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No 10 defends Reeves’ record of being ‘straight’ with voters after Tories attack her over CV embellishment
Downing Street has defended the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as someone who’s been “straight with the public” in response to claims she embellished her CV.
Last month the Guido Fawkes website said that Reeves was wrong to claim that she had worked as an economist at Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS) before she became an MP. Reeves’ first job after she left university was as an economist at the Bank of England, but when she worked as HBOS she had an administrative role, Guido Fawkes said.
The story attracted little attention at the time. But in her Mansion House speech last week Reeves referred to having worked “as an economist at the Bank of England, and then in financial services” and after that Guido Fawkes discovered that Reeves had changed her LinkedIn profile. Instead of saying that she worked as an economist at the Bank of Scotland when she was at HBOS, it now says for that period that she was in retail banking at Halifax.
This was more widely followed up, and the Sunday Telegraph then ran a follow-up story saying that in an interview three year ago Reeves referred to spending a “decade” as a Bank of England economist, even though her career at the Bank only lasted six years, including a year studying for a master’s at the LSE. That led Robert Jenrick, the former Tory leadership candidate, to accuse Reeves of lying.
Asked if the PM was concerned that Reeves had exaggerated her CV, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the morning lobby briefing:
The prime minister is very clear that the chancellor has restored financial stability.
This is someone who on coming into office looked under the bonnet and exposed a £22bn black hole in the public finances, and has been straight with the public about what is necessary to balance the books and restore financial stability in the face of that.
Asked again about the stories, the spokesperson said:
[Starmer] is very clear that this is a chancellor that has been straight with the public about the state of the public finances and what is necessary to restore financial stability. That is most important.
Referring to Reeves’s decision to change her LinkedIn profile, a Treasury source said: “She worked in retail banking covering various areas drawing on her background as an economist. Her LinkedIn has been updated to reflect that.”
Asked about the comment from Jenrick, a Labour source referred to Jenrick being sacked as housing secretary three years ago and said: “The chancellor won’t take any lectures on honesty from a man whose scandals went too far for even Boris Johnson to stand by him.”
There is no evidence that Reeves has gained any career advantage by people thinking she was working as an economist at HBOS when she was there in a different role. To get a job at the Bank of England as a graduate requires considerable ability, and Reeves has said she turned down a job offer from Goldman Sachs around the same time. Before the general election Mark Carney, a former Bank of England governor, said Reeves was the right person to be next chancellor. Mervyn King, Carney’s predecessor, has also spoken positively about working with Reeves at the Bank when he was in charge.
Key events
As Steven Swinford from the Times reports, President Xi also used one of Keir Starmer’s favourite slogans as he described what the Labour government is doing when he spoke about their meeting.
President Xi channels Keir Starmer after their meeting on the fringes of the G20 summit in Rio, saying that Labour is ‘working to fix the foundations’
It’s the first meeting between a British PM and Xi in five years
‘The new UK government is working to fix the foundations of the economy and rebuild britain and has set the vision of Britain reconnected
‘We should take fostering greater development better serving our peoples and contributing more to the world as our goal’
President Xi stresses need for ‘mutual respect’ between UK and China in talks with Starmer
Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has said his country and the UK “share the dual responsibility” of “addressing global challenges”, PA Media reports.
According to a translation in the room at the top of his meeting with Keir Starmer on Monday, the president said there is “broad space for cooperation” between the two countries, including on topics such as trade and clean energy, PA says.
Xi said:
The world has entered a new period marked by turbulence and transformation.
As permanent members of the UN security council and major global economies, China and UK share the dual responsibility of advancing our respective national development and addressing global challenges …
China and the UK have broad space for cooperation across various domains, including trade, investment, clean energy, financial services, healthcare and improving our peoples’ wellbeing.
We should take fostering greater development, better serving our peoples and contributing more to the world as our goal.
Live up to our strategic partnership and commit to mutual respect, openness, cooperation, exchanges and mutual learning for shared benefit […] in doing so we will break new ground in the China-UK relationship amid a changing world and better underscore our relationship’s relevance for the times and its significance for the world.
Starmer confirms he will vote in assisted dying bill debate – but won’t say yet how, on grounds government should be neutral
Jessica Elgot
Keir Starmer has confirmed that he will vote in the debate on the assisted dying bill on Friday week – but he has not yet said how.
Speaking to reporters en route to the G20 summit in Brazil, the prime minister confirmed for the first time that he will vote on the assisted dying bill later this month, but indicated he would not reveal his position in advance.
Starmer is known to be in favour of assisted dying in principle, having previously voted for it in 2015, but he has not confirmed he will back Kim Leadbeater’s bill, which would legalise assisted death for those who are terminally ill and have less than six months to live.
Starmer told reporters:
The government is neutral, and it’s a free vote, and it’s very important that it remains a free vote, because people feel very strongly about this.
He said the free vote meant it was “not a political divide, it’s a sort of individual divide.”
He also said he had examined the issue closely when he was the director of public prosecutions because the Crown Prosecution Service had had to decide whether to prosecute family members involved in people killing themselves.
I looked at every single assisted suicide case for five years that was investigated. I also did the biggest consultation in criminal justice when we did the consultation on assisted dying. It was the biggest response, because people felt so strongly, and I could feel that, and I’ve always said getting the balance right is crucially important.
No 10 declines to say if US missile decision will lead to Ukraine being able to use Storm Shadow weapons to hit Russia
Downing Street has refused to say whether President Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use American missiles to strike Russia will lead to any change in what Kyiv can do with Storm Shadow missiles supplied by Britain.
Speaking at the lobby briefing, asked if Ukraine would be allowed to use Storm Shadow weapons to hit targets in Russia, the PM’s spokesperson said:
We have been consistent throughout that providing specific details on operational matters would only serve to benefit [Vladimir] Putin during an ongoing illegal war.
Asked if it was fair to say the UK would work in lockstep with the US, the spokesperson replied:
It has always been the case we work closely with our allies and engage to ensure that strategically we are providing the support that Ukraine needs, and we do that in consultation both with Ukraine and with each other as allies.
Keir Starmer has not spoken to Biden since Washington decided its new policy, the spokesperson said.
Starmer raises plight of Jimmy Lai and sanctions against British MPs in talks with Chinese president
Jessica Elgot
Keir Starmer has raised concerns with Chinese president Xi Jinping about sanctions on MPs and the deterioration of British citizen and Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai in his meeting with the leader at the G20.
British journalists were bundled out of the meeting by Chinese officials at the moment Starmer raised the plight of Lai, who is being held in Hong Kong.
In the first meeting between the Chinese president and a British prime minister for six years, Starmer also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on a number of Conservative MPs including the former security minister Tom Tugendhat and the Commons deputy speaker Nus Ghani.
Starmer said the pair had agreed that they wanted “relations to be consistent, durable, respectful, and as we have agreed, avoid surprises where possible”. [See 12.33pm.]
He proposed a full bilateral with Premier Li in Beijing or London, and for his chancellor Rachel Reeves to meet with her counterpart He Lifeng, which is expected to take place in Beijing in January.
Speaking at the start of the meeting, Starmer said:
I’m keen that my chancellor should meet with Vice Premier He for the upcoming economic financial dialogue early next year to explore more investment projects and a more level playing field to help our businesses.
I’m very pleased that my Foreign Secretary and Foreign Minister Wang met recently to discuss respective concerns including on human rights and parliamentary sanctions, Taiwan, the South China Sea and our shared interest in Hong Kong. We are concerned by reports of Jimmy Lai’s deterioration.
Tugendhat and the former foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns, both prominent Tory critics of China, had called on Starmer to use the meeting to raise with Xi the plight of UK nationals including Lai, the pro-democracy media owner detained and tried in Hong Kong.
No British prime minister has met Xi since Theresa May visited Beijing in 2018 in the midst of a trade push during Brexit negotiations, though Boris Johnson spoke to the Chinese president during the pandemic.
Since then, relations have significantly cooled because of cyber threats, a human rights crackdown in Hong Kong and the sanctions against British MPs.
Rishi Sunak attempted to renew relations at the G20 summit in 2022 where a bilateral was planned but cancelled due to Ukraine developments. But Conservative leaders have toyed with designating China a threat to British security – stronger language than the US had used.
The foreign secretary, David Lammy, visited China last month in the first signal that the new Labour government saw a renewal of better ties as a priority. Reeves, who is understood to be taking a leading role in pursuing new economic opportunities with China, will head to Beijing in January.
Starmer and Reeves, have been pursuing a thawing of relations with the world’s second-largest economy on pragmatic grounds, suggesting that the UK cannot achieve its growth ambitions without better terms with China.
Starmer says he wants relations with China to be ‘respectful’, and to ‘avoid surprises where possible’
Jessica Elgot
Keir Starmer has held his bilateral with Xi Jinping in Rio at the G20, offering to meet his counterpart, the Chinese premier Li Qiang, in Beijing or London at the earliest opportunity.
But the PM also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on parliamentarians and the persecution of Hong Kong and British citizen Jimmy Lai.
In the first meeting by a British PM with China’s president since 2018, Starmer said he wants “relations to be consistent, durable, respectful, and, as we have agreed, avoid surprises where possible”.
Speaking at the start of the meeting, he said:
A strong UK China relationship is important for both of our countries and for the broader international community.
The UK will be a predictable, consistent, sovereign actor committed to the rule of law.
He proposed a full bilateral with premier Li in Beijing or London, as well as a meeting between Rachel Reeves and her Chinese counterpart.
As premier, Li is the second most senior figure in the Chinese system. Xi is Starmer’s equivalent as the political leader of his country, but unlike Starmer he is also a head of state.
Starmer says UK wants ‘strong’ relationship with China as he meets Xi Jinping
Keir Starmer said that a “strong UK China relationship is important for both of our countries” as he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the fringes of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, PA Media reports.
If you are looking for something a bit lighter to break things up this morning, Simon Hattenstone’s interview with the former Tory MP, and newbie reality TV star, Jacob Rees-Mogg is a good read.
Assisted dying bill ‘doomed’ if government does not allocate more time for debate after second reading, experts claim
In her Today interview Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, claimed that Keir Starmer and Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, have both said that the assisted dying bill will get “as much time as it needs” for detailed, line-by-line debate, if it passes the second reading vote on Friday week. She said:
I do not think the government is showing any signs of wanting to restrict the debate. It then goes to the Lords … The only time constraint is this needs to be finished by November next year.
But on the same programme Nikki da Costa, a former Tory adviser who was director of legislative affairs in Downing Street under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, said she thought Harman was wrong. She pointed out that the bill is much longer than private members’ bills (PMBs) normally are, but that the time allocated for it is just the standard PMB slot. She said only five hours have been set aside for report stage. If MPs cannot get through all the amendments in that time, the bill will go “to the back of the queue”, she said. Some MPs have asked the government to allocate extra time. But da Costa pointed that that Starmer, at PMQs last week, and Powell, at business questions on Thursday, have both refused to accept that is needed.
Da Costa’s assessment is in line with the assessment of the Hansard Society, the thinktank focusing on parliamentary matters. In its latest Parliamentary Matters podcast, Ruth Fox, the Hansard Society director, and Mark D’Arcy, the former BBC journalist, discuss at length why, even if it gets a second reading, the bill will struggle to get through parliament without the government giving it extra time. “If the government isn’t going to move to provide more time for this bill, frankly it’s doomed,” D’Arcy says. Fox agrees.
There is a transcript of the podcast here.
Tom Watson defends Streeting’s right to speak out on assisted dying bill after Harriet Harman says he ‘crossed the line’
Harriet Harman, the former Labour party deputy leader, used an interview on the Today programme this morning to criticise Wes Streeting, the health secretary, for his stance on the assisted dying bill. Echoing comments she made in an interview with the Observer, she said:
I do think that [Streeting has] crossed the line and has given the impression that the government is not neutral …
If government ministers, especially the secretary of state, for health, if they speak out, then the government’s position of neutrality is compromised. Individual MPs will be feeling as if they have to support the government or be against the government, and this principle of neutrality on moral issues is very important.
Tom Watson, another former deputy Labour leader who, like Harman, is now in the House of Lords, criticised her comments. In posts on social media this morning, he said that he has changed his mind on assisted dying, and is now in favour. But he also defended Streeting’s right to speak out on this matter.
1/ After opposing assisted dying in the Commons a decade ago, I was convinced to change my view by a constituent while serving as an MP. Their story stayed with me and shaped my perspective. #AssistedDyingBill
2/ Today, I deeply admire the work of Kim Leadbeater and will support her bill. The proposed safeguards are thoughtful, thorough, and, if anything, more restrictive than I had anticipated. #TerminallyIllAdultsBill
3/ I am surprised to see my House of Lords colleague, Harriet Harman, making media appearances in recent days criticising Health Secretary Wes Streeting. He is doing his job and is entitled to his position.
4/ MPs should absolutely be made aware of the practicalities of new legislation. That is the essence of good governance and responsible debate. #AssistedDying
5/ I sincerely hope campaigners for the Bill focus on dialogue, not confrontation. Shouting down proper debate risks deterring those, like me, who have considered and changed their stance. #OpenDebate
Amnesty International UK has urged Keir Starmer to raise the case of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy activist and British national imprisoned in Hong Kong, when he meets the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Amnesty’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said:
The appalling state of human rights across China must be top of the agenda, including raising alarm about the industrial-scale repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, the crushing of press freedom and hounding of activists and critics in Hong Kong and China.
Prime Minister Starmer must also be clear that China’s campaign of terrorising students and campaigners here in the UK will not be tolerated.
Nigel Farage is leader with most voters who like him, but Green’s Carla Denyer has highest net approval rating, poll suggests
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has more voters who like him than any other leading politician – but also more who dislike him than most other leading figures, according to polling from Ipsos.
The figures show that 28% of people have a favourable view of him – but 48% have an unfavourable view of him, giving him a net score of -20.
Keir Starmer’s net score is -29, and Rachel Reeves’ is -32. Kemi Badenoch has a net score of -18, but this could be partly because fewer people have a firm view about her one way or the other.
The same factor applies to the Green party co-leaders, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, and the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, who all have much higher net approval ratings than the other people included in the Ipsos survey. On this measure, Denyer is the most popular leader (with a net score of -9), followed by Ramsay and Davey (both on -10).
Last week similar polling by YouGov presented a very similar picture.
Commenting on the figures, Keiran Pedley, director of UK politics at Ipsos, said:
These numbers show that politicians are not a popular bunch in Britain right now, with more Britons holding unfavourable opinions than favourable for all of the ones on our list. Nigel Farage has the highest proportion favourable overall, but it remains to be seen whether he can convert that into increased support for Reform UK moving forward.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson says she is opposed to assisted dying bill
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has said is opposed to the private member’s bill that would allow assisted dying.
Asked for her stance on the bill, which will be debated in the Commons on Friday week, Phillipson said:
As you’ll know, the government takes a neutral position on this, so it’s for individual members of parliament to arrive at their own conclusion, to come to their own view.
Back in 2015 when this was last before parliament, I voted against the measure, and in that time, I haven’t changed my mind.
Asked why she was opposed to the bill, Phillipson said that she did not want to give too much detail, because the government as a whole is neutral on the bill, and so ministers are not meant to be trying to sway the argument. She said she was worried about people being coerced into taking their own life. But she acknowledged that supporters of the bill believe it contains safeguards that would address this problem.
Peter Walker has the full story here.
In her interview with Sky News this morning Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, was asked if the UK would follow Joe Biden in giving Ukraine permission to use missiles to attack targets in Russia. She replied:
The prime minister and the defence secretary will always keep under review what the Ukrainian government asked of us by way of support.
We have provided considerable military assistance to the Ukrainian people in their fight against that terrible Russian aggression that we have seen, and as we come up to that 1,000 days of the conflict, it’s more stark than ever what the Ukrainian people have had to go through.
It is thought that Starmer has been in favour of allowing Ukraine to fire Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia for some time, although the PM has not said that publicly. The missiles are made jointly made by the British and the French, but to attack targets in Russia they would need access to a US missile guidance system.
As Dan Sabbagh explains, the Biden decision reportedly applies to US-made Atacms rockets.
Keir Starmer will go into meeting with Chinese president with ‘eyes wide open’, says minister
Good morning. Keir Starmer is in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for the G20 summit, where later today he will become the first UK prime minister in six years to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. As Jessica Elgot reports, Starmer says he wants “a pragmatic and serious relationship” with China.
But, inevitably, not everyone is happy. The Daily Mail is splashing on criticism of the meeting from some Tories. When David Cameron was PM, he cultivated Xi with an eagerness and enthusiasm that makes Starmer look quite hostile towards China by comparison, but over the past decade Tory thinking about China has changed considerably, and the Mail story quotes Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader, saying “those suffering genocide and slave labour under the brutal hands of Xi will feel betrayed.”
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been doing an interview round this morning. Speaking on Sky News, she defended Starmer’s decision to meet Xi. She said he would be going into the meeting with his “eyes wide open”. She explained:
China is a major player both in terms of the economy but also in the [UN] security council so it is right that we have that engagement, but that we do so on a pragmatic basis where we go into it with our eyes wide open.
That does mean there will be challenge, constructive challenge, and there will be areas of profound disagreement.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1.30pm: Philip Barton, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, gives evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee.
Afternoon: Starmer is in Rio de Janeiro, where most of the G20 events will take place in the afternoon or evening UK time.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
3.15pm: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, chairs a meeting of the UN security council on Sudan.
After 3.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is expected to give a statement to MPs about plans to crack down on profiteering by firms running care home for children.
4pm: Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, gives evidence to the Lords international agreements committee.
Also, at some point today, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, is meeting Tom Bradshaw, the NFU president. Tomorrow farmers are holding a major protest in London about the government’s plans to subject some farms to inheritance tax.
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