No 10 says ‘unanimously agreed’ under Truss that King shouldn’t go to Cop27 climate summitDowning Street said it was “unanimously agreed” by Buckingham Palace and the government that the King would not attend the Cop27 climate summit under Liz Truss’s premiership.
A No 10 spokesperson said government advice was sought, as is “standard practice”, and it was agreed it was not the “right occasion” for Charles to visit in person. She said:
As is standard practice, government advice was sought and provided under a previous PM, and it was unanimously agreed that it would not be the right occasion for the King to visit in person.
She added she is “not aware” that the advice has changed.
The environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, claimed this morning that it was up to the King whether he attends the climate summit in Egypt next month. She told Sky News:
I think it’s up to him. I know that he takes an interest in this particular issue, but it’s up to him.
Downing Street said the government remains “absolutely committed” to leading international action on climate change despite Rishi Sunak’s absence at Cop27.
Asked about the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries’ tweet that it was wrong for Sunak to skip the conference, the No 10 spokesperson said:
We are facing serious economic challenges. The prime minister is focused on dealing with those issues, and the public, I think, would also expect him to be in the country … dealing with those ahead of the autumn statement.
But we’re also very clear that the public should also judge us by our actions and we are forging ahead of many other countries on net zero, for example.
Aubrey Allegretti
Severe spending cuts and tax rises are due to be imposed by Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt within weeks because ministers “crashed the economy”, Keir Starmer has said as he renewed calls for a general election.
The Labour leader said people were already “paying the price” for government mistakes, after reports that a buffer in the public finances could be created by trying to claw back £50bn – significantly greater than the expected £35bn fiscal black hole.
A long-awaited statement laying out the plans was pushed back by Sunak from 31 October to 17 November, and the chancellor is holding meetings with cabinet ministers this week to discuss where the axe should fall.
Seeking to tie Sunak to the economic chaos caused by his predecessor, Liz Truss, Starmer said during a visit to a school in Thurrock: “We were not even talking about cuts a month ago.” He added: “The whole discussion about cuts has become an issue only because the government has crashed the economy.”
PA have a clip of Rishi Sunak’s encounter with a patient at Croydon university hospital when the PM was told to “try harder” on nurses’ pay:
“No you’re not trying, you need to try harder.”
This is the moment Catherine Poole, a 77-year-old patient at Croydon University Hospital, confronted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about nurses’ pay pic.twitter.com/i887WPssEN
— PA Media (@PA) October 28, 2022 Rishi Sunak has denied that his decision not to attend the Cop27 climate summit is a failure of leadership, arguing that the UK has shown “unmatched” leadership on the climate crisis.
Sunak said he was “very passionate’ and “very personally committed” to the environment.
It came after Labour leader Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of an “absolute failure of leadership” in deciding not to attend the conference, which begins in Egypt next month.
You can watch their statements here:
‘Massive failure of leadership’: Rishi Sunak criticised for skipping Cop27 – videoRishi Sunak has suggested Suella Braverman “raised” the issue of her security breach with him while he discussed reappointing her as home secretary, in an apparent clarification of the account he gave to MPs.
The prime minister sparked a backlash by bringing Braverman back into the cabinet despite she fact she had quit only days before, having been caught sending a Tory backbencher a sensitive document from a personal email account, twice breaching the ministerial code.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, he said she had “recognised” her “error of judgment” and “raised the matter”, which some interpreted to mean she reported her own mistake prior to her departure, rather than being presented with the evidence – a position which seems to have been contradicted by former Tory chair Sir Jake Berry.
But on Friday, Sunak appeared to suggest he was actually referring to a conversation he had with Braverman while considering whether to return her to the role following her resignation.
Labour had called for him to “swiftly” clarify the circumstances surrounding the row, saying he must “correct the record” if he misled parliament.
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Croydon university hospital, he said Braverman “raised” the issue with him while he discussed her reappointment.
“Now, as I said in parliament earlier this week, she raised this topic with me when I discussed reappointing her as home secretary and I’m confident that she’s learned from her mistake,” he said.
He also again declined to deny suggestions officials warned him against reinstating Braverman, insisting he does not regret the move. “The home secretary has acknowledged the mistake, she’s recognised she made a mistake, she’s taken accountability for that and that’s the right thing,” he said.
Rory Carroll
Northern Ireland is about to test the dictum that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity.
Political deadlock triggered a forthcoming assembly election that is expected to broadly replicate the result of an election last May and produce the same deadlock. That it will take place in winter underlines the sense of Groundhog Day, except it is an entire region of 1.9 million people reliving the same experience.
Despite the sense of futility, posters will adorn lampposts, canvassers will knock on doors, party leaders will debate on TV and voters will troop to polling stations. And then, bar a dramatic surprise, a familiar political landscape will emerge in which the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) continues to boycott power sharing – in protest against the post-Brexit Irish Sea border – and paralyse the Stormont assembly and executive.
“The people spoke in May. Why make the people speak again?” said Jon Tonge, a politics professor at the University of Liverpool and an authority on Northern Ireland elections.
This is just going to harden things. That’s why it’s a catastrophically stupid thing to do. It will just confirm the impasse.
Read the full story here:
King Charles will not attend Cop27 in Egypt, No 10 confirms
Aubrey Allegretti
King Charles will not attend the Cop27 summit, Downing Street has said, as it is not the “right occasion” for him to do so.
The former prime minister Liz Truss had asked the king not to attend the summit, and her successor, Rishi Sunak, has left it in place, No 10 confirmed today.
The new monarch is famously passionate about the climate emergency, but according to Downing Street, it was “unanimously agreed” by Buckingham Palace and the government that the king would not attend.
Downing Street said Sunak and the king’s absence did not mean environmental issues had slipped down the agenda as three cabinet ministers – the foreign, business and environment secretaries – would attend the summit.
But hours before this announcement, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, described the summit to just “a gathering of people in Egypt”.
Asked why the prime minister was not going to the Cop27 summit, she told LBC:
The politically big significant things happen every five years … while at the same time, of course, the UK continues to show global leadership, as opposed to just a gathering of people in Egypt.
She had earlier said that it was up to Charles to decide whether or not to attend the summit.
The prime minister has faced criticism for deciding to snub the summit because of other “pressing domestic commitments”.
Read the full story here:
During his visit to Croydon university hospital earlier, Rishi Sunak was challenged by a patient who told the prime minister he needed to “try harder”.
The patient could be heard telling the PM:
You need to pay them.
When Sunak said his government was trying, she replied:
You are not trying, you need to try harder.
Sunak was later asked whether he was happy that nurses were not getting a real-term increase in pay. He dodged the question, saying instead that he was confident that he could “deliver on the promise of the 2019 manifesto, including having a stronger NHS”.
Sunak U-turns on plan to fine patients for missing GP appointmentsDowning Street has said Rishi Sunak has backed down on a Tory leadership campaign pledge to fine patients for missing GP and hospital appointments.
During the summer Conservative leadership contest, Sunak vowed to fine people £10 for missing an NHS appointment without providing sufficient notice.
A No 10 spokesperson said “now is not the right time to take this policy forward”. They said:
The PM wants to deliver a stronger NHS and the sentiment remains that people should not be missing their appointments and taking up NHS time.
But we have listened to GPs and health leaders, and have acknowledged that now is not the right time to take this policy forward.
Helena Horton
The government has delayed publication of clean water and biodiversity targets, putting it in breach of its Environment Act, ministers have admitted.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, on Friday published a written ministerial statement confirming that the targets underpinning the country’s nature recovery would not be released on 31 October as promised.
This could prove an embarrassment on the world stage at the Cop27 UN climate talks in November, as the deadline was set so the delegation would have biodiversity and nature targets to present to other countries.
Coffey did not give a new date for the publication of the targets, and it is understood to be unlikely they will be announced by the second week of the international climate summit, which is when biodiversity and nature are expected to be discussed.
The statement reads that in light of a “significant public response” to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ consultation on nature recovery, “we will not be able to publish targets by 31 October, as required by the act”.
She added the department would “continue to work at pace in order to lay draft statutory instruments as soon as practicable” and that the government would “remain committed to our future target to halt the decline in species by 2030”.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, said:
Defra admits in a cursory statement slipped out this morning that it’s failed to fulfil statutory duty to publish environment bill targets. This matters. Yet the government claims they have capacity to review 570 green laws by end of next year under the retained EU law bill! Madness.
Read the full story here:
Asked about talk of a £50bn black hole in the nation’s finances, Sunak acknowledged “mistakes have been made” by the previous government and said “difficult decisions” will “have to be made”.
He said:
I acknowledged that mistakes have been made and part of why I’m now prime minister is my job is to fix them – and I’m confident that we can.
The chancellor has already said, of course, difficult decisions are going to have to be made. And I’m going to sit down and work through those with him.
But what I want everyone to know is that we need to do these things so that we can get our borrowing and debt back on a sustainable path.
He said he wanted people “to be reassured” that he would put “fairness at the heart” of these difficult decisions, adding:
We will protect the most vulnerable and ensure that we can continue to grow the economy in the long run.
Rishi Sunak denied his decision not to attend the Cop27 climate summit is a “massive failure of leadership”, arguing that the UK has shown “unmatched” leadership on the climate crisis compared with other countries.
Sunak said he is “very passionate” and “very personally committed” to the environment, adding:
I just think, at the moment, it’s right that I’m also focusing on the depressing domestic challenges we have with the economy.
Asked whether there was an ongoing “civil war” within the Conservative party, Rishi Sunak insisted his party is “united”. He told reporters:
I am confident that our party is united. It is united behind delivering on the promise of the manifesto that we were elected on, with very strong support, in 2019.
Sunak ‘confident’ that Braverman has ‘learned from her mistake’Rishi Sunak refused to deny suggestions that officials warned him against reappointing Suella Braverman as home secretary.
Speaking to journalists during his first public outing as prime minister, on a visit to Croydon university hospital, Sunak said:
The home secretary has acknowledged the mistake, she’s recognised she made a mistake, she’s taken accountability for that and that’s the right thing.
Now, as I said in parliament earlier this week, she raised this topic with me when I discussed reappointing her as home secretary and I’m confident that she’s learned from her mistake.
Is this a clarification from Rishi Sunak on Suella Braverman?
At PMQs he said “she raised the matter”, taken to be with Simon Case.
Today he said: “As I said in parliament earlier this week, she raised this topic with me when I discussed re-appointing her as home secretary.”
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) October 28, 2022 He insisted he does not regret the appointment:
As I have said, she’s accepted her mistake and learned from it, and I’m confident of that.
No 10 says ‘unanimously agreed’ under Truss that King shouldn’t go to Cop27 climate summitDowning Street said it was “unanimously agreed” by Buckingham Palace and the government that the King would not attend the Cop27 climate summit under Liz Truss’s premiership.
A No 10 spokesperson said government advice was sought, as is “standard practice”, and it was agreed it was not the “right occasion” for Charles to visit in person. She said:
As is standard practice, government advice was sought and provided under a previous PM, and it was unanimously agreed that it would not be the right occasion for the King to visit in person.
She added she is “not aware” that the advice has changed.
The environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, claimed this morning that it was up to the King whether he attends the climate summit in Egypt next month. She told Sky News:
I think it’s up to him. I know that he takes an interest in this particular issue, but it’s up to him.
Downing Street said the government remains “absolutely committed” to leading international action on climate change despite Rishi Sunak’s absence at Cop27.
Asked about the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries’ tweet that it was wrong for Sunak to skip the conference, the No 10 spokesperson said:
We are facing serious economic challenges. The prime minister is focused on dealing with those issues, and the public, I think, would also expect him to be in the country … dealing with those ahead of the autumn statement.
But we’re also very clear that the public should also judge us by our actions and we are forging ahead of many other countries on net zero, for example.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said he is “extremely disappointed” that a last-ditch effort to restore the multiparty executive at Stormont failed.
I am extremely disappointed that the Executive has not reformed.
The people of Northern Ireland deserve a fully-functioning devolved government.
(1/2)
— Chris Heaton-Harris MP (@chhcalling) October 28, 2022 Today Stormont could be taking decisions to ease the challenges people face. Instead, the legal duty to act falls to me as Secretary of State.
I will be providing an update on this.
(2/2)
— Chris Heaton-Harris MP (@chhcalling) October 28, 2022 Heaton-Harris, who is expected to call a NI assembly election today, said he will be providing an update. There has been speculation the poll will be held on 15 December.
So much for party unity … the former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries has hit back at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claim that Rishi Sunak is “right not to go” to the Cop27 climate summit.
For balance, my friend…The Prime Minister is WRONG not to go to COP. Global warming is the biggest crisis facing our planet and net zero creates many 1000s of jobs which is good for the economy. COP in Glasgow was most successful ever… but don’t expect media to report that t.co/YGkc66wts7
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 28, 2022 Sunak ‘stressed importance of relationship with France’ in call with MacronDowning Street said Rishi Sunak spoke in a phone call with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, where the prime minister stressed the “importance” he places on the UK’s relationship with its “ally” France.
The pair agreed on a “huge range of areas” on which it is “vital” the nations work together, including Ukraine, climate, defence and the economy, No 10 said.
Sunak also “noted the strong historic and cultural links” between the two countries, “as exemplified by President Macron’s moving words” following the Queen’s death, the statement continued.
A No 10 spokesperson said:
President Macron congratulated him on his appointment and the prime minister stressed the importance he places on the UK’s relationship with France – our neighbour and ally. The leaders agreed that there are a huge range of areas where UK-France cooperation is vital, including on Ukraine, climate, defence and the economy.
The prime minister and President Macron discussed a range of global issues, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They agreed on the importance of continuing to work in support of Ukraine. As people across Europe face a difficult winter, with rising energy costs resulting from Putin’s invasion, the leaders resolved to work together to secure a more stable energy future. This includes increasing cooperation on nuclear energy.
The prime minister stressed the importance for both nations to make the Channel route completely unviable for people traffickers. The leaders committed to deepening our partnership to deter deadly journeys across the Channel that benefit organised criminals.
The prime minister and President Macron looked forward to meeting soon and to holding a UK-France summit next year.