Tory hustings - live: Truss vows to take on ‘Treasury orthodoxy’ in swipe at Sunak
But Lib Dems say foreign secretary has had no physical meetings with ministerial counterparts or foreign ambassadors for over six weeks
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Liz Truss has vowed to “take on” the so-called “Treasury orthodoxy” under which money is handed to areas already heavily invested – in an apparent swipe at Rishi Sunak.
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss faced yet another grilling from Tory party members as they tried to win votes to become the next leader and prime minister.
But both candidates have faced sharp criticism.
Ms Truss was accused of abandoning her duties as foreign secretary, having been absent from nearly all of her ministerial duties since she joined the Conservative leadership race nearly seven weeks ago, according to the Lib Dems.
And scientists hit back at Mr Sunak over his suggestion it was a “mistake” to empower experts during the coronavirus pandemic, in a series of claims labelled “dangerous rubbish” by former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings.
The ex-chancellor told the Spectator magazine that he “wasn’t allowed to talk about the trade-off” of lockdowns during the early phases of the Covid crisis, which he said could have been “quicker”, and claimed to have fought against the “fear narrative” which drove public messaging.
Mark Harper backs Sunak over claims about Covid pandemic
A Conservative former chief whip has backed Rishi Sunak’s claims that during the pandemic “dissenting voices were not allowed” in government.
Mark Harper, who is a Sunak supporter and chairs the lockdown-sceptic Tory Covid Recovery Group, told Tom Swarbrick on LBC: “You will know that one of the roles that I had during the Covid pandemic, chairing the Covid recovery group with a number of my colleagues, was simply to ask the government some questions about yes, the threat from Covid but also the cost and consequences of the decisions that were taken.
“In fact, in your news headlines, you just highlighted there, the impact there’s been on a number of children from the fact that we locked them out of school. That’s children who were at no risk from Covid.
“And all that I was doing from outside government, Rishi Sunak was doing inside government, was asking some questions about how we balance these things, how you trade it off and make the choices?
“And the government was not being honest about that publicly. It was setting out that there were no choices, that you had to follow ‘The Science’, capitalised T, capitalised S, and dissenting voices were not allowed.”
He added: “When I raised questions – and we questioned the modelling people in No 10 briefed out to journalists that we deliberately wanted to kill thousands of people which was clearly nonsense – we were simply asking questions to get better decisions, and I’m pleased that Rishi Sunak shone a bit of a light on what was going on in government at the time.”
It is ‘part of the plan’ for GCSE results to be lower in 2022, education minister says
Overall grades for GCSEs are expected to be lower than in 2020 and 2021, but “that’s very much part of the plan“, an education minister has said.
Will Quince told Sky News: “The results will be out very, very soon, but I think the first thing is that today is a celebration of all those young people’s achievements and efforts over the course of the past two years.
“So, today’s about saying a huge well done, and a huge thank you to all of the teachers and the school leaders, and of course parents and carers that have supported young people to get those results. And you know, wish them every success with what they’re going to do next.”
Asked whether their grades are going to be lower, Mr Quince said: “So, yeah, they are and that’s very much part of the plan. Over the last couple of years, we have had teachers assess grades, we have gone back for the first time to examinations.”
He added: “We recognise the fact that young people have faced huge disruption of the past couple of years, so there have been adaptations in place and Ofqual have reflected in their marking and grading.”
Scientists advising government on Covid edited minutes to hide dissenting opinions, Sunak claims
Rishi Sunak has claimed the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) group advising Boris Johnson’s government edited its minutes to hide dissenting opinions.
“The Sage people didn’t realise for a very long time that there was a Treasury person on all their calls,” the former chancellor told The Spectator. “A lovely lady. She was great because it meant that she was sitting there, listening to their discussions.”
Mr Sunak claimed that he became “emotional” during fraught meetings with ministers and top scientists. “Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every single time.”
“I was like, ‘Forget about the economy – surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare.’ There was a big silence afterwards. It was the first time someone had said it. I was so furious.”
Government wrong to ‘empower scientists’ on Covid lockdowns, says Rishi Sunak
Lockdown could have been shorter, says Tory hopeful – who shares fury over ‘nightmare’ schools closure
More help will be coming on bills, says minister
The next prime minister will introduce an additional package of support on the cost of living, schools minister Will Quince has said.
“There is no question in my mind, listening to the two leadership candidates … that the government is going to act and put in place a further package of support measures,” the Rishi Sunak supporter told LBC.
Mr Quince added: “We will have to wait a couple of weeks … Both contenders have been clear, there will be a fiscal event, and more help will be coming.”
‘Active agent of Tory party’ shaping BBC news coverage, says Emily Maitlis
A BBC board member who acts as an arbiter of the broadcaster’s impartiality is an “active agent” of the Conservative Party, according to former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.
Ms Maitlis, who left the BBC this year for rival media group Global, is understood to have referred to Theresa May’s former communications director Sir Robbie Gibb in a speech that was scathing about the corporation’s alleged closeness to No 10.
Our political correspondent Adam Forrest has the full report:
‘Active agent of Tory party’ shaping BBC news coverage, says Emily Maitlis
Former Newsnight presenter says broadcaster ‘sought to pacify’ No 10
Energy firm forced to refund thousands of overcharged customers
Shell Energy will be forced to pay out more than half a million pounds for charging thousands of customers more than the price cap allows it to.
Energy regulator Ofgem said the company had overcharged 11,275 pre-payment customers by a total of £106,000 between 2019 and 2022.
It will be forced to repay this, shell out an extra total of £30,970 in goodwill payments to the customers and put £400,000 towards a fund run by Ofgem. Customers are being refunded an average of £9.40 each.
Businesses need grants for energy bills, PM and chancellor warned
The British Chamber of Commerce has called for action to “protect businesses, livelihoods and jobs” in a letter to Boris Johnson, chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and both candidates for the Tory leadership.
The business group urged the politicians to consider Covid-style grants for small and medium-sized firms, a temporary cut in VAT to 5 per cent, and for Ofgem to be given more power to strengthen regulation.
“We simply cannot afford to see another month of the same old news,” said the group’s director general, Shevaun Haviland. “The problems are well understood … It is now over to the government to take action to protect businesses, livelihoods and jobs.”
‘Solidarity tax’ of 1% for all earners needed to raise more energy bill support, says think tank
Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been urged to “think the unthinkable” and consider raising income tax in order to fund further support with the cost of living crisis.
The think tank said a 1 per cent hike in income tax on all rates – with 60 per cent paid by the wealthiest fifth of UK households – would raise £9.5bn a year for more support with gas and electricity bills.
The foundation also urged the next prime minister to work with the energy companies on creating a new “social tariff” to reduce bills for hard-pressed Britons on low and middle incomes.
Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:
‘Solidarity tax’ of 1% needed for more energy bill support, says think tank
Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak must ‘think the unthinkable’ and consider tax rise, says Resolution Foundation
Language used by ministers during Covid briefings was ‘slippery and ambiguous,’ study says
Language used by the government during its Covid-19 briefings throughout the pandemic was “vague, slippery and ambiguous” so as to reduce accountability, a new study has found.
Researchers from Nottingham Trent University found that ministers adopted “lexicogrammatical strategies” to share responsibility for policy decisions with the public.
Read the full story here:
‘Slippery and ambiguous’ language used by ministers during Covid briefs, study says
‘The government speakers employed different lexicogrammatical strategies to reduce and mitigate the amount of responsibility to themselves solely, while increasing the amount assigned to the general public’
Freezing energy bills will not help people, minister says
Freezing energy bills will not help people who need the most support with the cost of living crisis, a minister has said.
Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the “eyewatering” sum would not be the best way through a winter of price hikes.
Speaking to Sky News he said: “I don’t think that a universal freezing of everybody’s energy bill really helps to get taxpayer’s money into the bank accounts of the people who need support the most.”
Instead, he said both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had proposed the “better solution” of “more targeted packages” of support to the least well off.
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