Afternoon summary
- The Commons privileges committee has announced that No 10 staff will be able to give evidence anonymously to its inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. (See 2.54pm.) In a statement, the committee said it was particularly interesting in hearing from people with knowledge of “Mr Johnson’s knowledge of the activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations, from the occurrence of those events until now” and “any briefing given to, or inquiries made by, Mr Johnson relating to those events”.
Johnson claims he came up with idea for European political community-type organisation before Macron
Boris Johnson has claimed that the concept of a new European political community - floated recently by the French president, Emmanuel Macron - is an idea first thought up by him, the BBC’s Jessica Parker reports.
NEW: Boris Johnson says the idea of a European political community was in fact his, not Emmanuel Macron’s
— Jessica Parker (@MarkerJParker) June 29, 2022
“Emmanuel has an idea which I actually claim paternity of," he told reporters on a flight to the NATO summit
"I had this idea back when I first became Foreign Secretary.”
But PM's idea perhaps stretches a little further. He said, "My view is that we should rebuild the whole concept... so I think Turkey should be there. I think with Maghreb should be there. And I think that you should basically be recreating the Mare Nostrum of the Roman Empire."
— Jessica Parker (@MarkerJParker) June 29, 2022
"There's got to be a role for all of us in that in a wider conversation about issues that affect all of us," Boris Johnson said.
— Jessica Parker (@MarkerJParker) June 29, 2022
( Yday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss clearly rejected the idea of a new political community - pointing to NATO & the G7 as "key" alliances. )
But PM Johnson seems to feel a little more warmly about it - although he concedes there are perhaps, "several different ideas" in the mix.
— Jessica Parker (@MarkerJParker) June 29, 2022
"That doesn't mean that they're necessarily the same. Rather than creating new structures let's look at building up relationships.”
Sheffield council chief executive suspended over Partygate returns to work
Kate Josephs, whose Downing Street leaving do featured prominently in the Sue Gray report, is to stay in her job as chief executive at one of England biggest local authorities, Sheffield city council has said.
Josephs led the government’s Covid-19 taskforce from July to December 2020. When details of her leaving party emerged in the media she released a statement admitting it took place and saying she was “truly sorry”.
She has been on discretionary paid leave from her £190,000-a-year Sheffield job ever since.
The cross-party Sheffield council committee considering her actions has now concluded its work, it said.
Josephs has been given a written warning but can return to her job as chief executive.
The decision was made based on the facts at hand and with very careful consideration. The committee acknowledges that Kate has apologised and believes that she feels genuine remorse.
Terry Fox, the Labour leader of Sheffield council, said:
It’s no secret that I’ve been deeply disappointed by Kate Josephs’ actions. Over the last few months I’ve repeatedly said that I share the anger and upset felt by some Sheffielders about the choices Kate has made. Those feelings don’t just go away overnight.
But I am here to deliver for Sheffield, and that is what matters the most to me now. The chief executive’s work to rebuild trust across the city and organisation begins now. Kate and I will also need to rebuild our relationship, and I do believe we are both committed to doing that. We must, and we will, keep driving our amazing city forward. The people of Sheffield deserve that – they are my priority today and always.
The Gray report outlined how Josephs’ leaving do was attended by 20 to 30 people, with six pizzas ordered for those still in the room more than two hours later. Josephs left in the early hours after tidying up, the report said.
Josephs posted a further apology on Twitter, saying: “I have made mistakes for which I am deeply sorry. I intend to learn from these mistakes and continue to work hard to be the very best chief executive I can be for our city.”
I have made mistakes for which I am deeply sorry. I intend to learn from these mistakes and continue to work hard to be the very best chief executive I can be for our city. Here is my statement in full: pic.twitter.com/l3H7sjnue6
— Kate Josephs (@katejosephs) June 29, 2022
Only 5% of people in Northern Ireland trust UK government on issue of NI protocol, poll suggests
According to polling published by Queen’s University Belfast today, only 5% of people in Northern Ireland trust the UK government to manage the interests of Northern Ireland with respect to the protocol.
This figure is remarkably low, particularly compared with the equivalent figures for whether other organisations are trusted in regard to the protocol: DUP 25%, Sinn Féin 36%, Irish government 45% and the European Commission 47%.
This particularly finding may be related to claims that Boris Johnson’s decision to press ahead with the Northern Ireland protocol bill is driven as much, or more, by the concerns of hardline Brexiters in the Tory party as by the needs of Northern Ireland.
Government's argument about NI protocol bill being legal 'utter nonsense', law professor tells MPs
The government’s argument that the Northern Ireland bill does not break international law is “utter nonsense”, a law professor told MPs this morning.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, told the Commons on Monday that the bill was legal. She cited the government’s legal advice on the bill, which says “the doctrine of necessity provides a clear basis in international law to justify the non-performance of international obligations under certain exceptional and limited conditions”.
Giving evidence to the Northern Ireland affairs committee, Prof Alan Boyle, emeritus professor of public international law at the University of Edinburgh, said he was “aghast” at the way Truss defended the bill. He explained:
She was defending this on the basis of the international law principle of necessity. Well, I hope somebody has a word with her and tells her not to say that, because necessity as an international law is a defence to a breach of international law. So it’s only relevant if you’re already breaking international law.
So the foreign secretary is virtually saying: ‘Oh, yes, we’re breaking international law but it’s alright, because it’s necessary.’ Well, that’s utter nonsense.
You know, can you imagine counsel for the UK in the arbitration? They’re going to be faced with the other side saying: ‘Oh the foreign secretary has admitted there’s a breach of international law,’ so she really is shooting herself in the foot.
Boyle said what the government was trying to do, in terms of ignoring parts of the protocol, would be “defensible”, but only if the government did this using article 16 - a provision in the protocol allowing one side to unilaterally disapply parts of the treaty in certain situations.
The government considered triggering article 16, but decided to table the Northern Ireland protocol bill as an alternative.
Updated
The Good Law Project, a campaigning group, has launched judicial review proceedings against the Metropolitan police over their investigation into Partygate. It is arguing that the Met was wrong to assume that Boris Johnson had a reasonable excuse for attending some of the No 10 party-type gatherings during lockdown and that he should have received more fines.
There is a summary of its case here, and more details in its statement of claim.
Updated
Downing Street said Boris Johnson described the invitation for Sweden and Finland to join Nato as a “great step forward” for the alliance.
Following a meeting with the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, and the Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, at the Nato summit in Madrid, a Downing Street spokesperson said:
The prime minister reiterated his staunch support for Sweden and Finland’s Nato membership aspirations. He described their accession as a great step forward for Nato and welcomed the progress made since his visits to Sweden and Finland last month.
Updated
Policing minister blames Sadiq Khan for Met police going into special measures
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, made a statement to MPs about the decision of the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to place the Metropolitan police in special measures. Effectively he seemed to blame it all on Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London. He told MPs:
Over the last three years, this government has overseen the largest funding boost for policing in a decade and we are well on the way to recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers nationally, with 2,599 already recruited by the Metropolitan police, giving them the highest-ever number of officers.
By contrast, as many Londoners will attest, the mayor has been asleep at the wheel and is letting the city down.
Teenage homicides in London were the highest they have ever been in the last year and 23% of all knife crime takes place in London, despite it having only 15% of the UK population.
The mayor must acknowledge that he has profound questions to answer. He cannot be passive and continue as he has. He must get a grip.
In response Sarah Jones, the shadow policing minister, said that Malthouse’s statement was “incredibly weak” and that it was for the Home Office to lead on changes to the Met.
Rayner accuses Raab of opera 'snobbery' at PMQs
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has just issued a classy response to Dominic Raab having a go at her during PMQs over her recent visit to Glyndebourne. (See 1.12pm.)
My advice to the deputy prime minister is to cut out the snobbery and brush up on his opera. The Marriage of Figaro is the story of a working-class woman who gets the better of a privileged but dim-witted villain. Judging by his own performance today, Dominic Raab could learn a lesson about opening up the arts to everyone, whatever their background.
Before PMQs, Rayner posted this on Twitter.
I know Dominic Raab is a karate black belt and everything - but I’ve got my kung fu pandas on and I’m ready! #PMQs pic.twitter.com/V3agJggAeT
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) June 29, 2022
Updated
No 10 staff will be able to give evidence confidentially to inquiry into whether PM lied over Partygate, committee says
The Commons privileges committee has issued a statement after its first meeting to consider its inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. It has issued a wide-ranging call for evidence, and it is inviting whistleblowers to give evidence anonymously if they want.
This provision seems intended to encourage civil servants working in No 10, who may have heard Boris Johnson reveal in private that he knew more about Downing Street partying during lockdown then he let on to MPs, to come forward.
The committee has also elected Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, as its chair. This had been expected.
And it has said that it will start taking oral evidence in the autumn. It has not said yet whether or not these sessions will be in public or in private. (Standards committee inquires into misconduct by individual MPs hear evidence in private.)
This suggests that the final report may not come until the end of the year, or later. At one point it was thought it could report in the autumn.
Here is an extract from the news release.
Following its first meeting to consider the matter referred to it, the committee is calling for evidence submissions and accounts from those with knowledge of events related to the inquiry. Specifically, the committee is seeking witness information and evidence which would enable it to determine whether or not [Boris Johnson] misled the house. The committee noted this may include evidence of:
-Mr Johnson’s knowledge of the activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations, from the occurrence of those events until now;
-any briefing given to, or inquiries made by, Mr Johnson relating to those events.
The committee will take a range of evidence in the course of the inquiry, including written and oral evidence. The committee also confirmed it would be willing to take oral or written evidence from people who wish to remain anonymous, subject to the chair being able to identify the individual’s identity in conjunction with committee staff, as well as the relevance and probity of their evidence.
The committee also said Sir Ernest Ryder, a former Lord Justice of Appeal, will serve as an adviser to the inquiry. This is in line with a recommendation from a review of the way the standards committees carries out inquiries into MPs; an external legal adviser could make the system fairer, the review said.
Updated
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has tweeted this about being winked at by Dominic Raab at PMQs. (See 1.21pm.)
Imagine how I feel! https://t.co/aLhhOw2UlD
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) June 29, 2022
Johnson says he's likely to attend G20, even if Putin goes too
Boris Johnson has said he would most likely attend this year’s G20 summit in Bali even if Vladimir Putin decides to go, saying to boycott it would simply “leave the whole argument” to Russia and its allies.
Johnson told reporters he would be “absolutely amazed” if Putin went in person to the leaders’ summit in November on the Indonesian island, noting the Russian president’s lack of recent overseas travel – although Putin has just visited Tajikistan and is due to go to Turkmenistan.
Russia remains a member of the G20, despite being expelled from what was the G8, and the Kremlin has said Putin plans to attend the Bali summit in person.
This would, Johnson said, create “a very difficult question”. He said:
Yes, he’s been formally invited. I don’t think he will go. The question is: do we as the Western countries vacate our seats at the G20 and leave the whole argument to China, to Russia?
Much of the conversation at the G7 has been about, are we doing enough to win over the swing voters? What can we do with the middle of the congregation, the people who look at Ukraine and have mixed feelings? We need to be doing more to win them over. We need to be making our case.
I think if you vacate something like the G20 you risk just handing the propaganda opportunity to others.
David Lammy apologises for getting facts wrong about BA strike
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has apologised for condemning plans for a strike by workers at British Airways, saying he had “made a mistake” about the facts. My collaegue Heather Stewart has the story here.
Photograph: Juan Carlos Hidalgo/EPA
Labour urges ministers to meet councils to avert crisis in local government funding
Labour has urged the government to sit down with councils and trade unions to avert a looming financial crisis that could spark job losses and strike action in local services from social care to bin collection.
Local authorities in England have warned councils could go bust and services shut down as a result of inflation and spiralling energy bills which have added an unforeseen £2.4bn to town hall costs this year alone.
Councils had factored in 3% staff pay rises into budgets agreed in February but unions want a cost of living increase of 10%, increasing the prospect of strike action and hampering council plans to tackle serious staff recruitment and retention problems.
Speaking at the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate, shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy urged the government to hold urgent talks to ensure local services are not affected over the next few months.
Nandy said:
We need an active government that doesn’t sit on its hands but seeks out unions and employers to square this circle together. We have just seen our railways grind to a halt while the transport secretary refused to lift a finger.
So I say to Michael Gove – the country doesn’t need a Grant Shapps tribute act. Convene a meeting, without delay, with the explicit aim of reducing pressure on councils so they can maintain services and support the staff who are the beating heart that sustains them.
Nandy backed local authority calls for government cash support to plug the multi-billion pound shortfall councils face over the next two years, saying “any responsible government would recognise that a financial settlement agreed when inflation was forecast to be 5% cannot stand when inflation is at 9% and rising.”
Yesterday Michael Gove, the Levelling Up secretary, told the conference he recognised the pressure on councils. But he was more explicit in an interview with Local Government Chronicle they should not expect financial bailouts:
I don’t think it would be fair on local government or on anyone else to hold out the prospect of significant additional public spending.
UK to impose steel import tariffs for another two years, government says
Tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries are to be extended for another two years, the UK government has announced, admitting that the move risks a legal challenge under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has the story here.
Rayner challenges Tories at PMQs to call general election
Here is the PA Media story from PMQs.
Angela Rayner challenged Boris Johnson to call a general election as she claimed Britons will have endured 55 tax rises if the prime minister was to stay in post until 2030.
The Labour deputy leader was involved in a series of fiery exchanges with Dominic Raab as the pair stood in at prime minister’s questions due to Johnson’s attendance at a Nato summit.
Rayner repeatedly asked Raab if he and the cabinet will continue to prop up Johnson or come to a point where they decide “enough is enough”.
Speaking in the Commons, Rayner said: “This week the government lost two by-elections in one day, the first in three decades. It’s no wonder that the prime minister has fled the country and left the honourable member to carry the can. The people of Wakefield and Tiverton held their own vote of no confidence.
“The prime minister isn’t just losing the room, he is losing their country. But instead of showing some humility, he intends to limp on until the 2030s. So, does he think the cabinet will prop him up for this long?”
Deputy Prime Minister Raab replied: “I gently point out to her that we want this prime minister going a lot longer than she wants the leader of Labour party ...”
He noted “we have got a working majority of 75” and “we are focusing on delivering for the British people”.
But Rayner said the country cannot “stomach” Johnson for another eight years after the prime minister outlined his ambitions to continue in office into a third term.
She said: “The truth is what I want for my honourable friend the leader of this opposition [Keir Starmer] is not to be the leader of the ppposition, but to be the prime minister of this country. To be honest, it could not come quick enough.”
Raab defended the government’s economic record, adding: “Sir Tony Blair - he has actually got some experience of winning elections - says there is a gaping hole in Labour’s policy offer and all the while she is revelling in it. We are getting on with serving the people of this country. She is just playing political games.”
Rayner countered: “I’d revel in the opportunity for the people of this country to have more than just by-elections to see what they think of this government. Call a general election and see where the people are.”
PMQs - snap verdict
PMQs, the deputies’ edition, is always a lighter and breezier version of the normal version, and usually it is more entertaining too. There is less at stake, and so the edginess quotient is lower. The tone is generally nicer; Dominic Raab and Angela Rayner may even like each other, and their exchanges are not freighted with the mutual contempt on display when Boris Johnson comes up against Keir Starmer.
Above all, they both know they’re understudies, and so they can afford to be less serious. Raab more or less conceded this today - or at least his eyelid did - when he winked at Rayner as he tried to have a go at her over attending Glyndebourne last Thursday. This was a scoop in the Daily Telegraph, which seemed to to find it noteworthy that someone who was a single mum at 16 might be sipping champagne at an opera event, and implied that she should have been on a picket line - even though, if she had been, the Telegraph would have been the first to crucify her for that too.
It's all a joke to them all. Notice Raab's wink. pic.twitter.com/cyf2eZArsQ
— Fergus Quinn (@gibbonism) June 29, 2022
Whether the wink was friendly or sexist is a debate going on right now on Twitter, but what it did illustrate was the fundamental flippancy in what Raab was saying at this point. He had some successful moments in his exchanges with Rayner - he was not wrong about her ambition, and the jibe about Starmer describing Labour’s policy agenda as a clean slate was effective (if Boris Johnson had been doing PMQs, we would have heard much more about it) - but mostly his anti-Labour material was routine and forgettable.
Rayner was better, although she has had more impressive PMQs in the past and her questions seemed to veer all over the place, in scattergun fashion. But there were two arguments she was making that stood out as full of potential.
First, she was explicit in calling for cabinet ministers like Raab to “grow a backbone” and depose Johnson. (See 12.14pm.) Many Conservative backbenchers have been making this argument, as well as the entire anti-Johnson commentariat, but it is not a line we have heard much from Starmer. He should grab it, because it speaks to leadership.
Second, Rayner repeatedly used the phrase “enough is enough”. The best instance was probably in this passage.
Britain can’t stomach this prime minister for another eight years. His own backbenchers can’t stomach him for another eight minutes. And if they continue to prop him up, I doubt the voters will stomach him for even eight seconds in the ballot.
Now, let’s imagine the prime minister is still clinging on into the 2030s, under this tax high, low growth Tory government at this rate by 2030, the British public will have endured 55 tax rises. So, how many more tax rises will this government inflict on working families before he says enough is enough?
There were other “enough is enough” quotes too. As a soundbite, it might be just a bit too vanilla to succeed, but at a general election there is no more powerful argument than “it is time for a change” and Rayner was at least trying to find a form of words to encapsulate this.
Updated
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Lab) says the Home Office regularly splits up families when it deports people. Given that the Home Office regularly gets things wrong, how many people have been taken off a forthcoming flight to Nigeria, and when will these flights be stopped.
Raab says people must be treated decently. But illegal routes into the UK should not be tolerated, he says. And the government should have the power to deport foreign criminals.
And that’s it. PMQs is over.
Angus Brendan MacNeil (SNP) says he cannot overstate the fury of the international trade committee over the failure of Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the secretary of state, to give evidence to it this morning. (See 11.47am.) He asks if approval of the Australian trade deal can be delayed to allow proper time for parliamentary scrutiny.
Raab says Trevelyan will appear before the committee as soon as possible.
Gill Furniss (Lab) says women abused by John Warboys could take action against the police for their failure to investigate under the Human Rights Act, but would not be able to do that under Raab’s bill of rights. She asks him to change this.
Raab does not accept her argument.
Johnny Mercer (Con) asks if the government will accelerate plans to modernise the NHS.
Raab says the government has the largest hospital building plan in history. Plymouth wll benefit, he says.
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, asks if Raab will enshrine the right to self-determination in his bill of rights.
Raab says the people of Wales will support the measures already in the bill, such as those strengthening free speech and making it easier for foreign criminals to be deported.
Daniel Kawczynski (Con) says many MPs see “disturbing deficiencies” in NHS management. This is particularly issue in Shrewsbury, he says. When will the extra money secured for the NHS in the county become available.
Raab says the local trust is due to present a business case for a new building next year.
Raab suggests government does not see need to include right to abortion in bill of rights
Rosie Duffield (Lab) says so far 53 women have been killed in the UK this year. The rights of women are under threat. Will Raab back the amendment to the bill for rights enshrining the right to choose.
Raab says he has huge respect for Duffield for how she has stood up for women’s rights.
He says the position in UK law is fixed. He does not think there is a need for change.
(So that sounded like a no to the amendment.)
UPDATE: Raab said:
The position, as she knows, is settled in UK law in relation to abortion.
It’s decided by honourable members across this house. It’s an issue of conscience. I don’t think there is a strong case for change.
What I wouldn’t want to do is find ourselves, with the greatest of respect, in the US position where this is being litigated through the courts rather than settled as it is now settled by honourable members in this house.
Updated
Patricia Gibson (SNP) lists Scotland’s resources. Does the government oppose Scottish indepenendence because it fears losing these assets?
Raab says Gibson is right to say Scotland has considerable strengths. That is why it wants the UK to stick together.
John Baron (Con) asks when the government will get bolder in cutting taxes. All the evidence shows that tax cuts raise living standards, he claims. He suggests HS2 should be abolished.
Raab says the government has policies to promote economic growth.
Neale Hanvey (Alba) says any union that involves pooling sovereignty can only be sustained with the consent of the PM. He seems to be quoting the PM, and asks Raab if he agrees.
Raab says the government thinks it is not time for a referendum.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says Nicola Sturgeon has set the date and started the campaign for the independence referendum. It will take place on 19 October 2023, he says. The SNP will make the positive case for independence. Will the opposition to it make the case for continuing Westminster rule.
Raab says this is not the time for another independence referendum.
Blackford says there is no case for the union. The Tories do not have the right to block Scottish democracy. He quotes Canon Kenyon Wright’s response to what should happen if London says: “We say no, and we are the state”. His answer: “We say yes, and we are the people.” (Nicola Sturgeon quoted this too in her statement to MSPs yesterday.)
Raab attacks the SNP government’s record on matters like education and drugs.
Updated
Rayner urges Raab to 'grow a backbone' and tell Johnson to quit
Rayner says Raab was on a sun lounger when the UK was evacuating people from Afghanistan. She won’t take lectures form him on doing her job. How many more manifesto pledges will be broken before Johnson goes. When will Raab grow a backbone and tell the PM its time to go.
Raab accuses Rayner of auditing for a leadership contest on the Labour side, rather than addressing the government’s problems.
Labour is not fit to govern, he says.
Rayner starts to respond by the Tory barracking gets particularly loud. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, tells Tory MPs to be quiet. Rayner says is it ironic they are making so much noise having legislated to ban noisy protests.
She says the UK will have fewer troops, fewer planes and fewer ships under this government. How many troops will lose their jobs before Raab says enough is enough.
Raab says the UK is the largest military spender in Europe. Rayner voted against Trident, he says. And she campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn, who would have taken the UK out of Nato.
Rayner criticises Raab for the amount he spent on private jets (presumably as foreign secretary). How much more can taxes go up?
Raab says, if Labour wants to help working people, it should oppose the RMT strikes.
He says Rayner, who is normally a straight-talking politicians, has flip-flopped on this. He says she left an interview rather than answer a question about her support for the RMT. And last Thursday she want to Glyndebourne on strike day. Champagne socialism is back, he says.
Rayner says the tax burden is going up. How high should it go before Raab says enough is enough?
Raab claims the government is helping working people. He quotes some of the measures recently introduced. The government has a plan for a high-wage, low-unemployment economy. With Labour, it is back to zero.
Updated
Rayner says she wants Starmer to be PM. “And it could not come quick enough.”
Raab says Starmer has no plan for government. Yesterday he said he was wiping the slate clean. And he says Tony Blair said there was a “gaping hole” in Labour’s agenda.
He claims Rayner is revelling in Starmer’s discomfort.
Angela Rayner also pays tribute to Dame Deborah James. She saved the lives of many people, she says.
She congratulates the two MPs who won byelections last week.
It was the first time in three decades a government lost two byelections in a day. It is now wonder the PM “has fled the country”. He is “not just losing the room, he is losing the country”.
But he wants to stay in office until the 2030s. Will the cabinet prop him up that long?
Raab says the cabinet want the PM to stay for longer than Rayner wants Starmer to stay.
The government has a majority of 75, he says.
The government will protect the public from damaging rail strikes. Labour frontbenchers are joining the picket lines.
Andrew Jones (Con) asks about access to work, the scheme that helps disabled people get into work.
Raab says the DWP is committed to improving awareness of the employability of disabled people.
Dominic Raab starts by explaining that Boris Johnson is at the Nato summit.
He starts with a tribute to Dame Deborah James, and says he lost his own father to cancer at a young age.
PMQs
PMQs is about to start. Boris Johnson is in Madrid for the Nato summit, and so today Dominic Raab, the deputy PM, is standing in for him. Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, will be deputising for Keir Starmer.
Level of benefit cap may be reviewed because of inflation, Coffey tells MPs
The government might review the benefit cap between now and April next year in light of the cost-of-living crisis, Thérése Coffey, the work and pensions seceretary has told MPs. PA Media reports:
Asked by the work and pensions committee if the level of the cap might change in light of “rapidly rising costs”, the minister said: “We do have this statutory duty - I think I’ve had some advice because now we no longer have the Fixed-term Parliaments Act on exact timing - I’m slightly concerned as to whether we have a real reflection of life, but I’m getting some advice on that.”
Asked again if the government might review the cap, Coffey replied: “Yes, we may. I just want to make sure it’s as normal a landscape as possible.”
More than 120,000 households are already affected by the benefit cap, which was introduced in April 2013 and limits how much individuals, couples and families can claim.
It was initially set at £26,000 per year, and £18,200 per year for single adults with no children, but reduced to £20,000/£13,400 nationally, and £23,000/£15,410 in Greater London, which is where it remains.
A further 35,000 people are expected to fall into the bracket this year, leading campaigners to call on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to abolish it.
Updated
Keir Starmer has confirmed that Labour frontbenchers and PPSs who joined RMT picket lines last week are not being sacked, the Telegraph’s Jack Maidment reports.
Confirmation from Sir Keir Starmer that the Labour frontbench rail strike rebels have been given a slap on the wrist and nothing more for joining picket lines.
— Jack Maidment (@jrmaidment) June 29, 2022
"The Chief Whip has now dealt with those that didn't follow the advice and that is a perfectly satisfactory outcome."
As my colleague Heather Stewart reported yesterday, the five Labour MPs who ignored an order to avoid the picket lines are just getting a warning.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, was due to give evidence to the international trade select committee this monring about the free trade deal with Australia. But she pulled out of the hearing at the last minute, saying she had to prepare for the statement she is making to MPs about steel tariffs.
Angus Brendan MacNeil (SNP), the committee chair, said his committee was “unanimous” in its “disappointment” and felt it set “a very worrying precedent” for “the way the government is dealing with scrutiny of the free trade agreements”. He added:
We feel that this is a disrespect to the committee. We are very disappointed.
A spokesperson for the international trade department said:
The international trade secretary is in the process of finalising a finely balanced decision on the steel safeguard by June 30. This is an issue of national strategic importance and she has had to make sure she is able to review the final advice from the department before updating parliament today.
There are two Commons statements today after PMQs.
AFTER 1230 TODAY…
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) June 29, 2022
1. Statement - @annietrev - Steel Safeguards
2. Statement - @kitmalthouse - Metropolitan Police Service
UK sanctions Russia's second richest man, as well as one of Putin's cousins
Britain is imposing sanctions on Russia’s second richest man and a cousin of the president, Vladimir Putin, in the latest round of measures targeting allies of the Russian leader, PA Media reports. PA says:
Among those sanctioned are Vladimir Potanin - Russia’s second richest man and owner of the Interross conglomerate - and Mr Putin’s cousin, Anna Tsivileva, who is president of the JSC Kolmar Group coal mining company, the government has announced.
The government is also sanctioning a group of Russian individuals and companies for their involvement in repressing civilians and supporting the Assad regime in Syria.
A government spokesman said: “As long as Putin continues his abhorrent assault on Ukraine, we will use sanctions to weaken the Russian war machine. Today’s sanctions show that nothing and no-one is off the table, including Putin’s inner circle.”
Updated
Yesterday Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said that if the supreme court does not allow a referendum on Scottish independence, the SNP will fight the next general election on the single issue of independence. If they get a majority, that will treat that as a mandate for independence.
In an interview this morning John Swinney, Sturgeon’s deputy, implied that the party would treat winning a majority of seats in Scotland as getting a majority. This is how the Times’s Mark McLaughlin responded.
BREAKING:
— Mark McLaughlin (@mark_mclaughlin) June 29, 2022
The SNP will begin proceedings to break up the UK if it wins just 30 out of 59 MPs at the next general election, says @JohnSwinney
So not even a 50.1% popular vote - as ScotGov claimed yesterdayhttps://t.co/vbTCt969Fi
But Swinney has now said that he did not hear the question properly and that the SNP will only claim that it has won a mandate for independence if it gets a majority of votes, not just a majority of seats. This is what the party was briefing in private yesterday.
When @BBCGaryR asked me about a "majority of seats" this morning on #bbcgms, I only picked up on "majority". Referenda, including de facto referenda at a UK General Election, are won with a majority of votes. Nothing else.
— John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) June 29, 2022
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World 'would be a better place' if more leaders were women, says Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said she agrees with Boris Johnson about “toxic masculinity” being part of the explanation for Vladimir Putin’s conduct.
Asked about the PM’s comment (see 10.01am), Sturgeon told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that “Putin is a war criminal and a war monger”, adding “toxic masculinity is very much part and parcel of that, so I agree with that”.
She went on:
I also do perhaps unusually agree with Boris Johnson that the world would be a better place if there more women in positions of leaders.
Not that women don’t make mistakes but I do think women tend to bring perhaps a bit more common sense and emotional intelligence and more of a reasoned approach to decisions.
Sturgeon then went on to contrast her approach to obeying the law with Johnson’s.
Take the difference between me and Boris Johnson on the big matters of the constitution. He is breaking the law to renege on the Northern Ireland protocol, I am being very clear that any vote on independence has to be lawful.
More women in leadership would be a good thing, including in the UK, so maybe it is another reason why he should do the right thing and step aside.
Yesterday Sturgeon announced her new strategy for obtaining, or trying to obtain, a second independence referendum, which relies on getting a ruling from the supreme court that Holyrood can legislate for a poll even if Westminster says no. Our overnight story on her move is here.
Boris Johnson has had a meeting at the Nato summit with Anthony Albanese, the new Labor prime minister of Australia. Albanese took office last month after beating the Liberal incumbent Scott Morrisson, who was reportedly getting campaign advice from Isaac Levido, the consultant who ran Johnson’s 2019 general election campaign.
According to the Downing Street readout of the meeting, Johnson “welcomed Australia’s participation in the summit as the largest non-Nato contributor”. A No 10 spokesperson said:
The leaders agreed on the importance of supporting Ukraine and ensuring Putin’s vainglorious conquest ends in failure.
The prime minister and Prime Minister Albanese both welcomed the Aukus pact, which is promoting stability and security across the Indo-Pacific.
They looked forward to working more together to boost prosperity and create jobs in both our countries, including when the UK-Australia free trade agreement comes into force.
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Speaking at the Nato summit this morning, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, also said that it was important for western countries not to become economically dependent on China. She said:
I think the lesson we have learned from the Ukraine crisis is the increased dependency of Europe on Russian oil and gas contributed to a sense in which Russia felt enabled to invade Ukraine.
We also need to learn that lesson, I believe, with China of not becoming strategically dependent on China and in fact making sure that we have strong alternatives.
I think there are huge lessons that we can learn and we need to learn them as soon as possible.
Truss also said that it was “very worrying” that China recently decided to express its support for Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
In his interview with LBC this morning Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, also claimed that Ukraine was “winning” the war against the Russian invaders. He explained:
I would still say the Ukrainians are winning. They are extracting huge amounts of cost from the Russian armed forces.
Twenty-five thousand Russians, we think, have been killed in that fight in the space of 112, 115 days. Russia has failed on all its major objectives.
It is now reduced to a grinding advance - a few hundred metres every few days at massive cost in one small part of eastern Ukraine along two or three axes. That is not a victory in anyone’s book.
Wallace also claimed that if he had been defence secretary in a British government that had miscalcuated as badly as Russia did, he would have been sacked by now.
The government would have been overthrown in Britain and there would have been thousands of very angry parents and girlfriends who’ve lost their husbands ... [Vladimir Putin has] reduced Russia in the eyes of the world and made it a lesser country.
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Johnson says Nato expansion shows Putin has been proved 'completely wrong'
Arriving for the first day of the Nato summit in Madrid, Boris Johnson said the likely accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance had shown again the miscalculation of Russia in invading Ukraine. He said:
The first lesson really from today is that if Vladimir Putin was hoping he would be getting less Nato on his western front as a result of his unprovoked, illegal invasion of Ukraine he’s been proved completely wrong - he’s getting more Nato.
This is a historic summit in many ways, but we’ve already got two new members coming in, Finland and Sweden, a huge step forward for our alliance.
And what we’re going to be doing now is talking about what more we can do as an alliance to support the Ukrainians, but what we also need to do to make sure that we think about the lessons of the last few months and the need for Nato to revise its posture on its eastern flank.
Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters
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Wallace describes Putin as 'lunatic' with 'small man syndrome'
Boris Johnson told a German broadcaster yesterday that Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he had been a woman. Nadeem Badshah has the story here.
This might not be the most profound geopolitical insight to come from a British prime minister, although that does not mean Johnson is entirely wrong.
On LBC this morning Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, was asked if he agreed. He said he did not want to get into this debate, but he then went on to offer his own assessment of Putin’s psyche. The Russian president suffered from “small man syndrome”, Wallace said. He went on:
You rarely hear the phrase small woman syndrome, you always hear small man syndrome. I think he’s certainly got it in spades.
Putin is reportedly 5ft 7in.
But Wallace did cast doubt on the theory that women are unlikely to be warmongers, citing Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, as evidence to support his point. In the course of this answer he also called Putin a “lunatic”. He told LBC:
To be fair there is that lady, the spokeswoman in the ministry of foreign affairs, she’s like a comedy turn, she does her statement every week, threatening to nuke everyone or doing something or another. She’s definitely a woman … She’s a lunatic like [Putin] is, so I’ll leave it to that.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace hits out at Vladimir Putin saying the Russian President is suffering from a 'small man's syndrome macho view' branding him a 'lunatic'.@NickFerrariLBC | @BWallaceMP pic.twitter.com/xXP6dOs7Hz
— LBC (@LBC) June 29, 2022
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Truss says invading Taiwan would be 'catastrophic miscalculation' for China
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has told the Nato summit that invading Taiwan would be “a catastrophic miscalculation” by China, arguing that the UK and other countries should reconsider their trading relationships with countries that used their economic power in “coercive” ways.
Speaking at the panel meeting alongside Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, and Alexander De Croo, the Belgian prime minister, Truss said:
I do think that with China extending its influence through economic coercion and building a capable military, there is a real risk that they draw the wrong idea that results in a catastrophic miscalculation such as invading Taiwan.
With China expanding its strategic ambitions, Truss, said, Nato needed to expand its strategic concept - its core mission last updated in 2010 and due to be revamped at this summit in Madrid - to specifically reference China.
The G7 countries and nations like Australia should use their “economic weight” to challenge China, she said – adding that countries like the UK could even rethink their approach to trade with Beijing. She explained:
I think historically we haven’t used that economic power. We’ve been equidistant, if you like, about who we trade with, who we work with. And I think countries are becoming much more focused now on, is this trade with trust, do we trust this partner? Are they going to use it to undermine us, or are they going to use it for the mutual benefit of both of our economies? So trade has got a lot more geopolitical.
UPDATE: Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about Truss’s comments.
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Ben Wallace plays down talk of rift with Boris Johnson over defence spending
Good morning. Boris Johnson is at the Nato summit in Madrid today, and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has been doing the morning interview round. The Daily Telegraph splashes today on a story saying Boris Johnson faces a cabinet split over defence spending. It says:
The Telegraph can reveal that Downing Street intervened to water down calls for higher defence expenditure from Ben Wallace in a speech delivered on Tuesday.
Mr Wallace, the Defence Secretary, was due to argue that spending just two per cent of GDP on defence was outdated. However, the line was removed at Number 10’s request.
Downing Street was said to have been left “furious” by what was seen as an attempt to bounce Mr Johnson into announcing a major defence spending increase while at the Nato summit this week.
Wednesday's Telegraph: PM faces Cabinet battle over defence spending #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyTelegraph #Telegraph pic.twitter.com/erOaiQAUG1
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) June 28, 2022
This morning Wallace claimed the story was based on a misunderstanding. Some words were taken out of the speech, he admitted. But that was not because the PM disagreed with them, but because the PM wanted to say them himself, Wallace said. He told Times Radio:
There were some words in my speech that were taken out because the prime minister is going to say them today.
I think the centre just wanted to make sure that he said it before the defence secretary said it. It is perfectly legitimate. It was his words. There is nothing conspiracy in it, I’m afraid.
Wallace also restated his call for defence spending to rise. He told Sky News:
In the here and now we are rightly set. The question is what happens in the middle of the decade.
My settlement was done before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is very, very dangerous on the world stage. The world is less secure than it was two, three years ago and is not looking likely to change for the rest of the decade.
That is the moment, in the middle of the decade, to say we should commit to increased funding.
While there is broad agreement in cabinet that defence spending should increase, views do seem to be split over quite what the rise should be, and how it should be presented. One issue is defence spending as a share of GDP; another is the Tory manifesto promise to increase defence spending at least 0.5% above inflation. In their overnight story, my colleagues Peter Walker and Dan Sabbagh explain what has been happening.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Boris Johnson attends the official opening of the Nato summit in Madrid. The summit will continue throughout the day.
9.30am: The Commons privileges committee meets in private to start planning its inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. Harriet Harman is expected to be elected as the committee’s chair.
9.45am: Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.
10am: Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, gives evidence to the Commons international trade committee about about the trade deal with Australia.
10.30am: Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, gives a speech to the Local Government Association annual conference.
12pm: Dominic Raab, the deputy PM, faces Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, at PMQs.
12.45pm: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, gives a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on digital transformation in healthcare.
2.15pm: George Eustice, the environment secretary, gives evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
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Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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