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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

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA millionaire Conservative donor has said it is “probably time for a change” as he hailed Labour leader Keir Starmer as “a decent man with good values and good morals”.In a blow for Rishi Sunak’s government, property tycoon Nick Candy slated infighting in the Tory party, which he said has been going on “for the last few years”.Mr Candy, who donated more than £270,000 to the Conservatives between 2020 and 2022, according to the Electoral Commission, also attacked the power and influence of party advisers such as Dominic Cummings.The Tories have been facing struggles on several fronts, including an attempted coup, reports of a plan to oust the prime minister by a group called “evil plotters”, setbacks in Mr Sunak’s flagship Rwanda deportation plan and low poll ratings.Mr Candy said: “I think it’s probably time for a change. I think all this infighting in the Tories even now with talk of Kemi Badenoch replacing Rishi by mid-May with people that have nothing to do with…“The British people should know what’s going on. And the likes of [Tory adviser] Dougie Smith and Dominic Cummings, who I’ve never met, so they think they can just pick and choose who’s going to be the leader of the Conservative Party under their remit.“I think it’s wrong, and based on that maybe it’s time for some change.”Nick Candy, left, with wife Holly ValanceJust days ago, the 51-year-old businessman attended the launch of the new ‘Popular Conservatism’ group with his wife, former Neighbours star Holly Valance, where they heard speeches by ex-prime minister Liz Truss, ex-minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and outspoken MP Lee Anderson.After the Westminster event, Ms Valance backed Sir Jacob to succeed Mr Sunak as Tory leader and praised Mr Anderson and Ms Truss.Speaking to Bloomberg’s In the City podcast, Mr Candy said that we “still don’t know the Labour policies”, but added: “Do I think Keir Starmer’s a decent man with good values and good morals? One hundred per cent.”Although he admitted voting for Tony Blair in 1997, Mr Candy said he was naturally a Tory. He backed Conservative Shaun Bailey’s unsuccessful campaign to be mayor of London in 2021 and was spotted at Mr Bailey’s lockdown party in December 2020, when indoor household mixing was banned.Later in the podcast, when discussing property markets here and abroad, he praised the government of Dubai, adding: “I would love to have leadership like that in this country where politics aren’t in the way and they actually make really good decisions, smart decisions fast.“The problem is here it takes for ever. Democracies are great when you’ve got visionary leadership and you’ve got people working together to get things done. It seems like for the last few years we’ve been infighting.”Last October, Larry Fink, one of the world’s leading financiers, gave his backing to Sir Keir Starmer, saying the Labour leader offered a “measurement of hope” for British politics.Mr Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told the Wall Street Journal that Sir Keir had shown “real strength” in bringing Labour back to the centre ground of British. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour is to radically scale down plans to insulate millions of homes as it ditches its policy to spend £28bn a year on environmental projects. Amid mounting criticism of the U-turn, Sir Keir Starmer confirmed the figure had been “stood down”. Labour blamed the change on “the Conservatives’ crashing the economy” and announced plans to raise money by extending the energy windfall tax.But in a major climbdown, Sir Keir said plans to cut energy bills by giving 19 million people warmer homes in a decade could now take up to 14 years to achieve. Labour will now promise only to kit out 5 million properties by 2030. Other major projects, as yet unannounced, will also not get the green light. The party is now set to spend £23.7bn over the course of the next five-year parliament, on top of the £10bn a year it says the government has already committed to.Sir Keir and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have come under fire for the climbdown, which a former adviser to Tony Blair, John McTernan, said was “probably the most stupid decision the Labour Party’s made”. A member of Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet also told The Independent the U-turn had been “handled dreadfully” and now risked distracting from two potentially disastrous by-elections for Rishi Sunak next week. 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”.The Labour leader sought to play down the U-turn, insisting the party would keep its mission to achieve clean power by 2030.He added: “I don’t want to have a row about the size of a cheque – I want to have a row about the outcomes.”Ms Reeves also denied she had bullied her party leader into the climbdown and reiterated her vow to become the UK’s first “green” chancellor. Even before it was confirmed the decision had come under fire from environmentalists and voices within the left of the party.Former shadow minister, Barry Gardiner, called the decision “economically illiterate, environmentally irresponsible and politically jejune”.News of the announcement came just after the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and the Liverpool city region mayor Steve Rotheram warned the party to “stick to the pledge” around green transition. Last year, Labour adjusted its original plan by saying the £28bn spending target would likely be met in the second half of a first parliament, rather than immediately, if the party wins the next election.The party has since insisted the pledge is subject to its fiscal rules, which include getting debt falling as a percentage of GDP, as it seeks to reassure voters it would handle the economy responsibly in government.Confusion over the future of the policy has grown in recent weeks as some senior figures refused to refer to the £28bn figure, while party leader Sir Keir continued to do so as recently as Tuesday.However, Labour has come under pressure as the Conservatives increasingly seized on the figure as a key attack line, claiming Labour would have to raise taxes to meet the “unfunded spending spree”.Mr Gardiner warned Labour now risked “being so bland that you stand for nothing”. He said: “The government will then write your policies for you, and will say, ‘you see Labour’s not telling you what they what they’re going to do. It’s going to be this it’s going to be that’.“They can paint their own picture, so I think politically, it’s strategically incompetent.”Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer referred to the £28 billion-a-year figure as recently as this week (PA)Other MPs on the left of the party also criticised the plan. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Streatham in London, said that “now is not the time to scale back our green industrial strategy”. The Unite union, a major donor to Labour, said the “retreat” would “confirm workers’ scepticism of the endless promises of jam tomorrow and it will be ‘alright on the night’ rhetoric on the green transition”.But Labour received surprising support from David Cameron’s former spin doctor, Craig Oliver, who said the move would leave “glum faces” inside No10 and CCHQ, following the loss of what “was going to be a major Conservatives attack line for months” in the run-up to the general election. For his part, Mr Sunak accused Labour of “trying to wriggle out” of the £28bn green pledge and said the move demonstrated his argument that Sir Keir “U-turns on major things, he can’t say what he would do differently because he doesn’t have a plan.” Greenpeace criticised Sir Keir’s decision as showing “weak” political, economic and climate leadership while the Green Party described the U-turn as a “massive backwards step for the climate, for the economy and for good quality jobs”.The U-turn comes after the Tories claimed an official Treasury costing suggested part of the plan – to upgrade insulation for 19 million homes – would cost more than double the party’s estimate of £6bn. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Environmental groups on Thursday criticized Britain’s opposition Labour Party for ditching a pledge to invest 28 billion pounds ($35 billion) a year in green projects if it wins an upcoming general election.Labour leader Keir Starmer said the party could no longer commit to the figure because the Conservative government had left the economy in dire condition.“Interest rates have gone though the roof; we have to adjust,” he said.The left-of-center party has been out of power since 2010, but leads Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s Conservative Party in opinion polls, with a national election due to be held this year.The 28 billion promise, first made in 2021, has become a major political issue, with the Conservatives accusing Labour of planning a public spending spree that would raise people’s taxes.Labour said it still plans to hit its goal of generating all Britain’s power from renewable sources by 2030, and to fund green investment through a windfall tax on oil and gas firms.“It is a plan for more jobs, more investment and cheaper bills,” Starmer said.Greenpeace said Labour was abandoning green investment that is “hugely popular with voters.”“The British public and businesses are crying out for a green industrial strategy fit for the 21st century, not a hollowed-out plan with an empty wallet,” said Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace U.K. Alice Harrison, head of fossil fuels campaigning at Global Witness, said the policy change “is a real setback for all those hoping that a Labour government would herald a much-needed shift on tackling the climate crisis.”The government boasts of Britain being a leader in cutting carbon emissions. It says U.K. greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by half from 1990 levels, mainly because of the almost complete removal of coal from electricity generation. The government has pledged to reduce emissions by 68% of 1990 levels by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050.But with seven years to go until the first goalpost, the government’s climate advisers last year called the pace of action “worryingly slow.”That was before Sunak’s government weakened some of the U.K.’s environmental commitments, postponing a ban on the sale of new gas and diesel cars and issuing new licenses for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.Sunak argues that fighting climate change should not impose “unacceptable costs” on ordinary people. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Scottish government minister at the centre of a scandal over £11,000 roaming charges incurred on his parliamentary iPad has quit. Michael Matheson said his teenage sons used his device as a hotspot to watch football while on a family holiday in Morocco.However, he faced claims of lying to the media and the row increased pressure on Humza Yousaf’s SNP government. He has now resigned as Scotland’s health secretary. In November, the first minister said he was not misled by Mr Matheson, but added that the minister “should have handled the situation better”. Mr Matheson initially insisted the device had used for parliamentary work during the trip, but later said he had discovered his family’s involvement but did not initially disclose the information to “protect” his children.He said he was leaving his post so the row over the charges “does not become a distraction” to the government.When he learned of his children’s use of the device, Mr Matheson paid back most the charges, which had originally been picked up by the taxpayer.A Holyrood investigation is ongoing and Mr Matheson said he was “conscious that this process will conclude in the coming weeks”.Michael Matheson has quit as health secretary (Jane Barlow/PA)In a letter to Mr Yousaf, he said: “It is in the best interests of myself and the government for me now to step down to ensure that this does not become a distraction to taking forward the government’s agenda.”Following increasing pressure over the issue, Mr Matheson had said he would pay the full cost himself.The long-serving minister has held various roles in the Scottish cabinet for almost 13 years, including the justice, net zero and public health portfolios.Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Mr Yousaf had acted as a “human shield” ininitially defending his “disgraced” health secretary.“Humza Yousaf should have sacked him the minute it became clear that Michael Matheson had not told the truth,” he said.Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie said: “While I welcome the news that Michael Matheson has finally gone, the fact is the first minister has big questions to answer over his lack of judgment. “Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said patients “deserve better than an SNP minister who has lost their trust and could no longer focus on the day job”.He added: “From Humza Yousaf to Michael Matheson, our NHS has known only crisis, soaring vacancies and even longer waits.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA cabinet minister has rounded on Rishi Sunak for making a controversial trans joke while murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey’s mother was visiting parliament.Penny Mordaunt, tipped as a future Conservative leadership contender, called on the prime minister to “reflect” on his widely condemned remarks.Her provocative intervention threatened to hijack a Conservative bid to rally round Mr Sunak amid demands for him to apologise.Penny Mordaunt took aim at the PM over his controversial trans joke Ms Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, said: “Whatever the rough and tumble of this place (the Commons) whatever the pressures and the stakes that are made in the heat of political combat, we owe it to the people who sent us here to strive every day to make them proud of us and this place.“The Prime Minister is a good and caring man. I’m sure that he has reflected on things and I understand he will say something later today or perhaps even during this session.“And that is not just about Mr and Mrs Ghey that he should reflect on, but I’m sure he is also reflecting about people who are trans or who have trans loved ones and family, some of whom sit on these green benches.”But the Tory minister, who has drawn criticism from right-wing Tories for being “woke”, also said it was “right” for highlighting Labour’s “multiple inconsistencies” over policies.Mr Sunak has refused to apologise for the remarks, which Brianna’s father Peter Spooner called “degrading” and “absolutely dehumanising”. The prime minister insisted the jibe, about how to “define a woman”, was “absolutely legitimate” because he was attacking Sir Keir Starmer’s indecisiveness – and said it was “sad and wrong” that the Labour leader had linked his comments to Brianna.Ms Mordaunt took aim at Labour too, saying: “This government is also right to hold the Opposition to account for its multiple inconsistencies and u-turns on its policy platform, and today we have supposition ended and the reality has landed about the Schrodinger £28 billion, a policy that for months and months has been both alive and dead, and is now confirmed as dead.”Mr Sunak on Wednesday accused Sir Keir of being incapable of “defining a woman” and said it was one of a number of issues on which he had changed his mind.But an angry Sir Keir immediately admonished the Tory leader. He said: “Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber. Shame.”The joke was condemned across the political spectrum, with one former Tory minister saying they were appalled by the PM.Tory MP Jamie Wallis, the UK’s first transgender MP, said Mr Sunak had been insensitive: “I know from my own interactions with the prime minister that today’s display of insensitivity must have been inadvertent. Today has been a tough day for me but all I can think about right now is Brianna’s mother. Let us all think of her as we choose how to progress with this debate.”Labour’s Jess Phillips called the prime minister “an absolute disgrace”.She said: “Rishi Sunak is an absolute disgrace. Deplorable man with no heart, no sense, no clue. The sooner we are rid, the better.”Top Tories rallied around the PM after he made the trans comments, with one even appearing to suggest Brianna’s father should have “actually listened” to what Mr Sunak said. Policing minister Chris Philp told BBC Breakfast: “The Prime Minister made no reference at all to any individual trans people.“It was Keir Starmer who introduced that. The Prime Minister was making a point about Labour’s very numerous flip-flops.”Asked about Brianna Ghey’s father’s call for an apology, Mr Philp said: “I think anyone who is interested in this issue should actually listen to the clip, listen to the initial exchange.”Asked if he was suggesting Brianna’s father Peter Spooner had misunderstood the Prime Minister’s comments, Mr Philp said: “I have got every respect for, obviously, the views and feelings of a bereaved father.”Business secretary Kemi Badenoch was also among those rallying behind Mr Sunak’s trans jibe on Wednesday night. She said it was “shameful” for the Labour leader to criticise Mr Sunak over the joke, made while Brianna’s mother was expected to be in the Commons viewing gallery.And Ms Badenoch, who also oversees the government’s equality policy, said: “Every murder is a tragedy. None should be trivialised by political point-scoring.”In tweets signed off by No10, the business secretary extraordinarily claimed that “as a mother, I can imagine the trauma that Esther Ghey has endured”. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak refused to rule out putting disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson back in the cabinet as he played down the plots against his leadership as “minuscule”. The two men fell out after Mr Sunak’s resignation from the cabinet hastened Mr Johnson’s exit from office.But, in a new ITV documentary, the Tory leader said he still talks to his predecessor “on occasion”, the last time late last year. He remained tight-lipped about whether he might bring back Mr Johnson, who resigned as an MP after he was found to have lied and lied again over the Partygate scandal, saying that he would “never talk about these personnel things”.David Cameron became foreign secretary last year in a move that also saw him installed in the House of Lords. Mr Sunak said they “worked well together for a long time” although “in the end there (were…) well-documented differences”, in the documentary. But he added that his new team in No 10 were “honest”. A beleaguered Mr Sunak is the focus of a plot by MPs, donors and former aides, some of them linked to Mr Johnson, to force him out of Downing Street. But he attempted to play down the threats to his position, saying they were “minuscule”. An explosive poll, paid for by shadowy donors, predicted a devastating Labour landslide unless Mr Sunak was removed as leader.Tory peer Lord Frost, who organised the poll, has since been warned he risks losing the party whip unless he comes clean and names the anonymous moneymen.A senior Tory linked to both Liz Truss and Mr Johnson, Sir Simon Clarke, also recently went public with calls for his party leader to go.The group are thought to be planning a war of attrition against the prime minister. But hitting back at his internal critics, Mr Sunak said: “I don’t think the country votes for divided parties.” He added: “Actually the debates within our party are minuscule compared to the chasm on this issue between us and Keir Starmer.”The prime minister also insisted his wealth is not an issue for voters and accused those who attack him over it of having a “lack of ambition for our country”.Mr Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, are worth an estimated £529m, according to 2023’s Sunday Times Rich List. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMore female pupils lack confidence when studying mathematics and science than their male peers, a survey has suggested.The gender confidence gap poses a “threat” to the UK’s future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) workforce, education charity Teach First has warned.A poll, commissioned by Teach First, found two in five (40%) pupils said they did not enjoy learning maths in school and 30% said they did not enjoy learning science.Among the pupils who reported not enjoying maths in school, more than half of female pupils (54%) said they did not feel confident in learning maths, compared to two-fifths (41%) of male pupils.The gap was even wider among pupils who said they did not enjoy science in school – with more than four in ten girls (43%) not confident compared with just about a quarter of boys (26%).It’s deeply troubling that too few children feel confident studying science and maths, with too many girls in particular left behindAmy Mitchell, chief impact officer at Teach FirstThe findings come ahead of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Sunday.More than 1,000 young people – aged between 11 and 16 – from across the UK took part in the YouGov poll between November 3 and November 10.Teach First has warned the imbalance in learning confidence is a concern for the future of Stem as they say poor gender diversity will exacerbate the skills shortage facing the sector.The charity is calling for more high-quality Stem teachers to be recruited and trained to inspire the next generation to work in the Stem sector.Amy Mitchell, chief impact officer at Teach First, said: “It’s deeply troubling that too few children feel confident studying science and maths, with too many girls in particular left behind.“Girls are just as capable as boys when it comes to maths and science, but this confidence gap poses a huge threat to the UK’s future, with Stem skills desperately needed to boost economic growth and to help tackle the major problems we face such as climate change.”She added: “We urgently need an uplift in pay for trainee teachers to incentivise more people to become Stem teachers to empower the next generation, particularly in low-income areas.”A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “We are continuing to promote Stem subjects and drive up participation, especially among girls.“This includes investing £100 million to improve computing teaching and participation at GCSE and A-level, alongside targeted initiatives to boost uptake of maths, physics, digital and technical education by girls and among underrepresented groups.“On top of this, we’re introducing the new Advanced British Standard (ABS) which will see every student in England study some form of maths and English to age 18.“To attract the brightest and the best teachers, we offer bursaries and scholarships up to £30,000 for chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics teachers, alongside £3,000 tax-free for those in disadvantaged schools in the first five years of their career which will double to £6,000 tax-free over the next two years.“This comes on top of the largest teacher pay rise in three decades and a minimum starting salary of £30,000.” More