Peter Walker

Starmer also quite forceful when asked about the grooming gangs inquiry by Tory MP Katie Lam – he reminds her about her view that lots of people living in the UK on indefinite leave to remain should be deported to make the country more "culturally coherent".

That's a quote that will have been greeted with a near-audible sigh of appreciation from fairly large parts of the Labour benches.

Starmer in the Commons when challenged by Tory MP Gareth Bacon about UK actions over Iran: "Hanging on to President Trump's latest words is not the special relationship."

Partner of sitting Labour MP among three arrested on suspicion of spying for China Exclusive: Arrests under National Security Act understood to also include the partner of a former Labour MP

There are a lot of big stories around, but keep an eye on this one:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Overall, I think Starmer will be reasonably happy with that PMQs exchange. When there's a global crisis the PM always has home advantage, but Badenoch slightly walked into a few traps.

If you're opposition leader and there's a crisis, you sometimes have to just take one of the team and spend a week looking vaguely supportive and statesperson-like.

Starmer: "Moments like this define a leader of the opposition."

Starmer replies: “I’m sorry she’s not interested in how people caught in the region will get home. I think for the vast majority of people watching this PMQs, that will be the single most important thing on their minds.”

Badenoch's tone feels a bit misjudged for the situation. A bit partisan given there are huge numbers of Britons caught in a war zone. After Starmer sets out the latest evacuation plans, Badenoch says he has not answered her question.

Espionage arrests - relating to China - Met statement

“This is not enough… He should be doing more," Badenoch says, when Starmer lists what the UK is doing militarily. "We are in this war whether we like it or not."

In the interim, I've asked Democracy Volunteers if they can provide more details.

You would expect Kemi Badenoch to raise Iran and Trump at PMQs, and if so, you'd expect Keir Starmer to be relatively happy with that. Starmer's stance seems fairly tuned into voter opinion on this, whereas yoking yourself politically to a plan-free, goal-vague, timetable-lacking war is a risk.

Most Reform members believe non-white UK citizens born abroad should be forced or encouraged to leave, poll finds Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate

Quite the story from @benquinn75.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Feels like it is now up to the Electoral Commission, whose report into the 2024 general election was broadly positive about how it was run, to make some sort of statement about whether or not the Democracy Volunteers claims have any credence. Without this it's a bit of a worrying vacuum.

I'm not sure this is enough for a group, however reputable, whose statement about the by-election has prompted a wave of often evidence-free assertions by politicians about voting in Asian communities, plus some fairly clearly false claims about the Greens winning G&D through cheating.

The article mainly explains what family voting is, and how to prevent it. All it says about how they detected it in G&T was: "These observations are conducted through an internationally accepted methodology, using the four eyes principle to ensure validity of findings."

Democracy Volunteers ‘Family Voting’ and how to prevent it in Future Elections Democracy Volunteers has been observing elections in the UK for 10 years. We have seen ‘family voting’ across the UK and we think it is important to explain more about it and how it should be possi…

I've been asking Democracy Volunteers, the organisation who said they saw family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election, if they would give details about evidence or methodology. They have now released an updated statement - which is still quite vague.

democracyvolunteers.org/family-votin...

Speaking to John Pienaar, he said Keir Starmer was wrong not "going all in with the Americans" in Iran: I've thought about this very hard and I have to say that I think Keir Starmer made the wrong call in not going all in with the Americans. And the reason is this. I think pre- Trump, you and I would both have said that obeying international law is absolutely essential in pretty much all circumstances because we want a rules-based order internationally. We don't want one country just invading another, etc... And we want the moral authority to call out countries that do and try and break that. But post-Trump, I think we have to accept the world as it is, where there are other strategic priorities, such as the defence of Ukraine, such as Iran not getting nuclear weapons, such as the United States taxpayers paying for about a third of the cost of defending Europe. And in those circumstances, I don't think you can elevate a concept like the rules-based international order above all other strategic interests.

This is fascinating - Jeremy Hunt explaining to Times Radio why he thinks international law is basically moot in the post-Trump world. In some ways it feels like a more thoughtful person trying to retrospectively put a framework around Kemi Badenoch's views, but it's still fairly extraordinary.

It's a common refrain for ministers to note Nigel Farage's absence from the Commons, but the stats do seem to back it up. So far this year he has spoken five times and voted seven times. As a very rough, smaller-party comparison, Ellie Chowns of the Greens has spoken 46 times and voted 24 times.

** Waves from the big building across the river **

An hour into the Iran statement, and Labour MPs appear generally reassured by Starmer's approach. In contrast, none of the Conservative MPs speaking seem to be explicitly backing Kemi Badenoch's fairly gung ho view.

Keir Starmer: “This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.”

Never one to miss the chance of a drive-by insult in the Commons, Ed Davey asks Keir Starmer if Dubai exiles like Isabel Oakeshott should "start paying taxes to fund our armed forces, just like the rest of us do."

Kemi Badenoch in the Commons: "You don't need international law to say whose side you're on."

That speech and Q&A was one of the most… striking political events I can remember being at.

Asked if MPs should get a vote on UK military action, Badenoch says that given the number of left wing MPs with "silly views" she thinks it's best if not.

Asked about whether, in backing the US over Iran, the Conservatives had given up on international law, Badenoch says "common sense" should be more important. She says international law is "not the same as domestic" law and is instead "agreements made between countries".

This does very much feel like a speech written by someone who spends a lot of time on X.

And Toby Young will lead a commission looking at how to "end the institutional self-censorship that stops people from doing the right thing". Not 100% sure what that means.

Also, schools would be stopped from discussing multiculturalism, but teach a "national story" without "grievance and guilt". She adds: "We will not teach our children that all cultures are equal. Instead, we will teach them why Britain's civic culture. culture matters."