Donald Trump has claimed that the UK’s two aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are little better than “toys”.The president hit out as he spoke on camera at the start of a cabinet meeting in the White House.In a rambling address, that covered a range of subjects, Trump revived his complaint about the UK not offering military help with the Iran war.He said that Nato had done “absolutely nothing” to support the US and he went on:double quotation markNow they all want to help.When they’re annihilated, the other side is annihilated, they said ‘we’d love to send ships’.

Actually made a statement, a couple of them, that ‘we want to get involved when the war is over’.No, it’s supposed to get involved with the war’s beginning, or even before it begins.We had the UK say that ‘we’ll send’ – this is three weeks ago – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’, which aren’t the best aircraft carriers by the way.They’re toys compared to what we have.But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’.

I said ‘oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much.Don’t bother.We don’t need it’.This is not the first time Trump has claimed that the UK has offered to send aircraft carriers to the Gulf.Downing Street has said this is not true.

On Monday, asked about Trump’s repeated insults about the UK recently, Starmer said he thought they were designed to put pressure on him.He told MPs that he had chosen to respond just by focusing on doing his job and acting in the national interest.Donald Trump has dismissed British warships as “toys” in his latest jibe at Nato countries for their lack of involvement in the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.Speaking at the White House on Thursday, he claimed he had told the UK: “Don’t bother, we don’t need it.”The SNP, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives have all launched their campaigns for the Holyrood election.

Keir Starmer has said he will tackle “addictive features” in social media amid increasing signs the UK government is preparing to crack down on risks to children after a US court verdict that held Meta and YouTube responsible for harms caused by designing addictive technology.Downing Street has said it is “categorically untrue” to suggest that there was a link between Morgan McSweeney’s phone being stolen and the humble address motion passed by MPs saying messages with Peter Mandelson would have to be exchanged.(See 12.28pm.)The UK government has said it will ban trail hunting, the rural sport that police and animal rights activists have long accused of being a “smokescreen” for illegal foxhunting.

The government has announced the formal start of the promised official inquiry into the violent policing at the Orgreave coking plant during the 1984-85 miners’ strike and the discredited prosecutions of 95 men that followed.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.Almost 900 former members of the Afghan special forces have been given a path to resettlement in the UK after a government review of previously rejected cases, the Press Association reports.In a written ministerial statement, Luke Pollard, a defence minister, announced 884 decisions, affecting ex-soldiers from two elite units known as the “Triples”, had been overturned.They will be eligible to stay in Britain under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap), subject to visa checks.

In his Q&A in the White House earlier, Donald Trump insisted that the Iran war would not stop the king’s state visit to the US taking place next month,In the UK some politicians say it should be cancelled, or postponed,Asked if the war would affect plans for the trip, Trump replied:Trump insisted the King’s state visit would go ahead,double quotation markNo,He’s going to be here very soon, as you know, we’re going have a state dinner.

It’s going be great.Britain has paid more than £25bn to the European Union since it left in 2020, the Treasury has revealed in a report published today.As part of the withdrawal agreement, the UK agreed to cover liabilities accruing from commitments made when it was a member and this meant a promise to pay some costs going ahead, according to an agreed formula.The government publishes a report every year saying what these payments have been and today says £25.7bn has been paid since the EU left.

The report says the final value of the payments made to the EU under the withdrawal agreement is expected to be £30.9bn.But it also says this is lower than the orginal estimate of the cost, which was put at between £35bn and £39bn.Fuel poverty fell in 2025, according to government statistics.The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has published its annual fuel poverty statistics and it says:double quotation markIn 2025, there were an estimated 9.

4% of households (2.36 million) in fuel poverty in England under the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric.This is a reduction from 9.9% of households (2.47 million) in 2024.

DESNZ says the fall is “driven primarily by the expansion of the Warm Home Discount scheme from 2025/26 and energy efficiency improvements to households, but also by decreases in energy prices”.The LILEE measure of fuel poverty used by the department takes into account the fuel efficiency of homes, disposable income, and the cost of heating homes.Campaigners use a different definition.Peter Smith, director of policy and advocacy at National Energy Action, welcomed today’s figures.In a statement, he said:double quotation markIt is welcome to see the number of households now falling, albeit far too slowly.

‘More than 100,000 households in England no longer face the virtually impossible task of trying to survive on the lowest incomes, at the same time as attempting to keep warm in an expensive-to-heat home.It is particularly welcome and vital that this progress is being made for households who are most at risk of a cold home, households with children or households with long-term illnesses or disabilities.Recent progress, particularly to reduce rates of fuel poverty for people who own their own home is, however, slowing.This is a major concern as owner-occupiers are by far the greatest number of households living in fuel poverty in England.Unless the UK government provides more support in the Warm Homes Plan, this worrying trend is very likely to continue and it could take another 20 years to meet the UK government’s legal requirement to ensure that as many households are free from the fear of not being able to keep warm.

The Cabinet Office has today announced plans to speed up government decision-making by reducing consultation requirements.In its news release, which is headlined “Ministers rip up consultation culture”, the Cabinet Office says:double quotation markAs the next step in a wider programme of clearing out Whitehall’s layers of unnecessary bureaucracy, ministers have today announced immediate measures that will:• End the introduction of unnecessary reporting and consultation requirements through introducing a higher bar to their inclusion in legislation.• Use AI to identify existing disproportionate reporting and consultation duties that are slowing down delivery.• Take action to ensure Equalities Impact Assessments are proportionate and actually improve policy and outcomes.• Replace Environmental Impact Assessments with Environmental Outcomes Reports as part of a significant step in reducing bureaucracy around new infrastructure projects.

But that does not mean the end of all consultations.The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has today announced a public consultation on banning trail hunting.UPDATE: In a written ministerial statement on this, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, calls this “sludgebusting”.Today’s poverty figures (see 10.38am) incorporate a new method of measuring poverty.

The DWP uses a survey but, instead of relying on what people tell researchers about the benefits they are getting, it uses the actual figures, by cross-referencing to official records.In a briefing note, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says this method produces a lower headline poverty figure than the old system.It explains:double quotation markSince this change particularly increases incomes for poorer households, it means measured relative poverty over 2021–22 to 2023–24 is lower by 2 percentage points on average.Reductions are particularly large for child and pensioner poverty (2 and 3 percentage points respectively).This is because pensioners and families with children receive more benefit income than other families.

Using the new methodology, relative poverty (measured after accounting for housing costs) in 2024–25 was 20% overall (13.4 million people), 27% for children (4.0 million) and 14% for pensioners (1.7 million).But the IFS says it is too soon to say whether this means the actual poverty really is lower than previously thought.

It explains:double quotation markDWP’s improvements to the source of income data used for measuring poverty and income inequality mean some previously uncounted benefit income will now be reflected in official statistics.Unsurprisingly, this results in lower estimates of poverty.But there are further welcome improvements to the data on the horizon, and we do not yet know what the effect of these will be – some may push in the opposite direction.In Wales Neil Roberts has stood down as a Plaid Cymru candidate for the Senedd, the BBC reports.It was over an offensive comment he made about children in a social media post five years ago.

(It is too rude for the BBC, but you can find it on X without much difficulty,)Reform in Wales highlighted the Roberts post,But Reform is also being urged to suspend one of its own candidates photographed at some point in the past making a Nazi salute,Ministers have pledged to spend record amounts on road maintenance as part of a £27bn five-year investment plan for England’s major roads and motorways, Gwyn Topham reports,Donald Trump is still chuntering away in the White House.

It is a very stream of consciousness, and 98% a compilation boast, slanders and falsehoods that we’ve heard before.He has just been asked about Keir Starmer.He said Starmer was “a lovely man”, but he “did something that was shocking”.That was not helping the US in Iran, he said.The Scottish Conservative have claimed that they are the only party that “fundamentally supports the union”.

Speaking at his campaign launch, Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, said:double quotation mark[John Swinney, the first minister] has said that an SNP majority is a mandate for another divisive independence referendum and he will push relentlessly for it.This threat is real.We are the only party that fundamentally supports the union and we have a track record of standing up to this dismal SNP government.Reform are not a unionist party.They field pro-independence candidates, court nationalists and Lord Offord has provided a roadmap to another referendum.

An SNP majority is the nightmare scenario facing Scots – and it’s up to the Scottish Conservatives to stop it, like we did in 2016 and 2021.Findlay was referring to Offord suggesting that, after 10 years, he might be open to another independence referendum.Labour has criticised Nigel Farage for suggesting in an interview with the BBC that he might let James McMurdock rejoin his party.McMurdock was elected for Reform UK in 2024 in South Basildon and East Thurrock, a seat the party never expected to win.He was soon embroiled in controversy when it emerged that, as a teenager, he had been jailed for assaulting his then girlfriend.

Last year he left the party over allegations about his business conduct during the coronavirus pandemic.Later an inquiry opened into claims he racially abused a female journalist on X.A Labour spokesperson said:double quotation markMcMurdock is still under investigation for alleged racism and if Reform are intent on letting him back into their party, it will tell you everything you need know about Farage’s judgement.Reform simply cannot be trusted to uphold the high standards expected in public life.The boss of National Savings and Investments has stepped down after it emerged that the bank will have to repay hundreds of millions of pounds to its customers over missing savings, Lauren Almeida reports.