Labour ‘absolutely up for the fight’ over net zero, Ed Miliband says – UK politics live | Politics

The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, will begin monitoring the efficacy of smartphone bans in schools amid growing pressure to act on some of the negative influences social media has on children.

The guidance states that “all schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the school day – not only during lessons but break and lunchtimes as well”, but does not say how schools should enforce the bans

The education secretary is to start monitoring a group of schools to understand the effectiveness of the guidance.

A government source told the Guardian: “It beggars belief that the Tories repeatedly told voters they were banning phones but did nothing to ensure the guidance was being followed.

“While the vast majority of schools are complying with the guidance we need to make sure it’s being followed to the letter. Rather than indulge in gimmicks and headline-grabbing after years of telling us the guidance was sufficient like the Tories, we’re going to keep schools honest and ensure classrooms and corridors are phone-free.”

For the full story, please read this report by my colleagues, Jessica Elgot, Rachel Keenan and Rachel Hall

Part of the issue is that Reeves has clung tightly to her “non-negotiable” fiscal rules, and promised not to repeat anything on the scale of last October’s tax-raising budget, leaving spending cuts as the path of least political resistance. The chancellor has set significant credence in keeping the OBR on side in particular.

But the mood is turning in Labour circles, much of it stemming from the tight involvement of the OBR in policymaking. “People are feeling pretty gloomy right now. And there is no sign of anything getting better either,” said one source close to the party. “We have a loop where you get two forecasts [a year] and one budget. It’s a nightmare for political management.”

There is precedent for the fiscal rules to be breached. George Osborne, the OBR’s architect in 2010, broke his rules in 2012 and 2016. The targets have been changed repeatedly: at least eight times since 2010, giving them the shortest lifespan of any major government’s fiscal rules…

Talks aimed at ending a strike by waste collectors in Birmingham have ended without a breakthrough.

Members of the Unite union in the city launched an all-out strike on 11 March in a long-running dispute over pay, leading to rubbish piling up and bins remaining unemptied for weeks. Residents have complained that rats are rummaging through the waste, leading to fears over public health.

Last Tuesday, nearly 400 council bin workers in the city began indefinite strike action. United said the Labour-run city council could end the dispute “by agreeing to pay a decent rate of pay”. Union officials met council officers on Thursday, but the strike continues…

February’s public finances data, published on Friday, is only likely to make Rachel Reeves more convinced that she needs to take action at next Wednesday’s spring statement.

Despite scepticism from economists and some colleagues, including in the cabinet, Reeves is determined to make spending cuts, including the £5bn reduction in welfare spending already announced, to restore the headroom against her self-imposed fiscal rules.

February’s data underscored why she believes something has to be done.The government borrowed £10.7bn in February, against the £6.5bn that the Office for Budget Responsibility had estimated, in the light of Reeves’s budget.

It is not surprising there are pressures: growth has been weaker than expected, and borrowing costs higher, as global markets have driven up interest rates. And tax receipts always bounce around at the start of the year because of the timing of self-assessment returns.

People are “over-interpreting” what prime minister Keir Starmer said in regard to the future of Ukraine, says energy secretary Ed Miliband.

On Thursday, Starmer said the so-called “coalition of the willing” was dividing its planning efforts between air, sea, land, borders, and regenerating Ukraine. However, Starmer did not mention putting troops on the ground, leading some to speculate that the government is withdrawing from that commitment.

However, Miliband insists that’s not the case: “I think people are over-interpreting what the prime minister said yesterday,” he told Sky News.

Miliband added:

Look, I think work is obviously ongoing on the terms of a ceasefire and the protection that will be put in place to protect that ceasefire and to protect the people of Ukraine. That operational planning, that military planning, is ongoing.

You wouldn’t expect me to get into the detail of that but I don’t think people should jump to conclusions.

That planning is an ongoing process and obviously is one going on in concert with our allies, and indeed in concert with Ukraine and the government of Ukraine.”

Outspoken SNP backbencher Fergus Ewing has said he will not run for the party in the 2026 election and may run as an independent instead, reports the PA news agency.

Ewing, who has been a vocal critic of the Scottish Government, says he will not quit the party before the election.

He said failures to dual the “vital” A9 and A96 roads were the chief reason he was not putting himself forward for nomination again.

Writing for the Press & Journal newspaper, Mr Ewing said:

It is with great sadness that, after 26 years and six successful election campaigns, I shall not be submitting my name for nomination for the SNP for the Holyrood election next year for the Inverness and Nairn constituency.

Among several reasons, the principal one is that I am afraid that I simply cannot defend the record of the SNP government to fail to deliver on its long-standing pledges to dual the A9 and A96 – both so vital for my constituency.”

Unless progress is made on dualling the roads, he said he “may consider standing next year as an independent candidate”.

But sadly, the SNP just is no longer the party for all of Scotland, as it has been for most of my 50 years as a member – the national party.

UK government borrowing rose by more than expected in February to £10.7bn, underscoring the challenge for Rachel Reeves before next week’s spring statement.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed borrowing – the difference between total public sector spending and income – was little changed from the same month a year earlier. However, over the financial year to date borrowing was up nearly £15bn on the same period last year.

In a setback for the chancellor, the monthly total was higher than expected in a Reuters poll that predicted a deficit of £6.6bn.

Reeves will make her spring statement to the Commons on Wednesday against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth, stubbornly high inflation and rising government borrowing costs…

My colleague Gaby Hinsliff argues in her column that after Keir Starmer watched the Netflix show Adolescence, a drama that highlights youth violence and growing misogyny among young boys, he now needs to act.

Hinsliff argues that young people’s siloed information bubbles driven by manipulative algorithms need to be better regulated, and there needs to be better support for families.

Here’s an extract:

Though talk of misogynistic “manosphere” influencers such as Andrew Tate hovers over the storyline, this isn’t really a story of radicalisation. What it skewers is the feeling of growing up very publicly in a world where sending nudes risks them instantly being shared round the class and everyone automatically films playground fights on their phones, and how that intensifies dangerous feelings of shame and rejection in immature minds. Over half of young women now say they’re frightened of their male peers, according to a sad little survey for the Lost Boys project at the Centre for Social Justice thinktank. What’s not always obvious is that beneath their anger, boys are often equally frightened of them…

Good morning,

After a disastrous week for the Labour government, with many saying the party have abandoned their core values by cutting disability benefits, Ed Miliband is trying to shift focus on to the government’s carbon emissions targets.

The government is “absolutely up for the fight” over net zero, Miliband said, as he accused the Conservatives and Reform of “a total desertion and betrayal” of future generations by failing to tackle the climate crisis.

Miliband told BBC’s Today programme that he is confident the government will meet its target of net zero by 2050.

In other news …

• A YouGov poll found that 61% of people either strongly supported or somewhat supported the government’s commitment to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, while 24% said they somewhat opposed or strongly opposed it and 15% said the didn’t know.

• Even among those who voted Conservative at the last general election, 52% supported the net zero commitment, 38% opposed it and 11% didn’t know.

• The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, accused the NHS of acting in an “immoral” way by depriving needy countries of homegrown health professionals. Brexit has left the NHS increasingly dependent on doctors and nurses from poor “red list” countries, from which the World Health Organization says it is wrong to recruit.

• High-profile celebrities including Sir Stephen Fry, Brian Cox and Stanley Tucci have criticised the government’s £5bn cuts to disability benefits, calling the plans “shameful” and “a stain on this country”. Fry said the cuts burden should fall on the best-off in society, rather than hitting vulnerable disabled people: “The social security system should be rooted in justice and compassion, fairness and need. It’s not too late to rethink this.”

• More than 9,000 unpaid carers looking after ill and disabled loved ones have become the latest to be hit with carer’s allowance overpayment debts in the past year, prompting calls for ministers to suspend the controversial practice. In total, 144,000 carers now have outstanding repayments after falling foul of drastic “cliff-edge” rules limiting the amount they can earn from part-time jobs while still claiming carer’s allowance benefit.