Tory MP defends his comments that Badenoch is ‘preoccupied’ with young family – UK politics live | Politics

A welfare watchdog has criticised the government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for most pensioners.

The social security advisory committee says the government should have carried out a full impact assessment before going ahead with the policy, and it says it is worried about the impact the policy will have on pensioner poverty.

It also says it is not convinced by the government’s argument that it is addressing this issue by encouraging more people to apply for pension credit, a benefit that enables people who qualify to carry on getting the winter fuel payment.

The committee, an independent statutory body set up to advise the government on welfare, has set out its comments in a letter to Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary. The letter was sent on 20 September, but was only published today.

In the letter Stephen Brien, the committee’s chair, says:

We were disappointed that an assessment of impact was not presented to the committee alongside the regulations on 11 September 2024. It has subsequently been confirmed that a full assessment of impact does not exist, with the prime minister commenting that it was not legally necessary and that “The impact will be mitigated by pension credit, by the housing benefit”^.

Given the scale of pensioners who will be affected by this change, and the speed at which it is being introduced, we are not similarly reassured that this will be the case and are of the firm view that a more detailed assessment is urgently required, in particular, on the potential poverty impact.

The committee makes various other recommendations, including saying people on full pensioner housing benefit should also continue to get the winter fuel payment, and demanding an assurance that enough staff are available to process new pension crediti claims.

That is all from me for today. My colleague Tom Ambrose is taking over now.

Nigel Farage has used a team of three US advisers to help him with “perception management” and public relations in America, as well as with settling a $3,500 hotel bill this summer, new documents show, Rowena Mason reports.

The House of Commons wants you to tell it what it can do to make the place better. In particular, it wants to hear suggestions covering:

-driving up standards;

-improving culture and working practices; and

-reforming parliamentary procedures to make the House of Commons more effective.

The invitation is not just aimed at Guardian readers (although I am sure many of you have strong, and sensible, views, and I would encourage you to submit them). The Commons modernisation committee has opened a consultation inviting groups and individuals, inside parliament and outside, to propose ideas for reform.

As it explains in its news release, submissions should be no more than 2,500 words and they should cover:

1) What topic(s) do you think the modernisation committee should prioritise and how do they link to one or more of the strategic aims set out in the leader’s memorandum?

2) Why would the topic(s) benefit from the attention of the modernisation committee?

3) Are you aware of examples from other parliaments relevant to the topic(s) which may be interesting for the modernisation committee to consider?

4) Is there any existing work relevant to the topic(s) which you think the modernisation committee can build on?

The committee is chaired by Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons. In a memo last month she set out some proposals for reform, including banning MPs from paid media work, but there are so many other topics it could cover it is hard to know where to start.

You can submit ideas here. They have to be in before 3pm on 16 December.

Paul Johnson is leaving his post as director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank next year. He has secured the dream job aspired to by members of the liberal intelligentsia elite – head of an Oxford college. Richard Partington has the story.

At PMQs yesterday Keir Starmer was repeatedly asked by Rishi Sunak about Labour’s approach to China. Starmer implied that his government would be just as robust as the last Conservative government, and he was critical of Beijing over its hostility towards Taiwan, its suppression of rights in Hong Kong and its links with Russia.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is due to visit China from tomorrow and Amnesty International UK has issued a statement saying it hopes Lammy is just as robust in private. Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty’s chief executive, said:

This visit is a crucial opportunity for the foreign secretary to demonstrate the government’s true commitment to challenging publicly and privately Beijing’s brutal suppression of human rights in China and Hong Kong.

Behind closed doors but also in public, David Lammy needs to tackle the Chinese government over its systematic, industrial-scale repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, its widespread imprisonment of peaceful activists and its completely unacceptable intimidation of students and campaigners here in the UK.

The prime minister’s statement that the immediate release of the unjustly-imprisoned UK businessman Jimmy Lai is a UK priority is welcome, and Mr Lammy should also seek to secure the immediate release of fellow prisoners of conscience Hong Kong lawyer-activist Chow Hang-tung and Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, as well as the long-held Uighur economist Ilham Tohti and #MeToo activists Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing.

Throughout this trip, the Government should ensure that talks on trade and security relations with China aren’t pursued at the expense of human rights.

The Tory MP Christopher Chope defended his comments about Kemi Badenoch (see 12.57pm) in a subsequent interview with Andrew Neil on Times Radio. Chope said that Badenoch and Robert Jenrick could both be “excellent party leaders”. And he said that there was “a lot of mischief-making going on” and that he was being misprepresented.

I repeat the point which I was making before, and that is that Kemi has got a young family and so it’s less likely that she’s going to be able to spend as much time as is required as somebody who hasn’t got the commitments of a young family.

Now, that’s not suggesting she’s unsuited or anything like that to be the leader of the opposition …

All I’m saying is that one of the candidates has got a younger family than the other one, and has also got a record of wanting to spend more time with her family than engage in going to far-flung constituencies.

Chope also said that, when he was a junior minister in the early 1990s, he was the father of a young baby.

Almost half of Conservative councillors polled this week believe that neither Robert Jenrick nor Kemi Badenoch will be able to win the next election, and a significant minority said they did not plan to vote in the leadership contest, Jessica Elgot reports.

In an interview broadcast this morning, Michael Gove, the former Tory cabinet minister and an ally of Kemi Badenoch’s, said that, although Robert Jenrick had strengths as a leadership candidate, one problem was that he looked like a “Tory boy”. (See 9.47am.)

Now the Jenrick campaign has hit back. A spokesperson for Jenrick said:

Michael Gove and his acolytes have been responsible for so much of the infighting and drama that has led our party to where it is.

Rob’s going to end that drama and the excuses that followed and just deliver for our country.

The school absence rate for England for the autumn and spring terms of 2023-24 was down on the same period the year before – but still much higher than pre-pandemic, according to figures out from the Department for Education.

The overall absence rate in the autumn and spring terms of 2023-24 was 6.9%, down from 7.3% the previous year, the DfE says. That figure covers primary schools, secondary schools and special schools. Pre-pandemic, the comparable figures were below 5%.

Today’s figures also show that 19.2% of pupils were persistent absentees, meaning they missed 10% or more of school sessions. The equivalent figure for 2022-23 was 21.2%

Commenting on the figures, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

Schools are working incredibly hard to boost attendance, and it is positive that these figures have improved overall year on year. However, the reasons for absence often lie beyond the school gates, and it is clear schools need more support to tackle unauthorised absence and the often deep-rooted issues facing children and families.

These include everything from sickness and mental health problems, to poverty and other social challenges. Previous governments failed to properly fund vital services like social care and CAMHS, while important roles like education welfare officers were cut.

Downing Street has said that government departments will have to become “more productive” in response to the funding challenges facing the government.

The PM’s spokesperson used the phrase at the morning lobby briefing, where he also played down reports suggesting that some ministers are complaining strongly about the spending settlements they have been offered by the Treasury.

The spokesperson said that the overall spending total for Whitehall has now been agreed – but he said some departmental spending budgets within that total were still being negotiated.

Asked about reports that ministers have been writing to Keir Starmer directly with concerns about their budget settlement, the spokesperson said:

I am obviously not going to get drawn into specifics of spending review discussions, but clearly engagement between departments and the Treasury and No 10 ahead of the budget and a spending review are a standard part of the process where departments will set out their priorities and the challenges that they are facing.

The spokeperson said government departments would “have to become more productive” and may need to undertake reforms.

Not every department will be able to do everything they want to. There will be tough decisions taken, there will be tough conversations, but ultimately this government has been very clear that it will fix the foundations, it will fix the position in relation to the public finances.

Explaining what has already been agreed, he said:

The prime minister and the chancellor have agreed what is known as the major measures … which have been submitted to the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] as per a timetable that is set out on the OBR website.

That submission includes the overall spending envelope, which is now closed, and then individual departmental spending review negotiations are now being concluded.

The Conservative MP Christopher Chope has said that he is backing Robert Jenrick for Tory leader, not Kemi Badenoch, partly because he thinks having three young children will distract her.

In an interview with ITV Meridian, Chope said:

I myself am supporting Robert Jenrick because I think he’s brought more energy and commitment to the campaign, and being leader of the opposition is a really demanding job.

And, much as I like Kemi, I think she’s preoccupied with her own children, quite understandably. I think Robert’s children are a bit older, and I think that it’s important that whoever leads the opposition has got an immense amount of time and energy.

When it was put to him that he was saying a woman with young children could not lead a political party, Chope denied that. He said that he was one of Margaret Thatcher’s strongest supporters (although both Thatcher’s two children were in their 20s when she became Tory leader.)

He also said that he understood “talking to colleagues that Kemi spends a lot of time with her family”. That was not possible to combine with being opposition leader, he claimed.

Badenoch and Jenrick both have three children. Jenrick’s are 13, 11 and nine. Badenoch’s are younger, but not by much. They are 12, seven and five.

Speaking on the same ITV Meridien programme, the Labour MP Helena Dollimore said:

I think many women will be shocked by those comments.

I’m really proud that we live in a country where we’ve had women who have become prime minister, we’ve got the first woman chancellor at the moment, I think there should be no barrier to women standing in public life.