Decision to approve Cumbria coalmine is ‘bad policy, bad politics’ and ‘environmental vandalism’, says Labour – as it happened

• Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has urged people to rethink flying during the Christmas break as she warned of “undeniable, serious disruption” for thousands if planned Border Force strikes go ahead.

• Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has backed widening the list of workers banned from striking, suggesting it could include NHS staff and others in “critical infrastructure” jobs.

• Ministers giving the green light to Britain’s first coalmine in 30 years is “like celebrating the opening of a Betamax factory”, Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has said.

• A major campaign will target more than 60 seats to oust Conservatives by tactical voting, in order to build a Commons majority among progressive parties.

The first deep coalmine to be dug in the UK in a generation is ultimately owned by an international private equity company, with executives whose mining interests have stretched to Russia, Asia, Africa and across Australia, my colleague Sandra Laville reports.

Here is the moment when Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, infuriated the Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, by delivering a formal ministerial statement largely off the cuff, instead of speaking from a text shown to the opposition in advance, which is what ministers are supposed to do. (See 12.01pm and 2.51pm.)

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Sir David King, the former government chief scientist and chair of the independent Climate Crisis Advisory Group, has joined those criticising the decision to allow a new coalmine to open at Whitehaven. He said it was an “incomprehensible act of self-harm”.

He went on:

Worldwide, there should be no new venture into coal, oil or gas recovery.

This action by a leading developed economy sets exactly the wrong example to the rest of the world.

Our only real form of influence on the climate crisis in the world is seriously jettisoned by this action.

And Prof Stuart Haszeldine, from the School of GeoSciences at University Edinburgh, said:

Opening a coalmine in Cumbria is investing in 1850s technology, and does not look forward to the 2030s low-carbon, local energy future.

We have studied the Cumbria coals and it’s clear that these are very high in sulphur and are not wanted by either of the two UK iron and steel makers.

Steel making in Europe is rapidly changing to use hydrogen, not coal.

Most, and maybe all, of this coking coal will be exported outside of Europe to escape environmental constraints on its use. England will become a global dirty fuel supplier.

I’ve corrected the post at 12.22pm to say Pete Wishart resigned from the SNP frontbench at Westminster. Originally it wrongly said he was sacked. That was based on a misunderstanding of Wishart’s letter. Wishart says he is “bemused” by Stephen Flynn wanting change, but he is referring to Flynn wanting to change the leadership (to himself), not Flynn wanting Wishart replaced. I’m sorry for the mistake.

8 Dec 202211.01 EST

Labour ponders whether to commit to closing new mine at Whitehaven if it's operating by time of election

Helena Horton

Labour has strongly opposed the government’s decision to open a new coalmine in Whitehaven. But it has not yet publicly said that it would close the mine, if the site is operating and employing people at the time of the next general election.

Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate and net zero, said: “British business leaders know that this mine is wrong for our country. We should be focusing on the future; jobs in green industries.” But he stopped short of saying whether a Labour government would shut it down if it became active.

Alex Sobel, the shadow environment minister, has come closest to saying Labour would halt the project. In a post on Twitter, he said Labour would not “allow this go to ahead”.

But not allowing a project to go ahead is not the same as closing a mine that is up and running.

It is understood that senior figures in the party do believe that a future Labour government should close the mine if it manages to open between now and the general election. But it is not clear whether, or when, Miliband or Keir Starmer will say this publicly.

As Ed Birkett, the head of energy and climate at the thinktank Onward, points out, if Labour were to commit to closing the mine now, they could probably block the project in its tracks.

But that might not be popular in Whitehaven, where some residents want the mine to open because of the jobs that could be created.

The mine is in the Copeland constituency. Copeland, and its predecessor constituency, were held continuously by Labour from the 1930s until 2017, when the Conservative candidate, Trudy Harrison, won it in a surprise byelection victory. One factor was Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to nuclear power, because Sellafield is a major employer in the area. Harrison held the seat at the general elections in 2017 and 2019, and currently has a majority of 5,842.

In response to Michael Gove’s statement about his decision to allow the coalmine at Whitehaven, Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, said it was “bad policy and bad politics”. She told MPs:

I have one question for the secretary of state today: what on earth is he thinking? The decision to greenlight the reopening of the Woodhouse colliery is bad.

It is bad policy and it is bad politics. It is the latest in a string of absurd decisions from a government in chaos. Causing chaos in this chamber and causing chaos out there in the country; in office but not in power.

This mine will produce coking coal used for steel, not for electricity generation, so, as he has had to admit today, to claim it helps safeguard our energy security is a nonsense.

It gets worse - the two big steel producers, Tata and British Steel, are phasing out this coal in favour of lower carbon production methods so that by the mid-2030s at best the UK will use less than 10% of the output of the mine.

Across the world, demand for this coal is projected to fall off a cliff by 88% by 2050.

People in Cumbria deserve a long-term future. Lasting, well-paid jobs that power us through the next century. But instead they are saddled with a weak, short-sighted, unambitious government who only two months ago rejected a plan to bring new nuclear to Cumbria which would have created not 500 short-term jobs, but 10,000 jobs for the long-term …

The Tories were once the party of conservation, now they are the party of environmental vandalism. He can fiddle the figures all he likes, but the reality is this mine is projected to increase emissions by 0.4 million tonnes a year and that is from his own advisers in government.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, finally did get to deliver his statement to MPs on his decision to allow the opening of a new coalmine, after being ordered to stop the first time because he delivered his address off the cuff. (See 12.01pm.)

In a statement to MPs, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, explained why he objected so strongly to a minister speaking ad lib, and not from a text shown in advance to the opposition.

He said that, under the ministerial code, “15 copies of [a ministerial statement] and associated documents should be sent to the chief whip’s office at least 45 minutes before the statement is to be made” so that they can be shown to the opposition. He went on:

The key point here is, final text. It’s not acceptable to provide a brief thesis of a statement, which is then significantly expanded upon by the secretary of state at the dispatch box. That means the opposition has no meaningful advance notice. And – this is my main concern as well – members do not have the detail they need in a written form, [so] they can properly ask questions of the minister.

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Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has confirmed a pay cut for Stormont assembly members will come into force in January as he moved to further extend an election deadline in the region.

As PA Media reports, Heaton-Harris will reduce MLA salaries by 27.5% on 1 January to reflect the fact that they are not doing their job as legislators during the ongoing power-sharing impasse. This means MLA pay will be cut by £14,163 – from £51,500 to £37,337.

The report from the Labour party’s Start-up, Scal-up review is available here. The Venture Capital Trust Association has welcomed at least one of its recommendations. It says:

The VCTA welcomes the Labour party’s Start-up Scale-up report with its commitment to the VCT, SEIS and EIS schemes beyond 2025. Venture capital trusts’ ability to provide evergreen, patient capital is a vital cog in the UK’s start-up ecosystem.

We will continue to work closely with all policymakers to ensure the long-term future of VCTs.

VCTs are venture capital trusts, SEIS is the seed enterprise investment scheme, and EIS is the enterprise investment scheme.

8 Dec 202208.48 EST

Stewart McDonald becomes second MP to leave SNP frontbench at Westminster

Libby Brooks

The SNP’s new Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, is contending with the second pointed resignation from his front bench after the group’s defence spokesperson Stewart McDonald stepped down warning colleagues that “we are at our best when we collaborate as a united party”.

McDonald, who backed Alison Thewlis over Flynn in the leadership contest, is known as an effective operator and his resignation letter gives credence to reports of disunity among MPs, some of whom feel at one remove from Holyrood and are currently anxious about the practicalities of Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to use the next general election as a “de facto referendum”.

This comes a few hours after veteran MP Pete Wishart stepped down as Defra spokesperson, suggesting that Flynn had not bothered to speak to him when canvassing support and adding: “I remain bemused as to the reasons why you felt it was necessary to seek a change in our leadership, particularly when we see yesterday’s opinion poll, which shows support for independence at a near all-time high.”

Flynn has told colleagues he plans to put together a “new look” frontbench in the coming days, and set out plans for a change of strategy for the Westminster group.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, turned up in a Christmas jumper for Cabinet Office questions in the Commons this morning. Addressing Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, she said:

It seems I’m the only one that got the memo about Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper [Day] today.

Christmas came early for those that were on the VIP fast-track lane to get the contracts and many honourable members on these benches are trying to get to the bottom of this and are very frustrated, as are the public. Billions of pounds wasted. Only those that were pushed by Conservative MPs and peers got on that VIP fast-track lane.

Why is this government protecting that fast-track lane and not dealing with it in the procurement bill?

In response, Dowden said that he welcomed Rayner’s jumper “and wholly, as a fellow ginger, endorse the sentiments on it”.

On the VIP lane for PPE procurement, he said 90% of bids through that route were unsuccessful.

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At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson backed what Suella Braverman was saying this morning about the need for people to think carefully about their Christmas holiday plans. (See 11.37am.) Here are the key points from the briefing.

• The spokesperson said people planning to travel over Christmas should check with their airline in advance because there would be disruption as a result of the Border Force strike.

• He rejected claims that raising the prospect of health staff being banned from going on strike would worsen relations with unions. He said:

What we are looking to do is to keep people safe and keep the country moving. Those are our aims; we’re not looking to worsen our relations with any group.

We believe we’ve acted reasonably when it comes to both agreeing the payoff as recommended by the independent boards and in facilitating the discussions we need to reach some sort of resolution.

Given what we’re seeing and the need to protect people from inflation we must also go further and consider further powers to try and mitigate against some of the disruption.

No 10 is determined to present its stance on the strikes as “reasonable”. In an interview last night with ITV, Rishi Sunak used the word reasonable, reasonably or reasonableness five times to describe his approach while responding to just two questions about the pay demands.

• The spokesperson expressed gratitude to the armed forces for standing in to replace public sector staff on strike over Christmas. He said:

These rolling strikes will cause disruption to everyone and that does also include our military personnel who will be required, unfortunately, to have to step in and backfill some of these vital roles we need to keep the country moving.

We recognise that they have been called on to do this before and I’m sure the public thanks them once again for the work they’re preparing to do.

• The spokeperson said double-digit pay rises for public sector staff would be unacceptable. He said:

It is inflation that is our shared enemy and if we were to push ahead with double-digit pay deals across the public sector, at a cost of £28bn, that’s a cost of £1,000 per household.

That would embed inflation, which currently is expected to fall significantly next year.

So we would be acting against everyone’s interests if we were to take all the demands and meet them in full.

In her speech to Labour’s business conference, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, claimed her party’s plans to unlock investment could boost growth. Here are the key points she made, in her speech and her Q&A with journalists.

• Reeves said she wanted to see UK pension funds invest more in startups. Referring to the Labour report explaining how this might happen (see 11.27am), she said:

Defined benefit funds in Britain have almost £3tn worth of assets under management.

But right now, it is more often Canadian pension savers who benefit from startups here in Britain than savers at home.

If we could take advantage of that wealth, unlocking even a proportion of those investments, then we could drive greater investment in homegrown businesses and greater returns to British pension savers.

France’s Tibi scheme has secured more than €18bn of investment for new and growing businesses by using the convening power of government to bring institutional investors together with venture capital.

The question is: why are pension-savers and businesses not feeling these benefits here in Britain?

Reeves also dismissed suggestions that this would be risky for pension funds. Asked about this, she said:

What I see is a huge pot of money not returning the returns that pension savers in other countries do.

Returns for pension savers could be 10% higher if “just a small fraction” of those pension savings were invested in startups because of the huge growth potential, she said.

• She said innovation was key to growth, and that Labour wanted to facilitate it. She said:

Innovation is a great British strength. This is in the fabric of our history and it endures today. Fast-growing firms already contribute £1tn to our economy and employ 3.2 million people.

But I have heard time and again from business about the stubborn obstacles preventing them from scaling up and realising their potential, about issues with access to finance, especially patient capital, and the difficulty of turning brilliant ideas in our universities into commercial reality. Think, then, what we could achieve together if we remove those obstacles.

The government has similar aims. In fact, Rishi Sunak devoted a recent cabinet meeting to a discussion about policies that might promote innovation.

• Reeves said the UK was at a “post-Brexit crossroads” and faced a choice between reform and growth, or “managed decline”. She said:

We can go down the road of managed decline, falling behind our competitors, or we can seize upon the bold thinking that is needed to propel us forward, to shape Britain’s future outside the European Union while improving trading relationships with our nearest and closest neighbours, applying ourselves with creativity, with determination and some common sense, so that we can lead the pack in the industries of the future.

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The Scottish National party MP Pete Wishart has been resigned as the party’s environment spokeperson at Westminster. In a letter to the new leader of the SNP group of MPs, Stephen Flynn, Wishart says he is “bemused” that Flynn thought it was necessary to change the leadership when for support for the party at Westminster is at an all-time high.

The Scottish Conservatives say this is fresh evidence of “deep splits” in the SNP. Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chair, said:

Their longest-serving MP is clearly unhappy at Stephen Flynn’s boasts about wanting to ‘shake things up’ and Nicola Sturgeon losing her once vice-like grip over the party.

Despite claiming he will give the new Westminster leader his full support, Pete Wishart’s damning letter is the latest evidence of the deep splits running through the SNP.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected this post because the original said Wishart was sacked. That was based on a misunderstanding of the letter. Wishart says he is “bemused” by Flynn wanting change, but he is referring to Flynn wanting to change the leadership (to himself), not Flynn wanting Wishart replaced. Sorry for the mistake.

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