Boris Johnson news: PM accused of ‘spectacular’ failure on climate change, as David Cameron rejects summit role offer
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Boris Johnson has been accused of “failing so spectacularly to measure up to the scale of the climate crisis” by Jeremy Corbyn amid confusion over the UK’s preparations for the crucial COP26 climate summit.
Former PM David Cameron turned down an offer to head up the summit after Claire Perry O’Neill was sacked last week, leaving no-one in charge of the gathering in Glasgow. Mr Corbyn suggested ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband would be “suitable”.
Elsewhere, culture secretary Baroness Morgan has denied a review into licence fee evasion was an “attack on the BBC”. And Labour’s Diane Abbott has been criticised for claiming former speaker John Bercow’s alleged bullying of an ex-military officer was “unlikely”.
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PM dodges question over Russia report
SNP MP Owen Thompson asks when the top-secret report into Russian interference in UK elections will be published.
Johnson says it will be published when the intelligence and security committee is reformed and claims that conspiracy theorists will be disappointed by its conclusions.
PMQs analysis
That's it for PMQs this week. You can watch snap analysis of the clash by our political commentators John Rentoul and Andrew Grice on Facebook.
Boris Johnson launching 'unprecedented' attack on BBC, says former director-general
A former head of the BBC has accused the government of mounting an "unprecedented" attack on the public broadcaster in a clash over plans for a review into the licence fee.
Lord Birt, a former director general, challenged Nicky Morgan at a speech in London, where she launched an eight-week consultation into whether failure to pay annual £154.50 charge should be a criminal offence.
People who refuse to pay face fines of up to £1,000, criminal convictions and even imprisonment - although only five people went to prison for failing to pay in 2018.
Emily Thornberry vows to requisition empty homes if she becomes Labour leader
The shadow foreign secretary said people who do not use flats would lose them if they cannot justify leaving the property vacant.
Speaking on BBC Two's Victoria Derbyshire, she said: "If you leave a flat empty and you're not using it then you will lose it...They would need to justify why it's been empty for the amount of time that it has.
"But if you're leaving a flat empty for years - which if you go down the Thames, there are all of these developments, all of these big blocks of flats and you go down there at night - none of them have got the lights on. They are all empty."
Asked if she would take private properties off people, Ms Thornberry replied: "Yes. Because they are not being used and because we have a housing crisis.
"We've got people sleeping on the streets, we've got homeless families in bed and breakfasts - it's not right."
The shadow cabinet minister said she owns three houses - including one she bought for her mother, and another that her brother lives in, as well as her own home.
The frontbencher is the only one of the four candidates yet to make it on to the ballot paper in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
Her rivals - Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy - have all received the required support to make it through to the final stage of the contest.
Picture - Danny Lawson/PA Wire/PA Images
‘Staggeringly disrespectful’: Backlash builds over Diane Abbott’s bullying comment
More now on the remark made earlier by shadow home secretary Diane Abbott on the bullying allegations against John Bercow.
The Labour MP has been branded “ridiculous” for suggesting it was “unlikely” former military commander (and Commons official) David Leakey could have been a victim of bullying by the former speaker. Abbott cited Leakey’s service in Germany Northern Ireland and Bosnia.
Her comments have sparked a backlash, including from Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union for senior civil servants. “What a ridiculous comment from an experienced MP, demonstrating blind political partisanship and a complete failure to understand how power is abused in the workplace.”
Isabel Hardman, assistant editor of The Spectator, wrote: “This is staggeringly disrespectful to all victims of abuse and coercion.”
‘Why aren’t we talking about some kind of subscription service?’
Pundits and politicians have been arguing about the future of the BBC on … the BBC.
“The BBC and its structure may not be fit for purpose anymore” said The Spectator’s Kate Andrews on the BBC’s Politics Live. “In the age of Netflix and Amazon, maybe things need to change … Why aren’t we talking about some kind of subscription service?”
But Labour MP Yvette Cooper offered a staunch defence of the public broadcaster. “The risk is people are going to end up undermining [the BBC] … and ten years down the line we’ll think, ‘God, we had an amazing BBC and what did we do to lose it?’.”
PM says deportation must go ahead
More now on the planned deportation of dozens of Caribbean nationals, raised by Labour MPs at PMQs today.
Next week’s flight to Jamaica – revealed by The Independent and the first since the Windrush scandal erupted – was condemned in the Commons with calls for the prime minister to step in to stop it.
Boris Johnson has vowed that the deportation will go ahead, despite evidence that a claim that they are all “serious criminals” is untrue. Johnson told MPs: “The people of this country will think it is right to send back foreign national offenders.”
Labour MP Nadia Whittome protested that the new charter flight was taking place before the ‘lessons learned’ review of the Windrush affair had even been published.
Her colleague Dawn Butler, the shadow secretary for women and equalities, raised the case of one man set to be on the deportation flight with a serious heart problem. “His wife feels that this stress is going to kill her husband.”
More details here:
Jeremy Corbyn suggests Ed Miliband for climate summit job
The official spokesman for the current Labour leader said former leader Ed Miliband would be a good choice to chair the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow this November.
“Ed Miliband is certainly someone who has a strong record and would be an entirely suitable person,” Corbyn’s spokesman said.
“The issue is not exactly who should take on the role, but that it's somebody with credibility. The performance we have seen in the last day or two over this subject is just a reflection of the fact that Boris Johnson is not serious about the climate crisis.”
Labour MP says fury over off-the-shoulder dress ‘everyday sexism’
Tracy Brabin has responded to the “absurd” criticism she received after wearing an off-the-shoulder dress in the Commons.
On Wednesday, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen told ITV’s Lorraine: “It is quite extraordinary … it’s a privilege I have that I have the confidence to brush it off, given my role, and I thought it was really important I replied because lots of women around the country, around the world, don't have that opportunity to push back against those people that patronise them.
“Basically, it’s everyday sexism. I’ve been trying to call it out, that there’s more going on in Parliament than my shoulder.”
Incidentally, it has since been spotted that a dress similar to the one Brabin wore in parliament, which retails at £35 on Asos, is “selling fast” on the retailer’s website.
More here:
Brexit Party candidate suggests homelessness can be solved by sticking bins together
There’s been plenty of reaction on social media to a life-changing “invention” touted by a man who ran for the Brexit Party in December.
Wealthy businessman Peter Dawe, who stood for Nigel Farage’s party in Cambridge at the general election, has claimed he has created a “bin pod” for rough-sleeping homeless people – by sticking two red wheelie bins together.
He told The Mirror: “I saw on the telly rough sleepers complaining they had been kicked and p***** upon. Lying on the street in a sleeping bag, you are very vulnerable.”
Dawe added: “I was actually quite delighted … It was totally draught proof, in fact it’s storm proof. It’s really cosy, comfortable and dry.”
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