Starmer says he wouldn’t submit ‘very hard to justify’ honours list if PM

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would not put forward a resignation honours list following a potential stint as prime minister.

The Opposition leader, asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether he would have a resignation honours, said: “No. There are other opportunities but Tony Blair didn’t have a resignation list.

“It is very hard to justify.

“If it was reserved for people who had given incredible service… perhaps picking out people who had been involved in the development of the vaccine or some other real element of public service… but it is very hard to see how it is justified.

“There are other avenues for that and I think it is easier to be clean about this and say no, I wouldn’t do it. Tony Blair didn’t do it and I wouldn’t do it.”

Sir Keir Starmer said his plans for clean energy would “create good jobs, well-paid jobs, half a million new jobs”, including 50,000 in Scotland.

The Labour leader faces a dispute with unions over his plans to ban new North Sea oil and gas exploration.

But, in a speech in Leith, he said his programme “will power us forward towards net zero, generate growth right across the country, end the suffocating cost-of-living crisis, and get (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s boot off our throat with real energy security”.

“A stronger, more secure Britain, once again at the service of working people, with cheaper bills and clean electricity by 2030.”

David Warburton has formally quit as an MP after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and cocaine use.

The decision means Rishi Sunak faces another potentially difficult by-election in the Somerton and Frome seat vacated by the former Tory MP.

Suella Braverman has urged police to “ramp up” the use of controversial stop and search powers in a move that has been criticised as “deeply irresponsible” by human rights campaigners.

In a letter to the police chiefs of all 43 forces in England and Wales, the home secretary said officers who use the powers have her “full support”.

She said police powers should be ramped up “to prevent violence and save more lives”. Ms Braverman also singled out “young Black males” who she said are “disproportionately affected” by knife crime.

Rishi Sunak and other Tory MPs refusing to vote on the Privileges Committee’s report into Boris Johnson lying to Parliament would be “an insult to bereaved families”, the Liberal Democrats have warned, Archie Mitchell reports.

Speaking ahead of a vote on the report, deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Conservative MPs have a choice to “stand up for their constituents or let Boris Johnson off the hook”.

Ms Cooper said: ““Refusing to back this motion would be an insult to bereaved families who grieved alone while Johnson lied and partied.

“The buck stops at the very top of Government – if Rishi Sunak really wanted to govern with integrity he shouldn’t be running scared of this vote.”

Mr Sunak is expected to skip the vote and is meeting with Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson.

Failure to transition to renewable energy and create green jobs will go down as a “strategic failure” in generations to come, Keir Starmer has warned.

The Labour leader told BBC Radio 4: “The whole world knows that the future of power is bound up with renewables.

“Look what’s happening in America – the Inflation Reduction Act – it’s like a magnet for business and investment.

“We can’t sit this out  – we have a real opportunity to get ahead in this country and this idea that we can’t do it, we can’t compete…in generations to come this will go down as a strategic error that cost jobs.”

Mr Starmer added that the UK could not afford to miss the opportunity for “cheaper bills” and “energy security”.

Labour could stop local communities from vetoing new onshore windfarms, Keir Starmer has suggested.

He told BBC Radio 4: “I hope we don’t come to that point because I think that if we manage this through we can actually achieve something where there’s real consensus and the communities see the benefits.

“But yes, there has to come a point where – if we’re to move forward – that we don’t have simple individual vetoes across the whole of the country.”

Rishi Sunak “should have said no” to Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, Sir Keir Starmer has said as two of those who featured attended a boozy Christmas dance party at Tory headquarters during lockdown, Archie Mitchell reports.

The Labour leader said it is “simply inappropriate” for Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallet to be awarded.

The party at Tory HQ was organised by the campaign team for Lord Bailey, who was running for London mayor at the time, and was awarded a peerage by Mr Johnson. Ben Mallet, a former aide to the ex-prime minister who was awarded an OBE last week, is shown chatting to guests in the latest footage.

“It is only the latest of these videos or evidence of wrongdoing at Downing Street or Tory Party headquarters,” Sir Keir said.

He added: “I think most people look at that and say it is simply inappropriate for two of the people in that video to be getting honours. Why on earth didn’t Rishi Sunak simply say no?”

The Labour leader said he would have scrapped Mr Johnson’s honours if he were PM, adding that Mr Sunak should have waited to approve the list until the publication of a report into whether his predecessor had lied to Parliament.

“Whatever the previous conventions, we’ve never had a situation like this, where a previous Prime Minister has been found to have lied to Parliament not once but repeatedly,” Sir Keir said.

And he confirmed that if he becomes PM after the next election, he will not have a resignation honours list. “Tony Blair didn’t do it and I wouldn’t do it,” Sir Keir said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said neither he nor Sue Gray were asked to contribute to a Civil Service investigation into the former senior official’s move to become his chief-of-staff.

It follows reports that partygate investigator Ms Gray was found, following a Cabinet Office inquiry, to have breached Whitehall impartiality rules by holding job talks with Labour while still a civil servan.

Sir Keir told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme: “I don’t know anything about this Cabinet Office inquiry.

“Nobody asked me, or as far as I know, Sue, any questions in relation to it.

“So I don’t know where that has come from, I don’t know who wrote it, I haven’t seen it, I haven’t been asked to contribute towards it.

“So I would actually put that on one side. The committee that matters is the committee that has been in place, that makes a decision on whether someone coming out of the Civil Service can take up another job.

“That committee is in the process of making its decision, that is the only decision that actually matters.”

Conservative MP Stephen Hammond said he was planning to vote, should one be called, in favour of the Commons Privileges Committee ruling that Boris Johnson misled MPs over partygate.

Speaking to TalkTV, the former health minister said: “If there is a vote on it, and I think it is quite a big ‘if’ actually, I will vote to support the committee’s report.

“I think there are two issues here. Firstly, regardless of who this report is about, we have House of Commons procedures and if we’re not prepared to uphold them in this case, will we be prepared to uphold them in future cases?

“And if we can’t support what the committee which we set up has said, are we capable of self-regulating ourselves? And do we really want judges and outside people doing this sort of inquiry in the future? I think not.

“So there is a point of principle here for Members of Parliament to think about quite carefully, about our own rules and how Parliament and the sovereignty of Parliament works.”

Mr Hammond said the findings had come from a “committee of our peers”, adding: “They have listened to all the evidence, they have come to this conclusion, and I think they deserve support for coming to this conclusion.”