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Starmer says briefing against cabinet ministers 'completely unacceptable', and Streeting doing 'great job'
Kemi Badenoch associates the Tories with what Starmer said about remembrance week, and veterans.
Was Wes Streeting right to say there is a toxic culture in No 10?
Starmer says any attack on any member of his cabinet is “completely unacceptable”.
He says Streeting is doing a “great job”.
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Rebecca Paul (Con) says the supreme court ruling on trans people and the Equality Act must be implemented. She says in her area there are five biological in the women’s prison, mixing with women unsupervised.
Starmer says the supreme court ruling must be enforced in full. He invites Paul to write to him about her concerns.
Starmer condemns Farage after Reform UK leader refuses to condemn Reform councillor who called care leavers evil
Darren Paffey (Lab) mentions a Reform UK councillor who described care leavers as “evil”. Will the PM condemn them?
Starmer does condemn that comment, and he urges Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, who has the next question, to condemn the comments.
Farage stands up. As MPs call for condemnation, he says he only has 30 seconds. He does not refer to the councillor’s remark, and instead asks about the closure of a hotel used by migrants.
Starmer says the government is closing migrant hotels.
He says, just as Farage did not condemn the councillor, he would not condemn the racist comments of one of his own MPs (Sarah Pochin). He accuses Farage of lack of leadership.
Starmer declines to agree to Ed Davey's call for him to tell Trump to drop his $1bn against BBC
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says President Trump “is trying to destroy our BBC”. Will the PM tell Trump to drop his demand for a $1bn settlement from the BBC.
Starmer says he will always stand up for a “strong, independent BBC”.
Davey says the Tories also undermined the BBC. They put two cronies on the BBC board. One, Robbie Gibb, is still there. Will the PM sack him now?
Starmer says he agrees the last government undermined the BBC; they undermined almost everything, he says.
But he says he won’t go into the internal workings of the BBC.
Badenoch says all ministers are failing, mentioning David Lammy and Lisa Nandy in particular. Unemployment is at its highest level since Covid. And the cabinet is weak.
This prime minister has lost control of his government. He’s lost the confidence of his party.
Starmer says interest rates have been cut, and wages are going up.
Badenoch says the government is in a tax doom loop. So why is he promising more welfare giveaways.
Starmer says the government had to raise national insurance to clean up the mess by the Tories. And he says the Tories have not yet said if they would reverse this.
Badenoch says Starmer is trying to cling to his own job. He should be worried about other people losing their jobs.
Starmer says the government is transforming job centres.
Badenoch says Starmer did not express full confidence in McSweeney.
Starmer says the economy is doing well.
Badenoch says there is only one waiting list Streeting is interested in.
She says the attacks are coming from No 10 staff. Does the PM have full confidence in his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney?
Starmer says his team is united, and doing a good job for the country.
Starmer says briefing against cabinet ministers 'completely unacceptable', and Streeting doing 'great job'
Kemi Badenoch associates the Tories with what Starmer said about remembrance week, and veterans.
Was Wes Streeting right to say there is a toxic culture in No 10?
Starmer says any attack on any member of his cabinet is “completely unacceptable”.
He says Streeting is doing a “great job”.
Lincoln Jopp (Con) picks up the remembrance reference, and says when he was in the army in Africa he survived a coup. He offers to give advice to the PM.
And he says PMQs was a “binfire” last week. He asks Starmer to promsie not to go away again on a Wednesday.
Starmer defends his trips abroad.
Keir Starmer welcomes the Canadian Speaker to the public gallery, and a war veteran who was one of the troops who liberated the Belsen concentration camp.
He says SSE will spend £33bn on clean energy projects in this country. That is a vote of confidence, he says.
Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
PMQs is about to start.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
One of the arguments used by those in No 10 who have been briefing about the dangers of a leadership challenge has been that this would alarm the financial markets. This echoes the argument made by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, when she was interviewed by Andrew Marr on LBC last week and asked if she would resign if she broke the manifesto promise on taxes in the budget. Reeves replied: "And what do you think would happen in financial markets if I did that?”
In an interview on the Today programme this morning, Luke Tryl, the More in Common pollster, said that arguments like this were very damaging to the political parties making them. He explained:
I think there’s a real risk to that argument, because what it does is it reinforces what we call ‘the politics of can’t’. So rather than government being seen to be in control and have a proactive agenda, it’s instead the government constantly saying, ‘We can’t do this because of the bond markets’, or ‘We can’t do this on migration because of things like the European court of human rights.’
And what that does in turn is it makes people turn to politicians who are doing the “politics of can’.
And what you see is people like Nigel Farage in Reform or Zack Polanski in the Greens are saying ‘No, no, we’ll do something totally different and put government back in control.’
Lib Dems says better Brexit deal would lead to growth that would help fund their budget plans
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent.
Growth from a better Brexit plan would help fund billions of pounds of tax cuts and other fiscal measures, the Liberal Democrats have said ahead of the budget.
Answering media questions after her speech at a central London pub to unveil the party’s proposal for help to reduce energy bills and a cut in VAT for hospitality businesses (see 10.40am), Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, denied that she was being unrealistic in promising this and other plans while also criticising Labour for its expected rise in income tax.
Cooper said a rise in income tax at the budget in a fortnight, which would break the Labour manifesto, “would be incredibly damaging, not just for the Labour party, but for trust in politics.”
Answering a series of questions, Cooper committed the Lib Dems to ending the two-child benefit cap, looking at how to compensate “Waspi women” with extra pension payouts, and maintaining the so-called triple lock on pensions.
As revenue-raising ideas, she proposed a windfall tax on banks, and new taxes on tech giants and gambling firms.
Asked if it was disingenuous to promise so many billions of pounds in extra spending in exchange for largely untested and seemingly pain-free taxes, Cooper denied this. She said:
If we’re going to have an honest conversation about tax, let’s also have an honest conversation about growth. Brexit has been a disaster for this country. It has wrapped up small businesses in red tape.
It’s all very well for the Labour government to say, well, Brexit is part of the problem, but if they’re going to say that, we have to say how they’re going to fix that and what the solution is. We’ve given them the solution. We need them to go further and adopt our proposals for a UK-EU customs union.
At the end of the Q&A, as is mandatory for political events in pubs, Cooper was photographed pulling a pint of beer. After a slightly shaky start, the foam-heavy pint gradually settled, and looked acceptable.
Starmer to face PMQs as reports suggest No 10 briefing about leadership threats has backfired
There is a lot of commentary around this morning about the No 10 briefing reported by the Guardian last night, and the reaction it has triggered. Among journalists who have been sounding out Labour MPs, the consensus is that the briefing has backfired, and weakened Keir Starmer’s standing in his party.
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Henry Zeffman, the BBC’s chief political correspondent, has written an analysis headlined “Efforts to shore up Starmer’s leadership may have backfired”. He says:
The key question this morning is whether the briefings have made Sir Keir more or less vulnerable.
Judging by the rancour of the messages I have received from various corners of the Labour Party, the definitive answer is: more vulnerable.
One senior Labour figure questioned why Sir Keir’s allies had “legitimised what was a taboo” by publicly entertaining the prospect of a leadership challenge …
An MP said the approach was “utterly unhinged and self-destructive,” adding: “They’re in the bunker shooting everyone who’s outside the bunker guarding it. And poor oblivious Keir doesn’t even realise he’s in the bunker.”
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Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s deputy political editor, says Labour MPs are staggered by the No 10 approach.
Have had at least 10 messages from Labour MPs overnight all on the same theme. “What on earth are they doing?”
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George Eaton in New Statesman says that, although there are people in No 10 claiming to have hard evidence that Wes Streeting was plotting against Starmer, Labour MPs are not convinced.
Streeting’s activities, as Morning Call has long reported, have certainly attracted much attention in recent months. Whether calling for the UK to immediately recognise a Palestinian state back in June or denouncing claims that the far right is merely exercising “free speech”, he has been happy to go beyond the government line. His praise for New York mayor Zohran Mamdani (“lessons for progressives the world over”) also raised eyebrows and was seen as part of a conscious effort to woo the soft left.
But none of this, of course, amounts to active disloyalty – and here’s the question No 10 will have to answer today: if it has hard evidence that Streeting is plotting against Starmer, why is he still sitting in the cabinet?
The danger for Downing Street is clear: it has dramatically elevated the leadership question, giving every MP and journalist in the country a new excuse to pose it. Rather than shutting down speculation over Starmer’s future – as it managed in the aftermath of Labour conference – it has fuelled it. And far from uniting the party around the Prime Minister it risks only achieving the reverse.
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Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says some MPs may boycott PMQs today out of protest.
From a Labour MP who tries hard to be loyal to the PM and Downing Street, but feels badly let down by the internecine politics of the team around Starmer:
“Some Labour MPs are planning on boycotting PMQs today in protest at the briefing. If the PM thinks we are feral and too stupid to understand economics, then why on earth would we go out and cheer him on?”
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Patrick Maguire, the Times’s chief political commentator, says Streeting is benefiting.
Senior Labour source writes: “They have achieved the impossible: they have made Wes popular with the backbenches.
In a post on his Substack blog, he also explains the background to today.
That, then, is what’s going on. From my conversations it seemed that critical mass of Labour MPs had agreed on that what at September’s party conference – that Starmer was probably finished. Now the conversation has turned to the how, when and who. Each question is as yet unsettled. So, by the way, is the most important question of all: why? Anyway, inside No 10, that’s all academic. All that matters is that they know Starmer will be challenged in the near-to-medium term.
So what will he do? As I say on the podcast, tell them to come and have a go if they think they’re hard enough. He won’t accede to one minister or a dozen backbenchers’ demands for his head. This isn’t the morning after the Hartlepool by-election, when Starmer had no proof point of electoral success and had to be talked out of resigning by Morgan McSweeney. The prime minister now feels that he has a mandate – still a reasonably fresh one, as it happens – and should be allowed to fulfil it. So he will invite any challenger to trigger a leadership election and face the consequences of contesting it against him and whoever else.
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Ben Riley-Smith, the Telegraph’s political editor, says MPs have been impressed by Streeting’s performances this morning.
The irony this morning: If the Starmer ally briefings were an attempt to sap the energy out of a Wes Streeting below-the-radar leadership campaign it appears to have done the opposite for some people.
Streeting’s central selling point is his strength as a communicator and breezing through the morning round with humour (jokes about Traitors and JFK conspiracies when asked about plotting) may have just underscored that point.
“Wes is now more popular because he is so self-assured,” says one minister. “He took my breath away in answering every question directly and with humour.”
Another minister agrees Streeting’s performance has just reminded people what a strong media performer he is.
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George Parker, the Financial Times’s political editor, says in an article this morning No 10 has triggered a crisis.
One minister called it the “one of the weirdest briefing decisions I have ever seen” and on Wednesday recriminations were flying in Downing Street after Sir Keir Starmer’s team conjured up a leadership crisis out of nowhere, just two weeks ahead of the Budget.
Tuesday’s briefing from inside Number 10 that Starmer would fight any leadership challenge propelled low-level Westminster gossip into a political crisis, as the prime minister advertised the weakness of his own position.
Lib Dems call for windfall tax on banks in budget to fund 5% VAT cut for hospitality and fuel bills reduction
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a 5% cut to VAT for hospitality businesses in the upcoming budget to make going out to the pub and restaurants more affordable, PA Media reports. PA says:
The party is also proposing the main renewable levy be removed from energy bills under the £12bn support package it is putting forward ahead of the chancellor’s statement on 26 November.
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the plan aims to return “small joys” like a restaurant meal or family day out to those for whom they have become an “unaffordable luxury” with measures that the party says will save the average family around £270 over the next 18 months.
The plan would be an “emergency” package to come into immediate effect in November this year and expire at the end of the next financial year in April 2027.
It would cut VAT from 20% to 15% for hospitality, accommodation, and attractions in a bid to boost high streets and slash prices for families.
They estimate that around half of the VAT cut would be passed on to consumers – giving each household around £135 during that time period.
And it would remove the “renewables obligation” levy from people’s bills, which the party said would slash the typical energy bill by £90 annually.
Cuts to VAT would cost some £7.5bn, while funding the levy would be around £4.5bn, the party estimates.
Both would be funded by a temporary windfall tax on big banks.
The Lib Dems said this could raise around £30 billion between now and 2030, pointing to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
The influential think tank said earlier this year that hiking a levy on profits from major firms such as Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest could raise up to £8bn a year for public services.
Cooper said: “High street businesses have been hammered by the jobs tax and higher business rates bills, so it’s no wonder that so many treasured pubs, restaurants and cafes are boarding up their shopfronts, taking with them vital jobs and local community spaces.
“Our plans to cut VAT on hospitality and energy bills for households would put £270 back into people’s pockets, making it more affordable to heat their home and allowing them to spend more on occasional extras.
“This would help to drive economic growth, restore our high streets and give the country a much-needed morale boost.”
