Labour’s transport secretary Louise Haigh has said ending sexual harassment and violence on public transport is an “absolute priority” for her, as figures revealed a 50% increase in violent incidents reported on trains in the last two years. In a message on social media, Haigh described the numbers as “appalling”. Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said the level of violence was “unacceptable”, telling PA Media “In this day and age, no woman should have to plan her journeys by public transport based on where and when she will feel safe, and yet that is the daily experience for millions of women” Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds held talks with senior representatives from the TUC, CBI, Unison, Unite and the British Chambers of Commerce today over Labour’s plans for workplace reform Conservative leadership hopeful Mel Stride has repeated his criticism of Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage, and again ruled out doing any deal with him. Stride said he would not welcome Farage into the Tory party if Stride won the leadership election, saying “No deals with Nigel Farage. Nigel Farage wants to destroy the Conservative party” Stride said he was not surprised by a polling result which suggested that three in five British people asked didn’t care about who the next party leader would be, saying many people would have considered the way the party had been fighting itself “pretty selfish” Stride described Elon Musk’s interventions into British politics as “absurd and deeply, deeply unhelpful”, but said that he would continue to use the platform, despite reservations about it Britain’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.2% last month – its first increase since December last year – as domestic energy bills fell by less than in July 2023. Darren Jones, Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, said “The new government is under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge we have inherited”. Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat treasury spokesperson, has said the inflation figures are “a stark reminder that the cost of living crisis is not over”. Stride cautioned that public pay settlements by the new government threatened to drive further inflation in the future Scotland’s deputy first minister has claimed “disrespectful and damaging” actions by the UK government mean a benefit to help with the cost of fuel bills cannot be paid to all pensioners. Kate Forbes said the Scottish government has been forced to limit payments because “the Chancellor announced this cut to the winter fuel payment just weeks before the Scottish parliament is due to take on responsibility for the payment – and without any consultation with the Scottish government” Foreign secretary David Lammy has been meeting in London with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has posted a series of messages to social media justifying a meeting between the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for external affairs Angus Robertson and Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK Daniela Grudsky Private rents across the country jumped 8.6% in the year to July, averaging £1,319 monthly, according to the ONS’s estimates. The average price for a home increased by 2.7% in the 12 months to June in the UK London Southend Airport has become the latest airport to secure a high court injunction to stop environmental protesters trespassing on its land. In a separate court action, an environmental consultant has lost a high court challenge against the government’s approval of a new gas power station in north-east England called the Net Zero Teesside Project A £450m plan to expand an AstraZeneca vaccine-manufacturing site in Merseyside has suffered a blow after it emerged the government plans to cut some of the funding for the scheme Liberal Democrats have called for A-level students who had their education disrupted by crumbling concrete in schools to have the ability to appeal against their grades. A-level results in England, Northern Ireland and Wales are released tomorrow Former Conservative deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey failed in an application for a job in Labour’s Treasury department Liz Truss continues to be irritated by the stunt that interrupted her talk in Suffolk. She said “What happened last night was not funny. Far-left activists disrupted the event, which then had to be stopped for security reasons. This is done to intimidate people and suppress free speech”. Her talk was interuppted by a banner of a lettuce with some googly-eyes and the slogan “I crashed the economy” That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. I shall reconvene with you bright and early tomorrow.