Category Archives: House of Commons

Just one in 100 Tory MPs came from a working-class job, new study shows

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Institute for Public Policy Research study also shows proportion of working-class Labour MPs has halved since 1980s

Only about 1% of the current crop of Tory MPs entered parliament from a working-class job, according to new research that suggests a growing “representation gap” in parliament.

Just 7% of all MPs can be considered “working class”, compared with 34% of all UK working-age adults. While 13% of Labour MPs joined parliament from a working-class occupation, the proportion has halved since the 1980s.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss reach final two of Tory leadership race – as it happened

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The final two will face each other in a TV debate on Monday before weeks of hustings with Conservative members

In an analysis of the yesterday’s public sector pay awards published this morning, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says the new prime minister will have to decide whether to increase departmental spending budgets, to fund the higher-than-expected pay awards, or to require the awards to be funded from existing budgets, requiring cuts elsewhere. It says:

One option is to top up spending plans to at least partially fund the costs of higher-than-expected pay awards, shoring up departments’ ability to deliver on the government’s public service objectives (such as clearing the NHS backlog). This would come at the cost of higher borrowing and reduced fiscal room for the tax cuts seemingly desired by the entire field of would-be prime ministers.

The other option is to stick to existing spending plans, instead requiring public services to make some painful cuts: to other budgets, to headcount, or to the range and quality of service provision. Reducing the government’s public services ‘offer’ is a coherent response to a series of global economic shocks that make us poorer as a nation. But the government should be honest about what that implies for the NHS, local government, and other public services.

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Tea strain: MPs’ stab at being funny gets steeped in ridicule

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Twitter complaints of sexism and dated views pour in after 1922 Committee tries jest with teapot amid Tory leadership contest

Attempts to inject some levity into the Conservative leadership contest on social media fell flat on Wednesday when a photograph tweeted of the 1922 Committee led to criticism that it was sexist and outdated.

With the announcement of the two remaining candidates for the UK prime minister role about to be announced (at 4pm this Wednesday) or at “tea time” as it was described, the photograph showed members of the committee representing Tory backbenchers posing with teacups in hand and a teapot.

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Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at first PMQs since resignation – UK politics live

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Latest updates: prime minister takes penultimate PMQs as Conservatives wrangle over who will replace him as leader

Mordaunt says she is committed to the manifesto commitments on defence spending, and meeting the Nato defence pledge.

But she would also take some tasks away from the defence forces, she says. She says she wants to set up a civil defence force to deal with civil defence matters.

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Eight MPs make it on to first Tory leadership ballot as Sajid Javid pulls out of the race – live

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Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and Nadhim Zahawi garner enough support

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, and Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, have just told Sky News that they are backing Liz Truss for the Tory leadership.

Rees-Mogg says Truss had been his strongest supporter in cabinet in terms of seeking Brexit opportunities. He went on:

When we discussed taxation, Liz was always opposed to Rishi’s higher taxes. That again is proper Conservatism. And I think she’s got the character to lead the party and the nation.

Liz Truss is the best candidate. She’s a proper Eurosceptic. She will deliver for the voters. She’ll deliver for the voters. She believes in low taxation.

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MP asks if ex-KGB agent tried to arrange private Johnson and Lavrov call

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Yvette Cooper requests more details about Boris Johnson’s meeting with Alexander Lebedev in Italy in 2018

Yvette Cooper has used an urgent question in the Commons to ask if Alexander Lebedev sought to arrange a private phone call between Boris Johnson and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, during a weekend party in April 2018.

A day after Johnson admitted for the first time that when foreign secretary he had met former KGB agent Lebedev without officials present, the shadow home secretary told the Commons there were further questions raised by the trip to the party at an Italian palazzo owned by Lebedev’s son.

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Welsh secretary resigns after Boris Johnson sacks Michael Gove and refuses to quit – as it happened

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Levelling up secretary had told PM to step down in face-to-face meeting as Simon Hart says it is too late to ‘turn the ship around’

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Hamish Mackay.

Tory MPs critical of Boris Johnson claim that a majority of their colleagues are now in favour of replacing him.

I think there is a majority in the party that wants to see change.

I personally have lost confidence in the prime minister now and I’m very sorry to say that. I think he does need to go.

We are regarded as rebels. We’re not. Well over half the parliamentary party now now want Boris Johnson to leave office. That means we’re the mainstream …

About a month ago we had the no confidence vote. Since then there’s been a lot of buyer’s remorse from those who backed him and it’s only been one-way traffic. I haven’t heard anybody who voted no confidence in the prime minister has changed their mind since then.

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‘Charge of the lightweight brigade’: Starmer uses PMQs to mock Tories

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Labour leader says Conservative MPs backing Boris Johnson do not have ‘a shred of integrity’

Keir Starmer has accused Conservative MPs and ministers of complicity in propping up a prime minister with a history of indefensible behaviour, as he both condemned and mocked what he called the “dying spectacle” of Boris Johnson’s political career.

Focusing in particular on Johnson’s decision earlier this year to promote Chris Pincher to be deputy chief whip, despite a known history of sexually predatory behaviour, Starmer said any Tory MPs still backing Johnson did not have “a shred of integrity”.

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‘Enough is enough’: Sajid Javid lays into Boris Johnson in Commons

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Former health secretary calls on colleagues to consider following his lead after resigning from cabinet

Sajid Javid has called on cabinet ministers to consider resigning from Boris Johnson’s government to help oust him as prime minister, saying he quit as health secretary after deciding “enough is enough” over issues of truth and credibility.

Giving a damning personal statement in the Commons on Wednesday after his resignation on Tuesday evening, Javid made it plain he believed other ministers should follow suit.

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Parliament an unsafe workplace due to sexual misconduct by MPs, say unions

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Political parties cannot be trusted to deal with misbehaviour by their own MPs, claim general secretaries

Parliament must act to stop the “seemingly endless” allegations of sexual misconduct by MPs as political parties cannot be trusted to make it a safe place to work, two leading unions have warned.

As No 10 admitted Boris Johnson had known about allegations against Chris Pincher before making him deputy chief whip, the FDA and Prospect said politicians were time and again failing to “deal properly with sexual misconduct by one of their own”.

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Chris Pincher seeking professional help after drunken groping claims

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Tory party and PM face mounting pressure over scandal as former deputy chief whip says he respects decision to suspend him

Chris Pincher has said he is seeking professional help following claims that he drunkenly groped two men.

The former deputy chief whip, who resigned following the allegations, said he respected the prime minister’s decision to suspend the whip and would “cooperate fully” with an inquiry into his behaviour.

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Boris Johnson says UK defence spending set to rise to 2.5% of GDP by end of decade – live

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Latest updates: prime minister tells Nato conference UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030

And in another interview Liz Truss refused to endorse Boris Johnson’s claim that “toxic masculinity” helped to explain Vladimir Putin’s conduct and that he would not have invaded Ukraine if he were a woman. Asked if she agreed, she told Times Radio:

[Putin is] clearly is capable of very, very evil acts ... I don’t pretend that I can conduct a psychological analysis on him, nor do I think it’s helpful ...

I think that both women and men are capable of terrible and appalling acts.

All of Ukraine that has been invaded by Russia is illegally occupied. And, ultimately, the Russians need to be pushed out of all of that territory, and certainly what we shouldn’t be doing as friends and allies [of Ukraine] ... is implying that there are any trade-offs or any bits of Ukrainian territory that could be traded away or compromised on.

It is realistic, and that is why we are supplying the extra lethal aid we’re supplying.

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UK trade deal with Australia amounts to ‘offshoring’ pesticide use, MPs warn

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Select committee says ministers want to rush through deal allowing food imports that fall below UK environmental standards

The government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have warned.

The international trade select committee in parliament has called for a vote on the deal, which would result in food produced below British domestic environmental standards being sold in the UK.

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Boris Johnson admits byelection defeats ‘not brilliant’ as ex-Tory leader calls for resignation – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest UK political coverage here

This is from James Johnson, a Tory pollster (who worked for Theresa May in No 10) whose firm JL Partners carried out polling in Wakefield, on who ought to be taking the blame for the byelection defeats.

PM Media has just snapped this.

Boris Johnson has said he will “listen” to voters but will “keep going” after the Tories suffered a double by-election defeat.

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MP whose murder sparked Irish civil war to get Commons plaque

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Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated by IRA gunmen 100 years ago and then all but forgotten

On 22 June 1922 Sir Henry Wilson, an army field marshal turned MP, unveiled a plaque to railway employees who had died in the first world war before returning to his stately home in Belgravia, central London.

He was a distinctive figure – tall, in uniform, with a facial scar that had earned him a nickname as the “ugliest man in the British army”.

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Geidt doubles down on claims No 10 wanted to break international law

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PM’s former ethics adviser says reason given by Downing Street for his resignation was a ‘distraction’

Boris Johnson’s former ethics adviser has said the reason given by Downing Street for his resignation was a “distraction” and doubled down on claims that the government wanted to break international law.

After he dramatically quit this week, Christopher Geidt said his explanation had used too much “cautious language” leading to “some confusion about the precise cause of my decision”.

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‘Deep concern’ over fate of Dom Phillips in Brazil, says Boris Johnson

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Prime minister says UK government will provide any support needed after journalist’s disappearance in Amazon

Boris Johnson has said the UK government is “deeply concerned” about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the British journalist Dom Phillips, after Theresa May called on the prime minister to make the case “a diplomatic priority”.

May raised Phillips’s case during prime minister’s questions, citing correspondence with Phillips’ niece Dominique Davis, one of her constituents. Johnson said the UK had offered to provide support to Brazilian search teams looking for Phillips and his travelling partner, Bruno Pereira, an Indigenous expert.

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Boris Johnson using Jedi mind trick on country over economy, says Starmer

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Labour leader says PM is spouting nonsense, telling people ‘they’ve never had it so good’, in bad-tempered PMQs

Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of trying to fool the public with “nonsense” about a booming economy, as an often bad-tempered prime minister’s questions saw the pair square up over stagnant growth and tax rises.

In an extended Star Wars-referencing section, Starmer said Johnson was trying to “perform Jedi mind tricks on the country” by insisting the economy was buoyant, also mocking the PM by saying his backbenchers compared him to Jeremy Corbyn.

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Commons will be a ‘menopause-friendly’ employer, says Speaker

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Sir Lindsay Hoyle unveils plans to ‘break the taboo’, and agrees to sign the Menopause Workplace Pledge

The House of Commons is to become a “menopause-friendly” employer, with Sir Lindsay Hoyle unveiling plans to “break the taboo” and offer practical adjustments for those affected.

The Commons Speaker will sign the Wellbeing of Women charity’s Menopause Workplace Pledge, which will commit the House of Commons Service to supporting employees going through the menopause.

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Ethics watchdog says PM has failed to allay fears he is above the rules

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Jonathan Evans rows in behind Lord Geidt with critical statement on Boris Johnson’s changes to code

A powerful standards watchdog has accused Boris Johnson of failing to allay fears that he and his ministers consider themselves above the rules, as his support continued to ebb away in the wake of the Partygate scandal.

Jonathan Evans, the chair of the committee on standards in public life, criticised a planned overhaul to the way the ministerial code is policed, saying they undermined the role of Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, Christopher Geidt.

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