Cooper says 5 native grooming gang inquiries nonetheless to go forward after Tories declare they’ve been dropped in ‘cover up’ – UK politics stay

Listed here are some extra footage from Keir Starmer’s go to to Doncaster Sheffield airport this morning.

Keir Starmer has stated the federal government won’t simply “sit back and hope” in response to President Trump’s tariff insurance policies.

In his first public remarks since President Trump abruptly U-turned on his tariffs coverage final evening, Starmer stated the federal government would “rise to the moment”.

Starmer didn’t criticise straight Trump over his insurance policies, and he didn’t give any contemporary element as to how the federal government would reply. Over the past week or so he has repeatedly stated that the world is coming into a brand new financial period and that, in response, the federal government should redouble efforts to guard UK business, increase development and strengthen commerce hyperlinks with like-minded, free commerce economies.

Talking to reporters at an occasion in Doncaster, Starmer stated:

This authorities is formidable for Britain.

I’m not going to face right here and faux that tariffs are excellent news. That isn’t true, and also you wouldn’t consider me if I stated it, however simply as we’ve seen just lately on defence and safety throughout Europe, and with Ukraine, they do make one factor very clear, and that’s that the world is altering, and we as a rustic should change with it.

In different phrases, we’ve obtained to rise to the second right here, recognise the place our future lies, renew Britain and ship safety for working folks.

Starmer additionally stated his Labour administration was “not a government that’s just going to sit back and hope” however would ship “fundamental change”.

Ian Duncan, a Conservative peer, helped to safe a gathering with a minister for a Canadian firm he was advising whereas it was searching for authorities funding price thousands and thousands of kilos, Rob Evans and Henry Dyer report.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK chief, has described the federal government’s stance on the grooming gang native inquiries (see 12.17pm) as “cowardly”, Sky Information experiences.

He additionally claimed a nationwide inquiry could be launched on Monday. He stated:

I’m instructed there shall be a growth approaching Monday, led by any individual who performed a really distinguished function in exposing the grooming gangs, that shall be approaching Monday.

In January Farage stated, if the federal government didn’t arrange its personal nationwide inquiry, Reform would arrange its personal. After the native inquiries have been introduced, the get together shelved its personal plans. However Rupert Lowe, the MP just lately expelled from Reform, needs to run his personal model and he has raised greater than £500,000 by way of crowdfunding to pay for it.

Throughout her BBC Breakfast interview Kemi Badenoch claimed that the federal government has dropped the plans for 5 native inquiries into grooming gang, or little one rape scandals, that have been introduced in January. As she was attempting to fend of the questions on Adolescence, she stated:

One of many issues that I’m extra bothered by is the truth that simply yesterday, we had Labour telling us that they’re not going to be investigating the rape gang scandal, one thing which had occurred all throughout the nation. That’s actual. That’s taking place proper now. We’re not speaking about that.

And, in a subsequent interview with Sky Information, she recommended that some kind of cowl up was happening. She stated:

I’m completely astonished that Labour has dropped what it stated it might do in January. And, as I stated to Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions, if he didn’t have a full nationwide inquiry, folks will begin to suppose that there’s a cover-up.

They’re clearly uncomfortable with having inquiries which are trying into this difficulty.

They stated that they are going to have a pot of cash for councils to bid in. However why would a council bid for cash to analyze itself?

(Badenoch could have forgotten that the grooming gang inquiry story solely grew to become an enormous media controversy in January after GB Information reported that the federal government had rejected a request from Oldham council for a public inquiry into the grooming gang scandal within the city previously.)

Different Tories have additionally claimed Starmer is engaged in a cover-up. Andrew Griffith, the shadow enterprise secretary, posed this on social media final evening.

As a rule I consider in disasters moderately than conspiracy.

But when true that Labour have shelved even essentially the most restricted public enquiries into grooming gangs, it does counsel that highly effective Labour politicians have one thing to cover.

Why not search the reality?

The Conservatives have been claiming that the 5 native rape gang inquiries have been dropped on the premise of what Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, instructed MPs in a press release on Tuesday. Phillips didn’t say the inquiries have been being dropped. However she couldn’t report any progress being made in the direction of setting them up, and she or he set out what appeared like a prolonged course of that may result in inquiries turning into victims’ panels. She stated:

We’re creating a brand new greatest observe framework to assist native authorities that need to undertake victim-centred native inquiries or associated work, drawing on the teachings from native impartial inquiries akin to these in Telford, Rotherham and Higher Manchester. We are going to publish the main points subsequent month.

Alongside that, we are going to set out the method by way of which native authorities can entry the £5m nationwide fund to assist locally-led work on grooming gangs. Following suggestions from native authorities, the fund will undertake a versatile strategy to assist each full impartial native inquiries and extra bespoke work, together with native victims’ panels or regionally led audits of the dealing with of historic instances.

At the moment, in an interview with LBC, Yvette Cooper rejected claims that plans for the native inquiries have been being watered down. She stated:

There’s an enormous details about this. That is utterly fallacious. We’re truly rising, not lowering, the motion being taken on this.

Baby sexual exploitation, grooming gangs – these are a few of the most vile crimes, issues like rape or exploitation, coercion. We’re rising the motion towards that.

So we’ve already set out one native inquiry – that shall be in Oldham. We’re drawing up the framework in the intervening time for the additional native inquiries. We’ve obtained the Louise Casey audit that’s underway in the intervening time.

Requested if the 5 native inquiries promised in January would go forward, she replied: “Yes, there may be more.”

Regardless that a few of the worst grooming gangs scandals have been taking place as much as 20 years in the past, and even thought there have been a number of prosecutions and inquiries into these crimes over the previous decade or extra, the Conservatives and Reform UK are selecting up vital public and media assist with their argument that the complete fact is being withheld and additional inquiries are wanted.

In accordance to Sky Information, Phillips plans to carry a briefing for Labour MPs apprehensive about this difficulty at 5pm this afternoon.

Kemi Badenoch is commonly fairly a tetchy interviewee, and on BBC Breakfast this morning issues obtained a bit awkward when the presenters, Naga Munchetty and Charlie Steyt, requested her if she had watched the Netflix TV drama Adolescence but.

In a earlier interview earlier this month, requested concerning the sequence, Badenoch obtained into hassle as a result of she ended up spouting a conspiracy principle. She didn’t try this as we speak, however she did say she nonetheless has not watched the present, including: “I probably won’t.”

When Munchetty recommended she ought to, as a result of “everyone is talking about it” and it was prompting conversations about masculinity, smartphone use and misogyny, Badenoch replied:

I feel that these are all vital points, and people have been points that I’ve been speaking about for a very long time.

However in the identical means that I don’t want to look at Casualty to know what’s happening within the NHS, I don’t want to look at a selected Netflix drama to grasp what’s happening. It’s a fictional sequence. It isn’t a documentary.

Munchetty and Steyt endured, suggesting that Badenoch ought to watch the story, and for some cause Steyt was notably bothered by her evaluating Adolescence to Casualty. Did she actually imply that? Badenoch replied:

I’m saying very clearly that my job is to not watch plenty of TV. My job is to get on the market and make it possible for I’m speaking concerning the points which are taking place within the nation proper now.

Different journalists are extra sympathetic. That is what Duncan Robinson, political editor of the Economist, stated about this on social media.

Badenoch in the appropriate. Cease basing public coverage on telly

The Liberal Democrats have claimed that the Tories and Reform UK have “merged in all but name” with Kemi Badenoch as Conservative chief. In a press release responding to Badenoch’s BBC Breakfast interview (see 9.34am), Daisy Cooper, the deputy Lib Dem chief, stated:

Badenoch could have dominated out at a pact with Farage however the actuality is the Conservatives and Reform have merged in all however identify beneath her management.

You couldn’t put a cigarette paper between Badenoch and Farage in terms of their insurance policies. It’s clear the Conservatives have completely deserted the centre floor.

The NHS England information launch on as we speak’s month-to-month performanc figures focuses on the truth that 3.1m “additional appointments” have taken place because the normal election. It says:

The NHS has delivered greater than 3.1 million extra appointments since July 2024 and hit the formidable quicker prognosis commonplace for most cancers, new figures present as we speak.

Month-to-month efficiency information reveals that there have been greater than 3.1 million extra appointments delivered within the seven months from July 2024 (3,106,424 elective operations, outpatient appointments and diagnostic assessments up till January 2025) that means that the general ready checklist fell for the sixth month in a row in February.

The backlog dropped to 7.4 million with a discount of 26,000 in comparison with the earlier month. The estimated variety of sufferers ready in February stands at 6.24 million.

Because of the efforts of NHS workers, greater than 4 fifths (80.2%) of individuals acquired the all clear or a definitive most cancers prognosis inside 4 weeks – the best proportion on file.

And it quotes Wes Streeting, the well being secretary, saying:

We made a promise to the British public that we’d create 2 million extra appointments for sufferers in our first 12 months – as we speak we’ve already dwarfed this goal and have reached 3.1 million extra appointments within the first 6 months.

At the moment’s information additionally reveals now we have reduce the ready checklist for the sixth month in a row, by a complete 219,000 since July, with fewer sufferers ready over 18 weeks which may have vital advantages on their well being outcomes.

The ready checklist for routine hospital remedy in England has fallen for the sixth month in a row, PA Media experiences. PA says:

An estimated 7.40 million remedies have been ready to be carried out on the finish of February, relating to six.24 million sufferers – down from 7.43 million remedies and 6.25 million sufferers on the finish of January, NHS England says.

The checklist hit a file excessive in September 2023, with 7.77 million remedies and 6.50 million sufferers.

This chart from as we speak’s NHS England launch reveals how the ready checklist has grown over the previous decade.

Navigating England’s “complex” well being and care system is “extremely difficult” and carers and sufferers are experiencing burnout, misery and hurt because of this, a damning report says. Andrew Gregory has the story.

Ellie Reeves, the Labour chair, has put out a press release claiming the Kemi Badenoch interview on BBC Breakfast (see 9.34am) reveals that voting Tory will ship Reform UK insurance policies. She says:

Now it’s crystal clear: in the event you vote Reform or Conservative, you’re opening the door to extra of the Tory chaos that held our nation again over the previous 14 years.

Kemi Badenoch and her Conservative get together left our NHS at breaking level and Nigel Farage needs to make sufferers pay for healthcare after they’re sick. Simply think about what they’d do collectively.

Yvette Cooper, the house secretary, was the federal government voice on the morning information reveals. As Rajeev Syal, Mimi Ibrahim and Vikram Dodd report, she is saying that law enforcement officials on foot will patrol each busy neighbourhood in England and Wales at peak instances.

However, inevitably, she was requested concerning the authorities’s response to President Trump’s tariffs U-turn final evening. Consistent with commonplace No 10 coverage, she didn’t criticise the president. “We are not keeping a running commentary on different trade negotiations, on the different approaches that other governments are taking,” she stated. However she did argue that the U-turn (my time period, not hers) vindicated Keir Starmer’s resolution to reply in a peaceful and regarded solution to what Trump has been doing. She instructed the At the moment programme:

I feel it simply truly reinforces the technique and the strategy that we’re taking, which is to be pragmatic, to take this regular course moderately than to get buffeted round from everyday or entering into the kind of working commentaries and reactions.

Gordon Brown has known as for an “economic coalition of the willing” to answer Donald Trump’s tariffs with coordinated financial insurance policies, together with a discount of rates of interest, Jessica Elgot experiences. Right here is her information story.

Right here is Brown’s Guardian article making this argument.

And right here is an extract.

On Monday, Keir Starmer warned that the world won’t ever be the identical once more, and reminded us that “attempting to manage crises without fundamental change just leads to managed decline”. He’s proper. As I discovered within the monetary disaster of 2008, world issues require globally coordinated options. We’d like a daring, worldwide response that measures as much as the size of the emergency. In the identical means that, to his nice credit score, the prime minister has been constructing a coalition in defence of Ukraine, we want an financial coalition of the keen: like-minded world leaders who consider that, in an interdependent world, now we have to coordinate financial insurance policies throughout continents if we’re to safeguard jobs and dwelling requirements.

The instant problem is to mitigate the supply-side shocks brought on by the Trump tariff wall. As Rachel Reeves is proposing, we have to preserve world commerce transferring. No two crises are ever the identical, however providing prolonged credit score to exporting and importing corporations was central to the world response as commerce collapsed in 2009. We additionally need to remind China that whether it is to current itself as a champion of free commerce, it’s in its pursuits to focus extra on increasing home consumption than flooding the world’s markets with cut-price items it can’t now promote within the US.

Good morning. There are three weeks till the native elections in England and, with parliament in recess, the get together leaders have time for campaigning out of London. Whereas the principle dialog remains to be dominated by President Trump and his erratic world tariffs coverage – Graeme Wearden has the newest developments on his enterprise stay weblog – there are different issues to speak about, and Kemi Badenoch has simply given an interview to BBC Breakfast the place she condoned Tory councillors doing offers with Reform UK to manage native authorities if they don’t win a majority.

Requested if she would rule out any offers, at nationwide or native stage, between the Conservative get together and Reform UK, Badenoch replied:

I’ve stated categorically that I’m not doing offers with Reform. Nigel Farage has stated that he needs to destroy the Conservative get together. When somebody says they need to destroy you, don’t invite them into your home and ask to do a deal.

At native stage, we find yourself with numerous coalitions. I’ve seen Conservatives go into coalition with Labour, with Liberal Democrats, with independents. You don’t get to have a rerun of an election at native stage.

So what I’m telling native leaders throughout the nation is that they need to do what is true for the folks of their space, they usually should follow conservative rules, make it possible for they’re not compromising on our values and on the issues that we consider in – sound cash, for instance, not extreme authorities intervention.

So native leaders are voted by the folks in a specific group. They must make the selection about what is true for his or her councils.

However at nationwide stage, no, I used to be not made chief of the Conservative get together to present it away to Reform.

In a single respect that is only a assertion of regular observe. At native authority stage it isn’t uncommon for events with out an total majority to control in alliance with different events – typically by way of a proper coalition, or typically by way of some type of “confidence and supply” deal that entails not voting down the price range.

However nationwide get together leaders are usually a bit coy in terms of approving these preparations, and beneath Keir Starmer Labour HQ has typically vetoed council pacts with different events. Badenoch’s feedback will give credibility to the Labour declare that Badenoch’s get together and Nigel Farage’s are intently aligned. Labour has revealed that 60 Reform UK council candidates are defectors from the Conservative get together. And final week Labour ran an internet advert saying:

Reform and the Tories are nearer than you suppose. No plans, no options, simply extra chaos.

Labour is bringing change to Britain. Vote Labour on Thursday 1 Could.

It was accompanied by this picture.

Right here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its month-to-month efficiency figures.

9.30am: The Dwelling Workplace is publishing its annual report on cyber breaches.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, are on a go to to advertise plans to reopen Doncaster Sheffield airport.

Morning: Kemi Badenoch is doing visits within the north of England.

11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK chief, is on a marketing campaign go to in Derbyshire. Within the afternoon he shall be in Staffordshire.

Early afternoon: Starmer is on a go to in Cambridgeshire with Yvette Cooper, the house secretary, to advertise the federal government’s plans for extra foot patrols by police at busy instances.

2pm (UK time): John Healey, the defence secretary, and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu chair a gathering in Brussels of defence ministers from the 30-odd “coalition of the willing” nations providing to assist assure Ukraine’s safety within the occasion of a peace deal.

I’m afraid that, for the following few weeks or months, on most days workers shortages imply that feedback will solely be open on the weblog between 10am and 3pm.

If you wish to contact me, please put up a message under the road, when feedback are open, or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however in the event you put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra prone to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.

If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You’ll be able to attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and in the event you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if essential.

I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is simply too small to right. And I discover your questions very attention-grabbing too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.