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Reeves condemns Trump's decision to launch war against Iran as 'folly'
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has described Donald Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran as “folly”.
She used the comment in an interview with the Daily Mirror, ahead of her trip to Washington for IMF meetings where she will discuss the global impact of the war with her counterparts.
Reeves has already said publicly that she is “angry” about the war, but she was blunter speaking to the Mirror. She said:
This is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want. I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve. And as a result the strait of Hormuz is now blocked.
Asked why she was so angry, she explained:
Because of the impact it’s having on families and businesses in our country. When I presented the spring statement at the beginning of March, it showed that inflation was coming down, interest rates were projected to fall further after having been cut six times since I became chancellor of the exchequer.
Borrowing and debt were falling and the economy was set to grow. It was already the fastest growing G7 economy in Europe last year, and that was projected to continue
Obviously no sensible person is a supporter of the Iranian regime, but to start a conflict without being clear what the objectives are and not being clear about how you are going to get out of it, I do think that is a folly and it is one that is affecting families here in the UK but also families in the US and around the world.
Sometimes politicians make the news when they say things that are unusual or controversial. This is an example of the opposite sort of news; a politician making a statement of the bleeding obvious, but one that is still unexpected because, for reasons of tact or diplomacy, most of her colleagues would never say it in public.
In private, “folly” may be one of the milder things being said by government ministers about Trump’s war. But Reeves’s comment is still stronger than anything anyone else in the government has said openly.
Keir Starmer and his team have spent much of their time in office trying to avoid saying anything at all critical of Trump, for fear of offending him. But increasingly Trump’s conduct, and domestic political considerations too, are making that policy impossible to sustain.
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Core compensation paid to victims of infected blood scandal to be increased, MPs told
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, has told MPs that the government will increase the amount of “core compensation” available to victims of the infected blood scandal.
In a statement to the Commons giving the government’s response to a consultation on the compensation scheme, he said:
The community were clear that the scheme must do more to recognise people’s individual experiences and compensate them fairly in a way that minimises the administrative burden placed upon those who have been harmed, minimises the demand for evidence and maintains the delivery of tariff based compensation, and those requirements underpin the changes.
For infected people, the changes will increase the amount of core compensation available and increase the options available for supplementary compensation awards.
For affected people, additional core compensation will be available to those eligible.
Thomas-Symonds said the government would be making “substantive changes” in seven areas. He also said that as of April 7, 3,273 people have received an offer and more than £2 billion has been paid out.
The Cabinet Office has published full details of the changes here.
Sarwar accuses Swinney of encouraging 'conspiracy theory' about decision to block Chinese wind investment in Scotland
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has accused John Swinney, Scotland’s SNP first minister, of encouraging a “conspiracy theory” about the UK government’s decision to ban a Chinese firm from building a wind turbine factory.
Last month the government announced that it would not allow MingYang, China’s biggest offshore wind company, to supply wind turbines for use in the North Sea. MingYang had been planning to build a factory to make them in the Highlands, creating up to 1,500 jobs.
At the time ministers said the investment was being blocked for reasons of national security. There are fears that the Chinese could somehow retain the capacity to switch off vital infrastracture in a crisis, but the government has not made this argument, or elaborated on what the national security concerns involved in this case were.
In a BBC election debate on Sunday night, Swinney suggested the move was motivated by anti-Scottish bias. He said:
My concern is that Scotland’s renewable industry is being undermined by the actions of a Labour government that’s just turned its back on £1.5 billion worth of investment.
It is welcoming Chinese investment into Hinkley power station south of the border. If that’s not an anti-Scottish move by a Labour government, I don’t know what is.
This morning, speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Sarwar accused the first minister of peddling a “pretty strange conspiracy theory”. He said:
I can give you a cast-iron guarantee, I will not do crankery or conspiracy theory as first minister.
I will always accept national security advice, because our first duty as a government would be to protect the great citizens of this country.
Asked if it was strange that Chinese investment was allowed in other UK projects, Sarwar said:
All these projects will have national security briefings. A national security briefing was received that said there was a national security risk for investment.
Are we honestly saying that a first minister would reject national security advice? I can tell you quite categorically, if a national security briefing comes to me, I will not ignore it, because I will put the national interest before political interest.
He said the suggestion that the intelligence services would have taken a “deliberate do Scotland down approach” was the “height of conspiracy theory”.
But Swinney has defended his comment, saying he has not had an explanation from the UK government as to why the MingYang bid was blocked. He told the Press Assocation.
I have no more detailed understanding [of the decision] than that simple statement from the UK government.
And I think that is unacceptable because there is Chinese investment, Chinese development being embraced and welcomed in other parts of the United Kingdom – there’s a Chinese super embassy going to be built in the heart of the city of London.
Nandy clears takeover of Telegraph by German media group
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has cleared Axel Springer’s £575m takeover of the Telegraph, paving the way for the end of almost three years of uncertainty over the ownership of the titles. Mark Sweney has the story.
Nandy made the announcement in a Commons written statement.
The Labour MP Samantha Niblett has said she wants to make 2026 the “summer of sex”. While this sounds like the most enticing of the election offers we’ve heard during the campaign so far, she used the phrase in an interview with PoliticsHome talking about her campaign for better, lifelong sex education. You can read the full interview, which includes Niblett saying she is negotiating with the parliamentary authorities about bringing sex toys into the Commons for an event she is planning to publicise her campaign, here.
Reform activist suspended over racist and antisemitic comments remains election agent
A Reform UK activist in the Gorton and Denton byelection who was suspended over racist and antisemitic comments has been named as the election agent for three of the party’s candidates in Manchester ahead of polls on 7 May, Ben Quinn and Rob Davies report.
Q: Do you understand why some people in your party are frustrated because they think you as a party should be doing much better?
Nationally, the Lib Dems are now polling well behind not just Reform UK, Labour, the Tories and the Greens.
Davey said oppostion was difficult. But he said “the fact that we keep winning is somethiing that should reassure people”. He said he thought the party would win “many more seats” at the next general election.
And the party was on course to become the second biggest party in local government because it “keeps winning”, he said. That would happen again in May, he said.
Lib Dems call for housing developers to be required to fund extra GP provision for people buying their homes
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, was holding his press conference this morning to announce a proposal for housing developers to be required to fund new or expanded GP surgeries for the people who buy their new homes.
Explaining the plan in a news release, the Lib Dems say:
The party would require developers to fund or build new, or expand existing, GP surgeries in time for the arrival of new residents, with developer levies used to pay for them to be staffed while new residents are still moving in. This is part of the Liberal Democrats’ infrastructure-first approach to development, and supports their campaign to rescue General Practice and ensure everyone can get an appointment within 7 days, or 24 hours if urgent.
Developers would be required not only to fund new facilities but also to guarantee the GP surgery contract (or the cost of salaried GPs) while new residents are still moving in. This would ensure new residents don’t have to turn to over-stretched existing GPs, and new practices can be viable from the outset.
Delivery of health services has been found to be integral for public trust, with recent LSE research finding that where GP provision has declined and more surgeries have closed, support for the extreme right has risen.
At the press conference Davey was asked about claims by rival parties that, although the Lib Dems nationally back new housing, at a local level their councillors are adept at blocking developments.
Davey said “the reverse” was true. He claimed Lib Dem councils have a very good record building homes.
We’re the ones who actually build homes. I could take you to Eastleigh, who’ve been building homes over a number of years and have got a very good record. I could take you Cambridgeshire. I can take you to my own area, Kingston, where I have to declare a vested interest; my wife is the housing portfolio holder. She’s overseeing the largest council house building programme for 40 years. I could take you the Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire. I could take you to South Lakeland. Across the country, actually the Liberal Democrats have a very, very proud record of building homes.
Davey renews call for South East Water CEO to resign after company tells MPs it failed in its duty to customers
Q: Do you think the chief executive of South East Water should resign? This morning he and colleagues told a committee that some of the problems that let to a water shortage in Tunbridge Wells last year were foreseeable?
Davey said that he has already called for the resignation of David Hinton, the South East Water CEO. He did so at the time of the Tunbridge Wells shortage, he said. He went on:
If he’s now admitting it was foreseeable and predictable, I’m surprised he is not offering his resignation already.
Here is the Press Association report of the evidence given by Hinton and others to the Commons environment committeee this morning.
The chairman of South East Water has admitted the company failed in its primary duty to supply customers with water after recent outages left thousands without drinking water.
Bosses of the company were grilled by the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee this morning about their response to the multiple supply interruptions in Kent and Sussex.
Tunbridge Wells suffered a sustained outage in November and December, with around 24,000 properties in and around the Kent town left without drinkable water for almost two weeks.
Then thousands of properties in Kent and Sussex saw their supply disrupted for days in January, with South East Water (SEW) blaming the outage on Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts.
Customers were left with no tap water, unable to shower or bathe and could not flush their toilets, while a number of schools were forced to close.
Chairman Chris Train told MPs that the company “failed on the basic objective of delivering water to customers and therefore that is a failure and we recognise that failure”.
“We failed our customers,” he continued. “We worked very hard to rectify that situation, and since the events and independent review, we have undertaken a lot of actions to improve the resilience of the operations.”
Committee chairman Alistair Carmichael asked Train to score his team’s performance out of 10, arguing that customers deserve that degree of accountability from a non-executive director.
The chairman refused to do so, saying the situation is “complex” but added: “That degree of accountability is that we accept that we failed in our primary duty and we could have done better with all of the factors.”
Chief executive David Hinton was also asked to give a score out of 10 for the company’s response to the January outages after he previously marked it as eight out of 10 for the November incident.
Hinton also refused to do so but admitted that the performance was “disappointing” after many vulnerable customers were left without an alternative supply of water.
“My expectation is that we deliver to all priority service customers and that the bottled water stations are completely resourced the whole time, and customers can get access to alternative water at all times.
“So whenever we do not meet that particular yardstick, then I’m disappointed.”
Q: Do you think the Treasury should be looking for savings in other departments to fund higher defence spending?
Davey said of course the Treasury should be trying to find savings. But he claimed that his plan for defence bonds (see 11.36am) was the best idea put forward by any party to find the money for defence.
Davey claims Lib Dems will be 'one of two biggest parties in local government' by time of next general election
Q: Are you concerned that the Liberal Democrats are losing support given the rising popularity of the Green party?
Davey did not accept that. He replied:
We got, the best result for over a hundred years at the general election. But we’ve kept on winning since.
At the last May elections a year ago we beat the Conservatives and Labour for the first time ever. And it was our seventh year in a row of wins.
If you look at council by elections across the country, which party won the most in 2025? It was the Liberal Democrats.
And I make this prediction as we look at the council elections between now and the next election … By the time the next election will be one of the two biggest parties in local government. And with politics changing, that will be a massive change across our country.
According to Open Council Data UK, the Lib Dems are currently in third place, in total councillor numbers, in the UK.
Davey seems to be saying the Lib Dems will overtake the Tories, who are on course to lose around 1,000 seat in the local elections, according to at least one forecast. Labour are expected to lose even more, but they are starting from a higher base.
