Labour is “not terrified” of Reform UK, Scottish secretary Ian Murray has said.The minister ridiculed the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice, who on Thursday appeared not to know the names of two council defectors during a visit to Glasgow.Under questioning from journalists, Tice appeared to have forgotten or not known the surnames of councillors James Gray and Ross Lambie, who had left the Tories to join his party, only using their first names.Earlier in the day the deputy of the Nigel Farage-led party said both Scottish Labour and the SNP were “terrified” of them.Speaking to the PA news agency after a speech in Edinburgh, Murray said:We’re certainly not terrified of a party (whose deputy leader) doesn’t know the name of his own councillors.

”He added that Labour has to perform as a government to succeed in next year’s Holyrood election.“We’ve set out our stall, we’ve set out our missions,” Murray added.Muray said:Our manifesto is there for everyone to see.We’ve settled and stabilised the economy with the budget back in October, now it’s time to start delivering on those big issues.”Speaking at a Q&A session after the Edinburgh speech, Murray said Tice had been “battered” by the questions – a reference to the Glasgow visit taking place at a chip shop – adding that he struggled to answer “basic questions”.

“When you start to scratch under the surface of politicians from parties like Reform, you start to see what they really are all about,” he said.This blog will be closing shortly.Thank you for reading it and for commenting below the line.You can keep up to date with the Guardian’s UK politics reporting here.Here is a summary of the key posts from today’s live blog:Labour is “not terrified” of Reform UK, Scottish secretary Ian Murray has said.

The minister ridiculed the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice, who on Thursday appeared not to know the names of two council defectors during a visit to Glasgow.Speaking to the PA news agency after a speech in Edinburgh, Murray said: “We’re certainly not terrified of a party (whose deputy leader) doesn’t know the name of his own councillors.”Downing Street said Donald Trump’s comments on Nato are not any different to what he said in his first term, after the US president suggested his country would not defend allies who do not spend enough on defence.The prime minister’s official spokesperson noted that Trump “reiterated his commitment” to article 5 last week when he met Keir Starmer.Asked about Trump’s comments overnight, health minister Stephen Kinnock told Times Radio on Friday that the comments presented “no issues” for the UK.

He also suggested it was “fair enough” for the US to expect Europe to do more on defence.The defence secretary had “very constructive” talks with his US counterpart in Washington DC, Downing Street has said.John Healey and Pete Hegseth discussed “deepening the UK-US defence relationship” and finding a “lasting peace” for Ukraine, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.The “broken social security system is holding our people back”, Number 10 has said, ahead of an anticipated welfare overhaul.Downing Street said on Friday there has been an “unsustainable rise in welfare spending” and it promised reforms in “the coming weeks”.

People in London have been breathing significantly cleaner air since the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), a study has found.Levels of deadly pollutants that are linked to a wide range of health problems – from cancer to impaired lung development, heart attacks to premature births – have dropped, with some of the biggest improvements coming in the capital’s most deprived areas.The government is “betraying our children and capitulating to big tech” by “gutting” a private member’s bill that would have included a ban on smartphones in school, MPs have heard.Conservative former education secretary Kit Malthouse described the protection of children (digital safety and data protection) bill, as a “hollowed-out gesture” before its consideration was adjourned on Friday.The version of the bill introduced by Labour MP Josh MacAlister, would instruct UK chief medical officers to publish advice for parents on the use of smartphones and social media by children.

MacAlister had originally planned for the bill to call for a legal requirement to make all schools in England mobile-free zones,On Friday, he told the House of Commons that there had been a “fundamental rewiring of childhood itself” as a result of increasing smartphone use,Keir Starmer had a phone call with the leaders of Canada, Norway, Turkey and Iceland as well as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa,It was primarily to update on a meeting EU leaders held yesterday, Downing Street said,In that meeting, EU leaders committed to bolstering the continent’s defences and freeing up hundreds of billions of euros for security.

The Scotland Office has entered a “new era”, Scottish secretary Ian Murray said.Speaking at an event at Edinburgh University, the minister said there had been three eras at the department, the first based on setting up devolution, the second one “mired by division and conflict” and the third was ushered in by the Labour win last summer.The UK government is making plans to cut the funding for GB Energy, the state-owned company set up by Labour to drive renewable energy and cut household bills, in June’s spending review.Cuts to the £8.3bn of taxpayer money promised over the five-year parliament would be another blow for Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, after he was overruled by the government when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, backed the expansion of Heathrow’s third runway.

Ministers are dragging their heels on an investigation into the mistreatment of migrant carers, the country’s largest nursing union has said, as it continues to receive complaints about low pay, substandard accommodation and illegal fees.Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has written to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to urge her to speed up her promised investigation into the abuse of foreign care workers.The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has said helping more people back into a job is the best way to cut the benefits bill, as the chancellor looks for savings ahead of the 26 March spring statement.With Rachel Reeves zeroing in on welfare as a source of potential cuts as she prepares to take action to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules, Kendall said the starting point must be getting people back into work – not numbers on a spreadsheet.Britain will continue to supply intelligence to Ukraine, though the more limited capabilities on offer from London and other European countries will make it difficult to replace the flow halted from the US earlier this week.

The UK will also continue to supply its analysis of the raw data, sources said on Thursday, though in line with normal intelligence practice it will not simply pass on US information obtained via long-established sharing arrangements between the two countries,Tens of thousands of children in migrant and refugee families in the UK are being denied access to government-funded childcare because of benefit restrictions linked to their parents’ immigration status, a report says,Having “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) means parents are not entitled to 30 hours of free childcare and are having to stay home to look after their young children instead of working,This is pushing families into poverty and denying their children the benefits of the early years education available to their peers, the report finds,Council tax costs in Scotland will hit record levels next month after local authorities agreed to raise rates by up to 15%, with some planning new levies on tourists and cruise ships.

All of Scotland’s 32 local authorities have announced council tax increases from April of at least 6%, with the majority raising them by about 10%, after years of successive cuts to their grant funding.Scrutiny arrangements for Britain’s spy agencies are “fundamentally flawed” and the existing system “isn’t viable operationally,” the chair of the watchdog intelligence and security committee (ISC) said on Friday in a rare public statement.Insufficient staffing and resources mean that “we cannot provide” the intelligence community “with its licence to operate” warned Labour peer and former MP Lord Beamish – while new parts of the intelligence apparatus are not being scrutinised at all.Reform UK is facing a split at the top after Nigel Farage called one of his most prominent MPs “utterly completely wrong” for calling him the “messianic” leader of a protest party.Farage hit out at Rupert Lowe after the Great Yarmouth MP and former Southampton FC chair criticised his leadership publicly in an interview.

Here are a couple of images from today on the newswires:Conservative MP Ashley Fox said he suspected a government whip had told Josh MacAlister “he had a very promising career ahead of him should he agree to do the right thing and water this legislation down to the point where it doesn’t actually do very much at all”.Intervening, MacAlister said:Private members’ bills are often a shot in the dark, and my aim from the beginning of this process has been, yes, to have the national debate, but also to put all of my energy on landing this with some action and progress.”According to the PA news agency, Fox then went on to say there is “nothing in this bill that requires legislation” and MacAlister “should be a little bit ashamed of having campaigned so vigorously and then presented this bill”.Caroline Voaden, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, said she hoped the bill marks “the first step in a journey which will be far-reaching and hopefully fairly swift”.She said:I know I am not alone to be somewhat disappointed that the bill we see today is but a shadow of its former self, and that the government has been so timid in what it is willing to do to try and save our children and young people from something that is clearly causing them considerable harm.

”In her contribution, Labour MP for Darlington, Lola McEvoy said “there’s no case for children to have their smartphones in schools” and urged the government to “to get on with it and take as much action as we can”.Conservative MP Damian Hinds, who like Kit Malthouse previously served as education secretary, said a lack of evidence around digital harms is no reason not to legislate, instead calling on the government and researchers to prove online spaces are safe for children before they can be used.“It seems odd that we allow something to happen to our children because we cannot 100% prove it causes harm, rather than because we can prove that it is safe,” he told MPs.He said:That is not the way we deal with children’s toys, it is not the way we deal with children’s food, it is not the way we deal with children’s medicines.”Data protection minister Chris Bryant said he was “not going to make any arguments today against action”, adding:Everybody accepts that action is inevitable in this sphere.

”He said he wanted to secure “the liberty of the individual at the same time as the protection of the vulnerable, and that’s precisely what we need to be able to adopt as we move forward”.Bryant said the government was working to implement the already-passed Online Safety Act “as fast as we possibly can”, adding that illegal content codes will come into force this month, with new duties on social media companies to detect and remove some content including child sexual abuse and terrorism material.He said children’s safety codes are “nearly finalised”, and told the Commons that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is running a feasibility study into the impact of smartphones and social media, due to report in May so ministers “have all the information that we need to make a considered view”.MPs agreed to adjourn the debate, which will be listed to resume on 11 July.The government is “betraying our children and capitulating to big tech” by “gutting” a private member’s bill that would have included a ban on smartphones in school, MPs have heard.

Conservative former education secretary Kit Malthouse described the protection of children (digital safety and data protection) bill, as a “hollowed-out gesture” before its consideration was adjourned, reports the PA news agency.The version of the bill introduced by Labour MP Josh MacAlister, would instruct UK chief medical officers to publish advice for parents on the use of smartphones and social media by children.It would also compel ministers to say within a year whether they plan to raise the age at which children can consent for their data to be shared without parental permission.MacAlister had originally planned for the bill to call for a legal requirement to make all schools in England mobile-free zones and committing the government to review further regulation of the design, supply, marketing and use of mobile phones by children under the age of 16.Malthouse told MPs he lamented “the gutting of what could have been a landmark bill” and the government “has dithered, diluted and capitulated”.

He said:We should all be furious about this.We should all be furious about the delay and the prevarication that is being injected into what could have been a huge step forward for parents and children.I cannot then understand why the government has pressured (Labour MP Josh MacAlister) to produce what is, frankly, a cosmetic plug, betraying our children and capitulating to big tech.I’m afraid this bill is a shell of what it could have been, and as a result, is yet another missed opportunity to improve the lives of our young people.”Labour is “not terrified” of Reform UK, Scottish secretary Ian Murray has said.

The minister ridiculed the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice, who on Thursday appeared not to know the names of two council defectors during a visit to Glasgow.Under questioning from journalists, Tice appeared to have forgotten or not known the surnames of councillors James Gray and Ross Lambie, who had left the Tories to join his party, only using their first names.Earlier in the day the deputy of the Nigel Farage-led party said both Scottish Labour and the SNP were “terrified” of them.Speaking to the PA news agency after a speech in Edinburgh, Murray said:We’re certainly not terrified of a party (whose deputy leader) doesn’t know the name of his own councillors.”He added that Labour has to perform as a government to succeed in next year’s Holyrood election.

“We’ve set out our stall, we’ve set out our missions,” Murray added,Muray said:Our manifesto is there for everyone to see,We’ve settled and stabilised the economy with the budget back in October, now it’s time to start delivering on those big issues,”Speaking at a Q&A session after the Edinburgh speech, Murray said Tice had been “battered” by the questions – a reference to the Glasgow visit taking place at a chip shop – adding that he struggled to answer “basic questions”,“When you start to scratch under the surface of politicians from parties like Reform, you start to see what they really are all about,” he said.

The “broken social security system is holding our people back”, Number 10 has said, ahead of an anticipated welfare overhaul, reports the PA news agency.Downing Street said on Friday there has been an “unsustainable rise in welfare spending” and it promised reforms in “the coming weeks”.Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested the system is “letting down taxpayers” due to the costs, with curbs expected to make up a chunk of government savings anticipated at the spring statement later this month.Asked whether Keir Starmer agrees with Reeves, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:Our broken social security system is holding our people back, our economy back.We’ve got three million people out of work for health reasons, one in eight young people is not currently in work, education or training, and that is a shocking situation to be in.

”He said there has been an “unsustainable rise in welfare spending”, and added:Left as it is, the system we’ve inherited would continue to leave more and more people trapped in a life of unemployment and inactivity, and that’s not just bad for the economy, it’s bad for those people too, and it’s why this government is going to set up plans to overhaul the health and disability benefits system in the coming weeks.”Reeves told Sky the welfare system is “letting down taxpayers” because it is costing too much.“We don’t need an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast to tell us that we’ve got to reform our welfare system,” the chancellor told the broadcaster’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast.Reeves will deliver her statement on 26 March in response to the latest forecasts from the budget watchdog, with increased borrowing costs and weak economic growth likely to require spending cuts in order to meet her commitments on managing the public finances.Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall told cabinet colleagues earlier this week that the current system is “bad for people’s wellbeing and health”, with the sickness and disability bill for working age people rising by £20bn since the pandemic and forecast to hit £70bn over the next five years.

The Scotland Office has entered a “new era”, Scottish secretary Ian Murray said,Speaking at an event at Edinburgh University, the minister said there had been three eras at the department, the first based on setting up devolution, the second one “mired by division and conflict” and the third was ushered in by the Labour win last summer,The current period, Murray said, was an “era of delivery”, punctuated by a better relationship between Holyrood and Whitehall,“The election last year heralded a new era for the Scotland Office,” he said,“The third era since Scottish politics changed for good in 1999.

”Murray added: “I say we stand on the edge of a third era - an era of delivery.“The vast majority of Scots want their two governments to work together to increase living standards and improve public services.“Under my leadership, that is what the Scotland Office is determined to do.”Conservative former education secretary Damian Hinds has suggested the government should take action to curb children’s social media use, unless researchers and the government can prove that online environments are safe for them.He said:It seems odd that we allow something to happen to our children because we cannot 100% prove it causes harm, rather than because we can prove that it is safe.

That is not the way we deal with children’s toys, it is not the way we deal with children’s food, it is not the way we deal with children’s medicines.Hinds had earlier described three online factors which affect children – the content they consume, the contact they have with other people including child abuse and cyberbullying, and the time they spend using smartphones and social media.“The sheer amount of time that gets sucked out of these children into these activities, and it is the compounding factor, because it is the thing that makes the other two things – content and contact – worse and more risky,” he said.Labour MP for Lowestoft Jess Asato had earlier said:We cannot stand idly by in the name of freedom or freedom of speech, because there is no freedom in addiction.There is no freedom in being harmed.

There is no freedom in being underdeveloped as a child because you’ve not experienced socialisation or the great outdoors or the pleasure of books, or simply not being harmed from being sent horrible things that you shouldn’t have to see.A Labour MP has said adults “wouldn’t accept our children being flashed in the streets”, yet young people are being sent explicit material online.According to the PA news agency, Jess Asato told the Commons:It’s something that’s incessantly traumatising them [children].We wouldn’t accept our children being flashed in the streets, so why is it different online?And why do we not expect the tech companies to act? This is something that their products enable to happen to our children all day, every day, and yet we still don’t have the movement from them.”The Suffolk MP called on ministers to consider “age verification for app stores, so that our young people know that when they access app stores, that content on them is right for their age and their level of development”