Starmer says nurses’ strike ‘badge of shame for this government’
Starmer says nurses going on strike “is a badge of shame for this government”. There is a human cost. He asks about a boy, Alex, off school in pain waiting for a gall bladder operation. His mum is desperate for the strike to be called off. She is listening. She wants Sunak to explain what he is going to do.
Sunak says there are millions of others who will have their healthcare disrupted. But he says Labour’s formula, that it will “get round the table”, is just a means of avoiding taking a position. If he thinks the pay demands are wrong, he should say so.
In fact, Starmer did, on Monday.
Key events
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Labour and Lib Dems renew call for Raab to be suspended while bullying allegations investigated
Labour is also renewing calls for Dominic Raab to be suspended in the light of the news that he is now being investigated over eight bullying allegations. Echoing a similar statement from the Lib Dems (see 1.46pm), Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said:
It is yet another sign of how weak Rishi Sunak is as a prime minister that despite being aware of Dominic Raab’s reputation, he appointed him as his deputy.
The prime minister must now say why he has not been suspended until the outcome of the formal investigation, and make clear that any breach of the ministerial code will result in his immediate sacking. The government must also take immediate steps to ensure there is a safe working environment for their staff.
69 MPs vote in favour of UK being able to ignore international law if necessary to remove asylum seekers
Jonathan Gullis has lost. MPs have voted by 188 votes to 69 against giving him leave to bring in his bill.
Normally, under the 10-minute rule procedure, MPs do get leave to bring in the bill without a division happening, but the bill never proceeds any further because time is not set aside for it.
MPs voted today to prevent Gullis being allowed to present his bill. In practical terms, all this means is that he did not get to perform a short piece of parliamentary theatre. This bill was never going to become law whatever happened.
But the result shows that 69 MPs – all or mostly Conservatives – are willing to go on record to say they think the UK should ignore international law if this is the only way it can implement its plan to remove asylum seekers.
This amounts to them saying they think the government should be willing to leave the European convention on human rights, or other treaties, if these international legal obligations get in the way of sending asylum seekers to a country like Rwanda.
MPs vote on 10-minute rule motion that says UK should have right to leave ECHR if necessary to remove asylum seekers
MPs are now voting on Gullis’s 10-minute rule motion. (See 1.57pm.)
The government is not supporting Gullis, but some Tory MPs are. The two tellers for his side are Mark Jenkinson and Craig Mackinlay.
The two tellers for the noes are Marion Fellows and Peter Grant, who are both SNP MPs.
The SNP MPs are present in the chamber in large numbers because their opposition day debate is coming up next. (See 9.53am.)
The SNP is also much more firmly opposed to the government’s policy on asylum seekers. Labour tends to argue that the government’s policy is wrong because it has not been effective at processing claims and removing people whose claims fail, whereas the SNP thinks the UK should be more welcoming to asylum seekers on principle.
Alison Thewliss, the SNP MP for Glasgow Central, is speaking against the bill. She says it was “offensive” of Gullis to bring it forward on a day like today, when people have died.
She says her constituency has the highest immigration caseload in Scotland. And almost 25% of people living there were born abroad. In Gullis’s constituency the figure is just 7%.
She asks whether Gullis has even spoken to people who have come to the UK on small boats. She says she assumes he has not, because otherwise he would not be briging forward a bill that “dehumanises” them.
She says Gullis talked about the Australia model for offshore processing of asylum seekers as one the UK should follow. But that failed, she says.
And she says Gullis’s bill will fail “because the people making these journeys are desperate”.
In the Commons the Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis is now proposing his 10-minute rule bill. He starts by reading the motion describing what his bill would do.
That leave be given to bring in a bill to provide that certain provisions of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 relating to the removal of asylum seekers to safe countries shall have effect notwithstanding inconsistency or incompatibility with international or other domestic law; to require the secretary of state to proceed with such removals regardless of any decision or judgment of any international court or body; and for connected purposes.
Gullis says the people in Stoke-on-Trent (which he represents) find the number of people coming to this country to claim asylum from safe countries like France “totally unacceptable”.
He says he strongly supported the Nationality and Borders Act, which was meant to ensure that asylum seekers could be returned. But he says legal challenges have meant that enforced returns are not going ahead.
The UK should ignore the European court of human rights, as it did when the European court said the government should allow prisoners to vote, he says.
He says his motion today would allow the government to ignore the ECtHR on asylum policy.
Gullis says he thinks the government should seriously consider leaving the court. While we have left the EU, we still have a “quasi-legislative supranational institution” underming parliament’s decisions.
He says the government should be able to carry on with its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Planned strikes by security guards on Eurostar this week have been called off, PA Media reports. PA says:
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union employed by contractor Mitie were due to walk out on Friday and Sunday in a dispute over pay.
Talks on pay are continuing, and further strikes next week will go ahead if the dispute is not resolved.
Mitie said it has contingency plans if the action proceeds.
An RMT spokesperson said: “The union suspended scheduled strikes this week to allow Mitie security members to take part in a referendum on the latest company offer which will be concluded on 19 December. Strikes for 22 and 23 December next week remain on at the present time.”
The Liberal Democrats says Dominic Raab should stand down while the allegations against him – all eight of them, now – are investigation. Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said:
The trickle of allegations about Dominic Raab has turned into a flood and his position is becoming increasingly untenable.
Rishi Sunak must ask Raab to step down as justice secretary while these complaints are investigated, and confirm he won’t be reappointed if they are upheld.
Anything less would make a mockery of Sunak’s claim that he would govern with integrity. It can’t be one rule for Conservative ministers and another for everyone else.
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, No 10 also confirmed that the government will not be supporting Jonathan Gullis’s 10-minute rule bill. (See 9.30am.)
Here is our video with highlights from PMQs.
Inquiry into bullying claims about Dominic Raab considering five new complaints, on top of original three, says No 10
Dominic Raab is being investigated over five fresh formal complaints about his conduct after Rishi Sunak referred the new allegations to the senior lawyer conducting a bullying inquiry, my colleague Pippa Crerar reports.
Pippa reports:
The fresh complaints are understood to be from senior civil servants with direct experience of alleged bullying and aggressive behaviour by the justice secretary when he was previously at the department. ‘They feel they need to stand shoulder to shoulder with more junior staff,’ one source said.
PMQs – snap verdict
That was solid win for Keir Starmer, even if it was not a particularly memorable one. It was more shouty and shallow than some of his previous exchanges with Rishi Sunak, and none of it was hugely memorable. But it did illustrate clearly one of the most salient political “facts” of the winter: the Tories are desperately trying to pin the blame for the strikes on Labour, but failing.
It was the second question, and answer, that probably showed this up best. Starmer said:
Nurses going on strike is a badge of shame for this government. Instead of showing leadership, he is playing games with people’s health and there is a human cost.
Alex from Chester has been waiting for a gall bladder operation for nearly six months, he is in so much pain he has been off school since then. His operation has already been cancelled twice. His mum, who I spoke to this morning, is worried sick, when she heard that strikes could be called off she was massively relieved.
She’s desperate for the prime minister to resolve this. All he needs to do is simply meet the nurses. Alex’s mum is listening to this. She doesn’t want to hear him blaming everybody else, she doesn’t want his usual ducking of the question. She is tuned in now because she wants him to explain what is he going to do to resolve the nursing strike.
Jeremy Corbyn specialised in raising individual cases at PMQs, but this was a particularly good example, partly because of the way Starmer stressed “Alex’s mum is listening”. And this is how Sunak replied:
It’s not just Alex, there are millions of others across this country, millions of others who will have their healthcare disrupted because of the strike.
Now the honourable gentleman says to get round the table, but we all know what that means. That is just simply a political formula for avoiding taking a position on this issue.
If he thinks the strikes are wrong, he should say so, if he thinks it’s right that pay demands of 19% are met, then he should say so. What’s weak is he is not strong enough to stand up to the union.
On the plus side, when Sunak said Labour’s call for ministers to “get round the table” was “just simply a political formula for avoiding taking a position on this issue”, he was 90% right. That is what politicians do. Sunak was at it himself just a few minutes later when asked about the ECHR. (See 12.33pm.)
But Starmer has done just enough to neutralise the claim that he is just sitting on the fence. The rows with leftwing Labour MPs about joining picket lines show that he can’t be accused of wholeheartedly backing the strikes. And, as pointed out early, he has said he is against a 19% pay rise for nurses.
These are some reasons why Sunak can’t get blame for the strikes to stick to Labour. There are others. In this answer, Sunak did not sound particularly emphathetic (David Cameron would have delivered a heartfelt message to Alex’s mum as if she were the most important person to him in the UK), and his admission that “millions of others” are in the same position only seemed to make Starmer’s argument stronger, rather than weaker.
Sunak also resurrected some tired attack lines against Starmer. No one believes that we would still be in lockdown if Starmer were PM (even Boris Johnson, when he used to say it). And the claim that Labour is in hock to its union “paymasters” is even more ancient, dating back to the time of Ted Heath. It is also not really true. The two unions leading the strikes causing most disruption, the RMT and the Royal College of Nursing, aren’t affiliated to Labour, or even close to Starmer.
Ultimately, the government of the day normally gets the blame when things go wrong, rightly or wrongly. It would take an act of political genius for a PM to convince the public that it was all Labour’s fault, and Sunak, though talented, is no genius.
For the second week in a row, Starmer ended on a serious note, in a manner that made it impossible for Sunak to wind up with the usual Labour-bashing riff. In stirring language, he said:
As a result of Putin’s barbaric assault on their freedom, millions will spend Christmas in sub-zero temperatures without heating, electricity or hot water. Their suffering is unimaginable, but their bravery is awe-inspiring.
So, will the prime minister join me in saying that whatever other difficulties and disagreements we have across this dispatch box, we are and will remain united in our unwavering support for Ukraine’s freedom, its liberty and its victory.
Sunak agreed. It was the last PMQs of the year, and it was good to see they ended on a note of consensus.
PMQs is over. Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has just started making a statement about the deaths in the Channel after a small boat capsised. She says at least four people have died.
My colleague Geneva Abdul, who is writing the live blog covering this incident, is covering it here.
Andrew Selous (Con) asks what the PM will do to ensure GPs stay in posts.
Sunak says there are record numbers of GPs in training. He looks forward to hearing suggestions on what more can be done.
Sunak sidesteps question about whether he would be willing to withdraw from European convention on human rights
Danny Kruger (Con) asks if the govenment is willing to leave the European convention on human rights to deliver its asylum policy.
Sunak does not answer directly, and just says he will deliver legislation allowing people who arrive in the UK illegally to be removed from the country.
Angela Eagle (Lab) says this year we have had five education secretaries, four chancellors, three PMs, two leadership coups. She goes on:
And the partridge has had to sell the pear tree to pay the gas bill.
After a year of Tory chaos, incompetence and self-indulgence, wouldn’t the best Christmas present for the public be an election?
Sunak says the best thing Labour could do for people would be to tell their union bosses to call off the strikes.
Kerry McCarthy (Lab) asks about a constituent who spent three hours waiting for an ambulance, and then 10 hours waiting in the back of the ambulance to get in. She says the recent King’s Fund report said it was not just Covid that was to blame. Will Sunak apologise for a decade of managed decline?
Sunak says the same report said funding for the NHS has gone up.
Feryal Clark (Lab) says Enfield has the highest rate of no-fault evictions in London. Will the government scrap the law that allows them?
Sunak says the government is committed to doing this, when parliamentary time allows. But it has also scrapped rip off fees for renters, he says.
Kirsty Blackman (SNP) says government policies have failed. And she asks why the government is paying Boris Johnson’s legal costs ahead of the inquiry into whether he lied to parliament about Partygate.
Sunak ignores the Johnson part of the question, and accuses the SNP of stoking divisions.
