Sir Keir Starmer will be questioned by parliament’s Liaison Committee about his work as prime minister so far, and how he thinks his first months in office have gone. We’ll have live coverage from 2.30pm. Listen to Politics At Jack and Sam’s below for your essential preview.
Thursday 19 December 2024 08:52, UK
The PM is meeting another foreign leader today – but this time, he’s in Downing Street rather than travelling abroad.
He has welcomed the sultan of Brunei to Downing Street for talks this morning.
Sir Keir Starmer greeted Haji Hassanal Bolkiah at the door of No 10, and the pair then held a meeting in the White Room.
The PM praised the “strong relationship” between the two countries.
He said he and the sultan would talk about the renewal of the garrison agreement between the two nations, and wider issues of trade and security.
The policing minister has said she wants forces “to do far more” to tackle shoplifting after figures obtained by Sky News showed fewer than one in four incidents were attended to by officers in 2023.
Dame Diana Johnson blamed declining officer numbers under the previous government but also said she wanted to “see shop theft treated seriously… and the police need to play their part”.
She was reacting to figures obtained by Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act that reveal officers turning up to fewer and fewer incidents over the last decade.
Just 22% of shoplifting incidents were attended to immediately by police in 2023, based on responses from 22 of England’s 39 police forces.
In 2016, data from 17 forces gave an attendance rate of 52% – more than twice the 2023 figure.
While in 2013, figures from 11 forces suggested an attendance rate of 72% – more than three times higher than a decade later.
Looking at just the 2013 and 2016 data sets, a clear trend of declining attendance rates is seen.
Some of the police forces who responded to our request said this was because of modern more remote investigation techniques.
Others said that while officers may not always attend crime scenes immediately, they will often follow up at a later date if there are credible lines of enquiry.
However, store owners and workers have complained that a lack of police attention towards retail crime has created an atmosphere where criminals believe they can steal with few repercussions.
Sky News revealed last month that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was planning a trip to China in the New Year.
That was a scoop from our city editor, Mark Kleinman, and he has a bit more detail as the planning is being finalised.
He reports that Ms Reeves will make the trip on January 12 and 13 for the first UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue in more than five years.
It was intended to be an annual event, but that was scuppered by both the COVID pandemic and the souring of bilateral relations.
She is expected to be accompanied by what Kleinman describes as a “modestly sized delegation of industry officials”.
But the trip has been made much trickier after the spying scandal involving Prince Andrew exploded onto the front pages.
While both China and the man alleged to be a spy, Yang Tengbo, have forcefully denied the claims, it is yet another wedge in bilateral relations.
We’ve had some reaction from the government to the water regulator’s announcement that average water bills in England and Wales will increase by 36% over the next five years (see previous post).
Environment Secretary Steve Reed did not pull his punches, directly blames the Tories for the need for this hike.
He said in a statement: “Under the Conservatives, our sewage system crumbled. They irresponsibly let water companies divert customers’ money to line the pockets of their bosses and shareholders.
“The public are right to be angry after they have been left to pay the price of Conservative failure.”
He added that the government will “ringfence money earmarked for investment so it can never be diverted for bonuses and shareholder payouts”.
By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter
Average water bills in England and Wales will increase by 36% over the next five years, water regulator Ofwat has said.
The rise is equivalent to an average extra of £31 per year.
Water companies had asked for an average rise of 40%.
The regulator’s draft determinations issued in July said the bills would rise by an average of 21% up to 2030.
It comes as almost 60,000 homes across Hampshire are without water because of a “technical issue” at a Southern Water supply works.
These Southern Water customers will experience the biggest bill rise of all eleven water and wastewater companies, a 53% hike. The company had sought an increase of 83%.
Customers of Wessex Water will have the lowest, 21%, bill rise.
The 16 million customers of the UK’s biggest water company Thames Water will see bills become 35% more expensive. It’s below the 53% requested by the utility.
By 2030 a typical annual bill will be £588.
Paying the most every year in five years’ time will be Dwr Cymru customers with an average annual bill of £645.
Bills are going up as the utilities face higher borrowing costs on large levels of debt, creaking infrastructure and record sewage outflows into waterways.
Ofwat chief executive David Black said, “We recognise it is a difficult time for many, and we are acutely aware of the impact that bill increases will have for some customers. That is why it is vital that companies are stepping up their support for customers who struggle to pay.
“We have robustly examined all funding requests to make sure they provide value for money and deliver real improvements while ensuring the sector can attract the levels of investment it needs to meet environmental requirements.”
Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard share their daily guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes.
As parliament winds down for recess, Jack and Sam have also reached the final day of the term. They discuss the challenges facing Sir Keir Starmer before his debut at the liaison committee – will his own party give him a tougher time than the Tories?
And following a lacklustre PMQs on Wednesday, Jack and Sam look at Labour’s plans for NHS reform, housing, and the economy. Are they holding up under scrutiny?
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You can send a WhatsApp to Jack and Sam on 07511 867 633 or email them: jackandsam@sky.uk
It’s not quite Christmas for Sir Keir Starmer yet – he still faces one more hurdle.
He will be questioned by the Liaison Committee, which is made of up of the chairs of all the Commons select committees.
They can and will question Sir Keir Starmer about every area of his work, and how he thinks the first few months of his premiership has gone so far…
You may recall that these sessions could be blockbuster viewing when Boris Johnson was in office. That changed with Rishi Sunak, who was across his brief, and Sir Keir is likely to be fairly similar. You never know, though.
The session will kick off at 2.30pm, and is expected to conclude at 4pm, although no doubt MPs will try to push that as much as they can as these sessions are few and far between.
We’ll have live coverage and analysis of the session right here in the Politics Hub and across Sky News from 2.30pm, so do join us.
Good morning!
Welcome back to the Politics Hub on this Thursday, 19 December.
It’s the last day of term! Well, for MPs at least. Just a few items of business to get through today, and then they can head back to their constituencies for the Christmas break.
For the PM, one of those last items of business in parliament is a big one – his first appearance before parliament’s Liaison Committee.
The committee, made up of the chairs of all the Commons select committees, can and will question Sir Keir Starmer about every area of his work, and how he thinks the first few months of his premiership has gone so far…
We’ll have live coverage and analysis of the session right here in the Politics Hub and across Sky News from 2.30pm.
It being the last day before recess, we are expecting a raft of statistics and other news to be rushed out today so it gets as little news coverage as possible. Odds on the bad news being published as the PM starts talking?!
Elsewhere, we will find out the Bank of England’s decision on interest rates at 12pm. With inflation having ticked up slightly, will the Bank hold rates rather than cutting them?
And the government is announcing a review of the gas and electricity network regulator Ofgem to look into ways to better protect consumers and whether it needs more powers to drive growth and innovation in the market.
Over in parliament…
Steve Reed and his ministerial team at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs will take questions from MPs from 9.30am.
The solicitor general will then be questioned from 10.10am, followed by the leader of the House at business questions from 10.30am.
We’ll be discussing all of that and more with…
Follow along for the very latest political news.
That’s all from the Politics Hub for tonight.
Join us again in the morning.
Here is a look at some of the papers today.
The i newspaper leads on pensioner dissatisfaction with Labour over its refusal to pay compensation to Waspi women.
The FT splashes on a story about UK borrowing costs.
The Times’ top story is about UK troops potentially being sent to Ukraine to train Kyiv’s soldiers.
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