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Sir Keir Starmer met Taylor Swift when he attended her concert at Wembley Stadium, Sky News understands.

It has emerged the prime minister and his family spoke to the pop star and her mum for 10 minutes and discussed the Southport stabbings.

The revelation comes amid questions over government intervention in talks over the security for the concerts after Swift was given a taxpayer-funded police escort despite reservations from the Met.

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It had not been clear previously if Sir Keir and Swift had met at the gig.

There was no discussion about the provision of security for the artist, which Downing Street said was an independent operational matter for police, it is understood.

Sir Keir and his family were given free tickets to the concert on 20 August, which were declared as required, and have since been paid back.

FILE - Taylor Swift performs at Wembley Stadium as part of her Eras Tour, June 21, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)
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Taylor Swift performing at Wembley Stadium. Pic: AP

The meeting came after the superstar cancelled gigs on her Eras Tour in Austria due to a terror threat, and the mass stabbing in Southport at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, when three young girls were killed.

Sir Keir was invited to the August show by Universal Music, which is based in his constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.

He paid back the cost of the tickets after a row over ministers accepting freebies dominated headlines during his first 100 days.

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Questions over Taylor Swift motorcade

Further questions were raised after a report in The Sun alleged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and London Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke to the Metropolitan Police to encourage them to give the megastar a “VVIP escort”, when she returned to the capital to complete the European leg of her sell-out tour in August.

The Met was reportedly reluctant to sign it off as a blue-light escort is typically reserved for senior members of the Royal Family and high-level politicians, because it comes at huge expense to the taxpayer, the newspaper reported.

Swift’s mother Andrea, who is also her manager, apparently threatened to pull her daughter’s three shows if the police convoy was not provided.

The government has denied that senior Labour figures were given tickets to the shows in exchange for police protection, stressing the Met makes decisions independently from politicians.

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Last week, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said it was down to the fact Swift’s concerts in Vienna had been cancelled due to a foiled terror attack, which was intended to kill tens of thousands of fans.

“We needed to make sure that that person was safe. And it was a policing matter, not an issue for politicians. It was the police that make the decision,” she said.

She added that police provided the security to ensure Swift could continue with the concerts “which brought in huge amounts of investment of money into our economy, including those small businesses that need that support”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News “you would expect” the home secretary and the mayor to be involved in a conversation “where there is a security risk”, such as after the Vienna bomb plot.

“I really utterly reject that there’s been any kind of wrongdoing or undue influence in this case,” she said.

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After six months of planning, Reform’s immigration policy is as clear as mud

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After six months of planning, Reform's immigration policy is as clear as mud

Reform’s plan was meant to be detailed. Instead, there’s more confusion.

The party had grown weary of the longstanding criticism that their tough talk on immigration did not come with a full proposal for what they would do to tackle small boats if they came to power.

So, after six months of planning, yesterday they attempted to put flesh on to the bones of their flagship policy.

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At an expensive press conference in a vast airhanger in Oxford, the headline news was clear: Reform UK would deport anyone who comes here by small boat, arresting, detaining and then deporting up to 600,000 people in the first five years of governing.

They would leave international treaties and repeal the Human Rights Act to do it

But, one day later, that policy is clear as mud when it comes to who this would apply to.

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Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA
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Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA

I asked Farage at the time of the announcement whether this would apply to women and girls – an important question – as the basis for their extreme policy seemed to hinge on the safety of women and girls in the UK.

He was unequivocal: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.

“And I’ve accepted already that how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue.”

But a day later, he appeared to row back on this stance at a press conference in Scotland, saying Reform is “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.

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He later clarified that if a single woman came by boat, then they could fall under the policy, but if “a woman comes with children, we will work out the best thing to do”.

A third clarification in the space of 24 hours on a flagship policy they worked on over six months seems like a pretty big gaffe, and it only feeds into the Labour criticism that these plans aren’t yet credible.

If they had hoped to pivot from rhetoric to rigour, this announcement showed serious pitfalls.

But party strategists probably will not be tearing out too much hair over this, with polling showing Reform UK still as the most trusted party on the issue of immigration overall.

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Crypto trader ups MEXC ‘bounty’ to $2.5M after in-person KYC request

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Crypto trader ups MEXC ‘bounty’ to .5M after in-person KYC request

Crypto trader ups MEXC ‘bounty’ to .5M after in-person KYC request

The “White Whale” increased his social media pressure campaign to $2.5 million after claiming that MEXC requested an in-person KYC verification in Malaysia.

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US appeals time served sentences for HashFlare Ponzi schemers

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US appeals time served sentences for HashFlare Ponzi schemers

US appeals time served sentences for HashFlare Ponzi schemers

Prosecutors appealed the sentences given to HashFlare founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, after arguing the pair should get 10 years in prison.

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