Downing Street rejects suggestions that NHS staff payrise agreed before ‘higher’ rate offered to doctors is unfair – UK politics live

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Downing Street has declined to say whether a formal invitation has been extended to Mohammed bin Salman.

“We wouldn’t get into invites for foreign leaders,” said Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson, adding details of such visits would be “set out in the normal way”.

They added that the prime minister’s position on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was that it was “a terrible crime” and Saudi Arabia “must ensure such an atrocity can never happen again”, potingint to the sanction of 20 Saudi nationals who were said to be involved in the murder.

However, pressed on whether the order to kill Khashoggi came from the top of the regime, Sunak’s spokesman said: “I haven’t asked him that question directly. I think the government’s position on this has been set out for some time and hasn’t changed.”

With a general election approaching, some Conservative ministers fear they won’t just be out of government in 18 months’ time but ejected from the House of Commons altogether.

With that in mind, and talk of a reshuffle next Friday growing, some admit privately they have signalled a desire to move to the backbenches. Doing so allows them to start running the clock down on the up to two-year ban that can be imposed on taking up a private sector job after leaving Whitehall.

Whispers about plans by Rishi Sunak to reorganise his top team have percolated through the corridors of parliament for weeks, but senior Tories are now bracing for the axe to start swinging in seven days.

The prime minister has rejected suggestions that it was unfair for ministers to have agreed a 5% pay rise with more than 1 million NHS staff before offering a higher baseline increase to doctors.

PA reports:

Downing Street said it was “wrong” to look at only headline pay rise figures, arguing that one-off bonus payments made to staff on Agenda for Change contracts (AfC) meant their increase in earnings had actually been worth more than a 6% rise.

Part of the deal struck between ministers and health unions in May saw around 1.3 million eligible staff on the AfC contract – which includes nurses, paramedics, 999 call handlers, midwives, security guards and cleaners – receive a 5% pay rise, backdated to April.

As part of the same deal, those eligible have also started receiving a one-off payment for last year and a so-called NHS backlog bonus for this year, worth between ?1,250 and ?1,600 depending on an employee’s pay band.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced he was accepting the recommendation of independent pay bodies for a 6% rise for consultants, along with the same award for England’s striking junior doctors, who are also being offered an additional consolidated ?1,250 increase.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) branded ministers’ approach as “highly cavalier” and said the pay award to nurses was “unfair and inadequate”.

General secretary Pat Cullen said: “The prime minister will have to explain to over a million outraged NHS workers why they are getting the lowest pay rise in the public sector.

“Record numbers of jobs in the NHS are unfilled and the government cannot expect to turn that around when it appears not to value them.

“Inflation is not coming down in the way ministers told NHS staff and others it would. For nursing staff, the pay rise they actually rejected is worth increasingly little and being eclipsed now by announcements for other professions.”

While more than 100,000 nurses – about 84% who took part in the poll – are said to have voted to continue strikes over pay, the ballot last month fell short of the requirement for the majority of union members to turn out.

Downing Street said nurses on AfC contracts were seeing uplifts in pay that went beyond the 5% headline figure.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “When it comes to the Agenda for Change deal, it would be wrong to look at just the 5% figure because they received a significant non-consolidated award worth between 3.5% and 8.2% of their basic pay.

“Through the Agenda for Change deal, we’ve put more money into the pockets of healthcare workers this year than would have been the case with a 6% consolidated rise.”

He said the lowest paid AfC staff had seen a pay increase of more than 20% since 2021-22, with nurses ?5,000 better off over the past two years.

Treasury minister John Glen told MPs on Thursday that the previously agreed deal was worth more than ?3,600 for the average nurse or more than ?3,700 for the average ambulance worker.

Rishi Sunak’s spokesman also highlighted that nurses had received pay rises when other public sector workers had not in order to reward them for their frontline efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He added: “We think that is a fair offer, both to recognise the hard work of healthcare workers and for taxpayers.

“Unions, including the RCN, recommended it to their members, and the (NHS) Staff Council supported that, so we think it is the right deal for the workforce.”

A high court judge has ruled that two councils and a local resident can proceed with a legal challenge to the government about whether or not it is lawful to place thousands of asylum seekers on two military bases.

West Lindsey district council is challenging the plans to move people into the RAF Scampton site in Lincolnshire, while Braintree district council and a local man, Gabriel Clarke-Holland, are bringing a case over moves to Wethersfield airbase in north Essex, where the Home Office started placing asylum seekers on Wednesday.

A high court challenge earlier this week sought permission for judicial review of this issue. The two councils and Clarke-Holland brought the case against the home secretary and the levelling up secretary.

Fifteen grounds were brought forward and three were granted on Friday, including permitted development planning grounds, and equality impact grounds.

The first 46 asylum seekers who arrived at Wethersfield on Wednesday were brought from a processing facility in Kent over the weekend after crossing to the UK in small boats.

MP Angus MacNeil has had his membership of the SNP suspended after he refused to rejoin the party’s Westminster group.

MacNeil, who has often voiced criticism of the SNP leadership, was kicked out of the Westminster group for a week after reportedly clashing with the chief whip, Brendan O’Hara, PA reported.

The MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) later said he would not seek to rejoin the group until at least October, accusing the party of a lack of urgency on its goal of Scottish independence.

He said the Scottish government was “utterly clueless about how to pursue independence” since losing the Indyref2 case at the supreme court.

MacNeil has now been administratively suspended while the party’s member conduct committee considers his decline of the offer to re-join.

An SNP spokesperson said:

Angus MacNeil MP was advised by the SNP national secretary on Wednesday that she considered him to be in breach of the party’s code of conduct by his decision to resign from the SNP Westminster parliamentary group.

Having acknowledged this, Mr MacNeil did not take up the offer to rejoin the SNP parliamentary group and the matter was, therefore, yesterday referred to the SNP member conduct committee for consideration.

MacNeil has represented the constituency since 2005.

Bailiffs raided the Environment Agency yesterday, the Guardian has learned, with staff having to leave for the day.

Details about the turmoil at the quango’s Bristol headquarters, Horizon House, are scarce, but the EA has confirmed it happened.

The agency told the Guardian that no assets were seized, and it will be the subject of further legal action by the EA today.

Anyone with more information about this do get in touch at helena.horton@guardian.co.uk.

Downing Street said it hoped junior doctors and consultants in England would consider the pay rises offered as it confirmed there will not be further talks on wage increases.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters:

We would hope that junior doctors and consultants – on around ?120,000 a year – will look at the offer again today and speak to their unions and consider whether it is appropriate for it to keep disrupting patient care in the way they are doing, in light of junior doctors on average (being offered an) 8.8% pay increase and consultants a 6% pay increase.

And consultants, of course, are some of the best-paid public sector workers – and indeed public or private sector workers.

So it is for them to consider whether it is appropriate. Our position is clear: we have accepted the independently decided recommendation of the pay review body.

We are more than happy to talk about wider workforce issues but we won’t be having further talks on pay.

Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said junior doctors were being offered “one of the biggest pay increases across the whole public sector” and that the lowest paid in their ranks were being offered a 10.3% uplift in their pay as part of the package.

“And that is on top of their pension contributions, which are far and above those in the private sector,” the No 10 official added.

Rail passengers are being warned of disruption to services next week because of fresh industrial action by train drivers and other workers in long running disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will strike on 20, 22 and 29 July, while drivers in Aslef will ban overtime from 17 to 22 July, PA reported.

RMT members including station staff, train managers and catering staff will be involved in the action.

Passengers were advised to check their travel arrangements in advance as the level of service will vary across the country.

The strike action at 14 train companies will see wide variations of services across the country with trains due to start later and finish much earlier than usual.

In some areas, only around half of train services will run, while others will have no services at all.

Evening services on some lines are likely to be affected on the days before each strike and on the mornings after the action.

The overtime ban by drivers in Aslef on 14 train companies will affect train services between 17 and 22 July.

A parliamentary committee is renewing an inquiry into sexism and misogyny in the City after a spate of sexual harassment allegations rocked the business world.

MPs on the influential Treasury committee said the new inquiry would examine the barriers faced by women in financial services, and determine whether meaningful progress had been made since its last investigation in 2018 raised concerns over the gender pay gap, stigmas against working mothers, and an “alpha male” culture.

It will also explore what kind of role City firms, the government and regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority should play in “combating sexual harassment and misogyny”.

The inquiry comes after two scandals that have raised serious concerns about abuse and harassment against women in business.

Earlier this year the Guardian revealed multiple claims of sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry, which prompted a string of companies to terminate their membership, including Aviva, NatWest, John Lewis and BMW.

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been invited to the UK on an official visit in late autumn, the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident.

Numerous UK ministers have been to Saudi Arabia in the interim, and senior Saudi ministers have also come to the UK, including the foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

Prince Mohammed also spent nearly a week in Paris last month meeting the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and attending a climate finance summit.

News of the UK visit, first revealed by the Financial Times, comes as Saudi Arabia tries to end the war in Yemen, and has opened up diplomatic relations with Iran.

The US is seeking to persuade Saudi Arabia to also normalise diplomatic relations with Israel, but Riyadh, unlike its Gulf Arab allies the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is resisting until there is progress on the Palestinian issue.

Rishi Sunak must uphold his ?11.6bn climate finance commitment, conservative parliamentarians, including the former net zero tsar, have said.

Writing to the prime minister in a cross-party letter, they say recommitting to the target and clearly demonstrating how it would be met would “avoid doing further damage to the UK’s climate leadership, and help to build a safe and more prosperous future”.

Chris Skidmore, the MP who authored the government’s net zero review, is among 51 parliamentarians, including four Tories, who have written to the prime minister urging him not to let down developing countries.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, who also signed the letter, told the Guardian:

The government’s commitment to ?11.6bn in climate finance isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ – it’s an absolutely critical part of the global effort to tackle the accelerating climate emergency, and a solemn promise to the international community that cannot simply be abandoned on a whim.

It must be new and additional money, too. Giving with one hand and taking with another, by diverting cash from an already depleted aid budget, won’t help those on the frontline of this crisis. Any backsliding on this commitment would leave any remaining semblance of the UK’s global climate leadership in tatters.

In case you missed it earlier, a senior cabinet minister has urged health unions to take the government’s pay offer “seriously”, after union leaders said the proposed deal would drive doctors out of the profession and could lead to further strikes.

Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, defended the offer of a 6% pay rise for junior doctors, a day after the government accepted the recommendations of the public sector pay review bodies.

Keegan said the pay review bodies had taken into account how much money would be needed to recruit and retain NHS staff without adding to the UK’s stubbornly high inflation rate.

The British Medical Association however called the offer “a huge missed opportunity”, while the Royal College of Nursing said it highlighted the unfairness of the separate offer to nurses of 5% plus a one-off payment.

Rishi Sunak continues to trail Keir Starmer in the polls as his personal favourability rating slides further into negative territory.

The prime minister’s net favourability rating has fallen to -21, according to a poll published by Ipsos UK on Friday, with 47% of people saying they had an unfavourable view of him, PA reported.

The figures are Sunak’s worst since he quit as chancellor in July 2022, helping topple Boris Johnson, when Ipsos found 50% of people had an unfavourable view of him.

The poll, carried out between 30 June and 3 July, found Labour leader Starmer’s ratings had improved slightly over the past month, with 32% saying they had a favourable view of him and 39% saying they had an unfavourable one.

There was more bad news for Sunak when Ipsos asked about the qualities people look for in a prime minister.

On the factors people said were most important to them, Sunak received overwhelmingly negative ratings while impressions of Starmer were more mixed.

Half of the 1,000 people polled by Ipsos said they had a negative view of Mr Sunak’s policies for dealing with the cost of living and his understanding of the problems facing people in Britain.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that ministers were not planning to make further compromises, after peers pressed for further changes to the Illegal Migration Bill.

Members of the Lords want further concessions on limits to the detention of children, modern slavery protections and the provision of safe and legal routes for refugees to the UK.

The Lords inflicted a string of fresh defeats on the government this week over the much-criticised Bill, which ministers insist is integral to efforts to tackle small boats crossings in the Channel, PA reported.

It means the continuation of the parliamentary tussle over the bill, known as ping-pong, where the legislation is batted between the Lords and Commons, until agreement is reached.

The Commons had overturned a raft of earlier revisions by the unelected chamber, despite rebellions by Tory MPs concerned about the flagship reforms.

But Jenrick told the BBC that critics of the Bill had not put forward any “credible alternative”, adding:

It’s incumbent on those who choose to criticise our approach to provide an alternative.

It’s not a serious or grown-up way to conduct a debate to say, ‘well we have concerns about Rwanda’, ‘we don’t like the compliant environment’ – ‘We don’t want this, we don’t want to’, but not to come up with an alternative.”

The bill now heads back to the Commons where MPs will consider the latest changes made by peers.

Around 950 workers at Gatwick airport will take eight days of strike action beginning later this month in a dispute over pay.

Unite said that members who carry out roles including baggage handling and check-in would strike. There are employed by ASC, Menzies Aviation, GGS and DHL Services.

The workers will strike initially for four days beginning on Friday 28 July ending on Tuesday 1 August. Then a further four days from Friday 4 August until Tuesday 8 August.

The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said:

Our members at Gatwick airport undertake incredibly demanding roles and are essential to keeping the airport and airlines working, yet their employers somehow think it is acceptable to pay them a pittance.

As part of Unite’s unyielding focus on the jobs, pay and condition of its members, the union has drawn a line in the sand and is committed to eradicating the scourge of low pay at the airport.

Pupil absences are at “crisis” level, the education secretary has said, as she endorsed headteachers driving children to school if necessary.

Gillian Keegan told Sky News that headteachers had a “duty” to get children to school.

Figures released earlier this year showed that about 125,000 pupils last year were severely absent, effectively meaning they were absent more often than they were in classrooms, PA Media reported.

Keegan, who rejected the suggestion that the government did not have a grip on the problem, was asked about examples of headteachers driving to children’s homes to pick them up and bring them to school.

“They have a duty,” she said. “We all have to play our part.

“I have a number of headteachers who work with me on policy and sometimes you just have to do that – sometimes you have to go or you have to text the parent in the morning … you do whatever is possible.”

Pressed on whether that was a good use of headteachers’ time, Keegan said:

It is a good use to have all kids in school.

That’s not what we want headteachers doing all of their days. But to be honest, right now, if that works to get somebody in school, it’s worth it.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan also said this morning that the government would honour the 6.5% pay rise offered to teachers into the long term.

She told Times Radio that the process of ensuring the pay cost could be covered and paid for without affecting frontline budgets had been “tricky” and “hard”.

She also rejected suggestions that the prime minister had caved in to union demands, adding:

No, I think Rishi has shown great leadership.

It isn’t easy to do, and what you have to do is try and set expectations, to make sure people have reasonable expectations.

Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog.

We start the day with comments made by the education secretary urging the British Medical Association (BMA) to accept the recommended pay offer to public sector workers.

The chair of the BMA’s UK council said Rishi Sunak’s pay increase offer “fails to address” years of below-inflation pay deals. Prof Phil Banfield added that the government’s offer “is exactly why so many doctors are feeling they have no option but to take industrial action”.

But this morning Gillian Keegan said the organisation is being “unreasonable” and called on junior doctors to “look at” the 6% pay offer.

She told LBC radio:

Their starting position is an unreasonable position. We all understand there’s been inflation and there’s been a huge spike in inflation. And that’s impacting all of us.

That’s why the main goal is to halve inflation. You can’t chase it. I would urge them to take the same approach as everybody else actually.

Keegan also told Sky News:

I would urge the BMA, the independent pay review bodies have done a very thorough analysis and they look at rates of recruitment, retention, they look at all the other sort of professions or similar professions so they do a very thorough job.