Bridget Phillipson has taken aim at the Equality and Human Rights Commission after it failed to publish the long awaited guidance on single-sex spaces.

The EHRC submitted the guidance to Phillipson four months ago but she has yet to approve it.

However, the Education Secretary is now demanding the equalities regulator calculates how much it will cost businesses before it is published.

She argued the Government “did require certain additional information” from the EHRC which had “unfortunately slowed the process.”

Mrs Phillipson admitted there had been “difficulties in the past” with the equalities watchdog, but expressed faith in its new chair, Mary-Ann Stephenson.

She told reporters: “We did require certain additional information from the EHRC, so that has unfortunately slowed the process, but I hope we can make progress, because I know that people want that clarity, but actually the ruling from the Supreme Court was also very clear.

“We have a new chair that has taken up post at the EHRC. I think she is going to do a fantastic job, and I have every confidence in her. We have experienced difficulties in the past. I’ll be up front about that.

“I hope now we can move into a phase where we can crack on, we can make sure that we’re putting in place the code of practice that we know we need to bring forward, but we do so in a way that is responsible, that follows all of the proper processes.”

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X could be banned in Britain over AI chatbot concerns

Britain is weighing up a potential ban on Elon Musk’s X platform after it was revealed that its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has been exploited to create sexualised deepfake images of women and children.

Sir Keir Starmer has instructed media regulator Ofcom to explore every available measure, including blocking British users from accessing the site entirely.

“This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting and it’s not to be tolerated,” the Prime Minister declared, adding that “X need to get their act together and get this material down.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Labour accused of ‘secretly backing cousin marriage’ after blocking vote to ban ‘medieval’ practice

Labour has been accused of backing cousin marriage by refusing to support a Private Members’ Bill seeking to ban the “medieval” practice.

Shadow Minister Richard Holden warned Labour MPs were “turning a blind eye” to cousin marriage after today’s scheduled second reading vote was stalled.

The Basildon & Billericay MP put pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s Government to support his proposed ban, with the Prime Minister last year rejecting his request to whip Labour MPs in support of prohibiting close family members from tying the knot.

READ THE GB NEWS EXCLUSIVE HERE.

What’s happening today in Westminster?

Peers are back in for the seventh day of the controversial Assisted Dying Bill debate.

Pressure is currently mounting from campaigners in favour of the bill to speed things up and run through the amendments before it’s “talked out of time” before the end of this current session of Parliament in May.

The focus today will be on the role of palliative care specialists, whether assisted death should be considered suicide, and the High Court’s role in final approvals.

One supporter told Politico: “If at the end of tomorrow it’s exactly the same as it’s been up until now, then obviously from our side the gloves will be off.”

The Commons is not sitting today.