Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs
- Unemployment rate falls to lowest figure for a decade
- My snap PMQs verdict
- Lunchtime summary
- Afternoon summary
Hearing rumours that UKG might go for early vote on Trident renewal. Labour needs to quickly decide what side it's on - hopefully against.
I use poppers - I out myself as a popper user and I would be directly affected by this legislation. I am astonished to find it is proposing to be banned and frankly, so would many other gay men. If I follow my own mindset reaction to this, it simply serves to bring the whole law into disrepute.
Watch: Tory MP says I use poppers and a ban on their supply would be stupid https://t.co/tH7Dur39ys via @BBCNews
Shadow ministers will not have to resign if they oppose Jeremy Corbyn’s position on the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent, a senior Labour party source has said. As the Press Association reports, the comment is the strongest indication yet that Corbyn may offer his MPs a free vote in any Commons vote on Trident which comes before the completion of the party’s ongoing review of its defence policy. According to CND, the vote could come as early as next week. The Press Association says:
Asked whether Labour’s existing policy of support for Trident would be applied in any such vote, the senior party source described it as “a policy in review, which puts it in special circumstances” and said it would be for the leader himself to decide on what approach Labour would take.
“The policy is in review and if there is a vote in parliament, depending on how it is framed, there will then be a decision about how to deal with that,” said the source.
You have form here because there was no mention of tax credit cuts in the manifesto either - this proposal will affect half a million students, not anywhere in your manifesto.
What I would say to Liam is he is now in a country with a university system with more people going to university than ever before and more people from low-income backgrounds going to university than ever before. In addition, what I would say to Liam, and I wish him well, is that he will not pay back a penny of his loan until he’s earning £21,000, he will not start paying back in full until he’s earning £35,000.
Our policy is actually going to put more money in the hands of students like Liam, which is why we’re doing it. By contrast the Labour policy, which is to scrap the loans and scrap the fees which would cost 10 billion, would mean going back to a situation where people went out, worked hard, pay their taxes for an elite to go to university. We’re uncapping aspiration, you want to put a cap on it.
Thousands of civilians have been killed in Yemen, including a large number by the Saudi air force, and they’ve done that using British-built planes with pilots who are trained by British instructors who are dropping British-made bombs and are co-ordinated by the Saudis in the presence of British military advisers.
Isn’t it time for the prime minister to admit that Britain is effectively taking part in a war in Yemen that is costing thousands of civilian lives and he has not sought Parliamentary approval to do this.
We have some of the most stringent arms control measures of any country anywhere in the world. But just to be absolutely clear about our role, we’re not a member of the Saudi-led coalition, British military personnel are not directly involved in the Saudi-led coalition’s operations.
Personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets and we’re not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process.
Corbyn aide on Falklands "There shd be a dialogue (with Argentina ) about sovereignty with no preconditions "
Corbyn aide says Labour leader supports self determination of Falkland Islanders but needs to be "a long term solution to the conflict"
Corbyn aide calls for "mature and modern" debate over Falklands and not a "knee jerk response"
Do you agree with me that our nuclear deterrent only works against our nation’s enemies if our nuclear submarines are actually equipped with nuclear missiles? And that those such as the leader of the opposition who do not believe this have a defence policy inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and shows that while the members opposite may Twist And Shout, their current leader certainly needs Help.
There is a comic element to sending submarines to sea without missiles in, but in fact it is absolutely serious because the deterrent has been, on a cross-party basis, an absolutely key part of our defence and making sure we have got the ultimate insurance policy, which we support on this side and we should vote on in this House.
All I can say when it comes to Beatles songs, I suspect that the leader of the opposition prefers Back In The U.S.S.R.
We would be concerned and strongly against any change from that initial country status that we have got right now. It is important.
Here’s a Guardian video with some highlights from PMQs.
The UQ about the red door policy for asylum seekers is over.
I will post a summary soon.
Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesman, says that a Lib Dem councillor in the town started raising concerns about this in 2012. But she was told by G4S that there had been no complaints.
Brokenshire says G4S have said they will get to the bottom of this. He has commissioned an audit that will uncover what happened.
Labour’s David Winnick says aspects of 1936 Berlin should not be repeated in Britain in 2016.
Brokenshire says the Home Office is looking into what happened.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, says it should not have taken a Times journalist to uncover this. He says G4S are “serial offenders”. If doors were painted a particular colour, that is “appalling”.
Brokenshire says he will be appearing before Vaz’s committee soon. He can discuss this further.
Stuart McDonald, the SNP MP, says at best this was an “eye-wateringly negligent” policy. But there are more general concerns about how asylum seekers are looked after, he says.
Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Home Office minister, asks why no one thought it was inappropriate to paint doors like this. He praises Andrew Norfolk at the Times for exposing this. He asks if this is an isolated case. Or is it happening elsewhere?
Brokenshire says he has asked officials to find out if this is an isolated case.
Damian Green, a Conservative former immigration minister, says over the last decade or so, while there has been concern about immigration nationally, at local level immigrants have been welcomed. He says it should not take six months to repaint these doors. The work should start now, he says.
Andy McDonald, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough, says he has been told it will take three to six months to repaint these doors. It should be done more quickly, in three to six weeks, he says.
Brokenshire says G4S have said they will treat this as a matter of urgency. He says he told G4S this should be done as a matter of urgency.
James Brokenshire, the Home Office minister, is responding to today’s revelation in the Times about asylum seekers in Middlesbrough being housed in homes with red doors that apparently mark them out.
Wednesday's Times front page: Apartheid on streets of Britain #tomorrowspaperstoday#bbcpaperspic.twitter.com/4hYiCfNzd6
Related: Asylum seekers in north-east claim they are identifiable by red doors
The DUP’s Jim Shannon says justice has not been done in this case.
Bradley says, when we know what could have been done differently, she and other ministers will do all they can to ensure they get justice for Poppi Worthington.
Bob Blackman, a Conservative, calls for a proper judicial inquiry.
Bradley says we need to see what the second inquest will find.
Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, urges Bradley to keep pursuing this case.
And what is the situation with the police investigation now. The police do not need to wait for a second inquiry to investigate?
Simon Hoare, a Conservative, says his blood runs cold at this case.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, says the crucial relationship is the one between the police and social services.
Bradley says it is vital for agencies to work together.
Stewart Jackson, a Conservative, calls for a review into the connection between family courts and other agencies.
Bradley says she will discuss this with the justice secretary.
John Woodcock, Poppi’s constituency MP, says Poppi was healthy when she went to bed. The next morning, when she was brought downstairs, she was in a lifeless state. She had significant bleeding from her anus.
She says a judge has concluded that she was raped by her father, Paul Worthington.
John Woodcock, the Labour MP, asks for a statement about the failings highlighted by the death of Poppi Worthington.
Here is our story about this case.
Related: Poppi Worthington death: toddler was sexually assaulted by father, says judge
13 of the 17 MPs sitting on Labour's frontbench for #PMQs today are women. Compares to just 4 women of the 16 MPs on Tory frontbench
Is that four references to Trident now? Tories operating first strike policy when it comes to PMQs and Corbyn on nukes.
Hannah Bardell, an SNP MP, asks about the case of a constituent killed in Israel.
Cameron says he will take this up with the Israeli authorities so that the woman’s family get answers.
Labour’s Harry Harpham asks what the government will do to help the steel industry.
Cameron says the govenrment has introduced measures that will cut energy costs for the steel industry by £400m over this parliament. And, under Labour, 35,000 jobs were lost from the steel industry. He also says, if Harpham is concerned about the steel industry, he should tell his leader to back Trident.
Bob Blackman, a Conservative, asks Cameron to congratulate those involved in the Boy Scouts.
Cameron says the Scouts are a great part of the Big Society.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP MP, asks Cameron to reaffirm his commitment to self-determination for the Falkland Islanders.
Cameron says he can give that guarantee. He finds it extraordinary that Labour wants to give away this right. That will never happen while he is in Downing Street, he says.
David Jones, the Conservative former Welsh secretary, asks Cameron to back a new group promoting the north Wales economy.
Cameron says he will back it. HS2 will help this area, he says.
Jonathan Edwards, the Plaid Cymru MP, accuses the government of putting the interests of bankers ahead of those of Welsh steelworkers.
Cameron says he wants to help Welsh industries break into Chinese markets.
John Baron, a Conservative, says parliament should be able to block EU laws. Will Cameron meet Baron and his colleagues to discuss this?
Cameron says he is having a lot of meetings. But he feels Baron may have made up his mind about leaving the EU, so he does not want to waste his time with a meeting.
Labour’s Tulip Siddiq asks if Cameron will join him at an event to promote the bone marrow register. A constituent needs a transplant.
Cameron says he supports this campaign.
Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative and Cameron’s apprenticeship envoy, says young people who log onto the Ucas website should be told about apprenticeship degrees.
Cameron says this is a good point.
Labour’s Alan Whitehead asks what Cameron has got against young people.
Cameron says there are record numbers in work and university.
Snap PMQs Verdict: Corbyn never did get a proper answer to his very reasonable question about why the Tory plan to abolish student maintenance grants never appeared in the party manifesto, but he did not press this point and failed to seriously unsettle Cameron, who used confident, broad-brush arguments and aspirational rhetoric to get the upper hand quite easily in a student finance exchange which may have left some listeners more baffled than enlightened. But the ugly Tory heckling of Corbyn did backfire badly.
Corbyn quotes from someone who wants to become a mental health nurse. She is someone we need in our NHS. We need her aspiration.
Cameron says two out of three people like this Vicky are turned away by the current system. This government will help them train.
Corbyn said he did say Liam earned £25,000, not £21,000. Why are maintenance grants being abolished?
Cameron says he wants to uncap university places, so that more students can go to university. Labour introduced tuition fees, he says. He quotes from Ed Balls saying Labour did not have the right policies at the election. The system is working for students he says, and the numbers prove it.
Jeremy Corbyn attracts a lot of jeering before he even starts. Can Cameron tell MPs where in his manifesto he put his plan to abolish maintenance grants for students?
Cameron said it said the Tories would cut the deficit and uncap student numbers, and it has done both.
Rishi Sunak, a Conservative, says “Britain is back in work”.
Cameron says over the last year employment has gone up in every region. Unemployment as its lowest rate for almost a decade. We have a record number of people in work, and a record number of women in work.
Labour’s Gareth Thomas says people who work hard for a company should be allowed to benefit from its profits. Does David Cameron think firms like Sports Direct should give workers a share of profits?
Cameron says the government has encouraged profit sharing. It has also introduced the national living wage.
11 women on Labour front bench for #PMQs Uninterrupted row to Corbyn's right. Tories have 4.
Four minutes before PMQs, Dennis Skinner was sitting on the Labour front bench next to Tom Watson. Wondered if I'd missed another reshuffle
.@jeremycorbyn - with his red folder - has arrived for #PMQs
And here is some more detail from the Electoral Commission figures.
From BuzzFeed’s Siraj Datoo
The Conservatives spent more than £1,000,000 on Facebook advertising during the general election, according to Elec Commission data.
The party also spent £365,000 on market research using Jim Messina's company. Constituency polling is expensive, after all.
So about 6.5% of the Conservative party's election budget went directly on Facebook ads.
Electoral Commission figures show that £2.4 million, or 15% of the Conservtive's £15.5 million election budget went to Lynton Crosby's CTF.
15% of Tory Election Budget Went to @LyntonCrosby's CTF https://t.co/BEadjs6Y2Upic.twitter.com/tFPBwuIwt8
Labour spent about £561,000 on services of American pollster Stan Greenberg pic.twitter.com/XqwscBr5uO
And Tories spent about £369,000 on services of Obama's American campaign expert Jim Messina pic.twitter.com/T1BLYCA9pA
Lynton Crosby bills: £390k, £245k, £150k, 5 x £114k, £98k; 10 x £63k, £48k. At least £2.4m in all to Crosby pic.twitter.com/qwXo7rqOC3
Spend per seat won: Con £47,236 Lab £52,100 SNP £26,348 LD £441,138 Ukip £2,851,456 https://t.co/iptQkf5CfR
Another interesting stat from the election spending is that the Tories massively outspent Labour on market research (£4.68m vs £928,000)
The Electoral Commission has published figures for campaign spending by the parties at the general election.
Here is an extract from the news release with the headline figures.
Any political party that stood more than one candidate at the election was required to submit a campaign expenditure return to the Commission. The release of today’s information means there was a total reported spend of £39,023,564 at the 2015 General Election by a combination of 57 parties and 23 non-party campaigners. Reported spending for parties does not cover some costs (e.g. staffing) and candidate spending is reported separately. In comparison, at the General Election in 2010 there was £34,463,890 of reported party spending by 40 parties and 24 non-party campaigners.
Of the total amount spent on campaigning during the regulated period for the General Election - which ran from 23 May 2014 to polling day (Thursday 7 May 2015) - six political parties reported spending a total of £36,662,363 (94% of the total). This compares to £30.9 million spent by the same six parties in 2010.
There are two urgent questions today. They will come at 12.30pm, after PMQs.
UQs: 1. @JWoodcockMP On case of Poppi Worthington. 2. @AndyMcDonaldMP On alleged apartheid treatment of asylum seekers in Middlesbrough
Commenting on the unemployment and wages figures, Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, says Britain is going through “a Tory decade of record low pay”. In a statement he said:
We welcome the fact more people are in work, but low pay remains a crisis for millions. Britain is currently going through a Tory decade of record low pay. On the latest forecasts working people are set to suffer the lowest rate of pay growth for a century. However, today’s figures show that the Tories are even failing below those projections.
In the middle of this wage slump, the worst thing the government can do is take money out of the pockets of low and middle paid working people. That is why Labour is calling for a full reversal of universal credit work allowances cuts that will take an average of £1,600 a year out the pockets of 2.6m working families.
Here is some more comment on today’s unemployment and wages figures.
Overall, these are another very positive set of labour market statistics. There has been a big increase in employment, with resumed strong growth in self-employment. There has also been a significant rise in employee jobs, mostly full time and all of them permanent.
Unemployment is down again to just over 5%. The chancellor’s goal of full employment – which we define as 3 to 4% unemployment as defined by the ILO – looks well within reach provided the economic recovery can be sustained. Most of Southern England (outside London) and the East Midlands are already at or very close to full employment on this measure. The challenge is now to secure sustained low levels of unemployment in the rest of Britain.
The UK jobs market continues to strengthen, with strong growth in both full-time jobs and self-employment.
But while recent employment trends are very positive, the UK’s pay recovery risks running out of steam. Real earnings growth has fallen back below its pre-crisis trend, even while inflation remains close to zero.
The unemployment rate (5.1%) is lower than at any time for a decade but still not triggering higher wage pressure, suggesting that the rate of unemployment consistent with the Bank of England’s 2% inflation target has fallen significantly over time. This strengthens the case for keeping UK interest rates on hold, over and above any concerns about the state of the global economy. It also means that we need to rethink what we mean by a ‘tight labour market’. Unemployment may now have to fall to a very low rate, perhaps below 4%, before we see strong upward pressure on pay.
We also have the lowest jobseekers-to-vacancies ratio since the beginning of 2005, with firms still hunting for skilled employees. While this is clearly good news and the increasing number of vacancies means that the unemployment rate could continue to drop, addressing the skills gap takes on a fresh importance. For small firms that employ fewer than ten employees, the struggle to find workers is particularly acute, with vacancies rising by 13.1% in the last quarter.
Corporate performance has been strong in recent years, but being able to plug vacancies is critical to ensuring this continues in 2016. This is another reason why employers hope the government will not follow through on suggestions to restrict skilled migration from outside the EU, especially as the monthly quota for Tier 2 visas has been shown to be inadequate in addressing skill shortages.
Despite record employment levels nationally, in the Northern Powerhouse regions the proportion of working age adults in work remains below the UK average, and the lion’s share of the jobs growth is clustered around a booming London and the south.
In contrast to the south east, the employment rate in Yorkshire and the Humber actually fell back on last year, showing some of the weaknesses the northern regions still face.
Here is Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, on the unemployment and wage figures.
Rising employment is good news for those seeking new jobs or moving out of unemployment. But the government also needs to do more to address job quality.
While wages are still rising, the rate of progress has slowed and the UK is still facing a lost decade on pay. We need a recovery that delivers both higher employment and strong pay growth.
Here’s the ONS statistician David Freeman on today’s unemployment figures.
These results show the labour market continued to strengthen in the autumn.
The employment rate, at 74%, was the highest on record, as was that for women, while the rise in the number of people in work - 276,000 on the quarter - was the third highest on record.
My colleague Phillip Inman has written about the wage figures in today’s statistics. Here is the start of his story.
Wages growth slowed in November to its lowest rate since February 2015 in the latest signal that the pace of Britain’s recovery is rapidly cooling down.
Wages grew at 2% in the three months to November, down from 2.4% in the previous month, after breaking through the 3% barrier in the summer.
Related: UK unemployment falls but wage growth weakens
Here is David Cameron on the unemployment figures.
Unemployment is now below where it was before the recession. We must stick to our plan to keep delivering jobs and security for people.
Here is the start of the Press Association story about the unemployment figures.
George Osborne says unemployment is at a 10-year low. (See 9.47am.) He is referring to the unemployment figure (1.68m). That is equivalent to 5.1% of the workforce, and it has not been this low since the period between August and October in 2005.
Unemployment has fallen to a near eight-year low and a record number of people are in work, official figures have shown.
The jobless total fell by 99,000 in the three months to November to 1.6 million.
George Osborne, the chancellor, says unemployment is now at its lowest rate for a decade. He has put out this statement about today’s figures.
Today marks an important milestone on the road to full employment. The unemployment rate has fallen below the rate we last saw before the great recession, and now stands at its lowest rate for a decade.
Employment is at its highest rate in our history, there are more women in work than ever before and 130,000 fewer young people unemployed than this time last year.
The ONS has been tweeting some charts about today’s unemployment figures.
#Unemployment rate 5.1% for Sep-Nov 2015, down from 5.8% a year earlier https://t.co/JHtQT8CKWipic.twitter.com/hykSwTBxUs
#Employment rate 74.0% for Sep-Nov 2015, highest since records began in 1971 https://t.co/cAhXurlpwDpic.twitter.com/IZXaQ0cRGl
For Sep-Nov 2015 there were 31.39 million people in work and 1.68 million unemployed https://t.co/NVTygyrd0Zpic.twitter.com/luzDrkjR9q
For Sep-Nov 2015 wages up 2.0% on a year earlier including bonuses, & 1.9% excluding bonuses https://t.co/dmuaZVGZvLpic.twitter.com/LOlBPtvqzL
Here are the headline unemployment figures.
The European commission wants to change EU asylum rules, the Financial Times reports this morning. The commission is expected to propose scrapping arrangements that mean refugees have to claim asylum in the first country European they arrive in.
Wednesday's FT front page Brussels rule change to put greater refugee burden on UK #tomorrowspaperstoday#bbcpaperspic.twitter.com/fR9OFx58Tv
Related: Fresh battle awaits Cameron as EU plans to scrap 'Dublin regulation'
The Labour MP Ian Austin has been tweeting about the Beckett report this morning.
Labour's long-awaited inquiry into election: blame the media, blame the polls, blame the voters, blame the Tories. Everyone's fault but ours
Dame Margaret Beckett, the former Labour deputy leader and former foreign secretary, published her report into why the party lost the general election yesterday. She was commissioned to do it by Harriet Harman when Harman was acting Labour leader, but the report did not receive a particularly favourable reception. For example, this is from my colleague John Harris, who is by no means hostile to the Labour party.
Beckett rpt on Labour's defeat amazingly thin gruel. No historical context, no big questions posed - desiccated calculating, & banal with it
Let’s see what the stated position is by the time of the next election. We are going to have a thorough and major debate. But I’m very much with Len McCluskey, some of this conversation frankly is going to be irrelevant by the time of the next election, because major decisions about Trident will have been made.
This is a really difficult area for us. I think our approach is the right one, not to try and exploit people’s difficulties and to recognise those who are harmed and how we as a country can deal with immigration. I think we are going to have to feel our way towards an approach that people more understand. We did deal with it, in the end I think we had the right policies towards immigration, but the simple thuggishness of the kind of Ukip and Conservative approach is easier to understand and we didn’t overcome those communication difficulties.
Only time will tell. I think that Jeremy performed an unexpected political miracle in the scale of the votes that he got in the Labour party, and the way in which he inspired people. And if he can do that with the British people we’ll be doing alright.
One of the biggest mistakes we could make is simply to say ‘oh it was all because of Ed Miliband and that’s fine and he’s gone, so now we don’t have a problem’.
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