Burnham tells Zelenskyy’s UK’s support for Ukraine ‘will not change’ – UK politics live

Dominic Cummings has not received much coverage for his appearance at the Lords constitution committee this morning, where he was talking about constitutional safeguards, and I’ve afraid I have too much other stuff on to give it much attention. But if you want to listen to a better expert on the constitution, Peter Hennessy, the historian and crossbencher peer, has given an interview to the Lord Speaker’s Corner podcast. The transcript and audio are here.

Hennessy said constitutional safeguards could quickly crumble. He said:

So much would go wrong.

If we had a government that came in, if it was a Reform government, and the first thing they did was sack the cabinet secretary, and got rid of the career officials who came in under the Northcote-Trevelyan merit, not partisanship rubric of selection, and had a go at the judges, too – it would be very easy if they had a big enough majority for them to take away the fundamentals … as the first act that they were doing week one.

We have a major competitor for power now in this country who said what they’d do. In effect, they would rip up the constitution, and the way we recruit and promote our senior civil servants, and indeed would interfere in the choice of judges.

And so much would go … We’d crumble, and it would be very hard to get it back.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has told published a consultation paper on employment status reform. This sets out how the government proposes to implement plans he announced at Labour conference to close the “bogus self-employment loopholes” that deny workers basic rights.

Explaining the plans, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade says:

Bogus self-employment is a practice whereby some businesses mislabel staff as self-employed to avoid statutory obligations.

However, the day-to-day reality is that many of these people are treated as workers, not self-employed. External estimates suggest that as many as 900,000 people may currently be affected by this and could be missing out on core employment rights.

The proposals to be consulted on could provide greater clarity to businesses and workers, levelling the playing field for those businesses who are already doing the right thing and clamping down on abuses. This could help workers such as parcel couriers, delivery drivers, hairdressers and gig economy workers.

But, in a good article on this topic for LabourList, Tom Berger points out that the plans don’t include a firm commitment to create a single status of worker in employment law – something that in opposition the party did commit to.

Meri Ahlberg, a senior policy adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a thinktank that has argued for employment status reform, said:

The measures in the government’s consultation are a step forward for making sure people have the rights and protections everyone deserves. But without putting single worker status and tax reform on the table for the near future, it will still be cheaper to employ people in less secure jobs and millions of workers will be left without sick pay and parental pay. It’s time basic protections were in place for everyone, however they work, and that existing protections are enforced properly.

And this is what Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said in reply to Andy Burnham.

We are very thankful, all our people in Ukraine, we absolutely thankful to your nation. You are strong people, a very supportive nation …

[This is a] terrible war. Absolutely terrible as.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was being attacked by ballistic missiles and hundreds of Iranian drones.

There was no energy ceasefire, he said. It looked like “escalation from Russian side”.

He said he wanted the war to stop.

We have massive attacks today, and it’s a pity that we had also some difficulties. What I want to discuss with Andy – about Starlink and about intelligence. There are lot of different surprises on which you can’t count.

He said UK was one of Ukraine’s strongest partners.

A reporter asked Zelenskyy if he could confirm that the US had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, and if it had slowed down Starlink – meaning Ukrainian weapons lose access to the internet at very high speeds (making them inoperable). Zelenskyy did not answer.

Here are fuller quotes from the public statements by Andy Burnham and Volodymyr Zelenskyy before their main meeting.

Burnham said:

Mr President, it’s a great privilege for me to welcome you to Downing Street today. And you’ve just seen the reaction [a reference to the crowd cheering as he arrived]. Obviously, you’ve seen the solidarity and the support you’ve got from everybody here in Britain. We’re behind you. And that will not change.

We know that the last few days, the last few hours, have been very dark and difficult days for Ukraine. We know that the country sustained heavy bombardments in the last 24 hours in Kyiv, particularly. And we would want to extend our condolences to all of those people in Ukraine who’ve lost loved ones as a result of what has been happening.

President Trump made a call at the weekend for an energy ceasefire. And, Volodymyr, you have shown your leadership in saying that you would be prepared to sit down and discuss what that looks like, to make sure we protect people from a very harsh winter that lies ahead in Ukraine.

Sadly, what we have seen from Russia is further attacks on critical national infrastructure in Ukraine. It’s clear to the world, again, who the aggressor is in this conflict.

However, in these moments, Britain will continue to provide you with whatever support that we can. And today I’m announcing that we are accelerating the delivery of British-made air defences for you, and we will make sure that they’re in place as soon as possible. (See 9am.)

I’ve also asked all of our ministers here in the government to do whatever they can, extra, to support you, and they are looking at all possible avenues …

All of the people of Ukraine have our support. There are such connections between our two countries. We will forever stand by you through this difficult time.

Andy Burnham told Volodymyr Zelenskyy Britain’s support for Ukraine “will not change”, as he welcomed the leader to Downing Street.

In public remarks before their main meeting got under way, Burnham said:

You have seen the solidarity and the support you have got from everybody here in Britain. We are behind you and that will not change.

He added that recent days had been “dark and difficult” for Ukraine, which has suffered “heavy bombardment in the last 24 hours”, and he extending the UK’s condolences to those who had lost loved ones.

Burnham said Zelenskyy was “prepared to sit down and discuss” the energy ceasefire proposed by Donald Trump, but added: “Sadly, what we have seen from Russia is further attacks on critical national infrastructure in Ukraine.”

He said:

In these moments, Britain will continue to provide you with whatever support we can.

Zelenskyy said he was “thankful” for British support, saying:

Our people, we survived and continue to do this because we have strong partners and I’m very proud that we have one of the strongest partners in our history and it’s your people, Andy.

Andy Burnham has welcomed President Zelenskyy to Downing Street.

As they posed for pictures outside No 10, there was a loud cheer from Foreign Office staff who were there watching. (The Foreign Office is next door to Downing Street.)

Another ‘show of support’ feature of President Zelenskyy’s visit is the fact that he was invited to meet the king at Buckingham Palace. Foreign leaders coming to Downing Street for a political visit don’t normally get to meet the king at the same time. But Charles and Zelenskyy have met many times before, and the king is a strong supporter of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy posted this on social media about the meeting.

Thank you to His Majesty King Charles III for the audience. For me, it is important to have the opportunity to personally thank him for the unwavering support of Ukraine. We appreciate all the assistance from the United Kingdom.

Here is a picture of the ceremonial guard.

While Andy Burnham has been relatively guarded in what he has said in public (see 12.40pm) about Donald Trump buying diesel from Russia and declaring that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be replaced as Ukrainian president, this is a way of using the apparatus of the state to send a visual signal that the UK is very, very firmly on Zelenskyy’s side on this one.

President Zelenskyy is expected to arrive in Downing Street shortly. Unusually, there will be a ceremonial military guard there to greet him. According to Sky News, Downing Street has not laid on one of these for a visitor since Donald Trump visited Chequers.