Downing Street has also announced Liz Kendall will be the new science secretary.

Emma Reynolds will be the new environment secretary and Douglas Alexander will be the new Scotland secretary.

Downing Street has announced Jonathan Reynolds will be the new government chief whip.

Reynolds was previously the business secretary.

Peter Kyle is the new business secretary, replacing Jonathan Reynolds.

Kyle was the science innovation and technology minister.

Steve Reed will take over Angela Rayner’s former role as housing secretary, sources have told PA Media.

More on this as we get it.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said that Keir Starmer’s reshuffle shows that Labour learnt “the wrong lessons” from the Tory government.

Responding to today’s reshuffle, Davey said:

If Labour believes that having a reshuffle will solve the deep-rooted problems of this government, they are learning the wrong lessons from the calamity Conservatives before them.

Until Keir Starmer is ready to grab the bull by the horns and confront the problems our country really faces, it makes little difference who sits where around the cabinet table.

Yvette Cooper is to become the UK’s new foreign secretary, Downing Street sources have said, as Keir Starmer embarks on a sweeping reshuffle after the damaging departure of his deputy, Angela Rayner, from government.

David Lammy was to become justice secretary, they added, but would also be appointed deputy prime minister, meaning the move is a promotion for the veteran Labour figure. Government insiders said that Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, would take over at the Home Office.

As the prime minister began reshaping his cabinet team, only Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was confirmed as staying in place as Downing Street sought to reassure the markets that the economy was in safe hands.

The first confirmed departure from cabinet was Lucy Powell, the Commons leader. “This has not been an easy time for the government. People want to see change and improvement to their difficult lives,” she said. The senior Labour MP was swiftly followed out the door by Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary.

The changes, which had been billed as a “renewal” reshuffle by government insiders but brought forward after Rayner’s departure, come after a shake-up of the No 10 operation earlier in the week. The reshuffle is ongoing.

Read the full story here:

Home secretary Yvette Cooper has been shuffled over to the foreign office and will be replaced by Shabana Mahmood, according to No 10 sources.

Our political editor Pippa Crerar has the latest on X:

Downing Street sources tell me that Yvette Cooper is off to the foreign office, with Shabana Mahmood taking over at the home office.

Previous foreign secretary David Lammy is to become deputy prime minister and justice secretary, a source has confirmed.

Labour party figures close to Ian Murray, sacked on Friday as Scotland secretary, were “genuinely shocked” and “flabbergasted” that he had lost his job, and unclear why Murray was removed.

“Seriously, I don’t know what the hell is going on,” said one ally. There is no suggestion Murray had misstepped within the party or government, or had botched any policies, the source said.

His allies believe Murray has been a very successful opponent to the Scottish National party government in Edinburgh, helping force John Swinney, the first minister, into a significant U-turn on defence earlier this week.

Murray and his ally Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, had vigorously attacked the SNP’s ambivalent defence policy, forcing Swinney to announce on Wednesday his government would now allow funding of defence firms supporting Ukraine.

Murray has also been Labour’s electorally most successful MP in Scotland, the only one to save his seat in the 2015 general election rout where the SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats.

Known for his assiduous constituency work, Murray built up a centrist electoral coalition in Edinburgh South which landed him the country’s largest majority at the last election. He had served as shadow Scottish secretary twice since winning the seat in 2015.

His allies believe that campaigning experience made him extremely well-equipped to out-manoeuvre the SNP on other areas, including promoting his “Brand Scotland” strategy to promote products like whisky and salmon overseas, and challenging the SNP over its opposition to new nuclear power stations.

Speculation about who Starmer will appoint in his place immediately turned to Douglas Alexander, who is now a junior trade minister. One of the current government’s most experienced operators is also a former Labour secretary of state for Scotland and international development secretary under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

It is possible Labour headquarters is worried that Scottish Labour is dangerously far behind in the polls before next May’s Scottish parliament elections – one this week suggested Reform UK is level-pegging, so need to reinvigorate the party’s campaigning.

The leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, has been sacked from the cabinet as Keir Starmer begins a reshuffle of his top team.

Scotland secretary Ian Murray is also believed to be leaving the government.

Keir Starmer told Angela Rayner he was “very sad” that her time in government had come to an end and that he had “nothing but admiration” for her.

Here is Starmer’s letter responding to Rayner’s resignation in full:

Dear Angela,

Thank you for informing me of your decision to resign from the government. I am very sad that your time as deputy prime minister, secretary of state and deputy leader of the Labour party has ended in this way.

As you know we acted in accordance with the strengthened system relating to ministerial conduct that we put in place on coming into government.

You were right to refer yourself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards and right to act on his conclusion.

Although I believe you have reached the right decision, it is a decision which I know is very painful for you. You have given your all to making the Labour government a success and you have been a central part of our plan to make Britain fairer for working families.

Your work at MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) to help build the homes that Britain needs has been hugely important and your work to create more fairness in the workplace through the employment rights bill represents a very significant achievement that will change the lives of millions of people.

On a personal note, I am very sad to be losing you from the government. You have been a trusted colleague and a true friend for many years. I have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics.

I know that many people of all political persuasions admire that someone as talented as you is the living embodiment of social mobility.

Even though you won’t be part of the government, you will remain a major figure in our party. I know you will continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately about.

My very best wishes and with real sadness,

Keir.

Here is the letter from ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus to prime minister Keir Starmer in full:

Dear prime minister,

Following a self-referral by the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government on 3 September 2025, I have undertaken an examination of the circumstances and facts connected to recent allegations about Ms Rayner’s property ownership and tax affairs.

I should acknowledge that Ms Rayner has provided her full and open cooperation in assisting me with my inquiries. Her decision to provide greater public transparency by applying to remove the confidentiality undertaking in a court order protecting her family’s domestic financial circumstances was, in particular, clearly very difficult to reconcile with her understandable wish to shield members of her family from the glare of media attention.

It is a sad reflection of the almost intolerable pressures that can face prominent politicians in protecting the privacy of their families, not least, as Ms Rayner highlighted in her statement on 3 September, “the reality that family life is rarely straightforward, particularly when dealing with disability, divorce and the complexities of ensuring your children’s long term security”.

Ms Rayner has explained publicly that, following recent allegations and speculation, and in order to assure herself of compliance with her obligations, she sought legal advice from leading tax counsel. This covered her personal position in relation to council tax, stamp duty land tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. I have had access to this written opinion and, as a result of its conclusions, have focused my inquiries – and this advice – on the issues relating to Ms Rayner’s acknowledged failure to pay the correct amount of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on the purchase of a property in Hove, Sussex, in May 2025.

It is the realisation of this error that prompted Ms Rayner, shortly after having received the final tax law advice, to refer the matter to me on Wednesday 3 September. Ms Rayner has set out in detail, publicly, the details of her family’s domestic arrangements and her decision to sell her 25% interest in the freehold of the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne and to purchase a property in Hove. I do not need to repeat these details here, other than to note that they inevitably entailed a considerable degree of complexity.

Having sold her 25% share in the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Ms Rayner ceased to own any part of that property. However, under the relevant legislation, a person who does not own a property can nonetheless be deemed to hold an interest in it if certain circumstances apply; these include where that property is held by a trust, and the beneficiary of the trust is a child of that person under the age of 18. I understand there are additional complexities, for example concerning the particular type of trust in question and the reason for which the trust was established.

Taken together, it appears that – particularly in the context of the specialist type of trust in question – the interpretation of these rules is complex. With Ms Rayner’s full cooperation and assistance, I have reviewed relevant documentation from the property transaction. This has included the advice she received at the time from the legal firms involved and the associated documentation that was prepared for her to effect the purchase. This advice gave rise to Ms Rayner’s understanding – which I consider to have been held in good faith – that the lower rate of SDLT was applicable when purchasing the property in Hove.

It is not necessary for me to detail the specific contents of this advice or the associated documentation but, having reviewed it, I would draw four conclusions:

• a) Ms Rayner was open about the existence of the trust and considered that, between them, the firms advising her had appropriate knowledge and awareness of the details and circumstances of the trust;

• b) On the basis of the advice she received, Ms Rayner believed that the lower rate of SDLT would be applicable; indeed she was twice informed in writing that this was the case; but

• c) In those two instances, that advice was qualified by the acknowledgment that it did not constitute expert tax advice and was accompanied by a suggestion, or in one case a recommendation, that specific tax advice be obtained; and

• d) If such expert tax advice had been received, as it later was, it would likely have advised her that a higher rate of SDLT was payable.

The ministerial code sets out the high standards that, as prime minister, you expect all ministers to follow. It enshrines the commitment to uphold the seven principles of public life, and details “the overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law and to protect the integrity of public life”. The code begins at 1.2 by stating that “ministers are expected to embody the principles of public service and to set a positive example as they govern in the national interest. Ministers should recognise that, as office-holders, they are held to the highest possible standards of proper conduct, and ensure that they are living up to those standards in their words and actions”.

Ms Rayner deeply regrets the mistake she has made in relation to the underpayment of SDLT for the purchase of her property in Hove. On realisation of this error, she has sought quickly to correct the mistake and to refer herself to HMRC in order to ensure that she pays the correct amount. I have no doubt that she has been motivated in the management of her property and financial arrangements by a desire to act in the best interests of her children, and with the intention to pay all appropriate taxes and fulfil all her legal obligations.

It is highly unfortunate, however, that Ms Rayner failed to pay the correct rate of SDLT on this purchase, particularly given her status and responsibilities as the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government and as deputy prime minister. She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought. I am conscious of the acute challenges ministers face – perhaps uniquely – in managing the demands of their personal lives and their public responsibilities.

However, the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately on themselves alone. Given the conjunction of the acknowledged complexity of her family circumstances, her position in government (most importantly as Ddeputy prime minister) and the consequences of getting such a calculation wrong, it is deeply regrettable that the specific tax advice was not sought.

I believe Ms Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service. I consider, however, that her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the “highest possible standards of proper conduct” as envisaged by the code. Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the code to have been breached.

Yours sincerely

Sir Laurie Magnus CBE. Independent adviser on ministerial standards.

Here is the resignation letter from Angela Rayner to prime minister Keir Starmer in full, via the PA news agency:

Dear Keir,

Thank you for the personal and public support you have shown me in recent days. As you know, on Wednesday I referred myself to your independent adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, to conduct a thorough investigation into my personal financial circumstances after I became aware that it is likely I inadvertently paid the incorrect rate for stamp duty land tax (SDLT).

I have always taken my responsibilities as deputy prime minister, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, as well as a member of parliament with the utmost seriousness. I have long believed that people who serve the British public in government must always observe the highest standards, and while the independent adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase.

I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice given both my position as housing secretary and my complex family arrangements. I take full responsibility for this error. I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.

I must also consider the significant toll that the ongoing pressure of the media is taking on my family. While I rightly expect proper scrutiny on me and my life, my family did not choose to have their private lives interrogated and exposed so publicly. I have been clear throughout this process that my priority has, and always will be, protecting my children and the strain I am putting them under through staying in post has become unbearable.

Given the findings, and the impact on my family, I have therefore decided to resign as deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, as well as deputy leader of the Labour party.

For a teenage mum from a council estate in Stockport to serve as the highest level of government has been the honour of my life. The challenges of government are nothing compared to the challenge of putting food on the table and getting a roof over our head when I brought up kids working as a home help. Too many people face the same across our country.

I’ve always known that politics changes lives because it changed mine. The last Labour government gave me the tools I needed to build a better life for me and my young son, and that’s why I’ve been working relentlessly from day one in government to do the same for the next generation. Every day I had in office, I worked to serve working-class communities like the one that I grew up in, which are too often overlooked by those in power.

I am proud that in every decision I made, I did it for them. I would never have become deputy prime minister if not for the decisions taken by the last Labour government, giving me a council house to support me, Sure Start to help raise my kids, and the security of a minimum wage – and I can only hope that the changes I made in government will have the same impact for young girls growing up on council estates like I did.

Through my employment rights bill people across the country will receive the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation. This landmark legislation will be gamechanging for millions of people stuck in insecure and low-paid work, giving them the dignity and security they don’t just need but also deserve. I am and will remain deeply proud of that legacy. I am so proud to have worked alongside the trade union movement, who have given me everything, to deliver that.

Our renters’ rights bill will finally ban the oppressive rule of no-fault evictions and will reset the balance between renters and landlords through groundbreaking protection for renters. Everyone deserves to live in a safe and decent home, and I know this legislation will deliver that for millions of people across the country.

The planning and infrastructure bill will also be instrumental in getting the homes so many people across this country need built, and I am so proud that at the spending review we announced the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in a generation with the overwhelming amount of this going to genuinely social rent homes.

And last week, I introduced the English devolution bill to parliament. The largest single package of devolution from any Westminster government to local people across England. This landmark legislation will permanently change the balance of power, giving true control to those with skin in game.

We delivered an elections strategy which will mean 16 and 17-year-olds getting the vote for the first time, as well as ambitious plans to ensure the most marginalised communities are registered to vote. We took steps to stabilise the broken foundations of local government and deliver the first genuinely fair funding review and the first multi-year settlement for a decade.

My department, through my excellent team of ministers, has also provided the largest ever investment in homelessness prevention services to local authorities, to get Britain back on track to ending homelessness for good.

We’ve worked relentlessly to bring an end to the building safety crisis and developed new measures to get people’s homes fixed quicker and hold rogue freeholders to account. We’ve also worked to boost community cohesion, tackle hate crime and reset the relationship with faith communities.

I have been lucky to work alongside the most talented group of ministers who worked with dedication to deliver for working people. I thank Matthew Pennycook, Jim McMahon, Alex Norris, Wajid Khan and Sharon Taylor. I too am grateful to my brilliant parliamentary team, Harpreet Uppal, Mark Ferguson, and Gen Kitchen.

For me, being in office is the chance to change the lives of the people I grew up alongside. I will do whatever I can to continue doing so.

Thank you for your leadership and for your friendship. I will continue to serve you, our country and the party and movement I love in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner has told the prime minister in a letter that “I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice” and took “full responsibility for this error” as she resigned as deputy prime minister, housing Ssecretary and deputy leader of the Labour party.

According to the PA news agency, Starmer told Angela Rayner “you will remain a major figure in our party” and will “continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately
about” as she resigned.

Sir Laurie Magnus found that Rayner “did not heed the caution” in legal advice she received when buying her Hove flat. The independent ethics adviser said in his letter:

She believed that she relied on the legal advice she had received, but unfortunately did not heed the caution contained within it, which acknowledged that it did not constitute expert tax advice and which suggested that expert advice be sought.

I am conscious of the acute challenges ministers face – perhaps uniquely – in managing the demands of their personal lives and their public responsibilities. However, the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves.

Ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus said Angela Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service” but concluded she breached the ministerial code over her tax affairs, reports the PA news agency.

Downing Street said Keir Starmer had taken “a number of steps” to strengthen the ministerial code and ensure investigations into misconduct can take place.

A No 10 spokesperson said:

The PM has insisted that if there are issues ministers must refer themselves to the independent adviser.

The spokesperson said these changes were designed to “strengthen the process around the independent adviser’s role”.

The equalities watchdog has submitted its formal guidance about how institutions should respond to the landmark supreme court ruling on transgender people’s rights, with its chair admitting it would be “difficult” for many to shape workable policies.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has handed its formal guidance to Bridget Phillipson, the minister for women and equalities as well as the education secretary, who must now decide whether to accept it.

One EHRC source said that while the decision-making on the guidance was restricted to a small group of people around the group’s outgoing chair, Kishwer Falkner, the expectation was that it would closely reflect interim advice released by the watchdog in April.

This alarmed transgender groups, who said its guidance that the supreme court’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based just on biological sex meant transgender people should not be allowed to use toilets of the gender they live as, and that in some cases they could not use toilets of their birth sex, would effectively exclude transgender people from much of the public realm.

It also said that organisations such as sports clubs or hospitals could ask to see someone’s birth certificate if there is “genuine concern” about what biological sex they are.

The guidance follows a consultation in which more than 50,000 responses were gathered over a period lasting six weeks – extended from an initial two weeks after MPs expressed worries about what they said was a rushed timetable.

Deciding on whether and how to accept the guidance will be a hugely complex and sensitive issue for Phillipson’s office, with no timetable set for when it will happen. The document was described by one official as “hugely complicated”.

Angela Rayner has stood down as housing secretary and deputy prime minister after an investigation by the government’s ethics adviser into her underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat.

Rayner’s departure is deeply damaging for the prime minister, who initially stood by her, and his authority has now been badly bruised as a result.

It also leaves the Labour government without one of its most authentic – and powerful – working-class voices at a time when it is struggling to reconnect with its traditional voter base and trailing Reform UK in the polls.

Rayner had referred herself to the ethics adviser after confirming she would have to pay more stamp duty – which experts have predicted could run to as much as £40,000 – because she had incorrectly paid the lower rate on the flat in Hove.

At the time, Rayner said she “deeply regretted” that the error had been made, after classifying the flat as her only property despite spending much of her time with her children at the family house in Ashton, Greater Manchester.

Months before the Hove purchase, she had put her stake in the Ashton house into a trust that was set up in 2020 to manage a payment to one of her sons, who after a “deeply personal and distressing incident” as a premature baby had been left with lifelong disabilities.

After the revelations, Rayner faces charges of hypocrisy as the government is expected to increase taxes on property owners in the autumn budget.

More details soon …

Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters.

The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.

The Clacton MP, who is also paid a £94,000-a-year MP’s salary, has in the past criticised people who try to avoid tax as the “common enemy” and has previously come under fire for setting up a trust fund in an offshore tax haven.

He has also claimed that some tax avoidance schemes were acceptable. “Most forms of legal tax avoidance are OK, but clearly some are not,” he said in 2014, adding that nobody voluntarily paid anything to HMRC while defending reducing a tax bill within the law.

Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency, but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given that he already owns other properties.

The use of personal service companies is not illegal, but it has been criticised across the political spectrum as a way to reduce tax bills. Farage has declined to publish his tax returns for 2023/24.

Several broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have cracked down on the practice in recent years. HMRC has repeatedly tightened the rules around off-payroll working (IR35) to stop this kind of tax avoidance.

The parliamentary register of interests shows that Farage has made nearly £400,000 from GB News since August 2024, for about 190 hours’ work. This suggests he is being paid more than £2,000 an hour by the news channel.

All payments for his GB News work are paid directly to his company, Thorn in the Side Ltd, of which he is the director and only shareholder. He has other paid roles including as a brand ambassador for gold bullion firms, speaking on the international circuit, and a Daily Telegraph column.

The latest accounts show that as of 31 May 2024, the company had £1.7m in cash, up over £1m in a year. It also owns two investment properties.

The Windrush commissioner has demanded “urgent reform” of the compensation scheme after being told by survivors that “the Home Office is waiting for us to die off”.

In a letter seen by the Guardian addressed to migration and equalities minister, Seema Malhotra, and shared with home secretary Yvette Cooper, Rev Clive Foster says it is “deeply concerning” that 66 people have died while waiting for compensation for the Windrush scandal.

The scheme, launched in 2019, has been criticised for delays and knockbacks, with the Labour government repeatedly committing to ensure survivors are paid quickly.

Foster, who became Windrush commissioner in June, told Malhotra he had “positive feedback” about her personal commitment and that there had been recent improvements, but survivors “continue to tell me about long waits, unclear outcomes, and the emotional toll of navigating a process that feels opaque and unjust”.

Making a series of recommendations to government on delivery, Foster added:

Given the age and health of many people affected by the scandal, reform is a matter of urgency. Justice must be delivered in their lifetimes.

A phrase I’ve heard repeatedly from community members is that ‘the Home Office is waiting for us to die off’. While I don’t share this view, I believe it’s important that you hear it directly as it reflects the challenge you face in building trust.

Calling for better support for survivors, Foster recommends that the application process is reformed to make it “trauma-informed” and accessible and says compensation should be made for pension and future earnings losses.

He suggests the risk that people die before being compensated could be reduced by making partial payments to people awaiting a review, with cases prioritised by age and health.

He also calls for performance indicators for the scheme, including average processing times and satisfaction levels, to be published.

The government set up a £1.5m “advocacy” fund in April to support survivors, but campaigners are calling for legal aid.

A government source said “immediate work” was being commissioned on points raised by Foster, while a Home Office spokesperson said Foster’s appointment was intended to “drive lasting change across government”, with the department “determined” to right the wrongs of the scandal.

They added:

We thank Rev Foster for his initial recommendations, many of which we are already implementing, and ministers will meet with him shortly to discuss further improvements to our schemes.

Labour MPs have called on the government to avoid meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog, saying any talks would send an ambiguous message about the UK’s position on the Gaza war.

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, posted on X that she hoped it was inaccurate that ministers would meet the Israeli leader:

The UK has recognised the ‘real risk’ of genocide perpetuated by Israel, so unless this meeting is about peace, what message are we sending?

John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, said Herzog should not be permitted entry to the UK. He said:

I am appalled at the decision to allow this representative of a government that is systematically killing Palestinian children on a daily basis to visit our country.

The prime minister is proving to be absolutely tone deaf to the desperate plight of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming feelings of revulsion of the British people at the brutality of the government Herzog represents.

The Labour MP Clive Lewis suggested Keir Starmer should exercise extreme caution. He said:

Dialogue is one thing, but there are times when the act of meeting itself becomes a political statement.

Clearly Herzog is not Netanyahu, their politics on many issues are at variance. But that said, the president’s own words have helped legitimise the collective punishment of Palestinians, language that international jurists have warned could fall foul of the genocide convention.

However, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, who has been a strong critic of Israel, said “efforts should be made to engage” with Herzog, who had often been at odds with Israel’s hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over domestic issues.

She told the Guardian:

The question must be asked: how do you see Israel in 10 years? What is the future for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If you have no reasonable alternative plan, Mr President, then there must be a Palestinian state.

But the only solution to this is through politics, through discussion. Herzog is easier to talk to than many in the extreme rightwing government in Israel. But we mustn’t pull our punches.

Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, said Starmer should “seize this chance to state unequivocally to President Herzog that there must be an end to the suffering in Gaza through an immediate ceasefire”.

Here is the agenda for the day:

Friday: Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) strike action on the tube expected to begin. London Underground workers are to stage a series of strikes in a dispute over pay and conditions. The RMT said its members on the tube will take industrial action at different times from 5 September, for seven days.

Friday: Verdict on whether Angela Rayner broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs expected but no timings have been confirmed as to when it will be published yet.

Morning: Public accounts committee publishes its report on the Ministry of Defence’s oversight of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs).

7am: ONS retail sales for July published. Postponed from original date of 22 August.

9.10am: Transport secretary Fiona Hyslop will travel by train from Haymarket to North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland where she will provide an update on rail electrification.

10am: Jeremy Corbyn co-chairs the Gaza tribunal to examine ‘British complicity in Israeli war crimes’. The second day of the event begins at 10am with a panel on “What has Britain’s role been in Gaza?” featuring Mark Smith, a Foreign Office official who resigned in protest over continued arms sales to Israel. The final part at 1.15pm looks at “Has Britain fulfilled its legal obligations?”.

Midday: Reform UK conference begins at the National Exhibition Centre, Marston Green, in the West Midlands. Speakers include welcoming remarks by chair David Bull at 12pm, mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns at 12.30pm, MP Lee Anderson at 2pm, MS Laura Anne Jones at 2.20pm, MSP Graham Simpson at 2.30pm, head of department of government efficiency Zia Yusuf at 3pm and a special guest speaker at 4pm.

12:15pm: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will be campaigning in Glasgow Pollok and Cathcart with local MP Gordon McKee.

4.10pm: Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage will address the conference in Marston Green.

Parliamentary schedule:

House of Lords: 10am – Absent voting (elections in Scotland and Wales) bill – second reading.

Animal welfare (import of dogs, cats and ferrets) bill – second reading.
Dogs (protection of livestock) (amendment) bill – second reading.
Space industry (indemnities) bill – second reading.

The House of Commons will not be sitting.

A minister has defended the prospect of UK government figures meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog on his visit to Britain next week amid criticism from within Labour ranks.

The PA news agency reports that Douglas Alexander said the UK must engage with Israeli as well as Palestinian authorities as part of its diplomatic push to end the Gaza war.

Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, trade minister Alexander said diplomacy would involve “meeting people with whom you disagree”. He told Sky News:

I’m genuinely not sure in terms of what the schedule is. But I’d make a pretty basic point, first of all, diplomacy involves meeting people with whom you disagree and the British government has very strong views in terms of the present conduct of the government of Israel.

It is right that we are engaging with politicians from across the region, because the suffering is incalculable and it needs to stop.

Alexander said that “in order to get to a path to that two-stage solution, of course you’re going to have to be talking not just to the Palestinians but also to the Israelis”.

The visit comes after prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the “terrible situation” in Gaza this week, and before the UK intends to recognise a Palestinian state later this month.

According to the PA news agency, Downing Street declined to comment when asked about the Israeli president’s trip, saying it would set out any visits “in the normal way”.

The chair of the watchdog which has provided guidance to the government on transgender people’s use of certain spaces has said it will be “difficult” for service providers to adapt to a ruling “which is quite black and white into practical steps”.

Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that businesses such as gyms and shopping centres should have been following new rules after a supreme court ruling in April which said the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Lady Falkner added:

I think it’s going to be difficult for duty bearers, service providers, to adapt a ruling which is quite black and white into practical steps according to their own circumstances and their own organisation. Which is why we’ve always emphasised they should take their own advice as well as adhering to our code.

The EHRC said it presented its final guidance, a new code of practice, to women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson on Friday after it was delayed from July.

The guidance will now be considered by ministers and, once approved, the UK government must lay the draft code before parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.

Falkner said:

Everybody I speak to, every institution I speak to, says: ‘Can you tell us what we’re supposed to do? That’s wrong … they should have been doing it anyway.

The EHRC said it received more than 50,000 responses to its code of practice consultation.

According to a draft code which was published before the consultation, a birth certificate could be requested by a sports club or hospital if there is “genuine concern” about what biological sex a person is. Elsewhere, the draft code said trans people can be excluded from competitive sport “when necessary for reasons of safety or fair competition”, and gave an example of how some services might be able to adapt to “offer toilets in individual lockable rooms to be used by both sexes”.

Trade minister Douglas Alexander has indicated that he trusted Angela Rayner and said she was in politics “for the right reasons”.

Asked whether he trusted the deputy prime minister, Alexander told Times Radio:

Listen, I really want to live in a country in which someone with Angela Rayner’s circumstances and background can rise to one of the highest offices in the country.

I have to say I should declare an interest – I really like Angela Rayner. We’re a rather improbable group of friends. We come from very different circumstances … if you look at the challenges that Angela Rayner has overcome, not only do I like and respect her but, yes, I think she’s in politics for the right reasons.

Alexander also reiterated that a “rigorous testing process” would be followed in the investigation into Rayner’s tax affairs as he declined to answer questions about her future.

Alexander told Times Radio:

I think most of your listeners, as they think about it, they think about their own workplace or their own circumstances, they would want due process to be followed. That will be a rigorous testing process.

He added:

The expectation is [Sir Laurie Magnus] works in a very comprehensive but also a pretty expeditious way … it will be for the prime minister, as always, to make judgments in relation to his ministers.

He said he did not know “who said what to whom” but the “right person” to ask those questions and have them answered was Sir Laurie Magnus.

Angela Rayner’s political future appeared increasingly uncertain ahead of the expected Friday verdict on whether she broke ministerial standards rules over her tax affairs. It comes as lawyers she said she used for her flat purchase denied having given her tax advice.

Keir Starmer has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sack his deputy, who is also the housing secretary, if his independent ethics watchdog rules against her. The prime minister said he would “of course” act on the findings of Sir Laurie Magnus’s probe after Rayner’s acknowledgment that she failed to pay a £40,000 stamp duty surcharge on a flat she bought in Hove this year.

The advice she received is likely to form a key plank of Magnus’s investigation, after Rayner said she was incorrectly advised that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases.

The independent ethics adviser will assess whether Rayner broke the ministerial rules, which place an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”, “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”, and “be as open as possible” with the public.

Starmer told the BBC he would “act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me”. The Labour leader said it was for the independent adviser to establish the facts around the controversy, “then of course it does fall to me – I completely accept that – to make the decision based on what I see in that report”.

Also today, the Reform UK party conference begins in Marston Green, West Midlands. Nigel Farage is scheduled to address the conference at 4.10pm. Elsewhere, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch will visit north-west Essex later this morning.

Trade minister Douglas Alexander is on the morning round for government and deputy Conservative party chair Matt Vickers is on for the Tories. Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, is also on the morning media round today.

In other developments:

• The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly.

• Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform on the eve of its conference, saying the Conservative party “is dead”. The former Tory cabinet minister, a close ally of Boris Johnson when he was prime minister, served as culture secretary until 2022 before resigning a year later when blocked from getting a peerage.

• The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned. The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.

• Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.