Rishi Sunak says he will take ‘responsible’ decisions on public sector pay and borrowing ‘will make inflation worse’ – UK politics live | Politics

Sunak says he will take 'responsible' decisions on public sector pay, and that more borrowing 'will make inflation worse'

In his clip for broadcasters, Rishi Sunak reaffirmed his determination to take “responsible” decisions on public sector pay, even if that disappointed staff. He said:

I think everyone can see the economic context that we’re in, with inflation higher than we’d like it, and it’s important that in that context the government makes the right and responsible decisions on things like public sector pay …

People need to recognise the economic context we’re in and I’m going to make the decisions that are the right ones for the country. That’s not always easy. People may not like that, but those are the right things for everybody, that we get a grip of inflation, and that means the government not excessively borrowing too much money and being responsible with public sector pay settlements. That’s what I’m going to do.

When it was put to Sunak that public sector pay was not pushing inflation up, he replied:

Government borrowing is something that will make inflation worse. So the government has to make priorities and decisions about where best to target our resources.

Key events

Lord Cooper of Windrush, a former adviser to various Conservative leaders who ended up as David Cameron’s director of strategy in No 10, is advising Keir Starmer, Rachel Sylvester reveals in her Times column. Cooper, who was seen as a Tory “moderniser” when they were a faction (it is hard to think of anyone in the party who would describe themselves in those terms now) was at school with Starmer, and as teenagers the two were in the East Surrey Young Socialists together. But Cooper is not just motivated by friendship; he left the Tories over Brexit, Sylvester reports, and wants Starmer to be PM.

She reports:

Cooper is not the only one who has climbed into Starmer’s rapidly expanding big tent. Nick Boles, the former Conservative minister, is backing Labour on the grounds that it is more “in touch with people’s everyday concerns”. Claire Perry, who served in Theresa May’s cabinet, left the Conservatives a few months ago criticising their “ideology and self-obsession” and praised Starmer’s “sober, fact-driven, competent political leadership”.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley, the former Goldman Sachs banker who was a Treasury minister under George Osborne, has just completed a review on start-ups for Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor. Like Cooper he is a crossbench peer and therefore politically unaligned, but he told me: “Sensible people are coming together in the national interest.”

Sylvester also says Cooper has told the Labour leader he needs to define himself more clearly. She says:

In 2009, Cooper, who was at the time in charge of polling for the Tories, asked voters whether they thought it was “time for a change” from the Labour government. An overwhelming 75 per cent said “yes”, but when he asked whether they thought it was time for a change to the Conservatives only 37 per cent agreed. This was precisely the share of the vote that Cameron went on to secure at the general election the next year, denying the Conservatives an outright majority and forcing them into coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Cooper has just repeated the exercise for Starmer. Again, the polling found that the public has had enough of the incumbents – 79 per cent thought it was time for a change from the Conservative government – but when Cooper asked whether they thought it was time for a change to Labour, just 37 per cent agreed, exactly the same figure he found at a similar point leading up to the 2010 election. In 2009, he warned Cameron that he had failed to sufficiently detoxify the Tory party; now he is telling Starmer that he has still not adequately defined his positive pitch.

There will be three statements in the Commons after 3.30pm: first Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, on the “mortgage charter” agreed with lenders on Friday; then James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, on events in Russia; and finally Steve Barclay, the health secretary, on targeted lung cancer screening programme. Each statement lasts roughly an hour.

Post-Brexit import checks risk further pushing up food prices – industry group

The UK’s post-Brexit border strategy risks further pushing up food prices, according to a stark warning from representatives of Britain’s fresh produce industry. Joanna Partridge has the story here.

Unite says chancellor's meeting with regulators not enough to tackle UK's 'profiteering crisis'

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, says that, by scheduling a meeting with regulators on Wednesday (see 12.44pm), the chancellor has in effect admitted that the UK is facing a “profiteering crisis”. But he is not doing enough about it, she said in a statement.

Here we have a tacit acknowledgement from the chancellor that Britain is in the grip of a profiteering crisis. But to be honest, we need to go way beyond talking shops with regulators before we can be convinced the chancellor is serious about tackling Britain’s epidemic of profiteering.

Tinkering at the edges is just not enough. Unite’s own research has shown that if domestic energy had been in public ownership at the time the crisis hit we could have saved every household £1,800 and cut inflation by 4%. Tinkering at the edges, and talking shops about the crisis are just not enough.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson made a point of stressing that there are rules against “profiteering” – although he also said he was not saying supermarkets were doing this. (See 12.44pm.)

Sharon Graham. Photograph: Jacob King/PA

No 10 says supermarkets should be passing on savings from lower energy costs to customers

Downing Street has confirmed that it is going to ask regulators to consider what they can do to ensure any savings producers make get passed on to customers.

At the lobby briefing, asked about Jeremy Hunt’s meeting with regulators on Wednesday, the prime minister’s spokesperson said the chancellor wanted to discuss what actions the regulators are taking, what more could be done to work together, and are there any potential barriers to them going further.

The spokesperson said there was “no legal requirement” for supermarkets to pass on savings. But he went on:

There are rules around things like profiteering – I’m not suggesting that’s the case here.

Equally I think we would of course want supermarkets and others to rightly pass on the savings they are making with the fall in global energy costs. I think that’s what the public would expect and they will vote with their feet if that’s not the case.

The spokesperson also said that, with interest rates going up, the government wanted to ensure that savers benefited. He said:

We absolutely expect banks to pass through higher rates to savers, as they are for mortgage holders, and we’re working closely with the FCA who we know are monitoring it closely.

It’s not only the right thing to do but it also has the potential to reduce inflation because people are encouraged to save rather than spend.

Updated at 08.07 EDT

Decentralisation will come before abolition of Lords when Labour does constitutional reform, shadow minister says

Labour would prioritise devolution over abolishing the House of Lords, Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow leader of the Commons, has told the i in an interview.

She described devolution, in the form of giving new powers to mayors and local authorities, as the priority constitutional reform “which will need to happen early on”. Keir Starmer has said these decentralisation measures will be in a “take back control” bill in Labour’s first king’s speech.

Debbonaire also said Lords reform might initially focus on removing the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords.

At the end of last year Labour published a report from the Commission on the UK’s Future, chaired by the former PM Gordon Brown, proposing various constitutional reforms, including abolition of the Lords and devolution of power away from Westminster.

Starmer said he was committed to the recommendations. But he also stressed the importance of consultation, fuelling suspicions that abolition of the Lords (which is unpopular with Labour peers, and which previous Labour government has failed to achieve) may end up being ditched.

In her interview, Debbonaire said the devolution plans would take priority. She explained:

Constitutional legislation takes time and it drains energy. We’ve got a lot to do to fix a country where nothing works from getting a passport to fixing potholes.

I do think the constitutional stuff which will need to happen early on is devolution because one of the ways we are going to deal with some of those problems is by devolving power to people who know what’s going on and have skin in the game …

To be honest I would prefer we got on with the concrete business of trying to repair the country first – but Keir is committed to constitutional reform, it’s very much his thing, he’s backed what Gordon has said, and that is what we will do. But whether that comes in the first year, the second year, I don’t know at the moment.

Debbonaire also said the “easiest” aspect of Lords reform would be removing the 92 hereditary peers remaining in the Commons. She said:

I think the easiest thing on which there is the most consensus among the public and probably even their lordships is that hereditary principle is unsustainable.

The 92 hereditaries were allowed to stay as part of a concession to peers offered by the last Labour government when it passed the House of Lords Act in 1999, which got rid of all other hereditary peers. In theory this was supposed to be a temporary arrangement that would only remain in place until full Lords reform was implemented. But further reform never happened.

Updated at 08.17 EDT

Sunak says he will take 'responsible' decisions on public sector pay, and that more borrowing 'will make inflation worse'

In his clip for broadcasters, Rishi Sunak reaffirmed his determination to take “responsible” decisions on public sector pay, even if that disappointed staff. He said:

I think everyone can see the economic context that we’re in, with inflation higher than we’d like it, and it’s important that in that context the government makes the right and responsible decisions on things like public sector pay …

People need to recognise the economic context we’re in and I’m going to make the decisions that are the right ones for the country. That’s not always easy. People may not like that, but those are the right things for everybody, that we get a grip of inflation, and that means the government not excessively borrowing too much money and being responsible with public sector pay settlements. That’s what I’m going to do.

When it was put to Sunak that public sector pay was not pushing inflation up, he replied:

Government borrowing is something that will make inflation worse. So the government has to make priorities and decisions about where best to target our resources.

Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay, the health secretary, visting a mobile lung health check unit in Nottingham this morning. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA

Sunak says lung cancer screening plan should help UK catch up with other countries on survival rates

This is what Rishi Sunak said in his clip for broadcasters in response to claims that today’s King’s Fund report (see 9.28am) showed the NHS was going “in the wrong direction” under the Conservatives. He replied:

One of the my five priorities is to count NHS waiting lists. That’s why we’ve put record sums into the NHS since I became prime minister, with record numbers of doctors, nurses, and new ways of doing things which are starting to make a difference.

But we also need to make the decisions that will modernise the NHS for the long term. Today’s example, rolling out lung cancer screening, will really help improve survival rates for lung cancer, something where we are behind other countries, but today’s announcement will help to fix that.

Also later this week we’ll be making a really important announcement. For the first time in its history, the NHS will have a long-term workforce plan to make sure that we hire the doctors, the nurses, and all the other GPs and medical staff that we need for the long term.

Q: There is new evidence out today about the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Do you think the government needs to take action against the Met in the light of their failings in this case?

Sunak says his thoughts are with Stephen Lawrence’s loved ones. He says this is an operational matter for the Met. They have said they are reviewing this.

And that is the end of the Sunak broadcast clip.

Updated at 06.43 EDT

Sunak says it is 'too early' to predict with certainty outcome of instability in Russia

Sunak says it is too early to predict what will happen in Russia. But he is in close touch with allies, he says.

Q: Is the UK prepared for the collapse of Putin?

Sunak says the UK has been aware of the potential destabilising effect of the war on Putin’s regime for some time.

It’s too early to predict with certainty what the consequences of this might be, but of course, as we always would be, for a range of scenarios.

UPDATE: Sunak said:

I’ve spoken to the leader of the United States, but also France and Germany over the weekend. It’s a situation that we’ve been monitoring for some time, in the instability that will be caused by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

And what we saw over this weekend as an example of that, coming to the fore, it’s obviously too early to predict with certainty what might happen as a result of this, but I’m in close touch with our allies and we’re monitoring the situation closely.

Rishi Sunak at Rivergreen Medical Centre in Nottingham this morning. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Updated at 06.40 EDT

Rishi Sunak has recorded a clip for broadcasters on a hospital visit to Nottingham. He said the targeted lung cancer screening programme announced today would save thousands of lives.

Asked about the King’s Fund report, and whether the NHS is going “in the wrong direction”, he said he had made the NHS a priority since becoming PM.

And he said another announcement later this week would give the NHS a long-term workforce plan.

Q: Doctors and nurses are leaving the NHS to work abroad because they will get paid more. Why won’t you pay them more?

Sunak says more than 1 million NHS workers accepted a pay offer from the government. It is “very disappointing” that junior doctors have not accepted their pay offer.

He says he has got to take a responsible decision on pay. He says they have to control inflation.

Q: Unions says public sector pay is not driving inflation up?

Sunak says the government has got to control borrowing. It is important not to make the inflation situation worse, he says.

Updated at 06.42 EDT

Lord Bethell, a former health minister, has welcomed the announcement from the government today about

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