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Here is a summary of today’s developments:
The foreign secretary has defended children as young as 13 needing digital ID. Asked by LBC whether she supported the Department for Science Innovation and Technology’s consultation on digital ID for young children, Yvette Cooper said: “Lots of 13-year-olds already do [have a form of digital ID], and what the department is going to be consulting on is exactly how that should be taken forward.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Cooper said there are no plans for British or European troops in Gaza after the ceasefire. Cooper told the news programme: “That’s not our plan, there’s no plans to do that.”
The UK government needs to work with China, but there are a “whole series of security threats”, the foreign secretary has said. Asked whether China was a “friend or foe”, speaking on LBC, Cooper said the government had been “clear” that “there’s a whole series of security threats that have come from China”, but added: “They are also, of course, an important trading partner, and also they’re somebody that we need to work with on things like climate change.”
The Lib Dems called digital ID for children as young as 13 “sinister” and a “step towards state overreach”. Responding to reports that the government is considering rolling out mandatory digital ID for children as young as 13, Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat science, innovation and technology spokesperson said:“This is proof that the Liberal Democrats were absolutely right to warn about mission creep.”
Keir Starmer has been accused of pushing some of his last remaining progressive allies out of government as he embarks on another shake-up of his Downing Street operation designed to empower his chief secretary, Darren Jones. The prime minister is overseeing a reorganisation of several key parts of his government, including the delivery and policy units, to refocus the policy work and give Jones more direct control of the machinery of government.
Ash Regan, the only MSP at Holyrood representing the late Alex Salmond’s Alba party, has quit to sit as an independent. After Salmond died suddenly last year, Regan ran to replace him but was beaten by former MP Kenny MacAskill. Regan said in her resignation letter that she believed the party “had chosen a different path” and would now focus on her members’ bill to criminalise those who buy sex.
Nigel Farage has described a former senior figure in his party who has been convicted of taking pro-Russian bribes as a “bad apple”. Speaking at a campaign visit in Caerphilly on Friday, Farage said he was “shocked” by Nathan Gill’s admissions that he had taken bribes to make statements in favour of Vladimir Putin’s Russia while he was a member of the European parliament.
A former British diplomat has served a petition challenging the ban on Palestine Action in Scotland. The case, brought by Craig Murray, is separate to the judicial review of the proscription decision being brought at the high court in London and could lead to a situation whereby the ban is ruled unlawful in Scotland but not in England and Wales.
The leader of Plaid Cymru has said the party would bring “new energy” to the Senedd after 26 years of Welsh Labour in power, ahead of the party’s annual conference. The party conference will be held in Swansea until Saturday.
Ap Iorwerth also said that next year’s Welsh parliament elections will be a two-horse race between his party and Reform UK. Ap Iorwerth said voters could choose to back Plaid’s vision of a progressive Wales or face the division upon which Reform thrives.
Senior Scottish National party strategists believe a majority at next year’s Holyrood elections is “within reach” despite failing public trust in Scotland’s government as they focus in on the “battleground cohort” of independence supporters who have drifted away from the SNP. Before the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen this weekend, one senior source said the path to a majority – by winning 65 seats or more – was “more straightforward now” than it had been for a long time because of the Tory collapse and Labour’s unpopularity.
Bridget Phillipson is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to scrap the two-child benefit cap entirely in next month’s budget, with the education secretary telling the Guardian the evidence is clear that it needs to be removed. Phillipson, who is finalising a report to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on child poverty, said abolishing the cap was the most cost effective way to make lives better for young disadvantaged people.
The Scottish government will have to make its land reform bill more radical to ensure support from the Greens, the party’s co-leader has said. The land reform (Scotland) bill will go before MSPs for a final vote later this month, after what is expected to be multiple marathon sessions to consider more than 400 amendments.
The head of the Foreign Office will travel to China next week as ministers come under pressure over the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, the Guardian can disclose. Oliver Robbins, who as permanent secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is its most senior civil servant, will visit China on “long-planned” government business.
Arif Ahmed, England’s higher education free speech regulator, says universities must distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel’s government while protecting Jewish students from harassment on campus, in an interview about student protests. Ahmed, the Office for Students’ (OfS) director for freedom of speech, said the regulator was “deeply concerned” about antisemitism on campus. In an interview on the BBC’s Today programme, Ahmed said the OfS was “prepared to act” against any university that failed to shield Jewish students as part of its duty to promote free speech.
Reform UK recorded its biggest ever byelection win in the election for the Skelton East ward for Redcar and Cleveland council on Thursday, where the party set a new vote record with 65.3% and gaining a council seat from the Tories.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey described “a stonker of a night” for his party, after the Lib Dems held two seats in byelections and gained a seat from the Consevatives in another. Parish councillor Kevin Smith beat Reform UK’s Terry Tume and the Consevative party’s Lucille Baker in the Kenn Valley (Teignbridge) council byelection within the shadow chancellor Mel Stride’s constituency.
Updated
Government plans to merge councils may not save money, and do nothing to solve the very real problems they face, writes Polly Toynbee in her latest opinion piece:
It’s extraordinary that a profound reshaping – and shrinking – of our democracy is happening under our noses, and virtually no one notices. For baffling reasons, soon after the general election a government with a sky-high in-tray of problems embarked on a gigantic local council reorganisation no one knew about.
It didn’t feature in the manifesto, nor in the local government secretary Steve Reed’s conference speech last week – but England has plans to axe unknown numbers of local councillors – some estimates put it at nearly 90%. The white paper outlining these plans actually boasts that there will be “fewer local politicians”, pandering disgracefully to the general scorn for politics. Yet voters trust councillors twice as much as they do Westminister politicians.
For all the talk of localism and connecting to neighbourhoods, these are the unheralded foot soldiers of democracy. It is councillors who run political parties and much that binds their communities. Few people ever join political parties, yet the whole tottering democratic system relies entirely on those who do. Running the council and becoming a councillor is part of party members’ purpose and motivation. Abolishing so many will diminish democratic engagement over time.
The UK has failed to learn lessons since the Windrush scandal, campaigners say, after a UK-born toddler was denied a British passport and asked to prove she has the right to free NHS treatment.
Three-year-old Zharia-Rae’s mother, Tracy Ann Dunkley, has been a British citizen since 2024 and the child’s older brother, born to the same parents in 2020, was given a British passport in 2022.
But Dunkley, from the Caribbean island of Anguilla, a British overseas territory (BOT), was told her daughter was not eligible for a British passport and was classed as a BOT citizen, which differs from full British citizenship and limits her rights and privileges in the UK.
Dunkley has also been sent letters demanding proof that the child – who was born in Birmingham with hip dysplasia, is non-verbal and is being assessed for autism – is entitled to free NHS treatment.
The latest letter, received on Thursday, states that the investigation into the child’s eligibility is based on the answers to questions asked about Zharia-Rae’s nationality and immigration status and adds that an invoice will be prepared and issued.
Dunkley, who is a stay-at-home mother and a carer for Zharia-Rae and her four-year-old brother, who is also thought to be autistic, said the letters had left her scared and distraught as she has no way of paying for the treatment.
She said this was not the first issue she had encountered since migrating to the UK from Anguilla. After attempting to return to work from maternity leave after having Zharia-Rae, she was told she was not eligible to work in the UK.
“My manager told me that there’s a new feature at work. You have to upload the documents on to an app. And that needs to be done before you can return to work. After uploading the same documents that I used to get hired initially, my manager then calls me back and tells me I’m not eligible to work. So I could not return to work,” she said.
The weight of having to deal with two young children with additional needs and manage immigration and NHS questions had become unbearable, she added.
Nigel Farage has described a former senior figure in his party who has been convicted of taking pro-Russian bribes as a “bad apple”, reports the PA news agency.
Nathan Gill, who led Reform UK in Wales in 2021, admitted taking bribes to make statements in favour of Vladimir Putin’s Russia while he was a member of the European parliament.
His activities were said to include making pro-Russian statements about events in Ukraine in the European parliament and in opinion pieces to news outlets.
Speaking at a campaign visit in Caerphilly on Friday, Farage said he was “shocked” by Gill’s admissions. He said:
Any political party can find in their midst all sorts of terrible people.
Gill is particularly shocking because I knew him as a devout Christian, very clean-living, honest person. So I’m deeply shocked. But you know, that is a different time.
I’m the only one [in Reform] that really knew him, going back a long way.
Gill, 52, pleaded guilty last month to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.
Updated
Alba party loses sole MSP as Ash Regan quits to sit as independent
Ash Regan, the only MSP at Holyrood representing the late Alex Salmond’s Alba party, has quit to sit as an independent.
Alba was launched by former first minister Salmond in 2021 as a direct rival to the SNP after his catastrophic rift with the Scottish government and then first minister Nicola Sturgeon over their handling of sexual harassment allegations made against him.
After Salmond died suddenly last year, Regan ran to replace him but was beaten by former MP Kenny MacAskill. Regan said in her resignation letter that she believed the party “had chosen a different path” and would now focus on her members’ bill to criminalise those who buy sex.
The news comes as SNP members travel to Aberdeen for the start of their annual party conference tomorrow. Alba has struggled to make any impact electorally as an alternative pro-independence party with the SNP still leading the poll
Updated
The Scottish government will have to make its land reform bill more radical to ensure support from the Greens, the party’s co-leader has said, according to the PA news agency.
The land reform (Scotland) bill will go before MSPs for a final vote later this month, after what is expected to be multiple marathon sessions to consider more than 400 amendments.
The legislation would give ministers the power to break up large estates being offered for sale if certain conditions are met, as well as aiming to make community buyouts easier. But the Greens have criticised the bill for not going far enough in a country where just 421 people own 50% of private rural land.
Speaking to the PA news agency on Friday, the party’s co-leader Ross Greer said the bill would need to see “substantial changes” if the Greens were to support it. He said:
We put forward dozens of proposals at the previous stage of the land reform bill in parliament and the Scottish government just knocked them back one after the other.
The message that we’re trying to get across to government ministers now is: if you expect the Greens’ support for this bill, if you want this bill to pass, then it actually needs to deliver land reform.
What they’re proposing at the moment is a bill whose title is the land reform (Scotland) bill, but that will not break up any big estates, it will not take more land away from these billionaires, these tax avoiders and aristocrats, and give it to the people of Scotland.
He added:
What we need is a land reform bill that actually takes the land of this country and puts it back in the hands of the people who live here.
It is appalling that in a country of more than five million people, there are fewer than 500 people and companies that own a majority of our private land.
The Scottish government has been contacted by the PA news agency for comment.
In the latest from the Guardian’s Boris Files investigative series, leaked files offer a glimpse of the ex-prime minister’s relationship with Christopher Harborne.
You can read the exclusive report here:
Lib Dems call digital ID for children as young as 13 'sinister' and a 'step towards state overreach'
Responding to reports that the government is considering rolling out mandatory digital ID for children as young as 13, Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat science, innovation and technology spokesperson:
This is proof that the Liberal Democrats were absolutely right to warn about mission creep.
The government is already plotting to drag teenagers into a mandatory digital ID scheme before it’s even off the ground. It’s frankly sinister, unnecessary, and a clear step towards state overreach.
Updated
The UK government has maintained its stance on Palestine Action after a former British diplomat served a petition challenging the ban on the group in Scotland.
A Home Office spokesperson said in response to the challenge:
Palestine Action has conducted an escalating campaign involving not just sustained criminal damage, including to Britain’s national security infrastructure, but also intimidation and, more recently, alleged violence and serious injuries to individuals.
That kind of activity puts the safety and security of the public at risk.
Violence and serious criminal damage has no place in lawful protests.
Updated
Haroon Siddique is the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent.
A former British diplomat has served a petition challenging the ban on Palestine Action in Scotland.
The case, brought by Craig Murray, is separate to the judicial review of the proscription decision being brought at the high court in London and could lead to a situation whereby the ban is ruled unlawful in Scotland but not in England and Wales.
Defend Our Juries, which has been organising protests in support of Palestine Action, the first direct action protest group to be proscribed under the Terrorism Act, said such an outcome would herald a “constitutional crisis”.
Murray, who was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004, served notice on the Scottish solicitor general, Ruth Charteris KC, on Friday. The next stage will be a hearing to decide whether the case can proceed to trial.
He is arguing that the proscription order contravenes the rights to freedom of speech and assembly under the European convention of human rights and that Palestine Action should have been consulted before it was imposed.
You can read the full piece from Haroon Siddique here: Former British diplomat challenges Palestine Action ban in Scotland
Damien Gayle is an environment correspondent for the Guardian.
He never seems to tire of deriding “net stupid zero”, but Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, has a 15-year business record of support for sustainability and green energy initiatives.
The Reform party has made opposition to green energy and net zero part of its policy platform. Its founder, Nigel Farage, has called net zero policies a “lunacy”; the party has called to lift the ban on fracking for fossil gas; and one of the first Reform-led councils, Kent, rescinded last month its declaration of a climate emergency.
However, companies led by Tice since 2011 boasted of their commitments to saving energy, cutting CO2 emissions and environmental responsibility. One told investors it had introduced a “green charter” to “mitigate our impact on climate change” and later hired a “full-time sustainability manager” as part of “its focus on energy efficiency and sustainability”.
Another said it was “keen to play its part in reducing emissions for cleaner air” and said it had saved “hundreds of tonnes of CO2” by installing solar cells on the rooftops of its properties.
A glance at Tice’s account on X reveals contempt for warnings of climate breakdown and efforts to mitigate it. Last year he said: “We are not in climate emergency; nor is there a climate crisis.” In May he stated: “Solar farms are wrong at every level” and insisted they would “destroy food security, destroy jobs [and] destroy property values”.
You can read the full piece from Damien Gayle here: Richard Tice has 15-year record of supporting ‘net stupid zero’ initiatives
Updated
The latest in the Weatherwatch column asks: “With most MPs ignorant of the urgency, how can the UK ever reach net zero?” Paul Brown takes a look, using a new study by the University of East Anglia:
The people you hope would be best informed about the imminent threat of climate breakdown would be members of parliament. After all, droughts and storms affecting their constituents have been a recurring news item. The need to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 requires an informed debate among parties.
The key question on which the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, in 2022, reached hard-won scientific consensus was when CO2 emissions need to peak for a realistic chance of keeping global temperature increases below 1.5C, the target set by the 2015 Paris agreement as too dangerous to exceed. The answer, given great prominence in the report and the media coverage of it, was this year, 2025.
Over to a representative sample of UK MPs (admittedly taken before the last general election), who were asked which year emissions had to peak to avoid exceeding 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Offered five-year intervals up to 2050, only 15 of the 100 surveyed answered correctly, while 30% said 2040 or later. Labour MPs were more likely to know the correct answer than Conservatives.
Updated
In the latest episode of Politics Weekly UK, Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey speak to the education secretary and Labour deputy leadership candidate Bridget Phillipson about the plan for a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as why she is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to get rid of the two-child limit on benefits.
Plus, she explains why she believes she is the best candidate to become the next deputy leader of the Labour party. And, we hear her thoughts on Keir Starmer’s leadership and how Labour should take on Nigel Farage and the rise of Reform. You can listen to the interview here:
Arif Ahmed, England’s higher education free speech regulator, says universities must distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel’s government while protecting Jewish students from harassment on campus, in an interview about student protests.
Ahmed, the Office for Students’ (OfS) director for freedom of speech, said the regulator was “deeply concerned” about antisemitism on campus. In an interview on the BBC’s Today programme, Ahmed said the OfS was “prepared to act” against any university that failed to shield Jewish students as part of its duty to promote free speech.
Ahmed said:
Freedom of speech does protect lawful ideas, including political ideas. For instance, criticisms of the government of Israel, just as much as support for it, if lawfully done, are protected.
But there’s a difference between that and how and when you express those things. Expressing those ideas in a way that’s intimidating, outside a synagogue for instance, wouldn’t be protected. Expressing them in a peaceful, lawful way, in a classroom or part of an academic debate, is much more likely to be protected.
Senior SNP figures believe Holyrood majority ‘within reach’ at May’s election
Senior Scottish National party (SNP) strategists believe a majority at next year’s Holyrood elections is “within reach” despite failing public trust in Scotland’s government as they focus in on the “battleground cohort” of independence supporters who have drifted away from the SNP.
Before the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen this weekend, one senior source said the path to a majority – by winning 65 seats or more – was “more straightforward now” than it had been for a long time because of the Tory collapse and Labour’s unpopularity.
“The focus now is how to re-engage all independence supporters, given that independence is way more popular than the SNP currently. It’s a good place to be,” they said.
With Scottish Labour battling to end the SNP’s nearly 20-year-long domination, both parties are focused on the “soft yes” voters. These are people who were attracted by Labour’s “kick out the Tories” message during the 2024 general election, but are no longer SNP loyalists.
“That’s the battleground cohort that Labour is battling to hold on to and the SNP is fighting to take,” said another senior source, who batted away Scottish Labour claims the nationalists were simply retreating to their core vote by putting much greater emphasis on independence. They said:
This is not a core-vote strategy. That’s the battleground vote and how that plays out is the difference between us getting 55 seats and upwards through to us getting something around 65.
Senior figures argue this strategy takes advantage of a deeply fractured opposition that is dividing the non-SNP vote, and the impact of changing dynamics at Westminster – they credit the Scottish first minister, John Swinney, for differentiating himself as pro-immigration and a progressive tax reformer.
Swinney emphasised this on Wednesday as he launched a Scottish government policy paper on independence. He said:
The prospect of Nigel Farage becoming prime minister is a very real one, but even if Farage does not make it to No 10, he is driving the agenda at Westminster ever more to the right.
On LBC this morning, Yvette Cooper was asked whether the US president, Donald Trump, deserves a Nobel peace prize for his role in the Gaza ceasefire.
The foreign secretary responded:
I’m strongly supporting the work that President Trump is doing.
It’s an independent process. I’m not going to cut across that process.
Cooper also said there were discussions about the ceasefire coming in within 24 hours of the agreement by the Israeli cabinet and the return of hostages within 72 hours, but she said that the UK government hopes this will happen sooner.
Reform UK records its biggest ever byelection win, gaining council seat from Tories
However, it wasn’t such a great night for the Lib Dems (or Labour or the Conservatives either) in the election for the Skelton East ward for Redcar and Cleveland council, where Reform UK set a new vote record with 65.3%, significantly ahead of Labour at 19.2% of the vote and the Conservative party (13.9%). The Lib Dems trailed, with only 1.5% of the vote.
Reform’s biggest byelection win means they’ve gained a seat from the Tories.
Skelton East - Redcar and Cleveland UA
— ALDC (@ALDC) October 9, 2025
Reform UK gain from Conservative
➡️ Reform UK 839 65.3%
🔴 Labour 247 19.2%
🔵 Conservative 179 13.9%
🔶 Stuart Saunders Lib Dem 19 1.5%
Thanks to Stuart for standing. pic.twitter.com/ywKIIuLs2Q
Updated
'A stonker of a night for us': Davey celebrates three council byelection wins for Lib Dems
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has described “a stonker of a night” for his party, after the Lib Dems held two seats in byelections and gained a seat from the Consevatives in another.
Parish councillor Kevin Smith beat Reform UK’s Terry Tume and the Consevative party’s Lucille Baker in the Kenn Valley (Teignbridge) council byelection within the shadow chancellor Mel Stride’s constituency.
Kenn Valley (Teignbridge) Council By-Election Result:
— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) October 10, 2025
🔶 LDM: 50.4% (+11.0)
➡️ RFM: 23.1% (New)
🌳 CON: 9.6% (-19.0)
🙋 Ind: 8.2% (New)
🌍 GRN: 5.5% (-13.9)
🌹 LAB: 2.7% (-9.9)
🙋 Ind: 0.5% (New)
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative.
Changes w/ 2023.
The Lib Dems held two other seats in council byelections, holding off Reform in Yateley West (Hart) and winning in Widcombe and Lyncombe (Bath and North East Somerset).
Responding to the results, Davey said:
A stonker of a night for us. Three huge wins, Reform nowhere near us and the Tories down to ten percent in Mel Stride’s own seat.
We are the only party taking Farage on and the only party beating him.
A Lib Dem source added:
The Conservatives are in meltdown in the shadow chancellor’s own back yard.
When Mel Stride pledged cuts at Conservative party conference, we didn’t realise his first cut would be to the Tory vote in his own seat.
✅ Liberal Democrat HOLD
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 9, 2025
Yesterday's Yateley West (Hart) council by-election result:
LDEM: 54.7% (-5.9)
REF: 27.9% (+27.9)
CON: 17.3% (-8.2)
No Lab (-10.5) as prev.
+/- 2023
Estimated turnout: ~30% (-4)https://t.co/QSSdXxbUXt
Widcombe & Lyncombe (Bath & North East Somerset) Council By-Election Result:
— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) October 9, 2025
🔶 LDM: 44.4% (-11.8)
🌍 GRN: 15.4% (+0.6)
🌹 LAB: 12.2% (+4.7)
➡️ RFM: 11.9% (New)
🌳 CON: 8.6% (-12.8)
🙋 Ind: 4.8% (New)
🙋 Ind: 2.6% (New)
Liberal Democrat HOLD.
Changes w/ 2023.
Updated
Phillipson presses Starmer and Reeves to abolish two-child benefit cap in full
Bridget Phillipson is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to scrap the two-child benefit cap entirely in next month’s budget, with the education secretary telling the Guardian the evidence is clear that it needs to be removed.
Phillipson, who is finalising a report to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on child poverty, said abolishing the cap was the most cost effective way to make lives better for young disadvantaged people.
Her intervention comes after the Guardian revealed that Rachel Reeves is exploring a “tapered” system which would remove the cap in part but not wholly – for example, by moving the cap to three or four children instead.
Officials say, however, the chancellor will find it difficult to go against the findings of the child poverty taskforce, which Phillipson co-chairs – meaning Reeves is now under more pressure than ever to find the money to abolish the cap.
Phillipson told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast:
I’ve been clear in public and in conversations with colleagues about what the evidence tells us and what needs to happen. Every year that passes, because of the two-child limit, more children move into poverty and the evidence is there for all to see.
The education secretary is running to be deputy leader of her party after the resignation of Angela Rayner last month. She told the Guardian she was seeking the role in part to be given a mandate from Labour members to push the prime minister to do more on child poverty.
Phillipson said:
I have pushed to take action ahead of the budget – and that’s why we’re expanding free school meals, which will lift 100,000 children out of poverty – but there is more to do. That is why I’m seeking a mandate from members to do more.
Asked if she was seeking a mandate specifically to push for the removal of the cap, and not only for it to be tapered, she agreed. “Members should know that if I’m at that cabinet table, I know what needs to happen and I know what we need to do,” she added.
Foreign Office chief to visit China after collapse of high-profile espionage case
The head of the Foreign Office will travel to China next week as ministers come under pressure over the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, the Guardian can disclose.
Oliver Robbins, who as permanent secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is its most senior civil servant, will visit China on “long-planned” government business.
The trip comes during the same week ministers are expected to face questions over whether they had a hand in the abandonment of charges against two men, including a former parliamentary researcher, accused of spying for Beijing. Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who had always maintained their innocence, now have no case to answer.
Conservative MPs will seek to haul ministers to parliament to explain the sequence of events that led to the collapse of the trial of Cash and Berry, which had been due to begin this week.
Downing Street has said there was no ministerial or official involvement in the case being pulled.
But in an extraordinary disclosure Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, said prosecutors were forced to drop the case after failing to obtain a witness statement from the government stating that China posed a “threat to the national security of the UK”.
Parkinson told MPs in a letter on Tuesday that “efforts were made over many months” to obtain this piece of evidence and that without it the case “could not succeed”, although legal experts have since cast doubt on whether it would have been necessary.
The developments have raised questions about the government’s diplomatic rapprochement with Beijing ahead of a crunch decision on whether to approve a proposal for a Chinese super-embassy in east London.
Robbins will become the latest senior government figure to travel to Beijing, after recent trips by Peter Kyle, the business secretary, for trade talks in September and Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, for high-level meetings in July. Keir Starmer is expected to visit China early in the new year.
Starmer accused of pushing out some of last progressive allies in No 10 shake-up
Keir Starmer has been accused of pushing some of his last remaining progressive allies out of government as he embarks on another shake-up of his Downing Street operation designed to empower his chief secretary, Darren Jones.
The prime minister is overseeing a reorganisation of several key parts of his government, including the delivery and policy units, to refocus the policy work and give Jones more direct control of the machinery of government.
The changes are part of an attempt by Starmer to regain the political initiative after a troubled first year in office, during which Labour has slumped in the polls and he has been accused of showing a lack of political vision.
However, the moves have led to the departures of Carys Roberts and Muneera Lula, whom allies describe as two of the more leftwing members of the policy unit. Though both were offered jobs in the overhauled unit, friends say they felt their expertise would not be as highly valued after the changes.
Recent appointments to that unit include Axel Heitmueller, a former senior associate at the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), while Harvey Redgrave, another TBI alumnus, has been put in day-to-day charge of the team. Toby Lloyd, a former adviser to Theresa May, is understood to be joining to advise on housing and infrastructure policy.
The changes add to a sense of flux around the prime minister, with several of his longest-serving allies having left in recent weeks. They include Paul Ovenden, Starmer’s director of political strategy, and Steph Driver, who was head of communications.
One special adviser said:
Carys and Muneera were the finest policy minds in that building, and understood exactly what Keir is trying to do. Their departure leaves an enormous hole, and people fear this is part of a wider pattern of a progressive clear-out.
Another senior aide said:
A lot of women are leaving Downing Street right now. And if you look at who is being brought in to replace them, it is quite a lot of centrist men.
Downing Street declined to comment. Allies of the prime minister say he has not abandoned his progressive ideals, pointing to his recent conference speech, during which he forcefully rebutted the arguments of Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
Updated
The foreign secretary has dodged questions on whether Israel needs new political leadership.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Yvette Cooper was asked about whether the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Hamas in Gaza was necessary to get long-term peace in the region. She replied:
What we’ve had so far is now the detailed agreement on the first phase that was around five of the 20 points of the plan that was set out have now been agreed to in detail as part of phase one.
The first thing is that that has to be implemented, and there’s a huge amount of work, particularly on the humanitarian aid.
Asked about reports of continued bombing inside Gaza, Cooper said the government wants to see “a complete end to all fighting” immediately.
Cooper, who is on the media round this morning, told Radio 4’s Today Programme that the ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of the end of the war.
The foreign secretary said:
This has to be the beginning of the end of the war, and the delivery of a just and lasting peace, of security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
We’ve had two agonising years of suffering, tens of thousands of lives lost, hostages being held far away from their families for two years.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Cooper said there are no plans for British or European troops in Gaza after the ceasefire. Cooper told the news programme:
That’s not our plan, there’s no plans to do that.
But there is an immediate proposal for the US to lead what is effectively like a monitoring process to make sure that this happens on the ground, to oversee the process with hostage release, and also making sure that this first stage is implemented, getting the aid in place, but they have also made very clear that they expect the troops on the ground to be provided by neighbouring states, and that is something that we do expect to happen.
Cooper said there are international discussions on an “international security force” and the UK was continuing to contribute in other ways, including looking at getting private finance into Gaza.
The leader of Plaid Cymru has ruled out holding a referendum on independence in the next five years if he became first minister, reports the PA news agency.
Rhun ap Iorwerth told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
This isn’t an independence election coming up in May next year. There won’t be a referendum now … not in the next five years at all.
Asked if he would accept free movement of people from the EU, he said:
We’re very supportive and very eager to see us getting back into the single market, into the customs union. We know that movement of people is something that is a part of that.
I think it’s a yes because we know how much we miss the movement of people both ways into and from the European Union, and the way that it’s affected so many sectors.
He also said he wants to grow the Welsh economy, telling the programme:
We have Welsh rates of income tax, part of income tax now comes directly into the Welsh Treasury, we want to grow the Welsh economy.
That’s why we have put together ‘making Wales work’ – probably the most comprehensive economic strategy in any part of the UK at the moment – because we desperately need it here in Wales.
Our economy under Labour has been underperforming. We want to move forward from that because people deserve better.
UK government needs to work with China but there are 'series of security threats', says Cooper
The UK government needs to work with China, but there are a “whole series of security threats”, the foreign secretary has said.
Asked whether China was a “friend or foe”, speaking on LBC, Yvette Cooper said:
We’ve been clear, there’s a whole series of security threats that have come from China, for example, things like transnational repression, for example, things like cyber threats and attacks and industrial espionage, and so on.
They are also, of course, an important trading partner, and also they’re somebody that we need to work with on things like climate change.
But where there are national security threats, we need to take them immensely seriously and respond to them, and we continue to do that.
In a seperate interview, Cooper declined to say whether she has seen a dossier outlining China as a threat to the UK’s national security.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, the foreign secretary was asked whether she had seen such a document while serving as home secretary. She responded:
We know China poses threats to UK national security.
Referring to the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, Cooper added:
I am deeply frustrated about this case, because I, of course, wanted to see it prosecuted, but ministers were not involved in any of the evidence that was put to the Crown Prosecution Service or the Crown Prosecution Service’s independent decisions.
Updated
Friday's agenda
Here is what is on the UK politics agenda today:
Friday: The government, Fujitsu and Post Office are to respond to the first volume of the final inquiry report. The report said Post Office bosses should have known Horizon was faulty, but “maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate” when prosecuting post office operators.
Friday: The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, will visit the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Computing Facility to highlight the importance of innovation to Scotland’s economy.
8.45am: Plaid Cymru annual conference in Swansea begins. Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth will make his speech at 3pm.
10am: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will visit Caerphilly ahead of its byelection, campaigning with candidate Llyr Powell.
10am: Scottish Green co-leaders Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer will hold a press call in Coatbridge, north Lanarkshire, on the upcoming land reform bill entering stage three in the Scottish parliament. This will be the first formal visit of the Scottish Greens co-leaders since taking office last month.
10am: Former Scottish health secretary Jane Freeman is scheduled to give evidence at the Scottish hospitals inquiry.
2.30pm: Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana will discuss their new political party at The World Transformed conference in Manchester.
Early afternoon: Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey will be on a gardening-related visit in Surrey.
Foreign secretary defends children as young as 13 needing digital ID
The foreign secretary has defended children as young as 13 needing digital ID, reports the PA news agency.
Asked by LBC whether she supported the Department for Science Innovation and Technology’s consultation on digital ID for young children, Yvette Cooper said:
Everybody has forms of digital ID, don’t they, now. I mean, we all have different ways of having to prove who we are.
She added:
Lots of 13-year-olds already do [have a form of digital ID], and what the department is going to be consulting on is exactly how that should be taken forward.
I do think that this is the right way forward, to have this standardised process now, and it’s something that we had been already setting out for people who come to work from abroad.
Last month, the prime minister announced plans for a digital ID system, which will become mandatory as a means of proving the right to work in the UK.
In other news, the leader of Plaid Cymru has said the party would bring “new energy” to the Senedd after 26 years of Welsh Labour in power, ahead of the party’s annual conference. The party conference will be held in Swansea until Saturday.
Rhun ap Iorwerth told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
Plaid Cymru is a party that now is putting forward that radical idea on health, on education, on creating better and better-paid jobs, on tackling poverty, that Labour’s failed to deal with.
We’ve had one party, as it happens, in power over 26 years and I think they’ve run out of steam, I think they’ve run out of ideas, and having a chance to put a Plaid Cymru government in place, new leadership for our country after 26 years of standing still frankly, we can put a new energy into getting to grips with health, getting to grips with education and the economy.
I’ll bring you key updates from the party conference today as they come in as well as other developments in UK politics on stories such as:
Senior Scottish National party strategists believe a majority at next year’s Holyrood elections is “within reach” despite failing public trust in Scotland’s government as they focus in on the “battleground cohort” of independence supporters who have drifted away from the SNP. Before the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen this weekend, one senior source said the path to a majority – by winning 65 seats or more – was “more straightforward now” than it had been for a long time because of the Tory collapse and Labour’s unpopularity.
Bridget Phillipson is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to scrap the two-child benefit cap entirely in next month’s budget, with the education secretary telling the Guardian the evidence is clear that it needs to be removed. Phillipson, who is finalising a report to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on child poverty, said abolishing the cap was the most cost effective way to make lives better for young disadvantaged people.
Keir Starmer has said the Gaza ceasefire deal “would not have happened without President Trump’s leadership”, but stopped short of endorsing the US president for a Nobel peace prize. Speaking on the final day of his trade visit to India, Starmer said the agreement “must now be implemented in full, without delay, and accompanied by the immediate lifting of all restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza”.
The leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has said next year’s Welsh parliament elections will be a two-horse race between his party and Reform UK. Ap Iorwerth said voters could choose to back Plaid’s vision of a progressive Wales or face the division upon which Reform thrives.
Nigel Farage has claimed teachers would go on strike within weeks of a Reform UK election win, and accused them of “poisoning our kids” by telling them that black children are victims and white children oppressors. The Reform UK leader set out his view on British schools in an event for a private US Christian college in Michigan, claiming the “Marxist left” was “now in control of our education system”.
