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Labour called for an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ in Gaza for the first time since the attack by Hamas in October. Earlier, at a Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, Sir Keir Starmer said that a ‘ceasefire that lasts’ must ‘happen now’. The Prince of Wales called for an end to the fighting and the release of hostages, saying that ‘too many have been killed’. The ‘very small recession’ may already be over amid ‘distinct signs of an upturn’, Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, told a Commons committee. Provisional figures for the last quarter of 2023 had shown a 0.3 per cent fall in GDP, following a 0.1 per cent fall in the quarter before. The government sent ‘guidance’ to schools saying: ‘We are determined that all schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the school day.’

In two by-elections, the Conservatives took another turn in their spiral down the plughole. At Kingswood, Labour’s Damien Egan, the former mayor of Lewisham, won 11,176 votes to the 8,675 for the Conservative candidate. The gap between them was smaller than the 2,578 votes for the Reform candidate. At Wellingborough, Labour’s Gen Kitchen won 13,844 votes to the 7,408 for the Conservative candidate, Helen Harrison, the partner of Peter Bone, the former member for the constituency against whom a recall petition precipitated the by-election. Scott Benton MP faced a 35-day suspension from parliament, so another by-election is expected.

Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, contradicted Henry Staunton, whom she had sacked as chairman of the Post Office. He had said in a Sunday Times interview that he was told to delay payouts to Post Office scandal victims: ‘I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spend on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon and to “limp”, in quotation marks – I did a file note on it – “limp” into the election.’ She responded on X (Twitter): ‘He has given an interview full of lies,’ and then said in a statement in the Commons: ‘He’s chosen to spread a series of falsehoods.’ Staunton then found his written note which used the word ‘hobble’. The test firing of a Trident missile from a Royal Navy submarine in the Atlantic failed, for the second time in a row. Police searching the Thames for Abdul Ezedi, the suspect in the Clapham chemical attack, recovered a body. The Body Shop is to shut half its 198 UK stores. The Chinese e-commerce group JD.com said that it was considering a takeover bid for Currys.

Abroad

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader jailed in 2021, died aged 47 in a penal colony inside the Arctic Circle. In 2020 he had been poisoned with Novichok. ‘Make no mistake,’ commented President Joe Biden of the United States. ‘Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.’ His widow said the same. The US and British ambassadors paid their respects at a memorial to repression, the Solovetsky Stone, in Lubyanka Square; hundreds of Russians were arrested for doing the same. Ukrainian forces withdrew from the ruined town of Avdiivka near Donetsk. President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Germany and appealed for more weapons. Denmark had decided to deliver to Ukraine all the artillery rounds from its stockpiles, its Prime Minister said. Witchcraft charges brought last October against the Seychelles opposition leader Patrick Herminie were dropped. The Greek parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage.

Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, warned that unless Hamas freed all hostages held in Gaza by 10 March (the beginning of Ramadan) an offensive would be launched in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian refugees are sheltering. The World Health Organisation said that the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, had ceased to function following an Israeli raid. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil likened ‘what is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people’ to ‘when Hitler decided to kill the Jews’. The crew of the Rubymar, a British-registered cargo vessel, abandoned ship after it was hit by missiles fired by Houthis in the Gulf of Aden.

Donald Trump was ordered by a New York judge to pay the state $355 million for lying about the values of his properties; he was also banned from serving as a company director or taking out loans from banks in the state for three years. Tourists in Paris made do with photographing a sign that said: ‘Due to a national strike, the Eiffel Tower closed. We apoligize (sic).’                   CSH