Labour accused the government of putting its “out of office on” during a string of crises.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly on a week-long holiday in a luxury villa on the Costa del Sol.
His trip comes as millions of households will see the costs of living rise during the energy price crisis, removal of the temporary uplift in Universal Credit benefits, supply chain issues, and higher taxes from next year.
Shadow chief secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “In the teeth of a crisis of its own making, the Govt has put its out of office on.
“The PM has gone on holiday, no one knows where the Chancellor is, and this morning we understand the Business Sec has entered the realms of fantasy.”
Her comments came after Kwasi Kwarteng, secretary of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said on Sky News that he was working closely with chancellor Rishi Sunak to help companies survive the energy price crisis.
An anonymous Treasury source disputed this claim and said of Mr Kwarteng: “This is not the first time the secretary has made things up in interviews. To be crystal clear the treasury are not involved in any talks.”
Commenting on the spat, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “If the Treasury isn’t in talks with BEIS to help our vital industries during this Conservative government’s energy crisis, then why on Earth aren’t they?
“What is the Chancellor actually doing?”
‘Energy crisis could lead to more winter deaths’ – McDonnell
John McDonnell has warned that the energy crisis during winter could contribute to more Covid-related deaths.
The former shadow chancellor said he fears that – unless the government takes action – there “risk a surge in winter related deaths alongside the worrying risks from high rates of Covid infections & the spread of the winter flu.”
But he cast serious doubt over the coming months in describing PM Boris Johnson’s government as “immobile”.
£3m ‘wasted’ on asylum camp that was never used, Labour says
Ministers have been of “reckless spending” after spending £3 million on a “prison-style” asylum seeker camp that was later scrapped.
Figures obtained by Liberty Investigates show that millions were paid to a construction firm to install hired portacabins on the site of Yarl’s Wood removal centre, in north Bedfordshire, at the end of last year.
The plan was to house 187 people there for 13 weeks, but the units were never used.
Shadow immigration minister Bambos Charalambous said: “This is a shocking example of Home Office incompetence and waste.
“The government’s asylum system lacks compassion and competence. Their dithering has wasted millions of taxpayers money.”
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Patel ‘needs to come clean’ over Channel crossing crisis – Labour
Priti Patel “needs to come clean” over her strategy to tackle the numbers of people migrating to the UK in small boats, shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has said.
It comes after a French minister accused the UK of paying none of the £54 million it pledged earlier this year to help stop thousands of people making the perilous journey across the Channel in small boats.
Mr Thomas-Symonds told Sky News that the fact that more than 1,100 people crossed into the UK on Friday and Saturday shows withholding money from France “clearly isn’t working”.
More than 17,000 people have entered the UK this way in 2021.
The Labour MP said: “The Home Secretary needs to come clean because every single person risking their lives in that dangerous sea crossing of the English Channel is one too many.”
He added: “I’ve always thought the Home Secretary needed to take a different approach.
“Whilst of course the patrols at the coast preventing people getting out onto the water and risking their lives is hugely important – of course it is – what I fear the Home Secretary misses is the fact that nobody becomes a refugee in northern France.
“We need to be tackling the people smugglers and these vile criminal gangs further away from the coast as well.”
Iain Duncan Smith mocked for equating pandemic to the Blitz
Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith has been ridiculed online for writing that people should go back to their workplaces as he claimed was done during the Second World War.
The former work and pensions secretary said war-time workers “kept coming to the office – even when Hitler’s bombs were raining down.”
Speaking about “all too many” civil servants these days, he said: “Instead of rising to that challenge, as the wartime generation would have done, they have thrown their hands up in despair – before locking the doors and scuttling off home, of course.
“When I think of all the brave civil servants who went to work in the 1940s, determined to do their bit regardless of the threat from falling bombs, I wonder what has happened to us as a nation.”
People on Twitter pointed out the differences between the pandemic and the Blitz.
Pollster warns against overstating PM’s strength by ignoring average ratings
Focusing on successive poll leads rather than an average rating “often distorts the truth” and risks overstating the strength of Boris Johnson’s position, a senior research manager at Opinium has suggested.
He added: “Australia has literally toppled a Prime Minister (arguably two) because they have been behind in ‘X number of Newspolls’.”
Opinion: Conservative conference was a Tory Disneyland where Boris Johnson is Mickey Mouse
Reflecting on her first time visiting the Conservative Party’s annual conference, Jordan Tyldesley writes: “For those who haven’t been, the conference is like Tory Glastonbury.
“It’s a place where like-minded individuals can socialise and envisage a country in which fervent right-wing agreement is the norm. It’s a sort of compact Tory Disneyland and of course, Boris Johnson assumes the role of Mickey Mouse.
“Within these confines, MPs and delegates are shielded from the disapproval that is in full throng just a short walk away. The event hall is a political market in which people go to shop for ideology, ideas and intellectualism but also cheese toasties and Tory souvenirs.
“T-shirts adorned with “Boris, Boris, Boris” are sold but with the exception of one serious fan girl doing laps around the venue, they don’t appear to be popular.”
Labour attacks ‘out of office’ government amid apparent internal dispute
A dispute appears to have emerged between the Treasury and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [BEIS], after the business secretary told Sky News he was working closely with chancellor Rishi Sunak to help firms weather the energy crisis.
An anonymous Treasury source not only disputed this claim to Sky News, but also launched a personal attack on Kwasi Kwarteng, saying: “This is not the first time the BEIS secretary has made things up in interviews. To be crystal clear the treasury are not involved in any talks.”
The spat drew a withering response from senior Labour politicians, who accused the government of having “put its out of office on”.
‘Reasonable’ for PM to be on holiday, business secretary says
The business secretary has defended Boris Johnson for reportedly taking a holiday on the Costa del Sol as the government battles to stem the damage from the supply chain crisis on multiple fronts.
“I believe he has gone away. I’m not sure where he’s gone,” Kwasi Kwarteng told Times Radio.
“But what I would say is I am in regular contact with him. He’s also had a year-and-a-half in which he’s almost lost his life to Covid, his mother passed away very sadly two or three weeks ago and he may have decided to take a short break. I think that’s something reasonable.
“I’m in regular WhatsApp contact with him, I spoke to him only a few days ago. I’m not sure when he’s supposed to have left the country.”
Downing Street police deprive PM pizza over safety concerns
Much to Boris Johnson’s annoyance and hunger pangs, his fast-food deliveries often get turned away by police at the gates of Downing Street – according to a report.
The Sunday Times reported that the pizza delivery “nightmare” happens even when officers are asked to let the deliveries through.
The source said: “No matter how many times [Mr Johnson] says, ‘Please, please, please, can you let this pizza through’, they say, ‘No’.”
Boris and his government ‘patently not in control’ – Tory peer
While a poll shows that a majority of Tory members are happy with the state of their party, a peer described PM Boris Johnson as “lurching from crisis to crisis”.
Michael Heseltine, who is a former deputy PM that served under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said that the current government is “patently not in control”.
He told Sky News that Mr Johnson’s promises to “level up” the country and “take back control” after Brexit ring hollow.
Lord Heseltine said: “Can you show me any area where you think this government has actually achieved a greater degree of control?
“It’s lurching from crisis to crisis and it is patently not in control.”
