Closing summary
This blog will be closing shortly. You can keep up to date with all the latest on UK politics here until Andrew Sparrow returns tomorrow morning.
Until then, here’s a summary of today’s key developments:
Peter Mandelson has complained about the decision by the police to arrest him yesterday, with a statement issued by his lawyers saying he had already agreed to attend a police interview last month. They claimed he had been arrested on the basis of a “baseless suggestion” he was about to flee the country and take up permanent residence abroad.
Several outlets claimed it was lord speaker Michael Forsyth who passed information on to the Met about Mandelson planning to flee the country. A spokesperson for the lord speaker rejected this claim, describing it as “entirely false”.
MPs have passed a humble address motion from the Lib Dems that calls for papers relating to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being made trade envoy to be published, meaning the government must comply with the request. Trade minister Chris Bryant also said the government was working “at pace” on legislation to remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, describing him as a “rude, arrogant and entitled man”.
Liam Byrne, the Labour chair of the Commons business committee, has said that his committee may launch an inquiry covering Mountbatten-Windsor’s work as a trade envoy when the police inquiry is over. Speaking at the start of an unrelated committee hearing today, he said the committee would “begin gathering information immediately so that we might stand ready to launch an inquiry into the governance regime for trade envoys at the moment the police and criminal justice system action has concluded”.
The Ministry of Justice will ramp up use of artificial intelligence (AI) in courts to cut backlogs, David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary has said. He also said the cap on court sitting days will be lifted.
Richard Tice, Reform UK business spokesperson, announced two proposals relating to pensions, incluing pooling funds in the local government pension scheme and using them to fund a new British sovereign wealth fund, which would manage assets of up to £575bn. He also confirmed that Reform UK wants to end defined benefit pensions for new council staff, replacing them with defined contributions ones, which are considerably less generous.
A high court judge has dismissed an attempt by the independent MP Rupert Lowe to block a parliamentary watchdog from investigating a complaint against him. Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, is taking legal action against the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), which investigates complaints of inappropriate behaviour against MPs, after the body’s decision last July to investigate a complaint made about him.
Danny Kruger, the Reform UK MP in charge of preparing the party for government, has complained that Britain has a “totally unregulated sexual economy”, in an interview highlighting his parties support for families. Kruger, a social conservative and evangelical Christian who defected to Reform from the Tories last year, made the comment in an interview with Politics Home.
A bid by Conservative backbench peers to block a generational smoking ban, championed by Conservative former prime minister Rishi Sunak, failed on Tuesday.
The move, which would instead have raised the age of sale for tobacco products in England and Wales to 21, was heavily defeated in the House of Lords by 246 votes to 78, majority 168.
While most of those backing the change to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill were Conservatives, the voting list also showed two Liberal Democrats supported it.
Teachers and schools face “a huge ask” implementing the government’s special needs proposals affecting hundreds of thousands of children, according to education leaders and MPs who otherwise gave the plans a cautious welcome.
Under the plans unveiled by Bridget Phillipson, mainstream schools in England will assess pupils with special needs and draw up individual support plans (ISPs), creating a potential workload burden before the changes take full effect in 2029-30.
The new plans aim to extend support to many of the 1.3 million children in state schools identified as having special needs but who do not have the education, health and care plans (EHCPs) currently required for individualised support.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
The planned Send reforms are certainly necessary and seem sensible but they constitute a huge ask on mainstream schools to expand existing provision and implement training on a massive scale.
The government does need to be careful about the workload and mental health impact on leaders and teachers. There is already a wellbeing crisis in the education workforce with sky-high levels of stress and anxiety, and it will be very difficult to implement any reforms successfully if education staff are broken under the weight of too many expectations.
As part of the changes, the Department for Education (DfE) will create a set of national inclusion standards to iron out regional differences in support, and provide schools and colleges £1.6bn over three years to fund extra support. A further £1.8bn will fund local authorities to hire specialists for schools to call on. And another £200m will pay for additional teacher training.
You can read the full story by Kiran Stacey and Richard Adams here: Send plan for England gets cautious welcome amid workload concerns
A leading lawyer and Labour peer has said she is “appalled” at allegations a prominent thinktank paid for an investigation into journalists when it was led by a now government minister.
Expressing her shock in parliament, global media freedom adviser Lady Kennedy of The Shaws argued the controversy “goes to the heart of our democracy”.
It was announced on Monday the prime minister’s ethics watchdog will investigate Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons.
Labour Together is accused of paying PR firm Apco Worldwide £36,000 to look into the background of journalists in 2023, when Simons was its director.
The journalists had covered the campaign group’s failure to declare more than £700,000 in donations.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Kennedy said:
I cannot begin to express how appalled I am that attacks should have been made upon independent journalists investigating a matter which was a legitimate matter to be investigated by the media.
I should declare immediately that I am on the high-level legal panel that advises the Media Freedom Coalition, a global coalition of 51 countries that are seeking to protect journalists.
It is quite shocking that any person holding a leadership position should be attacking journalists, when we know that independent journalism is fundamental to democracy and our security, and absolutely something that this Government and any government should be protecting.
Responding, Labour frontbencher Lady Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent said she agreed with many of Kennedy’s concerns, reiterating that an investigation was currently under way on the actions of Simons as a minister.
Updated
In other Westminster news, the Liberal Democrats have called for “urgent and meaningful action” to protect children from online harms “within weeks”.
Education spokesperson Munira Wilson laid out her party’s proposals, which include a “film-style classification system”, with social media rated at 16 as a default.
The motion tabled by Wilson, if supported by MPs, would allocate time for progressing a bill on protecting children from online harms, with the first debate in less than two weeks.
She told the Commons on Tuesday:
Companies would be required to age-gate their platforms based on the harmfulness of their content, the addictiveness of their platform design and impact this can have on a child’s mental health.
Earlier on Tuesday, she introduced a bill to parliament that would restrict access to online services, including social media, by children in certain circumstances, but did not publish the details of the bill for MPs to read.
Labour, Conservative and Green Party MPs criticised the fact that the bill had not been published, with Green Party Westminster leader Ellie Chowns accusing the Liberal Democrats of “politicking”.
The Liberal Democrats would also introduce a “doomscroll cap”, which Wilson said would “end the infinite scroll feature on short-from online platforms for young people, limiting the amount of time for which children are pushed TikTok-style video content to two hours”.
She suggested that social media companies should introduce health alerts for under 18s.
The Liberal Democrats’ motion was defeated 69 votes to 279, majority 210.
Updated
Lord speaker says claim he tipped off Met about Mandelson is 'entirely false'
Michael Forsyth has responded to the claim that he passed information on to the Met about Peter Mandelson planning to flee the country, describing it as “entirely false”.
A spokesperson for the lord speaker said:
Any suggestion at all that the lord speaker received information about Lord Mandelson’s movements or communicated any such information to the Metropolitan police Service, is entirely false and without foundation.”
Updated
Claim that lord speaker tipped off Met about Mandelson 'completely untrue', source says
Sources in the House of Lords are saying the claim that Michael Forsyth, the lord speaker, passed information on to the Met about Peter Mandelson planning to flee is “completely untrue”.
Perhaps someone got the title of the informant muddled up. There are a lot of peers in the House of Lords with fancy titles, and some MPs have grand titles too.
That is all from me for today. Joe Coughlan is taking over now.
Hannah Al-Othman is the Guardian’s North of England correspondent
A Labour MP has said politicians should not expect to face “death threats as standard” after a Reform UK councillor shared a Facebook post which said she “should be shot”.
The picture of Natalie Fleet, who has spoken previously about being groomed and raped as a teenager, was accompanied by a fake quote misattributed to her, which read: “I voted against the grooming gang enquiry.”
The Facebook post was shared by Simon Evans, the deputy leader of Lancashire council and cabinet member for children and families. He also reshared text accompanying the picture, which said: “You dozy cow, you should be shot.”
Fleet, who is MP for Bolsover in Derbyshire, said: “Posts like this are so common I don’t bat an eyelid. However, they remind me why my husband and children begged me not to stand.
“My first thought is always for the loved ones who have to see it, and any women who may be put off of getting into politics in the future.”
She added: “The last Labour government helped me so much; I got into politics because I wanted to pay that forward and help others in my community. Whatever party, we should be able to fight for our areas without death threats as standard.”
Evans later deleted the post, saying in an apology on Facebook that he had made “a genuine mistake” and “did not notice the accompanying text”, and had removed the post “immediately” once it was brought to his attention.
You can read the full story from Hannah Al-Othman here: Reform UK councillor shared Facebook post saying Labour MP ‘should be shot’
How Mandelson reportedly claimed Met heard allegation he was about to flee from lord speaker
This is what Emily Maitlis said about the message from Peter Mandelson about the lord speaker. (See 6.15pm.)
Overnight I heard from a colleague who sent me Peter Mandelson’s own words. And this is what he told the colleague.
“Despite previous agreements between police and the legal team over a voluntary interview in early March, police arrested me because they claimed the lord speaker received information that I was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands and take up permanent residence abroad, leaving Reinaldo” – his husband – “my family, home and Jock” – his dog – “behind me.
“I need hardly say, complete fiction. The police were told only today that they had to improvise an arrest. The question is who or what is behind this?”
Now, I understand that this was sent around 4 am, approximately two hours after he’d been released from police custody.
And the tenor of that sounds as if he is saying the police arrested him because they had a tip off that he was going to flee.
None of that really makes sense when you pull it apart, because the idea of him fleeing to the British Virgin Islands, which is obviously somewhere within a UK jurisdiction, within an extradition treaty, doesn’t really sound logical.
But it is interesting, Peter Mandelson’s own words, “who or what is behind this?” He is doubting the integrity of the arrest itself. He’s doubting the integrity of the police investigation, from the sounds of it, because he doesn’t think that that was what he had previously agreed, which was a voluntary interview sometime next week.
Jon Sopel, Maitlis’s co-presenter on the News Agents, said it was “jaw-dropping” that Mandelson could think it a good idea to start briefing against the Met at 4am
Updated
Emily Maitlis, the broadcaster and co-host of the News Agents podcast, has said that Peter Mandelson is claiming that it was the lord speaker who told the police he had been told that Mandelson was about to flee to the British Virgin Islands to set up permanent residence.
Michael Forsyth, a former Tory cabinet minister, has just taken over as lord speaker.
Updated
Mandelson complains police arrested him because of 'baseless' claim he was about to flee UK, and vows to clear his name
Peter Mandelson has complained about the decision by the police to arrest him yesterday. In a statement issued by his lawyers, he has said that he had already agreed to attend a police interview last month but that he was arrested on the basis of a “baseless suggestion” he was about to flee the country.
The statement, issued by the firm Mishcon de Reya, says:
Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday despite an agreement with the police that he would attend an interview next month on a voluntary basis.
The arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad.
There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion.
We have asked the MPS [Metropolitian Police] for the evidence relied upon to justify the arrest.
Peter Mandelson’s overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name.
Reform UK criticised over plan to use council pension fund money as British sovereign wealth fund
In his speech in Birmingham today, Richard Tice, Reform UK business spokesperson, announced two proposals relating to pensions that are now attracting much critcism.
First, he proposed pooling funds in the local government pension scheme and using them to fund a new British sovereign wealth fund, which would manage assets of up to £575bn. He said:
I’ve been looking closely at the local government pension scheme that has assets of about £500 billion, covering 98 funds across councils across the whole of the UK, and it’s got some seven, three quarter million members, well intentioned, but being woefully managed in a completely disparate, uncoordinated way, with no vision, no purpose of backing Britain whatsoever, and it’s been massively overcharged over inflated fees to the tune of four or five times, whilst it’s underperforming hugely, never meeting the benchmarks …
We can transform this into a British Sovereign Wealth Fund, proudly paying all of the members and pensioners, of course, whilst patriotically backing Britain all of the way.
And, second, he confirms that Reform UK wants to end defined benefit pensions for new council staff, replacing them with defined contributions ones, which are considerably less generous.
On the sovereign wealth fund plan, Pensions UK, a group representing fund managers and others in the pensions industry, says Tice’s plans are concering.
Zoe Alexander, executive director of policy and advocacy at Pensions UK, said:
We simply do not recognise the picture of the local government pension scheme (LGPS) that Reform UK has painted.
The LGPS is one of the largest and most successful pension schemes in the world. It is fully funded and undergoing a major reform programme to consolidate its assets into six large investment pools ranging from £25-100bn, with savings to date estimated at £1bn, and with further savings to come. It is an exemplar of UK investment amongst pension schemes, with an allocation of around 17%. LGPS investment performance for England and Wales has been strong, with the scheme having achieved a return of around 7% pa over the last decade.
Reform’s proposals are lacking in detail, but its intentions to place all new staff into a defined contribution scheme and to transform the scheme into a sovereign wealth fund are concerning.
The LGPS exists solely to fund the retirements of close to 7 million local government workers, many of whom are low earners. It does not exist to manage a pool of assets to fund government projects.
And the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association was also critical. Its CEO, James Alexander, said:
Proposals to force pension schemes to invest in the UK run the risk of distorting markets and creating asset bubbles.
They could also lead to lower returns for savers, at a time when shortfalls in retirement pots have left a whole generation facing a later-life income crisis. This stands to affect workers across the economy, including those now close to leaving employment.
And, on ending defined benefit pensions for council staff, the Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said:
Attacking the pensions of council staff is a disastrous move. Employees would be denied a secure retirement income and it would worsen the recruitment crisis in local government.
Whether it’s targeting low-paid staff or demonising anyone from overseas, Reform has little interest in helping workers or strengthening public services.
Threat of foreign interference in UK politics, including from US, getting worse, MPs warn, as they call for crypto gifts ban
Parliament’s joint committee on the national security strategy has called for a temporary ban on political parties accepting cryptocurrency donations.
In a letter to Steve Reed, who as housing, communities and local government secretary is in charge of electoral law, it suggests the government should legislate for a temporary ban in the representation of the people bill.
And, in the meantime, the Electoral Commission should issue tougher guidance for parties that are accepting crypto donations, it says.
Matt Western, the Labour MP who chairs the committee and who wrote the letter, said that tigher rules were needed because the threat of foreign states interferring in UK politics was growing. He wrote:
We are concerned that foreign state intent to interfere in UK political finance may grow out to the next election. As the security environment worsens and the UK’s military role in Europe grows, the value of influencing the UK’s political positions (for example on Ukraine, or US/EU relations) is likely to increase.
The challenge now goes beyond adversaries and third countries seeking influence. The US administration has outlined ambitions to shape political discourse in allied countries.
And the corrosive public belief that foreign influence could affect democratic processes is in itself a significant risk to long-term trust in institutions, regardless of whether foreign efforts actually affect outcomes.
We therefore urge you to exploit the current legislative vehicle and associated political momentum more effectively.
Western does not name any parties that pose a particular risk – although Reform UK is the only main party that actively solicits donations in crypto.
In his letter, Western admitted that experts are divided on the case for a ban on crypto donations. But he said the bill (which is primarily about legislating for votes at 16) should include a temporary ban on crypto donations – to remain in place until the Electoral Commission produces new statutory guidance on this topic.
In the meantime, the commission should produce “more comprehensive interim guidance” on crypto, Western said.
The Electoral Commission has already complained that the bill does not do enough to tighten the rules designed to stop foreigners donating to political parties via UK companies. In his letter, Western said the bill should be strengthened in this area.
Western also called for longer sentences for people who break party funding laws, saying the National Crime Agency has complained there is a limit to what they can do to investigate these offences because intrusive covert surveillance powers can only be used in relation to crimes that attract a sentence of three years or more.
Updated
Emma Reynolds tells farmers SPS deal with EU should make exports 'faster, easier and cheaper'
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, has promised to boost the British farming sector with more EU trade.
Speaking at the NFU conference in Birmingham, she said there would be “more British beef and dairy on European tables” and bemoaned the fact trade with the EU has diminished by 20% since Brexit.
She said a new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU, coming later this year, will “reduce trade frictions”, adding:
It will make trade faster, easier and cheaper – frictionless trade, efficient orders, open supply chains. We know that you want more detail on what the agreement will look like, and we will be setting that out soon.
However, one agreement was less welcomed; some farmers will lose money by opting into environment schemes under new plans to cap payments announced by Reynolds at the conference.
After Brexit, England moved from a system where farmers were subsidised based on how much land they managed to one where they would be paid for delivering environmental benefits.
This was paid based on an “income foregone” basis, meaning farmers would never be out of pocket for digging ponds, planting trees, or sowing wildflower seeds on previously intensively farmed land.
Now the government is introducing caps in order to make the system fairer. No farm will be allowed to claim more than £100,000 a year from the schemes. For some larger farms and estates, this will probably mean they put land back into food production.
Jake Fiennes, head of conservation at the Holkham Estate, who was one of the first pilot schemes for the new environmental land payments, said:
With this new policy, there is all the potential of some wonderful work delivering for the environment being undone.
He said larger farms and estates, which had put much of their land into environmental schemes, would be disincentivised to keep those projects going for the long term.
Many major schemes are due to end in December. These will have a significant environmental value and the resultant change in income driven by this policy will probably mean a reduction in environmental output in these areas. Some of which have been committed to improving the environment for decades.
Under the new government plans, smaller farms under 50ha will be prioritised for funding. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said this is because 25% of funding went to 4% of farms previously.
Ukrainian refugees in UK given longer to extend visas after complaints 28-day application window too short
Chris Osuh is a Guardian community affairs correspondent.
Ukrainians who have fled war have been given longer to renew their UK visas after concerns the process was creating gaps in which people were unable to prove their right to live and work legally.
Refugees who left the European country and came to the UK after the outbreak of war with Russia now have 90 days to extend their visas.
Under the previous extension scheme Ukrainians had to wait to apply to extend their visa when their current permission had 28 days or less remaining until it expired and, if they applied earlier, they could be rejected and have to reapply.
Campaigners had said the short window meant people were being refused tenancy renewal because their visas were about to expire, while others had been told they would have to stop working during the extension process as landlords and employers feared fines and sanctions.
The announcement that the timeframe for the visa extension period was being increased came on the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Migration minister Mike Tapp told Ukrainians the UK “will remain your safe haven for as long as the war continues”.
There were 278,529 visas issued between the Ukraine schemes opening in 2022 and the end of September last year, according to the latest Home Office data published in November.
Tapp said:
We have listened to the concerns of the Ukrainian community and acted to offer greater peace of mind ... Britain will always offer sanctuary to those in genuine need.
MPs pass Lib Dem humble address motion saying papers relating to Andrew being made trade envoy must be published
After Chris Byrant finished, the Lib Dem humble address motion was passed without a division. That means the government is now obliged to comply with it.
Here again is the text of it.
That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions to require the government to lay before this house all papers relating to the creation of the role of special representative for trade and investment and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment to that role, including but not confined to any documents held by UK Trade and Investment, British Trade International (BTI) and its successors, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Cabinet Office and the prime minister’s office containing or relating to advice from, or provided to, the group chief executive of BTI, Peter Mandelson, the Cabinet Office and the prime minister regarding the suitability of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for the appointment, due diligence and vetting conducted in relation to the appointment, and minutes of meetings and electronic communications regarding the due diligence and vetting.
Updated
Bryant says government working 'at pace' on legislation to remove Andrew from line of succession
Bryant also said that the government was working “at pace” on legislation to remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession. He said went on:
We intend to be able to bring forward legislation when we can.
I can’t commit to a particular date on that, but I note that Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music sang, “I have confidence that spring will come again.” And so I have confidence that the act of succession will come round at pace.
He ended by saying that, although it would be nice to pretend otherwise, it was likely that young people were still be abused today “by rich, wealthy, arrogant, entitled people”.
The government should do all in its power to stop that happening, he said. But he said ultimately it was for the legal process to ensure offenders were caught and punished.
Updated
Referring to criticism of the parliamentary rules that have protected the royals from criticism, Bryant said that even under the current rules it is possible to hold a debate on a member of the royal family, if one of the main parties table a substantive motion. But that did not happen with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, he said.
And he said there had been criticism of the sub judice rules. But it said it was important for MPs to respect these, so they did not say anything that might prejudice a trial. He said it was for the courts to find people guilty, not parliament.
Bryant expresses doubts about Lib Dem call for two-part inquiry into Epstein's links with UK
In the Commons Chris Bryant, the trade minister, is now winding up the humble address debate.
He thanks the Lib Dems for bringing the debate to the Commons.
He repeated the government’s intention to comply with the humble address motion “as soon as is practical within the law”.
But, in terms of delaying the release of information, he says the government would be guided by the advice of the prosecuting authorities.
Referring to the Lib Dem call for a public inquiry (see 3.13pm), he says that in 2011, as well as criticising Prince Andrew (see 1.49pm), he was also exposing phone hacking. That led to a public inquiry. It was meant to take part in two parts (as the Lib Dems propose this one could). But the police investigation went on for so long that part two never took place.
So he was “somewhat cautious” about calls for another two-part inquiry.
Lammy says courts will increase use of AI to 'smash through delays'
The Ministry of Justice will ramp up use of artificial intelligence (AI) in courts to cut backlogs, David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary has said. As the Press Association says, Lammy backed digital modernisation across the courts system, including using AI to keep notes and summarise judgments. PA says:
Lammy gave a speech at the Microsoft AI Tour in London where he said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is one of the fastest-growing users of Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant, Copilot.
He told the audience that new technology like AI will help the court system “smash through delays, cut complexity, and free up people to do what they do best”.
Lammy, a former barrister, said an AI tool had already been piloted in the probation service to record meetings between officers and offenders, removing the need for handwritten notes to be typed up.
The MoJ will also explore using AI to speed up case progression by transcribing material and summarising their judgments.
Pledging to increase spending on AI, Lammy said: “I want to see more AI initiatives like these. We’re going to invest more in our in-house, justice AI unit. A specialist team within my department, working with staff to tackle the challenges that they face.
“Over £12m in additional funding in the next financial year will expand our AI capabilities, putting this powerful tool finally in the hands of staff.”
Lammy said the MoJ’s relationship with Microsoft and others will represent an “unprecedented partnership between the public and private sectors”.
Technology will also be used to get defendants to court faster, Lammy said.
Prison transport vehicles will be able to use the same technology that switches traffic lights green as emergency vehicles approach in some areas, he said.
Lammy also said the cap on court sitting days will be lifted.
As Jessica Elgot reports, the Ministry of Justice has released figures suggesting that, even with all the measures being taken to speed up the criminal justice process, clearing the backlog in criminal courts will take a decade.
Rupert Lowe fails in effort to block investigation by MPs’ watchdog
A high court judge has dismissed an attempt by the independent MP Rupert Lowe to block a parliamentary watchdog from investigating a complaint against him, Kevin Rawlinson reports.
Lib Dems call for public inquiry into Epstein's links with British establishment
In the Commons Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, has just made an intervention to say that a public inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and other Jeffrey Epstein links with the UK could take place in two parts – with some parts delayed until after criminal proceedings, and some parts happening more quickly. She said there was precedent for inquiries being split into two parts.
Cooper intervened in a speech being given by her Lib Dem colleague Lisa Smart, who said the Lib Dems were “fizzing with ideas” about how systems could be improved in the light of this scandal. She said the inquiry should cover Epstein and his links with the British establishment.
Updated
Back in the Commons, the humble address debate is still going on, but it has now become a Lib Dem-only affair. We have only had speeches from two Labour MPs (the minister, Chris Byrant, and Rachael Maskell), one Conservative (the frontbencher Alex Burghart), one SNP MP (Brendan O’Hara) and one Green MP (Siân Berry). All the other speakers have been Lib Dems, and now the only MPs being called are Lib Dems. It is their motion after all.
Many of them are saying the release of the Andrew documents is not enough, and public inquiry is needed.
Liam Byrne confirms Commons business committee may launch Andrew inquiry after police probe over
Liam Byrne, the Labour chair of the Commons business committee, has said that his committee may launch an inquiry covering Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s work as a trade envoy when the police inquiry is over.
Speaking at the start of an unrelated committee hearing today, he said the committee would “begin gathering information immediately so that we might stand ready to launch an inquiry into the governance regime for trade envoys at the moment the police and criminal justice system action has concluded”.
The committee will write to ministers on the issue “and we will come back to the house with our opinion about whether an inquiry should be launched, depending on the information we receive”.
Keir Starmer participated online this morning in a coalition of the willing meeting about Ukraine. He was one the co-chairs, along with Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz and afterwards, on behalf of the more than 30 leaders who took part, they issued a statement saying the leaders “offered their full and sustained support as Ukraine fights for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to defend Europe’s freedom”.
Jakub Krupa and Shaun Walker have more about the meeting on the Europe live blog. Shaun, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, is doing a Q&A with readers.
Lib Dems say humble address vote 'important step in dismantling system that protected Andrew'
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has issued this statement following the confirmation from the government that it will support his Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor humble address motion (see 1.17pm and 1.56pm.)
Today is an important step in dismantling the system that protected Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein’s other associates. The victims, survivors and their families have waited far too long for the truth to come out and justice to be done.
We need a complete change of culture to hold the powerful to account. That starts with full transparency so we can understand how and why Andrew was given the job of trade envoy in the first place.
Now that the government has agreed to publish these files, we will use every lever at our disposal – politically and legally – to prevent any needless delay in bringing out the truth.
Updated
Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, followed Chris Bryant in the debate. He said that this was the second time recently the government was being forced to agree to the publication of internal papers because of a humble address motion tabled by an oppostion party, and he said the government was only doing the right thing because it was being “pushed every step of the way”.
Bryant said the work that Mountbatten-Windsor did as a trade envoy was quite different from the work being done by trade envoys now. He said they were all MPs or peers, and they were under the same obligations as ministers in their trade envoy duties.
He said he was “enormously grateful” to them for the work they did.
And he ended his speech saying:
One of the core principles of our constitutional system is the rule of law. That means that everyone is equal under the law and nobody is above the law.
I share the anger, the disgust, expressed by many at the alleged behaviour of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
What we are seeing now is a full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated by the police and in that investigation they will, of course, have the government’s unwavering cooperation and support.
Towards the end of his speech Bryant returned to his point about the government backing the Lib Dem motion. But he said nothing should be published until the police investigation is over if it might prejudice the police investigation.
The government will, of course, comply with the terms of the humble address in full. As I say, we support the motion.
But as the House will know, there is a live police investigation into the former Duke of York after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office …
As the police have rightly said, it is absolutely crucial that the integrity of their investigation is protected and, now these proceedings are under way, it would be wrong of me to say anything that might prejudice them, nor will the government be able to put into the public domain anything that is required by the police for them to conduct their inquiries unless and until the police are satisfied.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, intervened when Bryant was speaking to respond to his point about people defending Andrew in 2011. (See 1.49pm.) He said that he had apologised. And he said that other people in government at the time (Davey was a junior minister in the coalition then) might have known more than he did.
Bryant says Tory ministers and prominent journalists were defending Andrew in 2011 when warning signs already clear
In a reference to Ed Davey (see 9.06am), Bryant said that there were some people now saying, with reference to Mountbatten-Windsor, “if only we had known then what we know now”. He went on:
But I’m afraid that with me that doesn’t wash. We did actually have plenty of warning.
I called on the then prime minister, David Cameron, to dispense with the services of the then Duke of York in this chamber on 28 February 2011 because of his close friendship with Saif Gaddafi, as has just been referred to, and [a] convicted Libyan gun smuggler. I was rebuked by Speaker Bercow then for doing so because references to members of the royal family should be very rare, very sparing and very respectful.
(Bryant is right to say he was warning about Andrew 15 years ago. I covered this at the time on the live blog.)
Bryant said he repeatedly called for Andrew to lose his trade envoy job, over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the mysteriously excessive payment he received for the sale of his home, among other reasons.
But he said David Cameron, the then PM, Theresa May, the then home secretary, and many others defended Andrew.
He said that John Humphrys, the broadcaster, told him on the Today programme at the time that Epstein “wasn’t quite a paedophile, drawing a distinction between sexual abuse of prepubescent and other children”. And he said that Dominic Lawson also defended Andrew in his Sunday Times column, making “the same distinction between Epstein’s involvement with teenage girls and paedophilia since, as he put it, none of the girls was prepubescent”. But Lawson “did at least admit that both were sordid and exploitative”, Bryant said.
Bryant said this was happening after the photograph of Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre was published.
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Andrew 'rude, arrogant and entitled man' who could not distinguish between public and personal interest, says Bryant
Bryant turned to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Colleagues and many civil servants have told me their own stories of their interactions with Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, and they all betray the same pattern: a man on a constant self-aggrandising and self-enriching hustle, a rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest which he said he served, and his own private interest.
He said he recalled Mountbatten-Windsor visiting Tonypandy to meet sea cadets.
They were absolutely delighted and excited to meet a member of the Royal family, but he insisted on coming by helicopter, unlike his mother, who came twice to the Rhondda and always came by car. He left early and he showed next to no interest in the young people.
Bryant said that was not a crime, “nor is arrogance – fortunately, I suppose”, he added, in a self-deprecating joke.
Bryant says those who turned blind eye to Epstein 'out of greed, familiarity or deference' were complict in his crimes
Bryant opened his speech by saying that abuse suffered by Epstein’s victims was horrific. He said:
The abuse that was enabled, aided and abetted by a very extensive group of arrogant, entitled, and often very wealthy individuals in this country and elsewhere.
It’s not just the people who participated in the abuse, it’s the many, many more who turned a blind eye out of greed, familiarity or deference. To my mind, they too were complicit. Just as complicit. And I welcome the reckoning that is coming to them now.
I doubt there is anyone in this House who is not shocked and appalled by the recent allegations.
Trade minister Chris Bryant tells MPs government will support Lib Dem motion for publication of Andrew trade envoy papers
Chris Bryant, the trade minister, is responding for the government.
He started by saying that the government will support the motion.
Later in his speech he said that was subject to the caveat that it would not publish anything that might prejudice the police inquiry until it was over.
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Davey says Epstein tried to use Andrew's trade envoy job 'to enrich himself'
Davey gave an example of how Mountbatten-Windsor’s work as a trade envoy helped his friend, Jeffrey Epstein.
I would like to highlight one example of how Jeffrey Epstein sought to use Andrew’s role as trade envoy to enrich himself.
Channel 4 uncovered emails in the Epstein files in which Epstein was trying to meet the Libyan dictator Gaddafi in the dying months of the Gaddafi regime, to help him find somewhere to put his money.
In other words, Epstein looked at the deadly crisis in Libya and saw a chance to make some money. And he thought his friend Andrew could help.
And this is what it says in one of the emails: “I wondered if PA could make the intro.”
A few weeks later, Andrew wrote back: “Libya fixed.”
Though the Epstein Gaddafi meeting doesn’t appear to have happened, it does show clearly what these relationships were all about.
Davey said that the relationships that Andrew and Mandelson had with Epstein were “a stain” on the reputation of the country. “We must begin to clean away that stain with the disinfectant of transparency,” he said. He urged MPs to debate the motion.
Davey says publication of Andrew documents under humble address should not jeopardise police inquiry
Davey said he accepted that, if MPs pass the humble address, nothing should be published that might jeopardise the police investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor.
We do not want to jeopardise that investigation with anything we say today. We must let the police get on with their work, especially for Epstein’s victims, survivors and their families.
Davey said that it has been reported that Peter Mandelson called for the then Prince Andrew to be made a trade envoy. He went on:
One friend of Epstein lobbying for a job for another friend of Epstein, a job that might help Epstein enrich himself. So we clearly need to get to the bottom of that appointment and the role Mandelson himself played in it. And only the papers demanded by this emotion will allow us to do that. We need them published as soon as possible.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is opening the debate for his party.
He started by condemning Jeffrey Epstein.
The appalling crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates have rightly stunned the whole world. The scale of Epstein’s operation was shocking. Selling human beings for sex, turning hundreds of young women and girls into victims and survivors. And is those women who are at the front of our minds today as we finally seek transparency, truth and accountability.
And he complained about the fact that for too long MPs were not able to criticise members of the royal family in the Commons. He said he came across this in 2011 when he took part in a debate on Andrew. (See 8.38am.) He said that Paul Flynn wanted to criticise Andrew, but was not allowed to. Davey said that he was obliged to give the government’s view when he was speaking in that debate.
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Speaker Lindsay Hoyle urges MPs to exercise 'restraint' in Andrew debate given police investigation
MPs are now debating the Lib Dem motion on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
At the start Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, said it has always been possible for MPs to debate the roles subject to certain conditions (that they are debating a substantive motion about them).
He also urged MPs to exercise “a degree of restraint” given that some of the aspects of Mountbatten-Windsor’s work as a trade envoy are sub judice following his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
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UK suffering from 'totally unregulated sexual economy', says Reform UK's Danny Kruger, arguing for pro-family policy
Danny Kruger, the Reform UK MP in charge of preparing the party for government, has complained that Britain has a “totally unregulated sexual economy”, in an interview highlighting his parties support for families.
Kruger, a social conservative and evangelical Christian who defected to Reform from the Tories last year, made the comment in an interview with Politics Home.
Asked if he thought political parties had a role in undoing the sexual revolution, he replied: “A limited but important one.” He said that every government policy was “critically important to the way families form”.
Kruger explained:
Marriage traditionally was the means by which sexual relations between men and women were regulated, and I think we are suffering from having a totally unregulated sexual economy.
I’m not interested in your love life, or anything about your personal life – that is your business. But I am interested in the framework in which you make your decisions, and I’d like the framework to be more pro-social. If you want – most people do want – to settle down with one person to have children, we should make that easier.
In the interview, Kruger gave few details of what this might mean. He said Reform was “pronatalist” and that it wanted people to have more children. “We think the government should get behind that wish.”
This could mean more help with childcare, he said.
Clearly, the [childcare] system is totally dysfunctional. There’s a massive disincentive for parents to be able to organise their finances around their actual lives. It’s broken.
Kruger orginallly set out some of his views on the “sexual economy” in his book Covenant, published in 2023. In the book he said sex was “a public act because it is the basis of human regeneration and the bonding agent of the couple relationship on which society depends”. He said:
To get sex back to where it belongs, behind closed doors, we need to restore its status as a public act done in private – rather than, as currently, a private act done (or all but done, and certainly explicitly celebrated) in public.
Whether or not Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, also has concerns about the “unregulated sexual economy” remains unclear. Farage is divorced from his first wife, and separated from his second, and is distinctly more libertarian than Kruger.
In the interview Kruger also said that Reform was looking at switching the tax system back to being based on households, not individuals. That would reverse the independent taxation of married women, a policy only introduced in the UK in 1990.
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Reform UK accused of declaring war on workers and renters after Tice says he would repeal Labour's jobs and housing laws
Richard Tice has been accused of declaring war on workers and renters in his first speech in his new role as Reform UK’s business spokesperson.
In his speech this morning, Tice called for a “great repeal bill” that would undo some of the most significant legislation passed by Labour in government.
According to the extracts briefed in advance, Tice said:
Let’s have a great repeal bill that ditches daft regulations: scrap net zero, scrap ZEV mandates, scrap new employment rights rules, scrap new property rental rules – all well intentioned but kill jobs, hinder growth, investment and prosperity. This will all help lower inflation and bring down bills for consumers.
He said Reform would give more “trusted planning partners” freedom to build – subject to “tougher fines if they breach the government’s trust”
Tice also called for the creation of a British sovereign wealth fund, with assets worth £575bn from the local government pension scheme invested in listed shares with the aim of increasing UK growth; a new trade policy, with an emphasis on protecting “strategic national industries”, with heavy tariffs and tighter quotas for Chinese cars; and a big increase in oil and gas production.
In response, a Labour spokesperson said the proposed great repeal bill would weaken workers’ rights. The spokesperson said:
Reform have formally declared war on British workers. Nigel Farage and his cronies want to rip up hard-won workers’ rights on parental leave, sick pay, and would cut up to a million clean energy jobs in the process.
Reform have revealed whose side they’re on – and it’s not working people. And it’s families up and down the country who’d be left paying a very heavy price.
And, referring specifically to the commitment to repeal the Renters’ Rights Act, Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said:
Forcing people back into insecure and unsafe homes is not a promise, it’s a threat levelled at England’s 11 million private renters. Our homes are the foundations of our lives, so it is disgraceful to see Reform UK pledging to roll back new and essential protections that would improve the quality of our homes and help us to stay in them for longer.
Twomey also said Reform MPs has “nothing to say” about the bill as it was going through parliament.
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Badenoch cites Roblox as problem for children as she says teen social media ban has to take account of how platforms work
Q: Would your proposed ban on social media cover particular platforms? Would it cover AI chatbots and Roblox? And would it cover WhatsApp?
Badenoch says she does not regard WhatsApp as social media. She sees it as “not that much difference from texting”.
On Roblox, she says she recenty allowed her nine-year-old son to use it – and now wishes she hadn’t.
I recently allowed my nine-year-old son to get Roblox. I am now fighting to get him off it. And one of the things that I had to close down was chats coming in, which I didn’t realise were part of Roblox. And there’s still ways – despite me shutting it down, the chats still keep appearing, and he now knows that this is a problem. So right now he has been banned from Roblox.
She says that highlights the way any ban on under-16s accessing social media has to take account of what platforms are actually doing.
If we define what it is doing, then we’ll be able to capture exactly the platforms that are causing the problem.
One of the parents on the platform agrees with Badenoch’s point about Roblox, saying he thinks no child should be on it.
Badenoch says she expects Lib Dem motion demanding release of Andrew trade envoy documents to pass without need for vote
Q: Are you going to back the Lib Dem motion calling for the release of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor documents?
Badenoch says she does not think there will be a vote, because she thinks all MPs agree with this.
But she goes on to criticise the second Lib Dem opposition day motion today, which is the one saying on Monday 9 March the Lib Dems should have control of the parliamentary timetable so they can pass a bill an online services (age restrictions) bill. She says there is no need for this because there is a live bill going through parliament (the one Laura Trott was talking about a moment ago) with a social media ban for under-16s amendment in it.
She says:
I think that this is there’s a lot of messing around that’s happening. There is already an amendment for a live bill. It’s important that we get all parties to work together rather than everybody trying to own the win. This is not about owning the win. This is really about getting this issue sorted.
(This is a bit rich; only a few minutes ago, Badenoch was demanding a U-turn from Keir Starmer on a social media ban for under-16s. She is trying to own the win just as much as anyone.)
Updated
Kemi Badenoch is now taking questions.
The first reporter, from GB News, asks if Badenoch agrees it is time to table a vote of no confidence in Keir Starmer. In her reply, Badenoch ignores this point, but she says is hoping to get him to agree to a social media ban.
At the Tory press conference, Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, is speaking now. She says there will be a vote in the Commons in the next two weeks on the Tory proposal for a ban on under-16s accessing social media.
She says it is hard to police the content of social media posts, but it is possible to police the age at which people access it.
Trott was referring to a Commons vote on the amendment passed in the Lords.
She did not mention the fact that the Liberal Democrats are holding a vote on this issue this afternoon.
Updated
Keir Starmer is taking part in a coalition of the willing video call to discuss Ukraine. There is a live feed of his public contribution here.
Badenoch revives call for under-16s social media ban at event with families who have lost childen after online abuse
Kemi Badenoch is holding a press conference now. She is appearing with the relatives of children who she says have died as a result of social media – either because they took their own lives, or because it led to them being attacked. She says she wants to give them a platform to tell their stories.
She says there should be a ban on social media for under-16s.
She says she is inviting the six relatives to speak. The first speaker, George, says he lost his beautiful son, Christopher, who was given 50 challenges to complete by predators who targeted him online. They told him they would kill his family if he did not comply.
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NFU president Tom Bradshaw calls for farm inheritance tax to be abolished in full
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, is speaking at the National Farmers’ Union conference at the ICC in Birmingham this afternoon, at 3pm. She will be announcing a £345m fund for farming productivity. This is not new money; it comes out of the existing farming budget and is mostly an extension of an existing capital grants scheme.
But Tom Bradshaw, the NFU president, has been speaking this morning. He revealed that Keir Starmer U-turned on farming inheritance tax by more than doubling the threshold at which it is paid after Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson went to meet farmers in Northumberland in November last year and heard the struggles they were facing and the fears they had for the future if they could not pay the tax.
Experts from across the political spectrum had criticised Reeves for setting the threshold for inheritance tax at £1m for farms, as this would impact small and medium sized farms, rather than the super wealthy she was trying to target. In December, Starmer announced this would be changed to a £2.5m threshold, with couples able to pool their allowances, meaning a married couple would be able to have a farm worth £5m without those they pass it on to having to pay inheritance tax.
Bradshaw said he will be asking Reform, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories to commit to scrapping the new inheritance tax introduced by Rachel Reeves in the 2024 budget, in its entirety, in their general election manifestos.
He said:
Just to be crystal clear, to the prime minister, Treasury and secretary of state for environment we still believe the IHT policy is fundamentally flawed. It jeopardises some of our more productive farming businesses.
Of the opposition parties promising to scrap the tax, he said:
At the next general election we will be demanding those public promises are turned into manifesto commitments, to scrap the family farm tax.
He said production of most major foods in the UK is down, after the sector has been hit with extreme weather including drought and flood, rising inflation and input costs, as well as higher taxes. He added:
We cannot rely on other countries to feed us. We need a food strategy that sets clear ambitions sector by sector, something we can measure, something we can hold ourselves accountable for.
The years of declining food production must end now.
Starmer tells cabinet 'we must defeat falsehood Russia is winning', as he pays tribute to Ukraine's 'incredible resilience'
Keir Starmer has paid tribute to the “the incredible resilience of the Ukrainians” and urged people to “defeat the falsehood that Russia is winning” the war it started four years ago.
Addressing cabinet this morning, he said:
I wanted also to pay tribute to the incredible resilience of the Ukrainians, and it is incredible resilience.
When this conflict broke out four years ago, it was assumed it would be a matter of weeks before Putin took the whole of Ukraine. That’s what everybody believed.
Four years later, the Ukrainians are holding out against that aggression, holding out on the frontline where the circumstances are extremely challenging, but also holding out in civilian life where every day Ukrainians get up and go to work as a sign of resilience and defiance.
And we must defeat the falsehood that Russia is winning.
Because if you look at the last year alone, Russia took 0.8% of land in Ukraine at a terrible cost to themselves, half a million losses.
Starmer also spoke about some of his most seering memories of the suffering the Urkainians have endured. He said three images stuck in his mind.
He said he went to Bucha near Kyiv in the early days of the war, where he saw “the roads and the ditches in which Ukrainian civilians were handcuffed with their hands behind their back, blindfolded and shot in the head, the bodies left in the road”.
He went on:
The second etched in my memory was last year when I went to one of the busiest hospitals in Kyiv and saw for myself the incredibly awful burns on some of those who had returned from the frontline. Burns the like of which I’d never seen in my life before.
And at the same time, I went to a primary school and these children who were five, six, seven years old, had lost both their parents to the conflict.
Reform mayor courted US oil and gas executive about fracking in UK
Lincolnshire’s Reform party mayor, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, has courted the head of an American oil and gas dynasty in the hope of bringing fracking to the county, Hajar Meddah reports.
The Conservatives have said they would cut interest rates on plan 2 student loans. In her LBC phone-in this morning, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said she understood why students were angry about the interest charged on student loans, but she suggsted the Tory proposal was wrong. She said:
Part of the challenge with reforming the student finance system is that whilst it can often seem superficially attractive to do things like changing the interest rate, it doesn’t always have the desired effect in terms of making the system fairer, particularly for less well-off students.
It’s a really complex system. It’s evolved over time. It’s not a system that I would have put in place, but we are where we are. We are going to look at if there’s anything that we can do on this, of course we keep it open and under review.
Updated
Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, took their two teenage children to Poland during the half-term break “to find the house where her grandparents once lived before fleeing to England prior to the first world war, as antisemitism surged”, Lee Harpin reports in a story for Jewish News. He says:
Jewish News understands the prime minister was determined to travel with his children to the small village just outside Warsaw to help them fully appreciate the roots of their mother’s Jewish heritage.
None of Lady Victoria’s extended family who remained in Poland survived the Nazis, making the visit particularly poignant and emotional.
Here is our updated story about the arrest of Peter Mandelson, saying he arrived home at about 2am this morning after being released by the police on bail following questioning.
In a phone-in on LBC this morning, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, confirmed that the government will be complying with the humble address saying information relating to Mandelson’s time as US ambassador must be published. (See 8.38am.) But she said nothing would be published that might compromise the police inquiry into him.
Ed Davey apologises for praising Andrew's 'excellent' work as trade envoy in Commons debate 15 years ago
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has been giving interviews this morning. On the Today programme, he explained why the Lib Dem motion goes back to when Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed a trade envoy, in 2001. But Davey faced embarrassment when Nick Robinson, the presenter, read out extracts from a speech that Davey gave in 2011, when he was a trade minister in the coalition government and he was responding to a debate tabled by the late Labour MP Paul Flynn.
Flynn, a republican, used the debate to criticise the fact that, under parliamentary rules, he could not say anything critical of Prince Andrew, as he was at the time. Davey was replying on behalf of the government and, as Robinson reminded him, he said that Andrew had been a success in the role.
Davey said at the time:
I, for one, believe that the Duke of York does an excellent job as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment …. During [his time as trade envoy] he has been a long-standing success in the role, representing a continued interest on the part of the royal family in supporting British business and international trade and investment … Many who have worked with the duke have found that he is a real asset for our country in supporting UK business.
When Flynn put it to Davey that human rights groups were concerned about the work Andrew was doing in countries that were not democratic, Davey dismissed the criticism as “innuendo”.
When Robinson quoted these extracts from the debate, Davey said he was responding on behalf of another minister who could not be there. He said:
Can I apologise to all those victims of [Jeffrey] Epstein who may have read those words and been upset by them. I really regret them.
And he said no one in the debate had mentioned Jeffrey Epstein – which he said highlighted the way that parliament, at the time, was not holding Andrew to account.
When Robinson reminded Davey that he criticised Flynn for holding a debate about Andrew four days after the wedding of Prince William and Kate, saying that was “particularly inappropriate”, Davey replied:
Well, I didn’t know what we now know back then.
And it’s interesting to note that the prime minister [David Cameron] at the time got rid of, or ensured that Prince Andrew stood down from the role, two months later. So clearly someone in government did know that there were huge problems with the way he was conducting his role.
Davey said that he was “pretty angry” about the fact that he had been put in the position where he had to defend Andrew. He said the parliamentary rules that prevent MPs from criticising members of the royal family needed to change. The 2011 debate showed the need for “greater transparency and greater accountability”, he said.
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Minister signals No 10 won't stop MPs voting to publish Andrew trade envoy papers - provided police probe not jeopardised
Good morning. Spare a thought for Cabinet Office officials. They are already embarked on a massive exercise to collate, and vet, thousands of documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US, and his communications with government while he was in the job. That is so they can be published to comply with a humble address passed by MPs. Now it seems they are going to have to do a similar exercise for the paperwork relating to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as a trade envoy in 2001.
The Liberal Democrats have an opposition day in parliament, meaning they can choose the motion for debate, and they have tabled their own humble address. it says:
That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions to require the government to lay before this house all papers relating to the creation of the role of special representative for trade and investment and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment to that role, including but not confined to any documents held by UK Trade and Investment, British Trade International (BTI) and its successors, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Cabinet Office and the prime minister’s office containing or relating to advice from, or provided to, the group chief executive of BTI, Peter Mandelson, the Cabinet Office and the prime minister regarding the suitability of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for the appointment, due diligence and vetting conducted in relation to the appointment, and minutes of meetings and electronic communications regarding the due diligence and vetting.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been giving interviews this morning, and she indicated that the government would not be blocking the motion. She told the Today programme:
We’re in favour of the principle of there being transparency around this. We think that’s important. Of course, the public have a right to see material that is relevant.
But she also repeatedly stressed that it would be wrong to publish anything that might prejudice the police investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor. She said:
We will look at what the Lib Dems have set out [and we] will address the position later on in parliament when we come to that debate.
But we do just need to be careful here because, as in the Peter Mandelson case, we have got a live police investigation here and none of us would want to do anything that would jeopardise it.
This suggests the Commons is likely to end up passing a version of the motion, with an amendment saying publication will only happen when the police inquiry is over.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet, with Antonia Romeo taking the notes for the first time as cabinet secretary.
11am: Kemi Badenoch and Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, hold a press conference with parents to discuss the case for a ban on teenagers accessing social media.
11am: Starmer takes part in a virtual coalition of the willing meeting on the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
11am: Richard Tice, the Reform UK business spokesperson, gives a speech in the West Midlands.
11.45am: David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, gives a speech on reforming the courts system. He will announce he is lifting the cap on court sitting days.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: The high court issues its judgement on Rupert Lowe MP’s bid to temporarily block the independent complaints and grievance scheme.
After 12.30pm: MPs will start debating the Lib Dem humble address motion saying documents relating to the appointment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a trade envoy when Labour was last in office should be published. The vote is due at about 4pm, although it seems likely it will be approved without a division.
2.30pm: Liam Byrne, the chair of the Commons business committee, is expeced to announce whether or not his committee will be launching an inquiry into trade envoys at the start of a hearing.
After 4pm: MPs debate a Lib Dem motion saying on Monday 9 March the Lib Dems should have control of the parliamentary timetable so they can pass a bill an online services (age restrictions) bill. The motion is certain to be voted down.
I’m afraid we are not able to open comments today. I’m sorry about that.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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