Summary of the day …
Policing minister Diana Johnson has defended government plans to increase sentences for those involved in knife offences amid a crisis in prison capacity in England and Wales, and said that the government needs to focus not just on possession of knives by young people, but on their supply
The Home Office has announced a raft of changes to knife crime sentencing. The package is to be known as Ronan’s Law after Ronan Kanda who was murdered by two boys who were able to buy knives without identity checks. His sister, Nikita Kanda, said she believed the new measures would make a difference
UK inflation accelerated faster than expected at the start of this year. The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 3% in January, the Office for National Statistics reported, up from 2.5% in December. The ONS said a jump in the cost of meat, bread and cereals pushed up food bills, while a jump in private school fees after the government’s withdrawal of a VAT exemption pushed up the cost of education services
Opposition Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said that “economically illiterate decisions” by the government are affecting family finances. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said that the Labour government’s policies are causing the cost of living crisis started under the Conservatives to “drag on”
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has dismissed claims by JD Vance, the US vice president, that Scotland had outlawed praying at home near abortion clinics as “just wrong”. Vance untruthfully claimed on Friday that Scottish legislation to establish buffer zones around abortion clinics included a ban on “silent prayer” in homes
Swinney has also given a speech on climate crisis and biodiversity, and warned that “the voices for climate inaction are getting louder”
Leftwing activists in Britain are less likely to work with their political opponents than other groups and more likely to think those holding different views have been misled, a study has found
Labour will permanently scrap peak fares for travellers on Scotland’s railways if it wins next year’s Holyrood election, the party has announced
Joe Haines, Harold Wilson’s former press secretary, has died aged 97. Described as a “lifelong Labour supporter” who was “fiercely proud of his working-class background”, Haines died at his home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on Wednesday, the party confirmed
That is it from me, Martin Belam, on what has been a very quiet day during parliamentary recess. Thanks to my colleague Yohannes Lowe who has also been at the helm today, and thank you for reading and all your comments. I should be with you again tomorrow.
Opposition Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said that “economically illiterate decisions” by the government are affecting family finances.
In a post to social media she said “Labour were repeatedly warned about the damage their Budget would do – and now family finances are being hit as a direct result of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ economically illiterate decisions. They are out of their depth, out of ideas and hopelessly out of touch with the British people.”
There have been mixed economic signals in the last few days, with strong wage growth and unemployment remaining steady, coupled with a slight rise in inflation. A predicted dip into recession did not materialise.
Policing minister Diana Johnson defended the government’s record this morning, telling viewers of ITV’s Good Morning Britain “Getting the economy back on its feet has been really at the heart of what this government is trying to do. And the inflation figure coming out today shows this isn’t going to be straightforward, and there are bumps in the road.”
She continued by saying “I think after 14 years of economic stagnation, we’re seven months in. I think the chancellor has put forward a plan of how we can get the economy moving again. And just to say, you know, we’ve seen three cuts to interest rates since Labour came in [and] we know that wages are going up, the fastest growth in three years.”
Policing minister Diana Johnson was on the morning media round to discuss the government’s plans to reform sentencing on knife crime.
The Home Office has announced a series of anti-knife crime plans, including making retailers report bulk or suspicious sales to police, and increasing the jail sentence for selling weapons to children, or illegal blades such as zombie knives, to two years.
The package is to be known as Ronan’s Law after Ronan Kanda who was murdered by two boys who were able to buy knives without identity checks. His family have campaigned for changes in the law, and his sister Nikita Kanda was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. She told listeners:
All I can ever do is reflect on my brother’s case, and on the day of my brother’s murder, the murderer, he didn’t have any problems collecting his knife from his local post office, and the fact that he was underage, no checks were performed. He was ordering these weapons with no problems. So I really do think that these measures can make a difference, and they will make a difference because it will make it harder.
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has dismissed claims by JD Vance, the US vice president, that Scotland had outlawed praying at home near abortion clinics as “just wrong”.
Vance claimed on Friday that Scottish legislation to establish buffer zones around abortion clinics included a ban on “silent prayer” in homes within those safe access zones.
He also amplified debunked claims that residents had received letters saying so. In a speech at the Munich security conference, Vance said UK legislation had “placed the basic liberties of religious Britons [in] the crosshairs”.
Speaking to reporters in Glasgow, Swinney, who is a regular church-goer, said:
“JD Vance is just wrong and that issue was extensively discussed during the passage of the bill. On the letter issued to households, his claims were wrong about that letter as well, and no such point was put to residents whatsoever on private prayer.”
Swinney said abortion care was a central part of existing health and social care provision in Scotland.
“I have no plans to change that. It’s part and parcel of the offering we make. The buffer zone legislation was designed to essentially recognise that women accessing those services should be able to do so without any additional sense of pressure.”
Boris Johnson has asked, in reference to Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour, when Europeans are going to “stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war?”
In a message posted on X, the former prime minister wrote:
When are we Europeans going to stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war?
Of course Ukraine didn’t start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor. Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections.
There was no general election in the UK from 1935 to 1945. Of course Zelenskyy’s ratings are not 4%. They are actually about the same as Trump’s. Trump’s statements are not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action.
In particular the US can see $300bn of frozen Russian assets - mainly in Belgium. That is cash that could and should be used to pay Ukraine and compensate the US for its support.
Why is Europe preventing the unfreezing of Putin’s cash? The US believes Belgium, France and other countries are blocking. It’s absurd. We need to get serious and fast.
Johnson pitched himself as a key ally of Kyiv during his time in No 10, providing support and calling on western allies to follow suit in the early days of Russia’s invasion last February. As his scandal-plagued premiership unravelled, Johnson was accused of using trips to Ukraine or phone calls with Zelenskyy as a distraction from domestic crises.
Updated
US President Donald Trump said he was “disappointed” that Volodymyr Zelenskyy complained about being left out of recent talks between the US and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine. He seemed to wrongly blame Ukraine for Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, saying that Ukraine “should’ve never started” its war with Russia and claimed Zelenskyy “could’ve made a deal”. Trump’s comments have alarmed politicians in Europe, including those in the UK. London Mayor Sadiq Khan was asked about Trump’s comments on LBC. He said:
We have tens of thousands of Ukrainians who are refugees in our city because of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
And what beggars belief is for the president of the USA apparently rewarding the aggressor, not just in terms of giving him the 20% of Ukraine that they currently occupy, but also somehow blaming President Zelenskyy for what’s happened over the last two years.
Eager to stay on Washington’s good side, Keir Starmer says he is hoping to act as a bridge between Europe and the US, while acknowledging Europe will “have to do more” to defend itself amid what he described as a “generational” security threat posed by Moscow.
The British prime minister has said he is prepared to send British troops to Ukraine to help enforce a peace deal, though key allies such as Poland and Germany have already poured cold water on the idea.
Updated
As we mentioned briefly in an earlier post, the Labour party has announced that Joe Haines, Harold Wilson’s former press secretary, has died aged 97.
Described as a “lifelong Labour supporter” who was “fiercely proud of his working class background”, Haines died at his home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on Wednesday, the party confirmed.
Haines – an ex-political journalist – served two spells as the former Labour prime minister’s press secretary, having joined his Downing Street operation in 1969 during Wilson’s first term in office.
A Labour Party spokesperson said:
The son of a Rotherhithe docker, who died when Joe was two, he was raised by his mother, a hospital cleaner. He left school at 11 and started his newspaper career as a copyboy at the Glasgow Bulletin at the age of 14.
But it was as a political correspondent that he came into his own. He was covering politics for The Sun pre-Rupert Murdoch when Wilson asked him to be his press secretary.
A fast and brilliant writer with an acerbic tongue, he won a reputation for toughness and loyalty in equal measure.
After Wilson left office, Joe wrote a controversial best-seller about his time in politics, The Politics of Power. He later joined the Daily Mirror, rising to become Group Political Editor, assistant editor and a non-executive director under Robert Maxwell, whose authorised biography he authored.
Hello everyone, it is Yohannes Lowe taking over from Martin Belam. You can reach me on yohannes.lowe@guardian.co.uk if you spot typos, errors or omissions.
Updated
Swinney warns 'the voices for climate inaction are getting louder'
In a speech, Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has made a case for climate action as he warned “the voices for climate inaction are getting louder.”
Discussing the climate crisis and biodiversity, he argued that “what we have and what we are doing [in Scotland] is good, but it can and it should be better.”
The SNP leader said:
My approach to government has always been collaboration, which is why I want this to be the start of an ongoing conversation with a focus on action and on delivery. I believe that we can only make the progress and map out the necessary steps on our climate journey by bringing together local and central government agencies, stakeholders, trade unions, community organisations and the wider public.
Casting ahead, Swinney said:
Each and every one of the 37,000 trucks on our roads must be replaced by zero emission models in the next few decades, and we must create the energy infrastructure to support them. This is a challenge which requires a new level of collaborative working across the energy, transport, skills and the financial services sectors, and it will be a central focus within the government’s next climate change plan.
He finished by saying:
My guarantee to you is this: I will provide the leadership, because I take this issue seriously. A Scotland bowed down and buckled by the effects of climate change is not a Scotland I want to see, especially given the opportunities for transformational change that do exist.
The voices for climate inaction are getting louder, so we must speak to loud and clear, making a case for climate action that bring benefits for Scotland and for the planet as a whole. Climate action that means a more resilient Scotland, but also means a wealthier and a fairer Scotland, that protects this precious Earth, our common home.
PA Media reports that a Labour spokesperson has said Joe Haines, press secretary to former prime minister Harold Wilson, has died aged 97.
Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel has added her voice to a chorus of Conservative disapproval of Labour’s economic policies after figures showed inflation had risen.
In a post to social media she said:
Labour’s budget gave the country higher taxes, higher costs and pressure on household incomes which all spurs inflation. Inflation is one of the biggest destroyers of industry, jobs, savings and livelihoods.
Earlier shadow chancellor Mel Stride said “Today’s figures mean further pain for family finances – and it’s thanks to the Labour chancellor’s record tax hikes and inflation-busting pay rises.”
The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 3% in January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported, up from 2.5% in December.
Kiran Stacey is a political correspondent based in Westminster
Leftwing activists in Britain are less likely to work with their political opponents than other groups and more likely to think those holding different views have been misled, a study has found.
The study by the polling group More in Common finds that 8-10% of the population, whom they classify under the heading “progressive activists”, hold strikingly different views on a range of issues than the rest of Britain.
The research also shows the group is more likely to dislike and criticise those that disagree with them than other voting blocs, a trait the report’s authors argue has contributed to the repeated failure of progressive campaigns and the rise of the global far right.
Luke Tryl, an executive director at More in Common and co-author of the study, said: “Progressive activists are the backbone of many of the UK’s campaigning organisations and have often been the drivers of social change in the UK. However, their political outlook and approach to bringing about change makes them outliers from much of the wider public and those they are trying to win over.
Read more of Kiran Stacey’s report here: Leftwing activists less likely to work with political rivals than other UK groups, study finds
Labour will permanently scrap peak fares for travellers on Scotland’s railways if it wins next year’s Holyrood election, the party has announced.
The Scottish government previously scrapped peak-time fares for a year-long pilot project which has now come to an end.
PA Media reports Labour transport spokesperson Claire Baker said “We need to end the spiral of decline on ScotRail services and get more people on trains – and that means making rail affordable. A Scottish Labour government would end the era of rip-off rail fares and scrap peak-time fares for good.”
Policing minister Diane Johnson said this morning that the UK would “play our part” on security guarantees for Ukraine.
Refraining from directly criticising US president Donald Trump, who claimed that Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in 2022, several years after a previous Russian military campaign in 2014 illegally annexed Crimea, “should never have started” the war, Johnson said Britain was clear that Russia’s invasion had been “an act of war against a sovereign state.”
She told listeners of Times Radio:
We’ve also been very clear to say that Ukraine has to be part of any negotiations and yesterday the secretary of state Marco Rubio was saying that European countries and of course Ukraine has to be part of any negotiations. So I think the British position on this is very clear.
The Conservative shadow defence secretary, Mark Francois, has also been on the airwaves talking about Ukraine. He told viewers of GB News:
These negotiations should involve the Ukrainians, they should not be excluded.
They clearly were not in the room and after everything that Ukraine has been through, it’s almost exactly three years now since the invasion, it’s not right to have negotiations about the future of their country above their head.
They should be in the room, not least because any settlement that might be agreed between Trump and Putin isn’t going to work unless the Ukrainians are on board.
We in the opposition would be open minded about the potential of deploying some British troops, but you need to know how many, where, for how long and what exactly is the mission?
It would depend how many you were deploying, and how often you were rotating them; it would all depend on the structure and nature of the deal, and then what other countries wanted to contribute.
My colleague Jakub Krupa is covering the latest developments in the Trump-Putin Ukraine peace plan over on our Europe live blog.
The average UK house price increased by 4.6% to £268,000 in the 12 months to December 2024, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, PA Media reports.
Average house prices increased in England to £291,000 (4.3% annual growth), in Wales to £208,000 (3.0%) and in Scotland to £189,000 (6.9%), in the 12 months to December 2024. The average house price for Northern Ireland was £183,000.
Ed Davey: Labour making misery of the Conservatives' cost of living crisis 'drag on'
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said that the Labour government’s policies are causing the cost of living crisis started under the Conservatives to “drag on”.
Reaction to the rise in inflation, Davey said:
The chancellor’s misguided policies are putting us at risk of a new era of stagflation. The economy still isn’t growing, and now people are being hit in their pockets too.
The Conservative government plunged Britain into a cost of living crisis, and Labour’s failures are just making the misery drag on and on.
The government urgently needs to change course and take real action to get our economy growing strongly and bring down the cost of living, starting by cancelling their disastrous jobs tax and securing a much better trade deal with Europe.
Policing minister: lack of capacity in prisons in England and Wales left by previous government is 'disgrace'
Policing minister Diana Johnson also appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, where she described the prison situation in England and Wales that the Labour government inherited from Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government as a “disgrace”.
Johnson was challenged over plans to increase sentences for those supplying knives, and was asked “You are talking about quadrupling sentences for selling knives to under-18s. At the same time, our prisons [in England and Wales] are literally full to bursting, and your own sentencing review warned against kneejerk decisions to issue longer sentences. Are you falling into the same trap?”
The minister told listeners:
Well, look, we inherited a terrible situation from the previous government, and their failure to make sure that sufficient prison places were built. It is a disgrace. And unfortunately, that’s the inheritance we had.
The lord chancellor had to take some really difficult decisions because of that. We are committed, obviously, to building the 14,000 additional places that we need. That’s coming online.
But what I would say is, I’m not going to, as the Police Minister, stop making the case for those individual offences where we need to have stiff penalties attached, and selling knives to under 18-year-olds, we need to increase [the sentence] from six months to two years to show the severity of how we regard that. That has to be acknowledged as something that is very wrong.
Yesterday, David Gauke published the interim findings of his sentencing guidelines review, which found successive governments’ overreliance on prison sentences and desire to seem “tough on crime” has driven the justice system in England and Wales to the brink of collapse.
Policing minister: focus needs to be on stopping supply of knives as well as possession
Policing minister Diana Johnson has defended government plans to increase sentences for those involved in knife offences amid a crisis in prison capacity in England and Wales, and said that the government needs to focus not just on possession of knives by young people, but on their supply.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Johnson said “There is not one thing that you can do to solve this problem with knives” adding “We’re going after the suppliers.”
Johnson said:
In the past, there’s been this focus on possession of knives, and that’s absolutely right, but we also now need to focus on the supply of knives, particularly to under-18s, and that’s why we’re putting the sentences up.
And we’re also putting forward a number of other requirements around online sales where there’s bulk purchasing or suspicious purchasing that has to be reported into the police.
Johnson said the government also needed to do “preventative work”, saying:
You need to get alongside those young people who are on the verge of getting involved in knife crime, and put the support in. They need to understand that carrying a knife is not about protecting yourself. We’re going to set up prevention partnerships, identifying those young people most at risk and putting in the support that they need.
Minister: Rising inflation figures 'bump in the road' after '14 years of economic stagnation'
Policing minister Diana Johnson has described the rising inflation figures as a “bump in the road”.
Speaking on Sky News, she said:
That figure going up clearly shows there is a bump in the road. I’m going to say to you that we’ve only been in power seven months. We’ve had 14 years of economic stagnation, so I think there’s obviously work that’s under way with the Chancellor, but I know that the IMF and the OECD are saying that we’re going to have the fastest-growing economy in Europe, so a bump in the road, and I think the Bank of England have recognised that yesterday.
Figures released yesterday showed that annual growth in real-terms pay, after taking into account inflation, was 3.4%, the highest level since 2021.
Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride repeated his phrase that Rachel Reeves is “out of her depth, and we’re all paying the price”, saying:
Today’s figures mean further pain for family finances – and it’s thanks to the Labour chancellor’s record tax hikes and inflation-busting pay rises.
Labour were warned that their tax spending and borrowing spree would drive up inflation. It means higher prices in the shops and interest rates staying higher for longer, causing mortgage misery for millions.
This chancellor is out of her depth, and we’re all paying the price.
UK inflation has mostly been on a downward trajectory since hitting a peak of 11.1% in October 2022, just at the point where the short-lived Liz Truss administration was being replaced by Rishi Sunak in government.
UK inflation rises to 3% with plane fares, food costs and private school fees all factors
UK inflation accelerated faster than expected at the start of this year, cutting the chance of an interest rate cut next month.
The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 3% in January, the Office for National Statistics reported, up from 2.5% in December.
The ONS said a jump in the cost of meat, bread and cereals pushed up food bills, while a jump in private school fees after the government’s withdrawal of a VAT exemption pushed up the cost of education services.
Airline tickets fell in price, but not as much as usual, and combined with a rise in fuel costs, pushed up the rate of inflation in the transport sector to its highest level since February 2023.
Read more from Phillip Inman here: UK inflation jumps to 3%, reducing odds of early interest rate cut
Welcome and open summary …
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling UK politics coverage for Wednesday. Here are the headlines …
The government has announced plans to increase sentences for people convicted of supplying knives to the under-18s. Policing minister Diane Johnson said “In the past, there’s been this focus on possession of knives, and that’s absolutely right, but we also now need to focus on the supply”
Transport, food costs and private school fees are among rising costs that have pushed UK inflation up to 3%, further reducing odds of an early interest rate cut
Senior lawyers have condemned the “venomous” and “deeply personal” attacks on the attorney general, Richard Hermer, saying they were causing “immense and untold damage” to society and the rule of law
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has admitted his party faces a significant challenge to win the next Holyrood elections after its popularity slumped in the polls
Elected politicians in Wales who deliberately lie could be forced from office under proposals suggested by the Welsh parliament standards committee
A vast majority of councils in England have signalled they will apply a maximum council tax increase of at least 4.99% this year
It is Martin Belam with you again today. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
