06/03/2025 17:21
The Guardian
This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage hereLucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, defended the government’s position on the new Sentencing Council guidelines (see 9.46am) during business questions in the Commons a few minutes ago.She was responding to the Conservative MP Luke Evans who said:When the law favours identity over principle, it ceases to be justice at all. Magna Carta taught us that.So will [Powell] ensure that the justice secretary comes to the house to ensure that under this government sentencing [doesn’t] become about who you are, not what you have done?The sentencing guidelines were consulted on under [the Conservative] government last year. They were not ruled out. They were developed and consulted on under [the Conservative] government. The current justice secretary, the remarkable and formidable justice secretary, has made absolutely clear her position on that. And she’s written to the Sentencing Council.So perhaps [Evans] might be better to refect on the actions of his own government, rather than attacking this one.Martin praised Starmer’s leadership on the Ukraine issue in recent days. Referring to the “challenging times” they were in, he said:You have borne the centre of gravity and stability to that situation which I think is appreciated, and I want you to know that.Martin said Northern Ireland has great “untapped potential”. Recalling what he and Keir Starmer were told during the breakfast meeting with business leaders, he said:It was interesting this morning, a number of business people said the greatest untapped potential is Northern Ireland, economically, very interesting.And that’s something I think we can work on, move forward as two governments making sure we realise that potential for all those in Ireland and we do it in a kind of co-operative way and develop it as much as we possibly can.Martin confirmed that Ireland is increasing its defence spending.As we sit here today, I think we would all agree that the world is more uncertain and unstable than it has been for a very long time and there are huge benefits to strengthening our friendship and working together on geopolitical challenges. Continue reading...
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