PMQs live: Badenoch says schools bill is an ‘act of vandalism’ because of its impact on academies | Politics

Adrian Ramsay, the Green party co-leader, says Starmer voted against a third runway at Heathrow in 2018. What is his position now?

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Starmer says he will not comment on speculation. But he says he won’t take lectures from an MP opposing vital infrastructure (pylons for offshore energy) in his constituency.

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Kemi Badenoch welcomes the release of the hostages from Gaza.

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She says there are important questions to answer about the Southport killings. She will return to those after the sentencing.

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Turning to education, she says the schools bill is “an act of vandalism” because it wrecks a cross-party consensus (on academy freedoms) that lasted for decades.

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Starmer says Labour introduced academies, and they will stay.

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The bill includes safeguarding measures. The Tories voted against it, he says.

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Conservative party members are less impressed by Kemi Badenoch than they used to be, according to the lastest ConservativeHome survey of party members. It says she has dropped to seventh place in the shadow cabinet ranking. In his write-up, Henry Hill says:

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This is a dramatic shift however you slice it. Badenoch has led every shadow cabinet league table since the very first one after the election, and normally by a margin of about 20 points over her next-most popular colleague – and that’s not counting her extended run in the cabinet league table.

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Upon winning the leadership her positive rating shifted up to north of 70, and remained there before Christmas. Her score today is a 39-point fall since the New Year.

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Meanwhile despite a strong showing from Jenrick, it’s actually the shadow chancellor [Mel Stride] who has emerged as something of a sleeper hit amongst the Tory grassroots – aided, no doubt, by the ample opportunities Rachel Reeves is creating to attack the government’s economic record.

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A new online train ticket retailer backed by the UK government is to be created, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced, with the aim of simplifying the process of buying tickets from different rail operators. Joanna Partridge has the story.

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PMQs is almost with us.

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Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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HoC”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1737546143000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”06.42 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1737546303000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”06.45 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1737546303000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.45 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.45″,”title”:”Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 22 Jan 2025 07.40 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 22 Jan 2025 04.35 EST”},{“id”:”6790ada28f088ee275f2cd39″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Keir Starmer has now made a series of announcements in the light of the Southport attack, following the surprise decison by the killer, Axel Rudakubana, to plead guilty on Monday to murdering three girls. The PM’s response has gone quite a long way to quash the alternative narrative around the killings, which is that the government was involved in some sort of cover-up, or at least unholding information unnecessarily from the public.

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Nigel Farage and his Reform UK colleagues have been pushing this line aggressively (although yesterday it was notable that they were more keen to engage in cover-up talk on social media and in TV studios than in the Commons chamber, where three Reform MPs all asked questions without sounding conspiracy-theoryist). But in the Commons yesterday Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, was also indulging in what Emilio Casalicchio yesterday described as a “Nige-lite approach”.

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Last night Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, went a bit further. In a post on social media that was more ‘full Nigel’, he said: “No wonder the public suspect a cover-up.”

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He explained:

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The prime minister’s statement today raised more questions than it answered.

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If Starmer withheld information from the public because he was concerned about prejudicing the case, why did Angela Rayner take to the media on 31st July and say the suggestion the Southport attack was terror-related was ‘fake news’ and a ‘conspiracy theory’?

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The standard response in that situation would be to say ‘I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation’ but Rayner and others deliberately chose to guide the public away from this. By the prime minister’s own standard, these comments risked prejudicing a jury.

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Of course, Rudakubana later plead guilty to two terror-related offences. It was Rayner’s comments that turned out to be ‘fake news’.

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You can read the statement in full here.

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Jenrick is a member of the shadow cabinet and speaks for the party on justice issues. But he was also the runner-up to Kemi Badenoch in the leadership contest, and it is widely assumed that his public comments (which often stray beyond the justice brief) are part of an effort to position himself for another tilt at the leadership if Badenoch falters. So it is possible that, when posted this on social media last night, there was an element of freelancing. At PMQs it will be interesting to see if Badenoch leans into all of this, or goes on something completely different.

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As for why Rayner said it was “fake news” to describe the attack as terror-related, the answer to theat seems to fairly clear; the police did not regard Rudakubana as a terrorist. He was interested in terrorist weapons and terrorist techniques, but that seems to have been because he was obsessed with killing (an area where terrorists have a lot of expertise), not because he had the ideological motive associated with the traditional definition of terrorism.

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Vikram Dodd has a good article here on what it takes for something to be described as a terrorist incident.

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Danny Shaw, the former BBC home affairs correspondent who at one point worked as an adviser to Labour, has sided with the government on this. He posted this on social media in response to a claim that ministers should have called the Southport attack a terrorist incident because that is what happened after the murder of Tory MP David Amess.

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Police declared it a terrorist attack. Ministers took their lead from them, as in 2017. The Southport attack wasn’t declared a terrorist attack by police. No one, in those circumstances, should make public information that hints at a terrorist motivation. Highly prejudicial.

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UK government borrowing jumped unexpectedly to £17.8bn last month, piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to plan budget cuts before a spending review in the summer, Phillip Inman reports.

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Commenting on the figures, Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said:

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Labour are already losing control of the finances.

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Figures out today show borrowing is higher than forecast. So far this financial year it has been almost the highest since records began, second only to the pandemic.

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The Chancellor needs to get a grip.

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Just 4% of alleged domestic abusers in the police were dismissed over a 12-month period, according to new data from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales. PA Media says:

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Dame Nicole Jacobs called for “structural change” to both protect victims and rebuild public confidence in policing.

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Launching her criminal justice report today, the commissioner revealed a survey of forces by her office found there had been 1,294 allegations of police-perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA) in the 12 months to the end of March 2024.

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These allegations related to 899 individuals, who make up 0.4% of the police workforce which covers roles such as officers, staff and police community support officers.

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All but two forces across England and Wales were able to provide information on outcomes for such allegations, according to the commissioner’s report, with most allegations ending in a ‘no case to answer’, a suspension or what is known as a learning outcome.

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Just 4% ended with a worker being dismissed from their role, Jacobs said.

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The government needs to spend at least £49bn repairing rundown buildings in the public sector, like schools and hospitals, the National Audit Office has said.

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Here is the NAO summary of what its report says.

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Having good-quality property that is properly maintained, utilised and adaptable to future needs is fundamental to delivering public services. However, the condition of government property has declined over the last decade.

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The government has accumulated at least £49bn of maintenance backlog. The government will need to consider the optimal way to manage its assets alongside its long-term investment plans, in addition to the cost of ongoing maintenance, to bring property condition to a satisfactory level.

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The scale of the challenge will become intractable unless the Office of Government Property (OGP) urgently addresses strategic planning gaps across government, so it and departments can understand what the full picture of maintenance requirements is across government, ahead of the next and subsequent spending review periods.

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Here is the full report. And this chart from the report shows where the main problems are.

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backlog in parts of public sector”,”caption”:”Maintenance backlog in parts of public sector”,”credit”:”Photograph: NAO”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1737539329000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”04.48 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1737539934000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”04.58 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1737539935000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”04.58 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”04.58″,”title”:”Rundown buildings in public sector need repair work costing at least £49bn, says National Audit Office”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 22 Jan 2025 07.40 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 22 Jan 2025 04.35 EST”},{“id”:”6790beb68f088ee275f2cdb8″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The UK government will publish an immigration white paper later this year including proposals to introduce visas aimed at high-skilled workers as part of its push to kickstart growth, Rachel Reeves has announced. Heather Stewart has the story here.

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People could be banned from driving if they repeatedly fail to repay money they owe under a new government crackdown on welfare fraud, Nadeem Badshah reports.

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Talking about these proposals on the ITV’s Good Morning Britian this morning, Alison McGovern, the employment minister, said that, if the government needs to recover money from benefit cheats, it can already take money back through the benefits system if the person is still on benefits or through PAYE if the person is paying tax that way. She went on:

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If somebody’s not doing either of those things, then we need more powers to be able to get the money back.

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So the new powers will be to get that money back through banks.

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And then, finally, as a backstop power, if after all of that they still don’t want to give us the money back, like currently happens with the child maintenance service, we want to be able to apply to a court to say ‘disqualify this person for driving.

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And that is a backstop power to make sure that we get this money back.

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Keir Starmer gave a speech yesterday on the government’s reaction to the Southport killings, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, followed that up with a long statement to MPs. There were various announcements alongside the public inquiry proposed and we cover them here.

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This morning there is more. After Cooper told MPs yesterday that it was a “total disgrace” that the killer, Axel Rudakubana, could buy a knife on Amazon at the age of 17, the government is today announcing that it is going to require tougher checks for people buying knives online, which could involve a two-step verification. As the BBC reports, “online retailers will be forced to ask anyone buying a knife for two types of identification under government plans, with buyers asked to submit an identity document, such as a passport, and record a live video to prove their age.”

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Starmer has written about this in an article for the Sun. He says:

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It remains shockingly easy for our children to get their hands on deadly knives. The lessons of this case could not be clearer.

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Time and again, as a child, the Southport murderer carried knives. Time and again, he showed clear intent to use them.

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And yet tragically, he was still able to order the murder weapon off the internet without any checks or barriers. A two-click killer. This cannot continue.

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The technology is there to set up age-verification checks, even for kitchen knives ordered online.

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We must now use it to protect our children from future attack and I will ensure that this happens.

\n

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Amazon says that currently, when people buy a knife online, they have to supply details, including their date of birth, and their age is verified by the delivery driver when the goods are handed over.

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Here is the agenda for the day.

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9.30am: The Home Office publishes figures on police numbers in England and Wales.

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9.45am: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on immigration and economic growth.

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11am: The Office for Budget Responsibility will publishes figures on the impact of extending inheritance tax to cover farms.

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Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

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Around 1pm: MPs have a short debate on the money resolution for the assisted dying private member’s bill. Any legislation that would involve public spending requires a money resolution, and normally these are passed as a formality. But it is possible opponents of assisted dying could force a vote. The Treasury minister James Murray will open the debate, which will only last 45 minutes at most.

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Also, Rachel Reeves is in Davos, where she is doing a series of media and speaking events. She has already taken part in a Bloomberg Q&A. Graeme Wearden is there, and is covering it all on his business live blog, Davos edition.

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If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line 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. 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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Key events