Angela Rayner has chaired Cabinet for the first time in a rare move for the Deputy Prime Minister to lead the meeting while Sir Keir Starmer is away at the G7 summit.
When the Prime Minister is unable to attend, the next most senior minister chairs the meeting under conventions set out in the Cabinet manual.
A Downing Street spokesman said the Government was âgetting on with the jobâ while Sir Keir is away.
He said: âThe whole Cabinet is focused on delivering for working people, and as the Prime Minister is at the G7, focused on exactly that, the Cabinet are doing the same within the UK.â
The Prime Minister is âalways in chargeâ and kept updated and the focus of the G7 to urge de-escalation in the Middle East was reflected in the Cabinet meeting, he said.
Ms Rayner opened the meeting by saying her thoughts were with all those who lost loved ones in the Air India plane crash last week and reflected on a âvery movingâ memorial service at the Indian High Commission on Monday.
She the report into grooming gangs published yesterday made for âdifficult reading for allâ and that the sexual exploitation of children was âtruly heinousâ.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said we cannot afford more âwasted yearsâ as she spoke about the response to Baroness Caseyâs report and the new statutory inquiry being launched.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy gave updates on developments in the Middle East amid the intensifying conflict between Iran and Israel and efforts to support British nationals in the region.
