Rishi Sunak news – live: Suella Braverman has learnt from her mistakes, PM insists

New prime minister claims Braverman has ‘taken accountability’

'You need to try harder': Rishi Sunak told off by hospital patient over NHS's pay

Rishi Sunak has said he has no regrets over putting Suella Braverman back in charge of the Home Office just six days after she resigned over a security breach, insisting the home secretary has learnt from her mistakes.

The comments came in his first public visit as prime minister, to a Croydon hospital where he was confronted by an NHS patient who urged him to “try harder” on nurses’ pay. “It’s a pity you don’t pay them more,” Catherine Poole, a 77-year-old recovering from surgery, told the PM.

Mr Sunak also ditched a Tory leadership campaign pledge to fine patients who miss GP and hospital appointments, backtracking on plans health leaders had warned would “make matters worse”.

He pledged to put “fairness at the heart” of the “difficult decisions” he will take to “fix” the economic “mistakes” made by his party, and insisted it was “right” for him to focus on “depressing” domestic challenges, denying accusations of a “massive failure of climate leadership” by opting not to attend the Cop27 summit.

Key points

• Rishi Sunak confronted over nurses’ pay during NHS hospital visit
• Prime minister U-turns on plan to fine patients who miss appointments
• No 10 contradicts Therese Coffey over King Charles Cop27 attendance
• Sunak’s climate summit snub is ‘standard practice’, suggests Coffey
• PM and Jeremy Hunt ‘considering windfall tax on renewable energy firms’
• No 10 aides ‘feared Liz Truss could be probed over lying to Commons'

[28 October 2022 00:16 · Emily Atkinson]

Jess Phillips: ‘Where are all the senior women in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet?'

Sunak has made the cabinet a little different, in that he’s reduced the number of women in it, writes Jess Phillps, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding. Seven women sit in a cabinet of 24. Seven! The only great office to go to a woman goes to Suella Braverman, who was sacked for impropriety and a security breach six days before. I guess Sunak only gave her the job because she helped him get his and, let’s face it, he has also been groomed in a government which felt the rules didn’t apply.

[27 October 2022 23:54 · Emily Atkinson]

Sunak reshuffle update

The time has come again for another update on Rishi Sunak’s government reshuffle.

New appointments:

• Alex Burghart: Parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office
• Maria Caulfield: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department of Health and in the Department for International Trade
• John Lamont: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Scotland Office
• Robert Largan: Assistant government chief whip
• David Rutley: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Foreign Office

Reappointments:

• Dehenna Davison: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Levelling Up
• Joy Morrissey: Assistant government whip

[27 October 2022 23:23 · Emily Atkinson]

Watch: Eddie Izzard reacts to transphobic comments from MPs

[27 October 2022 23:01 · Emily Atkinson]

Latest from Sunak’s government reshuffle

More now from Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle, which continued into Thursday night.

New appointments:

• Huw Merriman: Minister of state in the Department for Transport
• Sarah Dines: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Home Office
• Dr James Davies: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Wales Office
• Mims Davies: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Work and Pensions
• Fay Jones and Julie Marson: Assistant government whips

Reappointments:

• Amanda Solloway: Government whip
• Stuart Anderson and Jacob Young: Assistant government whips
• Trudy Harrison: Parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

[27 October 2022 22:39 · Emily Atkinson]

Why are people so obsessed with Rishi Sunak’s height?

Britain’s new prime minister Rishi Sunak is the first British Asian to take up residence at 10 Downing Street, the country’s first Hindu leader, its youngest since 1812 and one of its wealthiest ever statesmen.

At 170cm (or 5 foot 6 inches), he is also one of the UK’s shortest premiers on record, a matter of increasing obsession online, with Google searches into the matter spiking over the course of the week.

Joe Sommerlad takes a look at how the height our new PM compares with his predecessors:

[27 October 2022 22:20 · Emily Atkinson]

Rayner hits out at Sunak over Cop27

Rishi Sunak not “bothering” to attend the upcoming Cop27 summit in Egypt shows a “total failure of leadership,” deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has said.

Taking to Twitter on Thursday evening, Ms Rayner said: “Rishi Sunak isn’t even bothering to turn up to #COP27. @Ed_Miliband is right. It’s a total failure of leadership.

“Tackling the climate crisis isn’t just about our global reputation, but the opportunities for lower bills, jobs & energy security here.”

[27 October 2022 22:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Tory mayor calls for tax rises over spending cuts in Rishi Sunak’s autumn budget

The Conservative mayor of the West Midlands has issued a plea to Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to raise taxes rather than cut public services in their crucial autumn statement next month.

Whitehall sources suggest that Mr Sunak favours a 50/50 split between tax rises and spending reductions in the 17 November statement, when Mr Hunt will try to fill a gap in the public finances estimated at around £40bn.

But Andy Street warned that voters around the country will see any withdrawal of funding from services like health and policing as an indication of the government failing to support their communities, as Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” manifesto promised in 2019.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports:

[27 October 2022 21:41 · Emily Atkinson]

‘Not an event to shun’: Starmer attacks Sunak over Cop27 non-attendance

Sir Keir Starmer has attacked at Rishi Sunak, after Downing Street confirmed that he would not be attending Cop27 in Egypt next month.

The Labour leader tweeted: “My Labour government will show climate leadership.

“Britain showing up to work with world leaders is an opportunity to grasp. Not an event to shun.

“Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will lower bills for good and make Britain a clean energy superpower.”

[27 October 2022 21:20 · Emily Atkinson]

Latest government reappointments

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has reappointed several Tory MPs to government roles as his reshuffle continues.

• Mike Freer: Remains as a parliamentary under secretary of state in the Ministry of Justice
• Lee Rowley: Remains as a parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Levelling Up
• Neil O’Brien: Remains as a parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department of Health and Social Care
• Rebecca Harris, Jo Churchill, Nigel Huddleston: All stay on as a government whips

[27 October 2022 21:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Jeremy Corbyn: ‘Rishi Sunak is no pragmatist – and the opposition now has a choice to make'

Many cited Braverman’s appointment as proof that, far from fixing Truss’s mistakes, Sunak was repeating them, writes former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. However, her appointment was no error. In Sunak’s eyes, damaging public trust and undermining internal unity are risks worth taking for the sake of a much wider, reliable strategy. This is a strategy that scapegoats the most vulnerable for the crises the Tories have created. A strategy that suppresses our right to protest the government’s cruel response. A strategy of divide and rule.