Treasury minister Darren Jones is facing a grilling from MPs over borrowing this morning. Earlier, David Lammy spoke to Sky News Breakfast about a new “world first” sanctions regime to target people smugglers, choke off their funding, and stop small boat crossings.
Thursday 9 January 2025 10:32, UK
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The environment secretary has been speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference this morning, and he addressed the changes to inheritance tax that have led to vast protests from farmers – including one outside the venue he was speaking in.
Steve Reed said the government wants to “make it easier for all farmers to meet the challenges of the transition and run successful businesses”, but says he is hearing from them that “the turmoil of recent years has made farming incredibly tough”.
“I recognise the anger when farmers came to protest in Westminster last year, but it wasn’t just about tax,” he said, pointing to farmers battling input costs, tight margins, unfair supply chains, a shortage of skilled workers, growing concerns about extreme weather, and issues with access to European markets and with post-Brexit trade deals.
And he repeated Labour’s claims of a £22bn black hole in the nation’s finances, which he said “meant we had to take immediate tough decisions across the economy to balance the books”.
“We were shocked by the size of the financial black hole we were left to fill, and I’m sorry that some of the action we had to take shocked you in turn, but stable finances are the foundation of the economic growth needed,” he said.
Mr Reed went on to acknowledge that the changes were “very unwelcome”.
“It wasn’t something we intended or wanted to do before we saw the state of the public finances, and of course, I regret that, but we tried to make it a little easier,” he told farmers.
Lawyers for former prime minister Liz Truss have sent a “cease and desist” letter to the prime minister, stating that his claim that she “crashed the economy” with her mini-budget in 2022 is defamatory.
Her legal team says statements he made throughout the general election last that she was responsible for the economic turmoil in autumn 2022 “have caused and will likely continue to cause serious harm to her reputation”.
The 49-day PM’s lawyers say in their six-page letter that claiming she “crashed the economy” is “false and misleading”.
“Their publication is not only extremely damaging but also grossly defamatory and indefensible,” they wrote to Sir Keir Starmer.
They say that they “disagree that any market movement during the relevant period referred to in your defamatory statements can be classified as a ‘crash of the economy’ in any proper sense of the meaning of those words”.
The hike in interest rates, the ex-PM’s lawyers argue, were as a result of the Bank of England’s “poor handling of the LDI crisis, and its regulatory failures”.
They pointed to a report from a fellow at the free-market thinktank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, who said it is “clear that there was no economic crash in or following the period of the Truss Administration”, and noted that “economic output did not fall”, while there was no rise in unemployment.
Ms Truss’s legal team conclude the letter to the PM by saying: “Our client requests that you immediately cease and desist from repeating the defamatory statements at any point, from causing them to be repeated or from otherwise re-publishing the defamatory statements or any part of them”.
Downing Street has been contacted for comment.
As we have been reporting on Sky News, borrowing costs for the UK government have risen significantly of late – higher than they were following the Truss mini-budget in autumn 2022.
As a result, the Speaker has granted an urgent question in the House of Commons on the topic.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has tabled the question to Chancellor Rachel Reeves. He is asking for a statement “on the growing pressure of borrowing costs on the public finances”.
It is unclear if the chancellor herself will answer the question, or if she will send a junior minister instead.
The statement will take place in the House of Commons from around 10.30am – we’ll have live coverage here in the Politics Hub and across Sky News.
By Sky News Data and Forensics Unit
The grooming gangs scandal has been in the public eye for more than a decade, with multiple public enquiries and a string of prosecutions.
All of that went apparently unnoticed by the world’s richest man, until a few days ago.
Sky News analysis suggests just a handful of right-wing accounts on X prompted and developed Elon Musk’s interest in the topic, which has ignited debate online and offline.
This shows the volume of discussion on the subject on X before – and after – Musk’s involvement, looking at the keywords of grooming gangs and rape gangs.
The impact of the far right
There have been at least 40 million engagements since he took interest, according to Talkwalker, a social media monitoring tool.
Condemnation of rape and grooming gangs isn’t far-right in itself: the entire British public shares exactly the same position.
But there’s evidence that Musk’s introduction to the topic is a result of right-wing and far-right accounts on X.
This is Musk’s first post on the subject – on New Year’s Eve. He’s replying to an account he follows – and there are less than 1,000 of those – which focuses on immigration and crime statistics.
Tommy Robinson among most influential
Sky News has analysed more than 2,000 of Musk’s posts over this recent period to understand which are the most influential accounts, in terms of whom he replies to and who he reposts.
Right-wing commentators and news aggregators are prominent, as is far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson.
Peter Sweden, the account Musk has interacted with the most, has previously apologised for posts denying the Holocaust.
Ian Miles Cheong, a commentator based in Malaysia, and Visegrad 24, set up by South-African Polish advertiser Stefan Tompson, are influential right-wing news accounts with millions of followers between them.
And it’s taking up a lot of Musk’s time and efforts.
For a man with many interests, from space rockets to population birth rates, our research found that around a third of his recent output on X has been largely focused on grooming gangs.
Musk’s new favourite UK politician?
That has involved interactions with specific British politicians, notably his targeting of the government’s safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
But it even includes Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, whom Musk called a “cretin”.
Most interacted with by Musk, though, and also on that list above, is Rupert Lowe, the Reform UK MP.
After saying that Reform’s leader Nigel Farage didn’t “have what it takes”, Musk seems to think Lowe does.
We’ve just been speaking to shadow education minister Neil O’Brien, and we asked about the Tories’ amendment to call for a new inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal being voted down by MPs last night.
He told Sky’s Wilfred Frost that this is “not the end” of the push for an inquiry, and they will continue to propose amendments to force the issue.
He said politicians must “start to listen to the victims” and that we “do actually get to the truth about what happened in all these places” where grooming gangs operated.
He argued that local authorities do not have the same powers to investigate as an inquiry conducted by national government.
“But the truth is, there isn’t a good argument against having a national inquiry to properly join the dots, as Kemi Badenoch says, and to get to the truth,” he said.
Asked if he accepts that previous Tory governments failed grooming victims and their families, Mr O’Brien insisted that they “did a lot on this”, pointing to the success of the Grooming Gangs Task Force.
Pushed again on the question of if the Tories failed victims, the shadow minister admitted that they did.
“If you are a victim of this, and you’ve never had your chance to have your voice listened to, if there’s never been an inquiry in your area, then of course they’ve been failed, and they’re being failed right now. And we want to stop failing them.”
He continued: “When the victims themselves say, ‘no, we haven’t been listened to’ and there’s all these places, there’s never even been a proper look at this.
“And so if you say the previous government haven’t done enough of this, I agree. And it’s time to finally get justice for these people.”
Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard are back for 2025 with their guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes.
How are global events like Trump’s moves, China’s policies, and the world economy shaping UK politics? Foreign Secretary David Lammy hopes to show Labour are in the driving seat – Jack and Sam discuss if he can.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules are under scrutiny, with concerns of higher taxes or spending cuts on the horizon, as she jets off to China with the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey. And Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to tackle people smuggling – is it realistic?
👉 Listen to Politics At Jack And Sam’s on your podcast app 👈
You can send a WhatsApp to Jack and Sam on 07511 867 633 or email them: jackandsam@sky.uk
The foreign secretary is asked next about Donald Trump telling Hamas there will be “all hell to pay” if the Israeli hostages are not released by Hamas by the time he is inaugurated on 20 January.
David Lammy tells Sky’s Wilfred Frost: “I think that we are inching closer to that hostage deal that gets us a ceasefire.
“And I think that the issues now that are stopping us getting there come down to whether it is just a deal or whether it is, in fact, a ceasefire.
“And it’s our desire in this country that we do see an end to this conflict and we get to a negotiated solution going forward.
“And obviously there are issues about which hostages get released.”
He mentions Emily Damari, the last British citizen being held hostage by Hamas.
“This is an issue that the UK government continues to raise, both with the Israelis but also with those who are negotiating with Hamas. And I’m thinking here of the Qataris and the Egyptians, and I raised this with my Qatari counterpart just a few days ago.”
President-elect Donald Trump has refused to rule out economic or military measures to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, saying both are necessary for US national security.
Watch: Trump speaks to media about Greenland and Panama…
‘I’m not in the business of condemning our closest ally’
We ask Foreign Secretary David Lammy for his view of the comments, and he replies: “I do think it’s classic Donald Trump.”
He explains that the president-elect is fresh off a vast election victory, having increased his support across nearly all demographics.
“He came in very clearly saying he was going to work for working people,” Mr Lammy says. “And, he sees American national economic security as centring that.
“That is why he’s raising issues, in relation to the Panama Canal, and I suspect to Greenland.”
He adds that behind Mr Trump’s “intensity”, there are “actually quite serious national security and economic issues”.
His French counterpart and the German chancellor have spoken out against Mr Trump for those comments, and we ask Mr Lammy if the president-elect has crossed a line.
The foreign secretary says the future of Greenland is a matter for its people, and adds: “No NATO countries have gone to war since the establishment of NATO. And I don’t envisage that.”
Pushed again on the military threats, he says: “I’m not in the business of condemning our closest ally.
“I am in the business of interpreting what sits behind this, and there are some very serious national economic security issues. That’s the basis on which, Donald Trump has won his election.”
The US and UK will be able to “find common cause” on the goal of economic growth.
The foreign secretary is speaking to Sky News to tout his new “world first” sanctions regime to choke off illicit finance to the people-smuggling gangs that operate small boats across the Channel.
David Lammy tells us that it’s not just the Home Office that should be tackling this problem, saying the Foreign Office “does play a role”.
“When we’re returning people to their countries because they have no right to be here – that’s gone up 20%, 13,500 people returned. It’s Foreign Office officials often doing that,” he says.
“When we’re working with the national crime agencies in countries where people are passing through, to try and deter them, work with those countries to keep them there – it’s often diplomats at the centre of that.
“And here I want to use sanctions now to go after particularly the supply chains and the routes that people are doing.”
He says he wants to “go after those who are smuggling people and the supply chains that they rely on”.
Asked if he will be able to sanction states and leader who might inadvertently or intentionally be harbouring people smugglers, the foreign secretary says: “There may well be, sadly, leaders in countries who are behind this.
“Those who traffic don’t just traffic people – they traffic drugs and they traffic guns and equipment as well. And we do know that that sometimes involves politicians in different states.”
Measures to target those people include asset freezes, travel bans, and working with allies to do the same.
David Lammy is in the hot seat in Sky’s Westminster studio to take questions from Wilfred Frost.
He wants to discuss the new “world first” sanctions regime that he is unveiling today, designed to target people smuggling gangs and reduce Channel crossings.
The foreign secretary will no doubt be asked about his previous disobliging comments about US president-elect Donald Trump, as well as Elon Musk’s attacks in recent days.
Watch live on Sky News, in the stream above, at the link below – and follow updates here in the Politics Hub.
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