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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Christy Cooney (now); Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Tory MP says no massive need for food banks in UK and real problem is people’s cooking skills – as it happened

Michael Gove Mishal Husain

Summary

That’s all for our live coverage for today, but here’s a summary of all the day’s developments in case you missed them.

  • Conservative MP Lee Anderson was criticised after claiming the UK has no “massive use for food banks” and that people use them because they “cannot cook properly [or] budget”
  • Responding to the comments, Labour said: “Out of touch doesn’t even cover it”
  • A number of Tory MPs called on the prime minister to introduce tax cuts to help address the cost of living
  • Boris Johnson visited Finland and Sweden to sign mutual security agreements with both countries
  • At a press conference in Helsinki, he said the invasion of Ukraine would not be the end of Vladimir Putin’s “neo-imperialist ambitions” if he was not resisted
  • DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Robinson indicated his party may refuse to nominate a speaker for the Northern Ireland assembly until the government scraps the Northern Ireland protocol
  • The party had already said it would refuse to nominate a deputy first minister to the power-sharing executive at Stormont
  • Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove indicated the government was no longer committed to a manifesto target to build 300,000 homes a year
  • He also drew derision after affecting a series of strange voices to parody opponents during an interview with the BBC

Only 28% of Britons think Brexit is now “done”, new data from YouGov shows.

A poll conducted by the firm showed that only 20% of people who supported the Remain campaign agreed that Brexit was done, while 62% said it wasn’t. Among Leave voters, the equivalent figures were 40% and 46%.

It comes amid renewed tensions with the EU over threats by the UK government to unilaterally scrap the Northern Ireland protocol.

The prime minister is showing his backbenchers “more than a bit of ankle” on the prospect of introducing tax cuts soon, Conservative MP Jake Berry has said.

Berry represents Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire and also chairs the Northern Research Group, a group made up of MPs elected to northerly constituencies in 2019 and formed to pressure the government for greater investment in the north and the so-called “red wall”.

Speaking to Sky News, Berry said constituents were “feeling the pain” of the cost of living crisis, and that the Conservative party would have to “look after our people” if it wants to hold seats won in 2019.

“That is why we are working with the PM and other government ministers to find ways we can help alleviate some of these cost pressures,” he said.

Asked if that meant the government was considering introducing tax cuts soon, Berry said: “I think the prime minister is listening to colleagues, and he’s certainly beginning to show more than a little bit of ankle in this area.”

But he also added: “We want him to do more, we want him to act now. It’s kind of now or never for the prime minister on the cost of living question.”

Updated

More reaction now to those comments on food banks from Tory MP Lee Anderson, this time from Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress.

“Many people who use food banks are in work. These remarks are insulting and show how out of touch Conservative MPs and ministers are with the cost of living emergency,” O’Grady said.

“While the government sits on its hands, families across Britain are being pushed to the brink by soaring bills and prices.

“Rather than being condescending, Conservative politicians should be putting pressure on the chancellor to call an emergency budget.”

Tory MP Lee Anderson seen speaking in the House of Commons
Lee Anderson said cooking lessons and not food banks are what Britons need. Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Footage shows London mayor Sadiq Khan throwing the opening pitch at a baseball game at the San Fransisco Giants’ stadium.

It comes during a four-day trip to the US by the mayor to promote the UK capital to international investors and help support its recovery from the pandemic.

Inviting a guest of honour to throw the first pitch at a baseball game is a longstanding tradition in the US, with the country’s presidents going back to the late 19th century often taking part.

Khan threw the first pitch at a game between the hometown Giants and the Colorado Rockies at the Oracle Park stadium.

It follows the announcement that Major League Baseball will play regular-season games in London in 2023, 2024 and 2026 as part of a long-term strategic partnership.

Updated

Tory MP and chair of the Treasury select committee Mel Stride has said he expects the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to announce measures to help tackle the cost of living crisis “in a matter of weeks”.

Speaking to Times Radio, Stride said: “There is an absolute urgency to this. And there will be lots of thinking going on in the Treasury.

“And I suspect, the chancellor – whether we call it an emergency budget, or just a statement of the House, or whatever it’s dressed up as – I think the chancellor will be, I suspect, having more to say in a matter of weeks, or a month or so, rather than waiting right until the autumn of this year.”

Speaking last month, Sunak said it would be “silly” to announce more measures to help with energy bills before it was known how much prices would rise in the coming months, though pledged to look again at more support in the autumn.

Stride continued: “My bet, for what it’s worth, is that I think the pressure will be such that he will be appearing before the House well before the autumn, laying out various things. He might wait for some of the stuff around energy to see where that energy cap is going to be raised in the autumn. So he might leave that a little bit later.

“But I think in the meantime, I suspect there will be various things wheeled out not just by the chancellor, but other ministers as well, all of them focused on this burning issue of the cost of living challenge.”

Updated

Karen Buck MP, Labour’s shadow work and pensions minister, has responded to a claim by Conservative MP Lee Anderson that people use food banks because they “cannot cook properly [or] budget” (see the pinned post at the top of the blog for the clip).

Buck said: “In the world where people actually live we now hear daily stories of families going without food and others unable to turn their ovens on in fear of rising energy bills.

“The idea that the problem is cooking skills and not 12 years of government decisions that are pushing people into extreme poverty is beyond belief.

“Out of touch doesn’t even cover it.”

Updated

The UK’s three human rights commissions have expressed concern about plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA) and replace it with a British bill of rights, as announced in Tuesday’s Queen’s speech.

In evidence before parliament’s joint committee on human rights, senior figures from all three commissions (for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively) highlighted the achievements of the HRA and said there was no case for it to be replaced.

Alyson Kilpatrick, chief executive at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, said: “We would certainly want to see the Human Rights Act strengthened, not diminished.

“We don’t recognise the basis upon which these proposals have been put forward, certainly not in Northern Ireland, and we think it has paid scant regard, in fact, to the impact that has been seen in Northern Ireland of stronger human rights and protection. So we would be very concerned to see any weakening of the Human Rights Act by replacement or amended bill of rights.”

She said the HRA was central to the peace process and that the police in Northern Ireland had been “transformed beyond recognition” as a result of having to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights, which was given effect in UK law by the HRA.

Barbara Bolton, head of legal and policy at the Scottish Human Rights Commission, said: “The Scottish Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned about the proposals and the severe negative impact that those proposals would have on access to justice and access to a remedy for individuals across society and the potential that this would leave the UK in breach in particular, of Article 13 (right to remedy) of the European Convention (of Human Rights).”

She also said repealing the HRA had “potential for unsettling devolution” because it is embedded in the Scotland Act, which provides for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and administration.

Baroness Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (which covers England and Wales), said the HRA “has played and continues to play a vital role in strengthening the protection of human rights in the United Kingdom”.

She recognised that the government has specific concerns “but that doesn’t to us build a convincing case for an overall deep and substantive review of the act of this point”.

Updated

Boris Johnson has also commented on the cost of living crisis at the press conference in Helsinki. It was put to him by LBC’s Nick Ferrari that he was “very good at supporting Ukraine, but ... lamentably poor at supporting your own people”.

He responded: “What we’ve got to do right now is help people through the aftershocks of the Covid pandemic just as we helped people through Covid, and we will. Everybody knows how tough it can be right now, but we’re going to get through it.

“You know all the money we’re already spending. There will be more. Of course there will be more support in the months ahead as things continue to be tough with the increase in the energy prices.”

He then added: “But I just want to explain to people why it is so important that we stand strong against aggression in Ukraine at the same time.

“Because there is no doubt at all, looking at what Vladimir Putin has done, that if he were not to be resisted ... this would not be the end of his neo-imperialist, revanchist ambitions.

“And just imagine the consequences, not just military or political, but economic, of further Russian aggression against any of the other former parts of the Soviet Union. And it’s to prevent that further catastrophe that it’s so important that we are together strong now.”

Updated

A press conference held jointly by the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, is getting under way in Helsinki. The prime minister has visited both Sweden and Finland today to sign mutual security declarations with both countries.

Asked by a journalist from Svenska Yle whether the declaration would mean British boots on the ground on Finnish territory in the event of a conflict with Russia, he says: “Let me be clear, because I think the solemn declaration is itself clear.

“And what it says is that in the event of a disaster or in the event of an attack on either of us, then yes we will come to each other’s assistance, including with military assistance. But the nature of that assistance will of course depend upon the request of the other party.

“But it’s also intended to be the foundation of an intensification of our security and our defence relationship in other ways as well.”

• This segment was amended on 13 May 2022 because an earlier version incorrectly referred to Svenska Yle as Sweden’s public broadcaster.

Updated

Tory MP Lee Anderson accused of 'insulting' parents who rely on food banks

The Child Poverty Action Group has accused the Tory MP Lee Anderson of “insulting” people who rely on food banks in the Commons earlier. (See 3.21pm.) Alison Garnham, its chief executive, said:

Four million children are living in poverty in the UK, and it’s not because their parents can’t cook.

There are few households better at budgeting than those on a low income, they have to do it every single day.

Rather than insulting parents who have no option but to use foodbanks in the face of soaring costs and real terms income cuts, politicians would do better to back real-world solutions, like bringing benefits in line with inflation this autumn.

That is all from me for today. My colleague Christy Cooney is now taking over.

Updated

UK faces at least mild recession before inflation curbed, MPs told

The UK will probably have to go through a “mild recession” if not worse before inflation comes back to a more manageable level, top economists have warned MPs. PA Media reports:

London School of Economics professor Charles Goodhart said that wages and prices were feeding off each other to push up inflation, and this could not be weakened without the labour market weakening.

“The likelihood is that we’re going to have to have at the very least a mild recession and unemployment rising,” he told MPs on the Treasury select committee.

His comments were echoed by Adam Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“The sad reality is there is going to have to be an economic slowdown in the UK beyond what is already on the cards in order to get inflation sustainably back to target,” he said.

Posen said that the UK was facing problems that are more like those seen in the US, despite pursuing a more European approach to stimulating the economy during Brexit.

“To me this tells you that this is something idiosyncratic to the UK about how the same inflation shock of Covid reopening, of energy prices, of Ukraine, is being transmitted to the UK,” he said.

“I think a large part of this is Brexit, because what has happened is you don’t have the flexible labour supply of migrants coming from Europe, who can both add to the labour supply, but also go in and out of work as needed.”

Last week the Bank of England raised interest rates to 1%, the highest for 13 years, in a bid to combat soaring inflation.

It predicts that inflation could rise to above 10% later this year.

Boris Johnson has also restated the government’s intention to do more to help people with the cost of living, the Sun’s Kate Ferguson reports.

For some time now the government has been saying further help for people with the cost of living will come later this year. What is uncertain is when this might arrive (originally the plan was to wait until late summer for the next massive intervention, but the government is under pressure to bring that forward), and what form it will take (tax cuts, grants or welfare payments?).

In an interview with ITV, Boris Johnson was asked again whether he would resgin over Partygate, in the light of Keir Starmer’s announcement that he will resign if he is fined. Johnson ignored the question completely and just spoke about Ukraine, and the new security assurances.

Stephen Crabb, the former work and pensions secretary, has posted this on Twitter explaining why he thinks the government needs to do more to address the cost of living crisis.

Crabb is on the one nation, left of the Conservative party. David Davis is on the Thatcherite right. If both of them (see 2.41pm), are demanding some sort of significant, cost of living bailout, then there are probably few MPs in the party who aren’t.

Tories can no longer claim to be party of home ownership, says Lisa Nandy

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, says the Tories can no longer claim to be the party of home ownership. In a statement commenting on Michael Gove’s admission this morning that the Conservatives are no longer committed to the manifesto target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s (see 9.35am), she said:

Under the Conservatives housing has become less affordable, spending on rent has skyrocketed, and home ownership has gone down. All this puts more pressure on families facing a cost of living crisis.

The Conservatives can no longer claim to be the party of home ownership. We need a government that will take action now to help people who are struggling with rising bills and prices, and that will invest to give them the long-term security of owning their own home.

According to Labour, average house prices in England rose by 56% between 2010 and 2021, while average wages went up by just 20%. The party also says that in England there were 211,000 fewer working-age homeowners in 2020-21 than in 2009-10.

Lisa Nandy.
Lisa Nandy. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

A reader BTL (below the line) has been in touch to say that taking visiting dignitaries out in the rowing boat is a tradition for Swedish prime ministers when they have visitors at their country retreat.

Updated

Boris Johnson has entered the caption competition. (See 2.27pm.)

Johnson personally involved in decision to exempt grouse shooting from Covid rules, says Cummings

In the course of a Twitter exchange with Adam Wagner, the barrister and Covid regulations specialist, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, says Johnson was personally involved in the government’s decision in 2020 to exempt grouse shooting from Covid rules.

By “chief”, Cummings is referring to the chief whip – at the time Mark Spencer.

Updated

What UK has agreed with Sweden on mutual defence

Downing Street has now released the text of the mutal security agreement with Sweden. Here is the key paragraph saying what the two countries have agreed in terms of what each one will do if the other is attacked.

On the basis of solidarity, values and geographical proximity, the United Kingdom and Sweden will meet challenges in peace, crisis and conflict together. Should either country suffer a disaster or attack, the United Kingdom and Sweden will, upon request from the affected country assist each other in a variety of ways, which may include military means. Such an intensified cooperation will remain fully in line in with each country’s security and defence policy and is designed to complement not replace existing European and Euro-Atlantic cooperation.

The document also includes a paragraph in which both countries condemn attempts to “undermine cooperative fora and institutions” in Europe. It says:

In order to maintain the status and integrity of the European security order, the United Kingdom and Sweden are resolved to defend its principles, reject attempts to undermine or reshape it, and demand accountability for violations against it. Military aggression to change the borders of Europe must never be accepted. Likewise, attempts to challenge the norms, and undermine cooperative fora and institutions that constitute the foundation of European security must be firmly resisted.

This may come as a surprise to some because one of the most important “cooperative institutions” in Europe is the EU, and there is probably no leader in Europe who has done more to undermine it than Boris Johnson. Admittedly, it is not primarily a security institution, but it has a security aspect and in 2016 David Cameron argued that Brexit would undermine European security. Johnson disagreed, saying during the campaign that what mattered for security in Europe was Nato.

Tory MP Lee Anderson says no massive need for food banks in UK, and real problem people not being able to cook properly

In his contribution to the Queen’s speech debate the Conservative MP Lee Anderson said that a food bank in his Ashfield constituency operated a “brilliant scheme” whereby people accepting a donation had to register for a budgeting course and a cooking course. He went on:

We show them how to cook cheap and nutritious meals on a budget. We can make a meal for about 30p a day, and this is cooking from scratch.

When the Labour MP Alex Cunningham put it to Anderson that food banks should not be needed in 21st century Britain, Anderson agreed. He went on:

This is exactly my point. I’ll invite you personally to come to Ashfield, look at our food bank, how it works. And I’ll think you’ll see first hand that there’s not this massive use for food banks in this country. We’ve got generation after generation who cannot cook properly. They can’t cook a meal from scratch. They cannot budget. The challenge is there.

From the context, it is clear that when he said there was not a “massive use for food banks”, he meant no massive need for them.

Updated

Joe Biden is urging Boris Johnson not to abandon the Northern Ireland protocol, the Times reports. It says:

The White House made clear its opposition to the strategy in its first public comments since the Times revealed that ministers had given up on talks with Brussels and planned to introduce legislation scrapping large parts of the controversial protocol.

‘The best path forward is a pragmatic one that requires courage, co-operation and leadership,’ a spokeswoman for the White House said. ‘We urge the parties to continue engaging in dialogue to resolve differences and bring negotiations to a successful conclusion.’

Updated

The Conservative MP Lee Anderson claimed in the Queen’s speech debate that there was not a massive need for food banks in the UK, and that the real problem was that people could not cook. My colleague Peter Walker has the quote.

Dominic Cummings, who used to work for Michael Gove as his special adviser, does not seem impressed by his former boss’s planning proposals. (See 9.35am.)

Lots of Tory MPs want to see 'rapid action' on cost of living, says David Davis

Although the Treasury quashed suggestions (from the PM) yesterday that a significant statement about extra help for people with the cost of living might be coming within days, the former Brexit secretary David Davis told Times Radio that a lot of Tory MPs want to see “rapid action”. He said:

A lot of my colleagues ... a lot of the newer colleagues want to see rapid action. I don’t care whether you call it an emergency budget.

I watched Michael Gove do his clever dance today, as he always does. (See 10.30am.) He’s a clever man. And he managed to turn the words around. But trying to re-justify the difference between what the Treasury said and what the prime minister said yesterday. The prime minister said we’re going to act in days. So it does require a much more urgent approach.

Today ordinary working families are facing very high, growing food costs, already high energy costs ... We need to act now and not wait until they’ve all suffered for six months, next winter.

Davis also said he thought the best way the Treasury could help people with the cost of living was by cutting tax.

The Swedish delegation to the EU seems determined to start a caption competition.

No 10 hints time is running out for deal with EU that would stop UK abandoning parts of NI protocol

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesperson strongly hinted that time was running out to find a negotiated deal with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Asked if this week was the last chance to avoid the UK unilaterally amending the protocol, the spokeperson replied:

I’d never put a definitive timescale on that. I don’t think that would be helpful. But we have been working at this for 16 months, and we are at a position where the proposals put in front of us do not improve things. In fact they are a backwards step.

The spokesperson declined to say if the government had modelled the potential economic cost of a trade war, saying he was “not going to get into speculation about what might happen down the line”.

Asked if the government was drawing up new legislation to allow it to abandon parts of the protocol, as has been widely reported and as the Queen’s speech yesterday hinted, the spokesperson said:

I wouldn’t get into, on any issue, the ins and outs of policy development. This is something we’re looking at closely, it’s a serious issue, all options are on the table.

It is understood proposed law would allow businesses in Northern Ireland to disregard EU rules and regulations and remove the power of the European court of justice to rule on issues relating to the region.

Updated

What PM said at press conference in Sweden on new mutual security assurance

And here are the main points from the press conference on the new mutual security assurance with Sweden.

  • Johnson said the new agreement would bring Sweden and Britain even closer. He said:

It’s an agreement that brings our two countries even closer together.

It will allow us to share more intelligence, bolster our military exercises and further our joint development of technology.

The many carcasses of Russian tanks that now litter the fields and streets of Ukraine thanks to Swedish-developed, British-built NLAWs certainly speak to how effective that co-operation can be. But most importantly, this is an agreement that enshrines the values that both Sweden and the UK hold dear, and which we will not hesitate to defend and, as you put it so well Magdalena, when we were out on the lake – we are now literally and metaphorically in the same boat.

  • He sidestepped a question about whether Britain would use its nuclear weapons to protect Sweden under this agreement. In response to a question on this, he said:

When it comes to our nuclear deterrent, that’s something we don’t generally comment upon. But what I’ve made clear is that the it’s up to either party to make a request and we take it very seriously.

But, in response to an earlier question, he said that the UK would provide assistance if asked by Sweden. Asked what help might be provided during the period while Sweden waits to join Nato (when it is likely to be more vulnerable, because a country could attack without inevitably triggering a Nato response), Johnson replied:

The declaration really makes it clear. Upon request of Sweden, the UK will of course provide assistance. What matters primarily is what Sweden decides to request.

What we’re saying is that we are long-standing friends of Sweden, we are massive partners and supporters of Sweden, we share the same ideals, the same values. Sometimes things should go without saying but they’re worth saying. It’s worth emphasising that, if Sweden were attacked and looked to us for help and support, we will provide it. But it’s up to Sweden to make the request and spell out exactly what support is requested.

  • He said that he would support a Swedish bid for Nato membership and that the UK would be as “useful” as it could.
  • Magdalena Andersson, the Swedish prime minister, said her country was safer as a result of the new assurance. She said:

Are we safer with this declaration? Yes, we are. Of course this means something. This is important whatever security policy choice that we make in Sweden [ie, whether it joins Nato or not].

Although most of the press conference was devoted to the security assurance signed today, Boris Johnson also took a question at the press conference about the Northern Ireland protocol - another international deal he has signed, but one he is now threatening to abandon. (See 12.54pm.) If the Swedes noticed this irony, they did not say anything about it.

Boris Johnson and his Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson at their press conference.
Boris Johnson and his Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson at their press conference. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

Johnson ducks question on Starmer's offer to resign if fined over lockdown breaches, saying he wants to 'move beyond' that

At his press conference Boris Johnson was asked, for the first time in public, about Keir Starmer’s decision to say he will resign if fined by the police for breaking lockdown rules. Asked if that was the right thing to do, and if he was acting dishonourably by not resigning himself, Johnson just claimed he had move on from that. He replied:

We’ve moved, we’re trying to move beyond all that, we’re trying to focus on the issues that really, not least the war in Ukraine.

This is what Boris Johnson said at his press conference in Sweden when asked if it was wise for the UK to be threatening a diplomatic war with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol.

On the protocol ... the most important agreement is the 25-year-old Belfast/Good Friday agreement. That is crucial for the stability of our country, the UK and Northern Ireland. And that means things have got to command cross-community support.

Plainly the Northern Ireland protocol fails to do that. We need to sort it out.

Boris Johnson with Magdalena Andersson, the Swedish PM, at a press conference at the Swedish PM’s summer residence in Harpsund, Sweden.
Boris Johnson with Magdalena Andersson, the Swedish PM, at a press conference at the Swedish PM’s summer residence in Harpsund, Sweden. Photograph: Christine Olsson/EPA

Back in the Commons, Priti Patel, the home secretary, has just finished. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, is speaking now. She says she was amazed Patel refused to take any of her interventions during her speech. She said, in 25 years as an MP, she had never seen a cabinet minster refuse to take questions from their opposition shadow in a Queen’s speech debate. She wondered what Patel was afraid of.

Cooper then went on to say that Boris Johnson did not even talk about crime in his speech on the Queen’s speech proposals yesterday.

Johnson sidesteps question about whether UK would use nuclear weapons to protect Sweden under new security pact

Q: How strong is this compared to Nato’s article 5. Would the UK support Sweden with nuclear weapons? And what help will the UK get?

Johnson says the assurance works both ways.

Nato membership is a different matter, he says. He says the UK will support whatever action Sweden decides upon.

As for the nuclear deterrent, he says he does not normally comment on that. But it is “up to either party to make a request”, he says. He says he takes this very seriously.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Updated

Mutual security assurance with UK has made Sweden safer, says Swedish PM

Q: What would the UK provide to Sweden under this declaration?

Johnson says it would depend on what Sweden asked more.

Restating his point about how the two countries are already allies, Johnson says sometimes things that go without saying are worth saying.

Magdalena Andersson, the Swedish prime minister, says her country is safer as a result of this assurance.

Johnson restates threat to abandon Northern Ireland protocol, saying Good Friday agreement more important

Boris Johnson is holding a press conference in Sweden now.

Q: What does the new security assurance mean?

Johnson says it is in some respects no more than a statement of the obvious.

Britain and Sweden are allies. Faced with a request for help, one country would help the other.

He says Sweden and the UK already cooperate together militarily.

He says this is “the foundation stone for an important development in our relationship”.

Q: In the light of the Ukraine crisis, is it really the right time to provoke a row with Europe over the Northern Ireland protocol?

Johnson says the Northern Ireland protocol threatens the Good Friday agreement. It needs to be sorted out.

The Good Friday agreement is the more important of the two agreements, because it is older, he suggests.

UPDATE: Johnson said:

On the protocol ... the most important agreement is the 25-year-old Belfast/Good Friday agreement. That is crucial for the stability of our country, the UK and Northern Ireland. And that means things have got to command cross-community support.

Plainly the Northern Ireland protocol fails to do that. We need to sort it out.

Updated

Diana Johnson, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, asks Patel if the government will ensure that Rasso (rape and serious sexual offences) units are in every police station.

Patel indicates that the government already favours this approach.

In the Commons Priti Patel, the home secretary, is opening today’s Queen’s speech debate, which is focusing on crime and justice matters.

She opens the debate with an attack on Labour, criticising the opposition for not supporting some of the government’s previous crime measures and claiming Labour defend murders, paedophiles and rapists “with no right to be here”.

She is referring to the proposal for a bill of rights, that is meant to make it easier for the government to deport foreign offenders.

UK signs mutual security assurances with Sweden and Finland

Boris Johnson is signing mutual security assurances with Sweden and Finland. He has signed the Swedish one with Magdalena Andersson, the country’s prime minister, this morning, and he will sign the Finnish one when he is in Helsinki later today.

Sweden and Finland are currently outside Nato, although both are about to apply to join, in response to Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine. But they are already members of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a loose military alliance set up by the UK which is dominated by Nordic and Baltic countries.

In a press statement explaining what the new security assurances mean, No 10 said:

The declarations will see a step-change in defence and security cooperation between the UK and each country, intensifying intelligence sharing, accelerating joint military training, exercising and deployments, and bolstering security across all three countries and northern Europe.

They will also see the UK bolster its collaboration on traditional threats facing all three nations, while working also with Sweden and Finland to tackle new geopolitical challenges, such as hybrid and cyber threats.

Commenting on the assurances, Johnson said:

We are steadfast and unequivocal in our support to both Sweden and Finland and the signing of these security declarations is a symbol of the everlasting assurance between our nations.

These are not a short term stop gap, but a long term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defences for generations to come.

Boris Johnson and his Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson, exchanging files as they signed a security assurance, in Harpsund, the country retreat of Swedish prime ministers, today.
Boris Johnson and his Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson, exchanging files as they signed a security assurance, in Harpsund, the country retreat of Swedish prime ministers, today. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

Updated

Minister claims Rwanda asylum plan will have 'significant' impact on Channel crossings – but accepts it's 'not a panacea'

Danny Shaw, the BBC’s former home affairs correspondent, has been covering Tom Pursglove’s evidence to the Commons home affairs committee on the Rwanda asylum scheme. Here are some of the key points.

  • Pursglove, the minister for tackling illegal migration, claimed that over the longer term the plan would have a significant deterrent effect on the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats – but he would not a put a figure on what the impact might be in terms of numbers.
  • But Pursglove also admitted that the plan was “not a pancea”.
  • He conceded that if any Ukrainians crossed the Channel in small boats, they could potentially be sent to Rwanda under the plan.
  • He refused to say how much the government would pay Rwanda per asylum seeker.
  • He refused to accept there was a “systematic” problem with human rights in Rwanda.

Updated

Scottish government says it should have veto over replacing Human Rights Act because it's critical for devolution

The Scottish government has said that it should it should have the right to veto any proposed changes to the Human Rights Act because of its importance to devolution.

In the Queen’s speech the government confirmed its plans to pass a bill of rights that would overhaul aspects of the Human Rights Act. Christina McKelvie, the Scottish government’s equalities minister, said this should only be passed with Scotland’s approval. She explained:

The Human Rights Act has successfully protected rights and freedoms across the whole of the UK for more than 20 years. We will continue to robustly oppose any attempt to replace it with a bill of rights.

The safeguards provided by existing legislation protect every member of Scottish society. They are an essential feature of a democratic society founded on the rule of law.

These rights are also at the heart of the devolution settlement. Changes must not be made without the explicit consent of the Scottish parliament.

At the same time, the Scottish government is showing human rights leadership by protecting and enhancing our rights and freedoms. Future Scottish legislation will extend human rights safeguards even further.

When Westminster is legislating on matters that affect the devolved governments, it tries to obtain their “legislative consent”. But it does not always succeed and can, and sometimes does, legislate against their wishes.

Updated

Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland, has criticised the DUP for refusing to commit to backing the election of a speaker for the Northern Ireland assembly. (See 11.25am.) She said:

What we need to see is the positions filled - first minister, deputy first minister, all the ministerial positions filled, and let’s get down to doing business.

I don’t think it is good enough. It is not good enough for the people here that the DUP is holding society to ransom, punishing society, preventing the establishment of a speaker and an executive to actually respond to the things people are worried about.

I don’t think it is acceptable the position Jeffrey Donaldson has articulated today.

There are two urgent questions in the Commons this morning: a Labour one on Ukraine, and a Lib Dem one on Jim Fitton, the Briton at risk of the death penalty in Iraq for collecting fragments of pottery at an ancient site

The Queen’s speech debate will resume after they are over, at around 12.30pm.

Updated

DUP threatens to stop Northern Ireland assembly sitting by refusing to commit to backing election of speaker

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, intensified his threat to power-sharing in Northern Ireland today when he said his party may paralyse not only the executive at Stormont but also the assembly.

It had been widely assumed the DUP would back the nomination of an assembly speaker on Friday, which would let the legislative body function even without an executive, but Donaldson told the BBC the party may block even this limited role for Stormont.

Asked if the DUP would back the election of a speaker for the assembly, he said:

We will be there on Friday. Our members will be there to sign the roll. We will make a decision as to how we proceed. We’ll get the group together and we’ll determine how best to take this forward.

I’m waiting to see what the government has to say. So, that is the priority right now, to ensure that what the government say is moving us in the right direction.

I’m simply saying that we will need to make a decision on that. That’s one of the decisions we’ve got to make.

The DUP has already said it will not join the power-sharing executive until the UK government gets rid of the Northern Ireland protocol in its current form. By refusing to nominate a deputy first minister, the DUP is preventing Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill being appointed first minister.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Photograph: James Veysey/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Gove says idea that Johnson should have to resign over lockdown fine 'bonkeroony'

Not content with Greek mythology and impressions, Michael Gove showed that there was no end to his talents on his morning interview round when he gifted the nation a new word; talk of Boris Johnson resigning was “bonkeroony”, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Asked if Johnson would be under pressure to resign for the Covid fine he has already received if Keir Starmer were to resign if he gets fined by Durham police, Gove replied:

For anyone who has suffered during Covid, the thought that others broke the rules is undeniably painful and difficult.

But it is also the case that the prime minister was responsible for a series of very, very big decisions during the Covid crisis that meant we now look better than many other countries.

The idea that the prime minister should resign is bonkeroony.

Gove also said that whatever Starmer decided to do was a matter for him.

Updated

Boris Johnson leaving his plane after arriving at Stockholm this morning. He is on a one-day visit to Sweden and Finland.
Boris Johnson leaving his plane after arriving at Stockholm this morning. He is on a one-day visit to Sweden and Finland. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

This is from Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, on Michael Gove’s performance as an impressionist this morning. (See 9.57am.)

My more culturally astute colleagues tell me Gove was referencing the Harry Enfield character when he adopted a Scouse accent as the “calm down” voice of the Treasury. I suspect that when he did the “emergency budget” voice, he might have been thinking of Laura Kuenssberg, who in her podcasting uses mimicry to make a point about how broadcasters treat stories, but it is hard to be sure.

Updated

No option off the table on Northern Ireland protocol, Gove warns EU

Michael Gove also used his morning interview round to insist that “no option is off the table” for the UK government in relation to addressing the problems with the Northern Ireland protocol. My colleague Rowena Mason has the story here.

It wasn’t just Greek mythology that got an outing on the Michael Gove interview round. In his appearance on BBC Breakfast, the levelling up secretary found himself attempting to mock accents as he responded to claims that Boris Johnson exposed a No 10/Treasury split yesterday when he suggested there would be a significant announcement on help with the cost of living crisis in the next few days, only for the Treasury to say that they did not know what he was talking about.

Gove was trying to mock the journalists who he was claiming were responsible for over-hyping the story.

But his performance led Lisa Nandy, his Labour shadow, to accuse him of trivialising the cost of living crisis.

(It was all very odd - not least because at one point Gove used a Scouse accent to represent the Treasury - which, like most Whitehall departments, is based in London and not somewhere where Liverpudlians are over-represented.)

Updated

In his Today interview Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, was also asked if the measures in the levelling up and regeneration bill would help ensure that more houses get built. He claimed they would help. Asked to explain why, he replied:

Ultimately, when it comes to new development, communities have been resistant for a variety of reasons. Communities have been understandably resistant because new buildings haven’t been beautiful. They haven’t been built with the quality required.

Communities have been resistant because the infrastructure that they need, the GP surgeries, the new primary schools, the roads, haven’t come with those houses.

Communities have been resentful because they make democratic choices, when they draw up plans, and those democratic choices are sometimes overridden by distant inspectors.

People have been resistant to development because the environment hasn’t been protected and enhanced in the way that it should be.

And people have been resistant to developments because far too often you’ve had numbers plonked down simply in order to reach an arbitrary target. You’ve had dormitories, not neighbourhoods.

So beauty, infrastructure, democracy, environment, neighbourhoods [will all encourage housebuilding].

Michael Gove says Tories no longer committed to manifesto target of 300,000 new homes a year

Good morning. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, was let out for the morning interview round earlier and he in effect ripped up a target in the Conservative party’s 2019 manifesto for 300,000 new homes to be built a year by the middle of this decade.

The manifesto said:

Since 2010 there has been a considerable increase in homebuilding. We have delivered a million homes in the last five years in England: last year, we delivered the highest number of homes for almost 30 years.

But it still isn’t enough. That is why we will continue our progress towards our target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

After Gove took over the housing department, which is now the levelling up department, he abandoned proposals to reform planning laws that would have made it harder for local authorities to reject new housing developments. (Tory MPs hated them.) Today he is publishing a levelling up and regeneration bill which includes some, more modest changes to planning rules, with the focus instead on giving communities more say on new houses in their area.

In an interview with Mishal Husain on the Today programme, asked if the government was still committed to the target of 300,000 new homes per year, Gove resorted to Greek mythology in a roundabout answer which amounted to saying “No”. He replied:

We’re going to do everything we can in order to ensure that more of the right homes are built in the right way in the right places. Because I don’t want us to be tied to a Procrustean bed. I think it’s critically important that, even as we seek to improve housing supply, we also seek to build communities that people love and are proud of.

Husain pointed out that this was a pledge. “Are you going to meet it?,” she asked. Gove replied:

Well, we’ll do everything we can but it’s no kind of success simply to hit a target if the homes that are built are shoddy, in the wrong place, don’t have the infrastructure required and are not contributing to beautiful communities.

Ultimately, when you’re building a new dwelling, you’re not simply trying to hit a statistical target. I’m certainly not.

When Husain pointed out that the Tories actually promised to hit a statistical target, Gove replied:

Well, it’s only one of a number of things that we need to do. We are not bound - I am not bound - by one criterion alone when it comes to development. Arithmetic is important, but so is beauty, so is belonging, so is democracy.

I will post more from Gove’s interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Tom Pursglove, minister for tackling illegal migration, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee on the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, and Yvette Cooper, her Labour shadow, are due to speak at the opening of today’s Queen’s speech debate, which will focus on crime. There is no PMQs today because PMQs do not resume at the start of a parliamentary session until the Queen’s speech debate is over.

2.30pm: Victoria Prentis, the farming minister, gives evidence to the environment committee on the trade deal with Australia.

3pm: Lady Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and other experts give evidence to the joint committee on human rights on reform of the Human Rights Act.

And Boris Johnson is visiting Sweden and Finland today. He is due to hold press conferences in both countries.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.

Updated

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