Early evening summary
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has told MPs that Britain should “speed up, not slow down” in the drive to net zero. (See 5.24pm.) Giving evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee, he also said that, even if the government does approve a third runway at Heathrow (the announcement, all but confirmed already, is officially due on Wednesday), that did not automatically mean the runway would be built. This is from Helena Horton.
Ed Miliband tells Environment Audit Committee the Heathrow Airport expansion may not happen: “Any aviation expansion must be justified within carbon budgets and if it cannot be justified it will not take place.”
As Helena reports, Miliband also claimed that the UK and Trump administration could work together on climate policy.
On Trump and climate, Ed Miliband tells the Environment Audit Committee: “We will seek to reach common ground with the new US administration - renewables investment actually went up in the first Trump term.”
Keir Starmer did not discuss US plans to impose tariffs on British imports in his first call with President Trump since the inauguration, it has emerged. (See 1.40pm.) Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey discus the call on the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast.
Some readers have asked for more information about Craft, the company responsible for the polling used by Channel 4 in its report saying 52% of Generation Z saying Britain would be “a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”. (See 9.32am.)
Craft are a research agency, and their website is here. They have worked on similar projects for Channel 4 before, like this one.
Channel 4 says the polling was based on a sample involving 3,000 people – 2,000 Gen Z people (aged 13 to 27), with people aged 28 to 65 making up the remaining 1,000.
And here is the Channel 4 summary of the results written up by the Times
A significant shift towards authoritarianism and radicalism in Gen Z:
1) A third (33%) of Gen Z (13 to 27-year-olds) believe ‘the UK would be a be a better place if the army was in charge’ – compared to just 18% of 45-65-year-olds
2) More than half (52%) of Gen Z think “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections’
3) 47% agree that ‘the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution’ – compared to just 33% of 45 to 65-year-olds
A stark and growing gender divergence amongst the young:
1) 45% of male respondents aged 13-27 think that ‘we have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men’
2) 44% agree that ‘when it comes to giving women equal rights, things have gone far enough’
Gen Z faces growing uncertainty in who and what to trust and they have a ‘flatter’ trust hierarchy, valuing mainstream outlets, influencers, and peers more or less equally:
1) Social media posts from friends (58%) and influencers (42%) are as – sometimes more - trusted than established journalism (although trust in the BBC is higher than older generations - 43% vs 38% of 28-65s – so maybe some green shoots for them) and one third (33%) trust alternative internet-based media personalities (vs 12% of 28-65s)
2) 36% of 13-27s trust broadsheet newspapers and their websites vs 23% of 28-65s
3) Counterintuitively, Gen Z actually trust politicians way more than other generations – 27% vs just 9% for over 28s
Ed Miliband tells MPs UK needs to 'speed up, not slow down' in drive to net zero
As energy secretary, Ed Miliband is the person in government most responsible for ensuring that the UK meets its net zero targets, and over recent days that has been a trick brief to hold. Last week he was forced to deny that he was considering resigning over the government’s decision to back a third runway at Heathrow. And Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, appeared to downgrade the importance of the net zero targets by saying growth was more important.
This afternoon Miliband is giving evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee, and he used an opening statement to hit back strongly at the suggestion his agenda was being marginalised. Here are the main points.
Miliband insisted that there was “no contradication between net zero and economic growth”. Downing Street was using the same line this morning (see 1.31pm), but Miliband made the case in more detail. He said:
The clean power mission has two limbs. It has clean power by 2030, and accelerating to net zero or meeting our carbon budgets.
And this is one of the prime minister’s five missions because we believe it’s the route not just to tackling the climate crisis – obviously very important – but also the route to energy security, to lower bills and good jobs and economic growth.
Energy security – because we start from the cost of living crisis that so many businesses and families have been through, which showed the dangers from our exposure to fossil fuels.
Jobs and economic growth – because we see the clean energy transition as the economic opportunity of our time. Indeed, this government sees no contradiction between net zero and economic growth. We believe they go absolutely hand in hand, because net zero is a major contributor to growth, can be, and the climate crisis is the biggest long-term economic threat our country faces.
He said Britain should “speed up, not slow down” in the drive to net zero. He said:
I would also argue … that all of the evidence about our national interest says we should speed up, not slow down. Geopolitical instability continues to put pressure on energy prices; we need to go all out for clean power. The economic opportunities are going to go to those who lead, not those who hang back. And on climate, most recently in Los Angeles, we’ve seen the climate crisis is real.
He said the climate consensus, in the UK and abroad, was under increasing strain. He said:
The climate consensus at home and abroad is under greater strain than it has been for some time … In fact, there are siren voices in the UK who are saying we should step back from this agenda, that now is the time to give up on climate action because it is not in our national interest.
And I think this is a massive fight about the future of our country.
I want to be incredibly clear with you about this. This government is not going to do that. We’re not going to step back. We’re not going to heed those siren voices. We’re going to step up, in fact, and we’re going to lead, not follow.
And why? Because whatever the disinformation, the misinformation, the truth is that climate action is essential for our national self interest and is supported by the British people.
Miliband did not directly mention Kemi Badenoch at this point, but he was clearly referring to her. Badenoch calls herself a “net zero sceptic”. Miliband stressed that in the past Conservatives did agree with Labour on this. The Tories supported Labour’s Climate Change Act, he said. As prime ministers, David Cameron and Theresa May both supported action on net zero. And the Tory Cop president Alok Sharma also supported these goals, he said.
Updated
'Bring it on' - attorney general says he's happy to have fight with critics over Labour upholding international law
Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has rebuked critics of his approach towards international law in an interview with the House magazine.
The interview was conducted before the Conservatives demanded an investigation into whether Hermer had any conflicts of interest arising from his work as a human rights barrister.
But Hermer was asked about Tory claims that he and Keir Starmer are taking an overly legalistic approach to government at the expense of the UK’s national interest. In a speech he gave in October, Hermer said that “international law is the rule of law writ large” and that it was “not simply some kind of optional add-on, with which states can pick or choose whether to comply. It is central to ensuring our prosperity and security.”
“Bring it on, if that’s the fight people want to have,” Hermer told the magazine in response to criticisms of his approach.
I’m not really sure what they’re driving at. If they are criticising the government because it wants to comply with international law, if they want to pick a fight with the government because it says international law is important and that we want to uphold international law, then that’s a fight I’d quite look forward to.
Conservative criticisms are centred around the government’s decision to cede control over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after a ruling by the International Court of Justice found the UK did not have sovereignty over them.
Tories complain US military families get VAT exemption from private school fees not available to British military families
In the Commons Luke Pollard, a defence minister, has been responding to an urgent question about the report saying the government is likely to delay raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP until after the general election. Like Downing Street earlier, he refused to confirm or deny the story, but said the government could give a timetable for reaching 2.5% when the defence review reports. (See 1.48pm.)
But, as he asked his urgent question, James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, also asked Pollard to justify the revelation that US military families won’t have to pay VAT on school fees for children in public schools in Britain, while British military families will not get an equivalent exemption.
In a report on this last week, the Telegraph said:
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) this week confirmed the 20pc VAT levy on fees, introduced on January 1, does not apply to the children of US service personnel. This is due to an historic relief between the two countries.
In a briefing note, seen by The Telegraph, HMRC said private school fees are considered a service and would therefore allow American military families to avoid paying the tax as it fell under the “VAT-free purchase scheme”.
Cartlidge said:
I don’t begrudge [the exemption], the US forces are based in our country to defend us, but we want the same treatment for our people.
In response, Pollard said that the government had raised the continuity of education allowance (CEA) – a grant available to service families if they want to put their children into private education because they are moving regularly. It covers up to 90% of average boarding school fees.
Keir Starmer told Micheál Martin, the Irish PM (taoiseach) that “that the UK-Ireland relationship was going from strength to strength, and it was vital to continue that in such a volatile geopolitical context” in a call this morning, No 10 said.
Starmer, who developed a close interest in Ireland when he was a human rights adviser to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and whose chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is from County Cork, was speaking to Martin to congratuate him on his re-appointment as taoiseach.
Phillipson says Tory call for law banning smartphones in class not needed because 'vast majority' of schools do this anyway
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has dismissed a Conservative proposal to ban smartphone use in schools as a “headline-grabbing gimmick”.
During education questions in the Commons, Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary asked Phillipson if the government would be backing a Tory amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill to implement this in England.
She said smartphones in the classroom were bad for educational attainment in schools. The last Conservative goverment introduced guidance to stop this, she said. But she claimed that this was not working and that a ban was now needed.
Phillipson said that she agreed that pupils should not have smartphones in class, but that she did not think further legislation was needed. She told MPs”
I agree that phones have no place in the classroom. It is entirely right that schools take firm action to stop their use, and I know that that is what the vast majority of schools already do.
Last July [the Conservative government] said that it did not need to legislate in this area. Nothing has changed in this time. I back the approach that they took in July in this area. Yet again, another headline grabbing gimmick, no plans to drive up standards in our schools.
Under the Tory amendment, schools in England would have to put in place policies banning smartphone use by pupils during the school day. But there would be some flexibility for sixth forms, and for residential and boarding schools.
Many parts of NHS in Scotland in 'crisis', say first minister John Swinney
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has admitted significant parts of the NHS are in crisis thanks to continuing impacts of the Covid pandemic, delays in waiting and discharge times and escalating costs.
Scottish National party first ministers have been careful until now to avoid the word “crisis”, despite repeated and escalating warnings from the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing the NHS in Scotland is in perma-crisis.
Neil Gray, the health secretary, explicitly denied that was true in an interview with Holyrood magazine last year. But addressing health professionals and doctors’ leaders at Heriot Watt university on Monday morning, Swinney used it, and admitted the NHS faced “great challenges”.
He first pointed at “periods of real crisis” such as the flu epidemic this winter which saw the highest peak in cases since 2010, and then acknowledged systemic crises in day to day services.
“So let’s talk first about those immediate problems, the crisis facing too many parts of our National Health Service,” he said, pointing to unacceptably long waiting times and delayed discharges putting patients, families and the NHS. “It is the very definition of a vicious circle, and it has to come to an end,” he said.
Announcing a greater emphasis on primary and community care, and better use of data, he said a new app due to be piloted later this year would improve access, and pledged his new strategy would deliver 150,000 extra appointments and elective operations this year.
There are challenges, some services are struggling [but] there is nothing wrong with the National Health Service that can’t be fixed by what is right with the National Health Service.
Swinney appears to have scrapped a series of other targets set by his predecessors and failed to set out specific targets on staffing levels.
Matt McLaughlin, Unison Scotland’s health spokesman, was scathing. He said:
After almost 20 years John Swinney has delivered the same old promises.
The first minister’s renewal framework, launched today, doesn’t begin to tackle the social care crisis, and staff will be angry after he said they ‘need to do more laps of the track’.
No 10 says Palestinians should be allowed to return to Gaza to rebuild their homes, after Trump suggests they shouldn't
Downing Street has refused to back President Trump’s call for Palestinians to be refused to allow to return to Gaza.
Asked about Trump’s comment, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the lobby briefing:
Palestinian civilians should be able to return to and rebuild their homes and their lives.
As the foreign secretary said, for the people of Gaza, so many of whom have lost their lives, homes or loved ones, the last 14 months of conflict have been a living nightmare. That’s why the UK is continually pressed for a resolution to the conflict in Gaza.
Downing Street has defended the Royal Navy’s decision not to use HMS Agincourt as the name for a new submarine after the decision was described as “woke nonsense”.
According to a report in the Sun, the hunter-killer submarine, which is still under construction, was due to be named after Henry V’s victory, following predecessor boats that have also used the name. But the Sun claims the name has been changed to HMS Achilles to avoid reminding the French of one of their great defeats.
Asked about the report at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said that HMS Achilles was more appropriate name given that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. The spokesperson said:
We’re proud of our nation’s rich military history and the many famous battles fought, and it’s why the seventh boat in the astute class will be called HMS Achilles.
As I’m sure you’ll be aware, HMS Achilles received battle honours during the second world war. So this name is particularly appropriate this year as we mark the VE and VJ Day 80th anniversaries.
Downing Street was not involved in the decision over the name, which was made by the names and badges committee.
Commenting on the Sun’s story, Grant Shapps, a former Tory defence secretary, said:
Renaming the HMS Agincourt is nothing short of sacrilege. This submarine carries a name that honours a defining moment in British history.
Under Labour, woke nonsense is being put ahead of tradition and our Armed Forces’ proud heritage.
Updated
No 10 refuses to deny report saying raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP may be delayed until after next election
This morning the Times splashed on a story saying Keir Starmer is likely to delay raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP until after the next election. In their report, Steven Swinford and George Grylls say:
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to resist pressure from President Trump and the British military to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030 because of concerns about the state of public finances, The Times has been told …
Starmer has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent and has commissioned a strategic defence review that is due to conclude in spring. After that, the government will set a deadline for the 2.5 per cent target.
A senior government source said: “If we try to hit the target by 2030 it will mean deeper cuts to public services in the run-up to the election. It feels like a non-starter.” The next general election would be due by mid-2029.
The Times: Starmer to defy Trump over cash for defence #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/DR5Sf31piw
— George Mann (@sgfmann) January 26, 2025
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson did not deny the story, but would not confirm it either. He just said the government was “working at pace” on its strategic defence review, and that the pathway to reaching 2.5% would be set out when the SDR reports in the spring.
At 3.30pm a defence minister will respond to an urgent question tabled by James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, on this story.
Updated
Green party accuses government of abandoning climate commitments in pursuit of growth
With Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, expected to confirm government support for a third runway at Heathrow on Wednesday, the Green party has attacked the Labour ministers who have changed their minds on this. Keir Starmer is one of eight ministers now attending cabinet who voted against Heathrow expansion in 2018.
Keir Starmer's Cabinet members seem quite happy to sacrifice their previous (logical) objections to airport expansion at the altar of 'economic growth'.
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) January 27, 2025
Has anyone asked who this economic growth is going to benefit while our climate commitments are trashed? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/pBV1rlkbUq
Keir Starmer’s Cabinet members seem quite happy to sacrifice their previous (logical) objections to airport expansion at the altar of ‘economic growth’.
Has anyone asked who this economic growth is going to benefit while our climate commitments are trashed?
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson insisted that the growth agenda and the net zero agenda went “hand in hand”. He said:
The energy security agenda, the growth agenda go hand in hand. We’ve talked previously about the jobs that green industries of the future will bring, the fact that by backing GB energy and the National Wealth Fund we’ll be crowding in billions of pounds of private sector investment. These agendas absolutely go hand in hand.
Starmer did not discuss threat of US imposing tariffs on UK imports in first call with Trump
Keir Starmer did not discuss the prospect of the US imposing tariffs on UK imports when he spoke to President Trump yesterday, Pippa Crerar reports.
NEW: These topics did *NOT* come up in Donald Trump’s weekend call with Keir Starmer:
Peter Mandelson
Defence spending hitting 2.5%
Trump’s plans for Greenland
Chagos Islands
US imposing tariffs on UK
Ukraine (which they’ve discussed in depth previously)
But they had a “long and detailed” discussion on range of areas including trade, investment, deregulation.
The call lasted 45 minutes. But Trump is famous for rambling, and getting easily distract, in talks with other leaders, and so it is hard to know whether some topics were left out of the discussion by accident or design.
Commenting on the call at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said it was “very warm”. He told reporters:
It was a very warm call, and it was very constructive.
The spokesperson was unable to say when Starmer might visit Washingon, or when Trump might visit the UK. But he said UK engagement with the new administration had been very good.
There’s a wide range of areas that we look forward to working with President Trump and his an entire team to build on our already very strong and deep relationship.
Whether it’s on trade, investment, whether it’s on security and defence, and the Prime Minister looks forward to meeting him soon.
Updated
Distrust of authority higher in ethnic minority communities, Badenoch tells Covid inquiry
Before he finished questioning Kemi Badenoch, Hugh Keith KC, counsel for the inquiry, asked her if she thought that ethnic minority people were less inclined to trust the vaccines because they thought ethnic minority people had not been proportionately represesented in vaccine trials.
In response, Badenoch said it was more complex than that.
Within ethnic minority communities, irrespective of what’s happening here, there is distrust of public authority. Most ethnic minorities have come from authoritarian regimes or places where the government may actually be trying to get you, and that’s why they’ve they’ve come here. So there is a baseline level of suspicion that is just higher than we in the UK have generally, and it builds from that.
She says that is one reason why ethnic minority people were less likely to take part in vaccine trials.
Badenoch is now being asked about the Traveller community
When it is put to her that the health authorities did not have enough data about GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) people, Badenoch says she thinks that local councils had good information about where Travellers were living in their area.
And that is the end of Badenoch’s evidence.
Badenoch is now being questioned by Leslie Thomas KC representing the Federation of Ethnic Minority Healthcare Organisations (FEMHO).
He asks if her concerns about the disproportionate impact of Covid on ethnic minorities were taken sufficiently she seriously when policy was being developed.
Badenoch says she thinks they were taken into account.
Thomas says that in her witness statement Badenoch says she expressed concern about hte proposal to make vaccines compulsory for care workers. He asks about those reservations being ignored.
Badenoch says government has to take a collective view. Just because an opinion has not been accepted, that does not mean it was ignored, she says.
Updated
Badenoch suggests private WhatsApp groups can be more dangerous source of misinformation than public sites like X
Keith asks about misinformation and disinformation. He says the fourth report from the Race Disparity Unit that Kemi Badenoch oversaw spoke about the importance of this being tackled.
Q: Is there a limit to what government can do?
Badenoch says there is always a limit to what central government can do.
She goes on:
I think it’s probably worth explaining what it is that I mean by misinformation and disinformation. People often assume that it’s stuff on Twitter or X. I’m actually less worried about that sort of misinformation because it’s very public, and people who know can challenge it easily. So that’s an open sphere.
Badenoch says she is more worried about things like WhatsApp groups, “things that government has no insight into”.
Even the tech companies don’t really know what’s being shared. It’s all encrypted, and a lot of false information travels very quickly through those channels.
Badenoch says in some cases “reputable sources” were even spreading misinformation/ She claims there were people in the BMA who thought the government was trying to suppress information about what was happening to ethnic minorities.
She says government can respond by putting information into the public domain. She says she took part in vaccine trials to show the vaccines were safe.
Updated
At the Covid inquiry the hearing has resumed. Hugo Keith, counsel for the inquiry, asks about a meeting Kemi Badenoch held with high commissioners from some countries linked to the minority communities were vaccine take-up was low. He says the meeting did not achieve much, because the high commissioners did not have much influence over these people.
Badenoch says high commission are not set up to run these sorts of publicity campaigns.
Q: Did you liaise with the National Pharmacy Association about what pharmacists could play?
Badenoch says she recalls one meeting with pharmacists – she cannot recall which group organised it. She says the government did use pharmacists effectively.
Keith shows minutes from the meeting. He says pharmacists operate particularly in deprived areas.
Q: It does not appear pharmacists were used as much as they might have been. They were not always open 12 hours a day.
Badenoch says she thinks pharmacists were used successfully for the rollout of the vacccine. She says Keith is showing her the agenda for a meeting, not minutes of the meeting.
Q: Do you think councils were used enough?
Badenoch says she was not working at the local government department at the height of the pandemic. By the time she started there as a minister, she says she thought a lot of work was being done with them.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP in charge of the private member’s bill on assisted dying, has written to MPs saying she has extended the time the bill committee will get to consider all the written submissions it has received, because there have been so many, Jessica Elgot says.
NEW - Kim Leadbeater writes to all MPs today, ahead of the assisted dying committee beginning public hearings tomorrow.
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) January 27, 2025
She says she has extended the time MPs can consider written submissions because of the volume that has been received. pic.twitter.com/Za2nUlwB7h
This is what Kemi Badenoch told the inquiry earlier when asked if there should have been a single secretary of state for equalities to ensure all departments could deal with ethnic disparities which emerged during the pandemic. (See 11.25am.)
I’m not sure that that would have worked.
We did have someone in cabinet with that responsibility. I was a junior minister at the time, but Liz Truss was in cabinet, so that would have been her job.
If what you’re saying is, ‘should we have had someone who is exclusively focused on that and nothing else?’ I think that the disadvantage would be they would have no levers, they would purely be in an advisory role.
The hearing has stopped for a short break. Heather Hallett, the chair, tells Badenoch that her evidence will be finished by lunchtime.
Keith is now asking Badenoch about the fourth report produced by the Race Disparity Unit. It was produced in December 2021.
Keith highlights this recommendation.
Relevant health departments and agencies should review and action existing requests for health data, and undertake an independent strategic review of the dissemination of healthcare data and the publication of statistics and analysis.
He asks if this was an acknowledgment that data was not being properly collected.
Badenoch says this was about looking forward.
She is now making a more general point, claiming the public sector is not good at collecting this sort of information. She recalls working on an NHS IT project before she became an MP (when she was a computer engineer), and she says the project failed.
Government is not necessarily great at delivering these systems. They tend to be big boondoggles for the private sector, but there are private sector companies that can deliver this. There need to be caveats around that.
Badenoch says there is a debate going on about letting AI have access to health data. She says she personally has “no issues” with the ethical objections, but she says there are security factors that would have to be taken into account.
Keith is now asking Badenoch about vaccine hesitancy among black, asian and minority ethnic people. (Keith refers to this group as BAME people, saying that although the government does not use that term now, it did use it at the time.) He shows the inquiry the minute of a cabinet committee were the minister for vaccines, Nadhim Zahawi, discussed this.
Keith asks Badenoch to comment on the vaccine take-up problem.
Badenoch says the government had a problem collecting good data. She says lots of data was available, but it was not necessarily good data.
Updated
Kemi Badenoch gives evidence to Covid inquiry
Kemi Badenoch has just started giving evidence to the Covid inquiry. She is being questioned by Hugo Keith KC, counsel for the inquiry.
Keith starts off by asking about the structure of government during the pandemic, and the fact that there was a minister for women, a minister for disabled people, and a minister for equalities (Badenoch).
Badenoch says the Government Equalities Office was set up “to deliver one policy, which was gay marriage”.
There is a live feed of the hearing here.
Updated
Kemi Badenoch is due to start giving evidence to the Covid inquiry soon. She is giving evidence in her capacity as minister for equalities during the pandemic. From February 2020 to September 2021 she combined being equalities minister with being a Treasury minister, and from September 2021 to July 2022 she combined being equalities minister with being a levelling up minister.
In November 2023 the inquiry published a 38-page witness statement from Badenoch covering what she did as equalities minister during the pandemic. She describes being responsible for quarterly reports and Covid and health inequalities.
In the witness statement Badenoch writes about being strongly committed to this work in part because of her Nigerian heritage (in the first wave of Covid, black African Britons were about three times as likely to die from the disease as white Britons). She says:
I was absolutely committed to reviewing the actions that government departments and their agencies had put in place to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. I am of Nigerian heritage and the higher infection and mortality rates for ethnic minority groups was directly impacting me, my family, friends and community. This was a very personal issue, and it was clear to me that there was much good work underway, but I believed that departments needed to do more, and be more innovative, in their work to address the disparities.
But, in her witness statement, Badenoch also stresses that different racial groups were affected in different ways, and she says that referring to ethnic minority people as a single group could be misleading, and stigmatising.
In my work, I was always concerned about the overall risk groups faced, rather than that posed by Covid-19 infection alone. For example, issues such as the impact of stigmatisation from poor communications were also important to consider and keep under continuous review. This was something that I raised in my quarterly reports. This included the second report’s summary of the findings of research commissioned by RDU [race disparity unit] into a small group of ethnic minority people’s personal experiences of Covid-19. Participants in the research felt that communications tended to frame ethnic minorities as a homogeneous group that was vulnerable to Covid-19, which they found stigmatising. My final report also recommended that the government and health agencies ensure that public health communications do not stigmatise ethnic minorities when explaining that they may be more vulnerable or at higher risk. This recommendation was accepted by the prime minister.
Legislation has come into force bringing a long-delayed bottle deposit scheme closer to implementation in England and Northern Ireland.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the law is now in force to allow a deposit management organisation to be appointed in April. This will be in charge of administering the bottle deposit scheme, which is due to launch in October 2027.
Under the scheme, customers will be paid a small sum if they return plastic bottles and steel and aluminium cans. Glass bottles are not included.
Mary Creagh, the circular economy minister, said:
This government will clean up Britain and end the throwaway society.
This is a vital step as we stop the avalanche of rubbish that is filling up our streets, rivers and oceans and protect our treasured wildlife. Turning trash into cash also delivers on our Plan for Change by kickstarting clean growth, ensuring economic stability, more resilient supply chains, and new green jobs.
The scheme will cover England and Northern Ireland. Scotland and Wales are working on their own plans.
When Rachel Reeves gives a heavily trailed speech on growth on Wednesday, she is due to back plans for a third runway at Heathrow – a proposal that various governments have been floating for at least 20 years.
According to the Financial Times, as part of its growth strategy the government is reviving another plan from the past; it wants to develop the “Oxford-Cambridge Arc” as an area for high-productivity development.
In his story Peter Foster reports:
Science secretary Peter Kyle on Monday said the government wanted to double the economic output of the science-rich region that stretches between Britain’s two best-known universities, with the manufacturing and logistics hub of Milton Keynes in between.
“The Oxford-Cambridge Arc is already an engine of prosperity, but we can go even further. We are determined to unleash research and development as a driving force in our mission to grow the economy in every corner of the country,” he said.
No new money was announced for the Arc on Monday. But the government committed in the October budget to deliver the East West Rail project that will revive the “Varsity” railway, which connected Oxford and Cambridge until it was closed in 1967.
Boris Johnson’s government published plans for the “Oxford-Cambridge Arc” four years ago.
A persistent slowdown in activity among private sector firms could weigh on economic growth over the coming months, with businesses set to cut staff and raise prices, according to a CBI survey. PA Media reports:
The upcoming increase to national insurance contributions has prompted firms to assess their budgets urgently, the CBI said.
Output across the private sector is expected to drop over the next three months, having fallen over the previous three-month period, the survey found.
Activity has been flat or falling since the middle of 2022, reflecting a prolonged period of stagnation.
The CBI, a membership organisation which represents large chains through to small businesses, surveyed 990 firms between December and January.
The survey suggested that sentiment among businesses dipped in the aftermath of the Government’s autumn budget.
Some respondents highlighted that the tax rises had resulted in them reviewing their budgets at short notice and taking steps to mitigate higher costs.
Plans include raising prices to pass on additional costs to clients, trimming investment plans and cutting staff to reduce business expenses.
Alpesh Paleja, interim deputy chief economist for the CBI, said: “After a grim lead-up to Christmas, the New Year hasn’t brought any sense of renewal, with businesses still expecting a significant fall in activity.
Responding to the survey, Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said: “Businesses are clear that the real blocker to growth is Rachel Reeves and the mistakes being made by this government.”
52% of Gen Z think UK would be better with 'strong leader' not worrying about 'parliament or elections', finds poll
Good morning. It is Holocaust memorial day, and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and the Westminster politics news is relatively light this morning because broadcasters have been focusing on these events. No 10 did not even have a minister doing a morning interview round. Jakub Krupa, who recently took over writing the Guardian’s Europe live blog, is covering all the relevant events here.
The big Westminster news yesterday was the fact that Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have had their first conversation since the inauguration. They spoke for 45 minutes, after Trump gave a peculiar “very good person” (for a liberal) endorsement of Starmer to reporters on Air Force One. (It was slightly patronising – “he’s done a very good job thus far” – but, from the No 10 point of view, a lot more welcome than what gets said when the president is in ‘bad Trump’ mode.) Eleni Courea has the story here.
And this morning the Times is reporting some fascinating polling that will alarm anyone who thinks that that the election of Trump is evidence of a global shift in political thinking with worrying consequences for democracy. It suggests young people think authoritarianism is preferable.
Recently we reported on polling suggesting that one in five Britons between the ages of 18 and 45 “prefer strong leaders without elections to democracy”. The new poll is a more extreme version of the same trend.
In his Times story, Alex Farber reports:
Most young people are in favour of turning the UK into a dictatorship, according to a “deeply worrying” study, which has revealed an acceptance of authoritarianism and radicalism among Generation Z.
Fifty-two per cent of Gen Z – people aged between 13 and 27 – said they thought “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.
Thirty-three per cent suggested the UK would be better off “if the army was in charge”.
Forty-seven per cent agreed that “the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution” – compared with 33 per cent of 45 to 65-year-olds.
The polling was carried out by Craft for a Channel 4 report, Gen Z: trends, truth and trust, being released later this week. [UPDATE: See 5.40pm for more on the findings.]
Here is the agenda for the day.
After 10.30am: Kemi Badenoch gives evidence to the Covid inquiry, in its module on vaccines and therapeutics, in her capacity as a former equalities minister.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, education secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Afternoon: Nadhim Zahawi, the former vaccines minister, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry.
4.30pm: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, gives evidence to the environmenal audit committee on the outcome of the Cop29 climate conference.
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