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Kent water failure was foreseen and could have been stopped, regulator says

The failure at a water treatment centre that left tens of thousands of Tunbridge Wells households without water (see 4.38pm) was foreseen weeks before it happened and could have been stopped, the regulator has said. Helena Horton has the story.

A reader asks:

You see a lot of letters from MPs on official parliament headed paper posted online, is there a costing of these letters?

Yes, there is.

MPs can spend up to £11,000 a year postage-paid envelopes and House of Commons stationery.

And if you want to find out how much individual MPs claimed for these items in the 2024-25 financial year, the figures are here.

South East Water boss defends his firm's response to Tunbridge Wells water shortage crisis

The chief executive of the water company responsible for 24,000 customers experiencing water outages last month told MPs his company did “so much” to respond to the crisis, PA Media reports. PA says:

Tens of thousands of people were left without water in Tunbridge Wells for days after a “water quality issue” at the Pembury water treatment works.

David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water (SEW), was criticised by MPs for a “fundamentally lacking” human response to the crisis during an environment committee hearing this morning.

Hinton, who has an annual base salary of £400,000, told the committee he “hates it” when things go wrong, but was picked up by MPs for a lack of accountability in his responses.

The problems in Tunbridge Wells began on Saturday 29 November and continued for almost two weeks.

Originally, properties experienced a loss of water or low pressure before the company brought back undrinkable water so that people could shower and flush their toilets.

A “boil water notice” was then put in place until 12 December, when the company reported it had “changed” its water treatment processes.

Hinton blamed a lack of infrastructure in the South East for the failures and said that the risks are “inevitable” without investment.

Hinton also said that in the “absence of the infrastructure” they had focused resources on the response, including “mobilising” 100 people on the ground.

“We’ve done so much in terms of the response,” he said.

But Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chair of the committee, said: “I would have more sympathy for this line of reasoning if this had come out [of] a clear blue sky but it didn’t, did it?

“There was repeated failures down the years, up to and including the warnings from the drinking water inspector last year.

“Essentially, it looks to me like your procurement, your quality control, your contingency arrangements at site were just not adequate.”

In 2023, SEW was found to be the worst company for supply interruptions in the UK, since then there have been multiple high profile outages.

Last year, Hinton received a £115,000 bonus for his work at SEW.

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

An independent investigation has found that Angela Constance, the Scottish cabinet secretary for justice and home affairs, “unintentionally” breached two parts of the ministerial code, but will escape formal sanction.

Constance was the focus of a storm whipped up by opposition parties before the Christmas recess after it emerged she misrepresented the stance of Prof Alexis Jay on the case against an inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland.

Labour and the Conservatives called on her resign in the hope of wounding the Scottish National party government in advance of May’s Holyrood elections.

Her boss, John Swinney, the first minister, announced his advisors on the ministerial code had decided the two breaches were “inadvertent without any deliberation or intention to mislead.” Constance would be reproached but no other action would be taken.

MSPs to get 4.3% pay rise, taking annual salary to £77,710

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

I do not say this to virtue signal, but to counter the inevitable reporting of any increase that is generated by actions of the corporate body, and point out that that still leaves us behind Westminster and the Senedd when the initial arrangement between the three parliaments was that the Scottish parliament MSP sat in the middle of the street.

Liz Kendall says Elon Musk's X must 'urgently' deal with 'appalling' sexualised deepfake content produced by its Grok AI

Liz Kendall, the science secretary, has said that sexualised deepfake content being produced by Grok AI on Elon Musk’s X social media platform is “absolutely appalling, and unacceptable in decent society”.

As Amelia Gentleman, Helena Horton and Dan Milmo report in our story on this from yesterday, there has been a growing outcry over the way X (formerly Twitter) has an AI feature that allows users to create degrading images of children and women with their clothes digitally removed.

Despite multiple global protesters, and investigations being launched by regulators, the problem does not yet seem to have been resolved.

The issue is particularly embarrassing for the government for two reasons. First, only last month Keir Starmer specifically said the government would ban apps that allow this sort of image to be created. He said:

We are going to aim to make it impossible for children to take, share or view a nude image, and we’re banning apps that create deepfakes.

Starmer posted that message on X. And the Grok semi-naked deepfake feature is also awkward for the government because it has revived complaints about why the government continues to use X as a communications platform when, even before this scandal was exposed, it was already reviled for weak moderation policies that have led to a surge of hate speech on the platform.

Yesterday, when asked about the problem and why it was continuing to use X, Downing Street said that it always kept its communication strategy under review and that the Online Safety Act was designed to address this sort of problem. Ofcom also announced it was urgently contacting X to find out what it was doing to ensure it complied with the law.

Today Liz Kendall, the science secretary, has intervened with a statement saying that the sexualise deepfake content produced by Grok was “absolutely appalling” and that she would back Ofcom in taking any enforcement action.

She said:

What we have been seeing online in recent days has been absolutely appalling, and unacceptable in decent society.

No one should have to go through the ordeal of seeing intimate deepfakes of themselves online. We cannot and will not allow the proliferation of these demeaning and degrading images, which are disproportionately aimed at women and girls.

X needs to deal with this urgently. It is absolutely right that Ofcom is looking into this as a matter of urgency and it has my full backing to take any enforcement action it deems necessary.

Services and operators have a clear obligation to act appropriately. This is not about restricting freedom of speech but upholding the law.

We have made intimate image abuse and cyberflashing priority offences under the Online Safety Act – including where images are AI-generated. This means platforms must prevent such content from appearing online and act swiftly to remove it if it does.

Violence against women and girls stains our society – and that is why we have also legislated to ban the creation of explicit deepfakes without consent, which are both degrading and harmful.

Make no mistake - the UK will not tolerate the endless proliferation of disgusting and abusive material online. We must all come together to stamp it out.

Kendall did not address the calls for the government to stop using X. But in the Lords yesterday Ruth Anderson, a government whip (formerly Ruth Smeeth, when she was a Labour MP), answered a question about this. She said that with 19.2 million Britons using X, and 10.8 million families describing it as their main source, the government still felt it worth posting on the platform. She said:

The government use an audience-first approach, assessing all communication channels against the GCS [government communication service] Safe framework. Paid advertising on X has been suspended since April 2023; the platform is used only for organic content. We continuously evaluate all channels’ value for money and brand safety and use a wide range of digital platforms to reach all UK audiences.

Anderson herself has not posted on X since December 2024.

Some organisations have already left X because of the way the platform has become more toxic under Musk. In November 2024 the Guardian announced that it was no longer using for any of its official accounts, although we still consult it as a news source and some journalists still post there.

An X spokesperson said:

We take action against illegal content on X, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

No 10 declines to back Badenoch's claim that Trump's overthrow of Maduro 'morally' right

Downing Street has declined to back Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the American operation to depose and arrest Nicolás Maduro was “morally” right. (See 9.20am.)

At the lobby briefing this morning, asked if Keir Starmer agreed with the Tory leader’s comment, the PM’s spokesperson said:

The prime minister is a world leader, not a commentator [giving] a running commentary on foreign policy decisions taken by other countries and I’m not going to get drawn into that now.

But we’ve also been very clear abour our views on the fall of the Maduro regime. It turned a functioning democracy into a hub for organised crime with corrupt ties to Iran and Hezbollah, aligned support from Russia, involvement in illicit finance, sanctions evasion, narcotics trafficking and illegal gold trading. We are on the side of the Venezuelan people as they look towards a peaceful transition to a democratic government.

The spokesperson adopted a similar line about not wanting to give a “running commentary” on global affairs when asked about Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, saying that Greenland should “obviously ... be part of the US”. The spokesperson referred to the statement signed by Starmer and other EU leaders (see 12.57pm), but said he would not provide a commentary on every remark coming out of the US.

But, when asked about Miller’s comment about might being right (“we live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power”), and whether Starmer agreed, the spokesperson did give a substantive answer – albeit one that was a bit waffly. He said:

There have always been moments that lead us to question whether the rules-based international order is working as intended. The prime minister has alluded to that by repeatedly saying the world is more volatile than ever before.

But he’s clear that he has the prosperity and security of the UK at the forefront of his mind in every international engagement that he undertakes. And defending democracy, standing up for human rights and the rule of law are obviously principles that this prime minister cares about deeply.

Whilst there are obvious threats to that world order, our strategic partnerships with our allies are as close as ever. And we remain clear-eyed about the challenges we face and the complex issues we have to navigate that.

But this prime minister is clear that by investing in our defence, and by building stronger partnerships, we can protect our interests and be strong abroad.

But the spokesperson refused to accept the argument that the US might be one of the “obvious threats to … world order”. Asked to say where the threats were coming from, he cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Asked if Starmer regarded Trump as a threat to European security, the spokesperson replied: “No.”

No 10 won't say if it regards interim leader of Venezuela as legitimate

Downing Street has declined to say whether it regards Delcy Rodriguez, who has been approved by the US as the interim leader of Venezuela, as the new, legitimate leader of the country.

Rodriguez was vice president before Nicolás Maduro, the president, was seized by US forces on Saturday and taken to the US where is now in jail and facing criminal charges.

At the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said there there was no update on whether UK sanctions on Rodriguez would be lifted.

Asked if the UK regarded her as a legitimate president, the spokesperson said:

It’s a fast-moving situation. We are focused on supporting stability in Venezuela and the best interests of the Venezuelan people.

Starmer joins European leaders in saying Denmark and Greenland, 'and them only', must decide Greenland's future

Keir Starmer has joined the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark in releasing a joint statement on Greenland saying the Arctic territory belongs to Denmark.

Here is the text.

Joint statement from European leaders on Greenland Photograph: Danish PM

Frances Mao has more on this on our Europe live blog.

Starmer tells cabinet 'governments don't lose because polls go down' - as YouGov puts Labour behind Reform UK and Tories

Before Christmas Keir Starmer was hoping to use this week to highlight the government’s determination to bring down the cost of living for people. As explained on the blog yesterday, Donald Trump has blown this out of the news with his raid on Venezuela.

But Starmer has not abandoned the plan and, according to a Labour readout from the political cabinet this morning, he told his colleagues that the government should “keep a relentless focus on the cost of living, show relentless delivery of change people can feel and bring relentless clarity to drawing the choice ahead”.

Referring to that choice, Starmer said:

A Labour government renewing the country or a Reform movement that feeds on grievance, decline and division.

They want a weaker state, they want to inject bile into our communities, they want to appease Putin. This is the fight of our political lives and one that we must relish.

Starmer also urged his ministers to ignore the polls

I do not underestimate the scale of the task. But I have no doubt about this team. Governments do not lose because polls go down. They lose when they lose belief or nerve. We will do neither.

(While Starmer is right to say that politicians should not be paralysed by poor poll ratings, because they can change a lot over three years [and sometimes they were wrong too], they can’t ignore polls either. Governments may not lose because polls go down, but normally they do lose when polls go down. A YouGov poll out today has Labour for the first time in third place behind Reform UK and the Tories. See 10.44am.)

Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, attended politcal cabinet. According to the readout, she thanked Starmer and his team “embracing me as deputy leader” and said that she relished “helping to tell the story of whose side we are on”.

Ministers then discussed “successful recoveries of centre-left parties in Norway, Australia and Canada through focussing on delivery and cost of living issues”.