Commons inquiry into Prince Andrew’s rent-free housing will get nearer as public accounts committee requests particulars of lease
Yesterday Keir Starmer advised MPs that he favoured a parliamentary inquiry protecting Prince Andrew’s housing preparations at Royal Lodge – the mansion in Windsor which he leases from the crown property on a deal that includes him paying no hire.
As we speak the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) mentioned it’ll be asking the crown property for extra particulars of Andrew’s lease preparations – in what could be step one in the direction of a full investigation.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, mentioned:
The general public accounts committee shall be writing within the coming days to the crown property commissioners and HM Treasury, searching for additional info on the lease preparations for Royal Lodge.
Within the correspondence, our cross-party committee shall be elevating numerous questions with the crown property and HM Treasury. This varieties a part of our longstanding remit, on behalf of parliament and the British public, to look at the financial system, effectivity and effectiveness of public spending, and make sure the taxpayer is receiving greatest worth for cash.
Our committee has an additional alternative in 2026 to contemplate the annual report and accounts for the crown property, and can decide on whether or not to undertake any work on this within the regular means. We’ll overview the response we obtain to our forthcoming correspondence, and can contemplate at the moment whether or not to hunt additional info.
Prior to now the PAC has revealed reviews royal funds. But it surely has not taken proof from members of the royal household immediately, and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem chief, who needs to see Andrew summoned to parliament to face questions from MPs, is unlikely to get his want granted any time quickly.
Clifton-Brown does probably not want to put in writing to the crown property for particulars of the lease; they have been revealed within the Occasions on Monday night, after the crown property responded to a Freedom of Data request. Official our bodies usually take weeks or months to reply to FoI requests. However George Greenwood, the journalist who broke the story, mentioned he received a reply on the day – suggesting somone on the crown property was not sad concerning the concept of this info showing within the public area.
The paper mentioned:
The Occasions obtained a duplicate of the leasehold settlement for Royal Lodge, revealing the phrases below which the prince lives on the 30-room property.
It states that, whereas the prince paid £1m for the lease plus not less than £7.5 million for refurbishments accomplished in 2005, he has paid “one peppercorn (if demanded)” in hire per yr, since 2003.
He and his household are entitled to dwell within the property till 2078.
Share
Up to date at 10.33 EDT
Key occasions
Present key occasions solely
Please activate JavaScript to make use of this characteristic
The Labour MP Lloyd Hatton, who has been amongst these pushing for a fuller inquiry into Prince Andrew, welcomeed the announcement from the general public accounts committee. (See 3.31pm.)
He mentioned:
It’s excellent news the general public accounts committee is starting to take a a lot nearer have a look at this urgent matter. We should scrutinise any taxpayers’ cash which may be linked to the Royal Lodge. The general public rightly count on parliament to resolve this.
Share
Spending lower than 8% of recent fishing fund on Scotland ‘insanity’, MPs advised
The meals minister has confronted calls to clarify the “ocean-going insanity” of spending lower than 8% of a brand new fishing fund on Scotland, PA Media reviews. PA says:
Throughout a Commns pressing query this morning Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael pressed Angela Eagle to say when she deliberate to look once more at Scotland’s £28m allocation from the £360m UK-wide bundle.
Scotland lands probably the most fish by amount and worth out of the 4 UK nations, in line with the Authorities, and the Scottish fishing fleet has landed greater than three-quarters of UK quota species, equivalent to cod, haddock and herring, over latest years.
The federal government earlier this yr set out its intention to again coastal communities with funding when negotiators struck a 12-year settlement with the EU, granting British fishing entry and rights with no enhance within the quantity which EU vessels can catch in UK waters.
“We’re working carefully with our fishing and seafood sectors to make sure that they’re vibrant, worthwhile and sustainable alongside a wholesome and productive marine surroundings,” Eagle advised the Commons.
She mentioned the Fishing and Coastal Progress Fund will “help the following era of fishers and breathe new life into our coastal communities”.
Eagle continued: “This fund recognises the very important contribution that fishing and coastal communities make to our financial system, native communities and nationwide heritage. Designing this fund with stakeholders is paramount to its success, and we wish to work with business and communities to get their views on how you can maximise worth, and goal funding for max native impression.”
The minister added the fund “could be devolved, offering devolved governments with full discretion of how you can allocate funding and reaffirming this Authorities’s dedication to devolution”, with the allocations for Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont primarily based on the Barnett Method.
Carmichael, who chairs the Commons’ surroundings committee, advised MPs: “Let’s not overlook that this fund was created as a result of the prime minister went and rolled over for 12 years the catastrophically unhealthy deal that Boris Johnson gave us for 5.
“If the minister is honest when she says that the intention of the federal government is to maximise native funding, then to make use of the Barnett Method to distribute that is ocean-going insanity.”
Brendan O’Hara described the allocation as a “kick within the enamel to these fishing communities” in his Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber constituency.
Mairi Gougeon, the Scottish authorities’s rural affairs secretary, has beforehand written to Eagle, describing the allocation as “wholly unacceptable”.
Wales’s Fishing and Coastal Progress Fund allocation was £18m, with Northern Eire set to obtain £10m.
Share
Commons inquiry into Prince Andrew’s rent-free housing will get nearer as public accounts committee requests particulars of lease
Yesterday Keir Starmer advised MPs that he favoured a parliamentary inquiry protecting Prince Andrew’s housing preparations at Royal Lodge – the mansion in Windsor which he leases from the crown property on a deal that includes him paying no hire.
As we speak the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) mentioned it’ll be asking the crown property for extra particulars of Andrew’s lease preparations – in what could be step one in the direction of a full investigation.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, mentioned:
The general public accounts committee shall be writing within the coming days to the crown property commissioners and HM Treasury, searching for additional info on the lease preparations for Royal Lodge.
Within the correspondence, our cross-party committee shall be elevating numerous questions with the crown property and HM Treasury. This varieties a part of our longstanding remit, on behalf of parliament and the British public, to look at the financial system, effectivity and effectiveness of public spending, and make sure the taxpayer is receiving greatest worth for cash.
Our committee has an additional alternative in 2026 to contemplate the annual report and accounts for the crown property, and can decide on whether or not to undertake any work on this within the regular means. We’ll overview the response we obtain to our forthcoming correspondence, and can contemplate at the moment whether or not to hunt additional info.
Prior to now the PAC has revealed reviews royal funds. But it surely has not taken proof from members of the royal household immediately, and Ed Davey, the Lib Dem chief, who needs to see Andrew summoned to parliament to face questions from MPs, is unlikely to get his want granted any time quickly.
Clifton-Brown does probably not want to put in writing to the crown property for particulars of the lease; they have been revealed within the Occasions on Monday night, after the crown property responded to a Freedom of Data request. Official our bodies usually take weeks or months to reply to FoI requests. However George Greenwood, the journalist who broke the story, mentioned he received a reply on the day – suggesting somone on the crown property was not sad concerning the concept of this info showing within the public area.
The paper mentioned:
The Occasions obtained a duplicate of the leasehold settlement for Royal Lodge, revealing the phrases below which the prince lives on the 30-room property.
It states that, whereas the prince paid £1m for the lease plus not less than £7.5 million for refurbishments accomplished in 2005, he has paid “one peppercorn (if demanded)” in hire per yr, since 2003.
He and his household are entitled to dwell within the property till 2078.
Share
Up to date at 10.33 EDT
5 grooming gang survivors inform PM they are going to keep on panel provided that Jess Phillips stays in publish
5 survivors invited on to the kid sexual exploitation inquiry panel have written to Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood to say they are going to proceed working with the investigation provided that the safeguarding minister Jess Phillips stays in publish, Geraldine McKelvie reviews.
Share
James Cleverly might be not the one senior Tory who will not be conscious of the total particulars of the get together’s plan to revoke indefinite depart to stay from many individuals, together with individuals who have been in receipt of advantages and folks incomes lower than £38,700 a yr. (See 12.27pm.) The proposal is so excessive that it’s secure to imagine that it didn’t get correct scrutiny earlier than Chris Philp, the shadow dwelling secretary, revealed it in a non-public member’s invoice. In a column for the Monetary Occasions, Stephen Bush says this might result in 5% of the UK’s authorized inhabitants being deported. He says;
[The proposal] primarily signifies that nearly anybody who works within the UK for many of their working life will not be going to have the ability to retire within the UK — which in case you are in any means built-in to the nation goes to be an enormous wrench for you, your folks, neighbours and not less than a few of your loved ones members.
In scale, these proposals would imply deporting better numbers and a better proportion of the inhabitants than former Ugandan President Idi Amin’s deportation of Ugandan Asians. This scale of inhabitants motion is corresponding to that which occurred with the partition of India and Pakistan and the inspiration of the state of Israel …
Politically, the large winner right here is Nigel Farage. That the Conservative get together more and more holds positions which might be farther from mainstream British public opinion than Reform, and does so whereas being blamed by the general public for most of the UK’s issues immediately, is a present to him in his quest to first turn into the dominant power on the British proper after which to win an election.
My colleague Rafael Behr says he has heard recommendations that the Tories revealed their invoice earlier than Kemi Badenoch had even learn it.
I’ve heard it plausibly recommended that Badenoch herself might effectively not have bothered studying the draft invoice, or not carefully sufficient to understand what was really being proposed. And …
… removed from Lam “freelancing” in ST as some Tories have tried to trace since Sunday, she might, as keen beginner, have mistakenly assumed the boss knew what official get together coverage was. Rookie error.
Share
Starmer broadcasts £10m in further funding to guard mosques and Muslim religion centres throughout go to to Peacehaven
Keir Starmer was visiting the Peacehaven mosque in East Sussex immediately, which was topic to an arson assault earlier this month, to announce an additional £10m in funding for mosques and Muslim religion centres.
No 10 mentioned the invement would offer “very important safety measures together with CCTV, alarm methods, safe fencing and safety personnel providers”, and that it could be along with the £29.4m already allotted this yr for mosques and Muslim religion colleges.
Anti-Muslim hate crime rose by 19% within the yr ending March 2025, and it accounts for 44% of all non secular hate crime, No 10 mentioned.
Starmer mentioned:
Britain is a proud and tolerant nation. Assaults on any neighborhood are assaults on our whole nation and our values. This funding will present Muslim communities with the safety they want and deserve, permitting them to dwell in peace and security.
Keir Starmer greeting a boy at Peacehaven Mosque immediately. {Photograph}: Peter Nicholls/Getty PicturesKeir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood in dialog with worshippers at Peacehaven Mosque close to Brighton {Photograph}: Peter Nicholls/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
DfE welcomes figures exhibiting faculty attendance charges in England bettering, although nonetheless under pre-Covid ranges
Richard Adams
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s training editor.
College attendance charges in England continued to enhance within the final tutorial yr, in line with information launched by the Division for Training (DfE), though returning to pre-pandemic ranges has been slowed by a core of severely absent pupils and better ranges of absence amongst pupils with particular academic wants.
The figures for the autumn and spring phrases of 2024-25 present an throughout the board decline in absences in contrast with the earlier yr. There was a pointy fall within the variety of pupils classed as persistently absent, lacking 10% or extra of classroom classes, down by greater than 100,000 to almost 1.3m. However the quantity who have been severely absent after lacking 50% or extra rose barely by 8,000, to 166,000.
In state main colleges the absence price dropped to five.2% and in secondaries to eight.1%, persevering with the gradual restoration from the spike seen after the Covid pandemic. However each stay above pre-Covid ranges of three.9% and 5.2% respectively, with absence due to sickness remaining the most important issue.
A DfE spokesperson famous that the present Covid inquiry was “laying naked” the extent of the impression on youngsters and college absence:
This authorities is taking the motion wanted to get our youngsters again at school, with the largest enchancment in attendance in a decade final tutorial yr. Absence is down, persistent absence has plummeted and we’re slowing the cussed rise in extreme absence.
By free breakfast golf equipment in each main faculty, an attendance mentoring programme, and making certain earlier intervention for kids with particular wants we’re creating a college system that serves not just a few youngsters, however helps each baby to attain and thrive.
However the Liberal Democrats pointed to figures exhibiting that persistent absence amongst youngsters with particular wants elevated to greater than 72,000 over the interval, up by greater than 8,000 in a yr.
Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem training and kids spokesperson, mentioned:
Youngsters with particular wants are lacking extra faculty than ever earlier than – with the very system meant to help weak youngsters posing a severe danger to their future.
Share
Up to date at 08.57 EDT
Starmer says ‘in fact’ he has religion in safeguarding minister Jess Phillips
Keir Starmer has reaffirmed his confidence in Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, regardless of some grooming gang survivors calling for her resignation. (See 8.51am.)
Talking to broadcasters this morning, he mentioned:
A very powerful factor in relation to the grooming gangs is that we now have the nationwide inquiry and that completely will get to the reality and to justice.
Requested if he had religion in Phillips, Starmer replied:
Sure, in fact, I do.
Jess has been engaged on points involving violence in opposition to ladies and women for a lot of, a few years.
In accordance with PA Media, Starmer intends to succeed in out to victims within the gentle of what has occurred.
Share
Starmer rejects declare return of man deported to France below ‘one in, one out’ scheme has left plan ‘in tatters’
Keir Starmer has insisted his strategy to tackling small boats crossing the Channel stays on target regardless of an Iranian man re-entering the UK after being returned to France.
Talking to broadcasters immediately, Starmer mentioned the person, who now claims to be a sufferer of recent slavery, could be “fast-tracked again overseas”.
He advised broadcasters:
We all know he hasn’t received a declare to make, subsequently we’ll take away him very, very swiftly.
So his return journey again to United Kingdom is totally pointless, and it’s actually necessary I make that completely clear.
The person had been returned from the UK to France in September below the “one in, one out” deal struck over the summer time, however got here again throughout the Channel in a small boat a month later, PA Media reviews.
Starmer denied that the federal government’s strategy to stopping small boats was “in tatters”, whereas earlier, David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, mentioned the identification and detention of the Iranian man was an indication of “progress”.
Keir Starmer with Shabana Mahmood, the house secretary, throughout a go to to Peacehaven Mosque in East Sussex this morning. {Photograph}: Peter Nicholls/PAShareA girl strolling previous a polling station on the Tonyfelin Welsh Baptist Chapel, for the Caerphilly Senedd byelection which is going down immediately. {Photograph}: Andrew Matthews/PAAnd here’s a man strolling his canine immediately previous the constituency’s most well-known landmark, Caerphilly Citadel. {Photograph}: Andrew Matthews/PAShare
Mahmood says violence in opposition to ladies and women ‘nationwide emergency’ as recorded sexual offences attain document excessive
Rajeev Syal
Rajeev Syal is the Guardian’s dwelling affairs editor.
The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics report additionally says that the variety of sexual offences, together with rape, recorded by the police is at a document stage since present reporting strategies have been established.
The report says:
There have been basic will increase in police recorded sexual offences over the past decade, largely due to enhancements in police recording practices. There was a 9% enhance in YE [the year ending] June 2025 (to 211,225 offences), in contrast with the earlier yr (193,684 offences). That is partly due to the introduction of two new sexual offences subcodes in January 2024. These subcodes relate to sending or sharing intimate images or movies following the On-line Security Act 2023.
Round 34% (72,804 offences) of all sexual offences recorded by the police in YE June 2025 have been rape offences. This was a 6% enhance, in contrast with YE June 2024 (68,970 offences).
However the ONS additionally says that the police recorded crime figures are usually not a great way of measuring developments over time, as a result of new offences are created, police recording strategies change, and there was a rise within the variety of victims reporting offences.
The ONS additionally appears at Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) figures, and these are thought-about a extra dependable information to developments over time as a result of the CSEW measures if folks say they’ve been a sufferer of crime, no matter whether or not or not the offence was reported to the police.
It says;
When analysing long-term developments, we use the 16 to 59 years age vary to offer a comparable information time sequence. The prevalence of sexual assault amongst folks aged 16 to 59 years has fluctuated between 1.5% and three.0% over the past 20 years. During the last 10 years there was a rise in sexual assault, after a earlier lower from YE March 2005 to YE March 2014. Within the YE March 2025 survey, 2.4% of individuals aged 16 to 59 years had skilled sexual assault, in contrast with 1.7% within the YE March 2015 survey.
Commenting on the figures, Shabana Mahmood, the house secretary, mentioned these figures confirmed why the federal government was treating violence in opposition to ladies and women as a “nationwide emergency”. She mentioned:
These figures inform us what, tragically, many have lengthy recognized: violence in opposition to ladies and women is a nationwide emergency.
It’s encouraging to see from this information that victims are coming ahead, and that police and prosecutors are performing. These crimes too usually go unreported, and we can not remedy a disaster till we will see it absolutely.
Now, we should redouble our efforts to eradicate this evil. That’s why this authorities has made it our mission to halve violence in opposition to ladies and women inside a decade, as a part of our Plan for Change.
As dwelling secretary, I’ll guarantee police have the instruments to relentlessly pursue harmful offenders and that victims obtain the help they want.
Share
Up to date at 08.00 EDT
Murder price in England and Wales all the way down to lowest price for not less than 20 years, ONS says
The variety of homicides recorded by police in England and Wales has dropped to its lowest stage since present strategies of reporting started in 2003, PA Media reviews. PA says:
Some 518 homicides have been recorded within the yr to June, together with 444 offences of homicide and 68 of manslaughter, in line with a report from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics.
It is a drop of 6% from 552 within the earlier yr and 27% under the pre-pandemic whole of 710 in 2019/20.
The present technique of recording homicides dates from 2002/03, when the determine stood at 1,047 – though this contains the 173 victims of serial killer physician Harold Shipman.
The murder price within the yr to June stood at 8.4 offences per million folks – the bottom stage for the reason that Seventies, the House Workplace mentioned.
New crime figures for England and Wales revealed this morning additionally present there have been 51,527 knife offences recorded by forces within the 12 months to June, down yr on yr by 5%.
Different sorts of police-recorded offences elevated, with shoplifting up 13% yr on yr to 529,994 – just under the latest all-time excessive – and theft from the particular person at 145,860, up 5%.
Share
Reform’s solely Black department chair quits over ‘dangerous’ migration debate
The one Black department chair of Reform UK has left the rightwing populist get together, saying the tone of Britain’s migration debate is “doing extra hurt than good”, Chris Osuh reviews.
Share
Cleverly wrongly claims Tory deportation coverage wouldn’t retrospectively impression folks with indefinite depart to stay
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent.
The Conservatives’ coverage of retrospectively eradicating the correct to dwell within the UK from massive numbers of households seems to be inflicting confusion even amongst shadow ministers, with James Cleverly arguing this morning that the plan wouldn’t have an effect on life for individuals who have already got indefinite depart to stay.
Quizzed concerning the proposals, as set out in an interview over the weekend by Katie Lam, a junior House Workplace frontbencher for the Tories, Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, denied that folks already with ILR could possibly be eliminated below a future Conservative authorities.
He advised Occasions Radio:
That’s not the total element of the coverage. That’s not fairly the correct interpretation of the coverage. What we’re saying is indefinite depart to stay must be tighter.
Pressed on whether or not the adjustments could be retrospective, he mentioned:
Retrospective adjustments are usually not what we’re speaking about as our coverage.
That is curious, on condition that the Conservative plans on ILR, as set out in a draft invoice introduced by the shadow dwelling secretary, Chris Philp, explicitly units out that folks with ILR can have this eliminated in the event that they commit against the law, declare any form of advantages, or earn lower than £38,700 for six months or longer. The part is even titled “Revocation of Indefinite Depart to Stay in sure circumstances”.
Assuming that is nonetheless the coverage – and Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson mentioned it was on Wednesday, and even explicitly defended the retrospective facet – it’s uncommon for somebody like Cleverly, who was each dwelling secretary and shadow dwelling secretary, to not be throughout the small print.
In equity to him, whereas Philp’s invoice was tabled in Might, few folks paid a lot consideration earlier than Lam’s feedback. The small print of how the deportations would work, together with whether or not it would contain splitting up households, are additionally nonetheless unclear.
Share
Up to date at 07.28 EDT
Claire Coutinho claims Tony Blair’s thinktank ‘catching up’ with Tories after it says 2030 ‘clear energy’ goal needs to be dropped
The Tories have welcomed a report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), the previous Labour’s PMs thinktank, saying the federal government ought to drop its plan to decarbonise electrical energy manufacturing within the UK by 2030.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow vitality secretary, claimed that the TBI was “catching up” with the Conservative get together – although the thinktank tank will not be supporting the Tory name for the 2050 web zero goal to be deserted.
In a report, the TBI mentioned that, whereas the 2030 clear energy mission was laudable when it was launched as considered one of Keir Starmer’s 5 missions in 2023, the federal government ought to now be focusing extra on price of residing points. The TBI report mentioned:
Launched in the midst of the fuel disaster and in a low-interest surroundings, [the clean power misison] was proper for its time, however circumstances have modified. The UK now wants greater than a decarbonisation plan. It wants a full-spectrum vitality technique constructed on development, resilience and ample clear electrical energy. This implies prioritising price, flexibility and long-term stability – the true constructing blocks of electrification – not simply short-term emissions cuts …
To focus minds throughout authorities, the clear energy 2030 mission ought to subsequently be reframed as cheaper energy 2030, web zero 2050.
The UK’s dedication to web zero stays agency. Britain led the world in enshrining the Local weather Change Act, and that authorized obligation stands. Whereas some have recommended strolling again the nation’s dedication to the Local weather Change Act or to attaining web zero by 2050, that selection would quantity to rolling again progress. The query is not whether or not to decarbonise, however how – how you can ship clear energy affordably, securely and with public help.
This passage doesn’t point out the truth that Blair himself was at one level a type of suggesting “strolling again” on web zero 2050. Blair has subsequently clarified his pondering, and his thinktank backs the Local weather Change Act – in contrast to the Conserative get together, that desires to repeal it.
However this didn’t cease Coutinho this morning claiming that Blair is on her facet. She mentioned:
I’m glad Tony Blair’s thinktank has been copy-and-pasting my speeches. Power is prosperity and the precedence for any vitality coverage must be coping with the truth that we now have received the costliest electrical energy on this planet.
The Conservative get together are the one get together with a plan to chop payments. We’ll axe the carbon tax to chop payments for each household immediately. It’s good that the TBI is catching up – and now it’s time for Ed Miliband to undertake our low cost energy plan to chop electrical energy payments by 20% tomorrow.
Commenting on the TBI report, a spokesperson for Miliband’s vitality division mentioned:
This report rightly recognises that clear energy is the correct selection for this nation. This authorities’s clear energy mission is precisely how we’ll ship cheaper energy and produce down payments for good.
As Kiran Stacey and Helena Horton report, the TBI could also be on to one thing; ministers imagine they might have to simply accept that they gained’t have the ability to obtain the clear energy 2030 goal as a result of they should hold vitality payments down.
Share
Renewable vitality funding ought to come from defence budgets, say retired navy leaders
Funding in renewable vitality needs to be counted below defence expenditure, says a gaggle of retired senior navy personnel, as a result of the local weather disaster represents a menace to nationwide safety, Fiona Harvey reviews.
Share
