No 10 publishes previously confidential memo to refute claim that Starmer misled MPs over Mandelson appointment – as it happened | Politics

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At challenging times both for our country and the world, the Labour party, has always sought to put the needs of the country first and with conflicts raging around the world with profound consequences for our country, this is the time to do so.

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Whatever the parliamentary games at Westminster, what the country expects of everyone in Labour is to focus on the priorities of the British people, which is what Keir Starmer is doing and for which he deserves all our support.

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Labour has a working majority of 165, and the government should be able to vote down the Tory motion (which is based on very flimsy reasoning anyway – see 1.32pm) without difficulty. But, with Starmer’s authority with his MPs already diminished, No 10 is taking no chances. This is from the Times’ Steven Swinford:

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Wavering MPs are being bombarded with calls from ministers and Starmer allies, sometimes half a dozen in quick succession

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The PM is addressing PLP tonight

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Gordon Brown has rowed in behind him, along with Alan Johnson and David Blunkett

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The line – again and again – is that this is not a time to be distracted by Mandelson. The pitch is effectively this – don’t you know there’s a war on?

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The debate will start tomorrow around lunchtime, or soon after – after Philip Barton, the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, and Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s former chief of staff, have given evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee in the morning about the Mandelson appointment process.

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  Police are assessing evidence about donations to Robert Jenrick’s campaign to become Conservative leader in 2024 after a referral from the elections watchdog, the Guardian can reveal.

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  John Swinney will call a vote seeking independence powers on the first day of the next Scottish parliament even if he fails to win an overall majority, his aides have said.

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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 speaking at the Usdaw conference today.”,”caption”:”Keir Starmer speaking at the Usdaw conference today.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:false,”summary”:true},”blockCreatedOn”:1777307443000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”12.30 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1777308539000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”12.48 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1777308540000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”12.49 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”12.49″,”title”:”Afternoon summary”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 27 Apr 2026 13.13 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 04.36 EDT”},{“id”:”69ef8bf38f0895bbdb044f22″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has said Labour will implement changes to the Equality Act required by the supreme court’s trans ruling if it wins the Holyrood election.

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This was the main pledge in his party’s women’s manifesto published today.

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As the Press Association (PA) reports, the supreme court ruled in April 2025 that the definition of a woman in equalities law is based on biological sex. This has changed the definition of a “woman” in the 2010 Equality Act to mean a biological female, and that the term “sex” means biological sex. It also said that sex is binary, meaning someone is either male or female.

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Sarwar said today:

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First of all, the clearest example of the difference is we will stop using taxpayers’ money to challenge women and people, and we’ll get on straight away with implementing the Equality Act and making sure we’re protecting single-sex spaces based on biological sex. Services, spaces and schools.

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The manifesto also pledges to deliver single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex, “recommitting” the NHS to delivering single-sex wards and to “remove all biologically male” prisoners from women’s prisons within days of the election, PA says.

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Sadiq Khan may oppose Scotland Yard using Palantir’s AI systems to process criminal intelligence because of his “concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values”. Robert Booth has the story.

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An end to the long-running Birmingham bin strike is “within sight” after a breakthrough in the bitter dispute over jobs and pay, the Press Assocation reports. PA says:

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Council leader John Cotton said he believed a new offer could be made to the Unite union, whose members have been on all-out strike for more than a year.

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Onay Kasab, Unite national lead officer, said the offer, which has not yet been put to the union’s members, includes compensation of £16,000 for workers.

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Previous offers did not include compensation for drivers, Kasab said today, and this change helped bring the dispute close to a conclusion.

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The strike flared over council plans to remove a role in its waste recycling and collection service that it insisted was necessary to make improvements and bring the service in line with other local authorities.

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Unite said the move would lead to pay cuts of around £8,000 for hundreds of its members, a figure the council has always disputed.

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Rubbish piled up on Birmingham’s streets, leading to residents complaining about it being a health hazard.

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Speaking outside Birmingham City Council’s offices today, Cotton said: “After months of frustration and delay, for the first time in over 12 months, a negotiated settlement to end the bin strike is now within sight.

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“This has been a challenging and complex process, but after months of hard work, on the principles and parameters of a deal, I believe a new, improved offer can be made and terms can be put in place that addresses the ballpark issues discussed at Acas, that Unite members can agree in order to end the strike once and for all.

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“A deal that would be good for the workforce, represent good value for money and would not repeat the mistakes of the past and risk creating new structural equal pay liabilities.”

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Unite said the broad outline of the ballpark deal included:

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– Workers receiving a minimum of two years “cushion” from the impact of the job evaluation process, rather than six months;

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– Striking agency workers with at least 12 months of employment on the contract will be offered a path to permanent jobs;

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– Disciplinary issues will be quashed and gross misconduct issues reviewed;

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– For pension purposes, the dispute will be treated as authorised absence;

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– Legal action on both sides will be ended.

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There will now be a series of meetings to complete the offer and the union warned it will escalate the dispute if it is reneged on in anyway.

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Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The move made today by the leader of the council is a vindication of the bin workers’ struggle for a decent deal.”

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In the Commons Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, has just made a statement updating MPs on the progress the government is making towards publishing all the doccuments required by the humble address saying all government paperwork relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment should be disclosed.

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One tranche of material has already been published. Officials are working on a second batch that will be made public. Jones said:

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The house will recognise that, given the breadth of the motion, that a very significant number of documents have been found to be in scope and that it is taking time to process these accordingly.

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Material that is judged potentially prejudicial to national security or international relations is going to the intelligence and security committee, which will have the final say on whether it should be published or withheld, and Jones said that by the end of today more than 300 documents would have gone to the ISC. Some of those were relevant to Mandelson’s vetting, he said.

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He said the material would be published “as soon as possible” after the state opening of parliament.

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In response, Alex Burghart, Jones’s Tory shadow, said the humble address was passed 12 weeks ago and that the government should not be taking so long to publish the material.

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Downing Street has published a previously confidential memo in a bid to refute the claim that Keir Starmer misled MPs when he told them due process had been followed when Peter Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the US. (See 1.32pm.)

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The memo is dated 16 September 2025 and is from Chris Wormald, cabinet secretary at the time, to Starmer. Starmer had asked him to review the Mandelson appointment process.

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Wormald said:

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The process for his appointment was unusual but not irregular …

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The evidence I have reviewed leads me to conclude that appropriate processes were followed in both the appointment and withdrawal of the former HMA Washington.

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With regard to the claim that Starmer ignored advice from Simon Case, the previous cabinet secretary, saying Mandelson should be vetted before the appointment was announced, Wormald said:

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Two actions, the security vetting and the process on conflicts of interest took place after the decision to appoint. I do not however consider that to be material as the vetting process was complete before the previous HMA [His Majesty’s ambassador] Washington took up post on 10 February 2025, and it is more usual for security vetting to happen after appointment.

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At the end of last week Zack Polanski, the Green leader, suggested in an interview that Donald Trump was worse than Vladimir Putin because of Trump’s threat at one point to wipe out all Iranian civilisation.

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On the BBC’s Politics Live today, Ellie Chowns, the Green party’s Westminster leader, was asked if she agreed. She said she didn’t. She told the programme:

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That’s not my position, let me be clear. We have seen Vladimir Putin himself launch an illegal invastion of Ukraine. He’s responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Absolutely despicable …. I wouldn’t have said that, that’s not my view.

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But she said she was “deeply concerned” about the actions of Trump, and that the war against Iran was an illegal war.

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Responding for Labour, Luke Pollard, a defence minister, said:

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Even Zack Polanski’s leader in parliament doesn’t agree with his disgraceful comments about Vladimir Putin. This is a new low for Polanski’s Green Party – and shows why he can’t be trusted with our national security.

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Police are assessing evidence about donations to Robert Jenrick’s campaign to become Conservative leader in 2024 after a referral from the elections watchdog, Rowena Mason reports. The information was passed on by the Electoral Commission, which the Guardian understands has been investigating allegations that almost £40,000 of donations to Jenrick’s leadership campaign before he defected to Reform UK, were from a foreign source in breach of electoral rules.

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The Conservative party has confirmed that it has raised a complaint about this with the parliamentary commissioner for standards. Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, said:

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Foreign donations are illegal. Politicians who funnel and hide unlawful money should face the full force of the law.

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The police must investigate Reform UK’s spokesman for financial affairs, Robert Jenrick. The Conservative party has also reported Mr Jenrick to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, given the apparent serious breach of House of Commons rules. Parliament, the public and the Conservative party all appear to have been deceived.

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While Robert Jenrick has been kicked out of the Conservative party and is now Nigel Farage’s right hand man, this represents serious malpractice in a leadership contest.

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Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has been busy today. He has been in Newcastle promoting a bus policy, but he has also down a series of interviews which have produced various news lines. Here are the key points.

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• \n

  Polanski has said the Greens want to bring buses back under public control. He said:

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Years of deregulation have led to soaring fares, unreliable services and cut routes. Bus privatisation has been an unmitigated disaster. We need to bring buses back into public control so that local councils, who know what their communities need best, can put a ceiling on how much can be charged and make sure their communities are well served. Spiralling transport costs is one of the greatest causes of the affordability crisis and lack of services and the expense of fares affects rural communities in particular.

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• \n

  He has said that he would rather see Andy Burnham or Angela Rayner leading Labour than Keir Starmer. He told Sky News it is “no secret that Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner would be much closer to my politics than Keir Starmer is”. Burnham and Rayner “do care about tackling the cost of living crisis and do care about people in this country”, he said.

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• \n

  He has insisted that Green party proposals to cut motorway speed limits from 70mph to 55mph are not manifesto pledges in the local elections. But he did not deny that this was a proposal that Green party members had voted for in the past. Asked about the policy on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Polanski said:

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The important point is that what the members have decided already in the document says this will be reviewed and updated. Because if people vote on things from the 1980s or 1990s, then of course that gets regularly reviewed.

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In an interview last week Polanski said the Green party’s policymaking procedures need to be reformed, amid concerns that the party has too many policies on its books that it cannot defend. After the interview, Labour issued a news release criticising Polanski for not disowning the 55mph policy completely, saying such a measure would “hammer motorists and tank the economy”.

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• \n

  Polanski defended the Green party’s drugs policy, saying it wants not just to legalise drugs but “regulate” them too. He told Sky News that, under the party’s plans, the supply of harder drugs would be in “the hands of a medical health professional”.

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• \n

  He had a run-in with Ed Balls, the Good Morning Britain presenter, after highlighting his record as a former Labour cabinet minister.

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UPDATE: I’ve amended a sentence in the section about speed limits because it was not Polanski himself who said in a Politico interview last week that the Greens’ policymaking process needed to change because the party had too many policies it could not defend. Polanski did talk about the need to change the process; but it was unnamed party officials who briefed Politico that some policies were hard to defend.

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Polanski being interviewed at a bus station in Newcastle city centre today.”,”caption”:”Zack Polanski being interviewed at a bus station in Newcastle city centre today.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Tom Wilkinson/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1777295636000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”09.13 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1777309990000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”13.13 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1777300329000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”10.32 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”10.32″,”title”:”Polanski says Burnham or Rayner ‘much closer to my politics’ than Starmer”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 27 Apr 2026 13.13 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 04.36 EDT”},{“id”:”69ef6f848f085355c6ad643d”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Downing Street has described tomorrow’s vote on referring Keir Starmer to the privileges committee as a “desperate political stunt” by the Conservative party.

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A No 10 spokesperson said:

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\n

The government is engaging with the two parliamentary processes that are already running on Peter Mandelson’s appointment with full transparency.

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This is a desperate political stunt by the Conservative party the week before the May elections because they have no answers on the cost of living or the NHS. Their claims have no substance.

\n

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Kemi Badenoch has posted a video message on social media claiming that the case against Keir Starmer is “overwhelming”.

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\n

With the speaker’s permission, and working cross-party, I am presenting a motion to the House of Commons to refer the prime minister to the privileges committee.

\n

I do not do this lightly. No leader of the opposition should, but the facts are overwhelming.

\n

The prime minister misled the House of Commons, repeatedly.

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He appointed a national security risk and friend of a convicted paedophile to be our ambassador in Washington, our most sensitive diplomatic post.

\n

He pretended that full due process was followed for this appointment. It was not.

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He has blamed the appointment on officials, when the blame can only be placed at his own door.

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The prime minister needs to be held to the same standards he held previous prime ministers to. There is no room for hypocrisy.

\n

He has sacked innocent officials to cover up his failures. He has let parliament down; more importantly, he has let the country down.

\n

That’s why I’m asking MPs to vote to refer the prime minister to the privileges committee.

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Every MP now faces a matter of conscience, not party, conscience. Do they cover this up or do they vote to seek the truth?

\n

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What is interesting about this is that Badenoch is trying to make this a debate about the Mandelson appointment in general (generally reckoned now to be a terrible mistake – although the Tories did not say that at the time it was announced), and not about the claim that Starmer misled MPs.

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But the privileges committee cannot hold an investigation just into whether a PM has made a bad decision. It is there to investigate matters of privilege, and contempts of parliament, and the evidence for one in this case is very thin. (See 1.32pm.)

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Here is Lindsay Hoyle’s statement in full.

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\n

Before we come to questions, I wish to make a short statement.

\n

Numerous honourable and right hon members from across the house have written to ask me to give precedence to a matter as an issue of privilege. One of those letters is from the leader of the opposition. The matter concerns the prime minister’s answers to the house about the process for the appointment of Peter Mandelson and related issues.

\n

I think it will be helpful to the house if I explain my role in deciding whether a complaint should be put to the house.

\n

Privilege issues should only be brought to the house sparingly, and it is my duty to act as a gatekeeper to ensure that frivolous applications are not taken forward.

\n

As a gatekeeper, my role is to decide whether the honourable member has made a case which the house itself should be able to consider, not to decide whether someone is likely to have committed a contempt.

\n

If precedence is given, the member tables a motion for debate. At the end of the debate the house itself takes a decision on whether the matter should be taken further.

\n

Some may be wondering why this issue is being looked at now. To be clear, I cannot determine whether an application is made. I have to consider any application when it comes to me.

\n

In this case, having taken advice. I have decided to allow the house to come to a view on whether the committee of privileges should look at the matter.

\n

It is not for me to make any decision or view.

\n

Therefore, the leader of the opposition [Kemi Badenoch] will have the opportunity to put the matter to the house tomorrow.

\n

The debate will be taken after my after any urgent questions and statements or a 10-minute rule bill.

\n

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Hoyle could have just said he had decided to allow the debate to go ahead. But he did seem to be at pains to stress that this was just a procedural decison on his behalf, and not an indication that he thinks Keir Starmer has committed a contempt of parliament (ie, lied to MPs). Hoyle did sound slightly sheepish about the whole thing. He may have felt he had no choice if “numerous” MPs were asking for a debate, including the opposition leader.

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Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, is telling MPs about the privileges committee debate.

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He says he received letters from various MPs, including the opposition leader.

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He says issues like this should be taken to the privileges committee sparingly.

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He is a gatekeeper, he says. He says he is there to stop frivolous complaints being taken forward.

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He says his job is to consider if the Commons should take a view.

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Having taken advice, he has decided to let MPs take this decision.

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He says Kemi Badenoch will be able to table a motion for debate tomorrow. The debate will be held after any statements and urgent questions.

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Keir Starmer will face a vote on whether to launch an investigation into claims he misled the Commons over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, Kiran Stacey and Pippa Crerar report.

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John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, has said the SNP will prioritise trying to get a second independence referendum if it wins the Hoyrood election.

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As the Press Association reports, a new paper setting out what actions a re-elected SNP government would take in its first 100 days in office promises a vote to approve the development of a section 30 order – which would be needed to transfer powers to hold a referendum from Westminster to Holyrood.

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This vote would take place on the first sitting day at Holyrood after the appointment of a new government – with Swinney also vowing a draft referendum bill would be published and that the Scottish government would initiate discussions with Westminster over the transfer of powers to allow such a vote to be held.

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In a speech today, Swinney said:

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\n

I can confirm today that on the first sitting day after the appointment of the new government, we will bring forward a vote of the Scottish parliament to approve the development of a section 30 to give Scotland the power to hold an independence referendum.

\n

The parliament chosen by the people of Scotland, will have the chance to represent the democratic will of the people of Scotland.

\n

Within the first hundred days, we will publish the draft referendum bill.

\n

We propose that the question, as in 2014, is: ‘Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes or No.’

\n

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As PA reports, Swinney refused to say what would happen if Westminster refused to hand over the necessary powers for a referendum to the Scottish parliament – as Starmer and other leading Labour figures have already indicated they will do.

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Swinney speaking at the Pearce Institute in Glasgow this morning on what the SNP would do in first 100 days if they win election.”,”caption”:”John Swinney speaking at the Pearce Institute in Glasgow this morning on what the SNP would do in first 100 days if they win election.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1777293618000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”08.40 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1777294302000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”08.51 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1777294220000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”08.50 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”08.50″,”title”:”Swinney says SNP will hold Holyrood vote on independence referendum on 1st sitting day if it wins election”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 27 Apr 2026 13.13 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 04.36 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After the Guardian revealed that Peter Mandelson was given security vetting by the Foreign Office even though he had failed his vetting interview with UK Security Vetting, Kemi Badenoch said that she was certain that Keir Starmer had lied about this. She said it was “preposterous” to think Starmer had not been told. But Starmer had not been told, and Badenoch has dropped this particular accusation.

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Instead, she has raised alternative claims about Starmer being dishonest with MPs about Mandelson’s vetting.

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The ministerial code says that “ministers who knowingly mislead parliament will be expected to offer their resignation”. But Badenoch cannot have Starmer investigated for a potential breach of the ministerial code because Starmer himself is the person who ultimately adjudicates on these cases, and so instead she is deploying a tactic used against Boris Johnson after he lied repeatedly to MPs about Partygate. She is calling for an investigation by the Commons privileges committee.

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The committee investigates alleged acts deemed in contempt of parliament, and that is defined as “any act or omission which obstructs or impedes either house of parliament in the performance of its functions”. This would cover a minister lying to the Commons.

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As Badenoch made clear in her interview this morning (see 12.49am), the Tories are now focusing on two claims by Starmer that are allegedly false.

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1) “Due process”

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What Starmer said: In September last year Starmer repeatedly said that due process had been followed in relation to the Mandelson appointment.

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Why it can be argued this is misleading: Because Mandelson was given security vetting, even though the UK Security Vetting team who interviewed him recommended he should not be cleared. And because Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, had advised Starmer to make sure Mandelson cleared vetting before the appointment was announced. (A related accusation is that, even though Starmer did not know Mandelson failed his vetting interview, he should have told MPs at the first opportunity after being told – PMQs the following day – instead of waiting another five days before making a Commons statement.)

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Why it can be argued that it isn’t: Because ‘due process’ is a vague phrase that basically just means vetting, and Mandelson did ultimately get security vetting approval. Because the Case advice was just advice, and Starmer says when he subsequently checked, he was told it was OK for vetting to take place after the appointment was announced. Starmer does not accept that “due process” was misleading; even if he did, telling MPs the full story six days later, not one day later, would be relatively normal, and consistent with the need to check the facts.

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2) “No pressure existed”

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What Starmer said: Starmer told MPs at PMQs last week that “no pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case”.

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Why it can be argued this is miseading: Because Starmer was talking about the evidence given by Olly Robbins to the foreign affairs committee the previous day, and Robbins explicitly told the committee that the Foreign Office had been under pressure to deal with the Mandelson vetting process quickly.

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Why it can be argued that it isn’t: Because it is clear from the context of what Starmer said that he was talking about Robbins not personally being under pressure to approve the vetting, not pressure on the institution to act quickly (which is routine in government). Given that Robbins had given evidence in public the previous day, it would have made no sense at all for Starmer to lie about what had been said.

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Ministers frequently make comments in the Commmons which can arguably be described as misleading. That is because many political statements that appear quite simple (‘crime has fallen’) can be interpreted in different ways, depending on how terms are defined (what types of crime, down since when?)

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The Johnson inquiry was unprecedented in modern times because Johnson was found to have lied quite blatantly. The allegations against Starmer are not remotely comparable, and it would be surprising if Lindsay Hoyle and his advisers really think this really merits a privileges committee investigation.

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But if the leader of the opposition makes a request of this kind, the speaker is obliged to consider it seriously. And, as the Institute for Government director Hannah White said this morning (see 10.42am), there is a case for saying the Commons as a whole should decided whether an inquiry is needed.

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Kemi Badenoch has revived her call for a privileges committee inquiry into Keir Starmer. And she has challenged Labour MPs not to block the proposal.

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Speaking to Sky News, she said:

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The prime minister has misled parliament multiple times. When he said the full due process had been followed on a national security issue, it clearly had not. We’ve seen the evidence.

\n

And also when he said he did not put pressure whatsoever on civil servants to push the Peter Mandelson appointment through, despite knowing the security risks.

\n

There is still a lot of information that doesn’t add up.

\n

And what I’m seeing is a prime minister who is saying whatever it is he needs to say to save his own skin.

\n

I think it is important that this is looked at. Parliament is the right place to hold Keir Starmer to account.

\n

And Labour MPs need to look in to their consciences and know that what they are doing should be what is right for the country, not just what’s right for the Labour party.

\n

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Asked if this would be a good use of parliamentary time and resources, Badenoch said an inquiry would only create work for the handful of MPs sitting on the privileges committee.

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Badenoch on a visit to Leonardo Helicopters in Basildon, Essex, this morning.”,”caption”:”Kemi Badenoch on a visit to Leonardo Helicopters in Basildon, Essex, this morning.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1777290151000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.42 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1777290574000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.49 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1777290574000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.49 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.49″,”title”:”Badenoch urges Labour MPs to do ‘what is right for country’ and not block privileges committee inquiry into Starmer”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 27 Apr 2026 13.13 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 04.36 EDT”},{“id”:”69ef49898f0885ab23504e39″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Keir Starmer will have to face PMQs on Wednesday, it has emerged. Last week it was reported that Labour MPs were hoping to end the current session of parliament by Tuesday night, which would have meant PMQs on Wednesday being cancelled. But it how emerged that the government whips do not think they will be able to get all the remaining parliamentary bills through the ‘ping pong’ process before Tuesday evening, and so now the Commons will be sitting on Wednesday.

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Downing Street has said that the UK is “in a good position” to handle the global supply problems caused by the Iran war not being resolved.

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Speaking at the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:

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\n

We remain focused on a long-term, permanent solution to the crisis. As a result of the forward-planning, the government undertook over the past few months, the UK is in a good position.

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We’re ramping up planning for all different potential impacts on the UK economy and consumers, and that means focusing on a live monitoring of stock levels and what plans are in place for addressing supply chain disruption.

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The petrol stations in the UK are well stocked and we have a diverse and resilient supply. Fuel production and inputs are continuing across the UK as usual with no issues being reported and a very low amount of petrol, diesel and crude oil is imported to the UK from the Middle East, which is why we’ve not experience supply issues. And in 2025 UK refinery production of petrol from crude oil exceeded demand.

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Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said that, if there is a vote tomorrow on whether or not to hold a privileges committee inquiry into Keir Starmer, Labour MPs must get a free vote. In a statement, he said:

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Even Boris Johnson didn’t block his MPs voting for scrutiny. Labour MPs must be given a free vote on any motion to refer Starmer to the privileges committee, not forced into being accomplices to a cover-up.

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If Keir Starmer has misled the House and the public, he must be held to the same standard that we should expect of any prime minister.

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There was not a lot of headline news in Keir Starmer’s speech to the Usdaw conference this morning. (Some – but not much. See 10.11am and 11.02am.) But, nevertheless, it was quite a substantial speech, in that he covered a lot of ground, and Starmer sounded more leftwing than usual. Partly that was because he was addressing a trade union, but in part it might be a response to the Iran war, and how that has affected his thinking. He was more explict than usual about describing Tony Blair’s decision to join the US was against Iraq as a mistake (see 11.02am), he said the economic consequences of the Iran war would last “for some time” (Darren Jones said yesterday that, even when the strait of Hormuz is fully open, the economic harm would still go on for another eight months), and he implied this was firming up his view that the “status quo” must change.

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Here are some of his main points.

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  Starmer highlighted the way the Employment Rights Act will help working people. Opening with an anecdote about a letter from a shopworker verbally abused at work who could not take time off because of the old statutory sick pay rules, he summed up the changes like this.

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Now, the law of the land, for you and for every single person in this country, to finally enjoy the protections you deserve at work: sick pay from day one; paternity leave from day one; fire and rehire – scrapped; protection for whistleblowers; no more gagging orders on sexual harassment; no more exploitative zero-hours contracts; stronger collective consultation rights, and I know how important that is for shop workers.

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And underpinning all of that, a proper living wage, the embodiment of the simple demand that has always guided the labour movement – a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. That is what we’ve delivered together.

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  He stressed that he would always be on the side of working people. He said:

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I’ll always work fight for working people because I know exactly whose side I’m on.

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Let me tell you about another worker, a carer, works long hours on low pay, year after year after year. She was a care worker during the pandemic, 14-hour shifts, often overnight. And in the pandemic some care workers didn’t have sick pay. So if they were sick, they had to stay at home and simply not get paid at all. In the pandemic, as we were all clapping them, recognising what they were doing for our country.

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Well, delegates, that care worker is my sister. And every day I ask myself, does Britain work for her? Does Britain work for people like my late brother? I had a life touched by opportunity. I grew up working class and I’ve been lucky. But Nick, my brother, he had difficulties learning and spent his entire adult life going from one job to the next. Does Britain work for people like him?

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  He said that, after the Iran war crisis, he wanted no return to the “status quo”. He said:

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Just like Iraq years ago, there is a deeper lesson here, one that British politics has continually refused to learn.

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Because what Iran shows is that, once again, events happening miles away from Britain have the capacity to hurt our living standards, our future and our security. And so our response will define, not just this government, but arguably this generation.

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And so this time it must be different. We cannot respond to this moment by thinking that we just need to get back to the status quo. That is the mistake that was made after the 2008 financial crash with austerity. It was made in Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war.

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And we cannot add Iran to that list because the status quo manifestly failed working people. It kept your wages low, the economy is stagnant and your public services decimated.

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In other words, the status quo made working people like you pay the price. I would not go back to that, even if I could.

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Starmer said that what he meant by not returning to the status quo was taking measures to beef up the UK’s economic security, its energy security and its defence security.

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Starmer addressing the Usdaw conference in Blackpool this morning.”,”caption”:”Keir Starmer addressing the Usdaw conference in Blackpool this morning.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/AP”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1777284847000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”06.14 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1777287117000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”06.51 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1777287117000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.51 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.51″,”title”:”Starmer says there must be no return to ‘status quo’ after Iran war crisis, because working people would ‘pay the price'”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 27 Apr 2026 13.13 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 04.36 EDT”},{“id”:”69ef2fe38f081fa05612d087″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

If there is a Commons debate tomorrow on allegations that Keir Starmer lied to MPs about Peter Mandelson’s vetting for his appointment as ambassador to the US, it may coincide with Keir Starmer chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee to discuss the economic consequences of the Iran war. A scheduling clash like that would allow No 10 to make the argument that Starmer is focusing on important issues that matter to voters while the opposition is obsessed with Westminster procedure (although Downing Street would prefer the privileges inquiry debate not to go ahead in the first place).

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Starmer announced the Cobra meeting in his speech to the Usdaw conference.

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He got perhaps his loudest applause during the speech when he confirmed that the UK will not be joining the US war against Iran. He said:

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Whatever happens in the Middle East, we’ve cut your energy bills, and we have capped them until July.

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Delegates, that’s another thing that I will always stand firm on. I will never let this country be dragged into a war that is not in our interests. Never.

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As the applause died away, Starmer went on:

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That is a lesson British politics should have learned a long time ago with Iraq.

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And yet, when the rush to war began on Iran, I was heavily criticised by others who had no thought for the consequences for our country, for your family.

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But that is not how I operate, because I have working people in my mind’s eye for every decision.

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And yet, delegates, I have to level with you about Iran because the truth is the economic consequences could still be with us for some time. You don’t have to be a politician to know that. You can see it on every petrol forecourt across the country …

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We are monitoring this daily. So, delegates, for example, tomorrow I’m chairing a meeting in Cobra on the impact, bringing in people from the Bank of England, so you can be sure we will stand by working people in this crisis.

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Starmer speaking at the Usdaw conference in Blackpool this morning.”,”caption”:”Keir Starmer speaking at the Usdaw conference in Blackpool this morning.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1777283043000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”05.44 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1777284164000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”06.02 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1777284165000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.02 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.02″,”title”:”Starmer says he will chair Cobra meeting on Iran war economic fallout tomorrow”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 27 Apr 2026 13.13 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 04.36 EDT”},{“id”:”69ef28878f0885ab23504cc9″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, was on interview duty on behalf of the government this morning. Speaking on Sky News, she accused the Tories of playing “silly political games” with their call for a privileges committee inquiry into Keir Starmer.

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Ten days ago we had Kemi Badenoch and other members of the opposition saying that the prime minister deliberately misled parliament.

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He didn’t, and that was categorically proven last week, and they’ve accepted that. He has not lied to parliament.

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So I do think that the opposition – guess what, 10 days out from local elections and important elections in Scotland and Wales – are playing silly political games when we should be talking about the big issues at stake in the country here.

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Reynolds refused to say whether the government would whip its MPs to vote against a motion calling for a privileges committee inquiry if a vote on this proposal goes ahead.

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Labour has a working majority of 165 and, if it does whip against the motion, it should be able to block it very easily.

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But privileges committee motions like this are normally considered ‘house’ matters appropriate for a free vote, and Keir Starmer may decide not to whip the vote. In those circumstances, most Labour MPs would probably vote against an inquiry anyway – on the grounds that the Tory lying allegations against Starmer are spurious. The Tories would then accuse them of a cover-up.

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Keir Starmer will claim this morning that the tide “could be turning” in the battle against shoplifting. He is due to speak at an event outside London and, according to the No 10 overnight briefing, he will say:

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Working people, grafters – go to work, do the right thing, keep our high streets thriving, and yet too often they are abused or assaulted by people who think they can get away with it and just cheat the system. It’s disgraceful.

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We are currently reforming the police across the country so we can free up their time and their money to focus more on street policing, neighbourhood policing, and cracking down on anti‑social behaviour. We’ve already got an extra 3,000 neighbourhood officers on the streets, and there’s more to come.

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We’ve scrapped the ridiculous regulation where thieves stealing goods worth less than £200 would not be properly held to account. That was a shoplifters’ charter, and we’ve ended it. We’ve toughened up punishment too. We’re giving police stronger powers, making the abuse and assault of retail workers a specific crime and giving you the same protections as emergency workers.

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I’m not blind to how big a challenge this is. But the number of people charged has gone up by 17% in the latest stats. Shop theft is down – only slightly – but the tide could be turning. We are taking action. We are calling time on the free‑for‑all, standing firm, together, against the disgraceful crime of shop theft.

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Simon Goodley has more on this story here.

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Good morning. Kemi Badenoch is trying to get Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, to give MPs a vote on a proposal to get the Commons privileges committee to investigate allegations that Keir Starmer lied to MPs in statements he made to them about the vetting of Peter Mandelson. Other opposition parties may be backing her, but we don’t know for sure because the process is relatively secret; MPs have to write a private letter to the speaker, who then decides whether this is a serious request that should be decided by the Commons as a whole, or a frivolous complaint that should be ignored. (We do know that Karl Turner has written to the speaker about this too, but only because he was daft enough to post his letter on social media last week.) Today we are likely to find out whether or not Hoyle is agreeing to a Commons vote.

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Boris Johnson was referred to the privileges committee over allegations that he lied to MPs about Partygate (allegations the committee concluded were justified). Badenoch wants to make the case that Starmer is just as dishonest as Johnson. He isn’t, by any stretch, and the claims that Starmer lied to MPs about Mandelson are spurious; they relate to contest intepretations of political language of the kind that are commonplace in parliamentary debate. But the fact that this has even become a live consideration for the speaker is a big win for the Tories.

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If Hoyle does allow a debate, which would probably take place tomorrow, Badenoch will count that as a success whether the referral motion passes or not. If Labour MPs vote against an inquiry, she will be able to accuse them of a cover-up. If MPs approve an inquiry (because Labour decides not to use its majority to block the motion), then Starmer faces the ignominy of being in the same category as Johnson (at least unless or until an inquiry eventually clears him).

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So the best option for No 10 is for Hoyle to not allow a vote in the first place. And that perhaps explains why some Labour grandees have been out condeming the call for an inquiry in the first place.

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Alan Johnson and David Blunkett, who are both former home secretaries, have given a joint statement to the Times describing the proposals for a privileges committee inquiry as a “nakedly political stunt”. They say:

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The fact that Kemi Badenoch has changed the accusations she is levelling against the PM on an almost daily basis as her claims have failed to stand up to scrutiny shows what this is really about. This is a nakedly political stunt with no substance ahead of the May elections.

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Any comparison with Boris Johnson is absurd. When parliament referred that matter to the privileges committee, a police investigation had directly disproved his categoric statements that he knew nothing about the breach of lockdown rules.

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And, on the Today programme this morning, Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, also dismissed the proposal. Asked if there was a need for an inquiry like this, she pointed out that her own committee is already looking at this, and she stressed that the government is about to publish more documents about the Mandelson appointment. She said:

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I suppose our constituents might ask [if a privileges committee goes ahead], have we got the balance right between holding the government to account and seemingly squabbling amongst ourselves when there is so much else going on that perhaps parliament ought to be focusing on as well?

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Asked if she was saying ‘not yet’ in relation to a privileges committee inquiry, Thornberry replied:

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I have to say, a really truthful position is, why the rush at the moment? Has it got anything to do with local elections?

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It may be that at some stage in the future, some of the questions haven’t been answered, and it is decided that they are of sufficient importance that the privileges committee should be involved, but I don’t really see why we’re doing it at the moment, apart from, potentially people trying to score points in advance of the local elections.

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I’m sorry to say that, and I’m not supposed to be partisan on this, but it is as plain as the nose on my face what’s going on here.

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Here is the agenda for the day.

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9am: Reform UK is organising what it is calling a “national fuel protest” in Whitehall calling for action to cut petrol prices. (There don’t seem to be any plans to protest outside the US embassy.)

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10.30am: John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, speaks about the SNP’s first 100 days priorities if they win the Holyrood election. At a separate event, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is launching his party’s manifesto for women.

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Morning: Keir Starmer is in the north-west of England where he is giving a speech on shoplifting.

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Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Essex.

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11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

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Lunchtime: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, is highlighting Green plans to bring bus services under public control.

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2.30pm: If Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, does decide to allow a vote on referring Keir Starmer to the privileges committee, he is likely to tell MPs as Commons business starts.

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2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

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After 3pm: Peers debate the crime and policing bill, and the children’s wellbeing and schools bill, as the parliamentary ‘ping pong’ process continues.

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After 3.30pm: And MPs debate the English devolotion and community empowerment bill and the pension schemes bill as part of the ‘ping pong process’. Later they may vote on Lords amendments to the crime bill and the children’s wellbeing bill.

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Afternoon: MPs vote to carry over into the next session two bills: the Northern Ireland Troubles bill, and the public office (accountability) bill (aka, the Hillsborough bill).

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If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), 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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