“Labour was plunged into a fresh China spying crisis on Wednesday after an MP’s husband was arrested. Lobbyist David Taylor, who is married to Labour MP Joani Reid, was held by Scotland Yard on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Police also picked up two other men, believed to have been advisers during the Tony Blair government, during a series of raids. All three suspects were being questioned on suspicion of helping Chinese intelligence amid claims of ‘foreign interference targeting UK democracy’. The shock development threatened to reignite the row over Labour’s relationship with Beijing after the collapse of an unrelated prosecution of a parliamentary researcher and his English teacher friend who were accused of passing on Whitehall secrets.” – Daily Mail
“Britain’s allies in the Gulf and Cyprus have accused Sir Keir Starmer of failing to do enough to protect the region and UK citizens from Iranian missile strikes. The Times has been told that Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have concerns about the UK’s response to the Middle East conflict. At the same time Cyprus’s high commissioner to the UK said the “least” his country expected was for the government to provide a robust defence of the island that is home to two British bases.” – The Times
>Today: Columnist Bob Seely: Starmer’s standing by his principles and defending them, but he’s confused and not defending us
“Sir Keir Starmer has defended the government’s approach to the conflict in Iran, saying protecting British nationals is his “number one priority”. It comes after President Trump criticised the prime minister for refusing to allow the use of UK bases in the initial US-Israel strikes on Saturday, saying he is “no Winston Churchill”. During Prime Minister’s Questions Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of “asking our allies to do what we should be doing ourselves” by not taking “offensive action” after British bases in Bahrain and Cyprus were attacked. But the PM said he was not prepared for the UK to join a war without “a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan.” – BBC
>Today: ToryDiary: Shadow Cabinet League Table: Badenoch may not be popular with Starmer but she’s dominant with Conservatives
>Yesterday: Video: PMQs: Badenoch “The PM is catching arrows not dealing with the archers”
“Ed Miliband led Cabinet opposition to US military action in Iran and the use of Britain’s bases. In a meeting on Friday ahead of the strikes, Mr Miliband, Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper are understood to have strongly opposed British support for pre-emptive military action, which they believed would be illegal. Sir Keir Starmer backed them, and resisted pressure from Donald Trump to allow the US to fly bombing runs to Iran from RAF bases in Gloucestershire and the Chagos Islands. The Prime Minister changed his position less than 48 hours later and American B-2 stealth bombers are due to arrive at Diego Garcia, the military base in the Chagos Islands, in the next few days to fly “limited, defensive” missions.” – Daily Telegraph
“A torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka as the Trump administration followed through on its threats to destroy Tehran’s military and political leadership. At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack on the Iris Dena on Wednesday. The frigate was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal. The torpedo strike prompted questions from former US officials about whether Washington’s aim of eliminating all of Iran’s military breached international law.” – The Guardian
“International law may be an opaque, malleable, even mysterious construct with controversial rulings involving judges sometimes appointed by dictators. But when it comes to a choice between international law and the national interest, Starmer chooses international law every time. Request denied, the Americans were told. Cue the biggest crisis in Anglo-American relations of modern times. Donald Trump lashed out at Starmer from the Oval Office on Tuesday. He lumped Britain with the viscerally anti-American socialist government of Spain. He painted us as far worse even than the usually US-sceptic French. Nowhere near as good as the Germans, whose Chancellor was sitting beside him, offering no words in Starmer’s defence. So much for all that cosying up to Europe. Now you don’t have to agree with everything Trump said – far from it – to recognise Starmer had made a grave error.” – Andrew Neil, Daily Mail
Other comment
“Former Labour mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales and ex-councillor Clive Furness have joined Reform UK. Furness has been selected as the Reform’s candidate for mayor of Newham, while Sir Robin will act as the party’s London director of local government. Announcing the move at a press conference alongside Reform leader Nigel Farage, Sir Robin, who was the UK’s longest serving mayor when he was deselected by Labour in 2018, said the party had “a lot of rough edges” but represented a chance to “transform our society”. Furness said the “balkanisation of Britain”, with people voting along religious and racial lines, was among the reasons he was joining Reform.” – BBC
“Failing to stop illegal migration will demolish trust in the state, the home secretary will warn on Thursday as new legislation to scale back asylum support is introduced in parliament. In a call on Labour MPs to back her, Shabana Mahmood says that without changes there would be a rise of “ethno-nationalism” on the “far right”. Despite calls from some backbenchers for a tack to the left after last week’s by-election loss to the Greens, she rejects pandering to “student politics”. Mahmood is expected to acknowledge voters’ frustration with levels of illegal migration after last year became the second-highest on record for small-boat arrivals, at 41,472.” – The Times
“The UK government is poorly positioned to cushion the blow to households from surging energy prices given the mountain of public debt it is trying to manage, a top economist has warned. David Miles, a senior official at the Office for Budget Responsibility, said this week’s jump in oil and gas prices driven by the war in Iran was “unambiguously bad” for a major energy importer such as the UK and that it would be “understandable” if there was public pressure for the government to intervene if energy costs continued to spiral upwards. But he added that it came at a “particularly difficult time” given that the government had been attempting to bring borrowing down and stop the debt-to-GDP ratio from continuing to rise.” – Financial Times
“Labour has watered down its controversial “Islamophobia” definition to head off a free speech backlash. Ministers have struck out references to the “racialisation” of Muslims amid concern it is a vacuous term that could be weaponised to silence critics of the religion. The phrase was included in the original definition drafted by a working group but is not expected to make the final version when it is published as soon as next week. Despite pressure from community leaders, Labour has also refused to use the word “Islamophobia”, opting instead to define “anti-Muslim hatred”. Wrangling over the wording has dragged on for more than a year, despite Labour pledging an Islamophobia definition in its election manifesto.” – The Sun