Starmer says he ‘felt sick’ watching video of Henry Nowak’s arrest – as it happened

Labour MPs are not looking to raise taxes to fund more benefits, the Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has said. Jessica Elgot has the story.

Jack McConnell, the former Labour Scottish first minister, has said the Peter Murrell embezzlement scandal is “embarrassing internationally” for Scotland. Speaking at a conference in Edinburgh, where he restated his calls for Holyrood and the UK parliament to hold a joint inquiry into what happened, McConnell said:

This is not just hilarious tittle-tattle here in Scotland. This is embarrassing internationally for us now and we need to take it seriously.

Even if it seems in some aspects – although obviously not in the criminal prosecution, which is very serious – a good source for the comedians, that’s not the point. I think the point here is the reputation of Scotland globally and I would welcome a bit of a rethink at the top and a willingness to be open with some kind of public inquiry.

The Conservatives have criticised Yvette Cooper for her trip to China. Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said:

As if Keir Starmer’s surrender tour earlier this year wasn’t enough, his foreign secretary is now in Beijing cosying up to the CCP [Chinese Communist party] too.

This is little more than a distraction from the scandal engulfing the government – which involves Mandelson’s links to China as well as to a convicted paedophile – and the civil war raging at the top of the Labour Party.

Cooper should be pushing for the release of Jimmy Lai. But Labour lack the backbone to stand up to China. Only the Conservatives will put our country first.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has said that a rules-based international order is in Britain and China’s “shared interest”, the Press Association says. PA reports:

Cooper was speaking as she met the country’s vice president Han Zheng for talks on global security as part of a three-day visit to Asia.

Cooper acknowledged “areas of disagreement” between London and Beijing but insisted that approaching discussions with “candour and respect” would help to increase mutual understanding of one another.

Greeting the minister in the capital’s Great Hall of the People today, Han hailed a “new chapter in bilateral ties” which he said had been opened during Keir Starmer’s visit to the country in January.

On her first visit to the country, Cooper said as two “P5 powers” – permanent member states of the UN Security Council – the UK and China must work together to address global challenges, citing wars in Ukraine and Iran and health crises like the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“It is in our shared interest to have a rules-based international order and to find ways to reduce rising geoeconomic tensions,” she said.

Addressing Han at the top of the meeting, Cooper said: “I’m very pleased to be here in China, thank you for welcoming me.

“We will have important issues of shared interest and cooperation and also areas of disagreement, but as the prime minister and President Xi [Jinping] have demonstrated, we increase our understanding of one another when we approach these conversations with candour and respect.”

She added: “Those frank and constructive discussions can help us make meaningful progress for the benefit of our two countries and the wider world.”

Welcoming her in Beijing’s opulent state building, Han said an “important consensus” had been reached during Starmer’s visit earlier this year after the two leaders agreed to move forward with a “comprehensive strategic dialogue” – a framework for deepening cooperation amid heightened geopolitical volatility.

“Their important consensus has opened a new chapter for bilateral ties,” Han said.

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My colleage Jessica Elgot points out that the prospect of Andy Burnham calling an early election if he becomes PM (see 10.30am) was always remote.

You cannot seriously think that Labour MPs would make Andy Burnham prime minister if they thought he was going to call a snap general election where hundreds would lose their seats even in the best case scenario. Truly bizarre.

At 12.30pm there will be a Commons urgent question on the Alan Milburn report on Neets published last week. A DWP minister will respond. Then, after 1pm, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, (not Sarah Jones, the policing minister, as suggested earlier) will give a statement on the Henry Nowak murder. (See 10.14am.)

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has said that Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed as an ambassador.

Speaking to reporters on China, where she is on a visit and where she was asked about the Mandelson files released yesterday, she said:

What I would say is that Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed as ambassador to the United States.

There’s been a lot of transparency now about messages being released. That’s always an unedifying process but [it’s] right to be transparent.

We mustn’t forget two things, first is that in the end this whole thing started about Epstein’s abuse of young women and girls, and sometimes the conversation gets pulled away from that, and secondly, I think the whole government is getting on with the most important issues that affect our country, and that’s exactly why I’m here in China having these important discussions about international security.

But, when asked specifically if she agreed with Mandelson’s criticisms of Starmer’s leadership style, and specifically whether the peer was right to describe his approach as “advance, buckle, advance, buckle”, Cooper declined to address the question and focused on her point about it being wrong to appoint Mandelson in the first place.

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2 Jun 202606.28 EDT

Miliband confirms UK's latest carbon budget, aiming for 87% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2042

Fiona Harvey

Fiona Harvey is the Guardian’s environment editor.

The UK’s seventh carbon budget was formally confirmed today, committing to an 87% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2042, compared with 1990 levels. The announcement follows the recommendation made by the Climate Change Committee last year.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said the commitment would help to wean the economy off fossil fuels. “As Britain faces the second fossil fuel shock of the decade, the only way to protect family and business finances is to drive for clean homegrown power that we control,” he said.

He pointed to findings from CBI Economy and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, published today, that showed the net zero economy – including renewable energy companies, home insulation installers, heat pump makers and others – was worth more than £100bn a year and supported more than 1m jobs.

He said:

What has been achieved so far by businesses and communities across the country is a great British success story - cutting costs by upgrading homes, backing British businesses, supporting one million good jobs according to new analysis from CBI Economics, and protecting our beautiful countryside.

Some people want to stick their heads in the sand and let our children face the consequences of climate breakdown - but this government believes in the timeless British value of protecting our country for generations to come.

No government has yet rejected the advice of the Climate Change Committee, which is charged under the 2008 Climate Change Act with setting five-yearly carbon budgets that bind future parliaments to stringent emissions cuts, in line with the statutory goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. However, the Conservatives and Reform UK have pledged to repeal the act if elected, and last week the former Labour prime minister Tony Blair attacked the net zero target.

Experts, businesses and campaigners welcomed the government’s announcement. Lord Stern, the LSE economics professor who carried out a landmark review for the last Labour government on the economics of climate change, said:

This is the first carbon budget to be presented to parliament since the unacceptable and short-sighted abandonment by some parties of the commitment to net zero. The evidence is now clearer than ever that the investments required to make the transition away from fossil fuels are far smaller than the potential costs of climate change impacts.

These investments in the clean technologies and businesses of the future will lower costs, drive growth and ensure that the UK remains competitive. Any slippage now on net zero by the UK, in light of its past leadership on climate change, would have serious and adverse knock-on effects on the commitments by other countries to decarbonise their economies.

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On the subject of an early election if Andy Burnham becomes PM (see 10.30am), Lord Ashcroft has released some extensive polling today which includes figures showing that, by 49% to 35%, people think that, if Keir Starmer is replaced as PM in the next few months, there should be an early election.

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Here are some pictures released by the Crown Office in Scotland of items purchased by Peter Murrell with funds embezzled from the SNP.

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