End of day summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day:
Five Conservative-led councils have lost their high court challenge against the mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s plans to expand the capital’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez). The zone, which the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said is a vital move to tackle toxic air, is due to be extended throughout the whole of Greater London at the end of August, making owners of the most polluting cars pay to drive.
Sadiq Khan defended the Ulez expansion and said the high court challgenge wasted tax payer’s money. He said: I’ve been told more than £1m of council taxpayers’ money has been wasted on this case. I’m quite clear though, I made this decision to expand Ulez because it is really important we address the public health crisis.”
The five councils who brought the Ulez legal challenge said they were “hugely disappointed” with the high court’s ruling, adding that the mayor and Transport for London (TfL) “do not realise the damage” the extension of the zone will have. The decision was, however, welcomed by charities and air pollution campaigners.
Yvette Cooper has accused the government of “flailing around” in its approach to tackling backlogs in the UK asylum system after it emerged the Home Office has bought tents ready to house up to 2,000 people on disused military sites. The shadow home secretary attacked the government for failing to process asylum claims more quickly, although she refused to say whether Labour would also use tents to deal with the migrant housing crisis.
The government is unable to say how many of the children who have come to the UK to seek safety it has placed in temporary hotel accommodation, or give the age of the youngest, because it has not kept a sufficiently accurate count, ministers have admitted. The Home Office was accused in January of a “dereliction of duty” after it emerged that hundreds of children had gone missing after being placed in hotels.
Jeremy Hunt said he cannot ignore the economic situation when making decisions about compensation for infected blood scandal victims. Giving evidence to the official inquiry, the chancellor said: “It’s a very uncomfortable thing for me to say but I can’t ignore the economic and fiscal context, because in the end the country only has the money that it has. So, I can’t ignore it.”
NatWest has launched an independent review into the handling of Nigel Farage’s account being shut down by high-net-worth bank Coutts, its chair has said. Howard Davies said it had appointed Travers Smith to lead the review into the account closure and how the information was handled, after NatWest’s boss Alison Rose and Coutts boss Peter Flavel both stepped down this week.
The anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller has said “we don’t have a functioning democracy” if new political parties cannot access banking services, after she was told her own party’s account would be shut. The government and financial services watchdog must step in, she said, to ensure new parties and MPs can access banking to be able to operate.
We’re closing this liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us and for all the comments and emails.
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Sadiq Khan was interviewed on BBC News earlier. He was asked about comments by Rachel Reeves who said it was not the time to “clobber” Londoners with the Ulez charge and said it wasn’t a progressive tax.
The mayor of London said:
I’ve been quite clear from when we first launched this policy in 2017, but also when I announced the expansion of this scheme, that it’s a difficult decision. It’s not one I take lightly. But it’s essential that we take steps to address the air pollution crisis in London, the public health crisis.
We have around 4,000 premature deaths in London. The vast majority of those deaths are in outer London. We’ve seen from the NHS, a reduction by a third, of those children admitted to hospital attributable to air pollution because of our policies in central London.
Clean air is a human right not a privilege. We wouldn’t accept dirty water. Why dirty air?
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