Early evening summary
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has said that recent reports saying Rishi Sunak privately does not support the Rwanda policy (see 11.27am) show why the government should publish confidential document about its full costs. She made the argument as she opened a debate on a Labour motion that would force the government to publish those figures. During her speech Cooper also rubbished the policy. She told MPs:
In the end, the only deterrence it appears the prime minister actually believes in is deterring his backbenchers from getting rid of him. It’s weak, weak, weak. And yet the taxpayer is paying the price.
It is a totally farcical situation: a prime minister who doesn’t think it is a deterrent; a home secretary who thinks it’s batshit, a former home secretary [Suella Braverman] who says it won’t work; a former immigration minister [Robert Jenrick] who says it doesn’t do the job; and everyone who thinks what we’ve got is a sham, and it’s an incredibly expensive one, with the taxpayer being conned.
So, if ministers disagree with everything that I just said to describe their plans, what is there to hide? Tell us the facts and show us where all of that is wrong.
David Cameron, the foreign secretary, has admitted he is “worried” that Israel may have taken action in Gaza that may be in breach of international law. He made the admission during a hearing with the Commons foreign affairs committee where initially he repeatedly refused to say whether Foreign Office lawyers had advised him that Israel had broken international law. (See 3.26pm.)
The former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has said she will hand back her CBE over the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of post office staff. Vennells made the announcement as Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, told MPs that he is considering bringing a bill to parliament to quash the Post Office Horizon convictions that remain unsafe. (See 12.37pm.)
Updated
Pursglove confirms £240m has already been spent on the Rwanda scheme so far. He says future sums will be set out in annual Home Office reports.
Cooper intervenes, and asks why the government has not published the expected costs, as it had done with the deal with France.
Pursglove again says the figures will be published annually in the usual way.
Updated
Labour claims Britain going back on many measures of equality under Tories
Britain is going backwards on many measures of equality, Labour says. Anneliese Dodds, the shadow secretary for women and equalities, has made the argument in a Fabian Society pamphlet on inequality. In it she says:
Fifty-three years after Labour’s Equal Pay Act, the gender pay gap has now actually increased for a second year in a row, confounding expectations that a slow and steady reduction in the gap would be most likely. More women, old and young, are dropping out of the labour market than before, for a variety of reasons including the impact of the pandemic on women’s working patterns, unaffordable childcare and healthcare problems, such as lack of support with menopause at work.
There has been an explosion in insecure work, with zero-hour contracts and fire and rehire particularly impacting the lowest paid workers, especially Black, Asian and ethnic minority workers.
There are more children, especially Black and working-class children, growing up in poverty, and more disabled people struggling to make ends meet.
For the first time in decades, life expectancy is going backwards within some communities in our country …
The number of women dying in childbirth is rising, and Black women are four times more likely to lose their lives giving birth than white women. Disturbingly, Black children are currently three times more likely to die in infancy than white children, their rates of infant mortality having increased over recent times, rather than continuing to fall as was previously the norm.
And the extent of hate crime has increased over time, with violent hate crime also increasing as a proportion of overall hate crime reports.
And she says “the Conservatives’ commitment to equality extends only as far as they can use equalities issues to stoke political division”. As an example, she cites Lee Anderson, the Conservative party deputy chair, saying his party will fight the next election on “a mix of culture wars and trans debate”.
Updated
Cooper interrupts Pursglove and asks him to confirm that the number of asylum seekers in hotels is 20% higher now than a year ago, when Rishi Sunak said they wanted to stop hotels being used by asylum seekers. And she asks Pursglove to confirm that daily costs have risen from £6m to £8m.
Pursglove ignores the question and just says the government is stopping the use of hotels for asylum seekers.
Updated
Tom Pursglove, the minister for legal migration, is responding in the debate on behalf of the government.
He claims to be glad Labour called this debate. He says it allows him to explain that the government has a plan to tackle illegal migration. Labour doesn’t have a plan, he says.
Cooper says Labour would set up a new unit to return people who come to the UK and do not qualify for asylum.
But the UK could continue to do its bit for people facing persecution, she says.
She says Labour wants a properly controlled asylum system. Under the Tories there is just chaos, she says.
And five broken promises on asylum from the PM, she says.
She urges Tory MPs to back Labour in wanting to get the truth about the government’s Rwanda policy.
Tim Loughton (Con) asks Cooper what Labour would do about asylum seekers arriving in the UK from countries such as Iran, where returns agreements are not possible.
Cooper says people from countries like that tend to be given asylum anyway.
Updated
Cooper says under the Illegal Migration Act people who arrived in the UK after July 2023 should be removed from the country. That provision has not been enacted, but the government says it intends to implement this.
She says there are more than 30,000 people in this category. She says, at the rate deportations are planned, it would take years for these people to be sent to Rwanda. She suggests that, in practice, there will be an amnesty. But the government is not being honest about this with its MPs, he says.
In the Commons James Daly asks Cooper if Labour would allow asylum applications to be processed offshore in Turkey.
Cooper says she is not sure what proposal Daly is referring to. She says currently if someone was in Turkey and applied to come to the UK under the refugee scheme for Ukrainians, their application would be processed offshore.
Updated
Cooper says she does not accept the government’s argument that it cannot publish full details of the future costs of the Rwanda plan because they are covered by commercial confidentiality.
She says the government has published the future costs of its deal with France.
Yvette Cooper says reports saying Sunak privately thinks Rwanda plan won't work show why full costs must be published
In the Commons MPs have just voted on the Labour motion criticising the government’s record on dentistry. It was defeated. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, is opening the next debate on the “humble address” motion that, if passed, would oblige the government to publish confidential documents about the cost of the Rwanda programme.
The text of the motion is here.
Cooper says it is particularly important for these papers to be published given the reports saying Rishi Sunak never backed the plan in the first place. She is referring to the recent leaks.
“You can see it in his face that he does not support it,” she says. (See 11.27am.)
She says the only deterrent Sunak is interested in is deterring his backbenchers from getting rid of him.
Updated
Cameron dismisses claim his role in UK-China investment fund was boosting Beijing's influence, saying project never took off
Brendan O’Hara asks Cameron about this line in the report on China published by the intelligence and security committee last year. The ISC said:
We know that China invests in political influence, and we question whether – with high-profile cases such as David Cameron (UK–China Fund), Sir Danny Alexander (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), Lord Heseltine (The 48 Group Club) and HMG’s former chief information officer, John Suffolk (Huawei) – a similar situation might be arising in relation to China …
Targets are not necessarily limited to serving politicians either. They can include former political figures, if they are sufficiently high profile. For example, it is possible that David Cameron’s role as vice-president of a £1bn China–UK investment fund (itself an initiative of Lord Chadlington), and Sir Danny Alexander’s February 2016 appointment as vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), were in some part engineered by the Chinese state to lend credibility to Chinese investment, as well as to the broader China brand.
Q: Do you agree with that?
Cameron say he might have done if the UK-China fund had ever got off the ground. But it didn’t.
Alicia Kearns, the committee chair, asks Cameron about his support for a Chinese-backed development in Sri Lanka.
Cameron says he was doing this to help Sri Lanka.
The hearing has now finished.
Updated
Back at the foreign affairs committee, David Cameron is being asked about China, and his hopes when he was prime minister to improve relations between China and UK.
Cameron says “a lot has changed” since then. He cites developments in Hong Kong, and the persecution of Uyghurs.
But he says the UK still needs to engage with China.
Graham Stringer (Lab) says the Foreign Office was resistant to the government’s new, firmer approach to China.
Cameron says he is not sure the Foreign Office ever fully believed in the policy he and George Osborne were adopting.
On Huawei, he says this was one issue where he asked for a proper briefing to explain why the government reversed its policy after he left. (When he was PM, the government was encouraging Huawei to invest in the UK’s 5G network. Then the government decided the firm’s technology must be taken out of that network.) Cameron suggests he cannot discuss all the details in public. But he says he was persuaded the situation had changed.
Updated
Scottish government considering pardon scheme for Scots affected by Post Office Horizon scandal, MSPs told
The Scottish government is looking at “the idea of a pardon scheme” for sub-post office operators affected by the Horizon scandal, Angela Constance, the justice secretary has said. PA Media says:
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) – the body tasked with assessing possible miscarriages of justice – has already sent seven such cases to the appeal court, two of which have resulted in overturned convictions, Constance said in Holyrood today.
But she added: “We are, however, looking at what more can be done. We are looking at the idea of a pardon scheme.”
In answer to Fergus Ewing, an SNP MSP, Constance said the government had “an open mind to the best way forward”, adding that the SCCRC had proactively sought out those who may have been wrongfully convicted in 2020.
Constance added that she is aware of the UK-wide compensation scheme which requires an appeal court to overturn a conviction before money can be paid out, and that she has written to UK justice secretary, Alex Chalk, to see “how best we can work together”.
Scottish Tory MSP Russell Findlay told MSPs that the first minister, Humza Yousaf, had not had any meetings relating to the Horizon scandal during his time as justice secretary.
Constance said she would work “collaboratively to ensure that everyone effected in Scotland can access justice and right a wrong where that has (been) done”.
But she went on to accuse Findlay of seeking to “overly politicise this matter when this problem has been in the making since 1999”.
Updated
Cameron praises Gordon Brown’s “brilliant” article in the Guardian today about the need to restart the Middle East peace process.
Here is the article.
And here is an extract. Brown says:
Recent events have also made it clear that the west – in particular the US – cannot now succeed in any peace initiative by acting on its own. It needs to work with the rest of the world, building the widest possible global coalition designed to isolate those most opposed today to a two-state solution: the murderous Hamas and the reactionary clique surrounding Benjamin Netanyahu.
The consequences of doing nothing are too painful to contemplate, not just for Gaza but for the peace of the entire region. One year from now, ceasefire or not, hundreds of thousands of displaced, starving and sick Palestinians could be stranded in overcrowded refugee camps besides rubble-strewn alleyways, hollowed-out buildings and bombed-out infrastructure with no end in sight, and the cycle of violence will threaten to escalate yet again to engulf the region, entrapping a new generation of disaffected young people, who will be easy fodder for recruitment into a Hamas 2.0.
Breakthroughs in geopolitics are rare, but in the least propitious of circumstances – as I argued to the Saudis and Israelis in 2008 – Kennedy and Khrushchev delivered the first ever nuclear test ban treaty, and Reagan and Gorbachev negotiated the biggest reduction of nuclear weapons in history. The year 2024 starts in deep gloom – but with visionary leadership, building upon the 2007-08 plan, there could be light at the end of a very dark tunnel that still threatens, unless we act, to turn pitch black.
Cameron says South Africa wrong to bring case against Israel at ICJ alleging genocide in Gaza
As Patrick Wintour reports, David Cameron told the foreign affairs committee he thought South Africa was wrong to bring a case againt Israel at the international court of justice alleging genocide in Gaza.
David Cameron on South Africa genocide case at ICJ: “I don’t think it is helpful. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it is right. I don’t think we should bandy around terms like genocide. It is for the courts to define genocide not states. Our view is that Israel has a right to defend itself.”
David Cameron on South Africa genocide case at ICJ "I don't think it is helpful. I don't agree with it. I don't think it is right. I don't think we should bandy around terms like genocide. It is for the courts to define genocide not states. Our view is that Israel has a right…
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) January 9, 2024
Updated
Bob Seely (Con) tells Cameron what he thinks Cameron is saying is that, although the Foreign Office lawyers are not saying Israel has definitely broken international law, he thinks they are telling Cameron that Israel would be vulnerable to a legal challenge on this.
Cameron accepts this. He says:
The advice has been so far, that they have the commitment, the capability and the compliance [ie, the stated intention to comply with international law, and the means to ensure this happens] but on lots of occasions that is under question.
Cameron repeatedly refuses to say whether Foreign Office laywers have told him Israel is breaking international law
Brendan O’Hara (SNP) asks if Cameron has been shown any evidence saying Israel has breached international law.
Cameron says he has seen evidence that is concerning. He has to take legal advice. He says he needs to do this to approve arms exports.
Q: Have you been given advice saying Israel has broken international law in the Gaza conflict?
Cameron says he is not a lawyer; it is not for him to give legal advice.
He says he sees lots of things where he needs to ask, is that in line with international law? Questions are put to the Israel. Based on that, he gets advice. And that decides what he will decide in relation to arms imports.
Q: Isn’t turning Gaza’s water supply off a breach of international law?
Cameron says they should turn the water back on.
Q: But is turning it off a breach of international law?
Cameron says he is not a lawyer. You do not need to be a lawyer to tell people to turn water on.
Alicia Kearns asks Sir Philip Barton to confirm that occupying powers have an obligation to provide water.
Barton says that is an legal matter. He presumes Kearns is correct.
Q: So that is a duty for an occupying power?
Yes, says Barton. But he says whether Israel is an occupying power is another matter.
Kearns asks Cameron about the legal advice he has received.
Cameron says the UK has not changed its arms exports
Q: So you have never had advice from a Foreign Office lawyer saying Israel is in breach of international law?
Cameron says he cannot recall every piece of paper put in front of him. He does not want to answer that question.
The reason for not answering this question, I cannot recall every single bit of paper that has been put in front of me.
I look at everything. Of course, there are a lot of things that have happened where you think surely that was something that shouldn’t have happened.
Q: But as PM you were willing to say other countries had broken international law.
Cameron says those were different cases.
Q: But the principle is the same.
Cameron says, if he is being asked if he is worried that Israel might have broken international law, he is willing to say he has been. He asks questions every day.
O’Hara tries again.
Q: Have you received legal advice saying Israel is in breach of international law?
Cameron says the short answer is no. But he says the process is not that simple. He says the questions always need exploration. He asks if that is a helpful answer.
No, says O’Hara.
UPDATE: Léonie Chao-Fong has more on this exchange on our Israel-Hamas live blog. She says Cameron acknowledged that he had seen things regarding the conflict that have been “deeply concerning”, but said it was not his job to make a “legal adjudication”. Cameron said:
Am I worried that Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law, because this particular premises has been bombed, or whatever? Yes, of course.
Updated
Back at the foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns, the chair, asks Cameron if the UK has asked to see Israel’s targeting policy in Gaza.
Cameron says he has not seen it, or asked to see it. He says he does not think Israel would share that.
He says the Israelis say their collateral damage figures are similar to those in other equivalent conflicts.
Kearns says the UK normally operates on a collateral damage rate of 3%. She says, based on the 2014 Gaza conflict, Israel may be operating at a rate closer to 20%. She asks Cameron if he has asked the Israelis what their rate is in this conflict.
Cameron says he has been given figures. He says he always urges the Israelis to make those numbers lower.
Updated
Labour claims number of people doing DIY dentistry because of poor NHS access is 'moral outrage'
The government has left the country “toothless” amid a crisis in NHS dental care access, Wes Streeting has claimed. As PA Media reports, Streeting made the claim as he opened a Labour debate on dentistry. PA says:
The shadow health secretary said the number of people now attempting DIY dentistry is a “moral outrage”, as he opened a Labour-led Commons debate on the lack of dental care available through the NHS.
Streeting also fired a warning shot towards opponents of Labour’s plans to fund dental reform by scrapping the non-domiciled tax status, claiming that the party would “quote their arguments back at them” in campaign leaflets during election year.
He told MPs: “Politics is about choices. Labour chooses to rescue NHS dentistry, not give the wealthiest a tax break. Labour’s plan is fully costed, fully funded and will make a real difference to people across the country. The Tories have left our country toothless, Labour will give our country its smile back and give its NHS back too.”
Streeting said tooth decay was “now the number one reason children aged six to 10 end up in hospital”, adding: “And we face the moral outrage of one in 10 Brits … saying they have been forced to attempt dentistry themselves because the NHS wasn’t there for them when they needed it. This is Dickensian. DIY dentistry in 21st century Britain. Is there any greater example of the decline this country has been subjected to under the Conservatives?”
He claimed Labour would fund NHS dentistry changes through scrapping the non-dom status in order to raise extra tax revenue.
The health secretary, Victoria Atkins, told MPs she was “determined to fix these issues” with NHS dentistry “so that anyone who needs to, can always see an NHS dentist no matter where they live in the country”.
She also said Labour’s plans to scrap the non-dom status could affect the number of foreign workers recruited to the NHS.
Atkins said: “As our economy grows, we on this side of the house want to attract the best and the brightest from around the world to work in our NHS, to work in our tech sector, to work in our life sciences industry, to work in our movie industry – which we may know just filmed Barbie this year – and many other industries that are thriving. Labour, however, apparently wants to shut the door through taxing such people on earnings they make outside the UK. I speak of course of the non-domiciled tax status.”
The health secretary, formerly a Treasury minister, said non-dom taxpayers paid £8bn in UK taxes on their UK earnings last year.
She added: “That is equivalent to more than 230,000 nurses. Labour wants to put that at risk and put the UK at a disadvantage in the highly paid, highly competitive, highly mobile international labour market.”
Updated
Two Britons still being held hostage in Gaza, Cameron tells MPs
David Cameron says two Britons are still being held hostage in Gaza.
Asked if they are still alive, he says he does not want to say any more.
And he says there are other hostages who are “very connected to Britain”.
Asked how many British hostages have already been returned, Cameron says he does not have that figure.
Alicia Kearns (Con) says when the committee asked a similar question to an American diplomat, they could give a figure easily, and provide names too.
When pressed again, Cameron says he thinks there have been no British hostages who have been brought home. But there might be people released who are connected to Britain, he suggests.
Updated
Back at the foreign affairs committee, David Cameron says countries calling for a ceasefire in Gaza now need to explain how that would get rid of Hamas’s ability to fire more rockets at Israel.
The UK wants a “sustainable ceasefire”, he says. That would mean Hamas no longer being able to continue rocket attacks. He says he wants a sustainable ceasefire as soon as possible.
Alicia Kearns (Con) asks Cameron to confirm that the UK considers Israel an occupying power in Gaza.
Cameron says he would need to take legal advice on that.
Kearns says she thinks the Foreign Office does view Israel as the occupying power.
Sir Philip Barton, the permanent secretary, who is giving evidence with Cameron, says the Foreign Office refers to Gaza and the West Bank as occupied territories.
Cameron says there is an issue as to whether it is a military occupier. Whatever the de jure situation, Israel is the de facto occupier, he says.
But he stresses that he does not consider himself as giving a legal definition because he is not a lawyer.
Updated
Some pupils face detention because they don't have devices or broadband needed for digital homework, MPs told
Pupils are being given detentions after failing to complete online homework because their parents cannot afford the digital devices or broadband required, MPs have been told.
The Commons education select committee was told on Tuesday that the shift to online learning during Covid had not solved the problem of digital poverty for many families in England.
Elizabeth Anderson, the chief executive of the Learning Foundation and the Digital Poverty Alliance, said recent research by Deloitte had shown that one in five children still lack access to a device that’s suitable for learning.
The problem is likely to be compounded as parents struggling in the cost of living crisis are resorting to cutting off their broadband in order to try to save money, the committee was told.
The issue is likely to become even more critical as national examinations gradually move online, putting children who do not have proper access to a digital device with a keyboard – rather than just a smartphone – at a disadvantage, the committee heard.
Anderson told the MPs:
Whether it’s remote learning or homework, more and more the expectation is you cannot complete that with pen and paper, you can only complete that online. We regularly hear about children who are receiving regular detentions because their parents can’t afford to provide them with the tools they need to do that.
Updated
Cameron says he has set out five priorities for his time as foreign secretary: 1) supporting Ukraine; 2) a more stable Middle East; 3) enhancing UK security; 4) promoting international development; and 5) delivering jobs and prosperity.
Fabian Hamilton (Lab) asks what Cameron feels about the decision to cut the aid budget and merge the Deparment for International Development with the Foreign Office.
Cameron confirms that he was opposed to the decision to cut the aid budget. But he says he abides by collective responsibility. Politics is a team sport, he says. He says he was happy to accept this as part of agreeing to do the job.
UPDATE: Cameron said:
I said at the time I was disappointed when we went away from the 0.7% … but I said to the Prime Minister when he asked me to do this job that I would accept fully Cabinet collective responsibility and I will work with what we have now, and try to make sure we have the best possible joined-up policy of diplomacy and aid, and make the very most of the 0.5% we have.
Politics is a team enterprise, you can’t always get everything you want.
Updated
The hearing is starting.
Alicia Kearns (Con), the committee chair, says the session will run for two hours. They will spend the first hour on Gaza, she says. And then they will cover Ukraine, China, the Balkans, hostage taking, and other issues.
David Cameron says his overall aim is to enhance Britain’s security and to maximise chances for prosperity.
Q: Why did you take the job?
Cameron says it was because he believes in public service.
David Cameron gives evidence to Commons foreign affairs committee
David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is about to give evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee. This is what the committee has said in a news release about the subjects being discussed.
The committee is likely to explore Lord Cameron’s approach to the role; examine his broader vision and strategy for the UK’s foreign policy, as well as scrutinise his long-term priorities for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The committee is also likely to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and the UK’s engagement with the Middle East and north Africa. The committee may also examine the future of the UK’s relationship with China.
Updated
More than 1.2 million people have signed the online petition hosted by the 38 Degrees website saying Paula Vennells should lose her CBE. But it was set up three years ago, and until 1 January, when the first episode of Mr Bates vs The Post Office was broadcast, it only had 1,000 signatures. The ITV drama led to it taking off.
Robin Priestley, campaigns director at 38 Degrees, said Vennells’ decision to hand back her honour was “an incredible example of people power in action”.
And, in a statement issued by 38 Degrees, David Smith, a former software developer who set up the petition, said:
To me, the removal of the CBE is just the start. The ultimate goal is for the sub-postmasters to get the justice they deserve. In many ways, this is symbolic, but it is a massive symbol.
What I’m hoping is that as soon as somebody as senior as her is held accountable at this level, it will start a domino effect that will lead to the justice and compensation that everyone affected deserves.
Responding to the news that former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has handed back her CBE (see 1.09pm), the Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader Daisy Cooper said:
Paula Vennells is right to hand back her CBE, but the Conservatives still need to explain why they gave it to her in the first place in 2019, along with a plum job at the top of the Cabinet Office.
Oliver Dowden needs to explain why he failed to sack Paula Vennells as a Cabinet Office director when the high court judgment was handed down in 2019, exposing her full involvement in the Horizon scandal.
Chalk says he will consider case for making cuckooing a specific offence
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, has said the government will consider making cuckooing an offence. Cuckooing is when criminals take over the home of a vulnerable person, for example, someone with learning difficulties, so they can use it for criminal purposes.
During justice questions, in response to a question from Julie Marson (Con), who said cuckooing was not a victimless crime and asked if it could be made an offence, Chalk replied:
We have held a stakeholder engagement exercise on this issue … and the exercise reveals that there are civil orders and criminal offences which are available to disrupt it.
It might be, for example, that the underlying offence is a possession of drugs with intent to supply, it might be possession of firearms, there could be common assault etc.
But I do think this is worthy of further consideration, so I would invite a conversation with [Marson] in due course.
Updated
Downing Street has hinted that Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office Horizon scandal (it provided the flawed IT) may stop it getting or keeping other government contracts.
At the morning lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said:
In general, we consider companies’ conduct as part of the formal procurement process.
So once the full facts have been established by the inquiry, we will make further judgments but it’s important we allow that process to take place.
Existing contracts are also kept under review, he added.
Phillipson says Labour will use Osborne ploy to stop parents avoiding VAT on private schools by paying in advance
Labour could draw on changes to VAT introduced by the former Tory chancellor George Osborne in order to block wealthy parents from dodging its planned tax on private schools, PA Media reports. PA says:
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said the party would ensure new legislation leaves no loopholes for people to avoid paying the money if it wins the general election this year.
Education leaders have suggested that parents could sidestep some extra costs from Labour’s plan to abolish tax exemption for private schools by paying for years of schooling in advance.
In a speech at the Centre for Social Justice, Phillipson said: “We would make sure that the legislation is drawn in such a way to ensure that avoidance can’t take place. There is precedent for that. Back in 2010, George Osborne, when he made VAT changes, did something very similar.
“So we’re clear there was precedent when the legislation was drawn in such a way that it is effective in raising the money that we need to invest in our state schools.”
Updated
Government sets Tuesday and Wednesday next week as dates for showdown with Tory rebels over Rwanda bill votes
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, has announced that MPs will debate the remaining stages of the Rwanda bill, the legislation intended to ensure deportations to Rwanda can go ahead, on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
There will be six hours of debate each day.
The bill will considered by a committee of the whole house, meaning all MPs can contribute to the committee stage debates which are normally limited to members of a bill committee, and these are the debates where Tory rightwingers will try to toughen the bill. For example, they may try to remove the clause in the bill allowing individuals to appeal against deportation, or to include provisions saying ministers should ignore European court of human rights injunctions stopping deportations flights.
Tory centrists may also try to amend the bill to tighten the requirement on ministers to obey the European convention on human rights.
Mordaunt normally announces the following week’s Commons business in a statement on Thursdays, but today she made her announcement on a point of order. Asked why she was doing it early, Mordaunt replied:
If I had waited to announce this for the first time on Thursday there would have been very limited time for people to table amendments ahead of the normal tabling deadline.
Updated
Yesterday Downing Street said Rishi Sunak would “strongly support” the honours forfeiture committee “if they were to choose to investigate” the CBE awarded to Paula Vennells with a view to removing it. The committee is independent, and so Sunak does not have the power to decide for himself that an honour should be removed. But with many other people calling for Vennells to be stripped of her honour, including 1.2 million people who have signed an online petition, Vennells may have decided that if she did not give it back voluntarily, she was going to have it taken away from her anyway.
Updated
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells says she is returning her CBE in response to protests about Horizon scandal
Paula Vennells, the former Post Office boss, has announced that she is giving back her CBE in response to the controversy about the unsafe Horizon convictions. In a statement to PA Media she said:
I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.
I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.
I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE.
I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.
I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the subpostmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.
I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded.
Updated
Chalk says 'truly exceptional' Post Office scandal like Guildford Four or Birmingham Six - but with hundreds of victims
Sir Robert Buckland, the Tory former justice secretary, also asked Alex Chalk to consider legislating to quash the Post Office Horizon convictions. In his reply, Chalk said an exceptional measures was needed. He told MPs:
These were truly exceptional circumstances. When I was a backbencher, I was on the record as saying this is the most serious miscarriage of justice since the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. But the clue is there were four in the Guildford case, there were six in the Birmingham case. We are talking about hundreds.
It is truly exceptional, it is truly unprecedented, and it will need an appropriate resolution.
And Sir Bob Neill, the Tory chair of the Commons justice committee, said that if the government were to publish a bill to quash all the Post Office convictions, Chalk should check with senior judges to ensure they agree that the normal means for speeding up and grouping appeals could not deliver justice within an “acceptable timeframe”.
Chalk agreed. He said the government respected the judiciary, and would only legislate if it had exhausted all alternatives.
Updated
Justice secretary Alex Chalk hints he is close to announcing bill to quash outstanding Post Office Horizon convictions
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, has told MPs that he is considering bringing a bill to parliament to quash the unsafe Post Office Horizon convictions that remain unsafe.
He was responding to a question from Nadhim Zahawi, the former Tory cabinet minister, who said there were 800 unsafe convictions that have not yet been overturned. He urged Chalk to bring forward a “simple bill” to quash those convictions.
Chalk said Zahawi had put his finger on the problem “with his customary precision”. He went on:
The suggestion he made is receiving active consideration. I expect to be able to make further announcements shortly.
Updated
These posts on X are from Warwick Mansell, who runs the Education Uncovered website, giving his take on Bridget Phillipson’s speech. (See 12.23pm.)
Returning from @bphillipsonMP 's speech on education. Interesting to see room so packed, with quite a few prominent ed figures in audience. Sense of government in waiting, perhaps. Substance also interesting.
— Warwick Mansell (@warwickmansell) January 9, 2024
Returning from @bphillipsonMP‘s speech on education. Interesting to see room so packed, with quite a few prominent ed figures in audience. Sense of government in waiting, perhaps. Substance also interesting.
Lots of angles, which will write about. BP praised Michael Gove’s energy and sense that ed was at centre of nat conversation, which had been lost, tho stressed twice she often disagreed with him on detail.Labour refocusing on poverty alongside ed would be back to pre-MG approach.
Also interesting to hear Kevan Collins say that big element of his post-covid plan which had been rejected by government had been support for children’s social needs, post-pandemic.Really significant dimension,that has got lost? Not seen point about his plan reported before...(?)
BP also stressed need for ed to support children’s emotional needs, as children’s don’t learn well if unhappy. Huge issue in cases I follow.
Updated
Bridget Phillipson says Labour would give pupils single number for education records, as with NHS
Here are some more lines from Bridget Phillipson’s speech and Q&A this morning.
Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said keeping schools open should be a priority if a future pandemic ever required another lockdown. She said:
When the government first reopened schools for most of our children, the pubs had already been open for weeks.
That was entirely the wrong way around. And I tell you today, that if I’m secretary of state for education, if and when such a national crisis comes again, school should be the last to close and the first to open.
This is a response to the Tory attack line on education. Last night, in response to the advance briefing about Phillipson’s speech, CCHQ issued a statement from Richard Holden, the Conservative party chair, saying: “We’re not going to take any lectures from Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party, which fought tooth and nail to keep schools closed longer during the pandemic.”
Phillipson said the fact that Gavin Williamson, the former education secretary, did not give evidence to the Covid inquiry in person showed how schools were sidelined by the government. She said:
It says a lot that the Covid inquiry isn’t even taking evidence from Sir Gavin Williamson. I don’t blame them because he wasn’t important.
The education secretary – he wasn’t at the table. Ministers failed our children in their greatest hour of need.
She condemned parents who take their children out of school for holidays, saying that was a sign of disrespect. She said:
Cheaper holidays, birthday treats, not fancying it today – these are no excuses for missing school.
Penalties must be part of the system, but they can never be the answer alone. Allowing your child to skip school without good reason shouldn’t just be cause for a fine. It’s deeper.
It’s a mark of disrespect for the children, the teachers, the school. Because absences hurt not just the children missing, but the children there.
She said Labour would introduce a single number, like the NHS number, to hold children’s records across different services together. She said:
Labour will bring a simple single number, like the NHS number that holds records together and that stops children’s needs falling between the gaps within schools and between them, between all of the services that wrap around them. That linkage allows us not just to support children with the issues that they face today, but to help identify the challenges of tomorrow.
She said Labour would “always be the party of family”.
She suggested Labour would take steps to ensure parents cannot avoid paying VAT on private schools fees by paying all fees in advance. This is from the BBC’s education editor, Branwen Jeffreys.
Will labour apply VAT on school fees retrospectively if parents try to pay fully in advance @bphillipsonMP says will make sure there isn't avoidance
— branwen jeffreys (@branwenjeffreys) January 9, 2024
Will labour apply VAT on school fees retrospectively if parents try to pay fully in advance @bphillipsonMP says will make sure there isn’t avoidance
She praised Michael Gove, the Tory former education secretary, for bringing energy and drive to the department.
What Michael Gove brought to education was a sense of energy and drive says @bphillipsonMP who says education has been deprioritised since his time as Education Secretary
— branwen jeffreys (@branwenjeffreys) January 9, 2024
What Michael Gove brought to education was a sense of energy and drive says @bphillipsonMP who says education has been deprioritised since his time as education secretary.
Updated
Labour has a 24-point lead over the Conservatives, according to the latest YouGov polling.
Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention results (2-3 Jan)
— YouGov (@YouGov) January 9, 2024
Con: 22% (-2 from 19-20 Dec)
Lab: 46% (+3)
Lib Dem: 10% (=)
Reform UK: 9% (-2)
Green: 7% (-1)
SNP: 3% (=)https://t.co/SGpvY36FzM pic.twitter.com/JIVoKPLpKB
The polling also shows that Keir Starmer continues to have a sizeable lead over Rishi Sunak on who would make the best PM. “The Labour leader receives the backing of 30% of Britons (no change from our last poll) while Rishi Sunak receives 18% (-3),” YouGov says.
Updated
Sunak hit by further leak that seems intended to undermine his standing with Tory MPs on Rwanda and immigration
There have been a couple of stories recently, based on leaks, that seem intended to undermine Rishi Sunak’s standing with Tory MPs on immigration. On Saturday the BBC said it had seen No 10 papers from 2021 suggesting that Sunak had doubts about the Rwanda policy. And yesterday the Sun published a story saying Sunak considered dropping the policy altogether when he was running for Tory leader in 2022. Sunak did not explicitly deny it.
And today another story in this vein is in the Times. Matt Dathan and Geradline Scott say Sunak overruled Home Office plans to close dozens more hotels used by asylum seekers last autumn. They say as a result the government is paying £1.5m per day for empty beds. They write:
In October the Home Office drew up proposals to close 100 hotels by January but the prime minister ordered the target to be scaled down to 50.
Downing Street feared that the government would be forced to reopen hotels this summer in the event of a surge of migrant crossings, which would damage Sunak politically before the general election.
However, a Home Office insider said it exposed Sunak’s “lack of faith” in the Rwanda policy acting as a deterrent. “No 10 had a low expectation of Rwanda working so they wanted to maintain hotel space and held us back from closing more,” a source said.
A government spokesperson told the Times they did not recognise the claims – a phrase often interpreted in Whitehall as meaning that the facts are essentially true, but that spokesperson contests the way they are being interpreted.
MPs are expected to resume next week the debate on the bill intended to ensure deportations to Rwanda can go ahead and rightwing Tories want to toughen it up to make legal challenges to the policy even harder. Sunak is resisting their demands, and if the leaks are deliberate, and not just the product of journalistic enterprise, they may be intended to pressurise him into backing down.
Updated
Former education recovery commissioner backs Labour's plan to tackle persistent school absences
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, has been giving a speech this morning about Labour’s plans to tackle persistent absence in schools. Sally Weale has a story about the main points here.
At the event this morning Phillipson was introduced and endorsed by Sir Kevan Collins, who was education recovery commissioner for the government until he resigned after Boris Johnson refused to back his call for a £15bn investment to help pupils recover from the impact of Covid on learning. The Johnson government proposed spending £1.4bn instead.
Collins said:
Covid revealed the best and worst of our system: teachers performed heroically as they turned on a sixpence to deliver online learning, parents leant in to support their children’s learning as never before and our children displayed resilience and determination to continue their studies.
However, too many of our children are still living with the impact of the disruption. The failure to re-engage and return to established norms is seen in the collapse in school attendance. For too many children the habit and convention of going to school every day has been broken.
Tackling the crisis of persistent absence must therefore be a priority and the national response must measure up to the scale of the local challenge. It demands a shared endeavour.
Education standards should always take top priority. I’m excited by Bridget’s ambition for our education system and her determination to raise standards and improve outcomes for all our children.
Why government postponed last night's planned vote on oil and gas bill
A reader asks:
There was a lot of press in advance of the oil & gas licensing reaching the Commons yesterday, but I cannot see any report of what happened. Can you fill us in?
The government cancelled the debate (the second reading of the offshore petroleum licensing bill) at short notice. But that wasn’t because they were worried about being defeated. It was because there were four statements or UQs beforehand (on Gaza, the NHS, flooding and the Post Office scandal) and two of them went on for much longer than usual because so many MPs wanted to speak (Gaza and the Post Office – the Post Office one went on for more than two hours). So, by the time the second reading debate was due to start, at 9.13pm, there was only 47 minutes left for the debate. It is being rescheduled, and is due to take place within the next two weeks.
Updated
Ed Davey has 'big questions' to answer about his role in Post Office Horizon scandal, Mel Stride says
During his interview round this morning Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, became the latest Tory to put pressure on Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, over the scandal. Asked about Davey’s involvement, he said there were “big questions” for Davey to answer “which he’s being asked in a very robust way”. Stride added: “I think it’s for him to answer those challenges.”
In an interview with Pippa Crerar yesterday, Davey defended his record while he was minister for postal services from 2010 to 2012 in the coalition government. He said Post Office managers covered up what was happening with “a conspiracy of lies”.
Labour to hold vote calling for release of Rwanda deportation plan documents
Labour has tabled a motion for a vote in parliament today calling for the release of documents relating to the UK government’s Rwanda deportation policy. Here is the story.
Ministers have been arriving in Downing Street for cabinet this morning. Here are some of the arrival pictures.
Photograph: James Manning/PA
Updated
Fujitsu may have to pay compensation for flawed IT behind Post Office Horizon scandal, says minister
Good morning. Cabinet is meeting for the first time this year and, among its other problems, the government is still under pressure to announce something definitive about the Post Office Horizon scandal that will show it is responding to the outrage generated by the ITV drama about the case. The drama, of course, did not reveal anything new about the scandal, which has been seen as a colossal miscarriage of justice for years and already outraged most people who took an interest. But TV turbocharged the sense of injustice, brought in a much wider audience and plonked it on the desks of parliament and the prime minister in a way that means the pressure to “do something” is unavoidable.
As Pippa Crerar reports, ministers want to find a speedy way of quashing the convictions of hundreds of post office operators.
Talks were taking place yesterday and Kevin Hollinrake, the minister for postal services, gave a statement to MPs at around 7pm last night. But he did not have anything definite to announce on and so Mel Stride, the work and pensions minister, has been fielding questions again on the topic during his media round this morning. He told Sky News that things were happening “hour by hour” and that an announcement was imminent.
My understanding is that [talks on quashing convictions] are happening now. So this is something that is happening hour by hour. It’s not something that’s going to happen next week. It is happening right now and we intend to move very quickly.
Stride also told LBC that Fujitsu, the company that provided the faulty Horizon IT system blamed for people being wrongly accused of stealing money, would “quite possibly” have to pay compensation. He said it would not just be the taxpayer compensating the victims.
We’ve got this public inquiry under way. One of the things it’s going to look at … is where does culpability lie? Who is responsible, who knew what when, who did things they shouldn’t have done and so on?
And to the extent that that culpability rests upon the shoulders of others than government, then I think you can expect ministers to come to the appropriate conclusions. And perhaps it won’t be just the taxpayer that is on the hook for those costs.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, gives a speech on school absences. As Sally Weale reports, she will say Labour would legislate for a compulsory national register of home-schooled children as part of a package of measures designed to tackle the problem of persistent absence in schools.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 12.30pm: MPs debate two Labour motions. The first is on dentistry and the second, which starts around 4pm, is on a motion that would force the government to publish confidential government documents about the Rwanda scheme, mostly relating to costs.
2.30pm: David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is questioned by the Commons foreign affairs committee.
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
