Summary of today's developments
Rishi Sunak is not expected to attend the Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt next month, Downing Street has said. A No 10 spokesperson denied that Sunak’s decision signalled a downgrading of climate change as a priority by the new administration.
Northern Ireland is on course for a snap election after a recall of the Stormont assembly failed to elect a speaker and break the political deadlock. The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) blocked an attempt to revive the assembly and executive, perpetuating paralysis and running down the clock to a midnight deadline to restore devolved government.
The country’s most senior civil servant, Simon Case, will not be launching an investigation into Suella Braverman’s reappointment as home secretary. Braverman is under pressure to answer fresh questions about her resignation as home secretary for breaching the ministerial code last week, after new details emerged that cast doubt on her and Sunak’s version of events.
Labour has called for an “urgent investigation” into the “extremely serious allegations” and told Sunak to confirm whether he knew about them. Nadhim Zahawi, who took over from Berry in Tuesday’s reshuffle, said Braverman had quickly realised her mistake.
The SNP minister Ash Regan has resigned over Scottish government plans to make it easier for someone to change their legally recognised gender. Regan’s resignation came just hours before proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act face a first vote at Holyrood.
Downing Street has said Sunak will not commit to raising the state pension in line with inflation before the government’s autumn statement on 17 November. The PM’s official spokesperson acknowledged that the “uncertainty” is causing difficulty for pensioners.
Zahawi has suggested that Sunak and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, may consider extending the windfall tax on energy firms, after Shell’s profits more than doubled to nearly $9.5bn (£8.2bn) between July and September.
That’s it for today. Our full report on Braverman can be found here:
Updated
Eddie Izzard has said she would not try to be selected as an MP using an all-women shortlist for the Labour party, and “isn’t sure” that transgender women should be allowed to run on them.
Izzard, 60, who became famous as a cross-dressing comedian and now identifies as a gender-fluid trans woman, has made the longlist of the open contest to become Labour’s candidate for the safe seat of Sheffield Central in the next general election.
In a short telephone interview with the Guardian on Thursday, Izzard said she had suffered a “torrent of transphobic abuse” since announcing her candidacy, including being photographed by a gender-critical feminist using the women’s toilet.
She and the former Channel 4 economics editor Paul Mason are the only candidates on the longlist to not live in Sheffield. The two local favourites are both city councillors: Abtisam Mohamed and Jayne Dunn.
Izzard, a Labour party member since 1995, started an accounting degree in Sheffield in the 1980s but dropped out to pursue a career in comedy. She now lives in London, but has promised to move her “main residence” to the steel city if selected later this year to replace Paul Blomfield, who is standing down with a majority of 27,273.
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