UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailKeir Starmer’s wife asked “who the f**k does he think he is?” after their first meeting, the Labour leader has revealed. A former solicitor, Vic, as he calls her, did not take lightly to her future husband grilling her on the accuracy of some documents. When they had finished speaking, over the phone, he overheard her say to a colleague: “Who the f**k does he think he is?”“You might think, ‘Not the best of starts,’ but it was absolutely classic Vic,” he told Vogue magazine. “Very sassy, very down to earth, no nonsense from anyone, including from me.”In a wide-ranging interview the man who would be the UK’s next prime minister said his experience working on death row cases had made him tough enough to be do the top job. “My answer to that is: ‘Look, if you’ve sat in a cell with someone and had to make the decision about their case which could result in them living or dying, then you’ve had to take some tough decisions,’” he said. He also said he and wife “share” the housework, although he admitted: “Vic would say she does the majority of it.” When it comes to childcare, they had “the usual juggling as a family, particularly when our kids were very young”, he said, adding: “This is a massive issue for many families. Childcare is very expensive.” The interview was carried out before this week’s U-turn on plans to spend £28 billion on green investments. Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour is being “straight” with voters amid criticism over the decision to ditch the key pledge. MPs on the left of the party, as well as environmental groups, trade union allies and energy industry figures have expressed disappointment at the move. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBusiness secretary Kemi Badenoch has spoken of her frustration at reports she is pitching for Rishi Sunak’s job – in a 4,000 word interview. Ms Badenoch told plotters working to oust the prime minister from office to stop “stirring” last month, before reports that she was in a Tory Whatsapp group called ‘Evil Plotters’. She also refused to rule out another tilt at the top job, after standing to lead the party in wake of Boris Johnson’s departure. In a new interview with the Times, she praised Mr Sunak’s “stability” as a leader, before complaining that “if I’m abroad making a trade deal, they say I’m on manoeuvres because I’m distancing myself from the government. But if I’m here making a speech, somehow I’m on manoeuvres too.”In the wide-ranging interview she also said “snotty, middle-class north Londoners” she met at university were one reason she was a Tory. “One of the things that drove me insane was how they talked about Africa. So high-minded: ‘We need to help Africans’… These stupid lefty white kids didn’t know what they were talking about. And that instinctively made me think, ‘These are not my people.’ ” She also revealed she almost died in a flash flood in her constituency last year. She said: “I always used to think, ‘How do people die in flash floods?’ “ But at the time “the water came from nowhere. And there was just a slight dip in the road and suddenly, all the electrics went off. We got out of the car. The water was thick and strong and fast. We were wading, waist deep, and it was pitch-black. I had heels on! The car got written off.” “There could have been a by-election,” she added. She also hit out at portrayals of her as a puppet of Michael Gove “as if I have no thoughts and no opinions of my own.” She said their relationship was “not what it used to be, but he’s somebody I have to work with” following reports he had a relationship with a friend of hers. Business secretary Kemi Badenoch She also said death threats towards her had intensified since Nadine Dorries’s book The Plot, on Mr Johnson’s downfall. “If you get the unhelpful coalition of mental health issues and propensity to violence, then you read the Nadine Dorries conspiracy theory and decide you want to kill someone, it’s very, very nasty,” she said. Last month Ms Badenoch warned the Tory party it could not keep treating prime ministers as “disposable”, as she said she was “extremely” frustrated at the speculation over her future.At the time Johnson ally Ms Dorries accused her of pursuing her leadership ambitions, despite the denials.On Ms Badenoch’s call for the plotters to shut up, Ms Dorries said: “She should take her own advice.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe government has been warned the UK risks becoming a “back door” to cyber and other national security threats as foreign companies snap up British firms. Checks are “not keeping pace” with growing threats from countries like Russia, a powerful group of MPs says. They call for ministers to be notified of proposed investments which would affect media freedom, access to the sensitive data of individual, cybersecurity and critical supply chains. MPs have attacked the proposed UAE-backed takeover of the Telegraph newspaper group, expressing concerns about foreign state ownership and warning that it is impossible to “separate sheikh and state”. Liam Byrne, the chair of the Commons Business and Trade sub-committee, said it was “vital that we do not let our country become a “back door” through which our adversaries acquire capabilities that imperil the collective security of either us or our NATO Allies.”The report is published as Rishi Sunak branded “clearly ridiculous” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that his invasion of Ukraine was a result of Nato expansion.The warning comes in the committee’s submission to the government ahead of reforms to the UK’s investment-screening regime.Under the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, this allows ministers to block purchases of or investment in firms in strategic industries on national security grounds.The submission warns the UK is facing a “surge” of investment from countries classed as dictatorships as well as new threats from China and Russia. With so many transactions ministers risk “losing sight of the wood for the trees” and missing key transactions with security implications, they say.Both the US and the EU have recently announced tougher investment checks. MPs also warned the lack of an explicit definition of “national security” was creating confusion. MPs also condemn part of the Act as a “fundamental roadblock to scrutiny” because it prohibits telling Parliament how government decisions are made. Mr Byrne said: “It is vital that Parliament is given proper oversight of the decisions made by ministers, so we can assure the House of Commons that the decisions made on investment screening are sound decisions. “Right now, the truth is we cannot give that assurance, because ministers do not have the legal power to share the information we need to check decisions. That risks making a nonsense of parliamentary oversight of our economic security. That is something we simply cannot afford to go on.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRachel Reeves has come under fire over Labour’s £28bn green spending u-turn, with a BBC presenter asking: “Don’t you want to think big any more?”The shadow chancellor was taken to task after she and Sir Keir Starmer finally confirmed the spending pledge had been “stood down”.Instead, Ms Reeves and the Labour leader unveiled a much less ambitious set of measures, which will cost £23.7bn over the party’s first five years in power if it wins the next election.After weeks of flip-flopping, with Sir Keir backing the original £28bn a year figure as recently as Tuesday, the party blamed the Conservatives for “crashing the economy” as it downsized its plans.Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer have scaled back their original green spending plans BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter Mishal Husain grilled Ms Reeves on Friday morning, asking her: “Don’t you want to think big any more?“Imagine if Labour in 1945 had thought about health and rolled back from founding the NHS in the way that you have diluted your single biggest policy pledge.”But Ms Reeves insisted that, despite scaling back the funding, Labour’s so-called green prosperity plan will be “transformational for our economy, for jobs and for bills”.And she insisted that Labour is “determined” to deliver the plan.Ms Reeves said: “People can see that since the Conservatives crashed the economy, things have changed. That means we’ve had to update our plans.“What we’ve got now is an ambitious plan for decarbonizing the economy which are all affordable within our fiscal rules.”But her clash with Ms Husain came just moments after she was grilled by BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt over the policy.“Why should anyone believe the things you say about your plans, when you are prepared, if the circumstances require it, to just do other things?” he asked.He added: “It is very hard to know what we can believe.”The exchanges followed a Thursday press conference in which Labour drastically scaled back its flagship economic policy ahead of this year’s election.The Conservatives had seized on the original £28bn a year figure as a key attack line, claiming Labour would ultimately have to raise taxes to meet the “unfunded spending spree”.The party’s Warm Homes Plan, a £6bn package of measures to improve energy efficiency, is set to be one of the casualties of the climbdown with Labour confirming that it will now take longer than originally estimated, with five million homes now set to be upgraded during the first five years.But it comes alongside plans to extend the windfall tax on oil and gas companies to the end of the next parliament, with the energy profits levy rising to 78%.The Labour leader insisted the party in power would still retain its mission to achieve clean power by 2030, stressing that it could still be achieved.Ms Reeves denied she had bullied her party leader into the climbdown and reiterated her vow to become the UK’s first “green” chancellor.She again denied a behind-the-scenes rift with Sir Keir on Friday, saying they “work together every single day” and she has “a strong relationship with Keir”.The scaling back of the pledge has drawn condemnation from unions, environmental groups, Labour grandees and MPs.Former Labour minister Lord Blunkett said “the PR, the timing” of the U-turn “couldn’t have been worse” and he hoped “lessons have been learned”.And ex-shadow minister Barry Gardiner warned Labour now risked “being so bland that you stand for nothing”.Rishi Sunak said Labour’s flagship economic policy was now ‘in tatters’ Science minister Andrew Griffith said Labour has “got a lot of explaining to do” for u-turning on the £28bn a year green investment pledge, but added that the plan would have been “foolish”.He told Times Radio: “Rachel Reeves ran off to the US, was impressed by the idea of spending lots of public money, taxpayers’ money, on plans that they hadn’t costed, hadn’t put together properly.“And the fact that those plans are now unravelling, just shows how foolish it would be and how expensive for taxpayers, were they to get into power.”Rishi Sunak attacked the party as well, with the prime minister saying Labour’s flagship economic policy was now “in tatters”. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has yet again refused to apologise to the family of Brianna Ghey after making a trans joke while the murdered transgender teenager’s mother was visiting parliament.The prime minister said it is “wrong” to suggest he joked about trans people when he made a “how to define a woman” jibe at Sir Keir Starmer this week.And he said it is “sad” to drag Brianna’s family into a debate which he said was intended to be about the Labour leader’s u-turns.But, in an interview with BBC Radio Somerset, the PM was once again confronted with calls from Brianna’s father, Peter Spooner, to apologise.Rishi Sunak has refused to apologise for the jibe, made while Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, visited ParliamentMr Spooner has said he was disgusted with Mr Sunak and branded his comments “degrading” and “absolutely dehumanising”.In a tense exchange, presenter Charlie Taylor said: “Will you apologise now to Brianna’s father, who has said it was degrading and dehumanising? How much more do you need before you can apologise?”Mr Sunak said: “I’ve got nothing but heartfelt sympathy for all of Brianna’s family and friends… but as we saw yesterday it is yet another u-turn from Keir Starmer, that was the point I was making.”The PM was then challenged over whether he would continue making jokes about trans issues in parliament.But he said: “That is not what I was doing. I was pointing out a very clear track record of u-turns from Keir Starmer on many important matters of policy.”The row erupted on Wednesday when Mr Sunak accused Sir Keir in the Commons of being incapable of “defining a woman” and said it was one of many issues on which he had changed his mind.An angry Labour leader immediately admonished the Tory leader. He said: “Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber. Shame.”The PM has been condemned for the jibe across the political spectrum, with Tory former minister Dehenna Davison said it was “disappointing to hear jokes being made at the trans community’s expense”. And minister Penny Mordaunt urged the PM to “reflect” on his remarks. Labour’s Jess Phillips called the prime minister “an absolute disgrace”.Even former prime minister Gordon Brown weighed in, saying he had acted when he once referred to a voter as a bigot, adding: “I made mistakes… but I apologised and I think that’s a lesson that all prime ministers should follow”Sir Keir on Thursday night said Mr Sunak should “do the right thing” and apologise as “swiftly as possible”.The Labour leader said: “This is nothing to do with me. This is Brianna’s father. They’ve had their child murdered and he has put his words out about what the prime minister said and it’s not good enough for the prime minister’s team to go out today and effectively say to Brianna’s father ‘you didn’t understand what Rishi was saying’.“He did understand. He’s given his reaction. The right thing to do is to apologise as swiftly as possible – not just reflect but apologise. This is a grieving father.”But the PM has steadfastly refused to backtrack on the remarks, and on Friday accused critics of dragging Brianna’s family in the face of a tragedy into politics. “I don’t think that’s right, I think it’s sad and it’s wrong,” he added. More