Sunak dismisses claims levelling up has failed The Guardian has published an analysis today showing that the government is making no progress on half the levelling up targets it set itself. Here is the story by Kiran Stacey and Josh Halliday. And here is the detailed analysis. Rishi Sunak was asked about the report in an interview with ITV Tyne Tees. When it was put to him that the Guardian report shows the gap between the north-east and the south-east for healthy life expectancy is widening, not narrowing, Sunak brushed this aside by talking about his plans to stop children vaping. He replied: When it comes to future health, one thing that I’ve brought forward is a plan to improve the health of our children. It’s been really important to me that we tackle vaping and indeed smoking. Talk to any parent, I’m a parent, or any teacher - they’ll talk to you about the scourge of vaping. In response to another question, about Keir Starmer’s claim that Sunak was to blame for levelling up being a failure, Sunak said he did not accept that levelling up was not working. He explained: We’ve got Conservative mayor Ben Houchen delivering for the area after years of Labour neglect. We’ve got the freeport that I was just at which is now attracting billions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs. We’ve got the Treasury campus that I set up in Darlington. We’ve got a new railway station in Darlington and we’ve got high streets and town centres across Teesside being invested in, whether that’s Darlington, Hartlepool where we are, Stockton, Redcar. So that is levelling up in action across Teesside. Afternoon summary Rishi Sunak has dismissed claims nurseries do not have capacity to deliver on a major expansion of free care as concerns were put to him about whether the sector could cope with the influx of children. Sunak has refused to accept claims that levelling up has failed. (See 3.29pm.) Three British nationals have been killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza, World Central Kitchen has confirmed. In response, Sunak has urged the Israelis to launch an urgent investigation into what happened. (See 11.31am.) Sunak has been criticised for laughing off a question about when the general election will take place. (See 10.19am.) Labour accuses Tories of telling "lies" about its childcare plans In his interview with ITV Tyne Tees Rishi Sunak also claimed that free childcare entitlement being provided by the Conservative government would be removed under Labour. He said: You talk about Labour, Labour haven’t committed to this policy. They would actually take it away from working parents, which I don’t think is the right thing to do. And in Wales where Labour are in charge and they’ve been given the money by the UK Government, they’ve decided not to match this offer. So I think that there’s a very clear contrast here. We are in the process of rolling out more free childcare for working parents cause I think that’s the right thing to do. The Labour party have been clear that they oppose those plans and I don’t think that’s any good for families. This is a more extreme version of what Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has said in an open letter released today addressed to Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor. Keegan suggests there is uncertainty about what Labour will do. Whilst this @Conservatives government is rolling-out the largest expansion of childcare in our country’s history, Labour are refusing to come clean what their plan is for childcare. My letter to the Shadow Education Secretary and Shadow Chancellor In response, Phillipson has accused the Tories of peddling “nonsense” and “lies”. The state of this. Utter nonsense. Rather than peddle lies, either get on with your job or call a general election The Tory claims are partly based on an interview Phillipson gave to Newsnight last week in which she said that the nursery system did not have the capacity to provide what the government is offering and that a Labour review (originally announced in October last year) would consider the way forward. The Tories interpreted this as evidence that Labour is not fully committed to its plan, which will not be rolled out in full until September 2025. Since then Labour has said that it is not planning to remove childcare entitlement from parents. In a statement yesterday Phillipson said: After 14 years of Tory failure, it will be Labour who get on with the job and finally deliver the much-needed childcare for parents. That is why we have commissioned respected former Ofsted Inspector Sir David Bell to lead a review on early education and childcare to guarantee early years entitlements for parents. Sunak dismisses claims levelling up has failed The Guardian has published an analysis today showing that the government is making no progress on half the levelling up targets it set itself. Here is the story by Kiran Stacey and Josh Halliday. And here is the detailed analysis. Rishi Sunak was asked about the report in an interview with ITV Tyne Tees. When it was put to him that the Guardian report shows the gap between the north-east and the south-east for healthy life expectancy is widening, not narrowing, Sunak brushed this aside by talking about his plans to stop children vaping. He replied: When it comes to future health, one thing that I’ve brought forward is a plan to improve the health of our children. It’s been really important to me that we tackle vaping and indeed smoking. Talk to any parent, I’m a parent, or any teacher - they’ll talk to you about the scourge of vaping. In response to another question, about Keir Starmer’s claim that Sunak was to blame for levelling up being a failure, Sunak said he did not accept that levelling up was not working. He explained: We’ve got Conservative mayor Ben Houchen delivering for the area after years of Labour neglect. We’ve got the freeport that I was just at which is now attracting billions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs. We’ve got the Treasury campus that I set up in Darlington. We’ve got a new railway station in Darlington and we’ve got high streets and town centres across Teesside being invested in, whether that’s Darlington, Hartlepool where we are, Stockton, Redcar. So that is levelling up in action across Teesside. SNP calls for end to arms sales to Israel - and says Labour "on wrong side of history" because it"s not doing so too In an interview with Sky News this morning Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, refused to back calls for an end to arms sales to Israel. In response Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said this showed Labour was “on the wrong side of history over the war in Gaza”. Flynn claimed: Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party is on the wrong side of history over the war in Gaza. With more than 30,000 Palestinian children, women and men killed, and a devastating humanitarian crisis unfolding, history will remember Starmer’s stance for what it is - a shameful abdication of moral duty. Having spent months condoning the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and refusing to back an immediate ceasefire, the Labour party is making the same mistake all over again by backing continued arms sales to Israel. In contrast, the SNP is clear in our values. There must be an immediate ceasefire now - and the UK must take concrete action to secure one, including by ending arms sales to Israel immediately. Sunak refuses to deny report claiming government lawyers have privately said Israel in breach of international law Rishi Sunak has refused to deny a report saying government lawyers have told ministers that Israel is in breach of international law in Gaza. I quoted the words he used earlier (see 11.55am), using what was on the PA Media wire, but BBC News has now broadcast the full clip, including the question put to Sunak. Asked if the government has received advice from its own lawyers saying Israel has breached international humanitarian law, Sunak replied: Our view is longstanding that Israel has both the intention and the ability to comply with international humanitarian law. I’ve made that very clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu whenever I’ve spoken to him. There have been too many civilian deaths in Gaza. Of course we want to see an immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out and more aid into the region. The question was prompted by a story in the Observer at the weekend saying the government has been told by its lawyers that Israel is in breach of international law. As Toby Helm reported, Alicia Kearns, the Tory chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee who is a former Foreign Office official, has asserted this as fact, and it has not been denied by the government. At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson would not comment on internal government advice. But she said the government acted on legal advice, including in decisions about arms export licences. Labour has sought to capitalise on the clip of Rishi Sunak laughing this morning when asked a question about the timing of the general election (see 10.19am) by using it in a campaign advert. You can “stop him laughing” by voting Labour in the local elections, the party says. No 10 suggests good weather a factor as figures show small boat arrivals 43% higher than at same point in 2023 Downing Street has suggested that good weather is partly to blame for small boat arrivals being higher this year than at the same point last year. Almost 800 people arrived this way across the Channel over the Easter weekend, according to Home Office figures. Asked about the figures, the PM’s spokesperson told reporters at the morning lobby briefing: We have seen increases and we know that criminal gangs will seek to exploit opportunities and weather, and we know that also French police are facing increasing violence and disruption on the ground on French beaches. We need to keep stepping up our efforts and adapting to the gangs who continually adapt their own tactics. That’s why, alongside continuing that work, we have to fundamentally break the business model, and that’s what the Rwanda partnership will do. According to a Labour party analysis issued yesterday, small boat arrivals are now 43% higher than they were at the same point last year. Labour said: Even with no crossings on Good Friday … the 791 small boat arrivals on Saturday and Sunday (30th-31st March 2024) made it the busiest ever Easter weekend for small boats crossing the Channel, overtaking the 600 that arrived over the four days from 15th-18th April 2022, and well over double the 336 who arrived over the Easter weekend from 7th-10th April 2023. Sunday’s 442 arrivals also took the total for the year so far to 5,435, continuing the busiest start to a year on record and making this the only time that the 5,000 milestone has been reached before the end of March. The number of arrivals is now 43% higher than the same point in 2023 (3,793), and almost 20 per cent higher than the previous record year for small boat arrivals in 2022 (4,548). The 3,180 people who arrived by small boats in the month of March 2024 is the highest monthly total since September last year, and more than 3.75 times the number of people who made the journey in March 2023 (840). At the lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak still thought the government would be able to “stop the boats”. She said that when flights to Rwanda started, the deterrent effect would kick in. No 10 says rough sleepers should not be arrested over their smell, despite new legislation suggesting this could happen Downing Street has said that people sleeping rough should not face arrest just because they smell. Despite the crimininal justice bill including provisions that suggest this could happen (see 11.02am), a spokesperson for the prime minister said Rishi Sunak would not approve of this. Asked if Sunak agreed with Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, who told Sky News this morning that homeless people should not face arrest just if they smell, the spokesperson said: “Yes.” But the spokesperson also defended the bill, saying it was about “getting rid of an outdated Vagrancy Act which criminalises people for being homeless”. She went on: We are clear that nobody should be criminalised for being homeless and having nowhere to live, but at the same time our legislation has provisions in place which are designed to assist the police with addressing behaviour that could make the public feel unsafe or intimidated, and I think it’s right to ensure that as we update the outdated Vagrancy Act we keep some of those powers in place. The spokesperson said the police would get guidance on how to implement the legislation. But she declined to say when the legislation would return to the Commons for its report stage debate. For the last two months it has been stalled. Sunak criticises Scottish government"s new hate crime law, saying UK government won"t copy it Rishi Sunak has criticised the Scottish government’s new hate crime law, saying it is not one that the UK government will follow. He made the comment when asked if he backed JK Rowling, the author and gender critical feminist who, in a post on X, claimed the new legislation was “wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces” and challenged the police to arrest her for describing various trans women as men. Asked about Rowling’s stance, Sunak said: We’re not going to do anything like that [the legislation] here in England. We should not be criminalising people saying common sense things about biological sex. Clearly that isn’t right. We have a proud tradition of free speech. And I think it just shows, whether it’s the SNP or Labour, these are the wrongs that are priorities for the country. Asked if that meant he supported Rowling’s approach, Sunak said: It’s not not right for me to comment on police matters, individual matters, but what I do support very strongly is people’s right to free speech and nobody should be criminalised for saying common sense things about biological sex. The law does not automatically criminalise people for saying “common sense things about biological sex”. It is intended to criminalise being “threatening, abusive or insulting” to various groups of people, including transgender people, and intending to stir up hatred against them. But it has only just come into force, and has not been tested yet, and there are claims that it could be applied to people who misgender trans people. Here is the Scottish government’s briefing on how the law works. At the weekend the Observer splashed on a story by Toby Helm saying government lawyers have told ministers that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law in Gaza. In an interview today, asked about the legality of what Israel is doing, Rishi Sunak said the government believes Israel has “the intention and the ability” to comply with international law. He said: Our view is longstanding that Israel has both the intention and the ability to comply with international humanitarian law, I’ve made that very clear to prime minister Netanyahu whenever I’ve spoken to him. There have been too many civilian deaths in Gaza, of course we want to see an immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out and more aid into the region. Sunak’s comment seemed carefully worded. He did not say in this clip, as reported by PA Media, that he believed Israel was fully complying with international law. Sunak calls for urgent investigation into air strike that killed aid workers in Gaza Rishi Sunak has called for an urgent investigation by Israel into the airstrike that reportedly killed at least one British aid worker in Gaza. Referring to the attack that killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen charity, Sunak said he was “shocked and saddened” by the news. He went on: They’re doing fantastic work bringing alleviation to the suffering that many are experiencing in Gaza. They should be praised and commended for what they’re doing. They need to be allowed to do that work unhindered and it’s incumbent on Israel to make sure they can do that. We’re asking Israel to investigate what happened urgently because clearly there are questions that need to be answered. In posts on X, David Cameron, the foreign secretary, said there were reports that more than one British national was killed. The news of the airstrike that killed World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza is deeply distressing. British Nationals are reported to have been killed, we are urgently working to verify this information and will provide full support to their families. The news of the airstrike that killed World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza is deeply distressing. British Nationals are reported to have been killed, we are urgently working to verify this information and will provide full support to their families. We have called on Israel to immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened. Gillian Keegan unable to defend provisions in crime bill suggesting rough sleepers could be arrested if they smell Rishi Sunak was not the only cabinet minister criticised in an interview this morning over a response to a serious question. On Sky News Kay Burley asked Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, if she could justify a provision in the criminal justice bill suggesting rough sleepers might be arrested if they smell. Keegan did not laugh, but she did smile broadly at the question. Burley said: “It’s not funny.” And Keegan replied: I’m not saying it’s funny. I’m saying the most important thing is to help people off the streets. The bill cleared its committee stage in the Commons two months ago, but the government still has not set a date for the next debate (the report stage). The delay is partly due to a row about provisions in the bill that criminalise rough sleeping. As Eleni Courea reports, some Tory MPs want to replace these clauses with a very different approach. In her Sky interview this morning, Keegan accepted that it would be wrong to arrest rough sleepers for their odour. “People should not be arrested if they smell,” she said. But when Burley put it to her that this was what the bill did say, Keegan admitted that she had not looked at it closely. I haven’t looked at that detail of it, but I guess the word is ‘excessive’, and I don’t know what they mean by that. Here is the relevant clause of the bill. The reference to people smelling is in the final line, (5) (c). Sunak criticised for laughing off question about timing of general election In his interview on BBC Radio Tees this morning Rishi Sunak laughed quite forcefully in response to two questions about when he would call the general election. It jarred to the extent that the presenter, Amy Oakden, asked him why he found that funny. (See 8.36am.) In his second interview, on Radio Newcastle, he produced a more muted laugh when asked the same question. (See 9.07am.) Sunak does this quite a lot in interviews. At times it sounds like a nervous tic, but it is probably more of a deliberate strategy intended to disarm interviewers asking awkward questions. But this morning it did sound a bit odd, and the Liberal Democrats have responded with a press release denouncing him (more or less) as a modern-day Marie Antoinette. Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrats’ local government spokesperson, said: Rishi Sunak laughing in the face of people crying out for change is the perfect example of how careless, callous and chaotic this Conservative party is. While Sunak clings on it’s obvious that people up and down the country are demanding he and this rabble stop hunkering in their offices. Pat McFadden rejects claim from councillors quitting Labour that party stopping them expressing their views Twenty Labour councillors from Lancashire have resigned in protest at the party’s national leadership. As Ben Quinn reports, they have complained that Labour HQ is imposing too much control over what they are allowed to say. Mohammed Iqbal, one of the councillors leaving the party, told the BBC: In the last few weeks there has been a culture developing from the national Labour party that seems to want to control anything that any councillor wants to say. Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, was on the Today programme this morning. Asked about Iqbal’s comment, he said that having someone leave the party was “something to be regretted”, but he rejected claims the party was preventing councillors from expressing their views. He said: Everybody is allowed to have their own views and I understand why people feel really strongly about this issue. Sunak claims there has been "no change" to his plan to call election in second half of year On BBC Radio Newcastle Sunak was also asked when he would call an election. Faced with this question in an earlier interview, Sunak declined to repeat his line about an election in the second half of the year being his working assumption. (See 8.36am.) In his first answer to Bailey, Sunak again gave a very generalised answer. But when Bailey pressed him again, and asked “what’s so difficult about committing to a date”, Sunak replied: Because there’s an official way we do that. I’ve said very repeatedly and clearly that my working assumption would be that we have a general election in the second half of the year. There’s been no change to that. So I’ve been very clear about that. Sunak seems to have been planning for an election in October or November. But there has been a lot of speculation in recent days that Sunak could call an election in June or July, as a means of closing down a leadership challenge prompted by dire results for the Tories in the May local elections. This morning’s answer probably won’t do a lot to quell that. Instead of just saying ‘I expect it to be in the second half of the year’, he delivered a convoluted answer referencing his previous line to take, which is normally a sign of a politician not wanting to engage with a question. Also, an election in July would be in the second half of the year anyway. Sunak refuses to accept child poverty has risen sharply in north-east of England since 2015 Rishi Sunak’s next interview was on BBC Radio Newcastle, where the interview started with the presenter, Matt Bailey, playing a clip from the manager of a nursery saying they had not been properly consulted about who to deliver the new entitlement. In reply, Sunak said the policy was announced some time ago. Providers asked for the rate they are paid for childcare by the government to be increased. That has happened, he said. Q: Nurseries say they cannot find the staff. Sunak said the government has taken time to build the sector. There are more people working in it than there were. The government is trailing a £1,000 signing-on bonus for new staff, he said. Red tape was also cut, he said. Q: Talking of children, we cover child poverty a lot on this programme. In the north-east, more than a third of children are growing up in poverty. Why is that? Sunak said nobody wants to see children growing up in poverty. That was heartbreaking, he said. He claimed child poverty had fallen since 2010. Bailey said in the north-east child poverty has risen by more than in any other region since 2015. That seemed to be a reference to these figures. Sunak replied “those numbers are different to what I’ve got”. He repeated the claim about child poverty falling since 2010. Experts generally prefer to measure poverty by using the relative poverty figures, which show how many households have an income below 60% of the average. But Sunak was referring to the absolute poverty figures, which show how many households have an income below what the relative poverty figure was in a baseline year (2010-11 for this government), adjusted for inflation. In a growing economy, absolute poverty figures should always be going down. Sunak is right to say that absolute poverty numbers have fallen since the Tories came to power. But recent figures show they are starting to rise. Q: We have asked listeners what they want to know, and their main question is, when will the general election be? Sunak laughed, and said he had answered that question many times. Q: Why are you laughing? And why can’t you answer? Sunak said there is a process for holding elections. He said what was more important was the choice facing people. (He did not repeat the formula he has used before, about his “working assumption” being that it will be in the second half of the year.) Sunak claimed that people were more interest in talking to him about the issues. And he claimed Keir Starmer could not say what his plan was for the future. That was the end of the BBC Radio Tees interviews. Sunak dismisses claims nurseries do not have capacity to deliver free childcare places promised by government Rishi Sunak was on BBC Radio Tees first, where he was interviewed by Amy Oakden. He started by saying the childcare offer was about giving parents choice. Working parents would eventually have access to 30 hours of free childcare from the moment their “little one” reaches nine months, he said. Q: But providers say they are not going to be able to provide these places. Sunak said the government “consulted extensively” with the sector, and did not introduce the offer straight away because it wanted to ensure capacity was available. He went on: We said, look, this is a really big change and we need to take the time to get it right, to give time for the sector to grow and expand and actually that’s why we’re doing it in a methodical way. And, if you look, that is working. Staffing levels in the sector have increased and more people are at work in the sector and the number of places has also increased over the past year as well. And what we’ve done, after consulting extensively with the sector, is increased the rates that childcare providers are paid, and those have increased extensively. It’s worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Rishi Sunak promotes Tories’ rollout of 15 hours’ free childcare for two-year-olds Good morning. Parliament is in recess, but the local elections are only a month away and the Conservatives and Labour are both in campaign mode today, focusing in particular on childcare. Rishi Sunak is giving some local radio interviews this morning and you can get the gist of what he will be saying from the Department for Education’s press release. It starts like this. Thousands of parents of two-year-olds across the country are getting help with their childcare costs as the first phase of the biggest ever expansion in childcare starts. In this first stage, working parents of two-year-olds are now able to access 15 hours a week of government-funded childcare from 1 April. The rollout of support is part of the government’s plan to help families – freeing thousands of couples from having to choose between having a family and a career, as over 150,000 children are on track to secure government-funded places from this week. The Labour take is a bit different. Here is the start of the rival press release it issued yesterday. Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson today slammed the Conservatives’ “childcare pledge without a plan” after a new dossier published by the party revealed families across the country struggling to access childcare. The dossier contains: -New data obtained by Labour from Ofsted showing that the number of childcare places fell by more than 1,000 in the six months between March and December 2023 alongside a fall in the number of providers. -Testimonials from parents and nurseries in every region of England revealing a childcare system in disarray, with families unable to access already scarce places and struggling under the weight of sky-high childcare costs. -Warnings from providers that they will be “forced to go bust” under the Conservatives’ new childcare offer. As Eleni Courea reports, Labour is also launching a website today claiming Conservative turmoil under Rishi Sunak has cost the taxpayer £8.2bn and nearly a year in lost time. Here is the agenda for the day. Morning: Rishi Sunak is on visits in the north-east of England. 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. If you want to contact me, do use the “send us a message” feature. 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