Starmer says Reform UK don’t want to solve small boats problem because they need ‘politics of grievance’
Q: What do you say to people who think you have allowed Nigel Farage to make all the running on small boats?
Starmer says this is a really serious issue.
We have to have control of our borders, and I completely get it, and I’m determined that, whether it’s people crossing in the first place, whether it’s people in asylum hotels, or whether it’s returning people, we absolutely have to deal with this.
When it comes to the asylum hotels, I want them emptied. I’ve been really clear about that. I completely understand why people are so concerned about it.
The only way to empty them is an orderly, systematic working through of the cases as quickly as possible and then returning those people who should not be here.
Starmer says 35,000 people have been returned already.
And he goes on to attack Reform UK. Referring to Nigel Farage, Starmer says:
The difference here is between an orderly, sensible way of actually fixing a problem we inherited from the Tories [and] fanciful arrangements that just not going to work.
Nigel Farage and Reform are just the politics of grievance. They feed on grievance. They don’t want the problem solved because they’ve got no reason to exist if the problems are solved.
And so the contrast in politics is a Labour government rebuilding the country in the way that we said we would, or this politics of grievance that simply puts forward unworkable, fanciful ideas that are actually not fair to the public – to put forward, yet again, ideas that just aren’t going to work.
Key events
Starmer confirms he wants to lead Labour into next election
Chorley asked Starmer about his birthday, which is tomorrow. What did he want?
Mainly for people not to notice it, Starmer said, because he is at the age where he does not want to acknowledge it. He will be 63.
Q: At the next election you will almost be a pensioner. Will you lead Labour into the next election to serve a full term?
Starmer replied:
I’m definitely going to lead them into the next election. I’ve always said this is a decade of national renewal. I’m really proud and privileged to lead this country as prime minister. I intend to do that into the next election, and that project of renewal is absolutely integral to the next phase of this government, then on into the next election and beyond that.
Although he implied that he would, Starmer in his answer did not actually firmly commit to staying as Labour leader for the whole of this “decade of renewal” (ie, for the entire term of a second parliament). But, given that any questions about leadership that far ahead are extremely hypothetical, it would be unwise to read too much – or indeed, anything – into that.
Chorley’s asked about Angela Rayner. (See 1.50pm.) He asked if she was just the victim of briefing war, or if she had questions to answer about her flat purchase.
Starmer ignored the flat issue, and just praised his deputy in his reponse. He said:
Look, Angela is deputy prime minister of this country. That’s an incredible achievement.
Angela came from very humble background, battled all sorts of challenges along the way, and there she is proudly – and I’m proud of her – as our deputy prime minister.
One of the things that drives me in politics is aspiration, opportunity for people to go as far as their talent will take them.
Chorley asked again if Rayner was the victim of a briefing war. In his reply, Starmer inadvertently promoted her.
Look, Angela has had people briefing against her and talking her down over and over again. It’s a big mistake, by the way. Angela is an incredible prime minister.
Starmer then corrected himself – “deputy prime minister”. He went on:
What a great story of of British success, that we are a country where Angela Rayner could be our deputy prime minister. I’m proud of that. I think we should be proud as a country that Angela Rayner is our deputy prime minister.
And that, by the way, will give I don’t know how many working class children, particularly girls, a real sense of aspiration. They will look at Angela and think ‘I can do something like that.’ What a brilliant thing.
Peter Hyman will be please with that answer. (See 11.59am.)
Starmer says extension of free childcare in England could make ‘life-changing’ difference for some children
Starmer told Chorley that he was “really proud” that from today the government is rolling out its pledge to fund childcare for 30 hours a week in England. He said:
This is fantastically important for parents and carers who can go and get on with whatever they want to get on with. For many of them, that may well be going back into work. improving their own economy and the national economy.
For children, it’s hugely important. A child that’s been in childcare, by the time they get to reception year, is likely to be far ahead of children who haven’t had that opportunity.
And you hear these stories, that are real, about the disparity in four-year-olds, some arriving in nappies, some quite articulate. That is a life-changing difference at the age of four.
Starmer also said he he was pleased to learn that nine out of 10 parents got their nursery of choice for their childcare. “So the system is working,” he said.
Starmer says he backs flying England flags, and has one in in his flat, but does not want them used in ‘divisive’ way
Q: What do you feel about the debate about England flags going up all over the country. Some people are in favour, but some people see it as racist. What do you think?
Starmer said he was in favour of flags.
I’m a supporter of flags … I’ve got one behind me.
Q: Are in favour of people painting them on roundabouts and hanging them from lampposts?
Starmer replied:
I’m the leader of the Labour party who put the union jack on our Labour party membership cards. I always sit in front of a union jack. I’ve been doing it for years, and it attracted a lot of comment when I started doing it.
In our flat, which is upstairs from here [Starmer and Chorley were speaking in Downing Street], as you know, we’ve got a St George’s flag in our flat.
Q: So you are encouraging people to put up more flags?
Starmer replied:
I’m very encouraging of flags. I think they’re patriotic, and I think they’re a great symbol of our nation.
I don’t think they should be devalued and belittled. And I think sometimes when they’re used purely for divisive purposes, it actually devalues the flag. I don’t want to see that. I’m proud of our flag. I sit in front of our flag, and I’m very, very proud to do so.
Q: What would you say to people who don’t want a hotel in their town housing asylum seekers?
Starmer says he wants to see these hotels closed.
Q: When will this happen?
Starmer says the government has said this will happen by the end of this parliament.
Starmer says Reform UK don’t want to solve small boats problem because they need ‘politics of grievance’
Q: What do you say to people who think you have allowed Nigel Farage to make all the running on small boats?
Starmer says this is a really serious issue.
We have to have control of our borders, and I completely get it, and I’m determined that, whether it’s people crossing in the first place, whether it’s people in asylum hotels, or whether it’s returning people, we absolutely have to deal with this.
When it comes to the asylum hotels, I want them emptied. I’ve been really clear about that. I completely understand why people are so concerned about it.
The only way to empty them is an orderly, systematic working through of the cases as quickly as possible and then returning those people who should not be here.
Starmer says 35,000 people have been returned already.
And he goes on to attack Reform UK. Referring to Nigel Farage, Starmer says:
The difference here is between an orderly, sensible way of actually fixing a problem we inherited from the Tories [and] fanciful arrangements that just not going to work.
Nigel Farage and Reform are just the politics of grievance. They feed on grievance. They don’t want the problem solved because they’ve got no reason to exist if the problems are solved.
And so the contrast in politics is a Labour government rebuilding the country in the way that we said we would, or this politics of grievance that simply puts forward unworkable, fanciful ideas that are actually not fair to the public – to put forward, yet again, ideas that just aren’t going to work.
Starmer says government now moving into ‘delivery, delivery, delivery’ phase in BBC interview
The BBC is now broadcasting the Keir Starmer interview. Matt Chorley is asking the questions.
Q: You made a speech a year ago saying things would get worse before they got better? When will things get better?
Starmer says he knows that people want things to improve. He felt it was important to level with people. He knows they want change “as quickly as possible”.
He is now focused on delivery, he says.
Here a year on in, what I would say is we spent the first year sort of fixing the foundations, if you like, doing the hard yards.
But we now enter into phase two of the government, which is where we focus on delivery, delivery, delivery, and start to show what a difference a Labour government really makes.
And so yes, it was always going to take time … and the frustration I completely understand. I want to go further and faster and that’s amongst the reasons I’ve done some changes here at Number 10 today.
Keir Starmer is due to record an interview with Matt Chorley from the BBC’s Radio 5 Live to mark the start of the new parliamentary session. BBC News will be showing it too. It is due to start within the next 10 minutes or so.
No 10 defends Angela Rayner over flat claims
Downing Street has defended Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, over claims that there was something improper about her purchase of a £800,000 flat in Hove. The Conservatives, and Tory-supporting papers, have suggested that she should have paid more in stamp duty because the new flat is a second home. Rayner has not commented on the story, but her allies have said the Hove flat is not a second home for stamp duty purposes because she no longer has a stake in the family home in Greater Manchester occupied by her former partner, from whom she has been separated for some time.
Asked if the PM had confidence in Rayner, the PM’s spokesperson replied:
Yes, the prime minister works closely with the deputy prime minister … on delivering on the public’s priorities.
The spokesperson also said that Rayner was not able to disclose full details of the ownership of the house in Greater Manchester because of a court order. But Rayner was trying to get that changed so she could release more information, he suggested.
There is a court order which restricts her from providing further information, which she’s urgently working on rectifying in the interests of public transparency.
There are no urgent questions in the Commons this afternoon, but three ministerial statements after 3.30pm. They are (in order): Yvette Cooper on borders and asylum; David Lammy on the Middle East; and John Healey on Ukraine.
Anas Sarwar urges Scots to challenge ‘noisy minorities’ in Reform and SNP
Libby Brooks
Libby Brook is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has warned that the forthcoming Scottish election campaign is “going to be ugly” as he addressed MSPs and activists at the start of the new Holyrood session.
But he dismissed Reform as “noise”, saying “all they do is distract from SNP failures”.
Sarwar condemned the SNP’s “cynical” tactics at June’s Hamilton byelection, which Scottish Labour won from the SNP. During the campaign Reform used an advert attacking Sarwar that was deemed racist. The SNP claimed the contest was a two-horse race between the Nationalists and Reform. Sarwar said today that was “cynical” and a “deliberate attempt by John Swinney to use the poison of Reform as a smokescreen for his failure”.
Asked what his strategy would be for to counter continued racist attacks and misinformation, Sarwar said:
We will call it out for what it is which is a chancer [Nigel Farage] who doesn’t understand Scotland, but wants to come here and try and divide Scotland for his own agenda.
Sarwar added that he could “understand those Scots that are considering Reform often feel a genuine sense of hopelessness” but promised to build support “based on like-minded individuals who want to challenge those noisy minorities, whether it’s the SNP or Reform and Farage”.
While Sarwar is still – like UK leader Keir Starmer – leaning into the language of understanding those voters attracted to Reform, it’s worth noting that today he sounded less ameliorative than before, perhaps marking a change of tack for the Scottish Labour leader.
No 10 says mini Downing Street reshuffle shows government now has ‘relentless focus on delivery’
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson said that the mini No 10 reshuffle this morning showed the government was now focusing on delivery. The spokesperson said:
[The reshuffle] reflects the prime minister’s view that phase one of this government was about fixing the foundations and the second phase has to be about a relentless focus on delivery.
When it was put to her that the need to appoint a chief secretary to the PM implied Keir Starmer thought delivery had not gone well so far, the PM’s press secretary (who deals with party political questions) replied:
The prime minister came into government with commitment to deliver change for working people. He spent the first year getting on with that job …
Of course, the prime minister is always determined to make sure that we are straining every sinew to deliver for the British people. That is what they rightly expect and what he comes to work and focuses on every single day.
Badenoch accuses Guardian of reporting ‘hearsay’ as she restates disputed claim about US medical school offer
Kemi Badenoch has restated her claim that she was offered a place to study medicine at Stanford university in the US when she was 16 – after the Guardian published comments from the Stanford admissions officer at the time, and other experts, saying her story was not plausible.
Here is Jessica Elgot’s report.
Asked to respond today during a visit in Reigate, Badenoch said:
All I will say is that I remember the very day those letters came to me, it was not just from Stanford, I was 16, I had done very well in my SATs.
But this is 30 years ago, I don’t have the papers, and what the Guardian is doing is reporting on hearsay rather than talking about what the government is doing.
I’m very happy to stand by what I said – when I was 16 I did get an offer, and I’ve explained what that was, and the Guardian can try and cast aspersions as much as they like, but they’d be better off looking at this government’s woeful record and the CVs of the people who are running the country now, which has been proven to be less than satisfactory.
Richard Tice claims some parents of Send children ‘abusing’ system giving them free transport to special needs schools
My colleague Peter Walker was at the Reform UK press conference this morning. He has summarised some of the key lines from Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, on Bluesky.
As well as defending Reform UK’s plan to pay despotic regimes like the Taliban’s to take back asylum seekers from Britain, Tice claimed that some parents with special needs children are “abusing” the system that allows their children to be taken by taxi to special needs schools. Councils in England spent more than £2bn a year on transport for special needs pupils, who often have to be educated in special schools quite a long way from where they live and who cannot travel alone on public transport.
Tice implied some of the parents were lazy.
Peter says:
Reform UK say that by changing the way local government pension funds are invested, and the charges levied on this, they can save between 6% and 8% of total council tax spending, allowing council tax to be lowered, or social care improved.
This is all very Richard Tice – he is hosting the press conference – and also has inevitable echoes of ‘£350m a week for the NHS’.
I asked Tice if, given his views on climate change, what the Church of England thinks about refugees, and now pension funds, whether he has no need of experts. As part of the answer he says there are “widely differing views” on climate change.
(Tice is right about this. There are differing views. Some are right, and some are wrong.)
Asked if a Reform govt would pay money to the Taliban or Iran to return refugees, Tice says: “When you’re in business, sometimes you do business with people that you may not like…. We’re not responsible for all of the bad things that happen by bad leaders elsewhere in the world.”
Richard Tice, asked about saving money on transporting SEND children to school: “There are some parents, they want to save themselves the opportunity to get up in the morning, set the alarm and crack on and drive their children to school. So they’re using it, abusing the free taxi service.”
While some parents get free transport provided by councils for their Send children, many parents have to contribute, or pay the full costs themselves.
Tories claim No 10 mini reshuffle shows government ‘in crisis’
The Conservative party has responded to the mini No 10 reshuffle by claiming it shows the government is in crisis. In a statement Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, said:
This chaotic reshuffle shows a Downing Street in crisis – totally distracted from fixing the damage they’ve done to the economy, jobs and small businesses. It’s like firefighters arguing about the hose whilst the house burns down.
Inflation has doubled, borrowing costs have soared, and Britain is on the brink of a debt crisis, with working people left to pay the price through higher taxes. Only the Conservatives, under new leadership, will take a responsible approach to the public finances and ensure our economy grows whilst we live within our means.
