Closing summary
That’s all from us on the UK politics live blog, thanks for following along.
Here is a recap of today’s developments:
Prime minister Keir Starmer said the government “will step in” if fuel companies “try to rip off customers”. He issued the statement ahead of a Downing Street meeting between chancellor Rachel Reeves and petrol retailers to warn against profiteering amid the Iran war.
The Petrol Retailers Association criticised the “inflammatory language” from ministers, saying it had led to retail staff being abused by the public. The group initially said it had pulled out of the meeting with Reeves over the issue but then backtracked on that statement about an hour later.
While we wait to see what was discussed at that meeting, Reeves has asked the competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), to “crack down” on “rip off” fuel prices. She said she “will not tolerate” any company exploiting the Middle East crisis “to make excess profits at customers’ expense”.
Starmer has once again put himself at odds with Donald Trump after the UK government said it will not follow the US president in temporarily waiving sanctions on Russian oil. Downing Street said Britain and its partners should maintain collective pressure on Russia through sanctions as it is the best way to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
RAF Typhoon jets have extended their action to protect Bahrain, as they patrol the skies for Iranian drones. Downing Street said UK jets flew air defence sorties “specifically in defence of Bahrain for the first time”.
Starmer was in Cork in the Republic of Ireland for the UK-Ireland summit, where he has been speaking about the conflict in the Middle East. Starmer and taoiseach Micheál Martin released a joint statement with a list of agreed actions in the areas of “shared prosperity, shared seas and shared ties”.
Also today, the Conservative party has continued to accuse the government of a “cover-up” over the release of files relating to Peter Mandelson becoming US ambassador. Shadow housing secretary James Cleverly said the government published the “wrong versions of the documents”, while shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart suggested there was “missing” correspondence in the published material.
Energy minister Michael Shanks rejected the accusations, saying the government has complied fully with the demand of MPs and would be publishing further documents in due course.
The absence of comments from the prime minister in the first tranche of the Mandelson files does not mean “advice was not read or considered”, Downing Street said. Starmer’s official spokesman reiterated that the prime minister and his team respond to advice in a “range of different ways”.
A photo has emerged showing Mandelson, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein pictured together for the first time. The photo, released as part of the Epstein files in January, shows Mountbatten-Windsor and Mandelson dressed in what appears to be white bathrobes sitting around a table with convicted sex offender Epstein.
We have photos from the Press Association news agency of the floral tributes on the graves of victims of the 1996 Dunblane massacre. Sixteen children and their teacher, Gwen Mayor, were killed when a man walked into the gymnasium at Dunblane primary school and opened fire on a class of five- and six-year-olds. Thirty years on, Dunblane remains the UK’s deadliest mass shooting.
