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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Badenoch accuses Starmer of exploiting Brianna Ghey tragedy after Sunak makes trans jibe during PMQs – as it happened

Victoria Atkins NHS ​​Rishi Sunak

Hunt accepts that Tory/Treasury claim about Labour's insulation plan costing £13bn might not be realistic

This morning CCHQ put out a statement from Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, highlight a Treasury analysis of Labour’s plan to insulate 19m homes in a decade saying this would cost double the £bn a year claimed. “This official costing shows that a key plank of Labour’s policy costs double what they have claimed,” he said.

But the £13bn a year price tag attached to the policy by the Treasury and CCHQ has been dismissed by Labour (see 11.53am) and by experts (see 1.44pm), and now even Hunt does not seem quite so willing to defend the figure.

When it was put to him by ITV’s Robert Peston in an interview that the £13bn figure was “implausible”, because it made assumptions such as full subsidies for wealthy families, Hunt replied: “Even if it’s not double the £6bn, it is still a very big chunk of a £28bn pound spending spree.”

Tory MP Dehenna Davison says it was 'disappointing' to hear Sunak make joke about trans people

The Conservative MP Dehenna Davison has said it was “disappointing” to hear Rishi Sunak make a joke in the Commons today at the expense of trans peope. She posted this on X.

Wasn’t in Parliament today thanks to a migraine attack so have just caught up on PMQs.

The debate around trans issues often gets inflamed at the fringes. As politicians, it’s our job to take the heat out of such debates and focus on finding sensible ways forward, whilst ensuring those involved are treated with respect. Given some of the terrible incidences of transphobia we have seen lately, this need for respect feels more crucial than ever.

That’s why it was disappointing to hear jokes being made at the trans community’s expense. Our words in the House resonate right across our society, and we all need to remember that.

Hunt claims Sunak's jibe at PMQs was not aimed at trans people

Jeremy Hunt has rejected claims that Rishi Sunak was making a joke at the expense of trans people at PMQs.

In an interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason, the chancellor said that Sunak was making a point about Keir Starmer repeatedly changing his mind and that the PM stressed his admiration for Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was murdered in an attack partly motivated by transphobia. Hunt said:

What [Sunak] was saying is that for the really important issues of the day Labour and Sir Keir Starmer simply cannot make up his mind. He said when it comes to trans issues, economic issues, like £28bn a year, Labour changes its position by the day. His point was that if a political party that wants to govern this country can’t make up its mind on really important issues including how they would run the economy then they risk losing the progress we have made which would take us back to square one.

When Mason put it to Hunt that Sunak “used a line about trans people as a political punchline in the presence of a grieving mother”, Hunt replied:

Chris, that is not what happened and you know that …What he was saying was that Keir Starmer cannot make up his mind up about the big issues of the day.

During PMQs Sunak said: “I think I counted almost 30 [Starmer U-turns] in the last year: pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman – although in fairness that was only 99% of a U-turn.” This was a reference to an interview Starmer gave last year in which he said 99.9% of women did not have a penis.

At the time interviewers from some outlets were routinely asking Labour politicians if a woman could have a penis because often MPs like Starmer found it hard to give an answer acceptable to trans activists that did not attract derision from the right.

Tory politicians generally did not get asked the same question because they were happy to say no – even though technically that is the wrong answer because, as Starmer was alluding to, a gender recognition law that has been in force for 20 years does allow people to change gender without the need for surgery.

Badenoch's intervention in row about PM's anti-trans jibe - snap analysis

Kemi Badenoch comes top in surveys asking Conservative party members which cabinet ministers they admire the most, and she is currently favourite to be the next Tory leader. There are two reasons for this, both of which are perfectly illustrated by her intervention in the row about Rishi Sunak’s anti-trans jibe today. (See 3.25pm.)

First, she has strong, rightwing views, particularly on matters of race and gender, that are in tune with what Tory members think, and she is not afraid to state them. Second, and more importantly, she relishes having a fight over them with her opponents. There is no one in the Conservative party who can bait the left with such audacity. The only possible exceptions might be Michael Gove and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, but they seem to care about politeness. Badenoch definitely doesn’t.

We’ve got a headline on the blog now about Badenoch’s intervention, but a more accurate one might be: “Badenoch sees fire, grabs can of petrol, and throws.” Despite her professed desire to “take the heat out of the debate on LGBT issues”, these are not comments intended to calm things down.

There are four other points worth making.

1) Badenoch appears to be defending Sunak, without actually doing so. By trying to make this an argument about Keir Starmer’s comments, not Sunak’s, she is giving him some useful political cover. But she does not say he was right to make the joke he did, and her comments about the need for tact and understanding imply she would not have been so crass.

2) Tory activists will like the claim that it is Labour that is weaponising the issue – even though it is not true. Starmer is not especially keen to talk about trans issues, and last year Labour tried to play down a U-turn on self-identification for people using the Gender Recognition Act. It is Tory politicians who are most exploiting this issue. Shortly before being appointed deputy Tory chair last year,, Lee Anderson said the party should fight the next election on a “mix of culture wars and trans debate”.

3) And Badenoch’s opponents will also have a hollow laugh at the claim that she has sought to take the heat out of the debate on LGBT issues. She is seen as the minister responsible for the fact the government’s trans guidance for schools describes “gender identity ideology” as “a contested belief”. As Archie Bland wrote at the time, this “contradicts the settled position implied by the World Health Organization, the UK census, the law, the NHS, and the government itself”. Campaigners have claimed the guidance will “erase decades of progress in making schools places that value difference and reject discrimination”.

4) But none of these objections are likely to stop interventions like this boosting Badenoch’s popularity with Tory activists. This afternoon, less than an hour after the tweets appeared, the bookmakers Coral sent out a press release saying it had “slashed the odds to 2-1 (from 7-2) on Kemi Badenoch becoming the next Conservative leader following support [ie new bets being placed on her] this afternoon”.

Kemi Badenoch on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last month.
Kemi Badenoch on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last month. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA

Updated

Keir Starmer pays tribute to Esther Ghey after they meet in Commons

Keir Starmer has posted this on X about his meeting with Esther Ghey. He makes a point of calling Brianna her daughter.

Today I met Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was murdered last year.

I am utterly in awe of her strength and bravery in the face of such unimaginable grief, as she campaigns to make sure no parent has to go through what she did.

Labour will work with campaigners and parents like Esther to ensure our children and young people have the mental health support they need. It’s what Brianna and her family deserve.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, has claimed that, if Esther Ghey was not at parliament today, MPs would not have objected to Rishi Sunak’s anti-trans jibe. She posted this on X.

This was truly terrible from Sunak. But let’s not kid ourselves - had Brianna’s mum not been there today, no-one (including Keir Starmer) would have batted an eyelid. It’s not good enough to stand against transphobia only when the mother of a murdered trans girl might be listening. It needs to be done all of the time.

Badenoch hits back at Labour in PMQs trans jibe row, accusing Starmer of exploiting Ghey tragedy for political purposes

Kemi Badenoch, who combines being business secretary with being minister for women and equality, has put out a statement on X claiming it was “shameful” that Keir Starmer chose to use the murder of Brianna Ghey for “political point-scoring”.

She also claimed that she personally had sought to take the heat out of the trans issue, and that it was Labour that was weaponising it.

Every murder is a tragedy. None should be trivialised by political point-scoring. As a mother, I can imagine the trauma that Esther Ghey has endured.

It was shameful of Starmer to link his own inability to be clear on the matter of sex and gender directly to her grief. (1/2)

As Minister for Women and Equalities I’ve done all I can to ensure we have take the heat out of the debate on LGBT issues while being clear about our beliefs and principles.

Keir Starmer’s behaviour today shows Labour are happy to weaponise this issue when it suits them (2/2)

Updated

Tory MP Nickie Aiken says she is standing down at next election.

The Conservative MP Nickie Aiken has said that she is stepping down at the next election. A deputy chair of the Conservative party, she was only elected in 2019, but she says she is quitting because her husband, Alex Aiken, executive director for the Government Communication Service, is taking a job abroad.

Aiken represents Cities of London and Westminster, where she had a majority of 3,953 at the last election.

According to this list compiled by the House of Commons library, she is the 55th Tory to say they are standing down – or 58th if MPs elected as Conservatives but now sitting as independents are included.

Updated

The Department of Health and Social Care has now published its dental recovery plan for England.

In the Commons the SNP MP Hannah Bardell used a point of order to say that Rishi Sunak should apologise for his anti-trans jibe. She said she was “horrified” to hear Sunak “on his feet during LGBT history month, and on a day when Brianna Ghey’s mother was in parliament, to make a transphobic joke across the chamber”.

She went on:

We come to this place as elected representatives to improve the condition of others, do we not? And at a time when the trans community are facing unprecedented attacks from people in this place, from people in the other place, and from the media, it is incumbent upon as all to reflect on our language, on how we approach these issues and how we talk about the trans and non-binary community.

I think and I hope [the deputy speaker] will guide me in how we can make sure the prime minister apologises.

Dame Eleanor Laing, the deputy speaker, said it was not her job to require Rishi Sunak to “say anything different”.

But she said paid tribute to Esther Ghey and she said “when a tragedy has occurred that we ought to show sympathy and understanding, and not always make political points”.

Stonewall says anti-trans jibes like Sunak's 'can and do result in harm' and calls for apology

Stonewall, which campaigns on behalf of LGBTQ+ people, has joined opposition politicians in saying Rishi Sunak should apologise for his anti-trans jibe at PMQs. In a statement, it says dehumanising comments like this from people in power “can and do result in harm”.

The Scottish National party still holds a clear lead over Labour in both Westminster and Holyrood elections, according to a new poll by Ipsos which does, however, show those leads being steadily eroded.

The Ipsos poll, for Scotland’s commercial broadcaster STV, puts the SNP seven points ahead in a Westminster election on 39%, versus 32% for Labour, and nine points in the constituency vote for Holyrood, on 39%. It said the SNP still maintains a lead in public trust in health, schools and the cost of living policies.

Humza Yousaf’s advisers argue these findings undermine assumptions now taking root in Scotland that Labour is poised to beat the SNP in the general election, building on its drubbing of the SNP in last October’s Rutherglen byelection.

Other polls put Labour much closer to the SNP in a Westminster vote. Panelbase very recently put Labour three points ahead, and Redfield & Wilton has had Labour two points ahead or neck and neck with the SNP.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, believes those findings put Labour on or very close to 35% in general election voting. Labour sees that as the magic number, a tipping point at which a large number of SNP seats come into play for Labour.

Some pollsters believe Ipsos’s methodology is more accurate than other commercial polls. YouGov, Panelbase, Survation and Redfield & Wilton tend to use internet-based panels of people registered and sometimes incentivised to take part. Ipsos cold calls voters by telephone and arguably has a wider and more representative net of people to draw from.

However, today’s Ipsos data has warning bells for the SNP; it is tracking a continuing increase in Labour support. In May 2023, the SNP had a 12-point lead in a Westminster election, which fell to 10 points in November 2023. In the Holyrood vote, the SNP lead has fallen from 14 points last May, to 12 in November.

The same squeeze appears in trust ratings; the SNP trust ratings on the NHS, schools and the economy have fallen by five or six points since May 2022 and Labour’s have grown by seven in all three areas.

Treasury costings of opposition policies have 'little, if any, credibility', says ex Treasury permanent secretary

Labour has also described the Treasury costing document used by CCHQ to argue that Labour’s insulation policy would cost £13bn a year (see 11.53pm) as ludicrous and wrong. A spokesperson said:

This costing is ludicrous and uses bogus assumptions. They have costed someone else’s policy, not Labour’s.

Nick Macpherson, who was permanent secretary at the Treasury from 2005 to 2016, seems to agree. In a post on X, he said:

Over the next 9 months, we will have to tolerate many an “official Treasury” costing of Opposition policy. Since time immemorial, whatever the party in power, these costings have had little if any credibility. Political advisers determine the assumptions. #rubbishinrubbishout

Labour says UK deserves better than PM 'happy to use minorities as punch bag'

Keir Starmer is due to meet Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, this afternoon, his spokesperson said at Labour’s post-PMQs briefing. Commenting on what Rishi Sunak anti-trans jibe, the spokesperson said:

We don’t think that the country wants or deserves a prime minister happy to use minorities as a punch bag. The comments were really, deeply offensive to trans people, and he should reflect on his response there and apologise.

Ghey has called for under-16s to be banned from accessing social media on mobile phones. The spokesperson said Labour was open-minded about this proposal.

Updated

Opposition MPs are denouncing Rishi Sunak on X over his anti-trans jibe. Here are some examples.

From Anneliese Dodds, the shadow secretary for women and equalities

This isn’t the first time Rishi Sunak has used LGBT+ people as a punchline to a cruel joke.

But making jokes about trans people in front of the mother of Brianna Ghey is a shameful new low.

We must do better than this. The Prime Minister should apologise immediately.

From Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader

Appalling scenes in #PMQs as Sunak taunts trans people (“what is a woman”) in front of Esther Ghey, mother of Brianna Ghey, who is watching in the Commons gallery today.

The PM has brought shame on his office and on the House. MPs are rightly shouting “apologise”.

From the Green MP Caroline Lucas

Even with Brianna Ghey’s mother in the public gallery, the PM can’t resist blowing the culture war dogwhistle. Is there no depth to which he will not sink?

From Labour’s Ben Bradshaw

Disgusting man, Rishi Sunak, making transphobic slurs at PMQs with Brianna Ghey’s mother in the gallery & dodging the chance to apologise. Brilliant & genuinely furious response from @Keir_Starmer

From Labour’s Matt Western

In the same week we’ve been outraged by the comments of 3 Conservative Cllrs on SEND children, we now hear the PM mocking trans people whilst Brianna Ghey’s mother is in the audience.

Just horrifying. Nationally and locally, they’re targeting some of the most vulnerable

From Labour’s Sarah Champion

Rishi makes trans joke during PMQs while Brianna Ghey‘s mum was in parliament. Even worse, it was clearly scripted. What is wrong with these people

From Labour’s Zarah Sultana

Disgusted to hear Rishi Sunak make a transphobic jibe in the Commons, even as Brianna Ghey’s mother is in the public gallery.

Brianna’s horrific murder – which was confirmed as being motivated by transphobia – should have finally taught politicians not to spread this hate.

No 10 refuses to apologise for Sunak's anti-trans joke, and says it was 'legitimate' for him to highlight Starmer's U-turns

No 10 has defended Rishi Sunak’s decision to make a joke about trans people at PMQs. (See 12.06pm.)

Asked about the PM’s comment at the No 10 post-PMQs lobby briefing, a spokesperson said:

If you look back on what the prime minister was saying, there was a long list of U-turns that the leader of the opposition had been making.

I don’t think those U-turns are a joke, it is quite serious changes in public policy. I think it is totally legitimate for the prime minister to point those out.

The spokesperson also declined to apologise.

Updated

PMQ - snap verdict

For Rishi Sunak, that was dreadful. If he is not trembling somewhere in the precincts of the Commons hoping the earth will swallow him up, he should be. According to Sam Coates on Sky News just now, Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, may not have arrived in the public gallery in time to hear Sunak’s anti-trans jibe (she may have arrived later, Coates say), but that is no consolation at all.

For all the complaints about PMQs being a ghastly shouting match, it is an environment where character gets tested and exposed – instantly, harshly, without recourse to advice – and today Sunak failed badly. He looked like someone whose empathy reflex is deficient.

It was also an insight into how, while the traditionalist, swaggering “a man is a man, a woman is a woman” stuff that Sunak favours may suit a Tory party conference, it does not fare so well when it collides with reality as experienced by people on the receiving end of anti-trans prejudice.

Above all, today’s exchanges were a reminder that PMQs is a challenge and that you can’t simply rely on what has been scripted in advance. Leaving aside the trans jibe, Sunak had a decent riff prepared about Keir Starmer’s numerous U-turns (see 12.06pm) and if he had had the nous, on hearing that Esther Ghey was in the gallery, to drop the punchline, he would have been OK. But he didn’t, because he hasn’t got the political agility, or the capacity to avoid the insensitive (the same instinct that might have protected him in his Piers Morgan interview).

Starmer was able to rip up his script. Instantly spotting Sunak’s howler, he summed up the PM offence rather well:

I think the role of the prime minister is to ensure that every single citizen in this country feels safe and respected. It’s a shame that the prime minister doesn’t share that.

Backbenchers need to be able to improvise too. To her credit, Labour’s Liz Twist did this when she challenged Sunak to apologise to Ghey. But if she had just left it there, he would have had to answer. Instead she ploughed on his pre-prepared question, which allowed Sunak to ignore the point about an apology.

Rishi Sunak at PMQs
Rishi Sunak at PMQs Photograph: Parliament/ Maria Unger/Parliament

Updated

Vicky Foxcroft (Lab) asks why the PM downgraded the role of minister for disabled people.

Sunak says the minister for disabled people (Mims Davies) will do a fantastic job, because she cares about the issue.

This is the last question, he he says he wants to address a point to Brianna Ghey’s mother. He says:

I said earlier this week what happened was an unspeakable and shocking tragedy. And, as I said earlier this week, in the face of that for her mother to demonstrate the compassion and empathy that she did last weekend, I thought demonstrated the very best of humanity in the face of seeing the very worst of humanity, and she deserves all our admiration.

He does not apologise.

Sarah Edwards (Lab) asks about a constituent waiting years for an autism diagnosis for her son. Will the PM confirm that students who need an EHCP (education, health and care plan) will get one?

Sunak says the government wants every child to thrive at school. He will look at this case, he says.

Daisy Cooper (Lib Dem) asks about a plan to downgrade Eastbourne’s hospital.

Sunak says a new health facility is being built in Eastbourne. He accuses local Lib Dems there of “scaremongering”.

Liz Twist (Lab) asks Sunak if he will apologise to Brianna Ghey’s mother. She then asks a longish question about the Teesworks investigation.

Sunak answers the Teesworks question, and ignores the point about Brianna Ghey’s mother, leading to MPs shouting “apologise” at him.

Elliot Colburn (Con) says every year 6,500 people contemplate suicide. He says he went through this himself in 2021. Luckily his attempt failed, he received amazing care. He thanks people who helped him and asks Sunak to back him in saying, if other people are going through this experience, they should realise they are not alone.

Sam Tarry (Lab) asks Sunak if he understands that the people he is making “sick bets” on are real people.

Sunak says he wants to stop people being exploited by criminal gangs. Why does Labour remain on the side of the criminal people smugglers.

Alun Cairns (Con) says people in Wales have to wait longer for NHS treatment than in England. Does Sunak agree Aneurin Bevan would be turning in his grave over Labour’s record?

Sunak does agree. It is clear the government should stick it its plan, he says.

I have updated some of the earlier posts with direct quotes from the Sunak/Starmer exchanges. You may need to refresh the page to get them to appear.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, thanks Sunak for his work on the Safeguarding the Union paper and says the union is stronger as a result. He asks about this week’s Policy Exchange report on Ireland and defence, and asks if he agrees Northern Ireland should play a bigger role in UK defence.

Sunak says he will look at the Policy Exchange report. But the command paper already talked about a bigger defence role for Northern Ireland, he says.

Tim Loughton (Con) asks about migrants converting to Christianity to help their asylum claims.

Sunak says the Home Office has asked for a report into this.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, says Sunak degraded his office when he accepted a bet on the Rwanda policy. Will he apologise?

Sunak says he and Flynn disagree. He says he thinks illegal migrants should be removed.

Flynn asks what makes Sunak look the most out of touch: saying the cost of living crisis is easing, or gambling on the Rwanda policy.

Sunak says the SNP government in Scotland is making the cost of living crisis worse by putting taxes up.

Starmer says Sunak should not be talking about tax cuts when he is “literally the country’s expert on putting taxes up”. He mentions the £1,000 bet and asks if Sunak realises why people think he is out of touch.

Sunak says he won’t take any lectures from someone who thought it was right to defend terrorists.

Updated

Starmer says, when Sunak said he had failed on waiting lists, he thought the PM might be entering a new era of integrity.

Sunak says new figures out this morning have shown that just one Labour policy will cost double what people expected. (See 11.53am.)

Starmer says, if this is an NHS recovery plan, what is it recovering from?

Sunak criticises Labour’s record on the NHS in Wales.

Updated

Starmer condemns Sunak for making jibe about trans people with Brianna Ghey's mother watching PMQs from gallery

Starmer says, of all the weeks, this was not the time for Sunak to make that jibe about trans people, especially with Brianna Ghey’s mother in the gallery. (See 12.06pm.)

He says, as PM, it is Sunak’s job to ensure all people in this country feel safe.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber. Shame.

Parading as a man of integrity when he’s got absolutely no responsibility.”

I think the role of the prime minister is to ensure that every single citizen in this country feels safe and respected, it’s a shame that the prime minister doesn’t share that.

Other opposition MPs were shouting “shame” at Sunak over this.

Updated

Starmer says Sunak said it would be on him if he did not keep his promises. What he he mean?

Sunak says Starmer has broken almost all his promises. He says he has counted 30. He lists some of them, including on the difference between a man and a woman, although that is only a 99% U-turn, he says.

UPDATE: Sunak said:

We are bringing the waiting lists down for the longest waiters and making progress, but it is a bit rich to hear about promises from someone who has broken every single promise he was elected on.

I think I have counted almost 30 in the last year. Pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman, although in fairness that was only 99% of a u-turn.

The list goes on but the theme is the same, it is empty words, broken promises and absolutely no plan.

Updated

Keir Starmer also sends the king his best wishes.

He praises the bravery of Brianna Ghey’s mother, and says she is in the gallery today.

A year ago the PM promised to bring NHS waiting lists down. Is he glad he did not bet a grand on it?

Sunak says at least he sticks to what he says.

Fleur Anderson (Lab) says David Cameron said the government would consider bringing forward the moment when the UK might recognise a Palestinian state. Did the PM sign off that announcement?

Sunak says the longstanding position has been that the UK will recognise a Palestinian state when that is most conducive to the peace process.

Updated

Rishi Sunak starts by wishing the king a speedy recovery.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.

PMQs
PMQs Photograph: HoC

Sunak faces Starmer at PMQs

The CCHQ/Treasury costings document seems to have been released in time for PMQs, which is about to start.

Rishi Sunak leaving No 10 for PMQs.
Rishi Sunak leaving No 10 for PMQs. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Labour dismisses claims from Tories that Treasury figures show its insulation pledge would cost £13bn a year

Labour has dismissed a Treasury document published this morning used to justify Tory claims that Keir Starmer’s insulation pledge would cost £13bn a year – more than double what Labour says it would cost.

In a press release issued by CCHQ, not the Treasury, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said:

This official costing shows that a key plank of Labour’s policy costs double what they have claimed.

But given it was all coming out of a £28bn a year spending splurge which is cancelled one day and then reinstated the next, the overall picture is an opposition party in a general election year that simply does not have an economic plan.

The £13bn figure is in a Treasury document providing an opposition policy costing.

Civil servants do not normally engage in party political briefing, and in a note justifying the publication of the report the Treasury says:

Successive administrations have accepted that since departments provide factual answers to MPs and peers about the costs of identifiable changes in activities or benefits, there is no objection to officials providing ministers with similarly factual information about clearly identified opposition policies.

Where another department produces this costing it is cleared with officials at the Treasury and signed off by the Permanent Secretary in line with official guidance around their production and clearance.

Labour says the small print of the report shows that officials don’t believe the opposition would spent £13bn on the policy. The report says: We would note that the opposition has stated publicly that “public investment in home energy ramping up to £6 billion annual investment in the second half of the parliament at the latest”.

A Labour source said:

Labour’s plans to upgrade homes would ramp up to a maximum of £6bn per year, subject to our fiscal rules.

The government has the same target. It was first announced in 2017’s clean growth strategy and again in 2021’s heat and building strategy.

Given this is the government’s costings for delivering their own target, it raises questions about whether they have a secret plan to spend [£12-14bn] and how they will pay for it.

Dowden claims Sunak using interview to imply he thought Starmer was 'terrorist sympathiser' was 'acceptable'

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, has claimed that Rishi Sunak was not being misleading when he suggested in an interview that Keir Starmer was a terrorist sympathiser.

Sunak made the comment in his TalkTV interview with Piers Morgan, which also led to him being widely condemned for shaking hands with Morgan on a £1,000 bet over whether or not deportation flights to Rwanda will happen.

The Conservatives have recently criticised Starmer for acting for the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir when he was a human rights lawyer in 2008. Starmer was part of a team of lawyers that tried unsuccessfully to use European human rights law to overturn a ban on the group in Germany.

In the interview Sunak told Morgan:

We have been very clear about Hizb ut-Tahrir, they should be a proscribed terrorist organisation. We are bringing forward the legislation to do that.

And, again, the question for Keir Starmer, he once upon a time represented Hizb ut-Tahrir. Actually he supported them in resisting proscription elsewhere. And that is who he was on the side of? We are trying to ban these people and he was busy trying to represent them.

Asked if he thought Starmer as “a terrorist sympathiser”, Sunak replied:

Well I would say let the facts speak for themselves, right? There he was, he was their lawyer when they were trying to resist this.

Starmer’s office dismissed Sunak’s comments as “desperate nonsense”, saying that as director of public prosecutions Starmer “oversaw the first ever prosecution of senior members of al-Qaida, the jailing of the airline liquid bomb plotters and the deportation of countless terrorists”.

In an interview with Times Radio, Dowden said that, while “robust political discourse” was fine, he did not think politicians should lie or mislead people, and he said he did not accept that was something his party was doing.

Asked about Sunak’s jibe, Dowden said:

What Rishi Sunak was highlighting … was the fact that [Starmer] had represented, I believe it was Hizb ut-Tahrir which the government has proscribed. I would say that is the use of robust language. I wouldn’t say that was the prime minister misleading.

Asked if it was acceptable for Sunak to imply, in his response to Morgan, that he did think Starmer was a terrorist sympathiser, Dowden replied:

I think it’s acceptable what the prime minister said, which was that the facts speak for themselves. He was setting out those facts for people to understand them.

Oliver Dowden.
Oliver Dowden. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Updated

Atkins criticised after refusing to confirm in TV interview budget for NHS dentistry has fallen

During her media round this morning Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, faced awkward questions about funding for NHS dentistry.

In an interview on BBC Breakfast, she repeatedly refused to confirm that the budget for NHS dentistry has fallen over the past decade.

Later, on the Today programme, when asked to confirm that the government had underspent on dentistry, she said “the dentistry environment is much, much more complex than that”. She insisted that the £200m was new money, in addition to £3bn already being spent on NHS dentistry.

Asked to confirm that overall spending on NHS dentisry in real terms was lower than it was in 2010, Atkins did not deny this, but said it was important to acknowledge there had been “a big change in the dental market over the last decade or so”.

Responding to the interview round, Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem health spokesperson, said:

Seeing a minister duck and dive on the reality of dental funding cuts will be hard to swallow for millions who have been left waiting for so long under this government.

The reality is they’ve left our dental services to rot and now think they can rebuild it with a handful of toothpicks.

Updated

Sunak moving towards holding election in October, not later, report claims

At Westminster many people have been working on the assumption that the general election will take place in November or December. That is because one of the very few reliable laws of British politics is that a prime minister facing almost certain electoral defeat will put off an election for as long as possible, because January (the last possible date) would be madness, because no one wants an election campaign over Christmas, and because the Conservative party, like other parties, makes a huge amount of money from its party conference, and letting it go ahead would rule out October.

But, in a story in the Sun today, Harry Cole says thinking in No 10 is moving towards an October election. He explains:

Concerns over massive global insecurity triggered by the potential return of Donald Trump means going to the country before the US election is now more likely, insiders say.

It comes as Tory HQ brought in a whopping £16.5 million in donations in the last four months.

An October poll would upend the party conference season - traditionally a big money spinner for political parties.

But one Tory source said: “Cash is not a problem for us.”

Updated

Streeting says he would start reforming NHS dentists' contract within days of Labour taking office

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, was giving interviews this morning about dentistry from outside the dental surgery in Bristol where the police had to be called to manage the queues because so many people wanted to sign up for an NHS dentists.

Unusually for an opposition spokesperson, Streeting sounded marginally more positive about the government’s announcement than the relevant professional organisation – British Dental Association (see 9.46am). He said it would “go some way to plugging the immediate shortfall”. But he agreed with the BDA in saying what was really needed was reform of the contract for NHS dentists. Labour would address this within days of getting into office, he claimed.

He told BBC Breakfast this morning:

It’s just gone quarter past seven. There is already a queue of people. Those people have been told that the practice isn’t enrolling new patients today, but people are still queuing already on a very cold morning because they’re desperate.

What the government’s announced today, much of which has been lifted from what Labour has announced as an emergency dental rescue package, will go some way to plugging the immediate shortfall.

But what it doesn’t do, and what the dentists are crying out for, is reform of the dentist contract so we can recruit and retain the NHS dentists we need.

I will grip the issue of reform of the contract in week one of a Labour government, getting the dentists in straight away to agree the process for contract renegotiation.

Updated

'Little more than rearranging the deck chairs' - why dental recovery plan has been savaged by British Dental Association

The British Dental Association cites numerous reasons why it thinks the government’s dental recovery plan for England is inadequate in its formal response. Here are the points it is making.

  • The BDA says the new, higher payments for dentists who see NHS patients do not “go anywhere near far enough” to covering the full costs dentists will incur, “particularly for treatments like dentures or crowns that require laboratory work”.

  • It says there is no new money for the new patient premium, and that NHS England is just “recycling the same limited pot of money”.

  • It says the £200m described as new money is “less than the half the underspends in the budget expected this year”.

  • It says the plan does not compensate for a decade of frozen budgets. It says:

Last month Department of Health and Social care accounts revealed the service’s £3bn budget has barely changed in a decade, with no effort to keep pace with demand, or rising costs. In real terms the budget has been cut by over £1bn since 2010.

  • The BDA says the plan does not do what the Commons health committee said was needed in a report last year. The committee said the problems faced by people unable to access NHS dentistry were “totally unacceptable in the 21st century” and that “fundamental reform” of the contract for NHS dentists was needed.

  • It says, without reform to the contract for NHS dentists, the plan amounts to “little more than an exercise in ‘rearranging the deck chairs’”.

  • It says the proposal to extend water fluoridation is “close to meaningless” because of widening oral health inequality.

  • It says “frontloaded investment in tried-and-tested schemes like supervised brushing are needed now”. This is what Labour is proposing.

Updated

Victoria Atkins claims Labour does not trust parents to brush children’s teeth after criticism of Tory NHS dental plan

Good morning. Labour has been campaigning hard recently on the dire state of NHS dentistry, which is near-impossible to access to many places, and today the government is responding by publicising its own NHS dental recovery plan. The British Dental Association has been scathing about it. It is normal, with a government initiative like this, for the relevant to professional body to say that it is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough etc. But, in its response, the BDA does not even bother with the usual niceties. It is wholly critical, saying the plan is “incapable of even beginning to honour Rishi Sunak’s promise to ‘restore’ NHS dentistry, or in any way meet the government’s stated ambition to provide access to NHS dentistry for ‘all who need it’”.

Aletha Adu and Tobi Thomas have the story here.

Labour has said some elements of the programme, in particular the emphasis on doing more to get young children brushing their teeth properly, echoes what they were saying in their own dental recovery plan, published in October at the party conference. In interviews this morning, Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, refused to accept that, claiming that Labour does not trust parents. She told Times Radio:

Labour seems to think that no parent can be trusted to brush their children’s teeth. We do not take that approach. We say the overwhelming majority of parents do a great job looking after their children.

For those children that are struggling, this is where the fluoride brushing dental teams into reception class...really counts because we are targeting it very, very particularly on areas where there are high, high rates of oral ill health.

But, in fact, on children’s teeth brushing, the two plans are similar. NHS England’s plan says:

The plan will also see the government roll out a new ‘Smile For Life’ programme which will see parents and parents-to-be offered advice for baby gums and milk teeth, with the aim that by the time children go to school, every child will see tooth brushing as a normal part of their day.

And Labour proposed: “Supervised toothbrushing in schools for 3-5 year olds, targeted at the areas with highest childhood tooth decay.”

At the time Labour announced this, some Tories criticised the party for nanny statism. Miriam Cates, the co-chair of the New Conservatives, a backbench group of rightwingers who are particularly socially conservative and pro-family, suggested Labour was “disempowering parents and robbing them of their rightful responsibilities”.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

After 12.45pm: MPs debate motions relating to funding for the police and local government.

If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.

Updated

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