Prime minister can find comfort in ranking above Liz Truss, however
Rishi Sunak is seen as less competent on economic affairs than most recent Conservative prime ministers, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
The prime minister has made reducing inflation one of his key priorities, as well as reducing debt and avoiding a recession. Much of his pitch has been on his economic management skills as a former chancellor.
Continue reading...Labour leader accused of pandering to anti-migrant sentiments by those on the left while Tories seize on proposal for deal with EU
Keir Starmer was under attack from left and right on Thursday after he set out plans to stop small boat Channel crossings in Labour’s first big intervention on the issue.
Fleshing out his party’s proposals, the Labour leader promised to ditch the use of barges, hotels and military sites to house asylum seekers. He also promised to recruit 1,000 caseworkers to end the asylum backlog.
Continue reading...Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leak suggests Sunak and Hunt have discussed cost implications of Manchester phase
The HS2 high-speed rail line is at risk of further cuts to its route north of Birmingham as the government considers whether it can afford high-cost projects in advance of the autumn budget.
The project has been mired in fresh uncertainty after the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to guarantee on Thursday it would run to Manchester, after publication of a photographed document suggesting further cuts were under discussion.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Delay to work on five buildings in 2020 led to warnings of ‘catastrophic’ safety risk
Rishi Sunak blocked plans to rebuild five hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete three years ago, prompting warnings of a “catastrophic” risk to patient safety, the Guardian has learned.
Just two of the seven hospital rebuilding projects requested by the Department for Health were signed off by the Treasury at the 2020 spending review when Sunak was chancellor and Steve Barclay, now the health secretary, was his chief secretary.
Continue reading...Labour leader accuses government of failing to heed warnings which has led to series of crises this week
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.
Yesterday it emerged that ministers are mulling over a plan to tweak the triple lock for pensions so that what might be a bumper 8.5% increase in its value next year ends up being marginally less generous, at 7.8%.
Continue reading...Frontex deal would be Sunak’s third with EU as prime minister but would not address small boats crisis
Rishi Sunak is on the verge of securing an agreement for cooperation between the UK and the EU’s border protection agency, Frontex in a further sign of thawing post-Brexit relations.
The deal is expected to mirror other agreements Frontex has with “third country” states, including one with Albania, which agreed to renew its 2019 accord.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...PM says he will not speculate over policy as he grapples with how to fund tax cuts demanded by Tory MPs
Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to keeping the pensions triple lock in the next Conservative manifesto, as he grapples with how to fund tax cuts demanded by his own MPs.
The prime minister told reporters during the G20 summit in Delhi that the triple lock – which guarantees that pensions will rise by at least 2.5%, and by either inflation or earnings if they are higher – remains government policy.
Continue reading...The prime minister suggested to the summit that he wanted to limit the impact of green measures on British consumers
Read more: Rishi who? Sunak slips down pecking order in scramble to court India
Rishi Sunak has said he will resist “hair shirt” policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and achieve Britain’s net zero pledge, amid an intensifying Tory row over the party’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Tensions have been growing within the party all summer over its green policies, with some cabinet figures and the right of the party calling for a rethink on measures such as the phasing out of gas boilers and the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. The prime minister has also backed “maxing out” oil and gas reserves.
Continue reading...UK PM meets Indian counterpart on fringes of summit to discuss cooperation on trade, education, research and defence – but not Ukraine
Rishi Sunak and Narendra Modi met on Saturday for what the British prime minister called a “very warm and productive discussion” covering everything from trade to cooperation on education, research and defence.
Sunak met his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, saying afterwards he was confident they could “work through” the remaining hurdles standing in the way of a free trade agreement.
Continue reading...Prime minister says example set by schools will not necessarily have to be followed by other public buildings
Rishi Sunak has defended his government’s decision to shut down schools because of problems with crumbling concrete, as he aims to use this weekend’s G20 summit in New Delhi to draw a line under another bruising week in office.
The prime minister told reporters on the trip to India that his education secretary, Gillian Keegan, had done the right thing in ordering 147 schools to shut buildings made with aerated concrete, after officials became concerned about structural defects. On Friday evening the Scottish government said 16 of 32 local authorities have identified Raac in their schools.
Continue reading...Two prime ministers to meet before G20 summit as India continues to import Russian oil and weapons
Rishi Sunak will use a meeting with Narendra Modi in Delhi to push the Indian prime minister to take a tougher stance towards Russia, Downing Street has said.
The two prime ministers will meet this weekend before the G20 summit in the Indian capital, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be discussed in front of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, told Modi a week ago he would not attend.
Continue reading...PM travels to Delhi for G20 summit this weekend and is likely to discuss trade agreement with Narendra Modi
Rishi Sunak is willing to discuss corporate visas as part of a trade negotiation with India, Downing Street officials have indicated, as he flies to Delhi this weekend hoping to lay the groundwork for an agreement later this year.
Sunak lands in Delhi on Friday for the weekend’s G20 summit of world leaders, but will begin his trip with a key meeting with Narendra Modi at which officials say the two prime ministers are likely to discuss the sensitive subject of the prospective trade deal.
Continue reading...UK’s return to science programme raises hope of more deals, including suspension of planned EV tariffs
A dramatic thaw in relations between Britain and the EU has raised hopes that the Horizon science deal could be the first of many breakthroughs, diplomats in Brussels have said.
They claimed the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, had a close relationship that was in stark contrast to the hostility EU officials faced from Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Labour leader accuses prime minister of neglecting pupils at state schools during combative PMQs
Keir Starmer has likened Rishi Sunak’s government to a group of “cowboy builders” during a prime minister’s questions in which the Labour leader sought to portray the prime minister as out of touch over the concrete crisis.
Starmer also contrasted the chaos faced in the state system with the private education enjoyed by the PM and his children, saying Sunak neglected the problem because he saw it as a problem affecting “other people’s children”.
Continue reading...Only four schools were rebuilt in 2021 in government scheme intended to cover 500 schools over 10-year period
More than half of English schools that are so dilapidated they are at risk of partial closure were refused money under the government’s school rebuilding scheme, Department for Education (DfE) statistics show.
Amid mounting concerns about a wider apparent neglect of the schools estate in recent years, beyond the immediate alarm about crumbling concrete panels, it emerged that of 500 rebuilt schools planned for England over 10 years from 2020, just four were completed in 2021.
Continue reading...PM dismissed claims that he failed to properly fund school rebuilding plans when he was chancellor
Lisa Nandy has been made shadow cabinet minister for international development. She was shadow levelling up secretary.
Lisa Nandy MP @LisaNandy has been appointed Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development.
Continue reading...PM shown evidence of ‘critical risk to life’ when chancellor, says former top civil servant at Department for Education
Rishi Sunak refused to properly fund a school rebuilding programme when he was chancellor, despite officials presenting evidence that there was “a critical risk to life” from crumbling concrete panels, the Department for Education’s former head civil servant has said.
After the department told Sunak’s Treasury that there was a need to rebuild 300 to 400 schools a year in England, he gave funding for only 100, which was then halved to 50, said Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary of the department from 2016 to 2020.
Continue reading...Campaigners speak out amid suggestion government could reject Climate Change Committee’s advice
Rishi Sunak faces “electoral carnage” if the government rejects its climate advisers’ recommendations on halting airport expansion, a coalition of community groups have warned.
The prospect of a renewed political battle around airport growth in various parts of England has been reignited amid concern from campaigners at suggestions the government could reject the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) advice that all such expansions must be halted.
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