Summary of the day …
William Wragg will keep the Conservative party whip while the party investigates his role in a sexting scandal. On Thursday, Wragg admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on the Grindr dating app because he feared the person had compromising material on him. Leicestershire police have launched an investigation into reports that explicit images and flirtatious messages were sent to MPs as part of an alleged “spear-phishing” attack. The Metropolitan police are also investigating.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, appeared to give his support to Wragg on Friday morning, describing his apology as “courageous and fulsome”. The Conservative party declined to comment because of the active police investigation. Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said whether Wragg should resign was a matter for the Tories.
Reeves said the prime minister and his chancellor are “out of touch they are with the reality faced by ordinary British people” as they talk about the economy having turned a corner while “people are still being squeezed by the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis”. Campaigning in Blackpool, Reeves said Conservative tax changes and rising council tax would leave families £870 a year worse off.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has become the latest senior party figure to urge an immediate ban on UK arms sales to Israel, as ministers face pressure to disclose the government’s official legal advice on the trade. Sarwar told BBC Scotland that Israel had “clearly” breached international law in Gaza and that UK arms sales should be halted immediately. Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the UK foreign affairs committee, said the government must suspend arms sales to Israel and claimed ministers were no longer saying that Israel was complying with international humanitarian law, merely that it had the capacity to do so.
Strike action by senior NHS doctors in England has been called off after they accepted a pay offer following a year-long dispute with the government. Dr Vishal Sharma, the chair of the BMA consultants committee, said: “The last year has seen consultants take unprecedented strike action. At the heart of this dispute was our concern for patients and the future sustainability of the NHS. Without valuing doctors, we lose them. Without doctors, we have no NHS and patients suffer”. Prime minister Rishi Sunak described it as “excellent news for patients”.
Michael Gove has admitted “moral cowardice” during the Brexit campaign by not being upfront with David Cameron about his role in the leave campaign. In an interview for the Political Currency podcast with George Osborne and Ed Balls, the levelling up secretary said he was initially reluctant to take a prominent role in the campaign, but had been persuaded to by the Vote Leave campaign coordinator, Dominic Cummings.
A new deadline has been set for Johnny Mercer to argue why he should not have to hand over the names of those who told him about alleged special forces murders in Afghanistan. He now has until 4pm on 8 May to make any further submissions or evidence.
Scottish Green Party co-leader and Holyrood minister Patrick Harvie has given a passionate defence of the Hate crime and public order (Scotland) act which came into force on Monday, suggesting opponents of the bill had been indulging in “performative nonsense” which could, nevertheless, lead to real world consequence for marginalised groups.
The Telegraph has published a poll which suggests that less than half of those who voted Conservative in 42 so-called “Blue Wall” seats – affluent constituencies in the south of England where the Conservatives have traditionally won – intend to support them in the next election.
The parent company of privatised Thames Water which supplies London has told its creditors it has defaulted on its debt.
Employees at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have voted to take industrial action in a dispute over changes to the way they have been allowed to work flexibly from home.
Sunak has used the opening day of the county cricket season as an opportunity to announce £35m funding for grassroots cricket. He visited the Oval in London where he faced bowling from some of the England men’s cricket team.
PA Media reports that new deadline has been set for Johnny Mercer to argue why he should not have to hand over the names of those who told him about alleged special forces murders in Afghanistan.
Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, chairman of the Afghanistan Inquiry, gave Mercer until 4pm on 5 April to provide a witness statement containing the names or face a potential prison sentence.
But the deadline was extended while the chairman considers Mercer’s application to challenge the order.
The veterans’ minister has until 4pm on 8 May to make any further submissions or evidence, Sir Charles has ordered.
During Mercer’s evidence to the inquiry last month, the chairman said his decision to “refuse to answer legitimate questions … at a public inquiry” were “disappointing … surprising … and completely unacceptable”.
Voters in England will go to the polls on 2 May to elect more than 2,600 councillors and 10 metro mayors, in the last set of local elections before the general one.
Labour and the Conservatives are defending just under 1,000 seats each, the Liberal Democrats about 400 and the Greens just over 100. Police and crime commissioners in England and Wales are also up for election.
Many of the seats up for grabs were last fought four years ago, when the Conservatives were at a high point. In May 2021, Boris Johnson was enjoying a Covid “vaccine bounce” and planning to be in power for a decade.
Now Labour are nearly 20 points ahead and the Tories are facing the prospect of a landslide defeat after 14 years in government. Local election experts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher estimate the Tories could lose half of its 1,000 council seats up for election.
Eleni Courea has an explainer on what to expect: England local elections – what’s up for grabs on 2 May and how do predictions look?
Our deputy political editor Peter Walker has written this today asking the question: How accurate are MRP polls predicting huge Tory losses in next general election?
MRP, the handy acronym for a technique called multilevel regression and poststratification, was in the news this week after a pair of polls predicted the Conservatives plummeting to 98 and 155 seats respectively at the next election.
MRP polls also produce constituency-level predictions, allowing MPs and candidates to open a spreadsheet and view their percentage chances in black and white, with YouGov and Survation forecasting defeat for a string of ministers.
MRP, in simple terms, takes polling data and adds other details about the respondents, such as their age, qualification level, income, previous voting patterns and where they live.
This is then correlated with census-type data to give the numbers of various types living in each area, with the headline polling data adjusted accordingly.
Patrick English, director of political analytics for YouGov, describes it as a totally different approach to the “top down” method of traditional polling, and one which uses a lot more computational power.
“The logic is quite simple,” he said. “It firstly takes everyone’s background information. There is then a probability model which says, OK, based on all this information we have about people, how would each different area, which is made up of these different type of people, therefore vote? And that’s it.”
Read more here: How accurate are MRP polls predicting huge Tory losses in next general election?
Scottish Green Party co-leader and Holyrood minister Patrick Harvie has given a passionate defence of the Hate crime and public order (Scotland) act which came into force on Monday, suggesting opponents of the bill had been indulging in “performative nonsense” which could, nevertheless, lead to real world consequence for marginalised groups.
PA Media quotes Harvie saying that opponents of the change in the law “deliberately try to pretend every expression of prejudice or just nastiness or anything offensive or hurtful is going to be criminalised”.
Criticising right-wing campaigners who he said had been “deliberately promoting misinformation about this act all the way through”, he said:
As soon as the act comes into force they start performatively coming out with these prejudiced, hurtful statements and saying ‘arrest me, arrest me’ in this petulant manner.
Then when they don’t get arrested they try to claim some hollow victory.
It really is performative nonsense. If it was just a game they were playing it would be shallow and silly and trivial, but it has real world consequences.
[It] emboldens those in our society who genuinely do pose a real threat of abuse and violence against marginalised groups in our society.
Saying he had “experienced homophobia and other prejudice against the LGBT+ community” for his entire life, Harvie said the act merely consolidated “existing laws”, and took a concept like “stirring up hatred”, which he said had been in the law books for 40 years in relation to racial hatred, and applied the same principle to “other vulnerable and marginalised groups.”
“This is very clearly legislation that is well familiar in our system and the threshold for prosecution is high, and rightly so,” he added.
If you wanted some background on what the new law is – and crucially isn’t – then we have an explainer here, and our Scotland correspondent Libby Brook appeared on the Today in Focus podcast yesterday to discuss it.
We reported earlier that Rishi Sunak had taken the opportunity on the first day of the county cricket championship in England and Wales to announce a £35m investment in grassroots cricket.
He has just posted a video which includes the prime minister facing some bowling from members of the England’s men team.
Am I ready for the call up @englandcricket? pic.twitter.com/nKIk5mNj7j
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 5, 2024
Sunak has been at the Oval cricket ground in south London, meeting young people taking part in the ACE cricket training programme.
The ACE Programme aims to increase the number of black British players in both professional and grassroots cricket. As part of his announcement of the new funding, Sunak said:
I first experienced the magic of cricket watching Hampshire play at my local ground in Southampton as a child. For young people watching their first match today, the draw of getting outside and enjoying the game is just as strong.
There remains huge potential to grow the sport even further and open it up to everyone, from all backgrounds and in all parts of the country, building on the great work of organisations such as ACE and Chance to Shine.
That is why I am so proud we are making a major £35m investment in grassroots cricket today, to widen participation in schools, encourage health lifestyles and provide world class, all-year-round facilities for local communities.
The Telegraph is touting a survey this afternoon which suggests that Conservative support has fallen further in 42 seats so-called “Blue Wall” seats, which the paper describes as “affluent constituencies in the south of England where the Conservatives have traditionally won”.
The figures suggest that of those who voted Conservative in 2019, less than half of them intend to vote Conservative again at the next election.
The Redfield and Wilton Strategies survey, conducted on 31 March, found 26 per cent of people intended to vote Conservatives, down by two points from when the survey was last conducted at the beginning of March.
The Telegraph states that 20% of 2019 Tory voters said they would now vote for Reform UK and 17% would switch to Labour.
Our Guardian poll tracker, which averages out national polls across a rolling ten-day period, can be found here.
Here is a little bit more from Rachel Reeves in Blackpool earlier today, outlining how Labour have calculated the figure they give of families being £870 worse off because of Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.
Referring to the changes in national insurance that come into effect across the UK tomorrow, she said:
[The Conservatives will] say tomorrow that taxes are going down. All of the numbers show that taxes are on the rise. Taxes today are at a 70 year high and are due to increase in every single year of the forecast period.
In fact, by the end of the forecast period, the average family will be paying £870 more in tax because of the frozen national insurance and income tax thresholds, and because of increases in council tax too. That is the Conservatives double whammy on tax.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, earlier claimed that his national insurance cut meant “£900 in the pocket of someone on the average salary”, and Sunak said “the progress we have made on the economy means we can reward work with a tax cut worth £900 for the average earner”. The UK fell into recession in the last two quarters on 2023.
While they were in Blackpool, Rachel Reeves, Jonathan Ashworth and byelection candidate Chris Webb also posed for the obligatory photo in front of the tower there, and Reeves took a turn holding Webb’s seven-week-old son Cillian.
Reeves: Sunak and Hunt 'out of touch with the reality faced by ordinary British people' on economy
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the prime minister and his chancellor are “out of touch they are with the reality faced by ordinary British people” as they talk about the economy having turned a corner while “people are still being squeezed by the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis.”
Campaigning in Blackpool, Reeves said:
If you listen to the prime minister and the chancellor, and we heard it in the budget last month, the taxes are coming down, the economy has turned a corner, their plan is working.
Well, all that goes to show is how out of touch they are with the reality faced by ordinary British people.
Things might look all right from 10,000 feet up in Rishi Sunak’s helicopter, but down here on planet Earth, and here in Blackpool South, people are still being squeezed by the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis.
Reeves was appearing with shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth and the party’s parliamentary candidate for the Blackpool South byelection, Chris Webb.
While they were there, the Labour trio unveiled a new poster in which the party attacks what it calls the “Tory tax double whammy”, citing rising personal taxes and rising council taxes as the cost of a continued Conservative government under Sunak. It is a callback to a 1992 election poster used by the Conservatives against Neil Kinnock, warning that a Labour government would lead to a double whammy of higher taxes and higher prices.
Labour is optimistic about its prospects of securing a victory in Blackpool South, which would be its eighth byelection gain since 2019. The Conservatives are defending a majority of 3,690 in a seat which they gained from Labour at the last election.
The byelection is taking place because former Conservative backbencher Scott Benton quit parliament after he was suspended for 35 days over his role in a lobbying scandal. The MP had offered to lobby ministers on behalf of the gambling industry and leak a confidential policy document for up to £4,000 a month.
Labour's Rachel Reeves: Wragg resignation calls are 'a question for the Conservatives'
Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has been campaigning in Blackpool today, ahead of the Blackpool South byelection on 2 May, and she has said that whether William Wragg should resign after becoming embroiled in a sexting scandal was “a question for the Conservatives”.
PA Media quotes her saying
I’m very concerned about what seems to have happened in this incident, especially about MPs’ telephone numbers being passed on to unknown sources.
That is really concerning and it is right that there is a proper investigation into this.
In positions of responsibility we always have to think about our actions but there are also malevolent players out there who are trying to influence politics.
Asked if Wragg should resign, she said: “That’s a question for the Conservatives. The police investigation is now under way and it is right that we allow that investigation to take its course.”
A Conservative source told the Guardian that Wragg, the Tory MP for Hazel Grove, would not be suspended from the party whip for now amid concerns that he is also a victim.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, appeared to give his support to Wragg on Friday morning, describing his apology as “courageous and fulsome”, and treasury minister Gareth Davies said the news was “extremely troubling” while appearing to indicate that Wragg would continue to sit as a Conservative MP.
Wragg told the Times that he gave the information after he had sent intimate pictures of himself, saying he was “scared” and “mortified”. Leicestershire police have launched an investigation in response to reports that explicit images and flirtatious messages were sent to MPs as part of an alleged “spear-phishing” attack.
London’s Metropolitan police have also confirmed that they have spoken to other police forces and parliamentary security authorities about the reports.
While we are on the subject of tax, here are a few of the words chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave to broadcasters earlier today, talking up the national insurance cut that comes into effect from tomorrow. He said:
Today’s national insurance cut is very significant, not just because it’s £900 in the pocket of someone on the average salary in a period where people have been really feeling cost of living pressures, but also because if we’re going to grow the economy, we have to make work pay for the six million adults of working age who are not in work.
Labour has been attacking the Scottish government over tax rises today, with Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, criticising what he said was “SNP and Tory mismanagement” of the economy, and saying first minister Humza Yousaf is “detached from reality if he thinks that 1.5 million Scots should pay more tax and oil and gas giants should pay less.” [See 10.24am]
However, PA Media have spoken to Sean Cockburn, who is chairperson of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s Scottish technical committee. He argues that UK-level changes to national insurance partially offset rises in income tax in Scotland.
It quotes him saying:
Although the Scottish government’s tax choices will result in higher earning Scots paying more income tax from this month, these have been somewhat offset by the UK-wide national insurance changes.
It means that while Scots with earnings above £75,000 will pay more income tax, those with earnings under £112,900 will actually be paying less in tax and national insurance overall compared with the year just past. It illustrates what can happen when Scottish and UK tax choices interact with one another.
Deputy first minister Shona Robison has defended the SNP’s policy, saying Scotland has the “most progressive income tax system in the UK”.
She said “The new advanced band builds on that progressive approach, protecting those who earn less and asking those who earn more to contribute more. Only 5% of Scottish taxpayers will pay a higher tax rate compared to last year, and the majority of taxpayers are still paying less than they would elsewhere in the UK.”
The parent company of privatised Thames Water which supplies London has told its creditors it has defaulted on its debt.
My colleague Alex Lawson writes:
Kemble Water has missed an interest payment that was due on Tuesday and said it was requesting its lenders and bondholders to take no creditor action so as to “provide a stable platform while all options are explored” with its stakeholders. It raises the prospect that the company could collapse or face a significant restructure.
Thames Water said last week its shareholders had refused to pay £500m promised to stabilise its finances, heightening concerns over its survival.
Last week Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said the firm should be allowed to go bankrupt, arguing “It would continue to be run by an administrator, the shareholders would lose their equity but they took too much cash out so deserve no sympathy and the bond holders would face a partial loss. This is capitalism, it won’t affect the water supply.”
Thames Water was established in 1989 during the privatisation of the water industry in England and Wales under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.
Julia Kollewe is following the latest on our business live blog here:
Employees at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have voted to take industrial action in a dispute over changes to the way they have been allowed to work flexibly from home.
The union said home and hybrid working had been successful since the start of the pandemic, adding that managers had reassured staff that these arrangements would remain in place. They are now being told to work from the office two days a week.
PA media reports Fran Heathcote, general secretary of Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), said:
ONS bosses have seriously undermined the trust and goodwill of their staff by seeking to drive this policy through in such a heavy-handed way, heedless of the consequences. They now need to immediately pause implementation of the policy and talk to us about reaching a sensible resolution of this issue, which does not carelessly disadvantage staff.
Members of the PCS backed industrial action by around three to one.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar joins calls for ban on UK arms sales to Israel
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has become the latest senior party figure to urge an immediate ban on UK arms sales to Israel, as ministers face pressure to disclose the government’s official legal advice on the trade.
Sarwar told BBC Scotland that Israel had “clearly” breached international law in Gaza and that UK arms sales should be halted immediately. On Thursday Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, made the same call.
Labour’s official policy is to await information on the legal advice provided to ministers and to only push for an end to arms sales if this says continued weapons sales could risk the UK breaching international law.
In March, David Cameron, the foreign secretary, said information about the advice would be published within days, but ministers have since backtracked and are refusing to say if and when this might happen.
Read more of Peter Walker’s report here: Labour’s Anas Sarwar joins calls for ban on UK arms sales to Israel
Political correspondent Eleni Courea has this report on the latest developments with William Wragg:
A senior Conservative MP will keep the whip while the party investigates his role in a sexting scandal.
A Conservative source said William Wragg, the Tory MP for Hazel Grove, would not be suspended from the party whip for now amid concerns that he is also a victim.
On Thursday, Wragg admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on the Grindr dating app because he feared the person had compromising material on him.
Some Tory MPs have called for Wragg to resign as an MP after his confession of handing over colleagues’ phone numbers.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, appeared to give his support to Wragg on Friday morning, describing his apology as “courageous and fulsome”.
The Conservative party has declined to comment because of the active police investigation, although the government chief whip was speaking to those affected.
Earlier this week, Politico reported that 12 men working in Westminster, including a minister, had been contacted by a WhatsApp user purporting to be someone who had met them at a recent political or social event, in efforts to acquire personal or sensitive information.
The Guardian spoke to a 13th person who was targeted in the exact same way by a WhatsApp user calling themselves “Abigail” or “Abi”.
“I don’t have any sympathy for him,” the person said of Wragg on Friday. “He was faced with a choice – go to the authorities, which is much easier for him than most people – or hand over [phone numbers] and subject a whole load of people to that threat, not knowing where that would lead. “We’re now supposed to feel sorry for him?”
Read Eleni Courea’s full report here: Senior Tory MP to keep whip during sexting scandal investigation
PA Media reports that Scotland Yard has confirmed it is in contact with Leicestershire police and parliamentary security “following reporting of unsolicited messages to members of parliament”, amid concerns MPs and their staff could be victims of blackmail, after Conservative MP William Wragg apologised for giving personal details about MPs to someone he met through a dating app.
“We will assess any reports made to us accordingly,” the Met added.
Wragg said he was blackmailed into sharing his colleagues’ phone numbers after sharing intimate images of himself.
The sexting scam has been described as “spear-phishing”, a type of cyber-attack that targets specific groups, and involves scammers pretending to be trusted senders in order to steal personal or sensitive information.
Hunt: apology from Wragg over 'spear-phishing' cyber-attack was 'courageous and fulsome'
PA Media reports that the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, appears to have given his support to William Wragg, who has reportedly admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app.
Wragg told the Times that he gave the information after he had sent intimate pictures of himself, saying he was “scared” and “mortified”. Leicestershire police have launched an investigation in response to reports that explicit images and flirtatious messages were sent to MPs as part of an alleged “spear-phishing” attack.
Speaking to broadcasters, Hunt said Wragg’s apology was “courageous and fulsome”. He told the media:
The events of the last few days have been a great cause for concern. The MP involved has given a courageous and fulsome apology.
But the lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity, and indeed it is the lesson for members of the public as well, because this is something that we are all having to face in our daily lives.
Asked earlier today about the situation during the morning media round, Treasury minister Gareth Davies said: “It is extremely troubling,” while appearing to indicate that Wragg would continue to sit as a Conservative MP.
He told Times Radio Wragg “is continuing as a Conservative MP, and it’s right that there’s investigation into what happened. He’s rightly apologised, and, as I say, that’s a matter for Will Wragg and the party generally.”
Davies also said that “we are alive to any threat that can occur against MPs” and that “anybody watching that feels they’re in a similar position, if they ever feel like they’re being compromised or blackmailed, they should report that to the police.”
Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, Ellie Reeves, said “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police.
Updated
Health and social care secretary Victoria Atkins has also commented on the end of the NHS consultants pay dispute in England. She said:
I hugely value the work of NHS consultants and I am pleased that, after weeks of negotiations, they have accepted this fair and reasonable offer, putting an end to the threat of further strike action.
Consultants will now be able to focus on providing the highest quality care for patients and we can consolidate our progress on waiting lists – which have fallen for the past four months.
This deal directly addresses gender pay issues in the NHS and enhances consultants’ parental leave options – representing a fair deal for consultants, patients, and taxpayers.
Government figures keep quoting that waiting lists have fallen for four months, which they will argue is clearly heading in the right direction, but nevertheless the figure in January stood at 7.6 million, according to official NHS statistics.
That number could actually be higher, as earlier this week my colleague Tobi Thomas, our health and inequalities correspondent, reported that an ONS survey of about 90,000 adults found that 21% of patients were waiting for a hospital appointment or to start receiving treatment on the NHS. When extrapolated, this equates to 9.7 million people.
Health is a devolved matter so the statistics and the dispute only apply to England.
Dr Vishal Sharma, who chairs the BMA consultants committee, has had this to say about the end of the pay dispute with the NHS in England. He said:
After years of repeated real-terms pay cuts, caused by government interference and a failure of the pay review process, consultants have spoken and now clearly feel that this offer is enough of a first step to address our concerns to end the current dispute.
We’ve reached this point not just through our tough negotiations with the government, but thanks to the resolve of consultants, who took the difficult decision to strike, and did so safely and effectively, on multiple occasions, sending a clear message that they would not back down.
But the fight is not yet over. This is only the end of the beginning, and we have some way to go before the pay consultants have lost over the last 15 years has been restored.
He said that crucially the BMA would be looking to the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration (DDRB) to “utilises its independence to restore doctors’ pay and prevent any further disputes from arising.”
You can read the full story here: NHS consultants accept pay offer, ending year-long dispute with government
Sunak: end of NHS consultant pay dispute is 'excellent news for patients'
The prime minister has reacted to news that NHS consultants in England have voted to accept a new pay deal from the government, after a dispute which lasted a year and during which consultants took strike action.
Rishi Sunak posted to social media to say:
I’m pleased NHS consultants have accepted this deal. This is excellent news for patients. We can now continue making progress towards our goal of cutting waiting lists, which have fallen for the fourth month in a row.
Sunak made cutting waiting list times in England one of his five key pledges at the beginning of 2023, and it was one that he failed to meet. The government have repeatedly tried to blame strike days for the waiting list in England rising.
Health is a devolved issue and this pay dispute has only related to England.
Steve Brine, Conservative MP for Winchester & Chandler’s Ford, who sits on the health and social care committee in the Commons, has described the announcement that the pay dispute between the government and NHS consultants is over as “really positive news this morning.”
He posted to social media saying “so much to do and huge sigh of relief the NHS can put this behind it.”
We will have a full story on this shortly.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has said its members in England have voted in favour by 83% to accept a pay offer, ending a year-long dispute with the government.
More details soon …
Here is a picture of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth campaigning today in Blackpool with Labour’s new “Tory tax double whammy” advert.
Labour have also put out another Sunak-themed tax attack ad.
It’s time for change.
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 5, 2024
Vote Labour on Thursday 2 May. pic.twitter.com/qkjxxa3pEv
If you think it all looks familiar, then you are probably as old as I am, as it is a riff on a 1992 Conservative campaign poster when John Major’s election campaign against Neil Kinnock threatened that a Labour win would mean “1. more taxes 2. higher prices.”
Gove says he showed 'moral cowardice' in not telling Cameron how prominent he would be in Brexit campaign
Overnight Amy Gibbons at the Telegraph picked through the bones of Michael Gove’s recent appearance on the Ed Balls and George Osborne podcast, pulling out the line that Gove said he showed “moral cowardice” by leading David Cameron to believe he would take a back seat role during the Brexit referendum.
Asked about Cameron feeling betrayed, it quotes Gove saying:
I do think that I could have been clearer earlier. I think that was an example of, on the one hand, cowardice on my part, moral cowardice, on the other hand, a recognition that perhaps there’s this feeling in politics, perhaps something will turn up, perhaps this moment won’t come when we have to make that decision. But I think David, entirely fairly, should have expected me to have been more upfront earlier.
Gove also said he had not expected to take such a prominent role in the Leave campaign himself.
I didn’t want to take part in the debates, the television shows that I ultimately took part in, or play as prominent a role. One of the arguments was “if you don’t do this, they’ll have Farage on”.
Regular readers of the live blog on the days I am on it will be aware I usually try to find some way to shoehorn in a bit of sport, and today Rishi Sunak has handed me the opportunity. It is the opening day of the county cricket season – which you can follow live with Tanya Aldred here – and the prime minister has been boasting about investment in grassroots cricket with a little animation of a Downing Street branded bat smashing one for six.
I love cricket, that’s no secret.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 5, 2024
So I’m pleased that today we can support even more young people to get into the game.
We’re investing £35 million in grassroots cricket to help over 900,000 young people into playing cricket. pic.twitter.com/mN1rauyOYI
Labour in Scotland have also been on the attack over taxes, with an ad taking a swipe at the SNP and Conservatives.
Starting tomorrow, 1.5 million Scots will pay more to get less.
— Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) April 5, 2024
Read here👇https://t.co/KaAxm6g79z pic.twitter.com/6B5Re9ZehP
In comments release to the media, Labour’s leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar criticised what he said was “SNP and Tory mismanagement”, saying:
[First minister] Humza Yousaf is detached from reality if he thinks that 1.5 million Scots should pay more tax and oil and gas giants should pay less.
Scotland is being failed by an SNP Government that is attempting to use income tax as a sticking plaster to cover for their woeful failure to grow our economy or manage public finances.
Just like the Tories, the SNP is not on the side of working people. Under both the SNP and the Tories, Scots are paying more and getting less.
According to the Scottish Fiscal Commission, those earning above £28,850 begin paying more tax than people on the same salary in England. Those earning £30,000 a year pay £11 a year more, rising to £5,000 a year more for those on more than £150,000 a year.
Reeves: working people 'can see through the Tories’ tax con'
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (not to be confused with Ellie Reeves who was doing the media round today) is expected to be campaigning for May’s local elections – and, let’s face it, the general election – in Blackpool today. It is also where there will be a 2 May byelection in Blackpool South after the resignation of former Conservative MP Scott Benton.
Reeves will be unveiling an advert criticising what Labour is calling a Conservative “tax double whammy” that it claims will leave families £870 worse off.
Ahead of the visit she said:
Every time Rishi Sunak goes on the television claiming he is cutting taxes, he is insulting the intelligence of hard-working families.
Under the Tory tax double whammy, for every extra £10 people are set to pay in higher tax they are only going to get £5 back, and the average household will still be £870 worse off.
Working people can see through the Tories’ tax con. It’s giving with one hand and taking with another.
After 14 years of working people footing the bill for Tory chaos, it’s time for change.
Rishi Sunak should end the chaos, call an election and give the public the chance to vote for a changed Labour party that will change Britain for the better.
Her statements come ahead of the weekend that national insurance changes come into effect. The main rate of employee national insurance will be cut from 10% to 8% from 6 April – the first day of the 2024-25 tax year. However, at the same time the freeze in income tax bands pulls people into higher tax brackets over time as their pay increases.
Hailing the change, prime minister Rishi Sunak has again talked up plans to eventually abolish national insurance, issuing a statement saying:
Hard work is one of my core values, and the progress we have made on the economy means we can reward work with a tax cut worth £900 for the average earner.
This marks the next step in our plan to end the unfairness of double taxation of work by abolishing national insurance in the long term.
Labour has criticised the plan to abolish national insurance, casting it as an unfunded tax cut.
Incidentally, the Conservatives are defending a majority of 3,690 in Blackpool South.
With a general election a maximum of ten months away and Labour with a lead on average of about 20 points in the polls, the row over whether the government should publish legal advice it receives has an added dimension, with the opposition being pressed on if they would release that kind of information if in power.
Asked on Sky News “if Labour forms the next government what you’re saying is you’d be comfortable to routinely publish legal advice in matters like this”, Ellie Reeves, the party’s deputy national campaign coordinator said “I think you have to deal with these things on a case by case basis.”
Labour calls for government statement on Israel legal advice
Labour has called for the UK government to make a statement in the house about the legal advice it has received concerning Israel, with a spokesperson saying they have “serious concerns about arm sales to Israel” at the current time.
Speaking on Sky News, Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, said “I think the government needs to make a statement to the house on this issue and be held to account by MPs.”
She told viewers:
I’ve got really serious concerns about arm sales to Israel. That’s why we have repeatedly called for the government to publish the legal advice that it’s received on this.
If the legal advice says that there is a clear risk that UK arms are being used to commit or facilitate breaches of international humanitarian law than arms sales should stop immediately.
But the government have had this advice for close to a month now and haven’t published it. If the advice does say that there are real questions about why they haven’t already acted.
Ellie Reeves went on to say that Labour were calling for an immediate ceasefire and that hostages need to be released.
Kearns: UK government has 'no choice but to suspend arms sales' to Israel
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the chair of the UK foreign affairs committee Alicia Kearns said the government must suspend arms sales to Israel and claimed ministers were no longer saying that Israel was complying with international humanitarian law, merely that it had the capacity to do so.
“I believe we have no choice but to suspend arms sales and it is important that the public understands this is not a political decision as some people want to present it as,” she said.
“Legal advice is advisory so the government can choose to reject it but UK arms export licences require a recipient to comply with international humanitarian law. That is why emergency handbrakes exist in terms of change of circumstances.”
She added: “There is nothing anti-Israeli, much less antisemitic, in taking a tougher line with the Netanyahu government. The reality is that how Israel prosecutes this war, that is the problem we have. We support their right to self-defence but they are making themselves and us less safe in the way they are doing it.”
You can read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here.
UK house prices fall for first time in six months amid more costly mortgages
UK house prices fell in March for the first time in six months as more costly mortgage deals and continued uncertainty about when the Bank of England would start cutting interest rates hit the property market.
A typical home now costs £288,430, around £2,900 less than last month, said Halifax, which is part of Lloyds Banking Group. The monthly drop, the first since September, came after a 0.3% gain in February.
The survey is split into analysis across English regions and the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Halifax survey shows that Northern Ireland remained the region or nation with the highest house price growth in the UK – with prices up by 4.3% on an annual basis. Properties in Northern Ireland now cost an average of £194,743, which is £7,972 more than a year ago.
In Wales, annual price growth slowed to 1.9% in March, from 3.9% in February, with the average home now costing £219,213. Scotland house prices rose 2.1% year-on-year to stand at £204,835.
A rival survey from Nationwide building society showed that the average UK house price fell by 0.2% month on month in March.
Mortgage rates for borrowers were at 5.55% for an average two-year fixed-rate deal in January as lenders vied for new business.
Aslef's Mick Whelan: still no pay talks scheduled over train dispute
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef trade union has been doing the media round as train drivers in England begin another series of strikes.
He rejected the idea that strikes were putting the travelling public off rail transport, saying footfall and revenue were coming back after the pandemic.
Speaking from a picket line outside Euston station in London, he confirmed to Sky News that there were no further talks scheduled with either train companies or ministers, and said “taxpayer should put their anger where it belongs – with the people that won’t come to the table.”
He told viewers that train drivers haven’t had a pay increase for half-a-decade, and that:
In a cost of living crisis, we believe, like all other sectors, that people have a right to increase in pay. The people that we actually work for are declaring hundreds of millions of pounds in profits, paying dividends to their shareholders, but not paying their workers. And this is compounded by the fact that this is a Westminster problem, with a dogmatic government that doesn’t want a resolution and doesn’t care about the travelling public.
He said support from the public for the strike had been great, adding ““We haven’t had one disgruntled person come up to this line yet.”
Labour: 'spear-phishing' attack is 'very concerning in terms of MP safety'
Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, was also on the media round today, and was asked about the reported situation with William Wragg, and essentially limited her comments to saying that “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police. She said it was good that it was being investigated thoroughly.
Updated
Treasury minister Gareth Davies: reports of 'spear-phishing' attacks on MPs 'extremely troubling'
William Wragg has told the Times that he gave out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app in what appears to have been a “spear-phishing” cyber-attack.
Asked about the situation during the morning media round, Treasury minister Gareth Davies said: “It is extremely troubling.”
PA Media reports he told GB News that Wragg had apologised, and that “we are alive to any threat that can occur against MPs and we have resources in place to tackle that”, adding: “I would just say to anybody watching that feels they’re in a similar position, if they ever feel like they’re being compromised or blackmailed, they should report that to the police.”
Politico reported that the 12 targets it had confirmed so far included three MPs, two political journalists, a broadcaster, four party staff, a former Tory MP and an all-party parliamentary group manager. The targets include members of the Conservative and Labour parties.
On Times Radio Davies said Wragg “is continuing as a Conservative MP, and it’s right that there’s investigation into what happened. He’s rightly apologised, and, as I say, that’s a matter for Will Wragg and the party generally.”
Updated
Welcome and opening summary …
Hello, and welcome to our live UK politics coverage for Friday. It is Easter recess in Westminster and in all the devolved governments, so the diary is quite light, although local election campaigning continues in England ahead of the 2 May vote.
Here are your headlines today …
Senior Tory MP William Wragg has said he is “mortified” after reportedly passing MPs’ data to a dating app contact
Train drivers in England have begun a three-day series of strikes
The number of households seeking help over energy debt legal action has doubled
UK house prices have fallen for the first time in six months
New powers to stop people protesting come into effect today. Home secretary James Cleverly said they ensure people “cannot continue to cause turmoil unpunished”
The UK’s largest education union has called for an independent inquiry into the rise of sexism and misogyny among boys and young men
It is Martin Belam here with you today. You can email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com – especially if you have spotted my inevitable errors and typos, or you think I’ve missed something important.
