Badenoch offers new explanation for Tory attack on Muslim prayer event, saying party objecting to gender segregation
Q: [From Peter Walker from ] Yesterday you backed what Nick Timothy said about the Ramadan event in Trafalgar Square. What was your objection to it? Yesterday your party said . This morning the party chair, Kevin Hollinrake, said it was a general point about prayer in public. But in an article this morning Timothy said this was a specific point about Islam. What is the party’s position?
Badenoch says they are both right.
She says the Tories believe in freedom of religion.
"But this debate which Nick is having is not about freedom of religion. It is about how religion is expressed in a shared public space, and whether those expressions fit within the norms of British culture."
She says pulled out of an an event organised by the group that organised the Trafalgar Square event when he was opposition leader because they are “highly controversial”. He was “sucking up” to British Jews. So his stance is “the mother of all hypocrisy”, she says.
She says Timothy is a ‘“fantastic shadow justice spokesperson”.
She says, as a woman from an ethnic minority, she is “very uncomfortable seeing women pushed to the back in Trafalgar Square in an event which is exclusionary”.
She says she is happy to see religious events in Trafalgar Square. But they have to be inclusive.
(Although this Badenoch is claiming that the Tories primarily objected to the Trafalgar Square prayer event because it involved gender segregation, Timothy did not mention this at all attacking the event as “an act of domination”, or in .)
Farage defends past comments saying Scotland gets too much UK cash, saying he wants Scotland to flourish without grants
Q: [To Farage] You have spent your career telling voters in England that people in get too much UK government money because of the Barnett formula (which gives Scotland more spending per head). Will you be saying this to voters in Scotland during the campaign, and if so can we come and film you?
Farage says that, with in power at Holyrood, “you won’t need the current Barnett formula because Scotland would have been turned around”.
Farage says the questioner is looking at things the wrong way round.
"Yes, of course individuals go through bad times, countries go through bad times. But welfare spending should not be permanent. There are massive economic opportunities in Scotland. Firstly in the North Sea. I also believe financial services in Edinburgh could be a lot lot bigger with the right thinking than it is.
So look, we as national government would be here to support Scotland, but we’d much, rather much rather see Scotland not need the money because it’s succeeded."
Farage is now taking questions.
The first question came from a GB News reporter, who was cheered by supporters at the event.
The second question came from Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland’s political editor. He was booed by some of the activists at the end. Farage gently discouraged them.
Campbell asked if Farage had any regrets for saying he would back the US attack on Iran.
Farage said that he was not advocating joining the military action, but “sometimes in life you have to pick a side”.
Farage claims Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square was 'attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate'
In his speech in Scotland Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, fully adopted the Nick Timothy position on Muslims praying in public. (See .)
"I put it to you that what happened in Trafalgar Square this week should act as a wake up call and a warning to everybody.
We have always been a country that believes in religious tolerance. We’ve always been open to those of different faiths, persuasions and beliefs coming to our country and having their own private observance, but integrating in public. I think, to be honest, the Jewish community is probably the best example I can think of that.
But mass public praying, mass chanting of Islamic slogans in Trafalgar Square was a shock.
Until you learn that the same group, the Ramadan Tent Project, have done it in Coventry Cathedral, they’ve done it in London’s Guildhall, they’ve done it in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Folks, if it hasn’t come to Scotland yet, it will come soon. This is an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life."
As Farage started his speech, he was interrupted by a protester, who was swiftly taken out. “You need a haircut,” Farage shouted at him. He then told the man he should go back to work, before adding: “Sorry, you have not got a job, have you?”
He claims hard-working people are paying record levels of taxes so that their neighbours (benefit claimants, he is implying) can “rise at midday, have Deliveroo come and smoke dope for the afternoon”.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is just about to speech at the launch of the party’s manifesto in Scotland. David Bull, the party’s chair, introduced him describing him as “the most famous politician in the country, if not the world”. There is a live feed
Why Nick Timothy argues his attack on Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square was justified
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, has today defended his attack on Muslims praying at an event in Trafalgar Square on Monday. While Kemi Badenoch defended his stance at her press conference this morning, she did so primarily on the grounds of gender segregation, which she claimed had been a feature of the event. (See.)
But that is not the argument that Timothy makes in his article. He claims that it is an aspect of theology that makes public prayer of this kind objectionable.
"Some MPs and commentators say public concern [about prayer events like the one in Trafalgar Square] is misplaced. Some have even called it racist or – to use the recent invention – “Islamophobic”. They claim this exhibition of faith is no different from Trafalgar Square hosting dancing Sikhs, drinking football fans, or an Easter Passion Play.
But this is wrong. First, the adhan makes the theological claim that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger. That is, by definition, a repudiation of other beliefs. When proclaimed publicly, it is not just private devotion made visible; it is a declaration of dominance.
Some claim the adhan is no different from the peal of church bells, or the recital of the Nicene Creed in church. But this is wrong on three counts. First, church bells simply ring out, and do not assert any theological message or criticism of other faiths. Second, the Nicene Creed is a personal statement of faith that begins, “I believe”.
And third, even if these facts were not true, Christianity holds a different place to other religions in Britain. It is the foundation of our way of life, expressed in laws and norms and our institutional, intellectual and cultural inheritance. Expressions of Christianity here do not seek to challenge or replace anything, because our society rests upon the Christian idea.
The adhan, however, explicitly rejects the Christian belief in Jesus and the Holy Trinity, and asserts the truth of the Islamic faith. Indeed, historically the adhan was not only a communal call to prayer, but a declaration of Islamic control over a territory."
Labour will be 'decimated' in local elections, Unite's leader Sharon Graham says
Here is a fuller version of the quote from Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, about Keir Starmer facing a leadership challenge because the local election results will be so bad for Labour. (See .) She said:
"I think after the May elections there will be a move to change leader because I think Labour are going to pretty much be decimated in those elections.
I don’t think that they understand themselves how bad that will be - what anger is out there about the fact that they haven’t backed workers, the fact they have to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing things that, quite frankly, we would expect a Labour government to do, for example, have a wealth tax.
It’s not radical. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that that’s the sort of thing that we need to be looking at when the gap between the rich and the poor is as wide as it is."
Graham is using decimated to mean ‘wiped out’, but purists who prefer the more precise definition (the destruction of one in 10 of the enemy) would argue that Labour would be very happy about just being decimated in the local elections. One analysis from a polling company says . Last week said “Labour sources expect to lose at least half of the seats they are defending” in England.
Scotland’s serial radical nationalist protester Sean Clerkin and his comrades evaded tight security at Reform UK’s Scottish manifesto launch to urge people to vote SNP instead, Severin Carrell reports. His post on Bluesky includes video.
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Reform UK proposes cutting number of MSPs in Scottish parliament
Reform has proposed cutting the number of MSPs and quangos in its manifesto ahead of May’s Holyrood election, the Press Association reports. PA says:
"Party members are meeting to announce its candidates and launch its policy platform at a country club in Renfrewshire. (See 12.46pm.)
Among its policy pledges is a promise to reduce the number of members of the Scottish parliament by cutting the number of constituencies from 73 to 57.
The 27-page document unveiled at the party’s conference also suggests a Reform government in Scotland would “shut down the quangos and return their powers to democratically-elected ministers supported by the civil service”.
Speaking at an event last week, Scottish party leader Malcolm Offord said a quarter of the country’s quangos could be on the chopping block, suggesting Reform could scrap them all before deciding which are required and bringing them back.
On energy, the party has made a number of pro-fossil fuel pledges, including scrapping all net zero targets set by the Scottish government and fast-tracking planning for new energy projects, including “open cast coal mining”."
Starmer joins 5 other world leaders in pledging willingness to contribute to 'appropriate efforts' to open strait of Hormuz
Good afternoon. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Tom Ambrose.
Keir Starmer has issued a statement jointly with his counterparts from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan condemning Iranian attacks on oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz and saying they are willing “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait”.
"We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces.
We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817.
Freedom of navigation is a fundamental principle of international law, including under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea …
We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning."
There is full coverage of Iran war developments on our Middle East crisis live blog.
Women convicted over illegal abortions to be pardoned after historic vote
Women who have been convicted, and in some cases jailed, over illegal abortions are set to be pardoned after a historic vote in the .
Last June, the House of Commons voted to end the criminalisation of women who terminate their pregnancies outside of the legal framework, while keeping the existing framework in place. Doctors and others who act outside of the law could still face the threat of prosecution.
The change, by way of an amendment to the crime and policing bill put forward by the backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi, came after a reported increase in prosecutions and a number of high-profile court cases that saw women in the dock.
There had been an attempt in the Lords to strike out Antoniazzi’s clause in the bill, but this was defeated, and an attempt to ban the use of telemedicine, where abortion medicine is able to be dispatched by post for pregnancies under 10 weeks, also failed.
Peers instead voted to extend the scope of the legislation to pardon women who had already been convicted and to expunge the police records of those arrested.
Covid-19 inquiry finds NHS 'teetered on brink of collapse' during pandemic
The NHS “teetered on the brink of collapse” during the Covid pandemic, and only just coped thanks to the “superhuman” efforts of healthcare workers, an official inquiry has concluded.
In a damning assessment of how the UK’s healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, the Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, said due to the NHS being in a “parlous state” before the outbreak of the virus.
She said Covid patients did not always receive the care they needed, with some diagnoses and treatments coming too late to save lives.
“Healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, but only just,” said Lady Hallett, a former court of appeal judge. “On a number of occasions, they teetered on the brink of collapse and only coped thanks to the almost superhuman efforts of healthcare workers and all the staff who support them.
Workers carried the burden of caring for the sick in unprecedented numbers. They were obliged to work under intolerable pressure for months on end.”
She said politicians, including the former health secretary Matt Hancock, refused to admit the NHS was “overwhelmed” during the pandemic, as they believed this to mean total collapse.
“There was clearly overwhelm,” she said. “Patients could not be admitted to hospital and, in particular, into intensive care units. The pressure was, at times, intolerable. This continued for wave after wave of the virus.”
Reform UK manifesto launch venue has strong environmental credentials
The venue chosen by Reform UK for the launch of its Scottish manifesto has policies observers may feel are at odds with Nigel Farage’s opposition to net zero, environmental protection and “woke” politics.
, which sits in parkland near the Clyde west of Glasgow, prides itself on its environmental sustainability, boasting “the largest single footprint of solar panels in Scotland”, its EV car charging points, its home-grown flowers, recycled pencils and rigorous plans to cuts its energy use.
"At Ingliston Estate & Country Club we have made it our mission to run our business as ethically and environmentally conscious as possible, and we have taken steps to ensure our footprint on the planet is reduced.
The hundreds of buoyant and bullish Reform supporters who queued in bright sunshine on Thursday morning to watch Farage and his Scottish leader Malcolm Offord could have learnt more about its long list of eco credentials:
We have the largest single footprint of solar panels in Scotland generating 70% of the electrical energy we use each day, with plans in the pipeline to add another 16 panels in the next 12 months.
We have three polytunnels which are each 30 meters long, where we grow all the flowers and plants throughout the estate. We also grow many of our herbs and vegetables used in our award-winning Palomino’s restaurant.
We use 100% recycled paper and recycled pencils. We use suppliers that only have a Green Eco Carbon Footprint programme."
Farage has advocated drilling as much oil and gas from UK waters as possible, resuming fracking onland, cutting all subsidies for renewables and ripping up what he sees as “a progressive, woke ideology” which embarrasses the UK.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper defends UK aid despite funding cuts
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK remains a “major player” in overseas aid despite a reduction in funding.
In a statement to the Commons, Cooper said that allocating a reduced budget “inevitably leads to hard choices and unavoidable trade-offs”.
"We’re focusing aid on the people and places that need it most, and we will still be a major player, and expect to be the fifth biggest funder in the world.
We will still use international leadership, such as our 2027 G20 presidency, to shape the global agenda for development and we will continue to use our other policies and levers so that lower-income countries benefit from trade and growth, and tackling flows of illicit finance and dirty money, which harm developing countries most and fuel crime on everyone’s streets.
This modernised approach to international development and our allocation of ODA [official development assistance] reflects our values and our interests, because our driving force has been, and continues to be, working for a world free from extreme poverty, on a liveable planet."
SNP leader John Swinney says Reform UK rise partly due to racism
The rise of Reform UK is partly due to racism, Scotland’s first minister has said.
John Swinney said people are also supporting Nigel Farage’s party because they are “angry” and “fed up with the state of our society”.
The SNP leader said he does not believe in Reform’s immigration policies and that there is no “rational argument” against migration to due to the country’s shortage of working-age adults.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Scotcast podcast, the first minister said racism is one of the driving forces behind Reform UK.
"I think that’s a product of two things," he said. "Part of it is made up of people who genuinely hold views with which I profoundly disagree.
There will be some views in there which will be intolerant of people from other countries and other races, racist views, which I don’t hold, there will be some of them in there.
But there are also a lot of people in there who are angry, and they’re fed up with the state of our society and our community, and I take some responsibility for that as first minister.
They’re just finding life really tough, and they’re angry. I try to explain to those people that the politics of Farage would be a disaster for our country if we go down that route."
