UK has ‘no issues’ with Trump’s Nato challenge, says minister – UK politics live

UK has ‘no issues’ with Trump’s Nato challenge, says minister

Donald Trump’s comment that he would not defend Nato countries that do not spend enough on defence presents “no issues”, a government minister has said.

Asked about Trump’s comments overnight, health minister Stephen Kinnock told Times Radio on Friday that even before Trump took office the US “has been challenging the other Nato members to step up and boost defence capability and be ready to defend our own back yard”.

According to the PA news agency, he added:

I think it’s absolutely right that we are now seeing, particularly through the leadership of our prime minister, the European arm of Nato coming together and meeting that challenge.

So I think there’s no issues really around the challenge that the United States has set for us as European nations, what’s vitally important now is that we step up and do that.”

Asked whether the UK could trust the US, Kinnock said:

Donald Trump has never said that he thinks the United States should leave Nato, he has never said that he doesn’t believe in article 5, and I think that we absolutely have to hold together as an alliance in defence of freedom and democracy and the values that we cherish.”

Keir Starmer will speak to European leaders on Friday as he presses on with a diplomatic push over Ukraine. Yesterday, Starmer said it would be a “big mistake” to think that Ukraine no longer needs military help because a peace deal is inevitable.

More on that in a moment, but first, here is an roundup of some of the latest developments in UK politics:

Ministers are dragging their heels on an investigation into the mistreatment of migrant carers, the country’s largest nursing union has said, as it continues to receive complaints about low pay, substandard accommodation and illegal fees. Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has written to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to urge her to speed up her promised investigation into the abuse of foreign care workers.
The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has said helping more people back into a job is the best way to cut the benefits bill, as the chancellor looks for savings ahead of the 26 March spring statement. With Rachel Reeves zeroing in on welfare as a source of potential cuts as she prepares to take action to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules, Kendall said the starting point must be getting people back into work – not numbers on a spreadsheet.
Britain will continue to supply intelligence to Ukraine, though the more limited capabilities on offer from London and other European countries will make it difficult to replace the flow halted from the US earlier this week. The UK will also continue to supply its analysis of the raw data, sources said on Thursday, though in line with normal intelligence practice it will not simply pass on US information obtained via long-established sharing arrangements between the two countries.
People in London have been breathing significantly cleaner air since the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), a study has found. Levels of deadly pollutants that are linked to a wide range of health problems – from cancer to impaired lung development, heart attacks to premature births – have dropped, with some of the biggest improvements coming in the capital’s most deprived areas.
Tens of thousands of children in migrant and refugee families in the UK are being denied access to government-funded childcare because of benefit restrictions linked to their parents’ immigration status, a report says. Having “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) means parents are not entitled to 30 hours of free childcare and are having to stay home to look after their young children instead of working. This is pushing families into poverty and denying their children the benefits of the early years education available to their peers, the report finds.
Reform UK is facing a split at the top after Nigel Farage called one of his most prominent MPs “utterly completely wrong” for calling him the “messianic” leader of a protest party. Farage hit out at Rupert Lowe after the Great Yarmouth MP and former Southampton FC chair criticised his leadership publicly in an interview.

Key events

Conservative former education secretary Damian Hinds has suggested the government should take action to curb children’s social media use, unless researchers and the government can prove that online environments are safe for them.

He said:

It seems odd that we allow something to happen to our children because we cannot 100% prove it causes harm, rather than because we can prove that it is safe. That is not the way we deal with children’s toys, it is not the way we deal with children’s food, it is not the way we deal with children’s medicines.

Hinds had earlier described three online factors which affect children – the content they consume, the contact they have with other people including child abuse and cyberbullying, and the time they spend using smartphones and social media.

“The sheer amount of time that gets sucked out of these children into these activities, and it is the compounding factor, because it is the thing that makes the other two things – content and contact – worse and more risky,” he said.

Labour MP for Lowestoft Jess Asato had earlier said:

We cannot stand idly by in the name of freedom or freedom of speech, because there is no freedom in addiction. There is no freedom in being harmed.

There is no freedom in being underdeveloped as a child because you’ve not experienced socialisation or the great outdoors or the pleasure of books, or simply not being harmed from being sent horrible things that you shouldn’t have to see.

A Labour MP has said adults “wouldn’t accept our children being flashed in the streets”, yet young people are being sent explicit material online.

According to the PA news agency, Jess Asato told the Commons:

It’s something that’s incessantly traumatising them [children]. We wouldn’t accept our children being flashed in the streets, so why is it different online?

And why do we not expect the tech companies to act? This is something that their products enable to happen to our children all day, every day, and yet we still don’t have the movement from them.”

The Suffolk MP called on ministers to consider “age verification for app stores, so that our young people know that when they access app stores, that content on them is right for their age and their level of development”.

Legislators have a “duty to try and mitigate” digital harms, including pornographic material being made available to children, an MP has said.

Caroline Voaden, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, told the Commons:

We as responsible adults and legislators have a duty to try and mitigate these harms.

I’m thinking now particularly of horrible, dangerous misogyny of the likes of Andrew Tate which is being lapped up by boys who are under his influence, boys who then spread his misogynistic hate speech.

I’m thinking of the violent pornography that’s being accessed and viewed by children as young as nine or 10, pornography that isn’t just naked pictures like you’d find in an old-fashioned top-shelf magazine – I’m told – but violent porn that celebrates assault and rape.”

Voaden warned the type of pornography that children consumed was “leading to an increase in harmful practices such as strangulation, that it warps the way young people view sexual relationships”.

Downing Street said Donald Trump’s comments on Nato are not any different to what he said in his first term, after the US president suggested his country would not defend allies who do not spend enough on defence.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson noted that Trump “reiterated his commitment” to article 5 last week when he met Keir Starmer.

Trump has repeatedly talked about a need for Nato allies to “step up and pull their weight” when it comes to defence spending, he said.

“I don’t think from what the president said yesterday is any different to what he was saying in his first term in office, and indeed, what he pointed to is the fact that that position that he took in his first term has led to increased defence spending from Nato allies,” he said.

The defence secretary had “very constructive” talks with his US counterpart in Washington DC, Downing Street has said.

John Healey and Pete Hegseth discussed “deepening the UK-US defence relationship” and finding a “lasting peace” for Ukraine, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said, according to the PA news agency.

He noted that the US defence secretary said he was encouraged by Ukraine’s actions since last week. US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia scheduled for next week are a “welcome development”, he said.

He added:

President Zelensky has set out his readiness to move quickly and set out some possible elements for a first stage of a peace deal. And this provides a good basis for the discussions that will be taking place in Riyadh next week.”

Carmen Smith

When I took my seat in the House of Lords almost a year ago, I pledged to campaign for the abolition of my job. Our second chamber has become a gated community of more than 800 members, making it the second largest legislative chamber in the world, topped only by China’s National People’s Congress. The House of Lords casts a shadow over parliament, and its unelected peers have a huge influence on the laws that get passed.

Last March, I joined the second chamber representing Plaid Cymru. Aged 28, I was the youngest member of the chamber, and the youngest ever life peer. Plaid Cymru doesn’t believe that an unelected chamber should form part of our democracy, but we do believe that we should have a seat at the table wherever decisions affecting Wales are being made. Since taking my seat in the Lords, I have been clear about my desire to change the system from within, while standing up for Welsh people and for young people across Britain.

As much as I have enjoyed working with members across the political spectrum, over the past year I have gained a rare insight into how Westminster functions behind the scenes and, at times, how it fails to function altogether. One only need look at the recent Lords debate investigation in this newspaper to see the conflicts of interest that persist within the second chamber, where some peers have used their positions to advance commercial interests.

Keir Starmer had a phone call with the leaders of Canada, Norway, Turkey and Iceland as well as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa, reports the PA news agency.

It was primarily to update on a meeting EU leaders held yesterday, Downing Street said. In that meeting, EU leaders committed to bolstering the continent’s defences and freeing up hundreds of billions of euros for security.

Sally Weale

Tens of thousands of children in migrant and refugee families in the UK are being denied access to government-funded childcare because of benefit restrictions linked to their parents’ immigration status, a report says.

Having “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) means parents are not entitled to 30 hours of free childcare and are having to stay home to look after their young children instead of working. This is pushing families into poverty and denying their children the benefits of the early years education available to their peers, the report finds.

About 4 million people in the UK are affected by NRPF restrictions, according to the report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in conjunction with the human rights organisation Praxis, which works with migrants and refugees.

They include about 71,000 families who would otherwise qualify for 30 hours of free childcare a week – provided they met the income threshold – were it not for NRPF restrictions, which ban access to the social security system.

The report argues that the system of childcare entitlements excludes families facing greatest disadvantage, despite the government’s manifesto commitment to break down barriers to opportunity for every child.

Families affected by NRPF are entitled to a halved offer of 15 funded hours of care for their three- and four-year-olds, and some low-income families may be entitled to care for their two-year-olds, but they cannot access any other support with childcare costs, including the extended entitlement for working parents, and universal credit support with childcare costs and tax-free childcare.

Dan Sabbagh

Scrutiny arrangements for Britain’s spy agencies are “fundamentally flawed” and the existing system “isn’t viable operationally,” the chair of the watchdog intelligence and security committee (ISC) has said this morning in a rare public statement.

Insufficient staffing and resources mean that “we cannot provide” the intelligence community “with its licence to operate” warned Labour peer and former MP Lord Beamish – while new parts of the intelligence apparatus are not being scrutinised at all.

“When it comes to resources, the committee is on the brink,” Beamish wrote in Intelligence Online. Spending on MI5, MI6 and GCHQ has doubled in the last 12 years, he said, while 20 new intelligence teams have been created across government.

A plan for an emergency increase of 15 staff, agreed under the last government in May 2024, has not been implemented, leaving its staff struggling to oversee spending of £3bn on spies with a budget of less than £2m.

“The problem has been steadily getting worse but we are now at the point where the organisation isn’t viable operationally,” Beamish said, and he argued that as well as extra resources a comprehensive restructuring was needed.

Negotiations had begun with Downing Street to resolve the crisis, which Beamish described as “very positive” and he added he believed that national security adviser Jonathan Powell agreed that reforms were urgent.

The body, which was created by special legislation and unlike a normal Commons committee, plans to move out of the Cabinet Office and “link into” parliament. “The parliamentary oversight body tasked with holding the UK’s national intelligence community to account cannot be seated within, and therefore beholden to an organisation it oversees,” Beamish concluded.

Liz Kendall says getting people into work is best way to cut benefits bill

Heather Stewart

The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has said helping more people back into a job is the best way to cut the benefits bill, as the chancellor looks for savings ahead of the 26 March spring statement.

With Rachel Reeves zeroing in on welfare as a source of potential cuts as she prepares to take action to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules, Kendall said the starting point must be getting people back into work – not numbers on a spreadsheet.

“I think the only way that you get the welfare bill on a more sustainable footing is to get people into work. And you know, we will be bringing forward big reforms that actually support people into work, that get them on a pathway to success,” Kendall said.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is due to publish a green paper on welfare in the coming days, before Reeves’s statement.

With the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expected to downgrade its growth forecasts against the backdrop of a deteriorating global economy, the chancellor is preparing to make spending cuts to ensure she can still meet her fiscal targets.

Kendall refused to comment on specific policy changes. “I want to be really clear about our objective: it’s reforming the system, changing the system to provide people with the support that they need because that’s the only way,” she said.

However, she repeatedly declined to deny reports that the Treasury is seeking up to £5bn in cuts.

With the OBR unlikely to pencil in uncertain future savings from supporting people into employment, analysts believe cuts on such a scale will be impossible to achieve without making it harder to claim benefits, or reducing their value.

One senior government source hinted at radical change, describing the current system as “completely busted”, adding: “You don’t need the OBR to tell you it’s not working.”

The protection of children (digital safety and data protection) bill was designed to “secure explicit government backing”, the Labour MP who prepared it has said.

Josh MacAlister, the MP for Whitehaven and Workington, told the Commons:

We must act on excessive screen time today in the same way we acted on smoking back then, and like debates that were had on smoking and car seatbelts, it took a process of legislation rather than one ‘big bang’ event. That’s why starting today with these initial steps and then following them through with major action soon will be so important.”

The private member’s bill, if passed, would instruct the UK chief medical officers to publish advice for parents on the use of smartphones and social media by children. It does not include proposals for schools to become mobile-free zones, as MacAlister had originally planned.

According to the PA news agency, Ashley Fox, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater, intervened in MacAlister’s speech and said:

Nothing he has said so far requires legislation. The bill he’s brought today could all be achieved by a minister just deciding to ask the chief medical officer to produce a report or the minister to produce a plan.

What has happened to the legislative action that was clearly in earlier drafts in his legislation?”

MacAlister later addressed Fox’s point in his speech, when he said:

This bill has been drafted to secure explicit government backing. It’s been written to achieve change rather than just highlight the issue. That is why the bill before us is narrower than where I started when this campaign began six months ago.”

UK Treasury ‘plans funding cuts at GB Energy’ in blow to Ed Miliband

Mark Sweney

The UK government is making plans to cut the funding for GB Energy, the state-owned company set up by Labour to drive renewable energy and cut household bills, in June’s spending review.

Cuts to the £8.3bn of taxpayer money promised over the five-year parliament would be another blow for Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, after he was overruled by the government when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, backed the expansion of Heathrow’s third runway.

GB Energy, a vital cog in Keir Starmer’s plans to “supercharge” Britain’s clean energy revolution, was only given an initial £100m in October’s budget to cover its first two years.

Ministers are carrying out a “zero-based review” of all government spending, which has been given additional impetus after Starmer’s pledge to boost investment in defence.

One option under consideration by the Treasury is to cut the £3.3bn earmarked for GB Energy to fund low-interest loans via local authorities, for projects such as solar panels and shared-ownership wind projects, according to the Financial Times.

Despite Labour making the £8.3bn funding for GB Energy a pledge in its general election manifesto, neither the Treasury nor the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has said that it is guaranteed.

“We are fully committed to GB Energy, which is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and to ensure homes are cheaper and cleaner to run,” a government spokesperson said.

Last month, GB Energy admitted that it could take 20 years to meet its pledge to employ 1,000 people, as the chair, Jürgen Maier, also refused to put a date on when it would bring down energy bills.

A Labour MP has warned of a “fundamental rewiring of childhood itself” as a result of increasing smartphone use, reports the PA news agency.

Introducing his protection of children (digital safety and data protection) bill, Josh MacAlister told the Commons he began his career as a teacher in 2009 when “there was the odd phone in the classroom, the odd instance of a child being bullied through their device”.

The MP for Whitehaven and Workington said:

Neither I nor any other teacher at the time could have imagined the impact these devices would come to play in childhood.”

He told MPs that the average 12-year-old spends 21 hours a week on their smartphone, “that’s the equivalent of four full days of school teaching per week”.

MacAlister continued:

This is a fundamental rewiring of childhood itself and it’s happened in little over a decade. Children are spending less time outside, less time reading, less time exercising, exploring, meeting people, communicating in person – all the things that make childhood special and the things that are necessary for healthy childhood development.

Instead, many children now spend their time captured by addictive social media and smartphone use, often sat alone doom scrolling, being bombarded by unrealistic representations of life, communication through asynchronous large group chats rather than through looking at facial expressions, eye contact, body language, learning to interact – moving less, smiling less, learning less.”