19m ago06:37
Patel criticised by Sabina Nessa’s sister over tweet about sentencing of her killer
Last week, after Koci Selamaj was sentenced to life in jail for the murder of the primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, Priti Patel, the home secretary, posted a message on Twitter saying she hoped this would bring some small comfort to Nessa’s family.
Sabina Nessa lost her life due to the harrowing & callous actions of a man who’s rightly now behind bars.
While I can’t possibly know how Sabina’s family & friends are feeling, I hope today’s sentence brings them a small comfort, knowing this evil monster has faced justice. 1/2
— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) April 8, 2022
As Home Secretary, tackling violence against women and girls is central to my Beating Crime Plan and I am doing everything in my power to target perpetrators, protect the public and make our streets safer for everyone.
2/2
— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) April 8, 2022
In an interview with the Today programme this morning Jebina Yasmin Islam, Nessa’s sister, criticised Patel for her tweets. Claiming that there had been a “lack of support” for the family from government, she said:
I’ve had support from the Royal Borough of Greenwich (and) MP Clive Efford, who’s been amazing … Higher up people have been useless, I would say. They’ve not said nothing. Priti Patel has done a tweet on Friday and I was not happy about it, because all of a sudden she’s using my sister’s name for publicity reasons. And, to be honest, she has no right.
Islam claimed that the family she had not received any correspondence from Patel about Nessa’s murder. But Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, had sent a letter, she said.
As Sami Quadri reports for the Evening Standard, Islam also claimed that if the family had been white, they would have been treated more favourably, and Nessa’s murder would have been received more publicity.
Updated at 06.53 EDT
45m ago06:11
On his LBC show Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has said it was right for Boris Johnson to visit Kyiv on Saturday to show support for Ukraine. It was an important visit, he said. And he said that some of the people criticising Johnson for the trip on social media (on the grounds that it was a stunt, and that Johnson was grandstanding) were the same people who were praising Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, when she visited the city the day before.
53m ago06:03
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is hosting the morning programme on LBC today, standing in for James O’Brien, who is on holiday. Even though his shadow cabinet colleague Steve Reed used his morning interviews this morning to highlight Labour claims that Rishi Sunak may have broken the ministerial code (see 9.34am), Streeting used his opening spiel to argue that this aspect of Sunak’s conduct wasn’t the real problem. He said:
I think the big question facing the chancellor isn’t so much whether what he’s done, or what his wife’s done, is within the rules or whether it’s within the law, because I don’t think that’s really being disputed. It’s not about whether it’s legal. It’s about whether or not it’s right.
Streeting said what was objectionable was that Sunak and his family were able to organise their tax affairs so as to minimise their liabilities in a way other people cannot. He explained:
The thing that sticks in my throat is we’ve had the chancellor and the health secretary both lecturing struggling taxpayers about their duty – in the case of Sajid Javid I think he said it was their moral duty – to pay higher taxes in order to fund public services like the NHS. And yet we’ve now got the chancellor and the health secretary managing their tax affairs in a way that means they will end up paying less tax in a way that most people in this country are simply unable to do.
And the luxury of being able to choose how much tax you pay, where you pay that tax, when you pay that tax, is not one that is enjoyed by most people in this country, which is why I think it is one rule for them and another rule for every one else.
To be fair, it was Rishi Sunak’s wife who was using non-dom status to minimise her tax bills, not Sunak himself. And Sajid Javid has admitted being a non-dom in the past, but he gave that up before he became an MP.
Wes Streeting. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Updated at 06.54 EDT
1h ago05:39
Rishi Sunak visited the Treasury’s base in Darlington this morning in a bid to show he is getting on with the job of being chancellor despite the storm around his family’s financial arrangements, PA Media reports.
1h ago05:36
The Ministry of Defence has said it fears Russia may use white phosphorus (WP) munitions in the bombardment of the besieged Ukrainian port Mariupol. It has issued the warning in its latest regular intelligence update on the war.
2h ago05:15
In his interviews this morning George Eustice was also asked about the Homes for Ukraine scheme for refugees, and why by the end of last week only about 1,200 people granted visas under this scheme had arrived in the UK. When it was put to him on LBC that this was a shambles, he would not accept that. He said:
I don’t think it’s a shambles, but Priti Patel herself is obviously on the case with this. She’s been very clear that she will make further changes should they be needed. They’ve already made some changes – removing the need, for instance, for Ukrainian passport holders to actually attend any kind of interview in person to allow them to come straight through. So some changes and improvements have been made. I’m sure that Priti Patel will be looking at this closely and making other changes should that be required to unblock any bottlenecks that might be in the system.
2h ago05:04
UK growth slowed more than expected in February amid a slump in car manufacturing, despite a sharp recovery in overseas holiday bookings after the easing of Covid restrictions, my colleague Richard Partington reports.
2h ago05:02
Eustice dismisses claim Sunak too wealthy to be chancellor or PM
George Eustice, the environment secretary, was on “defend the government” duty on the airwaves this morning and, although he was meant to be talking about government plans to stop councils charging people for dumping DIY waste in tips (in the hope this will reduce fly-tipping), he spent much of his time talking about Rishi Sunak’s family finances. Here are the main points he made.
(Sunak is) very clear that he’s declared everything that should have been declared at the right time and there is a process here that you have as a minister. You declare all your interests to the permanent secretary in your department, and the Cabinet Office then decide which bits should be made public, which bits they should be aware of, there’s a duty of candour in both directions and Rishi’s very clear that he’s been very candid about his own arrangements at every stage.
- Eustice sidestepped a question about whether he understood the anger that the revelation about the chancellor’s wife being a non-dom had caused. Asked by Sky’s Kay Burley if he understood why people were unhappy about this, Eustice suggested Sunak should be judged on his record, and he stressed that Sunak has paid all his taxes.
- Eustice failed to explain why Sunak had kept his US green card for so long. He said the green card was “a hangover” from the time when Sunak was working in the US. But Eustice could not explain why Sunak still had it when he became chancellor.
- Eustice said he did not think Sunak was too wealthy to be chancellor or prime minister. When this suggestion was put to him, he replied:
I don’t think it’s right that we should have a rule that says you’re too wealthy to be able to do a role – what matters is the knowledge, the technical expertise that you have …
You can’t walk a mile in everyone’s shoes, all of us have different perspectives, different experiences in life and for any MP, let alone minister, the single most important thing is an ability to empathise (with) people who might have had experiences and challenges in their life, that you’ve personally not experienced.
George Eustice on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. Photograph: GMB
Updated at 06.55 EDT
2h ago04:34
Sunak’s call for inquiry into his own conduct fails to quell claims he may have broken ministerial code
Good morning. Last night there were calls for an inquiry into Rishi Sunak’s financial interests – from the chancellor himself. This amounts to voluntarily handing yourself in to the regulatory authorities, and it is a tactic often used by MPs facing misconduct allegations when they a) want to regain control of the narrative, and b) are reasonably confident that they will be cleared.
On the latter point, Sunak does not seem to have any doubts. He has asked for an inquiry by Lord Geidt, the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, into the declarations of interest he has made as a minister and he says he is “confident that such a review of my declarations will find all relevant information was appropriately declared”.
Sunak made his move in response to a letter from Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, calling for an inquiry into Sunak’s alleged failure to declare relevant financial interests, as well as other matters, including his possession of a US green card until quite recently. But Sunak’s statement has failed to silence Labour, and this morning Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, renewed his claim that Sunak may have broken the ministerial code. Asked if he thought this was possible, Reed told the Today programme:
Absolutely. But it’s not an isolated incident, there are other failures here as well. He also failed to declare his wife’s £690-million share-hold in Infosys, an IT company based in India, which has had, according to what we’ve been able to find out, 15 different one-to-one meetings with senior ministers, including the prime minister, and has been awarded multimillion-pound government contracts.
Now, if the chancellor’s household is benefiting from contracts of that kind that should have been something that he declared in the register of interest, but he didn’t.
There’s a whole list of areas where the chancellor appears to have failed to declare things he should have declared.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, was defending Sunak in his morning interview round. I will post highlights from his interviews shortly.
Parliament is not sitting, and the diary for today is relatively empty. But we have a Downing Street lobby briefing at 11.30am, and Keir Starmer is campaigning in the north-east. And in Bournemouth the National Education Union’s conference is taking place.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at [email protected].
Updated at 05.02 EDT