Summary
Here’s a summary of today’s events:
During PMQs, Angela Rayner pointed out the last time the deputies stood in at PMQs two weeks running was in 1996. She says she’s proud to be in the same place John Prescott once stood, before pointing at Oliver Dowden, standing in for Sunak: “He’s no Heseltine.” Inspired by John Prescott’s question back in 1996, she pointed out that “tens of 1000s of families are facing repossession and homelessness” due to the “Tory mortgage bombshell”.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, gave a standalone press conference in Vilnius. From a UK perspective Sunak said “we are the leading European contributor to Nato” and said that British people should know how appreciated that is within the alliance, as one of the only nations that contributes to every Nato mission.
The prime minister has shut down comments by the defence secretary after Ben Wallace suggested Ukraine should show “gratitude” for the military support it has been given. Rishi Sunak said the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had “repeatedly expressed gratitude” for what the UK had done for Kyiv since Russia’s invasion broke out more than 500 days ago.
Nadine Dorries has been reported to the chief whip and Commons speaker after allegedly sending “forceful” emails to the government about not being given a peerage. In a highly unusual move, the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, revealed he had “flagged” the issue to the parliamentary authorities, and also asked for advice about any potential breach of the law.
Michael Gove’s department is handing back £1.9bn to the Treasury originally meant to tackle England’s housing crisis after struggling to find projects to spend it on. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has surrendered hundreds of millions of pounds budgeted for 2022-23, including £255m meant to fund new affordable housing and £245m meant to improve building safety.
Jeremy Hunt has told ministers there will be no extra money to give millions of public sector workers an average 6% pay rise, potentially leaving departments facing a difficult choice between raising salaries or cutting frontline services.
Rishi Sunak is set to host all Tory MPs for morale-boosting hog roast at Downing Street tonight. He’s due to fly back to the UK from the Nato summit this evening in time to welcome his guests and try to instil some positivity over his party’s struggle to recover in the polls and the prospect of them potentially losing in all three by-elections taking place next week on 20 July.
The Civil service chief, Simon Case, said the last five years had seen a deterioration in relations between officials and politicians, although he added the situation had improved since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.
That’s it for me for today. Thanks so much for joining me.
Updated
Almost 1 million UK homeowners will be forced to shell out at least £500 more a month to cover mortgage payments by the end of 2026, as borrowers suffer the consequences of rising interest rates, the Bank of England has warned.
Forecasts released on Wednesday showed that of the 4 million homeowners expected to roll on to new mortgage contracts over the next three years, the majority will be paying up to £220 more a month to cover the mortgage by the end of this year because of the difficulty of finding contracts with comparable rates.
The payments of more than 1 million borrowers are likely to rise by more than twice that amount by the end of 2026.
Markets are increasingly betting that policymakers at the Bank raise interest rates beyond the current level of 5% to a peak of 6.25% in early 2024 in order to combat stubbornly high inflation.
The average two-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.7% on Wednesday – the highest level since the middle of the financial crisis in August 2008, according to data from Moneyfacts.
However, the Bank governor, Andrew Bailey, said higher payments were part of the wider economic trade-off of trying to tame price growth.
He said:
It is going to have an impact, clearly.
That is part of the transmission of monetary policy, no question about that.
And I’m going to come back to the point we’ve made a number of times … we are trying to balance having the transmission function of monetary policy with two things … one is the resilience of the banking system, and two, its ability to support customers and manage the consequences of this.
But there still will be consequences of increased interest rates.
Read more here:
Updated
The prime minister has shut down comments by the defence secretary after Ben Wallace suggested Ukraine should show “gratitude” for the military support it has been given.
Rishi Sunak said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had “repeatedly expressed gratitude” for what the UK had done for Kyiv since Russia’s invasion broke out more than 500 days ago.
Wallace, in comments to reporters at the Nato summit in Vilnius, suggested Zelenskiy needed to be mindful about keeping “doubting politicians” in the US on-side, particularly with a presidential election coming up next year.
The former Scots Guard said some allies providing defensive aid to Kyiv “want to see gratitude”.
But Sunak, in a push back against his cabinet minister, said the Ukrainian people were “incredibly grateful for the support we have shown”.
You can follow more on the Ukraine-Russia war here:
Updated
Members of the NASUWT teachers’ union have voted in favour of industrial action over pay and workload, raising the prospect of mass strikes and widespread disruption across schools in England this autumn.
After months of stalemate with no progress over teachers’ pay, NASUWT members voted decisively for industrial action, with 88.5% of eligible members voting to support strike action and 94.3% supporting action short of strike.
The union will now draw up a programme of industrial action short of strike action starting in September, which will mean teachers working to rule. The NASUWT will also discuss the possibility of coordinated strike action with other education unions during the autumn term.
Negotiations between the Department for Education and the unions ended in March, with the NASUWT, the National Education Union, the National Association of Head Teachers and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) all decisively rejecting the government’s offer of a 4.3% pay rise and £1,000 one-off payment.
Since then the government has refused to reopen talks, with the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, saying ministers would wait for the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendations before making a further pay offer for the 2023-24 school year.
Read the full story here:
Boris Johnson’s vacated Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat is one of three up for grabs next week, but the contest for the west London constituency is leading to particularly frayed nerves among both the Conservatives and Labour.
Of the three byelections for Tory-held seats on 20 July, Labour’s best chance of winning appears to be in the “metroland” constituency, which was sprinkled with Johnson’s political stardust for more than eight years, before his rapid fall from grace.
Recent polling has put the party’s Danny Beales eight points ahead of his Tory rival. But a rearguard action by the Conservatives is seeking to frame the contest as a mini-referendum on opposition to the London mayor Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to rest of the city.
One Labour source said:
I go through days where I think we are doomed, and then days where I think we are actually going to do this. But it’s going to be close and I don’t think it is going to be a huge victory for either party.
Ultimately, the source believes the Tories are overplaying the Ulez card and that concern about it will be trumped by those about the cost of living crisis and interest rate rises, particularly among younger families who have changed the seat’s demographics.
Home to significant numbers of retirees – and with pockets of deprivation and prosperity – ethnically diverse, leave-voting constituency would be a particular fillip for Keir Starmer’s project.
Read the full story here:
Nadine Dorries has been reported to the chief whip and Commons speaker after allegedly sending “forceful” emails to the government about not being given a peerage.
In a highly unusual move, the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, revealed he had “flagged” the issue to the parliamentary authorities, and also asked for advice about any potential breach of the law.
The revelation threatens to reignite questions over Boris Johnson’s honours list, which was published last month but did not include at least one other MP who had expected to be given a peerage – leading that MP, Nigel Adams, to resign in protest.
Dorries tweeted on 9 June that she was standing down “with immediate effect”, but more than a month later has not formally done so. She said recently she was waiting for answers from ministers about why she was denied a peerage.
The Tory MP William Wragg described her as the “lingering” MP for Mid Bedfordshire, during an evidence session of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee on Wednesday.
Dorries, according to Wragg, used “rather forceful communications … threatening to use her position as an MP to get to the bottom of why she hasn’t been given a peerage”.
Case said he was “aware of those communications” and had “flagged them” to the chief whip, Simon Hart, and the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle.
Read more here:
Updated
Rishi Sunak vowed to “relentlessly focus” on fulfilling his priorities for the nation when it was put to him that all five are in doubt.
The prime minister told a press conference in Lithuania:
I am absolutely laser focused on delivering for the British people. Their priorities are my priorities.
Halving inflation because that’s the best way that we can ease the burden on them and the cost of living, cutting waiting lists because it’s wrong that people have to wait as long as they are currently, and about stopping the boats because that’s about simple fairness, as well as everything else.
And just most recently, you could see us delivering on that just yesterday in parliament, passing some of the toughest legislation that any government has ever passed when it comes to tackling that priority.
He added:
I am ambitious for the country and I’m ambitious for what I want to achieve for people. So it’s right that I set ambitious priorities and targets and it’s right that we strain every sinew to meet them and that’s what I’m doing.
Updated
At the press conference, Rishi Sunak was asked whether he would consider temporarily raising taxes to curb inflation.
Some backbench MPs have also called for the government to cut inflation, even as ministers have stressed the need for a responsible fiscal policy to cut inflation.
He said:
It’s important that government has a responsible approach to fiscal policy in order to complement what the Bank of England is doing on monetary policy, so that we can halve inflation on its way back down to its long-term target.
Now, all the decisions that we make are going to be guided by that.
Updated
Rishi Sunak was asked about public sector pay during his press conference.
He said his decision will be guided by two principles.
The first is fairness. Fairness for our public sector workers, because we want to make sure that they’re rewarded fairly for their hard work, but also fairness the taxpayers who have to foot the bill for pay rises, and the other thing will be guided by is responsibility.
Everyone knows the economic context that we’re in and we need to make sure that government decisions, particularly when it comes to not borrowing more, are made responsibly so that we don’t fuel inflation and make it worse or last for longer.
Updated
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is giving a standalone press conference in Vilnius.
From a UK perspective Sunak said “we are the leading European contributor to Nato” and said that British people should know how appreciated that is within the alliance, as one of the only nations that contributes to every Nato mission.
He lauded the G7 framework for security for Ukraine but said the UK had moved first on several elements in providing for Ukraine, and said that the UK starts training Ukrainian pilots next month. He harks back to the UK being one of the founding members of Nato.
He said:
Nato is more important than ever. It has proved to be one the most important alliance in history and the UK is at its heart.
He is taking questions from journalists who are asking about domestic policy as well as questions about Nato.
You can follow our Ukraine liveblog for more on the latter:
Almost 1,200 Scottish homes are being brought back into use to house Ukrainian refugees with the help of a Scottish government fund.
PA reports:
A total of 14 projects have been provided with £23m to bring 1,168 homes back into use, offering accommodation to those fleeing to Scotland due to the Russian invasion.
The money came from a £50m fund that the Scottish government set up last year, with almost 1,000 Ukrainian nationals already being put up in 450 refurbished homes, according to government figures.
The figures come as the contract for a cruise ship in Edinburgh which temporarily housed Ukrainian refugees ended.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the social justice secretary, said: “We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and are determined to do all we can to help those who wish to build their life here in Scotland.
“Our innovative £50m programme provides a vital lifeline for those fleeing the war by providing long-term and secure accommodation through reclaimed empty homes.
“I am proud that Scotland has been able to play its part and pleased to see us reach and surpass the crucial milestone of 1,000 homes for displaced Ukrainians.
“We have been able to house hundreds of families and individuals in safe accommodation so far and we will continue to work closely with councils and housing associations as we build on this excellent progress.”
According to the most recent figures, almost 25,000 Ukrainians came to the UK with a sponsor located in Scotland, 20,022 under the Scottish government’s super sponsor scheme.
Updated
G7 countries have agreed to stand by Ukraine for “as long as it takes” as they set out the details of what a package of new security measures will entail, with the UK pledging to get more Ukrainian pilots trained in Britain.
PA reports:
The leaders of the wealthiest economies, which includes the UK, US, Japan, Canada, France, Germany and Italy, jointly penned a security accord at the Nato summit in Vilnius on Wednesday.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said it marks a “new high point” in international support for Ukraine.
He thinks it will send a message to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and has the potential to bring an end to the conflict in eastern Europe.
The pact contains promises to act multilaterally and on a country-to-country basis to offer Ukraine long-term security guarantees.
The UK’s side of the bargain will see more Ukrainian pilots trained in Britain.
No 10 said the precise offer for each country will be set out in their bilateral agreements.
In a joint declaration signed by G7 leaders, they said: “We will stand with Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression, for as long as it takes.
“We stand united in our enduring support for Ukraine, rooted in our shared democratic values and interests, above all, respect for the UN charter and the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The group said the mission was to “ensure a sustainable force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future”.
The pact promises security assistance and modern military equipment, prioritising air defence, artillery and long-range fires, armoured vehicles and other key capabilities, such as air combat.
Ukraine’s military equipment will increasingly be brought into “interoperability with Euro-Atlantic partners”.
Plans are also in place to boost Kyiv’s defence industry, commit to more training exercises and provide support for cyber defence and resilience initiatives.
G7 countries are also pledging to help Ukraine meet the reforms asked of it to become a Nato member.
They added that the west “remains committed to supporting Ukraine by holding Russia accountable” through sanctions and by punishing “war crimes and other atrocities”.
Updated
An MP has called upon the deputy prime minister to delve into the depths of his soul and condemn the Home Office’s decision to paint over an asylum centre children’s mural.
PA reports that the SNP’s Pete Wishart criticised the lack of compassion and concern demonstrated by ministers in response to what he described as a “grotesque” ask.
The decision to paint over murals of cartoon characters, including Mickey Mouse and Baloo from The Jungle Book, at an asylum seeker reception centre in Kent was made by immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who reportedly felt they were too “welcoming”.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, though, Jenrick said the murals were painted over because they were not “age appropriate” for the majority of the young people staying there.
When challenged by Wishart at prime minister’s questions, Oliver Dowden emphasised the government’s determination to combat the “vile” people smuggling trade and condemned those involved in exploiting vulnerable women and children.
Perth and North Perthshire MP Mr Wishart told the Commons: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so grotesque as the painting-over of Mickey Mouse on a children’s mural, as was done by the Home Office in a detention centre in Kent. No minister so far has raised the necessary compassion or concern to speak out about this.
“So can I ask the Deputy prime minister to look into the deeper recesses of his soul and just simply condemn it?”
Dowden replied: “I’ll tell him what real compassion looks like and that means stopping the vile people smuggling trade across the Channel condemning women and children to death.
“This government is taking action to deal with it, with our stop the boats bill, and that party shamefully 18 times last night voted against it.”
Updated
At PMQs, Angela Rayner repeated John Prescott’s question from 1996 – “Why is it that in Tory Britain tens of thousands of families are facing repossession, negative equity and homelessness?” – and asked why she should need to ask the same question 27 years later, as she challenged Oliver Dowden on child poverty and the “Tory mortgage bombshell”.
Dowden and Rayner were standing in for the prime minister and the Labour leader as Rishi Sunak attended a Nato summit in Vilnius.
Updated
The joint chief executive of Thames Water has refused to apologise for allowing water companies to increase their debt during her time as chief of Ofwat, the water regulator.
Cathryn Ross’s comments came during a parliamentary committee session with Thames Water bosses as concerns mount over the financial viability of the company.
Thames Water has secured £750m of emergency funding from its shareholders but the debt-ridden company warned it would need further funding in the years ahead.
Updated
The independent MP Angus MacNeil will not return to the SNP group after his suspension expires, he has announced.
The Western Isles MP has criticised the party’s independence strategy, saying he will not return to the Westminster group until at least after the SNP conference in October if they provide “clarity on independence”, PA News reports.
In a letter he published on Twitter, MacNeil said:
I will only seek the SNP whip again if it is clear that the SNP are pursuing independence.
At the moment, the SNP has become a brand name missing the key ingredient. The urgency for independence is absent.
He added:
The Scottish government went to the supreme court a year ago utterly clueless about how to pursue independence, left the supreme court utterly clueless about how to pursue independence.
The SNP still have no clear understanding that it has to use elections to negotiate Scottish independence from Westminster by getting the backing of the majority of the electorate.
The SNP members must have a say at conference on the policy direction, which is hasn’t until now.
Updated
The appointments of the current and previous chairs of the water regulator Ofwat should be investigated, campaigners have said, as the Liberal Democrats called for the watchdog to be abolished.
Jonson Cox, a former chair of the regulator, had multimillion-pound links with the privatised water industry before taking up the role. The current chair, Iain Coucher, remains a senior adviser to a global private equity firm that has interests in the water industry in the US.
Cox and Coucher declared all their interests when they were appointed by the government. Campaigners say their respective appointments represent a failure of the system and have written to Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, calling for an independent investigation.
Ofwat is under increasing pressure because of the scale of debts England’s water companies have been allowed to build up – £60bn – while paying out more than £72bn in dividends since privatisation. Ultimately the environment secretary is responsible for the appointment of the chair of the regulator.
Ash Smith, an activist from the group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, said in the letter to Coffey:
The failure of the regulators is now obvious, so the reasons why supposedly highly regulated water companies have done so well by exploiting captive bill-payers should, we think, be an important subject for the secretary of state ultimately responsible for the sewage scandal. ‘Regulatory capture’ or worse are obvious features that surely require investigation.
I urge you to order an independent investigation, but this time to extend across the board of water industry regulation; to include the influence of conflicting interests and the revolving door of employment between the regulated and the regulator.
Tim Farron, the environment spokesperson for the Lib Dems, supported calls for an inquiry into the regulator and the industry as a whole on Wednesday. The party is calling for Ofwat to be abolished and replaced with a more powerful new regulator.
Read more here:
Downing Street said there was “no final decision” on public sector pay, with ministers still considering whether to accept the recommendations of pay review bodies.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are still working through that process.”
He said the government, with the target of cutting inflation, would “need to consider those recommendations carefully”.
He told reporters:
We are looking at all of those recommendations in the round and are working through the process. We haven’t made a final decision on accepting them.
The spokesperson indicated that there would be concerns about borrowing to fund pay rises.
Clearly, borrowing to fund double-digit pay rises ... we think would be inflationary, so we need to consider in the round.
Updated
Here’s some reaction to today’s PMQs:
Rachel Wearmouth, deputy political editor of the New Statesman says Rayner demolished Dowden.
Angela Rayner demolished Oliver Dowden at PMQs today with a very punchy bit riffing off a 1996 PMQs between Prescott & Heseltine & how “27 years later” Labour’s deputy leader is asking the same Qs on child poverty, mortgages & the cost of living
— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) July 12, 2023
The Mirror’s Whitehall correspondent Mikey Smith says Dowden was like a substitute teacher unable to control the class.
Real substitute teacher who’s lost control of the class vibes from Dowden today. It’s painful. #pmqs
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) July 12, 2023
Columnist for the Evening Standard and the iPaper Ayesha Hazarika said Dowden’s attempt at a joke was painful.
Good Lord, Dowden murdered that tree hugger magic money tree line. Probably sounded quite good in rehearsal, but he managed to mangle it quite spectacularly in the chamber.
— Ayesha Hazarika (@ayeshahazarika) July 12, 2023
Noa Hoffman, political reporter of the Sun says the whole thing was painful.
This PMQs is ✨ painful ✨
— Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) July 12, 2023
John Rentoul, chief political commentator, the Independent, said Dowden’s cliches were dreadful.
Bring back Rishi Sunak – his cliches are less dreadful than his deputy's #PMQs
— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) July 12, 2023
Updated
Cat Smith of Labour asks Dowden about plans to close ticket offices, which she says is “yet another cost-of-living bombshell” hitting constituents.
Dowden says it is important railways continue to “reform” after the “record amount of money we gave them during Covid”.
He adds that if Smith is concerned about people’s ability to take trains she should condemn “totally unjustified” strikes.
Updated
Mhairi Black, the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, asked about the rise in mortgage rates, which she says are have surpassed the levels seen after the “disastrous mini-budget” by Kwasi Kwarteng.
She asks:
How high do they need to go until he and his government takes it seriously?
In response, Dowden says “the driver of higher mortgage rates is higher inflation”.
He adds that this is driven by the war in Ukraine and disruption in the supply chain due to Covid, adding that Sunak plans to halve inflation.
Black responds that it has been forecast that mortgages could rise by another £500 for a million households.
She says:
The prime minister says people need to hold their nerve.
She added that people need help “right now”.
Pete Wishart brings up the order from the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick to repaint murals of cartoon characters including Mickey Mouse painted on the walls of an asylum seeker reception centre
He said:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so grotesque as the painting over of Micky Mouse on a children’s mural as was done by the Home Office at a detention centre.
No Tory Minister has roused the necessary compassion or concern to speak out about this. So can I ask the Deputy PM too look into the deeper recesses of his soul and just simply condem it?
Oliver Dowden responds by deflecting:
I’ll tell [Pete Wishart] what real compassion looks like. Stopping the vile people smuggling trade across the channel, condemning women and children to death. The SNP shamefully 18 times last night voted against our Stop the Boats Bill.
Updated
Oliver Dowden:
It is this party, not the party opposite, which extended free school meals to all five, six and seven-year-olds, something the party opposite failed to do, and it sits alongside many measures we’re taking to help people with the cost of living.
Dowden went on to highlight further government support, adding:
It may come as a surprise to (Ms Rayner) but balancing the books means more than working out how many millions to take from her union paymasters.
Oliver Dowden says Labour says it is the party of working people, but under their plans, people can’t even get to work, with Just Stop Oil protesters “blocking our roads”, “their union paymasters stopping our trains” and the “hated ULEZ stopping cars across our capital”.
He says Conservatives get Britain moving while Labour is just “standing in everyone’s way”.
Angela Rayner: The truth is, rising bills and soaring mortgages and plummeting real wages are pushing more and more families to the brink. Those already struggling are being hit hardest by the Tory mortgage bombshell and rising food costs.
Dowden said the government has lifted 400,000 children out of child poverty.
He also pointed to measures to cut taxes by “doubling the personal allowance”.
He said:
That is the surest way to ensure we lift people out of poverty.
In response, Rayner doubled down on her comparison to Boris Johnson:
It’s like the ghost of prime minister past is still here.
She told Dowden to be careful about the stats he uses. She said her counterpart can’t solve child poverty if he doesn’t acknowledge the problem.
She then asked: How many kids don’t have a permanent address today, compared to when Labour left office in 2010?
Dowden fumbled as he didn’t seem to have an answer.
Updated
Angela Rayner accused Oliver Dowden of taking tips from Boris Johnson as the pair clashed over child poverty and homelessness in the UK.
She said:
I think he’s taking tips from the former prime minister on telling the facts.
The last Labour government worked hard to dramatically reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation.
But under the Tories, the number of homeless children has risen by 75%. I’m proud of our record on tackling child poverty.
Rayner then asked if Dowden is ashamed of the Tory record.
Lots of laughs in the Commons has Oliver Dowden makes a poorly executed dig about Keir Starmer and tree huggers (for reference, Starmer apparently hates them).
He says:
They seem very keen on hugging that magic money tree.
Updated
Rayner attacks Dowden over 'Tory mortgage bombshell'
Angela Rayner points out the last time the deputies stood in at PMQs two weeks running was in 1996. She says she’s proud to be in the same place John Prescott once stood, before pointing at Oliver Dowden: “He’s no Heseltine.”
Inspired by John Prescott’s question back in 1996, she points out that “tens of 1000s of families are facing repossession and homelessness” due to the ‘Tory mortgage bombshell”.
Oliver Dowden says he won’t take a lecture on housing policy from the Labour party and points out that his parents would not have been able to buy their own home if it were not for Margaret Thatcher.
Updated
Oliver Dowden has kicked off PMQs by pointing out that he is covering for Rishi Sunak, who is at the Nato summit.
He begins by pledging that the Tories will “continue to invest” in renewable energy, before stressing the UK must also invest in “energy independence”.
He says: “That means investing in the North Sea,” warning that if we don’t there will be higher carbon emissions “as we import from elsewhere”.
Dowden is then asked about Labour plans to “tax education of choice”. He says schools are concerned “this will apply to them as well”. The deputy prime minister said these Labour plans could cost £300m.
Updated
Ofwat chief executive David Black told MPs taxpayers would face some extra costs if Thames Water was placed into a so-called special administration regime (SAR), but that these would be far lower than seen after the collapse of Bulb.
He said water companies have very large assets, which would help limit the cost to taxpayers.
Black said:
We do accept that there is a risk to taxpayers and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been working to drive increased financial resilience into companies.
He said the regulator was still on standby to place Thames Water into an SAR, but that it was not an immediate risk, given the recent pledge by investors to pump more cash into the firm.
Black said:
It’s prudent planning to be ready for SAR. We need to be ready to deploy that.
It’s great that the company has secured the commitment from shareholders but the money has not yet arrived. At that point, we will feel more confident.
Oliver Dowden to face Angela Rayner at PMQs shortly
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, will be taking PMQs shortly. He is facing Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader. Dowden is at the dispatch box.
Rishi Sunak, who currently has the worst attendance rate at PMQs for a PM since 1979, is at the Nato summit in in Vilnius.
Here’s what to expect from the House of Commons order paper:
At 12 noon
Oral Questions to the Prime MinisterQ1: Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Whether he has made an assessment of the impact of a potential reduction in oil production by Saudi Arabia and Russia on domestic energy prices.Q2 Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet)
If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 12 July.Q3 Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire)
Q4 Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Q5 Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay)
Q6 Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East)
Q7 Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian)
Q8 Hywel Williams (Arfon)
Q9 John Spellar (Warley)
Q10 Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East)
Q11 Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton)
Q12 Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire)
Q13 Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden)
Q14 Wera Hobhouse (Bath)
Q15 Vicky Ford (Chelmsford)
Simon Case told MPs that some people had sought to “weaponise” the Sue Gray row amid broader attacks on the civil service.
The cabinet secretary criticised the use of the term “the blob”, a phrase deployed often by some Tory MPs to attack the civil service and officials.
Taking questions from the Tory MP David Jones about whether the Partygate investigator’s move to join Sir Keir Starmer’s team had stoked concerns, Case said:
Actually, it has been particularly important that we assure ourselves and ministers that ministers are comfortable and happy that the impartiality of the civil service has been upheld. They are satisfied it has.
Undoubtedly, there are people who have sought to weaponise this case.
On the use of the term “the blob” more generally, Case said:
There has always been language that has been around for people to express their frustrations – [at] the establishment, the system. I think this is a bit different.
I fear it is being used in a very modern, dehumanising way. There are legitimate frustrations within the system.
He told Jones, as a former minister, “you would have raised them privately through the proper channels”.
Updated
The Treasury’s tax and spending watchdog is preparing to sound the alarm over the impact of rising interest rates on the public finances, delivering a serious blow to the government’s scope for pre-election tax cuts.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility will warn that stubbornly high inflation and soaring borrowing costs are adding to the challenges facing Rishi Sunak, making it less likely that he will meet one of his five key pledges: tackling Britain’s public debt.
It is understood the OBR will produce a range of scenarios in its annual “fiscal risks and sustainability report” on Thursday, setting out the impact of higher interest rates for the public purse, in a warning that sustained pressure could force it to tear up its official forecasts.
The watchdog said it would “assess the fiscal implications of recent rises in global interest rates, consider the vulnerability of the UK’s current debt position, and explore the challenges in getting debt to fall in the coming years”.
Read the full story by my colleague Richard Partington here:
Updated
Civil service chief Simon Case said the last five years had seen a deterioration in relations between officials and politicians, although he added the situation had improved since Rishi Sunak became prime minister, PA News reports.
The cabinet secretary told MPs:
The last five years or so have seen, I think, an increased number of attacks on civil servants individually and collectively by significant political figures which has undoubtedly undermined the good functioning of government.
I’m very happy to say that under this prime minister things have changed very significantly.
He said the tone of ministers talking about civil servants in public had “changed quite significantly”.
Asked about attacks on the establishment “blob” by current and recent ministers, Case said the prime minister had rejected that term.
Case added:
Obviously I don’t agree with a characterisation which is insulting, dehumanising, totally unacceptable.
It would surprise me if current ministers were using this language, not least because if they were it would indicate something akin to self-defeating cowardice.
Tory MP William Wragg asked Simon Case if he was aware of “any rather forceful communications” sent by Nadine Dorries “to senior civil servants” about potentially using “the platform of the Commons and indeed her own television programme to get to the bottom of why she hadn’t been given a peerage?”
The cabinet secretary said:
Yes, was aware of those communications and have flagged them to both the chief whip and Speaker of the House.
Asked during the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee session if he had taken legal advice on whether the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 could “come into play”, the top civil servant said he was “seeking further advice on that question. So taken initial advice, but asked for more.”
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has rejected Boris Johnson’s criticism of partygate investigator and former civil servant Sue Gray.
Appearing before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, he was pressed by MPs on the circumstances surrounding Gray’s decision to take up a job with Sir Keir Starmer.
Asked about Johnson’s remarks, Case said he did not speak for the former prime minister.
He said:
We found no evidence that Sue’s report was affected by party political considerations.
And actually I am not sure the timeline, as we now understand it from the material in the Acoba (Advisory Committee on Business Appointments) judgment, quite works.
Sue’s report was produced early in 2022, her first contact as we understand it from the material she provided to Acoba was in October 2022.
So there seems to be a timeline, a gap, as well.
A senior civil servant has offered a “sincere apology” to a chemical weapons expert who was blacklisted from speaking at a conference after finding tweets that were critical of the government.
Earlier this year, my colleague Dan Sabbagh reported that Dan Kaszeta had been disinvited by The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), commonly known as Porton Down, from giving a keynote speech at a UK-run expert conference after civil servants discovered social media posts he wrote criticising Conservative ministers and government migration policy.
Kaszeta was one of at least eight speakers banned from government events by an opaque vetting scheme introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2022, a policy that the banned expert described as an attack on free speech.
In January, government officials asked Kaszeta, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the field, to address the Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference in London. He said the officials offered to waive a registration fee so he would speak.
But in early April, that offer was withdrawn when a civil servant wrote to him to explain that new government rules required that “the social media accounts of potential speakers must be vetted” before they could speak at official events.
“The check on your social media has identified materials that criticised government officials and policy,” the email continued, without indicating which postings were deemed unacceptable, or offering Kaszeta a right of appeal.
In a letter, seen by The Guardian, Paul Hollinshead, the chief executive of Porton Down, has admitted that its decision was based on an analysis of Kaszeta’s Twitter activity and was improper.
Hollinshead wrote:
I am writing to offer my sincere apologies for Dstl’s error in rescinding your invitation to the Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference in May this year.
This decision was incorrectly taken following informal checks of your social media posts and due to a misapplication of Cabinet Office guidance which was referred to in media reports and which only applies to Cabinet office staff events.
This was not in accordance Dstl’s process for organising events.
Kaszeta, writing today in The Times, said that being banned was “bad for my career” and bad for democracy. He said that the apology was a vindication for him but did not go far enough.
He said:
Apologies to other victims of blacklisting would be even better . . . secret blacklists are indefensible in a modern democracy.
The fact that a policy was applied to me in error does not address the issue that they exist.
Jeremy Hunt has told ministers there will be no extra money to give millions of public sector workers an average 6% pay rise, potentially leaving departments facing a difficult choice between raising salaries or cutting frontline services.
The Guardian understands the chancellor has ruled out providing a further cash injection beyond what is already budgeted if Rishi Sunak decides to implement the recommendations of independent pay review bodies, which are expected as soon as Thursday.
Government sources said the decision over whether to back the proposal for no more funding would only be made once the prime minister was back from the Nato summit in Vilnius on Wednesday night and had gone over the figures. “There’s definitely still contention in this,” one said.
Cabinet ministers have been urging Sunak to agree to adopt the recommendations against a backdrop of the rising cost of living and amid concerns that public sector strikes could continue in the run-up to the next general election.
Senior Conservatives are concerned they will have to cut frontline services across education, health and policing if they are expected to fund the estimated £5bn difference between budgeted increases of 3.5% and the pay review body recommendations.
Read more on this story here:
Nadine Dorries has written a book titled The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, due to be published days before the Tory Party conference in September.
The former prime minister’s staunch ally claims to have uncovered a “fault line” within the Conservative Party through conversations with cabinet ministers, civil servants and party officials which form the basis of her account, PA News reports.
The book, for which Dorries received £20,500 as a partial advance from HarperCollins, is billed as the story of “treachery and deceit at the heart of the Westminster machine”.
It is set to hit the stands on September 28 – just three days before Conservatives convene for the annual party conference on October 1.
The former culture secretary said:
I had wanted to discover the forces behind the downfall of the prime minister. Instead, I found a fault line within the Conservative party stretching back decades, and a history of deception fuelled by the darkest political arts.
If you thought that power flowed from the people into Parliament, be prepared to think again.
Dorries was among eight Conservative parliamentarians recently rebuked for her conduct in relation to the Privileges Committee investigation of Johnson.
Rishi Sunak and Volodymyr Zelensky met earlier for a bilateral on the fringes of the Nato summit in Vilnius.
The prime minister suggested the pair meet without aides present, with the Ukrainian president agreeing that there should be “only two” of them in the room.
Sunak told his counterpart:
It is good to see you here at Nato where you belong.
Zelensky thanked Sunak for helping secure additional security guarantees for Kyiv, with a G7 deal due to be signed on Wednesday in the Lithuanian capital.
He also tweeted that negotiations with the UK “always enhance global security”.
The meeting with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom @RishiSunak 🇬🇧 has begun. Our negotiations always enhance global security! More news to come.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 12, 2023
Zelensky said he wanted to use his meeting with Sunak to talk about security guarantees for Kyiv.
The prime minister told him there had been “real progress” on that matter.
He said:
What your soldiers are doing on the front line, it is inspiring to everyone.
We’re proud to have played a part in training some of them.
They have served with enormous bravery and courage.
Zelensky said the training missions in the UK had been “very important”, with Sunak adding it was clear the exercises had “been put to good use”.
You can follow our dedicated liveblog on the Russia-Ukraine war here:
Gove’s department hands back £1.9bn meant to tackle England’s housing crisis
Michael Gove’s department is handing back £1.9bn to the Treasury originally meant to tackle England’s housing crisis after struggling to find projects to spend it on.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has surrendered hundreds of millions of pounds budgeted for 2022-23, including £255m meant to fund new affordable housing and £245m meant to improve building safety.
Officials said the department was unable to spend the money, which accounts for about a third of its entire housing budget, thanks to rising interest rates and uncertainty in the housing market after the Covid-19 pandemic.
But experts warn the lack of investment is likely to exacerbate the housing crisis in England, where homebuilding is forecast to drop to its lowest level since the second world war.
Jack Shaw, a local government expert who uncovered the figures through a freedom of information request, said:
The government is experiencing significant challenges investing in housing because of a perfect storm in market conditions.
But the decision to delay housing investment or withdraw it altogether as a result of lower than anticipated spending will mean fewer homes are built.
Read the full story by my colleague Kiran Stacey here:
Thames Water bosses are being questioned by MPs on the at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee over the company’s financial viability.
The interim joint chief executive of Thames Water said leadership at the troubled supplier is “very focused on turning this business around”.
Alastair Cochran told MPs:
I was brought in with a whole new executive team to turn around this business.
This business matters - it serves 15 million customers. Our job collectively is turn this business around.
We know performance both operationally and financially hasn’t been where it needs to be. We’ve been very transparent about that.
We are very focused on turning this business around, making it sure it is financially resilient and delivers a better service for customers, and improves both its operational and environmental performance.
The chairman of the water supplier has told MPs that the departure of its former boss Sarah Bentley last month was surprising.
Sir Adrian Montague said:
I think Sarah’s resignation was a surprise.
I think she had got to the point perhaps of feeling that the burdens of office were considerable and it was an entirely personal decision, with which I think we had no involvement.
My colleague Alex Lawson wrote this piece yesterday which explains what has been going on:
Rishi Sunak to host Tory MPs at No 10 after missing PMQs for second week in a row
Rishi Sunak is set to host all Tory MPs for morale-boosting hog roast at Downing Street tonight, as he misses his second PMQs in a row.
The prime minister is still in Lithuania, where he is attending a two-day Nato summit and meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, president of Ukraine.
He’s due to fly back to the UK this evening in time to welcome his guests and try to instil some positivity over his party’s struggle to recover in the polls and the prospect of them potentially losing in all three by-elections taking place next week on 20 July.
All MPs, regardless of allegiances are reportedly invited including Nadine Dorries who is set to trigger the fourth by-election battle of the summer.
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden will once again hold the fort for Sunak, facing Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party
Sunak has now missed around 20% of PMQ sessions, which is the largest percentage of Prime Minister’s Questions of any inhabitant of Number 10, figures from the House of Commons Library and research by Sky News shows.
I will be looking after the politics blog today. If you have any tips or suggestions, please get in touch: nicola.slawson@theguardian.com
