Badenoch challenges Starmer at PMQs over winter fuel payment U-turn, Chagos deal and child benefit cap – as it happened

Two weeks ago Kemi Badenoch was widely seen to have messed up at PMQs when she asked Keir Starmer about a policy U-turn which, if she had been listening properly, she would have heard him announce a few minutes earlier. Every leader has a bad PMQs from time to time. When you do, it is best to move on. Instead, Badenoch today chose to return to this territory. Not for the first time, her script seemed to have been drafted along the lines of ‘this is what I would have asked last time if I only I had been thinking more quickly’

Kemi remains two weeks behind on winter fuel allowance | John Crace

Even a stopped clock shows the right time twice a day. A level of success to which Kemi Badenoch can only aspire right now. We’ve reached the point where her having a decent stab at approximating some intelligent questions goes down as an unmitigated triumph. Not that it really matters any more.To care about the Tory leader’s performances at prime minister’s questions is to commit a category error

UK-US trade deal could come into effect in ‘a couple of weeks’, Starmer says

Keir Starmer has said he hopes a trade deal struck last month with the US could come into effect “in just a couple of weeks”, as the White House has signalled that the UK will be spared the 50% steel and aluminium tariffs that came into force on Wednesday.Donald Trump said he had decided to “provide different treatment” to the UK, after the deal was agreed between Washington and London – though it is yet to be signed.Starmer said in the House of Commons on Wednesday that the deal would be implemented “within a very short time”.The executive order signed by the US president on Tuesday evening will raise import taxes for US companies buying from other countries.Levies will remain at 25% for imports from Britain, although the higher 50% could come in “on or after 9 July” if the US administration “determines that the UK has not complied with relevant aspects” of the deal

Can spending in the north allay nagging fears about price of Reeves’s prudence?

Rachel Reeves was clearly keen to get back in the political driver’s seat on Wednesday, as she promised £15.6bn in transport investment at a Rochdale bus factory.It was a down payment on the £113bn in additional investment, over and above Tory plans, that she will lay out in next week’s spending review.It came in a speech that was heavily focused on stimulating economies outside London and the south-east to tackle the longstanding issue in the UK of “growth created in too few places, and too few people feeling the benefits”.Reeves promised to publish an overhaul of the Treasury’s “green book” next week – the rules that govern how public investment plans are judged

Labour MPs poised to rebel over planning bill amid concerns for nature

Labour MPs are planning to rebel over the planning and infrastructure bill after constituents raised concern that it threatens protected habitats and wildlife.The Guardian understands that about two dozen Labour MPs are calling for ministers to force developers to build more than a million homes for which they already have planning permission before pushing through legislation that rolls back environmental protections for the most protected habitats in England.Ministers are understood to be drawing up amendments to the most controversial part of the bill, part three, in an apparent scramble to head off a rebellion and quell the anger of respected wildlife groups, whose membership is many millions strong.Sources close to the discussions said there were red lines that could not be crossed to make sure nature was protected.Alexa Culver, an environmental lawyer with RSK Wilding, said ministers were expected soon to present “appeasement” amendments on part three so they could claim the legislation was not regressive

James Cleverly takes on Kemi Badenoch over decision to ditch net zero targets

James Cleverly has taken direct aim at Kemi Badenoch’s decision to ditch net zero targets by criticising what he called “neo-luddites” on the right who seem scared of using green technologies to protect the environment.The senior Conservative MP, who lost to Badenoch in last year’s Tory leadership race, said it was a false choice to believe the UK had to choose between economic growth and protecting the environment. Badenoch has argued current net zero targets will harm the economy.Cleverly’s comments, to be made in a speech on Wednesday evening to the Conservative Environment Network campaign group, also take aim at what he called “the negative left, suspicious of technology, believing things were better before the car”.However, it is his coded if very obvious rebuff to Badenoch’s policy switch that will get attention given Cleverly has largely lain low since he was unexpectedly ejected from the Tory leadership race in the final round of MPs’ voting after an apparent mix-up in tactical voting