Afternoon summary Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of making “a grubby deal” with Suella Braverman to reappoint her, thus jeopardising national security and exacerbating the asylum crisis, in another prime minister’s questions dominated by the issue of the home secretary’s future. The Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, has accused Rishi Sunak’s government of using his country’s citizens as scapegoats for failed immigration policies after critical comments by Suella Braverman about Albanian asylum seekers. Rishi Sunak is set to ditch his flagship Conservative leadership campaign pledges, as No 10 admitted there would be a review to assess whether they were still “deliverable” as a result of the worsening economic backdrop. Rishi Sunak is to attend the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt next week after No 10 previously said he was too focused on the domestic economy to attend and banned King Charles from going. The United Nations’ poverty envoy has warned Rishi Sunak that unleashing a new wave of austerity in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger and malnutrition. It will be “extremely difficult” for the Conservatives to win the next general election after presiding over a fiscal crisis, although a change of prime minister makes predictions more complex, the leading pollster Sir John Curtice has said. Matt Hancock has said his decision to appear on I’m a Celebrity was motivated by a desire to showcase his “human side” and to use reality TV as a platform to “deliver important messages to the masses”. John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, has set out “savings” of £615m as he published his emergency budget review. As PA Media reports, Swinney said the measures are necessary to tackle rising inflation and economic uncertainty. The sum includes £400m of spending “reprioritisation” within the health and social care portfolio in order to support a pay offer for staff. The emergency budget review was first announced in early September, when additional savings of £500m were set out. Despite the UK government’s fiscal statement being due on 17 November, Swinney said he would “wait no longer” to outline his own proposals. Ben Wallace plays down reports he is threatening to resign if government does not raise defence spending Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has played down reports saying he is threatening to resign if the government abandons a commitment to increase defence spending. Giving evidence to the Commons defence committee, Wallace said he would be “fighting for as much money as I can get” for defence when he meets the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, on Thursday, ahead of the 17 November autumn statement. Asked about reports that he had threatened to resign if he did not get a commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, Wallace artfully dodged the question. According to PA Media, ignoring the 3% element, he replied: I haven’t said I would resign on 2.5, 3.5, 4%. Obviously the media might like that. Pressed by Labour MP Derek Twigg if the Ministry of Defence had briefed journalists that he would quit if he was not satisfied with his settlement, Wallace replied: “I don’t run my department that way.” There were several reports in recent weeks, quoting defence sources, saying that Wallace was prepared to resign if Liz Truss reneged on her promise to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP. The Guardian has reported this, as have other newspapers. But the replacement of Truss with Rishi Sunak as PM may have altered Wallace’s thinking, because Sunak never committed to increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP in either of his bids for the Tory leadership. However, Sunak was still chancellor in June, when the then PM, Boris Johnson, committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade. Wallace told the committee he regarded getting defence spending to 3% of GDP by the end of the decade as an “aspiration”. He said that at a time of rising threat levels, it was important the country was prepared to commit greater resources to defence. Three percent as an aspiration or a planned marker, wherever we get to subject to our budget discussions, is a perfectly reasonable aspiration in the dangerous world that is emerging. I have always said as threat changes so should our commitment and our planning and our funding. Defence is moving back up the priority list back towards cold war levels of where it should be. As PA reports, Wallace also said that his aim in his talks with the chancellor would be to ensure that the defence budget was protected from the effects of inflation and fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate for the next two years. He said: I will be fighting for as much money as I can get. I will fight every bit of the way to see what I can get. I am keen that we get a budget insulated from the inflationary effects. Steve Brine elected chair of Commons health committee Steve Brine has been elected by MPs to replace Jeremy Hunt as chair of the Commons health committee. Brine was one of five candidates for the post, which was only open to Tories because this was one of the select committee chair positions allocated to the Conservative party for this parliament. Brine, a former health minister, said in his election statement: Bottom line: we have the 5th largest spending on health in the OECD, but we don’t end up 5th in terms of results. We need to understand why and press ministers to get better value for the vast sums we spend on health. The other candidates were: Stephen Hammond, Dr Caroline Johnson, Anne Marie Morris, and James Morris. Labour MP Rosie Cooper criticises decision to turn plot to murder her into TV drama The Labour MP Rosie Cooper has criticised ITV’s decision to turn a plot to murder her into a “stupid, stupid, stupid” drama series, PA Media reports. PA says: The MP for West Lancashire also accused the broadcaster and anti-fascism campaign group Hope not hate of using her as a “marketing tool”. She urged ITV and the advocacy group to donate all the money generated from the TV series to the Jo Cox Foundation, which was set up following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. The Walk-In, which launched on October 3, chronicles the story behind the neo-Nazi plot and how it was foiled by Hope not hate. It was announced in September – the same day Cooper announced she was standing down as MP for West Lancashire. She said in the Commons: “I am appalled at ITV’s recent treatment of the threats to MPs. I have been used as a marketing tool by both Hope not hate and ITV. What excuse is there for a press release that says, ‘Who is Rosie Cooper, and who wanted to murder her?’ “There is no defence to that. So, let’s test the public defence, the public interest defence, to their despicable behaviour and I call on Hope not hate and ITV to donate all money and profits generated from this TV series, both here and abroad, every single penny should go to the Jo Cox Foundation. We should not tolerate this kind of behaviour.” Her comments came after the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns, raised a point of order in the Commons, asking the Speaker for advice on how to ensure that “threats on the lives of our colleagues are not treated as entertainment”. A Hope not hate spokesperson told PA news: “We sympathise with Rosie Cooper for everything she has been through in recent years. No-one should endure murder threats simply for doing their job. “Clearly, we are disappointed to hear Rosie’s words in the chamber today. In 2017, several members of our organisation worked tirelessly and at tremendous sacrifice to themselves to foil the murder plot against Rosie Cooper. This ITV drama and documentary highlight the very real danger of far-right extremism - especially for those in public life.” Delaying introduction of cap on social care costs would be "completely unacceptable", says Andrew Dilnot Sir Andrew Dilnot, the economist who led a review a decade ago that proposed a cap on the amount people should have to pay in adult social care costs, has said it would be “completely unacceptable” for the government to delay the introduction of the policy. A cap of £86,000 on personal care contributions is due to take effect from October next year. But it has been reported that the government could delay this by a year, or for even longer, in the autumn statement to save money. In an interview with Radio 4’s the World at One, Dilnot said: I think pulling back now would be completely unacceptable. To let some of the most needy and vulnerable people in our society down again seems to me would be a terrible, terrible thing to do. It will be a breach of the manifesto. It might save some money in the very short term but of course in the long run it’s going to be introduced, it makes no difference to the long run public sector finances, which are what the government should be concerned about. So, I hope this is silly speculation. The Institute of Economic Affairs, a libertarian thinktank highly rated by Liz Truss, has rejected suggestions that it was to blame for the disastrous mini-budget she announced. At PMQs the SNP MP Deidre Brock referred to the IEA, inviting Rishi Sunak to condemn “think-tanks that exert so much influence on gullible politicians that their policies were able to almost crash the UK economy just weeks ago”. In response, Andy Mayer, the IEA’s chief operating officer, said Sunak was right to tell Brock that he believed in free speech. Mayer went on: Think tanks contribute ideas to public debate and those ideas are available for others to reject, improve or implement as they see fit. Ultimately, politicians develop their own agendas and policies. One in six people living in England and Wales born outside UK, census reveals One in six people living in England and Wales in 2021 were born outside the UK, according to the latest census figures. Our full story is here. Albanian PM says it"s "insane" for UK to keep blaming Albanians for its border problems Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has suggested that Albanians are in a large part to blame for the rise in the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats. Albanians should not need to claim asylum in the UK, she has argued, and she has said that many of them are either criminals, or are abusing the modern slavery laws. Speaking in the Commons on Monday, she said: This year has seen a surge in the number of Albanian arrivals, many of them, I am afraid to say, abusing our modern slavery laws … Albania is not a war-torn country, and it is very difficult to see how claims for asylum really can be legitimate claims for asylum. I would also note that we see a large number of Albanian migrants arriving here and claiming to be victims of modern slavery … What is more, we are identifying, particularly with the young, single men who are coming from Albania, that they are either part of organised criminal gangs and procuring their journey through those nefarious means, or they are coming here and partaking in criminal activity, particularly related to drugs – supply and otherwise … There are many people coming here with criminal intent and behaving in a criminal way. We need to stop it. This afternoon Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, has said that it is “insane” for the UK to keep blaming Albanians for its own border problems. He does not mention Braverman by name in his Twitter thread, but he is clearly referring to her. Councils take legal action to prevent Home Office using hotels for asylum seekers Councils are fighting to stop the government from using hotels to house asylum seekers, with at least four authorities taking legal action, PA Media reports. PA says: The Home Office said that ‘record levels’ of arrivals to the UK had put ‘unprecedented pressure’ on the system and it was working with councils to ‘find appropriate accommodation during this challenging time’. But one council that took its case to the high court, Great Yarmouth borough council, said that it took action due to the ‘absence of any meaningful dialogue’ with the Home Office. In a statement, Great Yarmouth borough council said it had secured an interim injunction in relation to one hotel in a ‘prime tourism location where there is a proposed use as a hostel for accommodating asylum seekers’. This is subject to a final hearing this month, the authority in Norfolk said. The council has also served a temporary stop notice on a hotel currently being used to house asylum seekers, but the notice has now expired, and the council is ‘considering further enforcement action’. ‘As a council representing our local community, we have always expressed our willingness to engage with the Home Office to find suitable properties to accommodate asylum seekers, but the absence of any meaningful dialogue or intention to follow due process by the Home Office has resulted in us pursuing this course of action,’ Great Yarmouth borough council said. East Riding of Yorkshire council, Stoke City council and Ipswich borough council are also taking legal action. According to Chris Hopkins from the polling company Savanta ComRes, only around 27% of people think it is fair to attack Keir Starmer for his association with Jeremy Corbyn. (See 1.20pm.) Sunak able to go to Cop27 climate summit after making "good progress" on autumn statement, says No 10 At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said that Rishi Sunak decided to attend the Cop27 summit after making “good progress” with Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, on this month’s autumn statement. The spokesperson said: He has always recognised the importance of this summit and indeed on tacking climate change more generally. We wanted to make sure we were making good progress on the government’s domestic agenda and the autumn statement in particular. Following discussions with the chancellor this week he has now agreed to attend. The prime minister feels there is sufficient space to make this trip. As PA Media reports, the spokesperson said Sunak was hoping to make progress on the commitment to halt deforestation by 2030 and to agree new partnerships on clean and renewable energy.