Afternoon summary
Keir Starmer has told the Commons liaison committee that he cannot think of anything he would have done differently in his first months as PM. (See 4.55pm.)
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union, says Keir Starmer’s comments at the liaison committee about the extension of inheritance tax to cover farms (see 3.16pm) show the government did not think about the impact of this measures. In a statement, Bradshaw says:
Despite ministers previously claiming this was about punishing wealthy people avoiding tax, it’s clear from the prime minister’s words today that it is simply an indiscriminate revenue-raising measure with no thought given to who it impacts.
What’s worse is that the government has clearly forgotten the reason agricultural inheritance tax reliefs were brought in in the first place – which was to ensure that farms would not be sold or broken up following the death of the owner and could continue to produce high quality British food through each generation. It’s clear that this government has entirely broken with that premise, and it will be farming, then its associated industries, and then consumers who will bear the impact.
Here is some video of Keir Starmer at the liaison committee.
Labour retains control of Edinburgh council, despite being 3rd largest party, by deal with pro-union groups to keep out SNP
Labour has kept control of Edinburgh city council, despite being the third largest group, after maintaining its deal with other unionist groups to lock out the Scottish National party.
Councillors voted in Jane Meagher today after former leader Cammy Day quit suddenly, on 9 December, after the police confirmed they were investigating allegations he had sent sexualised texts to Ukrainian women refugees.
The Scottish National party, which is the city’s largest party, lost an attempt with the Scottish Greens to take control by 32 votes to 28. Labour has only 10 councillors; the SNP has 17.
Meagher, latterly Labour housing convenor, appeared by video link from Tanzania, where she is on a family holiday. In a statement released by the council, she said:
This has been an extremely difficult and damaging time for the Council. Today was an opportunity to restore stability and to get on with the business of running the city.
As we count down to 2025 – and to the challenging budget and other decisions that await us in the new year – we need stability, confidence and consensus.
As the then Labour group leader, in May 2022 Day had brokered a controversial agreement after the council elections with the Tories and Lib Dems to form a minority administration in Edinburgh which stopped short of a formal coalition.
The deal was not sanctioned by Scottish Labour headquarters; Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, had pledged there would be no coalitions with the Tories in any council. The Tories were, however, given the convenorship of two statutory committees by Day.
Here are two alternatives takes on the liaison committee hearing from journalists.
From Jonathan Eley at the Financial Times
Bit of time spare before an internal meeting, so watched Starmer at the Joint Liason Committee
The contrast between the rational, detailed and informed Q&A of this forum and the idiotic performative braying of PMQs could not be greater It’s how political scrutiny should be
From Jason Groves at the Daily Mail
Not saying the Commons liaison committee is an easy ride for Keir Starmer, but Labour’s Tan Dhesi has just prefaced his question to the PM by saying: ‘Thank you for your service to this nation...’
Starmer claims he cannot think of anything he should have done differently in his first months as PM
In his final answer to Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the liasion committee, Keir Starmer claimed that he could not think of anything he should have done differently in his first months as PM.
Hillier asked him about lessons he had learned since he had become PM, and if he would have done anything differently. Starmer devoted his answer to criticising the inheritance he was left. (See 4.19pm.)
Hillier then asked again:
Is there anything that you would do differently if you were starting out now, knowing what you know?
And Starmer replied:
No. We had to do tough stuff. We are getting on with it. I’m very pleased to be delivering, and delivering from a position of power, rather than going around the division lobbies losing every night. I’ve had too much of that.
This answer has generated some surprise from commentators. This is from Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, on social media.
Keir Starmer tells the liaison committee of the Commons there is literally nothing he would have done differently as PM now that he has the benefit of hindsight. Hey ho
And this is from James Ball, political editor of the New European.
There is something quite telling that when Keir Starmer was asked if he had any advice for himself from six months ago all he could do was stammer through an answer about inheriting a £22 billion black hole from the last government, before saying he’d do nothing differently.
Perhaps Starmer really does think there is not a single thing he could have done better. But it is more likely he just decided to say no to avoid the inevitable negative headlines that a more honest answer might have attracted.
Starmer says inheritance left by Tories was even worse than he expected, 'in every respect'
Hillier ends the session by asking if there is anything Starmer would have done differently in his first five months in office.
Starmer says it is far better being in government than being in opposition. He came into politics to change things, he says.
He says he expected the inheritance to be “pretty awful”, but it turned out to be “worse than I thought, in every respect”, he says. As an example, he cites prison overcrowding. During the summer riots, at a Cobra meeting, he had the prison place numbers in every jail in the country on a screen in the room because they were at “bursting point” and needed to know if they could accommodate people.
He does not get round to saying whether or not there is anything he would have done differently.
Hillier asks again if there is anything he would have done differently. No, says Starmer. He says he has had to do tough stuff, but he is very pleased to be delivering.
And that is the end of the hearing.
Updated
Starmer accepts UK will still need to keep giving visas to skilled workers from abroad
Meg Hillier, the liaison committee chair, is now wrapping up with some final questions of her own.
Q: Are you talking to the Migration Advisory Committee about ensuring that the UK has enough skilled workers for the government’s housing ambitions?
Yes, says Starmer. He says there has been too much policy making in silos.
Q: Are you willing to say the country needs more skilled workers?
Starmer says the UK will always need skilled workers.
Q: So you would give the green light to more skilled workers coming in?
Starmer says he wants a joined-up approach. He says the UK has had very high immigration because it has not trained up enough people with skills. So it will do that. but in the mean time it will not “chop the legs off our businesses” by refusing them access to foreign workers.
Karen Bradley, the Tory home affairs committee chair, is asking about asylum seekers.
Starmer says “safe and legal routes” for asylum seekers are needed. But the goverment should also be taking action “upstream” to tackle the problem.
Q: Do you want to open more “safe and legal routes”?
No, says Starmer. He says he is happy with the schemes in place for people from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Hong Kong.
Starmer challenged by Labour committee chair over why UK 'prevaricating' about raising defence spending
Tan Dhesi, the Labour chair of the defence committee, goes next.
Q: On defence and security, what keeps you awake at night?
Starmer says he is not kept awake at night. He says he has great faith in the military.
Q: The new head of Nato has said we need to move to a wartime mindset. He says, if we are not at war, we are not at peace either. Do you agree?
Starmer says we are in a more volatile world. Conflict is escalating, he says.
Q: When will defence spending rise to 2.5% of GDP?
Starmer says the government will set out a path to that. The defence review is reporting next year.
Dhesi says it is not the time to prevaricate. He says the govenment has made several other big defence spending announcements, without waiting for the defence review to conclude. So why can’t this be addressed now?
Starmer says the review is look at the risks the UK faces, what the current capability is, and whether changes are needed to address the gap. He says that is why is does not want to commit money until he has the results of that.
Dhesi says the UK’s enemies are not waiting. He says deterring a war is cheaper than fighting one. So why is the UK “prevaricating”?
Starmer says defence spending is at 2.3% of GDP now. And some costs, like the nuclear deterrent, are fixed, he says.
Thornberry say the Israeli government is not in favour of a two-state solution. And some members of the Israeli cabinet talk about annexing the West Bank. If that happened, what could we do?
Starmer says he is very worried about the situation on the West Bank. He says any response should be anchored in international law.
Starmer says fall of Assad won't necessarily lead to Syria getting better
Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, goes next.
Q: Who are the major players in Syria?
Starmer says it is fast moving situation. He says the fall of president Assad was a good thing. He goes on:
But we mustn’t make the mistake of thinking that what comes next is necessarily going to be better.
Updated
Starmer says HS2 has been 'case study of how to mishandle major project'
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative chair of the public administration committee, asks about using technology to improve public sector productivity.
Starmer says he agrees using technology can make a big difference. When he took charge of the Crown Prosecution Service, all the files were on paper, he says. He digitised it.
Clfifton-Brown turns to procurement. He says today’s committee hearing on HS2 was “woeful”.
Starmer agrees. He says HS2 has been a “case study of … how to mishandle a major project”.
Updated
Starmer says Send education needs not just more funding, but reform
Helen Hayes, the Labour chair of the education committee, asks about support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
Starmer says he has been asked about this more than anything else at PMQs.
He says the government inherited a Send scheme in crisis.
More money for Send has been allocated in the budget, he says. But he goes on:
We’ve got to reform. We’ve got to have a much earlier intervention system in place …
My own strong belief is that, even with the extra funding, which is desperately needed, if we don’t change the way special education is provided, that will be never be able to plug the gap and fix the problem that you’ve described.
So yes, more money in the budget, but also early intervention and making sure that provision is [available] in mainstream schools.
Abrahams asks about pensioners who do not qualify for pension credit. What extra help might they get to help them through winter.
Starmer says other support for low-income household is available, from local authorities.
Debbie Abrahams, the Labour chair of the work and pensions committee, gets her turn, and she is asking about help for the disabled.
Starmer says the government should do everything it can to help disabled people into work.
Abrahams says some disabled people cannot work. Some of them face extra costs of up to £1,000 a month. She says they must be protected.
Starmer agrees.
Carmichael says the government’s claim that only 500 farms would be affected is not robust. Will the chancellor hold a meeting with the National Farmers Union to discuss this?
Starmer says the chancellor can manage her own diary.
Carmichael says one witness to his committee broke down talking about this. A lot of people don’t find this funny.
Starmer says he accepts people are not comfortable with this. He says he has met the NFU to meet their concerns.
Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chair of the environment committee, goes next.
Q: When you decided to extend inheritance tax, were you targeting the super-rich, or family farmers?
Starmer says the government needed to raise revenue. He says it was not targeting a specific group.
Q: Does that mean you have dropped the idea that family farms should be protected?
Starmer does not accept that. He says farms still get protection from inheritance tax that others don’t.
Q: So the super-rich will still be able to shelter their money in farms.
Starmer says he was not going after a particular group.
Q: So you are comfortable with the super-rich using this to shelter their money.
Starmer says the government was trying to get the balance right.
What the very wealthy do with their money within the rules is a matter for them.
Starmer says for far too long projects have been held up by issues such as newts and bats. He says he does not want to downgrade the importance of nature. But “I do think we can look at it differently”, he says.
Q: Why are we not getting developments on brownfield now?
Starmer says the targets were taken down by the last government. And developers buy land and then refuse to build.
Q: Are you doing something about that?
Yes, Starmer says. He says if developers don’t build, the government will step in.
Updated
Toby Perkins, the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, says Starmer has said he will back the builders, not the blockers. Who are the blockers?
Starmer says it is people who have opposed targets, or opposed houses being built.
Perkins asked him to be more specific.
Starmer recalls visiting an estate near York where it took 20 years for home to be built. He says a company boss told him it would take 13 years to build an onshore windfarm, because planning would take five years, and connecting to the grid would take six years. The actual building would only take two years, he recalls being told.
Updated
Florence Eshalomi, the Labour chair of the housing committee, is now asking about housing.
Starmer says it will be difficult to hit the target of building 1.5m new homes over the course of this parliament. But he says he thinks the government can do it.
Starmer rejects claim UK can't improve trade relationship with both US and EU at same time
Liam Byrne comes in again.
Q: What are you going to do to stop President Trump imposing tariffs on the UK?
Starmer says he is no fan of tariffs.
He says he wants to improve trade with the US. But he won’t say whether he has discusse this with Trump.
Q: If you do a deal with the EU to improve trade covering SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) regulations, that will make doing a trade deal with the US very difficult. How will you resolve this?
Starmer says he does not accept that.
I think we can pursue both. I don’t accept the argument you have got to either be with the US or be with the EU, that isn’t how it works at the moment with our current trade.
We do want a closer relationship with the EU on security, on defence, on energy and, yes, on trade, and I’ve set out how we want to reset on a number of occasions.
At the same time, I want to improve our trading relationship with the US. Is that going to be easy? Of course it’s not. Do I think we can make progress? Yes, I do.
And that’s among the reasons that I’m making sure we’ve got a good relationship with the incoming president and that the relationship between our two countries is as strong in the future as it has been in the past.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
It won’t come as any surprise to you, I am not a fan of tariffs and, therefore, we have to make sure that we avoid tariffs.
We have got very good trade with the US, as we have got very good trade with other countries around the world. I want to improve on that …
Am I alive to the danger of tariffs? Yes of course. I’m against tariffs, but I’m not going to speculate as to what the incoming president might do.
Updated
Caroline Dinenage, the Tory chair of the culture committee, goes next. She asks about copyright and AI, and why the government is giving AI an opt-out from copyright rules.
Starmer says new proposals on this are out for consultation.
He says the the government wants to benefit from the advantages of AI, while protecting the rights of creatives. He says he thinks they have got the balance right. But the government is going out to consultation to make sure.
Dinenage says the government is planning to take away the copyright rights of creatives, while allowing them to opt back in to get copyright protection. She says that is like allowing a burlgar to “nick all your stuff”, unless you have a sign up saying that is not allowed.
Starmer says he does not see it like that.
Dineneage suggests that he is biased in favour of tech companies, at the expense of creative industries.
Starmer does not accept that. He stresses his support for the creative sector.
Byrne says having rising living standards over the course of the parliament, one of the goals in the Plan for Change, is not ambitious. It has been achieved in every parliament since the 1950s, he says.
Starmer says he was disposable income to go up. But he also wants productivity to rise, and that is harder, he says.
Byrne says firms have been hit by the impact of the national insurance increase, the rise in the national living wage and the employment rights bill. Was it a good idea to do all three at the same time?
Starmer says the government had to do the difficult things first.
Liam Byrne is asking the questions now.
He says the manifesto goal to make UK sustained growth the highest in the G7 by the end of this parliament was not in the Plan for Change. Is that still a goal?
Yes, says Starmer.
Byrne says forecasters don’t think the UK will achieve this. The IMF thinks the US and Canada will have higher growth.
Starmer says the forecasters are not taking into account the impact of the changes to planning and regulation that Labour is proposing.
Starmer says planning and regulation reforms can make 'huge difference' to growth
Starmer says the government is changing planning rules. And regulation too.
The clear message to me is not only that there’s too much regulation in the United Kingdom, but it’s inconsistent, because our regulators are pulling in slightly different directions, and that’s why we’ve been writing to the regulators to ensure that we’ve got the priorities of the regulators in the right place.
Q: When will people notice a difference?
Starmer says the government has put up pay for public sector workers. And the rising in the living wage has given people a pay rise.
Q: Why are you so confident about growth, when forecasters are less confident?
Starmer says the forecasters are predicting growth. So things are going in the right direction. But he thinks his reforms to planning and regulation will make a “huge difference”.
UPDATE: This is what Starmer said when asked how long it would take before people noticed their living standards going up.
It will take some time, of course it will.
One of the biggest mistakes, I think, in the last 14 years was the idea that everything could be fixed by Christmas. It can’t.
The planning will take time. The change in regulation will take time, we’ve got a national wealth fund which is investing, getting record investment into the country, that will take time.
But already some of the lowest paid are already feeling the benefits of a Labour government through what we did in the budget.
Updated
The hearing has started.
Meg Hillier, chair of the liaison committee and chair of the Treasury committee, starts by saying we have had a decade of no real growth. How are you going to turn that round?
Keir Starmer says investors have not had stability. He is providing that.
He says there will be plans to planning and regulation.
And growth, across all parts of the country, and that is why there are local growth plans.
Updated
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. Here it is, with John Harris, Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey discussing the politics of 2024.
Starmer faces grilling by liaison committee on economy, public services and foreign policy
Keir Starmer will be up at the liaison committee at 2.30pm. He does not know the questions he will be getting, but he does know who will be asking questions on what topics, because the committee has revealed this.
The hearing will cover three themes.
Growth and economy questions will come from Liam Byrne (Lab, business committee chair), Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem, environment committee chair), Caroline Dinenage (Con, culture committee chair), Florence Eshalomi (Lab, housing committee chair) and Toby Perkins (Lab, environmental audit committee chair.
Public services and Plan for Change questions will come from Debbie Abrahams (Lab, work and pensions committee chair), Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Con, public accounts committee chair) and Helen Hayes (Lab, education committee chair).
And global affairs and security questions will come from Karen Bradley (Con, home affairs committee chair), Tan Dhesi (Lab, defence committee chair) and Emily Thornberry (Lab, foreign affairs committee chair).
Updated
The health miniser, Karin Smyth, refused to say whether the extra money for hospices announced this morning in the Commons would fully compensate them for the impact of the national insurance increase. (See 11.01am.) At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson also declined to answer this question. Asked if hospices would have all their losses covered, he said he would not “draw a kind of parallel”.
Back to HS2, and at the public accounts committee hearing this morning civil servants and executives from the firm declined to put a clear estimate on when high-speed trains would be running between Euston and Birmingham.
The HS2 chief executive Mark Wild said:
You would hope that in the 2030s you would have a functioning railway, but the truth is I do need to do the work.
As PA Media reports, trains are expected to run between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham at some point between 2029 and 2032. Dame Bernadette Kelly, permanent secretary at the Department for Transport, said the final leg, between Old Oak Common and Euston in central London, was due to finish by 2036 at the latest. “Our initial work, or current work, on Euston suggests we are still within that parameter,” she said.
Summing up what they had learned during the hearing, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative chair of the committee, said:
We don’t know when the reset is going to take place, we don’t know what the cost is going to be, and we don’t know when it is likely to come into operation.
A Spanish state-owned shipbuilder will buy Belfast-based Harland & Wolff in a rescue deal that will secure all four of its shipyards and save about 1,000 jobs, Julia Kollewe and Lisa O’Carroll report. Navantia is to acquire H&W’s Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built, as well as the Arnish and Methil yards in Scotland, and the Appledore site in Devon, ending months of uncertainty for its employees.
Talks between Navantia and the UK government had been taking place since H&W went into administration in September after ministers refused to provide taxpayer-funded support to keep it going.
In a statement in the Commons about the deal, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said:
The former government’s inability to make a decision left the yards and the workforce in limbo and that is why I made clear in my first weeks in this job that no taxpayer guarantee or loan would be provided.
And I was dismayed that when I did so, the Conservative party opposed that, knowing as they did that with a guarantee or loan, they stood at significant risk losing an eyewatering amount of taxpayers’ money. That was deeply irresponsible.
No 10 defends Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq and says she denies involvement in alleged corruption in Bangladesh
Downing Street has said Keir Starmer has confidence in Tulip Siddiq, a Treasury minister, even though she has been named in a Bangladeshi anti-corruption probe, PA Media reports. PA says:
Siddiq has “denied any involvement in the claims” accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to the prime minister’s spokesman, and continues to maintain her responsibility as a minister overseeing UK anti-corruption efforts.
Pressed about whether there was any conflict of interest in Siddiq’s involvement in a 2013 Bangladeshi deal with Russia over a nuclear power plant and her ministerial role, the spokesman said: “I can’t speak to events that happened prior to a minister’s time in government.”
He added there was a “very clear declaration process” for ministers, which had been followed.
Siddiq has not been formally contacted by relevant Bangladeshi authorities, it is understood.
The minister is alleged to have been involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of cash were embezzled. Her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, was until recently prime minister of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, and is facing a wider investigation by an anti-corruption commission in the south Asian country.
Siddiq has been approached for comment, and the Labour party has declined to comment.
But sources close to the minister have described the allegations as “spurious”.
HS2 boss defends spending £100m on 'bat shed' that Starmer described as 'absurd'
At the committee hearing (see 12.15pm) Mark Wild, the HS2 chief executive, also defended the decision spend £100m on what has been described as a “bat shed” to protect the animals from the trains. Keir Starmer recently said this investment was “absurd”, and an example of why planning laws needed radical reform.
Asked about the cost, Wild said:
I understand why that would raise public concern; it seems an extraordinary amount of money.
But I would say this: I have actually visited this structure myself in my first weeks to see it, it is of great concern to me to understand.
This is a considerable engineering structure. It is on a railway that will travel at over 200 miles an hour, so the engineering of this whole structure is quite considerable.
At the end of the day, HS2 Ltd must obviously comply with the law, and the law says that we must mitigate damage, harm, to protected species.
Asked whether he had any regrets about decision to build this, Wild replied:
I can’t apologise for complying with the law. This structure is the most appropriate. It is an extraordinary amount of money but it is in the context of a scheme that is costing tens of billions and it’s built for 120 years.
Dame Bernadette Kelly, permanent secretary at the Department for Transport, told the committee that the DfT and the Treasury had “challenged” the building of the bat tunnel, but found it was “the most efficient remedy” for protecting the species.
Updated
Government does not know how much HS2 will cost, MPs told
The Department for Transport does not know how much HS2 will cost, MPs were told today.
Dame Berndadette Kelly, permanent secretary at the DfT, made the admission at a public accounts committee hearing this morning. She said:
We do not currently have an agreed cost estimate now for phase one.
HS2 Ltd has provided a cost estimate of £54-66bn, in 2019 prices, but Kelly said the DfT did not “regard it as a reliable and agreed cost estimate”. She added:
I say with great regret, sitting before the committee, that is the situation.
She said that coming up with an agreed cost estimate would be “extremely complex” and would not be done until “well into 2025”.
Explaining what had gone wrong, Mark Wild, the HS2 chief executive said there were three “systemic” and “enduring” problems.
Construction started way too early. The rush to start before mature design consents was really, in retrospect, a mistake.
He also said that HS2 had “not managed the risk profile in an optimal way” and that “productivity assumptions at the beginning have not come to pass”.
Steve Reed accuses Tories of weaponising personal tragedy as part of their campaign against farm tax
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, has accused the Conservative of weaponising a personal tragedy as part of their campaign against what they call the family farm tax.
He made the comment during environment questions in the Commons in response to a question from his Tory shadow, Victoria Atkins, about the budget plan to extend inheritance tax so that it covers some farms.
Atkins said:
In recent weeks, a farmer took himself off to a remote part of his farm and killed himself. The message he left his family, who wish to remain anonymous, is that he did this because he feared becoming a financial burden to his family because of changes to inheritance tax. This is the human cost of the figures that the secretary of state provides so casually. What does the secretary of state say to that grieving family?
Atkins also asked for suicide figures for farmers and landowners to be published on a monthly basis “so that we – the house – and the outside community can understand the human costs”.
In response, Reed said:
I send my heartfelt sympathies to that family but I think it is irresponsible in the extreme to seek to weaponise a personal tragedy of that kind in this way. Where there is mental ill health then there needs to be support for that, and this government is investing in it.
She knows from the last year for which data is available that the vast majority of claimants will pay absolutely nothing following the changes to APR [agricultural property relief – the inheritance tax exemption].
On suicide figures, Reed said that mental health was a matter for the NHS, and that Atkins “broke the NHS” when she was health secretary.
In response to another question during the session, Reed said that Labour recognised that farmers are out to make a profit, and he claimed the Conservatives did not. He said:
The shadow secretary of state, as well as the former prime minister, keep telling farmers they’re not in it for the money. We know that they are.
They’re businesses that need to make a profit, and our new deal for farmers, including increasing supply chain fairness is intended to make farms profitable and successful for the future, in a way that they were not under the previous government.
Conservatives argue that, for many farmers, wanting to be able to pass the farm on to the next generation is a key motive for what they do, which is why they view the inheritance tax as pernicious.
Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly has waded into the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) row saying the women had been treated “appallingly”.
“My mother is a Waspi woman and she and many women were treated appallingly and shabbily and deserve that to be recognised,” said the DUP minister, as Labour divisions over the decision not to pay compensation to the Waspi pensioners deepened.
Yesterday Scotland first minister John Swinney said the decision was a “serious embarassment” for Labour.
Commenting on the announcement, Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem health spokesperson, said:
This extra funding will be welcome for hospices, patients who need end-of-life care, and their loved ones, and it must be followed by a real focus on improving end-of-life care in the new 10-year NHS plan.
However, it is deeply disappointing that ministers are still not protecting hospices and other crucial health and care providers – including GPs, dentists, pharmacists and care homes – from their national insurance hike.
Hospice UK, which represents the hospice sector, has welcomed the government’s announcement. Its CEO, Toby Porter, said:
Today’s announcement will be hugely welcomed by hospices, and those who rely on their services. Hospices not only provide vital care for patients and families, but also relieve pressure on the NHS.
This funding will allow hospices to continue to reach hundreds of thousands of people every year with high-quality, compassionate care.
Martin Vickers (Con) accused the government of “giving with one hand and taking with another”. He asked when individual hospices would find out how much extra they would receive.
Smyth said those allocations would be made in the new year, after consultations with the sector.
Paul Holmes (Con) said it beggared belief that Smyth expected MPs to be grateful to the government for giving money to hospices that it had taken away in the first place. He said a hospice in his constuency would need an extra £1m to cover the cost of the national insurance increase. He asked the minister if she could assure him that the extra funding announced today would cover that.
Smyth said what beggared belief was that Tory MPs were defending the record of the last government on hospice funding. She did not address the specific question about the hospice in Holmes’ Hamble Valley constituency.
Minister refuses to confirm extra hospice funding will fully compensate sector for national insurance increase
Bob Blackman (Con) told Karin Smyth she still had not said whether or not this extra money would fully compensate hospices for the national insurance rise. He asked her again to answer.
Smyth sidestepped the question, saying the Conservatives had 14 years to sort out hospice funding.
Updated
Tories suggest extra money for hospices won't fully compensate them for extra costs caused by budget
In her response to the statement from Karin Smyth, Caroline Johnson, the shadow health minister, suggested the extra money for hospices would not fully compensate the extra costs the sector is facing because of the national insurance increase and the rise in the living wage. She said:
On October 30 the chancellor decided to break her election promise by increasing employers’ national insurance contributions and reducing the threshold at which employer contributions are payable.
It was later confirmed that hospices would not be exempted from this increase in costs. Now the government has announced new funding for the sector, which they had the audacity to call the biggest investment in a generation.
Let us be clear what is going on: they are taking millions of pounds off hospices and palliative care charities and then think they should be grateful when they give them some of it back. This is socialism at its finest.
Smyth said that Johnson should be welcoming the announcement, and that under the Conservatives the sector was not properly funded.
Updated
Here is an extract from the Department for Health and Social Care’s news release about the hospice announcement. (See 10.47am.)
The biggest investment in a generation for hospices has been announced by the government today, ensuring that hospices can continue to deliver the highest quality end of life care possible for their patients, families, and loved ones.
The £100m funding will help hospices this year and next to provide the best end of life care to patients and their families in a supportive and dignified physical environment.
Hospices for children and young people will also receive a further £26m revenue funding for 2025/26 through what until recently was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant …
This investment will go towards helping hospices to improve their buildings, equipment, and accommodation to ensure that patients continue to receive the best care possible.
That will include refurbishing bedrooms and bathrooms for patients and providing comfortable overnight facilities for families, improving IT systems making it easier for GPs and hospitals to share vital data on patients.
The money will also help towards improving garden and outdoor spaces so patients and their families can spend time outdoors in greener and cleaner spaces.
It will also help to develop and bettering outreach services to support people in their own homes when needed.
Health minister announces £126m funding boost for hospices
In the Commons Karin Smyth, the health minister, is now responding to an urgent question on hospice funding.
She says the governments wants a society where everyone can get high quality care. It also wants to shift care out of hospitals. And hospices will play a big part in that, she says.
She says the government recognises the pressures facing hospices over a number of years.
Today she can announce the biggest investment into hospices and end of life care for a generation.
She says there will be a £100m boost for adult and children’s hospices to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26m to support children and young people’s hospices.
She says the details of the funding allocation will be set out in the new year.
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The number of people in hospital in England with flu has jumped 41% in a week and continues to be more than four times the number at this point last year, PA reports. PA says:
An average of 2,629 flu patients were in beds in England each day last week, 2,504 in general or acute (G&A) beds and 125 in critical care, NHS figures show.
This is up 41% from a total of 1,861 patients the previous week, when 1,795 were in G&A beds and 66 were in critical care.
It is also more than four times the figure at this stage in 2023, when the total stood at 648, and higher than the equivalent week in 2022, when the average was 2,088.
The figures have been published in the latest weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals in England this winter.
British troops could start training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine, John Healey suggests
British troops could start training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine itself, John Healey, the defence secretary, has suggested. He revealed this in an interview with Larisa Brown in the Times. In her story Brown reports:
John Healey said the UK needed to “make the training a better fit for what the Ukrainians need” as he left the door open for it to take place in the war-torn country instead of Britain.
“We [need to] make it easier to the Ukrainians to access and we [need to] work with the Ukrainians to help them motivate and mobilise more recruits,” he said to The Times on a visit to Ukraine.
Asked if this meant extending training of Ukrainian recruits inside the UK to Ukraine itself, he said: “We will look wherever we can to respond to what the Ukrainians want. They are the ones fighting.”
THE TIMES: UK soldiers poised to train troops in Ukraine #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/tw1SRr67Bg
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 18, 2024
Keir Starmer has met the Sultan of Brunei at Downing Street, PA Media reports. PA says:
The prime minister greeted Haji Hassanal Bolkiah at the door of No 10.
They then held a meeting in the White Room.
Starmer praised the “strong relationship” between the two countries.
He said he and the sultan would talk about the renewal of the garrison agreement between the two nations, and wider issues of trade and security.
At 10.30am there will be an urgent question in the Commons on hospice funding. It has been tabled by Caroline Johnson, a shadow health minister. She may be hoping to clear up the confusion about what the government will do to compensate hospices for the extra staff costs arising because of the employers’ national insurance rise in the budget, and about when the announcement is coming. Yesterday Wes Streeting, the health secretary, told there would be a decision before Christmas. But at PMQs Keir Starmer said it was coming in the new year.
Then there are four ministerial statement. After the usual Thursday statement on forthcoming business by Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, we’ve got:
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, on the future of Harland and Wolff
Luke Pollard, a defence minister, on Ukraine
Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister, on Syria
Average water bill in England and Wales to rise by 36% over five years
Water bills in England and Wales will rise by 36% over the next five years, as suppliers were accused of forcing struggling households to pay for years of underinvestment to fix leaky pipes and cut pollution, Jasper Jolly and Helena Horton report.
What No 10 said about Starmer's conversation with Trump yesterday
For the record, here is the full readout from No 10 about the conversation between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump yesterday.
The prime minister spoke to President-elect Donald Trump this afternoon from Downing Street.
The prime minister began by congratulating President-elect Trump on his recent team appointments and President-elect Trump warmly recounted his meeting with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in Paris earlier this month.
Both agreed on their joint ambition to strengthen the close and historic relationship between the UK and the US. They looked forward to working together on shared priorities, including international security and delivering economic growth and prosperity.
Turning to global conflicts, the prime minister reiterated the need for allies to stand together with Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression and to ensure Ukraine is in the strongest possible position.
On the Middle East, the prime minister underscored the need to work together to ensure peace and security in the region.
They agreed to keep in touch and looked forward to seeing one another at the earliest opportunity.
Keir Starmer to be questioned by liaison committee as No 10 firms up Trump links
Good morning. It is the last day the House of Commons is sitting before the Christmas recess, and the main event will be in a committee room in Portcullis House where Keir Starmer will have his first question session with the liaison committee, the ‘prefects’ club’ comprising the chairs of all the other Commons select committees. For 90 minutes he will take questions on the economy, public services and global affairs from MPs who know their subjects pretty well. Most of them are Labour MPs, but they include people who have only become select committee chairs because, despite serving on the front bench before the election, they were not appointed ministers, and so it is wrong to assume they are all Starmer loyalists.
In theory, 90 minutes of intelligent questioning with the PM should produce a decent amount of news. In reality, past liaison committee hearings have often failed to produce much beyond a rehash of familiar No 10 lines to take. But we live in hope.
Relations with the US are almost certain to come up, and Starmer may be asked about an overnight story that suggests Starmer is firming up links with the incoming Donald Trump administration. Yesterday Starmer and Trump spoke on the phone. In its readout, No 10 says:
The prime minister began by congratulating President-elect Trump on his recent team appointments and President-elect Trump warmly recounted his meeting with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in Paris earlier this month.
Both agreed on their joint ambition to strengthen the close and historic relationship between the UK and the US. They looked forward to working together on shared priorities, including international security and delivering economic growth and prosperity.
No 10 did not say which of the Trump appointments Starmer wanted to applaud. Some of them have horrified progressive opinion around the world. CBS has a useful list of all the names here.
And, overnight, the Telegraph and the Sun have revealed that Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, travelled to the US last week for talks with Trump’s team. The Guardian has confirmed the story. In his Telegraph story Ben Riley-Smith says:
Morgan McSweeney travelled to Florida to meet Susie Wiles, the political strategist who masterminded Mr Trump’s re-election campaign and will be his chief of staff in office.
Mr McSweeney also had policy discussions in Washington with Mike Waltz, the congressman who has been named as Mr Trump’s next national security adviser.
Riley-Smith also includes this quote from a “senior Downing Street source” summarising the position.
The mood music was very warm. President Trump is nothing but warm about the UK.
As the year closes, Team Starmer is confident the UK is in a good position for a strong bilateral relationship with the new presidency.
(Do they really talk like that in Westminster? I’m afraid they do.)
In his version of the story, Harry Cole from the Sun says Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s national security adviser, also attended the meeting.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Keir Starmer gives evidence to the liaison committee.
At some point today we are also expecting Downing Street to release a list of new peers.
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