Michelle Mone criticises Sunak over his comments about her involvement in PPE contracts – UK politics live | Politics

Michelle Mone has criticised Rishi Sunak over his comment this morning about her involvement in Covid PPE procurement contracts that are being investigated by the National Crime Agency. (See 11.23am.) Repeating a point she made in her BBC interview yesterday, she claimed that she had never concealed her link to PPE Medpro from officials dealing with the contract – even though she did in the same interview admit that she had lied to journalists about the connection.

What is @RishiSunak talking about?

I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the Government and the NHS in my dealings with them.

They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.

Keir Starmer has said there needs to be a “sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza as quickly as possible.

Speaking on a visit to a hospital in Leeds, he said:

We need to get to a sustainable ceasefire as quickly as possible.

And, I think the route to that is to get back to where we were just two weeks ago, where hostilities ceased, there’s an opening that allows the remaining hostages to be freed, which they must be straight away – allows humanitarian aid to get in – desperately needed – but, also, is a foot-in-the-door to a process, it will have to be a political process, to a two-stage solution which, in the end, is the only way that this is going to be resolved.

A sustainable ceasefire is what everyone should be arguing for, certainly what we’re arguing for, and, if we can get as much support for that as possible, I think that’s the most realistic way forward.

Shona Robison, Scotland’s deputy first minister and finance secretary, has said Rishi Sunak has “a bit of a cheek” lecturing the Scottish government on public spending.

She was speaking after the PM used an interview in Scotland this morning to say that reports saying Robison plans to raise taxes for higher earners in her budget tomorrow are “very disappointing”. (See 12.44pm.)

In response, Robison said the UK government’s decision to cut national insurance in its recent autumn statement was “pre-election positioning by the Tories, entirely at the expense of public services”. She said the autumn statement provided just £10.8m extra for the NHS in Scotland next year.

She said:

What I would say to Rishi Sunak is he has got a bit of a cheek, pitching up in Scotland to say anything given his autumn statement is deprioritising public spending.

To have a real-terms cut to the NHS in England is an astonishing position at a time when services are still recovering from Covid.

Clearly that’s not something we can follow and wouldn’t want to follow.

She said the Scottish government, unlike its UK counterpart, would prioritise investment in public services. “Our values, first and foremost, are about making sure we sustain our public services,” she said.

The Tories will lose the next election unless they commit to leaving the European convention on human rights, the leaders of the rightwing New Conservatives group have said.

Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates are co-chairs of the New Conservatives group, which represents Tory MPs pushing for less immigration, lower taxes and socially conservative family policies. In an interview with the Inside Whitehall podcast, which is hosted by Jonathan Gullis MP (a member of the New Conservatives) and James Starkie, a former Tory special adviser, they were asked if the next leader of the party would come from their group.

Kruger replied:

I think they will be New Conservative in philosophy; whether they are one of our current members or not ….

I don’t think we will ever get back into power if we go out of power. And frankly I think we are going to struggle at the next election without this (the New Conservative policy approach) as well.

So I think the next election we win will be one in which we are standing to leave the ECHR (European convention on human rights), to restore sanity, quite deliberately, in these culture questions, particularly around sex and gender, and also around what goes on in schools.

Kruger also said that other new policy approaches were needed to make the party electorally attractive. He went on:

I would see us investing much more in defence. I think we’ve got to be much more realistic about what technology means for the world of work and for ordinary family life. There is a bunch of stuff that is off the radar at the moment, outside the Overton window in our politics, that we need to just get real about.

And if we can do it this side of the election, I think we’ve got a really good chance of holding on. If we go out, yes, in answer to your question, it would have to be someone who believes in this stuff if we were ever to win power again. Because there is no point just trying to contest the centre ground with Labour.

Asked if she agreed with Kruger’s assessment, Cates simply replied: “Yes.”

Keir Starmer has said that Lady Mone, the former Tory peer involved in Covid PPE contracts that are being investigated by the National Crime Agency, should be thrown out of the House of Lords.

Mone is now on leave of absence from the Lords, but could in theory return. She denies wrongdoing in relation to the contracts, but admitted at the weekend that she lied when she claimed that she was not involved in the firm that won the contracts.

Asked if Mone should be expelled from the Lords, Starmer said:

I don’t think she should be in the Lords. I think the government should be held to account for this.

Starmer also said that Michael Gove, who was Cabinet Office minister during Covid and who is now levelling up secretary, should answer questions about his role in the affair.

I think this is a shocking disgrace from top to bottom. And, as every day goes past, there are more questions that need to be answered. There’s now suggestions there was early private contact with members of the cabinet that may have started this unhappy story in the first place …

There are now serious questions that I think Michael Gove, the government, needs to answer.

Mone contacted Gove when she wanted to ensure that PPE Medpro could be considered for contracts via the so-called “VIP lane”, a system allowing ministers to earmark bids for consideration by officials at a time when the Whitehall procurement system was at risk of being swamped by offers.

The government has claimed this did not amount to favouritism because decisions to award contracts were made by civil servants, not ministers.

Mone was appointed to the Lords as a Conservative peer, but has now had the whip withdrawn and left the party.

Shona Robison, Scotland’s finance secretary and deputy first minister, will unveil the Scottish government’s budget tomorrow. There has been speculation, which she refused to deny in a TV interview yesterday, that she will raise taxes for people earning more than £75,000 in Scotland.

Speaking to journalists at RAF Lossiemouth today, Rishi Sunak said a tax increase of this kind would be “very disappointing” for people in Scotland. He said:

The first thing I’d say is the UK government has provided a record amount of funding to the Scottish government through the Barnett formula, so they’re ultimately responsible for the finances here in Scotland.

But I can tell you what we’re doing in the UK is controlling spending and cutting people’s taxes and that’s going to kick in for everyone in Scotland and across the UK, a reduction in the rate of national insurance from 12% to 10% from January. That will save a typical person in work around £450 – it’s a significant tax cut.

So that’s what the UK government is doing to help Scottish families with the cost of living, which we know is a priority for them.

But ultimately, it’s the Scottish government that are responsible for their own finances – it’s already the highest taxed part of the UK and obviously it would be very disappointing to see that tax burden continue to rise in Scotland.

The Scottish government has the power to set its own income tax rates and it has become increasingly willing to diverge from the rates paid in England and the rest of the UK. Outside Scotland there are three rates of income tax – a basic rate, at 20%; a higher rate, at 40%; and a top rate, at 45%. The Scottish system is more progressive, with the lower paid being taxed less, but the higher paid facing higher rates. It has five rates: 19%, 20%, 21%, 42% and 47%.

It has been reported that the Scottish government will tomorrow announce the addition of a new rate, at 44%, for earnings between £75,000 and £125,000.

Rishi Sunak has said that too many civilian lives have been lost in Gaza – but declined to back Ben Wallace’s claim that Israel is engaged in a “killing rage”. (See 10.27am.)

Asked to comment on Wallace’s Telegraph article, Sunak said:

Israel obviously has a right to defend itself against what was an appalling terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas, but it must do that in accordance with humanitarian law.

It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to.

And that’s why we’ve been consistent – and I made this point in parliament last week – in calling for a sustainable ceasefire, whereby hostages are released, rockets stopped being fired into Israel by Hamas and we continue to get more aid in.

Rishi Sunak has said that he takes the allegations about Michelle Mone, the former Tory peer, and PPE contracts “incredibly seriously” – but that because of the National Crime Agency investigation he cannot comment further.

Speaking to the media on a visit to Scotland, Sunak was asked for his response to Lady Mone’s admission yesterday that she lied about her involvement in the firm PPE Medpro. He replied:

The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we’re pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters.

That’s how seriously I take it and the government takes it.

But it is also subject to an ongoing criminal investigation. And because of that, there’s not much further that I can add.

Mone was appointed to the Lords as a Conservative peer, but has now had the whip withdrawn and left the party.

Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, has accused Israel of engaging in a “killing rage” in Gaza and argued that the tactics it is using to combat Hamas “will fuel the conflict for another 50 years”. He has made the case in an article published in the Daily Telegraph which is more probably critical of Israel, and particularly its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, than anything that has been said by cabinet ministers or shadow cabinet ministers since its war with Hamas started.

Wallace, who served as a soldier in Northern Ireland and who quit government at the end of August after a four-year stint as defence secretary, said that the lesson from the Troubles was that “radicalisation follows oppression” and that ultimately a political solution was needed.

Here are the main lines from his article.

• Wallace suggests Israel’s response to the Hamas massacre has been excessive, immoral and illegal. In its front page write-up, the Telegraph says Wallace is saying that Israel “risks losing legal authority” for the war in Gaza, but Wallace seems to be going further, and saying that Israel has already broken international law. He strongly condemned the Hamas massacre, and defended Israel’s right to retalitate, but he said:

I absolutely defend Israel’s right to defend itself.

But I also believe strongly in our obligations under the Geneva Conventions and expect all signatories to uphold them. Going after Hamas is legitimate; obliterating vast swathes of Gaza is not. Using proportionate force is legal, but collective punishment and forced movement of civilians is not.

We are entering a dangerous period now where Israel’s original legal authority of self-defence is being undermined by its own actions. It is making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one.

If (Netenyahu) thinks a killing rage will rectify matters, then he is very wrong. His methods will not solve this problem. In fact, I believe his tactics will fuel the conflict for another 50 years. His actions are radicalising Muslim youth across the globe.

When all this is over, and the IDF withdraws from what is left of Gaza, there will still be Hamas. All the action will have achieved is the extinction, not of the extremists, but the voice of the moderate Palestinians who do want a two-state solution.

International sympathy will have expired and Israel will be forced to exist in an even greater state of siege.

There isn’t a single soldier who served in Northern Ireland who didn’t curse, at one time, the events of Bloody Sunday under his breath. The hours spent in the bogs of South Armagh, or the back streets of West Belfast were testament to a conflict that had been ignited by the events on that day in 1972.

It took more than two decades for the Troubles to come to an end and it did so when nationalists recognised that the IRA didn’t have its wellbeing and economic interests at heart and when British governments accepted that while you could deliver security you couldn’t arrest your way out of the problems and political schisms. As sure as night follows day, history shows us that radicalisation follows oppression.

Northern Ireland internment taught us that a disproportionate response by the state can serve as a terrorist organisation’s best recruiting sergeant. For many, watching the events in Gaza unfold each day makes us more and more uncomfortable.

What I am saying is Israel needs to stop this crude and indiscriminate method of attack. And it needs to combat Hamas differently.

Israel needs to recognise it has time on its side. It holds all the cards – from control of the air to control of the border. It is easy to wonder what has happened to the wise Israeli politicians of old. They would have never missed the signs of the attack nor would they have surrendered to political blackmail from militant illegal settlers. They would have never played footsie with Putin, while Russian money fuelled the Iranian rocket and drone industry. They understood balance in the region and practically wrote the book on “divide and rule”.

The Israeli ambassador defiantly states there can be no two-state solution. She is wrong. There must be. It has been the answer ever since the creation of modern-day Israel.

The path to peace, just like in Northern Ireland, means we have to keep trying and do all we can to marginalise the extremes. With the Oslo accords we came close to realising a two-state solution. Now is the time to re-energise that process.

The Conservative MP Miriam Cates has been placed under investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog, PA Media reports.

The backbench MP is facing claims that she has caused “significant damage to the reputation of the house as a whole, or of its members generally”, according to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, who lists active investigations on his website.

It is not known what the investigation relates to.

The details of investigations are kept confidential until the inquiry is concluded and those under investigation are barred from discussing the allegations.

Cates was elected as MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in 2019 and has become a leading figure of the rightwing New Conservatives group alongside fellow backbencher Danny Kruger.

She has also been outspoken in her concern about declining fertility rates in Britain, calling for policies to promote marriage and having children.

She is one of eight MPs being investigated by the commissioner, including deputy speaker, Dame Eleanor Laing, the veteran Conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin and the Reclaim MP Andrew Bridgen.

The DUP has ruled out agreeing a deal to restore power sharing at Stormont before Christmas, the BBC’s Gareth Gordon reports. He says the government had been hoping to reach a settlement before the start of the parliamentary recess tomorrow. But he quotes a DUP spokesperson saying: “The DUP is condition-led not calendar-led.”

Lord Callanan, the energy efficiency minister, has said he hopes his former colleague Michelle Mone “sees sense” and does not return to the Lords after Mone admitted she lied in denying involvement with a company that held UK government PPE deals during the Covid pandemic, Peter Walker and David Conn report.

Good morning. It is the final week before Christmas, the Commons rises tomorrow afternoon for the holiday recess, and politics is starting to wind down. Today we were expecting to see David Cameron take questions from the Commons foreign affairs committee, but that hearing has been postponed because Cameron is flying to Kuwait for the funeral of the emir, sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah. We’ve got 12 ministerial announcements today as departments start to clear the decks. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are both doing visits this morning, where they will do pooled media clips, and there is a range of questions they may get asked about.

Starmer is this morning visiting a hospital where he will highlight the plans announced at conference to fund more NHS overtime, including more weekend working, to cut waiting lists. In an interview on the Today programme this morning Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said by the end of its first time, Labour wanted to cut maximum waiting times to 18 weeks. He said:

I would hope that by the end of the first term of a Labour government we will have seen a serious reduction in NHS waiting lists. By the end of the first term of a Labour government, I would want the maximum waiting times for operations down to 18 weeks. That’s our commitment.

Streeting said he would be “depressed and furious” if the government has not resolved the junior doctors’ pay dispute in England by the time of the general election. But he stressed that Labour would not immediately give junior doctors the 35% pay rise they are seeking to restore their real-terms pay to what it was in 2008. Streeting said that, for Labour, restoring fair pay for doctors would be “a journey, not an event”. He said:

But he again stressed that Labour would not be able to immediately meet the demand for a 35% rise made by the British Medical Association.

I think we’ve got to see the road back to fair pay as a journey, not an event. The public finances are a complete mess. There are, as a result, much harder choices to be made.

And so we’ve got to sit down and try and agree a negotiation and compromise.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Rishi Sunak is visiting a military base in northern Scotland.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in West Yorkshire.

2.30pm: Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Afternoon: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, issues a written statement about council fundings. It is one of 12 ministerial statements coming today, as departments release overdue statements head of tomorrow’s Christmas recess.

Also, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, is holding talks with the main parties in Northern Ireland about resuming power sharing.

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