UK Politics

Huge cuts in funding for early support for children have created a “vicious cycle”, with thousands more young people going into care and needing crisis help, according to a new report backed by some of the UK’s biggest children’s charities.As Sure Start centres, youth clubs and family support services for substance abuse have shut down, children and teenagers told the report’s authors they felt they had to “get hurt or harm someone” before they could get help.And the report found that the poorest areas of the country have been hit hardest as spending on early intervention services was halved by councils in England from £3.8bn to £1.9bn between 2010-11 and 2020-21. With a succession of Conservative-led governments slashing central funding to local authorities in England by around 40 per cent over the past 12 years, many town halls have responded by cutting services which they are not required by law to deliver, such as early intervention support for children.But spending on statutory crisis services soared by more than a third (37 per cent) from £6bn to £8.2bn over the same period, as numbers of children in care leapt by 24 per cent to almost 80,000.RecommendedThe report, entitled Stopping the Spiral, found that this has created a vicious cycle, where councils are forced to spend more on costly crisis support, leaving more children and young people exposed to risks like exploitation, neglect and mental ill-health.Today’s research by Pro Bono Economics found that four-fifths (80 per cent) of local authority children’s social care spending now goes towards crisis and late intervention services, which are more likely to be reacting to harm rather than preventing it and which councils have a legal requirement to deliver, up from just 58 per cent in 2010-11.The report, for the Children’s Society, NSPCC, Action for Children, Barnardo’s and the National Children’s Bureau, followed a warning from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care that 100,000 children will be in care by 2032 on current trends, pushing the bill for crisis services up higher.The coalition of charities called for the new prime minister to use his or her first Budget to invest at least an additional £2.6bn in children’s social care, as recommended by the independent review.Children’s Society chief executive Mark Russell said: “It’s a big concern that children in deprived areas, where needs may be greatest, are often among those least likely to get help before problems spiral out of control.“If ministers are serious about levelling up they must better target funding to the areas that need it most. But councils everywhere have struggled amid government funding cuts and this is why we are calling on whoever becomes the next prime minister to ensure children’s services teams across the country get the extra funding they desperately need, sooner not later.”Imran Hussain, director of policy and campaigns at Action for Children, said: “Town halls are being placed in an impossible position by decisions made in Whitehall. The government has to give local authorities the resources they need to invest in preventative services to stem the tide of children coming to harm before they’re helped.”Responding to the report, the independent review’s chair Josh MacAlister said: “These worrying figures support my call for a radical reset of the system to shift the focus towards intensive earlier support for families.“It’s crucial that reform comes with the investment needed to boost support for families so that more children can grow up in loving families and that the care system can provide the same foundations.“Tinkering at the edges while continuing to pour money into a crumbling system is unsustainable and it’s vital that the next prime minister seizes this opportunity to make a difference to the lives of children and families, now and in the future.”Labour’s shadow minister for children, Helen Hayes, said: “A decade of Conservative governments has stripped away the early help services that children and families rely on, with increasing numbers being taken into care.“Instead of warring amongst themselves the Conservatives should be focused on delivering for the country: tackling a national culture which has tolerated failing services for our children and rise to the challenge of making Britain the best place to grow up.”Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson described the report as “yet another damning example of how our children are simply not a priority for the Conservatives”.“Vulnerable children across the country are being left facing a perfect storm as funding for support is slashed while the cost of living crisis bites,” said Ms Wilson.“Liberal Democrats are calling on this morally bankrupt government to finally support the next generation by giving local authorities more than the pittance they currently receive to help children before they end up in dangerous situations.”RecommendedA government spokesperson said: “We have made an additional £3.7bn available to councils this year alone to help them deliver key services and support families.“We are backing families with better and earlier access to services that keep them safe and healthy, by expanding a network of Family Hubs all over England and increasing investment in the Supporting Families programme, which is helping to keep up to 300,000 families together safely and provide loving homes for children. This comes ahead of widescale reform to the care system through our response to the independent review of children’s social care.” More

Penny Mordaunt would ditch housing targets if she enters Downing Street, saying they have been “tested to destruction”.Foreign secretary Liz Truss, who remains behind Ms Mordaunt in the race to become the next Tory leader, has already hit out at so-called “Stalinist” housing targets.Ms Mordaunt used a piece in the Daily Telegraph to claim that the current government house-building policy is “not working” and is trapped in a “broken pattern”.She wrote: “I will change the system. I will champion a brownfield building boom, and do more to protect precious greenfields.“We will build better, and we will do it using incentives, infrastructure, investment and innovation.“To start with incentives, it’s important to realise that mandatory housing targets for councils don’t work.Recommended“It is an idea that has been tested to destruction over many years, and it’s time to face the fact that they’ve been a failure everywhere. So we will abolish housebuilding targets and replace them with incentives.”Ms Mordaunt, who is vying to retain her lead against Ms Truss and Kemi Badenoch in the fourth ballot of Tory MPs on Tuesday, promises to extend development rights to allow “build up not out” in urban areas.She also pledges to “stop land banking and speed up building for sites that already have planning permissions, especially brownfield sites”.She added: “There are thousands of unbuilt sites all over the country waiting for construction to start. My priority will be to scrap the bureaucracy that prevents shovels from getting into the ground.”RecommendedOne solution she proposes would see the creation of development corporations, described as “potentially new towns”.“They will create jobs and homes – especially for young and first-time buyers – and regenerate city and town centres throughout the UK. We’ll cut red tape to do so,” she said. More

Boris Johnson claimed he had “delivered on every single promise” as he defended his record at No 10 and persuaded Conservatives to back the government in Monday’s confidence vote.The outgoing PM attempted to polish his legacy by telling the Commons he had led “one of the most dynamic governments of modern times”, which had overcome “adversity on a scale we haven’t seen for centuries”.Cheered on by Tory MPs, Mr Johnson said his party would soon “coalesce in loyalty” around a new leader – but also hinted that he would soon speak out against the Tory rebels who had kicked him out of office.“We got Brexit done, and the rejoiners and revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time,” he said, before adding: “And I will have more to say about the events of the last few weeks and months in due course.”The PM pointed to his 2019 general election victory over Labour, saying the Tories had “sent the great blue ferret so far up their left trouser leg they couldn’t move”, adding: “We won seats they never dreamed of losing.”He also claimed that Sir Keir Starmer would attempt to overturn Brexit and take Britain back into the EU, saying: “If he were ever to come to power with his hopeless coalition of Liberal Democrats and Scottish nationalists, he would try to do so again at the drop of a hat.”RecommendedThe prime minister also suggested that Sir Keir might conspire with “the deep state” in order to align the UK more closely with the EU “as a prelude to our eventual return”. Challenging Tory MPs to uphold Brexit, he added: “We on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won’t we?”Mr Johnson finished by telling MPs he was “proud” of his record, adding: “We’ve had to take some of the bleakest decisions since the war, and I believe that we got the big calls right.”Some 349 loyal MPs later voted to shore up Mr Johnson’s administration for the interim period before a new Tory leader is chosen, with 238 largely opposition MPs voting in favour of bringing down the government.If the government had been defeated it would have almost certainly triggered a general election. But a Tory rebellion appeared unlikely, given the party remains leaderless and in no fit state to go to the polls.The wave of Tory anger at Mr Johnson from earlier in July has largely subsided, as the party’s MPs squabble over Mr Johnson’s successor.Sir Keir started his own Commons speech by accusing Mr Johnson of indulging in sheer fantasy when it came to his legacy. “The delusion is never-ending – what a relief for the country that they finally got round to sacking him,” he said.The Labour leader added: “He’s been forced out in disgrace, judged by his colleagues and peers to be unworthy of his position and unfit for office.”Reminding Tory MPs of the recent Chris Pincher saga, which sparked the Tory revolt, Sir Keir said: “He promoted someone he knew to be a sexual predator, and then denied all knowledge when that inevitably went wrong.“It’s the same pattern of behaviour when he and his mates partied through lockdown, denied it for months, and forced his ministers to repeat those lies until he was found out.”Sir Keir also had a pop at the Tory leadership contest, after a Sky News debate that was due to take place on Tuesday evening was cancelled. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss declined to take part after previous TV hustings descended into public slanging matches.The Labour leader said the debates were “so embarrassing that even the contestants are pulling out”, and compared the Tories to a Premier League team “burning through managers as they slide inevitably towards relegation”.If the government is defeated it will almost certainly trigger a general election, although that would require a significant number of Tory MPs to vote against the government, or at least to abstain.This would appear unlikely, given the party is leaderless and in no fit state to fight an election, while the initial wave of anger at Mr Johnson has largely subsided.Urging Tory MPs to act, Sir Keir said: “So, why are they leaving him with his hands on the levers of power for eight weeks? … This is not the summer for Downing Street to be occupied by a vengeful squatter, mired in scandal.” RecommendedMr Johnson started Monday afternoon’s debate by saying he had no idea why the Labour leader wanted a confidence motion.But he was politely reminded by the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle: “It’s actually the government who has put [this motion] down for today.” More

Conservative MPs have resoundingly backed Boris Johnson’s government in a confidence vote, despite an overwhelming party rebellion which saw him resign as prime minister earlier this month.Some 349 MPs voted to shore up Mr Johnson’s administration for the interim period before a new Tory leader is chosen, with 238 largely opposition MPs voting in favour of bringing down the government.Monday evening’s historic vote came amid renewed Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP for the prime minister to step down immediately and hand over to a caretaker.If the government had been defeated it would have almost certainly triggered a general election. But a Tory rebellion appeared unlikely, given the party remains leaderless and in no fit state to go to the polls.The wave of Tory anger at Mr Johnson from earlier in July has largely subsided, as the party’s MPs squabble over Mr Johnson’s successor.RecommendedMr Johnson claimed he had “delivered on every single promise” earlier on Monday, as he sought to persuade his party to back the government and keep him in office for another six weeks.The outgoing PM attempted to polish his legacy by telling the Commons he had led “one of the most dynamic governments of modern times” which had overcome “adversity on a scale we haven’t seen for centuries”.Cheered by Tory MPs, the PM pointed to his 2019 general election victory over Labour, saying his party had “sent the great blue ferret so far up their left trouser leg they couldn’t move”.Sir Keir fired back by accusing Mr Johnson of indulging in sheer fantasy when it came to his legacy. “The delusion is never-ending – what a relief for the country that they finally got round to sacking him,” he said.The Labour leader added: “He’s been forced out in disgrace, judged by his colleagues and peers to be unworthy of his position and unfit for office.”Urging Tory MPs to act, Sir Keir said: “So, why are they leaving him with his hands on the levers of power for eight weeks? … This is not the summer for Downing Street to be occupied by a vengeful squatter, mired in scandal.”Mr Johnson started Monday afternoon’s debate by saying he had no idea why the Labour leader wanted a confidence motion.Boris Johnson gets corrected after stating Labour called vote of confidenceBut he was politely reminded by the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle: “It’s actually the government who has put [this motion] down for today.”No 10 combatted Labour’s initial push to force a no confidence vote in Mr Johnson personally by instead tabling a motion asking MPs whether they have confidence in the government as a whole.Mr Johnson also used a speech in the Commons to suggest Sir Keir was plotting with the “deep state” take Britain back into the EU.The PM used the phrase beloved by conspiracy theorists, as he repeatedly claimed the Labour leader wanted to overturn Brexit – despite Starmer’s insistence he wanted to make Brexit work.“We got Brexit done, and the rejoiners and revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time,” Mr Johnson said, before suggesting his legacy was under threat.He said: “Some people will say as I leave office that this is the end of Brexit … and the leader of the opposition and the deep state will prevail in its plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return.”Challenging Tory MPs to uphold his hard Brexit deal, Mr Johnson added: “We on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won’t we?”Responding to confidence vote result, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Conservative MPs have failed once again to listen to their constituents and get rid of this failed prime minister.”Earlier, Labour former minister Dame Margaret Hodge said the confidence vote was “essential to call a halt to the dangerous Trumpian assault on everything we value in our British democracy”.RecommendedBut Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh said he “wholly regrets the departure of this prime minister and I remain completely loyal to him to the very end … And I think we will ask ourselves, what have we done?”The loyalist said it was not as if Mr Johnson was “the worst sort of mass murderer and criminal in political history”. More

Contenders for the Conservative leadership are engaged in frenzied horse-trading for a handful of MPs’ votes which will decide who will go into the final battle to succeed Boris Johnson and become prime minister.The field of hopefuls was reduced to four on Monday as outsider Tom Tugendhat, darling of the centrist One Nation group, was eliminated with just 31 votes.Former chancellor Rishi Sunak came close to securing a place on the shortlist of two which will go to Tory members this summer, gaining 14 votes to hit 115 – five short of the 120 needed.But foreign secretary Liz Truss’s campaign hung in the balance, after she failed to overhaul Penny Mordaunt in the race for second place amid claims from rival camps that she was under-performing.The Truss team had been hopeful of securing a majority of the 27 MPs who backed fellow right-winger Suella Braverman before her elimination on Friday. But despite Ms Braverman’s endorsement, the foreign secretary put on just seven votes to reach 71, 11 short of Mordaunt’s tally of 82.RecommendedWith a sizeable chunk of Mr Tugendhat’s backers expected to switch to the international trade minister in the next round of voting on Tuesday, Ms Truss’s hopes will depend on wooing supporters of “anti-woke” insurgent Kemi Badenoch.Ms Badenoch gained nine votes to reach a creditable 58, but is highly vulnerable to being knocked out in the fourth round of voting, giving her supporters a decisive say on who joins Mr Sunak on the ballot paper.With some polls suggesting that the approximately 200,000 Tory members would favour either Ms Mordaunt or Ms Truss over Mr Sunak, prominent backbencher Steve Baker said that Boris Johnson’s successor could effectively be chosen by Ms Badenoch’s backers.“It seems that in the last round, Kemi Badenoch’s supporters will decide whether Liz Truss or Penny Mordaunt becomes PM,” said arch-Eurosceptic Baker, a supporter of the foreign secretary.Mr Tugendhat, the only candidate never to have held ministerial office, said he was “overwhelmed” by the scale of his support, which he said showed the country was “ready for a clean start” which would “put trust back into politics”.His team indicated he would wait until Tuesday to decide whether to endorse one of the remaining candidates, with backer Anne-Marie Trevelyan saying that his supporters will “travel as a pack”.The foreign affairs committee chair was the subject of immediate approaches from rival camps, with Ms Mordaunt describing him as “a friend and colleague who I’ve admired for years.”Ms Mordaunt, who shares a military background with Mr Tugendhat, added: “I know that we are both committed to a clean start for our party and I believe he is one of the strongest assets on the Conservative green benches.”Ms Badenoch supporter Neil O’Brien said Mr Tugendhat was now a “household name” who would “serve Britain again at a high level”.Ms Mordaunt supporter George Freeman said her camp was pleased that she remained clear of the foreign secretary, despite losing a vote from the last round.“After three days of pounding in the media I’m delighted she’s held second place,” the former science minister said. “Nobody has been attacked more savagely in the press.”Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, insisted Ms Truss “has got momentum and she will maintain that momentum”. He added: “Penny is stalling … and I believe Liz is in the right place to do this.”Chloe Smith MP, a member of the One Nation caucus campaigning for Ms Truss, pleaded for fellow moderates in the party to look again the foreign secretary for the leadership.Asked if Mr Tugendhat’s moderate supporters may now prefer to switch their backing Ms Mordaunt, Ms Smith told the BBC: “I’d say to friends and colleagues – please come and look at Liz’s wide range of experience.”RecommendedMs Mordaunt came under fire from her own boss for skipping work at the Department for International Trade to pursue her leadership ambitions.Ms Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, told LBC radio: “There have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available, which would have been useful, and other ministers have picked up the pieces”.A leadership debate between the final three contenders scheduled for Tuesday night on Sky News was cancelled over concerns about increasingly nasty “blue on blue” attacks damaging the Conservatives.Mr Sunak and Ms Truss declined to take part after the previous two TV hustings descended into damaging public slanging matches.Mr Johnson insisted the party would soon “coalesce in loyalty” around a new leader.But former Tory donor John Armitage said MPs inside the Westminster bubble were unaware of the extent to which the party had been left in “deep s***” by its departing leader.The hedge fund billionaire, who has given Tories £3m over recent years but stopped donations in February complaining of a “lack of honour”, told the BBC: “Most MPs and most commentators don’t really realise what deep s*** the Conservatives are in.“I think people in the country are fed up with a regime that tolerated a dishonourable and bad prime minister for a long time.” More

Boris Johnson used one of his final speeches in the Commons to suggest Sir Keir Starmer was plotting with the “deep state” take Britain back into the EU.The prime minister used the phrase beloved by paranoid conspiracy theorists, as he repeatedly claimed the Labour leader wanted to undo Brexit.“We got Brexit done, and the rejoiners and revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time,” Mr Johnson said, before suggesting his legacy was under threat.He said: “Some people will say as I leave office that this is the end of Brexit … and the leader of the opposition and the deep state will prevail in its plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return.”Challenging Tory MPs to uphold his hard Brexit deal, Mr Johnson added: “We on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won’t we?”RecommendedLast month Sir Keir vowed not to take the UK back into the EU single market or customs union, or restore freedom of movement, as he set out his plan to “make Brexit work”.Mr Johnson pointed to Starmer’s record voting against Brexit deals, claiming he had tried to “overturn the will of the people” – and would attempt to overturn Brexit again if he became PM.The outgoing PM said: “Be in no doubt, if he were ever to come to power with his hopeless coalition of Liberal Democrats and Scottish nationalists, he would try to do so again at the drop of a hat.”Sir Keir fired back by accusing Mr Johnson of indulging in sheer fantasy when it came to his legacy. “The delusion is never-ending – what a relief for the country that they finally got round to sacking him,” he said.The Labour leader added: “He’s been forced out in disgrace, judged by his colleagues and peers to be unworthy of his position and unfit for office.”Mr Johnson won cheers from Tory MPs when boasting of his party’s 2019 election victory over Labour, claiming they had “sent the great blue ferret so far up their left trouser leg they couldn’t move”.He also added he believes Tory MPs will prove Sir Keir “totally wrong” over the prospect of a Labour election triumph, adding they will send the opposition leader “into orbit”.MPs will stage a vote of confidence in the government on Monday evening at around 10pm, amid renewed calls from the opposition for Mr Johnson to step down immediately and hand over to a caretaker.Labour former minister Dame Margaret Hodge said: “This debate is essential to call a halt to the dangerous Trumpian assault on everything we value in our British democracy.”RecommendedBut Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh said he “wholly regrets the departure of this prime minister and I remain completely loyal to him to the very end … And I think we will ask ourselves, what have we done?”“Where is any sense of kindness? Or magnanimity? Why do we need to throw these insults around?” he added about Sir Keir’s condemnation. The loyalist said it was not as if Mr Johnson was “the worst sort of mass murderer and criminal in political history”. More

Tory MPs voting for a new leader do not understand what “deep s***” Boris Johnson has left the party in, a former major Conservative donor has warned.Hedge fund billionaire John Armitage blasted all of the contenders to succeed Mr Johnson as “slick and superficial” apart from Kemi Badenoch, who he said was “really top class”.But he said he would wait to see how any new leader performed as prime minister before deciding whether to resume donations, which have totalled around £3m in recent years, including £500,000 under Mr Johnson.Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One, he warned that voters would not accept a new leader continuing with Mr Johnson’s “boosterism” in which attractive policies were launched but “nothing happens”.And he denounced the focus of the Tory leadership hopefuls – with the exception of Rishi Sunak – on offering tax cuts.Recommended“I profoundly disagree with the idea that it’s Thatcherite to cut taxes when there’s a massive deficit and when our debt’s never been higher,” said Mr Armitage. “I really don’t think that’s what Mrs Thatcher would have done.”Mr Armitage ceased donations to the Tories in February, complaining of a “lack of honour” in the party, and has since donated to shadow cabinet member Wes Streeting. He today described Sir Keir Starmer as “a very good person and very sensible”.In order for him to switch back to funding Tories, he said he would need to see a new leader “address any of the fundamental problems of the country in a coherent, serious way”.He told World at One: “In the Westminster bubble most MPs and most commentators don’t really realise what deep s*** the Conservatives are in.“I think people in the country are fed up with a regime that tolerated a dishonourable and bad prime minister for a long time.“Brexit has actually happened and the debate has moved on to doing something about it and making it good. I think most people are fed up with what I would call boosterism, or you could call it policy by press release, where nothing happens.”Asked if any of the candidates could turn voters’ views around, he replied: “If the Conservatives get a leader who will actually do something, and isn’t guided by opinion polls above all, yes, it might make a difference.”But he signalled his dissatisfaction with almost all of the candidates on offer.In a swipe at foreign secretary Liz Truss, he said: “I don’t like having foreign ministers who go in furs in tanks astride the world stage, looking like Mrs Thatcher.”On Sunak, he said: “It would worry me having a leader whose wife has been a non-dom … The danger is that anytime Rishi Sunak takes a hard economic decision, or any time his chancellor does, what will get flung back at him is, ‘It’s all very well for you’.”Penny Mordaunt’s credo had been delivered in a book co-written with a PR agent, he said, adding: “PR executives are very good people. But they are all about presentation … And I feel that that removes an element of genuineness.”On Tom Tugendhat, Mr Armitage said: “I don’t like having MPs who say that we should have enforced a no-fly zone over Ukraine and put ourselves into conflict with Russia, which is Tom Tugendhat.”The only candidate he rated was Ms Badenoch, saying: “I think she’s fresh, she’s different, she’s not associated with the old regime.“There’s something very slick and superficial about the campaigns of many of these aspirant PMs. Kemi Badenoch gives me the impression that she is genuine.”RecommendedResponding to Mr Armitage’s comments, former Tory chair Brandon Lewis said: “Different donors will always support different leaders. One of the jobs a leader that serves the party has to do is ensure that they can deliver the policies that work for the country in a way we encourage our donors to support us as well.“If you look back, David Cameron’s big donors were different from Boris’s and different from Theresa [May]’s. I’m sure the next leader will get that support from different donors and some of the same donors as well.” More