Afternoon summary
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Keir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, for saying that people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “with pure cold rage”. (See 5.09pm.)
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Keir Starmer’s WhatsApp messages automatically delete from his smartphone, Downing Street has confirmed, calling into question how full a picture emerged of his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson from a recently released tranche of government documents. In a pooled TV clip, asked to confirmed that he used disappearing messages, Starmer replied:
Let me assure you, I’ve complied with the humble address. All the messages I hold have been passed over. I went through the same process as everybody else, and many people, not just in politics, use disappearing messages.
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
Starmer says he felt 'sick' watching Nowak video - but criticises Farage for saying response to his murder should be 'pure rage'
Keir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, for saying that people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “with pure cold rage”.
In a pooled TV interview, Starmer said that was “the wrong reaction”. He went on:
I start my answer to your question through the eyes of the family. They have said they do not want this whipped up. They have been through the most extraordinary, awful experience. They don’t want this whipped up, and Nigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division.
He would be wrong in any circumstances, but when Henry’s family are saying, ‘Please don’t do that, it’s our son,’ then really, as politicians, as human beings, we should start where they start, and that’s where I start.
Asked if he agreed with Kemi Badenoch that there should be a Macpherson-style inquiry into whether the anti-racist culture in the police should go too far, Starmer said that he was not ruling that out. But he said the Independent Office of Police Conduct should be allowed to finish their inquiry into how officers handled this case first.
Starmer also said he felt “sick” watching the video footage of Nowak being handcuffed as he lay dying.
I have seen the body cam footage, it’s harrowing, and I have to say, as a father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick watching it.
It is absolutely right that the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) are looking at this.
There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision making in this case.
But my thoughts, I am sure the thoughts of everybody in this country, are with Henry’s family.
His life has been stolen and they are understandably devastated, and that is where I start in this.
More than 100 MPs sign amendment to elections bill calling for national commission on PR
Andy Burnham, who is campaigning to be Labour MP for Makerfield on the basis that he could replace Keir Starmer as PM soon after the byelection, is in favour of proportional representation (PR). He says, if he were to become PM, he would include this in Labour’s next election.
In parliament, supporters of PR claim the popularity of their cause is growing. The all-party parliamentary group for fair elections says more than 100 MPs have now signed an amendment to the representation of the people bill a National Commission on Electoral Reform.
Alex Sobel, the Labour MP show chairs the APPG, says:
We’ve got two thirds of seats [in parliament], the Labour party, on a third of the vote.
If you look at recent council elections, Reform won two-thirds of the seats on a third of the vote in more than one local authority.
So the system is shattered. It’s a 19th century voting system in a 21st century political reality, and the two things need to come to a head.
So far the amendent has been signed by 72 Labour MPs, 24 Lib Dems, all five Green MPs, and the one Alliance MP.
Starmer says government to update cabinet manual
Keir Starmer has announced that the government is going to update the cabinet manual, the guide for ministers explaining the laws and conventions that determine how the government operates. In a written ministerial statement, he says the current text is 15 years old and out of date. He says
The manual was first published in 2011 and has not been updated since. As a result, it has become significantly out of date, most notably in its descriptions of general elections, the UK’s relationship with the EU, and the devolution settlements. Its value for ministers and officials, helping them navigate the UK’s constitutional arrangements, has been diminished by this lack of accuracy. An update will therefore restore the manual’s status as an authoritative guide.
When the manual was published in 2011, the UK was still in the EU. And elections were governed by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which had just been passed. The Scottish parliament and the Senedd have both obtained new powers since 2011 too.
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the new Welsh first minister, has used his first question time in the Senedd to say that he intends to get rid of the longest hospital waits in Wales within months, the BBC reports.
Labour figures who wrote competing ‘manifestos’ join forces to warn against tribalism
Two of Labour’s leading policy figures, who put forward “manifestos” for Andy Burnham and a centrist grouping, are to join forces to help forge new ideas for a future government, Jessica Elgot reports.
Mathew Lawrence, the director of Common Wealth, who authored the Manchesterism essay, and Mark McVitie, who wrote the Labour Growth Group’s An Honest Day, said Labour must reject the idea of “tribes” – such as blue Labour, new Labour and soft left – and find common ground in opposing high everyday costs and predatory capitalism.
They have written a joint article for the New Statesman. Here’s an extract.
Our diagnosis is the same. Britain pays too much for the basics because the state has lost control of the foundations ordinary life and enterprise depend on. Housing, energy, water, transport, care and local infrastructure have become too expensive, too fragile and too extractive. Government then spends ever more compensating people for costs it has failed to remove at source. That is the maintenance of decline, and left unbroken it leads to only one political outcome: a total takeover by the forces of populism.
The answer is where our ideas can converge. This lies in remaking what the state is for – not distributing while the pie shrinks, but creating the conditions for cheap and reliable essentials, where contribution is rewarded, extraction is disciplined and Britain can build the productive assets it needs. A state that sets out to be productive before it has become capable will fail. It will hand its new public corporation the same planning delays, legal timidity and procurement failures that already frustrate reform. But a state that recovers its capability and then refuses to use it for its people has won a barren victory. One of us has written about how the state recovers the power to act, the other about what it should do with that power where the market has stopped serving the public. A state that wants to be productive must first become capable. A state that has become capable has no excuse not to be productive. We believe in the power of markets. We want more challengers, more productive risk-taking, more firms able to scale, more entrepreneurs building in Britain – rather than selling early and leaving.
There are 11 Sikh MPs in parliament, all Labour. They have put out a joint statement today expressing support for the family of Henry Nowak and saying people should not allow his murder to “divide communities or fuel hostility towards innocent people”. The letter has been been organised by Jas Athwal, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for British Sikhs. He says:
Henry Nowak was brutally murdered in a senseless act of violence by Vickrum Digwa.
The Sikh community stands with Henry’s family and friends as they come to terms with his loss.
We share the grief, shock and anger at his murder and stand with his family in the pursuit of truth and justice.
We urge people to not allow the actions of this one murderer to divide communities and fuel hostility towards innocent people.
Burnham condemns 'profiteering' by water companies
Andy Burnham criticised “profiteering” by water companies, citing the industry as a classic example of where privatisation has failed consumers.
While campaigning in the Makerfield byelection today, Burnham said United Utilities, which is based in the north-west, should cancel the final dividend due to be paid to shareholders in August and redistribute the money to lower costs for consumers instead, after the company’s profits surged following an increase in bills.
He said:
There is simply no justification for profiteering on this scale when people are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
This confirms why people feel the system is rigged against them. It makes the case for essential public services coming back under public control.
He said water was a “classic case” where privatisation had failed.
Forty years of neoliberalism in Britain has left us with essential services, which the public have no choice but to use, which work to serve private vested interests over the public interest.
The water industry is a classic case of one where the shareholders always win and the bill payers always lose.
People are right to be angry that they are being asked to pay for bill hikes they cannot afford, only for their hard-earned cash to pour into the pockets of shareholders.
He said excess profits in the sector were “unjustifiable” and added: “Water companies should put these surging profits into lowering bills, improving services and protecting communities.”
As the Press Association reports, Burnham also called on the government to make it mandatory for housing developers to implement the highest standards for flood resilience at project and household level in areas at risk of flooding. Residents in the Makerfield constituency faced flooding in 2015 and 2025, with some still not able to return to their homes, Burnham said.
Mahmood tells Reform UK not to 'pit white Britons against non-white Britons' in response to Nowak murder
Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson who used to be the Tory justice spokeperson, said the police officer who handcuffed Henry Nowak should be “prosecuted for a total dereliction of duty”.
But what mattered was why the officer acted like that, he said. Like Chris Philp (see 2.22pm), he also mentioned Valdo Calocane and Axel Rudakubana. He claimed there was “a sickness rooted in the anti-racism agenda” and he urged Mahmood to root it out.
Mahmood replies:
I don’t think this is a moment to pit white Britons against non-white Britons. This is a moment to reflect on a horrific tragedy.
She said everyone should be equal before the law.
That applies whether you’re a non-white British family that arrived here 50 years ago or 10 years ago, or if you’re a white Brit whose family have been here for about 300 years or more; we are all equal before the law of our land, and we should all support that principle.
Labour’s Tan Dhesi also condemned Reform UK for their response to the Nowak murder. He told MPs:
What’s very galling is that the likes of Reform, Restore and the far-right decided to politicise people’s pain, attacking the Sikh community for wearing the kirpan and wanting it banned – even though the kirpan was not used in this violent attack.
And they’ve decided to scapegoat and throw under the bus an entire community based on the actions of one violent murderer.
In her response to Wilkinson (see 2.51pm), Mahmood endorsed what he said about Nigel Farage – but without referencing him directly.
She said:
Anyone using this tragedy, this horrific, vile act of murder, in order to stoke further division in our country should be rejected by everyone across this house.
Political grandstanding and further division is not what is needed.
Clear-eyed action, and a commitment to ensuring all of our citizens are equal before the law of our collective land, is what is needed.
Lib Dems condemn Farage for using Nowak case 'to divide British communities'
Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, told MPs that most politicians had responded to the Henry Nowak case with sensitivyt. But not Nigel Farage, he said.
Referring to the Reform UK leader, Wilkinson said:
It is therefore all the more disturbing that we have seen [Farage] once again using tragedy to divide British communities. We all know why he does this. He’s made a career out of this and has become rich as a result.
But we are also well aware, as he is, that his actions are divisive, dangerous and fundamentally and un-British.
Mahmood says she won't accept 'differential treatment' from police - but warns against over-correcting in response to Nowak case
In response to Philip, Mahmood said that the government was considering its response to the first report from the inquiry into the Southport killings, and the Nottingham inquiry is still taking place.
On the police anti-racism commitment (see 2.22pm), she said that initiative began life when the Tories were in power. She went on:
In fact, I’m old enough to remember when Theresa May called out disproportionate use of stop and search for black communities in particular.
She said the police should maintain the confidence of all communites.
Philp should accept the “context here relating to racism and the police”, she said.
Whatever changes are made, it is important that nobody over-corrects or course-corrects such that all of us as citizens are no longer equal before the law.
She said Philp should not ignore the “historic and legitimate concerns” from some communities about policing. She went on:
I condemn all types of differential and every type of differential, treatment. I do not stand for it.
My own track record as a government minister shows I will always act when there is evidence of differential treatment. And it is absolutely vital that that message is heard loud and clear across the whole of our country.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp says Nowak case shows police anti-racism commitment must go
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, responded for the Conservative party.
He said that the video released last night showed “the police attending were more concerned with the accusation of racism than they were in helping a dying man”. He went on:
We cannot tolerate a situation where false allegations of racism by criminals are believed. We cannot allow the colour of someone’s skin to be a consideration in how the police or other public services treat people, and yet this has happened.
Philp said Valdo Calocane, the Nottingham knife killer, was “not sectioned by mental health professionals because they thought there was ‘overrepresentation of young black males in mental health detention’.”
And he said that the head teacher of Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, was accused of racial stereotyping when she said he was a threat. The risk assesment was dialed down, he said.
He went on:
The police anti-racism commitment, published in March 2025 by the NPCC and the College of Policing, urges police forces to reverse engineer the same arrest rates between ethnic groups, even though the offending rates are different, by treating different ethnic groups differently.
Let that sink in for a moment. An official police document actually says people should be treated differently based on the colour of their skin.
I’ve said before at this despatch box at least twice that document should be withdrawn.
The dangerous ideology of so-called anti-racism, allowing people to be treated differently based on race, must end.
Extreme activists have hijacked the policymaking process, and this is where it has led. It has no place in policing. It has no place anywhere.
So does the home secretary agree that the so-called police anti-racism commitment must urgently be withdrawn? It is morally wrong and it is dangerous as well.
Mahmood condemns those seeking 'political profit' from Nowak tragedy
Mahmood said that, in the light of this case, there have been calls to limit the right of Sikhs to carry a kirpan, a ceremonial knife.
She said:
There have been calls to limit the right of Sikhs to carry their ceremonial knife, the kirpan, one of the five holy items in their faith.
The Offensive Weapons Act of 2019, passed under the previous government, clarified and strengthened existing legal protections in relation to long weapons. This included extending defences so that kirpan can be lawfully possessed for religious reasons, and used in religious and ceremonial contexts.
But let me be clear, carrying a knife for the purpose of religious observance is one thing. Using it as so tragically occurred in this case is quite another.
It is a vile act, a crime of the utmost severity, and it will be met with the severest punishment.
Yesterday, the Nowak family ended their statement with a powerful call to us all. I quote: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
They quoted the words of the prosecuting lawyer and I quote again: “This is not a case about Sikhism. This is not a case about racism. This is a case about murder.”
I echo those words. We cannot cannot allow this murder to turn communities against one another.
We must condemn those who seek personal, political profit from tragedy.
Mahmood ended by quoting the again from the statement from Nowak’s family.
I call on everyone here to be responsible in this moment to allow justice to run its full course.
But while we must be limited in what we can say, we must not be limited in how we act.
I will end with the words of the Novak family once more. Last night they wrote that no other family should experience the heartbreak and horror of losing a child to knife crime.
Let that be the challenge to us all across this house, across government and across society. It is the very least we can do to honour the memory of Henry Nowak.
Mahmood said the government was committed to tackling knife crime.
This government is committed to halving knife crime in this decade and, since the start of this parliament, we have made progress.
Knife crime has fallen by 10%. Knife homicides are down 27% at their lowest level in a decade.
But clearly we must do more whilst there are still tragedies like this one, and for that reason, we have recently published our halving knife crime plan.
It sets out how we will go further to drive sustained reductions in violence.
Mahmood condemns 'dangerous' commentary, saying one officer wrongly linked to Nowak case has faced death threats
Mahmood said that there was a “dangerous undercurrent” in the commentary on this case, and she said that a police office had had to relocate for his own protection because he had been wrongly identified as the officer in this case.
She said:
Let me also be clear about one other thing, a dangerous undercurrent that I have seen in the reaction to this awful crime.
Threats against police officers are utterly unacceptable. There can be no justification for intimidation, abuse or attempts to take the law into one’s own hands.
A police officer unrelated to this case has been misidentified online and subjected to death threats. He has been forced to relocate to protect himself and his family.
Misinformation and inflammatory commentary is making a dreadful situation even worse.
We must all together condemn it, and we must also allow the facts to be established to the appropriate investigations and the courts, and we must do so calmly and responsibly.
Updated
Mahmood says 'everyone equal before law', and police must operate 'without fear or favour'
Mahmood turned to allegations of two-tier policing. She said:
There have been accusations of two-tier policing, that one community has been prioritised over another.
It will be for the IOPC to determine the facts with regard to this specific case, and I cannot and will not comment on them.
But let me say this on the question of preferential treatment more widely.
The police in this country have a sacred duty to police without fear or favour. Everyone in this country is equal before the law. It is the promise upon which our whole justice system rests, and the equality of every citizen is the foundation on which the openness, tolerance and generosity of this country rests.
Updated
Mahmood says police arrest footage 'disturbing', but police watchdog must be allowed to investigate
Mahmood pays tribute to “the dignified and powerful words of the Novak family in the statement they gave after yesterday’s sentencing”.
They deserve answers. They deserve answers in particular, about what happened on that awful night and the actions of the police officers who arrived on the scene.
I expect many in this house, and many more across this country, have now seen the police officer’s bodycam footage released last night.
It is, without question, a disturbing and tragic thing to see. People are rightly asking questions about how the situation was handled, and they are shocked and disquieted to hear Henry’s words: “I can’t breathe.”
I know that it is difficult to wait any longer for answers, but there is a proper process to assess whether there have been incidents of police misconduct led by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the IOPC.
They will determine what could and should have been done differently. They will determine what action may need to be taken against individual officers.
The family yesterday called on me “to ensure the IOPC has the resources, authority and independence it needs to conduct a full, fearless and transparent investigation. I can confirm today that I will do so.
The IOPC will be equipped and encouraged to act, to find the truth and to ensure, if necessary, that there are consequences.
The footage in question is here:
Updated
Mahmood says murder of Nowak 'horrifying act', and further charges pending against family members
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is speaking now.
She says the murder of Henry Nowak was “a horrifying act”.
Vickrum Digwa murdered him, and accused him of racism.
Digwa has been sentenced to life in prison, and will serve at least 21 years, she says.
She says Digwa’s mother has been convicted of assisting an offender. She is due to be sentenced on 17 July.
And the CPS has today authorised further charges are pending against other members of his family. She says, because charges are pending, there is a limit to what can be said.
No 10 says Starmer uses disappearing messages on WhatsApp, provided proper record keeping not affected
At the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said that Keir Starmer does use disappearing messages on WhatsApp. This morning the Tories claimed that, as a result, the public were not getting a full picture of Starmer’s dealings with Peter Mandelson. (See 9.09am.)
These are from Adam Bienkov from Byline Times.
Keir Starmer’s spokesman admits that the Prime Minister does automatically delete his Whatsapp messages, when asked why he barely features in the Mandelson files.
Says “some material may no longer be available where devices are changed or messages were set to disappear for legitimate reasons”
Keir Starmer’s spokesman says it’s fine for the PM to use disappearing Whatsapp messages as long as it doesn’t affect proper “record keeping”.
Asked how it possibly can’t affect it, given those records are automatically deleted, they reply that there will be a government review of Whatsapp use
Shabana Mahmood to give Commons statement on Henry Nowak murder
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, will soon be giving a Commons statement about the murder of Henry Nowak. On Monday Vickrum Digwa, 23, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years for the murder of 18-year-old Nowak, a student, in Southampton.
The case has become prominent for at least three reasons.
First, when the police arrived at the scene where Nowak had been attacked and was slumped on the ground, they initially believed the word of Digwa, who claimed that he was the victim and that he had been racially abused. Nowak was handcuffed as he was dying.
Second, Digwa, a Sikh, attacked Nowak with a large version of a kirpan, or a religiously sanctioned knife. The case has triggered a debate about whether exemptions to knife laws that apply to kirpans are approporiate.
And, third, rightwingers have claimed that the police response to the incident shows that the police are biased against white people and that a system of “two-tier” justice is in force. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and others in his party have been making this argument aggressively for some days, and this morning Farage delivered a TV statement about it. (In normal circumstances Farage would hold a press conference, but in recent weeks Farage has become very relectant to take questions from journalists, presumably because he does not like being asked about the £5m he got from Christopher Harborne which he failed to declare, and where he got the money for his £1.4m house.) In his statement today Farage said people should respond to the police handling of the Nowak murder “with pure cold rage”. The Conservatives have also claimed that the case showed the police were too focused on tackling racism.
For more details of the case, here are the final sentencing remarks from Judge William Mousley, who presided over Digwa’s trial.
Starmer says police watchdog probe into how officers handled Henry Nowak murder must happen 'as quickly as possible'
Keir Starmer has said the police watchdog’s investigation into how officers handled the case of murder victim Henry Nowak amid outrage over his treatment must “be carried out as quickly as possible and answers delivered”.
At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning, the PM’s spokesperson said Starmer raised the Nowak case at the start of cabinet today. He said:
The prime minister payed to Henry Nowak describing him as a kind, thoughtful and much-loved [person] whose life had been ripped away in the most appalling circumstances.
He said Henry’s killer shamelessly lied about him and then accused him of racism.
The prime minister said that in his last harrowing moments, Henry was then handcuffed by lay dying on the floor.
The prime minister said it was right that the IOPC [Independent Office for Police Conduct] was investing the police response, which he said needed to be carried out as quickly as possible, and answers delivered.
He said the thoughts of the whole cabinet were with Henry’s family today.
Updated
Labour ‘not looking to raise taxes to fund benefits’ as Mandelson messages suggest, minister says
Labour MPs are not looking to raise taxes to fund more benefits, the Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has said. Jessica Elgot has the story.
SNP embezzlement scandal 'embarrassing internationally' for Scotland, says former first minister Jack McConnell
Jack McConnell, the former Labour Scottish first minister, has said the Peter Murrell embezzlement scandal is “embarrassing internationally” for Scotland. Speaking at a conference in Edinburgh, where he restated his calls for Holyrood and the UK parliament to hold a joint inquiry into what happened, McConnell said:
This is not just hilarious tittle-tattle here in Scotland. This is embarrassing internationally for us now and we need to take it seriously.
Even if it seems in some aspects – although obviously not in the criminal prosecution, which is very serious – a good source for the comedians, that’s not the point. I think the point here is the reputation of Scotland globally and I would welcome a bit of a rethink at the top and a willingness to be open with some kind of public inquiry.
Tories accuse Cooper of 'cosying up' to Chinese Communist party
The Conservatives have criticised Yvette Cooper for her trip to China. Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said:
As if Keir Starmer’s surrender tour earlier this year wasn’t enough, his foreign secretary is now in Beijing cosying up to the CCP [Chinese Communist party] too.
This is little more than a distraction from the scandal engulfing the government – which involves Mandelson’s links to China as well as to a convicted paedophile – and the civil war raging at the top of the Labour Party.
Cooper should be pushing for the release of Jimmy Lai. But Labour lack the backbone to stand up to China. Only the Conservatives will put our country first.
UK and China have 'shared interest' in rules-based international order, Cooper says during talks in Beijing
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has said that a rules-based international order is in Britain and China’s “shared interest”, the Press Association says. PA reports:
Cooper was speaking as she met the country’s vice president Han Zheng for talks on global security as part of a three-day visit to Asia.
Cooper acknowledged “areas of disagreement” between London and Beijing but insisted that approaching discussions with “candour and respect” would help to increase mutual understanding of one another.
Greeting the minister in the capital’s Great Hall of the People today, Han hailed a “new chapter in bilateral ties” which he said had been opened during Keir Starmer’s visit to the country in January.
On her first visit to the country, Cooper said as two “P5 powers” – permanent member states of the UN Security Council – the UK and China must work together to address global challenges, citing wars in Ukraine and Iran and health crises like the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“It is in our shared interest to have a rules-based international order and to find ways to reduce rising geoeconomic tensions,” she said.
Addressing Han at the top of the meeting, Cooper said: “I’m very pleased to be here in China, thank you for welcoming me.
“We will have important issues of shared interest and cooperation and also areas of disagreement, but as the prime minister and President Xi [Jinping] have demonstrated, we increase our understanding of one another when we approach these conversations with candour and respect.”
She added: “Those frank and constructive discussions can help us make meaningful progress for the benefit of our two countries and the wider world.”
Welcoming her in Beijing’s opulent state building, Han said an “important consensus” had been reached during Starmer’s visit earlier this year after the two leaders agreed to move forward with a “comprehensive strategic dialogue” – a framework for deepening cooperation amid heightened geopolitical volatility.
“Their important consensus has opened a new chapter for bilateral ties,” Han said.
My colleage Jessica Elgot points out that the prospect of Andy Burnham calling an early election if he becomes PM (see 10.30am) was always remote.
You cannot seriously think that Labour MPs would make Andy Burnham prime minister if they thought he was going to call a snap general election where hundreds would lose their seats even in the best case scenario. Truly bizarre.
At 12.30pm there will be a Commons urgent question on the Alan Milburn report on Neets published last week. A DWP minister will respond. Then, after 1pm, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, (not Sarah Jones, the policing minister, as suggested earlier) will give a statement on the Henry Nowak murder. (See 10.14am.)
Mandelson should never have been appointed ambassador, says Cooper, as she ducks questions about whether his Starmer criticisms correct
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has said that Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed as an ambassador.
Speaking to reporters on China, where she is on a visit and where she was asked about the Mandelson files released yesterday, she said:
What I would say is that Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed as ambassador to the United States.
There’s been a lot of transparency now about messages being released. That’s always an unedifying process but [it’s] right to be transparent.
We mustn’t forget two things, first is that in the end this whole thing started about Epstein’s abuse of young women and girls, and sometimes the conversation gets pulled away from that, and secondly, I think the whole government is getting on with the most important issues that affect our country, and that’s exactly why I’m here in China having these important discussions about international security.
But, when asked specifically if she agreed with Mandelson’s criticisms of Starmer’s leadership style, and specifically whether the peer was right to describe his approach as “advance, buckle, advance, buckle”, Cooper declined to address the question and focused on her point about it being wrong to appoint Mandelson in the first place.
Miliband confirms UK's latest carbon budget, aiming for 87% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2042
Fiona Harvey is the Guardian’s environment editor.
The UK’s seventh carbon budget was formally confirmed today, committing to an 87% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2042, compared with 1990 levels. The announcement follows the recommendation made by the Climate Change Committee last year.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said the commitment would help to wean the economy off fossil fuels. “As Britain faces the second fossil fuel shock of the decade, the only way to protect family and business finances is to drive for clean homegrown power that we control,” he said.
He pointed to findings from CBI Economy and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, published today, that showed the net zero economy – including renewable energy companies, home insulation installers, heat pump makers and others – was worth more than £100bn a year and supported more than 1m jobs.
He said:
What has been achieved so far by businesses and communities across the country is a great British success story - cutting costs by upgrading homes, backing British businesses, supporting one million good jobs according to new analysis from CBI Economics, and protecting our beautiful countryside.
Some people want to stick their heads in the sand and let our children face the consequences of climate breakdown - but this government believes in the timeless British value of protecting our country for generations to come.
No government has yet rejected the advice of the Climate Change Committee, which is charged under the 2008 Climate Change Act with setting five-yearly carbon budgets that bind future parliaments to stringent emissions cuts, in line with the statutory goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. However, the Conservatives and Reform UK have pledged to repeal the act if elected, and last week the former Labour prime minister Tony Blair attacked the net zero target.
Experts, businesses and campaigners welcomed the government’s announcement. Lord Stern, the LSE economics professor who carried out a landmark review for the last Labour government on the economics of climate change, said:
This is the first carbon budget to be presented to parliament since the unacceptable and short-sighted abandonment by some parties of the commitment to net zero. The evidence is now clearer than ever that the investments required to make the transition away from fossil fuels are far smaller than the potential costs of climate change impacts.
These investments in the clean technologies and businesses of the future will lower costs, drive growth and ensure that the UK remains competitive. Any slippage now on net zero by the UK, in light of its past leadership on climate change, would have serious and adverse knock-on effects on the commitments by other countries to decarbonise their economies.
On the subject of an early election if Andy Burnham becomes PM (see 10.30am), Lord Ashcroft has released some extensive polling today which includes figures showing that, by 49% to 35%, people think that, if Keir Starmer is replaced as PM in the next few months, there should be an early election.
Here are some pictures released by the Crown Office in Scotland of items purchased by Peter Murrell with funds embezzled from the SNP.
BBC Scotland has more details of the Peter Murrell hearing this morning on its live blog. And, on its live blog, Sky News has pictures of some of the items purchased by Murrell with stolen SNP funds.
Andy Burnham would not call snap election if he became PM, spokesperson says
Andy Burnham will not call an early election if he becomes prime minister after the Makerfield byelection, a spokesperson for the Greater Manchester mayor has said.
At the weekend a report claimed Burnham was considering an early election. Initially his team did not comment on the claim.
But today a spokesperson for Burnham said he had ruled out calling a snap election.
Murrell used false accounting records and fake invoices to cover up his embezzlement, court told
The money embezzled by Peter Murrell came from SNP membership fees and donations by party members, the Edinburgh court was told. The Press Association report:
Alan Cameron KC told the high court in Edinburgh that the former SNP chief executive had embezzled the funds from SNP party bank accounts “over which he had control”.
He went on: “The accused made direct transfers of money and used his party charge card and those of two other staff members to make purchases not connected with party business.
“Other members of staff were unaware he was using those cards for that purpose.”
The court also heard Murrell falsified accounting records and created fake invoices in a bid to cover his tracks.
Peter Murrell appeared in court dressed in a dark blue suit and black tie, and gave a nod to his lawyer John Scullion KC as he was led to the dock.
Motorhome bought by Murrell with SNP money only driven for four miles, court told
The Edinburgh court also heard details of the vehicles bought by Peter Murrell with money embezzled from the SNP, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Advocate depute Alan Cameron KC said one of the vehicles included a Volkswagen Golf car, which was later sold and the proceeds used towards buying a Jaguar I-Pace worth more than £81,000.
The advocate depute said a false invoice was created for this, submitting the claim as “stage payment”.
Cameron said: “He claimed that the payment was for staging for national events.”
The advocate depute also discussed the purchase of a motorhome by Murrell, which was worth £124,550.
When police seized the vehicle from his mother’s house, the odometer showed it had only been driven for four miles.
He said it was described as a “van rather than a motorhome” when the invoice was filed.
Cameron said: “It was never used or seen by any other party member or employee.”
Court hears details of Peter Murrell's spending with money embezzled from SNP
Items bought by Peter Murrell included a £3,000 robotic lawnmower, a court hearing for the former SNP chief executive heard. The Press Association reports:
Advocate depute Alan Cameron KC read out a list of items while setting out the prosecution narrative at the hearing, which took place before judge Lord Young.
They included purchases from Montblanc, which sells luxury stationery, worth more than £23,000.
One item included a robotic lawnmower worth more than £3,000.
Cameron KC said: “This item was described as legal fees and found when police searched his house.”
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No 10 urged to review religious knife rules after Henry Nowak murder
In interviews this morning Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, said that police video footage released last night showing Henry Nowak being handcuffed while bleeding to death was “absolutely harrowing”. Nowak was killed by Vickrum Digwa who has been jailed for life for murder.
Digwa told police who arrived at the scene that he had been racially abused by Nowak.
In an interview with Sky News, asked if he thought Nowak was the victim of unconscious racial bias by the police against white boys, Thomas-Symonds said the Independent Office for Police Conduct was investigating the conduct of the officers who attended the scene.
He went on:
Whilst it’s absolutely right, we have to look at the conduct of what happened here and draw the lessons, it is also the case that up and down the country … there will be police officers running towards danger when others are running in the opposite direction, putting their bodies on the line to keep us safe and we shouldn’t forget that.
In his interview on the Today programme, asked about the case, Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said that the police treatment of Nowak was “absolutely abhorrent” and that it suggested that something had gone wrong with the way the police were operating.
Asked if he thought the police treated Nowak as they did because he was white, Burghart replied: “If if that’s what happened, then that is absolutely abhorrent.”
In what he described as an “emergency address to the nation” on YouTube this morning, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, claimed that the case showed “we’re living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities” and that people should respond “with pure cold rage”.
Sarah Jones, the policing minister, is expected to make a statement to MPs on the case later today.
Steven Morris has more on the story here.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, has defended Pat McFadden over his comment, revealed in the Mandelson files, about Labour MPs always asking “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”.
In an interview with Times Radio, Thomas-Symonds said that McFadden was a “diligent, committed minister” and his views on social security and welfare “are very well known and consistent”.
He went on:
Pat’s view has always been that it is not about benefits, that is not where the debate should be. The debate should be about opportunity, and indeed that is what he has been working on.
In an interview with Sky News, asked if he thought the benefits bill was too high, Thomas-Symonds said:
It depends which part of the budget we’re talking about, because if we’re talking about pensions, then I’m very proud that it’s this government that is putting those increases in the state pension, the amount it’s going up.
On the bills that I would call economic and social failure, where we want to give people opportunity. I think that is obviously a different part of the bill.
Asked if he thought those parts of the welfare bill were too high, he replied:
Yes. Of course.
The point is, though, the motivation for changing that is not somehow salami-slicing financial budgets. The motivation for changing that is because we want to give people opportunity, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Peter Murrell has arrived at court for a further hearing, following his admission that he embezzled more than £400,000 from the SNP, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Murrell, the party’s former chief executive, was brought to the high court in Edinburgh in a white prison van.
He sat in the back wearing a dark suit with no tie.
Judge Lord Young will hear a prosecution narrative on Tuesday, where the facts of the case will be set out.
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UK government has failed Palestinian people, says senior Labour MP
The UK government has let the Palestinian people down and failed to make it economically impossible for Israel to continue to act with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, has said. Patrick Wintour has the story.
Tories accuse Starmer of not revealing all his Mandelson messages
Good morning. Keir Starmer is chairing cabinet today as Labour MPs mull over the coverage of the Peter Mandelson files. In terms of revelations relating to Mandelson himself, the impact is probably not as bad as many MPs feared; Politico quotes one official as saying the mood last night was at the “top end” of expectations. Here is our main story about the data release, by Henry Dyer and Pippa Crear.
There will be more coverage today.
The Mandelson documents were only released because of a humble address tabled by the Conservative party. Kemi Badenoch launched this move in part because she suspected Starmer was covering up the full extent of what he knew about Mandelson’s connections with Jeffrey Epstein when he appointed him ambassador. The documents published yesterday did not provide any new evidence to back up this assertion, although some material relating to Epstein was held back because of the police investigation. But the joy of a fishing expedition is that you never quite now what you will catch, and the Tories struck gold yesterday with the revelation about Pat McFadden joking about how Labour MPs were always asking “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”. Most of the rightwing papers are splashing on this today, and it has the potential to be as damaging to the party as Liam Byrne’s famous “no money left” (another flippant remark, intended to be private, that was exploited ruthlessly, but unfairly, by the Tories).
The Conservatives could sit back and take the view “job well done’”. But Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, was giving interviews this morning and he told the Today programme that he thought Starmer had not revealed all his Mandelson messages.
Burghart said:
There’s a lot of stuff that’s missing. Anybody who’s looked at these 1,500 pages will see acres and acres of white space, these constellations of asterisks, huge amounts of redactions.
Now, some of that is fine because it’s national security issues, our relationship with the Americans.
But it’s also clear there’s a lot of material that wasn’t published. And we know that because all ministers were asked to hand over their WhatsApp messages between them and Peter Mandelson and lots and lots of ministers, some very senior people, have handed over a nil return.
There are almost no exchanges between the prime minister and Peter Mandelson. There are no exchanges between people like Peter Kyle, who were very close allies of Peter Mandelson. And so it’s clear that stuff has been deleted or has gone missing.
When asked if he was claiming that messages from the PM had been held back, Burghart replied: “I suspect that, if they haven’t been handed over, they’ve been deleted.”
He pointed out that, in the Commons yesterday, when Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, was asked to give an assurance that Starmer had not deleted any messages from Mandelson, Jones was unable to give that assurance. Burghart went on:
It beggars belief that there were so few exchanges between Mandelson and the prime minister. There’s almost nothing in the record.
So either this stuff is being deliberately withheld or it’s been deleted.
But in answer to your question, yes, it’s obvious that there is still stuff that’s missing. Whether we ever see it or not, I don’t know.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
9.30am: Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive and estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, is back at the high court in Edinburgh where, following his guilty plea on embezzlement charges, there will be a “narrative hearing” setting out an agreed accounts of his crimes.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12.15pm: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is giving a speech at the SXSW event where he will call for a ban on social media for under-16s.
After 12.30pm: Sarah Jones, the policing minister, is due to give a statement to MPs about the murder of Henry Nowak, and the police response to it.
Lunchtime: Andy Burnham is doing a campaign visit in Makerfield.
1.30pm: Rhun ap Iorwerth takes questions as first minister for the first time in the Senedd.
2.30pm: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, takes questions at Holyrood for the first time on a Tuesday, under a new plan to hold FMQs twice a week, not just once a week.
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