'Prepare for the worst!' Britain braces for Trump's tariffs as time runs out for UK-US 'prosperity deal'

'Focus on catching criminals not policing social media!' Kemi Badenoch calls for 'common sense' as Tory leader rebukes police

Police should stop policing social media and focus on catching criminals, Kemi Badenoch has said.

The Tory leader spoke out after a couple were detained by police in Hertfordshire over messages they had posted on a WhatsApp group about their local school.

Maxie Allen and his partner Rosalind Levine, from Borehamwood, told The Times they were held for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications, and causing a nuisance on school property.

A police force is now carrying out a "rapid and thorough review" over complaints they made about their daughter's primary school, which included comments on WhatsApp.

And now, Badenoch has told GB News just what she wants to see Britain's police forces doing...

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REMINDER: No10 vowed UK-US 'prosperity deal' talks would 'continue at pace this week'

As time runs out on a UK-US deal, Downing Street's line just two days ago was that talks on a transatlantic "prosperity deal" would continue "at pace" this week.

A readout of a call between Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump on Sunday read: "The Prime Minister spoke to President Trump this evening.

"The President opened by wishing His Majesty the King best wishes and good health.

"They discussed the productive negotiations between their respective teams on a UK-US economic prosperity deal, agreeing that these will continue at pace this week.

"Discussing Ukraine, the Prime Minister updated the President on the productive discussions at the meeting of the Coalition of Willing in Paris this week. The leaders agreed on the need to keep up the collective pressure on Putin.

"They agreed to stay in touch in the coming days."

Toby Young calls for urgent DEI crackdown in universities after Sussex slapped with record fine

Tory peer Lord Young has called for an urgent crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in Britain's universities after Sussex University was slapped with a landmark near-£600,000 fine.

Sussex was forced to pay out £585,000 by the Office for Students (OfS) after the regulator found "significant and serious breaches" in upholding free speech and academic freedom.

Now, Free Speech Union director Young has urged education minister Baroness Smith of Malvern to advise all universities to review their DEI rules as a result.

He asked: "In the light of the Office for Students finding that Sussex University’s trans and non-binary equality policy was incompatible with the registration conditions imposed by the Office for Students on all English universities requiring them to uphold free speech and academic freedom, would the minister advise all universities to review their EDI policies to ensure that they do not chill lawful speech and are not incompatible with their regulatory compliance requirements?"

Lady Smith replied: "I hope that all universities will be looking carefully at this ruling and also will be noting the second element of it, which was around the governance necessary for considering issues such as this.

"I think all universities need to be clear that these important decisions - and sometimes these challenging conflicts - need to be considered at the highest possible level and with the strongest possible governance."

RECAP: Donald Trump SIGNS OFF on Keir Starmer's Chagos 'surrender' - but Labour refuses to come clean on true cost to Britons

Donald Trump has finally signed off on Sir Keir Starmer's plan to hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius, No10 has confirmed.

The UK will now ramp up its negotiations with Mauritius ahead of eventually transferring sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman made the comments as MPs tore into one another about how the UK will cover the costs of the estimated £9billion deal.

In a fiery exchange in the House of Commons, Tory MP Joe Robertson asked: “The Government is planning to give away sovereign British territory along with billions of pounds to Mauritius. The money hasn’t been referred to in the spring statement or the budget, where is it coming from?”

Foreign Minister Stephen Doughty replied by stressing the details would be provided in "due course".

Shadow Foreign Minister Andrew Rosindell also pushed the Foreign Minister on the details.

“When will this horrific deal finally come to Parliament and what time will we have to debate it?," he said. "Or better still, why doesn’t the minister dump the deal completely and keep Chagos British?”

Doughty replied: “A financial element was crucial to protect the operation of that crucial base. Once the treaty is signed and put before both houses for scrutiny, for application in the usual way, this will, of course, include costs. The Government will not scrimp on our security, protecting the British people is our number one priority.”

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'We have a real problem!' Labour dodges string of cross-party questions on China as fears raised AGAIN over 'spy hub' mega-embassy

Labour's Security Minister Dan Jarvis dodged a string of cross-party questions on China this afternoon after it emerged that the country wouldn't be included on the Government's foreign influence register.

Leading Tory China critics Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Julian Lewis, as well as the Lib Dems' Lisa Smart, all issued warnings over Beijing's growing influence on Britain - forcing Jarvis to apologise for "not being able to speculate" on whether China would be included on the "blacklist".

Smart asked: "Does the minister believe that the building of this embassy will encourage the Chinese Communist Party to carry on its attempts to subvert our democracy?"

Then, Lewis blasted: "Two out of the four ugly totalitarian sisters [Russia and Iran] have been included on the list so far and I trust that China and North Korea will both be added to the enhanced tier in the fullness of time.

"Can [Jarvis] take the message back to the Government that the House is concerned about building the biggest Chinese communist embassy in western Europe, in London?"

Jarvis vowed that "national security has been our core priority throughout this particular process" - and said he was "limited in what I can say" ahead of Angela Rayner's final decision on the embassy.

Ex-Tory leader IDS added: "The truth is that we have a real problem because China is at the epicentre of everything to disrupt democracy and freedom. Why is China not in that statement today?"

Jarvis then replied: "I'm sorry that I'm not going to be able to speculate on which countries may or may not specified in the future."

'Come to the Commons and face scrutiny!' Priti Patel scolds Labour as Starmer gears up to give away Chagos Islands

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel has told Labour to "come to the House of Commons and face scrutiny" over the Government's plans to "surrender" the Chagos Islands.

Writing on social media this afternoon, Patel blasted: "Labour should have the courage to come to the House of Commons and face scrutiny over their deal to surrender the Chagos islands and pay for the privilege.

"This remains a very bad deal for British taxpayers - and we now know money is going to be frontloaded to Mauritius, at a time when Labour is stripping vulnerable pensioners of their winter fuel payments and whacking family farms and businesses with punishing taxes."

'Why not China?' Tories incredulous as Beijing omitted from Labour's foreign influence blacklist

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has called for China to be included in a new foreign influence register after Labour announced Russia would be "blacklisted" under the scheme.

Anyone "carrying out activity as part of any arrangement" with a number of Russian state organisations will now have to register with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs), Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said earlier.

But with fears growing of China's growing influence in Britain, Philp has warned that omitting Beijing is the "elephant in the room".

"We know China engages in industrial-scale espionage, seeking to steal technology from government, universities and from industries. They repress Chinese citizens here and have sought to infiltrate our political system," Philp warned.

"There is no question in my mind, China should be in that enhanced tier."

Philp added that it was "astonishing" that China has not been listed on the scheme, adding: "Isn't the truth this - in their desperation to get economic growth going, after the Chancellor's rather unfortunate autumn budget, the Government seems to be prioritising economic links over national security when it comes to China?"

Dan Jarvis replied that he was "not going to speculate on which countries may or may not be specified in the future", adding: "The Government is taking a consistent long-term and strategic approach to managing the UK's relationship with China."

'We would pay!' Badenoch dismisses calls to slap Trump with retaliatory tariffs

Kemi Badenoch has dismissed calls for the UK to slap tariffs on the US in response to Donald Trump's trade war.

Speaking to GB News, the Tory leader said: "If you slap tariffs on US goods that are coming here, they're going to get more expensive for the people here to buy them.

"I do not want to do anything that is going to make anything more expensive. This may be something that we have to revisit later. It depends on exactly what the US is doing."

'Who's in charge?!' Robert Jenrick RIPS APART two-tier justice in Commons grilling

Robert Jenrick has grilled Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood after yet again accusing Sir Keir Starmer of "two-tier justice".

In a fiery Commons exchange, the Shadow Justice Secretary said: "The Lord Chancellor must be living in a parallel universe if she's giving herself on a pat on the back today.

"She sat on her hands for weeks, she took seven days to gather her thoughts and put her views in writing to the Sentencing Council. Her incompetence took this down to the wire."

He added: "The Justice Secretary has been humiliated and undermined by activist judges seeking to undermine the will of this place, our Parliament.

"Her authority has been shredded. She is being treated as a two-tier, second-tier Justice Secretary. This was entirely preventable."

However, Mahmood said the delayed Sentencing Council guidelines would "sacrifice too much".

The Justice Secretary said: "The new guidance, if it came into force, would encourage judges to request them for some cohorts of offenders and not others.

"Specifically it notes that it would, and I quote, ‘normally be considered necessary to request pre-sentence reports for ethnic, cultural or faith minorities’.

"It is important to be clear about the impact a pre-sentence report is likely to have in this instance, which is that it is more likely to discourage a judge from sending an offender to jail, and it is this that creates the perception of differential treatment before the law and risks undermining public confidence in the justice system."

Starmer vows 'EVERYTHING is on the table' in Trump tariff warning as UK faces extra costs in hours

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to keep "all options on the table" as Britain mulls over its response to Donald Trump's tariffs.

Speaking just hours before tariffs look set to hit Britons with extra costs, the Prime Minister said: "Look, the likelihood is there will be tariffs. Nobody welcomes that, nobody wants a trade war.

"But I have to act in the national interest and that means all options have to remain on the table."

However, Starmer added: “I’m not going to get ahead of myself, but I am talking to the sectors most impacted, and I think what they want most is a calm and collected response to this – not a knee jerk response.

“We are, of course, negotiating an economic deal, which will I hope deal and mitigate the tariffs. That’s, I think, where most people would want this to land. [I] can’t predict the future on that, but we’re working hard on it.

“I don’t think a trade war is in our interest – but of course the national interest is what I am guided by, and therefore we must have all options on the table.”

'It's time to come clean!' Labour fires back against Badenoch's attack

Responding to the Leader of the Opposition's speech, Labour Party chairwoman Elli Reeves said: “It’s time Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives finally came clean and admitted that they intend on reversing Labour’s record investment in our NHS which would leave working people languishing on waiting lists.

“After 14 years of sheer economic chaos under the Tories, they now seem to spend all their time opposing our plans to fund vital investment in the health service. They are in complete denial about their economic record. They haven’t listened and will never learn.

“Labour is getting on with the job of fixing our public services and delivering for working people through our Plan for Change, with NHS waiting lists falling for five consecutive months and more than 3 million workers getting a pay increase through our boost to the minimum wage.”

Badenoch accuses Labour of 'yet another betrayal'

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of "yet another betrayal" hitting out at "Labour's jobs tax."

In a speech, she said Labour "promised they wouldn't raise taxes on working people" but accused them of instead hitting working people in the "worst possible way."

She said: "They hiked taxes on farmer, they introduced a jobs tax that is killing businesses...they even snatched away pensioners' winter fuel payments, despite their promise to protect them."

RECAP: Keir Starmer's migrant crisis record WORST of any PM as Channel crossings soar

Sir Keir Starmer's small boats record is worse than any other Prime Minister since the Channel crossings first rocked Britain in 2018, damning new data has revealed.

Despite the Prime Minister's tough talk yesterday, a staggering 29,884 asylum seekers arrived on British shores between Labour's thumping victory last summer and March 29 this year.

The figure equates to just over 780 per week, compared to 570 for Rishi Sunak and just 400 for Boris Johnson.

After entering No10, Starmer vowed to "smash the gangs" but immediately axed Sunak's Rwanda relocation plan.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp claimed the latest surge has come as a "direct consequence" of the decision to cancel the Rwanda scheme.

He said: “Today’s conference will make no difference. Law enforcement alone cannot stop illegal immigration – you need a removals deterrent.”

However, a Home Office spokesman argued: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.

"The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay, and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.

“That’s why the UK is hosted the landmark Organised Immigration Crime Summit, bringing together 40 countries to dismantle people-smuggling gangs.

"This adds to our action to strengthen enforcement powers, ramp up returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade and crackdown on illegal working.”

'Stop kowtowing to him!' Starmer urged to convene Cobra meeting ahead of Trump trade war 

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to convene a Cobra meeting just hours before Donald Trump's tariffs look set to take effect.

The Liberal Democrats, who have been outspokenly in favour of pursuing closer relations with Europe, also want the Prime Minister to impose tariffs on Elon Musk's Teslas.

After calling for a Cobra meeting, Calum Miller MP, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said: “The Prime Minister should call a COBRA meeting today to coordinate Britain’s response to Trump’s trade war – including plans for Tesla tariffs and emergency measures to boost demand in the hardest hit sectors.

“The Government needs to pull out all the stops to protect businesses and families from Donald Trump’s destructive and needless trade war.

“We can’t kowtow to Trump any longer. That is why we’re urging the Government to urgently start talks on a new trade deal with our European neighbours, so we can negotiate with Washington from the strongest position possible.”

Starmer rejects 'knee jerk' Trump tariff response as US barriers fuel recession fears

Sir Keir Starmer has rejected taking on a "knee jerk" reaction to Donald Trump's looming tariffs.

Speaking ahead of the scheduled imposition of levies tomorrow, the Prime Minister said: "I don't think anybody wants to see tariffs. We're working hard on an economic deal which we've made rapid progress on, and I hope we can make really speedy resolutions on."

He added: "I'm not going to go ahead of myself. But I am talking to the sectors most impacted, and I think what they want most is a calm and collected response to this, not a knee-jerk response."

Household costs rise for MILLIONS as Britons hit by EIGHT bill rises and tax hikes

Britons are being hit with a series of household bill increases in what has been nicknamed "awful April."

Budgets are set to be squeezed across the country, as council tax, stamp duty energy bills and water tariffs are among those set to be increased.

Water and energy bills, council and car tax, broadband, stamp duty, tv licence fees are all set to go up from today.

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Donald Trump REJECTS Keir Starmer's eleventh hour call to avoid trade war

Sir Keir Starmer was hit with a brutal rejection by President Donald Trump as the Prime Minister failed to bid for Britain to be excluded from new tariffs.

It comes as the US State Department issued a statement saying it was "concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom" with a source telling The Telegraph there should be "no free trade without free speech".

The concerns from Washington centre around the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near an abortion clinic in Bournemouth reading: "Here to talk if you want."

Tossici-Bolt's case is set to return its verdict on Friday, with the US State Department saying it was "monitoring" the situation.

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Whitehall chiefs hiring woke £104k lawyer to oversee equality on Falklands

Whitehall chiefs have made a listing for an £104,000 a year lawyer to oversee equality on the Falkland Islands.

The post would look to cover equality on the 3,662-strong island, which is also home to around a million penguins.

The Head of Legal Services will work in the capital Stanley for the Falkland Islands Government.

Starmer warned UK faces free trade snub over free speech

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that the UK will miss out of a free trade deal with the US due to an ongoing free speech row.

The US State Department is "concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom", particularly due to a clampdown on anti-abortion activism.

It said it was “monitoring” the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading: “Here to talk if you want.”