The Times is reporting that Donald Trump issued his latest diatribe about the UK’s Chagos Islands deal (see 9,34am) because Keir Starmer is not letting the US use Diego Garcia to bomb Iran,In their story, Oliver Wright, George Grylls and Geraldine Scott say:double quotation markThe White House is drawing up detailed military plans for a strike against Iran involving the use of both Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which is home to America’s fleet of heavy bombers in Europe,Under the terms of long-standing agreements with Washington, these bases can only be used for military operations that have been agreed in advance with the government,The Times understands that the UK is yet to give permission for the US to use the bases in the event that Trump orders a strike on Iran, owing to concerns that it would be a breach of international law which makes no distinction between a state carrying out the attack and those in support if the latter have “knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act”.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has accused Trump of bullying the UK, and called for MPs to get a vote on the use of UK bases by US forces.double quotation markIt’s now clear Donald Trump is trying to bully the government into letting the US use UK bases like Diego Garcia to pursue unilateral military action.Keir Starmer needs to stand strong and give parliament a vote on the use of UK bases by US forces.A Lib Dem source said that Davey is proposing letting the Commons vote on any decision to let the US launch a military attack from a British base – not a more general vote on removing the Americans for good from UK military bases.Keir Starmer is reportedly refusing to allow Donald Trump to send US bombers to attack Iran from British bases, including Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.

That is said to be the reason for Trump’s latest attack on the Chagos Islands deal.The government has not denied the reports, and issued a statement saying: “As routine, we do not comment on operational matters.” The Conservatives say Stamer should let Trump use British bases to attack Iran, while the Liberal Democrats have accused Trump of trying to bully the UK, and say MPs should get a vote on any proposal to let the US launch bombing raids from British bases.(See 4.40pm.

)Keir Starmer has appointed Antonia Romeo as the cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, and praised her drive and professionalism.Children with a legal right to special needs support will face a review when they move to secondary school, with the first cohort to be affected currently in key stage 1, the Guardian understands.Reform UK’s plans to repeal the Equality Act are “shocking” and un-British, Keir Starmer has said, warning legislation that has provided decades of protection for women would be ripped up.Global Counsel, the advisory firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, is to collapse into administration, blaming the “maelstrom” caused by revelations about the former peer’s relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.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.

Robert Jenrick, the new Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, sent a copy of his economy speech yesterday to his former Tory colleague, George Osborne, the former chancellor revealed on his Political Currency podcast.He was keen to get Osborne’s approval.And Osborne told him he did agree with the policies in the speech – but not any of Reform UK’s other ones.Ben Bloch from Sky News has posted the exchange.double quotation markRobert Jenrick texted a copy of his speech on the economy to George Osborne after he gave it yesterday, the former chancellor reveals on @polcurrency.

Reform’s new Treasury spokesperson said he hopes Osborne will “approve” of it.Jenrick wrote in full: “George, trust you’re well.Here’s a copy of a speech I gave today on the economy.“It commits to the OBR and to fiscal responsibility, which I hope you will approve of.”Osborne responded on his podcast: “I say yes, I do.

Although I’m not sure I approve of much else in the Reform programme.”The Conservative party has also responded to the Times story.(See 4.40pm.) They say Keir Starmer should let the Americans launch a bombing attack against Iran from Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said:double quotation markIran’s nuclear programme has been a grave threat to Britain and our allies,That is why Conservatives supported the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last summer,Iran must never obtain a nuclear bomb,While speculative, if the US judges that further action is needed to deal with that specific threat, and if again we believe such action is in our national interest and to protect vital UK security interests, then we should grant the use of our bases if and where required, including RAF bases in the UK, and Diego Garcia,The Times is reporting that Donald Trump issued his latest diatribe about the UK’s Chagos Islands deal (see 9.

34am) because Keir Starmer is not letting the US use Diego Garcia to bomb Iran.In their story, Oliver Wright, George Grylls and Geraldine Scott say:double quotation markThe White House is drawing up detailed military plans for a strike against Iran involving the use of both Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which is home to America’s fleet of heavy bombers in Europe.Under the terms of long-standing agreements with Washington, these bases can only be used for military operations that have been agreed in advance with the government.The Times understands that the UK is yet to give permission for the US to use the bases in the event that Trump orders a strike on Iran, owing to concerns that it would be a breach of international law which makes no distinction between a state carrying out the attack and those in support if the latter have “knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act”.Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has accused Trump of bullying the UK, and called for MPs to get a vote on the use of UK bases by US forces.

double quotation markIt’s now clear Donald Trump is trying to bully the government into letting the US use UK bases like Diego Garcia to pursue unilateral military action,Keir Starmer needs to stand strong and give parliament a vote on the use of UK bases by US forces,A Lib Dem source said that Davey is proposing letting the Commons vote on any decision to let the US launch a military attack from a British base – not a more general vote on removing the Americans for good from UK military bases,Plaid Cymru has announced that it is dropping its target to achieve net zero carbon emissions in Wales by 2035,As the BBC reports, Plaid backed this target in 2021 and reaffirmed it in its manifesto at the last general election.

But Rhun ap Iorwerth, the party’s leader, told Radio Wales:double quotation markI think most people now can see that 2035 isn’t realistic.We are very, very close.Time rolls by, and we have to take a pragmatic look at that.I think everything points to needing to be a point in the future where we need to keep an eye on the prize.The lastest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out.

It features Kiran Stacey and Peter Walker taking about the Reform UK press conference on Tuesday, and the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary and it’s here,Peter was at the Reform press conference and, as well as discussing what Nigel Farage’s response to a question from the FT journalist Anna Gross tells us about his attitude to women, he reveals that what happened when he spoke to Farage about it afterwards,Peter says they met near the lift as they both left the building once the press conference was over and Peter, who has known Farage for quite a while, told him that what he had said to Gross was rude,Farage didn’t accept that,Peter then said what Farage said had been upsetting for Gross, and at that point Farage replied: “Good.

”Reform UK has said, if it forms a government, it will appoint three cabinet secretary-type figures – instead of just having one.Danny Kruger, who is head of Reform’s preparing for government unit, set out the plan in a statement responding to the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary.Reform’s main plan for the civil service involves slashing civil service jobs.But Kruger argues that new posts need to be created in Downing Street because, under the current system, the cabinet secretary has three roles anyway.He says:double quotation markThe cabinet secretary currently does three distinct jobs: operational management of the cabinet and cabinet committees; leadership of the 500,000-strong civil service; and chief adviser to the prime minister.

This is far too much executive responsibility for a single civil servant, and helps explain the chronic bureaucracy and misgovernment of Britain.Under a Reform government these three roles will be fulfilled by three different people …Separating these roles and putting the right people into them is a vital precondition for restoring good government to Britain.This idea has been tried before.When David Cameron was PM, in 2012 he appointed Bob Kerslake to be head of the civil service, while Jeremy Heywood was cabinet secretary.The experiment was not judged a success and, when Kerslake left, Heywood took over the head of the civil service role and the two jobs were again combined.

The only person in recent years to have used the title chief adviser to the prime minister was Dominic Cummings, who worked for Boris Johnson.That was because he declined to accept the job of chief of staff.But in practice he was chief of staff, and the job described by Kruger is one that has been done for most of the last 30 years by Downing Street political aides with the chief of staff title.Gus O’Donnell, a former cabinet secretary, has defended Antonia Romeo in the face of claims that she has bullied staff in the past.Romeo was appointed to O’Donnell’s old job despite the fact that she faced accusations of bullying relating to her time as consul general in New York in 2017.

There was an investigation, but Romeo was cleared.Speaking on Radio 4’s the World at One, O’Donnell welcomed Romeo’s appointment as “excellent”.Asked specifically about the allegations of bullying, and whether he thought “a tough approach” would be welcome in that job, he replied:double quotation markI’m always in favour – and I think I’m there with the vast bulk of civil servants – that actually we need to do better at managing performance.I think we’ve been possibly too soft – all of those really hard-working civil servants who are finding they’re alongside someone who’s actually maybe being paid more and is just coasting, then I’m all for us, yes, being a bit tougher, to be honest.O’Donnell was also asked about a report saying that in 2017 Romeo had repaid travel expenses that she had claimed relating to the time in New York.

He replied:double quotation markAll of us along the way will make mistakes.They have investigated all of these things.When you get to the top of the civil service, you have to make tough decisions.You have to deal with difficult areas.I remember starting a survey in the civil service when we looked at the issues around the civil service, and the biggest thing the civil service said was what we are bad at is handling poor performance.

So we do need someone who’s going to be quite robust in that and a reformer.And I think in Antonio will get that.O’Donnell also said in some respects Romeo was better qualified for the job than he was.double quotation markWe have now a permanent secretary who has done something [where] actually I had a gap in my CV, which was not doing delivery enough.I was very much a policy wonk, let’s be honest.

And now we’ve got someone who’s actually proved that she’s really good at policy and really good at delivery,The Conservative party has out a statement about the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary,This is from Neil O’Brien, the shadow minister for policy renewal and development,double quotation markIn light of the shambles over the appointment of Peter Mandelson and the peerage given to Matthew Doyle, the government needs to spell out precisely what due diligence was undertaken of this new cabinet secretary,There remain serious unanswered questions over why Sir Chris Wormald left government, and whether this was an attempt by 10 Downing Street to muzzle the response to parliament’s humble address on the Epstein-Mandelson files.

The claim that Wormald was forced out because Keir Starmer feared that he would collaborate with a Labour attempt to suppress the publication of Mandelson documents required under the humble address tabled by the Tories is a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence.It is surprising that O’Brien seems to be taking it seriously.In truth, sources had been briefing about Starmer wanting to replace Wormald for months.The immediate trigger for his departure was the resignation of Morgan McSweeney as the PM’s chief of staff, which created an opportunity for wholesale change in the leadership at the top of Downing Street.Reform UK’s plans to repeal the Equality Act are “shocking” and un-British, Keir Starmer has said, warning legislation that has provided decades of protection for women would be ripped up.

Jamie Grierson has the story,Ben Judah, an adviser to David Lammy when Lammy was foreign secretary, has explained in an interview with the Sun’s Harry Cole in some detail why the government signed the Chagos Islands deal,He told Cole’s YouTube TV show it was all about protecting the US/UK base on Diego Garcia, one of the main islands in the territory,Judah said:double quotation markIf I told you the full amount, or even half or even a quarter of what happens on that base, I would be taken away to HMP Gartree under the Official Secrets Act,It’s a really, really important base.

Once you know what it does, you start to get into this logic of, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to do everything possible to make sure that this space stays ours for the next 10, 50, 100 years, everything possible.’And then you look at map.It’s not just one island called Diego Garcia.That would make life a lot easier.There are 1,000 atols – a huge area of the earth that they’re covering.

And the American deep state …,They were looking at that map and going, ‘We really have a problem here,’ The Brits’ legal position, for lawfare reasons, historic reasons, campaigning reasons, is collapsing,They are very close – we could argue about how many court cases close – but close to that legal position collapsing completely, and the international community saying that’s occupied territory that belongs to Mauritius,And then what happens to all of those other islands in this new great game? All it would take would be for Mauritius, broken with the West, to invite China into any one of those atolls.

And how the hell do we get them out?That’s the logic that the US military found itself in, that the American deep state, the CIA and the people like that, were in; wouldn’t it be better if there was some kind of deal where everything changes so everything stays the same, so what really matters – which is an exclusion zone around [the Diego Garcia base] – is rock solid?Asked if the deal would survive, Judah said:double quotation markTo use hospital terminology, I don’t think it is quite ‘not for resusc’, but it’s looking tricky for the government to get this deal through in the weeks and months ahead.President Trump’s made his views clear several times about this.The Tories have claimed that Keir Starmer is “panicking” about his Chagos Islands deal.Responding to a report saying the goverment is delaying the next Lords debate on the Diego Garcia military base and British Indian Ocean Territory bill (see 11.02am), Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said:double quotation markThe government may say it will ‘pause for thought’, but the truth is that Starmer is panicking as his Chagos plan is blown wide open