£23m for dedicated rape courtrooms, Davey says he will lead Lib Dems into the election

The government announced that every Crown Court in England and Wales will get at least one courtroom dedicated to rape and serious sexual offence cases within two years, in a package costed by the Press Association at around £23 million from the Ministry of Justice budget. The announcement was published in the names of the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and the Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, and Labour MPs renewed calls to expel Diane Abbott. This is UKFCP's 24 hours in politics round-up.

Parliament is in conference recess, with the Liberal Democrats meeting in Brighton and Labour's conference a week away. The Burnham government is two months old and its first Budget, from Chancellor John Healey, falls on 28 October.

Specialist rape courts for every Crown Court

Under the plans, victims will be offered a private entrance and private waiting room to keep them away from defendants, and from October trials will be given a fixed date rather than being placed on floating lists that can be moved at short notice. Court staff will receive trauma-informed training and each survivor will be assigned a single point of contact. In 2025, rape cases took an average of 424 days to complete after reaching the Crown Court, according to the government.

"For too long, victims of rape and serious sexual offences have felt let down by our justice system," Burnham said. "Prosecution rates for rape remain shamefully low, with many victims waiting years for justice."

The government credited the Labour MP Charlotte Nichols, who waived her anonymity in the Commons in March to describe waiting more than 1,000 days for her case to reach court. Opposition criticism reported by Sky News said ministers should instead get courts sitting throughout the year and clear the backlog.

Davey rejects claims of Lib Dem drift

Sir Ed Davey spent Monday answering internal criticism of his leadership, after the South Cotswolds MP Roz Savage wrote that the party was "struggling for relevance" and the Devon council leader Julian Brazil said it was "not saying the things that people can relate to". Davey told the Press Association that Savage was wrong, said the Liberal Democrats now run more councils than the Conservatives, and confirmed he would lead the party into the next general election.

"I am a candidate to be prime minister," Davey said, rejecting the suggestion he was aiming only to be a junior coalition partner.

He also backed the Jackdaw gas field, which the government is expected to approve later this month, saying it had "passed the climate test". The party pledged £600 million a year for maternity services, including one-to-one midwifery in labour. A Labour spokesperson said Davey "was part of the coalition government that tore up the national standards" for maternity care.

Badenoch pledges tax-free shopping return

Kemi Badenoch said a Conservative government would restore tax-free shopping for visitors from outside the European Union, reversing the withdrawal of the VAT Retail Export Scheme in 2021. The party costed the measure at £540 million a year, and said, citing the Centre for Economics and Business Research, that it would bring 2.35 million additional visitors and £4.1 billion of extra spending.

"Britain should be the place where the whole world comes to shop," Badenoch said at Bicester Village in Oxfordshire.

Labour accused her of a "spectacular U-turn", noting she had defended scrapping the relief as a Treasury minister. Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said she now wanted to reverse course "when she is no longer in a position to do anything about it". The Treasury said visitors can still claim VAT relief where goods are shipped directly abroad.

Airlines demand action after second ATC failure

A technical fault at the National Air Traffic Services centre at Prestwick caused delays and cancellations across Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland on Monday, the second such failure in a fortnight. NATS described it as a "connectivity issue" that was soon fixed.

easyJet said the incident "once again calls into question the resilience" of the system, according to the BBC. Airlines have demanded action from ministers, putting pressure on the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander.

Also in the last 24 hours

• Helen Jenner was unveiled as Reform UK's leader in Wales after a ballot of the party's 33 Senedd members, winning by two votes according to the Guardian; Nigel Farage called his predecessor's departure a "bump in the road".
• Liberal Democrat members passed a motion criticising the Equality and Human Rights Commission's statutory code on single-sex spaces, which Davey said he backed.
• Canada's finance minister told the BBC the UK should "team up" with Canada in a new alliance with Europe, arguing the countries are "stronger together".
• The Department of Health and Social Care said Martha's Rule will be extended to every maternity and neonatal ward, with a national action plan due by the end of the year.
• The Mayor of London published evidence that exclusions and suspensions in schools signed up to his Inclusion Charter have fallen to half the national average.

Burnham meets Donald Trump face to face for the first time in New York on Tuesday, the same day Davey closes the Liberal Democrat conference with his leader's speech.