Afternoon summary
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The Red Cross has said it will refuse proceeds from the sale of Mike Read’s Ukip Calypso as it is party political and contains an attack on refugees and asylum seekers. As the Press Association reports, Ukip said it would give its share of the profits to the Red Cross Ebola fund after Read apologised for “unintentionally causing offence” with the tune and asked his record company to withdraw it. But the Red Cross rejected the offer. a spokeswoman said:
We will not be able to accept any money from the proceeds of this single. As a neutral organisation, we cannot benefit from something which overtly supports one political party. In addition, the Red Cross has a proud history of helping refugees and asylum seekers who are negatively referred to in the lyrics.
Ukip’s chairman Steve Crowther criticised the decision.
We are staggered by their decision. We regret that the British Red Cross think it’s their place to put politics over saving people’s lives. We will seek to donate all the money to another charity working to help tackle the tragic Ebola crisis in West Africa.
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Nicky Morgan, has been ordered by MPs to write to the chief inspector of schools after she publicly contradicted him over the watchdog’s powers to inspect academy chains. As Sally Weale reports, Morgan came under fire over the government’s academies and free schools programme when she appeared before the House of Commons education select committee. She refused to back down from a direct clash with Sir Michael Wilshaw’s position, leaving baffled committee members to choose who to believe.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Here’s a Rochester and Strood byelection round-up.
- Mark Reckless, the Ukip candidate, has said he is attracting support from Labour voters who want to use the byelection to undermine David Cameron. Reckless made the claim in an interview in today’s Financial Times (subscription.)
To win, Mr Reckless is believed to need more than three in five Conservative voters who backed him last time to switch. It is, says [Rob Ford, an academic], a difficult task. Mr Reckless admits he would be lucky to get to close to half.
But the former MP says he does not need all the Tories to back him, and insists he is picking up votes from Labour supporters who want to give the prime minister a bloody nose.
“You’re not allowing for the very significant number of people who are coming over to me from Labour,” he says, now working his way through a club sandwich.
“The last two front pagers in the local newspaper – the Medway Messenger – have emphasised if I win here, Cameron can expect a leadership challenge and the opportunity for Labour voters to possibly bring down Cameron by voting for me as the Ukip candidate is attracting a lot of support.”
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Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, has been campaigning for the Conservatives (both of them - the party still hasn’t announced the result of the all-postal primary that will decide who becomes the candidate).
2 superb primary candidates @anna_firth & @KellyTolhurst. Only @Conservatives have #longtermplan 4 #rochester&strood pic.twitter.com/vgXuMiBsHZ
— Sajid Javid MP (@sajidjavid) October 22, 2014
Updated
Lib Dem hereditary peer gets elected to the Lords
It’s not true to say the Lib Dems are doomed electorally. They just won a byelection, and got another representative in parliament.
It was in the House of Lords where, following the death of one of the hereditary peers allowed to stay under a bizarre deal struck when most hereditary peers were thrown out in 1999, an election has been held to chose a new hereditary peers. All members of the Lords were allowed to vote, and 15 hereditary peers who are not members of the Lords were candidates.
(It is a very, very odd system. It is as if, when an MP died, members of the House of Commons chose his or her successor.)
The winner was the Earl of Oxford & Asquith, a descendent of the Liberal prime minister, Herbert Asquith.
The earl was one of only two Lib Dems amongst the 15 candidates. But, because people were voting for someone to replace a Liberal Democrat, peers were expected to vote for a Lib Dem under an unofficial Lord convention (the Carter convention). So, in effect, it was a two-horse race between the earl and Lord Kennet (the other Lib Dem candidate).
Lord Wallace, the Lib Dem leader in the Lords issued this comment.
The system is far from perfect, but on this occasion it has meant the welcome addition to our ranks of the Earl of Oxford & Asquith, whose knowledge and expertise will be of great benefit to our group and to the House as a whole.
UPDATE AT 4.30PM: A Lords source tell me that in fact it wasn’t a two-horse race because some peers ignored the Carter convention. The Earl of Oxford won 155 votes. Lord Napier (designated a crossbencher) came second, with 35 votes, the Earl of Stockton, a Conservative, came third with 31 votes and Lord Kennet, the other Lib Dem, was fourth, with 29 votes.
Updated
Here’s an afternoon reading list.
Say what you like about the Tory party, they are currently swinging for the stands like Babe Ruth on steroids.
Immigration, human rights, apprenticeships, tens of billions in unfunded tax cuts and unspecified spending cuts. There’s one simple message for the electorate: if you like it, have billions; if you don’t like it, we’ll scrap it.
Yes, it’s all borne of desperation that the game is on the line and they might never get to the playoffs again, and yes, it’s almost all totally undeliverable. But at least there’s no doubting their intent ...
Labour itself, by contrast, is in a strange limbo.
It’s realised now that the win-by-default strategy – hoping that 35 per cent of the voting public will equate their hatred of the coalition with a vote for Labour – is a very risky one indeed.
But they’re certainly not swinging as freely as the Tories, partly because – fairly or unfairly – the strike zone is being set far wider for them in terms of whether their commitments are credible, deliverable and affordable.
And that has to change.
Ed Miliband must not lose the game next year wondering what would have happened if Labour had been a bit more bold and aggressive.
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Alastair Campbell interviews Chuka Umunna for GQ. Umunna describes how he became drawn to politics.
I had an epiphany moment, at a sixth-form conference where Norman Lamont was speaking. I hadn’t planned it, I just got so angry. He was telling us we should vote Tory because they had done so many wonderful things, I got called and I said, “Why should we vote for you when you said you would cut VAT and you put it up, and you are handcuffing female prisoners to beds while they give birth?” I was shaking, but the mistake he made was instead of saying, “I understand where you are coming from,” he patronised me and said, “Have you quite finished yet?” and everyone started booing and hissing. And I thought, Jesus, I have just taken on the man who used to run the British economy, I am some 17-year-old kid and maybe I could do this in the future. It was a real moment for me.
The Liberal Democrats are losing confidence in Fiona Woolf as chair of the child abuse inquiry, the Evening Standard reports. Tim Farron, the Lib Dem president, said she was someone “whose independence can be seriously questioned”.
Universal credit claimants more likely to fall behind with bills, report says
Generally its conclusions are positive, but researchers have at the TUC have spotted that it also includes a chart showing people on universal credit are more likely to be falling behind with paying their bills than people on jobseeker’s allowance.
Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, says this is worrying.
It’s very worrying that the universal credit pilots are putting claimants at greater risk of falling behind with their bills.
One of the big problems with universal uredit is that new claimants have to wait at least six weeks before they receive any cash support, however long they have worked or however much they have contributed. The six-week wait puts people who lose their job, or become disabled, at immediate risk of getting trapped in a debt spiral.
And it’s going to get worse as the government is now consulting on a proposal to make some people wait up to six months before they get any cash support.
The report itself also say some “very positive” findings have emerged from the pilot. It lists them here:
- The online claim process was well used (with over 90% claiming online), generally straightforward and working well.
- A large majority of claimants were positive about their initial UC interview and the ongoing review process, in terms of the explanations they received and the advice and support they were offered, and felt that staff had the necessary skills and knowledge.
- UC claimants who had previously claimed JSA generally compared UC favourably to JSA.
- Around three quarters of claimants were confident in their ability to budget the monthly payment.
- The vast majority of UC claimants reported being clear about what they needed to do to receive UC, and in what circumstances their benefit may be stopped.
- UC claimants were more likely to think the benefit system is effective at encouraging people back to work, and increasingly likely to have a positive outlook on the availability of jobs in their area.
- There was a consistent and significant difference in the hours UC claimants reported spending searching for work: nearly twice as many hours as JSA claimants. There is some early evidence of more positive employment outcomes for UC claimants, and further impact analysis will determine more robust estimates.
Conservative MEPs split three ways over European Commission vote
This morning the European parliament voted in Jean-Claude Juncker and the new European commission.
Officially Conservative MEPs were meant to abstain.
But in fact, as the Labour party points out, the Conservative group split three ways. Nine of them followed the whip and abstained (David Campbell Bannerman, Ian Duncan, Vicky Ford, Jacqui Foster, Ashley Fox, Syed Kamall, Charles Tannock, Geoffrey Van Orden, and Andrew Lewer), three of them voted against (Nirj Deva, Daniel Hannan and Emma McClarkin) and six voted in favour (Richard Ashworth, Julie Girling, Sajjad Karim, Timothy Kirkhope, Anthea McIntyre and Kay Swinburne).
Pat McFadden, Labour’s new shadow Europe minister, has put out a statement saying this shows Cameron has lost control of his MEPs.
Today Tory MEP’s ignored David Cameron’s pleas and voted against his own choice of candidate for the UK’s Commissioner.
We know that David Cameron can’t control his own backbenchers in Westminster on Europe, and now it seems he’s lost control of his MEPs in Brussels too.
It is in Britain’s interests to have the British nominated Commissioner in charge of the financial services brief, but many Conservative MEPs have just voted against this.
The appointment of a new European Commission represents an important opportunity for reform in Europe which must be seized by the Prime Minister, and not squandered.
But at the very time when Britain should be leading the debate on reform, the Conservatives are instead relegating themselves to the fringes in Brussels, undermining both their impact and Britain’s influence as a result.
Lunchtime summary
- David Cameron has defended the government’s record over deporting foreign prisoners and insisted he takes full responsibility following the publication of a National Audit Office report criticising the government’s record. (See 1.16pm.) Earlier the father of a 12-year-old girl who died after a hit-and-run collision with an Iraqi motorist who had previous convictions said politicians “have blood on their hands” for failing to keep track of foreign offenders.
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Cameron has challenged Labour to allow the OECD to investigate the NHS in Wales. He raised the point at PMQs after Ed Miliband challenged him to explain why leading health organisations said the health and social care system in England was at breaking point. Cameron defended the government’s general record on the NHS, but did not engage with Miliband’s specific point and instead attacked Labour’s record on health in Wales. Miliband replied:
The whole country will have noticed you could not defend what is happening in the English National Health Service for which you are responsible. Why? Because four years ago you told us your top-down reorganisation would improve the NHS but now we know it is 3 billion down the drain. Will you now admit in public what you are saying in private? Your top-down reorganisation has been a total disaster for the NHS.
Cameron replied:
I want a comparison between the Labour NHS in Wales being cut, no targets met on cancer since 2008, on A&E since 2008. I want a comparison. I will allow the OECD to come in and look at the English health service. Let me ask you again: will you let it look at the failures in Wales?
Later a Labour source said that Labour was willing for the OECD to carry out a review of the health service’s record in Wales, on condition that Conservatives did not try to use unverified early information from any study for political reasons, and that cuts in spending on health in Wales were caused by a 10% reduction in central government block grant to Cardiff.
- Cameron has praised a report from the RSA thinktank saying allowing cities to set their own tax, immigration and planning policies alongside “devo max” for Scotland could boost UK productivity by 5%.
- Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has said that universal credit, the government scheme to integrate in- and out-of-work tax credits, will generate £7bn in economic benefits annually, largely due to up to an additional 300,000 households finding work once the programme is fully implemented. As Patrick Wintour reports, the claim was made as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed that millions of existing benefit claimants would not be transferred to universal credit by the end of 2017, or even 2018. Duncan Smith said: “It is wrong to gather people up and dump them into a new system at an arbitrary date.” Paul Mason has more on this on his Channel 4 News blog.
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An Ipsos MORI poll has found support for Britain staying in the EU at its highest level since 1991. This is from the Ipsos MORI news release.
New polling from Ipsos MORI shows the majority of Britons would vote to stay in the European Union in a referendum, indicating the highest support for British membership since 1991, before the signing of the Maastricht Treaty which officially renamed the ‘European Community’ the ‘European Union’. Some 56% would vote to stay in the European Union, compared with 36% who would vote to get out; eight percent answer that they do not know how they would vote. This translates to 61% support for Britain’s EU membership and 39% opposing after excluding ‘don’t knows’. This is the highest support since December 1991, when 60% said they would vote to stay in the European Community and 29% wanted to get out.
At PMQs Labour’s Steve Reed asked David Cameron where the buck stopped in relation to the problems with foreign offenders highlighted by the NAO report. Cameron gave a clear reply.
The buck absolutely stops with me, I’m very clear about that. I think the National Audit Office has actually produced a very good report into what is a difficult issue that we need to get right.
We have deported 22,000 foreign national offenders since I’ve become prime minister. The report is very clear than since 2013, for the first time, we’ve got a proper cross-government strategy to deal with this. But it also goes into quite a lot of detail about how there are still too many obstacles in the way in terms of human rights legislation, that we need to change.
What you’ve seen from the government this week is that we’re now able to deport people first and they can appeal once they’ve gone back to their country of origin. And we’re reducing the number of appeal routes from 17 routes, which were there under Labour, to just four. So we’re making progress, the buck stops with me, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of cross-party support for the actions we need to take.
May says nobody will listen to Labour until it apologises for its record on immigration.
The urgent question is now over. I’ll post a summary soon.
Updated
Andrew Percy, a Conservative, says free movement of labour rules should be “completely torn up”.
May says Percy is “absolutely right” to say the issue of free movement of people is one that needs to be addressed.
Peter Bone, a Conservative, says the government should just deport people and worry about the European court of human rights afterwards.
May says the Immigration Act does allow people to be deported in some circumstances before they appeal.
May says some of the foreign prisoner deportation cases go back to the Labour era.
Bob Stewart, a Conservative, says he thinks, when a foreign criminal approaches an immigration desk, something flashes up saying he’s a criminal. Have the Border Force staff got new powers to stop people.
May says the Border Force does have the power to stop people.
Paul Flynn, a Labour MP, says more than a third of failures to deport are a result of failures in May’s department. When will she stop blaming Labour and take responsibility.
May says the report says over the last two years deportations have increased, largely due to action being taken by the Home Office.
William McCrea, the DUP MP, says when he goes to a restaurant, they know exactly where the cow that produced the steak came from. The same tracing procedure should be possible for offenders, he suggests.
Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general, says the Immigration Act should make a real difference to the number of appeals. Will May publish information about this? He also says the Tory manifesto pledge (to scrap the Human Rights Act) will be “singularly ineffective” in terms of doing what people expect it to do (ie, making the deportation of foreigners easier).
May says the party has come forward proposals to improve its relationship with the European court of human rights.
Angie Bray, Conservative MP for Ealing Central and Acton, says many of her constituents were shocked to realise they were living next to a Latvian builder who was a convicted murderer (Arnis Zalkalns, the suspected killer of Alice Gross). What will be done to stop people like this coming to the UK?
May says the government is taking action to ensure better records are available at the borders.
Labour’s Jack Straw says the Conservatives support the Human Rights Act at third reading when Labour introduced it. How does May explain the fact that the number of prisoners being deported has gone down?
May says there has been a 28% increase in the number of appeals. That has changed the number of people being deported.
But now the appeal rules have been changed. That will have a big impact, she says.
Bill Cash, a Conservative, asks May to acknowledge that the EU’s charter of fundamental human rights is a problem.
May says the government’s position on the charter has not changed.
May & Cooper infinitely more icy and interesting than #PMQs ...
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 22, 2014
May is replying to Cooper.
She says that was a staggering response from a party still debating whether it needs to accept it made mistakes over immigration.
Under Labour, the government has a plan and it is working.
Some 22,000 foreign offenders have been removed from 2010.
The speed at which people are being deported is improving.
This government is the first to adopt a foreign nationals strategy, she says.
The government’s changes to deportation appeals are the most significant since 1971, she says.
Human rights legislation passed by Labour is having an impact. Only the Conservatives want to scrap that.
Under Labour there was no mechanism to trace absconders. There is now a team for that, she says.
If Cooper wants to take on the government over immigration, she should look at Labour’s record. It opened the floodgates, sent out search parties and passed the Human Rights Act. It still won’t say if immigration is too high.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, is responding to May now.
Fewer foreign criminals are being deported than in 2010, she says.
The NAO found that over a third of failed removals were due to factors under the control of the Home Office. These included failures to book plane tickets.
More foreign prisoners have disappeared too.
Why are so few staff working on these cases?
The warnings index has not been modernised.
And we are one of only four countries that has not opted in to the Schengen information sharing system.
The tough talk is not enough. When will May put up a real fight?
Updated
Theresa May is responding to the urgent question.
She is grateful to the NAO for its report, she says.
This government is tackling the problems of the past. The Home Office did not prioritise this issue until 2005.
The main problems are the legal barriers. The appeals cost money and are an affront to justice. The Immigration Act has addressed this. The number of appeal routes has been cut from 17 to 4.
Criminals have been stopped form using family life arguments to stop deportation.
Those with an appeal right will only be able to appeal once.
Operation Nexus has removed 2,500 foreign nationals over two years.
The Immigration Act is delivering an immigration system that is fair to the people of this country, but tough on those that flout the law.
Urgent question on foreign prisoners
We are now getting an urgent question on foreign prisoners.
Here is some background reading.
Cameron says Britain is doing more than any other country, apart from the US, to tackle Ebola.
Peter Bone, a Conservative, asks Cameron what can be done to cut EU migration.
Cameron says the government has taken big steps forward. Bogus colleges have been shut, and benefit rules changed. But more can be done, he says. The British public are not being unreasonable. Labour said they wanted to send out search parties to find immigrants.
He concludes saying MPs will want to congratulate the former Commons clerk, Sir Robert Rogers, on his peerage.
This is a dig at John Bercow, the Speaker, who had a fraught relationship with Rogers. There is lots of cheering.
David Anderson, the Labour MP, asks Cameron to release the papers relating to those jailed during the national builders’ strike in 1972.
Cameron says he will look at this.
Julian Huppert, a Lib Dem, asks Cameron to welcome the fact an NHS bidder won a Cambridgeshire NHS contract.
Cameron says under this government the NHS is being properly run by clinicians.
Steve Reed, the Labour MP, asks who is to blame for the failure to deport foreign criminals.
Cameron says the buck stops with him. The NAO report is very good, he says. Since 2013 there has been a proper government strategy to deal with this, the report says. But there are still too many human rights obstacles in the way.
There has been some drama in the public gallery.
Angry bloke chucked something against glass security screen in public gallery before being bundled out #pmqs
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) October 22, 2014
Commotion in the public gallery as a man is dragged out, apparently shouting (can't hear due to security screen). #PMQs
— Craig Woodhouse (@craigawoodhouse) October 22, 2014
Cameron says Chuka Umunna recently did not know where Worcester was. He needs to get in touch with Worcester woman, he says.
Labour’s Stella Creasy asks about the murder of a constituent in Greece. Why has the government sent police to Thailand, but not to Greece in this case.
Cameron says he thinks the family involved did get funding to cover legal help in Greece.
In relation to the Thai case, it was right to offer the government British assistance in terms of looking at the technical evidence.
He says he will meet Creasy to see if he can do more.
John Baron, a Conservative, asks what the government can do to help the relatives of nuclear test victims. One third of their children have been born with problems, he says.
Cameron says the government has done more to recognise this problem than other governments.
Labour’s Nic Dakin asks Cameron to rule out any more VAT increases while he is in post.
Cameron says his plans do not involve more tax rises. He wants to cut taxes. The people who will want to put up taxes are those that want to increase spending, the Labour party.
Gareth Johnson, a Conservative, says there was recently a jobs fair in Dartford with more jobs on offer than people looking for them.
Johnson praises Bluewater for organising the event.
Cameron praises Jim O’Neill’s RSA report on regional devolution. He will be meeting O’Neill later today. There is a real opportunity to create a northern powerhouse, he says.
Labour’s Jamie Reed says he has a 10-year-old constituent who said Cameron did not answer his question about a local hospital. Is every maternity unit in England now under review?
Cameron says he wants to see district general hospitals with maternity unit. The amount of money going to the NHS in England is going up.
Henry Smith, a Conservative, asks Cameron to confirm that high-quality manufacturing is on the rise.
Cameron agrees.
Labour’s Chris Evans asks what Cameron is going to do to stop elderly people being scammed on the internet.
Cameron says the National Crime Agency is able to look at this.
The SNP’s Angus MacNeil asks Cameron to confirm that full fiscal autonomy is on the table for Scotland.
Cameron says he will keep the promises he made. But he hopes the SNP will keep to it promise to accept the referendum settles this matter for a lifetime. He is not sure Alex Salmond is doing this.
Andrew Percy, a Conservative, asks about flood defences on the Humber.
Cameron says he will look carefully at Percy’s proposals.
Labour’s Kelvin Hopkins asks about foetal alcohol syndrome warnings.
Cameron says this is a growing problem. He is happy to listen to Hopkins’s suggestions.
Cameron says the government is on track to meet its apprenticeship targets. The Conservatives want to create 3m in the next parliament.
My snap PMQs verdict
Snap PMQs Verdict: A comfortable win for Miliband; Cameron’s OECD counter-attack didn’t quite work because he was so evasive on the substantive points Miliband raised.
Miliband says Cameron cannot give a masterclass on leadership. He is changing his policy on the EU all the week. Why won’t Lynton Crosby let Cameron back a levy on tobacco firms to fund one-week cancer tests.
Cameron quotes an NHS body criticising Labour’s plans. Miliband flunked his big decision this week - sacking Ed Balls.
Miliband says Cameron is failing on the deficit. You cannot trust the Tories on the NHS.
Cameron says Labour offers failure and weakness. Miliband is “simply not up to the job”.
Miliband says Cameron is supposed to answer the questions. Cameron could not defend the NHS. Why? Because he told us his top-down reorganisation would save money. It has cost £3bn. Will say what he is saying in private, that it has been a disaster.
Cameron says he can defend his record. But he wants a comparison. So will Miliband let the OECD look at the failures in Wales.
Miliband says Cameron has not attempted to answer the question. Instead of smearing the NHS in Wales, he should be saving it in England. Labour are offering £2.5bn more money.
Cameron says Miliband is terrified of defending Labour’s record in Wales. He says Simon Stevens, the former Labour adviser who now runs the NHS, has said the NHS is doing well and has become more efficient. It is the highest performing health system of 11 international systems he says. He quotes an unnamed Labour figure saying the party has a massive Ed Miliband problem.
Ed Miliband says leading health organisations warned last week that health and social care services were at breaking point. Why?
Cameron says Miliband did not answer the Welsh question. In England there are 1.3m more outpatients, 6m more outpatient appointments, and 2,500 more nurses.
Miliband says Cameron cannot answer the question. The NHS in England is going backwards.
Cameron says he favours an OECD inquiry. Does Miliband?
Andrew Griffiths, a Conservative, asks about the NHS in Wales. Should there be a full inquiry and an apology from Labour?
Cameron says in the NHS in Wales doctors and nurses are working round the clock to deliver good care, but they have been let down by the Welsh assembly. Labour MPs have called for an inquiry. The OECD want to do a study. Cameron says he supports that. Does Miliband?
PMQs is staring early.
Cameron at PMQs
Here are some PMQs predictions.
Expect Miliband will lead on Fiona Woolf at PMQs but stop short of calling for her to resign.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) October 22, 2014
Expecting to hear a lot about ballooning borrowing figures at #pmqs ....
— Rob Merrick (@Rob_Merrick) October 22, 2014
But Number 10 is still backing Fiona Woolf.
No 10 says Cameron believes it is 'very important' for child sex abuse inquiry to hv confidence of victims - but backs Fiona Woolf as chair
— Jason Groves (@JasonGroves1) October 22, 2014
Labour's Caroline Flint says Fiona Woolf should resign as child abuse inquiry chair
Labour is stepping up the pressure on Fiona Woolf to step down as chair of the child abuse inquiry. On the Daily Politics, Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary, has just said:
I think it’s really difficult for her to stay.
Flint also said the concerns expressed my victims meant that it was no longer viable for Woolf to stay as inquiry chair.
After PMQs we’re getting an urgent question on the NAO report into foreign prisoners.
UQ granted to @YvetteCooperMP at 12.30 to ask the Home Secretary about the absconding of foreign criminals
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) October 22, 2014
It is not clear yet whether Theresa May will be replying to Yvette Cooper, or a junior Home Office minister.
Whoever it is, I’ll be covering the UQ in detail.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today’s paper, are here.
As for the rest of the papers, here’s the PoliticsHome list of top ten must-reads, and here’s the ConservativeHome round-up of the political stories in today’s papers.
I’ve already mentioned some articles in today’s papers. Here are two more I found interesting.
Freedom of movement across the EU must be made easier, the incoming president of the European Commission has demanded.
In a blow to David Cameron’s hopes of curbing EU migration, Jean-Claude Juncker, whose appointment was fiercely opposed by No 10, has told one of his new commissioners to “promote freedom of movement”.
The command came in Mr Juncker’s “mission letter” to Marianne Thyssen, who takes over as the EU’s new commissioner for labour mobility.
Mr Cameron has made curbing EU migration the centrepiece of his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Brussels. In his speech to the Tory conference, he said that immigration would be at the heart of the talks and that he would not take no for an answer.
However, in a letter sent last month, Mr Juncker told Ms Thyssen, a Belgian MEP, that she should be “improving the conditions for geographic and professional mobility across Europe”. He cited the EU-wide job exchange website EURES. In a newspaper article in July, Mr Cameron singled out the website, which advertises vacancies across the EU, for fuelling migration.
Mr Osborne’s claim that he will balance the books in the next parliament without any new tax rises and that he would then deliver a £7.2bn income tax cut were rejected by the minister charged with controlling public spending.
Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat Treasury chief secretary, said: “These numbers reinforce the point that money is tight and will be so for many years as we build our way to full recovery.
“The public will judge harshly parties that do not take seriously the control of the public finances or that make large-scale unfunded commitments to cut taxes. Neither is economically credible.”
Yesterday Mike Read was defending his Ukip Calypso as “a bit of fun”. This is what he told BBC London radio.
I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I work across all cultures and creeds, I travel the world. It was just meant to be a bit of fun.
People are very very very quick to take offence now at something that years ago would have been deemed to be a bit of satire and a bit of fun. But now with social media everybody can assume that you meant something appalling by it, which of course I didn’t. I’ve got so many chums out in the Caribbean. I’ve spent a lot of time out there.”
I was terribly hurt that people thought that, because I just think ‘well it’s a bit of fun’. You can’t do it in a Surrey accent, can you?
My colleague Claire Phipps has discovered who’s to blame for making Mike Read withdraw his Ukip Calypso. It’s the PC Brigade, according to Twitter.
Still, we all know who's *really* to blame for Mike Read scrapping #ukipcalypso, don't we? #PCbrigade pic.twitter.com/Q5hoespgvh
— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) October 22, 2014
Jake Yapp’s YouTube response to Mike Read is fun.
Jake Yapp’s YouTube response to Mike Read is fun.
Updated
And here’s some Twitter comment on Mike Read.
From Labour MP Diane Abbott
DJ Mike Read withdraws UKIP Calypso song. Thank goodness. Completely puerile http://t.co/Td2GwH1ALN
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) October 22, 2014
From the comedian Al Murray
Mike Read's hapless one day run of his Wilde musical took some beating but he's done it somehow.
— Al Murray (@almurray) October 22, 2014
From the Times columnist Hugo Rifkind
Unless Mike Read delivers his apology in the accent of Topol from Fiddler On The Roof or Apu off The Simpsons, I for one am not interested.
— Hugo Rifkind (@hugorifkind) October 22, 2014
From the Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley
Mike Read has pulled his Calypso song. Which means it ran for about three times as long as his Oscar Wilde musical.
— Tim Stanley (@timothy_stanley) October 22, 2014
From ConservativeHome’s Mark Wallace
Er, Mike Read's u-turned on his calypso? No staying power, some people.
— Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) October 22, 2014
Here’s more from the Press Association on Mike Read’s decision to apologise for his Ukip Calypso and withdraw it from sale.
The song, which includes the line “when we take charge and the new prime minister is Farage”, also criticised the prime minister.
Read, a former Conservative supporter, used the song to warn his listeners against trusting David Cameron, singing: “The British people have been let down, that’s why Ukip is making ground. From Crewe to Cleethorpes, from Hull to Hendon, they don’t believe Cameron’s referendum.”
Read, who hosts an afternoon show on BBC Berkshire, spent more than a decade at Radio 1.
He hit the headlines in 1984 when he refused to play the Frankie Goes To Hollywood single Relax because he objected to its lyrics.
Read has also turned his hand to musicals, but his show about the life of writer Oscar Wilde closed after one night after dreadful reviews and poor ticket sales.
The track was promoted by Nigel Farage when it was released, with the politician urging his followers to help get it to number one and including a link to buy the song on Amazon.
Not all the reviewers were complimentary, with one Amazon customer writing: “My God, the musical equivalent of the Ebola virus. Anyway, isn’t calypso music a bit foreign for Ukip?”
Another said: “Pretty sick with faux Jamaican accent.”
The track did have some fans, with one listener saying: “Brilliant and so true! Love Ukip.”
Mike Read’s apology came after Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, criticised his Calypso in an LBC phone-in. Here’s an extract from a Telegraph story about his comments.
In one of the most outspoken attacks on Ukip by a Labour frontbencher, Mr Umunna said a Calypso song released by Ukip, sung in a faux-Caribbean accent, was “distasteful”, adding: “A lot of people have said they think it’s racist. I don’t know whether his intention was to be racist.”
Umunna was far more critical of Ukip’s decision to enter an alliance in the European parliament with the far-right Polish party, the Congress of the New Right. That was “absolutely vile” and “abhorrent”, he said.
He also said he was very worried that racist comments by Ukip supporters were not generating more of a controversy.
[Ukip] are asking people to give them the benefit of the doubt when a stream of Ukip candidates and supporters have come out with the most offensive and racist things over the months.”
What really worries me about this is there is not more of a row about the things we see coming out of Ukip. It’s almost as if people price this in.
They are now arguably one of the main parties, and a lot of this stuff is vile, is absolutely vile, and it’s not in keeping with our British values of respect, tolerance and fair play.
Updated
Here’s an extract.
The lyric, which dwells on such Faragean staples as illegal immigration and insanely meddlesome Eurocrats, is pitiful (though credit him for trying to rhyme “referendum” with “outer Hendon”). The guitar playing is bad, the singing worse, and the accent worst. Whether he was aiming at Jamaica or calypso’s birthplace of Trinidad is unclear. Not since Richard Madeley’s Ali G has a white, middle-class Englishman vocally missed as vast a target as the entire Caribbean by such a margin.
Immediately, the Ukip Calypso drew the familiar accusation of racism – not primarily for such references as “illegal immigrants in every town”, but because it is a West Indian musical form. On any day, this familiar racism debate would have missed the point. Coming a few minutes before a black South African judge passed sentence on an Afrikaner who would once have been her master, the discussion on yesterday’s Today programme sounded especially ridiculous.
There is nothing remotely racist about the choice of calypso for this cheery whine of imagined victimhood. Whether it was consciously selected for this purpose or not, the genius of plumping for calypso is its evocation of the falsely remembered age of innocence which, far more than racism or Europhobia, is at the heart of Ukip’s appeal.
To hear that lilting singing style – even from Ready’s murderous larynx – is to be transported back to the early 1950s, before the first Notting Hill race riots. It brings to mind “Cricket, Lovely Cricket”, the sweet calypso about the joy of seeing the Windies Test match victory at Lords in 1950 “With those two little pals of mine / Ramadhin and Valentine.” Calypso, in other words, speaks directly to the Ukip voter’s inner child, who dreams of time travelling to that other country that is the past, when maidens cycled to vespers, John Betjeman (the source of another calamitous Ready musical) sneered at suburban pretensions, and everything in Pop Larkin’s sun-dappled bucolic paradise was perfick.
And here is the offending song.
Here’s the full quote from Mike Read.
I’m so sorry that the song unintentionally caused offence. That was never my intention and I apologise unreservedly if anyone has taken offence. I’ve asked the record company to withdraw the single immediately.
Mike Read apologises for Ukip Calypso
The former Radio 1 DJ has apologised for “unintentionally causing offence” with his Ukip calypso.
The Press Association has just snapped this.
Former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read today apologised for “unintentionally causing offence” with his Ukip Calypso, sung with a mock Caribbean accent, adding that he has asked his record company to withdraw the song from sale.
In a Commons committee MPs are debating the affordable homes bill, a private member’s bill introduced by the Lib Dem MP Andrew George that would exempt people from the bedroom tax if they are unable to move to a smaller property. The bill got a second reading because Labour and Lib Dem MPs united to vote it through, in the face of opposition from the Conservatives.
But the committee hearing (where a small number of MPs submit the bill to line-by-line scrutiny) doesn’t seem to be getting off to a good start.
This is from Labour’s Chris Bryant.
Tories doing lots of vexatious points of order merely to delay consideration of the affordable homes bill. #bedroomtax
— Chris Bryant (@ChrisBryantMP) October 22, 2014
Tory high command is here in the shape of @GregHands Clearly they hate the idea of ending the #bedroomtax
— Chris Bryant (@ChrisBryantMP) October 22, 2014
Greg Hands is the deputy chief whip.
This is from Labour’s Grahame Morris.
1st Session of @AndrewGeorgeLD Affordable Homes Bill and series of time wasting points of order by filibustering Tory members of committee
— Grahame Morris MP (@grahamemorris) October 22, 2014
Tory Taliban MPs clearly livid at attempts to remove disabled people from #Bedroomtax and trying to 'talk out' the Affordable Homes Bill
— Grahame Morris MP (@grahamemorris) October 22, 2014
This is from the Green MP Caroline Lucas.
8 spurious points of order in 10 mins - outrageous Tory filibuster in Affordable Homes Bill Ctte trying to stop us arguing agt #bedroomtax
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) October 22, 2014
Here’s more on the row about Fiona Woolf.
Sharon Evans, a member of the inquiry panel, chief executive of the Dot Com Children’s Foundation and a sexual abuse survivor, told that programme that she was confident that the inquiry could do a good job.
We have Graham Wilmer, who is another victim ... We have representatives of HMIC [HM Inspectorate of Constabulary], we have a family law barrister who’s been in care himself. I think there’s been so much focus on Fiona Woolf, which I understand, but she is just the head of the panel. There are nine people in total, with an enormous background and expertise in this.
I would like people to be reassured that there are victims on this panel and we are determined to get to the bottom of this. One of the things that Graham and I hope is that the fact we are here and we are part of this will give people confidence. We do want to listen.
But Phil Frampton, another abuse survivor, told the programme that Woolf should resign.
I am absolutely appalled at Fiona Woolf’s appointment. It’s like putting Wayne Rooney in charge of an investigation of the nuclear energy industry.
And the Lib Dem MP John Hemming has also said she should go.
MP John Hemming tells me Fiona Woolf should stand down from abuse enquiry, she's "clearly a fully fledged member of the establishment"
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) October 22, 2014
The BBC’s Robin Brant says a legal challenge has been launched against Fiona Woolf’s appointment as chair of the child abuse inquiry.
STORY: a legal challenge has been launched to the appointment of fiona woolf as the chair of the child sexual abuse inquiry.
— Robin Brant (@robindbrant) October 22, 2014
For the record, here are today’s YouGov GB polling figures.
Labour: 33% (no change from YouGov yesterday)
Conservatives: 32% (up 1)
Ukip: 16% (up 1)
Lib Dems: 8% (up 1)
Government approval: -23 (down 1)
Labour lead: 1 point (down 1)
According to Electoral Calculus, this would give Labour a majority of 6.
The Home Office is under fire on two fronts this morning. There is still considerable controversy about Theresa May’s decision to appoint Fiona Woolf, a lawyer and the Lord Mayor of London, to head the child abuse inquiry. On the Today programme Alison Millar, a solicitor representing abuse victims, said Woolf should step down because of the evidence about her attending five dinner parties with Lord Brittan, the former home secretary whose handling of abuse inquiries in the 1980s will be considered by the inquiry. Millar told the Today programme this morning:
This is not about Fiona Woolf’s ability or her integrity. This is about her independence and her ability to lead this inquiry in a way that is credible to the survivors of abuse whom I represent. Somebody who seems to be on dinner party terms with a senior political figure whose knowledge this inquiry will be scrutinising is somebody who from the perspective of my clients does not have the necessary independence .... This evidence of dinner parties with Lord Brittan really puts her beyond the pale in terms of her credibility with my clients.
The Home Office is also having to respond to a National Audit Office report saying one in six foreign offenders living in the community have absconded, including 58 dangerous individuals who have been missing since 2010. On Sky News this morning James Brokenshire, the Home Office minister, said this was an “absolute priority” for the government.
There is absolute focus within government on dealing with this issue of foreign national offenders, on seeing that we have seen changes. For example, under the Immigration Act we are cutting down on the bureaucracy that stops it.
I’ll cover further developments on these stories as the day goes on.
Here’s the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, gives evidence to the Commons education committee on academies and free schools.
9.50am: Nick Clegg gives a speech on bureaucracy in schools.
12pm: David Cameron and Ed Miliband face each other at PMQs.
1.15pm: Cameron meets Singapore’s president, Tony Tan Keng Yam, at Number 10.
2.15pm: Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.
2.30pm: Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer, gives evidence to the Commons health committee on Ebola.
As usual, I will be also covering all the breaking political news from Westminster, as well as bringing you the most interesting political comment and analysis from the web and from Twitter. I will post a summary at lunchtime, and another at the end of the day.
If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
