Last week Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, wrote to the Metropolitan police urging it to open an investigation into Peter Mandelson and evidence that he leaked confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein when he was a minister.Later that day the Met confirmed they were starting a criminal investigation.Brown has not left it at that.He has been looking at the Epstein files in considerable detail and, in a long and powerful article for the New Statesman, he says it has led him to conclude that a much more extensive investigation is required.He says:What I discovered about the abuse of women by male predators and their enablers – and Britain’s as yet unacknowledged role – has shocked me to the core.

It demands an in-depth police investigation, and is by far the biggest scandal of all.It is time to listen to the proposals long argued for by the UK special envoy for women and girls, Harriet Harman, the minister for safeguarding, Jess Phillips, and the backbench champion of change, Natalie Fleet.They have for decades led the fight to address inequality, exploitation and gender-based violence and they rightly feel that a male culture has for too long failed to accord the priority these realities require.The Epstein files open our eyes to the sheer scale of the sex trafficking industry: the suffering of at least six million girls and women living in sexual slavery, whose plight has never been adequately addressed.I now see clearly that, despite all the warnings by women, there has been a monumental failure worldwide to execute the law even after the power to do so was set out in the Palermo Protocol 25 years ago, and given effect by Theresa May’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015.

Brown also says there is a specific need to investigate the part that Britain, and Britons, played in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.The Epstein emails, which record the visas issued, payments made and transport organised for girls and women trafficked across the world, suggest a number of British girls were on 90 Epstein flights organised from UK airports on what was called his “Lolita Express”.Among the many aspects that should sicken anyone looking at the emails is that 15 of these flights were given the go-ahead after his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.How the flights were allowed to continue should have been fully investigated.Epstein’s trafficking was a three-decades-long criminal enterprise, a far greater scandal than the Profumo affair.

Because of the scale of lawbreaking and the use of dirty money, these revelations far exceed those in various sleaze scandals throughout the 1980s and 1990s …The emails tell us in graphic detail how Epstein was able to use Stansted Airport – he boasted how cheap the airport charges were compared to Paris – to fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia,His messages link at least one to Britain and the former Prince Andrew,One email, headed “the girl”, described her as “just turned 18, 179cm, very cute, speaks English, I saw her in real 3 years ago… i will send you the video in next email”,Stansted was also where women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another; women arriving on private planes into Britain would not need British visas,It seems the authorities never knew what was happening: evidence the BBC has uncovered shows incomplete flight logs, with unnamed passengers simply labelled as “female”.

To this day, the names of many of the male passengers are unknown because their names were withheld.In short, British authorities had little or no idea who was being trafficked through our country, and for whom other than Epstein.Brown says the police should interview Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, at least about the Stansted link.But he says a wider investigatioin into the Epstein links with the UK is needed.Rape and sexual abuse in the UK should never become a second-order issue – and never on the pretext of an investigation in another jurisdiction.

The evidence suggests some in the UK were complicit in trafficking,This demands a full inquiry,Labour MPs have told Keir Starmer to appoint a woman as first secretary of state – a de factor deputy PM serving alongside the actual deputy PM, David Lammy – to oversee a “complete culture change” in Downing Street,Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has agreed that Keir Starmer can campaign for Labour in the Holyrood elections only days after calling for the prime minister to resign,(See 4.

01pm,)Keir Starmer’s former communications chief Matthew Doyle “did not give a full account of his actions” before being nominated for a peerage, the prime minister has told the Commons after it emerged Doyle had campaigned for a friend charged with possessing indecent images of children,The Liberal Democrats would replace the Treasury and Department for Business with a new department for growth, with the aim of creating a more cohesive and long-term economic vision for the UK, the party has said in a major policy move,Jewish activists have heckled Nigel Farage at the launch of a Jewish members’ organisation for Reform UK and accused the party of planning to use the new group as cover for persecuting other minorities,Pam Duncan-Glancy, the Scottish Labour MSP who had the whip withdrawn over her friendship with convicted sex offender Sean Morton, has hit out at her treatment, saying she is “deeply disappointed” at the party’s decision and “not yet clear” why they chose to do so now.

As Libby Brooks reports, describing Morton as “someone who grew up with me, and who is to all intents and purposes family”, Duncan-Glancy said: “I have never condoned his crimes and have always been clear that his actions were wrong.” Morton was, however, “someone requiring support”, Duncan-Glancy said.She said:My actions arise from loyalty and care.I was providing support to a highly vulnerable person.Loyalty and care are values that I think make me a good representative and for which I believe others know me for.

Duncan-Glancy, who joined Holyrood at the first permanent wheelchair user to do so, said that she would complete casework for my constituents in the remaining weeks until the end of this parliamentary term,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,Last week Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, wrote to the Metropolitan police urging it to open an investigation into Peter Mandelson and evidence that he leaked confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein when he was a minister,Later that day the Met confirmed they were starting a criminal investigation,Brown has not left it at that.

He has been looking at the Epstein files in considerable detail and, in a long and powerful article for the New Statesman, he says it has led him to conclude that a much more extensive investigation is required.He says:What I discovered about the abuse of women by male predators and their enablers – and Britain’s as yet unacknowledged role – has shocked me to the core.It demands an in-depth police investigation, and is by far the biggest scandal of all.It is time to listen to the proposals long argued for by the UK special envoy for women and girls, Harriet Harman, the minister for safeguarding, Jess Phillips, and the backbench champion of change, Natalie Fleet.They have for decades led the fight to address inequality, exploitation and gender-based violence and they rightly feel that a male culture has for too long failed to accord the priority these realities require.

The Epstein files open our eyes to the sheer scale of the sex trafficking industry: the suffering of at least six million girls and women living in sexual slavery, whose plight has never been adequately addressed.I now see clearly that, despite all the warnings by women, there has been a monumental failure worldwide to execute the law even after the power to do so was set out in the Palermo Protocol 25 years ago, and given effect by Theresa May’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015.Brown also says there is a specific need to investigate the part that Britain, and Britons, played in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.The Epstein emails, which record the visas issued, payments made and transport organised for girls and women trafficked across the world, suggest a number of British girls were on 90 Epstein flights organised from UK airports on what was called his “Lolita Express”.Among the many aspects that should sicken anyone looking at the emails is that 15 of these flights were given the go-ahead after his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.

How the flights were allowed to continue should have been fully investigated.Epstein’s trafficking was a three-decades-long criminal enterprise, a far greater scandal than the Profumo affair.Because of the scale of lawbreaking and the use of dirty money, these revelations far exceed those in various sleaze scandals throughout the 1980s and 1990s …The emails tell us in graphic detail how Epstein was able to use Stansted Airport – he boasted how cheap the airport charges were compared to Paris – to fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.His messages link at least one to Britain and the former Prince Andrew.One email, headed “the girl”, described her as “just turned 18, 179cm, very cute, speaks English, I saw her in real 3 years ago… i will send you the video in next email”.

Stansted was also where women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another; women arriving on private planes into Britain would not need British visas.It seems the authorities never knew what was happening: evidence the BBC has uncovered shows incomplete flight logs, with unnamed passengers simply labelled as “female”.To this day, the names of many of the male passengers are unknown because their names were withheld.In short, British authorities had little or no idea who was being trafficked through our country, and for whom other than Epstein.Brown says the police should interview Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, at least about the Stansted link.

But he says a wider investigatioin into the Epstein links with the UK is needed.Rape and sexual abuse in the UK should never become a second-order issue – and never on the pretext of an investigation in another jurisdiction.The evidence suggests some in the UK were complicit in trafficking.This demands a full inquiry.Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, has claimed that Keir Starmer ends the week in a “much stronger” position than when he started it.

In a phone-in on LBC, discussing the ramifications of a week that saw the surprise resignations of Starmer’s chief of staff and his communications director, and a call for him to stand down from the Scottish Labour leader, Powell said:I think Keir Starmer ends the week – or we’re nearly towards the end of the week – much stronger than how he started it,Actually I think what this week has shown … is that the vast majority of the parliamentary Labour party and the entire Cabinet are fully behind him and he has their full confidence,But Powell also admitted that the government would have to improve the way it operated,We’ve gone through that particular test, but we need to make sure that we are working in a more inclusive way, a more plural way, bringing all the talents to the government and taking people with us, and also I think for the public, show that we are onside, we are delivering for them, and that we’re really focused on the job in hand and we’re not distracted by ourselves,Powell is certainly right to say that Starmer’s position is more secure than it looked at lunchtime on Monday.

In response to the news that Anas Sarwar was calling for Starmetr to quit, all members of the cabinet, and the former deputy PM Angela Rayner, issued statements backing Starmer, meaning there was no prospect of a senior figure resigning to trigger a leadership contest.That risk has been averted – at least temporarily.But there are many MPs who believe than any reprieve for the PM is temporary.Hannay Al-Othman is the Guardian’s North of England correspondent.Greater Manchester police has concluded its investigation after Reform UK was reported for sending out a letter to voters in the Gorton and Denton byelection without the legally required imprint.

Dozens of voters in the Gorton and Denton constituency reported receiving letters at the end of last week and early this week from a pensioner called Patricia Clegg,The letters, which were printed in a handwriting-style font, do not include an imprint saying who they have been funded and distributed by, as required by electoral law,It expressed support for Reform, and contained critiques of the two main contenders in the seat, Labour and the Greens,A Reform spokesperson said last week that “an error occurred during the printing process” which meant the legal imprint was “inadvertently removed at the point of printing” without the party’s knowledge,Hardings Print Solutions, in Middlesex, which printed the letter, said it “took full responsibility” for the error.

A spokesperson for GMP confirmed that the investigation into the letters had now concluded,They said:Following an investigation into alleged imprint offences after a report made in Gorton, we have contacted all interested parties, including the Electoral Commission, to provide advice and guidance about promotional communications going forward,Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor,Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has agreed that Keir Starmer can campaign for Labour in the Holyrood elections only days after calling for the prime minister to resign,In a marked change of position, Sarwar said Starmer and other UK cabinet ministers were welcome to support Scottish Labour’s faltering bid to win the May election but only if they demonstrated how the UK government was improving lives in Scotland.

Two days ago Sarwar caused uproar by calling on Starmer to quit.In early January, Sarwar said he wanted the prime minister to “stay at their desks” in London avoid Scotland during the election campaign because of his deep unpopularity with voters.He said voters had been left “angry, frustrated and impatient” by the UK government’s repeated policy failures and missteps.Labour sources said Starmer had not been invited to Scottish Labour’s one day pre-election conference later this month.Pressed by reporters at Holyrood on Wednesday on how he could welcome Starmer and his cabinet allies to Scotland, after demanding he stand down, Sarwar said they were now welcome.

If “the prime minister and other ministers … want to come to Scotland and demonstrate that they’re delivering for Scotland by being a UK Labour government, that’s welcome,” he said,He went on:But in terms of the campaign, I am leading this campaign, I’m the candidate for first minister,Keir Starmer’s name is not on the ballot paper,My name is on the ballot paper,Scotland will have to choose between me and John Swinney [the Scottish National party leader and current first minister].

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, No 10 said Starmer would be campaigning in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood elections.Sarwar’s marked shift of stance only 48 hours after calling for Starmer to quit will fuel suspicions Sarwar is backing down after failing to get any significant shows of support from Labour MPs or any minister.While a majority of Scottish Labour’s 20 MSPs have openly endorsed Sarwar’s call for Starmer to quit, few Labour MPs have done so.Some Scottish ministers are furious at Sarwar’s intervention.One described it “as incredibly high risk and pretty foolish”, and likely to make things worse for Labour rather than improve it electoral chances.

Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, has urged both men to set aside their differences in a bid to act as peacemaker.Alexander is also a co-chair of Scottish Labour’s election campaign, so is now facing questions inside the party about how he can support Starmer yet work for Sarwar.Asked whether he still wanted Starmer to resign, Sarwar said he stuck by his remarks on Monday but refused to repeat them.Instead he used more conciliatory words about Starmer’s promises to Labour MPs this week he planned to change his approach.He said:I stated my view, I stand by that view, I welcome the fact that there is now general acceptance, that things have not been good enough, that there have been far too many mistakes, and things have to change.

I’m the one that’s put myself before the public in three months’ time.And people in Scotland deserve to know what my standards are, what I believe, what I’m willing to tolerate, and what I would do differently if I was elected as first minister.Jewish activists have heckled Nigel Farage at the launch of a Jewish members’ organisation for Reform UK and accused the party of planning to use the new group as cover for persecuting other minorities, Ben Quinn reports.Matt Goodwin, the Reform UK candidate in Gorton and Denton, has been criticised for refusing to take part in a hustings organised in the constituency last night.In a statement, he said that he would take part in other hustings, but that he did not think “a fair and level platform” would be offered to all candidates by Local Voices, the group organising last night’s.

As the Daily Mirror reports, Andrew Western, the MP running Labour’s campaign in the constituency, said:Matthew Goodwin’s dramatic last minute withdrawal from last night’s hustings just shows what we already know.He is a snowflake.And Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, posted this on social media.Reform politicians are happy to throw insults from a distance.But when it comes to debating their ideas? No show