Summary
That’s all for today, as Joe Biden addressed the Irish parliament on the penultimate day of his visit to the island of Ireland.
Biden said that “political violence must never take hold” in Ireland again. He said that companies were also wary of investing in Northern Ireland because of the lack of a functioning assembly.
“We must never forget that peace, even though it has become a lived reality for an entire generation, peace is precious. It still needs its champions. It still needs to be nurtured,” he said.
One of the most stirring parts of his speech was where he said the enduring legacy of the Good Friday agreement had meant there was no “checkpoints on young people’s dreams”.
“It’s so good to be back in Ireland,” he began the address to the lower house of the Dáil, and added “I’m at home” in Irish.
At a brief meeting with the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Biden praised the “emerging stronger and stronger relationship” with Ireland.
And away from Biden’s visit:
Rishi Sunak did an interview with the ConservativeHome website where he refused to say if the Tories were planning on retaliating to Labour’s latest advertising campaign.
NHS data methodology changes revealed that 10% of people wait more than 12 hours in A&E in England.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has said that reforming the Gender Recognition Act can be done without undermining women’s rights.
A Conservative councillor has been suspended after the publication of an alleged recording of him saying all white men should have a black slave.
The presiding officer of the Scottish parliament, Alison Johnstone, has introduced a series of “deeply regrettable” restrictions on public access to the Holyrood chamber, which will come into force after recess ends next week, following prolonged disruptions to FMQs by anti-fossil fuel protesters.
Chris Philp, the policing minister, was giving interviews on Thursday morning, and told LBC he was “deeply concerned” about figures showing one mobile phone is reported stolen in London every six minutes.
Thanks for following along. We’ll be back tomorrow.
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After a tribute following his speech the session of the parliament is adjourned. Biden leaves to more applause.
He hugged former Irish president Mary McAleese as he left the Dail chamber.
He stopped to speak to former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and ex-taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who were both involved in the Good Friday agreement talks.
Biden also exchanged words with another former taoiseach, Enda Kenny.
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He says it’s the greatest honour of his career to be at the Irish parliament.
Biden said his grandfather Finnegan compared him to the figure who led the Easter Rising in 1916, presumably referring to James Connolly, and said he needed to be more like president Éamon De Valera.
He comes onto his peroration.
“Folks, we can do so much. It doesn’t even break down to ideology. It breaks down to faith in ourselves. Our values. No matter what party we belong to, our values are the same. It’s about honesty, dignity, justice and you all have every ingredient to make it work. It’s an honour to be here, thank you very much.”
He then receives another standing ovation.
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“Today is Seamus Heaney’s birthday,” Biden says. Heaney’s widow is in the public gallery.
“I was always quoting Irish poetry in the Senate in my career. My colleagues always thought I did it because I was Irish, it’s not the reason. They are the best poets in the world.”
He thanks Heaney’s widow for sending him an autographed cup.
“My favourite poem was The Cure at Troy, and it goes ‘don’t hope on this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime, that long tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme’.
“It’s everything I’ve been taught. Rise up. In the past we’ve made hope and history rhyme, so today ladies and gentlemen we celebrate the enduring partnership between our nations, our shared past and present. Let’s set our sight squarely on the future, let’s harness the best in us, our courage, our creativity, our loyalty, our tenacity and our loyalty again.
“Let’s once more for our generation and the generation to come, strive to make hope and history rhyme because I have never been more optimistic about the future than I am today, and I am at the end of my career, not the beginning.
“One thing I bring to this career at my age – as you can see, how old I am – but there is a little bit of wisdom. I have come to the job with more experience than any other American president in history, it doesn’t make me better or worse, but it gives me a few excuses.”
This triggers a few laughs, possibly after the slip up yesterday confusing the All Blacks with the Black and Tans.
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Biden continues in his strongest and most passionate section of the speech: “As we meet these struggles, they cast a show on our world. The struggle between the rights of many and desires of few, between liberty and oppression, and I know I get criticised for saying this around the world, between democracy and autocracy.
“It is a competition that is real.
“We are called to this world just as every generation before us has been. In this moment the world needs Ireland and the United States and our limitless imaginations.
“I have met with Xi Jingping more than any world leader has over the past ten years. 91 hours of just one-on-one conversations.
“He once asked me ‘can you define America for me?’ It’s the god’s truth.
“I said yes I can, in one word. But if you asked about Ireland I could have said the same thing. ‘Possibilities.’”
His voice rises: “We believe anything is possible if we set our mind to it, and we do it together. This is the United States of America and Ireland, there is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. We have to believe that. We’ve got to know that. That’s the history of both our countries. It’s about defending the values handed down to us by our ancestors, keeping the flame of freedom we inherited, the beacon that’s going to guide our children and grandchildren. It’s a struggle we are fit to fight together.
“Now is the time for Ireland and the United States to meet that challenge. And I mean that. To raise together, to rise up, and our joys and triumphs to preserve together and persevere through sorrows and setbacks, to dream together of horizons we can’t see. To build together a future that maybe doesn’t exist, a future that can be.”
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The president turns to the economic relationship between the US and Ireland.
“Today Ireland’s story is nobody’s to tell but its own. The United States will be your closest partner, your most dependable partner and your most enthusiastic partner every step of the way, I promise you. We have always been, and we’ve been together and we’re going to continue to grow our enormous economic relationship as a foundation for both our nations’ prosperity.
“Ireland pulls a disproportionate amount of direct international investment from the United States of America, the same is true for Ireland’s investment into the United States.”
He returns to an earlier theme. “Together…[we] are building a future of economic dignity, one where rights of workers are respected and corporations pay their fair share.”
The last line is interesting with Google having a headquarters in Ireland, an arrangement which has previously been criticised.
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Biden: 'greatest peace dividend is no checkpoint on dreams of Irish young people'
Biden continues: “The greatest peace dividend of the Good Friday agreement is an entire generation of young people … whose hearts have been shaped not by grievances of the past, but by the confidence that there are no checkpoints on their dreams. They are writing a new future of unlimited possibilities.
“For too long Ireland has talked about the past tense, we tell old stories of days gone by, it’s good to remember. Stories of Irish grit and genius, saints and scholars, poets and politicians and in the face of it, they are good stories.
“But, as the poet Boland wrote, in Mother Ireland … ‘I learned my name, I rose up, I remembered it. Now I could tell my story, it was different from the story told about me.’”
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Biden: 'political violence must never be allowed to take hold again'
Biden says that he told politicians in Northern Ireland yesterday that companies who want to invest in the country are wary because of the lack of functioning political institutions.
“They are cautious because the institutions are not in place. We must never forget that peace, even though has it has become a lived reality for an entire generation, peace is precious. It still needs its champions. It still needs to be nurtured.
“The Good Friday agreement didn’t just change lives for the better in Northern Ireland, it has significant positive impact across the Republic of Ireland as well.”
To applause he says that the UK should be working closer with both countries. “Political violence should never be allowed to take hold in this island,” he said.
US and Ireland standing together against 'brutal aggression' of Russia
Biden said that the connections between the two countries have “irrevocably” shaped the understanding of the world.
“You know what it means to fight for democracy. Today, Ireland and the United States are standing together to oppose Russia’s brutal aggression and support the brave people of Ukraine.”
He added: “President Kennedy said 60 years ago: Ireland pursues an independent course in foreign policy, but it is not neutral between liberty and tyranny and it never will be. Thank you for that.
“Over the last year Ireland has stood for liberty against tyranny.”
He then goes on to talk about the money and resources Ireland has given to Ukraine in their fight against Russia.
“I have known Putin for over 25 years. Putin thought everyone would look the other way. He was confident he would break Nato and the European Union and the unity of western nations would fracture and fall at the moment of testing. That’s what he thought. But he was wrong. He was wrong on every front. Today we are more united and more determined than ever before to defend the values that make us strong.”
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Biden continues on the links between Ireland and America, and benefits of immigration: “Look, the journeys of our ancestors expanded our horizons and excited our imaginations.
“They became the untiring backbone of America’s progress as a nation, even as they endured discrimination and were denied opportunity.”
He said that four years before the declaration of independence, the founding father Benjamin Franklin came to the Irish parliament and described it as being “disposed to being friends of America.” He references the similar declaration made in Ireland in 1916, which is on display in the foyer of the parliament.
“We are nations that know what it means to persevere for freedom, to brave a civil war, to toil in the vineyards of democracy. Again that’s not hyperbole, it’s a fact,” he said.
“It’s not just the hope, but the conviction that better days lie ahead that have brought us along. We have the power to build a better future.”
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Biden talks about both his and Barack Obama’s ancestors being shoemakers who travelled to the US for a better life, and their progeny going on to become presidents.
“These stories are at the very heart of what binds Ireland and America together. They speak to a history, defined by our dreams, they speak to a present written by our shared responsibility and speak to our future poised for unlimited shared possibilities,” Biden said.
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'I'm at home' Biden tells Irish parliament
After the introduction by the speaker, Biden takes a few steps forward to begin his speech.
He makes a quip about his mum saying the address would happen one day.
“It’s so good to be back in Ireland,” he begins, and adds “I’m at home” in Irish. “I only wish I could stay longer.”
He then makes some lighthearted comparisons between rugby and American football, and talks about visiting Ireland previously to go to the area his family came from in the country.
Joe Biden is introduced by the speaker of the Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, who says it’s a “very historic for us all”.
He said it is the fourth time a US president has addressed the parliament, John F Kennedy addressed a “different world, and different parliament” nearly 60 years ago.
Ó Fearghaíl points out that former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, an architect of the Good Friday agreement, is in attendance, along with former Irish president Mary Macaleese and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.
The speaker of the Northern Irish assembly is in attendance, he adds, and says that he’s sure Biden would have liked to have addressed the assembly.
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Biden arrives inside Irish parliament
Joe Biden has just entered the Irish parliament to a standing ovation, nearly two hours after he was scheduled to begin speaking.
Whooping and cheering can be heard as he takes his place on the platform.
Sinn Féin has tweeted a picture of the party’s president, Mary Lou MacDonald, meeting Biden at Leinster House, as they seem to share a joke.
Joe Biden is still yet to appear to speak to the Irish parliament.
“Great to meet US President Biden again as he arrived at Leinster House.
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) April 13, 2023
“The US has played a hugely positive role in our peace process and in the achievement of the historic Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago.”
- @MaryLouMcDonald #BidenVisit 🇮🇪 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Ui7w6QyPcd
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Joe Biden is about to deliver his speech to the Irish parliament. It is about an hour and a half late.
My collegue Harry Taylor is taking over to cover it.
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Rayner says Labour can 'move foward' on trans rights while also protecting women's rights
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has said that reforming the Gender Recognition Act can be done without undermining women’s rights.
Speaking on a visit to Derby today, she said:
I understand people’s concerns on both sides of the argument but I think we were the party of equality. We brought in the equality legislation. We are the best party for LGBT rights – we’ve got a history of doing that.
We can protect women-only spaces and we can be absolutely fair to transgender people, who are the most vulnerable people in society, in supporting them for their rights and fairness, and I think we can take the public with us on this.
We need safe spaces for women and we need to protect those safe places, but we also need to make sure that we move forward on transgender rights because they are some of the most marginalised and vulnerable groups in society.
It’s absolutely right that we look at gender reforms so that we can treat them fairly, but that is not at odds with women’s rights overall and protecting women-only spaces.
We can do both, and the Equalities Act that we brought in had exemptions in it for exactly making sure we can do that.
In its 2019 manifesto, Labour said it was committed to reforming the Gender Recognition Act to allow self-declaration for transgender people. But when the Scottish government passed legislation to achieve this, key elements of the bill did not have public support, and the Westminster government subsequently blocked it. Some commentators believe the controversy contributed to Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to resign.
Keir Starmer recently said “the lesson from Scotland is that if you can’t take the public with you on a journey of reform, then you’re probably not on the right journey”, suggesting that he is increasingly cautious about reforming the Gender Recognition Act.
Tory councillor suspended over alleged racist comments
A Conservative councillor has been suspended after an alleged recording of him saying all white men should have a black slave was published, PA Media reports. PA says:
Andrew Edwards, who represents an area of Haverfordwest on Pembrokeshire county council, Wales, referred himself to the public services ombudsman after the 16-second clip surfaced.
The Welsh Conservatives confirmed that Edwards had since been suspended by the party while an investigation is carried out.
Edwards’ voice is said to have been identified by other members of the council after they were sent the audio.
In the recording, published earlier this week by online news site Nation.Cymru, a man’s voice can be heard saying: “Nothing wrong with the skin colour at all. I think all white men should have a black man as a slave or a black woman as a slave, you know. It’s nothing wrong with skin colour, it is just they’re a lower class than us white people, you know.”
It is not clear when the recording was made or who it was made for. However, children and other adults can be heard talking and playing in the background of the audio.
In his statement on Wednesday, Edwards said: “I am aware of such serious allegations being made against me. This is why I have self-referred to the public services ombudsman for an independent evaluation. It is now in the hands of legal experts and the ombudsman. It would be unfair on the process for me to comment now.”
A spokesperson for the Welsh Tories said: “Andrew Edwards has been suspended by the party whilst an investigation is carried out.”
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Speaking after his meeting with Joe Biden, the taoiseach (Irish PM), Leo Varadkar, said that the UK-US special relationship was alive and well and that talk of Biden being anti-British was untrue. Varadkar said:
I know that President Biden and his administration is committed to that special relationship.
That goes back to their own history and also the fact that they fought two world wars side by side …
You should never underestimate the strength of the UK-American relationship.
Varadkar said that while Biden was proud to be Irish, “his only interest really is to see not just peace sustained in Northern Ireland” but also the institutions, including Stormont, back up and running because “people and politicians come and go and it is [the] institutions that ... make sure that democracy and freedom and prosperity and all those things last for generations”.
Varadkar said he would be working with Rishi Sunak, who returns to Belfast next Wednesday, to get Stormont restored, adding that he thought it was “possible to get the DUP on board”.
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Scottish parliament tightens rules on public access to FMQs after disruption by climate activists
The presiding officer of the Scottish parliament, Alison Johnstone, has introduced a series of “deeply regrettable” restrictions on public access to the Holyrood chamber which will come into force after recess ends next week, following prolonged disruptions to FMQs by anti-fossil fuel protesters.
Humza Yousaf’s first FMQs was disrupted five times by activists from This Is Rigged, after months of similar protests.
Now anyone willfully disrupting business will face a six-month exclusion from the gallery; anyone booking a ticket for FMQs will be required to provide their name and postal address, and to show ID on collection; and all mobile electronic devices will be banned.
Johnstone said:
Over the past 25 years, we have prided ourselves on our openness to the public and the ease with which visitors have access to parliamentary business. However, a small, but persistent number of protesters have brought us to the point where increased measures must be introduced.
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US relationship with Ireland getting 'stronger and stronger', Biden says
At a brief meeting with the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, ahead of a speech to the Irish parliament, Joe Biden praised the “emerging stronger and stronger relationship” with Ireland.
This is an observation that will not be lost on his critics in the UK – including the former Democratic Unionist party leader, Arlene Foster – who have claimed the US president is anti-British, something his senior aides denied.
Varadkar said he looked forward to hearing about Biden’s talks with the five Northern Ireland party leaders and said he would be “working together with” the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on breaking the Stormont deadlock.
Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
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Joe Biden quipped that he was “not going home” after a meeting with the Irish president, Michael D Higgins.
He quoted John F Kennedy’s words during his visit to Ireland back in 1963, writing beside his signature: “Our two nations, divided by distance have been united by our people. I would add ‘we are united by the hearts and souls of our people’.”
Vice President Joe Biden quoted JFK in the Áras an Uachtaráin visitors book: pic.twitter.com/YSjWhMSTEl
— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) June 22, 2016
Biden told reporters: “It’s an honour to return”, adding:
I’m not going home. Isn’t this an incredible place? All you American reporters, it’s just like the White House, right?
He will shortly address the two houses of the Irish parliament, an honour bestowed to three previous US presidents including JFK.
Unlike Northern Ireland, the republic of Ireland leg of Biden’s visit is backed by a hefty delegation of senior US politicians, including the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and another 16-strong delegation, including Katherine Clark, the house minority whip.
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Warsi says she fears attacks against her family after Braverman’s ‘racist rhetoric’
Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative party chair, has said she has warned her father not to walk home alone from the mosque, fearing a backlash against British Muslims from what she termed “racist rhetoric” from the home secretary, Suella Braverman, Jessica Elgot reports.
Sunak has admitted being too weak to stand up to Tory members on housebuilding targets, says Labour
Lisa Nandy, the shadow chancellor, says it is “shameful” that Rishi Sunak has admitted abandoning mandatory housebuilding targets because Conservative party members were opposed to them. (See 2.55pm.) In a statement issued after his ConservativeHome interview, Nandy said:
It is utterly shameful that the prime minister admits he ditched housing targets because he’s too weak to stand up to Tory members.
That decision has pushed housebuilding off a cliff and exacerbated a housing crisis that was already causing misery for millions of families and young people, but Rishi Sunak clearly thinks that’s all OK because a few thousand Tory members are happy. We need a prime minister that puts our country before his party.
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Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Ian Murray, the shadow secretary for Scotland, has written to the SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, as well as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and the leader of the House of Commons, as it emerged that Flynn’s group has been pulled into the financial chaos engulfing the party.
The Herald and the Mail report that the Westminster group has been left without auditors after the departure of Johnston Carmichael, the company that worked for SNP HQ, last September, and risks losing more than £1m of Short money – the payment made by the parliament to opposition parties – if it cannot submit audited accounts by 31 May.
On Tuesday, the new first minister, Humza Yousaf, revealed he had not been told that the party had been without auditors for six months until after he was elected leader.
After writing to Flynn asking when he was made aware the auditors had quit and what protections had been put in place for staff given the possibility of the Short money, which is used to pay their salaries, being withdrawn, Murray said:
The chaos engulfing the SNP’s finances is now putting jobs at risk and threatening the functioning of their already fragmented parliamentary group.
We need to know today what Stephen Flynn is planning to do to end the chaos that he has inherited.
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Summary of main points from Sunak's ConservativeHome interview
Here are the key points from Rishi Sunak’s interview with ConservativeHome. Some of the questions were posed by Paul Goodman, the former Tory MP who edits the website, and some were from its readers.
Sunak played down, but did not explicitly rule out, giving Boris Johnson a job in cabinet. In a generally evasive answer, Sunak said that he already had a “great team” that was “focused on delivering”. See 1.11pm and 1.57pm.
He suggested that he does not expect to “stop the boats” by the time of the next election. When asked if he would be able to stop small boats crossing the Channel with asylum seekers by the time of the election, as he has promised, and not just cut the numbers, Sunak did not give that assurance. Instead he said:
I’ve always also said that this is not something that is a) easy, it is a complicated problem where there’s no single, simple solution that will that will fix it. And I’ve also said that it won’t happen overnight. I’ve been very clear about that.
He said that “there may well be” an interim judgment from the European court of human rights against the government’s illegal migration bill. He said:
You have to expect legal challenge on these things, our job is to robustly defend them and that’s what we’ll do.
He said that no woman can have a penis. When it was put to him that Keir Starmer recently said that 99.9% of women don’t have a penis, Sunak said his view was different. Asked if his view was that the answer was 100%, Sunak replied: “Yeah, of [course – Sunak started saying the word “course”, but seemed to stop halfway through]. Sunak went on:
Of course we should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about their gender. Of course we should. We’re a compassionate and understanding society, and we will always remember that.
But when it comes to these issues, of protecting women’s rights, women’s spaces, I think the issue of biological sex is fundamentally important when we think about those questions.
He refused to say whether the Conservatives were planning negative advertising aimed at Starmer, as retaliation for the anti-Sunak attack ads launched by Labour.
He admitted that he abandoned the plan to impose compulsory housebuilding targets on councils in response to pressure from Conservative party members. In response to a question about home ownership, he said:
I spent a lot of the time over the summer [during the Tory leadership contest] talking to so many of our members, so many of our councillors, about our planning system, and their views on it. And what I heard consistently, particularly from our councillors and our members, was what they didn’t want was a nationally imposed, top down set of targets telling them what to do. That wasn’t a particularly conservative thing to do. It doesn’t recognise that all parts of our country are different, their needs are different, how they can satisfy the demand for housing is different. And I said that I would make sure that our planning system reflected that, which it will.
He claimed that the UK was a “foreign policy superpower”. After highlighting post-Brexit developments, including the Aukus submarine pact with the US and Australia, the Windsor framework on Brexit, his recent summit with President Emmanuel Macron, and the UK joining the CPTPP trade pact, he said:
We don’t need to be part of the EU to be a foreign policy superpower; we are a foreign policy superpower.
He claimed that the Tories would reach their goal of putting an extra 20,000 police officers on the street “any day now”. The target was due to be met by 31 March 2023. (Labour regularly point out that this will not replace all the posts cut by the Conservatives under their austerity policies.)
He said he wanted to see more use by the NHS of private sector providers. Talking about the need for NHS changes, he said:
Using the private sector more, the independent sector, that’s something that we actually should be very comfortable with. Ultimately, if the patient is still getting the care they need, free at the point of use, we shouldn’t be so hung up on who’s providing it. We should be using the independent sector to provide choice, to provide competition, drive up quality. It’s worked in the past and we’re going to do more of that going forward.
He confirmed that he wanted to cut taxes – but not until he had got borrowing and inflation under control. He said:
[Nigel Lawson] believed, Margaret Thatcher believed, I believe, the chancellor believes, we have got to get inflation down first, get borrowing under control, and then we have got the sound fundamentals to cut taxes. That is what I know everyone would like us to do and that is what we want to deliver.
He suggested the Tories were starting to do better in the polls because they were now united. He said:
I think we’ve got to, as a party, look forward.
I said that on the first day I became prime minister; I said to the party ‘we’ve got to unite or die’.
I reiterated that in the ’22 [meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers] that I did just before we finished for the Easter recess, when I was talking to colleagues again.
And the point I made to them, actually, we are starting to see the fruits of what a united party can do … we are getting on and actually making a difference on a range of different areas that matter.
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Labour says Rishi Sunak’s response to the question about housing in his ConHome interview shows he is “totally out of touch”.
Ever wonder why the government isn’t building houses?
— Labour Press (@labourpress) April 13, 2023
Rishi Sunak says it’s because Tory activists and councillors have told them not to.
Totally out of touch. pic.twitter.com/rAyJNUWFvm
I will post a summary of the highlights from the interview shortly.
How Sunak responded to question about possibility of Johnson returning to cabinet
Here is the clip of Rishi Sunak responding to the question about whether the door was closed to Boris Johnson returning to cabinet.
'Is the door closed to Boris Johnson coming into your cabinet?'
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) April 13, 2023
Rishi Sunak answers questions from ConservativeHome pic.twitter.com/fzaL60X88p
As my headline at 1.11pm put it, a fair summary, based on what Sunak actually said, was that he ducked the question.
Taking into account other evidence available to the viewer, including the momentary pause, the shake of the head, and the faint grin that appeared as Sunak slid into an answer that he knew would get him out of this, a more accurate summary might be that the answer he provided was: yes.
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Q: Hinduism is important to you. Do you have a shrine in Downing Street?
Sunak says he has a Lord Ganesh. He says it is common for Hindus to offer a prayer to Lord Ganesh when they start a new job. He says he did this when he became chancellor, and when he became prime minister he took the statue with him to No 10.
And that’s the end of the interview.
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Q: Have you got the courage to have a conversation with the public about why other European countries have better health services than ours?
Sunak says he wants reform of the NHS. That will involve lots of things, including more use of the private sector.
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Q: Are you looking to simplify the tax system?
Yes, says Sunak. He says the budget included very significant measures to simplify taxes for investment. The UK is one of the most '“tax generous places” to invest in the world.
He says Nigel Lawson, who died recently, said that Sunak was right to get borrowing down and inflation under control before cutting taxes. He goes on:
We’ve got the sound fundamentals to cut taxes, that’s what I know everyone would like us to do, and that’s what we want to deliver.
Q: Given the intrusions into private life that politicians experience, why did you choose this job?
Sunak says that is a good question, and one he asks himself. But knowing you can make a difference to people’s lives is a rare privilege, he says.
Q: How will you support London Conservatives in their campaign against the Ulez?
Sunak says London Conservatives have done a superb job. There was a legal success against this. He says in Cambridgeshire recently the Tories won a council seat off the Lib Dems, for the first time in 16 years, campaigning on congestion charging.
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Q: Do you think the Stormont brake will stop EU law encroaching on the UK?
Sunak says he does think that. It is “unequivocal” in the power it gives the UK government, he says. He goes on:
It is an incredibly powerful mechanism. It’s something that people asked for. They didn’t ever expect that it would be possible to get something like that. I’m pleased that we could deliver it.
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Sunak is now taking questions from ConHome readers.
Q: What is your view on the ECHR? Do we need a British bill of rights?
Sunak says the illegal migration bill is compliant with the ECHR. But the government has had to say there might be judgments against it.
Q: What will you do if the courts rule against you?
Sunak says the government will robustly challenge them, as it has done with the Rwanda policy. You have to expect legal challenge, he says.
UK is 'foreign policy superpower', Sunak claims
Sunak says the UK does not need to be part of the EU to be a foreign policy superpower. “We are a foreign policy superpower,” he claims.
Q: Who is right on China – President Macron or Liz Truss?
Sunak says the government expressed its view in the updated integrated review.
He says the UK’s approach is the same as its allies’.
Sunak refuses to accept government needs higher immigration to achieve growth
Q: The OBR expects net migration to reach record levels. Is that what taking back control of immigration was supposed to be about?
Sunak says, as a supporter of Brexit, he wanted the government to be in control. Now it is in control.
He says the most important question on migration is what is being done to stop the small boats.
Q: It is a fact that you cannot get the growth you need in the economy without significant immigration.
Sunak does not accept that. He says there were measures in the budget to get people back into work.
Q: When will you stop small boats?
Sunak says he has always said it would not happen immediately, and that one policy on its own would not work.
But we need to fix the system, he says. He says the current system is not fair.
The government should focus its compassion on people who most need it. That cannot happen when people are coming here illegally.
And people are dying, he says. He says the government has to stop the criminal gangs smuggling people into the country.
Goodman says Sunak is making it clear he will not be able to stop all small boats before the election.
Q: Starmer said recently 99.9% of women do not have a penis. What figure would you put that at?
Sunak says he has a different view from Starmer on this.
He says of course we should be considerate of people questioning their gender. But he says he views biological sex as fundamentally important.
Q: You have not criticised Labour over the adverts attacking you over crime. Is that because you are planning to attack Keir Starmer personally at the election?
Sunak says the party has been focusing on its campaign messages.
And, on crime, he claims the party has got a good record. Crime has gone down, he says.
Q: So you are not responding at all, or attacking Starmer for his record as DPP?
Sunak says he has attacked Starmer for not voting with the government on toughening sentencing policy.
Goodman says it sounds as if Sunak is planning further attacks on Starmer over his record.
Q: Why should young people vote for the party of capitalism if they have not got any capital?
Sunak says, if that is a question about housing, the government has been taking steps to help people onto the housing ladder.
Sunak rejects claims new voter ID law will cause problems at local elections
Q: Are you confident the voter ID rules won’t cause problems at the local elections?
Sunak says government has been planning this for a long time. He claims that 98% of people have the right form of ID, and he says this system is common in other countries.
Sunak ducks question about whether he would let Boris Johnson return to cabinet
Q: What do you say to people who say you cannot be trusted because you helped to bring down Boris Johnson?
Sunak says he resigned over economic policy. He says he is now trying to unite the party. “The past is the past,” he says.
Q: Is the door closed to Boris Johnson coming back?
Sunak says he has a great team. He will not comment on reshuffles, he says. He goes on:
It’s great that we’ve got former prime ministers who want to contribute still to public life and feel that they can do that. That’s a good thing.
Sunak says 'for too long' people have felt politicians have not been delivering 'on the things that matter'
Paul Goodman says Rishi Sunak presents himself as a serious guy who will deliver. But to some people that is not enough. What motivates him?
Sunak says people feel for too long politicians have not been able to deliver.
[What] I hear this repeatedly when I’m out and about across the country is people feel that for too long [politicians] just haven’t been able to deliver on the things that matter.
That is why he was careful when he presented his five pledges at the start of the year.
Updated
The ConHome broadcast has started, and they are showing a video first, highlighting what Rishi Sunak believes are his main achievements as PM. It covers small boats, the pay agreement with health workers, the CPTPP trade deal, and energy security.
Rishi Sunak's live online interview with ConservativeHome
Rishi Sunak is about to start his live online interview with Paul Goodman, editor of the ConservativeHome website.
You can watch it here, and there should be a live feed at the top of the blog soon.
NHS data methodology changes reveal that 10% of people wait more than 12 hours in A&E in England
As James Illman from the Health Service Journal points out, today’s NHS England performance figures (see 11.50am) give a much more realistic picture of how many people (10.6%) wait more than 12 hours in A&E.
That is because, for the first time, they record how many people waited more than 12 hours from the moment they arrived. Previously, the statistics recorded how many people waited 12 hours from the moment a decision was made that they should be admitted (at which point they may have been waiting quite a while anyway).
BREAKING: @NHSEngland finally reveals true scale of A&E delays after years of publishing data underplaying extent of 12 hour delays in A&E. New data shows 125,505 patients faced waits over 12 hrs in A&E - 10% of total 1.2m attendees- far higher than record under old metric of 55k pic.twitter.com/JBBLleznkV
— James Illman (@Jamesillman) April 13, 2023
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, says the figures are appalling.
After 13 years of Conservative failure to train the staff the NHS needs, patients can no longer be sure the NHS will be there for them in an emergency. These appalling waiting times mean people are just praying they don’t fall ill or have an accident.
24 hours in A&E isn’t just a TV programme, it is now the reality for far too many patients. We cannot go on like this.
Labour will double medical school places and train 10,000 more nurses every year, paid for by abolishing non-doms, so patients are treated on time again.
Illman has also tweeted a table showing the NHS areas with the worst performance on this measure.
Clip shows top 20 NHS areas ranked on proportion of A&E attendees who faced a delay of 12 hours+ while being admitted transferred or discharged. National average is 10% (125k of 12.2m A&E) attendees - but there is significant national variation pic.twitter.com/y5scYXoiWz
— James Illman (@Jamesillman) April 13, 2023
Props to @RCollEM & @RCEMpresident for their tireless campaign to get this proper 12 hour delay data (from the time patient arrives in the A&E, as opposed to time from a decision to admit as was case under old measure) published - a campaign which ran for many years.
— James Illman (@Jamesillman) April 13, 2023
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Philp says changing rules on how police record crimes should free up 443,000 officer hours per year
Chris Philp, the policing minister, has published an article in the Telegraph today explaining the changes being introduced to the way that police record crimes in England and Wales. The changes are being introduced following recommendations from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Philp says:
Firstly, we are dropping the requirement for police to record some crimes twice or more, reintroducing the previous “principal offence” rule. This will remove multiple entries on the database which effectively re-record the same incident many times.
Accurate crime recording is vital, and these changes will better reflect victims’ experience. Recording crime does not equate to investigating crime and the police will continue to pursue all offences involved in the incident.
We are also ensuring police do not waste time on trivial reports of people offended by a rude text message or social media post, or recording public disturbances that have already been dealt with, such as a neighbourly dispute which has been resolved by the time the police arrive at the scene. Creating hurt feelings or offence should not generally be treated as a criminal matter, except in very specific and limited circumstances.
The rules are also being changed to make it easier for officers to cancel the recording of a crime if there is sufficient evidence none was committed.
Philp says the changes will “not come at a cost to standards or transparency”. He says:
Accurate records of crime must be kept, and crimes will be recorded. These changes to the crime-recording rules will enable police to target and focus investigations and provide victims the service they deserve.
In its news release on the changes, the Home Office says they will free up 443,000 hours of police time that would otherwise have been spent filling in forms, and that this is the “equivalent of attendance at 220,000 domestic abuse incidents, 270,000 burglaries, or almost 740,000 antisocial behaviour incidents”.
Updated
Hospital waiting list for England reaches record 7.22m, but 18-month waits down 35%, figures show
The number of people in England waiting to start hospital treatment has risen to a new high, though times for the longest waits are continuing to improve, PA Media reports.
PA says:
Ambulance response times for all types of emergencies have got longer, including for life-threatening illnesses and injuries, but remain below record levels.
Meanwhile around one in 10 people arriving at major A&E departments are having to wait more than 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged – the first time data of this kind has been published.
An estimated 7.22 million people were waiting to start routine hospital treatment at the end of February, up slightly from 7.21 million in January and the highest total since records began in 2007, according to figures from NHS England.
The number waiting more than a year-and-a-half for treatment has dropped from 45,631 to 29,778, a month-on-month fall of 35%, in fresh evidence that progress is being made on clearing the backlog of longest waits.
The government and NHS England have set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April 2023, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.
Waits of more than 52 weeks are down from 379,245 in January to 362,498 in February, with a target for eliminating them completely by March 2025.
Around one in 10 (10.6%) arrivals at hospitals with major A&E departments in February had to wait more than 12 hours before being admitted, discharged or transferred – the equivalent of 125,505 people.
It is the first time data has been published for waits of over 12 hours from the point of arrival, which is one of the commitments agreed by NHS England with the government as part of the recovery plan for urgent and emergency care services.
Until now, figures have been available only for the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E from a decision to admit to actually being admitted.
This figure stood at 39,671 in March, up 13% from 34,976 in February but below the record 54,532 in December 2022.
The number of people waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission has also risen, from 126,948 in February to 144,292 in March, up 14%.
Updated
Joe Biden confuses All Blacks with Black and Tans during Ireland trip
The White House has corrected a gaffe by Joe Biden that confused New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with the British military force known as the Black and Tans that terrorised Ireland, Rory Carroll and Lisa O’Carroll report.
Joe Biden will set out a “shared vision” for the future US-Irish relationship when he addresses the Irish parliament, PA Media reports.
PA says:
The visit by the US president to the island of Ireland continues today, and he will address both houses of the Oireachtas as part of a series of engagements.
Biden, who the White House said had the “time of his life” as he toured County Louth on Wednesday, is also visiting the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, at his official residence in Phoenix Park, and having a meeting with the Irish premier, Leo Varadkar, at nearby Farmleigh House.
At Farmleigh, the president will be invited to watch a sports demonstration by young gaelic games players.
The US national security council senior director Amanda Sloat told reporters Biden would have a “good discussion” with Higgins and the taoiseach about Northern Ireland.
She said Biden’s address to TDs (MPs) and senators will refer to areas of close partnership between both countries and “setting out a shared vision for the future”.
Updated
UK economy flatlined in February amid impact of strikes
Britain’s economy recorded growth of 0.0% in February as a wave of public sector strikes weighed on activity, offsetting a recovery in consumer spending despite the cost of living crisis, Richard Partington reports.
Lord Sumption, a former supreme court justice, has said it will be “very difficult” for the Scottish government to win its legal case against the UK government’s decision to block its gender recognition reform bill.
In an interview with the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, Sumption said:
Section 35 [of the Scotland Act] empowers the UK government to stop a Scottish bill becoming law if it modifies the law relating to a matter reserved to Westminster in a way that adversely affects how the law works.
One of those matters is equal opportunities, and what the UK government says is the Scottish bill modifies the law relating to equal opportunities in a way that adversely affects how it works.
Sumption claimed the bill, which would simplify the process for applying for a gender recognition certificate in Scotland, could create “serious problems” because, if it became law, it could lead to some people having “a different legal gender in different parts of the UK”.
He said Lord Hope, a former deputy president of the supreme court, had described the Scottish government’s legal case against the UK government as “hopeless and a waste of public money”.
Sumption went on:
I wouldn’t go that far. I think that the Scottish government’s legal position is arguable, but I think it is weak.
Their basic problem is that gender reassignment is a protected characteristic and the bill alters the way the law works as applied to those.
The whole scheme of the Scotland Act is that matters that affect only Scotland are devolved to Scotland, matters that affect the whole of the UK remain in the jurisdiction of Westminster. That is the way the Scotland Act works.
The UK government is arguing that this is something that affects the way that UK-wide legislation works.
Updated
UK accused of ‘backward step’ for axing top climate diplomat role
The UK government has axed its most senior climate diplomat post, Damian Carrington reports.
Home Office to announce changes by end of May to make it easier to sack rogue police officers, Philp says
Chris Philp, the policing minister, said that by the end of next month the Home Office will announce changes that will make it easier for police officers accused of misconduct to be sacked.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has complained that under current rules he cannot sack officers even when they have broken the law. The current rules were “crazy”, he said in January, and called for change.
Philp said this morning that he and the home secretary, Suella Braverman, would get a report with recommendations within the next two weeks and that “our intention is to make some announcements, certainly before the end of May, in relation to that”. On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme he went on:
So I think we’re acting quickly on that issue and I’m very sympathetic to the points Sir Mark Rowley has raised … to lead an organisation you need to have the capacity to remove people who work for you who have committed misconduct, or who are simply not performing, or in the case of police who have failed a re-vetting process.
I think it is a reasonable request and we’re working on it extremely quickly.
Updated
Policing minister Chris Philp says he's 'deeply concerned' about extent of mobile phone theft
Chris Philp, the policing minister, has been giving interviews this morning, and he told LBC he was “deeply concerned” about figures showing one mobile phone is reported stolen in London every six minutes. He said:
I’m concerned, deeply concerned, by those figures as a Londoner. As you say, it probably applies in other cities as well. That’s precisely why we’re recruiting all these extra police officers locally, so once they’re all through their training, being able to protect the streets to prevent these crimes in the first place and then follow up afterwards.
Asked whether he thought police follow-ups now are sufficient, Philp replied: “I think there’s more we can do, to be absolutely honest.”
Philp was speaking before a speech he will give later in which he will announce changes to the way the police have to record crime. He told LBC the changes would free up almost 500,000 police hours per year.
Updated
Rayner defends 'hard-hitting' anti-Sunak attack ad - but claims she did not retweet it herself because she was on holiday
Good morning. If the success of an advertising campaign is judged by how long people keep talking about it, then Labour’s attack ad against Rishi Sunak claiming falsely that he does not believe adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison has been a triumph. It was released a week ago, but it is still being talked about by the media, and Labour politicians are still being asked to defend it. Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, is the latest, being asked about it on her interview round this morning.
On Sky News Kay Burley asked Rayner, an enthusiastic user of social media who has never been shy when it comes to saying harsh things about the Tories, why she had not retweeted the ad. Many members of the shadow cabinet haven’t – almost certainly because they realise the central claim is not true (although the ad also contains perfectly valid criticism of sentencing policy under the Tories).
Rayner defended the overall tone of the advertising campaign (the sexual assault sentencing one was just the first of several the party has put out in the past week, some of which have also contained generalised, false claims about Sunak not being in favour of punishment). She told Burley:
I think they’re really hard-hitting, and I think there’s a reason why. It has caught the public’s attention, and that’s what our intention was – to ensure the public do see that the prime minister, and the Conservatives for the last 13 years, have failed to tackle serious crime and have let criminals off the hook. I make no apologies for that. I’m somebody who’s known to not hold my punches. I think that this is an issue that most people will be disgusted by. And I think it’s right that we’ve highlighted that.
But when pressed why she had not retweeted the adverts, Rayner said she was away with her children on holiday last week “and not necessarily on my social media as much as I normally would be”.
Burley put it to Rayner that she has not retweeted the ads because she was “holding your nose because you think they are going a bit far”. Rayner replied: “Not at all.” They were “hard-hitting ads about the government’s failure on crime”, and Labour was right to highlight that, she said.
Labour's @AngelaRayner says party's ad campaigns "are right".
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) April 13, 2023
So why has she not retweeted any?#KayBurley FC pic.twitter.com/6cwwiIuCDb
Yesterday, George Grylls from the Times pointed out that the Labour ad has only run on Twitter, the social media platform most used by journalists. On Facebook, which is a much more important platform for actual voters, other ads are running.
Small bit on Labour's advertising blitz.
— George Grylls (@georgegrylls) April 11, 2023
The infamous Labour attack ad has not run on Google or Facebook at all. It has only appeared on Twitter.
On Facebook, Labour's local elex campaign looks a bit different - targeted, v localised, data collection-style games. pic.twitter.com/S84OwWfD0d
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: NHS England publishes its latest monthly performance figures.
11am: Chris Philp, the policing minister, gives a speech to the Law Society on reducing burdens on police time.
1pm: Rishi Sunak gives a live, online interview to Paul Goodman, editor of the ConservativeHome website, who will also be posing questions from the website’s readers.
3.45pm: Joe Biden, the US president, gives a speech to both houses of the Irish parliament.
If you want to contact me, do try the new “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. (It is not available on the app yet.) This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
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