Sunak to urge Tory MPs at 1922 Committee to ‘pull together’ and attack Labour – UK politics live

Vaughan Gething used his first speech in the Senedd after being formally nominated as first minister of Wales to accuse the UK government of “unprecedented hostility” to devolution. He declared:

In recent years we have pushed the boundaries of what is possible with devolution. We did it, for example, to keep Wales safe [during Covid].

But in that same period, we have seen unprecedented hostility towards democratic Welsh devolution from a UK government determined to undermine, frustrate and bypass the Welsh government and this Senedd.

As well as leaving Wales with less say over less money, it is deeply corrosive, wasteful and undemocratic.

As first minister, I look forward to standing up for Wales and for devolution in the weeks and months to come.

Gething, who became first minister after being elected to succeed Mark Drakeford as the leader of the Welsh Labour party, said that he was relishing the chance “to cooperate for Wales with a new UK government that invests in partnership and in Wales’ future”.

He also said it was a matter of pride to be the first Black person to lead a European country – “but also a daunting responsibility for me – and one that I do not take lightly”. He went on:

Today, we can also expect the depressingly familiar pattern to emerge: abuse on social media, racist tropes disguised with polite language.

People questioning my motives and, yes, they will still question or deny my nationality. Whilst others question why I’m ‘playing the race card’.

To those people, I say once more – it is very easy not to care about identity when your own has never once been questioned or held you back.

Gething was elected first minster with the support of Labour MSs (members of the Senedd), as well as Jane Dodds, the Senedd’s only Liberal Democrat member.

The Conservative and Plaid Cymru members voted for their respective party leaders.

Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has lost a bid to have a libel claim brought against him by MP Andrew Bridgen thrown out by a high court judge, PA Media reports. PA says:

Bridgen wants to “clear his name” after allegedly being accused of antisemitism in a “malicious” social media post by Hancock, the court was previously told.

The MP for North West Leicestershire is bringing a libel case against Hancock over a January 2023 tweet that followed Bridgen posting a comment about Covid-19 vaccines.

A judge was told that, on 11 January, Bridgen shared a link to an article “concerning data about deaths and other adverse reactions linked to Covid vaccines”, and stated: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”

Hours later, Hancock wrote on Twitter – now known as X – that “disgusting and dangerous antisemitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories spouted by a sitting MP this morning are unacceptable and have absolutely no place in our society”.

Bridgen believes “every person reading the tweet knew it was about me”, that it was “seriously defamatory and untrue” and intended to cause “grievous harm” to his reputation, the court was told.

At a preliminary hearing in London earlier this month, Hancock’s lawyers argued the claim against him should be thrown out as it did not have “a realistic prospect of success” and because of the “lack of a properly articulated case”.

In a ruling today, Mrs Justice Steyn “struck out” certain parts of Bridgen’s case but did not dismiss the whole claim, instead giving the Independent MP the opportunity to make amendments and “remedy the deficiencies”.

Rishi Sunak will urge Tory MPs to “pull together” when he addresses them at the 1922 Committee later this afternoon.

Asked at the post-PMQs lobby briefing what Sunak would be saying to his backbenchers, the PM’s press secretary replied:

He will be talking about the local elections and I’m sure they will be talking about that we have got to pull together to make sure Labour don’t do what they have done to Britain, what they have done to Birmingham.

As the PM said, [there have been] eye-watering tax rises, bins uncollected, massive cuts to the arts in Birmingham – it is truly … worse than in the 1970s under Labour leadership there.

So he will be talking about that.

Asked if Sunak was concerned about disunity in the part, the press secretary replied:

He wants everyone going into these local elections taking about the Labour party’s poor record in Birmingham, Wales and London, and that will be the focus of the Conservatives as we go into these important local elections.

The press secretary refused to say whether Sunak had spoken to Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, about she was being lined up as a unity candidate to replace him, saying she did not want to “get into private discussions between colleagues”

The press secretary also refused to say whether Sunak was disappointed that Mordaunt did not issue a public statement denying the reports.

At the Labour post-PMQs briefing, asked about the PM’s attack on Labour-run Birmingham council (see 12.15pm), a spokesperson for Keir Starmer said Tory-run councils were facing similar problems.

Reform UK drops general election candidate over racist comments on X

Ben Quinn

Reform UK has dropped a general election candidate after the exposure of a range of racist comments on her social media feed, including comments calling for the deportation of black British born public figures.

The latest controversy over one of the party’s candidates comes as the director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, clashed at a Commons committee with a Labour MP who said that the broadcaster had been forced into a “grovelling apology” for calling Reform “far-right.” (See 10.54am.)

Reform UK told the Guardian on Wednesday that it had acted to remove Ginny H Ball as its Rutland and Stamford candidate for the general election after the exposure of a range of comments on her social media feed, including comments calling for the deportation of black British born public figures.

A series of tweets by Ball were highlighted on X on Tuesday night, including one in which her account suggested that Shola Mos-Shogbamimu should be deported.

After Paulette Hamilton was elected Birmingham’s first black MP, Ball’s account tweeted “Staggered it is still called The black country …. or perhaps not”?

A Reform UK spokesperson said that the party had acted after aspects of her social media were brought to the party’s attention late on Tuesday. Ball’s account on X was protected on Wednesday and her biography on X no longer described her as a Reform UK candidate.

Haroon Siddique

The lord chancellor, Alex Chalk, has defended the bill which will overturn convictions relating to the Post Office IT scandal en masse, saying that it is for the state to fix its own mess, in what are “exceptional and unique circumstances”.

The bill has been criticised as contrary to the rule of law, because parliament is interfering with judicial independence, and for setting a dangerous precedent.

Appearing before the House of Lords constitution committee this morning, Chalk said:

Those of us who value and cherish and are passionate about the rule of law also have to recognise that a miscarriage of justice on this extraordinary scale is of itself an affront to the rule of law.

He said that the sheer number of people affected by the scandal, which resulted in more than 980 convictions, the lapse of time, the loss of evidence in many cases and the loss of faith in the system amounted to “wholly unique circumstances” which justified the bill.

Chalk said he looked extremely carefully at whether the courts could deal with the individual cases but there was a difference of views on whether they had the capacity (the lady chief justice has said that they do) and there was potential for delays which would cause the public to think “the state couldn’t even clear up its mess”.

He also said that parliament had made clear that it did not create a precedent but, in response, Lord Falconer, a member of the committee and former lord chancellor under Tony Blair, said:

How can it not be a precedent that the executive will get parliament to overturn courts on findings of fact, which you would accept undermines fundamentally the rule of law?

For all the media chatter about a possible Tory leadership challenge, the majority view in the parliamentary party seems to be that, although they are heading for a massive defeat, there is no evidence a new leader would do much better and so on balance it is best to leave things as they are. The local election results may change that calculation, but it is hard to imagine anything else doing so before May, and that PMQs won’t alter Sunak’s position, for better or worse. He was underwhelming, but no worse than usual.

In fact, the whole session was a bit routine. That was the last PMQs for a month, because the Commons rises for the Easter recess on Tuesday and does not return until Monday 15 April, and that may explain why Keir Stamer decided to open with all-encompassing soundbite that summarised Labour’s case well.

Violent prisoners released early because the Tories wrecked the criminal justice system, 3,500 small boats arrivals already this year because the Tories lost control of the borders, the NHS struggling to see people because the Tories broke it, millions paying more on their mortgages, a budget that hit pensioners, a £46bn hole in his sums. Why is the prime minister so scared to call an election?

The cleverest question of the day came from the SNP’s Stephen Flynn, who found a zinger that managed to skewer the Conservative and Labour (the SNP’s main threat in Scotland). He asked Sunak:

With his backbenchers looking for a unity candidate to replace him, which of the now numerous born-again Thatcherites on the Labour frontbench does he believe best fits the bill?

Even Sunak found this funny.

As for the Sunak/Starmer exchanges, there were two features of particular interest.

First, Sunak is struggling badly with attack material to use against Starmer. He seems to have given up claiming Labour is committed to a £28bn annual green investment plan (Starmer ditched this earlier this year, but for a bit CCHQ tried to claim it was still a runner), and at various moments Sunak tried Labour not being ready for an election (even though they probably are), Labour not having plans (even they do, or at least as many plans as an opposition party), or Labour wanting to put up taxes (even though they say they don’t). Sunak ended up focusing mostly on the claim that Labour is on the side of the people smugglers, that it is soft on crime, and that Starmer as a lawyer once acted in a human rights case for Hizb ut-Tahrir. Does any of this register with anyone who isn’t already a tribal Tory? It does not feel like it, and Starmer’s retort about this being “nonsense” seemed apposite.

Second, this exchange provided yet further evidence that the Rwanda policy, which was supposed to be an election-winning wedge issue for the Tories, increasingly resembles a policy albatross. Starmer won the exchanges on this quite comfortably and the Labour arguments seem to be landing with voters. I covered some for the Savanta polling in the Telegraph earlier (see 9.36am and 9.46am), but some of the most striking figures were those showing that since January there has been a sharp drop in the number of people who think the policy will cut small boat numbers. Even Tory supporters are increasingly gloomy about its prospects.

Liam Fox (Con) says tomorrow is world’s Down’s syndrome day. He says abortion for Down’s syndrome is allowed up to 40 weeks. Will the PM back changing this so that it is in line with the normal abortion limit?

Sunak says when parliament legislated for abortion, it said doctors should be able to make decisions in difficult cases. He says votes on these issues have always been conscience matters.

UPDATE: Fox said:

While the time limit on abortion in the UK is 24 weeks’ gestation, for Down’s syndrome, due to an anomaly in the law, it is 40 weeks up to full term, something that many members may not understand.

With cross-party support I will be tabling an amendment to the criminal justice bill to equalise the time limit in line with our disability and equality legislation.

Surely we cannot accept in the 21st century that people with Down’s syndrome are second-class citizens in our country.

Will the prime minister support the change?

And Sunak replied:

As he knows, when the grounds for abortion were amended, parliament agreed that doctors were best placed to make those difficult decisions with women and their families.

Also, as he knows, it has been longstanding convention that it would be for parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion and these issues have always been treated as an individual matter of conscience.

Mark Hendrick (Lab) asks if the PM agrees with the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, who said Israel was using starvation as a tool of war.

Sunak says the status quo is unsustainable, and that Israel should be allowing more aid into Gaza.

UPDATE: Hendrick said:

The EU foreign policy high representative Josep Borrell said on Monday that Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war. President Biden has said that there should be no attack on Rafah without a plan to ensure the safety of more than one million people living there.

Does the prime minister agree with High Representative Borrell and President Biden? Because I do and we need a ceasefire. If he does agree, would he say so here in the chamber today?

And Sunak replied:

The findings from the IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] are gravely concerning. It is clear that the status quo is unsustainable and we need urgent action now to avoid a famine.

The UK is doing all it can to get more aid in and prevent a worsening crisis: 2,000 tonnes of UK-funded food aid, including flour and hot meals, is being distributed by the World Food Programme in Gaza today as we speak, enough to feed more than 275,000 people, and we will continue to do everything we can to alleviate the suffering that people are experiencing.