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Rishi Sunak has welcomed Germany’s decision to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
There is more coverage of the German decision on our Ukraine live blog.
Continue reading...Category Archives: House of Commons
MPs urge asbestos company to pay £10m to fund cancer research
All-party group including peers backs campaign by victims’ group, saying Cape ‘knowingly put people in danger’
MPs and peers have written to one of the biggest manufacturers of asbestos, calling on it to make a £10m donation towards mesothelioma research “for knowingly putting people in danger”.
In a letter to Altrad, parent company of Cape, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on occupational safety and health says that documents released after a long-running court battle show that Cape historically “provided misleading reassurance about the dangers of asbestos”.
Continue reading...PMQs live: Sunak faces Starmer as minister says rail strikes have cost more than settling pay dispute
Prime minister facing questions from leader of the Labour party and other MPs
Huw Merriman, the rail minister, told MPs this morning that the government has lost more money due to the impact of rail strikes than it would have cost to settle the disputes months ago, PA Media reports. PA says:
Merriman told MPs the row has “ended up costing more” but insisted the “overall impact” on all public sector pay deals must be considered.
Ben Bradshaw, a Labour member of the committee, put it to Merriman that “we’re talking of a cost to the government of over a billion (pounds) so far” from the impact of strikes, which have repeatedly decimated services for several months.
Continue reading...Andrew Bridgen suspended from House of Commons over lobbying
Cross-party committee agrees with findings of Kathryn Stone that Conservative MP breached rules on multiple occasions
The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has been suspended from the House of Commons for five days after being found to have breached rules on paid lobbying and declaring interests.
The MP for north-west Leicestershire was found to have repeatedly broken the MPs’ code of conduct by a cross-party committee, which endorsed findings from Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards.
Continue reading...Sir Laurie Magnus named Rishi Sunak’s new ethics adviser
Prime minister appoints Historic England chair to role that had been vacant for six months
Rishi Sunak has appointed a former banker and quango head to be his ethics adviser after a six-month delay in filling the post, but will not allow the new incumbent to launch his own investigations into potential wrongdoing.
Sir Laurie Magnus, who spent his career in corporate finance and who chairs Historic England, will take over from Lord Geidt, who resigned as the independent adviser on ministers’ interests under Boris Johnson in June.
Continue reading...Right that Michelle Mone has stepped back from Lords after shocking revelations, says Rishi Sunak – UK politics live
The prime minister says due process needs to be followed after revelations about Baroness Mone in the Guardian
Everyone is hard up at the moment – including the Conservative party, it seems. According to Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham, the party is raising membership fees by 56%.
This morning Steve Barclay said Rishi Sunak was taking “a very strong stand in terms of the priority of getting inflation down”. (See 10.02am.) But not for Tory members, it seems.
Continue reading...Aberdeenshire MP elected new SNP leader at Westminster
Stephen Flynn, 34, who won seat in 2019, expected to seek more independence from party’s Edinburgh leadership
An Aberdeenshire MP little known outside Scotland’s political bubble has been elected the Scottish National party’s new leader at Westminster, as the party tries to keep its independence dreams alive after a fresh vote was blocked by the supreme court.
Stephen Flynn, 34, a former city councillor who only won his seat in 2019, will face Rishi Sunak at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday after beating Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss, a surprise late entry into the race, to lead the UK parliament’s third biggest bloc.
Continue reading...Forty potential ministerial code breaches never investigated, report reveals
Next ethics adviser, when appointed by Rishi Sunak, will probably face calls to open at least two complex cases
Forty potential breaches of the ministerial code have never been referred for investigation by the ethics adviser, according to new data.
It comes as a parliamentary committee warned historic breaches of the code may never be investigated or resolved, including the conduct of the home secretary or Islamophobia claims against a former chief whip.
Meetings by Nadhim Zahawi and Kwasi Kwarteng with the Libyan politician Fathi Bashagha, organised by the lobbyist Mark Fullbrook who became Truss’s chief of staff.
Michael Gove’s acceptance of £120,000 in donations from property developers while serving as housing secretary.
Multiple meetings held by Anne-Marie Trevelyan with a Chinese state-owned nuclear power company with no record of what was discussed.
Continue reading...Senior MPs grill Jeremy Hunt on autumn statement and UK economy – live
The chancellor is facing questions at the Commons Treasury committee
Reed says the Scotland Act gives the Scottish parliament limited powers. It cannot legislate on reserved matters. Those include fundamental matters, including the union of the UK.
If legislation related to the union, or the UK parliament, the Scottish parliament would have no power to enact it.
Continue reading...Labour lambasts autumn statement but Tory dissent is muted
Shadow chancellor attacks ‘crisis made in Downing Street’ but there are few signs of anger on Tory benches
Jeremy Hunt has seemingly escaped public pushback from fellow Conservative MPs over his tax-raising autumn statement, but he was lambasted by Labour for trying to blame global factors for a crisis sparked by Liz Truss’s mini-budget.
While there had been mutterings of dissent in advance at the idea of Hunt trashing Truss’s embrace of tax cuts, in the lengthy Commons debate after his statement there were only a few fairly muted quibbles.
Continue reading...Gavin Williamson announces resignation but ‘refutes the characterisation’ of claims against him – as it happened
Former deputy chief whip Anne Milton tells Channel 4 Williamson used ‘leverage’ and threats against MPs
Sima Kotecha, Newsnight’s UK editor, has spoken to Tory MPs who are not surprised about the allegations about Sir Gavin Williamson being a bully.
Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, has said that if Alistair Jack, the Scottish secretary, was confident about defending his record at an election, he would not be getting ready to accept a peerage. Referring to today’s Times story (see 10.55am), Murray said:
We cannot comment on speculation about peerages. Alister Jack is absolutely committed to representing his constituents and working with the prime minister to continue to deliver for people in Scotland.
Continue reading...Minister and trade union lawyer clash over post-Brexit ‘sunset clause’
Nusrat Ghani accuses Unison representative of fearmongering after MPs hear laws could ‘disappear overnight’
The government has clashed with trade unions over claims that 20 days of statutory holiday and eight bank holidays, along with a “tapestry” of workers’ rights, are at risk under post-Brexit plans to remove EU laws from the UK’s statute books.
Shantha David, head of legal services at Unison, told a parliamentary committee examining the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill that these rights “would no longer survive” if automatically removed via the “sunset clause” that will sweep away EU laws unless they are actively saved by a minister on 31 December 2023.
Continue reading...MPs find people still sleeping on mats on visit to Manston asylum centre
Home affairs committee members say site is still engulfed in crisis despite government assurances
Manston processing centre is still engulfed in a crisis despite government reassurances, a committee of MPs who visited the site has said.
Families of people seeking refuge in the UK are still sleeping on mats for weeks on end, the home affairs select committee (HASC) discovered.
Continue reading...Sunak in quandary over fate of ‘dark arts’ practitioner Williamson
Analysis: Some Tory MPs are not buying excuse PM is waiting for inquiries into minister to conclude before taking decision
Rishi Sunak’s appointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary showed he is not afraid to make controversial appointments to placate politically useful colleagues.
Now the heat is on Gavin Williamson, the prime minister is fighting on two fronts.
Continue reading...Reputation of UK politicians is at ‘low point’, says standards commissioner
Daniel Greenberg pledges to be advocate for ‘vast majority’ of MPs committed to high public standards
The reputation of British politicians is at a “low point”, the UK’s new independent parliamentary commissioner for standards has said, as he pledged to be an advocate for the “vast majority” of MPs who were committed to high standards in public life.
Daniel Greenberg, who takes over from Kathryn Stone when her five-year term comes to an end in January, admitted that a slew of scandals in recent years as well as the turbulence of the past 12 months had tarnished parliament’s reputation.
Continue reading...Stop Eritrea’s ‘war-funding diaspora tax’, say MPs and lords
UK parliamentarians call for inquiry into 2% levy on Eritreans abroad, amid fears that it fuels Tigray war
A group of UK parliamentarians is calling for an urgent investigation into the collection of a “diaspora tax” by the Eritrean authorities, which they say could have helped fund war in neighbouring Ethiopia.
MPs and members of the House of Lords want the government to launch a “full, formal, and fully funded” public inquiry into the collection of the 2% tax in the UK, and take “robust action to stop the practice”.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak confirms he will attend Cop27 after earlier saying he would not go – UK politics live
Prime minister U-turns on attending climate conference in Egypt following criticism of decision not to go
Sam Hall, director of the Conserative Environment Network, has welcomed Rishi Sunak’s decision to attend Cop27.
Rishi Sunak has confirmed that he will attend the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt next week.
Continue reading...MP for Manston constituency says he does not trust Suella Braverman – UK politics live
Roger Gale says home secretary is only really interested in playing to the right wing of the Conservative party
JK Rowling has described the SNP MSP who quit the Scottish government in a row over plans to allow self-identification for transgender people as a “heroine”.
The author, who is known as a vocal critic of the reforms, praised Ash Regan, saying: “This is what a principled politician looks like.”
Her comments on Twitter came after Regan stood down as community safety minister in the Scottish government. She said then that her conscience would not allow her to vote for the gender recognition reform (Scotland) bill, quitting her ministerial post just hours before it faced its first vote at Holyrood.
Rowling, who has previously tweeted a picture of herself wearing a T-shirt calling Scotland’s First Minister a “destroyer of women’s rights” took to social media to praise Ms Regan.
The Harry Potter author wrote: “This is what a principled politician looks like. @AshtenRegan will rightly be seen as a heroine when future generations of Scottish women look back at the profoundly misogynistic legislation currently being pushed through by the Sturgeon government.”
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said she imagines policymakers in France and Germany would look at the UK immigration numbers and “wondering what the fuss is about”.
She said the backlog had increased because, as numbers have risen, capacity for decision-making not increased and there are fewer asylum claim decisions being made over the last year or so than before the pandemic.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The UK experienced a period for most of the 2010s where there were actually very low numbers of asylum claims by historical standards.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak will keep ban on fracking in UK, No 10 confirms
PM said he stood by Tories’ 2019 manifesto policy when asked in Commons, in rebuff to Liz Truss
Fracking will in effect remain banned under Rishi Sunak’s government, his spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday, saying the new prime minister was committed to the policy in the 2019 manifesto.
The confirmation came after the prime minister told the Commons that he “stands by” the manifesto, which put a moratorium on shale gas extraction.
Continue reading...Starmer goes on attack over Braverman reappointment at Sunak’s first PMQs
PM accused of immediately breaking integrity pledge by restoring home secretary in ‘grubby deal’
Rishi Sunak has been accused of immediately breaking his pledge to restore government integrity by bringing Suella Braverman back as home secretary in exchange for a key endorsement for his leadership bid.
Coming under pressure in his first prime minister’s questions, Sunak did not deny that civil servants had raised concerns about one of the most senior roles handed out in his cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.
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