Ed Davey joins Badenoch in saying Starmer should apologise to Epstein’s victims from Mandelson appointment
Davey says MPs should consider the victims of Epstein.
He asks what they would have felt about Donald Trump, a close friend of Epstein, becoming president of the US.
Referring to his decision to boycott the Trump state banquet, he says even if he had gone he would not have had a chance to speak to Trump about this.
But Keir Starmer will get the chance. Davey says Starmer should ask Trump about his relationship with Epstein.
And he says Starmer should apologise to Epstein’s victims for the Mandelson appoinment.
Key events
UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation
Swinney says UK should increase pressure on Israel to change course after UN report accusing it of genocide in Gaza
Hillsborough bill shows how government can be ‘insurgents against injustice’, Lammy tells cabinet
UK faces ‘fight of our times’ against toxic division shown in far-right rally, says Starmer
David Davis says he will push to ensure ministers, as well as officials, covered by public office (accountability) bill
Doughty says Mandelson would not have been candidate for Oxford university chancellor if full Epstein links known
Doughty declines to say if association with paedophile would normally lead to someone failing vetting process
FCDO minister Stephen Doughty says he cannot give details of Mandelson’s vetting because process is confidential
Foreign Office minister defends Starmer skipping Mandelson debate, saying PM has important business elsewhere
Trump suggests being put up at Windsor Castle during state visit will be ‘ultimate’ honour
Labour MPs reluctant to speak up to defend Starmer, or Mandelson, in emergency debate
Trump must think British ‘complete plonkers’ over Mandelson affair, Edward Leigh says
Ed Davey joins Badenoch in saying Starmer should apologise to Epstein’s victims from Mandelson appointment
Badenoch claims Starmer has ‘shrivelled from leadership’ and has ‘no courage, no judgment, no backbone’
Badenoch says Starmer should apologise to Epstein’s victims for Mandelson’s appointment
Thornberry says Mandelson’s vetting ignored ‘glaring red flag’ of his relationship with Epstein
Davis says Mandelson affair example of how ‘culture of turning blind eye to horrendous behaviour endemic’ in top jobs
Mandelson ‘subcontracted his conscience for money’, says Davis, in attack on peer’s record as lobbyist
David Davis tells MPs Mandelson’s ‘abiding flaws’ should have disqualified him from ambassador’s job
MPs hold emergency debate on Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to US
Cooper says Cabinet Office, not Foreign Office, carried out initial propriety checks prior to Mandelson’s appointment
Starmer says Hillsborough duty of candour law won’t be watered down, and should be passed ‘as quickly as possible’
Yvette Cooper says Israel ground offensive in Gaza City ‘utterly reckless and appalling’
Badenoch questions whether Starmer has been ‘honest with public’ about Mandelson sacking
Minister says deportations to France under returns deal to start ‘as soon as possible’, as first flight reportedly cancelled
Greens welcome defection of three councillors to party from Labour in London
Danny Kruger ‘profoundly wrong’ about Tory party being over, Mel Stride claims
Met police say they expect to arrest 50 more people following disorder at Tommy Robinson rally
Maria Caulfield becomes latest former Tory MP to defect to Reform UK
New leftwing party being set up by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana to hold conference in November, it says
Google announces £5bn AI investment in UK before Trump visit
Lucy Powell has clear lead over Bridget Phillipson in Labour’s deputy leadership contest, poll of members suggests
State pension set to rise by more than £500 a year from April, figures suggest
UK labour market cools as pay growth slows and job losses rise
Starmer to chair cabinet as polling shows only 26% of Labour members approve of his leadership
UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation
The public has paid almost £200bn to the shareholders who own key British industries since they were privatised, a report from the Common Wealth thinktank says. Matthew Taylor and Sandra Laville have the story.
Swinney says UK should increase pressure on Israel to change course after UN report accusing it of genocide in Gaza
The Scottish government has said that it is asking the UK government to increase pressure on Israel to change its policy towards Gaza following the publication of a UN commission of inquiry report saying genocide is occuring there.
John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, said:
Today’s findings by a UN commission of inquiry represent further deeply concerning evidence that a genocide is being committed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government.
Coupled with the intensification of the Israeli government’s assault on Gaza City, the situation is becoming ever more horrific and the international community cannot ignore our obligations to act in light of what we are seeing. Silence – and inaction – is not an option.
Too many innocent Palestinians have already died, and more will follow unless we see serious and urgent action from the international community to put an end to this horror.
The case for imposing sanctions on the members of the government of Israel who are responsible is now unanswerable.
External affairs secretary Angus Robertson will today write to the UK government to again insist that it shoulders its unique historic responsibility to pressurise the Israeli government to change course and ensure a peaceful resolution.
Donald Trump has hinted that he will agree to changes to the US-UK trade deal during the state visit. Speaking to reporters before his departure, he said the British “want to see if they can refine the trade deal”, and he said he was “into helping them”.
Kemi Badenoch has accused Reform UK of helping Keir Starmer by announcing the defection of Danny Kruger on Monday. She has claimed that this helped Keir Starmer because it distracted from the pressure he was under over Peter Mandelson.
In an interview with The House magazine, she said:
I thought it was very interesting that Reform chose [Monday] to make this announcement when the Labour government was on the ropes. They’re changing the news agenda. That actually helps Labour. Reform is helping Labour.
Hillsborough bill shows how government can be ‘insurgents against injustice’, Lammy tells cabinet
And this is what the PM’s spokesperson told journalists about Keir Starmer’s comments at cabinet about the Hillsborough law.
The prime minister then turned to the introduction of the Hillsborough Law today. He said he had an emotional meeting with families this morning, including Margaret Aspinall. He said he wanted to meet her at the door to show the people of Liverpool are as important as any international leader. He said he had known her for 15 years and knows first-hand the injustice that the families have carried, both in terms of the grief of their loss and the injustice piled on injustice since. He said the lesson of Hillsborough speaks to the experience of families affected by other scandals from Horizon to Windrush and Grenfell, and that each of these has one thing in common – which is ordinary people not listened to because they were not respected. He said righting that wrong is important to who we are as a government. The cabinet discussed that the bill is as important as any that a government has brought in, and the deputy prime minister [David Lammy] said there were parallels with the women who campaigned for equal pay in Dagenham and those who campaigned for race equality in Bristol, in that it is about tipping the balance back in the favour of working people and the government being insurgents against injustice.
Starmer first met Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, when he was director of public prosecutions. “I made a promise to her that I would act so no other parent would suffer like she had,” he says.
UK faces ‘fight of our times’ against toxic division shown in far-right rally, says Starmer
The UK faces “the fight of our times” against the division exemplified by the Tommy Robinson-led far-right march in London on Saturday, Keir Starmer has told his cabinet in a robust if arguably belated response to the scenes in the capital, Peter Walker reports.
This is what the PM’s spokesperson told reporters in the cabinet readabout about Starmer’s comments.
The prime minister opened cabinet by saying this government will remain relentlessly focused on what matters to working people around the country. He said that some of the scenes of police officers being attacked on Saturday, and a march led by a convicted criminal, were not just shocking but sent a chill through the spines of people around the country, and particularly many ethnic minority Britons. He said we are in the fight of our times between patriotic national renewal and decline and toxic division. He said the government must heed the patriotic call of national renewal, and that this was a fight that has to be won. He said national renewal means thousands of jobs being delivered across Hartlepool, Nottinghamshire, and Essex with the Civil Nuclear Partnership being announced this week as part of the state visit, and that the visit would deliver further significant investment and jobs to be announced.
The Ministry of Justice has now published the public office (accountability) bill. The full text, and the accompanying documents, are here.
David Davis says he will push to ensure ministers, as well as officials, covered by public office (accountability) bill
David Davis is winding up now.
He says Keir Starmer should apologise to the victims.
And he says he has found it difficult to reconcile what he has been told about the vetting in this case with what he knows about how the process works.
He suggests ministers should have been given an assessment of the risk factors associated with the appointment.
All the documents should be released, he says. There is no security risk, he says.
And he restates his call for ministers and officials to give evidence to the relevant select committees. If necessary, they could even give evidence in private.
He says, if ministers try to cover this up, that will make the situation worse.
Doughty was sent here as the minister without answers, he says.
MPs will return to this matter, he says.
He says, when the Commons debates the public office (accountablity) bill that has been published today, he will push to ensure it covers ministers.
And he ends by suggesting that, once it becomes law, it could be applied in this case.
Doughty says Mandelson would not have been candidate for Oxford university chancellor if full Epstein links known
Doughty says opposition MPs have claimed the full depth of Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was known he would not have been considered for chancellor of Oxford University. And he would not have been given a slot on Times Radio.
Kemi Badenoch has been trying to intervene, but Doughty is not accepting her intervention.
Desmond Swayne (Con) raises a point of order. He says there is a convention in the Commons that, when the leader of the opposition tries to intervene, it should be accepted.
Doughty does not immediately accept her intervention.
But soon afterwards he does take the intervention. Badenoch says the PM should have been here to speak himself. She asks if the minister will respond to her written questions. And she again demands an apology.
Doughty says he has already expressed the government’s horror at the revelations.
Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, asks if Doughty has confidence in national security vetting.
Of course, says Doughty.
Doughty declines to say if association with paedophile would normally lead to someone failing vetting process
Alec Shelbrooke (Con) intervenes. He says he accepts Doughty’s point about not being able to give details of an individual vetting case. But he asks if being associated with a known paedophile would, in normal circumstances, be enough for someone to fail the process.
Doughty says he cannot say any more about the process because it is confidential.
FCDO minister Stephen Doughty says he cannot give details of Mandelson’s vetting because process is confidential
Doughty is talking about vetting. He says the process is confidential. So he will not disclose information about vetting in this case, he says.
Foreign Office minister defends Starmer skipping Mandelson debate, saying PM has important business elsewhere
Stephen Doughty, the Foreign Office minister, is winding up for the government now in the Mandleson debate.
He says the government will consider calls from the foreign affairs committee for it to be involved in pre-appointment scrutiny in cases like this.
He says Peter Mandelson talked about the “torture” that Jeffrey Epstein was experiencing.
But the only people who experienced torture were Epstein’s victims, he says.
He says Keir Starmer took “decisive” action when he withdrew Mandelson.
Quoting what Starmer said yesterday, he says Starmer would not have appointed Mandleson if he had known at the time what he knows now.
Luke Evans (Con) asks why the PM is not here to answer these questions.
Doughty says he is minister for north America, and Starmer has important business today.
A reader asks:
I occurs to me this could be a leadership pitch from Davis. What do you think? Faced with Jenrick and defections, some of the old guard may think something drastic must be done to steady the ship (remains of).
I think that is unlikely. David Davis last ran for Tory leader 20 years ago, and he was not seen as a great success as Brexit secretary.
