The comments made by Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, on Twitter on 20 October 2022.
One person was elected by the British public with a manifesto and a mandate until January 2025.
If Liz Truss is no longer Prime Minister there can be no coronation of previously failed candidates.
MPs must demand return of Boris Johnson – if not it has to be leadership election or a General Election.
The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Chair of the Labour Party, on Twitter on 19 October 2022.
Labour will:
▪️ ban all forms of conversion therapy
▪️ appoint an envoy to promote LGBT+ rights globally
▪️ modernise the Gender Recognition Act and protect the Equality Act
Labour leading on LGBT+ rights. The Tories paralysed by chaos.
![PRESS RELEASE : More than one million families claiming tax credits to receive second Cost of Living Payment from 23 November [October 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/hmtreasury.png)
The press release issued by HM Treasury on 20 October 2022.
More than one million claimant families receiving tax credits, and no other means-tested benefits, will get their second Cost of Living Payment from Wednesday 23 November 2022, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed.
This £324 government payment will be paid automatically into most eligible tax credit-only customers’ bank accounts between 23 and 30 November 2022 across the United Kingdom.
Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Deputy Chief Executive and Second Permanent Secretary, said:
This second Cost of Living Payment will provide further financial support to eligible tax credit-only claimants across the UK.
The £324 will be paid automatically into bank accounts, so people don’t need to do anything to receive this extra help.
The second payment will see more than 8 million households across the UK receive their £324 cost of living cash boost by 30 November and follows the first cost of living payments of £326, which eligible families received from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from July and HMRC from September.
The government recently announced that households receiving DWP benefits will get their second Cost of Living Payment from 8 November continuing through to 23 November. This includes tax credit claimants who also receive other income-related benefits from DWP.
HMRC is making payments shortly after DWP in order to avoid duplicate payments.
This latest payment comes on top of wider government support with the cost of living this autumn and winter, including:
This is in addition to an extension to the Household Support Fund, which is providing an extra £421 million for use between October 2022 and March 2023 to help vulnerable people with the essentials. A £150 Council Tax rebate was sent earlier this year to those in Council Tax bands A to D in England, creating at least £1,200 in direct support for millions of households.
A £400 reduction on energy bills is also being given to all domestic electricity customers over the coming months, and the Energy Price Guarantee is protecting households from significant rises in their energy bills this winter.
The government is offering help for households. Customers should check GOV.UK to find out what cost of living support they could be eligible for.
![PRESS RELEASE : England and Wales fans urged to follow World Cup travel tips – Qatar 2022 [October 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/fco.png)
The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 20 October 2022.
With only one month to go until the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup kicks off in Qatar, the FCDO has issued 6 top tips for travelling England and Wales fans. Following these tips will help fans avoid preventable problems and enjoy the tournament.
Any Brit planning to attend the World Cup is advised to:
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:
The countdown to the World Cup is on, with only a month to go until the action kicks off in Qatar.
We want all travelling Brits to enjoy their World Cup experience, and they are more likely to do so if they prepare before they go.
Following our six top tips and signing up to Qatar travel advice email alerts will help fans have the best possible time at the tournament.
The FCDO is working closely with a range of partners, including the Football Associations, fan representatives and UK Police, to provide practical information and advice to travelling supporters.
England Manager, Gareth Southgate said:
I know how much our fans look forward to watching England at major tournaments.
With only one month to go, I would suggest anyone travelling to the World Cup signs up for the UK Government’s travel alerts.
As well as keeping them across all the information they need, they will get important tips too for getting the most out of following England away. We look forward to seeing them all at the finals.
Wales Manager, Rob Page said:
Everyone in Wales is looking forward to seeing Cymru in the World Cup, our first appearance in the competition since 1958.
For those fans who are travelling to Qatar, we know how excited they are to be watching Cymru play at the tournament but it’s incredibly important that they keep up to date with the very latest information and advice.
For the best possible experience, we advise our fans to sign-up to the Qatar travel advice email alerts.
Ashley Brown, England Fan Embassy Team, part of the Football Supporters Association said:
Travelling to World Cups always requires a level of planning for supporters to make sure we get the most out of a tournament – whether that’s match days, sightseeing or general safety.
Qatar has very different laws to the UK and we’d encourage all fans to familiarise themselves with the FCDO’s six top tips and to follow the FSA for further supporter-specific updates.
Paul Corkrey, Fan Embassy Wales said:
This is our first World cup in a generation and we know the Welsh fans will be determined to enjoy the experience.
It is a trip to the unknown but information is available and we urge the Red Wall to bookmark the FCDO travel advice website.
The UK will have a consular presence in Qatar and across the region throughout the tournament. British nationals needing help or advice will be able to contact the FCDO by phone 24/7 on +44 (0)20 7008 5000 or by calling the Embassy locally on +974 4496 2000. Fans in Qatar can access the Qatari emergency services by dialling 999.
Fans planning to travel elsewhere in the region should check the travel advice for each location they plan to visit or transit through. Rules and requirements will vary from country to country.
![PRESS RELEASE : Collaborating with U.S. on Cyber [October 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/mod.png)
The press release issued by the Ministry of Defence on 20 October 2022.
Personnel from Defence Digital will be joining the collaborative exercise which will identify threats that could impact the internal systems of participants.
Insights from the operation will be shared with all partners in the interest of bolstering security and unifying our response to malicious cyber activity.
Rear Admiral Nick Washer, Director Operations at Defence Digital said:
Cyber does not recognise geographic borders. Our relationships with partners offer huge shared benefits; operations like this with U.S. Cyber Command put our expertise into practice and enhance our collective defence.
This sentiment was echoed by U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Matthew C. Paradise, deputy director, Operations J-3, U.S. Cyber Command, who added
Defensive Cyberspace Operations helps CYBERCOM meet its mission responsibilities by enabling and improving mission assurance of the joint force, as well as our allies and partners, by maintaining reliable and defensible networks
The information age is making the world more interconnected than ever before, driving opportunity, innovation, and progress. However, this increased digitisation also brings unprecedented complexity, instability and risk, making global partnerships key to our security and economic prosperity.
![PRESS RELEASE : Appointment of Bishop of Newcastle [20 October 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/downingstreet.png)
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 20 October 2022.
Her Late Majesty The Queen approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Suffragan Bishop of Ripon, for election as Bishop of Newcastle, in succession to The Right Reverend Christine Hardman following her retirement.
Helen-Ann Hartley was educated at the University of St. Andrews and Worcester College, Oxford. She trained for ministry on the St Albans & Oxford Ministry Course and was ordained Priest in 2006. She served her title at St Mary the Virgin, Wheatley, in the Diocese of Oxford, and was appointed Curate at St Mary the Virgin and St Nicholas, Littlemore, in 2007. During this time she was also Director of Biblical Studies and Tutor in New Testament at Ripon College, Cuddesdon.
In 2012, Helen-Ann moved to New Zealand where she was Dean for the New Zealand Dioceses at the College of St John the Evangelist, Auckland, and in 2014 she was consecrated Bishop of Waikato, Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Helen-Ann returned to the UK in 2018 when she was appointed to her current role as Suffragan Bishop of Ripon in the Diocese of Leeds.
![PRESS RELEASE : £180 million to improve children’s development in the early years [October 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/education.png)
The press release issued by the Department for Education on 20 October 2022.
Thousands of early years professionals will benefit from investment to drive quality and training, and to better support the next generation of children.
Every region in England will benefit from programmes to improve teaching of children’s early speech, language and numeracy, along with professional development to build strong leadership skills and improve the understanding of children’s development. New opportunities will also be provided for graduates looking to embark on a career in early years teaching, as well as staff looking to train as early years special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs).
Evidence shows that access to early education is crucial in supporting children to thrive in adulthood and contribute to society. The Education Endowment Fund has also shown that improving young children’s pre-school language skills could boost the economy by up to £1.2 billion over the course of their lifetimes.
Up to £180 million of government funding over the three years will support the sector to focus on children’s development in their earliest of years and help to address existing recruitment and retention challenges. It follows commitments by the Government to improve parents’ access to affordable, flexible childcare through ambitious reforms, for which work continues.
Minister for Schools and Childhood, Kelly Tolhurst, said:
The early years of a child’s life are vital, not only in establishing important developmental skills, but also in building a lifelong love of learning that will help them succeed in adult life.
I’m really proud of the quality and dedication of our early years workforce. This package of support is a huge investment in their skills and professional development, because raising the status of this important sector is key to its growth.
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which has already helped to boost the speech and language skills of an estimated 90,000 children, will also continue this academic year.
The Department for Education, in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care, has also launched a new ‘Better Health – Start for Life’ campaign, providing parents of children aged 0 to 4 with practical advice and tips to help them develop their child’s language and literacy skills before starting school. Funding from today’s announcement will also support parents to gain additional advice through new Family Hubs, expected to open in the first half of 2023.
Today’s package of support, which will benefit pre-school children all over England, includes:
Early maths, language, and social development training for 10,0000 professionals through the third phase of the Professional Development Programme (PDP3) – more than 1,300 professionals in 51 local authorities were provided with bespoke training designed to support the learning and development of children affected by the pandemic during the second phase of this programme, meaning around 20,000 children will have benefited from better trained, more confident staff;
The national rollout of the Expert and Mentors programme to provide bespoke leadership support to 7,500 early years settings and childminders to address the impact of the pandemic on children in their care. This support is free and available across the country to eligible settings. Around 200 settings across the North of England, Lancashire and Yorkshire received support through a pilot of this programme this Spring;
Graduate-level specialist training leading to early years teacher status – evidence is very clear that higher qualifications are consistently identified as a predictor of higher quality and associated with better child outcomes;
Support for nearly 6,000 early years professionals to achieve the National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) which is designed to support early years leaders to develop expertise in leading high-quality education and care, effective staff and organisational management, and support the recovery of children’s development that has been impacted through the pandemic;
Training for up to 5,000 Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) to help identify children’s needs earlier so they have the right support. A commitment reaffirmed in the SEND Green Paper;
A new network of 18 Stronger Practice Hubs to support early years practitioners to adopt evidence-based practice improvements, build local networks for sharing effective practice and cultivate system leadership;
A new universal online child development training offer to help staff improve their knowledge and understanding of how pre-school children develop, as well as training for early years professionals to help parents and guardians encourage their children’s development at home;
The continuation of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme during the academic year 2022-23 – building on the two-thirds of primary schools which have already benefitted from this investment, improving the speech and language skills of an estimated 90,000 children in reception classes.
This investment builds on continued work to put children’s education and skills back on track after the pandemic. The government has set a target of 90% of primary children reaching the expected standard in literacy and numeracy, with wider investment confirmed to help every young person leaves school with a strong grasp of these skills.
The government continues to consider responses to its consultation on regulatory changes in childcare and will respond in due course.
![PRESS RELEASE : New bill to keep Britain moving during transport strikes [October 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/transport.png)
The press release issued by the Department for Transport on 20 October 2022.
The government has today (20 October 2022) taken the first steps to ensure transport strikes no longer grind the country to a halt.
The Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill means, even during the most disruptive of strikes, a certain level of services will still run. This will allow passengers to go to work, attend school and make vital medical appointments and allow businesses to continue to grow the economy.
As well as the huge impact on people’s day-to-day lives, economists have assessed that the first wave of rail strikes alone, in June 2022, cost the UK economy nearly £100 million, putting extra pressures on business and stopping people across the country from accessing their workplace during a cost-of-living crisis.
This law will mean businesses and passengers are no longer disproportionately and unfairly hit in the pocket through events outside of their control and the decisions of striking workers and the unions.
The Prime Minister is delivering on her commitment to introduce the legislation within her first 30 parliamentary sitting days and meets a Conservative Party manifesto commitment to limit the impact strikes have on hardworking people and businesses across the country.
Prime Minister Liz Truss said:
Hardworking people and businesses should not be held to ransom by strike action which has repeatedly crippled our transport network this year.
This legislation delivers on our 2019 manifesto and will not only limit the unions’ ability to paralyse our economy, but will ensure passengers across the country can rightly continue to get to work, school or hospital.
Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:
Strikes have affected nearly all of us over this last year – whether that means losing out on a day’s pay at work, having to close your business, missing vital medical appointments or stopping our children from getting to school.
It is vital that public transport users have some continuity of service to keep Britain moving and growing – this legislation will give everyone the certainty they need to carry on with their daily lives.
The legislation will mean:
The bill will set out the legal framework to allow minimum service levels to not only be set across the entire transport sector, but also implemented and enforced. The specific details of how minimum service levels will apply to transport services will be set out in secondary legislation in due course after a public consultation.
The intention of the legislation is that relevant employers and unions agree a minimum service level to continue running during all strikes over a 3-month period. If such a level cannot be agreed, an independent arbitrator – the Central Arbitration Committee – will determine the minimum number of services.
The bill will undertake its first reading today. The legislation is expected to come into force on transport services across the country in 2023 and follows similar rules already in place in countries across Europe, including France and Spain.
The speech made by Sir Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, in the House of Commons on 19 October 2022.
I am very pleased to follow the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Mr Wragg), and I pay tribute to him for the frankness of the personal remarks with which he opened his speech. I must say that the whole speech contained a great deal of good sense, which I hope his hon. Friends on his Front Bench will have heard and paid attention to.
Christians on the Left organises a church service each year on the Sunday morning when the Labour party conference begins, and the preacher this year was the Archbishop of York. In the very fine address that he gave on that occasion, he said:
“Increasingly, the safety net in our nation is a foodbank, where more and more people have to go to get what our economy itself fails to provide.”
He is absolutely right: something fundamental has gone wrong in our economy. For many people, including those in employment, the economy does not work. More and more are turning to food banks to survive. Some 61,000 food parcels were distributed by the Trussell Trust’s food banks in 2010-11, whereas the number was 2.5 million in 2020-21—a fortyfold increase in a decade.
In the leadership election campaign in the summer, the Prime Minister acknowledged her party’s failure on economic growth, and she was absolutely right to do so. The new Chancellor told us on Monday that the record on growth had been very good. That is one of many things that he and the Prime Minister seem to disagree about, but on this one, I am definitely with the Prime Minister. As my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) often points out, we are a high-tax economy because we have been a low-growth economy.
Last April social security benefits were raised by 3.1%, even though inflation was nearly 10%.
That was justified on the basis that the regular formula for uprating benefits uses the figure for inflation from the previous September. That formula has, on several occasions, been disapplied since 2010, but never in the interests of the poorest families in the country—only ever to their disadvantage. This year, the formula was applied, piling on yet another real-terms cut in benefits, reducing them to the lowest real-terms level for more than 30 years. The then Chancellor and the then Prime Minister implicitly recognised that unfairness and promised to use the same formula next April, delivering, we have learned today, a 10.1% rise.
The current Chancellor must now decide whether to keep that promise to the poorest families in the country during a cost of living crisis. The Minister, in his opening remarks, referred to protecting the vulnerable. I really hope that he meant that, because those families have so often had a kicking from this Government over the past 12 years. If that happens again, dependence on food banks will get yet another large boost as thousands more people have to turn to them to survive—on top of the 700,000 households who did so in 2019-20. The food banks themselves are struggling now because donors cannot afford to give as much. Mass food bank dependence is a potent symptom of the economic failure of the past 12 years.
Yesterday, representatives from Muscular Dystrophy UK came to Parliament to spell out the hardship from rising prices facing the people they support, because, for example, those people depend on machinery—ventilators—that have to be permanently switched on and powered. On Monday, the Chancellor spoke of compassionate conservatism. If that is not just a vacuous slogan, those people’s needs must be recognised in the benefit uprating decision that could be announced on Monday week.
The benefit cap was introduced 10 years ago and was supposed to reflect median earnings. It was changed once in 2016, when it was cut, and it has never been increased. This time, surely, it must be. If it is not, at a time when inflation is over 10%, thousands more people will crash into the cap next April and be forced to depend on food banks, heaping yet another economic failure on the catastrophic blunders, as the hon. Member for Hazel Grove rightly pointed out, of the past few weeks.
The speech made by William Wragg, the Conservative MP for Hazel Grove, in the House of Commons on 19 October 2022.
Thank you very much for calling me so early in the debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. If I may strike a conciliatory tone at the outset of my remarks, I thank everybody in this House who sent me remarkable support in the course of the summer recess. There is nothing unique about my having had issues with my mental health, but what is perhaps more unique than most in the country is that I have the platform and opportunity to highlight that and to speak empathetically, and I am very grateful indeed. In making this speech, there are a number of things in my life that I am struggling with at the moment, but, bizarrely, it seems that making a speech in the House of Commons is not one of them. I am not entirely sure whether that is attuned to my state of mind, and no doubt my hon. Friends on the Front Bench will tell me afterwards.
I want to speak on this important matter because I have not said a word to my constituents about the events of the last month or so. I watched on from home when the Chancellor gave his so-called mini-Budget, which should have been delivered as a full Budget, with the proper procedures of the House duly followed. As the time passed, I grew increasingly concerned by its nature. I am quite an old-fashioned person and, in respect of this House, I like to look at the wording of the motion. I also believe in speaking one’s mind, and I can only say that today is the exact centenary of a meeting in 1922, during which Conservative Back Benchers met to decide that they would stand on their own ticket in the 1992 general election, thereby depriving David Lloyd George of the opportunity to continue as Prime Minister. As vice-chair of the 1922 Committee—the foundation of which followed the events of that afternoon and evening—I think it is quite important to speak my mind. I realise there are some in my party who lament that state of affairs, but I hope they will indulge me, as I have indulged them over time.
Many things that have been said by those on the Front Bench are very true. There is an international situation, an illegal invasion of Ukraine and a spike in the international cost of energy. The Government have many things to be proud of—not least the employment record—but there is no escaping the fact that the measures contained within the financial statement directly caused the situation to be made worse. I am quite sure that was not intentional, but I cannot easily forgive the lack of foresight by senior members of the Government. My forgiveness is not what that the Government should seek at all; it should be that of our constituents, who are in a difficult enough situation as it is. To see this as a question of international turbulence inexplicably increasing the mortgage rates and inexplicably necessitating further cuts to public expenditure—I cannot easily forgive that.
In the course of the summer, I found the trashing of the reputations of independent organisations in this country, such as the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility, to be near to malice in its nature. Treasury orthodoxy came under attack. I am a Conservative, and I suppose that orthodoxy goes hand in hand with that. That is Conservative orthodoxy. Conservative orthodoxy is sound financial management and a balanced budget—not sticking pamphlets into a test tube, shaking it up and seeing what happens. That is not the way the Conservative party should ever govern.
Apparently I can be a little difficult to handle, and my hon. Friend the Member for Workington (Mark Jenkinson) must have wondered what he had done in a previous life to find me in his flock as my Whip. I always commiserate with my Whip when they are appointed; indeed, I have been round the block with a number of them, and I end up getting round to them all over again. But there is a serious point to all this: I am personally ashamed of what occurred with the financial statement, because I cannot go and face my constituents, look them in the eye and say that they should support our great party. The polls would seem to bear that out.
The next debate is apparently a confidence issue. Well, I am not going to fall into that trap. I oppose fracking and thought that we had come to a considered position on it, but there we go. I will vote with the Government Whip.
Feryal Clark (Enfield North) (Lab)
Will the hon. Gentleman be lending the Prime Minister his confidence vote in the next debate?
Mr Wragg
The hon. Lady is very charitable in giving me a further minute for my peroration, although it seems a shame to extend it too long. The fracking debate that follows has been made a confidence vote. If I voted as I would wish, I would lose the Whip. I would no longer be a vice-chair of the 1922 Committee. I would no longer maintain my position as a Chair of one of the Select Committees of the House. Indeed, because of that, my letter lodged with my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Sir Graham Brady) would fall, and I wish to maintain that letter with him.