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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over homelessness and the UK economy at PMQs – UK politics live
PMQs – snap verdict
In his memoir Politics on the Edge, the former cabinet minister turned podcaster Rory Stewart says: “Nine years in politics had been a shocking education in lack of seriousness.” PMQs often shows why this is such a compelling critique of Westminster, but rarely more than today.
It’s the last PMQs before Christmas and so an element of end-of-term cheer was understandable, and expected. But the opening of the sesssion today was just bizarre. First, Rishi Sunak was cheered to the rafters by his MPs as if he were Churchill at the end of WW2, rather than a PM who had just managed to win a vote by postponing the big policy argument until the start of the next year.
Then, after a question about contaminated blood, he took a question from a Tory who seemed to think that the reason the tax burden is so high is all because of the economic modelling methodology used by the OBR. Sunak leaned into this enthusiastically, and started boasting about introducing the biggest tax cuts for a generation. Regular readers – and, indeed, any half-intelligent person who follows current affairs reasonably diligently – will of course know that the tax burden is approaching a postwar high.
Keir Starmer did not indulge Sunak’s denialism, but he did start off in festive, jokey mode and made some reasonably good gags about Tory disunity. This created a problem when, in his third question, he moved on to problems with the economy and public services. Sunak was able to hit back effectively with the line: “He talks about governing and he spent the first two questions talking about political tittle-tattle, what a joke.”
But Starmer then steered the conversation to homelessness, and he had a good jibe about the pomposity of the European Research Group.
Nearly 140,000 children are going to be homeless this Christmas, that is more than ever before, that is a shocking state of affairs and it should shame this government. Instead of more social housing, housebuilding is set to collapse. Instead of banning no-fault evictions, thousands of families are at risk of homelessness. Rather than indulge in his backbenchers swanning around in their factions and their star chambers pretending to be members of the mafia, when is he going to get a grip and focus on the country?
Sunak’s response was managerial (“tone-deaf”, Starmer called it), but it was in the next exchange where he came unstuck. A good rule in the Commons is that a reply should always match the tone of the question put, which means that sombre/emotive/non-partisan needs a response in kind. Starmer started talking about named families and individuals affected by homelessness and asked Sunak about an 11-year-old boy whose letter to Santa requested a forever home, and no new toys, “just my old toys out of storage”. It was heartbreaking. There was no easy reply available to Sunak, but he should at least have engaged emotionally. Instead, he just started hammering away about a vote in the Lords. This time he really was tone-deaf.
Here is the clip.
“140,000 children homeless this Christmas, [PM] is utterly tone deaf” Labour leader Keir Starmer shares the story of a boy who asked Santa for a “forever home”
Rishi Sunak calls this “shameless opportunism” as Starmer “blocked” building of new homes
PMQs https://t.co/qhBEoVhkfV pic.twitter.com/zBSkhY0CpE
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 13, 2023
It was hard to tell whether the trap was deliberate or fortuitous – but Sunak fell into it all the same.
Afternoon summary
As the home affairs committee hearing was ending, Diana Johnson, the committee chair, asked about the amount of money spent on the Rwanda scheme.
At the end of last week the Home Office revealed that, in addition to the initial £140m spent on the scheme, another £100m was paid in April, and £50m is due to be paid next year.
In the Commons yesterday Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, claimed, on the basis of an answer from James Cleverly, he was admitting a further £100m would be spent in future years.
But Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration, told Johnson he could just confirm the £100m paid this year and the £50m due to be paid next year. He said information about futher payments in the future would be released in due course.
Immigration minister suggests people with family visas won’t be subject to new, higher salary threshold when they renew
Tom Pursglove, the minister for legal migration, is now being asked about the changes to family visa rules. (See 1.38pm.)
Tim Loughton (Con) says James Cleverly, the home secretary, gave an interview saying the new rules would not be retrospectively applied. Is that correct?
Pursglove says applications already lodged will be treated under the rules as they are now.
And the Home Office does not intend to apply the rules retrospectively.
Q: So my constituent reapplying for a visa won’t have to meet the new threshold? And what happens when they have to reapply again in future.
Pursglove says, in the first case, the new rules will not apply. And, going ahead, he says rules will not be applied through a retrospective prism.
Loughton says he thinks Pursglove is saying that, for people with visas already, not just the first renewal, but all subsequent renewals will be under the old salary threshold, not the new one. Is that right?
Pursglove says he needs to be allowed to make the announcement in the proper way.
But, with a bit of nodding of his head, he seems to reassure Loughton that his understanding is correct.
Only 420 non-Albanian small boat arrivals have been returned home by Home Office since 2020, MPs told
The Rycroft letter also includes this charts showing the number of people arriving in the UK since 2020 who have been returned home, divided into Albanians and non-Albanians, and FNOs (foreign national offenders) and non-FNOs.
Rycroft supplied the information because he could not provide the figures when he was at the committee last month and Lee Anderson, the Tory party deputy chair, asked what the numbers were.
The chart shows that only 420 non-Albanians have been sent back.
Diana Johnson, the home affairs committee chair, told the committee earlier that the Home Office has said it has spent £22m on the Bibby Stockholm. (See 3.21pm.)
The letter from Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary, which she was quoting, makes it clear that this figure (£22,450,772, to be precise) only covers the “vessel accommodation services” part of the contract.
The home affairs committee has now published the latest letter it has received from Sir Matthew Rycroft, permanent secretary at the Home Office. Diana Johnson, the chair, has been referring to it during the hearing.
Back at the home affairs committee, the MPs were told that 132 of the 154 unaccompanied child asylum seekers who went missing from hotel accommodation were still missing.
Alison Thewliss (SNP) said this implied the Home Office did not care. If her children were missing, she would want to know where they were.
Tom Pursglove, the minister for legal migration, objected strongly. He said he and others at the Home Office did care about what has happened to these children.
Michael Gove to ease housebuilding targets for councils in England
Michael Gove will next week announce a relaxation of housing targets for local authorities in England, which developers worry will mean far fewer homes being built amid a housing crisis, Kiran Stacey reports.
James Daly (Con) is asking the questions.
Q: Under the Rwanda bill, it is possible for a UK minister to ignore an interim injunction saying a deportation cannot go ahead?
Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration, says the PM has made it clear that he will not let a foreign court stop a flight leaving. And he says the bill makes it clear that decisons about what should happen are for a UK minister.
Home Office has spent £22m on Bibby Stockholm barge, MPs told
Diana Johnson says the Home Office has revealed that it is spending £22m on the Bibby Stockholm barge.
Q: How long is that for?
Pursglove says he does not have that figure.
Johnson says the Home Office could not give a value-for-money assessment, saying what that per person cost was.
Pursglove says the value for money assessment is being updated.
He says this is a more cost-effective way of providing accommodation.
Q: How do you know?
Pursglove says they are still looking at the figures.
UPDATE: The letter from Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary, which Johnson was quoting, makes it clear that the £22m figure (£22,450,772, to be precise) only covers the “vessel accommodation services” part of the contract.
Immigration ministers accused of being ‘incredibly disrespectful’ to home affairs committee by not having answers
At the home affairs committee Diana Johnson, the committee chair, is now having a row with Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration.
She says Tomlinson and his colleagues are being “incredibly disrespectful” in coming to the committee without answers.
Lee Anderson, the Tory deputy chair and a member of the committee, is now asking questions. He also accuses the Home Office team of being “disrespectful”.
He asks if Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary, and Simon Ridley, the interim second permanent secretary, have got into trouble over how badly prepared they were when they attended the committee last month.
Tomlinson says a follow-up letter has been sent. But if Anderson has not had a satisfactory answer yet, he should get one.
Q: Do you keep a weekly or monthly total of how many people have been returned? Is that a good idea?
Tomlinson says he thinks that would be a good idea.
Q: What good does it do clearing the asylum application backlog? Does that just lead to people claiming support from councils?
Pursglove says it is helpful to clear the backlog. That means asylum seekers can be removed from hotels.
Q: You have sent us figures saying only 420 non-Albanians have been returned since 2020. Is that acceptable?
Tomlinson says he wants that figure to be much higher.
Q: Do you support having ID cards?
Tomlinson says he is cautious about those proposals.
