PMQs live: Rayner attacks Dowden over ‘Tory mortgage bombshell … – The Guardian
Rayner attacks Dowden over ‘Tory mortgage bombshell’
Angela Rayner points out the last time the deputies stood in at PMQs two weeks running was in 1996. She says she’s proud to be in the same place John Prescott once stood, before pointing at Oliver Dowden: “He’s no Heseltine.”
Inspired by John Prescott’s question back in 1996, she points out that “tens of 1000s of families are facing repossession and homelessness” due to the ‘Tory mortgage bombshell”.
Oliver Dowden says he won’t take a lecture on housing policy from the Labour party and points out that his parents would not have been able to buy their own home if it were not for Margaret Thatcher.
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Angela Rayner points out the last time the deputies stood in at PMQs two weeks running was in 1996. She says she’s proud to be in the same place John Prescott once stood, before pointing at Oliver Dowden: “He’s no Heseltine.”
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Inspired by John Prescott’s question back in 1996, she points out that “tens of 1000s of families are facing repossession and homelessness” due to the ‘Tory mortgage bombshell”.
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Oliver Dowden says he won’t take a lecture on housing policy from the Labour party and points out that his parents would not have been able to buy their own home if it were not for Margaret Thatcher.
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Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, will be taking PMQs shortly. He is facing Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader. Dowden is at the dispatch box.
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Rishi Sunak, who currently has the worst attendance rate at PMQs for a PM since 1979, is at the Nato summit in in Vilnius.
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Here’s what to expect from the House of Commons order paper:
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n
At 12 noon
Oral Questions to the Prime Ministern
Q1: Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Whether he has made an assessment of the impact of a potential reduction in oil production by Saudi Arabia and Russia on domestic energy prices.n
Q2 Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet)
If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 12 July.n
Q3 Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire)
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Q4 Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood)
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Q5 Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay)
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Q6 Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East)
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Q7 Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian)
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Q8 Hywel Williams (Arfon)
n
Q9 John Spellar (Warley)
n
Q10 Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East)
n
Q11 Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton)
n
Q12 Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire)
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Q13 Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden)
n
Q14 Wera Hobhouse (Bath)
n
Q15 Vicky Ford (Chelmsford)
n
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Michael Gove’s department is handing back £1.9bn to the Treasury originally meant to tackle England’s housing crisis after struggling to find projects to spend it on.
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has surrendered hundreds of millions of pounds budgeted for 2022-23, including £255m meant to fund new affordable housing and £245m meant to improve building safety.
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Officials said the department was unable to spend the money, which accounts for about a third of its entire housing budget, thanks to rising interest rates and uncertainty in the housing market after the Covid-19 pandemic.
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But experts warn the lack of investment is likely to exacerbate the housing crisis in England, where homebuilding is forecast to drop to its lowest level since the second world war.
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Jack Shaw, a local government expert who uncovered the figures through a freedom of information request, said:
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n
The government is experiencing significant challenges investing in housing because of a perfect storm in market conditions.
n
But the decision to delay housing investment or withdraw it altogether as a result of lower than anticipated spending will mean fewer homes are built.
n
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Read the full story by my colleague Kiran Stacey here:
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Rishi Sunak is set to host all Tory MPs for morale-boosting hog roast at Downing Street tonight, as he misses his second PMQs in a row.
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The prime minister is still in Lithuania, where he is attending a two-day Nato summit and meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, president of Ukraine.
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He’s due to fly back to the UK this evening in time to welcome his guests and try to instil some positivity over his party’s struggle to recover in the polls and the prospect of them potentially losing in all three by-elections taking place next week on 20 July.
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All MPs, regardless of allegiances are reportedly invited including Nadine Dorries who is set to trigger the fourth by-election battle of the summer.
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Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden will once again hold the fort for Sunak, facing Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party
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Sunak has now missed around 20% of PMQ sessions, which is the largest percentage of Prime Minister’s Questions of any inhabitant of Number 10, figures from the House of Commons Library and research by Sky News shows.
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I will be looking after the politics blog today. If you have any tips or suggestions, please get in touch: nicola.slawson@theguardian.com
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Key events
Dowden said the government has lifted 400,000 children out of child poverty.
He also pointed to measures to cut taxes by “doubling the personal allowance”.
He said:
That is the surest way to ensure we lift people out of poverty.
In response, Rayner doubled down on her comparison to Boris Johnson:
It’s like the ghost of prime minister past is still here.
She told Dowden to be careful about the stats he uses.
Angela Rayner accused Oliver Dowden of taking tips from Boris Johnson as the pair clashed over child poverty and homelessness in the UK.
She said:
I think he’s taking tips from the former prime minister on telling the facts.
The last Labour government worked hard to dramatically reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation.
But under the Tories, the number of homeless children has risen by 75%. I’m proud of our record on tackling child poverty.
Rayner then asked if Dowden is ashamed of the Tory record.
Lots of laughs in the Commons has Oliver Dowden makes a dig about Keir Starmer and tree huggers (for reference, Starmer apparently hates them).
He says:
They seem very keen on hugging that magic money tree.
Rayner attacks Dowden over ‘Tory mortgage bombshell’
Angela Rayner points out the last time the deputies stood in at PMQs two weeks running was in 1996. She says she’s proud to be in the same place John Prescott once stood, before pointing at Oliver Dowden: “He’s no Heseltine.”
Inspired by John Prescott’s question back in 1996, she points out that “tens of 1000s of families are facing repossession and homelessness” due to the ‘Tory mortgage bombshell”.
Oliver Dowden says he won’t take a lecture on housing policy from the Labour party and points out that his parents would not have been able to buy their own home if it were not for Margaret Thatcher.
Oliver Dowden has kicked off PMQs by pointing out that he is covering for Rishi Sunak, who is at the Nato summit.
He begins by pledging that the Tories will “continue to invest” in renewable energy, before stressing the UK must also invest in “energy independence”.
He says: “That means investing in the North Sea,” warning that if we don’t there will be higher carbon emissions “as we import from elsewhere”.
Dowden is then asked about Labour plans to “tax education of choice”. He says schools are concerned “this will apply to them as well”. The deputy prime minister said these Labour plans could cost £300m.
Ofwat chief executive David Black told MPs taxpayers would face some extra costs if Thames Water was placed into a so-called special administration regime (SAR), but that these would be far lower than seen after the collapse of Bulb.
He said water companies have very large assets, which would help limit the cost to taxpayers.
Black said:
We do accept that there is a risk to taxpayers and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been working to drive increased financial resilience into companies.
He said the regulator was still on standby to place Thames Water into an SAR, but that it was not an immediate risk, given the recent pledge by investors to pump more cash into the firm.
Black said:
It’s prudent planning to be ready for SAR. We need to be ready to deploy that.
It’s great that the company has secured the commitment from shareholders but the money has not yet arrived. At that point, we will feel more confident.
Oliver Dowden to face Angela Rayner at PMQs shortly
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, will be taking PMQs shortly. He is facing Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader. Dowden is at the dispatch box.
Rishi Sunak, who currently has the worst attendance rate at PMQs for a PM since 1979, is at the Nato summit in in Vilnius.
Here’s what to expect from the House of Commons order paper:
At 12 noon
Oral Questions to the Prime MinisterQ1: Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Whether he has made an assessment of the impact of a potential reduction in oil production by Saudi Arabia and Russia on domestic energy prices.Q2 Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet)
If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 12 July.Q3 Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire)
Q4 Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Q5 Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay)
Q6 Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East)
Q7 Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian)
Q8 Hywel Williams (Arfon)
Q9 John Spellar (Warley)
Q10 Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East)
Q11 Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton)
Q12 Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire)
Q13 Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden)
Q14 Wera Hobhouse (Bath)
Q15 Vicky Ford (Chelmsford)
Simon Case told MPs that some people had sought to “weaponise” the Sue Gray row amid broader attacks on the civil service.
The cabinet secretary criticised the use of the term “the blob”, a phrase deployed often by some Tory MPs to attack the civil service and officials.
Taking questions from the Tory MP David Jones about whether the Partygate investigator’s move to join Sir Keir Starmer’s team had stoked concerns, Case said:
Actually, it has been particularly important that we assure ourselves and ministers that ministers are comfortable and happy that the impartiality of the civil service has been upheld. They are satisfied it has.
Undoubtedly, there are people who have sought to weaponise this case.
On the use of the term “the blob” more generally, Case said:
There has always been language that has been around for people to express their frustrations – [at] the establishment, the system. I think this is a bit different.
I fear it is being used in a very modern, dehumanising way. There are legitimate frustrations within the system.
He told Jones, as a former minister, “you would have raised them privately through the proper channels”.
The Treasury’s tax and spending watchdog is preparing to sound the alarm over the impact of rising interest rates on the public finances, delivering a serious blow to the government’s scope for pre-election tax cuts.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility will warn that stubbornly high inflation and soaring borrowing costs are adding to the challenges facing Rishi Sunak, making it less likely that he will meet one of his five key pledges: tackling Britain’s public debt.
It is understood the OBR will produce a range of scenarios in its annual “fiscal risks and sustainability report” on Thursday, setting out the impact of higher interest rates for the public purse, in a warning that sustained pressure could force it to tear up its official forecasts.
The watchdog said it would “assess the fiscal implications of recent rises in global interest rates, consider the vulnerability of the UK’s current debt position, and explore the challenges in getting debt to fall in the coming years”.
Read the full story by my colleague Richard Partington here:
Civil service chief Simon Case said the last five years had seen a deterioration in relations between officials and politicians, although he added the situation had improved since Rishi Sunak became prime minister, PA News reports.
The cabinet secretary told MPs:
The last five years or so have seen, I think, an increased number of attacks on civil servants individually and collectively by significant political figures which has undoubtedly undermined the good functioning of government.
I’m very happy to say that under this prime minister things have changed very significantly.
He said the tone of ministers talking about civil servants in public had “changed quite significantly”.
Asked about attacks on the establishment “blob” by current and recent ministers, Case said the prime minister had rejected that term.
Case added:
Obviously I don’t agree with a characterisation which is insulting, dehumanising, totally unacceptable.
It would surprise me if current ministers were using this language, not least because if they were it would indicate something akin to self-defeating cowardice.
Tory MP William Wragg asked Simon Case if he was aware of “any rather forceful communications” sent by Nadine Dorries “to senior civil servants” about potentially using “the platform of the Commons and indeed her own television programme to get to the bottom of why she hadn’t been given a peerage?”
The cabinet secretary said:
Yes, was aware of those communications and have flagged them to both the chief whip and Speaker of the House.
Asked during the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee session if he had taken legal advice on whether the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 could “come into play”, the top civil servant said he was “seeking further advice on that question. So taken initial advice, but asked for more.”
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has rejected Boris Johnson’s criticism of partygate investigator and former civil servant Sue Gray.
Appearing before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, he was pressed by MPs on the circumstances surrounding Gray’s decision to take up a job with Sir Keir Starmer.
Asked about Johnson’s remarks, Case said he did not speak for the former prime minister.
He said:
We found no evidence that Sue’s report was affected by party political considerations.
And actually I am not sure the timeline, as we now understand it from the material in the Acoba (Advisory Committee on Business Appointments) judgment, quite works.
Sue’s report was produced early in 2022, her first contact as we understand it from the material she provided to Acoba was in October 2022.
So there seems to be a timeline, a gap, as well.
A senior civil servant has offered a “sincere apology” to a chemical weapons expert who was blacklisted from speaking at a conference after finding tweets that were critical of the government.
Earlier this year, my colleague Dan Sabbagh reported that Dan Kaszeta had been disinvited by The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), commonly known as Porton Down, from giving a keynote speech at a UK-run expert conference after civil servants discovered social media posts he wrote criticising Conservative ministers and government migration policy.
Kaszeta was one of at least eight speakers banned from government events by an opaque vetting scheme introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2022, a policy that the banned expert described as an attack on free speech.
In January, government officials asked Kaszeta, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the field, to address the Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference in London. He said the officials offered to waive a registration fee so he would speak.
But in early April, that offer was withdrawn when a civil servant wrote to him to explain that new government rules required that “the social media accounts of potential speakers must be vetted” before they could speak at official events.
“The check on your social media has identified materials that criticised government officials and policy,” the email continued, without indicating which postings were deemed unacceptable, or offering Kaszeta a right of appeal.
In a letter, seen by The Guardian, Paul Hollinshead, the chief executive of Porton Down, has admitted that its decision was based on an analysis of Kaszeta’s Twitter activity and was improper.
Hollinshead wrote:
I am writing to offer my sincere apologies for Dstl’s error in rescinding your invitation to the Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference in May this year.
This decision was incorrectly taken following informal checks of your social media posts and due to a misapplication of Cabinet Office guidance which was referred to in media reports and which only applies to Cabinet office staff events.
This was not in accordance Dstl’s process for organising events.
Kaszeta, writing today in The Times, said that being banned was “bad for my career” and bad for democracy. He said that the apology was a vindication for him but did not go far enough.
He said:
Apologies to other victims of blacklisting would be even better . . . secret blacklists are indefensible in a modern democracy.
The fact that a policy was applied to me in error does not address the issue that they exist.
Jeremy Hunt has told ministers there will be no extra money to give millions of public sector workers an average 6% pay rise, potentially leaving departments facing a difficult choice between raising salaries or cutting frontline services.
The Guardian understands the chancellor has ruled out providing a further cash injection beyond what is already budgeted if Rishi Sunak decides to implement the recommendations of independent pay review bodies, which are expected as soon as Thursday.
Government sources said the decision over whether to back the proposal for no more funding would only be made once the prime minister was back from the Nato summit in Vilnius on Wednesday night and had gone over the figures. “There’s definitely still contention in this,” one said.
Cabinet ministers have been urging Sunak to agree to adopt the recommendations against a backdrop of the rising cost of living and amid concerns that public sector strikes could continue in the run-up to the next general election.
Senior Conservatives are concerned they will have to cut frontline services across education, health and policing if they are expected to fund the estimated £5bn difference between budgeted increases of 3.5% and the pay review body recommendations.
Read more on this story here:
Nadine Dorries has written a book titled The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, due to be published days before the Tory Party conference in September.
The former prime minister’s staunch ally claims to have uncovered a “fault line” within the Conservative Party through conversations with cabinet ministers, civil servants and party officials which form the basis of her account, PA News reports.
The book, for which Dorries received £20,500 as a partial advance from HarperCollins, is billed as the story of “treachery and deceit at the heart of the Westminster machine”.
It is set to hit the stands on September 28 – just three days before Conservatives convene for the annual party conference on October 1.
The former culture secretary said:
I had wanted to discover the forces behind the downfall of the prime minister. Instead, I found a fault line within the Conservative party stretching back decades, and a history of deception fuelled by the darkest political arts.
If you thought that power flowed from the people into Parliament, be prepared to think again.
Dorries was among eight Conservative parliamentarians recently rebuked for her conduct in relation to the Privileges Committee investigation of Johnson.
Rishi Sunak and Volodymyr Zelensky met earlier for a bilateral on the fringes of the Nato summit in Vilnius.
The prime minister suggested the pair meet without aides present, with the Ukrainian president agreeing that there should be “only two” of them in the room.
Sunak told his counterpart:
It is good to see you here at Nato where you belong.
Zelensky thanked Sunak for helping secure additional security guarantees for Kyiv, with a G7 deal due to be signed on Wednesday in the Lithuanian capital.
He also tweeted that negotiations with the UK “always enhance global security”.
The meeting with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom @RishiSunak
has begun. Our negotiations always enhance global security! More news to come.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 12, 2023
n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1679044217572667392?s=20″,”id”:”1679044217572667392″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”3af62498-a565-49bc-8c8a-a93ec8e504c5″}}”>
The meeting with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom @RishiSunak
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 12, 2023
Zelensky said he wanted to use his meeting with Sunak to talk about security guarantees for Kyiv.
The prime minister told him there had been “real progress” on that matter.
He said:
What your soldiers are doing on the front line, it is inspiring to everyone.
We’re proud to have played a part in training some of them.
They have served with enormous bravery and courage.
Zelensky said the training missions in the UK had been “very important”, with Sunak adding it was clear the exercises had “been put to good use”.
You can follow our dedicated liveblog on the Russia-Ukraine war here:
Gove’s department hands back £1.9bn meant to tackle England’s housing crisis
Michael Gove’s department is handing back £1.9bn to the Treasury originally meant to tackle England’s housing crisis after struggling to find projects to spend it on.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has surrendered hundreds of millions of pounds budgeted for 2022-23, including £255m meant to fund new affordable housing and £245m meant to improve building safety.
Officials said the department was unable to spend the money, which accounts for about a third of its entire housing budget, thanks to rising interest rates and uncertainty in the housing market after the Covid-19 pandemic.
But experts warn the lack of investment is likely to exacerbate the housing crisis in England, where homebuilding is forecast to drop to its lowest level since the second world war.
Jack Shaw, a local government expert who uncovered the figures through a freedom of information request, said:
The government is experiencing significant challenges investing in housing because of a perfect storm in market conditions.
But the decision to delay housing investment or withdraw it altogether as a result of lower than anticipated spending will mean fewer homes are built.
Read the full story by my colleague Kiran Stacey here:
Thames Water bosses are being questioned by MPs on the at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee over the company’s financial viability.
The interim joint chief executive of Thames Water said leadership at the troubled supplier is “very focused on turning this business around”.
Alastair Cochran told MPs:
I was brought in with a whole new executive team to turn around this business.
This business matters – it serves 15 million customers. Our job collectively is turn this business around.
We know performance both operationally and financially hasn’t been where it needs to be. We’ve been very transparent about that.
We are very focused on turning this business around, making it sure it is financially resilient and delivers a better service for customers, and improves both its operational and environmental performance.
The chairman of the water supplier has told MPs that the departure of its former boss Sarah Bentley last month was surprising.
Sir Adrian Montague said:
I think Sarah’s resignation was a surprise.
I think she had got to the point perhaps of feeling that the burdens of office were considerable and it was an entirely personal decision, with which I think we had no involvement.
My colleague Alex Lawson wrote this piece yesterday which explains what has been going on:
Rishi Sunak to host Tory MPs at No 10 after missing PMQs for second week in a row
Rishi Sunak is set to host all Tory MPs for morale-boosting hog roast at Downing Street tonight, as he misses his second PMQs in a row.
The prime minister is still in Lithuania, where he is attending a two-day Nato summit and meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, president of Ukraine.
He’s due to fly back to the UK this evening in time to welcome his guests and try to instil some positivity over his party’s struggle to recover in the polls and the prospect of them potentially losing in all three by-elections taking place next week on 20 July.
All MPs, regardless of allegiances are reportedly invited including Nadine Dorries who is set to trigger the fourth by-election battle of the summer.
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden will once again hold the fort for Sunak, facing Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party
Sunak has now missed around 20% of PMQ sessions, which is the largest percentage of Prime Minister’s Questions of any inhabitant of Number 10, figures from the House of Commons Library and research by Sky News shows.
I will be looking after the politics blog today. If you have any tips or suggestions, please get in touch: nicola.slawson@theguardian.com
Source: News
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