Category Archives: Rishi Sunak

UK would be outlier with Russia if it left ECHR, Law Society says

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Robert Jenrick had said government would do ‘whatever is necessary’ to stop small boat crossings

The UK would be an international outlier along with Russia and Belarus if it left the European convention on human rights, a leading law body has warned, after a senior minister signalled that the move could be an option to stop small boat crossings.

Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the government would do “whatever is necessary”, even if that meant pulling out of the ECHR, the 70-year-old pan-European treaty that protects human rights and political freedoms in the continent.

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Risk of UK recession at next general election is 60%, says thinktank

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Economic experts say it will take until third quarter of 2024 for output to return to pre-pandemic peak

Rishi Sunak will fight the next election against a backdrop of an economy suffering from five years of lost growth and a widening of the gap between the prosperous and less well off parts of Britain, a leading thinktank said on Wednesday.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said it would take until the third quarter of 2024 for UK output to return to its pre-pandemic peak and that there was a 60% risk of the government going to the polls during a recession.

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Starmer says Sunak’s lack of investment in wind power is ‘gift to Putin’

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Labour leader claims Conservatives’ onshore turbine ban costs families £180 each and makes UK reliant on gas imports

Keir Starmer has condemned the prime minister’s climate policies, declaring the failure to invest in renewables such as wind turbines a “gift to Putin”.

The Labour leader also described the Conservatives’ onshore wind ban as “ludicrous” and said it now means every family in the country is paying £180 more on their energy bills.

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Rishi Sunak warned of concerns over NHS private sector partnerships

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Plans to cut waiting lists in England were welcomed but critics say they do not address deeper staffing issues

Rishi Sunak has been warned his plan for more private sector partnerships with the NHS in England to cut waiting lists will amount to “reshuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic” without addressing deeper structural issues with staffing.

The recommendations of an elective recovery plan, published on Friday, were broadly welcomed by opposition parties and health experts, but said to be overdue. Critics also said they only addressed a fragment of the much wider capacity and staffing issues across the whole of the country’s health systems.

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Bibby Stockholm asylum barge is ‘potential deathtrap’, say firefighters

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FBU to write to Home Office with overcrowding concerns after first group’s arrival delayed due to safety issues on Dorset-based vessel

Firefighters have accused ministers of attempting to house asylum seekers on a “potential deathtrap” after health and safety officials prompted a further delay to the use of a giant barge until next week.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said it is planning to write to the Home Office about overcrowding and access to fire exits on the vessel. The health and safety officials’ intervention had already led to the postponement of the arrival of the first men who were due to stay on the 222-bedroom Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset.

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Billionaire investor threatens to pull out of UK amid global outcry at new oil rush

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Australian mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest criticises ‘clickbait’ fossil fuel plans as others say Britain has lost credibility

The billionaire Australian mining tycoon and investor Andrew Forrest has led international condemnation of the UK’s new oil rush, saying he would pull his major investment from the country if the prime minister pursued “clickbait” fossil fuel policies.

The iron ore magnate, who also runs the Minderoo Foundation philanthropic organisation, threatened to move his investments out of the UK over Rishi Sunak’s swivel towards new oil and gas drilling.

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Government announces nuclear taskforce as row grows over North Sea oil – UK politics live

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Taskforce aims to ‘fuel growth in nuclear industry’ as dismay grows over Rishi Sunak’s plans to authorise more licences for North Sea drilling

The average number of migrants crossing the Channel per boat last month was the highest on record, figures show.

Some 3,299 people made the journey in July in 63 boats – an average of about 52 per vessel. This is the highest average since records began in 2018, according to PA news agency analysis of government data.

Bad news for fans of unelected legislatures: Labour is considering abolishing hereditary peers. According to the Sunday Times, Keir Starmer is drawing up plans that could see the immediate removal of hereditary peers if the party is elected, as part of a package of “interim” reforms to modernise and reduce the size of the House of Lords.

Other moves being explored include introducing a mandatory retirement age or stopping hereditary peer byelections (so the current peers can’t be replaced after they leave).

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UK imposes sanctions on Russian judges for sentencing of Putin opponent

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British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza lost his appeal against a 25-year prison term on Monday

The UK government has imposed sanctions on those involved in the “deplorable” sentencing of the dual-national dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza after a Russian court dismissed his appeal against a 25-year sentence.

Six figures – three judges, two prosecutors and an expert witness – will face sanctions for their role in a “politically motivated conviction”.

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Rishi Sunak to use Scottish trip to attack Labour stance on North Sea oil

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Visit to Aberdeenshire intended as chance for PM to criticise opposition with reports he could announce 100 new drilling licences

Rishi Sunak is to make a visit to north-east Scotland focused on North Sea energy that is intended to draw a dividing line between the government and Labour’s plan to ban new oil and gas projects.

While No 10 said in advance only that the prime minister would use the trip to Aberdeenshire to commit to policies connected to energy security and net zero, he is expected to announce funding for a planned carbon capture scheme in the region.

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Ministers consider curbs on councils’ use of 20mph speed limits

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Exclusive: moves against what PM terms ‘anti-motorist’ policies follow order of review into low-traffic neighbourhoods

Ministers are considering restrictions on councils’ ability to impose 20mph speed limits as part of a new shift against green policies and traffic schemes, a stance condemned by safety and travel groups as shortsighted and divisive.

The Guardian has been told the push against what Rishi Sunak has termed “anti-motorist” policies could be extended to find ways to stop local authorities taking other measures, such as installing bus gates, that have been used routinely for decades.

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Rishi Sunak orders review of low-traffic neighbourhood schemes

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Prime minister accuses Labour of being ‘anti-motorist’ and says Keir Starmer is a political opportunist

Rishi Sunak has ordered a formal review of low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) schemes as he seeks again to use green policies as a wedge issue with Labour and Keir Starmer.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the prime minister also made a notably personal attack against Starmer, accusing him of lacking any guiding principles and being a political opportunist.

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High court decision due on Ulez extension as row grows over green measures – UK politics live

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Five Conservative-led councils brought legal action against Mayor of London’s plan to expand ultra-low emission zone

The SNP has pushed Labour leader Keir Starmer to commit to scrapping the so-called bedroom tax if his party wins the next election.

Labour has come under pressure in recent weeks after Starmer’s failure to commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap due to uncertainty around the UK’s economic outlook.

Sir Keir Starmer must admit whether the pro-Brexit Labour Party is secretly planning to keep the Tory bedroom tax, which cut the incomes of almost 100,000 low income households in Scotland last year - and more than half a million households across the UK.

It’s clearer by the day that the SNP is the only party offering real change with independence and real help with the cost of living. In contrast, (Rishi) Sunak and Starmer are lurching further to the right and taking money away from millions of households across Scotland and the UK.

If Starmer’s logic is that he won’t scrap the Tory two-child cap then it is increasingly likely that if in government his Labour Party wouldn’t scrap the bedroom tax either.

It’s time for the Labour Party to come clean, if they get into government will they scrap the bedroom tax or keep it?

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Khan dismisses Sunak’s attack on his housebuilding record in London as ‘desperate nonsense’ – UK politics live

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Mayor of London hits back at prime minister over ‘pathetic gesture politics’

Rishi Sunak has failed to give his full backing to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest, in interviews this morning, PA Media reports.

PA says that Sunak did not back calls for the resignation of Davies in a pooled interview this morning – but also that Sunak would not say whether he had confidence in him.

What I said right at the start of this was that it wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services because of banking, because of their views.

This isn’t about any one individual, it’s about values – do you believe in free speech and not to be discriminated against because of your legally held views?

As a result of this policy, a dozen classrooms of children, including some of the most traumatised and vulnerable children in the world, have gone missing and, sickeningly for us, 50 children are still missing from the hotel used in Brighton and Hove.

Importantly the high court also makes clear that the home secretary already has the power to require local authorities across the country to take children into foster care via a statutory rota system called the national transfer scheme.

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NatWest was caught out by Nigel Farage’s deft political game

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Tory anger over Coutts affair led to bank’s board feeling it had no choice but to sack CEO Alison Rose

Just after 5.40pm on Tuesday afternoon, the two people in charge of NatWest Group put out a joint statement. Dame Alison Rose, its chief executive, admitted she had been the source for an incendiary BBC story about Nigel Farage’s accounts at its exclusive private bank, while Sir Howard Davies, the bank’s chair, expressed his support for her remaining in charge of the lender.

Eight hours later, the bank had performed a dramatic reversal, having catastrophically misjudged the mood of its largest shareholder, the UK government. After last-minute interventions from both the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, board members convened for a late-night virtual call that was to spell the end of Rose’s 31-year career with the bank.

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Sunak and Hunt accused of ‘damaging UK plc’ over NatWest boss’s exit

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Concerns raised over anonymous briefings that triggered early-hours resignation of Dame Alison Rose

The prime minister and the chancellor have been accused of “damaging UK plc” and failing to follow due process amid concern over anonymous briefings that triggered the early-hours resignation of NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose.

“There is a real sense of disquiet that political pressure has led to a midnight exit for such an important banking CEO,” an official at the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, told the Guardian. “They should have allowed due process.”

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Sunak’s tweet associating Labour with ‘criminal gangs’ labelled ‘desperate and pathetic’ by shadow cabinet minister – UK politics live

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Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham and shadow environment secretary, criticises prime minister for tweet about Labour and immigration law firms

Michael Gove has been accused of showing how “disjointed” the government’s net zero strategy is by Greenpeace UK.

In a statement released after Gove’s media interview round this morning, in which the levelling up secretary appeared to firm up the government’s commitment to at least one green target, while signalling that others might be relaxed (see 10.04am), Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s director of policy, said:

Michael Gove has demonstrated how disjointed the government’s new strategy is. If ministers genuinely want to help lower costs for households, they should be doing everything in their power to switch our homes, energy and transport systems away from expensive, climate-wrecking fossil fuels and run them instead on clean technology and cheap renewables.

Mr Gove is right to reaffirm the government’s commitment to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 – and Sunak should now do the same, whilst making the transition as easy as possible for people with extensive charging infrastructure and the promised mandate on manufacturers. But allowing more oil and gas drilling, delaying the phase-out of gas boilers and giving landlords longer to insulate the homes of renters will only keep bills high and continue to fan the flames of climate change.

The leaders discussed recent developments on the battlefield and the continued progress by Ukrainian forces despite the challenging conditions. The prime minister added that he was appalled by the devastation caused by recent Russian attacks on Odesa.

Discussing the Black Sea grain initiative, the leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring grain was able to be exported from Ukraine to reach international markets. The prime minister said the UK was working closely with Turkey on restoring the grain deal, and we would continue to use our role as chair of the UN security council to further condemn Russia’s behaviour.

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Rishi Sunak signals he could abandon green policies that cost consumers

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Conservative rightwingers push PM to create dividing line with Labour on environment after narrow byelection win in Uxbridge

Rishi Sunak has signalled the government could delay or even abandon green policies that impose a direct cost on consumers, as he comes under pressure from the Conservative right to create a dividing line with Labour at the next election.

The prime minister said the drive to reach the UK’s net zero targets should not “unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives” as he rethinks his green agenda after last week’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection.

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MPs urge Sunak to attend Cop28 and stay true to net zero

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All-party climate group says backing away from green policies would be catastrophic for the economy

A cross-party group of influential politicians has urged Rishi Sunak to set an example by attending the UN climate summit this November, as both major parties come under pressure over their net-zero policies.

The group of MPs and peers wants him to commit to attending Cop28 in Dubai, and to appoint a secretary of state as special envoy for the climate ahead of the UN general assembly in September, where preparations will be made for Cop28.

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Dropping green pledges would be ‘political suicide’, Sunak and Starmer warned

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Science and business leaders say lurch away from climate agenda after byelections would be deeply unpopular with voters and damage UK’s reputation

Britain’s leaders have been warned against a “politically suicidal” lurch away from their green pledges as concerns grow that both major parties may dilute their plans to combat the climate crisis in the wake of a shock byelection result.

Senior figures from business, the scientific community and across the political divide warned that any watering down of climate policies would be deeply unpopular with voters, set back the international fight to reach net zero and damage Britain’s green reputation.

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Yes, the Tories kept Uxbridge. But the general election will be a referendum on Sunak, not Ulez

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With a local dispute swaying voters, the result in Boris Johnson’s old seat did not accurately reflect the national mood

• Read more: Starmer under pressure after Uxbridge as Tories tackle mission impossible

One out of three ain’t bad? A surprise win in Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge gave Conservatives something to cheer on Friday morning as Rishi Sunak narrowly avoided being the first prime minister since Harold Wilson to suffer three byelection defeats on the same day. But with a local dispute swaying Uxbridge voters, the contests in Selby and Somerton may provide a clearer indication of the national mood. The picture they paint is bleak: two heavy defeats for the government to different opponents at opposite ends of England.

In the week when Labour leader Keir Starmer took to the stage for the first time with his predecessor Tony Blair, Labour achieved a byelection breakthrough in North Yorkshire worthy of Blair’s mid-1990s prime. Selby and Ainsty’s 20,000-vote Conservative majority is the largest ever overturned by Labour in a byelection, and the swing to Labour was the second largest recorded. Labour comfortably outperformed its current polling with a swing which would decimate the Conservative benches if replicated in a general election. This was the performance of an opposition on its way back into government.

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