Afternoon summary
And this is from Liz Smith MSP, the Scottish Conservatives’ finance spokesperson.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission is clear that, had the Scottish economy grown at the same rate as the UK economy in the last decade, the SNP would have had £624m more to spend. Had that happened many of today’s swingeing cuts wouldn’t be necessary….
— Liz Smith CBE MSP (@mspliz) September 3, 2024
The Scottish Fiscal Commission is clear that, had the Scottish economy grown at the same rate as the UK economy in the last decade, the SNP would have had £624m more to spend. Had that happened many of today’s swingeing cuts wouldn’t be necessary….
The Scottish Greens have criticised the spending cuts announced by the SNP government in Edinburgh. The Greens’ finance spokesperson, Ross Greer, said:
This is a disaster for our climate.
The SNP have chosen to slash spending on climate action and increase costs for commuters.
With global temperatures rising, Scotland must be a climate leader but the SNP is taking us backwards.
Even bookmakers are struggling to agree on what is happening in the Tory leadership contest. Two betting companies have issued press releases about their latest odds today and, while they both agree that Kemi Badenoch is either favourite (Coral, which has her 7-4) or joint favourite (William Hill, which has her and Robert Jenrick both on 7-4), they have different views on who has the momentum.
Coral says:
Kemi Badenoch is the clear favourite to become the next Conservative leader and she is attracting one-way traffic in our betting to replace Rishi Sunak in November.
But William Hill says:
Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly are the latest names to throw their hats into the ring in a bid to become the next leader of the Tory party, but judging by our betting markets, their leadership campaigns got off to a poor start.
Both Badenoch and Cleverly have drifted in the market since launching their campaigns yesterday, and while they still occupy two of the top three spots in the market, it’s Robert Jenrick that is in the ascendency, moving into 7/4 from 9/4 to now share favouritism with Badenoch.
The two firms both agree that, after Badenoch and Jenrick, the other four candidates are ranked, in terms of chances of winning: Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Priti Patel and Mel Stride.
Scottish government 'isn't blameless' in relation to its funding problems, says IFS thinktank
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published an assessment of the spending cuts announcement from the Scottish government today. It is by David Phillips, the IFS’s associate director. Here are the main parts.
On what has been announced
Scottish finance minister Shona Robison has today announced in-year spending cuts of up to £500m in order to fund public sector pay deals and other inflationary pressures hitting the Scottish budget. This includes restrictions on recruitment, overtime, travel and marketing across the Scottish government. Peak-time rail tickets will be re-introduced, and cuts made to budgets that were intended to encourage cycling and walking. Cuts will also be made to budgets for NHS training, mental health, and health and social care transformation as part of £116m of cuts to non-pay elements of the health and social care budget. Ms Robison also plans to draw down up to £460m of unspent income from offshore windfarm licenses – although hopes further savings may make this unnecessary, so the funds remain available for future years. If this one-off funding is needed then further cuts may need to be made next year.
On the extent to which Westminster is to blame
The Scottish finance minister tries to pin the blame for these difficult decisions on Westminster and a lack of fiscal flexibility under Scotland’s current fiscal framework. It is true that even with the top-ups to funding announced by the new chancellor Rachel Reeves alongside her recent spending audit, UK government funding this year is still very tight: Ms Reeves’ plans imply departments and devolved governments having to find one-third of the additional cost of this year’s pay deals, over and above what had already been budgeted, from within existing budgets, for example. And as we have highlighted before, there is a case for giving the Scottish government some additional borrowing powers to address in-year public service spending pressures, as well as the benefit spending pressures and tax shortfalls that it can already borrow for. The Scottish government has far fewer options to address pressures than the UK government.
On the extent to which the SNP is to blame
But the Scottish government isn’t blameless here. It was already clear at the start of the year that things were going to be financially challenging, with public sector pay deals of 2 – 3% likely insufficient to avoid industrial action. The Scottish government could have held back funding to help meet additional pay and other cost pressures, rather than be forced to make in-year cuts to other spending. A decision to freeze council tax also cost almost double the amount raised from increases in income tax rates on higher earners. Tax policy decisions therefore reduced rather than raised revenues, increasing the pressure on Scotland’s public finances.
As the Scottish Fiscal Commission has highlighted, the last few years have seen the Scottish government increase public sector pay, and roll out new, more generous social security benefits. These are legitimate things to prioritise. But they do reduce the amount available for other areas of spending and add to budgetary pressures. Previous pay increases, which were more generous than in England, also mean higher pay levels – increasing the cost of further increases.
On what lies ahead
More difficult decisions are likely next year and beyond given the different fiscal outlook. The Scottish government should use its forthcoming budget and subsequent Scottish Spending Review to be clear about priorities – and which areas will see cuts – in order to reduce the need for in-year cuts, which are often more damaging.
Tugendhat says voters no longer take Conservative party seriously
Here is Jessica Elgot’s report from Tom Tugendhat’s Tory leadership campaign launch this morning. She says he declared that people will “never vote for a party that they’ve stopped taking seriously”.
The Scottish Labour party has said that SNP incompetence is primarily to blame for the cuts being announced today by the Scottish government. (See 3.25pm.) Michael Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, said:
After 17 years in power, the SNP is still insisting ‘it wasn’t us’. It’s the same script again and again.
All of the independent experts – the Fraser of Allander Institute, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Audit Scotland, the Scottish Fiscal Commission – are absolutely clear that these SNP cuts stem from their incompetence.
This incompetent and wasteful SNP government has lost its way and is mismanaging public money.
This culture of always blaming someone else comes with a cost meted out in jobs and service cuts - when we have the longest NHS waiting lists in history and attainment is dropping in our schools.
Scots are left paying more and getting less and today’s statement guarantees that this cycle of short-term sticking plaster politics will run and run.
Robison: why Scottish government's spending cuts are needed
The Scottish government has set out its proposed cuts in a letter from Shona Robison, the finance secretary, to the Scottish parliament’s finance and public adminstration committee. It’s here.
This is what she says about why savings are needed.
In the 2023 medium-term financial strategy, I updated parliament on the challenges we face over the medium-term, the forecast gap between funding and spending, and our fiscal strategy for managing the public finances. This required tough and decisive action through the 2024-25 Scottish budget to improve the underlying sustainability of our public finances.
Since then, pressures on public finances have further grown, and I have had to take difficult decisions to remain on track to balance the Scottish government’s budget.
Pay continues to be a significant driver of in-year pressures, with potential costs of up to £0.8bn beyond our budget in this financial year alone. Whilst I welcome the UK government’s acceptance of the pay review body recommendations, as the Scottish Fiscal Commission note in their fiscal update published on 27 August, we face significant uncertainty over funding that we will receive from the UK government ahead of the UK Budget.
With a relatively larger public sector in Scotland, meeting the cost of pay deals above our budget assumptions place considerable strain on our finances. The UK government have announced that the upcoming budget will be “painful”, with the chancellor making clear that UK government funding will be tightly constrained, placing further uncertainty over the funding we will receive. I have made it clear that austerity is not the answer; that public services must be protected, and that investment is critical for growth.
Alongside pay, other costs have emerged that are more difficult to plan for but must be funded, such as in demand-led activities like legal aid, police and fire pensions and the costs of accommodation for Ukrainian displaced people. Like the rest of the UK, we also continue to face a significant health and social care backlog arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and a further surge in Covid and respiratory cases.
In her statement at Holyrood, Shona Robison, the Scottish government’s finance secretary, also urged MSPs from all parties to “work together” to address the budget problems the country was facing. She said:
We will continue to be a fiscally responsible government and balance the budget each year – as we have done every year for 17 years and we will do again this year,” she told MSPs.
But this will mean we must unfortunately take difficult decisions along the way.
I believe we can all agree on the importance of putting the public first in all that we do.
I am calling on members across the chamber to work together to navigate the challenges ahead, in the best interests of all the people that we have the privilege to serve.
Shona Robison suggests Scottish government won't raise income tax to remove need for budget cuts
In her statement to MSPs, Shona Robison, the Scottish government’s finance secretary, suggested she will not be using the powers she has under devolution to increase income tax to remove the need for cuts. She said:
On the application of taxation we can only go so far, given the scope of our devolved tax powers.
Raising significant further revenue would require substantial reform to the tax system or further devolution of powers.
These will take time and rely on the UK government. It is therefore essential that we aim to grow the economy and the tax base to support a sustained flow of revenues over time.
The Scottish government is due to announce its budget on 4 December. It has significant powers to vary income tax rates, and in Scotland there are now five different income tax rates, compared with three in the rest of the UK. The Scottish system is more progressive.
Scottish government announces spending cuts worth £500m
The Scottish government will have to make cuts worth £500m, Shona Robison, the finance secretary has said.
As PA Media reports, outlining the levels of savings, Robison said £188m will be found across government, including by cutting active travel funding, £65m by re-purposing cash from other projects and around £60m through already announced spending controls.
Up to £460m from the ScotWind leasing round will also be used, Robison said, in the hopes it won’t all required to be spent.
Robison warned of further tough decisions, saying:
As we look ahead, it is clear that further significant action will be needed to reset the public finances onto a sustainable path.
The chancellor has made clear that UK government funding will continue to be tightly constrained. The prime minister has also made clear the difficult decisions to come.
Robison also said the current financial situation facing the Scottish government was “not sustainable”. She said:
If the Scottish government does not act, spending will continue to outstrip available funding.
This is not sustainable and tough decisions will be required.
Annual savings alone will not address this. All members of parliament must face up to this challenge in the demands they make during the budget process.
The Scottish government’s total budget for 2024-25 is about £60bn.
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Minister says EHC plan waiting time figures show special needs children 'left in limbo far too long'
More than 5,000 children in England with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) waited between one and two years for a local authority decision on their application for an education, health and care (EHC) plan to be completed, according to new figures released today.
A further 90 children had to wait for more than two years, despite there being a statutory requirement for local authorities to issue a plan within 20 weeks of a request or confirm a decision not to within 16 weeks.
The figures, published in a parliamentary written answer, reveal that 62% of decisions by local authorities on whether or not to issue an EHC plan took up to six months last year, 31% took between six months and a year, and 6% between one and two years.
An EHC plan is a legal document which sets out a child or young person’s special educational needs and the support they require. The figures were published ahead of three debates this week in the House of Commons on support for children with SEND.
The minister for school standards, Catherine McKinnell, said:
These figures show that children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families are often being left in limbo for far too long.
The system is creaking at the seams following years of neglect, and without action would only deteriorate further, given the growing number of families needing support.
We will work as quickly as possible to ensure there is more effective early identification and support to give every child the best start in life, including by providing new online training to early educators.
Pro-Palestinian MPs in Independent Alliance says it is 'beyond shameful' UK has taken so long to act on arms sales to Israel
At least five of the seven leftwing Labour MPs who had the whip withdrawn in July after rebelling in a vote on the two-child benefit cap have been commenting on social media about the decision to limit some arms sales to Israel. While they all want the government to go further, some have been making an effort to sound positive about the announcement.
This is from Zara Sultana, who is not giving the government much credit.
Yesterday it was confirmed an Israeli F-35 fighter jet – made in part in Britain – was instrumental in a recent attack on a “safe zone” in Gaza, killing 90 people.
Hours later the UK government refused to suspend licences pertaining to F-35s.
ALL arms sales to Israel must end.
Apsana Begum adopted a similar message in the Commons yesterday. And Imran Hussain was not over-enthusiastic in a post yesterday, although he said David Lammy had acted “rightly”.
The Foreign Secretary’s review of arms sales licenses to Israel concludes there’s a “clear risk” that the Israeli military may be using UK arms to commit violations of international law in Gaza, and he’s rightly suspended a number of licenses as a result.
But when violations include killing aid workers and attacking ambulances, bombing refugee camps, and destroying civilian infrastructure with the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians, the UK needs to follow countries like Canada with a full suspension, not a partial one.
But John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, tried to sound more positive. He posted this message yesterday.
A significant step forward & congratulations to all who have campaigned for an end to arms sales to Israel. However this is a first step & we now need to to examine the detail of the remaining licenses to bring about a total end to arms sales to a country committing war crimes.
And Richard Burgon described the move as a “welcome first step”.
Boris Johnson and others opposing the suspension of some arms sales to Israel should be clear:
The UK public wants an end to arms sales to Israel.
Arms licenses must end if there’s a risk of violating international law.
More action is needed but this is a welcome first step.
Some or all of these MPs will be hoping to have the Labour whip restored in due course, and that probably explains why their tone is not as critical as the statement issued by the Independent Alliance, the group of five independent MPs who were mostly elected as pro-Palestinian campaigners. Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is their most prominent member, has posted it on X.
In the statement the five MPs say it is “beyond shameful” that it has taken the UK so long to accept that Israel may be in breach of international law. This is primarily a criticism of the Conservatives, who refused to suspend arms sales when they were in office, but it is also an implicit attack on Labour, which delayed saying the Israelis might be using British arms in breach of international law until yesterday and is still avoiding taking sides on whether war crimes definitely are or are not being committed.
We must continue to call for an immediate and total arms embargo to Israel.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) September 3, 2024
A statement from the Independent Alliance. pic.twitter.com/FZOeD4bJOj
Updated
Legal challenge to UK's policy on arms sales to Israel continues despite partial ban announcement
A legal challenge to the Labour government’s arms to Israel policy is continuing despite David Lammy’s announcement of a partial suspension of weapons exports, though it is expected to refocus on the legality of continuing to allow the sale of components for F-35 fighters and the consistency of the government’s position.
Phillippa Kaufman KC, appearing for al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, and the Global Legal Action Network, said at the high court the organisations wanted to proceed with a judicial review during a procedural hearing . She said they wanted “to bottom out” why the UK says it cannot exclude some F-35 components in jets which are sold to and used by Israel in its bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
The lawyer also said that the campaign groups wanted to challenge the failure by the UK to determine whether the intense bombing in Gaza, which has contributed to the deaths of 40,786 Palestinians, was in breach of international humanitarian law because of the high proportion of civilian casualties.
Lammy had told MPs yesterday, Kaufman said, that “in many cases, it has not been possible to reach a determinative conclusion on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities”. But she told the court on Tuesday morning that that represented “precisely the approach we submit is wrong in law”.
Instead, in suspending arms sales, Lammy argued yesterday that Israel could reasonably do much more to ensure lifesaving food and medical supplies reach civilians in Gaza and that the UK government was “deeply concerned by credible claims of mistreatment of detainees”.
Government guidelines prohibit arms exports to countries where there is a “clear risk” that international humanitarian law will be breached and war crimes committed. Revised submissions on behalf of al-Haq and GLAN are due to be made by the end of the month with proceedings continuing into the autumn.
Jordan welcomes UK's decision to end some arms sales to Israel
Ayman Safadi, the Jordanian foreign minister, has welcomed the UK’s decision to stop some arms sales to Israel. He posted this on social media.
The Uk did right to suspend some arms exports licenses to Israel. We urge an expansion of this suspension and call on all countries to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel. Unless consequences are real, Netanyahu will not end his aggression on Gaza and the West Bank, and…
— Ayman Safadi (@AymanHsafadi) September 3, 2024
The Uk did right to suspend some arms exports licenses to Israel. We urge an expansion of this suspension and call on all countries to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel. Unless consequences are real, Netanyahu will not end his aggression on Gaza and the West Bank, and will not stop violating international law and threatening the security of the whole region.
No 10 insists UK remains 'staunch ally' of Israel after Netanyahu brands arms sales decision as 'shameful'
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to accept that the decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel was going to damage diplomatic relations with the country. Asked about Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement this morning, the spokesperson would not engage with the claim that what the UK was doing was “shameful”. But he defended the decision and said the UK remained a “staunch ally” of Israel. He said:
As the foreign secretary, we have not taken this decision lightly, but we do take our duty to apply export licensing law seriously.
We remain a staunch ally of Israel. That’s why we took action in April to shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel, preventing significant loss of life.
Our ambition is to see an end to this devastating conflict, and we are working extensively with international partners on progress towards a ceasefire deal on both sides.
Updated
Reeves says DWP will change way pension credit administered to reduce chances of eligible people not claiming
The Department for Work and Pensions will change the way pension credit is administered to reduce the chances of eligible people not claiming it, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, told MPs today.
In a statement to MPs in July, Reeves announced that winter fuel payments for pensioners, which are worth up to £300, will be means-tested this year and only paid to people receiving pension credit (a benefit for poor pensioners). In response to claims that many pensioners will not be able to afford to heat their homes as a result, the government has launched a campaign to encourage take-up of pension credit. Only around two-thirds of people who are eligble claim the benefit (worth on average £3,900 a year), and as a result around 880,000 pensioner households are thought to be missing out.
In response to a question about the risk of vulnerable pensioners losing out this winter, Reeves told MPs today that the government was working with charities and local councils to ensure that people who are entitled to claim pension credit do claim it.
She went on:
The DWP will also bring together the administration of pension credit and housing benefits, so that pensioner households currently receiving housing benefit also receive any pension credit that they are entitled to – something that the previous government deferred for years despite knowing that the poorest pensioners were missing out.
Tugendhat condemns government's decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel
In the Q&A with reporters at his Tory leadership campaign launch Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, strongly condemned the government’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel. He said:
That is a remarkable decision and it will be a decision that has been heard not just in Washington and Tel Aviv but around the world because if we are not willing to stand by our allies when they are literally discovering the bodies of their murdered citizens, what is the point of an alliance?
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is taking questions in the Commons. Although in her first answer she said that she would not be answering detailed questions on tax policy, because those were matters for the budget, she did confirm that the budget would include a “tax road map” giving guarantees about tax policy for business, including a commitment not to raise corporation tax above 25%. This is something she promised to do before the election.
Updated
The Muslim Council of Britain, which says it is the largest umbrella body representing Muslims in Britain but which was accused by the last government of being too close to extremists, has issued a statement giving a qualified welcome to the decision to limit some arms sales to Israel. Zara Mohammed, the MCB’s secretary general, said:
The government’s recent decision to restrict arms sales to Israel is a small but important step to ensure adherence to international law. It comes at a time when the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 40,000, too many lives have been lost and injured due to Israeli bombardment.
The decision only affects UK sale of arms amounts to 1% of Israeli arms sales. Many will still be left worried about the vast armoury our government are still supplying to Israel’s killing machine. We therefore need for full clarity on arms sales to a state that openly flouts international law.
We are also troubled to see how politicians seeking leadership and far right commentators are weaponising this decision once more to foment further hatred against Muslims.
“Appeasing Muslims” and “giving into an Islamist lobby” are just some of the islamophobic tropes being used to vilify Muslim communities. To conflate democratically elected MPs campaigning on the widespread concerns of Gaza to Islamist and sectarian politics reminds us of the politics of hate and Islamophobia the former government is used to using to score political points at the expense of Muslim communities.
Updated
Government should aim to restore pride in Britain's history, says defence secretary John Healey
As Patrick Butler reports, pride in Britain’s history has fallen sharply over the past decade as the country has become less nationalistic and jingoistic and more reflective about its place in the modern world, according to a report from the National Centre for Social Research.
Here is Patrick’s story.
And here is a chart from the report.
In an interview on the Today programme this morning John Healey, the defence secretary, was asked if he regretted the fact that pride in Britain’s history has fallen, and if it was part of the government’s job to restore that pride. Healey replied:
Yes, and yes. Yes, I regret it. Yes, I think it is part of our government responsibility to help people see the things that we should all be proud of. It’s very hard not to feel proud of this country when you’re sitting in the basement of the military headquarters at the Ministry of Defense. It’s very hard not to feel pride, as I did when on Saturday morning at five o’clock I boarded a returning nuclear submarine in the mouth of the Clyde to talk to those submariners returning from patrol, 24/7, 365 days a year, helping keep us all safe.
Updated
David Evans to stand down as Labour's general secretary at party conference
David Evans has announced that he is going to step down as Labour’s general secretary at the party conference. He took on the job, which involves leading the organisational side of the Labour operation, in May 2020 after Keir Starmer became leader and wanted to install an ally in the post, and Evans played a signifcant part in enabling the party to go from hefty defeat to landslide victory over the course of a single parliament.
In a statement he said:
It has been the privilege of my life to be general secretary for the Labour party. It has always been my plan to serve for one general election, and take the organisation from shattering defeat to being a party of government.
Now both have been achieved, it is the right time both for me and the party for a new general secretary to take over.
A new general secretary being in post from the end of this year’s conference will give them the necessary time to lead the next chapter of change, taking over at the same early stage of the political cycle that I did.
Tom Tugendhat launches leadership campaign, saying voters deserve apology because last Tory government not 'serious'
Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, is launching his campaign for the Tory leadership. There is a live feed here.
Tugendhat started by saying that he did not actually want the job, because he does not want to be leader of the opposition. He wants to be prime minister, he said.
He also said voters deserved to receive an apology from the Conservative party, because they should have had a serious government. He went on:
Politics is not a game, and we all know the cost when government isn’t sober and serious. We saw it in the lives lost in Afghanistan and then in that wasted chaos of that withdrawal. We saw it during Covid, not just in the lost years of education that cost so many or the opportunities missed, or even in the grief for lost loved ones or those left to cope alone, but through the disrespect.
Tugendhat said he watched the conduct of the last government “with a combination of depression and anger”. He said he saw “duty give way to ego”. He went on:
That’s why I’m standing before you today, because this country can change. We must change, and Britain deserves better, and we need a different government.
Most of the other five Tory leadership candidates have not criticised the record of the past government as directly as this.
Updated
According to Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, the US government is also unhappy about the UK’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel. Peston posted this on social media.
Washington sources tell me the Whitehouse feels let down by Starmer’s and Lammy’s decision to revoke licences for the export of military equipment to Israel. “They assured us they wouldn’t do this” said one.
Tory decision to delay spending review contributed to uncertainty over public finances, says cabinet secretary
The Conservative government’s decision not to set out spending plans for the coming years contributed to uncertainty about the public finances, Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, has said. Case said this in a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, first leaked to the BBC. In its report on the story PM Media says:
Case said “sizeable in-year changes to spending plans in recent years” had been caused by the lack of a spending review “in the face of significant pressures which have materialised since budgets were set in 2021”.
That year saw the last spending review, in which the previous government set out its plans until 2024/25, but the Conservatives declined to set out further long-term plans before the election.
Since the election, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has accused her predecessor of leaving a £22bn “black hole” in this year’s spending plans, with departments overspending their budgets and ministers making unfunded commitments.
Case said: “The most effective way to transparently identify, quantify and address these pressures would have been to conduct a prompt spending review.”
He added that, “unlike previous years”, the new government “has set out to parliament the pressures that it is having to manage down and the actions it is taking to do so”.
Case’s letter comes in reply to allegations from Hunt disputing the £22bn figure and saying it was “deeply troubling” that Reeves’ claims appeared to contradict official spending estimates submitted to parliament after the election.
Case insisted that civil servants had acted “appropriately on the basis of decisions and assurances provided by ministers”.
He said the tight parliamentary timetable between the election and the delayed summer recess meant the government had had to submit the estimates prepared by its predecessor or face “cash shortages over the summer which would have disrupted the provision of public services”.
After the BBC reported this story, Hunt published the letter from Case on X.
Far from vindicating the government, this letter raises more serious questions for them. If civil servants signed off Estimates to parliament that they knew were false, it is a breach of the Civil Service Code irrespective of any decision by the last government to hold a Spending… pic.twitter.com/XSfaQ8JqoQ
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) September 3, 2024
He said:
If civil servants signed off estimates to parliament that they knew were false, it is a breach of the civil service code irrespective of any decision by the last government to hold a spending review.
But if those estimates were not false – and the Cabinet Secretary says accounting officers acted appropriately – then Labour’s claim of a £22 billion ‘black hole’ is exposed as bogus.
In reality it is a political device to justify tax rises – a political choice the Government made long before the election.
The Treasury has defended its decision to present estimates to parliament in July for 2024-25 public spending only days before saying the real public spending figures would be higher, arguing that it had to use the old figures so that a vote could take place to allow the money to be spent legally.
Renewable energy auction secures enough power for 11m UK homes
Great Britain’s renewable energy auction has secured enough new clean electricity projects to power 11m UK homes after the Labour government made record funding available to suppliers, Jillian Ambrose reports.
The news release about the announcement from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is here. And you can find the full list of contracts awarded here.
Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, said last night that reading the Foreign Office document explaining the reasoning behind the decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel made him think it was tokenistic. (See 10.07am.) You can read the policy paper here. It is described as a summary of the IHL (international humanitrian law) process.
In the Commons yesterday Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, did not criticise the decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel when he responded to David Lammy’s statement about it. But later he issued a statement on social media saying that he thought the move was a sop to Labour backbenchers that would offend Israel. He said:
Announcing an arms embargo on the day when Israel is burying its murdered hostages, and within weeks of British military personnel and arms defending Israel from Iranian attack, is not easy to swallow. Having now looked at Labour’s memorandum, it has all the appearance of something designed to satisfy Labour’s backbenches, while at the same time not offending Israel, an ally in the Middle East. I fear it will fail on both counts.
Mitchell has certainly been proved right this morning on his second point. (See 9.31am.) He may be right on the first point too (about the move not satifsying Labour MPs), but that is harder to assess because newly-elected MPs may, understandably, be relectant to criticse their government in public, and Keir Starmer’s hardline approach to party discipline must be having a chilling effect too.
Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, has also issued a statement criticising the UK’s decisiont to suspend some arms sales to his country. He said it was one of several decisions taken by the Labour government that Israel finds problematic, and he hinted that the “deep friendship” between the two countries was being put at risk. He said:
This step sends a very problematic message to the Hamas terrorist organization and its backers in Iran.
Israel is disappointed by the British government’s recent series of decisions, including the latest decision regarding security exports to Israel, the British government’s decision to withdraw its request to submit an amicus brief to the ICC, and its stance on UNRWA, as well as the UK’s recent conduct and statements in the UN security council.
Israel is a law-abiding state that operates in accordance with international law and has an independent and respected judicial system - we expect friendly countries, such as the UK, to recognize this all year-round, especially just days after Hamas terrorists executed six Israeli hostages, during intense negotiations for the release of the hostages and for a ceasefire, and in light of the recent threats by the Iranian regime to attack the State of Israel.
A step like the one taken by the UK now sends a very problematic message to the Hamas terrorist organization and its backers in Iran.
We hope that the deep friendship between the UK and Israel, which has been maintained throughout all the years since the founding of the State of Israel, will continue in the future.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says UK decision to suspend some arms sales to his country 'shameful'
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, has posted a thread on social media describing the British government’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel as “shameful”.
Days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, the UK government suspended thirty arms licenses to Israel.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 3, 2024
Days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, the UK government suspended thirty arms licenses to Israel.
This shameful decision will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens.
Hamas is still holding over 100 hostages, including 5 British citizens. Instead of standing with Israel, a fellow democracy defending itself against barbarism, Britain’s misguided decision will only embolden Hamas.
Israel is pursuing a just war with just means, taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians out of harm’s way and comporting fully with international law.
Just as Britain’s heroic stand against the Nazis is seen today as having been vital in defending our common civilization, so too will history judge Israel’s stand against Hamas and Iran’s axis of terror.
With or without British arms, Israel will win this war and secure our common future.
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Defence secretary rejects Boris Johnson’s claim suspension of some arms sales means UK ‘abandoning Israel’
Good morning. The Hamas massacre of Israelis on 7 October last year, and Israel’s brutal war in Gaza that has been going on ever since, has had very little impact on the internal politics of the Conservative party, but it has caused endless problems for Labour. Keir Starmer’s initial response, including an interview in which he seemed to say Israel had the right to cut off water supplies to Gaza as part of its retaliation (it took him a while to clarify that that was not what he meant) horrified pro-Palestinian voters, and Labour lost one byelection, and at least four seats at the general election, as a direct result of the backlash in Muslim communities that had previously been solidly Labour.
Now Labour is in office it is in a position to make policy on the Israel/Gaza conflict, and yesterday David Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced that some arms sales to Israel are being suspended.
But if Lammy, Keir Starmer and other Labour ministers thought that this relatively modest rebuke to Israel would go down well in the UK, today they are learning that that has not been the case. Pro-Israeli opinion is outraged, and pro-Palestinian campaigners are saying that Lammy should have gone very much further.
Here are some of the developments overnight and this morning.
Boris Johnson, the former Tory prime minister, has accused Labour of “abandoning Israel” and suggested they want Hamas to win the war. He posted this on X.
Hamas is still holding many innocent Jewish hostages while Israel tries to prevent a repeat of the 7th October massacre. Why are Lammy and Starmer abandoning Israel? Do they want Hamas to win?
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 3, 2024
Hamas is still holding many innocent Jewish hostages while Israel tries to prevent a repeat of the 7th October massacre. Why are Lammy and Starmer abandoning Israel? Do they want Hamas to win?
The UK’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvi, has said the announcement “feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law” and said the timing of the move “beggars belief”. He posted this on X.
It beggars belief that the British government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences, at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival on seven fronts forced upon it on the 7th October, and at the very moment when six…
— Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) September 2, 2024
It beggars belief that the British government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences, at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival on seven fronts forced upon it on the 7th October, and at the very moment when six hostages murdered in cold blood by cruel terrorists were being buried by their families. As Israel faces down the threat of Iran and its proxies, not just to its own people, but to all of us in the democratic west; this announcement feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of International Humanitarian Law, when in fact it is going to extraordinary lengths to uphold it. Sadly, this announcement will serve to encourage our shared enemies. It will not help to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages, nor contribute to the peaceful future we wish and pray for, for all people in the region and beyond. Britain and Israel have so much to gain by standing together against our common enemies for the sake of a safer world. Surely that must be the way forward.
Human rights campaigners have said that the government should have gone much further. As we report on our Middle East crisis live blog, Oxfam GB said the move was “little more than window dressing”. And ActionAid UK said Britain was still “at risk of being complicit in the atrocities taking place in Gaza daily”.
John Healey, the defence secretary, has said that the UK’s support for Israel’s right to self-defence remains “unshakeable” despite the announcement. He told Times Radio:
As I said to the defence minister Yoav Gallant yesterday when I spoke to him before the announcement, we have a duty to follow the law, but this does not alter our unshakable commitment to support Israel’s right to self-defence and to the defence of Israel if it comes under direct attack again, just as UK jets back in April helped intercept Iranian drones and missiles that were targeted directly at Israeli civilians.
Healey said the suspension of some arms sales “will not have a material impact on Israel’s security”.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
10.30am: Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, launches his bid for the Conservative leadership.
11.30am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
Afternoon: Shona Robison, finance secretary in the Scottish governments, makes a statement to MSPs about spending cuts.
4pm: The six Tory leadership candidates – Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, Priti Patel and Mel Stride – address Tory MPs on after another in a private hustings meeting at Westminster.
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