The SNP foreign affairs spokesperson, Brendan O’Hara, asked James Cleverly if he had seen any evidence or had been made aware of any evidence that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in its response to the Hamas atrocities on 7 October. The foreign secretary said it was not his role “to make an assessment on the interpretation of events which are unfolding as we speak”. He added: There will of course be assessments of the nature of international humanitarian law. We are trying to make sure that in all of its actions, in its legitimate self defence, Israel does abide by international law. O’Hara said: If it is not his responsibility to make that assessment I wonder then whose it is, because he knows that international humanitarian law is unambiguous in saying that a collective punishment against a civilian population is illegal. Labour backbencher Imran Hussain meanwhile became animated as he said that “innocent blood continues to be spilt on the streets of Gaza”, asking: I have a very simple question for the foreign secretary: just what will it take, how many thousands of innocent Palestinians must be slaughtered, before this government condemns this brutality and bloodshed? Cleverly replied: I respect his passion about the preservation of life, I can assure him that I share his passion, but we must be thoughtful and we must remember why this is happening: the single largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust initiated by Hamas, who then put Palestinians intentionally in harm’s way as part of their operations, must not be forgotten about. The Labour MP for Bradford East could be heard to shout “children are dying” as Cleverly answered. Summary Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day: James Cleverly answered questions on the conflict in Israel and Gaza in the Commons. The minister was asked about the prospects of a two-state solution. He said: “Despite the terrible circumstances that we are experiencing there is a renewed desire to have a meaningful resolution.” The SNP foreign affairs spokesperson, Brendan O’Hara, asked James Cleverly if he had seen any evidence or had been made aware of any evidence that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in its response to the Hamas atrocities on 7 October. The foreign secretary said it was not his role “to make an assessment on the interpretation of events which are unfolding as we speak”. Downing Street looked to “clarify” after a Treasury minister said as many as six British nationals are among the Hamas hostages. The financial secretary to the treasury, Victoria Atkins, told Sky News on Tuesday that the “latest figure” she had been given was that “there are suspected to be six British nationals” being held in Gaza. Labour called on British ministers to say whether they intended to maintain military support for Ukraine at the current level of £2.3bn a year, arguing they feared the UK’s support for Kyiv was flagging. John Healey, the shadow defence spokesperson, complained that the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had yet to announce any additional funding of military aid for Ukraine beyond next March. More than 1 million children experienced destitution last year – meaning their families could not afford to adequately feed, clothe or clean them, or keep them warm – according to a major study which reveals an explosion of extreme poverty in the UK. A government spokesperson said: “Our number one priority is driving down inflation because that will help everyone’s money go further.” An MP was stopped before boarding a flight to Canada “because his name was Mohammad”, parliament has heard. The Labour MP for Bedford, Mohammad Yasin, was due to fly to Canada with a group of other MPs from the Commons levelling up, housing and communities committee when he was delayed for extra questioning. The prime minister has wished the cabinet secretary a “speedy recovery” as he takes time off from leading the civil service. The Cabinet Office this week confirmed that Simon Case had stepped back from his role due to a “private medical matter”. We are closing this liveblog shortly. Thanks so much for joining us. No 10 has insisted that a decision to scrap a cap on bankers’ bonuses was a matter for financial regulators. The government appeared to distance itself from the decision, which has faced criticism, as the official spokesman for the prime minister said that ministers did not want to “cut across” the independence of regulators. He told journalists: The government’s position is that regulatory independence is important and we don’t intend to cut across that independence. Obviously, the [Prudential Regulation Authority] themselves have consulted on this. They took that independent decision, followed a four-month consultation, which received responses from experts in the field and vast majority, as I understand it, supported that decision. He said it was “very much a decision” for regulators. Downing Street has said that it believes a year-on-year drop in small boats crossings is not linked to weather conditions but rather the success of government policies. The prime minister’s official spokesperson would not say whether the government was “confident” that crossings would be down compared with last year. But he told reporters: I think we will rightly wait until the end of the year for making that judgment. I think we are seeing right now that crossings are down more than 20% year on year. That is welcome. We’re also confident this is not a function of the weather or any other fact. That it is more a result of the policies enacted by this government. Labour called on British ministers to say whether they intended to maintain military support for Ukraine at the current level of £2.3bn a year, arguing they feared the UK’s support for Kyiv was flagging. John Healey, the shadow defence spokesperson, complained that the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had yet to announce any additional funding of military aid for Ukraine beyond next March. Ukrainians are asking for winter support for air defence. more ammunition. Where is the UK is planned response? No new money for military aid for Ukraine has been committed by this prime minister. The £2.3bn for this year was pledged by his predecessor, the £2.3bn for last year was pledged by her predecessor. This year’s money runs out in March He also said that new defence secretary Grant Shapps had yet to come before parliament to talk about Ukraine since his appointment in August, and his predecessor’s last update was in May. James Heappey, the armed forces minister and a deputy to Shapps, said he expected a funding announcement would be made at the chancellor’s autumn statement in November. He said: It will not surprise him to know that that has already been the subject of conversation across government. It’s not for me to make that announcement, but a major fiscal event is forthcoming. And so I know he won’t have to wait too long. Heappey said the UK was continuing to supply Ukraine with ammunition “that amounts to tens of thousands of rounds per month” and was buying artillery rounds and air defence missiles on behalf of Kyiv for the winter. The junior minister added that he routinely stood in for the defence secretary and that he had last briefed the Commons on September 11, and accused Healey of being “so rank-conscious as to deem my efforts unworthy”. In a slightly unusual start to business in the Lords on Tuesday, the Home Office was pressed by peers to set up an independent inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse by Edward Heath – with the idea of formally clearing the name of the late prime minister. Conservative peer Alister Cooke, who sits as Lord Lexden, said the fact that the police chief who led the investigation had since been found guilty of gross misconduct meant the open-ended conclusions of the inquiry into Heath should be cleared up. Mike Veale oversaw what was called Operation Conifer, the investigation into allegations against Heath, when he was chief constable of Wiltshire police. He later took over at the Cleveland force, and in July was barred indefinitely from serving for making unwanted sexual remarks to colleagues. Lexden, backed by a series of other peers, said it was “imperative” that Heath’s name was now formally cleared, saying: Must there not be a strong suspicion that Veale left these allegations open, neither proved nor disproved, to save face after failing to find a single shred of evidence to support any of the accusations? The Home Office minister responding, Andrew Sharpe, said there were no plans for an inquiry, and that any such move would be up to the local police and crime commissioner. In 2017 the Wiltshire police investigation concluded there were initial grounds to suspect Heath over allegations including rape and indecent assault of boys and adult men, and that if he had still been alive - Heath died in 2005 – he might have been formally interviewed by detectives under criminal caution. Some of the accusations against Heath came from Carl Beech, who identified a series of politicians as supposed paedophiles but was jailed in 2019 as a fantasist. Humza Yousaf also spoke about meeting the mother of Bernard Cowan, a Scot who died in the Hamas attacks on Israel earlier this month. He met Irene Cowan when he attended a service of solidarity at Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue in East Renfrewshire on 12 October. Scotland’s first minister said: We held each other, we cried and shared in each other’s grief. She is an incredible woman who despite her own heartache told me that she was praying for my in-laws and for all the innocent men, women and children trapped in Gaza. So let us agree, that too many mothers and fathers have lost their children, too many children have become orphaned, and that is why an immediate ceasefire must be agreed to. Humza Yousaf spoke about his parents-in-law who are trapped in Gaza after travelling there to visit family, saying that his mother-in-law has “lost hope”. Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband, Maged - the parents of Yousaf’s wife, Nadia – travelled to Gaza before hostilities flared up earlier this month to visit family, becoming trapped. The Scottish first minister said: Every night, Nadia and I go to bed, barely sleeping as we count down the hours until the morning, waiting anxiously for a message from my mother-in-law to tell us they have survived the night. Throughout the day, the 100 people in the family home, must ration their food. The adults barely eat, my mother-in-law only ate cashew nuts yesterday, they ration so the children in the house don’t end up malnourished, but time is running out. I spoke to my mother-in-law this morning. She feels helpless and has lost hope. She told me she feels as if the UK government has forgotten about her. Please don’t interpret my point as a political one, it is not. She is a UK citizen, yet the only communication she receives from the Foreign Office is a text message telling her what she already knows - that the Rafah crossing is closed. What she needs is the UK government, the prime minister, the foreign secretary, to spend every minute of every day demanding that their allies in Egypt and Israel open the Rafah crossing and open it now, to allow those UK citizens – all of them who are trapped in Gaza – safe passage and for them to return home to their families. The environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, is being grilled by the Efra committee right now on issues from flooding to species reintroductions. She told the committee that some people’s homes were flooded by Storm Babet because the rain came from the east, not the west, so it was more difficult to predict, and that some pumps for the rivers breaching their banks were not delivered to communities in time. Clearly for people whose homes were flooded this weekend I fully recognise it’s a very distressing time for them and quite a lot of them will have to move out of their homes for a considerable time. One of the things that happened with storm Babet is, we are very good with the Met Office and Environment Agency flood forecasting normally, most of our weather comes in from the West so we’ve got that down to a fine art. This rain was coming from the other way, the EA had moved assets from parts of the country more towards Yorkshire and the north-east and that way but there were still some places that felt they could have done with some more pumps. When asked by Sir Robert Goodwill who chairs the committee why she had not written a plan for the reintroduction of locally extinct species such as beavers, Coffey nonchalantly said “species reintroduction really ain’t a priority”. Coffey also appeared to blame a future Labour government for a lack of investment in water companies, which need to spend money to improve their sewage systems to stop spills. She said: Recent financial analysis said people should buy shares in water companies, but not if Labour get into power. Humza Yousaf presses Rishi Sunak to support Gaza ceasefire and safe passage for trapped British citizens Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has pressed Rishi Sunak to support demands for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to ensure safe passage for British citizens trapped in the territory, who include Yousaf’s mother in law. In a statement to the Scottish parliament, Yousaf said he had spoken to the prime minister by phone earlier on Tuesday and had urged him to “spend every minute of every day” trying to get people such as his mother in law, Elizabeth El Nakla, safely evacuated. He said: “She is a UK citizen, yet the only communication she receives from the Foreign Office is text messages telling her what she already knows – that the Rafah crossing is closed. “What she needs is the UK government, the PM and foreign secretary, to spend every minute of every day demanding from their allies in Egypt and Israel that the Rafah crossing opens and opens it now, to allow those UK citizens trapped in Gaza safe passage and for them to return home to their families. “I made this very point to the prime minister this afternoon when we spoke on the phone. And reiterated the Scottish government’s call for a ceasefire, for more aid, including fuel, to be allowed in to Gaza and of course reiterated that the PM had our support in doing everything he can to bring British hostages back home.” Yousaf also told MSPs: “Scotland is willing to be the first country in the UK to offer safety and sanctuary to vulnerable people caught up in this war. “Scotland is ready to treat the injured men, women and children of Gaza in our hospitals where we can.” Conservative MPs are responding to Robert Jenrick’s plans to cut the number of hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers in the House of Commons. The Conservative MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke said the government had made “immense efforts” to address the issue, adding: “The first sustained reduction in the small boats crossing – and that is welcome. It shows it can be done and that this Conservative government is doing what it said it would do.” Jenrick responded: “Although today marks significant progress, and certainly very significant progress compared to what we are seeing in other European countries, this quite clearly is not enough. “Her constituents want us to stop the boats in their entirety, and that is what we are setting out to do. So today is not a day for triumphalism, it’s a milestone. Tomorrow we get back to work and we get back to stopping the boats.” Conservative former minister Sir Conor Burns said there were “multiple hotels” housing migrants in his Bournemouth West constituency, saying he welcomed the announcement that one would be “taken back”, but added: “When can we have the rest of our hotels back?” Jenrick said: “As we make more progress in stopping the boats, we will make more progress in closing the hotels.” The immigration minister has confirmed plans to cut the number of hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers. Making a statement in the Commons, Robert Jenrick said: I can inform the house that today the Home Office wrote to local authorities and MPs to inform them that we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels. Hotels in all four nations of the UK. The first 50 of these exits will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of January with more tranches to follow shortly but we will not stop there. We will continue to deliver on our strategy to stop the boats and we will be able to exit more hotels. And as we exit these hotels, we are putting in place dedicated resource to facilitate the orderly and effective management of this process and limit the impact on local communities. The prime minister has wished the cabinet secretary a “speedy recovery” as he takes time off from leading the civil service. The Cabinet Office this week confirmed that Simon Case had stepped back from his role due to a “private medical matter”. Updating ministers on Case’s health-related absence during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Rishi Sunak said the cabinet secretary was “taking a short period of leave”. Downing Street said in a readout of the meeting: The prime minister said the cabinet secretary was due to return in the coming weeks and that he knew colleagues would join him in wishing for a speedy recovery. Downing Street said his duties would be “split out” and covered by a number of permanent secretaries and director generals while he is away. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said he would not “get into the detail of all aspects of” who would cover which responsibilities but said the director general of the cabinet secretariat took notes during Tuesday’s cabinet session. Case’s absence comes after indiscreet WhatsApp messages during the pandemic were released by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. He had been expected to give evidence to the Covid inquiry in the coming weeks, after WhatsApp messages disclosed some of his private thoughts about Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration during the pandemic. The head of the civil service said the government was looking like a “terrible, tragic joke”, while Johnson’s wife Carrie was “the real person in charge”. Case, who was made cabinet secretary in September 2020, having been permanent secretary in Number 10 before then, wrote that he was “not sure I can cope” amid apparent frustration at how the pandemic was being handled. The SNP foreign affairs spokesperson, Brendan O’Hara, asked James Cleverly if he had seen any evidence or had been made aware of any evidence that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in its response to the Hamas atrocities on 7 October. The foreign secretary said it was not his role “to make an assessment on the interpretation of events which are unfolding as we speak”. He added: There will of course be assessments of the nature of international humanitarian law. We are trying to make sure that in all of its actions, in its legitimate self defence, Israel does abide by international law. O’Hara said: If it is not his responsibility to make that assessment I wonder then whose it is, because he knows that international humanitarian law is unambiguous in saying that a collective punishment against a civilian population is illegal. Labour backbencher Imran Hussain meanwhile became animated as he said that “innocent blood continues to be spilt on the streets of Gaza”, asking: I have a very simple question for the foreign secretary: just what will it take, how many thousands of innocent Palestinians must be slaughtered, before this government condemns this brutality and bloodshed? Cleverly replied: I respect his passion about the preservation of life, I can assure him that I share his passion, but we must be thoughtful and we must remember why this is happening: the single largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust initiated by Hamas, who then put Palestinians intentionally in harm’s way as part of their operations, must not be forgotten about. The Labour MP for Bradford East could be heard to shout “children are dying” as Cleverly answered. Ministers must ensure the Israel military “follow the laws of war” and protect civilians, Labour has suggested. The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, urged the government to ensure Israel does not block aid for Palestinian civilians, nor food, water and medicine, as the middle eastern nation’s conflict with Hamas continues. James Cleverly said that “professionalism and restraint by the Israel Defence Forces is an important part” of preventing the conflict from escalating. Cleverly answered questions on the conflict in the Commons, Lammy said: The situation in Gaza is heartbreaking and deeply troubling. Does the foreign secretary agree that Israel must follow the laws of war by taking every possible step to protect civilians? Ensuring aid is rapid, safe and unhindered; blocks to water, food, medicines, fuel lifted immediately; Palestinians forced to flee and not permanently displaced; and that upholding these laws is not just a legal and moral obligation, but necessary to prevent Israel’s campaign from undermining long-term prospects for peace and stability? Cleverly replied that the “preservation of civilian life remains a priority”, adding: We discuss this regularly and at every level within the Israeli government, and of course we reflect on the point that Israel itself as well as the countries in the near neighbourhood are trying to prevent this becoming a regional conflict. As I say, professionalism and restraint by the Israel Defence Forces is an important part of preventing this becoming a regional conflict. The number of aid trucks being allowed into Gaza is “wholly inadequate”, the international development minister has said amid warnings over the prospect of a “humanitarian catastrophe”. The Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft told the Commons: Children in Gaza have begun writing their names on their hands so they can be identified and buried with their families when they are killed. What action is the government taking to prevent more children being harmed in Israel’s military action and to ensure a rapid end to this conflict? The Conservative minister Andrew Mitchell, in his reply, said: We’re doing everything we can to protect children and British aid is already making a difference by supporting the international relief effort, which is going in through Rafah. Kerry McCarthy, a Labour MP, warned the aid reaching Gaza is “nowhere near enough to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” as she pressed for fuel to be allowed in. Mitchell, in his reply, said: The number of trucks that are going through every day is far too small and we will continue to press all the relevant authorities to allow humanitarian support and aid of the type she has described through the Rafah crossing to help those whose circumstances are precisely as she described. In response to the Tory MP Sara Britcliffe, Mitchell also said: The key thing is to increase the number of lorries that are getting through Rafah – the current number is wholly inadequate and I talk to Martin Griffiths virtually every day about the operations the UN are conducting to try and beef up that number. HMS Lancaster will remain in the Middle East as part of British efforts to “deter threats to regional security”, No 10 has said. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: We’ve got HMS Lancaster, which is a Type 23 frigate, which has been in the Arabian Gulf since November 2022. The prime minister confirmed yesterday that it would remain in the Gulf to bolster our presence and the ship will continue efforts to monitor and deter threats to regional security, tackle terrorist activity at sea, including arms and drug smuggling, and support humanitarian operations. Obviously, we have already confirmed the deployment of RAF surveillance planes and two other ships to the eastern Mediterranean. The No 10 spokesman said no date had been set for how long the military assets would be deployed but that it would be kept “under review given the nature of the situation”. No 10 said ministers were continuing to speak with “leaders in the region” as part of efforts to free hostages from Gaza but would not say whether there had been direct communication with Hamas or proxies in Qatar or Egypt. The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters: It is not in the interest of the individuals themselves to get into more details, so I won’t. I think some of the discussion does involve speaking to leaders in the regions and governments’ agents with influence on the situation. But, beyond that, I don’t think it is helpful to say any more. Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the UK government could not speculate on why some captives were being released, with four freed by Hamas in recent days: The circumstances will vary and, as I think the Israeli government has said, there are more than 200 individuals believed to be held hostage, so I wouldn’t seek to give a view for why individual hostages are being released. I will leave that to others.