Early evening summary
Keir Starmer and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, have agreed that Nato should improve efforts to deter Russian aggression in the Arctic. They spoke by phone about Ukraine, and Greenland, and in its readout, No 10 said:
The prime minister thanked Prime Minister Frederiksen for her strong support at the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Paris on Tuesday.
Coalition partners had made good progress in Paris, the leaders agreed.
Turning to Denmark, the prime minister reiterated his position on Greenland. Both leaders agreed on the importance of deterring Russian aggression in the High North and that Nato should step up in the area to protect Euro-Atlantic interests.
The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon.
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.
Updated
Many councils given option to delay elections in May will let them go ahead, survey suggests
Shortly before Christmas the government announced that 63 councils in England where elections were due to be held in May will be given the option of delaying them. These are all council areas affected by local government reorganisation (new unitary councils are being set up in places where people still elect a county council to manage some services, and a district council to manage others) and the government is responding to claims that postponing the elections will free up resources needed for the reorganisations.
The Daily Telegraph has been calling round to find out which of the 63 councils will request a delay, and which won’t. The final decision will be taken by ministers, but they have said they will be minded to allow elections to be postponed if councils request that. And the Telegraph has produced this chart showing showing what the current plans are.
The results show that that councils are divided, with eight of them surveyed saying they will delay elections, but 19 saying they will let elections going ahead. The others have not decided yet.
But, highlighting the fact that Tory and Lib Dem-led councils seem more committed to elections going ahead than the Labour ones, the Telegraph has written up the story with the intro: “Labour is poised to postpone elections in 22 areas as Reform UK continues to ride high in the polls.”
Badenoch says 'instinctively' she does not back government plans to cut drink-drive limit - but Tories still reflecting on them
Kemi Badenoch has said she “instinctively” does not support the government plans to reduce the drink-drive limit in England and Wales.
In an interview with LBC, she did not firmly come out against the plans. But she said:
I am concerned about these proposals. They seem to have come out of nowhere. I was not expecting them. So I’m going to look at it very closely.
Instinctively, I don’t think that this is what Labour should be focusing on. They need to actually focus on getting the economy working. But we’re going to look at them closely.
In the Commons this afternoon, replying to the ministerial statement on the road safety strategy, Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, said that, while all MPs would regard drink-driving as “totally unacceptable”, he hoped the government would reflect on what happened when the limit was reduced in Scotland. He said there was no “clear evidence of improved road safety outcomes” after the law was tightened there.
He went on:
The [Department for Transport] has not even made an assessment of the impact on the economic viability of pubs in Scotland as a result of the changes that have happened already up there. Changing the limit legal limit alone will not change behaviour and any reform must be based on a thorough examination of the evidence and the impacts, and not on attempts to look tough.
Yesterday Lilian Greenwood, a transport minister, said there are independent academic reports showing that cutting the drink-drive limit in Scotland only had a minimal impact on pubs.
Updated
These are from Sky’s Rob Powell on the forthcoming business rates concessions for pubs. Government sources have confirmed that a U-turn of sorts is coming, but details have not been announced.
Speculation that the business rates climbdown will involve either upping the multiplier discount or increasing the transitional discount.
Flashpoint emerging over who gets it though - just pubs? What about restaurants that sell booze? Or hotels with a bar? Or resorts?
And what happens in the long-term?
Hospitality settings have more deep-rooted concerns about the valuation process. Will the watering down come with a promise to look at broader reform ahead of the next valuation date?
Ministers urged to ensure business rates U-turn helps wider hospitality sector, and not just pubs
But groups representing other parts of the hospitality sector have complained that, on the basis of what is being briefed today, the rescue package will focus wholly or mainly on pubs.
Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, said:
The suggestion that this is ‘just pubs’ is misleading and frustrating. Pubs are important, but they are only one part of the nightlife ecosystem. Casinos, nightclubs, theatres, bars, and live music venues all rely on each other to thrive.
These business rates increases - averaging 76%, with some doubling or more - put the entire sector at risk. If these venues fail, we lose jobs, culture, and vital infrastructure that makes the UK a world-leading destination for nightlife.
And Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment), another trade body, said:
If the government is preparing a U-turn on business rates for pubs, it must not leave live events and arenas behind.
From grassroots venues to arenas, operators are already facing increases of up to 400%, putting venues of every size under severe financial strain, risking closures and driving higher ticket prices for fans.
Live events are a major driver of the hospitality economy. Data from the National Arenas Association shows that for every 10,000 people attending a live show, at least £1 million is spent locally in restaurants, bars, hotels, shops and transport. Excluding music venues from any relief would be a serious oversight.
The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) has welcomed the news that a U-turn of some sort is on the way relating to business rates for pubs. Its CEO, Andy Slee, said:
It’s welcome news that the government appears to have finally accepted that vital changes are necessary to help our much loved community pubs. The planned alterations to business rates would have had a devasting impact on our pubs and breweries.
While common sense seems to have prevailed, it is essential that the government now acts in good faith to ease this financial pressure in the short term and reassure the sector that a meaningful long term solution to business rates will be sought alongside a proper plan to maintain our pubs into the future.
Campaigners raise concerns ethnic pay gap reporting law being held up by fear of anti-DEI 'pushback'
Chris Osuh is a Guardian community affairs correspondent.
Ministers have been urged by campaigners not to allow “charged rhetoric around race” and the rise of the populist Reform UK party derail plans to tackle the country’s ethnicity pay gaps.
A letter sent to equalities minister Seema Malhotra, seen by the Guardian, raises concerns about “ongoing silence” from government on plans to make it mandatory for employers with more than 250 staff to reveal whether white and non-disabled staff are paid more than black, minority ethnic and disabled employees, in the same way that employers have to report gender pay gaps.
A call for evidence on the proposed new law closed in June, but ministers have yet to report back, or formally publish the draft equality (race and disability) bill, which was expected to include the proposed measures.
Malhotra has previously described the plans as part of the government’s “absolute” commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) fairness principles. Nigel Farage’s Reform party, currently leading in the polls, has said it will scrap diversity roles from councils, while the Blue Labour faction of the governing Labour party has urged ministers to “root out DEI” to win over Reform voters.
The letter to Malhotra, sent by Noreen Biddle Shah, founder of the equalities thinktank Reboot on behalf of the Ethnicity Pay Gap Steering Committee - a coalition of campaigners, businesses non-profit organisations and investors - said it was now “well beyond the point” when the findings were “widely expected … yet there has been no update, no publication of outcomes, and no clarity on next steps.”
The letter added:
It is reasonable to ask whether the lack of movement on long-awaited legislation is being shaped by concern about political pushback, particularly at a time when the rhetoric around race has become more charged and the popularity of Reform has grown. But our research shows something very clear: despite heightened social tension, the public still overwhelmingly supports transparency and fairness at work.
A survey conducted by Opinium for Reboot found 56% of UK adults support mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers, with only 9% opposed, while 42% believe pay differences exist between workers of different ethnic backgrounds doing similar work, with only 27% believing there are none. Over a third believe closing the ethnicity pay gap would benefit the UK economy (36%) and half that it would improve fairness in the workplace (51%).
January 8 marks “Ethnicity Pay Gap Day”, highlighting the work of campaigners, with billboards erected in south London and north Manchester to raise awareness.
Lib Dems call for goverment to unveil details of business rates U-turn today, because pubs need 'clarity'
Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, said the government should announce its full plans to support the hospitality industry today. She said:
This is literally the last chance saloon for our treasured pubs and high streets - so the government must U-turn, today.
These businesses are worried sick, making decisions now, and can’t wait a minute longer.
Ministers must give them the clarity they so desperately need so businesses don’t go to the wall, hollowing our communities, in the coming days.
(Cooper points out she won a pub parliamentarian of the year award in 2024 for her campaigning on behalf of the industry.)
Starmer claims 'all options' on table in government quest to stop X allowing users to create sexualised deepfake images
Keir Starmer has said that “all options” are on the table for the government in its quest to get Elon Musk’s social media platform X to stop its Grok AI tool allowing users to produced sexualised deepfake images of women and children.
In an interview with Greatest Hits Radio, Starmer said:
It’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s not to be tolerated.
X has got to get a grip of this and Ofcom have [our] full support to take action in relation to this.
This is wrong, it’s unlawful, we are not going to tolerate it.
I have asked for all options to be on the table. It’s disgusting and X need to get their act together and get this material down.
In his interview Starmer did not elaborate on what he meant by “all options” being on the table. Ofcom, the media regulator, has already said it is urgently contacting X to establish what it is doing to deal with the problem. X says it is taking action to remove illegal content, but there have been reports that the problem persists.
The Online Safety Act is supposed to tackle harmful content online, but the main provisions have only recently come into force and some of the provisions have yet to be tested in law.
As the Guardian reported earlier this week, while the creation of images involving children with their clothes removed is already illegal, the law surrounding the creation of deepfakes of adults is more complicated. UK campaigners succeeded in passing legislation last June that make it illegal to both create and request the creation of intimate images without a person’s consent, but the relevant provisions have yet to be implemented, meaning that the legislation is not currently enforceable.
Updated
Badenoch claims forthcoming business rates U-turn for pubs 'too little, too late'
We don’t yet know the extent of the government U-turn shortly to be announced related to business rates for pubs and other parts of the hospitality sector. (See 2.24pm.)
But Kemi Badenoch is already saying it is “too little, too late”. In a post on social media, she says:
Yesterday Keir Starmer told us Labour had ‘turned a corner.’
Well, it looks like they’ve turned the corner straight into their first u-turn of 2026. Labour are killing Britain’s pubs.
This rumoured U-turn is too little too late. It’s time to back our local pubs.
And Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said:
Just a month on and the budget is already falling apart. Labour were wrong to attack pubs and now have been forced into another screeching U-turn as Kemi called for just this morning.
But this humiliating about-face appears to do nothing for shops, restaurants, hotels and markets which all face a more than 50% increase. With no detail provided, this is not the stability Rachel Reeves promised – it is a recipe for economic disaster.
Only the Conservatives have a strong leader with a clear plan to stand up for business by cutting business rates for thousands of local high-street firms.
Labour to announce pub business rates U-turn after industry outcry
Ministers are preparing to U-turn over changes to business rates for pubs after a wave of disquiet from the hospitality industry, Peter Walker reports.
John Swinney backs UK's role in seizure of Russian-linked oil tanker, amid suggestion US military used Scottish airport
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has given his implicit support for the UK-backed seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker by US forces on Wednesday, after being questioned about the use of a Scottish state-owned airport by US military aircraft.
The leftwing Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba pressed Swinney during first minister’s questions about whether Wick John O’Groats airport was “being used as the staging post to violate international law”.
Flight data showed three US special forces Pilatus U-28A Draco intelligence and surveillance aircraft landed at the airport, which is owned by Highland and Islands Airports (HIA), before heading to Iceland.
Swinney said he distinguished that operation from President Trump’s attacks on Venezuela earlier this week, which the first minister said he did not believe respected international law.
While neither he nor HIA knew whether the US military aircraft that used the airport took part in the seizure of the Marinera, he said he totally supported military operations to shore up the sanctions regime against Russia. He told MSPs:
Firstly, [this] is, of course, a matter that is reserved to the United Kingdom government. And secondly, where sanctions are applied and if they’re applied in relation to Russia, I am a firm supporter of those sanctions being enforced.
Because there is no point in applying sanctions to governments that ignore international law, that undermine the rule of law, that invade independent countries in the way that Russia has invaded Ukraine, without taking action where those sanctions are applied. And on that point of principle, all I’m happy to set out the Scottish government’s position.
Scottish state-owned airports, particularly Prestwick in Ayrshire which is close to President Trump’s Turnberry golf resort, are regularly used by the US military (and in the past by the space agency Nasa), for flight refuelling and aircrew stop-overs, to the dismay of critics of US foreign policy.
Those stops have involved live military operations in the past, raising tensions for the Scottish National party too, which has in the past rejected Nato membership for Scotland. Swinney said it was not normal for airport managers to be told or to ask what roles those aircraft were involved in when they landed for refuelling.
Updated
Ministers are “poised to announce a climbdown on forthcoming increases to the business rates bill faced by pubs”, Simon Jack, the BBC’s business editor, is reporting. Jack says:
Treasury officials say they have recognised the financial difficulties facing many pubs after sharp rises in the rateable value of their premises.
The move follows pressure from landlords and industry groups that included more than 1,000 pubs banning Labour MPs from their premises.
The government is expected to reduce the “multiplier” - the percentage of a pub’s rateable value used to calculate business rates bills.
On Monday Keir Starmer said the government was looking at measures to help the hospitality sector deal with the impact of the business rates increase. In her budget speech in November, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, highlighted changes that would reduce the headline rate of business rates paid by firms in the hospitality sector. But the impact of this “gain” has beem more than wiped out by the reduction of Covid-era exemptions, and by a property revaluation that has led to the rateable value of premises rising.
Updated
Commons leader agrees to discuss prison move for Palestine Action-linked activist on hunger strike with David Lammy
A cabinet minister has said he will raise the possibility of a prison move for a Palestine Action-linked activist on hunger strike with David Lammy, after a Labour MP urged him to act, PA Media reports. PA says:
Alan Campbell, the leader of Commons, told MPs today he would speak to the justice secretary after a question by Brent North MP Barry Gardiner about Heba Muraisi, 31, who is on day 67 of her hunger strike. Gardiner said she was “close to death”.
Her next-of-kin told the Press Association on Wednesday that Muraisi, a constituent of Gardner, a former Labour minister, was having difficulty breathing.
Muraisi is currently being held at HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire.
Gardiner said he hoped she could be moved to HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, as it will be easier for her disabled mother to visit.
Muraisi is one of two remaining hunger strikers who are facing charges related to alleged break-ins on behalf of Palestine Action before the group was banned under terrorism legislation – charges which they deny and have called to be dropped.
Gardiner said: “Delays in the courts system mean that one of my constituents has been in prison awaiting trial on remand for over a year. She is in New Hall Prison, 200 miles away from her mother who is disabled and cannot make that journey. She has requested a transfer to Bronzefield prison so her mother can visit.
“Today Heba Muraisi is close to death, because she has been on hunger strike protest for 67 days. I plead with the leader of the house to let common sense and humanity prevail, to urgently intervene, to agree the transfer and also to consider allowing her release on bail to her family home in my constituency.”
Responding to Gardiner during business questions in the Commons, Campbell said: “If [Gardiner] gives me the details of the case, and I’m talking about where the person concerned is currently, then I will obviously raise that with the justice secretary.
“On the wider point, we are continually assessing prisoners’ wellbeing, and we will always take appropriate action, including taking prisoners to hospital if their situation requires that.”
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
At the Oxford Farming Conference there has been some controversy about the announcement that only small farms will be able to apply for money from the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), a scheme that rewards nature-friendly farming. Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, suggested this could be farms at 50 hectares or below, which is a very small farm indeed.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, told the Guardian:
That is a very small farm, and there are some larger farms which are doing fantastic things for nature. Though we welcome the schemes opening at last, it begs the question whether it is a nature payment anymore. If we are paying based on the size of farms, has it become a social payment?
Asked about this, Reynolds said:
[Farming minister] Angela Eagle and I are very passionate that we need to make sure that small farms are able to access these schemes, and that’s for two reasons. Firstly, because we think it is fairer, and secondly, because we want to see those environmental benefits spread across the country, not just consolidated in a few places.
No 10 rejects suggestion from Mandelson that UK losing influence over US foreign policy
Downing Street has rejected a suggestion from Peter Mandelson that Keir Starmer and other European leaders are responding with “histrionics” to Donald Trump’s comments about Greenland.
In his Spectator article yesterday, Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US, said:
Europe’s growing geopolitical impotence in the world is becoming the issue now, and histrionics about Greenland is confirming this brutal reality. The future of Greenland is being misunderstood. Trump is not going to ‘invade’ it. He doesn’t need to. He’s already there. What will happen is that the threats to Arctic security posed by China and Russia will crystallise in European minds, performative statements about ‘sovereignty’ and Nato’s future will fade, and serious discussion will take over. Together, the US, Denmark and other allies will address how the Arctic region is properly secured with a considerably beefed-up role and status and military deployment by America.
At the No 10 lobby briefing, when it was put him that Mandelson was accusing the UK of being impotent in relation to US policy, the PM’s spokesperson said: “I don’t accept that last charge.”
The spokesperson said the UK and the US had a special relationship, and that the relationship between Starmer and Donald Trump was “very close”.
Downing Street refused to give any further details of Keir Starmer’s call with Donald Trump at the lobby briefing this morning. Asked how long the call lasted, and what Starmer said to Trump about Greenland, the PM’s spokesperson said he had nothing to add beyond the readout issued last night.
But sources are rejecting suggestions, implied by the wording of the readout (see 11.04am), that the conversation was difficult. It is said that it was friendly and positive, and that the omission of the usual line about agreeing to stay in touch was not intentional.
Reynolds tells farmers 'that is it' as they protest against her, claiming inheritance tax U-turn does not go far enough
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, has insisted “that is it” in response to farmers claiming the inheritance tax U-turn does not go far enough.
Shortly before Christmas, in a major concession to the rural lobby, the government announced that the tax-free inheritance tax threshold for farms will be set at £2.5m, not £1m as previously planned. It was a surprise announcement and the National Farmers’ Union indicated that, while it would still like inheritance tax on farms to be removed entirely, it viewed this as a reasonable outcome.
But today, as Reynolds spoke at the Oxford Farming Conference, she was greeted by farmers still protesting about the policy.
In her speech to the conference, she was keen to champion her role in delivering the U-turn. She said:
Since starting this role in September I’ve listened to farmers and stakeholders about your cncerns on proposed changes to inheritance tax. You told me the threshold was too low. You told me it would hit small family farms. We listened, and we are making changes.
But Reynolds lost her patience with the inheritance tax protesters outside the venue. They are asking for the inheritance tax to be scrapped altogether. Speaking as horns of tractors blared outside, attempting to drown her out, she said:
In terms of inheritance tax changes, that is it. I also say with the greatest respect to those outside, it is those inside who have engaged with us constructively and relatively quietly that have had an influence in this process, not those blaring their horns.
Speaking to journalists after delivering her speech, Reynolds also claimed that Labour was committed to voters in the “rural wall” of seats it won in 2024. She said:
If the Tories took the red wall in 2019 – and I was part of that, by the way, I represented a seat in the Midlands – we took the rural wall in 2024. We’ve got 49 rural seats and 87 semi rural on one of them. So 136 rural and semi rural seats. That’s a huge representation in parliament.
And I have conversations with those MPs week in, week out, and they are expressing concerns or ideas to ministers all the time, and I’m doing all that I can to ensure that rural communities know that we’re on their side. As a government, we truly care about rural Britain, because we are the, you know, we can have. We are the party with more representation than others.
Reynolds’ team has been keen to her engagement and supposed popularity with farmers. Reynolds was half an hour late to meet journalists for a Q and A, and a source close to her said this was because so many farmers were stopping her in the corridor to thank her for her work.
Right to protest is under attack in England and Wales, reports warn
The right to protest is under attack in England and Wales with laws trampling over human rights protections and more oppressive restrictions in the pipeline, two major reports have warned. Haroon Siddique has the story.
Louise Haigh says government should quit X because child sexual abuse imagery making its use 'unconscionable'
Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent.
Louise Haigh, the Labour MP former transport secretary, is calling for the government and her party to quit X in the wake of a wave of digitally altered images on the site showing women and children with their clothes removed.
In a message given to the Guardian, and to be posted on social media, Haigh says she has not personally used X for some time. She goes on:
It was already an unpleasant place prior to its takeover by Elon Musk but since his acceptance of hate speech and anonymous online abusers, it has become utterly unusable.
I continued to maintain an account and occasionally post because a critical mass of people, including the government and journalists who we need to communicate with as MPs, remained on the site.
However, the revelations around the enablement, if not encouragement, of child sexual abuse mean it is unconscionable to use the site for another minute.
I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.
Ministers are under pressure to defend why the government still uses X as a main source of communications, although Downing Street has said it will fully back an ongoing Ofcom investigation into the site.
Yesterday the Commons women and equalities committee said it has decided to stop using X.
X has said it takes action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, “by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary”.
Updated
Mandelson accuses European leaders of ‘histrionic’ reaction to Trump’s Greenland stance
On the subject of Greenland, Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister and former UK ambassador to the US, has argued in an article for the Spectator that European leaders like Keir Starmer are over-reacting to Donald Trump’s comments about the Arctic territory. Alexandra Topping has the story here.
The Mandelson article is not just about Greenland; it is about Trump’s approach to foreign policy in general, and why Mandelson thinks that Trump is right to view the so-called rules-based international as essentially defunct. I wrote more about this on the blog yesterday.
Why No 10's readout suggests Starmer's call with Trump last night may have been awkward
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning reporters will try to get further details of Keir Starmer’s conversation with Donald Trump last night. Given the usual No 10 reticence when it comes to discussing these calls, they are unlikely to get very far.
Which would be a shame, because it sounds as if it may have been awkward. For the record, here is the official readout from a No 10 spokesperson issued last night.
The prime minister spoke with President Trump this evening.
They discussed the joint operation to intercept the Bella 1 as part of shared efforts to crack down on sanctions busting, recent progress on Ukraine and the US operation in Venezuela.
The prime minister also set out his position on Greenland.
These readouts are always fairly bland, but this one is unusual for two reasons.
First, whoever writes up the readout of a call between the PM and an ally can normally find at least one point on which they can say the two leaders agreed. (For example, Starmer and Trump “agreed that we all must work together at this critical moment to bring about a just and lasting peace”, as No 10 said after a call in November.) There is none of that in this statement.
And, second, readouts from a call with an ally almost always end with a line saying they “agreed to keep in touch”, or something similar. That is missing too.
Starmer has declined to back US claims that the arrest of Nicolás Maduro was legal, and, with other European leaders, he has dismissed US suggestions that it has a right to take over Greenland.
UPDATE: No 10 did not give any further detail about the call at the lobby briefing, but sources have indicated that the call was friendly and positive. (See 12.40pm.)
Updated
John Healey declines to comment on report saying up to 7,500 UK troops would go Ukraine as part of peacekeeping force
According to a report by Larisa Brown in the Times, Britain would send fewer than 7,500 troops to Ukraine as part of the Coalition of the Willing plans to boost the country’s security in the event of a peace deal. The total force would number about 15,000 soldiers at most, with France providing most of the others, she says.
Brown reports:
UK military chiefs had originally proposed sending 10,000 troops as part of a wider 64,000-strong “coalition of the willing” force but this has been deemed unsustainable inside the Ministry of Defence given the current size of the British Army.
The assumption is that fewer than 7,500 British soldiers will be deployed, two military sources disclosed, although that figure is also expected to be a struggle for the UK, which has only around 71,000 trained personnel in the regular army.
In the Commons last night John Healey, the defence secretary, was repeatedly asked about this report when he gave a statement to MPs about the Coalition of the Willing deal, and the UK’s involvement in the US seizure of a sanctioned, Russian-flagged tanker.
Healey refused to confirm the figure, but he did not dismiss it either. In response to one of the questions about it, he told MPs:
I will simply not go into detail on the nature of the activities in the deployment, the numbers of troops that are likely to be deployed to Ukraine or the commitments that other nations have made … We will deploy only if there is a ceasefire and a peace agreement. Disclosing, let alone debating, those sort of details would only make Putin wiser.
Updated
Emma Reynolds faces protest as she speaks at Oxford Farming Conference
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Environment secretary Emma Reynolds is on a charm offensive with farmers at the Oxford Farming Conference today.
Farmers have told the Guardian that her team has been anxious to organise one to one meetings with them and the secretary of state. She will be spending the day speaking to individual farmers and farming groups, and listening to their concerns. Farming minister Angela Eagle will be having dinner with farmers at the Oxford Real Farming Conference (a rival conference focused on organic and regenerative farming) tonight.
Farmers have been extremely displeased so far with the Labour government, which recently did a partial U-turn on a policy to introduce a new inheritance tax on agricultural land and property. Labour has also hiked tax on fertilisers and some farming vehicles.
Since the U-turn, which exempts farming families with up to £5m of assets from the new tax, Reynolds is hoping she can win over the rural community. A recent poll found that 0% of famers would vote Labour.
This morning, a small protest of tractors has gathered outside the Examination Halls, where the conference is taking place. They are already beeping in an extremely irritating way, and do not seem placated by the U Turn.
Today, Reynolds is due to announce a re-opening of the delayed Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme and prioritise it towards small farmers.
Henry Tufnell, who represents Mid and South Pembrokeshire and who is in the rural caucus of Labour MPs and sits on the environment committee, is at the conference. He said his “one wish for 2026” is a “reset of Labour’s relationship” with farmers.
Here are some pictures of the protest from Farmers Weekly.
🚜 Farmers are out in force again, holding a protest at the Oxford Farming Conference. pic.twitter.com/b5XPX6bfY6
— Farmers Weekly (@FarmersWeekly) January 8, 2026
McFadden says Farage's opposition to deploying UK peacekeeping troops to Ukraine shows he's taking 'Kremlin line'
Yesterday Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said that he would vote against any proposal to deploy British troops to Ukraine.
Speaking on LBC this morning, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, claimed this was fresh evidence of Reform UK being pro-Russian. He said:
It is in the British national interest that we do that [contribute British troops to a force boosting Ukraine’s security in the event of a peace deal]. That is why it is so concerning for me to see some politicians, like Mr Farage for example, immediately come out and parrot the Kremlin line and say that he wouldn’t support this. Perhaps it is no surprise he parrots the Kremlin line, because he does it quite a lot.
But this is someone who aspires to be the prime minister of the United Kingdom and that should give all of your listeners pause for thought. Can we trust someone who is so keen to parrot the Kremlin line with the future security of the United Kingdom? I certainly don’t think so and I think his statement yesterday will make a lot of other people reach the same conclusion.
Updated
How many children, and households, will benefit, region by region, by removal of two-child benefit cap
Labour has put out these figures, from the Department for Work and Pensions, showing how many children, and how many households, will benefit from the lifting of the two-child benefit cap region by region. The figures are from April 2025.
Starmer says Reform UK and Tories are in ‘cruel alliance’ to raise child poverty, as bill to get rid of two-child benefit cap unveiled
Good morning. Today is an important day for anti-poverty policy because the government is publishing its universal credit (removal of two-child limit) bill, the legislation that will implement the budget pledge to get rid of the Tory law that removed child-related UC benefit payments for third and subsequent children. The government says this will lift almost 500,000 children out of poverty – making this the biggest single anti child poverty measure implemented by a government in modern times.
Keir Starmer is on a visit this morning publicising the legislation. What is interesting about this is that, before the 2024 general election, Starmer was not just not committing to get rid of the cap; he was presenting that as evidence to voters that Labour would be tough on spending. In July 2023 he told Laura Kuenssberg he was “not changing that policy”. And, when challenged about this two days later at a conference with a leftwing audience, he said:
We keep saying collectively as a party that we have to make tough decisions. And in the abstract, everyone says: ‘That’s right Keir.’ But then we get into the tough decision – we’ve been in one of those for the last few days – and they say: ‘We don’t like that, can we just not make that one, I’m sure there is another tough decision somewhere else we can make.’ But we have to take the tough decisions.
Two and a half years later, the line is very different. Today Starmer will talk proudly about getting rid of the two-child benefit cap and use child poverty as an issue to attack Reform UK and the Tories. According to extracts released in advance, he will say:
Nigel Farage seems intent on linking arms with the Conservatives in a cruel alliance to push kids who need help back into poverty. This child poverty pact is something that should worry us all. These aren’t numbers on a spreadsheet – these are children’s life chances at stake.
Labour chooses the other road – lifting almost half a million kids out of child poverty – and that’s what we’re doing this year. It’s the right thing to do for them, their families and our economy. It’s astonishing that Reform and the Tories would undo that change and leave a lost generation of kids in every corner of Britain.
The Conservatives would bring back the two-child benefit cap in full, and Reform UK would bring it back for all families, apart from those with two parents working full-time. Labour analysis says this means just 3,700 of the 470,000 families affected by the cap would benefit from the Nigel Farage exemption.
At a press conference yesterday Farage offered a new argument (which has not been set out as formal Reform UK policy), suggesting benefits like this should only go to British-born people. As Jessica Elgot reports, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, responded by suggesting this was immoral.
Getting rid of the two-child benefit cap will cost about £3bn. The Tories and Reform UK are both saying that, by gettting rid of benefit spending like this, they would free up money for tax cuts. But, in an interview this morning, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, argued that this £3bn was “an investment in children’s future”. He told Sky News:
We came into office with a manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty. We did it the last time we were in power. Child poverty has risen by about 900,000 since 2010.
I don’t see this just as a cash transfer in terms of that £3 billion, I see it as an investment in children’s future, because we know that children from the poorest families will end up doing less well at school, less than a quarter of them get five good GCSEs, we know they’re four times more likely to have mental health problems later in life.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.35am: Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, speaks at the Oxford Farming Conference. As Helena Horton reports, she will say smaller farms will be prioritised for nature funding.
10am: Tim Davie, the outgoing director general of the BBC, and interim chief executive Jonathan Munro give evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about the BBC World Service.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Bridget Philliipson, the education secretary, are on a visit in Bedfordshire linked to the publication of the bill getting rid of the two-child benefit cap.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Lilian Greenwood, the transport minister, gives a statement to MPs on the road safety strategy announced yesterday.
Late afternoon: Peers debate a motion tabled by Charlie Falconer saying they should agreed to speed up the debate on the assisted dying bill so that it can return to the Commons in “reasonable time”.
Also, at some point this afternoon (UK time), David Lammy, the deputy PM, is meeting JD Vance, the US vice president. But a press conference has not been scheduled, and it is not clear yet how much either of them will want to say about their conversation.
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