Sunak says he wants more information before decision on Braverman’s alleged breach of ministerial code – live | Politics

Steven Morris

A high-profile Tory member of the Welsh Senedd has announced her bid to become mayor of London.

Natasha Asghar, the shadow minister for transport and technology, told the Guardian on Monday she had submitted her application.

She has been leading the fight against plans in Wales for ultra-low emission zones (ULEZ) and more 20mph schemes.

Asghar said: “I have spent the best part of two years fighting against Labour’s backwards policies in Wales and now I am ready to take the fight to London.”

She said if she became mayor she would scrap expansion of London’s ULEZ schemes, work to restore trust in the Met police and tackle the housing crisis.

Andrew Sparrow

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, told Times Radio earlier that it would be wrong for a minister like Suella Braverman to “pull strings” to try to cover up wrongdoing. But he sounded more angry about her speech to the National Conservatism conference last week, which was widely seen as the opening salvo in a leadership bid for after the next election. He said:

We’re just beginning to get back to some form of normality. It has been a turbulent year in British politics … yet we see the home secretary stirring the right of the party, almost writing off our prospects to win the next election.

Asked if he was accusing Braverman of making a pitch to be leader of the opposition after the anticipated Tory defeat at the general election, Ellwood replied:

That’s I’m afraid how it’s interpreted. It distracts us from what we’re starting to do.

It’s somewhat baffling to see the right of our party, encouraged by Suella Braverman, write off chances of winning the next election, having the very debate as if we’ve lost now as to where the party should then go.

That’s all from me for today. My colleague Harry Taylor is taking over now.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has published the government’s response to the report from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA). In a statement to MPs, she said that the government was accepting 19 out of 20 of the final recommendations, and that the report should lead to “fundamental change”. She said:

It is a call for fundamental change, cultural change, societal change, professional and institutional change. I am pleased today that this government has risen to the inquiry’s challenge. We are accepting the need to act on 19 out of the inquiry’s 20 final recommendations …

We must address the systemic under reporting of child sexual abuse. As I announced in April the government accepts the inquiry’s recommendation to introduce a new mandatory reporting duty across England and today I am launching the call for evidence which will inform how this new duty can be best designed to prevent the continued abuse of children and ensure they get help as soon as possible.

The inquiry recommended a redress scheme for victims and survivors of historic child sexual abuse which the government also accepts. Of course nobody can ever fully compensate victims and survivors for the abuse they suffered.

But what we can do is properly acknowledge their suffering, deliver justice and an appropriate form of redress. This is a landmark commitment, it will be complex and it will be challenging, but it really matters.

In a column for the i Paul Waugh says, if Rishi Sunak does not trust Suella Braverman, it may be hard to see why the public should. He cites examples of colleagues doubting her competence, and quotes one unnamed former minister saying she was “completely useless” when they worked together. He also points out that, on speeding, Braverman has form. When she first became an MP, she asked officials if MPs could claim the cost of a speeding ticket on expenses, the Tory MP William Wragg revealed earlier this year.

Earlier in the Commons, Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, asked Rishi Sunak if he backed international calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Any peace process had to start with a ceasefire, he said. “Otherwise this war will go on and get worse and worse,” he said.

Sunak said he could not disagree more. He said a ceasefire was “not a just and lasting peace for Ukraine”. Russia had conducted an illegal invasion and committed “heinous war crimes”, he said. He went on:

The right and only response to that is for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and that all plans masquerading as peace plans, that are in fact attempts just to freeze the conflict where it is, are absolutely wrong and should be called out.

Back in the Commons, Andrew Western (Lab) asked Rishi Sunak if he had met his ethics adviser to discuss the Suella Braverman case, if there would be an inquiry, and if Braverman would be sacked if found to have broken the ministerial code.

In response, Sunak said this was not a topic that came up at the G7 (the subject of his statement).

But he said, in the interests of being generous, he would respond. He went on:

I’ve always been clear that where issues like this are raised, they should be dealt with properly and they should be dealt with professionally.

Since I returned from the G7 I have been receiving information on the issues raised.

I have met with both the independent adviser [Sir Laurie Magnus] and the home secretary.

I’ve asked for further information and I’ll update on the appropriate course of action in due course.

This does suggest that Sunak is not taking Braverman’s assurance that “nothing untoward has happened” (see 12.38pm) at face value.

At the afternoon lobby briefing, No 10 refused to endorse Suella Braverman’s claim that she did “nothing untoward” related to her response to a speeding offence, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti points out.

And there is still no decision on whether Sir Laurie Magnus, the ethics adviser, will be asked to investigate whether Braverman broke the ministerial code.

Barbara Keeley (Lab) says Ukrainian orchestras are being prevented from travelling to the UK because getting visas is now so difficult. Will the PM offer special help with this?

Sunak says he will look into this matter. But the priority is supporting Ukraine militarily, he says.

Sir Edward Leigh (Con) says legal immigration is changing the country forever. What is the PM going to do about it?

Sunak says that was not a topic at the G7. But he says he is committed to bringing it down.

On illegal immigration, he says cooperation with allies is bringing benefits. The UK is in talks about further cooperation with Frontex, the EU’s border agency.

Labour’s Ruth Jones, who represents Newport West, says the semiconductor strategy is very important to her constituency. (A semiconductor factory is based there.) She says Sunak should have announced this is in a statement to MPs, not while he was in Japan.

Sunak says the strategy has been warmly welcomed. It includes an investment of £1bn in the industry, he says.

Paul Waugh from the i says, as Rishi Sunak was taking his seat earlier, he made a point of showing support for Suella Braverman.

Sunak is responding to Starmer.

He says the UK has already imposed sanctions on the Wagner group in its entirety.

He says the government set out a new approach to China in its updated integrated review. Starmer may have missed it, he suggests. Other countries are following the same approach, he says.

On climate change, he claims the UK has the best record on reducing emissions.

And he says that at the G7 Japanese firms announced £18bn of investment in the UK. If they have confidence in the UK, why doesn’t Starmer?

Keir Starmer is repsonding to Sunak. He says the UK should stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. And he says Labour welcomes the strong show of support for President Zelenskiy at the G7.

But he urges the PM to proscribe the Wagner group as terrorists.

On China, he says it is becoming increasingly aggressive. For a decade the Tories have ignored this, he says. China has now got a stake in UK infrastructure.

He calls for an audit of UK-China relations. And he urges the UK to work with allies on this issue.

The US and the EU have plans to nurture their semiconductor industries. Yet the government’s plan has been described by an industry leader as ‘flaccid”. He says he is worried about this. He says the government seems content with “managed decline”.

He says the EU is ensuring that its car manufacturers get access to the green incentives offered by the US government for electric cars. Will Sunak ensure British manufacturers get the same advantages?

Rishi Sunak starts his statement on the G7 summit by saying he wants to address a mistaken view – that Britain is in retreat on the world stage, or that its influence is in decline.

He says he rejects that view totally.

He says the influence of the UK is clear in policy on Ukraine. The UK has been at the forefront of support for Ukraine. It was the first in Europe to train Ukrainian troops, and the first to provide lethal weapons.

And it is providing Ukraine with more military aid than any country apart from US, he says.

Alison Thewliss, the SNP spokesperson on home affairs, said that being caught speeding can affect decisions about whether someone gets leave to remain in the UK. So shouldn’t being caught speeding affect Suella Braverman’s right to remain in her job?

Back in the Commons Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says Suella Braverman tried to get special treatment when she was caught speeding. She says Braverman has not said exactly what she asked her civil servants to do. Will she say?

And she asks if Braverman authorised her special adviser to tell journalists that there was no speeding offence, when there was.

Braverman avoids the questions, and repeats the stock answer she used earlier.

Cooper says Braverman is not answering the questions, even though it is her job to follow the ministerial code. She says Braverman has broken the rules before. She goes on:

Time and again, she tries to think that she’s above the normal rules, breaching security even though she’s responsible for it, trying to avoid penalties even though she sets them, reappointed even after breaking the ministerial code, and criticising Home Office policies even though she’s in charge of them and is failing on knife crime, on Channel crossings, on immigration and more.

The prime minister is clearly too weak to sort this out. Well, if the home secretary cannot get a grip of her own rule-breaking behaviour, how can she get a grip on anything else?

Braverman says Labour should get a grip because it has failed to represent the public’s priorities.

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, has said that it would be unacceptable for the DUP to delay the resumption of power sharing at Stormont until the autumn.

Speaking after her party got the largest number of councillors in the local elections in Northern Ireland, O’Neill said:

There’s a lot of talk about the autumn timeframe. That’s not acceptable. That’s drift.

We should not allow this to drift into the autumn. So, now’s the time for action and the two governments should step up …

We’re in no doubt this election result shouts very loudly ‘get back to work, get the assembly up and running, get the executive up and running, lead from the front and deliver for all the people’.

O’Neill also said that she wanted Rishi Sunak and Leo Varadkar, his Irish counterpart, to co-chair a summit to encourage the resumption of power sharing.