Rishi Sunak news latest: PMQs returns as warning Braverman ‘puts PM’s future at risk’

Sir Keir Starmer kicked off by asking Rishi Sunak who broke the asylum system after home secretary Suella Braverman gave a statement in the Commons saying the system was “out of control.”

Rishi Sunak replied saying the Conservatives gave the people a vote on Brexit and “ended free movement.”

“It’s not something the honourable gentleman supported, he opposed it at every turn,” Mr Sunak said.

Rishi Sunak is seated on the front bench with PMQs to begin shortly just hours after U-turning on his decision to skip Cop27.

It is also expected that he will face questions from Sir Keir Starmer on asylum seeker overcrowding.

Tory MP James Daly has said there are people in the Home Office “who have not been doing their job”, as the member of the home affairs select committee defended Suella Braverman.

He told Times Radio: “And certainly in recent times, it is inexcusable, that our administrative system can only make one decision or allows a system where only one decision is made per week, we can’t justify that we can’t use it.”

Mr Daly said opposition to the home secretary came from the “liberal left and some media outlets who I think are determined to try and make life as difficult as possible for her”.

The recipient of the email that forced Suella Braverman to resign as home secretary under Liz Truss has given his full backing to the embattled minister.

In an interview on Wednesday, Tory Sir John Hayes said Ms Braverman was “right” to resign first time around, but defended her reappointment by Rishi Sunak.

The MP said: “She was right, wasn’t she, and she acknowledged it herself. She resigned. But because of that, because she did so, and let’s be clear, what she sent me is, I think, this is well in the public domain. And I’m not going to go into great details, I think we’ve moved on from it.”

“But what she sent me was the draft of a written ministerial statement, and written ministerial statements go to the whole of the House of Commons and are in the public domain. So essentially, I got a document that everyone would have got, 24 hours earlier. Now that isn’t right. And she said so, she resigned.”

The reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary could blow a hole in Rishi Sunak’s hopes of holding onto power at the general election, polling guru Sir John Curtice has said.

No government in modern times has ever survived at the ballot box following a fiscal crisis on the scale of last month’s market collapse sparked by Liz Truss’s mini-Budget, said Prof Curtice, of Strathclyde University.

With his personal ratings running far ahead of Conservative popularity, Sunak’s best chance of turning the polls round in the two years left is to persuade voters that the party has changed since the days of Truss, Boris Johnson and Partygate and now “plays by the rules”, he said.

Read the full story below:

Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Matt Hancock was “choosing to feed his ego” by heading to the jungle – calling his decision to appear on I’m a Celeb “selfish and shameful.

She added: “Even government ministers admit Matt Hancock is failing in his job. He is abandoning his constituents by going to the jungle and is shirking from his responsibilities. In any normal workplace he’d be sacked.

“Matt Hancock should resign and let the people of West Suffolk choose an MP who will actually serve them and treat them with respect.”

It follows comments by transport secretary Mark Harper saying: “I think members of parliament should focus on doing their job, serving their constituents … perhaps Mr Hancock hasn’t made the right judgment in this case.”

Labour’s shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said Rishi Sunak was a “phony” following his U-turn on attending the Cop27 summit. “Sunak on Thursday: I can’t possibly go to Cop. Sunak six days later: I can’t possibly not go to Cop. The guy is a phoney.”

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said Rishi Sunak had been “dragged kicking and screaming into doing the right thing” after he committed to attend the Cop27 climate summit.

“Embarrassing,” she added.

Rishi Sunak’s climate tsar Alok Sharma said he was “delighted” at the prime minister’s U-turn over Cop27 after saying he was “disappointed” over his planned failure to attend.

The outgoing Cop26 president tweeted: “Delighted that RishiSunak is attending Cop27 – completely agree with his comment that ‘there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change.’”

Opposition leaders have begun responding to Rishi Sunak’s decision to U-turn on attending Cop27.

Liberal Democrats climate change spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse said the prime minister is only attending after being “embarrassed” by Boris Johnson’s attendance.

Liberal Democrat climate change spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse said: “This whole debacle has shown the environment is simply not a priority for Rishi Sunak. He’s only going after being embarrassed by Boris Johnson’s attendance.

“We need action rather than just attendance from the prime minister.

“Building more renewables, the cheapest and most popular form of energy and insulating our cold and draughty homes will accelerate progress towards net zero, cut energy bills and increase the UK’s energy security.”