‘Uneventful PMQS’
This week’s PMQs has ended. It was fairly uneventful, with Labour focusing on crime – in relation to Casey report into the Met Police. There was little about Partygate and not a lot of noise from the Tory backbenches, despite rumbles of a Tory rebellion over today’s Brexit vote.
There’s a lot of politics on the table today – here’s a run down
- Brexit vote on the Windsor framework will take place this afternoon
- The new deal is highly likely to pass, but it will also serve as an indicator as to a potential Tory rebellion – Boris Johnson, Liz Truss have indicated they will vote against the government
- It could also be used to work out how much support Boris Johnson still has within the party
- Boris Johnson will appear at a LIVE televised committee hearing into whether he misled parliament over Partygate – the hearing will begin at 2 pm and will last for several hours
Will there be a short-term inquiry into preparing for the next pandemic?
Labour MP Graham Stringer says the leaked Matt Hancock messages show that during COVID, “at the very heart of government, science wasn’t being followed and rational discourse had been abandoned”.
He adds that this had consequences “for children’s education, mortality rates among the elderly, the economy and access to the health service”.
Mr Stringer says that “lessons must be learned” and “we can’t wait 10 years for the independent inquiry to tell us what we should do next time when the inevitable epidemic arrives”.
The PM refuses to agree to a short inquiry, saying instead that it’s for the public COVID inquiry to set out the timeline for the investigation.
Mr Sunak adds that the inquiry has heard evidence about “core political and administrative decision making”.
SNP is a ‘mess’ says Sunak
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, starts with a tribute to PC Keith Palmer.
What worries the PM most about Brexit – the 4% hit to UK producivity, or three former Tory leaders voting against him this afternoon?
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says it is two.
(Hoyle seems to be thinking of former Tory PMs. Theresa May is not voting against, but Iain Duncan Smith reportedly is.)
Sunak says the SNP is in a mess.
Flynn says people are facing the biggest fall in living standards since the war.
Sunak says the government is helping people with energy bills. – (The Guardian)
