Closing summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s main headlines:
Ben Wallace resigned as defence secretary, having announced his intention to quit the cabinet earlier this summer. Wallace confirmed in a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Thursday morning he was standing down to “invest in the parts of life that I have neglected, and to explore new opportunities”.
Grant Shapps was confirmed as the new defence secretary, after Wallace’s resignation. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, moved quickly to appoint Shapps, who most recently served in the cabinet as the energy security secretary. He has previously served as the home secretary (for six days in Liz Truss’s ill-fated cabinet), business secretary, transport secretary and chairman of the Tory party, among a number of junior ministerial roles since 2010.
Shapps knows “very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”, a former chief of the general staff of the British Army has said. Lord Dannatt told Sky News Ben Wallace “did a good job, but he leaves with work in progress”, adding: “And now we have a new defence secretary who knows very little about defence, and it’s a complex portfolio. It will take him quite some time to get up to speed. I think there is a risk that certainly the debate on resources for defence stagnates, at least until Grant Shapps can get his head around his portfolio.”
Rishi Sunak appointed Claire Coutinho as secretary of state for energy security and net zero, No 10 has announced. Coutinho, who was elected as the MP for East Surrey in 2019, had previously served in the cabinet as an education minister.
The Tory MP David Johnston was appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Education, replacing the promoted Claire Coutinho. Johnston, who was first elected in December 2019 and represents Wantage, takes on the vacated role in Rishi Sunak’s mini reshuffle.
The NHS is bracing itself for a winter of industrial unrest after junior doctors in England voted to continue strike action until next spring as part of their campaign for a 35% pay rise. Junior doctors voted 98.4% in favour of staging walkouts until early 2024 unless the government increases their salaries in order to end the dispute.
Thousands of pupils in England may have to begin the autumn term taking lessons remotely after the government ordered more than 100 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken. The guidance from the Department for Education was sent to 156 schools and colleges just days before the start of the new school year. It stated that regardless of the assessed risk of a building made using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) blocks, they should be “taken out of use and mitigations should be implemented immediately”.
The Labour party has spent more £500,000 as part of its lawsuit against five former staffers accused of leaking an internal report on antisemitism, the Guardian understands. The £508,000 spent so far follows a bitter battle between Labour and ex-staff members, including Jeremy Corbyn’s former chief of staff Karie Murphy and his former director of communications Seumas Milne. The total includes £300,000 spent on a failed application to gain access to Murphy’s private emails. The party has been refused permission to appeal.
Labour has suspended one of its most troubled constituency parties after alleged rule-breaking in the run-up to the next general election, the Guardian can reveal. The Leicester East constituency Labour party (CLP), which has been represented by the disgraced parliamentarians Keith Vaz and Claudia Webbe, is the subject of an internal investigation by the party’s headquarters, senior sources have confirmed.
The head of the RSPB has apologised after the wildlife charity called Rishi Sunak and other ministers “liars” in a social media post. Beccy Speight, the chief executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said she did not approve the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that said the UK prime minister, the levelling-up secretary, Michael Gove, and the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, were liars.
Labour and the Conservatives have been accused of being out of step with public concern about the cost-of-living crisis, as polling suggested fewer than one in four people believed tackling it was a priority for the two parties. Swing voters from key demographics – “Workington man” and “Stevenage woman”, the monikers that campaign strategists have given to groups they are targeting – appear sceptical about the parties’ proposals to ease cost pressures. Labour was viewed as significantly better placed to tackle the crisis, by 40% to the Conservatives’ 21%. But only 23% and 21% of voters respectively believed tackling it was a priority for the two parties.
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, has accused the UK government of “playing politics” in relation to drug consumption rooms, which allow people struggling with addiction to safely take drugs under supervision. A report from the home affairs committee at Westminster published on Thursday backed proposals for drug consumption rooms staffed by medical professionals to offer treatment services.
Nadhim Zahawi is in line to become chair of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph after brokering a deal between Middle Eastern investors and the Barclay family, according to reports. The Barclays are thought to be attempting to regain control of the media group with financial support from investors in the United Arab Emirates, months after surrendering the debt-laden business to Lloyds Banking Group.
The former British chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is due to start advising Fortescue on its clean energy ambitions from October – one year after his disastrous mini-budget crashed the pound. Kwarteng, who was sacked last year by then prime minister Liz Truss after only 38 days as chancellor, will provide advice in a part-time capacity to Fortescue’s emerging clean energy division.
And finally, the release of the book written by Nadine Dorries on the downfall of Boris Johnson will be delayed slightly, publisher HarperCollins has confirmed. The former MP’s book, titled The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, had been scheduled to be released on 28 September, just before the Conservative party conference. It will now be released on 9 November, PA Media reports.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Junior doctors in England vote to continue strikes through winter
The NHS is bracing itself for a winter of industrial unrest after junior doctors in England voted to continue strike action until next spring as part of their campaign for a 35% pay rise.
Junior doctors voted 98.4% in favour of staging walkouts until early 2024 unless the government increases their salaries in order to end the dispute.
The result means hospitals and other health services will face disruption for at least several more months because consultants (senior doctors) are also striking over pay. The NHS has had to cancel almost 1m appointments and operations because of industrial action by staff groups including nurses since last December.
