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Rishi Sunak angrily defends Commons absences in session with MPs Rishi Sunak angrily defends Commons absences in session with MPs
(about 3 hours later)
Prime minister accused at liaison committee hearing of not turning up to PMQs and avoiding sensitive votesPrime minister accused at liaison committee hearing of not turning up to PMQs and avoiding sensitive votes
Rishi Sunak has angrily denied being an absentee prime minister who routinely misses Commons scrutiny and sensitive votes as he endured sometimes turbulent questioning from senior MPs. Rishi Sunak has faced pressure over his five policy priorities during a sometimes tetchy interrogation from senior MPs, which saw him also accused of being an absentee prime minister who routinely skips parliamentary scrutiny.
Quizzed by Chris Bryant as part of a grilling by the liaison committee, Sunak defended his plan to miss the next two prime minister’s questions, a timetable that Labour said would give him the lowest attendance record at weekly PMQs for any prime minister since 1979. In a 90-minute session before the liaison committee, where an initially blase-sounding Sunak appeared increasingly peevish, he dodged questions over whether he would meet his self-imposed targets over inflation and stopping small boat crossings.
In openly hostile exchanges with Bryant, Sunak defended missing votes on potential punishments for Boris Johnson and the former minister Owen Paterson, and said he had not yet fully read last week’s six-page report into attacks on the privileges committee by a series of Conservative MPs and peers. A particularly turbulent late section saw him vigorously defend his plan to miss the next two prime minister’s questions, a timetable that Labour said would give him the lowest attendance record at weekly PMQs for any prime minister since 1979.
Sunak also declined to say when he hoped to fulfil his pledge to stop small boat crossings over the Channel, and discussed how artificial intelligence could help teachers mark homework. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who chairs the privileges committee, pressed Sunak on his decision to miss Wednesday’s PMQs to attend an NHS event, a week before he will be at the Nato annual summit.
Sunak will miss PMQs this Wednesday, when he attends an NHS event, and next week when he will be at the Nato summit, with Labour saying his overall attendance would dip below 80%.
Bryant asked Sunak if he knew when a prime minister had last missed two sessions in a row. Sunak replied: “I don’t know, but what I think is important – is the honourable gentleman suggesting that I don’t attend the Nato summit, which I’m not being controlled on the dates of?”Bryant asked Sunak if he knew when a prime minister had last missed two sessions in a row. Sunak replied: “I don’t know, but what I think is important – is the honourable gentleman suggesting that I don’t attend the Nato summit, which I’m not being controlled on the dates of?”
In earlier questioning, Sunak said AI in schools could be “transformational” in saving teachers time and providing more personalised learning. He said: “In education, [it has] the opportunity to reduce the workload for teachers, whether it’s lesson planning or marking, but then also provide personalised tuition for children.” In sometimes openly hostile exchanges with Bryant, Sunak sought to justify missing votes on potential punishments for Boris Johnson and the former minister Owen Paterson, and said he had not yet fully read last week’s six-page report on attacks on the privileges committee by a series of Conservative MPs and peers.
Under questioning from Diana Johnson, the Labour MP who chairs the home affairs committee, Sunak indicated that any progress in reducing the flow of people making unofficial crossings from France depended on the supreme court allowing the Rwanda deportation plan to proceed, after the court of appeal said last week that it was unlawful. Other MPs on the committee, made up of select committee chairs, tried to pin down Sunak on the progress or otherwise of his five pledges, a set of policy targets he announced amid some fanfare in January.
Sunak pointedly declined to say when he believed his “stop the boats” pledge, one of five key promises, might be met: “So obviously the court will have to determine its own ruling, and that is outside of the government’s hands. It’s the court that determines the timing, but in the meantime, we can get on with a range of other things, as I said.” The prime minister was notably vague on progress over the first of the pledges, to halve inflation during 2023. Challenged over whether this target would now be met, Sunak said he would “leave that to the forecasters”, while acknowledging it could prove difficult.
Sunak also avoided Johnson’s question of where the more than 7,600 migrants and refugees who had crossed the Channel since the Rwanda policy become law would go, given Rwanda has said it can take 500 of them. Questioned by Harriett Baldwin, chair of the Treasury select committee, Sunak said inflation was “proving more persistent than people anticipated” but insisted that did not mean his policy choices were “the wrong ones. Indeed, they’re the right ones.”
He told Baldwin: “We just need to continue to stick to the course and that’s not easy. That involves difficult decisions, but those are the right long-term decisions for the country.”
He was even more opaque over the pledge to stop asylum seekers and migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, refusing to say when this might happen or how many arrivals may be sent to Rwanda.
Under questioning from Diana Johnson, the Labour MP who chairs the home affairs committee, Sunak indicated that any progress depended on the supreme court approving the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, a scheme deemed unlawful by the court of appeal last week.
Sunak pointedly declined to say when he believed his “stop the boats” pledge might be met: “So obviously the court will have to determine its own ruling, and that is outside of the government’s hands. It’s the court that determines the timing, but in the meantime, we can get on with a range of other things.”
He also avoided Johnson’s question of where the more than 7,600 people who had crossed the Channel since the Rwanda policy became law would go, given Rwanda has said it can take 500 of them.
“I’m not going to talk about a private commercial contract that we have, but our Rwanda scheme, as we have said multiple times, is uncapped … which is why I believe it can act as a very helpful deterrent when the scheme is up and running,” he said.“I’m not going to talk about a private commercial contract that we have, but our Rwanda scheme, as we have said multiple times, is uncapped … which is why I believe it can act as a very helpful deterrent when the scheme is up and running,” he said.
Sunak was also vague when challenged over whether his government would now miss its target to halve inflation, another of his five pledges, saying he would “leave that to the forecasters”. The prime minister studiously avoided any comment on Boris Johnson’s resignation peerages.
He acknowledged that inflation was “proving more persistent than people anticipated” but insisted that did not mean his policy choices were “the wrong ones. Indeed, they’re the right ones.”
He told the Treasury select committee chair, Harriett Baldwin: “We just need to continue to stick to the course and that’s not easy. That involves difficult decisions, but those are the right long-term decisions for the country.”
In a session during which the MPs repeatedly tried to get Sunak to directly answer questions, with mixed success, the prime minister studiously avoided any comment on Boris Johnson’s controversial resignation peerages.
Sunak told William Wragg, the Conservative MP who chairs the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, that he had followed constitutional convention by not amending the vetted list and had “no active involvement or engagement in that process”.Sunak told William Wragg, the Conservative MP who chairs the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, that he had followed constitutional convention by not amending the vetted list and had “no active involvement or engagement in that process”.
Asked about Liz Truss’s resignation honours, Sunak said her list had not yet reached his desk.Asked about Liz Truss’s resignation honours, Sunak said her list had not yet reached his desk.