'We're not changing course', minister tells farmers ahead of vast Westminster protest

Farmers and tractors roll through Westminster

If you're in Westminster, you will have heard them before you saw them - farmers on their tractors rolling down Whitehall and around Parliament Square.

Hundreds of people have descended on Westminster to protest the government's changes to inheritance tax for farmers, which they say will destroy family farms.

They are making a lot of noise as they make their opposition to the policy change heard.

Damp and mould found in 'shocking' military accommodation, MPs say

The state of military accommodation is "shocking", with two-thirds of service family homes "in such poor condition that they are essentially no longer fit for purpose", a report by MPs has found.

The Defence Committee highlighted persistent issues with damp and mould and urged the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury to commit more funds to improve the entire military estate "before it deteriorates beyond repair".

The MPs warned that more soldiers, sailors and aviators would vote with their feet and quit the armed forces unless long-standing problems with housing are resolved.

Service families' trust in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) - the branch of the MoD that oversees military housing - and the contractors that provide maintenance services "has been damaged" and needs to be rebuilt, according to the report published on Wednesday.

Tan Dhesi, chair of the Defence Committee, said: "It is simply not acceptable to expect those who fight for their country to live in housing with serious damp and mould - conditions that pose a danger to their and their families' health.

"It is clear that many of these problems cannot be solved without major investment in the Defence estate.

"However difficult public finances might be, the Ministry of Defence and Treasury need to find a way to work together to make sure that all Service housing on offer genuinely meets a decent standard."

Jenrick to become latest Tory MP to 'do a bit work with GB News'

It has been rumoured that Robert Jenrick is set to do some presenting work on GB News, joining other prominent (current and former) Tory MPs.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Phillip Davies (who lost their seats at the general election) have been prominent presenters, along with the latter's Tory MP wife, Esther McVey, and Lee Anderson (who later defected to Reform UK).

We asked him about it on Sky News this morning, and he confirmed the rumours.

He told us: I'm always keen to find ways of making the case for the things that I believe in. And so I'm going to do a bit of work with GB news in the months ahead."

Deport foreign national offenders to free-up prison spaces, Jenrick argues

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has rubbished the government's announcement of 14,000 new prison places, saying "no new prisons are being built".

"Despite all the fanfare from the justice secretary today, she did not announce money for a single new prison," he told us.

"All she is doing is finishing the prisons that were already being built by the last government."

He also noted Shabana Mahmood's admission that there still will not be enough prison spaces, even with these new ones, saying it means "dangerous people who should be in jail will be on the streets of our country".

Pointing to the emergency release of prisoners in the last few months to ease overcrowding, Mr Jenrick said: "If I was justice secretary, I would not have released those prisoners.

"Over my dead body would dangerous people, who should be in jail, be out on the streets posing a risk to members of the public."

Labour says no dangerous prisoners were released early, but Mr Jenrick notes that some were freed in error.

His solution to the problem of overcrowding is to deport 10,500 foreign national offenders, saying he would "use every lever of the British state to put pressure on those other countries to take back their own criminals".

But pushed on the Tories' record during their 14 years in power, Mr Jenrick admitted that they only delivered a net gain of 6,000 new prison places, despite having promised 20,000.

"I accept that we as a country are not good enough at delivering infrastructure, roads, railways, houses, prisons," he said. "We need to be better at that."

He welcomed changes to the planning system - and said he would build a new prison on the green belt.

Jenrick says 'politics of envy' is why Labour is imposing 'cruel family farm tax'

We've just been speaking with the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, and we asked if he supports farmers bringing Whitehall to a standstill today.

He replied: "Absolutely. Good for them. They are facing this utterly iniquitous, frankly cruel family farm tax.

"You've got farmers - these are not wealthy people. These are people who have a couple of hundred acres, had always expected to hand their farm on to their children and their grandchildren.

"And now, as a result of what Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have done in the budget, they are fearful. They don't know what the future holds for them and their farm.

"And this should matter to all of us, because these people are the guardians of our food security, of our countryside."

He called on the chancellor to U-turn and take a "sensible approach", which involves closing loopholes for the super-wealthy, while protecting ordinary farmers.

Asked if he would support farmers if they decided to protest by stopping supplying supermarkets, he replied that he would not.

Mr Jenrick went on to say that the decision to impose inheritance tax on farms is "a tax which is born of the politics of envy, which I hate".

Challenged on the fact that farmers were furious when the Conservatives were in charge, Mr Jenrick rejected that, saying they would never have done this - and in fact rejected it when he worked in the Treasury.

Pushed again on farmers protesting back in March for an end to imports to safeguard food standards, Mr Jenrick said: "I actually do think it's important that we sign free trade agreements with other countries around the world."

He added: "Of course, what we want to do is maintain the high standards that we have, and UK farming is known for that."

Farmers prepare to travel to Westminster to protest

Farmers are set to descend on Westminster today to protest the government's changes to inheritance tax, with hundreds of tractors set to line up on Whitehall.

The government announced in the budget that it will impose a 20% inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1m in a bid to stop wealthy people buying up land to avoid inheritance tax (more here).

After a vast demonstration last month, another is set to take place today, and farmers have met to travel to London together.

Justice secretary calls for Labour and parliamentary investigation after Sky News revelations

Sky News has revealed that a Labour MP hosted a man at the centre of a terror group probe in parliament just weeks before his arrest.

Agit Karatas is one of six people who were charged on Tuesday with being members of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after an investigation by counter-terrorism police in London.

Karatas, a 23-year-old Kurdish rights campaigner, is part of the Centre for Kurdish Progress, a long-established group with links to MPs.

In October this year, he was given access to the parliamentary estate for the first meeting of a new All-Party Parliamentary Group, the APPG on Kurds, chaired by Labour MP for Exeter, Steve Race.

In attendance at the meeting were Labour's first Kurdish MP and science minister Feryal Clark, Labour MP Afzal Khan, Independent MP Shockat Adam and Lord Michael Cashman.

We asked Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood why he was hosted in parliament, and she told us that she has no idea who the man is and who hosted him.

She went on to say that Karatas' attendance at the APPG "sounds deeply inappropriate".

"I don't know who that individual is, but the organisation that you described is a proscribed organisation.

"I don't know what was known by that member of parliament, what was known by the House authorities."

She added: "I would expect both the Labour Party and the House authorities to investigate what's happened.

'We're not changing course', minister tells farmers ahead of vast Westminster protest

Farmers are set to descend on Westminster once again today as they continue to oppose the changes to inheritance tax announced in the budget.

The government says it will impose a 20% inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1m in a bid to stop wealthy people buying up land to avoid inheritance tax.

The justice secretary told us that ministers are "listening very carefully to the representations that are being made by farmers".

But Shabana Mahmood went on: "The government's position is clear - the agricultural and business property relief is the right change. The vast majority of family farms are not going to be affected. We only expect around 500 estates every year to be [affected]."

"It's important to remember that the first £3m of the value of an estate passes tax-free. Anything above that £3m is going to be taxed at 20%, which is still much lower than the 40% everybody else pays."

She added: "The policy has been decided. We're not changing course on that."

Justice secretary admits prisons will still run out of space - despite new building programme

We've just been speaking with the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, about the ongoing crisis facing prisons.

She told us that the government is planning to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031, and insisted it is a "realistic plan for delivery".

We have revealed here at Sky News this morning that dozens of prisons across England and Wales are set to lose the use of cells while safety issues are fixed, and remedial works take place.

We put that to the justice secretary, and she said there is an "ongoing programme of fire safety works".

She told us that "every single year we lose some cells to dilapidation, for which we do maintenance works", which is why they have allocated a further £300m for 2025/26.

Ms Mahmood went on to say that there will be over 96,000 usable prison spaces by 2031.

But Sky's Kay Burley put to her that she will need 100,000 places available, and she admitted that the government's building programme will not be enough.

"Even with building, even with the delivery of the 14,000 [new spaces], we do still run out because the demand for places is going up."

To solve that, she told us that they are conducting a sentencing review in order to "do things differently in this country" and ensure that "there's always a prison place available for people that have to be locked up for reasons of public protection".

She added that she will not be doing any more emergency releases of prisoners - but could not promise that that will hold over the next five years.

-SKY NEWS