'No 10's claim that Palestine Action is a violent organisation is false,' says Palestine Action co-founder
Responding to the statement from Downing Street earlier, Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said: “Yvette Cooper and No 10’s claim that Palestine Action is a violent organisation is false and defamatory.
“Spraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. Disrupting Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems by trespassing on their sites in Britain is not terrorism. It is the Israeli Defense Force and all those who arm and enable their war crimes who are the terrorists.”
Closing summary
Downing Street defended the controversial proscription of Palestine Action, labelling the protest group as “violent”, with the justice minister saying supporters of the “terrorist organisation” will be subjected to the “full force of the law”. No 10 said Palestine Action has committed “significant injury” as well as criminal damage after more than 500 arrests were made at a protest linked to the group in London over the weekend.
Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, said: “Yvette Cooper and No 10’s claim that Palestine Action is a violent organisation is false and defamatory.”
Kemi Badenoch appeared to suggest the setting up of “camps” when speaking about possible alternatives to using hotels to house asylum seekers while out in Essex on a media event.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, reaffirmed her commitment to try to reduce the number of children missing classes at schools, and pledged to make a priority of tackling British white working-class young people falling behind their peers in the year ahead.
The prison population of England and Wales has jumped to the highest number in nearly a year and is nearing record levels, despite the early release of tens of thousands of offenders, official figures showed.
Foreign criminals from 15 more countries, including India, Bulgaria and Australia, face deportation before they have a chance to appeal against the decision to remove them, in a widening of the government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.
Thanks for joining us. We are closing this blog now. You can find all our latest coverage of UK politics here.
Updated
We have some more details on Downing Street’s views about Palestine Action, courtesy of the PA news agency (see post at 13.40 for more comments from No 10).
Asked on Monday whether the government was reconsidering its decision to designate the group as a terrorist organisation after the 500+ arrests on Saturday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
No. Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed involving violence, significant injury and extensive criminal damage.
Downing Street said the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre – an independent authority based within MI5 – had found the organisation had carried out three separate acts of terrorism.
The government is unable to provide “all of the detail at this stage” but the proscription has been made through a “robust, evidence-based process”, it said.
The Met last week confirmed the first three charges in England and Wales for offences against section 13 of the Terrorism Act relating to Palestine Action.
Critics say the proscription of the protest group stomps on the public’s right to freedom of speech and to protest, as well as aims to stifle legitimate demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza that the UK government has been accused of being complicit in.
In an earlier post we mentioned how the Home Office announced it had added 15 new countries to its “deport now, appeal later” scheme, meaning convicted foreign criminals from 23 countries will be deported before their human rights appeals have been heard.
Kemi Badenoch was asked about this while speaking to journalists in Essex this afternoon. Sky News quoted her as having said:
I think it’s very interesting that … when we were deporting criminals, Sir Keir Starmer was writing letters trying to stop our deportations. I’ll believe it when I see it.
This is the sort of stuff that they should have been doing on day one. The fact that they tried to stop deportations before means that I don’t really believe it.
The government has released 26,000 prisoners since it came to power, released them early, there are now more criminals on our streets. That’s what I’m really worried about.
Updated
Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel accused ministers of trying to “cover up” the cost of ceding the Chagos Islands – officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory – to Mauritius, accusing them of using an “accountancy trick” to price the deal at £3.4bn, instead of the £34.7bn figure produced by the government actuary’s department, as revealed in the Telegraph’s report.
The cost was lowered by civil servants using inflation estimates over 99 years, then reportedly lowered again by between 2.5 and 3.5% per year under the Treasury’s social time preference rate accountancy method used for long-term projects.
“We’ve all known it’s a terrible deal with huge costs to hard-pressed British taxpayers,” Patel wrote in the Telegraph.
“But for months, ministers in public and parliament have sought to cover up the true amounts.”
Patel said that “instead of owning up to the costs, Labour has used an accountancy trick to claim the amount was only £3.4bn – still a vast waste of money”.
Labour has said previously that the Conservative government wasted £700m of taxpayers’ money on the failed Rwanda deportation scheme, which survived the tenure of three former prime ministers and was overseen by four former home secretaries, including Patel.
Updated
The Telegraph reported that the government’s Chagos Islands deal will cost ten times more than Keir Starmer previously claimed. A freedom of information request response revealed that the cost of giving away the islands to Mauritius is estimated at £34.7bn, much higher than the £3.4bn figure the prime minister has previously cited in public, according to the report.
A No 10 spokesperson, however, said today that the deal will cost “an average of £100m a year”, adding that this will total less than £3bn.
The spokesperson told journalists that this “compares favourably with other base agreements” and equates to “less than 0.2%” of the defence budget.
Under the agreement, Britain cedes control over the islands to Mauritius but leases the largest one, Diego Garcia, for 99 years to continue operating a joint US-UK military base there.
Downing Street said the deal was a “legal necessity” and backed by the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which are part of an intelligence-sharing partnership with the UK.
Updated
Badenoch suggests setting up 'camps' could be an alternative to asylum seeker hotels
Kemi Badenoch appeared to suggest the setting up of “camps” when speaking about possible alternatives to using hotels to house asylum seekers.
As she met members of the community in Epping, Essex, the Conservative party leader said: “We’ve got to turn things around very quickly. We cannot use rules from 1995, or 2005, or even 2015 for 2025.
“Our world is changing very quickly, and we need to adapt to it.”
Badenoch said: “Is it possible for us to set up camps and police that, rather than bringing all of this hassle into communities?
“As a party, we need to also hear from the community about what you think the solutions are. We don’t have all the answers; it’s important that we make sure that the community is part of the problem solved.”
Updated
Vladimir Putin should never be trusted “as far as you could throw him,” Downing Street said.
Asked whether Keir Starmer thought the Russian leader could be trusted in peace talks over the future of Ukraine, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Never trust president Putin as far as you could throw him, but we obviously will support Ukraine.
“We will obviously support president Trump and European nations as we enter these negotiations.
“But it is exactly why we’ve been leading this work on the coalition of the willing, because any ceasefire, as I say, cannot just be an opportunity for president Putin to go away, re-arm, restrengthen, and then go again.
“So we’re not going to leave it to trust. We’re going to ensure that we’re prepared such that we achieve a ceasefire.
Palestine Action is a 'violent organisation' that has committed 'significant injury', says No 10
Palestine Action is a “violent organisation” that has committed “significant injury,” Downing Street said.
Asked about people arrested as part of protests linked to the group, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
We’ve said that many people may not yet know the reality of this organisation, but the assessments are very clear: this is a violent organisation that has committed violence, significant injury, extensive criminal damage, and as I say, it has met the tests as set out under the Terrorism Act to be proscribed.
Updated
Starmer 'gravely concerned' about targeting of journalists in Gaza
Prime minister Keir Starmer is “gravely concerned” about the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza, his spokesperson said on Monday, after five reporters were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israel’s military said it targeted and killed prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif, alleging he had headed a Hamas militant cell and was involved in rocket attacks on Israel.
Al Jazeera, which is funded by the Qatari government, rejected the assertion, and before his death, Al Sharif had also rejected such claims by Israel.
“We are gravely concerned by the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza,” Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters.
“Reporters covering conflicts are afforded protection under international humanitarian law, and journalists must be able to report independently, without fear, and Israel must ensure journalists can carry out their work safely.”
Asked about the claim that one of the journalists was linked to Hamas, Starmer’s spokesperson said: “That should be investigated thoroughly and independently, but we are gravely concerned by the repeated targeting of journalists”.
Donald Trump “clearly does respect women” but the US president can sometimes appear as a “bit of a chauvinist”, Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin has said.
Asked about whether Reform UK had found itself “aligning” with Trump, Pochin told the PA news agency: “This party is not aligned with Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump does what he does over the pond, and we do what we do.
“And when Nigel [Farage] becomes the prime minister in 2029, then you will see a Reform government which is committed to the safety and the protection of women and girls in this country.
“And the other thing I would say is, Donald Trump certainly comes across at times, when I look at him through the television or the media, as possibly a bit of a chauvinist, or whatever.
“But look at his team. I mean, his press secretary [Karoline Leavitt] is awesome - can’t remember her name - but he has a lot of very senior women in his team.
“So actually, he clearly does respect women and promotes women in his team, as Nigel is very much doing, as you’ve seen today, with four senior women hosting this press conference.”
Updated
A-level results in England expected to return to near pre-pandemic levels
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor
Students in England are expected to receive A-level grades that are closer to normal for the first time since the Covid pandemic triggered school closures and exam cancellations.
The grades will more closely resemble those given out in 2019, before the pandemic, with the proportion of A* to E grades linked to national results from the GCSE exams taken by the same pupils two years ago.
While most of the students who sat A-levels this spring were affected by pandemic disruption during their early years at secondary school, they will be the first group to have gone through their exam years without major turbulence …
School leavers in England hoping to go to university have received higher numbers of offers as institutions have aggressively sought to fill places after a downturn in international applications.
Universities usually offer places on undergraduate courses that are conditional on reaching certain A-level grades. But Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment, admissions and participation at the University of Cambridge, said many universities would probably be “looking very carefully” at accepting applicants who narrowly failed to achieve the required grades.
Nicholson said:
If the student, for instance, needed three As [and] gets AAB, as long as the B is not in something that’s absolutely crucial for the course, I think there’s a very strong possibility the student would find they’d be getting a place.
You can read the full story here:
Speaking ahead of A-level results day on Thursday, Bridget Phillipson said it was a “national disgrace” that so many young people – especially white working-class pupils – were unable to get the required grades for university.
Phillipson said:
It is a national disgrace that so many young people are written off and don’t get what they need to achieve and thrive.
Far too many young people, particularly white working-class British students, don’t get the exam results that they need at GCSE or A-level to allow them to continue onto university.
Fewer than a fifth (18.6%) of white British pupils eligible for free school meals achieved at least a grade 5 – which is considered a “strong pass” – in their English and maths GCSEs in 2023-24, compared with 45.9% of all state school pupils in England, according to Department for Education (DfE) data.
The Telegraph also reports that the DfE will publish data showing school suspension and exclusion levels among white working-class pupils for the first time under new reforms.
Updated
Education secretary ready to 'redouble efforts' to cut down on school absences
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has reaffirmed her commitment to try to reduce the number of children missing classes at schools.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, she said progress was being made, albeit slowly, despite government figures showing the number of children in England who missed at least half of their classes rose to nearly 150,000 last autumn.
There have been calls for greater investment in mental health support for children who are suffering from anxiety and depression and it is widely thought that high unattendance levels are partly a product of the pandemic and its lockdowns.
The government has been accused of not properly investing in targeted support and being too focused on slogans rather than concrete action.
After taking over as education secretary last July, Phillipson confirmed plans for unauthorised holiday fines to rise from £60 to £80. This increase came into effect in August 2024.
New “attendance hubs” were launched to help reduce persistent school absences, along with free breakfast clubs that are meant to improve pupil absence and attainment over the long term.
But since Covid both authorised absences for illness and unauthorised absences have remained stubbornly high.
“Reversing the harmful attitudes towards school attendance will not happen overnight. But we are beginning to make progress,” Phillipson wrote in the Telegraph on Monday.
“Now is the time to redouble our efforts to get more children back through the school gates.”
“It’s where they learn the habits that will shape them throughout life. It’s where the building blocks of a healthy society are laid,” she wrote.
Updated
Prison population of England and Wales jumps to its highest number in nearly a year
The prison population in England and Wales has ballooned over recent decades, mainly because of longer sentences and court backlogs.
Last year, thousands of prisoners were released early in an emergency effort to deal with prison overcrowding.
The government recently accepted recommendations made in David Gauke’s sentencing review, including curbing the use of short custodial sentences, which could see up to 10,000 fewer people sent to prison over the next three years. But these measures will take time to become legislation.
In the meantime, the prison population of England and Wales has apparently continued to rise.
A total of 88,238 people were in prison as of 11 August, up 231 on the previous week and a rise of more than 1,200 in the past two months, according to data published by the Ministry of Justice on Monday.
The total is now just 283 below the record high of 88,521, which was set on 6 September 2024 in the aftermath of last summer’s disorder in towns and cities across parts of the country.
Updated
Motoring groups have welcomed the government’s new road safety plans but, as my colleague Kevin Rawlinson notes in this story, are urging ministers to go further with measures they believe could protect younger drivers and their passengers.
“The time has come for a bold and proactive approach to road safety. This strategy is much overdue as road deaths have plateaued over the last decade,” said the AA’s president, Edmund King.
“We believe these new measures will not only modernise our approach to saving lives but also provide renewed momentum in making our roads safer for everyone.”
Vision checks for older drivers and targeting drink and drug drivers were “practical steps that can make a real difference”, he said. But failing to introduce limits on new drivers transporting peer-age passengers for six months was “a major oversight”, he added.
Nicholas Lyes, the director of policy and standards at the road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, said:
Given progress on reducing fatal and serious collisions has stalled in recent years, we welcome the UK government’s ambition to publish an updated road safety strategy with the reported measures being a step in the right direction.
While many drivers over the age of 70 are safe and competent, health issues and confidence can have an impact on driving abilities, so it is sensible to review whether changes need to be made.
We would also support reducing the drink-drive limit in England and Wales, alongside measures to target drug-driving. However, these would require significantly more backing for roads policing teams to effectively enforce new laws.
UK road safety push could see mandatory eye tests for older drivers
Despite it being the summer recess, there has been a flurry of political activity over the recent days and weeks.
The latest reported proposal sees over 70s facing the prospect of being banned from the roads if they fail compulsory eye tests.
The measures, first reported by The Times, will likely feature in a new road safety strategy set to be published by the government later this year.
They come amid concern about the number of people being killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads.
Last year, 1,633 people were killed and almost 28,000 seriously injured in traffic incidents, and numbers have remained relatively constant after a large fall between 2000 and 2010.
Under the plans being considered by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, the drink-drive limit in England and Wales could be cut from 35 micrograms of alcohol a 100ml of breath to 22 micrograms.
This figure would be in line with Scotland, which cut its drink-drive limit in 2014, and the rest of Europe, where no other country has a limit as high as that in England and Wales.
The UK is also one of only three European countries to rely on self-reporting of eyesight problems that affect driving, leading ministers to consider compulsory eye tests every three years for drivers aged over 70 and a driving ban for those who fail. You can read more on the proposals here.
Updated
More countries added to UK’s ‘deport first’ scheme for foreign criminals
In other news, a hostile environment era deportation policy is being expanded by Labour as the government continues to try to limit the threat from Reform by talking and acting toughly on migration.
Foreign criminals from 15 more countries, including India, Bulgaria and Australia, face deportation before they have a chance to appeal against the decision to remove them, in a widening of the government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.
This brings the total affected countries to 23 (you can read the government’s press release here for a full list and our write up and analysis of the policy here).
The scheme, which was introduced by the Conservatives in 2014 and applies to England and Wales, allows the UK to deport offenders who have had a human rights claim against their removal rejected, with any appeals heard from abroad over a video link.
Previously, offenders from these countries could stay in the UK while their cases went through the appeals system, a process that could often take a long time.
Officials have said increasing deportations will help ease pressure on overcrowded prisons. But figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) from the end of June suggest there are currently just 772 prisoners from the 15 new countries covered by “deport now, appeal later”.
The move comes after a separate announcement by the MoJ over the weekend that foreign criminals can now be deported as soon as they are sent to prison in a bid to combat the overcrowding crisis.
My colleagues Henry Dyer and Rob Evans exclusively revealed last week that Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army and a member of the House of Lords, urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the request of a US defence company that employs him as an adviser. Here is an extract from their story:
Richard Dannatt wrote privately to two separate Home Office ministers asking them to address the “threat” posed by the group after its activists targeted a factory in 2022.
The activists caused extensive damage to the factory which is run by Teledyne, a US multinational that sells technology for military, aerospace and other applications. Lord Dannatt has been a paid adviser to the company since 2022.
Dannatt’s involvement after the attack on the factory in Wales led to allegations heard later in court that the peer was “seeking to influence” the criminal investigation into the Palestine Action activists.
As we mentioned in the opening post, the Metropolitan police, a force under huge budgetary and resource pressure, arrested a total of 532 people on Saturday at the largest demonstration relating to Palestine Action since the group was proscribed last month.
Detained protesters were taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area.
Those whose details could be confirmed were released on bail to appear at a police station at a future date.
The Met said 522 people were held for displaying an item in support of a proscribed organisation, and there were a further 10 arrests, six for assaults on officers, two for breaching Public Order Act conditions, one arrest for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty, and one for a racially aggravated public order offence.
Updated
Anyone showing support for Palestine Action 'will feel the full force of the law', justice minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
The government has defended its controversial proscription of protest group Palestine Action, with the justice minister, Alex Davies-Jones, saying supporters of a “terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law”.
The comments come after a huge demonstration against the proscription took place in London over the weekend in which 532 people were arrested. The majority of those arrested, 348, were aged 50 or over, according to official figures.
Responding to questions about the protest this morning on BBC Breakfast, Davies-Jones said:
I want to thank the police for their bravery and their courage in carrying out their diligent duties in the line of public protection, and I want to state that the right to peacefully protest in this country is a cornerstone of our democracy, and of course, we respect that.
But with regards to Palestine Action, they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and their actions have not been peaceful.
They have violently carried out criminal damage to RAF aircraft. We have credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons which we can’t disclose because of national security.
But they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and anyone showing support for that terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, proscribed Palestine Action last month under the Terrorism Act after activists caused an estimated £7m of damage to jets at the RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire.
It made membership of or support for it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The government justifies the ban by saying it narrowly targets a group that has been organising serious criminality.
But critics say the ban is a draconian clampdown on freedom of expression and is the latest erosion of civil liberties that have been brought in under successive governments.
Palestine Action is appealing against the ban after a High Court ruling on 30 July gave it permission to do so. We will have more on Palestine Action shortly.
Here is what else is on the agenda for the rest of the day:
11am: Reform UK press conference.
11.30am: Lobby briefing with the prime minister’s spokesperson, who will likely be asked about the extent of the UK’s involvement in the Trump-Putin Ukraine summit in Alaska on Friday.
Late morning: Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition, visits East Anglia to highlight local concerns about the use of asylum hotels.
