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Rishi Sunak has been criticised for aiming a political jibe about transgender people at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – while murder victim Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther attended PMQs.

In Prime Minister’s Questions, his weekly showdown with MPs and the leader of the opposition, Mr Sunak said the Labour leader had broken promises on “defining a woman”.

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Mr Sunak said: “We are bringing the waiting lists down for the longest waiters and making progress, but it is a bit rich to hear about promises from someone who has broken every single promise he was elected on.

“I think I have counted almost 30 in the last year. Pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman – although in fairness that was only 99% of a U-turn.”

Sir Keir has previously said that 99.9% of women “haven’t got a penis”.

Responding to the prime minister, Sir Keir said: “Of all the weeks to say that – when Brianna [Ghey]’s mother is in this chamber.

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“Shame.”

Sir Keir added: “Parading as a man of integrity when he’s got absolutely no responsibility.

“I think the role of the prime minister is to ensure that every single citizen in this country feels safe and respected, it’s a shame that the prime minister doesn’t share that.”

Mr Sunak’s press secretary later denied the remark was transphobic.

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Sir Keir had already mentioned that Ms Ghey was attending PMQs in the Commons – although it is unclear if she was present in the chamber at the time the jibe was made.

The Labour leader started the session by saying: “This week the unwavering bravery of Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther has touched us all. As a father, I can’t even imagine the pain that she is going through and I am glad that she is with us in the gallery here today.”

During the sentencing of Brianna Ghey’s killers, the judge said she had taken into account the “sadistic” and “transphobic hostility” of her killers.

Mr Sunak was later asked to apologise by Labour MP Liz Twist – but did not do so.

Sir Keir later met Ms Ghey later at her request.

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It is not the first time the prime minister has sought to make a similar political point.

He ended the session in the Commons by reiterating his sympathy for Esther Ghey.

Mr Sunak said: “I could just say also to Brianna Ghey’s mum, who is here, as I’ve said earlier this week, what happened was an unspeakable and shocking tragedy, Mr Speaker, and as I said earlier this week in the face of that, for her mother to demonstrate the compassion and empathy that she did, I thought demonstrated the very best of humanity in the face of seeing the very worst of humanity.

“And she deserves all our admiration and praise for that.”

Numerous opposition politicians have criticised the prime minister for his words.

Liberal Democrat Wendy Chamberlain said: “The jibe was horrendous, and the failure to recognise it and apologise by the PM speaks volumes.”

Backlash to attack line shows we’re getting closer to election



Sam Coates

Deputy political editor

@SamCoatesSky

What you were seeing is some of the sharper, uglier elements of Prime Minister’s Questions that you get as we tiptoe closer to a general election.

Rishi Sunak was really quite focused on his attack lines against Keir Starmer.

I think in the face of real-life cases it can sound quite glib, and I think that there will be questions over the tone that he adopted, and the way he wants to – bluntly – weaponise culture war issues for his own political ends.

And you had perhaps quite a stark example of how that then comes up against the reality of the kinds of people that he’s talking about.

Labour’s Ben Bradshaw said: “Disgusting man, Rishi Sunak, making transphobic slurs at PMQs with Brianna Ghey’s mother in the gallery and dodging the chance to apologise.

“Brilliant and genuinely furious response from Keir Starmer.”

A spokesperson for the charity Stonewall said: “For the prime minister to use trans people as a punchline, in front of the grieving mother of a murdered trans child, was cheap, callous and crass.

“The disrespect and dehumanisation of trans people that we see played out daily in the media and in our political discourse has real life consequences and it has to stop.

“We call on the prime minister to apologise unreservedly for his comments, and for him to reflect on how careless words from those in power can and do result in harm.”

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Liverpool parade collision: Why police released ‘unprecedented’ details about man arrested

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Liverpool parade collision: Why police released 'unprecedented' details about man arrested

Merseyside Police knows – better than any force, perhaps – that in a social media age, an information vacuum can become a misinformation cauldron.

They have learnt from the aftermath of the Southport stabbing attack, where the force was criticised for being too slow to release information that could have calmed the riots that followed.

So, it feels like things have been done differently this time.

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Police tents surrounded by debris at the scene in Water Street near the Liver Building in Liverpool.
Pic: PA
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Police tents surrounded by debris at the scene in Water Street. Pic: PA

The incident happened just after 6pm on Monday.

Videos – captured by fans on their phones – were online within moments. Shared and speculated upon, with guesses as to the attacker’s identity and motive.

But alongside the huge and immediate police investigation, the communication machine moved equally fast.

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Within a few hours, police released a description of the man they had arrested – a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area.

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Moment car drives into crowds in Liverpool

A few hours after that, we had an extensive press conference during which police ruled out terrorism as a motive.

Again, they appealed for videos not to be shared online and for people not to speculate.

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said Merseyside Police “handled the situation fantastically” given how quickly footage of the incident was shared online.

He told Sky News that online misinformation can set “a lot of false narrative”.

The mayor added: “And we all know that speculation and social media are a wildfire of different vantages, and some of it is for nefarious reasons.

“So, it was right, of course, that the police reacted as quickly as they did to dampen down some of the types of posts that we were witnessing, you know, saying that there were other things happening throughout the city.”

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‘These were utterly tragic scenes’

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Police commentator Graham Wettone also told Sky News the force had done well to quickly combat misinformation spreading online.

He said: “That’s always a problem in today’s day and age, social media taking over so much news reporting, with so many people as well present at the scene where that awful incident took place, mobile phones out, people recording it, and then posting it almost straight away.”

Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, also highlighted it was “unprecedented” that the force “very quickly” gave the ethnicity and race of the suspect.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: “I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there’s a conspiracy theory.”

Mr Babu agreed that Merseyside Police appears to have learned lessons from what happened after the Southport stabbings.

He added: “The difficulty we have is in the olden days, when I was policing, you would have a conversation with trusty journalists, print journalists, radio journalists, broadcasting journalists, you’d have a conversation and say look can you please hold fire on sharing this information and people would listen.

“We don’t have that with social media, it’s like the Wild West and anything goes and so puts the police in a very, very difficult position.”

Meanwhile, the police investigation continues.

In central Liverpool, Water Street is cordoned off with police officers and vehicles in place.

Flags, sprays of paint flares and empty bottles still cover the road. Whereas they have been cleared elsewhere along the parade route, here they remain. Chilling symbols of the party, that within moments became a scene of utter horror.

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King Charles urged to seek Canadian apology for historical abuse of British children

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King Charles urged to seek Canadian apology for historical abuse of British children

King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.

Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.

More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.

Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.

King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
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King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA

Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.

“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.

John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.

“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.

“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.

“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”

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John Jefkins
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John Jefkins

John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.

“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.

“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”

The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”

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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.

On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.

Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.

“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”

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Ministers considering scrapping two-child benefit cap, education secretary says

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Ministers considering scrapping two-child benefit cap, education secretary says

Ministers are considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the education secretary told Sky News.

Bridget Phillipson, asked by Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast if the cap should be lifted, said: “It’s not off the table.

“It’s certainly something that we’re considering.”

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The policy means most families cannot claim means-tested benefits for more than their first two children born after April 2017.

Ms Phillipson’s comments are the strongest a minister has made about the policy potentially being scrapped.

Analysis by The Resolution Foundation thinktank over the weekend found 470,000 children would be lifted out of poverty if parents could claim benefits for more than two children.

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However, Ms Phillipson said the government inherited a “really difficult situation” with public finances from the Conservative government.

“These are not easy or straightforward choices in terms of how we stack it up, but we know the damage child poverty causes,” she added.

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Why did Labour delay their child poverty strategy?

The education secretary, who is also head of the government’s child poverty taskforce, said ministers are trying to help in other ways, such as expanding funded childcare hours and opening free breakfast clubs.

She said it is “the moral purpose of Labour governments to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, can get on in life”.

Her “personal mission” is to tackle child poverty, she said.

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Sir Keir Starmer is said to have privately backed abolishing the two-child limit and requested the Treasury find the £3.5bn to do so, The Observer reported on Sunday.

The government’s child poverty strategy, which the taskforce is working on, has been delayed from its original publication date in the spring.

Whether to scrap the two-child benefit cap is one of the main issues it is looking at.

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