No 10: Hegseth ‘fallacious’ to say most non-US Nato troopers didn’t struggle in Afghanistan – UK politics stay | Politics
No 10 says US defence secretary Pete Hegseth ‘fallacious’ to say most non-US Nato troopers in Afghanistan did not struggle
Downing Street has delivered a uncommon public reprimand to a member of Donald Trump’s administration, saying Pete Hegseth, the US protection secretary, was “fallacious” to recommend that the majority non-American Nato troopers in Afghanistan didn’t do any preventing.
Hegseth made the remark in a speech on the University of Tennessee, the place he recalled serving in Afghanistan himself. He mentioned:
I used to be a captain in Afghanistan and we’d go to the headquarters in Kabul and there can be 50 flags on the headquarters. It was an attractive factor to see, 50 completely different nations contributing to the Nato alliance and the Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] mission there.
Except there have been possibly 5 that contributed. It was really nearer to 1 or two that by the top had been really concerned in kinetic operations. In truth the patch Isaf, we joked it meant ‘I Saw Americans Fighting’.
Asked about Hegseth’s remark on the Downing Street foyer briefing, the PM’s spokesperson mentioned Hegseth was “fallacious” in what he mentioned in regards to the Nato operation in Afghanistan.
The spokesperson defined:
The info communicate for themselves in the case of the UK’s and Nato’s contribution to Afghanistan. Thousands of British and Allied households made enormous sacrifices to play their vital half in that conflict and uphold our values, and greater than 450 British personnel by no means returned.
Their sacrifice and that of different Nato forces was made within the service of collective safety and in response to an assault on our ally. We are extremely pleased with our armed forces and their service and sacrifice won’t ever be forgotten, and it’s fallacious to decrease their position.
While the UK authorities disagrees with a lot of what Donald Trump and his crew say and do, there may be usually a reluctance to criticise them in public. However, this doesn’t appear to use when the fame of British servicemen and girls has been impugned. Keir Starmer tried onerous to keep up private relationship with the US president, however when Trump made the same declare about Nato allies avoiding frontline preventing in Afghanistan, Starmer condemned what he said as “insulting and albeit appalling”.
Key occasions
Back to Scotland, and listed here are feedback from three Scottish journalists on Amanda Bland leaving Reform UK to take a seat as an unbiased MSP. (See 12.21pm.)
From Andrew Learmonth from the Herald
A Reform supply says Amanda Bland was resulting from be hauled in entrance of Reform’s chief whip Max Bannerman and chief of workers Martyn Green on Wednesday, after her workplace fell aside. They say she sacked one member of workers and one other give up.
From Gina Davidson from LBC Scotland
Reform decreased to 16 MSPs in Holyrood with resignation of Amanda Bland (she’s now an unbiased), which makes Scottish Labour the most important opposition celebration on 17. Reform sources say she “wasn’t a crew participant” & had misplaced 2 workers members since May. She’s but to make a press release.
From Stephen Daisley from the Scottish Daily Mail
Labour turns into the most important opposition celebration within the Scottish Parliament for the primary time since 2016.
With Amanda Bland’s resignation from Reform, the celebration steadiness is now:
SNP 57
Labour 17
Reform 16
Green 15
Con 12
Lib Dem 10
Ind (Bland) 1
No affiliation (Presiding Officer) 1
Children’s commissioner says devolution must be ‘clear break’ likelihood to boost requirements in companies for youngsters
In a speech this afternoon, Dame Rachel de Souza, the kids’s commissioner for England, goes to argue that devolution of energy to native authorities may assist to deal with a number of the issues recognized in her Childhood Lottery report. (See 9.34am and 10.05am.)
She is predicted to say:
Devolution represents a possibility. It affords a clear break. The likelihood for a line within the sand second. The issues I’ve recognized are usually not simply at a service degree – although typically they’re – they’re completely systemic. The system change that devolution represents is a singular likelihood to take away the acute inequality and unfairness I’ve discovered.
New powers will imply new buildings, and due to this fact new alternatives to consider, take heed to, and ship for youngsters. Local areas should be supplied with assist from central authorities to boost requirements for youngsters throughout well being, social care, housing and communities, with pressing motion the place it falls past a set degree. This must be our response to the emergency.
Given that devolving energy from Whitehall to mayors and native authorities is one among Andy Burnham’s prime priorities, citing this as the answer to the issues dealing with kids in England is on the very least de Souza being tactful; it would even guarantee kids’s points are increased up the agenda within the dialogue about what powers must be faraway from Whitehall.
But it’s also an uncommon argument to make on this context as a result of devolution is usually seen as a coverage that will increase the prospect of a ‘postcode lottery’ in service provision; a extra typical coverage response can be to say that, if there’s a “staggering” selection in outcomes, requirements ought to centralised.
The Sun right this moment has splashed on a story saying that the federal government intends to tighten guidelines supposed to discourage supermarkets from selling meals which can be excessive in fats, sugar and salt. In his vibrant intro, Jack Elsom says “grocery store offers on gadgets like bran flakes, porridge and fruit juice are set to be banned as nanny-state ministers tighten barmy guidelines on ‘much less wholesome’ meals”. Elsom is referring to what could possibly be included in ‘three-for-two’ offers.
At the Downing Street foyer briefing, requested in regards to the story, the PM’s spokesperson didn’t precisely knock it down. Without commenting on the element, he mentioned:
We’re dedicated to giving kids the most effective begin in life, each by supporting households with the price of dwelling and thru measures to guard youngsters’ well being. With one in 10 reception-age kids now overweight, and one in 5 have tooth decay by the age of 5, we will’t enable this case to proceed.
We’re decided to set kids up for comfortable, wholesome lives, and given weight problems prices the NHS £9.3bn kilos a yr, it’s clear we have to take motion.
No 10 says US defence secretary Pete Hegseth ‘fallacious’ to say most non-US Nato troopers in Afghanistan did not struggle
Downing Street has delivered a uncommon public reprimand to a member of Donald Trump’s administration, saying Pete Hegseth, the US protection secretary, was “fallacious” to recommend that the majority non-American Nato troopers in Afghanistan didn’t do any preventing.
Hegseth made the remark in a speech on the University of Tennessee, the place he recalled serving in Afghanistan himself. He mentioned:
I used to be a captain in Afghanistan and we’d go to the headquarters in Kabul and there can be 50 flags on the headquarters. It was an attractive factor to see, 50 completely different nations contributing to the Nato alliance and the Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] mission there.
Except there have been possibly 5 that contributed. It was really nearer to 1 or two that by the top had been really concerned in kinetic operations. In truth the patch Isaf, we joked it meant ‘I Saw Americans Fighting’.
Asked about Hegseth’s remark on the Downing Street foyer briefing, the PM’s spokesperson mentioned Hegseth was “fallacious” in what he mentioned in regards to the Nato operation in Afghanistan.
The spokesperson defined:
The info communicate for themselves in the case of the UK’s and Nato’s contribution to Afghanistan. Thousands of British and Allied households made enormous sacrifices to play their vital half in that conflict and uphold our values, and greater than 450 British personnel by no means returned.
Their sacrifice and that of different Nato forces was made within the service of collective safety and in response to an assault on our ally. We are extremely pleased with our armed forces and their service and sacrifice won’t ever be forgotten, and it’s fallacious to decrease their position.
While the UK authorities disagrees with a lot of what Donald Trump and his crew say and do, there may be usually a reluctance to criticise them in public. However, this doesn’t appear to use when the fame of British servicemen and girls has been impugned. Keir Starmer tried onerous to keep up private relationship with the US president, however when Trump made the same declare about Nato allies avoiding frontline preventing in Afghanistan, Starmer condemned what he said as “insulting and albeit appalling”.
Scottish Labour turns into second largest celebration at Holyrood after MSP quits Reform UK to take a seat as unbiased
Reform UK has misplaced one among its MSPs in Scotland. Amanda Bland, a former instructor and police officer who’s a listing MSP for Central Scotland and Lothians West, has left the Reform UK group and can sit as an unbiased. She has not publicly mentioned why.
At the May elections Reform UK and Scottish Labour got here joint second when it comes to seats, with each events having 17 MSPs, behind the SNP’s 58. Bland’s transfer means Reform UK is now the third largest celebration at Holyrood.
A Reform UK spokesperson mentioned:
We can verify Amanda Bland has resigned as a Reform UK member of the Scottish parliament to take a seat as an unbiased MSP.
We are pleased with a proficient and united crew of MSPs at Holyrood who’ve supported one another at each step of the way in which.
Amanda Bland ought to mirror on her causes for selecting to isolate herself from that crew of succesful people.
It is incumbent on her to resign as a regional MSP for Central Scotland and Lothians West and permit her constituents to be represented by the following Reform candidate on that record.
Jackie Baillie, the deputy chief of Scottish Labour, mentioned:
No one can be stunned to see chaos on the coronary heart of Reform. They have all the time been a bunch of chancers, grifters and Tories in disguise.
Despite all the massive speak and guarantees forward of the election, Nigel Farage’s celebration has been completely ineffective at holding the SNP to account or getting outcomes for the Scottish folks, it’s been a sequence of stunts, gimmicks, photocalls and treasured little else.
Scottish Labour is now the second largest celebration at Holyrood, and we’ll work to carry the SNP to account and ship higher outcomes for the folks of Scotland.
Bland’s transfer means Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s chief in Scotland, will lose the appropriate to be the primary opposition chief referred to as at first minister’s questions each different week.
While Reform UK loved nice success on the elections in May, it has accomplished much less effectively retaining elected representatives. In the Welsh Senedd Sarah Cooper-Lesadd defected last month from Reform UK to Plaid Cymru, the governing celebration. And, in line with a Best for Britain tracker, there are additionally 63 folks elected as Reform UK councillors in May who’ve both resigned from workplace, been suspended or left the celebration.
Burnham lays wreath at Aberfan cemetery forward of sixtieth anniversary of catastrophe on Wednesday
Asked if she would rule out launching a management problem in opposition to Ed Davey, Cooper replied: “Yes, I can. I’m not going to be launching any sort of bid in any respect.” She went on:
I actually get pleasure from being deputy chief to Ed. We work extremely effectively as a crew. And I’ve acquired loads of work to do as Treasury spokesperson, not least subsequent week after I maintain the federal government to account on their finances.
Cooper claims pensions triple lock in present type nonetheless wanted as a result of its work has ‘nonetheless some method to go’
Asked if the Lib Dems would decide to protecting the pensions triple lock in its present type of their election manifesto, Cooper mentioned she wouldn’t write the following manifesto now. But she defended it strongly. She mentioned:
On the triple lock – and these are my views – we’re extremely proud as a celebration of what the triple lock has achieved. It was our coverage applied in authorities throughout coalition. It’s been a convincing success. It’s taken a great deal of pensioners out of poverty. And it has virtually eradicated the gender pension hole between women and men as effectively.
I don’t imagine that the work of the triple lock has been accomplished but. I feel there may be nonetheless some method to go to be sure that the pensioners of right this moment and the pensioners of tomorrow don’t fall into poverty.
Andy Burnham plans to exchange the pensions triple lock with a much less beneficiant model, coming into impact from 2030. He desires to legislate for this earlier than the following election.
Cooper says claims made about development advantages of third runway at Heathrow do not ‘stack up’
Asked why the Lib Dems had been against a 3rd runway at Heathrow once they professed to be in favour of development, Cooper mentioned she didn’t settle for {that a} third runway would produce all the advantages its supporters claimed.
She defined:
On Heathrow, it’s clear from the entire financial evaluation of airport development over the previous couple of years that lots of the guarantees made by all types of various airport corporations merely haven’t come to bear.
The promise of upper wage jobs hasn’t been substantiated. Often it’s decrease paid jobs, and infrequently not as many as they’ve claimed.
It’s typically claimed there’s going to be enormous quantities of development when really there isn’t.
We’ve seen these inflated claims from airport corporations. That’s the identical whether or not it’s Heathrow or Luton airport, which is nearer to me. [Cooper is MP for St Albans.] So I simply don’t imagine that these claims stack up.
Cooper additionally mentioned a 3rd runway can be “actually dangerous for the local weather” and that she had not seen proof exhibiting how a 3rd runway may go forward with out carbon emission targets being breached.
Cooper says Trump fallacious accountable French riots on immigration
Donald Trump has claimed that the riots in France had been a results of immigration.
At her press convention, requested if she agreed, Daisy Cooper mentioned the reporter wouldn’t be stunned to listen to that she didn’t. She mentioned in France peaceable protests had been “hijacked by extra malevolent forces”. And they had been about the price of dwelling, she mentioned.
Cooper says Lib Dems ‘successful battle of concepts’, claiming Burnham has even ‘stolen’ their earphone dodger crackdown plan
Cooper additionally claimed the Liberal Democrats had been “successful the battle of concepts”. She defined:
We are successful, main and successful the battle of concepts in parliament.
We’re the celebration that has been speaking about electoral reform. We’re the celebration speaking a couple of nearer relationship with Europe. We’re the celebration that has been speaking about fixing social care. And guess what? The prime minister has taken up all of these points.
I feel even right this moment he’s stolen one among our insurance policies round earphone dodgers on trains.
So we’re actually pleased with the truth that we’re making a distinction within the political debate and that the prime minister is taking on our concepts.
Cooper suggests social media’s bias in the direction of extremism, not Davey’s management, explains restricted consideration Lib Dems getting
When pressed once more on issues inside the celebration about Ed Davey’s management, Daisy Cooper, the deputy celebration chief, admitted that there was “an enormous diploma of frustration” within the celebration in regards to the quantity of media protection it will get. But she claimed that this was as a result of social media favours extremists.
She mentioned:
What I might recognise is there’s a enormous diploma of frustration that, at a time once we are the most important third celebration in our celebration’s historical past, that has occurred at a time when parliament virtually doesn’t matter in any respect when it comes to altering the political climate.
It’s all in regards to the algorithms, it’s about social media. That’s the place loads of the dialog is occurring. And these algorithms are being designed, are sometimes financed, in a approach that rewards excessive positions.
Are we going to play in that paddling pool of maximum politics? No, we’re completely not. We’re going to stay to our values. We’re environmentalists, we’re internationalists, we’re pro-business, we’re pro-growth.
We’re not going to undertake an excessive place simply to get the web clicks. And I feel folks will recognize that.
Q: Some of your MPs are dropping religion in Ed Davey. Why is he failing to chop by way of?
Cooper didn’t settle for the premise of the query. She described Davey because the “most profitable ever” chief within the historical past of the celebration, and went on:
For so long as we have now first previous the submit, the nationwide polls don’t translate into successful seats. And we have now confirmed that underneath Ed Davey’s management we will switch votes into seats like no different political celebration. And for so long as we have now first previous the submit that has to stay the aim.
Daisy Cooper guidelines out Lib Dems cooperating with Greens ‘at nationwide degree’ whereas Zionism movement nonetheless stands
Q: Should Liberal Democrat councillors cease energy sharing with Green councillors within the mild of the Greens’ “Zionism is racism” movement being handed by their convention?
Cooper mentioned she completely condemned the “horrific, antisemitic movement” handed by the Greens at their convention. She mentioned this was a difficulty for Green MPs, Green councillors and Green members to kind out.
She mentioned the Lib Dems would “completely not work with the Green celebration on the nationwide degree for so long as this stays their place”.
But she didn’t say what she thought Lib Dem councillors ought to do in areas the place they’re sharing energy with the Greens.
(The Labour celebration has told its councillors that they need to solely cooperate with Green councillors the place the native Green celebration has condemned the Zionism movement.)
Q: These insurance policies recommend you’re criticising the finances from the left. Is that honest?
Cooper steered she didn’t settle for that description. She defined:
We imagine that wealth creation and social justice are two sides of the identical coin. We have a stronger, pro-growth, pro-business place than the Labour celebration.
But in the case of supporting probably the most deprived, we do imagine in having extra focused and deeper assist for probably the most susceptible in society.
So I imagine that we will outstrip the Labour celebration by being extra pro-growth and extra pro-business, while additionally being extra focused with assist for many who are most susceptible.
Lib Dems name for £14bn ‘respiratory house finances’ with gasoline invoice cuts, tax cuts for hospitality, and cheaper transport
Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy chief and Treasury spokesperson, is holding a press convention now.
She says the Lib Dems are urging John Healey, the chancellor, to ship “a £14bn respiratory house finances” subsequent week, saving households £350 on common over the following yr and a half.
She says these plans could possibly be “totally funded by windfall taxes on the massive banks, a clawback on the vitality community monopolies and utilizing the upper tax receipts triggered by inflation”.
The plan has three components.
On vitality, Cooper says:
For the following yr and a half, we’d introduce a necessary vitality assure, slicing common annual electrical energy and fuel payments by £100, alongside further assist for households with kids and disabled folks.
On hospitality, she says:
For the following yr and a half, we’d reduce hospitality VAT from 20% to fifteen%, giving pubs, eating places and cafes room to maintain costs down, shield jobs and keep open. It would make a meal with the children, espresso with a pal or a pint on the native, just a bit bit extra reasonably priced.
And, on journey, she says:
For an preliminary three months, we’d reduce gasoline obligation by 10%, reduce rail fares by 10%, introduce £1 bus fares and reduce VAT on kerbside EV charging to five%.
Explaining how the Lib Dems would fund these measures, she says:
Our important vitality assure can be paid for by clawing again extra assist handed to monopoly vitality operators, and utilizing that cash to chop family payments as a substitute.
Our hospitality bundle can be funded by a one-off, time-limited windfall tax on the surprising and unearned income of the massive banks.
And our emergency journey bundle can be funded by way of further Treasury receipts generated by way of increased costs on the petrol pump triggered by Trumpflation [price rises caused by Trump’s Iran war] as a result of when motorists pay extra on the pump, the Treasury shouldn’t get a windfall.
Report on most difficult areas in England to be a baby says Middlesbrough worst place, and Cheshire East finest place
Here is the chart from Rachel de Souza’s Childhood Lottery report exhibiting the locations deemed probably the most difficult to be a baby. (See 9.34am.)
And right here is the chart exhibiting the least difficult locations to be a baby.
Burnham pledges ‘massive modifications’ to the way in which the welfare system works to deal with Neets disaster
Good morning. Children and younger individuals are on the prime of the agenda right this moment, with the publication of a hard-hitting report from Dame Rachel de Souza, the kids’s commissioner for England, and a Times article by Andy Burnham. They are specializing in barely completely different cohorts – Burnham is writing about younger individuals who depart college and enter the advantages system, whereas the de Souza studies covers the experiences of younger kids in a number of elements of their lives – however their general message is identical: the youthful era is being let down.
De Souza has studied greater than 160 datasets to look at how what occurs to kids as they develop up varies throughout England and she or he says the variation is “staggering”. In her report, The Childhood Lottery, she explains:
In 4 native authorities, the full quantity spent on youth companies per teenager is the princely sum of £0, £421 lower than within the highest spending native authority. Some areas of the nation are sending almost 90% of their sorted kids to out-of-area placements, in comparison with the just about 20% within the areas making least use of those – though given this implies being away from household ties, and pals, that’s nonetheless worryingly excessive.
But what stands out isn’t merely these variations, however how a lot work there may be to do to ship a contented, wholesome childhood in each postcode. I’ve made the tough determination to focus on the 20 locations the place it’s hardest to develop up. I need to be clear that this isn’t a evaluate of the native authority, that is an evaluation based mostly on a variety of measures trying on the challenges confronted, the total vary of companies out there and the outcomes we see.
We can not draw back, although, from the truth that poor schooling outcomes, lengthy well being ready lists or just feeling unsafe converge specifically locations.
The report identifies Middlesbrough as probably the most difficult place to be a baby, and Cheshire East because the least difficult place. I’ll publish fuller tables shortly.
The general image is grim too. Here is an extract from the report’s abstract.
The information pulled collectively within the Childhood Lottery highlights the dimensions of challenges confronted by kids throughout all areas of the nation and all areas of their lives. For instance that:
-Over 1 million kids (1,048,965) had lively referrals to kids and younger folks’s psychological well being companies in 2024-25.1
-Most pupils (55%) don’t obtain commonplace of their English and Maths GCSEs (grade 5 or higher in each) on the finish of key stage 4.
-There are round 1 million younger folks within the UK aged 16 to 24 not in employment, schooling or coaching (NEET)
-Approaching half (44%) of sorted kids are positioned exterior their native authority space. Far too many care leavers (40%, plus 6% with unknown exercise) are Neets [not in education, employment or training].
-12% of youngsters mentioned they didn’t really feel protected of their native space.
The Burnham article is particularly about Neets. The authorities was anticipated to publish Alan Milburn’s closing report with suggestions on Neets earlier than the finances. Now it’s coming subsequent month, which suggests the pitch-rolling course of forward of publication is unusually protracted. Milburn has given an interview to the Guardian and, as Anna Bawden and Kiran Stacey report, he’s specific about wanting some profit funds to be reduce to fund extra employment assist.
In his article, Burnham accepts that many individuals folks right this moment really feel “shut out”.
There isn’t any scarcity of individuals lining as much as take a swing on the subsequent era however, if we’re sincere, the blame for this failure lies with politicians. At the very second rising up grew to become tougher, the assist younger folks relied on was stripped away. Youth companies had been virtually abolished. Children’s psychological well being companies had been reduce. Families had been left to struggle for assist for youngsters with particular instructional wants and disabilities.
The pandemic stole two years, and social media is simply too typically taking one thing a lot deeper: their confidence and sense of belonging. Add an schooling system centered on the college route and a job market providing too few alternatives, and we shouldn’t be stunned that so many are shut out.
And he indicators that he’s going to comply with Milburn’s suggestions on advantages.
Today, the welfare system offers an evaluation, a fee and, after that, a goodbye. Too typically there is no such thing as a assist, no provide of expertise and no alternative to get a job …
This can be our provide: a transparent assure of assist. But it is going to even be matched by an expectation that younger folks will take up the alternatives made out there to them. This will imply massive modifications to the way in which our welfare system operates. Benefits will turn out to be the backstop, not the start line. The system will not start by establishing which advantages a teenager is entitled to. It will start with their ambitions and the assistance they should obtain them.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy chief and Treasury spokesperson, holds a press convention on Lib Dem finances proposals.
Morning: Andy Burnham is on a go to in South Wales linked to the sixtieth anniversary of the Aberfan catastrophe (which is on Wednesday).
11.30am: Downing Street holds a foyer briefing.
2.30pm: Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
3pm: Dame Rachel de Souza, the kids’s commissioner for England, offers a speech at on the launch of her Childhood Lottery report.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate amendments to the Northern Ireland Troubles invoice.
5.30pm: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh first minister, offers a speech on devolution.
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