PMQs is almost here. Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question. Rosie Duffield, the independent MP who left Labour after the election in part because she felt her gender critical views made her unwelcome in the party (although her resignation letter focused on welfare issues), has claimed that Keir Starmer no longer arguing a trans woman is a woman shows he is a “manager rather than a leader”. Speaking on LBC, Duffield said: It’s just another sign of the prime minister’s lack of leadership skills. I’m bound to say that, he’s a manager rather than a leader. He responds and reacts rather than leads from the front, and this is what we’re seeing again from him. Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter. Nigel Farage made a series of untrue claims which came close to denying climate science in his Today programme interview this morning. (See 10.39am.) First, he suggested it was unclear whether human action is contributing to climate breakdown. There is almost total consensus in the scientific community that human activity is by far the main driver of climate change. We have seen the spike in global temperature since the industrial revolution, when we started the widespread burning of fossil fuels for energy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an expert group of hundreds of scientists, has said the human impact on the world’s climate is “unequivocal”. He then claimed that the UK does not make a difference to global emissions and that China should be asked about its contributions instead. The UK has managed to decarbonise quickly so far this century, but is still among the top emitting countries (No 21 in 2022). On top of this, we are historically a big emitter. A Carbon Brief analysis in 2021 found that the UK was the eighth largest country in terms of cumulative emissions. Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit analysis has found that every country totalling between 0% and 1% of global carbon emissions – which includes many of the world’s richest countries – adds up to 29%. That’s more than China, which totals 27%. Farage also suggested it is possible for the UK to be entirely self sufficient on gas. This is false. Official projections by the North Sea Transition Authority show a steep decline in North Sea production, regardless of government policy and intervention, thanks to the ageing nature of the basin. The regulator’s forecasts show that the UK will be 94% reliant on gas imports by 2050, even if new fields are developed, only a fraction lower than if no new fields are developed (97% dependency). Most of what is left in the North Sea is oil, around 80% of which is exported. Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, an organisation supporting the transition away from oil and gas, said: Nigel Farage is peddling a dangerous fantasy by claiming the UK can be self-sufficient in gas. After sixty years of drilling, the truth is the UK has already burned most of its gas. That’s down to geology, not politics, and no amount of hot air from Farage will change that. What we do have in this country is an abundance of renewable resources, particularly wind. By trying to slow the shift to renewable energy, Farage is endangering the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, whether that’s in wind manufacturing or grid infrastructure in the UK’s industrial heartlands, or decommissioning services in coastal towns like Great Yarmouth. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, will reportedly introduce an amendment to the Great British Energy bill to force the new publicly-owned company to stop using parts for solar panels linked to Chinese slave labour, PA Media reports. PA says: The change, as reported by the Times, will ensure solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries must not contain materials suspected of being produced through slave labour. Luke de Pulford, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), warned the use of slave labour extends throughout the renewable energy sector. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Unfortunately, there’s a problem right the way throughout the renewables sector with state-imposed forced labour in China. They have labour transfer schemes where the government conscripts, very often ethnic minorities, and forces them to work against their will, and sadly, many such workers are placed within renewable industry in China.” A large part of the world supply of polysilicon, a critical material in the industry, comes from Xinjiang, the Chinese region where Beijing is suspected of human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority. De Pulford was asked how difficult it will be for the government to increase its use of renewables without using Chinese slave labour. He told the BBC: “It’s going to require a transition because China has such a dominance of the production of polysilicon and nearly 40% of that comes from Xinjiang and is connected in some way to these labour transfer schemes, so we’re going to have to diversify. But it’s not impossible and companies are, I think, slowly inching towards a better place – we have to find a better way of doing it, that doesn’t mean that we have a green transition reliant upon Uighur slavery.” A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “No industry in the UK should rely on forced labour, and through Great British Energy we have a clear plan to build the supply chains needed to support a new era of clean homegrown power, bringing jobs and investment. “We are working across government to tackle the issue of forced labour in solar supply chains, and the relaunched solar taskforce is focusing on developing supply chains that are resilient, sustainable and free from forced labour. “Having listened carefully to the views of MPs and peers, we are considering how we can go further to help ensure Great British Energy is a sector leader in this area and will provide an update shortly.” Britain entered the economic shock from Donald Trump’s trade wars with government borrowing having overshot official forecasts by almost £15bn in the most recent financial year, Richard Partington reports. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has said Britain should not have any policies at all intended to tackle the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions. In an interview with the Today programme, Farage would not even confirm that he accepts that carbon emissions are leading to climate change. Reform UK has frequently criticised the way the UK government is tackling climate change. At the last election it campaigned on a commitment to “scrap net zero” – referring to the government’s target to reduce UK carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, and the policies being implemented to achieve this. But, in an interview with the Today programme this morning, Farage went further, saying he thought all carbon reduction policies were pointless. Asked by the presenter, Nick Robinson, if he thought there was no need for any UK government climate policy, Farage replied: I think we should scrap the net zero targets, yes, absolutely. I think they’re going to make zero difference in the world. Asked what policy he would adopt for dealing with climate change, he replied: Nick, you better go and talk to the Chinese about that … We make no difference whatsoever. I think we should be mining our own coal that we need for our steel works. I think we should be self-sufficient, in fact even an exporter, of gas. We make no difference. When it was put to him that the UK had a leadership role on climate change, Farage said that “hasn’t worked” because other countries just ignored what the UK was doing. He also argued that the drive to renewable energy was pushing up energy prices in the UK – a common rightwing argument dismissed by experts as untrue. Farage also refused to confirm that he accepts that climate change is man-made – even though this is now accepted as fact by the global scientific community, and by almost every government in the world (apart from the US administration led by Farage’s friend, Donald Trump). Asked if he accepted climate change was at least partly man-made, Farage replied: It may well be. It may well be. Farage went on to argue that, even if climate change is man-made, what the UK did alone would make little or no difference. He said: Let’s go with the scientists. Let’s say that the 3% to 5% of CO2 emissions in the world every year that are man-made, as opposed to natural, are having a detrimental, or at least a warming effect on the world. Let’s start from that position. When Robinson asked if Farage was accepting that position, Farage ignored the question and just replied: But what I don’t accept is that we should commit economic hara-kiri in the name that somehow we are going to save the world. We’re not. We are less than 1% of global CO2 production and frankly, what we’ve really done in the last 20 years is to delude ourselves by allowing all of our heavy industries to close, to relocate to China and India, for the goods that we used to make here to be manufactured there under lower environmental standards. Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, has openly claimed that the argument that climate change is man-made is “garbage”. Like Reform UK, the Conservative party has also recently said it rejects the 2050 net zero target. But the Tories do believe climate change is man-made, and that policies are needed to reduce carbon emissions. Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, has said the government target to clear the record high backlog of driving tests will be missed by up to eight months, PA Media reports. PA says: Alexander told MPs her department is aiming to end the backlog by summer 2026. This is despite the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) having a target of reducing average waiting times for tests across Britain to no more than seven weeks by the end of this year. Giving evidence to the Commons transport committee, Alexander said: “The waiting times that people are experiencing are totally unacceptable.” She announced that at least 10,000 extra tests per month will be offered to learners as part of new measures to tackle the issue. The DVSA has been instructed to make “additional overtime incentive payments to everyone delivering extra driving tests”, she said. DVSA staff qualified to conduct tests are being asked to voluntarily return to the front line, while the number of permanent trainers for new examiners will be doubled. Alexander also said the Government will consult on changes to the driving test booking system, in an attempt to stop bots mass-booking new slots and reselling them on the black market for inflated prices. Recent analysis by the AA Driving School showed the average waiting time to book a practical test in Britain was 20 weeks in February, up from 14 weeks a year earlier. The number of test centres with a 24-week waiting time – the maximum possible – nearly doubled over the period, from 94 to 183. Questioned about when average waiting times will be reduced to seven weeks, Alexander said: “We think that this package of measures I’m announcing today could result in us meeting that target again in the summer of next year.” The DVSA has previously attributed the backlog to “an increase in demand and a change in customers’ booking behaviour”. Police officers in England and Wales who fail background checks will be automatically sacked under rules coming into force to improve confidence in policing, Rajeev Syal reports. Dan Sabbagh is the Guardian’s defence editor. The UK Foreign Office has confirmed that ministerial Ukraine peace talks with US and European counterparts due to be held today have been postponed, amid speculation that Russia has abandoned its claims to Ukrainian territory it does not occupy, and after US secretary of state Marco Rubio said he could not attend. A short statement from the Foreign Office announced that ministerial meetings that had been scheduled to start this morning would not now take place and would be replaced by behind the scenes discussions held by officials, clarifying a carefully worded statement made late last night by foreign secretary David Lammy after he had spoken to Rubio. Posting on social media just before midnight, Lammy said his discussions with Rubio were productive but hinted that they would take place at a slightly lower level. “Talks continue at pace and officials will meet in London tomorrow. This is a critical moment for Ukraine, Britain and Euro-Atlantic security,” he had said. Britain had placed an important emphasis on the talks, with delegations from France and Germany also due to participate, but the downgrade to the discussions comes as leaks suggest that Russia is willing to abandon its territorial claims to three Ukrainian regions it only partially occupies in return for the US recognising the annexation of Crimea. Martin Belam has more on this on our Ukraine war live blog. At the Downing Street lobby briefing yesterday, the PM’s spokesperson said that Keir Starmer no longer argues that a trans woman is a woman. In his interview on the Today programme this morning, Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green party, which has always been a strong advocate for trans rights, was not prepared to say that. But he did say that Green party members who do say that trans women aren’t women should not be expelled. When the presenter, Nick Robinson, asked Ramsay if trans women were women, Ramsay replied: What the decision from the supreme court last week has done is to provide some clarity in terms of the Equality Act. At that point Robinson interrupted, and said he was seeking clarity from Ramsay. He asked the question again. Ramsay replied: I think the important thing here, Nick, is not to get hung up in divisions. Robinson tried a third time. Ramsay said what was important was to ensure “everybody, regardless of how they define their identity, has access to the services that they need”. He went on: Last week’s ruling has highlighted the potential for some services to be provided based on sex. The question is, how do we ensure that both women and trans people have access to the services that they need in a way that meets their needs and preserves their dignity. Robinson then asked why Ramsay was relucant to answer the question directly. Ramsay said: “People know what the definition of a woman is.” But, Robinson said, in the past members of the Green party had been expelled for gender critical beliefs. He asked if it was possible to be a member of the Green party, and to believe that trans women are not women. Ramsay said party members could take that view. He went on: I do defend the right of people to express that view, and in our party and in the wider society, we need to be able to have an open and respectful conversation about how we ensure services are delivered in a way that meets everybody’s needs. The Gender Critical Greens group has a list on its website of members it says were suspended or expelled for their gender critical views. Good morning. Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs today and, given her enthusiasm for talking about trans issues – her Commons performance on this yesterday got rave reviews in rightwing circles – it is hard to imagine that she won’t want to revist this at noon today. As the Today programme’s interview with Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay showed this morning, UK politics is still stuck with the ‘can a woman have a penis?’ question. (More on that later.) But there is another question on the table this morning about whether two binary opposites are compatible. Can you be a Conservative if you’ve got a Nigel Farage? This has revived as an issue as a result of a good scoop by Sam Coates at Sky News. He has obtained a recording of Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and runner-up in the last Tory leadership contest, saying that, if the Conservative party has not seen off the threat from Reform UK by the time of the next election, “one way or another” the two parties will have to form some sort of electoral coalition. Jenrick made the remarks when speaking to a UCL Conservative association dinner in late March. According to Coates’ report, Jenrick said: [Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case – and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case – then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united. And then you head towards the general election, where the nightmare scenario is that Keir Starmer sails in through the middle as a result of the two parties being disunited. I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared for that to happen. I want the right to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and to bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well. No other member of the shadow cabinet has been quite this explicit about the need for a Tory/Reform UK coalition. Jenrick qualified this by saying that he did not want Reform UK to become a permanent fixture of British politics, but there is almost no one in Westminster politics who thinks Farage’s party is going to fizzle out before the next election, and so when Jenrick talks circumstances where a coalition would be needed, he is not floating some outlandish hypothetical; he is talking about what he expects to happen. And Jenrick is not just any member of the shadow cabinet. According to the latest ConservativeHome survey, he is by far the most popular shadow cabinet minister with party members, and colleagues believe is is actively preparing for another bid for the leadership. Kemi Badenoch has ruled out doing an electoral deal with Reform UK. But there are many people in the party who think that her position is unrealistic and who would agree with Jenrick, or with Greg Smith, the shadow business minister, who said last month that at the next election the Tories and Reform UK might have “play nicely” together. In his story, Coates quotes a “source close to Jenrick” saying: “Rob’s comments are about voters and not parties. He’s clear we have to put Reform out of business and make the Conservatives the natural home for all those on the right.” But this is just an attempt to deny that Jenrick said what he did; the meaning of his on-the-record comments is clear. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are both saying that, if Badenoch does not sack Jenrick, she will be implying that she agrees with him. Ellie Reeves, the Labour party chair, said: Kemi Badenoch needs to urgently come clean as to whether she backs her shadow justice secretary in doing grubby deals with Reform behind the electorate’s back or if she will rule it out. If she disagrees with Robert Jenrick, how can her leadership have any credibility whilst he remains in her shadow cabinet? We know Kemi Badenoch has opened the door to deals with Reform at a local level, which Labour has categorically ruled out and now Robert Jenrick has let the cat out the bag. Between the Tories who decimated the NHS and Reform who want to make people pay for routine treatments, it’s a recipe for chaos and would be a disaster for Britain. And Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said: The cat is out of the bag, senior Conservatives are plotting a grubby election deal with Nigel Farage. Kemi Badenoch should sack Robert Jenrick now if she’s serious about ruling out a pact with Reform. Anything less would show she’s either too weak to sack him or that she agrees. Here is the agenda for the day. 9.15am: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, gives evidence to the Commons transport committee. 9.45am: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, chairs a meeting in Glasgow on democratic values. Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. Also, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is in Washington for the IMF spring meetings. And David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is hosting talks on Ukrain in London. Martin Belam is covering this on our Ukraine live blog. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. 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Author: Andrew Sparrow