UK politics live: Badenoch makes key shadow cabinet appointment as Starmer ‘to raise university tuition fees’

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to increase university tuition fees for the first time in eight years.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson is expected to confirm the plans this afternoon, which will see fees rise in line with the Retail Price Index inflation from September 2025, The Telegraph reported.

University tuition fees have been frozen at £9,250 since 2017. Matching them to the current rate of inflation at 2.7 per cent would mean they increase to around £9,500.

The Department for Education declined to comment.

The government is preparing to fast track people people smugglers through the courts in the same way as those who participated in the summer riots.

As part of a £150m package of measures to tackle the small boat crisis announced on Monday, the prime minister will order the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to speed up charges for people smugglers.

The claim of government intervention playing a role in the swift justice which faced rioters was criticised last month by the head of the judiciary, with lady chief justice Baroness Carr saying: “Suggestions that the listing of riot cases speedily in the criminal courts was a consequence of government action or pressure was a false constitutional narrative.”

The listing of court cases was “a judicial function – it cannot be otherwise”.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has more information about the first Tory shadow cabinet appointments:

Kemi Badenoch has made two appointments to the Shadow Department for Education, ahead of Education Questions in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Laura Trott – who served as the the chief secretary to the Treasury in Rishi Sunak’s government – has been appointed shadow education secretary, Ms Badenoch’s first major appointment to the shadow frontbench. She was a prominent Badenoch-backer during the leadership contest.

Meanwhile, Neil O’Brien has been appointed as shadow minister for education. While he previously backed Ms Badenoch in 2022, he lent his support to rival Robert Jenrick during this year’s contest.

Downing Street insisted the government wants to see small boat crossing numbers falling, but would not reveal if ministers have a target.

Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson insisted the government is “going to make progress as rapidly as is possible” on migrant crossings, pointing to its record of 9,400 returns recorded since Labour took power.

But he would not be drawn into revealing if the government has a target for when crossings will start to reduce, telling reporters: “I am not going to set out new targets here today. You have got the manifesto commitment, you have got the prime minister’s words.

“Clearly the government’s ambition is to reduce small boats crossings and that is why we are putting significant resource focus into this crisis.”

Asked if the government would be satisfied were numbers making the crossing to remain the same next year, he replied: “No, the government wants to do everything it can to reduce small boats crossings.

“It inherited a situation where small boats crossings before the election were up 18 per cent on the same period from the year before. That is not an acceptable position and that is a reflection of the system in chaos, and that is why the government is focused on putting in place the practical steps that will bring small boats crossings down.”

The first members of Kemi Badenoch’s new shadow cabinet have been named.

Laura Trott has been appointed shadow education secretary and Neil O’Brien has been appointed shadow education minister in Kemi Badenoch‘s opposition team, it is understood.

Both will be on the opposition front bench for education oral questions in the Commons on Monday afternoon.

New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is understood to have told Conservative Party staff that they can turn their fortunes around in one political term, but must initially focus on principles over policy.

Ms Badenoch has been at the party’s headquarters in Westminster on Monday morning as she is in the process of deciding who will be in her top team.

In an address to CCHQ staff, it is thought Ms Badenoch said the first challenge for the party will be winning back council seats at local elections.

She is also understood to have said the party can turn their situation around in one term and that policy will come soon, but the party needs to start with principles such as freedom of speech and personal responsibility.

There is “nothing progressive” about turning a blind eye to people making dangerous channel crossings to reach the UK, Sir Keir Starmer told Interpol’s general assembly.

In total, 31,904 people have made the journey so far this year, up 16.5 per cent on the same point in 2023.

“Security doesn’t stop at our borders”, the prime minister said, adding that illegal migration is a “massive driver of global insecurity”.

“There is nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men women and children die in the channel. And you don’t advance the cause of global justice or compassion for those individuals to pretend that there is”, he said.

The UK will increase its funding for Interpol projects, investing £6m this year, Sir Keir Starmer said.

Speaking at the organisation’s general assembly in Glasgow, the prime minister said the money will support improved data sharing and faster communications capabilities, as well as a global fraud threat assessment network.

“We want to send a clear message to the world’s most hardened criminals that there is no safe haven. There is no place you can hide from justice”, he said.

“Together, we’ve got the whole world covered, and together we will defeat you.”

While the home secretary was really just the warm up act in Glasgow at the Interpol conference for the prime minister, she made a very important point at a tipping point in world history.

With the Tories still considering withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights (EDHR) as they try to ape Nigel Farage, and Americans considering voting for an isolationist president in Donald Trump, Yvette Cooper made the case for international law.

She told the audience: “International security and domestic security are one and the same thing.”

At a time when political parties want to start to unpick the network of international agreements, Ms Cooper’s statement carries special significance.