Badenoch: UK may become Trump’s ‘poodle’ without more defence spending

Kemi Badenoch has warned against Britain becoming a “poodle” to Donald Trump, promising to rebuild the country’s defences if she became prime minister amid mounting global instability.

The Tory leader also took aim at Reform UK, saying the party is “afraid to speak seriously about hostile states”.

Her comments come amid growing global instability, with Donald Trump threatening to slap fresh tariffs on the UK and Europe over their opposition to his threats to annex Greenland.

Meanwhile, Mrs Badenoch’s party has suffered a difficult week after Robert Jenrick dramatically defected to Reform.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch warned Britain must invest in its defences in order to avoid being seen as weak on the international stage.

“Getting Britain working again means fixing our economy and fixing our country, and that means putting our national interest first and rebuilding our defences.

“Otherwise we will end up being poodles as the US annexes Greenland and we’re slapped with tariffs because we have not shown any strength”, she said.

It comes after Mr Trump used a post on Truth Social to announce that 10 per cent tariffs would come into effect on February 1 on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland.

Those tariffs would increase to 25 per cent on June 1 and would continue until a deal is reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Mr Trump said in the long-winded post, warning that China and Russia both want to control Greenland, which he claimed only the US can prevent.

Mrs Badenoch also hit out at Mr Jenrick’s “narrow, inward-looking and performative” defection speech, noting that it failed to mention foreign affairs.

Mr Jenrick used his speech to launch a stunning attack on his former party, saying it had “betrayed its voters and members” and was “in denial – or being dishonest” about its record.

But the Tory leader noted that the speech contained “nothing about Russia’s war in Europe, nothing about China’s growing economic and security penetration and nothing about Iran, North Korea, cyber warfare, AI, or the erosion of the rules-based order”.

“Reform presents itself as insurgent and anti-establishment, yet it displays no serious interest in national security at all.

“It’s not just the fact that their leader in Wales was taking bribes from Russia, but that they are afraid to speak seriously about hostile states, alliances, defence, intelligence, or economic security, and when they aren’t afraid they don’t know what to say”, she added.

Taking aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to foreign policy, Mrs Badenoch said his “failure on national security is different” to that of Reform, “but just as dangerous”.

She said the PM “speaks in abstractions while allowing Chinese state influence in universities and infrastructure, Chinese intimidation and espionage on British soil and strategic ambiguity on foreign policy, that wills the ends of a rules-based framework but not the means, believing diplomacy alone will win.”

Iranian supreme leader admits thousands killing during protests

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has acknowledged for the first time the deaths of thousands of people following a crackdown on widespread protests this month.

The protests erupted on 28 December over economic hardship and spiralled into large demonstrations against Iran’s clerical rulers.

In a speech on Saturday, Khamenei blamed Donald Trump for the weeks of demonstrations that human rights group say have led to more than 3,000 deaths.

“We find the US President guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said on his official X account. BBC Persian reported that he described the deaths as “savage” during the speech.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily, including a threat to carry out “very strong action” if Iran executed protesters.

But on Friday, he claimed the Iranian regime had called off hundreds of mass hangings, and thanked its leaders on a post on Truth Social. Tehran has said there was “no plan” to execute people.

Appearing to respond to Trump, Khamenei said: “We will not drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished.”

He said “several thousand deaths” had taken place, accusing Israel and the US of organising the violence.

“Those linked to Israel and the U.S. caused massive damage and killed several thousand,” he wrote.

The supreme leader claimed – without evidence – that protesters had started fires, destroyed public property and incited chaos. They “committed crimes and a grave slander,” he said.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, and over 22,000 arrests.

It has been difficult to verify the death toll and reports coming out of Iran due to a nationwide internet blackout, which was lift in part on Saturday. A total communications blackout was partially lifted earlier this week.

Although Tehran has denied planning executions, Iran’s prosecutor general said last week that detainees would face severe punishment.

Those in custody include people who “aided rioters and terrorists attacking security forces and public property” and “mercenaries who took up arms and spread fear among citizens,” he said.

Arrests also included several people described by Iranian state media as “ringleaders”, including a woman named as Nazanin Baradaran, who was taken into custody following “complex intelligence operations”.

Baradaran is accused of operating under the pseudonym Raha Parham on behalf of crown prince Reza Pahlavi, state media reported, and had played a leading role in organising the unrest.

Opposition figurehead Pahlavi has positioned himself as a potential leader in the event of regime collapse, stating that he would seek to re-establish diplomatic ties between Iran and Israel if he were to assume a leadership role in the country.

Molly Russell’s dad says social media ban for under-16s would be wrong

The father of Molly Russell has said that banning under-16s from using social media would be wrong and could have unintended consequences.

Ian Russell, whose 14-year-old daughter took her own life after viewing harmful content on social media, said the government should enforce the current law rather than implement “sledgehammer techniques like bans”.

Speaking to the BBC, he suggested the ban could have “unintended consequences” and would “cause more problems”.

He said: “That has got to change – and I don’t think that we’re that far away from it changing, which is why it’s slightly exasperating that we’re going through these same arguments again now about bans.

“It’s not far away – we can build on what we’ve got far better than simply implementing sledgehammer techniques like bans that will have unintended consequences and cause more problems.”

His comments follow calls on Sir Keir Starmer to place restrictions on under-16s accessing social media platforms in recent weeks. The prime minister has so far resisted, instead saying it is monitoring how a similar ban in Australia is working.

Molly, from Harrow, northwest London, engaged with material linked to suicide and self-harm on various social media platforms before her death in November 2017.

An inquest in 2022 found social media content contributed “more than minimally” to Molly’s death.

Her father has established the Molly Rose Foundation, named after his daughter’s middle name, which aims to enhance internet safety for young people.

In a joint statement with NSPCC and 5 Rights Foundation, The Molly Rose Foundation said: “We undoubtedly need action to protect children from preventable online harm. Parents are right to demand that the government stands on the side of children and families, and finally call time on tech giants being able to treat children’s lives and wellbeing as someone else’s concern.”

They warned that although “well-intentioned”, blanket bans on social media would “fail to deliver the improvement in children’s safety and wellbeing that they so urgently need”.

They added: “They are a blunt response that fails to address the successive shortcomings of tech companies and governments to act decisively and sooner.”

Health secretary Wes Streeting suggested this week that he was in favour of a social media ban for under-16s and told Sky News: “I’m certainly in favour of action in this area”.

Meanwhile, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said she would bring one in if her party won the next election.

Mr Russell told the BBC that bereaved families are “horrified” at the way politicians had capitalised on the issue.

He said: “Many of them have said things like: ‘This is not something that should be a party political issue’.”

Australia’s government has banned social media use by under-16s, over fears about the effects of harmful online environments on young people.

Since the law was enacted in Australia, 4.7 million accounts have been identified as belonging to children.

The law has provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures.

Reform UK’s London candidate condemned over ‘dangerous’ burqa comments

Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for London has been condemned after saying that women who wear the burqa in public should be subject to stop and search.

Laila Cunningham, who will be Reform’s candidate in the capital’s election in 2028, sparked a significant backlash after telling the Standard that she would act to ban the wearing of the religious garment in public.

“It has to be assumed that if you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason,” she said, without providing evidence.

Crossbench peer Baroness Shaista Gohia hit out at the Reform candidate, telling the Guardian her comments were “dangerous” and a “dog whistle” to racists.

Baroness Gohir, who is the CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, told the newspaper her charity has been forced to remove signage outside its offices and picture profiles of staff because of a sharp rise in the number of abusive and threatening letters and emails.

She said Ms Cunningham was “sending a message to Muslims that they do not belong” and “emboldening people who already abuse Muslims and influencing those people who are reading this misinformation”.

Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, has previously been accused by more than 20 former school pupils at Dulwich College of making “racist, antisemitic and fascist” remarks as a pupil.

Ms Cunningham, a British-born Muslim and the daughter of first-generation immigrants from Egypt, also told the Standard’s podcast: “If you go to parts of London, it does feel like a Muslim city. The signs are written in a different language. You’ve got burqas being sold in markets.” She said there should be “one civic culture” and it “should be British”.

Asked about the Reform candidate’s comments on LBC on Friday, London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said political figures were “trying to sow seeds of division”.

He added: “Almost without argument, our city is the greatest in the world because of our diversity… Why would you stop somebody practising their religion?

“I mean, how far back do you want to go in terms of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and so forth? These are quintessentially British rights that we’re so proud of.

“There are two types of politicians: those that play on people’s fears, and those that address people’s fears.”

Following Ms Cunningham’s proposals to ban the burqa in public, Sir Sadiq said women should have the “freedom to choose” what to wear.

Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme, told the Guardian that Ms Cunningham’s comments were a “deliberate and cynical ploy”.

He added: “This is all about divisive ideas being pumped into society deliberately for electoral benefits.”

A Reform spokesperson said: “Reform UK believes stop-and-search powers are essential in tackling London’s escalating law and order problem. We also believe police should not have to worry about being accused of being prejudiced when carrying out these duties.”

Raducanu avoids upset to surge into Australian Open second round

Emma Raducanu avoided an upset to progress to the second round of the Australian Open after coming from behind to beat Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew.

Raducanu’s arrival at the Australian Open followed an off-season that had been disrupted by injury and a shock defeat at the Hobart International, and the British No 1 was frustrated to be scheduled on the opening day of the tournament.

She appeared to be in a spot of bother as Sawangkaew, the world No 195, made an inspired start and had two points to establish a double-break and 4-1 lead in the opening set. But Raducanu surged back, and advances thanks to a 6-4 6-1 victory.

There had already been a British winner on the opening day of the tournament as qualifier Arthur Fery upset the 20th seed Flavio Cobolli. The 23-year-old earned his first grand slam main draw win outside of Wimbledon, as Cobolli struggled with illness. Cameron Norrie is also through after a five-set battle.

Elsewhere, Venus Williams made history by stepping onto the court at the Australian Open but the 45-year-old was denied a winning return as Serbia’s Olga Danilovic won the final six games in a row to triumph in a three-set thriller.

Follow latest scores and updates from the Australian Open, below:

Save £190 on heat pump installation with this exclusive deal from Octopus

Readers of The Independent can now save five per cent on the cost of a heat pump installation, with an exclusive offer from Octopus Energy.

Available for a limited time, the deal could mean an average saving of around £190 on a typical heat pump installation. Prices vary depending on the heat pump type and size of your home, but the discount is applied to the final installation cost after the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant, where applicable – helping to make low-carbon heating more affordable.

Heat pump installation costs vary depending on the size and layout of your home, which is why every installation starts with a bespoke home survey.

Octopus Energy says its typical heat pump price is £3,818, based on the median of its heat pump quotes issued between June and September 2025. This compares with a national average of £5,295, according to Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics published in July 2025.

With this exclusive five per cent discount, eligible Independent readers could save around £190 on that typical price. The discount is applied after the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant, where applicable, helping to reduce upfront costs even further.

Claim the offer now

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant is subject to eligibility

Octopus Energy installs air source heat pumps and manages the process from survey to installation. Because every home is different, prices aren’t fixed online and are confirmed after a home survey.

To qualify for the discount, readers must request a heat pump during the offer period, complete a home survey, and quote the code ‘INDY5’ to their heat pump specialist before signing the final installation agreement.

This exclusive offer is available from 12 January 2026 to 28 February 2026.

The five per cent discount is applied to the final installation price (after the BUS grant) and cannot be combined with any other promotion.

Claim the offer now

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant is subject to eligibility

To qualify for the discount, readers will need to book a home survey during the offer period. If Octopus Energy is unable to carry out the survey before the offer ends, the discount will still be honoured as long as a survey date is scheduled.

However, if you choose not to have a home survey during the offer period, the discount will no longer apply.

After the survey, you’ll need to sign your final installation agreement within 14 days of it being issued. If this 14-day window is missed, the offer will lapse and the five per cent discount will be removed.

View full terms and conditions and claim the offer now

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant is subject to eligibility

‘NHS treats same sex couples like us as an afterthought over IVF’

Since the moment their three-year-old daughter was born, Tianne Spence-Stokes and her partner Carina have seen their lives upended in the most magical way possible.

As a same-sex couple, they had spent years and thousands of pounds undergoing fertility treatments involving a sperm donor to get pregnant. In 2022, they welcomed their baby girl, who they describe as “the greatest joy of our lives”, and now hope to welcome a second child through IVF.

Yet they face a staggering bill of more than £20,000 to expand their family. Unlike heterosexual couples, they also had to fully fund fertility treatment during their first pregnancy.

While heterosexual couples are also excluded from NHS-funded fertility treatment for a second child, female same-sex couples must pay for additional intrauterine insemination (IUI) testing before they can seek IUI or IVF.

“It feels like the treatment was never meant for us, that we are added on as an afterthought,” Tianne told The Independent. “A lot of the processes for fertility treatment are very heteronormative, and have a negative impact on marginalised communities.”

For same-sex female couples, there are two main pathways to getting pregnant. IUI is a non-surgical procedure in which sperm is injected into the uterus, while in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is the process of removing an egg from a woman’s ovaries and fertilising it with sperm in a lab.

Both procedures are costly, with the majority of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), which are responsible for commissioning NHS services in local areas, insisting that queer women undergo three to 12 rounds of IUIs before they can be deemed eligible for IVF.

Same-sex female couples in 38 out of 42 ICBs across England usually have to pay up to £25,000 for treatment or have up to 12 rounds of private IUI treatment, whereas heterosexual couples have to try to conceive naturally for up to two years before becoming eligible for NHS-funded treatment.

A 2023 report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) found that the NHS funded 39 per cent of IVF cycles for heterosexual couples, while only 14 per cent of female same-sex relationships were then deemed eligible.

Tianne and Carina have known each other since they were 16 years old, spending several years as best friends before entering a romantic relationship in 2016. They married in 2018 and embarked on their fertility journey a year later, a process which Tianne described as “really confusing”.

“A lot of effort goes into explaining to heterosexual people about family planning from the age of 17,” she said. “Everything that is set up to support people through this is heteronormative and I struggled to see how I fit into that space.”

Despite paying for their appointments, choosing a donor, securing medicine and undertaking ovulating tests ahead of insemination, their plans came to a halt at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As an anaesthetic nurse working in a London hospital, Tianne would be required on the NHS frontlines and it no longer felt like the “right time” to get pregnant.

As a result, they had to restart the process and pay twice for blood tests, appointments and new medication. While fertility clinics often offer bundles, prices can range from £380 for an appointment, £900 per vial of sperm with £300 exporting costs, and a £700 HyCoSy test, which is a process of placing dye into a woman’s fallopian tubes as a fertility test.

“The IUI is just an expensive queer test,” she said. “We shouldn’t need to prove infertility, it should be obvious given that we are in a same sex couple that we can’t naturally conceive.”

Now both aged 40, the couple have started trying for a second child but are facing several obstacles. Tianne has been warned that her fertility is declining, and given her age and the fact that they have already welcomed one child, they are no longer eligible for more affordable IVF routes like egg-sharing.

With only one ampule left of the same sperm, they need £5,000 just to begin the process, with a breakdown of costs including £3,400 for egg freezing, £3,450 for egg thaw and embryo creation, £5,559 for stimulation medication, among several other medications and appointments.

In total, they estimate they face an eye-watering bill of over £21,000, having already spent £13,500 on previous fertility treatments.

In 2021, another lesbian couple launched a landmark judicial review against their NHS Clinical Commissioning Group for its “discriminatory” fertility policy, after discovering they would have to pay up to £26,000 for 12 rounds of IUI before accessing IVF.

They later dropped their legal action after the NHS Frimley Care Board said they would be addressing the inequality. Despite their success, it remains up to each individual ICB to set the policy for their local area.

“The thing with fertility is that it’s the hope of wanting to. In my heart, I always thought I’d have two to three children, I always imagined my daughter would have a family to go through life with,” Tianne said.

Becoming emotional, she said: “If I’d have known how incredible it is to be a mum or to have children, I just would have just done it so much sooner, but we didn’t have the security of marriage.

“That’s important for queer couples in terms of birth certificates. Our daughter is incredible, I’ve always been quite career-minded for a long time and actually she makes everything disappear, she’s just such a joy.

“Becoming a mum has been the best thing I’ve ever done, she is the light of our lives.”

An NHS spokesperson said: “Integrated Care Boards make decisions for their area, balancing the needs of their local patients and the resources available – and all ICBs have a responsibility to ensure services are provided fairly.”

Could Princess Diana’s nieces put an end to William and Harry’s feud?

There’s someone you always look for loitering at the corner of all-family gatherings. One person who makes the chaos of being in the same room as every distant relative feel somewhat less anxiety-inducing and judgmental: the cool cousin. In the ages of infancy, they’re the willing co-conspirator to plead for an early-opening of Christmas presents. Come adolescence, the lookout as you sneak a secret swig of booze from the grown-up’s table.

For Harry and William, the Spencers, unsurprisingly, offer this coalescence of calm and cool in the form of blonde twins Eliza and Amelia; the now 33-year-old nieces of Princess Diana, who are increasingly stepping further into the British social scene spotlight after a childhood spent in South Africa alongside their parents, Charles, 9th Earl Spencer and his first wife, Victoria Lockwood.

While the twins’ older sister, Lady Kitty, has long frequented the pages of society magazine Tatler and been the face of fashion campaigns for both Dolce & Gabbana and Bulgari throughout her twenties, Eliza and Amelia have historically had more private lives. Yet, over the past year, they’ve stepped further to the forefront of public life with a walk down the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival last May, an Aspinall of London brand ambassador announcement in June and a sparkling appearance at the Fashion Awards in December.

The twins first fled London when they were three years old to escape the paparazzi that relentlessly hounded the Spencer family at the height of Princess Diana’s fame. This didn’t stop attention following them to the Southern Hemisphere, with the pair telling Tatler how Diana protected them from paparazzi at Western Cape when they were just small children.

“Obviously, it could have been terrifying for us, being so young and not understanding what was happening,” Eliza recalled. “But she turned it into a game of who could get back to the car first. It was amazing how she protected us in a way that made us feel safe and not frightened,” she added of her “incredibly warm, maternal and loving” aunt who “always made an effort to connect with us as children and had a talent for reading children’s hearts”.

This tale is markedly similar to one recounted by the Duke of Sussex in his 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan. “My mum did such a good job of trying to protect us,” Harry said. “She took it upon herself to basically confront these people,” he added, as the scene cut to archival footage of Diana on a 1995 ski trip to Switzerland, where paparazzi were circling her family while they were trying to eat. “Please leave,” Diana tells the photographer, who tells her that if he gets one photo, he’ll leave her alone. “No,” she retorts. “We’ve had 15 cameras following us today. As a parent, I want to protect the children. Thank you.”

Two years on from this incident, Princess Diana was dead. “As a child, I realised the enormity of the loss for my father and family,” Eliza said of her family’s grief. “It was only later that I came to understand the significance of the loss of her as a figure in the world… I really had very little idea of how significant she was in the world until I was much older… She stayed with us, just before she passed away… We were very fortunate to have spent that time with her.”

Throughout his life, Harry has felt a deep connection with his mother’s side of his family and never more so since he has been living in “exile” with Meghan in California. In 2024, when Harry reportedly made an under-the-radar return trip to Britain to attend the funeral of the late Lord Robert Fellowes, he allegedly spent time with his Spencer cousins and stayed with their father, Earl Spencer, at Althorp, the Spencer family’s ancestral home near Northampton, while he was visiting from California.

“It is a truly special and beautiful place,” Eliza said of the 13,000-acre family seat. “Having spent the first three years of our lives at Althorp, exploring and discovering it as children, and being part of a long heritage of Spencers that have lived there, it has always felt like another home,” she explained to Tatler. “And, of course, it conjures up memories of family Christmases as children, with our extended family all together.”

As Harry prepares to come to the UK this week, for the start of his High Court legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), he will once again be looking for the support of those left in his inner circle in the UK. His allegations against the newspaper group: the hiring of private investigators to place listening devices inside cars; the “blagging” of private records; and the accessing and recording of private phone conversations, which ANL denied, all fundamentally hinge on privacy. Diana and her tragically turbulent relationship with the media will no doubt be at the forefront of Harry’s mind throughout proceedings. For him, this feels personal.

Eliza and Amelia are two people whom he knows he can depend on. The sisters have acted with the neutrality of Switzerland throughout the entire family feud, offering both brothers a safe space when they needed it. This may be down to their sense of not just family, but perspective too. They didn’t return to live in London until 2021. Amelia married personal trainer Greg Mallett, whom she met while studying corporate communications at the University of Cape Town, in 2023. Meanwhile, Eliza told W magazine this June that “marriage is definitely on the cards” with her entrepreneur partner of nine years, Channing Millerd. They opted to live 15 minutes away from each other in west London’s leafy and affluent Fulham.

“I think the last year or two have been some of the best years we’ve ever had,” Amelia told the publication about her life since choosing to settle in the UK. “Since moving to London, we’ve had the most incredible lives and experiences. Life is full and exciting for us right now.”

Of course, the twins’ return to the UK coincided with a deepening rift between their cousins. By 2021, Harry had given his infamous Oprah interview, alongside his wife, Meghan Markle, in which they alleged an unnamed family member had expressed “concerns” about “how dark” their baby’s skin would be. Royal correspondents reported William was “devastated” by the interview. “We are very much not a racist family,” the Prince of Wales later told Sky News.

The pair have since only reunited a smattering of times: at Philip’s funeral in April 2021, to unveil a statue of Diana at Kensington Palace in July 2021, and to attend the thanksgiving for the Queen’s platinum jubilee in June 2022, where they sat on opposite sides of the cathedral and were reported to have “spent no private time together” to repair their “broken relationship”.

Following Queen Elizabeth II’s death that September, William and Harry walked side by side in a procession, only for Harry to then make damning claims in his 2022 Netflix documentary, saying he was left terrified by having William “scream and shout” at him during an emergency meeting at the Sandringham Estate about his royal duties in 2020.

By 2023, Harry had gone all out and labelled William his “beloved brother” and “archnemesis” in his tell-all book Spare. “There has always been this competition between us, weirdly,” he told ABC News at this time, adding that Diana “would be sad” about the state of his relationship with his older brother. Still, he later conceded to ITV that he would “like to have my brother back” but that William had “shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile”. The pair were last seen together at their father’s coronation in 2023 and reportedly “kept their distance” during Harry’s last visit to the UK this September.

The twins have never shown any sign of taking sides and have publicly displayed support for Prince William, attending the Centrepoint Awards, a youth homelessness charity of which William is a patron, alongside their sister Kitty in October 2024. The twins repeated this show of support for William in November last year, stepping out at the Tusk Awards, a celebration of the conservation and education charity, of which William has also served as a patron since 2005.

“I’m extremely proud of my cousin Prince William,” Kitty told Tatler in an interview alongside Kitty and Eliza this time last year. At the time, the magazine lauded the trio as “funny, frank and charming” and praised their “blonde elegance and can-do attitude”. Could this proactiveness perhaps be enough to bring William and Harry back together?

Experts say that extended family members can provide emotional, social and informational support, helping to alleviate the stressors that contribute to conflict within families. But as speculation grows that William will give Harry the “ultimate snub” during this week’s visit, and again when he travels to the US for the Fifa World Cup this summer, it remains to be seen whether the twins’ can-do charm will be enough to spark the healing that so many close to the Princes hope will one day happen.