Liz Truss says Sunak’s government has failed to take on ‘left-wing extremists’
Former prime minister Liz Truss has told the PopCons event in London that Britons want to see lower immigration and want illegal immigrants deported, but that ministers’ efforts are “constantly being stymied”, and that “Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists.”
Saying that for two decades Tories had tried to “appease these people”, and also argued that ministers have “responsibility without having power”, because of institutions having greater sway.
“I’m afraid we have not taken on the left enough” she said.
She claimed the ideology of leftists disguising themselves as environmentalists is about “taking power away from families and giving it to the state and unelected bodies” and is drowning out the need for cheaper energy, and hit out at the government for “pandering to the anti-capitalists”, while ordinary people believe “the wokery that is going on is nonsense”. She said “wokeism seems to be on the curriculum” in schools.
Truss, who became prime minister after being appointed by the Conservative party as leader, said “We need to restore faith in democracy and we can only do that by restoring democratic accountability”.
She said “the left have been on the march” in UK institutions, in the corporate world and globally, but “Britain is full of secret Conservative forces” of people who are ashamed to admit their values, and that the PopCons group must rally them.
Key events
Mark Sweney
MPs have criticised the government for not acting over the Horizon IT scandal through its representative on the Post Office board, with one calling it a “fatal flaw” in the way it handles the governance of companies over which it has oversight.
The head of UK Government Investments (UKGI) – the body responsible for managing the portfolio of wholly or partially state-owned companies such as NatWest and Channel 4 – admitted the Post Office board needed to be questioned over its lack of “curiosity” about the scandal, which resulted in wrongful prosecution of more than 900 subpostmasters.
The Treasury select committee questioned executives from UKGI, which maintains one representative on the Post Office’s 10-strong board, on Tuesday about why the government did not take action sooner given it had a shareholder representative with direct access to the governance and running of the company.
Keir Mather, the Labour MP for Selby and Ainsty, questioned whether the lack of action showed “insufficient robustness” by the Treasury-owned UKGI and whether the existence of a shareholder representative undermined the government’s argument that it “couldn’t exercise oversight” of the Post Office.
Read more of Mark Sweney’s report here: MP criticises ‘fatal flaw’ in government’s oversight of Post Office IT scandal
Mordaunt says MPs have complained 10-day suspension threshold for a recall petition is too low
Giving evidence to the Commons Standards Committee this morning, Penny Mordaunt said several MPs had complained to her that the 10-day threshold meant there were no “middle options” for sanctioning misbehaving MPs short of seeing them potentially losing their seat.
Current legislation means any MP who is suspended from the Commons for 10 days or more can be subject to a recall petition, which triggers a byelection if it is signed by 10% of the MP’s constituents.
The leader of the house said: “I think that the main complaint and concern is the trigger for that process, that by the original legislation having gone from 30 to 10 days it doesn’t give you a lot of options, and I think that’s the chief concern with that.
“It’s been in operation for a while. You are starting to get these cases, you of all people will know, where you have found yourself maybe wishing you had more options for individuals, but that’s the chief complaint that’s made to me from colleagues.”
Helena Horton
Helena Horton is an environment reporter for the Guardian
Greenhouse gas emissions fell slightly in 2022, new government figures reveal, with homes and transport remaining the highest emitting sectors. The emissions for the territorial UK were equivalent to 406.2m tonnes of CO2, down 3.5% from 2021 and 50% from 1990.
Homes and transport contributed the most to the problem, with domestic transport responsible for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions, and homes and product use 20%. Agriculture was responsible for 12%, electricity supply 14% and industry 14%. Fuel supply was responsible for 8%, and waste 4%. Land use and forestry created 0.2% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Domestic transport emissions rose 2% year on year, but government officials mostly attributed this to a bounce-back from the coronavirus pandemic. There was a significant drop in transport emissions in 2020 when people stayed at home due to lockdowns, and travel has not yet recovered to pre-2020 levels.
Government policies, such as scrapping high-speed rail projects, building more roads and failing to ensure that rail travel is as reliable and affordable as driving, mean that emissions are unlikely to fall to levels needed to reach net zero, experts have said.
Read more of Helena Horton’s report here: UK’s emissions fell slightly in 2022 but transport and homes still biggest emitters
Unsurprisingly the topic of Rishi Sunak’s bet with Piers Morgan over the Rwanda deportation policy has cropped up in questions to the prime minister’s spokesperson this morning. Some clarification was asked for on those spread betting comments from 2023 that have been unearthed after Sunak said he was not a betting man. [See 12.02 GMT]
The spokesperson said:
As he said this morning, he was surprised by it [the bet] but it reflects the conversation that he had with Piers Morgan [and] reflects his absolute confidence in getting flights of the ground. Does he regret having that confidence? No.
He has previously talked about his love and interest in cricket. Obviously, what he was referring to is the fact that in general he’s not a betting person, and obviously the point he was trying to get across in the interview was his full confidence and commitment in getting flights off the ground.
The spokesperson said Sunak’s comments about enjoying spread betting while at work and watching the Ashes in 2005 were “referring to many, many years ago”.
Rory Carroll
Rory Carroll is the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent
Irish leaders have paid tribute to John Bruton, a former taoiseach who has died aged 76 after illness, as a decent, thoughtful man and a giant of Irish politics.
“John was one of the reasons I became involved in politics and joined Fine Gael,” said the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. “John was doer and a philosopher. He was passionately pro-European in government and in opposition.”
Varadkar said Bruton, who led a coalition government from 1994 to 1997 during a fraught phase of the peace process, had reached out to Northern Ireland unionists. “He advocated a new patriotism and opposed narrow nationalism. While these views are now held by the majority of people, that was not always the case and he was willing to lead, even when it meant going against the grain.”
Varadkar said he drew on his predecessor’s knowledge and experience during Brexit talks with the UK. “The whole Fine Gael family mourns his loss, and he will always be remembered for his service to our party and to the Irish state.”
The former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who led Fianna Fáil, lauded Bruton’s integrity. “He was a totally genuine person and always acted in the interests of the people of the country, of the people of need and I wouldn’t have a bad word to say about John Bruton.”
Earlier cross-party tributes were paid to Bruton in the Northern Ireland assembly. [See 11.42 GMT]
PA Media has a quick snap that a 46-year-old man has been arrested after MP Mike Freer received a threatening phone call last week. The Conservative minister announced at the start of this month that he will stand down at the next general election, citing a series of death threats and an arson attack on his constituency office.
Rees-Mogg says ‘age of Davos man is over’ as he attacks ECHR, WHO and COP at PopCons
Former minister for Brexit opportunities Jacob Rees-Mogg was one of the main speakers at the launch of the “Popular Conservatism movement” in London today, and he named the ECHR, World Health Organization and Cop as he attacked “international cabals and quangos telling hundreds of millions of people how to lead their lives”.
Declaring that the “age of Davos man is over”, and championing the protests of French farmers, he said that around the world millions of voters have had enough of an “internationalist, unaccountable approach to governing”, also citing the election results in Argentina.
Rees-Mogg said bodies such as the World Health Organization and Cop climate summit “limit our freedom for manoeuvre”.
“We have to restore power to our democratic institutions and take it away from those that seek to override democracy,” he told the event.
Judges are tied to the “international elite”, and “unaccountable, unelected” quangos are “plugged into EU lawmaking,” he said. “We need to re-establish the traditional relationship between the judiciary and parliament.”
He said that popular conservatism is about giving voters “freedom over their lives and taking it away from the unaccountable, the faceless, the bureaucrat and the pious platitudes of pompous politicians which have been running this country for too long.”
He added “Popular conservatism is the answer and we should be a patriot of this nation alone. A friend of every country, but conscious of the one that is ours and whose interests we must put first.”
Liz Truss says Sunak’s government has failed to take on ‘left-wing extremists’
Former prime minister Liz Truss has told the PopCons event in London that Britons want to see lower immigration and want illegal immigrants deported, but that ministers’ efforts are “constantly being stymied”, and that “Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists.”
Saying that for two decades Tories had tried to “appease these people”, and also argued that ministers have “responsibility without having power”, because of institutions having greater sway.
“I’m afraid we have not taken on the left enough” she said.
She claimed the ideology of leftists disguising themselves as environmentalists is about “taking power away from families and giving it to the state and unelected bodies” and is drowning out the need for cheaper energy, and hit out at the government for “pandering to the anti-capitalists”, while ordinary people believe “the wokery that is going on is nonsense”. She said “wokeism seems to be on the curriculum” in schools.
Truss, who became prime minister after being appointed by the Conservative party as leader, said “We need to restore faith in democracy and we can only do that by restoring democratic accountability”.
She said “the left have been on the march” in UK institutions, in the corporate world and globally, but “Britain is full of secret Conservative forces” of people who are ashamed to admit their values, and that the PopCons group must rally them.
Rishi Sunak told BBC Radio 5 Live this morning “I’m not a betting person and I was taken totally by surprise in the middle of that interview” after the fierce backlash to him appearing to accept a £1,000 bet over the success of the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme with broadcaster Piers Morgan.
Which is making it slightly awkward that lots of people have pointed out that in July last year he spoke on the BBC’s Test Match Special View from the Boundary podcast with Johnathan Agnew and explained how much he had enjoyed spread betting on cricket.
In the clip doing the rounds on social media he told Agnew:
It was around that time that spread betting had become a thing online. I had certainly never done it before. I was sitting there working on one side doing my investing finance job, and on the other screen – it is quite helpful in those jobs you have multiple screens – I was doing next wicket partnership, next wicket fall, innings total. I just discovered this thing and it was great, so I had the summer doing that as well.
It is worth noting, perhaps, that in the interview he was talking specifically about a period of time when he was living in the US, and came back to the UK for the summer doing an internship, during the 2005 Ashes series, and preceded the anecdote by saying discovering spread betting “was quite dangerous”. The segment starts at 9’20” here.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is up speaking in the House of Commons at the moment for oral questions for the Treasury.
Cross-party tributes paid in Northern Ireland assembly after former Irish taoiseach John Bruton dies aged 76
Just a quick note that former taoiseach John Bruton has died aged 76 after a long illness, his family has confirmed.
A statement from the Bruton family, released by Fine Gael on Tuesday, said: “It is with deep sadness we wish to announce the death of former taoiseach John Bruton. He died peacefully in the Mater private hospital in Dublin, surrounded by his loving family, early this morning following a long illness. He was a good husband, a good father and a true patriot. We will miss him greatly.”
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson is among those who have already paid tribute, posting on social media to say “So sorry to hear of the passing of former taoiseach John Bruton. John was a gentleman who as prime minister reached out to unionists to try and gain a better understanding of our position and to encourage practical cooperation. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.”
Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin) expressed her condolences to the Bruton family, speaking in the recently reconvened Assembly, saying: “I want to pass on my condolences to the family of former taoiseach John Bruton, who we’ve just been notified has sadly passed away. To his family and friends, we send them our condolences at this very sad time.”
Deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) also expressed her condolences, while speaker of the Northern Ireland assembly Edwin Poots (DUP) said he will write to the Bruton family to express his condolences.
Bruton was leader of Fine Gael from 1990 to 2001 and taoiseach from 1994 until 1997