UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThere were emotional scenes in the House of Commons as Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who lost his hands and feet to sepsis, returned to Parliament. Mr Mackinlay, who has joked he wants to be known as the “bionic MP”, received a standing ovation on Wednesday as he made his first appearance in the Commons since his ordeal. His wife Kati and their four-year-old daughter Olivia were sitting in the public gallery to watch the moment.Prime minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute, saying he was in “awe” at his remarkable resilience and indicated NHS procedures would change as a result .Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who shook Mr Mackinlay’s hand, praised his “courage and determination”. MPs are technically barred from clapping but were allowed to on this occasion by the Speaker. Mr Mackinlay said it was “an emotional day for me” as he apologised for breaking Commons rules, including wearing trainers because his shoes would not go on over his new feet and no jacket, because it would not fit over his bionic arm. He praised the prime minister for visiting him multiple times. There was another outbreak of clapping when he paid tribute to NHS staff, also in the public gallery, who “took me from close to death to where I am today”, he said.The MP for South Thanet was admitted to hospital in septic shock last September and was put into a 16-day induced coma.He was given just a 5 per cent chance of survival but pulled through, and said he was “extremely lucky to be alive”.He said he had been “stoic” when he was informed of the decision by doctors to amputate his limbs. “I haven’t got a medical degree but I know what dead things look like,” he said. “I was surprisingly stoic about it… I don’t know why I was. It might have been the various cocktail of drugs I was on.”The MP has been fitted with prosthetic limbs and plans to campaign for early diagnosis of the condition that nearly killed him.A former UKIP member, Mr Mackinlay has been a Tory MP since 2015 and said he intends to run at the next election. He said: “When children come to parliament’s fantastic education centre, I want them to be pulling their parents’ jacket or skirts or their teacher and saying: ‘I want to see the bionic MP today’.”( More

This is the funny moment Jeremy Hunt’s phone rings during his live TV interview with Martin Lewis.The chancellor was asked when banks are going to cut interest rates following a fall in inflation when he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday (22 May).Responding to the question, he said: “It’s obviously going in the right direction, and that is very encouraging, and when….”Mr Hunt was then interrupted by the sound of his mobile phone ringing.Taking the phone out of his pocket, he apologised and said “Excuse me for a moment”.Mr Lewis joked: “It is the prime minister on the phone.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailTwenty-seven nations and the European Union have signed a new agreement to create shared risk thresholds around the development of artificial intelligence (AI) to close the Seoul summit on the safety of the technology.The agreement will see the countries develop an internationally recognised threshold for AI model capabilities and when it should be considered it poses a severe risk without appropriate mitigations.That risk could include the potential for AI to help malicious actors acquire or use chemical and biological weapons, or by the technology attempting to evade human oversight through deception.The agreement, known as the Seoul Ministerial Statement, was signed at the conclusion of the AI Seoul Summit in South Korea, which the UK has co-hosted.Alongside the UK and South Korea, the United States, France, and the UAE were among those to sign up to the agreement, However China, which was involved in the summit talks, did not sign the statement.Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: “It has been a productive two days of discussions which the UK and the Republic of Korea have built upon the ‘Bletchley Effect’ following our inaugural AI Safety Summit which I spearheaded six months ago. “The agreements we have reached in Seoul mark the beginning of phase two of our AI safety agenda, in which the world takes concrete steps to become more resilient to the risks of AI and begins a deepening of our understanding of the science that will underpin a shared approach to AI safety in the future. “For companies, it is about establishing thresholds of risk beyond which they won’t release their models.“For countries, we will collaborate to set thresholds where risks become severe. The UK will continue to play the leading role on the global stage to advance these conversations.”As part of the agreement, the signatories have now set the target of developing the risk proposals alongside AI companies, civil society and academia, so that they can be discussed at the AI Action Summit, which is due to be hosted by France in 2025.The announcement follows agreements also being reached on the first day of the summit which saw 16 leading AI companies from around the world commit to publishing safety frameworks on how they will approach specific risks around AI, and a second agreement between 10 nations and the EU to create an international network of AI safety institutes that will share research and other data. More

Craig Mackinlay received a standing ovation as he made his return to the House of Commons on Wednesday 22 May.The Conservative MP has bravely opened up about the sepsis ordeal which left him with both of his hands and feet amputated last year.He now wants to be known as the first “bionic MP” after being fitted with prosthetic limbs.Ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Mackinlay returned to parliament and was given a standing ovation by his colleagues.Speaking on Tuesday, he recalled how his arms and legs “had turned black” having gone into septic shock in September last year. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak blocked veterans using their IDs at polling stations over fears it could “open the floodgates” to more students voting, a cabinet minister has revealed.Veterans minister Johnny Mercer complained he had tried “for months without success” to convince Downing Street to let veterans use their IDs to vote. But he said the prime minister’s special advisers blocked the plans over fears it would mean students could use their own ID cards too, according to The Times.The newspaper obtained photos of Mr Mercer sitting barefoot on a train typing a memo bemoaning the voter ID rules and Mr Sunak’s Downing Street team.Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Johnny Mercer with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailConservative MP Craig Mackinlay has spoken about having his hands and feet amputated after an episode of sepsis last year, and revealed he wants to be known as the “bionic MP” upon his return to Parliament.The South Thanet MP’s ordeal began on 27 September last year when he felt unwell and, despite testing negative for Covid-19, saw his condition rapidly worsen overnight. His wife, Kati, called for an ambulance and Mr Mackinlay was admitted to a hospital in septic shock and put into a 16-day induced coma.He told the BBC that he had a survival chance of just 5 per cent and was transferred to St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where he underwent amputations on 1 December.Mr Mackinlay said that he was “extremely lucky to be alive” and had had some “extreme surgery” as a result of the illness.He said he was “stoic” when he was informed of the decision by doctors to amputate his limbs. “I haven’t got a medical degree but I know what dead things look like. I was surprisingly stoic about it… I don’t know why I was. It might have been the various cocktail of drugs I was on.”The MP has now been fitted with prosthetic limbs, and described the challenging road to recovery that he went through following the traumatic episode.Mr Mackinlay spoke of the emotional toll and the significant adjustments required in life after the amputations, especially the loss of his hands. “You don’t realise how much you do with your hands… use your phone, hold the hand of your child, touch your wife, do the garden.”He says his prosthetic hands are “amazing… but it’s never going to be quite the same”.“So yeah, the hands are a real loss.”He also spoke of the sense of loss the amputations still gave him. “You do get a little one every morning because you’re in the land of nod having a nice dream, and then you wake up and it’s ‘I haven’t got any hands’.“That is the realisation every morning.“It’s very easy to say – and I do try and stick to it – there’s not much point moaning and complaining or getting down about the things you can’t do.“You’ve got to be cheerful and positive about things you can do and I find every day there’s something new that I can do.“None of this would be possible without my wife… I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.”However, he remains positive and now plans to advocate for early sepsis recognition in healthcare so the “the health service recognises sepsis at the earliest opportunity”.Before his illness, Mr Mackinlay was a chartered accountant and a former UK Independence Party member, elected as a Conservative MP in 2015. He intends to run in the next election and hopes to inspire others as the “bionic MP”.“When children come to parliament’s fantastic education centre, I want them to be pulling their parents’ jacket or skirts or their teacher and saying: ‘I want to see the bionic MP today’.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMinisters could face an unlimited fine if they are found to have broken the law in their treatment of disabled people after a watchdog launched the first investigation of its kind into a government department. The probe, by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, follows the deaths of a number of vulnerable benefits claimants. Baroness Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the EHRC, said her organisation was “extremely worried” about the treatment of some disabled people by the Department for Work and Pensions. “We suspect the Secretary of State’s department may have broken equality law,” she added. She described the investigation as the “strongest possible action” they could take. The equalities watchdog is investigating the government’s treatment of disabled people More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe rate of inflation fell to 2.3 per cent in April from 3.2 per cent in March, the Office for National Statistics said, its lowet level since 2021. In a boost for Rishi Sunak, the rate of inflation is now just 0.3 per cent away from the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, having skyrocketed in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A Treasury spokesman said: “We rightly protected millions of jobs during Covid and paid half of people’s energy bills after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent bills skyrocketing – but it wouldn’t be fair to leave future generations to pick up the tab. “That’s why we must stick to the plan to get debt falling. The economy is turning a corner, with strong growth this quarter and inflation close to target, allowing us to cut taxes for the average worker by £900 a year.” More follows on this breaking story… More