Home secretary to announce big hike in salary requirement for migrants to the UK as Rishi Sunak tries to cut net migration figures
Hunt says the government wants to speed up the time it takes to get a connection to the national grid by 90%.
Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor of the Economist, is interviewing Hunt. She says he has mentioned the 110 policies, but she wants to know what the growth strategy is.
Continue reading...UK prime minister attacked for inconsistency after allowing more gas and oil exploration in the North Sea
Rishi Sunak has been accused of hypocrisy on the international stage after pushing for a phase-out of fossil fuels at the UN Cop28 climate summit in Dubai – weeks after backing more oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.
The prime minister’s lack of “consistency” over climate policy was ridiculed by several senior Conservatives, as well as the former US vice president Al Gore, while members of other international delegations said the UK’s incoherent approach meant it was no longer a global leader on climate issues.
Continue reading...PM attracts cross-party criticism with claim that ‘climate politics is at breaking point’ during combative summit visit
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “shrinking and retreating” from global leadership as he used the Cop28 summit to claim that “climate politics is at breaking point” because of the costs of net zero.
While many other world leaders, including King Charles, spoke of the urgency of action on the climate, the prime minister used his brief appearance at the summit in Dubai to promote his approach to slowing the pace of net zero policies and reducing pressures on family finances.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s record shows he has the ‘reverse Midas touch’, Keir Starmer says
Back at the home affairs committee, Tim Loughton (Con) has just had another go at getting answers about the number of asylum applications that have been withdrawn. (See 10.38am.)
He said, when he said earlier 95% of withdrawn applications were categorised as withdrawn for “other” reasons (and not because the claims were not substantiated), he was quoting figures for the last quarter.
Whilst the prospect is perhaps what none of us would wish to plan for, I believe the reality will be that we will need to discharge Covid-19 positive patients into residential care settings for the reason you have noted.
This will be entirely clinically appropriate because the NHS will triage those to retain in acute settings who can benefit from that sector’s care.
Continue reading...Underfunded, overstretched sector to become testing ground for battle against low pay but critics say policy is weak and vague
“My sister is a care worker. She was a care worker during the pandemic. Fourteen-hour shifts, often overnight. Unimaginable pressure. And the reward? A struggle every week – and I mean every week – just to make ends meet.”
So spoke Keir Starmer last month, drawing on experience close to home in his party conference speech to underline his determination to overhaul the cash-strapped social care sector.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Lee Anderson says he turned them down, but the party created by Nigel Farage will be trying to smoke out more Tory defectors
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Good morning. Think of what Lee Anderson could do with £430,000: by his own dubious estimation, that’s about 1.4m nutritious meals. Sadly, we will never see exactly how many tins of beans the Conservative party’s deputy chair would buy, because, in a recording obtained by the Sunday Times, he says that’s the amount he turned down from rightwing Tory irritant and former Nigel Farage vehicle Reform UK to defect.
The money, it is alleged, would be paid as a guaranteed salary matching his MP’s income for five years if he were to lose his seat under the party’s banner. That claim is vigorously denied by Reform UK’s leader, Richard Tice, who says Anderson was merely offered “the chance to change the shape of the debate”.
Israel-Hamas war | Eleven more Israeli hostages have been freed from Gaza in return for 33 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, as the two sides agreed to extend the existing ceasefire by two days. Hamas said that the continuation of the ‘pause’ will continue under the same conditions after the intervention of Qatar and Egypt, mediators for the initial agreement.
Parthenon marbles | Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with Greek prime minister Kyiakos Mitsotakis at the last minute on Monday after his counterpart gave an interview calling for the Parthenon marbles to be returned from the British Museum. In a renewed row over the fate of the antiquities, which were taken from the Acropolis in the 19th century, Mitsotakis told reporters he was “deeply disappointed by the abrupt cancellation”.
NHS | Senior doctors reached a pay deal with the government on Monday, paving the way for the cancellation of strikes that could have hit the NHS during the usual winter crisis. The offer will mean an average 4.95% pay increase for the last three months of the financial year and some consultants seeing a 19.6% salary increase over the year.
Ukraine | The Ukrainian government is planning to change its conscription practices as it seeks to sustain fighting capacity after nearly two years of full-fledged war with Russia. Amid widespread conflict fatigue, the changes will use commercial recruitment companies to reassure conscripts they will be deployed in roles that match their skills and not simply sent to the front.
I’m a Celebrity… | The Guardian’s restaurant critic Grace Dent has told fellow contestants that her “heart is broken” as she left I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! on medical grounds. Dent had told fellow contestants she was struggling with her time in the jungle.
Continue reading...Tory source says ‘it became impossible for meeting to go ahead’ after Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged return of Parthenon marbles to Athens
Greece’s prime minister has criticised the decision of his British counterpart Rishi Sunak to cancel planned talks at which he had hoped to raise the issue of the Parthenon marbles, as disagreements over the antiquities erupted with renewed vigour.
As aides described Sunak’s move as “wrong and undignified”, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is visiting London, voiced irritation at the scheduled Downing Street meeting being called off at the 11th hour.
Continue reading...Labour leader gives strongest hint yet of support for loan deal with Greece if his party wins next election
The Greek government has been assured by Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, that in the event of electoral victory next year he will not block a prospective arrangement to return the Parthenon marbles to Athens.
Speaking through aides before talks in London with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Starmer gave his strongest hint yet of his support for a loan deal that would see the antiquities return to the country where they were carved 2,500 years ago.
Continue reading...Net migration to the UK in 2023 is estimated at 672,000, and the PM says a more ‘sustainable’ level is needed. This live blog is closed
When Nigel Farage was leading the Brexit party, it was considerably influential for a party with no MPs, winning the European elections in 2019 and helping to push the Conservative party into a harder position on Brexit. After the 2019 election it was renamed Reform UK, Richard Tice took over as leader and it became much more marginal. But in an interview on the Today programme this morning Tice claimed that the government’s failure to bring down immigration was presenting it with an opportunity. He told the programme:
The British people voted to control immigration, and the government have betrayed the people’s promises. And that’s why so many thousands of people, former Tory members, are joining us. Our polling numbers – we got record polling last week, four different polls where we’re in double figures. This week, we’ve had Tory donors joining us. Frankly, I fully expect Tory MPs who are furious and angry with the government to be calling me next week.
[Cleverly] has made the point that he says that it was not aimed at a particular place. Knowing James well, he’s not the sort of person, in my opinion, who would have made that kind of remark in that kind of context.
But he has accepted that this was certainly unparliamentary language and he has rightly apologised.
Continue reading...Chancellor cuts employee national insurance to 10% while abolishing class 2 national insurance
Keir Starmer has said that a pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas must be used to tackle the “urgent and unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Welcoming the deal, which is expected to involve the release of 50 hostages being held by Hamas and a number of women and teenagers from Israeli jails, the Labour leader said his party had been calling for “a substantial humanitarian pause”. He said:
There must be immediate access to aid, food, water, fuel and medicine to ensure hospitals function and lives are saved. Aid and fuel need to not just get in but be distributed widely and safely.
We must also use the space this pause creates to take more steps on a path towards a full cessation of hostilities rather than an escalation of violence.
The real function of the projected spending squeeze is as a trap for Labour. If the opposition rejects the Tory trajectory, it will be accused of planning a profligate spree with public money. And if it pledges adherence to impossible targets, it will enter government with its hands bound too tight to deliver prompt satisfaction to the people who voted for it.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have so far operated a sensible policy of not walking into traps of this kind. That approach restored swing voters’ trust in Labour as stewards of the economy. But it tests the patience of an activist base that sees reversal of austerity as a moral imperative and can smell the incipient disappointment in promises of fiscal discipline.
Continue reading...Hundreds march through Keir Starmer’s constituency to protest against failure to back ceasefire
Some protests targeting MPs over their stance on the war in Gaza have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.
Other MPs already voiced concern about their safety and that of staff ahead of a weekend on which more than 100 pro-Palestine events were planned across the UK as campaigners sought to put pressure on parliamentarians who failed to vote for a Scottish National party motion last week calling for a ceasefire.
Continue reading...Protesters march through Camden and gather outside Labour leader’s office amid anger over failure to call for ceasefire
Hundreds of people marched through Keir Starmer’s constituency and protested outside his Camden office on Saturday over the Labour leader’s failure to call for a ceasefire.
The action was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which planned more than 100 local demonstrations across the country on Saturday rather than holding a national march in the capital.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he ‘will do whatever it takes’ as senior Tory criticises former home secretary’s hardline proposals
Downing Street has not ruled out asking MPs to spend some of what is meant to be their Christmas break dealing with the PM’s “emergency legislation” on Rwanda.
This is one proposal made by Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, in her Telegraph article this morning. (See 10.01am.)
I think we are prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we can get this in place and get flights off the ground.
I wouldn’t speculate on parliamentary process but I cannot impress [enough] the importance that the prime minister places on this necessary legislation to deliver for the public on the important priority of stopping the boats.
Sunak suggested he would blame Labour if the Lords refuses to pass his “emergency legislation” on Rwanda (see 11.40am) quickly. Asked if he would call an early election if the Lords block the law, he replied:
It doesn’t have to take a long time to get legislation through – and that is a question for the Labour party.
We’re determined to get this through as quickly as possible. So the real question is: is the Labour party going to stand in the way and stop this from happening, or are they going to work with us and support this bill so we can get it through as quickly as possible?
Sunak declined to say whether favoured holding an early election on the issue of Rwanda deportations if his bill got held up. Earlier today Sir Simon Clarke suggested this. (See 10.56am.) But, for obvious reasons, the prospect might not appeal.
Sunak claimed he was making “real progress” on stopping small boats. He said:
I think people just want the problem fixed. That’s what I’m here to do, and this year, we’ve already got the numbers down by a third.
That’s because I’ve got new deals with the French, a new deal with Albania. We’re working with Turkey and Bulgaria, multiple other countries. We’re tackling the criminal gangs, we’re cutting through the backlog.
Sunak said he would “take on” people trying to stop Rwanda flights taking over, whether it was Labour or the House of Lords. He said:
We can pass these laws in parliament that will give us the powers and the tools we need. Then we can get the flights off and whether it’s the House of Lords or the Labour party standing in our way I will take them on because I want to get this thing done and I want to stop the boats.
He said his patience was “wearing thin” with this issue. He said:
People are sick of this merry-go-round. I want to end it – my patience is wearing thin like everyone else’s.
Continue reading...Critics say Labour leader missed chance to sound more sympathetic to Palestinian suffering and accept that a Gaza ceasefire call was implied
For the last few weeks, Keir Starmer has been trying to avoid a confrontation with his party over Gaza. With dozens of MPs preparing to rebel and vote for the Scottish National party’s amendment calling for a ceasefire in the region, the Labour leader and his top team held a series of difficult meetings as they tried to thrash out a compromise.
The rebels suggested Labour submitted an amendment of their own, which Starmer agreed to. But they were also desperate for him to use the word “ceasefire”, and on that point he refused to budge.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour leader is target of growing anger in party over how he has handled vote on Israel-Hamas war
Keir Starmer faces more resignations from Labour’s frontbench if he does not shift his policy on Gaza, amid growing anger in the party over how he has handled the vote on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Labour leader suffered the biggest rebellion of his tenure on Wednesday night as 10 frontbenchers resigned or were sacked from his team after voting for a Scottish National party motion that called for a ceasefire.
Continue reading...Downing Street says legislation will make clear ‘Rwanda is safe’ and will address court’s concerns after policy ruled unlawful. This live blog is closed
At his Institute for Government Q&A Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, refused to say what he felt about Lee Anderson, the Conservative party deputy chair, declaring yesterday that ministers should just ignore the supreme court judgment saying the Rwanda police was unlawful. Asked to respond, Rowley just said:
Politicians hold me to account, I don’t hold them to account.
Starmer travelled north of the border just hours after a revolt within his party over a ceasefire in Gaza resulted in the resignation of eight of his frontbenchers.
The Labour leader highlighted what he described as the “failure” of the UK government to negotiate a trade deal with India, a key exporter for Scotch whisky.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he is prepared to ‘revisit legal frameworks’ to stop the boats as supreme court says policy is unlawful
Reed says the court has had to decide whether the Rwanda policy breaches the non-refoulement rule.
The policy is in the Home Office’s immigration rules, he says.
Continue reading...Party loyalty would force Conservatives to vote against plan for fiscal responsibility
Read more: ‘I challenge Rishi Sunak: vote with Labour to stop a Truss-style disaster happening again,’ writes Rachel Reeves
Labour will force a Commons vote this week aimed at creating new legal safeguards against fiscal disasters such as Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget, which sent the financial markets into meltdown and drove up mortgage rates.
The party’s plan for a “fiscal lock” to protect personal, family and the national finances from reckless politicians will be contained in an amendment to the king’s speech that will be voted on by MPs on Tuesday. The manoeuvre will present Conservative backbenchers with a dilemma over whether to back a Labour amendment, or vote against what is a plan designed to embed fiscal responsibility into the budgetary process, and protect it from wild or accidental political misjudgments.
Continue reading...The latest Opinium poll shows Keir Starmer’s personal rating has slumped but the Tories are also suffering from internal divisions
Labour is perceived by voters as far more divided in the wake of party splits over the conflict in Israel and Gaza, amid concerns that there may be further frontbench resignations on the issue this week.
Keir Starmer has also taken a hit, with the latest Opinium poll for the Observer showing a slump in the proportion of voters who regard him as a strong leader compared with a month ago.
Continue reading...While Sunak deals with Braverman’s claims against protesters and police, Starmer faces pressure to support Gaza ceasefire
At midday on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people will gather outside Hyde Park in London for what organisers say will be the biggest pro-Palestinian march since the Israel-Hamas war broke out just over a month ago.
The marchers will hope their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza put pressure on the British government to do the same. But even before they have taken a step, the protesters have triggered political crises for both of Britain’s largest parties, leaving the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, looking weaker than he has for months and the home secretary, Suella Braverman, facing the sack.
Continue reading...