No 10 defends Reeves’ record of being ‘straight’ with voters after Tories attack her over CV embellishment – UK politics live

Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, is making a statement to MPs about funding for bus services. She says the Department for Transport is today explaining how the £1bn for buses announced in the budget is being allocated in England. She goes on:

Today, we distributing that funding. That means over £700m pounds for local councils to deliver bus service improvement plans and better meet local needs, and a further £243m pounds to bus operators, including funding a longstanding grant to drive down fares and drive up services.

In many places, this is record investment and every region, every authority in England will benefit, especially those areas historically underserved, like rural areas and small towns.

Councils such as Leicester, the Isle of Wight, Torbay and Cambridgeshire will see unprecedented levels of funding for services.

At risk routes will be saved and passengers will see faster, more reliable journeys.

We’re also putting money into safer bus stops and more accessible passenger information, so our bus sector is fit for everyone.

And I’m delighted that metro mayors have welcomed this announcement, with city regions such as Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Liverpool, receiving some of the biggest allocations.

Full details of the spending allocations are here.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been making a statement to MPs about what she described as the biggest overhaul of children’s social care in England for a generation. She said:

Children’s social care is struggling under an impossible weight. We have more children in care in this country than ever before, and with more and more money following children into the most expensive part of the system, resources are sucked out of preventative services, pushing yet more young people into care, and so the vicious cycle continues – higher costs, poorer outcomes. A cycle that [Labour MP Josh MacAlister] rightly identified in his review over two years ago, a broken market for care, vulnerable to the shameful profiteering of too many private companies.

I am pleased to announce the publication of a policy statement that puts children’s social care back in the service of children and families, breaking the cycle of crisis intervention. This is the biggest reform of children’s social care in a generation, and it starts with the acknowledgment that wherever possible, children should remain with their families.

Sally Weale explained the key points in a preview story overnight. And the Department for Education’s press release is here.

The DfE has also published various other documents as part of this announcement. They are:

Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive – a 47-page policy paper explaining the new approach

A report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner setting out the experience of children subject to deprivation of liberty orders

A paper on the councils taking part in two regional care cooperative pathfinder pilots (Manchester, and the south-east)

A report on progress made towards meeting recommendations made in the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s phase 2 report

Downing Street has released its readout of Keir Starmer’s meeting with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. Here is an extract with the most important lines.

The prime minister set out that our approach would be consistent, respectful and pragmatic in order to advance these shared goals.

On climate in particular, both said that this should be high on the agenda and there was more work to be done to accelerate global progress towards net zero. Both the UK and China have an important role to play in support of the global clean power transition.

The prime minister said that he also wanted to engage honestly and frankly on those areas where we have different perspectives, including on Hong Kong, human rights and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He reiterated that his approach would always be rooted in the national interests of the UK, but that we would be a predictable and pragmatic partner.

As Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, points out, the statement “does not mention Jimmy Lai by name, referring instead to ‘different perspectives’ on human rights”.

Downing Street has defended the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as someone who’s been “straight with the public” in response to claims she embellished her CV.

Last month the Guido Fawkes website said that Reeves was wrong to claim that she had worked as an economist at Halifax/Bank of Scotland (HBOS) before she became an MP. Reeves’ first job after she left university was as an economist at the Bank of England, but when she worked as HBOS she had an administrative role, Guido Fawkes said.

The story attracted little attention at the time. But in her Mansion House speech last week Reeves referred to having worked “as an economist at the Bank of England, and then in financial services” and after that Guido Fawkes discovered that Reeves had changed her LinkedIn profile. Instead of saying that she worked as an economist at the Bank of Scotland when she was at HBOS, it now says for that period that she was in retail banking at Halifax.

This was more widely followed up, and the Sunday Telegraph then ran a follow-up story saying that in an interview three year ago Reeves referred to spending a “decade” as a Bank of England economist, even though her career at the Bank only lasted six years, including a year studying for a master’s at the LSE. That led Robert Jenrick, the former Tory leadership candidate, to accuse Reeves of lying.

Asked if the PM was concerned that Reeves had exaggerated her CV, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the morning lobby briefing:

The prime minister is very clear that the chancellor has restored financial stability.

This is someone who on coming into office looked under the bonnet and exposed a £22bn black hole in the public finances, and has been straight with the public about what is necessary to balance the books and restore financial stability in the face of that.

Asked again about the stories, the spokesperson said:

[Starmer] is very clear that this is a chancellor that has been straight with the public about the state of the public finances and what is necessary to restore financial stability. That is most important.

Referring to Reeves’s decision to change her LinkedIn profile, a Treasury source said: “She worked in retail banking covering various areas drawing on her background as an economist. Her LinkedIn has been updated to reflect that.”

Asked about the comment from Jenrick, a Labour source referred to Jenrick being sacked as housing secretary three years ago and said: “The chancellor won’t take any lectures on honesty from a man whose scandals went too far for even Boris Johnson to stand by him.”

There is no evidence that Reeves has gained any career advantage by people thinking she was working as an economist at HBOS when she was there in a different role. To get a job at the Bank of England as a graduate requires considerable ability, and Reeves has said she turned down a job offer from Goldman Sachs around the same time. Before the general election Mark Carney, a former Bank of England governor, said Reeves was the right person to be next chancellor. Mervyn King, Carney’s predecessor, has also spoken positively about working with Reeves at the Bank when he was in charge.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has said his country and the UK “share the dual responsibility” of “addressing global challenges”, PA Media reports.

According to a translation in the room at the top of his meeting with Keir Starmer on Monday, the president said there is “broad space for cooperation” between the two countries, including on topics such as trade and clean energy, PA says.

Xi said:

The world has entered a new period marked by turbulence and transformation.

As permanent members of the UN security council and major global economies, China and UK share the dual responsibility of advancing our respective national development and addressing global challenges …

China and the UK have broad space for cooperation across various domains, including trade, investment, clean energy, financial services, healthcare and improving our peoples’ wellbeing.

We should take fostering greater development, better serving our peoples and contributing more to the world as our goal.

Live up to our strategic partnership and commit to mutual respect, openness, cooperation, exchanges and mutual learning for shared benefit […] in doing so we will break new ground in the China-UK relationship amid a changing world and better underscore our relationship’s relevance for the times and its significance for the world.

Starmer confirms he will vote in assisted dying bill debate – but won’t say yet how, on grounds government should be neutral

Jessica Elgot

Keir Starmer has confirmed that he will vote in the debate on the assisted dying bill on Friday week – but he has not yet said how.

Speaking to reporters en route to the G20 summit in Brazil, the prime minister confirmed for the first time that he will vote on the assisted dying bill later this month, but indicated he would not reveal his position in advance.

Starmer is known to be in favour of assisted dying in principle, having previously voted for it in 2015, but he has not confirmed he will back Kim Leadbeater’s bill, which would legalise assisted death for those who are terminally ill and have less than six months to live.

Starmer told reporters:

The government is neutral, and it’s a free vote, and it’s very important that it remains a free vote, because people feel very strongly about this.

He said the free vote meant it was “not a political divide, it’s a sort of individual divide.”

He also said he had examined the issue closely when he was the director of public prosecutions because the Crown Prosecution Service had had to decide whether to prosecute family members involved in people killing themselves.

I looked at every single assisted suicide case for five years that was investigated. I also did the biggest consultation in criminal justice when we did the consultation on assisted dying. It was the biggest response, because people felt so strongly, and I could feel that, and I’ve always said getting the balance right is crucially important.

Downing Street has refused to say whether President Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use American missiles to strike Russia will lead to any change in what Kyiv can do with Storm Shadow missiles supplied by Britain.

Speaking at the lobby briefing, asked if Ukraine would be allowed to use Storm Shadow weapons to hit targets in Russia, the PM’s spokesperson said:

We have been consistent throughout that providing specific details on operational matters would only serve to benefit [Vladimir] Putin during an ongoing illegal war.

Asked if it was fair to say the UK would work in lockstep with the US, the spokesperson replied:

It has always been the case we work closely with our allies and engage to ensure that strategically we are providing the support that Ukraine needs, and we do that in consultation both with Ukraine and with each other as allies.

Keir Starmer has not spoken to Biden since Washington decided its new policy, the spokesperson said.

Starmer raises plight of Jimmy Lai and sanctions against British MPs in talks with Chinese president

Jessica Elgot

Keir Starmer has raised concerns with Chinese president Xi Jinping about sanctions on MPs and the deterioration of British citizen and Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai in his meeting with the leader at the G20.

British journalists were bundled out of the meeting by Chinese officials at the moment Starmer raised the plight of Lai, who is being held in Hong Kong.

In the first meeting between the Chinese president and a British prime minister for six years, Starmer also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on a number of Conservative MPs including the former security minister Tom Tugendhat and the Commons deputy speaker Nus Ghani.

Starmer said the pair had agreed that they wanted “relations to be consistent, durable, respectful, and as we have agreed, avoid surprises where possible”. [See 12.33pm.]

He proposed a full bilateral with Premier Li in Beijing or London, and for his chancellor Rachel Reeves to meet with her counterpart He Lifeng, which is expected to take place in Beijing in January.

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Starmer said:

I’m keen that my chancellor should meet with Vice Premier He for the upcoming economic financial dialogue early next year to explore more investment projects and a more level playing field to help our businesses.

I’m very pleased that my Foreign Secretary and Foreign Minister Wang met recently to discuss respective concerns including on human rights and parliamentary sanctions, Taiwan, the South China Sea and our shared interest in Hong Kong. We are concerned by reports of Jimmy Lai’s deterioration.

Tugendhat and the former foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns, both prominent Tory critics of China, had called on Starmer to use the meeting to raise with Xi the plight of UK nationals including Lai, the pro-democracy media owner detained and tried in Hong Kong.

No British prime minister has met Xi since Theresa May visited Beijing in 2018 in the midst of a trade push during Brexit negotiations, though Boris Johnson spoke to the Chinese president during the pandemic.

Since then, relations have significantly cooled because of cyber threats, a human rights crackdown in Hong Kong and the sanctions against British MPs.

Rishi Sunak attempted to renew relations at the G20 summit in 2022 where a bilateral was planned but cancelled due to Ukraine developments. But Conservative leaders have toyed with designating China a threat to British security – stronger language than the US had used.

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, visited China last month in the first signal that the new Labour government saw a renewal of better ties as a priority. Reeves, who is understood to be taking a leading role in pursuing new economic opportunities with China, will head to Beijing in January.

Starmer and Reeves, have been pursuing a thawing of relations with the world’s second-largest economy on pragmatic grounds, suggesting that the UK cannot achieve its growth ambitions without better terms with China.