5.45pm BST
Afternoon summary
The UK government has approved the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, a widely expected move that will nonetheless dismay environmental campaigners and a number of Labour MPs.
Miatta Fahnbulleh is leaning towards rejecting the giant Rosebank oilfield, the Guardian understands, in what would be a blow for the North Sea energy industry and a major victory for climate campaigners.
A cabinet split over Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policy has deepened after the energy secretary refused to say she backed plans to make foreign workers wait 15 years to claim permanent residency in the UK.
Reform UK has been fined more than £2,000 for failing to declare it was the publisher of campaign material seen by voters – including an additional penalty for failing to pay on time.
Reform UK says it has reported ITV to the police over its undercover racism exposé about the party, which it claims left some members “pyschologically damaged”. (See 3.50pm .)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
5.39pm BST
Activists from Fossil Free London staged a protest outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero today. They were protesting about the Jackdaw decision announced today, and also urging the government not to approve the Rosebank oil field, where the decision is pending.
Robin Wells, director of the campaign group, said:
This decision is salted with the tears of every Nepalese person who saw someone they loved swept away in a river tsunami and it’s stained with the blood of everyone in Valencia who died as cars afloat in mud, sewage and enough rainwater for a year collided into their bodies in streets that had become rivers.
Although we cannot right now hear people in Australia, LA and Portugal crying in fear as their homes and worlds burn, these are the knock-on consequences of corporations that continue to drill fossil fuels and the governments that permit it, knowing the damage caused.
Our government must not double down on madness now. They must not lap-up industry propaganda again for the next North Sea project in their in-tray. If they believe in a future that protects people’s homes and safety, not endangers them, they must stop Rosebank.
5.23pm BST
The Department for Education has announced that Simon Ridley will be its new permanent secretary . Ridley will move from the Home Office, where he has been second permanent secretary.
He will replace Susan Acland-Hood, who is taking a new job outside government. Acland-Hood became head of the DfE in 2020 after the previous permanent secretary, Jonathan Slater, was sacked during Covid after the department oversaw a botched exam grading system that infuriated parents and pupils.
4.53pm BST
NEU says robust action on antisemitism in schools needed, but rejects reports call for teacher impartiality rules to be tightened
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor.
The review of antisemitism in England’s schools and colleges by Sir David Bell has now been published, with the Department for Education saying it will adopt its recommendations including antisemitism training for education leaders, strengthened safeguarding guidance and improved reporting and investigation of antisemitic incidents.
Bell’s full report goes into detail about the challenges that Jewish students and institutions face directly from antisemitism, as well as ways to tackle antisemitism in schools across the country.
The review also talks about the external pressures that schools face from parents and other community members, noting:
Schools and colleges should make decisions based on safeguarding, professional conduct, employment law and evidence, not on who can generate the strongest public pressure campaign or out of fear of stoking community tensions.
Presenting the review to parliament, education secretary Lucy Powell said:
We have a duty to teach this generation and the next what antisemitism is, why it’s wrong and what happens when it takes hold. That goes for every school and college, whether or not they have Jewish staff and students.
Daniel Kebede , general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
Robust action to challenge antisemitism is certainly needed because young people are exposed to antisemitic ideas and tropes, including on social media, and to influencers and figures who espouse violence. Educational experiences that empower young people to develop positive attitudes and respect for each other are critical.
But Kebede rejected the need for schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism or new rules on political impartiality, saying they would make it harder for schools to discuss complex world events. He said:
This report will not tackle antisemitism. It wrongly calls into question the professionalism of teachers. The existing rules on impartiality in the classroom are very clear and teachers take that responsibility very seriously.
For three years, teachers have been responding to concerned pupils’ questions about this conflict. These classroom discussions are familiar territory, not uncharted ground.
The recommendations in the report include one saying the DfE “should strengthen guidance for schools on political impartiality” and another saying school leaders should “consider the appropriateness of political expression and identifiers in their respective settings”.
UPDATE: British Jewish leaders have welcomed the recommendations of the Bell Review into antisemitism in schools and colleges, which calls for tougher action to tackle antisemitism in England’s education system, Aamna Mohdin writes.
Communal leaders stressed the need for concerns to lead to meaningful change, alongside greater efforts to educate pupils about contemporary antisemitism and celebrate the richness and diversity of Jewish life.
Board of Deputies vice president Karen Newman said:
We welcome the recommendations of Sir David Bell to tackle antisemitism in schools and colleges and the commitment of the secretary of state for education to implement them. The struggle against extremism and antisemitism begins with education, so we must get this right in schools. This is not just about protecting Jewish pupils and staff, but protecting all our children from hateful and extremist ideas, and supporting schools to tackle them where they arise.
Rabbi Charley Baginky and Rabbi Josh Levy, co-leads of the Movement for Progressive Judaism , said:
Sir David Bell’s important review exposes serious failures in how schools recognise and respond to antisemitism. But alongside that urgent question of how schools deal with hatred and educate about Jewish persecution, we also need to ensure they teach about Jewish creativity, music, literature, humour and the extraordinary pleasure of belonging to this diverse tradition. We cannot expect Jewish children to feel they belong if we fail to recognise just how many different ways there are to be Jewish.
Michael Newman, chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), said:
The Bell Report’s findings hit particularly close to home for AJR, which represents Holocaust refugees, survivors and the UK’s largest community of their descendants. For families whose lives were indelibly shaped by antisemitism, seeing Jewish children face such hatred in Britain today is particularly painful.
But Holocaust education alone cannot tackle contemporary antisemitism. That is why AJR is expanding its funding to support projects that directly confront anti-Jewish racism, including convening a cross-sector steering group to develop a classroom resource addressing contemporary antisemitism. We owe it to those who survived, to the memory of those who perished, and to future generations to turn the lessons of the past into action today.
Updated at 8.04am BST
4.35pm BST
Karl Turner MP has Labour whip restored after apologising for 'overly robust' and 'unaceptable' conduct towards colleagues
Karl Turner has had the Labour whip restored after apologising for what he describes as an “overly robust” and “unacceptable” approach towards colleagues. He has admitted that his behaviour caused offence.
He has issued this statement and says he will not be making any further comment.
Turner had the whip suspended in March.
4.25pm BST
Burnham backs mandatory suicide prevention training for social workers after parent-carer Matilda Davis’s death
Andy Burnham has backed mandatory suicide prevention training for social workers after the “devastating” death of Matilda Davis, a parent-carer who killed herself minutes after meeting professionals, Josh Halliday reports.
Related: Burnham backs mandatory suicide prevention training for social workers after parent-carer Matilda Davis’s death
4.18pm BST
3.50pm BST
Reform UK claims undercover racism exposé has left some of its members 'psychologically damaged' as it reports ITV to police
Reform UK says it has reported “multiple” ITV journalists, and the company’s board of directors, to the police on the grounds that their undercover reporters working on the exposé of racism in the party broke the law. The party says it will also be suing them for damages.
Zia Yusuf , the party’s home affairs spokesperson, posted this on social media summarising his party’s allegations.
Reform UK has reported ITV, its board, and its undercover reporters to the police.
Some of the crimes carry up to 10 years in prison.
They forged a passport.
They directly interfered in elections and almost certainly altered the results. Being paid to “canvass” for Reform in crucial wards we lost by a few dozen votes.
They lied to a veteran about their service and left him “violated”.
This is unprecedented.
The police are now involved.
Scrutiny of political parties is one thing.
But anyone breaking the law to try and ruin the lives of Reform’s staff, members or volunteers will be reported to the police and pursued relentlessly in the courts.
In a video setting out his case against ITV at greater length, Yusuf claimed ITV “psychologically damaged innocent and decent Reform staff and members who were not featured in any documentary”.
As an example of this, Yusuf said that one of the undercover reporters met a Reform UK member in Portsmouth who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said:
One of the undercover reporters told him that they shared the same military background. That was a lie. The marine, believing him, took him for a drink. They spent hours talking about their service, and the marine shared deeply personal stories from the front line because he believed he was talking to a friend and a fellow soldier. He has told us he feels violated.
Yusuf also explained why he was alleging electoral interference. In Portsmouth two undercover reporters were tasked with delivering leaflets in one ward where Reform UK lost in the local elections by 24 votes, and in another ward where Reform UK lost by just 85 votes. Yusuf said these margins were smaller than the number of leaflets the undercover reporters were supposed to deliver.
But he did not assert in the video that they failed to deliver the leaflets, and he offered no evidence that they had done anything to suppress the Reform UK vote at the time.
Asked about the legal threats, an ITV spokesperson said:
ITV stands by its journalism. The programme Undercover: A Year In Reform was produced in compliance with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, relevant laws, and its broadcast is in the public interest. All journalists were instructed to operate within this framework and did so under the supervision of the programme’s producers. Should the police get in touch we would fully cooperate.
People tend to assume that a public interest defence will protect journalists from allegations of minor law-breaking if