Afternoon summary
Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of making “a grubby deal” with Suella Braverman to reappoint her, thus jeopardising national security and exacerbating the asylum crisis, in another prime minister’s questions dominated by the issue of the home secretary’s future.
The Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, has accused Rishi Sunak’s government of using his country’s citizens as scapegoats for failed immigration policies after critical comments by Suella Braverman about Albanian asylum seekers.
Rishi Sunak is set to ditch his flagship Conservative leadership campaign pledges, as No 10 admitted there would be a review to assess whether they were still “deliverable” as a result of the worsening economic backdrop.
Rishi Sunak is to attend the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt next week after No 10 previously said he was too focused on the domestic economy to attend and banned King Charles from going.
The United Nations’ poverty envoy has warned Rishi Sunak that unleashing a new wave of austerity in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger and malnutrition.
It will be “extremely difficult” for the Conservatives to win the next general election after presiding over a fiscal crisis, although a change of prime minister makes predictions more complex, the leading pollster Sir John Curtice has said.
Matt Hancock has said his decision to appear on I’m a Celebrity was motivated by a desire to showcase his “human side” and to use reality TV as a platform to “deliver important messages to the masses”.
John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, has set out “savings” of £615m as he published his emergency budget review. As PA Media reports, Swinney said the measures are necessary to tackle rising inflation and economic uncertainty. The sum includes £400m of spending “reprioritisation” within the health and social care portfolio in order to support a pay offer for staff. The emergency budget review was first announced in early September, when additional savings of £500m were set out. Despite the UK government’s fiscal statement being due on 17 November, Swinney said he would “wait no longer” to outline his own proposals.
Updated
Ben Wallace plays down reports he is threatening to resign if government does not raise defence spending
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has played down reports saying he is threatening to resign if the government abandons a commitment to increase defence spending.
Giving evidence to the Commons defence committee, Wallace said he would be “fighting for as much money as I can get” for defence when he meets the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, on Thursday, ahead of the 17 November autumn statement.
Asked about reports that he had threatened to resign if he did not get a commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, Wallace artfully dodged the question. According to PA Media, ignoring the 3% element, he replied:
I haven’t said I would resign on 2.5, 3.5, 4%. Obviously the media might like that.
Pressed by Labour MP Derek Twigg if the Ministry of Defence had briefed journalists that he would quit if he was not satisfied with his settlement, Wallace replied: “I don’t run my department that way.”
There were several reports in recent weeks, quoting defence sources, saying that Wallace was prepared to resign if Liz Truss reneged on her promise to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP. The Guardian has reported this, as have other newspapers.
But the replacement of Truss with Rishi Sunak as PM may have altered Wallace’s thinking, because Sunak never committed to increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP in either of his bids for the Tory leadership.
However, Sunak was still chancellor in June, when the then PM, Boris Johnson, committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.
Wallace told the committee he regarded getting defence spending to 3% of GDP by the end of the decade as an “aspiration”. He said that at a time of rising threat levels, it was important the country was prepared to commit greater resources to defence.
Three percent as an aspiration or a planned marker, wherever we get to subject to our budget discussions, is a perfectly reasonable aspiration in the dangerous world that is emerging.
I have always said as threat changes so should our commitment and our planning and our funding. Defence is moving back up the priority list back towards cold war levels of where it should be.
As PA reports, Wallace also said that his aim in his talks with the chancellor would be to ensure that the defence budget was protected from the effects of inflation and fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate for the next two years. He said:
I will be fighting for as much money as I can get. I will fight every bit of the way to see what I can get. I am keen that we get a budget insulated from the inflationary effects.
Updated
Steve Brine elected chair of Commons health committee
Steve Brine has been elected by MPs to replace Jeremy Hunt as chair of the Commons health committee. Brine was one of five candidates for the post, which was only open to Tories because this was one of the select committee chair positions allocated to the Conservative party for this parliament. Brine, a former health minister, said in his election statement:
Bottom line: we have the 5th largest spending on health in the OECD, but we don’t end up 5th in terms of results. We need to understand why and press ministers to get better value for the vast sums we spend on health.
The other candidates were: Stephen Hammond, Dr Caroline Johnson, Anne Marie Morris, and James Morris.
Updated
Labour MP Rosie Cooper criticises decision to turn plot to murder her into TV drama
The Labour MP Rosie Cooper has criticised ITV’s decision to turn a plot to murder her into a “stupid, stupid, stupid” drama series, PA Media reports. PA says:
The MP for West Lancashire also accused the broadcaster and anti-fascism campaign group Hope not hate of using her as a “marketing tool”.
She urged ITV and the advocacy group to donate all the money generated from the TV series to the Jo Cox Foundation, which was set up following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016.
The Walk-In, which launched on October 3, chronicles the story behind the neo-Nazi plot and how it was foiled by Hope not hate. It was announced in September – the same day Cooper announced she was standing down as MP for West Lancashire.
She said in the Commons: “I am appalled at ITV’s recent treatment of the threats to MPs. I have been used as a marketing tool by both Hope not hate and ITV. What excuse is there for a press release that says, ‘Who is Rosie Cooper, and who wanted to murder her?’
“There is no defence to that. So, let’s test the public defence, the public interest defence, to their despicable behaviour and I call on Hope not hate and ITV to donate all money and profits generated from this TV series, both here and abroad, every single penny should go to the Jo Cox Foundation. We should not tolerate this kind of behaviour.”
Her comments came after the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns, raised a point of order in the Commons, asking the Speaker for advice on how to ensure that “threats on the lives of our colleagues are not treated as entertainment”.
A Hope not hate spokesperson told PA news: “We sympathise with Rosie Cooper for everything she has been through in recent years. No-one should endure murder threats simply for doing their job.
“Clearly, we are disappointed to hear Rosie’s words in the chamber today. In 2017, several members of our organisation worked tirelessly and at tremendous sacrifice to themselves to foil the murder plot against Rosie Cooper. This ITV drama and documentary highlight the very real danger of far-right extremism - especially for those in public life.”
ITV has been approached for comment.
Updated
Delaying introduction of cap on social care costs would be 'completely unacceptable', says Andrew Dilnot
Sir Andrew Dilnot, the economist who led a review a decade ago that proposed a cap on the amount people should have to pay in adult social care costs, has said it would be “completely unacceptable” for the government to delay the introduction of the policy.
A cap of £86,000 on personal care contributions is due to take effect from October next year. But it has been reported that the government could delay this by a year, or for even longer, in the autumn statement to save money.
In an interview with Radio 4’s the World at One, Dilnot said:
I think pulling back now would be completely unacceptable. To let some of the most needy and vulnerable people in our society down again seems to me would be a terrible, terrible thing to do. It will be a breach of the manifesto.
It might save some money in the very short term but of course in the long run it’s going to be introduced, it makes no difference to the long run public sector finances, which are what the government should be concerned about. So, I hope this is silly speculation.
Updated
The Institute of Economic Affairs, a libertarian thinktank highly rated by Liz Truss, has rejected suggestions that it was to blame for the disastrous mini-budget she announced. At PMQs the SNP MP Deidre Brock referred to the IEA, inviting Rishi Sunak to condemn “think-tanks that exert so much influence on gullible politicians that their policies were able to almost crash the UK economy just weeks ago”.
In response, Andy Mayer, the IEA’s chief operating officer, said Sunak was right to tell Brock that he believed in free speech. Mayer went on:
Think tanks contribute ideas to public debate and those ideas are available for others to reject, improve or implement as they see fit. Ultimately, politicians develop their own agendas and policies.
Updated
One in six people living in England and Wales born outside UK, census reveals
One in six people living in England and Wales in 2021 were born outside the UK, according to the latest census figures. Our full story is here.
Albanian PM says it's 'insane' for UK to keep blaming Albanians for its border problems
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has suggested that Albanians are in a large part to blame for the rise in the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats. Albanians should not need to claim asylum in the UK, she has argued, and she has said that many of them are either criminals, or are abusing the modern slavery laws.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday, she said:
This year has seen a surge in the number of Albanian arrivals, many of them, I am afraid to say, abusing our modern slavery laws …
Albania is not a war-torn country, and it is very difficult to see how claims for asylum really can be legitimate claims for asylum. I would also note that we see a large number of Albanian migrants arriving here and claiming to be victims of modern slavery …
What is more, we are identifying, particularly with the young, single men who are coming from Albania, that they are either part of organised criminal gangs and procuring their journey through those nefarious means, or they are coming here and partaking in criminal activity, particularly related to drugs – supply and otherwise … There are many people coming here with criminal intent and behaving in a criminal way. We need to stop it.
This afternoon Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, has said that it is “insane” for the UK to keep blaming Albanians for its own border problems. He does not mention Braverman by name in his Twitter thread, but he is clearly referring to her.
Targeting Albanians (as some shamefully did when fighting for Brexit) as the cause of Britain’s crime and border problems makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard fact. Repeating the same things and expecting different results is insane (ask Einstein!)
— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) November 2, 2022
70% of the 140,000 Albanians who have moved to the UK were living in Italy and Greece.1200 of them are Business people. Albanians in the UK work hard and pay tax. UK should fight the crime gangs of all nationalities and stop discriminating v Albanians to excuse policy failures.
— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) November 2, 2022
Albania is a NATO country & is negotiating its EU membership. It is also a safe country of origin. When Germany had a similar problem it tightened its own systems. The UK can and should do the same not respond with a rhetoric of crime that ends up punishing the innocent.
— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) November 2, 2022
Albania is not a rich coutry and was for a very long time a victim of empires, we never had our own.We have a duty to fight crime at home and are doing so resolutely, as cooperating closely with others too. Ready to work closer with UK but facts are crucial. So is mutual respect.
— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) November 2, 2022
Updated
Councils take legal action to prevent Home Office using hotels for asylum seekers
Councils are fighting to stop the government from using hotels to house asylum seekers, with at least four authorities taking legal action, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Home Office said that ‘record levels’ of arrivals to the UK had put ‘unprecedented pressure’ on the system and it was working with councils to ‘find appropriate accommodation during this challenging time’.
But one council that took its case to the high court, Great Yarmouth borough council, said that it took action due to the ‘absence of any meaningful dialogue’ with the Home Office.
In a statement, Great Yarmouth borough council said it had secured an interim injunction in relation to one hotel in a ‘prime tourism location where there is a proposed use as a hostel for accommodating asylum seekers’.
This is subject to a final hearing this month, the authority in Norfolk said.
The council has also served a temporary stop notice on a hotel currently being used to house asylum seekers, but the notice has now expired, and the council is ‘considering further enforcement action’.
‘As a council representing our local community, we have always expressed our willingness to engage with the Home Office to find suitable properties to accommodate asylum seekers, but the absence of any meaningful dialogue or intention to follow due process by the Home Office has resulted in us pursuing this course of action,’ Great Yarmouth borough council said.
East Riding of Yorkshire council, Stoke City council and Ipswich borough council are also taking legal action.
Updated
According to Chris Hopkins from the polling company Savanta ComRes, only around 27% of people think it is fair to attack Keir Starmer for his association with Jeremy Corbyn. (See 1.20pm.)
Sunak keeps harping on about Jeremy Corbyn at #PMQs - does anyone actually care?
— Chris Hopkins (@ChrisHopkins92) November 2, 2022
Latest @SavantaComRes data found that 46% of the public say attacking Starmer for Labour's association with Corbyn is unfair.
All
Fair 27%
Unfair 46%
2019 Con
Fair 40%
Unfair 38% pic.twitter.com/WrOmF4eOgI
Sunak able to go to Cop27 climate summit after making 'good progress' on autumn statement, says No 10
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said that Rishi Sunak decided to attend the Cop27 summit after making “good progress” with Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, on this month’s autumn statement. The spokesperson said:
He has always recognised the importance of this summit and indeed on tacking climate change more generally. We wanted to make sure we were making good progress on the government’s domestic agenda and the autumn statement in particular.
Following discussions with the chancellor this week he has now agreed to attend. The prime minister feels there is sufficient space to make this trip.
As PA Media reports, the spokesperson said Sunak was hoping to make progress on the commitment to halt deforestation by 2030 and to agree new partnerships on clean and renewable energy.
Updated
Labour criticises Sunak for defending migrant hotel arrangements he described as 'farce' in Tory leadership contest
At a briefing after PMQs a Labour party spokesperson said that the fact that Rishi Sunak was taking credit for moving asylum seekers into hotel accommodation in the Commons, when during the summer he was calling this process a “farce” (see 1.39pm), showed the government was “in total chaos”. The spokesperson said:
The government is in total chaos.
You have a situation where one of the prime minister’s pledges in the leadership election ... was ending the ‘hotel farce’ as he described it, and yet just now in PMQs you have had the prime minister bragging about the number of hotel places that he has agreed in the time that he has been prime minister.
From my colleague Aubrey Allegretti
One gloomy-faced Tory MP says Keir Starmer was "very effective" at PMQs.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) November 2, 2022
They think his pressure on tackling Channel crossings points out a "glaring failure" by the govt, and says it's "nonsense" to try to attack Labour given the govt has such a big majority.
Sunak shelves all his pledges from summer Tory leadership contest, saying he needs to see if they are still 'deliverable'
Earlier Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham said that Rishi Sunak had already abandoned two of the promises he made during the summer Tory leadership contest. (See 10.48am.) Wickham missed a third U-turn – abandoning the plan to charge people for missing an appointment with a GP. The summer campaign was the one Sunak lost. During the recent contest, which Sunak won unopposed, Sunak did not make any promises at all.
At the post-PMQs briefing, the PM’s press secretary said all the summer campaign pledges from Sunak have now been shelved. This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.
BREAKING: No 10 announces bonfire of pledges - Rishi Sunak will “take the time” to see what is “deliverable or possible” with economic backdrop.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) November 2, 2022
“We’re looking at the PM’s leadership campaign pledges and working out whether now is the right time to bring them forward.”
The press secretary said:
We are looking at all the campaign pledges and we are looking at whether it is the right time to take them forward.
We need to take some time to make sure what is deliverable and what is possible, and engaging with stakeholders and with the relevant secretaries of state as well.
Obviously, those are pledges that were made a few months ago now and the context is somewhat different, obviously, economically. We need to look again.
She was speaking in response to questions about other promises Sunak made during the summer – embarrassingly – included a pledge saying he was committed to “ending the hotel farce … ending the use of hotels to house migrants by delivering thousands of new beds”. At PMQs today Starmer at one point was telling MPs proudly that the government had procured “more hotels, with 4,500 new beds” to house asylum seekers.
Updated
PMQs – snap verdict
How do you decide who won PMQs? There is no straightforward, a vast array of subjective judgments and assessments come into play, and whatever you write, someone is bound to disagree – but (for the last year or so, at least) there is one failsafe rule that applies; if the Tory PM has to start banging on about Keir Starmer supporting Jeremy Corbyn, then they haven’t won.
That is not to say that some of the things that Starmer said about Corbyn before the 2019 general election are not of some embarrassment to him. It is just that this is such an ancient and feeble attack line that it’s emergence at PMQs is a sure sign that the Tory leader can’t have won, because they did not have anything better to say. Sunak lost because all six questions were on immigration, and he could not defend his party’s record.
But it was worse than that. By my count, Starmer won 6-0, in that, in every exchange, he had the edge. Others might have scored a couple of the exchanges as draws, but in general terms Starmer was clearly dominant. And that is partly because he varied his approach, deploying almost all the PMQs tricks that make a question successful.
He started something very short and direct.
His home secretary says the asylum system is broken. Who broke it?
Then we got what looked like a question, but something that was actually a crisp soundbite neatly summing up his case.
If the asylum system is broken, and his lot have been in power for 12 years, how can it be anyone’s fault but theirs?
Starmer also tried a relatively obscure factual question, that Sunak was unlikely to be able to answer: how many asylum claims from last year have been processed? As is customary, Starmer provided the answer himself.
Four per cent of people arriving in small boats last year had their asylum claim processed. According to the bookies, the home secretary has a better chance of becoming the next Tory leader of processing an asylum claim in a year.
And then Starmer tried an alternative version of the unanswerable question – not on involving an obscure statistic, but one that Sunak had to avoid because the answer would have been incriminating: did Suella Braverman ignore legal advice about moving people out of Manston?
Sunak had his moments. He criticised Labour for not being able to say whether it wanted more or less immigration, and he claimed Starmer did not have his own plan for dealing with the small boat Channel crossings.
Not only does the party opposite not have a plan, they have opposed every single measure we have taken to solve the problem, you can’t attack a plan if you don’t have a plan.
Labour does have a plan – or, at least, enough of a plan to make the Tory claim that it is just in favour of an open border implausible. But, even if they didn’t, Sunak is wrong, because you can attack a plan even if you don’t have your own (has he never read a newspaper?). Today the Tory record was demolished.
Updated
Sarah Jones (Lab) says criminal gangs have a business model to die for because the government has failed to return so many people seeking asylum.
Sunak says Labour has opposed every measure the government has proposed on this.
Updated
Sir Robert Buckland (Con) says only two out of 10 autistic adults are in employment. Will Sunak work to close that gap?
Sunak says he looks forward to seeing Buckland’s recommendations on this.
Updated
Barry Sheerman (Lab) says Sunak did not help ordinary working people as well as he could when he was chancellor. Will he tax the 70,000 non-doms and bring in a windfall tax on energy companies.
Sunak claims 10 million people had their jobs saved through his furlough policy.
Anthony Mangnall (Con) asks a question that links the free trade deal with Australia to Matt Hancock being on I’m a Celebrity.
Sunak ignores the Hancock angle, and talks about the importance of free trade deals.
Taiwo Owatemi (Lab) says staff at Coventry hospital are paying £600 a year to park.
Sunak says the government introduced temporary free parking in the pandemic. All NHS trusts that charge for parking have introduced policies to help staff in need, including those working overnight.
Updated
Vicky Ford (Con) says she is glad Sunak is going to Cop27. Will the government keep the promises it made in Glasgow.
Sunak says there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change.
Chris Bryant (Lab) is jeered as he rises by Tories who want him to apologise for saying that MPs were bullied into voting for the government during the fracking division. Bryant says he will not be silenced. He asks why the economy is broken.
Sunak says Bryant did not mention Covid and the war in Ukraine, which he says are the root causes of the challenge the UK is facing.
Updated
Simon Hoare (Con) asks for more support for GPs and dentists working in rural areas.
Sunak says he and Hoare (who both represent rural constituencies) know their constituents feel this acutely.
Tommy Sheppard (SNP) asks if the government is still committed to prosecuting those who commit war crimes in Ukraine.
Sunak says he is still committed to this.
Julian Lewis (Con) asks if the autumn statement will help those at risk of losing their homes.
Sunak says the government wants to keep interest rates down. And other support for homeowners is available.
Deidre Brock (SNP) asks Sunak to condemn shadowy thinktanks that exert influence on gullible politicians. They almost crashed the economy. She says the Institute of Economic Affairs should lose its charitable status.
Sunak says he believes in vibrant debate. That is a good thing, even when he disagrees with it, he says.
Updated
Jamie Stone (Lib Dem) asks about a constituent missing out on energy bills support because of the way her universal credit payments are paid.
Sunak says discretionary funding is available specifically to help in cases like this.
Scott Benton (Con) says millions of people are furious with the situation with asylum seekers. He asks when Sunak will provide firm action on this.
Sunak says this is a priority for him. The government will defend the borders, he says.
Neale Hanvey (Alba) asks if Scotland is in a union of equals, or is it a hostage in a territorial British colony.
Sunak says people want to see the UK and Scottish governments working together.
Gagan Mohindra (Con) asks about progress on gigabyte broadband.
Sunak says broadband provides levelling up opportunities. He says 71% of premises now have access.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says in May Sunak promised benefits next year would be uprated in line with inflation, and that the triple lock would apply. But now he is not committing to that. Will he keep his promise?
Sunak says we now have an excellent new chancellor. He will make his autumn statement. He says the government will always put fairness and compassion at the heart of everything.
Blackford says Sunak is still not giving a straight answer. It is a “Tory political choice” to penalise the poor. He says the government should impose a windfall tax on energy firms, and scrap non-dom status. Why won’t he commit to raising benefits in line with inflation?
Sunak says as chancellor he put a levy on North Sea oil producers.
Starmer says as DPP he prosecuted people smugglers. Sunak can’t even get asylum claims processed. He says Sunak won’t admit that Suella Braverman did ignore legal advice. He says Sunak did a grubby deal to put her in office.
Sunak says Starmer raised the topic of national security. In 2019 Starmer said he thought Jeremy Corbyn would make a great PM. Let’s remember that agenda, he says: scrapping the armed forces, withdrawing from Nato, befriending Hamas. It is the Tories who will keep the country safe, he says.
Starmer says the answer is 4%. According to the bookies, the home secretary has a better chance of becoming PM than processing an asylum claim in a year. Did the home secretary get legal advice saying she should move people out of Manston?
Sunak says Starmer is fond of reminding people he used to be DPP, and so he should know the government’s policy on disclosing legal advice. He says people are being moved into hotels.
Starmer asks how many asylum claims from people who arrived on small boats last year have been processed.
Sunak starts by avoiding the question, and then he says “not enough”. The government will address this, he says.
Starmer says Labour voted against the plan because it would not work. It didn’t. He says the government’s strategy is not working.
Sunak says Labour can’t even say if it wants immigration to be higher or lower.
Starmer says no one on the Labour side wants open borders. He says it is “the same old, same old” from Sunak. He asks how it can be anyone responsibility other than the government’s.
Sunak says Labour voted against the nationality and borders act. “You can’t attack a plan if you don’t have a plan,” he says.
Updated
Keir Starmer says the home secretary says the asylum system is broken. Who broke it?
Sunak says, look at the government’s record on immigration. It gave the people a referendum on Brexit, he says.
Fiona Bruce (Con) asks what the government is doing to deal with internet scammers.
Sunak says the government will soon be publishing a fraud strategy.
Updated
Dame Meg Hillier (Lab) says Sunak promised professionalism, decency and integrity in government. What will Suella Braverman have to do to get the sack?
Sunak says Braverman made a mistake, and took responsibility for her actions. She has set out what happened in a letter. She is now getting on with her job, “defending our borders – something I know the party opposite has no interest [in doing]”.
Rishi Sunak starts with the usual spiel about his meetings.
From the i’s Paul Waugh
No @SuellaBraverman on the front bench this week for #PMQs...yet.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) November 2, 2022
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.
Updated
MPs are currently on Cop26 questions. But Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, isn’t there (despite me assuming earlier that he would be). The i’s Paul Waugh says that is probably because he is no longer technically a minister. Graham Stuart, the climate minister, is answering the questions.
No @AlokSharma_RDG in COP26 Questions in the Commons. He's no longer a minister, so I guess it's a procedural necessity.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) November 2, 2022
But the absence of the current COP President looks all the more odd given Sunak's decision today.
Green MP Caroline Lucas has branded Rishi Sunak’s backtracking over Cop27 a “screeching U-turn” and an “embarrassing misstep on the world stage” in a tweet.
Glad to see Sunak's screeching U-turn on #COP27, but what an embarrassing mis-step on the world stage. Let this be a lesson to him - climate leadership matters. Now he urgently needs to increase UK ambition on emission reduction targets & pay what we owe to global climate funds https://t.co/vL2hSIq2zZ
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) November 2, 2022
Updated
Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of acting “in the name of political management” rather than the national interest after U-turning to agree to attend Cop27.
Caving in to criticism is not leadership.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 2, 2022
Real leadership is seizing your seat at the table.
For UK jobs. For clean energy. For our environment.
Rishi Sunak acts in the name of political management.
Labour acts in the national interest.
Updated
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper has called for Matt Hancock to quit as an MP and trigger a by-election following his decision to appear on I’m A Celebrity.
She said:
He is abandoning his constituents by going to the jungle and is shirking from his responsibilities. In any normal workplace he’d be sacked.
Updated
PA has some interesting lines from a briefing for journalists this morning by polling expert Prof John Curtice, president of the British Polling Council.
The Conservatives will find it “extremely difficult” to win the next general election despite some signs of a recovery under Rishi Sunak, Curtice said.
He added that while the new prime minister is significantly more popular than his party, voters were unlikely to forgive the Tories for the financial crisis unleashed by his predecessor Liz Truss.
At the height of Truss’s unpopularity, the Conservatives had been trailing Labour by more than 30 points in the polls suggesting they could have been left with fewer than 60 seats if that pattern had been repeated at a general election.
He added that support for rejoining the EU has been growing steadily over the past year with the latest polling suggesting 57% would favour rejoining with 43% against.
He said:
No government that has presided over a financial crisis has ever survived at the ballot box. Voters don’t forget governments being forced to do a U-turn by financial markets.
Updated
Transport secretary Mark Harper was grilled by broadcasters about the problems with dangerous overcrowding at the Manston asylum seeker processing centre in Kent this morning.
He said the French and British authorities both need to step up work to prevent migrants risking the dangerous Channel crossing in small boats, and that the partnership with the French needed to improve.
Harper told Sky News:
I think both countries, Britain and France, could do more. What we need to do is work with the French, they do a lot already.
We provide resources to help them and, of course, people will know our border controls in France are actually physically located in France, and we’ve always worked in close partnership with French authorities.
Do we think they could do more? Yes. We could do more as well. It’s about improving that partnership.
He said work was ongoing to get asylum seekers from Manston quicker but said “it is reasonable to say it is not going to happen overnight”.
Updated
This is from my colleague Jonathan Watts, the Guardian’s global environment editor, on the (possible) significance of Rishi Sunak’s Cop27 U-turn.
Another UK U-Turn. Very welcome.
— jonathanwatts (@jonathanwatts) November 2, 2022
I may be too optimistic but perhaps we are approaching a political tipping point where those in favour of energy transition are more powerful than those opposed. Can’t come too soon. https://t.co/sPW4g7k2y2
Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, has now released a fuller version of his Twitter response to Rishi Sunak’s Cop27 U-turn. (See 10.38am.) Miliband said:
The prime minister has been shamed into going to Cop27 by the torrent of disbelief that he would fail to turn up.
Rishi Sunak is going to avoid embarrassment not to provide leadership.
His initial instinct tells us about all about him: he just doesn’t get it when it comes to the energy bills and climate crisis.
Yet again we see a prime minister who only makes decisions for reasons of political management not the national interest.
If the prime minister was really serious he would commit to Labour’s plans for a zero carbon power system by 2030, a national wealth fund to invest in green jobs and GB Energy - a publicly owned energy generation company to create jobs and wealth in Britain.
This is from Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham, who has been engaging in the time-honoured lobby practice of U-turn counting.
COP is the 3rd Sunak u-turn in 8 days
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) November 2, 2022
He reversed his summer campaign position on fracking (previously said 'yes with local consent', then reinstated the ban)
And on EU retained law (previously he vowed a review in first 100 days, now canned per @GeorgeWParker)
Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, said he was “delighted” Rishi Sunak will now be attending the Cop27 summit in Egypt. And he said he completely agreed with Sunak’s comment that “there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change”.
Sharma, who lost the right to attend cabinet in Sunak’s reshuffle last week, previously criticised the prime minister for his decision not to attend. He told the Sunday Times he was “pretty disappointed” at news Sunak was not going, saying his attendance would signal the UK’s “renewed commitment on this issue”.
Chris Skidmore, the former energy minister who is leading the government’s review into net zero, also welcomed Sunak’s decision to attend the summit. He said:
It’s extremely good news that Rishi Sunak will continue to champion the UK’s climate leadership and Cop26 legacy with Alok Sharma. I look forward to also attending Cop27 to highlight how the net zero review is an opportunity to better deliver greater prosperity and economic growth.
Miliband says Sunak has been 'shamed' into attending Cop27 and is failing to show leadership
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate and net zero secretary, says Rishi Sunak has been “shamed” into going to Cop27 and that he has failed to show leadership on this issue.
The Prime Minister has been shamed into going to COP27 by the torrent of disbelief that he would fail to turn up.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) November 2, 2022
He is going to avoid embarrassment not to provide leadership.
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Normally when a prime minister has news to unveil on a Wednesday, they save it up for PMQs. An announcement can wrong-foot the opposition, and secure a headline. But Rishi Sunak chose to announce that he would be attending two hours before PMQs, probably for two reasons.
First, this is not an announcement that reflects well on him, because it is a reversal of what he said he would do, and Sunak has ended up looking like someone bounced into attending an event that he originally wanted to avoid. As chancellor he was never seen as someone with a strong commitment to the net zero agenda, and this episode reinforces that. Yesterday Boris Johnson confirmed that he would be attending, and, as much colleague John Crace points out, Sunak is now open to the charge of dancing to Johnson’s tune.
Imagine being shamed into action by Boris
— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) November 2, 2022
If, instead of briefing last week that Sunak would not be attending, Downing Street had just told reporters that a final decision had not been taken, Sunak would have avoided this trap. A more experienced administration might have handled this differently.
And, second, if Sunak had waited until 12pm, Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, would have had to criticise him for not going. Sharma is already on record as saying Sunak should be there, and he will be in the Commons at 11.30am taking questions. Now he will be able to praise his boss, instead of having a go at him.
UPDATE: In fact, I was wrong to say Sharma would be in the Commons at 11.30am. See 11.48am.
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Sam Hall, director of the Conserative Environment Network, has welcomed Rishi Sunak’s decision to attend Cop27.
Economically prudent, environmentally ambitious climate action is one of the UK's greatest policy successes & sources of diplomatic clout, and perhaps the best example of Global Britain. As the COP presidency transfers to Egypt, it is welcome the PM will lead the UK delegation. https://t.co/K7H1eSEnyL
— Sam Hall (@samuelhall0) November 2, 2022
Rishi Sunak announces U-turn over Cop27 attendance and says he will go to climate summit in Egypt
Rishi Sunak has confirmed that he will attend the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt next week.
This is not unexpected – there have been hints from No 10 over recent days that he would attend – but it still counts as U-turn. Last week Downing Street said that he would not be going because he had “other pressing domestic commitments”.
There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) November 2, 2022
There is no energy security without investing in renewables.
That is why I will attend @COP27P next week: to deliver on Glasgow's legacy of building a secure and sustainable future.
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Mark Harper, the new transport secretary, was the government voice on the airwaves this morning. He said the government remained committed to HS2, but he implied it was looking at the costs could be cut. He told Sky News:
We’re going back to our 2019 manifesto, looking at the commitments we made. We have got a commitment to make sure we can get high-speed trains to Leeds.
What we’re doing in my department, and what I’ve been briefed on, is we’re looking at all of the options that are available to do that.
I will be looking at all of the options to do that in light of the decisions we take in the autumn statement.
Harper also said his department was still reviewing whether or not to press ahead with the rollout of more smart motorways. He told LBC:
I’ve looked very carefully at the concerns that people have got, at the very comprehensive report the transport select committee did.
You will know my predecessor but one paused rolling out any new smart motorways until the department gather evidence over a significant period of time about their operation, about their safety record, so that we could then make some decisions in the light of all of that evidence, and that position remains the case.
That evidence will be gathered and then we’ll be able to make decisions in due course about whether or not we roll out any more of these motorways.
Ed Balls, the former secretary of state for children and former shadow chancellor, is the outstanding example of a politician who has used reality TV to enhance their popularity and reputation. But he was on Strictly, not I’m a Celebrity, and only after he stood down as an MP. He said Matt Hancock was making a mistake in participating in the jungle show. Balls explained:
Personally, I think good luck to him. But I think he is totally crackers to do this.
Because I think it’s the wrong place to do it from, the wrong time and the wrong programme. To do it as a sitting MP just brings all these questions.
He’s lost the whip, [Rishi] Sunak, the prime minister, is clearly furious, his constituents are going to be up in arms. He’s been paid to do this while he’s also going to the jungle.
I mean, look, to be fair, Boris Johnson was on a Caribbean beach two weeks ago and he’s a sitting MP. But you know, this is a different thing.
Secondly, this is the guy who was the health secretary during the pandemic, we have not had the inquiry yet.
And therefore, it just brings back for so many people so much pain and suffering and it’s not something that you can make light of, until we’ve gone through that inquiry process.
Hundreds moved from Manston immigration centre amid overcrowding
Hundreds of asylum seekers have been moved out of an immigration centre in Kent amid concerns it had become dangerously overcrowded, PA Media reports. The full story is here.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, posted about the situation at Manston last night.
Manston Update:
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) November 1, 2022
Thanks to the hard work and professionalism of Home Office and Border Force staff, military personnel and our contractors we have made good progress.
Numbers of migrants have fallen substantially today and we expect them to do so again tomorrow.
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Unless we receive an unexpectedly high number of migrants in small boats in the coming days, numbers will fall significantly this week.
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) November 1, 2022
It’s imperative that the site returns a sustainable operating model and we are doing everything we can to ensure that happens swiftly.
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Hancock suggests all MPs should try reality TV and says he will use I'm a Celebrity to raise dyslexia awareness
Good morning. Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has written an article for the Sun defending his decision to take part in I’m a Celebrity and one claim he makes is that his participation in the programme is justified because, under Rishi Sunak, the government is now “stable”, which means parliament and the nation can now manage for three weeks without the need to have Matt Hancock on hand.
When I was first approached to take part –while I was flattered and naturally curious – it didn’t take me too long to turn the opportunity down because of the instability government was facing at the time.
Now though, the government is stable. Rishi Sunak has made a great start and I know he has got what it takes to be a superb PM.
While this argument is obviously facile, Hancock has got a point of sorts; the very fact that his descent into reality TV was leading the news for most of yesterday does suggest that the Tory crisis/psychodrama is over (at least for now), and politics is becoming a bit more normal.
Yesterday Hancock had the Conservative whip removed after he announced that he was going to take unauthorised leave from parliament to take part in the programme in Australia, and one Tory colleague described him as “an absolute prat”. In his Sun article today Hancock defends his decision by saying that he is going to the jungle to increase dyslexia awareness and implying that more MPs should be doing the same. He says:
Some may think I’ve lost my marbles or had one too many drinks, swapping the comfortable surroundings of Westminster and West Suffolk for the extreme conditions of the Australian outback, going where there will be few creature comforts, not enough food, and a load of physical tasks involving snakes, spiders and plenty of other creepy-crawlies.
While there will undoubtedly be those who think I shouldn’t go, I think it’s a great opportunity to talk directly to people who aren’t always interested in politics, even if they care very much about how our country’s run.
It’s our job as politicians to go to where the people are – not to sit in ivory towers in Westminster …
It’s as clear as day that politicians like me must go to where the people are – particularly those who are politically disengaged. We must wake up and embrace popular culture.
And describing the message that he wants to convey, Hancock says:
While most people will know me for being the Health Secretary during the pandemic, what you probably won’t know is that I am dyslexic, and I’ve been campaigning for better identification and support for dyslexic children …
By talking about dyslexia on prime-time TV, I hope to not only increase support for my Dyslexia Screening and Teacher Training Bill (which receives its second reading in Parliament just days after I’m A Celebrity . . . finishes), but I aim to help the public better understand this very common condition, that affects around one in ten people.
Good luck with that, as they say. When George Galloway decided to take part in Big Brother, he said he would use the show to discuss issues like poverty and racism, but all that anyone remembers is him pretending to be a cat. It would be nice to think that he does find time for some dyslexia awareness raising amongst the animal penis munching, but the producers may have other ideas.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.35am: Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive, speaks at a King’s Fund conference. Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is speaking at the same event at 1.30pm.
12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
2.30pm: Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, gives evidence to the Commons women and equalities committee on equality in the asylum process.
2.30pm: Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee on relations with the US and Nato.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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