UK politics – live: Jess Phillips says her ‘world turned upside down’ by Elon Musk social media attacks

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour has begun the new year with its lowest government approval rating to date, according to YouGov polling.

According to surveys from 4 to 6 January, 16 per cent of the public approved of the government, down one point from the previous week, while 63 per cent disapproved – giving Sir Keir’s administration a net approval rating of -47, just below that of Rishi Sunak’s government in May 2023.

The pollster also found that four in 10 Labour voters now disapprove of the government’s record to date, compared with 36 per cent who approve.

The government has spent up to £80,000 to make Downing Street’s press briefing room a “politically neutral setting” – after Boris Johnson’s administration spent £2.6m converting the space into a TV briefing room that opened in 2021, a move Labour at the time labelled a “vanity project”.

Mr Johnson had planned to hold White House-style press briefings in the room on camera, but scrapped the idea. The room has since been used to host press conferences as well as the daily lobby briefing for journalists.

The blue panels which had formed the backdrop to the press conference stage have now been replaced with wood panels with inlaid lighting. But in a sign the works are not yet complete, a rough wooden batten remained screwed to the central panel.

Asked about the refurbishment, the PM’s official spokesperson said: “A one-off refresh of the Number 9 media briefing room took place to restore the room to a politically neutral setting.

“The panelling restores the room back to its original state. As you will be aware the cost is obviously a fraction of what the previous administration spent on the room.”

Ketamine could be reclassified as a class A drug as the Government seeks expert advice after illegal use surged to record levels last year.

In the year ending March 2023, an estimated 299,000 people aged 16 to 59 had reported use of the substance, which is currently controlled as class B, according to the Home Office.

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson will write to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs asking whether its classification should be changed and “carefully consider” its findings.

The Home Office cited recent reports suggesting the substance is often found in so-called “pink cocaine”, a synthetic cocktail of drugs, as it announced the move.

The maximum penalty for producing and supplying ketamine is up to 14 years in prison.

In a prevention of future deaths report, she said keeping ketamine as class B would be “likely to encourage others to start to use it or continue to use it under the false impression it is ‘safer’”.

Conservative ministers opened a more than 100-year-old bottle of cognac from the government wine cellar in the dying days of Rishi Sunak’s administration, the Foreign Office has said.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

The country’s largest medical union has issued a stark warning on Labour’s planned NHS overhaul, claiming ongoing staffing pressures could undermine ambitious plans to reduce cut waiting lists.

Latest figures published by NHS England reveal there were 32,000 nurse vacancies last year, while Lord Darzi’s report last month showed there were almost 16 per cent fewer qualified GPs in UK than other comparitive countries.

The British Medical Association (BMA) fears the shortage could be worsened if Labour fails to focus on retaining staff – and has warned that a lack of staff could jeopardise the party’s plan to roll out more surgical hubs and extend the hours of community diagnostic centre hours.

“In terms of medical staff, if you’re taking medical staff from hospitals to work in a surgical hub or community diagnostic centre you’re just shuffling around the same people,” BMA consultant co-lead Dr Helen Neary told The Independent.

Rachel Clun has the full report:

In the House of Commons, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer has said that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “man-made” and Israel “must act immediately to address it”.

During an urgent question on the situation in northern Gaza, he told MPs: “The UK condemns Israel’s restriction on aid in the strongest terms. The scale of human suffering is unimaginable. We have been clear this is a man-made crisis, and Israel must act immediately to address it.”

He added: “Air strikes within the designated humanitarian zone show there are no safe spaces left for civilians. Reports of up to eight children having died from cold weather conditions are unconscionable.

“It is unacceptable that many medical facilities are no longer in use or are inaccessible to humanitarian actors and we remain deeply concerned by reports of medics being killed or injured. I have raised this, and will continue to raise this with both the Israeli deputy foreign minister and Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.”

Following shouts of “they don’t care” from opposition benches, Mr Falconer said: “The foreign secretary, working with his French and German counterparts, wrote to the government of Israel in November to press them to ensure adequate preparations for winter.”

Keir Starmer has received a boost in his grooming gangs row with Elon Musk after the head of the national child sex abuse inquiry backed the prime minister.

Professor Alexis Jay backed Sir Keir by saying there is no need for a new national investigation into the issue.

In a pointed intervention the chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) said those “whipping up” the current furore do not have the interests of victims at heart. Instead of demanding a new inquiry they should “step up to the mark” and implement measures already recommended to tackle the problem.

In her first comments since Musk, backed by the Tories, launched a ferocious attack on Starmer, Prof Jay told the BBC: “I have heard very little in the public discourse that has taken place in the last few days – if you can dignify it with that description – that has mentioned children and the appalling and lifelong effects that child sexual abuse can have on people.”

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

Downing Street insisted that action to implement some of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s recommendations had not been taken as a result of the ongoing row on the subject.

Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said: “The government has been working since it came into office on measures to protect children, to halve violence against women and girls.

“On mandatory reporting, the Prime Minister and Home Secretary called for these changes 10 years ago. Work on the mandatory reporting criminal offence, the write-round for that kicked off last year and obviously has just concluded ahead of the announcement, so obviously that work’s been ongoing for some time.”

He added: “It’s important the government explains to the public how seriously the government is taking this issue, so I think it’s natural in response to the recent coverage the government explains what the government’s been doing in this space.

“As Alexis Jay spoke about... the government has been engaged with her, with victims’ groups, since the election it’s been working on a number of these measures.”

As Elon Musk continues his social media attacks on the UK government, a Tory MP has warned that UK-US security “is too important for clickbait politics”.

Mark Pritchard wrote on X: “I know the importance of the US/UK security relationship. A partnership that saves American lives everyday.

“UK is, in some respects, the junior partner, but there are skills [and] capabilities where the USA looks to UK for expertise. Security is too important for clickbait politics.”

It comes after Bloomberg reported that senior politicians in Labour, the Tories and Reform have privately urged allies of Donald Trump that the US president-elect should rethink his relationship with Mr Musk in the wake of the latter’s flurry of wild claims.