Closing summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s main headlines:
British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has met China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, during the first visit to Beijing by a UK foreign secretary in five years. During the meeting, Cleverly said it was important the two governments continued with regular face-to-face meetings to avoid misunderstandings. He also said it was important to address the challenges and differences of opinion that all countries had in bilateral relations, according to Reuters.
But the visit has been criticised by China hawks on the Tory benches, who want a tougher line against a state which has imposed sanctions on several British MPs and peers for speaking out about human rights violations. The former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith compared the government’s approach to the appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, while the foreign affairs committee chair, Alicia Kearns, said she had spoken to Cleverly before his visit and urged him to pressure the Chinese on human rights concerns.
Cleverly said he had raised human rights issues during meetings with Chinese officials. In an interview with Sky News, Cleverly was pressed on whether simply raising human rights obligations was enough amid concerns about abuses in Xinjiang province.
Rishi Sunak has said a crackdown on zombie-style knives, with new powers for police, would make a “big difference” for officers. The government has announced more “zombie-style” knives and machetes with no practical use are to be banned and police will be given more powers to seize and destroy them.
Many lawyers are sceptical about plans to give judges powers to order offenders in England and Wales to attend a sentencing hearing, including by force if necessary. The government has taken the step after high-profile offenders, including Lucy Letby, the nurse who killed babies, and Thomas Cashman, the murderer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, refused to attend their sentencing hearings.
Women will still have the right to receive equal pay for doing a similar job as their male counterparts, the government has insisted, despite the fact that an EU law guaranteeing the protection has been scrapped. The legislation was intended to protect workers, including those whose jobs have been outsourced or who work in different locations. However, part of the guarantee was among about 600 EU laws which the government announced in May that it would scrap by the end of the year, in the retained EU law bill.
Rail unions have raised fresh safety concerns over the closure of ticket offices before a protest on the eve of the final day of consultation on the controversial plans. All three main rail unions are stepping up campaigning against closures amid a huge response from more than 460,000 people to the proposals, PA Media reports.
Ministers have been accused of hypocrisy in claiming Sadiq Khan expanded London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to raise revenue after it emerged the Department for Transport urged the mayor to extend the city’s congestion charge for the same reason. On the first day of Ulez covering every London borough there was renewed bickering between the Labour mayor and the government, with Khan castigating Mark Harper, the transport secretary, for what he called factual mistakes after the pair crossed paths at a TV studio.
Officials are making hurried calls urging school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete, the Guardian has learned. Department for Education documents show that staff have been instructed to contact leaders of England’s schools and academies to check they are prepared to evacuate buildings constructed from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) at short notice, and relocate pupils to alternatives such as portable accommodation or even other schools in their area.
The outgoing head of the UK’s leading race equality thinktank has said the continued denial of institutional racism has created a credibility issue for the government. Dr Halima Begum, who is stepping down as the director of Runnymede Trust after three years, said that soon after the government released its controversial report on race, which claimed to not find evidence for institutional racism, there were several national scandals that showed otherwise.
The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is facing mounting pressure to quit after a court ruled that the force unlawfully disciplined two junior officers to placate Sinn Féin. Unionist politicians said on Wednesday they had lost confidence in Simon Byrne, the PSNI chief constable, and urged him to resign.
A Sinn Féin MLA has said that at no point did he suggest his party would withdraw support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland during discussions with senior officers about the policing of a Troubles memorial event in 2021. The policing board representative Gerry Kelly said he wanted to “set the record straight” following the latest controversy to hit Northern Ireland’s police force after a high court judge ruled that a decision to discipline two junior officers was unlawful.
Just 9% of Scottish firms agree that the SNP government understands the business environment in Scotland, according to a new report from the Fraser of Allander Institute. The survey of more than 400 businesses in July and August found that larger firms and those in the hospitality industry in particular agreed that the current administration was out of touch with business needs, presenting a challenge to Humza Yousaf, who set out a “new deal” for business soon after he became first minister in April in an attempt to improve relations which were widely seen to have suffered under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following and see you again tomorrow.
Updated
Women will still have the right to receive equal pay for doing a similar job as their male counterparts, the government has insisted, despite the fact that an EU law guaranteeing the protection has been scrapped.
The legislation was intended to protect workers, including those whose jobs have been outsourced or who work in different locations.
However, part of the guarantee was among about 600 EU laws which the government announced in May that it would scrap by the end of the year, in the retained EU law bill.
One of these was an EU regulation known as the “single source” test, which allows workers to compare their role with that of someone working in a different establishment, if a “single source” has the power to correct the difference in pay, or in their terms and conditions.
The rule protected women who work for outsourcing companies or those employed in different locations but doing similar jobs.
Despite this, thousands of mostly female shop floor workers including at Tesco and Asda – who were paid less than male warehouse staff – previously launched legal action against their employers over equal pay.
Updated
Many lawyers are sceptical about plans to give judges powers to order offenders in England and Wales to attend a sentencing hearing, including by force if necessary.
The government has taken the step after high-profile offenders, including Lucy Letby, the nurse who killed babies, and Thomas Cashman, the murderer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, refused to attend their sentencing hearings.
The blogger, the Secret Barrister, has previously criticised the move, which is supported by Labour, as a policy “drawn by people with no experience of the criminal justice system”.
On Wednesday, Jessica Maguire, associate at Corker Binning, echoed those criticisms. She said:
The threat of a further two years in prison will not solve the issue of those who refuse to attend their sentence hearings. The most recent high-profile offenders who refused to attend their sentence hearing, Letby and Cashman, both faced mandatory life sentences and therefore the threat of an additional two years is unlikely to act as a deterrent or to incentivise defendants facing life sentences to attend hearings.
In addition, where is the line to be drawn? What if defendants attend court for sentencing but close their ears and eyes, turn their back on the court or otherwise disrupt the sentencing process?
Updated
The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is facing mounting pressure to quit after a court ruled that the force unlawfully disciplined two junior officers to placate Sinn Féin.
Unionist politicians said on Wednesday they had lost confidence in Simon Byrne, the PSNI chief constable, and urged him to resign.
A special meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, which oversees the force, will take place in Belfast on Thursday, where Byrne will be questioned over the matter.
The controversy follows a separate crisis earlier this month over data breaches involving the personal information of more than 10,000 officers and support staff.
The latest blow to Byrne’s leadership came on Tuesday when a high court judge, Mr Justice Scofield, ruled that the PSNI unlawfully disciplined two officers over their policing of a republican commemoration in Belfast in February 2021 during Covid-19 restrictions.
The Foreign Office said that James Cleverly raised Chinese sanctions on MPs as well as concerns about the treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority Xinjiang during his Beijing visit.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said:
The foreign secretary set out the UK’s approach to China, in line with his Mansion House speech and the Integrated Review Refresh, outlining the protect, align and engage pillars of the UK’s China strategy.
The foreign secretary was clear about the UK’s position on China’s malign cyber-activity. In detailed discussions on Hong Kong, he stressed the damage caused by the Beijing-imposed national security law to rights and freedoms and consequently to China’s international reputation and raised the case of Jimmy Lai.
He also emphasised the importance to the international community of peace and stability in the Taiwan strait. And he called for the immediate lifting of sanctions against parliamentary colleagues. The foreign secretary made clear the UK’s strength of feeling about the mass incarceration of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.
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The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the prime minister had “failed to get a grip” on the small boats issue.
She said:
Rishi Sunak made this his top priority. He told us that his plan was working. And yet these figures show that he’s completely failed to get a grip.
The Tories’ boats chaos is continuing, that’s undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. In the space of just a few years the Conservatives have let criminal gangs take hold along the channel.
What we need is a proper plan to go after those criminal gangs and to stop the dangerous crossings that are putting lives at risk. That is what Labour would do.
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The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has published an angry Twitter thread criticising ministers for weakening environmental protections contained within EU-derived water pollution laws.
LIARS!@RishiSunak @michaelgove @theresecoffey you said you wouldn’t weaken environmental protections.
— RSPB England 🌍 (@RSPBEngland) August 30, 2023
And yet that’s just what you are doing.
You lie, and you lie, and you lie again.
And we’ve had enough. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ZHlRmd5po3
In an unusually strident statement for an environmental NGO, the RSPB writes:
All the while you have pretended to be a government that cares about nature. It’s now very patently clear that you do not.
Updated
A Sinn Féin MLA has said that at no point did he suggest his party would withdraw support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland during discussions with senior officers about the policing of a Troubles memorial event in 2021.
The policing board representative Gerry Kelly said he wanted to “set the record straight” following the latest controversy to hit Northern Ireland’s police force after a high court judge ruled that a decision to discipline two junior officers was unlawful.
The row led some unionist politicians to call for the resignation of the chief constable, Simon Byrne.
The two officers faced action in 2021 after the arrest of Mark Sykes, a survivor of a loyalist gun attack on the Sean Graham bookmakers shop in south Belfast in 1992.
The controversial incident unfolded when police challenged those attending a memorial event amid suspicions the size of the public gathering breached coronavirus regulations.
Sykes was handcuffed and arrested in chaotic exchanges captured on social media. The incident sparked criticism of Byrne.
Updated
Prime minister announces crackdown on 'zombie-style' knives
Rishi Sunak has said a crackdown on zombie-style knives, with new powers for police, would make a “big difference” for officers.
The government has announced more “zombie-style” knives and machetes with no practical use are to be banned and police will be given more powers to seize and destroy them.
Speaking to broadcasters at a police station in London, the prime minister said:
Knife crime is appalling, it disproportionately affects young people and we should be doing everything we can to stamp it out. I spent time with officers here and the Met commissioner talking about what they’re dealing with on the streets. What we’re doing today will make their jobs easier.
We’re giving the police more powers to confiscate knives when they come across them, when they’re going about their day-to-day policing business. We are banning particular types of knives. Having just seen them myself there’s no reason these knives should be on the streets.
He added:
There’s no sensible reason anyone should own them or possess them. So, we’re going to ban them and make it illegal to possess them. Lastly, we’re toughening up the sentencing for people who are caught with these weapons.
Taken together, it’s a strong set of powers that, having spoken to the police, they know will make a big difference to their ability to cut knife crime down. I’m pleased that knife crime is down since the pre-pandemic levels but we’ve got to keep going to root out this awful crime. Today’s powers will make a big difference.
Updated
Officials are making hurried calls urging school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete, the Guardian has learned.
Department for Education documents show that staff have been instructed to contact leaders of England’s schools and academies to check they are prepared to evacuate buildings constructed from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) at short notice, and relocate pupils to alternatives such as portable accommodation or even other schools in their area.
While the dangers of ageing RAAC buildings have been highlighted since a 2018 roof collapse at a primary school in Kent, the DfE’s ring-round comes just a few days before the start of the new school year in England.
Rail unions have raised fresh safety concerns over the closure of ticket offices before a protest on the eve of the final day of consultation on the controversial plans.
All three main rail unions are stepping up campaigning against closures amid a huge response from more than 460,000 people to the proposals, PA Media reports.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) is holding the demonstration opposite Downing Street on Thursday evening.
The union said the plans to close up to 1,000 ticket offices will threaten 2,300 station staff job losses.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said an incident at a London station last week when a drunk man attempted to spit at a female ticket office worker highlighted safety concerns of staff.
The TSSA president, Melissa Heywood, said:
We will not accept a situation in which our members are put at risk because of the Conservative government’s cost-cutting measures.
It is clear from the incidents of abuse against station staff that have been reported to us that ticket offices help make our members safer.
Updated
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has faced criticism from members of the Tory benches who want a tougher line against a state that has passed sanctions against several British MPs and peers for speaking out about human rights violations in the country.
Speaking to Sky News, the foreign secretary said he had raised human rights issues with Chinese officials.
Updated
Ministers have been accused of hypocrisy in claiming Sadiq Khan expanded London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to raise revenue after it emerged the Department for Transport urged the mayor to extend the city’s congestion charge for the same reason.
On the first day of Ulez covering every London borough there was renewed bickering between the Labour mayor and the government, with Khan castigating Mark Harper, the transport secretary, for what he called factual mistakes after the pair crossed paths at a TV studio.
Harper and Rishi Sunak have sought to present the extension of the £12.50 daily charge for the most polluting vehicles as part of a “war on motorists” by Labour, amid a wider ditching of green policies after the Conservatives’ unexpected win in July’s Uxbridge byelection, a constituency affected by the extension.
In a round of media interviews on Tuesday, Harper argued that the expanded zone, which came into force at midnight, would have minimal impact on air quality.
“It’s not about air pollution, it’s about a money-raising exercise and this is absolutely not the time to be putting all those costs on hard-pressed and hardworking Londoners and those in the area outside London,” he told GB News.
Khan, who was also touring TV and radio studios, told BBC One’s Breakfast: “I just bumped into Mark Harper as he was leaving the studio and I think he made a couple of factual errors, which is really worth me clarifying.
“If this was about making money, I’d have acceded to the demand from the government to expand the congestion charge much wider than it currently is. That would have been a cash-grab, but I said no.”
This was a reference to a letter in October 2020 from Grant Shapps, part of a trove of correspondence between the then transport secretary and Khan uncovered by a freedom of information request.
Updated
James Cleverly has said the UK was “clear-eyed” that China was not going to change “overnight”.
Speaking to broadcasters amid meetings with senior Chinese officials in Beijing, the foreign secretary said:
The UK, I, am clear-eyed, as I set out in my Mansion House speech earlier on this year, that we are not going to change China overnight. We’re certainly not going to do it in any one individual meeting.
“But it is important that we maintain regular dialogue, regular lines of communication. That is what I am doing, because we do seek to influence, that is what diplomacy is all about. We do seek to influence China.
Updated
The outgoing head of the UK’s leading race equality thinktank has said the continued denial of institutional racism has created a credibility issue for the government.
Dr Halima Begum, who is stepping down as the director of Runnymede Trust after three years, said that soon after the government released its controversial report on race, which claimed to not find evidence for institutional racism, there were several national scandals that showed otherwise.
“Every time they denied institutional racism, some other event would happen that showed the realities for people of colour living in Britain. If it wasn’t the Casey review, it was the cricket, or the experience of the black England footballers at the Euros. Every time there’s a denial of racism, it surfaces out again. So no, they were not successful,” she said.
She added: “I would say the more they tried to deny the existence of racism, the more they showed themselves to be not committed to race and, in fact, not committed to many people in this country, because the rest of the country could see the disparities. I think it created a bit of a credibility issue for the government and those that would deny institutional racism.”
Just 9% of Scottish firms agree that the SNP government understands the business environment in Scotland, according to a new report from the Fraser of Allander Institute.
The survey of more than 400 businesses in July and August found that larger firms and those in the hospitality industry in particular agreed that the current administration was out of touch with business needs, presenting a challenge to Humza Yousaf, who set out a “new deal” for business soon after he became first minister in April in an attempt to improve relations which were widely seen to have suffered under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership.
Yousaf presents his programme for government – the Holyrood equivalent of the king’s speech – to the Scottish parliament next week amid expectations of significant public service cuts and potential tax rises this term.
But further polling, this time from True North, a political consultancy set up by former advisers to Alex Salmond, found that more than half of Scottish voters believe they do not get value for money from public services, despite higher earners paying more income tax here than elsewhere in the UK.
Updated
Cleverly meets China’s vice-president amid criticism of Beijing by British MPs
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. We start with news that the British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has met China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, during the first visit to Beijing by a UK foreign secretary in five years.
During the meeting, Cleverly said it was important the two governments continued with regular face-to-face meetings to avoid misunderstandings. He also said it was important to address the challenges and differences of opinion that all countries had in bilateral relations, according to Reuters.
But the visit has been criticised by China hawks on the Tory benches, who want a tougher line against a state which has sanctioned several British MPs and peers for speaking out about human rights violations.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith compared the government’s approach to the appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, while the foreign affairs committee chair, Alicia Kearns, said she had spoken to Cleverly before his visit and urged him to pressure the Chinese on human rights concerns.
Cleverly said he had raised human rights issues during meetings with Chinese officials. In an interview with Sky News, Cleverly was pressed on whether simply raising human rights obligations was enough amid concerns about abuses in Xinjiang province.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with senior representatives of the Chinese government, and I have raised human rights in every single one of those meetings and I will continue to do so,” he said, adding:
This is an issue that is discussed extensively – not just bilaterally, but at the United Nations. I take very seriously the report produced by the United Nations based on figures from the Chinese government.
So this will continue to be an area of discussion that I bring up alongside other areas, and I’m not going to change my posture on that. And I think the Chinese government understand the UK is consistent in our approach. I am consistent in my approach and I will keep raising these issues with the Chinese government.
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