Category Archives: House of Commons

The Great Jimmy Dimly does the diplomatic donkey work – in his dreams | John Crace

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The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, claims he’s making a difference in the Middle East but barely has a walk-on part

It’s all very confusing. On Monday, during his statement to the Commons, I could have sworn I heard Rishi Sunak say – with great modesty – he had been vitally important in international efforts to limit the violence in the Middle East. Only his personal interventions with Benjamin Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi had prevented an even worse humanitarian catastrophe. Some were even proclaiming him to be a global peacemaker. A saviour among men.

So it was a surprise on Tuesday to hear James Cleverly making pretty much the same claims for himself during Foreign Office questions. Time and again, the foreign secretary would preface an answer with a reference to his own diplomatic missions to the Middle East. He alone had a full grasp of what was at stake as politicians from Israel, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar had begged him for advice. Sure, the prime minister had done his bit, but that had been largely cosmetic. The real donkey work had been done by him. The Great Jimmy Dimly.

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Starmer writes to Labour councillors in attempt to quash concerns he’s too pro-Israel – UK politics live

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Letter from Labour leader stresses his concern for international law and sympathy with the plight of the Palestinian people

Rishi Sunak will be taking PMQs shortly. It will be his first exchange with Keir Starmer since the party conferences.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

We were the victims of an inside job by someone, we believe, who over a long period of time was stealing from the museum and the museum put trust in.

There are lots of lessons to be learnt as a result of that, the member of staff has been dismissed by us. The objects have started to be recovered … We have changed our whistleblowing code, changed our policy on thefts … tightened up security on thefts.

If someone is entrusted by an organisation to look after something and they are the person removing those objects, that is hard for any organisation, and it was hard for the museum, where there is a trusting culture.

If that trust is completely abused and as I think will become clear in the coming months quite a lot of steps were taken to conceal that, it wasn’t just that things were taken, records were altered and the like, it’s hard to spot.

We are intending to put on display the objects we have recovered, there is a lot of public interest in these objects.

350 have now been recovered and titles have been transferred to us so we have the makings of a good exhibition that was not previously planned.

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Tory MP Peter Bone hit and abused staff member, watchdog says

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Independent panel finds Bone bullied and harassed staff member over a three-month period in late 2012

The Conservative MP Peter Bone repeatedly hit and verbally abused a member of his staff, often asked him for massages and on one occasion put his bare genitals in the other man’s face, according to a damning report by a Commons regulator.

Bone, one of the most prominent members of the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, was found by the independent expert panel to have bullied and harassed his staff member over a three-month period in late 2012.

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Chris Grayling joins list of Tories standing down at next election

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MP since 2001, nicknamed ‘Failing Grayling’ for fraught record as transport secretary, says time for a change after cancer treatment

Chris Grayling, the former transport secretary, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he is standing down at the next general election.

Grayling said he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer this year and the diagnosis had led him to decide it was “time for a change”.

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Rishi Sunak delays some green targets and scraps others as he reveals net zero policy shift – as it happened

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PM says people to be given more time to switch gas boilers to heat pumps, and ban on sale of new petrol and diesel cars delayed

Climate scientists have expressed dismay at reports that Rishi Sunak is to row back on net zero commitments, arguing that this would be harmful not just environmentally, but economically too.

Prof Myles Allen, professor of geosystem sciences at Oxford University, said:

We haven’t heard the actual speech yet, but we all have to hope the PM is true to his word that he is looking for better ways to deliver net zero, not just slower ways. As we have found time and again in Britain, dithering costs money. The USA is seeing other countries’ faltering as an opportunity to get ahead. It will be sad indeed if we just see it as an opportunity to join the laggards.

It’s not pragmatic, it’s pathetic. This rolling back on emissions cuts for short-term political gain will undermine the transition to net zero and with it the future opportunities, prosperity and safety of the entire country.

Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide which causes global warming which amplifies the consequences of extreme weather events, as we have so clearly seen this summer. Climate change will continue until we reach net zero globally, and we will then have to suffer the consequences of that warmer world for decades or more. It also matters how we reach net zero, not just when – delaying action means more emissions which means more severe consequences.

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Senior Tory Lee Anderson broke MPs’ code by filming on Commons roof

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Anderson apologises over GB News clip and for sending email about his show from his official address

Lee Anderson, the Conservative party’s deputy chair, has been found to have broken parliamentary rules by filming a promotional clip for his GB News programme from the roof of the House of Commons.

The senior Tory apologised and promised not to do it again after admitting having breached the MPs’ code of conduct by being filmed on the roof terrace and sending an email advertising his programme from his parliamentary email address.

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Exiled Chinese dissidents alarmed by ‘spy’ arrest of Westminster researcher

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Activists call for reassurances to be given to those who gave information to parliamentarians

Finn Lau’s meeting with a Westminster researcher who was later arrested on suspicion of spying for China lasted just 20 minutes. Nearly a year later he is mulling the potential consequences.

Lau, an exiled Hong Kong pro-democracy activist with a £100,000 bounty on his head, has a lingering suspicion that some of his ideas for putting more pressure on China appear not to have made it beyond their meeting.

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Rishi Sunak says he told China actions to undermine British democracy are ‘completely unacceptable’

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Prime minister says he told Li Qiang, the Chinese prime minister, at G20 that Chinese interference with the work of parliament will ‘never be tolerated’

Simon Clarke, who was the levelling up secretary during the Liz Truss premiership, has defended the government’s decision not to explicitly label China as a threat. In posts on X, or Twitter as many of us still call it, he said:

There are legitimate reasons why it is difficult for ministers to say China is a threat – that’s the nature of international relations. What matters more than words is that our policy choices change to reflect the undoubted danger of China’s actions.

Here I think the Government’s record stands up pretty well. You have the soft power of our new Pacific trade bloc membership in the CPTPP (which notably does not include China) and you have the hard power of the new AUKUS alliance - itself a response to Chinese aggression.

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Some MPs came close to suicide, says ex-Tory minister Rory Stewart

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Former leadership contender says life of politician puts ‘almost unsustainable’ strain on mental health

The former Conservative minister Rory Stewart has said some fellow MPs came very close to killing themselves when he was in the Commons, and the life of a politician placed an “almost unsustainable” strain on people.

Stewart, who was international development secretary and stood to be Tory leader before leaving the Commons in 2019, said other former colleagues experienced “total breakdowns in public”.

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PMQs: Rishi Sunak denies cutting budgets for school repairs as list of concrete-risk schools revealed

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Keir Starmer likens the Tories to ‘cowboy builders’ as the PM insists the government acted decisively in response to the problem

The DfE list shows pupils at 24 schools across England will receive some remote learning because of the concrete crisis, with four schools switching to fully remote learning, PA Media reports.

And the list shows 19 schools where the start of term has had to be delayed as a result of collapse-prone concrete.

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Call for ministers to be more open about finances after Rishi Sunak code breach

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Standards commissioner’s ruling has set precedent, says Labour MP who first asked PM about wife’s interest in childcare agency

Ministers may need to be more transparent about their financial interests after a “significant ruling” that found Rishi Sunak failed to declare his wife’s interest in a childcare agency, the MP who triggered the inquiry has said.

Catherine McKinnell, the Labour MP who first asked him about the potential conflict of interest, said the ruling set a precedent that meant ministers were likely to have to make greater disclosures in relation to their interests when questioned in parliament.

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Starmer challenges Sunak to force Nadine Dorries out of Commons as Tory website explains how it could happen – as it happened

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Article says Commons could bypass the parliamentary standards machinery after Labour leader says MP should be forced out. This live blog is closed

Starmer says there is a massive mismatch between what the government is saying about how things are going well with the economy, and the lived experience of people.

O’Brien suggests the two teenagers Starmer met today would have been happier if Starmer was still committed to getting rid of tuition fees.

I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.

I am not going to pretend that there isn’t huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want in the way that we would want.

We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them.

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Call for investigation into Nadine Dorries over failure to quit as MP

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More than half of people believe MP’s absence is significantly damaging parliament’s reputation, poll shows

A campaign group has written to the standards watchdog asking for an investigation into Nadine Dorries after its poll suggested more than half of people believe her absence as an MP and failure to quit has significantly damaged parliament’s reputation.

Tom Brake, the director of Unlock Democracy, called for an inquiry after the group commissioned an Opinium survey that found 55% of people thought Dorries had caused significant damage by failing to speak in parliament and delaying her decision to quit.

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UK MPs warn against growing use of smart tech in domestic abuse

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Committee’s report says devices including home security systems used to coerce and control victims

MPs have called on the UK government to tackle “tech abuse”, as they warned devices including smart home security systems were being used to coerce and control victims of domestic abuse.

The culture, media and sport committee launched an inquiry last year to consider the benefits and harms of connected technology, including virtual assistants and fitness trackers.

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‘Silly sod’: Starmer laughs off minister’s Inbetweeners jibe at new MP

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Johnny Mercer had mocked 25-year-old Keir Mather’s lack of real-world experience after he won the Selby and Ainsty byelection

Sir Keir Starmer has called the government minister Johnny Mercer a “silly sod” who will “soon be history” in politics after he compared Labour’s new 25-year-old MP to a character from the teen sitcom The Inbetweeners.

The minister for veterans’ affairs said Keir Mather had been “dropped into” the Selby and Ainsty constituency and was an “identikit Labour politician”. Earlier he had said: “[Parliament] mustn’t become a repeat of The Inbetweeners.”

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Rayner attacks Tories over ‘mortgage bombshell’ as Sunak misses PMQs again – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage here

Civil service chief Simon Case said the last five years had seen a deterioration in relations between officials and politicians, although he added the situation had improved since Rishi Sunak became prime minister, PA News reports.

The cabinet secretary told MPs:

The last five years or so have seen, I think, an increased number of attacks on civil servants individually and collectively by significant political figures which has undoubtedly undermined the good functioning of government.

I’m very happy to say that under this prime minister things have changed very significantly.

Obviously I don’t agree with a characterisation which is insulting, dehumanising, totally unacceptable.

It would surprise me if current ministers were using this language, not least because if they were it would indicate something akin to self-defeating cowardice.

Yes, was aware of those communications and have flagged them to both the chief whip and Speaker of the House.

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Senior Tories attack illegal migration bill as Lords amendments overturned

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Theresa May and Tim Loughton among more than a dozen backbench Tories criticising bill

Rishi Sunak’s immigration bill was heavily criticised by senior Conservative MPs as the government overturned amendments made by the House of Lords.

Theresa May and Tim Loughton were among more than a dozen backbench Tories seeking further changes to the illegal migration bill, which the prime minister says is crucial to stopping small boats from crossing the Channel.

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Tory rebels offered concessions on anti-asylum legislation

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Fearing defeats, government expected to limit plans to detain children and pregnant women arriving on small boats

Ministers are offering rebel Conservative MPs concessions on key anti-asylum legislation amid growing concern it could face defeats in the Commons.

The government is expected to limit plans to detain children and pregnant women who arrive in the UK by small boats and drop some of the retrospective applications of the illegal migration bill’s measures, the Guardian understands.

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Keir Starmer heckled by protesters during education speech – UK politics live

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Latest updates: group complains about Labour’s lack of commitment to green new deal as leader speaks about extending opportunity

Starmer is now being heckled by someone complaining about his lack of commitment to a green new deal.

He says he has already given a speech on this. He offers to speak to the protesters later.

Keir Starmer asked two protesters holding a banner saying “Green New Deal now” to “let me finish” as they interrupted his speech.

The Labour leader told the pair he would “speak to you after” as they accused of him of U-turning on his £28bn green prosperity plan before being led off stage by security.

I promise you this, wherever there are obstacles to opportunity, wherever there are the barriers to hope, my Labour government will tear them down.

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Byelection likely as Chris Pincher faces suspension over groping claims

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Recommendations of standards committee inquiry will trigger recall petition in Pincher’s Tamworth constituency

Rishi Sunak faces the prospect of yet another byelection after a parliamentary report into groping allegations against Chris Pincher recommended that the former government whip be suspended as an MP for eight weeks.

The suspension will automatically trigger a recall petition in Pincher’s constituency of Tamworth if approved by MPs. If 10% of constituents sign it then there will be a byelection.

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