Key events
Badenoch says Mandelson was close friends with Epstein at the time that Epstein was involved in child sex trafficking. Was Starmer aware of this when he appointed Mandelson?
Starmer says due process was followed. He says Mandelson has” repeatedly expressed his deep regret, he is right to do so, [and] he’s now playing an important part in the US UK relationship”.
Starmer says he has confidence in Mandelson as ambassador to the US
Kemi Badenoch also praises the Duchess of Kent. And she says the UK should stand shoulder to shoulder with Poland.
The US ambassador in Washington needs to be fully focused on this. Does the PM have full confidence in Peter Mandelson?
Starmer says Mandelson has repeated expressed his regret for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He says he has confidence in him.
Luke Evans (Con) starts by asking about Labour misconduct cases.
Starmer replies:
Here’s the difference. I strengthened the ministerial code. I strengthened the independent adviser. The deputy prime minister referred to herself …
Contrast that with the shadow foreign secretary [Priti Patel]. She was found to have broken the code under last government. What did the prime minister do then? He ignored that. T
There was a resignation, but that was the resignation of the adviser.
Keir Starmer starts by expressing condolences to the king following the death of the Duchesss of Kent.
He then condemns the Israeli strikes in Doha, which he says violated Qatar’s sovereignty. He says he spoke to the emir of Qatar yesterday. The UK would not give up on a diplomatic solution, he says.
And he turns to Poland, saying he has spoken to the Polish PM about the drone incursion. (See 11.56am.)
Starmer condemns Russia’s ‘barbaric’ attack on Ukraine and its ‘deeply concerning’ drone incursion into Polish airspace
This morning Keir Starmer issued a statement about the Russian drone attack on Ukrainne that led to Poland shooting down the Russian weapons in Polish airspace. Starmer said:
This morning’s barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning.
This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putin’s blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.
I have been in touch with the Polish prime minister this morning to make clear our support for Poland, and that we will stand firm in our support for Ukraine.
My sincere thanks go to the Nato and Polish forces who rapidly responded to protect the Alliance.
With our partners – and through our leadership of the Coalition of the Willing – we will continue to ramp up the pressure on Putin until there is a just and lasting peace.
Jakub Krupa is covering this story in detail on his Europe live blog.
Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
PMQs is starting very soon.
Here is the running order.
Helena Horton
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Emma Reynolds, the new environment secretary, had a difficult job this morning: meeting a group of farmers after Labour caused fury in the rural community by introducing a new inheritance tax.
The former City minister successfully wooed the crowd at the NFU ‘Back British farming’ day in their Westminster offices by eschewing her civil servant-written speech in favour of them with stories of her rural upbringing, love of steak and plans to take her son to a pig farm.
She told the crowd her “perfect day would be bacon bap for breakfast and steak and chips for dinner”, adding she had “already booked to go to a local pig farm with my youngest son who loves animals”.
Reynolds said she grew up in a rural area in Staffordshire and now lives down a “country lane” in the Chilterns. Labour environment ministers are often criticised for their urban backgrounds.
Recent polling from the Country Land and Business Association found that 0% of farmers said they would vote labour again.
Tom Bradshaw, the NFU president, warned farmers were facing a “cliff edge” as nature friendly farming funding schemes run out in December and there is uncertainty about the introduction of the new sustainable farming incentive which was supposed to be announced today but was delayed by the reshuffle. He also said the extension of inheritance tax to farms was “crippling confidence, undermining that ability to invest”.
Reeves reportedly tells cabinet colleagues access to Treasury emergency funds to be limited ahead of budget
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has warned cabinet colleagues that they will only have limited access to Treasury emergency funds in the run-up to the budget, the BBC’s Faisal Islam is reporting.
Islam says:
The Treasury reserve, designed to be used for “genuinely unforeseen, unaffordable and unavoidable pressures” has recently been used to fund higher public sector pay and compensation payouts.
In a letter to ministers, the chancellor said Treasury would only consider providing reserve funds to departments that have already maximised their savings …
The aim of restricting reserve access is to help Reeves stick to her borrowing rules by reducing government borrowing and keep department spending within totals announced at the June spending review.
She also warned that any funds borrowed from the reserve, which was £9bn last year and is set to be halved this year, would have to be repaid.
Attorney general Lord Hermer says ‘nothing sensible or practical or effective’ off the table in dealing with small boats
On Monday Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, said that she would do “whatever it takes” to secure the borders. In evidence to the Lords constitution committee, Lord Hermer, the attorney general, gave a similar, but subtly different, reply to a similar question. Referring to the small boats problem, he said:
This government has made absolutely plain that it is our priority to address it and as the previous lord chancellor, now home secretary, made plain before you, we will leave no stone unturned in trying to protect this country’s interests and dealing with what we inherited in respect of an immigration and asylum system that, in large measures was broken …
Nothing sensible or practical or effective will be off the table.
Hermer confirmed that the government is considering tightening how article 8 of the European convention on human rights (guaranteeing the right to family life) is interpreted in UK courts.
Some of our colleagues on the Council of Europe have, I think, more effective, more robust mechanisms that are compliant with article 8 that we need to look at. We are kicking the tyres hard at every level.
And he also firmly rejected claims in a recent thinktank report that the UK could leave the ECHR without the Good Friday agreement being undermined. Asked about the report, he said:
I saw that analysis. It’s just wrong. As you know, the European convention is expressly baked in to that agreement. We would be in breach of it if we left the convention.
That’s the plain legal view. I’m sure it would be the view not only held by Ireland, but also by the EU. It would do enormous damage to the interests of this country. It would be deeply worrying for Northern Ireland.
There will be two urgent questions after PMQs.
The first, from the Lib Dem Calum Miller, is about the Israeli attack on Qatar, and will be answered by a Foreign Office minister.
And the second, from the shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, is about the invastion of Polish airspace by Russian drones, and will be answered by a defence minister.
Swinney to brief press this afternoon on meeting with Trump about whisky tariffs
Libby Brooks
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney is holding a press conference at his official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, this afternoon to brief reporters after his meeting yesterday at the White House with Donald Trump to discuss tariffs on Scotch whisky.
The Scottish government said that Swinney had “constructive talks” with the US president on Tuesday, which took place with UK ambassador Peter Mandelson, suggesting this was very much a joint effort.
The meeting, which lasted about 50 minutes, also covered topics including Gaza and Israeli airstrikes on Qatar. It’s highly unusual for a Scottish first minister to secure such a significant meeting, indicating the growing relationship between the two leaders after Trump’s visit to Scotland earlier in the summer.
The Scottish Whisky Association says that 10% import tarrifs are costing the industry £4m a week, while US distillers are also concerned about a reduction in Scottish demand for used bourbon barrels which are used in the maturation process.
Swinney has been lobbying Trump since last December and will be likely see Trump again during his state visit to the UK next week.
The relationship between Trump and Swinney appears to have flourished thanks to the emotional ties the US President has to Scotland – his mother was born on the Isle of Lewis and owns two golf courses there – with Trump describing Swinney as “a special guy” at the end of his August visit.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has issued a statement saying Keir Starmer should call in the Israeli ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely, over the attack on Qatar. Davey says:
Netanyahu’s strikes on Doha show that he is less interested in securing the release of the hostages than he is in continuing to fuel regional destabilisation.
Keir Starmer must summon the Israeli ambassador to Downing Street – immediately – to make clear that these strikes were utterly reckless and a flagrant breach of international law.
(Given that Starmer is meeting the Israeli president later, it is not entirely clear why Davey thinks he should speak to the ambassador too.)
Bridget Phillipson confirms position as frontrunner in Labour’s deputy leadership contest after first nominations published
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has consolidated her place as the frontrunner in the contest to be Labour’s next deputy leader. Last night Labour published the first list of nominations for candidates, and Phillipson was in the lead. Here are the figures.
Bridget Phillipson: 44
Lucy Powell: 35
Bell Riberio-Addy: 8
Emily Thornberry: 7
Paula Barker: 3
Alison McGovern: 2
To be on the ballot paper, candidates need to get 80 MP nominations by 5pm on Thursday. An updated list of MP nominations will be published tonight, and it seems very likely that at that point Phillipson – who is in effect the No 10 candidate – will pass the threshold.
In Tory leadership contests, MPs can back a long-shot candidate and then switch to someone else in a subsequent round of voting, after they drop out. But in this process MPs who have already nominated one candidate cannot switch before the Thursday deadline unless their candidate withdraws. And MPs don’t have to nominate any candidate if they don’t want to. As a result, it is possible that Phillipson could end up as the only candidate on the ballot, and likely that the three candidates most critical of Keir Starmer (Emily Thornberry, Bell Ribeiro-Addy. and Paula Barker) will struggle to reach the 80-MP threshold.
According to Politico, Phillipson’s allies are “very confident” that she will get 80 nominations by the end of the day.
But, as Aubrey Allegretti and Max Kendix report in the Times, critics have been briefing against her.
Despite Phillipson’s strong lead among parliamentarians, she was criticised by rival camps. One senior MP said: “I think she’s quite robotic. She obviously has a very strong story, but she’s never really come across as having a personality. She’s no Angela Rayner.”
Phillipson’s perceived closeness to Starmer also concerned some. A minister said: “She’s not charismatic, engaging or going to light a fire under our membership, which is desperately needed. With Bridget, it’ll be continuity Keir.”
An ally of Thornberry expressed scepticism that “a sitting cabinet minister is never going to properly stand up to Keir and Rachel”, while a source close to Barker said it would be “impossible” for Phillipson to be a “constructive critic”.
According to Sam Blewett and Bethany Dawson in their London Playbook briefing, Phillipson’s supporters are arguing that it would be in the party’s best interests for the eduction secretary to be elected unopposed. One said:
The question Labour MPs need to be asking themselves is do they want a damaging six week internal deputy leadership contest, which opens old sores and potentially divides the party, because there is one candidate that can unite the party now — and that is Bridget Phillipson.
In 2021 at Labour conference Keir Starmer narrowly won a vote changing the leadership election rules so that candidates for leader need to be nominated by 20% of the PLP, not just 10% as before. The move did not attract a huge amount of attention in the national media, but in Labour circles it was extremely contentious, and Starmer and his allies saw it as an essential move in marginalising the left.
This week we are seeing why that rule change mattered so much. Under the old system, the deputy leadership contest would have been much more open to a Starmer-critical voice.
Mandelson says he regrets ‘very, very deeply’ being taken in by ‘charismatic, criminal liar’
Peter Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US, has spoken at length about how he regrets “very, very deeply indeed” his past friendship with the billionaire paedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
After new evidence about the extent of that friendship came to light yesterday, Mandelson gave an interview to the Sun’s editor-at-large in the US, Harry Cole, accepting that the disclosures were “very embarrassing to see and to read”.
Mandelson told Cole in an interview for his new show, Harry Cole Saves the West (sic):
I just feel two things now – one, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.
Secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done …
I regret very much that I fell for his lies, I fell for and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said.
With hindsight, with fresh information, many years later, we realised that we had been wrong to believe him.
He is a charismatic, criminal liar we now see, and I regret very much indeed.
I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death in 2018 or 19, when it was.
I feel, I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but I continued the association, and I took, at face value, the lies that he fed me and many others.
Mandelson said that he expected further correspondence between himself and Epstein to surface. But he also insisted that he never saw any evidence of Epstein being involoved in criminal activity, and he suggested that that might have been related to his being gay. He told Cole:
I just would say this … during all the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing. I never saw any evidence of criminal activity. I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in the way that allegedly he did for others.
Perhaps it’s because I’m a gay man, perhaps when I knew him, perhaps when I was associated with him those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity, which has since come to light.
That’s why I feel so profoundly upset by what has been now revealed about what he did to women and why I feel profoundly upset that I was taken in by him and continued my association with him for far longer than I should have.
Cole did not ask Mandelson whether, in his current role as ambassador, there are any other charismatic, criminal liars he is at risk of being conned by.
The full five-minute interview is here, and there is a shorter clip here.
Labour comms director helped write manifesto while still working at TikTok
A senior executive at TikTok helped write the Labour manifesto while still working at the Chinese-owned technology company, he has said. James Lyons, who left his post as Keir Starmer’s director strategic communications last week, wrote on LinkedIn that he was asked last year to help write the party’s election pledges while he was still working for the social media platform. Kiran Stacey has the story here.
Keir Starmer will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog as MPs express ‘grave concern’ at the visit
Good morning. Keir Starmer is today holding talks with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, in Downing Street. The visit was highly contentious even before Israel bombed Qatar in a targeted strike aimed at Hamas officials.
More than 60 parliamentarians, including Labour MPs, SNP MPs, Greens and independents, have signed a letter to Starmer expressing “grave concern” at the visit because, even though the presidency in Israel is largely a ceremonial post, Herzog’s past comments and actions have been cited as support for the case that the country is committing genocide in Gaza.
Here is the text of the letter, coordinated by the Labour MP Andy McDonald.
And the Green party has gone further. Zack Polanski, its new leader, has called for Herzog to be arrested. He said:
President Herzog has been complicit while the Israeli government has engaged in an ongoing genocide in Gaza. Everyone involved should be arrested, charged for war crimes and face justice.
Welcoming a potential war criminal to the UK is another demonstration of how this Labour government is implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It also serves as a brutal insult to those mourning the thousands of innocent lives lost and to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing ongoing violence and hunger.
A refusal to detain Herzog can be seen as a contravention of the Geneva Convention which makes clear that States have legal responsibility for preventing the targeting of civilians. When this is breached individuals must be prosecuted and this should be applied to Herzog.
As Eleni Courea reports in her story, Herzog has “previously clashed with Netanyahu over democratic and judicial changes but broadly backed the military campaign in Gaza”. She says:
The Israeli president has received attention for a statement in which he asserted that all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. “The entire [Palestinian] nation out there … is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,” he said in October 2023.
Starmer will no doubt address this at PMQs.
And there will be more on Labour’s deputy leadership contest, although the main event – the private, online hustings for Labour MPs – will not take place until this evening, when the blog has closed.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes annual household spending figures.
9.45am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives evedience to the Commons culture committee.
11am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to give a speech at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) summit.
11.30am: Liz Kendall takes questions in the Commons for the first time since being moved from work and pensions secretary to science secretary in last week’s reshuffle.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
2.15pm: Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, and Emma Little-Pengelly, the deputy first minister, take questions from the executive office committee at Stormont.
Afternoon: John Healey, the defence secretary, holds a press conference with his counterparts from the E5 (the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland) after they have held a meeting.
Afternoon: Starmer holds a meeting with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.
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