Early evening summary
The government has announced that it intends to activate before Christmas new laws to limit the right of railway workers, ambulance staff and border officials to go on strike. (See 5.34pm.)
Boris Johnson referred to Rishi Sunak’s Treasury as “the pro-death squad” as he sought to gain support for a gradual end to Covid restrictions, the official inquiry into the pandemic has been told.
The Metropolitan police has released a statement urging the organisers of the planned pro-Palestinian march in London for Saturday to reconsider given that it will coincide with Armistice Day. Ministers have been strongly signalling that they want the police to initiate the process that could lead to the march being banned.
We ask organisers to consider postponing any demonstrations in #London this #ArmisticeWeekend.https://t.co/wvjmAqAVi6 pic.twitter.com/58v8jD0QTV
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 6, 2023
The Conservative peer Michelle Mone has acknowledged for the first time that she was involved with a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £200m during the Covid pandemic.
Updated
Labour says the government, not trade unions, is to blame for the public regularly not getting minimum levels of service. Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, issued this statement in response to the announcement from No 10.
This government’s failed approach has led to the worst strikes in decades and now they’re getting their excuses in early for Christmas.
Rishi Sunak is offering another sticking plaster to distract from the Conservatives’ track record of failure. We all want minimum standards of service and staffing but it’s Tory ministers who are consistently failing to provide them.
Updated
TUC says government anti-strike laws 'won't work'
The TUC says the minimimum service level rules announced by the government this afternoon (see 5.34pm) will prove unworkable. Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said:
These anti-strike laws won’t work. The crisis in our public services is of the government’s own making.
Rather than engaging constructively with unions, they are attacking the right to strike. And they are punishing paramedics and rail staff for daring to stand up for decent pay and better services.
These new laws are unworkable, undemocratic and almost certainly in breach of international law.
The UK already has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe.
It is already harder for working people here to take strike action than in any other Western European country. Now the Tories want to make it even harder for people to win fair pay and conditions.
Nowak said the Equality and Human Rights Commission has raised concerns that the act breached the European convention on human rights.
Updated
No 10 says 40% of trains must always run under laws limiting impact of rail/ambulance/border strikes coming by Christmas
The government has announced that it intends to activate before Christmas new laws to limit the right of railway workers, ambulance staff and border officials to go on strike.
Under the proposals, 40% of rail services would have to run on strike days, and border checks would have to be as “effective” on strike days as on non-strike days. And ambulance staff would have to maintain “vital” services on strike days.
Earlier this year the government passed a law, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, to ensure “minimum” levels of service are maintained in public services when unions go on strike. This afternoon the government said the regulations for rail workers, ambulance staff and border security staff would be laid in parliament after the state opening tomorrow.
In a statement Rishi Sunak signalled the new rules would be in place by the end of the year. He said:
We are doing everything in our power to stop unions de-railing Christmas for millions of people. This legislation will ensure more people will be able to travel to see their friends and family and get the emergency care they need.
In a summary of the new rules, the government said:
For border security, the regulations will apply to employees of Border Force and selected HM Passport Office staff where passport services are required for the purposes of national security. The laws will set out that border security services should be provided at a level that means that they are no less effective than if a strike were not taking place. It will also ensure all ports and airports remain open on a strike.
For train operators, it will mean the equivalent of 40% of their normal timetable can operate as normal and, in the case of strikes that affect rail infrastructure services, certain priority routes can remain open.
Minimum service level regulations for ambulance workers will ensure that vital ambulance services in England will continue throughout any strike action, ensuring that cases that are life-threatening, or where there is no reasonable clinical alternative to an ambulance response, are responded to.
The government is still consulting on the minimum service levels rules that it is allowed to impose under the act for other NHS staff, for teachers and for firefighters.
Updated
Top official praised Guardian article during Covid calling Sunak 'most dangerous man in government', inquiry told
At the Covid inquiry Warner was asked about a message he sent to Tom Shinner, another official working on coronavirus policy, in which they both complained about the Treasury. This was in February 2021. In the message, Warner said:
I am waging my own small war against HMT [Her Majesty’s Treasury] – their culture is fucked.
My new favourite line whenever they mention VFM (value for money) is ‘well, it is only X per cent of eat out to help out and probably won’t have such a terrible effect’.
Asked about the comment, Warner said he was referring to how the Treasury managed certain topics, like advanced analytics and data. He said the comment “doesn’t necessarily reflect my entire views of what is a complex organisation”. In other respects the Treasury was “unbelievably helpful”, he said.
Warner was responding to a message from Shinner, who had posted a link to this comment article published by the Guardian on 5 February 2021. In it Sam Bowman praised Rishi Sunak, the then chancellor, for introducing furlough, but said that “ever since that point [he] has been the most powerful voice in government pushing for returns to ‘normal’ before time, with disastrous consequences”. Bowman concluded by saying:
Sunak’s failure to push for elimination of Covid last summer, when only 0.3% of Covid tests in the UK were returning positive results and some parts of the country had come close to eliminating it altogether, may have contributed to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and hundreds of billions of pounds of lost economic output. If he has still not grasped that the only way to get back to normal is to eliminate Covid, and argues for a premature reopening that lets a vaccine-resistant variant emerge, he may be about to make the biggest mistake of his life.
Commenting on the article, Shinner said:
Depressingly I think there’s quite a lot of truth in this about Treasury approach
Updated
'I feel we have accidentally invented a time machine' - how No 10 aides complained Johnson's second lockdown also too late
The Covid inquiry has also been shown private messages exchanged between Ben Warner, the data scientist and No 10 aide, and Lee Cain, the PM’s communications director, in September and October 2020. They were both frustrated by the government’s failure to take action in response to the rising number of cases. At this point scientists were calling for another lockdown.
“We are so fucked,” Cain wrote on 12 October. And on 30 October, the day before Boris Johnson announced a second lockdown (having resisted one for weeks), Warner said:
I feel like we have accidentally invented a time machine.
That was a reference to March 2020, when Johnson was also criticised for introducing lockdown late.
Updated
The Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke, who is normally seen as being on the right of the party, has criticised Suella Braverman’s proposal to stop charities distributing tents to homeless people. She posted this on X.
In all my years of helping people who are homeless, in cities like London and Manchester as well as my own local area in Dover and Deal, at no time, ever, has anyone said the answer lies in the removal of tents.
In all my years of helping people who are homeless, in cities like London and Manchester as well as my own local area in Dover and Deal, at no time, ever, has anyone said the answer lies in the removal of tents.
— Natalie Elphicke MP (@NatalieElphicke) November 6, 2023
Updated
Met says 100 people arrested after Just Stop Oil protest in Whitehall, but Cenotaph not targeted
The Metropolitan police have confirmed that Just Stop Oil activists did not commit any offences linked to the Cenotaph. In a statement, the Met said:
Around 100 arrests were made by officers along Whitehall during another day of disruption by Just Stop Oil.
These arrests were made for breaching section seven of the Public Order Act at various points between Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, including near to the Cenotaph.
No protester glued themselves to the road.
There were no offences linked to the Cenotaph.
Updated
Plans for further strike action at UK universities have stalled after the University and College Union failed to get the required turnout in its latest strike ballot.
More than two thirds (68%) of UCU members at 140 universities who voted were in support of taking strike action over pay and working conditions, with 75% in favour of industrial action short of strike action.
Turnout, however, was only 43%, significantly below the required 50% threshold. It follows a prolonged period of disruptive industrial action in UK universities, including a marking and assessment boycott which meant many students had to wait for their final grades this summer.
The UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, blamed anti-democratic trade union laws. She said:
The national ballot results show university staff support taking action over pay and conditions. However, anti-democratic restrictions, which single out trade unions for special treatment, mean no action can take place.
But Raj Jethwa, the chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, said:
Now that the ballot is over, unions and employers need to find common ground on the issues that the sector is grappling with. For the sake of students and staff alike, it is now vital to work together to end the sector’s recent cycle of industrial disputes.
Updated
Ben Warner, the data specialist who worked in No 10 alongside Dominic Cummings during Covid, also told the inquiry this afternoon that he was concerned about the lack of scientific knowledge in the civil service. He said:
Throughout the pandemic I thought that there was a lack of scientific capability within the different teams and groups that I was working with.
He stressed that he was not talking about government scientists. He went on:
I do think that within the, let’s call it sort of Cobra/Cabinet Office, that I was continually concerned about their understanding of what Sage were saying and how that was being translated into the documents that were produced for ministers.
Updated
Here is John Crace’s sketch, where he imagines Suella Braverman making an unexpected lifestyle choice.
And the inquiry has just been shown these messages to Boris Johnson from Dominic Cummings, his chief adviser. They were sent on Saturday 14 March 2020, which is when advisers met in No 10 and realised a lockdown was required. Cummings told Johnson that, when people talked to him about the point at which Covid cases would peak in the future, they should have been telling him that they were talking about the point at which the NHS would collapse (assuming no change in policy).
Ben Warner, the data specialist who worked in No 10 alongside Dominic Cummings during Covid, is giving evidence to the inquiry this afternoon. As Peter Walker reports, he was asked about a line he wrote in his notebook after a meeting during the early days of the Covid crisis where he said the NHS was “fucked in any scenario”.
"NHS fucked in any scenario"
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) November 6, 2023
Eloquent assessment by Ben Warner in his contemporaneous notebooks from his time in No 10 about his view of planning for Covid in early 2020. pic.twitter.com/s1wyYlwsTm
And this is what Warner says about the comment in his witness statement to the inquiry.
This is the explanation for this note that Warner gave in his witness statement to the inquiry. pic.twitter.com/9s1sD0dZTm
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) November 6, 2023
Updated
Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, told the Guardian in an interview that levels of poverty are “simply not acceptable … in a rich country such as the UK”.
At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson said the government did not accept this. He said:
We simply don’t agree. We know that households are at least £6,000 a year better off in full-time work than out on benefits. And our record on this is clear – there are 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty and there are almost 700,000 fewer children growing up in workless households since 2010.
And we have taken unprecedented levels of support post-pandemic in response to high inflation, not least paying half of people’s energy bill.
Just Stop Oil says claims that its protesters were targeting the Cenotaph this morning were wrong.
The Chairman of the @Conservatives is tweeting lies about protesters being glued to The Cenotaph.
The reality is that they were dragged off the road and arrested by police for protesting in the street, under legislation his corrupt party introduced.
Share and expose this lie
The Chairman of the @Conservatives is tweeting lies about protesters being glued to The Cenotaph.
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) November 6, 2023
The reality is that they were dragged off the road and arrested by police for protesting in the street, under legislation his corrupt party introduced.
Share and expose this lie. https://t.co/mc5ZtP26l9
Great that @YvetteCooperMP and @MayorofLondon deleted tweets accusing supporters of Just Stop Oil of “targeting” the Cenotaph when in reality, they were arrested for marching to Parliament Square.
But why aren’t @UKLabour talking about the arrests of +100 peaceful protesters?
Great that @YvetteCooperMP and @MayorofLondon deleted tweets accusing supporters of Just Stop Oil of "targeting" the Cenotaph when in reality, they were arrested for marching to Parliament Square.
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) November 6, 2023
But why aren't @UKLabour talking about the arrests of +100 peaceful protesters? pic.twitter.com/KmSFoes3Rz
Corbyn calls for inquiry by international criminal court into whether genocide has been committed in Gaza
The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for a ceasefire in Gaza, followed by an urgent investigation by the international criminal court into whether genocide has taken place. He makes the proposal in an article for Al Jazeera. Here is an extract.
On November 2, seven UN Special Rapporteurs said they “remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide”. This followed the resignation of Craig Mokhiber, the Director of the UN’s office in New York, who characterised the horrors in Gaza as a “textbook case of genocide” aimed toward “the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous life in Palestine” …
Genocide is a term that should be used carefully. There are many horrors in history that are hideous enough on their own terms without warranting that label. The term has a legal definition, a legal basis and legal implications. That is why, when international experts in this field warn us about genocide, we should sit up and listen. And that is why we need an immediate ceasefire, followed by an urgent investigation by the international criminal court.
The ICC should not just investigate the crime of genocide, but every single war crime committed by all parties over the past month. The UK government has the authority and responsibility to call for this investigation. So far, it has refused to call out the atrocities unfolding before our very eyes. Blackouts in Gaza may be temporary, but impunity is permanent and our government continues to give the Israeli army the cover it needs to commit its crimes in darkness.
Updated
Government decided to launch 'eat out to help out' without scientific advice on potential Covid impact, inquiry told
During his evidence his morning Stuart Glassborow, deputy principal private secretary to Boris Johnson during the pandemic, admitted that the government decided to go ahead with the “eat out to help out” subsidy scheme for restaurants in the summer of 2020 without getting scientific advice on the impact it might have on Covid transmission.
Rishi Sunak, the then chancellor, was personally associated with the scheme, and he was embarrassed by subsequent evidence showing it had led to a rise in the number of people getting Covid.
Glassborow told the inquiry that during July 2020, before the scheme was launched, he and others in No 10 “did become aware that there hadn’t been direct CMO [chief medical officer], CSA [chief scientific adviser], Sage [scientific advisory group for emergencies] analysis on this policy”.
Asked if a decision was taken to persist with the scheme anyway, without scientific advice, Glassborow said:
I can’t speak on behalf of all people who would have had an interest in this. I don’t recall significant representations being made to in some sense revisit the policy – that’s not to say some people didn’t have views one way or another at that time.
Last week the inquiry was told that Prof Chris Whitty, the CMO, called the scheme “eat out to help out the virus”.
Updated
Just Stop Oil protesters obstructing traffic near Downing Street were arrested and placed on and around the Cenotaph by police, PA Media reports. PA says:
A mother-of-one lying cuffed on the base of the war memorial told the PA news agency: “They arrested us in the road and we were dragged to the pavement and then back over here.”
One officer said the protesters had been moved to the site “to get them off the road”, adding: “It was for their own safety, obviously it’s quite a busy road.”
These accounts suggest it is wrong to claim that the Just Stop Oil protesters were targeting the Cenotaph. But there have been reports on social media claiming they were, and in response to one of them, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said such action was “totally unacceptable”.
Targeting the Cenotaph is totally unacceptable. Full support for the police in taking necessary enforcement action. https://t.co/Jj4KNrFYiP
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) November 6, 2023
Experts dismiss report from IEA thinktank claiming Brexit has not harmed trade with EU
This morning the Daily Express splashed on comments from Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, welcoming a report from the rightwing Institute of Economic Affairs thinktank about Brexit. Badenoch says the report shows that “contrary to some media reports and many pre-Brexit establishment voices, the data says Brexit has not had a major impact on UK–EU trade” (although the Express splash goes further, claiming the report shows Brexit has “boosted UK trade”).
EXPRESS: Brexit trade freedom ‘boost’ for UK economy #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/kZ2MQDaOZk
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) November 5, 2023
Experts have dismissed the findings, and particularly the way they were written up in an IEA press release quoting figures purportedly showing EU trade up since 2019 – but only because the numbers in the relevant chart have not been adjusted to take into account the impact of inflation.
(The actual report says Brexit has “not had a major detrimental effect on UK–EU trade”. The IEA press release is headlined “Brexit leaves UK trade unscathed”.)
These are from Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London.
Let's (briefly) take seriously new @iealondon report claiming Brexit hasn't damaged UK trade. What's the argument?
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) November 6, 2023
Press release said this. But these figures are in nominal (not adjusted for inflation) terms! pic.twitter.com/Pdv8BPBV5x
Here are the inflation-adjusted figures, goods exports have fallen significantly.
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) November 6, 2023
IEA argument isn't that our goods exports have done well since Brexit - even they can't claim that - it's that exports outside the EU fell even more than those to the EU. So it's not Brexit! pic.twitter.com/VoaL3XxAtl
Now, TBC, it's not a crazy argument! But it's neither new nor conclusive. Indeed, I discussed both the data and the explanations here several months ago!https://t.co/dNNPmwOLyJ pic.twitter.com/7WYKC1g1wX
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) November 6, 2023
I concluded then - and the vast majority of credible trade economists agree
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) November 6, 2023
"So while it’s reasonable to conclude that Brexit has damaged the UK’s trade performance, both the magnitude and the mechanisms remain open to question."
Nothing in the @iea paper changes that [END]
This is from David Henig, a trade expert and the UK director at the European Centre For International Political Economy thinktank.
This should be a humiliation for a Secretary of State of Trade, to be associated with such shoddy research attempting to deny economic reality. That's what happens when ideology is more important than actual businesses. https://t.co/5lEC1gaJBT pic.twitter.com/MLkuKtzTcP
— David Henig 🇺🇦 (@DavidHenigUK) November 6, 2023
And these are from Anton Spisak, the Brexit expert at the Tony Blair Institute thinktank.
The IEA’s new report claims that there isn’t a “discernible Brexit effect” on the British economy.
— Anton Spisak (@AntonSpisak) November 6, 2023
Here’s my analysis, which shows inflation-adjusted GDP growth per person since 2016, with the UK at the bottom of G7. https://t.co/DOKRizB1Vb pic.twitter.com/KHYbhfUqcq
Here are the inflation-adjusted trade data. To claim that Brexit hasn’t had an effect on trade would be to dismiss a) the short-term hit to exports to the EU; b) the more persistent hit to imports from the EU; and c) the overall picture of slow post-Covid recovery in UK trade. pic.twitter.com/oNwU0XOUmB
— Anton Spisak (@AntonSpisak) November 6, 2023
Catherine McBride, author of the report, says she is not to blame for the way the IEA wrote up her findings in its press release.
I don't do the press releases. I wrote the paper. I suggest you read it before commenting.
— Catherine McBride (@CeeMacBee) November 6, 2023
I didn't realise you would take such a strong stance against a paper with only a tiny snippet of knowledge.
Johnson joked about Treasury being the 'pro-death squad' during pandemic, Covid inquiry told
At the Covid inquiry Stuart Glassborow, deputy principal private secretary to Boris Johnson during coronavirus, has been giving evidence.
Dermot Keating, counsel for the inquiry, was asking the questions, and he has just asked Glassborow about an entry in Sir Patrick Vallance’s diary in which Vallance, the chief scientific adviser at the time, records Boris Johnson as referring to the Treasury as the “pro-death squad”. Johnson reportedly used the phrase in January 2021, when he wanted the Treasury to back him in arguing for an early lifting of lockdown measures.
Johnson was referring to the Treasury being in favour of prioritising the economy in internal debates on lockdown policy.
Glassborow told the inquiry he did not recall that phrase being used.
UPDATE: Reading from Vallance’s diary, Keating said:
There is an entry … at meeting on 25 January 2021 the PM is recorded saying he wants tier 3 March 1, tier 2 April 1 Tier 1 May 1 and nothing by September, and he ends it by saying the team must bring in the pro-death squad from HMT. Do you recall the phraseology by the prime minister referring to HMT as the pro-death squad?
Glassborow replied:
As I say, this I think refers to a meeting from a couple of years ago. I don’t recall that specific phrase. I see that this is from Patrick’s notebook. I wouldn’t dispute what he’s recorded, but I don’t recall the phrase at all.
Updated
At least 40 Just Stop Oil protesters arrested after disruption in Whitehall
Police have arrested dozens of Just Stop Oil protesters near Downing Street after activists lay down on the road and lined up on pavements along Whitehall.
The action took place around the same time as two Just Stop Oil activists were arrested for criminal damage after the glass on the Rokeby Venus painting in the National Gallery was shattered by a man and a woman.
The painting was originally slashed by suffragettes in 1914. One of those involved on Monday said: “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words.”
💥 SUFFRAGETTE PAINTING SMASHED
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) November 6, 2023
💀 Our government have revealed plans for MORE oil licences, knowing it will kill millions. In response, two supporters of Just Stop Oil smashed the Rokeby Venus — slashed by Mary Richardson in 1914.
⏱ Deeds, not words: https://t.co/3tlBID7nKA pic.twitter.com/Hk0el26QIt
The Metropolitan police said officers had arrested at least 40 activists who were “slow marching” and that Whitehall was clear after a brief period of traffic being stopped.
The prelude to the arrests on Whitehall was witnessed by the Conservative peer David Frost, who posted this on X.
Whitehall just now. The @metpoliceuk are accompanying a Just Stop Oil demo down the street. I hope they plan to take some firmer action soon.
— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) November 6, 2023
Updated
Almost 100,000 people have signed an online petition organised by the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees saying the government should abandon Suella Braverman’s “cruel” plan to stop charities distributing tents to rough sleepers. (See 9.25am.)
Veronica Hawking, head of campaigns at 38 Degrees, said that for so many people to sign a petition within 48 hours showed why “Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak must recognise the political cost of this cruelty and scrap these plans”.
No 10 unable to provide evidence to back up Braverman's claim that rough sleeping is 'lifestyle choice'
At the Downing Street lobby briefing No 10 was unable to defend Suella Braverman’s claim that rough sleeping is a “lifestyle choice”.
Asked if the government had any evidence to back up this claim, the PM’s spokesperson replied:
The reasons are complex, I think mental health and addiction are drivers of homelessness.
Asked if the prime minister ever gets tired of having to defend Braverman, the spokesperson said:
The prime minister continues to work closely with the home secretary, not least on this issue of protests … and of course on small boats.
The spokesperson also declined to say Rishi Sunak agreed with Braverman’s description of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches”.
This is from David Wilcock from Mail Online.
No10 not offering a lot of love for Suella Braverman today. Won’t back claims that homelessness is ‘lifestyle choice’ and pro-Palestinian demos are ‘hate marches’. ‘The PM continues to work closely with the Home Sec’, says spox when asked if Sunak is tired of defending her.
NEW: No10 not offering a lot of love for Suella Braverman today. Won't back claims that homelessness is 'lifestyle choice' and pro-Palestinian demos are 'hate marches'. 'The PM continues to work closely with the Home Sec', says spox when asked if Sunak is tired of defending her.
— David Wilcock (@DavidTWilcock) November 6, 2023
Metropolitan police say they will use 'all powers and tactics' to prevent Armistice Day disruption
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is holding a meeting today to discuss the proposal for a pro-Palestinian march to go ahead on Armistice Day on Saturday, Rishi Sunak said.
Ministers seem to be actively encouraging the police to initiate the process that would lead to the march being banned. (The Home Office has the final say, but it can only approve a ban if the police ask for one.) Last week the Metropolitian police pointed out that no demonstration is planned for Remembrance Sunday and that the organisers of the march planned for Saturday, Armistice Day, will avoid the area near the Cenotaph where commemorations will take place.
Sunak said:
Remembrance Day is a time for national reflection. It is a time when I know the whole country will come together to pay tribute to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep us safe. I want to make sure police have our absolute and total backing to clamp down on any acts of criminality, but also to ensure public order.
The Metropolitan police have said they will use “all powers and tactics” at their disposal to prevent disruption, including section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986, which allows the banning of a procession when there is a risk of serious disorder. The Met commander Karen Findlay said:
We fully appreciate the national significance of Armistice Day. Thousands of officers will be deployed in an extensive security operation and we will use all powers and tactics at our disposal to ensure that anyone intent on disrupting it will not succeed.
Updated
Treasury did not have estimate for economic impact of lockdown, Covid inquiry hears
Clare Lombardelli, chief economic adviser to the Treasury during coronavirus, told the Covid inquiry that the department did not have an estimate for the cost of lockdown. She said:
I wouldn’t say there was no meaningful modelling. There was a lot of analysis and modelling that happened.
What I would say is there was no estimated cost of a lockdown, if you like. There was no way to basically say a lockdown will cost you X, or indeed a lockdown of this form will cost you X but of a different form will cost you Y …
I think it’s a bit too far to say there was no meaningful modelling done, there was a lot of useful modelling … But there wasn’t was an estimate of, the lockdown will cost X in terms of jobs or economic activity.
Sunak says more than 100 British nationals have now been able to leave Gaza
More than 100 British nationals have now been able to leave Gaza, Rishi Sunak said this morning. In his pooled TV interview he said:
We have been very clear and consistent that we support humanitarian pauses, which are there specifically to allow aid to get into Gaza and hostages and foreign nationals to come out. I’m pleased that over 100 British nationals have now been able to leave Gaza thanks to our diplomatic engagement. I spoke to both the Egyptian president and the Israeli prime minister about this specific issue last week.
Sunak declines to back Braverman in calling rough sleeping 'lifestyle choice' - but he does not acccept term was offensive
Rishi Sunak has not accepted that Suella Braverman’s description of rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” was offensive – although he declined to use her language himself.
Asked this morning if the term was offensive, Sunak told broadcasters in a pooled interview:
I don’t want anyone to sleep rough on our streets.
That’s why the government is investing £2bn over the next few years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. I’m pleased that the number of people sleeping rough is down by a third since the peak, but of course there is more to do.
Our Homelessness Reduction Act, which is a landmark law that we passed, has already ensured that over 600,000 people have had their homelessness prevented or relieved. So I’m proud of that record.
But of course there is more to do and we’ll keep going so that nobody has to sleep rough on our streets.
Updated
Tamara Cohen from Sky News has posted on X more screengrabs from the Treasury briefing in September 2020 arguing against a short circuit-breaker lockdown, which were shown at the Covid inquiry.
It’s put to Lombardelli that the Treasury were pushing back very hard against restrictions - with briefings they produced saying further restrictions would be “catastrophic” in autumn 2020 pic.twitter.com/gikspr9y73
— Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) November 6, 2023
Updated
Sunak was urged by Treasury to 'strongly' resist calls for circuit breaker lockdown in autumn 2020, Covid inquiry hears
Treasury officials strongly advised Rishi Sunak to resist calls for a short, “circuit breaker” lockdown in the autumn of 2020, the Covid inquiry was told.
Clare Lombardelli, chief economic adviser at the Treasury, is giving evidence to the inquiry this morning and she has just been asked about this memo to Sunak urging him to “push back strongly on the circuit breaker proposal” on the grounds that its economic impact might be severe, and that it might last longer than the two or three weeks envisaged.
Lombardelli said it was the job of the Treasury to consider the economic aspects of this proposal. She said other departments would have been looking at issues like the health case for the policy, or the impact on schools.
Updated
At the Covid inquiry Clare Lombardelli, who was chief economic adviser at the Treasury during the pandemic, has just started giving evidence. She is being questioned by Joanne Cecil, counsel for the inquiry. There is a live feed here.
I won’t be covering the whole hearing minute by minute, but I will report any highlights.
Terror laws watchdog says his 'instinct' would be to allow pro-Palestinian march on Armistice Day to go ahead
In his Today programme interview Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, was also asked about calls for the pro-Palestinian march planned for London on Saturday to be banned on the grounds that it will coincide with Armistice Day.
Hall said it would be for the police to decide if the march posed a risk. If they thought the risk was unacceptable, they should ask the Home Office office to agree to a banning order, he said.
He went on:
I think this is a difficult issue. I see no evidence that the organisers of the march are trying to target Remembrance Day, or the weekend, and my instinct, I think, must be that you should always err in favour of freedom of expression.
Hall said he also accepted there might be concerns about a terrorist threat. He went on:
So, if the march is going to go ahead, one would hope it’s going to be fairly well controlled, whether that’s by making a really strong break in terms of time [between events at the Cenotaph at 11am and the march] and starting it much later, perhaps, than was intended, and making sure that it’s perhaps better policed than earlier ones. So by all means, go ahead. But I can see the possibilities of disorder from a terrorist perspective.
Updated
Terror laws watchdog says proposal to extend extremism definition to include undermining UK won't work legally
In the Observer yesterday Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Mark Townsend reported that the government is drawing up plans “to broaden the definition of extremism to include anyone who ‘undermines’ the country’s institutions and its values”.
On the Today programme this morning Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, was asked if he thought the government would be able to legislate for such a broad definition of extremism. He replied:
Assuming what is reported in the Observer is correct, I think the answer is no.
I don’t want to sneer, by the way, because there it’s legitimate to try and work out what might try and lead to terrorism conversation in the future.
But … from what’s reported, it’s insanely broad, it couldn’t possibly lead to an offence.
Asked about a proposal, backed in the past by Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, for a new offence of “hateful extremism” to be created, Hall said:
I think is impossible to craft an offence. You end up just capturing far too much behaviour that you don’t want to make a crime.
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Energy secretary Claire Coutinho admits annual North Sea oil and gas licensing won't necessarily bring down energy bills
Claire Coutinho has admitted that the government’s plan to require annual oil and gas licensing in the North Sea would not necessarily keep bills down for British consumers.
The energy security and net zero secretary told BBC Breakfast:
It wouldn’t necessarily bring energy bills down, that’s not what we’re saying, but it would raise a significant amount of money that would help us, for example, fund public services, also fund transition into different forms of energy, for example, things like offshore wind and solar energy which more broadly and indirectly could help bring bills down.
In its news release announcing the proposed legislation the government does not claim that annual licensing on its own would bring down energy prices. But it does imply that, combined with other policies, it would. It says:
We are reducing our vulnerability to imports from hostile states, leaving us less exposed to unpredictable international forces. This will ensure we have a more secure and diverse energy system and as we make progress on renewables and new nuclear, our more robust energy mix will help to lower household bills in the long term.
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During her morning interview round, Claire Coutinho, the energy security and net zero secretary, seemed to spend quite a lot of time not agreeing with Suella Braverman’s choice of words. As well as refusing to say the home secretary was right to call homelessness a lifestyle choice (see 9.25am), Coutinho indicated that she did not agree with her cabinet colleague about the pro-Palestinian marches in London and elsewhere being “hate marches”. Asked about that term, Coutinho told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
I wouldn’t necessarily use that language, but let me say this – what we’ve seen on those marches, in instances, is incredibly hateful behaviour.
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Cabinet minister refuses to back Suella Braverman’s claim homelessness is ‘lifestyle choice’
Good morning. Legislating is at the heart of what government is all about, and tomorrow, in the king’s speech, Rishi Sunak and his team will set out their programme for what is almost certainly the final full session of parliament before the general election. But already there are signs that some of what’s in it is motivated not so much by governing priorities, but party politics. Sunak is looking for “wedge issues” where he can force Keir Starmer to oppose measures that might be popular with potential Labour voters. All governments do this a bit, although getting the monarch to participate might be considered bad form.
The best example is the announcement overnight that the king’s speech will require the North Sea Transition Authority to issue licences for oil and gas exploration every year. The NSTA can and does already hold regular licensing rounds anyway, but Sunak wants to set a trap for Labour, which says it will not issue new licences if it wins the election. Pippa Crerar has the story here. And these are from Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero.
This proposed Bill does nothing to lower energy bills, does nothing to deliver energy security and is a sign of a government that is bankrupt of any ideas.
This proposed Bill does nothing to lower energy bills, does nothing to deliver energy security and is a sign of a government that is bankrupt of any ideas.https://t.co/sGMgKF9T1I
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) November 6, 2023
We already have regular North Sea oil and gas licensing in Britain and it is precisely our dependence on fossil fuels that has led to the worst cost of living crisis in generations.
We already have regular North Sea oil and gas licensing in Britain and it is precisely our dependence on fossil fuels that has led to the worst cost of living crisis in generations.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) November 6, 2023
All this embarrassing stunt tells you is that Rishi Sunak is continuing with his retreat from net zero.
No wonder we see consternation from so many leading businesses, and even figures in his own party, who know he is undermining our energy security and damaging our economy.
All this embarrassing stunt tells you is that Rishi Sunak is continuing with his retreat from net zero.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) November 6, 2023
No wonder we see consternation from so many leading businesses, and even figures in his own party, who know he is undermining our energy security and damaging our economy.
At the weekend the Financial Times reported on another king’s speech proposal that would be overtly partisan when it said that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, wanted to include a proposal to stop charities distributing tents to homeless people in cities. Braverman then confirmed the story on X, and added to the provocation by describing homelessness as a “lifestyle choice”.
This time she may taken “wedge politics” a bit too far. Wedge issues work by opening up a split (‘driving a wedge’) between your opponents’ leadership and their supporter base. But Braverman may have put the wedge in the wrong place, because she has horrified some Tories.
At the weekend Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP who heads the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness, said Braverman should use “wiser words”. Last night Steve Brine, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons health committee, went further, telling Radio 4’s Westminster Hour:
I utterly resist the line that sleeping rough is a lifestyle choice. I just think it was clumsy and it was crass.
And this morning Claire Coutinho, the energy security and net zero secretary, who was doing a media round to talk about oil and gas licensing, refused to back Braverman’s language. Asked if she agreed homelessness was a lifestyle choice, Coutinho replied:
I wouldn’t have used necessarily those words, but in my experience what you have is people often with very complex needs and sometimes they might refuse accommodation, and that’s often because they’ve got complicated problems in their lives – like I said, it might be addiction, it might be mental health issues.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Clare Lombardelli, the former chief economic adviser to the Treasury, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry. Later in the morning Stuart Glassborow, deputy principal private secretary to Boris Johnson when he was PM, gives evidence.
Morning: Rishi Sunak is on a visit in Norfolk. He is due to record a clip for the media.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2pm: Ben Warner, a data specialist who worked closely with Dominic Cummings and who worked as a No 10 adviser during the pandemic, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry.
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