A summary of today's developments
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Here is a summary of today’s key developments:
Keir Starmer took part in his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs) as prime minister on Wednesday amid backbench unease over a vote on the two-child benefit cap that saw him suspend seven Labour MPs. Starmer was accused of dodging questions about the rebellion as he sought to strike a consensual tone. Asked by two Scottish National party MPs about the revolt, Starmer instead talked about the SNP’s record on child poverty.
Rishi Sunak faced Starmer for the first time as the leader of the opposition at PMQs on Wednesday, during which he pressed Starmer on the UK’s support for Ukraine. Conservative leader, Sunak said: “Can I ask that he continues to be responsive to Ukraine’s new requests so that they don’t just stand still, but can decisively win out against Russian aggression?”
Eluned Morgan has been confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour and is to become the first female first minister of Wales. Lady Morgan, 57, the health secretary in the Labour-led Welsh government, was the only candidate to put herself forward to replace Vaughan Gething.
Speaking to reporters after PMQs, Starmer’s political spokesperson defended the decision to suspend the rebels, saying the prime minister had been consulted on the move. “We’ve been very clear on our position on the two-child limit, and why we did not commit to removing it both during the campaign and since,” she said.
Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey said during PMQs that the prime minister “has many messes that he has inherited”. One of these, said Davey, was the “scandal over the carer’s allowance repayments”. Starmer agreed and added: “I’m sorry to have to report to the House it’s not the only crisis that we’ve inherited. There’s a crisis and a failure absolutely everywhere.”
Starmer said he will not apologise for his plans to impose VAT on private schools, after he was challenged on the proposal during his first PMQs in his new role. As he defended the policy, the prime minister argued that every parent has aspirations for their children no matter which school they go to.
Jonathan Ashworth accused the seven Labour MPs suspended for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap of “gesture” politics. The former Labour MP, who played a prominent role in his party’s election media campaign but was unseated in the general election, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They knew that this amendment was never going to pass because of the commanding majority Keir Starmer has.”
Zarah Sultana has said she “slept well” after being suspended by the Labour party over a Commons rebellion on the two-child benefit cap – and suggested she was the victim of a “macho virility test”. Sultana, one of seven from the party’s left stripped of the whip on Tuesday night for backing an SNP motion to scrap the cap said: “I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it.”
One of Scottish Labour’s new MPs has insisted that the policy of Scottish and UK Labour on the two-child cap is “identical”, despite Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar previously called for an end to the measure. In the aftermath of the Labour rebellion on the SNP amendment to scrap the cap yesterday, Blair McDougall told BBC Radio Scotland this morning: “I think what ministers have said to me this week on the two-child cap is identical to what people in the Scottish Labour party are saying. The position is absolutely identical.”
The EU and UK are expected to hold their first summit next spring, as contacts warm under the new Labour government. A summit between the leaders of the EU’s main institutions and Keir Starmer is “somewhere pencilled in mentally in the agenda” for next spring, a senior European official told the Guardian.
The consumer finance expert Martin Lewis replied to a tweet by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Carla Lockhart, where she referred to voting to “lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit”. Lewis, posting on his X account, wrote on Wednesday morning: “There is NO two child cap on Child Benefit. The vote was on the two child limit for Universal Credit & Tax Credits. I hope this is just a poorly drafted tweet and not a misunderstanding of what was voted on.”
James Cleverly has said he thinks the Conservative party is the most successful political movement in human history but that it has recently given the impression of being more focused on internal rows than serving the public. The shadow home secretary, who was the first to declare he is running for the Tory leadership, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve also got to recognise that at this general election those things we have achieved were overshadowed by a number of negatives, so we didn’t get the cut-through for our successes and the criticisms really, really landed.”
Plans to tackle misogyny in schools could take up to 20 years to have an impact on society, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, has said as she outlined measures to protect women and girls. Phillips spoke the day after the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) estimated that 2 million women were victims of violence perpetrated by men each year in an epidemic so serious it amounts to a “national emergency”.
Rachel Reeves must overhaul the allowance that has resulted in thousands of unpaid carers being saddled with life-changing debt, and in some cases threatened with criminal prosecution, the consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has said. Lewis has written to the chancellor, identifying four measures that he says are possible to enact without great cost to the taxpayer that would remedy financial injustices, including changes to the child benefit charge and removing withdrawal penalties from lifetime Isas.
The government is to pause imminent funding cuts to BTecs and other applied general qualifications while it reviews planned reforms to post-16 qualifications, the education secretary has announced. Funding for scores of courses was due to be withdrawn as early as next week as part of the last government’s plans to simplify the system of vocational qualifications and expand its T-level programme of technical qualifications.
Cabinet secretary, Simon Case, is reportedly being advised to step down permanently from his role for health reasons at the end of this year, writes Politico. The outlet reported that “Case is currently working at full capacity, but the condition is affecting his mobility and he now walks with the aid of a stick”.
Updated
Responding to the latest crime statistics, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said:
“Years of Conservative neglect and failure to give the police the resources they need and put bobbies on the beat mean that now victims do not know if they will ever see justice after facing these invasive crimes.
The former home secretary now wants to run for Conservative party leader, yet he couldn’t even get the basics of his last job right.
Cleverly’s crime catastrophe shows how utterly unfit the Conservatives were for government and why the country voted so decisively for change with a record number of Liberal Democrat MPs elected.
The new Labour government must now address these Conservative failures, put more police on the streets, make communities feel safe again and ensure victims get the justice they deserve.”
One of Labour’s rising stars has said the party will have failed in government if it does not reduce inequality, even as the prime minister faces a bitter internal battle over a key poverty-reduction measure.
Torsten Bell, the former head of the Resolution Foundation turned Labour MP, said Britain’s longstanding economic problems could not be solved by economic growth alone.
His comments come amid a row over whether Labour should end the two-child benefit cap immediately, with seven MPs losing the whip on Tuesday night after voting for a Scottish National party amendment to do so.
Bell was not one of those to rebel, despite having criticised the cap both as an independent economist and as a Labour candidate.
Speaking to the Guardian about his book Great Britain?, Bell said: “Everybody in the labour movement thinks that a world where half of children in larger households are growing up in poverty isn’t what success looks like.”
But he defended his decision not to vote for the SNP amendment on Tuesday night, saying: “What matters, and has always been my focus, is actually reducing child poverty – not parliamentary game-playing.”
He added that his broader economic message was that the government needed to focus both on boosting growth and cutting relative poverty.
“You won’t be able to claim success if you haven’t both got wages up and leaned against inequality and poverty,” he said.
He added: “My view is that everybody should care about growth and the inequality … If you’re not seeing wages growing, that’s a very, very significant problem. And the old world of politics saying. ‘We just assumed that wages are growing, we’ll just worry about other stuff,’ is like long gone. Both are important.
You can read the full piece here:
Shadow education secretary, Damian Hinds, urged the Labour government to continue with the rollout of the Tories’ T-levels.
During a debate on education, the Tory former minister said:
I hope they will see through T-levels and the reform of technical and vocational education, on the blueprint – and we always did this in government with a cross-party approach – on the blue print of Lord Sainsbury.”
The two-year courses, which are broadly equivalent to three A-levels, were introduced after Lord David Sainsbury published an independent review into technical education in 2016.
Earlier in his contribution, Hinds told the Commons:
My ask of the Government is that while we absolutely acknowledge that they have just won the election and they have a big majority, nevertheless we ask them to be mindful and to be careful, and don’t change things just because you can.”
A headteacher broke down when she described how difficult it was to balance special educational needs provision with funding challenges, an MP has told the Commons, reports the PA news agency.
Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, Helen Hayes, said:
In a context of the decimation of local authority funding since 2010 and with increasing presentation of additional needs across the country, local councils and schools are simply buckling under the pressure of resources they do not have and needs they cannot meet, while families are suffering the consequences.
At a recent visit to an ‘outstanding’ school in my constituency, the headteacher broke down as she described the conflict of seeking to be an inclusive school with the reality of simply not having the funding that she needed to deliver for children with additional needs, while increasingly local authorities are being driven to the edge of financial viability by the costs of Send (special educational needs and disabilities) support and Send transport.”
Turning to children’s social care, Hayes told MPs:
Care-experienced people are so overrepresented in both the criminal justice system and the homeless population because they are being so badly failed, that if the government is serious about tackling these challenges, it must turn its attention to delivering better support and better outcomes for care-experienced people.”
Hayes called for a “care experience covenant” in law to compel authorities to take corporate parenting responsibilities seriously.
Updated
The EU and UK are expected to hold their first summit next spring, as contacts warm under the new Labour government.
A summit between the leaders of the EU’s main institutions and Keir Starmer is “somewhere pencilled in mentally in the agenda” for next spring, a senior European official told the Guardian.
The prime minister, it is expected, would be invited to meet the heads of the European Commission and the European Council, rather than attend a regular EU summit with 27 national leaders.
While the EU has regular summits with Canada, China and Japan, there have been no equivalent high-level gatherings with the UK.
The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen – elected last week for a second five-year term – is due to meet the prime minister in late August or early September, a meeting that is likely to pave the way to talks on improving the EU-UK relationship.
A spring summit would be a bigger event likely to be focused on achieving an outcome, which is yet to be defined.
The UK has said it wants a security pact with the EU, but also hopes to improve the economic relationship by signing a veterinary agreement to reduce border checks, secure mutual recognition of professional qualifications and make it easier for touring musicians to work in Europe.
The EU institutions are in a state of transition. Von der Leyen, who is busy choosing her new team of commissioners, will not begin her second mandate until 1 November or 1 December, depending on a European parliament vote. An EU-UK summit would also include the incoming European Council president, António Costa, not due to take office until the end of the year.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has welcomed Eluned Morgan as Welsh Labour leader.
He said:
Eluned’s election as Welsh Labour leader and candidacy for first minister is fantastic news for Wales and for the Labour party.
Eluned brings with her a wealth of experience and a track record of delivery, and as the first woman to lead Welsh Labour, she is already making history.
Just three weeks ago, people across Wales voted overwhelmingly for a changed Labour party to lead a government in Westminster.
We have a been given a strong mandate to deliver change for working people, and I look forward to working hand-in-hand with Eluned to deliver on our promises to Wales and Britain.”
Eluned Morgan confirmed as new Welsh Labour leader
Eluned Morgan has been confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour and is to become the first female first minister of Wales.
Lady Morgan, 57, the health secretary in the Labour-led Welsh government, was the only candidate to put herself forward to replace Vaughan Gething.
The Senedd, the Welsh parliament, is expected to be recalled from recess for Morgan to be appointed as first minister. If appointed she will be Labour’s first female head of state in the UK.
Morgan has promised to unify the party after a torrid four months during which Gething was fatally wounded bycaught up in a scandal over donations he received for his leadership campaign.
Morgan has said she will make Huw Irranca-Davies, who supported Gething’s only rival for the job of Welsh leader, Jeremy Miles, as her deputy first minister.
Plaid Cymru has called for a snap Senedd election with i. Its leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, claiminged Morgan’s leadership iwas aimed at stabilising Labour in Wales rather than being in the best interests of the country.
He said:
Eluned Morgan will today become the third Labour leader in Wales in three months. She knows that for Welsh government to have legitimacy in such circumstances, a fresh election is needed. Labour fixers have been more concerned with party management than offering a change of direction for Wales.”
Morgan was granted a peerage in 2011 and has sat in the House of Lords and the European parliament as well as the Senedd. The Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew RT Davies, described her appointment as a “baroness picking up a crown”.
Updated
The government is to pause imminent funding cuts to BTecs and other applied general qualifications while it reviews planned reforms to post-16 qualifications, the education secretary has announced.
Funding for scores of courses was due to be withdrawn as early as next week as part of the last government’s plans to simplify the system of vocational qualifications and expand its T-level programme of technical qualifications.
Following widespread expressions of concern from the sector, Bridget Phillipson told MPs in the Commons on Wednesday:
I want to make an announcement here and now because our mission is urgent.
Today, I am pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post-16 qualification reform at level three and below, concluding before the end of the year. This means that the defunding scheduled for next week will be paused.
The coming year will also see further developments in the rollout of new T-levels, which will ensure that young people continue to benefit from high quality technical qualifications that help them to thrive.”
There had been speculation about Labour’s plans once in power for T-levels, which were launched in 2020 and are two-year courses taken after GCSEs, equivalent to three A-levels. While there have been problems with the design and implementation of some of the T-level qualifications, college leaders welcomed confirmation that they will remain and be expanded.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said:
This was an important decision needing urgent attention in the best interests of students and the colleges wanting to meet their needs.
Our position was always that T-levels are here to stay and will increasingly become vital qualifications alongside others, but the implementation plans had gone awry. So it is great to hear the clear and unambiguous support for the future of T-levels as well.
Pausing defunding and undertaking a rapid review of the implementation is exactly what we asked for and this announcement will come as a great relief to college staff up and down the country.”
The consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has replied to a tweet by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Carla Lockhart, where she referred to voting to “lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit”.
Lewis, posting on his X account, wrote on Wednesday morning:
I find it somewhat concerning that an MP who voted on the issue refers to it as a “two child cap on Child Benefit” even capitalising Child Benefit as a proper name.
There is NO two child cap on Child Benefit. The vote was on the two child limit for Universal Credit & Tax Credits. I hope this is just a poorly drafted tweet and not a misunderstanding of what was voted on.
This is an important debate and a crucial policy matter impacting many children. We need to ensure people (via the media) and MPs understand it.”
I find it somewhat concerning that an MP who voted on the issue refers to it as a "two child cap on Child Benefit" even capitalising Child Benefit as a proper name.
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) July 24, 2024
There is NO two child cap on Child Benefit. The vote was on the two child limit for Universal Credit & Tax… https://t.co/uYvZKbQKqu
In her post, Lockhart had written:
Tonight, I voted to lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit, this has plunged countless children into poverty and disadvantages families. Disappointing Labour did not support this crucial change. In Govt they need to deal with real issues.”
Tonight, I voted to lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit, this has plunged countless children into poverty and disadvantages families.
— Carla Lockhart MP (@carlalockhart) July 23, 2024
Disappointing Labour did not support this crucial change. In Govt they need to deal with real issues. #SupportFamilies #EndTwoChildCap
At the time of this live blog post, Lockhart had not responded to Lewis’s public message.
Updated
Keir Starmer says he will not apologise for private schools VAT plans, after being challenged at PMQs
Keir Starmer said he will not apologise for his plans to impose VAT on private schools, after he was challenged on the proposal during his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs).
As he defended the policy, the prime minister argued that every parent has aspirations for their children no matter which school they go to.
It came in response to Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, who claimed state schools in her constituency of Edinburgh West would be put under pressure by the proposal.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Jardine said:
I’m sure he will want to reassure the many parents and teachers in Edinburgh West who have expressed concerns about the implication for our state education system in Scotland of the VAT increase in independent fees, which he proposes.
Edinburgh city council, led by the Labour party, have produced five-year projections which show we do not have capacity in the city to accommodate pupils who may leave the independent sector.
Moreover, how will he ensure that the VAT raised in Scotland from those fees can be reinvested in already hard-pressed Scottish education?”
Starmer replied:
I do obviously understand the aspiration that parents who work hard and save hard have for their children that they send to private school. But every parent has that aspiration, whichever school they go to.
And I am determined that we will have the right teachers in place in our state secondary schools to ensure that every child, wherever they come from, whatever their background, has the same opportunity, and I do not apologise for that.”
It came after Conservative MP Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) also claimed during the king’s speech debate on Tuesday that the “awful policy” would put pressure on state education.
Spencer, who has chosen to send his children to private school, said:
Most parents who send their kids to independent schools aren’t these sort of mega-rich magnates which are characterised by the government, they’re people – as with all parents – who make difficult budgeting decisions in terms of how they want to spend their money.
The policy to tax education, which we have never done before and never should, is only going to put more pressure on the state sector.”
Updated
Here are some images from Keir Starmer’s first PMQs as prime minister:
Updated
At PMQs, Sir Roger Gale (Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich) asked about planning reforms “which will smother fields in East Kent currently yielding bread and making wheat with houses”.
Starmer said:
We have to get economic growth in this country. We’ve had failure over the last 14 years, and the failure of economic growth has been central to it. There’s been failure to build the infrastructure we need, the houses we need, the prisons we need, and I think the whole House can see the consequence of that.
At PMQs, Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols described violence against women and girls as a “scourge in our society”.
Starmer replied:
It is such a serious issue and we have made a commitment, a mission, to halve violence against women and girls.
I know from my own experience dealing with these cases as a prosecutor and subsequently just how hard that will be to achieve. It does mean that we’ll have to deliver in a different way. We’ll have to roll up our sleeves and do difficult things which haven’t been done in the past.
Sir Keir Starmer is “focused on delivering the change” the public voted for, Downing Street said.
Asked what the prime minister’s mood was following the rebellion over the two-child benefit cap, his political spokeswoman said:
He’s been focused, like the whole party, on delivering the change that the country voted for.
Conservative MP for Stockton West, Matt Vickers, asked about a flagship transport improvement scheme in his area, backed by the previous government.
The last government invested massively in Teesside, most recently committing £1 billion to improving transport in our area. That money will protect the future of our iconic transporter bridge, upgrade Thornaby train station, create a new transport hub at Teesside Park and much, much more.
Can the Prime Minister confirm - are we still getting our billion pounds, or is Labour turning its back on Teesside?
Starmer said:
Well he talks about turning his back, I think he’s the sole remaining Tory MP in the North East or Teesside.
I’ve already taken an early opportunity to make our commitment clear to the plans that we need for economic growth across the country, working with all the mayors who are in place, including those who wear a different rosette, and that’s the way in which we’ll take this forward.”
Ben Houchen is the Conservative Tees Valley Mayor.
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe argued that legal and illegal immigration have had “brutal consequences” on the UK.
Tthe former chairman of Southampton FC asked the prime minister:
My constituents in Great Yarmouth have little doubt that out-of-control legal and illegal immigration since 1997 has damaged and disrupted their community, and undermined their public services.Does the prime minister agree that importing millions of people, with no thought whatsoever to the brutal consequences, has failed our country? I know the good people of Great Yarmouth would much appreciate a yes or no answer to this straightforward question.
The prime minister replied:
I’m not sure I agree with his numbers. But look, I do think that it’s serious that the previous government lost control of our borders.
It’s a serious issue that requires a serious answer and that is why we will set up our Border Security Command to take down the gangs that are running this vile trade. What we won’t do is waste further time on a gimmick that cost a fortune and removed just four volunteers.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay, the MP for Waveney Valley, asked how Starmer would show his leadership on the “existential issue” of nature recovery.
He said:
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, so I welcome the government’s signal that it’s committed to nature recovery. This is critical to humanity’s future as it affects everything from food security to public health and wellbeing.
Please could the prime minister tell us how he will show leadership personally on this existential issue and in particular, will he attend the 16th biodiversity Cop (Conference of the Parties) later this year, and will the UK Government be launching a bid to host a future UN nature summit?”
The prime minister replied:
We are committed to nature recovery. It’s a really important issue that this Government will tackle.
And he talks about leadership, and I’d ask him to show some because it’s extraordinary that elected to this house as a Green politician, he’s opposing vital clean energy infrastructure in his own constituency, so I ask him - we will put the plans before this house, I ask him to back those plans.”
Ramsay has previously called on authorities to consider “other options” instead of a string of pylons across his Norfolk and Suffolk constituency.
Labour MP for Bedford, Mohammad Yasin asks the prime minister what more pressure can be applied to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza.
Yasin said: Too many innocent people are still dying everyday. There’s nowhere safe in Gaza .”
Starmer replied:
Both the foreign secretary and I have set out the urgent need for a ceasefire to [Israel]prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.
We want a pathway to a two state solution, a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable sovereign Palestinian state. And I used my first overseas trip as prime minister particularly at Nato to raise it with world leaders.
Under a Labour government, this subject will be discussed, negotiated and fought for at the highest levels on the world stage. The alternative is standing on street corners protesting. Ultimately only one of those will deliver change.
Starmer dodges questions on two-child benefit cap
SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, began his PMQs contribution: “may I again warmly congratulate the prime minister on ending Tory rule”, to which a shout came from the Tory benches – “and yours”.
The SNP MP for Aberdeen South said the Conservatives were now “too close for comfort” on the neighbouring opposition benches.
Flynn continued:
In his campaign to do so [Keir Starmer] was of course joined by Gordon Brown and just five days before the general election in Scotland on the front page of The Daily Record Gordon Brown instructed voters to vote Labour to end child poverty.
Yet last night Labour MPs from Scotland were instructed to retain the two child cap which forces children into poverty. So prime minister, what changed?
Keir Starmer replied:
I’m glad he mentioned Gordon Brown because the last Labour government lifted millions of children out of poverty, something we’re very very proud of and this Government will approach the question with the same vigour with our new taskforce. Already we’ve taken steps, breakfast clubs, abolishing no fault evictions, decent homes.”
Flynn was reprimanded by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for holding a print out of the Daily Record headline he referred to, with Hoyle saying: “Props are not allowed to be used. Never mind put it down. We don’t need any more.”
Updated
Keir Starmer’s “honeymoon” period is over before it has begun, an SNP MP said, after seven Labour rebels were stripped of the whip for backing an SNP motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Speaking during PMQs, Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire said:
The prime minister has achieved something that we didn’t think would be possible in such a short period of time.
In less than three weeks, he has had a significant rebellion and he has suspended seven of his Members of parliament, all for standing up for child poverty, this from a Labour Government.
The headlines are awful for the prime minister this morning, poverty campaigners are furious with the prime minister, is his honeymoon over before it’s even begun?”
Starmer replied that he would not be taking “lectures” from the SNP on what the people of Scotland want after the party returned from the general election with a “handful” of members
He added:
Perhaps the SNP needs to account for the 30,000 extra children in poverty in Scotland.”
Starmer says new government has found 'crisis and failure absolutely everywhere'
Davey went on to say there was a “once-in-a-century chance to fix social care”.
He asked the prime minister:
There’s another care crisis that’s probably even bigger and that’s the crisis in social care. I’m sure like me he’s met millions of people around the country, have heard about millions of people for whom this is their biggest issue and has been for decades.
After a once in a century election does he not think there’s an opportunity for a once in a century chance to fix social care and thus help our NHS. So can I ask him to set up a cross-party commission on Social Care so we can address this urgent matter?”
Keir Starmer replied:
He’s right, it is a crisis. I’m sorry to have to report to the House it’s not the only crisis that we’ve inherited. There’s a crisis and a failure absolutely everywhere after 14 years of failure that this government of service will begin the hard yards of fixing, including on social care.”
Updated
Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, used his first question to prime minister Keir Starmer to ask about the carer allowance repayments.
Starmer replied:
[Davey] has of course been a tireless advocate for carers and I don’t think any of us could be other than moved when we saw a video of him and his son that was put out during the election campaign. He talks about Team GB, I’m glad he’s in a suit today because we’re more used to seeing him in a wetsuit.
But in relation to this issue we have a more severe crisis than we thought as we go through the books of the last 14 years. [The Conservatives] don’t like it, there was a reason the electorate rejected them so profoundly.
So we’ll review the challenges that we face. We do want to work with the sector and where we can across the House to create a national care service covering all these aspects and we’ll start with carers and those that work in the care sector with a fair pay agreement.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said that the prime minister “has many messes that he has inherited”. One of these, said Davey, was the “scandal over the carer’s allowance repayments”. He asks if Keir Starmer will meet with him and other family carers to “try and resolve this matter?”
Rishi Sunak said at the despatch box:
Thanks to the complex legal and diplomatic work that the UK has led over the past several months, together with our allies Canada and America, the prime minister will I hope now find that there is a sound and established legal basis to go further on sanctions and seize Russian assets, and use them to fund Ukrainian reconstruction.
That work has taken time but I hope he is able to take a look at it, and can he confirm for the House that this work is something that he will take forward, because if he does, I can assure him that the opposition will support him in doing so?”
Prime minister Keir Starmer replied:
I’m grateful for this opportunity to say how united we were on the question of sanctions across this House.
The use now made of what has been seized and frozen is an important issue on which I think we can move forward, and I know the Chancellor is already beginning to have some discussions about how we can take more effective measures.
Again, I will seek to reach out across the House as we do this important work together.”
Sunak has said he “very much welcomes” words committing the UK government to “Ukraine’s irreversible path to Nato membership”.
The former prime minister urged Starmer to confirm “fatuous Russian claims on Ukrainian territory must not act as a block to Ukraine joining the Nato defensive alliance”.
Starmer replied:
It is for Nato allies to decide who is a member of Nato.
Formed 75 years ago, a proud and probably most successful alliance that’s ever been formed, and that’s why it was really important at the summit that we were able to say there is now this irreversible path to membership. That’s a step forward from a year ago, and president Zelenskiy was very pleased we’ve been able to make that successful transition.”
Sunak made a self-depreciating joke during PMQs as he wished Team GB’s atheletes going to the Paris Olympics good luck.
The Conservative leader said:
I also join with the prime minister in his warm words about our Olympic athletes. I’ve no doubt that after years of training, focus and dedication they’ll bring back many gold medals.
Although to be honest, I’m probably not the first person they want to hear advice from on how to win.”
Sunak asked whether Starmer had raised the possibility with German leaders of providing long-range missiles to Ukraine.
During PMQs, the prime minister replied:
I had the opportunity in Washington at the Nato council to talk to our German counterparts, there was a strong theme there on Ukraine, discussed with all of our allies, and part of my message was to urge all of our allies to provide further support where they can to the Ukrainian people and that was well received.”
Sunak challenges Starmer over support for Ukraine
Rishi Sunak pressed Starmer on the UK’s support for Ukraine.
Conservative leader, Sunak said:
I’m glad in our exchanges so far we have maintained a cross-party consensus on important matters of foreign policy and in that spirit today, I wanted to focus our exchange on Ukraine and national security.
The UK has consistently been the first country to provide new capabilities to Ukraine, such as the long range weapons that have been used so effectively in the Black Sea. Now those decisions aren’t easy, and I was grateful to the prime minister for his support as I made those decisions in government and in opposition, I offer that same support to him.
So, can I ask that he continues to be responsive to Ukraine’s new requests so that they don’t just stand still, but can decisively win out against Russian aggression?”
The prime minister replied:
I can assure him that we are of course talking to Ukraine about how they deal with the Russian aggression that they are facing, have been facing for many, many months, and I will continue to try to do that in the way that he did, which is to reach out across the house to share such information as we can to maintain the unity that is so important.”
Updated
Starmer says that “customers should not pay the price for the mismanagement by water companies”. He says he has already announced “immediate steps to put water companies under [a] tougher regime”. He adds that the minister of water will meet the bosses of “failing companies to hold them to account for their perfomance”.
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem MP for Bicester and Woodstock, says that although he welcomed the water bill in the king’s speech, does Starmer agree that the “system is broken and will he now commit to scrapping Ofwat and replacing it with a tougher regulator that will put people and planet before water company profits?”
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Keir Starmer starts first PMQs as prime minister
Prime minister’s questions (PMQs) has started. Keir Starmer began by wishing a swift recovery to the British army officer that was stabbed in Kent. He also wished Team GB “good luck as they travel to Paris for the Olympic Games”.
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Keir Starmer has left 10 Downing Street to make the short journey over to the Commons for his first PMQs as prime minister.
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Keir Starmer to face first PMQs as prime minister
Keir Starmer will take part in his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs) at noon in his new role amid backbench unease over a vote on the two-child benefit cap that saw him suspend seven Labour MPs.
We will bring you live updates as Starmer faces his first PMQs since entering No 10. It’s also the first time that Rishi Sunak will be asking questions as head of the opposition. Plus, Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, will be entitled to ask two questions at PMQs from now on after his party displaced the Scottish National party (SNP) as the third largest party in the Commons.
For context, the last PMQs took place on 22 May, shortly after which, Sunak called a general election.
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One of Scottish Labour’s new MPs has insisted that the policy of Scottish and UK Labour on the two-child cap is “identical”, despite Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar previously called for an end to the measure.
In the aftermath of the Labour rebellion on the SNP amendment to scrap the cap yesterday, Blair McDougall told BBC Radio Scotland this morning:
I think what ministers have said to me this week on the two-child cap is identical to what people in the Scottish Labour party are saying. The position is absolutely identical.”
The newly elected East Renfrewshire MP said that he expected Starmer’s government to abolish the cap “as quickly as possible”, but added that the public finances had been left in an “absolute mess” by the former Conservative administration.
Despite the Scottish party leader’s position, none of Scottish Labour’s 37 MPs voted for the SNP amendment yesterday.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said that Labour had “failed its first major test in government” by maintaining the cap.
Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty – they have made a political choice not to do so.”
Cabinet secretary, Simon Case, is reportedly being advised to step down permanently from his role for health reasons at the end of this year, writes Politico.
The outlet reports:
According to people familiar with the matter, Case is likely to need to step down in the new year on the advice of doctors, who are continuing to treat him for a neurological condition diagnosed more than a year ago.
Case is currently working at full capacity, but the condition is affecting his mobility and he now walks with the aid of a stick.”
Additionally, the Telegraph reported today that it '“understands he is undergoing ongoing treatment for his health condition and that doctors have given advice about his workload”.
Case gave evidence in the Covid inquiry at the end of May. It had been delayed for months because of illness. He had been due to appear before the inquiry in the autumn, when a series of other top officials appeared, but Case, the most senior civil servant in the UK, had to go on medical leave and his testimony was put back.
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Posting on X this morning, Zarah Sultana, one of seven from the Labour party left stripped of the whip on Tuesday night for backing an SNP motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap, wrote: “This is why I voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap and immediately lift 300,000 children out of poverty.”
This is why I voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap and immediately lift 300,000 children out of poverty. pic.twitter.com/0CPIPmVqCW
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 24, 2024
In the social media post, Sultana attached a clip of her speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. In the clip, she said:
In my constituency of Coventry South 10,000 children live in poverty. That’s one in three children. When I’m talking to parents and I’m talking to teachers, when I’m volunteering at the food bank, I am hearing these stories of kids who are going to sleep hungry at night, they are going to school learning on an empty stomach, they are returning to cold homes, they are missing out on experiences that every child should enjoy.
And there are all of these impacts on children, beyond the immediate impacts, this is on their health, this is on their wellbeing, and even their life expectancy. So, those are all the stories and all the things that I need to know when I’m voting in this particular way, because I got elected and I’m in the Labour party.
I joined, actually, when I was 17 years old because I care about equality and social justice. So for me, acting as a backbench MP in the interestes of my constituents is what I do every single day.”
Asked whether she thought that the Labour party’s child poverty strategy was good enough, Sultana replied:
I welcomed it in my king’s speech. I said that this was a good move, but it doesn’t go far enough because the evidence is already there. So, we are choosing to wait to act on this when we know what the facts say and every single day is a day too long when 330,000 kids are still in poverty, when they don’t need to be.”
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Rachel Reeves must overhaul the allowance that has resulted in thousands of unpaid carers being saddled with life-changing debt, and in some cases threatened with criminal prosecution, the consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has said.
Lewis has written to the chancellor, identifying four measures that he says are possible to enact without great cost to the taxpayer that would remedy financial injustices, including changes to the child benefit charge and removing withdrawal penalties from lifetime Isas.
In his letter, the founder of MoneySavingExpert also said the low take-up of a 25% government top-up to help with childcare costs was down to its poor branding as “tax-free childcare”.
Lewis said the proposed changes would “improve people’s situations without huge expenditure” and were “sensible non-partisan issues of financial injustice”, many of which had been raised with the previous chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
The penalisation of unpaid carers who claim benefits for looking after disabled, ill and elderly relatives is an issue highlighted by a long-running Guardian investigation.
The government imposes a strict earnings cap on people who take a job outside their caring responsibilities. Lewis said it was “perverse” that those earning a penny a week more than the £151 threshold lost their entire entitlement to the carer’s allowance, rather than having a taper, as is the case with universal credit.
You can read the rest of this report here:
Tackling misogyny in UK schools could take up to 20 years, says Jess Phillips
Plans to tackle misogyny in schools could take up to 20 years to have an impact on society, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, has said as she outlined measures to protect women and girls.
Phillips spoke the day after the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) estimated that 2 million women were victims of violence perpetrated by men each year in an epidemic so serious it amounts to a “national emergency”.
One of Labour’s five missions is to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, by targeting perpetrators and addressing the root causes of abuse and violence.
The minister for violence against women and girls said “Raneem’s law” was already in the works, and would ensure police forces provide protection to victims of domestic abuse. But evidence that some of the government’s policies are working – such as addressing misogyny among schoolchildren – could take years to emerge.
She said:
This is a societal problem. The data in the NPCC report speaks for itself. We have been declaring this a national emergency for as long as I can remember, really. This is going to take a long time.
[Look at] prevention education and evidence-based models that cut this type of crime from being learnt – I probably won’t be elected at the point when we can say that metric has worked. Because this about making something that will see benefits in 10 or 20 years’ time.”
Raneem’s law will require police to respond faster to reports of domestic violence and to consider immediate use of orders to protect women. Named after Raneem Oudeh who was killed along with her mother, Khaola Saleem, by Oudeh’s ex-partner in 2018, the legislation would also require every police force to appoint specialist officers in 999 call centres.
You can read the full piece here:
Zarah Sultana says she ‘slept well’ after taking stand over two-child benefit cap
Zarah Sultana has said she “slept well” after being suspended by the Labour party over a Commons rebellion on the two-child benefit cap – and suggested she was the victim of a “macho virility test”.
Sultana, one of seven from the party’s left stripped of the whip on Tuesday night for backing an SNP motion to scrap the cap, said on Wednesday: “I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it.”
The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the former business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, along with Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Sultana, have been suspended.
Keir Starmer faces prime minister’s questions on Wednesday for the first time since entering No 10 amid a backlash over the move.
Sultana said she saw an email on the way home from the vote last night telling her she had had the whip removed. Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said:
I look forward to many bills that will be coming forward in this government including nationalising rail, the new deal for working people, but I was also very honest that we should go further, we can make a real difference to people’s lives.
And when you’ve got anti-poverty campaigners, thinktanks, trade unions saying the key driver for child poverty in this country – which is the sixth-largest economy in the world – is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it is a moral imperative on the Labour party to scrap that and do everything that they can to make sure that not a single child has to live in unnecessary hardship and poverty.”
You can read the full piece here:
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The Conservatives do not do mergers, party leadership hopeful James Cleverly said when asked what his party should do about Reform.
He was asked about a YouGov survey that showed roughly half of Conservative members were in support of merging with Nigel Farage’s party.
“The Conservative party doesn’t do mergers,” the shadow home secretary told BBC 4’s Today programme. He said:
The simple truth is that we have got a series of principles. We believe in civil liberty, we believe in free enterprise, we believe in the efficient but modest size of the state, lower taxes.”
He added that the Conservative party needs to “expand our base of support”.
James Cleverly has said he thinks the Conservative party is the most successful political movement in human history but that it has recently given the impression of being more focused on internal rows than serving the public.
The shadow home secretary, who was the first to declare he is running for the Tory leadership, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The party that I have been a member of for many decades has been the most successful political movement, I think, in human history.”
He listed stabilising the economy and supporting Ukraine among the party’s recent achievements.
But we’ve also got to recognise that at this general election those things we have achieved were overshadowed by a number of negatives, so we didn’t get the cut-through for our successes and the criticisms really, really landed.
I think one of the reasons why the criticisms landed, and the good work didn’t get cut-through, is we’d spent too much time rowing amongst ourselves, which gave the impression – the wrong impression – but gave the impression that we were more focused on ourselves than serving the British people. So we have to get out of that habit.”
Cleverly also said he is aware that the US election on 5 November could draw attention away from the Conservative party’s announcement of its new leader on 2 November.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
Of course the American elections will be of interest, but we can’t put our job of being a good and credible opposition and charting the path towards future electoral victories … you can’t put that on hold because of the electoral processes in another country.”
He declined to say whether he would vote for Donald Trump if he was American, after party colleague Suella Braverman said she would.
He called it a “nonsense question” and said:
I’m not an American citizen, so it’s a moot point. It’s not a test of candidates in a British political system to ask them what they would do in a parallel universe where they weren’t British, but were actually American.”
Here are a few of the key events on the politics schedule for this Wednesday:
Keir Starmer will take part in his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs) in his new role at noon amid backbench unease over a vote on the two-child benefit cap that saw him suspend seven Labour MPs.
Welsh Labour leader nominations close at 12pm. Welsh health secretary, Eluned Morgan, looks set to become the next leader of Welsh Labour, and the country’s first female first minister, after no one else entered the race (so far).
The Conservative’s leadership nominations open this evening at 7pm. James Cleverly has become the first Tory leadership hopeful to declare his candidacy in the race to replace Rishi Sunak.
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Jonathan Ashworth accuses Labour rebels of 'gesture' politics
Jonathan Ashworth accused the seven Labour MPs suspended for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap of “gesture” politics.
The former Labour MP, who played a prominent role in his party’s election media campaign but was unseated in the general election, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
They knew that this amendment was never going to pass because of the commanding majority Keir Starmer has … They knew there was no chance of this amendment passing.
It was a gesture. That’s not how you change policy. You don’t change policy by gestures, you change policy by engaging with the policymaking structures.”
He continued: “I don’t think any of us should be surprised that Labour MPs who were … not defending the first [Labour] king’s speech for 14 years would lead to this disciplining.”
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Labour rebel suggests she is victim of a ‘macho virility test’ after suspension over two-child benefit cap
At midday, Keir Starmer faces the Commons at PMQs for the first time as prime minister. He does so after responding to the first challenge to his authority while in Downing Street by suspending seven MPs.
As reactions go, it was tough, unprecedented and a shock to many as he sent a signal to the left wing of his party, to new MPs and to the opposition about his feelings about rebels.
As Jessica Elgot reports, “the move to suspend MPs from the party’s left, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, sent shockwaves through the party and drew criticism from some MPs who voted with the government.”
Starmer’s response was to a rebellion supporting an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit limit amendment. That amendment failed by 363 votes to 103, a majority of 260 for Labour.
The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Zarah Sultana all voted for the amendment and were suspended from Labour for six months. Forty-two Labour MPs abstained, including Diane Abbott, who said she couldn’t vote for personal reasons but was “horrified” that her allies were suspended.
Sultana is on the morning media round and told the Today programme she had not been warned she would be kicked out of the party if she rebelled but said it wouldn’t have changed how she voted anyhow. “I wasn’t spoken to or informed that would happen,” she said. “But I was always going to vote that way.”
Sultana suggested she was the victim of a “macho virility test”. Asked for her view of the PM, the Coventry South MP said: “I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about. It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty. This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives.”
She added: “It’s really important to use every opportunity in parliament to make the case that the two-child cap has to be scrapped. There are 4.3 million children living in the UK in poverty and in my constituency one in three are.”
Asked if Starmer had made an “immoral” decision in choosing not to scrap the two-child benefit cap, Sultana said: “If scrapping the cap is not an urgent priority for a Labour government, then you have to ask what is. Every day it is in place hundreds of thousands of children are enduring unacceptable poverty.”
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said: “When you’ve got anti-poverty campaigners, thinktanks, trade unions saying that the key driver for child poverty in this country – which is the sixth largest economy in the world – is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it is a moral imperative on the Labour party to scrap that and do everything that they can to make sure that not a single child has to live in unnecessary hardship and poverty.”
Removing the cap is backed by the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and Reform. Suella Braverman, who also abstained from voting, told the House on Monday that it had not worked as a measure to stop people having more children. “I believe that the cap is aggravating child poverty, and it is time for it to go,” she said.
Starmer is sure to face further questions over the cap and the rebellion at midday.
Elsewhere overnight, James Cleverly became the first Tory leadership hopeful to declare his candidacy in the race to replace Rishi Sunak and warned his party against “infighting, navel-gazing and the internecine manoeuvrings”.
David Lammy will push to reset the UK-India partnership on his first trip to the country as foreign secretary
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