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Here is a summary from today’s blog:
The political “tug-of-war with vulnerable women” abused by grooming gangs must stop ahead of a new national inquiry into the crimes, survivors have told the Guardian. Holly Archer and Scarlett Jones, two survivors who played a key role in a “gold-standard” local inquiry into the crime in Telford, have urged politicians and those without experience of abuse to allow women to shape the investigation.
Keir Starmer said there was a “real risk of escalation” in the Middle East as Donald Trump considers whether to join Israel in striking Iran. The prime minister repeated his call for de-escalation, adding: “Yes, the nuclear issue has to be dealt with, but it’s better dealt with by way of negotiations than by way of conflict.” Seperately, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said on Thursday that “too much is at stake” for the Iran-Israel conflict to escalate further.
The prime minister would not be drawn on reports that the attorney general, Richard Hermer, has legal concerns over potential UK involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict. Hermer, the government’s most senior legal officer, is understood to have raised concerns internally about the legality of joining a bombing campaign against Iran.
Responding to the attorney general’s warning that getting involved in Israel’s war against Iran could be illegal beyond offering defensive support, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said the government should publish Hermer’s advice. However, on Thursday, Starmer said “the attorney’s advice is never disclosed by any government”.
Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said the Conservative party would support the government in joining the military fight against Iran if it was deemed necessary. She said she believed the opposition would be able to hold the government to account without a vote in parliament on such a decision. Asked if she believed the attorney general was right to sound a warning Patel said the UK cannot “hide behind legal advice at a time of crisis”.
Foreign secretary David Lammy will meet US counterpart Marco Rubio later this evening. Lammy and US secretary of state Rubio will discuss the situation in the Middle East at 7pm BST.
The UK is planning for a “variety of scenarios and contingencies” for Britons stranded in Israel as the US said it was looking at evacuating Americans from using cruise ships and flights. Asked why the UK was not following the US example, a No 10 spokesperson said: “There’s a huge amount of work being done in the background on contingency planning. It is a fast-moving situation and we keep all our advice and planning under constant review.”
The government will spend £725bn on infrastructure in the next decade, Treasury minister Darren Jones has said. He said the 10-year infrastructure plan aimed to show that “change is possible”. The Tories responded by asking the government to say “which major projects are being abandoned” as part of its strategy.
Liberal Democrats spokesperson Sarah Olney said Thursday’s infrastructure announcement must be “a line in the sand” under Conservative mismanagement, while Jones said Olney was “right to point to the fiasco of HS2”.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told a fossil fuel company the industry would receive a “quid pro quo” in return for higher taxes on its windfall profits, it can be revealed. In a meeting with the Norwegian state energy company Equinor on 27 August, Reeves suggested that the government’s carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) subsidies were a payoff for oil firms being hit with a higher tax rate.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, has said the government is stepping up preparations for temporary nationalisation of Thames Water, indicating it will reject pleas from the company’s creditors for leniency from fines and penalties. Thames Water’s largest creditors control the utility, and have made a bid to cut some of its debts and provide £5.3bn in new funding to try to turn it around.
The leader of the Blue Labour group has said he will vote against the assisted dying bill – one of the most high-profile switchers – as both sides make their final pleas to MPs before Friday’s crunch vote. It comes as campaigners and bereaved relatives joined the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater ahead of the third reading of the bill, to urge parliament to back the reforms, saying it would be at least a decade before another chance to change the law.
The UK government will have to sign off on the US use of its Diego Garcia base in any bombing raid on Iran, it has emerged, as ministers gathered to discuss a range of scenarios amid further increasing tensions in the region. The prime minster chaired an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the UK’s response to the crisis in the Middle East which could escalate further should the US enter the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Decisions relating to lone child asylum seekers should be removed from Home Office officials because of fundamental problems with the way they treat this vulnerable group, a report has found. The report calls for root-and-branch reform of the treatment of thousands of children who have fled persecution in their home countries and made hazardous journeys in search of safety.
A review of the design, planning and delivery of UK road and railway infrastructure projects has been launched. Regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its inquiry will examine whether there are opportunities to enhance how the public sector and industry work together.
Ministers will restart the approval process for two controversial oilfields, Rosebank field and Jackdaw, on Thursday, even as new figures show the UK will be almost entirely dependent on foreign gas by 2050 regardless of whether they are approved.
New floating windfarms, expected to be among the biggest in the world, will create thousands of jobs and power millions of homes, Jo Stevens, the secretary of state for Wales, has said. Turbines up to 300m tall will sit on platforms floating off the coast of Wales, powering four million homes under plans revealed on Thursday.
Doctor Who actor Ncuti Gatwa, Judi Dench and Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai have added their names to an open letter urging the prime minister to suspend arms sales to Israel. As well as suspending UK arms sales to Israel, the letter calls on Starmer to “use all available means” to ensure humanitarian aid gets in to the territory.
Patrick Harvie, who is stepping down as Scottish Greens co-leader after 17 years used his final first minister’s questions (FMQs) to hit out at John Swinney over lack of progress since he convened a cross-party summit of politicians and civic leaders in April with the high aim of protecting Scotland’s democratic values. Harvie said there had been “no meaningful change” since the summit, despite all the warm words – and went on to attack the first minister for “walking away” from progressive green policies.
Keir Starmer needs to reset standards in public life and bring in proper sanctions before trust in the UK system is damaged beyond salvage, John Major has said. The former Conservative prime minister said proposals for an ethics commission appeared to be “in the long grass” but No 10 could strengthen the Nolan principles of public life and make sure there was punishment for misconduct within the standards framework.
Britain’s benefits system faces collapse without cuts to disability payments, Liz Kendall has said, as the government published plans that put it on a collision course with dozens of angry Labour MPs. Kendall published her welfare reform bill on Wednesday, confirming it would lead to benefit cuts for 950,000 people by 2030. She said the country’s £326bn social security net might cease to exist if costs continued to escalate.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued an amber heat-health alert for all regions in England. The alert will be in force from 12pm on Thursday until 9am on Monday. It warned that “significant impacts are likely” across health and social care services because of high temperatures.
Air pollution in the UK is costing more than £500m a week in ill health, NHS care and productivity losses, with 99% of the population breathing in “toxic air”, doctors have said. Dirty air is killing more than 500 people a week, with health harm to almost every organ of the body caused by air pollution, even at low concentrations, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said.
Campaigners from trade unions, voluntary organisations and the Church of Scotland have announced plans for an anti-poverty march to “demand better” from politicians in Scotland. The campaign, Scotland Demands Better, will culminate in a march in Edinburgh on 25 October, walking from the Scottish parliament, up the Royal Mile and along George IV Bridge to The Meadows.
Updated
New floating windfarms, expected to be among the biggest in the world, will create thousands of jobs and power millions of homes, a minister has said.
Turbines up to 300m tall will sit on platforms floating off the coast of Wales, powering four million homes under plans revealed on Thursday, reports the PA news agency.
The project, which is jointly run by the crown estate, Equinor and Gwynt Glas, is expected to be completed by the mid-2030s, with several windfarms to be constructed. The turbines are expected to be assembled in Bristol and Port Talbot, from where they will be towed out to the final project sites.
Jo Stevens, the secretary of state for Wales, said the announcement was “great news” for the country, and could create 5,300 new jobs.
Speaking to the PA news agency on a visit to Port Talbot, she said:
These are going to be the biggest offshore floating windfarms in the world, and they’re going to be off the coast of Wales.
It is going to create thousands of jobs, power four million homes and bring down energy bills.
This is really, really good news for Wales, and especially for young people and people wanting apprenticeships, because there are guarantees within the process that there will be specific apprenticeships and jobs for young people.
The minister’s visit also follows the announcement of funding for the redevelopment of the port in Port Talbot as part of the spending review last week.
The crown estate – which manages the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland – is making a £400m investment in the UK’s offshore wind supply chain. While profits from the crown estate go to the Treasury, it is owned by the monarch and run independently.
