PMQs: Rishi Sunak faces questions from Keir Starmer over house building targets and mortgage support – UK politics live

In his Commons statement Steve Barclay, the health secretary, also said that a national inquiry into the safety of mental health care settings would be launched in the autumn.

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A new health services safety investigations body will be set up later this year, and the Department of Health and Social Care said it would “commence a national investigation into mental health inpatient care settings. It will investigate a range of issues, including how young people with mental health needs can be better cared for, how providers can learn from tragic deaths that take place in their care, how out-of-area placements are handled, and how staffing models can be improved.”

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Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has told MPs that the Essex mental health independent inquiry will be given statutory powers.

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The inquiry is investigating the deaths of around 2,000 mental health patients at Essex Partnership university NHS foundation trust (Eput) over a 20-year period. Making it statutory will mean staff can be compelled to give evidence.

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Barclay said he was responding to concerns about the lack of engagement with the inquiry from current and former Eput staff.

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Time is running out to enact wholesale changes to ensure Britain’s electoral system keeps pace with advances in artificial intelligence before the next general election, regulators fear. Ben Quinn has the story here.

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There was an urgent question in the Commons after PMQs about the crisis at Thames Water. Rebecca Pow, the environment minister, was responding, and she told MPs there was “a lot of work going on behind the scenes with Thames Water to ensure that cutomers will not be impacted”.

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Graeme Wearden has full details on his business live blog.

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Downing Street has refused to say whether or not Rishi Sunak thinks Daniel Korski is a suitable candidate to be Tory candidate for mayor of London in the light of the groping allegation against him. At the post-PMQs briefing, asked about this, the PM’s press secretary said:

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n

As you know there are three candidates and the prime minister does not endorse any single one candidate.

n

Obviously these allegations are very serious. They are allegations that have obviously been denied by Daniel Korski himself. They should be handled in the proper way.

n

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Asked if Sunak believed Daisy Goodwin, who says she was groped by Korski 10 years ago, the press secretary replied:

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n

I’m not going to get into ‘he said, she said’. The two parties are telling different stories, the proper processes should be followed and conclusions shouldn’t be drawn on until the processes are followed through.

n

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The press secretary also said the vetting of mayoral candidates was a matter for the Conservative party.

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This morning Lisa Nandy gave a speech intended to position Labour, very firmly, as the party of home ownership. (See 10.59am.) It was the prelude to PMQs, where Keir Starmer’s script was crafted to drive home the same point. He taunted Sunak over a Tory byelection leaflet criticising plans to build 300,000 homes (despite this being government policy), and then hung him on a hook with an unanswerable question (would he admit that the target will be missed?). Then, in his fourth question, Starmer set up the key message.

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n

You can tell from his answer … his body language, he has actually given up. He has given up. And his failure isn’t just shuttering the dream of those who desperately want to own their own home, it’s also hitting those who already have a mortgage. Because of their economic chaos, mortgage holders will be £2,900 a year poorer. How can they ever look the British people in the eye again, and claim to be the party of home ownership?

n

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And Starmer pressed home his point as he started his fifth question. “At least he isn’t claiming they are the party of home ownership any more, because we are.”

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This was Starmer’s payload, although to many people the line about Sunak having “given up” will ring true, or at least partly, because the PM did sound more than usually defensive, and deflated, as he responded today. He made a series of claims about the government’s housing record, but politicians never get much credit for what has gone before even if their record stands up (and, on housing, the Conservatives’ doesn’t much). At PMQs the PM ideally needs something a bit stronger – a new announcement, or a popular policy that the opposition, for its own internal reasons, won’t support. Today Sunak sounded like someone running out of ammo.

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In those circumstances, the only option is to go negative. At the weekend the Sunday Times carried a fascinating account of a briefing to Tory MPs by the American pollster Frank Luntz that included this snippet.

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n

Luntz is also said to have made clear that the Conservatives, after Partygate and Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, are so badly damaged that their only way to victory at the next election is to wage a negative campaign. A general election must be held by January 2025, but is expected next year.

n

One MP said: “Luntz said: ‘You guys won’t have a positive message that anybody will believe.’ He effectively said that we will have to convince voters that Labour is worse.”

n

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Today Sunak deployed two negative attack lines, accusing Starmer of inconsistency and hypocrisy. Here was the inconsistency one:

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n

I would say to [Labour MPs], though, they don’t have to worry too much because he has never actually kept a promise he has made.

n

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Sunak often makes this point, and there is some truth in it; Starmer has shifted a lot on policy in his three years as leader. But it is not decisive as an argument because Sunak has been inconsistent too, and the Conservative party has had three leaders since the election who have been anything but consistent.

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Sunak was on stronger ground when he accused Labour of hypocrisy, listing members of the shadow cabinet guilty of alleged nimbyism.

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n

He now claims that he supports housebuilding, especially on the green belt. But unfortunately for him, the shadow deputy prime minister, the shadow minister for women, the shadow health, justice, defence, business, Northern Ireland and Scotland ministers are all united against more housebuilding in their areas.

n

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But this does not quite clinch the argument either, because people understand that MPs have to take a stance on local issues, and that supporting more housebuilding does not have to mean supporting every housing application in the whole country. What matters is the stance of the party as a whole. In this respect, on housebuilding, Starmer is winning.

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PMQs is coming up soon.

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Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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This afternoon the House of Lords will start the report stage debate of the illegal migration bill. Peers have already spent six days debating other stages of the bill, but the report stage debates are the most important ones because this is when amendments get put to a vote.

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This morning the Equality and Human Rights Commission has put out a new statement saying it remains “seriously concerned” about the potential impact of the bill on human rights and on the safety of migrants. A spokesperson said:

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n

We remain seriously concerned about the potential implications of the illegal migration bill on human rights and the safety of individuals.

n

Careful consideration should continue to be given to the impact of the bill on different groups with protected characteristics – including children, pregnant women, disabled people, torture survivors, and victims of trafficking.

n

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The EHRC (a government quango, not an independent charity) is also encouraging peers to vote for amendments that would insert fresh human rights protections into the bill. It explains why it thinks these amendments are needed in a lengthy briefing note.

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Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, has been speaking at the Housing 23 conference in Manchester. She did not announce anything specific, but in terms of “vibes” not policy, it was significant; it planted Labour very, very fimrly on the side of home owners, and first time buyers.

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Here are the key points from her speech and Q&A.

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n

• Nandy said there was nothing “Tory” about Labour wanting to be the party of home ownership. Referring to Keir Starmer’s plan to get home ownership levels up to 70% (it was 63% in England towards the end of the last decade), she said:

n

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n

Frankly I was astonished by the reaction of some people in my own party who said this was Tory lite.

n

They argued home ownership and social housing were a zero sum game and we were making the wrong choice.

n

To those people I say you couldn’t be more wrong.

n

The biggest and most consequential divide in Britain today is between the people and the communities who have assets – and those who don’t.

n

If you want people to have real resilience in their lives, they need the assets that sustain them and help them weather hard times, and offer choices and chances when times are good – like your own home or the child savings funds set up by the last Labour government.

n

And they need common assets, like council housing which provides a secure home for life, handed back to be used for future generations.

n

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n

• She defended the “right to buy” (council homes), saying it was originally a Labour idea and that it only went wrong under Margaret Thatcher because the proceeds were not used to build more homes. She said:

n

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n

The right to buy – whose abolition has come to be a totemic issue for many on the left – was originally a Labour policy.

n

It was the decision of the Thatcher government to fail to replace the council housing stock that was sold, pitting the rights of the individual against the rights of the community.

n

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In the Q&A, she also said she did not want to suspend right to buy.

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Asked if the party would back a temporary suspension (Corbyn era policy), Nandy says: “We're not proposing to take away the right of people to access their own assets. In fact, we want to do the opposite. We want to extend asset ownership, wealth ownership to more people.”

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 28, 2023

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Peter Apps, deputy editor of Inside Housing (who recently won the Orwell prize for his brilliant, brilliant book Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen), thinks Nandy’s argument on this – that she supports right to buy, but not the loss of council or social housing – is incoherent.

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You can't hold both of these positions, and saying you can is not being honest with voters. One literally is the other. pic.twitter.com/BAK9kkctFt

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 28, 2023

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Of course, Labour, like the Conservatives in 2012, are promising to replace all the homes sold. I hope they have a better success, because the scoreboard since then currently reads 107,000 sold, 37,000 replacements started – which are smaller and largely not for social rent

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 28, 2023

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n

• Nandy said Labour would “tilt the balance” in housing towards first time buyers. She said:

n

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n

We will tilt the balance of power back to first time buyers and use the power of the state to help them make the leap into home ownership.

n

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n

• She signalled that Labour was opposed to rent controls. She said:

n

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n

When housebuilding is falling off a cliff and buy to let landlords are leaving the market, rent controls that cut rents for some, will almost certainly leave others homeless.

n

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n

• But she also said Labour would give more power to tenants. She said:

n

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n

We’ll make it our mission to hand power back to tenants in the private rented sector and end the feudal system of leasehold which has left millions trapped.

n

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n

• She attacked Conservative housing policy on the grounds that it marked a shift “from bricks to benefits”. She explained:

n

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n

The last decade has been defined by a shift from ‘bricks to benefits’.

n

The government now spends 10 times more on housing benefit than on creating affordable homes.

n

And while the costs of housing benefit and subsidies for first-time buyers mount up, year on year we fail to build the homes we need.

n

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n

• She also criticised Tory housing policy on the grounds that it did not do enough to promote competition. She said:

n

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n

After the war the health and housing minister Nye Bevan concluded that only by bringing in councils to plan the housing that developers would deliver could they fulfil the promise to a generation returning from war.

n

He would be shocked by our housing system today – ad hoc, piecemeal – desperately lacking a plan.

n

But imagine too what Adam Smith, the founding father of modern Conservatism would have made of a market that creates no incentive for competition, innovation or quality?

n

A broken market and an absent state is the worst of all worlds. A state of affairs as fundamentally anathema to the Conservative tradition as it is socialism.

n

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n

• She said Labour’s plan to build more on the green belt would focus on “poor quality” green belt land. She explained:

n

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n

We will take on the taboo that prevents us being honest about what the green belt is and what it isn’t.

n

Because for all the yelping from Number 10 since we announced this plan, it is successive Tory governments that have presided over the loss of large tracts of high-quality green belt, the nature-rich greenfield land which protects the character of local communities.

n

We will instead release poor-quality ex-industrial land and dilapidated, neglected scrubland to build more housing. So we see no more examples like the affordable housing development in Tottenham that was frustrated because a disused petrol station was technically designated as green belt land.

n

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n

• She said there would be further announcements about Labour’s plans for social housing in the coming months.

n

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Specialists are carrying out urgent checks on almost 600 schools in England identified as being at possible risk of structural collapse because of crumbling concrete, with many more not aware of the danger of their buildings, according to a report from the National Audit Office. My colleague Sally Weale has the story.

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Commenting on the report, Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, told the Today programme this morning the risk was “very serious”. He explained:

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n

It’s particularly focused on these lightweight concrete buildings, and there’s a similar issue in hospitals actually, but in the case of schools 65 of these schools have been positively identified, there’s a large number more that are still being investigated. Out of those 65, 24 have had urgent action taken immediately – including closure, in some cases.

n

So this isn’t a theoretical risk. It’s a real risk. And clearly, it’s important that the department and government as a whole brings that down below critical level where it currently sits.

n

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Contingency plans for the collapse of Thames Water are reportedly being drawn up by the UK government and the water watchdog, amid fears that Britain’s biggest water company cannot survive because of its huge debt pile, Julia Kollewe and Graeme Wearden report.

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Claire Coutinho, the education minister, was giving interviews on behalf of the government this morning. In the past she has praised Daniel Korski’s “clear vision for London”, but this morning she said her support for him was “on pause” given the allegations against him. She said:

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n

I would say I’d be on pause at the moment because lots of things are happening.

n

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Asked to confirm she was suspending her support, she said:

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n

Yes, because I think we need to see what’s happened.

n

But, at the same time, this is an allegation. He’s roundly denied it.

n

If there is a complaint in the system, it needs to be followed up swiftly so we can find the facts and see what’s happened, but I do think it’s a very serious and concerning allegation.

n

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Good morning. When the Conservative party announced the names of the three people on the shortlist to be their candidate for London mayor next year, they got minimal media coverage. The best known candidate, Paul Scully, the minister for London, was off the list, and the three people still in the contest were relatively obscure. “Furious London Tories fear low-wattage mayor shortlist looks like surrender” was the headline on our (very good) analysis by Peter Walker and Pippa Crerar.

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But the contest has now become headline news after Daniel Korski, a policy adviser in No 10 when David Cameron was PM, was accused by Daisy Goodwin, a TV producer, of groping her in Downing Street 10 years ago. Korski has strongly denied the allegation.

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Goodwin named Korksi in an article in the Times. This morning she gave her first broadcast interview since writing that piece, and it will increase pressure on Korski to withdraw from the contest.

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n

• Goodwin suggested that other women might come forward with allegations about Korski. She told the Today programme:

n

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n

Since I wrote my piece, I have been contacted by other women with some very interesting stories, which clearly I can’t talk about for legal reasons. But I feel entirely justified in having written the piece and naming him.

n

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The Today programme said it put this to Korski’s team, and they said he welcomed any investigation into what he had done. They also stressed that he had categorically denied Goodwin’s allegation.

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n

• Goodwin firmly rejected a suggestion that she might have misinterpreted what happend. Asked by Martha Kearney if there had been any ambiguity about what happened, Goodwin replied:

n

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n

I’m really surprised you’re asking me that, Martha. Yes, it happened to me 10 years ago, but when something like this happens to you, you know that it happened to you because you were there, you felt it, you felt amazed, shocked and rather humiliated. To ask me if I’m certain is to as me if I’m making it up. That’s not the case.

n

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When it was put to her that Korski had denied it categorically, Goodwin replied:

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n

Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he. If he had come forward and said, ‘Oh, I’m really sorry, something like this, I might have inadvertently touched her’, that would be a different story. But the fact that he has categorically denied it is, to me, bizarre.

n

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n

• She said she tried yesterday to make an official complaint about this – but did not have much luck. She said she called No 10 yesterday and eventually got through to someone who said they could not take a message. Then she emailed the Cabinet Office, and she received an out-of-office message with a note about who to contact in an emergency. She did not get a reply until the Times ran a story saying she was submitting a complaint, and then an official did get in touch, she said.

n

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Here is the agenda for the day.

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Morning: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, holds a meeting with regulators to discuss what they can do to keep prices down.

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9am: Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, gives a speech to the Housing 23 conference in Manchester.

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9am: Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, takes part in an LBC phone-in.

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12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

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After 3.30pm: Peers begin the report stage debate on the illegal migration bill.

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If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often 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 in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.

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Key events