1 month ago
No 10 backs cabinet secretary Simon Case despite report implying he may have failed to pass on Raab warning to PM
Downing Street has suggested that Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, failed to fully inform Rishi Sunak of a complaint about Dominic Raab before he appointed him to cabinet.
But, at the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson also insisted that Sunak retained full confidence in the cabinet secretary, his most senior civil service adviser.
Sunak has repeatedly insisted that he was not aware of any “formal” complaints about Raab’s treatment of officials when he reappointed him as justice secretary and deputy prime minister. But he has refused to say whether he was aware of informal concerns raised about Raab being a bully.
This morning the Times reported that Case was aware of a written complaint that had been made about Raab when Boris Johnson was prime minister. That was considered a formal complaint by those people who submitted it, the Times reports. (See 10.34am.)
At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson did not deny that Case was aware of this complaint.
The spokesperson would not say what, if anything, Sunak was told about this when he was appointing people to cabinet. But the spokesperson did say that Sunak did not know about any “formal complaint” before appointing Raab.
Asked whether Sunak was confident he was getting solid advice from Case, the spokesperson replied:
Yes. The prime minister has full confidence in Simon Case.
Asked about the allegations about Raab made by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller (see 10.29am), the spokesperson said it would be for Adam Tolley KC, the lawyer conducting the inquiry into claims that Raab bullied officials, to decide whether to investigate them.
Raab has repeatedly denied being a bully and insisted that he treated staff professionally at all times.
Key events
GMB suspends ambulance strike in Wales after Welsh government makes improved pay offer
A planned strike by GMB ambulance workers in Wales has been suspended after a new offer aimed at resolving a pay dispute, PA Media reports. PA says:
Members of the GMB were due to walk out in Wales and England on Monday alongside members of other unions.
The GMB said its action has been suspended to allow further negotiations with the Welsh government.
The union said the proposed deal amounts to both a consolidated and non-consolidated one-off payment for 22-23 – on top of an increase of 4.5% which has already been paid.
GMB official Nathan Holman said:
After intense negotiations, GMB has agreed to suspend strike action while further talks take place.
We recognise that the Welsh government and Welsh Ambulance have made concessions and, through social partnership, we appreciate the frank and open dialogue with them over the last few months.
This has only been made possible because the Welsh government has been prepared to talk about pay – a lesson for those in charge on the other side of the Severn Bridge.
We are a member-led union, ultimately they will decide.
Bill to extend maternity protections passes in House of Commons
A push to secure better protection from maternity discrimination has taken a step forward, after a bill extending maternity protections passed its final stage in the House of Commons. My colleague Alexandra Topping has the story here.
Greens celebrate becoming largest party on Bristol city council
The Green party has been celebrating a byelection win last night which means it is now the largest party on Bristol city council.
The Greens now have 25 seats on the council, ahead of Labour on 24, Conservatives on 14, and the Liberal Democrats on five.
Last night the Greens’ Patrick McAllister won in Hotwells and Harbourside, beating Stephen Williams, the former MP for Bristol West and a junior minister in the coalition government, by 537 votes to 511.
As the BBC reports, Carla Denyer, another Green councillor in the city, co-leader of the party nationally and the Green candidate for Bristol West, said:
It’s fantastic to see that the people of Hotwells and Harbourside, and more broadly the people of Bristol, want to see more Green politics in the city and are ready to trust us with power.
The byelection win means 17 of the 20 councillors in the Bristol West constituency are now Green. But the MP, Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, had a majority of almost 30,000 at the last election, making it very hard to see how Denyer could replace her.
As my colleague Steven Morris wrote in a preview feature ahead of the byelection, the city is currently run by the Labour elected mayor Marvin Rees, which means being the largest party does not put the Greens in control.
No 10 backs cabinet secretary Simon Case despite report implying he may have failed to pass on Raab warning to PM
Downing Street has suggested that Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, failed to fully inform Rishi Sunak of a complaint about Dominic Raab before he appointed him to cabinet.
But, at the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson also insisted that Sunak retained full confidence in the cabinet secretary, his most senior civil service adviser.
Sunak has repeatedly insisted that he was not aware of any “formal” complaints about Raab’s treatment of officials when he reappointed him as justice secretary and deputy prime minister. But he has refused to say whether he was aware of informal concerns raised about Raab being a bully.
This morning the Times reported that Case was aware of a written complaint that had been made about Raab when Boris Johnson was prime minister. That was considered a formal complaint by those people who submitted it, the Times reports. (See 10.34am.)
At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson did not deny that Case was aware of this complaint.
The spokesperson would not say what, if anything, Sunak was told about this when he was appointing people to cabinet. But the spokesperson did say that Sunak did not know about any “formal complaint” before appointing Raab.
Asked whether Sunak was confident he was getting solid advice from Case, the spokesperson replied:
Yes. The prime minister has full confidence in Simon Case.
Asked about the allegations about Raab made by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller (see 10.29am), the spokesperson said it would be for Adam Tolley KC, the lawyer conducting the inquiry into claims that Raab bullied officials, to decide whether to investigate them.
Raab has repeatedly denied being a bully and insisted that he treated staff professionally at all times.
Banning prepayment meters would lead to higher energy bills for all customers, says former Ofgem chief
As Peter Walker, Heather Stewart and Alex Lawson report in their overnight story, Ofgem has asked energy companies to stop forcing customers to use prepayment meters until they are in a position to assure the regulator that the procedures designed to protect vulnerable users are being followed.
Major energy companies have suspended forced installation of prepament meters.
But this morning Dermot Nolan, a former Ofgem chief executive, said banning the use of prepayment meters could lead to higher bills for other customers.
Asked why energy could not be treated like water, where suppliers are not allowed to disconnect households, he said:
If you did that for energy, I think, frankly … bad debts would rise.
Now it is up to companies to control bad debts but if you look at the water sector, maybe 2-3% of your bill is actually bad debt, so you’re probably spending £15-20 a year to cover bad debts.
That’s definitely higher than energy, but not hugely higher.
If you did that and you still make companies manage debt as much as you can, I think you would get slightly higher energy prices as a result – that happens in water.
Is that a trade-off you should make? I’m not sure, but I think you could argue it is the more civilised thing to do. But you would, I think, have slightly higher energy prices as a result.
Councils in Scotland may be facing a real terms cut to funding in 2023-24 even if council tax is increased by 5%, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says. In a report, it explains that, even though the Scottish government has allocated councils a small real-terms increase, once allowance is made for the new responsibilities they have, and funding that came as a top-up, “grant funding for Scottish councils is set to fall by 0.8% in real terms this April. Even if Scottish councils were to increase their council tax rates by 5% in April, their overall funding would still fall by about 0.3% in real terms.”
Disabled people left short in universal credit move may get compensation
Tens of thousands of disabled people across the UK wrongly deprived of benefits by the Department for Work and Pensions could share in compensation potentially totalling about £150m after an appeal court ruling, my colleague Patrick Butler reports.
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland and first minister designate, has said she is “encouraged” by what she is hearing about the prospects of the UK and the EU reaching a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.
Speaking after a meeting with Micheál Martin, the Irish foreign minister and tánaiste (Irish deputy PM), in Belfast, she said:
I am very much encouraged by what we’re hearing, I think the tánaiste shares that same assessment and we want both sides to continue in earnest to get a deal, to close this out, to close it out as quickly as possible.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has restated his insistence than any solution to the Northern Ireland protocol dispute must pass the seven tests set by his party. After a meeting with Micheál Martin, the Irish foreign minister, Donaldson issued a statement saying:
This was a useful and constructive conversation. Over eighteen months ago we outlined the parameters for the way forward. We set our tests and those continue to be our yardstick for measuring any deal between the EU and UK.
There will be no restoration of the NI executive until the protocol is replaced with arrangements that unionists, as well as nationalists, can support. Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market must be restored and our constitutional arrangements must be respected.
Tonight, TalkTV is broadcasting the interview that Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, has done with Boris Johnson for her new Friday Night with Nadine show. The interview was recorded last week, and various lines have already been briefed to the media (the most interesting of which was probably Johnson’s implicit call for tax cuts). Further extracts have been released this morning, but now TalkTV is really scraping the barrel.
According to the news release, “in a rare and candid moment” Johnson told Dorries he liked spending time with his children. It says she asked him: “What’s it like being at home with the kids? Are they seeing more of dad?” And Johnson replied:
They are, yes, and it’s fantastic because you know, I’ve got a very full day … I’m doing lots of writing. Unless I specifically tell you otherwise, I’m doing stuff for Uxbridge and doing a lot of political work but, yeah, it means I can do reading to them … building things. It’s great.
Dorries does not seem to have asked which kids. If she had, perhaps we might have got a story. Johnson is known to have at least seven children, but when he was PM No 10 refused to say exactly how many children he did have, and, when asked directly, Johnson made it clear this was not something he would discuss.
Rail operators claim talks with Aslef to resolve pay dispute 'going backwards'
Steve Montgomery, the chair of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, told Sky News this morning that negotiations with Aslef are “going backwards” and “the talks have not moved on as quickly as we’d like”. He said:
We all understand that we want to give our staff a pay increase, [it’s] naturally important, particularly in these economic climates.
But drivers’ average wages are £60,000 at this moment. We are offering up to £65,000 over two years. That’s quite a significant increase for people.
Montgomery said he thought the RDG was closer to a deal with the RMT union.
Aslef leader suggests rail strikes could continue for years if drivers don't get proper pay rise
As my colleague Gwyn Topham reports, almost no trains are running in England today because of a strike by members of Aslef, the rail drivers’ union.
This morning Mick Whelan, the Aslef general secretary, suggested the strikes could go on for years if his members failed to get a decent pay rise. He told LBC this morning that his members had not had a pay rise for four years. Asked how long the strikes might continue, he replied:
I think we’re in this for the long haul. How long is a piece of string?
If we don’t get a pay rise for four years will it be five, will it be six, will it be seven?
Will it be stupid to stop this now then restart it some time in the future, because you’d lose any impetus that you’ve gained?
Home Office shelves plans to house asylum seekers in Southport Pontins
The Home Office has reportedly abandoned plans to house asylum seekers in a Pontins holiday park in north-west England, my colleague Jamie Grierson reports.
As mentioned earlier, Dominic Raab also features in a front page story in the Times - albeit one that is more problematic for Rishi Sunak and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary. In their story, Henry Zeffman and Chris Smyth say Case was told of a written complaint about Raab’s treatment of officials when he was justice secretary, before Sunak reappointed him to that role.
This is serious because, although Sunak and No 10 have not denied that concerns about Raab’s behaviour were raised informally before Sunak put him in his cabinet, they have insisted that Sunak was not aware of any “formal” complaints,
In their story, Zeffman and Smyth say:
Officials have told Adam Tolley, the KC leading an inquiry into Raab’s conduct, that they believe No 10 was aware of a written complaint last summer. A group of mid-ranking civil servants at the MoJ [Ministry of Justice] complained in March last year that Raab had created a “perverse culture of fear”, with officials visiting their GPs over stress.
An official closely involved in the complaint told The Times: “A formal complaint was made in March. Nobody said that it wasn’t a formal complaint, or that it wasn’t submitted in the right way or using the right template. That just never happened. It was treated formally at the time. Obviously – it was really serious stuff.”
Dominic Raab denies being abusive towards anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller
Good morning. And apologies for the late start.
The old Alastair Campbell rule about how a minister has to resign if a scandal keeps making the front pages for seven days in a row (or 10, or 11, or 13 – no one seems to know for sure the exact number, including Campbell himself) is starting to look ominous for Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister. The online-only Independent has splashed on a new allegation against him from the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.
Miller’s article is a beefed-up version of a claim she made on Twitter early yesterday morning. She claims that when she appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme with Raab in 2016 to debate Brexit, he was abusive towards her, describing her as a rich woman trying to block the will of the people. She claims that she got the better of him by exposing the fact that he had not read her legal case (arguing that parliament had to approve the decision to trigger article 50).
She goes on:
As we made our way out of the studio, the young runner showed us to the lift and said he would meet us downstairs. As the doors closed, Raab stared at me and said: “I can’t make up my mind if you’re naive, got too much money or just stupid. Just because you have deep pockets and friends in high legal places you think you can just go to court to stop the will of the people.”
I was stunned and stayed quiet.
Miller says Raab then lost his temper with a young BBC employee because no car had been organised to take him away. She goes on:
Raab was aggressive and intimidating, and I was bullied and demeaned. This was an aggressive male expressing seemingly misogynistic behaviour. This sort of behaviour is not acceptable from anyone, especially not from a powerful, influential politician.
Raab has denied these claims. A source close to him said:
These are baseless and malicious claims, timed to jump on a political bandwagon and give Gina Miller the publicity she craves.
Raab is also on the front of the Times. More on that soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: MPs debate private members’ bills.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
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