Rishi Sunak blames striking workers as he signals he could fail in two key pledges – as it happened | Politics

Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day:

• Rishi Sunak has signalled he will struggle to achieve two of his five priorities: to halve inflation by the end of the year and to reduce NHS waiting lists in England, which he blamed on striking workers. The prime minister urged voters to trust him with the economy, as he admitted inflation was not falling as fast as he would like.

• Nadine Dorries is failing to represent her constituents, Rishi Sunak has said in a rare attack on his senior Conservative colleague, who has refused to formally resign despite announcing her intention to do so almost two months ago. The prime minister criticised the former culture secretary, who has not spoken in the Commons for more than 12 months, saying “people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are”.

• The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is demanding a meeting with Suella Braverman to raise concerns over fire safety in asylum seeker accommodation, including the Bibby Stockholm barge. The FBU has written to the home secretary with concerns about a potential lack of entrance and exit points on the barge, narrow corridors and doorways and increased occupancy.

• Grant Shapps has insisted that the Bibby Stockholm barge that will house asylum seekers is not a “deathtrap”. Rishi Sunak is now under increasing pressure to explain why the government persists in planning to use the barge, which has been condemned by refugee organisations for being costly, cruel and inhumane.

• Housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm “floating prison” would be “inhumane” and risks “retraumatising” people who have escaped war zones and other “horrors”, the leader of a refugee charity has warned. Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, also expressed his fear that the barge being prepared to accommodate more than 500 refugees at Portland, Dorset was an “accident waiting to happen”.

• The bosses behind Britain’s multibillion-pound clean energy rollout gathered in Downing Street to discuss the government’s plan for green economic growth later on Wednesday. Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, is expected to meet the leaders of energy companies including EDF, SSE, Shell and BP, which are poised to invest billions in low- and zero-carbon projects.

• Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, has suggested electric vehicle mandates could hamper investment in Britain and lead to job losses, in a sign that another of the government’s green pledges is in doubt. The business secretary was discussing the automotive industry’s concerns about a rule to be introduced in January that will require manufacturers to ensure at least 22% of new sales in the UK are of emissions-free models, rising each year to reach 80% by 2030.

• While Badenoch has made headlines by lobbying the cabinet to water down rules in the ban on new petrol and diesel cars, Labour has committed to the target. Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said: “The transition to electric vehicles is essential to net zero, essential to economic growth, and essential to the future of our automotive industry.”

• Shapps has said it would be “irresponsible” not to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea and insisted the UK would “still meet our net zero targets”. The energy security secretary said that the North Sea basin was very mature and was “effectively running out”.

• Scottish ministers will be able to spend hundreds of millions more on public services each year after striking a deal with the UK Treasury to lift restrictions on its budgets. The agreement will allow ministers in Edinburgh to double their annual borrowing to protect day-to-day spending to £600m.

• The higher education minister, Robert Halfon, has decisively ruled out lifting the cap on student tuition fees in England, despite increasingly urgent predictions from vice-chancellors about the impact of declining funding on universities.

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Minister rules out lifting cap on student tuition fees in England

Sally Weale

The higher education minister, Robert Halfon, has decisively ruled out lifting the cap on student tuition fees in England, despite increasingly urgent warnings from vice-chancellors about the impact of declining funding on universities.

In an interview with Times Higher Education (THE), the minister said he recognised that some universities were facing challenges, but he said raising student tuition fees in the context of a cost of living crisis was “just not going to happen, not in a million years”.

Halfon’s intervention will come as a blow to vice-chancellors, who say the £9,000 tuition fee, introduced in 2012 and increased to £9,250 five years later, is worth little more than £6,000 to universities, having been eroded by soaring inflation. The current freeze is in place until at least 2024-25.

It will also reignite the debate about the growing recruitment of international students, whose higher fees are used to help plug the funding gap created by the now-devalued domestic tuition fee, amid fears that some domestic students could lose out on places as a result.

Read the full story here:

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is demanding a meeting with Suella Braverman to raise concerns over fire safety in asylum seeker accommodation, including the Bibby Stockholm barge.

Health and safety checks have delayed plans to move the first 50 asylum seekers onto the barge in Portland, Dorset, due to happen this week.

Fears have been expressed that the barge could become a “floating Grenfell” and endanger the lives of vulnerable people who have fled hardship and war.

The barge was originally built to house 222 people but is now expected to house more than 500.

The FBU has written to the home secretary with concerns about a potential lack of entrance and exit points, narrow corridors and doorways and increased occupancy.

Ben Selby, FBU assistant general secretary, said:

As firefighters, we are driven by the need to prevent loss of life and protect public safety. Everyone has the right to live in safe and decent housing, no matter where they are from.

The government has already scrapped vital fire safety measures for asylum seeker accommodation. Now, it wants to put more than 500 people onto an off-shore barge designed to hold around 200.

This is a cruel and reckless approach to the welfare of asylum seekers, and puts the safety of firefighters at risk.

The letter to Braverman from Selby, which the Guardian has seen, says:

The FBU believes fire safety standards are universal and apply to everyone. These matters are both industrial and political. They matter because our members will be called upon in the event of an emergency.

They also matter to us because fire and rescue is a humanitarian service, designed to protect everyone regardless of their circumstances or background. Fire does not discriminate and therefore neither should safety regulations.

Firefighting operations on vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm provide significant challenges and require specialist training and safe systems of work. The diminished safety provisions only exacerbate our operational concerns.

The FBU has also criticised the government’s plans to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from requirements for an HMO licence. The HMO licensing process gives local authorities a duty to check that adequate safety measures and equipment is in place.

Aletha Adu

Rishi Sunak is heading to California for what he says will be a “special trip” with his family this summer.

The prime minister is flying to the US on Wednesday with his wife, Akshata Murty, and his two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, for their first “proper” family holiday in four years.

Explaining why they were heading to California, he told Nick Ferrari’s LBC radio show:

We’re going to California, which is where I met my wife, so it’s very special to us, but the kids are very excited because I’m taking them to Disneyland.

He also said he relaxed best by “spending time with my girls, which I don’t do enough of”, but did manage to watch the Barbie film with them recently, which was “very pink” but provided “good escapism”.

Helena Horton

Despite lobbying from the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, it seems the government is keeping the 2030 car target after advice from industry.

Emma Pinchbeck, chair of Energy UK, the UK’s largest energy trade association, was at a meeting in Number 10 Downing Street with the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, today.

She said:

I believe many in government fully understand the link between policy certainty and supply chain jobs (as with the Tata factory) and will be making that case across to colleagues.

The treasury also know that fewer incentives will be needed to get supply chain here if order books are full.

Severin Carrell

Scottish ministers will be able to spend hundreds of millions more on public services each year after striking a deal with the UK Treasury to lift restrictions on its budgets.

The agreement will allow ministers in Edinburgh to double their annual borrowing to protect day-to-day spending to £600m, as well as increase the amount they can borrow for major projects by inflation and also keep underspends in later years, without any limits.

The deal also preserves a longstanding agreement where the Treasury heavily subsidises Holyrood’s spending under the so-called Barnett formula, which redistributes spending around the UK, subsidising less wealthy areas.

The Treasury said that element of the updated fiscal agreement meant Scottish ministers had £8bn more to spend last year than they would have had if Scottish spending was set at the same per capita rate of spending for the UK as a whole.

The new £600m figure for day-to-day borrowing ensures that Scotland can fill any holes in its day to day spending if its income tax receipts fall below forecasts.

If there are shortfalls in tax receipts, Scottish ministers can borrow money to cover the gap but that money must be repaid to the Treasury. That shortfall has grown to £390m, which breached the previous £300m borrowing limit. The Treasury has agreed to double that to £600m.

Scotland’s other borrowing limits will also be permanently pegged to inflation using a method known as index per capita, which ensures Scotland does not lose out financially because its population is growing more slowly than the UK’s.

Ministers in Edinburgh have been pushing for that reform for some time.

John Glen, chief secretary to the Treasury, said:

This is a fair and responsible deal that has been arrived at following a serious and proactive offer from the UK government.

We have kept what works and listened to the Scottish government’s calls for greater certainty and flexibility to deliver for Scotland. [These] are the clear benefits of a United Kingdom that is stronger as a union.

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Sunak signals he will struggle to meet NHS promise – but blames health workers

Aletha Adu

Rishi Sunak has signalled he will struggle to achieve two of his five priorities: to halve inflation by the end of the year and to reduce NHS waiting lists in England, which he blamed on striking workers.

In his final interview before heading to California with his family for their first holiday in four years, the prime minister urged voters to trust him with the economy, as he admitted inflation was not falling as fast as he would like.

Yet when he was confronted by a constituent during the LBC radio phone-in with the fact that four independent businesses in his constituency of Richmond, North Yorkshire, were forced shut their doors last week, he insisted “business is good”, despite admitting that some businesses were struggling because of inflation.

Weeks after health service bosses privately told ministers that the NHS pledge would be impossible to meet if strikes disrupted care beyond the summer, Sunak argued junior doctors and consultants were to blame for not accepting pay deals.

In a conversation with a junior A&E doctor who gave her name as Liv, he said: “That’s what’s causing the waiting lists to go up, I don’t think that’s right.

“I would say to them I’m very grateful and respectful of the incredible job you do, but we all have a shared mission to bring the waiting lists down.”

But Liv responded: “I think it’s amazing we’re blaming the increase in waiting lists on doctors going on strike. You’re losing staff because we are undervalued and it’s not just doctors, it’s everyone, we’re all leaving. A happy workforce is your responsibility.”

With the Bank of England announcing whether interest rates will be raised again on Thursday, the prime minister repeatedly stressed that halving inflation was his most important priority as it would be “transformative for how people feel about their situation”.

He said on Nick Ferrari’s LBC show.

I know families are struggling with the cost of living and that’s why I set it out as my first priority to halve inflation, and we’re making progress.

Is that as fast as I’d like? No. Is it as fast as anyone would like? No. But the numbers most recently that we had show that we’re heading in the right direction, inflation is coming down, and I think people can see light at the end of the tunnel.

We’ve got to stick to the plan, it’s not easy to bring down inflation. It requires me to make difficult but responsible decisions on behalf of the country.

Sunak was challenged by a constituent who said Tory policies were “causing small businesses to shut up shop” and that the impact of Brexit and the difficulty in finding staff had left people without a disposable income. The prime minister replied that, when he spoke to breweries at a London beer festival, “many of them were telling me that actually business is good, that footfall is up, that they’re seeing confidence return”.

Read the full story here:

Helena Horton

While the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has made headlines by lobbying the cabinet to water down rules in the ban on new petrol and diesel cars, expected in 2030, Labour has committed to the target.

Badenoch has reportedly said the rules would hit automobile businesses, but Labour said that companies needed the goal to kickstart investment in new factories and jobs. Sources in the party said major manufacturers had invested billions of pounds into this transition, and warned against shifting the goalposts. Several manufacturers have already committed to all-electric car lineups in 2030, including Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini and Mercedes.

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said:

The real threat to investment in our automotive industry is chaos created by Kemi Badenoch and her colleagues at a time when the sector is crying out for certainty.

The transition to electric vehicles is essential to net zero, essential to economic growth, and essential to the future of our automotive industry.

The Conservatives might be happy to delay and let our car industry stall, but Labour would back the sector all the way, with our plan to deliver 80,000 jobs and £30bn in growth by turbocharging the switch to electric vehicles.

Full story: Rishi Sunak says Nadine Dorries is not properly representing her constituents

Aletha Adu

Nadine Dorries is failing to represent her constituents, Rishi Sunak has said in a rare attack on his senior Conservative colleague, who has refused to formally resign despite announcing her intention to do so almost two months ago.

The prime minister criticised the former culture secretary, who has not spoken in the Commons for more than 12 months, saying “people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are”.

Dorries announced on 9 June that she would “immediately” quit as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after she was denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.

But she is yet to formally tender her resignation, despite a council in her own constituency demanding she do so immediately as “residents desperately need effective representation now”.

Sunak told an LBC call-in: “I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them, wherever they are.

“It’s just making sure your MP is engaging with you, representing you, whether that’s speaking in parliament or being present in their constituencies doing surgeries, answering your letters. That’s the job of an MP and all MPs should be held to that standard.”

Asked if that meant Dorries was failing her constituents, Sunak said: “Well, at the moment people aren’t being properly represented.”

In a letter to Dorries last week, Flitwick town council said “concerns and frustration about the situation” had been raised at a recent meeting, and councillors wanted her to “immediately vacate” her seat to allow a byelection.

Dorries’s delay is widely seen as an attempt to frustrate Sunak’s attempts to prepare to replace her, though she has endorsed the prospective Tory candidate Festus Akinbusoye for her seat.

Dorries had claimed she was holding on to her role as MP while she investigated why she was denied a seat in the House of Lords.

Read more here:

Nadeem Badshah

Kemi Badenoch has suggested electric vehicle mandates could hamper investment in Britain and lead to job losses, in a sign that another of the government’s green pledges is in doubt.

The business secretary was discussing the automotive industry’s concerns about a rule to be introduced in January that will require manufacturers to ensure at least 22% of new sales in the UK are of emissions-free models, rising each year to reach 80% by 2030.

A manufacturer will be fined £15,000 for every polluting car sold over the limit, unless it can buy in extra allowances from another company.

A spokesperson for Badenoch told Politico:

If major car companies employing thousands of people are saying that there’s a problem, then it’s her job to look at ways to ease that problem.

Toyota has called the proposed production deadline “challenging” while Ford said the rule poses a “threat” to its business and investment plans.

The zero-emissions vehicle mandate is part of a series of rules to phase out petrol and diesel engine cars in an attempt to reach the government’s legal target of making the UK a net zero carbon emitter by 2050.

The UK ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars is due in 2030. However, there are widespread concerns over whether Britain has adequate infrastructure and capacity for the growth of electric vehicles.

Read more here:

The bosses behind Britain’s multibillion-pound clean energy rollout will gather in Downing Street to discuss the government’s plan for green economic growth later on Wednesday.

Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, is expected to meet the leaders of energy companies including EDF, SSE, Shell and BP, which are poised to invest billions in low- and zero-carbon projects.

Shapps will convene the summit at No 10 days after the prime minister ignited a row with green groups, opposition parties and the Conservative party’s backbench MPs over his plans for “maxing out” the North Sea’s reserves.

Alongside the talks over the energy companies’ plans to invest more than £100bn in the UK economy, which could create jobs around the country, Shapps is expected to call on the firms to help the government boost the UK’s energy security.

He is also expected to discuss plans to crack down on “disruptive protest groups” who may target critical energy infrastructure, according to a government statement.

Shapps was forced to defend the government’s stance on North Sea drilling, before the energy summit, against criticism that the plans are incompatible with Britain’s plans to become a net zero economy.

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