Online Safety minister Kanishka Narayan was on BBC Breakfast this morning asked about Labour’s stated plans to regulate Virtual Private Networks, a common workaround for the government’s internet strictures. He said:
“So look, we’ve uh we’ve engaged very widely with families across the country on the question of VPNs and one of the big things we heard was that many families feel VPNs are important to protect their privacy and their children. Whistleblowers told us the VPNs are important for them. Minority groups told us that the ability to use VPNs is a really important way in which they can call out for help when they need it. And so for those reasons, we have decided not to limit VPNs today. And that’s the that’s the primary conclusion for now. But it is something we’ll continue to review. We want to make sure that young people are safe on VPNs in particular. And so we’ll work with the companies to make sure that’s the case.”
Keeping their options open for a ban in the future…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”