Summary of the day …
Defence secretary John Healey has announced a restructure of leadership at the Ministry of Defence and in the armed forces, with what he described as a new “quad” of four senior leaders to bring greater accountability and efficiency. Healey said the UK’s defence structures were full of “exceptional” people, but that UK defence had become preoccupied with process rather than outcomes. He suggested the changes might bring as much as £10bn in savings to the taxpayer by reducing duplication of effort
Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has rebuked a senior judge who said she was “deeply troubled” by what Lady Sue Carr said was an “unacceptable” exchange at PMQs last week. The judge objected to both Badenoch and prime minister Keir Starmer describing the granting of the right to live in the UK to a Palestinian family fleeing Gaza as “wrong”. Badenoch said “Parliament is sovereign”. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick also criticised the judge, complaining of “rule by lawyers”
Nigel Farage has said that chancellor Rachel Reeves makes him want to reach for the “cry tissues” and that the Labour government is “miserable” and “declinist”, while arguing that “the Conservative party is not on the right in any measurable way”. He was being interviewed by self-help guru Jordan Peterson at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). The Reform UK leader said “our platform is to reindustrialise Britain. Let’s produce all the stuff we need in this country” and that the country needed to increase its birthrate, needs “some sense of optimism” and praised ‘“udeo-Christian culture”
Reeves has reportedly called in executives from leading financial services companies for a meeting tomorrow to discuss ideas to stimulate growth in the financial services sector. UK pay growth rose in December and unemployment remained unchanged despite warnings from business that the autumn budget would lead to job losses
The Liberal Democrats said that farmers were being “thrown to the wolves” by the Labour government over changes to inheritance tax. “Their family farm tax could be the final nail in the coffin for many communities struggling to cope,” said MP Tim Farron, while leader Ed Davey made a visit to a farm to drive home the message
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has welcomed an interim report from David Gauke’s sentencing review looking at the justice system in England and Wales. Mahmood said “The Tories left us with prisons on the edge of collapse. This government will ensure we never run out of prison places again”. Shadow home secretary. Gauke’s report found that successive governments’ overreliance on prison sentences and desire to seem “tough on crime” has driven the justice system in England and Wales to the brink of collapse. Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, responded to the report by saying “We need to be tough on crime”
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has said Labour is proposing to “fundamentally rewire” railways in England to escape “decades of waste, inefficiency, fragmentation, with the privatised railways” introduced by the Conservative government of the 1990s. She was announcing a consultation on the setting up of new body Great British Railways and a new public rail watchdog
The Green party of England and Wales have responded to the news that Thames Water is being allowed to borrow £3bn by reiterating their call for water companies to be nationalised
In bad news for the cost of living crisis, the average gas and electricity bill for households across England, Scotland and Wales is expected to rise by nearly 5% from April
A 39-year-old man has been jailed for sending what a judge termed an “utterly deplorable” email to safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. He had also sent malicious communications to Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and Matt Twist, the assistant commissioner at the Met Police
Khan told diplomats at a meeting in London today that “Brexit was a mistake that continues to have a negative impact” while backing the idea of a new youth mobility scheme between the UK and EU countries
Wales is set to become the first nation in the UK to ban greyhound racing as a sport
That is your lot from me today. Thank you for reading and for all your comments. I will be back with you tomorrow. Take care, and have a good evening.
A ban on greyhound racing will come into force “as soon as practicably possible”, a Welsh government minister has said, PA Media reports.
Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister, made the announcement in the Senedd. She said:
I believe that now is the right time to move to ban greyhound racing in Wales. We are proud to be the first nation in the UK to do this.
I want a ban to come into force as soon as practicably possible. There will be work to do in ensuring the dogs, their owners and those involved in the industry around the racetrack, can wind down from this activity while still protecting the welfare of dogs currently within the industry, the local community and the local economy.
Once in place, Wales, which has one greyhound track in Ystrad Mynach, will be the first part of the UK to implement a ban on the sport. Greyhound racing has come under heavy criticism, with the RSPCA saying it leads to hundreds of dog deaths and thousands of injuries each year in the UK.
