Will Esther McVey resign?
Esther McVey apologised on Wednesday for misleading parliament with regards to changes in the government’s roll out of universal credit. McVey had previously told parliament that the NAO had complained that universal credit was being rolled out too slowly. Speaking on Wednesday she told the house: “The NAO report did not say that and I want to apologise to the House for inadvertently misleading you. What I wanted to say was that the NAO said there was no practical alternative,”
There are now calls for McVey to resign, and indeed it would follow a pattern – misleading parliament has already led to high profile resignations from Tory MPs this year. Amber Rudd resigned as home secretary saying she “inadvertently misled” MPs. Damian Green, the former secretary of state, was asked to step down by Theresa May after and investigation into his conduct found that he had made “inaccurate and misleading statements”. McVey would be the fifth Conservative minister to resign in eight months.
Corbyn takes a different route to attack May
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn avoided the subject of Universal Credit revelations altogether, and made little mention of the NHS funding debate, instead bringing attention to the struggling bus services in the UK.
Claiming May has put ‘people over profits’, Corbyn confronted the Prime Minister saying that bus fares had increased three times more than wages, and that bus routes are being “wiped out”. Theresa May passed blame to local councils in response to Corbyn’s question, and said that “working habits are changing” rather than buses failing.
Strong words all over the place from Unite leader
Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite, one of Labour’s largest donors, has signed a letter together with a group of feminist campaigners, accusing some transgender rights activists of ‘intimidation’. The letter accused activists of bringing “the whole of our progressive movement into disrepute” as a result of recent incidents, including activists ‘mobbing’ and ‘verbally attacking’ a female trade union member.
McCluskey and Unite have been particularly vocal this week. His comments come a day after Unite voted in agreement of a policy which states they are ‘open’ to the idea of a referendum on the end Brexit deal, with McCluskey saying “Brexit is turning into a nightmare”. Unite and McCluskey did stop short of endorsing a second EU referendum.
More implications of Brexit
Theresa May has called a meeting at her chequers residence on Friday, to discuss Brexit with her warring cabinet. At the meeting, Philip Hammond is now expected to provide fresh implications of Brexit from the Treasury, the “implications of different potential routes forward”.
The new assessments could well cause a row with Boris Johnson. EU diplomats claimed that at a meeting in June the foreign secretary responded to reports of concerns from business leaders over Brexit by saying “f*** business”.
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