Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, was replying to Nigel Farage about the Chagos Islands,He said that, if the UK had not negotiated an agreement with Mauritius, “a legally binding decision against the UK [on sovereignty] seemed inevitable”,He said:I fundamentally disagree with what [Farage] has had to say,Let me be absolutely clear, this government inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation of this crucial military base [Diego Garcia] was under threatInternational courts were reaching judgments,International organizations were taking steps not to undermine Mauritian sovereignty, and this threatened the secure and effective operation of the base.

And, in the absence of a negotiated solution, a legally binding decision against the UK seemed inevitable.This would have threatened the secure and effective operation of the base and that was not sustainable.He also said that he looked forward to working with the incoming Trump administration and that he was confident that, when they were briefed on the details, they would realise it was not a threat to security.We’re looking very forward to working with [the incoming Trump administration], and I’m sure that they will be being briefed on the full detail of this deal.And I am confident that the details of this arrangement will allay any concerns.

Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, has dismissed a claim by Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, that the incoming Trump administration feels “outright hostility” towards the government’s deal with Mauritius giving it sovereignty of the Chagos Islands,Speaking in the Commons, Doughty said that, when they were briefed on the details, their concerns would be allayed,(See 1,47pm and 2,07pm.

)Civil servants are looking at the extra costs that assisted dying would impose on the NHS amid a warning from Wes Streeting that some services may be cut to fund expanded end-of-life care.Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said there are “lots” of poor managers in the NHS.The Conservatives have dismissed a speech he gave on NHS reform as just a “rehashed press release”.(See 9.26am and 5.

53pm,)The chair of the government’s equality watchdog, who was appointed by Liz Truss and investigated after a series of complaints by staff members, has been given a 12-month extension in the role, ministers have announced,The Conservatives claim Wes Streeting did not set out proper plans for NHS reform in his speech this morning,(See 11,39am.

) In a response to the speech, Edward Argar, the shadow health secretary, said:The prime minister said that there would be ‘no more money without reform’, yet all Labour has delivered is an extra £22bn for the NHS without any detail of how it will be used or productivity reforms in return.We will support reforms that genuinely deliver better care for patients, better value for money for taxpayers, and that ensure our health and care systems are fit to meet the challenges of the future.But instead we see a government reheating old ideas, or announcing things that are already happening – what was needed was a plan; what we got from the health secretary was effectively a rehashed press release.According to Harry Horton from ITV, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has asked his officials to work out how much assisted dying legislation might cost his department.(See 10.

40am.) Horton says:Wes Streeting has asked the Dept for Health to look at the costs of implementing assisted dying.MPs won’t be told what the potential costs are before the bill becomes law.Earlier, Streeting suggested a new assisted dying law would come at the expense of other NHS servicesLiz Kendall has said she sees “no tension” in government over plans to make savings from restricting winter fuel payments to vulnerable pensioners and an increase in people securing pension credit, Aletha Adu reports.Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, has won a victory over the Treasury spin machine.

He has managed to get officials to remove a post on X that claimed the budget did not increase national insurance contributions (NICs) – even though it did increase employers’ NICs by £25bn.Stride complained about the advert in a letter to James Bowler, permanent secretary at the Treasury, describing it as “misleading”.He has now released the reply he’s received, in which Bowler said that the fact employers’ NICs went up in the budget was “well documented” and that the post referred to employees’ NICS.Bowler went on:Nonetheless, for the avoidance of any doubt, the post has been taken down.Stride says:It is right that the Treasury have taken down their misleading post on the Chancellor’s National Insurance hike.

Given this response, I hope all Government ministers will now correct the record accordinglyIt is right that the Treasury have taken down their misleading post on the Chancellor’s National Insurance hike,Given this response, I hope all Government ministers will now correct the record accordingly,https://t,co/bsosXdCWw9 pic,twitter.

com/n1UYSD4LToKeir Starmer has been condemned by his predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for an answer he gave during PMQs about whether Israel’s policy in Gaza amounts to genocide.(See 12.26pm.)In a post on social media, Corbyn said:Today, my independent colleague @AyoubKhanMP asked the PM for his definition of genocide.His response — which shows a blatant disregard for Palestinian suffering and international law — is disgraceful.

We will keep demanding: stop the genocide in Gaza.And Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said:Keir Starmer prefers to deny that genocide is taking place rather than take any meaningful action to stop the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.For more than a year he has defended Israel’s well-documented war crimes, initially including the use of starvation as a weapon of war and cutting off fuel, water, and medical supplies.The Genocide convention imposes duties on all states to act to prevent genocide whenever a risk exists.Right now, Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice but Starmer, to his eternal shame, continues to allow the export of weapons used to carry out these atrocities.

He has once again shown his despicable indifference to Palestinian life,Ayoub Khan, who asked the question, is one of the five Independent Alliance MPs who were all elected in Labour-supporting constituencies after campaigning wholly or partly on a pro-Palestinian platform,He asked:Article 2 of the United Nations genocide convention makes it explicit that genocide is not about numbers; it is about intent,The intent of the Israeli Government and the Israel Defence Forces has been explicit in words and actions over the past 400 days, with more than 45,000 innocent men, women and children killed,On 28 October, the foreign secretary denied that a genocide was even taking place and suggested that the Israeli army had not yet killed enough Palestinians to constitute a genocide.

Last week at Prime Minister’s Questions, the prime minister stated that he has never referred to the atrocities happening in Gaza as a genocide.Will he share his definition of genocide with the house and state what further action he is prepared to take to save the lives of desperate and starving men, women and children, given that we now hold the presidency of the UN security council?And Starmer replied:It would be wise to start a question like that by a reference to what happened in October of last year.I am well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I have never described this or referred to it as genocide.The Post Office is “far from perfect” and needs “significant cultural change” alongside work to address commercial challenges, a minister has said.Gareth Thomas, a business minister, made the comment in the Commons during a statement on the Post Office’s plans to offload more than 100 of the crown post offices that it currently owns, seeking alternative businesses to take them over.

He said doing nothing about the network was “simply not an option”,Thomas told MPs:We have to recognise that the Post Office is far from perfect,We have seen this from evidence given at the [Post Office Horizon IT] inquiry,It’s clear there needs to be significant cultural change at the Post Office to ensure it genuinely prioritises the needs of postmasters and delivers customers’ needs far into the future,It’s also clear more needs to be done to rebuild trust within the business and with the public who depend on their services.

It’s no secret too that the business is facing commercial challenges – nearly half of its branches are not profitable or only make a small profit from the Post Office business.Postmaster pay hasn’t increased materially for a decade.The company has a high cost base and needs to transform its IT system.”Referring to the proposals from Nigel Railton, the chair of the Post Office, Thomas said no final decisions had been taken yet.The Post Office will continue to deliver on the 11,500 minimum branches requirement set by government.

We have made clear to the Post Office that we expect them to consult with postmasters, trade unions and other stakeholders before any individual decisions are taken,Aspects of the plan are also subject to government funding and outcomes of the upcoming spending review,He said the government would publish a green paper on the future of the Post Office,And he added:Doing nothing at the Post Office is simply not an option,There is more work to be done but there has to be change.

During the UQ on the Chagos Islands, Priti Patel said the Conservative party was opposed to the deal transferring sovereignty to Mauritius.In her first Commons outing as shadow foreign secretary, Patel said:The world is a more dangerous place than ever before in our lifetimes, and this government has agreed to give away a key strategic asset in the Indian Ocean ending more than 200 years of British sovereignty.It is a wrong decision, and we stand by that completely.A month is now gone since the government’s announcement, but we’re still in the dark about exactly what the government has agreed and this is simply not acceptable.We have no treaty and vital questions remain unanswered.

That is unacceptable, and the minister needs to put that right today.We cannot afford for our military base on Diego Garcia to be compromised in this way.Lord Ashcroft, the billionaire former Tory deputy chairman who has become a much more enthusiastic supporter of the party again since Kemi Badenoch became leader, has offered to fund a legal challenge against the decision.He posted this on social media.I am on to financially support any legal action to reverse the shameful giveaway of the Chagos Islands.

I have been there and understand why UK sovereignty is imperative…Speaking at the Agricultural Industries Confederation conference this morning, Daniel Zeichner, the farming minister, said the government will not change the plan to subject some farms to inheritance tax.Thousands of people plan to descend on Westminster next week in a protest against the changes which they say will cause family farms to be sold off to pay inheritance tax bills.Amazon Prime star Jeremy Clarkson is due to speak at the event as are some political figures yet to be confirmed.“We are not going to see any change to the budget,” Zeichner said.But he also said the government was looking into why the Treasury’s figures say only 28% of farms will be affected by the new rules, while figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs imply 66% could be.

On Bexit and the trade with the EU, Zeichner also played down suggestions that the UK could reduce trade friction by aligning with EU standards,He explained:This government has said that we want to renegotiate or improve our relationship with our near neighbours, the European Union,But quite a lot of the regulatory systems we have inherited are now beginning to diverge and just not through choice, but just because time is passing,And I very much appreciate the fact that for exporters that poses potential challenges,Now, without going over the debate from the past, we are where we are, but I am charged by Keir Starmer with working with others to try and negotiate an improved veterinary agreement, and we will be trying to achieve that.

We must also respect the choice of British people made the referendum.It wasn’t my choice but that choice was made, and there are advantages, as we’ve seen, in terms of the fact that we’ve been able to move much more quickly on precision breeding.These are from Theo Bertram, a former Labour adviser in No 10 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, on social media on Kemi Badenoch’s performance at PMQs.Badenoch is still learning at PMQs.I am sure she will get better.

There was one small rookie error and one major strategic blunder.The small, rookie error: on the third question, she spoke before she stood up so her first words were missed by the mic.Stand first.Slow down.The strategic mistake: Starmer wants to paint her as opposing the difficult choices to do the popular things.

He baited her twice on this & the second time, she took it,Starmer: if she’s against those things she should say soBadenoch: I’m not against any of those thingsIt’s hard to earn credibility in opposition,It’s reasonable for the Tories to take time to figure out how they will balance the books but in the meantime Badenoch needs a better line when challenged on spending commitments & to resist being baited,The Labour party is also criticising Badenoch for saying she supports all the budget measures, but not the employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) rise that funds them,The party issued this statement after PMQs from Ellie Reeves, the Labour chair.

Kemi Badenoch is trying to have her cake and eat it.Labour’s budget is fixing the foundations to deliver on the promise of change.The Tories want all of the benefits of the budget, yet they voted against it and they have no plan to pay for it.It’s the same old Tories, they haven’t listened, and they’ve learned nothing.It’s time they told the public where they would find the money to pay for more investment in schools and the NHS