Good morning. There are three weeks until the local elections in England and, with parliament in recess, the party leaders have time for campaigning out of London. While the main conversation is still dominated by President Trump and his erratic global tariffs policy – Graeme Wearden has the latest developments on his business live blog – there are other things to talk about, and Kemi Badenoch has just given an interview to BBC Breakfast where she condoned Tory councillors doing deals with Reform UK to control local authorities if they do not win a majority.

Asked if she would rule out any deals, at national or local level, between the Conservative party and Reform UK, Badenoch replied:

I have said categorically that I’m not doing deals with Reform. Nigel Farage has said that he wants to destroy the Conservative party. When someone says they want to destroy you, don’t invite them into your house and ask to do a deal.

At local level, we end up with various coalitions. I’ve seen Conservatives go into coalition with Labour, with Liberal Democrats, with independents. You don’t get to have a rerun of an election at local level.

So what I’m telling local leaders across the country is they have to do what is right for the people in their area, and they must stick to conservative principles, make sure that they’re not compromising on our values and on the things that we believe in – sound money, for example, not excessive government intervention.

So local leaders are voted by the people in a particular community. They will have to make the choice about what is right for their councils.

But at national level, no, I was not made leader of the Conservative party to give it away to Reform.

In one respect this is just a statement of normal practice. At local authority level it is not unusual for parties without an overall majority to govern in alliance with other parties – sometimes via a formal coalition, or sometimes via some form of “confidence and supply” deal that involves not voting down the budget.

But national party leaders are normally a bit coy when it comes to approving these arrangements, and under Keir Starmer Labour HQ has sometimes vetoed council pacts with other parties. Badenoch’s comments will give credibility to the Labour claim that Badenoch’s party and Nigel Farage’s are closely aligned. Labour has revealed that 60 Reform UK council candidates are defectors from the Conservative party. And last week Labour ran an online advert saying:

Reform and the Tories are closer than you think. No plans, no solutions, just more chaos.

Labour is bringing change to Britain. Vote Labour on Thursday 1 May.

It was accompanied by this image.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.

9.30am: The Home Office is publishing its annual report on cyber breaches.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, are on a visit to promote plans to reopen Doncaster Sheffield airport.

Morning: Kemi Badenoch is doing visits in the north of England.

11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is on a campaign visit in Derbyshire. In the afternoon he will be in Staffordshire.

Early afternoon: Starmer is on a visit in Cambridgeshire with Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to promote the government’s plans for more foot patrols by police at busy times.

2pm (UK time): John Healey, the defence secretary, and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu chair a meeting in Brussels of defence ministers from the 30-odd “coalition of the willing” countries offering to help guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a peace deal.

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