Afternoon summary
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has said that he hopes the government will back a Labour amendment calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. He was speaking on Radio 4’s PM programme, where he said that if that were to happen, the Commons would be “speaking with one voice”. The SNP has welcomed the wording of the amendment, saying Keir Starmer performed a U-turn under pressure from the Scottish nationalists. But the government is reportedly planning to table its own amendment to the SNP motion being debated tomorrow. This would prolong the difficulty for Starmer on this issue if the speaker ends up choosing the government’s amendment, not Labour’s. (See 5.01pm.)
The Home Office has just announced that David Neal has been sacked as independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. He was due to leave near the end of March, but a Home Office spokesperson said:
We have terminated the appointment of David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, after he breached the terms of appointment and lost the confidence of the home secretary.
In an interview in the Times published yesterday, Neal revealed that a quarter of foreign care workers are abusing UK visa rules by working illegally. In his story Matt Dathan said:
David Neal has disclosed a series of findings from his inspection into the Home Office’s handling of the social care visa route since it was introduced two years ago to help plug chronic labour shortages in the industry.
He found that the Home Office had issued 275 visas to a care home that did not exist and 1,234 to a company that stated it had only four staff when given a license to operate.
These two examples had led to more than 1,500 migrants being allowed to move to the UK under the guise of having a job in the social care sector.
Neal submitted his report earlier this month but it is one of 13 reports that he has submitted in the past year that remain unpublished by the Home Office. Despite being independent, the department has discretion over when to publish his reports …
As part of his findings, Neal said that his inspectors encountered migrants with care visas working illegally in two out of eight enforcement visits between August and October last year.
He said it was representative of the proportion of migrants on care visas working in the UK more broadly, meaning that about 25,000 of the 101,316 people granted a social care visa in the year to September last year would have been working in other sectors illegally.
And, in a separate interview with the Daily Mail, Neal said high-risk private jets were landing in the UK without their passengers being subject to security checks.
Peter Mandelson, the former cabinet minister and one of the leading figures in New Labour, has criticised the party for championing citizens’ assemblies, and proposing to tighten the hunting ban. In an interview with Times Radio, he said the party should be focusing on the issues that matter most to voters. He said:
I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot to be said for citizens’ assemblies, but is that really the voters priority in this election year?
Or the Labour announcement that we’re suddenly going to reopen the issue of foxhunting, not to scrap the ban, but to tighten it up and to relitigate the whole issue? I mean, these are third or fourth order issues for the public. They’ve got to remain focussed on their strategy and on the key issues which are important to voters.
He said Labour should campaign primarily on the economy, the NHS and crime.
Updated
This is from my colleague Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, on Labour’s Gaza amendment.
Labour's shift to an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire", is substantive, but looking at all the sub-clauses, critics will ask whether this ceasefire is conditional on Israelis having "the right to the assurance that the horror of 7th October cannot happen again". If so, what is… https://t.co/m76aiRkhqb
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) February 20, 2024
Labour’s shift to an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, is substantive, but looking at all the sub-clauses, critics will ask whether this ceasefire is conditional on Israelis having “the right to the assurance that the horror of 7th October cannot happen again”. If so, what is required for that assurance to be given, and who determines it has been provided? More generally the way in which Labour has recently reached some decisions does not bode well for government. It’s full-on in power.
Government's anti-boycott bill would have affected people campaigning against apartheid, Peter Hain tells peers
Campaigners against apartheid-era South Africa’s regime would have fallen foul of a new bill seeking to banning British public bodies from boycotting Israel, according to Peter Hain, former Labour minister and anti-apartheid activist.
The Labour peer was speaking out in Lords against the government’s economic activity of public bodies (overseas matters) bill, which faces opposition from churches, charities and some Conservatives.
Vladimir Putin would have been proud of the bill, Hain told fellow peers, describing it as a “another pernicious piece of legislation of an authoritarian government attacking the freedom to protest against injustice and oppression.”
“This Conservative party is on the wrong side of history as it was over the fight against the most institutionalised system of racism the world has ever seen, namely apartheid,” said Hain, who said it echoed part of Margaret Thatcher’s 1988 Local Government Act to prevent local authorities from boycotting goods from apartheid South Africa.
“The right to boycott is a principle that has had a massive impact for good in the recent past,” he added, recalling that consumer boycott was at the heart of anti-apartheid campaigns for 35 years.
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has championed the bill as a way to ensure local councils and other bodies do not take action that is inconsistent with the UK government’s foreign policy.
The government has criticised two Labour-led councils for boycotting Israel and some in the Conservative party hoped the bill would divide the Labour party. But, several senior Tories last year spoke out against it and warned that it could inflame tensions between Jewish and Muslim communities already heightened by war in the Middle East.
If the government is looking for text for an amendment to the SNP’s Gaza motion, it could opt for the “Prince William amendment” – the statement put out by the Prince of Wales today.
Today marks the first of two visits over the next few weeks to hear more about the human impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) February 20, 2024
Beginning this afternoon, to hear about those supporting the humanitarian response.
A statement from The Prince of Wales pic.twitter.com/LV2jMx75DC
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) February 20, 2024
Government reportedly planning to table its own amendment to SNP's Gaza motion
The government will table its own amendment to the SNP’s Gaza motion, according to ITV’s Anushka Asthana.
The government are putting down an amendment on tomorrow’s SNP motion- and some whips in parliament are suggesting that only one amendment would be chosen in this situation- the govt one. Meaning Labour could be unable to push theirs.
— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) February 20, 2024
The government are putting down an amendment on tomorrow’s SNP motion- and some whips in parliament are suggesting that only one amendment would be chosen in this situation- the govt one. Meaning Labour could be unable to push theirs.
This will make tomorrow more awkward for Labour for two reasons. First, it could result in Labour MPs not getting the chance to vote on their own amendment (at least, based on how the rules normally work – see 3.55pm). And, second, that would mean the first vote would be on the original SNP motion, meaning Labour would have to choose between telling its MPs to vote for it (difficult, because Labour has resisted it for so long, and because it accuses Israel of “the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”), vote against it (also difficult, because privately many Labour MPs agree with it) or abstain (which would look like a cop-out).
Updated
A reader asks:
Kemi Badenoch said yesterday she would place a copy of the transcript of her discussion with Henry Staunton in the HoP libraries. Has she done so yet?
Yes. It was issued last night. Here it is.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has criticised the Labour ceasefire amendment. It says in practice it would allow the Israeli government a veto (because the amendment says that Israel cannot be expected to stop fighting if Hamas continues with violence and that Israelis have the right to be assured that the horror of 7 October won’t happen again).
🚨PSC statement on the Labour Party's proposed amendment to the SNPs motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.@UKLabour's amendment seeks to dilute the clear call for an immediate ceasefire by handing the Israeli government a veto over whether or not a ceasefire should happen. pic.twitter.com/BcZUgwiAbh
— PSC (@PSCupdates) February 20, 2024
Humza Yousaf welcomes Labour's Gaza amendment and urges all MPs to now back 'immediate end to violence'
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has posted two messages on X welcoming Labour’s new language on a Gaza ceasefire in its amendment and implying that SNP MPs would be willing to vote for it.
Pressure from the SNP has forced Labour to change their position on Gaza, which I welcome.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) February 20, 2024
I'm proud of my Party for being Westminster’s conscience & consistently advocating for an immediate ceasefire.
It's important the whole House now backs an immediate end to the violence.
Pressure from the SNP has forced Labour to change their position on Gaza, which I welcome.
I’m proud of my Party for being Westminster’s conscience & consistently advocating for an immediate ceasefire.
It’s important the whole House now backs an immediate end to the violence.
Frustratingly, the Labour motion deletes our reference to collective punishment. However, despite our differences, I hope we can get consensus across the political divide that enough is enough. Too many innocent men, women and children have suffered.
The violence must end.
Momentum claims Labour's Gaza amendment 'falls well short' of what is needed
Although the SNP has welcomed the Labour amendment on Gaza (see 3.27pm), Momentum, the leftwing Labour group, has complained that it does not go far enough. In a statement it said:
Scratch the surface of this amendment and it falls well short of what the moment requires: a clear call for an immediate ceasefire.
By making its call for a ceasefire so conditional and caveated, the Labour leadership is giving cover for Israel’s brutal war to continue. With nearly 30,000 Palestinians killed, around half of them children, and an ICJ ruling of plausible genocide, Labour should be providing the moral leadership the Tories lack, not muddying the waters.
Simply put, Keir Starmer should get off the fence and unreservedly call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Alongside dozens of international NGOs today, we urge Labour MPs to vote for the SNP amendment for an immediate ceasefire.
What happens next with Gaza ceasefire vote?
The SNP statement (see 3.27pm) implies that they will vote for the Labour amendment, but the party has not said that explicitly yet. My colleague Libby Brooks, who has been seeking clarification on this point, has sent me this.
While Stephen Flynn says he welcomes Starmer’s “apparent” support for their position in a “long overdue U-turn”, the SNP says it’s unable to confirm whether it would accept the Labour amendment because – this is getting more mired in Commons procedure by the second – firstly, they haven’t seen the final wording of that amendment and secondly, they don’t know yet whether than amendment will be taken by the speaker and how it might interact with other amendments, for example put forward by the government.
The situation is a bit more complicated than usual because tomorrow is an opposition day debate – a debate on a motion selected by an opposition party, in this case the SNP – and the rules about when amendments are called are different on these occasions.
Normally MPs vote on the amendment to the motion first, and then the main motion (or the main motion as amended, if the amendment passes) later.
Tomorrow the main motion will be the SNP one. If the government tables an amendment, that will be taken after the vote on the main motion (a rule that is in place to ensure that opposition parties do get the chance once in a while to actually vote on a motion they have tabled).
But if another opposition party tables an amendment, that would be taken before the vote on the main motion.
One possible outcome tomorrow is that the Labour amendment gets put to a vote first, it passes, and then it becomes the motion passed by the house as a whole. (Tory MPs won’t vote against it because it is more or less identical to the position as set out by David Cameron, the foreign secretary.)
But we don’t know yet whether the speaker will actually call the Labour amendment.
And we don’t know yet whether the government will table its own amendment. According to ITV’s Robert Peston, if it does, the Labour one won’t get called.
The SNP has been allotted a full day tomorrow, but it is holding two half-day debates, instead of one full-day one. The Gaza one is due first, meaning the vote or votes should take place around 4pm.
The second motion is one saying the government should invest £28bn a year on a green energy investment programme. This has clearly been tabled to embarrass Labour, which has just dropped its commitment to spending £28bn a year on green measures.
(The Gaza motion was also at least in part intended to create difficulties for Labour too, although the SNP’s commitment to an immediate ceasefire is undoubtedly very genuine.)
SNP welcomes Labour's call for 'immediate humanitarian ceasefire' in Gaza, claiming it forced Starmer into U-turn
The SNP has welcomed Labour’s decision to call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in its amendment to the motion on Gaza being debated tomorrow. In a statement implying his party is happy with the Labour wording, Stephen Flynn says Keir Starmer has performed a U-turn under pressure from the SNP.
He is also suggesting that Labour frontbenchers sacked or made to resign for voting for an SNP ceasefire amendment in November should be given their jobs back.
Here is Flynn’s statement in full.
I welcome this long-overdue U-turn from Sir Keir Starmer who now appears to support the SNP’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
However, the plain truth is Sir Keir was forced into this position through public pressure and, in particular, by the SNP.
It’s telling that it took the SNP to insert a backbone into the Labour party and act as Westminster’s conscience on this conflict.
Questions will naturally arise as to why it’s taken Sir Keir so long to change his mind, what his long months of prevarication achieved, and whether he will reinstate the MPs he sacked in November for supporting the same position he finally holds too.
These are all questions the Labour party leader will now have answer – I am just relieved that he has finally changed his mind and changed his position.
This change of position shows what Scotland can achieve when a strong team of SNP MPs puts pressure on the Labour party to act in line with our values.
Since Westminster rejected a ceasefire in November, more than 29,000 Palestinian children, women and men have been killed. It’s vital MPs don’t make the same mistake again.
The focus is now squarely on Rishi Sunak. Both he and Sir Keir Starmer shared the same position until now – I hope he now takes the opportunity to reverse his stance too.
I urge Rishi Sunak and the UK government to join with the vast majority of the international community, back an immediate ceasefire – and then ensure the UK government acts on it by applying the maximum diplomatic pressure.
The government has not yet said what position its MPs will be asked to take in the vote tomorrow, but there is nothing in the Labour wording that contradicts what Rishi Sunak and David Cameron have said in setting out their own views on a Gaza ceasefire.
Updated
Home Office minister Tom Pursglove says closure of family scheme will not stop Ukrainians coming to UK for sanctuary
A Home Office minister said he wants the visa process to be “light touch” and “easy as possible” for Ukrainians, despite the government’s announcement that it will close the Ukraine family scheme, PA Media reports. PA says:
Tom Pursglove told the Commons that Ukrainians will continue to be offered sanctuary in the UK and any suggestion otherwise is “deliberate scaremongering”.
MPs criticised the move by the Home Office, stating it is “particularly cruel” to announce the end of the scheme as the two-year anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion approaches.
The decision to close the Ukraine family scheme, which allowed applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK, was announced among a series of changes to immigration rules set out in a policy document.
The document also confirmed a visa extension scheme, which meant Ukrainian nationals and their immediate relatives could apply for permission to remain in the country, will close on 16 May.
During a Commons urgent question, Pursglove told MPs: “There will continue to be an in-country opportunity for people to apply to extend their visas. Through the homes for Ukraine scheme, Ukrainians will still be able to come to the UK to access that sanctuary that we are right to be proud in supporting … Any suggestion that that will not be the case moving forward is wrong and it’s deliberate scaremongering, and people should stop it.”
Asked if reports about the family scheme being closed were wrong, Pursglove replied: “There will continue to be an out-of-country route through the homes for Ukraine scheme … as well as the extension to those visas.”
Labour MP Barry Sheerman said: “A lot of the people in this country, including my constituents, will be amazed that in this week – the week of (Alexei) Navalny’s murder by Putin and by the tough times that the Ukrainians are facing against the Russian re-enforcements – that this is the day they announce that there is going to be restrictions on Ukrainian families coming here.”
Pursglove replied: “Ukrainians who are here will continue to be able to have that sanctuary in the years ahead.”
UK shows signs of recovery from mild recession, says Bank of England
Britain is showing signs of recovery from its mild recession and will receive a boost when interest rates start coming down later this year, Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, indicated in evidence to the Commons Treasury committee this morning. Larry Elliott has the story here.
Labour challenges SNP to accept its Gaza ceasefire amendment because it also includes 'plan to get peace'
Labour’s Scottish secretary Ian Murray has now written to the SNP’s Stephen Flynn – who was earlier complaining about lack of contact from Labour over his party’s Gaza ceasefire motion. (See 9.54am.)
Murray explains Labour’s amendment to Flynn in terms that might be described a little terse, telling him:
I fully appreciate the politics of the SNP having a sole focus on the Labour party with your motion and debate but, as you know, it’s incumbent on those proposing motion to seek support from the whole house. On a matter of such importance, we must do all that we can in order for the House of Commons to speak with one voice.
In that spirit we have place an amendment to your motion that seeks the same immediate humanitarian ceasefire but broadens the proposition by outlining not just a much more wide-ranging position than the SNP motion but gives a plan for how to get to the peace we all crave.
Murray emphasises the need for a “credible plan” for peace and urges Flynn to accept the “balanced and wide ranging amendment in good faith before the debate tomorrow so we can all turn our attention to working for the house to speak with one voice”.
Here is the text of Murray’s letter.
In order to send a message parliament has to pass a motion which requires government MPs. Rather than a defeated motion I think we should have something everyone can get behind. My letter to @StephenFlynnSNP on labours ceasefire amendment. pic.twitter.com/cB4CJY5dYt
— Ian Murray MP (@IanMurrayMP) February 20, 2024
Updated
Sunak backs Badenoch over what she told MPs about Post Office Horizon scandal
Rishi Sunak has backed Kemi Badenoch over what she told parliament yesterday about the government’s handling of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
In an interview with the BBC’s Farming Today, he was asked if he could categorically deny the claim made by Henry Staunton, the former Post Office chair, that he was called for a senior government official who asked him to “stall” on compensation payments.
As the BBC reports, Sunak did not answer this directly. But he replied:
Kemi made a fulsome statement about this in parliament. She was right to do so and gave, I think, a very clear explanation of everything that’s happened.
In the Commons yesterday Badenoch said that, although she could not prove for certain that the conversation as described by Staunton did not take place, she was prepared to say it didn’t. She explained:
The shadow minister asked whether I would categorically state that no instruction was given to delay payments. Yes, I can. We have no evidence whatever that any official said that. If such a thing was said, it is for Mr Staunton to bring the evidence. It is very hard to refute a negative. People making wild, baseless accusations and then demanding proof that they did not happen are making mischief, in my view. As far as I have seen, all the evidence points to the fact that no one gave that instruction.
In describing Badenoch’s performance as “fulsome”, Sunak seemed to be using the word postively, to mean full or thorough, rather than in its more negative, “proper” sense. This wouldn’t be allowed at the Guardian, where the style guide insists on more precision. This is what it says under the heading “fulsome”.
Not a fancy word for full, it indicates cloying, lavish excess, as in this eloquent description in the London Review of Books, by Rosemary Hill, of books about Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: “His biography was pious to a degree and, like his equally fulsome edition of her letters, much too long.”
This sorely misused word is most often seen in the phrase “fulsome praise”, which should not be used in a complimentary sense.
Labour MP Clive Betts, who rebelled on last Gaza ceasefire vote, says he hopes party will unite behind new amendment
The Labour MP Clive Betts, who defied the Labour whip to vote for an SNP amendment calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in November, told the World at One that he was now comfortable with his party’s position. He said he hoped the party would unite behind the amendment tabled today. He said:
[The amendment] goes on to say, and it’s really important this, that we want to work for a two-state solution, which Netanyahu has rejected.
So, there’s a major challenge there. We say that the Palestinians have a right to statehood, an inalienable right of the Palestinian people. It’s not in anyone’s gift to allow them to have their own country.
That’s a really firm, strong statement, which I think the party will unite behind absolutely. I think many, many people … will see that as a really strong commitment from Labour.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has said that he hopes all MPs will unite behind the Labour amendment on Gaza. (See 12.38pm.) Speaking on Radio 4’s the World at One, he said:
We have set down a motion calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. That is because the situation now in Gaza is intolerable, with the dramatic loss of life, with so many people facing starvation, and we are very clear that the Rafah offensive now bein planned cannot go ahead. This is a comprehensive motion, and it’s one that I hope that the whole house can now get behind.
Scott Benton resists call to resign as MP, with statement defending his record and claiming probe procedurally flawed
Scott Benton has issued a long statement to the media about the decision by the IEP to reject his appeal against his 35-day Commons suspension. In it, he does not address Labour’s call for him to resign immediately (see 11.27am), implying he won’t. Instead, he defends his record as an MP. He says:
Since being elected in 2019, I have helped to deliver over £400m in additional government funding for projects in Blackpool – one of the highest amounts in the country. This has funded many different projects including much needed regeneration, upgrades to Blackpool Victoria’s A&E Department, and extra investment in our children’s education. I also recently introduced a new law to strengthen the rights of workers in Blackpool who are often on flexible contracts.
Whilst this process has been taking place, I have continued to work tirelessly on behalf of my constituents, recently submitting a petition for regenerating Bond Street & Central Drive, campaigning to restore commercial passenger flights to Blackpool Airport, and fighting to improve local GP and dentistry services. My record of activity, both in Blackpool, and in Westminster, where I am among the most frequent contributors to parliament, speaks for itself.
But the bulk of the statement is a restatement of the case he made in his appeal, arguing that the originally inquiry was procedurally flawed. He focuses in particular on the fact that he was called the day before the standards committee published its report about him by the Times journalist Aubrey Allegretti who knew that the report was coming and seemed to know what it would recommend suspension. Benton says:
Despite the fact that nobody should have known that the report was due to be published – and should certainly not have known its contents – the night before the standards committee decision was issued in December, I took a call from a journalist who knew the outcome and stated that this had come from ‘sources close to the committee’. A recording of this phone call was made and despite having this, and other clear evidence of leaks, the appeal panel and standards committee seek to deny such leaks exist.
It goes without saying that the standards process is designed to be open, fair, honest and transparent so the public and MPs can have trust in it. These events clearly mean that this trust has been breached by members of the committee and/or its administrative staff and create an inevitable perception of partiality.
In its report out today, the IEP says it does not accept the contents of the original standards committee report were leaked in advance. It points out that, although Allegretti posted a message on X saying the committee’s report was due to be published the following day (something the committee does not disclose in advance), and that the sanction would pose a “headache” for the Tories, no story about what the report was going to say was published ahead of its publication.
SNP urges all MPs to 'vote with your conscience' and back its motion calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
MPs should “vote with your conscience for an immediate ceasefire”, the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has said in a letter to all MPs this afternoon.
Urging MPs from all parties to support this “defining vote”, Flynn writes:
No one is pretending this is a simple situation, or that one vote will magically result in a ceasefire overnight – but a ceasefire is more likely to happen if the UK parliament and government join international pressure, than if they fail.
As Labour publishes its amendment to the SNP motion which changes the wording to “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” (see 12.38pm), Flynn goes on in his letter:
I’m sure you will agree, this is a defining vote for any MP. I am therefore urging each and every one of you to vote with your conscience for an immediate ceasefire. I hope Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will find the courage to change their position and do the only right thing but, if they won’t, it falls to us, MPs of all parties, to show we demand a ceasefire now.
That clear statement, and clear intent, is the only message that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government will understand. It is the best pressure we can now apply. By finally joining the vast majority of the international community in pressing for that ceasefire, we can instigate a fresh diplomatic effort to stop the slaughter of even more innocent civilians and children.
That diplomatic effort to demand a ceasefire now is the only way to stop the imminent assault on Rafah, secure the unconditional release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas, get vital aid into Gaza, and finally put an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Labour calling for 'immediate humanitarian ceasefire' in Gaza as alternative to SNP's call for 'immediate ceasefire'
Labour is going to table an amendment to the SNP motion on Gaza being debated tomorrow. Emilio Casalicchio from Politico has just posted the wording on X.
It is calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
It says this means “an immediate stop to the fighting and a ceasefire that lasts and is observed by all sides”.
New Labour amendment to SNP motion on Gaza for tomorrow pic.twitter.com/VRWtdl1aiy
— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) February 20, 2024
The SNP motion is shorter, and calls for “an immediate ceasefire” without some of the qualification attached to the sort of ceasefire that Labour wants.
According to Aubrey Allegretti from the Times, Labour will shortly announce its position on the vote tomorrow on the SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. (See 9.54am.)
Labour is finalising its position on the SNP’s ceasefire motion.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) February 20, 2024
Am told to expect an announcement after shadow cabinet, at around midday, on how the party will respond.
Labour figures were concerned about committing to voting one way or another until today - fearing if they…
Labour is finalising its position on the SNP’s ceasefire motion.
Am told to expect an announcement after shadow cabinet, at around midday, on how the party will respond.
Labour figures were concerned about committing to voting one way or another until today - fearing if they did so, the SNP could have toughened up the wording ahead of the vote and bounced Labour into then sticking or changing its position.
Shadow ministers in recent days have told me they would struggle to abstain on the motion - and are pressing Starmer’s team to back a motion committing to an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza instead of a “permanent ceasefire”.
David Lammy at PLP last night assured colleagues he was in listening mode and understood the strength of feeling across the party.
Updated
No surprise perhaps, but my colleague John Crace was not impressed by Rishi Sunak’s speech to the NFU.
Rishi Sunak begins his speech to the NFU at about 11am with the words ‘Good Afternoon’
— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) February 20, 2024
Rishi Sunak ends his speech to the NFU in full bucolic fantasy.
— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) February 20, 2024
As he rises at dawn to milk the cows, he stops to listen to the oxen lowing in the verdant meadows
Sunak tells NFU that reducing trade barriers with EU 'a work in progress'
At the NFU conference Rishi Sunak described the government’s efforts to reduce trade barriers between the UK and the EU as “a work in progress”.
Asked what the government was doing about the barriers farmers have to deal with when trading with EU countries, Sunak replied:
What we’re doing is working very hard with individual countries to ease all those areas where there are differences.
I’ll be totally honest, it’s a work in progress. But we are making progress.
As PA Media reports, Sunak said ministers were also in dialogue with the EU on electronic authorisations.
There will be an urgent question in the Commons at 12.30pm about the government’s decision to close down the family scheme for Ukrainian refugees. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has tabled the question, and a Home Office minister will reply. Here is Ben Quinn and Rajeev Syal’s story about the move, announced yesterday.
Labour has been preparing for the byelection in Blackpool South since before Christmas, and has a candidate installed – Chris Webb, who until recently worked in the constituency office of the late Rochdale MP, Tony Lloyd.
When the byelection takes place depends on whether Scott Benton digs his heels in and refuses to resign. If he won’t step down, Labour will organise a recall petition, and will need at least 10% of the local electorate to sign it within a six week period. If the 10% threshold is reached, the petition officer informs the speaker of the House of Commons. On the giving of that notice the seat becomes vacant and a byelection is called.
“If Scott doesn’t resign and it causes a recall, it lands right on local election day,” said a local campaign source. “If he does resign we are not sure.”
With a byelection looming, the Conservatives won’t take much comfort from polling by Deltapoll released last night suggesting Keir Starmer’s lead over Rishi Sunak on the leadership approval index is bigger than ever before.
Net approval for the Prime Minister @RishiSunak has fallen by eight points this week, while approval for @Keir_Starmer is up by five points. pic.twitter.com/zEpL82xcA3
— Deltapoll (@DeltapollUK) February 19, 2024
The gap between net approval for Sunak and Starmer is now the widest it has ever been. pic.twitter.com/md3Kv9cXsq
— Deltapoll (@DeltapollUK) February 19, 2024
Labour says Scott Benton should resign immediately to save Blackpool South constituents lengthy wait for new MP
Labour says Scott Benton should resign immediately to allow a byelection to be held, instead of forcing constituents to wait for the recall petition process to conclude. Benton could be suspended from the Commons within days. After that a recall petition opens. But the petition remains open for six weeks and, unless Benton resigns, the byelection cannot be called until the petition closes and the 10% threshold has been achieved.
Jonathan Ashworth, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, said:
Scott Benton should do the decent thing and resign, saving the people of Blackpool South a lengthy recall petition that would leave them without the representation they deserve.
This is yet another byelection caused by Tory scandal. Britain deserves better than this carousel of Conservative Chaos.
Labour’s Chris Webb is Blackpool born and bred, and ready to deliver a fresh start for Blackpool South.
Here is an extract from the independent expert panel’s report explaining why it has rejected Scott Benton’s appeal against his 35-day Commons suspension.
For the purpose of deciding the appropriate sanction for breaches of the code, the [standards] committee is well-placed for these purposes as an informed and expert body. We will not lightly interfere with their decision on sanction. Under the procedural protocol, we will do so only if the committee’s decision is unreasonable or disproportionate. We do not find that to be the case here.
Sunak faces prospect of another byelection defeat after Scott Benton loses appeal against 35-day Commons suspension
Rishi Sunak faces another likely byelection defeat. The Commons independent expert panel, which deals with appeals from MPs accused of misconduct, has rejected an appeal from Scott Benton against a standards committee recommendation saying he should be suspended from the Commons for 35 days for offering to lobby on behalf of the gambling industry.
The 35-day suspension will have to be approved by the Commons as a whole, but that will be a formality. And once that has been agreed, because the suspension is longer than 10 days, the Recall Act kicks in, which means that if 10% of voters in the constituency sign a petition calling for a byelection, there will be one. In all recent cases, that 10% threshold has been achieved comfortably.
Benton is MP for Blackpool South and he had a majority for the Conservatives of 3,690 at the last election over Labour. Given the current state of polling, this looks like an inevitable Labour win.
Sunak is now defending the changes to the way grants are paid to farmers.
He says the common agricultural policy, the EU’s grant scheme for farmers, “disproportionately rewarded the largest landowners and held back smaller farmers. He goes on:
It did little for food productivity or the environment. It was far too bureaucratic. Just remember we used to argue about whether a cauliflower and cabbage were the same crop – and you could be fined thousands for a gateway being too wide or a buffer strip too narrow.
Sunak starts with a tribute to farmers, saying that as MP for a rural constituency, Richmond in Yorkshire, he knows how hard they work.
I see firsthand the long hours that you work, the weather that you contend with, the family businesses that you support the communities you build. The beautiful countryside, the pastures, the hedgerows, the fields. That would not be the same without you.
You do it not for praise or high reward but to put food on our tables, to maintain a tradition and a way of life, and to steward our landscape.
It’s part of who we are, and we don’t celebrate you enough. And so, on behalf of the nation, I just wanted to say thank you.
Rishi Sunak speaks to NFU conference
Rishi Sunak is addressing the NFU conference now.
He starts with a tribute to Minette Batters, saying it will be her last conference as NFU president. He says she has been a forceful voice for farming.
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Last week the Country Land and Business Association published the results of a Survation poll showing a huge drop in support for the Tories in rural constituencies. In its summary of the results the CLA said:
The share of the Labour vote has climbed to 37% (up 17 points on the 2019 general election result), with the Conservatives falling to 34% (down 25 points).
More respondents believe Labour understands and respects rural communities and the rural way of life than the Conservatives (28% versus 25%).
The Conservatives currently hold 96 of the 100 most rural seats, but face losing more than half to Labour and the Lib Dems, including those of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jeremy Hunt and Thérèse Coffey.
This, and other polling presenting a similar picture, has led to claims that Rishi Sunak is only speaking at the NFU conference for electoral reasons.
But when this was put to Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, on LBC this morning, he said this was not the case. He told the station:
I worked with the prime minister, I was obviously his deputy in the Treasury, and when he asked me to do this role I was very keen that he did come to the NFU conference.
I think it is important to signal that the whole government is absolutely focused on food production and food security. I think the importance of food security has increased given the volatility around the world.
Sunak is the first PM to address an NFU conference since Gordon Brown in 2008.
English farmers to be offered ‘largest ever’ grant scheme amid food security concerns
Rishi Sunak will be addressing the NFU conference in Birmingham shortly. As Helena Horton reports, he will promise farmers the “largest ever” grant scheme, as well as the creation of a food security index, after criticism that Brexit trade deals and poor responses to flooding and rising costs have put England’s ability to feed itself at risk.
Former Tory minister Nick Boles says he wants Starmer to be PM and will do 'whatever I can' to help Labour succeed
Nick Boles was elected as a Conservative MP in 2010 and he served as a minister under David Cameron. In 2019 he resigned the Tory whip complaining that hardline colleagues were unwilling to accept a compromise over Brexit, and he left the Commons after the subsequent election.
Now, as PoliticsHome revealed, he is informally advising Labour. He told the Daily Telegraph:
I hope Keir Starmer is able to form a government after the next election. I want to do whatever I can to help a Labour administration succeed.
SNP's Stephen Flynn says US's draft resolution for UN on Gaza ceasefire does not go far enough
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, has said that a UN security council resolution proposed by the US calling for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza does not go far enough.
As Julian Borger reports, the draft UN text “marks the first time the US has explicitly backed a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, though it adds that the temporary truce should be begun ‘as soon as practicable’, leaving some room for manoeuvre by the Israeli military.”
Asked his view on the draft resolution, Flynn told the BBC this morning:
The problem is that ceasefire is included but the word before it is also important and the word we need to hear before it is immediate because we cannot continue to see civilians being killed, some 30,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of this conflict, 70,000 injured, there’s about 1.4 million people sheltering in Rafah which is normally home to about 170,000 people, those people are under constant bombardment from the Israeli defence force who have stated that they intend to launch a ground offensive on that area in the not too distant future.
The death toll could rise exponentially. Enough is enough. We need an immediate ceasefire and that’s what the SNP will continue to champion.
Tomorrow MPs are due to vote on an SNP motion calling for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel”. The debate is creating a problem for Labour because many of its MPs support the SNP position, but Keir Starmer has been unwilling to call for an “immediate” ceasefire without an assurance that Hamas would comply.
Starmer is also keen as acting like a prime minister in waiting, acting in concert with diplomatic allies, and not just adopting the language of protest movements. In this respect, the shift in US position might give him some cover.
At the weekend Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said there had been discussions between SNP and Labour party whips about the vote on Wednesday, but Flynn said this morning that this was not true. He said:
I have had no communication nor has my chief whip with the Labour party, it’s deeply disappointing, and I’m not entirely sure why Anas Sarwar sought to espouse that mistruth, perhaps he was spun a line by Keir Starmer to try and calm him down a little bit, because of course Anas is in support of my position in relation to an immediate ceasefire as I believe most of Scottish Labour are.
Ultimately the key thing for me is making sure that we can protect civilian lives and that is what are going to seek to do in the House of Commons tomorrow night.
Although the SNP says its primary concern is saving lives in Gaza, in Scotland it faces its biggest electoral challenge from Labour and tabling a vote on a ceasefire motion allows it to highlight the bitter divisions in the Labour party on this issue.
Government under fresh pressure over Post Office Horizon scandal as new cover-up evidence revealed
Good morning. Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, probably left the Commons chamber yesterday afternoon feeling she had done rather well in terms of quashing the allegations made about the government’s handling of the Post Office Horizon scandal. In response to serious claims made by Henry Staunton, the Post Office chair she sacked, she retaliated with blanket, unequivocal denials, scorn and invective, and damning allegations about Staunton’s competence and integrity. Some of these came as a surprise to opposition MPs and, without hard evidence to challenge what Badenoch was saying, their criticisms of her were as a result more muted than they otherwise would have been.
But this morning Badenoch’s “win” does not look quite so convincing, and three developments have occured that pose further problems for her and the government.
1) Staunton has hit back, with a lengthy statement in which he says he had not even been told about the bullying allegation against him that Badenoch implied, in her statement to MPs, was a major reason for his dimissal. A spokesperson for Staunton said:
This is the first time the existence of such allegations have been mentioned and Mr Staunton is not aware of any aspect of his conduct which could give rise to such allegations.
They were certainly not raised by the Secretary of State at any stage and certainly not during the conversation which led to Mr Staunton’s dismissal. Such behaviour would in any case be totally out of character.
The full Staunton statement is here.
Henry Staunton's response to Kemi Badenoch tonight in full pic.twitter.com/bVkvp6ge5s
— Eleni Courea (@elenicourea) February 19, 2024
2) The BBC has published the results of an investigation showing that “David Cameron’s government knew the Post Office had ditched a secret investigation that might have helped wrongly accused postmasters prove their innocence”. In its story the BBC quotes Paul Marshall, a barrister who acted on behalf of some of the post office operators, saying:
The important feature of all of this is that in 2014, it appears that the Post Office board was alive to the true position - that remote access by Fujitsu was possible.
And yet the Post Office board was responsible for maintaining and advancing the Post Office’s defence to the sub-postmasters’ claim in 2019 - that it was impossible. That was false - and, it would appear, known to be so …
On the face of it, it discloses a conspiracy by the Post Office to pervert the course of justice.
3) Liam Byrne, the Labour chair of the Commons business committee, has said that his committee will be demanding evidence from the business department to establish which version of events – Badenoch’s or Staunton’s – is true. Yesterday the committee invited Staunton to give evidence to it next week. And this morning, in an interview on the Today programme, Byrne said the committee would be requesting papers relating to the row, including the email that Staunton said he wrote, and that he believes is still retained on the Post Office’s system, recording the conversation in which he claims he was told by a government official to “stall” Horizon compensation payments.
In his interview, Byrne also described the BBC story about the Cameron government knowing that the Post Office realised there was a risk of Horizon terminals being access remotely at a time when it was still defending the prosecution of post office operators who were convicted on the basis of Post Office evidence asserting categorically this was not possible. Byrne said the report seemed to be “the first evidence that we’ve got from quite an early stage that ministers were sighted on just what it was that was going on”.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, gives evidence to the Commons Scottish affairs committee.
10.15am: Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.
10.45am: Rishi Sunak gives a speech to the NFU conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby conference.
11.30am: Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee.
Morning: David Cameron, the foreign secretary, carries out further visits on the Falklands Islands.
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