Philp’s ‘patronising’ comment about Britons needing better work ethic show Tories ‘out of touch’, TUC saysPaul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, has condemned Chris Philp for his comment about Britons needing a better “work ethic”. (See 11.48am.) In a statement Nowak said:
These patronising comments show just how out of touch the Conservatives are.
The problem isn’t people’s work ethic – it’s the fact that work doesn’t pay.
1 in 6 workers in this country are skipping meals every week to make ends meet. This is the legacy of 14 years of falling living standards under the Tories.
Instead of insulting working people – the Tories should be supporting plans to boost workers’ rights and wages.
Key events
Show key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Afternoon summary Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has been accused of has been accused of “real brass neck” after saying Britain needed a better work ethic.
AstraZeneca has cancelled plans for a £450m expansion of its manufacturing plant in Speke, Merseyside, blaming a cut in the funding on offer from the government.
Priti Patel, the shadow home secretary, has been forced to eat her own words after she gave an interview defending the way net migration figures soared under the last government – despite the fact that Kemi Badenoch has repeatedly described this as a failure. Patel’s comments, followed by her climbdown, overshadowed her party’s attempts to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Brexit. (See 9.23am.)
Farmland in England will be reduced by more than 10% by 2050 under government plans, with less meat produced and eaten by the country’s citizens.
Keir Starmer has full confidence in Richard Hermer, Downing Street said on Friday, after reports suggested ministerial colleagues had become exasperated with the attorney general holding up policy decisions.
The Conservatives are fighting back in an attempt to stem the loss of high-value donors amid a shift in funders towards Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
The word “illegal” has been one of the terms most strongly associated with migrants in UK parliamentary debates over the past 25 years, research has found.
Kemi Badenoch at the wheel of a tractor during a visit to Top O The Town Farm in Broomhall near Nantwich, Cheshire. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PAThe Institute for Government conducts regular, in-depth interviews with former ministers, and it has just published nine of them with ministers from the Scottish and Welsh governments, including Nicola Sturgeon, Mark Drakeford and Humza Yousaf.
You can find all the interviews here.
And this is from an IfG blog summing up some of the lessons from the interviews.
How seriously the prime minister takes devolution determines whether it is considered a priority for the rest of government. Drakeford described how, between 1999–2019, prime ministers from across the political spectrum displayed a “basic respect for devolution.” However, he explained that the last five years of Conservative leaderships saw this attitude change significantly.
As prime minister, Boris Johnson took a ‘muscular’ approach to the union – an attitude that Sturgeon told us made him “impossible” to work with. Relations further deteriorated under Liz Truss, who didn’t undertake the customary phone calls to the first ministers upon taking office – a move Drakeford described as “a deliberate act of disrespect.”
By comparison, Sturgeon noted that Rishi Sunak “intellectually got” devolution, although her successor Yousaf told us that Sunak “was not one for hanging on the phone for longer than he had to with the Scottish government.”
Keir Starmer has taken positive steps to change the tone. He embarked on a tour of the nations within days of entering office and Scottish first minister, John Swinney, is reported to have said that the relations are “incomparably better” than before. Even as other issues compete for the prime minister’s attention, it is vital that this approach persists. As Sturgeon reflected on Theresa May’s tenure, “I think Brexit just overwhelmed her […] I just don’t think she had the bandwidth to really work out devolution.”
Commons leader Lucy Powell welcomes launch of inquiry into rules allowing MPs to have second jobsLucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, has welcomed the launch of a Commons inquiry into the rules allowing MPs to have second jobs.
The Commons standards committee said today it would hold an inquiry covering “the benefits and risks of members retaining outside interests and employment” and the effectiveness of the rules about what they can do.
Signalling that she wants the Commons to tighten the rules, Powell said:
The government tightened the rules on outside employment for MPs in our first days in office, but we have a manifesto commitment to go further.
I’m clear that an MP’s priority must be first and foremost to serve their constituents. We must all meet very high expectations that we are focussed on our roles as MPs.
Trust in politics has been damaged over recent years and it is in all our interests to close the gap between the public and politicians.
MPs have been banned for years from paid lobbying, and and after the election Labour tightened the rules to stop them being paid to give advice on policy and parliament. But MPs can still do other work, including broadcasting and journalism.
Powell has already floated a plan to stop MPs doing paid media work. This triggered a furious response from Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, who is paid far more for his work as a GB News presenter than he gets for being an MP.
But her reference today to Labour’s manifesto suggests she wants to go even further.
Unusually, the manifesto was open-ended on what Labour would do. It committed the party to banning MPs from having paid advisory or consultancy roles “as an initial step”. But it also said “some constituents end up with MPs who spend more time on their second job … than on representing them” and it went on:
We will task the modernisation committee to take forward urgent work on the restrictions that need to be put in place to prevent MPs from taking up roles that stop them serving their constituents and the country.
As leader of the Commons, Powell is also chair of the modernisation committee.
Sadiq Khan says rough sleeping in London won’t get better until 2026, as new figures show it at near record levelsRough sleeping in London has reached its second highest level on record, according to figures out today.
The statistics were published after Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, told the Big Issue that the problem was likely to get worse this year before improving from 2026.
In its report on today’s figures from the CHAIN homeless database, PA Media says:
The total number of people sleeping rough on London’s streets between October and December last year was up by 5% on the previous year, data branded “incredibly concerning” by charities revealed.
There were 4,612 people recorded as sleeping rough in the capital between October and December, up from 4,389 in the same period in 2023, the figures show.
Almost half (46%) of the 4,612 were new rough sleepers, while 41% were classed as intermittent rough sleepers.
Around one in 10 (15%) were seen to be living on the streets.
The number of people deemed to be living on the streets between October and December (704 people) was up by more than a quarter (26%) on the same period in 2023, and rose 3% from the July-September period last year.
Numbers sleeping rough in the capital hit a record high in the previous July-September period at 4,780, so while the most recent figures are down slightly on that, they are the second highest quarterly figure on record.
This week Khan announced a £10m investment to expand a network of ‘Ending Homelessness Hubs’ in the capital. But, in an interview with the Big Issue, he said it would take time to get homelessness falling.
Asked when he expected homelessness to decline, he said:
I’m hoping in the near future. I’m not going to wait until 2029 to end rough sleeping by 2030 [a pledge he made in the last mayoral election]. We’ll start seeing progress once the renters’ rights bill becomes an act, once we’ve negotiated with the government affordable housing programme and once we start seeing the cost of living crisis being addressed.
Those things will help. Actually what we need is to support families early on so they don’t have a situation where child poverty is going up, people are ending up sofa surfing and so forth.
That’s the prize of growth. If we get growth it helps jobs and prosperity and supports families.
Asked if that meant progress in 2025, Khan said:
I think you’ll start seeing progress, there will be milestones along the way. We’re in 2025 now, I think things are going to get worse this year but things will improve by next year.
Kemi Badenoch feeds calves during a visit to Top O The Town Farm in Broomhall near Nantwich, Cheshire. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PAPhilp’s ‘patronising’ comment about Britons needing better work ethic show Tories ‘out of touch’, TUC saysPaul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, has condemned Chris Philp for his comment about Britons needing a better “work ethic”. (See 11.48am.) In a statement Nowak said:
These patronising comments show just how out of touch the Conservatives are.
The problem isn’t people’s work ethic – it’s the fact that work doesn’t pay.
1 in 6 workers in this country are skipping meals every week to make ends meet. This is the legacy of 14 years of falling living standards under the Tories.
Instead of insulting working people – the Tories should be supporting plans to boost workers’ rights and wages.
YouGov has released some more findings from its Brexit polling. It suggests that ‘control over its own laws’ is the only areas where people are more likely to think the impact of Brexit has been positive not negative.
Five years on, few Britons think Brexit has been good for anything
% saying Brexit has had a positive impact on…
Control the UK has over its laws: 31%
UK’s ability to respond to COVID-19: 23%
British politics: 12%
UK’s level of international trade: 11%
British businesses: 11%… pic.twitter.com/nAN81yOHHd
— YouGov (@YouGov) January 31, 2025 Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, playing football with police officers and young people at Wiltshire FA headquarters this morning. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty ImagesBadenoch says it no surprise Reform UK doing well in polls because they’re protest partyNigel Farage is holding a rally tonight in Quendon, in Kemi Badenoch’s North West Essex constituency. To attend, people have to join Reform UK in the constituency, and Farage wants to show he has more members there than the Conservatives do.
In an interview with broadcasters, Badenoch claimed it was “not a surprise” that protest parties like Reform UK were gaining in the polls. Asked if she was worried about Reform UK in her constituency, she replied: “Not at all.”