Afternoon summary
Ben Wallace, the Tory former defence secretary, has said it is too late for Conservative MPs to replace Rishi Sunak as PM and that they should instead focus on the election and on marching “towards the sound of the guns”. (See 1.50pm.) He was speaking after a weekend where the political news was dominated by claims relating to different Tory factions plotting against Sunak. Sunak himself said today this sort of Westminster leadership chatter “doesn’t matter”. (See 12.17pm.)
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, has claimed that the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill turns parliament into a laughing stock. In a debate on Lords amendments to the bill, which says Rwanda should be regarded as a safe country even though a supreme court ruling said the opposite, Kinnock said:
At the end of the day you cannot legislate to turn dogs into cats. You cannot legislate for the sky to be green and the grass to be blue. It is basic tenet of the respect with which our institutions should be treated that to put this kind of absurd legislation is frankly turning our institutions into a laughing stock.
Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration, said the government was opposed to all the Lords amendments, which strengthen safeguards for asylum seekers in various ways, and MPs are expected to vote to remove them all from the bill in votes later. (See 3.13pm and 3.49pm.)
Updated
New polling from Redfield and Wilton Strategies suggests support for the Conservatives has fallen since the budget.
Labour leads by 26%.
— Redfield & Wilton Strategies (@RedfieldWilton) March 18, 2024
Tied-lowest Conservative % with Rishi Sunak as PM.
Westminster Voting Intention (17 March):
Labour 47% (+5)
Conservative 21% (-3)
Reform UK 14% (–)
Liberal Democrat 8% (-4)
Green 6% (+1)
SNP 3% (+1)
Other 1% (–)
Changes +/- 10 Marhttps://t.co/2qeJYIYrA2 pic.twitter.com/Jfo4cn0wMJ
The Guardian’s opinion poll tracker also has some evidence of Tory support falling marginally after the budget, although it does not identify a pronounced trend.
Savanta has released polling figures suggesting that 23% of Conservative councillors believe that replacing Rishi Sunak ahead of the local elections would have a positive impact on results for their party. Another 32% think it would make no difference, the poll suggests, and 41% think it would make the situation worse.
But Savanta only surveyed 391 councillors, and the poll was commissioned by the campaign group Labour Together, which is hardly neutral. Labour Together said the findings showed the Tories were “in disarray”.
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, told MPs that Labour was supporting all the Lords amendments to the Rwanda bill because they made it “marginally less absurd”.
He also said they would “serve only to put in statute what ministers have actually promised from that despatch box”. He added:
Not one of these amendments is designed to prevent the departure of flights to Rwanda, as the prime minister has repeatedly and wrongly implied that they will.
Barack Obama has finished his meeting at No 10 with Rishi Sunak. He did not answer questions from reporters as he left, although he did say he was “tempted” to tell them something.
Commenting on the meeting, the PM’s spokesperson said:
[Obama] was making an informal courtesy drop-in as part of his trip to London, where he is conducting work of the Obama Foundation …
I think President Obama’s team made contact and obviously the prime minister was very happy to meet with him and discuss the work of the Obama Foundation.
Former environment minister Zac Goldsmith banned from driving for year for speeding offences
The former environment minister Zac Goldsmith has been banned from driving for a year after he was caught speeding seven times last year, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Conservative peer broke speed limits in his hybrid electric Volkswagen Golf on London roads in Paddington, Chelsea and Twickenham between April and November 2023.
He was also caught speeding on two motorways, most recently in December, Westminster magistrates court heard.
As he disqualified the Tory environmentalist from driving, District Judge Daniel Sternberg warned that drivers who speed “emit more harmful emissions” even in hybrid and electric cars.
Goldsmith’s offences included doing 29mph and 28mph in a 20mph zones, doing 46mph and 47mph in 40mph zones, and doing 62mph and 73mph on the motorway in areas where a 50mph limit was in place.
Richard Tice, who combines being leader of Reform UK with being a GB News presenter, has posted a message on X claiming Ofcom has made itself “a laughing stock’ with its ruling against the broadcaster.
Ofcom have made themselves a laughing stock
— Richard Tice 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) March 18, 2024
They need Reform! https://t.co/HnyqHebFAh
Tomlinson goes on to say that the government trusts Rwanda to treat refugees properly. He says the Lords amendment implying otherwise is not necessary. He says the EU has just committed €22m to a support package for refugees in Rwanda, and he quotes the EU ambassador as describing this as “a crucial life saving initiative”.
Debbie Abrahams (Lab), intervenes and says the scheme being funded by the EU is a voluntary one. Will the government make its scheme voluntary too?
Tomlinson says the EU assessment is very clear.
MPs debate Lords amendments to Rwanda bill
In the Commons MPs are now debating the Lords amendments to the Rwanda bill.
Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration, is opening on behalf of the government. He says the government opposes all Lords amendments.
Turning to the amendment requiring the bill to comply with domestic and international law, Tomlinson says this is unnecessary because there is nothing in the bill that conflicts with the UK’s international obligations.
One Labour MP, Stella Creasy, and two DUP MPs, Jim Shannon and Sammy Wilson, make interventions suggesting that the bill could undermine the Good Friday agreement. Tomlinson dismisses their concerns.
UPDATE: Tomlinson said:
I don’t accept that the provisions of the bill undermine the rule of law, and the government takes its responsibilities and its international obligations incredibly seriously.
And there’s nothing in the bill that requires any act or omission which conflicts with our international obligations …
This bill is based on both Rwanda’s and the United Kingdom’s compliance with international law in the form of a treaty, which itself recognises and reflects the international legal obligations of both the United Kingdom and also of Rwanda.
Updated
Barack Obama visits Sunak at No 10
Barack Obama, the former US president, has made a surprise visit to Downing Street. He is in London and chose to pay a courtesy visit to Rishi Sunak, we’re told.
This is a useful reminder as to why most people at Westminster have been assuming that Sunak will delay the general election for as long as possible. There are not many jobs in the world where someone like Obama would decide to drop in to say hello. By comparison, Sunak’s next one will be a disappointment.
Obama won his election with the slogan “Yes we can”. Given Sunak’s current polling, “No we can’t” might be a more accurate description of his plight, and even Obama might struggle to offer him useful advice.
But Obama has been helpful to Keir Starmer. In his new biography of the Labour leader, Tom Baldwin says Starmer had a couple of lengthy conversations with the former president in 2020 which helped the Labour leader think about how he could talk about his toolmaker father to make a wider political point about the importance of respect. Baldwin says:
Around this time, Starmer had a couple of lengthy Zoom chats with Barack Obama, organised by David Lammy, a member of the shadow cabinet who has been friends with Obama since their days at Harvard University together. ‘When Keir started talking about his dad, he got quite emotional,’ says Lammy, ‘and Barack just came alive.’ The former American president’s political rise had been accelerated by the popularity of Dreams from My Father, his autobiographical book about race and his relationship with a largely absentee Kenyan dad. ‘He started interrogating Keir further and drawing on his own challenging background,’ says Lammy. ‘Barack is one of the best storytellers of his generation and he could see something in what Keir was telling him that could become the architecture for a genuine campaign; one where we could talk more about how too many people have been looked down upon by the Establishment, and how too often working-class people have struggled to find their voice in recent decades.’
Baldwin’s book is a great read, for reasons I explained in a post last week.
Law Society urges MPs to back Lords amendments to Rwanda bill
MPs will shortly debate the 10 amendments to the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill passed by the House of Lords. At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson indicated that the government would seek to remove all of them, and restore the bill to the form it was in when it left the Commons. The spokesperson said:
We have previously set out that we believe the bill as it stands, is the right bill to get flights off to Rwanda this spring.
But the Law Society of England and Wales has said MPs should accept the Lords amendments. Its president, Nick Emmerson, said:
The safety of Rwanda bill is a defective, constitutionally improper piece of legislation.
It undermines the rule of law and the UK’s constitutional balance, limits access to justice and ultimately will prove to be unworkable.
While the bill remains fundamentally flawed, peers have managed to make important improvements to the legislation in the House of Lords.
These changes reduce the negative impact on the rule of law and constitutional boundaries and strengthen safeguards to protect the most vulnerable.
It is vital that these improvements are maintained. Removing them would be a drastic blow to both the constitution and the safety of vulnerable individuals, including children and victims.
The Law Society also issued this summary of what the Lords amendments do:
Ensuring the intention to maintain compliance with domestic and international law is on the face of the bill.
Requiring the treaty with Rwanda to be fully implemented before people are removed there and ensuring Parliament’s ongoing oversight of its operation.
Allowing the courts to find Rwanda unsafe if presented with credible evidence.
Allowing appeals in age disputes to avoid the potential removal of unaccompanied children.
Ensuring victims of modern slavery and human trafficking are protected from removal.
Maintaining protections for those at the highest risk of harm if removed to Rwanda.
The Lords is due to consider the bill again on Wednesday. If peers refuse to back down, and insist on pressing again all or some of their amendments, it is expected that the bill will not become law until after the Easter recess.
Ultimately is it expected that peers will back down, as the Labour peer Jeff Rooker explained on X yesterday.
Yes in end Lords will give way after 2/3 ping pongs due to a) the Tory government must own the policy b) too late to use Parliament Act. c) we are not elected. https://t.co/CNNO7m9tOz
— Jeff Rooker (@JeffRookerj) March 17, 2024
Yes in end Lords will give way after 2/3 ping pongs due to a) the Tory government must own the policy b) too late to use Parliament Act. c) we are not elected.
Sadiq Khan says at campaign launch London will go 'much further, much faster' with Labour running No 10 and City Hall
Sadiq Khan accused the Tories of an “abject failure” to tackle the housing crisis as he launched his mayoral campaign with a pledge to build 40,000 new council homes by the end of the decade, PA Media reports. PA says:
In a speech alongside Keir Starmer, he said London would go “much further, much faster” with Labour running both Downing Street and City Hall.
Khan promised to unleash “the greatest council housebuilding drive in a generation” and to double his previous goal to start building 20,000 council homes, which he hit last year.
Describing the mayoral election on May 2 as a “two-horse race” and the “closest contest ever” between himself and the Conservatives’ Susan Hall, he said the vote would “determine whether London’s brightest days are ahead of us or behind us”.
Khan touted the “rare, precious” prospect of Labour rule in both Downing Street and City Hall, saying Starmer’s victory at the general election would mean the capital could “go from rowing against the tide of a Tory government to having the winds of a Labour government at our backs”.
In a plea to voters to re-elect him, the mayor said this presents a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to make real inroads into solving London’s housing crisis” and “end the scandal of rough sleeping”.
He said: “There’s been one constant – an abject failure on [the Conservative government’s] behalf to appreciate the gravity of this crisis. We saw it when the last home secretary claimed homelessness is, quote, a lifestyle choice. We saw it last week when the latest housing minister said housing is never really the problem.”
In a display of strengthened ties between the London mayor and the Labour leadership, Starmer described Khan as “my friend Sadiq” with whom he could “bring about huge change” as he spoke at the campaign launch in central London.
“The idea of me working with my friend Sadiq across London, the mayor of London and a Labour government working together – that will transform so many lives,” he said.
Starmer also praised the mayor’s commitment to clean-air, after last year refusing to back the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) and calling on Khan to “reflect” on the policy.
“I say to people who challenge me on cleaner air, I’ve got two kids. They’re 15 and 13. I wouldn’t give them dirty water to drink and I wouldn’t want them to breathe in dirty air,” he said.
Ben Wallace tells Tories it's too late to replace Sunak and they must 'march towards the sound of the guns'
Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary, came out with a good soundbite about the leadership, and a possible challenge to Rishi Sunak, this morning. He said it was too late to replace Sunak, and that it was now time for Tory MPs to “march towards the sound of the guns”. He told Times Radio:
There comes a moment in time in the electoral cycle where you effectively put on your best suit, you stand up and you march towards the sound of the guns and you get on with it.
Rishi Sunak is the prime minister. He set out his plan. He set out his idea and vision, which I think is to, quite rightly, fix the economy, get inflation down. If we get inflation down, we can see interest rates drop.
Whether colleagues are happy with him or not, it’s too late, right. Get on with it. Stand up. And at some stage this year commit to engage in the general election and put our best case forward. There is no other alternative. And that’s just the reality of it.
This may be a more realistic message than what has been said by other Tories supporting Sunak (eg Mark Harper on the broadcast round yesterday), although it does not count as an enthusiastic endorsement.
Intentionally or not, Wallace was (more or less) quoting the Liberal leader Joe Grimond, who told his party in a famous speech in 1963:
In bygone days, the commanders were taught that when in doubt they should march their troops towards the sound of gunfire. I intend to march my troops towards the sound of gunfire. Politics are a confused affair and the fog of political controversy can obscure many issues. But we will march towards the sound of the guns.
But Wallace, a former soldier (like Grimond, who served in the second world war), won’t be heading towards the sound of gunfire himself at the general election. He is not standing again as a candidate.
Rwanda scheme would have to deter 77% of small boat arrivals to save taxpayer money, thinktank says
Last year the Home Office published an impact assessment saying it would cost the government £169,000 per person to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Today the IPPR, a centre-left thinktank, has published an analysis claiming that the scheme would now cost £230,000 per person.
It also says the scheme would need to deter 77% of potential new small boat arrivals to save the government money. This is “highly unlikely”, it says. Last year the Home Office said the scheme would break even if it achieved a 37% deterrent effect.
And the IPPR says that, if the government were to send all 20,000-odd people who have arrived in the UK on small boats since the Illegal Migration Act was passed to Rwanda, as in theory it is committed to doing, that could cost up to £3.9bn.
Marley Morris, associate director for migration, trade and communities at the IPPR, said:
Aside from the ethical, legal and practical objections, the Rwanda scheme is exceptionally poor value for money. For it to break even, it will need to show a strong deterrent effect, for which there is no compelling evidence. Under the government’s plans, billions could be sent to Rwanda to remove people who have already arrived irregularly since the Illegal Migration Act was passed. The only winner from this scheme appears to be the Rwandan government itself, which has already secured hundreds of millions without doing much at all.
A report from the National Audit Office published earlier this month suggested that, if just 300 people were to go to Rwanda, the cost per person would be £1.8m.
Updated
Sunak restates determination to get first deportation flight to Rwanda off in spring
Rishi Sunak has also restated his determination to get the first deportation flight to Rwanda leaving in the spring. Asked in a pooled interview when this would happen, he replied:
I am still committed to the timeline that I set out previously, which is we aim to get a flight off in the spring.
GB News claims Ofcom ruling saying its Tory presenters broke impartiality rules is 'chilling development for free speech'
Here is the full text of the GB News response to the Ofcom ruling saying it broke impartiality rules. (See 11.01am and 12.04pm.)
We are deeply concerned by the decisions Ofcom has made today.
We will raise this directly with the regulator in the strongest possible terms.
Ofcom is obliged by law to promote free speech and media plurality, and to ensure that alternative voices are heard.
Its latest decisions, in some cases a year after the programme aired, contravene those duties.
Extraordinarily, Ofcom has determined that a programme which it acknowledges was impartial and lacking in any expression of opinion, still somehow breaches its impartiality rules just because an imaginary viewer might think otherwise.
Ofcom has now arbitrarily changed the test so that it is no longer ‘Was it impartial?’ but ‘Could someone think it might not be?’
This is a chilling development for all broadcasters, for freedom of speech, and for everyone in the United Kingdom.
These decisions go against established precedent and raises serious questions about Ofcom’s oversight over its own regulations.
It appears that Ofcom is trying to extend the regulations, rather than enforcing definitions which have been settled for many years.
GB News is a regulated broadcast channel and takes its obligations very seriously.
We are committed to continuing to feature serving politicians hosting programmes and will continue to do so – just as other Ofcom regulated services have in the past and still do.
Sunak defends accepting Hester donations, saying 'when someone expresses remorse, that should be accepted'
In his pooled interview Rishi Sunak defended his decision not to return money given to the Conservative party by Frank Hester. Hester has given the party at least £10m, and another £5m is said to have been paid recently, or at least been offered.
Asked why the party would take £5m from someone Sunak himself had said had made a racist comment, Sunak replied:
He’s already apologised for these comments. And my point of view is when someone apologises genuinely, expresses remorse – that should be accepted. And that’s that.
Critics of the Tories have said that, while Hester has said that his remarks about Diane Abbott were rude, he has argued they were not related to her race or gender. Hester has also expressed his opposition to racism.
Updated
Sunak claims Tories are 'united' in wanting better future for UK, and claims talk about leadership situation 'doesn't matter'
Rishi Sunak has claimed that “all Conservatives are united in wanting to deliver a brighter future” for Britain.
In a pooled interview after his economy speech this morning, asked why he did not let one of his “disloyal colleagues” have the “poisoned chalice” of being PM, Sunak replied:
I’m not interested in all Westminster politics. It doesn’t matter.
What matters is the future of our country. And that’s what I am squarely focused on.
That’s what I get up every morning, working as hard as I can, to deliver – whether it’s cutting people’s taxes, increasing the state pension … today increasing the number of apprenticeships and talking to small businesses.
Those are the things that matter to people. And as we have seen over the last few weeks, our plan is working. Inflation is coming down, wages are growing and the economy is back to growing again.
Asked why he could not get Tory MPs to “shut up” about the leadership, Sunak replied:
All Conservatives are united in wanting to deliver a brighter future for our country.
And, after listing tax cuts, state pension increases, and progress on tackling illegal migration as things that matter to people, Sunak said:
We are absolutely united in delivering for the country on these important matters.
GB News has described the Ofcom ruling saying it broke impartiality rules on five occasions by allowing Tory MPs to act as news presenters (see 11.01am) as a “a chilling development … for freedom of speech”. These are from the BBC’s George Mann.
Now @GBNEWS has responded 'This is a chilling development for all broadcasters, for freedom of speech, and for everyone in the United Kingdom.'
— George Mann (@sgfmann) March 18, 2024
Now @GBNEWS has responded ‘This is a chilling development for all broadcasters, for freedom of speech, and for everyone in the United Kingdom.’
More from GB News: These decisions go against established precedent and raises serious questions about Ofcom’s oversight over its own regulations.
It appears that Ofcom is trying to extend the regulations, rather than enforcing definitions which have been settled for many years.
GB News is a regulated broadcast channel and takes its obligations very seriously.
UPDATE: See 12.49pm for the full statement.
Updated
Badenoch says she does not see case for government support specifically intended to help black people in business
At the business event Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, was asked if there was any government support specifically for black women in business in rural areas. The question was posed by Sandra Murphy, CEO of Equidiet Ltd. She said she created the world’s first liquid feed for horses and was the ninth black woman in the UK to get a patent. She said she lived in Lincolnshire, and worked in a very white, middle class industry (the horse industry).
Badenoch said she understood Murphy’s situation. She said her constituency, Saffron Walden in Essex, is 98% white. But people voted for her even though she looks “completely different from the average person walking down the street”, she said.
But there was no specific ethnicity-based support programme for someone like Murphy, she said. She explained:
We don’t have any specific ethnicity-based support programme, but that is for a particular reason.
There is a very clear need when looking at women in particular, in the workplace versus men. It’s very simple, it’s quite binary, there’s a lot of data and a lot of evidence.
With ethnicity, there’s a whole spectrum, there’s lots of different people, and we had a report that came out about a year or two ago Inclusive Britain, and there’s a programme in there about inclusion at work.
What we are trying to do is make sure that people face attitudes that are better, and that will help in terms of things like access to finance and so on.
I personally, and I say this not just as the business secretary but also as the equalities minister, worry that if we divide people into too many groups, at some point it stops being about helping people overcome discrimination and actually just about which group is getting which pot of money.
Updated
At the start of the year barely a day went by without CCHQ issuing at least one press release, sometimes more, pointing out that some Labour MP had confirmed the party’s commitment to its £28bn green investment plan, and claiming that this would have to be funded by higher taxes. Keir Starmer ultimately abandoned the £28bn spending target in February. This did not entirely stop the torrent of ‘Labour tax rise’ claims from CCHQ, but the flow has dried up a bit, and they make the papers much less often now.
Now the Conservative party is on the receiving end of a similar tactic. Labour says that Rishi Sunak’s long-term pledge to abolish national insurance would have to be funded by spending cuts, or tax rises, and it has just released this statement from Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, about Sunak’s reference to his long-term aspiration in his speech this morning. (See 10.41am.)
Jones said:
Once again, Rishi Sunak is promising his £46bn unfunded plan without a single word on how he will pay for it.
Families across Britain know only too well the consequences of the Tories’ unfunded promises. The biggest threat to the economy and family finances is five more years of Conservative chaos.
The Tories must come clean about how they will pay for their plan or whose taxes will have to go up.
Rishi Sunak’s Q&A with business figures is over. He did not take any questions from journalists, although he is doing media interviews later in the day. Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, is speaking at the same event now. There is a live feed at the top of the page.
Ofcom says GB News broke impartiality rules by using Tory MPs as news presenters - but issues warning, not sanctions
Ofcom has ruled today that GB News broke impartiality rules on five occasions by using Tory MPs as news presenters.
But it has not imposed sanctions on the broadaster. It says these count as first offence, and that there may be sanctions if it happens again.
Ofcom criticised two episodes of a programme presented by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, and three episodes of a programme presented by Esther McVey, the so-called “minister for common sense” in the Cabinet Office and her husband, the Tory MP Philip Davies.
In a statement it says:
Under the Broadcasting Code, news, in whatever form, must be presented with due impartiality. Additionally, a politician cannot be a newsreader, news interviewer or news reporter unless, exceptionally, there is editorial justification.
In line with the right to freedom of expression, broadcasters have editorial freedom to offer audiences a wide range of programme formats, including using politicians to present current affairs or other non-news programmes. Politicians may also appear in broadcast news content as an interviewee or any other type of guest.
Individual programmes can also feature a mix of news and non-news content and move between the two genres. If, however, a licensee chooses to use a politician as a presenter in a programme containing both news and current affairs content, it must take steps to ensure they do not act as a newsreader, news interviewer or news reporter in that programme.
After careful consideration of the facts in each case – including forensic analysis of the content and detailed representations from GB News – we found that two episodes of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation, two episodes of Friday Morning with Esther and Phil, and one episode of Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil, broadcast during May and June 2023, failed to comply with Rules 5.1 and 5.3 of the Broadcasting Code.
All five programmes in question contained a mix of news and current affairs content. We found that host politicians acted as newsreaders, news interviewers or news reporters in sequences which clearly constituted news – including reporting breaking news events – without exceptional justification. News was, therefore, not presented with due impartiality.
Section 5.1 of the code says: “News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality.” And second 5.3 says: “No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified. In that case, the political allegiance of that person must be made clear to the audience.”
Ofcom says that these are GB News’ first breaches of these rules. If there are further breaches, the broadcaster may face sanctions, it says.
These are the first breaches of Rules 5.1 and 5.3 recorded against GB News. Since opening these investigations, there has only been one further programme which has raised issues warranting investigation under these rules. We are clear, however, that GB News is put on notice that any repeated breaches of Rules 5.1 and 5.3 may result in the imposition of a statutory sanction.
UPDATE: McVey and Davies are no longer part of the GB News line-up, and last hosted programmes on the channel last year, PA Media reports.
Updated
Rob Powell from Sky News says the Sunak speech does not match some of the advance hype.
Gosh that was a short & limited speech (around seven minutes) by the PM given it was being talked up as Rishi Sunak's "first economic speech since the Spring Budget".
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) March 18, 2024
Not sure that will necessarily shift the dial all that much.
Gosh that was a short & limited speech (around seven minutes) by the PM given it was being talked up as Rishi Sunak’s “first economic speech since the Spring Budget”.
Not sure that will necessarily shift the dial all that much.
Powell is referring in particular to the Times’ splash.
Monday's TIMES: This is our bounce back year, Sunak tells critics#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/jkYP5j952F
— Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) March 17, 2024
Sunak is now taking questions from the business figures in the audience. So far the answers have been quite dull, and Sky News has abandoned its live coverage. But we have a live feed at the top of the blog.
Sunak says government will save SMEs £150m per year by cutting regulation affecting them
Sunak says the government is cutting taxes. And he confirms that its long-term ambition is to abolish national insurance.
He claims the government has cut red tape, saying more than 2,000 EU laws have been revoked, and 500 more will be abolished this year.
And he says the government will go further and cut regulation for small businesses.
This is what No 10 said about this in an overnight news release.
The prime minister is also expected to announce further deregulatory measures to simplify both non-financial and financial reporting for SMEs which is expected to save thousands of businesses across the UK around £150m per year.
This includes increasing the number of companies which qualify as a smaller or medium sized business through a 50% uplift to the thresholds that determine a company’s size. This is expected to benefit up to 132,000 businesses who will be spared from burdensome form-filling and non-financial reporting requirements.
The existing onerous and outdated thresholds were previously set by the EU, but our Brexit freedoms mean we can now raise the thresholds to ensure they’re more proportionate and better reflect the needs of British businesses. This has also allowed us to go further than the EU, who recently raised its thresholds by 25%.
We are also removing several duplicative and bureaucratic EU reporting requirements, including for what companies must set out in their annual reports, whilst also making it easier for companies to share digitalised annual reports rather than paper copies – ensuring businesses practices are fit for the modern age.
Taken together, these changes are expected to deliver around £150m of savings for SMEs per year and save small businesses at least 1 million hours per year in total.
Rishi Sunak gives speech on economy
Rishi Sunak has just started his speech on the economy.
He says he grew up in a small business. When he was not at school, he worked in his mother’s pharmacy, he says. He says the family had a stake in the business; if they worked hard, they would do well.
That is how it should be, he says.
He says he knows the economic situation has been tough. But the government’s plan is starting to work, he claims. Inflation has fallen by more than a half.
Labour gives details of plans for 1,000-strong returns and enforcement unit
Labour has also overnight issued some details of its plans to set up a 1,000-strong unit to return people who have applied for asylum in the UK but had their applications rejected. In a news release it said:
[Labour] is now announcing details of a new 1,000-strong returns and enforcement unit to increase those removals, from failed asylum seekers through to foreign national offenders - funded through savings made from clearing the asylum backlog and ending hotel use, currently costing the British taxpayer £8m a day.
-Expedite case progression on removals of those with no right to remain and fix the processing gaps identified by the chief inspector of borders
-Include officers posted to foreign countries to negotiate more returns agreements, allowing the UK to return people back to their safe country of origin
-Work to identify, shut down and penalise workplaces that are illegally employing and exploiting asylum seekers, particularly looking at the practice of recruiting from asylum hotels, and co-operate with the police on arresting those responsible for the trafficking of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from hotels.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, and Yvette Cooper, his Labour shadow, have been having a row on X overnight, prompted by a story in the Times saying that Rwanda wants a staggered start to the deportation bill, and that, if the Rwanda bill gets royal assent soon, the Home Office “hopes it will be able to issue about 150 migrants with removal notification letters by the end of this week”.
Cooper posted this.
Unbelievable. Govt finally admitting here that Tories’ flagship £500m Rwanda scheme will only cover around 150 people
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) March 17, 2024
Probable cost of this failing gimmick to British taxpayer is near £2m per person
Labour will put that money into border security instead https://t.co/SNH7aWSZZN
Unbelievable. Govt finally admitting here that Tories’ flagship £500m Rwanda scheme will only cover around 150 people
Probable cost of this failing gimmick to British taxpayer is near £2m per person
Labour will put that money into border security instead
Cleverly said Cooper should read the article, which says: “The Rwandan government has said there is no cap on numbers and while there will be a staggered approach to the first flights, there would be no pause in numbers it can accept.”
.@YvetteCooperMP at least read the article 🤦 https://t.co/uR9GJb23df pic.twitter.com/4ynCSftisH
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) March 17, 2024
And Cooper replied:
🙄 James - you’ve bust the Home Office budget by £5bn, you’re writing £500m in taxpayer cheques to Rwanda, your own immigration ministers say numbers will be low hundreds & you are trying to pay volunteers to fill flights because scheme is failing.
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) March 18, 2024
In your own words - “batshit” https://t.co/vkBUfQdiBJ
James - you’ve bust the Home Office budget by £5bn, you’re writing £500m in taxpayer cheques to Rwanda, your own immigration ministers say numbers will be low hundreds & you are trying to pay volunteers to fill flights because scheme is failing.
In your own words - “batshit”
Updated
Sadiq Khan promises 40,000 new London council homes if he wins third term
Sadiq Khan will launch his campaign for a record third term as mayor of London by promising the “greatest council homebuilding drive in a generation”, Daniel Boffey reports.
Badenoch says she is 'surprised' people think Tories should return donations from Frank Hester
Here are some more lines from Kemi Badenoch’s media round this morning.
Badenoch defended Rishi Sunak’s decision not to immediately describe the reported remarks from the Tory donor Frank Hester about Diane Abbott as racist last week. Sunak attracted widespread criticism because initially No 10 just described the comments as unacceptable. It did not issue a statement saying the comments were racist until after Badenoch had denounced them in those terms herself, giving the impression that Sunak was following a lead taken by his business secretary. Today Badenoch told BBC Breakfast that she did not accept that interpretation. She said No 10 was taking its time because “they were establishing the facts of the matter”. She went on:
I gave a personal opinion. And to be honest, I don’t want a prime minister who is just going to be lurching out, making comments every five minutes in response to the media.
What he is not doing is following the media’s lead, and I’m very pleased that he agreed with me, but I was making my comments in a personal capacity as the only black woman in the cabinet.
She said she was “surprised” people thought the Conservative party should return the donations (at least £10m, possibly £15m) it has received from Hester. She told LBC:
I’m actually quite surprised that people suggest this [that the party return the money]. This was something that happened five years ago … He’s apologised for it. I think that it is far more important that we accept the apology and [move on]. It’s taking too much attention, I think, away from what is actually meaningful to the people around the country.
She claimed that the Hester comments were “not even really about Diane Abbott”. She told LBC:
He wasn’t talking to Diane Abbott. It wasn’t even really about Diane Abbott. He used her in a reference that was completely unacceptable.
Badenoch was referring to the fact that, in the comment as reported in the Guardian, Hester made his offensive comment about Abbott as he was elaborating on an offensive comment he was making about someone else. In response, a spokesperson for Hester said he accepted he was rude about Abbott, but claimed “his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”.
Badenoch claimed that reports of a possible leadership challenge to Sunak were just “rumours” and based on the views of “one or two MPs”. She told BBC Breakfast:
I don’t think that there is very much to these rumours. It is almost the same thing we have been reading week after week for the last two years.
And we need to make sure that one or two MPs cannot dominate the news narrative when 350-plus MPs have different views.
Updated
Badenoch appeals for Tory unity as report says Sunak might trigger election to avert leadership challenge
Good morning. Rishi Sunak is in fightback mode this morning, seeking to reassert his authority after what might have been his worst week as Tory leader and reports of new threats to his leadership.
You may feel you have read that sentence before on a Monday. And I’m afraid it is likely, before we head towards the general election, that you will read it again. Sunak’s premiership is stuck in a spiral of despair. But there are three features of what is happening this morning that make today’s crisis Monday different from previous ones.
1) A Sunak ally has floated the prospect of the PM calling an election if necessary as a means of averting a leadership contest. In their Times splash, Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright report:
A senior ally of the prime minister said that Sunak’s critics underestimate his resolve. They said that he would be prepared to call a general election if rebels force a leadership contest.
“He’s increasingly determined to prove his point and establish his own mandate,” they said. “You don’t get to achieve the things he’s done without some steel. He’s not just going to roll over.
“People should be careful what they wish for. It’s up to them. If they don’t want an election they should stop messing about. Rishi could easily say ‘OK, if that’s the mood of the party I don’t think it’s fair to put it to another leadership contest’. He can say reasonably he might just go to the palace instead.”
This is the first time No 10 has floated this prospect. It is only one quote, but it is from serious journalists in a serious paper, and there is a risk it could backfire, provoking Sunak’s critics rather than quelling them. He may get asked about this later.
2) Sunak is betting everything on economic recovery. According to extracts from his speech briefed in advance, he will say:
There is now a real sense that the economy is turning a corner with all the economic indicators pointing in the right direction.
This year, 2024, will be the year Britain bounces back.
Inflation has more than halved, with the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) forecasting it will hit its 2% target in just a few months’ time, a full year ahead of what they were forecasting just a few months ago.
3) No 10 has deployed Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, to deliver a unity message this morning. Badenoch is seen as favourite to succeed Sunak after the next election, and she regularly makes interventions that imply she is not loyal to his policy agenda. But this morning she had a rare outing as the government spokesperson on the media round, and she used it to urge Tory plotters to support the PM. She told LBC:
I have said many times that people need to stop messing around and get behind the prime minister.
But I think at this particular time, it is really important that we remember that there are thousands of councillors all around the country who are going to be standing for election in May. We need people to focus on what they have been doing to help their local communities and not be obsessed with Westminster psychodrama …
I’m here in Coventry in the West Midlands, look at what is happening with auto, they have had so much investment under [Conservative West Midlands mayor] Andy Street. That is what I want people to know about rather than who said what in the tea room in parliament. It is just Westminster bubble gossip, it is not important.
Badenoch also used her interviews to defend Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, from claims that she is actively plotting to undermine Sunak. “I’m sure if Penny was here, she would be distancing herself from those comments,” Badenoch said. But Mordaunt is one of Badenoch’s main rivals in the contest to be next Tory leader and implicit in this comment was a suggestion that, if Mordaunt really has nothing to do with the plot against Sunak reported over the weekened, perhaps she should say so on the record herself.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Rishi Sunak is giving a speech on the economy in Warwickshire, where he is also doing a Q&A to promote government plans to reform the apprenticeship system.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate Lords amendments to the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill.
Also, Sadiq Khan is launching his campaign today for re-election as London’s mayor.
If you want to contact me, do try the “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 laptop or a desktop. 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.
Updated
