Badenoch rules out apology for PMQs remarks about Starmer’s downfall, spokesperson confirms

Kemi Badenoch will “absolutely not” apologise for the language she used during Prime Minister’s Questions, her spokesperson told reporters at a briefing afterwards, even after the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, reprimanded her for her remarks. The spokesperson insisted Badenoch had been “nice” to Sir Keir Starmer and felt “sorry for him”, adding: “There was very little aimed at the prime minister. This was about a cabinet which has let him down, about a group of Labour MPs who have let him down and now they’ve got rid of him.”

Badenoch under fire: no apology, statistics rebuke and “Gestapo” accusation

The refusal to back down came as the Conservative leader faced a fresh series of political embarrassments. The UK Statistics Authority has written to Badenoch rebuking her for a “not wholly accurate” claim about government spending on benefits. The party had put out a document after the King’s Speech stating that “for the first time ever, the total welfare bill is now higher than total receipts from income tax”. In a letter, the Authority’s interim chair, Penny Young, pointed out that figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility show this has been the case since at least 2011 and that the gap has narrowed, with the positions forecast to reverse in 2026/27. She also noted the party had focused mainly on out-of-work and sickness benefits without making clear that the “total welfare bill” includes the state pension, and warned the inaccuracy “could lead to misunderstanding among members of the public about welfare spending”. A Tory source said the line would be corrected. It is the second time in recent weeks the watchdog has reprimanded the Tories over welfare figures; last month it wrote to Badenoch after she claimed at PMQs that universal credit claims had risen by 1.5m since Labour took office, when most of the increase was due to claimants migrating from a predecessor benefit.

Meanwhile, the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, accused Badenoch of having “lost her head at PMQs – and afterwards too”. Phillipson recalled that Badenoch had previously compared her to a Gestapo officer, a comment Badenoch made in an interview with The Spectator when she said Phillipson “has acted like a Gestapo officer” by ending tax breaks for private schools. Phillipson posted on social media: “If standing up for state schools makes me a spiteful class warrior, I’ll wear it with pride.” She also listed what she described as Labour’s achievements in education: 3,008 more teachers in secondaries and special schools, 1,646 more in colleges, a 13% rise in trainee teachers, a 9.5% pay increase for teachers, and record investment in schools.

Burnham sets his sights on No10 and social care overhaul

As Badenoch struggles to contain the fallout, the political spotlight is turning to the man widely expected to become prime minister later this month: the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham. Kiran Stacey reports that Burnham is planning to move parts of the No10 operation to Manchester as part of measures to devolve power away from London. He is expected to set out his devolution plans on Monday 29 June. Burnham has also appointed James Purnell as his chief of staff, a move greeted with enthusiasm by the Labour MP Dan Carden, who called it “the clearest sign a big change is coming”, and by the former No10 aide Theo Bertram, who described Purnell as “a great choice”. The former Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay was more critical, warning that if Burnham “surrounds himself with the current cabinet, advisers like Purnell and other discredited Blairite ultras he will fail and deserve to”.

A long read in the Financial Times by Jennifer Williams, who has covered Burnham extensively, offered a portrait of his political style. She quotes an aide who says Burnham “likes people and people like him”, describing how he will give out his phone number to anyone with a problem. Unlike Boris Johnson, whose persona was a construct, “even when Burnham’s showboating sounded incoherent, there was often a sincerity in the moment”. Others are less complimentary: one former colleague said “if you saw him in the morning, he’d have moved on by the end of the afternoon”.

Burnham has made reform of the adult social care system a priority. As health secretary before the 2010 election, he developed plans for a levy on inheritance to fund care, only to see it attacked as a “death tax” by the Tories – a campaign so successful that it stopped all parties revisiting the idea for at least a decade. Last month he floated the levy again, saying: “It’s not about asking people to pay more, it’s just people paying in the most unfair way possible at this moment in time and I think there’s a much better way of doing it.”

Louise Casey, the official leading the independent review of adult social care, told the Commons health committee that reform may involve “a renegotiation of the social contract”. She said an interim report due later this year will recommend “quite big” changes and that she wants to launch a public debate on the case for reform, starting in July. Casey stressed that the final report is due “by 2028” – which could mean sooner – and confirmed she has spoken to Burnham, who has done “an awful lot of work on social care in Manchester”. Asked whether she could expedite the review if Burnham, as prime minister, wanted that, she said: “Yes.” The government has already outlined progress on some of Casey’s earlier recommendations, including the establishment of a national adult safeguarding board and plans for a new dementia framework.

Donaldson renounces honours, Farage at ARC, Starmer stays as MP, and Mahmood’s asylum crackdown criticised

In other political news, the former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has moved to renounce and forfeit his knighthood and membership of the Privy Council after being found guilty this week of child sex offences. His solicitor, John McBurney, confirmed that Donaldson has signed letters to the Cabinet Office and the Privy Council office. The current DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, and the Ulster Unionist leader, Jon Burrows, had called for the honours to be removed. Donaldson was knighted in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Nigel Farage was among more than 4,000 attendees at the fourth summit of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) in London. The conference is backed by the British billionaire Ben Delo, who was convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business and has given £4m to Reform UK, as well as by the hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall, an owner of GB News, and the Dubai-based Legatum investment fund. Other speakers included Katy Faust of the US group Them Before Us, which has argued for measures that would effectively ban or significantly restrict gay people from having children; the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, which is ramping up its activities in Britain; and Carl Benjamin, a YouTuber and former Ukip candidate who previously said he “wouldn’t even rape” a female Labour MP. Sarah B Rogers, the US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, is scheduled to speak on the final day. Kemi Badenoch has also attended ARC events in the past, using them to launch “culture war” attacks.

Sir Keir Starmer’s political spokesperson has confirmed that the prime minister will remain as a backbench MP for the rest of this parliament when he leaves No10, saying he was “going to remain”. Asked whether Starmer might take a cabinet job under Burnham, the spokesperson said Starmer had told his ministers this week: “This is the end of my journey, but this is not the end of yours.”

Separately, the Home Office’s crackdown on refused asylum seekers – including the forcible removal of children from the UK – has been met with a warning from the children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, that it will cause “significant harm” and could breach the Children Act 1989. Her office estimates up to 27,000 children could be affected. The reforms, which are being driven by the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, are inspired by Denmark’s system and include making refugee status temporary and increasing the wait for permanent settlement to 20 years.