Keir Starmer defends Chagos Islands deal after Boris Johnson accuses Labour of ‘sheer political correctness’

Starmer: most important thing about Chagos Islands agreement was securing future of base

Keir Starmer has defended the government’s decision over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands by saying it had been welcomed with “warm words” by the US.

Speaking at an event where he had launched investment in green technology, the prime minister said:

The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us. We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.

The move to hand sovereignty of Britain’s last African colony has been criticised by prominent figures in the Conservative party leadership race, and by MPs from Reform UK. James Cleverly decried it as “weak”, while Rupert Lowe called it a “capitulation”. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called for an immediate debate when parliament sits on Monday.

Earlier on Friday Jonathan Powell, who was leading negotiations for the new government with Mauritius over the islands, also defended the deal, saying that the agreement had been reached in lockstep with the US, and the final treaty “secured all of their red lines.”

The process of negotiating with Mauritius took 13 rounds, 11 of which were held under the previous Tory administration who started the process.

The Liberal Democrat leader had said the deal offering sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was the “right things for us to do”, and reminded people that the process started under the previous Conservative administration.

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Speaking to PA Media, Ed Davey said:

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n

I have seen the Conservatives complaining about it but they started all the talks. I think it was James Cleverly when he was foreign secretary.

n

People need to realise that this had to be done for us to follow the law. It was the right thing for us to do as well, but let’s just make sure they have done it in the right way.

n

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Earlier today Keir Starmer said “The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us. We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.”

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Jonathon Powell, who had been leading the negotiations for the new Labour government, said that it secures the future of the base for the next 99 years at a time when the UK’s continued possession of its last African colony was looking increasing legally tenuous.

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Disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson has decried the agreement as “sheer political correctness” and “a desire to look like the good guys … a desire to look as though we’re unbundling the last relics of our empire”. Former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns has called Tory leadership candidate James Cleverly “stupid” for opening up the negotiations in 2022.

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Britain formally took possession of the Chagos Islands and nearby Mauritius from France in 1814, and between 1967 and 1973 the entire population of the Chagos Islands were forced to leave their homes by the British. The expulsion of the Chagossians was found to have been unlawful by the UK high court in 2000.

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A couple of my colleagues have also made observations about the Chagos Islands deal. Political editor Pippa Crerar has said it is descending into a blame game for the Conservative party. She posted to social media:

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n

Chagos Island deal has descended into huge political blame game …

n

There were 13 rounds of talks with Mauritius, 11 of which took place under the Tory governmentt who started process.

n

So far, Tom Tugendhat has blamed James Cleverly who has blamed Liz Truss who has blamed Boris Johnson, who now says agreement is “completely wrong” to do.

n

Labour claims they had no choice but to sign deal because of legal mess left behind.

n

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🌏Chagos Island deal has descended into huge political blame game…

There were 13 rounds of talks with Mauritius, 11 of which took place under Tory govt who started process.

So far, Tom Tugendhat has blamed James Cleverly who has blamed Liz Truss who has blamed Boris Johnson…

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 4, 2024

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John Crace, meanwhile, has put into words a sentiment which has been expressed by several people in the comments on the blog today too. He said:

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n

I’d be surprised if either Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage could pinpoint were the Chagos Islands were on a map before yesterday.

n

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I’d be surprised if either Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage could pinpoint were the Chagos Islands were on a map before yesterday

— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) October 4, 2024

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If you missed it earlier in the week by the way, our former legal affairs correspondent, Owen Bowcott, who followed the story for many years for us, had this analysis piece which is well worth reading …

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Disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson, currently out and about promoting his memoirs, has weighed in on the Chagos Islands while speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News.

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He decried the agreement as “sheer political correctness” and “a desire to look like the good guys … a desire to look as though we’re unbundling the last relics of our empire.”

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Johnson said:

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n

It’s a bad idea in hard geopolitical terms, because the base in Diego Garcia is of huge strategic importance for the US, for the west, and it’s a key component of the Anglo-American alliance. It’s one of the things we bring to the table, has been for decades. It’s completely the wrong thing to do.

n

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Jonathon Powell, who has been leading the negotiations for the new Labour government, has said that it secures the future of the base for the next 99 years at a time when the UK’s continued possession of its last African colony was looking increasing legally tenuous. The negotiations were started under the previous Tory government. Former prime minister Liz Truss has said it was Johnson who asked her to start the process.

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Johnson also cast aspersions on why the deal had been done with Mauritius. He told viewers of GB News:

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n

It’s crazy. I urge viewers of GB News to get out your maps, get out your atlases. Check out the Chagos islands, see where they are and see where Mauritius is. It’s a long way away.

n

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The Chagos Islands are about 9,350km (5,800 miles) from London.

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Keir Starmer has defended the government’s decision over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands by saying it had been welcomed with “warm words” by the US.

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Speaking at an event where he had launched investment in green technology, the prime minister said:

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n

The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us. We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.

n

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The process of negotiating with Mauritius took 13 rounds, 11 of which were held under the previous Tory administration who started the process.

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During the media questions after his announcement of investment into carbon capture technology, Keir Starmer was asked about his position on assisted dying. The government is proposing to put a bill before parliament about assisted dying in England and Wales.

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He didn’t elaborate on his own views, but told reports:

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n

I made a promise to Esther Rantzen before the election that we would provide time for a debate and a vote on assisted dying, and it will be a free vote.

n

And obviously that opportunity has now arisen, and I’m very pleased that I’m able, as it were, to make good on the promise I made to Esther.

n

The government will be neutral on this, as you know, but I did make that commitment to a free vote, and I’m sticking to that commitment.

n

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Asked by the Guardian’s Richard Partington whether carbon capture is an effective technology, Keir Starmer the prime minister said:

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n

It absolutely is the right investment. It’s very important in relation to our climate obligations, and that’s why those leading the discussions in climate say this is the right thing to do.

n

It is a recognition that when it comes to cement, to glass, to other vital industries, there’s an element of carbon, that if we’re to support those industries going forward we need to find a way of capturing that and ensuring that through initiatives like this, we can continue with glass production, we can continue with cement production.

n

And therefore this has sort of got a double benefit, if you like. We’ve got the skills and the jobs and the potential to get ahead on carbon capture. That is a good thing in its own right. But secondly, it supports glass, it supports cement, it supports those industries where there’s always going to be an element of carbon.

n

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Keir Starmer has said the big political divide is now the choice between investment with Labour or decline with the Tories.

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He said “We’ve had the decline bit for 14 years. We were elected for change, and that change is investment.”

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The prime minister said:

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n

That is the new political divide. It’s how we take our country forward, and that is why this [carbon capture investment] is so important. You don’t get investment just like talking about investment, you get investment by partnering with business, by stabilising the economy, by showing you’ve got a long term strategy, and having the ambition to take the plan forward, put the money down and invest in the future.

n

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Starmer continued:

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n

Anybody who’s spoken to an investor in the last five or ten years and asked what has put you off investing in Britain, you will have had the same answer as I gave repeatedly before the election. It’s the instability, it’s the chaos, it’s the ever changing minister behind the desk. There was no long term strategy.

n

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He added

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n

We’ve got to take difficult decisions in the budget in relation to the missing money from the last government, really tough decisions like, for example, the winter fuel payment. That is to stabilise the economy. Because I’m absolutely convinced that only by stabilising the economy.

n

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Prime minister Keir Starmer has said that today’s investment announcement shows “the politics of national renewal in action”.

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He told an audience at a glass manufacturing factory “we’re fixing the foundations and providing a long term industrial strategy.”

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Describing his work with families of coal miners as a lawyer when the industry was being closed down by the Conservative government of the time, Starmer said:

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n

I worked with families and communities who were going to lose their jobs in a really important industry, and I therefore know first hand what this country lost when we ended coal in that way. Because we lost jobs, we lost communities, we lost a way of life. I think we lost dignity, and we also, I think, lost identity.

n

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He said that is why his government is investing to create jobs as the country decarbonises. He said:

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n

We are the first industrial nation. That’s who we are as a country. It’s our story. A source of pride that this country, our country, communities like here, changed the world. And that what is made here matters.

n

You can’t take that away from people without a plan to replace it. It’s like losing a part of yourself, a missing limb, an open wound, a heart ripped out of the nation.

n

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He said the investment today was “not just a moment of industrial renewal, it’s also a line in the sand. We’re going to do things differently.”

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Ed Miliband starts by paying tribute to coal workers over the decades who “powered our country for more than a century” saying “we owe them a huge debt.”

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The energy secretary of state says “a new era begins, carbon capture and storage, a new industry, a new generation of good jobs in our industrial heartlands, a new route to economic prosperity and energy security.”

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He says in the past there were “fits and starts … dither and delay” but in just three months the new government has “turned promise into reality.”

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He claims the technology has “the capacity to store 200 years of our carbon emissions.”

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He finishes by saying:

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n

Too often in the past Britain has blown its chance of industrial success. We say today, not this time. This government is committed to use every lever to win for Britain. This government is committed to a proper industrial policy. And this government has a chancellor who understands the importance of public and private investment to build the future Britain deserves.

n

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He introduces Rachel Reeves to talk next.

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Keir Starmer is to give a speech announcing government investment in green technologies in Merseyside this morning. The government has announced plans to commit almost £22bn over 25 years to fund carbon capture and storage projects.

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Ahead of the announcement, Starmer said: “Today’s announcement will give industry the certainty it needs – committing to 25 years of funding in this groundbreaking technology – to help deliver jobs, kickstart growth, and repair this country once and for all.”

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Richard Partington is there for the Guardian, and you will be able to watch a video stream on the live blog. I will bring you any key lines that emerge.

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Jonathan Powell, who was leading negotiations for the new government with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, offered a robust defence of the government’s agreement in media appearances this morning.

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Saying it had been a long process, involving 13 rounds of negotiations, he pointed out that 11 of them had been under the previous Conservative government, and singled out Tory leadership hopeful James Cleverly for praise, saying “I think he deserves credit for starting those negotiations and leading them enthusiastically for quite a long time.”

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Yesterday Cleverly called the final outcome of the process “weak”.

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Powell said the UK’s position had become “legally tenuous” and that the deal was important to ensure the continued operation of the military base there. He denied media reports the US was unhappy with the outcome, saying:

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n

The Americans have been intimately involved in the negotiations. Every single sentence and paragraph has been through an interagency process, all of the process, all of the agencies in Washington, we’ve agreed to all of it and secured all of their red lines in that negotiation.

n

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He joked that the reports were more likely to have come from anonymous briefing by “a disgruntled former Tory minister” than from anyone actually inside the US administration.

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In words that might not come as very welcome to the Chagossians, who were forced from their homes by the British in the 1960s, Powell was rather dismissive about the islands themselves, saying people should not be worried about the UK losing territory as every year “we’re probably losing more to tidal erosion on the east coast.”

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Energy minister Ed Miliband has said that he backs a change in the law to allow assisted dying in Englad and Wales, and that the current situation is “cruel”.

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He told viewers of ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

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n

I will be voting for the assisted dying Bill. Obviously it will be a free vote for Members of Parliament. These are very complex and difficult issues and there are very respectable views on both sides.

n

For my part, I know there are people who are in the late stages of terminal illnesses, and I think the current situation is rather cruel actually.

n

I think people having control over their own life and their own death is something that is the right thing to do.

n

Obviously there have to be proper safeguards and I understand the concerns of some people on these issues, but my personal view will to be vote in favour of this Bill.

n

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He made very similar points when appearing on BBC Breakfast as part of the morning media round. You can watch the clip here:

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'I will be voting for the Bill'

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told #BBCBreakfast he will back proposals for terminally ill people to be given the right to choose to end their life in England and Wales, when MPs are given a free vote in Parliamenthttps://t.co/BUguugLZad pic.twitter.com/i76bv5FkVD

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) October 4, 2024

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Energy minister Ed Miliband has conceded that the government needs to do more to persuade people to switch to EVs, after plans were criticised by industry bosses.

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Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, the energy minister said:

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n

There’s two particular problems that I would identify. The first problem is that the last government pushed the date back to 2035, and that was part of what has screwed the market a bit, and that’s why we are clear about the 2030 phase out date for new petrol and diesel vehicles.

n

The second thing that’s got to be done, and actually, this is the biggest thing, is to get this charging infrastructure right. Because I think one of the worries people have is, is the charging infrastructure going to be there? Am I going to be ripped off in the charging infrastructure?

n

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Miliband went on to say that “we’re working on a plan with across government to make sure that we have the charging infrastructure in place that we need.”

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Arguing that “things are only going in one direction, which is towards EVs” he said the country could either “go slowly, lose that competitivity, and not meet our climate targets, or we can do the right thing and drive forward with this.”

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Speaking on the Radio 4 Today programme, energy minister Ed Miliband has boasted that the new Labour government has already set an impressive track record on renewable energy, and said they had been “driving forward” with it since coming to office.

“,”elementId”:”e8dc621f-25fb-477c-836e-e289693f9ee8″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

He told listeners:

“,”elementId”:”fd409170-0fff-4ad0-8937-c56d2de722f3″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement”,”html”:”

n

We’ve been driving forward with renewables since we came into office. We overturned the onshore wind ban. We consented to more solar in less than three months than the last government did in 14 years. We just had the most successful renewable auction in UK history.

n

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Energy minister Ed Miliband has described the government’s plans for carbon capture and storage as “exciting” and the beginning of a new era for Britain.

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Miliband said the new plans were “essential if we are to decarbonise without deindustrialising”, and were exciting because it showed that the new Labour government is “willing to invest in the future of Britain”.

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He told listeners of the Radio 4 Today programme that “create good jobs of the future, as the good jobs used to exist in coal” and help bring about energy security.

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Asked about critics who say carbon capture is a misstep, and the country should be getting out of the fossil fuel market altogether, he said that in order to head towards net zero, “we need all the technologies at our disposal,” and said the country was heading for “the biggest change in 200 years in the way we run our economy.”

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Miliband said:

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n

The backbone of our system will be renewables, right? That is the absolute backbone of our system. You will also have nuclear as part of the energy mix, long duration storage, batteries. But it is also important to have a strategic reserve.

n

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Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of UK politics for Friday. Here are your headlines …

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n
Labour is to commit almost £22bn to fund carbon capture and storage projects. Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband are all promoting the plan today

n
Jonathan Powell has robustly defended the negotiation process that has led to the UK offering sovereignty of Britain’s last African colony, the Chagos Islands, to Mauritius

n
MPs are to be given a vote on an assisted dying bill for England and Wales

n
The pound appears to be heading for its worst week in over a year

n
West Ham owner David Sullivan says the non-dom tax loopholes crackdown is driving wealthy from the UK. He says he is selling his six-storey house near Regent’s Park at a loss as he reduces it to £65m

“,”elementId”:”c2c53c6d-3b88-421b-8c73-2462c3cbd7c5″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry is sitting, but none of the legislative bodies in the UK are. Health secretary Wes Streeting will be speaking at the Royal College of GPs conference in Liverpool, and the prime minister’s carbon capture speech will be at 10.45am. We’ll bring you all the key lines as they develop throughout the day.

“,”elementId”:”31ce4b9d-5389-4ed4-83e9-203afe8e2aa9″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

It is Martin Belam with you today. If you want to get in touch with me, and I do find it helpful if people point out typos, errors and ommissons, you can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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Ed Davey: Chagos Islands deal was ‘right thing for us to do’

Speaking to PA Media, Ed Davey said:

I have seen the Conservatives complaining about it but they started all the talks. I think it was James Cleverly when he was foreign secretary.

People need to realise that this had to be done for us to follow the law. It was the right thing for us to do as well, but let’s just make sure they have done it in the right way.

Mother of the House Diane Abbott has spoken to Sky News about the Labour donations and gifts row, and suggested that the prime minister offering to pay back some gifts suggests he knows he was in the wrong.

In comments the Labour leadership are likely to find unhelpful, the veteran MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington told viewers:

I do think, as a general rule, when millionaires give a lot of money to individual politicians, they’re not just doing it out of altruism at some point. So they think that that politician is gonna, you know, listen to them. Giving back any money at all makes it look as if you are now realising that you did something wrong.

Earlier today Keir Starmer said he had made a personal decision to pay back some of the gifts ahead of the formal definition of new principles, telling the media:

We’re going to draw up some principles so that everyone can see the basis on which donations can be accepted. We are working on that. Until they are drawn up I decided to repay so that any future activities, of me or anybody else, are in accordance with whatever the new principles are. That is my personal decision, I am not saying others should do the same.

I am well aware from the comments that quite a few of you have some very strong views about how Keir Starmer and the new Labour government have started their time in administration. And I suspect some of you would be quite interested in sharing them with our community team, who are looking to put together a piece in time for when Labour will mark 100 days in office, on 12 October. Find out more here …

By the way, there is an awful lot of comment on social media by angry politicians that the Chagos Islands agreement should have gone through parliament. All international treaties have to be ratified by parliament, so there will clearly have to be a debate about it in due course, and it is somewhat disingenuous by those in certain quarters who appear to be trying to suggest that parliament has been bypassed.

Under the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, all treaties (defined as written agreements between states or between states and international organisations which are binding under international law) must be laid in each house by a minister, together with an explanatory memorandum. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also sends a copy of the treaty and the memorandum to the foreign affairs committee, and to relevant departmental select committees.

Blame game erupts over Chagos Islands deal

Chagos Island deal has descended into huge political blame game …

There were 13 rounds of talks with Mauritius, 11 of which took place under the Tory governmentt who started process.

So far, Tom Tugendhat has blamed James Cleverly who has blamed Liz Truss who has blamed Boris Johnson, who now says agreement is “completely wrong” to do.

Labour claims they had no choice but to sign deal because of legal mess left behind.

🌏Chagos Island deal has descended into huge political blame game…

There were 13 rounds of talks with Mauritius, 11 of which took place under Tory govt who started process.

So far, Tom Tugendhat has blamed James Cleverly who has blamed Liz Truss who has blamed Boris Johnson…

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 4, 2024

nn”}}”>

🌏Chagos Island deal has descended into huge political blame game…

There were 13 rounds of talks with Mauritius, 11 of which took place under Tory govt who started process.

So far, Tom Tugendhat has blamed James Cleverly who has blamed Liz Truss who has blamed Boris Johnson…

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 4, 2024

John Crace, meanwhile, has put into words a sentiment which has been expressed by several people in the comments on the blog today too. He said:

I’d be surprised if either Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage could pinpoint were the Chagos Islands were on a map before yesterday.

I’d be surprised if either Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage could pinpoint were the Chagos Islands were on a map before yesterday

— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) October 4, 2024

nn”}}”>

I’d be surprised if either Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage could pinpoint were the Chagos Islands were on a map before yesterday

— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) October 4, 2024

Scotland’s first minister has not ruled out the possibility of calling an early election if he can’t get the SNP’s budget passed.

PA Media reports that speaking on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, SNP leader John Swinney said:

You need 65 votes to pass a budget, we don’t have that number of votes in our party, so we’ve got to get others to vote for us. So we’ll work to create a set of propositions that will command support, but that puts as much emphasis on other political parties and what they’re prepared to support.

Since the breakdown of the Bute House Agreement earlier this year the Green party in Scotland have not been formally backing the SNP in Holyrood. Swinney said the public expect an election in 2026, and in the meantime “I think they expect politicians … to get on with taking the decision to govern.”

He said his was a message for everybody, because “there’s no hiding place for any political party. If we don’t have a budget in place on 1 April, hospitals can’t get their budgets, schools can’t get their budgets, benefits can’t be paid, all sorts of things like that.”

Former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns has called Tory leadership candidate James Cleverly “stupid” for opening up negotiations over the future of the Chagos Islands, and also suggested that the previous Conservative government had tried to keep negotiations “hush hush”.

The long-running international dispute, which involved several cases in UK and international courts going back to 2000, has led to an agreement announced yesterday which will see Mauritius gain sovereignty of the islands while the UK and US retain the use of their joint base.

Speaking to GB News, Jenkyns said:

I wasn’t even aware [of the discussions over the Chagos Islands] so I don’t know if that was kept hush hush at the time from when I was an MP. But had I known that at the time, I would have spoken out about it.

I think, how stupid of James Cleverly [to have] started those talks as well, especially if you look at the moment, what’s going on globally. These strategic locations, these allies, we need to be working together, not handing it back and leaving them open to the likes of China jumping in there. So I’d say, whether it’s James or Labour, it is a ridiculous thing to do.

In November 2022, while Jenkyns was MP for Morley and Outwood and just after she had left Boris Johnson’s government as Liz Truss became prime minister, the then-foreign secretary James Cleverly said in a written ministerial statement that the UK had agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future handover of the Chagos Islands.

Cleverly issued a second ministerial written statement in March 2023 about the progress in the negotiations after three rounds had been completed. Cleverly yesterday described the outcome of the negotiations, which included a final two rounds conducted by the present Labour administration, as “weak”.

The Labour government has said the deal protects UK interests by securing the use of the military base there for 99 years, and has said the US has also welcomed it warmly.

Boris Johnson says Chagos Islands deal is ‘sheer political correctness’ and says islands are ‘a long way away’ from Mauritius

Disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson, currently out and about promoting his memoirs, has weighed in on the Chagos Islands while speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News.

He decried the agreement as “sheer political correctness” and “a desire to look like the good guys … a desire to look as though we’re unbundling the last relics of our empire.”

Johnson said:

It’s a bad idea in hard geopolitical terms, because the base in Diego Garcia is of huge strategic importance for the US, for the west, and it’s a key component of the Anglo-American alliance. It’s one of the things we bring to the table, has been for decades. It’s completely the wrong thing to do.

Johnson also cast aspersions on why the deal had been done with Mauritius. He told viewers of GB News:

It’s crazy. I urge viewers of GB News to get out your maps, get out your atlases. Check out the Chagos islands, see where they are and see where Mauritius is. It’s a long way away.

The Chagos Islands are about 9,350km (5,800 miles) from London.

Starmer: most important thing about Chagos Islands agreement was securing future of base

Keir Starmer has defended the government’s decision over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands by saying it had been welcomed with “warm words” by the US.

Speaking at an event where he had launched investment in green technology, the prime minister said:

The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us. We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.

The process of negotiating with Mauritius took 13 rounds, 11 of which were held under the previous Tory administration who started the process.

Prime minister Keir Starmer, asked by the media about political donations and gifts, said “I’m not sure there’s anything I can add to the very many answers I’ve given in the last week or two,” and said that his decision to repay money for some gifts was a personal one.

He told reporters:

We’re going to draw up some principles so that everyone can see the basis on which donations can be accepted. We are working on that.

Until they are drawn up I decided to repay so that any future activities, of me or anybody else, are in accordance with whatever the new principles are.

That is my personal decision, I am not saying others should do the same.

Starmer says he is committed to a free vote on assisted dying and the government will remain neutral

He didn’t elaborate on his own views, but told reports:

I made a promise to Esther Rantzen before the election that we would provide time for a debate and a vote on assisted dying, and it will be a free vote.

And obviously that opportunity has now arisen, and I’m very pleased that I’m able, as it were, to make good on the promise I made to Esther.

The government will be neutral on this, as you know, but I did make that commitment to a free vote, and I’m sticking to that commitment.

Starmer defends investment in carbon capture in face of environmental campaigners’ doubts

Asked by the Guardian’s Richard Partington whether carbon capture is an effective technology, Keir Starmer the prime minister said:

It absolutely is the right investment. It’s very important in relation to our climate obligations, and that’s why those leading the discussions in climate say this is the right thing to do.

It is a recognition that when it comes to cement, to glass, to other vital industries, there’s an element of carbon, that if we’re to support those industries going forward we need to find a way of capturing that and ensuring that through initiatives like this, we can continue with glass production, we can continue with cement production.

And therefore this has sort of got a double benefit, if you like. We’ve got the skills and the jobs and the potential to get ahead on carbon capture. That is a good thing in its own right. But secondly, it supports glass, it supports cement, it supports those industries where there’s always going to be an element of carbon.

Starmer: the new political divide between Labour and Tories is ‘investment or decline’

Keir Starmer has said the big political divide is now the choice between investment with Labour or decline with the Tories.

He said “We’ve had the decline bit for 14 years. We were elected for change, and that change is investment.”

The prime minister said:

That is the new political divide. It’s how we take our country forward, and that is why this [carbon capture investment] is so important. You don’t get investment just like talking about investment, you get investment by partnering with business, by stabilising the economy, by showing you’ve got a long term strategy, and having the ambition to take the plan forward, put the money down and invest in the future.

Starmer continued:

Anybody who’s spoken to an investor in the last five or ten years and asked what has put you off investing in Britain, you will have had the same answer as I gave repeatedly before the election. It’s the instability, it’s the chaos, it’s the ever changing minister behind the desk. There was no long term strategy.

He added

We’ve got to take difficult decisions in the budget in relation to the missing money from the last government, really tough decisions like, for example, the winter fuel payment. That is to stabilise the economy. Because I’m absolutely convinced that only by stabilising the economy.

Starmer: investment in carbon capture technology is ‘national renewal in action’

Prime minister Keir Starmer has said that today’s investment announcement shows “the politics of national renewal in action”.

He told an audience at a glass manufacturing factory “we’re fixing the foundations and providing a long term industrial strategy.”

Describing his work with families of coal miners as a lawyer when the industry was being closed down by the Conservative government of the time, Starmer said:

I worked with families and communities who were going to lose their jobs in a really important industry, and I therefore know first hand what this country lost when we ended coal in that way. Because we lost jobs, we lost communities, we lost a way of life. I think we lost dignity, and we also, I think, lost identity.

He said that is why his government is investing to create jobs as the country decarbonises. He said:

We are the first industrial nation. That’s who we are as a country. It’s our story. A source of pride that this country, our country, communities like here, changed the world. And that what is made here matters.

You can’t take that away from people without a plan to replace it. It’s like losing a part of yourself, a missing limb, an open wound, a heart ripped out of the nation.

He said the investment today was “not just a moment of industrial renewal, it’s also a line in the sand. We’re going to do things differently.”

Source: www.theguardian.com