At noon Rishi Sunak promised “integrity, professionalism & accountability”
At 5pm he made Suella Braverman Home Secretary, 1wk after she resigned for Ministerial Code breach/security lapse
He put party before country. Security is too important for this irresponsible Tory chaos https://t.co/AU9OmMnn9T
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) October 25, 2022
More Cabinet ministers were photographed arriving at Downing Street to attend the first meeting of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.
Severin Carrell
Nicola Sturgeon reminded Rishi Sunak of her hopes to stage a fresh Scottish independence referendum and urged significant action on living costs during a brief inaugural phone call with the prime minister on Tuesday night.
A Scottish government read-out of their conversation said the first minister also asked Sunak to honour his pledge for a more constructive relationship “built on mutual respect” between the government, after a fractious relationship with his predecessor Liz Truss.
The statement said:
The first minister also expressed the strong view that the UK government should address the pressure and pain being felt by people and businesses as a result of inflation and other economic pressures, and should not exacerbate that with a further wave of austerity.
[Finally,] the first minister made clear her intention to honour the mandate the Scottish government received from the people of Scotland at the last election.”
Sturgeon, the Scottish National party leader, noted that the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, had promised to consult with devolved administrations in advance of his emergency budget next week.
The continuing disarray at Westminster has led her finance secretary, John Swinney, to postpone by at least a week publication of Scotland’s draft budget. Swinney expects to cut hundreds of millions of pounds in spending, due to inflation and Hunt’s expected cuts.
In amongst a round of calls with foreign leaders on Tuesday, Sunak also called Mark Drakeford, the Labour Welsh first minister. It is something of a convention now for incoming prime ministers to speak to devolved government leaders soon after taking office, a tradition Truss ignored, to Sturgeon’s irritation.
More from the foreign secretary James Cleverly who this morning defended Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint Suella Braverman to the role of home secretary.
Braverman’s return to the Home Office comes just days after she was forced to resign from the same post over a serious security breach.
Cleverly told BBC Breakfast:
Suella made a mistake. She has said herself that she made a mistake. She’s apologised for that mistake and she stood down at the time.
He denied her return came in exchange for her endorsement of Sunak in the Tory leadership contest when Boris Johnson still threatened a comeback during the leadership race last week.
He added that Braverman has “very very clear ideas” about border control, policing and crime, adding:
She’s very passionate about that and got a very clear agenda for that. It’s clear that the prime minister wanted to see that delivered.
‘Not a bad thing’ if fiscal statement delayed, says Cleverly
The foreign secretary James Cleverly has suggested the fiscal statement planned for 31 October could be delayed as Rishi Sunak wants to ensure it “matches his priorities”.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Cleverly said:
Obviously the date of that fiscal statement was originally set with no expectation of a change of prime minister. We’ve now had a change of prime minister.
Sunak is in the process of forming a government and will want some time with his chancellor Jeremy Hunt “to make sure that the fiscal statement matches his priorities”, he continued. He said:
I don’t know whether that means that date is going to slip… The prime minister and the chancellor know they need to work quickly on this but they also want to get it right, so we’ll see what happens to that date.
He was also unable to confirm whether the government’s financial statement will go ahead on Monday while speaking to Sky News. He said:
We know it needs to come soon, we know people want certainty, we know people want a clear idea of the government’s plans. Whether it happens exactly on that day, I’m not able to confirm.
Ministers have been arriving at Downing Street to attend the first meeting of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.
Jeremy Hunt may delay Halloween fiscal statement
Rishi Sunak is considering a delay to next week’s highly anticipated fiscal statement intended for 31 October, according to a report.
The Times has reported that the prime minister is expected to meet the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, today to discuss his proposals to increase taxes and squeeze public spending that are due to be unveiled to MPs and markets on Monday.
Sunak is considering postponing the update until next month to allow more time to scrutinise the options, the paper writes.
The statement could be pushed back and turned into a full budget to set out the new government’s priorities for all areas of tax and spending, it adds.
A government source said that while Sunak was across the “broad thrust” of Hunt’s plans, he wanted to “get under the bonnet” of the options. They said:
The prime minister and chancellor will be looking at the timing of the statement in the near future.
What the papers said after prime minister’s reshuffle
Jonathan Yerushalmy
Rishi Sunak’s sudden return to the top of British politics and the unveiling of his new cabinet dominates the UK front pages on Wednesday.
The Guardian headlines “PM’s reshuffle gamble on first day in charge” and leads with an image of Rishi Sunak meeting King Charles at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
The paper writes that Sunak “pledged to bring ‘integrity and accountability’” but “gambled by restoring Suella Braverman to the Home Office less than a week after she was sacked for a security breach.”
Rishi Sunak to hold first cabinet meeting ahead of first PMQs
Good morning. Rishi Sunak will meet with his new cabinet this morning and face his first Commons appearance as prime minister, as he begins the gruelling task of uniting his party and restoring the country’s economic credibility.
As he entered No 10 yesterday as PM, the fifth in six years, Sunak vowed to fix the “mistakes” of his predecessor Liz Truss and pledged to bring “integrity and accountability” into his government. His cabinet reshuffle was billed as returning experienced hands to the top jobs, but Sunak gambled by restoring Suella Braverman to the Home Office less than week after she was forced to resign for a security breach.
Sunak’s new cabinet keeps Jeremy Hunt as chancellor and attempts bridge the divide with former Boris Johnson supporters by sticking with the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
Dominic Raab, Sunak’s own key ally who described Truss’s economics as a suicide note, becomes his deputy prime minister and justice secretary.
