Starmer claims Sunak needs support of ‘grown-up in room’ Labour party to ensure Commons passes gradual smoking ban
Keir Starmer has criticised Rishi Sunak for not imposing a ban on disposable vapes earlier. Asked if he supported the PM’s announcement, Starmer told journalists:
Yes, I support the banning of disposable vapes, not least because of the impact they have on children.
We’ve been calling for this for two years. So I do have a question for the government, which is why has it taken two years to get to this stage? We’ve wasted two years.
Starmer also suggested that Rishi Sunak was only allowing his MPs a free vote on this because he could not get them to back him. He said:
I’ve also got concerns that apparently the prime minister is going to give his MPs a free vote, because he doesn’t think that he’s able to hold his own team together.
Luckily the Labour party will always act in the national interest. We will vote for it and so this measure will go through. It’ll only go through because the Labour party is the grown-up in the room and is prepared to act in the national interest and vote for this important measure.
Sunak argues that, in allowing his MPs a free vote, he is following precedent. (See 11.13am.)
Key events
Peers start debate on second reading of Rwanda bill
In the House of Lords peers have just started the second reading debate on the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill.
Here is the list showing which peers will be speaking, and in which order.
Lord Stewart of Dirleton, the advocate general for Scotland, is opening the debate.
He starts by saying that he will be speaking as a government minister, and not as a law officer. (The advocate general for Scotland is the equivalent of the attorney general for Scottish law purposes.) Asked to clarify, he says he means he will advocating government policy but sticking to the convention that law officers cannot give details of their legal advice to government
George Freeman says he resigned from government because he could not pay increased mortgage on ministerial salary
George Freeman has said he resigned last year as a government minister because he could not afford rising mortgage repayments on a ministerial salary of nearly £120,000, PA Media reports. PA says:
Freeman resigned as science minister in November amid Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle.
In a Substack blog post last week, he wrote: “Why did I stand down?
“Because … I was so exhausted, bust and depressed that I was starting to lose the irrepressible spirit of optimism, endeavour, teamwork & progress which are the fundamentals of human achievement.
And because my mortgage rises this month from £800pcm to £2,000, which I simply couldn’t afford to pay on a ministerial salary.
“That’s political economy 2.0.
“We’re in danger of making politics something only Hedge Fund Donors, young spin doctors and failed trade unionists can afford to do.”
Freeman, who has been the MP for Mid Norfolk since 2010, would have been receiving an annual salary of around £118,300.
He held a number of ministerial posts in successive Conservative governments and pocketed severance payments after departing.
He received £7,920 when he quit Boris Johnson’s government in July 2022, before returning to his role as science minister under Sunak 16 weeks later, according to Labour analysis.
Sunak says he fasts regularly at start of week so he can indulge in ‘sugary treats’ on other days
Yesterday the Sunday Times ran a story saying Rishi Sunak fasts for 36 hours a week. In her story Caroline Wheeler said:
Friends of the prime minister say he does not eat from 5pm on a Sunday afternoon until 5am on Tuesday morning. “He is incredibly disciplined,” said one.
Sunak, 43, has spoken before about fasting, which is an integral part of his Hindu religion. But this is the first time the true extent of his abstemiousness has emerged.
A source close to the PM said: “It’s true, he doesn’t eat anything at all on a Monday. It’s remarkable really given that he is often on visits or doing PMQ prep on a Monday. It’s a real testament to the discipline, focus and determination that he shows in all aspects of his life and work.”
Intermittent dieting is said to bring various health benefits.
When asked about his habit by the BBC’s health editor Hugh Pym, Sunak said fasting was “an important discipline for me”.
But he also implied this was about allowing him to indulge his sugar habit at other times during the week. He said he had “a weakness for sugary things” and he explained:
I tend to try and do some fasting at the beginning of every week as part of a general balanced lifestyle but everyone will do this differently … It means that I can then indulge myself in all the sugary treats I like for the rest of the week.
Gove claims Scottish government’s handling of Covid sometimes motivated by partisan, pro-independence concerns
During his evidence to the UK Covid inquiry in Edinburgh this morning, Michael Gove, who was Cabinet Office minister during the pandemic, in charge of relations with the devolved governments, and who is now levelling up secretary, repeatedly sought to downplay claims that relations between the UK and Scottish governments during Covid were fractious or dysfunctional. (See 11.37am.)
But even Gove could not claim it was all sweet harmony. Here are some of the excerpts from his evidence about the tensions.
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Gove said the SNP did not want inter-governmental relations to work. Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, did, he said. But he went on: “With the best will in the world the SNP don’t want inter-government relations to work.”
No, I don’t believe they are politically motivated in everything they do. I think, I have great respect for the professionalism with which many [Scottish government] ministers conducted themselves. I do believe their overwhelming motivation was to protect the people of Scotland from a virus.
However, there are and were occasions when the [Scottish government] was thinking politically, as we can see, and of course it is the case the SNP has a political mission to achieve Scotland’s independence, ie destroy the United Kingdom and it would be naive not to be aware that highly skilled politicians, including those at the top of the Scottish government, might well see what they perceive to be political advantage at certain points.
Some of the language used, the desire to have ‘a good old-fashioned rammy with the UK government’ and some of the other language used, which I shan’t repeat now, does lead me to believe that at that point, there was a desire to pursue differentiation for the sake of advancing a political agenda.
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He said it was an understatement to say that Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon were not soulmates. In his witness statement Gove said Sturgeon, the then first minister, and Johnson, the then PM, were not soulmates. Asked if this was “something of an understatement”, Gove replied:
Understatement is sometimes the most effective means of communication.
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He said Sturgeon caused “irritation” in No 10 when she announced on 12 March 2020 that she wanted to ban gatherings of more than 500 people in Scotland. He said that was “divergent” from what had been agreed at an earlier UK Cobra meeting.
Starmer welcomes endorsement from Iceland boss and former Tory donor Richard Walker
Keir Starmer has hinted that the Iceland supermarket boss Richard Walker could play a role supporting a Labour government.
He made the comment as he visited a branch of Iceland in Warrington, after Walker, a former Tory donor, used an article in the Guardian to decare his support for Labour.
Commenting on Walker’s endorsement, Starmer said:
I’m delighted at the reason he’s come out for the Labour party, because he recognised that we’re a changed Labour party, that we’re pro-working people, we’re serious about the cost-of-living crisis and about stability and long-term strategy.
I think it further cements the real profound way in which the Labour party has changed under my leadership, as we go into this all-important year of the general election.
Asked about a potential job for Walker in a Labour government, Starmer replied:
Richard Walker is wanting to work with us. He’s made it absolutely clear why he supports us and we’ll continue to talk to him.
Starmer claims Sunak needs support of ‘grown-up in room’ Labour party to ensure Commons passes gradual smoking ban
Keir Starmer has criticised Rishi Sunak for not imposing a ban on disposable vapes earlier. Asked if he supported the PM’s announcement, Starmer told journalists:
Yes, I support the banning of disposable vapes, not least because of the impact they have on children.
We’ve been calling for this for two years. So I do have a question for the government, which is why has it taken two years to get to this stage? We’ve wasted two years.
Starmer also suggested that Rishi Sunak was only allowing his MPs a free vote on this because he could not get them to back him. He said:
I’ve also got concerns that apparently the prime minister is going to give his MPs a free vote, because he doesn’t think that he’s able to hold his own team together.
Luckily the Labour party will always act in the national interest. We will vote for it and so this measure will go through. It’ll only go through because the Labour party is the grown-up in the room and is prepared to act in the national interest and vote for this important measure.
Sunak argues that, in allowing his MPs a free vote, he is following precedent. (See 11.13am.)
No 10 says it will not be providing further aid to UNRWA while claims about links to Hamas being investigated
Downing Street said this morning that it did not think any UK aid funding had gone to Hamas.
Asked about claims that up to a dozen staff at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is part-funded by Britain, were involved in the Hamas massacre of Israelis on 7 October, the PM’s spokesperson said:
We have tight controls and agreements and due diligence on how the funding is used, as you would expect, but it’s right in light of these allegations that we conduct a further investigation with our allies and seek the reassurance that will be required in order to allow funding to continue.
The spokesperson said that the UK committed £16m to UNRWA after the Hamas attack, but that that money had now been disbursed. He said no further money would be allocated while the Hamas link was being investigated.
Inquiry into allegations of corruption at Teeswork development due to be published
An independent inquiry into claims of corruption and illegality linked to the finances at the controversial Teesworks development is expected to be published later today, PA Media reports. PA says:
Rishi Sunak appeared to confirm the report’s imminent release during a visit to the north-east, saying it would be “published later on”.
It comes amid speculation the long-awaited review will clear Teesworks and the region’s Conservative mayor Ben Houchen of wrongdoing.
The prime minister defended the “rigorous process” behind the government-commissioned probe, which has faced criticism over the lack of involvement of the public spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) was not tasked with leading the investigation ordered by levelling up secretary Michael Gove last year, with an independent panel made up of three local authority officers from elsewhere in the country set up instead.
The conclusion of the inquiry has been delayed several times, having initially been expected last summer.
At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the UK agreed with the US’s assessment that the drone attack on the US base in Jordan, which killed three people and left more than 24 injured, was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq”.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, is one of more than 70 peers on the list to speak in the second reading debate in the Lords on the Rwanda bill. He is a fierce critic of the government’s Rwanda bill and when peers were debating the illegal migration bill last year (a precursor of the bill being debated today, subject to very similar legal and human rights objections), he denounced it as immoral.
Asked how the government would respond if he made similar comments today, the PM’s spokesperson said:
This bill is a key part of how we stop violent criminal gangs targeting vulnerable people that has led to too many deaths in the English Channel.
That is the right thing to do, it is also the fair thing to do, both for taxpayers and for those individuals seeking to come here through safe and legal routes who see their place jumped by those who can afford to make crossings on small boats.
We’ve worked very carefully both on the bill and the treaty in coordination with the Rwanda government and we continue to believe that this bill is the right way forward to get the flights off the ground and to stop the boats.
No 10 says it is disappointed rail companies not using new minimum service levels law to reduce impact of rail strikes
One of the most controversial bills passed last year was the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, which is designed to ensure that in key public services, if unions stage a strike, some staff will have to carry on working to ensure that a basic level of service is provided. The legislation was partly designed to minimimise the disruption caused by rail strikes.
But, in the rail industry at least, the legislation is not working as planned. It relies on employers, not the government, deciding to activate the MSL powers and, in strike action starting today, the train companies have decided not to, because they don’t want to further antagonise the unions.
As Gwyn Topham explains in his story:
The set of strikes was expected to be the first test of the minimum service levels legislation, designed to allow train operators to run 40% of the normal timetable. Only LNER, one of the three operators directly run by the Department for Transport, planned to use the new powers to demand that drivers break the strike. An immediate escalation by Aslef, which called five additional days of strikes at LNER, prompted a climbdown.
Rail industry bosses as well as unions had made clear their reservations in consultations and select committee hearings ahead of the strike laws being introduced, which could also be applied in health, education and firefighters disputes. Labour has said it will immediately repeal the laws if elected.
This has particularly enraged the Daily Mail, which has splashed on a story about rail bosses getting big bonuses despite not using the new law.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said rail companies should be using the MSL powers. Asked if the government was disappointed that they were not being used, the spokesperson replied:
Yes. It is obviously something that we, and the public, expect to be used.
It is ultimately up to train operators to effectively manage their services. We have been as clear as possible they should be ready to use all powers available to them to reduce the impact of rail strikes on passengers.
Veterans who left the armed forces before December 2018 can now apply online for a veteran’s card, the government has announced. After testing, a digital application website has gone live. The card enables veterans “to easily verify their veteran status to access support and services from government, charities, and local authorities”.
In his Inside Politics briefing for the Financial Times, Stephen Bush argues that a gradual ban on smoking will be Rishi Sunak’s most lasting legacy. He explains:
Given that the median UK voter is very fond of bans, I think it is unlikely, to put it mildly, that these changes will ever be reversed by a future government. Certainly they are not going to be overturned by a Labour administration: on the whole, Labour MPs are much more supportive of these measures than Conservative counterparts. (If you want to get a Labour MP to say something nice about the prime minister, ask them what they think of his anti-smoking measures.)
The depth of support for these policies on the opposition benches is one reason why they will a) pass into law and b) come with the risk of a large Tory rebellion. It’s a free hit in lots of ways if you are a Conservative MP who wants to show a bit of libertarian leg.
But regardless, these measures will overcome the opposition and endure. Don’t bet on either libertarian Conservatives or liberal Labour MPs having the numbers or influence to turn around what will almost certainly be Sunak’s most lasting legacy on the UK.
