Minister defends relaxing some Russian oil sanctions with Starmer set to face PMQs grilling – UK politics live
There will be an urgent question after PMQs on the government’s decision to relax some sanctions on Russian oil. It has been tabled by Andrew
There will be an urgent question after PMQs on the government’s decision to relax some sanctions on Russian oil. It has been tabled by Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary. Minister rules out mandatory price caps on supermarket food items - but does not deny voluntary measures being discussed Minister to respond to urgent question on some sanctions on Russian oil being lifted Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question. There will be an urgent question after PMQs on the government’s decision to relax some sanctions on Russian oil. It has been tabled by Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary. Sam Blewett at Politico has taken an in-depth look at the team supporting Burnham. He says the key figure is Kevin Lee, director of the Greater Manchester mayor’s office, who has been advising Burnham with little break since 2010. Burnham is also widely expected to make Lucy Powell, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, his deputy prime minister. Multiple sources said that other women likely to be given top jobs include Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, and Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, who is also the co-chair of the influential soft-left Tribune group of MPs. double quotation mark Many now believe that Burnham is lining up to make Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, as his chancellor. It comes as Miliband’s special adviser was seconded to work with Burnham for the by-election campaign … “The equation cabinet ministers are making is that if they go and he wins they will get a plum job,” one senior source said. “If they don’t go and he wins, he will remember. And if they don’t go and he loses, he will remember.” double quotation mark Senior ministers are preparing visits to Makerfield amid growing expectations in Westminster that Burnham could ultimately take the Labour leadership – and with it the power to appoint the next Cabinet. Caroline Wheeler in the i says cabinet ministers are already angling for jobs in a Burnham administration. She says Allies of the prime minister also suggested that Burnham’s candidacy for the leadership could yet be scuppered if Labour goes on to lose control of Greater Manchester. Some Starmer loyalists argue that Labour losing the mayoralty would fatally undermine Burnham’s appeal as an election winner. Sources close to Starmer argued that Burnham would be unable to take over as prime minister until November, after the mayoral by-election that will be triggered if he is elected MP for Makerfield next month. They told The State of It, the political podcast from The Times and Sunday Times, that there were still significant obstacles ahead for Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who on Tuesday refused to rule out breaking Labour’s manifesto pledge against tax rises. double quotation mark Ministers familiar with Starmer’s thinking say he has no plans to step down before the Labour Party conference in September and is unlikely to relinquish office before Christmas. Patrick Maguire, Geraldine Scott and Larisa Brown in the Times say Starmer could stay in Downing Street until early next year. They report double quotation mark Starmer and his remaining loyal cabinet ministers want to make every day that they are still in office count, and are determined to cut through the noise of the leadership drama. Many cabinet ministers, who may not survive long in their posts if Starmer is replaced as Prime Minister, are desperate to set a legacy and bank achievements in their briefs while they can. “Let’s get out there and make the case for what we’re doing,” has been Starmer’s message to colleagues. There is even a fleeting hope inside Downing Street that the leadership speculation “burns itself out”, that “Wes and Andy tearing chunks out of each other for weeks might just make Keir look better”. But even many loyalists accept that is wishful thinking. “The writing is on the wall, even if we don’t know exactly what form that takes yet,” one concludes. Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman says an insider describes the atmosphere in No 10 now as “very, very odd”.
She says Here are some of the stories out today covering Starmer, Burnham and Streeting. Labour is in a curious, transitional state at the moment. Officially Keir Starmer is committed to staying as leader and prime minister until the next election. There is no formal leadership contest underway. But, informally, it has already started, with Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting already setting out their offer to the Labour membership. We will hear more from Streeting this afternoon. But much of the parliamentary party is already working on the basis that a Burnham premiership is all-but-inevitable, and so Streeting’s interventions may turn out to be more about shoring up his position in a potential future Burnham administration than a rehearsal for an election that may never happen. John Swinney being sworn in as first minister at the court of session in Edinburgh this morning. John Swinney has been sworn in as first minister of Scotland for the second time, the Press Association reports. Swinney went to the court of session this morning where he was sworn in to the role by Scotland’s most senior judge – the Lord President. He left the court just after 10am, flanked by his wife Elizabeth and teenage son Matthew. Speaking on LBC, he also said that he thought the supermarket sector was “highly competitive” and the profiteering was generally a problem in businesses that were not competitive. double quotation mark It’s right that the government looks across the board at what more we can do - both government levers but also talking to industry about the steps that they can take to support people with the cost of living. But, when it was put to him on the Today programme that voluntary price caps had been discussed, he replied Tomlinson insisted that there would no mandatory cap on food prices (as proposed by the SNP in Scotland). As the Guardian and others have reported, the government has raised the idea of a voluntary cap in discussions with supermarkets. Dan Tomlinson, the Treasury minister, has said the government would not force supermarkets to impose compulsory price caps on food items. Rather than introduce 1970s style price controls and trying to force retailers to sell goods at a loss, the government must focus on how it will reduce the public policy costs which are pushing up food prices in the first place. double quotation mark The UK has the most affordable grocery prices in Western Europe thanks to the fierce competition between supermarkets. And, as the BBC reports, Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said Rose, who is also a Tory peer, said that while supermarket profits may have gone up, “that’s because sales will have gone up because the business is efficient and it is attracting more customers, and therefore, it is doing the job that it should do – i.e. capitalism does work and customers get great choice.” double quotation mark I think the whole idea is the stuff of nonsense and it will never fly. In an interview on the Today programme, Stuart Rose, a former chair at Marks & Spencer and at Asda, said Business leaders have joined the Conservatives (see 8.55am) in attacking the government’s proposal for supermarkets to voluntarily impose price caps on some food items. Rachel Reeves is preparing to announce a planning shake-up that would fast-track clean energy and infrastructure projects by curbing judicial reviews, the Treasury has said. Lauren Almeida has the story. And that’s why this time-limited change has been announced by the government. And at the same time, to take responsible choices that prioritise, rightly as we should, the domestic security, the family finances here in the UK, and the ability for important products to be available not just for holidays but for international movement of freight and goods and business activity as well. I think it is entirely possible, and plausible, and as in fact what the government is doing, to have one of the strongest sanction regimes in the world, to be leading the international effort to support Ukraine, and to make sure that Vladimir Putin doesn’t get what he wants from his things.
On the Today programme, asked why the government was putting keeping down the cost of flights abroad above the need to support Ukraine, he replied Dan Tomlinson, a Treasury minister, defended the government’s decision to relax some sanctions on Russian oil in interviews this morning. He also insisted the move would be time-limited. Russian oil is not the solution to cost of living pressures or the headwinds facing businesses. Yesterday Labour voted against our domestic oil and gas industry in Parliament. They must immediately change course and stop trying to shut down the North Sea. The British Government should not be in a position where it relaxes sanctions on Russian energy or helps to strengthen Putin’s energy revenues. Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, has also been posting on social media about the government’s decision to relax some sanctions on Russian oil. She says double quotation mark This proposal is complicated … because they’ve got some proposals where they’re tightening the sanctions at the same time, so it’s a package, and it only came up late last night. We will look at it. We’re really, really worried if there’s any undermining of our support for Ukraine. Davey said the Lib Dems wanted to consider the proposal in detail. But we’ve also got to remember that we need to support our Ukrainian allies, they are fighting and paying a heavy, heavy price to beat that appalling Russian invasion, they’re on the front line of our defence and security, and the question is, has the government got that trade off right? double quotation mark The government has a real challenge here, because this appalling war in Iran … is pushing up the cost of living, is pushing up diesel and petrol prices. But he has not condemned the announcement outright – unlike Kemi Badenoch, who argues it shows the government’s refusal to allow new drilling for oil in the North Sea is “insane”. (See 8.55am.) Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said his party will look in detail at the plans to relax sanctions on some Russian oil products and has concerns about support for Ukraine being undermined. Britain’s second most senior diplomat in Washington, who stood in as interim ambassador after the sacking of Peter Mandelson, has abruptly left his post, Ben Quinn reports. 3h ago 08.55 BST Starmer to face Commons grilling at PMQs as Streeting plans resignation speech Good morning. PMQs is back, and there are at least two obvious issues for Kemi Badenoch to raise when she faces Keir Starmer. What Tories calls Starmer’s “Soviet-style” plan to curb supermarket prices As Sarah Butler, Mark Sweney and Heather Stewart report, UK supermarkets have been asked by the government to consider freezing the prices of some essential foodstuffs to protect the public from inflation fuelled by the Middle East conflict. This is not the same as the SNP’s proposal for mandatory price caps on essential food items in supermarkets. The UK government is looking at some sort of voluntary scheme. On the Today programme, Dan Tomlinson, a Treasury minister, did not deny the story, but he stressed that this was “not a government announcement”, just a story about what ministers might be looking at. He said it was right for ministers to consider ideas that could help people with the cost of living. This is unlikely to impress Badenoch. This is what her shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, said about the story last night. double quotation mark This is more nuts than a squirrel convention! I warned Rachel Reeves prices would go up if she raised taxes and drowned employers in red tape. She didn’t listen and now she’s proposing Soviet style measures! What Tories call Starmer’s “insane” energy policy Last night the government announced that it is relaxing sanctions on Russian oil that has been refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries. The technical details of the announcement are here. This morning Badenoch claimed this showed that the government’s refusal to allow new drilling in the North Sea was “insane”. double quotation mark After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.
Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences. We are now importing from Russia instead of drilling in the North Sea. Insane. It is not just the Tories attacking the government over this. In an interview with the Today programme this morning, Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said people in Ukraine felt “very let down” by this. She said double quotation mark We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support. They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down. Thornberry said Ukrainians view sanctions as vital because “they believe that every bit of joint pressure they make with their allies is pushing Russia ever closer to ending the war because this is absolutely crippling their economy”. She went on double quotation mark There was a G7 announcement on the 19 May which said that they, the G7, had an unwavering commitment to put pressure on Russia including sanctions on the energy sector and actions against entities in third countries that materially support Russia’s war effort but we’re still saying that we’re going to take sanctioned oil but so long as it goes to Turkey first and then it’s refined, we will use it. After PMQs, Wes Streeting will give a resignation speech in the Commons. He is taking advantage of the convention that allows a cabinet minister who has resigned to make a “personal statement” in the Commons before the main debate of the day starts. Streeting resigned last week saying he no longer had confidence in Starmer as PM. He did not launch a leadership bid, but he has ambitions for the top job and we are likely to get some indication as to what his manifesto for the Labour leadership would be were he to be a candidate in a contest later this year. Here is the agenda for the day. 9.30am: Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister chairing the government review into young people and work, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee on youth employment. Morning: John Swinney is sworn in as Scotland’s first minister at the court of session in Edinburgh. Then he will appoint his cabinet, with announcements due before the end of the day. Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. 12.50pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to take part in a Q&A at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor and Labour candidate in the Makerfield byelection, is also due to speak at the event at various meetings. Afternoon: Wes Streeting is due to give a speech in the Commons following his resignation as health secretary. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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