Senior Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry says her party has “ended up in the wrong place” when it comes to transgender issues.The Islington South and Finsbury MP, who also chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said there had been “social conservatism” promoted in Labour.Speaking to BBC Radio 4, she said: “I think that we have been trying to be something that we’re not, and I don’t think that we need to do that.“I think that he was trying to push us into a place that didn’t come naturally to us, and therefore people didn’t follow their instincts so much. I think some of this social conservatism that was being promoted did not come naturally to us. We are not a socially conservative party.“I dread even saying this, but I think that we’ve ended up in the wrong place on trans, and we’ve done that by treading very self-consciously and not actually following our hearts, which is that trans people are on the margins, they are vulnerable.“If the Labour Party doesn’t look after trans people, what are we about?”“They’re most likely to get beaten up. They’re the ones who are most likely to have prejudice against them. We should not be indulging in anything that marginalises them even more”.FOLLOW FOR MORE POLITICS NEWS THROUGHT THE DAY BELOW…
Labour calls for probe into Reform’s crypto donations: ‘Serious questions to answer!’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has claimed Anna Turley has ‘total contempt for democracy’ | PALabour Party chair Anna Turley has written to the Electoral Commission after it was revealed Reform had secured a further £3million donation from Thai- based billionaire and ex-Tory benefactor Christopher Harborne ahead of the May local elections – where Nigel Farage’s party is looking to win seats up and down Britain.The donation followed £9million he gave to Reform last summer, among a flurry of donations in the back half of 2025 that saw the party acquire more funding than any other, with another £5.5million secured between October and December.Ms Turley voiced concern that Reform UK hadn’t declared the form of the donation, given that cryptocurrency donations above the threshold of £500 must be reported to the Electoral Commission as a non-cash donation.She told The Independent: “Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer on crypto donations to Reform.“After Farage said Reform would take crypto donations last May, and bragged about having received crypto cash in October, not a single donation has been declared. Farage needs to say why”.Ms Turley claimed it “raised alarming questions about transparency” and that the decision to write to the Electoral Commission was to ensure that the public can have confidence that “everything is above board” with Reform’s declarations.
David Lammy defends PM’s response to Middle East crisis
The Government has been accused of a secretive process, despite promises to the contrary from then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy | GETTYDeputy Prime Minister David Lammy insisted he was not embarrassed by the UK’s response to the Middle East crisis.The UK has been criticised for failing to have air defence measures in place to sufficiently protect RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which was hit by a drone.Air defence destroyer HMS Dragon is not expected to sail to the eastern Mediterranean until next week.Asked if he was embarrassed, Mr Lammy told Sky News: “Absolutely not – we have F-35s, Typhoons in the sky taking down missiles as we speak and that has happened over Jordan, it’s happened over Qatar and of course, we will support nationals in the region.“It’s also right to say that we co-ordinate with allies, the French, the Germans. Cyprus is a Nato ally, so we coordinate also with other teams and other close allies on how we equip the area.“HMS Dragon will be in the region in the coming weeks to further bolster and further support our air defences”.