The former health secretary will give resignation speech after prime minister’s questions Good morning. PMQs is back, and there are at least two obvious issues for Kemi Badenoch to raise when she faces Keir Starmer.What Tories calls Starmer’s “Soviet-style” plan to curb supermarket pricesThis is more nuts than a squirrel convention!I warned Rachel Reeves prices would go up if she raised taxes and drowned employers in red tape. She didn’t l
Good morning. PMQs is back, and there are at least two obvious issues for Kemi Badenoch to raise when she faces Keir Starmer.
What Tories calls Starmer’s “Soviet-style” plan to curb supermarket prices As Sarah Butler , Mark Sweney and Heather Stewart report, UK supermarkets have been asked by the government to consider freezing the prices of some essential foodstuffs to protect the public from inflation fuelled by the Middle East conflict.
UK supermarkets urged to consider voluntary price caps on essential foods Read more This is not the same as the SNP’s proposal for mandatory price caps on essential food items in supermarkets . The UK government is looking at some sort of voluntary scheme.
On the Today programme, Dan Tomlinson , a Treasury minister, did not deny the story, but he stressed that this was “not a government announcement”, just a story about what ministers might be looking at. He said it was right for ministers to consider ideas that could help people with the cost of living.
This is unlikely to impress Badenoch. This is what her shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith , said about the story last night.
double quotation mark This is more nuts than a squirrel convention!
I warned Rachel Reeves prices would go up if she raised taxes and drowned employers in red tape. She didn’t listen and now she’s proposing Soviet style measures!
What Tories call Starmer’s “insane” energy policy Last night the government announced that it is relaxing sanctions on Russian oil that has been refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries .
This morning Badenoch claimed this showed that the government’s refusal to allow new drilling in the North Sea was “insane”.
double quotation mark After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.
Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences.
We are now importing from Russia instead of drilling in the North Sea.
Insane.
It is not just the Tories attacking the government over this. In an interview with the Today programme this morning, Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said people in Ukraine felt “very let down” by this. She said: double quotation mark We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support.
They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down.
Thornberry said Ukrainians view sanctions as vital because “they believe that every bit of joint pressure they make with their allies is pushing Russia ever closer to ending the war because this is absolutely crippling their economy”. She went on: double quotation mark There was a G7 announcement on the 19 May which said that they, the G7, had an unwavering commitment to put pressure on Russia including sanctions on the energy sector and actions against entities in third countries that materially support Russia’s war effort but we’re still saying that we’re going to take sanctioned oil but so long as it goes to Turkey first and then it’s refined, we will use it.
After PMQs, Wes Streeting will give a resignation speech in the Commons. He is taking advantage of the convention that allows a cabinet minister who has resigned to make a “personal statement” in the Commons before the main debate of the day starts. Streeting resigned last week saying he no longer had confidence in Starme as PM. He did not launch a leadership bid, but he has ambitions for the top job and we are likely to get some indication as to what his manifesto for the Labour leadership would be were he to be a candidate in a contest later this year.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister chairing the government review into young people and work, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee on youth employment.
Morning: John Swinney is sworn in as Scotland’s first minister at the court of session in Edinburgh. Then he will appoint his cabinet, with announcements due before the end of the day.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
12.50pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to take part in a Q&A at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor and Labour candidate in the Makerfield byelection, is also due to speak at the event at various meetings.
Afternoon: Wes Streeting is due to give a speech in the Commons following his resignation as health secretary.
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