Key events
Rishi Sunak was grilled on potholes and the lack of NHS dental care during an appearance on BBC Radio Devon.
The prime minister, who is on a visit to the South West, brushed off criticism of his dental recovery plan from the British Dental Association (BDA), telling the station:
Everyone will have their views, I’m confident that it will make a difference.
It’s a significant amount of money. It’s two-and-a-half million appointments, which will take us back to pre-Covid levels.
On Thursday, the BDA said the government’s recovery plan was “unworthy of the title”, stating nothing in it can meet the government’s stated objectives of providing NHS care to all who need it, or the prime minister’s pledge to “restore” NHS dentistry.
Pressed on claims government funding to fix potholes is only a “drop in the ocean”, Sunak said:
Well, I think the numbers I’ve got show that it’s growing next year. And that’s why we have to make priorities and decisions right.
Obviously, I think everyone knows there isn’t a bottomless pit for these things.
Kalyeena Makortoff
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has hinted at plans to launch a tax-free “British Isa” investing in UK company shares at the spring budget, as part of efforts to revive the country’s stock market.
A British stock Isa would allow investors to buy a certain amount of UK company shares, without paying tax. Currently, the government charges a 0.5% tax, known as the share purchase stamp duty, for any shares bought in the UK.
It comes as Hunt tries to find cost-free announcements that could help win over voters and businesses as the Tories lag well behind Labour in the polls before a much-anticipated general election.
The incentive, which some expected Hunt to announce as part of the autumn statement last November, could also complement government plans to sell shares in NatWest – which is still 38.6% government owned since its 2008 taxpayer bailout – to retail investors later this year.
Read more here:
Rishi Sunak again refuses to apologise for trans jibs at Keir Starmer, despite request from Brianna Ghey’s father
Rishi Sunak again refused to apologise for his transgender jibe at Keir Starmer in the Commons this week, rebuffing calls from Peter Spooner, Brianna’s Ghey’s father, for him to say sorry.
Brianna, 16, was lured to a park in Cheshire and murdered in February last year. Last Friday, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, were jailed for at least 22 and 20 years respectively. Ratcliffe was found to have been partly motivated by hostility to Brianna’s transgender identity.
Sunak is under continued pressure to apologise for making a joke at the expense of transgender people at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, just after he was told by the Labour leader, Starmer, that Brianna’s mother, Esther Ghey, was in the public gallery.
The prime minister, appearing on BBC Radio Somerset, rejected the idea he had been making a joke.
He told the station:
That is not what I did, it is wrong to say that.
What happened was a tragedy and using that to try and detract from the completely separate and very clear point I was making about Keir Starmer and his proven track record of U-turning on multiple policy issues because he doesn’t have a plan.
Rachel Reeves defends Labour’s green investment U-turn
Rachel Reeves has defended Labour’s U-turn on its pledge to spend £28bn a year on green projects.
In a move that prompted an angry response from environmental groups, unions and some in the energy sector yesterday, Keir Starmer and Reeves jointly announced they would slash the green prosperity plan to under £15bn – only a third of which would be new money.
The shadow chancellor blamed the Tories and the economic impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, as she told BBC Breakfast she would not “make any apologies” for fiscal responsibility.
I’ll make no apologies for ensuring that our plan is fully costed, fully funded and deliverable within the inheritance we’re going to get.
It is going to be a bleak inheritance after the damage the Conservatives have done to our economy.
She said:
In the almost three years that I’ve been shadow chancellor, I think people have heard loud and clear from me that fiscal responsibility, economic responsibility, are the most important things for me because it is absolutely essential that the public finances are managed well.
And when economic circumstances change, your plans have to change as well.
In case you missed it, here’s the full story on that U-turn:
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