Liz Truss faces backlash over plan to lift cap on bankers’ bonuses – UK politics live

Latest updates: Kwasi Kwarteng’s plan to lift cap criticised as ‘very bad timing’ during cost of living crisis

In its response to the legal proceedings launched by the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol (see 11.54am), the UK government has said that it has unilaterally decided to continue suspending border checks on farm produce and other goods entering NI from Great Britain, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports.

The European Union is considering its next steps after receiving the UK’s response to legal threats over the failure to comply with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol, PA Media reports. PA says:

Despite politics as normal being paused while the nation mourns the Queen’s death, the government responded to the action ahead of today’s deadline.

The bloc had requested a response to its raft of infringement proceedings over the UK’s failure to comply with the rules before the end of the day.

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UK to unilaterally continue suspending Northern Ireland border checks

Move likely further to antagonise EU but leaders hope Queen’s death may help bring about reconciliation

The UK has made a unilateral decision to continue suspending border checks on farm produce and other goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, a move likely to antagonise the EU but not provoke further action.

London notified Brussels of its decision on Thursday in its formal response to seven lawsuits brought by the EU over the alleged failure of the UK to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.

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Biden and Naruhito, but no Modi: throng of leaders expected at Queen’s funeral

As well as a sad occasion, the Westminster Abbey farewell will be a global spectacle, and a diplomatic opportunity for the UK

India’s president will represent his country at the Queen’s funeral on Monday, meaning the prime minister, Narendra Modi, is not expected to be among the hundreds of foreign leaders due to attend the global spectacle.

A quarter of the 2,000 places at Westminster Abbey have been reserved for heads of state and their partners, with Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Naruhito, the emperor of Japan, the best-known guests confirmed as coming from abroad.

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EU calls for money to be clawed back from energy firms, saying profits must go ‘to those who need it most’ – politics live

Liz Truss has stated her opposition to windfall taxes but the European Commission says energy profits must be shared

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, says the UK is facing a “crisis of income”. She says workers should get a better share of corporate profits.

This has parallels with the point Ursula von der Leyen was making about profits in her speech this morning (see 9.35am), although von der Leyen, a German Christian Democrat who has little in common with Graham, was just talking about the energy sector.

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Keir Starmer: protesters should respect those mourning Queen

Labour leader defends right to protest but says it should not ruin people’s chance to express their private thanks

People who wish to protest against the monarchy should respect those mourning the Queen and not ruin their opportunity to express their private thanks, Keir Starmer has said.

Amid controversy over a small number of protesters being removed by police or arrested, the Labour leader told BBC Breakfast the right to protest and disagree was a British tradition, but he called for it to be done “in the spirit of respect”.

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British firms warned of delay in energy bills support, reports say

Businesses may have to wait until November, although package could still be activated next month

British businesses have been warned by government officials that they will have to wait longer than households for financial support with their energy bills amid delays in launching the £150bn scheme, according to reports.

Company bosses are increasingly worried about the prospect of delays to the arrival of support because fixed energy contracts come to an end in October for hundreds of thousands of firms.

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Kwarteng ‘tells Treasury to focus entirely on growth’ as Tory peer defends sacking of senior civil servant – as it happened

The new chancellor is reported to have told Treasury staff there was a need to ‘do things differently under fresh leadership’. This live blog is now closed

At the lobby briefing yesterday Downing Street admitted that Liz Truss had not completed her government reshuffle. New appointments were suspended following the death of the Queen.

According to an analysis by Arj Singh for the i, 55 posts remain unfilled. Singh says that, to fill all the posts that Boris Johnson had in his government, Truss will need to appoint 21 junior ministers in the Commons, nine Commons whips and 25 Lords ministers.

The removal of Sir Tom Scholar as the lead permanent secretary at the Treasury should be a cause for celebration.

Having worked in his department for nearly two years I saw at first hand the malign influence of the Treasury orthodoxy at play. Whether it was foot-dragging and passive resistance to creating a Treasury office in the north (in Darlington), which he fiercely resisted, or the botched arrangements in the construction of the bounceback loans during the pandemic, all roads led back to him.

I hope very much that our new prime minister will build on her excellent decision and remove responsibility from the Treasury for driving economic growth. It has no idea how to deliver this. The system obsesses about measuring inputs, counting out the money distributed to departments, but has little clue of how to measure outcomes. Departments are infantilised in their management of money, with savings being automatically clawed back to the centre. This of course removes any incentive to think innovatively, creatively or cost-effectively.

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How is Liz Truss’s government challenging ‘Treasury orthodoxy’?

Sir Tom Scholar’s removal as Treasury’s top mandarin signals attempt to change department’s view of the world

Sir Tom Scholar’s removal as the Treasury’s top mandarin was a brutal statement of intent by Liz Truss’s new government. The message was clear: the days when Britain’s economic strategy would be determined by bean counters were over. From now on, growth rather than balancing the books would be the priority.

That is the theory. In practice, removing what Truss sees as the “dead hand” of Treasury orthodoxy from the running of the economy is likely to prove difficult. The fact that all four deputy governors of the Bank of England are Treasury old boys is an example of its influence on the economic policy-making machinery. There have been attempts in the past to cut Whitehall’s most powerful department down to size. Sooner or later, all have failed.

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King Charles pledges to ‘seek welfare of all’ in Northern Ireland

New monarch meets politicians and public as he tries to build on late Queen’s efforts at reconciliation

King Charles has resolved to “seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland”, in a formal response to the region’s assembly on his visit to Hillsborough Castle to meet the public and politicians.

After being greeted by crowds chanting “God save the King” at the gates of the royal residence in County Down, he made the pledge in response to a message of condolence from Alex Maskey, the nationalist Speaker of the Northern Ireland assembly and a former IRA internee.

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Liz Truss under pressure to reveal details of energy crisis plan

Emergency budget of winter tax cuts expected next week once period of national mourning for Queen is over

An emergency budget to bring in winter tax cuts for millions of people and set out more detail on energy handouts is expected late next week once the country emerges from national mourning.

Though politics has been paralysed by the death of the Queen, Liz Truss is under pressure from Tory MPs to set out her plans potentially on Thursday or Friday next week, before the Commons breaks up for party conferences.

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EU offers to reduce Northern Ireland border checks to ‘a couple of lorries a day’

Brexit chief extends olive branch in effort to bring UK back to negotiating table in long-running dispute

The EU has initiated a fresh attempt to end the Northern Ireland Brexit dispute with the UK with a proposal to reduce checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to a near “invisible manner” involving just “a couple of lorries” a day.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said physical checks would be made only “when there is a reasonable suspicion of illegal trade smuggling, illegal drugs, dangerous toys or poisoned food”.

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Housebuilders ‘lobbied against plan for electric car chargers in new homes in England’

‘Blatant efforts’ by companies criticised by campaign group Transport & Environment

Britain’s biggest housebuilders privately lobbied for the government to ditch rules requiring electric car chargers to be installed in every new home in England, documents have revealed.

The FTSE 100 construction firms Barratt Developments, Berkeley Group and Taylor Wimpey were among the companies who argued against the policy in responses to an official consultation seen by the Guardian. The “blatant lobbying efforts” were criticised by Transport & Environment, a campaign group.

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Ban Bain & Co from US government contracts, Joe Biden is urged

Exclusive: Labour peer calls on US president to follow UK in banning firm over misconduct in South Africa

Joe Biden should follow the UK in banning the global management consultancy firm Bain & Company from future government contracts, the Labour peer Peter Hain has said.

In a letter shared with the Guardian, the former minister and anti-apartheid campaigner urged the US president to “act on this matter and establish a clear precedent that will signal to all US global companies, consultancies, lawyers, auditors and financial advisers that collusion with corrupt politicians and their business cronies in other countries will not be tolerated”.

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‘Entirely right’ for Charles to have lobbied ministers, says David Cameron

Former PM says he never felt Charles interfered, and ‘black spider memos’ should have stayed private

David Cameron has said it was “entirely right” for King Charles to have written to ministers and politicians when he was heir to the throne, lobbying on key issues including bovine tuberculosis and herbal medicines.

In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Cameron said he never felt Charles – whose “black spider memos” to ministers were released after a 10-year legal battle – had interfered in politics.

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MPs and peers retake parliamentary oaths to swear allegiance to King Charles III

First MP to take new oath was Lindsay Hoyle, followed by Harriet Harman and Peter Bottomley, then Liz Truss

MPs and peers, among them Liz Truss, have formally retaken their parliamentary oaths to swear allegiance to the new King, followed by another round of tributes in both parliamentary houses to the late monarch.

The first MP to take the revised oath, which refers to the King rather than Queen, was the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, followed by the two longest-serving MPs, Peter Bottomley and Harriet Harman, then Truss and a dozen or so other senior MPs, mainly ministers, shadow ministers and party leaders.

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Revealed: Suella Braverman sets Home Office ‘No boats crossing the Channel’ target

UK’s new home secretary upsets civil servants with speech on migrants, trashy TV and back-to-office call

The new home secretary has already prompted consternation among Home Office officials after telling them she wants to ban all small boats crossing the Channel, the Observer has learned.

During her inaugural address to departmental staff last Wednesday, Suella Braverman said a top priority would be stopping all Channel crossings. She has also asked all staff to watch “trashy TV” to help their “mental wellbeing”, a source said, specifically citing Channel 4’s Married at First Sight and First Dates as well as Love Island.

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How red flags were brushed aside to push through Rwanda deal

Documents disclosed to high court case show repeated warnings about asylum processing plan

Until the then home secretary Priti Patel and Rwanda’s foreign minister, Vincent Biruta, sat together at a table in Kigali on 14 April and signed a deal to send asylum seekers to the east African country, few thought the agreement would actually happen.

Rumours had swirled for months about the controversial plans but nothing had come of previous Home Office ideas, both confirmed and unconfirmed, to halt the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats, including wave machines in the Channel and a policy to turn around dinghies.

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King Charles to address nation as period of mourning for Queen begins

Prime minister to meet new monarch as floral tributes are placed outside Buckingham Palace and elsewhere

The first full day of the reign of King Charles III has begun, with the new monarch travelling to London to meet the prime minister and prepare for a national address on Friday evening.

After staying at Balmoral overnight, the King will travel with Camilla, now Queen Consort, to the capital.

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White House warns Truss over efforts to ‘undo’ Northern Ireland protocol

Biden administration says undoing the protocol would not be ‘conducive’ to a trade deal between the UK and US

The Biden administration has sent Liz Truss a message on her second day in office warning against “efforts to undo the Northern Ireland protocol”.

The warning came from the lectern in the White House briefing room, where spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about new British prime minister Truss’s first phone call with Joe Biden and whether a US-UK trade deal was discussed.

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Tory MP begins ‘net zero tour’ of UK to highlight benefits of action

Chris Skidmore urges new PM to ignore ‘tiny vocal minority in Westminster’ arguing against climate target

Top green Conservative Chris Skidmore is to embark on a net zero tour to show that “normal people are getting on with” decarbonisation, and urge the new prime minister to ignore the “Westminster bubble” that is pouring scorn on the climate target.

Skidmore, a former energy minister, will on Thursday visit green schemes across north-west England, including a home insulation demonstration in Salford and a peat restoration project in Oldham.

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