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Starmer to meet Henry Nowak’s family this afternoon, No 10 says – UK politics live | Politics
Starmer to meet Nowak’s family this afternoon, No 10 says
Keir Starmer is going to hold a meeting with the family of Henry Nowak, No 10 has said. The private meeting will take place in Downing Street this afternoon.
Key events
Here are the full political donation figures for the first quarter of 2026 from the Electoral Commission. (See 9.31am.) There are more details here.
Reform UK attracted £9.3m in donations, but the Conservatives are proud of getting £4.2m. They received money from 174 people “from a variety of backgrounds”, they say.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, said:
Under Kemi’s leadership, the Conservative party is attracting a real breadth and depth of donors. Unlike other parties, we are not reliant on foreign based crypto-billionaires or trade union paymasters. We are backed by a wide range individual job creators and risk-takers, both large and small, across the country who make a deliberate choice about who they back to lead this country.
Badenoch says she has met with Nowak’s parents and they agree with her about ‘need to bring common sense back’
Kemi Badenoch has posted a message on social media saying she met Henry Nowak’s father, mother and stepmother this morning. She praises their courage, and says:
Henry’s family do not want anger to tear communities apart. They are a family who have friends across faith and race, and so did Henry. His family want his memory to help bring our society together.
Everyone knows I have strong views about how we should deal with equality under the law. What the family agreed with me on is that we need to bring common sense back, and that is what we should all be fighting for.
What bringing ‘common sense back” might actually mean isn’t set out by Badenoch in her post.
Robert Jenrick, the former Tory who is now Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, was doing a media round this morning. One of his former colleagues in the Conservative party, Simon Hoare, shared this thought about him on social media this morning.
At “best” Jenrick is a political chameleon. Others words beginning with C might also be appropriate. I still remember him begging for my vote in the leadership (he called me on the day of the last MPs round) when he described Kemi as being too of the right & he was the moderate
In his pooled TV interview, Keir Starmer refused to discuss the leaked messages from Darren Jones, chief secretary to the PM, to Peter Mandelson. Asked about the revelations (see 10.31am), Starmer just said:
We just had a big process in parliament where many, many documents have been put before parliament, probably the biggest exercise of transparency ever by any government. That is open now. The material is there for everybody to see.
Starmer criticises Elon Musk for trying to ‘whip up division’ in UK in light of Nowak murder
Keir Starmer has criticised Elon Musk for trying to “whip up division” in the UK following the murder of Henry Nowak and the conclusion of the trial of his killer.
The PM spoke out after it was revealed that Musk has written more than 110 posts retweets and replies on X, the social media platform that he owns, about British politics since last Wednesday. That is far more than he has written about SpaceX, his company which is about to launch on the stock market.
Musk champions far-right politicians and parties on X, and most of his posts have been about the Nowak case, where he has strongly endorsed the view that the student was a victim of anti-white racism by the police. Although once close to Nigel Farage, Musk is now promoting Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party, which is even more extreme and anti-migrant than Reform UK.
Starmer normally avoids commenting on Musk, who has been fiercely critical of Starmer on X since early last year, when his tweets played a huge role in putting the grooming gangs scandal at the top of the political agenda.
But today, asked about Musk, Starmer said:
We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division, that is not who we are in Britain.
In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people.
When we have a terrible case like Henry’s case, Henry Nowak, we react calmly as his family have done.
Today the Financial Times has published a report about Musk’s recent interventions. In their story, Amy Borrett, Rachel Rees and Joel Suss say:
Elon Musk’s interventions in UK politics have reignited over the past week, prompting concerns about the influence of the world’s richest man ahead of a byelection that could trigger a change in prime minister.
Musk has written more than 110 posts, retweets and replies about British politics since last Wednesday on his social media platform X, with a focus on the murder of student Henry Nowak.
UK politics accounted for more than one-third of his X activity over the past week, according to FT analysis – almost three times the share devoted to SpaceX, even as Musk sought a $1.8tn valuation in his satellite and AI company’s highly anticipated IPO on 12 June.
Starmer was speaking in a pooled TV interview, and he criticised Musk’s interventions in the Nowak scandal after being asked about the decision by the Labour MP Jess Asato to take legal action against Musk’s xAI company over its Grok tool being used to produce a fake sexualised pictures of her.
Starmer said he fully supported what Asato was doing. He said:
Jess Asato is absolutely right in the action that she is taking. Disgusting images were created in her particular case by Grok. And I’m really pleased that we took Grok on a few months ago, because that’s the fight we should be in.
Referring to Grok turning off its sexualised image generating function earlier this year, in response to pressure from the UK government and others, Starmer said:
Taking on some of these platform providers, some of these disgusting images … we won that.
But Jess is right, she’s a parliamentarian, and I’m 100% behind the action that she has taken …
When it comes to disgusting images on Grok, we take Grok on and fight because that’s who we are as a country.
NHS to curb political symbols on uniforms after antisemitism report
The NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-ordered report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” in the service, Denis Campbell reports.
Minister won’t fully defend Darren Jones over embarrrassing Mandelson texts, but suggests he was exaggerating
At the start of the week, the Times reported that Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, was thinking of standing to be the next Labour leader. The prospect of Jones replacing Keir Starmer always seemed a bit of a long shot. But today it is safe to say the Jones campaign is definitely over. It has been killed off by Tim Shipman, the Spectator’s political editor.
In an article published today, Shipman reveals some messages that Jones sent to Peter Mandelson that must have made him squirm with embarrassment. Jessica Elgot has all the details in her story here.
These messages were not disclosed on Monday, as part of the humble address release, because Jones used disappearing messages. It is also understood that he got a new phone when he moved from being a Treasury minister to being chief secretary of the PM. But the recipient of the messages will have had them too. The Cabinet Office won’t need a leak inquiry to work out where Shipman got his info.
Jones was speaking in the Commons yesterday, winding up the debate on the Mandelson files. The Shipman article was not out at that point, but in his speech Jones included an apology which would only have made proper sense to anyone (like Jones) who knew what the Spectator was about to publish. Jones said:
Did I consciously ignore the stories [about Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein] that followed Peter Mandelson, or indeed know about many of them, from many, many years ago? I do not think that I did.
Did I ever ignore warnings that were put to me about Peter Mandelson? I did not receive any, to do so.
But as I reflected on [Alex Davies-Jones’ speech in the debate, in which she read out a statement from one of Epstein’s victims], it made me think: did I at best subconsciously treat Peter Mandelson differently because I believed him to have influence and power within the Labour party? I think the answer to that question is yes, I did.
Have I benefited from that relationship in the time I have been an elected politician? I think in part the answer to that question is yes, I did.
For that I would like to apologise to the house, to the victims … and commit to then doing something about it.
Lucy Rigby, the chief secretary to the Treasury, was asked about the Jones messages in interviews this morning. Speaking to Times Radio, she said: “I don’t think it’s necessarily right to over-index on some of these messages.” Commenting on the messages where Jones was critical of colleagues, she said:
Who hasn’t come out of a work meeting at some point and sent a message to a colleague or a family member or whatever, sort of, you know, letting off steam, letting off a bit of frustration. You may well choose to exaggerate, or whatever, for effect.
But, asked specifically about the message commiserating with Mandelson on the day he was sacked, she said: “I wouldn’t have used those words.”
And, asked about it on Sky News, she replied:
You asked me how I feel about that? Not great is the honest answer.
Jenrick claims it’s ‘ludicrous’ to say Reform UK stoking divison over Nowak murder
Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, was doing a media round this morning. Asked to respond to Labour claims that Nigel Farage was stoking divison in his response to the murder of Henry Nowak, Jenrick said that was a “ludicrous” claim. He said:
I was absolutely stunned by those ludicrous comments. There’s nothing that Nigel Farage has done which has encouraged division.
He has simply shown leadership in setting out the course of action that now needs to be taken to make sure that we fix this problem and treat everybody equally before the law.
In a TV address on Tuesday morning, Farage said people should respond to the killing with “pure cold rage” and he said he was afraid what would happen to Britain if “anti-white prejudice” was not stamped out quickly.
There will be one urgent question in the Commons, at 10.30am, on Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure. A Foreign Office minister will reply. Then, after business questions, Josh MacAlister, minister for children, will give a statement on a family reunion scheme for children in care.
Reform UK gets £9m in donations in first quarter of 2026, including £7m from two crypto billionaires
The Electoral Commission has published its figures for donations to political parties in the first quarter of 2026 and they show that Reform UK was given £9m. Lucy White from Bloomberg was the first with the numbers.
NEW: Reform UK has once again smashed party donation totals, raising more than £9m in the first quarter. Boosted by another £3m from Thailand-based crypto investor Harborne – just before Labour capped donations from overseas – and £4m from crypto entrepreneur Ben Delo
We knew about the Delo donation. As Rowena Mason reported in April, Delo, a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business, said that he had given Reform UK £4m this year.
Delo has also said that he is going to move back to the UK so that he won’t be affected by the Labour legislation imposing a £100,000 a year cap on how much people living abroad can donate to political parties.
The ban came into force on 25 March, the day it was announced by Steve Reed, the communities secretary. It will affect Christopher Harborne, another cryptocurrency billionaire who is Reform UK’s biggest donor. He is a British citizen but lives in Thailand and he gave the party £12m last year.
Today’s figures show that he also gave Reform UK £3m in the first quarter of this year – suggesting that the money was handed over shortly before the cap came into force.
Minister dismisses ‘two-tier justice’ claim in light of Henry Nowak tragedy as ‘slur’ on police
Good morning. The most interesting event of the day may well turn out to be one taking place late tonight, when Andy Burnham, the Labour candidate for Makerfield and potential next PM, takes part in a BBC byelection Question Time special. Yesterday, Burnham said that at some point today he would give a more considered response to the Henry Nowak murder, and the issues it has raised about policing and race equality. It is not clear yet whether we will get that response on QT, or before.
But this morning the government seems to be firming up its opposition to those claiming that what happened to Nowak was evidence of “two-tier justice”. Reform UK is the main party using this phrase, but some Tories have made the same argument. Yesterday, Keir Starmer said he did not accept that Britain has two-tier policing. This morning Lucy Rigby, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been doing an interview round, and she told Sky News this allegation was a “slur” on the police. Asked about the claim, she said:
Fundamentally, I think that is a slur on the thousands of police officers that go out to work every day, putting themselves in harm’s way to serve the public, to try and prevent crime, and to keep us all safe.
The suggestion that we have two–tier policing, which suggests at its heart that the police are on a sort of systemic basis pushing the interests of one group above another – I genuinely think is a slur on all those police officers that are serving this country day and night, seven days a week.
Here is our overnight story on the Nowak controversy, by Vikram Dodd, Peter Walker and Steven Morris.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
9.30am: The Department for Education publishes annual figures on the number of pupils and staff in schools.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in North Yorkshire, before attending the mayoral council, a summit with mayors from England.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, is speaking at a lobby lunch.
2pm: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Warwickshire.
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The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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