Rishi Sunak sidesteps question over whether campaign against Houthis will be ‘prolonged’ – UK politics live | Politics

Humza Yousaf was allegedly advised on how to avoid wearing a face mask in public by one of Scotland’s most senior health officials at the height of the Covid crisis, a public inquiry has been told. Severin Carrell has the story here.

In posts on X, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has confirmed that the government will put off the legal moment when the absence of a power-sharing executive at Stormont has to trigger new elections until 8 February.

In a sign he thinks that by then the DUP might have been persuaded to lift its boycott, he says he thinks this delay will be “sufficient”.

Tomorrow I will be introducing the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill to allow for the reformation of Stormont.

The Bill only has a single clause: to extend the period of time Stormont can legitimately come back until the 8th February.

I am committed to restoring devolution and significant progress has been made towards that objective. I believe that this Bill, with the constrained timescales, will be sufficient.

Using other parties’ logos and branding in campaigns is “misinformation”, an Electoral Commission official has said.

Louise Edwards, director of regulation and digital transformation at the Electoral Commission, made the comment when giving evidence to the Commons standards committee. Asked by Sir Michael Ellis (Con) about the use of misleading logos/colour schemes by campaigners, Edwards said this was an example of the sort of misinformation or disinformation that was becoming more common. She went on

If you follow the trend of complaints that we have about [misinformation or disinformation], it would be pretty exponential …

The sort of instances you are talking about impact on public confidence … We as the commission do have a role in making that very clear to the people that might be actually putting these things out … It’s quite clear that the public, their confidence falls if they see examples of misinformation or disinformation out there.

When it comes to legitimate political parties doing this about other political parties, you would hope actually that having it pointed out that this is undermining public confidence in democracy is a factor they would take into account.

Sir Tony Lloyd was hailed as a “great man of Manchester” by Rishi Sunak as the House of Commons gathered to say goodbye to the Labour MP, PA Media reports. PA says:

The 73-year-old’s family watched the tributes in the chamber, with some MPs also seen wiping away tears as they listened.

Lloyd died on 17 January only days after announcing that he was suffering from an incurable form of leukaemia.

The Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, recalled his final phone call with Lloyd after he left hospital, saying: “Tony made it so easy for me and he was that kind of person – he put me at ease when it was meant to be the other way around. He made sure it wasn’t a difficult conversation. I didn’t know that would be the last time we’d ever speak but I’m so glad we did. We’ve not only lost a great colleague and friend, the country has lost one of the nicest, most effective MPs.”

Sunak said Lloyd was an “enormously decent man who gave his life to public service”, adding: “In his penultimate contribution in this house, Tony said that change can happen and we must fight for the change we want to see. From the beginning of his career right to the end, Tony Lloyd lived those words. He was a great family man, a great man of Manchester and a great man of the House of Commons. He will be missed but he and the change he fought for and achieved will never be forgotten.”

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, addressing Lloyd’s family, said: “I hope they can take some comfort in the memories and tributes of colleagues today, and I hope they see just how much Tony was loved and respected here in this house and how much he managed to achieve in his decades of public service.”

Starmer added he was able to convey to Manchester United fan Lloyd the “high esteem in which he was held by everyone”, adding: “I hope it did give him some comfort and support in those final days.”

Lloyd was first elected to represent Stretford in 1983 and also served as MP for Manchester Central following boundary changes. He would go on to serve in the influential position as chair of the parliamentary Labour party between 2006 and 2012 before standing down from parliament to successfully contest the election for police and crime commissioner for Greater Manchester. Lloyd returned for a second stint in the Commons and represented Rochdale from 2017.

Ben Quinn

MPs heard that children in Gaza were now having to have their limbs amputated without anaesthetic. The point was made during the statement by Rishi Sunak, where he came under pressure over the UK’s position on the conflict there and the Israeli prime minister’s doubling down of his opposition to a two-state solution.

Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell asked the prime minister:

Does he not realise without an immediate ceasefire any strategy, any hope of a strategy succeeding, will fail and the Netanyahu cabinet has now become an obstacle to peace rather than a partner in peace?

McDonnell also cited an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme with a doctor in Gaza who said that the desperate shortage of medical supplies meant he was having to amputate the limbs of children without anaesthetic.

MPs also sought to press the prime minister on the comments by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who said last week he has told the US that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state once the conflict in Gaza comes to an end.

Netanyahu’s words had “inflamed hopes for peace” and echoed the views of Hamas, Sunak was told by the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran, who cited reports that the death toll in Gaza had reached 25,000. Her own relatives were still trapped there.

“While you might want to have hope I daresay it has turned to complete despondency,” she added.

An “immediate” pause was now needed to get aid in and hostages out of Gaza, said Sunak, who told MPs that they should not draw a link between the situation in the Red Sea and Gaza and that the UK would recognise Palestinian statehood “at a time which best serves the peace process”.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning No 10 indicated that last night’s Lords vote would not hold up the passage of the Rwanda bill through parliament.

Peers defeated the government by passing a resolution saying it “should not ratify the UK-Rwanda agreement on an asylum partnership until the protections it provides have been fully implemented, since parliament is being asked to make a judgment, based on the agreement, about whether Rwanda is safe”. In voting for it, peers were endorsing the conclusions of a report from the cross-party international agreements committee.

The UK-Rwanda agreement, or treaty, underpins the new Rwanda bill, because it supposedly ensures that Rwanda will be a safe country for asylum seekers – as the bill asserts. The Lords committee said it was too early to know those safeguards are in place.

But the House of Lords does not have the power to block treaties, and so the government can ignore the vote saying ratification of the treaty should be delayed. The PM’s spokesperson indicated that that is what would happen. Asked what would happen next, he told reporters:

The treaty will continue to follow the usual processes in terms of scrutiny and ratification … Ultimately government can decide to issue a statement in the House of Commons on the treaty, and that shouldn’t impact our timelines for the progress of the bill and getting flights off the ground.

Under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, which governs how treaties are ratified, the Commons can delay ratification of a treaty. The Lords does not have that power, and if the Lords does vote against a treaty, the government can go ahead and ratify it anyway, provided it publishes a statement explaining why it is doing that.

The spokesperson also said that the Lords committee did not find anything objectionable in the treaty itself and he said that implementation by Rwanda of the measures in the treaty are supposed to be in place by the spring, when the government hopes flights might start.

Civil servants taking jobs in data, digital and AI are set to get higher pay to help fill shortages, John Glen, the Cabinet Office minister, has said.

The minister said he would review the pay structure for these expert areas as he seeks to transform productivity in Whitehall.

In a speech at the Institute for Government conference Glen, who has been in the job for 10 weeks, also set out plans to:

The government has published a summary of its legal advice justifying the air attacks last night. It says the justification is the same as it was for the attacks on 11 January. Here is an excerpt.

The Houthis have been carrying out dozens of serious attacks on shipping in the Red Sea for a sustained period. British flagged vessels, as well as the vessels of many other States, have been the subject of those attacks. On 9 January, this culminated in an attack against HMS Diamond, involving multiple drones. Those attacks against shipping in the Red Sea continue, with 10 further attacks since 11 January. The government assesses that attacks will continue unless action is taken to deter them.

Military intervention to strike carefully identified targets in order to effectively downgrade the Houthi’s capabilities and deter further attacks was lawfully taken. It was necessary and proportionate to respond to attacks by the Houthis and this was the only feasible means available to deal with such attacks.

The UK is permitted under international law to use force in such circumstances where acting in self-defence is the only feasible means to deal with an actual or imminent armed attack and where the force used is necessary and proportionate.