Dowden and Rayner clash at deputy PMQs as party leaders attend NHS 75th anniversary service – UK politics live

No 10 says it’s committed to cutting NHS waiting list, but cutting long waiting times takes priority

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson defended what Maria Caulfield, the health minister, said about NHS waiting lists and waiting times this morning. (See 9.15am.) Like her, he hinted that waiting times were more important than the overall number of people on the headline “waiting list”.

The spokesperson said that Rishi Sunak was committed to cutting the overall waiting list (the main benchmark on health in his five pledges), but that the initial focus was on patients waiting the longest for treatment. He said:

We are rightly focusing on those waiting the longest – so those waiting two years, 18 months and now one year, and we are making progress on all of those.

At the same time, as I think we acknowledged coming out of Covid, we knew that waiting lists would increase before they came down.

But we are committed to reducing waiting lists overall, but rightly focusing on those who have been waiting the longest.

Key events

Parliament has ‘long way to go’ on dealing with sexual harassment, No 10 says

Last night BBC’s Newsnight broadcast a report saying that sexual harassment remains rife at Westminter. It was based on evidence from six people working in parliament, including a 25-year-old woman who recalled being asked to sit on an older, male MP’s lap. Newsnight says the MP in question, whom it has not named, has been suspended over separate allegations.

Asked about the problem at the post-PMQs lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:

Parliament has a long way to go and a lot of work to do to ensure we’re not seeing these incidents taking place.

But, when asked if Rishi Sunak agreed with the SNP Mhairi Black, who said yesterday that she was standing down at the next election partly because she found the Commons “toxic” and “poisonous”, the spokesperson said:

No, not fundamentally, but we recognise some individuals have had difficult times.

No 10 insists government’s asylum policy is ‘compassionate’ in face of criticism from archbishop

Downing Street has rejected the suggestion from Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and other faith leaders that its illegal migration bill is not compassionate. (See 10.11am.) Asked about their letter in the Times today, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists:

I’m not going to get into responding to individual views of which there are many on this issue.

But the prime minister has been clear that stopping the boats, stopping the cruel cycle of vulnerable people being exploited by criminal gangs, is the fair and compassionate thing to do.

NEU teachers on a rally in central London in support of their strike action today. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesNEU teachers at their rally in London. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty ImagesNEU teachers on their rally in London, outside Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesNo 10 says it’s committed to cutting NHS waiting list, but cutting long waiting times takes priority

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson defended what Maria Caulfield, the health minister, said about NHS waiting lists and waiting times this morning. (See 9.15am.) Like her, he hinted that waiting times were more important than the overall number of people on the headline “waiting list”.

The spokesperson said that Rishi Sunak was committed to cutting the overall waiting list (the main benchmark on health in his five pledges), but that the initial focus was on patients waiting the longest for treatment. He said:

We are rightly focusing on those waiting the longest – so those waiting two years, 18 months and now one year, and we are making progress on all of those.

At the same time, as I think we acknowledged coming out of Covid, we knew that waiting lists would increase before they came down.

But we are committed to reducing waiting lists overall, but rightly focusing on those who have been waiting the longest.

PMQs – snap verdict

Many people find it hard to see the point of PMQs. With DPMQs, it is even more of a mystery. Most key decisions in government end up on the desk of the prime minister and, even if he does not say anything very revelatory in the Commons, at PMQs at least MPs and viewers get some clues as to his thinking (non-answers can tell you a lot, if you know how to interprate them properly), and make an assessment of character.

With Oliver Dowden standing it, it was a bit like listening to the minister for paperclips doing the morning broadcast round and having to field questions from Kay Burley or Nick Robinson on private thinking within No 10 on party strategy, battlefield developments in the Ukraine war, and the intricacies of pensions policy. The minister for paperclips resorts to waffle and some anodyne line to take, but as a journalist I listen knowing that I would get much more informative answers from colleagues in the office.

PMQs was a bit like that today. The speaker might have been better off suspending the sitting for an hour, and sending all the MPs off to join Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer at Westminster Abbey. From the government’s point of view, with no other strategy succeeding at the moment, at least prayer might help.

It wasn’t that Dowden was terrible (he needled Angela Rayner quite effectively at one point about her relationship with Starmer); it was just that he did not have much to say, and so largely he resorted to partisan bromides. In so far as we did learn anything from him, it was that he seems to think banging on Liam Byrne’s “no money left” note is still a winning argument.

Rayner went on housing issues, consolidating the attack line used by Starmer last week. She embarrassed Dowden with two questions that he would not fully address: whether buy-to-let mortgages are included in the mortgage support package (she was arguing that they should be, because “most renters live in homes with buy-to-let mortgages”), and whether the government will finally ban no-fault evictions. It was not a vintage performance, but she was more convincing than Dowden, and so it did the job.

There was one obvious winner today, though, and that was Mhairi Black. As usual, her two questions were spiky, but she brought the house down with a terrific retort to Dowden’s opening answer. (See 12.20pm.) Most of the jokes you hear at PMQs are pre-scripted and rehearsed. That does not necessarily stop them being funny, but spontaneous wit is more impressive and that (almost certainly) was what we heard today from Black. She triumphed.

Updated at 08.47 EDT

Cabinet Office to learn on Thursday if it has won legal challenge against Covid inquiry over WhatsApp messages disclosure order

The Cabinet Office is to learn whether it has won its legal challenge to the UK Covid-19 inquiry chair’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries, PA Media reports. PA says:

High court judges are expected to hand down their decision over the government’s judicial review of Heather Hallett’s order at 2.30pm on Thursday.

The Cabinet Office has refused to provide the documents, arguing the request is “so broad” that it is “bound to catch” a large amount of irrelevant material.

Lawyers for the department say the inquiry does not have the legal power to force ministers to release messages and records it claims cover matters “unconnected to the government’s handling of Covid”.

However, Hugo Keith KC, for the inquiry chairwoman, has said the idea that the Cabinet Office could decide which aspects were relevant “would emasculate this and future inquiries”.

And Lord Pannick KC, on behalf of the former prime minister, argued there is a “real danger” of undermining public confidence in the process if the department wins its bid.

The government took the highly unusual step of launching the challenge in June, in a move which attracted criticism after days of public wrangling between the Cabinet Office and Hallett’s probe.

The former prime minister handed over his unredacted WhatsApp messages, diaries and 24 notebooks to the Cabinet Office in late May.

Johnson himself is backing Hallett, who rejected the argument that the material was irrelevant in a May ruling, in opposing the legal challenge over the request.

Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham are expected to hand down their decision on Thursday.

Updated at 08.09 EDT

Dowden’s claim Labour policy would add £1,000 to cost of average mortgages not supported by research, MPs told

Dawn Butler (Lab) raises a point of order. She says at a previous PMQs Oliver Dowden said that Labour’s plan to spend £28bn a year on green energy plans would put an extra £1,000 on mortgages. That figure came from a Daily Mail article, that attributed it to the Treasury. But when the UK Statistics Authority looked into this, it found that this was not based on any proper Treasury analysis. She says this has been confirmed by LBC. She asks if Dowden will correct the record.

Sir Linday Hoyle, the speaker, says that ministers will have heard the point, and that he is sure Dowden will want to correct any mistake as quickly as possible.

Updated at 07.57 EDT

Sarah Jones (Lab) says Rishi Sunak behaved like a “stroppy schoolboy” at the liaison committee yesterday. He has bitten off more than he can chew.

Dowden says that was more of a rant than a question.

And that’s it. PMQs is over

John Baron (Con) says, with employment at a record high, can Dowden explain why the Labour party has such a bad record on unemployment.

Dowden says he remembers the “no money left” note left by Labour in 2010. That should never happen again, he says.

Updated at 07.41 EDT

Paul Howell (Con) welcomes Fiona Hill (the former White House Russia expert, not Theresa May’s former co-chief of staff), as chancellor of Durham University. Dowden welcomes the appointment too.