up the deal that protects their jobs.
And when she’s done that she might travel across to Scunthorpe and tell the steelworkers there she’s going to rip up the deal that saves their jobs, and then if she’s got time she can go up to Scotland and talk to the whisky distilleries, tell them she’d rip up the deal that’s creating 1,200 jobs for them, boosting their exports, and then come back here next week and tell us what reaction she got.
And here is a third:
What does she say she’ll do with the India deal? She wants to rip it up. The US deal that saves thousands upon thousands of jobs, what does she want to do? She wants to rip it up. The EU deal, good for our economy. She’s not even going to wait to see what it says.
It is so unserious. She was even reduced last week to calling the Indian government and accusing them of fake news, no wonder she did so badly as a trade secretary. The project for them is over, they’re sliding into oblivion, they’re a dead party walking.
It was not that Starmer was being contemptuous of Badenoch. It was more as if he no longer regards her as serious or important, and has given up trying to pretend otherwise.
Perhaps this is hubris. A wise politician never underestimates their opponent.
But perhaps Starmer is right after all, and perhaps Labour should be devoting all its intellectual energy to thinking about how to derail Farage. When Starmer says the Conservative party is finished, even someone like Jeremy Hunt won’t say for sure that he is wrong.
And there was nothing in Kemi Badenoch’s performance today that suggests she is about to overhaul Farage. In asking about the economy, she was on the right territory. But there was no nuance, subtlety or discrimination – just sweeping, “everything’s a disaster” declinism that sounded exaggerated, out of touch and a bit silly. Farage sounded more grounded – which is one of the reasons why his party is doing better than hers.
Updated
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, has issued this statement about the PM’s blunt response to her question at PMQs. (See 12.21pm.)
The prime minister’s outburst showed that my question struck a nerve. The expressions on the faces of many Labour MPs told their own story – plenty of them know I was right. If his convictions change with the political weather, it’s no surprise that support for Labour in Wales, as across Britain, is falling through the floor.
Nesil Caliskan (Lab) says the employment rights bill will deliver the biggest boost for workers’s rights in a generation. Does the PM agree that Reform UK voting against show they are not on the side of workers?
Starmer does agree.
He goes on:
Let us be clear what the parties opposite voted against.
Stronger statutory sick pay – they voted against.
The right to guaranteed hours – they voted against.
Protection from unfair dismissal – they voted against.
Stronger protection for pregnant mothers – they voted against.
Insecure work, a package worth £600 pounds to the poorest worker – they voted against.
Alison Griffiths (Con) asks why pensioners are not able to claim personal independence payment. She asks about a pensioner constituent left severly disabled after a dog attack.
Starmer says the current system does not work. It must be reformed.
Melanie Onn (Lab) says Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes is the clean energy capital of the UK. But Reform’s new mayor has declared war in renewables. Will the government proect these jobs?
Starmer says Onn is a champion of jobs. The parties opposite are “climate defeatists”. They should try explaining their policies to people dependent on these jobs, he says.
Starmer says opposition's lack of support for net zero 'further evidence Tory project finished'
John Lamont (Con) says people in his Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency are “disgusted by the energy secretary’s obsessive pursuit of net zero at any cost”.
Starmer say there used to be a consensus on net zero. But the Tory attitude to it now is “further evidence, as far as I can see, that the Tory project is just finished”.
Andrew Snowden (Con) says the offshore cable scheme in Morecambe is one of the most objected to schemes in the country. He asks the government to consider another route.
Starmer says this is subject to a quasi-judicial planning process, so there is a limit to what he can say. But he says impacts are meant to be '“carefully considered” under the planning process.
Amanda Martin (Lab) asks if Starmer wil back her bill to increase penalties for people who steal tools from workers.
Starmer says this is a serious crime. The justice secretary will consider this, he says.
Farage says Starmer's immigration speech shows he's 'learning great deal from us'
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, says he enjoyed Starmer’s speech on Monday. He says Starmer seems to be “learning a very great deal from us”.
He asks Starmer to declare a national emergency at the borders.
Starmer says the border security bill will give terrorism-type powers to the Border Force. But Farage voted against it.
UPDATE: Farage said:
We at Reform, a party that is alive and kicking, very much enjoyed your speech on Monday, you seem to be learning a very great deal from us. Could I encourage you please to go further, as a matter of national security?
Over the weekend, an illegal immigrant from Iran, who we believe came by boat, was arrested in the north of England on serious charges of terrorism. Since the speech on Monday, 1,000 young, undocumented young males have crossed the English Channel.
Does the prime minister agree, now is the time to declare the situation in the English Channel as a national security emergency?
And Starmer replied:
The situation is serious, the last government lost control of the borders.
The [border security, asylum and ammigration) bill is the first bill to give terrorism-like powers to law enforcement, precisely so that we can get in before the crimes are committed, before people get to this country.
This is the most far-reaching provision ever for law enforcement to defend and secure our borders, and that’s why it is extraordinary that he, of all people, voted against it.
Updated
Sarah Smith (Lab) asks about a boy waiting 18 months for an EHCP in her constituency. Will the voices of parents and children be at the heart of Send reforms?
Starmer says every young person with Send should get the right support. He says more funding has been allocated for this.
Starmer defends immigration speech, telling Plaid Cymru MP who questioned his consistency she was talking 'rubbish'
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, says Starmer used to support migrants. But now he only echoes the views of focus groups, she says. She asks if there is any believe he holds which survives a week in Downing Street.
Starmer replies:
Yes, the belief that she talks rubbish.
He goes on:
I want to lead a country where we pull together a walk into the future as neighbours and as communities, not as strangers, and the loss of control of migration by the last government put all of that at risk, and that’s why we’re fixing the system based on principles of control, selection and fairness.
Updated
Starmer says situation in Gaza 'simply intolerable and getting worse'
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks if the government will bring in the Lib Dem plan for a higher minimum wage for care workers.
Starmer says the government will introduce a fair pay deal for them.
Davey turns to Gaza, and asks if Starmer will call President Trump and ask him to recognise Palestine, and to get a plan for aid to enter Gaza.
Starmer says the situation in Gaza is “simply intolerable and getting worse”.
He says his team is working night and day on getting aid into Gaza, hostages released and a new ceasefire.
Badenoch says Starmer needs to listen to business.
Starmer says Badenoch should listen to business, who support the government’s trade deals. He criticises her for opposing the new deal with the EU before it has even been announced.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
What does she say she’ll do with the India deal? She wants to rip it up. The US deal that saves thousands upon thousands of jobs, what does she want to do? She wants to rip it up. The EU deal, good for our economy. She’s not even going to wait to see what it says.
It is so unserious. She was even reduced last week to calling the Indian government and accusing them of fake news, no wonder she did so badly as a trade secretary. The project for them is over, they’re sliding into oblivion, they’re a dead party walking.
Updated
Badenoch says business groups say the employment rights bill will make things worse for them. Why does Starmer think he knows best?
Starmer says this is the same old Tories – opposed to workers’ rights.
Badenoch says things are getting worse. She mentions a hospice that will be hit by the rise in employer national insurance.
Starmer says Badenoch complains about the budget every week, but she supports the extra spending for the NHS without saying how she would fund it.
Badenoch says she welcomed Starmer’s “tiny tariff dea” with the US.
Starmer says, if Badenoch thinks that deal was tiny, she should go to Solihull and speak to steelworkers who have been protected from tariffs.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
I think she just said a tiny tariff deal. Can I suggest she gets the train to Solihull, two hours, go to speak to the workforce at JLR, their families, their communities, to tell them she would rip up the deal that protects their jobs.
And when she’s done that she might travel across to Scunthorpe and tell the steelworkers there she’s going to rip up the deal that saves their jobs, and then if she’s got time she can go up to Scotland and talk to the whisky distilleries, tell them she’d rip up the deal that’s creating 1,200 jobs for them, boosting their exports, and then come back here next week and tell us what reaction she got.
Updated
Starmer accuses Tories of 'sliding into brain-dead oblivion'
Badenoch asks about the chain store Beales having a Rachel Reeves closing down sale.
Starmer says Badenoch must be “the only person left in the country who thinks the economy was booming after the last government”.
He says “a once great political party is sliding into brain-dead oblivion”.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
She must be the only person left in the country who thinks the economy was booming after the last government. We’ve created new jobs, record investment, trade deals that they tried, the India deal, I think they tried for eight years and failed. We did that deal. They talked about a US deal. We did that deal.
She says she is against the India deal, even though it has got the same provision she put on the table. She is against the US deal, even though it saves thousands of jobs in car manufacturing. Most absurdly she says she’s going to rip up the EU deal when she hasn’t even seen what’s on the page.
A once great political party is sliding into brain-dead oblivion.
Updated
Starmer says alleged arson attack on his property 'an attack on democracy, and values we stand for'
Kemi Badenoch starts by saying how unacceptable the attacks on his home were.
And she asks why unemployment is rising.
Starmer says he appreciates what Badenoch said about the arson attacks. She contacted him straight way, he says. He says he was grateful.
He says this was “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for”.
On unemployment, he accuses her of talking the country down.
Lorraine Beavers (Lab) asks about an air quality problem in her Blackpool constituency.
Starmer says, when Tory MPs say “Oh no” at the mention of 14 years of Tory rules, they are just saying what the public feel.
He says the air quality issue is one being addressed.
Starmer hails US and India trade agreements
Keir Starmer starts by mentioned the trade deal with India, and the “landmark agreement” (he does not call it a trade deal) with the US. And he says the immigration white paper has been published.
He also says MPs will want to remember the 40th anniversary of the Bradford City fire.
Updated
Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs, which starts at noon.
Rupert Lowe claims he was victim of Reform UK 'smear campaign' after CPS announces he's not being charged
In March Reform UK reported Rupert Lowe (at the time one of their five MPs) to the police, claiming he had threatened the party chair, Zia Yusuf, with violence. Reform UK announced the news shortly after Lowe gave a newspaper interview criticising Nigel Farage, the party leader,
The Crown Prosecution Service has today announced that, having considered the evidence, it is not taking further action. In a statement Malcolm McHaffie, head of the CPS’s special crime division, said:
Following a thorough and detailed review of the evidence in relation to an allegation of threats, we have decided that no criminal charges should be brought against a sitting MP.
Having considered a number of witness statements, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.
In a statement Lowe, who is no longer in Reform, said this proved that he was the victim of a “brutal smear campaign”. He claimed the police process was “weaponised to silence a party colleague who raised reasonable concerns”.
He went on:
If Farage were ever to control the vast power of the British state, I believe he would not hesitate to do to his adversaries what they have tried to do to me. With real power, I fear he would wield that immense responsibility to crush dissent - as he has done time and again over the years …
Please listen when I say this: For the good of our country, Nigel Farage must never be prime minister.
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GPs in England deeply divided over assisted dying bill, survey suggests, ahead of fresh Commons debate on Friday
GPs in England are deeply divided on whether assisted dying should be allowed, a BBC survey suggests. In their report, Catherine Burns and Harriet Agerholm report:
BBC News sent more than 5,000 GPs a questionnaire asking whether they agreed with changing the law to allow assisted dying for certain terminally ill people in England and Wales.
More than 1,000 GPs replied, with about 500 telling us they were against an assisted dying law and about 400 saying they were in favour.
Some of the 500 GPs who told us they were against the law change called the bill “appalling”, “highly dangerous”, and “cruel”. “We are doctors, not murderers,” one said.
Of the 400 who said they supported assisted dying, some described the bill as “long overdue” and “a basic human right”.
It is a big week for assisted dying legislation. Here are some of the other stories on this running today.
The assisisted dying bill covering England and Wales is back in the Commons chamber on Friday. Since second reading, it has been in committee where more than 150 amendments to the bill were passed. The House of Commons has published a very detailed briefing paper explaining how the bill has changed.
New 10-year settlement rule likely to apply to migrants already in UK, not just new arrivals, report claims
On Monday, after Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, published the immigration white paper, she refused to tell MPs whether the plan to make migrants wait 10 year of earned settlement (the route to citizenship) would just apply to new arrivals, or to people already in the UK expecing to wait just five years (the current waiting time).
But, according to a story by Matt Dathan in the Times, Cooper does not want to exempt migrants already in the UK from the new rules. He says:
The Times can also reveal that 1.5 million foreign workers who have moved to Britain since 2020 face having to wait a further five years to apply for permanent settlement.
Under reforms set out in the immigration white paper, automatic settlement and citizenship rights will be granted after ten years instead of five, but it did not state whether this would apply for migrants already here.
Government sources said Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, wants to apply the changes to all migrants who have arrived in the UK in the last five years. This would mean that 1.5 million foreign workers who would have qualified for permanent settlement later this year face having to wait until they have lived in Britain for ten years.
Charities, thintanks and MPs have criticised this proposal, saying that extending the amount of time migrants have to wait until they can get citizenship will be bad for integration.
According to a briefing from the Migration Observatory, a migration thinktank, one reason why the Home Office favours the plan is because it will raise money. It explains:
The white paper proposes increasing the duration to settlement to 10 years as the standard amount for workers, with family members still able to get settlement after 5 years. Other proposals allowing earlier settlement for people making a greater social or economic contribution are also set out, with details to be consulted on. A ten-year route to settlement would make the UK more restrictive than most other high-income countries but comparable to Switzerland and Japan.
Mihnea Cuibus, researcher at the Migration Observatory, said: “The newly proposed policies would mean more migrants have temporary status. Making the route to permanent status longer is unlikely to significantly affect migration levels. One of the main impacts would be to bring in more visa-fee revenue to the Home Office, because people on temporary visas pay ongoing fees to be here. For migrants themselves, this means higher costs and longer periods without the rights that come with permanent status and citizenship.”
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Sarah Pochin, the new Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, has said that Labour is now sounding “more like Reform than Reform” on immigration.
Speaking to Times Radio, she said:
Reform have got them on the run. They know what the electorate want to hear.
They’ve seen the devastating impact of our policies on their results in these latest set of elections, and so now, yes, they’re sounding more like Reform than Reform are.
McFadden says controversy about PM's 'island of strangers' comment has been 'way overblown'
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, was also asked about the controversy about Keir Starmer’s “island of strangers” comment in his speech on immigration on Monday, and its Powellite connotations. He told LBC: “This has been way overblown.”
Asked if he would use the phrase himself, McFadden replied:
Well, it depends on the context. I might, because what the prime minister was talking about was we need a society with rules. We need a society with responsibilities and obligations. And that’s absolutely right. We all believe in that.
China issues warning to UK over terms of US trade deal
China has warned the UK over its new trade deal with the US, accusing Britain of aligning with the US in a move that could compel British companies to exclude Chinese products from their supply chains, Aletha Adu reports.
Major Whitehall buildings to be shut to shed 12,000 civil servant jobs in London
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has been giving interviews this morning to talk about government plans to get rid of 12,000 civil service jobs in London. Rowena Mason has the details here.
Some of the 12,000 London jobs will be relocated elsewhere in the country, and some will go for good. But, in interviews this morning, McFadden was not able to say how many of the jobs would be retained outside London. He told Times Radio:
The precise number will be dependent on the demands in the future. We’re also trying to get more productivity out of the civil service because it’s grown by about 120,000 people over the last 10 years. That was a situation we inherited. And I want the civil service to be more productive as well.
But I think there’s a real opportunity here because people can work and contribute in different parts of the country now.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden Minister shrugs off criticism of Trump visit by Canada’s Carney
Good morning. For the last two days the immigration white paper, and the row generated by Keir Starmer’s use of Powellite language to defend it, has dominated Westminster politics, and we may well hear more of that today at PMQs. But there is quite a lot of foreign policy on the table too: the Ukraine negotiations with Russia due to take place in Turkey tomorrow, the crisis in Gaza, and next week’s summit with the EU (an issue of particular interest to Kemi Badenoch). And, of course, Donald Trump remains a ubiquitous news presence, impossible to ignore.
This morning we’ve had an insight into the extent to which the US president caused a rift between the UK and Canada, two countries that for the most part are very strong allies. In an interview with Sky News, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, admitted that Canadians were unhappy about Keir Starmer’s decision to offer Trump an unprecedented second state visit to the UK when he visited the White House in February. At the time, Trump was still threatening to annex Canada. Asked how Canadians reacted to state visit invitation, Carney replied:
To be frank, they [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture. Quite simply, given the circumstance, it was at a time when we were being quite clear, some of us were being quite clear about the issues around sovereignty. I was not yet prime minister, but I was being clear on the campaign trail and it cut across some of those messages.
Asked if a state visit for Trump was appropriate, Carney replied:
Well, that’s a judgment for the government of the United Kingdom and the palace.
Asked if he had a personal view, Carney said:
I have opinions on many things, some of which I keep to myself.
This was one of those interviews where there was no surprise in the substance of what Carney said; it has been widely known that Canadians were unhappy about the state visit. But what was notable was that Carney was willing to talk about it.
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has been giving interviews this morning, and he claimed to be “completely relaxed” about Carney’s comments. Asked about them on Sky News, he replied:
We’ve got free speech in the world. Prime Minister Carney is entitled to his view. He’s got to decide how Canada conducts its relationships with the United States, and by the same token, so do we.
So I’m completely relaxed about the comments, but I’m glad that President Trump is coming on a state visit, and I’m particularly glad that we’ve conducted a trade deal that saves thousands of automotive jobs in this country and is a platform for future trade which can benefit the United Kingdom economically more in the future too.
The government is not going to rescind the state visit offer. But that does not mean all the difficult decisions associated with it are now settled. Trump is expected to visit Windsor Castle in September to meet King Charles, but this has not been confirmed as a state visit, and suggestions that Trump could be invited to address parliament are generating strong opposition.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is due to speak to broadcasters during a visit to a charity in south Lanarkshire.
11am: Tim Davie, the BBC director general, gives a speech where he is due to call for call for a “bold collective choice to take on the trust crisis”.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
Lunchtime: Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester mayor, and Steve Rotheram, Liverpool metro mayor, are due to speak to the media at Westminster about their call for a Liverpool-Manchester railway line.
After 12.30pm: MPs will vote on Lords amendments to the Great British energy bill, and then on Lords amendments to the data (use and access) bill.
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