Former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance revealed there was ‘complete lack of leadership’ at times in crisis
Vallance says that some of what he was doing during Covid would have been done by anyone else in the post of government chief scientific adviser (GCSA).
But he says because of his medical training, and his knowledge of vaccines (he had worked for GlaxoSmithKline before taking the GCSA job), he was probably more involved than another GCSA might have been.
Continue reading...PM would almost certainly have known concerns over ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, says former chief scientific adviser
Rishi Sunak would almost certainly have known scientists were worried about his “eat out to help out” scheme during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance has said, directly contradicting the prime minister’s evidence to the Covid inquiry.
In potentially damaging testimony, Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, said he would be “very surprised” if Sunak had not learned about objections to his plan to help the hospitality industry.
Continue reading...PM signals that business tax cuts more likely than personal ones as he sets out ‘next phase’ of government’s economic plan
Rishi Sunak has hinted at business tax cuts to boost economic growth as he promised to reduce the tax burden “carefully and sustainably” and “over time”.
In a speech on Monday the prime minister declined to give any specifics before the autumn statement, but stressed the focus was “very much the supply side” of the economy in a signal that business tax cuts are more likely than personal ones.
Continue reading...PM’s speech at food summit comes as humanitarian crisis caused by Israel-Hamas war reaches crisis point
Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation.
The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and Britain is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.
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...Fast-track bill, after supreme court ruling barring deportation flights, would be ‘wildly unpopular legislation’ says Tory peer
Rishi Sunak’s target of flying out asylum seekers to Rwanda by next spring is in doubt, with opposition parties and some Conservative peers having pledged to try to block emergency legislation intended to rescue the plan.
In another blow to the prime minister, Suella Braverman, the home secretary that Sunak sacked on Monday, dismissed his ideas as “magical thinking”, setting out her own rival plan to make sure removals begin swiftly.
Continue reading...Decision to table primary legislation in parliament puts in doubt Rishi Sunak’s aim for flights to begin leaving for Rwanda by spring
Rishi Sunak’s government will present a full law to parliament to set aside the supreme court’s ban on sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, setting up a probable battle with MPs and peers and putting in doubt the aim for flights to begin leaving by spring.
The law could be published within a fortnight, after next week’s autumn statement, and it will be primary legislation, meaning it will have to pass through all the normal stages of the Commons and Lords, Downing Street has said.
Continue reading...Home secretary says legally binding treaty will be drafted ‘within days’ despite policy being ruled unlawful
Ministers are “absolutely determined” to get a removal flight to Rwanda off before the next election, and will finish drafting a legally binding treaty with the country “within days”, the home secretary, James Cleverly, has said, after the policy was ruled unlawful.
Cleverly, who was made home secretary in the reshuffle earlier this week, said the controversial policy was already having “a deterrent effect” on people smugglers.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: After the supreme court rejected plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the government is considering its options
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Good morning.
580 days after the government pledged to send some asylum seekers thousands of miles away to Rwanda for processing and settlement, the UK supreme court has rejected the plans, undermining Rishi Sunak’s key pledge to reduce migration. It is a crushing blow for the prime minister, who is now facing a rightwing rebellion from his MPs while also dealing with a huge, costly policy failure.
Israel-Hamas war | Eight Labour frontbenchers including Jess Phillips have resigned as Keir Starmer was hit by a major rebellion over a vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. Overall, 56 Labour MPs voted against the Labour leader’s instruction. The UN security council has backed a resolution calling for “urgent extended humanitarian pauses” allowing aid access.
China | The US president, Joe Biden, has said that his summit meeting with China’s Xi Jinping has brought substantial progress, including agreements on limiting narcotics trafficking and restoring military lines of communication, as well as opening up conversations on the risks posed by artificial intelligence. However, the meeting had not brought the US and China any closer on Taiwan, which remains a dangerous sticking point.
Housing | Leaked documents have revealed that government safety experts last year warned that many tower blocks built from concrete panels that may pose a collapse risk have not been fixed. The news comes as hundreds of families were evacuated from Barton House, a 15-storey tower block in Bristol, over fears an explosion could pose “risk to the structure”.
Science | Nasa’s James Webb space telescope has revealed a planet where specks of sand fall as rain. The groundbreaking observations give an unprecedented glimpse of a strange and exotic world beyond our solar system that features silicate sand clouds and rain, scorching temperatures, raging winds and the distinct burned-matches scent of sulphur dioxide.
Crime | Two 12-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in Wolverhampton on Monday, West Midlands police have said.
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...At least six MPs to submit letter of no confidence, says Andrea Jenkyns, who has already submitted her own
Rishi Sunak is facing a fresh backlash from rightwing Conservative MPs who are pushing for emergency legislation to overrule the supreme court’s decision on the UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan.
At least six MPs will submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister, according to Andrea Jenkyns, a rebel backbencher who has already submitted her own.
Continue reading...Whitehall sources say it could take more than a year for any treaty to be passed, with next election looming
Rishi Sunak is attempting to finalise a new pact with Rwanda after a central plank of the British government’s immigration plans was ripped up by the supreme court.
A treaty, which would have to be ratified by the UK parliament, was being drawn up with the government in Kigali, the prime minister said.
Continue reading...Former home secretary tells PM he broke promises he made to gain her support during party leadership contest
Rishi Sunak took something of a risk when he decided to sack Suella Braverman. Her hardline, anti-immigration rhetoric was popular, not just with rightwing MPs, but with most of the Tory press (particularly the Daily Mail), and this morning those papers might have come out in her defence.
But, judging by their editorials, they are broadly supportive of Sunak. They have not turned on him – at least today.
Moving the impressive James Cleverly to Home Secretary is smart, as is appointing Esther McVey as ‘Common Sense Tsar’ to oversee the anti-woke agenda.
Will this be enough to placate the Tory Right? Only time will tell, but any MP who thinks salvation lies in yet more no- confidence letters – and trying to unseat another leader – needs their head testing.
The seeds of his downfall were planted that year when his promise of an EU referendum was included in the Tory manifesto, not least to see off a populist threat from Ukip. Mr Sunak is facing something similar in that the country is increasingly alarmed by high levels of immigration, both legal and illegal, and extremism. The recent pro-Palestinian marches and the rise of anti-Semitic hatred have brought much of this to a head.
Mrs Braverman articulated many of these concerns, and those who agree with her will be angry that she has been dropped, seeing it as appeasing the Left and deepening Tory divisions.
[Cameron’s] central achievement in 11 years as party leader, often overlooked after the Brexit debacle, was to give the Conservative party a much broader base. In his time, great strides were made in making sure a fiscally conservative party was also socially liberal and internationalist: advancing the careers of women in politics, championing same-sex marriage, expanding development aid and becoming the natural home of ethnically diverse British leadership, of whom Rishi Sunak himself is the outstanding embodiment.
Cameron’s renewed prominence is a reminder that the cabinet in which he will be sitting is mainstream and centre-right, looking to reduce taxation but only in a financially responsible way, controlling migration effectively but without divisive language, improving the UK’s relations with Europe while eschewing nationalistic rhetoric. That is what Sunak has been doing but against the backdrop of mixed messages from former PMs and some of his own cabinet. The Conservatives after this reshuffle are more unmistakably the party that some of its disenchanted former voters will recognise as their own.
Continue reading...Downing Street says it is not focused on ‘tick-box diversity’ and women get senior jobs elsewhere
After Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle, men hold the top four positions in government for the first time since 2010.
Liz Truss’s ministry was notable for initially having no white men serving in the great offices of state for the first time in British political history, with Kwasi Kwarteng becoming the first black chancellor.
Three of the four top cabinet ministers – Sunak, Hunt and Cameron – graduated with first class honours in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) from Oxford.
The last time all four top ministerial positions were held by men was at the end of Gordon Brown’s Labour government, with Brown in No 10, Alistair Darling as chancellor, Alan Johnson as home secretary and David Miliband as foreign secretary.
The number of female cabinet ministers has dropped by 5%. Some of those in post include Victoria Atkins, the health and social care secretary; Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary; and Claire Coutinho, the energy and net zero secretary.
The number of minority ethnic ministers has dropped from five to four. Those ministers are Sunak, Britain’s first Asian prime minister, Cleverly, Badenoch and Coutinho.
According to the Sutton Trust, 63% of the new cabinet were privately educated, which compared with 71% in John Major’s 1992 cabinet and 91% in Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 cabinet.
Of the 32 ministers around Sunak’s cabinet table, 21 went to private school, five went to grammar schools and six attended comprehensive schools.
Of those who were privately educated, 41% went on to attend Oxford or Cambridge university.
The six who went to comprehensive school equate to 19%, much lower than the 27% in Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
The Sutton Trust says the proportion of Sunak’s top team who went to an independent school is nine times the rate in the general population, which is roughly 7%.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Why the former prime minister has returned to frontline politics as Rishi Sunak’s foreign secretary
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Good morning. David Cameron really is the new foreign secretary. In a way, Rishi Sunak warned us: just over a year ago, he told Tory party conference that his mission was to break with a failed 30-year political consensus and usher in something genuinely different. All the same, I don’t know if anyone could have predicted that he was planning to go back to a 60-year-old idea, instead. Even Cameron, truly the grown-up’s grown-up, was barely out of nappies when Alec Douglas-Home, the last former prime minister to take over at the foreign office, got the job in 1970.
On the other hand, it seems … quite hard to break with a 30-year consensus by appointing one of its architects, even if doing so successfully drives the firing of home secretary Suella Braverman – who lost her job via an unceremonious phone call - from the front pages. “He was the future once,” the new cabinet minister once teased Tony Blair at prime minister’s questions. We can now say that Cameron was the past once, a significantly more mind-bending proposition. The weirdest fact of the day: seven years after his resignation as prime minister, he’s still four years younger than Keir Starmer.
Israel-Hamas war | Israeli forces have reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. For the latest, head to the live blog.
Iceland volcano | Iceland’s prime minister has sought to reassure the nation as it braces for a volcanic eruption. Between midnight and early afternoon on Monday, the Icelandic meteorological office detected about 900 earthquakes amid warnings of the significant likelihood of the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupting within days.
Fertility | People who donate sperm, eggs and embryos to help others have children will lose the right to anonymity from the moment the child is born, under proposed changes to UK fertility law. The proposal, prompted by the ease with which people can sidestep formal routes to trace donors via private DNA testing and social media, is one of several proposals published by the regulator today.
Environment | BP and Spotify were among companies who bought carbon credits at risk of being implicated in potential Uyghur forced labour, an investigation has found. A Guardian investigation found that provider South Pole was aware of the risk of forced labour linked to the scheme in 2021.
Counter-terrorism | Downing Street’s plan to ban the glorifying of terrorism risks criminalising “supporters of the suffragettes, Nelson Mandela, or even the crowd at Murrayfield belting out Flower of Scotland”, a former independent reviewer of terror legislation has warned.
Continue reading...Former PM will take seat in House of Lords; former Treasury minister moves to health; Braverman replaced as home secretary by James Cleverly
ITV’s Paul Brand says he has had a text with the word “Rejoice” from a Tory MP celebrating the sacking of Suella Braverman.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has been seen going into No 10, PA Media reports.
Continue reading...PM clearly hopes to rewrite the narrative with shock appointment, but will it shift the dial with voters?
Just five weeks ago, Rishi Sunak pledged to be the candidate of change, telling activists at the Conservative party conference that he would shake up three decades of political consensus.
Instead, he has brought back David Cameron, the former prime minister who was in charge for six of those 30 years and who, through Brexit, ushered in the biggest schism in British politics for a generation.
Continue reading...Four ministers with more than 30 years of frontbench time between them resign as PM reshuffles cabinet
Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle has brought the resignation of four notably experienced junior ministers with more than three decades of frontbench time between them, while another departure left the government looking for its 16th housing minister since 2010.
Those who stepped down were Nick Gibb, the veteran schools minister; Jesse Norman, who was at the Department for Transport; Jeremy Quin, the paymaster general; and Will Quince, a junior health minister.
Continue reading...Justin Welby’s call came as British Palestinians with relatives in Gaza demanded a meeting with the prime minister
The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the scale of civilian deaths and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza could not be “morally justified”.
“The killing must stop,” Justin Welby said, adding that the call for a ceasefire was a “moral cry”.
Continue reading...A victory for the immigration and asylum policy on Wednesday will come with headaches, but a defeat could split the Conservative party
Wednesday marks a potentially pivotal moment in the government’s fortunes when the supreme court rules whether its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful.
The decision could have significant implications not just for immigration and asylum policy, but also for the future direction of Rishi Sunak’s government, and the Conservative party more widely. Here is what could follow from a government win or loss.
Continue reading...