Speaking to the media in South Wales, Keir Starmer has defended the government’s decision to U-turn over the plan to postpone elections in 30 council areas in England.

He said it was the councils themselves that asked for elections to be postponed, and he said the government was responding to legal advice that changed. He said:

It’s important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide.

And, yes, Labour authorities came forward to say, ‘please delay’, but so did Tory authorities, so did Lib Dem authorities.

In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.

At least one council leader has claimed she was encouraged by the government to ask for elections in her area to be delayed.

Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.

Seven councillors elected to represent Reform UK on its ‘flagship’ county council in Kent have joined the new hard-right party set up by Rupert Lowe to rival Nigel Farage’s.

They include a number who parted company with the Reform UK group after leaked video obtained by the Guardian showed the council leader, Linden Kemkaran, telling that her councillors would have to “fucking suck it up” if they didn’t like decisions.

Oliver Bradshaw, one of the councillors who have now joined Restore Britain, said:

Reform UK in Kent has forgotten who sent them there,

When Reform was elected in May, it had two pledges, cut waste and put the residents of Kent first.

Instead, £200k is being spent on political assistants and DOLGE [Reform’s Department of Local Government Efficiency], a department the administration itself admits ‘hasn’t cut waste’.

Farage told a press conference on Monday that Lowe’s new party wouldn’t last long.

Keir Starmer has responded to the Robert Jenrick speech. Referring to Jenrick’s commitment to bringing back the two-child benefit cap in full (see 11.45am), Starmer said in a post on social media:

Shameful.

I’m incredibly proud that this government has scrapped the cruel two child limit.

Reform wants to push hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.

UPDATE: And, speaking to reporters in South Wales, Starmer said:

This is shameful from Reform – a total disregard for the lives of young people.

I hope that they absolutely never get to be in power, because this is an indication of the sort of Britain that they want to see, a Britain which plumbs its children back into poverty.

I do not think that’s what this country needs and I don’t think it’s what this country deserves.

Q: [From the Daily Mail] Will you keep the triple lock?

Jenrick said he will say more about this in the coming days. But he said he had always been a supporter of the triple lock, and he said it was “incredibly important that we provide dignity and security to older people on fixed incomes”.

He said he did not think Daily Mail readers [many of whom are elderly] would be disappointed by what he would be announcing.

Robert Jenrick is taking questions at the Reform UK press conference. I will post a summary of the main points from the speech later, but here are highlights from the Q&A.

The first was from GB News, and it was about young people feeling left behind, and considering emigrating.

Jenrick said he wanted people to be coming back to the UK.

Q: Should the Bank of England stop paying interest on QE deposits, as Nigel Farage has proposed?

Jenrick said Farage gave a speech on this at Davos, and the party would give it “careful consideration”.

In his speech Farage said Reform UK would definitely cut these interest payments. In the past Reform UK has claimed this could save taxpayers £40bn. Jenrick did not fully commit to this idea.

Q: Is bus investment as important as rail investment?

Eluned Morgan replied: “Yes, definitely.”

She said, under privatisation, firms only wanted to supply services on the profitable routes.

She said, if Labour wins the elections in Wales in May, it will cap bus fares at £2.

And it will also develop 100 new bus routes, developed with local communities, she said.

Keir Starmer has been speaking at an event in Wales where he is promoting the government’s plans for a rail investment in Wales that will see seven new stations opening.

He said this was a “historic day” for Wales.

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, is giving his speech now.

He has announced, or confirmed, three measures to cut welfare spending.

1) Restoring the two-child benefit cap

Until recently the party was saying it would restore the two-child benefit cap, but with an exception for families where both parents are British and working full time (a very small cohort). But Jenrick said the party would “restore the cap in full”.

At one point Nigel Farage said he would lift the two-child cap. But he quickly revised that, saying it would stay, with some exceptions. The lack of clarity has allowed the Tories to claim that Reform UK would increase welfare spending in this area. Jenrick’s words today are designed to close down those attacks for good.

2) Restricting access to health or disability benefits on supposed “spurious” grounds

Jenrick said:

The number claiming disability benefits for an attention disorder has more than doubled since Covid. We all know a significant number of these claims are spurious …

We will stop those with mild anxiety, depression, and similar conditions from claiming disability benefits and instead encourage them into the dignity of work.

He said the party would require people claiming benefits on the basis of a mental health condition to have a clinical diagnosis.

Campaigners do not accept that people receive health or disability benefits on spurious grounds; the application process for these benefits is quite rigorous, and fraud levels for these benefits tend to be very low.

3) Restricting benefits to British nations

Jenrick said:

We’ll make sure only British nationals can claim benefits in the first place

4) Restricting access to the Motability scheme

Motability is a scheme that allows people eligible for benefit payments to help them with travel to use the money to get a car.

Jenrick said:

We will end the abuse of the Motability scheme, where expensive cars are handed out for conditions like tennis elbow, and paid for by working people who can’t afford them themselves.

In fact, no one gets a Motability car just for tennis elbow. But some claimants do disclose multiple conditions in the forms they fill in when they apply for the relevant benefit.

Nigel Farage opened the Reform UK press conference.

Robert Jenrick will be giving a speech, but Farage started by talking about the Chagos Islands.

As Nadeem Badshah reports, a handful of Chagossians have landed on one of the archipelago’s atolls to establish what they say will be a permanent settlement.

In the past Farage – like the rest of the British establishment (but unlike Jeremy Corbyn) – has shown almost no interest at all in the rights of Chagossians to return to the islands from which they were evicted more than half a century ago.

But this morning Farage has already posted a message on social media denouncing the news that the Chagossians trying to settle on the remote Île du Coin atoll have been told to leave. He is using the story to attack Labour.

Farage said:

Remember, these are British passport holders going on to British territory. They went back to start to build a permanent settlement and to rebuild their lives. There are a further 300 Chagossians living in the United Kingdom ready to go at a moment’s notice once the settlement is viable.

They were this morning served an eviction notice on behalf of the British government. I’m told that unless they comply, they could face up to three years in prison.

Just think that through. You can cross the English Channel in the dinghy, dispose of your passport and phone and we will put you up in a hotel with three meals a day, dental care and medical care. And your chances ever of being evicted are less than 2%.

And yet this attempt by a group of people to reclaim their birthright, their rights of national self-determination, are being thwarted or threatened by the British government this morning. What about their human rights?

The Foreign Office has described the landing on the atol as a stunt, and the Mauritian government says the Chagossians are just trying to create division between the UK and Mauritius.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has recorded a pooled clip for broadcasters. Asked if the government was planning to delay equalising the youth rate for the minimum wage with the full adult rate, she did not directly answer – but she did not deny this was being considered.

She said:

We already have incentives to hire young people with the apprenticeship rate of the minimum wage, but also no national insurance contributions for the youngest workers.

But we do recognise there are challenges and that is why we’re extending the number of further education college places, extending the number of apprenticeship places to help young people get the skills and the experience that they need to move into work.

At the start of the year Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said that he was seriously considering getting rid of the Office for Budget Responsibility. He said in an interview:

I have questioned the need for it. The question we have to ask ourselves is ‘is the OBR serving any useful purpose?’ We have to discuss whether we would be better off without the OBR. I am giving that very serious thought.

With the OBR I worry once again that we have a Blairite-style quango effectively dictating to elected politicians what they should or should not do. It seems that in too many areas of our public life the power has moved to judges and quangos and not the government the people choose.

Now the “serious thought” phase is over and Farage has dropped his threat to abolish the OBR. In his speech this morning, Robert Jenrick, Reform’s new Treasury spokesperson, will say the party wants to keep it, but reform it.

According to extracts briefed in advance, he will say:

Everything Reform promise will be fully costed. And because we’re confident about the approach we will take, we’re happy to have our homework marked.

The OBR is far from perfect. But the impetus for its creation was a desire to instill fiscal discipline, and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse.

Rather than abolish it, we will reform it. We will break up this cosy consensus and ensure it has diversity of opinion. And we’ll run competitions for superforecasters to join the body and pay competitive salaries to those who most accurately model the impact of Treasury decisions.

Jenrick will also commit to retaining the independence of the Bank of England.

Presumably both commitments were a condition for Jenrick taking the Treasury job. While abolishing the OBR and Bank of England independence are popular ideas with Liz Truss-type populist extremists, they are about the last ideas that you would want to be defending if you want the financial sector to take you seriously as a potential future chancellor.

According to the overnight preview, Jenrick will put “restoring stability and eliminating wasteful spending at the heart of Reform’s economic pitch”.

In terms of reforming the OBR, Jenrick will argue that it needs to take on “more outside, proven forecasting expertise”. He will call for more “diversity of opinion within the organisation” and criticise it for overstating the economic benefits of low-skilled immigration and underestimating the economic benefits of tax cuts.

The US state department has confirmed that it still backs Britain’s deal with Mauritius handing over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, in return for an agreement allowing the UK and the US to carry on using the Diego Garcia airbase for at least another 99 years. Last month Donald Trump described the deal, which he had previously backed, as “an act of great stupidity”. But yesterday a state department spokesperson said:

The United States supports the decision of the United Kingdom to proceed with its agreement with Mauritius concerning the Chagos archipelago.

This came in a statement saying the US will be holding talks with Mauritius about the base.

While the Trump administration may support the deal, the Conservative party still doesn’t. In a statement, Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said:

Starmer must urgently clarify whether the UK will be represented at these US-Mauritius discussions and if not, tell us why. It is vital for our defence and security interests that the US Government does not conclude any agreement about British territory without our input. The Conservatives have led the charge against the Chagos Surrender and we will continue to fight it every step of the way.

Keir Starmer has reiterated his backing for the US-led peace plan for Gaza in a phone call with Donald Trump, the Press Association reports. It comes as Yvette Cooper , the foreign secretary, is set to bring together Palestinian and Israeli officials in a push for progress on the US leader’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.

Starmer spoke to Trump last night and, in a readout, a No 10 spokesperson said:

The prime minister reiterated his condemnation of Putin’s barbaric attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine, and the leaders discussed the ongoing negotiations to deliver a just and lasting peace.

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the prime minister reflected on the current situation in the region and the importance of securing further access for humanitarian aid. He set out his support for the ongoing work to deliver the US-led peace plan.

The two leaders confirmed their joint commitment to promoting stability and peace in the Middle East. They discussed the ongoing talks between the US and Iran taking place in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear programme. Both agreed that Iran must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon, and they reiterated the need to work closely amongst allies and partners to improve regional security.

UK inflation tumbled to 3% in January, giving a boost to hopes of an early cut in interest rates by the Bank of England. Phillip Inman and Tom Knowles have the story.

Graeme Wearden has reaction and analysis on his business live blog.

Good morning. Figures out yesterday showed that the unemployment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds was 14% in the three months to December, which is the highest rate for nearly 11 years excluding Covid. The Times this morning is running a story saying that, in response to concerns about youth unemployment, ministers are “considering ditching Labour’s manifesto pledge to pay young people the same national minimum wage as older workers”.

The Times says:

Business groups have told ministers they are “pricing a generation of young people out of the workplace” by increasing the cost of hiring workers through rises to the national living wage, wider employment rights and a tax raid on employers’ national insurance.

In response, ministers are reviewing their promise to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election. A decision could come within months when the government sets its annual remit to the Low Pay Commission, which makes recommendations for rises in the national living wage.

Currently workers have to be 21 or over to get the national living wage – the term used by the government to describe the full minimum wage. Workers aged 18 to 20 get a lower rate, described officially as the national minimum wage, and there is a lower rate for under-18s.

Jo Stevens, the Welsh secretary, was on the Today programme this morning and she said what the Times was describing was not government policy. She said:

There’s an unsourced briefing or whatever in the Times this morning, that is not government policy. Government policy is as we set out in our manifesto.

We’ve had many naysayers over the years about the national minimum wage.

People said in 1998 that it caused mass unemployment, and it didn’t. And every time there is a rise in the national minimum wage, people complain about it.

But the Guardian, like the BBC, has been told that, while ministers are not going to give up on the goal of raising the youth rate to the full adult rate, they are thinking about slowing down the rate at which equalisation happens.

Even this would be controversial. The BBC also interviewed Andy Prendergast, the GMB’s national officer, on the Today programme this morning and he said delaying or halting equalisation of minimum wage rates would be unacceptable. Asked what the GMB would think if this happened, he replied:

We’d be extremely unhappy about that. This is a manifesto promise. This has been our union’s policy for a long period of time.

Younger workers are not less productive. Businesses hire on the basis of need. They don’t employ more young workers than they would older workers.

And fundamentally I think this is the wrong prescription for the problem. As Jo [Stevens] says, we’ve had the minimum wage for 27 years. We’ve been repeatedly told that it will lead to unemployment. That’s never happened. And yet these people are listened to time and time again, and they come out with the same prescription for the same problem. And that’s what we’re hearing here.

We may get to hear from Keir Starmer on this later. He is on a visit in Wales this morning, and will be giving interviews. He and Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, are promoting plans for a rail investment in Wales that will see seven new stations opening.

The only other item in the diary today a speech from Robert Jenrick, who was yesterday appointed as Reform UK’s Treasury spokersperson. He will be up at 11am.

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