Afternoon summary
Rishi Sunak proved unable to stand up to “a cartoon bully with a pet spider”, Keir Starmer said during PMQs, as he focused on the departure of Gavin Williamson from the cabinet and castigated the prime minister for being weak and lacking principle.
Elections for the Northern Ireland Stormont assembly could be delayed until next April to give talks between the UK and the EU on post-Brexit trade arrangements a chance, the government has announced.
Nurses have voted to stage strikes across the UK for the first time in their history in pursuit of a better pay deal, in a move that will seriously disrupt NHS care.
Labour will soon be defending another seat in a byelection after the MP Kate Green was announced as Andy Burnham’s choice for deputy mayor of Greater Manchester.
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Rishi Sunak says the UK will “never back down” when it comes to supporting Ukraine.
Today I hosted NATO Secretary General @jensstoltenberg in Downing Street.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) November 9, 2022
We will never back down when it comes to supporting the Ukrainian people in the face of Putin’s brutality. pic.twitter.com/w8raeGx0CT
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Matt Hancock covered with bugs and sludge in I’m a Celebrity preview
A preview of I’m a Celebrity shows Matt Hancock crawling through dark tunnels, showered with bugs and wading through sludge, my colleague Rachel Hall reports.
Harriett Baldwin elected as new chair of Commons Treasury committee
Harriett Baldwin, a former Treasury minister, has been elected as chair of the Commons Treasury committee. She will replace Mel Stride, who was made work and pensions secretary in Rishi Sunak’s first reshuffle, and she secured the post after beating four other Conservatives: John Baron, Richard Fuller, Andrea Leadsom and Kit Malthouse.
In her election statement, Baldwin said she had been a member of the committee since 2019. She went on:
The Treasury select committee needs a wise, knowledgable chair to lead proceedings and I’ve worked closely with our previous chair, Mel Stride, to ensure that the committee challenges witnesses without fear or favour. The committee works best without the shackles of economic ideology and focuses on a strong evidence base to make its recommendations. At a time when the country is looking closely at the way its government manages the economy, all eyes will, too, be on the Treasury select committee to rigorously challenge its thinking.
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Government to make changes to bill dealing with legacy of Northern Ireland troubles
The government is set to make changes to a controversial bill to deal with Northern Ireland’s troubled past, PA Media reports. PA says:
The draft legislation would see a form of immunity offered to those suspected of killings during the conflict if they agree to co-operate with a new truth recovery body.
The Northern Ireland troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill, which is going through its parliamentary stages, would also prohibit future civil cases and inquests related to Troubles crimes.
It has been almost universally opposed by parties across the political divide in Northern Ireland as well as all victims groups.
Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told the House of Commons today that he would make changes to it but did not specify what the changes would be.
Heaton-Harris said the bill would return to the House in Lords “in a couple of weeks”.
Jens Stoltenberg said he was “absolutely confident” the UK would continue to “lead by example” on defence spending. Speaking after a meeting with Rishi Sunak, the Nato secretary general said:
The United Kingdom has led by example over many years when it comes to … defence spending, spending more than 2% of GDP on defence, the United Kingdom has done that, and now more and more allies are following the example of the United Kingdom.
But, of course, in a more dangerous world we need to invest more in our defence, and I am absolutely confident that the United Kingdom will continue to lead by example on defence spending.
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Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, claimed he was holding but “not using” his mobile phone as he pleaded guilty to a driving offence, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling, 49, is facing a ban from the roads at a court hearing next week after he was stopped by police in his Skoda 4x4 in Wandsworth on April 4.
Tugendhat, who stood for the Tory leadership after Boris Johnson stepped down, previously apologised after he was prosecuted for using a mobile phone while driving.
In a written guilty plea to Bromley magistrates’ court, which heard the case in private under the single justice procedure, the politician said: “I was holding my phone - not using it.
“After the incident I took a course to refresh and correct my driving.
“I have included the result of the course. Please accept the course report.
“I accept my responsibility and recognise my culpability.”
Tugendhat was assessed as “low” risk following his advanced driving course in May, according to the report.
“Thomas does not come across as a fast driver who likes to rush; in fact, Thomas is very calm and handles situations accordingly,” his instructor wrote.
The Metropolitan police sent Tugendhat a conditional offer of a fixed penalty notice in April, and Tugendhat agreed to pay the fine and surrender his driving licence, according to court papers.
But the offence was sent to court for prosecution because Tugendhat already had six penalty points on his driving record.
Using a mobile phone while driving can attract six penalty points and a disqualification can be imposed if a driver tots up 12 points within three years. But a ban can be avoided if the defendant can show “exceptional hardship” would be caused by the loss of their licence.
Tugendhat’s case has been sent for a full hearing to consider disqualification at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 17.
Braverman says police should be firmer with protesters, saying their definition of 'serious disruption' might be too narrow
Suella Braverman gave a speech to the National Police Chiefs Council conference earlier. Here are the top lines.
Braverman said she wanted police officers to have more confidence to tackle dispruptive protesters robustly. She said:
Although most police officers do an excellent job, sadly, in recent months and years we have seen an erosion of confidence in the police to take action against the radicals, the road-blockers, the vandals, the militants and the extremists.
But we have also seen the police appear to lose confidence in themselves - in yourselves, in your authority, in your power - an institutional reluctance. This must change.
Criminal damage, obstructing the highway, public nuisance - none of it should be humoured. It is not a human right to vandalise a work of art. It is not a civil liberty to stop ambulances getting to the sick and injured.
Such disruption is a threat to our way of life. It does not ‘further a cause’. It is not ‘freedom of expression’ and I want to reassure you that you have my - and this government’s - full backing in taking a firmer line to safeguard public order. Indeed, that is your duty.
Scenes of members of the public taking the law into their own hands are a sign of a loss of confidence and I urge you all to step up to your public duties in policing protests.
She said she was concerned that police were applying too narrow a definition of “serious disruption” when applying the law. Speaking to reporters after her speech, she said:
I’ve got some concerns about the interpretation of serious disruption and when that threshold is hit, and also the cumulative impact.
So when we see a daily reset do you assess it cumulatively over a 10-day period or week or do you say, well I’m just measuring it in a 24 hour period?
I think police forces and chiefs would welcome clarity on the law and what their powers actually are.
She said she wanted officers to focus on “common sense policing”. She praised the chief constable of Greater Manchester police, Stephen Watson, saying he “rejects woke policing”. And she said:
The way to ensure public confidence in the police is to focus on getting the basics right. What I call ‘common sense policing’. The kind of policing the law-abiding majority deserves and expects.
No politically correct distractions, just good old-fashioned policing - with a relentless focus on making our streets, homes and transport networks safer.
She said she had asked officials to revisit rules on “non-crime hate incidents”, because she wanted officers to focus on serious crimes, such as “threats to people and their property”.
She said she wanted to make crime recording requirements less burdensome. She said:
I am concerned that crime recording requirements can be seen as too complex and burdensome. I am committed to working with the police to see how recording can be simplified without compromising on putting victims first.
She said she wanted the police and the NHS to provide better help to people experiencing acute mental health distress “so that people in need of medical help get the right care at the right time, while also reducing inappropriate demand on policing”.
She said she wanted to create a new, non-graduate entry into policing.
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Sunak to hold first face-to-face talks with Sturgeon tomorrow
Nicola Sturgeon will have her first face-to-face talks with Rishi Sunak on Thursday, the Scottish government has confirmed. They will meet in Blackpool ahead of the British-Irish Council meeting, which brings together senior figures from administrations across the UK.
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said:
Ahead of the 38th British-Irish Council this Friday, the first minister will hold bilateral talks with the prime minister in Blackpool on Thursday afternoon, and take part in a meeting of the prime minister and heads of devolved government council immediately following that.
The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the cost-of-living crisis, the need to avoid damaging austerity in the upcoming autumn statement, and the importance of respecting the right of the people of Scotland to choose their own constitutional future.
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Commenting on the UK government’s decision to allow more time for talks in Northern Ireland before an election has to be held, Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, said:
The secretary of state’s announcement provides further space for early substantive progress in discussions between the EU and UK on the issues of most concern to people and business in NI.
I urge the UK authorities to make use of this renewed opportunity to engage positively, and with real urgency, in the knowledge that the European Commission has listened carefully to the concerns of people across Northern Ireland, including and especially unionists.
Pay cuts for MLAs should only affect DUP because they are to blame for deadlock at Stormont, says Sinn Féin
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, has challenged Rishi Sunak to explain what he will do to break the deadlock in Northern Ireland while elections are delayed.
Responding to the UK government’s announcement that legislation will be passed to delay the point at which an election has to be held because power-sharing has not been restored at Stormont (see 1.47pm), O’Neill said Sunak needed to “get down to business” and reach an accommodation with the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol. She said:
We’re yet to see any substance in terms of finding an agreed way forward on the protocol.
There’s been some very positive statements. Like all these things, if there’s a political will to do something, it can be done. So my question to Rishi Sunak is around what is he going to do in the time ahead to actually find an agreed way forward for the protocol.
O’Neill also said it was unfair of the UK government to cut the pay of all MLAs because the assembly is not sitting, when it was the DUP that was to blame. She said:
I think it would have been more effective to target that towards those people that are actually failing to turn up and join all the rest of the team that actually want to be here to make politics work.
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The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has arrived in Downing Street for a meeting with Rishi Sunak, PA Media reports. PA says:
He is the first international leader to visit No 10 since Sunak became prime minister, in a sign of the concerns over the situation in Ukraine and the importance of the Nato alliance.
Earlier Stoltenberg was hosted by Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, at Lydd army camp in Kent, where Ukrainian volunteers are being trained to fight in the war against Russia.
Photograph: Chris Radburn/Reuters
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Nurses in UK vote to go on strike for first time in dispute over pay
Nurses have voted to stage strikes across the UK for the first time in their history in pursuit of a better pay deal, in a move that will seriously disrupt NHS care, my colleague Denis Campbell reports.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting says he has apologised to Corbyn for 'in jest' calling him 'senile'
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has apologised for calling Jeremy Corbyn “senile” in the Commons chamber. Streeting, who made the comment when he was sitting down while a commotion was taking place as Corbyn tried to raise a point of order at the wrong moment in proceedings, says he was speaking “in jest”, but accepts the remark was in poor taste.
In jest, but I accept in poor taste. I’ve dropped Jeremy a note directly to apologise for any offence caused.
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) November 9, 2022
Streeting said he would be apologising in reply to a tweet from my colleague Owen Jones, the leftwing columnist who was generally supportive of Corbyn.
Streeting is on the right of the Labour party and is something of a hate figure for people on the Corbynite left. Some of them have been condemning his comment on Twitter. This is from Andrew Fisher, who used to be Corbyn’s head of policy when Corbyn was Labour leader.
After a PMQs where Labour has attempted to claim the moral high ground on bullying (don't read the Forde report), the shadow Secretary of State for Health & Social Care says this - uses old age as a slur. Grim. https://t.co/koIYA9gXBZ
— Andrew Fisher (@FisherAndrew79) November 9, 2022
And this is from Samuel Sweek, a councillor and a supporter of the pro-Corbyn group Momentum.
The shadow health secretary using mental health slurs is absolutely disgraceful.@wesstreeting owes Jeremy Corbyn and millions of others an apology for this offensive remark.https://t.co/nEPlTk3sa9
— Samuel Sweek (@samuelsweek) November 9, 2022
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Sunak resinstates national security council
Rishi Sunak has quietly reintroduced Britain’s national security council of leading ministers, which was scrapped by Liz Truss during her short-lived premiership.
Chaired by Sunak and with eight other senior ministers as full members, the committee has reappeared in a fresh shake-up of the machinery of government.
The new national security council will also discuss matters of global foreign policy – but European matters will be dealt with in a separate subcommittee.
Truss had scrapped the NSC and merged it with two Boris Johnson foreign policy committees, sparking criticism that the body would lose its security focus.
Under Truss, the body was called the foreign policy and security council (FPSC), similar to a structure last adopted when Gordon Brown was prime minister.
Sunak appears to have addressed some of the concerns by hiving off Europe, bringing back its former name, first introduced when David Cameron was prime minister. Members include Dominic Raab, as deputy prime minister, plus the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, and the home secretary, Suella Braverman.
Completing the list are Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, Oliver Dowden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Victoria Prentis, the attorney general and Tom Tugendhat, the security minister. Spy chiefs and the chief of defence staff, Sir Tony Radakin, also attend in an advisory capacity.
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At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, the prime minister’s spokesperson said it was “vital” that journalists were allowed to do their job properly. But he would not comment specifically on the arrest by Hertfordshire police of three journalists covering the Just Stop Oil protests. “I am cautious about commenting on specific incidents. Operational decisions are a matter for the police but the prime minister strongly believes in championing press freedoms,” he said.
Here is my colleague Damien Gayle’s story about the arrest of the journalists covering the protests.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has not commented on the arrest of journalists, but this morning she posted a message on Twitter praising Essex police for their handling of protests today.
My thoughts and best wishes go to the @essexpoliceUK officer injured while dealing with protesters engaging in guerrilla tactics on the M25 today. These protests are dangerous & I fully back police in using all tools available to prevent further disruption & protect the public https://t.co/aBX19yZVnl
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 9, 2022
Braverman is speaking now at a conference for police chiefs. I will post extracts shortly.
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Colum Eastwood, the SDLP leader, says Heaton-Harris is right to say an election now would be a bad idea. But it is “shameful” that a single party is blocking the formation of an executive, he says.
Heaton-Harris says he has to deal with reality as he finds it. He says there is a huge swathe of the unionist community that objects to the Northern Ireland protocol. (The DUP is boycotting the executive until the protocol issue is resolved.)
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, says it is unfair for MPs to complain about the DUP having a veto on the formation of a power-sharing executive (the DUP is currently blocking it) when in the past Sinn Féin blocked power-sharing for three years.
He says people in Northern Ireland want a solution that sees the institutions restored on the basis of Northern Ireland being “an integral part of the United Kingdom”.
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In the Commons, Scott Benton (Con) asks why MLAs are having their salary cut when Sinn Féin MPs who do not attend the House of Commons get a full salary.
Heaton-Harris says he understands the point, and intends to swerve well away from it.
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Under the existing legislation, Northern Ireland is meant to have a new election to end the deadlock at Stormont by 19 January. Under the new timetable set out by Chris Heaton-Harris, the new deadline for the actual election would be 2 March or 13 April (if there is a second, six-week extension).
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Heaton-Harris says Northern Ireland election to be delayed as government legislates to extend deadline for forming executive
Back in the Commons the Rishi Sunak statement is over, and Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, is making a statement about the need for an election in Northern Ireland. The law says an election must be held because a power-sharing executive has not been formed.
Heaton-Harris says he is currently under a legal duty to call an election. But he says everyone is telling him that calling an election now will change nothing.
So, he says, he is going to legislate to push back the deadlines by which an election must be called.
Under the existing legislation, the deadline for the creation of an executive was 28 October. Heaton-Harris says the new legislation will extend that by six weeks, to 8 December, with the option of a further six-week extension, to 19 January.
He says the aim of this is to “create the time and space needed for talks between the UK government and the European Commission to develop and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible.
He also says people in Northern Ireland are “frustrated” that members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) continue to get their full salaries, even though the assembly is not sitting. He says he will legislate to reduce those salaries “appropriately”.
UPDATE: Heaton-Harris said:
The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse.
When I have a legal duty to call an election that few want and everyone tells me will change nothing. Thus, I will be introducing legislation to provide a short straightforward extension to the period for executive formation, extending the current period by six weeks, to December 8, with potential for a further six-week extension 19 January if necessary.
This aims to create the time and space needed for talks between the UK government and the European Commission to develop, and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible.
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No 10 says Williamson may not be replaced as minister
Here are the main points from the No 10 post-PMQs lobby briefing.
The PM’s press secretary says Sir Gavin Williamson will not necessarily be replaced as a minister. Someone will take over his ministerial responsibilities, but that could be a minister already in the Cabinet Office, not a new minister, she said. She said:
[The PM is] considering the role and whether that is taken on by someone already in the Cabinet Office or someone who would replace Gavin Williamson. No decisions have been made.
The press secretary said it would be for the forfeiture committee to decide of Williamson should lose his knighthood, not No 10. The Lib Dems are saying Williamson should lose the honour if allegations against him are upheld.
The press secretary rejected claims that Sunak originally refused to accept Williamson’s resignation. Asked if Williamson would have been sacked if he had not resigned, she said that was a hypothetical question.
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Chris Bryant (Lab) invites Sunak to visit the Rhondda to see the problems climate change is already causing. He mentions flooding, rain running off hills and houses than need better insulation.
Sunak says he would urge the local authority to engage with the government on insulation programmes.
Sammy Wilson (DUP) criticises the “obsessive” pursuit of net zero. While the chattering classes like these policies, does he understand how people struggling to pay their bills are concerned by them.
Sunak says he agrees with Wilson about the need for more North Sea oil and gas licences.
David Mundell (Con) criticises the SNP government in Scotland for blocking nuclear power.
Sunak says he would like to spread the benefits of new nuclear power technology across the UK.
Ben Bradshaw (Lab) asks what Sunak’s problem is with onshore wind.
Sunak says it is important “to bring people with us as we transition to net zero”. He says it would be wrong to alienate communities, he says. And he says the UK is lucky in having a good source of offshore wind.
The worst thing we can do is alienate communities if we want to actually deliver on our climate commitment, and as it turns out we are very lucky to have a very reliable, very affordable form of energy in offshore wind which is also creating jobs domestically in the UK. It’s right that that is our priority.
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Rehman Chishti (Con) asks Sunak to confirm that UK sanctions on Russia do not target food supplies to developing countries.
Sunak says two-thirds of the wheat leaving the Black Sea is going to developing countries. So it is crucial that Russia allows it to leave, he says.
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Chi Onwurah (Lab) asks why the government treats the oil and gas companies with such generosity.
Sunak says it is not realistic to think that we can do without oil and gas in the short term. So it is better to produce it here than to import it, he says.
Tobias Ellwood, the Tory chair of the Commons defence committee, says climate change is a problem now. The armed forces will have to meet the burden of some of these problems. So it is not right to cut the defence budget now, he says.
Sunak says he is committed to supporting the armed forces.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, says the government has not delivered its climate promises. When will it do so? And will climate finance not be raided from the aid budget. And does he support finance for loss and damage.
Sunak says the UK started the dialogue on loss and damage. That is not the same as reparations, he says.
He does not address the point about the UK not meeting its pledges.
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Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, says he is grateful for this continuing rent-free tenancy in Sunak’s head. He says Sunak should give him advance notice when he plans to mention him.
Sunak says, if Keir Starmer gives him advance notice of his questions, he will tell Corbyn when he intends to discuss his security policies.
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Sarah Champion (Lab) says Sunak made “savage cuts” to the international aid budget when he was chancellor. Will aid be cut again?
Sunak says he does not shy away from the fact he had to make difficult decisions as chancellor. He says we have all seen now what happens when the government loses the confidence of the markets.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says he is alarmed that Sunak has banned onshore wind. Why won’t the government get rid of that ban?
Sunak says the government has a good track record on renewable energy. Offshore wind is what he is focusing on, along with nuclear, he says. That is how they will transition.
Jon Trickett (Lab) says the 1% richest people on the planet are responsible for the same amount of emission as the poorest 50%. Does Sunak agree that you can not tackle this problem without social justice?
Sunak says the UK does have a moral obligation to help the poorer countries address the problems caused by climate change.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says Scotland has become the first developed country to promise loss and damage payments to developing countries. Will the UK guarantee that overseas aid pledged for climate finance will be spent in five years, as planned.
Sunak says it was the UK that established a dialogue on loss and damage. That is ongoing.
He says the government intends to deliver its climate finance over the timetable.
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Theresa May, the former Tory PM, asks what the government’s plan is for training for green jobs.
Sunak says the government’s lifelong learning account plans will allow people to retrain.
Sunak is responding to Starmer.
On his attendance, he says Labour prime ministers missed 12 of the 13 Cops held when they were in power.
He claims Labour used to oppose nuclear power.
And he says oil and gas will have to be a part of our energy mix as we transition to net zero. The UK plan is the right plan, he says. It is realistic and credible.
He says Ed Miliband has described Labour’s plan as “a borrowing plan”. That is not the right approach. He says the British people trust him to manage the economy, not Labour.
Labour is focused on the case for reparations, he claims.
Keir Starmer is responding to Sunak’s Cop27 summit.
He starts by asking what progress Sunak made when he raised the case of the pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah with the Egyptian president.
Starmer says Sunak should not have said initially that he would not go to Cop27. He says the lesson of this is that, if you want Sunak to commit to a cause, you have to get Boris Johnson to make that commitment first. (Sunak only agreed to go to Cop27 after Johnson said he was going.)
He says Sunak is a roadblock to tackling climate change in the UK. He says Sunak is still committed to the ban on onshore wind, and he included a loophole in his windfall tax on energy companies.
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Sunak's statement to MPs about Cop27
As soon as PMQs was over, Rishi Sunak delivered a statement to MPs about the Cop27 summit. He said that when the UK took the Cop26 presidency, only a third of the world was signed up to net zero. Now it is 90%.
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PMQs - snap verdict
PMQs would have been even worse for Rishi Sunak if Gavin Williamson had not resigned last night, but he must have arrived at the Commons knowing that this was a day when he bound to take a hit over his decision to appoint Williamson in the first place. And he did. The only surprise was quite how one-sided it turned out. Keir Starmer delivered a proper clobbering.
There were two features of Starmer’s performance that made it particularly effective. First, he was withering, and even funny, about Gavin Williamson: “a cartoon bully with a pet spider”, “a sad middle manager getting off on intimidating those beneath him”, and “a run-of-the-mill bully”. Insults work when they have the ring of truth, and these did.
And, second, Starmer was reasonably persuasive in turning this into an argument about Sunak being weak. At PMQs it is always dangerous focusing on Westminster process, and not policy. But Sunak is a new prime minister, and members of the public probably do not have a fixed view on the sort of person he is yet. Polling last week suggested people think he outperforms Starmer on being decisive and strong.
That polling probably reflects the views people formed as they compared Sunak to Liz Truss, and gave him credit for telling his party over the summer that Truss’s plans were based on a fantasy. For Labour, it is vital to drive those numbers down, and land the claim that actually Sunak is “weak”, and performances like Starmer’s today may have an impact.
Sunak might have done better if he had come armed with some surprise attack line to use against Starmer. But he did not have anything up his sleeve, and instead he had to resort to going on about Jeremy Corbyn – a clear sign that he has not got any more effective ammunition to use against the opposition.
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Siobhan Baillie (Con) asks if Sunak will provide proper childcare reform.
Sunak says the government is looking at plans to improve childcare, including changing the staff/child ratios, and making it easier for people to become childcare workers. The results of the review of those plans will be published “in very short order”, he says.
Ben Bradshaw (Lab) says the government has not published the results of the review of the security risk posed by issuing “golden visas” to Russians.
Sunak say he will get the home secretary to write to Bradshaw about this.
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Barry Sheerman (Lab) asks what Sunak will do to ensure that children do not go to bed hungry.
Sunak says the best solution is to ensure they do not grow up in a workless household. The government is creating jobs, he says. He says work is the best anti-poverty strategy.
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, asks if Sunak agrees with the OBR, which says Brexit will harm trade, or Kemi Badenoch, the international trade secretary, who said last week she disagreed with the OBR.
Sunak says Brexit will offer more opportunities for trade, including for Wales.
Sunak says the online safety bill will make it harder for people smugglers to advertise on social media.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says Sunak’s judgment is as flawed as Liz Truss’s. Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, is being lined up for a peerage in Boris Johnson’s honours list, he says. Is it right to keep Jack in cabinet when he is now just interested in going to the Lords.
Sunak says he won’t comment on Johnson’s honours list.
Blackford says the Scottish Office is now being run by a baron in waiting, who will get a £300-per-day job. Will Sunak stop this?
Sunak says he is working with Jack on what the Scottish people want.
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Bob Blackman (Con) asks about antisemitism, which he says is still prevalent in society today. Will the PM congratulate Holocaust survivors?
Sunak thanks Blackman for his powerful question. The government is tackling antisemitism in all its form.
Starmer says Sunak is too weak to stand up to people. He would not stand up to the climate change deniers, and then went to Cop27 at the last minute. If he cannot stand up to “a cartoon bully with a pet spider”, what chance has he got of running the country?
Sunak says Starmer talks about judgment. He says Starmer thought Jeremy Corbyn was the right person to look after our security. Starmer is not focused on the serious issues, he says. Starmer is supporters strikers and protesters, and opposing measures to deal with immigration, he says.
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Starmer says he is someone who stands up against vested interests, including against people who are blocking the roads. He says Shell has not paid anything.
Sunak says he is standing up for people and delivering jobs.
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Starmer says, if Sunak cannot stand up to bullies, he will not be able to stand up to vested interests. How much has been raised from Shell from the windfall tax.
Sunak says he introduced the windfall tax.
Starmer says everyone in the country knows someone like Williamson, a “sad middle manager getting off on intimidating those beneath him”. But they also know someone like Sunak, a boss afraid to stand up to bullies.
Sunak says the government is delivering on the people’s priorities.
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Rishi Sunak says he 'regrets' appointing Gavin Williamson after Keir Starmer calls former minister a 'pathetic bully'
Starmer says Williamson was a “pathetic bully”. Does Sunak regret appointing him?
Sunak says of course he regrets appointing someone who had to resign. But he has ensured these allegations are being investigated.
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Keir Starmer backs what Sunak said about Remembrance Day.
How does the PM think the victim of Gavin Williamson, allegedly told to “slit your throat”, felt about Sunak saying he felt great sadness about his resignation.
Sunak says he did not know about those allegations. He says people in public life should treat others with respect.
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Stephen Crabb (Con) asks Sunak to promote floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.
Sunak says he agrees, and more leases are expected.
Neil Coyle (independent) says people who followed Covid rules were betrayed by the Conservatives “who partied their way through lockdown”. Will this PM promise that no one who received a penalty for breaking Covid laws gets a peerage?
Sunak says “this government during Covid ensured we protected people’s jobs”. And he mentions the vaccine programme too.
He ignores the question.
Rishi Sunak starts by referring to Armistice Day, saying he wants to remember those who have lost their lives in the service of this country.
Sunak to face Starmer at PMQs
PMQs is starting shortly.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Tributes paid to Sir David Butler, father of psephology, who has died aged 98
As promised, here is more on the death of Sir David Butler, the father of modern election science.
Here is our story about his death.
These are from Michael Crick, the political journalist and broadcaster who wrote a biography of Butler, Sultan of Swing.
While still an undergraduate at New College in 1945, Butler started studying election results in terms of percentages, the first step in developing election science. He also developed the concept of “swing” as a way to measure British election results.
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) November 8, 2022
For the 1950 election, aged just 25, he was the in-house analyst on the BBC’s first ever TV election results programme, a job he retained until the 1979 election. And he invented the famous Swingometer, a studio device to relate the swing between votes to the change in seats.
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) November 8, 2022
Butler also promoted the word “psephology” to describe the new study of election science - based on the Greek word “psephos” for pebble, which the ancient Greeks used to vote in elections. For decades Butler was the foremost psephologist in Britain and around the world.
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) November 8, 2022
On these pages from David Butler’s 1945 Times Guide you can see ink notes where he translated raw voting figures into simple percentages. Amazingly, nobody in UK or US seems to have worked out percentages seat by seat before this. Hence election science - psephology - was born pic.twitter.com/GXKajpcC8C
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) November 9, 2022
This is from the BBC, where Butler was the lead elections expert for many years.
Statement from BBC News CEO @deborahturness on the death of Sir David Butler pic.twitter.com/FBtJb3PdOG
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) November 9, 2022
This is from Prof Jane Green, one of the academics running the British Election Study.
I want to express my gratitude to David Butler, who was unwaveringly generous to me, kind, wise, utterly engaged at all times, staggeringly knowledgeable, and without whom we wouldn't have election studies as we know it. It is a very sad day.
— Jane Green (@ProfJaneGreen) November 9, 2022
And this is from Anthony Wells from YouGov.
As a student of elections it was always sort of awe inspiring to be able to sit and talk to David Butler. It was like a mathematician getting to sit and talk to Archimedes, or a Physicist getting to meet Newton.
— Anthony Wells (@anthonyjwells) November 8, 2022
"Oh yes, and this is the guy who invented the subject" https://t.co/Gew5WGcJUe
The autumn statement – the second fiscal statement of the autumn described as, in reality, a colossal budget (or the third if you include the statement reversing the mini-budget) – takes places a week tomorrow, and the papers continue to carry stories about what will be in it. Here are three of them.
Ben Riley-Smith in the Daily Telegraph says Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is considering increasing the amount of money raised by the top rate of income tax. He says:
Rishi Sunak is considering expanding the top rate of income tax next week after the Treasury warned that more money was needed to protect pensions and benefits.
The Telegraph understands that raising the 45 per cent top rate, or lowering the £150,000 annual income threshold at which it kicks in are options now being discussed.
Such a move would be a dramatic reversal in position from September, when Liz Truss abolished the 45 per cent rate, before later reinstating it when the markets baulked at her plans.
Riley-Smith also says the Treasury is “looking at increasing the National Insurance rate paid by employers by 1.25 percentage points, despite a similar move being reversed by Ms Truss”.
Steven Swinford in the Times says Hunt is considering making it easier for councils to raise council tax. Currently councils in England wanting to put up council tax by 3% or more (or 2% or more if they are a district council with no social care responsibilities) must get residents to support the move in a referendum. The government is considering changing this, Swinford says. He writes:
The plan was initially rejected over concerns that it would hit the poorest hardest when people are struggling to cope with the cost of living. The council tax referendum requirement is also a manifesto commitment.
However, No 10 and No 11 have returned to the council tax discussion over the past 24 hours after deciding to prioritise benefits and pensions. A government source thought Sunak and Hunt would ultimately reject the plan, but said the fact that it was being discussed again made it more likely than before.
The Financial Times says plans for investments zones announced by Liz Truss are likely to be abandoned. It says:
Liz Truss’s plans for low-tax investment zones to boost UK economic growth are due to be axed by chancellor Jeremy Hunt in next week’s autumn statement.
Two Whitehall insiders said levelling-up secretary Michael Gove had lobbied hard for the zones to be ditched in favour of a revamped urban regeneration policy.
Although no final decisions have been made, and the zones might alternatively be scaled back dramatically by Hunt, government officials said the chancellor was expected to kill off what was a pet Truss project.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for Sir Gavin Williamson to be stripped of his knighthood if the bullying allegations against him are upheld. Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem chief whip, said:
The complaints being made about Gavin Williamson are extremely serious and suggest a bullying culture at the very top of the Conservative party. If these complaints are upheld he should be stripped of his knighthood, or else the whole honours system risks being brought into disrepute.
Rishi Sunak appointed Williamson to cabinet despite knowing of serious complaints about his behaviour. Since then he sat on his hands for days instead of taking action.
The very least Sunak could do now is confirm he would support taking Williamson’s knighthood away if the investigations into his behaviour find him guilty.
The problem with this analysis, of course, is that it assumes that the honours system has not already been brought into disrepute. Anyone who thinks scoundrels don’t get knighthoods and peerages hasn’t been paying attention.
Chamberlain has written to Sir Chris Wormald, the civil servant who chairs the forfeiture committee, which has the power to take away knighthoods, saying Williamson should lose his if serious allegations against him are upheld.
Only rarely do people with knighthoods have them removed. The most recent prominent examples are the bankers Fred Goodwin and James Crosby who lost their knighthoods because of the role they played in the banking crash. (In Crosby’s case, he asked for his knighthood to be taken away.)
At Westminster some older hands have been been minded to excuse Gavin Williamson’s Urquhart-style menacing by pointing out that, by the standards of previous whips, his tactics were routine, or even mild. Jack Straw recalls an encounter with Walter Harrison, deputy chief whip during the 1974-79 government (and a leading character in James Graham’s brilliant play, This House) when Harrison shoved him against a wall and grabbed him by the testicles. Straw asked what he had done. “Nowt,” Harrison replied, “but think what I’d do if you crossed me.”
But Nicky Morgan, the former Tory education secretary, is one of many parliamentarians glad that this sort of behaviour is no longer acceptable. She told Times Radio:
I was talking to somebody yesterday in Westminster, senior MP, and they were a bit like: ‘Oh well, you know, you have to man up and toughen up and everything else.’ And I just don’t think that that’s the case anymore.
There’s no doubt that the whips’ office tactics, as they would have been 50 years ago, 30 years ago, are already something that you don’t see.
But Westminster has to get into the 21st century ... There are different ways of getting people to fall into line. But there is also a pastoral element, which some whips are better at than others, no doubt.
I think the fact that this has been called out and called out so quickly, is perhaps positive evidence that actually the norms in Westminster have changed.
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There are two ministerial statements in the Commons today. Straight after PMQs Rishi Sunak will be making a statement about the Cop27 summit, and after that Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, will make a statement about the need for elections in Northern Ireland.
The government should not have announced a trade partnership with Egypt with the case of jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah unresolved, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said today.
Lammy told the Today programme:
I’m not sure in these circumstances we [Labour] would have launched a new strategic relationship with Egypt, which was announced in July this year.
We have a £4bn trading partnership with Egypt, that is tremendous leverage. Why has it taken months and months and months for the Foreign Office to act?
The prime minister has effectively been dragged into this case because of Cop. That should not have been the case.
The secretary of state for foreign affairs only recently in the last few days made contact with the family despite me as MP raising this issue with successive foreign ministers.
I don’t think the government should be announcing a strategic relationship with Egypt this year when, in fact, this case is lingering and has gone on for months and months and months, and UK officials have not had access to check on his welfare. That is not acceptable.
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Sunak has 'fabulous judgment', says education secretary Gillian Keegan, in response to Labour attacks
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, was batting for the government on the airwaves this morning. Her interviews were dominated by questions about Sir Gavin Williamson, and here are her key lines.
Keegan rejected Labour claims that Williamson’s appointment showed that Rishi Sunak’s judgment was flawed. She told BBC Breakfast that Sunak had “fabulous judgment”. And she told Times Radio:
I think Rishi has the highest degree of integrity and judgment. We saw it all over the summer, he was prepared to tell the hard truths. That’s real leadership.
She said she thought Williamson’s resignation would close down the row about this matter. She said:
The reality is you appoint people and, you know, the only thing you can do if things don’t work out or things go wrong or things come to light afterwards is act quickly.
Gavin’s acted quickly, he’s removed the distraction. I would expect after today that it won’t be discussed any further.
She defended Sunak’s decision to say in his letter to Williamson that he accepted his resignation “with great sadness”. Sunak was being polite, she implied. She said:
I think it’s always sad when a colleague resigns. It does have an impact on them personally, it has an impact on their family. So, you know, nobody takes glee out of these situations at all.
But ... it happens quite a lot in politics actually.
She said she had never seen evidence herself of Williamson bullying colleagues. She told Sky News:
I’ve worked with him several times and I haven’t seen any of that. He’s never threatened me, or he’s only only ever been supportive actually, personally, to me.
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Sixth council takes legal action against government to stop migrants being housed in hotel
A sixth local authority is taking legal action to stop the government using a hotel to house asylum seekers, PA Media reports. PA says:
North Northamptonshire council wants to prevent migrants being accommodated at the Royal Hotel in Kettering.
The authority applied to the high court for an emergency injunction and is considering its next steps after this was dismissed.
Council leader Jason Smithers said: “We do not feel that the Royal Hotel in Kettering is the appropriate place to accommodate asylum seekers for a number of reasons.
“We do not feel the proposals have been properly considered to ensure the best possible welfare can be provided to asylum seekers and the local communities in which they are housed.
“We are now considering our options in light of the injunction’s dismissal by the high court.”
Five other local authorities are also taking legal action: East Riding of Yorkshire council, Ipswich Borough council, Stoke City council, Great Yarmouth borough council, and Fenland district council.
Williamson's 'bullying never acceptable' video shows 'rank hypocrisy' at heart of government, say Lib Dems
When Sir Gavin Williamson was education secretary, he recorded a video for his department in which he said “bullying is never acceptable”. He said all schools should have anti-bullying policies in place.
All children should feel safe in school and at home. Education Secretary @GavinWilliamson talks about the importance of protecting our children and young people from bullying. #AntiBullyingWeek pic.twitter.com/eELhmsvm48
— Department for Education (@educationgovuk) November 19, 2020
The Liberal Democrats say the fact that Williamson could say this, when there is now considerable evidence that he himself bullied colleagues, shows the “rank hypocrisy” at the heart of government. Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, said:
This exposes the rank hypocrisy and double standards at the heart of this Conservative government.
Gavin Williamson himself admitted that bullying is never acceptable.
Schools rightly have a zero tolerance approach to bullying. But once again it seems it’s one rule for Conservative ministers and another for everyone else.
Sunak under pressure from Labour ahead of PMQs to say why someone with Williamson's 'odious' record given ministerial job
Good morning. There are two big departures in the news at Westminster this morning: Sir Gavin Williamson has left the government, and Sir David Butler has departed life, at the age of 98. We will be focusing on Williamson, but Butler, who almost invented modern psephology, is the greater and more consequential figure. If you think about elections in terms of percentages, swings and demographics, and if you value the TV punditry of experts like Prof Sir John Curtice, you are inhabiting a mental framework that Butler did as much as anyone to create. More on him later.
But, first, Gavin Williamson. He may have gone, but the questions about the decision to appoint him in the first place haven’t, and this morning David Lammy rehearsed some of the lines we might here from Keir Starmer at PMQs. Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, told the Today programme:
This raises real questions about the prime minister’s judgment. The behaviour [from Williamson] that we’ve heard about in the last few days is repellent, it’s odious, and it’s quite, quite unacceptable.
The prime minister knew much of this. It was reported to him. Why did he appoint Gavin Williamson to the government in the first place? Why did it even take 10 days to understand what Gavin Williamson would be doing?
He appointed him as some sort of enforcer, apparently because this is the way he behaves.
This is weak, it’s unacceptable, and we really should have an account of why why he came back into government.
When a scandal reaches the ‘raises questions about the PM’s judgment’ phase, that is a sign that it is beginning to go away. You don’t complain about “judgment” when you can complain about substance. But it is understandable why Labour does not want to let this go, and this attack line is valuable to the opposition because Rishi Sunak is unhappy having to defend the last 12 years of Tory government and would like the public to think he is leading a brand new government. But the Williamson appointment showed that he isn’t. Sunak’s cabinet is like an “edited highlights” of the Theresa May/Boris Johnson/Liz Truss administrations (with a bit of David Cameron thrown in), and, as a highly effective, backroom fixer and vote engineer, Williamson was someone who had made himself invaluable to Cameron, May and Johnson. And he performed a similar role with Sunak, which is why he got a job.
Here is our overnight story on Williamson’s resignation, by Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason.
And here is the agenda for the day.
11am: MPs start voting in the ballot for a new chair for the Commons Treasury committee. The result will be announced in the afternoon.
12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
After 12.30pm: Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the need for an election in Northern Ireland.
3.15pm: Sunak meets Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, in Downing Street.
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