Keir Starmer has given an interview to broadcasters following the news that a joint Dutch/Belgian/British investigation has led to an arrest in Amsterdam of a man suspected of playing a key role in supplying small boats. (See 1.19pm.)

After the new government abandoned the Tories’ Rwanda policy, Starmer has been keen to show that his policy, which involves a beefed-up focus on breaking up people-smuggling gangs, provides a viable alternative. He said this arrest showed that international law enforcement cooperation can deliver results.

He said:

The entire focus until we had the election was on a gimmick, the Rwanda gimmick, and not enough attention was on taking down the gangs that are running this vile trade. I’ve long said that there is a serious issue in people-smuggling and that the only way to deal with it is to take down the gangs, the groups that are running this vile trade …

This is a significant arrest, and it follows careful work by the National Crime Agency – some of which I went to look at myself not so many weeks ago – intelligence gathering work, collaboration, co-operating across borders, exactly the serious response that we need to a very serious problem.

Explaining why arrests like this would make a difference, Starmer said:

I don’t accept the proposition that none of this is worth doing because somebody else pops up. We are taking down the gangs. It’s a step. It’s an important step. Of course, there are going to be other steps that are necessary …

If the boats and the engines aren’t available, it obviously makes it much more difficult for these crossings to be made and we’re dealing with gangs and groups that are making a huge amount of money from this vile trade.

And so it is really important that we take these vital steps against them in relation to disrupting their pattern and the way that they do their business.

So that’s why it’s very significant that this arrest has taken place today.

This is a significant piece of the jigsaw. I’m not pretending it’s the silver bullet. There are other steps that are going to be necessary, but this is a very important step.

Keir Starmer has said the arrest of a 44-year-old Turkish man suspected of being a supplier of small boats was a “significant piece of the jigsaw” in tackling Channel migrant crossings but “I’m not pretending it’s the silver bullet”, PA Media says. PA reports:

The suspect was detained at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam on Wednesday after a joint investigation by Dutch and Belgian authorities and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

He is suspected of shipping dinghies and engines from Turkey and storing them in Germany, before they are moved to northern France for crossings.

The man is facing extradition to Belgium over charges of human smuggling, the spokesman added.

The prime minister has put international co-operation with law enforcement agencies in Europe at the heart of his efforts to cut small boat crossings.

So far this year more than 32,000 people have arrived in the UK having made the journey across the English Channel by boat, according to Home Office figures.

John Swinney criticised after Scottish government again delays plan for national care service

Libby Brooks

John Swinney has come under fire from Tories, Labour and Lib Dems at FMQs over two key health issues this week – the row about health secretary Neil Gray taking ministerial cars to travel to football games, and the ongoing “shambles” of Scottish government attempts to create a national care service.

At first minister’s questions in Holyrood, Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay told Swinney that the SNP government had “a reckless disregard for taxpayer’s money”. He went on:

Health secretary Neil Gray takes limos to the football. John Swinney wastes cash on the national care service that everybody knows is not going to work.

Later this afternoon Gray will make a statement to the chamber to explain why he needed the chauffeur-driven cars to take him to his favourite football team, Aberdeen’s, matches at Hampden three times in six months.

And earlier today the Scottish government insisted that plans to centralise adult social care currently delivered by local authorities into a single body accountable to the Scottish government had not been ditched but delayed again, with a revised timetable worked out in the new year.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said that Swinney had “wasted £30m and three years on the wrong solution” and that the plans have been significantly delayed because of uncertainty over costs and the withdrawal of support by key unions.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the plans were “opposed by care users, unions and experts and nothing more than an expensive power grab that would do nothing to improve the lives of care users”.

But Swinney insisted that disabled people’s organisations, carers and service users have all pressed for a national service and that the revised timetable would allow for time to put in place arrangements to tackle the current postcode lottery.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who has tabled the private member’s bill on assisted dying that will be debated two weeks tomorrow, has said she is “disappointed” by Wes Streeting, the health secretary, saying the new law could cut funding for other NHS services.

Streeting made the claim yesterday, in an interview that implies he is increasingly keen to ensure that MPs vote down the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill at second reading.

Asked about Streeting’s comments, Leadbeater told PoliticsHome:

I’m disappointed that the health secretary came out to speak about the bill before he had even seen the bill, and a couple of comments that were made on the media … would suggest he hasn’t read the bill. So, that is disappointing.

She also implied that Streeting was in breach of an instruction to ministers that they should not take part in the public debate on the bill. She said:

The important thing is that this debate happens, and everybody is absolutely entitled to their different views on the issue.

But I have found it disappointing that some members of the cabinet have spoken out very vocally on the issue, and others have done as instructed and not expressed their views. So, I’ve found that quite disappointing and quite upsetting.

Last month Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, distributed a letter to cabinet ministers telling them that the government was neutral on the bill. He said that in interviews they could confirm their previously stated views on the issue, but he said they “should exercise discretion and should not take part in the public debate”.

Airline passengers will benefit from tougher enforcement of consumer protection laws following an inquiry into the August 2023 air traffic control meltdown, transport secretary Louise Haigh has said.

Sinn Féin challenges Starmer to say when he would call border poll, as part of its Irish election campaign

Lisa O’Carroll

Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Féin, has said Keir Starmer must set out the circumstances in which he will call a referendum on a united Ireland.

McDonald, who is campaigning to be Ireland’s new prime minister as part of a general election campaign, said she would produce a green paper on unification within 100 days of taking office, if successful.

Recent polls show Sinn Féin, which two years ago was the most popular party in Ireland despite being in opposition, will struggle to be returned as the largest party after the ballot on 29 November.

Nonetheless the party is keeping the pressure up and says it would dedicate a junior ministry within the department of the taoiseach dedicated to the party’s long term goal of a single government on the island of Ireland.

The Good Friday agreement says a referendum, or border poll, should take place if the government believes a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote in favour of reunification. There would be a vote in Northern Ireland and in Ireland. In theory a simple majority would be enough for reunification to happen, but many people believe support would have to be much higher for the vote to carry authority.

Starmer has already said the prospect is “not even on the horizon”.

McDonald told reporters:

The British government needs to start now indicating for them what they believe is the tipping point at which they believe a referendum would be called.

As the UQ on council tax went on, Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, mocked the opposition for not having a clear position on what the council tax cap should be. He also pointed out that, while Kemi Badenoch was implying at PMQs yesterday the cap was too high, her councillors want the cap removed altogether.

In his response to Pennycook’s opening statement (see 10.42am), David Simmonds, a Conservative local government, claimed there was a £3.7bn black hole in local government finance – which he defined as the gap between the planned in increase in local government spending (£3.7bn), and the extra grant allocated (£1.3bn).

He also asked what services might be cut if the 5% cap on council tax increases allowed without a referendum remained in place.

The UQ seemed inspired by today’s Daily Mail splash. (See 9.22am.)

Pennycook said that he did not recognise the £2.4bn figure quoted by Simmonds. He said he assumed it did not include extra money councils would get from business rates, and as a result of new homes being built.

He repeated the point about how the current 5% cap, which is being maintained, was Conservative policy. (See 10.42am.) And he went on:

The question for the opposition is are they saying that that cap should be abolished, as the Rebuilding the Road to Victory Conservative LGA [Local Government Association] document called for? Or are they saying that limit should be reduced, which would be contrary to the policy that was in place when the now leader of the opposition [Kemi Badenoch] was local government minister.

At a briefing yesterday after PMQs, the Tories refused to say what they wanted to happen to the cap.

But in the Rebuilding the Road to Victory document produced by the Tory LGA group before the general election, Conserative local government leaders proposed:

Remove the caps on council tax (mirroring the existing arrangements for parish councils) which will allow councillors to be held accountable for their decisions on taxation at the ballot box. This recommendation if adopted would highlight to government just how financially prudent Conservative councils can be.

UPDATE: This is what a Conservative spokesperson said at a post-PMQs briefing yesterday when asked what the party would do to tackle the shortfall that it says exists in local government funding.

It is not for us to say, we are in opposition. It is for the government, and we’ve just heard them say that the council tax cap is not going to change. So it is now for the government to spell out how they expect councils to deal with that shortfall.

In the Commons Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, is responding to the urgent question about council tax. (See 9.41am.)

He says there have been caps on the extent to which councils can raise council tax every year since 2012. And he says the current cap – 5% for councils which have social care responsibilities – were put in place by the last government. Any council that wants to go beyond the cap has to hold a referendum.

He says, when the last government was in office, the Office for Budget Responsibility assumed that councils would put up council tax by 5% in all years going ahead.

He also accuses the Conservatives of leaving local government finance in “a mess”.

Ministers are urging the live music industry to impose a voluntary levy on tickets to large concerts at stadiums and arenas to help fund grassroots venues.

They want the scheme to come into effect next year. They have said they will consider the effectiveness of this move before deciding if further measures are needed to help small venues.

As PA Media reports, some bands have already taken the step to donate a portion of ticket sales to help fund smaller venues. Enter Shikari gave £1 of every ticket sold for their 2024 arena tour to the Music Venue Trust charity as a gesture of support for the grassroots live music sector. Coldplay have also pledged to donate 10% of profits from their upcoming UK stadium tour to support smaller venues.

In a statement, Chris Bryant, the culture minister, said:

Grassroots music venues are one of the UK’s most valuable and yet undervalued cultural assets. They are where bands try out new material, where whole new genres are born, where musicians experiment and where audiences get to experience the raw power of live music.

These venues support thousands of jobs and are a vital part of our local communities. Without a flourishing grassroots music industry the rest of our music industry will wither.

It is crucial that we work together to support the grassroots including venues, festivals, artists and promoters. That is why I am urging the industry voluntarily to introduce a ticket levy on the biggest commercial players, to help ensure the health and future success of our entire live music industry for decades to come.

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen to its lowest level for five months, PA Media reports. PA says:

An estimated 7.57 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of September, relating to 6.34 million patients – down from 7.64 million treatments and 6.42 million patients at the end of August, NHS England said.

These are the lowest figures since April 2024.

The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.

Good morning. We’re two weeks on from the budget, and from the government’s point of view it seems to have landed quite well. Nothing has unravelled, there have not been any U-turns (yet?) and Labour is confident that it has manoeuvred the Tories into a position where they are attacking the budget tax rises but backing the budget spending measures – an irrational position that is ultimately unsustainable.

But that does not mean budget-related problems for the government have gone away, as a quick look at today’s front pages will show.

The Times is splashing a story about on ongoing complaints from business about the impact of the national insurance tax increase. It says “a post-budget survey of 185 businesses by the CBI found that 61 per cent of companies polled had formed a negative view of [Rachel] Reeves’s announcements, while 60 per cent said it had made Britain a less attractive place to invest.”

The Daily Mail is splashing on a story about how councils in England will be allowed to raise council tax by up to 5% next year without holding a referendum. This is exactly the same cap that has been in place since 2022, but a 5% rise would now be above inflation, and the Conservatives are suggesting the cap should be lower.

And Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has given an interview to the BBC saying there will be “eye-watering cuts” to the police in London because of a lack of government funding. It is not unusual for people running big public service organisations to complain about their budgets when they are negotiating with Whitehall for money, but Rowley’s comments are striking nevertheless. In an interview with Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast Rowley said he was “deeply troubled” by the situation he was in. He explained:

This is not just about this year’s decisions, but it’s a cumulative effect of decisions over the last decade or so which have put us in a more and more precarious position.

Some of the things that successive commissioners and mayors have used to balance the books – like selling police stations and using reserves – all of those things have run out. So those are propped up the budget. Those props have gone.

The chancellor has been very clear – it’s a difficult public sector context. You add all those things together and you get a dramatic change in budgets, and of a scale that’s never going to be absorbed by efficiencies. And it’s going to require some pretty eye-watering cuts to the services we provide to London.

Rowley said he faced some “very, very difficult choices” and that these would become clear to the public “over the next few weeks”.

The government says it will increase spending on the police next year, but individual force budgets have not been decided yet. It wants to talk about pension funds instead. Reeves is delivering her Mansion House speech tonight and, as Kalyeena Makortoff reports, she is going to announce plans to merge local government retirement schemes into “megafunds”.

There is not much in the political diary for today, but no doubt the God of News will give us something to write about.

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