Rishi Sunak criticised for not appointing dedicated minister for disabled people – UK politics live | Politics

Rishi Sunak will visit Rome this weekend to attend a rightwing political gathering organised by Giorgia Meloni’s party, PA Media reports. PA says:

The prime minister will meet his Italian counterpart for a discussion on illegal migration as part of the trip on Saturday, where he will be among the high-profile guests scheduled to appear at the Brothers of Italy-backed gathering

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is also expected to attend the annual Atreju event, which has been frequented by former Trump ally Steve Bannon and Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán in the past.

Downing Street confirmed Mr Sunak would meet Ms Meloni, with whom Mr Sunak has developed a strong relationship amid mutual efforts to crack down on illegal migration.

Number 10 said that the two leaders have expressed “shared perspectives” on migration, as aides said Sunak and Meloni had a close working relationship having become leaders of their countries within days of each other in October last year.

“They obviously get on, I think they came in at a similar time,” the prime minister’s press secretary said.

“But I think, most of all, they have a like mind on wanting to act on illegal immigration so have formed an effective working relationship on that, and with other countries as well.”

Almost 400,000 penalty notices were issued to parents in England last year for failing to ensure their child attends school, much higher than pre-pandemic levels, PA Media reports. PA says:

The Department for Education (DfE) statistics showed 356,181 of the 398,796 fines (89.3%) were for unauthorised holidays, as families looked to book cheaper vacations outside school term times.

That unauthorised holiday figure has more than trebled since 2016-17, when 115,652 such fines were imposed.

Just 1,000 penalties were issued for lateness in 2022-23, with the remainder being imposed for other reasons, the DfE said.

The figures for 2018-19 showed 333,338 unauthorised absence penalties were issued to parents – the last statistics collected before Covid struck – meaning the 2022-23 figure has risen by a fifth since then.

No figures were collated the following year and pandemic disruption greatly reduced the number of fines issued until this year.

The use of penalty notices by local authorities varied across England, the DfE said, with three local authorities issuing none, while four local authorities issued more than 10,000 penalty notices each.

Charities have described the decision not to appoint a new dedicated minister for disabled people as an “appalling and retrograde move”, PA Media reports. PA says:

It is understood a member of government who already has other responsibilities will take on the brief.

The previous role-holder, Tom Pursglove, was made minister for legal migration earlier this month.

Downing Street this morning rejected a suggestion that the move to make two ministers responsible for migration but no one solely for disabilities amounted to “downgrading” the role of minister for disabled people.

Following Robert Jenrick’s resignation as immigration minister over the government’s Rwanda plan, Rishi Sunak split ministerial responsibility for legal and illegal migration.

Alongside Pursglove as minister of state for legal migration and the border, Michael Tomlinson – who was previously solicitor general – is minister of state for countering illegal migration.

Disability groups had voiced concerns over how long the minister for disabled people role might be left vacant and have reacted with outrage now that a dedicated minister will not be put in place.

With an existing minister taking on the job, a No 10 spokesperson rejected suggestions this was a “downgrading” of the role.

“We will have a minister for disabled people who will lead on that important work,” the spokesperson said.

Pressed on the fact that the minister will not be dedicated solely to disability issues, he said: “What you will continue to see is a government showing strong support for disabled people and for disabled issues.”

Disability charity Sense said the job of minister for disabled people is “a vital role in government to ensure disabled people’s interests are represented” and insisted it should not be taken on by someone who is “already juggling other responsibilities”.

Disability equality charity Scope described the change as “an appalling and retrograde move by the government”. Its director of strategy, James Taylor, added: “What kind of message does this give to Britain’s 16 million disabled people? That – in the middle of a cost of living crisis – we are now less important?”

Anastasia Berry, the policy co-chair of the Disability Benefits Consortium, said she was “appalled” by the move. She said: “Despite making up almost a quarter of the population, disabled people are yet again being treated like they don’t exist.”

Alok Sharma, the former Conservative cabinet minister and former Cop26 president, has urged the government to reconsider its plan to legislate to ensure new North Sea oil and gas licences are issued every year.

The plan for an offshore petroleum licensing bill was unveiled in the king’s speech, in a move that led to claims that Rishi Sunak was using the legislation to set a trap for Labour, which says it does not want new North Sea licences issued after the general election.

Speaking in the Commons, during a statement on this year’s Cop28 summit, Sharma said:

All previous agreements are literally just words on a page and they will only come to fruition if countries, all countries, followed through in terms of their domestic policies.

(The minister) talked about the torch to inspire others, let me ask him once again, would he please review once again the plan to have these annual oil and gas licences and consider whether that is consistent with international commitments that we’ve made?

And secondly, could I ask him to ask the chancellor to review urgently the tax regime which gives significant subsidies to new oil and gas projects.

This is a matter of trust – he talks about the voices of the most climate vulnerable, they will be listening, they will be watching, and they want to see action not just from the UK government but every government.

In response, Graham Stuart, the energy minister, said:

New licences simply allow us to mange the decline of a basin which is expected to fall at 7% a year, is expected to halve in a decade, and will see us growing independence on imports even with new licences, that is why we are doing it.

We are expecting £50bn in taxes from the oil and gas sector and without new licences to allow for the greening of the basin so we reduce emissions, we wouldn’t be able to ensure that each barrel of oil and production of gas comes with lower level of production emissions that we do today, and that is our mission.

Vaughan Gething, Welsh economy minister, says he’s standing to replace Drakeford as first minister

Steven Morris

The Welsh economy minister, Vaughan Gething, has become the first Labour Senedd member to announce that he will stand to replace Mark Drakeford as the first minister of Wales.

Gething, 49, who made history as the first black minister in any of the devolved administrations, will campaign to become leader of Welsh Labour.

He paid tribute to Drakeford’s “remarkable legacy” but said the Labour party and Welsh government had a “huge task” ahead of them.

Gething said:

We can only maintain our record of winning elections and fighting for the people of Wales if we are a united, modern, diverse movement which reflects this nation’s ambitions for the future.

With a general election on the horizon, Wales has a crucial opportunity to have two Labour governments working side by side to deliver real change in our communities and repair the damage wreaked by the toxic Tory years.

The bookmaker William Hill has made Gething early favourite to take over from Drakeford with the minister for education and the Welsh language, Jeremy Miles, second.

Success for either Gething or Miles would represent a first for Welsh politics: Gething would be the first black politician to lead the country, while Miles would be its first openly gay first minister. A successful woman would be the first female first minister.

Israeli settlers responsible for violence against Palestinians on the West Bank will be banned from the UK, David Cameron, the foreign secretary, has said.

In a post on X, he said:

Extremist settlers, by targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel must take stronger action to stop settler violence and hold the perpetrators accountable.

We are banning those responsible for settler violence from entering the UK to make sure our country cannot be a home for people who commit these intimidating acts.

In his pooled interview for broadcasters this morning, Rishi Sunak insisted that the UK remained committed to the two-state solution. He was asked about comments from Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, who told Sky News earlier this week that Israel was opposed to the Palestinians having their own state. Sunak said:

We don’t agree with that. Our longstanding position remains that the two-state solution is the right outcome here.