Blair’s climate crisis views ‘absolutely aligned’ with government policy, Starmer says
Sammy Wilson (DUP) says Starmer’s net zero policy “is not only bad, it is mad”. Even Tony Blair says so, he says.
Starmer says Blair said there should be more carbon capture. The government agrees. He called for more use of AI. That is happening too, he says. And Blair said domestic targets were needed too, he says.
What Tony Blair said is we should have more carbon capture, we’ve invested in carbon capture. That’s many jobs across different parts of the country.
He said that AI [artificial intelligence] should be used, we agree with that. We’ve invested huge amounts in AI and the jobs of the future. He also said we need domestic targets so that businesses have their certainty.
If you look at the detail of what Tony Blair said, he’s absolutely aligned with what we’re doing here, these are the jobs and the security of the future.
Key events
Green party co-leader Carla Denyer accuses Blair of mimicking Farage on net zero
Carla Denyer, the Green party co-leader, has now put out a fuller response to yesterday’s report from Tony Blair’s thinktank about climate policy. She said:
Tony Blair has decided to mimic Nigel Farage on net zero and sounds like he is speaking on behalf of petro-states like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan for whom he has lobbied for more years than he was prime minister.
It is vital that the government distance itself from this latest dodgy dossier from Blair and turn its attention instead to what the Climate Change Committee is saying today. Their report could not be clearer: we are woefully unprepared for the impacts of climate breakdown as a country. Tomorrow is likely to be the hottest local election day on record – a potent reminder that we need a comprehensive plan to prepare for increasingly extreme weather events.
Tony Blair and Nigel Farage apparently need reminding that a huge 89% of the world’s people want stronger action to fight the climate crisis, not a reset or watering down of ambition. And the CBI points to the fact that the UK’s net zero sector expanded 10% last year, three times faster than the rest of the economy.
The future is green; Labour must not allow yesterday’s man to drag us back into the dark ages. The government must press ahead with the drive towards clean energy and the green economy and all the advantages that will bring in creating good quality jobs, cutting energy bills and creating a healthier society.
Earlier Denyer released a video comment on this. See 11.31am.
At the joint committee on human rights Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, was asked what impact the supreme court judgment on the definition of a woman under equality law would have on policy in prisons.
Mahmood said when she took office a strong policy was already in place. No trans woman convicted of rape or a serious violent offence with birth genitalia intact gets placed in a women’s prison, she said.
But the Ministry of Justice would be considering if other policies needed to be changed in the light of the judgment, she said.
Helena Kennedy, the KC and Labour peer, asked what would happen to a trans woman convicted, for example, of a financial crime. Would she go into a female prison? She would be at risk in a male prison.
Mahmood said that most trans women prisioners are in the male estate. But there are also specific trans wings for some offenders where they might be a risk somewhere else, she said.
She also said there were a handful (“very low single digits”) of trans women in women’s prisons. But they were not there for violent offences, and did not have their birth genitalia, she said.
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is also giving evidence to a parliamentary committee today. She is talking to the joint committee on human rights about the work of her department. There is a live feed here.
Lammy brushes off report saying trade deal with UK second-order priority for Trump
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has just started giving evidence to the Lords international relations and defence committee, about the work of his department.
There is a live feed here.
Asked about today’s Guardian splash saying President Trump has decided that a trade deal with the UK is a second-order priority, Lammy said that he read the Guardian but that it wasn’t always right. He said the government was still working hard to agree a trade deal.
PMQs – snap verdict
That was a rather odd PMQs because it felt as though Kemi Badenoch had slipped back in time to January, when calls for a national inquiry into the grooming gang scandal were dominating the pages in rightwing newspapers because Elon Musk kept banging on about this on his global disinformation network and the news was not yet dominated by Donald Trump, because the world was still waiting for his inauguration. Most of what Badenoch said today she could have said, and did say, back then. The newish point was that, more than three months after promising five local inquiries into grooming gangs, the government can only say where one of them will actually take place.
If that was the point Badenoch wanted to make, she landed it perfectly well. She told the Commons:
[Starmer] cannot name a single place because nothing is happening. He stood there at the despatch box and promised five local inquires, nothing is happening, on the last day of term he had his minister come out to water down the promise to say they would provide funding – that’s not good enough.
At least 50 towns are affected by rape gangs, places like Peterborough, Derby, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester, Rotherham, Rochdale and Preston. Is he dragging his heels on this because he doesn’t want Labour cover ups exposed?
And yet – was this really the best and most important issue to raise?
For some people, the answer is yes. There are plenty of voters who think that the systematic grooming and rape of young girls was a horrific scandal (it was) and that a holding a national inquiry would help stop it happening again (which is a lot more questionable). In taking up this issue, Badenoch is very much appealing to the core vote. But it is not even her core vote – it’s Nigel Farage’s. As this YouGov polling from January shows, the people who care most about this topic are Reform UK supporters.
One reading of this is that Badenoch’s PMQs strategy is yet more evidence of the Tories and Reform UK in competition with each other over the same voters. There was an even more bizarre example of this week when Reform UK said they would promise a national grooming gangs inquiry in their election manifesto, only for the Tories to say this was “too important to wait until the next election” and that it should take place now (which of course is what Reform UK also wants).
But there is another reading; that, for all the talk of a potential Tory/Reform UK coalition, the reality is that the merger is already happening.
As well as choosing an issues mostly of interest to Farage supporters, Badenoch also picked an argument today where, on balance, Keir Starmer has a stronger case anyway. He was on tricky ground when Badenoch asked where the other four local inquiries were happening. But he clearly had the upper hand when he pointed out that Badenoch ignored this issue when she was in office, and that multiple recommendations from previous inquiries on this were ignored by the Tories when they were in office.
Starmer set out a plausible strategy for approaching this problem that would achieve more than the inquiry demanded by the Tories.
My position is absolutely clear. Where there’s evidence then police should investigate and there should be appropriate prosecutions. That’s route number one.
Route number two we should implement existing recommendations which did expose what went wrong. They weren’t implemented by the last government, they’re being implemented by this government.
We are providing for local inquiries, we are investing more on delivering truth and justice for victims than the party opposite did in 14 long years.
And he also argued – persuasively – that his record as director of public prosecutions means he has done much more to bring grooming gangs to justice than Badenoch.
I was the prosecutor who brought the first case and when that file was brought to my attention I noticed that one of the defendants had not been prosecuted previously.
Far from covering up, I asked for that file so I could have a look at it. On the back of that I then changed the entire approach to prosecutions, which was then lauded by the government that we were doing the right thing, and brought those prosecutions.
So my record was going after where I thought something had gone wrong and putting it right. She stayed silent throughout their years in government.
Most lawyers believe the changes to prosecution guidelines introduced by Starmer when he was DPP made a considerable difference, because he said it was no longer acceptable to drop prosecutions just because the girls involved did not fit the “model victim” stereotype. The Starmer guidelines are here, and here is the Guardian’s news report at the time.
Badenoch also, of course, missed the opportunity to ask about something much more topical and arguably much more important. This is the verdict on her performance from Henry Hill, deputy editor of the ConservativeHome website.
So Tony Blair puts out a report basically agreeing with Kemi Badenoch about Net Zero… and she doesn’t mention it once at PMQs?
Blair’s climate crisis views ‘absolutely aligned’ with government policy, Starmer says
Sammy Wilson (DUP) says Starmer’s net zero policy “is not only bad, it is mad”. Even Tony Blair says so, he says.
Starmer says Blair said there should be more carbon capture. The government agrees. He called for more use of AI. That is happening too, he says. And Blair said domestic targets were needed too, he says.
What Tony Blair said is we should have more carbon capture, we’ve invested in carbon capture. That’s many jobs across different parts of the country.
He said that AI [artificial intelligence] should be used, we agree with that. We’ve invested huge amounts in AI and the jobs of the future. He also said we need domestic targets so that businesses have their certainty.
If you look at the detail of what Tony Blair said, he’s absolutely aligned with what we’re doing here, these are the jobs and the security of the future.
Mark Francois (Con) asks if Starmer will back a campaign to erect a memorial to Vera Lynn.
Starmer says he will support this campaign.
Deidre Costigan (Lab) asks about fly-tipping. (See 11.10am.)
Starmer says the Tory record on fly-tipping was terrible, and he says the government is cracking down on this.
Layla Moran (Lib Dem) asks about a victim who suffered sexual misconduct in the workplace, and who was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Will Starmer back plans to ban their use in cases like this?
Starmer says the government is looking at what it can be done to stop the misuse of NDAs.
Bernard Jenkin (Con), a member of the parliamentary choir, asks Starmer if he will support a concert by the choir to mark the 80th anniversary of the VE day. He says during the Blitz German music continued to be played in London, and they are singing Bach at this year’s concert.
Starmer says he hopes the concert goes well.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Lab) asks what the government is doing to bring down rent.
Starmer says the renters’ rights bill will improve conditions for renters.
Paul Kohler (Lib Dem) asks if the government will back the Lib Dem plan to stop people playing music on public transport.
Starmer criticises the Tories for laughing at this. He says anti-social behaviour is an important issue. But he claims tough measures are in place already.
Julie Minns (Lab) asks about breakfast clubs.
Starmer says the first 750 have opened, and there are “many more to come”.
And he says the government is making school uniforms cheaper. The Tories voted against this, he says.
Josh Babarinde (Lib Dem) asks about a constituent who has had their pension credit cut because her military compensation is treated as income.
Starmer says he will set up a meeting with a minister where this case can be discussed.
Sam Carling (Lab) asks about crime.
Starmer says the Tories “decimated neighbourhood police”. The government is hiring more, he says.
Liz Jarvis (Lib Dem) says her constituents’ water bills are going up 47%. Does Starmer understand why people are so angry?
Starmer says the Tories should apologise for their record on this. He says the Water Act will tighten controls on water companies.
Farage calls for national emergency to be declared over illegal immigration
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, asks Starmer to declare a national emergency in relation to illegal immigration. He claims ‘smash the gangs’ was just a slogan.
Starmer says Reform UK voted against Labour’s plans to crack down on smuggling gangs. And he quotes reports saying Reform UK have now got Liz Truss as an adviser.
In a subsequent answer, he accuses Farage of “fawning over Putin and taking Liz Truss’s advice”.
UPDATE: Farage said:
To date, so far this year, 10,000 young, undocumented males have illegally crossed the English Channel into our country, a 40% increase on this time last year. Many coming from cultures that are somewhat alien to ours.
“They are being housed at a cost of many billions of pounds a year in hotels and increasingly in private rented homes. The effect on communities is one of a sense of deep unfairness, actually bordering on resentment. In Runcorn alone, there are 750 of these young men.
Is it not time to admit that ‘smash the gangs’ was nothing more than an election slowdown, not a policy?
Isn’t it time to declare a national emergency and to act accordingly?
And Starmer replied:
We are passing a borders bill with extensive powers to smash the gangs.
These are terrorist-like powers that give powers to the police to intercept where they think the suspects are committing people-smuggling, which is a vile trade.
We must take back control of our borders after the last government lost control.
But what did he and his party do? Did they support those extra measures to actually smash the gangs? No, they went in the lobby with this lot in their new coalition to vote against them
And let’s be clear what a vote for his party means. It means a vote to charge for the NHS, it means a pro-Putin foreign policy, and a vote against workers’ rights.
And now we here he’s recruited Liz Truss as his new top adviser, as he was cheering on the mini budget.
Davey asks if Starmer will back a change to the law that would make it easier for parents to get a mental capacity assessment for their children. He mentions this in the context of the Fiona Laskaris case.
Starmer says this was a horrific case. He says he will look into this.
Starmer refuses to commit to giving MPs vote on any potential trade deal with US
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says he asked last week for a vote on any trade deal with the US, and Starmer did not answer last week, or when Clive Jones asked the question earlier.
Starmer says any deal will go through the known procedures of this house.
