Closing summary
The British and French governments are involved in early talks about a returns agreement that would involve both countries exchanging people seeking asylum. Officials have discussed a pilot scheme under which a small number of people who come across the Channel to the UK by irregular means would be sent back to France.
The Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride has claimed government choices are “driving up the cost of living.” Reacting to news that inflation had slowed, Stride said: “Inflation remains above target and we know from official forecasts that price rises are set to increase further this year because of the chancellor’s choices.
UK inflation has fallen to 2.6%, increasing pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates.
Some 705 people arrived in the UK on Tuesday after crossing the English Channel, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. It is the highest number of arrivals on a single day so far this year, PA Media reported. The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2025 now stands at a provisional total of 8,888.
China has accused UK politicians of “arrogance, ignorance and a twisted mindset” as it defended British Steel’s owner Jingye after a barrage of criticism over the narrowly averted shutdown of its blast furnaces. Beijing’s embassy to the UK accused unspecified British public figures of slandering China’s government and businesses, in comments published on Wednesday on its website.
A government minister has reiterated the call for the Unite union to accept a deal and end the bin strike in Birmingham. Speaking on GB News this morning, Lillian Greenwood, parliamentary under-secretary of state for the future of roads, said residents were facing “a completely unacceptable situation”
The trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will travel to Beijing to revive a key trade dialogue with China despite saying it had been naive to allow Chinese investment in sensitive sectors, the Guardian has learned
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said he hopes the government won’t consider another Chinese firm for the future ownership of British Steel and the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe. Appearing on Sky News, Davey said “I would caution them against” another Chinese partner, telling viewers “One of the worries that I think we’ve all had is the Chinese firm might have been under orders being influenced by the Chinese government.
The UK supreme court is set to rule on the legal definition of a woman. The case against the Scottish government was brought by the campaign group For Women Scotland
Water companies’ pollution incidents in England increased by 30% in 2024.
Nigel Farage has issued a local election campaign video this morning, which he recorded yesterday afternoon, in which he calls the Conservative party a “self-entitled arrogant up themselves bunch of losers.” He claims that while he has been out campaigning in Durham and Northumberland, the Conservatives “are not on the pitch, not campaigning out around the country, not appearing for any media interviews.”
PA Media reports that Tommy Robinson has lost an appeal against his 18-month sentence for the civil offence of contempt of court at the court of appeal. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed in October last year after admitting multiple breaches of a high court order made in 2021.
A judge has fined Cambridgeshire county council £6m for health and safety breaches on the world’s longest guided busway after three deaths and multiple incidents of injury. PA Media reports that Ben Compton KC, for Cambridgeshire county council, requested that the authority be given six years to pay the money, adding: “It’s a council – these are hard times.”
The business secretary has been urged to suspend plans to visit China, after an MP was denied entry to Hong Kong to visit her family, PA Media reported.
Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was held and questioned at Hong Kong airport when she flew there to see her son and newborn grandson, before being sent back to the UK.
Hobhouse, the MP for Bath who is a member of the Inter-parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) which has been critical of Beijing’s human rights record, has said she believes the action was taken to silence her.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has now written to foreign secretary David Lammy, urging the government to take five steps in response to Hobhouse’s deportation.
While Davey praised the initial support offered by ministers after news of his MP’s deportation, he claimed in a letter seen by the PA news agency that the government had since “been silent on attempts by Hong Kong officials to undermine Wera’s account of her detention”.
“For as long as this silence is allowed to continue, we can only conclude that the Chinese authorities have a secret blacklist of British parliamentarians,” he wrote in the letter, also signed by Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller.
Davey added: “It feels like you are now more interested in saving face with China than you are in standing up for the rights of British parliamentarians.
“There is also a wider principle at stake: if we timidly accept this kind of behaviour, it will only embolden China – together with other authoritarian states – in their efforts to intimidate us.”
