Summary
Here is a round-up of all of today’s top news stories from Westminster:
Tens of thousands of railway workers will stage fresh strikes in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions, PA Media has reported. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said its members at Network Rail and 14 train operators will strike on 15 and 17 September. The union said more than 40,000 members would take action, which would “effectively shut down” the rail network.
Keir Starmer has denied that Labour’s energy policy amounts to “kicking the can down the road”, but acknowledged that something will have to be done early next year to tackle the crisis in the longer term. During a Q&A on BBC Radio 5 Live, the Labour leader was quizzed on his plans to tackle soaring energy bills beyond the middle of next year, PA Media reported. One listener told him: “The public is more leftwing than the Labour party at the moment.” Starmer replied: “I don’t accept that is kicking the can down the road.”
Boris Johnson has vowed to give his full support to the next prime minister, but could not resist using his penultimate speech to take a potshot at Liz Truss’s energy plans. In an attempt to shore up his legacy just days before he leaves No 10, the outgoing Conservative leader hailed the government’s “accelerated, long-overdue reforms” to make the UK more energy independent and announced £700m for the Sizewell C nuclear plant.
Johnson also said that “only time will tell” what kind of ex-prime minister he will be, and he reiterated that he will give his “full and unqualified support” to his successor. He will leave 10 Downing Street next week when he is likely to be replaced as prime minister by the current foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who leads the former chancellor Rishi Sunak in polling.
The chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, has said energy supplies should not be cut off if people cannot afford their bills, as the Treasury examines a range of options to help consumers cope with the cost of living crisis. Zahawi promised that the government would expand on the £37bn package of aid announced earlier this year to help households tackle soaring energy costs. He told Sky News: “No one should be cut off because they can’t afford their bills.”
Michael Gove has urged Liz Truss to reconsider energy rationing for businesses this winter, after she rejected the idea at Wednesday’s final Tory leadership hustings. Gove said the UK should follow other European countries in urging companies to show restraint in their use of electricity and gas.
Michael Gove dismissed speculation he intends to quit politics, saying he is “definitely planning to stay in parliament”. Sacked by Boris Johnson as the levelling up and housing secretary after privately advising the prime minister to stand down, Gove laughed off suggestions he could become a newspaper editor.
The energy crisis is hitting UK household budgets harder than any country in western Europe, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund. The difference between the cost burden on poor and rich households is also far more unequal in the UK than other countries. The reason is the UK’s heavy reliance on gas to heat homes and produce electricity at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent gas prices soaring. In addition, the UK has the least energy efficient homes in western Europe.
The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, vowed to continue to put pressure on Beijing to end its policies against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, following a blistering report by the outgoing UN human rights commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, who accused China of “serious human rights violations” that may amount to crimes against humanity.
Keir Starmer told listeners to his BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in this morning that he knows what it is like to not be able to pay bills, amid rising concerns over the cost of living crisis. The Labour leader spoke about his own childhood as he was pressed on how his party would help struggling families.
Dozens of charities have demanded the government provide urgent financial support to households dealing with the cost of living crisis and have warned of a “tsunami of need” in the UK. The open letter, signed by 48 charity leaders, warns that an “economic crisis of a magnitude not experienced for decades” will push many formerly comfortable households into poverty and desperation.
Ambulance handover times is the “No 1 priority” for the NHS in England this winter, the health secretary, Steve Barclay, said in a speech this afternoon. Speaking at the rightwing Policy Exchange thinktank, Barclay said just a small number of hospital trusts accounted for almost half of ambulance delays.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. Thanks for following along. I’ll be back tomorrow morning to continue bringing you all the latest UK politics news.
Updated
More rail strike dates announced as fresh talks fail
Tens of thousands of railway workers will stage fresh strikes in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions, PA Media has reported.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said its members at Network Rail and 14 train operators will strike on 15 and 17 September.
The union said more than 40,000 of its members would take action, warning it woud “effectively shut down” the rail network.
Talks between the union and rail industry have been ongoing but there has been no breakthrough or new offers from either Network Rail or the operators, the union said.
The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, said:
Our members have no choice but to continue this strike action. Network Rail and the train operating companies have shown little interest this past few weeks in offering our members anything new in order for us to be able to come to a negotiated settlement.
Grant Shapps continues his dereliction of duty by staying in his bunker and shackling the rail industry from making a deal with us. We will continue to negotiate in good faith, but the employers and government need to understand our industrial campaign will continue for as long as it takes.
The news follows announcements by Aslef and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association of strikes by their members in the coming weeks.
Updated
Foreign secretary Liz Truss vowed to continue to put pressure on Beijing to end its policies in Xinjiang, following a blistering report by the outgoing UN human rights commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, who accused China of “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims that may amount to crimes against humanity.
Truss said in a statement that the UN’s long-awaited report provided new evidence of “the appalling extent of China’s efforts to silence and repress Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang”. She also said London would continue to act with international partners to “bring about a change in China’s actions, and immediately end its appalling human rights violations in Xinjiang”.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s statement following the publication of @UNHumanRights chief @mbachelet’s report on Xinjiang, shedding further light on China’s human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims 👇 https://t.co/CV9Hho3Esp pic.twitter.com/v2OJVz1s5W
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) September 1, 2022
The UN’s 45-page report concluded: “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
The damming report was welcomed by rights activists and families of the victims in China’s Xinjiang region. But they also called on governments around the world to establish formal and independent investigations into the matter.
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Steve Barclay also said NHS trusts needed to prioritise the three cancers that account for two-thirds of the diagnosis backlog – skin, prostate and gastrointestinal.
He said integrated health trusts should prioritise “new cancer pathways”, such as pharmacy and community referrals. He said:
Alongside ambulance delays, the second dominant health issue is clearing the Covid waiting list backlog. Over the summer, the two-year waiting lists were virtually eliminated with a final 2,000 cases set to be resolved by the end of September.
The health secretary added that patients “need to be able to exercise choice at the very start of their care”. He said the NHS needed to make better use of its app for patients to make appointments.
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The health secretary wants to “stimulate a conversation” about backroom staffing in the NHS, he said in a Policy Exchange speech about preparing for the winter.
Steve Barclay claimed there were 53,000 staff in organisations across the NHS in England, “where the majority are not providing direct patient care”, in addition to hospital and GP management.
He added:
My point is this is not just an issue of cost. It is also about effectiveness. Because too much management can be a distraction to the front line.
Staff at the centre need to streamline the administrative burden of those on the front line and not risk adding to it.
If we are to reprioritise back office costs to the front line, there needs to be more transparency.
Barclay added he had ordered a digital assessment of staffing in the NHS, telling the audience:
It will stimulate, I hope, a conversation within the NHS about how priorities and resourcing is best aligned.
Ambulance delays number one priority for NHS this winter, says health secretary
Ambulance handover times is the “number one priority” for the NHS in England this winter, the health secretary, Steve Barclay, has said in a speech this afternoon.
Speaking at the rightwing Policy Exchange thinktank, Barclay said that just a small number of hospital trusts accounted for almost half of ambulance delays.
He said:
Targeted help over the summer has been focused on these trusts, including building capacity in emergency departments, introducing pre and post cohorting and observation areas, supporting emergency department triaging and the risk assessment across the hospital as a whole.
However, he said that not all of the issues were in the control of the hospitals and instead sat with ambulance trusts, integrated care boards, care homes and NHS England itself.
He added:
We currently have over 12,000 beds occupied by patients who are medically fit to discharge. This is also resulting in poor patient outcomes, in particular with the frail and elderly because patients often deteriorate if left in a hospital bed for too long.
Updated
Boris Johnson has promised a £700m investment package if Sizewell C nuclear plant is to be built.
He said it would be “madness” not to go ahead with the project, claiming that, if the plant was operational now, it would slash national fuel bills by £3bn.
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The GMB union national secretary Andy Prendergast has welcome Boris Johnson’s promise of funding for Sizewell C as a “belated step in the right direction”.
“With energy prices going through the roof and all bar one of our nuclear power stations due to go off line by the end of the decade, this does at least provide some assurance on our energy security,” he said in comments reported by PA Media.
“Years of political failure to make the right decision on new nuclear means we are woefully unprepared for the energy crisis facing us today. This same inertia has resulted in a failure to secure our domestic gas supply. The real-world consequences of this lack of political courage are higher bills and risk of blackouts this winter.”
Dozens of charities have demanded the government provide urgent financial support to households dealing with the cost of living crisis and have warned of a “tsunami of need” in the UK.
The open letter, signed by 48 charity leaders, warns that an “economic crisis of a magnitude not experienced for decades” will push many formerly comfortable households into poverty and desperation.
Describing the challenges facing support organisations, the letter says food banks are “working flat out”, community centres are planning to provide winter “warm hubs”, and disability charities are providing cash to those who can no longer wait. But it warns many support organisations will close as charities cannot afford to keep building open.
The letter was organised by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations and signatories include the National Children’s Bureau, National Voices and Disability Rights UK. It further warns of crises in mental health provision and increased suicide rates while predicting more children will enter care and that animal charities will struggle to cope with abandoned pets.
“We are calling on the government to urgently deliver meaningful financial support to those in the greatest need, directly to households and through the benefits systems that already exist to provide support.”
UN report of serious human rights violations 'shames China', says Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss
Liz Truss, the favourite to become the UK’s next prime minister, has said a damning UN report that Beijing had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province “shames China”.
The report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
Truss, in her role as foreign secretary, said the report “provides new evidence of the appalling extent of China’s efforts to silence and repress Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang”.
“It includes harrowing evidence, including first-hand accounts from victims, that shames China in the eyes of the international community, including actions that may amount to crimes against humanity.
“This includes credible evidence of arbitrary and discriminatory detention, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, violations of reproductive rights, and the destruction of religious sites.” She said UN members now needed the chance to consider the report fully.
The Chinese government, which attempted until the last moment to stop the publication of the report, said in an official response that it was “based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces” and that it “wantonly smears and slanders” China and interferes in the country’s internal affairs.
Victims and human rights groups have said governments around the world should establish formal independent investigations into human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
This is Tom Bryant picking up the UK politics live blog for an hour from Tom Ambrose
Updated
Boris Johnson has vowed to give his total support to the next prime minister, but could not resist using his penultimate speech to take a potshot at Liz Truss’s energy plans.
In an attempt to shore up his legacy just days before he leaves No 10, the outgoing Conservative leader hailed the government’s “accelerated, long-overdue reforms” to make the UK more energy independent and announced £700m for the Sizewell C nuclear plant.
But he disparaged fracking, which Truss has pledged to lift the ban on, and hydrocarbons, another energy source his likely successor wants to exploit through further drilling in the North Sea.
“If we could frack effectively and cheaply in this country, that would be possibly a very beneficial thing. I’m just, I have to say, slightly dubious that it will prove to be a panacea,” Johnson said on Thursday.
“I would much rather that we focused on the things where we are brilliant, and where the environmental damage is really minimal.”
Johnson later added: “Tell everybody who thinks hydrocarbons are the only answer and we should get fracking and all that: offshore wind is now the cheapest form of electricity in this country … Of course it’s entirely clean and green.”
Updated
The chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, has said households should not be cut off if they cannot afford their energy bills, as the Treasury examines a range of options to help consumers cope with the cost of living crisis.
Zahawi promised that the government would expand on the £37bn package of aid announced earlier this year to help households tackle soaring energy costs. He told Sky News: “No one should be cut off because they can’t afford their bills.
“I am working with the [energy] companies ... to make sure those people who are really struggling get that help both financially and personally.”
Consumers are not automatically cut off if they do not pay energy bills, but UK charities have warned a group urging consumers not to pay this winter that there could be serious consequences.
Zahawi said he was “deeply concerned” about vulnerable people living in freezing conditions this winter because they cannot afford to turn their heating on.
Updated
Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Doug Parr, said the £700m announced for Sizewell C “could insulate huge numbers of draughty homes, and cut next year’s bills, instead of being thrown on to the slow-burning financial bonfire that is EDF, to increase our bills for decades”.
He added:
The contrast between these lumbering white elephants and the dynamic, cost-cutting, innovative technologies in the renewables sector could barely be more striking.
While this down-payment on failure shows the government hasn’t noticed, the market has, and investors have fled the nuclear sector.
To get Sizewell done, the government would have to step in and add the enormous costs of building reactors to the enormous costs consumers are already paying for their electricity.
The “Boris bill” would be the prime minister’s legacy, he added.
Updated
Gove urges Truss to consider energy rationing for firms
Michael Gove has urged Liz Truss to reconsider energy rationing for businesses this winter, after she rejected the idea at Wednesday’s final Tory leadership hustings.
Gove said the UK should follow other European countries in urging companies to show restraint in their use of electricity and gas.
While he admitted it was “not something that would come naturally to me or any Conservative”, he said Truss, who is expected to win the leadership contest and become prime minister next week, should prioritise ensuring there is enough energy for households during the worsening cost of living crisis.
Truss has been under pressure for a week to reveal what extra support will be offered to people who will struggle to pay their bills after it was announced that the energy price cap will jump by 80% in October. Further rises are expected in January and April.
It comes as health experts warned that cold homes will damage children’s lungs and brain development and lead to deaths as part of a “significant humanitarian crisis” this winter.
Unless the next prime minister curbs soaring fuel bills, children face a wave of respiratory illness with long-term consequences, according to a review by Sir Michael Marmot, the director of University College London’s Institute of Health Equity, and Prof Ian Sinha, a respiratory consultant at Liverpool’s Alder Hey children’s hospital.
Sinha said he had “no doubt” that cold homes would cost children’s lives this winter, although they could not predict how many, with damage done to young lungs leading to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema and bronchitis for others in adulthood.
Updated
Johnson finishes his speech by saying he disagrees with those who oppose the government’s nuclear plans, adding that there “will always be dissenters”.
And, with that, he leaves the podium and the speech – one of his last as prime minister – comes to a close.
Boris Johnson has said he is not “morally” opposed to fracking, but claimed to be “dubious” it will prove to be a “panacea”.
Taking questions from the media after his speech at Sizewell, the prime minister was asked about his position on fracking.
He said:
On fracking, you know, I am not intellectually, morally opposed to this at all. I think that if we could, you know, frack effectively and cheaply in this country, that would be a positive and beneficial thing. I have to say, I am just slightly dubious it will prove to be a panacea.
I would much rather that we focused on the things where we are brilliant and where the environmental damage is really minimal, like offshore wind. Did you pick up just now, can I ask you if you can remember how much cheaper is offshore wind than gas? Nine times cheaper.
So, you know, I cannot rest my case. We are brilliant at offshore wind, we need to put in sustainable baseload in the form of nuclear.
Of course, we need a diversified policy where local communities want different solutions, they should be allowed to go for different solutions. But I don’t think that particular solution is going to be the panacea that some people suggest.
Johnson also said that “only time will tell” what kind of ex-prime minister he will be, and he reiterated that he will give his “full and unqualified support” to his successor.
He will leave 10 Downing Street next week when he is likely to be replaced a prime minister by the current foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who leads the former chancellor Rishi Sunak in polling.
He said:
I think only time will tell is my answer on that one. But my intention and what I certainly will do is give my full and unqualified support to whoever takes over from me.
Otherwise, really to get on with life.
Updated
The outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson says families in the UK are going to face a “very tough winter” and that “we just have to accept that” during a speech at Sizewell this afternoon.
He says:
Families up and down this country are going to face a very tough winter and we just have to accept that. What I would say to people is that the government really, really understands the difficulties you are facing. We totally get it.
He adds that he wants to get over to people the “better future” that he believes is on the horizon once we are through it. He says:
Out of this catastrophe of Putin’s war, I think good is going to come.
Johnson is asked whether, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have ordered a second national lockdown in the UK during the Covid pandemic.
He says that it is important that people remember what the measures to restrict the transmission of coronavirus were trying to do. He adds:
We had at the peak of the pandemic, 40,000 people or more in NHS beds and we knew if you had another 20,000, 30,000 more – and it could have easily happened mathematically – in the NHS, then the system would have been overwhelmed.
What would have happened then is that all those cases … of people who didn’t get help with their cardiac, concerns with their cancer diagnoses, all those other conditions would have been pushed out even further.
The NHS would have been in an even worse position now.
Johnson, who is now taking questions from the media, is asked about coming support for households and whether he had spoken to either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak about plans to protect households.
Johnson reiterated the support the government had already provided but said it was “clear that come the new administration, there is going to be a further package”.
He says:
We have the fiscal firepower to sort it out.
We do have a robust employment situation, we have the revenues coming to the exchequer to enable us to help people.
That gives us the strength to continue to support people.
The outgoing prime minister suggested that nuclear energy was one of “medium and long-term” options.
Johnson said he expects “substantial sums” of cost of living help to be provided by his successor.
Speaking at Sizewell in Suffolk, the prime minister said:
We’re helping people now with the cost of living and of course there will be more cash to come, whoever takes over from me, in the months ahead - substantial sums, that’s absolutely clear.
He added that offshore wind was now nine times cheaper than gas because of the “insanity of what Putin has done”. Johnson says the Russian leader believes the west will “flinch”.
Johnson says he is wrong about the resolve of both the British people and European governments. He will fail, says Johnson.
Updated
Boris Johnson says ‘madness’ not to build Sizewell C nuclear plant as he promises £700m investment
Boris Johnson has claimed that if Hinkley Point C had already been built, it would have slashed fuel bills by £3bn.
He already said it would be “madness” not go ahead with the Sizewell C nuclear plant.
He went on:
That’s why we need to pull our national finger out and get on with Sizewell C.
That’s why we’re putting £700m into the deal, just part of the £1.7bn of government funding available for developing a large-scale nuclear project to final investment stage FID (final investment decision) in this parliament.
And in the course of the next few weeks, I am absolutely confident that it will get over the line, and we will get it over the line because it would be absolute madness not to.
Updated
The outgoing prime minister says the main opposition to new nuclear reactors being built is “nimbyism”.
He says he has diagnosed the problem as “myopia” and “short-termism”. Johnson adds:
It is a chronic case of politicians not being able to see beyond the political cycle. For 13 years, the previous Labour government did absolutely nothing to develop this country’s nuclear industry. They said it didn’t make economic sense, they even said that in their manifesto.
Well, thanks a bunch Tony and thanks a bunch, Gordon. Tell that to British industries that are now desperately short of affordable and reliable electricity. Tell that to families struggling with the cost of heat and light this winter.
He also goes on to blame Nick Clegg for saying the UK shouldn’t build more nuclear power stations like Sizewell C in the run-up to the 2010 general election because “it wouldn’t even be completed until 2021 or 2022”.
As per usual, there is little acknowledgement of the fact the Tories have been in power for 12 years and that he has been prime minister for the past three years…
Updated
Speaking from Sizewell in east Suffolk, Boris Johnson begins by talking about a “much-thumbed” Ladybird book he owned as a child, which was called The Story of Nuclear Power.
He says he was “enthralled” to read how UK scientists split the atom for the first time at the Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge. He said he noted how the world’s first civilian nuclear power station was built in Cumbria.
He continues:
I look back at the optimism in the pages of that book and I look at what has happened since and at the short-termism of successive British governments and their failure to do justice to our pioneering nuclear history … and I feel like one of those beautifully drawn illustrations of that Ladybird book of what happens in a nuclear pile.
The graphite rods are taken out at the wrong moments and my blood starts to boil and steam starts coming out of my ears and I think I’m going to meltdown. I ask myself the question: ‘What happened to us?’.
He asks if we have lost the “gumption and dynamism of our parents and grandparents”.
Updated
The outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson is due to make a speech on energy at midday.
It is understood that he is set to predict the UK will enjoy a future involving “cheap, clean, reliable and plentiful” energy, amid reports he will confirm the sign-off for a new nuclear power station.
The speech will take place during a visit to Suffolk – one of his last as prime minister – and we will bring you all the top news lines from it here shortly.
Updated
The energy crisis is hitting UK household budgets harder than any country in western Europe, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund. The difference between the cost burden on poor and rich households is also far more unequal in the UK compared with other countries.
The reason is the UK’s heavy reliance on gas to heat homes and produce electricity at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent gas prices soaring. In addition, the UK has the least energy efficient homes in western Europe.
There is widespread agreement from energy experts on the best solutions: a large-scale and rapid insulation programme and a faster roll-out of wind and solar energy, which produce electricity that is currently about nine times cheaper than that from gas, as well as short-term financial support for bill payers. The government has consistently failed over the past decade to deliver major insulation programmes and has effectively banned onshore wind.
The IMF analysis assessed the impact of the energy crisis expected over the whole of 2022, based on forward fossil fuel prices in May, since when prices have risen. It found that the average UK household is expected to lose 8.3% of its total spending power in 2022, as a result of having to pay higher energy bills. The figure in Germany and Spain is 4%, while only Estonian and Czech households face higher impacts than the UK in the whole of Europe.
'I know what it's like not being able to pay bills', says Starmer
Keir Starmer told listeners to his BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in this morning that he knows what it is like not being able to pay bills, amid rising concerns over the cost of living crisis.
The Labour leader spoke about his own childhood as he was pressed on how his party would help struggling families.
He said:
I actually do know what it is like to sit around the kitchen table not being able to pay your bills.
It comes as UK households will see spending power cut by an average £3,000 by the end of next year unless the new government acts to counter the biggest drop in living standards in at least a century, research has indicated.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank said soaring energy bills would cut household incomes by 10% and push an extra 3 million people into poverty.
Starmer said he remembered the phone being cut off for “months at a time”, adding that he was not claiming “great poverty” but he said there were times his family could not pay for utilities.
He added:
Millions of people will be having that anxious conversation as we speak now.
Michael Gove has dismissed speculation he intends to quit politics, saying he is “definitely planning to stay in parliament”.
Gove, sacked by Boris Johnson as levelling up and housing secretary after privately advising the prime minister to stand down, laughed off suggestions he could become a newspaper editor.
Of his relationship with the prime minister, he dismissed suggestions he had been sacked in revenge for turning on Johnson in 2016. He said Johnson wanted to “stand and fight and in order to do so he needed to show he was reconstructing his government”.
He said: “I have both a reservoir of affection for Boris and great respect for what he did in office as well.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Gove, who is backing the former chancellor Rishi Sunak to be the next prime minister, said the frontrunner, Liz Truss, had “moved more on to the territory” staked out by Sunak over tackling the cost of living crisis during the course of the Conservative leadership campaign.
He said Truss had acknowledged she needed to flesh out some of her earlier points.
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The Labour leader was also quizzed on how his party would deal with the Northern Ireland protocol during a Q&A on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Keir Starmer told a Belfast listener there could not be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, adding: “We have got the protocol in place and we should build on that, not rip it up.”
Asked by presenter Nicky Campbell why the UK couldn’t just “tweak it”, he said:
The government has said it is going to rip it up - that is what is destroying our reputation internationally.
Starmer said that a veterinary agreement between the UK and the EU would make a “massive difference”. “The EU has got to give and take as well”, he stressed.
Updated
Labour energy policy not 'kicking the can down the road', insists Starmer
Keir Starmer has denied that Labour’s energy policy amounts to “kicking the can down the road”, but acknowledged that something will have to be done early next year to tackle the crisis in the longer term.
During a Q&A on BBC Radio 5 Live, the Labour leader was quizzed on his plans to tackle soaring energy bills going beyond the middle of next year, the Press Association reported.
One listener told him: “The public is more leftwing than the Labour party at the moment.” Starmer replied: “I don’t accept that is kicking the can down the road.”
He said his party’s plan is “meeting the concerns of millions of people”. He added that he understood the scale of the challenge facing households, adding that “many people listening and watching this will be saying: ‘I can’t afford that”’.
Pressed on his longer-term plans, he pointed to his party’s call for a national mission on home insulation.
“On the question of what we do long term, I am completely up for that challenge,” he told the programme. “I accept the challenge that something has got to be done in April.”
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Meanwhile, the former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove has said he will carry on as an MP.
He has previously said he does not expect to be in government again. It comes as the Liberal Democrats move to confirm a candidate for Gove’s Surrey seat amid speculation he is considering quitting parliament, which would spark a byelection.
Lib Dem officials are planning for a possibly imminent campaign in which the party would fight on issues including the state of local hospitals and plans to drill for gas locally.
Gove told Times Radio:
I’m going to stay on as an MP. I’m going to make arguments for the vital importance of carrying on with the levelling up mission that Boris [Johnson] started.
I’m going to be arguing very strongly for a focus on education, on the environment, on prison reform, that is compassionate, and progressive, and in the best traditions of the Conservative party.
And I’ll be doing that as the majority of Conservative MPs do, from the backbenches. I’ll also be looking out for my constituents in Surrey Heath and making sure that I’m representing them effectively.
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Truss rules out energy rationing this winter at final Tory hustings
The chancellor’s assertion that “nothing is off the table” came as the Conservative leadership frontrunner, Liz Truss, ruled out energy rationing this winter as she clashed over the cost of living crisis with her rival, Rishi Sunak, at the final hustings in London last night.
The foreign secretary rejected the proposal, despite it being a key fall-back measure in the government’s “worst case” contingency planning.
However, Sunak said “we shouldn’t rule anything out” after the French government warned it may have to ration energy, urging company bosses to take steps to curb consumption.
As he made his final pitch to party members, the former chancellor added:
The challenges we face with this crisis are significant. Many European countries are looking at how we can all optimise our energy usage, that is a sensible thing for us to be doing as a country.
Asked by the LBC broadcaster Nick Ferrari at the last hustings before voting closes on Friday whether she could rule out energy rationing, Truss replied:
I do rule that out. Yes.
Under the government’s latest “reasonable worst case scenario”, published in August, businesses and even consumers could face blackouts this winter as concerns grow over power supplies.
Officials believe that without energy rationing, the UK could experience blackouts for several days in January if cold weather combines with gas shortages to leave the country short of power.
Updated
Current government support 'of course' not enough, says chancellor
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog.
As the race to become the next Conservative leader and next prime minister enters the final furlong, we will be bringing you all the news and reaction from last night’s hustings.
But we start with comments from the chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, who probably hasn’t even bothered unpacking at No 11 Downing Street and is likely to be out of a job by Monday.
He said this morning that said “of course” the current level of support offered by government to deal with rising energy prices will not be enough, but that his team is looking at options for the next administration.
Speaking to Sky News, Zahawi said:
My pledge to your viewers is more help beyond the £37bn will also be coming. At the moment we’re midway of spending about £37bn.
Asked whether it went far enough, he replied:
Of course it’s not, which is why the moment I walked in to the Treasury on 5 July I gathered my leadership team, I said: ‘One, how are we doing on delivering the help?’ Because it’s one thing to announce it, very different to get it into people’s accounts.
And there was a big focus on that. But equally importantly I said we need to prepare options for the incoming prime minister.
The chancellor also said that “there’s nothing off the table” in terms of options the government is assessing for how to deal with rising energy prices.
He said:
There’s nothing off the table. We are looking at all the options. Everything from the chief executive of Scottish Power talking about help where we need to maybe create some sort of a fund for companies to be able to continue to help their customers.
All the way through to making sure we target the help to both households and small and medium-size businesses and probably some larger businesses, because one of my concerns is the scarring effect on the economy if perfectly viable businesses in hospitality, in leisure, in high-energy use businesses would actually suffer or no longer exist because of Putin’s use of energy as a weapon.
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