Early evening summary
Some Labour MPs have joined the Conservatives in condemning plans to allow the Chinese to build a new “super-embassy” in London. In a Commons urgent question, triggered by a Telegraph report claiming that the building would include a “hidden chamber” very close to cables carrying data for City banks (see 12.54pm), Alicia Kearns, the shadow Home Office minister, said the Chinese could use the building as “a launchpad for economic warfare against our nation”. (See 1.06pm.) None of the Labour MPs speaking during the UQ backed the plan, and one of them, Sarah Champion, called for the application to be rejected, saying the government should “stand up to bullies, not reward them”. (See 1.19pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
And here are two more comments on the Scottish government’s budget.
From the Times columnist Kenny Farqhharson
Much to welcome in the Scottish budget but it’s remarkable how many of the measures were simply tweaks to copy what Labour is doing in England (mansion tax, breakfast clubs, etc) or position Scotland as marginally more generous than south of the border (income tax thresholds for lower paid). SNP world view is defined by England.
From Douglas Fraser, BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor
As a tax giveaway, it’s not huge - £50m handed to income taxpayers by raising two of the lower thresholds by more than inflation.
The point at which you start paying 21 pence in each extra pound earned, up from 20 pence, goes up by slightly more than £2000 from £27,492 to £29,527. That’s a reduction in an annual tax bill of just over £20.
But the stealth tax on higher rates goes on. As people’s income goes through the higher rate of income tax, remaining at £43,633, they’ll pay 42 pence on each extra pound earned.
And this BBC graphic shows how Scottish taxpayers compare with taxpayers in the rest of the UK in terms of the amount of tax they pay at different income levels.
Scottish government will probably need to find more money for NHS to maintain standards under budget plans, IFS says
The Scottish government will find it hard to maintain standards in the health service over the next financial year without finding extra money for the NHS under the plans set out in its budget today, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says.
In a comment on the budget, David Phillips, head of devolved and local government finance at the IFS, said:
On tax, while the finance minister emphasised the giveaways – including the increases to the basic and intermediate income tax thresholds and new business rates reliefs –, the biggest policy announced was a tax rise: freezing the top three income tax thresholds until April 2029, which will drag more taxpayers into higher rates of tax. This mirrors UK government policy, although previous tax increases on higher earners mean they face substantially higher income tax in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. Planned new council tax bands for the most valuable properties also mirror UK government policy – and as in England risks wasting an opportunity for a much needed full scale revaluation of council tax.
On the spending side of the budget, it’s a game of two halves. Both parts of the game involve only very small increases in overall day-to-day spending on public services – just 0.6% above inflation in 2026–27, and 0.2% above inflation a year on average over the following two years.
In the coming year though, the Scottish government addresses this by proposing increases in health and social care spending of just 0.7%. This allows it to avoid cuts to other services, but without heroic improvements in productivity will almost certainly not be enough to maintain let alone improve services. Top-ups to health and social care funding seem likely, which may mean the next government having to raid other budgets part-way through the year.
From 2027–28 onwards, the Scottish government proposes much bigger increases in spending for health and social care averaging 2.4% a year, but that means cuts to spending on other services. On average, these amount to 1.7% a year. Local government and finance is set to see reductions averaging 2.1% a year in real-terms, which would require council tax increases of around 8% just to hold budgets constant.
The IFS also complained that the way the Scottish government set out its budget figures made it hard for people to understand what was really happening. There was confirmation of that a few moments ago when Evan Davis interviewed Ivan McKee, the Scottish government’s minister for public finance, on the PM programme. Davis kept asking whether, overall, Scottish taxation was going up or down as a result of these measures, but McKee was evasive and Davis never got a proper answer.
Income tax bands and rates in Scotland, and how they compare with rest of UK
Scotland has six bands of income tax. Here are the bands, and rates, for 2026-27, as set out in today’s Scottish government budget.
In the rest of the UK there are just three rates.
The personal allowance is £12,570, which means people do not pay any tax on that amount.
Above that, in 2026-27, people on the basic rate will pay 20% up to £37,700.
After that, they pay the higher rate, 40%, up to £125,140.
And, after that, they pay the additional rate, 45%.
Nandy tells peers government made 'mistake' with its original AI copyright plan, confirming 'reset' under way
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has said that the government made a mistake when it set out a proposal for an opt-out copyright law for artificial intelligence (AI).
She was giving evidence to a Lords committee alongside Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, who said that the government was having a “genuine reset moment”.
The government infuriated almost the entire creative sector when, under plans to modernise copyright law so as to make it applicable to AI, it proposed that AI data systems should be able to use creative material unless artists specifically opted out of allowing this.
Artists, led by figures like Paul McCartney, argued that this was tantamount to theft, and that it could wreck the creative industries sector.
Giving evidence to the Lords communications and digitial committee, Nandy said:
One of the learning points for this government was that it was a mistake to start with a preferred model.
She said there were “challenges with the opt-out process that we hadn’t anticipated” and she said the government should not “rush in” to change.
And Kendall told the committee:
We are having a geniuine reset moment. We are genuinely trying to find a way forward.
She also said artists should have control over their work, and get rewarded for it.
In a thread on Bluesky, Thangam Debbonaire, who was shadow culture secretary before the election but who lost her seat to the Greens and who now sits in the Lords, said she was glad that a reset had happened at last. She also suggested that if she had become culture secretary, the “mistake” would have been avoided.
Point of information from me: in late 2023 I went to the then Shadow Sec of State Pete Kyle outlining the concerns and the need for a base line of transparency and for recognition and reward for creators. That was the policy of my Shadow DCMS team. #justsaying] #AIandcopyright
Labour's tax and spend policies have been 'nothing like' what party proposed in its manifesto, former OBR chief tells peers
Heather Stewart is the Guardian’s economics editor.
Former Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) chair Richard Hughes has been giving evidence to the House of Lords economic affairs committee.
He kicked off by apologising – again – for the inadvertent early release of the OBR’s key budget document, the economic and fiscal outlook, last month, which prompted his resignation.
Hughes also explained why he wrote the controversial public letter setting out the evolution of the watchdog’s forecasts, which sparked a row over whether Rachel Reeves had misrepresented the state of the economy.
In short, he was clearly fed up with the flurry of briefing in the run-up to the budget, as the Treasury rolled the pitch for an income tax rise and then reversed course. He said:
This was the first time in my 25 years working in fiscal policymaking in the UK and other places that the volume of speculation about the content of the OBR’s forecast was that great and that persistent.
I’d become concerned that that could create a damaging impression about the professionalism and integrity of the OBR in the way in which it conducts the preparation of its forecasts.
In particular, he was clearly cross about claims that a last minute change to the OBR’s projections had prompted the change of heart about income tax.
It was not the case that variation in the OBR’s judgments was driving policy. I thought it was very important to correct that misconception.
Hughes also underlined the gulf between election manifestos and government policy in the UK. He said:
The costed part of the Labour’s manifesto had them raising and spending around £8-9bn over the course of the government. If you look at their first budget they raised £40bn in tax and they spent £70bn, so it was nothing like what their actual fiscal plan turned out to be in government.
Shona Robison announces higher council tax bands for homes worth more than £1m in Scottish government's budget
Shona Robison, Scotland’s finance secretary, has unveiled the Scottish government’s budget for 2026-27. Here are the key points.
Two new council tax bands are being introduced for homes worth more than £1m.
Thresholds for the second and third lowest rates of income tax are being raised by 7.4%, meaning more people will fall into the lowest rate. In her speech Robison said:
That is an increase in these thresholds of almost 11% in two years and, as a result, even more people in Scotland can expect to pay less tax than if they lived in England, Northern Ireland or Wales. That is over 55% of Scots set to pay less income tax because they live in Scotland and have a Government led by the SNP.
Every primary and special school in Scotland will have a breakfast club.
The Scottish child payment will be increased to £40 per week for families with a child under one-year-old from next year. In her speech Robison said:
The first year of a baby’s life is one of the most exciting times for any family, but we know this time can bring extra stress and costs too, and that is why this Government is delivering the strongest package of support for families with young children anywhere in the UK.
A private jet tax will be introduced at some point in the futre. And an airport departure tax will also be put in place by April next year, with a consultation on a potential exemption for the Highlands and Islands. Robison said:
I say to those who choose to travel by private jet in Scotland, you will pay and pay a fair share for that privilege and, in doing so, will be making Scotland a fairer nation.
Colleges will get an increase of £70m.
Council funding will go up 2% in real terms. In her speech Robison said she hoped this meant councils would take “reasonable decisions on council tax”.
Business rates will be cut for the lowest three valuations, and transitional relief of £184m will be introduced over the next three years, to compensate firms affected by the recent revaluation.
BBC Scotland has more details on its own live blog.
Updated
Cooper summons ambassador and announces further sanctions against Iran over protests crackdown
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the crackdown on protests in the country. In a statement to MPs, she also announced new sanctions on the regime.
She said:
The UK has already designated key players in Iran’s oil, energy, nuclear and financial systems.
Further measures will target finance, energy, transport, software and other significant industries which are advancing Iranian nuclear escalation, and we will work further with the EU and other partners to explore what additional measures might now be needed in response to developments.
Cooper did not give further details of the sanctions.
We have further coverage of what is happening in Iran on our Iran crisis live blog.
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says 2026 can be year his party starts to create 'fairer, more ambitious Wales'
Keir Starmer is not the only party leader pledging to focus on the cost of living. (See 2.56pm.) At the Plaid Cymru press conference in Cardiff this morning, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the party leader, said the Senedd elections this year would allow his party to create “a fairer, more ambitious Wales”.
He went on:
Whether that’s through fixing the NHS, helping Welsh-owned businesses grow, supporting families struggling with the cost of living crisis, or demanding fairness and standing up for Wales – a Plaid Cymru government will always do what’s right by our communities.
While momentum is with Plaid Cymru and support for our positive vision for Wales is greater than ever, we’ll work tirelessly over the coming four months to build trust and earn every single vote.
Ap Iorwerth said parties like Labour and the Conservatives “only see Wales as a stepping stone to Westminster”, and he said Reform UK was just “playing on people’s fears and stoking anger”.
Labour has been in power in Cardiff ever since the first elections in 1999 to what was then the Welsh assembly. But the most recent polls suggest Plaid Cymru and Reform UK are on course to be the biggest parties after the elections in May, and ap Iorwerth seems best placed to be the next first minister, not least because Plaid would have more potential coaliton partners than Reform UK.
Hillsborough law bill held up as ministers try to allay concerns individual intelligence officers would be exempt
The remaining stages of the Hillsborough law have been pushed back until next week amid concerns about how the duty of candour to be brought in would not apply to security services including MI5 and MI6, PA Media reports. PA says:
The so-called Hillsboroughl law – the public office (accountability) bill – will force public officials and contractors to tell the truth in the aftermath of disasters.
It takes its name from the Hillsborough disaster, after which families campaigned for years to get to the truth behind what caused the death of 97 football fans as a result of a crush at the FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield in 1989.
It was due to come before MPs on Wednesday and was expected to clear the final stages in the Commons, but Downing Street confirmed it had been pushed back to next week.
The PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the lobby briefing:
The Hillsborough law will change the balance of power in Britain and put a legal duty on officials, including those in the intelligence services, to respond openly and honestly when things go wrong.
Since we introduced the bill, we’ve worked with the families to make this duty as strong as it can possibly be whilst never compromising on national security.
This government will not bring forward legislation that would put the national security of the UK or lives at risk.
On Friday, we brought forward a series of amendments to address concerns that the bill did not apply to individual employees of the intelligence agencies.
But we’re determined to get this right.
According to a BBC report, the Hillsborough Law Now campaign wants the bill to apply to individual intelligence officers and is not happy about clauses in the current legislation that might protect them. Ministers are seeking a compromise.
Updated
Home Office TikTok account posting deportation footage accused of turning ‘brutality into clickbait’
A Home Office TikTok account posting footage of deportations and arrests set to dramatic music has been criticised for turning “brutality” into “clickbait”, Rajeev Syal reports.
Starmer tells cabinet cost of living is key problem for public, and 'agile and active state' needed to deliver policies to help
Keir Starmer told his cabinet this morning that the cost of living was the number one problem facing the UK.
And he told ministers that Labour would use “an agile and active state” to deliver on the policies that would help voters.
In a readout of the meeting, a Labour spokesperson said:
The political cabinet agreed the cost of living is the number one problem faced by the public and reaffirmed that tackling it is the number one priority for this Labour government.
Ministers discussed how many families across the country are still struggling following a sustained period of low wage growth since the financial crisis. Real wages rose more in this government’s first 10 months than in 10 years under the previous government.
The political cabinet agreed the need to show how an active government committed to boosting growth through investment, a modern industrial strategy and economic stability could restore hope across the country by delivering national renewal.
Ministers discussed the need to ensure the benefits of growth are felt by the whole country.
The prime minister said we need an agile and active state to deliver on our values and to make sure that our promise of renewal became reality.
Summing up, he said that he was proud that this is the most working-class cabinet ever, but he said that we should never forget that most people “do not go on the same journey” and he said it was “their voices that should be heard around this cabinet table”.
He referenced his brother and his sister and said that the government should be fighting every day for the people who have suffered under years of low growth through a lack of opportunities.
Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people
Keir Starmer has told MPs he is open to the idea of an Australian-style ban on social media for young people after becoming concerned about the amount of time children and teenagers are spending on their phones, Kiran Stacey reports.
Online abuse like that allowed by Grok AI can be 'gateway to offline abuse', MPs tell Ofcom
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor.
MPs on the education select committee say they have been alarmed by reports that Elon Musk’s Grok AI has been used to create sexualised images of children and women, and have asked Ofcom to use “the full force of its enforcement powers” as media regulator.
Helen Hayes, chair of the education committee that includes MPs from the major political parties, said:
This is not only an online phenomenon; we know online abuse is a gateway to offline abuse and exploitation too. I fully support Ofcom’s decision to investigate this worrying issue.
I urge regulators to act quickly and decisively, given the rapid pace at which technology can develop, and to use every tool available to ensure no platform operating in the UK tolerates exploitation and abuse.
In the committee’s letter to Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, Hayes wrote:
We cannot overstate the societal harm caused by the sexualisation and exploitation of women and children online. These practices perpetuate abuse offline, erode privacy and inflict lasting damage on mental health and wellbeing.
The committee expects Ofcom to use the full force of its enforcement powers where breaches are identified including substantial financial penalties and, where necessary, business disruption measures.
About 5,000 pubs have seen business rate valuations double, MPs told
Lisa O’Carroll is a Guardian senior correspondent.
HM Revenue and Customs has revealed that more than 5,000 pubs saw their business rates doubled after an evaluation that contributed to the recent outrage in the hospitality sector.
The revaluation, combined with the end of the pandemic supports, has led to warnings of mass pub closures and job losses. The government included a £4.3bn fund to support the transition to higher business rate costs in the budget, but that was dismissed as inadequate by the pub sector and last week the Treasury revealed that a further pub rescue package will be announced soon.
Jonathan Russell, chief executive of the Valuation Office Agency, told the Treasury select committee that “rateable value has gone up on average … 32%” on the 37,000 pubs they reevaluated between 2023 and 2026.
He was asked if HMRC flagged the increase to Treasury as there might have been “a political issue” arising from the increase.
Russell told the committee that it is transparent and open about valuations. “There is a process for sharing data,” he said. He said they do “data drops” over a period of 12 months. He said:
Some of them would have gone up in the region of … doubled, around about 13% would have seen their evalutions doubled … About 5,100 pubs.
Here is an illustration from today’s report in the Daily Telegraph illustrating what it describes as the secret room in the Chinese embassy plans, and its proximity to cables. (See 12.54pm.) In its scoop, the Telegraph describes this a threat to the City of London, and Alicia Kearns, the shadow Home Office minister, took the same line in her speech in the Commons. (See 1.06pm.)
The UQ on the Chinese “super-embassy” is over. None of the Labour backbenchers who spoke were supportive of the government, and their comments ranged from serious concern to outright opposition.
Labour’s James Naish said Keir Starmer told the Chinese that there would be no delays with the application. He asked for an assurance that this did not mean the government had pre-determined the decision in advance.
Pennycook said the decision was being taken in the proper way.
Labour’s Mark Sewards said one of his constituents was Chloe Cheung, who has to live with the fact that she has a £100,000 bounty placed on her head under the national security law passed in Hong Kong. She fears anyone could claim that by seizing her and taking her to the new embassy. He asks what is being done to stop her being taken to the new embassy.
Pennycook said the government would not tolerate transnational repression. And he said China already has seven diplomatic premises in the UK.
Updated
Labour’s Lillian Jones asked for the security services to look again at this embassy decision in the light of the Telegraph report. (See 1.06pm.)
Pennycook said he could not comment on the security services.
Labour’s Rushanara Ali, MPs for Bethnel Green and Stepney, said the embassy would be in her constituency. She said her constituents were worried about it, not least because the constituency has one of the largest Muslim populations in Britain and people were very aware of China’s record persecuting Uyghur Muslims.
New embassy 'real threat' to Chinese diaspora in UK, Labour's Alex Sobel says
Labour’s Alex Sobel said the joint committee on human rights published a report on transnational repression in the UK last year. He went on:
It found the Chinese state undertakes considerable transnational repression against the Chinese diaspora in the United Kingdom, much of it coordinated outside of the existing Chinese embassy. This new embassy is a real threat to Hongkongers, to Uyghurs, and other members of Chinese diaspora that don’t toe the party line in Beijing.
He asked if this would be a factor when the application was considered.
Pennycook told him the government was “forthright when it comes to human rights with the Chinese government”, but that he could not comment on the actual application.
Labour’s Uma Kumaran said that her constituency, Stratford and Bow in London, has one of the largest Hongkonger populations in the UK. She said her constituents were scared by the prospect of this embassy being in a neighbouring contituency. And she asked what the government was doing to ensure that the Chinese would not be able to use it for “further coercion [and] further intimidation of Hongkongers in the UK.
Pennycook told her that all material considerations would be taken into account when the decision is taken.
Updated
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson, said that the government should delay any decision on the Chinese “super-embassy” until the review of foreign intererence in British politics, announced by the government last month, is published.
Labour MP Sarah Champion says she wants Labour to 'stand up to bullies, not reward them' in Chinese embassy decision
Sarah Champion, the Labour chair of the international development committee, said she was in no doubt that this application should be blocked. She said:
I am in no doubt that this mega embassy should not be allowed to go ahead internationally. China is terrorising the people of Hong Kong. It is terrorising the democratic people in Taiwan and it is terrorising some people already in the UK. I look to my local University of Sheffield Hallam and I also look to what it’s doing to parliamentarians right here. I want my government to stand up to bullies, not reward them.
We need to be seeing rules, limits, put in place around China to stop this behaviour, not rewarding them with the embassy that they so dearly want.
Champion represents Rotherham, near Sheffield, and she was referring to Sheffield Hallam university last year having to drop research into human rights abuses in China, in response to pressure from Beijing.
In his response to Kearns, Pennycook again said he could not comment in detail on the Chinese application. But he said the relevant planning information had been published, and he said the government had requested further information when redacted drawings were supplied.
'Frankly insanity' - Tories claim plan revelations show why Labour should block Chinese 'super-embassy' plan
Responding to Pennycook, Alicia Kearns, a shadow Home Office minister, said she was disappointed by the fact that she just got a “technocratic history lesson” from the minister.
She went on:
208 secret rooms and a hidden chamber just one metre from cable serving City of London and the British people. That is what the unredacted plans tell us that the Chinese Communist Party has planned for its new embassy if the government gives them the go ahead. Indeed, we now know they plan to demolish the wall between the cables and their embassy cables, in which our economy is dependent.
Kearns said this would mean the Chinese could have access to “cables carrying millions of British people’s emails and financial data”, and she said this meant they would have “a launchpad for economic warfare against our nation”.
She asked if ministers were aware of these plans, if they have concerns about them, and if they have asked the Chinese for an explanation.
She asked Pennycook to confirm that the government plans to approve the application. She went on:
Labour promised a new relationship with China. Yet UK export goods are down 23%. Surrendering all security for Chinese trade was always a bad policy. But surrendering all security while exports plummet is frankly insanity.
She said the government should refuse the application.
Minister responds to urgent question about report claiming Chinese 'super-embassy' would have 'hidden chamber' near sensitive cables
Today the Daily Telegraph has splashed on a story saying that China will “build a hidden chamber alongside Britain’s most sensitive communication cables as part of a network of 208 secret rooms beneath its new London ‘super-embassy’”. The government has considering the Chinese government’s planning application for months, and a decision is expected imminently.
Despite claims that the Chinese could use the building near the City to access cables carrying sensitive financial information, the government is expected to approve the application.
In their story, Gareth Corfield and Fraser Lyness said:
The plans, which are redacted in all publicly available versions, can only be revealed because The Telegraph has uncovered the unredacted documents.
The drawings show that a single concealed chamber will sit directly alongside fibre-optic cables transmitting financial data to the City of London, as well as email and messaging traffic for millions of internet users.
The same hidden room is fitted with hot-air extraction systems, possibly suggesting the installation of heat-generating equipment such as advanced computers used for espionage. The plans also show that China intends to demolish and rebuild the outer basement wall of the chamber, directly beside the fibre-optic cables.
The Conservative MP Alicia Kearns has tabled an urgent question on this.
Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, is responding to it now. He says it is a live planning application, and so he cannot comment on it.
Instead, he just set out information about the process. And he says a decision will be taken on or before 20 January.
After Pennycook finishes, Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says, because this is a question about security, a Home Office minister should be replying, not a planning minister.
Polish president urges Starmer to offer Polish as modern foreign language for students in UK
Jakub Krupa writes the Guardian’s Europe live blog.
Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki has urged the British government to offer Polish as a modern foreign language available to students in the UK as part of a push for closer political and people-to-people relations between the countries.
Briefing reporters outside 10 Downing Street after his meeting with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, Nawrocki stressed the importance of Polish-British military and security links, noting that over 100 UK troops are stationed in Poland.
He said the two leaders also discussed the opportunities for Polish and British military industries to work together as they rearm their respective armies.
Nawrocki said they also talked about trade, including Poland’s anticipated involvement in the G20 summit this year, and ongoing talks about the UK’s post-Brexit settlement with the EU, including on easing SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) checks that would have allowed Polish companies to trade with the UK.
He also said that he was “very pleased” that “the UK is on the way to introducing Polish as a foreign language in the education system in the UK”, as he offered his backing to the idea which would benefit thousands of children born in Polish and Polish-British families in the UK.
With an estimated population of over 800,000, Poles remain one of the largest national foreign-born communities in the UK. However, the number of Poles in the UK has been falling in the last few years as more have been moving out of the country than coming in.
A former head of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, Nawrocki emerged from relative political obscurity to unexpectedly win last year’s presidential election. He beat liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski after a closely run contest in which he was backed by the US president, Donald Trump.
71% of parents who had child benefit suspended after HMRC emigration fraud probe were legitimate claimants, MPs told
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent.
Seven in 10 parents who had child benefit suspended in a HM Revenue and Customs anti-fraud crackdown fiasco last year were in fact legitimate beneficiaries who had not emigrated, the tax authority has revealed.
The chief executive of HMRC, John-Paul Marks, told the Treasury select committee said 71% of those targeted, higher than the 63% previously admitted, were in “error”.
Marks admitted that “just under 5%” of the 23,700 parents who lose their child benefit, were in fact fraudulent.
Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, accused HMRC of causing unnecessary “pain” to innocent parents and making an “egregious” error assuming parents who had used Dublin Aiport to return to Northern Ireland had emigrated.
The admission shows a major system failure by HMRC which had told the government before rolling out the scheme in July, it could save up to £350m in benefit fraud over five years.
They had piloted a scheme the previous year but had used PAYE records and Home Office travel data to try and work out which parents had emigrated and were still claiming child benefit.
But, when the scheme was rolled out, the PAYE checks were removed leaving incomplete Home Office travel records as the basis of the calculation of fraud.
Parents said they were left frightened and stressed after they received letters telling them their benefit was being suspended with demands they answer 73 questions involving detailed medical records, school reports and bank statements to prove they were not fraudsters.
The 71% error rate is much higher than previously admitted when HRMC told Conservative MP Andrew Snowden in a written answer before Christmas that 63% of the parents had been wrongly targetted because of flawed travel data.
Louise Haigh says government should be 'really, really tough' in its approach to X
Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, has said that Labour should be “really, really tough” in its response to Elon Musk over X and its Grok AI tool creating sexualised, deepfake images.
Last week Haigh called for the government to give up posting on X.
Today, in an interview on the Today programme, referring to the Grok AI feature allowing users to digitally undress pictures of women and children, Haigh said:
These issues are a feature, they’re not a bug of Elon Musk’s Twitter.
Elon Musk is ideologically committed to pushing the boundaries of free speech, and we’ve seen that from his reaction to the threats of the Ofcom investigation.
He doesn’t believe in the kind of guardrails and safeguarding that the British public would expect online, and he takes a very different approach from AI companies like Google and OpenAI.
So it’s right that we are really, really tough in our response, and I’m really pleased the government has taken him on so roundly.
Davey says that President Trump’s comments about Greenland show that he is “out of control”. He says Keir Starmer and other European leaders were right to issue a statement saying that the future of Greenland is not a matter for the US. And he says he would be happy to see Nato come up with a strong response, putting Nato forces there to protect it from Russia. And the US should be invited to join that mission, he says.
The press conference is now over.
Davey says he would back partial ban on under-16s using social media, but claims Tory plan would go too far
Q: Would you support a total ban on under-16s having social media accounts?
Davey says, as a parent, he thinks we have to have this debate. He thinks there has to be “some sort of ban”.
There’s no doubt that we’re going to have to put some sort of ban in place to keep them safe. So no doubt about that.
The question is, how do you do that?
I’ve seen some of the proposals from other parties. There’s a danger that they will have some unintended consequences.
So I’m really worried that the idea we’ve heard from the Conservatives is that GCSE pupils will end up being banned from Wikipedia.
Davey says Tony Blair and New Labour were right to say that A&E waits should be reduced to a maximum of four hours. By and large they achieved that. The fact that that is no longer the case shows how far backwards the NHS went under the Tories, he says.
Q: Why are you doing so badly in Wales?
Davey says the Lib Dems won a seat again in Wales at the last election. And he says he thinks they will improve their representation in the Senedd at the elections this year. He won’t go beyond that, he says. He says, with Plaid Cymru, Wales has real multi-party politics.
Davey says, as opponent of assisted dying bill, he thinks it is 'outrageous' that Lords trying to block it
Asked about assisted dying, Davey says he voted against the bill. But he goes on:
I personally voted against the assisted dying bill. And, though many of my colleagues didn’t, I think the real issue at the moment is what the Lords is doing, and I think it’s quite outrageous that that seems to be members of the House of Lords who are trying to kill the bill. And I say that as an opponent of the bill. But it’s the democratic right of the House of Commons to pass bad law if it wants to.
Q: Before the election you said the problem with the NHS was Tory incompetence. Now you say it is Labour incompetence. Do you have a view as to what the underlying problem is?
Davey says he is clear that the Tories are most to claim for the NHS crisis.
But he says Labour has not been able to sort the problem out.
He says the Lib Dem argument that is that social care must be transformed at the same time. That is what experts think, he says. And sorting out care would transformative.
He says he set out this argument in his book last year, Why I Care.
The Guardian wrote an editorial about this at the time.
Q: What is your approach to Labour? And, with all the challenges facing the Lib Dems this year, are you the person to carry on leading them?
Davey says Labour have been a disappointment. And he says they are the party with a leadership problem; there are Labour MPs who want Wes Streeting to be leader. But Streeting needs to sort out the trolley wait problem first, he says.
Referring to the Lib Dems, he says the YouGov poll today shows that are five parties within 10 points of each other.
But the Lib Dems are doing well in actual elections, he says.
He says in May last year the Lib Dems beat Labour and the Conservatives for the first time.
Davey says Labour have been 'total failure' on social care
Davey says he had hoped that Keir Starmer was serious about what he said during the election campaign about wanting a cross-party solution to social care. He goes on:
I’m afraid I’ve been proved wrong. There has been total failure on social care, kicking it into the long grass. No real political push for it. Elongated timetables. So they’ve been huge, disappointing.
And they will not save our NHS unless they sort out care. I’ve long said if you if you care about the NHS, you’ve got to care about care.
On Iran, Davey says he would take Donald Trump’s comments about stopping the murder of protesters more seriously if he were also willing to stop things like that happening in Minnesota.
But he says he supports Trump in wanting to use sanctions to put pressure on Iran.
Q: What you are proposing would cost less than 1% of the NHS budget. Is this really about changing the NHS, or is it really about campaigning ahead of the local elections?
Davey says this is about responding to “the pain and distress that people are feeling in every hospital A&E across the country”, and showing that there is a political party that wants to do something about it.
Responding to the claim that £1.5bn is not a big enough sum, he says this shows that the plan is affordable.
And he rejects the suggestion he is parking Lib Dems tanks on Labour’s lawn. The NHS was a liberal creation, he says, citing William Beveridge.
Davey urges journalist at the press conference to visit hospitals themselves and examine what is happening in A&E.
It is really quite astonishing. It’s never happened before in my lifetime. And it’s the untold crisis in the health service.
Davey defends Liberal Democrats' continuing use of X, saying there should be 'strong liberal voice' on social media
Q: Why are the Liberal Democrats still using X?
Davey says he is not afraid to pick a fight with Elon Musk. He says Musk has interfered in British democracy “in the most outrageous way”. Musk has also incited violence, he says.
And he says what has been happening with Grok has been “shocking”.
But he says there should be a “strong liberal voice” on social media.
UPDATE: Davey said:
I’ve picked a few fights with Elon Musk because I think he has interfered in British democracy in the most outrageous way. He’s incited violence and I have called in the past for investigations into him.
The point about Grok – which is quite shocking – and what it is doing, and the danger that it poses to women in the UK, to our children, is quite shocking. We need to take it really seriously.
We have been thinking about it really hard. There’s a real balance to strike here. I think X does need a strong Liberal voice and I’m leader of the Liberal Democrats to give that voice.
Updated
When it was put to him that, without the US pharmaceutical deal agreed before Christmas, companies would no longer invest in life-saving treatments, Davey said he did not accept that. He said that the claims from the Trump administration were wrong, and that the UK government was being “weak”.
At his press conference Ed Davey is now taking questions.
Asked if just getting rid of 12-hour waits was not very ambitious, Davey said over time he would like to go further. He would like to get back to the era when no one had to wait more than four hours.
He also claimed the Lib Dems were the only party talking about this.
UK medical graduates to be prioritised for training places under new bill
In his speech Davey also criticised Labour over the lack of jobs availabe for doctors after they train.
The Department of Health and Social Care has announced a plan to help with this problem today. PA Media reports:
Medical graduates from the UK and Ireland will be prioritised for training places under new legislation to be proposed by the government.
The move forms part of the health secretary’s aim of resolving the dispute between the government and resident doctors in England.
Wes Streeting said that while the NHS “will never exclude international talent” he wants to give “home-grown medics” the “level playing field they deserve”.
He met representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA) last week with a view to ending strike action by doctors.
The medical training (prioritisation) bill will be introduced to parliament today.
The proposed legislation will prioritise doctors from the UK and Ireland, and those who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, for specialty training places.
Specialty training is the final stage of becoming a fully qualified doctor, with a focus on a specialist area of medicine or general practice.
Graduates from the UK and Ireland would also be prioritised for foundation training under the bill.
Since 2019, the number of applicants for training posts has risen from 12,000 to almost 40,000, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
In his speech this morning Ed Davey criticised the record of the other main parties on the NHS. He is particularly harsh about Reform UK and Nigel Farage, the Reform leader.
[Farage] still hasn’t mentioned it once in the House of Commons, although he’s not actually there often, so that might be why. But he hasn’t said the word hospitals once.
But we know what he wants to do, don’t we? We know what his plan is, even if he’s now too smart to say it out loud. He wants to privatise the NHS, replace it with an American style insurance system, a system where every year in the US, almost half a million people go bankrupt because of their medical bills. That is Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain.
Ed Davey sets out Lib Dem plan which he says could end 12-hour A&E trolley waits in England by end of year
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has set out a plan to end 12-hour A&E waits in English hospital. The party says the problem has escalated hugely over the past few years, and it is proposing two measures that it says would address the problem.
They are:
“A new law to enshrine the right for patients to be seen in A&E within 12 hours.”
“Spending £1.5bn to make around 6,000 more beds available each day by expanding hospital capacity and creating ‘safety net’ social care beds for patients waiting on long-term care decisions.” The Lib Dems would get the money by “cancelling the planned medicine price hike agreed with the Trump administration before Christmas”.
Speaking at a news conference this morning, Davey said:
Right now, in the corridors of A&E departments across our country, there are thousands of people – sick or injured – lying on trolleys or waiting on plastic chairs. No privacy. No dignity. There have even been tragic cases of people dying on those trolleys and left undiscovered for hours.
What more stark an example could there be, of the way things in our country aren’t working the way they should, than thousands of people lying for hours in corridors in our hospitals, and people dying on those trolleys? This deadly corridor crisis isn’t befitting of the heroic doctors, nurses and other health professionals who work in our NHS. It’s not what we expect from our NHS, and it’s not what we pay our hard-earned money in taxes to fund our NHS for …
With the package we are calling for today, the government could put an end to 12-hour A&E waits altogether, by the end of the year. Never again should anyone have to watch their loved one die on a trolley in a hospital corridor.
The Lib Dems also released this chart showing how the number of 12-hour trolley waits has soared.
Here is Jessica Elgot’s report on Wes Streeting’s speech. (See 9.45am.)
'If we tell public we can't make anything work, why would they vote to keep us in charge?' - Streeting
Here is a fuller version of the quote from Wes Streeting’s speech, from the Times’ Steven Swinford.
Bafflingly, some on my own side of the political divide have begun to parrot the same argument. They complain about the civil service. They blame stakeholder capture.
This excuses culture does the centre-left no favours. If we tell the public that we can’t make anything work, then why on earth would they vote to keep us in charge?
And we should be in no doubt that they are excuses. Back to my shopping trolley analogy: there’s no point complaining about the wonky wheel if you’re letting the trolley have a mind of its own, instead of steering it towards the destination you’re after.
Wes Streeting criticises Labour colleagues who complain about Whitehall not being able to deliver
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has given a speech to the Institute for Government conference this morning.
As Jessica Elgot reports, Streeting criticised politicians who complain about being unable to reform public services because of Whitehall inertia.
New - Streeting goes full throttle on the idea that politicians can’t make the state work and that “nothing happens” when levers are pulled.
“Where there aren’t levers, we build them. Where there are barriers, we bulldoze them. Where there is poor performance, we challenge it.”
He says the complaints are just poor excuses from the right.
“Bafflingly, some on my own side of the political divide have begun to parrot the same argument... If we tell the public that we can’t make anything work, then why on earth would they vote to keep us in charge?”
This was aimed partly at the right. (At the Reform UK press conference yesterday, the party’s latest recruit Nadhim Zahawi was complaining about the “over-mighty bureaucratic inertia that now dominates and runs the country”, for which he claimed Tony Blair was mostly to blame”.)
But Streeting criticised Labour figures who adopt this view too. He may have been thinking of the former adviser to Keir Starmer, Paul Ovenden, who wrote an article for the Times over the holiday period complaining about the “supremacy of the stakeholder state”.
But Starmer has also himself set out this argument – in December 2024, when he said that there were “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline”, and again last month, when he said:
My experience now as prime minister is of frustration that every time I go to pull a lever there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations, arm’s-length bodies that mean that the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be, which is among the reasons why I want to cut down on regulation, generally and within government.
Streeting’s comment will be seen by some as an implicit dig at Starmer – although he might argue that he was just restating the determination to make the Whitehall machine deliver that the PM himself has also set out.
Updated
Home Office says illegal-working raids and arrests at record level
Good morning. British politics in 2026 has to a large extent been preoccupied with foreign affairs, and Donald Trump’s turbocharged neo-imperialism, but domestic problems remain paramount. At the PLP last night, as Pippa Crerar reports, Keir Starmer sought to justify the amount of time he spends on foreign policy by saying it has a direct link to cost of living problems.
And, with immigration and small boats a key issue for voters, the Home Office is today talking up its record on one aspect of this problem.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has released figures which, she says, shows that raids to catch people working in the UK illegally have reached “the highest level in British history”. The PA Media write-up is a tad less hyperbolic, saying the figures are at their highest level “since current records began in 2019”.
PA reports:
Some 12,791 visits took place in 2025, up 57% from 8,122 in the previous year, to businesses such as nail bars, car washes, barbers and takeaway shops.
Ministers are seeking to crack down on illegal working in the UK, as part of efforts to deter those coming to the country illegally.
Meanwhile, arrests were also at a record high of 8,971 last year, up nearly 59% compared to 5,647 in 2024 – the previous highest point in data published by the Home Office.
Of those arrested, 1,087 people have been removed from the UK so far …
The Home Office also said visits were up 77% and arrests were up 83% since Labour came to power.
Some 17,483 visits and 12,322 arrests were recorded between July 2024 and December last year, up from 9,894 and 6,725 respectively across January 2023 to June 2024.
Of the arrests, 1,726 people have been returned so far, up 35% on the 1,283 removed from visits in the previous 18-month period.
In a related move, the Home Office is opening a Secure Borders UK TikTok account designed to discourage people from coming to the UK illegally on small boats. The Sun has got some examples of the video if will feature (mostly people being detained, it appears), and its write-up is negative and sarcastic. The headline, “Fury as ‘pathetic’ PM’s ‘laughable’ brainwave to stop Channel migrant dinghies is revealed to be a new TIKTOK ACCOUNT”, sets the tone. But public opinion does not get turned around overnight, and in Labour circles there may be a tiny bit of cheer this morning from the latest YouGov poll for the Times and Sky News showing Reform UK support at its lowest level since April.
There is plenty more domestic politics to come as the day goes on. Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, speaks at the Institute for Government’s annual conference. Other speakers during the day include: Louise Casey, chair of the independent commission into adult social case, at 9.40am; Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and Michael Gove, the former Tory cabinet minister, at 11.45am; Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, at 2.45pm; and Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, at 4.30pm.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet. There is a political cabinet, and a normal cabinet.
9.30am: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, holds a press conference in Cardiff
10am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, holds a press conference to promote a plan to end 12-hour A&E waits. Later he will visit London Air Ambulance.
11am: Starmer hosts Karol Nawrocki, the Polish president, in No 10.
11.30am: Streeting takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.20pm: Shona Robison, the Scottish government’s finance secretary, presents her budget to MSPs.
2.30pm: Kirsty Brimelow, chair of the Bar Council, and other senior legal figures give evidence to the Commons justice committee about plans to restric jury trials; at 3.30pm Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, gives evidence.
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