Closing summary
Britain’s longest-serving MPs, Labour’s Diane Abbott and the Conservative Sir Edward Leigh, have issued a joint call urging the Commons to reject the assisted dying bill, arguing it is being rushed through and puts vulnerable people at risk. Writing for the Guardian, Abbott and Leigh – the mother and father of the house – said there had been insufficient scrutiny of the law and urged parliament to instead focus on better health and care services.
Cuts to the winter fuel allowance could force 100,000 pensioners in England and Wales into relative fuel poverty, government analysis has shown, as ministers come under mounting pressure over measures in last month’s budget. Internal government modelling shows the decision to remove the benefit from millions of pensioners will push about 50,000 more people into relative poverty next year, and another 50,000 by the end of the decade.
The defence secretary, John Healey, has denied claims that a cost-cutting scrapping of a series of British navy vessels has been a “black day” for Britain’s defence. Two former Royal Navy flagships, a frigate and two support tankers will be decommissioned as part of cost-saving measures, the Ministry of Defence has announced. The move was blamed on a “dire inheritance” left by the last administration, and the decision to scrap defence capability also includes a 14-year-old army drone.
Rural Labour MPs have called on the government to reassure worried farmers, in an attempt to quell the escalating row over inheritance tax on agricultural property. Thousands of farmers and landowners descended on Whitehall on Tuesday to protest against the plans, which they said will cause family farms to have to sell up in order pay the new 20% rate on assets above a £1m threshold.
Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer today criticised “unhelpful” commentators, such as Nigel Farage, who after the Southport attacks insinuated that a conspiracy was keeping the truth from the public. Assistant commissioner Matt Jukes said such critics knew police were limited by legal rules about what they can say during a live criminal investigation and he also said misinformation that fueled the riots was “turbo charged” from abroad, including by bot farms and some state-linked actors.
Justin Welby will complete his official duties as archbishop of Canterbury by 6 January, the Feast of Epiphany, and will do little in the way of public engagements over the next few weeks, Lambeth Palace has announced. Welby resigned as archbishop last week after a damning report concluded he took insufficient action over one of the C of E’s worst serial child abusers. No timetable for his departure was given at the time.
Defence experts have expressed some reservations about the decision to decommission obsolete ships, helicopters and drones announced by John Healey today. Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, said the cuts mainly affected equipment that was approaching retirement. And he said the Watchkeeper drones were “probably obsolete”.
Defence experts have expressed some reservations about the decision to decommission obsolete ships, helicopters and drones announced by John Healey today. (See 3.10pm.)
Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, said the cuts mainly affected equipment that was approaching retirement. And he said the Watchkeeper drones were “probably obsolete”. He went on:
But the fact that defence either can’t crew them, or is prepared to cut them to make very modest savings over five years in the current international environment, is an indication of just how tight resources must be in the MoD right now.
And Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor at Sky News, posted this on social media.
How can the UK talk tough on defence while at the same time failing to ensure sufficient funding for the military to at the very least be able to mothball “outdated” warships, helicopters & drones?
A key lesson from Russia’s war in Ukraine has been that old equipment brought out of deep storage is better than no kit.
That’s all from me for today. Tom Ambrose is now taking over.
