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The Royal Navy is “hollowed out and underfunded,” the shadow defence secretary has suggested.Speaking on Friday morning (12 January), after the UK and US launched targeted strikes against military facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen, John Healey shared his worries over the resources available to the armed forces.“The former defence secretary told me in the House of Commons, he admitted that over the last 13 years, the government has hollowed out and underfunded the forces,” he said.“It is important that we are able [to] – as we have in recent weeks in the Red Sea and wider region – act alongside allies.” More

Fiona Bruce and Andrea Leadsom had a tense exchange as they discussed inaction over the Post Office scandal during Thursday’s (11 January) Question Time.The programme’s host clashed with the Conservative junior minister and Northamptonshire South MP after she claimed politicians were campaigning for justice for subpostmasters “for a very long time.”“But it didn’t happen, that’s the point,” Bruce responded.It comes after lawyers told The Independent that hundreds of subpostmasters who have not made claims may be too “traumatised” to come forward because of mistrust in the government and Post Office. More

“Vile, misogynistic comments” are putting women and girls off participating in sport, a Labour minister has said.Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday (11 January), shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire said every sports organisation should have a strategy to tackle sexual harassment and abuse.She added: “Unfortunately there’s been a spate in recent weeks of disgusting sexist, misogynistic abuse directed towards sports women just for being at the top of their game.”It comes after sports minister Stuart Andrew condemned “dangerous” comments made by Joey Barton about female football commentators and pundits and said he will take the issue up with social media platforms. More

A Post Office investigator has denied claims he and others “behaved like Mafia gangsters” who were looking to collect “bounty with the threats and lies” from subpostmasters.Stephen Bradshaw, who has been employed at the Post Office since 1978, did however tell the inquiry he was not “technically minded” and was not equipped to know whether there were bugs or errors in the Horizon system.He submitted a witness statement to the Horizon IT inquiry in which he said: “I refute the allegation that I am a liar.”“I am not technically minded, I would expect that to come from people above,” Mr Bradshaw said on reports of issues with the IT system.“If there was an issue, I would expect Fujitsu to inform the Post Office, and the Post Office to let us know what the issues are.” More

Shoppers should consider buying “two or three bottles” of Australian wine to “show solidarity” with the nation, an MP has said.Sir Charles Walker made the suggestion as he faced questions about what steps are being taken to increase purchases, after China imposed particularly punishing tariffs on the product, damaging their industry.MPs heard Australian wine is represented on the House of Commons wine list, with a chardonnay and a shiraz available.“When we’re all out in the supermarket stocking our own shelves, perhaps we should all be mindful to buy two or three bottles of Australian wine to show solidarity with our Australian friends and growers,” Sir Charles said. More

A Tory MP has challenged Gary Lineker to stand at the next election amid a feud with the BBC star.Jonathan Gullis last month criticised the Match of the Day presenter for signing an open letter against the Rwanda bill, claiming it breached the broadcaster’s impartiality rules.The former footballer then hit back on X, saying the MP had not read the new social media guidelines and suggested he couldn’t read.Mr Gullis on Wednesday (10 January) threw down an election challenge to Mr Lineker as he was asked about the row on Sky News.He said he would “absolutely” beat the presenter in his constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North, saying they should “let the public decide”. More

Rishi Sunak has announced plans for new legislation to clear the names of subpostmasters wrongfully convicted because of faulty accounting software.The prime minister said the Post Office Horizon scandal was “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.Blanket legislation to exonerate subpostmasters convicted in England and Wales will be introduced within weeks.The scale of the scandal has prompted the government to adopt the unconventional approach of new legislation, rather than requiring individuals to challenge their convictions.Here, The Independent takes a look at the key questions around the scandal. More

Sir Keir Starmer accused the government of “losing control” in a heated clash with Rishi Sunak over Rwanda legislation.The Labour leader also claimed the prime minister “wanted to scrap the scheme when he was trying to sneak in as Tory leader.”Mr Sunak, however, denied the “second hand” reports and said he is “absolutely clear” that the government will stop the boats.”This is the party that has lost control of the borders,” Sir Keir said, before accusing the Tories of “boasting while Britain is breaking”. More