Labour says it ‘beggars belief’ police told to arrest fewer people because of prison overcrowding – UK politics live | Politics
Key events
There have been several moments at Wesminster in recent months when rumours about a surprise election being called have spiked. It is happening again this morning, but this time speculation is edging towards the top of the Richter scale.
As Pippa Crerar pointed out early, Jeremy Hunt’s response to a question on this this morning did nothing to quell election fever. (See 10.21am.) Perhaps a more significant piece of evidence came in the final minute of the Today programme this morning, when Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, revealed that for the past 12 hours or so he has not been able to get anyone in Downing Street to say Rishi Sunak won’t be calling an election.
Another theory is that Sunak might announce a reshuffle this afternoon. With Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, announcing at the weekend that he is standing down at the election, there might be a case for one. But it would be pointless having a wide-ranging reshuffle at this point, with an election due within months anyway, and a minor reshuffle would not be enough to put the Westminster ecosystem on high alert, which is where it is heading now.
Hunt says it’s ‘not right time’ for UK to recognise Palestinian state, as Ireland, Spain and Norway are doing
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was asked if the UK would follow Ireland, Spain and Norway in formally recognising a Palestinian state. No, he replied. He told Sky:
We have a long-standing position on this that we will be prepared to recognise the state of Palestine at the time that it most helps the peace process, and we will continue to keep that under review.
Asked when the right time might be, Hunt said:
We will continue to keep that under review. But our position is that this is not the right time to do it at the moment.
According to a story by Jim Pickard, Lucy Fisher and Anna Gross in the Financial Times, Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has drawn up a list of all the “many very difficult problems” facing an incoming Labour government that Darren Jones referred to this morning. (See 10.37am.) The FT says:
Dubbed “Sue’s shit list” by one senior Labour official, it has been drawn up by the former civil servant to identify the most immediate problems Labour would face in office if it wins the election expected this year.
Senior Labour officials said that any one of the areas on Gray’s “government risk register” could puncture a honeymoon period for a new administration led by Sir Keir Starmer.
Here is the list.
Inquiry to begin into DWP’s treatment of ill and disabled people on benefits
The treatment of chronically ill and disabled people by welfare officials, including benefits decisions subsequently linked to the deaths of vulnerable claimants, is to be formally investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Britain’s human rights watchdog, Patrick Butler reports.
The EHRC has published more details about the inquiry here, including information on how experts and professionals can submit evidence. And here are the terms of reference.
Darren Jones, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, was doing interviews for Labour this morning about the inflation figures. Speaking to Times Radio, he described the drop in inflation as evidence that the government had gone “from being grossly incompetent to being mildly incompetent”.
On the prison ovecrowding story (see 9.33am), Jones was asked if Labour would go into the election proposing to send fewer people to jail. He replied.
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think this is a space for ideology. I think it’s a space for pragmatism.
But Jones also accepted that this would be a very difficult problem for an incoming Labour government. He said:
The prison conditions are awful … And now we’ve ended up in this absurd position where you can’t even get through the court system because the backlog is so long and the police are now saying, don’t arrest criminals. It’s ridiculous. And the public expect better and they need better.
But look, I’ll be frank with you. This is going to be one of the many very knotty, difficult problems that we will inherit if we win the election. And it will take time to turn it around.
Large-scale nuclear power station planned for Anglesey in Wales
Ministers have earmarked north Wales as the site of a large-scale nuclear power plant, which is part of plans to resuscitate Britain’s nuclear power ambitions, Jillian Ambrose reports.
Here is the government press release with details of the announcement.
At the end of last week, in a long read on the state of play in the Conservative party, the Financial Times mentioned a rumour that Rishi Sunak might announce an election today.
In this surreal pre-election period rumours swirl, the latest unlikely one being that Sunak could bring the uncertainty to an end and call a snap election next Wednesday, when new data is expected by some economists to show inflation falling below the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target.
If the FT thought there was a serious risk of Sunak calling an election today, it would not have buried the news in the middle of a feature. No one else has taken the prospect very seriously either, but, as Pippa Crerar reports, in an interview this morning Jeremy Hunt gave an answer that won’t 100% reassure people hoping for an election-free summer.
Jeremy Hunt not doing much to dispel Westminster rumours that Sunak could call election off back of inflation figures.
“Well that’s a matter for the prime minister, it’s not a matter for me,” he tells #Today.
Some getting spooked by Tories doubling down on dividing lines this…
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 22, 2024
Jeremy Hunt not doing much to dispel Westminster rumours that Sunak could call election off back of inflation figures.
“Well that’s a matter for the prime minister, it’s not a matter for me,” he tells #Today.
Some getting spooked by Tories doubling down on dividing lines this week – and Sunak being front & centre on economic response.
For an election on Thursday 27 June, parliament would have to disssolve today (which won’t happen). If parliament were to dissolve on Thursday next week, the election could be held on Thursday 4 July.
Most people at Westminster still expect an election in October or November.
Jeremy Hunt admits people still feel worse off than before Covid pandemic
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, found some common ground with Rachel Reeves (see 9.52am) this morning when he admitted people do not feel better off.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said:
Do people feel better off now than a few years ago? No, because we have had something that you and I have never had in our lifetimes.
We have had two massive economic shocks in quick succession so no, they don’t feel better than they felt a few years ago.
Hunt was referring to Covid and to the invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a huge rise in energy prices. He went on:
The numbers show very clearly that since 2010 over a longer period of time living standards have improved, we have got four million more jobs, we have attracted more investment than anywhere in the world apart from China and the United States.
The reason I am saying that is because this is an election year, people are going to make a choice about the future.
When it comes to the important things that make a difference, the difficult decisions on having a flexible labour market, on getting taxes down so that we attract investment from overseas, a Conservative government will continue to take those difficult decisions.
Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, has just started giving evidence to the Post Office Horizon inquiry. She is the most important witness to appear so far and she is scheduled to give evidence for three days. Martin Belam is covering the hearing on a separate live blog.
UK inflation falls by less than expected to 2.3%, reducing chance of June rate cut
UK inflation fell to 2.3% in April – its lowest level for almost three years – but the decline was smaller than expected, denting hopes of a return to the Bank of England’s 2% target, Phillip Inman reports.
And Julia Kollewe has full reaction on the business live blog.
But one of the most interesting response (politically, not economomically) came out last night. In an article for the Sun written ahead of the figures being published this morning, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Rishi Sunak, who is “richer than the king”, would not appreciate the extent to which people are still suffering from the cost of living crisis.
I can understand why a Conservative prime minister who is richer than the king might want to run to the television studios to tell Brits that they’ve never had it so good.
But, Sun readers just need to look at their bank balances and the price of the weekly shop to know they are worse off.
On the Conservatives’ watch the price of a typical supermarket shop has gone up by nearly £1,000 a year.
Wages growth has been sluggish, taxes are at a seventy year high and mortgage bills rocketed after the disastrous mini-budget.
That’s not a record to celebrate – it’s a record you can’t defend.
More interesting than the message is the fact that the Sun chose to publish it. For years the Sun has been rabidly anti-Labour, but it is opportunistically Tory rather than ideologically Tory, it does not like being on the losing side at an election and for months now there have been signs that it is gearing up to back Labour at the election, or at least offer some kind of semi-endorsement. The Reeves article is another clue. Having the Sun change allegiance would have no real impact on the election result, but it would be bad for Tory morale.
Chief constables told to consider pausing ‘non-priority arrests’ as English and Welsh prisons too full
Good morning. The police have been told to arrest fewer people because jails in England and Wales are too full. The Times got the story last night, and if the inflation figures weren’t out this morning, it would be the lead item on the TV news.
In their story, Matt Dathan and Ben Ellery quote from a memo sent to chief constables by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). It says:
Consideration is to be given to pausing non-priority arrests and any planned operations where large numbers of arrests may take place to ease the pressure within the criminal justice system.
Notwithstanding public protection remains a priority and a considered threat, harm and risk assessment is to be completed when considering any pause in police operations.
The Times says police chiefs have not been told exactly what arrests to pause, but “sources clarified that a more accurate term would be ‘non-urgent’ arrests”, the paper reports. “They gave the example of a person named as a suspect in a crime where officers were yet to carry out investigative actions, such as reviewing CCTV or carrying out house-to-house forensics for a burglary.”
The report also quotes from a second NPCC letter sent to chief constables saying the prison overcrowding crisis is having an “unsustainable” impact on policing. It is from Rob Nixon, chief constable of Leicestershire police and the NPCC head of criminal justice, and Nev Kemp, deputy chief constable of Surrey police and the NPCC custody lead, and they say:
We continue along with NPCC chair Gavin Stephens to make it clear in the strongest terms that the current situation is having an unsustainable operational impact on policing and the further deterioration in the situation, which HMPPS expect early next week, will further impact on operational policing and risks public safety. It is important for us to be able to show what those risks to public safety are.
It is PMQs today and Rishi Sunak will want to talk about today’s fall in inflation. But it would be surprising if Keir Starmer does not ask about this story, which rather blows apart the claim Sunak made in a major speech last week about Britain being safer under the Tories.
For a preview of what Starmer is likely to say, this is what Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said about the Times story last night.
It beggars belief that police are being told to sit on their hands and ignore crime because the Conservatives have mismanaged the criminal justice system so badly.
Rishi Sunak’s rap sheet now reads: the rushed early release of domestic abusers on to our streets, deliberate delays to trials, and victims waiting years for justice. The public will be absolutely dumbfounded. This cannot go on.
Labour is the party of law and order. We will build the new prisons needed and make Britain’s streets safe.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.25am: Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.
9.45am: Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, gives evidence to the Post Office Horizon inquiry. We are covering that on a separate live blog.
10am: Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.
Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
Afternoon: Sunak chairs cabinet.
2pm: Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem’s chief executive, and Tim Jarvis, its director general, give evidence to the Commons energy security and net zero committee.
And David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is in Albania meeting the prime minister, Edi Rama.
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