Antoniazzi says women being prosecuted under ‘outdated’ law passed by all-male parliament in 19th century
Antoniazzi cites other examples of women prosecuted for abortion offences. She goes on:
Each one of these cases is a travesty enabled by our outdated abortion law.
Although abortion is available in England and Wales under conditions set by the 1967 Abortion Act, the law underpinning it dating back to 1861, the Offences against the Person Act, means that outside those conditions, it remains a criminal offence carrying a maximum life sentence.
Originally passed by an all-male parliament elected by men alone, this Victorian law is increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls.
Since 2020 more than 100 women have been criminally investigated …
Women affected are often acutely vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, girls under the age of 18 and women who have suffered miscarriage.
Key events
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Antoniazzi says women being prosecuted under ‘outdated’ law passed by all-male parliament in 19th century
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Text of Tonia Antoniazzi’s lead amendment to decriminalise abortion by women acting on their own pregnancies
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Starmer suggests UK may tighten visa rules for countries that don’t cooperate in taking back refused asylum seekers
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Starmer explains why he picked up papers for Trump after president dropped them
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Starmer challenges Badenoch to explain she didn’t say ‘one word’ about grooming gang scandal when in government
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Starmer signals he would vote for abortion law reform if he were at Westminster today
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MPs to debate proposals to decriminalise abortion
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Starmer rejects suggestions Trump wants US to help Israel attack Iran
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More than 50 councils to share £1.2m for chewing gum litter crackdown, Defra says
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John Swinney claims independent Scotland ‘within reach’
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No 10 says situation in Channel ‘deteriorating’, as more migrants try to cross
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Reeves considers softening inheritance tax changes amid non-dom backlash
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Aukus submarine deal going ahead, says Starmer
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Starmer urged by two Labour MPs to ‘jump’ at chance to push for reform of ECHR
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UK announces fresh sanctions against Russia
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Stormont’s anti-poverty plan for Northern Ireland dismissed as ‘underwhelming’
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Government’s water sector review won’t consider turning firms into not-for-profit companies, its chair tells MPs
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Casey says she hopes grooming gangs inquiry does not lead to scapegoating and hate-mongering
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Badenoch defends politicising grooming gangs issue, accusing Labour of doing this first
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Badenoch plays down value of politicians apologising, saying ‘apologies are easy’ – 24 hours after demanding one from Starmer
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Badenoch says most of what was in Louise Casey’s report ‘I felt I had seen before’
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Kemi Badenoch holds press conference, giving abuse survivors platform to speak about their experiences
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Casey explains why she changed her mind on holding national inquiry, saying it is needed for ‘accountability’
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Casey says children are at risk because police data sharing systems are too antiquated
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Casey says having incomplete ethnicity data on grooming gangs has been ‘disaster’, and officials to blame for ‘public irresponsibility’
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Louise Casey gives evidence to MPs about her grooming gangs report
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Tories call for grooming gangs inquiry to be extended to cover Scotland
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‘Vital’ that British steel gets Trump tariff deal after UK-US trade pact, say unions
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Minister says UK still hoping to reduce US tariffs on steel, after Trump/Starmer trade deal leaves this unresolved
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Louise Casey criticises Tories for politicising her grooming gangs report
Toby Perkins (Lab) says he is concerned about the amendment because it would mean there could be no circumstances at all in which a woman might be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy.
Antoniazzi says she does not accept the existing law is a deterrent at all.
After another MP raises a similar concern, Antoniazzi says she does not believe any woman has an abortion lightly.
Antoniazzi mentions Stella Creasy’s rival amendment, NC20 or new clause 20, and she says Creasy was being targeted by protesters outside the House of Commons today, who had a banner with a large picture of Creasy making her easy to identify when she was arriving for work. Antoniazzi says no MP should have to endure harassment like that.
Antoniazzi says women being prosecuted under ‘outdated’ law passed by all-male parliament in 19th century
Antoniazzi cites other examples of women prosecuted for abortion offences. She goes on:
Each one of these cases is a travesty enabled by our outdated abortion law.
Although abortion is available in England and Wales under conditions set by the 1967 Abortion Act, the law underpinning it dating back to 1861, the Offences against the Person Act, means that outside those conditions, it remains a criminal offence carrying a maximum life sentence.
Originally passed by an all-male parliament elected by men alone, this Victorian law is increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls.
Since 2020 more than 100 women have been criminally investigated …
Women affected are often acutely vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, girls under the age of 18 and women who have suffered miscarriage.
Antoniazzi started her speech by telling the story of Nicola Packer.
Antoniazzi said:
Nearly five years ago, having suffered a rare complication in her abortion treatment, Nicola Packer lay down in shock having just delivered a foetus at home.
Later arriving at hospital, bleeding and utterly traumatised, she had no idea that her ordeal was about to get the worse.
Her life torn apart, recovering from surgery, Nicola was taken from a hospital bed by uniformed police officers in a police van and arrested for illegal abortion offences.
In custody, her computers and phone were seized, and she was denied timely access to vital anti clotting medication.
What followed was a four and a half year pursuit by the police and the CPS, which completely overshadowed Nicola’s life, culminating in the being forced to endure the indignity and turmoil of a trial.
She spent every penny she had funding her defence.
The most private details of her life were publicly aired, and she had to relive the trauma in front of a jury.
All of this to ultimately be cleared and found not guilty.
Nicola’s story is deplorable, but there are many others.
Text of Tonia Antoniazzi’s lead amendment to decriminalise abortion by women acting on their own pregnancies
The abortion debate is starting.
The Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi is opening the debate. That is because her amendment is the lead amendment, NC1 or new clause 1. It will be put to a vote at 7pm.
Here is the text of her amendment.
To move the following Clause —
“Removal of women from the criminal law related to abortion For the purposes of the law related to abortion, including sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy.”
And here is Antoniazzi’s description of what this will do.
This new clause would disapply existing criminal law related to abortion from women acting in relation to her own pregnancy at any gestation, removing the threat of investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment. It would not change any law regarding the provision of abortion services within a healthcare setting, including but not limited to the time limit, telemedicine, the grounds for abortion, or the requirement for two doctors’ approval.
Judith Cummins, the deputy Speaker, says that if NC1 is passed, then the rival decriminalisation amendment, from Labour’s Stella Creasy, will not be put to a vote because the two amendments are not consistent.
In the Commons they are now on their fourth division on the crime and policing bill, pushing back the start of the abortion debate again.
Starmer suggests UK may tighten visa rules for countries that don’t cooperate in taking back refused asylum seekers
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent, covering Keir Starmer at the G7 in Canada.
The UK will look into a more “transactional” approach to granting visas for countries which refuse to take back national who are refused asylum, Keir Starmer has said at the G7 summit in Canada.
Asked during a media Q&A about way to reduce the numbers of people arriving unofficially in small boats, the prime minister indicated that countries which refuse to cooperate with returns could then see their nationals find it harder to get UK visas.
This would also be the case, he said, for countries which did not cooperate on efforts to prevent their nationals heading towards Europe and potentially the UK to claim asylum.
Describing a G7 session on migration at the summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, on Monday, Starmer said:
I also, at the session yesterday, made clear that we are looking at issues like a smarter use of our visas, looking at whether we should tie our visas to the work that the countries we’re dealing with are doing on preventative measures and on return agreements.
The UK currently has returns deals with 11 nations including Albania, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Nigeria and Bangladesh. A process whereby people refused asylum can be swiftly sent back is seen as a notable disincentive, with the number of Albanian nationals seeking asylum in the UK having dropped sharply.
Starmer said:
We’re looking at what we can do on returns agreements. We’ve done a number of bilateral returns agreements. So the question is, again, whether it’s possible to go a bit beyond that. But we are including looking at this question of visas now, and whether we can’t be a bit smarter with the use of our visas in return in relation to countries that don’t have a returns agreement with us.
This would be, he added, “much more sort of transactional” in approach.
More widely, Starmer said, he had spoken at length at the summit with France’s President Emmanuel Macron, the Italian prime minister, Georgia Meloni, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, about asylum and small boats. He said:
It was a central part of my discussion, certainly with France, with Germany and with Italy in the bilaterals that we had.
I think we need to strengthen our existing tools, but then go further and see what else we can do. And that is a piece of work we’re looking at with the French in particular. So we’ll see where that gets to.
At the joint session on migration, Starmer said, he “put out a series of proposals on what we should be doing in terms of counter-terrorism, powers, sanctions and the way that we are able to work together on that and returns agreements”.
He added:
I obviously raised it specifically, and indeed in detail, with President Macron, and in terms of the specific actions that I want us to take together, as I did with Georgia Meloni, slightly more upstream with her, which is where she’s shown some success in reducing her own numbers, and with Friedrich Mertz as well, because some of the boats are transiting through Germany.
Another division has just been called in the Commons, which means the abortion debate will not start for at least another 15 minutes.
Starmer explains why he picked up papers for Trump after president dropped them
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent, covering Keir Starmer at the G7 in Canada.
Keir Starmer said he rushed to pick up papers dropped by Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Canada mainly to avoid anyone else stepping forward to do so and being tackled by the president’s security team.
Speaking to reporters in Kananaskis a day after Trump fumbled some of the documents about a UK-US trade deal, with a sheaf of papers tumbling to the ground, Starmer said he had little choice but to bend down and help out.
I mean, look, there weren’t many choices with the documents and picking it up, because one – as you probably know there were quite strict rules about who can get close to the president.
I mean, seriously, I think if any of you [the media] had stepped forward other than me, I was just deeply conscious that in a situation like it would not have been good for anybody else to have stepped forward – not that any of you rushed to.
There’s a very tightly guarded security zone around the president, as you would expect.
As well as dropping the papers, Trump wrongly announced that he had agreed a deal with the European Union, not the UK, and some of his answers were unclear and rambling.
Asked if he had any concerns about Trump’s health, Starmer rejected this:
No, he was in good form yesterday, and I mean we had – I don’t know how many sessions yesterday together as the G7 and then into the evening session as well.
As Starmer and Trump spoke to the media on Monday before their private talks, the US president was again effusive in his praise for the prime minister.
Asked why Trump liked him so much, Starmer replied:
I mean, that’s really for him to answer me, but I think it’s that we do have a good relationship. I think that is in the national interest.
Frankly, there has long been a close relationship between the US and the UK, as I’ve said many times, on defence and security and intelligence-sharing in particular. I’m very pleased that I’ve got a good relationship with him, notwithstanding, as both he and I acknowledge, that our political backgrounds are different.
Starmer challenges Badenoch to explain she didn’t say ‘one word’ about grooming gang scandal when in government
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent, covering Keir Starmer at the G7 in Canada.
Keir Starmer has hit out at Kemi Badenoch and other Conservatives for politicising the issue of grooming gangs after having, as he put it, done almost nothing about the issue when in power.
Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Starmer was critical in particular of Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary. Referencing his claim that some politicians had jumped on a “far-right bandwagon” on the issue, Starmer said this involved “calling out politicians – nobody else – who in power had said and done nothing, who are now making the claims that they make”.
Asked if Badenoch was weaponising grooming gangs, Starmer called on people to “just compare and contrast” his record prosecuting gangs as director of public prosecutions, and his call for mandatory reporting of such offences, and the record of the Tory leader.
Kemi Badenoch, if I remember rightly, was the minister for children and for women, and I think the record will show that she didn’t raise the question of grooming once when she was in power, not once. Not one word from the dispatch box on any of this.
Chris Philp, I think, went to 300-plus meetings when he was in his position in the Home Office, and at not one of those meetings did he raise the question of grooming.
The question for Kemi Badenoch is, you were in power, you had all the tools at your disposal, I was calling even then from mandatory reporting, why didn’t you do it? Why didn’t you say one word about it?
In the Commons a second division has been called on the crime and policing bill, which will take about 15 minutes.
Starmer signals he would vote for abortion law reform if he were at Westminster today
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent, covering Keir Starmer at the G7 in Canada.
MPs are going to have a free vote on decriminalising abortion, which is viewed as a conscience issue at Westminster, not a party political matter.
But Keir Starmer has signalled that, if he were in London, he would be voting for reform. He told reporters:
It is a conscience issue, therefore it is a free vote. And therefore in that sense, it’s in the same category as assisted dying.
But my longstanding in principle position is that women have the right to a safe and legal abortion, and that’s been my longstanding position.
MPs to debate proposals to decriminalise abortion
In the Commons MPs are now voting on an amendment to the crime and policing bill. They have just finished the first part of today’s report stage debate, and when the voting is finished they will start the second stage of the debate, dealing with amendments relating to abortion. This will run until 7pm when the vote, or votes, will take place.
Here is Hannah Al-Othman’s preview story.
Starmer rejects suggestions Trump wants US to help Israel attack Iran
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent, covering Keir Starmer at the G7 in Canada.
Keir Starmer has rejected the idea that Donald Trump might want to directly involve the US in helping Israel attack Iran, saying that his discussions with the US president at the G7 summit made him convinced Trump genuinely sought peace, pointing to Trump’s decision to also sign a leaders’ statement about the need for de-escalation.
Speaking to reporters at the summit in Kananaskis, Canada, Starmer said he was sitting next to Trump at Monday evening’s leaders’ G7 dinner at which the statement was drafted, “so I’ve no doubt, in my mind, the level of agreement there was in relation to the words that were then issued immediately after that”.
Asked if the US might help attack Iran, Starmer said:
I don’t think anything that the president said either here or elsewhere suggests that. The wording of the G7 statement is very clear about de-escalation and de-escalation across the region, and obviously including the situation in Gaza for a ceasefire.
So I think that the statement really speaks for itself in terms of the shared position of everybody who was here at the G7 and that was a statement that was agreed.
Asked about Trump’s comments about not wanting a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Starmer said:
I think what he said was he wanted to go beyond a ceasefire, effectively, and end the conflict. And I think he’s right about that. I mean, a ceasefire is always a means to an end. The end we want to see is the de-escalation and back to negotiations – a deal to deal with the Iranian nuclear program, and, of course, the wider question of conflict across the Middle East, including Gaza.
