Summary
That’s all for today, as Suella Braverman has said she is “confident” that nothing untoward happened in relation to a speeding ticket but did not address the allegation she asked officials to organise a private speed awareness course.
The home secretary told reporters she was “confident that nothing untoward has happened” in relation to the story that she asked one of her staff to try to organise the lesson.
Rishi Sunak has asked for more information on the situation before asking his independent adviser on ethics for his view.
He told the Commons: “I have met with both the independent adviser [Sir Laurie Magnus] and the home secretary. I’ve asked for further information and I’ll update on the appropriate course of action in due course.”
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the Commons that her opposite number had a track record of behaving as if she was “above the rules”.
In the same session, Braverman published the government’s response to the report from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA). In a statement to MPs, she said that the government was accepting 19 out of 20 of the final recommendations, and that the report should lead to “fundamental change”.
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said the party would get heart attacks and strokes down by a quarter within a decade during a speech on his plans for the NHS. On suicide, he says Labour would reverse the number of deaths by suicide.
Starmer added that the NHS would get more funding but that the health service was not “sustainable” in its current state.
Rishi Sunak gave a statement on the G7 summit, and denied that Britain was in retreat on the world stage, citing the UK’s role in supporting Ukraine.
Junior doctors in England will stage a fresh strike for three days next month after negotiations with ministers failed to resolve their pay dispute.
That’s all for today. Thank you for following along.
Updated
More from the rally outside parliament in opposition to the anti-strikes bill being discussed in the Commons on Monday evening.
The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, has called for a “mass campaign of workplace disobedience” if the bill goes ahead.
He told the rally: “We will defy this law. If this law comes into fruition … the TUC and all of the trade unions affiliated and every worker in this country has got to unleash a mass campaign of workplace disobedience.”
Lynch urged Labour MPs to vote against the legislation.
“It’s easy,” he said. “You just have to walk across the room and stand in a hall and vote against it.”
He went on to say that a bill of rights for workers was needed.
“We need a new deal that enshrines in law ... the right to strike as a human and civil right,” he said, PA Media reported.
Lynch added: “If the Labour party and others want our vote … they must repeal and unshackle the unions and repeal four decades of anti-union laws and let us rebalance the workplace on behalf of our members.”
Updated
Junior doctors to strike in June
Junior doctors in England will stage a fresh strike for three days next month after negotiations with ministers failed to resolve their pay dispute.
The 72-hour stoppage will run from 7am on Wednesday 14 June to 7am on Saturday 17 June, the British Medical Association announced on Monday evening.
It will be the third strike junior doctors have held as part of a campaign to force ministers to give them a 35% pay rise to make up for what they estimate to be a 26.2% fall in the real-terms value of their salaries since 2008.
Read more:
The Labour deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has likened the government’s anti-strikes bill to a “Conservatives’ sacking nurses bill”.
She told the Commons: “We oppose this bill in its entirety and we stand ready to repeal it when in government.
“That said we do thank members of all parties in the Lords who made the thoughtful and sensible amendments that we consider tonight. While these don’t solve all of the very long list of issues with this legislation, they significantly take the sting from its worst elements.
“For that reason, on this side of the house, we will reject all attempts by the government to remove these amendments.”
Updated
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said the government believed amendments made in the Lords to the strikes (minimum services levels) bill could delay the reforms and make them “inoperable”, adding that the government did not support them.
One of the key changes made to the bill by peers was a measure that would ensure staff who fail to comply with a work notice on strike days do not face the sack or disciplinary action, with Hollinrake telling the Commons: “The government considers these amendments were intended to make the bill inoperable.”
He added: “Amendment four ensures there can be no consequences for a worker who does not comply with a work notice. The government disagrees with this as without such consequences an employer is powerless to manage instances of non-compliance, which will continue the disproportionate impact strikes can have on the public – severely undermining the effectiveness of this legislation.
“Given this amendment would make the bill ineffective, as I suspect the opposition intended, the government cannot support it.”
Peers also demanded consultation before the use of key ministerial powers to specify minimum services levels, including the involvement of parliament, which Hollinrake labelled “duplicative and would ultimately end up delaying implementation of the policy”.
The government also wants to overturn moves by peers to limit the legislation to England only, after peers expressed concerns the bill would infringe on services devolved to Wales and Scotland.
Updated
Labour will repeal strikes bill if it becomes law
A rally is taking place outside parliament, as the Commons gets prepared to debate the Lords’ amendments to the strikes bill.
Labour MP Jo Stevens has promised that Labour “will” repeal the strikes (minimum service levels) bill if it gets passed.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 people at a rally in Parliament Square, central London, the shadow Welsh secretary said: “I promise you if Labour gets into power at the next election, and I hope we will, we will repeal this legislation.”
She later reiterated: “If it passes on the back of Tory votes, no ifs, no buts, Labour will repeal it.”
She called the bill “indefensible”, PA Media reports.
“This is all about Rishi Sunak distracting from the Tory conveyor belt of crisis with a vindictive attack on working people,” she added.
Updated
Streeting says that Braverman does “have form” for breaking the rules – a reference to her sacking last year because she sent an official document from her personal email to a fellow MP.
He added: “We have got to hold ministers to the rules, otherwise what’s the point in having them? I think the most obvious and easy thing to do is to ask [Rishi Sunak’s] independent adviser on ethics and the ministerial code [Sir Laurie Magnus] to do a review and present the report.
“But Rishi Sunak is so weak and held hostage by Suella Braverman and the right of the Conservative party, he can’t even ask for advice. That’s how weak he is.
“I also think it’s a problem when special advisers lie on behalf of their bosses, it tells us something about the boss. I don’t think it’s acceptable to tell bare-faced lies to journalists, as has seemed to have happened in this case.”
Updated
Wes Streeting is speaking to Andrew Marr on his drivetime LBC show.
Marr opened the show by reflecting on Labour’s promises on the outcomes from strokes and heart attacks, given his own major stroke in 2013, saying he would not be broadcasting without NHS care.
Streeting said the plans for the NHS have been costed. He said that most people expect Labour to invest in the health service which is why Labour is trailing its ideas for reform. “We’ve deliberately gone out there making the strong case for reform first and foremost. What the want to know is are we serious about modernising and changing,” he said.
In terms of spending Streeting said that Labour has policies, such as removing tuition fees, that it would like to put in place but will not because of the cost. The shadow health secretary added that Labour is hoping to spend money in the NHS more efficiently, and to stop people turning up to accident and emergency departments unnecessarily, which costs the NHS more.
Streeting refuses to say whether he would resign if Labour fails to deliver its promises on the NHS if the party is elected, but said he would not expect to be in the job for much longer.
On a question about immigration, he said there are some benefits from immigration, including students coming from abroad to study in the UK. However he said he thought net migration should come down if Labour wins the next general election.
He said: “The NHS will always be an international employer. I think that is a strength. But is there an over-reliance on international labour? Absolutely … so [we would] train more people here.”
Updated
A high-profile Tory member of the Welsh Senedd has announced her bid to become mayor of London.
Natasha Asghar, the shadow minister for transport and technology, told the Guardian on Monday she had submitted her application.
She has been leading the fight against plans in Wales for ultra-low emission zones (ULEZ) and more 20mph schemes.
Asghar said: “I have spent the best part of two years fighting against Labour’s backwards policies in Wales and now I am ready to take the fight to London.”
She said if she became mayor she would scrap expansion of London’s ULEZ schemes, work to restore trust in the Met police and tackle the housing crisis.
Updated
Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, told Times Radio earlier that it would be wrong for a minister like Suella Braverman to “pull strings” to try to cover up wrongdoing. But he sounded more angry about her speech to the National Conservatism conference last week, which was widely seen as the opening salvo in a leadership bid for after the next election. He said:
We’re just beginning to get back to some form of normality. It has been a turbulent year in British politics ... yet we see the home secretary stirring the right of the party, almost writing off our prospects to win the next election.
Asked if he was accusing Braverman of making a pitch to be leader of the opposition after the anticipated Tory defeat at the general election, Ellwood replied:
That’s I’m afraid how it’s interpreted. It distracts us from what we’re starting to do.
It’s somewhat baffling to see the right of our party, encouraged by Suella Braverman, write off chances of winning the next election, having the very debate as if we’ve lost now as to where the party should then go.
That’s all from me for today. My colleague Harry Taylor is taking over now.
Updated
Braverman says government will set up redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has published the government’s response to the report from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA). In a statement to MPs, she said that the government was accepting 19 out of 20 of the final recommendations, and that the report should lead to “fundamental change”. She said:
It is a call for fundamental change, cultural change, societal change, professional and institutional change. I am pleased today that this government has risen to the inquiry’s challenge. We are accepting the need to act on 19 out of the inquiry’s 20 final recommendations …
We must address the systemic under reporting of child sexual abuse. As I announced in April the government accepts the inquiry’s recommendation to introduce a new mandatory reporting duty across England and today I am launching the call for evidence which will inform how this new duty can be best designed to prevent the continued abuse of children and ensure they get help as soon as possible.
The inquiry recommended a redress scheme for victims and survivors of historic child sexual abuse which the government also accepts. Of course nobody can ever fully compensate victims and survivors for the abuse they suffered.
But what we can do is properly acknowledge their suffering, deliver justice and an appropriate form of redress. This is a landmark commitment, it will be complex and it will be challenging, but it really matters.
Updated
In a column for the i Paul Waugh says, if Rishi Sunak does not trust Suella Braverman, it may be hard to see why the public should. He cites examples of colleagues doubting her competence, and quotes one unnamed former minister saying she was “completely useless” when they worked together. He also points out that, on speeding, Braverman has form. When she first became an MP, she asked officials if MPs could claim the cost of a speeding ticket on expenses, the Tory MP William Wragg revealed earlier this year.
Sunak rejects Jeremy Corbyn's call for UK to back international calls for ceasefire in Ukraine
Earlier in the Commons, Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, asked Rishi Sunak if he backed international calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Any peace process had to start with a ceasefire, he said. “Otherwise this war will go on and get worse and worse,” he said.
Sunak said he could not disagree more. He said a ceasefire was “not a just and lasting peace for Ukraine”. Russia had conducted an illegal invasion and committed “heinous war crimes”, he said. He went on:
The right and only response to that is for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and that all plans masquerading as peace plans, that are in fact attempts just to freeze the conflict where it is, are absolutely wrong and should be called out.
Updated
Sunak says he wants 'further information' before deciding what to do about Braverman's alleged breach of ministerial code
Back in the Commons, Andrew Western (Lab) asked Rishi Sunak if he had met his ethics adviser to discuss the Suella Braverman case, if there would be an inquiry, and if Braverman would be sacked if found to have broken the ministerial code.
In response, Sunak said this was not a topic that came up at the G7 (the subject of his statement).
But he said, in the interests of being generous, he would respond. He went on:
I’ve always been clear that where issues like this are raised, they should be dealt with properly and they should be dealt with professionally.
Since I returned from the G7 I have been receiving information on the issues raised.
I have met with both the independent adviser [Sir Laurie Magnus] and the home secretary.
I’ve asked for further information and I’ll update on the appropriate course of action in due course.
This does suggest that Sunak is not taking Braverman’s assurance that “nothing untoward has happened” (see 12.38pm) at face value.
Updated
No 10 refuses to endorse Braverman's claim she did 'nothing untoward', with no decision yet on inquiry
At the afternoon lobby briefing, No 10 refused to endorse Suella Braverman’s claim that she did “nothing untoward” related to her response to a speeding offence, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti points out.
And there is still no decision on whether Sir Laurie Magnus, the ethics adviser, will be asked to investigate whether Braverman broke the ministerial code.
No 10 is withholding support for Suella Braverman.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) May 22, 2023
PM's spokesman twice declines the opportunity to repeat her assurances that "nothing untoward has happened".
No decision on an investigation by the PM's ethics adviser, but Sunak "continues to avail himself of the information".
Updated
Barbara Keeley (Lab) says Ukrainian orchestras are being prevented from travelling to the UK because getting visas is now so difficult. Will the PM offer special help with this?
Sunak says he will look into this matter. But the priority is supporting Ukraine militarily, he says.
Updated
Sir Edward Leigh (Con) says legal immigration is changing the country forever. What is the PM going to do about it?
Sunak says that was not a topic at the G7. But he says he is committed to bringing it down.
On illegal immigration, he says cooperation with allies is bringing benefits. The UK is in talks about further cooperation with Frontex, the EU’s border agency.
Updated
Labour’s Ruth Jones, who represents Newport West, says the semiconductor strategy is very important to her constituency. (A semiconductor factory is based there.) She says Sunak should have announced this is in a statement to MPs, not while he was in Japan.
Sunak says the strategy has been warmly welcomed. It includes an investment of £1bn in the industry, he says.
Updated
Paul Waugh from the i says, as Rishi Sunak was taking his seat earlier, he made a point of showing support for Suella Braverman.
On his arrival to sit next to his Home Secretary, @RishiSunak pats @SuellaBraverman on the back in an ostentatious show of support.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) May 22, 2023
Sunak is responding to Starmer.
He says the UK has already imposed sanctions on the Wagner group in its entirety.
He says the government set out a new approach to China in its updated integrated review. Starmer may have missed it, he suggests. Other countries are following the same approach, he says.
On climate change, he claims the UK has the best record on reducing emissions.
And he says that at the G7 Japanese firms announced £18bn of investment in the UK. If they have confidence in the UK, why doesn’t Starmer?
Updated
Starmer accuses Sunak of being content with 'managed decline' for UK
Keir Starmer is repsonding to Sunak. He says the UK should stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. And he says Labour welcomes the strong show of support for President Zelenskiy at the G7.
But he urges the PM to proscribe the Wagner group as terrorists.
On China, he says it is becoming increasingly aggressive. For a decade the Tories have ignored this, he says. China has now got a stake in UK infrastructure.
He calls for an audit of UK-China relations. And he urges the UK to work with allies on this issue.
The US and the EU have plans to nurture their semiconductor industries. Yet the government’s plan has been described by an industry leader as ‘flaccid”. He says he is worried about this. He says the government seems content with “managed decline”.
He says the EU is ensuring that its car manufacturers get access to the green incentives offered by the US government for electric cars. Will Sunak ensure British manufacturers get the same advantages?
Updated
Rishi Sunak makes G7 statement to MPs, saying he rejects view that Britain's influence is in decline
Rishi Sunak starts his statement on the G7 summit by saying he wants to address a mistaken view – that Britain is in retreat on the world stage, or that its influence is in decline.
He says he rejects that view totally.
He says the influence of the UK is clear in policy on Ukraine. The UK has been at the forefront of support for Ukraine. It was the first in Europe to train Ukrainian troops, and the first to provide lethal weapons.
And it is providing Ukraine with more military aid than any country apart from US, he says.
Updated
Alison Thewliss, the SNP spokesperson on home affairs, said that being caught speeding can affect decisions about whether someone gets leave to remain in the UK. So shouldn’t being caught speeding affect Suella Braverman’s right to remain in her job?
Yvette Cooper says Braverman has track record of acting as if she's 'above normal rules'
Back in the Commons Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says Suella Braverman tried to get special treatment when she was caught speeding. She says Braverman has not said exactly what she asked her civil servants to do. Will she say?
And she asks if Braverman authorised her special adviser to tell journalists that there was no speeding offence, when there was.
Braverman avoids the questions, and repeats the stock answer she used earlier.
Cooper says Braverman is not answering the questions, even though it is her job to follow the ministerial code. She says Braverman has broken the rules before. She goes on:
Time and again, she tries to think that she’s above the normal rules, breaching security even though she’s responsible for it, trying to avoid penalties even though she sets them, reappointed even after breaking the ministerial code, and criticising Home Office policies even though she’s in charge of them and is failing on knife crime, on Channel crossings, on immigration and more.
The prime minister is clearly too weak to sort this out. Well, if the home secretary cannot get a grip of her own rule-breaking behaviour, how can she get a grip on anything else?
Braverman says Labour should get a grip because it has failed to represent the public’s priorities.
Updated
Sinn Féin says it would be unacceptable for DUP to delay resumption of power sharing until autumn
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, has said that it would be unacceptable for the DUP to delay the resumption of power sharing at Stormont until the autumn.
Speaking after her party got the largest number of councillors in the local elections in Northern Ireland, O’Neill said:
There’s a lot of talk about the autumn timeframe. That’s not acceptable. That’s drift.
We should not allow this to drift into the autumn. So, now’s the time for action and the two governments should step up …
We’re in no doubt this election result shouts very loudly ‘get back to work, get the assembly up and running, get the executive up and running, lead from the front and deliver for all the people’.
O’Neill also said that she wanted Rishi Sunak and Leo Varadkar, his Irish counterpart, to co-chair a summit to encourage the resumption of power sharing.
Labour would revive NHS app used during Covid as part of move towards 'fully digital' health service, says Starmer
In his speech and Q&A this morning Keir Starmer said that Labour wanted to use technology to cut costs and improve services in the NHS. In an article for the Guardian he has expanded on this theme, citing as an example how Labour would revive the NHS app used during Covid, and use it more widely. He says:
So what could a tech revolution in the NHS look like? More than 30 million people signed up to the NHS app during the pandemic. That is a big number and represents the majority of adults in this country. Covid made it necessary. Yet, post-Covid, this resource – a resource that could be harnessed for the good of the public – has been left dormant. It’s another tale of our time – another opportunity missed, indicating the absence of strong leadership.
A Labour government would get hold of that NHS app and use it to drive forward a more patient-focused, responsive service. Get this right and it means moving to “a single front door to all NHS services” – fully digital patient records. In one place a patient will be able to book appointments, use appropriate self-referral routes, get reminders for checkups and screenings, receive the latest guidance on treatment and have the ability to take part in clinical trials, something particularly important if you are one of the more than 3 million people in the UK who will be affected by a rare disease in their lifetime …
A fully digital NHS will mean primary care, hospital care and social care are joined up properly for the first time, speaking to each other in ways that can speed up and streamline care for patients.
The full article is here.
Updated
Braverman accuses Labour of raising speeding issue to distract attention from its record on crime policy
Sarah Jones, the shadow Home Office minister, also asked Suella Braverman about her speeding. She asked Braverman if people caught speeding should be allowed to take speed awareness courses in private. And she asked what Braverman asked her officials to do.
Braverman delivered, almost word for word, the same answer she gave to Emma Lewell-Buck. (See 2.43pm.) But she then claimed Labour was raising this issue to distract from its own record. She went on:
Let’s be honest about what this is all about. The shadow minister would rather distract, really, from the abject failure by the Labour party to offer any serious proposal on crime or policing. They want to talk about this because it distracts from the fact that they voted against tougher sentences for paedophiles and murderers, they want us to ignore the fact that Labour MPs would rather the campaign to stop the deportation of foreign criminals than back our Rwanda scheme, they would rather the country does not notice their total abandonment of the British people.
UPDATE: Eventually Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, told Braverman she was going on too long, prompting this headline from the Mirror.
Speaker shuts down Suella Braverman's odd paedophile rant as she ducks speeding questions https://t.co/X0f5Dq32LZ pic.twitter.com/m6UyClSah7
— Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) May 22, 2023
Updated
Braverman says she 'at no point' tried to avoid sanction when challenged about her speeding by MPs
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is now taking the regular Home Office questions in the Commons. The first question is about anti-social behaviour. Paul Howell (Con) asked a routine question, but the first supplementary was from Labour’s Emma Lewell-Buck and she asked Braverman about her speeding.
In response, Braverman gave a similar answer to the one she gave in a TV interview earlier. (See 12.49pm.) She said that last summer she was caught speeding. She said she regrets that. She paid the fine and took the penalty. She went on: “At no point did I attempt to evade sanction.”
She then said she was focused on the people’s priorities.
No one has actually suggested that Braverman did try to avoid having to face a sanction. The allegation is that she wanted to do a speed awareness course in private, not in a group (which might have lessened the embarrassment), and that she asked her civil servants if they could help arrange this (which arguably would be a breach of the ministerial code).
Updated
Only 9% of Britons think Brexit has been more of success than failure, poll suggests
Only 9% of Britons think Brexit has been more of a success than a failure, according to new polling from YouGov. Some 62% of people think it has been more of a failure.
The figure suggest that Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and then the Brexit party, was speaking for a large chunk of the population when he said last week that “Brexit has failed”.
Farage said that Brexit could have succeeded, but that it did not because the politicians in charge were “useless”. The YouGov polling suggests around 75% of leave voters think the same way; while 14% of leave voters say Brexit was always going to be a failure, three-quarters of them say it could have worked but failed because of how it was implemented.
The polling also shows that, by a margin of almost two to one, Britons think voting to leave the EU in 2016 was wrong.
The number of Britons saying the UK was right to vote for Brexit has fallen to its lowest level to date - 31%.
— YouGov (@YouGov) May 22, 2023
The 56% who say leaving the EU was the wrong call is the joint-highest recorded so farhttps://t.co/vsxKByczLu pic.twitter.com/Dz8OWUusp6
Nigel Farage has said that Brexit has been a failure - 62% of Britons tend to agree
— YouGov (@YouGov) May 22, 2023
% saying Brexit has been…
All Britons
More of a failure: 62%
More of a success: 9%
Neither: 20%
Leave voters
More of a failure: 37%
More of a success: 20%
Neither: 35%https://t.co/vsxKByczLu pic.twitter.com/DoqbQ5W5pu
Most Britons who think Brexit has been more of a failure believe this was inevitable (56%), although 75% of Leave voters who think Brexit has failed disagree, laying the blame at the Tories' doorhttps://t.co/vsxKByczLu pic.twitter.com/UahKEPViSP
— YouGov (@YouGov) May 22, 2023
Updated
DUP MP claims Northern Ireland local election results show unionists support his party's stance on protocol
A DUP MP has claimed that the results of the local elections in Northern Ireland, which saw Sinn Féin win the largest number of council seats for the first time, vindicate his party’s stance on the Northern Ireland protocol.
The DUP has been boycotting power sharing at Stormont for more than a year because it is opposed to the protocol. It says the changes announced under the Windsor framework, the revised version of the protocol announced earlier this year, do not go far enough.
Even though the DUP came behind Sinn Féin in the election, Gavin Robinson said his party ended up with the same number of councillors as it had four years ago. He told the BBC:
I think it is incredibly positive because not only do we have the same number of councillors returned, we have an increased vote in many areas across Northern Ireland.
More importantly, there is a recognition of the stance we have taken to resolve the impenetrable issues that have been affecting Northern Ireland’s politics over the last number of years associated with the Northern Ireland protocol and the Windsor framework.
Despite the barrage that we have faced over the last number of months, I think there is tacit recognition amongst the unionist electorate that there is a job that needs doing, it needs to be resolved and when we can get firm foundations for the restoration of devolution, we should do so.
Until that time comes, we have to keep on the path we are on.
Political groups on the left have claimed that Keir Starmer was not radical enough in his speech on the NHS this morning.
In a response from the Green party, its co-leader, Carla Denyer, said:
Starmer claims that it’s not all about the money, but years of underfunding is the key challenge facing the NHS. More reorganisation and target setting will simply be rearranging the beds in the corridor. Staff shortages and recruitment problems can only be seriously addressed by offering NHS staff a pay rise in line with inflation.
The Green party will unashamedly go after the super-rich who have seen their wealth surge in recent years. By increasing their taxes, we can ensure NHS staff are properly paid and that the years of underfunding of our NHS is addressed.
And this is from Kate Dove, co-chair of the leftwing Labour group Momentum.
Keir Starmer is right to diagnose the importance of prevention in tackling the Tory NHS crisis. But his prescriptions miss the elephant in the room, and risk compounding the problem.
Our NHS is on its knees as a result of more than a decade of Tory austerity and under-investment, resulting in record, deadly waiting times and staff leaving in droves. We will not fix this crisis without a major, real-terms investment boost, both to tackle the ongoing recruitment crisis, and to adapt to an ageing society. As Keir Starmer once suggested, we should also end NHS outsourcing, while putting an end to the NHS privatisation which has driven this crisis, instead of Wes Streeting’s calls for more private sector use of the NHS.
Updated
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory former business secretary and an ideological ally of Suella Braverman, has told the World at One that he thought there was no need for Rishi Sunak to order an inquiry into claims that she broke the ministerial code. This was “not a big story”, he said. He said he hoped the PM would “close down the subject”.
He said that ministers sometimes asked their civil servants to do things they were not able to do. As long as the minister accepts that, they have not done anything wrong, he said.
He also said that the lawyer Nick Freeman, who specialising in dealing with speeding offences, has said that he has arranged private speed awareness courses for high-profile clients. Providers liked that because it meant the other attendees were not distracted by having a famous person there, Rees-Mogg said.
Rees-Mogg also said he did not believe in the “conspiracy theories” about this only being in the news now because Braverman was being targeted for her political views.
Updated
The Conservative party claims Labour cannot be trusted to fulfil its promise to improve performance in the NHS in England because of the party’s record in government in Wales.
In response to Keir Starmer’s speech this morning, CCHQ released a response from Will Quince, a health minister. He said:
It’s easy to shout from the sidelines, but the truth is Labour in Wales are currently missing all the targets Sir Keir Starmer has just set out for England.
Labour have been running the health service in Wales for 25 years and haven’t met these targets. Sir Keir has a record of changing his mind – we can’t trust these will be Labour’s targets next week let alone in five years’ time.
This Conservative government has already reduced 18-month waits by 91% from their peak, and two-year waits are virtually eliminated. We are delivering on our priorities to cut waiting lists and to improve the lives of everyone across the country.
Full details of the Labour promises on waiting times are set out in appendix 2 in the briefing paper on the health mission.
Updated
Braverman refuses to deny asking civil servants to arrange private speed awareness course for her
This is what Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said in her clip for broadcasters when she was asked if she had asked civil servants to arrange a private speed awareness course for her, after she was caught speeding, so that she would not have to attend a group speed awareness course. She replied:
First and foremost, I’m focused on the priorities for the British people as home secretary. That’s cutting serious crime with more police officers, that’s standing up for the victims of child sexual abuse, it’s about stopping the boats, and I’m not going to take a backward step from working on those issues.
In relation to your question, last summer, I was speeding, I regret that, I paid the fine and I took the points.
But we’re focused now on delivering for the British people and working for them.
Asked again if she had asked civil servants to arrange a private speed awareness course for her, she said:
What I will say is that, in my view, I’m confident that nothing untoward has happened.
Asked if she would welcome an inquiry into this, she ignored the question and instead said she hoped the media would focus on her announcement today about the victims of child sexual abuse. (See 12.28pm.)
Suella Braverman has arrived at Downing Street for a meeting, the BBC reports. As she got out of her ministerial car, a reporter asked if she had broken the ministerial code. In reply, she just said she was trying to “stop the boats”.
Updated
Braverman says she is 'confident nothing untoward happened' in relation to claims she broke ministerial code
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has said she is “confident that nothing untoward happened” in relation to claims she asked civil servants if they could help her to attend a private speed awareness course after she was caught speeding.
Asked about the story in a clip for broadcasters, she said:
What I will say is that, in my view, I’m confident that nothing untoward has happened.
Braverman said that she was caught speeding, that she paid the fine and took the points.
But she refused to discuss exactly what dealings she did have with her civil servants on this, and she did not deny asking them for help.
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Suella Braverman, the home secretary, will be in the Commons for questions at 2.30pm. She will also give a statement, after Rishi Sunak’s G7 statement, about the government’s response to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA). She will be announcing a redress scheme for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in England, No 10 says.
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No 10 also confirmed that Rishi Sunak will give a statement to MPs this afternoon about the G7 summit. If there are no urgent questions, it will be at 3.30pm.
Labour criticises 'weak' Sunak for not yet ordering inquiry into claims Braverman broke ministerial code
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has said that Rishi Sunak’s failure to order an inquiry into claims Suella Braverman broke the ministerial code mean he’s “weak”.
Good grief! How much availing does he need? Still weak. https://t.co/fUAkcw1MYA
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) May 22, 2023
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Sunak has spoken to ethics adviser about Braverman, No 10 says, but no inquiry launched yet into potential code breach
Rishi Sunak has spoken to Sir Laurie Magnus, his ethics adviser, about Suella Braverman, but has not (yet?) decided to order an inquiry into whether she broke the ministerial code, No 10 says. These are the top lines from the lobby briefing.
Rishi Sunak has spoken to Sir Laurie Magnus, his ethics adviser, about Suella Braverman, the No 10 spokesperson said. As of now, an inquiry has not been launched into allegations that she broke the ministerial code, but the spokesperson did not rule out an update on this later. He told journalists:
The prime minister remains clear that integrity, professionalism and accountability are core values. As you would expect, the prime minister has been availing himself of information having just returned from the G7 this morning. I obviously can’t comment on ongoing private conversations, including with independent advisers, but I will endeavour to keep you updated.
The spokesperson would not say whether or not Sunak has spoken to Braverman about the issue this morning. Asked if the pair had had a conversation, the spokesperson said:
I obviously wouldn’t get into specific conversations but the prime minister, as you would expect, is in regular conversation with the home secretary.
The spokesperson insisted Sunak remained committed to “integrity, professionalism and accountability”.
The spokesperson said Sunak thought special advisers should tell the truth to journalists. He said this in response to reports that Braverman’s adviser repeatedly told the Daily Mirror that she had not been caught speeding.
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Labour publishes details of its health mission
The full text of Keir Starmer’s speech on the NHS this morning is here.
And here is the Labour briefing paper giving details of Labour’s health mission.
This is the third of Labour’s five missions for which details have been set out. Here is the briefing on the growth/economy mission, and here is the briefing on the crime one.
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Margaret Ferrier loses appeal against Commons suspension, paving way for crunch SNP/Labour byelection test
Margaret Ferrier MP has lost her appeal against the Commons standards committee ruling that she should be suspended for 30 days for breaking Covid rules during the pandemic. That means her suspension will go ahead, and that means a recall byelection is likely to go ahead in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.
The byelection will only take place if 10% of electors in the constituency sign a petition calling for one, but it is very likely that this threshold will be met.
Ferrier won the seat for the SNP in 2019 with a majority of 5,230 over Labour, but with the SNP’s popularity falling since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, and the party’s finances being the subject of a police investigation, Labour is hopeful of being able to win the seat.
In a report, the independent expert panel, which considered Ferrier’s appeal against the punishment proposed by the standards committee, said the 30-day suspension was fair. It said:
This has undoubtedly been a distressing and humiliating experience for [Ferrier] … She is hugely apologetic and remorseful for her conduct. The consequences for her and her family have been dire. In our judgment, however, [Ferrier] failed to conduct herself in accordance with the standards of conduct expected of individual MPs. She acted with blatant and deliberate dishonest intent. She acted with a high degree of recklessness to the public and to colleagues and staff at the House of Commons. She acted selfishly, putting her own interests above the public interest. There could therefore be no lesser sanction for this conduct.
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PCS union accuses PM of 'double standards' over Braverman, saying official who broke rules would not be treated so leniently
Turning back to Suella Braverman, the PCS civil service union has joined the FDA (see 9.05am) in criticising the home secretary for asking officials about arranging a private speed awareness course. In a statement the PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said:
Breaking the ministerial code doesn’t appear so much to be a lapse of judgment as a pattern of behaviour.
Suella Braverman is quick to criticise civil servants when it suits her, but even quicker to ask for their help when she needs it.
Civil servants’ role is to deliver government policy not to act as her personal assistants.
How many more lives will Rishi Sunak give her? This is double standards. If she was a PCS member she would not expect to be treated so leniently.
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Q: Why do you think Labour underperformed in Harlow in the local elections?
Starmer says when he became leader, people did not think Labour could win the next election. Now it is on a trajectory where it could form a majority government.
People feel that everything is broken, and that they are worse off than 13 years ago, he says.
And that’s it. The Q&A is over. Starmer took more questions than he normally does at these events (although, if anything, his answers were shorter, and less revealing, than usual).
Q: How much have you set aside for renewing the NHS estate? And will you use public private partnerships?
Starmer says Labour will have to address the quality of the NHS estate. The legacy is terrible, he says. But he does not just want to “fix the problems” and put it back where it was 13 years ago. That would not be ambitious enough, he says.
Q: Do you want to see health spending as a proportion of overall government spending going up?
Starmer says he wants to see NHS money spent effectively. That could make “a huge difference”, he says.
Before the election, Labour will set out where it would spend extra money, and where the funding would come from, he says.
But he says, again, thinking that “everything is about money” is to look at this in the wrong way.
Change and reform are as important, he says.
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Q: Do you think the NHS is instutionally racist? And how would you reduce racial inequalities in health outcomes?
Starmer says he is not here to criticise the NHS. But he says inequalities need to be addressed.
Q: Would you continue with the plan to build or upgrade 40 hospitals?
Starmer says it is hard to continue with a plan that is not a plan. These 40 new hospitals are pretty mythical, he says. But he says Labour will need to ensure buildings are properly maintained.
Q: Are you ruling out a salt or sugar tax for good?
Starmer says his focus today is on limits on advertising unhealthy foods.
Q: Would you give nurses a further pay rise? And do you think consultants should get a higher pay rise?
Starmer says this government has lasted as long as the last Labour one. Under Labour, nurses were paid fairly, and nurses did not go on strike. Now no one quarrels with the idea that the NHS is on its knees. The only debate is whether it is on its knees or on its face.
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Q: You have not said anything about social care. Is it no longer a priority?
Starmer says it still is a priority.
Labour has set out a plan for staff in the care sector. He says his sister works in this sector, so he knows it well. Labour would improve career progression options for carers, he says.
And it would encourage more people to be looked after at home.
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Q: How much will these plans cost?
Starmer says specific proposals have been costed.
And he says technology can reduce costs. Earlier cancer diagnosis would cut costs. And merging waiting lists, so the people can be seen in different hospitals, would cut costs.
He says he understands why journalists are asking these questions about costs. But he says he has run a public service. He knows it is not all about funding.
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Q: You seem to be kicking the issue of money into the long grass. How can people trust you if you won’t say how will will pay for this? And why won’t you say if you will pay NHS staff more?
Starmer says, where Labour has proposed measures that would cost more, it has said how it would fund that. For example, it would fund training more doctors and nurses by abolishing non-dom tax status.
On NHS staff, he says his wife works for the NHS, so he knows what NHS staff think. They are worried about whether the NHS will continue to exist. That worry is fair, he says. They are very pleased about the plan to train more staff.
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Starmer is now taking questions.
Q: Would the NHS get more money overall under Labour?
Starmer says it is not all about money. Money is part of the solution. But change is important too. The NHS needs to use technology more effectively, he says.
Starmer says Labour would let patients visit nearby hospitals for treatment if faster treatment is available there than is available at their local one.
Starmer says Labour wants to reduce heart attacks and strokes by a quarter within decade
Starmer says Labour would zone in on the biggest killers.
He says it would get heart attacks and strokes down by a quarter within a decade.
On cancer, Labour would ensure 75% of all cancer is diagnosed at stage one or two. He says the survival rate for cancer at stage one or two is 81%. But at stage three or four it is just 26%.
And, on suicide, he says Labour would reverse the number of deaths by suicide.
He says he has had three friends die this way. Suicide is the biggest killer of young lives in this country, he says.
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Starmer says Labour would improve healthy life expectancy for all, and halve the health inequality gap between different regions of England.
He says this would restart a trend we should take for granted – that over time people live longer, and happier lives.
This would make Britain fairer too, he says.
Starmer is now giving details of his health missions.
He says Labour would ensure that ambulances arrive within seven minutes for cardiac arrests, that people do not have to wait for more than four hours at A&E, and that GP satisfaction ratings reach record levels.
Starmer thanks people working in the NHS.
Without them, there would be no light at the end of the tunnel, he says.
He says the reward for reform will be worth it.
And the Tories will never deliver this, he claims. They voted against it at the start. And, although they claim to support it now, he says in their heart of hearts they don’t. They see it as “a cost, not a cause”. It does not fit in with their vision of a small-state Britain.
He says the Tories also underestimate the NHS, and the importance of the bond that it creates between people.
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Starmer says NHS 'not sustainable' without serious, long-term change
Starmer says the NHS is “not sustainable unless we make serious, deep, long-term changes”.
That is his plan, he says. He wants to make it fit for the future.
He says money is part of this. He will set out Labour’s plans before the election, based on economic circumstances at the time, he says.
But he says what is “more important” is to set out Labour’s recipe for reform.
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Starmer claims NHS would not survive another five years of Tory government
Keir Starmer has just started giving his speech on his health missions. There is a live feed at the top of this blog.
He says he does not think the NHS could survive another five years of Tory government.
If people doubt that, they should listen to those who work in it.
At the next election, the NHS will be on the line, he says. The Tories would “put it in the ground”.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
I don’t think the NHS survives five more years of Tory government …
At the next election, the NHS is on the line. The Conservative party that has brought it to its knees will put it in the ground.
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Starmer says he would 'expect' net immigration to fall under Labour, but declines to say by how much
In his Today programme interview Keir Starmer was asked at length about his approach to net immigration, and whether he wanted overall numbers to fall. This issue has been a problem for the Conservative party ever since David Cameron rashly promised to get annual net immigration below 100,000, and Rishi Sunak was criticised at the end of last week for saying he is no longer aiming to get annual net immigration below 220,000, the pledge implied by the 2019 Tory manifesto, but just below 500,000, the level he inherited. Figures out on Thursday are expected to show the figure for 2022 running at 700,000 or more.
Starmer said that he wanted and expected annual net immigration to fall during the first term of a Labour government, but he refused to set a target for how much that fall should be. Asked if he would expect the annual figure to fall below 500,000, he replied:
I would expect and want that figure to come down, and I’ll tell you for why. A driver of immigration into this country is our failure on the skills agenda. So many businesses across the country say to me, ‘Look we can’t get the skills we need from the UK therefore we’re more or less forced to recruit from abroad’. This is a problem that the government has failed to address for year after year after year.
Asked specifically if immigration would come down in the first term of a Labour government, Starmer said: “I would expect it to come down and I would want it to come down.” But, despite being pressed repeatedly what his target would be, Starmer refused to give even an approximate number. He said the Tories had repeatedly set a “hard target” that they had missed. He said he was more interested in indicating the “direction of travel” under Labour. He said:
I‘m not going to put a number on it. I think that that’s what the government did in the past. They never met the target. But I would like and want to see, and expect to see, the number coming down.
Asked if immigration would fall “significantly” during the first term of a Labour government, Starmer repeated the point about “direction of travel”. When it was put to him that that could mean a fall of just 2,000 or 3,000, he said: “I think it would be more than that.”
He said he wanted to reduce immigration by stopping employers being reliant on foreign labour. But he conceded that this was something that would take time.
He indicated that he did not want to cut the number of foreign students coming to the UK. He said:
I want good students to come to the UK. We’ve got a fantastic story to tell in relation to students.
But he said that if, as expected, the government this week announces new restrictions on foreign students bringing their dependents to the UK, Labour would not oppose that.
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Hunt reprimanded over wrongly implying UK public debt forecast to fall
The official statistics watchdog has reprimanded the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, after he claimed public debt levels would fall in the coming years, when in fact they are simply forecast to rise less steeply than previously expected. Peter Walker has the story.
Starmer says NHS needs reform as well as more cash, but insists it's 'always better funded under Labour'
Keir Starmer will give a speech this morning providing details about Labour’s “mission” on health. Health is one of the five “missions” – overall strategic aims – he has set for a Labour government, but each mission comes with its own set of targets (sub-missions?), and, as Matthew Weaver and Pippa Crerar report, the health one will include reducing deaths from suicide.
Starmer gave more details of his thinking on health in an interview round this morning. Here are some of the points he made.
Starmer claimed the NHS was “always better funded under Labour”. The overnight briefing from Labour about his speech suggests that he is not going to promise extra money for the NHS in what he announces this morning. But when asked about funding, he told the Today programme:
Money is part of the answer and the NHS is always better funded under Labour.
But he also implied that change was just as important as better funding in achieving better NHS outcomes. He told BBC Breakfast:
So far as the money is concerned, firstly, wherever we’ve made a specific commitment we’re setting out in terms today how we’ll pay for that.
I ran a public service for five years, I do know that if you put more money in the top you do get a better outcome, so money is, of course, part of the answer, but we’ve also got to change and reform.
If we go down the path of prevention, that actually will not only be a lot better for people’s lives and their health, but also, in the long run, actually cost a lot less.
He said Labour was committed to hitting the target for people to be seen within four hours at A&E within the first term of a Labour government. But he said that some of his ambitions for the NHS would take “a bit longer”.
He confirmed that he was opposed to putting new taxes on unhealthy food or drinks. He told Radio 5 Live:
We don’t want to go down the road of making food more expensive in the middle of a cost of living crisis, which is why today we’ll focus on advertising rather than increasing the cost to food, because I think for many families who are already struggling, the idea that food prices would go up again is something which simply wouldn’t be tolerable from their point of view.
But he said his “very strong view” was that sugary food, and vaping, should not be advertised to children. He said:
In the speech, I’m going to deal with vaping and junk food and sugary foods, which should not be advertised to children in my very strong view. It’s so bad for their health, so bad for the NHS.
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Suella Braverman did breach ministerial code says former top civil servant
Good morning. Rishi Sunak is back from Japan, and this morning he is due to meet Sir Laurie Magnus, his ethics adviser, to discuss whether Magnus should launch an inquiry into claims that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, broke the ministerial code when she asked officials about arranging a private speed awareness course after she was caught speeding. These courses are meant to be group events, but Braverman did not want a bunch of strangers to know she was taking part.
Given the controversy this story has aroused, it will be surprising if Sunak does not order an inquiry. Here is Pippa Crerar’s overnight story.
On the BBC’s Westminster Hour last night Philip Rycroft, a former permanent secretary at the Brexit department, said he thought Braverman had broken the ministerial code. He told the programme:
This, on the face of it, I think, is a breach of the ministerial code. Obviously, there’s still investigations to be done and so on but the code is very clear. Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises or appears to arise between their public duties and their private interests.
Even asking a question of a civil servant as to how she might go on one of these courses puts them in an impossible position. And for somebody, you know, who wakes up in the morning and sees a future prime minister, this is a real lapse of judgment.
And this morning Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, the union that represents senior civil servants, said he thought Braverman has abused her position. He told Sky News:
Civil servants are publicly funded. They’re paid for by you and me. They’re not there to support the personal interests of a minister. They don’t do their shopping, they don’t look after their children and they don’t sort out their speeding fine.
In truth, as breaches of the ministerial code go, this seems to be at the mild end of what might count, and if this story were about a more anonymous member of the cabinet (Mel Stride, Gillian Keegan?), it would be attracting far less attention.
But Braverman is not an anonymous minister, which is why this issue is a problem for Sunak. She has already had to resign once for breaching the ministerial code, for sending an official document from her personal email to a fellow MP. She has set herself up as the de facto leader of a Tory faction pushing for a much harder stance on legal and illegal immigration, to the extent that she sometimes gives the impression that she wants to be sacked. But this has also given her a following, and her allies are briefing the media that she is the victim of a smear campaign.
TELEGRAPH; Braverman ‘smear’ fears over curbs on migrants #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/7rNTUoO9Ow
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 21, 2023
This morning Keir Starmer said that if Braverman has broken the ministerial code, she should resign. Peter Walker has the story here.
“The ministerial code is pretty clear that if you break it, you’re supposed to go,” Starmer said.
In fact, Starmer is wrong about that. The code used to operate on that basis, but guidance from No 10 issued last year says that if a minister has broken the code, in some circumstances a public apology would be the appropriate sanction. It says:
As both Lord Geidt and the Committee on Standards in Public Life have recommended last year, it is disproportionate to expect that any breach, however minor, should lead automatically to resignation or dismissal. The sanction which the prime minister may decide to issue in a given case is for the prime minister to determine, but could include requiring some form of public apology, remedial action or removal of ministerial salary for a period. The ministerial code has been updated to reflect this.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.25am: Keir Starmer gives a speech on Labour’s health mission.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Suella Braverman, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Rishi Sunak is expected to make a Commons statement on the G7 summit.
After 4.30pm: MPs debate Labour amendments to the strikes (minimum service levels) bill.
5pm: James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, gives a speech in Chile.
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