Starmer, Farage and Badenoch all likely to face difficult byelection challenge after Mike Amesbury MP jailed for assault
Mike Amesbury MP has been sentenced to 10 weeks in jail after pleading guilty to assault last month, the BBC is reporting.
That means campaigners can start organising a petition to hold a recall byelection in his constituency, Runcorn and Helsby, assuming he does not resign as an MP. These petitions have almost always been successful (ie they have almost always reached the threshold of 10% of voters required for a byelection to take place).
This would be the first byelection of this parliament, and it would pose a big challenge for Labour, which won the seat last summer with a majority of 14,696, for Reform UK, which came second at the general election (on 18% of the vote, compared to Labour’s 53%) and for the Tories, who were on 16% at the general election.
Key events
There were two key votes on Ukraine resolutions at the UN general assembly.
The US voted against a resolution co-sponsored by Ukraine and EU nations. The text of that one is here.
UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution “Advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”; calls for deescalation, early cessation of hostilities and peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine
RESULT
In favor: 93
Against: 18
Abstain: 65 pic.twitter.com/VhQ5Y1W2il— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) February 24, 2025
But the US abstained on another resolution, originally tabled by the US but amended to include a reference to the Russian invasion.
Lammy refuses to criticise US for not backing UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion and upholding Ukraine’s unity
Chris Law (SNP) asks Lammy if he will condemn the US for not voting for the UN motion condemning the invastion of Ukraine.
Lammy says the UK co-sponsored the motion, voted for it and will support Ukraine forever.
He declined to criticise the US for the way it voted.
Jane Clinton has more on the the vote on our Ukraine live blog. She says:
The United States was forced to abstain in a United Nations General Assembly vote on Monday on a resolution it drafted to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine after the 193-member body agreed to amendments proposed by European states.
The amendments made to the US resolution included adding references to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in line with the founding UN Charter and reaffirming the UN’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity.
The amended US-drafted resolution won 93 votes in favor, while 73 states abstained and eight voted no, Reuters reports.
The US put forward its text on Friday, pitting it against Ukraine and European allies who spent the past month negotiating with their own resolution.
The General Assembly also adopted the resolution drafted by Ukraine and European countries on Monday with 93 votes in favor, 65 abstentions and 18 no votes.
Here is a table showing how different countries voted.
Adoption of today’s UNGA resolution on an early & just peace in Ukraine confirms the importance of upholding the UN Charter & respecting all countries’ territorial integrity & sovereignty.
Peace in Ukraine. In line with the Charter.
✅ 93 votes in favor
❌ 18 votes against pic.twitter.com/JYp7d5K0Sv— 🇪🇺EU at UN-NY (@EUatUN) February 24, 2025
UPDATE: Chris Law said:
Will the foreign secretary condemn what’s happened just now in the United Nations, with the United States joining Russia in not standing up for the resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine?
And Lammy said:
We are proud to have co-sponsored the general assembly resolution proposed by Ukraine in support of a just and lasting peace in Ukraine in-line with the UN Charter.
Alec Shelbrooke (Con) says within the last few minutes the US has voted against a UN resolution condemning Russia. He says he understands why the PM and the foreign secretary have to adopt a certain approach with President Trump in Washington. But he urges them to point out that, just as Europe is reliant on US military power in Europe, European military assets often help the US in the Indo-Pacific.
Melanie Ward (Lab) said that, with Reform UK MPs not in the chamber for the statement, she was sure all MPs present would agree that it is President Putin who is the dictator, not President Zelenskyy.
Lammy ducks invitation from Tory MP who asks if he regrets withdrawing his past criticism of Trump
Desmond Swayne (Con) asks if Lammy regrets recanting the original (very negative) views that he expressed about President Trump. And, if he does, will he follow the example of Archbiship Cranmer and plunge the offending hand into the flame?
Lammy says this is a serious debate. His comments were “old news”, he says. Moving forward will require diplomacy and friendship, he says. And he says the real threats come from autocracies.
‘Beyond repulsive’ – MPs condemn Trump for his comments about Putin and Zelenskyy
Julian Lewis, the Conservative former chair of the Commons defence committee and former chair of the intelligence and security committee, said he would resist the temptation to ask Lammy if he shared his “feeling of disgust at the spectacle of the leader of the free world [President Trump] showering praise and admiration on the killer of Ukraine”.
And Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader in the Commons said that he would not ask Lammy to agree with him in the chamber that Trump’s remark about President Zelenskyy being a dictator was “beyond repulsive”. But he said he was sure Lammy did privately agree with him.
Andrew Mitchell, a former Tory deputy foreign secretary, says there should be no dispute on the facts of the matter; a P5 country (Russia – one of the five permanent members of the UN security council) has invaded its neigbour “in an act we thought had gone out with the last century, has bombed and destroyed its infrastructure and has butchered and murdered its citizens”.
This is another example of an MP rebuking and refutting President Trump – without naming him explicity. Mitchell was referring to Trump claiming Ukraine started the war.
Lammy agrees with Mitchell, saying Russia was in breach of the UN charter.
Paul Waugh (Lab) asks if Lammy agrees with him the President Zelenskyy is a democrat, not a dictator.
Lammy says he has met Zelenskyy six or seven times. He goes on:
He has always struck me as the most courageous and brave of individuals, leading his people to self determination. And that is something that I think we recognise right across the United Kingdom.
That is Lammy making it clear that he disagrees with President Trump about Zelenskyy being a dictator – without accepting Waugh’s invitation to say that explicitly.
James Cleverly, the former Tory foreign secretary, says he agrees defence spending needs to rise now.
He says Britain said things that encourages the Ukrainians to fight. So the government should honour the commitments it made to Ukraine, he says.
Jeremy Hunt, the former Tory chancellor, refers to the need for more defence spending, and he says that if the government could just reduce then number of adult welfare recipients to 2019 levels, that would save £40bn. That would allow defence spending to rise to more than 3% of GDP, and safeguard the future of Nato, he says.
Lammy says he is sure the chancellor will be following these arguments closely.
Stella Creasy (Lab) says Reform UK MPs are not in the chamber for the statement.
She asks what can be done to stop Ukraine’s precious minerals being taken by Russia.
Lammy says the 100-year partnership struck between Ukraine and the UK will be a “good guide” going ahead.
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem defence spokesperson, asks what is delaying the release of the £2.5bn promise for Ukraine from the sale of Chelsea Football club.
Lammy says the government is “redoubling” its efforts to unlock that money for Ukraine.
Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, urges the government to continue giving Ukraine everything it needs.
She welcomes the new sanctions against Russia announced today. And he asks to Lammy to confirm that sanctions currently imposed on Russia won’t be lifted.
Echoing a statement by Kemi Badenoch over the weekend, she says that raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP will not be enough and she suggests that this could be funded by cuts to aid spending.
In response, Lammy says it is “very, very clear” that Europe must spend more on defence. The government has said it will publish its plans shortly, he says.
Lammy says the UK can play a “unique role” in contributing to a lasting peace in Ukraine. And he says he and Keir Starmer will travel to Washington this week to discuss this with President Trump.
Ukraine needs friends and allies on both sides of the Atlantic working together to achieve peace through strength. Both President Trump and President Zelenskyy have spoken of their desire to achieve this, and the prime minister reaffirmed Zelensky in a call today that this is Britain’s goal as well. This must include European countries investing more in our own defence and capabilities.
David Lammy makes statement to MPs about Ukraine
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is making a statement to MPs about Ukraine.
He starts by paying tribute to the people of Ukraine, and condemns Russia for pretenting to be a victim and for rehashing “lies” about the origin of the conflict.
Ukraine must be at the heart of any talks about its future, he says.
Cooper says police should focus on crimes that blight communities, when asked about grandmother questioned over Facebook posts
Yesterday the Mail on Sunday splashed on a story about two police officers visiting a grandmother in Greater Manchester over messages she had posted on Facebook calling for a councillor to resign. She had not committed an offence, but the officers said they were investigating a complaint of harassment.
During questions in the Commons, the shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers asked Yvette Cooper if she agreed this wa “a waste of police time”.
Cooper replied:
This government has been clear about the important focus of policing needs to be on the neighbourhood crimes that blight our community. That’s why we are increasing neighbourhood policing when, I’m afraid, his party slashed the number of neighbourhood police on the beat so we lost thousands of neighbourhood police in our communities, and why we are also focusing the police on serious violence.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson was even less keen to defend the police action in this case. The spokesperson said:
The police should be spending their time protecting the public and dealing with the issues that matter most to our communities, such as antisocial behavior, knife, climate, violence.
The government will publish setting a policy paper on elections and electoral reform before summer recess, the communities minister Rushanara Ali has said in a written ministerial answer. “This will include our approach to the delivery of our manifesto commitments and the outcomes of our review of electoral registration and conduct, in which we are consulting with various sector stakeholders,” she says.
The Labour manifesto committed the party to giving 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all elections, improving voter registration rules and tightening the law on donations.
According to Harry Cole in the Sun, staff working for Kemi Badenoch have started to plan on the basis that their boss will be late for everything.
Keir Starmer would not approve. As Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund write in their excellent, must-read book about Labour under Keir Starmer, Get In, the PM is a stickler for punctuality. Writing about her early days as opposition leader, they say:
Punctuality assumed extreme importance, particularly when the relaxation of lockdown restrictions allowed the shadow cabinet to meet in person. When Emily Thornberry arrived late for one meeting, Starmer performatively tapped his watch. He was an impatient man of exacting standards. The warmth his friends knew in private dissipated when his colleagues did not meet them. Visibly struggling with a bad cold, the shadow mental health minister Rosena Allin-Khan staggered through the door with a cup of Lemsip some thirty seconds late. “This meeting starts at 9.30 a.m., Starmer said. ‘I don’t want you coming in two minutes later, clutching your coffee.’
Revealed: how members of House of Lords benefit from commercial interests
A Guardian investigation into the House of Lords raises questions over the accountability of parliament’s second chamber, with revelations about how a string of peers are benefiting from commercial interests.
