Scottish Tories urge party to review £10m Hester donation – UK politics live

Key events

Starmer says Hester also said Abbott should be shot. How low would he have to stoop before Sunak handed back the money.

Sunak says the “gentleman” has apologised. And he says Angela Rayner talked about the Tories being scum, David Lammy compared them to Nazi, and John McDonnell talked about lynching a Tory MP.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

The man bankrolling the prime minister also said that the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington should be shot.

How low would he have to sink, what racist, woman-hating threat of violence would he have to make before the prime minister plucked up the courage to hand back the £10m that he’s taken from him?

And Sunak replied:

As I said, the gentleman apologised genuinely for his comments and that remorse should be accepted.

But he talks about language, he might want to reflect on the double standards of his deputy leader calling her opponents scum, his shadow foreign secretary comparing Conservatives to Nazis and the man that he wanted to make chancellor talking about lynching a female minister.

His silence on that speaks volumes.

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Updated at 08.33 EDT

Sunak resists calls to return Frank Hester’s cash despite saying Tory donor’s Diane Abbott comments were racist

Keir Starmer starts with a tribute to Tommy McAvoy, the former Labour whip who has died. And he praises Theresa May for serving the Commons “with a real sense of duty”.

Is the PM proud to be bankrolled by someone saying Diane Abbottt “makes you want to hate all black woman”.

Sunak says these comments were wrong and racist, and Frank Hester has expressed remorse.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

Is the prime minister proud to be bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynistic language when he says the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington [Diane Abbott] ‘makes you want to hate all black women?’

And Sunak replied:

The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist, he has rightly apologised for them and that remorse should be accepted.

There is no place for racism in Britain, and the government I lead is living proof of that.

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Updated at 08.55 EDT

Tobias Ellwood (Con) asks Sunak to back a plan for an award to recognise NHS service.

Sunak says the honours system recognises NHS staff, and many NHS organisations have their own award systems. But Ellwood will get a ministerial meeting to discuss this further.

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Afzal Khan (Lab) says despite much criticism from experts, the govenrment is going to widen the definition of extremism. He says Tory Mps have been peddling conspirary theories on this. Will Sunak instead get his own house in order, and accept the agreed definition of Islamophobia.

Sunak urges Khan to wait for the plan. He says extremism must be tackled. And, on conspiracy theories, he says Khan should consider Labour’s candidate in Rochdale.

Sunak told to take Islamophobia seriously and ‘get his own house in order’ – videoShare

Updated at 11.34 EDT

Rishi Sunak starts by saying the Post Office IT scandal is one of the greatest miscarriage of justice scandals in UK history. Legislation to address this is being published today.

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After PMQs there is an urgent question and a statement.

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

PMQs Photograph: HoCShareRishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs

Rishi Sunak will be taking PMQs at 12pm. With Lee Anderson defecting to Reform UK on Monday, the row about Frank Hester dominating the news yesterday and today, and both stories leading to allegations about Sunak being over tolerant of racism, it is likely to be an even more rowdy session than usual.

Rishi Sunak leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs. Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/APShareLabour says Home Office proposal to pay failed asylum seekers to go to Rwanda shows current plan won’t work

People whose application for asylum gets turned down will be offered thousands of pounds to encourage them to move to Rwanda under a new voluntary scheme drawn up by ministers, Aubrey Allegretti and Matt Dathan are reporting in the Times.

In their story Allegretti and Dathan report:

The new agreement is designed to remove tens of thousands of migrants who have no right to stay in the UK but cannot be returned to their home country.

Under plans backed by No 10, migrants could instead opt to be sent to Rwanda, which the UK government deems a safe third country.

It will utilise the existing structures under the scheme agreed with Rwanda, which has been stalled by legal challenges since it was announced in April 2022 …

Under the voluntary returns schemes, [failed asylum seekers] can currently receive financial assistance worth up to £3,000 to return to their “country of origin”.

However, the new Rwanda deal is the first of its kind because it would mark the first time migrants were paid to leave the UK without going back to their country of origin.

The Home Office told the Times it was “exploring voluntary relocations for those who have no right to be here to Rwanda”. It stressed that this was in addition to the provisions in the Rwanda bill that is intended to allow people arriving in the UK on small boats to be forcibly removed to Rwanda.

But Labour said the new plan was an admission that the current Rwanda policy won’t work. Commenting on the Times story, Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, said:

Even government ministers are finally recognising that their Rwanda scheme has no chance of succeeding, so they’re resorting to paying people to go there instead.

We know from the treaty that capacity in Rwanda is very limited, so ministers should now explain what this new idea means for the scheme as it was originally conceived, and they should also make clear how many people they expect to send on this basis, and what the cost will be.

There have been so many confused briefings around the Rwanda policy that the public will be forgiven for treating this latest wheeze with a degree of scepticism.

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Updated at 07.45 EDT

A reader asks:

What news on yesterday’s Rwanda debate in the Lords ? More defeats ?

The safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill passed its third reading in the Lords last night. You can read the Hansard here. There was no vote. Peers did vote on the bill as a whole at second reading (unusually – normally they just nod it through) but a Lib Dem attempt to block the bill was defeated by 206 votes to 84.

Opposition peers outnumber the Tories, but mostly they take the view that it is their job to amend legislation, not to block bills passed by the Commons. This is also the Labour party’s view.

The bill will now go back to the Commons early next week with 10 amendments passed by the Lords. MPs will vote to take them out. A brief “ping pong” is expected, when the bill shuttles back and forth, but ultimately the Lords will back down and it is likely the bill will become law next week with all, or at least most, of the Lords amendments removed.

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