Closing summary
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Here is a round-up of all the main news stories from throughout the day:
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is calling for a review of the law which has seen Palestine Action supporters arrested at demonstrations across Britain in recent weeks. He said that, while Palestine Action have committed criminal acts and “are a very worrying organisation”, people are being arrested “en masse”.
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney could be arrested under the Terrorism Act after saying she intends to use proceeds from her work to support Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK last month, a legal expert has warned. Meanwhile, No 10 said that supporting the group was an offence under the act, after Rooney had made her pledge.
Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, has told the Big Issue his party is “burning political capital” with policies that are “suicidal on the doorstep”.
An estate agent has criticised the chancellor’s plans for for a new property tax on homes worth over £500,000 as a “tax on ordinary Londoners”. In a Guardian exclusive yesterday, we revealed how the Treasury is considering a new tax on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000 as a step towards a radical overhaul of stamp duty and council tax. But Simon Gerrard, an estate agent who has long campaigned to reform stamp duty, warned it would amount to a “London tax”.
The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, analysis has found. Experts have said ministers are choosing to use Brexit to “actively go backwards” in some cases, though there are also areas where the UK has improved nature laws such as by banning sand eel fishing.
Keir Starmer is a “patriot” who supports the public displaying of the England flag, his official spokesperson claimed amid an apparent row over councils removing flags from lamp-posts. Downing Street said that the prime minister sees national pride as “an important thing,” in response to controversy over recent decisions by two councils to remove English and British flags, The Telegraph reported.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has told the UK boss of car manufacturer Stellantis she has “serious concerns” about the impact on drivers from its recall of cars. The company announced an immediate and rare “stop-drive” order for certain models on 20 June because of a potentially fatal airbag safety fault.
The prime minister has “done a good job” to help keep Europe united in its support for Ukraine, according to the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Davey praised Keir Starmer’s approach along with fellow European leaders but said the UK needs to do more to strengthen Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s negotiating position, ahead of a potential one-to-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Keir Starmer has returned to Scotland after his family holiday was interrupted by crunch talks on Ukraine in Washington DC. The prime minister’s plane flew from the US to Glasgow overnight following the White House discussions, landing on Tuesday morning, PA reported.
Keir Starmer will co-chair a call of the so-called “coalition of the willing” on Tuesday morning. The prime minister and French president Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine.
The head of the UK armed forces will travel to the US today for talks about American involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine. Keir Starmer has sent his chief of the defence staff Tony Radakin to work out details of measures to protect Ukraine after a peace deal is agreed.
The UK has climbed down from its controversial demand that Apple provide access to encrypted customer data, following pressure from the Trump administration, according to US officials. The reversal ends a diplomatic standoff between London and Washington, after it was reported last month that the former was likely to withdraw its request following pressure from US vice-president JD Vance.
Environment secretary Steve Reed has ordered direct oversight of major transport, energy and housing schemes, enabling the government to intervene early to prevent projects being set back by environmental concerns. Ministers plan to step in earlier on developments, such as the expansion of Heathrow airport in London, to resolve issues earlier and avoid spiralling costs, according to a report this morning in The Times.
Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist. Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”
It is “absolutely essential” for the US to be part of European security guarantees for a potential Ukrainian peace deal, but there is “lots more work to be done” on what they will entail, a minister has said. “The really important progress yesterday was on the security guarantees, these issues that the prime minister and president Macron have been leading on within Europe, with 30 countries involved in planning with a coalition of the willing to make sure we can provide those guarantees,” pensions minister Torsten Bell told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The number of companies going bust across England and Wales remained elevated last month, new data shows, as pressures intensify for firms grappling with higher costs. Official data from the Insolvency Service showed there were 2,081 company insolvencies in July, edging up by 1% compared with June.
David Cameron’s “bonfire of the quangos” decision to abolish England’s council spending watchdog has left a broken system that is costing taxpayers more money than it was promised to save. In a highly critical report, academics at the University of Sheffield said the coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had promised savings of £100m a year by abolishing the Audit Commission.
Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey. Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.
Exposure to pornography has increased since the introduction of UK rules to protect the public online, with children as young as six seeing it by accident, research by the children’s commissioner for England has found. Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act became law.
UK falling behind EU on environmental rules amid post-Brexit rollback
The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, analysis has found.
Experts have said ministers are choosing to use Brexit to “actively go backwards” in some cases, though there are also areas where the UK has improved nature laws such as by banning sand eel fishing.
Despite having promised a “reset” with the EU, Keir Starmer’s government has failed to even start closing loopholes in environmental law that have widened since Brexit, and is in some cases choosing to delete EU environmental rules from the statute book.
Analysis by the Guardian and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has found the UK is falling behind the EU in terms of protecting rare creatures such as red squirrels, cleaning up the air and water, removing dangerous chemicals from products, and making consumer products more recyclable and energy efficient.
Since Brexit, the analysis has found the EU has brought forward 28 new, revised or upgraded pieces of environmental legislation that the UK has not adopted, and the UK has actively chosen to regress by changing four different pieces of legislation including on protected habitats, pesticides and fisheries.
