Q: [From Peter Walker from the Guardian] Yesterday you backed what Nick Timothy said about the Ramadan event in Trafalgar Square.What was your objection to it? Yesterday your party said it was a segregation matter.This morning the party chair, Kevin Hollinrake, said it was a general point about prayer in public.But in an article this morning Timothy said this was a specific point about Islam.What is the party’s position?Badenoch says they are both right.

She says the Tories believe in freedom of religion.double quotation markBut this debate which Nick is having is not about freedom of religion.It is about how religion is expressed in a shared public space, and whether those expressions fit within the norms of British culture.She says Keir Starmer pulled out of an an event organised by the group that organised the Trafalgar Square event when he was opposition leader because they are “highly controversial”.He was “sucking up” to British Jews.

So his stance is “the mother of all hypocrisy”, she says.She says Timothy is a ‘“fantastic shadow justice spokesperson”.She says, as a woman from an ethnic minority, she is “very uncomortable seeing women pushed to the back in Trafalgar Square in an event which is exclusionary”.She says she is happy to see religious events in Trafalgar Square.But they have to be inclusive.

(Although this Badenoch is claiming that the Tories primarily objected to the Trafalgar Square prayer event because it involved gender segragation, Timothy did not mention this at all in his original tweet attacking the event as “an act of domination”, or in a subsequent defence of his stance,)Kemi Badenoch has backed her shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, after he claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public are intimidating and un-British, with Labour saying the Conservatives had embraced the “gutter” politics of prejudice,Speaking at an event in Scotland, where he was unveiling Reform UK’s manifesto for Scotland, Nigel Farage went even further in his support for Timothy’s position, claiming that what happened in Trafalgar Square on Monday was “a shock” and “an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”,(See 3,10pm.

)Some of the world’s poorest countries will lose out on UK aid that funds programmes such as schools and clinics, due to budget cuts set out by the foreign secretary,The NHS “teetered on the brink of collapse” during the Covid pandemic and only managed to survive thanks to the “superhuman” efforts of healthcare workers, an official inquiry has concluded,Nigel Farage has stopped using the personalised video platform Cameo after revelations that the Reform UK leader has filmed a string of highly questionable paid-for clips,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,Kemi Badenoch has said that people should be more willing to intervene physically to stop shoplifters.

In an interview with Times Radio, she said the failure of the public to intervene made shoplifters and other criminals “think that they can get away with it”.She added:double quotation markI know that there is now a tendency for people not to put themselves in harm’s way.But I also think that sometimes we need to send a message that this is not acceptable.Asked if she would be willing to do this personally, Badenoch, who is about 5ft 4in, replied:double quotation markI think it depends on how big they are.But yes, broadly, it would be my instinct.

I think people should look after their personal safety.I think those people who are stronger should do more.Some of the world’s poorest countries will lose out on UK aid that funds programmes such as schools and clinics, due to budget cuts set out by Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, Jessica Elgot and Patrick Wintour report.Here is the text of Cooper’s statement to MPs, here is the news release about it, and here is the equality impact assessment for the aid allocations.When Unite’s Sharon Graham said earlier today that she thought there would be a Labour leadership contest after the local elections, she was just saying out loud what MPs say in private.

(See 2.07pm.) Chris Bryant, the trade minister, did something similar this morning – suggesting that Donald Trump does not know what he is doing in Iran.In an interview on Sky News, Sophy Ridge asked Bryant if he know what the Americans were doing in Iran.Bryant replied:double quotation markNo.

You know, does he [Trump] know? I mean, it seems very, very confusing.Bryant said he spoke to one of his counterparts in the Gulf yesterday who told him: “I don’t know what [the Americans] doing.I simply don’t know what they’re doing.”Asked if he thought Trump had a plan when he entered the war, Bryant said:double quotation markWell, I think one of the reasons that Keir Starmer - and I think he showed exceptional leadership at this point – was saying, look, first of all, we’re not going to send British troops into a situation where they’re not protected legally because there’s no good legal argument for the war.Secondly, if you’re going to do anything, you’ve got to have a plan.

It just seems basic to me,Asked if he personally thought Trump had a plan, Bryant replied: “I don’t think there was a plan,”In his first statement to MPs after the war started, Starmer said the UK would only get involved in a military operation with “a viable, thought-through plan” – implying Trump did not have one,But he has avoided anything more explicit implying Trump has been clueless,Here is the clip.

🗣️ 'Did Trump have a plan before striking Iran?' - @SophyRidgeSky 🗣️ 'I don't think there was a plan...or if there is one, it is changing every single day.' - Minister for Trade @RhonddaBryant https://t.

co/D58l6XoPWX pic.twitter.com/Jk6ksH8BUSSeverin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.Nigel Farage described a Guardian reporter as “a loser” after being asked whether his activities on the video platform Cameo, selling reels to a convicted murderer, raised questions of trust.Farage had refused to take questions from the Guardian, the Record, the Daily Mail and the National newspapers during his press conference at the end of a three and a half hour-long rally and manifesto launch near Glasgow.

The Guardian approached the Reform UK leader after he left the stage, to ask him about his aspirations to be prime minister of the country, suggesting the “agencies and institutions charged with protecting our safety” would not be able to trust him if he was on Cameo selling messages on behalf of people like convicted criminals.Farage stepped closer, and to cut the question off replied: “You are a loser.”Asked why, he replied:double quotation markYou’re a loser.If I sell you a pair of shoes, do I check whether you were a murderer?He then walked off, flanked by Reform UK security.Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.

Reform UK has been accused of attempting to inflame community divisions after councillors on its flagship local authority in Kent declared an “illegal migration emergency.”All opposition councillors walked out and refused to vote for the declaration today by Kent county council.Nigel Farage’s party was accused of engaging in political maneuvering at the same time as the county was struggling with an unprecedented crisis surrounding the meningitis outbreak in Canterbury.Linden Kemkaran, the council leader, said:double quotation markThe fact is that in Kent we are facing an illegal immigration emergency that is impacting our residents’ lives not just in terms of cost, but in terms of safety, community cohesion, and pressure on housing and our public services.Alister Brady, a Labour councillor, said:double quotation markAs Canterbury faces an unprecedented and deeply distressing outbreak of meningitis, We are profoundly concerned that the Kent county council’s Reform leadership has chosen this moment to prioritise political manoeuvring over public safety.

At a time when families are grieving and residents across the district are anxious for clear, factual guidance, the Reform leadership has instead used council facilities to advance a pre-election political motion,This is an irresponsible and inappropriate act – one that undermines public trust and represents an abuse of power,The latest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out,It features Peter Walker and Lexy Topping talking about the Tories and Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square, Sadiq Khan’s comments about rejoining the EU and Angela Rayner’s career plans,And this is from Robert Hutton from the Critic on Kemi Badenoch’s comment at her press conference earlier about Britain’s tradition of religious tolerance.

(See 4,09pm,)double quotation mark1,Britain has very much *NOT* always tolerated minority faiths,Just ask Jews and Catholics.

2.The idea that religious expression should be “in conformity with our values, our norms, our beliefs” should worry every faith group, starting with Christians.These are from my colleague Peter Walker on Bluesky on Kemi Badenoch’s response to his question at her press conference this morning about Nick Timothy’s attack on Muslim’s praying in Trafalgar Square.(See 11.23am.

)double quotation markI got a question and asked Badenoch about Nick Timothy’s comments.She backed him but said it was because as the event, women were “pushed to the back”.Not clear if that is a reference to separate prayer, or to some other segregation - was there any other segregation?double quotation markThis is Badenoch’s answer to my question about why she agrees with Nick Timothy that the “Open Iftar” event in Trafalgar Square on Monday was wrong.Questions remain:• What does she mean by women “pushed to the back”? Men & women prayed separately but side by side..

....double quotation mark.

..and people who were there say there was no other separation.Photos from event show it was mixed, with non-Muslims also there.• Does Badenoch also believe the other 17 Open Iftar events this year, including at the National Gallery, Spurs ground and Silverstone, should not have happened?double quotation mark• This is apparently the sixth year the Open Iftar even took place on Trafalgar Square.

Did Badenoch object to any of the others?• What in particular about the event does not “fit within the norms of a British culture”,I’ve asked Badenoch’s people if they can respond,double quotation markCORRECTION: I was told men & women were side by side for prayer, but video shows it was a long, narrow area for prayer, and the men were in front, women behind,This seems to be Badenoch’s worry,Q: Do you regret dismissing the handgun ban introduced after the Dunblane massacre as “ludicrous”? (Ed Davey brought this up at PMQs recently, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Dunblane killings.

)Farage claimed that he was not opposed to all handgun restrictions.But he did think it was “ludicrous” that the British Olympic shooting team had to travel abroad to practice using handguns.He said that he thought the post-Dunblane laws should have made allowance for this.Q: What is your response to John Swinney saying Reform UK is racist?Farage says the Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to flourish in this country, even though it is banned in some Arab countries.It has a “dangerous agenda”, he says.

“They want to impose their way of life on us.”He claims that the event in Trafalgar Square on Monday was an example of something similar.(There is no evidence for this.The event in Trafalgar Square had nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.)He goes on to say that, since Tony Blair has been in power, whenever someone has tried to have a rational debate about immigration, there has been an “attempt to shut it down by screaming ‘racist’”.

double quotation markDo you know what? It doesn’t work anymore.No one’s listening.