Good morning. The second half of August is normally the worst time of the year for political news, because the summer media campaigns pre-cooked by the political parties (like small boats week) are running out of steam, but today we will at least be hearing from Rishi Sunak, who has a visit planned.
Much of the focus this morning will by on the sentencing of Lucy Letby. It is primarily a horrific crime story, but there are implications for government and this morning Claire Coutinho, the education minister who has been doing an interview round, has been defending the government’s decision not to make the inquiry into the case a statutory one (a non-statutory one would be quicker, she argued) and insisting that ministers do want to change the law to try to stop offenders like Letby not attending court for sentencing. We will be covering these developments in detail in a separate live blog on the Letby proceedings.
Sunak’s visit this morning is linked to an announcement from the Department for Education this morning about childminding. Coutinho was promoting it during her morning media round, and it rather proves the point about late August news announcements from government being a bit thin. She has announced that “housing associations, social landlords and developers in England are being urged to allow childminders to work in their rented properties, to help encourage entry into the profession and increase availability of childcare for parents.”
There was good news for Sunak last week when inflation fell sharply. But there is less good news in the Times today, which is reporting the results of a YouGov poll suggesting that very few people think the PM deserves any credit for this, despite the fact that he has made cutting inflation one of his five key priorities for the year. In the write-up Matt Dathan reports:
A YouGov poll for the Times found that only 8% of voters credited government policy for the fall in inflation, which dropped to 6.8% last month, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics last week.
More people, 17%, believe the Bank of England is responsible despite criticism of its response to high inflation. In June Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, blamed flaws in the Bank’s economic forecasting after it failed to get a grip on runaway inflation.
The polling suggests that the most commonly believed reason for the fall in inflation is external factors such as global oil and gas prices. Thirty-eight per cent cited external factors, but 31% said they did not know what was responsible for the easing of price rises.
The polling is more stark in red wall seats in northern England, where only 5% thought government policy had brought inflation down.
Sunak is due to be speaking to the media on his visit later this morning, and so perhaps we will get a response from him then. We are also getting a No 10 lobby briefing at 11.30am, but otherwise the news diary is mostly empty.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Filters BETA
In his pooled interview Rishi Sunak defended his decision not to fly to Australia to support England in the final of the women’s World Cup. (See 10.27am.) Asked if he should have been there, he replied:
Like many others, I watched the game in the pub locally in Northallerton at home.
I’d like nothing more than to be able to watch England play around the world. I love football. I love sport. I love cheering on England.
Sadly I wasn’t able to go to the World Cup in Qatar last year. I wasn’t able to go to this final but as I said, I enjoyed watching it in the pub with friends and constituents in Northallerton.
Here is the picture Sunak posted on Twitter yesterday showing him watching the game in a local pub.
Rishi Sunak has condemned the serial child killer Lucy Letby as “cowardly” for refusing to appear in court for sentencing today. He also confirmed the government wants to change the law to stop other offenders doing the same in future.
In a pooled interview this morning on a visit to a nursery in North Yorkshire, asked about this issue, Sunak said:
The first thing is to extend my sympathies to everyone affected by this.
I think, like everyone reading about this, it’s just shocking and harrowing.
Now, I think it’s cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear first hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones.
We are looking and have been at changing the law to make sure that that happens and that’s something that we’ll bring forward in due course.
A minister has rejected suggestions that Rishi Sunak would have flown to Australia for the World Cup final if it had been the men’s team playing, not the women’s.
Once England made it into the final, Sunak was criticised for deciding to watch the match at home, instead of heading to Sydney. No member of the royal family attended in person either, and there have been claims that if it had been a men’s final, the UK VIP turnout would have been better.
In an interview with Sky News this morning Claire Coutinho, the education minister, defended Sunak’s decision not to attend in person, saying James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, and Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary were both present.
Asked if Sunak would have flown to Australia if the England men’s team were in the final, Coutinho replied:
I don’t think he would have because his schedule is so busy and I know that from working with him, but I do know how proud he is of the Lionesses like we all are. It’s such a tremendous achievement. It was absolutely just brilliant to see.
The Department for Education says its mini-announcement on childminding today (see 9.25am) is partly prompted by figures showing that the number of childminders operating in England has more than halved over the past 10 years. It also quotes research saying that, of prospective childminders who start but fail to complete the registration process, one in eight say they cannot register because they cannot obtain permission to work from home.
That is why Claire Coutinho, the education minister, is urging landlords to lift restrictions where they apply. The DfE says:
Childminders who are living in leasehold properties are sometimes being blocked by so-called restrictive covenants, which say that the properties cannot be used for business purposes. Some who are living in rented accommodation have found that their tenancy agreements prevent them from registering their business or that their landlords’ mortgage agreements include restrictions from the lender.
Within the letter to landlords, Minister Coutinho has urged them to engage with prospective childminders to unblock these issues wherever possible, for the good of local communities.
In its news release, the DfE has also highlighted other moves intended to encourage people to join, or stay in, the profession. It says:
The government has already tabled amendments to the levelling-up and regeneration bill (LURB) that will mean that childminders can work together in groups of up to four childminders in total, and spend more time working outside of their own homes such as in a community centre or village hall.
The government will also consult on reducing registration times to around 10 weeks, make sure childminders are paid monthly by local authorities, and soon launch the childminder startup grant, worth up to £1,200 for all childminders who have joined the profession since the spring budget.
Keir Starmer has said that Labour would close the “loophole” that allows offenders such as Lucy Letby to avoid being in court for sentencing. In a post on Twitter he said:
As Director of Public Prosecutions, I saw how crucial it is for victims and their families that perpetrators appear in court. That criminals can cowardly hide away is a shamefully exploited loophole, and one Labour will close. Victims must be at the heart of our justice system.
The government has also said it will address this, although it has not said when. Given that there might be limits to the extent to which force could be used, one option would be to allow the courts to impose extra punishments on offenders who do not appear.
Asked about this issue on her media round this morning, Claire Coutinho, the education minister, said it would be “appalling’’ if Letby refused to appear in the dock for sentencing. She went on:
I know that the justice secretary has said he’s very committed to making changes that are needed to make sure that people who have committed awful crimes have to go to court so they can hear things like the victims’ impact statement, which is really their moment to tell that person how this has impacted them.
But Coutinho did not give details of how the government might address this.
Good morning. The second half of August is normally the worst time of the year for political news, because the summer media campaigns pre-cooked by the political parties (like small boats week) are running out of steam, but today we will at least be hearing from Rishi Sunak, who has a visit planned.
Much of the focus this morning will by on the sentencing of Lucy Letby. It is primarily a horrific crime story, but there are implications for government and this morning Claire Coutinho, the education minister who has been doing an interview round, has been defending the government’s decision not to make the inquiry into the case a statutory one (a non-statutory one would be quicker, she argued) and insisting that ministers do want to change the law to try to stop offenders like Letby not attending court for sentencing. We will be covering these developments in detail in a separate live blog on the Letby proceedings.
Sunak’s visit this morning is linked to an announcement from the Department for Education this morning about childminding. Coutinho was promoting it during her morning media round, and it rather proves the point about late August news announcements from government being a bit thin. She has announced that “housing associations, social landlords and developers in England are being urged to allow childminders to work in their rented properties, to help encourage entry into the profession and increase availability of childcare for parents.”
There was good news for Sunak last week when inflation fell sharply. But there is less good news in the Times today, which is reporting the results of a YouGov poll suggesting that very few people think the PM deserves any credit for this, despite the fact that he has made cutting inflation one of his five key priorities for the year. In the write-up Matt Dathan reports:
A YouGov poll for the Times found that only 8% of voters credited government policy for the fall in inflation, which dropped to 6.8% last month, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics last week.
More people, 17%, believe the Bank of England is responsible despite criticism of its response to high inflation. In June Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, blamed flaws in the Bank’s economic forecasting after it failed to get a grip on runaway inflation.
The polling suggests that the most commonly believed reason for the fall in inflation is external factors such as global oil and gas prices. Thirty-eight per cent cited external factors, but 31% said they did not know what was responsible for the easing of price rises.
The polling is more stark in red wall seats in northern England, where only 5% thought government policy had brought inflation down.
Sunak is due to be speaking to the media on his visit later this morning, and so perhaps we will get a response from him then. We are also getting a No 10 lobby briefing at 11.30am, but otherwise the news diary is mostly empty.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMif2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS9wb2xpdGljcy9saXZlLzIwMjMvYXVnLzIxL3Jpc2hpLXN1bmFrLWluZmxhdGlvbi1rZWlyLXN0YXJtZXItY2hpbGRjYXJlLXBvbGl0aWNzLWxpdmUtbGF0ZXN0LXVwZGF0ZXPSAX9odHRwczovL2FtcC50aGVndWFyZGlhbi5jb20vcG9saXRpY3MvbGl2ZS8yMDIzL2F1Zy8yMS9yaXNoaS1zdW5hay1pbmZsYXRpb24ta2Vpci1zdGFybWVyLWNoaWxkY2FyZS1wb2xpdGljcy1saXZlLWxhdGVzdC11cGRhdGVz?oc=5
2023-08-21 08:25:00Z
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