The Scottish government faced legal costs of almost £160,000 in its unsuccessful court battle on the definition of a woman, which ended in the supreme court, it emerged today. The bills were revealed in a freedom of information request by the Scottish Conservatives, PA Media reports.

Downing Street has rejected Tory claims that Keir Starmer was snubbed when the Albanian PM said today he would not host a “return hub” for the UK. (See 2.35pm.)

At the afternoon lobby briefing, a No 10 spokesperson said Albania being a possible return hub was “never planned as part of the discussions” between Starmer and Edi Rama.

The spokesperson said it was was established before Starmer’s trip that Albania would not be part of plans for the UK to have “return hubs” for refused asylum seekers. Rama made this clear in his own remarks at the press conference. (See 11.57am.)

The spokesperson said:

So there’s a specific Albania-Italy relationship there, but we work with Albania very, very closely when it comes to tackling organised immigration crime and illegal immigration.

That was obviously what the prime minister was seeing in person operationally on the visit today as well as announcing the expansion of the joint migration task force that already includes Albania.

Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor.

The UK’s elite private schools have passed the cost of adding VAT to their fees onto parents, according to figures from the Independent Schools Council showing a 22.6% increase since the tax was added.

The ISC - whose members represent just over half of the UK’s private schools - said the average termly fee for its members’ day school pupils was £7,382 in January, including 20% VAT, compared with £6,021 in January 2024, as reported by the BBC.

The government added VAT to private school fees at the start of this year.

The ISC said the increases also included the effects of higher national insurance contributions and an end to business rates relief for schools run by charities. The business rates relief was scrapped for private schools in Scotland in 2022, and in England and Wales from April.

Julie Robinson, the ISC’s chief executive, said:

These statistics show that school leaders have done what they can to keep baseline fee rises to a minimum in the face of this unprecedented tax on education.

A Treasury spokesperson said:

This data misrepresents reality - the increases in fees are not only down to VAT. Average [school] fees have risen by 75% in real terms in the past 25 years and pupil numbers have remained steady.

The Treasury added that the measure is expected to raise £1.8bn a year.

As Mark Sweney reports, the government has decided to allow foreign states to own stakes of up to 15% in British newspapers. This is primarily to end the deadlock over the sale of the Daily Telegraph, allowing a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates to take over.

The Liberal Democrats have announced that they are going to try to block this in the House of Lords by using a fatal motion, a rarely-used procedure that can be used to block secondary legislation. They believe that, with Tory support, they could pass the fatal motion.

Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat culture spokesperson in the Commons, said:

Our free press is the cornerstone of British democracy – it can never be for sale to foreign powers.

In 2024, it seemed there was cross-party consensus on this. But just as we’ve seen with their approach to copyright protections and AI, Labour are demonstrating they are willing to put at risk one of this nation’s great assets.

This move insults all of those working to maintain the centuries-old British value of press freedom. It must be reversed.

At PMQs yesterday Keir Starmer accused the Conservative party of “sliding into oblivion”. In an effort to prove him wrong, CCHQ has issued a press notice criticising Keir Starmer for refusing to fly the flag of Middlesex above Downing Street.

And it is not just a short press release. It runs to 1,700 words (including the notes), covering, among other things, Napoleon, bisexual flags, and the record of the last Conservative government in championing England’s traditional counties.

Readers may not be familiar with the Middlesex flag – in part because Middlesex does not even exist anymore as a unit of government. But the Tories say tomorrow is Middlesex Day, celebrating “the victory of the Middlesex Regiment (‘the Die Hards’), holding back the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Albuhera during the Peninsula Wars”, and that when the Tories were in power they flew the Middlesex flag from Downing Street on 16 May to mark the occasion.

By tabling a Commons written question, Richard Holden, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, discovered that No 10 will not be doing the same again this year. In a statement denouncing the government for this, he said:

As the Labour government prepares to give in to betray Brexit and make our country an EU law-taker, it speaks volumes that they refuse to fly the historic flag that marks victory over the forces of Napoleon. Keir Starmer would rather hoist the white flag of surrender.

The Tories also say Labour’s “refusal to fly county flags contrasts with the decision in September by David Lammy’s Foreign Office to hoist the bisexual flag from Whitehall, adjacent to Downing Street”.

Asked about the story, the PM’s spokesperson pointed out that Starmer celebrated St George’s Day.

NHS England has said that a “particularly sharp rise in referrals” explains why hospital waiting lists rose slightly in March. (See 10.03am.)

In its own news release on the figures, NHS England said they showed “the NHS delivered over 100,000 more treatments in March compared to the same month last year”.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said:

The scale of demand that our frontline NHS teams are managing is enormous – today’s figures show that each month, they are having to not only deal with an historic backlog, but they are also working to keep up with the hundreds of thousands of new patients that need our care.

In March, we saw a particularly sharp rise in referrals – yet staff still managed to deliver more for patients with 100,000 more treatments delivered and thousands more getting a timely diagnosis for cancer.

Commenting on the figures, Edward Argar, the shadow health secretary, said:

Patients will be disappointed that waiting lists have begun to rise again in this latest data, at just the same time Wes Streeting has announced plans for big bonuses for NHS bosses.

And the Health Foundation charity put out a statement about the figures saying:

These latest statistics are a reminder that patients and NHS staff continue to bear the consequences of the strain on NHS services. A quarter of patients waited more than 4 hours to be treated in A&E in April, with over 44,000 waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to a bed. And while the NHS waiting list had seen a slow and gradual decline over the past 6 months, it increased slightly to 7.42m in March.

Behind these figures are more than 13,000 patients who are fit to be discharged but still in hospital. This underlines the urgent need to improve the flow of patients out of hospital – including by investing in social care. New Health Foundation analysis out today estimates an additional £3.4bn a year would be needed by 2028/29, just to avoid adult social care services deteriorating further.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has claimed that Keir Starmer’s trip to Tirana was pointless because the Albanian PM ruled out hosting a “return hub” for the UK. (See 11.57am.)

And he also claimed that Starmer was trying to take credit for a reduction in small boat arrivals achieved by the Conservatives.

In a statement he said:

This trip is an embarrassment. Starmer jetted off and now the Albanian prime minister has made clear that there will be no UK return hubs in Albania. So, what was the point of this entire visit?

Under the Conservatives, we already struck a real returns deal and a law enforcement deal with Albania - and they worked. Small boat arrivals from Albania dropped by over 90%. Now Labour are dishonestly insinuating it’s down to them.

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins has been named as the new head of the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence said, following the earlier than expected departure of his predecessor. PA Media reports:

Gwyn replaces Admiral Sir Benjamin Key as first sea lord and chief of the naval staff. He is the first Royal Marine to be appointed to the role

The general had been in line to become the UK’s national security adviser until Keir Starmer cancelled the appointment by his predecessor as prime minister, Rishi Sunak

Key, Gwyn’s predecessor, stood down earlier than expected, amid an investigation which is understood to be related to a relationship with a female subordinate.

The Mail Online’s story about Keir Starmer’s return hub comments in Albania today quotes a Whitehall official as describing the plan as “Rwanda-lite”.

In a post on social media commenting on a link to the Mail story, Kemi Badenoch said:

Starmer is making an effort, but this will NOT stop the boats.

People will still try their luck knowing they can stay in Britain if granted asylum so it won’t get rid of asylum hotels in the UK.

We left Labour a real deterrent. This is weaker than the Rwanda plan and won’t work.

Under the proposed Rwanda plan, which was held up by legal challenges and never implemented, the Tory government wanted to ban anyone arriving in the UK illegally from claiming asylum – regardless of whether or not they had a valid claim. In theory, they could all have been deported to Rwanda and banned from returning.

Starmer is not proposing this. Instead, he would look at a scheme that would involve removing people to a third country after their asylum application was refused.

Kim Leadbeater has hit back at criticism from the Royal College of Psychiatrists over the assisted dying bill and said there had been no drop-off in support for it among MPs before a vote tomorrow, Eleni Courea reports.

The government has given domestic abusers an opportunity to “give another twist to the knife” for victims through planned changes to prison recall, ministers have been warned. In its report on the urgent question on “the public safety implications" of the government’s plans to limit the use of prison recall, PA Media reports:

Conservative former minister Desmond Swayne was one of a number of MPs questioning justice minister Nic Dakin on how the changes would impact victims of domestic abuse.

Under emergency measures announced by the justice secretary, some criminals serving sentences between one and four years will be returned to custody only for a fixed 28-day period.

Offenders are recalled to prison if they commit another offence or breach licence conditions, such as by missing probation appointments, when they are released early but remain on licence.

Swayne said: “Given the nature of domestic abusers, many will welcome the opportunity to give another twist to the knife at a mere cost of 28 days. Hasn’t he just presented them with a practical opportunity?”

Liberal Democrat MP Ben Maguire said the government has “failed to step up and tackle the sheer scale of the problem” in criminal justice capacity.

Speaking from the front bench he said: “Victims and survivors are worried about what this will now mean for them. If there was a specific offence of domestic abuse, those dangerous offenders could have been excluded from early release, but the Government has taken no action at all since the Liberal Democrats raised the solution with them last autumn. So will the minister finally commit to giving victims and survivors the protections they deserve by creating new domestic abuse aggravated offences?”

Dakin said getting things right for victims is “something we take very, very seriously and needs to be done very, very properly”.

Labour MP Laurence Turner asked to ensure that “lessons have been learned” from cases of people being murdered by prisoners on remand.

He said: “In separate cases two families in my constituency lost loved ones. They were murdered by offenders who were out on remand and who never should have been.”

Dakin said he would meet with him to take the matter further.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing No 10 suggested return hubs could stop refused asylum seekers from starting a family in the UK in an attempt to use human rights laws to prevent them being sent back.

Asked about the proposal, which Keir Starmer confirmed today was something being actively discussed with other countries (see 12.41pm), the PM’s spokesperson said:

This will basically apply to people who have exhausted all legal routes to remain in the UK but are attempting to stall using various tactics, whether it’s losing their paperwork or using other tactics to frustrate their removal.

It will ensure that they don’t have the chance to make their removal harder by using tactics such as starting a family, etc, as we have seen from cases in the past.

That obviously will reduce the cost to the taxpayer.

Here is the full version of the answer that Keir Starmer gave to GB News during the press conference when asked if he was considering setting up “return hubs” in other countries for migrants whose applications for asylum in the UK are refused. (See 12.02pm.) Starmer said:

Yes, we are in talks with a number of countries about return hubs.

I view them as a really important innovation, and that’s consistent with the work that we’ve done in relation to UK-Albania reduction in numbers, the work we’ve done on law enforcement arrangements with other countries, the return agreements that we’ve put in place, the record number of returns.

What I’d like to do is add return hubs to that.

We are in those talks and therefore, at the appropriate time, I’ll be able to give you further details in relation to it.

Q: Will you apologise for the way Albanians have been treated by the UK in the past? (That seems to be a reference to what Suella Braverman said about Albanians when she was home secretary.)

Starmer says the fact that he is the first UK prime minister to have an official visit to Albania shows the respect he has for the country. He says he will not comment on the previous government.

Rama says it was not any British PM who offended Albanians. There were “a few other individuals that did it”, he says. But he says they have now been “taken out” by the British people at the election.

He says the two countries are now in a “new era” as they are building a new partnership.

And that’s the end of the press conference.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

Look, I think the fact that I’m the first British Prime Minister to be here in Albania, having a bilateral meeting, should be seen as a statement of intent as to the regard that I hold Albania and this prime minister [Edi Rama].

I won’t comment on previous prime ministers in Britain, but my approach is not megaphone diplomacy. It is to do the hard yards of actually dealing with the problems that we have to address.

And Rama said:

Cursing the Albanians was not a good idea, because the curse went back and they are now out of the parliament. So, it is enough. We don’t need more than that.

Q: [From Christopher Hope from GB News] To Starmer – Which countries are you talking to about hosting ‘return hubs’ about migrants from the UK whose applications for asylum have failed?

Starmer says he is interested in using return hubs. He says he is in talks with other countries about this. But he would like to add them to the list of measures being used to tackle this problem. But he says he is not in a position to give more information about this plan yet.

Q: [From Christopher Hope from GB News] To Rama – It sounds like you are ruling out hosting an offshore processing centre. Is that right?

Rama says Hope is right. He says when the started this process with Italy, it was a “one-off” because of the special relationship between the two countries, and because their geographical closeness meant it “made a lot of sense”.

But other countries have asked about this. He says he has said no because Albania is “loyal to the marriage with Italy”. The others are just “loves”, he says.

UPDATE: Rama said:

I have been very clear since day one when we started this process with Italy that this was a one off with Italy because of our very close relation but also because of the geographical situation which makes a lot of sense.

We have been asked by several countries if we were open to it, and we said no, because we are loyal to the marriage with Italy and the rest is just love.

Keir Starmer is now holding a press conference with his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama.

There is a live feed at the top of the blog.

Lisa O’Carroll is a Guardian correspondent covering trade and Brexit.

The Commons business and trade committee (BTC) today said the goverment “must not shy away from difficult decisions and trade offs” as it renegotiates its relationship with the EU.

In the absence of a green paper on the reset with the EU, the committee has published a report setting out 20 policy areas it wants the government to pursue including a reduction in checks on food and drink exports, customs simplification and accelerated joint investment in energy to reach net zero climate targets.

They also call for the UK to pursue a “multi-annual” review of the fishing deal struck in Lord Frost’s trade and cooperation deal in 2020.

Liam Byrne, Labour chair of the committee, said:

It’s time to face facts. If Britain wants to beat the forecasts and escape stagnation, we don’t need to pray to the bond markets — we need to unlock the Brussels dividend through a strategic reset with our biggest trading partner.

Today’s report from the BTC is a blunt warning that without a serious reset in our relationship with Europe, Britain will miss its best chance to accelerate growth and bolster security in a increasingly dangerous world. At stake is not only a new opportunity to rebuild our defences - but a huge prize to kickstart UK goods exports which have flatlined since Brexit. This summit is Britain’s opportunity to re-anchor our economic and security strategy in shared strength, not splendid isolation. Government must seize it.

The committee notes that 41% of all UK exports go to the EU, more than the US, India and Indo-Pacific combined, with some witnesses telling the committee GDP could grow by 1-1.5% or around £15bn if there was “deep” regulatory alignment on goods, even within British red lines of remaining outside the single market and customs union.

EU member states have rejected UK positions on fishing and a youth mobility deal as tensions mount before a much-anticipated summit between Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen next week, Jennifer Rankin and Lisa O’Carroll report.

All Commons Speakers, at least for the past 30 years, have complained about the government making major announcements to the media first, and not to parliament first. But rarely have any of them sounded quite as furious about this as Lindsay Hoyle, who this morning delivered an extended reprimand to the government about this at the start of an urgent question.

The UQ was about plans to limit the use of prison recall – something announced by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, at a press conference yesterday, while the Commons was still sitting. After pointing this out, and reminding MPs that details of the immigration white paper were given to the media extensively, long before the ministerial statement about it was delivered in the Commons on Monday, Hoyle went on to imply that, as well as regularly breaking the ministerial code, ministers were also guilty of hypocrisy. He said:

I note that those who now occupy senior ministerial roles were not slow to complain when the previous government made major policy announcements outside this house.

I will continue to uphold and defend the rights of this house, the rights of backbenchers, to be here, and hear it first, the most important announcements of government policy, and the right of honourable members to question ministers on those announcements in person.

That was my position under the previous government, and it has not changed under this government.

It is clear to me that the general principle set out in paragraph 9.1 of the ministerial code is being disregarded more often than it is observed.

Paragraph 9.1 of the ministerial code says:

When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.

Hoyle said he would write to the chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee asking it to consider this issue in more detail. He went on:

If the government is not going to take the ministerial code seriously, who will?

I’ve got to say, I don’t like this. I believe I am here to represent all backbenchers and backbenchers have the right to ask questions. I’m not interested in Sky News or the BBC or political programmes. I’m here to defend all of you. I will continue to defend. Please do not take MPs for granted. It is not acceptable.

And when you’re in the wrong, try apologising to the members.

Nic Dakin, a justice minister, spoke next. At the start of his response to the urgent question, he said he had heard what Hoyle said and was pleased to be in the chamber to answer questions. Hoyle pointed out that Dakin was only in the chamber because Hoyle had decided to allow this urgent question.

Hoyle is right to say that paragraph 9.1 is being ignored by this government more than in the past. But some commentators have argued that it is unrealistic to expect ministers to make major announcements in the Commons first (which, in practice, would mean either at 3.30pm on Mondays, 12.30pm on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, or 10.30am on Thursdays) and that pre-briefing actually helps MPs because it means, when they do get to question ministers about announcements, they tend to be better informed.

According to Downing Street, Keir Starmer is the first prime minister ever to stage an official visit to Albania. But he has not been inspired by the many news stories saying Albania is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for British travellers. Starmer is focused on illegal immigration, and he is visiting the country to strenghten cooperation on tackling people smuggling gangs.

In a press release issued ahead of the visit, Downing Street said:

The UK will step up efforts to break the crime web fuelling illegal migration across the Western Balkans on a historic visit to the region by the prime minister …

There has been a 95% reduction in Albanian small boat arrivals in the last three years, while the number of Albanians returned to the country has also doubled in the past two years, with 5,294 Albanians returned in 2024, more than double the 2,035 Albanian nationals returned two years earlier.

But the prime minister has been clear that the government cannot be complacent about the success, and while in Albania this week, he is expected to announce the expansion of the joint migration taskforce with Albania and Kosovo to include North Macedonia and will further progress positive discussions with Montenegro …

As part of an enhanced strategic partnership with Albania, the prime minister and Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, are expected to agree to go further on clamping down on people smuggling, supporting human trafficking victims and ensuring Albanians deported home do not attempt a second journey.

On a visit to a ferry port near Tirana, where he inspected work done to tackle people smuggling, Starmer said:

What we have done in our joint work with Albania is shown that by working with other countries – this morning we saw law enforcement from Albania alongside law enforcement from the UK – [we have] driven down those numbers.

I want to see more of that. We are absolutely determined that we are going to clear up the mess that we have been left and make sure that we get the control we need of our borders.

It is not all good news for the government this morning. As PA Media reports, the NHS England monthly performance figures out today show that hospital waiting lists have started to nudge up again for the first time in seven months. PA says:

An estimated 7.42 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of March, relating to 6.25 million patients – up slightly from 7.40 million treatments and 6.24 million patients at the end of February.

The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.

The Times article by Nick Williams mentioned earlier (see 9.07am) is worth reading in full. Williams gave up a job as a Treasury official to work as an economic policy adviser to Keir Starmer when he was opposition leader. He then worked for the PM in Downing Street as an adviser on planning, infrastructure and housing until last month.

Here are the main points he makes.

• Williams says taxes will have to go up in the budget. He says:

While the government builds momentum behind growth, the path of public spending is just not credible. Not to mend creaking local government. Not to tackle rampant crime. Not to meet the modern demands for defence. And certainly not to fill the fiscal hole from sharply cutting immigration.

The bottom line is that taxes will have to go up. There are ways this can be done which are fair and respect manifesto promises.

• He says the budget should be brought forward, and combined with the spending review, to avoid “months of tax speculation and uncertainty”.

The government should instruct the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] to prepare for a joint budget and spending review before summer recess. Treasury officials would hate it – it is harder to negotiate on spending when savvy secretaries of state know tax is also in play. However, it would avoid months of tax speculation and uncertainty; spare the cabinet from defending unpopular cuts which ultimately may not be delivered; and offer an earlier opportunity to atone for past mistakes.

It will also allow the OBR to pass judgment on the labour market impact of the government’s proposed welfare changes. If they agree with the government’s expectations that more people will move into work, the parliamentary handling of the legislation will be easier. If they continue with their current assessment, then the government should alter the policy.

• He says changing the government’s fiscal rules would be “an invitation to disaster”.

Members of both Blue Labour and the Socialist Campaign Group have gone further and called for Rachel Reeves to change her fiscal rules. This is seen as a free lunch, but it is an invitation to disaster.

No fiscal rules are perfect and all draw seemingly arbitrary lines. They frustrate because they are a constraint; that is their point. They are easy to criticise and have few advocates. Their purpose is simple but vital: demonstrate to those who buy government debt that the government will be good for it. To lose confidence is politically fatal. Remember, it was the bond market which brought President Trump to heel.

• He said the cuts to welfare cuts announced recently were less severe than they otherwise would have been because of the OBR’s estimate that planning reforms would be positive for growth.

The government has also begun giving shape to its growth strategy. The revenue brought in by Matthew Pennycook’s planning reforms allowed more painful welfare cuts to be dropped, with more to be scored in the next budget and, later this month, the new shape of the UK’s relationship with the EU will be revealed.

The Times says Williams is referring to the government dropping a plan to freeze the value of Pip (the personal independence payments) as part of its welfare reform. The government is still drastically reducing Pip eligibility. But, for people who do get it, it won’t be frozen.

Keir Starmer is in Albania, where he has welcomed the growth figures. He told broadcasters:

These growth figures are very good and very welcome, and I think they show the strength and resilience of the British economy and the potential.

I don’t think they should be seen in isolation, because we have also had four interest rate cuts in a row, and what that shows is that in an uncertain world, particularly globally, this government is making the right decisions on growth.

I would be the first to accept there is more work to do so we will roll up our sleeves and get on with that, but this is very good news for the British economy, very good for working people across the country.

Good morning. There is some good news for the government this morning. As Richard Partington reports, the UK economy grew by a bigger than forecast 0.7% in the first three months of the year, defying business warnings of a collapse in confidence ahead of Labour’s tax increases and Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

In a statement welcoming the figures, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said:

Today’s growth figures show the strength and potential of the UK economy.

In the first three months of the year, the UK economy has grown faster than the US, Canada, France, Italy and Germany.

Up against a backdrop of global uncertainty we are making the right choices now in the national interest.

Reeves mentioned the US, Canada, France, Italy and Germany for a reason. They are all G7 members, and one of Keir Starmer’s “five missions” announced before the election was for the UK to have the highest sustained growth in the G7. The figures for the other G7 nation, Japan, are not available yet, although they are likely to show the Japanese economy shrinking. It is only one quarter, but you can see why Reeves is keen to talk about this. She is giving interviews to broadcasters this morning.

But some of them may want to ask her about an article in the Times by Nick Williams, a former Treasury official who worked as an adviser to Keir Starmer on economic policy, and then on planning policy, from 2023 until last month. Williams says that Reeves will have to raise tax in the budget. He says:

While the government builds momentum behind growth, the path of public spending is just not credible.

Not to mend creaking local government. Not to tackle rampant crime. Not to meet the modern demands for defence. And certainly not to fill the fiscal hole from sharply cutting immigration.

The bottom line is that taxes will have to go up. There are ways this can be done which are fair and respect manifesto promises.

The next opportunity to do so is the autumn budget. This is also realistically the last opportunity to make a meaningful change that the public has time to feel before the next election.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is talking to broadcasters about the growth figures on a trip to Derbyshire.

9.30am: Heidi Alexander, transport secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.

9.30am: The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly figures on prosecutions and convictions.

10am: Kemi Badenoch takes part in a Q&A with former Canadian PM Stephen Harper at the International Democracy Union meeting in Brussels.

After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons, takes questions on next week’s Commons business.

11.20am: Keir Starmer is in Albania where he is due to hold a joint press conference with the prime minister, Edi Rama. Later he will visit British troops and their Albanian counterparts training Ukrainian soldiers.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Here is the agenda for the day.

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