Joe Bedell-Brill

In his first major interview in Downing Street, the Prime Minister told Laura Kuenssberg that his government had to do ‘difficult things now’ in order to bring about change. Starmer’s plan to take away winter fuel allowances from most pensioners has drawn criticism, and he faces a potential rebellion in parliament next week over the decision. Starmer claimed the Tories had ‘run away from difficult decisions’, and said he was ‘determined’ to deliver change. The Prime Minister admitted he was ‘worried’ about the rise of the far right, and said ‘delivery in government’ was the only way to tackle the ‘snake oil of the easy answer’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Chancellor Reeves adamant she will ‘make sure the sums add up’ Rachel Reeves gave an interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning in which she emphasised the ‘mess’ she says the Conservatives have left behind, and restated that Labour would not spend outside of its fiscal rules. Kuenssberg asked the Chancellor whether she would be prepared to ignore the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies, which have called for a public sector pay rise of 5.5 per cent. Reeves would not confirm the government’s position, but accepted that ‘there is a cost to not settling’ public sector pay disputes, implying she might be open to above-inflation pay increases. What is Labour doing for the poorest in the country?

Today’s British news is dominated by Donald Trump narrowly escaped with his life after an attempted assassination at his rally in Pennsylvania. Images of the aftermath show Trump being escorted away with a bloodied ear, as one spectator was killed and two others are in critical condition. Secret service agents shot and killed the gunman, whom the FBI has identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. On Sky News this morning, journalist Tom Newton Dunn, who was present at the rally, gave his account to Trevor Phillips. Newton Dunn said that it took a few seconds before the crowd realised they were hearing high velocity rounds, and ‘that’s when the terror struck in’.  He described a lot of anger after the incident, with some men ‘blaming Joe Biden, blaming CNN’.

A betting scandal surrounding the election date has led to more controversy for Rishi Sunak this week, with multiple Conservatives being investigated by the Gambling Commission following unusual betting patterns. This morning it is reported that the Tories’ chief data officer, Nick Mason, is part of the inquiry. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Home Secretary James Cleverly if this was an example of his party’s ‘moral decay’. Cleverly said he would ‘not in any way defend people who placed bets on that’, but that he could not discuss details while the investigation was ongoing. He added he ‘had no reason to believe,’ any of his cabinet colleagues were involved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Wes Streeting: ‘Do not give the matches back to the arsonist’ On Sky News this morning, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested there could be greater spending increases than promised in Labour’s manifesto, ‘if the conditions allow’, but said Labour wouldn’t ‘make promises we can’t keep’. Trevor Phillips argued that Labour’s manifesto doesn’t amount to real change, but Streeting accused him of a ‘wall of cynicism’, and called the Conservative manifesto ‘Liz Truss’s mini-budget on steroids’.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUMyiS3QWU Mark Harper: ‘We’ve got a strong record’ Laura Kuenssberg asked Transport Secretary Mark Harper why Conservative candidates and their election material are avoiding using official branding.

Grant Shapps ‘angry’ about infected blood scandal The final report on the infected blood scandal will be published on Monday. The scandal is the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history, with more than 30,000 infected with HIV and Hepatitis C between 1970 and 1991. On Sky News, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps agreed with Trevor Phillips that the scandal was ‘one of the most shameful failures of government in our lifetime’. Shapps said he hadn’t seen the report, but was ‘angry’ at the lack of responsibility over a period of decades. He agreed that compensation has taken far too long to arrive, and said the government would make a statement quickly after the report is out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Natalie Elphicke’s dramatic defection to Labour had already caused some controversy this week, with many in Labour feeling she should not have been welcome given her history on the right of the Tory party. Now there could be more trouble for Keir Starmer after the Sunday Times reported that Elphicke may have lobbied Justice Secretary Robert Buckland over her husband’s forthcoming trial on sexual assault charges in 2020. Speaking to Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth on the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked if Elphicke should be investigated. Ashworth told Kuenssberg he ‘wasn’t there’ at the meeting in 2020, but said that Elphicke insisted the allegations were ‘nonsense’. He also asked why the justice secretary had never mentioned the incident before.

The Tories are expected to lose around half their councillors in the upcoming local elections on 4 May. Trevor Phillips interviewed the prime minister on Sky News, asking him whether a general election could take place as early as July. A frustrated and bullish Sunak claimed he did not get distracted by his diminished approval ratings, and repeatedly refused to confirm or deny the possibility of a July general election, telling Phillips: ‘you’re going to try and draw whatever conclusion you want from what I say’.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwdJTVZumvM Conservative defector Dan Poulter: Tories now resemble a ‘nationalist party’ The Conservatives suffered another humiliation this week after MP Dr Dan Poulter quit his party to join Labour.

Conflict in the Middle East entered a new dangerous phase on Saturday night, as Iran launched over 300 drones and missiles against Israel, its first direct military attack against the country after years of shadow warfare. On the BBC this morning, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told Laura Kuenssberg this was an ‘incredibly significant attack’. She confirmed that British military planes were operating in the region as part of pre-existing missions, although could not clarify whether British planes had taken part in shooting down missiles and drones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Dowden: UK position on arms sales to Israel ‘has not changed’ Israel and Hamas are expected to hold a new round of ceasefire negotiations in Cairo today, at a time when Israel is under more pressure than ever before to pause the conflict. An IDF strike on an aid convoy which killed seven aid workers, including three Britons, led to Foreign Secretary David Cameron telling Israel that British support was ‘not unconditional’. This week there have been calls for the UK to suspend arms exports to Israel. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said this morning on Sky News that the UK has ‘one of the toughest arms export systems’, based on legal advice.

Jeremy Hunt: Russian government creating a ‘smokescreen of propaganda’ On Friday night, a terrorist attack at a large concert in Moscow led to at least 133 deaths. Russian officials vowed revenge and suggested Ukrainian involvement, despite Islamic State claiming responsibility. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Jeremy Hunt how much Russia’s version of events could be believed. The Chancellor said it was always a tragedy when innocent people lost their lives, but that the UK had ‘very little confidence in anything the Russian government says’. He suggested they were creating a ‘smokescreen of propaganda’ to justify their invasion of Ukraine.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has been clear that Labour will stick to the same fiscal rules as the Tories if elected, and also that they don’t want to raise taxes. Laura Kuenssberg asked Reeves to confirm that this might mean Labour would be forced to make cuts to some public services. Reeves said that the finances a Labour government will inherit would be ‘the worst since the second world war’, but would not confirm that Labour would make spending cuts. She promised an ‘initial injection of cash’ into public services, and said Labour would do a spending review quickly if elected. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Jeremy Hunt: Budget will be ‘prudent and responsible’ Ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave an interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in which he tried to manage expectations regarding potential tax cuts. Without mentioning any specific details, he said the ‘most unconservative’ thing he could do would be to lower taxes by borrowing more. However, Hunt did hint there might be some form of cut, arguing that the economies growing fastest globally are those with lower taxes, and suggesting he wanted to ‘show a path in that direction’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmQXXSYhA3Y Will Hunt ‘steal’ Labour’s non-dom tax policy?

Lee Anderson was stripped of the Tory whip yestereday after refusing to apologise for remarks in which he claimed ‘Islamists’ had ‘control of Khan, and… control of London’. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said ‘words matter’, and that Sunak was right to take action. However, Dowden was uncomfortable when asked repeatedly to state whether he himself thought Anderson’s comments were Islamophobic, saying only that ‘they could be taken in that way’. Dowden suggested that Anderson would have kept his job if he had apologised for his comments, and was keen to turn the focus onto concern over a rise in anti-Semitism in the country.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning, Illegal Migration Minister Michael Tomlinson joined the foreign secretary in stating that Putin was responsible for the death of his most prominent critic Alexei Navalny. Tomlinson said Navalny’s ‘courage knew no bounds’. Phillips asked what more the UK could do in response to Putin. Tomlinson described the UK’s previous sanctions as ‘robust’. He said it was important to continue supporting Ukraine, and that Foreign Secretary David Cameron was considering the ‘appropriate next steps’. Putin remaining in power will mean ‘more warmongering’ Laura Kuenssberg spoke to Evgenia Kara-Murza, whose husband is also imprisoned in Russia for opposing the Ukraine war.

In an interview with the Times this week, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove suggested that the country’s broken housing market could cause young people to lose faith in democracy. This morning, Laura Kuenssberg showed Gove a variety of statistics emphasising the worsening of the problem since the Conservatives came to power, and asked him who was responsible. Gove suggested there were ‘a variety of factors that have driven the challenges we face’. He claimed the government was taking action, and promised that Section 21, which allows tenants to be evicted without reason, would be scrapped by the next election.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?