5.40pm BST
Afternoon summary Government failures caused Covid-19 to spread “like wildfire” among vulnerable and elderly people, and Matt Hancock’s “protective ring” around care homes did not exist, a public inquiry has found.
John Healey will not raise capital gains tax in next week’s budget, despite previous calls to do so from cabinet colleagues including Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting.
Adrian Ramsay, the former co-leader of the Greens, has urged his party’s councillors to reject the newly adopted “Zionism is racism” motion if it will help them stay in power in local government, in a fresh sign of internal dissent over the policy.
RAF Typhoon fighters are to be used in efforts to protect Saudi Arabia from attack by Yemen’s Houthis, flying defensive missions over the country’s cities and critical infrastructure as western allies increase their intervention in the escalating conflict.
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.
5.36pm BST
Reform UK MP Danny Kruger suggests Muslims may find it hard to be loyal to Britain due to their faith The Reform UK MP Danny Kruger is an evangelical Christian. In his speech at the rally in Plymouth earlier, he made an explicit link between Britishness and Christianity, and he implied that British Muslims might find it hard to be loyal to the country because of their faith.
Here is the passage from his speech in full.
We need an idea that binds us together, and that idea is deep in our roots. It’s the idea that King Alfred took from the Bible and made into the basis of the laws of England; that we are not just solitary individuals sharing a piece of land; we are bound together, not by race, but by our common commitment to the traditions of our country, the traditions we have inherited from generation upon generation.
And the founding tradition is that the official religion of the United Kingdom, from the coronation oath to every parish in the land, is Christianity.
And so and so when we see millions of people who are taught to believe something different, who are taught by their clerics that their loyalty isn’t to the United Kingdom, but to the global Islamic community, that your religion is in fact a political allegiance and it’s not to Britain, that is a problem.
And the problem isn’t with individual Muslims, far from it. In fact, I think we could win support from British Muslims if we offer them a better way – strong values, family, community, country, the things Reform stands for. I think Muslims, like everyone, would resonate with that.
But there can be no negotiation with this. If you’re a British citizen, your loyalty is to the British state. Your allegiance is to Britain. And that’s what Reformers feel in their bones.
Of course, not all Reformers feel loyalty to the British state in the bones. The party’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, is serving a long prison sentence for taking money to speak up for Russia in the European parliament.
Updated at 11.25pm BST
4.52pm BST
Scottish government says closure of BBC Scotland's TV channel 'wholly unacceptable' The BBC Scotland TV channel is to close as part of cuts announced today. Michael Savage has the story.
Related: BBC Three and BBC Scotland TV channels to be shut down next year
In response, the Scottish government said this was “wholly unacceptable”. Màiri McAllan , the Scottish government’s culture secretary, said:
The proposal to close the BBC Scotland channel is wholly unacceptable and the Scottish government opposes it in the strongest possible terms.
This represents a significant blow to our media landscape and is the latest example of a longstanding pattern of BBC underinvestment in Scotland, raising serious questions about the broadcaster’s commitment to Scottish audiences and the creative sector, and its public service obligations to serve all parts of the UK fairly and equitably.
I have set this out directly with the BBC Scotland director and will engage with Ofcom to make clear the significant concerns this proposal raises.
4.28pm BST
Isle of Man could see first assisted death in 2028 after law gains royal assent Assisted dying has formally become law in the Isle of Man in what has been hailed “an important step forward” which could see the first assisted death take place in late 2028, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Tynwald became the first parliament across the UK and Crown Dependencies to agree a framework for assisted dying in March 2025 but it was only on Tuesday that royal assent was granted.
It is thought the implementation period for an assisted dying service to be in place could be up to two years, with further work around training, codes of practice for healthcare professionals and capacity for applicants to take place in the meantime.
GP Alex Allinson, a former member of Tynwald who brought the bill through the island’s parliament, said he believed the 2028 timescale is “achievable”.
He said: “The announcement of royal assent marks an important step forward for our island. There is considerable further work to be done to draw up codes of practice and guidelines with healthcare professionals and provide holistic education and support for all those involved.
“Key to improving choice and dignity for those facing a terminal illness is investment in palliative care and expanding the choices available for the people of our island and their families.”
4.20pm BST
Government says Covid inquiry report shows why culture of care workers being undervalued has to end Andy Burnham has released a Commons written statement giving his response to the Covid inquiry’s report out today. He particularly endorses its finding that “for too long the adult social care sector has been undervalued and under-recognised”. He says:
The government is committed to learning the lessons from the inquiry and ensuring the social care sector are prepared for a future pandemic. We will consider carefully the findings and recommendations of the report and respond in due course. We will use these findings to continue development of our adult social care pandemic action plan, and we will also respond to Baroness Casey’s review when it is published.
I have set out my vision for a National Care Service. This will be person-centred, highly integrated with health services and preventative in its character, helping people lead as independent and fulfilling lives as possible and providing dignity and peace of mind. We are delivering reform through significant additional investment in adult social care, including introducing a fair pay agreement for care workers and developing a new workforce action plan. We are also appointing a champion for unpaid carers, developing neighbourhood health services, and taking immediate action on adult safeguarding, dementia, and motor neurone disease.
Commenting on the report during health questions in the Commons, Yvette Cooper , the health secretary, said:
We will provide a full response to the report’s recommendations in due course, but I agree with the chair when she says, adult social care has, for too long, been undervalued and under-recognised.
That has to end, and I hope we can work cross party to support the prime minister’s vision for a National Care Service in the future.
3.53pm BST
Farage claims 'snobbery' part of the reason why racist views of Reform UK members getting so much criticism Nigel Farage has given an interview to Sky New s in which he has set in detail his response to the ITV News exposé highlighting the extreme racism of some of his party’s members. In it, he went beyond the line he used in his rally speech about his members not being “uniquely awful”. (See 3.24pm .) Here are three lines from the interview.
Farage claimed there was an element of “snobbery” in the criticism of those singled out for making racist comments. He said some of the remarks were “appalling”. But he went on:
There’s a real snobbery about this. You speak to working-class people about what they think about, for example, the rape gangs from Rochdale or Rotherham, you’d be very surprised by what they said.
He suggested that defectors from the Tories were the worst offenders. He said:
It just shows you some of the Tories we took – maybe we shouldn’t have done. The most egregious comment was made by somebody who came to us as a Tory councillor.
This was a reference to Alan Feeney, a councillor in Solihull, who told an undercover reporter that his area had been “infested” with Asian families, and called them “absolute parasites”.
(Farage may have been joking when he made this point. Every party he has led has been accused of attracting a disproportionate number of racists as supporters.)
He claimed that Reform UK was “pretty much the same” as other parties in terms of its likelihood of having members with extremist or offensive views. He said:
I accept [that] out of thousands of councillors, there are some people who say stupid things, wanted to say horrible things. But if you apply that equally across the political spectrum, you will find we’re pretty much the same as everybody else.
Updated at 3.58pm BST
3.24pm BST
Farage claims it 'just isn't true' to say people in Reform UK are 'uniquely awful' In his Plymouth speech, which has just finished, Nigel Farage has just referred to the ITV News exposé about racism in his party. “In any political party, any group of human beings, any club, there’ll be some [people] that say unpleasant things,” he said.
But he claimed it was wrong to claim there was anything “uniquely awful” about Reform UK.
The sheer level of disproportionality is something I want to share with you very briefly this afternoon.
So, Reform councillors, having been provoked, have said some things we’d rather they hadn’t.
But what about Mr Bonehill-Paine , who was going to be a candidate in Somerset next year for the Conservatives? [He] served a prison sentence for neo-Nazi offences. When it was found out, he then got promoted by Kemi Badenoch to be an adviser to the party.
What about David Graham, the Labour councillor from Fife? He didn’t just say bad things. No, no, no, he sexually abused a 15-year-old girl who he groomed and abused over the course of six months. Have you heard that on the BBC news?
At this point the crowd shouted “no”, and Farage replied: “No, and you won’t.”
(Here is the BBC’s online news report about Graham .)
Farage went on:
And, frankly, the list goes on, a list as long as your arm of assault, of criminality, of paedophilia, of sexual abuse.
Wherever you get thousands of people that congregate together, you will get some bad eggs.
Do not buy in to the media narrative that somehow there’s something uniquely awful about people in Reform. It just isn’t true.
3.02pm BST
Farage and Badenoch both claim UK at risk of French-style rioting Nigel Farage , the Reform UK leader, is speaking at the rally in Plymouth
(Not in Portsmouth, as he wrongly said at one point.)
Most of it is familiar Reform UK stuff, but Farage has just included a topical reference – claiming Britain is likely to suffer French-style rioting at some point.
Referring to the “appalling violent mob rule riots that we’ve seen in France over the course of the weekend”, he went on:
Don’t be complacent because it’s the other side of the channel. Don’t think it can’t happen here, because it can.
And I suspect many of those protesting outside this hall today in an effort to stop this meeting from even going ahead would be part of those disturbances if they were to occur. Sadly, I think at some point it will occur.
Farage was speaking after Kemi Badenoch , the Conservative leader, also claimed that the UK was at risk of French-style rioting. But she suggested, if that were to happen in this country, woke policies describing Britain as racist would be to blame.
In an interview with