Joe Bedell-Brill

Lisa Nandy: Labour leadership speculation is ‘froth and nonsense’ Wes Streeting has resigned as health secretary, and declared that he would stand in a leadership contest. Meanwhile, Josh Simons stepped down as Makerfield MP to allow Andy Burnham the chance to return to Westminster. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy if Keir Starmer would be gone by summer. Nandy said the prime minister would not be stepping down, and if people want to challenge him, ‘there is a process for doing that.’ Nandy said most of the speculation about a leadership challenge has turned out to be ‘nonsense’, and Labour had to ‘get on with the job’. Phillips asked whether Starmer might stand down if such a challenge materialises.

Bridget Phillipson: ‘She’s got this completely wrong’ Thursday’s local election results were dismal for the government, and have plunged Labour into deep crisis. The party is now intensely divided over whether Keir Starmer can continue to lead, although the prime minister himself has insisted he will not stand down, telling the Observer he wants to take the country through a ‘10-year project of renewal’. Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, has announced that she intends to trigger a leadership contest if no one else comes forward to challenge Starmer. On Sky News this morning, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Trevor Phillips that all her colleagues are ‘really hurting’, but West is ‘completely wrong’ to seek a leadership change.

The Prime Minister has said he is considering a ban on some pro-Palestine marches, and wants ‘tougher action’ on certain phrases used on those marches, such as the chant ‘globalise the intifada’. This comes after a series of attacks on the Jewish community, including the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander whether the government planned to outlaw specific words. Alexander said the government have given the police more powers to ‘deal with protests’, and supported Keir Starmer’s suggestion that individuals on marches have a responsibility to challenge hateful language.

Shots fired at White House correspondents’ dinner On Saturday night, shots were fired as an armed suspect charged security at the White House correspondents’ dinner. President Trump and others were quickly evacuated, and a Secret Service agent was saved by his bulletproof vest after being shot at close range. The suspect has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31 year-old man from California. At a White House press conference held immediately after the incident, Donald Trump described the suspect as a ‘very sick person’, thanked the Secret Service, and praised the organisers of the dinner for ‘such a beautiful evening’.

Wes Streeting: ‘Trump has said some outrageous things’ J.D. Vance has left Pakistan after high level negotiations between the US and Iran ended without reaching an agreement. On Sky News this morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Trevor Phillips that it was ‘disappointing’ there had been no breakthrough, but he said in diplomacy, ‘you’re failing until you succeed’. Phillips asked what the UK government is doing to prepare for an extended conflict. Streeting said the Foreign Secretary has been meeting allies in the region to ‘see what we can do’ to get trade moving through the Strait of Hormuz again and that the government is keeping the impact of the conflict ‘under close review’.

Bridget Phillipson: We don’t need to act yet on fuel duty The war in Iran has now gone on for one month and concerns continue to grow over the effect the conflict will have on economies all over the world. On Sky News this morning, Bridget Phillipson played down fears of impending fuel shortages, telling British consumers to ‘continue as you are’. Trevor Phillips noted that more than half of the price of fuel goes to the government and asked the Education Secretary why the government isn’t scrapping the proposed 5p rise to fuel duty in September. Phillipson said the Chancellor is ‘absolutely committed’ to protecting British people from the impacts of the conflict and that the government will ‘take a view closer to the time’ on fuel duty. https://www.youtube.

Ed Miliband: Government may send drones to get Strait of Hormuz open The backlog of oil tankers unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz because of the war in Iran is threatening to send economic shockwaves around the world. This week, Donald Trump called on allies to ‘send ships to the area’ to help open the passage. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Energy Secretary Ed Miliband how the government would respond to the president’s request. Miliband acknowledged the importance of opening the strait, and said the UK is talking to its allies about the issue. Phillips asked if the UK will deploy drones to the area.

In the last few days, Keir Starmer has agreed to let the US military use UK bases to conduct specific defensive actions against Iran, and the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has been prepped to set sail from Portsmouth. Nevertheless, President Trump was scathing about Starmer, declaring, ‘This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with’, and yesterday telling the prime minister, ‘We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won’. This morning on Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp about former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s criticism of the government’s readiness to respond to the conflict in the Middle East. Phillips pointed out that defence cuts had occurred under the Conservative government.

John Healey: ‘Few people will mourn the Ayatollah’s death’ Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, after the US and Israel launched joint military attacks on Saturday. The conflict is ongoing, with Iran firing retaliatory strikes at multiple countries, and the outcome of President Donald Trump’s actions is highly unpredictable. In a statement, Keir Starmer made clear that the UK had ‘no role’ in the attacks, but said British planes were ‘in the sky’ to protect allies. On Sky News this morning, John Healey, the Defence Secretary, told Trevor Phillips that Khamenei and his regime were a ‘source of evil’ who had murdered thousands of protestors and exported terror around the world. Phillips noted the use of the word ‘evil’.

Boris Johnson: Britain should send troops to Ukraine now In an interview with the BBC, former prime minister Boris Johnson expressed regret that western allies have not given more decisive military and financial support to Ukraine, to bring the conflict to an end. Laura Kuenssberg, asked Johnson what specific action he would call for. Johnson said the West needed to ‘flip a switch in Putin’s brain’, so that he believes the outcome of the war will be a ‘free, sovereign, independent, westward facing Ukraine’. The former prime minister called for increased military and financial assistance, impounding Putin’s ‘shadow fleet’, and for non-combat British ‘boots on the ground’ in Ukraine.

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.

Pat McFadden: ‘I don’t think it’s good for the country to change prime minister every 18 months’ Keir Starmer’s government is reeling as pressure continues to grow around the prime minister’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite knowledge of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer has issued an apology to Epstein’s victims for having ‘believed Mandelson’s lies’, and has acknowledged the ‘anger and frustration of Labour MPs’. On the BBC this morning, Laura Kuenssberg asked Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden if Starmer’s leadership is under threat. McFadden said it shouldn’t be, because Starmer has a ‘five year mandate’, and is focused on fixing the cost of living crisis.

Steve Reed: ‘We need to hear from Peter Mandelson’ The latest tranche of Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice feature disturbing pictures of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouched over a woman lying on the floor, and also evidence of more links between Lord Mandelson and the disgraced financier. Jeffrey Epstein appears to have sent Mandelson $75,000 across three payments in 2003 and 2004, and more money to Mandelson’s husband in 2009 to pay for ‘osteo course expenses’. Keir Starmer has suggested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should testify before the US Congress. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, if Mandelson should be stripped of his peerage.

Lisa Nandy: The future of Greenland is ‘for the people of Greenland’ President Trump has escalated his rhetoric over Greenland, threatening NATO allies, including the UK, with tariffs if a deal to buy the territory is not reached. The president reacted to NATO countries sending troops to Greenland by calling it ‘a very dangerous situation for the safety, security and survival of our planet’. On Saturday evening, Keir Starmer called Trump’s tariff threats ‘completely wrong’, and this morning on Sky News Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy echoed the prime minister’s words. Nandy said the future of Greenland is for Denmark and Greenland to determine ‘alone’, and that the US and its NATO allies need to be working together.

Protests have swept across Iran in the last couple of days, and reports suggest hundreds of people may now have been killed by the regime’s ensuing crackdown. On Sky News this morning, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the UK government has ‘always viewed Iran as a hostile state’, and that the priority is to ‘stem the violence’ against protesters. She told Trevor Phillips that Iran has a ‘destabilising effect on the world’, and said the UK would like to see a peaceful transition where Iranians can enjoy ‘fundamental freedoms’ and ‘proper democratic values’.

Keir Starmer: ‘We simply haven’t got the full picture at the moment’ The US has struck Venezuela’s capital Caracas and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Maduro is now in detention in New York. In a press conference after the military operation, President Trump said that the US will ‘run the country until such time as we can do a safe… transition’, and that America’s ‘greatest oil companies in the world’ will be ‘very much involved’. In a long interview with Prime Minister Keir Starmer this morning, Laura Kuenssberg asked if an American attack on a sovereign state was in breach of international law, and whether the prime minister would condemn Trump’s actions.

As Trevor Phillips began his Sky News show this morning, news broke of a mass shooting at Bondi beach in Sydney, where over a thousand people had gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said at least 11 had been killed, with 29 injured. State premier Chris Minns said the attack was ‘designed to target Sydney's Jewish community.’ One of the suspected gunmen is dead, another is in a critical condition. Police are investigating if a possible third gunman was involved. Lanyon said the violence was not ‘our way of life’ and called for calm in the community.

Benefits could be withdrawn for young people not engaging with Youth Guarantee scheme The number of 16 to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training is now at almost a million, having risen sharply for the last four years. The government have announced an £820 million Youth Guarantee scheme to provide 350,000 work experience placements, and 55,000 subsidised jobs to young people. Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden was interviewed this morning, saying he wanted the issue to be a major ‘Labour cause’. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked McFadden if those who didn’t engage with the Youth Guarantee scheme might have their Universal Credit benefits removed. McFadden said: ‘They could be… we see this as both an offer, and an obligation’.

The Budget is out and, as expected, its measures include the removal of the two-child benefit cap, along with tax rises of £26 billion. Today, though, the headlines focus on whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves deliberately misled the public about the state of the public finances to soften the reception of her Budget. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked Reeves why she had given the impression she would have ‘no choice’ to put taxes up, when in fact the Office for Budget Responsibility had said there was a £4 billion surplus. Reeves said her headroom had been downgraded from the £9.9 billion she had in the spring and claimed that £4 billion would be ‘the lowest surplus that any chancellor ever delivered against their fiscal rules’.