Commons to ask crown estate for details of Prince Andrew’s rent-free housing as inquiry moves closer – as it happened

5.36pm BST Afternoon summary Keir Starmer has said he can’t express how much he disagrees with the Tory MP who wants mass deportations to make the UK more “culturally coherent”. In an interview at the weekend Katie Lam called for the deportation of large numbers of people who are settled in the UK lawfully. At first it was widely assumed that Lam was freelancing, but Lam was in fact describing the official party policy as set out in a bill tabled by Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, earlier this year. (See 3.09pm.) Lam said the deportations would leave “a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people”. Asked what he thought of her comments, Starmer told ITV Meridian: I can’t tell you how much I disagree with her. I think that her approach, where people who are lawfully in this country, who have been working in our communities, perhaps in our schools, our hospitals, running businesses, our neighbours, people lawfully here, she wants to reach in and remove them from our country, for cultural reasons, she says. That is how far the Conservative party has sunk. PM: "I can't tell you how much I disagree with her."Sir Keir Starmer hits back at @Katie_Lam_MP's suggestion that "multiculturalism has not succeeded in this country". The Weald of Kent MP made the comments this week on @itvpeston.@itvmeridian pic.twitter.com/xFAheH5lYr— Kit Bradshaw (@kitbradshaw) October 23, 2025 Conservative MPs have complained to party whips after Katie Lam’s comments. Ministers have confirmed plans to reduce affordable housing quotas in London as they try to reverse the recent collapse in housebuilding in the capital. The Commons public accounts committee has asked the crown estate for details of Prince Andrew’s lease, bringing the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry into his rent-free housing one step closer. (See 3.31pm.) Five survivors invited on to the child sexual exploitation inquiry panel have written to Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood to say they will continue working with the investigation only if the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, remains in post. The only Black branch chair of Reform UK has left the rightwing populist party, saying the tone of Britain’s migration debate is “doing more harm than good”. Mark Sedwill’s prospects of becoming the UK’s ambassador in Washington have taken a blow after officials raised concerns about an article he wrote in 2021 praising Joe Biden and criticising Donald Trump. 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. Updated at 5.50pm BST 5.12pm BST AI, used well, can 'rebuild trust in state' and in politics, David Lammy says The use of artificial intelligence can boost trust in the state and tackle problems with the “bloated” public sector, David Lammy said. In a speech at OpenAI’s Frontiers conference in London this morning, the deputy PM said that the public sector had become “too expensive” and that productivity was still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels, but that AI had the potential to change that. He said: Governments and corporations who seize AI faster and more robustly will surge ahead and those that hesitate will fall very quickly behind. I’m also convinced that if used well – emphasis on used well – AI can help to rebuild trust in the state, badly needed trust in our politics, delivering what people really want: shorter waits, fewer errors, lower costs and better outcomes. He also said: Parts of our bureaucracy have become bloated, they have become too expensive, they have become too unproductive, to the point that too often they fail to meet the needs of the people that they’re meant to serve. And, let’s be frank, public sector productivity is still lagging, certainly behind pre-pandemic levels, and that’s not good for anybody. It’s certainly not good for the people of our country … If we get this right, if we embed AI across government, across every system, across every service, I believe that we can rejuvenate 150 years of British state enterprise in the next 15 years, possibly even sooner. 5.04pm BST Voting has closed in the Labour deputy leadership contest. The result will be announced on Saturday. LabourList and Survation do regular polls of Labour members (they survey LabourList members who say they are party members, and weight the results according to what is known the composition of the Labour membership) and they have published their final deputy leadership one. It suggests Lucy Powell will beat Bridget Phillipson by 57% to 40%. 4.44pm BST Conservatives complain to whips about fellow MP’s comments on legally settled people Conservative MPs have complained to party whips after Katie Lam said many legally settled people should be deported to make the UK “culturally coherent”, the Guardian has learned. Eleni Courea and Peter Walker have the story. Related: Conservatives complain to whips about fellow MP’s comments on legally settled people 4.38pm BST Labour and Tory thinktanks welcome affordable housing quotas being cut for London in bid to boost development As expected, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has confirmed that it will allow builders to qualify for fast-track planning approval if their developments contain 20% affordable housing – rather than 35%, the current minimum. MHCLG said this was housing building in Londo “has faced significant challenges over recent years due to a combination of the legacy of the previous government, impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, high interest rates, spiralling construction costs, regulatory blockers and wider economic conditions”. In its news release, MHCLG said: Time-limited, emergency measures, which are subject to consultation, will unlock development by making sites more viable and incentivise developers to get spades in the ground through a fast-tracked planning process for sites with at least 20 per cent affordable housing. Targeted measures will tackle squeezed viability, including the removal of design guidance that constrains density and temporary relief from development levies for schemes able to start promptly and guarantee affordable homes for Londoners. Today’s package will mean that more homes – including affordable homes and those for social rent – can be built and built faster. This ‘use it or lose it’ route will come with strict conditions to speed up the delivery of new homes, which if not met will require developers to share their profits with local boroughs to deliver more affordable homes. Unusually, the announcement has been welcomed by thinktanks on the left and the right. This is from Ben Cooper, head of the Fabian Housing Centre, the housing wing of the Labour thinktank, the Fabian Society. The collapse of housebuilding in London is the legacy of the previous government, piling up costs on housebuilders and failing to ensure quick planning decisions. Unless this is tackled swiftly, London’s housing crisis will continue to devastate families and communities – leaving thousands trapped in temporary accommodation and many more struggling with the cost of rent or unable to buy. That is why this package is critical to kickstart building in London over the next two years. Additional powers for the mayor will ensure that every part of London is making its contribution to tackling the housing crisis and meeting the 1.5m new homes target. The temporary reduction in the affordable housing target is a regrettable necessity, to ensure that we don’t see the delivery of affordable and social housing grind to a halt in London. And this is from Ben Hopkinson, head of housing and infrastracture at the Centre for Policy Studies, a Conservative thinktank. The government’s support for housebuilding in London is welcome, and the new policy paper contains some encouraging elements. The removal of costly regulations like those requiring dual aspect and the changes to high affordability requirements, as the CPS has repeatedly called for, are especially good news. The Centre for London also welcomed the news. Its CEO, Antonia Jennings, said: The 35% affordable homes target for new developments is admirable, and it’s one London should strive for in the long-term. The reality is, however, that 35% of nothing, is nothing. When no new developments are being built, there will be no new social homes. Updated at 5.52pm BST 3.55pm BST The Labour MP Lloyd Hatton, who has been among those pushing for a fuller inquiry into Prince Andrew, welcomeed the announcement from the public accounts committee. (See 3.31pm.) He said: It’s good news the public accounts committee is beginning to take a much closer look at this pressing matter. We must scrutinise any taxpayers’ money that may be linked to the Royal Lodge. The public rightly expect parliament to get to the bottom of this. 3.49pm BST Spending less than 8% of new fishing fund on Scotland 'madness', MPs told The food minister has faced calls to explain the “ocean-going madness” of spending less than 8% of a new fishing fund on Scotland, PA Media reports. PA says: During a Commns urgent question this morning Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael pressed Angela Eagle to say when she planned to look again at Scotland’s £28m allocation from the £360m UK-wide package. Scotland lands the most fish by quantity and value out of the four UK nations, according to the Government, and the Scottish fishing fleet has landed more than three-quarters of UK quota species, such as cod, haddock and herring, over recent years. The government earlier this year set out its intention to back coastal communities with funding when negotiators struck a 12-year agreement with the EU, granting British fishing access and rights with no increase in the amount which EU vessels can catch in UK waters. “We are working closely with our fishing and seafood sectors to ensure that they’re vibrant, profitable and sustainable alongside a healthy and productive marine environment,” Eagle told the Commons. She said the Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund will “support the next generation of fishers and breathe new life into our coastal communities”. Eagle continued: “This fund recognises the vital contribution that fishing and coastal communities make to our economy, local communities and national heritage. Designing this fund with stakeholders is paramount to its success, and we want to work with industry and communities to get their views on how to maximise value, and target investment for maximum local impact.” The minister added the fund “would be devolved, providing devolved governments with full discretion of how to allocate funding and reaffirming this Government’s commitment to devolution”, with the allocations for Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont based on the Barnett Formula. Carmichael, who chairs the Commons’ environment committee, told MPs: “Let’s not forget that this fund was created because the prime minister went and rolled over for 12 years the catastrophically bad deal that Boris Johnson gave us for five. “If the minister is sincere when she says that the aim of the government is to maximise local investment, then to use the Barnett Formula to distribute this is ocean-going madness.” Brendan O’Hara described the allocation as a “kick in the teeth to those fishing communities” in his Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber constituency. Mairi Gougeon, the Scottish government’s rural affairs secretary, has previously written to Eagle, describing the allocation as “wholly unacceptable”. Wales’s Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund allocation was £18m, with Northern Ireland set to receive £10m. 3.31pm BST Commons inquiry into Prince Andrew's rent-free housing gets closer as public accounts committee requests details of lease Yesterday Keir Starmer told MPs that he favoured a parliamentary inquiry covering Prince Andrew’s housing arrangements at Royal Lodge – the mansion in Windsor which he leases from the crown estate on a deal that involves him paying no rent. Today the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) said it is going to be asking the crown estate for more details of Andrew’s lease arrangements – in what would be the first step towards a full investigation. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said: The public accounts committee will be writing in the coming days to the crown estate commissioners and HM Treasury, seeking further information on the lease arrangements for Royal Lodge. In the correspondence, our cross-party committee will be raising a number of questions with the crown estate and HM Treasury. This forms part of our longstanding remit, on behalf of parliament and the British public, to examine the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending, and ensure the taxpayer is receiving best value for money. Our committee has a further opportunity in 2026 to consider the annual report and accounts for the crown estate, and will make a decision on whether to undertake any work on this in the normal way. We will review the response we receive to our forthcoming correspondence, and will consider at that time whether to seek further information. In the past the PAC has published reports looking at royal finances. But it has not taken evidence from members of the royal family directly, and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, who wants to see Andrew summoned to parliament to face questions from MPs, is unlikely to get his wish granted any time soon. Clifton-Brown does not really need to write to the crown estate for details of the lease; they were published in the Times on Monday evening, after the crown estate responded to a Freedom of Information request. Official bodies normally take weeks or months to respond to FoI requests. But George Greenwood, the journalist who broke the story, said he got a reply on the day – suggesting somone at the crown estate was not unhappy about the idea of this information appearing in the public domain. The paper said: The Times obtained a copy of the leasehold agreement for Royal Lodge, revealing the terms under which the prince lives on the 30-room estate. It states that, while the prince paid £1m for the lease plus at least £7.5 million for refurbishments completed in 2005, he has paid “one peppercorn (if demanded)” in rent per year, since 2003. He and his family are entitled to live in the property until 2078. Updated at 3.33pm BST 3.10pm BST Five grooming gang survivors tell PM they will stay on panel only if Jess Phillips remains in post Five survivors invited on to the child sexual exploitation inquiry panel have written to Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood to say they will continue working with the investigation only if the safeguarding minister Jess Phillips remains in post, Geraldine McKelvie reports. Related: Five grooming gang survivors tell PM they will stay on panel only if Jess Phillips remains in post 3.09pm BST James Cleverly is probably not the only senior Tory who is not aware of the full details of the party’s plan to revoke indefinite leave to remain from many people, including people who have been in receipt of benefits and people earning less than £38,700 a year. (See 12.27pm.) The proposal is so extreme that it is safe to assume that it did not get proper scrutiny before Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, published it in a private member’s bill. In a column for the Financial Times, Stephen Bush says this could lead to 5% of the UK’s legal population being deported. He says; [The proposal] essentially means that almost anyone who works in the UK for most of their working life is not going to be able to retire in the UK — which if you are in any way integrated to the country is going to be a huge wrench for you, your friends, neighbours and at least some of your family members. In scale, these proposals would mean deporting greater numbers and a greater proportion of the population than former Ugandan President Idi Amin’s deportation of Ugandan Asians. This scale of population movement is comparable to that which happened with the partition of India and Pakistan and the foundation of the state of Israel … Politically, the big winner here is Nigel Farage. That the Conservative party increasingly holds positions that are further from mainstream British public opinion than Reform, and does so while being blamed by the public for many of the UK’s problems today, is a gift to him in his quest to first become the dominant force on the British right and then to win an election. My colleague Rafael Behr says he has heard suggestions that the Tories published their bill before Kemi Badenoch had even read it. I have heard it plausibly suggested that Badenoch herself may well not have bothered reading the draft bill, or not closely enough to grasp what was actually being proposed. And … … far from Lam “freelancing” in ST as some Tories have tried to hint since Sunday, she may, as eager newbie, have mistakenly assumed the boss knew what official party policy was. Rookie error. 2.15pm BST Starmer announces £10m in extra funding to protect mosques and Muslim faith centres during visit to Peacehaven Keir Starmer was visiting the Peacehaven mosque in East Sussex today, which was subject to an arson attack earlier this month, to announce an extra £10m in funding for mosques and Muslim faith centres. No 10 said the invement would provide “vital security measures including CCTV, alarm systems, secure fencing and security personnel services”, and that it would be in addition to the £29.4m already allocated this year for mosques and Muslim faith schools. Anti-Muslim hate crime rose by 19% in the year ending March 2025, and it accounts for 44% of all religious hate crime, No 10 said. Starmer said: Britain is a proud and tolerant country. Attacks on any community are attacks on our entire nation and our values. This funding will provide Muslim communities with the protection they need and deserve, allowing them to live in peace and safety. 1.55pm BST DfE welcomes figures showing school attendance rates in England improving, though still below pre-Covid levels Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor. School attendance rates in England continued to improve in the last academic year, according to data released by the Department for Education (DfE), although returning to pre-pandemic levels has been slowed by a core of severely absent pupils and higher levels of absence among pupils with special educational needs. The figures for the autumn and spring terms of 2024-25 show an across the board decline in absences compared with the previous year. There was a sharp fall in the number of pupils classed as persistently absent, missing 10% or more of classroom sessions, down by more than 100,000 to nearly 1.3m. But the number who were severely absent after missing 50% or more rose slightly by 8,000, to 166,000.In state primary schools the absence rate dropped to 5.2% and in secondaries to 8.1%, continuing the gradual recovery from the spike seen after the Covid pandemic. But both remain above pre-Covid levels of 3.9% and 5.2% respectively, with absence because of illness remaining the major factor.A DfE spokesperson noted that the current Covid inquiry was “laying bare” the extent of the impact on children and school absence: This government is taking the action needed to get our kids back in school, with the biggest improvement in attendance in a decade last academic year. Absence is down, persistent absence has plummeted and we are slowing the stubborn rise in severe absence. Through free breakfast clubs in every primary school, an attendance mentoring programme, and ensuring earlier intervention for children with special needs we are creating a school system that serves not just some children, but supports every child to achieve and thrive. But the Liberal Democrats pointed to figures showing that persistent absence among children with special needs increased to more than 72,000 over the period, up by more than 8,000 in a year.Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem education and children spokesperson, said: Children with special needs are missing more school than ever before – with the very system meant to support vulnerable children posing a serious risk to their future. Updated at 1.57pm BST 1.44pm BST Starmer says 'of course' he has faith in safeguarding minister Jess Phillips Keir Starmer has reaffirmed his confidence in Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, despite some grooming gang survivors calling for her resignation. (See 8.51am.) Speaking to broadcasters this morning, he said: The most important thing in relation to the grooming gangs is that we have the national inquiry and that absolutely gets to the truth and to justice. Asked if he had faith in Phillips, Starmer replied: Yes, of course, I do. Jess has been working on issues involving violence against women and girls for many, many years. According to PA Media, Starmer intends to reach out to victims in the light of what has happened. 1.30pm BST Starmer rejects claim return of man deported to France under 'one in, one out' scheme has left plan 'in tatters' Keir Starmer has insisted his approach to tackling small boats crossing the Channel remains on course despite an Iranian man re-entering the UK after being returned to France. Speaking to broadcasters today, Starmer said the man, who now claims to be a victim of modern slavery, would be “fast-tracked back out of the country”. He told broadcasters: We know he hasn’t got a claim to make, therefore we’ll remove him very, very swiftly. So his return journey back to United Kingdom is completely pointless, and it’s really important I make that absolutely clear. The man had been returned from the UK to France in September under the “one in, one out” deal struck over the summer, but came back across the Channel in a small boat a month later, PA Media reports. Starmer denied that the government’s approach to stopping small boats was “in tatters”, while earlier, David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, said the identification and detention of the Iranian man was a sign of “progress”. 1.22pm BST 12.59pm BST Mahmood says violence against women and girls 'national emergency' as recorded sexual offences reach record high Rajeev Syal is the Guardian’s home affairs editor. The Office for National Statistics report also says that the number of sexual offences, including rape, recorded by the police is at a record level since current reporting methods were established. The report says: There have been general increases in police recorded sexual offences over the last decade, largely because of improvements in police recording practices. There was a 9% increase in YE [the year ending] June 2025 (to 211,225 offences), compared with the previous year (193,684 offences). This is partly because of the introduction of two new sexual offences subcodes in January 2024. These subcodes relate to sending or sharing intimate photographs or films following the Online Safety Act 2023. Around 34% (72,804 offences) of all sexual offences recorded by the police in YE June 2025 were rape offences. This was a 6% increase, compared with YE June 2024 (68,970 offences). But the ONS also says that the police recorded crime figures are not a good way of measuring trends over time, because new offences are created, police recording methods change, and there has been an increase in the number of victims reporting offences. The ONS also looks at Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) figures, and these are considered a more reliable guide to trends over time because the CSEW measures if people say they have been a victim of crime, regardless of whether or not the offence was reported to the police. It says; When analysing long-term trends, we use the 16 to 59 years age range to give a comparable data time series. The prevalence of sexual assault among people aged 16 to 59 years has fluctuated between 1.5% and 3.0% over the last 20 years. Over the last 10 years there has been an increase in sexual assault, after a previous decrease from YE March 2005 to YE March 2014. In the YE March 2025 survey, 2.4% of people aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault, compared with 1.7% in the YE March 2015 survey. Commenting on the figures, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said these figures showed why the government was treating violence against women and girls as a “national emergency”. She said: These figures tell us what, tragically, many have long known: violence against women and girls is a national emergency. It is encouraging to see from this data that victims are coming forward, and that police and prosecutors are acting. These crimes too often go unreported, and we cannot solve a crisis until we can see it fully. Now, we must redouble our efforts to eradicate this evil. That’s why this government has made it our mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, as part of our Plan for Change. As home secretary, I will ensure police have the tools to relentlessly pursue dangerous offenders and that victims receive the support they need. Updated at 1.00pm BST 12.42pm BST Homicide rate in England and Wales down to lowest rate for at least two decades, ONS says The number of homicides recorded by police in England and Wales has dropped to its lowest level since current methods of reporting began in 2003, PA Media reports. PA says: Some 518 homicides were recorded in the year to June, including 444 offences of murder and 68 of manslaughter, according to a report from the Office for National Statistics. This is a drop of 6% from 552 in the previous year and 27% below the pre-pandemic total of 710 in 2019/20. The current method of recording homicides dates from 2002/03, when the figure stood at 1,047 – although this includes the 173 victims of serial killer doctor Harold Shipman. The homicide rate in the year to June stood at 8.4 offences per million people – the lowest level since the 1970s, the Home Office said. New crime figures for England and Wales published this morning also show there were 51,527 knife offences recorded by forces in the 12 months to June, down year on year by 5%. Other types of police-recorded offences increased, with shoplifting up 13% year on year to 529,994 – just below the recent all-time high – and theft from the person at 145,860, up 5%. 12.33pm BST Reform’s only Black branch chair quits over ‘harmful’ migration debate The only Black branch chair of Reform UK has left the rightwing populist party, saying the tone of Britain’s migration debate is “doing more harm than good”, Chris Osuh reports. Related: Reform’s only Black branch chair quits over ‘harmful’ migration debate 12.27pm BST Cleverly wrongly claims Tory deportation policy would not retrospectively impact people with indefinite leave to remain Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent. The Conservatives’ policy of retrospectively removing the right to live in the UK from large numbers of families appears to be causing confusion even among shadow ministers, with James Cleverly arguing this morning that the plan would not affect life for people who already have indefinite leave to remain. Quizzed about the proposals, as set out in an interview over the weekend by Katie Lam, a junior Home Office frontbencher for the Tories, Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, denied that people already with ILR could be removed under a future Conservative government. He told Times Radio: That’s not the full detail of the policy. That’s not quite the right interpretation of the policy. What we’re saying is indefinite leave to remain needs to be tighter. Pressed on whether the changes would be retrospective, he said: Retrospective changes are not what we are talking about as our policy. This is curious, given that the Conservative plans on ILR, as set out in a draft bill presented by the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, explicitly sets out that people with ILR can have this removed if they commit a crime, claim any kind of benefits, or earn less than £38,700 for six months or longer. The section is even titled “Revocation of Indefinite Leave to Remain in certain circumstances”. Assuming this is still the policy – and Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson said it was on Wednesday, and even explicitly defended the retrospective aspect – it is unusual for someone like Cleverly, who was both home secretary and shadow home secretary, to not be across the details. In fairness to him, while Philp’s bill was tabled in May, few people paid much attention before Lam’s comments. The details of how the deportations would work, including whether it might involve splitting up families, are also still unclear. Updated at 12.28pm BST 12.00pm BST Claire Coutinho claims Tony Blair's thinktank 'catching up' with Tories after it says 2030 'clean power' target should be dropped The Tories have welcomed a report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), the former Labour’s PMs thinktank, saying the government should drop its plan to decarbonise electricity production in the UK by 2030. Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, claimed that the TBI was “catching up” with the Conservative party – even though the thinktank tank is not supporting the Tory call for the 2050 net zero target to be abandoned. In a report, the TBI said that, while the 2030 clean power mission was laudable when it was launched as one of Keir Starmer’s five missions in 2023, the government should now be focusing more on cost of living issues. The TBI report said: Launched in the middle of the gas crisis and in a low-interest environment, [the clean power misison] was right for its time, but circumstances have changed. The UK now needs more than a decarbonisation plan. It needs a full-spectrum energy strategy built on growth, resilience and abundant clean electricity. This means prioritising cost, flexibility and long-term stability – the real building blocks of electrification – not just short-term emissions cuts … To focus minds across government, the clean power 2030 mission should therefore be reframed as cheaper power 2030, net zero 2050. The UK’s commitment to net zero remains firm. Britain led the world in enshrining the Climate Change Act, and that legal duty stands. While some have suggested walking back the country’s commitment to the Climate Change Act or to achieving net zero by 2050, that choice would amount to rolling back progress. The question is no longer whether to decarbonise, but how – how to deliver clean power affordably, securely and with public support. This passage does not mention the fact that Blair himself was at one point one of those suggesting “walking back” on net zero 2050. Blair has subsequently clarified his thinking, and his thinktank backs the Climate Change Act – unlike the Conserative party, that wants to repeal it. But this did not stop Coutinho this morning claiming that Blair is on her side. She said: I’m glad Tony Blair’s thinktank has been copy-and-pasting my speeches. Energy is prosperity and the priority for any energy policy has to be dealing with the fact that we have got the most expensive electricity in the world. The Conservative party are the only party with a plan to cut bills. We will axe the carbon tax to cut bills for every family instantly. It’s good that the TBI is catching up – and now it’s time for Ed Miliband to adopt our cheap power plan to cut electricity bills by 20% tomorrow. Commenting on the TBI report, a spokesperson for Miliband’s energy department said: This report rightly recognises that clean power is the right choice for this country. This government’s clean power mission is exactly how we will deliver cheaper power and bring down bills for good. As Kiran Stacey and Helena Horton report, the TBI may be on to something; ministers believe they may have to accept that they won’t be able to achieve the clean power 2030 target because they need to keep energy bills down. Related: Keir Starmer prepares to miss key green target in effort to keep energy bills down 11.25am BST Renewable energy investment should come from defence budgets, say retired military leaders Investment in renewable energy should be counted under defence expenditure, says a group of retired senior military personnel, because the climate crisis represents a threat to national security, Fiona Harvey reports. Related: Renewable energy investment should come from defence budgets, say retired military leaders 11.06am BST Rachel Reeves has announced a £500m investment package for new homes and stronger transport links between Oxford and Cambridge as part of a bid to create “Europe’s Silicon Valley” in southern England, PA Media reports. PA says: The Cowley Branch railway line in Oxford will reopen with new stations in Littlemore and Cowley, which the Treasury said would support up to 10,000 new jobs. The investment will also go towards the development of affordable homes in Cambridge, with plans to launch a consultation on forming a new centrally led development corporation to support the growth of the city. The Cambridge Growth Company, which was established by the government and brings together local leaders, communities and industry, will begin recruiting for a new chief executive. Its aim is to develop proposals for housing, transport, water and other infrastructure in the Greater Cambridge region. 10.50am BST Tom Tugendhat, the Tory former security minister, asked why one of the witness statements provided by the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, included comments from the Labour manifesto about Labour’s China policy. He asked what that was the case when the case was meant to relate to the policy in place when the alleged offences were committed, when the Conservatives were in office. Reeves said the most important witness statement was the one that was submitted when the Tories were in office. 10.46am BST Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, tabled the urgent question on the China spy case. Responding to Reeves, he said the attorney general reportedly heard the CPS were about to drop the case a few days before that was announced. He asked what steps the attorney general, Lord Hermer, took to ensure the CPS got the extra evidence it needed to ensure the prosecution could go ahead. Reeves did not address this point in her reply. Instead she accused the Tories of “baseless smears”, and said that the attorney general will be giving evidence to the joint committee on the national security strategy next week. 10.40am BST Solicitor general Ellie Reeves says disinformation' from Tories on China spy case is distracting from anti-espionage work In the Commons Ellie Reeves, the solicitor general, is responding to a Tory urgent question about the China spy case, and the role of the attorney general in the case. Reeves says in this country the Crown Prosecution Service is independent. It is a bedrock constitutional principle that prosecutions in this country are free from political influence. This means that prosecutors, not politicians who decide which cases to prosecute. It is prosecutors, not politicians, who decide what evidence will be used at criminal trials, and it is prosecutors, not politicians, who decide when cases should be dropped. Reeves says although individual CPS decisions are protected from political interference, it is “superintended” by the attorney general. Details of how this works are set out in a framework agreement signed by the attorney general under the last govenrment. Reeves says, in some cases, including Official Secrets Act cases, the attorney general has to approve prosection decisions. She goes on: In doing so, the law officer acts in a quasi-judicial capacity independently of government and applies the same two-stage test [as the CPS applies]. Reeves says the attorney general approved the prosecution in this case on 3 April 2024. She goes on: Following that date, no law officer intervened in the case at any stage. It would have been wholly inappropriate for the law officers to do so. Once consent is given, then the law officer plays no on-going role. If the prosecutor contemplates dropping the case because of evidential reasons, then the requirement is that the prosecutor informs the attorney general of the decision as soon as it has been taken. That is what happened in this case. She ends by saying “ongoing disinformation around the collapse of this case” is distracting the government as it attempts to deal with Chinese espion are now distracting from the most important issue we should all be focused on how the government can dea with Chinese espionage. Updated at 10.41am BST 10.18am BST Lindsay Hoyle suggests government, not parliamentary rules, to blame for MPs not getting chance to debate Prince Andrew Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has insisted that parliamentary rules do not prevent MPs debating the conduct of members of the royal family. There are rules that limit the ability of MPs to discuss the royals in general debates. But, in a statement to MPs at the start of parliamentary business today, Hoyle insisted that these do not ban any reference to the king or his relatives. The issue has come to the fore because some MPs want to debate Prince Andrew, either legislating to remove his titles, or to consider his lease arrangements at Royal Lodge. Hoyle said: I know there has been some commentary on what members of this house may or may not discuss in the chamber in relation to Prince Andrew, some of which is inaccurate. There is understandably great interest from members and from the public on this matter. For the benefit of the house, I would like to be clear that there are ways for the house to properly consider this matter. Any discussions about the conduct or reflections on members of the royal family can be properly discussed on the substantive motions. And I know some members have already tabled such a motion. I am not able to allocate time for a debate on such a motion, but others are able to do so, if wishing to do that. But on questions, the long-standing practice of the house, as set out in Erskine May, is that criticism of members of the royal family cannot be made as part of questions. I hope this is helpful clarification, as there is lots of online speculation. Hoyle was, in effect, trying to ensure that the government, not parliament, gets the blame for MPs not debating Andrew. When Hoyle said “others” are able to allocate time for debate on a sustantive motion, he was referring to the government, which controls most of what gets debated in the Commons. While ministers have not ruled out allowing MPs to debate legislation relating to Andrew, they have said they will be guided by the wishes of the king, and they have suggested that MPs have more important issues to focus on. 9.58am BST Some 220 migrants arrived in the UK on Wednesday after crossing the Channel, bringing the cumulative number so far in 2025 to 36,954 – more than the 36,816 arrivals in the whole of 2024, PA Media reports. PA says: It is too early to tell whether this year will see a record number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel. The cumulative total for 2025 so far, 36,954, is 30% higher than at this point in 2024 and 41% higher than in 2023, but 2% lower than at this stage in 2022. The record for the most arrivals in a calendar year is 45,774 in 2022. 9.42am BST Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell make their final arguments ahead of ballot closing in Labour's deputy leadership contest Jessica Elgot is the Guardian’s deputy political editor. At noon today voting will close in the Labour’s deputy leadership election. It has been a tight race between education secretary Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell, the recently ousted cabinet minister. Powell has been calling for Labour to change direction and to champion more loudly progressive values, so as to take on both Nigel Farage and leftwing parties. And Phillipson has told supporters that she needs a “mandate to smash child poverty” so that in cabinet she can get agreeement to end the two-child benefit cap. Powell has led comfortably in polls of Labour members, but Phillipson has endorsements of three of the largest unions whose members have not been polled and who also get a vote if they pay into the party. Powell wrote to supporters last night: The politics of division and hate are on the rise, and it is up to us, the Labour party, to stand firm against it, and show that progressive, mainstream politics can make the change people have voted for again and again. I want to help Keir and our government to succeed. But we all know that we must change how we are doing things to turn things around. Phillipson has said she does not believe changes comes from criticism of Keir Starmer’s leadership. “We all know Reform are a clear and present danger which we can’t ignore – so are the Greens peddling their false hope,” she said in a final statement last night. But we’re not going to beat them by having spats in public. We’re not going to beat them by throwing rocks at the leadership just as we’re not going to beat them by straying from our values. We’re going to beat them by coming together. Powell has routinely been dubbed as the divisive candidate by her rival, in a contest that has left both camps feeling bruised, though there is particular anger from allies of Powell. In her letter, Powell said: [It is] not divisive to be honest about where we are, it’s the only way we can collectively face up to it and change course. Blindly following along is not unity, it’s a dereliction of our duty to defeat the politics of hate and division. 9.34am BST There will be two urgent questions in the Commons after 10.30am. First, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, is asking for a statement about the role of the attorney general in the collapse of the China spy trial. And then the SNP’s Seamus Logan is asking for a statement on the fishing and coastal growth fund. 9.19am BST Badenoch criticised for using grooming gangs inquiry for 'point scoring' Yesterday Jim Gamble, a former deputy chief constable and a former head the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command centre, said he was no longer interested in being chair of the grooming gangs inquiry. He was the only known candidate left, because the other candidate known to have been shortlisted pulled out earlier in the week. In an interview with Times Radio, Gamble said that he was “disappointed” with the with Kemi Badenoch has approached this issue. He said: She’s a forthright and direct individual. But I was disappointed at the manner of the engagement because actually it would be much better to say, look, I’ve been speaking to some of the victims and survivors, you know, let’s get together and discuss this because not all victims and survivors want the same thing. At PMQs yesterday Badenoch devoted all her questions to the grooming gangs inquiry, using the topic to attack Keir Starmer’s leadership. In a separate interview with GB News, Gamble said the atmosphere around the inquiry had become “toxic”. He explained: And my goodness, if politicians can’t come together cross-party on this, when are they ever going to come together? I think the toxic environment; there needs to be a pause now. There needs to be a calming. Those people in positions of responsibility need to think about the victims and survivors rather than their own political point scoring. 8.51am BST Jess Phillips has full confidence of PM, says minister, after grooming gang survivors say inquiry will fail if she stays Good morning. Kemi Badenoch is entitled to take a bit of the credit for persuading Keir Starmer to change his mind and agree to a national grooming gangs inquiry. (GB News and Elon Musk probably played a rule too – although Starmer says the voice that mattered was Louise Casey’s.) When opposition parties influence policy, they always look a bit more serious. But – intentionally or not – by getting the inquiry off the ground, Badenoch has also plunged the government into process turmoil that guarantees endless negative headlines and unwanted distraction. The government is now on day four of the grooming gangs inquiry “crisis” and it is not getting any better. After the resignation of four survivors on the inquiry’s oversight panel, and the withdrawal of both lead candidates to be chair, Starmer is now under fresh pressure to sack Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, over claims that she falsely accused survivors of lying about the process in an urgent question in the Commons on Tuesday. Last night the four survivors who have resigned from the oversight panel released a joint statement saying Phillips’s comment took them “right back to that feeling of not being believed all over again”. The survivors said that Phillips was unfit to oversee the inquiry process and that they would not rejoin the inquiry panel unless she went. It is important to remember that most of the survivors on the oversight panel have not quit, and that there are plenty of victims who do not agree with these criticisms. Still, it is far from ideal. In the Commons yesterday Starmer defended Phillips. Josh MacAlister, the children’s minister, has been doing a media round this morning and he said Phillips has the “full backing of the prime minister and the home secretary” and that he would “stay in post”. He went on: I know Jess, she’s been a lifelong advocate and champion for young girls who’ve been abused, and she has already shown that she’s properly engaging with the survivor community. MacAlister said the scope of the inquiry would not be broadened (one of the concerns of survivors). He added: The government’s intent on this is incredibly solid. We want to get this right. We’re taking action and we’ll set the inquiry up. I would just urge other political parties to turn the volume down a little bit, or turn the heat down a little bit on, on their attacks. Here is the agenda for the day. 9.30am: Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister, takes questions in the Commons. 9.30am: The ONS publishes crime figures for England and Wales for the year ending June 2025. 9.30am: David Lammy, the deputy PM, gives a speech in London. 10.15am: The Lords committee considering the assisted dying bill takes evidence from medical and legal experts. 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. Morning: John Healey, the defence secretary, and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius visit RAF Lossiemouth in north-east Scotland. Noon: The ballot for the deputy Labour leadership closes. The result will be announced on Saturday. Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in north-west London. And in Caerphilly voters are going to the polls for a Senedd byelection that may herald a fundamental realignment in Welsh politics. Steven Morris has a very good preview here. Related: Caerphilly byelection could signal ‘fundamental realignment’ of Welsh politics If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), 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. 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. 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. 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