Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs, which starts at noon.
Key events
Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs, which starts at noon.
Rupert Lowe claims he was victim of Reform UK ‘smear campaign’ after CPS announces he’s not being charged
In March Reform UK reported Rupert Lowe (at the time one of their five MPs) to the police, claiming he had threatened the party chair, Zia Yusuf, with violence. Reform UK announced the news shortly after Lowe gave a newspaper interview criticising Nigel Farage, the party leader,
The Crown Prosecution Service has today announced that, having considered the evidence, it is not taking further action. In a statement Malcolm McHaffie, head of the CPS’s special crime division, said:
Following a thorough and detailed review of the evidence in relation to an allegation of threats, we have decided that no criminal charges should be brought against a sitting MP.
Having considered a number of witness statements, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.
In a statement Lowe, who is no longer in Reform, said this proved that he was the victim of a “brutal smear campaign”. He claimed the police process was “weaponised to silence a party colleague who raised reasonable concerns”.
He went on:
If Farage were ever to control the vast power of the British state, I believe he would not hesitate to do to his adversaries what they have tried to do to me. With real power, I fear he would wield that immense responsibility to crush dissent – as he has done time and again over the years …
Please listen when I say this: For the good of our country, Nigel Farage must never be prime minister.
GPs in England deeply divided over assisted dying bill, survey suggests, ahead of fresh Commons debate on Friday
GPs in England are deeply divided on whether assisted dying should be allowed, a BBC survey suggests. In their report, Catherine Burns and Harriet Agerholm report:
BBC News sent more than 5,000 GPs a questionnaire asking whether they agreed with changing the law to allow assisted dying for certain terminally ill people in England and Wales.
More than 1,000 GPs replied, with about 500 telling us they were against an assisted dying law and about 400 saying they were in favour.
Some of the 500 GPs who told us they were against the law change called the bill “appalling”, “highly dangerous”, and “cruel”. “We are doctors, not murderers,” one said.
Of the 400 who said they supported assisted dying, some described the bill as “long overdue” and “a basic human right”.
It is a big week for assisted dying legislation. Here are some of the other stories on this running today.
The assisisted dying bill covering England and Wales is back in the Commons chamber on Friday. Since second reading, it has been in committee where more than 150 amendments to the bill were passed. The House of Commons has published a very detailed briefing paper explaining how the bill has changed.
New 10-year settlement rule likely to apply to migrants already in UK, not just new arrivals, report claims
On Monday, after Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, published the immigration white paper, she refused to tell MPs whether the plan to make migrants wait 10 year of earned settlement (the route to citizenship) would just apply to new arrivals, or to people already in the UK expecing to wait just five years (the current waiting time).
But, according to a story by Matt Dathan in the Times, Cooper does not want to exempt migrants already in the UK from the new rules. He says:
The Times can also reveal that 1.5 million foreign workers who have moved to Britain since 2020 face having to wait a further five years to apply for permanent settlement.
Under reforms set out in the immigration white paper, automatic settlement and citizenship rights will be granted after ten years instead of five, but it did not state whether this would apply for migrants already here.
Government sources said Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, wants to apply the changes to all migrants who have arrived in the UK in the last five years. This would mean that 1.5 million foreign workers who would have qualified for permanent settlement later this year face having to wait until they have lived in Britain for ten years.
Charities, thintanks and MPs have criticised this proposal, saying that extending the amount of time migrants have to wait until they can get citizenship will be bad for integration.
According to a briefing from the Migration Observatory, a migration thinktank, one reason why the Home Office favours the plan is because it will raise money. It explains:
The white paper proposes increasing the duration to settlement to 10 years as the standard amount for workers, with family members still able to get settlement after 5 years. Other proposals allowing earlier settlement for people making a greater social or economic contribution are also set out, with details to be consulted on. A ten-year route to settlement would make the UK more restrictive than most other high-income countries but comparable to Switzerland and Japan.
Mihnea Cuibus, researcher at the Migration Observatory, said: “The newly proposed policies would mean more migrants have temporary status. Making the route to permanent status longer is unlikely to significantly affect migration levels. One of the main impacts would be to bring in more visa-fee revenue to the Home Office, because people on temporary visas pay ongoing fees to be here. For migrants themselves, this means higher costs and longer periods without the rights that come with permanent status and citizenship.”
Sarah Pochin, the new Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, has said that Labour is now sounding “more like Reform than Reform” on immigration.
Speaking to Times Radio, she said:
Reform have got them on the run. They know what the electorate want to hear.
They’ve seen the devastating impact of our policies on their results in these latest set of elections, and so now, yes, they’re sounding more like Reform than Reform are.
McFadden says controversy about PM’s ‘island of strangers’ comment has been ‘way overblown’
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, was also asked about the controversy about Keir Starmer’s “island of strangers” comment in his speech on immigration on Monday, and its Powellite connotations. He told LBC: “This has been way overblown.”
Asked if he would use the phrase himself, McFadden replied:
Well, it depends on the context. I might, because what the prime minister was talking about was we need a society with rules. We need a society with responsibilities and obligations. And that’s absolutely right. We all believe in that.
China issues warning to UK over terms of US trade deal
China has warned the UK over its new trade deal with the US, accusing Britain of aligning with the US in a move that could compel British companies to exclude Chinese products from their supply chains, Aletha Adu reports.
Major Whitehall buildings to be shut to shed 12,000 civil servant jobs in London
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has been giving interviews this morning to talk about government plans to get rid of 12,000 civil service jobs in London. Rowena Mason has the details here.
Some of the 12,000 London jobs will be relocated elsewhere in the country, and some will go for good. But, in interviews this morning, McFadden was not able to say how many of the jobs would be retained outside London. He told Times Radio:
The precise number will be dependent on the demands in the future. We’re also trying to get more productivity out of the civil service because it’s grown by about 120,000 people over the last 10 years. That was a situation we inherited. And I want the civil service to be more productive as well.
But I think there’s a real opportunity here because people can work and contribute in different parts of the country now.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden Minister shrugs off criticism of Trump visit by Canada’s Carney
Good morning. For the last two days the immigration white paper, and the row generated by Keir Starmer’s use of Powellite language to defend it, has dominated Westminster politics, and we may well hear more of that today at PMQs. But there is quite a lot of foreign policy on the table too: the Ukraine negotiations with Russia due to take place in Turkey tomorrow, the crisis in Gaza, and next week’s summit with the EU (an issue of particular interest to Kemi Badenoch). And, of course, Donald Trump remains a ubiquitous news presence, impossible to ignore.
This morning we’ve had an insight into the extent to which the US president caused a rift between the UK and Canada, two countries that for the most part are very strong allies. In an interview with Sky News, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, admitted that Canadians were unhappy about Keir Starmer’s decision to offer Trump an unprecedented second state visit to the UK when he visited the White House in February. At the time, Trump was still threatening to annex Canada. Asked how Canadians reacted to state visit invitation, Carney replied:
To be frank, they [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture. Quite simply, given the circumstance, it was at a time when we were being quite clear, some of us were being quite clear about the issues around sovereignty. I was not yet prime minister, but I was being clear on the campaign trail and it cut across some of those messages.
Asked if a state visit for Trump was appropriate, Carney replied:
Well, that’s a judgment for the government of the United Kingdom and the palace.
Asked if he had a personal view, Carney said:
I have opinions on many things, some of which I keep to myself.
This was one of those interviews where there was no surprise in the substance of what Carney said; it has been widely known that Canadians were unhappy about the state visit. But what was notable was that Carney was willing to talk about it.
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has been giving interviews this morning, and he claimed to be “completely relaxed” about Carney’s comments. Asked about them on Sky News, he replied:
We’ve got free speech in the world. Prime Minister Carney is entitled to his view. He’s got to decide how Canada conducts its relationships with the United States, and by the same token, so do we.
So I’m completely relaxed about the comments, but I’m glad that President Trump is coming on a state visit, and I’m particularly glad that we’ve conducted a trade deal that saves thousands of automotive jobs in this country and is a platform for future trade which can benefit the United Kingdom economically more in the future too.
The government is not going to rescind the state visit offer. But that does not mean all the difficult decisions associated with it are now settled. Trump is expected to visit Windsor Castle in September to meet King Charles, but this has not been confirmed as a state visit, and suggestions that Trump could be invited to address parliament are generating strong opposition.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is due to speak to broadcasters during a visit to a charity in south Lanarkshire.
11am: Tim Davie, the BBC director general, gives a speech where he is due to call for call for a “bold collective choice to take on the trust crisis”.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
Lunchtime: Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester mayor, and Steve Rotheram, Liverpool metro mayor, are due to speak to the media at Westminster about their call for a Liverpool-Manchester railway line.
After 12.30pm: MPs will vote on Lords amendments to the Great British energy bill, and then on Lords amendments to the data (use and access) bill.
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