Evening summary
It’s almost 5pm here in London. Here is a round-up of all the day’s stories:
Downing Street insisted officials rather than Rishi Sunak authorised more than £3,000 of spending on fine art photographs for the Treasury. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “Hotels for G20 finance ministers and central bank governors … the hotels were recommended by hosts and as such the prime minister was not involved in those decisions at all. In terms of art work in the Treasury, the PM – when chancellor – was not involved in that decision either. It was a non-ministerial decision related to refurbishment of some of the offices.”
Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, denied that her decision to expense hundreds of pounds on Apple electronics is the same as Whitehall’s use of government procurement cards on luxury items. Labour claimed that a “lavish spending” culture in the civil service has seen taxpayer’s money wasted on fine art and fine dining. Civil servants at 14 of the 15 main government departments spent nearly £150m on government procurement cards in 2021, the figures show, a steep rise since 2010-11, when David Cameron warned about the lax rules and oversight governing their use.
But the transport minister Richard Holden said a Labour investigation into government procurement cards (GPCs) had “wasted” civil servants’ time as the information was “already publicly available”. It comes after Labour compiled a dossier on the use of the cards – with the party using parliamentary questions to secure some of the data – showing that across 14 major Whitehall departments in 2021 at least £145.5m was spent using GPCs.
The government will do “whatever it takes” to keep the UK safe from the threat of spy balloons, Sunak said. Asked whether such spying devices had been seen in UK airspace, Sunak told broadcasters: “I want people to know that we will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe. We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important.”
Meanwhile, the UK will conduct a security review after the appearance of a series of mysterious objects – including a suspected Chinese spy balloon – over North and South America in recent days, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced. It comes after US fighter jets shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday – the fourth similar object to enter US or Canadian airspace in just over a week.
The UK’s former chief Brexit negotiator has urged ministers to “fully and enthusiastically embrace the advantages of Brexit”, portraying a private meeting of prominent former leave and remain campaigners to discuss how to move on from Brexit in the national interest as a plot to undermine the deal he struck with the EU. The two-day summit, revealed by the Observer on Sunday, was attended by the government minister Michael Gove, who is a former co-leader of the official Brexit campaign, and senior members of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet.
However, Sunak insisted he is focused on the benefits of Brexit after it emerged the senior minister Michael Gove attended a summit addressing the EU withdrawal’s failings. Leading Brexiters, including David Frost, reacted angrily to the “secret” conference, with the Tory peer saying it was “further” evidence of a plot to “unravel” the existing Brexit deals.
Downing Street said it would “carefully” look at the findings of a review by the commissioner for public appointments into the appointment of Richard Sharp as BBC chairman. The prime minister’s official spokesperson, asked whether Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell had been correct to say on Sunday that it was for the BBC board to decide on Sharp’s future, said: “The office for the commissioner of public appointments has announced a review. That is still ongoing, so we’re going to let that process take place.”
Sunak’s spokesperson also refused to criticise Mitchell for his claims that sending migrants to Rwanda would only have a “marginal benefit”. The Downing Street official said the policy of giving migrants arriving illegally in Britain a one-way ticket to the east African country was an “important part of what will be the solution” to the issue of small boats crossing the Channel.
Sunak said he would welcome tougher fines for water companies as he denied reports his government is backing away from hitting sewage polluters with penalties. Sunak was speaking to broadcasters on a visit to a rapid cancer diagnosis centre in Royton, Oldham, and was asked about a report in the Times suggesting the government is prepared to dilute fines for water companies that spill sewage.
A former minister in Tony Blair’s government is seeking to make a comeback at Westminster almost a decade after losing his seat. Douglas Alexander was in both Blair’s cabinet and that of his successor, Gordon Brown, PA Media reported. But as the Scottish National party virtually swept the board in Scotland in the 2015 general election, winning all but three of the Scottish seats at Westminster, Alexander lost his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat to Mhairi Black – then a 20-year-old student.
A long-running dispute involving more than 1,800 bus drivers in London has ended after the workers accepted a “greatly improved” pay offer. Members of Unite employed by Abellio have staged a series of strikes in recent months, PA Media reported. They have accepted a pay increase that Unite said will result in drivers with more than two years’ service being paid £18 an hour, equating to a pay increase of 18% on the basic rate.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along. I’ll be back tomorrow morning. See you then.
Updated
Here are some photos from Rishi Sunak’s visit to Oldham Community Diagnostic Centre in Greater Manchester earlier today.
Updated
