We don’t yet know the extent of the government U-turn shortly to be announced related to business rates for pubs and other parts of the hospitality sector,(See 2,24pm,)But Kemi Badenoch is already saying it is “too little, too late”,In a post on social media, she says:Yesterday Keir Starmer told us Labour had ‘turned a corner.

’Well, it looks like they’ve turned the corner straight into their first u-turn of 2026.Labour are killing Britain’s pubs.This rumoured U-turn is too little too late.It’s time to back our local pubs.And Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said:Just a month on and the budget is already falling apart.

Labour were wrong to attack pubs and now have been forced into another screeching U-turn as Kemi called for just this morning.But this humiliating about-face appears to do nothing for shops, restaurants, hotels and markets which all face a more than 50% increase.With no detail provided, this is not the stability Rachel Reeves promised – it is a recipe for economic disaster.Only the Conservatives have a strong leader with a clear plan to stand up for business by cutting business rates for thousands of local high-street firms.Ministers are preparing to U-turn over changes to business rates for pubs after a wave of disquiet from the hospitality industry, the Guardian has been told.

Nigel Farage has been accused by a cabinet minister of “parroting Kremlin lines” after saying that he would vote against any UK government plans to deploy the military in Ukraine,Keir Starmer and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, have agreed that Nato should improve efforts to deter Russian aggression in the Arctic,They spoke by phone about Ukraine, and Greenland, and in its readout, No 10 said:The prime minister thanked Prime Minister Frederiksen for her strong support at the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Paris on Tuesday,Coalition partners had made good progress in Paris, the leaders agreed,Turning to Denmark, the prime minister reiterated his position on Greenland.

Both leaders agreed on the importance of deterring Russian aggression in the High North and that Nato should step up in the area to protect Euro-Atlantic interests,The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon,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,Shortly before Christmas the government announced that 63 councils in England where elections were due to be held in May will be given the option of delaying them,These are all council areas affected by local government reorganisation (new unitary councils are being set up in places where people still elect a county council to manage some services, and a district council to manage others) and the government is responding to claims that postponing the elections will free up resources needed for the reorganisations.

The Daily Telegraph has been calling round to find out which of the 63 councils will request a delay, and which won’t.The final decision will be taken by ministers, but they have said they will be minded to allow elections to be postponed if councils request that.And the Telegraph has produced this chart showing showing what the current plans are.The results show that that councils are divided, with eight of them surveyed saying they will delay elections, but 19 saying they will let elections going ahead.The others have not decided yet.

But, highlighting the fact that Tory and Lib Dem-led councils seem more committed to elections going ahead than the Labour ones, the Telegraph has written up the story with the intro: “Labour is poised to postpone elections in 22 areas as Reform UK continues to ride high in the polls,”Kemi Badenoch has said she “instinctively” does not support the government plans to reduce the drink-drive limit in England and Wales,In an interview with LBC, she did not firmly come out against the plans,But she said:I am concerned about these proposals,They seem to have come out of nowhere.

I was not expecting them,So I’m going to look at it very closely,Instinctively, I don’t think that this is what Labour should be focusing on,They need to actually focus on getting the economy working,But we’re going to look at them closely.

In the Commons this afternoon, replying to the ministerial statement on the road safety strategy, Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, said that, while all MPs would regard drink-driving as “totally unacceptable”, he hoped the government would reflect on what happened when the limit was reduced in Scotland.He said there was no “clear evidence of improved road safety outcomes” after the law was tightened there.He went on:The [Department for Transport] has not even made an assessment of the impact on the economic viability of pubs in Scotland as a result of the changes that have happened already up there.Changing the limit legal limit alone will not change behaviour and any reform must be based on a thorough examination of the evidence and the impacts, and not on attempts to look tough.Yesterday Lilian Greenwood, a transport minister, said there are independent academic reports showing that cutting the drink-drive limit in Scotland only had a minimal impact on pubs.

These are from Sky’s Rob Powell on the forthcoming business rates concessions for pubs.Government sources have confirmed that a U-turn of sorts is coming, but details have not been announced.Speculation that the business rates climbdown will involve either upping the multiplier discount or increasing the transitional discount.Flashpoint emerging over who gets it though - just pubs? What about restaurants that sell booze? Or hotels with a bar? Or resorts?And what happens in the long-term?Hospitality settings have more deep-rooted concerns about the valuation process.Will the watering down come with a promise to look at broader reform ahead of the next valuation date?But groups representing other parts of the hospitality sector have complained that, on the basis of what is being briefed today, the rescue package will focus wholly or mainly on pubs.

Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, said:The suggestion that this is ‘just pubs’ is misleading and frustrating.Pubs are important, but they are only one part of the nightlife ecosystem.Casinos, nightclubs, theatres, bars, and live music venues all rely on each other to thrive.These business rates increases - averaging 76%, with some doubling or more - put the entire sector at risk.If these venues fail, we lose jobs, culture, and vital infrastructure that makes the UK a world-leading destination for nightlife.

And Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment), another trade body, said:If the government is preparing a U-turn on business rates for pubs, it must not leave live events and arenas behind,From grassroots venues to arenas, operators are already facing increases of up to 400%, putting venues of every size under severe financial strain, risking closures and driving higher ticket prices for fans,Live events are a major driver of the hospitality economy,Data from the National Arenas Association shows that for every 10,000 people attending a live show, at least £1 million is spent locally in restaurants, bars, hotels, shops and transport,Excluding music venues from any relief would be a serious oversight.

The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) has welcomed the news that a U-turn of some sort is on the way relating to business rates for pubs.Its CEO, Andy Slee, said:It’s welcome news that the government appears to have finally accepted that vital changes are necessary to help our much loved community pubs.The planned alterations to business rates would have had a devasting impact on our pubs and breweries.While common sense seems to have prevailed, it is essential that the government now acts in good faith to ease this financial pressure in the short term and reassure the sector that a meaningful long term solution to business rates will be sought alongside a proper plan to maintain our pubs into the future.Chris Osuh is a Guardian community affairs correspondent.

Ministers have been urged by campaigners not to allow “charged rhetoric around race” and the rise of the populist Reform UK party derail plans to tackle the country’s ethnicity pay gaps.A letter sent to equalities minister Seema Malhotra, seen by the Guardian, raises concerns about “ongoing silence” from government on plans to make it mandatory for employers with more than 250 staff to reveal whether white and non-disabled staff are paid more than black, minority ethnic and disabled employees, in the same way that employers have to report gender pay gaps.A call for evidence on the proposed new law closed in June, but ministers have yet to report back, or formally publish the draft equality (race and disability) bill, which was expected to include the proposed measures.Malhotra has previously described the plans as part of the government’s “absolute” commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) fairness principles.Nigel Farage’s Reform party, currently leading in the polls, has said it will scrap diversity roles from councils, while the Blue Labour faction of the governing Labour party has urged ministers to “root out DEI” to win over Reform voters.

The letter to Malhotra, sent by Noreen Biddle Shah, founder of the equalities thinktank Reboot on behalf of the Ethnicity Pay Gap Steering Committee - a coalition of campaigners, businesses non-profit organisations and investors - said it was now “well beyond the point” when the findings were “widely expected … yet there has been no update, no publication of outcomes, and no clarity on next steps,”The letter added:It is reasonable to ask whether the lack of movement on long-awaited legislation is being shaped by concern about political pushback, particularly at a time when the rhetoric around race has become more charged and the popularity of Reform has grown,But our research shows something very clear: despite heightened social tension, the public still overwhelmingly supports transparency and fairness at work,A survey conducted by Opinium for Reboot found 56% of UK adults support mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers, with only 9% opposed, while 42% believe pay differences exist between workers of different ethnic backgrounds doing similar work, with only 27% believing there are none,Over a third believe closing the ethnicity pay gap would benefit the UK economy (36%) and half that it would improve fairness in the workplace (51%).

January 8 marks “Ethnicity Pay Gap Day”, highlighting the work of campaigners, with billboards erected in south London and north Manchester to raise awareness,Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, said the government should announce its full plans to support the hospitality industry today,She said:This is literally the last chance saloon for our treasured pubs and high streets - so the government must U-turn, today,These businesses are worried sick, making decisions now, and can’t wait a minute longer,Ministers must give them the clarity they so desperately need so businesses don’t go to the wall, hollowing our communities, in the coming days.

(Cooper points out she won a pub parliamentarian of the year award in 2024 for her campaigning on behalf of the industry.)Keir Starmer has said that “all options” are on the table for the government in its quest to get Elon Musk’s social media platform X to stop its Grok AI tool allowing users to produced sexualised deepfake images of women and children.In an interview with Greatest Hits Radio, Starmer said:It’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s not to be tolerated.X has got to get a grip of this and Ofcom have [our] full support to take action in relation to this.This is wrong, it’s unlawful, we are not going to tolerate it.

I have asked for all options to be on the table,It’s disgusting and X need to get their act together and get this material down,In his interview Starmer did not elaborate on what he meant by “all options” being on the table,Ofcom, the media regulator, has already said it is urgently contacting X to establish what it is doing to deal with the problem,X says it is taking action to remove illegal content, but there have been reports that the problem persists.

The Online Safety Act is supposed to tackle harmful content online, but the main provisions have only recently come into force and some of the provisions have yet to be tested in law,As the Guardian reported earlier this week, while the creation of images involving children with their clothes removed is already illegal, the law surrounding the creation of deepfakes of adults is more complicated,UK campaigners succeeded in passing legislation last June that make it illegal to both create and request the creation of intimate images without a person’s consent, but the relevant provisions have yet to be implemented, meaning that the legislation is not currently enforceable,We don’t yet know the extent of the government U-turn shortly to be announced related to business rates for pubs and other parts of the hospitality sector,(See 2.

24pm.)But Kemi Badenoch is already saying it is “too little, too late”.In a post on social media, she says:Yesterday Keir Starmer told us Labour had ‘turned a corner.’Well, it looks like they’ve turned the corner straight into their first u-turn of 2026.Labour are killing Britain’s pubs.

This rumoured U-turn is too little too late.It’s time to back our local pubs.And Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said:Just a month on and the budget is already falling apart.Labour were wrong to attack pubs and now have been forced into another screeching U-turn as Kemi called for just this morning.But this humiliating about-face appears to do nothing for shops, restaurants, hotels and markets which all face a more than 50% increase.

With no detail provided, this is not the stability Rachel Reeves promised – it is a recipe for economic disaster.Only the Conservatives have a strong leader with a clear plan to stand up for business by cutting business rates for thousands of local high-street firms.Ministers are preparing to U-turn over changes to business rates for pubs after a wave of disquiet from the hospitality industry, Peter Walker reports.Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has given his implicit support for the UK-backed seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker by US forces on Wednesday, after being questioned about the use of a Scottish state-owned airport by US military aircraft.

The leftwing Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba pressed Swinney during first minister’s questions about whether Wick John O’Groats airport was “being used as the staging post to violate international law”,Flight data showed three US special forces Pilatus U-28A Draco intelligence and surveillance aircraft landed at the airport, which is owned by Highland and Islands Airports (HIA), before heading to Iceland,Swinney said he distinguished that operation from President Trump’s attacks on Venezuela earlier this week, which the first minister said he did not believe respected international law,While neither he nor HIA knew whether the US military aircraft that used the airport took part in the seizure of the Marinera, he said he totally supported military operations to shore up the sanctions regime against Russia,He told MSPs:Firstly, [this] is, of course, a matter that is reserved to the United Kingdom government.

And secondly, where sanctions are applied and if they’re applied in relation to Russia, I am a firm supporter of those sanctions being enforced.Because there is no point in applying sanctions to governments that ignore international law, that undermine the rule of law, that invade independent countries in the way that Russia has invaded Ukraine, without taking action where those sanctions are applied.And on that point of principle, all I’m happy to set out the Scottish government’s position.Scottish state-owned airports, particularly Prestwick in Ayrshire which is close to President Trump’s Turnberry golf resort, are regularly used by the US military (and in the past by the space agency Nasa), for flight refuelling and aircrew stop-overs, to the dismay of critics of US foreign policy.Those stops have involved live military operations in the past, raising tensions for the Scottish National party too, which has in the past rejected Nato membership for Scotland