No 10 denies government has changed position on two-child benefit cap – UK politics live

2.42pm BST

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer has apologised for thanking Joe Biden for “his many years of public service” after backlash from some in the party.

On Tuesday night, Denyer wished Biden well after he announced on X that he would not be on the 2024 presidential ticket. “This cannot have been an easy decision for him. But to take a decision that is personally difficult, but that is in the public interest, is a true sign of leadership,” she said.

The post was criticised by some in the party, including sitting councillors and those who stood for the party in the general election, who saw the message as an endorsement of Biden’s political agenda, including his administration’s continued support for Israel who have carried out a military campaign in Gaza which has killed more than 39,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis on the ground.

On Wednesday afternoon, she said: “Last night I was positive about President Biden’s decision to stand aside as a candidate. Some people read into this that I was offering my unmitigated support for his presidency, including the policy of selling arms to Israel.

“Given my long-running work campaigning for peace, this is the last thing I wanted and certainly not my position. I am sorry for not making it clearer, and that my comments left some in doubt and concerned.”

Luke Tryl , the UK director of More in Common, weighed in on the situation, saying: Greens attacking Denyer for praising Biden shows challenge for small parties with passionate but unrepresentative bases, easy to get small scale success but much harder when you want mainstream appeal is recipe for infighting. Wouldn’t be surprised if we see similar with Reform [UK].

Updated at 2.44pm BST

1.50pm BST

The former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has approached a number of billionaire backers about financing a potential £600m bid for the Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine, my colleague Mark Sweney reports.

Zahawi, who decided not to stand again in his Stratford-on-Avon seat at the general election, was originally involved as a “middleman” , introducing a UAE-backed consortium to the Barclay family, which enabled them to pay back £1.16bn in loans and take back control of the debt-laden business from Lloyds Banking Group last year.

He was subsequently tipped to become the chair of the media group if RedBird IMI was able to successfully complete a takeover.

However, RedBird IMI, which converted its loans to the Barclays into control of the Telegraph titles , put the titles back up for sale after the British government published legislation to block foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK.

Zahawi, who in May was named chair of the Barclay family-owned retailer Very Group , is now reportedly in talks with International Media Investments (IMI) about a bid for the newspapers. IMI is an Abu Dhabi-based investment vehicle that holds a majority stake in RedBird IMI.

Read more:

Related: Former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi ‘seeks backers for £600m Telegraph bid’

1.32pm BST

The Welsh Conservatives are set to demand the Senedd be recalled to appoint a new first minister if only one candidate is running to replace Vaughan Gething.

Tory leader Andrew RT Davies will write to the presiding officer on Wednesday to call for the Welsh Parliament to be returned if Health Minister Eluned Morgan is the only candidate on the ballot.

Morgan announced on Monday she will be standing on a joint “unity” ticket with rural affairs minister Huw Irranca-Davies, who would become deputy first minister. No other candidates have announced their intention to run, with Baroness Morgan automatically becoming Welsh Labour leader if that remains the case by Wednesday.

Davies has argued that if Morgan is the only candidate then the Senedd should be recalled to appoint a first minister.

Davies said: “Wales has faced political paralysis and Labour infighting for too long, we need certainty and we need it fast.

“It is becoming clear that Labour in Wales will have a new leader very soon, but Eluned Morgan has presided over the longest waiting lists on record and they’re still growing on her watch. Is this really the best that Labour can do?

“The Welsh Conservatives are calling for a recall of the Senedd to give Wales greater stability.

“Wales should not be without a functioning government for months over the summer.”

1.11pm BST

There are lessons that need to be learned from the global IT outage, Downing Street has said.

Asked whether the government would be launching a review into what had happened, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We keep resilience under constant review.”

The spokesperson added that the government has set out its plans to better protect public services and the third-party services that they use, including through a cybersecurity and Resilience Bill to “ensure that more essential digital services than ever before are protected” by putting regulators on a stronger footing.

“Clearly this case is one to learn the lessons from,” the spokesperson said.

“There are lessons that we should ensure are learned from this particular incident.”

12.58pm BST

Public services could perform worse by next election than in 2019 due to Labour's limited spending plans, report warns

A new report by the Institute for Government warns the government’s current spending plans will mean most public services are likely to be performing worse at the next election, which is expected to be held in 2029, than 10 years prior in 2019.

The report said that Labour’s implied spending plans – which are less generous than any of the five spending reviews undertaken by the Blair and Brown governments between 1998 and 2007 and the tightest since 2015 – will not deliver the improved performance demanded by the public.

If Labour’s spending plans remain as they are, the report warns public services could fall into further disrepair, which could see the following:

• Unprotected services – including police, criminal courts, prisons, probation, adult and children’s social care – will face average annual real-terms funding cuts of 2.4% between 2025/26 and 2028/29.

• Quality and access in local government and particularly the criminal justice system is set to continue on a downward trajectory for the next five years.

• Capital spending plans are equally tight, implying cuts of 1.7% per year.

• Without reform, even additional spending on protected services (the NHS, schools, childcare) may not deliver meaningful performance improvements.

• The government will have little choice but to spend more on pay to retain experienced staff and to recruit new staff from the UK.

To prevent this, the report calls on the government to focus on preventive interventions, such as raising benefits, targeting public health, and youth services, investing in modern public service buildings and equipment and improving recruitment and retention of management and support staff.

The report also recommends prioritising pay for frontline staff including GPs, social workers and criminal barristers. Public sector pay rises could pose an early challenge to the government, who have promised to control borrowing and not raise taxes.

Andy Burnham , who backed the report, said: “We need to make clear that economic growth will only be achieved with appropriate attention to growth in human and social capital and public services have an essential role to play here.”

Rory Stewart , who also backed the report, said: “A bold and thoughtful intervention at just the right time – nothing matters more for our democracy than delivering high quality public services to citizens – nothing is more obviously failing. A much more hard-headed honest debate about the crisis is vital. And this should challenge the new government to do the tricky things which are desperately needed for Britain to succeed.”

Patricia Hewitt , who served as health secretary under Tony Blair, said she “strongly [endorses the IfG’s] call for a fundamental shift towards prevention across all public services.”

Updated at 12.59pm BST

12.42pm BST

The government’s plans for Skills England have been welcomed by former Labour education and employment secretary David Blunkett.

Blunkett led on the production of a recent report on learning and skills for Keir Starmer while in opposition. He said: “Nothing can be more important than developing the skills needed to implement a whole range of priorities set out by the new government: from net zero to social care, and from housebuilding to the challenge of artificial intelligence, education and skills will be central to success.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, also welcomed the move. He said: “I’m pleased to see that ministers are getting on so quickly in establishing Skills England. They are right to say that the post-16 education and skills system needs more focus and coordination, with better understanding of the priorities.

“A strong social partnership between government, employers, unions and education institutions will be able to stimulate demand for skills that will help people get better jobs and support the productivity improvements needed for economic growth.”

12.21pm BST

No 10 denies government has changed position on two-child benefit cap

After Keir Starmer and education secretary Bridget Phillipson both indicated that the government would consider scrapping the two-child benefit cap on Monday morning, Downing Street has now denied that there has been a change in its position on the policy.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters: “No. It’s as the chancellor said yesterday, it’s as the PM I think addressed this morning as well, the government has got a certain set of fiscal inheritance that it has to deal with.”

On Sunday, chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC she could not pledge to scrap the cap, which was first introduced by the Conservatives in 2015, without saying where the £3bn annual cost “is going to come from”.

“I think, as the chancellor said on the round yesterday, that they weren’t going to make spending commitments without being able to say where the money was going to come from.

“But that doesn’t mean that we can’t take action to tackle child poverty,” the spokesperson said.

Phillipson told Sky News on Monday morning that the government would “consider [lifting the cap] as one of a number of levers in terms of how we make sure we lift children out of poverty”.

Hours later, Starmer backed Phillipson during a press conference at Farnborough international airshow, saying: “What the education secretary said this morning, I agree with … We will make sure that the strategy covers all the bases to drive down child poverty. No child should grow up in poverty.”

Asked whether Phillipson had spoken out of turn, the official said: “No. I think she talked about the fact that there are a range of measures that we will need to consider in terms of how we respond to this, that we will look at every measure in terms of how we can address this terrible blight that scars the life chances of too many children.”

He said “nothing’s out of the scope of the taskforce” when pressed on whether the possible scrapping of the cap was within its remit.

11.41am BST

Public sector pay rises could present an early challenge to Rachel Reeve’s fiscally rule-bound Treasury. Independent pay bodies have each reportedly recommended increases of 5.5% for teachers and NHS staff that would cost £3.5bn alone, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. If replicated across the public sector, the government would need to raise about £10bn.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson accused her Tory predecessor Gillian Keegan of “a complete dereliction of duty” for failing to act on the pay review body’s recommendations for months.

She told Times Radio earlier on Monday: “The last Conservative government and the previous education secretary received this report from the teachers’ review body, sat on it, called the election and disappeared off the scene.

“It was highly irresponsible, a complete dereliction of duty, but it falls to us to set this right.”

Phillipson said the chancellor will present the government’s response to the recommendations at the end of the month.

A higher-than-expected pay rise could pose a significant challenge for Reeves’s first budget, likely to come in the autumn, after she promised to control borrowing and ruled out tax rises during the election campaign.

Paul Johnson, director of the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “Given long squeeze on public pay and current private earnings growth, recommendations like this shouldn’t be a surprise.”

11.08am BST

Russell Findlay enters Scottish Conservative leadership race

The man who emerged as the immediate favourite in the race to replace Douglas Ross as Scottish Conservative leader has officially announced his candidacy this morning.

Russell Findley , a former crime journalist and currently shadow justice secretary at Holyrood, is considered the preferred option of the party establishment, which has already resulted in push-back from alternative candidates and their supporters.

Findlay, who was elected as an MSP in 2021, said he wanted to appeal to “anyone who is fed up with the stifling left-wing consensus at Holyrood” and suggested that the party needed to pivot away from its focus on fighting the SNP over the constitution.

“We must refocus our efforts from predominantly battling against independence to instead leading a patriotic conservative movement that stands for aspiration and ambition. We’ve got to set out a positive conservative vision that appeals to the interests, hopes and needs of ordinary people the length and breadth of Scotland.”

While Findlay also revealed that he had the support of three other members of the shadow cabinet, this comes after his supporters were last week accused of smearing potential opponents, with negative stories appearing in the media about backbencher Jamie Greene and current deputy leader Meghan Gallagher , who are both believed to be considering their bids. This has raised concerns about “blue on blue” infighting.

Scottish Tory veteran Murdo Fraser is also thought to be considering standing – he brings an idea for radical change which is gaining traction in some quarters of the party, that the Scottish Tories should split entirely from the UK party in order to re-establish itself as a centre right force in Scottish politics free of the baggage of Tory chaos and the threat of a right-ward turn at Westminster.

Updated at 11.10am BST

10.55am BST

Keir Starmer agreed with chancellor Rachel Reeves that there is a cost to not settling public sector pay disputes.

He said: “Yes, I do. And I think that’s an important consideration when we come to a final view, which we will announce.

“There is a cost. There’s a cost that’s measured in the pounds and pence lost to the economy through industrial action.

“There’s a cost to the other work that we need to do in relation to the public services that we need to deliver. And that has to be taken account of as we come to a final decision in relation to the pay issue, which we will do and obviously announce with full reasoning in due course.”

Independent pay review bodies representing teachers and NHS workers have reportedly recommended above-inflation pay rises of 5.5% that would require the government to raise about £3bn. This is well above the figure the government is thought to have been preparing for.

Updated at 10.56am BST

10.53am BST

Keir Starmer did not guarantee he would not undo the changes to visa rules brought in by the previous Tory government.

Asked whether he would pledge not to reverse restrictions on student dependants, the prime minister said: “We understand the pressures of migration and why the previous government took the decisions that it did.

“It has led to some pressures now in relation to higher education, but it is right that we get migration down, because it’s too high.”

He said that the government would seek to address migration levels through Skills England, adding: “That is not to say that no business should ever be hiring from abroad – that is not realistic, it’s not good for business and we don’t want to go down that path.

“But for too long that’s happened because we haven’t had the skills available in this country, and I’m determined to change that.”

10.51am BST

Starmer says he agrees with education secretary but fails to repeat her commitment to 'consider' scrapping two-child benefit cap

Keir Starmer said Labour’s child poverty strategy “covers all the bases” to tackle the issue, without repeating the education secretary’s earlier commitment to consider scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

Asked whether Bridget Phillipson was right, the prime minister said during media questions after his speech at the Farnborough International airshow: “What the education secretary said this morning I agree with, which is she’s passionate about tackling poverty and child poverty in particular.

“She spoke very powerfully this morning, because she speaks as a woman who grew up in poverty, everybody who knows her background knows how hard it was for her.

“So that’s why I’m very pleased that she’s one of the chairs of our taskforce on tackling child poverty, and we will make sure that the strategy covers all the bases to drive down child poverty. No child should grow up in poverty.

“The last Labour government did a huge amount of work on this with a very good strategy. I intend that we will do the same with the same commitment and passion.”

He also acknowledged the passion of Labour MPs who may be considering rebelling over the continuation of the two-child benefit limit.

He said there was “no silver bullet” to tackle child poverty but “it’s good that we’re having a debate about it”.

“I’m not surprised that there’s a real passion about this in the Labour party, you’d expect there to be.

“Child poverty is something that we need to eradicate. And there’s a very strong feeling in the Labour party, labour movement about that.

“That is precisely why I set up the taskforce to tackle child poverty.

“There is no silver bullet. If there was a silver bullet it would have been shot a very long time ago.”

There was a “complicated set of factors” including pay, benefits, work, housing, education and health “and that is why you need a strategy to deal with it”.

Updated at 11.00am BST

10.47am BST

Keir Starmer was asked about his relationship with US vice-president Kamala Harris .

“Obviously in the first instance, it’s for the Democratic Party to decide who they want to put forward. It is then for the American people to decide who they want as their president.

“My approach will be to respect that decision-making and to be clear that we will work with whoever the American people elect into office, as you would expect, particularly given the nature of the special relationship between our two countries, forged in difficult circumstances, endured for years, and very important to me and very important to all American presidents.”

Starmer was also asked whether the US was still a dependable partner, replying “of course” it is.

He said: “It has been for many, many years, and you could see that in the Nato counsel just 10 days or so ago.”

He said the strong “resolve” of Nato on display over issues like Ukraine at the recent summit was “direct evidence of the reliability of that partnership.”

10.44am BST

Keir Starmer said he would work with the Migration Advisory Committee to identify where there are now skills gaps and where these might appear in future, and introduce plans to tackle any shortages.

The prime minister said: “From the get go, we will work with the Migration Advisory Committee. We will identify current and future skills gaps, putting in place plans to address those gaps and reduce our long-term reliance on overseas workers.”

He said the government will also work to identify the right types of training.

10.43am BST

Keir Starmer announces launch of Skills England training body

Keir Starmer is speaking at the Farnborough International airshow now. He said the new Skills England organisation would transform the relationship between businesses and the education system, calling it “another marker of the future”.

The new body was announced on Monday morning. In a press release , the government said Skills England “will bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions”.

The prime minister said it was “the launch of a new organisation that we hope will transform not just how we train our young people and adults, but also the relationship between business and education system”.

He added it was “a plan to make sure that we’re training young people, not just for any business, but for the businesses that exist in their communities, the skills that you and they need to take each other forward”.

Starmer said his government “won’t be content just to pull the easy lever of importing skills”.

“All too often young people in our country have been let down, not given access to the right opportunities or training in their community And that’s created an over-reliance in our economy on higher and higher levels of migration,” he said.

He added: “I do not criticise businesses who hire overseas workers and I certainly don’t diminish the contribution that migration makes to our economy, to our public services, and of course, to our communities - migration is part of our national story. It always has been, always will be.

“And yet, if you stand back, as a system, it cannot be right that some people don’t get to feel the pride of making a contribution, that dignity of work, just because we can’t find a way of creating a coherent skills system. That can’t be right.

“So I have to say that we won’t be content just to pull the easy lever of importing skills. We’re turning the page on that.”

Updated at 10.50am BST

10.29am BST

Priti Patel , the former home secretary who is being talked up as a Tory leader hopeful, has received an unexpected endorsement: senior Lib Dem Christine Jardine .

Writing in the Scotsman, Jardine, the party’s spokesperson for women and equalities, the Cabinet Office and Scotland, said Patel offers the best chance of tempering Reform UK’s rise in national politics.

Jardine said: “When I first heard the suggestion, I dismissed it as nonsense that such a previously controversial right-wing figure could save her party, and the country, from Reform.

“But then I listened to what some of those in the party itself – senior figures – had to say and began to think there might be something in the idea.

“What those in the know within the Conservative party emphasise is that support of either the right or the one-nationers is not enough. What Priti Patel has in her favour is that while she is right-wing, she has the ability to win support from the One Nation group – historically the largest faction in the party. Watching her in parliament these past few days, the image she portrays is of someone intent on doing just that.”

Jardine said she has nothing in common politically with Patel. “Politically she is Eurosceptic and was part of the Leave campaign. She is also socially conservative,” she said.

Noting that Patel served in Theresa May’s cabinet, Jardine said: “Priti Patel’s willingness to build bridges, combined with her ability to survive various controversies, may yet prove useful if she decides to try to carve out a new role as head of her party.”

9.34am BST

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has denied a rise in immigration could help plug skills gaps in the workforce in the short term.

It was put to her that Labour's measures to boost skills and reduce reliance on workers from overseas will take a long time to come into force.

Asked whether foreign workers could fill vacancies in the meantime, she told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "No, this is about creating more opportunities for people here in our country to get the skills that they need in order to fill those skill shortages.

"As you say, we saw a big increase under the Conservatives in skills shortages across our economy. That's not just holding our economy back and the growth and the job opportunities that we want – it's holding our people back too."

9.22am BST

Prime minister Keir Starmer has arrived at the Farnborough International airshow in Hampshire, where he will make a speech on skills training.

Starmer was greeted by the chief executives of plane-maker Airbus and aerospace manufacturer Rolls-Royce, Guillaume Faury and Tufan Erginbilgic .

He then met a group of apprentices from the two companies in front of a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330-900 jet which has Rolls-Royce engines.

9.14am BST

Some of you reading may be wondering who Mel Stride is. He has a lower public profile compared to other potential Tory leadership hopefuls.

If you are struggling to put your finger on it, then perhaps you were not watching enough morning TV during the Conservative’s election campaign. Stride said his frequent appearances on the media morning round during the campaign "cut through" with the public.

The shadow work and pensions secretary told Sky News: "I did about a quarter of all the morning rounds, actually, during the general election for us, and it did cut through, I think."

He refused to comment on any possible rivals in the race to replace Rishi Sunak , saying: "I think it is really important in this contest that we don't have any blue on blue."

Asked how long Sunak should stay on for as Conservative leader, Stride said: "That is a matter for him."

Pressed on whether the rules for the race will be set out this week, he said it will "certainly be within that kind of timeframe".

8.58am BST

Government to 'consider' scrapping two-child benefit cap, education secretary says

The newly elected Labour government will “consider” removing the two-child benefit cap “as one of a number of ways” of lifting children out of poverty, education secretary Bridget Phillipson has said, paving the way for a potential U-turn on the policy.

She told Sky News: “Unfortunately it’s also a very expensive measure, but we will need to consider it as one of a number of levers in terms of how we make sure we lift children out of poverty.

“Housing is a big factor … The fact that for lots of families work doesn’t pay in the way that it should, and that increasingly what we see is that children are growing up in poverty where there is at least one person in that household in work.

“We will look at every measure in terms of how we can address this terrible blight that scars the life chances of too many children.”

Before Phillipson’s comments on Monday morning, those at the top of the party were firm on their committment to keep the cap, which was first introduced by the previous Conservative government.

On Sunday, chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC she could not pledge to scrap the cap without saying where the £3bn annual cost “is going to come from”.

“If we’re not able to say where the money is going to come from, we can’t promise to do it. That’s true when it comes to the two-child limit and anything else,” she said.

Backbenchers from across the party including Rosie Duffield and Zarah Sultana have called on the party’s leadership to scrap the cap, with the Canterbury MP calling it “heinous “.

Updated at 9.01am BST

8.42am BST

In the same interview, Mel Stride said that “there’s no doubt that we have a demographic problem” when he was confronted with analysis showing one in six Conservative voters are likely to die before the next election.

The senior Tory told Times Radio: “This isn’t just a challenge that is about leaping on to some wonderful ideological square that will suddenly see all problems resolved. It’s about some deep, painstaking work to work out how we start to attract younger electors.

“And I think this point about the age profile of those that are supporting Conservatives really underscores the depth of the challenge that we have, but it is not insurmountable.”

He added that “the first thing we need to do the first step is to unite the parliamentary party”.

Updated at 8.58am BST

8.34am BST

Opening summary

Good morning, I’m Sammy Gecsoyler and I’ll be taking you through the latest news from Westminster today.

All eyes are on the US this morning after Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 race. However, there is another race closer to home that is starting to heat up – who will take over as the leader of the Conservative party.

Mel Stride , the shadow work and pensions secretary is the latest Tory to throw his hat in the ring. He told Times Radio: “It’s something I’m considering.

“A number of colleagues have approached me and suggested that I might do that.

“We don’t yet of course know what the actual rules of the process will be – and I’ll want to wait to see that before I take a final decision – but it’s certainly a possibility.”

Stride is considered a candidate from the party’s centre. Tom Tugendhat, also from that wing of the party, received the endorsement of two senior Tories on Saturday. Figures from the party’s right including Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are also expected to run.

Stride argued against “ideological labels” when pressed on whether he would seek to prevent a rightward shift in the party, but added: “I want us to have that One Nation tradition”.

After colleague Suella Braverman warned the party risked becoming “centrist cranks”, Stride said: “I don’t think I’d describe myself as that at all.”

Updated at 8.42am BST