The SNP motion and the Labour amendment have been approved without any division to be voted on.

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On whether the Commons should sit in private, MPs have voted overwhelmingly no.

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The ayes was 20, the noes was 212. A majority of 192.

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MPs are now voting if the House of Commons should sit in private.

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If successful, the public galleries will be emptied and the cameras for broadcasting will be turned off.

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Conservative and SNP MPs have walked out of the Commons in protest at the Speaker earlier selecting both Labour and government amendments.

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The current situation in the Commons remains extremely chaotic and unedifying.

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The King has held his first face-to-face official duties – an audience with prime minister Rishi Sunak and a Privy Council – since being diagnosed with cancer.

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Charles met Sunak at Buckingham Palace late on Wednesday afternoon, marking the restart of their weekly encounters to discuss matters of government.

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🤝 This afternoon, The King held an Audience with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Buckingham Palace, following a meeting of the Privy Council. pic.twitter.com/zUCo3R19Rn

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) February 21, 2024

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Mordaunt also criticises the speaker for having “inserted himself into that row, and undermined the confidence in this House”.

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She also calls for “our speaker” to assure MPs that future debates “will not be hijacked in this way”.

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Mordaunt added: “I fear that this most grave matter that we’re discussing today and this afternoon has become a political row within the Labour party and that regrettably Mr Speaker has inserted himself into that row with today’s decision and undermined the confidence of this House in being able to rely on its long-established standing orders to govern its debates.”

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Mordaunt said as a result the government will play no further part in the decision in today’s proceedings in the Commons.

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This seemingly means the Labour motion will pass and there is no vote on the SNP motion.

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Turning away from the debate for a moment, the Department for Business and Trade has published a six-page note from Sarah Munby, who was permanent secretary at the department a year ago, about the conversation she had in January 2023 with Henry Staunton, then Post Office chair.

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Staunton has published his own account of the conversation which he says backs up his claim that in the conversation he was told to slow down compensation payments to vicitims of the Post Office Horizon scandal. (See 9.21am.)

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Munby, who is now permanent secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, says that Staunton has placed the wrong interpretation on his memo about what was said and that she never suggested he should delay compensation payments. She says:

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\n

It is not true that I made any instruction, either explicitly or implicitly, to Mr Staunton to in any way delay compensation payments. I did not. Neither Mr Staunton’s note, nor the contemporaneous note that my office made, suggest otherwise. In fact, no mention of delaying compensation appears in either note. I have attached both notes to this letter. I note that Mr Staunton originally said that there had been a direct instruction. Since he located the file note this seems to have moved to a suggestion of some sort of implied instruction. Such a claim is also not in any way supported by the notes and did not take place.

\n

As the notes record, we discussed Post Office operational funding, not compensation funding. These two areas of spend were separately ringfenced, and it is factually wrong to suggest that cuts to compensation would have improved the Post Office’s financial position. The two notes do not indicate I made an implied suggestion that delays should be made, or that Mr Staunton understood me to be making one.

\n

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The department says the new memo refutes the claims made by Staunton about the conversation. A government spokesperson said:

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\n

Sarah Munby’s letter sets the record straight on her exchange with Mr Staunton.

\n

Neither of the records taken at the time suggest the government – either at official or ministerial level – wanted to slow down or delay compensation payments to postmasters, as the secretary of state said on Monday.

\n

Funding for compensation is separately ringfenced expenditure, and is not accessible to the Post Office for any purpose other than compensation payments.

\n

This is a distraction from the important work to continue to deliver for postmasters, which the Business Secretary is focused on.

\n

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Some Conservative MPs are furious with the speaker over his decision to allow a vote on the Labour amendment and one of them, William Wragg, has tabled an early day motion saying the Commons has no confidence in him, Nicholas Watt from Newsnight reports.

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Repercussions from @CommonsSpeaker decision to call Labour Gaza amendment: Conservative MP William Wragg has just tabled an Early Day Motion saying: This member has no confidence in Mr Speaker

— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) February 21, 2024

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\n

Repercussions from @CommonsSpeaker decision to call Labour Gaza amendment: Conservative MP William Wragg has just tabled an Early Day Motion saying: This member has no confidence in Mr Speaker

\n

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\n

Tory MP tells me of William Wragg EDM: we don’t muck around at a time like this. We act

\n

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\n

Another Tory MP tells me: this is the moment Lyndsay Hoyle goes from being Lyndsay Hoyle to being John Bercow

\n

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And these are from Christopher Hope from GB News.

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NEW

Tories are furious that speaker Lindsay Hoyle has allowed the Labour Gaza amendment. A minister tells me for @GBNEWS: “Any last semblance of impartiality from the speakers chair is now gone. The speaker has buckled to Labour. This is a bad day for democracy and Parliament.”

— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) February 21, 2024

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\n

Tories are furious that speaker Lindsay Hoyle has allowed the Labour Gaza amendment. A minister tells me for @GBNEWS: “Any last semblance of impartiality from the speakers chair is now gone. The speaker has buckled to Labour. This is a bad day for democracy and Parliament.”

\n

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\n

Another senior Tory source says Lindsay Hoyle “has amended the constitution on a whim in a totally partisan way. It is difficult to see how he can continue (as speaker).”

\n

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Lammy says MPs are used to division, because their trade relies upon it.

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But he says, on this, MPs should rise above it.

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He urges the Commons to come together for the sake of peace.

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UPDATE: Lammy ended his speech saying:

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\n

The UK cannot advance this agenda on its own, but it can’t also sit this one out.

\n

It is time for international community to stand up, achieve an end to the fighting and a path to peace, and the UK must play its part.

\n

That’s why our amendment makes it explicit that we will not give up on a two-state solution, it makes it clear that we will work with international partners to recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to, rather than an outcome to, a two-state solution.

\n

In this house we are used to division because our trade is politics, but on this matter we must rise above it.

\n

A united parliament today can show we’re rolling up our sleeves, committing to the long, hard road to peace so that we will have made the voice of our nation heard, to influence this war, to help these tragic children of the same land to find peace in the beautiful Palestine of tomorrow and in Israel without tears, where the stones of Jerusalem shall finally be a city of peace.

\n

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In his statement at the start of the debate Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, also said the Commons should review the rules governing what amendments are allowed when MPs are debating oppositon day motions. He said:

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\n

I should tell the house that in my opinion the operation of standing order 31, which governs the way amendments to opposition day motions are dealt with, reflects an outdated approach which restricts the options [which can be put to the house]. It is my intention to ask the procedure committee to consider the operation [of the standing order].

\n

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Brendan O’Hara, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesperson, opened the debate telling MPs that Israel has “ruthlessly exploited and manipulated” the principle of self-defence to “legitimise the slaughter of innocent civilians”. He said:

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\n

No one would deny that Israel has the right to defend itself. Every country has that right.

\n

What no country has the right to do, however, is to lay siege to a civilian population, carpet bomb densely inhabited areas, drive people from their homes, erase an entire civilian infrastructure, and impose a collective punishment involving the cutting off of water, electricity, food and medicine, from civilians.

\n

And no country, regardless of who they are, in the name of self-defence can kill civilians at such a pace and on such a scale that in just 16 weeks almost 30,000 are known to have died, with a further 80,000 injured.

\n

We cannot allow the core principle of self-defence to be so ruthlessly exploited and manipulated in order to legitimise the slaughter of innocent civilians.

\n

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O’Hara said the international rule-based order was “created to protect people from atrocities, not to be used as a smokescreen to hide the execution of them”, adding: “We cannot accept that what is happening now is self-defence.”

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This is what the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, about his decision on amendments, and how the voting will work.

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\n

I think it is important on this occasion that the house is able to consider the widest possible range of options. I have therefore decided to select the amendments both in the name of the prime minister and in the name of the leader of the opposition, because the operation of standing order 31 will prevent another amendment being moved after the government has moved its amendment.

\n

I will exceptionally call the opposition frontbench spokesperson to move their amendment at the beginning of the debate.

\n

At the end of the debate the house will have an opportunity to take a decision on the official opposition amendment.

\n

If that is agreed to, there is a final question on the main motion as amended [which would be the Labour text].

\n

If the official opposition amended is not agreed to, I will call the minister to move the government amendment forward. That will engage the provisions of standing order 31, so the next vote would be on the original words in the SNP motion.

\n

If that is not agreed to, then the house will have the opportunity to vote on the government amendment.

\n

Proceeding this way will allow a vote to take place potentially on all proposals from each of the three main parties.

\n

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The 10-minute rule bill motion has been defeated, by 81 votes to 63.

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Sir Lindsay Hoyle says he second motion on the order paper will not be moved (ie, the SNP motion on green investment).

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He says he has selected both the Labour and the government amendments, because this is an issue where MPs want to consider a wide range of options.

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This is very good news for Keir Starmer, who was otherwise facing a huge revolt.

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At the post-PMQs lobby briefing Downing Street would not say when the last successful Trident missile test occurred, PA Media reports. PA says:

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The prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters that the UK government had “complete confidence” in Britain’s nuclear deterrent despite reports of a Trident missile test failure on 30 January.

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He repeated the Ministry of Defence’s explanation that there had been an “anomaly” but said, for national security reasons, he was unable to expand on what that meant. Asked how the government could offer such assurances given the last test in 2016 also resulted in a misfire, the spokesperson said: “There really isn’t much more I can add on the technical issues. The purpose of this operation was a full two-month period of exercises which successfully validated the submarine and the crew. There was this specific anomaly but we are confident that the anomaly was specific to the test and that there are no wider implications.”

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Asked when the last successful Trident missile test was, the spokesperson said: “I can’t provide any more commentary on matters of national security.”

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He said he would not comment on whether Mr Sunak wanted to see a follow-up test after last month’s failed attempt.

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Some of the pre-PMQs commentary suggested that we were in for particularly lively exchanges this afternoon. During recess last week, the UK went into recession, the Tories lost two safe seats in byelections, and Keir Starmer had to abandon another byelection candidate. Both leaders had plenty of material to hand with which they could taunt each other.

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But instead we got a much more narrowly focused exchange, covering the Post Office Horizon scandal and Kemi Badenoch’s provocative response to allegations made against the government by Henry Staunton, the Post Office chair she sacked. Starmer’s script was more restrained, and less rhetorical or condemnatory, than usual, but it was effective nonetheless, because he sought to establish whether Sunak was willing to give an unequivocal defence of what Badenoch has been saying in the row, and it turned out he wasn’t. Sunak did not quite cut her loose. But he said about the bare minimum necessary to defend her without his lack of enthusiasm becoming too obvious.

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Badenoch is favourite to be the next Tory leader after the next election and she probably does not care very much what Sunak thinks about her. But, as the subsequent exchanges made clear (see 12.33pm, 12.45pm and 12.48pm), she is collecting enemies at an extraordinary rate. This does not seem to worry those Tories who admire here, but at some point they may start to wonder whether this is a positive trait in a party leader.

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Kate Osborne (Lab) says what Sunak said about the Post Office Horizon victims was disrespectful. Without the ITV drama, the government would not be doing what it is doing now. Will the PM commit to ensuring the law to exonerate post office operators will come before the election?

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Sunak says the legislation will be brought forward ‘“very, very soon”.

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Starmer says new evidence today appears to endorse Staunton’s claim. He asks if Sunak will order an investigation into what happened.

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Sunak focuses on the victims, saying they are being paid compensation, and that an inquiry is under way.

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He says he will make sure “the truth comes to light”. But he seems to be referring to the inquiry process, not to the truth about the Badenoch/Staunton row.

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UPDATE: Starmer said:

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On Monday the business secretary also confirmed categorically that the Post Office was, and I’ll quote this in fairness to the Prime Minister, ‘at no point told to delay compensation payments by either an official or a minister from any government department, and at no point was it suggested that a delay would be of benefit to the Treasury’, so that’s Monday.

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A note released by the former Post Office chair this morning appears to directly contradict that … I appreciate the business secretary has put the prime minister in a tricky position, but will he commit to investigating this matter properly? Including whether that categorical statement was correct, and why rather than taking those accusation seriously she accused a whistleblower of lying?

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And Sunak replied:

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It is worth bearing in mind as the business secretary said on Monday, she asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised.

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Keir Starmer starts by welcoming the new Labour MPs for Wellingborough and Kingswood.

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And he also pays tribute to Alexei Navalny.

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He asks Sunak if he will repeat the claim made by Kemi Badenoch, that Henry Staunton was “lying’” when he said he was told to go slow on paying compensation.

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Sunak says the government has taken unprecedented steps to make sure victims get compensation.

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UPDATE: Starmer said:

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Would the prime minister be prepared personally to repeat the allegations made by his business secretary, that the former chair of the Post Office is lying when he says he was told to go slow on compensation for postmasters and limp to the next election?

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And Sunak replied:

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As the business secretary said on Monday, she asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised, she set out the reasons for this and the full background in the house earlier this week, but importantly we have also taken unprecedented steps to ensure that victims of the Horizon scandal do receive compensation as swiftly as possible and in full.

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PMQs is starting soon.

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Sunak leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs.”,”caption”:”Rishi Sunak leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1708516182000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”06.49 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1708516242000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”06.50 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1708516243000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.50 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.50″,”title”:”Sunak faces Starmer at PMQs”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 21 Feb 2024 16.19 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 21 Feb 2024 04.21 EST”},{“id”:”65d5e21b8f08af1eaa9cf314″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

New 20mph limits are helping cut speeds and will save lives, the Welsh government has insisted. PA Media says:

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Drivers are travelling on average 4mph slower on main roads in Wales since the rollout of a new lower speed limit for built-up areas, data collected by Transport for Wales (TfW) shows.

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The Welsh Labour government, which implemented the change in September last year, insists the lower speeds will lead to fewer collisions and people injured.

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But the change has seen fierce opposition from the Conservatives in the Senedd, who have branded it a “waste of time and resources”.

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The TfW data shows that average speeds have dropped from 28.9mph to 24.8mph since the measure was put in place.

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Research undertaken by the Transport Research Laboratory, a transport consultancy, in 2000 suggested there is an average 6% reduction in collisions with each 1mph reduction in average speed on urban roads.

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The main event in the Commons this afternoon is a debate on an SNP motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza. Yesterday Labour tabled its own, longer amendment, calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, and then the government tabled its version, calling for an “immediate humanitarian pause”.

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You can read the SNP motion, the Labour and government amendments, and a Lib Dem amendment, on the Commons order paper.

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The Labour amendment was welcomed by MPs in the party who rebelled in November last year, when Keir Starmer ordered his MPs not to vote for an SNP ceasefire amendment, and it was welcomed by the SNP. It was also more or less in line with the government’s position on Gaza (but more the David Cameron government stance than the Rish Sunak one – there are differences of emphasis).

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But it looks likely that the Labour amendment won’t be put to a vote. That is because the rules say, with opposition day debates like this, if there is a government amendment, MPs vote first on the opposition motion, and then on the government amendment. Daniel Gover, an academic specialising in parliamentary procedure, has given the best explanation of why in a thread on X.

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Commons procedure on opposition days is different to usual. This makes selection of amdts especially tricky.

If Speaker selects Labour amendment, SNP almost certainly denied chance to vote on own motion.

If selects govt amendment, Labour very likely can’t vote on theirs.

🧵

— Daniel Gover (@DanielGover) February 21, 2024

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Commons procedure on opposition days is different to usual. This makes selection of amdts especially tricky.

If Speaker selects Labour amendment, SNP almost certainly denied chance to vote on own motion.

If selects govt amendment, Labour very likely can’t vote on theirs.

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Usually, amendments to the motion are taken first, followed by a decision on the (possibly amended) motion.

On opposition days, *if there is govt amendment* the order is usually reversed: opposition motion first, followed by government amendment. pic.twitter.com/ZaILFuGWN2

— Daniel Gover (@DanielGover) February 21, 2024

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Usually, amendments to the motion are taken first, followed by a decision on the (possibly amended) motion.

On opposition days, *if there is govt amendment* the order is usually reversed: opposition motion first, followed by government amendment

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Selecting the Labour amendment would mean that the SNP would not get the chance to vote on its own motion until after Labour has (likely) amended it. This does occasionally happen, but it’s a little harsh given limited opposition time (esp for smaller parties like SNP).

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Selecting the government motion, however, is likely to mean that Labour cannot vote on its amendment.

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The standing order above states that, once a government amendment (meeting certain criteria) has been moved, the order is: (a) main question, and if rejected (b) govt amdt.

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In the past, this has been interpreted as meaning that, if a government amendment is moved, ‘it is not possible for a second amendment… to be put’.

This was from 2015, when a Labour backbencher attempted to amend a Labour opposition day motion. pic.twitter.com/HVSfK6yaPG

— Daniel Gover (@DanielGover) February 21, 2024

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In the past, this has been interpreted as meaning that, if a government amendment is moved, ‘it is not possible for a second amendment… to be put’.

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This was from 2015, when a Labour backbencher attempted to amend a Labour opposition day motion.

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My main doubt is whether something could be done to schedule when amendments are ‘moved’, and thus avoid these provisions. I’m not sure on that.

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There are some precedents for the Speaker selecting an opposition party amendment instead of the government amendment. As far as I can tell, these are (almost?) always because the government amendment was in some was defective – for example this one from 2000. pic.twitter.com/mT8i9R1LyA

— Daniel Gover (@DanielGover) February 21, 2024

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There are some precedents for the Speaker selecting an opposition party amendment instead of the government amendment. As far as I can tell, these are (almost?) always because the government amendment was in some was defective – for example this one from 2000.

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However, this exchange from 2008 implies that – at least in principle – the Speaker might choose not select a government amendment for other reasons. pic.twitter.com/RPBJPE9Zop

— Daniel Gover (@DanielGover) February 21, 2024

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However, this exchange from 2008 implies that – at least in principle – the Speaker might choose not select a government amendment for other reasons.

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So, if Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, follows precedent – and, unlike John Bercow, he has been a speaker who does follow precedent, and who is not minded to creatively reinterpret the rules to accommodate new circumstances – he will just allow votes on the SNP motion and the government amendment.

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But, as Gover points out, you can never be 100% sure, because it is sometimes possible to find some wriggle room in the rules if the will is there.

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Normally when the opposition tables an amendment only about six fronbenchers sign it. Today Labour has got more than 140 of its MPs to sign the amendment, making the point to the speaker that there is strong demand in the house for a vote on this.

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Kate Ferguson from the Sun on Sunday she has been told the speaker is considering whether he can allow votes on both the Labour and the government motion.

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Rumours the Speaker is looking at changing standing orders so he can call Labour amendment as well as the government amendment on todays Palestine ceasefire vote

— Kate Ferguson (@kateferguson4) February 21, 2024

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Rumours the Speaker is looking at changing standing orders so he can call Labour amendment as well as the government amendment on todays Palestine ceasefire vote

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If there is a vote on the Labour motion, the government may decide not to put its own motion to a vote. There is nothing very objectionable to the government in the Labour text, and sometimes the government is happy for the house to pass opposition motions on the grounds that they are not binding on the government, and hence don’t matter much anyway.

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We will find out at the start of the debate what amendment or amendments the speaker will put to a vote.

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Boris Johnson has disputed Tucker Carlson’s claim that he demanded $1m (around £793,000) for agreeing to an interview with the former Fox News host, PA Media reports. PA says:

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A spokesman for the former prime minister dismissed as “untrue” accusations levelled at him by Carlson in an extended attack during an appearance on right-wing news channel Blaze TV.

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The US presenter said he had been “annoyed” after Johnson denounced him as a Kremlin stooge following his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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He claimed he asked the former Tory MP for a talk and a member of Johnson’s team said “it’s going to cost you $1m” and “then he will explain his position on Ukraine”.

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Carlson denied supporting Putin’s regime, but added: “I’m not defending Putin, but Putin didn’t ask for one million dollars… This whole thing is a freaking shakedown.”

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He said: “If you’re making money money off a war, you know, you can deal with God on that, because that’s really immoral.”

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A spokesman for Johnson said: “This account is untrue.”

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The former prime minister’s team said Carlson, an influential voice in right-wing US media known for having launched scathing attacks against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had offered one million dollars for an interview on his channel.

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Johnson initially accepted, provided the money went solely to Ukrainian veteran charities, but decided not to go ahead with it after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which has been widely blamed on the Kremlin, they said.

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It is the latest flare-up in a row between the pair after Johnson used his Daily Mail column to brand Mr Carlson “a traitor to journalism” for his interview with the Russian President.

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Johnson said the presenter had betrayed “viewers and listeners around the world” for not taking Putin to task for “the torture, the rapes, the blowing up of kindergartens” in Ukraine.

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Mark Spencer, the Conservative farming minister, his opposite number Dan Zeichner and Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron have been setting out their stalls to farmers at the NFU conference.

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Spencer mostly blamed the issues farmers have faced in recent years on the Ukraine war, rising inflation and extreme weather. Many farmers at the NFU conference have spoken of their heartbreak as their farms have been underwater for months. Spencer promised he would incentivise farmers to keep producing British meat, saying “lots of people try to frame this sector as the [environmental] problem” but that “we are the people who can deliver a lower carbon footprint and less methane by producing the great quality of meat we produce”.

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He gave a swipe to Labour, who have sparked protests in Wales over their diktat to farmers making them put 10% of their land into habitat schemes and plant 10% more with trees.

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Zeichner took a more mild mannered approach and promised Labour would stop trade deal with countries which undercut the standards of British farmers, as well as ending the checking hold-ups at Dover. He reiterated Labour promises to lower energy costs and reduce rural crime, as well as setting up a Cobra-style taskforce to tackle floods.

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He said:

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Jacob Rees Mogg’s comments welcoming hormone injected beef and chlorine-washed chicken were rightly called out by Minette [Batters, the NFU president], but they represent a strand of thinking that runs deep through parts of the Conservative party, parts that were in government all too recently, and could be again.

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Farron slammed the Tories’ “botched transition” and said hill farmers in his constituency have been losing 41% of their income under the new environment schemes. He said the “lakeland clearances” have been going on, by which he means large landlords are turfing tenant farmers off the hills to enter into lucrative government nature schemes.

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Farron also highlighted a Guardian story about how Defra officials have buried evidence showing the dire situaiton for hill farmers and promised £1bn extra a year in farming schemes under a Lib Dem government.

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Spencer promised he would stop people “taking the mickey” by “taking action to stop” landowners turfing off tenants and planting large parts of their farm as wild bird food to receive payments of £800 an acre. However, this only appears to be in the form of “issuing very strong guidance”.

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at the NFU conference in Birmingham yesterday, when Rishi Sunak was speaking.”,”caption”:”Delegates at the NFU conference in Birmingham yesterday, when Rishi Sunak was speaking.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1708511046000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”05.24 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1708511627000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”05.33 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1708511627000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”05.33 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”05.33″,”title”:”Tories, Labour and Lib Dems make their case to NFU conference”,”contributors”:[{“name”:”Helena Horton”,”imageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/03/14/Helena_Horton.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=287388798a9c7de6070d0a21aded13a3″,”largeImageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/03/14/Helena_Horton,_R.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8f68582937e98d14b9dc07cdc53d0d52″}],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 21 Feb 2024 16.19 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 21 Feb 2024 04.21 EST”},{“id”:”65d5cb5a8f0814397b235309″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Keir Starmer was beaten up in a nightclub in Cornwall as a teenager after trying to defend one of his friends who was attacked for being gay, a new book reveals. Pippa Crerar has the story.

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Lisa Nandy, the shadow international development secretary, has said Labour’s amendment to the Scottish National party’s motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is a moment to “lift our debate up” away from party politics and “speak with one voice”. Geneva Abdul has the story here.

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The Liberal Democrats have written to Sir Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s ethics adviser, asking for an investigation into whether Kemi Badenoch has broken the ministerial code by knowingly misleading parliament.

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In her letter, Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said that Badenoch described Henry Staunton’s claims as “completely false” in the Commons on Monday. Referring to the new evidence published by the Times today (see 9.21am), Cooper says:

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\n

Given that Mr Staunton continues to stand by his allegations, there is a clear question as to who is telling the truth and whether Kemi Badenoch has knowingly misled parliament. It is clearly in the public interest for the facts of this important matter to be determined. In your role as ethics adviser, I urge you to open an investigation into this matter and accordingly determine whether or not a breach of the code has been committed by the secretary of state.

\n

Subpostmasters who are at the heart of this whole scandal deserve justice, financial redress and the truth.

\n

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Normally the ethics advisers (technically known as the independent adviser on ministers’ interests) only launches an inquiry into a minister at the request of the PM. And yesterday Rishi Sunak defended Badenoch’s response to the Staunton allegations.

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But under revised terms of reference published two years ago, the adviser can initiate an investigation himself. If that happens, the PM has the right to veto it, but in those circumstances the adviser can insist on reasons for this being made public (unless there is a good reason for keeping that decision private, such as national security).

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UPDATE: Here is the text of Cooper’s letter.

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The latest Post Office row raises new questions.

If Kemi Badenoch misled Parliament then she breached the Ministerial Code, so @LibDems are calling for the Ethics Advisor to investigate.

Subpostmasters deserve justice, financial redress and the truth. pic.twitter.com/UIaQexvZD5

— Daisy Cooper MP 🔶 (@libdemdaisy) February 21, 2024

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Good morning. After the former Post Office chair, Henry Staunton, gave an interview at the weekend making various allegations about the government’s response to the Horizon scandal, including claiming that he was told by a senior official to delay compensation payments, Kemi Badenoch, the businesss secretary, hit back. Whereas politicians in these circumstances normally only contest the parts of the negative story they can confidently refute, Badenoch went nuclear, and more or less dismissed everything Staunton was saying as a complete pack of lies.

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Today that is not looking like such a wise strategy. Henry Staunton has now found a copy of the contemporaneous note he made of his conversation with the person he described to the Sunday Times as a senior civil servant and he has shown it to the Times. The official was Sarah Munby, who at the time was permanent secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the memo does a lot to substantiate Staunton’s original claim.

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In his story for the Times, Oliver Shah reports:

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Staunton’s first meeting with Munby came a month after he took over from Tim Parker in December 2022. His memo says that he told Munby that he “had been on over a dozen public company boards and not seen one with so many challenges”. It says that the board had identified a financial shortfall of £160 million as of September 2022 and that “there was a likelihood of a significant reduction in post offices if funding [from the government] was not [requested]”.

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“Sarah was sympathetic to all of the above,” the memo says. “She understood the ‘huge commercial challenge’ and the ‘seriousness’ of the financial position. She described ‘all the options as unattractive’. However, ‘politicians do not necessarily like to confront reality’. This particularly applied when there was no obvious ‘route to profitability’.

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“She said we needed to know that in the run-up to the election there was no appetite to ‘rip off the band aid’. ‘Now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues.’ We needed a plan to ‘hobble’ up to the election.”

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In his interview at the weekend Staunton said he was told to hold up spending so the Post Office could “limp” into the election. In one respect his memory was faulty, because the word he recorded in his contemporaneous record was “hobble”. But that is a minor detail. On the substance of what was said, the written evidence backs up what was claimed in the interview.

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In response, a government source has told the Times that Staunton is misrepresenting what he was told, either deliberately or because he was confused. Munby was not talking about compensation payments, the source suggested. They said:

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The long-standing issues around Post Offices finances are a matter of public record and do not include postmaster compensation, which is being fully funded by the government. Henry Staunton is either confused or deliberately mixing up the two issues.

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On the record, the government is also denying that Staunton was told to delay the payment of compensation. “The government has sped up compensation to victims, and consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims. To suggest any actions or conversations happened to the contrary is incorrect,” a spokesperson said.

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But, although his memo implies Munby was talking about overall Post Office finances, Staunton told the Times that by far the two biggest items where the Post Office was able to vary its spending were compensation payments and replacement of the Horizon system.

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When it is hard to reconcile two conflicting accounts of a story, one reliable fallback is to consider which source is more reliable. And that is why it is particularly unfortunate for Badenoch that the new revelation coincides with the publication of a story in the Financial Times implying she has not been telling the truth about trade talks with Canada. In their story, George Parker, Lucy Fisher and Peter Campbell report:

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Badenoch told MPs “explicitly” on January 29 that talks with Canada were “ongoing” to avoid a March 31 tariff cliff-edge for UK carmakers, even though she had earlier unilaterally paused wider trade talks with the Ottawa government

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But the Canadian high commissioner to the UK, Ralph Goodale, has written to the House of Commons business select committee to insist Badenoch’s claimed talks, which also cover cheesemakers, have not happened.

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With PMQs starting within the next three hours, both stories are likely to get referenced later in the Commons today. And that is before we even get started on the Gaza debate.

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And at some point MPs will also want to address the story suggesting the UK no longer has a working nuclear deterrent. So it is going to be a busy day.

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Here is the agenda for the day.

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10am: Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, gives evidence to the London assembly’s police and crime committee.

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12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

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After 12.45pm: MPs begin their debate on the SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Voting should take place at around 4pm.

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Afternoon: The Palestine Solidarity Campaign holds a rally outside parliament.

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Also, in Wales, junior doctors have started a three-day strike.

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If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.

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Key events

A ceasefire in Gaza which leaves Hamas in power is “not going to last”, according to the UK’s foreign secretary Lord Cameron.

He told the BBC: “What we have said, the Prime Minister and I, is there are several things you need. You need the hostages to be released, you need Hamas leaders to leave Gaza, you need to take down the infrastructure of terrorism, you need the prospect of political reform for the Palestinians, you need new Palestinian government.

“That’s how you get the fighting to stop. Simply calling for a ceasefire doesn’t make it happen.

“Of course, if you had a ceasefire without those conditions, if Hamas are still there, if they are still firing rockets, if they have still got the ability to do another October 7, that is not going to last.

“Our way of doing it, pause, leading to sustainable ceasefire, without a return to fighting, that’s the best way.

“Just saying ‘let’s have a ceasefire now’ without any change in the behaviour of Hamas, it’s not going to last.”

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle apologising to MPs.

More than 30 MPs sign motion of no confidence in Commons Speaker

In protest over Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s handling of the Gaza ceasefire vote, 33 Tory and SNP MPs have tabled a motion of no confidence in his speakership.

The Early Day Motion was proposed by Tory MP William Wragg and Sir Graham Brady, the senior Tory MP in charge of the backbench 1922 Committee, is among the signatories.

Other signatories on the Tory benches include Lee Anderson, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, and Sir James Duddridge.

On the SNP benches, the party’s home affairs spokesperson Alison Thewliss, senior MP Joanna Cherry and social justice spokesperson David Linden have signed.

Keir Starmer accuses the Tories and SNP of “choosing political games over serious solutions”.

The Labour leader said:

Today was a chance for parliament to unite and speak with one voice on the horrendous situation in Gaza and Israel.

It was in that spirit that Labour put forward an amendment calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. One that that will last, that would require both sides to observe it, that would demand hostages are returned, that aid gets into Gaza, that said Israel has a right to be protected against a repeat of 7 October and – crucially – that requires a road map for a two-state solution.

Unfortunately, the Conservatives and the SNP decided to walk out hand-in-hand, refusing to vote on this serious matter, yet again choosing political games over serious solutions.

Labour frontbencher John Healey says Sir Lindsay Hoyle was “doing the right thing”.

The shadow defence secretary told the PA news agency:

We’ve shown Westminster at its worst, a row about procedure with the Conservatives boycotting the votes, the SNP walking out.

This does nothing to help the Palestinians and nothing to advance the cause of peace.

The Speaker was trying to ensure the widest possible debate on something that matters to parliament, it matters to our communities, it matters around the world.

He was doing the right thing.

Addressing accusations that Labour had been playing political games with the issue, he said: “I have got no time for the SNP making those sorts of arguments when their sole purpose was to kick Labour.

“When they lost the arguments in the chamber, they walked out.”

The SNP’s Stephen Flynn claimed that a vote on his party’s Gaza ceasefire motion had been “blocked” by Labour and Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

Today should have been about a ceasefire in Gaza.

It’s why the SNP brought forward our motion.

Westminster blocked our chance at a straight vote due to the actions of the Speaker and Labour Party.

We will continue to speak up for those suffering as a result of this conflict.

— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) February 21, 2024

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Today should have been about a ceasefire in Gaza.

It’s why the SNP brought forward our motion.

Westminster blocked our chance at a straight vote due to the actions of the Speaker and Labour Party.

We will continue to speak up for those suffering as a result of this conflict.

— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) February 21, 2024

SNP MP Pete Wishart says Sir Lindsay Hoyle should resign as Commons Speaker.

The MP for Perth and North Perthshire told the PA news agency:

I think it’s intolerable, and it’s really difficult to know how you could remain in the chair after what happened today.

I know he came down and took responsibility and said sorry, but quite frankly it’s not good enough.

Nearly all of my colleagues have signed the early day motion asking for him to go, and speaking to several Conservative colleagues this evening, I know that a great number of them have also signed that too.

Halima Begum, chief executive of the ActionAid UK charity, said: “We are extremely disappointed to see the utter paralysis in Parliament this evening.

“Democracy is a precious commodity and should be treated as such.

A great disservice has been done to the British people, who expected their political parties and elected representatives to conduct a meaningful debate concerning an issue on which depends the lives of over a hundred Israeli hostages, and hundreds of thousands of Gazans suffering one of the most acute humanitarian crises we have seen in recent times.

“MPs know that over two-thirds of their constituents want an end to the war, an increase in humanitarian aid, and the safe return of the hostages.

“It’s time they put people’s lives above politics.”

Kiran Stacey

On Wednesday lunchtime Keir Starmer was facing the biggest crisis of his career.

Earlier in the week, he had been warned that as many as 100 of his MPs – including at least two of his shadow cabinet – were willing to rebel by voting for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza unless Labour brought forward its own amendment calling for one.

Having agreed to publish exactly such an amendment, the Labour leader now faced another hurdle: the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, was being advised not to pick it and instead call a different one from the government.

Hours away from the biggest rebellion of his leadership, Starmer decided to intervene personally and visited Hoyle in his office behind the House of Commons chamber.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has reflected on how the vote unfolded.

The House of Commons has once again descended into farce – what an embarrassment

— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) February 21, 2024

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The House of Commons has once again descended into farce – what an embarrassment

— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) February 21, 2024

The Labour MP John McDonnell told Sky News he is “ashamed” about today’s scenes in the Commons and calls on Sir Keir Starmer and the Speaker to disclose any conversations they may have had.

Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Ambassador in the UK, has given his reaction to the chaotic scenes in the Commons on Channel 4 News.

“To see this chaos in the House of Commons. It is really British politics at its lowest. This is disgraceful and shameful… after 100,000 Palestinians killed, maimed, injured”, Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Ambassador in the UK tells Channel 4 News. pic.twitter.com/b6oUUtdTHU

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) February 21, 2024

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“To see this chaos in the House of Commons. It is really British politics at its lowest. This is disgraceful and shameful… after 100,000 Palestinians killed, maimed, injured”, Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Ambassador in the UK tells Channel 4 News. pic.twitter.com/b6oUUtdTHU

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) February 21, 2024

The Guardian’s Kiran Stacey on the pandemonium on the Commons.

Tory minister texts: “We’re not as angry at the speaker as we’re pretending to be.” (Remember, this is supposed to be a debate about Gaza.)

— Kiran Stacey (@kiranstacey) February 21, 2024

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Tory minister texts: “We’re not as angry at the speaker as we’re pretending to be.” (Remember, this is supposed to be a debate about Gaza.)

— Kiran Stacey (@kiranstacey) February 21, 2024

From The Times’ Aubrey Allegretti.

SNP not won over by the apology.

Stephen Flynn, the party’s Westminster leader, says: “I will take significant convincing that your position is not now intolerable.”

— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) February 21, 2024

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SNP not won over by the apology.

Stephen Flynn, the party’s Westminster leader, says: “I will take significant convincing that your position is not now intolerable.”

— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) February 21, 2024

Ben Quinn

After his election as the Commons speaker on a promise of restoring calm after the rancorous final years of John Bercow, Sir Lindsay Hoyle finds himself facing the sort of bitter criticism often directed at his predecessor.

Such is the anger at his selection of both government and Labour amendments to the Scottish National party’s Gaza ceasefire motion – a decision that defused the scale of rebellion facing Keir Starmer – that the Conservatives are not ruling out running a candidate against him in his Chorley constituency at the next general election. The long-running convention is that speakers are not challenged by the main parties at elections.

Although Hoyle was expected to avoid a government-backed heave against him in parliament, there was an explicit rebuke of him from the dispatch box by the leader of the Commons, Penny Mordaunt.

Announcing the government would withdraw from the votes on Gaza, Mordaunt said he had “raised temperatures” on an issue where feelings were already running high and had “put MPs in a more difficult position”.

Lindsay Hoyle told the Commons: “I gotta say, I regret how it ended up. It was not my intention.

“I wanted all to ensure they could express their views and all sides of the House could vote.”

While Lindsay Hoyle was speaking, a Tory MP shout that the Speaker had met with Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray today which he denied.

Lindsay Hoyle said he is “very concerned” about the security of MPs and their families.

He apologies for how the situation has manifested and will meet with the leaders and chief whips on the best way forward.

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is back in the chair making a statement:

“It was my wish to do the best by every member of this House”

“I was very concerned about the security of members, their families and the people that are involved”

— Josh Self (@Josh_Self_) February 21, 2024

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Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is back in the chair making a statement:

“It was my wish to do the best by every member of this House”

“I was very concerned about the security of members, their families and the people that are involved”

— Josh Self (@Josh_Self_) February 21, 2024