Margaret Hodge, the former Labour minister and former chair of the Commons public accounts committee, stood down as an MP at the election. But it looks as though she has never been busier. Now in the House of Lords, last week she was appointed as the government’s anti-corruption champion. And today Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has announced that Hodge will lead an independent review into Arts Council England. In a Commons written statement, Nandy says:

This government will ensure that the arts and culture will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few. We will also place arts and culture at the heart of our plan for change to deliver growth and break down the barriers to opportunity across the country. This review will ensure that Arts Council England is best positioned to help deliver this and successfully steward our cultural and creative sectors in every part of England, helping to rebuild Britain​ in a decade of national renewal.

Police forces in England and Wales will receive a real terms funding increase of 3.5% in 2025-26, the Home Office has announced. PA Media reports:

In a written statement, Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said the 2025-26 settlement will amount to £17.4bn, an increase of up to £986.9m on the current year.

The additional funding will cover the costs of the pay rises given to officers, the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) and also pay for recruitment to help meet the government’s neighbourhood policing promises.

The total amount going into policing, including the money to forces along with “wider system funding” will be £19.5bn, a £1bn increase, representing an overall 3% real terms rise.

And Johnson said:

Of the £986.9m of additional funding for police forces, I can confirm that £657.1m of this is an increase to government grants, which includes an increase in the core grants of £339m to ensure police forces are fully equipped to deliver our safer streets mission.

This also includes £230.3m to compensate territorial forces for the costs of the change to the employer national insurance contributions from 2025-26, and an additional £100m to kickstart the first phase of 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles. This will provide policing with the funding required to tackle crime and keep communities safe.

The Chinese embassy in the UK has told British MPs to “immediately stop creating trouble” and “stop anti-China political manipulations”.

In a statement released this morning on its website, in response to Yang Tengbo being named yesterday as the alleged Chinese “spy” who befriended Prince Andrew, an embassy spokesperson that “anti-China clamours made by a handful of UK MPs” had “revealed their twisted mentality towards China”. The spokesperson accused them of trying to “smear China” and “undermine normal personnel exchanges between China and the UK”.

Here is the statement.

As for the anti-China clamours made by a handful of UK MPs, they have done nothing but fully revealed their twisted mentality towards China, as well as their arrogance and shamelessness. This is a typical case of a thief crying “catch thief”. What they are really up to is to smear China, target against the Chinese community in the UK and undermine normal personnel exchanges between China and the UK. We strongly condemn this.

I must point out that the CPC [Chinese Communist Party] and the Chinese government uphold that countries should pursue friendship and cooperation on the basis of mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit. This is what we have been saying and what we have been doing. This is also why China has so many friends around the world …

We urge the UK side to immediately stop creating trouble, stop anti-China political manipulations, and stop undermining normal personnel exchanges between China and the UK.

In the Commons yesterday Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, was particularly critical of the United Front Work Department, a Chinese intelligence gathering unit. Duncan Smith said: “The intelligence and security committee report last year said [the UFWD] had penetrated ‘every sector’ of the UK economy, including by spying, stealing intellectual property, influencing, and shaping our institutions.”

But in today’s statement the embassy spokesperson defended the UFWD. The spokesperson said.

I also want to reiterate that theUnited Front led by the CPC endeavours to bring together various political parties and people from all walks of life, ethnic groups and organisations to promote cooperation between the CPC and people who are not members of it and promote people-to-people exchanges and friendship with other countries. This is above-board and beyond reproach. Though some UK politicians attempted to demonise China’s United Front work, they are doomed to fail.

We always believe that a sound and stable China-UK relationship is not a one-sided favour but what meets the common interests of both sides. The UK side must have a right perception of China, see the historical trend clearly, and handle its relations with China on the basis of mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit.

Humza Yousaf, the former Scottish first minister, has announced that he will stand down as an MSP at the next Holyrood election, in 2026.

In a letter to current first minister John Swinney, Yousaf said he will be campaigning hard for the SNP at the next election but will not run himself. He said:

Come 2026, I will have served 15 years as an MSP, 12 of those years as a minister in the Scottish government.

The next Scottish parliament elections in 2026 will be the right time for me to move on, to provide an opportunity for the next generation of MSPs to step forward, and to explore where I can best make a contribution in the future in helping to tackle some of the most pressing challenges our world faces.

Yousaf said that he hoped his time as first minister had been an inspiration to others.

It is often said that you cannot be what you cannot see. I hope by by becoming the first first minister of colour, and first Muslim leader of a Western democratic nation, I have sent a clear message to every young person, of any background, who aspires to get involved in public service, that you do belong and are just as deserving of opportunity as everybody else.

And he said that, although he had made mistakes, he felt he had always treated people with respect.

When one chapter begins to close, you often spend time reflecting on your achievements, mistakes and even regrets – I have all three. However, I hope that throughout it all, I was able to treat people with kindness, courtesy and respect.

He has posted the full letter on social media.

In a response, Swinney said:

I am sorry to see @HumzaYousaf stepping down @ScotParl. He has been a pioneer in Scottish politics. I value all he has contributed to @scotgov and @theSNP and look forward to his continued involvement. I wish Humza, Nadia and their family much peace together

Good morning. The children’s wellbeing and schools bill is being published today and, as Sally Weale reports, it will set out plans to tighten checks on children being educated at home in England.

Publication coincides with the sentencing of the killers of 10-year-old Sara Sharif – her father and step-mother – following a trial that revealed details of one of the most shocking cases of child cruelty heard by a British court in years. Sara was taken out of school, and educated at home in the months before her death, even though teachers had started to notice evidence that she was being assaulted at home, and so the legislation – although planned well before the trial – does address one of safeguarding loopholes the Sharif case has highlighted.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been giving interviews this morning. She told the Today programme:

Too many children have been failed by the state in recent years, it is clear that action is required. So no more lessons learned, no more words. Today we set out our plans to make sure that those agencies are working together and that we have much greater visibility of where children are and what they’re experiencing in their lives.

But in interviews Phillipson has also said the government does not plan to legislate to ban smacking children in England – even though it is banned in Scotland and Wales, and even though the government indicated in the autumn a rethink was on the cards.

In 2022, as opposition leader, Keir Starmer said he would like to see the ban extended to England. In October, after the Sara Sharif muder trial opened, Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, said that “a ban on smacking is a necessary step to keep children safe and to stop lower level violence from escalating” and at the time the Department for Education said: “We are looking closely at the legal changes made in Wales and Scotland as we consider whether there is any more we could do in this area.” Last week, after the verdicts were delivered in the Sharif trial, de Souza said:

What haunts me the most about Sara’s death is that her father used the words ‘I legally punished my child’, believing this to be a defence to murder. It is unthinkable that any parent or carer could hide behind our legal system to justify such cruelty – and yet, children living in England today have less protection from assault than adults.

Yet today Phillipson has said that the government still has “no plans” to act on this. She told LBC:

We’re not intending to legislate around this. I do want to look at the experience in Wales and Scotland where they have legislated to understand what the effect has been.

And, asked why the government is not implementing a ban in England, she told Times Radio:

Because what I want to understand is the impact and the effect of the legislation in Wales. They will be setting out the first round of a review into the implications and effect of the legislation that they had introduced. I would like to see that, would like to understand it, and to decide then whether it’s necessary to take further measures here in England.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Keir Starmer has been having a breakfast meeting with business leaders in Estonia. Later he is attending the Joint Expeditionary Force summit, and then visiting British forces near the border with Russia.

9.30am: The Post Office Horizon scandal inquiry hears closing statements from counsel representing the Post Office, Paula Vennells, Fujitsu, Gareth Jenkins, and the Department for Business and Trade.

10.30am: Charles Clarke, the former Labour home secretary, and Michael Gove, the former Conservative justice secretary, give evidence on prisons to the Lords justice and home affairs committee.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Early afternoon (probably): The Home Office publishes a written ministerial statement with details of funding for police forces in England and Wales in 2025-26.

2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee (which for many years she used to chair).

2.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, gives evidence to the Commons justice committee.

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