Kemi Badenoch defends trans guidance for schools after attacks from Tory right – as it happened

Kemi Badenoch arrives at Downing Street for the last cabinet meeting of 2023. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

4.41pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Boris Johnson’s Downing Street was so “macho and egotistical” that women’s voices were heard for as little as 10 minutes in five hours of meetings during a key week of coronavirus policy, the Covid inquiry has heard.

• Kemi Badenoch, the business secetary and minister for equalities, has said that it is “harmful” for teachers to say that people can be born in the wrong body. She made the comment in an article defending the government’s transgender guidance published yesterday – even though her assertion that it is wrong for teachers to tell children people can be trans goes beyond what the guidance actually says. Badenoch may have been shoring up her status with Tory rightwingers who would like the government to ban social transitioning at school and who thought yesterday’s guidance was too weak. (See 12.25pm.)

• The City is expecting interest rates to fall sharply next year following news of a much bigger than expected fall in the UK’s annual inflation rate to 3.9% in November.

• Striking junior doctors in England have insisted they retain the public’s support in their pay dispute with the government, despite the disruption to NHS care their stoppage has caused.

• Labour has launched its campaign to win the byelection in Wellingborough, where the Conservative Peter Bone had a majority of 18,540 at the last election. (See 1.53pm.)

Gen Kitchen, the Labour candidate in the Wellingborough byelection (right), and Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, speaking to a voter in Wellinborough today. Photograph: John Robertson/The Guardian

Updated at 4.46pm GMT

4.21pm GMT

Scottish government confirms it will not appeal against court ruling saying UK government's gender bill veto was lawful

The Scottish government has announced that it will not appeal the court of session’s judgment saying the UK government was entitled to use a section 35 order under the Scotland Act to veto the gender recognition reform bill.

In a statement, Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish government’s social justice secretary, said:

The gender recognition reform bill was passed by a majority of the Scottish parliament and we will not be withdrawing it. However, the UK government’s unprecedented use of Section 35 means the bill cannot proceed to royal assent.

If the current UK government is willing to work together and indicate the changes they would find acceptable we will happily sit down with them. However, it seems that my counterparts at Westminster will not do this, and it remains to be seen what a future government will do.

We are unwavering in our commitment to supporting and empowering LGBTQI+ people in Scotland. We will continue to work across government towards a society that is equal and fair, and where everyone can live as they are.

“Devolution is fundamentally flawed if the UK government is able to override the democratic wishes of the Scottish Parliament. We will be ready to challenge its use on future Scottish legislation, and to protect the democratic will of this parliament.

Updated at 4.30pm GMT