Sunak’s new cabinet meets, as Tory chair says Esther McVey will not be minister for ‘anti-woke’ – UK politics live | Politics

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and the PM’s spokesperson told reporters that Suella Braverman’s plan to include a ban on charities distributing tents to the homeless in cities will not be included in the criminal justice bill.

The bill, which was mentioned in the king’s speech last week, is being presented to parliament today. The weekend before the speech, the Financial Times said Braverman was pushing for it to include a ban on tents being given to the homeless in cities, because Braverman argued this encouraged rough sleeping. In tweets defending her plan she described rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice”.

It now appears that it is this that finally persuaded Rishi Sunak to sack her, not the row about her unauthorised article criticising the Met published in the Times last Thursday. At that point Sunak had already met David Cameron to discuss his taking a job in government in the reshuffle that would see Braverman being replaced.

Last week, after the king’s speech was published, No 10 indicated that there was still a debate going on about whether or not to include the tents plan in the text of the criminal justice bill.

Today the spokesperson indicated that the proposal is not in the legislation being published.

Welsh government launches consultation on reforming council tax system to make it fairer for people in least valuable homes

Steven Morris

Council tax bills could increase for up to 450,000 homes in Wales under proposed reforms from the Welsh government as it says it is trying to make the system fairer for people living in the least valuable properties.

The Labour-led government is launching a consultation on how it should reform the system but says it is not going to increase the amount of council tax collected overall – about £2.4bn a year.

Under two of its proposals, bills would go up for three out of 10 of the country’s 1.5m homes and fall or stay the same for the others.

Homes are to be revalued for the first time in 20 years and new bands could be created. The last revaluation in Wales took place in 2003. In England and Scotland, bills are still based on property values from 1991.

The changes are part of the cooperation deal between the Labour government and Plaid Cymru. The Welsh government said:

The current system is 20 years out of date, and it is unfair, with people living in homes in the lowest council tax bands paying a relatively higher amount of council tax in relation to the value of their homes, than people who live in higher value homes.

The Welsh Conservative shadow local government minister, Sam Rowlands claimed the government was “stealthily” planning to hike up council tax for “hard-working people”.

Rishi Sunak took something of a risk when he decided to sack Suella Braverman. Her hardline, anti-immigration rhetoric was popular, not just with rightwing MPs, but with most of the Tory press (particularly the Daily Mail), and this morning those papers might have come out in her defence.

But, judging by their editorials, they are broadly supportive of Sunak. They have not turned on him – at least today.

The Daily Mail in its editorial is quite sceptical about the appointment of David Cameron – “many loyal Tories will think that if Mr – now Lord – Cameron is the answer to anything, No 10 is asking the wrong question” – and it says Braverman “spoke for the quiet majority who care about what is happening to Britain”. But it goes on:

Moving the impressive James Cleverly to Home Secretary is smart, as is appointing Esther McVey as ‘Common Sense Tsar’ to oversee the anti-woke agenda.

Will this be enough to placate the Tory Right? Only time will tell, but any MP who thinks salvation lies in yet more no- confidence letters – and trying to unseat another leader – needs their head testing.

Right now Mr Sunak is the party’s best and only hope of seeing off Labour.

Of the four most pro-Tory papers, the Daily Telegraph is probably the least impressed. It says Sunak has a “bold new team” and it does not criticise the reshuffle directly. But it says Sunak must show that Braverman’s ideas has not been abandoned. Its editorial says:

The seeds of his downfall were planted that year when his promise of an EU referendum was included in the Tory manifesto, not least to see off a populist threat from Ukip. Mr Sunak is facing something similar in that the country is increasingly alarmed by high levels of immigration, both legal and illegal, and extremism. The recent pro-Palestinian marches and the rise of anti-Semitic hatred have brought much of this to a head.

Mrs Braverman articulated many of these concerns, and those who agree with her will be angry that she has been dropped, seeing it as appeasing the Left and deepening Tory divisions.

Mr Sunak must show that this is not the case by adopting many of the causes she espoused but did little about, and Lord Cameron is someone to follow through on this agenda.

The Daily Express is the paper most sympathetic to Braverman in its news coverage. But its editorial on the reshuffle says that she was seen as lacking statesmanship, and that the return of David Cameron “could turn out to be an astute move”.

The Sun in its editorial says that, even though Braverman “spoke for millions”, she had become “a loose cannon”.

Rishi Sunak described his new cabinet as a “strong and united team” as they met for the first time at No 10.

Opening the meeting, Sunak said:

A warm welcome to those for whom it’s their first cabinet and also a welcome to those for whom it may not be their first time …

Our purpose is nothing less than to make the long-term decisions that are going to change our country for the better. I know that this strong and united team is going to deliver that change for everybody.

Sunak noted it was an “important week”, with inflation figures and the supreme court’s Rwanda ruling expected tomorrow and the chancellor’s autumn statement next Wednesday. He went on:

Across all of that I’m confident that we can demonstrate to the country that we are making progress on the priorities that I set out at the beginning of the year – to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and to stop the boats.

But their ambitions went further than that, he said. He said the cabinet would make the “big, bold decisions that will drive change”. And he ended saying:

Looking around this table, I know that we have an energetic and enthusiastic team that is going to deliver for the country. So, let’s get to work.

Good morning. Yesterday’s reshuffle was more surprising than expected, largely because of the return of David Cameron, but also because it suggests that Rishi Sunak has chosen to tack towards governing more as a mainstream, centrist Conservative, to abandon trying to present himself as a radical, “change” candidate, and to pull back from a lurch towards “red wall” Toryism.

There was one concession to the red wallers. Although the very rightwing Suella Braverman was out, another rightwinger popular with the GB News demographic (she presents a show there) was in. Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary who was born in Liverpool, has been made a Cabinet Office minister. According to a briefing to the Sun newspaper, she will serve as the “common sense tsar” tasked with “tackling the scourge of wokery”.

But will she? Richard Holden, the new Conservative party chairman was doing interviews this morning and on the Today programme at one point he appeared to confirm that McVey is the new Braverman. Asked about McVey’s job, Holden said: “What Suella … what Esther is going to be doing ….” The presenter, Nick Robinson, described it as a Freudian slip.

However, Holden was reluctant to describe McVey as a common sense minister who will wage war on wokeism. In an interview with Times Radio, asked if McVey would be vetting “woke” policies, Holden replied: “I think all of us will be looking at all policy in the round.” And when it was put to him that she was in government to represent “anti-woke opinion”, Holden replied:

No, it’s there to represent – I know Esther, I know her husband Philip [Davies] very well – they have various different views on a wide range of different topics just like other MPs do as well. And I think to try and put people into little pockets of one thing or another, I don’t think is fair.

And on the Today programme, when Robinson asked what being minister for common sense might mean, Holden did talk about freedom of speech on universities, but also stressed that the Conservative party was “a broad church … with a common goal”.

The briefing about McVey being a “common sense tsar” was clearly intended to appeal to rightwingers but, in a further sign that the gambit may have failed, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary and a fellow GB News presenter, described the label attached to McVey by the Sun as “silly”. He told Times Radio:

I welcome Esther’s return because I think she’s highly capable and a good presenter of the Tory cause. I think having a minister for woke is silly and I think it’s deeply regrettable that a minister of the calibre and quality of Jeremy Quin, who was in the Cabinet Office, has been lost to the government and they brought in somebody with a silly title. I think it’s an extraordinary thing to do and is not serious, but Esther is a very good person and to have her in the cabinet is a good thing.

I think silly titles for government posts is a Blairite thing. That is not the proper business of government ... This is ridiculously tokenistic, won’t impress anybody.

Rees-Mogg himself was once minister for “Brexit opportunities and government efficiency”. Given that critics felt both of those concepts were fictions, that title was controversial too.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

10am: Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, gives evidence to the Commons health committee.

11am: The Growth Commission, which was set up by Liz Truss, publishes a report proposing free market policies that it says would stimulate growth.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

After 12.30pm: MPs resume the debate on the king’s speech, with the focus on the economy.

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