Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs amid criticism over digital ID U-turn – UK politics live

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Tom Morrison (Lib Dem) asks about a hospital serving his Cheadle hospital that needs repair.

Starmer says the government inherited a terrible situation with the NHS. The Tories should be “ashamed of themselves”, he says.

Robin Swann (UUP) says the government said it would amend the Northern Ireland Troubles bill. But the Irish goverment said both governments would have to approve the legislation. Does the Irish government have a veto?

Starmer says he has spoken to the taoiseach about this. He says the Irish will cooperate with the release of information about past incidents, but he does not address the veto point.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks about the NHS, citing someone who had to wait 31 hours on a trolley in hospital.

Starmer says that is not acceptable. But he says the Lib Dems always vote against Labour measures that would raise more money for the NHS.

Davey asks Starmer is the government will strip South East Water of its licence given its record with the water shortages in Tunbridge Wells.

Starmer says the government is holding them to account.

Janet Daby (Lab) asks about claims made about crime in London.

Starmer attacks Reform UK. He says:

What’s obvious about London Reform is they’ve got a candidate for mayor who doesn’t like London, a new Tory recruit who struggled to pay his taxes in this country, and a leader spends more time in France than they say his constituency.

Badenoch does a call and response with her MPs, getting them to shout “U-turn” after every policy she mentions. Shje ends with jury service, saying she hopes there will be a U-turn on that too. She quotes an unnamed cabinet minister quoted in the media saying the party needs a new leader.

Starmer says Badenoch is losing party members all the time as they join Nigel Farage’s “laundry service for disgraced Tory politicians”.

Badenoch says the Tories would abolish business rates.

Starmer says Labour is turning the country round.

Badenoch says the tax office said yesterday it did warn about the impact of the business rates revaluation. Did Starmer understand what the the impact would be? The Treasury claims it did not know about the impact the revaluation would have.

Starmer again attaks the Tories’ record, and he says that Badenoch did not take the advice of Nadhim Zahawi who told her that the Tories made a mess of mass migration. He has joined the Tory migration to Reform UK. It is the second Boriswave.

Badenoch says Starmer has no need to worry about her. “I’m alright,” she says. Will there be any change to the business rates policy, she asks.

Starmer says the govenrment will address the concerns of the sector. And he says the Tories did not care about pubs, given by the number of pubs that closed when they were in power.

Badenoch talks about jury trials. She quotes the Labour MP Karl Turner saying it made the party look stupid, but she says they were looking stupid anway. She asks for an apology for the farm inheritance tax U-turn.

Starmer avoids the point, and attacks the Tories’ record generally. He claims Badenoch had Nadhim Zahawi in for advice. He says he hopes she did not take tax advice from him. And he defected.

Kemi Badenoch asks about the digital ID U-turn.

Starmer says the goverment is taking the right decision for Britain. And he makes a general attack on the Tories.

On consistency, he lists the number of PM, chancellors and home secretaries etc the Tories got through.

They had more positions than the Kama Sutra, he says. He says no wonder people are screwed.

Anneliese Midgley (Lab) asks about the Hillsborough law, and concerns it will not cover intelligence officers.

Starmer says he is meeting Hillsborough relatives today. He says:

I’ve always been clear the duty of candour applies to the intelligence services. I made a commitment we wouldn’t watered down the bill.

But he also says the bill should have “essential safeguards in place to protect national security”.

Lincoln Jopp (Con) asks about the story about a Labour MP allegedly being turned away from a school because he is Jewish.

Here is the Guardian’s account.

Starmer says all MPs should be able to visit schools, and that he takes this seriously.

Keir Starmer starts by condemning the murder of protesters in Iran. The contrast between the courage of the people and the cowardice of the regime has never been clearer, he says.

And he says a new rail strategy is being announced today.

There are three statements after PMQs.

12.30pm: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, on Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Around 1.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, on West Midlands police and the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ban.

Around 2.30pm: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, on the offshore windarms power auction.

Keir Starmer leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs. Photograph: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock

Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs

PMQs is starting soon. Kemi Badenoch has an obvious attack line.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

PMQs Photograph: HoC

Reform UK announces more than 20 councillors defecting to it, including former BBC journalist Clarence Mitchell

Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.

Mitchell said he had been a member of the Conservative party for 16 years and now believed Reform was the only part that could truly represent what he described as “the authentic values that are fundamental to our country’s recovery and its restoration of pride”. He added:

Many voters have lost all faith in our politics, and they feel deeply let down that their concerns are not being listened to such as the cost of living, illegal immigration, the rise of woke-ism and an ever-encroaching level of State interference.

The defections bring the total number of Reform councillors across the UK to more than 960. The new ones include at least 14 who were sitting as Tories and five independents, including some who had originally been elected as Conservatives.

Proposed ban on supply of nudification apps unlikely to cover multi-purpose tools like Grok, Liz Kendall suggests

Robert Booth is the Guardian’s UK technology editor.

MPs have criticised the government’s slowness in banning AI nudification tools and warned that its plan to do so may not go far enough and cover multi-purpose image generators like Grok, which has triggered a wave of outrage.

The technology secretary Liz Kendall has written to MPs to say the ban on nudification tools – confirmed in a statement to the Commons on Monday – “will apply to applications that have one despicable purpose only: to use generative AI to turn images of real people into fake nude pictures and videos without their permission”. She offered no date, but said ministers will bring forward legislation “as a priority” via amendments to the crime and policing bill currently in parliament.

Kendall called the tools “disgusting” and said new legislation will allow the police to target the firms and individuals who design and supply them.

But Chi Onwuruh, the Labour chair of the commons technology select committee, asked:

Why, then, has it taken so long to introduce the nudification ban, when reports of these disturbing Grok deepfakes appeared in August 2025?

In a statement issued on behalf of the committee, she also warned it was “unclear whether this ban - which appears to be limited to apps that have the sole function of generating nude images - will cover multi-purpose tools like Grok”.

Miliband says wind power auction results show clean energy critics have been 'proved wrong'

A make-or-break auction for the UK government’s goal to create a clean electricity system by 2030 has awarded subsidy contracts to enough offshore windfarms to power a record 12m homes, Jillian Ambrose reports.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has written an article for the Guardian about the significance of this news. Here is an extract.

We know that bills rocketed when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because in the international fossil fuel markets, Britain is a price-taker, not a price-maker. Renewables and nuclear, on the other hand, offer us a chance for Britain to stand on our own two feet in the world – making and setting the price of our own energy.

Over the last year and a half, a well-funded rightwing network has waged a relentless war against this argument. When Keir Starmer set out our mission for clean power by 2030, they said it couldn’t be done, or that even if it could it was the wrong choice.

Today’s historic offshore wind auction has proved the doubters wrong. The government has secured a record-breaking 8.4GW of offshore wind, enough to power the equivalent of more than 12m homes, the largest amount of offshore wind procured in any auction ever in Britain, or indeed Europe.

And here is the full article.

There is a possible link here to the U-turn controversy. Sam Freedman says there is no point in Keir Starmer trying to clear the “barnacles off the boat” if there isn’t a boat, or voters can’t see one. (See 8.46am.) But Miliband thinks the government does have a boat. He published a book called Go Big five years ago, and he argues that Labour does have a clear, defining strategy.

Reform UK and the Conservatives want to wage war on clean energy, leaving Britain strapped to the fossil fuel rollercoaster, destroying the clean energy jobs we are creating and betraying our young people and future generations by giving up on tackling the climate crisis.

Labour is brave enough to face down the naysayers because clean power is the right choice for lower bills, energy security, good jobs and the climate. Today we’ve proved the doubters wrong again – and we will continue to do so.

Ed Miliband leaving No 10 after cabinet yesterday. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock