Jeremy Wright, the Conservative deputy chair of the intelligence and security committee who tabled the Mandelson UQ, said the committee had “considerable sympathy” with the arguments used by the government to justify the redactions that went beyond the redactions allowed by the humble address.
He went on:
But we cannot accept that the government is entitled to ignore or to unilaterally alter the terms of the humble address. So does the Minister accept that if the government wants to argue that the humble address is too broad as drafted and needs to be refined, it must come to this house and make that argument and get the House’s consent for any alteration.
In response, Jones referred to his early comments justifying the redacting of information relating to personal data.
And referring to the government’s refusal to give the ISC informationn relating to Mandelson’s own security vetting, Jones said:
The raw data that is collected as part of those investigations, which, for example, might relate to how much money you have in a particular account or who you may have had a personal relationship with in the past, that raw data would never be published because if we did so, people would feel unable to answer those questions honestly and frankly in any UK security vetting investigation in the future, which would undermine the very basis of our national security system.
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
John Swinney has been re-elected Scotland’s first minister at Holyrood after an extended series of votes and speeches after every party leader stood for the post, to have a chance to speak on their favoured policies.
After winning his first election as Scottish National party leader on 7 May, Swinney was confirmed after 56 SNP MSPs backed him, after three rounds of voting where each leader was backed by their own MSPs.
The seventh Scottish parliament is slowly forming itself, after its presiding officer, Kenny Gibson, was elected on 14 May.
There will no business tomorrow while Swinney is formally sworn in by judges at the court of session. Swinney is due to name his cabinet tomorrow and ministers will be formally elected on Thursday. The inaugural first minister’s questions will take place on Thursday next week – three weeks after the election.
Anneliese Midgley, the Labour MP who is running the campaign in Makerfield, has sent a message to Labour MPs telling them that, in early canvassing in the constituency, the party has already contacted “lots of people who gave their vote elsewhere” in the local elections who say this time they are planning to vote for Andy Burnham. Max Kendix from the Times has the details.
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
At Holyrood MSPs have just elected John Swinney to carry on as first minister.
Earlier today, he gave an interview to the Today programme where he defended his controversial manifesto pledge to cap the prices of up to 50 everyday food items.
Swinney said he has a “public health responsibility” to ensure people can afford to buy healthy food.
Throughout the election campaign, I heard loud and clear from members of the public just the difficulty they’re having in affording the most basic shopping items. That obviously has an impact on people’s nutrition, and that’s where the responsibilities of the Scottish government kick in.
The manifesto pledge resulted in an immediate backlash from retailers who branded it “unworkable” and said it puts undue pressure on farmers and producers as well as smaller retailers.
It also puts the SNP on a collision course with the UK government; although the SNP has insisted that it can legislate for the caps using devolved public health powers, this is likely to impact on the UK’s internal market rules, which could well result in another constitutional row with Westminster.
But Swinney insisted he would “work constructively” with the UK government and denied he wanted a fight with Westminster where he could say he was standing up for the poor.
I enter those discussions in the spirit of wanting to find a solution for people who are struggling to afford their shopping in Scotland today.
In her Guardian article today, covering the findings of her research into the views of voters in Reform UK-leaning, post-industrial towns in England (see 11.24am), Sacha Hilorst said she spoke to many people who would favour SNP-style price caps on essential food items.
Andy Burnham has issued a statement following the confirmation that he will be Labour’s candidate for Makerfield.
Here is an extract from the statement.
I am glad that this by-election has finally put the places that make up the Makerfield constituency into the national spotlight. They have been neglected by national politics for too long. It is a good thing that all political parties are now on the hook to tell the voters here what they are going to do for them.
More than anything, people need life to be more affordable again. As Mayor, I have brought in changes which are helping, such as the £2 fare cap, free bus travel for our 16-18 year-olds and removing the 9.30am restriction from older and disabled people’s bus passes. But there is only so much I can do from Greater Manchester. If elected, I will have a relentless focus on reducing people’s everyday costs and bills and well as securing the investment these communities need.
Dear England playwright James Graham said he “may not have survived as an artist” if he “lived in a purely commercial environment” as he appeared in front of MPs to discuss the future of the BBC.
Giving evidence to the Commons culture committee this morning on BBC charter renewal, Graham said:
No one ever remembers the things I’ve done that didn’t work, but it’s the places where it didn’t work that I learned the most lessons as a creative. And if we lived in a purely commercial environment I may not have survived as an artist, particularly an artist from a background where I wasn’t given the training or I didn’t have the safety net of a subsidy from my parents.
I was allowed to fail and learn from that failing so that I can write a television drama.
Graham said his first ever play was supported by BBC Radio Nottingham.
We got a small budget from them, they gave us lots of publicity and chats as we opened in Nottingham, and I got both the confidence in talking about it, but also the empowerment and some of the resources and the training to do that.
He said the BBC did a “huge amount” of training, adding:
The drama programming budget at the BBC is under strain, and they probably are going to have to make cuts.
I worry about that, because I think it becomes a self-fulfilling cycle with the thing that you’re best at in the world and most admired at in the world, and you’re making cuts because of what I consider to be unnecessary funding pressures.
The HS2 high-speed railway will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains will not start running between London and Birmingham until as late as 2039, the government has admitted – £70bn more and 13 years later than originally promised. In the Commons, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said that the truncated railway would not be entirely completed until as late as 2043. Gwyn Topham has the story.
Severin Carrell is the Gaurdian’s Scotland editor.
Scotland’s charity regulator has opened an investigation into whether the Reform Scotland leader, Malcolm Offord, has wrongly failed to register his family trust as a Scottish charity.
Third Force News, the voluntary sector newspaper, has reported the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (Oscr) is investigating the Badenoch Trust because it is not registered with it, in contravention of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.
Offord pledged during the Holyrood election campaign to donate his MSPs salary to the Badenoch Trust, which is based and run from his family office suite on Charlotte Square in Edinburgh’s new town.
Despite stating it operates in Scotland, donating money to charities involved in young carers, mental health and education and the arts, amongst others, it is registered as a company and a charity in England.
Oscr told TFN:
Following an assessment of concerns raised about Badenoch Trust, we have opened an inquiry to gather further information and determine whether regulatory action is required. In line with our published policies, we are unable to comment further at this time.
Offord has been contacted for comment. TFN noted he refused to respond to its questions.
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Robert Kenyon, a plumber who was Reform’s candidate in Makerfield the general election, has been the party’s candidate in the upcoming by-election.
Born in Makerfield, he has served as an army reservist and previously worked for the NHS in Lancashire as a specialist technician.
He came within 5,399 votes of Josh Simons, who won won the seat for Labour.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said:
This by-election contest is now a David versus Goliath battle. This is the ‘plucky plumber’ taking on ‘open borders Burnham’. Only Reform UK can beat Labour in this by-election.
In the last Commons byelection, in Gorton and Denton, Reform UK lost to the Greens after the Greens put up Hannah Spencer, who is also a professional plumber, as their candidate.
Kenyon said in a statement released by the party:
Makerfield has never had a member of parliament who was actually born in Makerfield. This will be a tough fight but I am going to give this contest my best shot.
A number of candidates are understood to have been interviewed at Reform’s headquarters in London on Monday.
Here is Kenyon’s campaign video.
David Davis, the former Tory cabinet minister, raised a point of order after the Mandelson UQ was over. He said that refusing to comply in full with a humble address was a contempt of parliament and he said, if after publication of the files he thought the humble address had been ignored, he would table a motion accusing the government of contempt.
He said when Keir Starmer was shadow Brexit secretary, Starmer tabled a motion accusing the then Tory government of contempt on exactly those grounds. That motions was passed, he said.
Back to the Mandelson files, and in the Commons SNP’s Dave Doogan asked when after the Whitsun recess the documents would be published.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, said the documents would be published “as soon as we’re able to secure the time in the house”.
Christine Jardine (Lib Dem) tried again, and asked Jones when after recess the documents would be published.
Jones said he wanted it to be be published “as soon as possible after the Whitsun recess” and he said he was arranging that with the business managers.
But when Alec Shelbrooke (Con) asked if the documents would be published before the Makerfield byelection, which is expected on 18 June, Jones just said the documents would be released after the Whitsun recess.
Mark Francois (Con) asked again if the documents would come before 18 June. Jones said he needed to secure time from the business managers, but he said the files would be released “as soon as we’re ready to do so”.
Later, on a point of order, Francois said Jones would not need to secure parliamentary time for the files to be published because it is the government that controls parliamentary time.
Andy Burnham is Labour’s candidate for the Makerfield byelection, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.
NEW – Andy Burnaham is the candidate for Makerfield.
After all that, the NEC didn’t shortlist anyone else. It’s done.
There were other people who applied to be the candidate, but they were not shortlisted.
Labour’s Kim Johnson told Jones she thought the government was “still continuing to cover up Mandelson’s dodgy dealings by redacting and withholding certain information”.
In response, Jones said the claim of a cover-up was “merely conspiracy theory”.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
