UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSeeing the Online Safety Act as a “job done” would be a “disaster”, a bereaved father has said as he called on the next government to commit to updating legislation to tackle harms affecting children.Ian Russell, whose 14-year-old daughter Molly took her own life, said bold measures are needed to reassure parents of “real change” when it comes to internet safety and their children.In 2022, a coroner ruled schoolgirl Molly, from Harrow, north-west London, died from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content” in November 2017.The Online Safety Act passed into law in October, and regulator Ofcom is working on codes of practice to help it enforce the rules, although they will not begin to take effect until next year.The legislation requires social media companies to curb the spread of illegal content on their platforms and protect children from seeing potentially harmful material, with large fines among the potential penalties for those who breach the new rules.But Mr Russell said while the Act has laid “really important” foundations, a new government will need to work out how to “keep on top” of developments in the fast-changing world of tech.The Molly Rose Foundation – the suicide prevention charity set up in his daughter’s memory – has published a five-point plan which it said would build on regulation and fast-track “much-needed” change.It would just be a disaster if the next government starts to regard the Online Safety Act as a job done. This isn’t finished, they need to complete the work and need to work out how to keep on top of itIan Russell, Molly Rose Foundation Mr Russell told the PA news agency it would be “wrong to forget about the Online Safety Act, or to think of it as a piece of legislation that only hit the statute books towards the end of 2023 and so it’s done”.He added: “It’s not done because it’s so new, it’s not done because it will need revising, it’s not done because tech moves at such a pace that, even if we were to catch up in terms of legislation and regulation, tech would have moved on and we’d have to adapt it to catch up with tech again.“So this is a constantly evolving thing and it would just be a disaster if the next government starts to regard the Online Safety Act as a job done. This isn’t finished, they need to complete the work and need to work out how to keep on top of it.”He said it must be made clear to tech firms that “the cost of entry to the UK market is children’s safety” as he called for a “fundamental reset of the relationship” between such companies and children.The plan laid out by the foundation includes calling for tech companies to have an overarching duty under the Act, and a requirement that the regulator focuses on measurable harm reduction – with Mr Russell giving an example of annual surveys to track the amount of harm found online and how individual tech platforms’ algorithmic systems promote harmful content.It also calls for tech giants to have a legal duty to report on exposure to online harms in their corporate accounts, a one-off harm reduction windfall tax, a statutory code for app stores and operating systems leading to “high-quality, well-designed age assurance and parental controls on children’s devices”, and investment in education and mental health support.The foundation does not support calls for phone or social media bans, saying these would “risk a slew of unintendedconsequences and may cause more harm than good”.Mr Russell said: “Political parties should commit to bold measures that can reassure parents real change is on the way.“Regulation is evidently the best solution to a complex issue, not bans or restrictions that would punish children for the failure of Big Tech.“Politicians should commit to transform children’s lives with a new Online Safety Act and a set of ambitious measures to take on Big Tech’s harmful business model.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email The Tories have pledged to overhaul equality laws to redefine what the term “sex” means in law.The Conservatives say amending the Equality Act to define the characteristic of sex as biological sex and not “redefined meanings of the word”, will improve the safety of women and girls in single-sex spaces.The party claims that the act, passed by Labour in 2010, has not kept pace with evolving interpretations and is not sufficiently clear on when it means sex and when it means gender.It says the proposed change to the law will not remove the existing and continuing protections against discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment provided by the Equality Act.The sex of those with a Gender Recognition Certificate will still align with their acquired gender in law outside the Equality Act.Under the new scheme the Conservatives will also establish in law that gender recognition is a reserved matter, as they say “this will mean that an individual can only have one sex in the eyes of the law in the United Kingdom”.Rishi Sunak, who issued the pledge after his party fell further behind Labour in the latest poll, said: “The safety of women and girls is too important to allow the current confusion around definitions of sex and gender to persist.“The Conservatives believe that making this change in law will enhance protections in a way that respects the privacy and dignity of everyone in society.“We are taking an evidence-led approach to this issue so we can continue to build a secure future for everyone across the whole country.”Last year, the minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) seeking further guidance on the issue.Ms Badenoch said public bodies are acting out of “fear of being accused of transphobia”.She said: “Whether it is rapists being housed in women’s prisons, or instances of men playing in women’s sports where they have an unfair advantage, it is clear that public authorities and regulatory bodies are confused about what the law says on sex and gender and when to act – often for fear of being accused of transphobia, or not being inclusive.“That is why we are today pledging that, if we form a government after the election, we will clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word.“The protection of women and girls’ spaces is too important to allow the confusion to continue.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer will pitch Labour as the “party of national security” as he seeks to switch attention to defence matters during the general election campaign.The Labour leader is expected to meet with forces veterans and a group of his party’s candidates when he campaigns in the North West of England on Monday.Sir Keir will reaffirm his commitment to a “nuclear deterrent triple lock” as well as his ambition to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made clear he wants to meet the 2.5 per cent target by 2030 although Labour has so far declined to outline its timeline, only noting they would do so when economic conditions allow.Labour says its nuclear deterrent triple lock involves: a commitment to construct the four new nuclear submarines in Barrow-in-Furness; maintaining Britain’s continuous at-sea deterrent; and the delivery of all future upgrades needed for the submarines to patrol the waters.For updates on the general election – follow our live blog by clicking hereThe Vanguard-class nuclear deterrent submarine HMS Vengeance is among those to be replaced with bigger Dreadnought-class submarines More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe BBC will host the final head-to-head general election debate between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the corporation has confirmed.The two party leaders will face each other on 26 June in what will be the final televised debate of the campaign.The debate will be hosted by BBC newsreader Sophie Raworth and take place in Nottingham, airing on BBC One and BBC News on 26 June.It comes as Mr Sunak and Sir Keir prepare for their first televised leaders’ debate of the election campaign, which will air on ITV on Tuesday,  4 June.Elsewhere on the BBC, Mishal Husain will host a 7 June debate between leading figures from the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru, Green Party and Reform UK.The Telegraph report that Labour has said Sir Keir will not be attending the seven-party debate, while Mr Sunak has not yet decided.Also included in the BBC’s election coverage is a two-hour long Question Time leaders’ special, hosted by Fiona Bruce, on 20 June.The leaders of the four biggest political parties – the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and SNP, will answer questions from the studio audience for 30 minutes each.Final head-to-head between Sunak and Starmer to be broadcast on BBC One More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailOne of the most senior bishops in the Church of England has denounced the Liberal Democrats over the way that one of their candidates was deselected over his Christian faith.The Bishop of Winchester Philip Mounstephen, is the fifth most senior Anglican cleric, tweeted his support for former award winning BBC journalist David Campanale who has been removed as the candidate for the Lib Dem target seat of Sutton and Cheam in south London.It comes amid furious demands by local members that Mr Campanale is reinstated amid allegations that his replacement Luke Taylor, a local councillor, was one of the key figures involved in hounding him out.The bishop noted that had 19th century liberal prime minister and political giant of the 19th century been in the modern version of the party he would no longer be welcome.Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey launches his party’s General Election campaign battlebus (PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailDiane Abbott has declared she intends to run as a Labour candidate at the election as she denied she was offered a seat in the Lords to stand down. On Friday the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the veteran MP was “free” to stand for the party after days of an extraordinary back and forth about whether she would be blocked.The dramatic U-turn came after his deputy Angela Rayner said the UK’s first black MP should be allowed to fight the seat she has represented since 1987 – in a break with her party leader.On Sunday Ms Abbott said she was the “adopted Labour candidate” for her London constituency, adding: “I intend to run and to win as Labour’s candidate.”Diane Abbott (Jonathan Brady/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA left-wing candidate blocked by Labour has suggested she could run against the party as an independent. Faiza Shaheen has previously said she is considering legal action against the party. Ms Shaheen, an economist, was set to contest Chingford and Woodford Green seat held by Iain Duncan Smith, which many predicted she would win on 4 July. Faiza Shaheen with Jeremy Corbyn More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailExperts warning of a “hidden pandemic” of online sexual abuse have urged politicians to prioritise children’s internet safety in their general election campaigns – and to treat the issue as a public health emergency comparable to Covid.A new report has this week uncovered grim new insights into the prevalence of online sexual abuse both globally and in the UK.Around one in eight children around the world have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year – equating to more than 300 million children, new research by University of Edinburgh researchers suggests, in the first-ever global estimate of the scale of the crisis.The same number of children are estimated to have been subjected to sexting and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths, according to the study, which draws on data from some 36 million reports to five major watchdogs and policing organisations globally.In Britain, the researchers carried out a first-of-its-kind survey of more than 1,500 men, suggesting that as many as 1.84 million males in the UK may have carried out a form of online sexual abuse against the underaged.In a further breakdown of the findings, shared exclusively with The Independent, the extrapolated results of the survey also suggests that:3.7 per cent of men (976,800) in the UK may have flirted or had sexual conversations with children2.9 per cent of men (765,600) in the UK may have deliberately viewed sexual images of children2 per cent of men (528,000) may have paid for online sexual interactions, images or videos of under-18s1.4 per cent of men (370,000) may have taken part in sexually explicit webcamming with childrenMeanwhile, new statistics showed the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children watchdog was alerted to 178,648 cases of files containing sexual images of children being uploaded or hosted in the UK last year – equivalent to nearly 500 alerts every day.Researchers warn the scale of online abuse is ‘staggering’ More