The Conservative party has criticised the government for only giving qualified approval to the expansion of Gatwick airport, and not allowing it to go ahead immediately. In a statement Gareth Bacon, the shadow transport secretary, said:

Labour promised to go ‘further and faster’ on growth, but once again they are failing to deliver.

Increasing aviation capacity would hep to deliver economic growth. Labour’s decision to kick the can down the road, extending the deadline for the final decision on Gatwick to October, shows this promise wasn’t worth the paper it was written on …

Under new leadership, the Conservatives would drive airport expansion forward to support a thriving economy.

Reuters has posted some snaps from a briefing given by an official in the Trump administration.

Senior Trump administration official: Very pleased with UK’s increased defense spending

Senior Trump administration official: Pleased with Starmer’s discussions of committing British troops to help enforce peace

Senior Trump administration official: Economic partnership with Ukraine does not include specific guarantee of funding for future warfighting

Senior Trump administration official: Trade to be part of trump-starmer discussions

Senior Trump administration official: US wants reciprocal, equal trade with US

None of this is very new, but the news that the White House is “very pleased” about the increase in UK defence spending (as opposed to just being “pleased” with the commitment about troops for Ukraine) is noteworthy. It is a bit stronger than the comment from Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, welcoming the budget uplift on Tuesday.

New figures revealing almost one million young people are not in education, employment or training have been described as “shocking”, PA Media reports. PA says:

The number of so-called NEETs aged 16 to 24 increased from 877,000 to 987,000 in October to December compared to the same quarter the previous year.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said an estimated 13.4% of all people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training in the final quarter of last year, an increase of 1.3 percentage points compared with October to December 2023.

An estimated 14.4% of young men and 12.3% of young women were NEET, said the ONS.

The increase was caused by both young men, with an increase of 56,000 on the year, and young women, with a rise of 53,000.

Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 542,000 were young men and 445,000 were young women.

Comment on the figures, the TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

Every young person deserves a decent start to their working life but under the Tories, more and more young people became stuck out of work or training, which comes with huge consequences for future opportunities.

The government is now rightly prioritising change but with close to one million young people outside of employment or education the situation is stark.

The Youth Guarantee is the right step but it must be part of a comprehensive plan to ensure all young people across the country can access high-quality training and decent, well-paid work as well as timely and effective healthcare.

Stephen Evans, chief executive at the Learning and Work Institute, said:

Today’s worrying rise may signal further trouble ahead in the absence of economic growth, and highlights the importance of implementing a youth guarantee so all young people are offered a job, training place or apprenticeship.

Ben Harrison, director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said:

Today’s data shows that young people not in employment education or training is at the highest level for 10 years, which could be cause for concern for the government’s plan to boost employment levels.

With falling vacancies and a sluggish labour market, estimates appear to show that young people are being hit hardest as a further 110,000 young people are not in education, employment or training compared to a year ago.

Keir Starmer may be the first British prime minister ever to fly to Washington unable to be 100% confident that he has more influence over the US president than his counterpart in the Kremlin. The other president, Vladimir Putin, has been speaking to the media today and, as Reuters reports, Putin implied that his own talks with Washington were going quite well. He also implicitly warned Trump not to let himself by swayed by “Western elites” – which presumably means people like Starmer.

Reuters says:

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the FSB security service on Thursday that initial contacts with the administration of US President Donald Trump gave grounds for hope.

Putin said in televised comments that Russia and the United States were ready to establish cooperation but some Western elites would seek to undermine the dialogue between them.

Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, has in effect confirmed a Guardian report saying ministers are considering exempting parents with children under the age of five from the two-child benefit cap.

Speaking on BBC Wales, Jones said child poverty was a “significant problem” and that the government will set out a report “later in the year about all the different things we’re going to do” to tackle the issue.

Asked specifically about the Guardian story and whether the under-fives exemption had been ruled out, Jones said the UK government’s child poverty taskforce was looking at all “viable options”. He added:

We have to go through the spending review, we have to work with colleagues on a whole range of issues.

The Unite union has welcomed the government’s decision to give qualified approval to a £2.2bn plan to expand Gatwick airport. Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary, said:

Unite welcomes the announcement of the expansion of Gatwick but it needs to come with guarantees of well paid, unionised jobs and proper facilities for workers.

It is also ever more urgent with every airport expansion that we ensure domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to offset carbon emissions and meet the government’s own targets on net zero.

But environmental campaigners and other experts have been highly critical. In his story Gwyn Topham quotes reaction from the Gatwick Area Conservative Campaign, Friends of the Earth and the climate charity Possible.

Here are some more voices saying the decision is wrong.

From the Green MP Siân Berry

The Labour government is trashing its climate credentials one absurd decision at a time. Only one day after receiving critical advice from its own climate advisors on the need to lower flying demand, ministers decide to support yet more unnecessary expansion for the benefit of wealthy investors.

Pushing through these damaging plans shows such poor economic judgement. Over 100,000 extra flights a year won’t deliver for our communities. Labour should listen to the public who think airport expansion is the wrong priority. Most of us fly once a year if at all and would rather see cheaper train tickets and more bus routes instead to help with our daily journeys and create jobs where we live, in contrast with frequent flyers leaching money out of the economy.

From Alex Chapman, an economist at the New Economics Foundation, a leftwing thinktank

Growing Gatwick will not magic up the economic growth the government so desperately wants. Business air travel has collapsed while expansion will see three times as many tourists leave the country as come in.

Voters living outside London and the south east will not thank the government for this decision. Expanding airports like Gatwick doesn’t create new jobs – it displaces jobs from the wider UK regions, and particularly the domestic tourism industry which is a key source of spending outside London and the south east.

From Hannah Lawrence, a spokesperson at Stay Grounded, a network representing groups campaigning to reduce air travel

Encouraging Gatwick’s expansion in the middle of a climate crisis is irresponsible. Allowing such a polluting industry to expand in the name of supposed ‘economic growth’ would actually create further inequality, suffering and a lack of prosperity in years to come. All while those who have never set foot on a plane suffer the worst consequences.

There is no such thing as green flying which is why we need an immediate end to airport expansion and an urgent reduction in the number of flights that take off each day.

From Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a non-profit organisation promoting informed debate on climate issues

For a government focused on clean economic growth, there are plenty of projects they can support that will achieve their goals, but airport expansion is not one of them. Were the government to approve expansion of both Gatwick and Luton airports, emissions would increase to such an extent that all the CO2 savings that the government hopes to achieve from its Clean Power Plan would be wiped out by 2050.

The former Labour MP Mike Amesbury has had his 10-week prison sentence for assault suspended for two years following an appeal at Chester crown court, PA Media reports.

This decision is unlikely to prevent a byelection going ahead in Amesbury’s constituenmcy, Runcorn and Helsby. Under the Recall Act, campaigners can start collecting signatures for a recall petition if an MP gets a custodial sentence, even if it suspended. In the past this process has almost always resulted in the 10% of the electorate threshold being met, and a recall byelection going ahead.

Pornography depicting strangulation should be made illegal along with other kinds of “legal but harmful” sexual material, according to an independent government review. Dan Milmo has the story.

Although Ukraine, tariff policy and the Chagos Islands are likely to be three of the topics of most interest to British journalists at the Trump/Starmer press conference later, Downing Street says the prime minister wants to make tech policy on of the main subjects for discussion when he visits the White House.

In its news release about the visit, Downing Street says the two leaders will joint tech initiatives. It says:

Both countries are world leaders in AI and advanced technologies, and the prime minister will be looking to build on these strong foundations to create jobs and economic growth.

The discussion will have a particular focus on the opportunities that further technology and AI partnerships could deliver. These include a proposal of high-ambition shared moonshot missions across top technologies including quantum and AI, and a deeper partnership on space.

The US and UK are the only two allied countries with trillion-dollar technology eco-systems, and the prime minister will make the case for further integration between the two countries’ tech sectors to make them the most efficient, ambitious technology sectors in the world.

In October, US tech firms announced a £6.3bn package of investment to support UK data centres – a central pillar of the government’s plan to ramp up the country’s AI capacity. In January a further £12bn investment from Vantage Data Centers created over 11,500 jobs as the government published its AI Opportunities Action Plan.

More than 108,000 people applied for asylum in the UK last year – the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001, PA Media reports. PA says:

The total of 108,138 asylum seekers is up 18% from 91,811 in 2023, according to data published by the Home Office.

The previous record was 103,081 in the 12 months to December 2002.

Migrants who made the journey to the UK across the Channel in small boats accounted for 32% of the total in 2024.

The data shows 38,079 asylum seekers were being housed temporarily in hotels at the end of December, up 2,428 from 35,651 at the end of September.

This is the second quarterly rise in a row, although the figure is still some way below the recent peak of 56,042 at the end of September 2023.

Asylum seekers and their families are housed in temporary accommodation if they are waiting for the outcome of a claim or an appeal and have been assessed as not being able to support themselves independently.

They are housed in hotels if there is not enough space in accommodation provided by local authorities or other organisations.

The rise comes as the government plans to close nine more asylum hotels by the end of March.

Responding to the figures, Marley Morris, from the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, said: “If the Home Office wants to end the use of hotels, it will need to double down on efforts to improve the speed and quality of decision-making. Applications should be triaged early and decisions for high-grant nationalities should be streamlined. Crucially, the government must take care that its efforts to accelerate decision-making do not result in these cases simply shifting over into appeals.”

There were 124,802 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application at the end of December – down 6% from 133,409 at the end of September.

The total peaked at 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision was 73,866 at the end of December, down from 83,888 at the end of September and well below the recent peak of 139,961 in June 2023.

The data also shows that the most common nationality among asylum applicants in 2024 was Pakistani, accounting for 10,542 people or 9.7% of the total.

Afghan was the second most common nationality (8,508 people, 7.9% of the total), down from 9,710 (10.6%) in 2023, when it was the most common.

Along with Pakistan, the largest increase in asylum claims in 2024 came from Vietnamese nationals, at 5,259 (4.9% of the total), up from 2,469 (2.7%) in 2023.