A summary of today's developments
Rishi Sunak told the BBC he would “rather lose” the Conservative leadership contest while maintaining his values than promise “false things that I can’t deliver”. Presenter Nick Robinson concludes the programme by saying Liz Truss is still considering an interview request from the programme and has been unable to fit in a slot in her schedule thus far. Truss had declined to be interviewed by Andrew Neil on Channel 4 last month.
Liz Truss signals Kemi Badenoch would get promotion to cabinet if she became PM.
Liz Truss told GB News she would like to see Britons use Dutch ports more as alternative to French ones.
The Rishi Sunak campaign is now formally accusing Liz Truss of doing a U-turn following her concession that she is considering offering people payments to help them with energy costs. (See 10.11am, 11.40am and 3.45pm). Last week she ruled out giving people “handouts”. A spokesperson for the Sunak campaign said: “This is a major U-turn on the biggest issue currently facing the country.”
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has revealed that, when she met Liz Truss at the Cop26 climate crisis conference in Glasgow last year, one of the main things Truss was interested in was how to get featured in the fashion magazine Vogue. And when Truss learned that Sturgeon had appeared in it twice already, Truss “looked a little bit as if she’d swallowed a wasp”, Sturgeon said.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, told BBC Breakfast that the party would be proposing extra measures “very, very soon” on tackling rising energy bills.
This blog is closing now. Thanks for reading.
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Nick Robinson to Rishi Sunak after discussing "a whole series of emergencies" facing the UK: "When you discover who's been running the country for the past 12 years, you're going to be really cross, aren’t you?" pic.twitter.com/VqmcwQYI3r
— Graeme Demianyk (@GraemeDemianyk) August 10, 2022
The Guardian’s Peter Walker on Sunak’s interview.
Nick Robinson seems to be asking Rishi Sunak whether a broadly realistic approach to policy, as opposed Johnson-style cake-ism and boosterism, might be a drawback for UK voters. Says quite a lot about the impact of the last few years.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 10, 2022
Jeremy Corbyn has said he stands by statements he made on the supply of western weapons to Ukraine.
In an interview with Al Mayadeen in July he said “pouring arms in” would “prolong and exaggerate” the war, saying more effort should be placed on securing a ceasefire.
Al Mayadeen is a Middle Eastern TV channel based in Lebanon seen as being sympathetic to the Syrian government and Hezbollah, PA reports.
On Wednesday, the former Labour leader spoke to LBC’s Iain Dale at an event during the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Islington North MP said his removal from Labour’s parliamentary group was “completely wrong” and also described the Aukus defence deal between the UK, US and Australia as “dangerous”. Dale said asked him about his comments on Al Mayadeen and whether he wanted the supply of weapons to Ukraine to stop.
Corbyn said: “I think the words I used was, the only policy being followed by most of the west is to pour arms into the Ukraine.
“The point I was making was there is nobody as far as I can see pushing enough to get some kind of ceasefire.”
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Liz Truss yet to agree to Nick Robinson interview
Robinson concludes the programme by saying Liz Truss is still considering an interview request from the programme and has been unable to fit in a slot in her schedule thus far.
Truss had declined to be interviewed by Andrew Neil on Channel 4 last month.
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Robinson ends with a question about the series of emergencies the country is embroiled in after 12 years of Conservative rule.
Sunak said: “Well, no actually, there was lots that I was very proud of to have participated in government.
“We talked about the pandemic response, protecting over 10M jobs, saving business, ensuring that our economy remained resilient through the worst shock it had faced in 300 years.
“I’m proud of what I achieved in government, I’m not going to run away from that and actually, that’s why people should now look at me as the person who can be the person to lead us forward.
“I’ve got the experience to handle difficult things. They know that because they’ve seen it.”
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On accusations that he is a “gloomster”, Sunak responds: “Nick, we started this programme, you put a graphic up there that talked about energy bills going up to almost £4,000.
“No amount of boosterism language is going to help Graham figure out how to get through the winter.
“What we need is someone who actually understands what’s going on, has got a clear sense of how to manage our economy through what is going to be a challenging time.
“Focus on getting the help to people like Graham that we’ve talked about and then bring this country to a place where it can look forward to a much brighter future.
“That’s what I can do and no amount of starry-eyed boosterism is going to solve any of the emergencies that we’ve just talked about.”
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On his position as the underdog with three weeks to go, Sunak says: “I knew what I was doing when I got into this and I was going to tell people what I think they needed to hear, not necessarily what they wanted to hear.
“As I said, I would rather lose having fought for the things that I passionately believe are right for our country and being true to my values than win on a false promise.”
On criticism that he resigned by tweet after thinking about it for months, Sunak replies: “No actually resigning is a difficult thing to do, and I did it because it came to a point where enough was enough for me.
“I had a big difference of opinion on how to manage the economy,
it’s not possible for a chancellor and prime minister not to be on the same page as that, and you’re seeing that in this leadership contest, because there are two very different approaches to how I think we should do it.”
On whether he told Boris Johnson he was no longer fit to be PM, Sunak said: “No. I just resigned, Nick, it was clear he was not going to go, he’d made that crystal clear.”
He added: “Well I’ve had many conversations with the prime minister over the time that I’ve been in office with him, I’m sure, I know we talked about lots of things, right, and I’m not going to sit here and talk to you about private conversations I have, that wouldn’t be right…”
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On a perceived lack of experience for the job as PM and the ability to look “at a dictator in the eye”, Sunak said: “Yes, because throughout my career, in politics and before, I’ve been willing to stand up for things that I believe in and fight for them.
“You talked about Brexit, a lot of pressure was put on me not to support that, and I did. When it came to locking down the country last December with omicron, that’s what lots of people wanted to do, I stood up against the system and I said no.
When it comes to wanting to reform the NHS, I’m prepared to have some difficult conversations; so yes, being tough and making sure that I focus on the things that matter is core to who I am and as chancellor I designed a very stringent packet of economic sanctions to do exactly that with Putin.”
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On Ukraine, Sunak says the defence secretary deserves credit for being one of the first to make sure that we provide arms to Ukraine.
“I will continue with that policy, continually strengthening Ukraine, and continuing to weaken Russia. I did that as chancellor, I put in place a set of economic sanctions, together with my colleagues from around the world, that are tightening the grip on Putin’s war machine and I would want to do more of that as prime minister, and actually when it comes to energy, one of the things I was working on as chancellor, was a different way of doing the sanctions on Russia to see if we could find a way to do it, which would actually mean that we don’t have such high energy bills and could cut off the supply of money to them, and I’d like to find a way to make that work as PM.”
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On the long queues at Dover last month, Sunak says on the French side appropriate staff need to be in place, which did not appear to be the case then.
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On the previous Tory promise of bringing net migration down to tens of thousands, Sunak dodges the question and says the most pressing problem is illegal immigrants coming across the Channel.
On climate change and the target of the UK reaching net zero by 2050, Sunak says he believes in the target and wants to focus on innovation and how we power our homes.
On his previous comments that the NHS was “swallowing up cash”, Sunak says the NHS needs to use the resources it has and reform.
And he wants to tackle missed appointments by having people cancel them in advance.
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On NHS funding, the former chancellor says from this point on it is “about getting reform and efficiency” out of it having previously given an injection of funding to help with the pandemic.
Sunak says he stands by the video footage of him saying he had diverted funds away from deprived urban areas.
He says he stands by the comments and government support is required in small towns and rural areas too.
In response to Martin Lewis’s comments that rising energy bills is a “crisis” on the scale of the Covid pandemic, Sunak says his package of support at the time was praised by Lewis and independent commentators for being “well targeted and helped the poorest”.
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Sunak keeps on the line that the tax cuts proposed by Truss benefit “very large companies” and not pensioners.
Sunak says his approach differs from Liz Truss’s approach which is billions of extra borrowing each year.
For those on the lowest incomes, Sunak said he has proposed extra top-up payments.
For pensioners, he pledges an extra payment in the winter, which he estimates will be a few billion pounds.
Sunak reiterates that he will reduce VAT on energy bills this autumn, which Nick Robinson says will be £150 on average.
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Sunak does not give the specifics of the help he will offer, adding the situation is about £400 worse than when the package of support was announced.
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Sunak told the BBC there was a “moral responsibility” to get extra help to people with energy bills this winter.
He said: “I do feel a moral responsibility as prime minister to go further and get extra help to people over the autumn and the winter to help them cope with what is going to be a really difficult time.
“I think that is the right priority.”
Sunak said he will go further in his help for families as the “situation is worse” than when he announced the package of support.
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Rishi Sunak’s interview with Nick Robinson is coming up on BBC One at 7pm, which we will be liveblogging.
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Asked if the base was a legitimate target for the Ukrainians to strike, Wallace said: “First and foremost, Russia has illegally invaded, not just in 2014, but now Ukrainian territory.
“Ukraine, under United Nations articles, is perfectly entitled to defend its territory and take what action it needs to against an invading force.
“So, is it legitimate? It’s absolutely legitimate for Ukraine to take lethal force, if necessary, but take force in order to regain not only its territory, but also to push back its invader.
“And that air force base has been used by Russian air forces to bomb Ukrainian targets. So I think in anybody’s sort of manual of war it would be a legitimate target.”
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Ben Wallace said the UK has “pretty much dismissed” most of the Russian “excuses” for explosions at an air base in Crimea, and said he thinks the site would be a “legitimate target” for the Ukrainians.
The defence secretary told the BBC: “I think when you just look at the footage of two simultaneous explosions not quite next to each other, and some of the reported damage even by the Russian authorities, I think it’s clear that that’s not something that happens by someone dropping a cigarette.”
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Truss has come under renewed pressure to spell out how she would shield families from energy price hikes as she was confronted face to face by a social housing manager who said he was looking for a second job in order to pay his own family’s bills.
Challenged by a question from a viewer on GB News who said that her mother was “petrified” of winter, the foreign secretary declined to say that she would make direct payments but reiterated her plans to reverse the recent increase in national insurance and to temporarily suspend green levies on energy bills.
“I completely understand how bad it is and that families are struggling with costs of food and energy,” she told a questioner who said that tenants who he knew from his job as a social housing manager were in distress because of worries about fuel costs.
He told her that his own energy bill has gone up from £180 a month to more than £300 and could go up to more than £500.
Truss said she would do everything she can to help families “who work hard and do the right thing” and said that her plans could come in “well before April”, when the tax year starts. Challenged to get rid of VAT on gas and electricity, she said that all issues should be under consideration in an emergency budget.
In answer to another question, about Britain’s fraught recent relations with France and the possibility of building up alternative trade links with the Netherlands, Truss said that she was an MP for South West Norfolk Norfolk and “loved the old Hanseatic League” – a medieval trading and defensive confederation encompassing northern European towns and cities.
She said that King’s Lynn – a port which had been part of the League – was in her constituency and she “wanted to restore links like that.”
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Liz Truss got through her GB News Q&A without running into any big problems. Her answers on the cost of living crisis were repetitive and not especially convincing, but the audience did not seem to react badly to her, and at one point she had the confidence to say no when asked if she could promise extra help for Waspi women. She got a bit of credit for that too.
At 7pm Rishi Sunak will face his own grilling, from the BBC’s Nick Robinson. Here is a preview.
"My judgment is right about tackling inflation and the cost of living"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) August 10, 2022
"I'm proud of what I achieved in government," Rishi Sunak tells @BBCNickRobinson as he pledges to be straight with people if he becomes PM
Watch the full interview on BBC One at 7pmhttps://t.co/iZsQ5KNqWE pic.twitter.com/j427G2dtLq
That’s all from me for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is taking over now.
Q: How do you feel about cats? What will your relationship be with Larry the Downing Street cat?
Truss says she has a very positive relationship with Larry. She thinks she is one of his favourite ministers.
And that’s it. The programme is over.
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Q: Do you support Lexit – Leigh breaking away from Wigan council? If we became independent, would our council tax go up?
Truss says too much local government reform has been top down. There are council areas where people do not feel like they live.
She says she has spoken to James Grundy, the Leigh MP, about this. He is a big supporter of Lexit. He has put a “very strong case”, she says.
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Q: How can you justify keeping VAT on fuel. It was a Brexit promise that it should go. It should go now.
Truss says she is not a fan of taxes. She refers to the taxes she has promised to reverse. She will not make any promises. She cannot write the budget for a chancellor she has not yet appointed.
Q: VAT on fuel increases inflation.
Truss says getting rid of the green levy will have the same effect. She says her preference, when it is affordable, is always to have lower taxes.
Q: I am a carer and I work very hard for just under £70 a week. We save money for the NHS. I am having to use my life savings. What will you do to help?
Truss thanks the man for what he does. It is incredibly important, she says. She says it is better for people to be looked after by their families.
She wants to look at the tax system to ensure it can better support people who do take time off to care for someone, she says. But she would have to see how that interacts with the benefits system.
The questioner says carer’s allowance is a benefit. Changes to the tax system would not help, he says.
Truss says she wants to ensure money goes to councils, so they can help. But we need to look at the system, she says. She says she does not have a detailed answer. But in principle she wants to help people caring for people at home.
The questioner says government has had plenty of time to think about this. Carers cannot withdraw their labour, he says.
Truss says she will support families “who do the right thing”.
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Q: Will you agree to a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham and Rochdale? Labour keep blocking it locally.
Truss says she will think about that. But she agrees that it is important to find the root causes of the problem, and some sort of inquiry sounds a good idea.
Truss says she wants to make things work better in the health service. She wants it to have the extra funding it is expecting, but from taxation, not from the health and social care levy.
But we face a massive challenge, she says. A huge backlog has built up because of Covid.
She will look at the issue of doctors’ pensions, which is encouraging some of them to leave.
And she says she would like to encourage people to return to work in the NHS.
Truss says she will look at the issue of war widows losing their pension if they remarry.
Q: What will you do to help the Waspi women? We were told there was no money to help them. But money is available for everyone else.
Truss says she has huge sympathy for the Waspi women. She does think women have been treated unfairly. She will review the tax system.
But, on the Waspi system, she says, although it was not handled well at the time, she does not think it is possible to go back. She has to be honest, she says.
Q: The parliamentary ombudsman said there had been maladministration. They said there should be restitution.
Truss says she does not want to make promises she cannot keep.
She says she is sorry she is not able to promise anything.
The questioner says an honest answer is good, but a positive one would be better.
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Q: What will you do to help first-time buyers?
Truss says she wants more young people to be able to afford a house. She wants to ensure that people’s rental history can contribute to their qualification to get a mortgage.
She also says she wants local communities to have more power over planning decisions.
Q: Is it the job of the state to help people buy a house?
The government regulates these things, Truss says. So it is involved. She says she wants its involvement to be more positive.
Q: What will you do to stop grooming gangs. We live in a country where the police will turn up if you insult someone on Twitter, but they ignore grooming gangs.
Truss says she agrees the police should not be policing Twitter. They should be fighting crime.
She would have league tables for police forces, she says.
She says what has happened in places like Telford is “repulsive”. And she says in some cases people like council officials have enabled these crimes. She will make sure these people are “gone after”.
Q: A report on this said one problem was the political correctness meant the police were afraid to say Pakistani gangs were responsible?
Truss says she wants to stop that. It is an endemic problem, she claims.
Q: What will you do to stop future disruption by strikes?
Truss says as soon as possible she will legislate to protect essential services from strike action.
She is also concerned by protesters, like those from Extinction Rebellion, disrupting services, by gluing themselves to trains, for example. She will take action to stop that, she says.
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit party leader and a GB News presenter, was not impressed by what Truss said about small boats in the Channel.
It's clear to me, as I watch the @GBNEWS debate, that Liz Truss has no answer at all to cross Channel illegal immigration.https://t.co/UEppCiYvsK
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) August 10, 2022
Truss signals Kemi Badenoch would get promotion to cabinet if she became PM
Truss says she will be looking for three things when she selects a ministerial teams. She wants people who are competent, people who have Conservative values, and people who are are loyal, and who get on with their jobs instead of briefing the press.
(According to Truss’s critics, one of the worst offenders in recent years in terms of briefing the media has been Truss herself.)
The questioner says she would like to see Kemi Badenoch in a major role, like foreign secretary.
Truss says she thinks Badenoch is “brilliant” and wants her as part of her team.
Truss signals that Badenoch would get promotion to cabinet if she became PM.
Truss also says she wants a “leaner No 10”.
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Truss says she would like to see Britons use Dutch ports more as alternative to French ones
Q: The number of migrants crossing the Channel is rising. This is having a massive impact on public services. What will you do to stop this? These people are illegal criminals. We don’t know who they are. Some have weapons.
Truss says what is happening in the Channel is appalling. Boats are not seaworthy. This is a huge illegal operation.
Q: Why can’t you revoke French fishing licences? That would focus their minds. And we should not be sending planes to Rwanda. It should be boats, stationed in the Channel.
Q: Would you turn boats round in the Channel?
Truss claims she had a “very tough” conversation with her French opposite number because they were not deploying enough staff at the border.
The Northern Ireland protocol bill shows she can be tough.
As for boats, she says it is more effective to put people on planes.
Q: Why can’t we use Dutch ports more? The French have us over a barrel.
Truss says she agrees. She is a Norfolk MP. She would like to see the King’s Lynn port used more.
New Truss policy announcement klaxon on trade links
— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) August 10, 2022
'I'm an MP in Norfolk and love the Old Hanseatic League.
We have fantastic ports like King's Lynn and we should be restoring links like that'
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Presented with a question from someone who needs to keep the heating on for 10 hours, and who is petrified of winter, Truss just repeats what she said earlier.
Stewart quotes Margaret Thatcher saying you cannot buck the market. Will Truss change the market, to stop energy companies making such big profits.
Truss says she supports more fracking, and more nuclear power.
Q: My energy bill has gone up from £180 a month to over £300. It could go up to over £500. What will you do to help me? I need to get a second job to get by.
Truss says she understands how difficult things are.
She would reverse the national insurance rise, and have a temporary ban on the green levies. She would do that on day one.
Q: Can you literally do that on day one?
Truss says she will do that as soon as possible. She will start on that on day one. It will go through before the next tax year starts.
The questioner says he needs help now.
Q: Rishi Sunak will give money straight away. You will change the rules by April.
Truss says the moratorium on the green levy will save everyone money.
But she wants to address the root cause too of why energy bills are so high.
She will deal with supply. That will bring prices down.
We are predicted to have a recession. So it is important to grow the economy.
Truss says she will do everything she can to help families “who work hard and do the right thing”.
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Truss says people will only trust the Tories when they deliver. They want to see spades in the ground, the town transformed.
Q: We are still shackled by the EU. What will you do to get EU law off the statute book?
Truss says she will get rid of those laws by the end of 2023, and replace them with British laws.
Q: What will you do for white working class kids?
Truss says a third of kids are leaving primary schools without basic English and maths. She would address this. She wants more free schools.
The GB News show has started.
Q: This town has not seen much levelling up. What are you going to do about it?
Liz Truss says Leigh had Andy Burnham as its MPs for years. What did he do for the town? She grew up in Leeds, she says, and she knows lots of parts of the north have been left down.
She wants to attract entreprise and business. So she would keep taxes low, get Brexit done, get the EU laws off the statute book and generate wealth. She is someone who delivers, she says.
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Polling from Ipsos suggests a Labour government led by Keir Starmer would be better than a Conservative one led by Liz Truss in most policy areas, Keiran Pedley from Ipsos reports.
NEW from @IpsosUK: Public think a Labour govt led by Starmer more likely than a Con govt led by Truss to deliver in 12 / 13 areas.
— Keiran Pedley (@keiranpedley) August 10, 2022
Biggest leads for Starmer's Labour on improving public services (+13), reducing NHS waiting times (+12), levelling up (+12), fresh start (+10) pic.twitter.com/UYF2PnazNy
Truss takes questions on GB News's People's Forum
Liz Truss is about to take questions from viewers on GB News’s People’s Forum.
The programme is coming from Leigh, and Alastair Stewart is presenting.
There is a live feed here.
Sunak accuses Truss of 'major U-turn on biggest issue facing country'
The Rishi Sunak campaign is now formally accusing Liz Truss of doing a U-turn following her concession that she is considering offering people payments to help them with energy costs. (See 10.11am, 11.40am and 3.45pm). Last week she ruled out giving people “handouts”. A spokesperson for the Sunak campaign said:
This is a major U-turn on the biggest issue currently facing the country.
It’s all very well offering empty words about ‘doing all you can’. But there aren’t lots of different ways to act on this. Taking action means providing direct support, which Truss had previously dismissed as ‘handouts’.
Twice now, Truss has made a serious moral and political misjudgment on a policy affecting millions of people, after last week reversing plans to cut the pay of teachers and the armed forces outside London. Mistakes like this in government would cost the Conservative party the next general election.
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Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that she will make a judgment as to whether to lead the SNP into the next Holyrood election, in 2026, but that her “default assumption” is that she will.
In her Q&A with Iain Dale at the Edinburgh festival fringe (see 3.02pm) she was asked if she was worried about losing touch with public opinion after being FM for eight years. She replied:
I think every person in a position like mine, particularly when you’ve been in a job like this for the length of time I have, you have to constantly be making sure that you are in touch.
Now, I mentioned earlier on that in eight years I’ve fought eight elections as SNP leader.
That’s a pretty good way of keeping yourself in touch and making sure you’re listening and hearing the messages of people.
But you should never take that for granted.
I like to think, in fact I know, that I’m surrounded by a family that if I ever got myself out of touch or above myself, would very quickly drag me back into line.
The default position is that, of course, I will fight the next election.
But I will make a judgment on that nearer the time, because this is a serious job and anybody in a job like this owes it to the public to make sure that they are certain they are the right person to do it, that they’ve got the energy to do it, that they’ve got the appetite, that they’re prepared to make the enormous commitment that a job like this involves, and to constantly be assessing and reassessing that.
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Rishi Sunak is losing his advantage over Liz Truss with the general public, new polling has found. PA Media reports:
A poll from Ipsos showed the proportion of people saying they thought the former chancellor would make a good prime minister fell from 38% to 32% in the last week of July.
Over the same period, Liz Truss’ figures have remained largely stable at 30%, giving Sunak a lead of only two points over the foreign secretary.
Among Conservative voters, Sunak’s fall has been even steeper.
More than half of 2019 Tory voters said he would be a good prime minister in a poll carried out on July 20-21, but that figure fell to just 42% 10 days later.
The reverse is true for Truss, whose support among Tory voters rose from 46% to 53% over the same period.
Keiran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos, said: “Any public perception that the Conservatives would be more likely to win a general election under Rishi Sunak than Liz Truss appears to have disappeared.”
The SNP says the UK government’s submission to the supreme court for the hearing on the legality of the Scottish parliament’s independence referendum (see 2pm) shows that it has run out of arguments for the union. In a statement the SNP MP Joanna Cherry said:
Scotland voted to hold an independence referendum, and the Scottish government has a mandate to deliver that manifesto commitment – with the backing of the Scottish parliament. A clear precedent was set by the negotiations leading to the 2014 referendum, when there is a majority in the Scottish parliament to hold an independence referendum the two governments should come together and negotiate the details.
The Tory government is desperate to prevent a referendum because it fears the result and has run out of any positive arguments for Westminster control. By arrogantly dismissing Scotland’s democratic decisions, Westminster is making the case for independence stronger.
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Truss says she will do 'all I can to help struggling households' with fuel bills
Liz Truss has issued a new press statement signalling that she is open to offering people payments to help them cope with rising energy bills if she becomes prime minister. It is the culmination of a U-turn (see 11.40am) that has been gradually under way since the end of last week, when she told told the Financial Times in an interview: “I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts.”
In the press notice she still stresses that her priority is cutting taxes. But whereas at the Tory hustings last night she was happy not to match what Rishi Sunak was saying about the need to offer extra help to people who would not benefit from her proposed national insurance cut, or would not benefit enough, now she is suggesting that she would implement some sort of energy support package like the one he is proposing.
This has all the hallmarks of the sort of correction you get from a campaign that realises it is on the wrong side of an argument.
The press notice quotes Truss as saying:
I understand how difficult the rising cost of living is making life for many, and if elected I will do all that I can to help struggling households.
The press notice also points out that she has used language like this before in the campaign, and in an interview in the Evening Standard today she also talks about doing “all I can” to help people with fuel bills.
The release also includes a quote from a campaign spokesperson accusing Rishi Sunak of “Gordon Brown-style politics of envy”. The spokesperson says:
Rishi Sunak wouldn’t know how people benefit from a tax cut because he has never cut a tax in his life. People didn’t vote for the Conservative party to be subjected to old-fashioned, Gordon Brown-style politics of envy.
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Liz Truss has received two newspaper endorsements today – from the Daily Express, and from the Evening Standard.
— Mark Jenkinson MP #LizForLeader (@markjenkinsonmp) August 9, 2022
Evening Standard backs Liz Truss pic.twitter.com/DbLvxSu69g
— Media Guido (@MediaGuido) August 10, 2022
✅ @EveningStandard backs #LizForLeader
— Liz for Leader (@trussliz) August 10, 2022
💬 https://t.co/e5ZFbsTXJI pic.twitter.com/bcVLyeJ4h4
Truss has had plenty of other support from Tory-leaning papers too – although this does not seem to have stopped her demonising the media as leftwing. She did it three times during the Tory hustings last night. Here is the video.
Sturgeon says Truss mainly wanted to talk about 'how she could get into Vogue' when they met at Cop26 summit
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has revealed that, when she met Liz Truss at the Cop26 climate crisis conference in Glasgow last year, one of the main things Truss was interested in was how to get featured in the fashion magazine Vogue.
And when Truss learned that Sturgeon had appeared in it twice already, Truss “looked a little bit as if she’d swallowed a wasp”, Sturgeon said.
She was speaking in a Q&A with the broadcaster Iain Dale, and responding to a question about Truss dismissing Sturgeon recently as an “attention seeker”. The comment attracted considerable controversy, partly because it was a slur against an elected head of government, and partly because Truss is not exactly publicity shy herself.
Sturgeon said when she initially heard about the comment, she thought “it was made up, it was a spoof”. Then she said she met Truss at the Cop26 summit last year, shortly after being interviewed by Vogue. Sturgeon went on:
That was the main thing she wanted to talk to me about, she wanted to know how she could get into Vogue – and she calls me an attention seeker. I said to her they came and asked me.
I didn’t really mean to do this, but I said to her it hadn’t actually been my first time in Vogue, it had been my second time.
It looked a little bit as if she’d swallowed a wasp.
I’m sure she’ll be in Vogue before too long.
I remember it because there we were at the world’s biggest climate change conference in Glasgow, world leaders about to arrive
That was the main topic of conversation she was interested in pursuing. And once we’d exhausted that it kind of dried up.
I’m sure we’ll have many more conversations about many more substantive things.
Asked about her dealings with previous Tory leaders, Sturgeon said:
I think perhaps uncharitably I described my conversations with Theresa May when she was prime minister, as being soul-destroying. I look back somewhat fondly now on that.
At least May took the job of being prime minister seriously, Sturgeon said. By comparison, dealings with Boris Johnson were “one long bluster”, she said.
You know, he was a third prime minister I’ve dealt with as first minister. It was literally like nothing I’ve ever dealt with before in terms of any senior politician.
You know, I’m going to be blunt here, he was a disgrace to the office of prime minister.
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Downing Street has no plan to put a hosepipe ban in place in and around the prime minister’s residence, the Guardian can reveal, despite ministers calling for water companies to enforce restrictions. My colleague Helena Horton has the story here.
Labour says Truss's opposition to privileges committee inquiry into Johnson shows she will maintain 'rotten culture' at No 10
At the Tory hustings last night Liz Truss said that, if she had the chance, she would vote to end the privileges committee inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said today this showed:
Liz Truss is continuing to prop up the disgraced prime minister even after he has been forced from office. She is aiding and abetting his attempts to dodge scrutiny and evade accountability to the public for his behaviour.
Boris Johnson created a rotten culture at the heart of Downing Street and toxified the Tory party from top to bottom. Liz Truss enabled him and is showing she would continue to follow his lead if she is installed into No 10. Liz Truss must now confirm in no uncertain terms that she will not undermine the privileges committee and she will appoint an ethics chief on day one of her leadership.
While the Tories offer more of the same, only Labour will stop the rot and bring the change our country needs.
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MSPs can't hold second independence referendum because it wouldn't just be advisory, UK government tells supreme court
The UK government has published its legal submission to the supreme court explaining why it believes the court should declare that the Scottish parliament does not have the right to legislate for a second independence referendum.
As PA Media reports, the Scottish government says its bill for a second independence referendum is lawful, under devolution law, because the referendum would only be advisory. But the UK government says this argument is not credible. PA says:
Lord Stewart QC, the advocate general for Scotland, published his written submission on behalf of UK ministers today.
It argues the case on whether a prospective bill, which would legislate for another referendum, would be within the powers of Holyrood.
But the case, brought forward by Scotland’s lord advocate, Dorothy Bain, “does not fall within the jurisdiction” of the supreme court because the bill has not yet passed through the Scottish parliament, according to UK law officers.
Stewart also argues that even if the court does decide it has jurisdiction over the matter, Holyrood would be unable to hold a lawful referendum
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has stated she intends to hold a referendum on 19 October 2023, depending on the court’s ruling.
Stewart said: “A referendum on Scottish independence plainly (at least) relates to the reserved matters of the United Kingdom of Scotland and England and of the parliament of the United Kingdom. That conclusion is unaffected by whether the referendum is, in its outcome, advisory or legally binding.”
In its submission to the court, submitted last month, the Scottish government leaned heavily on any future referendum not being “self-executing”, meaning it would be purely advisory and only meant as a way to ascertain the views of the Scottish people.
Stewart said it was wrong to consider the referendum as “advisory”.
If the decision favoured independence, he said it would be used to “build momentum” towards the “termination of the union”.
His submission said: “It is, of course, right that the outcome of the referendum provided for by the draft bill has no legal effect: it is not self-executing. But nor can it credibly be suggested that the outcome of the referendum will be advisory in the sense of being treated as a matter of academic interest only.
“Were the outcome to favour independence, it would be used (and no doubt used by the SNP as the central plank) to seek to build momentum towards achieving that end: the termination of the union and the secession of Scotland. It is precisely in that hope that the draft bill is being proposed.”
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Speaking to reporters in Belfast, Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, also said that at his meeting with energy company bosses tomorrow he will encourage them to invest in energy security. He said:
The moment I walked into the Treasury I tasked my leadership team to look at options so whoever is prime minister on 5 September they have options in front of them. So, all that work we need to make sure happens.
What I want to do tomorrow is understand better how [the energy companies are] committed to that investment in gas, because whatever happens we need energy security and we’ve got a strong strategy that Kwasi [Kwarteng, the business secretary] and I will continue to push hard.
The other area I want to look at is some of the energy producers, if you look at the renewable energy producers, the amount that they get paid is linked to gas prices.
So, they haven’t changed anything they’re doing, they haven’t had any increase in their input costs at all, but they’re getting a much higher return because of the unusually high gas price because of Putin.
I want to understand what they can do for their customers, what more they can do, because they’re clearly in a place now where they’re making very large profits because of that peg to the gas price.
I think it’s important we all get round the table, I will continue to do the work I need to do as chancellor, but I also want to challenge them, to say are you making the investment? How can you help your customers? What more can we do together? That’s the reason for the meeting.
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Zahawi claims UK will be 'in good place' in terms of energy supply over winter
Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, has defended the government’s decision to draw up contingency plans for power cuts this winter in the event of the UK running short of gas. He said he thought the UK would be “in a good place” in terms of energy supply.
Speaking on a visit to Belfast, Zahawi said the government was making “all sorts of contingency plans” for what might happen over the winter. He went on:
One of the reasons that I think we had one of the most successful vaccine programmes in the world is because we prepared for all sorts of scenarios.
I am very, very confident that the work we will do with the energy producers and suppliers will mean we will be in a good place.
Zahawi also said he would ensure the people in Northern Ireland receive the £400 per household payments promised by the government to help people with energy bills. There has been uncertainty about how these payments will be delivered in Northern Ireland because the power-sharing executive is not functioning.
Zahawi said:
My pledge is that we will operationalise this and deliver it because that is what the prime minister wants me to do, that is what I will do.
Today is about making sure that I work with the utility regulator, with the economy and community ministers to make sure we now deliver against that, and do it as quickly and as efficiently as possible, so the meeting today is to make sure we get that done.
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Truss will decide on possible extra support for people with energy bills 'in light of all facts', says leading ally
Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury and a leading Liz Truss supporter in the Tory leadership contest, has posted a thread on Twitter about her response to the energy bill crisis.
He defends her decision not to announce firm proposals to help people with rising costs now, and says she will take decisions in the light of all the facts when, or if, she becomes prime minister. (Rishi Sunak has not announced firm plans for extra payments either, although he has been a lot more specific about the type of approach he favours.)
Clarke also says Truss will “look at what more needs to be done” if she becomes PM and “do the responsible and honest thing by considering [proposals drawn up by government officials] when in office”.
Given that these proposals are very likely to involve some form of targeted help for people most in need (because that is what the Treasury has done before), this is confirmation that Truss has moved quite a long way from last week, when she was ruling out “handouts”.
🧵A quick thread on supporting people with the cost of living:
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) August 10, 2022
1/4 Of course, the Government is working up a package of cost of living support that the next Prime Minister can consider when they take office.
2/4 It is absolutely right to consider these options in the round when the new Prime Minister has taken office - rather than announce new un-costed policies, without sight of all the details of the pressures people could face, during a leadership election.
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) August 10, 2022
3/4 Lowering the tax burden doesn’t only help struggling families with the cost of living - it also boosts economic growth and will help avoid a recession. And that’s why I back Liz’s plan to reverse Rishi’s NI rise and cut green levies on energy bills.
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) August 10, 2022
4/4 @trussliz has always said that she will look at what more needs to be done. I have no doubt she will do the responsible and honest thing by considering these proposals when in office: making decisions in light of all the facts and the options. That's what leadership is about.
— Simon Clarke MP (@SimonClarkeMP) August 10, 2022
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Suella Braverman, the attorney general, is giving a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on equalities and rights. There is a live feed here.
In a preview of the speech published in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman says she wants to clarify the law on trans rights as it applies in schools. She says:
When it comes to gender-questioning children, we should always have compassion. At the same time, our compassion should never blind us to the harm it is possible to do to children by misplaced affirmation. Many schools and teachers believe – incorrectly – that they are under an absolute legal obligation to treat children who are gender questioning according to the preference of the child. Many are scared of the consequences of not doing so.
I want to make it clear that it is possible, within the law, for schools to refuse to use the preferred opposite-sex pronouns of a child.
She also says that schools that only offer gender-neutral toilets are acting unlawfully.
Truss summons Chinese ambassador to Foreign Office over aggression towards Taiwan
China’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned to the Foreign Office over Beijing’s “aggressive and wide-ranging escalation” against Taiwan. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and Tory leadership frontrunner, said in a statement that the Chinese government’s actions following the visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to the self-governing island were a threat to regional stability.
Truss said:
The UK and partners have condemned in the strongest terms China’s escalation in the region around Taiwan, as seen through our recent G7 statement.
I instructed officials to summon the Chinese ambassador to explain his country’s actions.
We have seen increasingly aggressive behaviour and rhetoric from Beijing in recent months, which threaten peace and stability in the region.
The United Kingdom urges China to resolve any differences by peaceful means, without the threat or use of force or coercion.
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The Rishi Sunak camp are accusing Liz Truss of a U-turn in the light of her latest comments about cash payments (see 11.40am), my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.
Sunak campaign source says: “can the straight-talking Yorkshire woman call a u-turn a u-turn?” https://t.co/cvEWU0qhla
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) August 10, 2022
Truss refuses to rule out cash payments to help people with cost of energy bills
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and frontrunner in the Tory leadership contest, has insisted that she is not ruling out giving cash payments to people struggling with their energy bills.
In a pooled broadcast interview, shown on Sky News, when she was asked what she would do on this issue, she restated her commitment to cutting taxes, by reversing the national insurance increase and removing the green levy from fuel bills, as a priority. But, when she was asked if that meant she was ruling out cash payments in any form (or targeted support, as it could be described), she replied:
That’s not what I said. What I said is my priority is making sure we’re not taking money off people and then giving it back to them later on. I believe in people keeping their own money and I believe in a low-tax economy. That’s the way we’re going to drive growth.
I’m not going to announce the contents of a budget in the future at this stage in August, but I can assure people I will do all I can to make sure that energy is affordable, and that we get through this winter.
The Mirror’s Dan Bloom takes this as a hint that a U-turn is coming.
The inevitable U-turn looms. Pool reporter asks - are you ruling out cash payments?
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) August 10, 2022
Liz Truss: “That’s not what I said! What I said is my *priority* is [tax cuts]... I’m not going to announce the contents of a Budget in future at this stage in August."
Arguably we’ve had the U-turn already. At the end of last week Truss told the Financial Times: “I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts.” But she abandoned that position at the weekend, and now she and her team (see 10.11am) are sounding ever more disposed towards “handouts”.
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The Rishi Sunak campaign are saying that Liz Truss’s policy on providing help to people with energy bill is now “as clear as mud” following the latest comments from her supporter James Cleverly. (See 10.11am.) These are from the i’s Hugo Gye.
James Cleverly on Today programme re Truss plans for cost of living: "For the people who won’t benefit directly from tax cuts, she is looking at targeted help."
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) August 10, 2022
Another Truss-backing MP going off piste? Or early signs of the supertanker turning around??
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) August 10, 2022
Sunak campaign: "Liz Truss's policy on the number one issue facing the country is as clear as mud. On Friday she ruled out direct support and since then has repeatedly refused to confirm if she will provide it...
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) August 10, 2022
...Yet this morning her supporter James Cleverly has said more support would be provided. This is starting to look like another major U-turn after she abandoned plans to cut the pay of nurses and teachers outside London last week. She now urgently needs to clear up her position."
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) August 10, 2022
Sunak may see this as last throw of the dice - if he can convince members Truss is unreliable and/or politically blind on the no1 short-term issue it could be his final chance to leapfrog her. Polls suggest he's too late.
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) August 10, 2022
Labour to propose extra measures to address energy bills crisis 'very, very soon', says Bridget Phillipson
Keir Starmer is reportedly on holiday at the moment, and the parliamentary Labour party has been largely absent in recent days from the public debate about what the government should be doing about soaring energy bills. Instead people such as Gordon Brown, Ed Davey and Martin Lewis have emerged as the most vocal critics of the government.
But Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, told BBC Breakfast this morning that the party would be proposing extra measures “very, very soon”. She said:
We will hear further very, very soon about additional measures that Labour will put in place to make sure that families get the support that they need.
She also claimed that, if Labour had been in power, it would already have taken steps that would have helped. “We would not have got to this point,” she said. She explained:
We’ve known that this has been coming and we think we should cut VAT on gas and electricity bills to deliver immediate support to families and pensioners.
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Truss's economic policies will lead to recession and Labour government, says former Tory leader Michael Howard
Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader and a Rishi Sunak supporter in the leadership contest, has joined those Tories saying Liz Truss’s economic policies would be “suicidal” for the Conservative party. Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, said this in a Times article published yesterday, and Sunak himself made the same point during the hustings in Darlington. In an interview on the Today programme, Howard said:
I really do agree with Dominic Raab that the method that Liz Truss is proposing would be suicidal. We’ve seen it before in the 1970s, it led to a recession and the Labour government, and I didn’t want to see it again.
Howard, who served in the cabinet under Margaret Thatcher, said that Truss’s plans were similar to those of Anthony Barber, the chancellor in the early 1970s under Edward Heath. Barber cut taxes to inflate the economy, but the so-called “Barber boom” is now remembered as an economic disaster because it fuelled inflation. Howard explained:
Anthony Barber, who became chancellor after the tragic death of Iain Macleod, cut taxes and increased borrowing, which is exactly what Liz Truss is proposing. The outcome of what Anthony Barber did, which was exactly what Liz Truss is proposing, was higher inflation, even higher inflation, more and more borrowing, recession and inevitably leading to a Labour government.
Margaret Thatcher learned the lessons of those years. She did not countenance unfunded, irresponsible tax cuts, she hated inflation, she hated the thought of more borrowing and she took action, direct action, to deal with the problems.
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The Liz Truss camp claims the defection of Chris Skidmore (see 9.28am) could be the start of a “bigger exodus” of MPs from the Rishi Sunak campaign. A Truss campaign spokesperson said:
We’re in talks with others from camp Rishi, and Chris coming over could trigger a bigger exodus of MPs from Sunak to us. Rishi’s flip-flopping on the economy is clearly upsetting a lot of his backers. Our supporters like Liz’s optimistic vision for the future, her Conservative plan for the economy based around tax cuts, and her credentials as a leader who will stand up to dictators like Putin and prioritise national defence.
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Truss 'is looking at targeted help' for people with energy bills, says leading ally James Cleverly
James Cleverly, the education secretary, was doing a media interview round this morning. He was speaking both as a member of the government, and as a support of Liz Truss for next Tory leader. This created some tension; at one point he was talking about what the government is doing now about energy bills, while at another point he was explaining why a full response would have to wait until the leadership campaign was over.
Here are the key points.
Cleverly confirmed that Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, are holding a meeting with energy company bosses tomorrow. The ministers will discuss increasing the scope of the windfall in the light of rising energy profits. Cleverly said:
The chancellor of the exchequer and the business secretary are actually calling in the leaders of those big energy companies to knock some heads together and basically hold them to account about what they’re going to do with those profits.
The increase in energy costs has been driven by the war in Ukraine and a global crunch, this is affecting everyone pretty much across the world, everyone in the developing world is seeing those energy bills go up. What we need to do is make sure that we have a short, medium and long term plan, so the chancellor and the business Ssecretary are getting those energy companies in as part of the short-term response.
My colleague Alex Lawson has more on tomorrow’s meeting here.
But Cleverly also said calls for an emergency budget now were unrealistic. He said that it was a “well-established principle” that an outgoing prime minister should not make major decisions and that the leadership contest could not be speeded up. He went on:
In order to bring about changes to tax systems or to financial support systems, we need to have votes in the house, that needs to go through a proper scrutiny process.
It is not as simple as recalling parliament to have an emergency debate on something like military action, which is a very simple one-question yes or no answer. An emergency budget needs to be a comprehensive and by definition, therefore, a complicated thing, it’s not just one day sitting, it’s an extended process of debate in parliament, and that is best done when Parliament has come back in September and that’s what Liz has committed to do.
He insisted that Truss would bring forward “targeted help” for people needing help with energy bills in the emergency budget she is planning for the autumn if she becomes prime minister. In recent days Truss has refused to explicitly commit herself of offering extra targeted support to people struggling to heat their homes. She has not ruled it out (and she has resiled from the firm ‘no handouts’ position she set out in an FT interview last week), but she has repeatedly stressed that her priority is cutting taxes. In an interview on the Today programme, Cleverly said Truss would hold an emergency budget. He would not say what would be in it, but when it was put to him that tax cuts would not help people on benefits, or very low earners, he replied:
She has said that she will look at support packages for people that need it most. So, for the people who won’t benefit directly from tax cuts, she is looking at targeted help. For those people who do pay tax, what she has, quite rightly, is to make sure that we don’t take any more money from them than we really need.
This is quite different in tone, and a bit more committal in substance, from what Truss was saying at the Tory hustings last night. She avoided making commitments on “targeted help”, but Cleverly says she is “looking at” it. From the interview it was not clear whether this was an intentional shift, or whether Cleverly was just reflecting the widespread assumption at Westminster that, whatever Truss is saying now, she will have to offer people targeted support with energy bills in the autumn because the alternative would be social catastrophe.
(This may be a good example of how leadership campaigns can be poor guides to future policy. Truss is campaigning in opposition to a policy she will probably end up implementing within months. In the campaign three years the main policy difference between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt was Johnon’s insistence the UK would have to leave the EU by the end of October 2019. Johnson won, and the UK was still in the EU at the start of 2020.)
Truss receives boost as former minister defects from Sunak camp
Good morning. Last week my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reported on how the Liz Truss team were hoping to get endorsements from Conservative MPs who had committed in public to backing Rishi Sunak. This sort of public vote-switching by MPs in a leadership contest is rare, because the MP involved looks duplicitous and indecisive and because MPs tend to know the candidates very well, which means they don’t change their minds easily. The story suggested the Truss camp might have been getting over-confident in their briefing.
But (as usual) Aubrey was absolutely right, and in an article for the Daily Telegraph, Chris Skidmore, the former universities minister, has explained why he is defecting from the Sunak camp and backing Truss. He blames Sunak’s “constantly changing position”, especially on the economy. He says:
The status quo cannot be an option. Initially, I had backed Rishi Sunak during the MPs’ stage of the contest. Yet over the past few weeks, I have grown increasingly concerned by his campaign’s consistently changing position, especially on the economy, to chase votes. I am convinced that we need a bolder, more positive approach to the UK’s future.
Above all, we need a leader who will unite the party. Liz Truss has demonstrated that she has the leadership and personal ability to bring us all together. We cannot afford to be seen as a divided party, and I now believe that Liz is the best person to unite us and the country in meeting the challenges we face.
At this stage in the contest, endorsements from MPs probably have no direct impact at all on members as they decide how to vote. But MPs tend to be quite astute observers of where the political wind is blowing and so, even though Skidmore is hardly a household name, his defection represents a significant morale boost for the Truss camp. There are now so many Tory MPs trying to clamber aboard the bandwagon that the campaign resorted to announcing the latest endorsements as a big job lot.
— Brandon Lewis (@BrandonLewis) August 9, 2022
Truss and Sunak are both doing major TV appearances later today. In the meantime pressure continues for both to make firmer commitments on what they will do about rising energy prices. My colleague Julia Kollewe covers some of the latest developments on that story on her business live blog.
Here is the agenda for the day.
12pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is interviewed by the broadcaster Iain Dale at an event at the Edinburgh festival fringe.
12.30pm: Suella Braverman, the attorney general, gives a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on equalities and rights.
5pm: Liz Truss takes part in a People’s Forum for GB News in Leigh, Greater Manchester. Alastair Stewart is presenting.
7pm: Rishi Sunak is interviewed by Nick Robinson on BBC One’s Our Next Prime Minister.
I 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.
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Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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