Afternoon summary
Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, has said Cop27 failed on the key issue of keeping global heating to just 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. (See 4.23pm.) He was speaking in the Commons during an urgent question where he also said UK leadership on the issue was at risk. He also said the UK was failing to show leadership on the climate crisis. He said:
The government at home is indulging in a dash for new fossil fuel licences which won’t even make a difference to bills and it refuses to rule out a new coal mine in Cumbria.
Can the minister say, what kind of leadership is it, if we tell others not to have new fossil fuel exploration, but we say it’s okay for us to do it here at home ... I urge the government to show consistent leadership, to lower bills, create jobs and act before it’s too late.
Nusrat Ghani, the industry minister who was responding, said at the summit the prime minister pledged to “speed up the transition to renewables, to create new, high-wage jobs, protect UK energy security, and deliver on net-zero, and chaired a high level meeting on forests, and announced new support for climate vulnerable countries”. But Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, said that Sunak’s response to the conclusion of the summit showed he was not taking the issue seriously. (See 3.06pm.)
Photograph: Simon Dawson/No10 Downing Street
Updated
Regulation watchdog says ministers have failed to provide justification for plan to scrap remaining EU laws
A regulation watchdog has given a damning verdict on the arguments being used by the government to justify the bill that could disapply more than 2,000 remaining laws.
In a report, the regulatory policy committee (RPC) says the government should not be embarking on such sweeping change without having a proper assessment of what the consequences might be.
The committee is a government body set up to provide independent advice on watchdogs. It describes itself as the better regulation watchdog.
It has made its comment in an analysis of the impact assessment published by the government to justify its retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.
The committee says:
The bill proposes sunsetting more than 2,400 pieces of retained EU legislation (REUL) on 31 December 2023, unless, before then, a departmental review proposes retention of, or changes to, the legislation, or delays the sunset until 2026. No impacts for changes to individual pieces of REUL have been assessed at this stage. We asked the [business] department to commit to assessing the impact of changed and sunsetted legislation, for RPC scrutiny in the future, but the Department has not made a firm commitment to do so …
As the independent better regulation watchdog, it is our view that those affected by regulatory change should reasonably expect the government to properly consider the impacts of such changes. We are not assured that the impact of changing or sunsetting each piece of REUL will be calculated or understood under proposals currently in place - particularly where no related secondary legislation is required.
Commenting on the report, Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said:
This reckless bill is puts at risk vital workplace protections – like holiday pay, safe working hours and protection from discrimination.
It has been being rushed through with no consultation and no real thought for the impacts on working people and employers.
This damning assessment from the government’s own experts must force ministers to rethink.
They do not have mandate to slash and burn people’s rights at work. They must ditch this toxic bill now.
Updated
This is from Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor specialising in Brexit and populism, on what impact the ‘Swiss-style Brexit deal’ story may have had on leave support for the Tories.
The % of Leavers who are backing the Conservatives has collapsed from 76% after the @BorisJohnson 2019 victory to 58% at the start of this year to just 44% today. One of the biggest tasks facing @RishiSunak is to win them back. This weekend's events will not have helped ...
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) November 21, 2022
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson admits he was wrong to say NI protocol led to heart operations being cancelled
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has said regrets claiming that the Northern Ireland protocol had delayed some heart surgery operations from going ahead, PA Media reports. PA says:
Donaldson said he accepted the information about surgeries in Northern Ireland was “not entirely accurate”.
Earlier this month, the Southern health and social care trust said 20 patients were transferred to the care of the Belfast trust in August after it could not secure needed cardiac replacement kit in the UK or Ireland due to its size.
Speaking at the time, the DUP leader said healthcare “isn’t helped when access to medicines is impaired and inhibited” by the protocol.
He added: “How does that help people waiting on surgery, on life-saving treatment, that the protocol is preventing the health service from getting what it needs to provide that treatment? That’s why we need a solution on this.”
The trust said at the time that issues securing equipment was not linked to the protocol.
Speaking to the media today, Donaldson said:
I obviously spoke on the basis of the information that had been given from reliable medical sources. That information was not entirely accurate and it was placed in the public domain by me and I regret that this happened.
I accept the trust’s explanation that on this occasion it was the size of the equipment was the issue and they were able to source it from the supplier in Germany - and that the protocol on this occasion was not the problem.
Updated
Brussels is no more enthusiastic about agreeing a Swiss-style Brexit deal with the UK than Rishi Sunak is, Arj Singh reports for the i. Singh writes:
One EU official told i that the idea was “wishful thinking”, with Brussels wary of any return to the so-called cherry picking or cake-ism that defined the UK Brexit debate between 2016 and 2019.
The official instead said the EU views the briefing about a Swiss model as an attempt to gauge the scale of opposition among Tory Brexiteers – what is known in politics as flying a kite: “It seems more something aimed at the ERG (European Research Group) rather than at the EU.”
Jon Stone from the Independent makes a similar point.
Westminster seems to be talking about a 'Swiss-style Brexit deal' all of a sudden. but a Swiss-style Brexit deal isn't even on the table for... Switzerland. The EU is actively working to get rid of it because they don't like it
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) November 21, 2022
you may have spotted the story the other week about Switzerland and the UK signing their own 'science deal' because they're both locked out of the EU's Horizon programme. in the Swiss case the EU won't let them in because of a diplomatic stalemate over their wider relationship
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) November 21, 2022
Cop27 failed on keeping global heating to just 1.5C, Ed Miliband says
Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, told MPs that the Cop27 failed on the key issue of keeping global heating to just 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. In his contribution to the urgent question, he said:
We should be clear, on the crucial issue of 1.5 degrees, this summit failed.
We already see the disastrous effects of one degree of warming. And, rather than tackle this crisis, too many leaders are fiddling while the world burns. And, as a result, we are currently on track according to the UN for a catastrophic 2.8 degrees of warming.
We should tell the truth. Unless we do something different and fast, we will leave a terrible legacy. With this backdrop, no country can be patting itself on the back. And as a country that considers itself a climate leader, we have a responsibility and opportunity to set the pace in the year ahead and our moral authority in the negotiations depends on it.
Miliband also criticised the UK government for “indulging in a dash for new fossil fuel licences which won’t even make a difference to bills”.
Updated
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has just started giving evidence to the Commons levelling up committee. There is a live feed at the top of the page.
Tony Danker, the director general of the CBI, has posted this message on Twitter saying he agrees with the vision Rishi Sunak set out in his speech to its conference this morning. He also says he is glad Sunak declared he wanted to hear suggestions from business as to what regulations should be changed. (See 11.12pm.)
Super to have @RishiSunak with us at #CBIAC22. He set out a vision of what innovation can bring to the U.K. He’s right! And he asked companies to come up with firm proposals which we’ll gather @CBItweets https://t.co/ZvXCEJ7lAd
— Tony Danker (@tonydanker) November 21, 2022
But Danker came up with his own suggestion this morning, when he said the shortage occupation list should be expanded to allow firms to hire more workers from abroad. (See 9.04am.) And when Sunak was asked if he would accept this recommendation, he ducked the question and chuntered on about small boats instead. (See 12.28pm.)
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In the Commons Nusrat Ghani, the industry minister, dismissed Caroline Lucas’s complaint the government not offering a proper statement on Cop27. (See 2.59pm and 3.06pm.) Ghani said that Graham Stuart, the climate minister, could not give a Commons statement today because he was still on his way back from the summit in Egypt, which only wrapped up yesterday. She said that the government offered to do a Commons statement tomorrow, but that Lucas insisted on a UQ today.
On the substance of the summit, Ghani also claimed that the Glasgow climate pact was still working. She said the progress made on loss and damage at Cop27 was significant. And she said the target of keeping global warming to just 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was still alive.
Updated
Lucy Fisher from Times Radio has spoken to a senior business figure who has been complaining about Rishi Sunak’s speech to the CBI.
Senior Biz source grumbles re Sunak: 'Telling us illegal migration is higher priority [is] missing the point'
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) November 21, 2022
Had 'one of PM’s team stayed' at CBI conf 'they would have more detail on the labour shortfall'
John Lewis's issue, for example, is 'not at the AI end of the spectrum' https://t.co/Ho2G5BA1aQ
Also told Sunak 'overdid the NHS detail' in CBI speech. 'This audience isn’t health practitioners. But it does understand R&D, productivity, skills.'
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) November 21, 2022
Biz source welcomes PM's innovation focus, but says govt must share risk & create investable propositions to unlock private cash
Updated
Speaking to the media during a visit to a school in Staffordshire, Rishi Sunak said that the extra money for social care announced in the autumn statement last week would hep ambulance response times, by reducing the amount of time they need to spend waiting outside hospitals. He said:
One of the most important things we need to do is support people to move out of hospitals back into their homes, back into their communities, and that’s why the money that we have put in is going to go and support social care.
And if we can do that, and we can start doing that very quickly, then that will really help alleviate some of the pressure on ambulances waiting outside hospitals. I know that the NHS are committed to delivering on it. We’ve given them significant funding so they can get on with the job.
Asked what he would say to convince people in the Midlands who voted Tory for the first time in 2019 that the Conservatives were worth sticking with, Sunak replied:
I think most importantly now we need to make sure that we tackle inflation.
That’s the number one priority that everyone has. They are looking at the bills they are getting and wanting them to come down.
That’s why the plan that we announced last week is the right plan.
Updated
MPs and parliamentarians have been warned by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, to remain vigilant in the wake of comments made by the head of MI5 about the threat posed to the UK by the Iranian state.
In an email, Hoyle notes that while police and intelligence agencies have not seen any hostile Iranian activity specifically targeting parliamentarians, he stresses the importance of remaining vigilant to this and “any other threats”.
Last week, the head of MI5, Ken McCallum, revealed there have been at least 10 potential threats by Iran to kidnap or kill British or UK-based people this year.
Iran projected threats “directly” in the UK through its “aggressive intelligence services”, he said, including ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based people perceived as enemies of the regime.
In his email, seen by the Guardian, Hoyle said:
Iran has also sanctioned a number of parliamentarians and the security department is in touch with them individually.
We should stress that the police and intelligence agencies are not seeing any hostile Iranian activity specifically focused on parliamentarians.
However, this is a good opportunity to remind you all to remain vigilant to this and any other threat.
He adds that the Iranian agencies have “strong offensive cyber capabilities” and urges all parliamentarians to review and implement mobile and email guidance.
In a blog on the row generated by claims the government was would like a Swiss-style Brexit deal, Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says Rishi Sunak’s insistence that he is not looking at a Switzerland option will not satisfy his critics. Peston says:
The economic case for forging a better trading relationship with the EU is straightforward and obvious. And the politics is completely toxic.So here is the nightmare for the prime minister and chancellor. They’ll deny from breakfast till bed-time that a Swiss-style relationship with the EU is not on the agenda, but the Brexiters in their own party will never believe them, partly because their permanent way-of-life is vigilance against betrayal and also because the background economics mean this time they are right to fear betrayal.
Or to put it another way, none of this will or can be sorted till after the next election, the more so since it is in the interest of the Labour party to be utterly disengaged in it all, in the expectation that (yet again) Brexit will tear apart the government.
The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope suggests Jeremy Hunt himself was the source of the Sunday Times story saying the government wanted a Swiss-style relationship with the EU.
*Today's Chopper's Politics Newsletter*
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) November 21, 2022
Jeremy Hunt blamed for claims that UK might get a Suiss-style Brexit deal with EU.
One senior Brexiteer tells me: “Despite yesterday’s vehement rebuttals from No 10, it now appears that the source of the story was the Chancellor himself." pic.twitter.com/MLKELGsSN2
The Green MP Caroline Lucas has criticised the government for not offering a proper statement to MPs about Cop27. Referring to her urgent question on the topic, which has been granted (see 2.59pm), she said:
At the conclusion of one of the most consequential global climate summits in a generation, all our prime minister could muster was a 33-word tweet.
This frankly pathetic statement is just the latest piece of evidence that our prime minister utterly lacks the climate leadership our country, and planet, desperately needs. From a screeching u-turn on showing up to Cop27 in the first place, to failing to rule out a disastrous new coal mine in Cumbria, to gifting fossil fuel companies a gigantic tax loophole for climate-wrecking oil & gas investment – these are not the actions of a climate leader.
Industry minister with no responsibility for climate put up to answer urgent question on Cop27
Cop27 ended this weekend with an underwhelming agreement which did not agree to phase out the use of fossil fuels.
After Rishi Sunak’s team said he was not going to attend, and his decision to ban King Charles from the summit, the prime minister decided to quash criticism of his apparent lack of interest in Cop or the environment by jetting to Egypt to do a last-minute speech. Critics noticed he appeared to spend the bulk of his time at the summit speaking to Macron and the assembled press about migrants in the English Channel.
Fears this government is not taking Cop and climate change entirely seriously will not be assuaged by the fact junior minister Nusrat Ghani has been wheeled out to answer an urgent question tabled by Caroline Lucas on the summit this afternoon.
She has asked Grant Shapps, the business secretary, for a statement on Cop27 today, but instead he has sent Ghani to speak on his behalf.
Opposition sources have grumbled that Ghani, the industry minister, does not even have climate as part of her brief, and was not at the summit or seemingly involved in any discussions around it.
Tory MP David Warburton admits breaking Commons rules in failing to declare £150,000 loan
The Conservative MP David Warburton has admitted that he broke Commons rules in failing to declare a £150,000 loan from a Russian-born businessman, Roman Joukovski. Warburton also broke the rules when he wrote to the Financial Conduct Authority to provide a reference for Joukovski without mentioning the loan, Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards has concluded.
But, in a report, Stone also said that Warburton’s decision to provide the reference did not break the rule saying MPs should not engage in paid lobbying because Warburton was not trying to obtain a financial or material benefit for Warburton.
Warburton has accepted his mistake, apologised, and included the loan in his entry in the register of members’ interests.
Stone dealt with the complaint under the rectification procedure, which is used for resolving complaints that do not need to be referred to the Commons standards committee because they are judged relatively minor and straightforward.
Updated
Veterans who participated in British nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s are going to get a medal, the Cabinet Office has announced. Some 22,000 veterans will be eligible for the medal, which can also be awarded posthumously and claimed by next of kin. Campaigners have been demanding this recognition for veterans for years.
Rishi Sunak, who has been at a service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire today to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the first British test of a nuclear weapon, said:
I am incredibly proud that we are able to mark the service and dedication of our nuclear test veterans with this new medal. Their commitment and service has preserved peace for the past 70 years, and it is only right their contribution to our safety, freedom and way of life is appropriately recognised with this honour.
Here is the full text of Rishi Sunak’s speech to the CBI.
Villiers defends amendment to levelling up bill that would ban mandatory housing targets
Theresa Villiers, the Conservative former environment secretary, is leading a bid to abolish government house-building targets. She has tabled amendments to the levelling up bill, which is having its report stage in the Commons on Wednesday, including one banning mandatory targets. Another 27 Tories have also signed it. Explaining why she wanted to pass the amendment, she told Times Radio:
I just believe that it’s wrong that local decision making is being consistently undermined by these centrally set housing targets.
If you give local people the power and responsibility over what gets built in their neighbourhood, they will still deliver new homes, it will happen, but in a way which is much more in tune with what local communities want and which is much more consistent with our environmental aspirations.
In a column in the Sunday Times yesterday, Robert Colvile, head of the Centre for Policy Studies thinktank and one of the authors of the Conservative party’s 2019 manifesto, described the Villiers’s amendment as “wicked” and said it would “enshrine nimbyism as the governing principle of British society”, making it harder for young people to buy homes. He said:
These amendments take the biggest divide in our society and prise it wide open. They make the recession — and the accompanying austerity — far worse, given the contribution made by construction to GDP. They cost thousands of people their jobs. They prevent the building of affordable housing, which is funded by levies on private developments. They entrench the dominance of the large housebuilders. They are selfish. They are short-sighted. And they must be stopped.
Villiers has made clear she is not budging. Indeed, she is notorious for her obstinacy. But I implore any MPs tempted to support her to understand the full consequences. If you back these wicked proposals, you are spitting in the face of a generation — not to mention removing any prospect of its members ever becoming homeowners and voting Tory.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson rejected suggestions that there was any sort of rift between Rishi Sunak and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, over the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU. (See 12.28pm.) The spokesperson said Sunak and Hunt were “absolutely” in agreement on Brexit policy.
Sturgeon says she has 'unshakeable commitment' to keeping NHS free at point of use
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that that she has an “unshakeable commitment” to maintain the NHS as a service that will be free at the point of use. She was responding to the report saying Scottish NHS executives discussed the case for charging wealthier patients, as a means of addressing the NHS funding crisis. (See 10.23am.) This is from LBC’s Jack Foster.
“An NHS, universal, free at the point of use, publicly funded, publicly delivered- they are sacrosanct, they are cast iron and are not up for change.”@NicolaSturgeon responds to leaked minutes from health bosses suggesting charging for some parts of the NHS. @LBC @LBCNews pic.twitter.com/ZqIZf1nYEc
— Jack Foster (@jackfostr) November 21, 2022
There will be two urgent questions on the Commons today after 3.30pm: Caroline Lucas from the Green party is asking one on Cop27, and then Labour’s Ruth Jones is asking one on the sale of Newport Wafer Fab.
Sunak's speech and Q&A to CBI - summary and analysis
Rishi Sunak’s speech to the CBI conference this morning won’t be remembered as enormously incisive or transformative. But the last time a PM addressed the CBI a year ago, it was Boris Johnson rambling on about Peppa Pig, and so it was not hard for Sunak to make a better impression, which he did. Here are the main points from his speech and Q&A.
Sunak used his Q&A to authoritatively quash suggestions the government might seek a Swiss-style deal with the EU in the long term. (See 11.41am.) If, as is widely assumed (see 9.48am), Jeremy Hunt was behind the Sunday Times story, then Sunak’s comments can be seen as rebuke to his chancellor.
Sunak brushed aside calls from the CBI for the government to loosen immigration requirements – suggesting it was important to tackle illegal immigration first. In his speech he said:
Part of the reason we ended free movement of labour was to rebuild public consent in our immigration system.
If we’re going to have a system that allows businesses to access the best and brightest from around the world, we need to do more to give the British people trust and confidence that the system works and is fair.
That means tackling illegal migration.
And in his Q&A, when asked specifically about the CBI’s call for firms to be allowed to hire more workers from abroad (see 9.04am), Sunak kept returning to his point about tackling illegal immigration. As Harry Cole from the Sun and Chris Smyth from the Times point out, he seemed to be deliberately linking the two issues.
Suspect public consent on high skilled workers coming here would improve dramatically if the queue jumpers were sorted in Kent https://t.co/jri7RhqElJ
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 21, 2022
He;
Yes, striking that this was what Sunak seemed to be telling the CBI: if we sort out the channel, then no one is going to complain about us giving you the software engineers you want.
— Chris Smyth (@Smyth_Chris) November 21, 2022
But control needs to come first
In one concession to business, though, Sunak did not restate the government’s commitment to reducing the overall level of immigration.
He claimed that Brexit is “already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country”. (See 11.41am.) My colleague Peter Walker found this argument particularly unconvincing.
The further we get from 2016 the more curious and unconvincing it seems to sound when politicians talk up the "benefits of Brexit", as Rishi Sunak is doing at the CBI conference. It's 6+ years on now, and the benefits are still being discussed in theoretical terms.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) November 21, 2022
He said the government needed to be “bold and radical in challenging in conventional wisdom” in healthcare reform. He said:
When it comes to the NHS, we all share the same ambition …
… to give everybody in the country the best possible care, free at the point of use.
But to deliver it, we need to be bold and radical in challenging conventional wisdom.
In terms of examples as to what he meant by this, Sunak said that he wanted to give patients more choice, informed by “radical transparency” about the performance of doctors (an idea that governments have been pursuing at least since the Tony Blair era) and that he wanted the government to think creatively about the roles needed in healthcare (see 10.56am).
Sunak suggested that he would like an overhaul of the school curriculum. Saying that there was no responsibility he felt more deeply as PM than being in charge of developing a world-class education system, he said:
We are asking ourselves radical searching, questions.
About the curriculum – because young people need to enter the modern economy equipped with the right knowledge and skills.
And about technology – because we want to help children engage and learn better and save teachers’ time.
Sunak said he wanted to see British manufacturing use more robotics. He described that as “low-hanging fruit” in the drive for growth. He said:
If we can get that right with more robotics and automation, then we can drive up productivity. It reduces some of the pressure on labour, creates good jobs for people.
It’s something that we lag behind in - I think there was a study from the Robotics Federation, or whoever it was, a couple of years ago which showed that we under-index for the amount of automation and robotics, even when you control for the sectoral mix of our economy.
So that, to me, is actually low-hanging fruit when we talk about how do we drive up growth, we’ve got an opportunity there to do it, and to do it relatively quickly, I hope.
Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor, says Sunak is right.
PM just quoted the underindexing of robots in UK manufacturing… to the CBI!
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) November 21, 2022
This is one of my favourite statistics that the UK doesn’t even feature on the @IFR_robots league table of “robot density” top 20 in the world… pic.twitter.com/kgpwryV42I
Actually the latest stats are pretty stark…
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) November 21, 2022
In 2021, Germany installed almost as many new industrial robots in one year (23,777), as the UK (24,445) has in the entirety of history…
More concerning, in a record year for global installations:
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) November 21, 2022
“In UK, industrial robot installations were down by 7%. The operational stock of robots was calculated at less than a tenth of Germany´s stock. The automotive industry reduced installations by 42% to 507 units in 2021”
Updated
Sunak quashes talk of shift to Swiss-style Brexit, saying he would block any move requiring UK to align with EU laws
Rishi Sunak has now finished taking questions, and in response to the second question, from ITV’s Harry Horton, he delivered his firmest response to the Sunday Times story suggestion the government wants a Swiss-type deal with the EU in the long term. (See 8.51am and 9.48am.) Sunak said:
On trade, let me be unequivocal about this. Under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws.
Now I voted for Brexit. I believe in Brexit and I know that Brexit can deliver, and is already delivering, enormous benefits and opportunities for the country – migration being an immediate one, where we have proper control of our borders and are able to have a conversation with our country about the type of migration that we want and need.
When it comes to trade, it means that we can open up our country to the world’s fastest growing markets. I’ve just got back from the G20 in Indonesia. We’re talking about signing CPTPP, where we’ve got some of the most exciting, fastest-growing economies in the world, and we can become a part of that trading bloc. That’s a fantastic opportunity for the UK.
Or indeed regulation … We need regulatory regimes that are fit for the future that ensure that this country can be leaders in those industries that are going to create the jobs and the growth of the future. And having the regulatory freedom to do that is an important opportunity of Brexit.
And that’s my agenda. And I’m confident that that agenda is not only right for the country, but can deliver enormous benefit for people up and down the UK in the years to come.
This is significant. Ruling out any relationship with the EU “that relies on alignment with EU laws” would rule out any Swiss-style deal with Brussels. Switzerland is not in the European Economic Area (for EU countries and others fully signed up to the single market, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), but it does participate in the single market as a member of the European Free Trade Association (Efta) and it has multiple agreements with the EU that require it to align with EU laws.
I will post more from the speech and Q&A shortly.
Updated
Sunak tells his audience that he needs to hear from business what regulations can be changed to make the UK more innovative.
Updated
Those questions were all from journalists. Now Sunak is taking questions from business figures at the conference.
Tony Danker goes first. He asks Sunak if the government thinks it has the right tax regime to incentivise investment in skills, innovation and capital, or will it go further.
Sunak says tax relief in these areas has been improved. He says the super-deduction was unique; there was nothing like it elsewhere in the world, as far as the government can tell, he says. He suggests these matters are being kept under review.
Updated
Q: Can you say the Conservatives are the party of business?
“Yes, unequivocally,” Sunak says. He says the CBI should have seen, from Sunak’s time as chancellor, that he stood by business. He will continue to do that as PM, he says.
Updated
Q: Will you increase investment allowances?
Sunak says the government has already given tax incentives for investment.
Sunak claims Brexit 'already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities' for UK
Q: How are you going to change relations with the EU on legal immigration and trade?
Sunak says he has already covered immigration.
On trade, he says he will not reach any new agreement with the EU that would involve the UK having to align with EU rules.
Under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws.
He says he voted for Brexit. He claims it is “already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country”. He cites control of immigration as one example.
Updated
Sunak is now taking questions.
Q: Will you listen to demands from business for looser controls on immigration for workers?
Sunak largely dodges the question, and says what people want is for him to tackle illegal immigration.
He says he wants an immigration system “which is highly competitive for the best and the brightest”.
Sunak says the UK ended free movement because people wanted control of immigration.
And he says he is determined to tackle illegal immigration too.
Updated
Sunak says he wants people to be given the skills to innovate.
There is no responsibility as prime minister that I feel more deeply than how we develop a truly world class education system. giving every child in our country the best chance of life and preparing them to enter a rapidly changing world …
We are asking ourselves radical searching questions about the curriculum, because young people need to enter the modern economy equipped with the right knowledge and skill …
I believe in the very core of my being that education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet in public policy. It is the most transformative thing that we can do for our people.
And Sunak says he does not want the world’s AI talent to only to go America or China.
Sunak says government needs to think 'creatively' about what new roles needed in healthcare workforce
Sunak is now talking about innovation in the public services.
He says he grew up in an NHS family. It is in his blood, he says.
But he says the government’s ambition for the NHS “cannot be measured solely by the money we spend, but by the quality of care every patient receives”.
Better care requires innovation, he says. He says that does not just cover the type of treatment available, but how treatment is delivered too. He goes on:
To do that, “we’re opening community diagnostic centres to deliver millions more tests”, he says.
But we need to go further still. We want to give patients genuine choice about where and when to access care. And those choices need to be informed by radical transparency about the performance of our healthcare system.
We’re also making sure the NHS has the workforce it needs for the future. with the right number of doctors and nurses in the right places as well, as well as thinking creatively about what new roles and capabilities we need in the healthcare workforce of the future.
Sunak says he wants small businesses to innovate too. Government should be ambitious for small businesses, like green grocers and plumbers.
The more we innovate, the more we grow. And we have a plan for both, he says.
Sunak says, to ensure innovation can drive growth, the government must invest in science and research.
The autumn statement included £20bn set aside for investment in R&D, he says.
But, he says, private investment is even more important than government investment. That is why the government is using the tax system to promote this.
He says the government will also use its Brexit freedom to create a regulatory environment that supports innovation “in sectors like life sciences, financial services, AI and data”.
Sunak says innovation – the subject of his speech – is crucial to building a better country.
He says he wants innovation to the at the heart of everything the government does.
First, we need to harness innovation to drive economic growth. Second, we need to embed innovation in our public services, especially our NHS. Third, we need to teach people the skills to become great innovators.
Updated
Rishi Sunak giving speech to CBI
Rishi Sunak is speaking now.
He says when he became PM, he said he would put stability and confidence at the heart of the government’s agenda.
The autumn statement contained a plan to tackle inflation, and balance the book.
And he wants to put compassion at the centre of what the government does too, he says.
Re-establishing stability is a first step. But he wants to go further, and build a better country too, he says – “where we cut NHS waiting times and improve the quality of care and where we invest more in schools and give every child a world-class education”.
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Back at the CBI, Tony Danker is using his speech to urge the government to resolve the Northern Ireland protocol deadlock and implement in full the Brexit agreement negotiated by Boris Johnson. This is what he was arguing on Today earlier. (See 8.51am.)
According to No 10, Rishi Sunak’s speech will be on the subject of innovation.
Unusually, Downing Street did not release any extracts in advance. But Sunak may have given a foretaste of what we will hear in his speech to the Conservative party conference in 2021. It is one of the speeches that reveals most what motivates Sunak as a politician, and he talked about how inspired he was by his time in California, and its embrace of innovation. He told the conference:
I believe that the only sustainable route out of poverty comes from having a good job. It’s not just the pounds it puts in your pockets. It’s the sense of worth and self-confidence it gives you. So I will do whatever I can to protect people’s livelihoods, and create new opportunities too.
And when it comes to those new opportunities, I am very much a child of my time. I spent the formative years of my career working around technology companies in California. And I believe the world is at the beginning of a new age of technological progress which can transform jobs, wealth, and transformed lives …
The years I spent in California left a lasting mark on me, working with some of the most innovative and exciting people in finance and technology. Watching ideas becoming a reality. Seeing entrepreneurs build new teams.
It’s not just about money.
I saw a culture, a mindset which was unafraid to challenge itself, reward hard work, and was open to all those with the talent to achieve.
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Danker has been complimentary about Rishi Sunak, but in his speech he has taken a swipe at two of his predecessors.
Danker thanks the conference’s sponsors for continuing to stick with the CBI “despite Peppa Pig” – referring to Johnson’s much mocked speech to the conference last year.
And he said the mini-budget announced when Liz Truss was PM “gave growth a bad name”.
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Rishi Sunak to address CBI in Birmingham
Rishi Sunak will be giving a speech at the CBI conference in Birmingham. He was due to start at 10.15am, but they are running a few minutes later.
Tony Danker, the CBI director general, is speaking now. There is a live feed at the top of the blog.
He pays tribute to Sunak for the way he stood he stood up for his beliefs during the Tory leadership contest in the summer. He is referring to the way Sunak continued to opposed Liz Truss’s plans for unfunded tax cuts, even when it became clear they were popular with Tory members.
Danker also says, in its dealings with Sunak when he was chancellor, the CBI found him to be a man of “integrity and conviction”.
Scotland's health secretary Humza Yousaf says providing NHS services on basis of ability to pay 'abhorrent'
Humza Yousaf, the health secretary in the Scottish government, has ruled out introducing charges for some wealthier patients in the Scottish NHS. He was responding to a BBC report saying that NHS leaders in Scotland have discussed the option.
As PA Media reports, the document, seen by BBC Scotland, details a September meeting with high-ranking health officials that were given the “green light” by NHS Scotland chief executive Caroline Lamb to discuss reform of a service which finds itself in crisis. PA says:
One of the suggestions, according to the report, would result in a “two-tier” system, where some people would pay for care.
One suggestion in the minutes is to “design in a two-tier system where the people who can afford to, go private”, the BBC reports.
Other suggestions included changing the “risk appetite from what we see in hospitals” by setting a target of discharging patients to their home for treatment within 23 hours.
But the minutes of the meeting accept that “it is not gold standard but what other countries can do without an NHS”.
Leaders also considered a review of the cost of long-term prescribing of drugs, pausing the funding of new drugs, applying a charge for freedom of information requests and sending patients home for care, according to the document, while saying there was a 1 billion hole in the service’s finances.
It would no longer be possible, the leaders said, to “continue to run the range of programmes” offered by the health service.
Responding to the story, Yousaf said:
Our National Health Service must be maintained to the founding principles of Bevan - publicly owned, publicly operated and free at the point of need.
The provision of health services must always be based on the individual needs of a patient - and any suggestion that this should in some way be based on ability to pay is abhorrent.
Prescription charges are a tax on illness, they were scrapped by this government and they will not be returning in any shape or form.
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And here are some non-Brexit lines from Robert Jenrick’s morning interview round.
Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the UK government had no intention of introducing charges for the NHS. He was responding to a BBC report saying NHS leaders in Scotland have discussed the possibility of getting the rich to pay for treatment as a means of addressing the NHS funding crisis. Jenrick said:
We certainly don’t have any intention to introduce charges to the NHS.
(In the Tory leadership contest in the summer, Rishi Sunak proposed getting people to pay £10 if they missed a second GP appointment. He has since abandoned this idea.)
Jenrick said the man who died at the Manston processing centre for asylum seekers is not thought to have died of an infectious disease. But he could not give any further details, saying this was a matter for the coroner. He also said there were currently 300 people in the camp. It can house up to 1,600 people.
Jenrick, a former housing minister, said he thought some housing associations had become too large. Asked about the death of Awaab Ishak as a result of mould in a housing association property in Rochdale, he said:
Housing associations, I think, in some cases have moved away from their charitable and social purposes, and have become too large, not sufficiently focused on the interests and needs of the resident.
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Jenrick says 'fundamental tenets' of Brexit deal will not be reopened
In his interviews this morning Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, also ruled out pushing for a Swiss-style deal with the EU. Echoing the firm denial issued by No 10 yesterday, after the Sunday Times story was published (there was no denial ahead of publication), Jenrick told TalkTV:
We have a settled position on our relationship with the European Union, that’s the deal that was struck in 2019 and 2020 – and that’s the one that we intend to stick to.
That sets out the fundamental position that we don’t want to see a return to free movement, we don’t want to have the jurisdiction of European judges in the UK, and we don’t want to be paying any money to the European Union.
Of course there will be things on which we can improve our relationship – trade, security, migration are all key topics, and the prime minister wants to have the most productive relationship possible with our European friends and neighbours.
But there’s no question whatsoever of us reopening the fundamental tenets of that deal.
And he told Sky News:
Money, free movement, jurisdiction of European judges: these are really important things that were discussed at length within the Conservative party, within the country, a few years ago.
We chose our position. I think it’s broadly the right one, because we did that for a reason.
Does that mean the Sunday Times just got it wrong? No. The report seems to have been inspired by an interview that Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, gave to the Today programme on Friday. He said that the government wanted “unfettered trade” with the EU (a phrase used by Theresa May when she was negotiating her own Brexit deal, which was closer to the Swiss version than Boris Johnson’s) and he said he was confident that “over the years ahead we will find outside the single market we are able to remove the vast majority of the trade barriers that exist between us and the EU”. (Johnson himself denied that his deal did put up non-tariff trade barriers, even though it obviously did.)
Caroline Wheeler, the Sunday Times political editor, and one of the authors of the story, has defended her report.
The Sunday Times does not publish important stories like this unless they are impeccably sourced. As you know, the government response is often influenced by a need to manage the warring tribes of the Conservative Party. https://t.co/3D2qQm1Lix
— caroline wheeler (@cazjwheeler) November 20, 2022
Here is the key extract from the Sunday Times story citing senior government sources.
In private, senior government sources have suggested that pursuing frictionless trade requires moving towards a Swiss-style relationship over the next decade. However, they insist this would not extend to a return to freedom of movement.
“It’s obviously something the EU would never offer us upfront because they would say you are trying to have your cake and eat it but the reason I think we will get it is because it is overwhelmingly in the businesses interests on both sides,” one said …
Ministers are confident that the EU’s approach to relations with the UK is thawing as the continent faces the challenges caused by soaring inflation and the conflict in Ukraine.
“I think we will be doing everything we can proactively within our power to make changes to improve things when it comes to the EU,” one source said.
“The bigger picture on this is the EU seeing something which they weren’t expecting, which is massive support for European security from the UK with respect to Ukraine and they can see we are serious about being sensible grownups with the biggest military in Europe doing our bit.
“I think there is a very good way through this with more trust that we were ever going to have with either Boris Johnson or Liz Truss.”
Take out the reference to Switzerland, and there is not such a big gap between what this source is suggesting, and what Jenrick is saying.
In a good analysis of the story, Eleni Courea in her London Playbook briefing for Politico says that report echoes Hunt’s thinking, but that it is not yet clear whether Sunak thinks the same way.
We may get some clues when he addresses the CBI within the hour.
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UK will not ease immigration barriers to plug skills shortages, Jenrick says
Tony Danker, the CBI director general, may not be asking for a Swiss-style Brexit deal, but he does want more immigration. In his interview on the Today programme, he said the government should expand the shortage occupation list – the list of jobs for which foreigners can easily get work visas, because employers cannot find Britons to fill them. He told Today:
When you look at the OBR report on Thursday, they said the only thing that’s really moved the needle on growth is by allowing in a bit more immigration.
The reason why it’s so important is we have literally over a million vacancies in this country, we have 600,000 people who are now long-term unwell, who aren’t coming back to the labour market any time soon.
That’s why we have to get this shortage occupation list – the list of people that we’re really missing that we aren’t going to get in Britain any time soon – and we have to get them to plug the gap while we re-calibrate the labour market in the medium term.
I’m afraid it’s one of those levers that does help you grow, doesn’t cost money, but I recognise it’s a tough political choice for Conservative politicians.
But Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister who was doing the morning interview round for No 10, said the government did not agree. As my colleague Peter Walker reports, Jenrick said the government was still committed to reducing net migration.
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CBI chief Tony Danker joins Tory Brexiters in saying government should not seek Swiss-style Brexit deal
Good morning. Rishi Sunak is addressing the CBI conference this morning, where it is normal for prime ministers to take questions after they have delivered their speech. Sunak is likely to be asked about yesterday’s report in the Sunday Times that started with the intro:
Senior government figures are planning to put Britain on the path towards a Swiss-style relationship with the European Union.
The report is now being denied, but you might have assumed that it would have gone down well with the CBI, which was strongly opposed to Brexit in 2016 and which continues to argue that the way Brexit has been implemented is harmful to business. But even the CBI isn’t calling for a Swiss-style Brexit deal. Tony Danker, the CBI director general, has joined the many Tory Brexiters who reacted with alarm to yesterday’s story in saying that the government should not be aiming for a Swiss-style deal. He told the Today programme this morning:
I’m a bit puzzled about the whole Swiss thing. It took them about 40 years to get to the Swiss arrangement. Currently, we’re not even implementing Boris’s deal. Let’s implement Boris’s Brexit deal, that still has some growth in it, by the way, that’s all come to a freeze, and let’s forget the discussion about Switzerland for now.
Asked if a Swiss-style Brexit deal would be a betrayal of Brexit, Danker replied:
All I want to do is implement Boris’s deal. Currently we’re not implementing Boris’s deal. We’ve got we’ve got an impasse because of the Northern Ireland protocol. There’s lots of freezing of our science relationships, of our recognition of our qualifications, of easier travel across Europe. Those things will give us some growth. But it needs the Europeans and the British government to get round the table and solve the protocol.
There’s a landing zone there. If we fulfil the agreement on the protocol, we’ll start to open up some of those other other economic benefits from Boris’s trade deal.
Danker is speaking at the CBI conference just before Sunak. As my colleague Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog, Danker will argue that last week’s autumn statement did not contain a plan for growth.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.15am: Rishi Sunak speaks at the CBI conference in Birmingham.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
4.15pm: Gove gives evidence to the Commons levelling up committee.
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