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Veteran SNP MP Angus Brendan MacNeil has been suspended for a week following a row with the party’s chief whip at Westminster. The Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP said he accepted the decision following a reported clash with whip Brendan O’Hara over MacNeil’s attendance record.
Treasury minister Andrew Griffith has told the Financial Conduct Authority that he wants it to act swiftly to ensure that banks are not closing people’s bank accounts because they are politicians.
No 10 says parliament “has a long way to go and a lot of work to do to” to prevent incidents of sexual harassment after BBC’s Newsnight broadcast a report saying that it remains rife in Westminster.
Downing Street insists its asylum policy is “fair and compassionate”, rejecting criticism from Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and other faith leaders of its illegal migration bill.
No 10 said in its post-PMQs briefing that it’s committed to cutting NHS waiting list, but cutting long waiting times takes priority.
The Cabinet Office is expected to learn on Thursday whether it has won its legal challenge to the UK Covid-19 inquiry chair’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries, according to PA Media.
Oliver Dowden and Angela Rayner went head to head at PMQs while Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer attended a service in Westminster Abbey to commemorate 75 years of the NHS. Mhairi Black, the deputy leader of the SNP at Westminster, got the most laughs for suggesting that Dowden was also likely to be leaving parliament at the next election.
John McDonnell accused Keir Starmer of being on a “search and destroy” mission against the left in his party in an interview with BBC’s Newsnight.
Updated at 16.47 BSTVeteran SNP MP suspended for a weekLibby BrooksVeteran SNP MP Angus Brendan MacNeil has been suspended for a week following a row with the party’s chief whip at Westminster.The Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP said he accepted Westminster leader Stephen Flynn’s decision following a reported clash with whip Brendan O’Hara over MacNeil’s attendance record.“Stephen has his views and I have mine, but as leader he has his own pressures to balance and I accept the decision he has taken,” he said.Guido Fawkes, the online blog, reported a public row in the division lobby when MacNeil called O’Hara “a small wee man” several times before throwing official letters about missed Commons votes back at him and storming off.MacNeil, who is one of the SNP’s longest-serving MPs, has been an outspoken critic of the party leadership in recent years, in particular over what he considers its timid independence strategy, and is known to be a close ally of former first minister Alex Salmond.Updated at 16.42 BSTA proposal to give communities more say over installing speed cameras on dangerous roads was heard in a ten minute bill earlier today.Conservative MP Mark Eastwood’s safety cameras bill calls for a series of reforms to existing guidance, including changes to the site selection criteria for cameras, PA reports.The MP for Dewsbury said 65 people died and more than 5,000 injuries were recorded on West Yorkshire’s roads in 2022, with excessive or inappropriate speed being one of the most common factors.Eastwood said the criteria for installing speed cameras should be more preventative and require fewer serious accidents before a camera is allowed in any location.Eastwood asked for his bill to receive a second reading on 24 November but it is unlikely to progress in its current form because of a lack of parliamentary time to consider backbench proposals.Updated at 15.57 BSTTreasury minister tells FCA to act quickly on concerns about politicians' access to banking, following Farage claimsAndrew SparrowAndrew Griffith, a Treasury minister, has told the Financial Conduct Authority that he wants it to act swiftly to ensure that banks are not closing people’s bank accounts because they are politicians.Under money laundering rules, banks are supposed to apply stricter checks to people deemed a “politically exposed person” (PEP). The rule is designed primarily to stop political figures from corrupt regimes laundering money in the UK, but some British politicians say they have been affected. Dominic Lawson recently revealed that his daughter had difficulty opening a bank account because her grandfather was Nigel Lawson, the former chancellor, who counted as a PEP.This issue has become prominent after Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party, suggested last week that his bank account was being closed for this reason. But Coutts, the bank involved, does not accept this. The account was closed because it did not have enough money in it, it has been reported.Farage’s claims were widely and sympathetically reported in the Tory papers, and Griffith has published the text of a letter has written to the FCA about the issue. The FCA is reviewing the PEP rules away. Griffith has told them to speed this up.In his letter he says:
While I recognise the importance of ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to prevent money laundering, it is crucial that an appropriate balance is struck and that these measures do not unduly burden or prevent democratically elected individuals, public officials, or their respective families from access to essential banking services. It has been made clear to the government throughout the passage of the Financial Services and Markets Act that some financial institutions may be failing to strike the right balance of taking a proportionate approach based on a careful evaluation of the actual risk. This is why we took action through the Act to require an FCA review into the extent of this issue.
The government is clear that domestic PEPs should be treated in a manner which is in line with their risk, and that banks should not be closing individuals’ accounts solely due to their status as a PEP. Given the strength of concern on this issue, I would expect that the FCA will prioritise this important review over the coming months, and if there are ‘easy wins’ along the way will implement those expeditiously.
Banks should not be closing people’s accounts solely due to their status as a Politically Exposed PersonI've written to - asking them to prioritise their review on this issue 👇 pic.twitter.com/2kvugoXdPF— Andrew Griffith MP () July 5, 2023Farage, who retweeted Griffith’s tweet about this, is likely to see this as vindication of his complaints.My colleague Emily Dugan is now taking over the blog.Updated at 15.24 BSTParliament has 'long way to go' on dealing with sexual harassment, No 10 saysLast night BBC’s Newsnight broadcast a report saying that sexual harassment remains rife at Westminster. It was based on evidence from six people working in parliament, including a 25-year-old woman who recalled being asked to sit on an older, male MP’s lap. Newsnight says the MP in question, whom it has not named, has been suspended over separate allegations.Asked about the problem at the post-PMQs lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:
Parliament has a long way to go and a lot of work to do to ensure we’re not seeing these incidents taking place.
But, when asked if Rishi Sunak agreed with the SNP Mhairi Black, who said yesterday that she was standing down at the next election partly because she found the Commons “toxic” and “poisonous”, the spokesperson said:
No, not fundamentally, but we recognise some individuals have had difficult times.
Updated at 14.48 BSTNo 10 insists government's asylum policy is 'compassionate', in face of criticism from archbishopDowning Street has rejected the suggestion from Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and other faith leaders that its illegal migration bill is not compassionate. (See 10.11am.) Asked about their letter in the Times today, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists:
I’m not going to get into responding to individual views of which there are many on this issue.
But the prime minister has been clear that stopping the boats, stopping the cruel cycle of vulnerable people being exploited by criminal gangs, is the fair and compassionate thing to do.
Updated at 14.43 BSTNEU teachers on a rally in central London in support of their strike action today. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesNEU teachers at their rally in London. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty ImagesNEU teachers on their rally in London, outside Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesNo 10 says it's committed to cutting NHS waiting list, but cutting long waiting times takes priorityAt the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson defended what Maria Caulfield, the health minister, said about NHS waiting lists and waiting times this morning. (See 9.15am.) Like her, he hinted that waiting times were more important than the overall number of people on the headline “waiting list”.The spokesperson said that Rishi Sunak was committed to cutting the overall waiting list (the main benchmark on health in his five pledges), but that the initial focus was on patients waiting the longest for treatment. He said:
We are rightly focusing on those waiting the longest – so those waiting two years, 18 months and now one year, and we are making progress on all of those.
At the same time, as I think we acknowledged coming out of Covid, we knew that waiting lists would increase before they came down.
But we are committed to reducing waiting lists overall, but rightly focusing on those who have been waiting the longest.
PMQs - snap verdictMany people find it hard to see the point of PMQs. With DPMQs, it is even more of a mystery. Most key decisions in government end up on the desk of the prime minister and, even if he does not say anything very revelatory in the Commons, at PMQs at least MPs and viewers get some clues as to his thinking (non-answers can tell you a lot, if you know how to interprate them properly), and make an assessment of character.With Oliver Dowden standing it, it was a bit like listening to the minister for paperclips doing the morning broadcast round and having to field questions from Kay Burley or Nick Robinson on private thinking within No 10 on party strategy, battlefield developments in the Ukraine war, and the intricacies of pensions policy. The minister for paperclips resorts to waffle and some anodyne line to take, but as a journalist I listen knowing that I would get much more informative answers from colleagues in the office.PMQs was a bit like that today. The speaker might have been better off suspending the sitting for an hour, and sending all the MPs off to join Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer at Westminster Abbey. From the government’s point of view, with no other strategy succeeding at the moment, at least prayer might help.It wasn’t that Dowden was terrible (he needled Angela Rayner quite effectively at one point about her relationship with Starmer); it was just that he did not have much to say, and so largely he resorted to partisan bromides. In so far as we did learn anything from him, it was that he seems to think banging on Liam Byrne’s “no money left” note is still a winning argument.Rayner went on housing issues, consolidating the attack line used by Starmer last week. She embarrassed Dowden with two questions that he would not fully address: whether buy-to-let mortgages are included in the mortgage support package (she was arguing that they should be, because “most renters live in homes with buy-to-let mortgages”), and whether the government will finally ban no-fault evictions. It was not a vintage performance, but she was more convincing than Dowden, and so it did the job.There was one obvious winner today, though, and that was Mhairi Black. As usual, her two questions were spiky, but she brought the house down with a terrific retort to Dowden’s opening answer. (See 12.20pm.) Most of the jokes you hear at PMQs are pre-scripted and rehearsed. That does not necessarily stop them being funny, but spontaneous wit is more impressive and that (almost certainly) was what we heard today from Black. She triumphed.Updated at 13.47 BSTCabinet Office to learn on Thursday if it has won legal challenge against Covid inquiry over WhatsApp messages disclosure orderThe Cabinet Office is to learn whether it has won its legal challenge to the UK Covid-19 inquiry chair’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries, PA Media reports. PA says:
High court judges are expected to hand down their decision over the government’s judicial review of Heather Hallett’s order at 2.30pm on Thursday.
The Cabinet Office has refused to provide the documents, arguing the request is “so broad” that it is “bound to catch” a large amount of irrelevant material.
Lawyers for the department say the inquiry does not have the legal power to force ministers to release messages and records it claims cover matters “unconnected to the government’s handling of Covid”.
However, Hugo Keith KC, for the inquiry chairwoman, has said the idea that the Cabinet Office could decide which aspects were relevant “would emasculate this and future inquiries”.
And Lord Pannick KC, on behalf of the former prime minister, argued there is a “real danger” of undermining public confidence in the process if the department wins its bid.
The government took the highly unusual step of launching the challenge in June, in a move which attracted criticism after days of public wrangling between the Cabinet Office and Hallett’s probe.
The former prime minister handed over his unredacted WhatsApp messages, diaries and 24 notebooks to the Cabinet Office in late May.
Johnson himself is backing Hallett, who rejected the argument that the material was irrelevant in a May ruling, in opposing the legal challenge over the request.
Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham are expected to hand down their decision on Thursday.
Updated at 13.09 BSTDowden's claim Labour policy would add £1,000 to cost of average mortgages not supported by research, MPs toldDawn Butler (Lab) raises a point of order. She says at a previous PMQs Oliver Dowden said that Labour’s plan to spend £28bn a year on green energy plans would put an extra £1,000 on mortgages. That figure came from a Daily Mail article, that attributed it to the Treasury. But when the UK Statistics Authority looked into this, it found that this was not based on any proper Treasury analysis. She says this has been confirmed by LBC. She asks if Dowden will correct the record.Sir Linday Hoyle, the speaker, says that ministers will have heard the point, and that he is sure Dowden will want to correct any mistake as quickly as possible.Updated at 12.57 BSTSarah Jones (Lab) says Rishi Sunak behaved like a “stroppy schoolboy” at the liaison committee yesterday. He has bitten off more than he can chew.Dowden says that was more of a rant than a question.And that’s it. PMQs is overJohn Baron (Con) says, with employment at a record high, can Dowden explain why the Labour party has such a bad record on unemployment.Dowden says he remembers the “no money left” note left by Labour in 2010. That should never happen again, he says.Updated at 12.41 BSTPaul Howell (Con) welcomes Fiona Hill (the former White House Russia expert, not Theresa May’s former co-chief of staff), as chancellor of Durham University. Dowden welcomes the appointment too.