Speaker’s office defends Hoyle’s decision not to call Diane Abbott at PMQs – UK politics live

Abbott says Hoyle was not serving Commons or democracy when he failed to let her ask question at PMQs

Diane Abbott has posted a message on X saying Sir Lindsay Hoyle was not serving the interests of the Commons or democracy by not calling her to ask a question today at PMQs.

I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.

She has also posted a message on X saying this tweet, from my colleague Owen Jones, is true.

Keir Starmer approached Diane Abbott, conversation overhead went like this:

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do”

“You could restore the whip”

“I understand just let me know if there’s anything..”

“Restore the whip”

“I understand”

Abbott is currently suspended from the parliamentary Labour party because of a letter she wrote to the Observer almost a year ago that suggested that antisemitism wasn’t as serious as the racism suffered by black people, and that it was more akin to prejudice.

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Key events

Afternoon summary

The refusal of @CommonsSpeaker to call you at #PMQs, has just compounded the appallingly racist and threatening comments of #Tory donor

Rishi Sunak leaving Downing Street ahead of PMQs. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PAShare

Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden has joined calls for West Midlands mayor Andy Street to confirm whether he has benefited from donations made by Frank Hester to the Conservative party, after he said earlier today he would have personally returned the donations Hester has made to the party. (See 10.53am.) McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, said:

Now that Mr Street had said the Tories should return the £10m donated by Frank Hester, the question is whether any of this money has made it to Mr Street’s own campaign.

Our understanding is that over £2m for Mr Street’s campaign came via Conservative central office. You can’t have a situation where the mayor says the money should be returned and at the same time it’s paying for leaflets and digital advertising in the West Midlands.

That means it is important that the sources of Mr Street’s campaign finance are clarified now in order to show that none of the money came from Mr Hester, even indirectly.

ShareLib Dems says government should publish their contingency plan for possible collapse of Thames Water

The Liberal Democrats want the government to publish their contingency plan in case Thames Water gets taken into administration. After Rishi Sunak refused at PMQs to say he was sure the firm would still exist at the end of the year (see 12.30pm), the Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney said:

The prime minister’s refusal to say if Thames Water will exist by the end of the year will reassure nobody they are not about to fall into special administration. The public therefore has a right to know what ministers plan to do should this happen.

This Conservative government’s continual refusal to make their contingency plan in the event of Thames Water’s collapse public is now clearly amounting to a cover up.

For too long, water companies have been allowed to get away with pumping raw sewage into our waterways whilst Conservative ministers have refused to take action. It is time they cracked down on these polluting giants and put an end to this disgusting practice.

ShareCommons procedure committee snubs Hoyle’s request for review of rules at centre of Gaza debate debacle

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, is not having a great day. As Kiran Stacey reports, he is facing strong criticism over his failure to call Diane Abbott at PMQs.

He has also today received a snub from the Commons procedure committee, in a matter relating to his decision last month to ignore the Commons procedural rulebook and to a vote on the Labour amendment to the SNP’s Gaza ceasefire motion.

At the time Hoyle said he was breaking with precedent because he wanted MPs “to consider the widest possible range of options”. He said the rule that would normally have blocked a vote on the Labour amendment, standing order 31, was “outdated” and he said he would ask the procedure committee to review it.

In a letter published today, Karen Bradley, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said that its members had considered Hoyle’s request and were turning him down. She said they had decided that they could not do an inquiry without “an in-depth examination” of the events surrounding the Gaza debate, and that that was beyond their remit.

She also implied the problems were caused by Hoyle’s decision “to break with precedent”. As far as the committee was concerned, standing order 31 was still valid, she said.

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Updated at 13.19 EDT

Why Diane Abbott didn’t get called at PMQs

A reader asks:

The Speaker’s statement at 1415 – has anyone pointed out to the Speaker’s office that he managed to call 6 Tory MPs not on the order paper? Why if Abbott sits as an independent was she forced to wait he turn behind Labour MPs?

At PMQs, and during other question sessions, the speaker alternates between calling a government MP and an opposition MPs.

The order paper (see 11.58am) lists MPs who have won the right to ask a question in the ballot. If two government MPs follow each other on the list, the speaker won’t call one after the other, and will choose an opposition MP (not on the list) to fill the gap, so the government/opposition/government etc order does not get disrupted. Likewise if there are two opposition MPs on the list one after another.

Today, out of 15 MPs on the list, 11 of them were from opposition parties. That explains why the speaker called so many Tories not on the list.

There is also an understanding that, as Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey gets a question every six weeks or so. Today he got one. That took up another opposition slot.

Looking at the order paper, there were only two slots for opposition MPs not on the list: in the gap between Richard Graham and Will Quince, and in the gap between Quince and Miriam Cates. The first gap disappeared because Graham filled the gap between Keir Starmer and Stephen Flynn. Davey filled the second gap.

Also, they ran out of time. The speaker did not even reach the final names on the list.

So Sir Lindsay Hoyle has has good grounds for saying he could not called Diane Abbott. As speaker, of course, he can always bend the rules a little, and he could have allowed to session to over-run by 10 minutes or so to squeeze Abbott in at the end. John Bercow might have done that. But MPs don’t appreciate being held up when it’s time for lunch, and when Hoyle was elected speaker one of his pledges was to ensure PMQs finishes promptly.

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Updated at 12.26 EDT

Government to ban foreign governments from owning British newspapers, in move to halt UAE-backed bid for Telegraph

The UK government plans to introduce legislation that would prevent foreign governments owning UK newspapers and magazines in a move that could scupper the planned £600m sale of the Telegraph to a UAE-backed consortium, Jane Croft reports.

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Updated at 11.38 EDT

Hunt says plan to get rid of employees’ national insurance ‘will be work of many parliaments’ and not like Liz Truss’s tax cuts

Back at the Commons Treasury committee, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said that it was wrong to compare his proposal to get rid of employees’ national insurance to Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cuts. He said the national insurance proposal was a long-term plan. “It will be the work of many parliaments,” he said. And it would only happen “when it’s affordable to do so”.

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The Department for Business and Trade has published its Post Office (Horizon system) offences bill.

In a statement to MPs, Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, said under the bill convictions of post office operators found guilty on the basis of Horizon evidence would be quashed “on the day that the new legislation is brought into force”, with the aim of it reaching the end of its journey through parliament by the summer recess.

ShareBoris Johnson ‘largely absent’ early in Covid crisis, Welsh leader tells inquiry

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, has launched a scathing attack on the UK government’s handling of the Covid crisis but admitted his own administration should have taken “more stringent action” sooner as the pandemic swept the world. Steven Morris has the story.

ShareAbbott says Hoyle was not serving Commons or democracy when he failed to let her ask question at PMQs

Diane Abbott has posted a message on X saying Sir Lindsay Hoyle was not serving the interests of the Commons or democracy by not calling her to ask a question today at PMQs.

I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.

She has also posted a message on X saying this tweet, from my colleague Owen Jones, is true.

Keir Starmer approached Diane Abbott, conversation overhead went like this:

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do”

“You could restore the whip”

“I understand just let me know if there’s anything..”

“Restore the whip”

“I understand”

Abbott is currently suspended from the parliamentary Labour party because of a letter she wrote to the Observer almost a year ago that suggested that antisemitism wasn’t as serious as the racism suffered by black people, and that it was more akin to prejudice.

ShareHunt claims getting rid of national insurance would not require cuts to NHS or pensions.

Back at the Treasury committee, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, insists that the Tories’ long-term commitment to get rid of employees’ national insurance could be achieved without cuts to the NHS or pensions. At PMQs today, Keir Starmer insisted that policy would require cuts like that. (See 1.28am.)

Hunt says when he announced the proposal, he was explicit about how it would be be funded by cuts to public services or borrowing.

ShareNo 10 says it delayed calling Hester’s comments racist to allow time for ‘proper right of reply’

Downing Street has defended its decision to wait until late yesterday to describe Frank Hester’s comments about Diane Abbott as racist on the grounds it wanted to give the businessman time for a proper right of reply.

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, asked why it took so long to accept the comments were racist, the PM’s spokesperson said “it was right to give someone a proper right of reply” after “very serious allegations” were made.

No 10 only issued its updated statement after Hester himself issued a statement yesterday afternoon in which he did not deny saying the words attributed to him.

The PM’s spokesperson insisted today that Hester’s comments about Abbott remained “unverified” – even though Hester has not denied saying them. The spokesperson also declined to say whether No 10 has contacted Hester to ask him whether or not he made those comments.

The PM’s press secretary, who deals with party political matters, said the Conservatives would not be returning the £10m given by Hester because he has apologised – but would not comment on whether a future donation from him might be accepted.

ShareHunt says Hester’s comments about Abbott ‘despicable’ – but says he does not deserve to be ‘cancelled’

At the Treasury committee Labour’s Angela Eagle is asking the questions now.

Q: Were Frank Hester’s comments rude or racist?

Hunt says it was “a despicable comment that should not have been made”. He says Hester has apologised.

Q: He has only apologised for being rude. Should he apologise for being racist?

Hunt says Hester has apologised for his comment, which he says he believes was racist.

Q: If you were Tory treasurer, would you return the £10m?

Hunt says:

I don’t believe that someone should be cancelled for a comment they made in the past and for which they have apologised.

But that does not make the comments any less despicable and I don’t defend them.

Hunt says Tory donor’s remarks were racist but defends party taking money – videoShare

Updated at 12.25 EDT

Hunt says getting debt as proportion of GDP down to pre-pandemic levels will be ‘long and difficult journey’

Q: Is it realistic to think that Britain will ever see a sustained reduction in debt as a proportion of GDP, taking it to pre-pandemic levels?

Hunt says it will be “a long and difficult journey”, but that “it’s right that we try”.

ShareHunt says Treasury did not leak news about 2p national insurance cut in budget

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has just started giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

Harriett Baldwin, the Conservative chair, put it to him that he cannot have been happy to see the news that he was cutting national insurance by 2p in the pound in the papers beforehand.

Hunt said he was not happy about that. “It wasn’t an intentional leak,” he said.

But he said it was getting “very difficult” to stop leaks.

He said journalists would ring up the Treasury saying they would run a story about a budget measure unless it was explicitly denied. The Treasury does not like to reply, he said. So journalists take a gamble, he said.

He said some of the reports said a measure would be in the budget before the final decision had been taken.

Asked what budget measures had been pre-briefed by the Treasury, Hunt said none of the “principal measures” were leaked in advance.

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Updated at 11.41 EDT

Speaker’s office defends Hoyle’s decision not to call Diane Abbott at PMQs

A spokesperson for Sir Lindsay Hoyle has defended the speaker’s decision not to call Diane Abbott at PMQs. (See 12.46pm) The spokesperson said:

During prime minister’s questions, the speaker must select MPs from either side of the house on an alternating basis for fairness.

This takes place within a limited timeframe, with the chair prioritising members who are already listed on the order paper.

This week – as is often the case – there was not enough time to call all members who wanted to ask a question.

ShareScottish Tories urge UK party based in London to ‘review’ donations from Hester

The Scottish Conservative party has urged the UK party based in London to “review” its decision to take money from Frank Hester.

After the Scottish Labour party challenged the Scottish Tories to say if they had ever received money from Hester, a spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives said:

These comments were racist and wrong.

The Scottish Conservative Party has never accepted a donation from Frank Hester and the UK Conservative Party should carefully review the donations it has received from Hester in response to his remarks.

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