Rishi Sunak open to reappointing Lee Anderson as Tory deputy chair despite Rwanda bill rebellion – UK politics live | Politics

Labour says it was ‘clearly inappropriate’ for Tahir Ali to say Sunak has blood on his hands due to support for Israel

Ben Quinn

Keir Starmer’s spokesman has described a claim by a Labour MP that Rishi Sunak has “the blood of thousands of people on his hands” over support for Israel (see 12.38pm) as “clearly inappropriate”.

Colleagues sitting behind Tahir Ali, a Birmingham Labour MP, could be seen shaking their heads during prime ministers questions as he levelled the accusation against Sunak, who promptly replied “that is the face of the changed Labour party”.

Asked about the comments, Starmer’s spokesperson said:

That language is clearly inappropriate and not language we would support or endorse …

This absolutely is a changed Labour party and you’ve seen that in the commitments that Keir Starmer has made in his leadership campaign and has followe through on during the course of his leadership.

However, the Conservative party quickly moved to weaponise the exchange, launching a clip on its official X account saying:

Same old Labour.

The only thing Keir Starmer has changed is his own position on everything he says.

Labour criticises government over figures showing cuts in police numbers

Rajeev Syal

The government has cut the number of police officers serving in the unit responsible for smashing Channel smuggling gangs, according to figures released today.

Police workforce statistics published by the Home Office show that there has been a cut of 343 National Crime Agency officers, as well as cuts of 311 police officers, 611 PCSOs [police community support officers] and 511 special constables between March and September 2023.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said:

On a day of more Tory infighting, these are bombshell statistics that show the Conservatives cannot be trusted to keep our streets or our borders safe.

Not content with cutting bobbies on the beat from our local communities, they are now cutting NCA officers too – the law enforcement body responsible for smashing the smuggling gangs operating in the Channel.

Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB which represents PCSOs, said:

PCSO numbers are being cut to the bone and the number of police staff remains well below 2010 levels. There are shortfalls across staff groups – from 999 call handlers to scene of crime investigators.

These cuts are making our communities unsafe – it’s time for the government to invest in police staff.

Opposition parties demand disclosure of any Covid emails sent by Sturgeon from private SNP account

Severin Carrell

Opposition parties have demanded the full disclosure of any emails sent or received by Nicola Sturgeon using her Scottish National party address for government business, in what was allegedly “a clear and deliberate breach of protocol”.

The controversy erupted after the UK Covid inquiry released evidence from Prof Devi Sridhar, the Edinburgh University health expert who advised Sturgeon during the pandemic, that Sturgeon offered her “private” SNP email address, as well as her government address, with the words: “Don’t worry about protocol – tackling the virus more important than that.”

That disclosure has fuelled allegations that Sturgeon, who is due to give evidence to the inquiry in Edinburgh next week, routinely used her SNP account for sensitive government business to evade official scrutiny and sidestep freedom of information laws, as did her special advisers.

The inquiry is already investigating mounting evidence that her most senior officials deleted their WhatsApp messages to avoid FoI disclosures, and acknowledged doing so.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, has written to John-Paul Marks, the permanent secretary at the Scottish government, calling for him to establish whether his officials had got hold of relevant SNP emails and handed them to the inquiry.

Baillie said using a party address in that way was “a clear and deliberate breach of protocol”. She went on:

This action means that important information regarding the pandemic may not be accessible to the public.

Indeed I have been told by former cabinet ministers that the use of SNP emails was widespread. I would therefore be grateful to know what information sent to SNP email accounts has been recovered by the Scottish government for the inquiry.

Separately, Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chair, wrote to Sturgeon calling on her to “do the right thing” and release the material voluntarily.

The Scottish government and SNP have been asked for their responses.

No 10 has hinted that Rishi Sunak is open to reappointing Lee Anderson as one of the Conservative party’s deputy chairs.

Anderson, a working-class rightwinger, resigned from his post two weeks ago because he wanted to defy the party whip and vote for “rebel” amendments to strengthen the Rwanda bill.

But he and Brendan Clarke-Smith, who also resigned as a Tory deputy chair for the same reasons, issued a remarkably conciliatory resignation letter, stating their “100% support” for Sunak.

Anderson has now told the Daily Telegraph that he should have voted for the Rwanda bill at third reading, instead of abstaining, and that he would like his Tory deputy chair job back.

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, asked if Sunak would reappoint him, the PM’s press secretary said it was “the PM’s prerogative to choose and when” who gets which jobs. She went on:

I think we can say that we have a lot of time for Lee. He made it clear that he had concerns but actually he really supports getting this deterrent up and running so it’s good to see him talking about that today.

That PMQs, or at least the Sunak/Starmer section, was even more cantankerous and unilluminating than usual. There were moments when genuine contempt, as opposed to professional, political hostility, seemed to be showing through. For anyone who aspires to a more uplifting politics, bad news: there may be 10 more months of this.

But there are always some takeaways to excavate, and the first is one that might count as good news for Sunak; no Tory stood up to support Simon Clarke. Judging by comments on airwaves, on social media and in private WhatsApp groups, the Clarke attempted coup (if that is what it even was) had fizzled out before PMQs even started (at least for now). Sunak did not come under attack from his own MPs, as Theresa May and Boris Johnson did at PMQs when they were near the departure door. So, for Sunak, it could have been worse.

Starmer, of course, raised the Clarke article. Two weeks ago, after Starmer claimed at PMQs that Sunak was someone who “simply doesn’t get Britain”, some rightwingers, including the former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, accused Starmer of a dog whistle racist slur. The allegation never gained much traction, but now we definitely won’t be hearing it again because what Starmer said was repeated, almost word for word, by Clarke in his Telegraph article today. He wrote:

Rishi has great strengths. He is decent to his core, fiercely intelligent and works formidably hard.

I saw these strengths up close whilst chief secretary to the Treasury when he was chancellor.

But these strengths cannot compensate for two fundamental problems. He does not get what Britain needs. And he is not listening to what the British people want.

Starmer must have been aware of this as he quoted Clarke in his opening question.

The prime minister has had quite a week. From endlessly fighting with his own MPs to collapsing in laughter when he was asked by a member of the public about NHS waiting lists … The only thing missing from that punishing schedule is any sort of governing or leadership. So was he surprised to see one of his own MPs say that he doesn’t get what Britain needs and he’s not listening to what people want?

Starmer is getting better and better at using ridicule as a weapon against Sunak, and today was another polished performance. “One-man Pollyanna show” was a particularly good line (although only to those who get the reference). It was interesting to hear Starmer attack Sunak over his career as a hedge fund investor before he became MP, saying he made millions “betting on the misery of working people”, but this line may not work effectively because most people don’t know very much about what Sunak was doing in his pre-Commons career, or what hedge funds actually do anyway.

Starmer only properly got on to a policy issue with his fourth question, where he asked about Monday’s Times report saying “thousands of parents have been warned they will be unable to access the government’s flagship free-childcare offer this year because of issues with the rollout”. He linked this to the “out of touch” critique by arguing that Sunak did not really appreciate the impact this might have on working people, but after so much broad-brush knockabout at the start, these questions did not have as much impact as they might have done if he had asked them straight. However, he did somehow get the speaker to let him get away with calling the government’s record a “shitshow” (presumably because he was quoting the Times).

From Sunak, we got almost the entire repertoire of the CCHQ anti-Starmer story, starting with a retro culture wars broadside.

[Starmer] talks about what Britain needs, what Britain wants, what Britain values. This from a man who takes the knee, who wanted to abolish the monarchy, who still doesn’t know what a woman is, and who just this week, one of his frontbenchers, said that they backed teaching divisive white privilege in our schools. Looking at his record, it’s crystal clear which one of us doesn’t get Britain’s values.

No doubt there are some voters who buy this stuff, but mostly it sounds a bit desperate. Sunak was stronger ground when he attacked Starmer over the £28bn green jobs pledge, which the Tories are depicting as a tax commitment. Starmer has insisted that he won’t put up taxes to fund it, but Labour has also said it won’t break its borrowing fiscal rules to fund it either, and there are probably quite a few takers for Sunak’s sceptical take.

We do know that he is committed to his 2030 decarbonisation promise, which they say will cost £28bn but I was reading about it this week. He says he has changed the party, one of his team called it an albatross hanging around their neck, that might have been the shadow chancellor maybe, but he said they are doubling down on it.

All this ahead of a crunch meeting we are told this week for them to work out how they are going to pay for it. I can save them some time because we all know the answer, higher taxes for the British people.

Sunak is almost certainly not a great Guardian reader, but he was quoting our story from last week. It remains to be seen whether Labour feels confident about its ability to refute 10 more months of this, or whether there is going to be a policy clarification.

Tahir Ali (Lab) says the government has said Israel respects international law while internal government documents show Foreign Office officials do not believe this. He says this means the PM has the blood of innocent people on his hands.

Sunak says Ali’s comment suggests Labour has not really changed, despite Starmer’s claims.

UPDATE: Ali said:

Recently released documents reveal that the Foreign Office had serious concerns about Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law and its ongoing assault on Gaza.

This assessment was hidden from parliament whilst the prime minister boldly stated his confidence in Israel’s respect for international law.

Since then, the scale of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza have been revealed to the world thanks to South Africa’s case to the ICJ.

Therefore, is it now not the time for the prime minister to admit that he has the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands and for him to commit to demanding an immediate ceasefire and an ending of UK’s arms trade with Israel?

And Sunak replied:

That’s the face of the changed Labour party.