Marinera oil tanker changed flags ‘five times in five years’, says defence secretary – as it happened

A summary of today’s developments

The defence secretary, John Healey, told the Commons that the UK, at the request of the US, supported efforts to intercept an Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic. Healey said: “The vessel refused to comply with the US’s exercise of its sanctions jurisdiction on 20 December, after which the US Coast Guard vessel Monroe pursued the ship across the Atlantic. This is a sanctioned, stateless vessel which carries a long history of nefarious activity and shares close links with both Iran and Russia.” Healey said there was a deployment of Royal Navy and RAF assets including airborne surveillance and RFA Tideforce and no UK personnel took part in the operation.
Healey said he is visiting Kyiv “soon” to continue discussions on supporting Ukraine’s long term armaments and policing of any ceasefire.
Nigel Farage called allegations of racist and antisemitic bullying during his time at Dulwich college “complete made-up fantasies”, saying his accusers are “people with very obvious political motivation”.
Reform’s new London mayoral candidate has been accused of “talking down” the UK’s capital after she said that people “pity” Londoners.
The shadow attorney general, David Wolfson, has recused himself from giving advice to Kemi Badenoch on Ukraine and Russia because he is representing the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in a court case, the Conservatives have announced.
Labour watering down its sweeping overhaul of workers’ rights is expected to slash the cost of the plan for UK businesses by billions of pounds, the government’s own analysis shows.

The defence secretary, John Healey, told the Commons that the UK, at the request of the US, supported efforts to intercept an Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic. Healey said: “The vessel refused to comply with the US’s exercise of its sanctions jurisdiction on 20 December, after which the US Coast Guard vessel Monroe pursued the ship across the Atlantic. This is a sanctioned, stateless vessel which carries a long history of nefarious activity and shares close links with both Iran and Russia.” Healey said there was a deployment of Royal Navy and RAF assets including airborne surveillance and RFA Tideforce and no UK personnel took part in the operation.

Healey said he is visiting Kyiv “soon” to continue discussions on supporting Ukraine’s long term armaments and policing of any ceasefire.

Nigel Farage called allegations of racist and antisemitic bullying during his time at Dulwich college “complete made-up fantasies”, saying his accusers are “people with very obvious political motivation”.

Reform’s new London mayoral candidate has been accused of “talking down” the UK’s capital after she said that people “pity” Londoners.

The shadow attorney general, David Wolfson, has recused himself from giving advice to Kemi Badenoch on Ukraine and Russia because he is representing the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in a court case, the Conservatives have announced.

Labour watering down its sweeping overhaul of workers’ rights is expected to slash the cost of the plan for UK businesses by billions of pounds, the government’s own analysis shows.

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Earlier in his statement to the Commons Healey discussed the counter-Iran sanctions on the Russian-flagged oil tanker.

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He said: “In 2024, this vessel was sanctioned by the US and subjected to a seizure warrant for illegally transporting uranium oil. It reflagged five times in the last five years, and was falsely flying the Guyana ensign when it was intercepted by the US.

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“Over a four-year period, reports suggest that this vessel moved some 7.3 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, the proceeds of which have been used to finance terrorism, threat and instability across the world.

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“And the Iranian regime continues to export violence across the region through its proxies and its partners, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iraqi militias. It maintains support for Russia by supplying Putin with weapons for his brutal invasion of Ukraine, including the drones and missiles which target and kill Ukrainian civilians. And it is telling, of course, that this vessel, in an attempt to evade the seizure warrant, changed its name and tried to adopt the Russian flag.”

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On the intercepting of the oil tanker, Healey said the UK and at the request of the US supported its efforts.

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He said: “The vessel refused to comply with the US’s exercise of its sanctions jurisdiction on 20 December, after which the US Coast Guard vessel Monroe pursued the ship across the Atlantic.

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“This is a sanctioned, stateless vessel which carries a long history of nefarious activity and shares close links with both Iran and Russia.”

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Healey said there was a deployment of Royal Navy and RAF assets including airborne surveillance and RFA Tideforce.

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No UK personnel took part in the operation.

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The defence secretary, John Healey, will be making an emergency statement in the Commons at around 7pm on the seizure of the Marinera tanker and the Ukraine deal agreed.

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It comes after the Ministry of Defence confirmed the armed forces provided support to the US during its seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker on Wednesday.

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Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge will be responding to the statement for the Conservatives.

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Nigel Farage has called allegations of racist and antisemitic bullying during his time at Dulwich college “complete made-up fantasies”, saying his accusers are “people with very obvious political motivation”.

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Reform’s new London mayoral candidate has been accused of “talking down” the UK’s capital, after she said that people “pity” Londoners.

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The shadow attorney general, David Wolfson, has recused himself from giving advice to Kemi Badenoch on Ukraine and Russia because he is representing the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in a court case, the Conservatives have announced.

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Labour watering down its sweeping overhaul of workers’ rights is expected to slash the cost of the plan for UK businesses by billions of pounds, the government’s own analysis shows.

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The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the UK helped the Americans interecept a Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic. (See 3.43pm.) Frances Mao has more coverage of this on our Europe live blog.

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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.

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Starmer at PMQs.”,”caption”:”Keir Starmer at PMQs.”,”credit”:”Photograph: House of Commons/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1767808759000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”12.59 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1767809222000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”13.07 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1767809222000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”13.07 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”13.07″,”title”:”Early evening summary”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 7 Jan 2026 15.46 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 7 Jan 2026 03.59 EST”},{“id”:”695e90fc8f085fa3d4b3faf8″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Donald Trump clearly made an impression on Peter Mandelson during the seven months he spent as the UK’s ambassador in Washington. Mandelson has written an article for the Spectator in which basically endorses Trump’s approach to foreign affairs, and credits the US president with recognising that the rules-based international order (RBIO) has not been working properly for years.

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There is nothing particularly original about this observation. Kemi Badenoch delivered a version of this argument yesterday, and even No 10 admited that the RBIO was struggling. But most Labour figures who accept that the RBIO is at risk would argue that it is worth protecting. Mandelson seems less keen on that. And, in his article, he is far more complimentary about Trump than almost anyone in UK politics outside Reform UK.

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It is also noticeable that Mandelson seems to show no interest in whether or not the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro complied with international law – which, for most other commentators, has been a key issue.

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Here are the key points.

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Mandelson says that Donald Trump is not to blame for the collapse of the so-called rules-based international order – because it has not really existed for decades. He says:

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For a long time, the ‘rules-based system’ beloved of foreign offices, thinktanks and academic seminars has effectively not existed.

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President Trump is not some populist disruptor bent on destroying it; it ceased to have meaning before he was elected. He has not single-handedly broken up the postwar ‘global order’: if that ever fully existed, it started to evaporate two decades ago when China emerged as a great power contesting the US-led unipolar world. Under Xi Jinping, China is no longer prepared to accept the status of junior partner. The implications of this new bifurcated world can be seen in Ukraine, where colonialist Russia is backed by Chinese diplomatic power, Iranian technology and North Korean fighters.

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He says Trump’s approach to foreign policy has in some cases achieved far more than the old system ever did.

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Donald Trump’s dramatic intervention in Venezuela has achieved much more than to bring a brutal, corrupt dictator and drug trafficker to justice in an American court of law, something which no amount of human rights declarations, international law or indictments in the international criminal court were able to achieve …

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In Caracas last weekend, as earlier last year in the case of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility at Fordow, Trump did more in a day than orthodox diplomacy was able to achieve in the past decade.

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He says Europeans don’t fully understand Trump, and do not give him credit for his internationalism.

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I am afraid I don’t think, even now, that European leaders have adjusted to the revolution under way. They are guilty of a lazy interpretation of ‘America First’ to mean ‘America Alone’, even though President Trump is expending huge effort to end the war in Ukraine and has acted in a decisive way to halt the conflict in Gaza, where he remains committed to the vital ‘phase two’.

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He says Britain and other allies should accept that Trump’s “decisive approach” to foreign policy is better than the UN’s or EU’s, or some of his predecessors’.

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Britain’s interests and those of other liberal democracies lie in how we harness the power of the US to continue safeguarding the principles – if not always the letter – of the UN Charter. This will mean accepting that Trump’s decisive approach when faced with real-world situations is preferable to the hand-wringing and analysis paralysis that has characterised some previous US administrations or, indeed, the deadlock and prevarication that so often characterise the UN and the EU respectively.

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He says Europeans need to contribute more to their own defence. He says they should focus more on “how and when the piggybacking stops and Europe starts assuming its full military and financial responsibilities beyond fine words – which is what they amount to in most cases at the moment, notwithstanding the future ‘military hubs’ promised by Britain and France to Ukraine.”

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He suggests the risk of the Trump administration annexing Greenland is being exaggerated.

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n

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.

n

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Lord Wolfson, the shadow attorney general, has released the text of an open letter he has sent to Keir Starmer claiming that the PM was “wrong” in what he said at PMQs. (See 1.52pm.) In particular, he says he is not representing Roman Abramovich in relation to anything to do with sanctions or the sale of Chelsea Football Club.

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Wolfson also accuses Starmer of going back on comments he made in opposition saying lawyers should not be judged by the views of their clients.

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from Wolfson to Starmer”,”caption”:”Letter from Wolfson to Starmer”,”credit”:”Photograph: Wolfson”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1767803545000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”11.32 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1767804427000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”11.47 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1767804300000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”11.45 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”11.45″,”title”:”Wolfson says Starmer’s comments about him ‘wrong’, as he accuses PM of U-turning on past comments defending lawyers”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 7 Jan 2026 15.46 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 7 Jan 2026 03.59 EST”},{“id”:”695e773c8f08d5605e6e74a2″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

At their press conference this morning, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Laila Cunningham, the party’s candidate for London mayor in 2028, repeatedly claimed the capital is dangerous and crime rates there are excessive – even when it was pointed out that there much evidence suggesting the opposite. (See 11.30am.) They also complained that some migrants in London don’t integrate well. (See 11.50am.)

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The idea that London has become a crime-ridden hellhole is a common theme in the hard-right media, particularly in the US and with broadcasters like Fox News. This is partly because it is a claim repeatedly peddled by Donald Trump, and given that Trump gets a lot of his “information” from Fox, the falsehoods get firmed up by a confirmation bias loop. The fact that Sadiq Khan, the mayor, is Muslim, and that London is a very diverse city, probably has some influence on the way some rightwingers perceive London too.

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The Liberal Democrats have criticised Reform UK for talking down the city. Luke Tayor, the party’s London spokesperson (and MP for Sutton and Cheam) said:

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n

From its history to its culture to its people, London is the greatest city in the world but all Reform seem to do is talk it down.

n

Cunningham and Farage care more about sowing division than they do about solving the actual problems that Londoners face.

n

The Liberal Democrats will stand up for the millions of Londoners who love this city and its values and ensure London is a better place for everyone.

n

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When Boris Johnson first ran for mayor of London in 2008, he campaigned on mostly crime – and this worked. But his claims about Ken Livingstone were relatively modest compared to what Farage and Cunningham were saying about Khan. And Johnson always sounded like someone who actually liked London; listening to Farage and Cunningham, you would wonder why they haven’t left already.

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UPDATE: Here is Alexandra Topping’s story about this.

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The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the UK helped the Americans interecept a Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic.

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In a news release, the MoD says:

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n

The UK has provided enabling support to the United States at their request to interdict the vessel Bella 1 today.

n

UK armed forces provided pre-planned operational support, including basing, to US military assets interdicting the Bella 1 in the UK-Iceland-Greenland gap following a US request for assistance. RFA Tideforce provided support for US forces pursuing and interdicting the Bella 1, while the RAF provided surveillance support from the air.

n

The UK and US defence and security relationship is the deepest in the world and the UK provided enabling support in full compliance with international law.

n

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Jakub Krupa is covering this story on his Europe live blog.

“,”elementId”:”1ced609b-2e9c-454a-b6a9-b0b4a4d14dc4″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement”,”prefix”:”Related: “,”text”:”UK supported US seizure of Russian-flagged tanker, says MoD – live”,”elementId”:”4b2a3da3-a9b6-4329-a232-05a3c2192492″,”role”:”thumbnail”,”url”:”https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/07/europe-greenland-denmark-us-france-trade-weather-latest-news-updates”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Justifying the operation, the MoD said:

“,”elementId”:”ad2f2a3c-5983-44b4-b2b8-97b64fc1cb85″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement”,”html”:”

n

The Bella 1 is sanctioned by the US under its counter-Iran sanctions, aimed at stopping Iran from fuelling instability in the Middle East through the profits of illegal oil sales.

n

The ship, initially flying a false flag, turned off its transponders while at sea and sought to reflag while being pursued, indicating its nefarious links to global sanctions evasion.

n

Recent assessments show that the Bella 1 has been involved in illegal activity, linked to international terrorism and crime including Hezbollah, and part of the web of rising shadow activity that fuels and finances nefarious activity across the globe.

n

The Russian flagging of the vessel shows their role in this interconnected shadow activity we are seeing across the world, which threatens our national security, harms our economy and undermines global security.

n

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And John Healey, the defence secretary, said:

“,”elementId”:”68c59ea4-ddc1-49c7-9ea2-426400182c85″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement”,”html”:”

n

This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine.

n

The UK will continue to step up our action against shadow fleet activity to protect our national security, our economy, and global stability – making Britain secure at home and strong abroad.

n

The US is the UK’s closest defence and security partner. The depth of our defence relationship with the US is an essential part of our security, and today’s seamlessly executed operation shows just how well this works in practice.

n

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Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has responded to Nigel Farage calling him a “lunatic” in his press conference this morning. (See 11.22am.) He posted these comments on social media on posts reporting what Farage said.

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n

He’s just desperate to be Donald Trump, isn’t he?

n

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n

Nigel Farage couldn’t even condemn something he admits is contrary to international law because he’s entirely subservient to Donald Trump.

n

Some patriot…

n

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Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.

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A senior minister in Greenland’s government will come to London next week to appeal directly to British MPs for support in the face of Donald Trump’s threats to annex the semi-autonomous Danish region.

n Naaja Nathanielsen, Greeland’s energy minister will travel to parliament on Tuesday and address an emergency meeting of MPs in Westminster Hall.

n The invitation to her comes from Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI), a think tank which administrates an all-party committee on Greenland.

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Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party MP who chairs the committee, said it would be an opportunity for British MPs and peers to hear directly from a member of the Greenlandic government at a time when a US invasion would be “catastrophic” for NATO. He told the Guardian:

“,”elementId”:”20249e80-7297-4542-8ab3-4afecd6106bb”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement”,”html”:”

n

If you look at what people like Trump and others in administration are saying we need to take that threat that they will carry it out seriously. It’s like Maya Angelou’s comment: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

n

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The threat to Greenland comes as differences have opened up on the issue among British MPs. Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party and an ally of Donald Trump, told a press conference on Wednesday that there was “a strong feeling” in British intelligence circles that there needed to be a significant Nato base located in northern Greenland. (See 10.41am.)

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Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, was not in the Commons for PMQs today. He turned up at Time Radio at noon to do a PMQs-related broadcast instead.

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In it, he restated his criticism of Keir Starmer’s Ukraine policy from his press conference (see 10.35am), but went a bit further – saying that he would vote against any proposal to deploy troops to Ukraine. He explained:

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n

I would vote against [deploying troops to Ukraine]. We neither have the manpower nor the equipment to go into an operation that clearly has no ending timeline.

n

If it was a sort of Korean-style UN where lots of countries were involved and we could rotate in and out, I might consider it then.

n

But frankly, what you saw yesterday was [French president Emmanuel] Macron standing there with the British prime minister. Giorgia Meloni [the Italian PM] was outside having a cigarette, not getting involved. The German gave a speech and said nothing. The coalition of the willing is just two countries.

n

Frankly, what this would be is a modern-day British army of the Rhine. When we did that, defence was 5% of our national expenditure and we were there for 50 years.

n

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Lord Wolfson, the shadow attorney general, will not be giving the shadow cabinet legal advice relating to Ukraine or Russia, the Tories said at their post-PMQs briefing.

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Wolfson will recuse himself from these decisions because of the work he is doing with Roman Abramovich, the party said. This means he would not give advice relating to any decision to deploy troops to Ukraine.

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A spokesperson for Badenoch said that this would not be a problem, because there was plenty of other legal expertise in the shadow cabinet, from people like Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, and that Badenoch was still pleased to have Wolfson in her team.

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The announcement in effect confirms the argument that Keir Starmer made at PMQs about having Wolfson in the shadow cabinet amounting to a conflict of interest.

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Referring to Wolfson, Starmer said:

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n

How can someone sit in her shadow cabinet, advising someone trying to escape sanctions, and pretend that their policy is to support us on sanctions?

n

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In reply, Badenoch said:

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n

Do they know what the shadow attorney general is doing? He is defending veterans pro-bono against the actions of this government on this side of the House. We will defend those who defended us.

n

But why don’t we talk about the actual attorney general who is sitting in cabinet? The man who defended Gerry Adams, the man who is trying to bring Shamima Begum back into the country, the man who is helping to surrender the Chagos Islands.

n

I will take our shadow attorney general every day of the week against his attorney general.

n

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And then Starmer replied:

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n

Of course, I accept that lawyers have to represent all sorts of clients. The question is whether the shadow attorney general can sit in the shadow cabinet when the party opposite says it supports us on sanctions?

n

We want the money from Chelsea Football Club to go to Ukraine. I’m not sure whether that’s her position.

n

If it is her position, presumably it’s something they discuss in the shadow cabinet, advised by a shadow attorney general who is representing the very man whose money we want to send to Ukraine.

n

If she can’t see the conflict of interest in that, then she shows no judgment and no leadership at all.

n

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On big foreign policy issues, the two main parties normally agree far more than they disagree. And at PMQs this tends to result in PM/opposition leader exchanges that are serious, sombre, consensual – and, for journalists, rather dull. This never used to happen very often, but when it did it was hard to avoid the conclusion that this arrangement suited both party leaders because it was easy for them to write the script, because they knew they would not have to spend hours and hours preparing combative material covering a range of subjects.

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There are three, related foreign policy stories in play at the moment, and on all three Labour and Tory instincts are mostly aligned. On Ukraine, UK government policy did not really change at all when Labour took office and, in the unlikely event of Kemi Badenoch becoming PM tomorrow, it is hard to imagine her divering from the “Coalition of the Willing” strategy. On Greenland, both leaders are probably horrified by Donald Trump’s neo-imperial posturing, but also wise enough not to respond over-aggressively. (The UK is not an outlier on this; even though Ed Davey is calling for more blatant Trump-bashing, almost all the leaders in Europe who actually hold office are adopting a similar line to Starmer’s.) On Venezuela, Badenoch did strike a slightly different tone yesterday. But, even here, the gap between the two parties is relatively modest; No 10 was also positive about Nicolás Maduro being removed from office, and Badenoch’s support for Trump sounded qualified, not enthusiastic or unconditional.

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In these circumstances, any other Conservative leaded would have gone for the soft-ball approach this afternoon, and rattled off six neutral, statesman-ish questions mostly about Ukraine.

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But Badenoch could not do this because she seems congenitally incapable of not having a row with an opponent – even when she broadly agrees with them. In most circumstances, this appretite for conflict serves her well, but today it left her looking a bit irrelevant. Unable to disagree with Starmer on points of substance, she was reduced to focusing on process matters. She was right to say that, if Starmer really wanted to make his statement to MPs about Ukraine “at the earlier opportunity”, he could do it today. But who cares?

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Then Badenoch started asking Starmer about his calls with Trump, and saying he should be convening an urgent meeting of Nato leaders (to discuss Greenland). Starmer was able to say (rightly) that he met a lot of Nato leaders in Paris yesterday, and he had made this point about a previous Nato meeting.

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n

We had one of the strongest Nato meetings last year, the summit, where we had more members of Nato and more unity. When I arrived back to the House to make a statement, which of course she asked for, her position was, I shouldn’t have missed PMQs, I should have empty-chaired the Nato summit. That’s how serious she is about Nato.

n

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Towards the end of the exchanges Badenoch and Starmer both resorted to partisan talking points. Badenoch raised the Northern Ireland Troubles bill, which is a niche cause for the rightwing media, but of very little interest to anyone else. Starmer had slightly stronger ammo when he criticised the shadow attorney general over his client list. It was not a heroic PMQs start to the new year for him, but it went better than his last few performances in 2025 and today he saw off Badenoch with ease.

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Davey also asked Starmer about Greenland. If Trump were to seize Greenland, that would be the end of Nato?

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Starmer thanked Davey for raising this. He went on on:

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n

The future of Greenland is for Greenland, for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone.

n

I put out a statement to that effect, along with, fellow allies in Europe.

n

But of course, Nato is hugely important, the single most effective and important military alliance the world has ever known.

n

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Starmer says Davey is trying to get him to choose between Europe and the US. “That would be a strategic mistake for our country,” he says.

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Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks Starmer if he agrees with Geoffrey Robertson KC, head of his former chambers, who said that the US operation against Venezuela was illegal.

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Starmer says he and “Geoffrey” have disagreed on many things over the years. He says Nicolás Maduro was not a legitimate leader.

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Davey says it is “ridiculous” that Starmer cannot say whether or not he thought Trump broke international law.

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Badenoch defends her shadow attorney general, David Wolfson. She says he is representing British veterans challenging Labour’s Northern Ireland legislation pro bono.

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And she says she would take Wolfson any day over Lord Hermer, Labour’s attorney general, who had Gerry Adams as a client (before he became a minister).

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Starmer says he accepts that lawyers work for clients whose views they do not support. But he says the Tories support sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. But Wolfson is on the other side, he suggests. He says Badenoch should be able to see the conflict of intereest.

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Kemi Badenoch welcomes “the prime minister’s efforts” to secure peace in Ukraine and in Greenland.

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But she says it is “astonishing” that the statement to MPs on Ukraine won’t happen today.

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She says he should have done, given the commitment to deploy troops.

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She says, even though the US is the UK’s closest ally, the sovereignty of Greenland is sacrosanct. She asks what Starmer is doing to make that clear to Donald Trump.

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Starmer says the agreement yesterday was a political declaration. Further steps would have to take place before a troop deployment.

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He says he will make a statement to MPs at the earliest opportunity.

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Starmer tells MPs about the Coalition of the Willing meeting yesterday, and says he will set the details out to MPs in a separate statement in due course.

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If troops were to be committed on the ground, MPs would get a vote, he says.

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PMQs is about to start.

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Here is the list of MPs with a question.

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HoC”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1767786909000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”06.55 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1767787005000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”06.56 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1767787005000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.56 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.56″,”title”:”Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 7 Jan 2026 15.46 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 7 Jan 2026 03.59 EST”},{“id”:”695e48a18f089a37100b6493″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The final question at the press conference was about Chris Parry, the Reform UK mayoral candidate who has posted on social media saying David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean”. He has said similar things about other black politicians.

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Farage said that Parry was “intensely patriotic”, but he went on:

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n

I do think his comments on Lammy were over the top and he should apologise for them.

n

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Reform UK has not said that about Parry before.

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Q: London is seen as one of the most diverse cities in the world. Do you think it is too diverse?

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Cunningham says of course London is diverse. But she says migrants have to integrate. That is what her parents did when they came to London, she says. She says now people come to London expecting people to adapt to accommodate them. She says:

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n

You don’t come to London expecting London to change for you. And I find that some people come, expected it to change for them, and when it doesn’t change for them, they say we’re racist. There’s absolutely nothing racist about that. It’s called patriotism.

n

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Farage says this is “absolutely right”.

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Q: [From the Guardian’s Alexandra Topping] Reform UK’s policy on the two-child benefit cap [which would just lift for families where both parents are working full-time] would only help 1% of the children affected. Will you for or against the Labour plan to life the cap in full?

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Farage says his comment about being opposed to the two-child cap was misinterpreted. He was trying to be pro-family. He says he wants to prioritise benefit spending on British-born people.

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Reform UK will vote against lifting the cap, he says.

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Q: [From Rob Hutton from the Critic] Over the past 18 months you have taken £13,000 from X because your posts on the platform attract so many viewers. But now X is offering “child porn” on demand. Are you going to carry on taking “child porn money”.

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For about the first time in this press conference, Farage sounds flustered.

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He suggests the outside interest earnings figure that he has to publish are misleading, because they are gross figures and they do not take into account costs.

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On the sexualised deepfakes features, he says he is “very worried” about this aspect. He says Sarah Pochin is leading for his party on this issue and urging the government to get X to remove it. He says he thinks X will listen to the criticism.

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He does not commit to stop taking money from X.

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Q: [From the Financial Times] How do you respond to claims that you are being misleading about the extent of crime in London. “London’s murder rate is the lowest in decades. It’s much lower than Chicago, New York and LA. Knife crime has fallen sharply over the past ten years. The proportion of adults who have been victims of personal crimes fallen to the lowest level since 2002. Do both of you admit that across lots of really important metrics, London has actually become a much safer city?”

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Farage says he does not accept this. He says the Crime Survey is used to provide crime figures. That involved people replying to a survey. But many people just throw that in the bin, he says. He says this method of collecting data is “just completely out of date and don’t work”.

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And he says he can think of times when members of his family have been victims of crime, but have not reported it.

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Cunningham says she agrees with Farage.

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n

I was a senior crime prosecutor in London. I can assure you, crime is not down. Crime is up.

n

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And she says, although the police recorded crime data is supposed to be accurate, the police do not record some offences.

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She goes on:

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n

I think it’s a dangerous narrative to push that London, London is safe because it’s very disrespectful to victims.

n

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Q: [From the Telegraph] Will you support the Telegraph’s Save our Pubs campaign, set up in response to the government’s road safety strategy?

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Farage jokes about saving many pubs over the years. He goes on to attack the government’s plans.

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n

This is the drink drive thing is absolutely ridiculous, wholly unnecessary.

n

We’ve been where we’ve been since 1967. It’s worked pretty effectively.

n

You actually look at road casualty figures, safety figures in this country, through whatever cause, we are now incredibly safe on our roads, incredibly safe, much safer than France, way safer than Germany.

n

And we’ve actually reached a level on accidents beneath which it’s almost impossible to go, because there will always be human error of some kind.

n

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He also criticises the plan to make young people wait up to six months from taking their theory exam until they can sit the driving test. (See 9.32am.)

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Q: Is Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to blame for the state of crime in London?

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Cunningham says Rowley claimed there was not a problem with grooming gangs in London. He was wrong. They ended up reveiwing 9,000 cases, she says. She says on the basis of that Rowley has to go “because on my watch you don’t you don’t get 9000 grooming cases wrong”.

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Farage says the chief constable of West Midlands police should go first. He says his performance at the Commons home affairs committee yesterday was “absolutely abject”. And he pays tribute to Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP, for the way he was campaigned for the WMP chief constable, Craig Guildford, to go for supposedly misrepresenting the evidence used by the police to justify the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Villa Park match last year.

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Q: Do you think it is a good thing if the rules-based international order no long exists?

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Farage says that, after the horrors of world war two and the Nazis, he understands why people wanted to put new arrangements in place, including the European convention on human rights.

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But he says so many of these institutions are now “hopelessly out of date”.

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He goes on:

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n

We are moving into a very new world of national self-interest, where countries will put their own national self-interest first. And that, by the way, will not be a bad thing, provided those countries are democratically run and have accountable leaderships.

n

The danger actually is not the existence of nation states. The danger is when nation states are not democratic or the leaders are not accountable.

n

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Farage also says he cannot think of an example of two mature, functioning democracies going to war against each other.

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He says the concept of international law may be “frightfully popular in Islington and Hampstead, and amongst many members of this government”. But it it now no longer fit for purpose in the way originally envisaged.

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Q: What would you do about the congestion charge and the Ulex charge?

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Cunningham says she does not think a war on motorists helps anyone. She says she would scrap this because “I want a war on criminals, not a war on motorists”.

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(It is not clear from her answer if she is saying she would get rid of both the congestion charge and Ulez, or just Ulez. She implied both, but she was not specific.)

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Q: [From ITV] Before Christmas we interviewed people who say that they were subject to racist bullying by you at school. Will you apologise to them?

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Farage says:

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n

I don’t apologise for things that are complete made-up fantasies.

n

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He says these claims were made by people with “obvious political motivation”.

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Q: [From the BBC] What do you think of Donald Trump’s threats of Greenland.

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Farage says he agrees with Starmer that the fate of Greenland must be decided by Greenland and Denmark, not the US.

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But he goes on:

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n

What I will say is this. There are some genuine security concerns around Greenland and that becomes ever more relevant with a retraction of the ice caps as we head towards the North Pole. There is a strong feeling in British intelligence circles, and many in Nato, that there needs to be a significant Nato base located directly on the north of Greenland.

n

At the moment, it would appear that is something Greenland is not particularly keen to do.

n

As you know, since 2009, Greenland has been moving further and further away from Danish control and is pretty close to establishing its own level of independence and the fear is that they will fall prey to very large amounts of Chinese money and Chinese influence.

n

So, as ever, with things that Trump says, they may sound outrageous, and in the case of potentially using force, they are. But there is point behind it.

n

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Q: Do you agree with Sadiq Khan that London is the greatest city in the world?

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Cunningham says people in London do not feel safe.

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And Farage says, if Khan thinks London is the best city in the world, he is “deluded”.

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He claims that Khan has lost sight of how London is perceived abroad.

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Q: [From the BBC] What do you think of the plan to put troops on the ground in Ukraine?

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Farage says:

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n

Boots on the ground with kit. What boots? What kit? I mean, we might be able to go for 6 or 8 weeks. We could talk about a modern day reincarnation of the British Army of the Rhine. Forget it. We are in no position to do it.

n

Despite all the promises that will be made on defence spending, absolutely none of them have happened so far, and there’s no particular indication that they will.

n

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Farage also says that, at the press conference in Paris yesterday, he was struck by how Keir Starmer could not speak for long without looking at this note. He says Starmer is a man who is “drowning” polticallly.

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Laila Cunningham, who is a former CPS prosecutor and a Muslim, and who was born in Egypt, is speaking now.

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She says she has raised her seven children in London. And those are seven reasons why she is standing, she says.

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She says crime is going up.

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n

Let’s just go through some stats. Knife crime in London is up 68% since 2016. Robbery is up by more than 50% during that same period … And that’s just those we know about. We are living, ladies and gentlemen, through a rape epidemic.

n

You see, crime for me, is not theoretical like some of the journalists who say I’m scared. My family has experienced it many times. In fact, one time my kids were targeted by gangs in balaclavas who people say don’t exist. Day after day, near us, in broad daylight. We were all terrified. I turned to the police. Naturally. I was told there were not enough resources.

n

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Cunningham says, in this case, she followed the gangs herself and took photos. The press called her a vigilante mum, she says.

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She says women in particular don’t feel safe.

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n

Why would they? There’s no police, and hardly any rape offences are prosecuted.

n

I speak to women who’ve been raped who have been told by the police, I’m sorry, there’s not enough evidence.

n

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Cunningham says Sadiq Khan has created a city “where criminals operate freely”. And he does not take responsibility for it, she claims.

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Farage is now talking about London, where council elections are taking place.

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He says that Sadiq Khan has said he will run for a fourth term as mayor.

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(That is true, although people who follow London politics closely are confident that he won’t seek a fourth term in the end.)

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He says Reform is treating the elections as a precursor to Reform taking on Khan in the next in the mayoral election.

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He claims that London is collapsing. He says people do not feel safe walking the streets.

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(He is sounding like Donald Trump at this point.)

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He is announcing Reform’s candidate for London, he says. It will be Laila Cunningham, he says.

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(Farage says the next mayoral election will be in 2027, but he is wrong; it will be in 2028.)

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Nigel Farage is starting now. He is in front of a banner saying London needs Reform.

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He says he is in the same venue (Glaziers Hall) where he announced on 3 June 2024 that he was coming out of retirement and returning to Reform UK as party leader. He says the party has now led in almost 200 polls in a row, normally by about 10 points.

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Today he wants to talk about the local elections in May, which he says will be the most important set of elections ahead of the general election.

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He will be focusing on getting the party ready, with the right candidates in place.

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There has been a lot of focus on Wales already, he says. Wales “looks like a two-horse race between us and Plaid”, he says.

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And in Scotland he says is amazed by how much progress the party is making there. He will do a press conference in Edinburgh on Thursday next week where he will announced the name of the Reform UK leader in Scotland.

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Reform UK has complained to the BBC after it emerged that a prominent audience member at a byelection debate is now running as a Plaid Cymru candidate, PA Media reports. PA says:

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n

Voters in Caerphilly went to the polls after the sudden death of Labour Senedd member Hefin David last year.

n

BBC Wales held a television debate with six of the candidates called Your Voice, Your Vote, in the lead-up to polling day.

n

During the debate, a woman criticised the party’s stance on immigration, claiming she had “never felt so unwelcome in my own home town”, telling Reform candidate Llyr Powell: “Mr Powell, I blame you for that.”

n

The interaction went viral and was discussed for the remainder of the campaign, the party said.

n

Plaid candidate Lindsay Whittle went on to win with 15,961 votes, more than 47% of the total.

n

Nigel Farage’s party had pledged to “throw everything” at its campaign for the seat, which Labour had held since the Senedd was established in 1999.

n

Plaid has since announced the audience member, Alison Vyas, as a community council candidate in Caerphilly.

n

A Facebook post announcing her candidacy described her as a “proud Valleys woman” who “brings the strength, warmth, and community spirit she grew up with”.

n

Farage said: “Trust in the BBC has been shaken by scandals in recent years, from Huw Edwards to the selective editing of a clip of President Trump. Now, this revelation will be the final straw for many people in Wales. How can there be any confidence that Reform will get a fair and balanced hearing when this is the kind of thing that happens at key election debates?”

n

A BBC spokesperson said: “As with all BBC election debates, the audience was selected through an established and impartial vetting process designed to ensure a fair representation of political views. All participants were selected in line with our standard editorial guidelines.”

n

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A “catastrophic” decision by the Ministry of Justice to sign a 10-year lease on a prison where high levels of a poisonous gas had been detected is expected to cost the UK taxpayer more than £100m, the Commons public accounts committee has concluded. Rajeev Syal has the story.

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Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

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Ash Regan, the independent MSP and former Scottish National party minister, has been suspended for two days by her Holyrood colleagues after she was found to have breached the devolved parliament’s code of conduct.

Regan, who quit the SNP to join Alex Salmond’s nationalist party Alba, but then quit Alba after disputes over succeeding him, was found to have twice broken the code by making public her criticisms to parliament about a Green MSP, Maggie Chapman.

n One of Holyrood’s most vociferous gender critical MSPs, Regan had complained to the presiding officer about Chapman, one of Holyrood’s most vociferous pro-trans MSPs, over Chapman’s comments about the supreme court judgement on the legal definition of woman.

n Although Regan had not lodged a formal complaint, she posted her letter attacking Chapman and calling for an investigation of her on X; the process is designed to be confidential.

n MSPs voted by 84 votes to 18 to suspend Regan from two sitting days; eight MSPs abstained while 19 did not vote. Regan’s counter motion rejecting the sanction was defeated by 88 votes to 19, with two Labour MSPs supporting it.

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Although the road safety strategy is extensive, the government has not adopted a proposal backed by some campaigners – preventing new drivers carrying passengers, or driving at night, for a certain period after they have passed their test.

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Asked why the government was not doing this, Lilian Greenwood, the transport minister, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

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n

We’ve had to strike a balance between protecting young people and not overly impacting their opportunities to access work and education and social activities.

n

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But she said the proposal to make learner drivers wait up to six months between taking the theory exam and doing the practical test would reduce the risk of new drivers being in charge of a car with too little experience.

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As the BBC reports, Crystal Owen, whose son Harvey was one of four teenagers killed in an accident in Wales in 2023 in a car driven by a new driver, has said restrictions for new drivers should have been included in the plan.

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In interviews this morning, Lilian Greenwood, the transport minister, also defended the proposal to require older drivers to take eye tests. She told BBC Breakfast:

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n

We know that our eyesight can deteriorate as we get older. I’ve had coroner’s reports where people have been killed by people who’ve got poor eyesight. Sometimes they’re driving in a reckless way when they’ve already been advised that they shouldn’t be driving anymore. In other cases, people didn’t realise that their eyesight had deteriorated.

n

But we’ve got an ageing population. We know that this is a growing issue, and that’s why we’re proposing this action today.

n

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Good morning. Keir Starmer is taking his first PMQs of 2026 today, and it is hard to imagine that he will get through that without being able to comment on Donald Trump escalating his threats about annexing Greenland – a prospect that would tear apart Nato.

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But, even with the world in crisis, domestic policy making has to continue and this morning the government is focusing on something closer to home – its road safety strategy.

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The full document is not out yet, but here is the Department for Transport’s press release and here is Gwyn Topham’s overnigtht story about it.

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The government wants to cut deaths and serious injuries on Britain’s roads by 65% by 2035 and it is quite a meaty strategy, with several significant proposals, albeit mostly ones that are going out for consultation, which means there is a chance they could be watered down.

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Perhaps the most controversial plan is the proposal to cut the drink-drive limit in England and Wales. It has not changed since 1967 and it is the highest in Europe, at 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath. It could be cut to 22 micrograms, in line with the limit in Scotland since 2014.

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Predictably, the rightwing papers are presenting this as a threat to rural pubs.

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The Telegraph story quotes the British Beer and Pub Association as saying: “The pub sector continues to face huge challenges, so any additional policy measures that further impact trade will be of real concern to licensees, especially those in rural areas.”

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Lilian Greenwood, the transport minister, has been giving interviews this morning, and and she has rejected the claim that a lower drink-drive limit would lead to rural pubs closing. She said there was evidence to back this up. She told Times Radio:

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n

In drawing up these plans we’ve listened carefully to road safety experts from both in the UK and across the world. That’s precisely what we wanted to do was to be evidence-led in terms of our policy making.

n

Obviously the drink drive limit was reduced in Scotland back in 2014. The evidence from studies by the University of Stirling, [and from the] University of Bath is that that didn’t have a significant impact on the pub trade. They didn’t suffer as a result of that. So we have taken that into account in devising these proposals.

n

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She also said the government did not want to stop people going to pubs.

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n

What we’re just saying is don’t take your car. So that might mean that you know some places you’ll be able to take a bus or a taxi. In other places you’re going out with a group of mates. One of you agrees to be the designated driver. I know from working with the pub trade how many great low alcohol drinks there are out there. Now most of our favorite brands are produced in a low alcohol version. So people have lots of opportunities to do something to choose a different drink when you want to go out and you know and enjoy yourself in the pub.

n

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I will post more from her interviews soon.

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Here is the agenda for the day.

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10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.

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Morning: The Department for Transport is due to publish its full road safety strategy.

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Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

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After 12.30pm: MPs debate two Tory opposition day motions, on jury trials and rural communities.

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If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.

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If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.

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I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.

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The former prime minister Rishi Sunak said Russia should not be given a veto on western troops being allowed into Ukraine following any possible peace deal.

Sunak said: “The future of Ukraine and indeed, the security of Europe, is an issue of vital UK national interest.

“I believe three prerequisites for a lasting peace in Ukraine are: firstly, a western military presence there.

“Secondly, credible and durable security guarantees, and thirdly, a well-armed and resourced Ukrainian military.

“In his work with allies in the weeks ahead, will he ensure that any ceasefire or peace agreement does not give Russia a veto in any of those three vital areas?”

Responding, Healey agreed with Sunak’s conditions, which are part of ensuring a “lasting and secure peace,” while security guarantees from the US and the coalition of the willing “will form the basis of the confidence that President Zelensky can have in going into the negotiations”.

He said: “We hope that they will add extra impetus to those negotiations. And in the end, it will be a matter for President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people, the deal that they strike with President Putin.”

Healey was asked by the Lib Dems to guarantee that UK bases won’t be used for a future US mission that breaches international law.

Healey said the government took an “assessment about the legal basis and the purpose for the planned US operation” before allowing the troops to use bases in Britain today.

He said there is “absolutely no concern” about the legality of the joint UK-US operation to seize the tanker.

The defence secretary said Nigel Farage’s comments earlier today about not supporting Britain’s plans to put troops on the ground in a postwar Ukraine are “an insult to Ukrainians”.

He added: “It does not do justice to the sentiment of the British people” that recognise the fight of the Ukraine people and who want to see peace prevail.

Emily Thornberry MP asks is there anything more we can do to ensure Vladimir Putin agrees to a peace deal.

Healey said “One man continues to stand in the way of the Ukraine war” along with the deaths and attacks on infrastructure.

Tanker was ‘reflagged five times in five years’

Earlier in his statement to the Commons Healey discussed the counter-Iran sanctions on the Russian-flagged oil tanker.

Healey said he is not going into details about nature of the activities in the deployment nor the number of troops that will be deployed nor the commitment of other nations.

He said the finality of that depends on the peace plan and debating these details “will only make Putin wiser”.

The Times is reporting the UK would send fewer than 7,500 troops to Ukraine to police any peace deal.

Cartlidge also asks when will the defence investment plan be published. Healey said it will be published “as soon as we can”.

In response, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the Conservatives will support any effort to bring peace in Ukraine and a ceasefire deal.

He asks for clarification on the UK troop numbers that will be deployed, the composition of the force, what proportion would be involved in patrolling a demilitarized zone between Ukraine and Russia, and what air and naval assets would be used.

Cartlidge also asks which other nations would be involved in deploying troops apart from France and the UK.

Healey said he is visiting Kyiv “soon” to continue discussions on supporting Ukraine’s long term armaments and policing of any ceasefire.

He added US envoy Steve Witkoff has given “strong commitments” over security guarantees for Ukraine.

“A secure Europe needs a strong Ukraine, but we can only get a peace deal if Putin is ready to make compromises,” Healey added.

On Ukraine, Healey said “lets make 2026 the year that peace is not only possible but that peace is achieved.”

On the Paris meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, he said yesterday’s declaration was about ensuring a peace agreement, supporting Ukraine’s defence, commanding a multinational force to Ukraine after a ceasefire has been agreed.

Healey said this operation is a stark reminder of how the world is changing and how it is becoming “less predictable and more dangerous”.

Healey said sanctions against the shadow fleet have forced 200 ships off the seas, which is almost half of the Russian fleet’s capacity.

Healey said the UK supported the US actions for three main reasons:

To enforce counter-Iran sanctions.
To tackle the global security threat posed by “expanding shadowy maritime activity”.
To reinforce British homeland defence and security in an era of rising threats.

Marinera oil tanker changed flags ‘five times in five years’, says defence secretary – as it happened

A summary of today’s developments

Tanker was ‘reflagged five times in five years’

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