Badenoch says the problem with growth in this country is not that workers don’t have enough right. It’s that “the state is too big”, she says.
Fewer and fewer people are working to support more and more people out of work and living on welfare. The rider is getting heavier than the horse.
The 28-point US peace plan for Ukraine that was leaked last week suggests that, as part of the settlement, Russia could be re-admitted to the G8 (or the G7 as it now is, following Russia’s expulsion after the annexation of Crimea in 2014).
The Liberal Democrats want Keir Starmer to rule this out. Calum Miller, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson, said:
Russia must not be readmitted to the G7. Putin is a war criminal who is also hell-bent on destabilising Europe and the rest of the international order. A ceasefire in Ukraine would not change those facts.
The prime minister should categorically rule out readmitting Russia to the G7. Anything less than a total block on Putin returning to the group would show authoritarians everywhere that aggression pays.
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, told business leaders that their concerns would not be ignored when the government decides how to implement the employment rights bill.
The measure is close to becoming law. But, when he spoke to the CBI this morning, Kyle stressed that many measures will be subject to consulation before they are implemented. He said:
Our manifesto committed us to consult, to listen, and that’s what I’ll do.
The primary legislation that is going through parliament now commits me to consult in 26 different areas, the law is going to require me to.
So it has been, yes, a frustration of mine that some of the area that will be filled in by the result of a consultation that meaningfully engages all sides and all voices has been filled by people projecting on to that their worst fears are of it. But that is not the reality that I will be driving towards.
Kyle said “the voice of people who work in business” would be heard in the consultation process. He went on:
I will not pit employer against employee or employee against employer … And all of the conjecture that you’ve heard about what the bill will and won’t deliver is based in areas for which the consultation on implementation has not even started.
The bill is being held up because, for the third time in a row, peers have voted against some of the key measures in the bill, including the provision for workers to get day-one protections against unfair dismissal. The parliamentary “ping pong” process has been going on for almost a month now, and the bill will not get royal assent until either the Lords, or the government, back down.
Asked if the government would compromise to end the standoff, Kyle said:
I’ll do what it takes to get it through, because I need to get on with the real business, which is implementing it.
Normally in these circumstances the government just keeps sending the bill to the Lords, and eventually peers accept the will of the elected chamber.
UPDATE: Richard Partington has the full story here.
There will be two urgent questions in the Commons today after 3.30pm, both tabled by Conservativess. A Cabinet Office minister will respond to a UQ from the Alex Burghart about the ministerial code, and then a Home Office minister will respond to a UQ from Nick Timothy about the intelligence used by West Midlands police to justify the ban on the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Villa Park match.
Then, after 4.30pm, there will be an statement on the government’s critical minerals strategy by Chris McDonald, an industry minister.
Keir Starmer had a brief meeting with Li Qiang, the Chinese premier, at the G20 summit in South Africa, it has emerged.
The meeting was not disclosed when Starmer was at the summit. It is understood that it was just a brief meeting, not a formal bilateral, and that Starmer and Li did not discuss anything of substance.
Downing Street has said that the UK remains “steadfast” alongside Ukraine and determined to “keep it in the fight”.
Asked about the latest talks on a peace settlement in Ukraine, the PM’s spokesperson told the lobby briefing this morning:
The prime minister obviously welcomes the significant progress made at yesterday’s meetings between the US and Ukraine in Geneva. As the US, Ukraine, joint statement makes clear, yesterday’s talks were a major step towards a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.
Of course, there are some outstanding issues, but as both countries have set out, intensive work on the peace plan will continue in the coming days and weeks, you can expect the prime minister to continue his engagement with world leaders this week.
While diplomatic efforts continue, we will stand steadfast with Ukraine to keep it in the fight, and ensure the Ukrainian people can defend themselves during ongoing barbaric attacks like we saw last night, and in the long term.
The spokesperson also said that Russia “consistently pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words”.
Starmer is expected to host a virtual meeting tomorrow of leaders for “Coalition of the Willing” countries to discuss the Ukraine plan.
Two long-serving peers are to be suspended from the House of Lords after a parliamentary watchdog ruled that they had broken lobbying rules.
Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British army, and David Evans (Lord Evans of Watford), were filmed breaking the rules in undercover footage recorded by the Guardian.
Henry Dyer and Rob Evans have the story.
The Lord conduct committee’s report into Dannatt is here, and its report into Evans is here.
The Conservatives are attacking the budget by saying that taxes are having to go up to pay for extra welfare spending. Or, as Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, puts it in an article for the Daily Telegraph:
That is exactly what Labour looks set to deliver at this week’s budget: a multi-billion-pound welfare splurge, funded by stealth tax rises on the very people who are already struggling.
This is one of those claims – very common in Westminster politics – that is technically true and wholly misleading at the same time. It is technically true because, if the government were spending less on welfare, it would need to raise less money from tax. But it is wholly misleading because welfare spending is not the main reason for taxes having to rise in the budget. (The downgrade in the productivity growth forecasts is the key factor.) And “splurge” is not an accurate description either.
In his Telegraph article, Stride says taxes are having to go up because Rachel Reeves is getting rid of the two-child benefit cap, which he says will cost £3.5bn, and because the government abandoned its planned cut to Pip disability payments in the summer, which will eventually cost £5bn a year.
But the Telegraph editors clearly thought £8.5bn sounded a bit low. Their splash story this morning says Reeves will increase benefit spending by £15bn. They have arrived at this figure by including the £1.25bn cost of the winter fuel payments U-turn, but also by including the £6bn cost of uprating working-age benefits in line with inflation. Citing this last number as evidence of a welfare “splurge” is unfair. By law, the government is obliged to uprate benefits every year, and even the Tories are not proposing to freeze universal credit payments.
Q: Would more tax-free shopping for tourists help the high street?
Badenoch says, after Brexit, she thought tax-free shopping for foreign tourists would help British business. But she says she lost the argument internally, because other people in government were against the idea. She claims this was because they did not model the behavioural impact. (She is referring to the theory that, although the Treasury might lose from individual tourists getting a tax exemption, the overall boost to shopping would more than compensate for that.)
She claims Labour is also refusing to model the behavioural impact of tax policies. She says the government is not getting as much money as it expected from VAT on private schools because schools are closing and pupils are going to state schools.
(In fact, the early evidence suggests this has not happened.)
That was the last question.
Rupert Soames ends by again praising Badenoch for her stance on the employment rights bill. He says he has been employing people for 40 years, and has been trying to think what impact it will have on employment decisions. The effect will be “really bad”, he says. He says the bill will need “a lot of rethinking”.
Q: The last government was suspicious of industrial strategy. Do you think a national industrial strategy is a good idea?
Badenoch says the problem was that the strategy used to change often under the last government. That created uncertainty. That is why she favours simplicity.
She says the biggest thing the Tories would do to help business is their cheap power plan.
She says distributing grants from small pots of money does not amount to an industrial strategy.
Badenoch is now taking questions. The session is being chaired by Rupert Soames, the CBI chair (and brother of a Tory peer). The first thing he said was “wow” as she finished her speech. He said the CBI has been attacking the employment rights bill almost as much as she was.
He starts with a question of his own.
Q: Do you think you are getting better at being opposition leader?
Badenoch accepts this. With any job you are doing for the first time, you get better, she says. She goes on:
I didn’t know anyone who was at their best on their first day. And in fact, you should be worried at anybody who’s at their best on their first day.