Tories would reinstate two-child benefit cap to fund defence, says Badenoch

The Conservatives would reinstate the two-child benefit cap and use the savings for a wide-ranging spending splurge on defence in what Kemi Badenoch said would be “the biggest peacetime programme of rearmament in our country’s history”.Speaking at a defence conference in London, the Tory leader criticised the government for Britain’s “lack of readiness” for war, which has been exposed by recent world events.Badenoch said the UK needed to “reassert” itself as a global power and committed the Tories to “the largest net increase in British troops under any government since the second world war” if they returned to power at the next general election.The pledge would involve recruiting 6,000 full-time soldiers and 14,000 reservists. The Tories say they could raise £20bn towards the venture by reinstating the two-child benefit cap and reallocating money earmarked for net zero projects

UK starts crackdown on EU citizens’ post-Brexit rights

UK ministers are to start removing post-Brexit residency rights from EU citizens who are no longer “continuously” living in the country.The initiative is legal under the 2020 Brexit withdrawal agreement, but the decision to use travel data to partly determine absences has raised concerns after the HMRC fiasco in which almost 20,000 parents were stripped of child benefits because of inaccurate Home Office border data.The Home Office said the crackdown was aimed at those who had received “pre-settled status” to remain in the UK before Brexit, a status that applied to anyone who had been in the UK for less than five years.Officials will start with those believed to have left the country more than five years ago and there will be safeguards including consideration of reasons for prolonged absences.The Home Office said the crackdown protected public services and was aimed at preventing unlawful immigration by abuse of the system

Reform UK local election candidate was twice disciplined by Tories over ‘racist comments’

A Reform UK candidate for next month’s council elections was twice disciplined by the Conservatives over alleged offensive or racist comments, while another shared conspiracy theories about Covid, it has emerged, as the full slate of candidates was confirmed.More than 5,000 council places in England are being contested on 7 May, along with several mayoralties, and elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, in a significant test for all the major parties.Councils began publishing lists of confirmed candidates on Friday, after the closure of nominations at 4pm on Thursday. Reform says it is standing candidates in just over 95% of seats, around as many as Labour. Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s leader, has said the party’s vetting procedures have been beefed up

Starmer implies he didn’t tell Trump he was ‘fed up’ about his impact on rising UK energy bills – as it happened

Keir Starmer has recorded a short pooled TV interview in Qatar this morning. It did not really add much to what we have heard him say before but, for the record, here are the main lines.Starmer implied that he declined the opportunity to tell Donald Trump in person how “fed up” he is about the president’s impact on UK energy bills (see 9.01am) when they spoke last night. He said their focus in the call was on the need for a “practical plan” to open the strait of Hormuz

Not just about Gaza: the Muslim voters turning from Labour to the Greens

Campaigning in Newcastle before next month’s local elections shows the rise of the far right, the climate and cost of living are concerning voters as much as the Middle EastMohammed Suleman, a self-described “straight-talking Geordie”, doesn’t love politics. The taxi driver and businessman prefers to focus on community initiatives. But when the time came, he voted Labour as the lesser of two evils.Then came the war in Gaza.A month into the war, which a UN committee would later describe as a genocide, Suleman, and others at his local mosque, began a petition calling on their Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West Labour MP, Chi Onwurah, to vote for a ceasefire

Starmer says he is ‘fed up’ with Trump and Putin’s impact on UK energy costs

Keir Starmer has said he is “fed up” with the effect that Donald Trump’s actions in the Middle East are having on the British public, while appearing to draw a comparison between the US president and Vladimir Putin.Speaking to ITV’s Robert Peston on Thursday, the prime minister said: “I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”Starmer, who has been heavily criticised, and at times mocked, by Trump for not committing British forces to the war on Iran, also appeared to condemn Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon, despite Iran calling for Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire that was agreed on 7 April.“That should stop – that’s my strong view – and therefore, the question isn’t a technical one of whether it’s a breach of the agreement or not,” Starmer said.Starmer and Trump spoke on Thursday about the need for a “practical plan” to get shipping going through the strait of Hormuz after the Middle East ceasefire

Israel’s attacks on Lebanon should not be happening, says Keir Starmer

Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening”, Keir Starmer has said on his visit to the Middle East, as he called for the Iran conflict to become a watershed moment for the future security of the UK.In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister said the UK’s response to the crisis must involve a fundamental reset in terms of making the country more resilient, including by boosting defence and having closer links to Europe.His comments on Israel echoed criticisms by Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary; and John Healey, the defence secretary, emphasising a potentially widening gap between the UK and Donald Trump’s US over the Iran conflict and its aftermath.As well as the condemnation over Lebanon, Starmer and his ministers have been adamant that the strait of Hormuz must be free of any sort of tolls or levies, after Trump mooted the idea of a “joint venture” between the US and Iran to do this.Speaking in Bahrain on a trip in which he has also held talks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on shoring up the tentative ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel, and fully reopening the strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, Starmer criticised Israel’s intensified bombing in Lebanon, which has killed more than 250 people

Starmer says talks with Gulf leaders have reinforced sense Iran war ceasefire is ‘fragile’ – as it happened

Keir Starmer has said he discussed the “fragile” nature of the US-Iran ceasefire with Gulf allies and that “it takes more than just words” to make it permanent, the Press Association reports.After talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Starmer told broadcasters:double quotation markI think the mood is very much one of the shock that they were attacked in the first place, because of course they weren’t attacking Iran, and the intensity of some of the attacks.Relief that there’s now a ceasefire. I think a general sense that it’s fragile, that there’s work to do in relation to it.And then a lot of reflection and discussion, me with them, about the work we did over the last six to seven weeks together, the collective self-defence, the capabilities

‘No more bending to Westminster’s will’ if Plaid Cymru wins power, leader vows

Plaid Cymru’s leader has promised “no more bending to Westminster’s will” as the nationalist party stands on the brink of taking office for the first time in next month’s Senedd elections.Speaking at Plaid Cymru’s manifesto launch in Wrexham on Thursday – chosen because of its football team, which has showcased Wales’s potential to the world – Rhun ap Iorwerth told a packed room of supporters there would be “no more toeing the London party line, no more defending the status quo and no more saying no to Wales”.He said: “Together, and for the first time, we can give our nation the leadership it deserves, leadership that takes its cue from the people of Wales and nobody else.”Labour has led Wales since devolution in 1999 but it appears destined for opposition. Polls consistently suggest the May contest is a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, with Labour a distant third or even fourth after the Green party