Rishi Sunak blames striking workers as he signals he could fail in two key pledges – UK politics live | Politics

Severin Carrell

Scottish ministers will be able to spend hundreds of millions more on public services each year after striking a deal with the UK Treasury to lift restrictions on its budgets.

The agreement will allow ministers in Edinburgh to double their annual borrowing to protect day-to-day spending to £600m, as well as increase the amount they can borrow for major projects by inflation and also keep underspends in later years, without any limits.

The deal also preserves a longstanding agreement where the Treasury heavily subsidises Holyrood’s spending under the so-called Barnett formula which redistributes spending around the UK, subsidising less wealthy areas.

The Treasury said that element of the updated fiscal agreement meant Scottish ministers had £8bn more to spend last year than they would have had if Scottish spending was set at the same per capita rate of spending for the UK as a whole.

The new £600m figure for day-to-day borrowing ensures that Scotland can fill any holes in its day to day spending if its income tax receipts fall below forecasts.

If there are shortfalls in tax receipts, Scottish ministers can borrow money to cover the gap but that money must be repaid to the Treasury. That shortfall has grown to £390m, which breached the previous £300m borrowing limit. The Treasury has agreed to double that to £600m.

Scotland’s other borrowing limits will also be permanently pegged to inflation using a method known as index per capita, which ensures Scotland does not lose out financially because its population is growing more slowly than the UK’s.

Ministers in Edinburgh have been pushing for that reform for some time.

John Glen, chief secretary to the Treasury said:

This is a fair and responsible deal that has been arrived at following a serious and proactive offer from the UK government.

We have kept what works and listened to the Scottish government’s calls for greater certainty and flexibility to deliver for Scotland. [These] are the clear benefits of a United Kingdom that is stronger as a union.

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Sunak signals he will struggle to meet NHS promise – but blames health workers

Aletha Adu

Rishi Sunak has signalled he will struggle to achieve two of his five priorities: to halve inflation by the end of the year and to reduce NHS waiting lists in England, which he blamed on striking workers.

In his final interview before heading to California with his family for their first holiday in four years, the prime minister urged voters to trust him with the economy, as he admitted inflation was not falling as fast as he would like.

Yet when he was confronted by a constituent during the LBC radio phone-in with the fact that four independent businesses in his constituency of Richmond, North Yorkshire, were forced shut their doors last week, he insisted “business is good”, despite admitting that some businesses were struggling because of inflation.

Weeks after health service bosses privately told ministers that the NHS pledge would be impossible to meet if strikes disrupted care beyond the summer, Sunak argued junior doctors and consultants were to blame for not accepting pay deals.

In a conversation with a junior A&E doctor who gave her name as Liv, he said: “That’s what’s causing the waiting lists to go up, I don’t think that’s right.

“I would say to them I’m very grateful and respectful of the incredible job you do, but we all have a shared mission to bring the waiting lists down.”

But Liv responded: “I think it’s amazing we’re blaming the increase in waiting lists on doctors going on strike. You’re losing staff because we are undervalued and it’s not just doctors, it’s everyone, we’re all leaving. A happy workforce is your responsibility.”

With the Bank of England announcing whether interest rates will be raised again on Thursday, the prime minister repeatedly stressed that halving inflation was his most important priority as it would be “transformative for how people feel about their situation”.

He said on Nick Ferrari’s LBC show.

I know families are struggling with the cost of living and that’s why I set it out as my first priority to halve inflation, and we’re making progress.

Is that as fast as I’d like? No. Is it as fast as anyone would like? No. But the numbers most recently that we had show that we’re heading in the right direction, inflation is coming down, and I think people can see light at the end of the tunnel.

We’ve got to stick to the plan, it’s not easy to bring down inflation. It requires me to make difficult but responsible decisions on behalf of the country.

Sunak was challenged by a constituent who said Tory policies were “causing small businesses to shut up shop” and that the impact of Brexit and the difficulty in finding staff had left people without a disposable income. The prime minister replied that, when he spoke to breweries at a London beer festival, “many of them were telling me that actually business is good, that footfall is up, that they’re seeing confidence return”.

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Helena Horton

While the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has made headlines by lobbying the cabinet to water down rules in the ban on new petrol and diesel cars, expected in 2030, Labour has committed to the target.

Badenoch has reportedly said the rules would hit automobile businesses, but Labour said that companies needed the goal to kickstart investment in new factories and jobs. Sources in the party said major manufacturers had invested billions of pounds into this transition, and warned against shifting the goalposts. Several manufacturers have already committed to all-electric car lineups in 2030, including Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini and Mercedes.

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said:

The real threat to investment in our automotive industry is chaos created by Kemi Badenoch and her colleagues at a time when the sector is crying out for certainty.

The transition to electric vehicles is essential to net zero, essential to economic growth, and essential to the future of our automotive industry.

The Conservatives might be happy to delay and let our car industry stall, but Labour would back the sector all the way, with our plan to deliver 80,000 jobs and £30bn in growth by turbocharging the switch to electric vehicles.

Full story: Rishi Sunak says Nadine Dorries is not properly representing her constituents

Aletha Adu

Nadine Dorries is failing to represent her constituents, Rishi Sunak has said in a rare attack on his senior Conservative colleague, who has refused to formally resign despite announcing her intention to do so almost two months ago.

The prime minister criticised the former culture secretary, who has not spoken in the Commons for more than 12 months, saying “people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are”.

Dorries announced on 9 June that she would “immediately” quit as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after she was denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.

But she is yet to formally tender her resignation, despite a council in her own constituency demanding she do so immediately as “residents desperately need effective representation now”.

Sunak told an LBC call-in: “I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are.

“It’s just making sure your MP is engaging with you, representing you, whether that’s speaking in parliament or being present in their constituencies doing surgeries, answering your letters. That’s the job of an MP and all MPs should be held to that standard.”

Asked if that meant Dorries was failing her constituents, Sunak said: “Well, at the moment people aren’t being properly represented.”

In a letter to Dorries last week, Flitwick town council said “concerns and frustration about the situation” had been raised at a recent meeting, and councillors wanted her to “immediately vacate” her seat to allow a byelection.

Dorries’s delay is widely seen as an attempt to frustrate Sunak’s attempts to prepare to replace her, though she has endorsed the prospective Tory candidate Festus Akinbusoye for her seat.

Dorries had claimed she was holding on to her role as MP while she investigated why she was denied a seat in the House of Lords.

Read more here:

Nadeem Badshah

Kemi Badenoch has suggested electric vehicle mandates could hamper investment in Britain and lead to job losses, in a sign that another of the government’s green pledges is in doubt.

The business secretary was discussing the automotive industry’s concerns about a rule to be introduced in January that will require manufacturers to ensure at least 22% of new sales in the UK are of emissions-free models, rising each year to reach 80% by 2030.

A manufacturer will be fined £15,000 for every polluting car sold over the limit, unless it can buy in extra allowances from another company.

A spokesperson for Badenoch told Politico:

If major car companies employing thousands of people are saying that there’s a problem, then it’s her job to look at ways to ease that problem.

Toyota has called the proposed production deadline “challenging” while Ford said the rule poses a “threat” to its business and investment plans.

The zero-emissions vehicle mandate is part of a series of rules to phase out petrol and diesel engine cars in an attempt to reach the government’s legal target of making the UK a net zero carbon emitter by 2050.

The UK ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars is due in 2030. However, there are widespread concerns over whether Britain has adequate infrastructure and capacity for the growth of electric vehicles.

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The bosses behind Britain’s multibillion-pound clean energy rollout will gather in Downing Street to discuss the government’s plan for green economic growth later on Wednesday.

Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, is expected to meet the leaders of energy companies including EDF, SSE, Shell and BP, which are poised to invest billions in low- and zero-carbon projects.

Shapps will convene the summit at No 10 days after the prime minister ignited a row with green groups, opposition parties and the Conservative party’s backbench MPs over his plans for “maxing out” the North Sea’s reserves.

Alongside the talks over the energy companies’ plans to invest more than £100bn in the UK economy, which could create jobs around the country, Shapps is expected to call on the firms to help the government boost the UK’s energy security.

He is also expected to discuss plans to crack down on “disruptive protest groups” who may target critical energy infrastructure, according to a government statement.

Shapps was forced to defend the government’s stance on North Sea drilling, before the energy summit, against criticism that the plans are incompatible with Britain’s plans to become a net zero economy.

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The UK should “not take any lectures from anybody” about its record on green policies, Rishi Sunak has said.

It was put to the prime minister on LBC Radio that the UN chief has called countries increasing the production of fossil fuels “truly dangerous radicals”.

Sunak replied:

What I would say, not just to him but more generally, is let’s look at the record. Which G7 country out of the large countries of America, Italy, France, Germany, us, Canada, Japan – which of those countries has decarbonised fastest over the past years or decades? Which one? It’s the UK, right?

So, we should not take any lectures from anybody about our record. Our record is fantastic.

He said that on the question of granting new North Sea oil and gas licences:

I 100% believe that what I’m doing is right.

Housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm “floating prison” would be “inhumane” and risks “retraumatising” people who have escaped war zones and other “horrors”, the leader of a refugee charity has warned.

Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, also expressed his fear that the barge being prepared to accommodate more than 500 refugees at Portland, Dorset,was an “accident waiting to happen” because of insufficient fire safety on board, with the government putting money as a “higher priority than people’s lives”.

Smith said that the charity was currently assisting 11 people who had received letters from the Home Office advising them that they would be moved to the vessel.

The letter states:

You are not being detained under immigration powers, and this is not detention accommodation. You are free to leave the site, but we would request that you sign in and out of the site when you leave and return, so we can assure your safety.

It adds that facilities on board will include an on-site nurse, recreational space, voluntary sector activities, English classes, entertainment areas, a worship room, and private space for consultations and to make phone calls and wifi access.

The government has said there is “no timeframe” for the arrival of the first refugees to the Bibby Stockholm while final safety checks are being carried out.

Smith told the PA news agency:

The obvious fire hazard of moving a large number of people across to the Bibby is clearly causing a delay.

We know the Bibby barge was intended for 220 people, we know the intent is to put 506 residents aboard but, by the time you add security staff and other staff, that would come to 546.

Now you have a barge with narrow corridors with three decks, with terms of crowding people in into what were originally single person rooms with two and in some of the larger rooms up to six, doubling those on board

“If you’re on the far side of this barge and on the upper storey and there are only two fire escapes and that’s where you are when a fire breaks out, you can imagine the absolute chaos and pandemonium as panicked individuals crammed in narrow corridors try to get out.

They are not able to escape on the water side and if they do, what if they can’t swim, jumping into the water without lifejackets.

This is an absolute accident waiting to happen, it looks like the government is prepared to save money, making it a higher priority than people’s lives.

Among those being supported by the charity are the survivors of torture, people with disabilities and people who have experienced trauma at sea.

He said:

Housing any human on a ‘floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is unacceptable. Doing so to people like this is completely inhumane.

Our concern in many cases, probably most cases, is that these will be individuals who have crossed the Channel in flimsy boats and they don’t do this for fun.

They will have probably had a fairly terrifying journey from the place of origin which could be something like Afghanistan where, having survived the war, perhaps having fought on the side of British troops there.

Individuals like that who have been through all these horrors have been through unwelcoming and sometimes hostile countries like the Balkans and Libya to get to Calais, sleeping rough, braving the Channel under really difficult circumstances and then to be put further on a boat, this has all the potential for re-traumatising.

Smith said that speeding up the asylum process by prioritising those from high-risk countries such as Afghanistan and providing a safe passage system similar to that put into place for Ukraine would reduce the need for centres like the Bibby Stockholm.

He said:

What can we do? Speed up asylum claims process, clear the backlog, provide safe passage, allow people to start working and integrate better into the community and then concerns about it costing us £6m a day start to dissipate.

Rishi Sunak acknowledged NHS waiting lists in England have increased, but he opted to blame industrial action for the situation.

After Nick Ferrari said the waiting list was 7.2 million when Sunak came into office, the prime minister added on LBC:

Yeah, and now it’s 7.9 [million] give or take.

But if you look at what happened Nick, I’ll just be totally honest with everybody, if you look at what happened we were actually making progress, we eliminated the number of two-year waiters – people waiting a really long time – we practically eliminated the number of people waiting one-and-a-half years, and we were making progress on bringing the overall numbers down.

What happened? We had industrial action, we’ve got strikes.

I’ve taken a very firm but fair point of view, we’ve accepted the recommendations from independent pay review bodies, I’m delighted that the nurses and a million other NHS workers have accepted the Government’s pay offer and they’re working really hard to deliver for patients, but unfortunately we still have groups of people who are not doing that and they’re striking – and that is the reason that the waiting lists are going up.

It’s as simple as that.

Not everyone agrees with that assessment. Critics say the increase in waiting lists is actually down to Tory mismanagement of the health service.

The British Medical Association (BMA) – the union behind ongoing junior doctor and consultant strikes – previously pointed out that waiting lists have been rising for the past 13 years.

Grant Shapps has insisted that the Bibby Stockholm barge that will house asylum seekers is not a “deathtrap”.

The first 50 people were due to be moved onto the 222-bedroom Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset this week but a Home Office source confirmed that there would be further delays in the use of the barge until sign off from health and safety officials is obtained.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has said it is planning to write to the Home Office about overcrowding and access to fire exits on the vessel.

Rishi Sunak is now under increasing pressure to explain why the government persists in planning to use the barge, which has been condemned by refugee organisations for being costly, cruel and inhumane.

“As the only professional voice, firefighters believe the Bibby Stockholm to be a potential deathtrap,” FBU’s assistant general secretary, Ben Selby, told the Guardian.

The barge has 222 cabins along narrow corridors over three decks, with two main exits. The evacuation point for those onboard is a compound on the quayside, which councillors have described as “completely inadequate” for about 550 people.

Councillors who visited the barge last week were told there were no lifejackets onboard and have expressed concerns that locked gates could cause a crush in an emergency.

The energy secretary, however, sought to refute the FBU’s warning, telling ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

It certainly won’t be a deathtrap.

This actual ship was previously used by Germany to house migrants, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be absolutely safe. Ships are used to transport people all the time and there’s no inherent reason why that [not being safe] would be the case.

That’s actually why these final safety checks are being carried out.

Grant Shapps says it would be ‘irresponsible’ not to grant new oil and gas licences

Nicola Slawson

Grant Shapps has said it would be “irresponsible” not to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea and insisted the UK will “still meet our net zero targets”.

The energy security secretary told Times Radio that the North Sea basin was very mature and was “effectively running out”.

He said:

The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] says that in order to meet the goals of 1.5% [degrees Celsius], no more than 1.5% warming, we would need to reduce by 4% a year the amount of oil and gas.

We are, even with these licences, on a trajectory to reduce by 7% a year because we’re running out of oil and gas in the North Sea.

So, you can see that having these licences is entirely compatible with and actually irresponsible not to grant them if we’re going to both secure the energy security of British homes and businesses, but also get to net zero.

So, it’s a very sensible, rational thing for us to be doing.

He told GB News that he was meeting with energy companies “who are going to invest £100bn in renewables” at No 10 today.

He said:

Everyone supports this country’s transition to net zero but we cannot get there by telling people ‘we’re simply going to stop using oil and gas’.

The only way to do that would be to tell people ‘don’t put your gas boiler on, don’t drive a petrol car’, and do that almost instantaneously.

Unless you do that, what you’re really saying is ‘we’re not going to dig our own oil and gas, we’ll import instead’.

Yes, we’ll have more oil and gas licences, but we’ll still meet our net zero targets because we’re also massively investing in all these renewables as well.

Shapps denied the government had not been doing anything to boost UK energy security.

He said:

We’ve been moving very fast. This is just the latest round of investment into renewables by some of the very biggest energy companies in the land.

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