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Rishi Sunak should apologise for his transgender jibe which was made while Brianna Ghey’s mother was in parliament, Gordon Brown has told Sky News.

The former PM was speaking to the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge a day after the current occupier of Number 10 joked during Prime Minister’s Questions about Sir Keir Starmer’s record on gender recognition, while Esther Ghey was on the parliamentary estate.

Peter Spooner, the father of murdered transgender teenager Brianna, has also told Sky News he thinks Mr Sunak should say sorry for what he called the “degrading” and “dehumanising” remark made in the Commons on Wednesday.

Mr Sunak had accused Sir Keir of having difficulty in “defining a woman” during an attack on Labour Party U-turns. The PM has refused to apologise and said his comment had been “absolutely legitimate”.

Mr Brown has had his own moments of regret – including calling a voter he had just met a “bigot” after a discussion on immigration.

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He later returned to the woman’s house to apologise – telling waiting journalists that he was a “penitent sinner”.

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Mr Brown told Sophy Ridge: “Prime ministers make mistakes. I don’t think you can say that every prime minister will fail to make some mistakes, but I think you should apologise if you get things wrong.

“And I mean it is a very sad and really tragic, tragic case of a family in grief.

“I know, he’s said he’s compassionate about the family, but perhaps he should do what I had to do on one or two occasions and apologise. And I do accept that if you make mistakes, you’ve got to correct them quickly.”

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Transgender remark ‘comment on U-turns’

Speaking on a wide range of topics, Mr Brown stated that a second Donald Trump presidency would “cause a lot of damage to jobs in Britain”.

The New Labour titan said European countries should warn the US about the dangers the world would face if Mr Trump returns to the White House.

“I would normally say British leaders should keep out of American politics, and they would say any American leader should keep out of British politics,” he said – but “we’ve got to sound some worry”.

Mr Brown added: “If Donald Trump were elected, he’s promised a 10% tariff on goods. So you’ve immediately got a trade war.”

And this trade war would “actually cause a lot of damage to jobs in Britain”.

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Chants of ‘shame’ at PM after transgender jibe

Mr Brown, who was the UK’s chancellor for a decade, said that this year is different to 2016 in that Mr Trump actually has policies to scrutinise – including leaving the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and potentially withdrawing support for Ukraine.

This – and uncertainty about his policies in China and the Middle East – “are huge issues not just for America, but for the whole of the world – and particularly issues for Britain, and Europe as well”, according to Mr Brown.

He added: “I think in this instance, we’ve got to speak out and say, look, we are worried about what the policies that he’s proposing are.”

Donald Trump campaign in Las Vegas last month. Pic: AP
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Donald Trump campaigning in Las Vegas last month. Pic: AP

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Mr Brown, who left parliament in 2015 having been ejected from Number 10 in 2010, now campaigns on child poverty in the UK.

He told Sophy Ridge that there is an “emergency” and a “crisis” at the moment with regard to young people and the cost of living.

A combination of factors, including the ending of support payments for energy, inflation, the two-child benefits cap and other matters have left families unable to afford basics like toothpaste, soap, shampoo and winter coats.

He highlighted examples of schools which have set up washing machines to ensure students have clean clothes.

“And so you’ve got a cleanliness problem, you’ve got a health problem, and something has got to be done to make life better because we are sacrificing the future of thousands of children on the altar of failing to take into account that we’ve got to do more about that poverty,” he said.

Mr Brown backed Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to look at reforming Universal Credit – and highlighted his continuing disapproval for the two-child benefit limit.

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‘It breaks my heart as a parent’

This refers to the policy of restricting means-tested financial support to families with three or more children.

He stopped short of calling on Sir Keir to scrap it, but said he never liked it and said reviewing Universal Credit is the “right thing”.

Labour has not said if it would scrap the policy.

On Labour’s U-turn on green policies, Mr Brown revealed he had not been asked by the current party leadership for his advice.

He noted that he did not want to be a “backseat driver” or to “pontificate from the outside” – but added that “the situation has changed and “we are in a new fiscal cycle”.

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The former chancellor said: “Our economy is not growing.

“I mean the best we can hope is we get to 1% over the next year and that will not be enough to keep standards of living rising or alternatively to pay for our public services.

“So these are difficult decisions that Keir Starmer, [shadow chancellor] Rachel Reeves have got to make.

“If they asked for my private advice, I said I’ll give it.”

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Why Boris’s best mate is off to Reform

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Why Boris's best mate is off to Reform

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.

Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.

Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.

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Starmer and Macron agree need for ‘new deterrent’ to stop small boat crossings

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Starmer and Macron agree need for 'new deterrent' to stop small boat crossings

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the need for a “new deterrent” to deter small boats crossings in the Channel, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as part of the French president’s state visit to the UK, which began on Tuesday.

High up the agenda for the two leaders is the need to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, which Mr Macron said yesterday was a “burden” for both the UK and France.

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The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.

Sir Keir is hoping he can reach a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, ahead of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which will involve ministerial teams from both nations.

The deal would see those crossing the Channel illegally sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.

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However, it is understood the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that up to 50 small boat migrants could be sent back to France each week, starting from August, as part of an agreement between Sir Keir and Mr Macron.

A statement from Downing Street said: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street this afternoon.

“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.

“Moving on to discuss joint working, they shared their desire to deepen our partnership further – from joint leadership in support of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and increasing bilateral trade and investment.”

It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions.

“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.

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“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “entering the UK illegally” to Rwanda.

He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent ready to go, where every single illegal immigrant arriving over the Channel would be sent to Rwanda.

“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.

“Now, a year later, he’s realised he made a massive mistake. That’s why numbers have surged and this year so far has been the worst in history for illegal channel crossings.

“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”

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