Category Archives: Kemi Badenoch

Starmer says UK ‘can’t just tax our way to growth’ as he brushes off call for wealth tax – UK politics live

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UK prime minister will have talks with Emmanuel Macron later today

The BMA strike decision must be a tempting topic for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, which is starting very soon. The Conservatives have repeatedly criticised the government for the way they swiftly settled public sector pay disputes when they took office; they argue that Labour was too generous to the unions, thereby encouraging them to threaten further strikes.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

Streeting says he is “disappointed” by the proposed strike, and he insists resident doctors have had a relatively good outcome on pay. He says:

I remain disappointed that despite all that we have been able to achieve in this last year, and that the majority of resident doctors in the BMA did not vote to strike, the BMA is continuing to threaten strike action.

I accepted the DDRB’s recommendation for resident doctors, awarding an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest across the public sector. Accepting this above inflation recommendation, which was significantly higher than affordability, required reprioritisation of NHS budgets. Because of this government’s commitment to recognising the value of the medical workforce, we made back-office efficiency savings to invest in the frontline. That was not inevitable, it was an active political choice this government made. Taken with the previous deal I made with the BMA last year, this means resident doctors will receive an average pay rise of 28.9% over the last 3 years.

He says the NHS is “finally moving in the right direction” and that a strike will “put that recovery at risk”.

He offers to hold meet the BMA to hold talks to avert the strike. He says:

I stand ready to meet with you again at your earliest convenience to resolve this dispute without the need for strike action. I would like to once again extend my offer to meet with your entire committee to discuss this.

As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.

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No 10 guts welfare bill in big new concession as minister says Pip cuts planned for 2026 shelved until after Timms review – UK politics live

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Switch to four-point Pip eligibility rule may never happen at all as Stephen Timms says government will ‘remove clause five from the bill’

Compass, the leftwing group urging Labour to be more pluralistic, has put out a statement condemning the UC and Pip bill. Its director, Neal Lawson, said:

If your own friends are telling you to put the brakes on, then something has clearly gone wrong. Despite the government’s line, this legislation does not advance Labour values. It is fundamentally at odds with them, and with the views of the mainstream of the party and civil society.”

MPs from across the House, and especially the Labour side, must back Rachael Maskell’s reasoned amendment. This bill’s creation of a three-tiered social security system would condemn thousands to poverty and could lose Labour the next election.

A bill of this magnitude should have been co-produced with disabled people and our organisations from the very start.

Now, ministers scramble to promise ‘consultation’ as one small part of the process. That is too little, too late. Co-production is not a rushed tick-box exercise tagged onto legislation already steaming through Parliament. It means disabled people shaping the system at every step – not just commenting on the detail of changes already baked in.

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Starmer says welfare concessions are ‘common sense’ but dodges funding question – UK politics live

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No 10 has offered significant concessions to the rebels, estimated to cost around £3bn a year, amid fears over Tuesday’s vote

Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, was the government voice on the airwaves this morning. Here are the main points he made about the welfare bill U-turn.

Kinnock rejected claims that the U-turn was a sign of weakness. When it was put to him on the Today programme that this move, coming after the U-turns on winter fuel payments and a national inquiry into grooming gangs, showed that if Keir Starmer was pushed, he would give in, Kinnock replied:

I think if you talk to people out there in the country, they respond very positively to politicians listening, engaging, recognising that you don’t get everything right from day one every time, and making the adjustments and the changes that are needed.

And this prime minister will always put the country first. He puts country before party, and he does the right thing for the country.

He defended having a “staggered” approach to changing benefit rules. Asked about the Tory claim that the government was creating a “two-tier benefits system” (see 8.30am), he replied:

Whenever you bring forward change to a complex system, you always have to decide between do you make the change for everybody that’s in that system, in one big move, or do you do it in a more staggered way? What’s clear from the announcement today is that it’s going to be a more staggered process.

He declined to say how much the U-turn would cost. He told Times Radio:

The full details around what we are laying out, what I’ve summarised really today, is going to be laid out in parliament, and then the chancellor will set out the budget in the autumn the whole of the fiscal position and this will be an important part of that.

He said he was now confident that the UC and Pip bill will pass its second reading on Tuesday.

All of the MPs I’ve spoken to who signed the reasoned amendment – MPs from across the party, not just on the left – are sticking to their position because we understand that we are answerable to our constituents.

If the government doesn’t pull the bill, doesn’t consult properly with disabled people and come back to MPs with a serious proposal that protects the dignity of disabled people, I will vote against and I will be far from the only one.

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Starmer confirms willingness to make concessions on welfare bill, saying reforms must be fair – UK politics live

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‘We want to see reform implemented with Labour values of fairness,’ the PM says

In his final answer Starmer explained how he thought government and business should work together.

A true partnership is not two people or two bodies trying to do the same thing. It’s two people or bodies realising they bring different things to the table.

Government shouldn’t try to run businesses. It’s done that in the past and it doesn’t work particularly well.

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Echoes of Brexit as Starmer is pressed to seize initiative on human rights | Jessica Elgot

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Labour MPs fighting Reform want action and a European renegotiation looks unappealing. How would the PM sell a third way?

Can a lefty human rights lawyer be the one to take on Britain’s uneasy relationship with the European convention on human rights (ECHR)?

It is the most unlikely of causes for Keir Starmer. But there is a growing feeling in government that he should seize the initiative.

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Angela Rayner faces Chris Philp at PMQs – UK politics live

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Deputy prime minister takes PMQs facing shadow home secretary

Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, will be taking PMQs shortly. And she will be up against Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary.

When Kemi Badenoch became Tory leader, she did not appoint a deputy (or even a “de factor deputy”, a post that has existed in Tory politics in recent years) and she said she would decide who would stand in for her at PMQs on a case by case basis. Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, got the gig the first time Starmer was away.

Chris Philp follows Alex Burghart in rotating for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. One Westminster wag asks “When is it going to be Robert Jenrick’s turn?”

We have this profound challenge of the number of people joining the armed forces being outweighed by the outflow the people leaving. So ultimately its about retention.

And the number one issue reason cited in last month’s attitude survey for the armed forces for leaving was family life. We know the quality of housing is unfortunately poor. It’s due to the basically to the structural nature of those homes.

To wrap up this topic, the state of housing for the armed forces is in a poor state because your government did not do enough for it?

[The housing] which is not in a good enough state because of your government?

What did I do about it? I did something that hasn’t been done for 30 years – yes, it completed under Labour – and now we would recommend to the government, when they bring forth their housing defence white paper, that we set up a housing association.

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MPs back bill to end criminal penalties for abortion in key vote – as it happened

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Parliament votes on biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in 60 years

Casey says in the past government has talked relentlessly about the need for better data sharing between departments.

But she says there is a need to consider making this mandatory.

I was there when the tragedy of Soham happened. We knew at that point that if we had had better data sharing there’s a possibility that we might have saved those girls’ lives. There’s certaintly an absolute clarity that intelligence would have been much faster in either avoiding it or or actually finding that dreadful human being earlier.

And we’ve known that forever onwards. And so I think there is also an issue that the Home Office can’t drag their feet on, looking at police intelligence systems, given we’ve living in the 21st century. Probably everbody in this room can connect within seconds. Yet we had Befordshire police finding a young boy that was being, in my mind trafficked to London. But the data intelligence system did not make it easy for them to find that he was in Deptford and being circled and dealt with by predators.

I feel very strongly on issues that are as searing as people’s race, when we know the prejudice and racism that people of colour experience in this country, to not get how you treat that data right is a different level of public irresponsibility.

Sorry, to put it so bluntly, I didn’t put it that bluntly yesterday, but I think it’s particularly important if you are collecting those sorts of issues to get them 100% right.

When we asked the good people of Greater Manchester Police to help us look at the data we also collected – I think it’s in the report – what was happening with child abuse more generally, and of course … if you look at the data on child sexual exploitation, suspects and offenders, it’s disproportionately Asian heritage. If you look at the data for child abuse, it is not disproportionate, and it is white men.

So again, just note to everybody, really outside here rather than in here. Let’s just keep calm here about how you interrogate data and what you draw from it.

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Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs ahead of government’s spending review – UK politics live

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Prime minister faces Conservative party leader as chancellor to reveal how government plans to spend almost £1.4tn in 2026-27

Green party MPs and activists staged a protest outside parliament today saying the government should use the spending review to announce a wealth tax. In a post on social media, Adrian Ramsay, the party’s co-leader, said:

We expect the Chancellor to take another axe to public spending today: decline by design from a govt that refuses to tax wealth to properly fund our overstretched public services & support the most vulnerable. We need to invest in a secure & fairer future. #TaxExtremeWealth

Senior SNP figures held a secret meeting on Monday night to discuss removing John Swinney as party leader, The Herald has learned, following last week’s defeat in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection.

One of the 25 attendees said the first minister had two weeks to come up with a new strategy on independence — or risk facing a leadership challenge at the SNP conference in October.

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James Cleverly takes on Kemi Badenoch over decision to ditch net zero targets

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Senior Tory to give speech in which he will criticise ‘neo-luddites’ on right for failing to embrace green technology

James Cleverly has taken direct aim at Kemi Badenoch’s decision to ditch net zero targets by criticising what he called “neo-luddites” on the right who seemed scared of using green technologies to protect the environment.

The senior Tory MP, who lost to Badenoch in last year’s Conservative leadership race, said it was a false choice to believe the UK had to choose between economic growth and protecting the environment. Badenoch has argued current net zero targets will harm the economy.

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Rachel Reeves to announce £15bn in transport spending amid questions over police cuts – UK politics live

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Chancellor will give speech in Greater Manchester, while police leaders have written to the PM over potential cuts in next week’s spending review

Good morning. A week today Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will unveil the outcome of the spending review, which will set spending budgets – day-to-day (“resource”) and capital – covering most of the rest of this parliament. Many departments will get resource budgets that feel like cuts, but the Treasury has a more positive story to tell on capital spending and today Reeves is giving a speech announcing a £15bn spending spree on transport projects, mostly in the north of England.

Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot have all the details in our splash story.

We are deeply concerned that the settlement for policing and the [NCA], without additional investment, risks a retrenchment to what we saw under austerity. This would have far-reaching consequences.

Policing and the NCA have seen a sustained period where income has not kept pace with demand. Often, this has been masked by attempts to defer costs in the hope of more income in future, but that now leaves policing with very limited room for manoeuvre.

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Yvette Cooper quizzed over immigration and prisons crisis – UK politics live

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Home secretary appears to accept early release proposals will put more pressure on police as she is questioned at select committee

Defence sources believe that Britain will be forced to sign up to a target of lifting defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 at this month’s Nato summit after a campaign by the alliance’s secretary general to keep Donald Trump onboard, Dan Sabbagh reports.

Later today the data (use and access) bill will return to the Commons from the Lords in the third round of “ping pong” between the two houses. It is not unusual for “ping pong” to go on for a round or two, as bills which are almost ready for royal assent shuttle between the elected and unelected chamber while they try to resolve matters of dispute. But, in this case, the Lords are digging in a bit more than usual.

The government has been accused of “supporting thieves”, as it suffered a further heavy defeat at the hands of peers pressing their demand for steps to safeguard the creative industries against artificial intelligence.

The fourth and latest setback for the Labour frontbench over the issue in the House of Lords was inflicted despite pleas by a minister for the upper chamber to end its prolonged stand-off over the data (use and access) bill.

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No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – UK politics live

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Downing Street unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or when changes would come in

YouGov has published more details of its polling on the electorate’s relationship with Labour, as covered in the Sky News report mentioned earlier. (See 10.06am.)

It shows that Reform UK supporters are most likely to think that Labour is trying hard to appeal to them – but least likely to say they would respond positively. Only 4% of Reform UK supporters say they would consider voting Labour, the poll says.

I ask her if there will be any changes as demanded by MPs

She says while “we want to make sure we address all of people’s concerns, but stressed: “whatever the fiscal position that the government faces, I think the system as a whole needs to change.”

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No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – UK politics live

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Downing Street unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or when changes would come in

YouGov has published more details of its polling on the electorate’s relationship with Labour, as covered in the Sky News report mentioned earlier. (See 10.06am.)

It shows that Reform UK supporters are most likely to think that Labour is trying hard to appeal to them – but least likely to say they would respond positively. Only 4% of Reform UK supporters say they would consider voting Labour, the poll says.

I ask her if there will be any changes as demanded by MPs

She says while “we want to make sure we address all of people’s concerns, but stressed: “whatever the fiscal position that the government faces, I think the system as a whole needs to change.”

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UK asking other countries to host ‘return hubs’ for refused asylum seekers, Starmer confirms – UK politics live

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PM on trip to announce increased cooperation against people smugglers alongside Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama

All Commons Speakers, at least for the past 30 years, have complained about the government making major announcements to the media first, and not to parliament first. But rarely have any of them sounded quite as furious about this as Lindsay Hoyle, who this morning delivered an extended reprimand to the government about this at the start of an urgent question.

The UQ was about plans to limit the use of prison recall – something announced by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, at a press conference yesterday, while the Commons was still sitting. After pointing this out, and reminding MPs that details of the immigration white paper were given to the media extensively, long before the ministerial statement about it was delivered in the Commons on Monday, Hoyle went on to imply that, as well as regularly breaking the ministerial code, ministers were also guilty of hypocrisy. He said:

I note that those who now occupy senior ministerial roles were not slow to complain when the previous government made major policy announcements outside this house.

I will continue to uphold and defend the rights of this house, the rights of backbenchers, to be here, and hear it first, the most important announcements of government policy, and the right of honourable members to question ministers on those announcements in person.

When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.

If the government is not going to take the ministerial code seriously, who will?

I’ve got to say, I don’t like this. I believe I am here to represent all backbenchers and backbenchers have the right to ask questions. I’m not interested in Sky News or the BBC or political programmes. I’m here to defend all of you. I will continue to defend. Please do not take MPs for granted. It is not acceptable.

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Farage says Starmer ‘learning a great deal from Reform’ as PM defends immigration speech – UK politics live

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Reform leader asks PM to declare a national emergency at the borders

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs, which starts at noon.

In March Reform UK reported Rupert Lowe (at the time one of their five MPs) to the police, claiming he had threatened the party chair, Zia Yusuf, with violence. Reform UK announced the news shortly after Lowe gave a newspaper interview criticising Nigel Farage, the party leader,

Following a thorough and detailed review of the evidence in relation to an allegation of threats, we have decided that no criminal charges should be brought against a sitting MP.

Having considered a number of witness statements, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

If Farage were ever to control the vast power of the British state, I believe he would not hesitate to do to his adversaries what they have tried to do to me. With real power, I fear he would wield that immense responsibility to crush dissent - as he has done time and again over the years …

Please listen when I say this: For the good of our country, Nigel Farage must never be prime minister.

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Conservative party is fighting for its life, says former Tory cabinet minister

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Simon Clarke says ‘pipeline of future voters is dead’ as party figures warn Kemi Badenoch her job as leader is in danger

The Conservative party is fighting to justify its existence amid concerns that its pipeline of future voters is “completely dead”, a former cabinet minister and leading thinktank director has said.

Simon Clarke, an ally of Boris Johnson who backed Kemi Badenoch for the leadership last year, was among a string of former Tory ministers and serving MPs to tell the Guardian she faced removal by her party if she did not turn its fortunes around by next year’s local elections.

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Has UK-India trade deal ‘sold out British workers’ as Farage and Badenoch claim?

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Row over exemption of national insurance contributions for Indian short-term workers overshadows deal

A multibillion-pound free trade agreement with India has long been touted as a big Brexit boon.

Cheaper clothes and shoes for British shoppers, a huge market for scotch whisky producers and luxury carmakers, and billions of pounds worth of extra trade are among the benefits of the agreement, which was finalised this week.

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Badenoch says more children, not immigration, will help with ageing population

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Conservative leader’s remarks to BBC suggest she may develop policies that encourage women to have more children

People should be having more children rather than the UK relying on immigration to deal with an ageing population, Kemi Badenoch has suggested.

The Conservative leader said the UK needed to answer the question of how we “make sure we can deal with [an] ageing society, people not having enough children”.

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Farage has declared a new dawn before, but this time things could really be different

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Slicker presentation, a shift away from two-party politics and now hundreds of new councillors mean Reform is likely here to stay

In May 2014, Nigel Farage stood in front of the television cameras and declared his party’s victory in the European elections was “about the most extraordinary result that has been seen in British politics for 100 years”.

A year later, the Conservatives won an unexpected majority at the general election, restricting Ukip to just a single seat, with Farage failing in his attempt to win South Thanet.

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Starmer and Blair poles apart, an open goal at PMQs. Did KemiKaze score? | John Crace

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Of course she didn’t. Gifted on climate policy, she used all six of her questions to call for another child abuse inquiry

On days like these, Keir Starmer might come to believe there is a God after all. Fair to say the prime minister has been under the cosh recently. His popularity ratings tanking as people continue to feel fed up that nothing still appears to be working as it should. The local elections on Thursday are unlikely to provide any joy for Labour with Reform ahead in several polls. Even the election of Mark Carney has been a mixed blessing. A reminder that some politicians get rewarded for taking a tough line on Agent Orange. The Lib Dems have declared themselves honorary Canadians.

To cap it all, Tony Blair had just published a report on climate policy that even his best friends might consider to have been “unhelpful”. Tony is a former politician who is unable to go gently into the dark night. Eighteen years after stepping down as prime minister, he still yearns for relevance.

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