The Downing Street lobby briefing was mostly taken up with questions about Venezuela,Here are the main points,The PM’s spokesperson did not contest the Times report claiming that, if the UN security council votes on a resolution criticising the US intervention in Venezuela, the UK will abstain,(See 12,11pm.

) The spokesperson confirmed that Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, will make a statement to MPs this afternoon about Venezuela and he suggested she would cover this point in her statement.The spokesperson claimed it was “hypothetical” to suggest, as Emily Thornberry did in her Westminter Hour interview, that the US move would encourage China or Russia to topple leaders that they don’t like.Asked if Thornberry had a point, the spokesperson said:I don’t think it’s massively helpful to get into hypothetical scenarios or make comparisons.We respect international law, and we expect countries to do the same.The spokesperson also declined to comment on Trump’s suggestions that he might seek to topple the regimes in power in Cuba or in Colombia.

Asked about these countries, the spokesperson said these were “hypotheticial scenarios”.When it was pointed out that Trump’s threats to these countries go beyond the hypothetical, the spokesperson replied:The UK’s position on this is clear.We respect international law and any soveriegn state that recognises international law must set out the legal basis for its decisions and actions.That is for the US to speak to.The spokesperson said that Cooper reiterated the UK’s support for international law when she spoke to Marco Rubio, her US counterpart, last night.

But the spokesperson would not say whether or not the government thinks the US did break international law,Asked about this, the spokesperson referred to what Mike Tapp, the migration minister, said this morning about the need for the US to justify its decision,(See 9,56am,) Asked again what the government thought, the spokesperson also said that there is a long-standing principle that governments don’t publish their internal legal advice.

Asked if there were any circumstances in which kidnapping the head of state of another country could be legal, the spokesperson said:We have long supported the transition of power away from Maduro.He’s an illegitimate president.We shed no tears about the end of his rule in Venezuela.The spokesperson repeated what Keir Starmer said this morning about the future of Greenland being a matter for Greenland and Denmark, not Trump.(See 12pm.

) But he said Nato countries agreed that they faced a threat from Russia in the Arctic.Nato was stepping up to respond, he said.The spokesperson ducked a question about whether a more “emboldened” US was good for global stability.Asked this, he just said the UK’s relationship with the US was extemely close.The spokesperson would not say whether the UK would withhold intelligence from the US if it had concerns about the Americans breaking international law.

Asked about this, he just said he would not comment on intelligence matters.Starmer has not yet spoken to Trump about the arrest of Maduro.But it is understood that they are likely to speak later this week, in a call mostly focused on Ukraine.Ministers have resisted calls from some opposition parties, and from some Labour MPs, who want the government to denounce the US raid on Venezuela leading to the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, or to declare it a breach of international law.Instead, while stressing their support for international law in principle, they have not said anything overtly critical of Donald Trump.

(See 10.28am and 1.01pm) Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, will shortly give a statement to MPs on the subject.Some Labour MPs, mostly from the left of the party, have said Starmer should be more outspoken.One of them, Steve Witherden, said:With a textbook case of American gangsterism, President Trump has brought back gunboat diplomacy.

Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Panama, it is anybody’s guess who might be next,The government’s response has been insufficient,The post-war order is in tatters, our foreign policy assumptions are outdated, and we need to realign,The only serious response is to pursue the closest possible relationship with our European neighbours,I would like the prime minister to say so.

Keir Starmer and senior ministers have been urged by Scottish Labour to “stay behind their doors” in Whitehall to avoid turning the next Holyrood election into a referendum on UK government failures.A Reform-led local authority has confirmed it is planning to increase council tax by the maximum allowed amount, despite promises during the local election to reduce taxes.Keir Starmer has been urged to abolish an “outdated” rule that limits the power of communities to prevent bookmakers and 24-hour slot machine shops from opening on high streets.As Kiran Stacey and Raphael Boyd reported before Christmas, some Labour MPs have been banned from their local pubs because publicans are so angry about the impact the budget will have on the hospitality sector.They report:After a difficult few years in which pubs have been hit by high costs, the pandemic and the impact of younger people going out less, publicans were optimistic this budget might bring some relief – specifically with a long-promised revamp of business rates.

But the chancellor poured cold water on those hopes, choosing instead to reduce headline rates and commit £4.3bn over three years in financial support for the retail and hospitality industries.It may have seemed a gesture of goodwill, but the value of that support package has been dwarfed by the impact of a three-yearly property revaluation that has caused the taxable value of pubs and restaurants to spike from their Covid-affected lows.Starting from next April, rates will rise by 115% for the average hotel and 76% for a pub, compared with 4% for large supermarkets and 7% for distribution warehouses.Whitbread, which owns pubs, restaurants and the Premier Inn hotel chain, says it will have to pay between £40m and £50m in tax as a result.

In an interview with LBC today, asked if there would by any extra help for pubs, Keir Starmer said this was being considered,He explained:With business rates, obviously, what’s happened is there were reductions in place during Covid which were always going to be unwound at some point,The overall rates are going to be lower, but I accept that because of re-evaluation, that means that some will have their bills going up,We’re putting in place transitional relief,We’re talking to the sector, particularly hospitality and pubs, about what further support we can put in, whether that’s licencing freedoms or other measures.

We want to talk to the sector.I want to keep working with them to make sure we can work this through.YouGov has released polling suggesting that Britons disapprove of the US rendition of Nicolás Maduro, by a margin of more than two to one.Some 51% disapprove either completely (34%) or somewhat (17%), and only 21% of people approve either completely (8%) or somewhat (13%).But voters are much more split over whether the government should condemn the US operation (32%) or neither praise nor condemn it (34%), suggesting that there is more public support for Keir Starmer’s equivocation (see 10.

28am and 1.01pm) than some of the comments from critics imply.Peers have inflicted their first defeat against the government over the controversial UK handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, PA Media reports.PA says:The House of Lords backed by 132 votes to 124 – a majority of 8 – a demand led by former military chiefs that payments linked to the contentious transfer deal would cease if the military base on Diego Garcia could no longer be used.The UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120m annually during the 99-year agreement to lease back the site, a total cost in cash terms of at least £13bn.

The government, however, estimates the bill will be lower at around £101m a year while critics argue it will be much higher,The UN security council is not voting on a resolution relating to Venezuela today,The government is still not saying what it will do if there is a vote on a resolution critical of the US action in the future, although it has hinted it would not support such a move,(See 1,01pm.

)At the United Nations security council, James Kariuki, the UK’s deputy ambassador to the UN, has just delivered a short speech in a debate on Venezuela.He was not critical of the US intervention, and he suggested that Nicolás Maduro was to blame for his own fate.But he did confirm that the UK remains committed to the rule of law.He said:The Venezuelan people have suffered for years.This council now meets at a pivotal moment for Venezuela’s future.

Maduro’s actions created extreme levels of poverty, violent repression and failing basic services.His regime’s rule precipitated a displacement crisis affecting the whole region.The United Kingdom has long been clear that Maduro’s claim to power was fraudulent.To date, Venezuela’s national electoral council has failed to publish the full results of the July 2024 presidential elections and independent domestic and international reports also observed significant irregularities and a lack of transparency.The United Kingdom wants to see a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people.

They deserve a government with which reflects their vote at the ballot box and delivers a more stable, prosperous future for all Venezuelans.Finally, the United Kingdom reaffirms its commitment to international law and the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.These foundations are essential for maintaining global peace, security and the rule of law.The Liberal Democrats are calling for the release of any internal government legal advice about the legality of the American operation that led to the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela until he was flown to the US in handcuffs on Saturday.This is from Calum Miller, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson.

Trump’s interventions in Venezuela are surely in violation of international law – yet our tight-lipped prime minister is refusing to call that out.Rather than give the British public the information they deserve about such a brazen attack by the president of the United States, Downing Street is giving him cover by pleading the fifth.That’s the wrong approach.The government must release any legal advice they hold on whether or not President Trump has broken international law.If he has, the British people deserve to know.

In fact, as Geraldine McElvie writes in this explainer, it is already fairly obvious, to voters who are curious about this, whether or not the raid was legal,Geraldine says:The experts the Guardian spoke to agreed that the US is likely to have violated the terms of the UN charter, which was signed in October 1945 and designed to prevent another conflict on the scale of the second world war,A central provision of this agreement – known as article 2(4) – rules that states must refrain from using military force against other countries and must respect their sovereignty,Geoffrey Robertson KC, a founding head of Doughty Street Chambers and a former president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone, said the attack on Venezuela was contrary to article 2(4) of the charter,“The reality is that America is in breach of the United Nations charter,” he added.

“It has committed the crime of aggression, which the court at Nuremberg described as the supreme crime, it’s the worst crime of all.”Elvira Domínguez-Redondo, a professor of international law at Kingston University, described the operation as a “crime of aggression and unlawful use of force against another country”.Susan Breau, a professor of international law and a senior associate research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, agreed that the attack could have only been considered lawful if the US had a resolution from the UN security council or was acting in self-defence.“There is just no evidence whatsoever on either of those fronts,” Breau said.Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has said suggested that Keir Starmer cannot claim to be a genuine supporter of international law.

Commenting on a clip of Starmer dodging a question about whether the US rendition of Nicolás Maduro was in breach of international law, Polanski said:The more Starmer insists he’s “long been an advocate for international law”, the more hollow it sounds.This isn’t ignorance.It’s a choice - made with eyes wide open.Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has urged Scots not to treat this year’s Holyrood elections as a referendum on the UK government.In a speech this morning, he said that he knew Scottish people were “angry, frustrated and impatient with the pace of change at Westminster”.

He went on:I do believe that no Labour government at Westminster, however well intentioned, principled or capable, could have undone the damage of two decades in just two years,The UK Labour government has many meaningful achievements which they need to shout louder about, but it is also fair to say that they haven’t got everything right,And there are many challenges they still must confront,I get it,I don’t just see it.

I feel it across Scotland.I know the prime minister and the UK Labour government are not popular with the public right now.So, I am not running to be Scotland’s first minister in denial of that truth.I am running to be Scotland’s first minister in defiance of it.Sarwar said he had a message for his fellow Scots