No 10 denies Starmer has a problem working with women following Sue Gray’s exit – UK politics live

The government is considering the rollout of a text message service to stop carers breaking overpayment rules on carer’s allowance, MPs have been told.

The carer’s allowance crisis has led to more than 100,000 carers having to repay large sums because, often inadvertently, they breached the earnings limit. Under DWP rules, people who do this have to repay all the allowance they received, not just a portion representing overpayment.

Asked about this in the Commons, Stephen Timms, a welfare minister, said:

We want to get to the bottom of what’s gone wrong with these overpayments, why so many people have been caught out.

We have been piloting the introduction of a text message service, that involves texting 3,500 claimants to alert them when they HMRC informs DWP that the claimant has breached the current earnings limit.

Starmer says the the 7 October attack was the bloodiest day for the people of Israel since the Holocaust.

He says 15 Britons were “brutally slain” that day, and another has died since in captivity.

For many people, the pain of that day is as acute as it was a year ago.

Last week he met the families of people killed and held hostage, he says. He says he will never forget what they said.

The families of hostages are going through “agony” day after day. They must be returned, he says.

He says it is also “a day of grief for the wider region”. The human toll amongst innocent civilians in Gaza is “truly devastating”, he says. What is happening there is “a living nightmare” and it must end, he says.

He says last week the Iranian regime chose to strike Israel. All MPs will join him in condemnding this attack, he says. It was not a defensive action. It was a major escalation, in response to the death of a terrorist leader, he says.

He urges all sides to step back from the brink, and find the courage of restraint.

Working with other world leaders, he will focus on three areas, he says.

First, he is focusing on Lebanon. Some Britons have already been evacuated, and further evacuations are planned. He says he is continuting to call for an immediate ceasefire, and for a political solution. Hezbollah must withdraw, and stop firing rockets.

Second, they must renew efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza. And more relief must be provided for civilians. He says the ongoing restrictions on age are “impossible to justifiy”. Israel must open more crossings, and provide a safe haven for aid workers.

And, third, there must be solutions for the long term, he says. The two-state solution must be the ultimate goal. There is no other option offering security. So they must build a political route towards it, he says. The key to this is a ceasefire in Gaza now, he says.

He says the power of diplomacy should be used to find long-term solutions.

That is what MPs have done, and what the government will continue to do, he says.

In the Commons Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, has just announced that her department has just published 31 reports that were commissioned when the Tories were in power but that were “sat on” because the last government did not want to make them public.

While good for transparency, this approach is not very convenient for journalists. There is a list of all the reports out today here, and you can find them all here. It may take a while how many of them, if any, contain much news.

Government ministers have spent a lot of time recently condemning the inheritance they were left by the Conservatives, and today Emma Hardy, the minister for water, has denounced their record on flood defences. In a written ministerial statement, she said:

The condition of flood defences has declined in recent years through a lack of investment. This was compounded when no more funding was made available by the previous government to repair damage from last winter. Asset condition is now at 92%, its lowest point since 2010, with approximately 60,000 properties at higher risk. The Environment Agency has allocated £36m this year to do the most urgent repairs from last winter’s flood events.

A coroner has urged the UK health secretary, Wes Streeting, to urgently address the “non-existent” care available to people with severe ME or risk further deaths like that of 27-year-old Maeve Boothby O’Neill, Steven Morris reports.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has rowed back on claims he was advised by Commons authorities not to hold in-person constituency surgeries on security grounds.

As PA Media reports, last month Farage claimed he would hold surgeries “when parliament allows me”, saying he had been given guidance not to hold in-person surgeries by “the Speaker’s office” and the parliamentary security team. His claims were disputed by parliamentary sources, who said no such advice had been given as it would interfere with Farage’s democratic duties.

Asked about the row at a press conference this morning, Farage replied: “The Speaker’s office is always right.”

Downing Street has rejected suggestions that the government’s decision to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius means Britain might also give up the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar.

This is a suggestion that has been raised by some Tories, and some rightwing papers, since the Chagos Islands deal was announced on Thursday last week.

Asked if handing over the Chagos Islands did set a precedent, the PM’s spokesperson replied:

It’s a unique situation based on its unique history and circumstances, and has no bearing on other overseas territories …

British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar is not up for negotiation.

All four Tory leadership candidates have condemned the government’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. But the spokesperson said the current government was just concluding negotiations that opened when the last government was in office. He said:

The government inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation of the military base at Diego Garcia was under threat with contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals.

You will be aware that the previous government initiated sovereignty negotiations in 2022 and conducted a number of rounds of negotiations. This government picked up those negotiations and has reached an agreement, which means that for the first time in over 50 years, the base will be undisputed, legally secure, with full Mauritian backing.

In the Observer yesterday Toby Helm said government plans to impose VAT on private schools from 1 January next year may have to be delayed because of warnings from unions, tax experts and school leaders that meeting the deadline will cause administrative chaos and teacher job losses.

But at the lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson said VAT on private school fees would come into force in January. Asked if the government was still committed to that timetable, he replied:

Yes, ending tax breaks on private schools will come into force on 1 January, as planned, as set out in the manifesto.

The government wants to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed, and ending these tax breaks will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for the next year, such as recruiting 6,500 new teachers.

At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson also rejected claims that Keir Starmer has a problem working with women.

Asked whether Rosie Duffield was right to make this claim, the day after she resigned the Labour whip, the spokesperson said:

I wouldn’t accept that characterisation at all.

Downing Street has defended the decision to replace Sue Gray as the PM’s chief of staff, saying Keir Starmer wants the “right structures” in place. At the morning lobby briefing, asked if Gray was sacked or if she resigned, the PM’s spokesperson said:

I think you saw from the statement yesterday the prime minister is focused on delivering the change that he was elected to, and taking decisions to ensure that we have the structures in place to best deliver for the country.

[He has made] a number of appointments to strengthen the Downing Street operation and demonstrate his determination to deliver the change the country voted for.

In relation to the individual you refer to, you’ve got the PM’s words thanking his former chief of staff for all of her support, both in opposition and in government, and her work to prepare the government [for taking office] …

I think it’s right to reflect on the first weeks and months in office to ensure that you do have the right structures in place going forward to deliver change for the country.

The spokesperson would not answer questions about how much Gray will be paid in her new job as the PM’s envoy to the nations and regions, whether it will be full-time or part-time, and whether she will receive a peerage.

Asked if the PM was worried Gray might clash in her new role with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland secretaries, the spokesperson replied:

No, no, not at all. They will work constructively and collaboratively within the existing set-up.

You can read all the Guardian’s coverage and commentary on the departure of Sue Gray as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff here. She was in effect sacked, but technically she chose to resign, and she is taking up another government role, and so a lot of the news coverage has avoided that word because it implies the process was marginally more brutal than it was.

But it was very harsh. Last week Gray was one of the half a dozen or so most powerful people in government. Now she has an obscure role liasing with mayors and the devolved governments.

Here are extracts from some of the comment on her departure that has appeared on other news websites.

Stephen Bush in the Financial Times says replacing Gray with Morgan McSweeney should clarify who’s in charge in No 10. He says:

One of Michael Gove’s habits as a minister, when told in a memo that “Downing Street wants this”, was to scribble back a note saying “Downing Street is a building. WHO wants it?”

And the big problem that has plagued Keir Starmer’s new government is that a lot of the time, that answer has not been clear even to people inside the building. Ministers and aides outside of it have frequently complained that getting clarity on what Downing Street actually wants is like pulling teeth. That lack of a clear steer is part of why the government has struggled to get past things such as the rows over freebies.

One reason for that is that Starmer opted to make his Downing Street a duopoly: a political lead in the shape of Morgan McSweeney and an administrative one in the shape of Sue Gray. That largely worked well in opposition, with the odd eruption into public view of how one half of Starmer’s office was a “boys club” or the other half comprised of ex-civil servants lacking a political sense. But it was not working in government.

He has now fixed that mistake, though it is not clear if McSweeney can do the administrative half of the role.

Tom McTague in an article for UnHerd says giving McSweeney more power has ideological consequences.

What McSweeney really offers is a hard-headed, unromantic clarity about Labour’s purpose that is more reminiscent of the party’s tougher social democratic past than its softer liberal present. He — more than Starmer — is someone who would be instantly recognisable to any figure from the old Labour Right, from Ernest Bevin to John Reid but is a rarer sight in Westminster of late. He did not learn his politics at Oxford and the bar, but on council estates working for local government. This experience has given him an instinctive loathing for the kind of badge-wearing politics of virtue the Labour Right has long associated with the middle-class Left.

McSweeney sees the purpose of Labour in straightforward, class terms: to represent in government the interests of ordinary people who are not otherwise looked after by their employers, landlords — or, indeed, politicians. He holds those officials who failed to protect the working-class girls of Rochdale in particular contempt. Unlike many in the party, this idea of purpose also combines with an instinctive sympathy for the attitudes and instincts of their voters and those McSweeney believes should be Labour voters.

Oliver Wright, Patrick Maguire and Chris Smyth say in the Times that Gray herself was to blame for the government’s communications problems.

A senior adviser to Starmer involved in forcing Gray’s departure said that the prime minister had also come to the view that she, rather than his communications team, was the person ultimately to blame for weeks of negative headlines over donations, freebies and the influence of the Labour donor Lord Alli over the government.

“There was no grid for the first 100 days,” a senior government source said. “And that was the one thing she was expected to be working on while everyone else was busy on the campaign. There was barely a single story about how the culture of government was being changed. And, of course, there was a total lack of foresight or awareness about the criticism that would be coming down the pipe about crony appointments, wealthy donors, freebies … all the stuff she assumed would be OK because the Tories had done the same thing.”

Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says on social media that this is a display of Starmer’s ruthlessness.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Keir Starmer’s ruthlessness and unsentimentality is like nothing I’ve encountered in decades of reporting on the brutal world of British politics.

It was transparently obvious that the centre of his government had been dysfunctional since the general election on 4 July.

But to replace a chief of staff, Sue Gray, who endured considerable opprobrium from former colleagues and the media for choosing to work for him in the first place, and so soon after the election, is quite something.

Cathy Newman from Channel 4 News says some in the Labour party do not think the appointments will quash claims that a “boy’s club” is in charge. (This is an accusation made strongly by the former Labour MP Rosie Duffield.)

Quite a bit of consternation among Labour women about Sue Gray’s ousting & new Morgan McSweeney “fiefdom”. Vidhya Alakeson & Jill Cuthbertson installed as his deputies but some disgruntled sources suggest they’re “window dressing” to dispel reports of a “boys’ club”.

John Rentoul in the Independent says the reshuffle will prevent the Tories being able to claim there is a power vacuum in Downing Street.

Suddenly, the Tory press “line to take” about a vacuum in No 10 has disintegrated. There is no PPS and no cabinet secretary, they said; the No 10 operation is weak. Now there is a powerful chief of staff, with two deputies, and a PPS. A new cabinet secretary will be appointed in time and after a due process.