The government is “serious” about the rules which water companies must follow, Emma Hardy has said in response to fines imposed on Thames Water of £122.7m, reports the PA news agency.

Speaking at a reservoir, the water minister told Times Radio the penalty was the “largest fine there ever has been on record” in the sector and added:

This is a government that is serious about enforcement.

For years, water companies have been allowed to get away with poor behaviour, and we’ve said under this government that is not going to happen because not only is this the largest fine that there ever has been, we’ve also introduced the Water (Special Measures) Act, so up to two years’ imprisonment for water bosses.

We’ve banned unfair bonuses and just last week I was out chatting about the 81 criminal investigations that are going into water companies. So we are serious when we say that we are taking enforcement seriously.

Asked why the government had not considered special administration for Thames Water, Hardy said this mechanism was for companies which go “bankrupt”. She described the firm as “stable”, adding: “We’ll monitor it closely.”

Second Lib Dem MP withdraws support for England and Wales assisted dying bill

Peter Walker

A second Liberal Democrat MP has said they have changed their mind over the assisted dying bill and will vote against it at the next Commons stage, in another sign of a wider, if so far slight, ebbing away of support for the measure.

In an email to constituents, Brian Mathew, the Melksham and Devizes MP, said that while he had backed the bill at its second reading vote, in April, scrutiny of the plans had left “several concerns I feel have been inadequately answered”.

His announcement follows comments last week by Steve Darling, the Torbay MP who is also the Lib Democrat work and pensions spokesperson. Darling said that while he had backed the bill in April he was now “marginally against” it, but had not yet decided whether he would vote against it or abstain.

About eight other MPs who either supported the private member’s bill, led by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, at its second reading or did not vote have said they will now oppose it.

However, at least two who abstained in April are now supporters, while the Runcorn and Helsby byelection earlier in May resulted in a Labour MP who opposed the plan replaced by a Reform UK one who backs it.

Given the second reading of the bill was passed with a majority of 55, the numbers thus far indicate it should also get through the third reading, scheduled for 20 June.

When “something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is too good to be true”, water minister Emma Hardy has said, reports the PA news agency.

Asked about the “threat” which Reform UK poses to Labour, Hardy told GB News:

I think it’s really important that any political party is held to account for the promises that they’ve made and we know – gosh, don’t we just know – what happened when [former prime minister] Liz Truss made her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts: the economy tanked, mortgages went up, rents went up, bills went up.

The minister said she heard “even more Truss than Liz Truss coming out from” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, adding:

When something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is too good to be true. If [Farage] wants to be taken seriously as a political party, then he needs to come up with some serious policies and he needs to be held to account.

Now, had I come on your programme and said, ‘do you know what? I’m just announcing £80bn of tax promises’, the first thing you’d have said to me is ‘I don’t believe you’.

And the second thing you’d have done is laughed me out of the studio because we need to be credible in the policies that we announce, and that’s what we should be seeing from every single political party.

Responding to the US court ruling that blocks many of Donald Trump’s tariffs, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:

The government must urgently summon the US ambassador to clarify what this court ruling means for Starmer’s recent deal with Donald Trump.

The levels of chaos from Trump’s economic policy is putting Liz Truss to shame.

Lisa O’Carroll

The UK has said it wants to accelerate negotiations to conclude a trade deal with Donald Trump in the wake of the US court ruling that the sweeping tariffs he imposed on imports from more than 60 countries were illegal.

Despite Keir Starmer sealing the first deal with Trump since his so-called “liberation day” at the start of April no legal text exists to bring the concessions he won into force. The UK is also still threatened with a 10% reciprocal tariff on all exports outside the deal which was seen as a life saver for the car and steel industries.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to meet US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick at a meeting of the OECD in Paris next Tuesday.

A UK government spokesperson played down the US court ruling on Thursday plainly indicating it would continue to negotiate despite a technical opening to walk away from the deal. The spokespeson said:

These are matters for the United States to determine domestically and we note this is only the first stage of legal proceedings.

We were the first country to secure a deal with the US in a move to protect jobs across key sectors, from autos to steel, and we are working to ensure that businesses can benefit from the deal as quickly as possible.

Trade experts said the US court’s verdict just added more uncertainty to the global markets already heavily disrupted by the volatility of US trade policy.

“This court ruling doesn’t affect the tariffs that the UK negotiated down on cars and steel, but clearly adds another layer of complexity and uncertainty to what Trump is doing. When businesses don’t know what tariffs their product would face in the US that can’t be good for the economy,” said David Henig, director of thinktank European Centre for International Political Economy.

John Casson said the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah is not isolated as any British national travelling to Egypt faces arrest and illegal detention.

He told the BBC:

After four years as ambassador in Egypt, if a friend or family came to me today and said, ‘Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?’, I would be saying you’re taking a real risk.

If you get into any kind of difficulties, you post the wrong thing on social media even, there’s no guarantee [of] your right to be protected.

There’s no guarantee of due process, and we can’t even be sure that the British embassy will be able to visit you or support you in the normal way.

He added:

Of course, our civil servants are always cautious about offending a country like Egypt, and that’s why we’re really saying this: this needs political will. It takes political will and a readiness to take real action and say that Egypt can’t have it both ways.

Egypt pretends to be a friend. It depends on British visitors to keep its economy afloat, and we need to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy.

We can’t have business as usual.

Last week, 100 MPs and peers urged prime minister Keir Starmer to “deploy every tool” available to help free Abd El-Fattah.

A former British ambassador to Egypt has called for the Foreign Office to caution against travel to the country amid fears British nationals face an increased risk of arrest, reports the PA news agency.

John Casson, who was British ambassador to Egypt between 2014 and 2018, described the country as a “police state” which is “violent and vindictive”, when he spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.

His comments follow a ruling by a UN panel that Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news, is being illegally detained by the Egyptian government.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) said Abd El-Fattah was imprisoned because of his political views.

“This is a police state in Egypt: it’s violent, it’s vindictive,” Casson told the Today programme.

According to the PA news agency, Casson said:

It’s abusing a British citizen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah – tortured him.

It’s kept him in prison on bogus charges. It’s causing a lot of distress to his family. But it’s also abusing the rights of the British government to do its normal business, and it’s blocking our embassy for the most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble.

And that’s why, with other parliamentarians today … I’m calling now for our government to use all the tools it has to protect not just Alaa Abd el-Fattah, but all British citizens in Egypt. And that means, especially now, our official travel advice needs to caution against travel to Egypt.

Casson joined political figures including Helena Kennedy and Peter Hain, the former Middle East minister, to urge the government to review its travel advice for Egypt in a letter published in The Times on Wednesday.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors in England to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months.

Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said:

We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations … Strikes should always be a last resort, and I don’t think they are in anyone’s interest today.

I’m appealing to resident doctors to vote no in the ballot, and instead continue the progress we’ve made, working together to rebuild our NHS.

Resident doctors say their pay has declined by 23% in real terms since 2008. If they choose to go on strike, walkouts could begin in July and potentially last until January 2026.

The government accepted salary recommendations from pay review bodies earlier this month, resulting in an average 5.4% rise for resident doctors.

The Patients Association said it was “deeply concerned” about the prospect of strike action over the busy winter period in the NHS. Previous strike action from doctors in training led to 1.3m appointments, procedures and operations being postponed, it said, with the true figure “likely to be much higher”.

Shadow local government secretary Kevin Hollinrake added that he “can understand” why Keir Starmer is “trying to basically aim his fire all around him”.

Hollinrake told Sky News:

The other danger the prime minister’s got is from his own backbenchers – there’s hundreds of his own backbenchers who’re very dissatisfied in that he’s doing right now.

So I can understand, he’s trying to basically aim his fire all around him. It’ll end up in a circular firing squad, I think, and it looks very bad for the prime minister right now.

Asked about his own party’s standing, Hollinrake described Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch as an “inspirational figure – strong and courageous and a proper Conservative”, and added:

She didn’t want to rush policies out that were undeliverable. She wanted to take her time, develop policies that people could trust, that we would deliver and that were deliverable, and that takes time.

He said his party’s proposed deportation bill was an “indication of the kind of policies that will come forward”, and added it would put a “cap on numbers, but crucially will disapply the European convention on human rights – human rights law – to immigration cases, so we can deport those people that our courts prevent us from deporting right now on spurious grounds”.

Voters have “lost interest in Labour”, the Conservative shadow local government secretary has said, reports the PA news agency.

Asked about prime minister Keir Starmer’s speech due later on Thursday, in which he is expected to criticise “fantasy” economics proposed by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Kevin Hollinrake told Sky News:

The prime minister’s got problems wherever he looks.

He continued:

And he’ll see increasing problems from our party as we bring forward our policies which will be much more coherent and much more workable in terms of taking our economy forward.

The public’s lost interest in Labour. I mean, I don’t think they were ever popular at the despatch box – we were just unpopular and we’ve got a big job to do on that particular score, but I believe we can do it.

But also Reform, the ‘red wall’ as we call it, the working-class voters, have completely lost faith in Keir Starmer and [Chancellor] Rachel Reeves and others, not least because of the disgraceful stripping away of the winter fuel allowance which, as soon as it was announced in parliament last year, you know, I was one of many who said: ‘That’s a U-turn coming.’

And that’s what’s happened, and once you’ve brought forward a policy like that, no U-turn will make any difference. It will make a short-term difference in terms of people getting the winter fuel allowance again, as they should, and they need to get it for this year – that’s critical for this winter.

But in terms of the broken promise around that, in terms of what it says about the Labour party, the Labour party will never recover from it.

Government minister Emma Hardy has urged doctors to “vote no” in an upcoming strike ballot.

The water minister told Sky News:

We hugely value everybody who works in the NHS and we hugely value our doctors: that’s why they’ve had a 28% increase in their salary compared to three years ago, and why we’re offering above-inflation pay [rises].

The MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice continued:

But what patients are telling me, patients where I’m from in Hull and up and down the country, is they’re really pleased with the government for reducing waiting lists by 200,000 but they want to see that progress continue with the NHS, and they really don’t want to see strikes.

So my message to the doctors is: we value you, that’s why we’ve offered the above-inflation pay rise.

Please vote no in the ballot, continue talking to government because we need to continue to deliver the improvements in our NHS that patients desperately need.

Keir Starmer will launch an attack on Nigel Farage by accusing the Reform UK leader of promoting “fantasy” tax-and-spending plans that would unleash a Liz Truss-style economic crisis.

In a fightback against attempts by Farage to win over blue-collar voters with bold promises on taxes and benefits, the prime minister is to say Reform risks spooking the financial markets and driving up mortgage costs for millions of households.

In a speech at a manufacturing business in the north-west of England on Thursday, Starmer will say:

Farage is making the exact same bet Liz Truss did: that you can spend tens of billions on tax cuts without a proper way of paying for it. And, just like Truss, he is using your family finances, your mortgage, your bills as a gambling chip on his mad experiment. The result will be the same.

The Reform leader laid out several promises during a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits.

Starmer’s address is scheduled to take place at 11.30 am and will be followed by a Q&A with reporters.

Elsewhere, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is expected to be campaigning in Scotland today and water minister Emma Hardy is on the morning media round, as is shadow local government minister Kevin Hollinrake. More updates from this in just a moment, but first here are some other key developments:

• The British arm of a US contractor that profits from testing whether some people in the UK should receive disability benefits has paid out £10m in dividends to its investors. Maximus, a Virginia-based business, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax profit for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its financial year to the end of September, accounts lodged at Companies House show. Its revenue rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.

• The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged doctors to vote against industrial action as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, for strike action that could last for six months. Writing in the Times on Thursday, Streeting said: “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations.”

• The House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation into a Conservative hereditary peer who admitted he “erroneously” made claims last year for travel expenses he did not incur. He is the fifth peer to face an inquiry after Guardian reporting into the upper house.

• Jobcentres will no longer force people into “any job” available, the employment minister has said, promising there will be long-term, personalised career support for those losing out due to welfare cuts. Alison McGovern said she was ending the Conservative policy under which jobseekers were obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be focused on helping people to build rewarding careers.

• Scotland’s first minister has warned that the Hamilton byelection is now a “straight contest” between the SNP and Reform UK as he urged voters to back his party. John Swinney claimed the Labour campaign is in collapse and urged their supporters to act and “unite behind our shared principles” to defeat Farage’s party.