Posted by Sunak refuses to apologise for anti-trans jibe, saying linking what he said to Brianna Ghey tragedy was ‘worst of politics’
Rishi Sunak has refused to apologise for the anti-trans jibe he made about Keir Starmer at PMQs yesterday, after being told Brianna Ghey’s mother would be listening in the public gallery.
Speaking to journalists in Cornwall, Sunak insisted that he was just making a point about Starmer. And he said that to link what he said to the death of Brianna, whose murder was partly motivated by transphobia, was “the worst of politics”.
Labour and other opposition parties have said Sunak should apologise for what he said and Brianna’s father, Peter Spooner, backed those calls, saying Sunak’s remark was “absolutely dehumanising”.
But, when asked today if he would apologise, Sunak said:
If you look at what I said, I was very clear, talking about Keir Starmer’s proven track record of U-turns on major policies because he doesn’t have a plan.
A point only proven by today’s reports that the Labour party and Keir Starmer are apparently planning to reverse on their signature economic green spending policy.
That just demonstrates the point I was making. He’s someone who has just consistently changed his mind on a whole range of major things.
I think that is an absolutely legitimate thing to point out and it demonstrates that he doesn’t have a plan for the country.
Sunak said he was “completely shocked” by the murder of Brianna, and he said he had “nothing but the most heartfelt sympathy for her entire family and friends”.
He went on:
But to use that tragedy to detract from the very separate and clear point I was making about Keir Starmer’s proven track record of multiple U-turns on major policies, because he doesn’t have a plan, I think is both sad and wrong, and it demonstrates the worst of politics.
This is an echo of the argument used by Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary and minister for women and equalities, yesterday when she argued that it was Starmer, not Sunak, who was disresepecting the Ghey family.
During PMQs Sunak said: “I think I counted almost 30 [Starmer U-turns] in the last year: pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman – although in fairness that was only 99% of a U-turn.”
The 99% joke was primarily aimed at Starmer, but it also entailed implicit mockery of trans people because it was a reference to an interview Starmer gave in which he said 99.9% of women did not have a penis.
Key events
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No-fault evictions up 49% in England year-on-year as campaigners complain renters reform bill being stalled
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DfE says its Raac survey now complete and 234 schools in England found to have problem concrete
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Penny Mordaunt implicitly criticises Sunak’s anti-trans jibe at PMQs, saying he should ‘reflect’ on his comments
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Green industralist Dale Vince backs Labour’s move on £28bn, saying it’s ‘arbitrary figure’ and economic responsibility matters
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Starmer to scale back home insulation scheme as part of green policy U-turn
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Streeting says latest NHS figures show people ‘waiting longer for NHS treatment than ever before’
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NHS figures show big increase in January in long waits in A&E in English hospitals
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Michael Matheson resigns as Scotland’s health secretary over iPad roaming charges controversy
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Sunak claims Labour’s U-turn show he’s right to say Starmer ‘doesn’t have a plan’
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Sunak refuses to apologise for anti-trans jibe, saying linking what he said to Brianna Ghey tragedy was ‘worst of politics’
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Tories claim that, despite Labour’s ‘attempted U-turn’, Starmer still committed to £28bn green investment plan
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Minister defends Sunak’s transgender jibe amid calls for apology
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Hospital waiting list for England fell slightly in December, for third month in row, figures show
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Britain needs ‘more not less investment’, says Unite, as it urges Labour to resist Tories’ ‘false accusations’
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Labour’s U-turn ‘will destroy Scottish jobs’, says SNP
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Labour’s U-turn on £28bn green investment pledge ‘a massive backward step’, says Green party
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‘Economically illiterate, strategically incompetent’ – Labour’s left criticises Starmer’s £28bn green investment U-turn
No-fault evictions up 49% in England year-on-year as campaigners complain renters reform bill being stalled
Campaigners have criticised the government for delaying plans to ban no-fault evictions as new figures show a steep rise in repossessions in England, PA Media reports.
The latest statistics published by the Ministry of Justice show that some 26,311 accelerated possessions have been made from the second quarter of 2019 until the end of 2023.
Landlords can apply for an accelerated possession order if their tenants have not left by the date specified in a section 21 notice. Section 21 of the Housing Act allows no-fault evictions.
There were 9,457 such repossessions last year, up from 6,339 in 2022 – a 49% rise.
As the figures were released, Commons leader Penny Mordaunt outlined upcoming business in parliament but made no mention of the renters (reform) bill.
Labour’s Lucy Powell, responding in the Commons, complained that the report stage of the bill “was promised by early February, but it’s nowhere to be seen”.
In a statement, the party’s shadow minister for housing and planning, Matthew Pennycook, said: “The stark rise in section 21 notices served last year lays bare the devastating impact that the Tories’ failure to abolish them is having on hard-pressed renters.”
He vowed that if the government does not “get on and quickly pass the Bill abolishing section 21 evictions, that the next Labour government “will get the job done”.
Tom Darling, campaign manager of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, described the bill as “on life-support after being deprioritised by the government”.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “It’s utterly shameful that the government is bowing to vested interests while renters are marched out of their homes in their thousands.”
And Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Today sees the continuation of an awful trend that has been blighting the lives of renters across our country. As long as landlords can evict tenants through no fault of their own with just two months’ notice, homelessness in England will continue to soar.
“Renters have been waiting five years since the government promised to end these evictions, and yet today we find out the government is delaying their plans again. Since that promise, almost 90,000 households have been forced out because of no-fault evictions – and this number is rising every day.”
DfE says its Raac survey now complete and 234 schools in England found to have problem concrete
Richard Adams
The number of schools and colleges in England with buildings affected by crumbling concrete, known as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), has risen to 234, the Department for Education today revealed.
Three more schools have been added to the list since the DfE’s last update in December, including Barking and Dagenham College, a further education college in east London, and Thornleigh Salesian College, a secondary school in greater Manchester.
The DfE said that of the 234 with Raac-infested buildings, 119 are currently listed to get new buildings through its school rebuilding programme, while 110 will receive grants to renovate or remove the affected parts.
The DfE said its Raac identification programme launched last summer was now complete, with all schools and colleges with buildings likely to have used the material having responded to its survey.
All schools or colleges that advised us they suspect they might have Raac have had a survey to confirm if Raac is present. A small number of schools and colleges are carrying out additional checks for further assurance.
Penny Mordaunt implicitly criticises Sunak’s anti-trans jibe at PMQs, saying he should ‘reflect’ on his comments
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, has implicitly criticised Rishi Sunak for his anti-trans jibe at PMQs yesterday.
Speaking during business questions, she suggested he made a mistake and she contrasted Sunak’s much-criticised joke with the emotional mini-speech given by a backbencher who recalled trying to take his life.
She told MPs that she was sure that Sunak had “reflected” on what he said, and particularly what it might have meant to people who are trans. Sunak would be issuing a comment, she said.
She implied Sunak might be about to express some regret for what he said.
But, in the statement he gave to the media this morning, Sunak did the opposite, refusing the accept that his remark was anti-trans and claiming that it was Labour that was in the wrong because it was using the murder of Brianna Ghey to criticise him. (See 11.07am.)
Speaking in the Commons, referring to Brianna’s parents, Mordaunt said:
We’ve also seen a mother meeting the brutal murder of her child with the most profound grace and compassion, turning her anguish into positive action to protect other children.
And we’ve seen a father speak about how the love for his child enabled him to overcome his worries about her being trans.
These are things that our nation is made of: compassion, fairness, tolerance, responsibility, service and love.
We see these things every day in the people that sent us here and we look on them with pride.
Sometimes that pride is reciprocated. I’m sure it was for [Elliott Colburn] in what he said yesterday. [Colburn spoke very movingly at PMQs about how he tried to take his life and about the need for people feeling suicidal to realise “whatever you are going through, you are not alone, that help is out there, and better days lie ahead”.]
And sometimes that pride is not reciprocated.
Whatever the rough and tumble of this place, whatever the pressures and mistakes 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 am 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 am 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.
Mordaunt also said she thought Keir Starmer should reflect on his actions too, but her comments were seen as primarily aimed at her own party leader, not him.
Mordaunt is one of the most liberal members of the government on trans issues. But during the Conservative leadership contest in 2022 her views on this topic badly damaged her campaign because she faced relentless criticism, led by papers backing Liz Truss, claiming she favoured self-identification for people wanting to change gender.
Green industralist Dale Vince backs Labour’s move on £28bn, saying it’s ‘arbitrary figure’ and economic responsibility matters
Ben Quinn
Dale Vince, the green industrialist and Labour donor has come out in support of plans by Labour to ditch the £28bn number attached to its flagship green pledge, which he described as “an arbitrary figure which is distracting from the bigger picture”. In a statement he said:
Whether this policy is being ditched or being nailed to the mast, the truth is somewhere in the middle. I think Labour are entirely right to say the economy matters. I think voters want a responsible next government. The current Conservative government hasn’t been responsible with the nation’s money.
This £28bn is an arbitrary figure which is distracting from the bigger picture.
Vince, who said last year that he ws to stop funding direct action climate groups such as Just Stop Oil and instead funnel money towards getting the vote out for Labour at the next general election, added that he was “confident a Labour government will pave the way to the biggest economic opportunity we have, and that’s to achieve energy independence”.
Starmer to scale back home insulation scheme as part of green policy U-turn
Keir Starmer is cutting back his ambitious home insulation scheme as part of his decision to scale down Labour’s green policy, Kiran Stacey reports. Kiran says:
The Labour leader will announce on Thursday that he is drastically reducing the scale of the £28bn “green prosperity plan” after weeks of uncertainty over the fate of the plan.
People briefed on the scaled-back plan say the party’s home insulation scheme, which was singled out for attack by the Conservatives earlier this week, would be the major victim of the cuts.
One person added they expected Labour to promise an additional £5bn a year of additional green spending on top of what the government has already committed, allowing the party to stick to its separate pledge to cut government debt levels.
The full story is here.
Here is more criticism of Labour’s decision to drop its £28bn target for green investment spending from environmentalists, progressive campaigners, and policy experts (or people who qualify as all three).
From Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, a leftwing thinktank
It is deeply disappointing that on the day scientists say global warming has exceeded 1.5C across an entire year for the first time, Labour is set to ditch its £28bn green investment plan.
This figure is not an arbitrary number. It is what the UK needs to lower emissions and create an economy that improves lives.
From Fatima Ibrahim, co-drector of the campaign group Green New Deal Rising
Scrapping Labour’s £28bn commitment is a cowardly and shortsighted capitulation to the government, and leaves Starmer with no plan for growth and no way of tackling climate change …
Young people are watching and will hold Labour to account to deliver a Green New Deal that responds to the scale of the cost of living crisis and climate catastrophe we face.
From Jess Ralston, an energy analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a thinktank
A lack of investment in insulating homes and building more British renewables over the past decade left UK households on the hook for high gas prices, which cost bill payers and taxpayers in the region of £50-60bn in one year alone. Each home could have saved up to around £2,000 last year had we made those investments.
If we want warm homes, reasonable bills, and energy independence, investment is required. Switching to heat pumps will leave us less dependent on foreign gas imports, running our home heating instead on electricity from British renewables.
There is a global economic race to build clean industries and Britain has to compete for green investment. Investors are looking for policy certainty and a clear plan from policy makers.
From Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK
Dropping the green investment pledge would be weak political, economic and climate leadership from Starmer before he’s even got his feet under the table …
Investing around £28bn extra per year in green technologies of the future will be needed from any future government willing to fix this broken country, insulate our homes, better our health, restore nature, improve public transport and slash emissions.
Without this level of serious investment Starmer risks leaving the door wide open for the EU, US and China to overtake us in the global green tech race. This is a vision worth fighting for, not retreating from. Or voters will start wondering what the Labour party actually stands for.
Streeting says latest NHS figures show people ‘waiting longer for NHS treatment than ever before’
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, says today’s NHS England waiting time figures show that people are waiting longer for hospital treatment than ever before. He has released a statement saying:
People are waiting longer for NHS treatment than ever before, and waiting lists are 400,000 longer than when Sunak became prime minister.
The last Labour government cut the maximum waiting time from 18 months to 18 weeks. After 14 years of Conservative vandalism of the NHS, more patients wait longer than 18 weeks than ever before, and the number of patients waiting 18 months has doubled in the past few months. Things are getting worse and worse.
Labour will get patients treated on time with 2 million more weekend and evening appointments, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status. Only Labour can get the NHS back on its feet.
The headline waiting list figure for NHS hospitals in England has fallen marginally, according to today’s figures. (See 9.54am.) But Streeting is referring to figures showing that only 56.6% of patients get seen within 18 weeks, the target set out in the NHS constitution. This is the lowest proportion in recorded data going back to 2007. And the median wait is 15 weeks, which is also the worst figure in the recorded data.
NHS figures show big increase in January in long waits in A&E in English hospitals
There has been a sharp rise in people facing long waits in A&E, though the overall NHS waiting list continues to fall, PA Media reports. PA says:
An estimated 7.60 million treatments were waiting to be carried out in England at the end of December, relating to 6.37 million patients, down slightly from 7.61 million treatments and 6.39 million patients at the end of November, according to NHS England.
But hospitals were clearly under pressure as winter took hold, with the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit them to actually being admitted hitting 54,308 in January, up sharply from 44,045 in December.
This is the second highest figure on record, just below the record 54,573 in December 2022.
The number of people waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission has also risen, from 148,282 in December to 158,721 last month – again, the second highest figure on record.
NHS England said A&E and ambulance services experienced their busiest ever January.
It said there were 2.23 million A&E attendances, with more than a 10% increase in emergency admissions from A&E, compared with the same month last year.
Junior doctors in England staged the longest strike in NHS history in January, for six full days from 3 January to 9 January.
Today’s waiting times data also revealed some NHS waits for planned treatment are getting worse.
Some 13,164 people in England had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of December, up from 11,168 at the end of November.
The government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April 2023, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.
Elsewhere, 337,450 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start treatment at the end of December, down from 355,412 at the end of November.
Michael Matheson resigns as Scotland’s health secretary over iPad roaming charges controversy
Michael Matheson has quit as Scotland’s health secretary, saying he was leaving the post so the row over his iPad roaming charges “does not become a distraction” to the government, PA Media reports. PA says:
Matheson had been under fire since November last year when details of an £11,000 bill on his Holyrood-issued iPad were made public.
In an emotional statement to MSPs, he revealed his teenage sons had been using the device as a hotspot so they could watch football while on a family holiday to Morocco.
The then health secretary, however, had originally insisted the charges had been run up while he was using it for constituency work during the break.
When he learned of his children’s use of the device, Mr Matheson paid back the charges, which had originally been picked up by the Scottish Parliament.
With the Scottish parliament corporate body conducting an investigation, Matheson said he was “conscious that this process will conclude in the coming weeks”.
In a letter to the first minister, Humza 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.”
Matheson has posted his statement on X.
Sunak claims Labour’s U-turn show he’s right to say Starmer ‘doesn’t have a plan’
Rishi Sunak has claimed that Labour’s U-turn over £28bn as the target for Labour’s green investment spending confirms Tory claims that Keir Starmer “doesn’t have a plan”.
Speaking to reporters in Cornwall, where he was asked about the Labour story, Sunak said:
This is a serious moment. This was the flagship plank of Labour’s economic policy and it now looks like he’s trying to wriggle out of it.
I think it demonstrates exactly what I’ve been saying, that he U-turns on major things, he can’t say what he would do differently because he doesn’t have a plan. And if you don’t have a plan, then you can’t deliver change for our country.
In contrast, our plan is working and people can see that. Inflation has come down, mortgage rates are starting to come down and because economic conditions have improved, we’ve been able to start cutting people’s taxes.
This is slightly different from the argument the Conservative party was making last night, which was that in reality Starmer remains committed to green plans that would cost £28bn a year. (See 10.26am.)