Afternoon summary
Kemi Badenoch has backed her shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, after he claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public are intimidating and un-British, with Labour saying the Conservatives had embraced the “gutter” politics of prejudice. Speaking at an event in Scotland, where he was unveiling Reform UK’s manifesto for Scotland, Nigel Farage went even further in his support for Timothy’s position, claiming that what happened in Trafalgar Square on Monday was “a shock” and “an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”. (See 3.10pm.)
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.
Badenoch says people should be more willing to tackle shoplifters
Kemi Badenoch has said that people should be more willing to intervene physically to stop shoplifters.
In an interview with Times Radio, she said the failure of the public to intervene made shoplifters and other criminals “think that they can get away with it”.
She added:
I know that there is now a tendency for people not to put themselves in harm’s way. But I also think that sometimes we need to send a message that this is not acceptable.
Asked if she would be willing to do this personally, Badenoch, who is about 5ft 4in, replied:
I think it depends on how big they are. But yes, broadly, it would be my instinct. I think people should look after their personal safety. I think those people who are stronger should do more.
Some of the world’s poorest countries to lose UK aid due to 56% budget cut
Some of the world’s poorest countries will lose out on UK aid that funds programmes such as schools and clinics, due to budget cuts set out by Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, Jessica Elgot and Patrick Wintour report.
Here is the text of Cooper’s statement to MPs, here is the news release about it, and here is the equality impact assessment for the aid allocations.
Trade minister Chris Bryant suggests Trump does not know what he is doing in Iran
When Unite’s Sharon Graham said earlier today that she thought there would be a Labour leadership contest after the local elections, she was just saying out loud what MPs say in private. (See 2.07pm.) Chris Bryant, the trade minister, did something similar this morning – suggesting that Donald Trump does not know what he is doing in Iran.
In an interview on Sky News, Sophy Ridge asked Bryant if he know what the Americans were doing in Iran.
Bryant replied:
No. You know, does he [Trump] know? I mean, it seems very, very confusing.
Bryant said he spoke to one of his counterparts in the Gulf yesterday who told him: “I don’t know what [the Americans] doing. I simply don’t know what they’re doing.”
Asked if he thought Trump had a plan when he entered the war, Bryant said:
Well, I think one of the reasons that Keir Starmer - and I think he showed exceptional leadership at this point – was saying, look, first of all, we’re not going to send British troops into a situation where they’re not protected legally because there’s no good legal argument for the war. Secondly, if you’re going to do anything, you’ve got to have a plan. It just seems basic to me.
Asked if he personally thought Trump had a plan, Bryant replied: “I don’t think there was a plan.”
In his first statement to MPs after the war started, Starmer said the UK would only get involved in a military operation with “a viable, thought-through plan” – implying Trump did not have one. But he has avoided anything more explicit implying Trump has been clueless.
Here is the clip.
🗣️ 'Did Trump have a plan before striking Iran?' - @SophyRidgeSky
— Ridge & Frost (@RidgeandFrost) March 19, 2026
🗣️ 'I don't think there was a plan... or if there is one, it is changing every single day.' - Minister for Trade @RhonddaBryant https://t.co/D58l6XoPWX pic.twitter.com/Jk6ksH8BUS
'You're a loser' - Farage refuses to answer question from Guardian reporter about his Cameo videos
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Nigel Farage described a Guardian reporter as “a loser” after being asked whether his activities on the video platform Cameo, selling reels to a convicted murderer, raised questions of trust.
Farage had refused to take questions from the Guardian, the Record, the Daily Mail and the National newspapers during his press conference at the end of a three and a half hour-long rally and manifesto launch near Glasgow.
The Guardian approached the Reform UK leader after he left the stage, to ask him about his aspirations to be prime minister of the country, suggesting the “agencies and institutions charged with protecting our safety” would not be able to trust him if he was on Cameo selling messages on behalf of people like convicted criminals.
Farage stepped closer, and to cut the question off replied: “You are a loser.”
Asked why, he replied:
You’re a loser. If I sell you a pair of shoes, do I check whether you were a murderer?
He then walked off, flanked by Reform UK security.
Reform UK-led Kent criticised for declaring 'illegal migration emergency' when county dealing with meningitis outbreak
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Reform UK has been accused of attempting to inflame community divisions after councillors on its flagship local authority in Kent declared an “illegal migration emergency.”
All opposition councillors walked out and refused to vote for the declaration today by Kent county council.
Nigel Farage’s party was accused of engaging in political maneuvering at the same time as the county was struggling with an unprecedented crisis surrounding the meningitis outbreak in Canterbury.
Linden Kemkaran, the council leader, said:
The fact is that in Kent we are facing an illegal immigration emergency that is impacting our residents’ lives not just in terms of cost, but in terms of safety, community cohesion, and pressure on housing and our public services.
Alister Brady, a Labour councillor, said:
As Canterbury faces an unprecedented and deeply distressing outbreak of meningitis, We are profoundly concerned that the Kent county council’s Reform leadership has chosen this moment to prioritise political manoeuvring over public safety.
At a time when families are grieving and residents across the district are anxious for clear, factual guidance, the Reform leadership has instead used council facilities to advance a pre-election political motion. This is an irresponsible and inappropriate act – one that undermines public trust and represents an abuse of power.
Updated
The latest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. It features Peter Walker and Lexy Topping talking about the Tories and Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square, Sadiq Khan’s comments about rejoining the EU and Angela Rayner’s career plans.
And this is from Robert Hutton from the Critic on Kemi Badenoch’s comment at her press conference earlier about Britain’s tradition of religious tolerance. (See 4.09pm.)
1. Britain has very much *NOT* always tolerated minority faiths. Just ask Jews and Catholics.
2. The idea that religious expression should be “in conformity with our values, our norms, our beliefs” should worry every faith group, starting with Christians.
These are from my colleague Peter Walker on Bluesky on Kemi Badenoch’s response to his question at her press conference this morning about Nick Timothy’s attack on Muslim’s praying in Trafalgar Square. (See 11.23am.)
I got a question and asked Badenoch about Nick Timothy’s comments. She backed him but said it was because as the event, women were “pushed to the back”. Not clear if that is a reference to separate prayer, or to some other segregation - was there any other segregation?
This is Badenoch’s answer to my question about why she agrees with Nick Timothy that the “Open Iftar” event in Trafalgar Square on Monday was wrong.
Questions remain:
• What does she mean by women “pushed to the back”? Men & women prayed separately but side by side ......
... and people who were there say there was no other separation. Photos from event show it was mixed, with non-Muslims also there.
• Does Badenoch also believe the other 17 Open Iftar events this year, including at the National Gallery, Spurs ground and Silverstone, should not have happened?
• This is apparently the sixth year the Open Iftar even took place on Trafalgar Square. Did Badenoch object to any of the others?
• What in particular about the event does not “fit within the norms of a British culture”.
I’ve asked Badenoch’s people if they can respond.
CORRECTION: I was told men & women were side by side for prayer, but video shows it was a long, narrow area for prayer, and the men were in front, women behind. This seems to be Badenoch’s worry.
Updated
Farage defends his opposition to post-Dunblane massacre handgun ban
Q: Do you regret dismissing the handgun ban introduced after the Dunblane massacre as “ludicrous”? (Ed Davey brought this up at PMQs recently, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Dunblane killings.)
Farage claimed that he was not opposed to all handgun restrictions. But he did think it was “ludicrous” that the British Olympic shooting team had to travel abroad to practice using handguns. He said that he thought the post-Dunblane laws should have made allowance for this.
Farage says attacking critics of immigration as racist 'doesn't work anymore'
Q: What is your response to John Swinney saying Reform UK is racist?
Farage says the Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to flourish in this country, even though it is banned in some Arab countries. It has a “dangerous agenda”, he says. “They want to impose their way of life on us.”
He claims that the event in Trafalgar Square on Monday was an example of something similar.
(There is no evidence for this. The event in Trafalgar Square had nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.)
He goes on to say that, since Tony Blair has been in power, whenever someone has tried to have a rational debate about immigration, there has been an “attempt to shut it down by screaming ‘racist’”.
Do you know what? It doesn’t work anymore. No one’s listening.
Q: Why should people in England pay higher taxes than people in Scotland (as would happen if Scotland formed a government at Holyrood, and was in a position to implement its tax policies)?
Farage said that in the US people living in different states pay different amounts of tax. That is competition, he says. Tax competition between Scotland and England would be a good thing, he says.
Farage defends past comments saying Scotland gets too much UK cash, saying he wants Scotland to flourish without grants
Q: [To Farage] You have spent you career telling voters in England that people in Scotland get too much UK government money because of the Barnett formula (which gives Scotland more spending per head). Will you be saying this to voters in Scotland during the campaign, and if so can we come an film you?
Farage says that, with Reform UK in power at Holyrood, “you won’t need the current Barnett formula because Scotland would have been turned around”.
Farage says the questioner is looking at things the wrong way round.
Yes, of course individuals go through bad times, countries go through bad times. But welfare spending should not be permanent. There are massive economic opportunities in Scotland. Firstly in the North Sea. I also believe financial services in Edinburgh could be a lot lot bigger with the right thinking than it is.
So look, we as national government would be here to support Scotland, but we’d much, rather much rather see Scotland not need the money because it’s succeeded.
Farage is now taking questions.
The first question came from a GB News reporter, who was cheered by Reform UK supporters at the event.
The second question came from Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland’s political editor. He was booed by some of the activists at the end. Farage gently discouraged them.
Campbell asked if Farage had any regrets for saying he would back the US attack on Iran.
Farage said that he was not advocating joining the military action, but “sometimes in life you have to pick a side”.
Farage claims Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square was 'attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate'
In his speech in Scotland Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, fully adopted the Nick Timothy position on Muslims praying in public. (See 2.39pm.)
He said:
I put it to you that what happened in Trafalgar Square this week should act as a wake up call and a warning to everybody.
We have always been a country that believes in religious tolerance. We’ve always been open to those of different faiths, persuasions and beliefs coming to our country and having their own private observance, but integrating in public. I think, to be honest, the Jewish community is probably the best example I can think of that.
But mass public praying, mass chanting of Islamic slogans in Trafalgar Square, was a shock – until you learn that the same group, the Ramadan Tent Project, have done it in Coventry cathedral, they’ve done it in London’s Guildhall, they’ve done it in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Folks, if it hasn’t come to Scotland yet, it will come soon.
This is an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life …
Now we are fair, reasonable, tolerant people, but we will not put up with this and we will, as a party, stand firm for the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our nation was built.
Updated
As Farage started his speech, he was interupted by a protester, who was swiftly taken out. “You need a haircut,” Farage shouted at him. He then told the man he should go back to work, before adding: “Sorry, you have not got a job, have you?”
He claims hard-working people are paying record levels of taxes so that their neighbours (benefit claimaints, he is implying) can “rise at midday, have Deliveroo come and smoke dope for the afternoon”.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is just about to speech at the launch of the party’s manifesto in Scotland. David Bull, the party’s chair, introduced him describing him as “the most famous politician in the country, if not the world”. There is a live feed here.
Why Nick Timothy argues his attack on Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square was justified
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, has an article in the Daily Telegraph today defending his attack on Muslims praying at an event in Trafalgar Square on Monday. While Kemi Badenoch defended his stance at her press conference this morning, she did so primarily on the grounds of gender segregation, which she claimed had been a feature of the event. (See 11.24am.)
But that is not the argument that Timothy makes in his article. He claims that it is an aspect of Islam theology that makes public prayer of this kind objectionable.
He says:
Some MPs and commentators say public concern [about prayer events like the one in Trafalgar Square] is misplaced. Some have even called it racist or – to use the recent invention – “Islamophobic”. They claim this exhibition of faith is no different from Trafalgar Square hosting dancing Sikhs, drinking football fans, or an Easter Passion Play.
But this is wrong. First, the adhan makes the theological claim that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger. That is, by definition, a repudiation of other beliefs. When proclaimed publicly, it is not just private devotion made visible; it is a declaration of dominance.
Some claim the adhan is no different from the peal of church bells, or the recital of the Nicene Creed in church. But this is wrong on three counts. First, church bells simply ring out, and do not assert any theological message or criticism of other faiths. Second, the Nicene Creed is a personal statement of faith that begins, “I believe”.
And third, even if these facts were not true, Christianity holds a different place to other religions in Britain. It is the foundation of our way of life, expressed in laws and norms and our institutional, intellectual and cultural inheritance. Expressions of Christianity here do not seek to challenge or replace anything, because our society rests upon the Christian idea.
The adhan, however, explicitly rejects the Christian belief in Jesus and the Holy Trinity, and asserts the truth of the Islamic faith. Indeed, historically the adhan was not only a communal call to prayer, but a declaration of Islamic control over a territory.
Labour will be 'decimated' in local elections, Unite's leader Sharon Graham says
Here is a fuller version of the quote from Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, about Keir Starmer facing a leadership challenge because the local election results will be so bad for Labour. (See 9.50am.) She said:
I think after the May elections there will be a move to change leader because I think Labour are going to pretty much be decimated in those elections.
I don’t think that they understand themselves how bad that will be - what anger is out there about the fact that they haven’t backed workers, the fact they have to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing things that, quite frankly, we would expect a Labour government to do, for example, have a wealth tax.
It’s not radical. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that that’s the sort of thing that we need to be looking at when the gap between the rich and the poor is as wide as it is.
Graham is using decimated to mean ‘wiped out’, but purists who prefer the more precise definition (the destruction of one in 10 of the enemy) would argue that Labour would be very happy about just being decimarted in the local elections. One analysis from a polling company says Labour could lose one in four of their councillors. Last week a Times report said “Labour sources expect to lose at least half of the seats they are defending” in England.
Scotland’s serial radical nationalist protester Sean Clerkin and his comrades evaded tight security at Reform UK’s Scottish manifesto launch to urge people to vote SNP instead, Severin Carrell reports. His post on Bluesky includes video.
Reform UK proposes cutting number of MSPs in Scottish parliament
Reform has proposed cutting the number of MSPs and quangos in its manifesto ahead of May’s Holyrood election, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Party members are meeting to announce its candidates and launch its policy platform at a country club in Renfrewshire. (See 12.46pm.)
Among its policy pledges is a promise to reduce the number of members of the Scottish parliament by cutting the number of constituencies from 73 to 57.
The 27-page document unveiled at the party’s conference also suggests a Reform government in Scotland would “shut down the quangos and return their powers to democratically-elected ministers supported by the civil service”.
Speaking at an event last week, Scottish party leader Malcolm Offord said a quarter of the country’s quangos could be on the chopping block, suggesting Reform could scrap them all before deciding which are required and bringing them back.
On energy, the party has made a number of pro-fossil fuel pledges, including scrapping all net zero targets set by the Scottish government and fast-tracking planning for new energy projects, including “open cast coal mining”.
Starmer joins 5 other world leaders in pledging willingness to contribute to 'appropriate efforts' to open strait of Hormuz
Good afternoon. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Tom Ambrose.
Keir Starmer has issued a statement jointly with his counterparts from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan condemning Iranian attacks on oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz and saying they are willing “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait”.
The full statement is here.
And here is an extract,
We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces.
We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817.
Freedom of navigation is a fundamental principle of international law, including under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea …
We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.
There is full coverage of Iran war developments on our Middle East crisis live blog.
Women who have been convicted, and in some cases jailed, over illegal abortions are set to be pardoned after a historic vote in the House of Lords.
Last June, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside of the legal framework, while keeping the existing framework in place. Doctors and others who act outside of the law could still face the threat of prosecution.
The change, by way of an amendment to the crime and policing bill put forward by the Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi, came after a reported increase in prosecutions and a number of high-profile court cases that saw women in the dock.
There had been an attempt in the Lords to strike out Antoniazzi’s clause in the bill, but this was defeated, and an attempt to ban the use of telemedicine, where abortion medicine is able to be dispatched by post for pregnancies under 10 weeks, also failed.
Peers instead voted to extend the scope of the legislation to pardon women who had already been convicted and to expunge the police records of those arrested.
The NHS “teetered on the brink of collapse” during the Covid pandemic, and only just coped thanks to the “superhuman” efforts of healthcare workers, an official inquiry has concluded.
In a damning assessment of how the UK’s healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, the Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, said the impact was “devastating” due to the NHS being in a “parlous state” before the outbreak of the virus.
She said Covid patients did not always receive the care they needed, with some diagnoses and treatments coming too late to save lives. “Healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, but only just,” said Lady Hallett, a former court of appeal judge. “On a number of occasions, they teetered on the brink of collapse and only coped thanks to the almost superhuman efforts of healthcare workers and all the staff who support them.
“Workers carried the burden of caring for the sick in unprecedented numbers. They were obliged to work under intolerable pressure for months on end.”
She said politicians, including the former health secretary Matt Hancock, refused to admit the NHS was “overwhelmed” during the pandemic, as they believed this to mean total collapse.
“There was clearly overwhelm,” she said. “Patients could not be admitted to hospital and, in particular, into intensive care units. The pressure was, at times, intolerable. This continued for wave after wave of the virus.”
The venue chosen by Reform UK for the launch of its Scottish manifesto has policies observers may feel are at odds with Nigel Farage’s hatred of net zero, environmental protection and “woke” politics.
Ingliston Country Club, which sits in parkland near the Clyde west of Glasgow, prides itself on its environmental sustainability, boasting “the largest single footprint of solar panels in Scotland”, its EV car charging points, its home-grown flowers, recycled pencils and rigorous plans to cuts its energy use.
Its website states:
At Ingliston Estate & Country Club we have made it our mission to run our business as ethically and environmentally conscious as possible, and we have taken steps to ensure our footprint on the planet is reduced.
The hundreds of buoyant and bullish Reform supporters who queued in bright sunshine on Thursday morning to watch Farage and his Scottish leader Malcolm Offord could have learnt more about its long list of eco credentials:
We have the largest single footprint of solar panels in Scotland generating 70% of the electrical energy we use each day, with plans in the pipeline to add another 16 panels in the next 12 months.
We have three polytunnels which are each 30 meters long, where we grow all the flowers and plants throughout the estate. We also grow many of our herbs and vegetables used in our award-winning Palomino’s restaurant.
We use 100% recycled paper and recycled pencils. We use suppliers that only have a Green Eco Carbon Footprint programme.
Farage has pledged to scrap the UK’s net zero targets, drill as much oil and gas from UK waters as possible, resume fracking onland, cut all subsidies for renewables and rip up what he sees as “a progressive, woke ideology” which embarrasses the UK.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK remains a “major player” in overseas aid despite a reduction in funding.
In a statement to the Commons, Cooper said that allocating a reduced budget “inevitably leads to hard choices and unavoidable trade-offs”.
She added:
We’re focusing aid on the people and places that need it most, and we will still be a major player, and expect to be the fifth biggest funder in the world.
We will still use international leadership, such as our 2027 G20 presidency, to shape the global agenda for development and we will continue to use our other policies and levers so that lower-income countries benefit from trade and growth, and tackling flows of illicit finance and dirty money, which harm developing countries most and fuel crime on everyone’s streets.
This modernised approach to international development and our allocation of ODA [official development assistance] reflects our values and our interests, because our driving force has been, and continues to be, working for a world free from extreme poverty, on a liveable planet.
The rise of Reform UK is partly due to racism, Scotland’s first minister has said.
John Swinney said people are also supporting Nigel Farage’s party because they are “angry” and “fed up with the state of our society”.
The SNP leader said he does not believe in Reform’s immigration policies and that there is no “rational argument” against migration to Scotland due to the country’s shortage of working-age adults.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Scotcast podcast, the first minister said racism is one of the driving forces behind Reform UK.
“I think that’s a product of two things,” he said. “Part of it is made up of people who genuinely hold views with which I profoundly disagree.”
He added:
There will be some views in there which will be intolerant of people from other countries and other races, racist views, which I don’t hold, there will be some of them in there.
But there are also a lot of people in there who are angry, and they’re fed up with the state of our society and our community, and I take some responsibility for that as first minister.
They’re just finding life really tough, and they’re angry. I try to explain to those people that the politics of Farage would be a disaster for our country if we go down that route.
Nigel Farage described Welsh people as “foreign speakers” in a paid-for personalised video message that could prove awkward for Reform UK in forthcoming elections in the country.
Farage made the remarks in a video he was paid to make on Cameo, a personalised video platform, to celebrate a wedding.
The video was unearthed by the Guardian among a tranche of more than 4,000 clips the Reform leader has produced on the platform, which enables public figures and celebrities to sell recorded messages for members of the public.
Farage’s use of the platform has already come under intense scrutiny after a Guardian investigation revealed he had recorded videos supporting a rioter, repeating extremist slogans, and endorsing a neo-Nazi event.
Users of Cameo write a short “prompt” for their chosen celebrity, who then charges them a fee for a clip that usually lasts less than a minute.
Farage’s comment about Welsh people is in a video he made in July 2025, for which he charged £106. The Cameo user asked him to record a wedding message for “Toby and Sam” and to follow a script that said: “I really wanted to come, but when I heard that half the guests were Welsh, I thought: ‘That’s far too many foreigners for me’.”
Anna Turley, the Labour chair, issued this statement after Kemi Badenoch’s press conference.
Kemi Badenoch used her local election launch to back her shadow justice secretary when she should have already sacked him. It’s shameful that she lacks any backbone and won’t condemn his despicable comments on Muslims.
The Tories have now joined Reform in the gutter by adopting Tommy Robinson endorsed views over Muslims peacefully praying in London. The majority of Brits – including many Conservatives – will rightly be appalled by it. It shows just how far the Tories have sunk.
Tom Ambrose is now taking over the blog for a bit. I will be back later.
Updated
Badenoch offers new explanation for Tory attack on Muslim prayer event, saying party objecting to gender segregation
Q: [From Peter Walker from the Guardian] Yesterday you backed what Nick Timothy said about the Ramadan event in Trafalgar Square. What was your objection to it? Yesterday your party said it was a segregation matter. This morning the party chair, Kevin Hollinrake, said it was a general point about prayer in public. But in an article this morning Timothy said this was a specific point about Islam. What is the party’s position?
Badenoch says they are both right.
She says the Tories believe in freedom of religion.
But this debate which Nick is having is not about freedom of religion. It is about how religion is expressed in a shared public space, and whether those expressions fit within the norms of British culture.
She says Keir Starmer pulled out of an an event organised by the group that organised the Trafalgar Square event when he was opposition leader because they are “highly controversial”. He was “sucking up” to British Jews. So his stance is “the mother of all hypocrisy”, she says.
She says Timothy is a ‘“fantastic shadow justice spokesperson”.
She says, as a woman from an ethnic minority, she is “very uncomortable seeing women pushed to the back in Trafalgar Square in an event which is exclusionary”.
She says she is happy to see religious events in Trafalgar Square. But they have to be inclusive.
(Although this Badenoch is claiming that the Tories primarily objected to the Trafalgar Square prayer event because it involved gender segragation, Timothy did not mention this at all in his original tweet attacking the event as “an act of domination”, or in a subsequent defence of his stance.)
Updated
Q: Do you think you will do better than last year? And what would be a good result?
Badenoch says a good result would be winning all seats.
She says that last year the party did not do well because it was still associated with the previous government.
Q: [From Martina Bet from the Sun] Is there a plan to bring new faces into your team? Many of your team are from the last government?
Badenoch does not accept that. But she says she needs new faces, and experience. The ex-ministers in her team are people who tried to stop the last government making the mistakes it was making.
Q: [From Ben Clatworthy from the Times] Can you really fund these pledges. Where are you going to get the money?
Badenoch says the Tories have identified savings worth £47bn.
Q: [From Aaron Newbury from the Daily Express] Do you think Sadiq Khan’s comments show Labour wants to betray the Brexit vote?
Badenoch replies:
I came into parliament a year after the referendum, and I saw what happened when MP spent three years litigating a referendum where the public gave a very, very clear verdict. I do not want us to have that again. We need to start thinking about the future.
She says Labour is going back to 2016 ideas because they don’t have any new ideas.
Q: Are you really coming back? Or are you just being replaced?
Badenoch says the Tories are coming back for the country’s sake.
Q: [From GB News’s Christopher Hope] How bad could it get for you? Nigel Farage says you will be wiped out. And would you encouraging tactical voting against Reform UK?
Badenoch says she does not care what Farage says. She says the Conservative party is coming back.
Q: [From Rob Powell from Sky News] You talk about the war causing prices to go up. Yet at the start of the war you said Britain should be more involved. Do you regret that?
Badenoch says she has not changed her mind. She has always favoured allowing the US to use British bases. She says it is Keir Starmer who changed his position.
Badenoch is now taking questions.
Q; [From ITV’s Harry Horton] The PM is unpopular, growth is low, we have had U-turn after U-turn, and yet your party is still polling worse than at the election. What would it mean for you if you lose seats at these elections?
Badenoch says this is a new party under new leadership. She is fighting to win, she says.
Badenoch also criticises other opposition parties.
The Lib Dems can’t stand still for five minutes without breaking into a conga. The Greens say yes to crack pipes, but no to Nato.
And look at what Reform have done at Kent County Council. They came in with a new Doge team promising to cut people’s council tax, only to find out that the Conservatives had already made the savings ….
There’s war in the Middle East pushing up prices and threatening our economy, British servicemen and women are already involved, yet Reform can’t even be bothered to appoint a Foreign affairs or a defence spokesman.
Badenoch says Labour holding shadow leadership contest because they don't know what they stand for
Badenoch says Labour came into power not knowing what it wanted.
Labour’s problem is that after 14 years in opposition, they came in without a single idea of how to fix anything. They’re now having a shadow leadership contest, talking about what the party should stand for.
Kemi Badenoch says voters will get a choice at the election. They could vote for one of the many parties “whingeing”, who have not bothered to do the work on policy and who would cost them more, or for the only party with a plan.
She says the Tories are on the side of “hard-working people”. They would abolish business rates for pubs, restaurants and high street shops, cut energy bills, allow more North Sea oil drilling, and scrap stamp duty on family homes.
And they would make sure people who aren’t contributing “get what they deserve”. She makes it clear she is talking about criminals, saying the Tories would hire more police officers. And they would triple stop and search, she says.
The police would be told to stop e-bikes being ridden on pavements. And they would be told not stop allowing people to smoke drugs in public places.
She says she would put the rights of ordinary people above the rights of the “small minority” making life a misery for everyone else.
And the Conservatives would pay for this with welfare cuts, she says.
She goes on:
Some people want more benefits with Labour. Some people want nationalisation with Nigel Farage. Some people want bigger boobs with Zack Polanski. That’s fine. That’s what they want.
We’ve got a better offer. We offer those who want jobs and opportunity, those who want society to judge people based on merit.
Cleverly is trying to show a video, but it is not working. So he just invites Kemi Badenoch to start her speech.
Tories launch their local elections campaign
The Conservatives are launching their local elections campaign. There is a live feed here.
James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, is introducing Kemi Badenoch. He describes her as “the next prime minister of this country”.
He says she has had a “transformational effect” on the party, and injected “vim and vigour” into it.
Khan claims Brexit may have shrunk GDP by as much as 10%
In his interview with La Repubblica (see 8.57am), Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said research commissioned by his office suggested that Brexit may have reduced UK GDP by as much as 10%. “What [the research] confirms is that our economy would have grown by an additional 10% but for Brexit,” Khan said. This is higher than other estimates of the damage done by Brexit.
Khan was referring to this report.
In her Mais lecture on Tuesday, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, used a lower figures. She said:
Brexit did deep damage. Recent independent studies indicate its GDP impacts could be as much as 8%.
Sharon Graham’s comment about Keir Starmer facing a leadership challenge after the May elections (see 9.50am) was prompted by a question about Angela Rayner, who seems to be intensifying her preparations for a possible leadership contest. Pippa Crerar has more insight in her thinking in this very good article.
Here’s an extract.
Until recently, Rayner – publicly at least – agreed. She rallied round when Anas Sarwar called for Starmer to go last month, posting that Starmer had her “full support” and urging the Labour party to come together. With her intervention, any prospect of a coup was over.
But despite the public display of loyalty, allies suggest that Rayner has, over time, been losing faith in Starmer and his Downing Street operation – and thinks the party must now take a different direction.
Her early frustrations with some of the people around Starmer – who she is understood to have felt pushed him into poor political decisions – began to settle on the prime minister himself. “Angela couldn’t defend him any more,” one friend said.
His decision to make Peter Mandelson the UK’s ambassador to Washington was a turning point. The Guardian understands that Rayner had privately warned Starmer against going ahead because of Mandelson’s links with Jeffrey Epstein.
Ministers announce huge expansion of electronic tagging in England and Wales
Tens of thousands of offenders will be released from prisons in England and Wales wearing tags that track their location in real time as part of the biggest expansion of electronic tagging in British history, ministers have announced. Alexandra Topping has the story.
Unite leader Sharon Graham says she expects Starmer to face leadership challenge after May elections
Keir Starmer will face a leadership challenge after the Scottish parliament, Welsh Senedd and English local elections in May, the Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has said.
This is not a novel view, but in an interview on Sky News this morning Graham said what many Labour MPs will only say in private.
Asked if she would like to see Angela Rayner replace Starmer, she replied:
Irrespective of what I believe, I think after the May elections there will be a move to change leader because I think Labour are going to pretty much be decimated in those elections.
As Sky News reports, Graham said she thought the government did not understand “how bad” the anger was from “working people” about its lack of delivery.
UK pay growth sinks to five-year low as younger workers hit by hiring slowdown
Wage growth slowed sharply in the three months to January according to the latest snapshot of the jobs market from the Office for National Statistics. Phillip Inman has the story.
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, will make a statement to MPs about the government’s steel strategy (see 9.35am) at about 12.30pm. He will follow Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, who is making one on international development at about 11.3am.
UK to double steel tariffs to 50% to save plants from collapse
Chris Bryant, the trade minister, has rejected that suggstions that the UK plan of tariffs to help domestic steel production are reminiscent of Donald Trump’s policy.
As Bethan McKernan reports, the government is to double tariffs on Chinese and other foreign steel in a bid to save its remaining plants from collapse.
In an interview on Sky News this morning, asked if this was a Trump-style policy, Bryant replied:
It’s not very Donald Trump. It’s very, very specific.
Look, I believe I’m passionate about free trade, but it has to be fair trade.
And if you’ve got artificially low prices, completely pricing us out of the market, pricing British steel out of the market, that is a problem for us, because we need to have a sovereign capacity of steel in the UK.
Sadiq Khan says Labour should rejoin customs union and single market soon, and commit to full EU membership in manifesto
Good morning. Shortly before the general election in 2024, Keir Starmer said he did not think the UK would rejoin the EU in his lifetime. (He is now 63.) At the time he was loath to say anything that implied the Brexit vote was a mistake. More recently, Labour has been happy to talk about the economic damage done by the leave vote, and ministers want a closer relationship with the EU, but ruling out a customs union or single market membership remain firm red lines for Labour. And even more pro-EU parties, like the Liberal Democrats, are a bit vague about when full rejoining might be an option (not least because the last thing the Brussels probably wants is another half-decade of Brexit negotiations hell).
But today Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is trying to shift the debate into a different space. In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he has said not just that rejoining would be good in principle (which is about as far as most pro-European Labour MPs are willing to go), but that Labour should commit to rejoining in its next election manifesto.
He is also saying that Labour should join a customs union with the EU, and the single market, during this parliament – even though the 2024 manifesto ruled this out.
He says:
I see on a daily basis the damage Brexit has done to not just London, but Londoners, the damage economically, socially and culturally. And I’m quite clear in terms of what needs to happen, which is I do think we should join the European Union …
So I think there should be a five-stage process in relation to this.
Number one, we should reset relations with the EU, and that’s done. Tick.
Number two, we should have closer alignment, and the chancellor this week has talked about closer alignment, sector by sector, and only diverge in exceptional circumstances.
So we basically have to take the next three steps that are incredibly important.
Step three, we should rejoin the customs union this parliament. Any trade agreement is less good than the customs union.
And then step four, we should rejoin the single market. We should try and do this during this parliament.
And then we should, as a Labour party, fight the next general election with a clear manifesto commitment, a vote for Labour means we would rejoin the European Union.
Khan also says, if Labour an election on a manifesto making this clear, there would be no need for a second referndum.
The chances of Starmer embracing this plan are close to zero. But that does not mean this is a totally hopeless intervention. Khan knows that Starmer won’t commit to rejoinining, but he is speaking out ahead of elections in London where Labour faces being hammered by the Greens in particular, in part because London voted remain and the Greens have been more anti-Brexit than Labour.
There is a wider point too; over time, policy debates shift and ideas once dismissed as absurd start to be seen as more realistic. (There was a time when a weird fringe party starting calling for the UK to leave the EU, and no one took them seriously.) Khan might be thinking long term.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Kemi Badenoch launches the Conservative party’s local elections campaign for England at an event in London.
Morning: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, visits a vaccine rollout centre in Kent.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 11.30am: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, makes a statement to MPs about international development spending. As Fiona Harvey and Jessica Elgot report, climate aid to developing countries from the UK will be cut by about 14% to roughly £2bn.
Noon: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, unveils his party’s candidates and manifesto for Scotland.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
Noon: The Covid inquiry publishes its latest report, covering the impact of the pandemic on the NHS.
Noon: The Bank of England makes its latest interest rates announcement.
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