Police chief urges those ‘who know nothing about Northern Ireland’ not to stir up disorder via social media – UK politics live

Henderson told reporters at the PSNI press conference that that there was no evidence of a terrorist aspect to last night’s knife attack. He said:

Throughout today we’ve been liaising senior counterterrorism partners.

At this stage, we have no information to suggest that this was a terrorist-related incident.

However, I must stress, I must stress, we are still at the early stages of our investigation.

The Sudanese suspect in a knife attack in Belfast entered the UK from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

The information came out as Ryan Henderson, the PSNI’s assistant chief constable, held a press conference.

I will post more details from it shortly.

Reform UK issued its response to Kemi Badenoch’s speech last night, on the basis of the CCHQ advance briefing. It came in the form of a statement from Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary who is now Reform’s equalities spokesperson. She claimed Nigel Farage would led “the most pro-woman government in British history”.

She said:

The Tories are offering a sticking plaster when the whole rotten system needs replacing. Scrapping one duty [the public sector equality duty] while leaving the rest of Blair’s identity politics framework untouched will do nothing to restore common sense, protect women’s rights, or end the culture of state-sponsored discrimination.

Only Reform UK is prepared to replace this failed model out at the root. We will restore equality before the law, protect single-sex spaces, uphold biological reality, and ensure women and girls are never again forced to surrender their rights to ideological dogma.

A Reform government will be the most pro-women government in British history. We will strengthen maternity protections, defend female-only spaces, protect women’s sport, tackle violence against women and girls, and put the interests of ordinary women back at the heart of public policy.

This is quite a claim. And if Farage really does intend to lead the most pro-women government in Britain, he has been remarkably bad at making this case to the nation’s women. As this recent British Social Attitudes report says, there is a 9-point gap between the proportion of women backing the party (19%) and the proportion of men who back it (28%). Among under-35s, the gap is even bigger – at 13 points.

The gender gap is even larger than it was at the time of the Brexit referendum in 2016, when Farage’s leave side had a 5-point lead with men, and even larger than at the 2024 election, when Reform UK had a 6-point lead with men.

The gender bias in the Reform UK vote may be linked to the fact that women are poorly represented at the top of the party. In 2024, when five Reform UK MPs were elected, 0% of them were women. The equivalent figure for the Conservatives was 24%, for the Lib Dems 44% and for Labour 46%. There are now eight Reform UK MPs, and two of them are women, meaning they are now on a par with the Tories.

The TUC has accused Kemi Badenoch of wanting to “legalise discrimination”.

In a statement responding to her speech this morning. about getting rid of the public sector equality duty, Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said:

Make no mistake – Kemi Badenoch wants to legalise discrimination.

This proposal would give a future Tory government a free hand to harm your life chances if you’re a woman, gay, black, disabled, or working class.

The Conservatives’ austerity policies tore apart the social fabric of this country, pitting communities against one another. Now, they want to double down, sowing seeds of division between working people once again.

Working people are sick and tired of this kind of politics. We need to tear down the structural barriers holding communities back, not the handful of laws protecting them.

The White House has urged the UK not to impose a social media ban for under-16s, saying such restrictions could impose a “disproportionate” burden on US tech firms, Dan Milmo reports.

Richard Tice (Reform UK) asked Benn if he would return to the Commons later today to give a further statement about the suspect.

Benn said he would report to MPs “in an appropriate form as soon as I am able to do so”.

Shockat Adam (Ind) asked Benn if he agreed “crime and heroes come in all different hues and colours”. Benn said all MPs should appeal for calm.

Ayoub Khan (Ind) asked Benn if he agreed “we must not let the heinous actions of one person be taken as an opportunity to taint an entire community”.

Benn said he agreed. He went on:

When I think back to those who were attacked in the wake of the terrible events in Southport and then in Ballymena, we know that in Northern Ireland certain individuals were attacked who had nothing to do with any of this simply because of the colour of their skin. And that is not what this country is about.

Identify an attacker, due process in due course after investigation.

Do not cast aspersions on a whole community. Many people from all backgrounds bring so much to our national life.

Carla Lockhart (DUP) said people in Northern Ireland were very concerned about uncontrolled immigration. She asked how many people there were in Northern Ireland of the same nationality as the accused.

Benn said the facts would be provided in due course once they were checked.

Lee Anderson (Reform UK) asked if the accused entered the UK as an asylum seeker?

Benn said, until he had had that confirmed, he could not say. But the PSNI was leading on this, he said.