Foreign secretary says Trump’s comments should be understood as reflection of his concerns about Arctic security

Good morning. For the first time in six months, David Lammy , the foreign secretary, was put up by No 10 to do the morning broadcast interview round – ahead of a speech he is giving later. At PMQs yesterday, perhaps surprisingly, Keir Starmer was not asked about Donald Trump’s suggestion that he might invade Greenland , an autonomous territory that belongs to Denmark. The French and German governments have both condemned Trump’s comments . But, in an interview with the Today programme, Lammy was rather more diplomatic.

Lammy said that, although Trump’s language could be “destabilising”, he did not always do what he threatened. Asked about Trump’s comments, Lammy said:

I think that we know from Donald Trump’s first term that the intensity of his rhetoric, and the unpredictability sometimes of what he says, can be destabilising. He did it with Nato. But in fact, in practice, he sent more troops to Europe under his administration. He sent the first Javelins [anti-tank weapons] and weapons to Ukraine under his administration.

Lammy said that Trump would not use military force to seize Greenland – despite suggesting he might. Asked if the UK should be following France and Germany in saying this would be unacceptable, Lammy replied:

Let’s be serious … It’s not going to happen because no Nato allies have gone to war since the birth of Nato which Ernest Bevin, my great predecessor, was part of.

Lammy said Trump’s comments should be understood as reflection of his concerns about Arctic security. He explained:

Here, I suspect on Greenland, what he’s targeting is his concerns about Russia and China in the Arctic, his concerns about national economic security. He recognises, I’m sure, that in the end, Greenland today is a Kingdom of Denmark. There is a debate in Greenland about their own self determination. But behind it, I think, are his concerns about the Arctic. Of course, the US has troops and a base on Greenland. So it has got a stake in that Arctic region.

Labour easily sees off Tory attempt to force new inquiry on child rape gangs

Cabinet ministers have ramped up attacks on Conservative “bandwagon jumping” over child rape gangs during furious exchanges in the Commons as the government saw off a Tory attempt to force a new inquiry on the issue.

Amid continued pressure, No 10 appeared to slightly soften its position on the idea of a second inquiry into so-called grooming gangs, echoing the words of the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, in saying Keir Starmer was open to hearing the views of victims.

The Conservative leader is failing at the most essential task of opposition – looking fit to one day govern

In the absence of action, politicians can only be judged on their words. This is the perennial problem for opposition parties – how to persuade voters of your fitness to govern without access to levers of power. It is a challenge that is defeating Kemi Badenoch.

The Conservative leader has said little of substance. Her stances, so far, are all reactive gestures. She has committed to reversing some of Labour’s tax-and-spend decisions. She is demanding a public inquiry into historical child abuse cases on the grounds that previous inquiries failed to “expose those who turned a blind eye to grooming gangs”.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Tory leader says focus until 2027 will be on regaining voters’ trust, while others want to see more detail on immigration

• UK politics live – latest updates

Kemi Badenoch has told her shadow cabinet not to expect any big Conservative policy announcements for the next two years.

At a meeting with shadow ministers on Tuesday, the Tory leader said she would not announce any detailed policies until at least 2027 because the focus until then should be regaining voters’ trust.

Education secretary says plan to block legislation with call for another inquiry is ‘absolutely sickening’

• UK politics live – latest updates

The Conservatives’ push for a new national grooming inquiry that would block the child safety bill is “absolutely sickening”, Bridget Phillipson has said.

The education secretary said the opposition party’s plan to amend the government’s children wellbeing and schools bill on Wednesday, which she called the “single biggest piece of children safeguarding legislation in a generation”, would “kill it stone dead”.

Shadow justice secretary makes case for second child sexual abuse inquiry, despite ignoring the last one

You can tell that Elon Musk must have overstepped the mark when even Kemi Badenoch has taken a break from tweeting her support for the ketamine-riddled world’s richest man. The Tory leader’s reality is largely shaped by what she reads on social media, so unless she’s taken time out to help the Muskster find a drug counsellor, she’s decided that she’d be better off keeping quiet for a while. Quite the concession for a politician who never knowingly avoids the chance to make a bad situation worse.

But you can always rely on Robert Jenrick to step into any vacuum. It’s hard to know who the real Honest Bob really is. Is it the fresh-faced David Cameron wannabe who was first elected in 2014? The soft-hearted liberal who was totally in favour of remaining in the EU. Is it the minister with no moral compass who was happy to expedite a planning permission for an erstwhile pornographer and Tory donor? Or is it the politician of the far right? The man who has never yet met an immigrant he didn’t want to deport?

Party sources accuse shadow justice minister of xenophobia and ‘toxifying’ Conservative brand with immigration comments

Tories have privately accused Robert Jenrick of stoking divisions to fuel his own leadership ambitions, as community groups condemned the shadow justice secretary for describing Britons of Pakistani origin as “people from alien cultures”.

The Liberal Democrats said the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, should sackJenrick after he stood by his claim that mass migration meant the UK had imported hundreds of thousands of people who “possess medieval attitudes towards women” .

Shadow justice minister backs up previous remarks on immigration by telling BBC ‘not all cultures are equal’

The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, should sack Robert Jenrick for “divisive comments,” the Lib Dems have said, after the shadow justice minister doubled down on his comments about immigrants with “alien cultures” .

Jenrick was challenged repeatedly on Tuesday morning for having failed to act on the outcome of an inquiry into grooming gangs while he was in the Home Office, despite now demanding one, and for rarely mentioning the issue in the House of Commons until this year.

Prof Alexis Jay says ‘many people, sometimes in a very uninformed way, have waded into the argument’ over whether a further inquiry was needed

Nigel Farage , the Reform UK leader, is doing a phone-in on LBC. He has just said that, if the government does not hold a new national inquiry into sexual abuse and rape by gangs, his party will organise its own version. He said:

If [the government] won’t do it, we at Reform will do it. I will have no difficulty in raising the money to do this whatsoever. We’ll appoint independent ex-judges and experts.

I think this would garner such massive public support that anybody asked to appear that didn’t appear would look terrible.

Grooming gangs were only one element of Professor Jay’s inquiry — Rotherham garners a sole mention in her 468-page report and the gangs in Telford are not referenced. A new national inquiry is needed to explore where and how these gangs operated.