Labour must target deprived areas or lose out to Reform, says former minister

Peer argues that national ‘trickledown’ approach will fail to benefit those in most need

Keir Starmer’s government must strictly target the delivery of its core “missions” at areas of maximum deprivation or lose huge numbers of votes to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, an independent commission led by a former Labour cabinet minister will suggest this week.

The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (ICON), chaired by Labour peer Hilary Armstrong, a former party chief whip and housing minister, will say the government risks “wasting billions of pounds in higher public spending while failing to transform the places that need it most” unless it adopts the targeted approach.

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Anneliese Dodds resigns over Keir Starmer’s decision to cut aid budget

Exclusive: International development minister warns it will be ‘impossible’ to retain funding in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine

Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister, has quit her post over Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the international aid budget by almost half to pay for an increase in defence spending, warning it could enable Russia and China to further their global influence.

The senior Labour MP, who attended cabinet, predicted that the UK pulling back from development would bolster Moscow, which has already been aggressively increasing its presence worldwide, as well as encourage Beijing’s attempts to rewrite global rules.

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Cuts to UK vaccine funding could lead to ‘huge numbers’ of child deaths overseas

Exclusive: Hundreds of thousands of world’s poorest children could die if aid programme slashed, experts warn

Hundreds of thousands of children in the world’s poorest countries will die if the UK cuts back funding for a hugely effective vaccination programme as part of its significant reduction in overseas aid, the Guardian has been told.

According to data collated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), to which the UK has previously been one of the main contributors, even a small cut in UK funding would be expected to result in millions fewer vaccinations, leading to huge numbers of preventable deaths.

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Grenfell Tower: seven organisations face debarment from government contracts

Possible action comes as ministers announce plans to improve building safety and strengthen accountability

Seven organisations involved in the Grenfell Tower disaster face possible debarment from government contracts as ministers set out plans to improve building safety and strengthen accountability.

The government has accepted the findings of the final Grenfell Tower inquiry report and pledged to take action on all the recommendations.

Consulting on a new college of fire and rescue later in 2025 to improve training and professionalism of firefighters.

Stopping unqualified individuals from making critical fire safety decisions, by legally requiring fire risk assessors to have their competence certified.

Continuing implementation of a new residential personal emergency evacuation plan policy to improve the fire safety and evacuation of disabled and vulnerable residents in high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings, engaging with relevant stakeholders on the implementation.

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No 10 talking to ex-Boris Johnson aide Munira Mirza about multiculturalism

Contact could unsettle some in Labour given her past record on the issue including criticism of Lammy report

Downing Street has been holding discussions with Munira Mirza, a longstanding and often controversial aide to Boris Johnson who has repeatedly criticised ideas about structural and institutional racism, it is understood.

Although it is believed that No 10’s contact with Mirza has been limited to a handful of calls at most, and that she is among a range of outside voices Downing Street has spoken to, her involvement in any sort of discussions with the government is likely to spook some Labour MPs.

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Badenoch challenges Starmer over defence spending and Chagos deal ahead of his Trump meeting – UK politics live

PM fields questions on his announcement that the UK will raise defence spending and cut the foreign aid budget

PMQs is about to start.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

The threat from the far right is real, but that leaves me all the more convinced that working together is not only the right choice, but the only choice …

More unites us than divides us. Now is the moment to make that real by uniting behind shared values, shared standards of behaviour and shared political norms, and unite against the rise of the far right.

I want us to work together to agree a common approach to asserting the values of our country, to bringing people together and creating a cohesive society where everyone feels at home …

It is time to come together, to draw a line in the sand, to set out who we are and what we believe in, because a politics of fear is a politics of despair …

I want to work with other political parties to set out clearly and boldly to the public what we can agree on as the norms and the values of our society and how we can protect those because I think they are under threat, I think they’re under very, very vigorous threat, from the politics of Farage.

Farage has been for years leading the argument which has been hostile to migration. And I think it’s based on a fundamentally racist view of the world. I reject that. I think migration is an advantage for Scotland.

There is a very live and active threat to our security from the aggression of Russia, and I think Farage is an accomplice to the Russian agenda and an apologist for the Russian agenda.

So to anybody in this country who thinks that Farage represents a means of protecting this country from the external threats that we face, I would say, have a good close look at what Farage has been connected with and what his MPs are saying about the Russian threat and their trivialisation of the Russian threat.

I’m simply making the point today that it’s important that those of us who are repulsed by the politics of Farage and the far right come together to … stress the importance of the values that we hold dear.

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Starmer can only hope slashing aid to boost defence wins Trump’s favour

PM’s Washington trip clear impetus for abrupt news of budget switch to meet defence commitment by 2027

Before Keir Starmer’s meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday, the prime minister thought it necessary to offer the president a gift. Britain’s defence spending will increase by 0.17 percentage points to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027, he told MPs in a hastily arranged Commons statement. The money, he added, would be taken directly from the overseas aid budget, whose level will be cut by nearly half to 0.3%.

The last measure is a remarkable turn for a Labour government. Uncomfortably, it comes at a time when Donald Trump wants to shut down perhaps the entire $40bn US aid budget – and at a stroke eliminates a signature commitment from the Blair-Brown years. It was back in 2004, when Tony Blair was prime minister, that Labour first committed to increasing aid spending to 0.7% of GDP.

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Ministers urged to add audiobooks to England’s new schools curriculum

Charity calls for move after poll finds ‘crisis’ levels of reading for pleasure and rise in 8- to 18-year-olds enjoying audio

The government has been urged to include audiobooks in the new schools curriculum in England, after research showed fewer children were reading books for pleasure and more were listening to them instead.

A poll by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) found that children’s enjoyment of listening to audio and podcasts had risen compared with the previous year, overtaking their enjoyment of reading for the first time since the charity began asking about audio in 2020.

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Starmer announces ‘UK’s largest packet of sanctions’ against Russia since early days of war with Ukraine – UK politics live

​PM says Trump has ‘changed global conversation on Ukraine’ as he pledges more military aid and sanctions

Keir Starmer called for support for Ukraine to be boosed in three ways in his virtual speech to the conference in Kyiv.

First, military support should increase, he said.

The UK is doing that, providing £4.5bn pounds in military aid this year, more than ever before. We’re doing more than ever to train Ukrainian troops helping Ukraine to mobilise even further. And we are proud to have taken on the leadership of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

So today, we’re announcing the UK’s largest packet of sanctions since the early days of the war, going after Russia’s shadow fleet and going after companies in China and elsewhere who are sending military component.

Later day, I will be discussing further steps with the G7. But I am clear that the G7 should be ready to take on more risk, including the oil price cap, sanctioning Russia’s oil giants and going off the banks that are enabling the evasion of sanctions.

President Trump has changed the global conversation over the last few weeks, and it has created an opportunity.

Now we must get the fundamentals right if we want peace to endure. Ukraine must have a seat at the table, and any settlement must be based on a sovereign Ukraine backed up with strong security guarantees.

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‘Real anger’: Labour can expect hostile reception at farmers’ annual gathering

UK food producers plan more protests over inheritance tax changes ahead of this week’s NFU conference in London

The suits and black cabs which typically dot the streets around Westminster have been frequently replaced by the wellies, tweed jackets and tractors of aggrieved farmers of late. The next protest in London by the nation’s food producers is expected on Tuesday morning, ahead of the annual get-together of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

Farmers have regularly swapped their fields for the city since October, when changes to inheritance tax (IHT) for agricultural businesses were announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, angrily protesting and waving banners.

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‘Starmer’s big moment’: can PM persuade Trump not to give in to Putin?

The UK leader has been advised to choose his words carefully at this week’s crucial White House meeting

Keir Starmer lays down Ukraine peace demand ahead of Trump talks

When Keir Starmer is advised on how to handle his crucial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, he will be told by advisers from Downing Street and the Foreign Office to be very clear on his main points and, above all, to be brief.

“Trump gets bored very easily,” said one well-placed Whitehall source with knowledge of the president’s attention span. “When he loses interest and thinks someone is being boring, he just tunes out. He doesn’t like [the French president, Emmanuel] Macron partly because Macron talks too much and tries to lecture him.”

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Watchdog investigates Andrew Gwynne over offensive WhatsApp messages

MP was sacked as a minister and suspended from Labour party after messages were revealed

Parliament’s standards watchdog has launched an investigation into Andrew Gwynne, who was sacked as a minister over offensive comments made on a WhatsApp group.

The MP was also suspended from the Labour party after messages were revealed in which he said he hoped a pensioner who did not support him would die before the next set of elections.

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Watchdog to reinvestigate Jonathan Reynolds’ legal career claims

Solicitors Regulation Authority says it has further information about claims business secretary misrepresented his career

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it will reinvestigate the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds over accusations he misrepresented his legal career.

A spokesperson for the SRA said: “We looked at that issue at the time we became aware of it and contacted Mr Reynolds about the profiles.

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Pilot of domestic abuse experts helping in 999 call rooms begins in England

Jess Phillips says ‘Raneem’s law’ scheme will support ‘force-wide cultural change’ as initial phase is rolled out

Domestic abuse specialists embedded in control rooms receiving 999 emergency calls will help “create force-wide cultural change”, said Jess Phillips as the first phase of “Raneem’s law” was rolled out across England.

The new law is named in memory of Raneem Oudeh, who was killed alongside her mother, Khaola Saleem, in Solihull by Oudeh’s ex-husband, whom she had reported to the police at least seven times, as well as making four 999 calls on the night she was murdered.

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Sadiq Khan says ‘Brexit was a mistake’ and closer EU ties could counter Trump tariffs

London mayor to tell meeting that mobility scheme would benefit young people and economy

Sadiq Khan will tell EU diplomats “Brexit was a mistake” and renew his backing for a youth mobility scheme as he argues strengthened ties with the bloc would help offset Donald Trump’s threatened tariff regime.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the mayor of London will tell delegates that Britain’s withdrawal from the trading bloc “continues to have a negative impact”, and he will promise to make the case for “being bold” in efforts to seek closer alignment.

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Prison system crisis due to overreliance on long sentences, says Gauke review

Successive governments’ ‘penal populism’ has driven England and Wales justice system to brink of collapse, report finds

Successive governments’ overreliance on prison sentences and desire to seem “tough on crime” have driven the justice system in England and Wales to the brink of collapse, an official review has found.

A form of “penal populism” where longer incarceration is seen as the only effective means of punishment has contributed to the crisis in the prison system, according to the interim findings of a review led by former justice secretary David Gauke.

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Starmer union ally joins opposition to rules barring citizenship for small boat refugees

Head of Unison Christina McAnea is one of 148 signatories of letter warning rules will ‘breed division and mistrust’

Keir Starmer’s most generous union backer has joined faith leaders to warn Yvette Cooper that new rules refusing citizenship to refugees who arrive in small boats will “breed division and distrust” and could fuel attacks on migrant hotels.

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, and nine Church of England bishops are among 148 signatories of a letter saying the home secretary’s plan to bar naturalisation for anyone who has made a dangerous journey will label tens of thousands of people “second-class citizens”.

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One dies in attempted Channel crossing after small boat sinks off Calais coast

A further 69 people were rescued in what French authorities called a very busy night for crossings

One person has died trying to cross the Channel in a small boat that sank off the coast of Calais, while 69 were rescued during what French authorities said was a very busy night for crossings.

The small boat began to take in water before French navy ship Abeille Normandie rescued the 70 people on board. Only half of those on board had life jackets. The French navy’s Dauphin helicopter was also involved in the rescue operation.

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UK rushes forward plans for £2.5bn steel investment after Trump announces tariffs

US president’s announcement prompts government to publish green paper weeks ahead of schedule

The government has rushed forward plans for a £2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday – several weeks before schedule – in a sign of how Trump’s tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth.

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No 10 says Starmer and Trump spoke last night as minister calls for ‘clear thinking’ on tariff threat – as it happened

The PM and president discussed Starmer’s forthcoming visit to the US, No 10 said

Friday is the day that political parties tend to get excited about local byelection results, or neglect to mention the election happened at all if it didn’t go their way.

Across the evening and into today the Britain Elects social media account has recorded a hold for the Liberal Democrats in Manor (Stevenage), a hold for Labour in Burnt Oak (Barnet), a gain for Reform UK from Labour in Trevethin and Penygarn (Torfaen) and a gain for the Green Party of England and Wales in Warwick All Saints and Woodloes (Warwick).

Thames Water, which is on the verge of financial collapse, had wanted to raise bills by 59% over the next five years. It said on Friday morning its board had concluded that Ofwat’s final determination, of a 35% increase, would not allow the investment and improvement needed to improve its services.

Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard argued that Thames Water should not be allowed to raise bills further because a 35% increase over five years was “more than enough,” adding “So much of the money is being spent on sky-high interest rates and advisory fees. Everyone’s focus now should be putting the company into special administration so its balance sheet can be reset and our bills spent on actually fixing the sewage network.”

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