Tory MP for Manston constituency says he does not trust Suella Braverman Roger Gale, the Conservative MP for North Thanet, who has Manston migrant centre in his constituency, has said that he does not trust the home secretary, Suella Braverman. Gale told Times Radio: Her language yesterday, I’m afraid, suggested that she is only really interested in playing the right wing. The fact of the matter is that, of course, I’m also defending my constituents’ interest because the facility at Manston was designed to turn people around in 24 hours, maximum 48 hours, and move them on, it’s a processing centre, not a refugee camp. I was given a clear undertaking by Priti Patel as home secretary and by the minister of state that that is what would happen and that there would be no expansion of the facility. Over the last few days, we have seen an almost doubling of the size of the number of people in Manston and a massive building of further accommodation, and that is not acceptable. It’s in breach of the undertakings that I was given and I’m not prepared to accept it. I don’t accept or trust this home secretary’s word. This post was amended on 1 November 2022. Due to an error in text supplied to us by an agency, a previous version misquoted Roger Gale as saying he did not “accept or trust [Braverman’s] work”. Afternoon summary Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said he would “choose his words very carefully” when asked if he would defend Suella Braverman calling migrant boats “an invasion”, but refused to criticise the home secretary. Child asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK on small boats say screening officials have put pressure on them to say they are adults, the Guardian has been told. The Tory MP Sir Roger Gale has said he does not trust Suella Braverman, the home secretary, on the issue of the Manston migration centre, which is in his constituency. (See 10.08am.) Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has had the Tory whip suspended after it emerged he was entering the jungle for I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! A controversial and chaotic vote on fracking last month did involve some MPs shouting and crowding closely together, but there is no evidence to indicate bullying or intimidation, an official report for the Commons speaker has concluded. There has been a surge of social media attacks on Rishi Sunak drawing on antisemitic conspiracy theories, casting the former banker as part of a “globalist” plot, with a sharp spike after Boris Johnson pulled out of the Conservative party leadership race. Johnson says Putin would be "crazy" to use nuclear weapon because it would be disastrous for Russia economically, diplomatically and domestically This is what Boris Johnson said about why he thought President Putin would be “crazy” to use a nuclear weapon in the war against Ukraine. Asked if it was possible, he replied: I don’t think [Putin] will. I think he would be crazy to do so. I think what would happen is that he would immediately tender Russia’s resignation from the club of civilised nations. It would be a total disaster for his country. The current economic punishment that the west has been able to dish out would be massively intensified. Russia would be put into a cryogenic economic freeze. And I think he would lose a lot of the middle ground of global, tacit acquiescence that he’s had. If you look at sub-Saharan Africa, look at Latin America, look at Lula [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva], who’s just been elected again, look at south Asia, there’s a lot of willingness to give Putin the benefit of the doubt. That will go the minute he does anything like that. He would also, crucially I think, lose the patronage of the Chinese. And above all, in his own country, I think he would trigger an absolutely hysterical reaction. Boris Johnson confirms he is attending Cop27 climate conference in Egypt In his interview with Sky News Boris Johnson also confirmed that he would be attending the Cop27 climate crisis conference in Egypt next week. He told Sky that he had been invited by the Egyptians, and that he was “very happy to go” because he had a “particular interest” in the topic. Sky News is about to broadcast its Boris Johnson interview. The top line seems to be Boris Johnson saying that, if Vladimir Putin were to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, he would be “crazy” and Russia would be tendering its resignation from the club of civilised nations. Sunak axes target for civil service job cuts, and restores fast-stream recruitment Rishi Sunak has written to civil servants confirming the news – reported by the Guardian yesterday – that he is abandoning the plan to cut civil service numbers by 91,000. As we reported, he is also restoring recruitment through the civil service fast stream. Suspending the fast stream and axing 91,000 jobs were plans championed by Jacob Rees-Mogg when he was minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency earlier this year. But those plans were also accepted by Sunak, who was chancellor at the time. ITV’s Anushka Asthana has posted extracts from the letter. Boris Johnson has recorded an interview with Sky’s Mark Austin which will be shown at 5pm. It will be his first broadcast interview since leaving No 10. It has been recorded as part of a special programme on Ukraine. Sinn Féin says Northern Ireland has been left "in limbo" because Heaton-Harris refuses to say what he will do about election Northern Ireland has been left “in limbo” because the secretary of state, Chris Heaton-Harris, is refusing to say he will do about holding a new election, Sinn Féin has said. Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland, made the claim after meeting Heaton-Harris for talks about the ongoing stalemate in the region, where a new election to the assembly is expected before Christmas. O’Neill has been first minister-designate since the elections in May, which in which Sinn Féin emerged as the largest party for the first time in the 100-year history of Northern Ireland. But she has not been able to take up her post because the DUP is boycotting the power-sharing executive, because it wants the Northern Ireland protocol removed first. When the 24-week deadline for forming a power-sharing executive ran out at midnight on Friday, the UK government came under a legal obligation to call a new election. There were reports that it might take place on 15 December. But Heaton-Harris has refused to confirm the date and in the past the UK government has sometimes legislated to postpone an election required by law in Northern Ireland – although ministers say that is not what they are planning this time. After her meeting, O’Neill said: The secretary of state told us that he had a legal obligation, that he would call that election at one minute past midnight [on Friday]. Then what we saw unfold last Friday was a bizarre U-turn, the failure to continue in that vein. We’ve met with him again this morning. We’ve asked him a number of questions, but I have to say [he] provided no clarity, he provided no further information as to the U-turn. We’re left with no information in terms of what happens next, or at least what he intends to do next. It’s very clear he has a legal obligation in which to call an election if an executive is not formed. But he did not colour in the lines today. He certainly did not provide any clarity around what he intends to do next, apart from to say that he’s here to meet with people. O’Neill said she did not know what would happen next. I think that the public, again, are left in limbo … I am none the wiser today in terms of his next step; he didn’t make that very clear. He didn’t say what his next move was. But you can’t escape the reality that there’s a legal obligation on him to call the election. Instead, he’s created a political vacuum. Tugendhat announces taskforce to defend UK"s "democratic integrity" A taskforce is being set up to protect institutions, including parliament, from being subverted by foreign powers, Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, has announced. In a statement to MPs Tugendhat said the PM had asked him to “lead a taskforce to drive forward work to defend the democratic integrity of our country”. He went on: This taskforce will work with parliament, departments, the security and intelligence agencies, the devolved administrations and the private sector. It will work to better protect the freedoms and institutions we hold dear, institutions such as this very house. The taskforce will look at the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions. This will include the physical threats to members of this parliament and those elected to serve across the country. Responding to the statement for Labour, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, asked for an assurance that there was “some kind of grip in government on attitudes towards security right across the heart of this government”. In particular, she criticised Boris Johnson for going to a party in Italy when he was foreign secretary hosted by the son of a former KGB agent, and Liz Truss for using a personal phone when she was foreign secretary that was reportedly hacked by a foreign power. But Tugendhat refused to comment on these cases. But he did not criticise her for raising them either, and instead – adopting a consensual tone – he praised her for respecting the privacy of the briefings she has had on security matters on privy council terms. He said: It would be completely wrong of me to use for any private party advantage comments on anything that the agencies have told me in private, and [Cooper] herself has been extremely gracious in accepting briefings on privy council terms, which she has completely correctly guarded the privacy of. Former Tory minister suggests Hancock should be deselected by his local party for going on I"m a Celebrity Tim Loughton, a Conservative former minister, has described Matt Hancock as “an absolute prat” following his disclosure that he will be taking part in I’m a Celebrity. Speaking on Times Radio, Loughton also suggested that Hancock’s local constituency association should deselect him. Loughton said: I’m completely disappointed and disgusted that he’s put his self and a so-called celebrity career ahead of serving his constituents. I think he’s been an absolute prat and the least he deserves is having the whip withdrawn from him, and if his local constituency have got any sense they might deselect him as well. I think, particularly at this time, when there’s so much going on in the UK, when we have so much work to do for all our constituents to help people through the cost of living crisis, every MP’s attention should be focused on how we do that. And, frankly, being helicoptered off into a jungle in Australia doesn’t strike me as the best way of doing that, in which case he needs to get his priorities right. One of the surprise appointments in Rishi Sunak’s first reshuffle was Andrew Mitchell becoming minister for development, with the right to attend cabinet. Mitchell first served in government 30 years ago, but he has been on the backbenches for the last 10 years; he may have assumed that his government career was over. A former international development secretary, he was also one of the fiercest critics of Rishi Sunak’s decision in 2020, when he was chancellor, to suspend the target of spending 0.7% of national wealth on aid. In one of his first initiatives in his new role, Mitchell has written an open letter to the Commons international development committee saying that ending the pause on aid spending “as soon as possible” and “returning certainty” to the aid budget “this year and in future years” is a priority in his first weeks in office. Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, has told MPs that the government wants to intenstify efforts to prevent “transnational repression” in the UK. Responding to a Commons urgent question on reports that China has been operating secret “police stations” in the UK, which it uses to intimidate Chinese nationals living in the country, Tugendhat said: Reports of undeclared police stations in the United Kingdom are, of course, extremely concerning and will be taken very seriously. Any foreign country operating on United Kingdom soil must abide by UK law. The protection of people in the United Kingdom is of the utmost importance and any attempt to repatriate any individual will not be tolerated. It is clear that we can and must do more. I have therefore asked officials to step up the work to ensure that our approach to transnational repression is robust and I have asked our department to review our approach to transnational repression as a matter of urgency. Tugendhat also said that the protections of UK law should be available to everyone in the country and that the government was working with the police and the security agencies to address this issue. He went on to say that if evidence emerged of the law being broken, “then action will be taken”. The Liberal Democrats have joined calls for Matt Hancock to have to forgo his MP’s salary while he participates in I’m a Celebrity. (See 12.06pm.) Sarah Olney, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, said: Yet again we see a Conservative MP taking voters for granted. At a time when MPs should be supporting their constituents with the cost of living crisis, Matt Hancock is choosing instead to go to the jungle to feed his own ego. Matt Hancock should declare how much he is earning from appearing on the show, and forego his MP’s salary for the duration. The taxpayer should not pay him while he refuses to do his job. The Labour MP Chris Bryant has said that he did see a Tory MP “manhandled” into voting a certain way in the fracking division – despite the Commons speaker saying today that his inquiry had found that did not happen. (See 12.35pm.) Bryant went public on the night of the vote to say that he had seen the Tory MP Alexander Stafford “manhandled” and “bullied” by his colleagues in the voting lobby. Speaking on the World at One on Radio 4, Bryant said: I am not challenging the ruling of the speaker but I know what I saw and I am not withdrawing a single word. It may be that some people feel that they weren’t bullied but I saw intimidatory behaviour. If you have 15 or 12 MPs standing round one MP effectively, to my mind, kettling them, that is intimidatory behaviour and it will be seen as bullying in any other line of work. Bryant posted a picture of what he saw on Twitter, even though MPs are not meant to photograph what happens in the chamber or in the voting lobbies. He later deleted the photograph, but in his interview he defended his decision to publicise it in the first place. He said: I knew that I was breaking the rules. I have apologised to the House for breaking the rules. I thought sometimes you have to break a rule if you see a greater injustice being done. We are trying to change the culture in parliament. Culture minister says government "disappointed" by BBC"s plan to cut local content on local radio stations Julia Lopez, a culture minister, has said the government is “disappointed” by the plans announced by the BBC yesterday to cut the amount of designated local programming on its local radio stations. Responding to a Commons urgent questions about the proposals, she told MPs: Overall, we do have concerns about the proposals, which we were not given notice of. I want to take this opportunity to stress that the BBC is rightly operationally and editorially independent from the government, and decisions on service delivery are ultimately a matter for them. However, the government is disappointed that the BBC is reportedly planning to make such extensive cuts to its local radio output … For those older residents living in rural areas, it can be a particular lifeline. The BBC must make sure it continues to provide distinctive and genuinely local radio services with content that reflects and represents people and communities from all corners of the UK. Lopez also said that the BBC received £3.8bn a year from the licence fee and that, if it was not longer going to deliver “distinct, local and regional content”, then the government would be entitled to ask some “very serious questions”. Other MPs expressed similar concerns. Emma Hardy (Lab), who tabled the UQ, said local radio “cannot call itself local when it stops being local after 2pm”. And Julian Knight (Con), the chair of the Commons culture committee, said there were “very real concerns over potential loss of local distinctiveness through these proposed cuts”. Matt Hancock has failed to follow rules requiring former ministers to seek permission on post-government roles with his forthcoming appearance on I’m A Celebrity, the Guardian has learned. Until June 2023, Hancock must seek permission from the advisory committee on business appointments before taking up outside employment or appointments, but has failed to make an application for his role on the reality show. The Guardian understands that Lord Pickles, the Conservative chair of the committee, will be writing to Hancock to ask for an explanation for his failure to seek the committee’s advice before taking the role on the show. The breach of the business appointment rules, which form part of the ministerial code, carries no financial penalties but could lead to Hancock’s future chances of receiving an honour or a peerage being diminished. A spokesperson for Hancock did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. No 10 claims "significant proportion" of people crossing Channel in small boats are economic migrants And here is a summary of all the other (ie, non-Hancock) lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing. It mostly covered asylum seekers, and the NHS. Rishi Sunak told cabinet that the UK was a “compassionate, welcoming” country, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists. In a read-out of what was said at cabinet, the spokesperson said: The prime minister said this will always be a compassionate, welcoming country and pointed to the success of the Homes for Ukraine scheme where 100,000 Ukrainians have now been taken in across the UK. He said the UK’s ability to do this depends on having control of our borders and that the entire government would be working together to further grip this important issue. Suella Braverman, the home secretary, also stressed the need at cabinet for a “whole-government approach” to tackling the problems caused by people crossing the Channel in small boats, the spokesperson said. But the spokesperson would not say whether Sunak could say the arrival of asylum seekers amounts to an “invasion”. He said he had not asked Sunak if he would use the term himself. Asked if the government would describe the arrivals as an “invasion”, the spokesperson said: The home secretary was seeking to express the sheer scale of the challenge that faces the country. George Parker, the FT’s political editor, says the “invasion” row is a typical dead cat distraction. The PM’s spokesperson claimed that a “significant proportion” of people crossing the Channel on small boats were economic migrants. He said: The home secretary was seeking to express the sheer scale of the challenge that faces the country, with people, including a significant proportion of economic migrants, seeking to make this journey. But, as my colleague Aubrey Allegretti points out, the spokesperson would not define what “significant proportion” means. According to recent Home Office figures, 76% of the applications for asylum considered in the year ending in June 2022 resulted in asylum being granted at the initial decision. Sunak told cabinet the NHS faces a “challenging winter”. In a readout of cabinet, the spokesperson said: The prime minister said significant progress had been made by the government – with almost 30,000 more nurses recruited, the continued rollout of community diagnostic centres and the near elimination of two year waits. But he said it will be a challenging winter. Inquiry into fracking vote finds no evidence of MPs being bullied or forced into voting certain way, Speaker says Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, told MPs at the start of business today that there was no evidence of members being forced to vote a certain way during the division on fracking two weeks ago. Hoyle launched an inquiry in response to allegations that some Tory MPs were bullied into voting for the government, and that at least one MP was “physically pulled through the door into the voting lobby”. Conservative MPs opposed to fracking were reluctant to vote against the Labour motion that could have led to it being banned, but they were being told it was being treated as a confidence vote, until No 10 changed its mind on this point at the last minute. The U-turn added to the confusion during what was a particularly fractious division, and, after 40 MPs failed to vote for the government, the debacle contributed to Liz Truss’s decision that she would have to resign. Announcing the initial findings of his inquiry, Hoyle said: The atmosphere was tense and members were raising their voices to make themselves heard, but there is no evidence of any bullying or undue influence placed on other members. The crowding made it hard to see what was really taking place. While some members thought that physical contact was being used to force a member into the lobby, the member concerned has said very clearly that this did not happen. Those who had the clearest views of the incident confirmed this. Hoyle also said that MPs should treat each other with respect, that he took allegations of bullying very seriously and that he would “take swift action wherever necessary to address any improper behaviour in the chamber or in the lobbies”. Downing Street criticises Hancock for abandoning his parliamentary duties for reality TV show And Rishi Sunak has also joined those criticising Matt Hancock for taking part in I’m a Celebrity. At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked about Sunak’s response to the prospect of an MP abandoning his constituents to spend time in the jungle in Australia, the PM’s spokesperson replied: The prime minister thinks at a challenging time for the country MPs should be working hard for their constituents, whether that’s in the house or in their constituency … The public, when they elect their MPs, expect them to work hard for their constituency.