Summary of the day so far …
UK armed forces have evacuated diplomatic staff and their families from Khartoum, in Sudan, the ministry of defence has confirmed. In a statement it said it undertook “a military operation alongside the US, France and other allies”. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, described it as “a complex and rapid evacuation” and praised “the commitment of our diplomats and bravery of the military personnel who carried out this difficult operation”.
In a statement from the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, the ministry of defence said the operation involved more than 1,200 service personnel from the 16th Air Assault Brigade, the Royal Marines and the RAF. Wallace said he was “grateful to all our partners”. It was launched from Cyprus.
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said diplomatic efforts to support British nationals trapped in Sudan are currently “severely limited”. Embassy staff from Sudan would be redeployed at other missions in the area.
Labour has suspended the party whip from Diane Abbott, after the MP wrote a letter suggesting Jewish people had not experienced racism. Following a torrent of criticism from people including the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, who has spoken before about his Jewish faith, Abbott withdrew the comments.
Ministers will continue demanding high standards from civil servants in the aftermath of a report that found Dominic Raab exhibited intimidating and abrasive behaviour towards staff, the new deputy prime minister has said. Oliver Dowden, who took over the role from Raab, said those in the cabinet often worked in “highly pressured situations” and that he had experienced “frustrations” dealing with officials, too. Though he said it was right Raab had quit, Dowden called him as a “very effective” justice secretary who had offered a “huge amount” of public service to the country.
The head of Ofsted has admitted that “a culture of fear” exists around England’s school inspections but said she had no reason to doubt the system of school gradings that has been blamed for the death of a headteacher. Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg if there was a “culture of fear around Ofsted” among teachers, Spielman said: “I certainly acknowledge that it exists,” but went on to blame it on the “tiny proportion” of schools that were rated inadequate after Ofsted inspections. Spielman also said any changes to the way schools in England are inspected would have to come from the government.
A national trial of the UK’s emergency phone system appears to have failed to send the message to everybody whose phones should have received it.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, did not rule out any potential future Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition while appearing on television on Sunday morning. He said: “The Liberal Democrats’ job is to beat Conservatives at the next election. There are one or two seats where we are up against Labour, like Sheffield Hallam, but the vast majority of seats that we can win at the next election in my judgment are against the Conservatives and I want to focus relentlessly on that.”
A new book about the Boris Johnson government has confirmed a story two years ago that the then prime minister had tried to meet the Queen in person, even though he was displaying symptoms of Covid. Iy was vehemently denied at the time by Downing Street.
Labour has cut all ties with the CBI, the shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, has told the BBC. He said the UK business organisation needed “a root and branch review and reform process”.
Public services could become “collateral damage” in Northern Ireland’s political stalemate, an ex-senior civil servant has warned. Former head of the region’s civil service Sir David Sterling said the levels of cuts expected to be asked for are undeliverable and warned of potentially irreversible damage.
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Public services could become “collateral damage” in Northern Ireland’s political stalemate, an ex-senior civil servant has warned.
The former head of the region’s civil service Sir David Sterling said the levels of cuts expected to be asked for are undeliverable and warned of potentially irreversible damage.
PA reports he also argued that a hard budget is being used to try to coax the restoration of the Stormont assembly.
While the departments of health and education are set to see their budgets protected, others are expected to make cuts of up to 10%.
Secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris has been left to set the budget in the absence of a functioning Stormont executive.
Sterling told BBC Northern Ireland’s Sunday Politics programme:
My understanding is that the civil service are expecting that the secretary of state will simply announce allocations at departmental level so he will not specify where any cuts are to fall. We know that there is a measure of protection being afforded to the big budgets in health and education, but even they will be expected to absorb some cuts, but the other departments will probably be having to absorb cuts of more than 10%, and if you take into account we have 10% inflation, in real terms it’s significantly more than that.
Sterling said the situation is “fundamentally undemocratic” and “fundamentally unconstitutional”.
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