UK has no credible plan to mobilise volunteers in event of war, ex-defence minister admits – as it happened

James Heappey, who was a defence minister for the whole of the last parliament, told Times Radio in an interview this morning that that figures about 10,000 members of the armed forces not being medically fit were “very arresting” and a matter of concern. But he also played down the significance of the findings, saying that the figures would include many people deemed unfit just because they had missed dental checks, and that other people with injuries could be deployed in a war. He explained:Firstly, I’ll bet you that a big chunk of the non-deployable, medically downgraded people are downgraded for dental reasons. And what that tends to mean is that they’ve not had a dental check-up in the last six months, and so they are automatically declared dentally unfit, and therefore not fully deployable.Secondly, there is a reality about the nature of some of these injuries that mean that they couldn’t deploy to go on a discretionary operation today in peacetime, but if war was to come, then they would be absolutely able to go and fight because the needs of the nation would rather trump that rather discretionary take on their medical capacity

UK politics: Welsh Tories criticise Of Mice and Men’s removal from GCSE course over racism concerns – as it happened

The Welsh Conservatives have criticised a decision to remove John Steinbeck’s 1930s novel Of Mice and Men from the GCSE curriculum because class discussions about the book, and the racial slurs it contains, have been distressing for some black pupils.As the BBC reports, Wales’ children’s commissioner Rocio Cifuentes said many black children “specifically mentioned this text and the harm that it caused them” when she spoke to them as part of research on racism in secondary schools.Referring to the decision by the WJEC exam board to take it off the GCSE curriculum from next September, she said:It’s not censorship. This is safeguarding the wellbeing of children who have told us how awful those discussions have made them feel in those classrooms.They’ve very often been the only black child in that classroom when discussions all around them are focusing on very derogatory, negative depictions of black people

Starmer and family to go abroad ‘for a few days’ over new year, says No 10

Keir Starmer and his family are to take a short overseas holiday over the new year, Downing Street has said.While the prime minister has the use of Chequers, his official country retreat, this will be his first overseas family holiday since the general election, with a planned break in Europe during August cancelled due to a spate of riots.Starmer would spend Christmas with his family at Chequers before heading abroad “for a few days” over the new year, his official spokesperson said. He did not say where they would be going.Asked if Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, would be officially in charge for this period, the spokesperson said Starmer would remain at the helm

Kemi Badenoch bides her time but may have less of it than she thinks

Kemi Badenoch would like you to know that everything is going very well and that she has plenty of time. That, in its most digested form, was the message from her marathon Today programme interview. Will her MPs be reassured? It may be a little more complicated.In fairness to the Conservative leader, as she said several times, she has been in the job for little more than seven weeks, and turning around a party that has just slumped from 344 MPs to a mere 121 is not a simple task.Within that context, she told Amol Rajan, even being able to assemble a frontbench team while avoiding internal party warfare was something of an achievement

Badenoch downplays prospect of Musk donation to Reform

Kemi Badenoch has said she does not believe Elon Musk is going to make a multimillion-pound donation to Reform UK, even as the party’s treasurer claimed the US billionaire was now ready to do so.The Conservative leader also said that it did not matter if Nigel Farage’s party received money from Musk amid speculation that he could donate as much as $100m (£79m) – because she would match it.“I believe in competition so I think that if Elon Musk is giving a competitive party money then that is a challenge for me to make sure I raise the same,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Badenoch was speaking as Reform’s new treasurer, Nick Candy, claimed that the owner of Tesla and X was among several billionaires who were ready to fund the party.Candy has promised “political disruption like we have never seen before” as he claimed to have several other billionaire backers in addition to Elon Musk

Andrew Bennett obituary

The former Manchester Labour MP Andrew Bennett, who has died aged 85, devoted most of his adult life to public service, as a school teacher and a councillor, before then spending 31 years in the House of Commons. He always put the pursuit of the political results he sought before any sort of personal recognition. A man of high principle, he believed in civil liberties, human rights and equal opportunities, and attempted to translate those beliefs in a way that improved other people’s lives.He cared about the day-to-day issues of his constituents and would draw attention to the importance of allotments and parks and cemeteries in consideration of urban planning. He is also due some credit for Manchester’s orbital M60 motorway, created by joining existing motorways to form a city circuit, which he opened when the final section was completed in 2000