The President of Cyprus has suggested he is going to have an “open and frank discussion” with Westminster over the future of British bases on the island.
President Nikos Christodoulides had previously suggested the presence of British bases in Cyprus are something that is a “colonial consequence” following protests from Cypriots.
An Iranian drone struck RAF Akrotiri on Sunday, hitting a hangar typically housing US surveillance aircraft.
Speaking at this week’s European Council summit in Brussels, President Christodoulides said: “The British bases in Cyprus are something that is a colonial consequence…We have more than 10,000 Cypriot citizens within the British bases.
“We have a responsibility to those people, and when the situation in the Middle East, we are going to have an open and frank discussion with the British government.”
When pressed if he wishes for the bases to be “gone”, he said: “We have a clear approach with regard to the future of the British bases.”
He added: “I am sure that you understand that I am not going to negotiate in public”.
The main opposition party in Cyrpus, Akel, has demanded the bases to be closed down, with leader Stefanos Stefanou telling local media: “The challenge now is to make it clear at every opportunity that Cyprus is not and does not want to become a war base”.
Liberal Democrat MP Al Pinkerton had pressed John Healey about the issue in the Commons, asking the Defence Secretary: “There has been growing disquiet within Cyprus, within the Cypriot community, about the continuing existence of the sovereign base areas.
“Given the absolute necessity of this defence relationship between the United Kingdom and Cyprus, could the minister update the House about the Secretary of State’s visit to Cyprus earlier this month?”
Mr Healey responded saying: “Our sovereign base in Cyprus isn’t in question. When the Secretary of State for Defence visited Cyprus, the Cypriot National Guard reaffirmed that our relationship is closer now than ever before.”
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Wes Streeting attends University of Kent following meningitis outbreak
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has visited the University of Kent following the outbreak of meningitis.
The Cabinet member visited the sport centre this morning where hundreds of students have queued up to receive vaccines and collect antibiotics.
During the visit, Mr Streeting walked around the sports hall where he met staff and students.
Kemi Badenoch tells GB News ‘I do not care what Nigel Farage thinks’
Kemi Badenoch launched the Conservative Party’s local election campaign
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Kemi Badenoch has slammed Reform UK as she said the Conservative Party is “coming back”.
When asked by GB News about Nigel Farage’s comment the local elections would mark “the end of the Conservative Party for good”, Ms Badenoch said: “I want this to be very clear. I do not care what Nigel Farage thinks.”
Her comment was met with cheers from party supporters stood behind her.
She continued: “He can say whatever he likes, we believe in free speech in this country. However, we are here to deliver a message and that is the Conservative party is coming back.”
Kemi Badenoch issues swipe at the other party leaders as she said ‘not everybody is going to like these plans’
Kemi Badenoch took aim at the other leaders
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Kemi Badenoch has taken aim at the other major party leaders as she said the Conservatives did not want to “please everyone all time time.”
She said: “Not everyone is going to like these plans, and that’s ok.
“Some people want more benefits with Labour. Some people want nationalisation with Nigel Farage, some people want bigger boobs with Zack Polanski. That’s fine if that’s what they want.
“We’ve got a better offer. We offer a better future for those who want jobs and opportunity, that’s who the Conservatives are for. But we can only fix things if we are clear about what we want.”
She continued: “The Lib Dems can’t stand still for five minutes without breaking into a conga. The Greens say yes to crack pipes, but no to Nato.
“Look at what Reform have done at Kent County Council. They came in with a new Doge team promising to cut people’s council tax, only to find out that the Conservatives had already made the savings.
“There’s war in the Middle East pushing up prices and threatening our economy, British servicemen and women are already involved, yet Reform can’t even be bothered to appoint a Foreign Affairs or a Defence spokesman.”
Kemi Badenoch pledges to ‘take back our streets’ as she lays out policing reforms
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to hire 10,000 new police officers as she laid out the Conservative Party’s plans for justice reforms.
She said: “I have got a message for shoplifters, phone thieves and violent thugs, your days of getting off scot free are numbered.
“We will mandate the police to stop e-bikes being ridden on our pavement and we will tell police that they must stop drugs being smoked openly in public places.
“Our new immediate justice centres would see criminals clean up the mess they make in our parks immediately. It is time to put the rights of ordinary people ahead of the small minority making life a misery for everyone else. “
Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives are ‘renewed’ as she launches local elections campaign
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives are a “party renewed” as she launched the party’s local election campaign in central London.
The Tory leader said: “Seven weeks today, people up and down the country are going to be given a choice. They can choose to vote for one of many parties in Britain whinging on and on about what’s gone wrong.
“Or they can vote for a party that will actually fix things. They can vote for a new Conservative party under new leadership, the only party with a plan to make life better for where you live.”
WATCH: Stephen Dixon puts Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake on the spot over his party’s stance on sending a warship to the Strait of Hormuz to support the US
Tory chairman reinforces support for Shadow Justice Secretary over Muslim post
The Conservative Party chair said it was “complete nonsense” to suggest his party had a problem with Muslims, as Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons yesterday
Kevin Hollinrake said his party believes in freedom of speech and religion after Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy was referring to an Open Iftar event held in Trafalgar Square which he claimed was not “welcome in our public places.”
Mr Hollinrake said: “We think it was the wrong thing to do. This was an exclusive event. This was ticket only in a central London location. This wasn’t a performance, it was a prayer.
“So…for those reasons, we think this is the wrong thing to do. That’s not to say for any second, for a second, that we don’t support moderate Muslims observing their faith in mosques up and down the country.
“We believe in freedom of speech, also freedom of religion, as a core part of what the Conservatives believe in, but doing that in that kind of location.
“Why was that kind of location where it’s that area that’s exclusively reserved for that purpose, as it wasn’t a performance? We think that was wrong, and that’s what Nick said.”
‘The state pension is outdated and unfair. From April, that will all change’, writes Torsten Bell
Labour Minister Torsten Bell laid out plans for reforms to British pension system, calling the current method “outdated and unfair”.
Writing exclusively for GB News members, Mr Bell said: “Access to the State Pension needs to be fair.
“The last government allowed some people living abroad, with little link to the UK, to build up entitlement on the cheap, sometimes paying as little as £182 a year in voluntary National Insurance to rack up pension rights after living in the UK for just three years.
“So we’re changing the rules from April.”
GB News members can read the full announcement from the Pensions Minister here.
Labour minister says tariffs on steel are ‘not very Donald Trump’
The UK’s plan for tariffs on steel coming into the UK is “not very Donald Trump”, according to a Labour minister.
The plans to boost domestic production of steel will mean that, from July, overall quota levels for steel imports will be reduced by 60 per cent compared to current arrangements, and steel coming into the UK above these levels will be subject to a 50 per cent tariff.
Trade minister Chris Bryant told Sky News: “It’s not very Donald Trump. It’s very, very specific.
“Look, I believe I’m passionate about free trade, but it has to be fair trade.
“If you’ve got artificially low prices, completely pricing us out of the market, pricing British Steel out of the market, that is a problem for us because we need to have a sovereign capacity of steel in the UK.”
WATCH: Unite leader Sharon Graham speaks to GB News after declaring she will join Birmingham bin strikes
A top union boss handed Labour a stark warning before joining a major rally led by Birmingham bin workers this morning.
Unite’s General Secretary Sharon Graham vowed she would join the refuse collectors, who have been striking for over a year against the city council’s decision to cut their pay, while suggesting she would seek disaffiliation with Labour entirely.
The union, historically one of Labour’s highest donors, has slammed Sir Keir Starmer’s party for dragging its feet on paying the bin workers.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Conservative Party chair says it was ‘wrong’ from allowing US to use shared bases
Kevin Hollinrake has told GB News with was “wrong” for Labour to prevent the US from using shared bases with the UK as part of their war on Iran.
The Conservative chair said: “To stop the US, our ally from using the bases, was wrong. We have never advocated joining those actions in terms of that unilateral bombing of Iran and now Lebanon.
“So to be clear, yes, the US should be able to use our shared bases. No, we would never advocate UK planes and missiles hitting that region.”
Conservative Party chair calls on Labour to suspend plans to raise fuel duty
The Conservative Party Chair has called on Labour to suspend plans to increase fuel duty as he prepared to launch the party’s local election campaign.
British gas prices have surged by more than 20 per cent this morning as the US-Iran war continues to rage on in the Middle East.
Kevin Hollinrake told GB News: “[The war in Iran] does impact us there’s no doubt about it but I don’t believe its out of our control. The Government can act now.
“We have put together a cheap energy plan that takes 20 per cent of energy prices by cutting things like green levies.
“We have said the Government should not go ahead with plans to increase fuel duty. The Government could ask oil and gas industry to start pumping oil and gas from the North sea as soon as Autumn.”
Lords vote to pardon women convicted of having an illegal abortion
The House of Lords has backed a move to pardon women who have been convicted of having an illegal abortion.
The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would also apply to women who were cautioned and would remove the women’s details from police systems, regardless of the outcome of the case.
It comes after a landmark move by MPs in June last year to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancy.
Labour MP for Gower Tonia Antoniazzi, who brought forward the amendment, said she had been moved after seeing women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions.
Labour’s former health minister Baroness Thornton told peers there are women who have been convicted, and more who were investigated but not convicted, who have to permanently disclose this in a DBS check, because abortion offences are classed as violent crimes.
The upper chamber supported by 180 votes to 58, a majority of 122, to support Lady Thornton’s amendment to pardon those women.
WATCH: Oscar Reddrop warns Angela Rayner could be ready to oust Keir Starmer BEFORE May
Pat McFadden says unemployment figures are ‘encouraging’
The Work and Pensions Secretary has said the latest unemployment figures are “encouraging” but Labour must do more to get people into work.
Pat McFadden said: “Today’s figures show there are 388,000 more people in work than there was this time last year. While this is encouraging, we know there is more to do to get people, particularly young people, into work.
“That’s why we’re investing £2.5billion to create up to 500,000 opportunities for young people to earn or learn, transform the welfare state into a working state, including a new £3,000 youth jobs grant for businesses who take on eligible young people and expanding the jobs guarantee to cover 18 to 24-year-olds.
“We’re also delivering the biggest reforms to apprenticeships in a decade, giving employers more flexibility and expanding foundation apprenticeships into the hospitality and retail sectors.”
France faces fury after ‘disgracefully’ withholding information on meningitis outbreak for 48 hours
Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron
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France has been hit with a wave of fury from Britain after Emmanuel Macron was accused of “disgracefully” withholding key information on the outbreak of meningitis for 48 hours.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told MPs that the French authorities had informed the UK Health Security Agency of a case of the infectious disease on March 14.
However, officials in Paris had been aware of the case detected in an exchange student from the University of Kent on March 12.
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf led the charge against France, comparing the situation to the ongoing small boats crisis.
Our assistant news editor Jack Walters has the full story here.
Union chief says workers up and down the country are ‘scratching their heads’ at Labour
The chief of Britain’s biggest union has told GB News workers across the country are “scratching their heads” at Labour’s actions in Government.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham told The People’s Channel: “Labour is supposed to be in government for the working class to make sure they put those people at the front of the queue.
“Labour have not done that in many ways. The winter fuel allowance was the first step and that’s led us to here in Birmingham.”
Here’s what’s happening today in Westminster and beyond
Good Morning, and happy Thursday from all of us on the GB News Politics team. Here’s what’s happening today in Westminster and beyond.
The UK’s unemployment rate has just been announced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Our money reporter Patrick O’Donnell has the full story here.
Ministers will be looking to the Middle East as Israel and the US strikes on Iran ramp up. Overnight, Tehran hit the Qatari Ras Laffan liquified natural gas plant in retaliation for the strike on its own gas field.
Solicitor General Ellie Reeves will be answering questions in the Commons from 10am about the importance of international law to Britain’s positioning on the conflict.
There is also set to be a general debate on progress in tackling climate change led by Labour MP for Basingstoke Luke Murphy and a debate on a motion on tackling online harms led by Lib Dem MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire Ian Sollom.
All eyes will be on Kent as the chief scientific officer of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said the number of confirmed cases of meningitis in the outbreak is likely to increase.
Meanwhile, Reform UK is launching its Scottish manifesto with the party’s leader north of the border Malcolm Offord holding a press conference alongside Nigel Farage. We’ll bring you the updates here from noon.
Here on GB News, we’ll be joined by Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham and Conservative Party Chair Kevin Hollinrake.
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