Markus Andrews

The Online Safety Act is “not up for negotiation” and will not be part of any trade deal discussions with the United States, MPs have heard.There have been reports that, in the wake of lobbying from US-based tech giants, President Donald Trump would push the UK to water down online safety laws in exchange for a trade deal or relief from tariffs.But when asked directly by MPs on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee if the Act could be part of trade negotiations, parliamentary under-secretary for online safety Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said: “The Prime Minister has made it absolutely clear that the Online Safety Act is not up for negotiation.“It’s not part of the trade deal discussions. We’ve made that clear, and the fact is that the Online Safety Act is a piece of legislation – it can’t just be negotiated away.“It’s well through the process of being implemented, so it can’t be changed, and we’re happy to reassure everybody that we are sticking with the Online Safety Act.”The online safety rules are currently being steadily rolled out and, once fully in place, will require platforms hosting user-generated content, such as social media sites, to protect users, in particular children, from illegal and harmful content, as well as put measures in place to ensure users do not encounter harm.Those found in breach of the rules could face fines of up to £18 million, or up to 10% of global turnover – whichever is greater – and, in the most serious cases, sites could be blocked from the UK.Giving evidence earlier in the session, Mark Bunting, from Ofcom, said that, had the Online Safety Act been in force during last summer’s riots, which were sparked by misinformation spreading on social media in the wake of the Southport stabbings, platforms would have faced action from the communications regulator.During an appearance before the committee in February, tech firms including Meta, TikTok and X had suggested very little would have been different had the online safety rules been in force, but Mr Bunting did not agree.“I think we were very clear that we thought there were a number of questions that the tech firms would have had to answer had the duties been in force when those events took place,” he told MPs.“Now, I don’t want to go back and legislate events that happened before the duties were in force, but I think I can say that we don’t think the companies are sufficiently, consistently or effectively responding to events of this kind, and, as the committee will probably be aware, we’re working now on proposals for further measures in our codes of practice for companies to implement crisis response protocols, specifically in response to the events of last summer.“It will expect companies to be doing a lot more and to be able to be much more accountable for their response than they have been in the past.” More

Doctors at the British Medical Association (BMA) have condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex, dubbing it “biologically nonsensical” and “scientifically illiterate”. The union branch representing resident doctors – made up of around 50,000 medics previously known as junior doctors – passed a motion on Saturday criticising the judgement, which ruled that trans women are not legally women under the Equalities Act. Politicians have said the judgement – which means that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate” – provides clarity, while gender critical campaigners have hailed it as a victory for biological women. However, the doctors argued that a straightforward binary divide between sex and gender “has no basis in science or medicine while being actively harmful to transgender and gender-diverse people”.Resident doctors voted to condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling More

Tony Blair has warned Western policies to tackle global climate change are “failing”, demanding a radical reset to win over hearts and minds on the issue.The major intervention by the former prime minister torpedoes current net zero policies and calls for the COP process to be torn down and replaced.It is a shot across the bows of the current Labour government and energy secretary Ed Miliband’s plans to push headlong towards renewables.Writing the foreword for his own think tank’s new paper, The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change, Sir Tony warned that there is a widening credibility gap with voters who are “being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal.” The intervention could not come at a more sensitive time for Sir Keir Starmer’s government which is facing local elections in 48 hours, a first serious electoral test since the general election.Sir Tony endorses the paper, authored by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI)’s director of climate and energy policy Lindy Fursman, which calls for the COP international series of conferences to be dismantled, while a “new coalition” must be built to tackle the climate crisis. Tony Blair (PA) More

Migrants convicted of sexual offences will be banned from claiming asylum in the UK under a change to the law aimed at improving border security. Under the Refugee Convention, countries are able to refuse asylum to those who have committed “particularly serious” crimes and are a danger to the community, with the provision currently used to block claims from criminals handed prison sentences longer than one year.Sir Keir Starmer’s crackdown will extend the provision to include anyone convicted of a crime which places them on the sex offenders register, regardless of the length of their sentence. Home Office sources said the change could have prevented the Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi from being granted asylum despite convictions for sex offences in 2018. But officials repeatedly refused to give an estimate of how many migrants would be affected by the changes.The new measure will be introduced in an amendment to the government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently going through Parliament, the Home Office said.Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper are trying to crack down on arrivals in the UK More

Rachel Reeves is facing another major warning over her hopes to spark economic growth as the organisation which represents Britain’s retailers lashed out at the impact of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill.According to a survey by the British Retail Consortium, more than half of retail HR directors say the Employment Rights Bill will reduce hiring and job flexibility.And 70 per cent claim the bill will have a negative impact on their businesses.The row comes as the House of Lords debates the bill on Tuesday.The chancellor has found herself under siege over a flatlining economy, with overnight warnings from business groups and major think tanks on the government’s policies and its record after nine months in office.Rachel Reeves More

The equalities watchdog is under pressure to withdraw its interim guidance on single-sex spaces in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on gender, after campaigners dubbed it a “bigoted attempt to segregate trans people in public spaces”. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been accused of breaching trans peoples’ rights with campaigners saying it not only forces them into inappropriate spaces, but it also risks outing them. It comes after the Supreme Court ruled that trans women are not legally women under the Equalities Act, a judgment which means that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.A flag in the colours of the trans movement flies in central London (Andrew Matthews/PA) More

Smartphones are “impossible” to make safe for children and should be banned from schools, a royal family member and actress has said.Sophie Winkleman, styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, warned phones can have physical and emotional “consequences”.The actress, known for playing Big Suze in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, has previously leant to her support to a ban on under-16s from having smartphones, and was a supporter of strengthening the Online Safety Act.“I think the impact of smartphones on children’s mental and physical health is so immense and so multi-stranded that it’s actually impossible to make them safe,” she said.“They’re designed by geniuses to be unputdownable,” she told an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank in Westminster.“Even if a child is only watching animal videos for three hours, they’re still stationary, isolated and passive.“They’re simply consuming content, open vessels for other people’s garbage often for hours at a time.“The physical consequences of this vice like addiction range from eyesight damage, spinal damage, sleep disturbance, hormone disruption, obesity and manifold neurological impairments, which include the decimation of the attention span, giving rise to various ADHD like symptoms.“The emotional and safeguarding harms are equally multiple.”A survey of more than 15,000 schools in England by the Children’s Commissioner suggests that the vast majority already have policies in place that restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.The Netflix drama Adolescence, which examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, has fuelled a debate about smartphones in schools in recent weeks.But the Government has so far resisted calls to ban phones in schools.Also speaking at the event, independent MP Rosie Duffield, who resigned from Labour last year, said the Government should be more receptive to findings on the harm caused by smartphones in schools.“We share evidence, research, ideas and opportunities to engage with the Government and discuss policy,” the former teaching assistant said.“This has been surprisingly clunky and difficult given the mounting evidence of harm and the growing level of concern from individual parents and groups of parents.“Children need us to keep up the pressure on the Government that growth from financial deals with tech firms cannot be at the expense of our children.“More and more parents and groups are coming to talk to me about this issue.”Ms Duffield resigned the Labour whip in September 2024, accusing the Prime Minister of “hypocrisy” and pursuing “cruel” policies.Relations between the Canterbury MP and the party leadership had long been strained, particularly over transgender rights. More