A Labour frontbencher has defended a social media post used by the party which claims Rishi Sunak does not think child sex abusers should go to prison.
Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the post was part of “political campaigning” but admitted: “It won’t be to everybody’s taste.”
Asked whether she was “comfortable with pointing the finger at Rishi Sunak”, Ms Powell told Sky News: “I’m comfortable with taking a sort of standardised graphic that the prime minister used himself many, many times in recent months and years, to highlight how one of his own policies isn’t working.”
She added: “It’s political campaigning. I’m comfortable to be on your programme this morning defending what we’re talking about, which is some really serious issues around the criminal justice system and how this country is just not dealing with that.”
Labour has been accused of “gutter politics” and criticised by its own MPs after posting a message on its official Twitter account vowing to “lock up dangerous criminals”.
The tweet pointed to data from the Ministry of Justice showing that 4,500 adults convicted of sex acts on children avoided a prison sentence since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
It said: “Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”
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MP defends Labour tweet after criticism
The language has been widely criticised, with many drawing comparisons to Boris Johnson’s false claim last year that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.
Veteran Labour MP John McDonnell said: “This is not the sort of politics a Labour Party, confident of its own values and preparing to govern, should be engaged in.
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“I say to the people who have taken the decision to publish this ad, please withdraw it. We, the Labour Party, are better than this.”
Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi also condemned Labour’s tweet while hitting out at her own party for triggering an “appalling fight into the gutter”.
She said: “Dog whistle met by dog whistle.
“Disgraceful comments by Braverman over the weekend has triggered an appalling fight into the gutter.
“At what point are we going to talk about the victims? Where is the protection for the half million kids sexually exploited in our country every yr.”
Last week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed Labour-run areas failed to stop child grooming gangs over fears they would be called “racist”.
The row has renewed calls for tighter laws around political campaigning, as both main parties seek to sell themselves as strong on law and order ahead of the local elections.
Row shows need for law ‘requiring honesty in politics’
Compassion in Politics, a campaign group working to “clean up” public debate in Britain, called on Sir Keir to withdraw the ad and apologise.
“This kind of political discourse poisons the water that we all must drink from. It drives up hate and drags down standards,” co-director Jennifer Nadel told Sky News.
“Sir Keir Starmer has rightly identified that the public want to see politicians act with respect, dignity, and decency. He can start by pulling this ad from circulation and issuing an immediate apology.”
Compassion in Politics has worked with lawyers to create a new bill which would make it a criminal offence for politicians to lie to the public, punishable by a fine or jail.
The bill is being sponsored by Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts while over 200,000 people have signed a petition backing it.
Ms Nadel said incidents like this show why “going forwards, we need to look at the levers we can pull to really clean up our politics”.
“We would introduce a law to require that political communications are based on honesty and truth and to ensure that breaches of the founding principles of our democracy – accountability, respect, and toleration – can be investigated and acted upon,” she said.
“If we’re to solve the problems we face as a nation and build a country that is inclusive, caring, and prosperous we have to start working together to achieve that goal.”
A Labour spokesman declined to comment on the backlash to the tweet.
He said: “The Conservatives have left dangerous convicted criminals free to roam the streets.
“Labour is the party of law and order, and we will implement tougher sentences for dangerous criminals.”
An aid worker in Gaza has told Sky News the food situation in the enclave is “absolutely desperate” and “the worst it’s ever been”.
Her comments to chief presenter Mark Austincome amid fresh outcry over aid restrictions, with the UK joining 24 other countries to urge an immediate end to the war.
It also comes as at least 12 more Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when tanks shelled a tent encampment in western Gaza City, according to health authorities.
Medics, speaking early on Tuesday, said two shells were fired at tents housing displaced people from tanks positioned north of the Shati camp.
Israel hasn’t yet commented on the reports.
Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, spoke to Sky News from Deir al Balah, a city where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge during repeated waves of mass displacement.
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She said: “One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, ‘We are all walking together towards death’. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza.
“There is no food for their children, it’s absolutely desperate here.”
Image: Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen. Pic: Reuters
“The markets are empty,” she said. “People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables.
“My team have said to me, ‘There’s nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day.”
Israel launched a ground assault on southern and eastern Deir al Balah for the first time on Monday after having issued an evacuation order.
Local medics said at least three people were killed when houses and mosques were hit by tank shelling.
Sources told Reuters news agency that Israel believes some of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in October 2023 could be in the area.
Image: Smoke rises during strikes amid the Israeli operation in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Ms Cummings’s remarks came as the UK and 24 other nations issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire.
The statement criticised aid distribution in Gaza, which is being managed by a US and Israel-backed organisation, Gaza Health Foundation (GHF).
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the joint statement said.
The 25 countries also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages captured by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attacks.
Lammy promises £40m for Gaza
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has promised £40m for humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
He told MPs: “We are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area.
“Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.”
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2:53
Lammy: ‘There must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state’
Addressing the foreign secretaries’ joint written statement, charity worker Liz Allcock – who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Gaza – told Sky News: “While we welcome this, there have been statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed.
“In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can’t get worse, it does.”
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“Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing, the militarisation of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response,” she said.
“And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we’re trying to serve.
“An immediate and permanent ceasefire, and avenues for accountability in line with international law, is the minimum people here deserve.”
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Donald Trump is clearly seething over the term ‘TACO’ (Trump always chickens out) – a phrase that has characterised financial market trading over the past few months.
It suggests that for all the president’s bluster and threats during his on-off trade war to date, he rarely follows through.
When asked by a reporter about TACO in late May, as his “liberation day” escalation remained on pause, he declared it a “nasty” question and said he wanted negotiations.
Mr Trump wants a deal but to effectively bully America’s trading partners into agreeing better terms.
It’s a playbook that has defined his time in the White House and, as things stand, more than 20 nations and territories, including Japan and South Korea, face heightened tariffs of up to 40% on their exports to the US from 1 August.
Financial markets don’t really believe it. Stock markets, for example, are still hovering near or at record levels in both the US and in Europe. The FTSE 100 closed above 9,000 points for the first time on Monday evening. TACO is ingrained in those values.
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But are markets in for a shock, especially when it comes to the fight with America’s single largest trading partner, the European Union? It was created, Mr Trump has previously claimed, to “screw” the United States.
It’s fair to say there was great optimism in the EU earlier this month that a deal, similar to that agreed between the US and UK, was looming to avert the worst of a threatened 30% baseline tariff from 1 August.
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Explained: The US-UK trade deal
But the mood music in Brussels changed at the back end of last week and now EU diplomats are even briefing that a broader range of retaliation measures is being considered beyond additional tariffs on US goods.
The seriousness of this fight should not be underestimated.
EU figures show trade in goods and services between the bloc and the US account for almost a third of all global trade, at a value in 2024 alone of €1.68trn (£1.45trn).
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1:45
Trump ‘reigniting global trade war’
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic has warned that a 30% tariff would “practically prohibit” the bloc’s transatlantic trade, according to remarks via diplomats reported by the Reuters news agency.
We’re told that, even if time runs out, a truce could theoretically be agreed soon after 1 August.
Much will depend on the EU’s response.
Does it go down the route taken by the UK and not retaliate, pending the conclusion of talks?
There is growing pressure on Brussels to call Mr Trump’s bluff.
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1:40
Trump tariff threats all ‘bluster’
The EU has a package of tariffs on €21bn of US goods ready to go from 6 August. An additional package is yet to be finalised.
France is demanding US services are hit too, with even Germany now saying such an escalation should be considered.
The so-called “anti-coercion” instrument, as it’s known, would also potentially allow the bloc to limit US companies’ access to financial service markets in the EU.
So what happens after 1 August could be even more explosive.
But there is every reason to believe that a tit-for-tat escalation is unlikely, at least for long.
The very reason Donald Trump rowed back on his “liberation day” tariffs in April, allowing 90 days for talks, was likely the dire financial market reaction that followed news of the widespread duties.
You have a president demanding interest rate cuts (at a time when inflation is on the rise due to the impact of tariffs) in a bid to boost flagging economic growth.
Mr Trump says his trade war is all about boosting US manufacturing jobs but, at the end of the day, no powerbase of voters is going to accept a threat to the value of their investments for long.
No big US company will stand by and see its sales suffer.
At least 19 people have died after a Bangladesh air force plane crashed into a college campus, the military said.
The aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Uttara, in the northern area of the capital Dhaka, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes.
The pilot was one of the people killed, and, according to the military, 164 were injured in the incident.
The Bangladeshmilitary’s public relations department added that the aircraft was an F-7 BGI, and had taken off at 1.06pm local time before crashing shortly after.
Video shows fire and smoke rising from the crash site, with hundreds looking on.
Image: Pics: Reuters
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo said that most of the injured were students with burn injuries.
Image: Pics: Reuters
Citing the duty officer at the fire service control room, Prothom Alo also reported that the plane had crashed on the roof of the college canteen.
Rafiqa Taha, a 16-year-old student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told the Associated Press that the school has around 2,000 students.
“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” she added. “My God! It’s my school.”