Early evening summary
Sunak has carried out a mini reshuffle, after two ministers who are standing down at the next election resigned from the government. (See 6.07pm.)
The UK’s leading local election analysts have said the Conservative party could lose half the seats they are defending in the local elections in May. In an analysis published in the Local Government Chronicle, Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher say:
If the Conservatives repeat their poor performance of 2023, when the national equivalent vote put them below 30%, they stand to lose up to 500 seats – half their councillors facing election. Labour may make about 300 gains, with the Liberal Democrats and Greens both likely to advance. We will not know the extent of any Reform party challenge until nominations close, but it cannot be completely discounted.
Stormont’s leaders have insisted a new body aimed at strengthening links across the UK does not undermine existing political structures of the Good Friday agreement, PA Media reports. PA says Sinn Féin first minister Michelle O’Neill and DUP deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly were commenting after attending the inaugural meeting of the East-West Council in London. The forum designed to improve business and educational links between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK was created under the deal that restored powersharing in Northern Ireland earlier this year.
Sunak announces details of mini-reshuffle, with five Tory MPs getting promotions
Downing Street has announced the outcome of a mini reshuffle triggered by the resignation of James Heappey and Robert Halfon. Two MPs have joined the government, two junior ministers have been promoted, and one minister of state has moved sideways (but to the Foreign Office, which probably feels like a promotion).
Nus Ghani becomes minister for Europe (at minister of state level) in the Foreign Office. She was a minister of state jointly covering the Department for Business and Trade department and the Cabinet Office.
Leo Docherty becomes armed forces minister. He is now a minister of state, and previously was a parliamentary under-secretary (a more junior minister) at the Foreign Office.
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, has been promoted, so he is now a minister of state at the Department for Business and Trade, and not just a parliamentary under-secretary in the same department.
Luke Hall becomes a minister of state in the Department for Education.
Alan Mak becomes a junior minister (parliamentary under-secretary) at the Department for Business and Trade and the Cabinet Office.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has described the two reports published from David Neal today (see 3.21pm and 5.06pm) as “scandalous”. In a statement she went on:
They expose a Conservative government which has lost control of our borders and our border security.
From allowing high security risk flights to swan into the country with zero in-person checks, despite risks from drugs, guns and people smuggling, through to rampant labour exploitation in the social care visa.
Even now ministers are hiding the true scale of the flaws, redacting much of the vital information, and slipping the reports out when parliament can’t respond.
Home Office claims watchdog's report about Border Force failings at London City airport 'misleading'
The Home Office has also issued a response to David Neal’s report about Border Force checks at London City airport. (See 5.06pm.) It is more critical than its response to the Neal report covering care worker visas (see 3.56pm), because it argues that Neal’s methodology was flawed and that, as a result, his findings don’t have wider implications for airport border controls.
The Home Office says:
The report highlights inconsistencies in guidance between the Border Force operating mandate and GA [general aviation] guidance and the need to reinforce training for staff. It also identifies where improvements to assurance activity by the national GA team can be achieved. In particular, it is critical of perceived poor performance in terms of the number of GA flights physically met by Border Force at LCY [London City airport] and of the subsequent record keeping. This largely relates to a specific issue at that port where GA flights have been assessed and recorded in a manner that differs from the rest of Border Force and is contrary to standard practice. It results in a misleading picture of performance which national leads had already identified and were seeking to address and is an issue which merited clarification prior to the inspection concluding.
James Heappey has posted a thread on X about his resignation as a defence minister. It starts here. “Endex” is a military term, apparently, to refer to the end of a hard exercise, and the feeling of relief that comes with that.
ENDEX pic.twitter.com/nPytEW7zcL
— James Heappey MP (@JSHeappey) March 26, 2024
In his letter to Harlow Conservative association announcing that he is standing down at the next election, Robert Halfon quotes JRR Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings.
Halfon did not use this line (“you will need no help … among the great you are”) in his letter to Rishi Sunak resigning as a minister. (See 4.23pm.)
Watchdog criticises Border Force's 'shocking' failure to check high risk flights arriving at London City airport
The second report from David Neal published today (see 3.21pm) covers how Border Force checked arrivals at London City airport. As PA Media says, Neal says in his report that an inspection identified “a significant risk to security” after it found that private jets were landing in the UK without undergoing proper security checks.
PA says:
A spot-check inspection carried out by Mr Neal’s team at London City Airport in east London earlier this year found “failings at a local, regional, and national level” in Border Force’s response to general aviation – defined as any civil flight not operating to a specific and published schedule.
The inspection found Border Force staff at the airport missed targets on the number of flights they were supposed to check in person.
But much of the key information from the inspection – including how many general aviation flights had been physically met by Border Force staff – was redacted when it was published by the Home Office.
In his report, which was submitted to the Home Office on 14 February, Neal says:
Guidance designed to keep the country safe directs that all GA flights identified as high risk are met by Border Force staff, except in exceptional circumstances. At LCY, only [redacted] were met in 2023. Guidance also directs that a third of low-risk flights are met. Only [redacted] were met at LCY in 2023. This is shocking and something is clearly very wrong.
Local managers told inspectors that they approached GA operations on a ‘resource to risk’ basis given the other priorities they have to resource under the Border Force Operating Mandate. They were satisfied that their operational response was adequate. By any measure this is not acceptable. This is compounded by the observation that nobody in the chain of command for LCY appeared to be taking action, even though they were aware that this was taking place.
On the basis of this spot check inspection, the Home Office needs to urgently examine failings in the Border Force response to GA flights at a local, regional, and national level, and take rapid action to address the GA system failings this report identifies at LCY.
Robert Halfon resigns as education minister, and announces he's standing down at election
The Conservative MP Robert Halfon has announced that he is standing down at the next election. More surprisingly, he has revealed that he has resigned as an education minister too. He has posted his resignation letter on X.
A personal statement from the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Member of Parliament for Harlow and the villages and the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education. 👇https://t.co/SIj1aYNhlm pic.twitter.com/MGadHQWuLV
— Robert Halfon MP ➡️Working Hard for Harlow⬅️ (@halfon4harlowMP) March 26, 2024
Ministers who declare they will stand down at the election do not have to leave government immediately, but prime ministers normally want to have people in their team who are looking forward, and geared up to fighting the election, not counting the days until retirement.
With James Heappey also resigning from government (see 4.01pm), Rishi Sunak will need to conduct a mini reshuffle. As yet, we don’t know whether or not this will turn into a bigger one.
Simon Hart, the government chief whip, moved the writ for the Blackpool South byelection in the Commons this morning.
The byelection, triggered by the resignation of Scott Benton, is expected on Thursday 2 May, the date of the local elections.
James Heappey resigns as defence minister
Armed forces minister James Heappey has resigned, according to sources, paving the way for Rishi Sunak to carry out a mini-reshuffle of his team, PA Media reports. Heappey, the Conservative MP for Wells, Somerset, earlier this month announced his intention to quit as an MP and to stand down as a minister before then.
Home Office accepts care workers visas have been abused, but insists foreign staff needed to fill 'reported 160,000 vacancies'
Alongside the David Neal report into the care worker visa system (see 3.21pm), the Home Office has published its response. It says it does not accept some of the specific details in the report, and it says it does not accept reports published last month, based on a briefing from Neal, saying the inquiry found that 25% of people with care visas were abusing the system. The Home Office explains:
We have concerns regarding the reference within the foreword in this report to another inspection (An Inspection of Illegal Working Enforcement) where care visa holders are purported to have been encountered working illegally in 2 of 8 visits conducted as part of the inspection of illegal working enforcement. This reference has been extrapolated in the media to portray 2 in 8 care workers (around 25,000) are working illegally. The Home Office considers this to be a false representation based on flawed analysis. There is also a lack of clarity as to whether these individuals were working illegally or just encountered on the premises.
But the Home Office does not seem to quibble with the main point being made by Neal, which is that, once care workers were added to the shortage occupation list, the visa system was subject to abuse. The Home Office says this coincided with the start of the Ukraine war, and one reason why enforcement was not tighter was that officials were preoccupied with setting up a system for Ukrainian refugees, “which saved countless lives”.
More interestingly, the Home Office suggests it deserves credit for increasing the rate at which foreign care workers arrived in the country so quickly. This may be fair – but it is hard to square with recent statements from No 10 that net migration is “far too high” and must come down.
The Home Office says:
The government agreed to implement the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommendation in February 2022 to allow those working in social care to use the immigration system. This was due to compelling evidence from the committee on the short term need to provide an immigration response to fill roles that were deemed to be in significant shortage.
This work was undertaken during a time when the department was under immense pressure coordinating large scale resettlement efforts for Ukrainians who had been displaced due to the Russian invasion of the same year.
Our response to this humanitarian crisis, which saved countless lives, meant that it took priority over the implementation of the care route. When resourcing allowed, work began at an early stage to support the sector in transitioning to using the health and care visa. This allowed migrant workers to fill the reported 160,000 vacancies in the sector and meet the objectives of the Department of Health and Social Care in using care facilities to facilitate the discharge of individuals from NHS wards to ease winter pressures.
Unfortunately, some bodies operating within the adult social care sector, or masquerading as doing so, abused this opportunity. The Home Office identified these abusive practices at the earliest opportunity despite the operational focus on the Ukrainian response, commissioning focussed compliance activity as early as June 2022.
Home Office efforts to stop abuse of care worker visa system 'totally inadequate', leading to 'shocking' abuse, says watchdog
Last month the Home Office published 13 reports all at the same time from David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. Neal was a little too independent as chief inspector and he was sacked after he started to leak the contents of some of his reports because he was tired of the way, for month after month, the Home Office was refusing to publish them.
As expected, the 13 reports contained some embarrassing findings. Rajeev Syal wrote about them here.
This afternoon the Home Office has published two further reports from Neal. If anything, these are even more embarrassing.
One report covers the immigration system as it applies to the care sector, covering the period from August to November 2023. It says.
In his foreward to the report Neal says:
In December 2021, the Home Office accepted a recommendation by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to add care workers and home carers to the shortage occupation list. Responding to the needs outlined in the MAC report published earlier that month, the Home Office worked at pace to fit pressing ministerial priorities to help alleviate staff shortages in the social care sector.
This inspection report details the consequences of the Home Office’s limited understanding of the social care sector, its underestimation of demand for the Care Worker visa, the inappropriateness of its sponsor licensing regime for low-skilled roles, and the mismatch between its meagre complement of compliance officers and ever-expanding register of licensed sponsors. There are echoes of previous inspections that have highlighted the consequences of the Home Office’s failure to accurately forecast, such as small boat arrivals. Fundamentally, the Home Office selected a route that was designed for a largely compliant sector and applied it to a high-risk area – migration into an atomised and poorly paid sector is miles away from the recruitment of highly skilled workers being sponsored by multinational corporations. This should have been obvious to Home Office policymakers.
The net effect of these mistakes is that the Home Office created a system that invited large numbers of low-skilled workers to this country who are at risk from exploitation. Moreover, its control measures to mitigate the risk were totally inadequate. There is just one compliance officer for every 1,600 employers licensed to sponsor migrant workers.
This report details the shocking results of the policy’s implementation, including the case of 275 certificates of sponsorship being granted to a care home that did not exist, and 1,234 certificates being granted to a company that stated it had only four employees when given a licence. In just these two examples, up to 1,500 people could have arrived in this country and been encouraged by a risk of hardship or destitution to work outside the conditions of their visa. While the inspection does not detail the extent of this abuse, my inspectors encountered migrants with care visas working illegally in two out of eight enforcement visits they observed during my inspection of illegal working enforcement (August to October 2023).
Neal, who submitted his report to the Home Office on 6 February, does accepted that the Home Office put measures in place in 2023 to address some of the problems he highlighted. But he says this happened too late, and he says “what worries me most is that the Home Office does not appear to have any process to identify the lessons from this debacle”.
Updated
Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con), chair of the committee, ends by asking about strategic thinking in government – a pet subject of his.
Q: Do you support setting up a national school of government of some kind?
Sunak says he is in favour of that proposal.
Jenkin says no other civil service around the world does not have a training centre.
Q: Should this offer training for ministers too?
Sunak says there is a training process for ministers already.
Q: Young people are not engaged in politics. Should parliament have something like a future committee, as they have in Finland, to ask the questions about what the country wil be like in, say, 30 years time.
Sunak says that would be a matter for parliament.
Jenkin says departmental select committees would not exist if Margaret Thatcher had not proposed them in a manifesto.
And that’s the end of the hearing.
I will post a summary soon.
Philip Dunne (Con), chair of the environmental audit committee, is asking the questions now.
Q: Do you agree parliament needs to play a bigger role scrutinising the next carbon budget?
Sunak agrees with the general point. He says last time a carbon budget was passed, it was debated for 17 minutes. That is not right, he says. He says Dunne’s committee has put forward helpful ideas on this.
Q: Defra announced yesterday that sustainable farming incentives would have to increase food production. Does that mean you accept food security is a public good.
Yes, says Sunak.
Sunak gently mocks Truss's claim she was undermined by 'deep state'
William Wragg (Con), chair of the public administration and constitutional reform committee, goes next.
Q: Are you still committed to cutting the size of the civil service?
Yes, says Sunak. He says he wants to see efficiency savings.
Q: Do you support Lord Maude’s proposal to split the role of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service?
Sunak says he is still considering that report.
Q: What do you think about Liz Truss’s claim that she was undermined by the deep state?
Sunak says that is a matter for her.
Wragg tries again, and again Sunak says that is a matter for her. Wragg asks if Sunak is a member of the deep state, and Sunak replies:
I probably wouldn’t tell you if I was.
This promotes proper laughter.
But it also answers the question, because it does tells us what Sunak thinks about Truss’s “deep state” conspiracy theorising; he is gently mocking it.
Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con), chair of the committee, asks a supplementary.
Q: Are you thinking of putting getting defence spending up to 2.5% of GDP on defence?
Sunak says he does not want to write too much of the manifesto now.
Jenkin says that has made his point (which is that if the government really wanted to put defence spending up by that amount, it would have done so).
Sir Jeremy Quin (Con), chair of the defence committee, goes next.
Q: When will the UK spend 2.5% of national wealth on defence?
Sunak says the government has said it will do that when conditions allow, but it is already on the way. The government is already due to hit 2.3%, he says.
Q: Russia is outgunning Ukraine 5:1 on expenditure on shells. And it is spending 40% of government expenditure on defence. Do you accept that there comes a point where we cannot afford to spend more.
Sunak agrees, but he says the government is spending more.
Munitions are a particular issue, he says. The government has announced plans to reinvigorate supply chains, and to provide more drones. He says his first overseas visit this year was to Ukraine.
Quin says he would like to have heard Sunak be more specific on 2.5%.
Q: How are you going to institutionalise a cross-government effort to get where we need to do get defence into a better place?
Sunak says the announcement yesterday addressed this. This is a proper national endeavour, he says.
Sunak claims that the UK’s approach to dealing with the risk posed by China goes further than what has happened in many other European countries.
He says countries like Germany have not removed Huawei from their phone networks.
Q: The UK is joining the CPTPP [the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership]. If China tries to join, will we block it?
Sunak says it would not be appropriate to say. But CPTPP has very high standards, he says.
Liam Byrne (Lab), chair of the business committee goes next. He asks about TTikT
Q: Will you require ByteDance to give up its holding in TikTok?
Sunak says TikTok is not allowed on government devices. He says he will not comment on individual cases, but the government monitors threats to security, he says.
Q: Do you allow TikTok on your children’s phones?
Sunak says that is no really relevant, and he does not answer.
Sunak says the UN resolution is not asking for an unconditional ceasefire. It calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages.
He says the wording of the resolution was not perfect, from the government’s point of view, but it was close enough to the UK’s position for the government to support it.
Cat Smith (Lab), chair of the petitions committee, goes next.
Q: What is the government doing to support a ceasefire in Gaza?
Sunak says the government was pleased to support the resolution at the UN.
Q: Will you consider arms export licences?
Sunak says the UK has a very robust scheme in place for arms exports.
Q: And are exports to Israel constantly under review?
Yes, says Sunak.
Q: Will you take into account the number of children killed and injured?
Yes, says Sunak. He says he does not want to comment on the specifics, but these are the sort of issues that are kept under review.
Q: Airdrops are the least effective way of delivering aid. What are you doing to get aid in through the Rafah land crossing.
Sunak agrees with the point. The UK is pressing for more land access, he says.
In the meantime, the airdrops will help, he says.
Q: Does what is happening in Gaza count as collective punishment?
Sunak says the UK urges Israel to comply with international law.
He has also asked Benjamin Netanyahu about bringing more aid in through the north, he says.
Q: Do you have an update on the allegatons about UNWRA staff supporting Hamas?
Sunak says the government was appalled by the allegations. Properly functioning, UNWRA has an important role to play. But the government is still considering the results of the inquiry carried out.
Q: Why do you think it will be safe to send LGBT asylum seekers to Rwanda?
Sunak says he is satisfied by the legal protections in place in Rwanda.
Q: If Rwanda is a safe country, how is sending people there a deterrent?
Sunak says because people won’t be able to stay in the UK.
He claims that deterrence has led to the number of people coming to the UK from Albania falling by 90%.
Joanna Cherry (SNP) asks Sunak if he is proud of telling Tory MPs to vote againt the amendment saying people who helped the British forces in Afghanistan should be exempt from deportation to Rwanda.
Sunak objects to the question, saying he resents the way Cherry is framing it in the light of the way MPs are being subject to threats.
Cherry defends the question, and poses it again.
Sunak says the government has other schemes that people can access if they worked for British forces and want to come to the UK.
Sunak says he's not aware of claim Tory MPs were told compensating infected blood victims would stop tax cuts
Q: Did the whips tell your MPs last December that if you implemented the recommendations on compensation for victims of the infected blood scandal, there would be no money in the budget for tax cuts?
Sunak says that is not something he is aware of. He says the government is committed to paying compensation.
Updated
Q: Why did you block the reappointment of David Neal as independent chief inspector of Borders and Immigration?
Sunak does not accept that is the case.
Sunak refuses to say if government has found airline willing to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda
Diana Johnson (Lab), chair of the home affairs committee, goes next.
Q: Do you have an airline to fly people to Rwanda, or will you use the RAF?
Sunak refuses to say. He suggests this is subject to commercial confidentiality.
Q: There are 30,000 people who cannot claim asylum. Should they go to Rwanda?
Sunak says he wants to ensure that people who have arrived here illegally should be removed.
Neill says the county courts, which handle most civil law cases, operate on a paper-based system. He says they would operate more effectively if the system were digitalised.
Sunak says he did not realise that. He says he thought he had signed off on a digitalisation programme.
It did not cover county courts, Neill says.
Sir Bob Neill (Con), chair of the justice committee, is asking the questions now.
Q: The lady chief justice told our committee you will not be able to meet your target of clearing the courts backlog without radical change?
Sunak says he has discussed this with the lady chief justice. The government is funding extra sitting days, it has retained nightingale court rooms, and those measures are helping.
But of course there is a backlog as a result of Covid.
Q: There are about 100 unplanned closures every week in the courts because of maintenance problems, and 600 unused prison cells for the same reason. Shouldn’t teh government look at this?
Sunak invites Neill to send him more information about this. Extra funding is going into court maintenance. He asks if Neill is asking about the funding, or the contracts.
Neill says he thinks there is a problem with contracts.
Sunak says he will discuss that with the justice secretary.
Sunak says keeping pension triple lock in place for next parliament is affordable
Stephen Crabb (Con), chair of the Welsh affairs committee, goes next.
Q: Will you keep the triple lock?
Sunak say he has nothing to add to what Jeremy Hunt said on this.
At the weekend Hunt said the triple lock would be in the Tory manifesto.
Q: Will you keep that in place for the whole of the next parliament?
Sunak says it is safe to assume that that is what Hunt meant.
Q: But do you believe that is affordable?
Sunak says he does think that.
Updated
Sunak says he is reflecting on whether more could be done to protect children from online harms
Q: Is there more we can do to protect children from the dangers of mobile phones?
Sunak says, as a parent, he is particularly interested in this. He says the government has published guidance on this.
The Online Safety Act is law, but it needs to be implemented, he says. He says it should make a difference.
He says he is thinking more broadly about this question. People have made suggestions. He has spoken to parents like Molly Russell’s father and Brianna Ghey’s mother and is reflecting on what they have said, he says.
Sunak says teaching maths to 18 is not about everyone having to study maths A level. It is about ensuring people have a decent understanding of maths.
Robin Walker (Con), chair of the education committee, goes next.
Q: You favour financial education. How do you strike the right balance between getting people to study maths up to 18, as you want, and teaching financial matters.
Sunak says the two priorities are compatible. Teaching maths better will help people understand finance, he says.
Sunak dismisses claims local authorities are facing funding crisis
Clive Betts (Lab), chair of the levelling up committee, goes next.
Q: Since you were local government minister, things have got worse. Isn’t there a fundamental crisis in local government finance?
Sunak says councils are the backbone of local communities. He says as local government minister he saw the value of what they did.
They have had “significant” extra funding, he says.
Q: But that came after a 30% cut in spending power over the past 14 years. A council leader said to us, with adult social care costs going up 90%, costs of children with complex needs up 23%, and income up just 5%, you don’t need to be a genius to see there’s a gap.
Sunak does not accept that.
The grant in cash terms for councils has more than doubled in this parliament, he says.
Q: 20% of councils face the threat of bankruptcy in the next few years?
Sunak repeats the point about the grant being doubled in cash terms.
Q: DLUHC [the Department for Levelling UP, Housing and Communities] is not a protected government. Is it really sustainable that councils could get no extra money for four years, without having to cut services?
Sunak says he won’t write the next spending review now.
Overall public spending is forecast to grow over the next spending review period, he says.
It has not been divided up yet. But that is what spending reviews are for.
And overall spending is rising, not just in cash terms, but in real terms too, he says.
He says MPs asking for more spending for one department should say which other budgets should be cut, or what taxes might go up to pay for it.
He repeats the point about councils getting more funding, and says social care is being prioritised.
Steve Brine (Con), chair of the health committee, is asking the questions now, and he asks about the NHS workforce plan.
Sunak says he is confident that it will make a difference to NHS performance, and gives details of how this might happen.
Q: This is one of the most significant changes in the NHS for a generation. Do you accept improved productivity is crucial to making it work?
Sunak accepts this. He stresses that “reform” is an inherent part of the plan. “For example, physician associates, nurse associates, new use of apprenticeships,” he says.
Updated
Q: Is there a leak inquiry into how the papers reported the 2p in the pound cut in national insurance?
Sunak says there normally is after a leak like that.
He says he deplores budget leaks, and will write to the committee with details of what is happening about this one.
Sunak says he would like to think debt can come down to pre-pandemic levels.
Q: But debt is still rising, and rising for the next few years? Under no scenario is it forecast to fall to pre-pandemic levels. Could it do so?
Sunak says: “I would like to believe so.”
He says debt starts falling next year.
Baldwin does not accept that. She says the OBR shows it going up until 2028.
Sunak says the debt picture is better than it was at previous budgets.
Harriett Baldwin (Con), chair of the Treasury committee, starts.
Q: How is the economic strategy going?
Rishi Sunak says he set out five priorities when he got the job, three of them covering the economy. He says he is making progress on all three.
On debt, he says the government is on course to meet its fiscal rules.
The liaison committee hearing is starting.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, chair of the committee starts.
He says they will start with the economy, move on to global issues, and then finish with strategic thinking.
In the Commons yesterday Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM, said the government was still considering whether to put China in the “enhanced sphere” category under the National Security Act 2023, which would mean people acting on its behalf in the UK would be subject to enhanced scrutiny in recogniton of the threat they posed.
In the Daily Mail Jason Groves and David Churchill say such a move could affect thousands of people working for Chinese companies in the UK. They report:
Last night it was unclear whether the law would cover firms such as TikTok, which deny they are controlled by Beijing …
Designating China on the enhanced list will be viewed as a hostile act in Beijing and has been resisted by the Treasury, which remains keen to attract Chinese investment.
At the lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the “enhanced sphere” scheme under the NSA is still being finalised. Asked if all Chinese companies operating in the UK would be covered, or just companies owned by the Chinese government, the spokesperson said “enhanced sphere” status would cover foreign “government-controlled” entitities, but he did not provide a definition of what this meant.
Updated
No 10 plays down suggestions government is about to officially designate China as 'threat'
At the lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesperson also played down suggestions that the government is close to officially designating China a “threat” to the UK.
Asked about the prospect of this happening, the spokesperson replied:
There isn’t a mechanism under UK law or indeed in our G7 or Five Eyes countries that has a designation process like that.
Asked whether ministers are planning to update the integrated review of defence and foreign policy, which describes China as “an epoch-defining challenge”, the spokesperson replied:
The integrated review has already set out the UK’s position in relation to China being a state-based threat to our economic security. And it set out a clear strategy to deal with the challenge that China presents.
China’s charge d’affaires has been to the Foreign Office to respond to protests about his country’s involvement in cyber-attacks on the UK, Downing Street said. At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said:
China has accepted the summoning, and charge d’affaires has attended the FCDO this morning.
It is understood the ambassador did not attend because he was not in the country.
Rishi Sunak at liaison committee - who's asking the questions?
Rishi Sunak is giving evidence to the liaison committee at 1pm. The committee comprises the chairs of all the Commons committees, and it takes evidence from the PM usually three times a year, under an arrangement started by Tony Blair to address complaints that (until then) select committees never got the chance to interrogate the one minister with most influence over the issues they covered.
The committee has set out a list of what themes it will cover today, and who will ask the questions in each section. Here it is.
Scrutiny of strategic thinking in government:
Philip Dunne MP
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP
William Wragg MP
Economy and public services:
Harriett Baldwin MP
Clive Betts MP
Steve Brine MP
Liam Byrne MP
Stephen Crabb MP
Dame Diana Johnson MP
Sir Bob Neill MP
Robin Walker MP
Global issues:
Joanna Cherry MP
Sir Jeremy Quin MP
Cat Smith MP
Healthy life expectancy has fallen in England and Wales over past decade, ONS says
The Office for National Statistics has published figures this morning showing that healthy life expectancy – the amount of time people can expect to live in good or very good health (based on how people perceive their own health) – has fallen in England and Wales over the past decade.
It has also fallen in Northern Ireland over the past decade, but only for women.
The ONS says it does not yet have data for Scotland.
It says:
Healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth, in 2020 to 2022, was highest in England (62.4 years for males, 62.7 years for females) and lowest in Wales (61.1 years for males, 60.3 years for females).
In both England and Wales, HLE at birth in 2020 to 2022 decreased for both males and females compared with 2011 to 2013, when our time series began; in Northern Ireland, it increased for males, but decreased for females.
In England, Northern Ireland and Wales in 2020 to 2022, females at birth are expected to live in ”good health” for a smaller proportion of life (by 1.2, 1.5 and 1.9 percentage points for each country, respectively), compared with 2011 to 2013; for males, changes were smaller than 1 percentage point.
The ONS report published today does not give a full explanation as to why healthy life expectancy has fallen, but it points out that ONS figures published in January said the period between 2020 to 2022 saw the largest decrease in life expectancy at birth for men and women since this data set started in 1980. Falling life expectancy “affects health state life expectancies”, the ONS says.
A government report published last year said “chronic health conditions and multimorbidity” were main reasons for people saying they are not in good health. And it said people with chronic musculoskeletal system conditions are three times as likely to say they are in poor health as people without them.
Labour would carry out full audit of UK-China relations, says Jonathan Ashworth
Labour will carry out a full audit of UK-China relations if it wins the election, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said this morning. Asked about the measures announced by the government yesterday, Ashworth told GB News:
We welcome the action that was taken yesterday. We continue to believe these matters must be kept under review.
We will do a full audit of UK-China relations should we get elected and I think the position that the UK adopted, say ten years ago, of announcing a new golden era of relations, I think that perhaps looks naive now in retrospect.
Special educational needs in English schools in ‘crisis’, Keegan admits
In interviews this morning Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, admitted that special educational needs provision was in crisis, Ben Quinn reports.
Freedom of speech law for English universities could make them cut links with foreign countries, Office for Students says
Universities in England could be told to terminate their arrangements with foreign countries if freedom of speech and academic freedom is undermined, the government’s free speech tsar has said. As PA Media reports, Prof Arif Ahmed, director for freedom of speech and academic freedom at the Office for Students (OfS), said many universities and colleges in England have “international arrangements” – including admitting overseas students on scholarships and hosting institutes partly funded by foreign governments. PA says:
The higher education regulator launched a consultation on guidance about freedom of speech, ahead of universities, colleges and student unions taking on new free speech duties.
The guidance includes examples to illustrate what higher education institutions may have to do to fulfil their new duties – due to come into effect in August – to secure freedom of speech within the law.
The guidance gives a list of examples of how the new rules could affect universities. Here is one hypothetical case.
University A accepts international students on visiting scholarships funded by the government of country B. Scholars must accept the principles of the ruling party of country B, and direction from country B’s government via consular staff. Depending on the circumstances, these arrangements may undermine free speech and academic freedom at University A. If so, that university is likely to have to terminate or amend the scholarship agreement.
In a briefing for journalists, Ahmed said the new rules – implemented under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 – could force universities to rethink their relationships with foreign countries. He said:
If it means that there are people who are employed by an institute who are preventing legitimate protests or shutting down lecturers from covering certain kinds of content regarding that country for instance, or that country’s foreign policy … If that behaviour amounts to a restriction of freedom of speech within the law, and someone brings a complaint to us, then we may find that the complaint is justified and then we make recommendations …
If there are problems, universities will have to do everything they can to act compatibly with their freedom-of-speech duties. Insofar as that means a rethinking of their relationship with other countries, obviously that’s something that would be a good idea for them to start thinking about now.
The Today programme presenter Nick Robinson will carry out the BBC’s main TV interviews with party leaders at the general election, Ben Riley-Smith reports in the Telegraph. Robinson will perform the role taken by Andrew Neil for the BBC at previous elections.
In 2019 Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, refused to be interviewed by Neil, leading to accusations that the BBC had unfairly persuaded Jeremy Corbyn to submit to a ferocious grilling by Neil by letting him think Johnson would get the same treatment too. This time all party leaders are expected to agree to an interview, Riley-Smith reports.
Teaching unions have complained that the extra money announced for special educational needs (Send) in schools in England today (see 10.35am) does not go far enough.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said while investment in education is always welcome, the latest figures are “a very long way short of the level of funding that is needed”. He added:
The special educational needs system is on its knees, with many local authority high needs budgets in deficit, children waiting for assessments and lack of money in schools for provision.
And Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
It seems everyone, even the government, now accepts we are in the middle of a full-blown crisis when it comes to Send.
However, this hasn’t just come out of nowhere – we have been warning about this for years and it is immensely frustrating just how little progress the government has made on actually tackling the issue.
Successive secretaries of state have acknowledged the scale of the problem but none have seemingly been able to find the solutions.
After more than a decade, talk of ‘long-term plans’ and ‘record levels of investment’ will carry little sway with parents and school leaders who are trying to navigate their way through this crisis.
If the government does not get a grip, vulnerable young people will continue to suffer.
As PA Media reports, figures published earlier this month showed there were approximately 4,000 more pupils on roll in special schools than the reported capacity. There were 148,000 special school places reported across 1,077 schools in England as of May last year, but there were around 152,000 pupils on the roll during the same period.
Gove to chair first session of East-West Council to strengthen links between Northern Ireland and Great Britain
A new body to improve business and educational links across the UK, which was created under the deal that restored powersharing in Northern Ireland, will meet for the first time, PA Media reports. PA says:
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, will chair the inaugural session of the East-West Council in Dover House in London.
The establishment of the forum was pledged in the UK government’s Safeguarding the Union command paper.
Published in late January, the paper was the product of months of negotiations between the government and the DUP that ultimately convinced the region’s largest unionist party to end its two-year blockade of powersharing at Stormont.
Sinn Fein first minister Michelle O’Neill and her DUP counterpart and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly will attend the council meeting, as will Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and a number of other ministers from the Stormont Executive.
The Safeguarding the Union command paper said the council would seek to harness “significant potential” to strengthen cooperation between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK to “address shared challenges and to grasp shared opportunities”.
It will comprise representatives from the political, business and education sectors.
The council’s priorities include tackling economic inactivity; improving east-west trade flows; increasing international investment to Northern Ireland; and bolstering institutional connectivity and enhancing professional development by leveraging academic and skills expertise across NI and GB.
Minister told to name sources in Afghan inquiry or face potential jail term
The minister for veterans’ affairs, Johnny Mercer, has been given 10 days to reveal the source of allegations British troops engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, or face a potential prison sentence, Ben Quinn reports.
And here is Mercer’s witness statement to the inquiry in which he explains why what he was told led him to believe that there was a “culture of omerta” within special forces and why allegations about the SAS being involved in unlawful killings were not properly investigated.
Keegan says parents of children with special educational needs too often have to 'fight to get right support'
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, was doing an interview round this morning to promote a government plan to create more special needs places in schools in England. In its press release, the Department for Education says it is creating 60,000 more places – although it says this figure also includes school places being created by a free schools programme. It says:
A record annual investment of £850m is going to councils to create new places for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and in Alternative Provision (AP) in mainstream and special schools, and to improve the accessibility of existing buildings.
This will provide specialist support for children with autism, learning difficulties, mobility difficulties and more to meet their extra needs, including extra encouragement in their learning, help communicating with other children and support with physical or personal care difficulties, such as using the toilet or getting around the school safely.
The government is sticking to the plan to ensure every child can receive the education they need to succeed, where hard work is rewarded and aspiration is celebrated. The funding is part of the £2.6bn investment between 2022 and 2025 – more than tripling the previous levels of investment – to help to put an end to families having to fight for the right support for their children.
When combined with the places already being created by the special free schools programme, this funding is creating over 60,000 new places across the country.
In a statement included in the news release, Keegan says parents of special needs children too often have to “fight to get the right support”. She says:
All too often I hear from parents with children who have special educational needs having to fight to get the right support. That’s why this government has a plan to deliver 60,000 more places that meet the needs of these pupils and their families.
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China 'obviously a security threat', says Gillian Keegan, education secretary
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said this morning that China was “obviously a security threat” to the UK.
Speaking to Times Radio, she said:
As I’ve said before, I’m not in the diplomatic service or the Foreign Office but it is obviously a security threat.
We take all security threats seriously, whether that’s cyber security or other security threats.
This is significant because the government has been criticised for not formally describing China as a threat in security policy statements. That’s why Keegan stressed that she was not speaking on behalf of the Foreign Office; she was just giving a personal assessment.
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Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, was being interviewed by Kay Burley on Sky News this morning when he challenged Rishi Sunak to explain how he would fund his proposal to axe national insurance. (See 9.34am.) In an interview with Burley three weeks ago, Ashworth bet her £10 that the general election would be on 2 May. For an election on 2 May, parliament would have to be dissolving today.
This morning Ashworth acccepted he had lost, and he paid up, with the money going to a charity for the children of alcoholics. Burley asked him if he wanted to bet on an election in June, but Ashworth declined.
Labour suggests Rishi Sunak might have to means test pensions to fund £46bn national insurance cut
Good morning. The Commons rises for the Easter recess at the end of today, but before that happens Rishi Sunak has meetings with two of Westminster’s more high-profile bodies: cabinet, and the Commons liaison committee. Cabinet is no threat to Sunak, because the Tory MPs working hardest to force him out of of his job are on the backbenches (which was not always the case with this predecessors). In theory the liasion committee – best thought of as 35 MPs who think they should be in cabinet – ought to pose more of a threat, and the 90-minute session at lunchtime is the best news prospect of the day. But this liaison committee is less ferocious than it has been in previous parliaments, and Sunak normally gets through it without being seriously rattled.
Sunak has been told that today’s hearing will include questioning on three topics – scrutiny of strategic thinking in government, economy and public services, and global issues – which in practice could mean more or less anything.
Ahead of the hearing the Labour party has sent out a list of 15 questions it thinks Sunak should answer. The most important was probably this one:
The chancellor told Conservative party members he plans to scrap national insurance in the next parliament. How does the government plan to pay for this projected cost of £46bn?
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, was doing the the media round for Labour today and he said this was a question Sunak had to address. On Sky News he suggested that Sunak’s plan could lead to the state pension being means tested, as a means of allowing the Tories to find the £46bn cost. He said:
[Sunak has] committed his party to a £46bn [tax cut] which either means more borrowing, putting up mortgages, or it means a new tax rise on pensioners. Or it severs the link between contribution and the state pension, it is threatens the state pension in the future. Silver Voices, an organisation who campaigns for pensioners, in the Daily Express a couple of weeks ago said this could mean to the means testing of the state pension. Rishi Sunak has got to answer questions on his £46bn bombshell.
It’s not often that you hear a Labour frontbencher quoting the Daily Express approvingly, but Ashworth was referring to this article, and this quote.
Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said that although state pensions are not reliant on the amount of NICs collected by the government, abolishing it could lead to problems.
He said: “When national insurance was set up, it was intended to fund the state pension and benefits.
“It has become muddled up over successive governments.
“But if there is no national insurance at all it opens up the doors to means testing of the state pension in future.
“If everything comes from the taxman it becomes a benefit rather than the deferred payment it is.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1pm: Rishi Sunak gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.
3pm: Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, are due to make an announcement about crime policy.
3.15pm: Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee.
If you want to contact me, do use 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.
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