Yvette Cooper: ‘Only the Russian regime had the motive, the means and the opportunity’

Two years on from the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the UK has released a joint statement with Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands, declaring that Navalny was killed by Russia with a poison found in Ecuadorian dart frogs. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips told Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper that the Russian embassy had described the report as a ‘mockery of the dead’, made by ‘feeble minded fabulists’. Cooper said the UK and its allies had been pursuing the truth for two years, and had found evidence of the toxin in Navalny’s body at the time of his death. She claimed Russia had wanted to ‘silence him’, and that only Russia could have administered this toxin while Navalny was imprisoned in Siberia. Cooper quoted Navalny as saying that truth is ‘the most dangerous weapon of all’, and said the UK government would spread the truth in place of Navalny.

Cooper: ‘I was given significant evidence and advice around risks of violence’

The High Court has ruled that the proscription of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation was ‘disproportionate’ and unlawful, in a blow to the government that could lead to the collapse of hundreds of prosecutions against protestors who supported the group. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Yvette Cooper what had led her to take the decision to ban the group. Cooper said she had followed ‘clear recommendations’, and argued that the High Court had acknowledged that Palestine Action was not a ‘normal protest group’, and had committed acts of terrorism. The foreign secretary said that the Home Office would be appealing the High Court ruling. Phillips asked what evidence the government had received that suggested Palestine Action was committing terrorism. Cooper said she had received advice about ‘risks to public safety’, and reiterated that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood disagrees with the High Court’s decision.

Priti Patel: ‘We cannot be divisive at a time when we all need to be working together’

At the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US is Europe’s ‘child’, and that the two powers ‘belong together’, but also criticised a ‘malaise of hopelessness and complacency’, and claimed open borders represent an ‘urgent threat to the fabric of our societies’. Speaking to Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, Trevor Phillips noted that the UK is completely reliant on American power, and asked if they are still a reliable ally. Patel said the US is the UK’s strategic partner, and claimed she doesn’t ‘subscribe to those voices… that want to create further division’. Phillips reminded Patel of President Trump’s desire to ‘annex Greenland’. Patel said talk of annexing Greenland is ‘completely wrong’, but admitted that Europe needs to show unity and ‘put our money where our mouth is’ when it comes to defence.

Zia Yusuf defends Jim Ratcliffe’s comments saying Britain has been ‘colonised by immigrants’

On Wednesday, the billionaire businessman and Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe told Sky News that the UK had been ‘colonised by immigrants’. Ratcliffe has since apologised for his ‘choice of language’, after Keir Starmer rebuked him, describing the UK as a ‘proud, tolerant and diverse country’. On GB News, Camilla Tominey asked Reform’s Head of Policy Zia Yusuf for his thoughts. Yusuf said it was ‘interesting’ that there was so much uproar about Ratcliffe’s language, relative to the ‘actual concern’ that ‘millions and millions of people in this country’ share. Yusuf compared ‘military-aged’ immigrants arriving on UK shores to the soldiers that landed on the beaches during D-Day, and claimed they are generally from ‘countries that despise this country’. Tominey noted that Reform’s Robert Jenrick has described seeing ‘no white faces’ in Birmingham,  and asked Yusuf how he felt as a Muslim man. Yusuf said you have to ‘look at the sheer numbers’, and also the ‘composition’ of immigrants, and claimed that the public had consistently voted for less immigration. He suggested that Reform were the only party committed to achieving this.

Dr. Hilary Cass: ‘Children have been weaponised’ in debates on gender

Dr. Hilary Cass authored the Cass Review, which looked into NHS gender identity services for children. The review found that there was very little evidence for medical interventions like puberty blockers, and advised against prescribing them to under-18s except in rare cases. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked if Cass thought that children have been ‘let down by all the shouting’ around the issue. Cass agreed that they had been, and said they had also been ‘caught up in all the issues around single sex spaces and sports’. Cass argued that children had been ‘weaponised’ by people at the extremes of the debate, who have caused a lot of ‘distress’ for young people. Kuenssberg asked who in particular Cass was referring to. Cass said that trans rights activists had in some cases made it more difficult for trans people who are ‘quietly trying to live under the radar’, as have people on the other side who argue that nobody should ever transition.