Conor Burns sacked as trade minister over misconduct allegations – UK politics live

Here’s the full statement on Burns’ suspension from the Tory whips’ office:

We have suspended the whip pending investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour earlier this week. We take all such allegations extremely seriously. The prime minister has been clear that the highest standards in public life must be upheld.

Rowena Mason

Burns was an extremely close ally of Boris Johnson, as one of his inner circle who helped him through the various scandals that beset his premiership.

He was formerly a Northern Ireland minister before Liz Truss made him trade minister in September.

Burns previously had to resign as a trade minister in 2020 after being found to have used his position to try to intimidate a member of the public. He was found by the standards committee to have made a series of veiled threats while attempting to intervene in his father’s dispute over a loan.

Tory whips have now confirmed that Burns has indeed had the party whip suspended pending an investigation into allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”.

Conor Burns has been sacked as trade minister after a complaint was made against him, Downing Street has said. A No 10 spokesperson said:

Following a complaint of serious misconduct, the prime minister has asked Conor Burns MP to leave the government with immediate effect.

The prime minister took direct action on being informed of this allegation and is clear that all ministers should maintain the high standards of behaviour – as the public rightly expects.

It comes amid reports the Tories have also suspended him from the party after allegations about his behaviour at its conference this week. Burns told the Sun he would “fully cooperate with the [party’s] investigation and looks forward to clearing his name”.

Nicola Sturgeon has said it is “absurd” she has not heard from Liz Truss since she became prime minister.

Speaking to the BBC before the SNP conference, the Scottish first minister said she has not had a call or meeting with Truss since she entered No 10 last month. Sturgeon said:

I don’t know whether that is arrogance, lack of respect, or insecurity or whatever it is. It’s not the right way to do government in a grown-up way.

I hope we will see a change. I’ll do my best to work with Liz Truss as constructively as possible, or whoever comes after because we can’t take anything for granted in UK politics these days.

I spoke to (the PM) David Cameron when I became first minister within hours.

I spoke to Theresa May and Boris Johnson shortly after they became prime minister. For reasons best known to herself, Liz Truss hasn’t engaged with the devolved administrations.

I’ll meet with her, I’ll speak to her, but let’s just underline how absurd it is that a UK prime minister doesn’t seem to want to work with – other than in rhetoric – the devolved administrations in the rest of the UK.

Truss recently said at a hustings event that Sturgeon was an “attention seeker” who should be ignored.

A spokesperson for the UK government said:

The prime minister has made clear the UK government’s priority is to deliver economic growth across the union and to work together on shared issues including energy security.

UK government ministers, including the minister for intergovernmental relations, along with officials, are continuing to engage regularly with their devolved counterparts.

The train drivers’ union Aslef has described the government’s decision to award a short-term contract extension to the rail operator Avanti as “a slap in the face to passengers and staff”.

PA Media reports:

The union added that industrial relations with Avanti were at an “all-time low” and the company should not have been allowed to continue to run its franchise, which includes the London to Glasgow rail route.

The Aslef organiser Kevin Lindsay said:

Amongst the train-operating companies, Avanti are amongst the worst, failing their employees and the public alike. To reward their consistent failure by extending their contract for the London to Glasgow service is nothing more than a slap in the face to passengers and staff.

This was an opportunity to return a vital transport service to public hands and to be run in the public interest. The decision to award this extension must be called in and reversed urgently.

Avanti’s extension is as baffling as their claims about recruitment. They have repeatedly misled passengers and politicians with claims of 100 new drivers when in fact the number is around half that.

Industrial relations with Avanti are at an all-time low, their bully-boy management style has led to the present pay dispute but Aslef has a number of industrial issues with the company.

Heaton-Harris also talked up the prospect of reaching a deal over the controversial post-Brexit arrangements in the region.

I want to be very positive about the chances of getting a negotiated solution. I believe we’re all working in good spirit, with good cooperation to deliver on the changes that are required for the protocol to be fixed or the issues within the protocol to be fixed. And we need to show some progress on that.

He also played down the significance of the Northern Ireland protocol bill, which would tear up the agreement reached between the UK and the EU, as a backdrop to negotiations. He suggested that he hoped it would be a “redundant piece of legislation” if a deal is reached.

The Irish government is looking for a “nil-all draw” in negotiations between the UK and the EU to resolve the row over the Northern Ireland protocol, Simon Coveney has said.

What we’re after here is a nil-all draw, where everybody can walk away feeling that they haven’t won or lost, but they can live with the outcome … You’ll see a lot of engagement over the next few weeks in advance of 28 October.

If power-sharing is not restored by then, Heaton-Harris will technically be forced to call another assembly election.

Another Northern Ireland ssembly election will be held in the region if power-sharing is not restored by 28 October, the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary has insisted.

Speaking at a press conference following a meeting of the British-Irish intergovernmental conference, Chris Heaton-Harris said:

I am under no illusions of the issues around it, but, yes, I will be calling an election on 28 October if an executive is not formed.

His position was backed by the Irish foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, who said:

People want devolved institutions in Northern Ireland that can make decisions there, for families, for businesses there.

Coveney warned there was also a danger the unsolved row of the Northern Ireland protocol would become a dividing line once again in what he called an “unnecessary election”.

Of course, an election means that issues like that will become totem issues again.

The UK and Ireland have agreed to do “everything possible” to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland, following a meeting of the British-Irish intergovernmental conference in London.

The Irish foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, and the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, met in London today – alongside the Irish justice minister Helen McEntee and the UK’s Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker.

It came amid increased hopes of UK-EU progress over the Northern Ireland protocol. In a joint communique, issued following the meeting, both countries also “noted the ongoing discussions to address issues around the Northern Ireland protocol and to find an agreed way forward”.

The UK and Irish governments reaffirmed their commitment to doing everything possible to facilitate the reestablishment of the executive by 28 October and the full functioning of all of the political institutions established by the Belfast/Good Friday agreement including the North South Ministerial Council.

They agreed on the importance of respecting the agreement in totality.

Legacy issues in Northern Ireland were also discussed, as was the UK government’s controversial proposals to address it – widely opposed on the island of Ireland.

The conference discussed the approach to the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past and the value of further engagement on this crucial issue, in particular the Irish government’s concerns with the UK government’s proposed legislation and how those concerns might be addressed.

Plans for the economy and currency of an independent Scotland drawn up by the nation’s government are to be published next week, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

In a media round before the SNP’s conference, the first minister told BBC Radio Scotland the paper would be released days after the party gathering – and after arguments are made at the supreme court that could allow her government to legislate for a second referendum.

Earlier this year, Sturgeon said the Scottish government would refresh the prospectus for an independent Scotland in a series of papers. She has now revealed that work on a Scottish central bank would begin immediately in the event of a yes vote. And, as previously set out, the newly independent country would keep the pound for “some time”, though not indefinitely.

In terms of setting up a central bank, we would start that process as soon as Scotland voted for independence. That central bank would be the provider of advice to the Scottish government on these matters, it would be the lender of last resort for our financial services industry, it would require reserves that could cover these limited functions in that first period.

We have said, and this is my party’s position, that we would move from using the pound, we would continue to use the pound after independence ... and we would move to a Scottish pound when the economic conditions were right.

Ireland’s deputy premier was simply “stating a fact” when he conceded that the Northern Ireland protocol was a “little too strict”, the country’s foreign affairs minister has said.

Simon Coveney said Leo Varadkar was right when he said on Thursday that the protocol was working despite not being fully implemented, demonstrating there was room for “further flexibility for some changes”. Speaking to the Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Coveney said:

It is clear because of the compromises that have come from the EU in recent months that they are willing to look at more flexibility and support a lot more flexibility in terms of how the protocol is implemented than was the position at the start. So, Leo is right on that.

Maroš Šefčovič, who’s the key negotiator on the EU side, has already published a number of papers to show that the EU is willing to be a lot more flexible. So, Leo was just stating a fact.

Coveney made the comments after meeting the UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, at the Irish embassy in London on Thursday night. It was the first bilateral meeting between the UK and Ireland since Liz Truss became UK prime minister.

A formal meeting will take place later at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference on Friday.

The protocol was agreed by the UK and EU as part of the withdrawal agreement and sought to avoid a hard border with Ireland post-Brexit. However, the arrangements have created trade barriers on goods being shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. It is vehemently opposed by many unionists in Northern Ireland and the DUP is currently blocking the formation of a power-sharing executive in Belfast in protest.

The former culture secretary Nadine Dorries should “settle down a little while”, the climate minister has said, amid an increasingly bitter row among Conservative MPs.

Senior Tories have been divided recently over what should happen to benefits payments amid the cost of living crisis. The government has not ruled out a real-terms cut. But some MPs, even cabinet ministers, have publicly expressed serious concern.

And new polling suggests half of 2019 Conservative voters – and a majority of the public – back the idea of raising benefits in line with inflation over No 10’s preferred option: a rise in line with the average increase in workers’ pay.

Dorries has said the new prime minister, Liz Truss, has made some “big mistakes” in her first few weeks in office and suggested the government is “lurching to the right” and risks losing the next election.

Speaking to the Times, she described the prospect of a real-terms cut to benefits this year as “cruel, unjust and fundamentally unconservative”. That came after she publicly questioned Truss’s mandate for a new government direction.

We’ve just done, with this energy support package, one of the biggest interventions by the state to help people we’ve ever seen. The commitment to net zero is there.

I know how bruising it can be when you leave government, and, you know, I think what I did and I would certainly advise Nadine to ... is just to settle down a little while and let the new team get on with the job, and that’s what we’re doing.

Funding for a second Scottish independence referendum will not be cut, the nation’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Sturgeon was asked if the budget to prepare for another independence referendum – for which around £20m has been set aside – will be cut in order to support people further with the cost-of-living crisis.

We’re talking about this financial year and the independence referendum, I hope, will be in the next financial year. So, even if we did, which we’re not going to because I was elected as first minister on a commitment to democracy ... I was elected with a record share of the vote in the Scottish parliament elections last year on a record turnout. So. we’re going to deliver on that commitment to people.

Referring to the concerns around energy supply this winter, Stuart has said the government is not telling people to use less. Speaking to Sky News, he said:

We are not sending that out as a message. All of us have bills, of course, and the bills have gone up.

He said the government has stepped in to “protect” businesses and families from rising energy bills.

While No 10’s decision to cap energy prices at a level that would see the average household paying a maximum of £2,500 per year means they would be spared the £3,549 bill Ofgem had allowed for, it still represents a roughly 25% increase on the current cap.

Stuart has claimed the new licensing round for oil and gas exploration is “entirely compatible” with climate targets. Asked how during an interview on BBC Breakfast, he said:

One thing for everyone to remember, as well as ensuring our energy security, which is a top priority for the government, we have one of the lowest emitting production systems for oil and gas.

So, as we are going to use oil and gas, and we will still be using about a quarter of the level of gas even in 2050 under our net-zero approach, just because we will net that out, then actually having our own domestic gas is good for the economy.

Moreover, the climate minister claimed:

Actually it’s good for the environment because, when we burn our own gas, it’s got lower emissions around its production than foreign gas ... as well as supporting British jobs.

Our development is not going to affect our usage, our usage is determined by the framework of the Climate Change Act and the independent climate change committee which informs government policy.

So, you really can be assured that it’s actually – I know it sounds contradictory – but it’s actually good for the environment that we are going to produce more of our gas and oil at home.

The climate minister would not rule out energy rationing when asked this morning. Speaking to LBC, Graham Stuart said:

The National Grid, we get to do it independently, and they do their assessment. They’ve said it’s very unlikely.

Asked again, he said “it’s impossible to...”, before being interrupted and pressed over whether the government’s position was a u-turn on Liz Truss’s position during her leadership campaign.

Asked a third time, Stuart said:

We are not planning to have that. It is not our intention to have it and we are doing everything possible to mean that it should not happen.

And, pressed over the apparent change in rhetoric on the issue, Stuart said:

Events move on, as you well know. We’ve seen all sorts of threats to our energy security.

Stuart has also indicated that Downing Street does not wish to intervene to try to reduce consumption in a bid to manage the problem and claimed a new licensing round for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea would actually be “good for the environment”.