Afternoon summary
Rishi Sunak has denied claims that the government has promised to start flights carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda by the summer. Giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee, asked about reports about this supposed pledge, he replied:
No one has promised flights by the summer … what we have said is we will start flights as soon as we can after legal proceedings have completed.
As the Daily Mirror’s John Stevens points out, the claim that the flights were due to start by the summer was widely reported by journalists who accompanied Suella Braverman, the home secretary, to Rwanda recently.
Rishi Sunak says no one has promised Rwanda flights will take off by this summer... pic.twitter.com/ChJxJHqw2q
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 28, 2023
Braverman was not quoted directly making the summer pledge, but a Home Office insider was quoted as saying “we are certainly working towards getting the flights off before the summer”. The Mail on Sunday splash headline attributed the promise to Braverman.
Mail on Sunday: Suella: i’ll send boat migrants
— George Mann 🫧⚒️🫧 (@sgfmann) March 18, 2023
to Rwanda by summer #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/h2V4M0luWt
Sunak faced another tricky Braverman-related question at the hearing when he was asked about her claim that the south of England is facing an “invasion” of asylym seekers. Sunak did not endorse Braverman’s language, but he said the problem was significant. He told MPs:
It’s very clear that the scale of the problem is significant and growing.
When you’ve had a quadrupling or quintupling of the number of illegal arrivals in the space of just two years, it’s important to actually recognise the pace of what’s happening, and that’s a very large number and it’s growing very quickly.
Kate Forbes, who was narrowly beaten by Humza Yousaf in the SNP leadership contest, has turned down a job in his government. The news broke after MSPs formally voted to nominate Yousaf for first minister. This is from the BBC’s Glen Campbell.
Kate Forbes has turned down a job in Humza Yousaf’s government
— Glenn Campbell (@GlennBBC) March 28, 2023
She will return to the backbenches
I understand she was offered a move to rural affairs
Setback for efforts to reunite SNP after divisive leadership contest
Jeremy Corbyn has issued a statement saying the Labour party’s decision to block him from standing as a candidate at the next election is “a shameful attack on party democracy, party members and natural justice”. The statement implies that he will stand again at the election as an independent.
I have spent my life fighting for a fairer society on behalf of the people of Islington North, and I have no intention of stopping now. pic.twitter.com/9HuvErXpEp
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 28, 2023
Updated
I’m back, picking up from Emily Dugan.
Turning back to Jeremy Corbyn, officers in his local Labour party, Islington North, have issued a statement criticising the decision to block him from standing as a candidate for the party.
— Islington North Labour Party (@IslingtonNorth) March 28, 2023
Updated
Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey attacks Farmers' Weekly, suggesting it's biased
There were extraordinary scenes in the Commons environment commitee earlier when where Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, was being grilled by MPs now.
Despite representing farmers, she said, “I am not going to pretend to read the editorials in Farmers’ Weekly,” when asked by chair Sir Robert Goodwill if she had read an editorial which referred to her appearance as NFU conference as a “car crash”. She said this is because “I am into information and facts”.
She also launched a scathing attack on the author of the piece, Farmers’ Weekly editor Andrew Meredith, accusing him of “voting Liberal Democrat for a decade before joining Labour.” This is false; Meredith – a fine journalist, incidentally - tells me he has never been a member of a political party and seemed rather baffled by the personal attack.
Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson, Tim Farron, defended Meredith, notwithstanding his denial of ever supporting the party.
He told me: “Comments like these demonstrate the hostility of the Conservative government towards farmers just trying to get by.”
Coffey also refused to respond to comments by Tesco CEO John Allan about food suppliers profiteering post pandemic, claiming not to have read or seen the remarks, which were aired on the Laura Kuenssberg show.
Additionally, she rejected the committee’s recommendation that she release an annual food security report because “it takes a considerable amount of time”.
Updated
In a final series of questions, Sir Bill Cash (Con) says that the Windsor framework does not represent the kind of union that the people of Northern Ireland expect.
Sunak says “I believe this is about the ‘delicate balance’ of the Good Friday agreement and that the Windsor Framework does that.”
He adds: “I want to see power-sharing up and running and that’s what the people of Northern Ireland need and deserve.” He says he thinks the framework “does have broad support”.
The session has now ended.
Updated
Back on Northern Ireland and the Windsor framework, Sir Bill Cash (Con) asks if Northern Ireland will be perpetually locked into EU laws, including new ones and asks how that fits with Sunak’s support for the union.
Sunak says that Northern Ireland will have the ability to have their say over laws and ultimately to block them if they don’t agree with them.
Updated
Angus Brendan MacNeil (SNP) asks Sunak about independence for Scotland. He asks if Sunak would prefer Scotland to decide on the issue on the basis of an election.
Sunak says “I don’t think it’s appropriate to hijack a general election” and that there has already been a referendum on the issue.
Updated
Dame Diana Johnson (Lab) moves onto the government’s rhetoric on immigration. She asks whether Sunak believes it is politically charged to use the word “invasion” in relation to small boats.
Sunak says “it’s very clear that the scale of the problem is significant and growing” but does not answer the language question. He adds that what matters is action – to which Johnson quips: “language matters, doesn’t it prime minister?”
Updated
Sarah Champion (Lab) moves onto international development spending. She asks why no budget is ringfenced by the Treasury to support refugees in the UK, adding: “Why is it that you think it’s fine to raid the overseas development assistance budget?”
Sunak says the government provided an additional £2bn on spending for refugees after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and says: “We remain one of the leading spenders on international development anywhere in the world.”
Updated
Caroline Nokes (Con) asks what will happen to Afghan refugees who helped British troops and might have been eligible under the relocation schemes but instead arrive on small boats.
When Sunak does not answer the question, Nokes asks: “Is it right that an Afghan female judge or MP who arrived on a small boat should be treated differently [than one who arrived before the new policy]?”
Sunak says “the point is we have to break the cycle” of criminal gangs bringing people over by boat and that taking people to an alternative safe country such as Rwanda is “reasonable”.
Updated
The committee has moved onto the issue of small boats. Caroline Nokes (Con) asks whether children under the care of the Home Office have the same protections under the Children Act as those in local authority care.
Sunak dodges the question and says he and the government take the welfare of children seriously. He says their policy on small boats treats people humanely and safeguards children’s welfare but also breaks the cycle of criminal gangs.
Updated
Childcare is a big issue on the petitions committee website, Sir Bernard Jenkin says.
My colleague Emily Dugan is taking over the coverage now.
Catherine McKinnell (Lab), chair of the petitons committee, goes next.
Q: Would you agree childcare is in crisis?
No, says Sunak. He says there was a big package of measures in the budget.
Q: People have raised safety concerns about the changes to staff/child ratios. And why is the government giving a £600 bonus to people who sign up individually as a childminder, but a £1,200 bonus if they sign up through an agency.
Sunak says he thinks this scheme was designed in consultation with the sector.
Pressed why private agencies are getting more, Sunak says he will look into this.
Pressed again, he thinks recruitment costs are higher for agencies.
McKinnell asks, cryptically, if Sunak has anything to declare.
No, says Sunak. He says all his interests are declared in the normal way.
(She seems to be suggesting that he has money invested in a childcare recruitment agency.)
Q: What do you want the NHS to do differently to tackle economic inactivity?
Sunak says the main focus was on musculoskeletal conditions. He won’t go into the details, he says. But he says the OBR said it was the biggest package of supply side measures.
Work can be helpful to people’s mental health, he says.
Stephen Crabb (Con), chair of the Welsh affairs committee, goes next.
Q: The crown estate will make enormous sums from offshore wind. Should that money be earmarked for port infrastructure?
Sunak says the government is already investing in port infrastructure.
Sir Bernard Jenkin says at the end of the Labour government the aircraft carrier programme was paused to save £150m. But that cost an extra £650m, he says. Has the same calculation been done with HS2?
Sunak says he is sure the transport department has considered this point, but he says he does not have the cost/benefit figures to hand.
Sunak says HS2 will definitely reach Euston, not just terminating at Old Oak Common
Iain Stewart (Con), chair of the transport committe, goes next.
Q: Are you worried that the delays to HS2 will be a false economy?
Sunak says he wants to deliver value for the taxpayer. Given the inflationary pressures, it was right to reschedule, he says.
Q: Will HS2 definitely go to Euston? Some government statements have been ambiguous [implying it could just end at Old Oak Common].
Yes, says Sunak (meaning it will go to Euston). He says this should not be ambiguous. The aim is to deliver the route to Euston along with the rollout to Manchester.
At the weekend Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, said he could not say HS2 would definitely reach Euston.
Meg Hillier (Lab), chair of the public accounts committee, asks Sunak to clarify how much NHS trusts will have to pay to fund the pay rise for nurses and other NHS staff.
Sunak says he has nothing to add to what he told Steve Brine earlier (which did not fully address the question.)
When pressed, he says there will be additional funding, and “reprioritisation, as there always is”.
Q: Will you give the NHS more stability?
Sunak says the government only recently reached a pay agreement.
Sunak says almost everyone can see the junior doctors’ call for a 35% pay rise is unreasonable and unaffordable.
Updated
Q: How confident are you about being able to get a settlement with the junior doctors?
Sunak claims the government has always adopted the same approach. It has sought constructive conversations with unions.
Steve Brine (Con), chair of the health committee, goes next.
Q: Where will the funding come for the pay deal for NHS staff?
Sunak says he was pleased to reach agreement on a pay settlement for 1.4 million health workers.
That had to be affordable to the taxpayer, he says. The government “struck the right balance”, he says.
He says the health secretary has provided an assurance today. He says there are always conversations with the Treasury, and they are ongoing.
Q: What is happening to waiting times?
Sunak says the government is on track to eliminate waits for operations lasting more than a year and a half by this spring, although he says the doctors’ strike has had an impact.
The next target is to get rid of waits of more than a year by next spring, he says.
Updated
Sunak says the public finances have “undoubtedly strengthened since the autumn”.
Treasury planning based on assumption fuel duty will rise next year 'a fiction', senior Tory tells Sunak
Q: Is it really credible to think the chancellor will raise fuel duty in an election year, as the plans in the budget assume?
Sunak says Baldwin has asked this before. He says he will not comment on future budgets.
Baldwin says it is clear that it is a “fiction” to plan on the basis that fuel duty will go up next year. (This matters because it means that the chancellor can plan on the basis of revenue that almost certainly will not be available.)
The committee is now covering the economy, and Harriett Baldwin (Con), chair of the Treasury committee, is asking the questions.
Sunak says the government is making progress towards his targets.
Q: So you are not worried that the latest figures showed inflation going up?
Sunak said those figures showed why the government should not be complacent.
Back at the liaison committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin asks about defence spending.
Q: What is being done to replace weapons supplied to Ukaine?
Sunak says the government has increased defence spending by £5bn, as well as providing Ukraine with support worth £2.3bn last year.
Q: What was your response to Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow?
Sunak says he was glad that China claimed it supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity. But other things they did undermined their credibility as a neutral party, he says.
UPDATE: This is what Sunak said about the depletion of UK missile stocks.
I would not necessarily see it as a negative that our own stockpiles have been drawn down, for the simple fact that if you think about what are those weapons for, they were ultimately there to degrade and deter – primarily – Russian aggression.
They are being used to do exactly that, they are just being used by the Ukrainians.
So, in one sense, even though the stockpiles are lower, they are being used for the purpose for which they are intended and degrading the capabilities of an adversary in the process.
Updated
MSPs elect Humza Yousaf as first minster
Back in the Scottish parliament, Alison Johnstone, the presiding officer, announces the results. The votes are:
Alex Cole-Hamilton: 4
Douglas Ross: 31
Anas Sarwar: 22
Humza Yousaf: 71
In accordance with the rules (see 2.11pm), Johnstone says Yousaf is selected as first minister.
Rishi Sunak gives evidence to Commons liaison committee
Rishi Sunak is giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee, the committee comprising chairs of all the Commons select committees.
Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con), the chair, opens. He says this is the second session the committee has had with Sunak.
In the Scottish parliament there is now a suspension while the votes are verified.
Three MSPs ask for confirmation their vote has been recorded. Alison Johnstone, presiding officer, assures them their votes have been recorded.
MSPs are now getting the chance to vote to register an abstention.
MSPs are now voting on Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, for first minister.
The vote closes, but the result is not announced.
And now MSPs are voting on Humza Yousaf, the SNP leader.
Back in the Scottish parliament, the voting on candidates for first minister is taking place.
The first vote is for Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Lib Dem leader.
MSPs who support him cast their votes, but the result is not announced.
The next one is for Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader. Again, the numbers are not declared.
Roz McCall, a Scottish Tory, raises a point of order to say her vote was not registered. The presiding officer says it will be counted.
The Home Office is confident today that there will be no explosions during the second day of debate on the immigration bill.
Two sets of Tory rebels - one wanting to ban judges from blocking deportations and another wanting to ensure safe and legal routes for victims of modern slavery - have stood down after being reassured their concerns would be reflected in later versions of the bill.
The rebels will begin talks with No 10 in the coming days, say sources, with both sides wanting to come to a compromise before the bill comes back for another debate in a few weeks’ time.
But as well as warm words, the rebels also have a rhetorical sword to hang over the prime minister’s head. “We have reminded him that his promise was to stop the boats by the end of the year,” says an ally of Danny Kruger, the Tory backbencher who has led the efforts to toughen up the bill. “We are all very committed to that policy pledge.”
Humza Yousaf says Scotland should be proud that two of FM candidates are Muslim and 'no one bats an eyelid'
Humza Yousaf, the SNP leader, is speaking now.
He says that when Nicola Sturgeon was nominated, she said it was good that two of the candidates for first minister – her and Ruth Davidson – were women. Now, he says, two of the candidates are people of colour and of the Muslim faith, and “the fact that no one no one bats an eyelid at this tells me we are making progress on our nation, for which we should all be very, very proud”.
Updated
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, goes next. He says the SNP has left Scotland dealing with an NHS crisis and a cost of living crisis. The fist minister should focus on the priorities of all Scots, he says, not just for half of them [ie, the supporters of independence], he says.
He says the SNP’s record is one of failure. Labour will deliver the change Scotland needs, he says.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, is speaking now.
He says the SNP is moving further and further away from the priorities of the Scottish people. He says they are “consumed by the debate on independence” and that, when Humza Yousaf was elected SNP leader yesterday, one of his first acts was to say he would ask London for the right to hold another independence referendum.
He says he knows he won’t be elected first minister. But he says that the SNP should have to pay the price for their record in government, and he claims that the Scottish Conservatives are the only party that can make that happen.
Alison Johnstone, presiding officer at the Scottish parliament, is now opening the process for the election of the first minister.
There are four candidates: Humza Yousaf (SNP), Douglas Ross (Scottish Conservatives), Anas Sarwar (Scottish Labour) and Alex Cole-Hamilton (Scottish Liberal Democrats).
All four candidates get to speak.
Cole-Hamilton goes first. He says he know he won’t win, but is standing because politics is about advocating ideas. He says no party has a more positive vision than the Lib Dems.
The feed from the Scottish parliament is here:
Updated
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has published Britain Reconnected, a Fabian Society pamphlet setting out his vision for Labour’s foreign policy.
In a press release summarising its contents, Labour says:
Retooling the Foreign Office to increase the UK’s prosperity, Lammy says Britain’s network of diplomats must be used to seek exemptions to the US’ inflation reduction act subsidies, announce that a Labour government will establish a supply chain working group within the G7 and create a global supply chain commission in the United Kingdom, take a “new approach to trade with Europe that recognises the damage that has been done by the Conservatives’ bad Brexit deal” while remaining outside of the EU single market and customs union, as well as forging in trade and investment with Africa, “recognizing the continent’s enormous potential and the fact that by 2050, one in four people will be from the continent.”
And Lammy said:
Global Britain was an empty slogan, which the government has spent seven years failing to explain or deliver. Labour believes it does not have to be this way. The UK is home to cutting-edge technology and services, world-leading universities, vibrant cultural industries, and unparalleled global connections. With the right priorities, the right partnerships, and the right values, Britain can, and will, thrive.
How MSPs elect Scotland's first minister
Within the next half an hour or so, MSPs will the new first minister. It will be Humza Yousaf, the SNP leader.
Unlike Westminster, the Scottish parliament has a straightforward, codified procedure for electing the first minister. The rules are set out here. In London the leader of the party that wins the general election is invited by the king to form a government, but in the event of a hung parliament, or a prime minister being replaced by someone unable to command the confidence of the House of Commons, precedent starts getting a bit murky and the “rules” aren’t always clear.
MPs can pass a motion of no confidence in the government, which triggers a general election. But that does not automatically lead to the resignation of the PM, and the Commons as a whole does not get a direct say in the appointment of a PM (although MPs in the governing party do, if there is a leadership contest).
In Scotland all MSPs get to vote, and, if there are only two candidates, the person with a simple majority wins. If there are more than two candidates, losing ones are successively weeded out, unless the winner gets more votes than all other candidates combined.
Today the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems are all expected to nominate their leaders, as well as the SNP. But there are more SNP MSPs (64) than the Tories (31), Labour (22) and the Lib Dems (4) combined, and so Yousaf should win on the first round.
Momentum, the Labour group set up to promote Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda, has described today’s NEC vote as “a dark day for democracy”.
A dark day for democracy. https://t.co/tt3chg9EIm
— Momentum 🌹 (@PeoplesMomentum) March 28, 2023
In a statement yesterday Momentum said that, in proposing to block Corbyn, Keir Starmer was being “venal and duplicitous”.
Our response to Keir Starmer's outrageous attack on @JeremyCorbyn today 🔽
— Momentum 🌹 (@PeoplesMomentum) March 27, 2023
This anti-democratic attack is a slap in the face for the millions inspired by Jeremy's leadership, and further damages the Labour Party.
We urge all NEC members to vote against the motion tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/fUR7QCJCGb
Updated
Labour's NEC votes to block Corbyn from running as party candidate at election by 22 votes to 12
Keir Starmer’s move to block Jeremy Corbyn from running to be a Labour MP at the next election has been backed by the party’s national executive committee (NEC), PA Media reports. PA says:
A Labour spokesman said the leader’s motion passed by 22 votes to 12, meaning it is now down to Corbyn to decide whether to run as an independent candidate.
Corbyn, the veteran left-winger who has represented Islington North since 1983, had criticised the move as “undermining the party’s internal democracy” before its approval.
The motion says he “will not be endorsed by the NEC as a candidate on behalf of the Labour party at the next general election”.
Corbyn running as an independent in the north London constituency where he retains significant support could cause a distracting challenge for Starmer at the next election.
According to the i’s Paul Waugh, at today’s meeting of Labour’s national executive committee Shabana Mahmood, the party’s national campaign coordinator, said that Jeremy Corbyn was “a barrier to winning elections”.
At Labour's NEC meeting, @ShabanaMahmood just said: "Jeremy Corbyn is a barrier to winning elections. His behaviour since resigning as leader in the aftermath of one of our worst ever election defeats, is a threat to winning..."
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 28, 2023
She cited his stance on EHRC/antisemitism.
.@ShabanaMahmood said in past 2 yrs, Corbyn "has failed to move one inch from the position that brought about his suspension".
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 28, 2023
He failed to take advice offered to resolve the issue. "He failed to do what that party had to do - to acknowledge the problem and change accordingly."
Updated
Veterans minister Johnny Mercer tells MPs 8,000 Afghan refugees to be moved out of hotel accommodation
In the Commons Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, is now making a statement about Afghan refugees.
He says 24,500 people have been relocated to the UK from Afghanistan. They have been given help to integrate into British society, he says.
As a temporary solution, people were put in hotel accommodation, he says. But he says this was never meant to be a permanent solution.
More than 9,000 Afghans have been put into settled homes, but about 8,000 remain in hotels. More than half are children, and more then half have been there for more than a year, he says.
He says this is costing more than £1m a day.
He says the government will write to Afghans from the end of April saying they will need to move. They will have three months to relocate, and they will get support to move into other accommodation.
He says extra funding will be made available to councils to house people.
This amounts to a generous offer, he says.
But, he says, if an offer of accommodation is made and refused, another offer will not be made. “It is not right that people could choose to stay in hotels where another perfectly suitable accommodation is available,” he says.
Updated
And here are some more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning.
The PM’s spokesperson rejected suggestions that the plans for Afghan refugees being announced in the Commons later (soon after 1pm) would mean people being kicked out of hotels. The spokesperson said:
This is about how we’re accelerating support for Afghans who have been forced to remain in hotel accommodation for sometimes more than a year.
We’ve made a large commitment to them to support them in the UK to make a new life here and this will be the next stage of that.
We do think it is right to help them into settled accommodation, there will be a significant package of support that sits behind them to both help them to find accommodation and to help them fully integrate into their new community.
Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, will give details in a statement to MPs.
The spokesperson said it would be “hugely disappointing and disruptive” if strike action by teachers disrupted exams in England. (See 9.19am.)
The spokesperson confirmed that Rishi Sunak will miss PMQs tomorrow because he will be attending the funeral of the former Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd. Dominic Raab, the deputy PM, will stand in for Sunak.
The spokesperson said Sunak was likely to speak to Humza Yousaf, the new Scottish first minister, “soon”.
The spokesperson said Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, will provide an update to MPs later this week on “the latest government work to deal with the challenge of illegal immigration”.
Updated
In his speech this morning Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, claimed the UK was already “behind in the global race” for green energy. (See 12pm.) There is particular focus on this issue this week because the government is due to set out its revised net zero plans on Thursday, and at cabinet this morning Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, insisted the government was doing well on renewable energy. It amounted to a rebuttal of the Miliband claim, even if it was not intended as such.
This is from the No 10 cabinet readout.
[Shapps] said the UK was well ahead of many advanced economies in transitioning to renewable energy. He said the UK will soon have all four of the world’s biggest offshore windfarms, with wind power increasing by 25% in 2022.
He said the government’s plan would set out where we can go further, including through the use of more nuclear power, to curb emissions while growing the economy and creating jobs.
The prime minister concluded cabinet by saying that the UK would build on its record of innovation to make the UK the premier location for investment in green technology.
Updated
Threat of terrorist attack in Northern Ireland raised from substantial to severe, Heaton-Harris says
The government has announced that the threat of a terrorist attack in Northern Ireland has been raised from substantial (meaning an attack is likely) to severe (meaning an attack is highly likely).
In a written ministerial statement Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, said the decision was taken by MI5. He said:
Over the last 25 years, Northern Ireland has transformed into a peaceful society. The Belfast (Good Friday) agreement demonstrates how peaceful and democratic politics improve society. However, a small number of people remain determined to cause harm to our communities through acts of politically motivated violence.
In recent months, we have seen an increase in levels of activity relating to Northern Ireland related terrorism, which has targeted police officers serving their communities and also put at risk the lives of children and other members of the public. These attacks have no support, as demonstrated by the reaction to the abhorrent attempted murder of DCI Caldwell.
Corbyn ally Jon Lansman accuses Starmer of acting like 'Putin of Labour party' over former leader
Jon Lansman, the leftwing Labour activist who helped to run Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for the party leadership in 2015 and who set up Momentum to promote Corbyn’s agenda, told Matt Chorley from Times Radio this morning that he thought Keir Starmer was behaving like “some kind of Putin” in relation to his predecessor.
Lansman said:
We’ve got to recognise that the radical policies that we had under Jeremy Corbyn ... were not the problem. The party still supports them. I think we should be campaigning still for radical policy ...
We’re a democratic party. This is not an authoritarian party. Keir Starmer unfortunately is behaving as if he was some kind of Putin of the Labour party. That is not the way we do politics.
💥💥💥💥💥💥
— Matt Chorley (@MattChorley) March 28, 2023
“Keir Starmer unfortunately is behaving as if he was some kind of PUTIN.”
Momentum founder @JonLansman tells me on @TimesRadio as Corbyn is given the boot…
pic.twitter.com/mAXHFVEOEA
But Lansman also said that he did not think Corbyn should stand for parliament as an independent at the next election. He said he thought Corbyn would have more influence if he remained a Labour member. And Lansman said he would not campaign for Corbyn if he did run as an independent because he wanted Starmer to win the election.
I also asked Lansman whether he’d canvass for Jeremy Corbyn if he runs as an independent in Islington North.
— Matt Chorley (@MattChorley) March 28, 2023
Jon Lansman tells Times Radio: “No I certainly wouldn’t. I want to see Keir Starmer elected.”
Updated
Nadia Whittome, the leftwing Labour MP, has said this morning that she hopes the party’s national executive committee throws out the motion that would ban Jeremy Corbyn from being a candidate for the party.
It should be up to local members in Islington North to decide who represents them.
— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) March 28, 2023
The motion to ban Jeremy Corbyn from restanding is divisive, an attack on party democracy and a distraction from the vital task of getting the Tories out. I hope it’s withdrawn or rejected.
Miliband confirms Labour would not issue more licences for oil and gas fields in North Sea
Labour has now sent out the full text of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Green Alliance this morning. We have already covered the main points (here and at 10.55am), but it was a substantial, serious speech, and here are some futher things he said.
Miliband confirmed that Labour would issue no more licence for oil and gas fields in the North Sea. This is from my colleague Fiona Harvey.
Ed Miliband says no new oil and gas licences and money given to oil and gas badly spent
— Fiona Harvey (@fionaharvey) March 28, 2023
“same resources could build the future, the government syphons money to companies making record profits to persuade them to invest in expensive solutions that will not cut bills by 1p”
And this is what Miliband said in his speech.
If every country did what the UK government wants to do and extract every last drop of North Sea oil and gas, we would bust our global carbon budget many times over and end up at three degrees of warming.
I promise you: This will all change under a Labour government.
No more mixed messages, no more inconstant signals.
My North Star will be a zero-carbon power system by 2030, one of the next Labour government’s core missions.
He summed up the argument of his speech like this:
First, we are at a decisive moment when it comes to the global race for the green jobs of the future.
Second, net zero is a massive economic opportunity for Britain but we are losing the global race.
Third, those who say we can’t be winners in that global race are wrong. We should match the ambition of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and stop moaning about it
He said the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the US has been a “game-changing event’” for green energy investment decisions. He said:
Talk to any business and they will tell you the same thing: this is a game-changing event in investment decisions.
In everything from electric car manufacture to hydrogen to batteries and heat pumps.
So the winners of this global race will be decided not in the next decade but in this one, but in the coming few years.
We know that with these new industries, the country that hits their stride first in the race will so often be the winner.
He said the IRA was “a modern green industrial policy at work – an active state deploying public investment to crowd in and catalyse private investment”. He also said the IRA was represented “a departure from the past because it’s a big investment in onshoring manufacturing”. That meant it was “a rejection of the dominant economic model of the last four decades in which advanced economies were generally unconcerned about where manufacturing happened”.
He said the UK was already “behind in the global race” for green energy. He said:
There are already 23 clean steel demonstration plants across Europe but none in the UK.
Forty gigafactories across Europe now expected to be open and producing batteries by 2030, but only 1 is currently certain here.
Other countries have begun massive subsidies for green hydrogen - but the government’s long-delayed energy bill won’t even deliver a mechanism here until 2025.
And even in areas where we have been strong in generation, like offshore wind, the scale of jobs that should have come with that capacity never arrived.
Denmark shows us what is possible: it has less than a tenth of the UK’s population but many more jobs in its wind sector.
They’re building their own wind turbines and often ours too.
He said Labour would pass a Green Prosperity Act to give “a clear long term framework to give stability for investors”.
He said that talks with the US suggested British firms might be able to benefit from some of the subsidies available under the IRA. This is from the i’s Paul Waugh.
Interesting from Miliband on US electric vehicles mandate, says he's talked to some in the Biden administration and they sound "flexible" that their tax credit could include UK, EU as well as US firms..
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 28, 2023
Photograph: Paul Campbell/PA
Sturgeon tenders resignation to king
Nicola Sturgeon has formally tendered her resignation as Scotland’s first minister to the king. And she has issued a statement in which she says that, as the first woman to hold the post, handing over to the first person from a minority ethnic background to be first minister, a “powerful message” has been sent that the job is open to anyone. She says:
Being first minister of the country I love has been the privilege of a lifetime – an opportunity for which I will always be grateful beyond words to the people of Scotland. As the first woman to hold this office, I am proud to demit it knowing that no girl in our country is in any doubt that a woman can hold the highest office in the land. My congratulations go to Humza Yousaf who, subject to parliamentary process and appointment by his majesty the king, will become the first person from a minority ethnic background to lead our country as its first minister – and in doing so will reiterate the powerful message that it is a role that any young person in Scotland can aspire to.
Miliband accused of misrepresenting reason for Labour's decision to ban Corbyn from being candidate
In an interview on the Today programme Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, was asked about Keir Starmer’s decision to get Labour’s national executive committeee to today agree to ban Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a candidate at the next election.
Miliband did not seem hugely keen to answer (he stressed that he was not on the NEC), but he deployed the standard party line, which is that Corbyn made himself ineligible by the statement he issued in 2020 in response to the EHRC report into antisemitism in the party in which he said the problem had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party”. Since then he has refused to apologise.
Miliband told the programme:
I’m not privy to exactly what goes on in the national executive, but I don’t think there is any mystery about the background to today’s discussion at the national executive committee.
It’s about one thing, which is about Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction to the EHRC report on antisemitism and his refusal to apologise for that reaction. That is the background of this. I don’t think there’s any mystery about that.
But the motion being put to the NEC does not mention antisemitism, or the EHRC. Instead it argues that the NEC’s job is to help Labour win elections and that the party’s electoral prospects would be “significantly diminished” if Corbyn were allowed to stand as a candidate. My colleague Pippa Crerar has posted the text of it on Twitter.
Here’s the motion Starmer is tabling at the NEC, which doesn’t mention anti-Semitism but says Labour’s electoral prospects at next election would be “significantly diminished” should Corbyn be a party candidate. pic.twitter.com/yBDSF2kdh4
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) March 27, 2023
This could be taken as a reference to the antisemitism controversy, but it implies the objection to Corbyn goes well beyond that. Keir Starmer has also suggested that Corbyn’s opposition to the west arming Ukraine also makes him unsuitable as a Labour candidate.
Diane Abbott, a prominent Corbyn ally and shadow home secretary when he was leader, accused Miliband of misrepresenting the reason for Corbyn’s exclusion.
Ed Miliband claiming just now that Corbyn will be banned from being a @UKLabour candidate because of anti-semitism. But the motion Starmer is tabling says nothing about anti-semitism. @BBCr4today pic.twitter.com/FkOsoEOrR7
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) March 28, 2023
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Miliband accuses Tories of 'sore loser syndrome' in response to Biden's huge green energy subsidy programme
Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, is speaking at a Green Alliance event this morning. According to an extract from the speech released in advance, he will accuse the government of “sore loser syndrome” because of its scepticism about Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which gives massive subsidies to US companies producing clean energy.
Some British ministers have complained that this is protectionist, and unfair on British competitors.
But Miliband is saying:
What we have seen from the UK government is the actions of a group of people caught in the headlights. Kemi Badenoch dismisses the Inflation Reduction Act as “protectionist”. Our current energy secretary Grant Shapps calls it “dangerous”. The chancellor dismisses it too.
I profoundly disagree with this approach. As the US and Europe speed off into the distance in the global race for green industry, we are sitting back in the changing rooms moaning about the rules. Sore loser syndrome won’t win any jobs for Britain.
We need to stop moaning about the Inflation Reduction Act and start matching its ambition.
Of course, we must remain an open economy, welcoming foreign investment and goods. Not everything in the green economy could or should be produced here. But we are not neutral about where things are built.
Joe Biden wants the future Made in America. We want the future Made in Britain.
Miliband says geography gives Britain a unique advantage in renewable energy.
In the world which is coming, it is no exaggeration to say wind power will be what coal was for previous generations.
Our island status and the North and Celtic Seas give us a unique position therefore.
And he defends Labour’s plan to set up Great British Energy, a state-run renewable energy company. He explains:
Every real leader in zero carbon power has a national champion: EDF in France, Statkfraft in Norway, Orsted in Denmark, Vattenfall in Sweden.
It’s time we had ours.
In years to come, it will seem absurd that Britain had no public clean energy champion to deliver jobs and wealth as so many of our competitors do. A Labour government will and it will have a clear mission: to build clean energy and do it in Britain.
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, is giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee. My colleague Graeme Wearden is covering the hearing here.
The Scottish Greens have confirmed that they will be voting for Humza Yousaf as Scotland’s first minister. The Scottish Greens have a power-sharing agreement with the SNP, and two ministerial posts in the government. If Kate Forbes or Ash Regan had won the SNP leadership, this arrangment would have been in jeopardy, but Yousaf is committed to continuing it.
Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland:
We will be supporting Humza Yousaf today so we can carry on with the Bute House agreement [the power-sharing agreement]…
The Scottish Greens are very glad that we are able to continue to work in a progressive agenda within the Scottish government.
Equalities matters are very important to the Scottish Greens. We will always stand up for LGBTQ+ rights, we will always stand up for the environment, for fairness, for tackling inequalities in our society so that everybody can thrive, and I think that the Scottish Greens and the SNP working together, the Greens and the Scottish Government working together is that kind of collaborative, co-operative politics based on discussion and consensus-building and negotiation that people want to see.
The Scottish Greens have seven MSPs.
NEU leader denies her potential successor 'extremist' and accuses BBC presenter of 'outrageous slur'
In her interview on the Today programme this morning (see 9.19am), Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, criticised the presenter, Nick Robinson, for suggesting that one of the candidates in the election for the next NEU general secretary is an extremist.
Robinson said that Bousted was not right when she said not teacher wanted to disrupt exams, that some extremists in the union did favour these tactics, and that one of them was the man likely to succeed her as general secretary. Robinson did not name him, but he was referring to Daniel Kebede.
Bousted said that was a “outrageous slur” and she said that she would not describe either of the two candidates (Kebede and Niamh Sweeney, the current deputy general secretary) as extremist. She claimed general secretaries did not decide union policy anyway, because they were answerable to an executive. She then criticised Robinson for raising the issue. She said:
I think this is quite outrageous, actually. You’re you’re bringing what is a really serious issue about the future of teachers, about the current state of teachers in the classroom, down to personalities. I think that is really base and it demeans the programme. I’m really sorry. you’ve done that, Nick.
The NEU currently has joint general secretaries because it was formed by a merger of two unions in 2017. But Bousted and the other joint general secretary, Kevin Courtney, are standing down. Members have been voting in the election to choose their successor, with the ballot closing at the end of this month. Sweeney is seen as the more moderate of the two candidates, while Kebede has the backing of the left
A former NEU president, Kebede is a former national officer for the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. He has been described as a Corbynite. In an election message he said that, although the country needed a change of government, the NEU could not just expect a Labour government to give it what it wanted. He went on:
We need a strong and united union that can make that case, one that fights and wins on the issues that matter to our members, one that boosts pay, reduces workload, wins on funding and one that reclaims education for educators and for our children.
Education is in crisis.
— Daniel Kebede (@DanielKebedeNEU) January 22, 2023
Vote Daniel Kebede [1] for NEU General Secretary.
We need a STRONG and UNITED union that fights and wins on the issues that matter to our members and children.
Voting opens 6th February! pic.twitter.com/s32ueS1icx
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Teaching union says it hopes future strikes won’t disrupt exams but won’t rule it out
Good morning. There are signs that the public sector strikes that have disrupted many services over the last few months, particularly in England, are coming to an end. The Royal College of Nursing is starting to ballot its members in England on whether they should accept a pay off, and RMT members recently voted to accept a pay deal from Network Rail. But last night it emerged that the National Education Union, the biggest teaching union in England, is urging its members to reject the latest pay offer from ministers.
In an interview this morning Mary Bousted, the NEU joint general secretary, would not rule out future strikes disrupting exams. Asked if that could happen, she told Radio 4’s Today programme:
We really hope that that doesn’t take place.
What we hope is that if the members do reject the offer, we want to go back to the government and say: ‘you have to do better’, reopen negotiations, and let’s see if we can get an offer that members will find respectable.
Asked again about whether strikes would disrupt exams, Bousted replied:
We will plan more strike dates. We don’t want to disrupt exams and we will try to ensure that we do reopen negotiations.
Nick Robinson, the presenter, pressed Bousted on this a third time. He invited her, if she did not want to interrupt exams, to say clearly ‘We will have strike dates, they will not interrupt exams’. Bousted replied:
We have conference next week, and conference will decide the plan of action, but no teacher wants to disrupt exam dates at all, so it’s up to the government.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, speaks at a Green Alliance event. As my colleague Pippa Crerar reports, Miliband will present Labour’s green growth plan as the British version of the US’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, speaks at the launch of a pamphlet setting out his plans for Labour’s foreign policy.
12pm: Labour’s national executive committee meets.
After 12.30pm: Johnny Mercer, the veterans ministers, is expected to make a statement to MPs about housing Afghan refugees.
After 1.30pm: MPs will resume their debate on the illegal migration bill.
After 2pm: MSPs vote to elect the new first minister, with Humza Yousaf, the new SNP leader, certain to be chosen. After the vote, party leaders will make short speeches.
3pm: Rishi Sunak gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.
Afternoon: Peers debate Commons amendments to the public order bill.
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.
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