Rishi Sunak news – live: PM under fire from ex-ministers on Williamson bullying claim

With the first episode of ITV’s ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get me out of here’ starting tonight, here is a reminder that former health secretary Matt Hancock will be a contestant of this year’s series.

Though Mr Hancock will not be entering the jungle at the same time as the other contestants, he is expected to join them shortly after.

With this newest stunt by the Tory MP dividing opinons, here is a timeline of Mr Hancock’s Westminster controversies.

Foreign secretary James Cleverly says it is ‘lovely to see’ how much India has welcomed the Sunak premiership – but experts tell Namita Singh it would be wrong of New Delhi to expect too much too fast.

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Sir Ed Davey delivered his autumn speech after the Lib Dems were forced to cancel their annual conference in September due to the period of national mourning following the death of the Queen.

With the government preparing a package of tax rises and spending cuts to address an estimated £50 billion black hole in the public finances, he said voters are now having to pay to clear up the problems the Tories created.

“After inflicting so much chaos and damage, the Conservatives want the rest of us to pay to clear up their mess. They’re like bank robbers asking for a loan to buy the getaway car,” he added.

Sir Ed said events in Ukraine had only strengthened the Lib Dem argument for the government to extend the windfall tax on the “record” profits of the oil and gas companies.

“The case for our windfall tax has only got stronger, as those profits have soared even higher for one main reason – a brutal dictator spilling innocent Ukrainian blood,” he said.

“There are no arguments left. The right thing to do – the fair thing to do – is to tax those blood-oil profits.”

Sir Ed said it was “obvious” the country needs a general election and he accused Rishi Sunak of refusing to go to the country because he knew the Conservatives would lose.

In a direct message to the prime minister he said: “Your government does not have a shred of credibility left. It does not have a shred of legitimacy left. If you had a shred of integrity left, you would call a general election now.”

Millions of homeowners are paying a “Conservative property premium” as a result of the “chaos” the party has unleashed on the economy, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said.

In a keynote speech, Sir Ed said the Government did not have a “shred of credibility” after the turmoil of recent weeks as he reiterated his demands for an immediate general election.

He called for the creation of a £3 billion mortgage protection fund – paid for by reversing cuts to taxes on banks dating back to 2016 – to assist families now facing crippling increases in their repayments.

Under the Lib Dem proposal, homeowners who see their repayments increase by more than 10% of their income would be able apply for grants of up to £300 a month to help cover the costs.

Speaking in London, Sir Ed said homeowners should not have to pay the price for the “mess” created by Liz Truss and Kwarsi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.

“Instead of tackling the cost-of-living crisis seriously, they chose to treat the British economy as their own personal playground – using people as playthings in their reckless game of fantasy economics,” he said.

“Just look at the damage… millions of families struggling to pay a Conservative property penalty, every single month.

“Never again can the Conservatives claim to be the party of homeowners.

“Never again can they claim to be the party of business. Never again can they claim to be the party that balances the books.

“The Conservatives are the party of chaos.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said Scotland is not “stuck” in the Union – but ruled out backing an independence referendum.

The Labour leader said he understood the desire for change among Scots, but said the ambition stemmed from the “chaos” of a Conservative Government.

Asked if Scots should have the right to determine their own future, Sir Keir told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “I’m talking about priorities… and for, I think, many, many people across Scotland… the central concern will be the economy.”

He added: “I fundamentally reject the argument that the way you grow the economy is to put a border between Scotland and England.

“I don’t think that will help the economy. I think it will make a bad situation worse, but we have to be clear the priority going into that election has to be the economy, has to be the economy, has to be answering the question people are asking around their kitchen table, which is ‘can I make ends meet?”’

The UK Supreme Court is currently determining whether Holyrood has the powers to hold a referendum.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has outlined intentions to hold a referendum in October 2023 – or use the next general election as a de facto referendum if the parliament cannot call another vote.

Sir Keir said that even if the Supreme Court does rule in the Scottish Government’s favour, it does not mean the country “should” have a referendum.

“All the court is going to be able to rule, if it does rule in favour, is that there could be or can be – it is legally permissible – to have a referendum,” he said.

“That doesn’t answer the political question of should there be a referendum.”

And he said the Union is a “voluntary organisation”, with Scotland not “stuck” in the United Kingdom.

But Sir Keir said Scots want an alternative to the UK and Scottish governments, who he said are both using independence as a distraction for their “records of failure”.

The alternative – a Labour government – needs the backing of Scottish voters, he said.

Sir Keir said: “I want a Labour government that represents the whole of the United Kingdom and that’s why the road for me to a Labour government runs through Scotland.

“Scotland matters hugely to me and my Labour Party.”

He continued: “One of the drivers of independence – for change – is the very strong reaction that many people in Scotland have to the Conservative Government in Westminster.

“My job… is to change our party and expose that the Tories are unfit to govern and put forward a Labour government, which has changed, has the answers to the challenges of the future and is in a position to go into government.”

His comments have been criticised by SNP deputy Westminster leader Kirsty Oswald, who accused the Labour leader of “insulting ignorance of Scotland’s needs”.

She said: “Was that really a Labour leader speaking, because what Keir Starmer said was not only dangerous nonsense, it has already been said by each of the last four Tory prime ministers?

“He demonstrated an insulting ignorance of Scotland’s needs by restating his support for the failed policies of successive Tory governments like this catastrophic hard Brexit and an increasingly hard-right stance on immigration.

“To arrive in Scotland so entirely ignorant of the issues affecting our country is astounding incompetence for a man whose ambition is to be Britain’s prime minister.

“All he managed to do was confirm that if you vote Labour, you get the same failed Tory policies.”

Labour’s shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband warned against a “cover-up” or a “whitewash” over allegations relating to Cabinet Office minister Sir Gavin Williamson.

He told Sky News: “These are incredibly serious issues and I think it really calls into question Rishi Sunak’s judgment and the way he made decisions about his Cabinet.

“We already know about the whole Suella Braverman issue: being reappointed six days after she resigned.

“It was very noticeable… that Oliver Dowden couldn’t deny that Rishi Sunak knew about those issues to do with potential bullying against Wendy Morton, the chief whip, by Gavin Williamson and yet he reappointed him.

“What it says is that Rishi Sunak was making decisions simply in his own narrow short-term interest as far as the Conservative Party leadership was concerned, not the national interest, and there needs to be an urgent independent investigation into exactly what happened. We can’t have a cover-up, we can’t have a whitewash here.

“What did Rishi Sunak know? When did he know it? What did Gavin Williamson do and what are the implications of that?”

Sir Gavin is facing an investigation over a series of alleged abusive and threatening messages sent to the then-Tory chief whip Ms Morton complaining he had been excluded from the Queen’s funeral.

The government says it has contingency plans for dealing with any strike by nurses amid the growing threat of widespread industrial action in the NHS.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is expected to announce later this week that its members have voted for strikes over pay.

Health workers in other unions, including ambulance staff, hospital porters and cleaners, are also voting on industrial action over pay.

Unison and the GMB are set to announce ballot results later this month, while physiotherapists and midwives will start voting soon.

Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden said that in the event of industrial action, the NHS would prioritise the most essential services – although he acknowledged that it would have an impact on other activity.

“We have well-oiled contingencies in place and the Department of Health is across how we would deal with a scenario like this should it arise,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme.

“We will make sure we prioritise the most essential services – emergency services and so on. But of course there would be an impact as a result of a strike like that.

“I would continue to urge nurses and others to resist going out on strike even if they have voted to do so. We have already agreed quite considerable support for nurses.

“Of course, if you are in the situation where you have a large number of nurses going out on strike, of course that is going to have an impact for example on some elective surgery and other activities.”

An RCN spokesperson said: “Cutting nurses’ wages by 20% since 2010 is the opposite of providing ‘considerable support’ for nurses and the Cabinet Office Minister shouldn’t insult our members by pretending it is.

“The minister appears in denial about both the anger of nursing staff and the public support we have.”

Labour’s shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband warned “many nurses feel at breaking point”, adding that the strikes were “borne of frustration and distress”.

He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “Well look, obviously nobody wants to see a strike go ahead including nurses, but the truth is that this is borne of incredible frustration and dismay on the part of nurses about what has happened over 12 years under this government.

“Labour was in power for 13 years, there never was a nurses’ strike. What we see is issues of pay, issues of recruitment, issues of morale, issues…about what is happening in the health service and many nurses feel at breaking point.

“So nobody wants to see this strike go ahead, but as I say, it is borne of frustration and distress that so many people feel in the health service about the way it has been run down over this last decade or more under the Tories.”

The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said that the prime minister was aware that Sir Gavin Williamson had a “difficult relationship” with the then chief whip Wendy Morton.

Brandon Lewis, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, said bullying should never be seen as “an inevitable part of our political life”, after an attempt to brush off the messages as a “heat of the moment” mistake.

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports: