Keir Starmer is speaking at an event in Hertfordshire,He starts with a reference to the events of yesterday – saying there has been a lot of politics around recently,But he is focused on the cost of living, he says,He says he knows that it is like to struggle, because when he was growing up his family couldn’t always pay their bills,He says he leads the most working-class cabinet in history.

He says people are still being held back by their backgrounds.He says that the system did not work for people like his brother, who spent “his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty”.And other people are in the same situtation, he says.He says he is fighting to help “young people who don’t get the opportunities they deserve”, and the “millions of people held back because of a system that doesn’t work for them”.He says he wants to ensure people get the “dignity, the respect, the chance that they deserve”.

He goes on:[There are some] people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them,And I say to them – I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, I will never walk away from the country that I love,Britain is a compassionate country, he says,Given half the chance, we’ll help each other out,” he says,He says the real fight is not within the Labour party.

It is with rightwing politics, and the politics of grievance.And he will be in that fight “as long as I have breath in my body”.UPDATE: Starmer said:I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, and I will never walk away from the country that I love.And that is the country who I truly believe we are, a compassionate, reasonable, live and let live country, a diverse country where, given half the chance, will help each other out.That is who we are as a country, and I want to serve every single part of that country, the country that I love.

The fight coming up in politics, the real fight is not in the Labour party,It’s with the right-wing politics that challenges that, the politics of Reform, the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance,That will tear our country apart,That is the fight that we are in, and I will be in that fight as long as I have breath in my body,Officials from the Ministry of Justice are working on a new way of sharing details of court cases with journalists after the existing platform was told to delete its records over data protection concerns, MPs were told.

Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, said she accepted that journalists found the Courtsdesk service valuable.But, responding to a Commons urgent question tabled by the Conservatives, she claimed that the government had to shut the Courtdesk archive because an AI company was using it to access sensitive personal data.Kieran Mullan, a shadow justice minister, suggested the government wanted to cover up what is actually happening in the courts.Explaining the decision to order Courtsdesk to wipe its archive, Sackman said:This private company, Courtsdesk, has been sharing private, personal, legally sensitive information with a third-party AI company that includes potentially the addresses, the dates of birth, of defendants and victims.This is a direct breach of our agreement with them.

”The cessation of our agreement with Courtsdesk does not change the information available to the public about what carries on in our courts and nor does it change the information available to journalists.I recognise that the sort of service that Courtsdesk provided was useful for journalists because it collated the information and presented it neatly, and it’s for that reason that officials in my department are continuing to work, as we always planned to do, on an alternative platform, one that allows us to make the information available, but to maintain the guardrails in relation to data protection.As PA Media reports, Courtsdesk has been used by more than 1,500 journalists, the company claims.His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) told the firm to delete the details in November after what it deemed “unauthorised sharing” of court data.Last week the government refused calls for the decision to be reversed, meaning it must be deleted within days.

In the Commons Mullan accused the government of making it “harder for journalists to report the truth”.He said Courtsdesk had been a “huge success”.He went on:What is it they’re worried about? Could it be that they want to hide the fact that thousands of criminals will escape justice under their sentencing bill? Could it be that when they erode our rights to jury trials, they don’t want the public to hear about what results?Sackman said journalists would still be able to access court information.Commenting on the UQ, George Greenwood, an investigative reporter at the Times, said:What Sarah Sackman said at the dispatch box today is simply wrong.It is not physically possible for journalists to attend every single court and to obtain the kind of information that Courtsdesk provided in searchable form.

This shuts out the press and undermines open justice.Peter Mandelson had “no influence” on the Ministry of Defence signing a contract with American tech giant Palantir, a defence minister has said, amid “serious questions” about his links to the company.Luke Pollard was speaking in the Commons responding to an urgent question.PA Media says:Palantir signed a three-year £421m deal with the MoD in December 2025 to continue providing services like data integration, analytics and AI platforms.Questions are being asked about whether disgraced former US ambassador Lord Mandelson was involved in securing this deal, as he held shares in Global Counsel, a lobbying firm hired by Palantir.

Pollard told MPs: “As the defence secretary [John Healey] has said, the contract was his decision, and his decision alone.Peter Mandelson had no influence on the decision to award this contract.”He noted that the previous Conservative government signed a three-year enterprise agreement with Palantir in 2022, and said the new deal builds on that.Pollard added that the government has secured new commitments from Palantir, including to have its European defence headquarters in London, £1.5bn investment into the UK and a new defence mentoring scheme to help British SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) access the US market.

Asking the UQ, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said: “Following Peter Mandelson’s sacking as US ambassador, serious questions surrounding his influence on MoD contracts have emerged, and upon which we have had no meaningful answers,”Pointing out that the Palantir contract was granted by direct award, rather than open competition, Cartlidge called for “transparency”,He said: “The question is, to what extent Peter Mandelson and his firm Global Counsel, in which at the time he was a controlling shareholder, benefited from privileged access not available to potential UK competitors, which was used to deliver a quarter of a billion pound defence contract to a client of Global Counsel, without competition?”Responding, Pollard said the MoD uses Palantir tools and technology “on a daily basis to support the operations and wider data analytics”, adding: “I’m sure he’s not suggesting that we shouldn’t be maintaining access to those vital capabilities,”The minister also said the Government intends to “publish as much material as we can as soon as reasonably possible”, and that work is “under way” to make that happen,The chair of the defence committee and Labour MP for Slough, Tan Dhesi, asked: “Why was this particular contract not subject to the usual procurement processes, competitive processes?”Pollard said that the agreement covered existing services and where there is a “robust technical justification for using Palantir products and services”.

He added that it was “justified under the Procurement Act” and that all procurement procedures were followed with a transparency notice,Labour MPs including Clive Lewis, Dawn Butler and Neil Duncan-Jordan all criticised the MoD’s contract with Palantir,Keir Starmer is speaking at an event in Hertfordshire,He starts with a reference to the events of yesterday – saying there has been a lot of politics around recently,But he is focused on the cost of living, he says.

He says he knows that it is like to struggle, because when he was growing up his family couldn’t always pay their bills.He says he leads the most working-class cabinet in history.He says people are still being held back by their backgrounds.He says that the system did not work for people like his brother, who spent “his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty”.And other people are in the same situtation, he says.

He says he is fighting to help “young people who don’t get the opportunities they deserve”, and the “millions of people held back because of a system that doesn’t work for them”,He says he wants to ensure people get the “dignity, the respect, the chance that they deserve”,He goes on:[There are some] people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them,And I say to them – I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, I will never walk away from the country that I love,Britain is a compassionate country, he says.

Given half the chance, we’ll help each other out,” he says.He says the real fight is not within the Labour party.It is with rightwing politics, and the politics of grievance.And he will be in that fight “as long as I have breath in my body”.UPDATE: Starmer said:I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, and I will never walk away from the country that I love.

And that is the country who I truly believe we are, a compassionate, reasonable, live and let live country, a diverse country where, given half the chance, will help each other out,That is who we are as a country, and I want to serve every single part of that country, the country that I love,The fight coming up in politics, the real fight is not in the Labour party,It’s with the right-wing politics that challenges that, the politics of Reform, the politics of divide, divide, divide, grievance, grievance, grievance,That will tear our country apart.

That is the fight that we are in, and I will be in that fight as long as I have breath in my body.At first minister’s questions in Cardiff, Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, reaffirmed her support for Keir Starmer “in the job he was elected to do”.(See 11.18am.)She told the Senedd:Keir Starmer was elected with a clear mandate to be the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

I support him in the job he was elected to do.When Labour succeeds in government, the people of Wales become better off and that is my key concern.My job as first minister is to improve the lives of people in Wales, not to provide a running commentary on Westminster politics.Andy Burnham ended his contribution by recalling the Labour MP Paul Goggins, who represented Wythenshawe and Sale East and who died in 2014.He said Goggins was his mentor when he was a young MP.

Goggins “was just dedicated to the underdog”, he said.Burnham went on:When I came into parliament, I remember [Goggins] said something to me very early on that I’ve never forgotten.He said ‘The point of being here is you’ve got power and you should use all of it, every bit of it, for people who have little power or none at all.But what you will find is most people in here are using their power for people who’ve already got too much.’And the truth of what he said become more and more apparent to me during my time in parliement.

And I do just finish on that … I think we’ve had a political culture that hasn’t served the common good for quite a while.And I’m not making this a right and left thing.It’s been there in all parties.And it hasn’t serve the interests of Unsung Britain.And I just think Britain needs to really refocus in this moment.

It is a generational moment.If we’re not going to rethink things now, then when are we going to do it?And I do come back to it.We have to rethink the whole way of working of politics.The power in too few hands in Whitehall, in Westminster, creates that situation where the manipulation of power by vested interests works against the common good … I have seen that far too much in my political life, and I believe strongly now we need electoral reform, political reform, the replacement with the House of Lords with an elected senate of the nations and regions.We need root and branch reform across Whitehall and Westminster.

And it is only by a new politics we will we start to build a new economy,I don’t think you can do one without the other,Q: Was Anas Sarwar wrong to call for Keir Starmer to resign? Do you think the government can deliver the promises you want? And would you rule out a leadership challenge?Burnham replied:What I’m calling for very clearly today is for the unity, to create the stability to give the government the platform to focus on all of the things that I’m talking about today,I think we’ve got to get away from the sense that everything is a challenge,I put myself forward [as a byelection candidate] but I was saying – I spoke to the prime minister, I spoke to the government – we need to get a strong sense of a stronger team again than there has been in recent times.

And that, I think, is what needs to come from this,We need to dial down all of this constant briefing,It’s seemingly a bit endless some of the anonymous briefing going round,Burnham said he would like to see Labour focusing on ensuring Reform UK does not win the Gorton and Denton byelection,Q: Is your support for Keir Starmer qualified?Burnham said his support for Starmer “wasn’t qualified or guarded”.

He went on:I praised the government.I think they have broken with the governments I was in that didn’t allow people to reregulate buses, that didn’t renationalise at the railways, that didn’t have as ambitious plans around housing.So they’ve come forward with the big ambitions.He said there was a need for “greater unity” in the Labour party.He went on:I think we are at a generational moment in politics