Keir Starmer, on his second full day as prime minister, is embarking on a tour around the UK to reset relations with the devolved governments, starting with Scotland and then moving on to Northern Ireland and Wales. He emphasized the need for a different and better way of working across the United Kingdom, aiming to establish meaningful cooperation centered on respect to deliver change. Starmer also announced a reset of his government’s approach to working with the first and deputy first ministers, highlighting the shared beliefs and values that bind people across the UK. Additionally, ministerial appointments were made, including former cabinet ministers from the Blair/Brown era, with Douglas Alexander and Jacqui Smith taking on roles as business and education ministers, respectively. The day’s agenda includes various interviews and meetings, with a focus on rebuilding the country and serving working people.
Starmer promises ‘immediate reset’ of relations with devolved governments as he starts four-nations tour – UK politics live | Politics
Starmer promises ‘immediate reset’ of relations with devolved governments as he starts four-nations tour
Good morning. On his second full day as prime minister, Keir Starmer is setting off on a tour around the UK intended to reset relations with the devolved governments. He will be in Scotland this evening, and then visiting Northern Ireland and Wales before returning to London and leaving for Washington on Tuesday to take part in the Nato summit. Talking about the four-nations tour at his press conference yesterday, Starmer said he wanted not just to meet the first ministers to discuss the challenges they face, but “to establish a way of working across the United Kingdom that will be different and better to the way of working that we’ve had in recent years”.
And in a statement issued overnight he said:
People across the United Kingdom are bound by shared beliefs. Fundamental values of respect, service and community which define us as a great nation.
And that begins today with an immediate reset of my government’s approach to working with the first and deputy first ministers because meaningful co-operation centred on respect will be key to delivering change across our United Kingdom.
Together we can begin the work to rebuild our country with a resolute focus on serving working people once again.
Last night Starmer announced a further set of ministerial appoinments, including giving minister of state jobs to two former cabinet ministers from the Blair/Brown era. Douglas Alexander, who has returned to the Commons as an MP, will be a business minister, and Jacqui Smith, who is getting a peerage, will be an education minister. Michael Savage has the details here.
Because of England’s victory in the Euros last night, there is less politics on the Sunday newspaper front pages than there might have been. But two of the papers that are splashing on Labour are also focusing on Blair-era figures.
The main story in the Sunday Times is based on an article written by Tony Blair urging Starmer to come up with a plan to control immigration.
And the Sunday Telegraph is splashing on a story saying Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, will have a role helping Wes Streeting, the new health secretary, reform the NHS.
The Observer is splashing on Starmer’s message to his cabinet yesterday.
The Mail on Sunday is splashing on a story about Starmer wanting to improve the Brexit deal with the EU – something he said repeatedly before the election he wanted to do.
And the Sunday Express has splashed on Starmer ending the Rwanda policy – something Starmer also promised.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, is interviewed on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. Nadhim Zahawi, the Tory former cabinet minister, and Simon Harris, the taoiseach (Irish PM) are also being interviewed.
9am: Reynolds is also interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. The other guests include Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, two potential candidates for next Tory leader (the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and the former health secretary Victoria Atkins) and Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester.
4.30pm: Keir Starmer meets Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, in Scotland.
6pm: Starmer meets John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, at Bute House, his official residence, in Edinburgh.
We don’t have comments open at the moment, but hope to be able to turn them on later.
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Updated at 08.51 BST
Key events
Boris Johnson not solution to Tories’ problems, says Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen
Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, is now being interviewed on Times Radio. He says the Tories should not respond to their electoral defeat by pluning into some “existential crisis” and debating whether it has been too rightwing or too leftwing. He says the party lost trust because it was not governing effectively.
Asked if that means he is not saying the party needs to copy Reform UK, or let Nigel Farage join, Houchen replies: “Absolutely.”
Asked who he would like to see as the next leader, Houchen says it is too early to say.
He says he does not think it is realistic to think that just brining back Boris Johnson will solve the party’s problems. “I don’t think Boris is part of the conversation,” he says. He says Johnson is not even an MP at the moment, and he says he would be “surprised” if Johnson wanted to come back at this point.
Houchen was asked about Johnson because, when Johnson was PM, he has been a big Johnson supporter. Johnson’s levelling up boosterism was partly inspired by the approach Houchen was taking as Tees Valley mayor.
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Labour won’t introduce ID cards, says Reynolds, after Blair argues digital ID could help it manage migration
Adam Boulton is interviewing Reynolds, and he asks what stance Labour will take on law and order issues. Will it back ID cards, as Tony Blair wants? Or will it be more liberal, as the appointment of James Timpson as prison minister suggests?
Reynolds says he can rule out Labour backing ID cards.
When he was asked about this earlier by Trevor Phillips (see 8.40am), Reynolds gave an evasive answer (albeit one that implied he did not know what the official line was, not one that implied the government was in favour, but just did not want to say so). It sounds like he has had a call since then, because now he tells Boulton clearly that Labour is ruling those out. “I can rule out ID cards for you,” he says.
In his article for the Sunday Times, Tony Blair, who has been a supporter of ID cards for years, said Keir Stamer should introduce a system of digitial ID cards to help control irregular migration. Blair said:
We need a plan to control immigration. If we don’t have rules, we get prejudices. In office, I believed the best solution was a system of identity, so that we know precisely who has a right to be here. With, again, technology, we should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective.
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Reynolds says Labour will be ‘robust’ in pointing out threat posed by Reform UK
Jonathan Reynolds is now being interviewed on Times Radio.
Asked how Labour should take on Reform, he says Labour will be “robust” in pointing out the threat they would pose because of their support for Russia’s stance on Ukraine.
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Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, tells Laura Kuenssberg that, listening to Victoria Atkins and Robert Jenrick, she thinks the Tories still do not realise how much people are suffering as a result of the cost of living crisis. She says she hopes the Labour government will be transformational.
Sharon Graham Photograph: BBCShare
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is being interviewed now.
He says the Lib Dems will be a constructive opposition to Labour.
The Labour manifesto did not mention carers. The Lib Dems will push them on this, he says.
Q: Is it right you got so many more seats than Reform UK, with fewer votes?
Davey says the Lib Dems have long argued for proportional representation. They will continue to do that, he says.
Ed Davey Photograph: BBCShare
Jenrick also refuses to rule out standing for Tory leader, and says he would support having long leadership campaign
Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister and another potential Tory leadership candidate, is being interviewed now.
He says the party let voters down because it promised to reduce net migration but failed.
Q: Will you be standing for the leadership?
Jenrick says it would not be right to discuss that just three days after the election defeat.
I honestly don’t think that three days on from the General Election, in which we’ve just lost so many of our friends and colleagues, that it is right to have self-indulgent conversations like this.
The reason I came on your programme Laura is because I care about the Conservative Party, I’ve been a member of the party since 1997 when I was 16 years of age, I’ve been with it through thick and thin.
I want to ensure it has the right diagnosis of what’s gone wrong and that diagnosis is not about personalities, it’s about principles and ideas not individuals.
Q: Do you have wait it takes to be leader?
Jenrick says he does not want to discuss that now.
Q: And do you think there should be a long handover to a new leader.
Jenrick says he would support a “longer campaign”.
I would support a longer campaign. I think we as a party have to think very carefully about what’s happened and once we have that, unite behind that common set of true Conservative principles and move forward – and above all hold Keir Starmer to account.
Robert Jenrick with Laura Kuenssberg on her BBC show. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PAShare
Updated at 10.08 BST
Victoria Atkins refuses to rule out standing for Tory leadership
Victoria Atkins is being interviewed now. As the former health secretary, she is introduced as shadow health secretary, even though it is not entirely clear whether the Conservative party actually has a shadow cabinet at the moment. There are many vacancies, because so many cabinet ministers lost their seats. Since he resigned, Rishi Sunak has only made one appointment – announcing yesterday that Stuart Andrew is interim chief whip.
Atkins says her party will need to look hard at what went wrong.
We need to ask ourselves some very hard questions about delivery, about integrity, and also about our values that underlie all of this.
She says some good MPs lost their seats. She says voters did not like seeing Conservatives attacking each other.
Even though the party lost, people still have conservative instincts, she says. She says they want lower taxes.
Q: Will you stand for the leadership?
Atkins says it is not the time to discuss that now. That is not why she came on the programme, she says.
Kuenssberg puts it to her that, if she is talking about honesty, she should be willing to say if she will stand.
Atkins says the Conservative party is bigger than any one member. It should be focusing on what the country needs, not on individuals at this point.
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Michael Howard tells the BBC that the Conservative party has to remember it is a “national party” as it seeks to recover. It is no good having policies that just appeal to a narrow section, he says.
Asked if he thought that was a problem in the campaign, he says he wants to focus on the future.
Q: Who would be a good future leader?
Howard claims he does not even know how the candidates are. Other members of the panel make it clear they don’t think he is telling the truth.
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Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, is one of the guest on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Graham says she is glad Labour is in power. But she is a union leader, focused on what is best for workers. She says it is essential that any government offer to Tata Steel includes a jobs guarantee.
On economic policy, she says she hopes Rachel Reeves, the new chancellor, will change the government’s fiscal rules, to allow more borrowing. They have already changed nine times since 1997, she says.
And she says the government could make different choices. The 50 richest families in Britain are worth £500bn, she says. That is unfair.
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Q: Are you worried that Labour has lost voters over Gaza?
Burnham says the party has been listening. It changed its position, he says. He was glad Labour won back Rochdale from George Galloway, he says.
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Laura Kuenssberg is now interviewing Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester. She suggests he wishes he was back in government, sitting around the cabinet table.
Burnham says he is happy with his job.
He says he hopes Starmer will commit to carrying on with the Northern Powerhouse agenda promised by the Tories.
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Updated at 09.32 BST
Reynolds suggests Reform UK’s leaders are not ‘good people’ because of their support for Putin’s stance on Ukraine
Q: How woried are you about the loss of support from Mulsim voters?
Reynolds says the party is taking this issue serious. People want to see progress towards a peace process in the Middle East. The new government will take a leadership role on this, he says.
Q: Are you worried about people backing Reform UK?
Reynolds says he met good people thinking about backing Reform. That does not mean the party itself is made up of good people. They support the economic policies of Liz Truss, and the foreign policy of Vladimir Putin.
Q: So you are saying Reform UK are not good people?
He says the people who voted for them are good people. But often they did not know the agenda of the party. Supporting Putin’s position on Ukraine is not in the national interest, he says.
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Read the full story on www.theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jul/07/keir-starmer-labour-uk-general-election-scotland-wales-northern-ireland-visit-latest-news