Early evening summary
George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, has said that Robert Jenrick would be the “safer choice” for next party leader. Speaking on his Political Currency podcast, he said:
I would say that Robert Jenrick is in some ways a sort of safer choice, because he is playing safe. He’s shown he’s very – this will be taken the wrong way, but I don’t mean it like this – sort of malleable. He’ll move to where he thinks he could win, and in an opposition leader, that’s a very attractive quality. I think Jenrick will be ruthless. If he thinks you can win on the centre ground, he’ll move the party to the centre ground.
I think Kemi Badenoch is more authentic, in the sense of, ‘this is what I believe and you can take it or leave it’. Anyone who’s dealt with her in private will know she’s very robust, and she quite often puts people’s backs up, because she tells people what she thinks, but that’s also a very attractive quality.
Mandelson says it is hard to see hard Brexit being reversed 'within next decade'
Britain is unlikely to rejoin the EU single market for at least a decade, Lord Mandelson has suggested.
Mandelson, a former business secretary, former European commissioner for trade and one of the most pro-European figures in Labour, said that, even though Brexit amounted to a handbrake on the economy, it was unrealistic to expect this to be reversed quickly.
And he said pro-Europeans were mistaken if they thought reversing Brexit was just a matter for the UK.
Speaking to the Reform Scotland thinktank in Edinburgh, in a text released in advance, Mandelson said:
The very hard Brexit forced through by Boris Johnson means that we are, for now, driving with an economic handbrake on. It is difficult to see this being reversed within the next decade.
And that is not just about our politics but the politics of the EU. We are repeating the mistakes of the Brexit economic saboteurs if we think re-entry, or even re-negotiation, is anything like a unilateral decision on our part. It is not.
So the new government will have to focus in the meantime on mitigating higher barriers to our nearest and largest market as best it can. More options that benefit both sides should open up as the UK-EU relationship is rebuilt, starting with defence and security as a shared need.
Hard Brexit is normally defined as the version of Brexit that saw the UK leaving the single market and the customs union. Keir Starmer has ruled out rejoining the single market or the customs unions, but parties like the Liberal Democrats argue that Britain can and should rejoin the single market, as a step towards eventually rejoining the EU.
In the speech Mandelson stressed the importance of growth, and turning Britain into a high-investment economy. Industrial strategy should be part of that, he said, and he said the beefed-up Industrial Strategy Council that Labour is planning to set up should have the muscle and influence of bodies like the OBR. He explained:
The government’s Industrial Strategy Council will be important in making [industrial strategy] work and must be well led, ideally by someone who knows both business and government.
But some words of advice. It should not be a venue for ministers simply to express platitudes about “partnership” and for business executives to bask in the government’s limelight.
Instead, it should learn from the best practice of the Climate Change Committee and the Office for Budget Responsibility, both of which add to the credibility of policymaking because they are analytical, independent and rigorous.
Politically, that will mean throwing some grit in the gears from time to time, but it is a necessary check in order to get policy right.
It should also provide the intellectual support ministers need to make unpalatable choices, notably in investment over consumption trade-offs and choices on research funding for key foundational science and technologies.
Roz Savage, the Lib Dem MP for South Cotswolds, has announced that she will introduce a private member’s bill to beef up the UK’s climate targets to ensure they are consistent with ensuring global warming does not rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Campaigners have been calling for a climate and nature bill of this kind for some time, but Savage came third in the ballot for private members’ bills, meaning her bill will get enough time for a full second reading debate. In a blog for Zero Hour, a group campaigning for the bill, she says:
The CAN bill has the ability to make the UK a world leader in tackling the climate and nature crisis, delivering a comprehensive, joined-up plan that is (finally) aligned with what the science says is necessary.
Tories to change leadership rules to make it harder for MPs to trigger no confidence vote in new leader
The Tories are going to change their party rules to make it harder for MPs to trigger a no confidence vote in the leader.
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are the only two candidates left in the current leadership contest and the winner should benefit from the change, which will affect the number of MPs needed to demand a vote of confidence in the leader.
Under the current system, a vote takes place if 15% of Tory MPs submit a letter to the chair of the 1922 Committee demanding one. MPs are allowed to do this anonymously.
When the Tories were in government, that meant around 50 MPs or more had to want a vote for one to happen. But now there are only 121 Conservative MPs meaning that, without a rule change, just 19 MPs would be enough to trigger a contest.
In an interview with GB News, Bob Blackman, the chair of the 1922 Committee said the threshold for a no confidence vote would be lifted, probably to 30% or more. He said:
Now we will amend those rules to increase the threshold. I am not going to say what it is going to be but I suspect it will be at least to 30%, to enable a position where there will have to be a very strong opinion of the parliamentary party.
A 30% threshold would mean at least 37 Tories would need to write to Blackman to trigger a contest.
The ability of Tory MPs to demand a no confidence vote has been a destabilising factor in the party in recent years. Theresa May and Boris Johnson were both subject to no confidence votes; they both won, but they both ended up resigning not long afterwards anyway.
Even with a change to the rules, the next Tory leader is likely to feel vulnerable because Badenoch and Jenrick each had the support of just over a third of MPs in yesterday’s final parliamentary ballot. They are both in the position of knowing there are more Tory MPs who don’t want them as leader than who do.
Labour leaders are in a stronger position. Jeremy Corbyn lost a no confidence vote by a huge margin when he was leader in 2016. But he argued that party rules did not require him to stand down, because he had a mandate from members, and, even though a new leadership election was triggered, he won it easily.
Jenrick under fire from Badenoch camp after leak shows as minister he proposed one-for-one migrant swap with French
Robert Jenrick suggested last year that the UK should accept one French asylum seeker, or more, for every person arriving on a small boat the French agreed to take back, a leaked document has revealed.
Jenrick, who was immigration minister at the time, also proposed that Britain could pay the French to take back asylum seekers coming to the UK across the Channel.
His proposal is set out in a memo he sent to Rishi Sunak in March 2023, obtained by the Sun. Jenrick’s proposals were never adopted, and Jenrick told the Sun in an interview that this was because Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was determined not to help Britain.
Jenrick said:
What was shameful about that incident was that, as I understand it, Rishi Sunak put it to President Macron, and he rejected it. He wouldn’t even give it a hearing, because he didn’t want to fix this problem, probably as a punishment for Brexit …
The French could stop this tomorrow … but what I learned is you cannot rely on the French.
Kemi Badenoch’s campaign team is arguing that the leak shows Jenrick is not fully committed to a hardline immigration policy. A Badenoch campaign source told the Sun:
Jenrick claims that he was radicalised in the Home Office.
But this shows that a few months before he flounced out of government he was proposing to swap migrants with France, which would have done nothing to reduce overall numbers, and casting doubt on the Rwanda scheme, which would have provided an effective deterrent.
Rob’s late conversion to hardline immigration policies isn’t fooling anyone.
MPs to debate assisted dying bill in Commons on Friday 29 November
MPs will vote on whether to legalise assisted dying at the end of November - the first Commons vote on the issue for nine years when a change in the law was overwhelmingly rejected.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP for Spen Valley, announced that her private member’s bill on Choice at the End of Life will have its second reading debate on Friday 29 November. The bill will be formally introduced next Wednesday.
The wording of the bill has not been released but it is expected to allow terminally ill adults with a prognosis of less than six months the option to end their life. There would be strict eligibility criteria, including mental competence, assessment by two independent doctors, and a requirement for drugs to be self-administered.
Since the last vote in 2015, hundreds of new MPs have entered parliament. Campaigners for assisted dying expect there to be a significant shift in favour of legalisation.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which calls for a change in the law, said:
This is a historic opportunity for MPs to listen to the public mood and bring about real change for dying people and their families. The ban on assisted dying is forcing terminally ill people to suffer despite the best care, spend their life savings travelling to Switzerland, or take matters into their own hands at home, with relatives often left traumatised.
Three-quarters of the British public, from all parts of the country and walks of life, understand the pressing need for law change on assisted dying. It would give dying people a proper choice over how they die, and would introduce practical measures to assess eligibility, ensure rigorous medical oversight, and robustly monitor every part of the process.
Updated
NHS going into winter 'in bad shape', say experts, as figures show performance getting worse on key indicators
Health experts have warned that the NHS is going into the winter “in bad shape”, following the publication of statistics today showing waiting lists and other performance measures in England getting worse. (See 11.18am and 2.18pm.)
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund charity, said:
The NHS is approaching winter in bad shape.
Industrial action is continuing, financial pressures are rising, and important performance targets continue to be missed.
Despite the hard work of staff, patient care in the NHS continues to fall short of expectations.
Today’s statistics show it has been three years since A&E performance was above the current temporary target of 78% of people waiting under four hours and nearly a decade since the official target of 95% of people being seen in four hours was met.
It has been four years since the 18-minute target for the average ambulance response time to conditions such as strokes and heart attacks was met …
While sticking plasters are not the solution to the crises facing the NHS, without an injection of more resources to get through the next few months and seeds of hope for the coming year, NHS services will have to make harsh trade-offs between immediate winter preparations and longer-term improvement.”
Dr Tim Cooksley, a past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the A&E 12-hour waits were “up more than 20% on last year at 38,880 patients”. He added:
This is a dire situation for the patients who are left receiving degrading corridor care and for staff who are stretched to their limits and are having to provide care in inappropriate environments.
Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation, said:
We estimate an additional £38bn is needed to significantly improve the NHS and tackle long waits by the end of this parliament. The upcoming budget is a crucial opportunity for the government to start showing how it intends to turn its ambitions into reality.
And the Royal College of Surgeons also called for extra money for the NHS in the budget. Its vice president Professor Frank Smith said:
If the new government wants to show it is serious about meeting its pledge to cut waiting times, it must provide capital funding for NHS buildings and IT in the autumn budget later this month.
With reports of broken lifts and flooded corridors in hospitals leading to cancelled operations, and surgeons telling us access to operating theatres remains an issue, cutting waits will remain an uphill battle without this investment.
Jenrick and Badenoch accused of using rhetoric 'far and away from party at its best' by leading One Nation Tory group
The Tory Reform Group, which represents One Nation Conservatives (people on the left of the party) has issued a statement saying it is refusing to back either of the two candidates left in the leadership contest – Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch.
In a statement, the TRG says Jenrick and Badenoch have both “used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from the party at its best”. It says:
The Tory Reform Group (TRG) will not be endorsing a candidate in this year’s Conservative leadership contest.
As the home of One Nation Conservatism since 1975, the TRG is committed to being radically moderate, values-driven, and focused on the future. Throughout the contest, we have sought to engage extensively with all the leadership campaigns in order to understand the views and approaches of the candidates. Unfortunately, we have been consistently disappointed by the lack of engagement from the two candidates chosen by MPs.
TRG members were consulted throughout the process, and the results clearly show that neither candidate has secured widespread support from the majority of our membership. Both have used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from the party at its best, let alone the One Nation values we cherish and uphold. Therefore, the board of the TRG has unanimously concluded that we are unable to endorse either candidate.
The TRG lists Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, as its president, and Damian Green, a former first secretary of state, and Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary, as vice presidents. It was set up in the 1970s and for many years it was a respected liberal/leftish voice in Tory circles. But, as the party lurched to the right after Brexit, its influence has shrunk.
How NHS England is performing on key performance indicators
The NHS England hospital waiting figures are at their highest level for 10 months, according to figures out today. (Leo Benedictus at Full Fact has a blog on the error that led to some wrong figures being originally released, as explained at 11.18am.)
Here are some of the other lines from the NHS England performance figures. The copy is all from PA Media.
On many indicators, performance is getting worse.
Ambulance response times
The average response time in September for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was eight minutes and 25 seconds, PA says. This is up from eight minutes and three seconds in August and is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.
Ambulances took an average of 36 minutes and two seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis, PA says. This is up from 27 minutes and 25 seconds in August, while the target is 18 minutes.
Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged two hours, 12 minutes and 54 seconds in September, up from one hour, 30 minutes and 33 seconds in August, PA says.
A&E waiting times
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 38,880 in September, up from 28,494 in August, PA says. The record high for a calendar month is 54,573, which occurred in December 2022.
The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose, standing at 130,632 in September, up from 116,489 in August, PA says.
Some 74.2% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 76.3% in August, PA says. The NHS recovery plan set a target of March this year for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.A further target of 78% has been set for March 2025.
Cancer waiting times
Some 75.5% of patients in England urgently referred for suspected cancer in August were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, PA says. This is down from 76.2% the previous month but is above the target of 75%. It is the fourth month in a row this target has been exceeded.
GPs in England made 253,841 urgent cancer referrals in August, down from 286,720 in July and also down year-on-year from 268,224 in August 2022, PA says.
The proportion of patients in England who had waited no longer than 62 days in August from an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 69.2%, up from 67.7% in July, PA says. The target is 85%.
Long waits for treatment
A total of 282,664 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of August, down from 290,326 at the end of July and the lowest number since December 2020, PA says. The previous government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025.
Some 3,335 patients in England had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of August, up from 2,738 in July, PA says. The previous government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April 2023, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.
There were 45,527 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment at the end of August, down from 50,860 in July, PA says. The target to eliminate all waits of more than 65 weeks is September 2024.
John Swinney has accused the public sector union Unison of unjustifiably targeting children and families in his constituency after it announced plans for two weeks of pay strikes later this month.
Unison said on Tuesday it plans to stage the two-week strike across all the schools and early years centres in Swinney’s Perthshire constituency, timing them to start on the day schools were supposed to resume after the October holidays.
The issue was raised during first minister’s questions by Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Conservative MSP, who said children were again “being caught in the crossfire” of an industrial dispute.
Swinney, who was visibly angry, said he took the disruption the strikes would cause “deadly seriously”, in part because his son was one of the pupils affected, along with another 64,000 people.
He said the GMB and Unite had accepted the pay deal, but Unison was breaking ranks. There was “absolutely no justification” for his constituency to be targeted. He said:
A pay deal has been offered by local government – the [Scottish] government is not even the employer here; a pay deal has been offered by the employers, which has been accepted by two out of the three trade unions …
[So] for that to be accepted by two unions and rejected by a third, and then for my constituents to be singled out for treatment just because their MSP happens to be the first minister, I think, is absolutely unacceptable.
He urged both sides to resume talks, but said there was no further money available from ministers. Financing the pay deal had played a part in forcing his government to impose £500m in spending cuts to fund it, he said.
And that deal was higher than the pay settlement with English council staff, while Scotland’s local authorities had pledged to work towards a £15 an hour pay rate in future, he added.
No 10 and Nato chief say Storm Shadow missiles alone won't allow Ukraine to win war, after Zelenskyy meeting
Downing Street and the Nato chief Mark Rutte have said that Storm Shadow missiles alone will not allow Ukraine to win its war against Russia
Keir Starmer and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, met Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, in Downing Street today to be updated on Ukraine’s “victory plan”.
Zelenskyy has been lobbying for months for permission to use the missiles, which have been supplied by Britain and France, to hit military sites in Russia. Washington needs to approve the move too because the missiles would need to use a US missile guidance system to avoid Russian jamming.
But today No 10 and Rutte both insisted that it would take more than one missile system to win the war.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson played down the significance of the Storm Shadow, in a hint that no change of policy is imminent. The spokesperson said:
No war had ever been won by a single weapon.
The discussions that the UK, Ukraine and international partners are having are about all the range of support that we can provide Ukraine heading into the crucial winter months ahead.
Speaking after talks in No 10, Zelenskyy said:
The victory plan aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war.
I thank the United Kingdom for its continued defence support of our country, including with long-range weapons.
In his own comments to reporters, Rutte said there was not legal reason why Ukraine could not use Storm Shadow missiles against Russia in self-defence. Asked about Ukraine being allowed to use them, he said:
First of all, that is up to the allies, the individual allies, to decide how weapons they deliver into Ukraine can be used.
Legally that is possible because legally Ukraine is allowed to use its weapons, if they can hit targets in Russia, if these targets present a threat to Ukraine.
But whether individual allies do, that’s in the end, [is] always up to individual allies. Of course we discussed this. I was last week in Kyiv. We discussed it today, but in the end, it is up to the individual allies.
Asked if he sympathised with Ukraine’s complaints that it is having to fight with its hands tied behind its back as a result of the restrictions, Rutte said:
Well, I think it is a bit more nuanced, because when you look at what the UK is doing, I think it is now £3bn a year you guys are providing Ukraine with this military aid, with training.
He went on:
The whole of the alliance is in this, and let’s not focus on one system, one weapon system, it will not be one weapon system which will make the change.
So I understand what Zelenskyy is asking, but at the same time, he also agrees that there is a broader issue to be debated to make sure that they prevail.
Jenrick promises end to 'needless drama', and says Tories should not be fighting battles on Twitter, in dig at Badenoch
The Tory leadership candidates are still bound by the ‘yellow card rule’ which means they are not supposed to engage in personal attacks against each other, and when Robert Jenrick was invited to criticise Kemi Badenoch directly in his Q&A with journalists, he didn’t take the bait. (See 12.27pm.)
But in his speech he said that if members voted for him as leader, they would avoid “needless drama” – which did seem to be a clear dig at Badenoch, and her appetite for fueding and being provocative, particularly with the media. He also said the Tories should not be fighting battles on Twitter – another Badenoch speciality.
He said:
The public need to see that we are laser-focused on what they really care about, not getting drawn down rabbit holes.
The Conservative party is the oldest, most successful political party in the world. We exist to serve our country in government, not to do battle on Twitter.
Despite everything, our party remains our country’s best hope. We are the voice of the silent majority, the voice of hard working people across the United Kingdom. Their values are our values. Their priorities are our priorities. They expect us to deliver on them, to develop serious policy solutions, to express them soberly and coherently, and then to get on and put them into effect …
So my plan, grow the economy, reform our public services like the NHS, get migration done by capping the numbers and leaving the ECHR – a serious plan, not needless drama.
The full text of the employment rights bill, with explanatory notes and a human rights memorandum, has now been published on the parliamentary website.
I will post a bit more from the Robert Jenrick speech, and Q&A, shortly. But here are assessments from two Guardian colleagues on social media.
Peter Walker, is is writing the news story, says:
Robert Jenrick starts his speech by saying it’s “great to be in the final two” - sounding almost like he can’t 100% believe it still. And it’s fair to say that on Tuesday evening, Team Jenrick had major worries. pic.twitter.com/y7yGG2mZe7
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 10, 2024
Robert Jenrick starts his speech by saying it’s “great to be in the final two” - sounding almost like he can’t 100% believe it still. And it’s fair to say that on Tuesday evening, Team Jenrick had major worries.
For those who saw Jenrick’s Tory conference events, the start of his speech is very familiar. All about migration, the ECHR and “activist judges”. He is very clearly presenting himself as the candidate to take on Reform on their own turf.
And John Crace, our sketch writer, says:
This Robert Jenrick speech is one of the least inspiring I have ever heard. He has the charisma of a snail
Q: Can you put our hand on heart and say your team did not trade votes in the the ballot yesterday?
Jenrick says his team did not trade any votes. He says they worked “relentlessly” to get the most votes.
Q: What do you feel about Yvette Cooper helping secure police protecting for Taylor Swift?
Jenrick says he was surprised to learn that the home secretary had intervened in this matter. These should be matters for the police. Yet the home secretary intervened to provide police protection for a celebrity.
Labour is “mired in sleaze”, and they don’t seem to be able to “shake it off”, he jokes. (A Taylor Swift reference, m’lud.)
Q: Many Tory MPs oppose your plan to take Britain out of the ECHR. How would you dal with part discipline as leader?
Jenrick says he has support from all wings of the party. He says he has set out clear policy ideas, and he wants to win a mandate so that the party will unite behind his agenda.
Robert Jenrick rejects claim Tory MPs put him in final two for leadership ballot by mistake
Robert Jenrick is now taking questions after his speech.
Q: Kemi Badenoch is ahead with the members. What do you have that she doesn’t?
Jenrick says he thinks he has consistently focused on the issues that matter to people – the NHS, immigration and the economy.
(This implies he thinks Badenoch hasn’t, but he does not say that.)
Q: Do you think you could be in the final two by mistake?
Jenrick says there is always horse trading in these contests. But he says he thinks Tory MPs voted for “the best placed people to lead this party forward”.
UPDATE: Jenrick said:
There [is] always horse trading in these things but I think, in the privacy of the ballot box, my colleagues in parliament chose who they thought were the best placed people to lead this party forward, and I’m immensely grateful for the trust and the confidence that they put in me.
Updated
Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.
LIVE: The Choice We Face - Starts at 12pm https://t.co/aHSrgyjTla
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) October 10, 2024
Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:
The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.
Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.
Religious hate crime up 25% after start of Israel-Gaza war, despite overall hate crime falling by 5%, Home Office says
Religious hate crime as recorded by the police in England and Wales reached a record high following the start of the Israel-Gaza war, according to Home Office figures released today.
The figures show that religious hate crime as recorded by the police has gone up 25% in the past year. There was a particularly sharp spike in hate crimes directed against Jews, but there has also been a significant increase in hate aimed at Muslims.
But hate crime overall was down in the year ending March 2024, the figures show.
Commenting on religious hate crime, the report says:
There was a 25% increase in police recorded religious hate crime over the last year, up from 8,370 to 10,484 offences. This is the highest annual count in these offences since the hate crime collection began in the year ending March 2012.
The increase in offences was driven by a sharp rise in religious hate crimes targeted at Jewish people since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Since the spike, the number of offences has declined but to a level higher than seen before the conflict.
Annually, there were 3,282 religious hate crimes targeted at Jewish people in the year ending March 2024, more than double the number recorded the previous year (1,543). These offences accounted for a third (33%) of all religious hate crimes in the last year. By comparison, the proportion in the previous year was 20%.
There was also an increase in religious hate crimes targeted against Muslims since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict, with 3,866 offences in the latest year, up 13% from 3,432 recorded the previous year. In the last year, almost 2 in 5 (38%) of religious hate crimes were targeted against Muslims.
The report says there were 140,561 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2024, a fall of 5% compared to the previous year. Even though religious hate crimes were up, other categories of hate crime fell.
Keir Starmer has said the war in Ukraine shows that “Nato is as important today as it was on the day it was founded”.
He was speaking about his meetings in Downing Street this morning with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and Mark Rutte, the new Nato secretary general.
Rutte said: “This is about Ukraine, but it’s also about the defence of the West and how we stay safe.”
And Starmer said:
We’ve obviously just been with President Zelensky. If the Ukraine conflict shows us one thing, it’s that Nato is as important today as it was on the day it was founded.
Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, has told MPs that the second reading of the employment rights bill will take place on Monday 21 October.
She also said that the first Friday set aside for a private member’s bill debate would be 29 November. The Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who came top in the ballot for private members’ bill, has said she will use her slot to introduce a bill to allow assisted dying, and so this Friday could be when her bill gets debated.
NHS England hospital waiting figures at highest level for 10 months, latest figures show
The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has climbed to its highest level for 10 months, PA Media reports. PA says:
An estimated 7.64 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of August, relating to 6.42 million patients – up from 7.62 million treatments and 6.39 million patients at the end of July, NHS England said.
These are the highest figures since October 2023.
The list hit a record high in September 2023 with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.
Earlier there was a post in the blog says that, although the overall number of NHS England hospitals waits was up, the number of individual patients affected was slightly down. That was based on a PA Media report that has now been withdrawn. PA says that is because NHS England issued revised figures.
Unite's leader Sharon Graham says employment rights bill has 'more holes than Swiss cheese'
Trade unions are generally strongly in favour of the employment rights bill, but Unite, Britain’s largest private sector union, has repeatedly complained about Labour not doing more. In her statement about the bill, Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said that it was an important step forward, but that in some respects it contained “more holes than Swiss cheese”. She said:
This bill is without doubt a significant step forward for workers but stops short of making work pay.
The end to draconian laws like minimum service levels and the introduction of new individual rights, for example on bereavement leave, will be beneficial. But the bill still ties itself up in knots trying to avoid what was promised. Failure to end fire and rehire and zero hours contracts once and for all will leave more holes than Swiss cheese that hostile employers will use.
The bill also fails to give workers the sort of meaningful rights to access a union for pay bargaining that would put more money in their pockets and, in turn, would aid growth.
Unite will continue to make the workers’ voice heard as we push for improvements to the legislation as the bill goes through parliament.
Transport secretary Louise Haigh accuses Tories of waging 'poisonous culture wars' against road users
Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, has accused the Conservative government of waging “poisonous culture wars” against road users.
She was speaking in transport questions in the Commons and responding to the Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse, who was asking if the government would do more to make roads safer for cyclists.
Haigh replied:
I’m grateful to her for raising that point and it sits at the heart of our ambition to develop the new road safety strategy.
The previous government pursued poisonous culture wars against road users of all descriptions. We are determined to take back streets for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. And that will be at the heart of our new ambition for the road safety strategy.
Haigh was referring to measures announced by Rishi Sunak last year, when he claimed that local authorities were engaged in a “war on motorists” and proposed various measures to back drivers.
Updated
The government is set to name and shame employers more regularly who fail to pay staff the national minimum wage, Tom Belger is reporting in a story for LabourList. The Department for Business and Trade has said this in a report on the national minimum wage, and how it is enforced, that has been released today alongside the employment rights bill.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at No 10 for talks with Starmer and Nato secretary general
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has arrived in Downing Street for talks with Keir Starmer and the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Eleni Courea reports.
Zelenskyy is due to give Starmer details of what he calls his “victory plan” for the war against Russia. He had been due to meet Starmer and other world leaders at a summit in Germany at the weekend, but that was postponed after President Biden said he could not attend because of Hurricane Milton.
UPDATE: Here is video of the arrival.
Updated
Jonathan Reynolds strongly rejects claim from business lobby ‘chaotic’ workers bill will cost jobs
Good morning. During the election campaign Labour promised to produce an employment rights bill within its first 100 days in office. The anniversary is on Saturday, and, just in time for the deadline, the bill is being published today. It is hugely important to the trade unions, who provide the institutional backbone to the Labour party, and, as Jessica Elgot reports in her overnight story, millions of workers will gain new rights as a result.
The government claims the scope of the reform is huge – 9 million people will gain new rights against unfair dismissal, more than 1 million low-paid workers on zero hours will have the right to job security on a new contract, an extra 30,000 parents will gain new rights to paternity leave, and 1.5 million will be newly entitled to unpaid parental leave.
Ministers also believe the bill will help at least 1.7 million people into the labour market who are not working because of family commitments – and who would benefit from new policies on flexible working and parental leave.
Here is Jess’s story.
In its news release about the bill, the government says it includes 28 separate employment reforms. Here is our explainer.
Labour has consulted extensively on the proposals, and it has made considerable efforts to accommodate business opinion; the unions have not got everything they were asking for, and there is quite a lot of important, smallprint detail about how proposals will work in practice yet to be finalised. Keir Starmer has spoken a lot about his desire for Labour to be seen as pro-business, not anti-business, and he does not want these plans to scare corporate Britain.
The TUC has described the bill as “a positive new chapter for working people in this country”. In a statement Paul Nowak, its general secretary, said:
Driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth. It will give workers more predictability and control and it will stop good employers from being undercut by the bad.
While there is still detail to be worked through, this bill signals a seismic shift away from the Tories’ low pay, low rights, low productivity economy.
Some of the big business organisations have yet to give their overall verdict on the bill. But the Federation of Small Businesses, which is one of the lobby groups always most hostile to new regulation, has been hyper-critical. Tina McKenzie, its policy chair, said in a statement:
This legislation is rushed job, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned – dropping 28 new measures onto small business employers all at once leaves them scrambling to make sense of it all. Beyond warm words, it lacks any real pro-growth element and will increase economic inactivity, seriously jeopardising the government’s own 80% employment target.
The FSB response has been picked up by the Daily Mail, which is the only pro-Tory paper to splash on the bill.
Thursday’s Daily MAIL: “Business Fury At Labour’s Revolution For Workers” #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/se1amwFgPX
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) October 9, 2024
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, was doing a morning interview round this morning. On the Today programme, asked to respond to the FSB criticism, he said:
I would reject that very strongly.
First of all, there’s no surprises here. Everything in this package was in the manifesto.
Second of all, there is a very strong business rationale for these measures in terms of getting more people into work, in terms of making sure there’s a link between job satisfaction and productivity.
It levels the playing field to what a lot of businesses are already doing, actually, to a higher standard than those measures in the bill would bring forward.
It gives more incentives for training. We have listened and worked very closely with specifically the Federation of Small Businesses.
He also said a lot of the criticism reminded him the claims, made by the Conservatives and some business groups, that when the last Labour government introduced the minimum wage, it would lead to mass job losses. When it was put to him that the measures in this bill would deter firms from hiring new workers, Reynolds replied:
I reject that entirely.
And I think, to be honest, a lot of those points remind me of [opposition to] the introduction of the minimum wage, which, again, were not found to be true once it came in.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Morning: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, is meeting Keir Starmer for talks in Downing Street. Mark Rutte, the new Nato secretary general, is also attending.
After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, takes questions from MPs on next week’s Commons business.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12pm: Robert Jenrick, one of the two Tory leadership candidates left in the contest, gives a speech in London.
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