Minister signals No 10 won't stop MPs voting to publish Andrew trade envoy papers - provided police probe not jeopardised
Good morning. Cabinet Office officials are currently engaged in a substantial task to collect and review thousands of documents related to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US and his communications during his tenure. This is to facilitate their publication in compliance with parliamentary procedures. It now appears they will undertake a similar process for documents concerning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as a trade envoy in 2001.
The Liberal Democrats have secured an opposition day in parliament, allowing them to select the motion for debate. Their motion requests:
"That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions to require the government to lay before this house all papers relating to the creation of the role of special representative for trade and investment and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment to that role, including but not confined to any documents held by UK Trade and Investment, British Trade International (BTI) and its successors, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Cabinet Office and the prime minister’s office containing or relating to advice from, or provided to, the Group Chief Executive of BTI, Peter Mandelson, the Cabinet Office and the prime minister regarding the suitability of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for the appointment, due diligence and vetting conducted in relation to the appointment, and minutes of meetings and electronic communications regarding the due diligence and vetting."
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, provided interviews this morning indicating the government would not oppose the motion. Speaking on the Today programme, she said:
"We’re in favour of the principle of there being transparency around this. We think that’s important. Of course, the public have a right to see material that is relevant."
However, she emphasized the importance of not publishing any material that could compromise the ongoing police investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor. She stated:
"We will look at what the Lib Dems have set out [and we] will address the position later on in parliament when we come to that debate. But we do just need to be careful here because, as in the Peter Mandelson case, we have got a live police investigation here and none of us would want to do anything that would jeopardise it."
This suggests the House of Commons is likely to approve a version of the motion with an amendment specifying that publication will occur only after the police inquiry concludes.
Parliamentary agenda for the day
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet, with Antonia Romeo attending for the first time as cabinet secretary.
11am: Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, holds a press conference with parents to discuss the case for banning teenagers from accessing social media.
11am: Starmer participates in a virtual coalition of the willing meeting on the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
11am: Richard Tice, Reform UK business spokesperson, delivers a speech in the West Midlands.
11.45am: David Lammy, deputy prime minister and justice secretary, gives a speech on reforming the courts system and will announce forthcoming initiatives.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: The High Court issues its judgment on Rupert Lowe MP’s case.
After 12.30pm: MPs begin debating the Liberal Democrat humble address motion requesting the publication of documents related to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as trade envoy during the previous administration. The vote is expected around 4pm and is likely to pass without division.
2.30pm: Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons business committee, is expected to announce details at the start of a hearing.
After 4pm: MPs debate a Liberal Democrat motion proposing that the party should control the parliamentary timetable on Monday 9 March to pass an online services (age restrictions) bill. This motion is expected to be defeated.
Comments are not open today. For urgent matters, social media is recommended. The author can be reached on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social and on Twitter at @AndrewSparrow.
Shadow education secretary discusses social media age restrictions
At the Conservative press conference, Laura Trott spoke about an upcoming Commons vote within two weeks on the Tory proposal to ban under-16s from accessing social media. She noted the difficulty in policing social media content but stated that controlling age access is feasible. Trott referred to the amendment passed in the House of Lords but did not mention the scheduled Commons vote on the issue this afternoon.
Badenoch renews call for under-16s social media ban with families affected by online abuse
Kemi Badenoch held a press conference alongside relatives of children who have died due to social media-related causes, including suicide and attacks. She emphasized giving these families a platform to share their experiences and advocated for a ban on social media use for under-16s.
The first speaker, George, recounted the loss of his son Christopher, who was subjected to 50 challenges by online predators who threatened to kill his family if he did not comply.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw urges full abolition of farm inheritance tax
Helena Horton, environment reporter, notes that Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds will speak at the National Farmers’ Union conference at the ICC in Birmingham at 3pm, announcing a £345 million fund aimed at improving farming productivity. This funding is not new but an extension of an existing capital grants scheme within the current farming budget.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw revealed that Keir Starmer reversed a policy on farming inheritance tax by more than doubling the threshold for taxation after Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson met with farmers in Northumberland in November last year and learned of their concerns.
Experts across the political spectrum criticized Rachel Reeves for setting the inheritance tax threshold at £1 million for farms, which would affect small and medium-sized farms rather than the intended wealthy. In December, Starmer announced an increase to a £2.5 million threshold, allowing couples to pool allowances, enabling a married couple to pass on a farm worth up to £5 million without incurring inheritance tax.
Bradshaw stated he will urge Reform UK, the Conservatives, and Labour to commit to fully scrapping the inheritance tax introduced by Reeves in their general election manifestos.
"Just to be crystal clear, to the prime minister, Treasury and secretary of state for environment we still believe the IHT policy is fundamentally flawed. It jeopardises some of our more productive farming businesses."
"At the next general election we will be demanding those public promises are turned into manifesto commitments, to scrap the family farm tax."
He highlighted that UK food production has declined due to extreme weather events, inflation, rising input costs, and increased taxes. Bradshaw added:
"We cannot rely on other countries to feed us. We need a food strategy that sets clear ambitions sector by sector, something we can measure, something we can hold ourselves accountable for. The years of declining food production must end now."
Starmer urges defeat of falsehood that Russia is winning, praises Ukraine's resilience
Keir Starmer paid tribute to "the incredible resilience of the Ukrainians" and called for the rejection of the false narrative that Russia is winning the war it initiated four years ago.
Addressing cabinet this morning, he said:
"I wanted also to pay tribute to the incredible resilience of the Ukrainians, and it is incredible resilience. When this conflict broke out four years ago, it was assumed it would be a matter of weeks before Putin took the whole of Ukraine. That’s what everybody believed. Four years later, the Ukrainians are holding out against that aggression, holding out on the frontline where the circumstances are extremely challenging, but also holding out in civilian life where every day Ukrainians get up and go to work as a sign of resilience and defiance. And we must defeat the falsehood that Russia is winning. Because if you look at the last year alone, Russia took 0.8% of land in Ukraine at a terrible cost to themselves, half a million losses."
Starmer shared some of his most poignant memories of the suffering endured by Ukrainians. He recalled three images that remain with him:
He visited Bucha near Kyiv early in the war, where he saw:
"the roads and the ditches in which Ukrainian civilians were handcuffed with their hands behind their back, blindfolded and shot in the head, the bodies left in the road."
He also visited a busy hospital in Kyiv last year and witnessed severe burns on soldiers returning from the frontline:
"Burns the like of which I’d never seen in my life before."
At the same time, he visited a primary school where children aged five to seven had lost both parents to the conflict.
Reform mayor engages US oil and gas executive on fracking prospects in UK
Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Reform party mayor of Lincolnshire, has engaged with the head of an American oil and gas family in efforts to introduce fracking to the county, according to Hajar Meddah.
The Conservative Party has expressed support for fracking. During an LBC phone-in, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, acknowledged student frustration over interest charged on student loans but suggested the Tory proposal was misguided. She explained:
"Part of the challenge with reforming the student finance system is that whilst it can often seem superficially attractive to do things like changing the interest rate, it doesn’t always have the desired effect in terms of making the system fairer, particularly for less well-off students. It’s a really complex system. It’s evolved over time. It’s not a system that I would have put in place, but we are where we are. We are going to look at if there’s anything that we can do on this, of course we keep it open and under review."
Starmer visits Poland with family to explore Jewish heritage
Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, took their two teenage children to Poland during the half-term break to visit the village where her grandparents lived before fleeing to England prior to the First World War amid rising antisemitism, reports Lee Harpin.
Jewish News understands the prime minister was intent on helping his children appreciate their mother’s Jewish roots. None of Lady Victoria’s extended family who remained in Poland survived the Nazi regime, making the visit particularly emotional and poignant.
Update on Peter Mandelson's arrest and document publication
Peter Mandelson was released on police bail after questioning and arrived home around 2am this morning.
Bridget Phillipson confirmed on LBC that the government will comply with the humble address requiring publication of information related to Mandelson’s tenure as US ambassador but emphasized that nothing compromising the police investigation will be published.
Ed Davey apologizes for praising Andrew's work as trade envoy in 2011 Commons debate
Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, explained in interviews why the Lib Dem motion references Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 2001 appointment as trade envoy. However, Davey faced embarrassment when Nick Robinson, presenter of the Today programme, read excerpts from a 2011 Commons debate in which Davey, then a trade minister, praised Andrew’s performance.
Davey was responding to a debate initiated by the late Labour MP Paul Flynn, a republican who criticized parliamentary rules that prevented criticism of Prince Andrew at the time. Davey stated:
"I, for one, believe that the Duke of York does an excellent job as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment …. During [his time as trade envoy] he has been a long-standing success in the role, representing a continued interest on the part of the royal family in supporting British business and international trade and investment … Many who have worked with the duke have found that he is a real asset for our country in supporting UK business."
When Flynn raised concerns from human rights groups about Andrew’s work in non-democratic countries, Davey dismissed these as "innuendo." Upon hearing these excerpts, Davey said he was speaking on behalf of another minister who could not attend and offered an apology:
"Can I apologise to all those victims of [Jeffrey] Epstein who may have read those words and been upset by them. I really regret them."
He noted that Epstein was not mentioned in the debate, highlighting the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of Andrew at the time.
When reminded that he criticized Flynn for holding the debate shortly after Prince William and Kate’s wedding, Davey responded:
"Well, I didn’t know what we now know back then. And it’s interesting to note that the prime minister [David Cameron] at the time got rid of, or ensured that Prince Andrew stood down from the role, two months later. So clearly someone in government did know that there were huge problems with the way he was conducting his role."
Davey expressed frustration at being compelled to defend Andrew and called for changes to parliamentary rules preventing criticism of royal family members. He said the 2011 debate demonstrated the need for:
"greater transparency and greater accountability."
