Rachel Reeves is heading to China for economic talks – rejecting pressure from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to cancel the trip over her domestic troubles. Elsewhere, the government is considering capping the price of resold concert tickets.
Friday 10 January 2025 07:35, UK
When Labour was in opposition, one of the roles Lisa Nandy held was shadow foreign secretary.
At this time, she was critical of the Conservative government’s attempts to build closer ties with China on human rights grounds.
Asked if her Labour position had changed – especially with Chancellor Rachel Reeves heading to China – the now culture secretary said it had not.
She told Sky News that Labour’s stance is to “collaborate where we can” on issues like climate change and to keep the UK economy competitive as China is now such a behemoth.
But the UK will also “challenge where we must” on topics like forced Uyghur labour in Xinjiang and upholding human rights.
“We believe it’s perfectly possible” to do these things at once, Ms Nandy says.
She added that the chancellor travelling to China is the right decision, despite the economic troubles in the UK.
No backing for inquiry into grooming gangs
Ms Nandy is also asked about whether she supports a new inquiry into grooming gangs.
She says she does not – saying it is more important to implement the recommendations of the Jay inquiry that finished two years ago.
This puts her at odds with the likes of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and former Labour minister Dame Harriet Harman.
In the newspapers this morning, there were reports that Chancellor Rachel Reeves had asked her cabinet colleagues to come up with new plans for growth to try to pull the economy upwards.
Asked about this on Sky News, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said conversations like this have “always” happened with Ms Reeves.
Ms Nandy says she has been working with Ms Reeves to come up with plans to grow the creative industries and increase jobs.
“We are always looking for new levers to pull, new ways to grow the economy,” she says.
“But there’s one aim in mind, and that is to improve the lives and living standards of people in every part of the UK.”
Teachers urged not to strike
Ms Nandy is also pushed on the National Education Union taking indicative action on whether to strike over a pay offer.
She tells Sky News that educators should have patience with the Labour government.
The culture secretary says: “I would just say to the teaching workforce -I know it’s been tough, but we need to work together in the interests of children.
“We’re confident that we’ve got the right answers working together with them.
“And now is not the time to strike. Now is the time to move forward.”
In this extra episode of Electoral Dysfunction, Jess Phillips sits down with Beth and reveals what she has lived through in the past few weeks.
Elon Musk accused the Labour MP of being a “rape genocide apologist”, putting her in the middle of a political storm.
As the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips also explains what the government is doing to tackle violence against women and girls.
👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈
Email us at electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.
Harriet Harman has suggested a “mini inquiry” into issues raised by the grooming gangs scandal and called on Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch to discuss “terms of reference”.
The Labour peer told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast podcast that there should “openness” to a future probe as long it does not repeat the previous investigations.
In particular, she said people need to be “trained and confident” that they can take on matters “which are in particular communities” without being accused of being racist.
“I think that whether it’s a task force, whether it’s more action plans, whether it’s a a mini inquiry on this, this is something that we need to develop resilience in,” Ms Harman said.
The grooming gangs scandal is back in the spotlight after Elon Musk hit out at the Labour government for rejecting a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, saying this should be done at a local level instead.
The Tories also previously said an Oldham inquiry should be done locally and in 2015 commissioned a seven-year national inquiry into child sex abuse, led by Professor Alexis Jay, which looked at grooming gangs.
However, they didn’t implement any of its recommendations while in office – and Sir Keir has vowed to do so instead of launching a fresh investigation into the subject.
By Faye Brown, political reporter
The price of resale tickets could be capped under plans to stop the public being “fleeced” by professional touts, the government has announced.
The limit could range from the cost of the original ticket to a 30% uplift, with a consultation to be launched on the specifics of the measure.
Restricting the number of tickets resellers can list to the maximum they are allowed to purchase on the primary market is another option being considered.
The proposed changes come after concert sales for artists including Taylor Swift were marred by professional touts reselling at heavily inflated prices.
Others have been caught out by a lack of transparency over the system of dynamic pricing, which left Oasis fans watching the cost of some standard tickets more than double from £148 to £355 as they waited in the queue.
Ministers have already promised a dynamic pricing review, with the latest measures aimed at stopping touts “hoarding tickets and reselling at heavily inflated prices”, the culture department said.
Welcome back to the Politics Hub at the end of another busy week in Westminster.
Today, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is heading to China in a bid to sweeten the economic relationship between London and Beijing – despite domestic pressures at home.
The cost for the UK government to borrow money is going up, and there is a suggestion Ms Reeves may have to increase taxes or cut budgets later this year if the poor financial picture continues.
However, she has rejected calls to cancel her trip. She is being joined by the Bank of England governor and Financial Conduct Authority chief executive on the long-planned venture.
The summit with the Communist Party of China, as well as Chinese business, has drawn criticism from human rights campaigners and those hawkish about Beijing’s goals on areas like Taiwan.
Treasury minister Darren Jones deputised for Ms Reeves in the Commons yesterday as the Tories questioned the government’s response to the UK’s economic turmoil.
Elsewhere, the discourse on grooming gangs is continuing – with former Labour minister Harriet Harman saying a “mini inquiry” might be necessary.
Home Office minister Jess Phillips yesterday told Sky News that grooming gangs are “in every single part of our country”.
Ms Phillips was attacked by Elon Musk for the government’s refusal to call a national inquiry in the gangs.
Speaking to Sky News this morning on behalf of the government is Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, just after 7am.
And just after 8am, the Conservative’s shadow business minister Harriet Baldwin will be talking to us.
We’ll be back tomorrow with all the latest from Westminster.
Until then, you can scroll through the page to catch up on Thursday – and today’s episode of the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge.
Thanks for joining us!
A torrent of posts from X owner Elon Musk has thrown an unexpected spotlight on the issue of historical grooming gangs in the last week.
In the early 2010s, dozens of men, the majority of British Pakistani origin, were convicted of crimes including rape, sex trafficking, and child sexual exploitation that had gone undetected for years.
On the Daily, Niall Paterson is joined by our home editor Jason Farrell and Lucy Duckworth, from The Survivors Trust, herself a survivor of child abuse, to explain why the recommendations of numerous inquiries have still not been implemented.
The Survivors Trust runs a free, confidential national helpline 7 days a week for survivors of rape or sexual abuse and violence aged 16+.
You can call 0808 801 0818 or text 07860 022 956 for support.
As we’ve been reporting, the Treasury has been under pressure this morning over an increase in government borrowing costs.
The Tories weren’t able to drag Rachel Reeves to the Commons to field questions about the state of the economy – she instead sent her deputy, Darren Jones – but we’ve been able to commandeer our business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso for some insight.
What’s the problem?
The reason an increase in the cost of borrowing for government (in this case filling a gap from income in taxes, given Labour’s reluctance to tax working people to cover its spending plans) can cause alarm is the danger borrowing costs are pushed up for the rest of us.
“Most notably in mortgage rates,” explains Paul, which is exactly what happened following the Liz Truss mini-budget of 2022.
And what’s happening right now, Paul says, is the increase in costs of borrowing for the government now “exceeds even the rates the government was having to pay to borrow back then”.
“It is not a crisis of the same proportion by any stretch of the imagination,” he stresses, “but is a challenge for the chancellor.”
Watch: Ed Conway talks through the numbers
Why’s this happening?
Rachel Reeves set out some big public spending plans in her budget but set borrowing rules “intended to send a message to the markets”.
That message was that while the government would borrow, there was a ceiling – headroom, as it’s called.
Paul says “the problem established by this increase in borrowing costs is it increases the cost of government servicing debt”.
It therefore reduces the headroom.
What’s the Treasury doing?
The message for now is “nothing to see here”, essentially.
Darren Jones had to respond to the Tories due to them being granted an urgent question, but he insisted financial markets are “always evolving” and there’s nothing happening to cause alarm.
In practical terms, Paul says the message to the markets is that if push comes to shove, the government will either cut spending or hike taxes – and he reckons it’ll likely be the former.
Should we be concerned?
While the UK isn’t an outlier (borrowing costs have increased for Germany and, more significantly, the US), there are “some specific concerns about the resilience of the UK economy”.
Those are based on doubts the chancellor can really grow the economy while hiking taxes on businesses, which they have warned will see more people out of work or with less money in their pay packets.
It’s “not an economic crisis”, says Paul, but it is “a really challenging moment for the chancellor”.
She’s got a long flight to Beijing ahead of her today, and it’ll give her plenty to think about on the way.
The number of pupils in England off school without permission increased ahead of the Christmas holidays, figures suggest.
Data from the Department for Education (DfE) shows the unauthorised absence rate across state schools in England was 3.4% in the week ending 20 December – which was the last week of term.
This was higher than at the start of the term – the week ending 13 September – when the rate was 1.9%, and higher than before the half-term – the week ending 25 October – when it was 2.4%, according to the DfE figures.
It comes as parents in England face higher fines if they take their children out of class without permission this academic year as part of a government drive to boost school attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest data also shows the overall absence rate – authorised and unauthorised – was 9.5% in the week ending 20 December, which was “the highest absence rate” of the autumn term in 2024.
The absence rate varied across the last week of term – with a low of 8.5% on Tuesday and a peak of 12.9% on Friday.
Most of the rise in absences towards the end of term was “driven by illness”, the DfE said.
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