Afternoon summary
The RCN and the GMB have called off strikes in Wales by nurses and ambulance staff planned for next week. But Unite says its ambulance staff in Wales will go ahead with their strike on Monday. The RCN and GMB acted after the Welsh government tabled an improved pay offer. (See 3.17pm.)
The RCN and Unison have said that the Scottish and Welsh government have left Rishi Sunak looking unreasonable because they have shown a willingness to revise their pay offers to NHS staff. (See 3.37pm and 4.36pm.)
Downing Street has said Rishi Sunak continues to have confidence in Simon Case, the cabinet secretary – despite a report suggesting that Case may have failed to fully alert Sunak to a complaint made about Dominic Raab before Raab was appointed to the cabinet. (See 1.15pm.)
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Government accused of repeatedly blocking Hillsborough public advocate law
The government was accused of repeatedly blocking a bill aimed at introducing a public advocate for families like those who lost loved ones in the Hillsborough dipaster, PA Media reports. PA says:
The public advocate (No 2) bill would introduce an independent representative for the bereaved and survivors of disasters involving public authorities.
But the bill was effectively denied a second reading at the end of Friday’s Commons sitting, a day when backbench MPs are conventionally given a chance to make laws outside of the government’s legislative agenda.
Following the objection, Labour former minister Maria Eagle questioned whether ministers cared about “righting the terrible wrongs” of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
The Garston and Halewood MP told the Commons: “We have seen five bills proceed today. The public advocate (No 2) bill has been introduced repeatedly into parliament since 2015.
The objection today from the government is the 12th time they have objected in the last two years, despite a proposal for a public advocate being in the government’s own 2017 manifesto.
MPs back private member's bill to give workers right to request predictable working hours
Giving workers and agency employees the right to request more predictable terms and conditions of work could help the government in its quest to get the over-50s back to work, MPs were told. PA Media says:
Conservative MP Scott Benton’s workers (predictable terms and conditions) bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle after receiving an unopposed second reading and support from across the House of Commons.
The bill makes new provisions in Part 8A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, to introduce a new statutory right for workers to request a predictable working pattern.
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said the government was “very keen to find solutions” to get more over-50s back into work.
He told the Commons: “It is very important we try and attract more people who have left the workforce, over-50s, back into the workplace. We know that around 575,000 people since the start of the pandemic have left the workforce. Those people are of working age.”
Stressing that part of the solution was creating a “more flexible” workplace, Hollinrake gave the government’s backing to the bill.
Liz Truss to break post-premiership silence with media appearances planned over coming week
Liz Truss is preparing to return to the political spotlight before making a “hawkish” speech on China that could add to the pressure on Rishi Sunak, PA Media reports. PA says:
She is expected to make a number of media appearances in the coming week, having kept a low profile since becoming the shortest-lived prime minister in history.
The Conservative backbencher will later this month address a conference of international politicians in Japan, with her speech billed as centering on Beijing’s threat to Taiwan.
Her allies, including the former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, have recently formed the Conservative Growth Group to push for her tax-cutting agenda.
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My colleague Jennifer Rankin, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, is staggered that David Davis feels entitled to criticise the civil service for what went wrong with Brexit. (See 4.09pm.)
Wow, those David Davis comments. From the man who promised Brexit would mean the "exact same benefits" of being in the EU and "a free trade area massively larger than the EU" before Britain had even left.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) February 3, 2023
And nearly six years on from "the row of the summer" he still does not see that the UK had become the demandeur and was in no position to set terms. pic.twitter.com/PXspSTZrwp
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) February 3, 2023
Scottish and Welsh governments making Sunak look 'mean and out of touch' on NHS pay, says Unison
Echoing what the RCN’s Pat Cullen said (see 3.37pm), Sara Gorton, the head of health at the Unison union, said the Scottish and Welsh governments were making Rishi Sunak look “mean and out of touch”. She said:
[The pay offer in Wales] ramps up the pressure on the prime minister significantly. Political leaders in Scotland and now in Wales are making the Westminster government look decidedly mean and totally out of touch.
Rishi Sunak says he’d love to give health workers a pay rise yet claims he can’t. But he can and he should. If he doesn’t, NHS strikes will continue across England for months.
Both Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have chosen to do more for their NHS staff this year. The prime minister should stop with the lame excuses and follow the lead of Holyrood and the Senedd.
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Unite says it regards pay talks with Welsh government as ongoing and its ambulance strike on Monday still happening
Unite says its ambulance service members in Wales will still strike on Monday. Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said that as far as she was concerned, negotiations with the Welsh government were ongoing. She said:
It would be wholly premature for Unite to talk about any deals being done in relation to the Welsh ambulance dispute.
As far as Unite is concerned, negotiations are continuing. Unite will be available all weekend in the hope that a satisfactory offer can be put together to avert strikes next week.
However, we are not in that place now. So, at the moment Unite’s ambulance workers will be on strike on Monday.
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David Davis says civil service was 'crap' at negotiating Brexit and 'Whitehall lawyers generally useless'
David Davis was Brexit secretary between 2016 and 2018, and as such it was often assumed that he was in charge of the Brexit negotiations with the EU. In truth, No 10 was in the lead. But, in an interview with the Institute for Government for its “ministers reflect” series (ex-ministers talking about what they learned in government – mostly very interesting, but generally very, very long too), Davis stresses the importance of the civil service in the talks, and says they were “crap”. He says:
Whitehall did a really crap job of negotiation. I mean, really crap. I think it’s partly because they sympathised with the European view and assumed that was reciprocated. It wasn’t.
You know, if you feel the person on the other side of the table is a nice person, and you really understand their point of view, there is a tendency to think that they’ll be friendly to you – which is naive on a grand scale and also doesn’t take into account the psychology, if you’ve got a negotiation where going in you’ve got an antagonism on the other side… and we plainly did, with the French at least.
Since Gina Miller has been in the news today (see 10.29am), it is worth pointing out that Davis also says in his interview that she was right to take the UK to court to insist MPs should vote on the decision to trigger article 50 (commencing the formal process of withdrawal from the EU). That is not something Davis said publicly at the time. He says:
I think, actually, Gina Miller was right. The government was wrong. I mean, why the hell we just didn’t take it through the original piece of legislation, I don’t know.
But Theresa [May] had come from the Home Office, where they resist everything, and I thought: ‘Well, I’ll go with it’.
The truth was Gina Miller had the right of the argument and I thought she would win it. Whitehall lawyers said she wouldn’t. Whitehall lawyers are generally useless. Sometimes they just give the advice they think they’re expected to give.
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The Department for Education has lost at least £10m after selling the buildings of proposed schools to mostly private property developers, according to an investigation by Schools Week. It also found the DfE also spent a further £10.9m on maintenance on the empty sites, which were intended to become free schools.
A former police station in Hampstead, north London, was bought by the DfE for £14m in 2015 but sold in 2021 for a loss of £5m to a housing developer after planning permission for a new school fell through. The DfE also paid £1.4m in upkeep on the vacant site, including £700,000 on security, although the Camden New Journal reported the building was vandalised during an illegal rave in 2020.
The DfE said it did not pay in excess of what a site was worth, or purchase expensive sites, if there were better-value choices in the area. It would also aim to recover assets and identify an alternative educational use for a site.
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RCN chief says Sunak has 'no place to hide' as Edinburgh and Cardiff show revised pay offers for health staff possible
Pointing out that the Westminster government is an outlier in Britain in not making revised pay offers to health staff, Pat Cullen, the RCN general secretary, said:
If the other governments can negotiate and find more money for this year, the prime minister can do the same. Rishi Sunak has no place left to hide. His unwillingness to help nursing is being exposed as a personal choice, not an economic necessity.
Again, we are making good on our commitment to cancel strikes when ministers negotiate and make pay offers to our members. First in Scotland and now in Wales too.
If the prime minister decides to leave England’s nurses as the lowest-paid in the UK, he must expect this strike to continue. He can still turn things around before Monday – start talking seriously and the strikes are off.
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RCN calls off nurses' strike in Wales following revised pay offer
The Royal College of Nursing has called off its planned strike in Wales in the light of the new pay offer from the Welsh government. (See 3.17pm.) The GMB union has also suspended its planned strike by ambulance staff in Wales. (See 2.27pm.)
The GMB and RCN had planned to be on strike on Monday in Wales, and the RCN strike had been due to extend to Tuesday too.
The RCN says it will put the revised pay offer to its members within days.
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Welsh government says it is offering health staff extra 3% – half one-off, half consolidated – on top of existing pay rise offer
The Welsh government has given details of the revised pay offer to NHS staff that has led to the GMB union suspending its proposed strike by ambulance staff. (See 2.27pm.) A 4.5% pay increase has already been paid, but the Welsh government is offering an extra 3%, of which half is one-off, and half consolidated (ie, permanent, and rolled over for future years).
The spokesperson said:
Following continued discussions over the last week, we are pleased to announce that an enhanced pay offer has been made to our health trade unions.
On this basis, we are hopeful that the planned industrial action over Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 February will be postponed, allowing trade unions to discuss the proposals further with their members.
Individual trade unions will confirm their intentions regarding next week’s action, prior to further talks with their members.
This revised pay offer comprises an additional 3%, of which 1.5% is consolidated so will be in pay packets year on year, on top of the pay review body recommendations, which have already been implemented in full.
This offer will be backdated to April 2022. Included in this revised package are a number of non-pay commitments to enhance staff wellbeing, on which negotiations will continue next week.
Whilst there is currently no improved pay offer on the table for NHS staff in England, it was also agreed that any resulting Barnett consequential following any improved offer to staff in England would result in a further pay offer to staff in Wales.
We would like to thank those that have participated in the negotiations for their positive engagement and goodwill. We are awaiting a formal response from each of the individual trade unions.
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Neil Kinnock says John Major in stronger position in 1992 than Rishi Sunak is now
Conservative hopes for the general election rest on the idea that Rishi Sunak can pull off what John Major managed to do in 1992. Major became leader when his party had been in power for more than a decade, was deeply unpopular and facing a resurgent opposition. He went into the election widely expected to lose, but pulled off a surprise victory.
But Neil Kinnock, who knows about as much about this as anyone because he was the Labour leader who lost, reckons Major was in a stronger position in 1992 than Sunak is in now. He told Times Radio:
John Major was relatively new, but he’s not Rishi Sunak in so many ways. For instance, John is probably quite well-off now but he wasn’t when he became an MP. And Rishi Sunak is fabulously wealthy, and it does make a difference. And Major is a guy off the high street which is a real strength.
John’s party was divided but it wasn’t shattered into fragments like the one that Sunak has got. He’s got a whole bunch of his MPs, demanding tax cuts, and the other bunch demanding more public spending. And there are some who say, let’s remove public spending and [have] tax cuts.
And they’ve got their own sympathies and rivalries, some are campaigning for [Boris] Johnson, some are yearning for [Liz] Truss. He’s dealing with an impossible indiscipline in his party, which isn’t going to go away.
And then there’s the basic schism, which is as big as anything ever experienced by the church, over membership or lack of membership or distance from the European Union.
So I was going to say the best of luck to him, but that would be really hypocritical.
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GMB suspends ambulance strike in Wales after Welsh government makes improved pay offer
A planned strike by GMB ambulance workers in Wales has been suspended after a new offer aimed at resolving a pay dispute, PA Media reports. PA says:
Members of the GMB were due to walk out in Wales and England on Monday alongside members of other unions.
The GMB said its action has been suspended to allow further negotiations with the Welsh government.
The union said the proposed deal amounts to both a consolidated and non-consolidated one-off payment for 22-23 – on top of an increase of 4.5% which has already been paid.
GMB official Nathan Holman said:
After intense negotiations, GMB has agreed to suspend strike action while further talks take place.
We recognise that the Welsh government and Welsh Ambulance have made concessions and, through social partnership, we appreciate the frank and open dialogue with them over the last few months.
This has only been made possible because the Welsh government has been prepared to talk about pay – a lesson for those in charge on the other side of the Severn Bridge.
We are a member-led union, ultimately they will decide.
Bill to extend maternity protections passes in House of Commons
A push to secure better protection from maternity discrimination has taken a step forward, after a bill extending maternity protections passed its final stage in the House of Commons. My colleague Alexandra Topping has the story here.
Greens celebrate becoming largest party on Bristol city council
The Green party has been celebrating a byelection win last night which means it is now the largest party on Bristol city council.
The Greens now have 25 seats on the council, ahead of Labour on 24, Conservatives on 14, and the Liberal Democrats on five.
Last night the Greens’ Patrick McAllister won in Hotwells and Harbourside, beating Stephen Williams, the former MP for Bristol West and a junior minister in the coalition government, by 537 votes to 511.
As the BBC reports, Carla Denyer, another Green councillor in the city, co-leader of the party nationally and the Green candidate for Bristol West, said:
It’s fantastic to see that the people of Hotwells and Harbourside, and more broadly the people of Bristol, want to see more Green politics in the city and are ready to trust us with power.
The byelection win means 17 of the 20 councillors in the Bristol West constituency are now Green. But the MP, Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, had a majority of almost 30,000 at the last election, making it very hard to see how Denyer could replace her.
💚 17 out of 20 councillors in Bristol West are now Greens – every part of the constituency now has a Green councillor.@carla_denyer’s chances of becoming the next Green MP just went up! 📈#GetGreensElected pic.twitter.com/FoFfzQgsRH
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) February 3, 2023
As my colleague Steven Morris wrote in a preview feature ahead of the byelection, the city is currently run by the Labour elected mayor Marvin Rees, which means being the largest party does not put the Greens in control.
No 10 backs cabinet secretary Simon Case despite report implying he may have failed to pass on Raab warning to PM
Downing Street has suggested that Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, failed to fully inform Rishi Sunak of a complaint about Dominic Raab before he appointed him to cabinet.
But, at the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson also insisted that Sunak retained full confidence in the cabinet secretary, his most senior civil service adviser.
Sunak has repeatedly insisted that he was not aware of any “formal” complaints about Raab’s treatment of officials when he reappointed him as justice secretary and deputy prime minister. But he has refused to say whether he was aware of informal concerns raised about Raab being a bully.
This morning the Times reported that Case was aware of a written complaint that had been made about Raab when Boris Johnson was prime minister. That was considered a formal complaint by those people who submitted it, the Times reports. (See 10.34am.)
At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson did not deny that Case was aware of this complaint.
The spokesperson would not say what, if anything, Sunak was told about this when he was appointing people to cabinet. But the spokesperson did say that Sunak did not know about any “formal complaint” before appointing Raab.
Asked whether Sunak was confident he was getting solid advice from Case, the spokesperson replied:
Yes. The prime minister has full confidence in Simon Case.
Asked about the allegations about Raab made by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller (see 10.29am), the spokesperson said it would be for Adam Tolley KC, the lawyer conducting the inquiry into claims that Raab bullied officials, to decide whether to investigate them.
Raab has repeatedly denied being a bully and insisted that he treated staff professionally at all times.
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Banning prepayment meters would lead to higher energy bills for all customers, says former Ofgem chief
As Peter Walker, Heather Stewart and Alex Lawson report in their overnight story, Ofgem has asked energy companies to stop forcing customers to use prepayment meters until they are in a position to assure the regulator that the procedures designed to protect vulnerable users are being followed.
Major energy companies have suspended forced installation of prepament meters.
But this morning Dermot Nolan, a former Ofgem chief executive, said banning the use of prepayment meters could lead to higher bills for other customers.
Asked why energy could not be treated like water, where suppliers are not allowed to disconnect households, he said:
If you did that for energy, I think, frankly … bad debts would rise.
Now it is up to companies to control bad debts but if you look at the water sector, maybe 2-3% of your bill is actually bad debt, so you’re probably spending £15-20 a year to cover bad debts.
That’s definitely higher than energy, but not hugely higher.
If you did that and you still make companies manage debt as much as you can, I think you would get slightly higher energy prices as a result – that happens in water.
Is that a trade-off you should make? I’m not sure, but I think you could argue it is the more civilised thing to do. But you would, I think, have slightly higher energy prices as a result.
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Councils in Scotland may be facing a real terms cut to funding in 2023-24 even if council tax is increased by 5%, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says. In a report, it explains that, even though the Scottish government has allocated councils a small real-terms increase, once allowance is made for the new responsibilities they have, and funding that came as a top-up, “grant funding for Scottish councils is set to fall by 0.8% in real terms this April. Even if Scottish councils were to increase their council tax rates by 5% in April, their overall funding would still fall by about 0.3% in real terms.”
Disabled people left short in universal credit move may get compensation
Tens of thousands of disabled people across the UK wrongly deprived of benefits by the Department for Work and Pensions could share in compensation potentially totalling about £150m after an appeal court ruling, my colleague Patrick Butler reports.
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, has said she is “encouraged” by what she is hearing about the prospects of the UK and the EU reaching a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.
Speaking after a meeting with Micheál Martin, the Irish foreign minister and tánaiste (Irish deputy PM), in Belfast, she said:
I am very much encouraged by what we’re hearing, I think the tánaiste shares that same assessment and we want both sides to continue in earnest to get a deal, to close this out, to close it out as quickly as possible.
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Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has restated his insistence than any solution to the Northern Ireland protocol dispute must pass the seven tests set by his party. After a meeting with Micheál Martin, the Irish foreign minister, Donaldson issued a statement saying:
This was a useful and constructive conversation. Over eighteen months ago we outlined the parameters for the way forward. We set our tests and those continue to be our yardstick for measuring any deal between the EU and UK.
There will be no restoration of the NI executive until the protocol is replaced with arrangements that unionists, as well as nationalists, can support. Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market must be restored and our constitutional arrangements must be respected.
Tonight, TalkTV is broadcasting the interview that Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, has done with Boris Johnson for her new Friday Night with Nadine show. The interview was recorded last week, and various lines have already been briefed to the media (the most interesting of which was probably Johnson’s implicit call for tax cuts). Further extracts have been released this morning, but now TalkTV is really scraping the barrel.
According to the news release, “in a rare and candid moment” Johnson told Dorries he liked spending time with his children. It says she asked him: “What’s it like being at home with the kids? Are they seeing more of dad?” And Johnson replied:
They are, yes, and it’s fantastic because you know, I’ve got a very full day … I’m doing lots of writing. Unless I specifically tell you otherwise, I’m doing stuff for Uxbridge and doing a lot of political work but, yeah, it means I can do reading to them … building things. It’s great.
Dorries does not seem to have asked which kids. If she had, perhaps we might have got a story. Johnson is known to have at least seven children, but when he was PM No 10 refused to say exactly how many children he did have, and, when asked directly, Johnson made it clear this was not something he would discuss.
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Rail operators claim talks with Aslef to resolve pay dispute 'going backwards'
Steve Montgomery, the chair of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, told Sky News this morning that negotiations with Aslef are “going backwards” and “the talks have not moved on as quickly as we’d like”. He said:
We all understand that we want to give our staff a pay increase, [it’s] naturally important, particularly in these economic climates.
But drivers’ average wages are £60,000 at this moment. We are offering up to £65,000 over two years. That’s quite a significant increase for people.
Montgomery said he thought the RDG was closer to a deal with the RMT union.
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• This picture was changed as an earlier image only showed the decommissioned departures board at Euston, where service information is now displayed on new digital screens.
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Aslef leader suggests rail strikes could continue for years if drivers don't get proper pay rise
As my colleague Gwyn Topham reports, almost no trains are running in England today because of a strike by members of Aslef, the rail drivers’ union.
This morning Mick Whelan, the Aslef general secretary, suggested the strikes could go on for years if his members failed to get a decent pay rise. He told LBC this morning that his members had not had a pay rise for four years. Asked how long the strikes might continue, he replied:
I think we’re in this for the long haul. How long is a piece of string?
If we don’t get a pay rise for four years will it be five, will it be six, will it be seven?
Will it be stupid to stop this now then restart it some time in the future, because you’d lose any impetus that you’ve gained?
Home Office shelves plans to house asylum seekers in Southport Pontins
The Home Office has reportedly abandoned plans to house asylum seekers in a Pontins holiday park in north-west England, my colleague Jamie Grierson reports.
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As mentioned earlier, Dominic Raab also features in a front page story in the Times - albeit one that is more problematic for Rishi Sunak and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary. In their story, Henry Zeffman and Chris Smyth say Case was told of a written complaint about Raab’s treatment of officials when he was justice secretary, before Sunak reappointed him to that role.
Friday's Times: British Gas banned from force-fitting new meters #TomorrowsPapersToday #TheTimes #Times pic.twitter.com/jGrdsJG4Hj
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) February 2, 2023
This is serious because, although Sunak and No 10 have not denied that concerns about Raab’s behaviour were raised informally before Sunak put him in his cabinet, they have insisted that Sunak was not aware of any “formal” complaints,
In their story, Zeffman and Smyth say:
Officials have told Adam Tolley, the KC leading an inquiry into Raab’s conduct, that they believe No 10 was aware of a written complaint last summer. A group of mid-ranking civil servants at the MoJ [Ministry of Justice] complained in March last year that Raab had created a “perverse culture of fear”, with officials visiting their GPs over stress.
An official closely involved in the complaint told The Times: “A formal complaint was made in March. Nobody said that it wasn’t a formal complaint, or that it wasn’t submitted in the right way or using the right template. That just never happened. It was treated formally at the time. Obviously – it was really serious stuff.”
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Dominic Raab denies being abusive towards anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller
Good morning. And apologies for the late start.
The old Alastair Campbell rule about how a minister has to resign if a scandal keeps making the front pages for seven days in a row (or 10, or 11, or 13 – no one seems to know for sure the exact number, including Campbell himself) is starting to look ominous for Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister. The online-only Independent has splashed on a new allegation against him from the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.
Friday's Independent: Gina Miller: 'I was bullied and demeaned by Dominic Raab' #TomorrowsPapersToday #Independent #IndependentDigital pic.twitter.com/6kBv39Dh3V
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) February 2, 2023
Miller’s article is a beefed-up version of a claim she made on Twitter early yesterday morning. She claims that when she appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme with Raab in 2016 to debate Brexit, he was abusive towards her, describing her as a rich woman trying to block the will of the people. She claims that she got the better of him by exposing the fact that he had not read her legal case (arguing that parliament had to approve the decision to trigger article 50).
She goes on:
As we made our way out of the studio, the young runner showed us to the lift and said he would meet us downstairs. As the doors closed, Raab stared at me and said: “I can’t make up my mind if you’re naive, got too much money or just stupid. Just because you have deep pockets and friends in high legal places you think you can just go to court to stop the will of the people.”
I was stunned and stayed quiet.
Miller says Raab then lost his temper with a young BBC employee because no car had been organised to take him away. She goes on:
Raab was aggressive and intimidating, and I was bullied and demeaned. This was an aggressive male expressing seemingly misogynistic behaviour. This sort of behaviour is not acceptable from anyone, especially not from a powerful, influential politician.
Raab has denied these claims. A source close to him said:
These are baseless and malicious claims, timed to jump on a political bandwagon and give Gina Miller the publicity she craves.
Raab is also on the front of the Times. More on that soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: MPs debate private members’ bills.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
I’ll 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.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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