No 10 says Starmer does expect Reeves to stay as chancellor until general election – UK politics live

Downing Street has beefed up its support for Rachel Reeves. The Telegraph was running a headline for much of the afternoon after Keir Starmer’s Q&A saying he refused to promise she would be chancellor by the time of the next election, and other news websites were doing the same. And so at the afternoon lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said she was expected to stay in post for the whole of this parliament.Asked why Starmer was refusing to say Reeves would be in her job for the whole parliament when he had said that about David Lammy (sort of – see 12.26pm), the spokesperson replied:You heard from the prime minister this morning

Liz Truss says UK will fail unless British media outlets are ‘fixed’

Liz Truss, who has positioned herself as a champion of free speech since her short time in Downing Street, has said the country will fail unless British media outlets such as the Guardian, the Times and the BBC are “fixed”.The former prime minister, who described herself as a “big supporter” of Elon Musk, said the media in the UK focused on the wrong issues and the situation needed to be corrected for the country to succeed.Speaking to Voice of America, Truss did not elaborate any further on the mechanism she would use to reform the media landscape. She made her comments after being asked about reports last year that she had lobbied on behalf of a constituent who wished to export landmine disposal equipment to China at a time when she was publicly calling for Beijing to be formally categorised as a “threat” to national security.She said: “We have got a massive problem with the British media, which is they don’t focus on the important issues, whether it’s the grooming gangs that they have failed to hold bureaucrats and police officers to account on, whether it’s the debt crisis that we now have in our country with the highest levels of gild borrowing (sic), or the highest rates of borrowing since the 1990s; they’re not focused on that

Nicola Sturgeon announces divorce from Peter Murrell

Nicola Sturgeon has announced her divorce from her long-term partner Peter Murrell, who was previously the chief executive of the Scottish National party.Their decision to split is not unexpected: it is understood Sturgeon moved out of the couple’s home in Baillieston, Glasgow, after Murrell was arrested and later charged last year over the alleged embezzlement of donations to the SNP.Sturgeon was also arrested by Police Scotland detectives in June 2023 and officially remains under investigation as part of Operation Branchform, but has not been charged.Sturgeon, who has been writing a memoir due for publication this year, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the party’s finances.In a post on Instagram, the former first minister of Scotland said: “With a heavy heart I am confirming that Peter and I have decided to end our marriage

One in five Britons aged 18-45 prefer unelected leaders to democracy, poll finds

One in five generation Z and millennial Britons prefer strong leaders without elections to democracy, and voters overall are feeling downbeat about politics, a report has found.The polling, due to be published next week as part of the FGS Global Radar report, found that overall 14% of people agreed with the statement: “The best system for running a country effectively is a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with elections,” rather than the alternative: “The best system for running a country effectively is democracy.”That rose to 21% of people aged between 18 and 45, who answered that the best system was a strong leader without elections. In contrast, only 8% of people over 55 preferred that system to democracy.The report’s findings, that a sizeable minority of under-45s are unconvinced by the need for elections, come as some electorates have been opting for populist leaders, such as Donald Trump, through the ballot box, and the billionaire Elon Musk has been wielding power over public debate by shaping what is seen on his social media platform X

Reeves back from China with one eye on bonds and the other on economic data

Rachel Reeves will be back at her desk in the Treasury on Monday after her trade mission to China as markets reopen after last week’s bruising bond selloff and ahead of some key economic data on inflation and growth.Officials will be monitoring closely moves in the price of government bonds, or gilts, after they were sold off sharply last week, pushing the 30-year yield – effectively the interest rate – to its highest level since 1998.City analysts said much of the shift related to changing market expectations about inflation and interest rates in the US ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, but there was also some evidence of concerns about the outlook for the UK.If the selloff is sustained, it could force the chancellor to make adjustments to her tax and spending plans or risk breaking her fiscal rules.Fresh evidence of whether UK policymakers are struggling to see off inflation – one of the fears pushing down bond prices – will come on Wednesday, when the consumer price index data for December is released

‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI

Artificial intelligence will be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, ministers have announced, with a multibillion-pound investment in the UK’s computing capacity despite widespread public fear about the technology’s effects.Keir Starmer will launch a sweeping action plan to increase 20-fold the amount of AI computing power under public control by 2030 and deploy AI for everything from spotting potholes to freeing up teachers to teach.Labour’s plan to “unleash” AI includes a personal pledge from the prime minister to make Britain “the world leader” in a sector that has been transformed by a series of significant breakthroughs in the last three years.The government plan features a potentially controversial scheme to unlock public data to help fuel the growth of AI businesses. This includes anonymised NHS data, which will be available for “researchers and innovators” to train their AI models