Sex education to be axed for under 9s as Sunak prepares to face Starmer at PMQs – UK politics live

Policing Minister Chris Philp has told Sky News the police will be given equipment to scan people for knives as part of new measures to tackle crime.

He said: “A police officer could scan people walking down the street at a distance of six or 10 feet to see if they’re carrying a knife.

“So scanning large numbers of people, that’s not ready for deployment today, but I’m hoping by the end of this year it can be deployed experimentally or in a test way.”

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are set to face a tough battle during today’s Prime Minister’s Questions.

While we wait for MPs to take their seat at the Commons, many are wondering wether we will see more Tories crossing the floor to Labour.

This is what Andrew Grice had to say about last week’s defection.

Responding to Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s call for an electoral pact Ben Habib says the Tories always fail to deliver their promises.

The deputy leader of Reform UK agreed that there was some common ground politically between the Tories and Reform.

But he has said on GB News: “The problem I’ve got is that no matter what you say your party doesn’t do what it promises. We’ve heard these promises for 14 years.”

“I would like nothing more than to be put out of politics by a resurgent centre-right, pro-British, pro-British people’s interest party that no longer necessitated people like me being in politics.

“I’m only here, frankly, because the Conservative Party hasn’t been conservative.”

A Tory minister said the “trans debate” is a “contested political issue and shouldn’t be taught as fact” as a report suggested education secretary Gillian Keegan will announce plans to prevent children from being taught they can change their gender identity until they are aged 13.

Following Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg call for a Conservartive-Reform UK election deal, a Tory source is ruling out the pact.

The source said they “unequivocally” deny Nigel Farage and Richard Tice would be given the chance to stand as Conservative Party candidates.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said the economy is doing “far better than many would have you believe” and told people out of work there is no good reason to languish on benefits.

The reforms include benefits being stopped if someone does not comply with conditions set by a work coach, and a pledge to “tighten” the work capability assessment (WCA).

Schools will be told not to teach children any form of sex education until year 5, when pupils are aged nine, according to newspaper reports.

Policing Minister Chris Philp has confirmed there will be no election this summer as he will be away on holiday.

When asked to reveal an exact date, he insists he has no “inside information”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he says: “We have booked a summer holiday for the first couple of weeks in August.

“I am afraid I don’t have inside information. The Prime Minister has consistently said the second half of the year and I suspect that is as much as we are going to get for the time being.”

Shadow Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds says: “I would like to see a Britain that doesn’t need food banks any more.”

Blaming the Tories for the high rates in food bank use, he said they “were not a feature of the UK” during the 2010 Labour government and have “become so over the past 14 years”.

He adds: “We shouldn’t have reached a position in our country where the economic management has been so bad that we have ended up with people having to rely on food banks in that way.”

According to The Trussell Trust charity, a record of 31.million emergency food parcels have been handed in the last year.

That means a rise of a whopping 40% compared with five years ago.

Asked by Sky News about the skyrocketing figures, Chris Philp defended policies ministers have implemented.

He said: “We’ve seen food bank use grow across the Western world.

“What the government is doing is making sure that work pays, hence the huge increase in the minimum wage and making sure the benefits system is there to support people as a safety net.”